Category Archives: Characters

Keeping Time

My aim was to get to 40K by the end of March, but it’m up to 29K at the moment. I’ll probably get up to 30K by today, and then it’s all downhill from there.

I took two days off and then started writing, and realized that I had messed up the time sequence. That’s the problem with me, sometimes, when I take time off. I have to go back to the beginning and read what I had done. Scrivener has a place that you can put document notes, and I’ve started to utilize that section.

Grimaulkin Redeemed takes place on November 1, 2000. I have to check an online calendar (though Scrivener gives me the option of saving the image of that calendar) to follow the days and dates, and now I need to make note of the moon phases. I’ve also made it more difficult for me–or for Mike–to get out and do things because now he has a job that takes up his mornings.

I’m also having trouble with the main plot. It pervades the story, but it’s not in your face all the time. And I need to figure out the motive of the antagonist–why does he do what I want him to do during the climax? Mike is paranoid about the antagonist; does that mean his paranoia is justified? Or would that make things way too obvious and easy?

The strange thing about writing, sometimes, is that you want to make it complicated for the reader, but not obtuse. You don’t want the reader to say “Huh?” But you want to keep them guessing, letting them try and figure out what you’re doing. If you make it too easy or obvious, readers get mad and won’t read your next book. But if you spring it on them without any foreshadowing or clues, they get mad too. It’s a fine line.

I was listening to a interview of an author (Steve Barry, I think) and the interviewer said that the ending came out of nowhere. That kind of ending would irritate the hell out of me. My editor said the same thing about Grimaulkin Tempted. I had dropped a few hints that only really astute readers would pick up on. During the rewrite, I made it more obvious that time around with an internal dialogue.

There are a lot of threads to keep in mind when writing: Time, place, character feelings and growth. Some of these come naturally, and can stay in my head. Other times, I get confused. Brothers of the Zodiac had a full time-line that I did one boring day at work about four years ago, but it got eaten by the website (it no longer exists). I had character names, places and dates. All gone. How ephemeral the cloud is.

Scrivener helps me keep track now. Full moon is coming up, and Mike is going to be a bit busy. I hope.

Procrastinating

Today I’m procrastinating writing. I’m cleaning out the litter boxes, picking up my office, staring at the cats…anything but working on the blank page of Grimaulkin Redeemed.

I wrote the exciting part that had been running around in my head for the better part of a week, and now there’s nothing after that. I have to write an hour-long conversation, which I suspect will be boring on the page, but I’m not sure what to do to make it exciting. So I’m staring at sleeping cats, hoping something comes to me.

I purchased some Ernest Hemingway books for the 6 hour plane ride to San Jose in August, and I’m trying to refrain myself form reading them. That would probably help with the conversation I have to do. I’m doing research for the conversation, because Mike has to talk to an expert in something that I know very little about.

The good news is that the short story is done, though the title is still in flux. Maybe “A Family Gathering”. That is the tie-in to Grimaulkin Redeemed. Sort of. You’ll see.

Well, the cat moved out of my office. Guess it’s time to get down to business.

Maybe if I watch some Hulu…

A great week for writing

I had my talk at Mount Pleasant High School. I think I went a little over their heads But I had four good questions that I want to answer here.

  1. What inspired you to write gay characters?

I played City of Heroes (the teacher knew what it was!) and I explained that in the gaming world, if you play a girl, the guys all rush in to try and save you, no matter how well you play. I wanted to play a guy, but I also wanted to flirt with men. So I created Grimaulkin as a gay character, but a tough one, not feminine. I played him so well that the gay community online accepted me as male and was surprised to find that I was female.

2) How many gay characters do you have?

I told them 40, but when I went and checked, it’s closer to 60. The follow up question was “How do you keep track of them all?” I explained I use Scrivener or One Note, or index cards and they laughed that off as too old-school.

3) What inspired you to write Homecoming?

My husband was into the military, the guns, the tanks, the whole thing. I kind of got into it through him. After my husband passed, I wrote the book in memory of him. That elicited “Awwww.”

4) How did you get published?

I explained the typical way of getting published: sending out query letters and waiting for rejections. I told them a friend of mine started his own press and asked if I would write some books for him, which I jumped at. Then I joined the Association of Rhode Island Authors and that’s how I got to speak in front of them. I told them that small presses are more receptive to new authors and if they want to get into publishing, to try those first.

After that, a few people came up to me. One showed me her poem, which was about rejection, and excellent. I told her it brings forth an emotion, and that’s what you want poetry to do. Another young man gave me his story (I haven’t read it yet, but I plan to today) and asked for a critique. A few people said they were happy to know they weren’t alone writing gay characters and trying to get them into mainstream fiction.

