Tag: Writing Collaboration

On Prewriting, Part 2

The Writing Lab, 20 September 2025

Hello! Hope everyone is having a great weekend. It’s once again time for The Writing Lab, where I try and share some insights from writing that I’ve developed from writing, both for pay and for fun, for the past thirty years or so.

It was last month that I began discussing one of the first steps of the writing process – prewriting, where you first generate and develop your ideas, as well as plan out how it will be organized.

With this piece, let’s continue this talk about prewriting by concentrating one of the essential parts of the prewriting process: generating and developing premises for stories. I’ll discuss some ideas about how you might wish to approach this process, using some of my own experiences and processes as examples1.

[AUTHOR’S NOTE:] While the advice I give here is geared mostly toward fiction writing, it can easily be applied to nonfiction as well. You likely will just need to sprinkle some research over it, lol2.

A representation of the whole writing process. Note how prewriting is at the start of the process.

On Prewriting, Part 2: Developing your initial premise

It’s somewhat strange to me I often don’t get the question “where do you get your ideas?” It might be because I haven’t been putting my fiction out in public that much until recent years, so I haven’t had the opportunity to get tired of those questions as maybe those who have been in the game longer.

As I mentioned earlier, this part of the advice comes from my experience, which might be much different from yours. Creativity, by nature, if you’re really using it properly3, is a very individual thing. So, to describe the initial part of my creative process, I want to use a very individual metaphor to describe it. The metaphor I think best describes my own creative process is something I call “The Perpetual Stew.”

rustic hot vegetable stew in clay pot
Photo by Selim Alyz on Pexels.com

Perpetual Stew

Back in the day, they had a lot of names for what I call a perpetual stew: forever soup, hunter’s pot, hunter’s stew, and the like. This would go back to the medieval days when people would have a pot like this above a fire or hearth and cooks or whoever was in charge of such things would continually add food and other ingredients to it over days and weeks and even longer, continually adding in and serving out, like you’d hear about in medieval inns and the like. You’d throw in whatever was around or you could harvest at the time: rabbit, hen, pigeon, maybe some pork if you were lucky, grains of course, and whatever vegetables like leeks, cabbage, and other items to flavor up what was in the pot.

Something similar to this is cooking in my head constantly. I end up dumping in whatever I mentally consume, or perhaps gather, into this mental perpetual stew. And I mean everything.

If you don’t know, I have a vast amount of interests and things I learned about during my life. Earlier when I was a kid, I’d dump the whole lore of Star Wars and my love of space Legos in the pot. Over the years, I would add ancient and medieval history and architecture, chess and game theory, 20th century history and culture, the history of 1980’s and 1990’s indie rock in America, professional wrestling throughout the world, bad movies from America, India, and Africa, military tactics and history, 20th century journalism, years of reporting from newspapers and websites, current events, foreign cultures of all kinds, and of course the fiction from 400 to 500 years of Western civilization and beyond. This is among other things, of course.

Eventually, I started to ladle out some servings from this perpetual stew and use it to create some artistic meals. Long ago and back when I was a kid, I took some of those images of Star Wars and the space Legos I played with as a kid and and use it to cook up a sci-fi fantasy space opera long lost to the vagaraties of time and idle thinking. Then there were a few young adult novels, personal obsessions, and teenage-scenarios that got turned into my first manuscript and the one book that got produced as a result of the now defunct National Novel Writing Month (better known as NaNoWriMo). I’m not sure those books will see the light of day because they would need some rewrites and it would be like pretending I was twenty or thirty years old when I was in fact twenty years older. It’s like another person altogether wrote those two books45.

Of course, simply pulling out ingredients from the stew and slopping them together on a plate or in a bowl doesn’t quite work. What I’ve found has worked is when I ask myself questions about what is in the stew or what I want out of it. I’ve found asking these questions helps focus the premises or hooks of my stories clearly enough that it provides at least the skeleton of my tale before I begin drafting.

