You always hear creatives talking about “their process” like it’s some sort of angelic otherworldly thing that nobody but them understands… when in reality it’s simple. It’s the steps that their brain takes to get from idea to end result. Easy peasy, right?

Well not exactly.

Some people idealize or romanticize this process so much that in a way it becomes otherworldly or ethereal… but to them. Then to an outsider looking on trying to understand it, it may seem mystical or magical because their own brains can’t comprehend how the creative’s works.

I’m here to demystify my process (in case it seems crazy to you) and break it down as simply as I can.

First things first — I have no process per se. That is to say, every book I’ve written, every project I have worked on has varied. Now there are certain things that have remained the same so you could say those are my process but in reality, they are just me using tools at my disposal to work out whatever my brain is churning out.

In the last post ‘On Writing’ I shared those tools and said I would go in further detail on how those tools are used in my writing so let’s take a deeper dive into what my “process” with those tools looks like.

As with any creative project it starts with a spark… an idea… a concept. I am no different in that. Whether I have an idea hit me like a ton of bricks while taking a shower or taking a shi…(yes this happened — but that’s a whole other story lol), it all starts with that singular idea.

For me, I like to sit with the idea in my head for a minute and let it marinate a bit. In writing, I like to take that idea and see if I can then turn it into a blurb or synopsis of some kind. I think this is one thing that I don’t see too often as you usually see the opposite online. People are always complaining about writing the blurb or back cover copy for their book asking questions like “How can I take 100k words and summarize it to a paragraph or two?”.

In my opinion, if you can’t do that from the start then your idea may not be as fleshed out as it needs to be in order to stay cohesive throughout a book. But some people find the opposite true. They write the story then plug in a quick synopsis based on what they wrote, which in all reality is just as fine as the way I do it. That’s the point. There is no one right way or wrong way to do this. I am certainly so expert and will never claim to be.

But I digress.

I take the spark, the idea, and once it’s marinated long enough to summarize a story into a synopsis using the idea, I type it out. Just the synopsis. Once it’s typed out, one to two paragraphs usually, I print it and I cut it out and glue it to the inside of a black and white composition book.

I will go ahead and say this now in order to keep from repeating myself, because it is something I would repeat OVER AND OVER again in this post — I DO NOT TRUST TECHNOLOGY. There I said it. I do not trust technology and technology and I have quite the backstory. Therefore in EVERY step of this process, I keep analog records should anything happen to my digital files. If you’re someone who doesn’t like analog then at the very least save backups of your backups and backup often. So in the rest of this post I will simply say (and add to analog) when I do so instead of ranting about it again and again because trust me, I could and I would. I loathe technology.

So, when I have my analog composition book with my printed and glued summary in the front I place that composition book into a pretty leather holder. Is this necessary? No. Does it bring me some more joy in my writing process? Absolutely. These are the covers I have currently for the 3 projects I have going at the time.

Aren’t those so much nicer to look at than the ugly black and white covers of the composition book?

Once I have this setup, I spend some time in the composition book pre-planning. I write out ideas for names, scenes, locations, you name it. Again, it all starts analog. If the idea warrants it I start to do research on the topics or time period that will be included in the book and write down relevant information. Anything and everything I can think of — it’s dumped within the composition book.

See — no matter which story I am working on, it all starts here. Actually writing by hand the ideas, the notes, the scenes, everything. These are all three projects — each one slightly different in how I get the info in the book, but all the info goes into the book. This becomes the holy grail later on.

It can get quite extensive in the research and notes as you can see but this is where the story begins to take some semblance of a shape for me and where I tend to go overboard on all things, as I typically do. It’s my play time before the work begins in a way and I hold it dear to my heart. And sometimes I get going so vivaciously that my notes end up being hard for even me to read but it’s all in the fun here!

Then once I have the basic ideas, research, etc. down in the notebook, I transfer all of this information to a digital source. Redundant? Yes. BUT, it really does help me start to visualize things a little more and I tend to work somewhere between the two realms — digital to analog to digital and back again.

