Tuesday Monday Meeting--Floating Ideas, or, How Do You Write?

Here is a link to Lille, by Lisa Hannigan. Some inspiration for the beginning of the week. Click through--it's very cool.

I've always called myself a pantser. But I'm not really. I'm definitely not a plotter, although, for sure, I do a lot of plotting and planning. Let me tell you my process, and you can tell me what particular writing illness I'm inflicted with.

First I get an idea. A BIG idea. I write dystopian and contemporary fantasy, and I like my ideas BIG. I write it down. Then I let it stew for a year. I'm not kidding. I let that thing work its way down through my subconscious and back up again for, on the average, a year.

I create a soundtrack, based on the emotions behind my characters, and some specific events that I know happen in the novel, you know, because I've been thinking about it for a long time.

I jot down scenes about these characters. Or notes. Or whatever comes to mind.

Then I write hard and fast. I write to see if the idea will float. And I write for voice. I write until I know how my characters walk through their world.

I send it to crit partners. I want to nail the voice, the beginning, the idea, before I go on.

I revise. I get close to where I want the beginning to be. I find out that the idea will float.

Then I stop. I backtrack. I review all the notes I have, and start taking more notes about plot points, world building, back story. By this point, I already know the ending. I already know the beginning. I start to plot what happens in the middle. I might even draw little graphs, and time lines.

Then I write again, hard and fast.

Then I stop and review, and revise what came before.

I repeat the above until I reach 'The End'.

Then I write my first outline. And an editorial letter.

Then I begin revising.

At least, that is how I write today. :)

How do you write? Can you put yourself into a straight category? Are you a pantser, a plotter, some combination of both? Do you write differently with each novel?

And--my goals this week are to write as much as possible. I want to dig in, and make headway. Write a couple of hours each day. Of course, I have a child home sick today. So we'll see. What goals are you working toward this week?