Asking Questions

question marks on paper crafts
Photo by Leeloo The First on Pexels.com

I’ll give you two examples from my own creative experience. Back in college when I was studying journalism, I learned about an incident that happened at the New York Post in the early 1990’s where the newspaper’s staff was up in arms about the possibility of a shady parking lot mogul buying the paper. Eventually, the paper ran an entire edition about this person, making it clear the staff were not interested in having him for a boss. The incident ended up scaring this buyer off of buying the Post, although the paper eventually wound up in the hands of Rupert Murdoch, which I don’t think was an upgrade.

That story sat in my perpetual stew for a while when one day, I took it out, so to speak, and began asking whether it might be a good basis for a story I’d long wanted to write about the journalism field. That’s when I began asking questions, in the process adding some new ingredients to the new creative meal.

  • What if we set the story in the more familiar location (for me) of Chicago?
  • What if it was set at a declining major newspaper?
  • What if it was happening right during the 2008 presidential elections and the start of the Great Recession, with financial institutions collapsing all around?
  • What if the events of this journalistic revolt ended up with the founding of an American-created, journalistic-focused Wikileaks?

I blended the ideas together, and soon enough, I was writing my debut novel, The Holy Fool. Much more needed to be done in the prewriting, but those questions solidified the premise and much of the action of the story.

More recently, I asked the question, What would my main character and his news organization be doing right around now, in today’s world? And just like that, I had a sequel on my hands.

For my series The Yank Striker, I had my fandom of the sport of soccer and an affection for the Americans who dared to make the sport their profession. It stayed cooking for a while as I gradually added more knowledge of the world of professional soccer in Europe and the US. One day, I had a question:

  • When we finally have an American who can play as well as Lionel Messi, who might that person be? Then I asked:
    • Who would he be?
    • What’s his background?
    • What type of personality would he need to be a true sport superstar (spoiler, a bit obsessed)?

By the end of those questions, I had my main character and the bare frame of what became The Yank Striker series.

Of course, after asking these questions, you still will likely have a long way to go before being finished with the prewriting process. However, you will have a good idea of both the nature of your story, your premise and/or hook, and what you need to find out before drafting out the story.

Next Time at The Writing Lab:

Next month, we’ll get into developing your characters. Every reader is a person, and people are naturally drawn to interesting people in fiction. We’ll discuss what you might need in a main character, as well as supporting characters as well, as well as how they can drive your story as well.

Until then, take care.

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While I do appreciate you following this blog, I really would like you to subscribe to my Substack page. By subscribing to that page, you’ll not only be receiving my Substack newsletter, The Writing Life With Jason Liegois (the companion blog to this one), but you’ll also be signing up for my email list. Just click the button below.

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  1. As with all pieces of advice I give here, if you have a better or more effective way of doing some of the things I discuss here, absolutely feel free to stick with your systems. Better yet, message me or share them in the comments so I can “borrow” them. 😅 ↩︎
  2. A piece on proper research will definitely have to be a selection for a future Writing Lab piece in this series. Feel free to make any other topic suggestions for a Writing Lab piece in the comments. ↩︎
  3. That means not using AI to write your bloody stories. What’s the point of creativity otherwise? #ButlerianJihad ↩︎
  4. It might be worth another (or rewritten, depending on how much I’ve discussed the entire story before) Writer’s Biography entry to get into the ins and outs of how it all turned out and why I likely wouldn’t consider trying to release them. ↩︎
  5. Or now that I think about it, maybe I’d release them as web-exclusive stories? Why not make use of stuff I created, even if it’s in a throwaway manner? Why not, indeed, as long as I add the caveat that a kid wrote these books and not the current adult version of me? ↩︎

The Writing Lab, 16 August 2025: On Prewriting, Part 1

photo of pen on top of notebook

Hello everyone out on the Internets. It’s Writing Lab time.

It’s the week I take anything I’ve learned from my thirty or so years working around writing and messing with fiction in my spare time so I can share it with you, my readers.

