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For this Back to Basics mini-course, we’re talking about your writing process. Each Back to Basics course includes a challenge at the end to help you experiment. Let’s look at the basics.
Processes are everything. We have rules and systems and routines; they can help us tremendously in our everyday life. They help us with our writing too. Everyone has a way they go about creative writing, and that’s what makes it so fun. There’s lots of ways to create a story: lots of different components and concepts, many of which we've covered in previous Back to Basics courses. But we’ll also get a little more meta here. In this Back to Basics course, we’ll talk about writing processes.
Architects
When it comes to processes, there’s different ways to go about preparing for your story. Some writers really like to know where the story is going before they put pen to paper. These writers are called architects (or "planners"). Architects like outlines for their stories.
Think of outlines like blueprints: they can be pretty detailed, filled with chapter-by-chapter breakdowns, maybe notes about characters themselves, stuff like that. They’re plans, guides for you to take your story in the right direction. Being an architect can have advantages because, by planning out your story in advance, you can make sure that there aren’t any surprises that’ll throw off your plot or create a hole. You’ll have an intimate understanding of your plot and characters, and that in turn will lead to stronger writing. It’ll be easier to avoid contradicting yourself and getting into plot holes since you’ll have everything pretty much ironed out from the start.
Gardeners
But what if you’re not a devil for the details? Gardeners ("pantsers") are the more spontaneous type: they'll usually have an idea for a story and that’s really it, the rest they find out on the page. It might sound bold and risky, and that’s definitely true, but it’s also fun.
Finding out how the story will play out as you’re writing it is a unique experience, to say the least. In a way it can have its own advantages. You don’t need to worry about meticulously setting something up in chapter 4 so it’ll be paid off in chapter 10. You can just write as you go and find the connections organically. Gardeners like to get to the action rather than wait for it. Instead of spending days or weeks or months... or however long it is to prepare for writing, you can just cut to the chase and go straight for the fun.
Editor's Note: Even though "gardener" is what people call this, I disagree with using this term for this purpose. For anyone who's ever gardened before, you know it requires a lot of planning, preparation, and organization, much like with outlining a story in advance. Gardeners need to know how far apart to space their seeds, how to prepare the soil, which seeds grow well together and which to keep apart, when to sow, and when to harvest. It's hardly a "throw it at the wall and see what sticks" hobby but alas, "gardener" is the popular term for pantsers regardless of how factually inaccurate it is. —Theresa
The Inbetweeners (no, not the show)
You might ask yourself if you’re an architect or a gardener and have aspects of both. Maybe you’re neither.
Chances are, no one is ever really one hundred percent an architect or a gardener. I resonate strongly with architects. I love planning and making outlines. They’re fun for me, and getting to think deeply about what I want a story to be and what the characters represent is almost as exciting as actually doing the writing. But I also know that I have plot points—scratch that—entire story ideas that were crafted on a whim. I love outlining and I love roadmapping but damn it if I don’t get swept up in the moment too. And hey, that’s ok.
You can be a little bit of both. You can be someone who’s somewhere in the middle. Maybe you don’t have a detailed outline but you have a general idea of how you want the story to go. Maybe you write entirely on a whim but you jot down notes for big ideas that you end up thinking about. In the end, the only thing that matters is what works for you.
Additional resources:
A little bit about my own process
I’ve probably said the word ‘process’ a lot here, and it probably wouldn’t be fair to talk so much about it if it wasn’t something that was applicable to myself too. So, to put my money where my mouth is, I thought I’d share a little bit about my own process. At the start of 2024, I had a New Year’s Resolution to do more fiction writing. So, through hard work, determination, and a bunch of other cliché buzzwords that people say, I got a short story written in the summer. I’m currently trying to find a home for that short story, so I’ll spare the details of what it’s about.
What is worth mentioning though is my process. The process. Honestly? Just watching videos... mostly. More specifically, watching creative people talking about their own projects. I watched probably dozens of hours of creator interviews, podcasts, Hollywood Reporter roundtables, just videos discussing stories in general. Maybe that sounds a little underwhelming but to me it kind of highlights how there’s no wrong way to go about a writing process.
There’s just something about seeing and hearing people talk about what they’re writing and the angles in which they’re approaching their stories that gets me extremely excited. I didn’t even really listen to book writers in particular, either. I saw videos that featured tv showrunners, screenwriters, comic book writers, people from all different areas of entertainment. Take Johnathan Nolan for example, he’s an accomplished screenwriter, director, producer, etc etc. He’s also Christopher Nolan’s younger brother. I perused through his work, a lot of it I was a fan of before even knowing who he was. I watched a lot of videos and listened to a lot of podcasts that he was a part of and I got to really understand how he works and goes about writing and creating.
My point here (if you can forgive my rambles) is that you don’t have to box yourself into the types of advice you can get. If you’re writing a novel, it doesn’t mean you can only listen to novelists talking about writing for all of eternity. And in my case as a short story writer, it didn’t mean I had to do that either. Watching videos of various people discussing writing really helped me get inspiration and hone in on what I wanted to do. The kind of passion you see from other storytellers can just be infectious. I actually finished writing my rough draft while watching one of these videos, too. This kind of unconventional multi-media approach worked for me, but it might not be what works for you. Not everyone wants to sift through longform video interviews to catch a high that might not actually be there for them, and that’s ok.
There’s really no wrong way to go about it.
The Challenge:
So let’s open up the floor on Discord because I want to hear from you.
For this challenge, share whether you’re either an architect, a gardener, or an inbetweener, and why you think so. I’d also like to hear about your writing process. If you don’t have one, no worries, talk about what you've tried and what kind of process you want to create for yourself.
Thanks for joining us for this Back to Basics course. A special thanks to Josie for helping me out with the research. If you tried this month’s challenge, you can share it on Discord or social media using #WWB2B. You can also send us your challenge for feedback as soon as possible, via dropbox on our Back to Basics page. Thank you and I will see you all next time!
About the authors: Izhan Arif is an English graduate from the University of Illinois, Chicago. His interests tend to revolve around all things superhero, whether it be comics, shows, or movies! He also loves to write (go figure) and when he's not working on Back to Basics, he's also writing videos for WatchMojo!
Josie Queen writes short stories in a variety of genres, but tends to gravitate towards horror. Her TBR pile is slowly taking over the small house she shares with her husband, 13-year-old, and their cranky 9-year-old cat. She's working on a rewrite of a middle-grade fantasy novel, but is so intent on procrastinating, she recently went and adopted a puppy.