You. Hello? Swell. This is O'Mahoney Chats with Mahoney and today I'm calling out to all of my writers out there. I have a question for you concerning your writing. I want to know what is your process? What do you go through? What little rituals do you have when writing a book or anything, really? Are you the type of person that has an outline? Do you have all your characters in order?
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 1:51
Hey, thanks for your question. I just shared it with my right, one of my writing teachers who I met 13 years ago, who's on Swell. And I know she writes all the time, so she might have some good thoughts. My I've written also all formats plays, novels, scripts and songs. Songs from for 13 years, like, all the time. Song, song, song. But I rarely sketch out plot. But I do sketch out character
Sea O'Mahoney
@Lokigen · 0:49
You. Wow. Thank you for sharing that. I love that. Develop the characters. Once the characters have their personality, you trust them to create the story. I think that that is amazing. I love that. I never thought about focusing on the characters themselves. My tech is to just I have sort of an idea, and I sort of just throw it all down on the page, and then I go back and remove a lot of it and then build up from there
Meg Lagares
@Whatdouthink · 0:35
Hi. Yeah. All new writers out there. This is a great conversation starter. It is hard to write a novel, especially your first one, which is what I'm finishing up at the moment. And you get your inspiration everywhere. Look around you. Take everything in. Be aware and read. Please keep reading. Because reading is the only way you can fulfill your life and get to be a stronger writer
Sea O'Mahoney
@Lokigen · 2:11
It. Well, thank you for this. I do agree with you. Reading is monumental, especially when it comes to writing. When a writer is trying to discover their own voice, reading other people's work helps. I know when I was writing my first book, I just poured through other books from writers like Thompson and Thoreau. You listen to the way they write, the way they have their characters speak. There's a poetry to it. It's very unique to each writer
Meg Lagares
@Whatdouthink · 0:24
I love your answer. Yes, we absolutely have to continue reading. It is so fundamental and important to write. You cannot write anything without a good bass. And the bass starts from reading. And like you said, you listen to other people's voices when you read, and it's a wonderful experience
Sea O'Mahoney
@Lokigen · 4:53
We all, as writers, have these little movies that play out in our heads, but I never thought to sit down and kind of write it as it plays it out in my head. I always go over these stories in my brain multiple times, and I kind of work them out. I'll even write it down and then read it out loud to make sure it sounds correct. And it might seem cumbersome, what I do, how I do my process of creating a new novel
Jonny Roobs
@jonnyroobs · 3:44
Ahead. Hi. I just saw this thread, and I find it interesting. So interesting enough that I'm going to reply to it. Well, to tell you honestly, I do write, but it's just that I have not published anything yet. I haven't even started on the idea of talking to a publisher yet. I'm about three chapters away from finishing it. But I'd like to provide you my way of the creative process
Sea O'Mahoney
@Lokigen · 4:53
So I got into it, and I joined a little group on Facebook, a writers group on Facebook, and many of them, many published authors that were on there. I mean, these guys are these guys are our writers. They're the ones that we aspire to be. They told me to just do it, just put it out there, get it done, do the whole process yourself, and feel comfortable about it and get it out there
Jonny Roobs
@jonnyroobs · 3:48
It's been taking me so long, since 2017 or 2018. Yeah, I actually writers when I can, in spite of the busy life I lead. And right now I'm kind of semi unemployed. I'm actually doing ride sharing for the moment, ride sharing duties. So it's kind of fun in a way, especially when you want to talk with people who are writing with me. And then sometimes they inspire me to create more characters, maybe for the upcoming sequel for my book
Sea O'Mahoney
@Lokigen · 1:59
But I still have a few things to do here in Southern California before I head back to Mexico, so it might be a little bit before I can actually pull it up properly. I mean, if I can get some good service, definitely I can stream it on my phone, but cool. Yeah, man. I enjoy these conversations too. I enjoy meeting people. I am the same way. That's why I'm on all these platforms, the main platform. Sorry about that
Meg Lagares
@Whatdouthink · 0:13
I'd love to hear that. I'm not the only one who writes this way. I write it as if it's a book I'm actually reading, so I get more and more involved the deeper I go
Meg Lagares
@Whatdouthink · 0:23
You. I'm going to piggyback a little bit on what I said earlier about getting really deep into your into your story or in your book. I don't want to actually finish it sometimes because I'm enjoying it. Does that make sense to anybody? It's like when you have a really good book and you don't want it to end. I'm just curious if I'm the only one who feels like that
Sea O'Mahoney
@Lokigen · 0:53
No, you are absolutely not alone. I have about five books that are unfinished, you know, three quarters of the way through the process. And, you know, I'm in love with the characters, I'm in love with the story, and I'm just enjoying the whole process, so I allow myself to kind of linger with it. But no, you are not alone with that. Totally understand. I don't know if that works for or against us
Meg Lagares
@Whatdouthink · 0:23
I love that answer. Yes. I don't know if it works for or against us because you want to finish your book, you want to share it with other people, yet part of you wants to keep it a little bit to yourself because it's you and your sweat and tears and everything you put into it. And you have watched these people grow, basically
Sea O'Mahoney
@Lokigen · 0:51
You. Oh, that's so awesome. Yeah, I totally understand the family thing. My son is now 28, so he has got his own place and doing his own thing. So as soon as the boy was out of the house, I started making plans to start doing the traveling thing. There's always hope kids do grow up and yeah, I'll definitely be willing to give the new process a try and post it here