by Stephanie Morrill
Stephanie writes young adult contemporary novels and is the creator of GoTeenWriters.com. Her novels include The Reinvention of Skylar Hoyt series (Revell) and the Ellie Sweet books (Playlist). You can connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and check out samples of her work on her author website including the free novella, Throwing Stones.
Last week we started talking about building a writing process. (Why I’ve Decided to Stop Setting Writing Goals, How to Build a Strong Writing Process) These set up a way for us to evaluate where we are as writers, what our habits are, what’s working for us, and what we need to change.
Once you’ve done that, how do you go about finding your own system? Here’s what’s worked for me:
When I went to a writers conference at age twenty-two, I had been serious about writing for about six years. I had written several complete novels and dozens of partials. I wasn’t completely ignorant —I knew what genre I wrote, that I needed a literary agent, and I had queried a few times—but I still had loads to learn about how to write a book.
At the conference, I took a class from veteran novelist Angela Hunt. I was blown away to learn that she had, like, a system for writing a novel. I didn’t even know you could do that. My system was to have an idea and work on that book until I burned out and started another one.
Then I found out this crazy thing—all career novelists had learned what worked for them … and they did those things every time they wrote a book. While this likely seems obvious to you savvy Go Teen Writers, it was revolutionary to me.
I’ve developed what some might call an obsession with learning how writers write their books. I’m always looking for a way to improve what I do and write more efficiently. That’s why I’m addicted to craft books, why I listen almost exclusively to writing classes on my iPod, and why I subscribe to way more writing blogs than I have time to read. While there’s no need to be that extreme (seriously, I should probably diversify my interests a bit) I encourage you to be open to the knowledge of writers who have gone before you about what works for them.
Going back to my class with Angela Hunt. At the time she had been writing novels for twenty or twenty-five years. She had a system—but part of that system was trying something new with each novel she wrote. That made a big impression on me at the time, and the longer I’m in this business, the more impressed I am by Angela’s attitude. Because there are a lot of writers who, after a while, seem to just be going through the motions. I love that Angela had built into her system a way to stay fresh.
Time, patience, and hard work—groan, right? I wish it were different. I would absolutely love to be the best writer I’m going to be NOW rather than fifty years from now. And if I could achieve that by just doing my favorite parts of writing, that would be great.
I had already published three books before I learned a few key pieces of my writing process. And I’m planning my books in a way now that would have my life SO much easier if I had known how to do it at the beginning. But that’s just part of the journey—allowing what I learn to take root in me. And roots don’t happen in a snap.
And even thought I love writing and how it’s turned into my career, writing well is hard work. It’s impossible to crank out a good novel in a week. A first draft? Sure. Difficult, but doable. But not a great book. To write a great book—and to learn how to write a great book—takes time, patience, and hard work. Finding a system that works for you, however, will go a long way in making it pay off.