What's everyone's writing workflow like?

[surrender_to_tao]

Hi everyone, I'm a total noob here and I'm curious what everyone's writing workflow looks like these days. I dabbled in creative writing a long time ago but life kind of got in the way and I haven't written anything fictional in a long time. I'm trying to get back in and with how much the world changed, it's a bit daunting what all the options are. Back then, I think I mostly used Microsoft Word and I would be tempted to use Google Docs but I heard that writing graphically explicit content in Google Docs could get your entire account nuked. I'm sure there's no right or wrong answer here, but curious what your personal experience has been like using different tools and workflows and what ended up working for you.

Thanks all!

 

[THBGato]

A lot of people here use Google Docs. I do. Obviously, it's on a completely different account to anything else I do, and I download copies to my hard drive as back up.

When I'm writing, I try to do 45 minutes in the morning before work, then as much as family commitments and responsibilities let me spare in the evening. On a good day I can maybe write 2,000 words.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

First off and most important, welcome!

There really aren’t any right or wrongs,. I myself write in Word, then go back and place html points for italics and such, then copy and paste. I’m probably not representative and whatever suits you is best.

 

[surrender_to_tao]

A lot of people here use Google Docs. I do. Obviously, it's on a completely different account to anything else I do, and I download copies to my hard drive as back up.

When I'm writing, I try to do 45 minutes in the morning before work, then as much as family commitments and responsibilities let me spare in the evening. On a good day I can maybe write 2,000 words.

Interesting, thanks for sharing! It's funny how the possibility of a separate google account didn't occur to me even though I already have 2. I must have subconsciously ruled out the idea of having yet another account as too exhausting.

 

[surrender_to_tao]

First off and most important, welcome!

There really aren’t any right or wrongs,. I myself write in Word, then go back and place html points for italics and such, then copy and paste. I’m probably not representative and whatever suits you is best.

Interesting! Thank you for sharing! When you say Word, it's the desktop version, not the online one right?

 

[YmaOHyd]

Usually I start with a character or few characters or a place. Something triggers that -- I don't know what. Usually, once I have two characters and a place and time, the story starts to figure itself out. Often I end up writing backwards, asking myself how my characters got to the point at which I conceived of them rather than what they do next, but not always.

My process is different if I'm working on a series or a standalone. In a standalone, I'll jot down plot points and ideas as I think of them in a Word document; I have a separate document for every story. (Desktop app, not MS Online or 365.) These tend to be pretty bare-bones, and a lot of what's in the document is just noodling with concepts. In a series, I have an outline with anything I think I need to make the characters persist: names, ages, biographical information, their quirks and oddities that I find in the course of the writing. That's a living document which informs each chapter but evolves as I learn more about my people.

Once I've completed a draft, I edit them two passes. The first is aimed mostly at content, the second grammar. When they're in a place I'm comfy with, I do manual HTML, which is mostly alignment in text message conversations and adding links to the author pages for people who've given me advice or served as beta readers. Simple HTML, like line breaks, I put in as I go; it's easier to remember </br> than it is the syntax for links. Once the manual stuff is done, I run a find/replace on "^p" with "^p^p" to get the spacing right, then a macro that applies proper tags for bold, underline and italics.

At that point I copy the text into the Lit text editor and read through it again in Preview before hitting publish. Seeing it in a different font and style helps catch things. Sometimes in my grammar pass I'll change the text color and font for the same reason.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Interesting! Thank you for sharing! When you say Word, it's the desktop version, not the online one right?

Right

 

[Voboy]

I used Word until I lost my subscription, so I use Docs now. No difference, really.

I am a "pantser," meaning I start writing with minimal scaffolding in place and then see where the characters want the story to go. Almost invariably, I heartily enjoy the act of writing. Just as invariably, I tend to put it off because I know how consuming it can be.

I used to be far, far faster; these days, I'm slow (by my own standards, anyway). I used to like writing fuckscenes more than I do now; these days, I prefer worldbuilding. I tend to "pre-write" in my head before I set it down at the keyboard, and I do most of that pre-writing either at the gym or while driving in my car.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

LibreOffice only, local, self contained install. NOTHING goes on any website anywhere other than Lit.

 

[surrender_to_tao]

I used to like writing fuckscenes more than I do now; these days, I prefer worldbuilding.

Thank you for sharing! Just wanted to say this is very relatable, obviously sex is a necessary ingredient, but I too find the setup more interesting, to read, to imagine and to write.

