Phrase/Image Scenes

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This weeks’ post will be a short one.

More of an up and coming post, the full length post will resume next week.

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Hi all,

I enjoyed doing the Powerful Words Scenes so much that I’ve been dabbling in more of them. Some have even turned into Flash Fiction. So for the next few weeks, maybe a month or two I’m going to use some short phrases or photos to either write a short scene about, which I might later use in a story, or a piece of Flash Fiction.

If you have any phrases or ideas you’d like me to write about I’d love to hear them. Either comment here or shoot me an email julia.matthews5@gmail.com.

Hope you guys enjoy them,

Remember let your imagination soar when your read.

Julia

Writer’s Journey Part 4

Hi all,

Over the last three weeks you’ve read the start of how I develop a story idea. Now, I’m reached the part where I sit down and organize all the ramblings from the brainstorming, and the character interviews. From here I’ll pull open my blank outline form in my Scrivener Program and transfer the information I gained into it. (I know this seems like an excessive amount of overkills, but for me creating the rambles in Word and then organizing it and transferring it cements the idea in my head, while allowing me to see if I’ve got major holes that need filling before I start my free write. In the past when I’ve been in the middle of this an amazing starting point for the story reveals itself.)

Once I have the information transferred I go in and study the blank parts of my predefined outline. (The outlines I use to hold notes are a combination of lots of questions about a building story. From World Building, Character, Settings, and Plot.) Fill in other areas that I can see as useful later on. Once I have these all filled in, or all that I see as useful to the story I’m building, I’m done with my developmental stage. Which means, time to enter the free write stage.

Hope you’ve enjoyed this insight into how I develop a story.

Remember let your imagination soar when your read or write.

Have a Great Week,

Julia

Writer’s Journey Part 3

Hope you found the character interview information interesting. This week on my journey we are going to discuss some more major information that I gained from the interviews. 

One of the secondary character interviews was with the previous Click Leader. In his interview I gained information about what a Click is, the purpose of it, and loads of information about the second main character. When I interviewed him a second time I gained insight into why he didn’t take Mark’s name off of the Click leader membership. Also figured out how and why this particular supernatural being came about. This one interview also gave me insight into the location of the story.

The interview with the other Main Character gained even more than I was expecting about the Click and how it is organized. But the major find in this interview was the stages of the ceremony that will be taking place and the importance of it, which lead me into finding out how the Main Character will grow throughout the story.

It’s amazing to me that I sat down to find out one aspect of my Main Character, a basic description, but found so much more. Even better, I earned one of those rare moments with my mom. She was reading over my shoulder while I was working on an interview and she stopped me and asked what I was doing. I explained and she squinted her eyes, you know in that way when someone thinks you’ve lost your mind, and said, “Do you actually hear the interview in your head?” I said, “Yes.” She continued to look at me for a few seconds then said, “Don’t tell anyone else, it sounds weird.” I have to admit it took me a few minutes to understand why she thought that, but when I realized she was referring to how most people don’t like to hear someone hears voices I gave her one of my eye rolls, which had her laughing.

Some writers I know think developing the story is boring and stressful. It can be, but it can also be fun and entertaining. Another admission, I’m not one who usually does a lot of preplanning for a story. Most of the time my idea is coming so fast I can only sit down and write, jotting notes I’ll need later on down. But, there are times, like with this idea, that I have to preplan more to nail down where my mind is going because I have too much going on. Like at the time I’m writing this post I have two free write going, revision on another book, and edits on one. Way more than my mind can keep up with without forgetting.

Now that I’m armed with the characters, plot, setting, and loads of other insight, I can sit down and free write. Of course, the next part is the funniest part to me. I’m not sure how long it will take to finish this free write and then decide if I’m going to self-publish it or make it a blog story, but soon as I do, you will be the first to know.

Have a great week and I hope you’ve enjoyed the last three posts.

Remember let your imagination soar when you read or write.

Julia

Writer’s Journey Part 2

Last week you read my Brainstorming, which turned into a neat little story idea. Most of the brainstorming gave me information about the characters and the world, but when I sat down to start writing this post my mind leaned more toward developing the characters, so that’s what this weeks writer’s journey post is going to be consumed with.

