I have several irons in the fire lately, so I'm loving any time that I get to devote solely to writing. Strangely enough, most of the other fires that I have going are part of my plan to actually write more, so although they're "necessary evils" for the moment, I'm hoping my schedule won't be quite this jam-packed forever.
I'm on deadline with a few things, so I've been fitting in my writing time wherever I can. Over the weekend, I had my first long, uninterrupted chunk of time in weeks, so I made the most of it. It was awesome. There's really nothing like having a few hours at a stretch to be truly productive--the fact that I have so few of them these days make them even more precious!
With that in mind, as I worked I got to thinking about my favorite part of the whole writing process. Don't get me wrong, I love all of it--every torturous, "searching-for-the-right-word/best-way-to-say-this" moment--but I think my absolute favorite part is when I get into what I call the "zone". That's the time when things are beginning to gel, and I find myself thinking about the story and mentally composing parts of it over and over, until I can get back to the PC and fight with it some more. I might start a piece and do a little at a time, but actually wait until the "zone" mentality kicks in, and then I can't wait to work on it again. Sometimes, depending on how interested I am in the subject, I can actually feel it start to come together. I might still have to wrestle with it until it's exactly to my liking, but that's my absolute favorite step in the process.
Well, besides getting a positive email from an editor!
What about you? What's your favorite part of the writing process?
My favourite part of the writing process is the first draft, the first, original, virgin series of pages that eventually becomes a manuscript.
ReplyDeleteI don't make very detailed outlines, so often I am surprised at what ends up on the page... "Where did that come from?", "What was I thinking?"
It is so exciting to start with ZERO and end up with a whle book!
Cheers, JIll
www.jilledmondson.com
While the initial rush of writing down a hot idea is close to being my favorite part I think that the rewrite or editing is my favorite part of writing. Some famous writers say they never rewrite but the painful truth is that if you don't do it someone else will. Even famous writers get edited despite what they may say. It is part of the discovery process which I used to dread and now see how it can help me.
ReplyDelete