it's a process

with all of this creative writing filling up my nights three times a week, i feel like i'm in a creative writing explosion. i'm always writing these days. which is actually kind of a wonderful thing. it comes easily and quickly now. i almost wonder how i'm going to stop once this semester is over. i've written four short stories that stemmed from small assignments that weren't supposed to turn into anything and i'm starting on my big twenty pager this weekend. i kind of love it. i'm learning a lot and falling in love over and over again with every assigned short story to read for class. i love short stories. i never had an appreciation for them but now that i've read some truly amazing ones, i don't think i can stop reading those, either.

today we talked about the creative writing "process". it's different for everyone and we discussed what works for us individually. i realized quickly that my process is the least time efficient and most disorganized of all. i don't plan. i don't take notes. i don't brainstorm. sometimes, all it takes is sitting down and i'll have a 1500 word story in an hour without any thought process at all. but for the long term assignments, my process is a disaster. i usually make a list in my head of ideas, lines, hooks, or characters i want to write and end up starting a story for each idea i have. this can number anywhere from two ideas or in my most recent case, six. eventually, i'll lose interest in a few of them and they'll be put on the back burner until the one that sticks around suddenly has a direction in my head. i just "know" when i've found a hook. it isn't efficient at all. for me it's all about feeling out an idea until i know it's going to turn into something. which is how i end up finishing whatever i'm writing the day before it's due, even if i've been working on it for days or weeks.

it's a process. and a bad one at that. but it works for me.