Hey Guys, It's Carly! Today I am entertaining another question that I get asked a lot. "How do you keep your characters straight? How do you remember their details? How do you come up with enough material for a book? Okay, that's three questions, but they have the same answer.
I have a couple of different things I use in order to keep the details handy. Most of you probably utilize this tool already, but maybe not for your book details. The answer is Pinterest. I have boards created for each stand alone book/series that I am working on. I collect pictures of actors/actresses that I see in my head as a character. If that character has a certain item that means something to them, I will post a picture of that. For example: In the book, Sasha Bishop: Shifter, Sasha has a prom dress fashioned from around the 1870's. The picture I had in mind is on the Sasha Bishop board. Not only does this help me remember the characters names, but also those details unique to them.
Another thing I do is "family trees." I start with the main character and work my way back by five generations. I make up names for all those people and a brief history. The reader may not ever know this information, but it gives me an idea of where the character comes from and why they react the way they do. If it is a secondary character, I only go back two generations. Not only does this help me keep the family lineage straight, it also gives me birthdays, careers, and spouse/children names. A lot of people have commented that is a lot of work for something that may or may not make it in the book. I tend to agree, however, several times, especially when writing a series, this has helped me keep small details straight. It has also aided me with story lines. How many times do you get stuck in the middle of your story and don't know where to go with it? Maybe your character is at a cross-roads and doesn't know how to move forward. When this happens, I take a break from the story and read through the family trees. Many times a new plot twist has developed from something I read from an ancestors background. If that doesn't help, I will go on Pinterest and look through the character boards for that series. This has helped many times in nudging me with a minor detail that blows up into a story line.
Sometimes these character boards and family trees can lead to a whole new book or series. Again, using the Sasha series as an example, I came up with all sorts of interesting characters from the family tree idea. I now have a new three book series planned based on some of those characters titled Prelude to a Vampire. Thanks to these tools, I have a whole lot of new ideas cooking for the new series and characters.
That's all for tonight. Join me back here on February 25th when I interview author, Tricia Sanders!
Hey Everyone, it's Carly. I'm a little late with this blog by like a month, LOL. I took January off from the blog in order to finish writing the final book in the Forest of the Mist series. The title is Guardians and it has been turned in to my editor. Whew!
I'm changing things up on Carly's View for 2018. Whenever I don't have a guest blogger, I will answer a question about writing that I get asked a lot. Keep in mind, my answer relates only to me and my experiences, not necessarily someone else's. Another change is the content of the blog. This year I will not be doing book reviews. I'm sorry about this, but the time is just not there. If I happen to read a book and really like it, I will contact the author and see if I can feature them on the blog. I will continue with guest bloggers, author interviews, character interviews, book features, and series features. If you are interested in any of these options, contact me in the comments section.
So a question I get asked a lot is this, "I have an idea for a book. What do I do?" This, my friends, is a loaded question, depending on what the person is really looking for. Sometimes, it's just a little nudge to get started. Other times it turns into a request for "honest feedback" on what they have already written. More often, it turns into an overview of writing as a whole.
Most often when I am asked this question, I answer with a simple, "Write the book." They look at me like I'm crazy, but honestly, that is the first step. Write the book. Get it down on paper. Don't worry about grammar and punctuation, just get the story down. Once you have it written, do a simple spell check with your computer. If you haven't already divided your story into chapters, then do this next. Read your story out loud to yourself. This helps you detect if you are overusing words or phrases. It helps you "hear" if you are repeating the same idea over and over again. It also allows you to hear if the story reads awkwardly. Fine tune those things that jump out at you. The next step is to read through for punctuation, misspellings, head-hopping, past vs present tense, etc... I know you've already done a spellcheck, but it won't catch everything.
Once I have done all this with my manuscripts, I send it off to a trusted friend who reads really fast. She usually has the book completed within 48 hours. She sends me a list of things that jump out at her like misspellings, punctuation, missing quotation marks, and story line inconsistency. I make the corrections and then do a final read through before sending off to my editor and the publishing house. This attention to detail will save a a lot of time during editing.
For those who want honest feedback, I have sometimes offered to read their complete manuscript or at least what they have written. I will usually do a full edit of the first 50 pages so they can see what is missing, inconsistent, or careless mistakes. This is where it gets dicey. Most people who ask you this question are friends or family members. I use the Track Changes feature in Word when I do this type of editing. It marks up the manuscript and gives the writer the option to accept the changes I have suggested or to reject it and keep it as it is. I have had some writers just shutdown when they opened their documents and saw all the markings. I know how they feel. When I first started writing, I asked an author friend to read my first chapter and provide input. I was not ready when she sent back the document marked up and with comments everywhere. I immediately became angry and insulted as I believed my story to be perfect. HA! I finally simmered down and read through her comments again and you know what? She was right. It was an eye opening experience that could have made me give up before I even started or give me the gumption to get better.
There are those who want a whole overview of writing. They want to know what to do from the first idea of their story all the way through to publication. There are a lot of steps in between those two points. Some don't want to take the time to do the research and work required before submitting their manuscripts. That lack of detail will show and you will receive a nicely worded rejection letter. All writers have gotten rejection letters, it's a part of the writing process and how we learn. Writing is tough. Basically people will either love your story or they won't. You have to take the good with the bad, pull up your big girl drawers, and get busy improving your manuscript if you want that shot at publication.
That's all for this week. If I don't have a guest scheduled for February 15th, then I'll answer another question about writing.
