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Saturday, May 5, 2012

How do you write?

It is easy to think that everyone must have the same process or at least a similar process for writing. After talking to many writers, I have found that that's not necessarily true. People can experience their stories in many different ways. Here are some examples:

The Visual Writer - The visual writer sees their story in images, one moment at a time. Some can even study that image and turn it around in their head. 

The Movie Maker - The movie maker writer experiences their story in their mind the same way that other people experience life or watching movies. They can actually walk through it, seeing, hearing, touching, and smelling everything around them.

The Planer - The Planer plots an outline and fills it in. They don't see or hear their story, they craft it out of words on the page.

The Auditory Writer - The auditory writer listens to their story. They hear voices in their head talking to each other. Some auditory writers can talk back to the voices and even argue. Others can only listen. 

The Illustrator/Photographer - The illustrator draws out their story first. If they can't draw, they might also take pictures or collect photographs to help their story emerge. 

When I write I am an auditory writer and a photographer. I can only listen to my characters, not interact. They speak to each other and I capture their words. Even when I write a blog post like this one, I hear my own voice in my head molding the words together. To add visual images to my writing, I am the photographer. I find images in the real world or online to match the voices in my head or the settings where the events are taking place. 

How do you write? Do you use one of these methods or a combination. Is there anything you do that I haven't mentioned?

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