What Are Writers Afraid of? Using Emotion To Create Compelling Characters

What’s anyone afraid of? Everyone is afraid of something whether they want to talk about it or not. It might be the dark, spiders and snakes, heights, guns, crowds…something! There is something that sets your nerves to jangling and teeth on edge, not to mention raises a cold sweat.  

Just thinking about whatever that is can make the hair stand up on the back of your neck, your heart pound and the breath hitch in your lungs if you get into the zone closely enough.

Reason. We all try to use it at such moments, but reason can be at war with that fight or flight we’ve all got so deeply embedded within us. The urge to run or do battle is something hard to deny. So what’s all this about?

The writer’s muse.

A writer’s best work can stem from connecting with that moment, getting inside yourself to pull out those deep-seated fears and expose them to daylight in the service of harnessing the power those emotions and channeling them onto the blank page.

Writers want to reach inside the reader’s head and feel things. The gamut of human emotions and dark thoughts. It’s so easy to ‘make it up when we go along’ when writing, but the fact is the best writing stems from the gut. The best writers reach deep to plumb their own experiences and inject that into characters. Remember and regurgitate those emotions in order to really bring a character to life.

 

Terrified of walking alone in the dark on a city street? Think of all the nuances as my mother did when she was a young woman and had the night shift at a switchboard. She walked home on the dark sidewalks of a Chicago night with every other street lamp blown out. She hugged the building side when a car came past and hugged the curb side when passing alleys. She walked fast…very fast. Sounds, common and unfamiliar were all around. Strangers on the street with her; were they as she, walking home from work…or a threat? Adrenaline. Inject the fear. Inject the urgency. Clip the sentences and paint a vivid picture. Hurry. Pause. Confront the dark fear of an unlit alley as a garbage can lid bangs within the blackness.

That was one reality. There are many others, and they aren’t always in the physical realm. A character doesn’t always have to worry about being stalked by a murderer. 

It can be much closer to the heart, much more emotional. Is there fear a marriage is failing? Is a student an outcast at school afraid of one more indignity? Will a friendship end with betrayal? Will a job be lost to a character charged with supporting siblings after their parents die? Nightmares. All of it. Emotional wrench and perhaps destruction.

Either way. Emotional or physical – what do you fear? What can you hand a character that will give him the cold sweats?

Think about it. Feel it. Write it.  

Creating Comics - an abbreviated how to

Since our newest in the Planet of The Eggs series, Eruption, is now releasing in paperback, I decided this week to talk a bit about the creation of the comics. It takes a whole lot of work, but the creation process is such great fun I thought I’d share a bit of it with our readers.

 

I really can’t tell folks how to find a story idea other than to be open, to research and to be aware of the weird world around you. I can, however give some practical tips.

There’s a lot to it, but basically my writing and creative partner Charlene Brash-Sorensen and I use Comic Life software (you can try it free, but there is a low cost to buy - no, I'm not an affiliate so I won't make any money if you buy a copy) to create the actual comic, but prior to that there’s a lot of prep work.

Since neither of us are sketchers or artists of any variety, except the manipulation of pictures into our stories, we depend on photography and occasional clip art to create our books. So one of my first tips is your camera. Your phone camera, whatever will take decent pictures. There’s scenery and events all around you that can make great backgrounds for stories (be aware of not taking pictures of people without their permission), but if you need plants, mountains, forests, animals, whatever, keep that camera handy and take lots of pictures. We even have mini ‘photo shoots’ using things like (in our case) eggs

we’ve painted against white background for easy cut-out in photoshop, feathers of various colors from various angles against white, again for easy cut out and a whole lot of other items which makes the images our own and we don’t have to worry about copyright. I’ve even taken close up pictures of flower bouquets and a vigorous fennel plant for backgrounds. 

Beyond that there are places online where you can find free and royalty free pictures that can be used.  We use Pixabay a lot and of course a google search for ‘commons’ photos and illustrations can yield other resources such as Open Clip Art and many others. If you want to use any pictures you find online make sure they’re royalty free and free to use in any fashion. Or purchase the pictures you need and be sure the license covers what you’re using them for. Read the requirements and follow them. Copyright infringement is a no-no.

We use Photoshop a lot for cutting out characters, changing colors, etc. But, there are phot manipulation tools available that are free. Check out Gimp and Paint.net for a couple I know about. We even use Powerpoint to create some images when we won’t want to work with all sorts of layers and effects. What is created can be saved via Powerpoint to Jpg or png formats.

The whole thing sprang from a simple idea – Heroic eggs determined to save their world. We’ve had to learn a lot to put our books together – I haven’t even mentioned the required dimensions and details here that are required for digital and print publishing. The fun just never stops (and I mean that truly and sarcastically.)

 

Dive in if you’re of a mind – see what you can create – oh, and while you’re at it, grab copies of Planet Of The Eggs comics –

Cracked Open

Grimoire Book Of Spells

Mummified Egg

Eruption ---

          Available in Kindle Edition and Paperback with more to come!

And visit the Planet Of The Eggs Facebook Page to get the first in the series free and join the adventure with a FREE collectible monthly newsletter with freebies, updates, character interviews and more. 

