Enter Rae Mariz, confirmed geek and awesome human

I’ve known Rae Mariz online for quite a few years now, so I know that she is not only a great writer, and an amazingly creative person, but she is always down for writerly discussion, always learning more and sharing what she knows.

As part of my push towards helping new writers really embrace the idea that there is no One True Way to write, she wrote me this really helpful piece about her own writing process.

I do a lot of process writing more than outlining when I’m starting a new story. 

It’s basically just me explaining TO MYSELF what’s exciting about a new idea. The dynamics between two characters. A spin on a trope that pisses me off. A lot of my work maybe has an element of ‘there has to be a better way’ after shrewdly considering the world we live in, so there’s a lot of brainstorming about how stupid systems/behaviors could be done smarter/be reimagined, and what the problems of THOSE ‘solutions’ could turn out to be… 

The document(s) turn into a mood board of words that I can refer back to when drafting, even if I don’t often physically open that document. Just the process of writing about particular characters, or themes, or problems or settings solidifies a lot of those ideas in my mind as I go into drafting. 

Image by fancycrave1 from Pixabay

Drafting itself is usually fun and surprising if I’ve already pinpointed what it is about the story that’s fascinating or troubling, if I have a grasp on how the various characters might react in some situations… and just go with it when they respond in a way I wouldn’t have predicted. I’ve fast-drafted NaNo-style a number of first drafts, and I’ve agonized in workhorse deliberation a few scenes a day over a long period of time to get to The End.

I feel like different projects require different approaches, so how I work depends on that. (And I do a second ‘mood board’ AFTER I’ve completed that first draft and maybe then outline more extensively the structure of scenes after I’ve seen where the story ended up, and how to make that feel more deliberate and inevitable during revisions.)

I’ve long known that story structure and plot are my ‘weaknesses’ as a writer, so I attempted to do due diligence and learn all I could about those elements of writing craft.

And it ruined my writing for a time. Kind of killed it. 

And the three projects I worked on (more or less simultaneously) after getting out of that mode of thinking about writing are all various attacks on conventional understandings of story structure/what a story is/who decides what makes it work. I am one of those people who believe the secret to ‘good’ clear writing is well-organized thinking, but I don’t necessarily think bullet points and beat sheets will get you there. It’s the process of knowing what you’re writing, why… which often leads to who you’re writing for? This nebulous idea of a person you’re telling this story to and what you’re ultimately hoping to communicate to them through evocative images and tickling phrases.

When I get stuck in a project, I allow myself to read more on a topic or consume media to see how another person handled similar subject matter… and compare and contrast that with what I’m doing. Re-read that process writing document of why I was so excited about the idea in the first place, maybe add to it what questions are cropping up that I don’t have answers to. But I also don’t feel bad about just stepping away from writing if it’s not working. I’ll draw character sketches, knit or embroider while story stuff is on the back burner, simmering out a solution.

Image by Lu P. from Pixabay

The worst is like now when I’m stuck BETWEEN projects. That I’ve got a number of stories completed and waiting for them to make their rounds through the publishing process, and I also have a good number of story ideas ‘processed’ that I should in theory be able to dive in and draft any one of them, but kind of…paralyzed to commit to one project… to start up that focus engine again. Just got to trust that something will nudge the needle to one project or the other, and I’ll run on that steam of excitement, chugging along in fits and bursts.

Rae Mariz has lived more than half her adult life in Stockholm after working in public libraries in Seattle, dropping out of art school in Portland, and forming childhood memories in the Bay Area and on the Big Island. She’s a language geek and reclusive guerrilla artist who devotes her time to ambitious craft projects and advocating for climate justice with her 9yo daughter. Her first YA novel, The Unidentified, anticipated a familiar dystopia of the influencer economy, social media surveillance, and youth resistance movements.

twitter: @raemariz