Wandering Thoughts of a Writer: #characters

Showing posts with label #characters. Show all posts

I can’t speak for all writers, but this is what my internal world is like as an author.

I have a loud mind.

Stephen King once said quiet people have loud minds. I don’t know. I mean, I’m quiet when I have nothing to say, and I don’t ever have the need to hijack someone’s conversation . . . so yeah, now that I think about it, I do have a loud mind.

My thoughts constantly scatter.

I can have a conversation with my husband and think of other things at the same time. Where I get into trouble is when he’s telling me something I’m not in the least bit interested in. I’ll focus on my thoughts instead and not hear a word he’s saying.

My mind always turns an unexplained noise or situation into a story.

This is so true, and nine times out of ten I’ll tell the person with me about it. And yes, that person looks at me like I grew another head—unless it’s another author I’m telling it to.

I'll compare real life situations to fictional ones.

I’ll compare a situation someone is in or was in or something that happened that’s relevant to one of my characters, and I’ll talk about it.

Self-induced stress.

Sometimes I become anxious and irritable when I have so many things to do like edits, rewrites, posting, marketing, etc. and not enough time to do them. Basically, I get overwhelmed, and my thoughts won’t stop whirling.

I have stories racing through my mind.

I have so many stories I want to write but not enough time to do so.

I’m never bored.

It's very rare that I'm bored. I have too many things to do to get bored.

Crankiness.

If I’m not working on a story, I get grumpy and depressed.

Anxious.

I get nervous and scared when other people reads my story.

I'm a serf to my imaginary friends.

My character’s talk to me, and they can get demanding to where I have to appease them. I am their slave.

Happiness.

I get excited and giddy when I’m creating a story.

My characters crack me up and make me weep.

I laugh when one of my characters does something funny. I also cry when something bad happens to them.

So do I like being an author?

No.

I frickin’ love it.

Why?

Because despite the anguish as an author I go through to churn out a novel and market it, I created something out of nothing. I have the ability to transfer what’s inside of me, onto paper, and into other people’s minds. I can share with them worlds and characters they never knew about. I can teach them lessons or at least get them to think on topics they never thought about before. I can make them laugh, cry, smile, and get frustrated. I can entertain them. I’m giving something to this world that more than likely will last well after I’m gone, which rocks.

Yes, I’m overwhelmed.

But . . .

Being an author makes me happy and want to do a silly dance.

Enough said.

#amwriting, #author, #authorlife, #characters, #creating, #creativity, #life, #stephenking, #stories, #writer, 0 Comments

I’m in the process of finishing book two in my Legends of Deceit series.

Today I wrote over 2,000 words.

Wowzers!

That is a lot of words for me to write in one day. However, I was determined to finish the first draft.

But . . .

I had to stop.

Why?

Because I’ve reached an emotional part of the story that I need to write, and I know I’m going to cry when I write it.

So I saved my work and set it aside.

That’s what I do when I know I need to write a tear-jerking scene.

After that, I take the time to mentally prepare myself to write it. My process usually takes me a day, so I’ll be writing it tomorrow.

How do I mentally prepare myself?

I ponder the scene over while trying not to get emotional as it plays out inside my head. Sometimes it’s challenging not to tear up while thinking about it in public.

It's kinda funny.

I know, I’m a dork, but I don’t think I’m the only author out there who experiences that.

We’re invested in our characters.

We love them.

Of course, we’re going to get emotional when something happens to them.

Also, it’s a good thing because if what we write emotionally affects us, then more than likely it’ll do the same to our readers.

Anyway, my process is simplistic: Save my work, set it aside, ponder over it for a day to mentally prepare myself to write the scene, all the while playing it out inside my head.

I’m all about minimalizing my life, and if I can incorporate it into my work and enriching it by doing so, I will.

If you’re an author reading this, feel free to enter what your process is when you reach an emotional part of your story that you have to write.

Until next time.

Cheers!

#amwriting, #book, #characters, #crying, #emotional, #firstdraft, #funny, #scene, #writing, 0 Comments

For a year or so, my husband had been bugging me to write Ameerah. She’s a character who has made appearances in the last two books in my Beyond the Eyes trilogy. Her story is a standalone, meaning you can read it without ever having read the BTE books. It’s her tale about how she became a dark spirit who can dwell inside soulless humans and live whatever life she desires. If she wants to experience being a hot blonde chick with loads of money, she can. If she wants to drink, smoke, party, have mind-blowing sex, she can and then leave the vessel she possessed. No problem. Her story is a unique one. She recounts her life when she was human in 1925 when she was a flapper gal, on the brink of fulfilling her dreams. But then she was betrayed by her elitist parents who thought Ameerah would threaten their position in society if she continued on with her antics. I won’t tell you what they did, but they took everything from her.

Her freedom.

Her dignity.

Her life.

Then she was brutally murdered and found herself at a recruiting station.

She had a choice to move on to the next realm or become a dark spirit and have the opportunity to get revenge on those who stole her life from her. She chose the latter and then takes the reader on a journey, not only on what it’s like to be a dark spirit, which is interesting in itself but through the timelines as well, up to present day where she enlists her dark spirit friend Derek to help her obtain salvation. Here are the timelines Ameerah takes the reader through:

Starts with the present day.

Then the 1920s: Prohibition, flapper gals, speakeasies, the stock market crash.

The Depression:

WWII: The dark spirits had a heavy hand in the war, and the immortals fought against the Germans.

The 1950s: music, the twist, soda shops, pinup girls.

The Vietnam War: The dark spirits were involved with that as well.

Studio 54: Ameerah was there when Bianca Jagger rode a white horse inside the club on her birthday.

The 1980s:

Back to present day.

I’ve never experienced this before as an author, but my character Ameerah won’t let go of me. Seriously. She’s with me all the time, even though I’m writing another story on something totally different. I wonder if other authors have ever had this problem. I know Ameerah still has a lot to say and she will in the future. We’re not done yet. I also plan on continuing my Beyond the Eyes trilogy with a fourth book, but for now, Ameerah and my BTE trilogy are going to have to wait until I’ve completed this new exciting project, which I will announce in the near future.

So authors, if there are any reading this post, have you ever had a character of yours that stuck with you long after you were done writing about him or her? If so, what did you do about it?

Oh, and just for fun, here’s a picture of Ameerah and her dark spirit recruiter Aiden. He's Irish, btw, and hilarious.