Where do you...

...Write

This is a form of my "How do you..." post but I wanted to make sure the title worked with what I was asking and this week I'm asking "where do you write?"

I write in three different places depending on what part of the process I'm in and what I'm writing.

1) Home- Most of the time, I write at home in my dining room on my laptop. I like my dining room because there is nothing it but huge windows and a large dining room table. It was made as a "Florida room" or "sun room" and it is perfect for no distractions. I usually write in there when I'm in the drafting stage, writing for the fun of it and when I'm not writing a particularly rough scene.

My REAL living room

Must haves:

• My laptop
• A pair of comfy pants
• A tall glass of something (usually water)
• Teddy grams

Pros:

• It's usually pretty quiet in my house
• I don't have to wear earphones
• My hair can be a mess
• My outfit can be a mess
• I can get whatever I need to eat or drink
• I don't have to deal with the bathroom conundrum (will explain in next place to write)

Cons:

• Cats demand my attention
• I feel too free to get up and do anything else besides write
• I get bored with the setting
• Lots of distractions-- t.v., cleaning, INTERNET

2) The bookstore- Six months ago when I lived in Tampa, I lived at the Borders on Dale Mabry. It had an awesome cafe and bookside, plenty of plugs and a wonderful staff. Nowadays, I go to the local Books-A-Million which I don't like as much because I used to work there. I like the bookstore because of the atmosphere and the amazing smell of coffee in the cafe. I run for shelter to the bookstore when I have to get some serious writing done OR I'm writing a really difficult scene.

Must haves:

• Laptop
• Caramel Frappe (or whatever the store I'm at calls them)
• A YA book I get to buy if I read my goal
• Headphones
• My cute little laptop bag

Pros:

• No distractions- when I go to the bookstore, my mind knows that I went there to write
• A new book as a reward
• The constant flow of people for a scenery change
• The smell of coffee
• No cats

Cons:

• The bathroom conundrum- If I have to go do I leave my laptop there and risk losing my laptop or do I take my laptop with me and risk losing my spot?
• I know most of the employees and they like to talk
• I don't have all the comforts of home
• I have to get all dressed and then sit in uncomfortable jeans
• I might forget something important like headphones

3) My computer desk- I have a desktop that I use to write short things (like this blog). I love my desktop because it is surrounded by my books in my "library" and has all of my files on back up. I usually like to be at my desk when I'm doing final edits because it has internet. My house isn't wireless so I have to plug in my laptop here which is a pain.

Must haves:

My computer room (I'm on right)

• A drink
• Comfy pants
• My reading glasses
• Sheer determination

Pros:

• Has internet for emailing finished drafts
• Keeps me in one place
• Hooked up to the printer
• Has ALL my music plus Pandora

Cons:

• Has internet for browsing and checking blog
• I'm stuck here and can't move
• Cats
• My husband's desk is next to mine and he likes to watch web videos LOUD

Well, there's my list in a nutshell. Depending on what I'm doing, I'm in one of three places for about two hours a day plugging away at a word count. How about you? Where do you write?

How do you...

 ... Plot World Domination Your Novel

As I've stated in previous posts, I am a character writer. Which means, I do not write for plot. This also means that I tend to be terrible at it. I'm already proving this by literally getting up to do something else like six times instead of writing this post about plotting.

It's not that I hate plots. On the contrary, I usually complain about them more than I do about characters. The fact of the matter is, you can have created the best, most fascinating character in the world but without something for that character to do, you don't have a good story. Plotting and character really go hand and hand, it's just that usually writers are really good at one of these things and sub par at the other.

So plot is important to me, it's just not what I do first. I usually start with a little nugget of an idea like "I wonder what would happen if a girl was forced to take over the rowing souls over the river Styx" (my current WIP) and then I get excited. So I dive in and start to think about what type of character would be a good fit for this position, why, and who are the people around her? After I've figured out what makes them tick (How do you create characters?), I have to figure out what they are going to do. So then I make the dreaded phone call to my best friend ever, Ashley, and we talk about everything but plot. During this time, I jot down the things that I know are going to happen. Little scenes that have found their way into my head, little quotes, the changes I know several characters need to go through. 


