Writing Process Blog Hop

My fabulous friend and critique partner Brandi Barnett invited me to join her in blogging about the Writing Process. Brandi is the author of YA novel Glamour, and she blogs about the magic of everyday life at brandibarnett.blogspot.com. Thank you, Brandi, for inviting me to join the fun!

Now to the questions . . .

What are you working on?
I just finished a middle grade contemporary ghost story. Now I'm in the planning stages for a couple of Young Adult novels--both mysteries, one contemporary and the other historical. Each has its own little bit of metaphysical/paranormal flair, of course.

How does your work differ from other of its genre?
This is a tough one, so I'll focus on process rather than content. I don't know how other writers of ghostly mysteries get their ideas, but with me it almost always starts with place rather than character or plot. When I discover an out-of-the-ordinary setting, I start to wonder what sort of people might have inhabited it, and what kind of joys and trials they might have experienced. The story takes off from there.

Why do you write what you do?
Simply put, I try to write the kind of books I want to read. I love mysteries and historicals. I love Gothic settings. I can't get enough of characters who are haunted in some way -- by an actual ghost, by the past, by a loss, or perhaps by some trespass they've committed. I collect favorite (& sometimes random) story elements like a magpie, with the goal of mixing them up into something new. Something me.

How does your writing process work?
I'm a planner. I outline. I fill in character questionnaires. I create index cards for each scene and arrange them on a bulletin board. I love any sort of graphic organizer for planning OR revising a story. It's the drafting that nearly kills me -- seriously, sometimes it's about as painful and ugly as ripping the guts from my body. (Well, not quite, but you know what I mean!) Revision isn't that much easier, but for me it's more fun, partly because the graphic organizers come back into play. I like to chart story elements to identify gaps and redundancies. For instance, when I'd completed a solid draft of my middle grade novel, Steve and I charted each chapter on a huge dry-erase board. So fun!


We spent three full days on this. My husband is a prince, I tell you. (Also, it was OU's semester break.)

Next Monday, April 28th (or in Valerie's case, a little earlier than that), three friends will join the blog hop and give you the deets on their writing process. Do pay them a visit!

Jerry Bennett is an illustrator and pre-published graphic novelist hard at work on his 'underwater western'.
Jerry blogs at Tumblr, and you also can follow him on Facebook.

Mari Farthing is a freelance editor and writer in the OKC area who blogs about family, music, pop culture and just about everything else you could think of at Mari, quite contrary.

Valerie Lawson is a young adult contemporary author who also dabbles in middle grade mysteries. She lives in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, with her husband and two children who suffer through her delusions of grandeur and bouts of madness with grace. Follow her writing journey at Valerie R Lawson: Barbies on Fire.

Have a great week, everyone!

[Cross-posted at Livejournal]

The NEXT BIG THING blog

I've been watching this meme go around, thinking it would be fun to do, but deadlines and commitments kept me from joining in. Recently, however, my friend Doug Solter tagged me again (here's his entry), and this time I couldn't refuse. It's always fun to talk about your newly birthed (or still gestating) fiction baby, right? So here goes . . .

What is the working official title of your book?
The Dark Between

Where did the idea come from for the book?

The idea came to me when I was researching Spiritualism for my first book, The Revenant. Somehow (I think it was through Barnes & Noble's analytics, bless them), I came across a book titled Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death. To me, this non-fiction book written by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Deborah Blum read like a suspense novel. The main "characters"-- all founding members of the Society for Psychical Research -- were so briliant and tormented, so vividly and relatably human, that I grew to care deeply for them. Their narratives unfolded like a film in my mind, and I could easily envision an HBO series featuring their attempts to scientifically prove the reality of paranormal phenomena, along with the ups and downs of their turbulent personal lives. I really wanted to write a story set within this world, but it took me a while to find my own characters and conflicts.

What genre does your book come under?
I would say . . . Young Adult paranormal mystery.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
Ha ha! When I was planning this story (back in 2009?), I made a collage, which ordinarily is not my sort of thing AT ALL. I've always been a big fan of outlining and free-writing to flesh out a story, but I decided it would be a good change of pace to work with images instead of text. This is what I came up with for The Dark Between (click to enlarge):



First off, I have to say that all the images looked great...until I Mod Podged them. After that the poor collage looked like I'd left it out in the rain. Secondly, although I was at one point flirting with the idea of including some sort of EVP recording device, there's no phonograph in the story.

Now...actors. You can see that I chose an early photo of Jensen Ackles for Asher Beale, mostly because of his lovely freckles. (Or "frackles" as I'm told they're termed within Supernatural fandom.) (And yes, I googled "American actors with freckles" to find this photo.) For Elsie, a beauty with a dark secret, I chose the seductive yet vulnerable Scarlett Johanson in The Prestige. And for Kate, I chose a photo of Irish actress Elaine Cassidy from her performance as Maud in Fingersmith. (She looks particularly smeared from the Mod Podge, but it actually suits Kate's state of mind at the beginning of the book.)

All these actors were too old to play the parts when I made this collage, and that was years ago. Still, their faces inspired me.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
(I'm stealing this from the inside cover of the ARC. I guess it's the Library of Congress summary?

Three teenagers in Victorian era London spend the summer at a local college and soon discover that their hosts, the Metaphysical Society, may be conducting sinister experiments in an attempt to communicate with the dead.

There are some inaccuracies (it's actually set in Cambridge in the early Edwardian period) and oversimplifications, but this does convey the flavor of the book.

Is your book self-published, published by an independent publisher, or represented by an agency?
It will be published by Alfred A. Knopf/Random House on August 27, 2013.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
Under a year, I think.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
Here's what my publisher has to say about it: "A supernatural romance about the powers that lie in the shadows of the mind, perfect for fans of Sarah Rees Brennan, Alyxandra Harvey, and Libba Bray."

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

As mentioned above, it was the founders of the Society for Psychical Research, as described in Blum's book Ghost Hunters, who inpsired the characters and situations in The Dark Between. I was intrigued by this group of extremely well-educated, thoughtful, and rational (for the most part) men and women who wished to make a serious study of paranormal phenomena. But I didn't really want to write about the adults. I wanted to imagine what it might have been like for their children, especially if these children were shocked or ashamed by their parents' activities, and particularly if one of them had been suppressing a paranormal ability for much of her life.

Thanks again to Doug for inviting me to participate! Two of my critique partners, Brandi Barnett and Dee Dee Chumley, will be joining me in blogging "the next big thing" next Friday, February 15. Be sure to tune in!

[Cross-posted at Livejournal]