Most of my writing looks like this. I spend a lot of time thinking, and whether I’m writing a speech, a short story, or a poem, I have a strong sense of how it will go before I hit the keyboard.
I could be in my studio, or here, you see me here, in my library. I’m comfortable, relaxed in all ways, and focused. In this case, it was late at night, and the world was asleep. I was working on a wedding speech that I mentioned in an earlier post.
It doesn’t always look like this. Sometimes, I go for a walk. Or, I turn on some music and sing along. It doesn’t look like I’m thinking about writing, but I am most of the time.
Let’s think about how to write before we write.
One of the things I’m doing is outlining. No matter what sort of writing it is, structure is everything. You can’t take someone from A to Z without having a sense of where A and Z are. And what about those letters B through Y? How do they fit into what I’m writing?
So much of writing is about process. Whether a writer can articulate their process or not, they have one. Successful writers are focused and pay attention to the details.
At every step of the way, there is problem solving. What should the general feeling be? What needs to be said? What can be left out? In the case of a wedding speech, which stories need to be fleshed out? Who needs to be mentioned? In the case of fiction, will the story be plot-driven or character-driven, or something else? Is there a single protagonist or a group? What kind of symbolism is involved? Poems are similar in that way, but special attention needs to be paid to the form. Should it be a sonnet? A villanelle? A limerick?
Other challenges arise, particularly in fiction. If I’m writing a story that starts in a cafe, what kind of cafe? Part of a chain with a corporate feel? One of those hipster places where the baristas have grungy beards using beard oil? Would it be better at a tea house? In a big city or a small town? How populated is the cafe at the moment of a particular scene? Who are the non-playing characters, so to speak? What demographic? Are there other incidental scenes you want to describe, like a barista grinding espresso or a customer spilling her drink?
If I were writing Superman, do I need to explain the physics of why he can fly and do the other extraordinary things? If I were writing Iron Man, do I need to explain how he’s able to build so many suits so fast? Batman has a similar problem: how is he able to build so many gadgets all by himself? As you can imagine, questions get more complex than this.
That’s why prewriting planning is important. Other questions will come up as you write, but this will save you a lot of anxiety and rewriting. So, come on, let’s think.