The other day I was asked to participate in a “How I Write” blogroll by my friend Tony from A Way With Words. He wrote a great post called “Brewing a Fine Story: My Writing Process,” and he nominated me to keep the blogroll rolling. Unfortunately, Tony overestimates my ability to keep my word, and I haven’t had any time to appropriately nominate any other writers. Nevertheless, I have highlighted a few writers (at the bottom) without their foreknowledge. Whether they keep this going will be up to them.

SIDE NOTE: Check out their blogs if you can.

In Tony’s blog, I thought he hit the writing process on the head: “1. Read 2. Steal. 3. Repeat.” I’m tempted to just stop there. But I won’t because research suggests you’re willing to read up to 500 words. So I’m going to write 600 and cut 100 out. I’m getting ahead of myself.

Kevin’s Awesome Writing Knowhow Process for Blog Domination

When it comes to short story and fiction, I’m still very much finding my groove. And let’s be honest, no one wants to see my groove. Below is an ordered list that reflects my nonfiction writing process.

For my blog, there are two writing tracks: a) Inspired b) Needful

Inspired

1. An idea hits me from one of many sources (e.g., my wife’s wisdom, a recent life experience, any time I’m in church, a bat in my bedroom)

2. If I can’t write it in the moment, I’ll put a note in my iPhone Notes app

3. As soon as I can, I’ll jump on the computer at home and write directly in to WordPress

4. Though I wish I could say I wrote without stopping and saved the editing for the second draft, I just simply don’t. I go line by line. It takes forever. However, if I’m inspired, I usually can’t stop writing, and the best stuff rarely requires much tinkering. (more…)