Where Do Characters/Ideas Come From?

 

Where do you get your story ideas? Do you wake up with them in the middle of the night, trying to pull them out of your dream before it dissolves? Does a character walk up to you and slap you in the face (perhaps literally)? What about situations? Does something poignant in a local news story or celebrity scandal resonate with you, or even a global event, a historical watershed?

I get way more ideas than I ought to admit from trashy television. It’ll be late at night and I’ll be sifting through the channels, quite possibly with an adult beverage in hand, Hoovering up all the crazy I can stomach. Alien abductions, serial killer documentaries, hunts for Templar treasure, reality TV catfights, you name it.

But something always leaps out from the madness—a fundamental truth about life, or human beings, or how people relate to one another. (Even if that fundamental truth is: we are all flippin’ nuts.) And I keep turning that idea over and over in my mind.

What if my dad really did run a moonshine still out of our backyard? How would that feel? What would my life be like? If I actually survived an alien abduction, would anyone believe me? Would I believe myself? What happens after the bodies are recovered and the case files are sealed? How do the detectives move on? Or even, how would that familiar story go if I wrote it? How would I make it stand out?

The story I’m outlining right now is a Cuisinart mixing of about three such tales: an ancient retelling, a medieval mystery, a near-modern wartime saga. Characters and places and props may change, but the humanness of our stories remain. Whatever dressings of genre, setting, and technology you put on your characters, I suspect you’d know them anywhere.

So what have you learned about the way they choose to meet you?

 

Finishing, Waiting, Moving On

Last week, if you were around, I wrote this post about making choices. In it, I said I had no job (still don't) and was going to use all of last week to write. My goal was to finish the book--and it was a realistic yet challenging goal. Accomplishing it would take discipline.

After cranking out a day of 3k, a day of 4k, a day of 2k, a day of 10k and spending Friday writing the last 5k---I finished my first draft!!!!  (I also completed the manuscript I was editing on that 2k day in one sitting. Brain death.) BUT I DID IT!!!!!!

HAPPY DANCING ALL AROUND!!! 

I've written books before, but Hotboyalicious (not real title) was so hard for me. It was mostly a mental thing. This was scary because it was a lighter, actiony, sassier story and I'm more dark and twisty. I started and restarted twice. I lost a lot of great scenes. My character's motivation changed (or was fixed rather) and the pacing had to be adjusted in each re-start. It was a frustrating book and for many, many months I just HATED it because it was so annoying. But I kept writing because I wanted to tell the story.

When I wrote that last line, I called Cindy and I cried a little. I've never cried before upon finishing (even after two years and seven drafts of my last book.) But it was SO MUCH of what I hoped it would be when I started and felt like I could never achieve. BUT I DID. :) 

Now the story is finished, and I spent the weekend reading through it, fleshing out some areas that needed it, fixed some errors, made some more connections in the beginning to things that happened at the end. My fantastic CPs (three of whom are my blogmates!), an author friend, a writer friend and Patricia's sister (who NEVER reads anything) all have Hotboyalicious. I can't wait for the feedback and to jump in for revisions. 

Since I'm waiting, I'm faced with the NOW WHAT? dilemma. Well, yesterday I caught up on most of the editing stuff I have to do with Spencer Hill. I'll be working on that throughout the week. And this morning, I plotted a new book.

YES. I *do* know this is crazy. AH! 

I'm really excited about the new story--which does not yet have a working title or secret title. Remember when I said Hotboyalicious was scary because it was so different? This is even scarier. A tense I've never written in and POV that I have never worked with, (Two POVs actually!), and topics I don't know much about! Needless to say, I have a lot of character development ahead and even more research...

But this is the joy of writing. You get to try new things and you get to grow. I think it's supposed to be scary!! And just know that you are not alone.

To Listen or Not to Listen? Part Two

Yesterday, Danielle wrote an awesome post about Shiny New Ideas and how hard it is to ignore them (even though it's usually the right thing to do!)

Continuing her topic, I wanted to talk about those times when you should listen to those Shiny New Ideas! Quick disclaimer: Unfortunately, like everything in writing, I can only tell you about my own experiences. Please don't take anything I say here as a promise of a magical solution, only you can truly answer the question about whether or not it is right for you to listen to the Shiny New Ideas that are lurking somewhere between pages 50-100 of your current WIP!

Until recently, I have always subscribed to the idea that right way to handle Shiny New Ideas was to jot them down in their most basic form and then desperately attempt to ignore them while they drive you to distraction with promises of complex, complete plots and deep, multidimensional characters. And when your current WIP is starting to feel stalled out and never-ending like this:

 

It's just that much harder to ignore an idea that feels like this:

This is exactly where I am this week. 10K into my draft of PLETHORA I had a great idea. A different story, with different characters, and countless ideas for scenes. But I was committed to my current WIP, it was a story I needed to tell and I could see this Shiny New for what it was ... a distraction. It is a good idea and I will definitely add it to my queue for future projects, but it was not something I was willing to let interfere with my long-term relationship with PLETHORA. 

