Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai


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How I spent my Workers’ Day

Working on a ghostwriting gig is great because it pays the bills, and because it gives me the opportunity to discover, explore and write stuff I would not normally have in my life – business, current affairs, other people’s lives.
It’s a great source of inspiration.
It is also a soul-killing experience, most of the time, because it means working for a boss, and a boss that usually hires a professional to do a certain job, but basically believes they know a lot more about the job at hand that the professional they have hired to do it. The result is, they do not respect the process.
Because they do not know there is a process.
They have this romantic idea of writing, that’s something that comes to you and possesses you like an ancient ghost, and they are quite sure they are the ones possessed … because it’s their book, right?
You are just a hired hand.
It can get tiresome.

But because I was thinking about these things, instead of spending my May Day weekend writing writing writing, I spent some time reading about writing process and writing structure. The fact that I was trying to put some order in my library, tackling the writing shelf, also helped.

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A Piece of the Action

In the end, the story I jotted down in first draft two nights back turned into a 3100-words short called A Piece of the Action, and it’s currently on its way towards the editor’s desk, hoping it will find a slot in the proposed anthology.

WriterAtWorkMy current process is more or less defined.

  1. I write the first draft in public, working in Google Docs online, in two or three hours, in the evening.
  2. I let the story rest for about 24 hours while I do something completely different.
  3. Still in Google Docs, I clean up the file, deleting my in-line live commentary and doing a first revision.
  4. Then I switch the Language Tools plugin and have a go at the text, catching typos, inconsistencies and wrong phrase construction.
  5. At this point, I copy and paste the text in a LibreOffice doc and I have a final revision, cutting what can be cut and adding what needs to be added.
  6. I format the text according to the guidelines, I save it in the requested format, and I send it along to the editor with a brief cover letter.

And that’s it.
Then the waiting begins, because there’s usually a few weeks lag between delivery and final verdict.
But that’s part of the game.
And now, on to the next story.
This thing is working like clockwork.
Tonight I might try and do another, depending on how my plans for dinner work out.


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Finally a writing method that works

Today, after years spent writing, I finally defined my writing process – so I thought I’d share with the world my discoveries.

My work-flow can be divided into three essential steps, throughout my work-day.

hqdefault3 pm-7 pm
Having briefly defined what I’m going to write about next, I lounge on my couch, reading a book and/or listening to some good music (crisps, orange juice or tea optional), while the ideas grow wild in the backwoods of my brain.

10 pm-5 am
Sleep.

5.30 am-11 am
Write the stuff down.

Redo from start.

Believe it or not, it works like clockwork.
I might even find a fancy name for this and then write a handbook about it.