Questions:
Are you a pantser or a plotter? Who is your hero? What is your inspiration and what is hot right now?
These questions come up in many forms on other blog sites as
well as ours. We’ve heard them before in various contexts.
My question:
How do you begin a
new manuscript, a novel? What concept germinates the kernel of your tale?
- Do you have a scene and build your story around it?
- Or decide on genre and let your mind take you on a journey?
- Are you checking the treads, gauging their popularity and write a story to follow them?
I have a theory on what sells and why.
Begin your new
manuscript by determining you MC’s character traits. Create the bond
between you, the Writer and your Main Character first. Give her or him life and
let them take you by the hand and lead you on the journey.
Introduce yourself to the character and form the attributes.
Set them in your mind.
Don’t compose a scene or a big dramatic revelation. Create a
bond immediately. Make the reader care first. Do this from the very beginning
and give your potential reader a reason to turn the page.
The shoot-‘em-ups will happen later after you’ve known each
other a while.
3 comments:
I tend to build both character and plot around the notion of theme (what I want to say with the novel). It helps ensure that the completed work has layers of depth, and that the whole thing works together.
Good tip. It's all about character. My story ideas are inspired by a variety of things...perhaps something I see in my everyday life (an apple, a dog walking it's owner in the park, a ballerina, music I hear on the radio...) I never run out of ideas. My problem is the time to develop the ideas and write something worthwhile from them.
What a great blog! I am your 200th follower.
Kathy M.
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