How I Write

Most of my stories start with an idea. Doesn't everybody? Lately, a lot of my stories have been coming from dreams because, let's face it, your brain running unchecked usually comes up for some pretty good (and wacky) ideas.

Sometimes I have an outline for a story and sometimes I don't, it depends on how complicated the story is. I used to write out lines for every story I wrote but it took too long and I usually ended up changing half of what I had in mind.

Unlike a lot of writers I usually write multiple stories at the same time. For example, my dad (who was also a writer) can only write one story at a time, but a lot of writers have multiple stories going at the same time. That's how I am. I will write on the story consistently every week until I run out of ideas then I move on to something else. I also rotate what I work on every day and every week this also helps me come up with fresh ideas.

One of the things I found that has helped me the most is keeping track of my word count and how long I write every day. I keep track of how much I write every day, every week and every month; I tally how much I've written at the end of every month. This helps me keep track of how much I've written, the stories I'm working on and potentially what I can or cannot do in a particular period of time. The idea of keeping track of how much I write was suggested to me by my dad who uses it every day. I've been doing it for the past three years or so and have found it quite effective.