My Strange Way of Writing

I thought I’d write a little about how I write. I know a lot of people are going to cringe when I say this but I’m what they call a pantser, I don’t outline, I don’t brainstorm, I just get an idea and write. Sometimes I get my ideas from just everyday activities like going to the beach and people/animal watching, sometimes I get them from prompts, and I think “I can make this work.” I’ve never been an outliner and go through all the steps most people do when they write. I do write some things down, characters, if they’re friend, dating, married, foe. I also write down cities, states, ship names, planets, the species on the planet and a little about them. Other than that, it’s all in my warped head.

I’ve always been like this, ever since high school, and college, if it was an assignment that I can use my imagination I’d just what came into my head. I took an advertising class, and the teacher gave an assignment to write two commercials, for any brand we wanted. By the end of class I wrote the commercials, just had to draw my stick figures. I showed the teacher and she looked at me and said “you just wrote these?” They’re actually good.

Another time I took a philosophy class, and the teacher asked us to write a paper about Rene Descartes man in a box theory which basically states that the mind and body are separate but interact with each other. I asked her if it can be a fictional story about a scientist testing out this theory on a real human and she said yes, that was kind of a fun story.

There are a few more, but the final one I’ll mention is when I took script writing. The teacher asked us to write a script on a show that isn’t on anymore and write it as a series being remade. I wrote about a show called VR5 (If anyone remembers it let me know.) I wrote the first episode as if it were the 90’s and I used the tech of the time and tried to explain how the technology worked (the series never explained it and I had always wished they would.)

From when I started writing on a personal blog until now, I think my writing has gotten better…you might think otherwise. I started taking anti-depressants and ADHD meds and they helped my brain calm down a little, but I still lose train of thought quickly. I did start a rewrite because I saw an inconsistency in the story and now doing yet another after starting to listen to the book “Save the Cat. Writes A Novel, I’m not even done with it and I saw I was writing it wrong. I’m also thinking about after rewriting the first chapter, then try to write it in a mix of first and third person. The main character(s) would be in first while the secondary ones would be in third. I treat a lot of things with the thought of trial and error. I bet a few of you are hitting yourself in the head right now thinking “this guy is crazy” but it's worked for me so far.

So basically, I write on the seat of my pants and make the chapter I’m writing go into the chapter I’m going to write. If I can’t think that out, then I’ll read the book when I’m done and make it fit. I’m writing every chapter as a story, then put them together, it seems simple to me.

The way I edit, I don’t sit and read the pages, I have the computer do that for me so I can close my eyes and see if there is anything that doesn’t make sense or ways to make something sound better. Just reading in myself I’d miss mistakes and wouldn’t be able to concentrate on wording.

I’ve actually thought about finding a co-writer that will help me spruce it up a bit but not change my core ideas. Then there is getting a ghost writer because I hate public speaking and “IF” it does well, I really wouldn’t want to be in the spotlight, let someone else have it. I’m not thinking this is going to be a hit, I just know (and heard) I have a clever idea and I should run with it and see where it goes. Right now, I have the mentality I’m writing this for myself as a hobby to get the stories out of my head into my computer, if by chance it does sell well then, I’ll call myself an author. For me, this works because if it doesn’t sell (or I don’t finish it) It’s just a hobby, no big deal.

So that’s the way I write. Go ahead and make your comments, tell me it’s impossible and I’m doing it wrong. I’ve heard it before and till I reach a permanent roadblock I’ll keep doing it. I take criticism well so go ahead, maybe you’ll give me another idea.

Thank you for reading my story, hope you at least got a laugh out of it. My brain acts on overdrive, I’ll sometimes be thinking of 3–4 thins at the same time…not all at once of course, my brain will just bounce from one thing to another, maybe two stories and something someone said on Twitter that set my brain thinking about that.

Have a good week, weekend, day, or night depending on when you’re reading this. Ciao!