5 Changes I’m Making to My Writing Process This Year
Editor Michael Woodson reflects on past writing ups and downs and lists five changes he’s making to his writing process this year.
Our most recent episode of Writer’s Digest Presents was all about measuring success as writers. My colleagues and I sat down for a conversation about how we measure our individual success, what success means to us, and how we can best achieve our goals.
I’m not someone who sits down to set any intentional new year’s resolutions, but I did for some time start a tradition of trying something new for a whole year. One spring, I set a goal to be a vegetarian for a year. That was eight years ago; I’m still a vegetarian. Some things stick.
And while I don’t necessarily have any resolutions for the year, our chat helped me understand why I may or may not be achieving my writing goals, and why sometimes it’s hard for me to feel successful. And I realized that unconsciously, my goals have been existing separately in my mind than the actual steps I need to take in order to achieve them. I know what I want for my writing career. But how to get there? That’s as clear as mud to me.
Which got me thinking about my writing process. There are things about my creative process that I love, that I wouldn’t change, and that produce elements of a story of which I’m quite proud. But in recognizing what I like about my writing process am I actively ignoring what needs help.
I want to challenge myself to adapt my writing process this year. These are five things I want to add, change, or incorporate into my writing.
1. Stick With an Idea
When I’m feeling stuck on a story or can’t write myself out of a certain scene, I’ll pivot to another story idea I have floating around my mind. This has always seemed to be a positive to me, but what’s accumulated over the years is a drawer full of half-finished pivots. I still think pivoting is good for writer’s block, but personally, I’ve used it as an easy out. This year, I’m going to try and stick with an idea through to the end. Whether it’s a short story or a novel draft, having a rough beginning, middle, and end before switching gears will help me feel more successful.
2. Read More Outside of My Genre
I tend to write realistic, contemporary fiction—and my reading reflects that. But we hear it all the time: the importance and value of reading outside of your genre. And while I do read widely, I know that I don’t read widely enough. I come to writing by way of reading, and there are things that certain genres do best that will only help the weak spots in my own writing. I’m going to be stepping out of my reading comfort zone more often this year.
3. Stop Doubting My Perspective
This is how it goes with me: I have a story idea, I’m energized about it, I begin the writing process, and I feel good about its prospects. Then I get stuck, and when that happens a voice enters my mind that tells me there’s a reason why I’m stuck. And the reason is that what I’m writing is not valuable, that someone else could do it better, and that my perspective is not unique. Cut to my writer’s group lovingly screaming at me for listening to the evil, sci-fi clone of myself trying to take over my identity by telling me things that aren’t true. This one is difficult to overcome, but I think the best way is by implementing number one above: stick with an idea through to the end, and evil Michael will start to shut up.
4. Try To Do Less Pantsing … Maybe
Fellow pantsers: I see you, I respect you, I am you. I love pantsing as a writing process. It feels organic and creative and rich. Pantsing also has left me with a plethora of dead-ends. I’ll probably always most naturally be a pantser, but this year I need to challenge my process by doing some plotting. Combining the two most common writing practices has been a goal of mine for a long time, and I want this year to be the time I take to do it.
5. Celebrate the Small Successes
I am finally starting to feel comfortable with the ebb and flow of a creative journey. Many of my writing hopes haven’t happened yet. Yet. There is no failure in working toward something that is in progress, but we writers are quick to blame ourselves for a journey that was always going to be long, with many detours, false starts, and do-overs. I’m hoping that by employing points one through four above, I’ll start to be able to celebrate the small, step-by-step successes in between. Every step we take, big or small, gets us closer to thing we want the most—but with our eyes on the prize, we can’t ignore what got us there. So, I’m going to start celebrating that messy first draft. I’m going to celebrate plotting out my story points. I’m going to celebrate picking a title that I love. We can’t simply love when the writing is easy, it’s time to start loving when it is challenging, too.
This is not a manifesto on change as the only way to find success—it is simply my way of being more honest with myself, that perhaps it’s time to take a closer look at my habits and see where I can improve upon them. Maybe that means it would help you, too. It can be difficult to change what feels comfortable, and it can be easy to see that need for change as a past failure. I don’t see it that way. How we define success evolves over time, and so how we achieve success must evolve, too.
Michael Woodson is the content editor at Writer's Digest. Prior to joining the WD team, Michael was the editorial and marketing manager for the independent children's book publisher Blue Manatee Press. He was also the associate editor for Artists Magazine and Drawing magazine, and has written for Soapbox Cincinnati, Watercolor Artist, and VMSD magazine. An avid reader, Michael is particularly interested literary fiction and magical realism, as well as classics from Jane Austen, Ernest Hemingway, and E.M. Forster. When he's not reading, he's working on his own stories, going for a run at his favorite park, or cuddling up to watch a movie with his husband Josh and their dog Taran.
