Sep
Questions . . .
My first question is: How come Blogger isn’t letting me post pics. Let me try this again: Huzzah! I got my photo loaded. Here it is, a part of my desk where I keep my idea notebooks and all the other books I love to have at hand.
Next: Lacey asked:
Q. I guess again, if you have any experience trashing the plot/subplot of a book and starting anew it would be appreciated!
A. Lacey, I’m not sure I’ve ever really done this before. I’ve gotten off track in books or found that something is missing. But what I would suggest is that if the plot and story isn’t really working–back-up to where it stopped working. And then take a deep breath and think of twenty things that could happen next. Do this in, like, under two minutes. And you might start to see things in a new light. Try using a story board with index cards and start “trying out” new angles or ideas. My mantra is: Remember it’s a romance! I get all excited writing about the plot and tend to forget the book is a romance. So concentrate your writing on the romance/conflict and not so much the plot. You’ll get it in hand.
Here is one of my working notebooks where I’ve been jotting notes for scenes and trying to get the flow and ebb of the story going. I will do several sets of these “scripts” or “storyboards” until I think I have the right flow.
Next up: Michelle, who wrote:
Q. For me PERSONALLY, I would love to know how you come up with your heros. What do you do to get iside their head? Do they whipser inspiration in your eares like mine do to me? Has there been any pleasant changes or surpises for your heroes from when you first took notes about the character, to the finished product? I’d really love to know!
A. Men. Hmmm. I don’t really know where the men come from. Mostly I try to imagine men I would like to meet. Men I would like to date. Men I would like to . . . well, uh, go “shopping” with. They just sort of arrive in my books. I don’t think I’ve ever started a book from the hero–my stories always seem to evolve out of the heroine and from her, comes the hero. I aways tend to see my heroes as I want them at the end of the book, so I have this reverse process going where I have to make them less heroic at the beginning so they can be really heroic at the end.
Next up: Haven the wild and crazy. She asked:
Q. When faced with writers block how to do you set the “mood” to put yourself into your characters and write.
A. I turn on my playlist for that book and write. My writing time has been so broken up and sparse that when I have the chance to write, I DO IT. Maybe one day I’ll have so much free time, I will be able to afford to have writer’s block. SNORT!
Q. And what do you do in your time off…as in not under a deadline.
A. Never happens . . . At least not in the last few years. But when I do get to do something, my real passion is knitting. And when I don’t have a summer deadline, gardening. I also love going to the beach.
Q. Oh btw, tell us what your favorite book/movie/tv show is, like a review.
A. Easy. House. Great characters, excellent writing. Hugh Laurie is so hot–with that pained bad boy, gorgeous blue eyes thing going. My Name is Earl and The Office are up there as well. Also really enamoured with 24. The DH and I have been catching up by watching the series on DVD. Also been reading Margaret Frazer’s mystery series about Dame Friezise (sp?) a medievial nun, which I am enjoying. Okay, so that isn’t really review style, but I’m not much of review writer.
Okay, more questions for tomorrow! Start posting.
It’s interesting that you always come up with the heroines first, but as I think about it, I think in most cases I do too. Has it ever happened that you thought of a man first? Or is it *always* the heroine first?
Hey.. summer deadline AND beach? Why not drag the laptop or little thingy along to the beach!?
Ok, so maybe sand between the keys of the keyboard isn’t so hot.. but hey.. sun…
(dunno why I’m saying that.. I do like sun, but I can’t sunbathe.. I’ve got very pale, fair skin and 15 minutes in gassing sun and I’m burnt up and red as a lobster!)
Oooh! I LOVE House! It wasn’t running over here, but I caught one episode of it when I was visiting my mom. The first thing I did when I got back home was order the first season on DVD from the US *lol* Hugh Laurie is so hot and I love that sarcastic tongue! My kind of character
(You can barely believe it’s him though when you see him in the old Black Adder series!!)
Emily
September 21st, 2006 at 12:49 pmOh, and also wanted to say that I’m sorry for not posting every day. Doing crazy overtime and keep crashing on the couch when I get home *lol*
I wanted to say that everything looks so neat and thought out with your notebooks and everything. I’m very awed
My ideas just tend to go into computer files with whatever information I currently have, be it a scene or a sentence that I just *know* have to be in there, or a piece of the plot.
It looks really useful with those notebooks though
Must be great fun to save for later as well.
Emily
September 21st, 2006 at 12:51 pmI can never come up with questions! LOL You’re much neater than I am — when I did papers in school, you’re supposed to have outlines and all, but I never did. But I guess books are a tiny bit bigger than high school and some college papers.
September 21st, 2006 at 2:09 pmUm, have any pets? Who’s your favorite bad guy (tv/movies, etc.) Ugh, I’m so boring. LOL
Lois
House, The Office, and My Name is Earl–three of my favorite shows! Thanks for the answer, Elizabeth.
September 21st, 2006 at 2:17 pmOk, I’m going to comment twice, too.
Emmie–I watched Blackadder loooong before I watched House (in fact, I didn’t watch House until Squawk had one of those name the hottest guy on tv kind of things and Hugh Laurie’s name kept coming up and I was all like whaaa? so I checked it out and IMMEDIATELY set my DVR to stun). I modeled the hero’s best friend in my first WIP after the prinny character in BA just because I loved him so much.
