Ask the Author: Wen Spencer
Answered Questions (8)
Wen Spencer
Of someone else's? Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. Wolverine and Katy Powers (years before they did Logan). The two from the manga MY LITTLE MONSTER.
Of my own stuff, Joshua and Decker, Olivia and Forest Moss, Jane and Hal, Louise and Jillian... Okay, I like most of my characters.
Of my own stuff, Joshua and Decker, Olivia and Forest Moss, Jane and Hal, Louise and Jillian... Okay, I like most of my characters.
Wen Spencer
Obviously you should turn off the TV. Really! (I am an author after all, books always win in my universe.)
Wen Spencer
ideas are like bunnies. The more you use them, the more they breed. There comes a point where you can't move without tripping over a plot bunny. Usually when I'm running at max level of creativity, a whole different story will suddenly appear as if by magic. I usually can't even trace the origin. Sometimes it was just a lingering impression from a dream. Sometimes its reading something or seeing a movie and think "oh but the author missed a huge opportunity by not developing that sub-plot." Recently it was a page of story I wrote after a BEING HUMAN marathon of a werewolf waking up wounded in a coffin with a vampire friend. I read over the page and wondered "But how did these two people end up close enough friends that this could happen?"
Wen Spencer
I just posted a 22 part snippet series on my Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/wen.spencer/...
https://www.facebook.com/wen.spencer/...
Wen Spencer
A huge piece of paper, pens of multiple colors, sticky notes of many shades, chocolate, and ice tea.
I write out the story in outline format, using different colors for different characters, conflict, storylines, everything I can think of that might have created the block. Usually I find that the block is because I created a flawed logic in the story and subconsciously I know that and fighting writing more on the story because its WRONG. Often what I discover is that one or two scenes prior to becoming stuck, I allowed a character to know too much or not enough and they decide to take a path that leads to a dead end.
If this doesn't work, I type long rants to friends in emails.
If that doesn't work, I invent new methods. One time at a convention, I stuck character names on chairs that represented different boats and then moved them around a ballroom as I tried to come up with a logical way to deal with a sea adventure.
If nothing works, I sleep in, read a book, watch a movie, and switch projects for a couple of days, in an attempt to recharge. Sometimes you just get burned out by grinding on the same story on and on and on. This is a little dangerous since you need to learn how to finish a novel, but once you know how, a break is a good thing.
I write out the story in outline format, using different colors for different characters, conflict, storylines, everything I can think of that might have created the block. Usually I find that the block is because I created a flawed logic in the story and subconsciously I know that and fighting writing more on the story because its WRONG. Often what I discover is that one or two scenes prior to becoming stuck, I allowed a character to know too much or not enough and they decide to take a path that leads to a dead end.
If this doesn't work, I type long rants to friends in emails.
If that doesn't work, I invent new methods. One time at a convention, I stuck character names on chairs that represented different boats and then moved them around a ballroom as I tried to come up with a logical way to deal with a sea adventure.
If nothing works, I sleep in, read a book, watch a movie, and switch projects for a couple of days, in an attempt to recharge. Sometimes you just get burned out by grinding on the same story on and on and on. This is a little dangerous since you need to learn how to finish a novel, but once you know how, a break is a good thing.
Wen Spencer
Having a book to read that is exactly as exciting, romantic, suspenseful as I want it to be. Seriously, I write books that I want to read. And i do read them quite often. I love curling up with a book I wrote years earlier and rediscovering all the scenes I carefully crafted.
Wen Spencer
Think of writing as a sport, like golf. You can play golf for fun or you can try to become a professional. Either way will require you practicing basic skills over and over again. Don't think of rewriting as a loss of work but as hitting the ball over and over again to improve your abilities. Don't let anyone belittle your writing -- no one ever laughs at someone golfing just for fun. "You? A golfer?" is never uttered with disdain. If you want to be published by a New York publisher, though, be prepared to step up your game and do the work necessary to be the best that you can be.
Wen Spencer
I happened to have a discussion with a friend who had invitro fertilization. She had twins boys but later she gotten a call from the clinic wanting to know if she wanted to use the embryos stored. She decided not to and donated them. She knows that at least one child was born from the donated material, a full sister to her twins. A few days later I dreamed about Louise trying to save her baby siblings and woke up realizing that Tinker WOULD have siblings.
I thought that only someone that had a very close and loving relationship with a sister or brother would go through hell to save an unborn sibling, so I decided to create the twins. I also thought only someone with the very idealistic but somewhat impractical viewpoint of a child would face hell and high water to attempt the impossible. I set the twins age at nine because to me that's about the time that kids go from totally idealistic to a more adult and realistic viewpoint.
I thought that only someone that had a very close and loving relationship with a sister or brother would go through hell to save an unborn sibling, so I decided to create the twins. I also thought only someone with the very idealistic but somewhat impractical viewpoint of a child would face hell and high water to attempt the impossible. I set the twins age at nine because to me that's about the time that kids go from totally idealistic to a more adult and realistic viewpoint.
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