"I know a little bit about what im doing, but I don't know a lot a bit about what im doing" my senior quote

I am still trying to figure out my process... I really enjoy your "I tried writing like" videos because they give me some new insights.

Random Note: I just realized how much Kate has gotten confident in being in front of the camera. Her voice used to be quite high in her older videos (I think she mentioned this before?). Anyway, it's nice to see more information on your writing process and tools😁😊 Edit: I just realized how much of a writing process I *don't* have 😅🙈

Thanks to you, zero drafting has helped me put away the perfectionist in me, and just write! I used to never go far in any of my stories but now I've gained a lot of confidence with my writing

I noticed a big part of your writing process is to have a physical copy of something like thoughts, drafts and planning. I feel like that’s so essential! Also love ‘the more I write, the more I don’t know’ haha love how honest and lovely you are!

I hear people talk a lot about being a pantser or a plotter but I honestly prefer the terms Architect and Gardener. Architect builds detail into every step of the way through meticulous planning before even the writing process begins while the Gardener has an idea of what they want, a "fantasy seed" so to speak, where they will plant their idea and let it flourish as they write and go back to prune it after its finished growing. I'm certainly someone who sits in the middle, someone who builds the skeleton of their story by creating the plot, outline, characters, and world while I let my characters now interact as real humans would through flowing dialogue that I write in the moment.

Once upon a time I was a pantser and I never finished anything. The one time I actually tried plotting, I finished my first draft in just over a year! I haven't actually started on a new project since that became my focus, and now that it's "done", I'm trying different methods for 2 ideas, so we'll see what happens! (also Scrivener is hands down the best thing I've ever bought for writing)

So I tend to tweak as I go along, but currently each stage of my process looks like this: Planning: I usually use a pencil and a notebook for this, and jot down everything and make symbols and highlight and doodle and cross things out, whatever helps me get to planning. There's something about the pencil instead of the keyboard at this stage. Like you said, words on a screen or words printed out, it's all words but still it does something different. Outlining: The First Outline: I have a general idea of all parts of the book, some definite ideas about beginnings and endings, possible subplot and a fuzzy idea of who the main characters are. Things may or may not be named and at no point is this outline safe. Drafting: First Draft: I try to write a consistent amount of words a day, and I try not to edit anything ever. I have a system where I use brackets in my writing. So for instance if I have want to have a minor character move to the bow of the ship and do something useful, but I haven't named the character, can't remember the word "bow" and don't know enough about ships to know what would be useful, I would end up writing something like " as {sailor guy} moved onto the {front of the ship}, a massive wave swept over the hull, making it difficult to {do something shippy}" This helps me not break my rhythm and keeps the editor in my head from interfering. If I'm having a particularly tough day writing, I'll even drop things in like {omg this is such crap} and {I have no idea where I'm going with this} and that helps me get it out of my system and keep writing. Cool Down: Two months of no touchy, no looky! Read Through: I print the book out. The whole thing. I try to read the first draft through like I'm a reader. I take minor notes of ideas and things that confuse me, even if I answered it later, and I focus on what's actually written. The Second Outline: Next, I go through the draft and quickly make a new outline. Because, inevitably, what I thought would happen did not happen and there were some stunts involved. My old outline is what I thought would happen, this one is what actually happened. Then I look the outline over and decide if that's the story I want to tell and make notes. I smush all this into the final outline, which is now a sort of map for the book editing. Editing: This is Macro to Micro, starting with the story, the world, the characters and tweaking down to arc and tension in scenes and details and description and then finally down to line edits, word choice and spelling. Invariably, at some point in this process, I do a find and replace for all the "it's" to just be "its" and then watch for which ones actually should be "it's". I use it's all the time and I don't know how to stop myself. Do they have USB powered shock collars for writers? Pre-Final: This is where I do a bit of formatting, and read-through once more before finding Betas. From here, it goes out to Betas and comes back , hopefully with feedback, and then starts at the top of the Editing process again. Every pass makes it a little better, but at some point I also give myself a deadline to be done by. At some point it also goes out to Critique Partners too. Then more editing. Final: I've given myself a deadline to submit by and scrubbed the work into the best shape I can make of it, and then I start looking for agents to submit to. I submit it to the agents and get some rejections and some that don't respond. I've never been beyond this gate, so I don't know what lies on the other side. I use Scrivener for novels, my notebook for planning, Facebook to publicly state goals, Google Keep to track goals and write quick ideas, Some timer app to Pomodoro the time, www.ambient-mixer.com for writing atmospheres,Google Docs to write short stories, water, cappucino and Mountain Dew to fuel my madness and a cat bed on my desk to make my writing muse comfortable. And finally, I propose we change the official name of "Project Purple" to "Project Purple, it's pink, it's fine." :p

