Tricia, as I said on your blog, it’s nice to see “you.”

But I don’t think it’s “mistakes” or “a waste of time” so much as it is a learning process; and although I wish I were faster, I’m enjoying trying to discover a process that works for me.

Also, what works as a process for one story or novel won’t necessarily work for the next one. I think the trick might be being open to all sorts of possibilities, while at the same time letting each experience teach us more about ourselves.

Of course, I do always tend to look on the bright side. : )

I wish I knew the discovery sooner. I kept revising and rewriting when I wasn’t done discovering the story. What a waste of time for me.

OMG, Robin, a link is up on Amazon for If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This to be released May 4, 2010!!! I just pre-ordered!

Ah hem, calming down…you know, that’s good to hear, that sometimes there is just not a direct route and that one is not doing anything “wrong” because it takes a long time.

Thanks, Robin, and congratulations!

Passion is the key ingredient for sure – and patience! For what it’s worth, in terms of things taking time, I have a collection coming out from Random House in the spring. It’s 10 stories, took me 8 years (EIGHT YEARS!!) to write and as recently as last month I was still editing/revising stories that were written 6 years ago and published five years ago. For some of us, it’s just a very, very slow process. And every time I have tried to rush it, that’s backfired. The work either suffers or just grinds to a halt.
And boy do I envy the fast writers – but there’s just no way I can do it.

Hi Stephen, oh yes, passion. It’s definitely what keeps me going–word after word after word.

Regarding process, did you see Robin Black’s comment to this post? I think her analogy of the writing process to a photographer moving around the subject is an enlightening way to look at discovering the story.

I think for me, in the past, I haven’t spent enough time discovering the story before I began polishing the words. I’m hoping a little more time on the front end might reduce the time on the back end.

Anyway, it is a process, isn’t it? Nice to hear from you again.

Robin, I love this analogy of a writer catching the story as a photographer does a photograph. Setting up those big foil reflectors, taking a few shots, then moving to a different spot and trying a few more.

There was absolutely no forcing the light, only catching it – and that was only going to happen with the utmost attentiveness and flexibility on her part.

I’ve been thinking about your analogy since you made this comment, and although I’ve yet to have time to work anymore on the story, looking at writing in this way seems to have opened something up for me. Not only is the photographer’s dance a lovely image, but it makes far more sense to me as a process than just assuming my first words are going to give me the best take on the story. It also gives value and meaning to the shots from each spot and in all different types of light.

Although it is all about what works for each person, since I have yet to find a process that I feel comfortable with, I’m very excited about looking at writing in this way. Thank you.

Emily, the new-story-a-week-for-ten-weeks thing was planned–to get our creative juices flowing. I had been working on my first novel for a while and some older stories. And I wondered what stories I had that might be trapped inside trying to find their way out. We got the idea from Stephen Dobyns, who began with sixty first sentences and ended up with a collection of stories.

Yes, I was conscious of the danger of looking too closely at process, and yet never having done it before, I was curious to step outside myself and look back.

Your design class sounds fascinating. I can see how in teaching it, you need to be able to put into words things you do without even thinking, maybe even things you don’t realize you’re doing. Hopefully, you can step outside your process to study it and then step back inside to design. I’ll be interested to hear how it goes. Will you post about the class on The Family Trunk Project?