Natasha Fondren

Since I let myself work on Shiny Idea, I’ve been possessed. I love feeling like this. My god, I love my story. It’s crazy. I wake up early so I can work on it. I think about it all the time.

It’s like this story is a divine mission.

Which is a little depressing, since books of the heart and whatnot do not typically sell. I don’t think I’ve ever written a “book of the heart.” I’ve loved several of the stories I’ve written, but I don’t think I’ve loved my characters quite so much.

This story is so populated, my head is already spinning. I have no idea how I’m going to pull this off. I can’t wait to try.

Different things drive us in different parts of our writing life. I used to love getting in a character’s skin. When I first started writing, I would sit for hours and play with words in a single sentence. Now, my obsession is plot. The more complicated I can make it, the more I love it. Plot is the COOLEST. I think that’s why I’m having so much fun in this one. I love a ton of interweaving connections. I love the mini-stories, the hints and bits you drop and then weave in later, the twists, and—in this one—the far-fetched things I have to challenge myself to “sell” to the reader.

You know me. I love fictional fiction, where belief must be suspended. That’s going to be a struggle in this one, since so many elements are “real.” I love Irving and Dickens and Zafron and Gaiman and the like because you’re reading fictional fiction made real, not realism made into a novel.

Anyway, I’m possessed, loving my characters, and having a blast with plot. This book is going to be FUN to write. It’s a modern re-telling of Les Miserables, which always makes me cry. When I was telling the story of Les Miserables to Glenn, I choked up several times and had tears running down my face. I’ve been dying to do a modern re-telling of it since forever; I just needed the other half.

What about you? How does your current WIP tickle your fancy? Have you ever been possessed’ by a story before? Have you ever had one where “writer’s high” is nearly constant?

I see the light at the end of the tunnel! My current WIP had a mess at the end, where there was about 15K words of scenes and bits that, at one time, I’d thought would go at the end. Now that I’m at the end, I’ve deleted most of those bits, and needed to organize the mess left behind.

No two books write the same. Each book can have similar processes, but in the end, each book demands its own process. I both love and hate that this is never predictable. I hate the uncertainty, but love that every book is a new challenge.

This is why I think writers love to share their process and learn others’ processes. For this book, I was lost. I had to resort to pen and paper. I had to make a timeline of the plot, a timeline of the emotional arc, and as I read through the first 70%-80% of the book, I notated all the bits that would need closing.

Then I wrote on another piece of paper all the ending parts that would close those bits. Then I put them in order, albeit messily. Then I put them in order in synopsis fashion.

I have NEVER done all that for a story. Usually my stories aren’t so complex, I guess, or usually I don’t have such a mess. Usually my mind isn’t such a mess. Who knows? I’m not a plotter; I’m a pantser, but since half of these scenes were already written… it’s just what needed to be done.

With each book, when I get to the part where I have no idea how this particular book will need to be written, I go in search for new ideas on how other writers write their book. Who knows what will get me through the next book? So…

How do you start your books? How do you get through the middle? How do you close the ending? How do you keep things in order? Do you plot or pants? Do you outline before or after you’ve written the scene? Do you write a synopsis beforehand? What gets you through your books to the end?