Making Stuff Up

This week's challenge has been coming up with new names for places and bands. Once upon a time, I had some friends who were in bands, and they had dozens of fun names they wanted to use, including logos for those band names if and when the time came. Could I remember even one? Nope (feel free to chime in with one of your favorites). 

At any rate, one of the wonders of the Internet is fiction generators. You can ask it for the names of fictional colleges (which I did for FAMILY ALCHEMY), or restaurants, or bars, or even fictional town names. So I went out to search for fictional band names -- and I was disappointed. There are several websites to choose from, but the first one couldn't find anything based on my search criteria, which frustrated me enough to pull something out of a hat. Because my imagination works well enough, and I have goofy enough friends that sometimes these things do return to front of mind. 

The other option for names or ideas, and lots of authors do this, is to "phone a friend." The Who Wants to Be a Millionaire game that equates to post the question to Facebook. I've done that a time or two, too. (A shout out to all the people who have helped me in this regard.)

So in answer to the oft-asked question "how do you come up with all this stuff?" Sometimes I don't, and I have to use a lifeline. 

So here's my "phone a friend" for this book. The working title is When She Put The Book Down, which is long and cumbersome and could work, but maybe not... (sigh, take a deep breath). It's another Hoffman Grove book with Sue appearing as the main character. You may remember from COOKIE THERAPY that she likes to read. In this book, that love of reading is going to be put to the test when her new neighbor moves in and she has to help him solve the murder of his former roommate, whose suspicious death was ruled a suicide. It isn't really a "cozy" per se, but she is trying to put everything she's learned reading mysteries to the test, including trying to decide if the new neighbor DID kill his roommate. If anyone has any suggestions for a better title, I'm all ears!

In the meantime, back to writing the story!

For those of you who prefer to listen to my blog posts

For those people who would rather listen to my blog posts, I'm revisiting the five senses over on my podcast. It's a quick listen, I try to keep them around 10 minutes except for when I'm hosting my author friends (and then we tend to chat a bit longer). I'd love to hear your preferences, either here or at the podcast. Drop me a comment!

Meanwhile, back to writing the new book...

Plotting and Pantsing

As most of you who read my blog know, I'm basically a pantser, with some exceptions.

The benefits of pantsing (writing by the seat of my pants) include discovering the story along with your characters, which can be an exciting ride. They tell you their story. But what do you do when your characters are more circumspect? When they aren't in the mood to share?

The benefits of plotting include providing a story direction. A story can't just plod along with everyone being happy and learning about each other and their past and (in a romance) falling in love. They need obstacles. A reason to be on the page. The requisite goals, motivation and conflict.

As an author I start out with an idea. Something I want to center my story around, or a concept I want to incorporate in some way, shape or form. From seeing the majesty of a buck standing beside a snowy road puffing out clouds of breath, to walking through a French market. But how does that fit into the story?

In my current story, I have characters talking to me. They want to tell their story. That's all well and good, but what's the story? It can't just be "my life as a [fill in the blank]." It has to be interesting. That pesky goals, motivation and conflict. This is a case for the plot meister. Why should I tell your story? What trouble are they going to run into?

Here's another little hint. For people who have "writer's block," outlining and/or plotting helps clear some of the dam. Instead of trying to put paragraphs on the page, writing smaller chunks of ideas is much easier. Similar to the "spoke" method for writing a term paper or business article. Write each idea on one of the spokes of a wheel and sort them out later. Trouble your characters will encounter along the way. Places where the "everyday" needs to be weaved in to help them think through the trouble or uncover a clue to resolving the issue. Clues to solving the problem. Character arcs. Which of these experiences help your characters to grow? What will they achieve by the end of the book that they didn't have at the start? Or is there a reason they won't be able to achieve it?

Some easy plots are "a crime has been committed. Solve it." Or "solve the mystery of X." And in romance, most often, "how do two very different people who live their lives in opposition find that they can't live without each other?" It's in the middle ground that they find love.

So when my characters aren't "doing" anything but living their everyday lives, I sit down and write an outline to give them direction. What's stopping them from going about their business, and how do they fix it in a way that makes them better in the end?

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm setting up roadblocks for my characters. Happy writing!

The new audiobook is done!

BREAKING THE MOLD was delayed by a month, but it is now complete and heading to the usual channels for distribution! 

Have I mentioned the book is getting five-star reviews? Allow me to brag on it a little - after all, it is one of my babies!

“…Karla Brandenburg’s writing is spot on, and watching the characters deal with their problems while wondering if a romance will help or hinder their lives will keep readers turning pages.” - Leigh Carter

“…Will [Kayleigh] continue to stand up to her Mother and sister and run her own business, a ceramic shop she has dreamed of owning? We know there's going to be a lot of fireworks - good and bad…A wonderful story about learning to trust and grow as an individual. It is possible to start over again.” - BookHound

“…Kayleigh and Rafe’s story kept me turning the pages.” - Muddy Rose Reviews

"I totally enjoyed this, clearly, since I couldn't stop! ... That's what you get for writing such a good book!" - (from my narrator!)  

Have you read it yet? 

Managing disappointment

I'm keeping it short and sweet today. When you find out things you wish you hadn't, it often leads to disappointment. In those instances, it's best just to smile and, although you now might have a different opinion on something or someone, KBO (as one of my friends advises me). In short - carry on with who you are, regardless.

New book writing underway. Audiobook version of BREAKING THE MOLD nearly completed. More audio in the works.

Peace out.

Incorporating Experiences into Books

As I've been proof-listening to my narrator read BREAKING THE MOLD, something jumped out at me that made me laugh.

