Episode 2 - Writing Process

Recorded on July 18th, 2022

In this episode, I talk about writing process—how they have helped me, how they could help you—and I share my entire writing process, from idea to complete story that can then be published (hopefully!) I also tell you about the not-so-fun thing that happened this week... and the awesome one!

Mentioned in this episode:

• Stephanie Ellis: https://stephanieellis.org
• Horror Writers Association’s Mentoring Program: https://horror.org/hwa-mentors/
• The Author Life Community: https://theauthorsuccessmastermind.com
• J. Thorn: https://jthorn.net
• Crys Cain: https://www.cryscain.com
• Three Story Method: https://theauthorlife.com/threestorymethod/
• Zach Bohannon: https://zachbohannon.com
• The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction: http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/
• The Dark Magazine: https://www.thedarkmagazine.com
• Apex Magazine: https://apex-magazine.com
• Stephen King’s On Writing: https://bookshop.org/a/85049/9781982159375
• Rachael Herron’s Revision Process: http://www.howdoyouwrite.net/episodes/108
• Brandon Sanderson’s Free Writing Workshop: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSH_xM-KC3Zv-79sVZTTj-YA6IAqh8qeQ
• Story Grid Foolscap: https://storygrid.com/the-foolscap-method/
• Story Grid Obligatory Scenes and Conventions : https://storygrid.com/conventions-and-obligatory-moments-for-genre/
• Save the Cat Writes a Novel: https://bookshop.org/a/85049/9780399579745
• Lisa Cron’s Story Genius: https://bookshop.org/a/85049/9781607748892
• Scrivener: https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener-affiliate.html?fpr=leftie68
• Story Grid Five Commandments of Storytelling: https://storygrid.com/five-commandments-of-storytelling/

• Rachael Herron’s How Do You Write Podcast: http://www.howdoyouwrite.net

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Lefty Obeys Writing Podcast, where I share with vulnerability and positivity my journey towards making all of my writing dreams come true. I hope you learn with me as I go from the things that go well and what doesn't go so well. But mainly I wish it inspires you to pursue your own writing dreams. Now let's begin. Hello, writers. Thank you so much for being here again this week. So the topic of this week's episode is going to be a writing process. Why hearing other writers' processes could be helpful to you as a writer, and also I'll get into my own writing process, step by step. So that's going to be the topic this week. But before we get into that, here's my update for what happened last week. So last week I finished the editing on the first chapter of my horror novel. It's now completely done. I worked on it with Stephanie Ellis. She's a mentor from the R Writers Association that I got through the mentoring program of the association. And she's helping me going over every chapter, and I send it to her, and then she gives me feedback, and then I send it to her until it's ready. So we've done that for the first uh chapter, and now I'm I'm really proud of it. And she said too that that it was flowing and that it was ready. Um, so I'm super excited about that, and we're moving on to the next chapter. So I started working on chapter two last week a little bit. So doing the line editing, making sure that everything is clear, that everything is shown and tell, uh, that all the words are right. So that's what I'm working on uh this week. It's moving slowly, but I'm hoping that it's just because it's the first chapter, so I'm getting in a groove. Uh, and that as it will move forward, I will go faster with the edits. Because if I keep on going this way, I think I have like easily another year of work ahead of me. But let's not get like caught up in that right away. We'll see how it goes. So, one chapter at a time, we tweak at a time. Um, we'll see how it goes. Um, also, this week I've been in a workshop that's part of the community, the Otter Life community. I'll put a link in the show notes if you're interested to look at it. So it's a community that was created by Jay Thorne and Chris Kane. It's a community of writers and editors, uh, certified editors of the three-story method that was developed by Jay Thorne and Zach Boenan. And in this community, like people can share their wins and all of this. They also have those events that are called hashtag ask an editor. It's either the there's an editor there, and writers go to ask questions, or the other way of doing this is they have a writer submitting a scene, everybody reads it before the event, and then on the night uh they discuss the scene. So I was on the hot seat this week for for this workshop, um, and I submitted the first scene, so the first chapter of my horror novel for them to read. So there were two editors uh certified in the tree story method, and there was, uh, if I remember correctly, four writers that are part of a community two that were there. They all had read the scene beforehand, and it was so much fun. So I basically they muted me and they started talking about the scene. Um, talking about the characters and the structure and and everything to know if the scene basically worked or not. And I was muted, so I could not say anything, but it was so great because it was like being at a book club and hearing people talk about your work, and they were all like speculating about things that I have hinted at in the scene, and I was so happy because all the things that I wanted readers to get by little ints here and there, like they all caught. And sometimes they were asking questions, so one person would have read it away, another, not another person another way, but it was so fun because like they were asking exactly the question that I wanted them to ask with the scene. So I was super happy. I could really see that what I wanted to do with the scene was actually working, and what was also so cool is that they all said that they wanted to keep on reading, like, and