Guest Post - Paige Shelton

Happy Monday to you! Today we have Paige Shelton with us and she is talking about a day of writing !!Thank you so much for being here today!

I’m often asked how I write. What’s my schedule? How do I plan out a day? Frankly, it seems to be evolving all the time, but recently I’ve added a very helpful step.

I’ve always written by the seat of my pants – the “technical” term is: panster. I’ve never been able to create - pre-book - a real outline or synopsis that truly resembled the final draft. I just can’t “see” the story before it shows itself to me. I wish I could.

But recently I began doing a new thing. Every morning before I start writing the different stories I’m working on, I write a paragraph for each one; just a quick and grammatically challenged sentence or two that comes to mind about where I want the story to go that day, or where I think it needs some oomph. Sometimes, it’s the result of a question that occurred to me the evening before after I finished working, and the day’s words settled from my conscious down to my subconscious. The subconscious has a tendency to shake up even the most confident of writing days.

And, it’s been really great. Even though I can’t “see” the story before it gets typed on the screen, the paragraphs have been signposts that have helped relax the process and smooth out some of what might have been rougher days before, when I’d just sit down and get going. They’re arrows that tell me I’m pretty close to on track, or I’m way off track and I’d better take a sharp turn if I want to get where I need to go. I’m never confident enough to think I’ve hit the mark perfectly, particularly in the first draft stage, but I’m deleting lots fewer words.

Just one short year ago I would never have guessed that something this simple would help my process. I’m glad to have found it and am kind of wondering if my next step will actually be a new ability to create a real outline or synopsis before I begin a story. It’s something I daydream about – knowing what will happen before it does.

I’ll keep my fingers crossed but I won’t hold my breath.

Thanks to Shelley for inviting me to post today. Happy Reading, everyone!

Paige

Paige is the national bestselling author of the Farmers' Market Mysteries and the Country Cooking School Mysteries. She grew up in the Midwest but moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, after college. Paige enjoys reading, listening to music from the 80s, and watching way too many zombie movies with her husband and son.

Farmers' Market Mysteries, in order:
1 - FARM FRESH MURDER
2 - FRUIT OF ALL EVIL
3 - CROPS AND ROBBERS
E-book only, short story special - RED HOT DEADLY PEPPERS
4 - A KILLER MAIZE
5 - MERRY MARKET MURDER, (December 3, 2013)
6 - TBD

Country Cooking School Mysteries, in order:
1 - IF FRIED CHICKEN COULD FLY
2 - IF MASHED POTATOES COULD DANCE
3 - IF BREAD COULD RISE TO THE OCCASION (August 6, 2013)
4 - IF CATFISH HAD NINE LIVES (August 5, 2014)
5 - Working title IF ONIONS COULD SPRING LEEKS (August 2015)

Young Adult
CLOCKWORK