Ah man, I can't skip a scene for the life of me!! My plotter brain is super picky about following the outline EXACTLY :))

My process just changed dramatically and it's fascinating. I was sure I was a plotter because I'm obsessed with organization in every other aspect of my life. However I never finished things and outlined everything to death to the point I over thought the story so bad that I had too much anxiety to write. Then on a whim I decided to expand on and polish a scene of fanfiction I wrote years ago. That was in April it is now half way through August and I'm 17,000 words in further than I've ever gotten before. I got to 10,000 is a week! Then 15,000 in three weeks. And then life happened and I didn't touch it for 2 months. I also lost a bunch of work and was down to 14,000 and missing a few scenes. A week ago I picked it up again and now it's at 17,000. With not outline, no standard of quality (because it's a fanfiction), and an honest love for the characters I managed to write more in a week than I ever had in any other draft even after years! I'm so proud🥰

Seeing your writing process is really interesting, because I don’t really have one- I haven’t found the process that really works for me. Probably because there is so many different ways to do writing!

I love that the pink Project Purple still haunts you 😂

I have learned a great deal from this video, and I have also figured out why I am getting blocked with my planning. I think using a zero draft and then refining it over time is better than trying to have everything down before writing-- when really, I need to write to discover some things. Will now use this video as inspiration to BEGIN FAST DRAFTING! Thanks a whole bunch!

My zero draft consists of writing scenes randomly and then sticking them all together and filling in the void XD

I love videos like this because it helps me develop my own process, which seems to change with every book I write.

Wtf is a zero draft 😂 that’s the voice in my head when I hear the term whahha. Awesome channel! Would love a video about how you use scrivener

this is a little too chaotic for me personally xD but if it works for you that's the more important thing :) I haven't really developed my writing process like you have yet cause I haven't fully completed a project before so I'm still working on it :)

I think my 'first draft' was a zero draft, because dang, so far I've changed so much! It's painful, but necessary, haha. Enjoy Canada! You should come to England soon! I'd love to go coffee shop hopping with you (though I don't think I could keep up with your coffees, I'd sure try, lol) :)

Yesss I was excited for this video! I always love seeing how other people deal with the writing beast, lol My first draft process, which is a mess, I think can be boiled down to: 1.) I get the idea for the premise, which I play around with until I decide if there's an actual story there. This can take anywhere from a few days to a few years. 2.) I flesh out my main character. Who are they, how do they fit into this world, what are they trying to do that drives the plot? 3.) I start at the beginning and write between 5k-20k linearly. 4.) I "outline" (basically summarize every main event in the story...in my current story it's about 8 pages) and begin jumping all over the place, fleshing out chapters non-linearly. 5.) Once I hit about 40k I re-write my "outline" based on what I've plantsed, then continue writing chapters fairly non-linearly (though I do favor earlier chapters to try to get a continuous stream of story finished). 6.) At 65k-ish, I start taking notes for what needs to be added/cut out earlier in the story for draft 2, as well as noting inconsistencies that I'm aware of without seeking them out specifically. I'll find them and point them out to myself when I re-read draft one later. 7.) I finish (????) the first draft somewhere between 80k and 120k words based on the story. At that point I'm so desperate to work on something else that it's not even a problem to let it sit for a while before going back to it. Ideally this whole process would take about 4-5 months, but sometimes there's a years-long gap between steps 3 and 4 or 4 and 5.

