What's everyone's writing workflow like?

[StillStunned]

It'll come through in the finished product.

I take my cue from Tolkien on this, who produced reams of successive well-built worlds for every page that eventually made it into print. He felt that even if that backstory wasn't included explicitly in the finished work, the reader would sense that it existed, and it would deepen the tale.

I think he's right.

I've been a D&D Dungeon Master for decades, and I think my experiences carry over to my fantasy/sci-fi writing. I've learned not to throw anything out there that doesn't impact the narrative or the visuals immediately. Describe what the characters can see, hear, touch, and don't bother with anything else.

The thing is, it's really easy to give a sense of vast history with just a few words. "The tower stood by itself on the hill. It probably dated back to the Border Wars, but the large blocks that made up its lower level told of an older history. The Sun Emperor's long reign, probably, given the proximity of the road that still ran straight, making mockery of the centuries."

The bigger the world is that you create, the less you have to remember the details. A few mentions of things you described earlier will give a sense of consistency. But I find that small explicit details in the immediate vicinity of the story do more to give depth than an elaborate Tolkien-style background.

 

[Jackie.Hikaru]

Hi everyone, I'm a total noob here and I'm curious what everyone's writing workflow looks like these days. I dabbled in creative writing a long time ago but life kind of got in the way and I haven't written anything fictional in a long time. I'm trying to get back in and with how much the world changed, it's a bit daunting what all the options are. Back then, I think I mostly used Microsoft Word and I would be tempted to use Google Docs but I heard that writing graphically explicit content in Google Docs could get your entire account nuked. I'm sure there's no right or wrong answer here, but curious what your personal experience has been like using different tools and workflows and what ended up working for you.

Thanks all!

Welcome back to writing!

Microsoft pushed me away from Word by relentlessly insisting that I use copilot to help me write my smut. I’ve since use Scrivener linked with Dropbox. I purchased the desktop and mobile version of the app so when I’m at home I use it on my pc and when I’m on the road, my iPad.

As a word processor it’s nowhere near as powerful as other offerings, but as a tool to organize thoughts, notes, outlines, and so forth it’s quite nice. I quite like it. I also like that I can organize my story scene by scene too.

Once I’ve finished with a story, I’ll compile it into markdown and archive it on a proton drive that’s nicely siloed from my real life.

 

[YmaOHyd]

Microsoft pushed me away from Word by relentlessly insisting that I use copilot to help me write my smut.

Yeah, I want to say here that the copy of Word I use does not have Copilot integration, and I'm not on Windows 11, so I don't have all the obtrusive Copilot shit thrust into my face. If I do have to swap over, I'll probably start looking for another word processor, though I like the version of Word I have.

 

[Voboy]

...so I don't have all the obtrusive Copilot shit thrust into my face.

Plot bunny: hatched.

A flight attendant finds that the copilot has an oddly scatological response to her innocent query, "Is there anything I can help you with?"

 

[millamomud]

I start mostly with an idea: Ethan prints himself a chastity cage, posts a Pic on reddit and gets busted by a coworker, or Louise admits in a game of truth and dare she never had an orgasm, then dared to insert her roommates remote controlled egg.

Then I write the first chapter and try to think what happens next to them. I develop the plot, the content of every chapter and what happens in the end, draw some key scenes and then start writing the rest from chapter two on.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Plot bunny: hatched.

A flight attendant finds that the copilot has an oddly scatological response to her innocent query, "Is there anything I can help you with?"

Inflatable, with the tube just below the beltline?

 

[SmilingLez]

Strangely enough, my poetry starts out as a short story. I flesh out my characters and theme. Then I get rid of all unnecessary words and turn it into visceral free verse

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Inflatable, with the tube just below the beltline?

If the pictures I'm finding are current, she seems to have aged rather well.

 

[dirk2024]

Hi everyone, I'm a total noob here and I'm curious what everyone's writing workflow looks like these days. I dabbled in creative writing a long time ago but life kind of got in the way and I haven't written anything fictional in a long time. I'm trying to get back in and with how much the world changed, it's a bit daunting what all the options are. Back then, I think I mostly used Microsoft Word and I would be tempted to use Google Docs but I heard that writing graphically explicit content in Google Docs could get your entire account nuked. I'm sure there's no right or wrong answer here, but curious what your personal experience has been like using different tools and workflows and what ended up working for you.

Thanks all!

I use Word for my writing. If I'm fortunate enough to get a beta-reader, I use Elipsis to share it with them. It allows them to highlight a word, a phrase or a paragraph and make a comment on it for me to read. I can also set it up with questions for them to answer after they read it.

I have a bunch of Works In Progress (WIP's) that I work on as inspiration strikes. I seem to have a case of ADHD, so I often have more than one open at a time. Yes, this can be frustrating.

One thing that helps me keep all that straight is an Excel spreadsheet. Each story has its own worksheet where I track the following:

Name Job Age Characteristics Personality Notes

It helps when coming up with new names and for crafting new characters.

Let us know if you have any questions.

Dirk

 

[ADirtyPerv]

Strangely enough, my poetry starts out as a short story. I flesh out my characters and theme. Then I get rid of all unnecessary words and turn it into visceral free verse

That is utterly fascinating. I'd love to read any of those originals if they still exist. But not 'The Lucky Plate Club', that fucked me up.

 

[SmilingLez]

That is utterly fascinating. I'd love to read any of those originals if they still exist. But not 'The Lucky Plate Club', that fucked me up.

I actually have the flesh outs in my journals stored away. I should find them. The Lucky Plate Club prose was for the dark fairy tale challenge. And as you know I went quite dark and cannibalistic. Currently I am flushing out my next prose which takes place in 1,950s Paris and is a nod to Hemingway's a Movable Feast.

