Select All, Delete

One should carefully consider whether they really want to pull back the curtain and see inside the mind of a fiction writer. I should know. When I asked one of my favorite authors about his process, he startled me with this phrase: “Select All, Delete.” Bjorn Leesson, for the love of words, tell me you did not actually do this. He did. Maybe he still does, I don’t ask anymore. Whatever he’s doing though, it’s working for him. Find out how he hammered out his creative process in this exclusive guest post from Bjorn Leesson.

Andria was kind enough to ask me to write a guest piece for her blog, and I am very honored she did. A little background: I started writing historical fiction fantasy only a short time ago. I began writing the “Outside the Thalsparr” series in the beginning of 2023, and by May of that year, I thought I was ready to publish the first two installments. Yeah, I wasn’t. 

Definitely Get an Editor

It became quite obvious that even though I was mostly confident in my story, character development, and world building, my formatting and general tidiness needed some work—“some work” being a little subjective. That is where Andria Flores came in. I searched around a little bit, really having no idea how to find an editor or the fact that there are so many different kinds, but search blindly for one I did. By an incredible stroke of luck, I happened to land on a link to Andria’s website. Not only are her editing skills wonderful, she also offered me invaluable advice on all aspects of my work. I learned a lot from her (and still am), and I hope that editing my work now isn’t as exhausting for her as it might have been at first. The basic moral of this introduction: definitely get an editor—a good one, like Andria.

Give Creativity Freedom, But Keep an Eye On It

So with my background and editing disclaimer relayed, I want to take this opportunity to share something I find to be one of the most useful writing lessons I have learned: Give creativity freedom, but keep an eye on it. At first, I wanted to tightly control the path I would follow with little to no deviation. Upon reflection, I suspect this came from my past work writing nonfiction and technical pieces. There is not a whole lot of deviation in nonfiction or technical work by definition. I outlined my story, then began writing. As soon as variation began to creep in, I stopped, rewound, and tried again until I was within the narrow path I had set for myself. “Select All, Delete” became a regular practice. Now, I call this “squashing creativity,” but at that time, I believed I was “controlling the storyline.”

Unintended Collateral Damage

I fought myself through Book One, Runes of the Dokkrsdottir, and was pretty pleased with the end result. I went straight into Book 2, Rune of Renewal. Again, a robust story outline and rigidity were the plan. But thankfully, sense took over in flashing glances and I started to let the story “write itself” on some of the minor details. “Huh,” I said, “that turned out pretty cool.” But I still didn’t trust this wild abandonment of my outline to progress through Book 2.

When Book 3, Rune of Destiny came around, I subconsciously found my story outline much shorter and much more vague. I believe this was my creativity in a parlay with my inner-outline designer producing a secret compromise. Admittedly, I still found “Select All, Delete” to be invoked too frequently, but I was still learning. There was also some unintended collateral damage. This larger spattering of chaos caused poor Andria more work during the editing phase, but it was a breakthrough for me.

Raw Creativity in the Moment

It was time for Book 4, and I decided to plan the beginning, a few pivotal scenes in the middle, and the end. That’s it. Everything else would write itself. Even now, while writing the seventh installment, I think Book 4, Rune of Revenge is my favorite. It just came together so well without me fighting the wheel. I knew my path going forward: a rough outline and the rest is raw creativity in the moment.

Until Book 5, Rune of Whispers came along that is. This one was a little different. This one was a supplemental installment that fits inside the timeline of Book 1. So yes, creativity was allowed to roam around on the lane, but there were gutter bumpers. This one had to obey rules because a storyline was already written chronologically before and after it. As Andria will attest, this one had me worried (made clear by my repeated dire warnings as I passed it off to her for her editing magic). To be fair, the worry was caused by a pretty big departure in writing style as well as a need to seamlessly fit into an established story. I liked how creativity fueled the final product of Book 4, and Book 5 was not allowed to do that with wild abandon. Thankfully, it turned out pretty awesome—a different awesome than the first four books.

The Great Compromise

And now, with Book 6, Rune of Spirits just leaving Andria’s hands, and Book 7, Rune of Building on the easel, so to speak, I think I have finally hammered out a path forward in the current series and beyond. Even greater, I now know when to put in the gutter bumpers and when to let creativity roll on its own. I say all of this in my fiction-writing youth, and who knows what else the “Thalsparr” has in store for me, but I feel pretty confident now about the great compromise between a rigid outline and raw creativity.

Outside the Thalsparr and Bjorn Leesson

For all things Thalsparr, series news and updates, and to learn more about the author, visit Bjorn’s website. To purchase books in the series, go to Amazon. Start with Book One here.

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