My favorite part of project purple is that it's pink. Because then I get to hear you say 'Project Purple! It's pink, it's fine' and then you have a great laugh.

Yes! Seeing it on the page typed out is so different than seeing it on the screen or in hand writing. It's all different. Seeing it differently is so helpful! I am doing a major rewrite of my WIP, turning a novel into a memoir because the fiction parts just weren't working. It's a major rewrite but hearing others doing the writing thing is important, so I don't feel like I'm the only one doing such a crazy thing, lol.

Kate, honestly you are such an inspiration for me. I recently found your channel and I don't think I've ever been so motivated to write in my life. I've still been trying to figure out my writing process, so this video and your 'I Try Writing Like...' videos help so so much.

I actually started a writing journal after watching a couple of your videos and seeing you use one and let me tell you, it is the best decision I have made for my writing. it has already helped me so much with keeping everything organized and taking notes and whatever else.

Now that you are a bit more experienced at Scrivener, can you make an updated "exploring Scrivener" video? I watched your old one, but it was basically you narrating the Scrivener interactive tutorial and figuring it out along with us. As a new Scrivener user, I'd love to hear the thoughts and opinions of someone a bit more experienced with this type of platform. Such as, how organizing the scenes in your manuscript works? I'm just used to writing everything in chronological order on a Microsoft Word document, so having the organizational tool would be useful, but Scrivener is really complex to me still. Having someone like you to explain it would be great! Especially since I'm attempting to write my first series on that platform

Hey Kate! I really appreciate this video because I have been starting to write a lot more. I am currently drafting my third novel, and I am going to be trying to publish it, and this video really helped me figure out what writing process I use! I love your videos!

Hi Kate :) Hope you're having a blast in Toronto. Thank you so so much for your awesome vlogs! They've been saving my sanity lately haha. I'm 2nd / 3rd drafting (who knows???) right now, but I'm under a really strict deadline, so it's quite exhausting. Watching your writing experiments and vlogs always motivate me :) I used to watch only advice videos on authortube, but started second-guessing myself while writing all the time, so this has been incredibly helpful. As to your process, yay I can relate with the pantsing / plotting mix. I don't like "constructing a story", but I have an idea where it's going beforehand and then it goes wild on the page haha. I love that exploratory phase! My first working title was "The Frieda Kilburn Saga" but now she's not even in this book and it follows the life of her grandpa instead xD I also printed out my draft and thought a lot of the chapters weren't bad, but now in the actual revision process I'm rewriting eeeeeverything. I guess it's nice getting the story out and then infusing it with our improved writing abilities? As for writing tools, I have to try out Aeon! I'm writing High fantasy with 10 different viewpoints, so...I could use that help ;) I discovered scrivener about two months ago and I loooove it. Before that I was using google docs and it was definitiely not the same xD Scrivener is so useful! Anyway, thank you for this. The timing was perfect for me this morning. I wanted to watch a video of yours to get into the writing mood and saw "uploaded 2 minutes ago" :) I'm hoping to join the community a bit more once I made the deadline. It looks so lovely and supportive

It's so relatable. I think your zero draft might be very close to the full plot summary ("argumento") I was supposed to write in class. I don't really know what my process is, but having a full detailed summary of the stuff supposed to happen helps me a lot

I used to be a pantser! I've become a plantser, but I have seven stages of editing. Draft. Read through. Word list to eliminate. Hemingway or ProwritingAid app. Print and read. Read out loud to my mother, then my husband. Betas. Proof copy. It's worked for me through most of my novels and shorter works. It's fun to see what changes, gets taken out and put back in as you learn more about what works best for you.

