Whatever You Do as a Writer, Make Lots of Notes!

I’ve learned this lesson the hard way. While editing one of my first published stories I discovered I’d changed the spelling of one of the main character’s names. Fortunately I caught the error before it went to print, but it was close. Then there is the case where I’ve forgotten the color of a character’s eyes or hair. Do you want to have to re-read your entire manuscript to find out what you originally said? Make notes!

Now I set up a file for each novel as I go along. Because I’m not a plotter, I don’t start off with loads of details on the characters or the story I’m writing. My “notes” file contains things like a list of characters, locations, maybe even some hints on where I’m going. As I describe the character, whether it is physical, mode of dress, speech patterns, I add these to the file under their name. When I create my fantasy world, I make notes under a separate section each time a country, city, mountain or the like gets created. I have been known to draw a map of the countryside, or the castle, so I know which way we are going. When I forget a spelling, or am not certain, I go back to my notes. The description and spelling in the note is what I consider as gospel.

This becomes particularly important when your publisher asks for a sequel. Given the choice of making notes, or having to re-read the original novel to find out the name of an inn where the hero met the heroine, I know which route I’d choose. Sometimes you plan to create a series when you start out, sometimes you are faced with turning what you thought was a stand-alone novel into a trilogy. When you finish a manuscript it is a good idea to write down any ideas you might have about: “What happens next?” It gives you a head start.

What form the notes can take is up to you under the: “what works best for you” philosophy. I use a separate Word file so I can call it up and refer to it while I am working. Some people like paper or card files. The format doesn’t matter as long as it works for you.

R.J.Hore

www.ronaldhore.com
www.facebook.com/RonaldJHore

The Dark Lady, Dark Days, Dark Knights (a trilogy)

The Queen’s Pawn, The Queen’s Man, (The Queen’s Game in 2016/17) (a trilogy)
The Housetrap Chronicles (Volumes 1 to 7)
Alex in Wanderland,
Knight’s Bridge
We’re Not in Kansas
Toltec Dawn (in 2016) (Toltec Khan in 2016/17) (Vol 3 is a work in progress)(a trilogy)

Every Writer Needs a Quiet Place or Maybe Two

When you picture a writer at work you often think of someone crouched over a computer, pounding away at the keyboard. They may be working by a window, hiding in a basement, or lounging on a boat. But it is their private writing place where the mind is free to create.

My den is in the lower level, and relatively quiet except at the cat’s feeding time. I used to write with music playing in the background, usually something that related to the sort of story I was working on. I seem to have gotten away from the habit of music and settled on quiet. Whatever works best for you is the way to go.

The second part of my writing world is where the ideas and the little details often come from. I like to take a walk before breakfast. Strolling through familiar surroundings I can work out scenes, dialogue, and how to solve up-coming problems, like how to save the hero/heroine from certain death, or get them into the peril in the first place.

I’m a pantser. I often start a story with little more than the beginning, or the ending, and maybe a character, but often nothing in between. Those morning walks are my other quiet place, where inspiration strikes.

What works best for me, when doing the actual creating and writing, is having as few interruptions as possible. I’ve tried writing in the garden, on the boat, and in a curling rink. Nothing else works as well as my two quiet places above, my cluttered den, and my morning walk.

Find your quiet place and get down to writing!

R.J.Hore

www.ronaldhore.com
www.facebook.com/RonaldJHore

The Dark Lady Trilogy (Volume 1,2,3)

The Queen’s Pawn (Volume 1) (volume 2 &3, The Queen’s Man, due in 2016, The Queen’s Game ?)
The Housetrap Chronicles (Volumes 1 to 7)
Alex in Wanderland,
Knight’s Bridge
We’re Not in Kansas (due in March 2016)

How I don’t Recommend You Start Your First Novel

I don’t always have the next book or two in mind when I start a novel. Sometimes it is a single story idea. By the time I have finished the project I may have a glimpse of what happens next, but not always.

I confess to being a “pantser,” that is, a writer who usually creates by the seat of his/her pants. Unlike the alternate method, the “plotter,” I don’t set out in great detail the world, the characters, and what is going to happen. This works well enough for me when creating a single novel, for a continuing series it can cause headaches.

For example, when I wrote The Queen’s Pawn it was pretty much a stand-alone project. My world building consisted of the narrow strip of land the characters fled through, and I designed the landscape as I wrote. I didn’t even bother to give the burning city they fled from a name. It wasn’t important to the tale I was weaving. When I finished, I wrote down two sentences as to what might happen next, if I ever found myself writing sequels. Number one was: The queen is getting married and everyone tries to stop the wedding. The second sentence was similar: The princess is getting married and everyone is tries to stop the wedding. That’s it, my entire notes regarding plotting for any possible sequels. Of course, after The Queen’s Pawn was finished I was asked to write two sequels.

A plotter would have taken the time to build their world before they began. What is the geography like? What are the surrounding countries, the politics, the history, the religion? Who are the main players? The plotter knows their characters and their backstories before starting on the manuscript and has a good idea of the plotline through to the end, may have even designed certain scenes and laid out the chapters. That is the recommended way to write.

