As I have started on this publishing journey, I am having a wonderful time reading posts on a closed authors’ group page. Often the posts are about our excitement about our books moving through the process, or getting a great review, ideas for promotion, or just little frustrations such as computer glitches. Some of the posts are about the actual writing process. Do you write in a particular space? In a particular chair? Listening to particular music? Do you write long-hand and then type it in, or type directly onto a computer, or dictate your stories? Then there are discussions about the process of revising works. Do you immediately get the work out to another set of eyes, or revise yourself first? Do you print out and edit in pen/pencil or edit directly on the computer? Laptop, desktop or tablet? Red pen or other colored pens? Do you revise as you go or do a complete draft then start revising?

For me, I write wherever the light is strong enough for me to see the keyboard, whether it is the keyboard on my laptop or tablet. Sometimes I want music, other times I don’t. I type directly instead of writing long-hand because I type much faster than I can hand write something. I revise constantly as I write, directly in the computer file. But, when I get to the point when I think I have a draft complete, then I print it out, put it in a binder, and start the actual revising on a hard-copy. The binder becomes a rainbow of multi-colored post-it flags, each denoting something that only I understand. When I get a chunk (more than 50, less than 100) pages edited, I enter the changes into the computer file. Finally, when all of that is done, I share the file with a friend who has an amazing set of eyes, and she starts her critique.

I guess what I am learning in this journey is that we each have our own way of writing, and I love learning about how others go about their work.