How To Develop Your Writing Process

It starts with showing up

Every writer is unique in their own way, but writing is an activity that requires persistence and consistency.

Beginner writers are often daunted with the task of figuring out what works for them and so they trail in the path of established writers, hoping to tap into their forte and make the same process of writing work for them. This mistake of trying to be exactly like someone else has led to immense disappointment. In this article, I am going to be breaking down how you can create your writing process.

Baby steps

Writing can be challenging; the thought of producing a volume of work (e.g. a book) is downright terrifying.

However, the only way out is by breaking this volume of work into chunks and keeping tabs on your progress.

What do I mean? Well, while writing five hundred words a week might seem like a small deal, it all adds up at the end of the day — and immensely at the end of the year.

A writer dedicated to writing 500 words every week, would have written 24, 000 words at the end of the year. That is a novella!

Whereas holding a book and aiming to write one can be terrifying, building a consistent approach to writing can make your dreams more achievable. This also inspires growth; a hundred words a day would turn to two hundred and two hundred would become five hundred in a day.

Not to mention that the progress would become effortless on your part.

Babies have to crawl before they can stand, then walk. If you are aiming to be like someone else who has been writing for years, then you should create your own process and commit to your growth.

Don’t try to churn out 2000 words because someone else is doing it. That is like learning to fly without being able to stand. You will get there one day, but you need to learn the process.

There are three stages of writing: the pre-writing, the writing, and the post-writing stage.

The pre-writing stage involves researching, outlining, and planning out the piece of writing.

The writing stage involves actual writing.

The post-writing stage involves editing and distribution.

It can be pretty staggering when you try to do all three at the same time. And sometimes, the pre-writing step can be so overwhelming it distracts or hinders you from moving over to the writing step.

So make sure you break down your process and concentrate only on crossing one step at a time.

Save up ideas

Some people might argue that you don’t have to write every day, but I will phrase a better option, write in a journal every day even when you only want to create content on specific days in a week. By doing so, you are saving ideas that would bail you out when you feel stuck and out of ideas.

Never trust your brain to hold onto ideas — trust your book.

Create a pattern and stick to it

Your process should be unique to you, and you have to tailor it with your current life’s activities to get what you want. That is the only way it can work. You have to realize that what works for A might not work for B. For example, if A is a night owl and prefers doing his writing at midnight, and is such a good writer, following A’s exact pattern will not get you the result you want if you are a morning person.

When creating a writing process, you should put your life in perspective; are you a family person, do you have a full-time job, when are you most occupied, and when are you most active? When you have done that, you create a time that works best for you and make it a commitment to show up every day.

Use the Stream of consciousness.

Some days, you might not feel like it. You might feel empty and conclude you have nothing to say. I assure you that what you have to say is inside of you and when times like this arise, you should let your subconscious do the talking.

What does this mean?

This process involves letting your subconscious do the work without interruption from you.

It means opening up your computer or writing device and letting the words fall out on their own.

Take it a notch, and set the mood for it

Play relaxed composed music — soundtracks without lyrics.

Empty your brain and write blindly. No backspacing, no editing. Write out what comes to you one word at a time.

It does not have to make complete sense to you then. Do not even attempt to read as you are writing.

Depending on how long you keep at it, you can either come up with something profound, or you can ease into the idea of a piece of content.

This is good when you have set-up daily writing goals, and wouldn’t want a day of lack of motivation to ruin your writing streak. It only takes a day, and subsequently a repeat of days to make or break a habit.

Take a break before editing

Another thing is, you should not be in a hurry to edit your creative pieces.

Editing comes in the post-writing stage. This is when you go through your writing or the product of your writing to refine it into something better or more presentable.

I find this step to be very critical. Editing can also mean re-writing the entire piece, and so I divided editing into re-writing and proofreading.

This is why it is important to have the words written out first, editing can always refine and make sense of the worst written article, but a blank page is a blank page.

Conclusion

Following all the steps would prove to you that no level of writing is unattainable, and all it takes is the commitment to your writing goal, and incorporating the growth mindset.