The Writing Process as explained by a writer

This shall be educational for whoever reads this. I am going to explain briefly the order of the steps to writing a novel alongside the details of steps, and what is required. I do this to show people who think writing is simple that they need to shut up. This stuff takes some time. Enjoy.

Step One-The Idea-This is the first step and the most important, for it is where the writer forms his/her story. These ideas are not in a writer’s control and will arrive at any time of any day. To have a complete idea however, the writer must finish his story premise. He/she must have the entire series (if sequels are involved) in mind before moving on. One must know the end to tell the beginning.-

Step Two-The Details-Once the story is complete and workable, the writer must then finite the details. This entails the writer to form various resources including character profiles, locations descriptions, universal rules, government and laws, and general world timeline. This process can be both very short and very long depending on the complexity of the story and how much the writer already has in mind.

Step Three-Outlines-A similar but different process as the details. As the characters and locations come together, the writer is able to form any number of three types of outlines. The first is a Story Outline. This outline connects each person, place, thing and idea to one or more of each to keep the bond all the pieces have together. The second is a Book Outline. This is simply the book briefly written out with the main ideas embellished so the writer knows what to put focus on. The last is a Chapter Outline, which is the book’s chapter written out by specific and important parts. This is done so the writer knows what to write before he even writes one word.

Step Four-The First Thought-This step is a simple idea, but a long and dreadful process. It is by far the most complicated of all the writing, because this first word, sentence or paragraph (depends on the writer and story) must captivate, entice and coax the readers all at the same time so they are convinced to keep reading. This sometimes takes entire months because to some writers, nothing sounds right.

Step Five-The Rough Draft-The first version of the story written out and done. Every chapter to the novel is completed by step five, but is not over. This draft is where all the previous steps culminate, written, and forgotten, because this is what they built up to. The next few steps after this are completed through use of this rough draft.

Step Six-Editing-This goes by a few names: proof reading, error checking, extremely annoying crap, but it all means the same thing. It is the writer or editor reading over the rough draft with a hawk’s eye to search for spelling errors, grammar inconsistencies, and repeated or misplaced sentences. The entire process is extremely tedious and takes almost as long as writing it all.

Step Seven-The Final Draft-When all the editing is done, the writer has to rewrite the story correcting all the errors. It is generally a short process compared to the others, because the writing is already done.

Step Eight-Copyrighting-This is a step that is never skipped. Someone will do it eventually. Preferably a writer should copyright his/her own work for various legal reasons, but most of the time, the publicist would for them. To copyright, a completed copy of the entire work must be submitted, so all the previous steps must be finished.

Step Nine-Publishing-The longest fire and miss process ever. Publishing companies get thousands upon thousands of submissions every week and they read them all. When a book finally does get a publishing contract, the process of printing, promotion and distribution takes anywhere from six months to a year. During this time, most writers start writing the sequel or another story entirely.

Step Ten-Throw A Party-Why, you may ask, is this the last step? Well I’m glad you asked. After spending six months writing the story and then another six to a year waiting for the release of the book, a writer will want to celebrate. It is a long and insanely difficult task. Let us have our moment.

I orignally wrote this for non-literature types and put on Facebook for people to learn that writing isn't easy. I hope you all agree on my steps. I have written a book before, so I do actually know how. haha. Leave some comments.