Writing The Wham Bam Action Scene

I’m a writer. I admit it, I’m a sucker for creating action scenes. Now it’s possible you might think my everyday life is full of excitement and action to spur such scenes, but no, it usually begins with a cup of hot green tea at my computer desk.

Nonetheless I’m an action junkie; books, movies, tv, whatever.

Star Wars, Deadpool, Sword Dancer Novels, Orson Scott Card! Yes, I like detail as well, background, the backstory, but what really sucks me in is the action. Don’t make that backstory and setting too lengthy or I’ll be peeking ahead or see where the action again picks up. Not everyone is like this, but that’s me.

Probably that’s why I like to write action as well.  That means I want to write it well and I put a lot of demands on myself. I also get the chance to back flush a lot of aggression – you know, run those horses, fight you ninjas, blow stuff up and even, maybe, kill off your favorite character. It’s a lot of fun on a lot of levels and it’s a powerful type of writing short-cutting, at least for a time, descriptions and character development. Hey, they guys are pounding on each other so what’s to develop in that scene? (There are exceptions to that, but that’s not what we’re talking about here). Short, staccato, keep it moving! And, action verbs all by themselves lend color. Who simply yells? No, it’s shriek, scream, bellow, howl, screech. Hey, what’s not to have fun here?

But, there’s more to it that Wham Bam! The pressure is on to write a really GOOD action scene, not something the reader yawns his way through. It goes deeper. It engages the emotions. Why is the heart racing when reading an action scene or viewing an intense movie action scene? It’s simple. It’s because the reader or watcher is engaged with the characters and actually cares how it all comes out. We’re rooting for Dean Koontz’s Odd Thomas to prevail and survive. We watch Deadpool and despite all his oddities, want him to come out on top.

I write primarily with a movie running in my head whether novel or script. I see what’s happening, but even more to the point, when writing an action scene, I put myself in my characters heads. The reality is, in real life, people don’t know what’s coming next. They don’t know they’re going to die (or not) in a car crash. They don’t know that killer is going to pop out of the alley and try to do them in. It’s all a surprise to them and that’s where the engagement comes in.

The trick, then, is simple and complicated. The answer is to put yourself into the character’s head just as you allow yourself to be swept into a story when reading or watching. Feel what they feel, think what they’d think in that moment. Dig deep for the emotions of terror, anxiety, desperation. Get those emotions on the page and the person reading the novel or the script from which the movie is made won’t just be reading – that person will be right beside the characters when the bullets fly, the horse stampedes or the great Pacific wave looms over the fishing boat. And the adrenalin will surge.

Now we’re talkin’…that’s action!

Let’s Get Started - On Writing by Writers Great Quotes

I’m a writer, a creator, but who doesn’t like to get the viewpoint of others? To listen in, via quotations as to how the minds of others work. In this case, writers.

Also in this case how to begin. It’s amazing when confronting the blank page. All writers know the feeling. Those who write fiction, non-fiction, articles and even business reports. What to write first? What words to put on that blank screen or paper?

  It’s special and at the same time nearly terrifying. Oh, the heck with ‘nearly’ it is terrifying. And, since putting words to screen (ie paper) is pretty much the same for every writer, I located some basic tips from writers I particularly like.

So join me and let’s take that first step, often the most difficult, together.

Stephen King is one of my favorite authors. His position is “The scariest moment is always just before you start.” Hmmm, not to be difficult, but I’m not sure I agree with that one. For me the scariest is just after I hit those first key strokes and see what’s coming up on that white screen before me.

Louis L’Amour took another tact. He said, “Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.”   Yes! That’s always been one of my mottos. Do it already – you can always change it.

Then famed Sci Fi writer Ray Bradbury had this comment, “Go to the edge of the cliff and jump off. Build your wings on the way down.” That’s another one that should get you, the writer, moving – no matter what you write. Either that or send you running, screaming in another direction.

“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” Jack London says. He’s my kinda guy. Don’t sit there. Don’t wait. Go after it. Writing inspiration isn’t something that falls upon you like rose petals. It’s something you do. So do it.

Toni Morrison advises, “I always know the ending; that’s where I

start.”  To which I say, well, it may work for you Toni, but not for me. I rarely know the ending when I start. It usually pops out at me somewhere in the first third of writing the book. That’s not to say I don’t plan and ideas don’t swarm, but I’m not certain about the ending when I begin.

Author Les Brown makes the statement, “You don’t have to be great to get started, but you have to get started to be great.” That truly hits it on the nose. For every type of writer. The simple fact is you have to start…no matter how scary that starting is. Doesn’t matter if it’s a business paper, a short story, non-fiction book or screenplay. It’s not going to get done if that blank page overwhelms and you don’t start.

Sweet Beatrix Potter takes the more optimistic view, “There is something delicious about writing the first words of a story. You never quite know where they’ll take you.” And I guess that’s what I believe – especially since I never know the end when I start. I just don’t know where it will take me until I get into the act of writing.

And one last comment by Nora Roberts, “You don’t find time to write. You make time.”  Take that one to heart. Write.