Friday night in Anam Cara saw Vanessa Gebbie, Tania Hershman and I reading from our work to a small though enthusiastic crowd. The roads were incredibly icy on the peninsula so we were chuffed that anyone risked coming out at all.  Hearty souls, these Irish, with an abiding love of story-telling which allows them to brave the worst conditions just for the chance to talk about writing.  Gotta’ love ’em!
     As wonderful as the readings were, the conversation was just as fascinating.  We all discussed our processes- how we start, how we finish, whether we research and if so, when, what time of day we work and for how long. If one lesson was learned at all, it was that there is no single “correct” way to write.  We own have our own methods and we all stumble upon them over years of trial and error.  For example, when I sit down to write a novel, as I’m doing now, I begin by thinking about what issues or themes I want to tackle, where the tackling will happen and who will do it.  I make some lists of possibilities and then I start to research.  I read books and articles about my themes, immersing myself in the “reality” of my subjects, not so much for specific facts but for ideas of facts, hints of a framework, an occasional statistic that might come in handy during some conversation or other.  I likened myself to a 2-year-old.  By setting up real boundaries, I feel safe and free enough to explore and create.  I need a framework of the plausible in order to start to understand my characters and imagine a storyline.  The more I read and think, the more real my fiction begins to feel to me.  And the more real it feels, the more acutely will I feel the need to create this “realized fiction” through writing.
   But my colleagues have their own, very different processes.  Rather than put words into their mouths, I’ll be asking them to discuss here sometime the specifics of their approaches.  But I will say that one only does research after the entire first draft is completed, just to see if what she made up was correct.  The other rarely does research at all but  has her characters inhabit a world just off to the side of our perceived reality.
   Then there is the question of time — how much time do we spend actually writing?  We all seem to have our own internal clocks.  One of us sits down to write and finds herself stopping after 20 minutes, and then does it again and again.  I start to write  and then look at the clock to find, inevitably, it’s an hour-and-a half later.  I’ll take a tea break and then do it again. Sit to write, look up to find another hour-and-a-half has passed. Boom, literally like clockwork.  And then I’m spent for the day.
    Fascinating stuff, I think.  But if anything could be learned from this discussion it is that there is no one correct way of doing it, no one proper way to write a story or a novel or anything.  And that, I think, is incredibly liberating.  It is like bestowing a certificate of permission.  We all  have permission to write in whatever way works best for us and our work.  But if there is one overriding commonality it is that in order to write, you have to stop talking about it, sit down in whatever seat is best for you, and do it. Make a start.  Only by starting can you ever hope to get to the middle and then, miraculously, to the end.
    So, how do you write?  What is your process?  If enough people are interested, maybe I’ll compile a list of all our different approaches.