There’s many ways you can go about developing a new character. Most of the time I use an outline and jot down all the basic information, hair color, body style and so forth, but when I pulled up my outline that I use for this I found myself stumped. To try and unblock my mind I started searching for an image to relate to the main character, but once again I found myself unable to locate the spark I needed. I was just about to take a break when I decided to try an approach that I use when I have a Main Character who is misbehaving or I can’t narrow in a certain emotion I need to portray for him/her. What I do is an interview with the character. I’ll warn you sometimes they turn more into an interrogation, the type you see on those TV shows, but they usually have some comical issues arise in them. So, we’ll see how it works, because I’ve never tried this on a sexless, nameless, and faceless character before.

My Interview

Julia: You are buzzing around in my line of sight, but I can’t find anything out about you. Not even a name. Why don’t we start this off by you giving me a name?

Mark Taz: Names Mark Taz

Julia: Nice to meet you Mark Taz. Care to tell me what role you are going to fill in my newest story?

Mark Taz: Thought that was up to you.

Julia: It is, but if you care to share your opinions then I’ll gladly listen and take it into consideration.

The deep hardy chuckled told me that Mark got my point.

Mark Taz: Well let’s just say I may not live long enough to tell you exactly who I am once I enlighten my son, Talon Taz about who and what he is.

Oh, I hadn’t’ expected to be handed the father character first. Nice turn of events. Most of the time I get slammed with the main characters first, not a secondary/minor one.

Julia: Can you blame him? You are about to admit to hiding a major part of your life and his own life from him. I’d be pissed at you as well. Do you really think he will kill you?

Mark frowned and shook his head.

Mark Taz” No, but he’ll be pissed to high heaven, and you’re right he has reason to. He’ll ignore me for a bit, and that hurts worse, in my opinion. I’d rather him vent his anger out, but my son will bottle it up and stash it away until he’s taken all he can an then he will let lose on me.

Julia: So, Talon will become a ticking time bomb?

Mark Taz: Yep, but only I will be impacted by his explosion, which I guess I deserve.

Julia: Why did you keep such a secret from him?

Mark Taz: My family caused major destruction among our people and the humans. I thought by choosing a human wife and rejecting the Click that I’d save my son from the hardships of our race, but Click Leader Jaguar didn’t do as promised.

Julia: People saying one thing and doing another sucks ass, but happens all the time, which is why you should’ve been honest with Talon from the get go. Now you’re in  tight spot and so is he. Do you think it could’ve been avoided if you had told him the truth about who he was?

Mark Taz: I’d like to say yes, but fate and destiny has a way of getting their own way, no matter what we as a person want.

Julia: I don’t envy you. I know my parents lied to me about such a major issue I’d be ready to rip their heads off, but I wouldn’t because they taught me that sometimes people make the wrong choice.

Mark Taz: Talon will be and he’ll come to the same conclusion, but it may take him awhile and I’m not sure how I’ll handle that. My son and I are close, which is why my decent will be enve more painful to him.

Julia: I don’t mean this harsh, but I’m glad I’m not in your shoes. So, I’ll tell you this, let Talon know if he needs to discuss things with me, I’ll be here to listen.

End of Interview

The above interview gave me information on two characters. Mark, the father, and Talon, the son. From here I went on to interview two other characters, the other Main Character and another Secondary Character. All four characters ended up being interviewed on two different occasions. Each interaction gained me more and more knowledge about the characters’ descriptions, some personality traits, some personal insight, and gave me a better sense of the plot, as well as a villain.

Now, it’s time to sit down and organize the information I gained into separate files about each character, about the plot, and see what else I may gain from these interviews.

I’ll be back next week with more. Have a great week and remember:

Let your imagination soar when you read and write.

Julia

A Writer’s Journey Part 1

I’m going to attempt doing something I’ve never done before. Take someone, in this case my blog followers, on the journey of developing a new story idea. So for the next few weeks, my weekly post will be based on developing a new story. I won’t be giving away loads of information about the story I’m working on, just the basics. (Can’t be giving away all the details of a future book.)

