What's your process?

There are a lot of writers out there with millions of books on Amazon and other places. There's no doubt the world for writers has changed and is constantly evolving. But one thing that really hasn't changed is the writing process. Or has it?

When I start a book, I never go into it with a full concept in mind. I am not a plotter, simply because I do not want a canned product that is like anyone else's. And I can't get there by extensive plotting. Sure, I have no doubt that I borrow bits and pieces of books and pop culture as I go along, but I never do so with the idea that I want to write something like anything else. Being truly original may be an impossible task, however, so we get there as best we can.

A lot of writers have another process. They read a book and say, "I can do better" and want to expand or change a few things and produce something original. And I think with the speed of publishing, that whole "write what's hot" concept is alive and well like never before. In the old days of the publishing crawl, if you wanted to write something that was hot, by the time it got through the process to publication there was a chance you were going to be very late to the game, and look like a hack. Today, something that's hot in January, can inspire an eBook that can be out by March. Just look at the explosion of erotica that "50 Shades" has inspired.

I actually wish I could do that. I wish I could look at the best sellers list today, and have a 60k word novel ready by March. But I'm not wired that way. I just can't sculpt a story in that fashion, I need to let the story take itself where it may. I'm built on the line of thinking that says if I can't surprise myself, I'm not going to surprise my readers. Other writers can make twists, I have to stumble into them.

I guess that's what's so cool about writing, and writers. We all have such a different process. We all have the same goal in mind, but we get there in such different ways. Are you a plotter? Do you fly by the seat of your pants? Are you a hybrid of both? Are you something altogether different?

A while back I read about a writer who writes backwards. He starts at the end, and works his way to the beginning. That sound incredibly hard, but it would probably be a fun thing to try and see what you come up with.

No matter the process, or the final product, writers are writing like never before in both scope and volume. I'd like to hear about all those different processes out there. Because some of them are so innovative and I'm sure someone out there is going to come up with something none of us have ever seen or tried before.