we know that what's important in a first scene is to get the reader to want to keep on reading, like that's the whole point of the first chapter of a book, and they all said, like, even those who weren't our readers normally, they wanted to keep on reading. So I was really so happy about that. And they pointed little things that I could make stronger and better, but mainly like they enjoyed it, they got what I wanted them to get, and they wanted to keep on reading, so that was super fun. So, um, if you don't know many other writers and you want to be part of a community, I definitely encourage you to go check this community out. But there was also a less fun part about uh last week. Uh so you know, if you've listened to the previous episode, that I had a horror short story that was out for consideration by uh the magazine of fantasy and science fiction, and it had been uh 101 days that they have been considering it, and I got a rejection on Saturday on this piece. Um yeah, it hurt. It's the first rejection that I got for this piece, and I think the the first one is always the the one that hurts the most. Um it was a personal rejection without feedback, but uh the it was from the editor-in-chief herself, and she asked me again to to think about them in the future and to submit next stories to them that I will write. So that's good. And I know that the fact that it took 101 days before they got back to me with a rejection is a really good sign because usually within the first 30 days of the submission, they have sended out all of their rejection already. So the fact that it took like three times the amount of time it usually takes them means that at least two people have read my story. So at least one person read it and said, Oh, that's cool. Like we could maybe publish this. So this is a really good sign. I know that. And getting a personalized rejection letters, even without feedback, that's also a good sign. And the fact that they said to submit again, I read the previous um editor of the magazine said that when they they say they say that, they really mean it. They will not say that to an author that they don't think could eventually fit in the magazine. So I know all of this are good things, but no matter all of that, um, it's still hard. Like I was disappointed. I really thought, because of all this time that I went by, that they were maybe going to accept it. And like I really love the story, I'm really proud of it. And the people who have read it so far, like my writer's friend, um, they enjoyed it. So I was thinking that maybe it was it, but I need to go back to the fruit of this business, and it's that I've heard that many times from editors on podcasts and in interviews that it's a rejection is not always about the writing skills of the author or about the execution of the story itself, that lots of the time it's really just that they didn't connect with the story on a soul level, which is, you know, hard to do. So, and it's also about what the magazine is about, the tone of the magazine, and what the readers enjoy. And sometimes it could be like just that they had a piece close to it just in previous issues, or they have already accepted a story that looks like it for the future. So I know that many factors can come into play into rejection that have nothing to do with the quality of the story itself. Uh, so I know all of that, but yeah, it's still art because you know, I want to be in this business and I want people to read my stories, so and for that I need to be published, so yeah. But you know, I was not going to just stay there in my misery, so I submitted the story right back to the dark magazine, and they give feedback quite fast. Uh, so the next day I already had another rejection letter, uh, a form one this time. They almost never send out personalized uh rejections, so that that's okay. Uh, and this one hurt less. You know, it's the second one, it's less painful. Uh, but still, again, disappointing. So I sent it right back to a PAX magazine now. So it's being considered as I speak by uh this magazine. Uh, and so finger crossed that it's going to be the right fit this time. Because you see on their website, like the way that they consider the stories. So you see that it goes to another editor, and normally they they tell the writer when uh when it goes to another reader in their process for for considering uh short stories. So I'm hoping to at least get past the first reader. That's my goal. I will be happy if I get past the first reader. Of course, I wish that they will accept it, but uh, you know, that that's my line to be happy. So yeah, I keep on submitting this story, hoping to find the right home for it, because you know, that's that's what publishing on a traditional market is all about. It's about finding the right people who get your story. Uh so I'm still working towards that. So that's all for the updates this week. So, writing process. This is a subject that I really, really love. Like I can never get enough of hearing how other people, other writers create their work. So, first, when we think about writing process, usually what people will mean by this is how you take your stories from an idea, so the first time you get an idea about the story, to the complete final version of it that you can then uh submit to be published or that you publish yourself, depending on uh which route you have taken or are currently taking in the publishing industry. Uh so that's what we say usually when we talk about writing process. So I wanted to talk about writing process this week because, like I said, this is a subject that I love so much. And this is the first thing that had a major impact in my writing career. Um, because you know, when I started to write, I did not know how to do it, of course. Uh so I went with Stephen King process that he described on right in on writing because it was like the only process I've ever heard of. And I I am still a big fan of Stephen King, and