This is where the first of my digital tools (programs) comes in.

ALL HAIL PLOTTR… no seriously… omg where has this been my whole life? (bonus points that it does not feed/train ai and no generative ai!!!!!)

I take every note, every bit of research, names, everything and I transfer it into Plottr and I organize it in a way that makes sense to my head.

This is a look at what the Plottr notes section looked like months ago for my current WIP - though much has changed since I took this photo and I can’t share that without spoilers so hopefully you get the picture. Everything that was in the notebook gets added… characters go into the character tab, notes, places, etc. Everything has a place. It’s so wonderful.

Then once I have everything that’s currently in the holy grail composition book (I’m not done with it yet — trust me.) I get to work on loosely plotting the novel. This is where things differ greatly depending on what story I am writing.

In my experience, some stories turn out better with a strict plot and others work better for me to discovery write a little more with a very very very loose guideline. One thing that always stays constant no matter how I am writing (plotting vs pantsing) is that I always know the end. Always. So I know where I need to get to. It’s the matter of HOW I get there that might change throughout but I always start with a beginning and the ending.

Here’s what one of the stories looks like fully plotted (blurred for obvious reasons) but you get the idea.

Now, here’s the cool thing about Plottr — each row, with each square can be moved around, changed, added to, deleted, everything is 100% customizable which makes my crazy heart happy. Honestly, I could write a whole blog post on Plottr alone, and I just might tbh. I can choose which type of story structure or flow I want to follow (or not) and plan to my heart’s content. As you can somewhat see from the images, you can make various timelines dependent on your needs and you don’t always have to use them the same way, which is another thing I love about Plottr.

But point being, once I have the loose outline here (which also the tiny boxes open up windows where you can type more stuff out which I have done but can’t share cuz again… spoilers) I sit with it for a minute. I think on it, let it simmer and see if I want to add scenes, take away scenes, etc. I spend as much time here as I need to get a cohesive story planned. Doesn’t mean it stays that way but it’s always enough to get me started. Then I take what I have here and transfer it to the next tool I use.

Scrivener. My second love. BONUS points to Plottr for being able to export to Scrivener directly! YES — it takes all my planned “mess” and slaps it into a scrivener file for me! It’s so wonderful, I could cry.

Here’s where I get to keep playing and begin writing. Scrivener is a writing software and yes you can plan/plot in it directly without Plottr (as seen in the scene card image above - can even move things around and what have you), my brain just works better with Plottr and the freedom it gives me.

But for writing the book… scrivener is where it’s at! Of course, I customized mine slightly more than you see here… I changed mine from the white backgrounds and made it easier on my eyes, but I wanted you to see what it looks like at its base, so this is how it looks on default mode.

But here is where I work the story and write my rough draft. The timeline in Plottr is usually filled in enough (when you open the squares and read everything planned for that chapter and scene) that I consider it a zero draft. It tells me everything I planned already to write for that chapter so all I have left to do is actually write it. (This is also only for stories that have been heavily plotted. Other’s where I am discovery writing more - there’s a loose guide like point a and point b, and I fill in how they got there as I write - which is why I said every story differs).

What’s really cool is that since my plottr file exported to scrivener and set it up for me, I have all of the notes which are what is written in the little squares when you open them right there for me in scrivener off to the right side already. So everything I wrote I wanted to accomplish in that chapter is right there reminding me without having to go back to Plottr to look.

But I will say I often have Plottr pulled up just for keeping up with the “book bible” in case I add things like characters on the fly, which you do sometimes.

But the point is this is where all the writing happens.

Now as things come up, like adding stuff in, altering things, discovering I want to swap a side story, etc. I write it down in the composition book. It’s always beside me, ready to take new knowledge from my head. Don’t ever get the impression you can remember the idea you had because it was too good to forget… write it down… you will forget.

