Being A Discovery Writer

I only recently discovered the term ‘Discovery Writer’ for my style of writing, to be honest. A discovery writer is someone who writes as they develop the story, unlike an organized writer who first plots the story out and then writes it (perhaps even to the extent suggested in “First Draft in 30 Days”).

It’s not that I can’t plot. I have to, for my stories. Especially Inez and Tom, who will join the list of my published books in August, demand a lot of plotting, since they are jewel thieves and do heists together. Something similar can be said for the Black Knight Agency series, since Steven isn’t referring to himself as a ‘criminal mastermind’ there without reason.

What I can’t do, is sit down and plot out the whole story, scene by scene, before I write it. Oh, I certainly can do that, but if I do, I won’t be able to write the story. I need the thrill of writing blind, of finding out what happens while I’m in the story. I need to discover the story while I write it, hence the whole ‘Discovery Writer’ thing.

The good thing about being a discovery writer is that writing is fun, because you discover new things while you write. The bad thing about being a discovery writer is that you have to do a lot of editing afterwards. You will always have some logical mistakes and some content problems which need to be taken care of.

 It’s not a choice, though, you either are a discovery writer or you’re not. I tried my best to plot and plan and prepare a whole story before writing it. It didn’t work, I couldn’t finish the story. By now I have split it up and will work on it again, but with less prepared content.

What I do, however, is do a little preparation beforehand. That works for me.

When I start a new novella, I put down eight chapters (there might be more eventually) and add a line to every chapter about what I think it will be about. When I start a new novel, I put down twenty chapters (because 20x3,000 is 60,000, the minimum word count for a novel) and add a line to every chapter about what I think it will be about.

It’s not set in stone, of course. I often move those lines while writing, because I know I have to put something else in first, because I think the scenes will do better elsewhere in the story, or because I have realized the scenes will not fit and need to be removed. It’s just a very bare-bone map of the unknown territory I’m about to walk into.

While I’m working on a story, I usually do a chapter per day (that’s roundabout 3,000 words for a novel and 2,500 for a novella, since I try to keep my chapters at a similar length). On some days, I manage two chapters and, very rarely, I even manage three. It depends a lot on how much I know about the part of the story I’m writing. If I’ve already turned the content over in my head a lot, if I’ve played out the scenes several times already, I can write a chapter quickly, then two or even three are perfectly possible. If I’m stepping out of such an area, into the unknown, only aware of where the story as a such is going, I rarely get more than one chapter out.

Some days, I have to admit defeat and accept there’s not going to be a chapter that day. In such a case, I go for a walk, read, play a computer game, or watch TV or DVDs. I fill up my reserves and just allow my subconscious to do its work. Sooner or later, I will be ready to continue.

Perhaps because of this strategy, I haven’t encountered a really, really strong writer’s block in years. When I get a small one, there’s several strategies I employ.

The first is filling up my reserves by consuming media instead of creating it. I love reading and can read one to two books a day (provided they’re not 1,000+ pages books). I enjoy watching series and movies, both on TV or on DVD (or iTunes, where I also have a lot of podcasts I watch or listen to). I play computer games a lot, both the casual variety and the more ‘serious’ stuff (currently, as I write this, “Parker & Lane” was my last casual purchase and the “Jungle Adventures” game pack for Sims 4 was my last serious one, but I also played a lot of “Subnautica” those last few weeks). And I like going for walks, because sooner or later my head will start thinking up new stuff, new scenes which can come in handy, either immediately or over time.

The second is to turn to another story and leave the one I have problems with to its own devices for the moment. That might mean writing a short novella (like my erotica or, recently, an “Artemis Fowl” fan-fiction while I was fighting with the end of “Grave Diggers”). I usually have other projects somewhere as well, novellas or novels which are not yet finished. I try not to let my novels lie for too long, but some novellas (like “Hungry House,” the third Swenson & Carter novella) have been sitting on my HD for ages. They are projects to turn to when I can’t work on my main project because of a writer’s block.

I also remind myself regularly of the fact that a writer’s block has a lot to do with feeling like you’re not ‘good enough’ a writer and I exorcise that feeling as soon as I catch it. By now, being my own editor and proofreader, I have learned that there is a huge difference between the first draft you write to get the story on the pages and the finished product you allow others to read. All the bad writing has to go somewhere, I tell myself in such cases, and I will do the edit eventually and get it off the pages again.

I really don’t like the editing process, because it’s tedious and long, but I know it’s necessary, so I do it. I set a whole month aside for the editing process, going over the first draft several times. First, I look for the logic of the story and see if everything fits together. That usually means rewriting some parts, changing dialogue and scenes. Afterwards, I read the story out aloud several times to catch ‘bad writing’ (or, rather, bad phrasing) and all kinds of typing and grammar errors. I make a principle out of never editing immediately after I have finished a story, no matter how short or long it is. I need some distance from the story, so I can see it more clearly and work on it with less emotional attachment.

During that month, I usually also do my cover these days, because, sadly, my cover artist died last October. He left me a file to work with, thankfully, and it’s not too hard for me to do the covers, as long as I stay with his design. That doesn’t mean I don’t curse a lot - I’m a good writer, not a good designer.

I am a discovery writer and I have learned to embrace what comes with it, the good sides as well as the bad ones. I wouldn’t want it any other way, because I do enjoy the adventure of writing and am glad it doesn’t feel like work to me. For this, I accept the hard work of editing and proofreading.