Unless you’re a writer you don’t really stop and think about how much goes into developing a story. I mean why would you. You buy the book to relax and be entertained, not break it down. Now, if you are a writer, you know lots go into developing a story idea and then transferring it into an awesome entertainment. Each writer has his or her own process. In some cases an author will develop each story from a different approach. I know I do. But the most common way I start with is: Brainstorming.

Brainstorming for me is sitting down and writing whatever hits my head. Once again this is a method that can vary from person to person. Some may use charts in brainstorming and others may consider using predefined outlines as brainstorming. It’s a personal choice, and none are wrong if it works for you. I warn you before you read further, what you read will sound like a jumbled up mess of nonsense, but I swear it’s works for me and most of the times turns into a wonderful story.

My Brainstorming

The house is quite. Everyone is still asleep. I can hear the whirling of the fan sitting on my dresser. The light from my bedside table is casting a shadow of my lamp over my Indian picture that my dad painted. It’s irritating the shit out of me, because it’s darkening the eagle in the picture, which is soothing to see. I love the faint yellow my dad put in the eagles’ eyes. It gives the eagle a creepy yet scary look. Makes me think of a disapproving father looking over his children from above. There is my story idea.

A story that is told from a ghost POV. It would be from an omniscient POV. I don’t relish the idea of writing in that POV, so I’m going to scratch telling from the ghost POV, because I don’t think I can get deep enough into the characters doing so from that POV. I still like the idea of a father overseeing his children’s life after his death, but I’m not feeling it as strong as I was to start with. Hmmm. Okay not my story idea.

My fingers are drumming away on the silver part of my MAC. Frustration is creeping over me. My skin is crawling with ideas, but none are vivid enough in my mind that I can see where they want to go. Maybe some music will help. Maybe, I can scan my movies. I’ve not seen a good vampire story in awhile. Might do to pull out some of my old . . . Oh fudge there it is. My idea. Duh! How did I miss it?

The story need to start off with a young woman/man having been told the huge family secret right after his/her 21^st b-day party ended. The father had hoped to never tell any of his children that his family descended from a family of Vampires, because he rejected their horrid way of life. Problem is his view of their life was warped because of past experience inside his old style click. The majority of Vampires live peacefully among the humans, never killing or taking from anyone other than a select few who know of their true identity and willingly gave them blood. They only need one pint of blood, animal, synthetic, or human blood a month to survive. The rest of the time they eat and drink like humans. There are a few Vampires who need emotional energy to survive, which can be gained by having sex or involving ones self into a heated discussion. This father’s bloodline fits into this anomaly and many misused the partaking of emotional energy in order to force humans into huge brawls costing people their lives in violent ways. He feared his children becoming one of these so he hoped by avoiding living in any such manner he would compress his son’s urge when and if it came to be. His son being only half energy vampire worked until the day his father tracked him down because their Click Leader, had decided it was time to choose a full partner. A full Partner choice comes from all eligible men and women in the click. The father believed his and his son’s name had been taken off the register by the previous Click Leader, but it looked as if he hadn’t been living lone Vampire status like he’d assumed, which explained why he’d coped with begin alone for so long. A vampire of any kind can live alone if they are blood bound to a click, once the blood bond is broken it become natural instinct to hunt others kin and mingle among them. Vampires, especially Energy Vampire crave a connection to their own kind. The father’s old click leader swore his blood bond with the Click had been severed, and he’d believed him, which is becoming the downfall to his plan of keeping his son in the dark to his true nature.

End of My Brainstorming

Hope your were able to follow some of that writing ramble. If not, I apologize, and hope it intrigues you enough to join me for the next segment of the Writer’s Journey Post. In it, I will move onto the next phase of my journey to create a new story. It’s gets even more interesting, because from here I have to build the world, chose the characters, and decide how much outlining, if any, will be used or if I’ll just be going by the seat of my pants.

Have a great week and hope you join me next week for the next part of the Writer’s Journey.

Remember let your imagination soar when you read and write.

Julia