Seven things about my writing process - as done by melliyna and avon7.

1. My first drafts consist of getting all the plot onto the page as fast as possible before I forget it. Sometimes when I go back and read it, I don't even know what I meant.

2. I do many drafts. I've got into the habit of keeping them all now, in case I change my mind and want to go back to an earlier version. Generally it starts with first draft, then a re-write, then onto the editing. And yes, there is a vast difference between re-writing and editing.

3. I have very little visual memory and I rarely see stuff in my head. It means that I'm quite happy not to read description and I do quite happily skip entire paragraphs when I'm reading because I just don't care what stuff looks like. I'm also quite happy not to write description, but I can't get away with that. My editing stage mostly consists of adding description and taking a load of rubbish out. Which you'd think would make the edit shorter, but no, it makes it longer.

4. I do tend to write a lot of stuff with only two people in. I don't know why. I think it's partly because I get lost with more than two people in a scene, although I suppose that's just lack of practice. I think mostly it's because what I'm most interested in, when I'm writing, is the relationship between those two people.

5. I find that writing to a deadline tends to get me to actually sit down and write. Otherwise I find much more interesting things to do than writing.

6. Most things I write I think about beforehand. Sometimes for a long time, usually in bed when I'm trying to sleep, or at weekends when I can lie there for a while, thinking. Sometimes when I write the first draft I have to stop and think about what the characters are going to say, then write it. Generally I'll write some sort of plot down, based on what's in my head, in case I forget it. Sometimes I don't think about it for ages, pull my plot description out, and then I remember it all again.

7. I find writing long things hard - perhaps because exploring the relationship between two characters doesn't involve much plot. My natural length seems to have ended up being around 1500-3000 words these days.

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