“I write as straight as I can, just as I walk as straight as I can, because that is the best way to get there.” ~~ H.G. Wells
I’m a big fan of inspirational quotes for writers from writers. I think it’s hard for someone who doesn’t experience the process of writing to really understand what it’s like. I’m also enjoy H. G. Wells’s work.
But I have to say, on the above quote, he and I disagree.
I often talk about my RWA chapter (MVRWA) on the pages. Within that group, a handful of us have dedicated our weekends to keeping our butts planted firmly in chair with our hands on our keyboards….or pencil to notebook…or pen to legal pad.
You starting to see my point.
But it’s not only the tools used for writing that varies greatly between our members, but there is also the processes. Some of us (not me!) are methodical plotters. Others (hand in the air) are more pantsters, even others write with a hybrid method that is something in between the two extremes.
As I look around the room at one of my chapter meetings or at one of our write-in sessions, there are as many paths to “the end” as there are writers constructing a story. No one way. No correct way. Several ways.
But it’s not only about different paths for different authors. I, at times, find myself taking a path that is not the normal on certain manuscripts. For the most part, I’m very linear writing from page one to “the end” but this weekend — for the second time in a long time — I wrote an out-of-order scene. It felt right as it flowed through my fingers and I liked it when I was done, but I realized it was happening much too early in the story.
I set the keyboard aside and reached for my legal pad and started making a list of everything I thought needed to happen before the scene I’d just finished. As this is the road map I’ll be using over the next couple weeks to connect the two points on the page.
It may be a crooked path I’m writing the new book on, but that doesn’t make it the wrong one.
Do you believe in an one and only way to write?
Constance: You’re so right! We have to believe in our own process, not feel there is something ‘wrong’ with us because we don’t write how a certain NYT Bestseller writes. And we owe it to newbies to teach them to honor their process. Thanks for sharing!
Constance,
Great post! I’m with you – everyone has a different process. There is no wrong or right way. What works for one person won’t necessarily work for another. And sometimes, what worked for one project won’t work for the next. But, I think it’s very interesting to talk with other authors about their process!
Thanks, Shay. I’m guilty of trying to mold my process into what I think it SHOULD be, forgetting the path is not the same for everyone.
Jenna, I enjoy discussing process with others too. I think we can always pick up little tricks, etc. to help us get unstuck, but there is no one direct way from beginning to end.
I believe that my way is the only way…for 1/7,000,000,000th of the population.
As far as writing goes…I plot some scenes; I “pants” through others. I hop around like Nightcrawler from the X-Men. 
Thanks for dropping by and commenting, Wendy. You’re one of those hybrid’s hu? For the most part I consider myself a pantster, but I’ve done a lot more plotting on my current manuscript than of done with any other. Still I’m not being very linear in the writing.