Picking up the #mywritingprocess tour, having been so graciously tagged by Kathy Schiffer (whose writing I enjoy immensely).
1. WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON?
Currently on my desk:
- Edits for a retreat I wrote this winter, to get rid of the typos and make it all-audiences. [I’ve done the rewrite and the forward edit, and am part way through the backwards edit.]
- Workbook for the French class I’m supposed to be teaching this fall. [All in my head still, but I have the general outline of the class, because it will follow along with the book the older-grades students are using.]
- Workbook for the Latin class I’m supposed to be teaching this fall. [A few notes typed up, need to lay out the overall plan in a spreadsheet, then get at least Year 1 written, and then beg my favorite Latin-singing musicians to record companion MP3’s this summer.]
- A novel series. Alternative history I think is the genre. There’s an accountant in it.
- The homeschooling book – sitting on ice, because — I am not making this up, it is not an excuse — I think I need a little more time before I get back to writing. Get the boy through high school, live a little more, all that.
- Bloggy blog blog blog stuff. Here, there, and everywhere, per my usual haunts.
2. WHAT MAKES YOUR WORK DIFFERENT FROM OTHERS’ WORK IN THE SAME GENRE?
I tend to bridge the gap between smart people and normal people.
3. WHY DO YOU WRITE WHAT YOU DO?
Non-fiction books: I wanted the book but I couldn’t find it to buy it.
Catholic Blogging: It was either this or drive the family crazy with my ranting and raving. For more on why I blog and how I got into it, here’s my interview at CatholicMom.com.
Fiction: I just like to write stories.
4. HOW DOES YOUR WRITING PROCESS WORK?
Non-fiction books: Identify a need. Compose in my head. If there is procrastinating to do, write the interesting parts instead of doing what must be done now. Then, to finish, wait until the last minute and write frantically to get it all done in time.
Blogging: Basically the same as books. Rant-o-Rama = Tool for avoiding other work. Scheduled columns = Work in the garden until the column is due, then write frantically.
Fiction: Run away, hide, go have fun. (Hence my failure to get to the “published” part of fiction, because that requires work.)
For all work: Compose in my head while doing other stuff (laundry, mostly), then sit down and write when I get a chance.
***
That was fun. Tagging Sarah Reinhard, who is the person who knows my writing process best. Go visit her blog to see a fantabulous writer at work, and learn her writing secrets as soon as she takes up the pen and reveals all.
Artwork: The Evangelists’ portraits in the Gospels of Smbat, circa 1260, via Wikimedia [Public Domain]
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