How do you do it?

Hi, I am about to start writing for the day. The subject matter of my writing at the moment is  pretty heavy, requiring me to ‘get inside the head’ of a psychopath, so I find it is not a place where I can stay for too long. I tend to write up in longhand, while sitting out in the early morning winter sunshine, then I type it up later. this seems like a waste of time sometimes but I feel the flow better when writing longhand. How about you? While I’m typing it up it is kinda like a mini first edit anyway. I have written directly onto the computer but find if I do that I will go back frequently and edit spelling etc. I know I shouldn’t but if it is wrong I must fix it! I am not the world’s best touch typist. The problem with actually writing is that I sometimes can’t understand my own scrawl.

At the moment I am finding I can only do 1500 – 3000 words a day. Mostly that is because I am in the throes of getting the story down and am doing it one quick chapter after the other. I will go back and flesh out the characters, scenes etc later, but right now I must find out what my protagonists want to tell me. One of them has suddenly decided to go on holiday and leave the other without her therapist for two weeks. She is peeved at his desertion. He likes that she is peeved. What are they doing?

So, how do you write are you really, really organised? Do you plot before all else? Are your characters born full-blown? Do you have a clearly defined path to your denouement? No, seriously I’d like to know. I don’t think I will change how I’m doing it, but I am interested in how others proceed in their work.

Well, enough of all that. Off to the sunshine with my pad and pen.   Cheers, Rosa

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