I was back then. So I said, okay, this is how he's writing his book. So I'm going to do basically the same thing. Um, so his process as I got from on writing was that he pensed uh his first draft. So for those who do not know, pens it's uh a word used in writing to say when you write a book or a story without having planned it before. So you just have an idea and you start writing it, boom, you you get it all out. Uh so that's pensing, and that's how Stephen King does it. So he pens his first draft, then he waits a little bit, then he read back his draft and take notes on what works and doesn't work, and then he makes those changes. So that's basically the process he describes in on writing. So at first that was how I approach writing a novel. Uh, but I attempt to write novel four novels this way, and for the first four using this process, I did not manage to finish uh a novel. So I I managed to nail like writing the first draft using pencing. Like for me, this is a process that really works. So I managed to do this, but I could not get from the first draft to the final draft. Uh, mainly because you know, Stephen King learned writing and story structure and story craft by reading a lot and trial and error. So he wrote stories and submitted them and he wrote stories, and it took him years to internalize how to write a story that worked. Uh, but I just wasn't there myself when I started writing. So I just could not get it done. And it did not work for me to just go with my instinct. Like I just found out quickly that it was in my way. So then I started listening to writing podcasts, and I learned about Rachel Heron's writing process, uh, especially her revision process. When I heard about her writing process, that's how I managed to finish my longer piece of work, which was my science fiction novella. And after that, like I unnailed my my writing process and it was clear, and I really structure my writing process through writing this novella by mimicking uh Rachel Aaron's process. So hearing other writers' process, even though like Stephen King at first, like it didn't work for me, it still got me to write four first drafts of novels, which is amazing. So knowing his process and then knowing Rachel Aaron's process, and I will link in the show notes to an episode of her podcast where she explains a revision process. Uh you should really go listen to this episode. Like it was really a game changer for me. So by learning their processes, I managed to find my own. And that's why I think it's so important to learn about the writing process of other writers. Because if you're starting out, if you have never actually managed to finish a story, uh it might be that you don't have a clear process. So you can listen to final line many writers who tell their writing process and then see what fits with you, what resonates with you, and then go ahead and just try them. And also uh you can say, oh, but no, but I have a process. I tried one and it's working well for me. I got this nailed. But there might be a time where you have a new novel that you have a hard time writing, and knowing how other people do it, it might give you a hint of how you can approach this new novel differently from what you've done before. And it might be the way that will manage to help you finish a different project. And sometimes, like I've read a tweet, I think it was from Josh Mellerman, where he said that every single one of his novels, he wrote it differently. So it might just be like what happens for you that every time you need to do it a bit differently. So when you know an authorizer do it, it can just help you to find out how what's best for you. Um, and I've heard like writers say, oh, I don't want to share my writing process because I don't want people to think that there is one right way to write a book and that if they don't write it this way, therefore their process is bad. But I really think that it shouldn't stop anyone from sharing their process if they want to. Because it's not about saying this is the right way to write a novel. It's about saying this is a way to write a novel. Every writer is different, every writer will write their book differently, and even sometimes, like Josh Mallerman, the same writer will write many books differently, but knowing how hotters other writers do it, uh, it can only give you more knowledge and more way and open up your way of seeing things so that you have something to fall back on or to build on if uh you struggle with finishing a story. So that's why I love writing process. Uh, and that's why I really wish like every single writer share their writing process. So all now that all of this is said about writing processes and why they are so awesome, uh I'm going to share with you my own writing process. It's the process that I use to write my science fiction novella. So that's really where I found that this way of writing a longer piece of work really worked for me. So when I'm writing short stories, um it's like an abridged version of this process and a different one because it's it's so short that it's easier to go back and forth with what you're doing. Uh, but for longer pieces like novella, novels, this is the process that I'm using. So the first step is I get an idea. Like every stories obviously start with the idea. So when I get an idea for a story, I will usually write it in my uh I have a little notebook that is just for ideas. So I will write the jar I think uh it is, the length of it. So is it going to be a short story, novella, novel? And I write like just a couple of sentences, sometimes even comps, um, about this idea that I had. So this is the first step. Uh, but then when I know that one idea has really like potential behind it, uh, there's some energy to it, and I know that I'm going to write it, and I know that it's going to be a long form, like a novel. I will take out a notebook. Like I have so many of them, too much of them. I take one out and I write like the title, the