HOW TO BECOME A WRITER: my writing and creative process

May 12, 2024

Hi guys, I'm gaana, welcome back to my channel if you are new here. I am a romance author and I specialize in the dark and forbidden side of romance. I'm

writing

today and I thought I'd pop in and tell you a little. about my

process

, I recently started

writing

a new book, basically the first step is that I always have ideas all the time, so it's usually an idea that I've had for a while and I've written it down in my notes as soon as I have it written in my notes. I start doing things like creating a playlist on Spotify and when I hear music that makes me think of that story, I'll add it to the playlist and start a Pinterest board for it.

I'm very visual, so the Pinterest board is non-negotiable and something I do for everything. I usually have the playlist and the Pinterest board and then like a note, usually the note is in the notes app on my phone. so that I also have transfers to my computer so I can have it on both and I will add quotes that come to mind, ideas that come to mind and usually this

process

, this kind of preliminary process, continues anywhere for as little as a year I would honestly say I've had most of my ideas that I actually start working on for at least a year.

More Interesting Facts About,

how to become a writer my writing and creative process...

I don't think I've ever had an idea that went so quickly from a similar idea to a written one just because there are so many ideas that you know I don't get them that quickly or whatever, so yeah, it usually goes by at least a year where I have three preliminary types of brainstorming for an idea and then when it's actually time to Write, that's when I really start to dive into my research phase. Now listen. I've talked about the Clifton Strengths Finding Test before probably many times if you follow me on a bunch of different platforms and it's basically a personality test, there are 34 traits and it ranks them for you after taking this test in order from highest to minor importance.

My number one trait is context and that makes sense if you also read my books because most of my stories involve a lot of research. I like to write. about criminals and psychopaths and maybe people with different mental illnesses or disabilities. I like to write about different places and different cultures. I like to write basically about things that I have to learn because learning is also one of my main characteristics. I think just because we know that writing and reading romance novels doesn't mean we can't learn, it doesn't mean those kinds of love story books can't expand our minds, so the second phase, I would say, is my research phase. and that's where I really put in a lot of effort.

I listen to podcasts a lot, maybe watch documentaries. I will buy them. I usually try to buy paperbacks when I'm researching so I can write them down and take notes, but I also make e-books. A very good example is my book. about a literal psychopath named Priest McKenna, who is the enforcer of Fallen MC, which is the motorcycle club, an outlaw motorcycle club and when I was writing his story I really wanted to convey a real psychopath as someone who doesn't subscribe to Moorish social structures. He is literally not biologically affected by some kind of herd mentality, so for a normal person, for example, who walks into a room where everyone is afraid, he will be afraid without even knowing why, because there are pheromones in the air that that group of people. they're excreting that now we're affected a psychopath literally won't be affected by that kind of group mentality also they're less like they blink less frequently they have more of a predatory look um and it's because they blink less frequently there's a lot of really It's interesting that know scientific facts about psychopaths that I really wanted to convey properly in that book because the priest is a literal psychopath, so, for example, he never says it even once in the very long book.

I think it's a 600 page book. I love you and this is a romance. novel, so you're like, wow, that's crazy, but he never says I love you because he's not subscribed to normal social networks. Mrs. and I love you is a construction that says those three words is a construction that we build as a society, so it conveys its love in many different ways, it says you know you are the beat of my heart and it says I will kill anyone who hurts you. , he says all these things that obviously illustrate how much he cares about her, but he never really relents or even acknowledges the basic ways we think we have to express love, so anyway to convey that I read a lot of books, watch documentaries about murderers serial because there is a serial killer involved with psychopaths written by scientists and yes.

Needless to say, I had many nightmares when I was in my research phase on the dead man walking. Right now, in what I am writing, I have already passed the research phase. I have WR. I've read many books. I usually read a lot of books because I'm also a big reader, so that's one of my favorite ways to do research, so I did research for this book and I read books and I watched a docuseries and I actually did research on this. more or less previous topic, more or less adjacent, so anyway I've done all that and now I'm writing now, you've probably heard of a paner versus a plot, a tracer, panster, tracer, I'm more of a pancer on that . a plot when I have an idea, what happens is I usually have the title, I have the two main characters and then I have this basic conflict, so for example, let's use the dead man walking again, you know, I had priest and beia. the fact that there was going to be a serial killer antagonist, um, and it had the title Dead Man Walking, so I had those basic basic concepts and when I actually sit down and write the book, I usually have a few scenes. some quotes, some pins that bring to life different ideas that I like for the book, but really it's just those central pillars that I have and I sit down, I open a blank Word document, I freely configure it with a similar format and then I start to write and I usually allowed myself to write unhindered for the first at least 20,000 words, if not more.

