Blog of Author Michelle McLean

Blog Chain time again :D This time Amparo wants to know:

It's a new year, and some writers have taken it upon themselves to switch things up. *points at self* It might be the genres you write in or your revision process. It might be your main character's voice. What's one thing you've chosen to change in your writing this new year? Why do you wish to change it? If there's nothing you're going to change, why do you think it should remain as is?

I actually started changing the way I write as of a couple months ago. Mostly because once my trilogy was signed by Entangled, I had a bunch of shiny new deadlines to hit...and they were pretty close together LOL

So, I found myself needing to bump up my word count and being a lot more disciplined with my time. I also don't have the time to send my manuscript out to a dozen crit partners anymore so I've had to rely a bit more on one or two very fast critters and my gut and own editing skills, which, I'm not going to lie, causes some stress lol

It's definitely a different amped up way of doing things, but so far I think it's going okay :) It definitely forces me to work instead of dilly-dallying around with it.

It's also made it necessary to really outline before I start writing. I always did this in some form anyway, but it's vital now that I have a solid, detailed outline and synopsis before I start writing. This has really cut down on the problems I used to have. My first drafts still need a lot of work, don't get me wrong, but it has cut down on writer block problems and issues of writing myself into a corner or veering too far off on tangents.

Basically, my new writing method is much more organized and scheduled than it used to be. And it's working well so far :)

Do you have any new writing goals or methods for the new year?

Be sure to swing by Lisa's blog and Alyson's tomorrow :)