Shewanda Pugh's Blog: The Wandering Mind of a Romance Writer - Posts Tagged "writing-fiction"

Authors are sponges. We absorb, regurgitate, manipulate, polish and present. There are days when I sit down and bang out 7 or 8 hours worth of material without hesitation. There are days when I sit and stare. I’m the sort of writer who has only the vaguest notion of what’s going to happen to characters before I begin. Sometimes, they do as I tell them, other times they rebel. There are instances when I begin to craft a scene only to find that said characters will not cooperate. Often, this is because I’ve constructed them so carefully and completely that an act contrary to their intrinsic construction simply won’t manifest. Other times, it’s because of what’s going on around me. What do I mean?
If I’m writing a bit of fiction and a radio station is on, the mood of said music will affect my scene. Completely. If it’s angry rap, my characters begin to argue. If it’s a ballad, suddenly they’re in the mood for romance and a bit of yum yum give me some. Over the years, I’ve learned to channel music to suit my scenes, especially when I’m shooting blanks.
For my debut novel, Crimson Footprints, Robin Thicke’s second CD, The Evolution of Robin Thicke, got a lot of spin time. And for grittier scenes, Lil’ Wayne was the man. Now, as I work on a new project, various portions of the novel require different sounds. The Black Eyed Peas’ The E.N.D. has jumped start my literary motor time and again, as has Miguel, Cold Play, Jack’s Mannequin and more. Again, what I listen to depends on what I need.
What do other author’s listen to?

I once made the worst writer's mistake known to man. Far worse than a simple grammatical error, head hop, or issue of formatting--I committed the writer's cardinal sin.

I was boring.

For some writers, there are other, more egregious errors--but for the reader, this is simply unforgivable. Nothing equates it, except perhaps sheer goobledygook on a page.

Thankfully, my instance was eons ago, in a graduate level wirting course headed by Brenda Serotte, author of "The Fortune Teller's Kiss. For those of you who have ever had the unequivocal pleasure of meeting the Bronx diva, her belligerent scrolling of "BORING" across the front of my paper in firey red will come as no surprise. Since then, I've implemented a a rather effective checklist to ensure that I never bore the melanin off a reader again.

1. Does this scene move the story towards its eventual goal or climax?
2. Could this scene stand alone as an interesting read?
3. Does something happen at the end of every chapter, upon which the reader is forced to think "I need to see what happens next?"
4. Are my characters behaving naturally? Am I driving them or are they driving me? Ideally, I prefer to keep a loose goal in mind and allow the characters to surprise me with the story.
And finally, the most important question of all:
5. Am I bored yet? Because if I'm bored, then the reader has already closed the book.