More Tips for Writers
 

How do you write your books? Take me through the process from beginning to end.



Wow, I get ideas from everywhere. A movie, a song, a sermon, being STUCK IN THE DMV; you get the picture. After I have the little seedling of an idea, I try to grow it by expounding on it. I pull out the pencil and paper to jot stuff down because when I get an idea, I’m not usually at home.

Once home, I enter everything I’ve written in the computer and let it germinate. Then I have to introduce myself to my characters. I use Randy Ingermanson’s handy dandy little character chart and fill in all the information. That chart is great. I highly recommend it or something like it. I’ve found that if I don’t know my characters inside and out, I can’t make the story work.

Once I’ve gotten the characters down, I move on to the plot. I ask myself what’s the worst thing that could happen to my Hero and Heroine, make it happen, then I try to make it even worse! THEN, I have to figure out how to get them out of the situation/s that they’ve managed to get themselves into. And that’s usually when my house gets cleaned.

After I’ve got the basics of the story worked out in my mind, I write a LONG synopsis. I have a love/hate relationship with writing the synopsis. I love it when it’s done. I hate everything in between. Anyway, once it’s done, I break it into scenes.

After I have the scenes, I start writing Chapter One. The first part of the book for me is always the hardest. I don’t usually have trouble with the middle because I’ve fleshed out the scenes so much. The ending goes pretty fast. Right now, I have 40 pages left to finish the second book I hope Steeple Hill will buy. I expect to finish that by the end of next week. But the beginning…ugh. So, once I get the beginning down, things usually go pretty well after that. The characters kind of take over the story and it writes itself. I just have to get them to that point.

What are some of your favorite books (not written by you)?

I love, love, love anything written by Brandilyn Collins. Deborah Raney’s latest, REMEMBER TO FORGET. Robert Liparulo’s GERM fascinated me. Dee Henderson’s THE NEGOTIATOR was my favorite out of all of hers. I like Ted Dekker’s earlier stuff, especially BLINK. Karen Kingsbury, of course. And I’m really getting into some Chick-lit. I’m not normally a 1st person POV reader, but I’m coming around with this genre. I just finished QUEEN ESTHER AND THE SECOND GRADERS OF DOOM and laughed my head off. The heroine was SO me and I could totally relate to her. STEALING ADDA by Tamara Leigh is my all time favorite book right now. I howled with laughter. Terri Blackstock is awesome. I love all her stuff. I could go on and on, but I’ll stop there.