All in all, a great time, and I would love to do this kind of thing again.

Saturday I had an event, and sold Grimaulkin and Grimaulkin Tempted. (Note: bundles are a really good draw.) The Valley Breeze (a weekly free local newspaper) was there with a photographer and I might get noted in there. I’m going to pick up the Breeze next week to see.

I also found out that I was the last author picked for a Warwick Library Meet and Greet on April 21. Details forthcoming. I think it’s 10-2 but not sure.

I’m up to 7K words on Grimaulkin Redeemed and it’s going along smashingly. In fact, at the event yesterday, I had an idea for a scene that I’m itching to write. But first I have to get my podcast out–I’m two weeks late. After that, I’m writing.

 

Almost there!

Grimaulkin Tempted is to be released on December 1. On December 2 is the launch party at the Author Expo at Rhodes on the Pawtuxet. (The Kindle edition is available right now on Amazon, I noticed.)

I sold two copies to my local fans so far already. I’m waiting on feedback from one of them–he reads fast, and said he would definitely read it this weekend.

Started work on War Mage, getting through a block right at the beginning of the book. I know the things I want to set up, but the problem is how long it will take me to set them up, and I also don’t want to insult the reader. See, Brent is supposed to be a detective, but he’s not. Clues have to be pretty obvious to him. I’m afraid of pissing off the reader by bopping them over the head with obvious clues. I don’t want them to scream at the book, “But can’t you see that blahdy-blah-blah????” How do I get him to grow into being a detective? That’s one of the transformations of the character.

A character needs to be transformed by the end of the book. It’s not the same person as it was at the beginning. Brent, at the beginning, feels that the Army is giving him a second chance, and if he blows it, he’s screwed. In addition, he’s scared. Scared of failure, scared of trust, scared of getting tortured again.  At the end, he might fail in one sense, but he’s a stronger man for it. In the first draft, my beta reader said that he was a pussy at the end. Well, I have to change that. I know the beginning. It’s getting to the end that’s giving me problems.

Earth is supposed to be next on the docket. I really should, timewise, work on that. It’s due for…March? But writing erotica is easy once I get started. I practice it in Champions and I have an excellent partner. I pick up lessons from him that I may use in my erotica.  It’s the story that I get hung up on. Erotica is more than sex, sex, sex, scenery, sex, sex, dialogue, sex… There’s a story, with characters and a plot and a reason for their pairing. For Taurus I’m stealing a plot that someone posted on Queer Romance Ink; well, not really stealing. Modifying. The original plot includes werewolves. My world in Zodiac does not include werewolves. For Capricorn, I’m modifying Hell on Wheels. And for Virgo, it might be a sweet romance in the middle of a tumultuous time.

Well, it’s back to chiseling out of marble that is War Mage. Time to burn some incense and invoke the muses. Let’s see what they come up with for today.

 

 

The Loof

The Loof Festival happened yesterday with the constant threat of rain overhead. The authors had a great spot. I sold 1 Grimaulkin and 2 Homecoming books. Anything is better than zero!

A few people asked me if it was in the library. Next on my list is to screw up my courage and beg my library–and the Pawtucket library, where Grimaulkin takes place–to take a copy.  When I get a day off, I’ll start doing that.

My next event is the Calamari Festival in Narragansett, on September 9 (the Saturday after Labor Day). If you don’t like books, you can always taste-test fried squid rings from restaurants all over the state. I tell you, if you like Italian seafood, you’ll love this festival.

Grimaulkin Tempted is going along. I’m in the middle of one of the big reveals of the series, and I don’t want to do it, because it’s key to Mike’s character. But it’s at the right place and it’s something I have to do. I hope it doesn’t turn people away from the series. It’s a fine line that I have to keep in mind.

And my tent didn’t blow away this time!

 

 

Pokemon Go and writing

I’ve played a little bit of Pokemon Go, enough to be slightly familiar with the concept. One afternoon I was thinking that Pokemon have a lot to do with writing.

First of all, Pokemon Go superimposes itself on reality. That’s what you do when you write, especially urban fantasy/contemporary fantasy like I do. The characters are in our real life. Sometimes they take over our real life, and it’s all you think about. It’s addicting.

You have to catch characters. They’re fleeting, in certain places and at certain times. To sound a little mystical, they’re out there, but they do their own thing. Sometimes you find yourself with the same characters over and over (How many Ghastlies can you hold, anyway?). You put down lures, or give the characters some reason to exist in your story. They stick around. Then, they evolve.

