Where Writers Work

Erin Fulmer

My creative process: I try to journal in the morning and pre-write what I’m working on that day, making notes of ideas and possible directions. When I’m ready to write, I pull up Scrivener and my word count tracker, which I update in small increments (sometimes every 20 words!) because it motivates me to see my progress. Typically I write between 7pm and 10pm, though on weekends I sometimes do daytime sessions. I’m definitely a night owl who finds it easier to focus in the evening. I’m a discovery writer, so if I’m drafting I generally use the roughest of outlines, but once I am in revisions, I use elaborate spreadsheets with beats, word count percentages, and lots of other bells and whistles to try to wrangle my pantser energy into something coherent. I like to revise by retyping so that I don’t get “stuck” in my previous draft.