A.C. Wise

I’m a writing process geek. I’m fascinated by the chance to peek behind the scenes and see how different authors do what they do. I can say - completely without irony - that I find discussions of fountain pens and moleskin notebooks absorbing. Yes, I’m weird. Given that, I’m naturally loving these posts by Jeff VanderMeer about his choices while writing Finch, one of my favorite reads of 2009. If you happen to share my highly specific brand of geekitude, you should definitely check it out.

Even though I love reading about other people’s processes, I rarely post about my own. Partly because it’s not interesting to me when I do it; partly because I don’t really have a process other than: type words onto a laptop and poke them until I don’t hate them anymore. In terms of my writing “career” I did everything more or less backwards. I jumped into the deep part of the lake, then five years later, I decided it might be a good idea to learn how to swim. So I don’t have a process right now, but I’m working on getting one. I’m learning how to learn.

Cat Rambo, guest posting on Jeff VanderMeer’s blog, recently revealed her writing process. She likes to write things out long-hand in sketch books before committing them to the computer. I’ve seen similiar posts from other authors using a variation on this method - note books, note cards, scraps of paper, etc. Many people praise the organic feel of writing with paper and pen. Not me. I hate it. My hand can’t keep up with my brain, I get impatient, my fingers cramp, and I can barely read my own lousy handwriting. To me, keyboard writing is organic - there is a rhythm, everything flows. I write long-hand as a last resort.

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