Writer In Motion is finally here and I’m so excited to let everyone in on the big secret. 🙂

When I was a child, I used to browse the library and bookstores with one thing in mind: a story that would take me far away to fall in love with a bizarre world. I still search for that one story, but now with every book I hold in my hands, I see the blood, sweat and tears, the sheer amount of work the author forged through to bring it to the exact spot I’m standing.

And how does each book get so shiny?

That’s where Writer In Motion comes in. Using a short story framework, twelve writers are going to take you behind the scenes of how a writer works from that first spark of an idea to a well-polished story. Every week we’ll launch a new blog post about the current step in our journey, how we feel about the work, our approach to revisions, and the next update to our story. As readers, you’ll get a live preview of why writers so often love to use the word trenches.

We’ve even strong-armed RevPit editors Jeni Chappelle and Carly Hayward to help.

Today begins week 1, where you’ll get to meet all the writers who volunteered their time to shed some light on the process.

K. J. Harrowick | Jen Karner | H.M. Braverman | J.M. Jinks | Melissa Bergum | Thuy Nguyen | Kristen Howe | Kathryn Hewitt | Sean Willson | Paulette Wiles | Talynn | Ellen Mulholland

Meet K. J. Harrowick

If you’re a current subscriber to my blog, you already know that I have a passion for dark worlds and dark deeds. Any story that gets dark and gritty, amps up the sexual tension, drops in a snazzy dragon, or drags me off to bizarre and exotic worlds is totally my jam. I adore brooding alpha heroes that make me want to both kick and kiss them, smart heroines with deep-layered strength, gritty scenes that make me chuck my kindle across the room (yes, it happens), and insightful alien creatures that warm my heart. Think Nis from The Eyes of Light and Darkness.

This may come as a shock to no one, but what I read also translates into what I write.

A little history

It started more than fifteen years ago when I first learned to speak D’ni (Myst), Quenya, and Sindarin (Lord of the Rings). At the time I was plowing through Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time and joined an Aes Sedai role-play. It took a disasterous turn pretty quick, so I decided to create my own universe and write a story in it. Unfortunately, I knew absolutely nothing about characters (mine were all 1-D cutouts), so I dove back into role-play with a Harry Potter forum.

After years learning how to create bizarre and feisty characters, my universe picked up the phone and bashed me over the head. I tried again with the story, but couldn’t seem to find the right vibe. Then the spark hit me: what if I dropped a few of my beloved RPG characters into the universe? Those little demons grabbed hold of their new world and flourished, stretching their legs and carving a space as if they’d been there from the beginning.

As I began to understand how characters influence worlds and vice versa, I flourished as a writer. I stretched my own legs, wrote story after story, and carved out the niche I wanted to thrive in. I’m happy in my space, an intersection somewhere between dragons, spaceships, horsemen and chaos. I’ve even had an agent mention my work was a touch too dark for them, which I still wear as a badge of honor.

How I work

My methodologies are in constant motion, always shifting with my mood, growth, and how I’m feeling about an idea. I used to be a straight pantser when it came to drafts, then turned into a plantser, and now I drive all over the map.

Sometimes I’ll start out by creating the world I want the characters to live in, other times I’ll start with character backstories and broodiness. Every so often I’ll browse the internet for interesting pictures, especially if I know I’m searching for a specific thing: like a dragon that doesn’t fit into the normal mold. All of these elements help me connect with the world and the vibe that needs to unfold on the page.

After that I usually spend two days agonizing over the first line, then the first paragraph until I have the voice nailed. Once that’s in, I just vomit words until I exorcise the writer demons.

What this means for the Writer In Motion project

For starters, all of you will get to watch me agonize and over-explain things, plus post a ton of pictures for the next seven weeks. In all seriousness though, here’s how I plan to work:

Blog posts:
Moving forward from here, each week for the next 7 weeks I’ll put up a blog post with the next phase of my journey:

Week 2 – The story prompt, how I feel about it, and initial ideas.
Week 3 – The first draft of my new short story, my thought process, and what I want to convey.
Week 4 – The self-edited draft, what I cut, fleshed out, and the why of it all.
Week 5 – During this week I’ll receive feedback from critique partners. I’ll blog about their suggestions, what I used or stepped over (plus why), and the updated draft.
Week 6 – During this week I’ll receive editorial notes from one of the RevPit editors, blog about their suggestions, how I worked through them, and the updated draft.
Week 7 – Tweaks and final version of the story, plus a wrap up of the project.

Images:
During this seven week project, I’ll also be playing a lot with images. I honestly can’t help it.

Pinterest – I’ll be tossing images onto Pinterest to start setting the mood and tone for the story I want to tell. Click here to follow along if you’d like to see my vision vs what steps onto the page.

Blend – One of my favorite things to do is manipulate and blend images together. You can see some of these in my design gallery. See the feature image at the top of this article? That’s how I’m feeling right now, and will become the foundation for this story’s piece. Each week I’ll add another stock image and blend it into the final product to give an idea of what the story and I are working through.

Music:
Once I receive my story prompt next week, I’ll create a playlist on Pandora. I keep my lists there private because someone started adding a bunch of damn pop music in that made my ears bleed, but if you want to know what will be on that playlist, check out Two Steps From Hell, any Assassin’s Creed soundtrack, Skyrim, Oblivion, and similar music. If it’s moody and broody with little to no words, I’m probably listening while I write. IceRequiem also writes killer music I love listening to.

Support:
One of the major elements of a writer’s process is support, both for themselves and for other writers. So I will be retweeting posts from my fellow participants, encouraging them, instigating a few gif wars, and sitting on someone’s shoulder feeding them dark thoughts (Carly will probably help me with this – it’s a tandem thing).

If you have any further questions about the project or want to connect with me or Melissa Bergum (who will be sharing her journey here), you can subscribe to the blog or hang out with us on Twitter at #WriterInMotion. You can also follow each step of our journey on the Writer In Motion project page.

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K.J. Harrowick is a freelance web developer and graphic designer with more than a decade on industry experience on a diverse range of projects. As a child, she fell in love with fantasy worlds like those found in the books of Andre Norton and Mercedes Lackey, which continued well into adulthood with the worlds of Ivan Cat, Rand & Robin Miller, Terry Brooks, Orson Scott Card, and E. R. Mason. She began to world build and create fantasy languages in 2004, and in 2014 it became a full-blown passion to write and publish her own books. Currently she resides in the rainy Pacific Northwest where she works with a broad range of client projects, plots how to destroy her characters’ lives, and occasionally falls down rabbit holes.

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Don’t forget to check out this year’s Winterviews and partner interviews. You can also follow the Writer In Motion journey by subscribing to this blog.