Watching a writer work must be the most boring activity in the known universe. At least with watching paint dry you can watch the slight color change that usually happens during the process. A writer can be hard, nay, even furiously at work and still moving less than the average graveyard angel. Then comes the big burst of activity—if you’re both lucky—typing. Or maybe scribbling with pen and paper, if you’re into that old school method. Then…nothing again. For greater or lesser slices of eternity. Most writing doesn’t happen on the page. It happens somewhere inside and in the kinetic connection between mind and computer keys. When it happens, which isn’t always.
Still getting the words down, which is what it’s all about. Making my quota most days, sometimes a bit more. Hit something of a milestone this morning when I crossed the 50,000 word threshold. As thresholds go it’s pretty meaningless, but to me it signals that the book is over half way done. I don’t write doorstops, I know I’ve mentioned this before. I expect to wrap it up at about 90,000 words. If I don’t, I’ll be as surprised as anyone. I know what’s already happened, what’s about to happen, and a penultimate scene that breaks it down, wraps it up and kicks the entire thing to the curb. In a good way. Some old friends return. Some not-so-friends, and All is Revealed. Well, most of it.
I am so looking forward to that. I think Yamada is too. And by the way, this is a three-princess book. First time I think there’s been more than two. Nope, three. And one especially.
Richard Parks 
El V’s process is very different. It all happens on the page, i.e. keyboard and screen. He writes, reads, re-writes, writes, reads, re-reads, endlessly, over and over and over and over. He also reads and re-reads aloud, over and over and over and over, endlessly.
He doesn’t sit and ruminate at all.