Category Archives: Behind the Story

Behind the Story: Things Blow Up

Owl & White/Red BookBehind the Story posts will be about what goes on behind the scenes as a writer creates their story.  I’ll be writing about my own writing process and sharing any tips or advice I’ve discovered on my own or gathered on the topic. Hopefully both readers and writers find these posts fascinating!

This week’s topic:
When Your Story Blows Up


I was really struggling with what to post about this week for Behind the Story because, quite frankly, my work on my own story has been faltering this week.  So I’ll give you a recount of what issues I’ve come up against, and how I’m trying to go about solving them.


How a story goes kablooie (and how I’m striving to fix it):

  1. Comparing my own writing to published books: Kind of inevitable if you read a lot and dream of being published, but not productive at the stage I’m in with my current project.  Why?  Because it’s like comparing a newborn to a college grad.  My book baby is cute and exciting and full of possibilities, but right now all it’s doing is pooping, drooling, and crying.  We haven’t moved beyond the basics of life yet.  I’m just getting a grasp on the characters, setting, and plot.  A published book is like a college grad.  You’ve proved yourself.  You’ve mastered the basics plus things like theme and voice.  You went on to get accepted with your fancy query letter (college admission essay).  And you’ve been groomed by editors (college professors).  So I’ve been really cruel to myself and my project this week and have been comparing it to other great books and thinking about how under-developed it is.  I keep trying to reason with myself and telling myself if I keep working, it will get there.  But what I really need is a brilliant idea to dig me out of this hole I’m in for the week.
  2. Where to set my book: My game plan was to set my book in a setting of my own creation.  I even made a map of my city with different districts.  And drew geographical features surrounding the city.  And the city has a cool name.  But now I’m second guessing my decision because I had a plot idea to use real historical references in association with my villain and what her secret society had done in the past.  I really liked this idea, but I can’t see how my made-up city will mesh well with real historical references.  And so that’s where I’ve gotten stuck.  Someone suggested I read some “alternate history” books.  I think perhaps I need to finish Westerfeld’s Leviathan series.  He’s a genius at world-building and this series is an alternate history, so maybe it will help me figure out the logistics of what I’m trying to do. 
  3. Finding a purpose besides just “looking cool”: So for the sake of protecting my ideas, I’m going to use some substitutions here.  So, my main character is going to be creating something and the villain is after her creations.  Let’s say she’s making “GIANT OWLS.”  I kind of got the idea because I thought GIANT OWLS would be really cool in a story.  (If you haven’t caught on yet… my character is not really making giant owls.  I’d just like to keep a secret what she’s making.)  So, this week I got to thinking why the heck would my villain want her GIANT OWLS besides the fact they they are insanely cool and look awesome.  What does my villain want to do with these GIANT OWLS?  What could be sinister or powerful about them?  So far all I got is one kind of lame idea that conflicts with my setting again.  Darn you setting!  I chatted with my brother tonight and that kind of helped.  He had some better ideas, but I have to mull them over because they conflict with some plot details.
So my verdict from this week:
My story blew up.  It’s in pieces this week and I’m at a loss for how to put it back together and make some sort of sense.  But that’s why it’s so important as a writer to not get too attached to what you’re writing.  I realized that I am probably going to have to change how I originally saw my story going (whether it’s the setting or what my villain is after).  I still have pieces to work with, and hopefully whatever I come up with will be one step closer to an end product I can be proud of.

How do you overcome writer’s block?  What do you do when your story blows up?

Behind the Story: Choosing Character Names

Owl & White/Red BookBehind the Story posts will be about what goes on behind the scenes as a writer creates their story.  I’ll be writing about my own writing process and sharing any tips or advice I’ve discovered on my own or gathered on the topic. Hopefully both readers and writers find these posts fascinating!

This week’s topic:
Choosing Character Names


In this week’s post, I’ll delve into how I go about choosing names for my characters.  There’s a lot of things to consider, and I definitely think certain authors have a gift for choosing the perfect names.  Two authors that come to mind are J.K. Rowling and Charles Dickens. Here’s what I’ve learned so far, but by no means am I an expert!


