Author Tracy Brogan: Magic of a story happens during revision

If you haven't read Tracy Brogan's, Crazy Little Thing, you should. Not only because it is a great book - funny as heck - but because the author is about as classy as they come.

Since picking up Crazy, I've been fortunate enough to trade a few emails with Tracy about the craft of writing. The fact that she would take the time out of her hectic day to talk about her writing process with a nobody like me, well, I think it speaks volumes about her character.

But I'll let you be the judge.

Below is one of the emails Ms. Brogan and I traded. I wanted to share, because I think there's a lot of good, practical advice:

Scott: As far as specifics, I guess what I'm most interested in is an overview of your writing process. There's a lot of "how to" and other books that address other elements of fiction writing. But picking the brain of a traditionally published, successful author, those types of works are hard to find.

Tracy: Talking to other writers is a great resource, as is reading their blogs. I definitely encourage you to connect with a writer’s group. It’s invaluable.

S: Once you have an idea for your story, kind of a basic plot and the main characters roughly in mind, do you write out a detailed outline or are you more of a "pantser?"

T: What you’ll find is that we all have our own process. I’m a meticulous plotter and have lots of notes on characters and scenes before I begin writing. I also use a white board and colored post it notes to help with plotting, a trick I learned from Cherry Adair. She writes romantic suspense and while I haven’t read many of her books, her plotting workshops are fabulous.

You might try reading “BOOK IN A MONTH.” I found it somewhat helpful, but essentially you want to come up with each characters goal/motivation and conflict. What do they want, why do they want it, and what’s stopping them. Having the two main characters goals conflicting with each other always adds another nice layer. Then at some point they join forces and start working together. After defining their GMC, come up with about 10 key scenes and figure out which order those should go it. Then I do an outline of each chapter and come up with a 1-2 sentence description of what will happen in that chapter and why. And keep in mind an overall THEME for the story and remember that as you go through the chapters. What’s the thread running through everything the main character does?

S: One of my favorite authors is Harlan Coben, who writes suspense/thrillers. His plots are so intricate and there are so many twists and turns, I don't see how he could write them without doing a ton of plotting and outlining up front. Sometimes, I wonder if he almost writes the story backwards, meaning from the end to the front.

T: I like to know the end before I begin so that each scene moves me toward that, but suspense and thrillers take a lot of layering. I’d have to imagine that, like many of us, he writes his first draft and then goes back and adds a layer, weaving in details to twist and tighten the plot. And then he probably does it again. The magic of a good story happens in the RE-visioning of the story. If you hope to write a beautiful first draft, you’ll get very frustrated but it takes a lot of practice to not microedit as you draft. At least it’s a struggle for me.

S: I've recently started using Scrivener and I've found it, thus far, to be a really good tool in outlining. At this point, I tend to loosely outline and add more detail as I get closer to that particular chapter. There are certain markers I want to hit, but I leave it to the characters and the story to get me there, if that makes sense.

T: It does make sense and it sounds as if you are on the right track!

S: Do you follow a similar routine or do you have the plot worked out in greater detail before you start to write? How long does it take you to write an 80-100K manuscript? How many drafts do you typically go through before you've reached the final polished version?

T: I’m just about to revise my 4th book so I’m honestly still developing a system that works best for me. But I try to write 1000-2000 words per day when drafting and I aim to have a manuscript be about 90K, so, about 3-4 months for a tight draft, which means it’s usually my 2nd pass. I tend to edit the first half before finishing the whole thing but I think I lose some time doing it that way so I’m determined to NOT edit this next book until the end is drafted. Once I’ve gotten it back from my editor, revisions usually take 2-4 weeks, depending on what else I’m working on at the time. If I’m focused, I can do it in 7-10 days. But those are awful days!!!! 

S: I've really picked up the pace in terms of my fiction reading.

T: Reading is essential if you want to improve your writing. 

S: I've actually done some beta reading for other "indies." The biggest difference I notice, even among successful indies and professionals like yourself, is the refinement of the manuscript: word choices, grammar, structure, over-written passages, pace, etc. "Crazy Little Thing" really cooks as far as pace - there's not a bunch of extra words or phrasing that doesn't move the story along. It's tight.

T: Thank you! That’s a wonderful compliment. The irony is, I wrote that before I’d taken any craft classes and so I made lots of rookie mistakes. But that is part of the freshness and charm of the story, I guess! As for keeping things tight, and word choice, et cetera, I strongly encourage you to look up Margie Lawson. You can take an online lecture from her, or just buy the course packet and read it. She’s fabulous at showing us weak spots in our writing.