About my process.
If I can be said to have a writing process, it is something like this: Sit down in front of computer. Open word processor. Be visited by a woman wearing a long bedsheet and more than likely a funny hat. Read what I just wrote so when people ask me about it I will know what's going on.
But, to move away from too-vague jokes about Greek mythology, this is basically a description of how I've always written. There is a definite need for inspiration, otherwise I just roll in circles, but at the same time when I sit to the screen I can usually depend on some kind of inspiration. The spontaneity is not much of a factor when it comes to putting the words all down, because a large part of how I write is to be struck at four in the morning with a phrase, and later that evening start with the phrase and let it snowball into something else.
Among psychologists who've studied writing, they have agreed that there is a phenomenon called "flow" where the writer is, to put it in a trite sports metaphor, "in the zone." (The psychology speak is "lack of presence.") That is, the writer who finds the flow is no longer aware of himself, only of the story. This is how I write. It is not so much stringing words together to form sentences as it is letting the film reel unwind in my head. I watch these narratives happen, and when the narrative is over, there are words and sentences and paragraphs. When I go about re-reading them, I experience the same effect, if I have done a good job.
That's how I proofread. How quickly does the film come back, and does it look like it did the first time? My mom will tell you that description has always been my strong suit. Perhaps this is why: I'm not writing a story so much as condensing a vision into some other medium. This has been most evident in what I'd consider my "good" stories, the ones that started most strongly in my imagination, the ones that I thought I wrote the best.
One of these days (and count them one closer, as I have written more tonight) when I finish my manuscript, A Life of Fire, and after it's published, we'll see if it comes across as any less psychotic than it seems to me.