Writing Talk

[Sara]

Do you like to write? Do you want to ask me about writing?! No? Okay. Talk about whatever you want pertaining to writing, and I'll be happy to chime in occasionally.

[heather h]

do you base the characters on people you know? i mean, i assume they probably all have a little of this person and a little of that person in them, but are any of your characters based more so on actual people in your life?

[Laura]

where do you get inspiration for writing? im writing poems, but i have problems finding inspiration lately...

[Sara]

@Heather Sometimes I take bits and pieces of people I know to make up my characters. My main character is quite a bit like me, but with a few aspects of others. I'd say more than personality, I take my character's reactions to different situations from people I know.

@Laura I really have no idea where my inspiration comes from. Sometimes I'll sit at the computer and have nothing. Sometimes I'll be able to just start typing, and I'll continue typing for 5 hours straight. I think I become more inspired when I have more time for myself. If I go out hiking on my own with nothing else to think of, things come more naturally than sitting down and trying to think. Get rid of all of your distractions (I can only do this by being physically out of reach of them), your mind will automatically fill the void.
Hope that helps, I sometimes tend to babble.

[Mandy]

@ Heather: I'm writing my first novel as we speak, an Urban Fantasy based in New Orleans, and my major (and some secondary) characters are most definitely based on real people. I can't wait for the day when my family and friends read my final copy and freak out because most of the characters are based on them, lol.

It's difficult for me to create characters without using my own life experience. Does that make sense? I believe that my characters are very "real" which is a major goal of many Paranormal writers - you want to make the unreal seem real. I mean wands and magic are cool, but when the witch behind the wand and magic is a 28-year-old artist with black hair and a sleeve of tattoos on her arm who works part time for her dad, who is an electrician, it makes the story so much more possible. And that's the fun part!

So I use my life experiences, personality, goals, passions, fears, and the same aspects of my family and friends, to create my characters. I'm also an extremely sarcastic, yet sort of goofy person, so when I'm creating dialogue or stream of consciousness, I literally write exactly what I would say or think in that very situation.

Hope all of that makes sense - I tend to ramble sometimes, lol.

[Sara]

@Mandy I definitely get what your saying. I've been told by multiple people that are close to me, that when they read my books, they feel like they're hanging out with me.
And you have a sleeve of tattoos for reals? Pictures! I'm obsessed with looking at tattoo pictures. I just got my fifth one (tattoo, not a picture of one) last Saturday, but I haven't ventured out onto my arms yet.