Are YOU Appearing in Your Stories? Characters with Your Habits? By Connie Vines #RR87, #BWLAuthor, #MFRWAuthor,

YA and Middle Grade Novels--Aren't Ju... Cajun Heroes and Independent Cinderel...

Are YOU Appearing in Your Stories? Characters with Your Habits? By Connie Vines #RR87, #BWLAuthor, #MFRWAuthor,

Round Robin Blog Fest! (87) Aug 21

This month's topic is a bit like a 'tell-all"/ true confessions, it seems 😉

"Do you have any character habits or favorite words that always crop up in your writing?"

"Yes," she admitted with a heavy sigh. "It seems I've corrupted my darlings."

I drink a great deal of coffee, and so do my characters. In my first novel, "Lynx" Rodeo Romance, Book 1. My hero was drinking coffee, my heroine was drinking coffee, My heroine and her best friend were working at a cafe. Where you guessed it, they prepared and poured coffee (which would have included the adult members of the small Montana town).

Funny, no one seemed to find it strange. My critique group never pointed it out, readers never posted any negative comments. Shoot, Lynx even had a thermos of coffee in the barn when he was tending to his horse!

I noticed (lol) 'we' all seemed to have a caffeine addiction, when I was scanning the story while drafting the second book in the series, "Brede". Everyone in the story had moderate caffeine consumption.

Upon further thought:

I have a wicked/quirky sense of humor.

It only appears in bits in pieces in my western and historical romances (for which my darlings are eternally grateful, I'm sure).

However, in my Paranormal/Fantasy stories and YA/MG stories, it's embedded in the DNA of (usually) my main character.

Poor Meridith, as if becoming a zombie wasn't challenging enough, she has to deal with the twisted sense of humor I've bestowed upon her. She has a hamster named Gertie, for heaven's sake!

Writing is a craft, I keep reminding myself. We develop our skills, adjust to reader preferences: more action, less introspection in contemporary novels, etc. However, since our darings (our characters) are of our creation, there will always have a bit of the writer in the main characters.

There is no way around it.

It may be an unimportant part of my character which creeps into a story. I dislike turnips, so no one will be chowing down on a plate-full, even if they were roasted by an award-winning chef.

What habits are my current characters engaging in? I'll be re-reading my story after I type: The End. I'm certain I'll be making revisions because my characters like to sit out on the patio/veranda/porch in the evening--without a cup of coffee.

Happy Reading,

Connie