Friday, August 14, 2009

Inquiring Noob, Wants To Know...




To all the impatient characters clogging up my brain,
Please take some time to make a line, consider it a train.
Tallest to shortest, richer to poorest I do not care which
Please settle down and wait your turn; Vern, stop calling me a bitch.
I know you all have stories to tell, each one is important to me
Be you cat or dog, bat or hog or some strange concoction in between.
I’ll hear your tale, just stop your wail and please, please let me be!


Well Aug 10th has come and gone. I’m now the proud mama of a newly published book, THE CHALLENGE. However, I neglected to take into consideration that once my baby was out there, the rest of my very eager characters would come a-calling.


Many of the ideas that sprang to life during my writing, re-writing, editing and re-editing of THE CHALLENGE, are now back vying to be the next story up on the block, even though I’m currently working on the next story in my Jaguar series.


While grateful that I even have ideas, the roar of requests has me wondering, how do other authors handle this? Do your characters bombard you with write me next requests? And if so, how do you handle it? Do you write only one story at a time or try to spread your focus and write more than one at a time?


Inquiring noob, wants to know??

Have a great weekend, everyone!

6 comments:

Paris said...

Serena,
This is an interesting subject and one I'm familiar with. It seems that at the end of a book one of the characters always piques my interest enough to develop another story.

If the next project is already planned and I need to finish it, I'll make a file and call it "Scenes for(fill in the blank)". Then, whatever bits of scenes, characters, setting or dialogue show up, I put it in the file. By the time I'm ready to write the story, I'm ahead of the game.

If I get an entire scene, I write the thing because it's 9 times out of 10 going to go somewhere or help with my plot. Most of the time I'll do a working syopsis and refine it as it comes.

Then again, if I'm not on a deadline with the current WIP and the sequel to another book starts spinning, I just write it because the book I write then won't be the book I'd write later.

Happy writing, dear;-)

Francesca Hawley said...

Serena you're lucky if your characters started bugging the heck out of you AFTER you finished the last one. Usually, my characters (and it's almost ALWAYS the guys) start poking and prodding me before the previous book is done. If that doesn't work and get me off track, they try seduction. They follow with a combination of the two, which is certainly interesting...LOL

Like Paris, I try to write something down when the idea comes - a premise or a scene or something before going back to what I was working on.

If one book stops dead, I have been known to just start writing the one that's moving. Sometimes you just have to go with the flow.

Good luck!

Savanna Kougar said...

Serena, that black and white pic brings back memories of that time... when I was growing up. Cool, in a weird and good way.

Serena, I'm quite familiar with that character *I want my story told* bombardment. Fortunately, most of them do try to bide their time. And I do what Paris does, as much as possible... write down what I can for, hopefully, later.
And like Francesca says, too, if I come to a stopping point, I have another story to work on until the main one starts up again.
For example, I had a Halloween story show up. I was thinking a short one... however, I think, the heroine, Kandace or Kandy Apple, was just fooling me. It would be larger than a novella.

Serena Shay said...

Hi Paris,
Great idea with the files! I do something like that as well with One note anything from pic to song lyrics for my characters goes in it.

I like the idea of writing an entire scene if it comes to you...I'm going to have to try that! I'll probably have lots of time for it this weekend as I'm going out of town for three days with no computer access...arggg long hand for me!!

Have a great weekend.

Serena Shay said...

Francesca,
LOL, yes so far they have been some what patient with me while I'm writing, although I'm thinking there tethers are wearing thin.

Ooh the seduction attempt at getting their stories told...that's always sweet! Especially from the hotties I've seen on your covers!!

Have a great weekend

Serena Shay said...

Hi Savanna,
I love those old pics. Black and whites draw me into the actual picture without all the color taking away from the message.~if that makes sense~ I did a whole series of my darling diva when she was a baby, best pics I've ever taken. :)

I like Francesca and your suggestion about having another story on hand. I've done that as well and it helps me a bit, but I'm always drawn back to the original story I'm working on...huh, maybe it helps me a lot that way! LOL ;)

Oooh, Kandy Apple, that naughty girl!

Have a great weekend