The Writing Process and Steven Gould

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Steven Gould, new book coming out early next year, was kind enough to talk to us about his writing process. Another unique style, Steven writes and revises AT THE SAME TIME!

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Tamago: Do you have a regular drafting process, or does your drafting process vary from book to book? (If it varies, please keep one project in mind as you answer these questions.)

Steven: I am very much a "pantser" as they call it. In other words, not a plotter. My drafting process is a rolling churn. As I write I revise on an ongoing basis. If something needs to be set up in the current day's work, I go back and set it up first. While this is not a fast process, it does result in my finished first draft being very close to my submission draft.

Tamago: Which part of writing--drafting, revising, critique from others--do you enjoy the most? Why? The least? Why?

Steven: Drafting is best but as I said, revising is pretty much part of this process. I REALLY like finishing. However, I have been fooled by this desire to finish to declaring a book done when it still needed several thousand words.

Tamago: What is the longest time it's taken you to complete a project? The shortest time?

Steven: I'm going to talk about novels. I was writing REFLEX, the sequel to JUMPER, when 9/11 happened. JUMPER had scenes of terrorism and several scenes at the World Trade Center and this really interfered with my ability to go forward with the book so it was finished for another two years (three and a half in all).

The quickest thing I ever wrote was the tie-in for JUMPER the movie. JUMPER: GRIFFIN'S STORY was written in 9 months but the destination (leading up to the events before the movie) was defined ahead of time so that helped.

Tamago: In what ways has your writing process changed over time?

Steven: I've always written books like I read them: To find out what is going to happen. (The pantser thing.) This continues to be true. I've found, over the years, that I can't really workshop incomplete books as the critiques seriously delay my already slow writing process. I would like to say that I've become a better writer, but I'm not sure. The process feels the same inchoate horror that is has always been and my first book remains my most popular.

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Mirrored from Writer Tamago.