Chapter Evolution (pt. 1)

This post went a little longer than I planned, so I divided into two parts.

About halfway through writing NYC, I had finally honed in a set process that I now do for every chapter I write. This and the next blog entry explains (hopefully with some clarity) that process.

In the beginning, there is just a summary of the chapter. As most of you know, I have already written a summary (about 4-8 sentences) describing what is happening in the chapter.

First off, before I even begin the actual writing, I'll read the summary a few times (mostly for refresher) and then think about it and what could be happening. This last from a couple days to a couple weeks. These are ideas for specific details that could happen or details I hadn't thought of when I originally wrote the summaries. Another note about this phase, I usually do this a few chapters out, so I'm generally thinking (and to a lesser extent, planning) a few chapters in advance.

Secondly, I'll research anything I need to. This begins just before actually writing and continues, as needed, until the chapter is done. This could be anything from a specific location (like Columbia University) or a general area (like Manhattan Island). Sometimes, I'll just hunt for pages that have a lot of information (on Wikipedia) and save the links for use later, when I'm actually writing and need to reference something specific.

Then, I'll actually set out to write the chapter. This takes as short as a few hours and as much as a couple of days, but I usually don't write any more than an hour or two at a time (since I have a full time job). During this part, I'm thinking in a lot more detail and I try to work in any of the new ideas/concepts/thoughts I had previously and what ever comes from them. If the writing goes over a couple days, I'll usually re-read what I had written and make revisions as necessary (which I know doesn't help me move too quickly, but it works for me and brings me up to speed as well).

This is also the part where I may go back and revise a previous chapter if needed due to something I came up with. So, the thinking/planning and writing phases occur throughout writing the entire book. For example, if I get an idea I like better or just feel a charactor needs a differant or new intro in a previous chapter then that gets done here.

After the new chapter is written, I'll go back through and correct any misspellings and grammatical errors. This is generally done in MS Word because it picks up a lot of grammar issues, most of which I ignore but some are needed. That is in contrast to actually writing the chapter, which is done in a text editor. This is because a text file is smaller in size (on the hard drive) and takes away the distraction (in Word) of cleaning it up and making it look pretty (formatting page widths, columns, page numbers, colors, etc). It's just the words and minimal distractions.

That's all for now. Part 2 will be posted in the next day or two.