A Complete Guide to the

Writing Process: 6 Stages of

Writing
Written by MasterClass

Last updated: Aug 23, 2021 • 10 min read

Every writer works in a different way. Some writers work straight
through from beginning to end. Others work in pieces they arrange
later, while others work from sentence to sentence. Understanding
how and why you write the way you do allows you to treat your
writing like the job it is, while allowing your creativity to run wild.

What Is the Writing Process?

There’s a natural organization to the process of writing that brings
an idea from conception to final draft, and most writers may not
even realize the way they create falls into a fairly standard
terminology. Generally, the writing process encompasses a
project’s throughline in its entirety: from brainstorming and
planning to revision and eventual publishing.

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The 6 Stages of the Writing Process

Here’s a step by step guide to the writing process. Keep what
works for you and discard the rest. Your material and process will
guide you to your own set of rules.

1. Prewriting
“I will always jot down things, little ideas. I may never go back to
them. I may never see them again. But once they’re jotted down,
they’re rotting away, usefully, on the compost heap of my
imagination. And they’re there if I need them.”—Neil Gaiman

Brainstorming can be a response to a half-formed thought you had

while riding the subway, or to a writing assignment like a prompt
that kick-starts your writing one day. Either way, the writing
process often looks very much like an iceberg: thinking about
characters and plot, daydreaming about the world where your story
is set takes up more time than most people realize. Some stories
take years to coalesce.

Make a habit of writing down the things that have captured your
attention in the past week or month. These may become the
source motivators of your writing, maybe of your career. Any
writing project will require a sustained interest, so be sure to fill
this page with your truth: What interests you? This can be
anything: a word, a movie, a person, an event, so long as it
inspired you. It can be subjects (cactus species, muscle cars, a
voyage to Mars) or people/types of people (therapists, spies, your
Aunt Germaine). Try to include things from other arts—for
example, foods, music, or movies.

When it comes to building an idea for a novel, create a specialized

subset of your compost heap, which is a lexicon devoted
exclusively to your novel. For example, if you’re writing about
Greenland, gather all the words you can about snow, ice, flora and
fauna, geologic formations, or weather occurrences. Research
history and arts and science. Write down all of the words you love
and that you think could go into your novel.

It’s all about turning a thought over in your mind like a little piece
of grit. When you have something that looks vaguely like a pearl,
it’s time to sketch out a plan.

2. Planning
“I don’t like outlining either. But now I can’t work without one. I
have to have it. I have my whole plan.”—

Common wisdom holds that there are two types of writers. Plotters
are those who meticulously plan every book before they write it,
and are those who fly by the seat of their pants, setting off into a
novel without a clear map. There are benefits to both styles, and
both types can get stuck at any point in their writing. For plotters,
problems arise when their characters decide to do something they
weren’t expecting. It can be difficult to accept that your story isn’t
what you thought it would be, and there’s often a tendency to
force your way forward. Pantsers incline toward a different
problem: they get lost, usually in the middle section of their work,
because they haven’t got a clear enough idea of where they’re
going. Plotters will benefit from a re-thinking of their story
structure, and pantsers will often benefit by building some of the
architecture their story needs.

New writers in particular find it helpful to have a road map,

because it can be challenging to create a cohesive plot that
remains interesting from start to finish. This is why it may be
necessary to build a detailed outline before you start writing. A
strong outline lets you stay in control of the narrative as you
establish the world of your story, and that can be as vague or
exhaustive as you’d like.

If you put enough work into your outline, the most difficult part of
writing your book is finished. Doing so allows you to be relaxed as
you write and confident of the direction you are headed. It makes
the writing process more enjoyable. Here’s an example of a short
outline format:

 A plot synopsis giving a high-level summary of your story.

This shouldn’t be longer than a few paragraphs, and should
feel a bit like a thesis statement
 The main characters (don’t worry about adding too much
detail, that will come later)
 The central conflict
 A brief description of each scene
 Clear definition of the beginning, middle, and end
3. Drafting
“Completing your first draft shows you can do it. No matter what
trouble you have later on, you know you can do it, no matter
what.”— Time to let the words flow. Focus on getting through it
from start to finish, and remember that you can always go back
and change things later. If a novel feels too intimidating, try writing
a short story instead. (Of course, short stories can be deceivingly
more difficult to write than novels, since they require a concise and
extremely economical narrative containing all the elements of a
novel—in a fraction of the space.)

If you’re working from an outline, you can choose to approach your

story in any order that feels right for you. If you prefer to write in a
linear fashion, begin with the first chapter. You will inevitably make
changes to your original plan along the way, and this is a good
thing. But remember that once you add an element to you book,
such as a surprising new character or some sort of plot twist, you’ll
need to go back and establish that character or story element early
on in order to prepare your readers for what is coming down the
line.

