As we write each day we discover our own process. We begin to see there is no “right way” to create and that our objective is simply to let the story live.
The first draft is a near constant state of discovery. Some revelations may seem counter to the direction we thought our story was heading. You may even discover that how you actually feel about certain things is not what you had previously thought. You may discover you’re not always nice, that you’re opinionated, that you have a dark side, or that some things bother you more than you thought. It might reveal that your tolerance for bullshit has gone way down. Your perception of the world might be widening while your certainty on any particular topic is starting to relax.
Perhaps you are noticing little techniques that help your process. Perhaps you prefer writing in the morning, or you like to write on buses that circle the city at 3:00 a.m. You may discover that after a couple of hours you are done for the day. Some writers write for six hours a day, while others put in one hour. There are no rules. Your process is your own and each method is valid. You may have discovered that you don’t need to spend as much time outlining, that after a short while we get antsy and just want to dive in, or, you may feel greater confidence with a rigorous outline to lay out your story.
Everyone’s process is different. As long as we continue writing and make it a habit, it doesn’t matter how it gets done. The most important thing is that we stay with the process and remain curious. Our work, these stories we tell, are simply a paper trail documenting our journey back to our truest selves.
Learn more about marrying the wildness of your imagination to the rigor of structure in The 90-Day Novel, The 90-Day Memoir, or The 90-Day Screenplay workshops.
Writing Prose