That is the point of the story, in general–to take your character and evolve it into something that it wasn’t when you first started the story. To make your character grow, you coddle it and care for it, train it and then use it to fight. (I’ve always thought Pokemon was just an baby version of a cockfight, but I digress.) The fight is the conflict, and there’s plenty of them. At a gym, with other people–there’s always fighting. You evolve your Pokemon, your character, and make it powerful enough to surpass the  fight and win.

In order to succeed and get Pokeballs and other Pokemon, you need to go to different Pokestops. This is your inspiration, to go out into the world and let it “fill your well”.  Pokestops around here are churches, parks, and historical sites. Historical sites are the most open-ended places to get ideas. Parks are a great place to people watch and imagine. Churches…I’ll leave that to you. The architecture is nice.

So every time I get a Drowsy (and I have plenty of them at my house), I think of a sad sack of a character, which I might put into a story.

Preparation

I’m going along pretty good with the new novel. Mostly, though, I’m doing preparation.

I figured out this method with Blood From a Stone, my NaNoWriMo book of last year. Because I only had 2 weeks to do NaNo, I had to have a road map. I usually pants the thing, and I end up going off on tangents and side roads, getting lost. War Mage‘s first draft is a lot like that. It’s why I ended up with 6 drafts before sending it to the editor (and I know I have issues there).

So with this one, I’m doing up a main plot, and then sub-plots. I happened to be reading a book at the same time called Blueprint Your Bestseller, which describes this method that I stumbled upon. Instead of calling them “plots” the author of this book calls them “series”. You have a theme, which is the main series, and then other series that point to the theme.

I always start out with a theme. Homecoming‘s was Home is where your heart is. War Mage’s is Friends can be found anywhere. High Road‘s is It’s better to take the high road. A lot of times my titles allude to the theme. Heavy-handed, aren’t I?

There can be only one theme in the book, and every scene and series has to point to it. The first draft of War Mage showed me that I had scenes that went no where, scenes that had no place in the book, and characters that were repetitious and similar. Using the method in Blueprint, which was written for rewrites, I can tear apart War Mage and put it back together, with a main plot and subplots. (Sorry, but I’m going to use those terms instead of “series”.)

What I’ve been doing mostly is character sketches and subplots from the characters. Some of them want to be furniture, so I’m doing quick physical descriptions of them and their attitudes. When stuck, I use StoryMatic or The Positive Traits Thesaurus or Negative Traits Thesaurus to get an attitude.

Other characters want a life of their own, so they get the full treatment. I have tiny composition books I bought at Dollar Tree; they come in a package of 3 for a dollar.

char book

I have a character sheet that I downloaded from some writer’s site I don’t remember, but it goes into excruciating detail. I don’t answer all the questions – except for Brent, I really should redo his character sketch. I pick and choose some questions and put them in the little composition books. For example, one question is, “Does he want to have children?” My character, a staff sergeant, is going through a divorce according to the subplot. Does he have kids? How many? What are their ages and names? What are they like – brief traits? How does he feel about them? I fill up a small page with these answers, which spurs me on to other questions, and rinse and repeat.

From the characters come the subplots. I am an index card freak. I write out the scenes on index cards and put them on a ring. Staples has what I normally use, and they can be found sometimes for $1-$1.50. I bought oodles of them on sale, so I have a box full of them. I write out or keep in mind the subplot’s main point – the “where am I going with this” idea – and then I write out the scenes. Then I thread them among the main plot on the ring.

index card

This card is using the subplot named “Sergeant” (at the top) and goes into a scene. I don’t give a lot of details because then I’m writing the scene, I believe. I give enough to whet the muse’s appetite, or to spur on what I was thinking of at the time.

Sometimes, though, I get the urge to write. I’ve prepared the first few scenes, so I know where I’m going with those, and those are the ones I write. I’m still in chapter one, but I’m on scene three. I need to make “looking at profiles” exciting.

When your heart’s not in it

I pulled out Grimaulkin, draft 3, and gave it to someone to read. “Other than the gay parts,” he said, “I loved it.” And he gave me the reasons what did and didn’t work, so I wrote them down and I plan on rewriting that one.

War Mage, because I’ve been staring at it for about a year now, I’m sick and tired of. I know where I want the story to go, but when I sit down with it, I say to myself, “Meh, I don’t want to do this anymore.” Because of my ADD, I want to dump it and move on to something else. But with this one, I can’t. I have fans! I have people who have actually paid to read the first book in the series, who are waiting for the second book to either answer questions or continue on where I left off. I have a duty, an obligation, to continue the series.

But I’m so frustrated with how the rewrite’s going, how I’m consolidating characters and shoehorning other characters, how I’m deleting scene after scene and rewriting or inserting new scenes…I want to toss the whole thing and work on something else. Like Grim.

