Process of Swift’s writing:
Step 1: Wake up at desk to see the work done the night prior.
Step 2: Growl at the screen and caffeinate.
Step 3: Try to cudgel brain into remembering where I was going with the chapter.
Step 4: Ignore thoughts of self-doubt, turn on headphones, and start writing.
Step 5: Get twenty words down, be interrupted by family wanting to ask questions.
Step 6: Attempt to write throughout day, slowly feeling guilty for not handling chores until the domestic side kicks in.
Step 7: Try to write after everyone goes to bed.
Step 8: Pass out at desk.
Step 9: Repeat Step 1.
And that’s on an actual day off with no responsibilities that take me out of the house! Han approached me this morning to ask what I was working on and she was astounded when I said I had been working on this one story for almost two years.
Han: “Dad, why don’t you just write it down?”
Me, smiling: “Because you wanted to talk to me, and y’all are more important.”
But she did say she was going to leave me alone so I could get some progress. Considering that she’s 7, I’m betting that’ll last for about an hour…
After whittling away at the SWRPG novel a little more (that’s getting easier, as the outline for that one was discussed among the players and it’s a lot smoother to write), I keep working on Peregrine, especially since I’ve had to do some major restructuring in order to get the level of high science fiction I was wanting. A lot of that requires ‘homework’.
The best kind of homework: reading ‘classic’ sci-fi books to see how others had done it.
This is also just fueling my desire to read some of the older books, though I do keep going back to one of my favorite writers who writes in a way that I still can’t: John Scalzi.
Scalzi’s dialogue writing feels extremely natural to me, and I keep trying to learn it. If you haven’t picked up this series yet, I strongly recommend doing so.
But now, I have a 14-page outline for one chapter (the prologue) that I’m going to try and turn into a narrative! I want that done today!
Morgan Freeman narrator voice: “And Swift had just jinxed himself.”
Stay safe out there, folks.
-JB Swift
Swift's Corner 