My Way

Last week I finished the first draft of my category romance.  Hooray!  According to Stephen King's On Writing he advises to stash away the draft for six weeks, not to touch one word, a comma or anything else.  Since he's Stephen King, I'm following his advice and letting my mental batteries recharge.  Before I waited at least a couple of weeks but during that time, I  tweaked a scene or added one.  I never gave my eye to freshen for my work.  Not anymore, I'm a convert and it's wonderful.

My TBR pile is shrinking from a shaking beanstalk to a manageable size that won't collapse on top of me.  I'm catching up on my favorite TV shows I recorded.  It's like rediscovering the outside world.  The greatest part is feeling the surge of writing energy building.  For me, this humming starts beneath my muscles and in the depths of my core and spreads to the tips of my toes and fingers.  Slowly, this force builds until it vibrates through me. My skin tingles from it and never lets me rest.  My mind comes alive with scenes, characters, dialogue, and anything and everything to do with my new work.  It percolates until a moment when I have to sit down at my computer and let the energy transform into a novel.

Right now, the hum shakes through me.  Even as I'm writing this, my leg is jiggling from the restless power.  I'm still at the beginning stages where my characters are starting to form and breathe in life.  The story is thickening and soon I'll write it.

Once that's finished, I'll pull out my waiting work.  I'll blow of the figurative dust and bring out my pens and start my revisions while another work slumbers and the mind is refreshing and the eye is new so that draft can be tweaked, rewritten, polished and everything else. I like always having something to work on. My way propels me forward like a rolling stone and never lets my writing collect moss.

That's my process.  It works for me but I'm always searching for new ways that might improve it.  What's your process?  Do you have any advice to share?