But then it REALLY happened... 25K into my draft and things started to get overly complicated. I found myself sitting on the floor, surrounded by piles of subplots and MIA characters. And then I heard it... a conversation between two characters that were NOT from my current book. But they were interesting, and they were snarky, and most importantly THEY WERE TALKING! So I listened, and they kept talking, and the more I figured out about their story the more I loved it. It is completely different from my current WIP, it was simple and fun and had a complete, linear plot that came to me fully laid-out. It had a bittersweet, heart-wrenching romantic ending that I instantly fell in love with.

So after a few days of SQUEEing to myself about it, I decided to tell one of my CPs and my sisters about the idea. And ALL of the conversations started with them chastising me for letting myself get distracted by ANOTHER Shiny New. But then they heard the SHINY NEW IDEA. All of them loved it. And suddenly I was unsure of what to do next.

My options were:

1) Stay the course. Write it down. Ignore it. Come back to it after finishing current WIP.

2) Drop current WIP like yesterday's jam (bonus points if you get this joke) and run off into the sunset with SHINY NEW IDEA.

...OR...

3) Work on both books at once.

Now I'm going to be honest here, when I first considered this idea, it made me feel a little like this guy:

Writing a book is a LOT like a long-term relationship, you are dedicating a significant chunk of your time on this planet to loving and nurturing it. You will have moments of great joyful happy dancing and moments where you're so frustrated you want just want to cry. You will celebrate milestone and anniversaries with it. You will have fights about the way things are supposed to be and end up not talking for a few days, followed by a make-up session where you write the best scene of the book. It takes up all of your spare time, thoughts, and energy. 

So why, oh, why, would anyone work take on TWO of these book relationships at once?! 

But then I started thinking about my writing process. I love my writing, I love my characters and my stories, and I love the fact that I get so many Shiny New Ideas. But I think the real reason I get them so frequently is because I get bored with focusing all my energy on one story. I pretty much always have many different stories going on in my head at any given time and when I try to block them all but one, my brain gets bored and uncooperative and just shuts down.

Crazy person that I am, I've decided to try it! My hope is that this way I can be thinking about one book and when I get to that point where my brain doesn't want to think about that anymore, I can just switch to the other book and not feel guilty about changing tracks. I'm particularly excited about trying this now because these two particular stories have the main ingredients for being a perfect match: 1) they are different genres, plot styles, and POVs, and 2) I would be happy to finish either of them, so I'm not concerned about one book getting more attention than the other.

I think the moral of the story is this: Until you know what your ideal writing process is, it's important to try new techniques and tricks when you feel like things aren't working. Because if you don't keep trying new things, it's unlikely you'll find the thing that works.

So tell me: Have you ever worked on two projects at once? Any advice? Do you think I'm crazy for trying this? What is the writing process that works best for you?

To Listen or Not to Listen? Part One.

I am not a person who gets new ideas very often. Unlike Patricia, who is the Queen of Shiny New Ideas, my ideas come when least expected--and usually after I've complained about not having any. I don't know how many of you get your ideas. But my ideas come to me loudly and they always, always start with a line in a unique voice. Then they haunt me, taunt me and yell at me until I give in. That's how I know it's the story I need to tell. (I apparently like those stubborn characters who harass me. It's telling.) The louder something is the harder it is to ignore.

If you are doing NaNo--or ANY draft--there's a certain point where the Shiny News start attacking.

They find you when you are weak. When you've hit 30-50k and you're halfway between "beginning" and "ending" and lost somewhere in "what was I thinking? I can't do this!" They attack! They try to pull you away with newer, better, shinier characters and plots and fancy words. Here's where the dilemma comes in: To listen or not to listen?

I sadly can't tell you the answer to that. I think it's different for every person, every WIP, every Shiny New. I think some people can manage two drafts at once with equal love and dedication, and some can't. Some stories need a break, so you run away with the Shiny New. There are a hundred scenarios for every single idea. Me, I'm that girl who tries (really hard) to ignore the Shiny New.  I write my idea down somewhere. And then, once I've finished my WIP, I look at them again. It's pretty amazing how "The Best Idea EVER" is totally nonsense when you look at it again.

See, without the regale and fanfare of the Shiny New, without the perfectly placed temptation of new satisfaction in your struggle, Shiny New Ideas are no longer shiny or new. They are just ideas. And an idea without some sparkle and promise is a lot more work--and probably (9 times out of 10) not a very good idea.

I'm here right now. Kind of.

