Which is the important bit. Beginning, middle or end?

Welcome back to another blog hop, with #OpenBook. Here’s this week’s prompt.

Don’t forget to click the purple button to see what everyone else has to say.

Which part of your book do you spend the most time on? Beginning, middle or end? Something else?

In case any of you hadn’t noticed, I’ve been absent from the blog hop for a couple of weeks. NaNoWriMo took over, as it does every year, the difference this time around was that I managed to achieve the goal of writing 50,000 words on Nov 19^th. I’m still adding to my story but the pressure is off.

So, to shift things around, I’ve found the time to take part again, I figured it would make a nice change from the world that I’ve been living in for the last few days.

Enough of that, the first draft of We are Saul will shortly be off to my editor. After corrections, it will be available as a beta read. So, while I’m waiting for that, it’s time to get back to doing everything else.

To the question.

I write in a very different way from a lot of the other authors that I know. First, I have no plan, no view of the overall project. I get an idea and watch a film in my head as the story unfolds. I simply write what I see, as it progresses, without skipping about in the timeline. This means that I have no idea what will happen next. Until it does.

Imagine watching a film that you have never seen before. One where you have no knowledge of the plot, the cast or the setting. That’s how I see the story I’m working on. I can pause and rewind to get all the details but I can NEVER fast-forward.

Right up until I realise that the story has ended. I see it as a reader would, I experience every twist and turn with them and feel every emotion at the same time as they do.

Because of this, when I send the manuscript to my long-suffering editor, I really have no idea how it will be received. Sure, I’ve read it back after I’ve finished it, but as I’ve already seen it, so to speak, and have enjoyed it (hopefully) several times, my opinion of it is slightly biased.

I’m relying on her, and my beta readers to tell me what needs doing, to make it as good as it can be.

At which point, I’ll collate the suggestions and implement the ones that I think are sensible. If the start needs work, that’s what I’ll do. The same goes for every section.

At first, I thought I must be crazy, working like that. Over time, I’ve learned to let it go and trust the voices in my head. So far, they haven’t let me down. Apart from the annoying habit they have of occasionally showing me a story and stopping halfway through, meaning that I (and you) have to wait to see the rest.

Until next week.

Let me know what you think about this week’s subject.

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