The Process
This year I'm going to cheat at NaNoWriMo. Instead of doing a whole new story and aiming for the 50K, I'm going to continue one of my WIPs and aim for 25K.
This story focuses on a woman who became pregnant out of wedlock in the 1970s in Australia. At that time, young women were often forced or coerced into adopting their babies out. The family of my character decide that instead of having the baby adopted by a stranger, that the older sister should adopt the baby and raise it as her own. The story follows the relationships between the main character and her sister and her daughter (who doesn't know that her aunt is her mother).
When I write it out like that, it sounds kind of dull, but it's all in the execution, right?
Anyway, as is my wont, I have been writing this one by hand.
There are a few advantages to this. Naturally, it allows me to be less distracted by the internet, and the internet really is a HUGE distraction for me. But mostly, it's about the accessibility to the words. I like to be able to see them in front of me, rather than scrolling up or down. I really like to be able to turn pages. I'm currently writing in a journal Mum gave me years ago, and because I'm right-handed, I right only on the right side of the book (otherwise the spiral binding in the middle annoys me). This seems like a waste, but what I do is keep the other side for notes. I write questions about research I'm going to have to do, or make a point about how what I'm writing now relates to something that might happen before or after this point in the story. I don't write chronologically, so this is an important way to keep the story focussed in my mind. I know :) writing chronologically would probably help with that, too, but my mind jumps around too much for that.
Here's a picture of what I mean.
[Picture shows my notebook open on a wooden table. I've been writing about my character going to the airport on the right hand side and on the left hand side there are a couple of questions about payphones in airports in the 1970s and how much a local call would have cost.]
In an effort to keep clutter at a minimum on my small kitchen table (where I do most of my writing), I keep the notebooks in the cupboard. Next to the breakfast cereal, of course.
Once I've written an entire draft by hand, I'll type it up. I edit as I go, and then I'll print it out, and proofread it on paper, writing notes by hand. Editing on the screen is not my thing. I miss typos and spelling errors, and I feel as if I can see the whole picture, when it's on the printed page.
Absolutely this will take me more time and probably waste more paper (though I might use less power because I'm not on the computer while I'm writing/editing, so it's probably a wash) but it's how I roll :)
What's your writing process?