I would say that I allowed myself to do like the first one, maybe even half of the book, um really without any kind of plot because I already have those bases and I already know the characters very well, so I just get familiar with the characters, I let them talk with me, they let me tell their story and then when it's time for the climax, um and the end of the book, that's when I start. to go in and I'll usually do a little synopsis for each chapter as I get to the end just to make sure you know that all the loose threads are tied up, that I'm not forgetting anything, that I'm hitting every note. that I need to really finish the book, as you know, in a satisfactory way, so that's my structure for writing the first draft of a book, it's not an exact science, it's not something you already know, I don't have a recipe for you. like sit down and copy me and it will take you to write this way this is how it works for me and I think you really have to keep in mind that I have been writing almost every day since I was 8 and 31 so you know it's a long time to writing and it's like the beginning of Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hours to be an expert at something, he says you have to spend at least 10,000 hours practicing.

I definitely have those 10,000. hours of work, so it's not surprising that you can create with such a flexible structure. I think it's probably also how my mind works, but it's also that repetition of writing for so long over so many years that, you know, I don't really do it. Sometimes I suffer from

writer

's block. I may not be sure where a story should go, but I can usually figure it out pretty quickly. Honestly things really help even for real life things even if I'm struggling with something emotionally or like I had a conflict with someone who verbalized it to a trusted person who didn't even get their opinion but just aired it out out loud to hear my opinion.

My own methodology about something really helps me solve it so happily. I don't really suffer from

writer

's block at all. I'm a procrastinator sometimes, but it's definitely not writer's block, so I think again, which is why I've been able to have this as my first draft structure and have it really work for me. I just wanted to also show you a couple of little things that are fun behind the scenes so you can see here like I love these legal notepads. I have like 50 million. of these and I often ask my mom to bring them to me from her office because she always gets them, this one I've obviously used a lot, but it's like something old, from caution to the wind when I was writing, there are also some Dead Men Walking stuff here this is actually from this is from after the fall these notes um you can see this is from um a short story that I wrote for the Queens of Darkness and Sin group on Facebook.

I wrote two short stories, one with MRS Sone. and one with Parker's Huntington for an anthology, these are my notes, you know, so I have like the hero and then the hero's name and I'm playing with his first name, his last name. I usually have options, usually the name. It actually comes to me pretty quickly and then I maybe play around with the last name a little bit, so here I have it, you know Frankie is a character in the story with Parker h and then I have to play around with his last name. I have some dates, you know, he makes fun of his name, the setting, I have like, you know, an idea for a scene, he stalks her, she puts on a show for him knowing that he's watching her, yeah, these are like the ones I'll have these and this is for a book I haven't even written yet so I never throw them away this is this is for a game of lambsy a card game I played with my husband so I never throw them away I always have these On me I have more than one , so I have these like this on my desk right now.

I will also have sticky notes and keep them on my desk. I have a little shelf and I'll have them on my desk with maybe similar quotes or I have one that has some random titles on it, you know, it's like something I keep in mind if I need it for a book like or if I took notes from something I was reading, so I'll do it. I have those up there too. I won't talk on my soapbox about a lot of things in this industry. I'm just a Canadian girl who thinks my opinions are my own and no one needs to hear them if they don't want to. listen to them, but I will say that I firmly believe that if you are willing to do your research and be respectful, you will be able to write what you want if I were to write exactly what I know it would be. writing about ethnically ambiguous Canadian girls who live on an island off the west coast of Canada and that's so limited and so boring so I really think that as long as you do your research and are respectful of the nature of the content and the story you're telling Not only should you write it, whatever story you want to write, but it's important to represent different ethnicities, different sexualities, and different spectrums.

It is very important because there is no greater feeling than seeing something about yourself and a character you love when you are reading a book and everyone deserves to find love and have a happily ever after ending. I firmly believe that it is one of my defining principles in life and that is what I do, that is what I do and what I do. I can always promise you that no matter what story I'm telling, I'll do it as authentically as possible by doing research, having readers with the right sensitivity, ums and buts, and being respectful of the different nature of the characters and stories.

