Kimberly Kincaid's Blog - Posts Tagged "plotting"
I am a writer. I tell people lies for money.
A few readers have asked me how I choose who gets a book/what order the stories go in. The truth is, I give this A LOT of thought and most of it is planned out very far in advance. When I decided to write the Remington series back in 2016 (I KNOW!) I knew a few things:
1. I wanted a lot of books, so I'd have to break things into "sub series" (Station Seventeen, Remington Medical, Intelligence Unit, and Rescue Squad)
2. That I'd have to plan the couples in advance otherwise I wouldn't be able to leave y'all "Easter eggs" -- those fun little hints in each book that allude to future couples.
So I planned every single one of the Remington couples in 2016 when I mapped the series. For those of you with REALLY good eyes, you'll see/remember that waaaaayyyyy back in Deep Check, there's a snippet where Addison goes off to flirt with the hockey players on Finn's team...and Ryan gets grumpy about it 🥰 I knew WAY back then that they'd be a couple.
I do sometimes add characters/couples who weren't in the original "plan". Jo and Sawyer are a perfect example. Neither of them were ever in the series outline, but once I started writing The Grifter and Jo became a bigger character than I thought she might, I realized she could use a good HEA. I'd been asked to participate in a SUPER fun newsletter builder project, which required a new story, so I wrote Sawyer into the epilogue for The Grifter, and that was that! The Renegade was born!
There's a longer story along this line that has to do with Xander, but I'm saving it for another post. Suffice it to say he lived in my head rent-free for a LONG TIME before he got his story, though.
So tell me... which couple is your favorite match? Can you think of any (spoiler-free) "Easter eggs" you've seen that hint at future couples? (PSSST-- there is going to be a BIG Easter egg in the exclusive epilogue to The Rogue. HUGE) And do you have any other questions for our behind-the-scenes posts this month?
1. I wanted a lot of books, so I'd have to break things into "sub series" (Station Seventeen, Remington Medical, Intelligence Unit, and Rescue Squad)
2. That I'd have to plan the couples in advance otherwise I wouldn't be able to leave y'all "Easter eggs" -- those fun little hints in each book that allude to future couples.
So I planned every single one of the Remington couples in 2016 when I mapped the series. For those of you with REALLY good eyes, you'll see/remember that waaaaayyyyy back in Deep Check, there's a snippet where Addison goes off to flirt with the hockey players on Finn's team...and Ryan gets grumpy about it 🥰 I knew WAY back then that they'd be a couple.
I do sometimes add characters/couples who weren't in the original "plan". Jo and Sawyer are a perfect example. Neither of them were ever in the series outline, but once I started writing The Grifter and Jo became a bigger character than I thought she might, I realized she could use a good HEA. I'd been asked to participate in a SUPER fun newsletter builder project, which required a new story, so I wrote Sawyer into the epilogue for The Grifter, and that was that! The Renegade was born!
There's a longer story along this line that has to do with Xander, but I'm saving it for another post. Suffice it to say he lived in my head rent-free for a LONG TIME before he got his story, though.
So tell me... which couple is your favorite match? Can you think of any (spoiler-free) "Easter eggs" you've seen that hint at future couples? (PSSST-- there is going to be a BIG Easter egg in the exclusive epilogue to The Rogue. HUGE) And do you have any other questions for our behind-the-scenes posts this month?
What's in a name, anyway?
I had a great question from a lovely reader last week, and I wanted to share. She asked how I choose my titles. So, here's a little story about The Rogue...
I map my books out pretty far in advance of release. The whole series is planned at the beginning. But I almost always have a pretty good idea of how I want to work the relationships (the suspense, I do much later, usually right before I start the book)
So, I knew that Ryan and Addison were a couple, and I knew that he was going to have a pretty reckless personality. But what makes him a rogue actually has more to do with what he's not. Ryan is the only hero in this series who isn't a cop. Hence...The Rogue 😉
And just in case you haven't snapped this baby up, you can grab it right here The Rogue
[image error]
I map my books out pretty far in advance of release. The whole series is planned at the beginning. But I almost always have a pretty good idea of how I want to work the relationships (the suspense, I do much later, usually right before I start the book)
So, I knew that Ryan and Addison were a couple, and I knew that he was going to have a pretty reckless personality. But what makes him a rogue actually has more to do with what he's not. Ryan is the only hero in this series who isn't a cop. Hence...The Rogue 😉
And just in case you haven't snapped this baby up, you can grab it right here The Rogue
[image error]