For the past several editions of this writing lab, I’ve discussed the concept of revision and how it both fits in to the greater writing process and how it can drive your writing. So, I’ve decided to change topics and get into the first part of the writing process – prewriting. Today, I’m going to introduce the topic and get into some of the basic elements of this first part of the writing process.

[AUTHOR’S NOTE:] While the advice I give here is geared mostly toward fiction writing, it can easily be applied to nonfiction as well. Frankly, I’ve done enough nonfiction writing in my day professions (journalism and teaching) to limit my nonfiction writing to these blogs.

A representation of the whole writing process. Note how prewriting is at the start of the process.
man and photos on brown corkboard
Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com

On Prewriting, Part 1: The Basics

The term “prewriting” can be confusing because it implies no writing takes place in this part of the process. This is not the case, although the “writing,” depending on your process, can include a couple lines of scribbled notes or more substancial text. Regardless, since this takes place before you start assembling your rough draft, prewriting makes sense as a term.

In the simplest of terms, prewriting is the process where you formulate and develop the ideas and story you want to write about. This involves creating the characters of your story, especially the main one, establishing the plot and setting of the story, and whatever research you need to complete to make the story seem believable and grounded.

Again, I am just going to review some of the items I believe are essential parts or elements of the prewriting process. My intent is to go into them in far more detail in subsequent Writing Lab posts.

  • Premise: What is the driving idea/what if question/situation that sets off your story? As an ex-reporter, I’m always a believer in the right questions giving insights you wouldn’t expect.
  • Characters: What is needed to create compelling characters? What do you need in a main character (MC) to make them someone a reader wants to invest their time in. How much information is needed for a fully realized MC? By comparison, how much do you need to flesh out supporting characters? Also, do you really need a human antagonist, or is there another solution to this?
  • Plot: What is going to be the storyline of your tale? Is it going to be a conventional three-act story line, or something matching The Hero’s Journey? Or is it going to be something non-linear and unexpected? Is there a good reason for this?
    • This is where some writers divide themselves into “planners” and “pantsers” when it comes to planning, especially in the area of plot. Basically, planners like to sketch things out in advance, where pantsers tend to just start writing immediately after minimal (if any) preparation. I am more of the former than the latter type of writer, but we’ll get into the differences in more detail later.
  • Setting: When and where is your story taking place? For most writers, time might be a straightforward concept, although again you might want to experiment with a more non-linear concept.
    • Place can become more complicated, especially if you choose a setting you, your audience, or possibly both do not have much experience with or connection to. This gets into the whole concept of worldbuilding – constructing both the physical aspects of your world, as well as the non-tangible elements, such as its society and culture (or multiple societies and cultures).
  • Research, which is any self-education you feel you need to be able to tell a realistic story. I always think you need some level of research for any fictional project, whether it involves things you have already learned over the course of your life or it’s new information you need. Even in a story that might seem familiar enough you would not have need additional knowledge, some additional searching can become vital.

The one thing to keep in mind, as with all my writing advice, is that you should proceed with prewriting in whichever way works best for you.

Next Time at The Writing Lab:

On the next writing lab, I’ll get into some of how my own prewriting process works, and one of the most common questions any author gets: “Where do you get your ideas?”

And I know I promised you this before, but I’ll come through next time – there’ll be some stew involved.

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While I do appreciate you following this blog, I really would like you to subscribe to my Substack page. By subscribing to that page, you’ll not only be receiving my Substack newsletter, The Writing Life With Jason Liegois (the companion blog to this one), but you’ll also be signing up for my email list. Just click the button below.

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The Writing Lab, 19 July 2025: On Revising, Part 5

Hello all out there on Substack, WordPress, or in the various nooks and crannies of the Internet. It’s Writing Lab time again.

This is where I try to take some of the hard-earned skills and experiences I’ve picked up from (checking the calendar) nearly thirty years of working in writing or writing-adjacent fields (first journalism, then teaching, then back to journalism for a hot second, and now back to teaching for a while now), as well as my experiences with blogging and fiction writing1.

For this week’s edition, I’m going to take one more look at the art and practice of revision. I believe revising might be the most important part of the writing process, because it’s there raw ideas and stories get crafted into coherent and compelling ones.

