How I Write

Here and there, I'm going to post about my writing process, the writing process, other writers' writing process....You get the picture. A question I'm always asked (and I always ask other writers) is how do I write and how long does it take me to write a book. After writing so many books, I can honestly say that I have no set process and each book takes a different amount of time to write. I call it CHAOS. But here are some quick things that I've found to be true:

1. The more I sit with a story in my head before I write the book, the easier it is to write the story.
2. Writing a story that I'm dying to tell is a lot easier and more fun than writing a story that I'm lukewarm on but figure I'll get into while I write.
3. The more I outline a book before I write, the easier it is to write.
4. My characters do what they want, often surprise me and go off the outline regularly.
5. It always takes longer to write a book than I figure it will.
6. Writing a book is a lot harder than reading a book.

So, this past week, as I'm two weeks past my deadline and lost in my book--not remembering which character said what and where I put my clues and red herrings--I decided to learn how to use Scrivener. Scrivener is a writing program that helps organize everything. Organization is the key to success! I watched 8 videos on how to use Scrivener. I almost broke all of my dishes and threw my computer through the window, but I held back (because I didn't want to clean it up) and managed to learn how to use it! Yay! I can't begin to tell you how much of a miracle it is for me to learn how to use Scrivener. But I've organized the mystery book I'm working on, and it looks great! The next book will be written entirely in Scrivener. I'll let you know how that goes. Do you attack projects the same way you always have, or is your work strategy evolving?