Eden Ashe

Archive for the ‘characters’ Category

…or take your time. I know authors who prefer to write at an insane pace to get the story out and finished, then will go back and edit it until it sparkles. And I know authors who take their time with every scene, until it’s as perfect as they can make it before they move on. I know there’s no ‘right’ way. I always kind of thought it was like telling an artist who used charcoals that they’re wrong, and should be using oil paint instead. My problem isn’t how other people write. My problem is finding what works for me. Because honestly, I have no idea.

The husband just wants me to write if that’s what I want to do. My sisters just want me to push to get something submitted. A friend that doesn’t care how quickly I write, as long as I write every day. And friends that love what I’m creating and can’t wait to read more. I’ve found that NaNoWriMo speed doesn’t work for me anymore. I wish it did, but apparently, I’ve learned too much about writing in the last five years, and I no longer know how to turn that internal editor off. I have plot points I have to hit now–character development traits I have to start threading in, plus things like internal and external conflict, quirks that make the characters unique, faults to make them human, strengths to make them the only person in the world the other could ever want or need. More than anything, I want people to read my work and love my characters, my worlds, as much as I do. That’s my only goal in writing.

My problem is that every writer I know has a pace, a rhythm that works for them. So why am I having such a hard time finding one that works for me? And why do I obsess about this, when all I want to be doing is telling my stories?

…of NaNoWriMo 2010.  The concept is simple: 50,000 words in 30 days. That means turning off the stupid internal editor and just writing. Bad words, awful grammar, incoherent sentences, mind-boggling ramblings, and all.  It means sitting at your computer and worrying about nothing story-wise other than just hitting your 1,667 daily word count goal.

This used to be a lot easier for me. Back in 2006 when I signed up for the first time, I was still relatively new to writing and frankly, the thought of editing even a single sentence was enough to make my brain hurt to the point of real, physical pain. So it was easy for me to just sit down with a new, wickedly cool idea and just write, while worrying about  nothing but getting Keeley and Luca to their happy ending.  It was frustrating, but so much fun, and Here With Me was born. I finished my 50,000 words with fifteen minutes to spare, I had the entire novel done by the end of that December, and I still consider it the best thing I’ve ever written. So it seems fitting that for this years NaNo, I would come full circle.

It’s not that easy for me anymore. I don’t have nice, normal characters who live in a nice, normal world anymore. While this current couple, Kian and Isabel, may have started life as Luca and Keeley, their world is anything but nice and normal. In fact, to make their world and these male characters fit the way I need them too, I’m looking at building a world that is much darker than anything I’ve ever dreamed up, let alone attempted to create–and I am talking almost The Crow dark. Which if you know me, and you know how my brain works, it is not an easy fit. It’s actually a little terrifying, and more than a little worrying, and it leads me to keep asking myself if I’m attempting something that I’m just not capable of pulling off. I have an entire alternate Earth to create.  That means world building, and let’s face it. That is not one of my strengths. But that doesn’t mean I cannot do this, crisis of confidence aside. For as much credit and freedom as I give my characters, one of the biggest lessons I have learned since my first NaNo four years ago is that their lives, their worlds, their stories, are only as big as *I* allow them to be, and there is no such thing as a perfect first draft. Yes, I’m worried about the four books that will come after this one in the series, and I’m worried about writing myself into a box, or creating rules that fit these characters but totally DO NOT fit for Ty and Whitney, but that’s something else I’m learning: I have a–let’s face it–huge problem with over-thinking things, and if I let myself worry about all these little problems, I’ll never accomplish anything.

And that is totally, completely unacceptable.

Sigh. Okay, anyway, I need to stop rambling and actually go work. So if I go missing this month, blame it on my characters. Because for once, it really will be their fault.

~Eden