L is for Learning #A2Zchallenge blog

 

Anyone who's done any creative writing can tell you if you do it long enough, your process changes. Or maybe it adapts to your new knowledge of yourself, the introspection and acceptance of your own particular way of thinking and creating.

There are plotters, pantsers, plantsers or plotsers, or mini-versions in between. 

When I started writing, I grabbed a composition notebook, opened it and began. No pressure, just telling a story. Then I started studying the craft of writing, listening to traditional publishing workshops, learning the rules. And following them. And until I decided to Self-publish, my process suffered. I thought to "do it correctly" I had to plot my stories first. And so began the struggle.

But last year during another challenge - Nano - which I've done every year since 2008, I discovered my true process is to sit down and let the characters tell their story. It's terrifying. And it's bliss when I make myself sit there and write, whether it's in the tub on a small notebook, on a legal pad going down the road, on my MacAir or on an ipad. Just write. 

Have you had an epiphany like this? Maybe you're a plotter who's tried to go by the seat of your pants. Writing is an individual as, well... each individual. But writers write