Someone once asked what my “creative process” was like. I honestly couldn’t answer him at that moment because I had never really thought about it. “I don’t know. I just write,” I answered.

It’s true, most of the time I do just write. Somehow, the words seem to flow out of me. But the question led me to wonder, what is my writing process?

So, I thought about it. I thought about where I do my best writing. Sometimes it’s when I’m sitting in the office, in the comfy brown recliner my hubby bought just before our first child was born. Other times, it’s in the driver’s seat of my car while waiting in the pick-up line at school, or at soccer practice. Occasionally it’s when I’m sitting alone in a booth in the corner of Panera, sipping a hot caramel latte. And once in a while, it’s when I wake up in the middle of the night and blindly search for my phone so I can type a quick line or two in the notes.

No, I don’t have a normal routine, a set number of words to write, or a set period of time.  Instead, I write for as long as I can and as long as the words flow; even if it’s only 15 or 20 minutes in the car loop.

I enjoy old school writing – a smooth blue ballpoint pen or a sharp graphite pencil on a crisp, empty notebook page. Although I have to confess, I am loving my new MacBook Air, but…there’s something special about having an idea then watching as the page slowly fills with words, scribbled out words, ideas in the margin that lead to more words, which eventually become a story.

So, if you were to ask me what my creative process is, I still probably couldn’t give you a straight answer. An idea simply pops into my head and I write. I write. I scribble. I make notes in the margin. I write some more. I cross out. I draw arrows and rearrange words. I write more. Then I edit. I scribble more. I make more notes in the margin. I cross out more. I draw more arrows and rearrange more words. And I rewrite again for as long as it takes…and it can take months and months and many, many, many revisions until I get it just right. Only when I feel my story is creative, imaginative, and expressive do I feel my work is finished. And then I’ll probably go back and edit a few more times.