This is a special Monster Meditation. It’s my contribution to the ParaYourNormal Blog Party… This is a true story—or as true as any story can be when the events took place a long, long time ago at a particularly formative stage in my life. If you know me well, you’ll probably think, “That explains her.” If you define writer as storyteller than I was a writer before I learned how to read or write. Even in nursery school, I used to entertain other kids with my made up stories. My favorite audience was a boy named Peter and his
Read More
Happy Halloween!
I love Halloween. For me, it’s all about the costumes and the idea that—for one day a year—anyone can be anyone (or anything). Back before avatars in online role-playing games, getting dressed up for a party or taking up acting were the big options for the temporary reinvention of the self. No, I take that back. Of course there was always another option and that’s becoming a writer and creating characters as well as an entire world. But that’s a whole lot of work for one night, and so costumes are the best bet for becoming someone else for a
Read More
What She Ate…
Food—even more than fashion—can be a shortcut that helps create realistic characters. And sharing a meal is a natural setting for characters to reveal personal information, back-stories, flaws and more. My current novel-in-progress features a few meals. It’s not a Donna Leon-style foodie love-fest, but the characters get to know one another while eating and discuss important issues over meals. The protagonist’s first meal with her romantic interest is pizza. He’s pleased that she is not a vegan, gluten-free or even a picky eater. Food also crops up in the story as a way to examine and divide people. A
Read More
Just Read SOMETHING!
For a writer, there’s nothing sadder than meeting someone who says, “I never read.” A close second is, “I only read magazines. I never read books.” This is depressing! If I could say something to these non-readers it would be, “Read something! I don’t care what it is, but if you look around you are going to find something, some genre or another, that you are going to like.” I’m a slow reader so I understand the “commitment phobia” that sets in at the prospect of 300, 400 or more pages. But with ebooks no one knows how long it
Read More
The TIME in Time & Place
Lately, I’ve been concerned with the PLACE component in Time & Place. But locating a story in TIME is also an important factor in setting the scene. This is obvious in historical fiction, but I think the timeline in a contemporary setting is critical, too. When—exactly—does the story take place? Is it autumn in New York when the lovers take a walk in Central Park or is it a steamy day in July? Do the characters go to the Museum of Modern Art on a Thursday in the August—when it’s open late—or a Thursday in the October when it closes
Read More
My Characters are NOT Me!
The novel-in-progress is rolling along and the further I get into the first draft, the more I see just how far outside my personal comfort zone I’m getting. My characters are NOT me! Not only is the protagonist much younger and braver than I am now (or ever was), she approaches life with an obvious determination that can alienate, or attract, other characters. When I was her age, I kept my ambitious side under wraps. It would leak out at odd times, so I’d go from painfully shy to auditioning for the school play in high school or participating in
Read More
Happy Page 200!
I hit the page 200 mark in the first draft and rolled right on to page 201, 202, 203 before I realized that I’d gone beyond the page where I’d planned to take a break. The first 200 are now in the hands of my second alpha reader. (The first read 138 late in the summer.) The role of alpha reader #2 is to read the novel-in-progress as if she were reading any other mystery and to answer a few obnoxious questions when she’s done: Who is behind the mystery? Do you like the protagonist? Are the characters too weird
Read More
World Building
World building is usually associated with science fiction and fantasy genres, but all fiction requires a credible creation—or recreation—of the world in which the story is set. I try to set stories in real world places in order to ground the more exceptional (or preposterous) aspects of my fiction in a realistic setting. Using real places enables me to short cut the “world building” but it does not get me off the hook entirely. Most of the action in my current novel-in-progress takes place in New York City right now. It’s my turf so I’m more than familiar with the
Read More
Characters in the Driver’s Seat
It’s one thing to describe a story as ‘character driven’ it’s another when the characters take over and drive the story in an unexpected direction. I’ve heard this from other storytellers, but it still surprises me when my characters reveal themselves to me in actions I didn’t know they would take. Right now, I feel like I’m playing catch-up as the characters roll through pages and I’m tagging along, just providing the words. It’s fun. It’s scary. And I hope it’s working! One of the characters is screaming to be put in a precarious situation—something dangerous and reckless—that I have
Read More
