Behind the scene: My writing process.

I thought I would explain to you the process that goes into publishing a story. It's hard to evaluate precisely how much time it takes to produce, let's a 4000 words or 7000 words story, but you might find this interesting anyway.

Step 1 - Deciding what story to write next.

My stories are not randomly published. This step is where you have the most power over me. I am always trying to post what you guys want to read and some that I want to read. This is why I generally publish an Animal Café every two weeks and regular Feliformia. It is directly to make you happy. (it makes me happy too) Then, on my side, Girls and Bridle is my favorite story to write, so I try to publish a chapter every month as well. Women will save the men is also very fun to write. :) Overall, it's hard to tell what's for you or me, but I think we have pretty similar tastes in literature. haha

Step 2 - Drafting

I rarely think about what I'm going to write. I generally don't have a plan when I start, and this is why sometimes I write something very hot, and other times I write something dramatic. Cross fingers, I don't end up in a dead-end often, and I rarely have to go back and erase something I drafted. It probably is because I let my characters do whatever they wish, and the result is what it is. Still, sometimes I struggle. Like Winter Maid is always very difficult to write... I don't know why.

I usually draft anywhere from 500 to 1500 words per hour. So for an 8000 words story, it can take me anywhere from 6 to 12 hours. It all depends on my energy level and mood.

Step 3 - Editing in Grammarly

At first, it was a nightmare, but now I'm getting better at it. I paste my entire chapter in a new Grammarly file, and I go through the whole document fixing tons of errors, typos, syntax, grammar, passive voice, etc. An 8000 words text can contain 300-400 mistakes, but I don't correct that many. I have to filter what is legit or not. Grammarly helps a lot, but it is far from being perfect.

During that first pass, I also rephrase things that do not make sense and fix the paragraph. I'm trying to get rid of repetitive words. (Grammarly is good at suggesting alternatives but often wrong at understanding the context. Mind you, some times it is impressive)

This work takes quite a bit of time, depending on my concentration level. I usually only do 4000 words at a time, so most stories take two days to complete. But I can also push through and do 10000 words if I feel good.

Step 4 - Review 1

I read the text normally. Usually, this is when I'll find many more mistakes and things that don't make sense. I find all that extra stuff because I read faster than the previous step, so my brain remembers what was in the previous paragraphs, and I can correct conflicts and repetitive words. If I don't like the text flow, I can rephrase a whole paragraph or sections. This is when I decide if I like what I wrote or good enough to keep.

I usually go through 8000 words in one evening.

Step 5 - Review 2

Similar to step 4, but a second time. It takes about the same amount of time depending on how decent a job I did during steps 3 and 4.

Step 6 - Another Grammarly pass

The bigger the story, the more necessary this is. Since I changed quite a bit of text in steps 4 and 5, I rerun the text in Grammarly to catch all the mistakes that I might have introduced during the reviews.

This usually doesn't take long at all.

Step 7 - Another Google Doc pass

Google Docs and Grammarly don't see eye to eye... I go through the document in google docs quickly to detect a few more mistakes that Grammarly might have missed.

This usually doesn't take long either.

Step 8 - I format the whole text before publishing

It doesn't take long. I change the police, the size, the indentation, and the justification. I center the section breaks and sometimes add some adorable glyphs like in Girls and Bridle.

Step 9 - Download and convert

Pretty straightforward. I download the document and create PDF, MOBI, and EPUB after correcting the metadata.

Step 10 - I post on Patreon

Et voila! You can now read the story. :)

I hope you enjoyed this little sneak peek into my crazy world.

TS