work in progress title on the cover page, and I write in this notebook everything that I know about this story, the the idea that came to me. And every time when I'm working on another project, when I have ideas for this particular story, I will write them down in the notebook. So this helps me to stay focused on the project that I'm working on and not get sidetracked by new ideas that look so fun. So when I have an idea for another project, I go write it in the notebook for this project. So then it leaves me alone so that I can go back and just finish my current project. So I will do that for the period of time from when I get the idea to when I actually sit down to write the project. Once I know that, okay, I'm starting to work on this, let's go, we're doing this. What I will do is again write in a notebook if I have any other additional ideas, and then I will use uh Brendan Sanderson. So again, he shared his writing process and it really helped me. I use his technique for plotting. Now, when I say plotting, I'm not a plotter, so plotter is the opposite of pencer that I was describing just before. Uh, so it's when you really plan your story. Some people go into as far as planning it scene by scene before they start writing a first draft. Um and that that's that's perfectly fine for some people, but for me, I cannot go so deep. So uh that's why Brendan Sanderson uh plotting technique appealed to me so much, and it's in his workshop that is available on YouTube. Again, I will link to it in the show notes. I don't remember which uh episode, which class exactly talked about his plotting technique because it was like two minutes. Minutes, even not two minutes that he talked about it, but it really helped me so much. You should really go listen to this workshop if you haven't. Like it's amazing that it's available like for free online. So I will link to it in the show notes. But I'm using this technique. So basically, it's that you take the big plot line of your novel, uh, the themes or everything that it's like the big categories of things that you want your novel to include to have in, and you will write little points under each of them uh of things you want to include. So, for example, if you're writing a crime story, so you'll uh the the main crime plot line, which will be like discovering the murder, so you will write a little bullet point like discovering the body, uh inspector see death. So everything that has to do with really the crime story, and then if you have, I don't know, a secondary plot line, which is about uh a love story between your main character and another investigator, I don't know. So you will write what you see that will happen in the second plot line, and maybe for the theme, you have ideas of what you want to include in the novel, referring to the theme of justice, for example. But it's really like it's not ordered and it's not complete, it's really just things that you know you want to include for the specific plot line or elements of your story. Um, so I will do that, and I do that in my notebook. So each page, there will be a page by plot line, and I will use uh post-it, the tab post-its that you can write on it. Uh, and I will use a post-it by ideas that I have or um scenes that I want to write or things that I want to include. So this will be the first thing that I will do. Then I will use um so just really to get out of my head the things that I know for sure are going to be included for sure at this point, are going to be included in the story. Then I will use the story grid full scap, the obligatory scenes and convention as described by story grids. So again, I will make a link in the show notes to this, um, to the story grid and um the blog post that explains those notions. This really helps me see the big picture and what I want to write. So to be clear on the jar that I want to write, be clear on what the crisis climax of what I want to write are about, uh, really get an idea. Again, because I'm not a firm plotter, because I'm more of a penser, this is just getting ideas out of my head. But if I don't know what is the crisis for the ending payoff, I don't care about that. Like I write just what I know. And then I will do also very loosely, say if the cat writes a novel, I will go and I will have like if there is beats that I know what they are, I will write it down too in my journals. Uh, and then I will use index card to just loosely outline my story, just to give me like a trajectory that I'm going to go for and to know where I'm loosely going with my story. Uh, so I will use index card for like each of the eight big sequences of my novel. Um, and then I will use index card for the big moments that I know are going to be important. For example, like the opening scene, uh the break into two, the midpoint, break into three, using the save the cat terminology. And I will take the post-its that I have uh filled up in the my plotting technique, like Brendan Sanderson, and I will put those post-its on my index card to know where I think those elements are going to play out in the story. But it's all in post-it because I know I'm going to move them around, and it's just really to help me see where I think this whole thing is going to go in, the direction this thing is going to go in. But it's really loose, and I'm not putting any pressure on myself to make this perfect because I tried plotting because I have heard so many writers talk about plotting and how it's an effective method for them. And I can see also like it's it just makes sense because you structure your old story before you write. So of course you get a way more clean first draft this way. But my brain just doesn't work this way. So I'm trying to do this to help me shape my first draft, but at the same time, like I'm not forcing anything because I know that it's just it doesn't help me. So when I have all of this, when I have my index card and then I have a loose idea of where I'm going with all of