To recap how this particular series has progressed, I began with a quick review of revising and how it fits in with the broader writing process, and then I elaborated on this with a broad overview of my own revising process and how it works for me.

Then I discussed word count. While it’s always a good idea to try to write as much as possible, not every single word needs to be in the final version of your creation. I’ve got a new saying: You don’t need to get the last word with yourself. And then, I briefly touched on the element of collaborating with others, both in the revision process and writing in general.

So, for this installment, which will be the last in the revision series for now, will be about the concept of raising the stakes of your story2. We’re going to talk about how to get readers to care more about the story you are trying to tell, and how to make that story more compelling.

On Revising, Part 5 of 5 (for now): Raising the Stakes

playing card and poker chips and dices
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

I remember I was in the middle of my initial revisions for the book that would become The Yank Striker when I had a conversation with one of my close acquaintances about the book. At a certain point in the revision process, I always wanted to take a look at everything about my story and see if there is anything structurally the matter with the piece. Are my characters (especially the MC) compelling? Does the story flow? Does my plot have any leaks or dead ends?

So, I showed it to my friend Misty Urban, who happens to be a quite good author of contemporary fiction and historical romance, and she gave me some very insightful comments.

There’s a type of critique that really puffs you up and there’s a type of critique that pulls you down, pulls you down so hard it either breaks your will or you totally disregard it. The critique I got was a third kind – the kind that excites you with the possibilities that you didn’t see before. It’s the type of critique that shines a light onto something you didn’t realize and lights the way to a better story.

There was a lot to it, but the essential part of the critique was this (I’m paraphrasing here): “Well, it’s all good to have an interesting character going through interesting experiences. But it’s not like he’s in danger of losing, is there? Not the way you have it written. The way you have it written, I know he’s always going to succeed. There’s not the suspense there, is there?”

It was then that I realized:

I needed to raise the stakes in my novel.

Let me try to explain this a little.

One of the deadliest things that a beta reader, or any reader, really, can say about a book is, “Well, who cares?” If you want readers to care about your story, you have to make that story involve struggle.

If I was going to define what stakes were, I would lay it out like this. What does your main character (MC) have to gain if they succeed? What do they have to lose if they don’t? Are they the type of things that other readers could relate to, even if they don’t find themselves in the same situations as those characters? Could they relate to them, at least?

The problem was, my MC was always winning. Even that’s all right, but I have to make sure that it’s tough for them. There has to be doubt in the readers’ minds that your character is going to succeed and some consideration of where the character is going to be if they fail.

Essentially, the premise of my book is, what would an American version of Diego Maradona or Lionel Messi look like? What would that person’s path be to soccer glory, and what would they have to overcome to make that happen?

In reading over Misty’s comments, I realized that I had dedicated most of my time to ensuring that my MC would reach those heights and not enough time putting obstacles in his path. For example, Diego had to overcome poverty, and Lionel had to overcome hormone deficiency to become the soccer gods they eventually became.

What did my character have to overcome to reach his goals, especially as a 17-18 year old kid starting to learn about life and what it takes to succeed? I had to show more of the building and less of the ribbon-cutting ceremony, essentially. I had to show the struggle, the climb to the top, to make sure that people cared about what happened to my MC.

I have to credit Donald Maass and his book Writing the Breakout Novel for educating me on the concept of raising the stakes in fiction. Those stakes I’m talking about mean simply: what is there to lose if the main character or characters fail in their efforts? These stakes have to be both public (affecting society or the greater public) and personal (affecting the main characters). In the case of public stakes, you always want to ask yourself if these public stakes are believable, or something that could be a plausible danger if the author gives sufficient detail. Personal stakes depend on making your reader relate to or even sympathize with your MC and their struggles. As the story goes on, you have to continue to ask yourself how things could get worse in the case of the public stakes, and how the personal stakes could matter more to the reader. And you should make sure things get tougher for your characters as time goes on.

