I’m visiting over at Jessi Kirby’s blog today. She’s the author of Moonglass (love!) and just-released In Honor, and she’s posted an interview I did on my past road trips, which is pretty perfect because I’ve been road-tripping my ass off over the last week. I’d love it if you’d read the interview, and please do check out Jessi’s books if you haven’t already. She has a way with heartbreaking-cool-romantic contemporary, and her writing is gorgeous!
Now, for a question…
What’s your favorite part of the writing process?
{For me, revisions, definitely. I have no trouble brainstorming ways to improve what’s already written, and I love delving deeper — fleshing out characters and layering plot lines and dropping in setting details. Starting from scratch, the blank pages and the hundreds of loosely connected ideas swirling around in my brain… Those terrify me!}
katyupperman.com 
I’m with you on revisions. Sometimes I wish I could extract my WIP ideas and splatter them on the page so I have something to edit. A blank page is the worst for me.
Me too. So full of possibility, but also so easy to screw up!
The initial writing. I would love to just write all the time. Unfortunately nothing will get published that way.
Nope, it sure doesn’t. But without that initial draft you love, nothing is possible!
I hate revisions! And I’m neck deep into them right now lol
For me is the coming up with the plot and imagining scenes in my head before translating them into the paper … I love that freedom and the taste of something new and powerful brewing 😉
Love how you worded that! It almost makes me think I like drafting too. 😉
I love revising too! I didn’t used to though. When I first started, I think I was just so thankful to have actually finished a book, that I wanted to just look at it in all it’s messy glory and sigh happily. Now, I am so eager to write “The End” because then I can get the real writing done 🙂 It’s funny how things change over time, and how the stuff that seemed the most daunting becomes the most fun.
Isn’t it? I get super eager to finish drafting too, because I’d much rather be tightening and expanding and making those words sparkle.
I read your interview on Jessi Kirby’s blog. Fun! I’m reading In Honor right now & I love it.
I don’t think I’ve done enough writing to have a favorite part, since I haven’t actually finished a book yet. So can I just say that my favorite part has been meeting other writers?? That IS part of the process! 😉
I definitely think meeting other writers is part of the process, and part of the fun! I’ve learned so much from my writerly friends; they’ve been truly inspiring!
Revisions, definitely. With the exception of writing the first scene–because that’s the part of a first draft in which an SNI is still shiny. 🙂
Oh, yes, that first scene is super fun… Sets the tone for the whole manuscript!
I LOVE starting something new. . .almost as much as getting into the final stretch and seeing the MS that was once a big puzzle with crazy, ill-matched pieces come together nicely:)
See, the way you worded that *almost* makes me think I like drafting too. 😉
I’ve grown to really enjoy editing, polishing, rewriting, and revising, particularly since many of the manuscripts I’ve done that with are ones I haven’t had access to in like ten years. They were held hostage on obsolete file formats on disks, and they were worth all the hoops I had to jump through to open them, convert them, and reformat them.
I’m with you, Carrie-Anne. I love that final polishing phase, especially after a long break from a story.
Hi Katy,
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A.D.
Aww, thank you! I’ll definitely check it out. 🙂
Revisions, definitely. “Writing is rewriting” as the saying goes. But beyond revisions, outlining. I like planning and getting nit-picky, and outlining is something I do as I go along. I will write a draft of a scene, and then dig into it and flesh it out and figure out what’s going on beneath the surface that links to what came before and sets up what’s to come. I have to know the inner-workings of my story to keep moving; that rooting around, if you will, keeps the story alive for me.
I enjoy the brainstorming before the writing – imagining all of the possibilities of a story. I also enjoy revision – putting the pieces of a first draft back together and making the story better.
I also love revisions. The hardest part for me is getting words on the page in the first place.
Me too, Dana… So daunting!
It’s SO hard for me to choose a favorite because I really love the entire process. Drafting is awesome because everything is fresh and new and that page is yours to fill with whatever words you want. Revisions are fun because they force that story into shape. Brainstorming is another fave because the possibilities are ENDLESS.
Though it’s easy to say these things until I actually sit down to do them 😉 THEN I start thinking about how much more I enjoy those other parts, ha.
Oh, yeah… The grass is ALWAYS greener! Also, the project you’re NOT currently supposed to be working on often seems more appealing. 🙂
I tend to love the things I’m in the midst of (right now revisions) and worry about the ones I’m not (the next draft) – it flips when I flip. So I guess that’s a good thing.
Occasionally I flip too… Isn’t the grass always greener? 😉
My favorite part of the writing process is hearing my characters. For me, all it took was the first sentence “I should’ve done something to stop it” and within that night, I had 10,000 words. By the end of 2 weeks, 20,000. The voice just spilled out. I love hearing character voices. 🙂 They can be so strong sometimes.
That’s awesome, Rachel! Who knew voices in our head’s could be so inspiring? 😉
When I’m drafting I say revisions.
When I’m revising I say drafting.
So it’s basically whatever I’m NOT doing that is my favorite.
Ha! That’s me sometimes too! We’re a fickle bunch, writers. 🙂
Re-writing–not just revising but sort of starting over. It’s daunting, but the fresh slate feels really, really good–like I’ve finally figured out what I was originally planning to do.
Yes! But why oh why does it take an ENTIRE DRAFT to figure out what I was originally planning to do?!