Some authors begin by handwriting because they find it generates

an unbroken flow from the brain to the hand to the page. They
then transcribe these pages to typed ones, editing as they go. This
“rolling barrage” method that allows you to keep what you’ve just
written fresh in your mind. Many writing courses will advise what is
sometimes described as “downhill skiing”: freewriting as fast as
you can, and then going back later to revise (to literally re-“vision”)
what you’ve got. Remember: no one gets to see your rough draft
but you, so don’t hold back. Don’t edit yourself or criticize your
choices. Figure out your own way as you write. You can write
straight through a draft, jump around, reread the previous day’s
pages, or any combination of these methods.

Sometimes a fear of making mistakes will sabotage your writing

process or stop you from putting ideas on the page. It can cause
writer's block while you’re in the middle of a project. Keeping
speed in mind will help you move past this. If you feel stuck, it’s
best to push through and just get something—anything—onto the
paper. Everyone has bad writing days, and so will you. Just keep
moving forward, and complete the first draft. At this stage, just sit
down and have fun. You can be more serious when you go back
and start revising your work.

4. Revising
“The process of doing your second draft is a process of making it
look like you knew what you were doing all along.”—Neil Gaiman

As you enter the revising stage, read your manuscript aloud. Your
ear will catch awkward patches of sentence structure and
infelicities that your eye often won’t. Here you’ll just be looking at
language, formatting, and style. One good technique is to identify
problem areas that you’d like to improve, then mark all of those
areas with a colored highlighter. Set a goal for yourself to get the
entire manuscript back to colorless. Look especially for sections
where the writing seems different—maybe it’s too sloppy, or
something is overwritten—or sequences where someone acted out
of character. Search for sections that are too heavy on dialogue, or
too dense with exposition, and try to balance them out. Let your
instincts guide you to the places where something feels off and go
back to them later for correction.

Each section of a novel will have its own challenges, and you may
struggle with one more than another. Some writers find that their
beginnings are too slow, their middles tend to be shapeless and
messy, or their endings lack a satisfying note.

Generating the first draft is an exercise in “getting everything

down that you can get down. The second draft is all about finding
surprises along the way and starting to tease out the shape of your
story. Go deeper into character. Don’t worry too much about the
plot yet.

Be careful of falling in love with your story. That will make seeing it
objectively difficult, and may get in the way when it’s time to cut or
tighten.

5. Editing
“The story is an explosion. And you get to the end of it, and once
it’s done, then you get to walk around it and you get to look at the
shrapnel and the damage it did. And you get to see who died. And
you get to see how it worked.”—Neil Gaiman

There are two kinds of editing: editing as you write, and editing
once you’ve finished a draft. It’s a good idea to practice the first
type on a daily basis by tightening and proofreading your prose to
make it concise and effective. When reviewing the work that
you’ve just done, ask yourself if it conveys what you meant it to, if
it makes sense, and if the writing feels good.

The second type of editing involves reading an entire manuscript

while trying to imagine what a reader will think of it. It’s difficult to
edit your own writing without distance. Put the manuscript aside
for a few weeks or months. When you go back to the manuscript,
try to print out a physical copy. This not only gives you space to
take notes on problem areas, it makes a difference in how you read
stories.

 Don’t spend too much time editing the same problem areas
over and over. This is a type of procrastination and will
generally only augment your feelings of frustration. Try to
find a balance: edit to smooth out your writing but don’t edit
so much that you ruin the original magic of your novel.
 Ask what your story is about. The major dramatic question is
usually involved the main character’s primary desire. This
will often be the driving force in your story. Ask yourself
which areas you need to work on to buttress that main story
line. What areas are superfluous and distract from it? Does
your ending answer the major dramatic question?
 What areas have problems with pacing? (i.e. too much
dialogue, too much exposition, things feel “draggy”)
6. Publishing
A piece of writing may never truly feel complete to its author, but if
you’ve made it all the many iterations of your draft, and feel
confident that you’ve answered your major dramatic question,
you’ve arrived at the last step! Once you’ve finished editing your
novel, you have two choices: you can self-publish or sell your book
to a publisher. Self-publishing has become more popular with the
rise of e-books and the ease with which you can upload your work
to online booksellers like Amazon and iTunes—keep in mind this
means you’ll have to make all of your own decisions in the
publishing process, and this often requires hiring editors,
copyeditors, proofreaders, and cover artists.

Writing Preferences
Each writer has his/her own preferences when drafting a document.
Whether a person is writing a story, a poem, a journal entry, a letter,
or a creative non-fiction piece, the writing approach is idiosyncratic,
meaning that it is distinctive to the person who is writing.

Some are think-write writers. They need to think and think and think
some more until they can write their first draft. When they write
their first draft, they need a large block of time to get it down on
paper. Their first drafts feel like a finished product to the writer
because they’ve done most of their prewriting and revising in the
thinking process. However, these writers need to remember that the
first draft is just that—a first draft. Revision is necessary. See Figure
1.1 for a list of the advantages and disadvantages of being an
extreme think-write writer.

