The No-Process Process

Ah, the writing process. It’s one of those things shrouded in mystery, like the meaning of life or whether we’re supposed to tuck our pant legs into our boots. It’s also one of the questions I’m most frequently asked by readers at signing events, right after “Where do you get your ideas?” and “Didn’t you say there would be snacks?”

I can understand the curiosity. After all, a lot of airtime has been given to how writers write. Blog posts. How-to lists. Books. Even movies and television illustrate The Writer’s Process (initial caps intentional), which usually involves chin-stroking, far away looks, and paper being crumpled into balls then tossed into garbage bins that look as if they’d just been purchased at Target.

All of this attention has elevated the act of writing to a level I can scarcely hope to attain—especially since I’m a strict devotee to my signature No-Process Writing Process. (Which I intend to trademark and turn into a 10-part video series. Kidding. Unless you think it’s a good idea and then I’m totally doing it.).

I have a number of authors in my life, and many—if not most—adhere to some sort of writing ritual. Some light candles. Others have a music play list. Still others meditate or engage in writing exercises like character studies or backstories.

I admire their methods—am downright jealous of their organization and dedication, if I’m honest about it. Me? Let’s just say my writing process looks a lot like my filing process.

My life is busy bordering on chaotic. I have a non-author job along with my author gig, as well as a family that includes a loving husband, a teenager, and a pre-teen. Most days I find myself shuttling children to school and activities, sprinting from one job to another, doing laundry, and making dinner.  

By the way, this is what constitutes “making dinner” at our house. It’s more like…assembling.

While my organized author friends respond to these challenges by rising before dawn, doing hot yoga, then penning 3,000 words, I…um…don’t.

I write when and where I can. In bed. On the couch. Before school. While the kids are playing a board game. In fact, I’m writing this article during my daughter’s hip hop class. (They’re doing a great little number to Cardi B. I’m pretty sure the version they’re dancing to is NOT the version I’ve heard elsewhere.)

This isn’t to say my no-process process is simply the result of busy-ness (I think it’s also a product of me-ness), or that I write without a strategy.  The truth is, I’m big on plans, a plotter through and through.

Every book in the Maggie O’Malley Mystery Series, including just released As Directed, began as an outline. Not just a few pages headed by a smattering of Roman numerals. I’m talking an outline outline that runs 30-40 pages. This document becomes my roadmap not only for the overall plot, but for red herrings, wrong turns, subplots and character arcs, and is absolutely essential to the creation of each book.

This need for putting bumpers around the development of my books was born from my career as an advertising copywriter. In AdWorld, we read the creative brief, we meet, we create.

It’s the same for me with novel-writing. Except that it isn’t. As much as I crave the discipline of a concerted approach, a prescribed effort, when it comes to the act of writing versus the work of outlining, I go off script. For me, writing is freeform. Fluid. Something that happens according to my mood and the ebb and flow of my life.

This haphazard approach to writing seems to be working. At least for me. At least for now. I put pen to paper, fingers to keyboard. I cobble together nouns and verbs, people and places, events and emotions. I do whatever it takes to meet the word count goals that keep me headed toward The End and the story I set out to tell.

Yes, it’s a messy, frenzied, muddled, imperfect approach. And maybe that’s the point. My protagonist, Maggie O’Malley, is herself imperfect. Maybe her character fuels my work. Maybe I draw inspiration from her spirit. Maybe I’m method-writing.

Or maybe this is just how I’m built.

In any case, no matter how much I pine for a beautiful, Instagram-worthy process or the comfort of ritual and rite, I don’t see my writing habits changing. I love my books. I’m incredibly grateful that readers feel the same way.

This reluctance to change is an attitude I’d file under If It’s Not Broken—Well, You Know. Speaking of filing, I probably won’t change my stellar record-keeping approach, either.

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About As Directed

In the shadow of a past fraught with danger and tainted by loss, former pharmaceutical researcher Maggie O’Malley is rebuilding her life, trading test tubes for pill bottles as she embarks on a new career at the corner drugstore. But as she spreads her wings, things begin to go terribly wrong. A customer falls ill in the store. Followed by another. And then more. The specter of poisoning arises, conjuring old grudges, past sins, buried secrets and new suspicions from which no one is immune. As Maggie and her best friend Constantine begin to investigate, they discover that some of the deadliest doses come from the most unexpected places.

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About the Author

Kathleen Valenti is the author of the Maggie O’Malley Mystery Series, which includes her Agatha- and Lefty-nominated debut novel, Protocol. When Kathleen isn’t writing page-turning mysteries that combine humor and suspense, she works as a nationally award-winning advertising copywriter. She lives in Oregon with her family where she pretends to enjoy running. Learn more at www.kathleenvalenti.com.

 

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Category: Contemporary Women Writers, How To and Tips