Hey, do you think you could add captions? Or add the option for someone else to add captions? It would be really helpful.

Please do writing like DAN BROWN.

Another awesome video! I think the zero draft is a great idea. I usually have my first draft after my rough draft. I have several rewrites sometimes when I’m not happy with it. My current WIP is on my third draft. I write about three hours a day, sometimes more. I work best in the morning, from 9 TIL 11:30 with my coffee. Occasionally write in the evening when kids are asleep around 9 TIL 10:30. I want to try and fast draft at some point though, I’ve not tried that yet. 😁🤔

You mentioned how the side character could be more interesting and become the main character... Girl that just sort of happened to me the other day and it was not until now that I have realized that... And I've been on and off outlining and drafting this story for several years... Watching your vids is getting me to strive to organizing my massive storyline into a complete outline and concurring the beast of sideplots lol. I feel like I'm writing a long show series by the amount of twists and turns my characters are giving me.

My first writing teacher/mentor said the same thing about printing out manuscripts for the read through after a break. Also, what you call a zero draft, I call a story search. I basically spend 6-8 weeks doing sort of a scene by scene outline. But what it really does is simply cover the few key points in each scene I mentioned in my vid on navigating scenes. At that point, I can usually see at a glance what needs to be added or cut. I don’t care about the wording in the first draft either. I’m looking to get the emotional core between the characters first. In a nutshell, that’s my process. All ideas go in a notebook assigned to each book. And i don’t start the scene card until the notebook is somewhere between a third and half filed with enough about my characters and world to know the idea has stuck with me long enough to keep coming back to it for a little while.

Thank you for this!!! It's really helpful!

One of my favorite videos I've seen from you I love it!

Printing out my drafts is my favourite part, I love being able to write on my manuscript and stick colour tabs all over the place so I can follow up on different threads going on as I go through and edit. It's so satisfying to hold the thing you made in your hands!

This is so much fun, I love seeing different processes, and I’m excited to see if/how it changes and evolves over time and with different projects!

fwiw I have Scrivener for windows and, mind you, I've never had a MAC. But, Scrivener for Windows is amazing and a powerful tool and helps me get things done. Actually since I started using it ages ago, I haven't bothered with anything else. Anyway, thanks for the awesome video! I really wan to check out that timeline thing as I've never heard of it.

Perfect Timing! 😀

loved everything about this video

Your writing videos are so helpful, I've been trying to figure out my process for the longest time and seeing you trying things and explaining your process is so interesting. It's really motivating me to try different things.

Thank you so much for this. I am on a third almost finished novel. I am going to give a few of these tips a try. LOVE your channel

I started calling my first version a zero draft and it's really helped me be okay if something is bad.

I just wanted to drop by and say that your channel is so inspirational and I love your videos 💕

This is a great video, thanks for sharing!! 😊🌹

Thank you thank you SO much for talking about that timeline software! I didn’t know about it and after just a couple hours of using it, I figured out the perfect time in my novel to introduce a character earlier in the story AND discovered a reoccurring element that I hadn’t realized was reoccurring which I am now going to be more thoughtful about. Girl, you changed my life! 😂 thank you!!

I’m still figuring out my process so I appreciate seeing what others do.

I am literally in LOVE with your videos and your dedication to both your videos and your writing!

Thank you so much for including the tools you use, I really appreciate it! I’ve been using Microsoft word and then about five different notebooks for all of my writing, plotting, and note taking for about two years and by now it is just confusing and jumbled and I can’t remember where I’ve written anything down, so I’ve been looking for some better ways of organizing. Thanks again, love your channel 💗💗

hi Kate, I‘m from Germany and I hava basically no idea, how I‘ve found your channel, but I am so glad I did! A lot of videos about writing just stress me but your videos never do, they are just so inspiring! It is so cool to see your writing process especially because I am a underwriter as well and I feel like hardly anyone is talking about this! Thank you a lot for your videos ❤️

You have inspired me to experiment with my own process, yet again. I've thought about how I process life. I'm always escaping to, "write out my thoughts to understand what I'm going for", as you said. It occurred to me while watching this bit of yours that I should do a WHOLE story that way. Then my initial brilliant idea wouldn't be lost in the minutia of dialogue or describing characters. So I did it. And may I say I am so thankful. SO THANKFUL I got to watch you experiment with other methods and pick out parts that really worked in your own method. I haven't been this ecstatic about my WIP in a decade!

