My Writing Process--Blog Tour

• Today (a little late but better late than never) I am participating in the  My Writing Process – Blog Tour. I was invited to participate by the lovely Becky Fyfe and you can see what she had to say about her process at http://imaginecreatewrite.blogspot.com.au/2014/02/my-writing-process-blog-tour.html
  As a fairly new writer in the literary ocean I am just learning my way around blog tours and hops and I went to find who else has done this particular blog tour and was astounded at the number of authors who have done so. A google search with the terms
  

  My Writing Process--Blog Tour

   gave me 28 million results in 41 seconds. I didn't read that many since I do need my beauty sleep but the top ten were fabulous reads and every writer has a different process as individual as their style of writing.  So what do I need to do well here goes -
  
   Step one: Acknowledge the person & site that involved you in the blog tour... that would be the incomparable Becky Fyfe a delightful lady who has got to have seven hands for the number of literary pies her fingers are in.
  Here is a link to a previous example from the Writing Process Blog Tour: http://imaginecreatewrite.blogspot.com.au/2014/02/my-writing-process-blog-tour.html
  

  

  
  Step two: Answer the 4 questions below about your writing process
   1) What am I working on?  Right now I am in the early pages of a chapter book for the chapter book challenge. I also have 28 new ideas from the February Picture book marathon to build into full stories and several are in various stages of development already. I have one YA novel complete and in final edit stages, one romance novel at 75k and a number of other writing projects on the go. I have just completed a first draft picture book for 12 x 12 for February and sent my January draft off to a critique group. I am also participating in the 52 week art challenge on Facebook to increase my art skills by daily practice.
  
  2) How does my work differ from others of its genre?
  I expect my work to have many similarities in structure to other works in the same genres that is why and how it will be labelled as suitable for that niche however it is my own unique personality and style that gives anything I do its own individual cast. 
  
   3) Why do I write what I do? this is a question which requires a complex answer. If I were four I would simply shout "Because!" and follow it up with a "ner Ner ner, so there!"  I am not four so I will try to be as succinct as a preschooler but fear failure . My characters will destroy the inside of my skull to enact release if I do not allow them out via a scribing device. I can change the real story endings into happy ever afters. I can "eviscerate them(my erstwhile enemies) in fiction". I can escape, dream, imagine and live out my fantasies. I like to entertain. It is fun! so ner ner ner!
  
  4) How does your writing process work?
  an idea will pop into my head or a particularly vivid dream will wake me up. I scribble it onto a scrap of anything handy. I will think, think some more, cogitate, feel the whole gelatinous nebulous glooping ooze gurgle and burp into my cerebral cortex. I tell the story, orally, verbally, dramatically and watch for audience reactions. This may be the stray neighbourhood cat who will hiss and spit and take off over the fence. Then I set time aside to write it, non stop, no self edits or else, stop, procrastinate and think some more, have a cup of tea, stretch, do some sprint writing then stop again.  I join challenges to keep me motivated and set a deadline. Sometimes I write for 12 hours non stop and forget to go to the toilet or eat or pick up the teenager from school and words will pour out of me like a flood from an open sluice gate and I lose awareness of the world around me. Sometimes I carefully plot and plan and write snippets at a time.  When I finally have the bones of a story one way or another. I set it aside and start something else and let the whole thing develop in my head some more. Marinate, season, mature and gurgle some more while I research every single aspect of the potential story where I need to sound like an authority on the matter at hand. I research until I am lost in the pixels and ether of the web and have to drag myself back. I can write 11,000 words in a day and 104,000 words in a nanowrimo month but I would not recommend it to any self respecting health conscious person who would like to maintain at least a nominal relationship with their family and friends.
   a competition or a prompt will elicit a swift flash fiction in a short span of time.
  
  Then comes REVISION and redraft and beta readers then critique partners and more REVISION and redrafts and editing and editing and editing. Then off to the professionals to tell me what to do to fix it then finally into an envelope or email and off it goes into the wide world....fly my chick, fly and be free.
  
  Then forget it ever existed and get on with the next thing.
  
  
  Step Three: Say who is on next week (this should be three people who would also like to participate) – give a 1-2 line bio and link to their website. You’ll need to find three other writer friends to ask to do the same a week after you, and so on and so forth… 
  
  Okay so I am handing the baton onto my dear friends
  
  1. Bob Myers ,Is a great grandfather who first qualified as an electronics technician before gaining a BA in sociology and further training in mediation and conflict resolution. His practical experience includes being married for 53 years and working with troubled families for more than thirty years. His four published books are about parenting, family relationships and general conflict resolution. Post link: http://ow.ly/ukf7Y Email: bobmyers@aapt.net.au 
  A wonderful man who espouses peace and non violence and has written some wonderful books on communicating effectively for peaceful relationships.
  2.  Shazi claims she is 'just your average girl from Australia who likes to write', Shazzi writes and illustrates and you can enjoy her work right here on her website http://shaziwriting.wordpress.com/2014/03/05/questionaire-blog-tour/
   3.  Wendy Coyle  http://www.rainbowsandrain.com.au/index.html   Wendy is a mum of three strapping boys who made the country change in 2010 with her hubby. She has had two books published and has more in the works. Some boy adventures which I am looking forward to seeing in print.

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

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