This is another short blog, so hopefully your ADHD keeps itself in check. How do I know you have ADHD? Because all writers do.
Every writer has/needs a process.
My process consists of driving my car with my music blaring loudly. When I find myself stuck (and not due to writer's block, mind you-that's completely different), I take to my car, blare my music, and by the time I come home, hours later, I have the answer.
One of the most important habits you can have as a writer is, no...not drinking or drugs, but a process!! You need something in your life that allows you to tune all else out (or even if it doesn't tune all else out, it's simply just some time for you and yourself) so you can contribute important ideas to yourself.
When I'm driving other things have a tendency to get in there: Work, marriage, family, friends, life in general, yada yada....but ultimately, when I get home, I've got the answer to the riddle I was trying to solve in my writing--when I left my house in the first place.
EVERY WRITER NEEDS A PROCESS!!!!
Author of the Bandita / Billy the Kid Series and currently working on and writing a contemporary novel with plans to publish soon. www.nicolemdixonauthor.com Follow Me On Twitter: @NMDixonAuthor Like My Bandita Page @BanditaBonitaandBillytheKid Website: NicoleMDixonAuthor.com
Thursday, October 10, 2013
The Writing Process
This is another short blog, so hopefully your ADHD keeps itself in check. How do I know you have ADHD? Because all writers do.
Every writer has/needs a process.
My process consists of driving my car with my music blaring loudly. When I find myself stuck (and not due to writer's block, mind you-that's completely different), I take to my car, blare my music, and by the time I come home, hours later, I have the answer.
One of the most important habits you can have as a writer is, no...not drinking or drugs, but a process!! You need something in your life that allows you to tune all else out (or even if it doesn't tune all else out, it's simply just some time for you and yourself) so you can contribute important ideas to yourself.
When I'm driving other things have a tendency to get in there: Work, marriage, family, friends, life in general, yada yada....but ultimately, when I get home, I've got the answer to the riddle I was trying to solve in my writing--when I left my house in the first place.
EVERY WRITER NEEDS A PROCESS!!!!
Every writer has/needs a process.
My process consists of driving my car with my music blaring loudly. When I find myself stuck (and not due to writer's block, mind you-that's completely different), I take to my car, blare my music, and by the time I come home, hours later, I have the answer.
One of the most important habits you can have as a writer is, no...not drinking or drugs, but a process!! You need something in your life that allows you to tune all else out (or even if it doesn't tune all else out, it's simply just some time for you and yourself) so you can contribute important ideas to yourself.
When I'm driving other things have a tendency to get in there: Work, marriage, family, friends, life in general, yada yada....but ultimately, when I get home, I've got the answer to the riddle I was trying to solve in my writing--when I left my house in the first place.
EVERY WRITER NEEDS A PROCESS!!!!
Developing Your Characters
This is a short one:
First of all, pacing is everything in a story, especially if you're like me and write epic length novels.
How does pacing play into developing your characters? Simple. Don't get too involved in their backstory. Give some pertinent information into their past, absolutely, but don't spend a whole hell of a lot of time going into this and that. A) Most readers don't care, and B) You'll lose your readers. Do you want to lose your readers? I didn't think so.
The development of your character doesn't necessarily lie within their backstory anyhow. Sure, their past plays a part in who they are, but you don't need to get into their past right off the bat. In some stories this is critical, of course, but it adheres mostly to sci-fi stories and the like. If you're writing regular literature, the development of your character can be fulfilled as you tell the story in present tense. In addition, over time, your characters will reveal themselves in due course, and your readers can learn all about them based on their behavior or thoughts/thought processes, or how they interact with other characters. Those last two sentences are two of the most important things you need to know in terms of developing your characters. And even then, don't spend too much time in describing what they're all about. And again, you can use their development to your advantage by allowing their personalities to unfold as you tell your story.
One of my favorite reasons for writing from the 1st person POV, or even reading from the 1st person POV is because you are in the character's head. Whatever their thoughts are, they become your thoughts. There's nowhere for them to hide. When a writer writes from the 2nd person POV you still get a nice glimpse of who you are dealing with as you read, but often you must make some speculations, and that's not to say it's a bad thing, AT ALL!!! It's quite fine! It's only my opinion as to why I appreciate the 1st person perspective.
First of all, pacing is everything in a story, especially if you're like me and write epic length novels.
How does pacing play into developing your characters? Simple. Don't get too involved in their backstory. Give some pertinent information into their past, absolutely, but don't spend a whole hell of a lot of time going into this and that. A) Most readers don't care, and B) You'll lose your readers. Do you want to lose your readers? I didn't think so.
