|
Writing Process |
Post Reply 
|
Page 123> |
| Author | |
A. H. Davison 
NYC Midnight Addict 
Joined: 26 Jul 2023 Location: North Vancouver Status: Offline Points: 612 |
 Post Options
 Thanks(0)
 Quote Reply
 Topic: Writing ProcessPosted: 27 Jul 2023 at 1:32am |
|
I'm curious what your writing processes are? How do you use the 48-hours? What was your approach for round 1 and how do you plan to approach round 2?
|
|
 |
|
|
A. H. Davison
NYC Midnight Addict
Joined: 26 Jul 2023 Location: North Vancouver Status: Offline Points: 612 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: 27 Jul 2023 at 1:37am |
|
I'm in a PDT timezone, so I got the round 1 prompt at 9pm. I spent a few hours getting comfortable with my genre (Historical Fiction) and selecting a real location (prompt: a fortress) and time.
Before I went to bed, I had a handful of options for characters and storylines. I slept on them and in the morning I had my favorite. I outlined my story, and spent day 1 drafting it. I let it sit overnight, edited it once, gave it to my beta readers, edited it again based on their feedback. Tightened it to exactly 1,000 words, did a final proof, and uploaded with a few hours to go. <3
|
|
|
|
|
SeraLittle
NYC Midnight Addict
Joined: 12 Jun 2023 Location: PNW Status: Offline Points: 743 |
Post Options
Thanks(1)
Quote Reply
Posted: 27 Jul 2023 at 2:26am |
|
I'm also PST. As soon as I get the prompts I start brainstorming and if I can get a draft out Friday night. The next day I start editing the draft and getting a couple beta readers. Sunday I refine as much as possible (the last time that was mostly hours of cutting 1500 words down to 1000 - I am going to try hard not to overwrite this time!)
Edited to note that I completely rewrote the initial Friday night draft, and I spent most of the weekend agonizing over everything. In case that wasn't evident lol Edited by SeraLittle - 27 Jul 2023 at 3:53pm |
|
|
|
|
A. H. Davison
NYC Midnight Addict
Joined: 26 Jul 2023 Location: North Vancouver Status: Offline Points: 612 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: 27 Jul 2023 at 2:29am |
|
Thanks for sharing!
I'm hoping I'll be able to jump straight into brainstorming and drafting this round. Historical Fiction was a curve ball I wasn't prepared for
 I was pretty good about not over-writing by too much. I think I only needed to pare down 300 words or so. I did lose a whole paragraph/story beat, but the it was flavour and the story survived without it :) |
|
|
|
|
Frey_a
NYC Midnight Black Belt 
Joined: 30 Sep 2022 Location: Australia Status: Offline Points: 2194 |
Post Options
Thanks(1)
Quote Reply
Posted: 27 Jul 2023 at 2:43am |
|
Get prompts at 2pm. Brainstorm, google definitions and genres, brainstorm some more, narrow it down to something I can work with. Write first draft Saturday night, ask betas for feedback, and then fix it up on Sunday, submit Sunday night because I work Mondays.
|
|
|
|
|
nod1v1ng
NYC Midnight Black Belt
Joined: 26 Jul 2016 Location: ChillybytheSea Status: Offline Points: 14594 |
Post Options
Thanks(2)
Quote Reply
Posted: 27 Jul 2023 at 8:49am |
|
My preferred process: check prompts. Sleep on it. Spend the day on Saturday working it out in my head, noodling things. Try to have at least the major plot points sorted out before writing: inciting incident, conflict, climax, denouement. Sit down to draft Saturday evening and send to beta. Edit Sunday. Submit. What ACTUALLY happens more often than not (including this round): fall asleep and check prompts at 3am during my regularly scheduled insomnia. WTF into my pillow for a bit. Do everything but write on Saturday. Pout because the prompts suck. Procrastinate some more. Panic write for an hour on Sunday evening and submit in disgust, sans beta. Try to forget about it until results come out. Truth be told, I often write better stories when I panic write than when I have more time... |
|
|
|
|
Patagonia
NYC Midnight Black Belt
Joined: 14 Apr 2021 Location: Virginia Status: Offline Points: 1795 |
Post Options
Thanks(1)
Quote Reply
Posted: 27 Jul 2023 at 9:43am |
|
|
|
|
|
Patagonia
NYC Midnight Black Belt
Joined: 14 Apr 2021 Location: Virginia Status: Offline Points: 1795 |
Post Options
Thanks(1)
Quote Reply
Posted: 27 Jul 2023 at 9:51am |
|
I'm NY time zone, so the prompts come out at midnight for me, and I am rarely, if ever, actually awake at that time. BUT I do tend to wake several times in the night, so I will check my prompts then, and hopefully have some ideas float around in my brain as I fall back to sleep for the remainder of the night. Sometimes this is helpful and sometimes not. I remember having an idea one time that I thought was brilliant as I was dozing off to sleep, only to greet that same idea with a big "WTF?!" the next morning!
I generally get up, take a shower, and eat something before really trying to figure anything out, as it takes me quite a while to crawl out of the sleep pit most days. Then I will spend about 1-2 hours on my laptop, writing something - sometimes it's one idea that I start working on and will take to the finish line, and sometimes I get started on 2-3 ideas. I then leave it for a bit and get other things done (life does go on, even during an NYCM weekend!), and come back for another couple of hours later in the day. At that point is when I generally start asking for Beta reads - which story line works better, what's working and what's not, etc. Then I really get into trying to flesh out the story and make it something I'm happy with. I generally try to have a decent-ish draft before I go to bed on Saturday night, and it's generally late Saturday morning into Sat afternoon and evening that I start offering myself to do Beta reads - that way, I feel like I'm involved in the contest, but not actively writing my own story. I get another couple of Beta reads on Sunday, then finish it up and submit. For Flash, I usually submit early afternoon on Sunday. For the 100MF, it's much closer to the deadline - usually between 10pm and 11:30pm . . . I haven't yet gone too close to the deadline!
|
|
|
|
|
EstherZ
NYC Midnight Addict
Joined: 10 Sep 2019 Location: Montreal Status: Offline Points: 864 |
Post Options
Thanks(1)
Quote Reply
Posted: 27 Jul 2023 at 9:58am |
|
So it’s the same for me except im a religious Jew and I observe the sabbath so I don’t actually get my prompt until Saturday night. Then I do the same thing you do (familiar with genre, think of a loose premise) and sleep on it. Then Sunday I have everyone home including my 2 kids so I only really get a 4 hour gap spread throughout the day to write anything and have some beta readers give feedback. By 11pm I’m in a panic, rereading it 500 times, then I send.
Edited by EstherZ - 27 Jul 2023 at 10:12am |
|
|
|
|
swilki
NYC Midnight Addict
Joined: 26 Jan 2021 Location: UK Status: Offline Points: 1413 |
Post Options
Thanks(1)
Quote Reply
Posted: 27 Jul 2023 at 10:26am |
|
I'm in the uk so the prompts come through at 5 am. I wake up, read them, think it over, forget about it, go to bed, wake up, panic, scribble nonsense, go do something else, panic, go write something passable, realise it's 2am, panic, rewrite, realise its 4:52am, panic, slash words like I'm freddy krueger, submit, go to bed, wake up later and read what I wrote, more out of curiosity than anything else.
|
|
|
|
|
Post Reply
|
Page 123> |
| Tweet |
| Forum Jump | Forum Permissions You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot create polls in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum |
Topic Options
nod1v1ng wrote: