Susan here. Today on Ask-A-Wench, we’re talking about writing process—or what we Word Wenches understand as a loose interpretation of process. None of us are exacting in how we go about thinking up stories and writing novels (and Wenches agree that a precise process doesn’t particularly mesh with a creative process in storytelling, although they can complement and support each other).
As we often do in our AAW posts, we’ve chosen a reader question, this time from Constance, who asked how we go about preparing, working on, and/or finishing a book. How are ideas turned into plots, and how do we go about getting that book done? Do we rely on outlines, storyboards, cocktail napkins, what helps us? (Thanks, Constance!) And we've included photos of some of the places where we write (with or without a real process)!
Pat says --
My process is that I have no process. <G> Really, after 70 books and over 30 years, I couldn’t possibly do the same thing over and over. The Muse matures or goes nuts or gets finicky, and I just follow whatever makes her happy. Crystal Magic, my current series, came about because I wanted to play with my magical historical Malcolms in a contemporary setting. I had a lot of notes in a Word document about a town filled with eccentrics, plus a scene in my head about a woman driving through the night not having any idea who she was or where she was going. I sat down and started writing a plot arc combining the two. A very clever arc it was, too, if only the Muse had stuck with it. But no, she started throwing in ghostly gardeners and crystal wands, and then I realized I had a town full of Malcolms on my hands. And a town like this demands a series simply because there is no explaining it in one book. Other times, I have written series because I wrote a book with so many interesting characters that I had to follow up to learn more about them.
In the process of writing a book, I’ll make notes on paper and in computer documents—I often have several windows of notes open as I write. I’ll scribble chapters by hand or go into a frenzy at the laptop while sitting in the garden. I’m currently frozen in place because I needed to see the area I designated for my eccentric town. I simply couldn’t get another word down until I sat there in the pine forest looking into a canyon and imagining a crystal cave—or whatever comes of it. Because I still haven’t decided what happens there and won’t until I’m back in the manuscript, trying to visualize the characters in that setting. So—process is what we make of it. I try to make it fun!
Mary Jo here:
Process. It's such an organized word. I have trouble relating to it. My stories can start with a plot idea, in which case I look for characters who will maximize the power of that idea. Or more often they start with a character, almost always because I like tossing a group if guys together in circumstances where they are challenged so they bond and grow together. Often a random remark about a guy later becomes a key part of his personality when it's time to write his story. But a logical process it's not. 
How wispy ideas become stories is very vague. It's rather like wandering around in the dark and bumping into things and seeing how they fit with the bits I've already collected. I keep gnawing away (mixing metaphors here!) until a story takes shape. Once I can write a short synopsis that explains the characters, the setting, and the general plot line, I'm ready to write. It's rather a jumble, but it seems to work.
As to where I write--that one is easy. At my desktop. I don't much like laptops and don't work well on them, and very few places are as comfortable to write in as my desk, where I've applied my long ago industrial design training to creating a workspace that it the right height, with the right trackball, the split keyboard, and a really good work chair to wiggle around on because I'm not good at sitting still.
But sometimes there are problems even with my carefully designed workspace!
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