What phases are involved in the creation of a text?

For the past month novelist John Baker has been on vacation, but that doesn't mean there has been a lack of new posts at his site. John posed the question "What phases are involved in the creation of a text?" to a number of authors. Their responses have been the content of his blog for the past month. If you do any writing, particularly the more creative type, there is much of value to digest. Here is an excerpt from the latest contribution by Penelope Farmer.

Creating a Text - Penelope Farmer 4th September 2007 What phases are involved in the creation of a text?

‘Phases’ is much too neat a word. I don’t think I have phases. A former husband, a doctor and an academic, who when he wrote himself, progressed neatly from A to Z. was appalled by the way I worked. ‘It’s all afterthoughts,’ he said.

This is not a bad way of describing it. I might start from A usually – I have been known to draft a paragraph from XY or Z right at the beginning – but thereafter everything can be random. I may know the beginning and the end. I may know the middle and the end. I may know… well, pick your own permutations; I’ve known all of them in my time.

The idea comes first, of course. I’m not one of these writers who has endless ideas; mine are few. And most of them hang around for years before I get to serious work on them. This may be because I’m doing something else, it may be because I haven’t . . .