Elizabeth Spann Craig's Blog, page 250

Distinctive Characters

I'm writing this Tuesday morning at the coffeehouse. There's a lady sitting at the table in front of me who keeps looking at me and smiling like she knows me.

I hope she doesn't know me because I definitely don't know her.

She's blonde. She has her hair back in a ponytail and a Nike baseball cap on top of that. She's medium build. She has a nice jogging suit and expensive running shoes on.

She looks like about twenty-five other suburban mommies I know. I'm sure I've got to look to ...

Titles and Names

I frequently have classical music playing in the background at home while the kids are eating or while I'm writing (no pesky lyrics to get me off-track.)

My daughter perked up when one piece started playing. "I know this one!" she said. Then she frowned at the title that showed on the television (I get music via satellite on Sirius.) "Whaaa? What's the name of it?"

It wasn't a very catchy name. Eine kleine Nachtmusik Serenade No. 13 for strings in G major, K. 525. By Mozart. And if ...

Editing out the Extras

Alan Orloff at A Million Blogging Monkeys had a great post last week dealing with scene pacing. As he mentioned, it's best to start a scene late in the action and end the scene early.

Otherwise, our characters start doing boring things.

My characters love doing boring things. I let them have their way with the manuscript on the first draft, but for the second? They're not having pointless phone conversations anymore. They're not walking to the front door, putting on their jacket, and s...

Energy

I wrote for a couple of hours in the coffeehouse last week. A couple of hours is a pretty long writing session for me. I got nearly a chapter written on the second Memphis book and felt proud of myself for knocking so much out.

But there was a barista there who had me beat to pieces, as far as being productive.

She greeted probably 80% of the people who walked in the door by name. (I have days when I struggle to remember my own name. It's the Riley/Elizabeth thing…I think I'm getting c...

J.D. Salinger—the Anti-Patterson

I thought that, after writing a post on James Patterson--the top book marketer—that I'd write a short post on J.D. Salinger—the anti-promoter.

James Patterson and J.D. Salinger shared the same publisher: Little, Brown & Co. That's all they seem to have had in common.

Salinger, famed writer of Catcher in the Rye, died Wednesday at the age of 91. He wrote four books; his last release was Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction (1963).

By all accounts, he was a...

Plotting? Moi? by Terry Odell

Thanks to Terry Odell for guest posting for me today for my Writing Process series on Mystery Writing is murder! Terry's books straddle the mystery and romance genres and you can find out more about them here.

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Thanks, Elizabeth for having me as your guest on Mystery Writing is Murder. When I saw your topics, I had a head-scratch moment, since I don't consciously separate my writing process into the 3 stages you mentioned. Then again, ...

Patterson on Writing

"I have a saying," Patterson told [the interviewer:]. "If you want to write for yourself, get a diary. If you want to write for a few friends, get a blog. But if you want to write for a lot of people, think about them a little bit. What do they like? What are their needs? A lot of people in this country go through their days numb. They need to be entertained. They need to feel something."

I know James Patterson has as many detractors and critics as he does fans. Well, maybe not...

Ideas

"Where do your ideas come from?"

Writers frequently tag that question as the single most frustrating inquiry we get from non-writers. It's frustrating because it's nearly impossible to answer. We get ideas from everything. Getting ideas isn't usually the problem for a writer…herding the ideas is.

Plot ideas from current events:

The local newspaper has given me plenty of inspiration as a mystery writer. There have been stories this past week in the paper that completely horrified me...

Ideas: Part I

"Where do your ideas come from?"

Writers frequently tag that question as the single most frustrating question we get from non-writers. It's frustrating because it's nearly impossible to answer. We get ideas from everything. Getting ideas isn't usually the problem for a writer…herding the ideas is.

Plot ideas from current events:

The local newspaper has given me plenty of inspiration as a mystery writer. There have been stories this past week in the paper that completely horrified me...

Calls to Adventure

Maybe your protagonist is an international spy. His days are rarely boring since he's always hopping a plane to a dangerous spot on the other side of the world.

Or not.

For most of us? Our protagonists are fairly ordinary people—like we are. But something extraordinary happens to them, pulling them out of their routine.

The moment when the story really starts has been called the "Call to Adventure" in the hero's journey, as detailed by author Joseph Campbell.

In my books? My...