I have a SNI that is so shiny and so new and so exciting! The difference is that I haven't had a new idea that I felt I could REALLY write since I started this WIP over a year and half ago. That's a long time. I've had a few other projects, but none of them are finished because I kept coming back to this story. It wasn't done. It wasn't ready. I wanted to tell it. And this is the first time in 15 months that I feel like i've been telling it the way it needs to be told. It's exciting. It also means: SNI ATTACK.

There was a line in my head for two days. A line in a voice that was (is) so strong and snarky. That's when I gave the "I'm not writing this right now. I'm not even thinking about it" speech. And I didn't.

I kept saying to myself. "I am TOTALLY NOT writing this." Even though I want to. I won't even think about it. I'll ignore it. It will be easy because I most definitely do not have the whole first chapter written out in my head and all the story and three cutesy-banter scenes. Do not. I'm not even thinking even about it. Obviously...

Okay....obviously I have thought about it. I have the whole idea ready! But I will not write it until I've finished my WIP. I will try really hard not to even write a scene, because if I do then I won't want to stop. That would lead into trouble for me, my stories and my CPs. Until that time, I will not listen to my SNI. I will just let it simmer on the backburner. Let it keep developing and write, write, write my WIP so I can get to the SNI.

Not listening to a loud shiny new is hard. It's really hard--especially when you love the idea. It's a constant echo in the back of your mind and it finds ways to slip into your thoughts and I, personally, have to fight it all the time.

But what happens when you don't fight it? What happens when you listen to that Shiny New? You can check out Part Two tomorrow and get the other perspective on listening to it from the queen herself. (Patricia!) Until then, chime in on this.


What's your process?  How often do your SNIs attack? Do you think you listen or don't listen? Are there any steps you take to block it out of your mind?

Writer Crack: The Shiny New Idea

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I am addicted to Shiny New Ideas. You know the ones I mean. The ones who show up out of nowhere, in the sparkly little dresses, just as the world of your current WIP is starting to look a little drab and boring. The ideas that delight in making you question if you picked the right story to dedicate weeks/months/years of love, sweat, frustration, and tears to. I have LOTS of these ideas. 

My first question is always: WHERE WAS THIS FREAKING IDEA WHEN I WAS TRYING TO THINK OF WHAT TO WRITE NEXT?

Because the shiniest, most sparkly ideas never show up when you need a new idea. At least mine don’t.   

Usually the advice from friends and other writers is split 50/50. The first half will say: “Ignore it! Don’t let it distract you! Save it for later! It’s evil!” The other half will say: “Maybe it’s better than your current story. Maybe you should try it. Maybe it’s the most brilliant idea ever and you’ll regret it for the rest of your life if you don’t stop everything you’re doing and work on it!” Some will say both.

When it comes down to it, you can’t get upset about the split advice, because it’s the same split you’ve got going on internally. And like everything true about your writing, only YOU know what’s best. 

I’ll admit the story I’m currently drafting was a Shiny New Idea that showed up about 6 or 7 months into another project. And despite the research, plotting, and writing I had done already, I dropped it all because I KNEW that THIS Shiny New was THE ONE. The book I NEEDED to write. RIGHT NOW.

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And now here we are a few months later. The shininess is wearing off a little. My WIP and I are starting to fight. We ignore each other for a few days here and there. The honeymoon is over. Not surprisingly, after a few weeks of feeling slumpish my writing brain woke up the other day. And sure enough, it was flirting with a Shiny New that could not be more different from my current WIP.

For the whole day I was on a Shiny New High. I was head-over-heels in love with the idea. I wrote scenes they made me laugh. I found characters that talked to me SO much more clearly than the ones in my current WIP.  I called/texted/emailed my crit partners to tell them all about this wonderful Shiny New. They loved it and were split down the middle as laid out above when it came to advice. (And I love them for it because, as they always do, they told me everything I needed!)

So that night I sat down and made a decision. I was going to write down everything I could think of and then put this Shiny New away with a slightly whistful “It’s not you, it’s me.” I may not be on the honeymoon with this current WIP, but I do still love it. A lot. And that’s not something I’ve ever had with a WIP before. Which is what tells me that despite my struggles lately, this is still THE ONE. The book I NEED to write. RIGHT NOW. 

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A wise man once told me, “You can’t be good at everything. You’re not Zooey Deschanel.” So until I find a way to be Zooey, I’m going to be grateful to my imagination that it gives me such bright, sparkly, Shiny New Ideas. And I’m going to keep reminding myself that despite the fact that drafting is my greatest struggle in writing, I KNOW that I’m working on the right story.

So tell me: How do you deal with Shiny New Ideas? How do you decide whether to work on it or ignore it? Have you ever worked on more than one story at a time? How did that work for you? Any tips/tricks/ideas you can share with me?