 

[WhoDunIt77]

I’ve been using Pages on my iPhone, usually in the evenings when I have time to do so, though I’m planning on hitting the gym hard next year as I slacked way too much in ‘25 so that could have an effect on how often I write and post stores and other hobbies I have. The chapters to the story I’m working on now have been fairly short, so I can usually knock them out in one sitting. One thing I think I may do going forward is to write the next chapter once the current one is published on here even though the other two sites I’ve posted them on don’t have an editor or are moderated like we are here. Gives me a few days to think of what I want next for the characters too.

 

[old_prof]

As others said, welcome.

I'm a mac person, so I use Pages primarily. I usually think for a while about a story until I have a good understanding of the characters, what situation I want to put them in and how I want to start the story. If it takes me days or weeks to get that all together in my head, I start a <story-name>_people file, that has odds and ends I've thought up about the characters, their backstories, people around them and the scenario.

Once I have all that, including the first line or first few paragraphs, I just type until the story is done. Sometimes, I need to walk away for a day or even a week shen they characters won't behave. I had one Romance where they wouldn't fall in love, another where they wouldn't stop fighting. Eventually my brain finds a path for them and the story picks u again.

For longer stories (long novellas or full novels), I will roughly outline a chapter or two in advance. Nothing etched in stone, but it helps keep things moving for me.

Three useful tips for editing/proofreading passes I have picked up:

1) Change the font size significantly for one of your proofreading passes. You notice very different things that way.
2) Give yourself at least 100pts spacing after paragraphs on at least one of your editing passes. It focuses you attention on a single paragraph at a time. I had picked up a book on doing revising and that was one of the hints there. It has made a difference for me.
3) Most importantly, use one of the read aloud tools to listen to your story read to you. You find very different issues than reading makes obvious. The most recent version of Pages massively upgraded their automated reading voice. It's the one piece of AI I use in writing.

I also embed the html tags, but I have also gone to applying the italics or whatever to the source as well, so I can get a sense of what it looks like. I then copy and paste the story from Pages into the box on Lit. I don't trust issues in translation between Pages->Word->Lit, especially since I can't see what it will look like in Lit until it publishes. I always do at least one last final read through on Lit's preview before hitting the final publish button.

 

[Voboy]

Thank you for sharing! Just wanted to say this is very relatable, obviously sex is a necessary ingredient, but I too find the setup more interesting, to read, to imagine and to write.

Don't get me wrong: the sex is still fun, especially if the characters have proven their likeability. If I like who they are, I'll like what they do and I think that comes across on the page.

By "worldbuilding," I don't really mean setup; I mean the backstories of the people and places I'm writing about. I tend to get lost in that shit. It's one reason why I limit my SF/fantasy writing; if I didn't, it would take over.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

LibreOffice only, local, self contained install. NOTHING goes on any website anywhere other than Lit.

I do keep an encrypted cloud backup. All my work is local, though.

 

[StillStunned]

Hi everyone, I'm a total noob here

Welcome! I was as you a few years ago, and I remember the excitement! Ideas bursting in my mind, turning into stories with minimal effort, and being read by thousands of strangers - it's a huge rush. Enjoy it, and if there's anything you need help with, you can usually find it here in the AH. Be respectful to the site, your readers and your fellow authors, and you'll get it back many times over.

and I'm curious what everyone's writing workflow looks like these days.

Anywhere from staring at the screen for weeks at a time to churning out 1k words before breakfast. If I can give you one tip, it's not to feel guilty if you're not being productive. If a story isn't working, or if the words just aren't flowing, or if you're stuck, or Chapter 4 of your series isn't coming - don't worry about it. You're doing it for fun. If it isn't fun, take a break and do something that is.

Good luck!

 

[TheWritingGroup]

Anywhere from staring at the screen for weeks at a time to churning out 1k words before breakfast. If I can give you one tip, it's not to feel guilty if you're not being productive. If a story isn't working, or if the words just aren't flowing, or if you're stuck, or Chapter 4 of your series isn't coming - don't worry about it. You're doing it for fun. If it isn't fun, take a break and do something that is.

Lately, when I'm stuck on one story, I jump over and work on another one. When that one hits a rough patch, I jump back. For a while I had three stories actively being written. Two are now published, one a (short) novel. I just took a break from an interlude in another very long story (where I jump to a different viewpoint character for one chapter) to write a 2200 word short story in a totally different category, which is now off to my editor.

