What is Your Writing Profile?

Do you primarily write for:

Children / Young Adults

Adults

When you first have an idea for a book, are you most likely to:

Get so excited that you plan to start writing as soon as you get home.

Think about the idea for several days and then begin writing after you've created some notes on your characters

Write the idea in your Idea Notebook and file it away while you research similar books on Amazon.

Your protagonist becomes real to you when:

You get a picture of this character in your mind and a sense of his/her personality.

The above, plus you make more detailed notes about the character's past, his/her family and friends, personality traits, and physical description.

All of the above, plus you interview your character to get a sense of his/her voice, and you ask pointed questions about what's going on in your character's life right now.

When you hit the first plot snag, are you most likely to:

Keep the writing momentum going until a great idea appears.

Step back and think about where the story needs to go.

Stop writing, create a detailed outline of the book, and then revise what you've already written to fit the outline.

When you realize you need research for your book, you would probably:

Leave blanks in the manuscript where the facts will go, and plan to insert them later.

Stop writing, do the necessary research, then revise the manuscript so it fits the research.

You would never have gotten this far without research. That would have been your first step

If a critique partner told you the middle of your book dragged and needed more tension, you would probably:

Add cliffhanger scenes to chapter endings.

Look at the entire middle portion of the story and see where you can build tension and suspense.

Back up to the beginning, and revise from the opening lines through the middle.

If your plot feels like it's not heading toward the ending you imagined, you would most likely:

Use the final quarter of your book to quickly steer it back in the direction you want it to go.

Change the ending to fit the story you've actually written.

Step back and see where in the plot you got off track, then revise the manuscript before writing the ending.

If you're in a critique group and members give you feedback on your manuscript, you imagine you would:

Make every change they suggest as long as it doesn't alter your overall vision of the work.

Think about the changes they've suggested, and make the ones you agree with.

Debate the suggested changes with group members and only make the changes offered by writers with more experience than you.

If you want to find out which publishers you should submit your manuscript to, your first step would be:

Post the question on the Facebook pages of some published authors you're following.

Research submission opportunities in industry newsletters and market guides.

Research submission opportunities, but also spend the day at the book store looking at books that reach the same readers as yours, and see who published them.

When marketing your published book, your first step would be to:

Brainstorm creative marketing strategies that haven't been used by other authors.

Start with traditional marketing strategies you can do yourself (social media, guest blog posts, book signings, etc.) and then move into more creative strategies.

Invest the two months before your book comes out building an online author platform, setting up a blog tour, and possibly hiring a publicist to manage your social media.

If asked to speak about your creative process at a writing conference, the title that would best fit your talk might be:

Why I Sent My Protagonist to Mars

Bringing Structure to Inspiration

From Idea to Finished Book: My Personal System