My Process

 Now, this may be something that you’re incredibly interested in, or utterly bored by, but I’m aiming for the former crowd. If you are in the latter, I hope you stick around, since maybe this is interesting for you. I have to warn you, the word “outline” is used approximately fifty times throughout this (it’s actually twelve times, if you’re wondering), but I’ll do my best to make things as clear as possible. 

So, what is my first step in what eventually becomes a novel? I open a document on my computer and word vomit any and every idea I have relating to the project that I have. In case you’re curious, the whimsy sheet for the first book in the “Healing x3” Trilogy is four pages long. This is what I call my Whimsy Page, or as professionals call it, my Proposal. 

Next, I start my planning, without the outline. That comes last. I start with figuring out my characters, and who they are as people (Yes, I know they’re not real). Once the characters are figured out, I write down my scene ideas, and make sure to number them and give them a title. I plot the Logistical Nonsense, or all of the subplots, before plotting the characters‘ relationships and backstories. This is what I call the easy side of plotting. 

I know what you’re thinking: now it’s time to plot the outline. No. After making sure that I have at least twelve scene ideas (I don’t know why twelve was the number I’ve settled on, but I always end up with more than that), I start the Scene Outline, which is where I take the twelve scenes and arrange them in the order that they occur in the story. Yes, this is neurotic, but it works. 

Then, I start the actual, official outline. Keep in mind, though, that I’m also working on a Scene Outline along with it, which gives EVERY SINGLE scene in the outline a name and a brief summary of the scenes, so when I do the Chapter Outline (more on that it a moment), I know what each scene is. 

Once the Outline and Chapter Outline are done, I start working on the Intimacy Outline, which breaks down each sexual scene in more detail, since it makes those scenes significantly easier to write if it’s broken down like that. Yes, it’s weird, but it’s a part of my process now. 

Finally, after everything is done, I do the Chapter Outline, where I take all of the scenes and divide them into chapters and titling them, because coming up with chapter titles is harder than it should be. 

And then I get to actually write the novel, which is usually over the span of a couple months, and then the real fun starts: editing. Now, if you should take away one thing from this, it’s that I’m insane, but also, that I loathe editing. I do it, but I hate it, especially since I do three rounds of edits on all of my novels, which can sometimes mean I’m reading through thirty six chapters three times…

My first round of edits is entitled “Give Notes”. I read through a chapter at a time, and using the Google Docs comment feature, I make a note where edits should be done. The second round is, you guessed it, “Apply Notes”, where I go back to all of my notes and actually do the edits I’ve suggested. Lastly, I do my “Final Readthrough” where I read through the edited chapters, and tweak anything else I either missed or if something sounds weird. 

And that, my friends, is a breakdown of how I go from having an idea to having a finished novel. Yes, the five versions of my outlines are probably excessive, but it works for me, and I have no intention of changing my process. 

That's all for now, folks!

-C