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.
Learn From the Best
FoodcategoryDesign & StylecategoryArts &
EntertainmentcategoryMusiccategoryBusinesscategoryScience & TechcategoryHome
& LifestylecategoryCommunity & GovernmentcategoryWellnesscategorySports &
GamingcategoryWritingcategory selected

Teaches Writing

Teaches Dramatic Writing

Teaches Writing

Teaches Writing

Teaches Writing for Young Audiences

Teaches Creative Writing

Teaches Writing Thrillers

Teaches the Art of Storytelling

Teaches Reading and Writing Poetry

Teaches Mystery and Thriller Writing

Teaches the Art of the Short Story

Teaches Storytelling and Humor

Teaches Writing for Television

Teaches Screenwriting

Teaches Fiction and Storytelling

Teaches Storytelling and Writing

Teaches Creating Outside the Lines

Teaches Writing for Social Change

Teaches Fiction, Memory, and Imagination

Teaches Fantasy and Science Fiction Writing

Teaches Poetic Thinking

Teaches Writing and Performing Poetry

Icons and Their Influences

Teaches Investigative Journalism

Teaches Filmmaking
 Teaches Documentary Filmmaking

Tell a Great Story

Sign Up
SAVESHAREShare on twitterShare on facebookShare on
pinterestShare on your network
Jump To Section
 What Is the Writing Process?
 The 6 Stages of the Writing Process
 1. Prewriting
 2. Planning
 3. Drafting
 4. Revising
 5. Editing
 6. Publishing
 Want to Learn More About Writing?
 Dan Brown Teaches Writing Thrillers

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.

Meet One of Your New Instructors

Sign Up

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 :

 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)
 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.