Process Crimes

I love process stuff. I love books that go behind-the-scenes of TV shows and movies (like the way-cool Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion) and into artists' studios and especially Steven King's On Writing. So, in that spirit, here's a glimpse into the way I write.

I got a little stuck on page five of Love and Capes, so I grabbed my iPod and took a walk. It seems to clear my head, and by the time I got to the beach, I'd gotten two and a half more pages of LNC #8 plotted. It's amazing how well that works, and I wonder why I don't take walks to get over writer's block more often.

Being an artist, I tend to think visually, so I keep my plot for the book as a series of Post-It notes. I keep them on my kitchen wall, which is close to my studio and is the largest empty wall here in Zahlerdu that's not in the living room. Not that I have that many visitors, but I like to keep the public areas a little clearer than my work areas.

Each Post-It one represents four panels of the book, and has some note, usually the punchline, to help me remember the bit that I'd written. And having this in such a visual medium lets me plot the pacing of the book and see how many more pages, how much more I have.

You'll notice one note in the lower right hand corner. That's the last page. I always have the ending planned out before I do the middle. It gives me an idea of where I'm headed. As I plot other sections, they'll appear in other places on the wall so that I can see the book as a sequence of scenes rather than just one age at a time.