My Writing Process | intuitive discovery writing

A flexible, intuition-led workflow—built around “idea clicking,” drafting while staying in the zone, and editing in responsive passes—has become the core of ShaelinWrites’ writing process. Rather than following a fixed schedule or a rigid outline, she treats each project as its own problem to solve in real time, adjusting decisions as new needs emerge. The payoff is creative momentum: she says her best material comes when she’s genuinely enjoying the work, not when she’s chasing external targets.

Timing and planning play a secondary role. She doesn’t track consistent timelines for drafting, revising, or moving between books, and she insists that no two of her roughly ten books have used the same process. Her approach is “go with the flow” but still guided by three principles: make project-specific decisions as they arise, rely on intuition instead of forcing ideas, and write more when she’s having fun because enjoyment directly boosts motivation and perceived quality.

Ideas, for her, rarely arrive as fully formed plots. They often begin as a feeling or a core image, then sharpen into something usable through a phase she calls “idea clicking” or clarifying. When that click happens, she typically gets about three days of rapid brainstorming—an intense, almost uncontrollable burst where characters, settings, and story type start to surface. During this window she creates a notes document with a working title (even if it later proves silly), records everything she can, and lets the draft develop from the accumulating material rather than from a predetermined plan. She also emphasizes form—point of view, narrative frame, and overall structure—early on, even if she doesn’t complete formal character profiles.

Drafting is where her process becomes deliberately practical. She writes in Microsoft Word using Focus Mode, keeps a thesaurus and research tab open, and relies on project-specific music playlists as a concentration cue. She prefers writing earlier evening or afternoon (roughly 5–8 p.m.), often after a walk that helps generate ideas. Word-count targets are intentionally avoided because she says specific goals can make writing feel like schoolwork and reduce quality; instead, she writes until energy runs out, typically landing around 600–1,200 words on a light day and 1,500–2,000 on a strong one.

Editing blends with drafting rather than waiting until the end. She edits “as she goes” to prevent the plot from becoming unmanageable and to protect confidence while problems are still fixable. When she does deeper revision, she builds an edit outline by chapter: lists of problems, a reordered scene plan, and notes for continuity fixes or new scenes. She then applies changes linearly, writes any missing scenes, smooths the result with a read-through pass, and repeats self-edits as needed. Workshops provide the developmental lift—she synthesizes workshop notes into actionable key points, then applies another revision cycle. Line editing happens in limited rounds; she aims for minimal-change passes and ultimately treats the moment when no further meaningful edits remain as the finish line.

Across the workflow, the throughline is responsiveness: she keeps plans loose, lets intuition lead early, drafts with attention and enjoyment, and revises in structured but flexible passes until the story is done.