What is my writing process

Someone asked me, "So what is your writing process? Do you just start writing and hope for the best?" The answer for me is yes...and no.

It happened again last month. I had another dream that was begging to become a book. I thought it was so far fetched and I didn't think I could pull it off. The following night, my dream continued. I assume because I was really thinking about it and it was in my subconscious. But the dream took the characters to a new place and the relationships developed. Now I had something more concrete.

I wrote down the key points to my dreams, the characters involved and the places they were. I sat at my computer and started to write.

Now, I started out trying to do it in "order" of the events that were happening. I tried to develop my characters. I hit a plateau. I couldn't get into it. I wasn't sure how to make these characters interesting. So I changed my approach.

I wrote out the parts from my dreams first. Then I wrote the scenes I thought of while in the shower or before bed. I jumped from the beginning, to a middle, to almost end, back to the middle. These scenes brought my characters to life. Now I am ready to fill in the gaps and add scenes that I think of, and put it all together.

In doing it this way, I am falling in love with my characters. The people that they have become and now the people they are becoming. I essentially am getting to know them backwards, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Have you ever watched a show and became so invested in the characters that they feel like your friends? I watched a show once that ended. They did a reboot of the show where it continued with the same actors and charaters. I felt like they were friends I hadn't seen in a long time and missed them. It was so good to "see" them again. That is how writing is for me. Everytime I sit down at my computer to start writing, I feel like I am visiting with them again. I miss them when I am gone and am happy to see them again when I start writing.

I hope that in The Cavern, and my future books (this one I just started is my third now), you will grow to love my "friends" as much as I do!!