Thank you so much for talking about how you zero/fast draft!! I feel like this is the natural method for me but I always felt like that was somehow “not the correct way” so I don’t really allow myself to go that route - meaning I don’t get past an initial braindump or two. Hearing you describe your method is helping me feel like I can explore what comes naturally to me and legitimizes it for me. Thank you!! 💐

I'm so happy to watch your videos and return to the older ones. What you say about taking two months off between drafts is such a great idea. I'm about to start revisions on my new novel and it's been two months since drafting. It often helps to see how my methods match up to others.

I don't write novels, I write comics, but all of your videos inspire me to improve the story part of my comics, so thank you for videos like these. Your writing and preparation style is so interesting a gives me ideas of how to make my stories better as well even though your process leans on words, page counts, etc and my process requires drawing pages and less is more (24-36 pages is best) but it's surprising how relatable and useful this is. Thank you! edit: The pantser vs outlining thing too. I literally met with an editor from Jump Square (part of Shounen Jump if you're at all familiar with manga magazines) with a comic I just came with a month before and had no time to outline. Whereas I have been working on the outline for a fantasy adventure manga for almost 4 years now. So ignoring the manuscript drawing process your writing process is super relatable. The naming thing too...I usually leave names at the end of the process because they aren't the forefront of the plot.

this is so helpful THANK YOUUU

She's my new favorite! Whenever I watch her vlogs, it inspires me to write, write and writee! 🥺❤

this was super interesting!

It's very interesting to hear what other people do when they write and it's nice to hear you are open to constantly evolving your process :)

I love learning other writing processes. As someone who tends to be way too much of a perfectionist, I feel like the zero draft could work well for me, take the pressure off while getting the ideas down initially. Thanks for sharing, you're awesome.

OMG, I love this video! I'm a sucker for watching videos about how other writers write and where they write (like "writing space tour" videos). Also, I love that you're, sort of, in between a pantser and a plotter (since you know a bit of the beginning, middle, and end but you don't outline everything before you write). I feel like my process is, kind of, similar to yours. If I outline too much, I get bored of the story too quickly but if I don't outline at all, I'm never able to stay on course. At least, not enough to tell a good story. Sidenote: I love that you print out your novel after you write your discovery draft. I bet it feels great to just hold it in your hands! I think I might do that after I finish what I'm working on.

ok, I think I wrote 22 "zero drafts" in one year for my book. It was my selfknowing of writing skills drafts. Now it's really tricky. I've got my story, sooooo... :( Need to write it now. I enjoy watching your entusiasm. It reminds me of my youth, said man in his 30 XD

Just to let you know you're really helping me figure out my writing style and routine, after I watched your writing like jk Rowling video I did a timeline of what happens in the storyline then a table of what information I need to add for each character in each scene. I'm also writing by hand then transferring it onto my laptop. It's really helped because now I know what I need to write and what's coming next, its made it so much easier ❤️ thank you so much I might finally finish my book ❤️

You are so professional.

Your videos never fail to inspire me ... kick my butt into gear and write again haha.