And it worked great. The character’s a riot and I adore him. So did all my “fans” (read: my critique partners and those poor souls I forced scene after scene to on the loops, LOL). Which is why I HAD to write his book next. Such a fun character!
BUT lo and behold, he just got trashed in a critique workshop held by a Very Published Author. Eek!
Oh well. That’s one person’s opinion
He’s well-received elsewhere. But how could anyone not love him to death? I *heart* Hugh Laurie LOL
September 21st, 2006 at 2:24 pmWell, I have loved Hugh Laurie forever (not just based on Black Adder, but also Jeeves and Wooster and a host of other BBC productions he’s been in over the years), but I have never watched House.
(Hey, if a show started after I had my first kid 9 years ago and it’s targeted to adults, chances are really good I’ve never seen it because I was busy looking at the insides of my eyelids when it was on.)
But the funny thing is that I saw promos for House for months before I figured out that the star was Hugh Laurie. Maybe more than months. Maybe years. He looks that different to me from how I remember him in the aforementioned BBC productions.
So now I wish I’d actually watched the show from its inception. DVD, here I come.
September 21st, 2006 at 2:32 pmGreat answers and photos, Elizabeth! Like Lois, it sometimes takes me a while to come up with questions. I’ll think on it.
I LOVE House!! And I totally agree…there is something incredibly sexy about Hugh Laurie!
September 21st, 2006 at 3:14 pmI’m so with you all on the House thing and the Hugh Laurie thing. So nice to see his true range as an actor! I’m also fully addicted to The Inspector Lynley Mysteries (shown on PBS’s Mystery here in the states), not to mention Deadwood (which has sadly come to an end; Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr).
I must be the odd-ball when it comes to which character I start with, cause for me it’s always the guy. I “know” him first. So far all of my books start with the hero’s POV (of course I’m only just now getting ready to send book two off to my editor so that could change). I also have to watch how much time I spend in the hero’s POV and make sure to give the heroine enough “face time”. When I finished my first MS my first reader commented that 75% of the book was from the hero’s POV. Ouch! That had to get fixed ASAP.
I’ve pretty much been “the chick who’s a dude” (aka queen tomboy) most of my life so I guess it’s not all that surprising that I tend to grok the heroes first.
I love Elizabeth’s notebooks. I’m gonna have to try that . . .
September 21st, 2006 at 3:21 pmAs for tv shows..I tend to watch out of date shows. Example: Sex In The City. It was on for 10 years and I never watched a single one. It goes off air…and now I can’t get enough. The only shows that I DID watch that had current seasons were Charmed and Will & Grace..but now both of those are gone.
And I agree with everyone here, your very organized with your writing. For someone who counts their silverware (umm me), oddly enough I get an idea for a story and run with it. If a new idea comes into my head, I take a few moments and write the basics down. Like: Good looking sexy guy with brown hair meets bold lady with low cut gown at ball.
From just that I can get the whole scene to pop back into my head..even if it involved so much more in my head.
And cool you knit…I want a scarf made out of that really really soft stuff..umm chenille. Umm, I say a deadline of 3 years, might cover it?? hehehe j/k.
In my free time I paint. I’m not good at it but that’s what I do. I also scrapbook.
Heros: Aww, love this topic. They are generally what comes first in all my ideas. I get an image of this really handsome, sexy and all-around yummy guy and as a typicall woman, I want to fix him up. So then I think of his perfect women. The first thing I do is name them. I like to call them by their names…even if it’s just first names.
Hmm, questions?? What “wild and crazy” stuff can I think of next..hmm. Ok got it..really goofy question and could never happy…except maybe in your dreams. Which of your heros would you leave the hubby-type for…even if for just one night. Don’t think about the bad stuff that would happen to get there or would happen after that. Just whow ould you chose. And why him? (BTW you can not cheat and say you love the hubby so much you’d never do that..play fair haha). Consider this your freebie haha.
What is your favorite type of PR(promotional junk)? And what kind do you really hate dealing with? Right now I think most types of promotional stuff would be fun, however, after being published I might change my mind. I’m leaving a loophole there, so I can escape at a later time from the above statement haha.
September 21st, 2006 at 4:14 pmWhat kind of music do you like to listen to? Do you listen to music while writing, or is that too distracting?
Michelle
September 21st, 2006 at 5:23 pmI totally forgot to mention that blogger was due to be down a bit today, updating I suppose. Anyhow, that could be why you could’t post photos for a time.
I hope everything is back on track now.
September 21st, 2006 at 5:48 pmKalen wrote:
I’m also fully addicted to The Inspector Lynley Mysteries (shown on PBS’s Mystery here in the states)
I love them, too! Except I’m mad at Elizabeth George because I understand the reason she killed off one of the primary characters in the last book was to make the books more closely match the TV shows. I’ll probably never read another Lynley novel, I’m that ticked.
Have you seen the new Inspector Lewis series (which is a follow-on to Inspector Morse–I adored John Thaw in that role!)? I thought it was pretty darned good. And how could you not like a show set in Oxford, LOL?
Okay, I guess I do watch TV. It’s just that I watch PBS and baseball or football games and little else.
September 21st, 2006 at 7:01 pmI watch WAYYYYY too much TV.
I do admit, I am a Die-Hard fan of 24, too!
September 22nd, 2006 at 1:50 am