Welcome to Writer Thursdays, where I unpack my novel writing process from start to finish.
My new work in progress, PETALS & DUST, was written during Nanowrimo of 2013, and has since been collecting dust on a shelf. So the writing is an absolute tragedy. If I was to cut away all the fluff, I’d probably end up with about 10K words of actual story. But as I’m reading through this dumpster fire, I’m getting a good sense of what the story feels like and how I want the tone to unfold. Below is a process I use to start getting my brain ready to disappear into this universe.
The Music
I write to music. Always have, and probably always will. There’s something about letting part of your brain fly away on creative tones while the logical side starts hacking at the structure or scene level dynamics.
The current hip site seems to be Spotify, but I’m a Pandora person. Here’s the initial station for Petals & Dust (Pandora code doesn’t understand ampersands… just sayin’) if anyone likes listening to dramatic score music. At first it will probably have a bizarre mix of tracks, but after a few weeks of like/pass, the overall tone for this adventure story should get a lot stronger and more concise.
About that time is when I’ll start hitting the words hard. For now, the tone will help me get into the feel of the portal worlds as I setup the structural arc, character sheets, and get a feel for each of the cultures and characters readers will meet.
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