At this point it’s a constant back and forth. Digital to analog of notes, adding, reworking, etc. But one thing is for sure, I always back up everything. Another cool thing about Plottr is that you can print your outline from it and I always do! I print my scrivener files too from time to time as well as have it saved (and update each save often) on 2 different external hard drives. Yes I know this is excessive BUT you’ll get there too at some point when technology fails you in the worst way and you lose ALL of your progress on a manuscript and have to start over… it happens to the best of us so get in the habit of backup on backup on backup - and for me… analog backups JUST IN CASE.

So here’s a little more into the process and less about the programs.

Once I have my rough draft. I print it. Yup the whole thing. I compile it into one word doc (which is easy in scrivener) and I print the whole thing. Then I either have it spiral bound or I put it in a 3 ring binder. And I read through it, making notes in the margins, taking notes in my composition book, etc. I look at it as a whole. Not for grammar, not for prose, not for structure but just as a whole story.

Then I take those notes, everything I have thought, and I begin my second draft.

How I draft in scrivener through multiple passes could be a whole blog post in itself and if that’s something you’re interested in let me know because it’s extremely in depth and wordy but the jist is, I do not start new files. I work within scrivener in the one file and rewrite the story.

Once I have done however many passes it takes to polish it to my standards, I run it through Hemingway app. ONLY the free version because they do not use your work to feed/train AI and you can’t use AI to change sentences. I only use this as a grammar pass to make sure that, overall, my grammar, punctuation, etc. is cohesive and for the most part accurate to save my betas and any editors headaches trying to figure out what I was trying to say. (This is like my Grammarly since I don’t use Grammarly) Then when it’s legible enough and free of major grammar issues, I send off to betas, editors, etc. (bonus - the less basic editing the editors have to do the better imo)

Then I am right back to square one in the composition book. I make notes of feedback, line edits that need to happen, etc.. everything goes back in the book. (see why it’s my holy grail) And then everything gets transferred again digitally and I finish polishing the novel in scrivener and updating Plottr as needed. (If major changes to plot happen, I even move around and replot the timeline in Plottr so everything stays matching up to each other)

Once everything is polished up to the final edit, I export everything to word doc files so that I can begin the last step. Formatting. For that I use Atticus.

Atticus is super intuitive to use, and I absolutely LOVE it. After helping my husband format his first book ourselves in Word, I will never do it again, neither will he. It was a nightmare. Atticus makes it sooooo much easier. The images above are where I formatted Whisper of Secrets.

Once formatted then it’s off to the races so to speak and publishing! Whether I query or self pub, doesn’t matter… everything is done at this point for me.

Now there were some other things that I had mentioned as tools at my disposal on a case by case basis and those are pretty self explanatory so I will go over them very quickly.

Inkarnate - I make maps. I like maps. It’s fun and easy to make maps here. BUT it’s not the only place I make maps. I also make maps in Photoshop or in Procreate on my Ipad. This only applies when there is a story that needs a map of some sort. More on this to come in a future post.

Another program mentioned was pacemaker planner. If I am wanting to have a certain goal for my writing by a certain date then I use this but for the most part, I don’t. There are various reasons I tend to not use it, but I have used it before.

Now this is only surface level “how I use these things in my process” and very surface level process if I’m being honest. There are so many more facets that I could speak on but then we would be here all day. Truthfully I could talk writing all day, and have (my poor hubby), but the post is long enough as is just with surface level explanations.

I would LOVE nothing more than to dive further into detail on all of the above but only for those who want to know. If I get enough interest I will make more posts on each section and program above but for now I think this will do just fine. (And I didn’t even mention the mindset shifts I make before writing, the playlist I use while writing, where I write, etc… oops.) I guess this isn’t as deep a dive into my process as I would have liked but maybe that could be something to look forward to… possibly even a podcast type post where I can talk about it and you don’t have to read all this mess.

(As stated before in previous blog posts… I do not edit my blog posts.. they are the closest to stream of conscious you’ll get - good luck and godspeed translating them. - Possibly should edit them, might make them stand out more but I have no chill for that or time. sorry.)

I think that’s all for now, so if you have any questions or want to know anything else, feel free to comment below!

Til next time,

Happy reading!

<3 Rhea

On Writing… (Part 2)

On writing… (Part 1)