The Kevin Hardman Story Development Method

Earlier, I had starting writing a Patreon post about a new development in the publishing world - namely, that Audible was going to start offering a subscription service for audiobooks. (This was on the heels of an article mentioning that Spotify was gearing up to enter the world of audiobooks and would presumably adopt a prescription model.)  However, by the end of the first paragraph, I realized that the post was probably better suited for my blog. Instead, I thought I'd let my patrons inside my head and allow them to get a glimpse of the sausage-making in terms of my writing.

I think most authors start with an idea and flesh it out - sometimes outlining or going through some other process to put meat on the bone until they figure out how they want to wrap things up.  My process is a little different. Basically - at least 90% of the time - I know how the story is going to end when I first start writing.  So for me, it's more about the journey in terms of getting there - from that first chapter to the last. 

Fortunately, as I've said before, my characters do most of the work: the story kind of tells itself, and I pretty much just take dictation.  However, there have been occasions when I started writing and didn't know exactly how things would turn out - in particular, Coronation and Incarnation.  For those two, there was a certain amount of world-building that took place, and it was in the course of doing that, probably more than anything else, that I determined how the story should end.

The other exception is Sensation.  Well, to be honest, the ending kind of squares up with what I had planned, but the story itself is entirely different than what I initially intended to write. But, as I noted, the story tells itself, and in that instance it went in a completely different direction than what I originally had in my head.  That said, I think the way it turned out is a much better story.

Anyway, that's a peek at a small part of my writing process and story development. It's a little different, but I like to think it gets the job done.