I've watched so many of your writing vlogs those last weeks and they inspired and motivated me so much! I want to write so much now and I absolutely can't wait for NaNoWriMo. Maybe this time I'll win. (Or at least get halfway there.) Your attitude towards writing is so positive and motivating! I absolutely love watching your videos, especially your writing vlogs, in the background while I write. You helped me so much with this, especially with your drafting process. I'm struggling with getting words down a lot, but the fast drafting is really a nice option. It's just writing everything down and I don't have to keep any of it! Plus, seeing the progress of words I've made is just super motivating. I really like that you print out your novels too. I can't wait to print one of mine some day too! It would be so cool. You've totally charged my love for writing again and I'm so motivated for NaNoWriMo now that I just can't wait for it to come. I hope you'll stay this motivated and positive towards writing and keep to inspire other writers and your viewers! (I know I repeated myself a lot, but I just want it to be very clear that your videos are so inspiring and motivating.)

Ahhhh! I'm so glad you answered my question about which draft is which!! I'm about halfway through my first first draft and hope to finish it by mid September. It's fantasy, so I feel like I might have to set up certain milestones for each draft (like "make sure the world building is complete-enough by this draft" and magic etc.) But we will see! Thank you for talking about your process :) I'm somewhere between a plotter and a pantser, too. Also, because you've been such an inspiration and you've motivated me to have more concrete effort put into my writing, I'm calling my WIP "Project Portal". I really appreciate you, Kate!! Oh, by the way, I have Scrivener for Windows -- I've used it since the beginning of July and bought it recently. In case you or anyone is wondering, yes Scrivener has less cool things on Windows, but it has improved over the last few years (the internet tells me) and is worth it to me on Windows! My main peeve with it is that you can't highlight a selection of text and have the WC appear at the bottom of the screen, BUT you can highlight a selection and right click it to see the word count!!

Hi, Kate, I appreciate your insights. It is encouraging to know that a good novel or short story is the product of a series of redrafting.

Just finished my very first First Draft, so I'll see how my planned process works for me. I was an intern for an editor and they actually also printed out the text to edit it, which is why I plan to do it as well. So there seems to be something to it ;)

The thing about my writing is that it is all over the place. I don’t plan anything I just spill the words out of my mind into the paper and see where it takes me. And the story doesn’t come to me in order. So I always end up with a pile of paper that needs to be read and rearranged. And to be honest i enjoy discovery writing just because I am never bored. The story is a mystery to me just like it is a mystery to the reader.

I liked the 'two month rest' advice of yours. If I'm not wrong, Stephen King also gave a similar advice in his book 'On Writing' to give the draft a rest for some time before you read to re-draft or edit it. I think it is a great idea because when you read it after the 'rest period', it feels like reading a whole new book and when you read it from a reader's POV, I think it gives you a more detailed idea about what or how the readers would want it to be (or how they would not want it to be)! I mean it would give a better idea about what to add and more importantly what to remove from the first draft! As SK says, 'Length of Final Draft'='Length of First Draft' minus 10% Btw Kate, I just came across your channel today and I must say your videos are really very inspiring especially the 'I tried writing like...' series. Keep posting!

What's your writing process? - Outline the novel by 3 acts, then within those acts, into shorter 3 acts 9if that makes sense). I like to make tables - that show the timelines and character development, as well as relationship development. One really important part of the writing process is READING. I truly believe that readers make the best writers. I am such a plotter - to a crazy extent. I plan every single scene and know what needs to be done in each. What are your favorite writing tools to use? I use Scrivener and like the already set out templates for novel (I think it comes with base scrivener) which has character maps and setting maps etc. I also love the voice recorder app on my phone - i often find late at night I get ideas/daydream conversations so I will speak the conversations between the characters and record it so I can write it out later as dialogue. it flows really well.

This was so helpful!! I've been binge-watching your vlogs 😍 I've found it helpful to see you try other writing styles and learn about every individual process. I've always struggled writing the first draft without going back and editing so I'm now going to attempt Neil Gaiman's technique to write by hand (that way I can't go back and edit 😂) I really need to get my head around the idea that each sentence doesn't need to be perfect in the first draft since it is just a "discovery draft" but anyway, great video 😀

I printed out my zero draft so I could work on it differently than on my computer- It does help!