What I'm telling you is a little bit about how I do it, so now that I've gone through my rough setup and then written the first draft, which I will say I also call my blocking period where I really like to sit down and purge and I've gotten to the point. in that if my husband knocked on the door while I was writing my first draft, I would often have a hard time figuring out where exactly I was in the manuscript because I would actually pass out. and he just goes into the zone and he knows not to touch unless it's very important and I usually put my phone on do not disturb and anything I can write I should say it in any written environment in the car, I wrote welcome to the dark side writing in a car during a road trip in Scotland and also in an Irish hostel like in the main room of the Irish hostel so I could get Wi-Fi and it was busy and noisy and any ambient noise. okay, sometimes I even go to a coffee shop just to have the ambient noise.

I really find it helps me focus and I'm not sure if there's anything to this or not, but I had a girlfriend and we had to do a science degree. and she did hers on whether people focus better with sound or silence and in her findings women actually focus better with sound and I think that's why you know we're usually better at multitasking. I think having chaos around us almost helps us. Refine our approach. I'm not sure if that's true, so take it with a grain of salt, it was an undergraduate science projectn, but I think about that often anyway, so that's my blocking zone, that's when I write a book, usually very quickly, definitely in.

For like 3-4 weeks, I've been posting the first draft and then tweaking it and I can tweak it for quite a while before I feel like I want to send it to someone. I don't really use beta readers anymore. I used to like it, I'm sending it to some friends to read it and let me know what they think about it, but I found that with beta readers and there are good ones, don't get me wrong, but that's what happens most of the time. time. they said, I really like this, I really like this and that's great and it obviously makes you feel confident about your work, but it's also not the most helpful thing in the world because you really want to get constructive feedback and that may be what you know if you are. . a beta reader or an alpha reader or whatever, obviously it's good to be enthusiastic, but even the specificity and the enthusiasm like, hey, I loved when he declared his love like this because, based on the trauma he had at the beginning of the book, made it really moving. or you know, I loved the heroine's growth, as you know, she started off a little unlikable, but that made her growth much more significant and I loved it.

I fell so in love with her at the end of the book, you know. some specificity, so I usually use my friends for that just because they're not afraid to hurt my feelings. I value your input and I also like, once I tell a story, I mean, this is the artist in me, but once I tell a story and I have Usually, that's how I want it to be, and that's unless you also have sensitive readers, for example, ink and lies. She was half Mexican, half Puerto Rican, so she had Mexican and Puerto Rican sensitivity readers to give me.

Comments on how I portrayed Lyla or for Serpentine Valentine, which was about a lesbian and bisexual woman. I wanted to get feedback from lesbian readers to let me know how they felt she portrayed Lex in the book, so I always listen to my sensitive readers. um and I really want the comments from her because I want to represent again authentically and respectfully so I usually have about three to five or six sensitive readers because you know all the comments are good comments. I want everyone to feel good. about how their culture is represented or sexuality or whatever, that's a vital part of the process, so I usually get all that feedback and then I send it to my editor, she edits it, she sends it back to me, I do edits and then I usually send it to one or two proof readers just to get it as clean as possible in the past.

I found it very difficult to find editors that were a good fit for me and that's also something if you are an Inspirational Writer, not all editors will be a good fit for you. Some of them won't understand your writing style. Some of them will not be flexible and you will need flexibility. Some of them will be too flexible when you need rigidity. I mean there are a lot of different factors that go into finding a good editor and you really have to do trial and error until you find people who click. I have two editors that I love and they work great for me and I adore them.

Working with them is a really fun part of the process for me, not only getting them to clean up my manuscript but also getting them to express their opinions on my book, and I also love my proof readers. I don't think you can ever have it too. Many eyes look for errors in your manuscript because it is very difficult to catch all the errors and even after books have been published for a while, sometimes people still find errors when emailing you. In fact, I recently just received the fallen men and my Lombardi. World Books were reissued even though some of them had already been edited like five times just to clean up those last few things in there, so yeah, that's a really big part of the process and it's very difficult, especially because readers can get really upset.

If there are errors in your manuscript, and like me, I'm a writer, I'm not an editor, so it's very important to have a good team to help you make sure your manuscripts are as clean as possible. as much as possible by the time you publish them, so I get them from my editorial team and then I do the audio, and the audio is a super fun part of the process that I started doing last year, but I was never an audiobook girl at all. I like reading with my eyes, but I will say that the audio is really amazing, especially if you're really busy because or if you just spend a lot of time in the car or walking the dog or whatever you feel like, that fills you up.

