I always start my books by mapping out a detailed outline. This helps flesh out the story I want to tell—plot, characters and everything in between. Once the overarching story of the series is summarized, I break it down and do another outline for each book, focusing on each main character’s narrative arc. After I share the outline with my editor and get feedback, I begin writing—my favorite part of the process.
Huh. Well, you can tell she's used to dealing with press: The whole essay is comprised of sound bites.
And, um, WOW is she process-oriented. Two outlines, a trip to the editor, and then she starts writing!? This explains why she's on the bestseller list; I don't think I could put up with that. I'm writing from an outline for THE FIRST TIME SINCE GRAD SCHOOL, and let me tell you, it was no picnic having to do it for a class. I'm just not put together that way...
Posted by: tanita | 16 August 2011 at 04:15 AM
Tanita, you know she's not writing them herself, right? She's on the best-seller list because of who she is. Because of who she is, a publisher or a manager or an agent thought of a fab way to make more cash: hook her name up to a project written by a ghostwriter and then sit back and enjoy the profits.
I can assure you that Kim Kardashian is not writing her own book, Britney did not write her own book, Miley Cyrus did not write her own book, and so on ad infinitum. This whole article about her "writing process" was written by a publicist. I don't have a horse in this race, but I hate that celebrities who "write" books are even considered writers - it kind of taints real writers by association in the whole "anyone can write a book" way.
Posted by: Lisa | 16 August 2011 at 10:38 AM
It would be great if every book that is actually ghostwritten glowed ominously or something, so people could tell the difference....or at least have a big sticker on it or something. I can't believe there are people out there who really think Snooki and Lauren Conrad and the Kardashians are real authors. I hope the ghostwriting is terrible, otherwise people are going to enjoy these books and this sucky trend is just going to pick up steam. If it resulted in more people reading in general and more REAL authors getting their work found and read, then I'd be fine with it. Who cares if the gateway book to reading was supposedly written by Snooki? But frankly, I haven't seen anything to support that....and I'm still mad about the Duff/Monstrumologist thing.
Posted by: Lara | 16 August 2011 at 11:49 AM
I'm "process oriented" (whatever that means) and I do write my own books. Every damn word. Outline first, run it by the editor, and then writing (and then rewriting!). It's not just ghostwritten celebrities (Is LC ghostwritten?) that work this way.
Posted by: Diana Peterfreund | 16 August 2011 at 04:22 PM
Up until now, I'd just assumed (bad on me) that she had a ghost-writer. But the essay was so detailed about her writing process that it actually made me wonder if she has been writing them herself. It didn't even occur to me, as it did to Lisa, that the essay could have been written by a publicist. But that's a possibility, too.
Posted by: Leila | 16 August 2011 at 05:08 PM