The development of your character doesn't necessarily lie within their backstory anyhow. Sure, their past plays a part in who they are, but you don't need to get into their past right off the bat. In some stories this is critical, of course, but it adheres mostly to sci-fi stories and the like. If you're writing regular literature, the development of your character can be fulfilled as you tell the story in present tense. In addition, over time, your characters will reveal themselves in due course, and your readers can learn all about them based on their behavior or thoughts/thought processes, or how they interact with other characters. Those last two sentences are two of the most important things you need to know in terms of developing your characters. And even then, don't spend too much time in describing what they're all about. And again, you can use their development to your advantage by allowing their personalities to unfold as you tell your story.
One of my favorite reasons for writing from the 1st person POV, or even reading from the 1st person POV is because you are in the character's head. Whatever their thoughts are, they become your thoughts. There's nowhere for them to hide. When a writer writes from the 2nd person POV you still get a nice glimpse of who you are dealing with as you read, but often you must make some speculations, and that's not to say it's a bad thing, AT ALL!!! It's quite fine! It's only my opinion as to why I appreciate the 1st person perspective.
Developing Your Characters
This is a short one:
First of all, pacing is everything in a story, especially if you're like me and write epic length novels.
How does pacing play into developing your characters? Simple. Don't get too involved in their backstory. Give some pertinent information into their past, absolutely, but don't spend a whole hell of a lot of time going into this and that. A) Most readers don't care, and B) You'll lose your readers. Do you want to lose your readers? I didn't think so.
The development of your character doesn't necessarily lie within their backstory anyhow. Sure, their past plays a part in who they are, but you don't need to get into their past right off the bat. In some stories this is critical, of course, but it adheres mostly to sci-fi stories and the like. If you're writing regular literature, the development of your character can be fulfilled as you tell the story in present tense. In addition, over time, your characters will reveal themselves in due course, and your readers can learn all about them based on their behavior or thoughts/thought processes, or how they interact with other characters. Those last two sentences are two of the most important things you need to know in terms of developing your characters. And even then, don't spend too much time in describing what they're all about. And again, you can use their development to your advantage by allowing their personalities to unfold as you tell your story.
One of my favorite reasons for writing from the 1st person POV, or even reading from the 1st person POV is because you are in the character's head. Whatever their thoughts are, they become your thoughts. There's nowhere for them to hide. When a writer writes from the 2nd person POV you still get a nice glimpse of who you are dealing with as you read, but often you must make some speculations, and that's not to say it's a bad thing, AT ALL!!! It's quite fine! It's only my opinion as to why I appreciate the 1st person perspective.
First of all, pacing is everything in a story, especially if you're like me and write epic length novels.
How does pacing play into developing your characters? Simple. Don't get too involved in their backstory. Give some pertinent information into their past, absolutely, but don't spend a whole hell of a lot of time going into this and that. A) Most readers don't care, and B) You'll lose your readers. Do you want to lose your readers? I didn't think so.
The development of your character doesn't necessarily lie within their backstory anyhow. Sure, their past plays a part in who they are, but you don't need to get into their past right off the bat. In some stories this is critical, of course, but it adheres mostly to sci-fi stories and the like. If you're writing regular literature, the development of your character can be fulfilled as you tell the story in present tense. In addition, over time, your characters will reveal themselves in due course, and your readers can learn all about them based on their behavior or thoughts/thought processes, or how they interact with other characters. Those last two sentences are two of the most important things you need to know in terms of developing your characters. And even then, don't spend too much time in describing what they're all about. And again, you can use their development to your advantage by allowing their personalities to unfold as you tell your story.
One of my favorite reasons for writing from the 1st person POV, or even reading from the 1st person POV is because you are in the character's head. Whatever their thoughts are, they become your thoughts. There's nowhere for them to hide. When a writer writes from the 2nd person POV you still get a nice glimpse of who you are dealing with as you read, but often you must make some speculations, and that's not to say it's a bad thing, AT ALL!!! It's quite fine! It's only my opinion as to why I appreciate the 1st person perspective.
Using Your Characters To Write A Great Story
If you want to write a great story (and great stories are debatable depending on who you speak with), do yourself a favor and live with your characters a while. Living with them allows you to study who you want them to be and understand them in order to develop them accordingly which should ensure that you will create a well-rounded character that your readers will care about.
Allow me to offer you an example: If you met a new friend, odds are you wouldn't grant that friend your trust until you knew them well enough, right? Well, the same goes for your characters. And just like that friend, the more time you spend with your characters, the more you learn to love them. The more you learn to love them, the more you care about their wellbeing. The more you care about their wellbeing, the more you care about how they handle their dilemmas (and all good stories need dilemmas).