Duty to my fans vs. boredom.

I’m sure a lot of other professional writers run into this issue. Do you write to the market or write to the heart? Is it true that if you do what you love the money will come? I personally don’t think so. If that were the case, I’d be rich by now.

I’m going to finish this scene, then do the fun things I want to do. (I’m procrastinating while I write this blog, doncha know.)

Next comes Jagermeister which I’m going to give to my captive audience, I’m going to have to severely rewrite it, though. I read through the first few pages and saw typical first-time writer issues that I avoided with the other two books. I know my captive audience is not going to like it.

When the outline’s too short

I outline, barely, what I need to do when I write.  I just started to outline with these past two novels.  Normally I’m a total pantser, and I write whatever the muse tells me to do.

So I did a very general outline when I first started War Mage.  It was like “Meets dragons”, “Black Lions”, “Meets <Ware>”.  Then I go off and write.

It seems, sometimes, that the characters do their own thing.  Okay, I let them, figuring that’s what rewriting is for.

I’m deep in the middle of the first draft, transcribing it as I’m going along.  Already one entire scene appeared out of nowhere (because I wasn’t utilizing a character enough) into the second draft, and a huge scene that I wrote in one 2-hour stretch disappeared.  I’m not sure if I’ll use that scene or not. Ever.

Today, I listened to a podcast that I won’t listen to anymore because the hostess takes over the entire conversation for blocks of minutes leaving her guests to say, “Oh, that’s nice.”   The hostess, of course, said that nobody makes their characters grow in romance fiction anymore.  And that got me to thinking, did I make Brent grow at all?  Because right now, War Mage reads like a series of vignettes, a bunch of scenes, where he’s reporting on what’s happening but we don’t get what he thinks.  Hell, half of the people he talks to have no names.

Like the scene I wrote last night – it’s total reporting of what happened.  No inner dialogue, no reaction on his part.  And it was supposed to be a powerful scene.

This is what I’m deathly afraid of.  I’ve made a two-dimensional main character.

So once I transcribe the first/second draft, I’ll try to make him grow.

But in the meantime, my outline is getting too short.  What does this mean?

I have to brainstorm.  This is where index cards come in handy.  Because I’m a character-driven writer, I start stories with characters, not plot (sometimes I have a Point A to Point B story, and nothing in between).

I’m going to try this:  I’ll get some index cards and write a backstory, quick and dirty.  Name, age, where they’re from, what branch/division/company they’re in, physical description.  How they interacted with MC.  I should have a nice healthy stack.

Then I’ll pull one out.  Would this character show up again?  If so, how?  What would he do next with Brent?

If nothing comes to mind, I have some writing prompt books and a couple of characterization books to help me through.

Plot will find its way out then.

Oh, by the way, I’m up to 23K words.  I do have a bare bones of a plot, but, like I said, the outline is getting too short and there’s no end in sight.

 

War Mage – the muse

I’ve entitled my next (maybe) series to be War Mage.

So far I’ve done more writing than researching.  (Did you know the Afghan war is STILL going on?  Since 2001?????)  13,727 transcribed words, another 2K or so left to transcribe in my notebook.

I outlined.  God help me, I actually outlined.  Not anything major, because I knew darn well that if I detail-outlined, I’d never write the book.  I just put in one or two words of what the plot points are and put them in the outline.  The muse then takes a look at it and we write.  She knows, for instance that “Sarah” is when the main character meets his old flame.  What happens?  How does he treat him?  How does he treat her?  Do they still care?

I’ve noticed that as long as I got some semblance of an outline, that I will follow a set group of plot points or action points I want to hit.  I also need to write in my notebook the beginning of the scene, at least the first two lines.  So that when I sit down and start the writing, that I will know where I need to start and what plot point I may need to hit.

The other thing is, I’ve realized, that this book is not the first in the series.  The first in the series really needs to take place in Afghanistan.  Maybe a few of the books in the series need to take place there.  But it starts in Afghanistan, goes to the States, then ends back in Afghanistan.

I’m wondering if this character is any good.  He seems flat to me.  He’s got power and ability, doesn’t use it often unless he’s angry (“You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.”) or passionate or has extreme emotion.  He has a short fuse, the power to back it up, and he’s got luck on his side – until…

That’s the problem.  Nothing seriously bad has happened to him yet.  I know what the big bad is.  I’ve been working on developing him as a powerful mage so much that I haven’t made bad things happen.  Or if they do, they just roll off him.

Well, something’s gotta give.  13K words, and nary a conflict.

Okay muse, let’s go to sleep and think about this.