Next Time at The Writing Lab:

On the next writing lab, I’m going to start getting into the creative process and prewriting ideas in particular. I’ll discuss a bit of my process on developing and fleshing out ideas. Also, stew will be involved.

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While I do appreciate you following this blog, I really would like you to subscribe to my Substack page. By subscribing to that page, you’ll not only be receiving my Substack newsletter, The Writing Life With Jason Liegois (the companion blog to this one), but you’ll also be signing up for my email list. Just click the button below.

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  1. Even though I also write poetry, it’s an art I’ve picked up relatively late, so I’m seeking advice rather than giving it. soccer will be used a bit interchangeably to describe the same game both here and in the book. Those are the breaks, as they say. ↩︎
  2. Unlike with the previous entries in this series, this one is certainly fiction-centered. ↩︎

The Writing Lab, 21 June 2025: On Revising, Part 4

close up photography of eyeglasses near crumpled papers

Hello everyone who has somehow happened onto this electronic page, either through a friendly email or the whims of the mighty algorithms, or by some random twist fo fate. Welcome to The Writing Life.

Since it is once again the third weekend of the month, I am bringing you another edition of The Writing Lab. As I get older, I become painfully aware of how much I don’t know about the world and what I might never know. However, since I’ve had twenty-five-plus years of experience with the art of writing, as a journalist, teacher, fiction writer, and fledgling poet, I am at least slightly comfortable in saying I might have some knowledge of the art.

Since I started The Writing Lab back in March, I have fixated on the topic of revising. It turns out I’ve had a bit to say about it, one of the steps in the larger writing process. In all honesty, I’m of the opinion revision is the most important part of the writing process, because I see it at the step where your writing, especially your fiction writing, gets crafted into something both coherent and compelling1.

We began with a quick review of revising and an explanation of how it fits into the writing process. I continued the following month with a broad overview of my own revising process and its basic workings.

I then touched on the topic of word count. Many writers, and I include myself in this category, see the more you write, the better it is for your creativity and productivity as well. However, what you learn in the revising process is the more you write, the more difficult it is to search through the word salad and find a clear and compelling story. You need to learn you don’t need to focus on getting the last word with yourself. I talked about it in detail before.

So, for this next installment, I want to discuss something perhaps not as discussed in writing columns—the idea of collaboration in writing, especially when it comes to the concept of beta readers. As I am still in the process of prepping my book The Yank Striker’s Journey for publication, this issue is still fresh in my mind.

corrections on a paragraph written on a paper
Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com

On Revising, Part 4 (of ?): On the subject of writing collaboration and beta readers

In the realm of art, one of the questions is how much it is an inherently individual effort and how much it is a inherently collaborative effort. This can depend on the type of medium the artist works in. For example, musicians and film directors can find their creative processes involve interacting with and creating alongside many different people. For novelists and painters, however, it can be a far more individual journey—one man, woman, or being staring at a blank page or a blank canvas until a certain amount of inspiration strikes.

However, such categories obscure creative realities. In the realms of film and music, for instance, one person with a clear artistic vision, maybe a singer, guitarist, or producer, or a director or actor, can dominate above others’ visions. Also, those who are writers or painters can end up relying on outsiders far more than what immediately becomes apparent.

It is regarding the latter phenomenon we will review today. As a young man, I considered writing to be a one-man band situation. I created my worlds, I wrote them down on paper (or electronic files) and then released them into the wider world. However, I’ve come to realize the wisdom of former US President Barack Obama when he said during a 13 July 2012 campaign speech:

Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that.

In this instance, Obama was not trying to downplay the efforts of entrepreneurs and their creativity. What he was trying to say was there were plenty of people behind those successful entrepreneurs which helped them to get to where they needed to be. They had a support system to reach their goals.

With this in mind, writers do not get to be a success just based on their own skills and talents. They have to rely in part on the efforts of others to see their creative efforts develop into their optimal form. The intent behind this post is to detail how this idea of collaboration fits into the revision portion of the writing process in particular and their creative process of novels in general.

