During my upcoming virtual tour (more to follow on that in later posts), I posted the map of the seven sovereignties in THE ELVEN LORDS series, some of my history and notes that went into building the world, and research into the costume of the era. Today I thought I’d share my character cards.When I first started writing, I had the luxury of working up entire pages on my characters: where they went to school, what was their favorite color, favorite food, etc. (Have you ever written up a character sheet for the game Dungeons & Dragons? Very fun…and sort of similar.)
But with deadlines, I no longer have the time to do that, and truly, I wound up using less than half of that information in the actual book. It just never came up in the plot. And most of the characterization was in my head to start, and as my book progressed, so did my character. Another one of the magical elements of writing.
So now I use index cards. They are easy to flip through while I’m writing and I can include little sketches or notes as my book progresses and refer back to them pretty quickly. The cards for THE FIRE LORD’S LOVER aren’t as crowded as the ones I’m using for book two, THE LADY OF THE STORM. But you can see my (rather awful) sketches that I created as the book developed and other tidbits important to my characters.
I hope my readers enjoy another peek into my writing process, and that other writers may find some benefit in using my method of index cards. At the end of my blog tour, I will be adding all of the items mentioned here to my website.
My Magical Best,
Kathryne
4 comments:
I haven't gotten that sophisticated. I have a map of Scotland that I converted to my world. My notes are in a notebook of names etc. I have a huge foam board of scribbles. My notes for the next series of my novel are scattered on organized scraps of paper. I did buy index cards. Does that count?
I use excel spreadsheets that I keep track of stuff on and add as needed. I always love to see what other authors do.:)
Hi Nikole! Yes, that counts. :} Truly, it's whatever works for your creative process, and it sounds like you've got it together!
I'd love to see your spreadsheets someday, Kim. (lol, that sounded like I said it with a wink.) Seriously, though, it's always fun to see how other writers create their stories.
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