Tag Archives: characters

5min – Time

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A while ago I started doing five minute writing sessions almost every day. It was a moment I could take to write my thoughts, and let out a little bit of the stuff inside my head keeping me from writing.

While I was doing it I found it very helpful to keep my mind on writing. I wrote more on my novel back then because I took those five minutes in the morning to recenter myself.

I think it’s time to start doing those five minute writings again. I have been a bit lax with my writing lately. Not as bad as before, but still, not as much as I’d like. I have so many ideas, so many wonderful short stories waiting to be told, and novels waiting to be completed. They’ll never get done if I don’t buckle down and do them.

So…here’s day one again. Back to basics. Five minutes to talk about writing, or art, or the upcoming conventions. Anything that is on my mind.

Today was our date night. Gregg and I go to D&D each Wednesday and play a table top game with our friends. It hasn’t been as consistent as usual because our dungeon master just had a baby, and babies require a lot of attention. But we squeeze in a night here and there when we have the chance.

Tonight was a slow session since it was more role playing then actually fighting. But that’s okay, sometimes you have to have the back story in order to progress the story and get tot he jucie parts. Sometimes you have to poke your nose into unusual places, and see if you can find any clues, or else you’ll never know what you’re missing out on.

Writing is like that. You might be in the middle of a big story and one day your characters might poke their nose into a place you didn’t expect, and low and behold there is something amazing there. Something that shifts, or expands, or even changes the plot. The corners can be interesting. Or distracting. It’s up the the writer to figure out which.

And that’s my five.

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Writing Process Blog Tour

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Simon Canton asked me to be part of the Writing Process Blog Tour. I said yes, how could I not?

 

What am I working on?

I’ve been working on “Mermaid’s Curse” since October. It’s my third novel length book, but the fist one I’ll be publishing. An epic fantasy, with some romantic overtones, it’s set in the same world as “Osiren’s Tears”, but is a stand alone novel tracking the making and breaking of a curse on Okira, a half mermaid witch.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

My stories, though set in fantasy and paranormal worlds, are more about the characters and their struggles then about the magic and mayhem (though it does play a big part). You couldn’t really take the magic or sci-fi elements out, as they are integral parts of the story, but more importantly: how do the characters react to demons chasing them, cyborgs crushing them, or a curse denying them love? It’s the human struggle I find interesting and compelling.

Though magic is really fun.

Why do I write what I do?

I’m fascinated by people. What makes them tick? What drives them? Why do they do such terrible or wonderful things? How will they react when I throw something new at them?

Every time my characters surprise me it thrills me just a little more.

How does my writing process work?

I do something in between pantsing and plotting. I start with a very general idea, like “Sleeping dragon awakens after 1000 years to find a city built on his back.” Then I find the first scene. Add a few people, and a little bit of mayhem. Once I have those basics down I can start writing a general outline. One or two sentences for a each chapter.

The outline is never the end. I’m constantly tweeking and discovering new things. New people, and problems. Sometimes I will decide the ending is general, like “The hero saves the day by killing the bad guy”, but I always end up tweeking and refining it as I get to the end. The HOW is more important then the what by then. And sometime the how can get… complicated.

Nominations

For this weeks Blog Tour I nominate a great writer, a podcaster, and a friend. The fantastic Buddy Gott and his fantabulouse beard!

Buddy Gott is a writer of humorous fiction. His first novel, I WAS A TEENAGE AMISH VAMPIRE, will be released in early Summer, 2014. Buddy is also the host or co-host of a ridiculously large number of shows on the internet. To find out more about him, his writing, and his shows, please visit his site at www.buddygott.com.