A 5-Step Customizable Writing Process to Become A Versatile Writer
By: The Maverick Files
Tags: Writing Tips, Writing, Advice, Process, Reading

A 5-Step Customizable Writing Process to Become A Versatile Writer

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Before I actively started writing about eight months ago, I always thought that you need to be an expert on a topic to write about it or write well anyway. Only Warren Buffet can really give advice on how to be a billionaire, and only Bill Gates can truly tell you how to be a master programmer starting as early as your teenage.

However, if that were truly the case, the world would be very limited in terms of brilliant writers. I quickly realized that the best writers aren’t so good because they’re subject-matter experts. Sports Illustrated writer Rick Reilly, arguably the top sports-writer in the world, was never really a sportsperson himself — always just a darn good journalist.

Agatha Christie, the woman we all know as a legend in the literary world, was actually a trained nurse by profession, before she started writing detective novels, and gave us the timeless characters of Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She didn’t really have to be a part of the Scotland Yard herself to become the most sold fiction author of all time in the modern world, only behind the legend of William Shakespeare on the all-time list.

What is it then that makes a writer create great literary pieces on topics they may or may not be experts on? How can one write in a way that captivates the reader without them ever doubting the credibility of the writer? Is it really possible for one person to not have a “niche” and become a versatile writer across a variety of topics? The simple answer is yes. What it takes is a diligent writing process. While the steps are largely non-negotiable, there’s significant room for customization in terms of the time and effort spent on each step, depending on the style of the individual.

In my short eight months as a regular writer, I’ve managed to write articles and poems across over a dozen topics at a minimum, publishing close to 250 pieces across my blog, Medium, and a couple of other online avenues. Here is the writing process that I followed and how it can be customized to your own personal style and preferences.

Step 1 — Pre-Writing or conceptualization

This, to me, is the first and arguably the most important step in the writing process, at least for my writing style. This is where you decide on the topic you want to write about and give a skeletal structure to your work — all in your mind, or in writing if you prefer to keep things formal.

This doesn’t necessarily limit to the very broad topic — i.e. “I am going to write my next piece about racism.” This is just too broad a thought — you need to concretize your thoughts a bit more in this step. Here’s how I do it:

Think of the broad topic to write on

It could be something that interests me, something that’s topical, something that I read about and want to try my hand at, a personal experience, and so on.

Narrow down the scope of work

Whether it is going to be a poem, a short-form or long-form article, a full-fledged novel? Depending on the length, how narrow or broad can I go within the word limits at my disposal?

Structuring the piece in my head

While I am conscious that I don’t overdo the planning process, having an idea about the start, the body and the end of my story helps me structure my thoughts so that when I get to writing, I don’t end up staring onto a blank screen for hours.

For me, conceptualization takes about 20% of the “time spent” on an article, but that could easily vary between as little as 10% to as much as 30%.

Step 2 — Research and legitimization of content

The thing about Warren Buffet giving investment advice is that he doesn’t need to back it up with evidence. The evidence is out there for the world to see. But for most lesser mortals, the reader won’t be so easily convinced especially on topics that are a bit more technical. Hence, for most non-fiction pieces it is critical to put in some effort to research the topic, get some facts and statistics together, read about some existing work out there, and sense-check your views.

When it comes to fiction, research isn’t any less important, in fact maybe even more so. Have you noticed how the best fiction authors “transport” you into their world seamlessly? When I read Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, every little detail about the Indian independence struggle, the depiction of the various Indian cities — from the valleys of Kashmir to the heart of India in Bombay — made me feel like I was visiting them for real, albeit, in a setting that was from the mid-20th century. Here’s an excerpt from the book:

In those days the radio mast had not been built and the temple of Sankara Acharya, a little black blister on a khaki hill, still dominated the streets and lake of Srinagar. In those days there was no army camp at the lakeside, no endless snakes of camouflaged trucks and jeeps clogged the narrow mountain roads, no soldiers hid behind the crests of the mountains past Baramulla and Gulmarg.

