Back-Edits & Brain Weasels: A Brief Look at My Writing Process

Recently, someone was asking me about my writing process. More specifically, they asked me what my draft to done process looks like. Well, I just finished a 5,000-word freelance piece, and I think it’s a good example of what my meandering path to a done(ish) story looks like. This story took me roughly five working days to write (not counting outlining). Now, “days” in this example are not necessarily contiguous and they more represent blocks of working time I fit around other projects than complete eight-hour sessions. So, with that in mind, let’s dive in.

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Day One – 1,500 words

Working off a detailed outline, I got off to a good start and wrote the first scene and a half 0n the story (it’s a total of four scenes). I did not back edit. I rarely do, and there’s a reason for this. If I read through text I just wrote, I will absolutely fucking hate it, and it’ll bum me out the rest of the day. I don’t know why that is, but it’s just how my brain works, and in order for me to produce publishable material, I generally need to let new text sit a while before I come back to it.

Day Two – Editing and 750 words

On the second day, I went back and cleaned up the first 1,500 words. They were a tad messy, but I didn’t feel the absolute loathing I would have if I’d tried to edit immediately after writing them. I tightened, polished, and rewrote where appropriate, and then banged out another 750 words, bringing me roughly to the halfway point in the story.

Day Three – 1,000 words

For whatever reason, my confidence in my ability to write compelling fiction was flagging on day three (OCD brain weasels have joined the chat), so I avoided the back edit and simply plowed ahead with the rest of the story. It was tough going, and this was one of those days where I really, really did not want to write, but I have a deadline, and I have learned over the years that just because I think I’m writing absolute dog shit does not mean I actually am. I managed 1,000 words and finished the third scene. I did not back edit because in he state of mind I was in, I might have deleted the entire story in a fit of writerly pique. 🙂

Day Four – Editing and 2000 words

Easily the best writing day of the bunch. I started by back editing everything I’d written thus far, tightening and polishing, and then I banged out the rest of the story in one frenzied session of keyboard pounding. After that two-thousand-word burst, I was feeling pretty good, so I broke with tradition and went back over what I’d written. Might have been a mistake because I kinda hated everything. That said, I knew this was just another brain weasel talking, so I finished the back edit, took a breath, and reveled in doneness. (Well, almost).

Day Five – Final polish and turnover

This morning, I set to work polishing the entire 5,000-word story. I was in a good mood, and I felt what I’d written was not just decent, but like actually good. I managed to improve some scenes by expanding dialogue and tightening or removing exposition and the like. After the initial polish, I hit the spell check, which, for freelance in this IP, is not only about catching run-of-the-mill typos and whatnot, but also about giving me an opportunity to make sure all the made-up fantasy words are spelled correctly and consistently. For example, words like necomechanika, helljack, necrotech, Wraithbinder, and so on, are always gonna pop as misspelled, giving me a chance to make sure I’ve got them correct and even add them to the dictionary where appropriate.

The story I turned over came in at around 4,900 words that I think are pretty good. Now, once the publisher has had a chance to review the story, there will be revisions, but I think we’re starting from a good place.

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So that’s my writing process in a nut shell. Even though this is a freelance piece, when I draft my own stories and novels, it looks pretty much the same. For example, I generally do not back edit the same day, and I tend to carve up projects into blocks of working time that can range from an hour to four hours and from 500 words to 3,000. I can draft faster, of course, and sometimes I do, but four writing days for a 5,000-word short story is solid, especially if I’m hitting my deadlines, which I always do.

Thoughts on my writing process? Care to share your own? Tell me about it in the comments.