The most important part of the writing process

Let me give you the answer, straight up, right now. What’s the most important part of the writing process?

It’s Listening.

And yes, that does need to be capitalised. I’ll explain why in a minute.

And what’s not the most important part of the writing process?

It’s Thinking.

Right, let’s unpack this. Because you might be reacting in any number of ways…

• What is she on about?

• That’s so untrue

• What a lot of bull****!

Or you might be curious. Let’s welcome in the curiosity and see how you feel once you’ve read a bit more.

I’ve created more than one business over my career and I’ve pivoted more than once in each of those businesses. I’ve also done a lot of writing in those businesses (see Origin Story if you’re interested).

At every stage, I did a lot of Thinking.

• Who is my target audience?

• What is the right business model?

• What writing would best support the business?

These are not unreasonable questions but they led to problems.

My thinking parts kicked in.

My thinking parts are so clever. They know how to create the best content calendar you’ve ever seen. Colour-coded and clear.

They also know what articles to write so I get the best bang for my buck. They identify a client problem, then come up with a top tips listicle.

They also know how to take that article and repurpose it for all forms of social media and for my email list.

Efficient. Organised. Consistent.

They love consistency and they love sticking to a plan.

To be fair, there’s a lot of online advice telling you to take this approach. To create online content (and you need to create A LOT of it), you should identify the problem, come up with a solution (of sorts), be consistent and set up a system to share efficiently.

But no…because here’s the problem with that.

You end up writing for the sake of writing. You end up writing because your content calendar says you need to publish something. You end up writing whatever so it fits the plan.

The world does not need more Content. It needs more writing of depth and heart and soul.

AI can now churn out those ‘how-to’ SEO optimised articles in record time and probably better than us. And it can probably also churn out formulaic novels faster and potentially better than us too.

That’s why we need to do less Thinking and more Listening.

I didn’t realise this until I sat down a couple of years ago to write my first YA novel after a too-long writing hiatus.

I read the best writing book ever and I heard it’s call to:

• Connect deeply with my main character

• Understand their deepest desire and biggest obstacle

• Write forward by focusing on what feels inevitable based on what came before

When I sat down to follow this creative process, the only times I stalled were when I was trying to think about what should happen next.

Instead, when I listened to what wanted to come next, the writing flowed.

That doesn’t mean that it all poured out of me at record speed. There was a need to pause, walk away, come back to writing at another time, allow things to gestate. (Check out Don’t Write Everyday here).

But when I did return to the page, I needed to be open to hearing and receiving what the story needed.

That can look and feel like an intuitive insight, an idea and words scribbled down.

It can also look and feel like sitting in the unknown for as long as it takes, a few seconds, a few minute or much longer before something emerges

And it can look and feel like noticing what might be getting in the way of Listening.

Let me tell you, there are plenty of things that can get in the way of Listening

It could be, a part of you that…

• Wants to hit a certain word count every time you sit down to write

• Needs to stick to a plan, an outline, a calendar

• Hates sitting in uncertainty so it blusters through

• Questions whether you can trust anything you’re hearing, those intuitive hits

• Believes that Thinking is much more productive, if you can just work out this scene, chapter, book, then it will all be Gucci

• Fears that Listening will only lead to stunned silence, nothing coming through

• And there are so many others…

But when you Listen instead of Think, something amazing happens. You’re partnering with the creative process rather than riding over the top of it.

You’re in co-creation with your article, essay, book. It’s taking form with and through you. You’re in creative collaboration.

Even though we’re writers and we often work alone, we can be in creative collaboration.

We don’t have to do with all alone. We can partner with our creative work and do this together.

I believe this is as beneficial when writing a first draft as it is when we’re re-writing.

In between drafts, you could allow your Thinking parts to analyse and identify plot problems or pacing or story arcs.

But even then, when it comes to re-writing, you can put those ideas aside and Listen.

When I first came up with the idea for Hey Young Writers, my thinking parts kicked in immediately. They said, ‘We know what you need to do! Create mini courses!’

They got me to set up a spreadsheet and calendar, work out paid versus free posts and come up with a schedule.

Fortunately, I didn’t just barrel though and follow their advice. I sat in the void and I listened.

That’s when I heard that Hey Young Writers did not want to follow any of that advice. Instead, it showed me that the way forward was to do as I’d done for my novels:

• Connect deeply with my main character, which in this case is Hey Young Writers

• Understand their deepest desire and biggest obstacle - to help young writers to believe in themselves, their writing and their creative dreams

• Write forward by focusing on what feels inevitable based on what came before - listen for what needs to be written next

That’s what I’m doing. With every post I’m doing less thinking, less planning and less strategising and instead, I’m Listening. Because that’s what my creative process is asking of me.