The second half of my ‘Writing Habits and Processes’ post for Nicole Murphy is now live. Such a great series — so glad I could be a part of it.
Do you have a different process for writing short stories versus novels?
The content is certainly different — the novel’s world is more detailed, descriptions are often lengthier and more specific, and there are more subplots and characters than there are in short stories — but the process of putting the narratives together is almost the same. The biggest difference in process is in revising and redrafting. Karen Miller once told me that writing the first draft of a novel is when you’re “telling yourself the story” and this is exactly what’s happening with The Familiar. I’m figuring things out as I go along, leaving some parts roughly sketched out, knowing that I’m going to have to go back to early chapters and rewrite large parts of them, add new characters, delete others, tighten up the plot, and so on. This is something that never happens when I work on short stories…
Read the rest here.
Lisa L. Hannett 