You don’t get that level of detail without doing thorough research on every location, character, culture, and backdrop of your novel. Mind you, this is just fifty words from a novel that is a whopping 200,000+ words. Rushdie spent a total of four years writing the masterpiece — brilliance requires effort.

The time spent on researching your next piece depends on the topic, the length, the level of detail, etc. but it is fair to say that it definitely accounts for a good 20%–30% of the complete writing process, and could even be as high as 50% in factual, biographical and similar works.

Step 3 — The Execution i.e. writing the first draft

There’s a lot to be said about the first draft, and the views and opinions can vary across writers. For me as an example, my first drafts are often close to my final ones, because I’ve spent close to or more than 50% of my total time commitment doing the first two parts thoroughly. Also, this wasn’t always the case but I got better at my first drafts with time. Writing styles for the same writers change over time — as they get better with practice. As Rushdie says in an HBR interview,

What has changed is that when I started out, I used to get a lot more written in a day than I do now — four pages, five pages. Now I’m doing 400 or 500 words. The difference is that the work used to need a lot of revision. Now I write much less, but it’s closer to a finished piece.

Most seasoned writers and authors will give you different estimates of how good their first drafts are — but they definitely get better with practice, as in the case of Rushdie. For some like John Green, 90% of their first draft is gone by the time they have the finished product,

“I just give myself permission to suck. I delete about 90 percent of my first drafts… so it doesn’t really matter much if on a particular day I write beautiful and brilliant prose that will stick in the minds of my readers forever, because there’s a 90 percent chance I’m just gonna delete whatever I write anyway. I find this hugely liberating.”

For non-fiction authors like Cal Newport, their first drafts are probably 75% of their final work — so only a quarter goes to waste or is re-done:

“I probably end up tossing out a quarter of what I write in the first draft of a book chapter. Even though I try to be pretty thoughtful about figuring out what I want to say before I write, you still have to see how concepts play on page to decide if they deserve to stay.”

However, for most authors, you’ll find some mention of “shit” when they talk about their first drafts — as Ernest Hemingway puts it in very little, but very wise words:

“The first draft of anything is shit.”

I’d say about 30% of your total time commitment in terms of your complete writing process is spent in writing the first draft. It gives you something to react to, improve upon and finish into a final product.

Step 4 — Editing or finishing into a complete product

There’s not enough that can be said about the importance of editing in creating that perfect finished product — and editing can mean different things to different people.

To some, it is often tearing down what they’d written first and almost writing a whole new thing — with just the foundation retained, while to others it is just copy-edits to check for consistency and accuracy. Sometimes, even the foundation doesn’t remain the same — I once wrote an article that started out being one thing but ended up being almost the counterargument of the original premise. That’s the thing with writers — they’re wild beasts trying to tame themselves by following set processes, to give a method to the madness.

You may need to do one, two, or even up to ten edits and re-edits or more of your “first draft.” Anyone that documents their drafts and works in more traditional tools i.e. the word doc will know how their final piece is labeled something like a version 12.

Here’s a good thumb rule to keep in mind — write for yourself, edit for the reader. The end product must be completed with the reader in mind. As Stephen King says in his book On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft:

Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings.

Every word that you put down as a writer is dear to you, but it may not be “necessary” for the reader. A good writer cuts down on the reader’s “work” in reading, and enhances their “experience.”

As a conservative estimate, I’d recommend spending at least 20% of your time on editing, if not a lot more.

Step 5 — Market your work aggressively

This one’s an “add-on” to the process of purely writing — but just as important. In a world where there are so many writers and creative minds out there — everyone needs to put an effort to sell their work.

Even the best well-known authors do book tours and promotional activities for their work. Whether you’re an amateur that needs to do all their own marketing or a veteran who has an agent and a marketing team, someone needs to put in the hard yards.

From sharing the link to an article on social media with the right SEO to conducting book tours for novels, to signing up with platforms and putting your work out in book festivals, there’s a whole gamut of ways to market your product. Figure out the best strategy that works for your style of work and get behind it. Think of the next piece after you’ve made sure this previous one has gotten enough promotion to go on auto-pilot mode. Your writing is truly complete only once it has reached its desired audience.