Then we start The Discussion. At this time, I know where things are headed, I just need to figure out how we are getting from point A to point C with a little something interesting happening in between. She is the biggest help when it comes to this. Most of the time, two brains are better than one (especially if you asked a zombie, that's twice the food!) and she knows what type of questions to ask me so I can figure out where to go.


I use chapter outlines. It was especially important with this previous novel because I had two narrators so I needed to know what was happening to each of them at the same time. Basically a chapter outline looks like this:

• Chapter 1- Aiden (the narrator)- Going to check on his sister, finds she's missing and freaks out. Hunts everywhere (good chance to show the house he lives in and his brother) but can't find her. Realizes he heard his brother leaving a while ago and thinks back to what he said. Something about a park. Realizes his brother took his sister to the park to try to pick up girls. Wonders if his brother is stoned.*

*This is not a real scene from the novel-- it's a cut scene from the first draft but it is no longer in there.

I like working in chapter outlines because they give me just enough to go on without dictating every detail. If I think of something while I'm writing and go off on a tangent then I can look back and know where my chapter was going beforehand and where it needs to go now. They also provide me a jumping off point and if I happen to set the novel down for a few days, I can quickly scan what happened in the previous chapter to refresh myself.

Something else I started doing with this last novel that helped me out a lot was to write a quick timeline. My plots always tend to drag in the middle so to prevent that I sat down and wrote out all the huge plot points and then put them under three sections "beginning, middle, end". From there, I separated all the points and colored coded them each per character. It looks a little like this:

Beginning-

• Aiden finds Blake
• Blake waks up in hospital
• Aiden brings Hannah to hospital to visit Blake
• Blake confesses that she knows her accident wasn't a suicude attempt but doesn't know what happened
• Aiden swears to Blake that he will help her figure it out

Doing this helped me see the important parts in the novel and really helped me chop off all the fluff.

So what about you? How do you plot? Do you plot before you know your characters or after? Do you plan or let the chips fall where they may?


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Make sure to check back tomorrow for an interview with the amazing Megan Crewe and a giveaway!

How do you...

... Pick A Main Character?

As I've discussed in previous "How do you..." posts, before my fingers ever touch the keyboard to type the first page of a novel, I have already created character spreadsheets and given them awesome names (full of awesomeness, obviously). That means I know exactly who I'm going to be writing in, right?

Uh, not so much.

There's been this lovely new trend in publishing lately and that it to have multiple main characters. So while I may start writing in one perspective, I might realize that we are missing something completely without another voice. So I guess the more truthful answer to my question is yes, I know who ONE of my MCs is going to be but the rest is up in the air.

For my current WIP out in the hands of betas, the story is told in alternating perspective between Blake (the female protagonist with all the paranormal stuff happening to her) and Aiden (the male protagonist trying to figure out what the heck is happening to Blake). Now besides the fact that I get to write in two separate voices so it's like writing two different novels at once (and keeps my attention better), when I first starting writing this novel I realized it needed Aiden's voice.

The reason why?

Blake's not a very likable gal. I mean, she's alright but she's not in a very good place when the novel starts out. So I decided to add in another voice that will showcase the good in her. By adding in this second male voice, the story ended up expanding and was enriched by his voice. Also, because the paranormal elements aren't directly happening to him, Aiden's perspective really helps to ground the novel in reality.

All of a sudden my novel went from one voice to two and that opened up a word of possibility for me.

So what about you? Do you know how many MCs you'll have and who they are before you start writing? Or do you jot down a bunch of characters, give them all a test run and then find the right one? Have you ever finished a novel only to realize it's in the wrong person's POV?

How do you...

...Name Characters?

On the last How do you... post I talked about creating characters. This week, I am currently starting a new project and am knee deep in this process once again (my favorite place to be!). The most basic thing is naming the character that you've spent so many hours building.

A name is so important. It can instantly draw a picture in someone's mind about what this character looks like and who they are. That's why I had a lot of trouble trying to figure out what my main character's name was going to be for this newest novel.

