What is your writing process like?
Nancy, a Great Unlearning reader from Florida asks, “What is your writing process like?”
While writing “The Great Unlearning” I’d be out here in my little backyard studio to write before the sun came up. I went to bed thinking about writing and woke up thinking about writing. Sometimes I would write outlines for stories, sometimes they just flowed right out of me, and hours would pass. For some stories, I enjoyed writing in a stream of consciousness fashion and glean out the gems of the story later. Regardless, I would revisit and edit all of my stories at least five times over a week or two before I felt they were done. Then I sent them off to my editor.
I’d also carry a red and white steno pad with me wherever I went and jot down things people would say, or thoughts that popped into my mind about a topic in the book. My notepad was always open on the passenger seat of my car when I was driving to and from hospice patient’s homes, just in case I needed to write something down, which I did, at stop signs, the roadside, and sometimes blindly while driving.
Just now, I looked for one of those old steno pads and found a good one. I took a picture of a typical page and here it is. Out of context, that page would confuse someone, but it makes total sense to me!
I also had a zillion little pieces of scrap paper in my purse, on the kitchen table, or on my desk with meaningful ways of expressing myself with words. If I didn’t write an idea down on that napkin while in a coffee shop, often times it would move right through me never to be thought of again.
Nowadays, my writing process involves writing the author reflections for this podcast (and blog), and since I launched this podcast in October of 2022, I go to sleep thinking about it and wake up thinking about it. I’ll make coffee and eagerly come out here to my studio as soon as I wake up, often before dawn, like right now (it’s 5:50am). When I see that my husband is up, I’ll take a break and go into the house and join him for a while before he starts his daily guitar practice routines. He is a professional musician and practices at least six hours every day. I play guitar with him too, we are The LaRui Duo, more about that later.
I absolutely love it when a topic grabs me and an author reflection or a blog post flows out of me effortlessly. It makes me feel like I’m on the right path, doing the right thing.
If you have a question or comment about a story or my art, please email me at mary@mary-la.com, there is a good chance I’ll mention your comment or address your question in a future podcast.