Writing Process

Writing Process. 

Everyone has one.

Some writers are fantastically organized, with meticulous plotting, spreadsheets galore, a fabulous title, months of research at their fingertips. Plonk them in a seat and they can emerge six hours later with five thousand quality words.

Others are ‘pants-ers’, going with the flow, waiting for those moments of inspiration to hit, happy to see the different pieces fit together, like a quilt sewn of patches.

Others of us are a mix, finding benefit from structure (or at least an idea of what the end might look like!), whilst seeing the positives of keeping things a little ‘loose’ as our characters come to life and beg to say something other than what was planned.

I’ve written eight novels now, and find my writing process varies. Some projects have been amazingly straightforward (strangely enough, these tend to be NaNoWriMo projects). Other stories have proved amazingly coy, resulting in twiddling of thumbs amidst mild panic.

The story that wrote fastest (and I think was one of the best!) was a NaNo project, written only a few weeks after I’d finished the main character’s sister’s story. This meant I had a great grasp on storyworld, and together with a few weeks dreaming and planning (‘stewing’ I like to call it), meant I had both a basic chapter outline and whole scenes ready to roll when the time came to ‘piece’ it into my story. I could write fast, leaving asterisks for the tricky research questions I hadn’t been able to learn prior to commencing, like whether vermilion really was a colour accessible to the average amateur artist in 1819 England. (Yes, is the answer, though it was both toxic and expensive!) 

I recently started another project, typing up my first chapter from a burst of scribbled inspiration, typing with a smile as I'm thinking how fun it is to begin something new, with all the possibilities ahead. I enjoy the start. Most of the time I enjoy writing the middle, even if it feels like I'm slapping words out I just know will need editing later. There's something exciting about seeing strands of storyline weave together, sometimes in surprising ways, resulting in prayers of thankfulness as it seems the story has been shaped by a hand far greater than mine. I even enjoy mining those wells of emotion, tears trickling down my cheeks as I draw on experiences of pain or loss, seeing true things transformed to a greater truth. Writing as catharsis. Writing that heals. Writing that offers hope.

When I think about my writing process, I realise I usually enjoy the editing, too: tweaking words, culling repetitions, going for a(nother) cup of tea as I mull over phrasing, often aloud, which make me very glad when I've got the house to myself! And then there's rereading, where sometimes I'm taken by surprise by what I've written, and I'm brought to tears - in a good way! Moments of gold in the sometimes painful journey of bringing what once were vague stirrings of an idea into something tangible and real.

Over to you. What’s your writing process? What's your favourite part about writing? 

Carolyn Miller lives in the beautiful Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia, with her husband and four children. A longtime lover of romance, especially that of the Regency era, Carolyn holds a BA in English Literature, and loves drawing readers into fictional worlds that show the truth of God’s grace in our lives. Her Regency novel 'The Elusive Miss Ellison' will be published in the US by Kregel in February 2017. She is represented by Tamela Hancock Murray of the Steve Laube Agency.

Connect with her:    www.carolynmiller.org    

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STELLA - my mum ( and book offer )

I want to celebrate Stella Violet Kinnear, my darling mum, on Mother's Day. She is now with the Lord but still remains in my heart.

Did I receive my writing abilities from her? No. Stella was one of those active on-the-go wives and mothers who didn't have all that much time for reading. But she soon realized I loved reading and encouraged me.

Her mother, Beatrice, was a real dreamer and always to be found with her nose in a book. Oh, yes many a time wisps of smoke came from the kitchen where a nice dinner was sacrificed to the arts. Thinking back, I wonder why my mum didn't resent that and make sure her daughter would follow a more practical turn of mind.

Stella was also an artist (from her father, Harrie Mackie Kinnear, a Scot.) It came to the fore when, during the Second World War with Dad in the RAAF, money was scarce. She hand made jewelry from bread! Beautiful little flowers coloured and baked in the oven. She also designed patterns for Patons Knitting Company and I was the recipient of lovely little jumpers, cardigans and hats. All this was enough to make a deposit on a small house.

By that time she'd become a savvy business woman and some years later she sent me to art school and began a ceramics studio in our backyard named Gymea Pottery. Dad cast various shapes of clay, and we two women decorated it with Aboriginal Art and Australian flowers and fauna. Then it would be fired to the bisque state, glazed and fired again to 1,000 degrees Centigrade. It was a real hit with American business folk who were involved in the Kurnell Oil Refineries at the time. Many would come to buy and ask about the stories behind each piece. I loved telling those stories!

But similar to the book business today, the markets became flooded. How could we compete with cheap pottery from China? Never mind that it wasn't authentic Australian Art.  We closed up and gave the big kilns to Gymea Technical College. (They had the expense of hiring a crane and removing one of the walls.)

The full book cover

My darling mother was never able to read even one of my books, because she'd gone before they were published. Oh, that still hurts me, because in her later years, she too had taken up reading. But there's a lot of my life with her and Nan among the Aboriginal folk in my first book, Fire in the Rock. All changed of course in its fictional sense. And now my new book, The Tie That Binds, is a stand-alone, but it follows on from Signed Sealed Delivered.  I became aware that the heroine's longing to find her mother is a part of my longing for my mum who has gone to be with her Lord.

It's hook and theme is: Everything can change in a heartbeat.  This statement has now become my brand and logo represented by the little open heart of  Rita Stella Press  soon to go online.

That is such a truism in all our lives. We are all just one heartbeat away from changed circumstances whatever they happen to be - wonderful or tragic. Is there any one of you who have been estranged from your mother? Please dear ones, change that situation before you'll have to live with regrets for the rest of your life.

BOOK OFFER: Can you share in a few sentences what your mother means to you? Either by her encouragement or her memory. If you leave your email - right up to Sunday night - I'll send a copy of Signed Sealed Delivered or Fire in the Rock - your choice, to those three that most touch my heart. Narelle to announce those chosen next week.

* Rita Stella Galieh has two historical romances published and been a contributor to several US nonfiction books. Now taking pre-orders for The Tie That Binds Email:  ritagal(at)optusnet(dot)com(dot)au

Coming next from Rita Stella Press:  A Parcel of Promises: Windsor Castle, mid 1800s. He is an aristocrat, she is in service. Do they dare cross this invisible barrier?