this, uh, this is when I sit down and I write my first draft. I write it as quickly as possible. I don't overthink anything. I use lots of brackets. So when I come like uh a word that I'm not sure what it is, uh sometimes I will write it in French in brackets when the words come to me in French. It happens less often now. My English is getting way, way, way better. But sometimes it will happen that it's the word in French that comes to me, so I will put it in brackets. Uh or sometimes it will be description, like I I'm not good at just coming up with description, so I will put like in brackets, description of the place, description of this person. Um, and if even if there is action sometimes that I it just doesn't come to me when I'm writing because I want to get to the end of the first raft as fast as possible, I will use brackets and just say like, she goes to this place, and then I know that I will fill those braggets later. So I go really, really fast, and the goal is just to get the story out of myself as fast as possible without overthinking like anything. Like I'm really using the nanoraimo technique. Then when I'm done with the first draft, um, this is the big part for me where like the real the story really takes shape in between the first draft and the second draft. So I'll do a big, big, big spreadsheet where I will think about everything. So I will go ahead and fill completely using the story grid methodology, the full scap, the obligatory scenes and convention, really be clear about every single one of them. Uh, I will do the whole save the cat uh spreadsheet with every beats, knowing them perfectly what I want them to be. I will do a spreadsheet also of every single scene. I'm planning my second draft. I'm doing a detailed online of my second draft so that when I'm starting to write the second draft, I know exactly what I'm going to do in every scene, what every scene does, why every scene is there, using those different methodologies. Uh, and in my next project, I want to use uh Liza Crown's uh story genius index card too. Uh, I think they are really great. So I want to try this in that stage of the process to really know why my scenes are there, how they're working together. So this part of the process is really where I will analyze Masterworks to see how other writers uh structure that novel, how they did it. Um and also when my big spreadsheet is done, I will usually get a friend, a writer friend or two to check it and to tell me if they see holes, if they see things that they think do not work structurally with that spreadsheet. Uh, because if there is something that doesn't work, like I want to know before I write the entire second draft. Um, and even for my current novel that I'm working on, I hired J Thorne uh to look at my spreadsheet and tell me, you know, is this working? Is this a plan that seems solid for you? Because I really want to be sure that I have as much of a solid plan as I can before I write the second draft. So of course it would be better to do this like right away before the first draft, but I just can't. I can just do that when I have a first draft down. What I will do also during that stage, I'm using Scrivener. I love Scrivener. This is like the writing software that changed my life. Like I feel like it was built exactly for me. I have a link again in my show notes for Scrivener if you want to try it out. It is an affiliate link, but uh only because I knew that I was going to be talking all the time about this software because I love it so much. So it's genuine, like me telling you to go try it because I love it. Uh so in Scrivener, what I will do is that I will create uh a document for every scene and I will structure it inside of Scrivener, inside folders to really have like the structure, and I will use the note section of Scrivener to write down everything that I want to do with the scene. So according to this methodology, I'm doing this in this scene, and I'm really I'm using also the um five commandments of storytelling by the story grid again. So I will write all the five commandments for every scene to be sure that they will be working scenes even before I write them. And I will take the parts for my first draft that I know works, uh, and I will put them in those scenes in the second draft. So I'm not writing the second draft without any material, like I'm using actual pieces of scene from my first draft, but in between those two drafts, like there will be scenes that I will cut completely and there will be scenes that I will add completely. So some scenes will be completely um empty when I'm starting to write the second draft, but other scenes will have parts from the first draft, and sometimes I'm using like something that happened at the very end, I will put it in the beginning or I will play with my first draft. But so I'm using the words that I wrote in the first draft, but very loosely and not like every single one of them. So once I'm done with that big, big work, uh, I write the second draft based on the outline that I have. So I will be when I'm at this stage, I'm just in scrivener because I have all of my notes, I know exactly what I have to do. So I will go and write the second draft again quite fast because I know exactly what I'm doing. And again, I'm not worrying about how I'm writing it. I'm still not worrying about brackets, so I will still use lots of brackets. What I want to do with this second draft is just having a strong story on the page. I want the structure to be perfectly as perfect as I can make it. I want the characters to be there. And that and the theme, that's what I want to have in the second draft, but I still don't care about exactly how it's written. I just want to have the story down. Once I'm done with the second draft, this is where I go to the third draft, which is the draft passes draft. Uh so this was the technique that really comes from Rachel Aaron that I've never heard before. I heard her talk about these