 

[Writer61]

I write using a local Word install, with a dedicated template that includes colour coding for three heading levels. While writing, I use these to mark sections, especially any that still need work. Including a Table of Contents helps me jump quickly to specific areas. Of course, at the end of editing, these are removed.

Files are saved locally and backed up to Dropbox.

I use Word's built-in Spelling & Grammar tools and Grammarly to catch typos and grammatical errors.

Excel sheets help me track character names, so that I do not overuse any.

I use PowerPoint slides as a sort of mood board for each series.

Good luck.

EDIT: I use Mac's text-to-speech option for final editing.

 

[IWroteThis]

I have a pretty well-defined process, with only a couple of variations.

First, I use yWriter, which is free, although I think it's well worth the registration price to support its creator. It's designed specifically for breaking your writing down into chapters and scenes, and it has a lot of cool features that make it far superior to trying to write in a single, linear document.

For Literotica, I have one yWriter file I call my Story Vault. I have a chapter for each category (plus one for general ideas). I then create a single scene in the appropriate category for each story idea. This could vary from a few lines of dialogue to a full outline. I might add more notes to an idea, but when I actually start to write the draft, it gets its own yWriter file. Here is the first variation, as sometimes an idea is so well-developed or I'm inspired to start writing, so it skips the vault.

The second variation is how I treat 750 word stories compared to others. For 750 word stories, I only use one scene per draft. When I do an editing pass, I clone the scene and edit the new copy. Because of the limited word count, sometimes I have to cut out things I really like and this keeps the old copies handy so I can just grab them if I cut words elsewhere to free word count for them.

For all other stories, I simply update the existing scenes, knowing I can always go through the auto-backups if I really want to reclaim something I delete.

Once my editing passes stop producing significant changes, I export to a .docx file and open it in Word. I tend to ignore over half of the grammar suggestions, but I've only had one time where I had to ignore every suggestion Word made, so I keep using it. When I do agree with Word, I change it in yWriter as well.

Once Word has no more suggestions for me to laugh at, I use Read Aloud. At first, I have the yWriter scene editor open and read along as it reads it to me. When something doesn't sound right, I pause and rewrite it in yWriter until I'm satisfied, then copy the changes over to Word and have it reread it to me. As I find less to change, I switch to just listening. I continue to have it read to me until I find that I'm just changing a few things back and forth. Like with the editing passes in yWriter, it's not about a set number of passes, but not stopping until it's done.

Once I'm satisfied that the story is ready for the adult public, I copy it into Notepad++ and add any HTML formatting it might need. Mostly that is centering scene breaks, but I also bold chapters and add tags for things like bold and italics. I then copy the result into a single scene in yWriter for storage.

Finally, I go the new story form, but I don't type anything into it directly. yWriter allows you to specify scene types, including one called "NOTES" that does not export. Besides the one for saving the submission ready version, I also have one for each piece of metadata. Rather than typing anything directly into the new story form, I copy and paste from those metadata scenes, which have been spellchecked and reviewed. I also track submission and publication dates in a metadata scene.

Once the submission button has been pressed, I delete the .docx file and close Notepad++ without saving, as there is nothing in Word or Notepad++ that is not also in yWriter. After the story has been published, I move the yWriter file from my WiP folder to my Published folder. If I ever decide to write a sequel or alternate ending, I pull it back to WiP and continue in the same file, since it already has the characters, locations, and items in it.

And that, in a very large nutshell, is my process. The only other thing I would add is that I do not force myself to stay with one story from start to finish. I work on whichever one is currently inspiring me, whether still writing or already editing.

I will add one caveat about using yWriter for 750 word stories. Unlike Word and Literotica, it counts each word in hyphenated words separately, so you can end up getting your story rejected for incorrect word count if you're not careful.

 

[EmilyMiller]

What's everyone's writing workflow like?​

Probably boring everyone to death covering thus again, but…

I write close to exclusively on my iPhone. When I started out, I used Note, then Word 365, then Google Docs. I have some privacy concerns about the last, and am less than fond of Alphabet, but I can’t seem to get on with Proton, and GD is great for collaboration.

My ideas come from all over, and take many shapes and sizes. I might have an idea about a character, or a scene. I might have an idea about the general shape of the ending of a story. I might have an idea about the overall theme (or central theme) of a story; for example my novel’s genesis was what it felt like to be a woman in mid-2020s America.

Often what I do next is to write a section. It could be the beginning, or a particular scene, or the ending. Once I get to say 1 - 2,000 words, I reassess. How long a story is this going to be, how complex, how many characters? If it’s a short story, I might just go back to writing and finish it. If it’s a novelette or longer, I might write a bulleted outline of the plot, or a short treatment of the overall story (like the CliffsNotes version), then put meat on the bones, normally adapting the outline / treatment as I go.

I tend to write 500 - 2,000 word sections, revise them lightly myself, and then share with @Djmac1031 - at this point he’s more providing general feedback. Sometimes I’ll share with another person as well, who exactly can vary.

As I progress, I periodically do Speak ‘n’ Spell read backs using iOS speak. I use these to trap inconsistencies and errors and poor phrasing. By the time I am done with a longer work, the early sections have been listened to a few times.

When I have a first draft, I add @Djmac1031 (and maybe others) to the Google Doc and he proofreads. He will fix obvious typos, but any other feedback is via comments. I then decide whether he has a point and - if so - what to do about it. He sometimes does his own listen to it, more for plot holes and whether it all hangs together.

For some stories, I might also seek a beta reader review once I have a second or third draft. I’ll incorporate whatever I think is useful from this and then do a final read through, often letting the dramatic moments breathe more (thank you @StillStunned ) and then hit submit.