In a post earlier this morning I mentioned that I was on Pass 1 of writing a story. It got me thinking about process and I was wondering what the rest of you do when you are creating a story. I took a few minutes and jotted down my process:
Bob’s approach to stories of consequence (25K words or more):
1. Step 0: Idea 1 – What is the concept?
2. Step 1: Idea 2 - Find the end of the story (sometimes this can be the hardest part)
3. Step 2: Outline - Define the places, characters involved, and POV for each scene for the whole story
4. Step 3: Write – Pass 1 => Story pass – just lay down the rough story
5. Step 4: Write – Pass 2 => Color (expressions, descriptions, environments)
6. Step 5: Write – Pass 3 => Technical (he said, she said, punctuation, fix passive voice,…)
• • • Note: Usually the story will grow about 20 to 25% during pass 2 and 3.
7. Step 6: Read/Write – Pass 4 => Verify overall story and tweak details.
8. Step 7: Beta - Apply corrections from beta
9. Step 8: Beta pass 2 - Optional (about ¼ of the time based on the extensiveness of the changes)
Does this look familiar? Or does my approach seem overly complicated -- or too simple?
Bob
Note: Revised because step 6 was used twice (6 & 7 were both marked as 6)
