WRITING - The Process
- write825
- Aug 11, 2023
- 4 min read
Updated: Mar 24, 2024
My childhood friend Aparna Ganguly recently visited our native town. Fortunately, I have been in the city pertaining to continued work-from-home working modality, post-pandemic. Aparna is the Director of Digital Marketing at Rhombus Power Inc. and the author of digital books like Belief and Bits and Pieces. Being the most social and amiable person she is, Apu (as I dearly call her) made plans to meet with all of our childhood friends in town. It was by the virtue of her intentions, that I rekindled with Anijit, a dear friend of ours since school after two long decades. Anijit is an entrepreneur and motorcycle enthusiast.
As we rewired our experiences through the years, we found out about our mutual passion for writing. All three of us write and appreciate the art of expression. I quizzed both Apu and Anijit about their process of writing and as it appears, consciously or subconsciously we commit to fairly common phases to complete our projects. Yet, every writer has their process and it is also far-fetched to recommend what could promote creativity or better writing for another individual.
Speaking of a few literary legends of our times, Margaret Atwood the author of The Handmaid’s Tale, said that she tends to handwrite her drafts because that is how she gets the best flow from the brain, to hand, to the page. I have to mention that I too subscribe to the pen and paper medium. Dan Brown, the author of The Da Vinci Code asserted that he gets from the sleep state – to the dream state – to his desk, as fast as possible. The “King of Horror” and author of the iconic mystery “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption”, Stephen King claim to live a different reality for four hours every day, while the remaining twenty hours may be the same as anyone else. King says, that if anyone ever asked him how that happens or why, he will probably have to say that it is as much a mystery for him as anyone else. Fascinatingly enough, both Stephen King and J.K Rowling the author of the much-loved series Harry Potter have proclaimed their tendency to listen to music while they write and that is something I endorse as well.
Now speaking of the routine of writing, possibly every writer devotes to the phases of pre-work, work and post-work. Nevertheless, an individual can customize and catalogue these levels to suit their system. An article published back in August 2021, by Masterclass categorized the process of writing into six stages –
1. Pre-Writing
2. Planning
3. Drafting
4. Revising
5. Editing and
6. Publishing
While I conform to the detailed process, I believe that Pre-writing and Planning are significantly different proposals.
Pre-writing involves gathering ideas, researching, and brainstorming. I maintain a Brain Dump section in my daily journal, where I write down any idea, I find interesting or subject matter I find relevant to my ideas. Usually, such content is a rendition of discussions I have with people, reading books and watching movies. It is very important to develop a habit of writing down details that have captured our attention. Likewise, Planning entails sketching an outline and I find it helpful to have a roadmap. It allows me to be in control of the narrative. Apu as I reckon, is more of a panster than a plotter, she advises that it allows her the freedom to remain imaginative with her writing.
Intuitively, the other four stages are more or less generic to every writer. Drafting necessitates getting to the end of the canvas from the inception of the recital. My first draft is handwritten content, which I formulate without any focus on keeping the pages clean. The sheets are full of cut-through words, circles, arrows, and caret signs (for missing words), denoting edits. There is comfort in knowing that no one is ever going to see my notebook. I have tried to write straight in a digital medium and realized that my brain empathizes more with a pen than a keyboard. Once I have finished writing on a paper, I transfer the content to a cyber document. As attested by the Masterclass article, this is known as the “rolling barrage” method and many writers authorize this approach, as it helps in sustaining the originality of the text. At the same it, the series helps create a second draft and transition to the stage of Revising. Identifying dissemination of information, repetition of words, over-written segments, and frequent use of adjectives happens organically and Editing takes its course.
Personally, I recommend reading the uncut script, that way one gets to ascertain areas that would require rephrasing or reworking. Occasionally, I avoid reading the draft for a few days, so I can read it with a fresh perspective and retouch the work to minimize any drag or distraction. It is true that any journal never feels complete and a writer never reaches a place, where they feel like they cannot fine-tune the composition further. It also happens so, that an author may be conflicted between more and less and they may lean on someone to share their neutral opinion. As a matter of fact, before publishing this particular article, I sought Apu's impression relating to the integrity of the essay and it was on her advice that I agreed to magnify the four stages of writing i.e., Drafting to Publishing, which otherwise I thought were self-evident. Nonetheless, elaborating on the phases brings completeness and serves the reader better.
Conclusively, today we have the option to self-publish, unlike the older times when the only way was to sell a book to a publisher. Both procedures come with their pros and cons. Publishing houses usually employ editors, proof readers, and illustrators, and these undertakings will need to be retained by an author if they choose to self-publish. Cost and audience are also important aspects to factor in while making a choice.
Beyond the whole shebang, developing a routine and formulating constant practice to keep evolving as a writer is fundamental.
Comments