I've seen a lot of discussion about how to generate and flesh out new characters for books, and I've dutifully worked my way through a variety of questionnaires designed to help me get to know my fledgling heroes and heroines better. Which seemed like a good idea in principle, but in practice turned out to not especially helpful, at least for me ( Read more... )

I've been really struggling with Touching Indigo the last couple of weeks -- I seem to have lost the groove as far as outlining is concerned, and now I really have to figure out precisely which method I'm using, or else which parts I want to borrow from each method and what deadlines to set for myself along the way. I now have only one month left ( Read more... )

I've been thinking about characterization a lot lately, and a thought occurred to me ( Read more... )

Thank you all so much for contributing questions to my interview pile! As soon as I stop barfing (yes, really -- there's a nasty stomach bug going through our house, and I seem to be its latest victim) I will start compiling and answering ( Read more... )

As I'm struggling through the opening chapters of First Draft in 30 Days I find myself more and more drawn to the idea of interleaving Karen Wiesner's method with Randy Ingermanson's snowflake method, especially as the former seems highly plot-driven and I like the more character-centric approach of the latter ( Read more... )

I've found a new name for the hero in Touching Indigo now, after days of searching through baby name books and sites, the telephone directory, and eventually in despair, the thesaurus:

Dr. Sebastian Faraday.I started out with "Faraway" as a quirky and almost-but-not-quite-right surname, but then I thought, "Wasn't there a scientist named Faraday ( Read more... )

Thanks to the brilliant and talented cesario, and no thanks to Canada Post for hanging onto the package for so long --

( FANDOM DOLLS ARE LOVE )

Touching Indigo has won for Book I'm Going To Outline First, by virtue of taking up residence in my head over the past few days and flatly refusing to leave. I've got a folder for Wayfarer set aside so I can jot down any ideas that occur to me, though. No thought shall be wasted!

( Day 1: Character Outlines )

Fandom meme gacked from yahtzee63:

Name a character or pairing! Watch me ramble on about it!

Simple, no?

Some of my favorite grouchy people were born in early January, it seems. First we have Mary Russell on January 2nd, on no lesser word than that of her author editor Laurie R. King; then Sherlock Holmes on January 6th, a date not explicitly given in canon but nonetheless widely accepted among Holmesians as correct due to Holmes's penchant for ( Read more... )