Characters often take on attributes from people I've met or have known or stories people have told me. Years ago, when I wrote LIVING CANVAS, I borrowed a situation I'd run across about a not-so-good friend/good friend, someone who could be your best friend or your worst enemy. Unfortunately, I did a poor job showing this friend's good side, and people responded accordingly. Ugh. Toxic friend! So I had to write a book to redeem that character. Fast forward to THIS book. That same character makes an appearance, and then I wrote another "friend" who I realized is based on the same person! Funny the impact that story had on me, that the friend in question is now the model for not one, but two people in the same book (one "good" and one "evil")!

I was tossing around ideas for the new book and tried outlining a couple different plot lines based on another experience. I settled on a roundabout approach to the story and decided the best way to think it all through was to take a walk on my treadmill (it's cold and snowy outside, after all). And then it hit me (no, not the treadmill). The obvious answer was right in front of me. Suddenly, my "who are you" heroine turned into a character I already know from Hoffman Grove, and the struggle she's dealing with is obvious. (can you hear the "A-HA!") I love when things come together like that. The conflict I was struggling to present, the questions I have about how different things affect different people, have fallen into place very neatly. 

This is a good time to point out I do NOT project myself onto my characters, but that doesn't stop them from seeing things I've seen or experiencing things I've experienced. Things like a walk through a farmers' market. People-watching on the train. Visiting a maybe-haunted house. Sight-seeing in New Orleans--or another country. Meeting new people with interesting personalities or stories. In the story I'm currently writing, I'm borrowing a goofy personality trait from a physical therapist I met. The things we see, the things we experience all find their way into the stories we write and the characters we create. 

 

There's magic all around us

Something about authors that's a given - we all have a vivid imagination. 

I was having a conversation with someone the other day about the magic in the world around us. I'm not talking about hocus pocus this time, I'm talking about beauty and history and those unique things that make us stop to ooh and ahh. What is the aurora borealis if not magic? 

And this is where the conversation takes a turn. The scientifically minded among us will argue that it's a scientific phenomenon (the aurora) and there's nothing magic about it. While technically true, it comes down to the way we see things. I'm sure there's a neurological description for our varied responses to the same stimuli, and even those with "less" imagination can still be impressed with the view.

One of the things authors have struggled with during the past two years is the lack of "magic" stimuli. In its place is a daily diatribe of people attacking one another's differences, their uniqueness, their viewpoints and belief systems. Even the way they look. It's exhausting for people who want to show the world the magic we see in these same things. The magic is under attack. During these times, sometimes it's easy to forget the magic is still there.

Which brings me back to the conversation in question.

We got to talking about work trips and I commented on how those trips must have impacted this person, but no... they didn't really find them remarkable (which I find interesting, since they chose to talk about them in the first place!). And then I mentioned a trip I'd taken several years ago chasing the magic.

The Birks of Aberfeldy

I'm sure many of you have read or watched the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon, about an army nurse from the 50's who happens upon a stone circle and finds herself transported 200 years into the past. The books so captivated me that I went to Scotland in search of an escape from the real world. No, I didn't want to end up in Jacobite Scotland, but I did go in search of the elusive something different. And I found it. For four days, I actively searched out those things that called to me through Ms. Gabaldon's writing (for the record, there is no such place as Craig na Dun). What did I find? An old-time village that might have been straight out of Brigadoon (except it didn't disappear at the end of the day). An unexpected nature walk across the street from the inn I stayed my first night, dedicated to Robert Burns. The River Ness - complete with the ruins of Urquhart Castle and tales of the Loch Ness monster. The haunted feel of Culloden Moor. A stone circle (very small) and burial cairns near the moor. An inn in Inverness made up of several buildings that interconnected with hallways that seemed to lead nowhere and staircases up and down where you could easily lose your way. A gondola ride up Ben Nevis (the tallest peak in Scotland). A drive past Rannoch Moor, shrouded in mist, with a warning not to hike a moor in the mist lest you get lost. A waterfall beside the highway where people hiked in Glen Coe. Walking the Royal Mile in Edinburgh. To some people, these are just tourist destinations, pretty sights to see. For me, I was transported with each new thing I saw. Sure, when I walked through the Birks of Aberfeldy that first evening, I felt like I could just as easily have been in Wisconsin, but there was something more. This was a place Robert Burns had drawn inspiration from. The entire trip was one magical scene after another. 

Glen Coe

As I related everything I'd seen to the person I was talking to, they commented they could actually see me change while I talked about it and asked if I wanted to go back. That's a definite... yes, and no. My response was to ask if they'd ever been someplace transformative. If there was anything that touched them on a visceral level. The answer (sadly) was no. Back to my answer. Do I want to go back? Yes. There are lots of things I didn't get a chance to see on my very abbreviated trip, but for the time I was there, I was allowed to experience every minute of the magic. Give myself completely over to the sparks of my imagination. Too often, we don't take advantage of those opportunities, weighed down by responsibilities or anxiety over how to get to the next point or what we're going to eat and where and when. Aside from two meals on the trip, I don't remember anything that I ate. The downside to immersing myself in the experience, for me, meant crashing back to earth when it was over. And I did crash land (for a number of reasons, first and foremost the reason I needed the escape in the first place.)

I wrote about some of the magic I found in LIVING CANVAS, but that's my job as an author, finding the magic in the ordinary--or what some people see as ordinary. I've had many trips since that first "great adventure" in search of the magic, both at home and abroad, and I've tried to convey many of those experience in my writing. On some trips, the magic was harder to find, even when it was right in front of me, but it reveals itself in the quiet moments, when the everyday isn't weighing me down and my imagination can take flight.

That conversation? It reminded me of that weightlessness that goes with experiencing the magic that exists right in front of me. 

And now I need to find a way to incorporate that in the next story I'm writing!