I like time and it makes it very versatile, so I love the audio. I'm now a convert and got into audio literally so I could produce my own audio manuscripts because I had sold the rights to Nolla years ago. and they developed and they watched and I wasn't happy with the narrators they chose and I thought, "I'll never do this again." I want to choose the narrators and make sure they are perfect for my characters and just like with my covers, I am very obsessive about audio too so I do a lot of research on who the narrators should be, they always match the ethnic background of the character and even with Serpentine Valentine I also had two queer narrators because I felt like it was really important to my queer narrative and I will say that the audio of Serpentine Valentine with Doro and um Quinn Riley is sublime, I think it's the preferred way to ingest that content and I had never Having said that before, but they really did a fantastic job and they really put their hearts and souls into that audio, so that's a cool thing too, being an indie writer, that you can develop relationships with different narrators, different editors, different production companies and I think it really deepens the process. and the importance of the process, which is really enjoyable and a lot of fun, so yeah, then it's on to the audio.

I already have everything reserved. I usually have to do it at least 4 months before the release date, if not more happily, I had a bit. pause where I was able to make a lot of progress, so I haven't had any problems with that, but before, when I was writing for publication, like writing my book that I was about to publish, it was very difficult to be organized enough to get audio, um, for simultaneous release with the paperback and the ebook, so it's a little silver lining to have some time to basically write a bunch of books, um without publishing them, so I should say that before I write a book, I usually have The cover is ready and this is nice. backwards to see how a lot of people do things for a second let me get one of my books to show you so for example we have after the fall which is book two of King and cresa which are in book one , lessons on corruption in the fall.

Men series now this model is Christopher Mason. I love him so much, he is so beautiful and this model was literally the inspiration for not only the lessons on corruption but also the entire Fallmen series. I saw a photo of Christopher M Mason on a motorcycle on Pinterest. I think he was leaning on a motorcycle looking over his shoulder in the distance, a little impatient, like he was waiting for his lover to join him on the back of his but I saw that photo and thought . oh my god, who is he waiting for? And that question that image led to Cresa, it led to Zeus G, it led to the entire Go family, it led to the BC entry and the entire Fallen MC, so when I was writing another book for K Cresa I knew that there was no other option than to have Christopher Mason on the cover.

Now getting people on covers is a lot harder than it seems, there are some people who are very well established in the industry, some photographers or they are very easy to contact and you can buy something. your website, but sometimes I spend ages looking for the right cover models for my books, like here, let me grab it, so this is beia beia Lafayette beus Lafayette um from Dead Man Walking, this is Jana Roberts and it's actually an influencer on Instagram and a pretty popular one, she was my original BM Muse, like she was in my head always and forever, so when I found out she was doing female covers I thought: I need her, I need her.

I can't imagine who else she would be. If it wasn't her, I contacted her and said, "Oh my God, could you be on my cover? Whatever you can see, she's holding a book and it actually says the Holy Bible, but yeah, like I'm that obsessive." ". about my covers, you know, basically I couldn't write this book without Christopher Mason on the cover and I couldn't do the girl covers without his asbi on the cover, so when you're that obsessive you need to be organized because sometimes photographers don't care They never respond or the models don't respond to you or they say yes and then say no and there are so many different things that go into finding the right cover model, so honestly it's a lot easier to make discreet covers.

Since you don't need anyone's permission, sometimes you don't have to pay thousands of dollars to get the right model on the cover because you pay the model and the photographer, sometimes you pay an agency, it

become

s very expensive to have it. models on the cover, which is maybe one of the reasons why the industry has also moved towards illustrated covers or just low-key covers in general, it's probably cheesier, although I'll always be a Stan cover person and probably always I'll just do those. because I love them so much, yes, I can appreciate the need for discreet covers, you know, for religious purposes or just if you want to be more covert about what you like to read.

I love people covers so anyway because you have to be very organized to get people covers. I'm often very organized and have those photos literally bought before writing books, so for example I just released Fall Men 7 at the end of 2023. I already have the Nolla cover coming out this year. I already had that was a photo session. which I asked the photographer and the model to do for me in 2021 and it's 2024 so you know I already did the cover for Fall Men 8 which isn't coming out until 2025 so I use my covers almost like I also have a sheet route for when I'm writing the book.

I know what the model looks like. I have the blur of Britain, you know, an outline and I go from there. I did the Sebastian trilogy books, I think I got the first one. one done in like 2020, which was years ago, so that's how far and far along I have my covers done too because my cover designer books have a lot of anticipation. I just like to be organized with it because again I'm obsessed with covers and I'll never do that. I compromise on my covers and that's why I do it the way I do, which is a little different than most authors who actually write the book and then figure out their cover, so that's my whole ethos around The covers, well, that's all for me today, I hope.

You enjoyed learning a little about my