How do you write your stories?

Jan Brown (unverified) asked how I write my stories. As I am unable to send her a PM I will seek to answer in a Blog post.

Jan,
Since you ask - this was my second attempt at writing fiction - the first one petered out after 40,000 words. When I started to put finger to keyboard I had only planned as far as the end of Book 1 in my head and had no idea where it would go from there. By the time I posted the first instalment to BC I had written the whole of Books 1 & 2 and made a start on Book 3. The last two of these were never really planned so much as evolved and both have been subject to quite a lot of re-organisation and rewriting along the way (thank heaven for word processors!). Once I started to post chapters, the story became progressively more set in concrete and I have had to force myself to plan more.

Over the last nine months I have been simultaneously writing new chapters and amending the ones that I had already written, in the light of later developments and sometimes as a result of comments given by readers. (These have generally been a great help and an encouragement to finish the story.) However, once a chapter has been posted, I will only go back and change mistakes or inconsistencies that have been pointed out to me. (There have been a few of these quietly pointed out to me by eagle-eyed readers.)

As things stand, there will be three more chapters of the story from 2004 and then an epilogue, but I have now used up everything that I have written. The next three weeks will be quite difficult if I am to keep up with my weekly schedule. I know what is going to be in the epilogue, but am still not quite sure how to get there.

Regards to all and thanks for the comments received.

Louise