Monday, March 2, 2015

Bringing Characters to Life

I've had a good, productive morning of writing after several days of not picking up my pen. Book Three (I still haven't settled on a title) is picking up steam. I've just finished Chapter 13.

Someone asked me recently if I have a firm outline that I go by before I begin a book. Not really. I have a general outline, but when I start, I never quite know how it will end until I get there. I know that's a pretty unconventional method of writing, but it works best for me. I put a lot of time into creating my characters, their strengths, their faults, their likes and dislikes. Then I hand them my general outline and let them take it from there. They live out their lives in my book with a gentle nudging here and there from me. By the time I finish a book, they are totally such a part of me that I have a hard time letting them go. That's why I carried Rock and Liz and a few others over into my second and third books. They were on a roll and I didn't want to stop them. This third book will be the end though - a trilogy. They're ready to live their lives with a little less excitement when they play out this last story. There will be more books, God willing. I'm just not sure yet the direction He is leading me to write after this.
The following Bible verse has come up in several of my readings today, so I'm sure it is speaking directly to me. Let it be your own verse today - it carries profound words of wisdom.
II Timothy 1:7 For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.

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