Guest Post: Writing Process by Olivia H

Happy Wednesday everyone!! So before I get into the guest post by the awesome Olivia, I have some exciting news. I officially have an author site. I've been working on it for a few weeks now (for the most of June actually haha) and just the other day bought the domain and site and its now live! Like I've said before, I plan to keep this blog (I love it too much to give it up) but I wanted something a bit more professional and official to point people to so here it is! It would mean a lot if you'd check it out: Melody Personette Author Site

Now onto Olivia's post about her writing process!

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I have been invited by Melody Personette to break down my writing progress, and I am so honored to be here. I don’t want to take up your time with a lengthy introduction, though, so let’s get to it.

Photo by Nick Morrison on Unsplash 

Getting Ideas

Before beginning to outline or write any story, a person needs an idea. Without one, there would be no reason to start writing that book or story. So the first milestone of my writing process is getting an idea, and I do this in one of two ways:

Method #1
The first method is just brainstorming. Lots of people do this, as it is an incredibly popular and effective way to get ideas. Just sitting down with a notebook and going through your mind, writing down any ideas that you get until you finally settle on an idea that just sparks a whole new fire of inspiration inside of you.

Method #2 
While the first method can work, the second method is way more effective for me, but it’s a little less convenient if I want a quick story idea: it just comes to me.
Now, the way that it does so could be by two different ways. Usually, I am thinking of a story that I have read, whether it be a fanfiction or an actual book, and thinking about things that I would like to happen or what would happen to the characters if they were in a different situation. I tend to go pretty deep with this, so I can sometimes get whole scenes and dialogue just by imagining other characters. Sometimes, I’ll end up somehow changing the characters to be my own as I continue to think about it, and then it slowly turns into my own story idea, when it had originally come from imagining what someone else’s character might do in the made-up situation.

Or, I can just be watching or reading something and, all of a sudden, the idea just waltz’s into my mind and makes a little home, pestering me to pay attention to it so much that I can’t concentrate on what I was previously doing. This one is a bit more rare than the previous one, but it still happens.

Beginning to Outline
After I get an idea, I go onto the outlining progress. I start just really basic, just thinking through the idea and running it through my head. Then, I begin to jot down notes: The characters: who they are and why they’re a part of the story. The setting: where is the story located and how many places will I need. Story milestones: basic milestones in the story that I will reach at some point.
Under this, I get a quick 1 sentence-1 paragraph short description of what the idea is, and then move on to the next step.

Creating Characters
In this step, I just quickly jot down a quick description of what I have in my head for each character: their looks, basic personality, and basic background.
After this, I go a little further, looking up different names and their meanings, getting different details about each character, and getting a feel for each character by writing short scenes or interviewing each one.

Beyond this, I just hone some of the information, making sure that everything is as constructed as it can be, and then move on.

Constructing Full Outline
After all of that, I finally take all of my notes and the character outlines and begin to put everything together.

I go through each note and comb through, thinking of what will happen in that scene and writing as much down as I can without actually writing the story. I number each scene, and then figure out what scenes will be in which chapters.

After I put all of this together, I have the complete outline. It could look something like this:

Beginning to Write

I begin to write by either:

A) Writing each scene in the outline and then filling in the blanks in between
each scene .

B) Starting from chapter 1 and going all the way through the the end.

I usually go with the former, and when I do that, I usually start with just writing 4 or 5 separate scenes and then slowly filling in what happens between those scenes, until they’re each connected, and then I move on to writing more scenes and connecting those, until the story is complete.
But when I go with the latter, there really isn’t anything different about it from others writing methods. I just write what I can and go by the outline, filling in the blanks as I go, instead of just filling in the in betweens of what I’ve already written. Either way, I will eventually finish the story.

So that was my writing process! Thank you so much for reading and I hope that this helped you in some way. Just remember: this is my own personal writing process and what I’ve found has worked for me. The same methods may not work for you, so I suggest exploring different methods and adjusting things to what works for you.

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Thanks so much for sharing Olivia! I hope you all enjoyed her guest post and I hope you have a great rest of the week. :)