Again, the cliche of the fiction writer is someone striking out on their own on a creative standpoint, without the input or responsibility of collaborators, financial backers, and the like. For example, it’s not a coincidence that George R.R. Martin first started writing his A Song Of Ice And Fire series after being frustrated with the technical and financial limitations television had put on his ideas as a Hollywood screenwriter, ironic since that series would inspire one of the most expensive television programs in history. 🙂

Being your own boss as a fiction writer has tons of advantages. You don’t get into any arguments over whether a character or plot twist makes sense, or whether your story should be set in Los Angeles rather than an undersea colony, for example. You set your own deadlines, as well as the size of your work (within reason unless you are willing to pay to get it published). All of this is true.

When it comes to revisions, however, I do have a rule of thumb.

Any man can be his own editor, but they can never be their only editor.

One area where collaborative effort can play a significant and absolutely necessary part in writing is during the revision process. Whether you call them peer reviewers, first readers, or, as is now the fashion, beta readers, having another set of eyes to read what you’ve written can be the difference between an OK revision and a great one. Why is this? Simply put: you as a writer are not going to be able to find every plot point not wrapped up, every unrealistic characterization, and every unfinished scene, not to mention every misspelled word. You don’t need a village to write a book, but I think you do need more than one set of eyes to revise it.

Where do you find these beta readers? Unfortunately, most of us don’t happen to live in the household of Stephen King, which wound up producing four different published authors. So, you have to look around. I’m lucky enough to have a local writing group that I participate in. This next month, I’m actually hoping that some of them will do me the honor of reading my latest WIP. There are many online groups that have people willing to look at WIP’s, although the quality of this help can vary. I’d recommend developing acquaintances with members online before asking them to beta read. Sometimes you can be lucky enough to get a professional critique; however, I wouldn’t spend a massive amount of money doing this.

As far as when in the revising process this should take place, I would say it should happen before you seriously consider adding and/or subtracting major portions of your manuscript. By that, I mean the heavy lifting. Whatever form it takes, having more than just your eyes and viewpoint revising your work is key to making sure you don’t leave anything needed out and that you don’t keep anything that you don’t need. After a certain point in the revising process, you don’t want to make massive changes to your work, so it’s best to get this feedback early so you are more open to it.

Of course, there are many other ways people can collaborate with you in the writing process. I think a proofreader is massively important if you want to make your manuscript look professional. Most of the time, this just covers grammatical and conventions issues, but it can also cover some light revisions as well. It made a big difference with my work.

While I left the design of my first two books up to my publisher, I went to an outside designer for The Yank Striker’s Journey. It certainly cost me more than either just leaving it to my publisher or trying to rough out something myself on Canva, but I believe the results were well worth it.

There are some other professionals, such as marketing experts, who might also be of assistance for writers. All I can advise on this matter is to choose carefully. There are many people out online who say they can help you, but I’d take plenty of time to research them. As this world gets more digital, I find myself relying more on people I’ve had personal relationships with rather than wholly online. In the end, I think you should consider collaborating with people who can add something to your product you wouldn’t be able to accomplish as effectively on your own.

On the next writing lab, I’ll discuss another aspect of revising. I think I might have at least two more editions of this topic before having to consider another aspect of writing.

I’m going to be out of town Saturday for a book fair event, so I’m not even going to try and coordinate a live chat or Substack Note. However, if you have any questions about the article, had questions about fiction, poetry, or essay writing, or you wanted to get some advice on something you are trying to create, reach out to me either in the comments of this post or directly through Substack DMs. The links for both of them are below.

Hope I see you around.

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While I do appreciate you following this blog, I really would like you to subscribe to my Substack page. By subscribing to that page, you’ll not only be receiving my Substack newsletter, The Writing Life With Jason Liegois (the companion blog to this one), but you’ll also be signing up for my email list. Just click the button below.

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  1. Most of this advice is aimed at fiction writers rather than nonfiction writers or those who write poetry verse, but I believe the vast majority of it applies to you just as much to those who write fiction. ↩︎