How I Write...Worldbuilding and my Vadim World

One of the differences in writing a paranormal book in comparison to a contemporary one is the degree of world building that is done. Of course, this is completely subjective, but it was a fun departure for me to create a new culture in the Vadim with RISE OF HOPE. I wrote an article about world building and give some insights into the process I used to create my new world. I hope you'll check it out!

World Building. It's not just for those genres.

How I Write - Point of View

This is the first post for my very new feature called, How I Write. I thought it would be useful to post once a month or so something about my writing process, focus on something craft related or simply provide a tip or trick I may use while I write. Who knows? Readers may find the insight into the creative process interesting and aspiring authors out there may find something useful to take to their own writing. At least that's my hope.

For this first post I thought I would talk about Point of View (POV) because it is so very important to a book. One of the key things a writer needs to do is to quickly engage the reader and ensure they relate to the characters. It's what keeps the pages turning because a reader needs to care about the characters, especially in a romance. The reader needs to relate to and sympathize with the heroine. A reader needs to fall in love (a little or a lot LOL) with the hero. A reader needs to be right there, hoping and wishing and yearning for the couple to ultimately get together. Writing in a particular character's POV (and doing it well) is a key way to achieve that connection with the reader. I recently wrote 2 articles about writing in deep POV for Savvy Authors. They contain some very basic things with examples that you can do to achieve more depth, not just for your characters, but for your book as a whole. Rather than provide all that information here again, use the links below to check out the articles for the detail if you like.

Article 1
Article 2

There are a few things I do during my creative process to assist with executing POV correctly, particularly those key times when you need to change POV from one character to another. Now, I'm not one for rules :). I like to do what seems right, what feels right when I create. I don't think much about 'writing rules' along the way. That comes later when I self-edit or my editor goes *tsk* *tsk*. Generally speaking though, you don't want to change POV within a scene. You need time for the reader to ground themselves with that particular character and what they're experiencing before jumping into someone elses head. I say "generally speaking" because I regularly read successful NY Times bestselling authors that blow this guideline out of the water LOL. When I first started writing, this was probably one of my biggest challenges to overcome. My problem was that in every scene I knew what ALL the characters were thinking and tried to stuff it all in there. Of course there are pitfalls of this head-hopping and it ain't pretty for the reader.

One thing I used to do to ensure I was balancing out the POV time between characters and make sure I wasn't changing POV too often was to use color coding. I would literally go through  my document and change the font color to pink for the heroine's POV, blue for the hero's POV. Yeah, I know not very original :). The exercise is very enlightening though and suddenly what you're doing with your character's POV is so much easier to see and work with. It really helped me with the process to go back and smooth over these switches.

I hope you find something valuable in these posts. If you do, please leave a comment so I'll know and continue!!

Inspiration. It's a funny thing.

Writers get asked all the time where their ideas come from. At least I do. I've blogged about this a couple of times here and elsewhere, but I thought it would be fun to break down a book and share some specifics of just how ideas and some of the elements end up in books. Let's take my latest, PLAY ME.

The name Gabe - this has been in my 'names I like and would love to use in a book some day' file for a long time. It's one of those names that get mentally tagged when I hear or see it and know it would make a great character. Of course it helps that I think it's just plain masculine and hot for a guy!

Setting - PLAY ME is set in LA. It's not described in detail because it's not really critical to the story, but the beach area and Lily's house is one I used to walk, ride or drive past regularly. I loved living in LA. Of course, I could get to/from work and do all the activities I enjoyed by staying in my neighborhood and off the freeways. Also, living in LA you're constantly aware of the dangers of the city and those 'do not go under any circumstances' areas. It was always a fear of mine that I would take a wrong turn and end up in the wrong place at the wrong time. Again, I could have described everything about the setting in minute detail in the book, but it's not important to Gabe and Lily's story. It is important for me though when I write to be able to clearly picture the setting so this is why I often set my books in places I've lived. Luckily, I've lived in many wonderful, interesting and varied places and traveled to many, many more!

Ironing scene - I hate ironing. Actually I don't iron. I'd do anything to avoid it. I'll even not buy an item of clothing if it really does need to be ironed LOL. I have this wrinkle releaser product I use and try and fold everything directly from the dryer. That's how I 'iron'. I get a kick out of a guy ironing. Sorry :). Just me having some fun while I was writing.

Panties Gabe wants Lily to wear - Shhh, don't tell anyone but I have these pair myself LOL.

The 'declaration' scene - I had written this scene, but it just didn't 'feel' right to me. I tweaked it. It still didn't sing. I polished it some more. It was missing something. I was browsing a Victoria's Secret catalogue and BAM I had the element I was looking for for that all important scene. For those who don't know, Victoria's Secret is a large lingerie chain very widespread here in the US. I can't really give any more detail than that about what it was that I saw and used because it's kind of a spoiler, but I had my ending when I finished browsing that catalogue!!