--Annie

 

[WhoDunIt77]

One thing I did when I was stuck a couple chapters back, I just took the night off and read stores here, on Deviant Art, Metabods, and the musclegrowth.org forum (later two being male muscle growth related) as well as images on DA and the MG forum for inspiration.

 

[DEFCOM5]

I use local word and then paste into Docs because it will catch grammatical errors that Word misses.

I also have word read the story to me.

I need to have the entire story in my head before writing it. Not the details but the MCs and why/how they meet and why/how they fuck and why/how the story ends.

I admire writers who can just start writing without any clue of the beginning, middle or ending and end with a beautiful story

 

[surrender_to_tao]

By "worldbuilding," I don't really mean setup; I mean the backstories of the people and places I'm writing about. I tend to get lost in that shit. It's one reason why I limit my SF/fantasy writing; if I didn't, it would take over.

Gotcha, thanks for clarification. I think that's close to what I meant by setup as well, establishing the characters' backstories and the world they live in, though in my particular case, I'm more interested in their inner worlds, their wounds and wants, their fears and insecurities, their lived experiences and unlived fantasies.

 

[surrender_to_tao]

The chapters to the story I’m working on now have been fairly short, so I can usually knock them out in one sitting. One thing I think I may do going forward is to write the next chapter once the current one is published on here even though the other two sites I’ve posted them on don’t have an editor or are moderated like we are here. Gives me a few days to think of what I want next for the characters too.

Thanks for sharing! How far do you normally think ahead in terms of the overall plot? Do you normally know where the story is going ahead of time and how you want to finish it, or sometimes do you just kind of see where it goes organically, chapter by chapter?

 

[Voboy]

Gotcha, thanks for clarification. I think that's close to what I meant by setup as well, establishing the characters' backstories and the world they live in, though in my particular case, I'm more interested in their inner worlds, their wounds and wants, their fears and insecurities, their lived experiences and unlived fantasies.

It'll come through in the finished product.

I take my cue from Tolkien on this, who produced reams of successive well-built worlds for every page that eventually made it into print. He felt that even if that backstory wasn't included explicitly in the finished work, the reader would sense that it existed, and it would deepen the tale.

I think he's right.

 

[TheLobster]

I admire writers who can just start writing without any clue of the beginning, middle or ending

Aww, you're too kind!

and end with a beautiful story

Ah, fair enough, never mind then

 

[surrender_to_tao]

I take my cue from Tolkien on this, who produced reams of successive well-built worlds for every page that eventually made it into print. He felt that even if that backstory wasn't included explicitly in the finished work, the reader would sense that it existed, and it would deepen the tale.

That makes a ton of sense. Do you also write these out explicitly somewhere so that you can reference them or do you tend to just know your world and keep everything implicitly in your mind? Even in the past when I did a fair amount of fiction writing, I tended to write short stories where everything not written fits in my head, so I never developed a good process for dealing with extensive background information.

 

[WhoDunIt77]

Thanks for sharing! How far do you normally think ahead in terms of the overall plot? Do you normally know where the story is going ahead of time and how you want to finish it, or sometimes do you just kind of see where it goes organically, chapter by chapter?

It depends, I’ve had different ideas floating around in my head for months now from some of the stories I’ve read and images
I’ve seen (including those made using AI) and finally started putting them down a few weeks ago. The Refurbished story is one of those that includes different ideas running around in my head for a while now as well as stuff that pops up randomly and has me thinking, “oh, that will work great in the next chapter or so!” I have another story idea that should be kinkier and possibly in the same universe with a few similarities and other, more off the wall ideas that kinda come from different superhero storylines.

 

[Voboy]

That makes a ton of sense. Do you also write these out explicitly somewhere so that you can reference them or do you tend to just know your world and keep everything implicitly in your mind? Even in the past when I did a fair amount of fiction writing, I tended to write short stories where everything not written fits in my head, so I never developed a good process for dealing with extensive background information.

Oh no, I write them out. Much of the writing I do never does get published, but it all "exists" in-universe (I should add that almost all my stories are interlinked).

If you'd like an example of some of this background matter, take a look at this. It's stuff I wrote while I was putting together my SF series, which was lots of fun to write. I mentioned to a fan that I had background matter, and he convinced me to publish it; I wasn't sure anyone would care, but it's been well-received.