Omg, your videos are very good and despite most of them being longer than 25 min, I never think, “When will this be over”, because the time just flies.

I'm still trying to figure out my process too. Though I know that usually, a story of mine starts with characters. They usually are the first ones to pop in my head, and they shout at me who they are way more than I create them. I also know that I loooooove planning and worldbuilding before I fully invest in the writing itself, though it generally happens side by side. I just really like to know the world around the characters before I write in it. And I like to plan a little bit too, or lay down random ideas that i can use later. But in all honesty, I lack discipline to sit down and actually write and work on it. That's what I'm missing most, but I will work on that. Thankfully, your videos have helped me a lot to get back into the mindset of writing! ♥

Now I learned a new term from you. Zero draft is what I do too!

Very informative very enthusiastic very sincere thanks

This is exactly what I needed. I've been looking for writers breaking down their process from idea to finished product. Could anyone recommend any others?

Totally not related to this video, but I just wanted to say that I love how amazing you are at editing videos, especially with those transitions 💙

Still totally trying to figure out my process halfway through my first manuscript lol It has been a heavy learning experience, but I've enjoyed the struggles along the way so far

I'm so happy to hear that you're a under writer. I'm as well, one of my wips ended up being 40+k words. I enjoy knowing about your writing process, and my own is similar to yours! :D Thanks for sharing.

I just finished my MS (first draft--I don't zero draft), but the struggle to not want to jump into editing is real! This is actually helping me think over my own process as I've never gotten this far! It's really neat to hear how you do it, and to gather some ideas on how I can incorporate it into my own process. I saw on your IG that you were in Toronto! Hope you have/had a great time! Lol, I'm only a few hours away in distance. (You kind of remind me of one of my writing friends I made on WP; positive, very cheerful, and kind. Lol, not that my other aren't, it's just really strange sometimes :'D) I know you replied to one of my comments before on WP: I can't wait to see what you think... I'd love to see you around the forums!!!

A little bit, not a lotta bit…. I LOVE IT!!! :)

I used to be a pantser when I wrote fanfiction and short stories, but I find that that is a lot harder to do that with a novelSo right now, I'm creating an extremely detailed outline, which is sort of like your zero draft, I guess. I'm literally going through the story and writing down the basic plot and random dialogue in bullet point form, separated out into scenes/chapter breaks. I feel like this is giving me a much better feel for the storyline as a whole, and it's much easier to add stuff in and move things around. I just got scrivener, so I'm hoping it will have a better outlining feature than just a word document with bullet points haha. I also write notes in a notebook of ideas I have. I'm planning on making this into a series, so I'm trying to think of some nice threads that can later be woven into future books.

I love writing process videos. My side goal of camp this year was figuring out my outline process. And I think I'm pretty close to it. I'm so ready to be done with this outline. I have so many documents I have to open and reference every time I sit down. I'm putting at least as much work into condensing all the information into one outline as I am actually making up the story. I've got an idea of what my writing process will be like but I obviously can't know until I try. I'm currently planning on making authortube videos starting in October, because what better time than prep-tober. Ideally I'll be doing an outline again and will be documenting the process.

I'm unpublished. And I have a full-time plus job. In my job I do a lot of writing that is very technical to the field I'm in. so I discovered that I produce more interesting fiction if the first or what I also have called zero draft is handwritten. From the handwritten draft I dictate with a dragon natural speech to type. I use Word for all my drafts. I use scrivener to track scene work and details about characters. Then I print as well after it's all types out and all the scenes written. I fix word choices, and note where more is needed. Then I go back into Word and add more. I sometimes print a scene or two to read myself without using an office store. My plan is to print and read before I send it to an editor and I'll use a store for that. I'm not there yet.

Seems like every single time I look at your subscriber count it has gone up by 1,000 XD love u Kate

Kate, you are so fricken adorable - I enjoy watching your videos :-D I thought I was a plotter but I'm finding I need to pants and plot at the same time if that makes sense. I sketch outline cards in Scrivener for reference only, and as I keep writing I redo my outline cards to match what I wrote. It's a little extra work but it satisfies the plotter in me.