And for the rest? I'm not really sure. Somewhere in the deep recesses of my imagination, I guess. I just hope where ever or however it comes, it doesn't stop anytime soon :)!

WIP It Wednesday & New Blog Features!

That time again. Already!? It's good actually, because it means I have to make sure I have something interesting and 'worthy' to share :). Before I post the snippet though, I wanted to draw attention to my left side bar on the blog. I updated it to include a summary of all of my regular blog features. These have been going around and around in my head for awhile. I'd like to be sure the content of the blog has substance and remains interesting and hope this does that. I have another idea I'm going to kick around for a bit longer, but if anyone has any feedback or input, let me know! My regular features will be:

WIP it Wednesday
Each (or every other) Wednesday I'll share a snippet from my current WIP. Unedited, of course :), so don't shoot me!

Just Published
Monthly, I'll drill down with newly published authors about how they did it, what worked, what didn't, and get them to share their pearls of wisdom.

How I Write
New! Each month I'll do a post about writing-sometimes craft, sometimes promotion, hopefully useful!

Ask a Writer
New! Randomly, I'll do a post and invite you guys to ask me anything. Well, not anything, but anything to do with writing and publishing and being an author. It's pretty broad. Not sure how this will work because there are a lot of lurkers (yeah, you!), but I'd love to see your questions!

And now for the snippet. I just worked on this page before doing this blog entry. Enjoy!

     He kept looking at her, his gaze steady on hers.
     “Is this some kind of test, Lexi?”
     “Test?” she snorted. “We’re not—I mean, we’re—”
     Jeez, exactly what were they?
     She took a deep breath. “I don’t have any hold on you. I don’t expect any. You can do whatever you like.” She shrugged. “Go for it if you want.”
     “Yeah?” He glanced back toward the two women. They noticed his interest and motioned him over. Oh God. She should have kept her mouth shut. Why couldn't she ever keep her mouth shut?
     “Know what I want? Right now?”
     Her stomach knotted. He stepped to her and his voice lowered.
     “I want to...

Naming Characters

It always fascinates me to hear how other writers work, how they write and what happens during their creative process. One of the things I always wonder about as I start a book is where the character's names came from. I think it's because I know where mine do--from everywhere and anything and sometimes from nowhere and nothing! That makes sense, right? LOL. I'm one of those people who'll scan the credits of a TV show or movie for interesting names, look at the contributors list in magazines, gosh I've even been known to scan my kid's school contact list! I have a number of baby name books as well. One of them has 20,000 names in it! It's the one I used to name my kids, so it's kinda special.

Sometimes I'll just hear a name somewhere or I'll see it and I'll file it away for later. That's what happened with Rio from PAY UP. I've had that name identified as one I would use eventually for a long time. I just needed the right guy. I actually have a document that lists possible names and I usually look at it before I start a book UNLESS the story has started with a character so strongly, that the name is already there. It happens like that sometimes. The character will just pop into my head, fully formed and already with a name. I'm sure it's something from my subconscious, but it sometimes feels like it's come from thin air. Occasionally, I'll be developing a character profile and I'll get to a certain point and the character suddenly 'becomes' someone. It happened that way with Jillian from PICTURE THIS. Jillian is not a name that would have normally gotten my attention, but when I created her profile, she just 'seemed' like a Jillian. To me, anyway.

I try to pick names that are easy to pronounce and wouldn't have a reader wondering how they sound, but past experiences also come into play. There are particular names that have connotations and associations that would make it impossible for me to use them for heroes or heroines. It might be people I know, family, those from the past that have too many echoes (positive or negative) that would prevent me from relating to them enough to write them. I also have this issue sometimes as a reader. If there's a book with a name that I too readily associate with a living person, it can make it challenging to really engage with that character and become invested with them. Of course, a good writer telling a great story can usually get me past that.

So, readers...do you really care about character names, one way or the other? Would other writers like to share how they name their characters?

Coming soon...

I've thought recently about what I could add to my blog to make it more interesting, more beneficial, more substantial. I've been turning an idea around in my head for awhile. Of course, I don't consider myself to be an absolute expert by any means, but I've learned a great deal on my journey to date about writing, becoming published and marketing, so...I thought I'd start a new blog feature called 'How I Write'. This is not meant to be cut and dried advice or instruction about the 'dos and don'ts' of writing. This is intended as a way for me to share some tips and tricks I've picked up and developed that have helped me write both novellas and full length novels. I also plan to include my thoughts around getting published and share what I've learned about marketing and promotion that I wish I'd known when I first started out. It will also simply provide an insight into one author's process end to end and how stories come about. Hopefully, it will be of interest and use to readers. If there are any suggestions for what to include or address, let me know. I plan to launch this in January!

Also, thanks so much to everyone who voted! PAY UP was voted book of the week at Whipped Cream!! Yay!!!