The Four Muscles of Writing (and how to flex them)

So you think you can write fiction, huh?

Yeah - I sure thought I could. In fact, I thought it would be easy. Heck, I had a Ph.D., had published several academic articles, and was a major contributor to a two-volume history of the Iraq War.

And then I tried to write a book for fun…and my initial drafts were abysmal. Fortunately I had superb editors at the Creator Institute and New Degree Press who taught me what I have termed “the four muscles of writing.”

1. Research: The act of researching content to support or enhance one’s story (including interviews).

2. Conceptualize: The act of putting a sense of a scene, chapter, or an entire story on paper. It could be in outline, post-it-note, or other template - whatever works best for the writer.

3. Free-Write: The act of writing creative content (scenes, chapters) based on research and conceptualization or, my personal favorite, just being in the flow. I find that a glass of wine often helps me here (but ONLY one -)

4. Edit. The act of fixing creative content. Checking for things like: spelling and grammar, tense (consistency), plot / content consistency, and unique writer quirks (I, for one, have to edit my work for an overabundance of capitalization).

Finally, two points on how and when to flex the four muscles:

1.Flex them one at a time (not concurrently). For example, don’t try to edit whilst free-writing (it kills the flow).

2. Use them in an order that works for you. Obviously writing will come before editing, but the rest is really up to the writer. Some prefer to free-write and then conceptualize. Others will research first…and so on.

I hope you find this advice as helpful as I did (and do) -