techniques. So then in the third draft, I will go ahead and look at my entire draft from really specific things to make it work. So I will go and look at the setting and be sure that I've described the setting alright. Then I will go back and look at all my characters. Did I describe them okay? Does their um dialogues feel alright? This is where also when I'm writing the second draft, sometimes I will go back and add some notes in previous scenes because things come up to me. Oh, I should include this and that scene. Um, so when I'm doing that, and I I do uh, yeah, that's true. Before writing the third draft, I will reread my entire draft and then I will add lots of notes on the scenes where I say, okay, I want to add this, I want to take that out. If I have other notes, I will add them at this point. Uh so there will be a draft pass where I just go and make sure all those notes are taken care of. Um there will be a draft pass when I take care of all the brackets I had left behind. This is not the most fun, and every time I'm like, why didn't I just do it when I was writing the draft? But you know, this is my process, so I go back and fill out all those brackets. And I will do also research. Uh, if there is some parts that I was unsure of during the writing, I will go and do the research to actually put something that makes sense in my book. So when I and I will do a final uh draft pass where that is just for cleaning up uh and cutting as much as I can because I'm an overwriter. I write too much. So I will do a draft pass where I just got everything that is not necessary, everything that I've said like two, three times it happens. I will just take them off. Uh so after this third draft is done, I'm ready to share it with my writing group, my amazing writing group, my amazing writer friends. This time around, I send it also at this point uh with Stephanie, my mentor. So that's where I want to get feedback after this draft to know, okay, does it work? Before I go in and like make every line shine. I want to be sure that on a global level, on a structural level, on the scene level, that it works. Um so once I get back the comments from my writer friends, my better readers, I will go in and I will apply the comments as I'm doing the line editing of the draft, which will be the four draft and the last draft that I do before I attempt to publish it. Uh so during this line editing draft, it's really about making sure that it flows, that every word is the right word. This is where we'll cut a lot. This is where I will make sure that I'm showing and telling in the right balance. Um this is the the part that really feels like editing uh that I'm doing with uh I'm using an iPad and an Apple pencil, and I'm just like uh I will create PDFs of my chapters and I will write lots of notes inside. Then I will go back in Scrivener, apply the changes that I did with uh with the pen, and then I will read it again until it flows. I like doing it with a pen uh just because it changed the perspective and the way I'm seeing the words. So before I used to print my entire novel and do it by hand, but yeah, it it takes a lot of paper first, and uh second, it doesn't allow me to like right now I can do it two, three times that I will recreate a PDF and then rewrite on it. Uh so it allows me to do that without like generating all this mass of paper. So I'm really I really like to use this technique. Uh so when I'm done with this four draft, the line editing draft, uh it's basically good to go. And uh if it's a short piece, I will then get again my my reader friends to check it up just to make sure that it really flows. Uh, but for a novel, like I'm doing this with Stephanie because she's my mentor and and we're working on this together, but usually I will not have somebody do the line editing with me because that's such a big work. Like it's a lot of asking for someone, so that's the part that I will usually do alone. Um, if I it was not for my amazing mentor right now. So when I'm done, it's time for submitting uh and hopefully publishing. So there is my entire writing process, the one that worked for my science fiction novella, the one that uh because I'm in the fourth draft right now, the last draft for my horror novel, like I know that it works also for me for a novel, so I'm I'm quite happy about that. And you know, since I've been having this process nailed down that really works for me and my brain and how things work for me, um, it's really been like way more fun to write because I know where I'm going. Whereas before, when I didn't have a writing process down, it was really like terrifying of not knowing how am I going to take this idea and get it to a complete draft. So really, if you're still at that stage where you don't really know what your process is and you're lost, like go out there and and Google the writing process, listen to podcasts like Rachel Aaron's um how do you write podcasts. She she talks with writers about their process all the time. Go search for this and see what resonates with you, what clicks with you, and try it out. And if it doesn't work, try something else until you really find a process that seems to work for you. And then for the next project, if it doesn't work, then try something different. But um I think there is a lot of power to have as a writer with writing process because it gives you a direction in something that's so big and that can be like overwhelming when you're you're not sure where you're going. So I hope you enjoyed this episode. I know I had lots of fun again recording it. Uh, if you like the episode, if you find it helpful, you can take a screenshot uh of the episode and uh share it on Instagram. Uh and you can tag me at leftyob, so at L E F T I E A U B E. Uh so I'm I will be so happy to see uh that you've listened to it and that you have enjoyed it. Um I will probably I will I will share it back in my stories, that's for sure. And on that, I'm wishing you a lovely week of writing.