Here's my general process:

I'm a meaning gal. I like to look for names that have a certain meaning behind them. The worst part about this is you can trap yourself in a box if you refuse to look outside the meaning of a name. I knew this newest MC of mine is going to be a badass chick who can handle her own (and his own, and the guy over there's own) in a fight and I knew her mother was also a fanatic about what she is training to do. So I thought I wanted something a famous female warrior was named. But then I looked at the list...

So I decided to go with meaning. I typed in "warrior" and got back a bunch of not so pretty names.Then I tried "brave", "valiant", "honest", and "noble". Basically, I was getting no where and fast.

So I thought to myself, 'self, what is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think legendary female warrior'? Myself though back 'Freaking Athena, dummy'. That's when it clicked. I'm looking for name love in all the wrong places. I don't want something that means warrior, I want something Greek in origin, some name Athena herself could have reached down and touched.

The funniest thing is, I knew her last name first. Ever heard that expression "you gotta pay the piper". Well, I thought it's be awesome if her family inspired that phrase. So I knew her last name was Piper. I just had to pick a name that went well with it.

This is my list:

• Olivia 
• Cassandra
• Arianna 
• Cleopatra 
• Alexandra
• Echo
• Jacey 
• Pandora 
• Selena 
• Sophia 
• Triona 
• Veronica 

I loved the idea of the longer/odd names on the list because of the nickname possibilities. This character could have been my Cass, Livia, Cleo, Pan, or Ronnie. But after some discussion with my closest advisors, I settled on Jacey because it's unique and really fit this badass character persona.

So now I've got Jacey Piper, the youngest monster hunter in recent history and if I do say so myself, damn, she is cool! 

Figuring out who I wanted my character to be, what I wanted her name to sound like, and the right origin is how I found the perfect name for my newest character!

How do you name your characters? Careful planning? Just a list of backlogged names? A stroke of genius?

How do you...

...Create Characters

One of the most fascinating aspects of writing for me is character creation. I'm a character writer so I look for books that are character driven (don't get me wrong, they need to have a fair amount of plot in them too). My favorite part about writing is the character creation process. It's the reason why I think up so many new ideas and what makes me want to stick with a novel the entire time. I love the characters and I want to see them through to the finish.

I always start with a loose premise. This allows me to know what kind of characters will fit in the novel. For instance, with my latest, I knew I was going to need an edgy, slightly darker main character. I also knew she needed to be a little selfish. When I'd finished creating this character I realized that people were going to REALLY dislike her which is a problem since she is telling the story. So I created a male counterpart who takes his turn telling half the story and made him everything she isn't. He's giving (I really iced on the sympathy here by giving him a neglecting family and a little sister he adores), thoughtful, pretty straight laced, and has a major crush on the other character. He sees her good and in doing so, forces the reader to as well.

Once I figure out who my main character (or characters in this case) is, I make up a character spread sheet. I list everything I know about this character, starting with physical attributes. It looks a little like this when it's finished:

Blake Porter

Hair: Black with a purple streak, short and choppy

Eyes: Almond shaped and grey

Height: 5' 4"

Body Type: Slender, longer torso

Distinguishing marks: A large burn scar on her back from her mother's blow torch (her sister inflicted it by accident)

Once this is complete, I go on to list her personality (just a loose description), her interesting traits (she hates feet), her likes, her dislikes, and everything in between.

I try to get pretty in depth but to be completely honest, a lot of things don't even come out until I'm writing and the trait/story/like/dislike magically appears on the page. For instance, during this last draft of my novel, I just found out that my male MC is lactose intolerant but that he buys chocolate milk for lunches anyways because his sister likes it. Those type of details are the reasons I make characters in the first place. 

My character spread sheet is an essential part to my work. I map out every single character (and add to it if I change something or add another character) and it comes in handy when I can't remember if someone's sister has blonde hair like their mom or light brown like them.

I like everything organized before I start writing otherwise it's so easy to get lost down that magical, swirling rabbit hole.

It is an added bonus that by doing this, my husband is able to draw my characters too. He just sneaks a peek over my shoulders and starts going. Here's his interruption of the character from the spread sheet above:

Created by Brian Mitchell

So what about you? How do you create characters?