Figure 1.1: Advantages and Disadvantages for Think-write

Writers

Advantages

 Once they’ve start writing, they finish the draft easily.

 The first draft can feel like a polished final draft to the writer.
 They usually finish drafts on time or earlier than the deadline.

Disadvantages

 They need time to think; they can’t write under command or

time pressure.
 Starting the opening paragraph can be difficult because they
are still thinking.
 Revising their work is difficult because from their perspective
a lot of the revision decisions were made in the thinking
process.

Other writers are write-write writers. They write, cut, copy, and
reorganize their work as well as throw away and start again—
sometimes multiple times. They are constantly prewriting, planning,
and revising as they go. They sometimes struggle with finishing a
final draft, and they have even been known to delete some of their
best work. These writers need to remember to save all drafts, so
that the best work is never lost. See Figure 1.2 for a list of
advantages and disadvantages of being an extreme write-write
writer.
Figure 1.2: Advantages and Disadvantages for the Write-
write Writers

Advantages

 They are willing to try multiple ideas to see what will work
best.
 They can easily leave sentence and grammar errors to be
edited later in the revision stage.
 They embrace revision as it is part of their drafting process.

Disadvantages

 They have a hard time knowing when a draft is finished, and

they sometimes over revise.
 They are often writing under pressure–a deadline.
 They are often referred to as the messy writers, and the
revision of their work takes a long time.

Most writers are somewhere between these two extreme types of

drafters, and that’s the best place to be. See Figure 1.3 which
illustrates these two types of drafters. If you are an extreme think-
write writer, cultivate some of the traits of the write-write writer,
and if you are an extreme write-write writer, try some of the traits of
the think-write writer. Attempting both styles of writing will help
writers avoid writer’s block.

Figure 1.3: Types of Drafters

The Writing Process

Every piece of writing goes through a process of stages: prewriting

(also sometimes called planning), drafting, cooling, revising, and
publishing. These steps do not always follow one another in
succession. Instead, they are recursive, meaning a step can occur
again at any point in the process. For instance, while revising an
historically-based short story, a writer may discover he/she needs to
do additional research about the time period that the story is set,
which takes the writer back to the prewriting stage. See Figure 1.4.

Figure 1.4: The Writing Process

Prewriting/Planning

Prewriting writing begins with what draws the writer to write. The
writer may be inspired by nature, people, animals, life events, etc.

Some writers keep a writing journal, a record of lists and notes,

maybe even drawings or photographs, that initially caught their
attention. Writers generally are strong observers who record what
they see, hear, taste, touch, and smell because it may become part
of a story, a poem, a non-fiction essay, a play, etc. Writers may
carry a small notebook with them throughout the day and set it on
the nightstand next to their bed at night. Then, it is readily available
when an idea–an inspiration–grabs their attention.
Writers make several decisions in the prewriting stage as well. They
will answer questions like the following:

 What is the topic?

 Who are the readers?
 What genre (type of writing) works best as the vehicle of
communication?
 What point of view (perspective) will this piece be told from?
 What kind of research needs to be completed before drafting
begins?

Drafting

Drafting involves writing the first draft of a document. Some writers

write their first draft with a pen and a notebook. Other writers write
directly on a laptop or computer. The choice depends on the
preference of the writer.

A short piece of writing can be drafted in one sitting. The goal is to

get everything down on paper before it is lost. If a piece cannot be
drafted in one sitting because it is too long, writers generally stop at
a place where they know what they will write next. This prevents
writer’s block, the inability to write the next day.

When drafting, writers are encouraged to not pay attention to

spelling, punctuation, grammar, etc. Revising while writing causes
writers to lose the original flow of the idea. Spelling, punctuation,
grammar, etc. can be addressed in the final revision.

Cooling

Cooling means setting aside the document, at least 24-48 hours

before revising begins for short pieces of work. This allows writers to
have a break from the content and a new perspective when entering
the revision stage. To do this, writers need to be organized and time
managers. The first draft must be done early enough to set it aside
for the recommended cooling time.

Authors of books have even longer cooling periods. It may be weeks,

months, and sometimes even years, depending on the writer’s
preference and the deadline for the publication of the book.

Revising

Revising literally means “to see again” not just once but multiple
times. Revision has two types of processes:
  To look at the larger problems such as content and
organization
 To look at the smaller problems such as sentence structure,
word choice, and formatting

Part of revising may include asking others to read drafts and make
revision recommendations. Ultimately, it’s always up to the writer
whether those revision recommendations will be implemented into
the final draft.

Publishing

Publishing involves submitting final manuscripts to editors of print

and online journals and magazines, newspapers, or publishing
companies.

Although it’s great to see one’s name in print, not all writers write
for publication. Some write their stories, poems, letters, diaries, etc.
for the next generations – their children, grandchildren, and great-
grandchildren. They write to record their personal history.