There are a lot of authors nowadays that churn out story after story, self-publishing them, and the lack of attention they put in to the development of their characters comes through—the flimsiness shows. Stories like that are what I think of as 1-dimensional. The story itself has no backbone. It's fluff, and the reason being is because the characters are merely there for the purpose of moving the story along so a writer can self-publish for the purpose of hoping for sales (of course if the book is no good, you can probably say b'bye to sales). But the characters are what make the story!!! There is no story without characters!!
If you love your characters, odds are readers will, too, and they will give a damn and be enthusiastic to read about them to find out how they handle this or that situation, or how they react to circumstances. Once again, and I can’t stress this enough, if you care about your characters, your audience will care about them also.
I know it's hard, but spend time with your characters for a decent amount of time. I lived with mine for three years before I decided to write the first story in my trilogy. My characters are no longer an extension of myself, but they are their own entity--okay, with the exception that they do what I want. But the thing is, despite having them do what I want, I now wonder how theywould handle a situation as opposed to simply deciding on what I want them to do and throwing them into predicaments and makingthem dance through it. I labor over how so-and-so would maneuver through obstacles--it's no longer how I would do it or howI want to make them do it; It's all about the personality I created for them and how that personality will play into their situation and cause them to react. I don’t decide how I want them to behave, I take the time to wonder how they would handle the predicament I have put them in. I know my characters so well that I know what they would and would not do. If I come up with a way to resolve an issue, and I know in my heart that that’s not how my character would go about it, I nix my idea and figure out another resolution.
When your characters come into their own it shows--it projects from the pages and onto the reader. I realize it's tough to sit around thinking on and considering your characters, especially if you're keen to start writing, but in the end it's so completely worth it!
My characters are now like family to me. Of course I realize they do not exist outside of my head, but they do exist, and I have to consider their feelings and emotions just like I have to consider the feelings and emotions of my friends and family. If I don’t consider the personality I have developed for my characters and have them solve problems willy-nilly in order to move past an issue, then it becomes inherently clear (even to readers [who pay attention]) that it is, well, out of character for them.
My characters are just as important as the story I want to tell—without them, well hell…I have no story to tell!
Allow me to offer you an example: If you met a new friend, odds are you wouldn't grant that friend your trust until you knew them well enough, right? Well, the same goes for your characters. And just like that friend, the more time you spend with your characters, the more you learn to love them. The more you learn to love them, the more you care about their wellbeing. The more you care about their wellbeing, the more you care about how they handle their dilemmas (and all good stories need dilemmas).
There are a lot of authors nowadays that churn out story after story, self-publishing them, and the lack of attention they put in to the development of their characters comes through—the flimsiness shows. Stories like that are what I think of as 1-dimensional. The story itself has no backbone. It's fluff, and the reason being is because the characters are merely there for the purpose of moving the story along so a writer can self-publish for the purpose of hoping for sales (of course if the book is no good, you can probably say b'bye to sales). But the characters are what make the story!!! There is no story without characters!!
If you love your characters, odds are readers will, too, and they will give a damn and be enthusiastic to read about them to find out how they handle this or that situation, or how they react to circumstances. Once again, and I can’t stress this enough, if you care about your characters, your audience will care about them also.
I know it's hard, but spend time with your characters for a decent amount of time. I lived with mine for three years before I decided to write the first story in my trilogy. My characters are no longer an extension of myself, but they are their own entity--okay, with the exception that they do what I want. But the thing is, despite having them do what I want, I now wonder how theywould handle a situation as opposed to simply deciding on what I want them to do and throwing them into predicaments and makingthem dance through it. I labor over how so-and-so would maneuver through obstacles--it's no longer how I would do it or howI want to make them do it; It's all about the personality I created for them and how that personality will play into their situation and cause them to react. I don’t decide how I want them to behave, I take the time to wonder how they would handle the predicament I have put them in. I know my characters so well that I know what they would and would not do. If I come up with a way to resolve an issue, and I know in my heart that that’s not how my character would go about it, I nix my idea and figure out another resolution.
When your characters come into their own it shows--it projects from the pages and onto the reader. I realize it's tough to sit around thinking on and considering your characters, especially if you're keen to start writing, but in the end it's so completely worth it!
My characters are now like family to me. Of course I realize they do not exist outside of my head, but they do exist, and I have to consider their feelings and emotions just like I have to consider the feelings and emotions of my friends and family. If I don’t consider the personality I have developed for my characters and have them solve problems willy-nilly in order to move past an issue, then it becomes inherently clear (even to readers [who pay attention]) that it is, well, out of character for them.
My characters are just as important as the story I want to tell—without them, well hell…I have no story to tell!
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