While I was on break, I wanted to spend some of the time that I got back reading a book about writing. I had seen a review of 2K to 10K (probably on Twitter, but honestly, if I haven’t made a note about it somewhere, I cannot be held accountable for remembering. #lawschoolbrain). I thought maybe I should dive into a style or craft book, but I really wanted to get the draft of my book done before the break was over (I did it!), and everything seemed to be moving much slower than I needed it to in order to get it done while also actually participating in the holidays. Even with just one tweak from the book (which I won’t spoil, since it is not mine to spoil), I doubled to triple my per hour word count and was able write even when I wasn’t really feeling it. Not feeling it is sort of death for me, because I have so much to do that excuses are easily found. But before I ramble into some other blog topic about that, join me for a brief argument about why you might want to pick up this book.Alright. So I already told you about upping my word count. For that alone, you should probably drop the dollar it’ll cost you for the Kindle version of this book (if you aren’t on an Amazon boycott). The first part is all about increasing your word count with a few tweaks to how you evaluate and approach your writing.

But on top of that, for those of you out there, like me, that are coming to writing from other disciplines and are muddling through your works, Rachel Aaron walks you through her process of writing and editing. I haven’t seen much on this when I’ve casually looked for my next craft book (not that it doesn’t exist, so if know of others you like, drop it in the comments!). Muddling through this book, I’m pretty much making it up as a go along (see what I did there? wink wink nudge nudge). I haven’t figured out my own process, because it is developing right now. And not just developing, actually coming into being. So I’m doing two things: figuring out how I write a book and actually writing a book. This is a lot of work.

Aaron’s brief description of her own process is something I wish I would have had early in writing this book. Not because I would take it all whole cloth, but I would have something to start at based on someone else’s hard-won lessons. I could build on her approach, taking and leaving what I think would work for me, but I would have something complete to fall back on. Rather than what I’ve been doing: moving forward without evaluating much of how I am doing this because I have few reference points and few alternatives to return to.

I am using her approach for my editing process, and already she helped me think through how I was going to do this edit rather than just jumping in and seeing what happened. It’s allowing me more time and space to craft the book rather than fix something here that breaks something there.

What is your process for writing and for editing? What resources do you or have you found invaluable when you started your writing life/career? What advice would you give your previous self?

Yes, I am totally trying to solicit wise words from my clever readers, so do a girl a favor and pass on some wisdom in the comments.