I have learned from bad experience to make several notes as I write. Important stuff like describing the characters as I create them, names, places. It would be so much simpler if I did this ahead of time, but unfortunately that’s not my style. Now I have to expand the geography, expand the cast, and decide what nonsense the characters are going to get up to. In the case of the sequels, The Queen’s Man and The Queen’s Game, I had my main cast assembled and the villains still alive and hiding in the woodwork. I let the actors do the hard part and simply described how they would react to given situations.

One advantage for me to my method is I can jump right into the story without always knowing where I’m headed. It becomes a voyage of discovery. Keeps me interested, and sometimes surprised by what happens. At least in the above examples I knew the intended endings, two weddings.

It is the journey of discovery that keeps me amused and eager to continue writing.

R.J.Hore

www.ronaldhore.com
www.facebook.com/RonaldJHore

The Dark Lady Trilogy (Volume 1,2,3)

The Queen’s Pawn (Volume 1) (volume 2 &3, The Queen’s Man, due in 2016, The Queen’s Game ?)
The Housetrap Chronicles (Volumes 1 to 7)
Alex in Wanderland,
Knight’s Bridge
We’re Not in Kansas (due in March 2016)

The Trouble with Charisma

Please repost: Available now: http://www.amazon.com/Trouble-Charisma-Tarentino-Brothers-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B019HEJ8QQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1450380003&sr=8-1&keywords=rebecca+draco

The Trouble with Charisma

Release Date: December 20, 2015

Grace spent time in prison for a crime she did not commit. Her now-ex fiance framed  her and hired a corrupt attorney to see to it she went to jail in his stead. Now she is out and wants to clear her name and get her life back, if she can escape the clutches of the stalker her ex has set on a path to keep her from doing that. Love is not on her agenda.

Sal is an attorney, rising to the top of his firm and trying to make partner, but when he meets Grace, all he wants to do is help her find justice and end the sadness and mistrust he reads in her eyes toward him as a man and a lawyer. Then he falls in love...

I'd Rather be Writing

Most days I’d rather be writing, but these darn editors, and life, keep getting in the way.

A month ago and a bit I attempted to fly down a flight of stairs without a parachute and wound up slowed down by one leg. This means my physiotherapist sees more of me lately than my wife does.

Then, when I sit down to write something new and brilliant, my editor sends back a manuscript loaded with comments and deadlines. Volume two of the Queen’s Pawn (working title today: The Queen’s Man) is under final massaging and smoothing out. This should keep me off the streets for another couple of weeks.

I have other things I’d much rather be doing.

I’m working on the final polishing of Queen’s Pawn 3 (Today’s working title: The Queen’s Game). I also have a couple of Housetrap Chronicles tales just screaming to be let loose. I think I’ve finally figured out how I’m going to work a kitchen sink into one. (You know, “everything but…”). But, brand new scribbling will have to wait.

One thing I have found consistently, in getting ready for the editors, and later working with them, it is amazing how many errors remain in that perfect manuscript I have already read over a dozen times. I shudder to think what would come out in print if it were not for the firm glove and large stick carried by my editor. I obviously cannot be trusted on my own.

Threw away my cane last week. Still have more tests on the leg. Gives me plenty of time to stare at the computer and write, or re-write, I suppose.

 

However, as the lakes are freezing over, is there anything we'd rather do?

R.J.Hore

www.ronaldhore.com
www.facebook.com/RonaldJHore

The Dark Lady Trilogy (Volume 1,2,3)

The Queen’s Pawn (Volume 1 - with 2 & 3 coming)
The Housetrap Chronicles (Volume 1 to 7)
Alex in Wanderland,
Knight’s Bridge

Where Do These Weird Ideas Come From? Part Three

                                                          Plotting in Reverse

 

Sorry I’m late with this folks. Had a brain freeze plus a weekend working at a Comic Con for three days selling books and talking to readers and writers.

My last essay on the idea topic comes from something that works well for me but it is a bit off-the-wall.

I write a series of fantasy detective novellas under The Housetrap Chronicles. Seven published so far including two collections.

First I come up with a title, usually a mash-up of a well-known mystery story. My first title I mangled was based on Agatha Christie’s “The Mousetrap.” That is where I came up with “Housetrap.” Once I have the title, I create a plot and write a story that will fit the title and has no bearing on the original title at all. My detective is set in a world of elves and goblins and mongrels and whatever else I throw into the mix. Someday the kitchen sink will make an appearance.

To give you examples of some of the other titles in the series: “Dial M for Mudder,” or “The Hounds of Basalt Ville,” or “Murder in the Rouge Mort,” or “The Treasure of Sarah Madder.”  You get the idea.

I have a lot of fun writing these things and they give me a break from being serious. The only time I ran into a problem, is once after I came up with a plot the normal way and discovered I had a terrible time finding a title to fit.

Anyway, the bottom line is, a writer can find an idea for a story anywhere. Just grab it and run with it!

R.J.Hore
www.ronaldhore.com
www.facebook.com/RonaldJHore

The Dark Lady Trilogy (Volume 1,2,3)
The Queen’s Pawn (Volume 1)
The Housetrap Chronicles (Volume 1 to 7)
Alex in Wanderland,
Knight’s Bridge