One Writer’s Way of Working

This week’s update on my progress toward finishing The Modest Proposal Institute: War of the Institutes, which is book 4 of the series, is about arriving at the place I always reach when writing. I’m now writing lots of words — but the story is getting lost in them. It happens with every book. Here’s a summary of my writing ‘method’:

1. Develop the plot and events that come from it
2. Begin writing and write quickly up to about 20% of the book
3. Come to a complete halt — revisit plot, plan, events, and decide the whole thing isn’t worth it
4. Struggle on making absolutely no progress
5. Revisit revisit plot, plan, events, and see a way to finish it
6. Write quickly until I have more than enough words for two books but haven’t actually finished the one I’m writing because the story is lost in all that mountain of words
7. Decide the whole thing isn’t worth the trouble
8. Edit, edit and edit to get back to the word count
9. Write the story back into the words and send it to the editor really quickly before I change my mind again

I’m lost in stage 6 at this moment and still hoping stages 7 – 9 will work out as they have always done in the past. For those of you writing your own novel, I hope this information will help you through the dark days ahead. For those of you just considering writing a novel, be warned! Or alternatively, read a book instead. One of mine perhaps, which you can find at my Amazon Author Page.