For reasons beyond my understanding, my brain likes inventing personas—everything from wacky facades to keep small children entertained to personalities projected onto passersby. Everyone has a story, after all.
For this phase, I found myself face to face with that most odious and onerous of literary formats: the synopsis.
Welcome back to my mad experiment, where I attempt to create a novel using a ten-step approach to plotting, character development, and more.
Some of my favorite villains are those who see themselves as heroes, and Annette Young falls wholeheartedly in that flock.
One of the most exciting things a writer can do is push a character outside of his comfort zone. It turns out the same is true for writers themselves.
Writers never kill their darlings. We just lock them away…in a dungeon…indefinitely…
Answer: I have no idea — even after writing nine of them. Maybe some authors have a formula that produces consistent results, but for me, the question is too nuanced to allow for a simple solution.
Since no two minds work precisely the same way, no two writers are going to approach planning, plot structure, character development, research, writing, and editing exactly the same way. A method that works for one author might result in utter failure for another.
On a very basic level, the creation of a story can be divided into two parts: concept and composition. Without a command of both sides, a writer is bound to fall short of greatness.
Whereas some writers find music (or any background noise) a distraction, I am fueled by the creative energy imbued in most melodies.