My own tips and tricks for choosing character names:

  1. Baby name websites: Best resource ever for finding character names.  My favorite website is Behind the Name.  You can browse or search for names, and each entry is organized much like a dictionary with pronunciation, origins, meaning, history, and popularity.  I love when my names have special meaning, and I’ve used this website more times than I can count!
  2. Using sounds to your advantage: Certain sounds have certain connotations, whether you are conscious of it or not.  A sharp sound is going to be more serious than sounds that long.  Sorry to keep using Harry Potter for my examples, but Rowling was a wiz with names.  Voldemort = Both the V and T sounds are sharp and bookend the name with their sharpness, plus the added meaning of mort as death.  Severus Snape = Both the V and P sounds are sharp, and the S sound makes his name slippery to say and perfect for a spy.  Whereas Neville Longbottom uses several sounds that are long and slow, particularly the O sound which is one of the slowest vowels.  And his name ending in the “UM” sound just makes the poor bloke sound unsure of himself just simply in his name.  I’m not an expert on this sound stuff, but as I become more aware of it, I’ve found it helps me in choosing the right names for my characters.  
  3. Coming up with a list for later reference: I like to have a list of stock names that I can grab from later if a new character announces its arrival.  Especially if I’m in a certain time period, I’ll make a list of names I like from that period, and make short notes regarding my own reactions to the name “evil” or “sounds strong.”  Usually our own first impressions come with our own subconscious connections to root meanings and sounds.  My lists so often come in handy when a character pops into my head fully-formed and needs a name, and usually one from my list will jump out at me.  It saves me the time of pouring through websites again, especially when I’m in the throws of writing and would rather not stop.
Some other sidenotes:
Surnames have been a lot harder for me to come up with than first names.  I’ve yet to find a single website that I love. Sometimes I have to search for surnames by time period or country in order to find what I’m looking for.
Knowing the time period of your novel is a must in choosing the right name.  But what to do when your novel is in the future?  When I was working on a dystopian/futuristic novel, I went with a sort of melting pot of sorts.  I found names, chopped up their syllables, and made new combinations using the sound connotations and roots I already knew.  It was actually great fun!
Don’t be afraid to change a name if your character grows and changes.  The point at which we assign a name, in a novel’s infancy, is often before we’ve discovered the core of the novel.  I’ve changed a character’s name more times than I can count when the name doesn’t feel right anymore.  It’s okay.  And it will always be good interview fodder for those blog tours down the line  ðŸ˜‰
What authors do you think have great names for their characters?

Do you writers have any neat tips or tricks for choosing character names?

Behind the Story: Creating a Villain

Owl & White/Red BookBehind the Story posts will be about what goes on behind the scenes as a writer creates their story.  I’ll be writing about my own writing process and sharing any tips or advice I’ve discovered on my own or gathered on the topic.  Hopefully both readers and writers find these posts fascinating!

This week’s topic: 
Creating a Villain

Unless you’re writing a novel that revolves completely around an internal conflict or a natural disaster, chances are good that your story requires a villain.

Villain is the popular term.  The literary term is antagonist.  An antagonist is a person who actively opposes the protagonist.  (Protagonist being your leading character.)

There are lots of questions an author might ask themselves as they create their villain, but one of the most important ones is:

What is my villain’s motivation?

  • What do they want?
  • Why do they want it?
Villains can’t just be evil for the heck of it.  Well, they can, but then you’ll have a very flat and boring character on your hands.  The best villains have a reason behind their wicked ways: something they want and a reason they want it.
Let’s take a look at some particularly well-known and fabulous villains:
Voldemort
What he wants: to be all-powerful, immortal, and to kill some Muggles
Why he wants it: After learning his heritage, he loathes his Muggle father for abandoning his pureblood mother.  His solution to what his father did is to become all-powerful and live forever to squash Muggles and their ignorance.
Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker
What he wants: To prevent those he loves from dying
Why he wants it: After watching his mother die and dreaming of Padme’s death, Anakin promises to find a way to conquer death.  When Emperor Palpatine proposes that the Dark Side can offer him powers that will conquer death, Anakin turns to the darkside and lets his fear consume him.
Those are just two examples, but I bet if you look at some of your favorite book villains, you can identify some sort of motivation that goes beyond “I’m evil!  Let’s kill something!”
As I set out to craft a villain:
I initially was going to make my villain some sort of fire witch.  I wanted her to have some sort of association with fire because my protagonist is going to by pyrophobic (fear of fire).  But I never could get myself to fall in love with the idea of a fire witch.  I couldn’t define it.  I couldn’t get a strong image in my head.  I’d named her Hestia after the Greek goddess of the hearth.  So the name alluded to fire and sounded witchy.
But I wasn’t satisfied.
So I started to think about motivation.  A new idea formed that would replace fire witch.  I’m making use of a different character of magical lore which I’m not going to share here because I want it to stay mine.
But I will share the motivation I came up with.
What my villain wants: To manipulate men
Why she wants it: Throughout history she’s watched women be controlled by men.  She doesn’t want to be controlled.  She wants to do the controlling.  And she’s accompanied by an entire secret society of women who have been controlling men for the last three thousand years.
Think alternative history and hidden clues like DaVinci Code or National Treasure.
So much better than a fire witch.
And let’s just say that once I came up with my villain, my word counts have been higher.  What can I say?  Evil characters motivate me  ðŸ™‚
What are your favorite villains and what motivates them?