This year I decided to do something different. I know how tight money can be for everyone after the holiday season and I know I needed a bit of a kick in the ass to start writing after taking a month off. I also know a lot of you were curious about my writing process. So I came up with something very “ballsy” but freeing as well for me and something that I hope you’ll all enjoy.
I’m writing a novella/short story (around 20K words) on Wattpad. It’s free for anyone to read. Every time I press “save” it actually publishes the story. I’m just writing and publishing as I go. No editors. No rough draft. This IS my rough draft. You are seeing all my mistakes LIVE (haha, oh how exciting). And, to shake things up even more, I’m not even writing as I normally do. For every single book I write out and plot in detail — a skeleton keeps me in line and gives me a place to shoot for.
But while I have a rough idea in my head about this story and how I want it to go, I haven’t officially plotted it out. This is the closest to just writing by the seat of my pants as I’ll get.
Which is freeing as well…also, terrifying. I miss my chapter by chapter breakdowns and my outlines but because this is such a short story, I’m hoping I can get by.
But hey — so far people seem to be enjoying it. If you want to join in on the event and watch as I write (I have the first two chapters down), visit: http://www.wattpad.com/34268226-dark-paradise
The story is called Dark Paradise. In it’s edited, sculpted final form it will be in Kindle as part of Madeline Sheehan’s up coming anthology to profit women and children’s services (so when you do get a chance to buy it, it’s going to a great cause).
Hope you’ll all join me on this journey! I’m about 25% through so it’s a great time to follow me to this Dark Paradise.