I used to be solely a pantser. I used to sit down at my computer and write. Now I'm more of a plantser. I usually have an idea of the first few chapters/scenes in my head and usually by chapter 10 or so I have an idea of what I want the ending to look like and where I want some of the characters to be in terms of who they are. Sometimes I write highly detailed outlines, but mostly I have a basic idea for what's going to happen in the scene and that's what I write off of

I'm still working on figuring out a process. Your videos have helped me a lot in that regard because I'm trying zero drafts and outlining and a mix of things and although none of it is easy, it actually seems to be working. Right now I'm just trying to get into a better writing routine. I have a small writing notebook, but I think I need to use it more. I spend too much time in my head and don't jot enough down. And I don't know why, because I know that's how I work best...

Hi, Kate! My process is a collection of hand written notes that are character descriptions and loose outlining. Like you, I usually know the beginning and especially the end with stuff in the middle sprinkled in. The story grows from there. I write a (usually) chronological first draft that is my rough draft and then I revise in a second draft. When needed, I'll write a third draft with another revision pass before I send it to my editor for a final edit/proofread. I think I need to make a writing process vid, too. Hm.

I realized, watching writing process videos, how much I don't have a process! XD I literally just write in Microsoft Word 2007, write as much as I know and when I'm stuck or when I'm out and about, write in a notebook (I have like a thousand writers notebooks) to get ideas or just to help me out.

I clicked on this (in December 2020) cuz of the Zero Draft thing and the printing thing. 2 things I do. The zero draft is the version where I'm really just getting to know my story and characters. I'm an underwriter (as I have recently figure out) and i can only get a 1st draft after I make a zero draft and edit and revise that draft. I often times even have a -1 or even -2 draft. These drafts r worse than or comparable to a brainstorm. The negative drafts r the drafts that I completely ditch. The first draft is when I start adding those words to the completely underwritten draft. Sometimes I'll make a separate google doc or take a new page from a binder and focus on a single scene and expand that scene. I haven't gotten past this draft yet so idk how my process will evolve. I just know what I have so far, and every draft gets a print out.

I write somewhat similarly to you - I have an idea of early scenes, a vague notion of the "middle" and how it should end. The difference is that I tend to write chronologically - I need to have something happen before I can write what happens after it! haha

Oh! I'd never heard of a zero draft before! That's basically what I'm doing right now and I felt like I was kind of weird for not knowing basically.... Anything before going in. It's nice to know I'm not alone in that!!

Thanks, this is really interesting. Could you do a video sometime showing how you rework your drafts/edit? Btw is there a way to purchase or read one of your projects or book? Would really love to.

Hi I enjoyed your video! I LOVED Zero Draft!! I have been doing that for years but had no name for it :) I am just in the process of writing my first novel after years of short stories. I just started using Aeon Timeline and wonder if you could point me to good videos about Aeon. A happy new Subscriber. Richard

Never knew zero drafts existed. I honestly might start doing that because I only write as I have my outline. They both need to be up to date or else I really can't do anything productive, which means that I'm stuck doing only outlining and burning myself out before I can actually write something in my manuscript. I also totally agree with you about the 2 months! I usually do 3 months when I've got my outline done so that when I come back, it's as a better writer, and I can analyze it better and more thoroughly. Edit: It's nice to see that I don't have a process at all, lol. I need to work on that.

I used to be a pantser for many years but now I find I have trouble getting started if I don't have a meticulous outline in front of me. I like to bullet point the upcoming scenes once I'm finished writing for the day so I'll be ready to go the next day. Otherwise I'll just sit and stare at the screen and waste half my writing time! 😂 Also, I love that you do zero drafts! Calling my first draft that helps me not be so hard on myself!

I need you to be my teacher, Yoda. I love your Vlogs 🤓🥰