What I think about when I write

Nothing. I've been poking about the blogs and some how to write books lately and there is a whole list of thing which apparently should be taken into account when writing.

Things like:

Theme
Mid-point reversals
Foreshadowing
Voice
Inciting incidents
Deepening a stories resonance
Sub-plots
Back story
Plot Points
Scenes
Mood
Rhythm
Poetic prose
Motivation
Building suspense

OK, that is a pretty long list of everything that all the blogs and how-to books tell you to consider before tarting your manuscript and probably while you write as well.

If I did that I'd go insane.

You know what I DO think about while I'm writing?

The start of the next sentence, the right words to begin the next paragraph o every paragraph doesn't begin with someones name. I actually worry that a lot! Sometimes I try and make the clever prose, mostly I just want the reader to be able to understand and follow what is taking place. I think about getting to the next scene, transitions, and WHAT THE HELL HAPPENS NEXT?? Because I don't know! Putting words on paper is may main goal. Making them make sense is cake and if they are intersting that is frosting.

I write back story a I go, same with motivation. Voice will hopefully sort itself out. Themes will emerge organically. Foreshadowing is added subconsciously, the rest of it. Hell if I know. Things seems to work out for the most part. What can I say.

I begin a story with an idea and at least one character and the rest just goes along.

Just yesterday I reached a point in Tea Times Three where Reverend Austin is protesting the tea shop and the witches are baking cookies. The cookie smell comes out to the sidewalk and all the protesters stop to smell the awesome cookie smell and Reverend Austin recalls his mother baking for him when the other kids would pick on him. Then in the next paragraph I write that his mother died in a diabetic coma. Did I know this before hand? No. I didn't know it until I wrote it.

I'm also not a poetic writer. I don't use words beautifully or craft polished gems of metaphors and similes. I don't devote myself to the short punchy sentences all in vogue right now. My sentences are as long as they need to be. Sometimes short, sometimes long. I do not fear the word AND or the comma (although I frequently misplace them). I don't try hard to be clever or sarcastic. I try to give my characters human reactions to events. If they are in pain they scream, if they think something is funny they laugh or smile.

Quite possibly I how more than tell. Quite possibly I have a good balance of both.

What I strive for is not artfulness but clarity and readability. Fun and adventure not poetry.