I also love character based stories. I wrote two novels (one is a novella, if you want to get picky like writers do) based on a character I created. An unlikely pirate in the 18th century. Then I decided he would be a better as a secondary character so I created a character to be the lead character. Then I created other characters I loved to interact with him. It is mainly about the characters for me. And I love first person also.
They are adventures with humor, action, and romance, set in the 18th century, so I knew they would have little appeal to traditional publishers. Plus they are a bit wacky with names like Baron Britpop Blastfurnace. 🤣 So I self published them. And serialized them on my Substack. I actually wrote the second book one chapter at a time on my Substack and got helpful feedback.
I did outline them. Which I rarely do. But the outline started very vague with items like “adventures in France” and grew as the story unfolded.
A traditional editor would have probably hacked them to bits, if I could find one that didn’t reject them outright, so self publishing was my preferred route. Readers get what I envisioned, like it or not. 🤣
Blastfurnace is a tremendous last name. I enjoy coming up with first names for my characters, and subsequently become VERY attached to them, but last names often stump me. Secondary characters rarely have them mentioned in my books at all which saves me the agony of coming up with them in the first place. In my favorite of my YA novels, the protagonist's last name is NEVER MENTIONED. I still haven't come up with one and probably won't. 😂 Meanwhile her two love interests are named Joshua Jameson and Bud Beaumont. The alliteration there was accidental, but I enjoy it so much now. I'm considering serializing my one adult contemporary novel this spring or summer. It's actually an EPILOGUE IN ITSELF, as it's set in the same world and around the same characters as my aforementioned favorite YA yarn.
I love making up goofy names based on the character. Britpop was a blacksmith so Blastfurnace fit as a last name. I would name a mailman Lester Carrier. Or have a Sheriff Orderman. Or Mayor Blabbings. Or a grouchy old guy named Oldman Cardigan. Not very commercial but I enjoy it. 🤣
It’s really neat to hear about your novels, Meg. (And five in one year?! That’s a hell of a feat!)
My writing process is similar to yours. I do like to start with a basic outline in mind (the beginning, ending, and some “waypoints” in between), and I tend to find it helpful. Most of the time, my characters end up driving the story in a completely different direction. I don’t let the outline box me in. Better to let the characters drive the story and tell their tale!
Since I do a bit of plotting and just as much “pantsing”, I think I fall into the realm of plantser. 😄
When I tried to "plot" my nanowrimo project this year, I REALLY went for it. It was all index cards in a very specific order with the major plot turns established and I was so proud of my color-coding skills. I started writing and veered off course after about ten pages. 😂 I tried to get back on track a couple of times, but it was futile. The cards sat in a stack, mocking me, for the remainder of the writing process. I don't know why I didn't just throw them away! 😂 But in the end, the story I wrote was better than the story I plotted, because the action was more truthful for my characters. One thing I always do, in lieu of plotting, is a brainstorm of the story before I start writing. It's just a word doc. where I ramble on for three or four pages about this happens and then this happens and then... I keep those notes, but don't really look at them again until I'm done writing. Then I usually have a good laugh about how far from my original idea the end product is. But that's fun for me. I like writing by the seat of my pants... hence... pantser. Which TBH, just sounds like I run around pantsing people, so I do wish they'd come up with another term for it. 😊
Damn Meg, that is an impressive amount of output. I appreciate the fact that you write about love proudly. I find that regardless of what I write love is always a thread that runs through it.
Thanks Ben. Me too. For someone who is outwardly very snarky and sarcastic, I'm a big pile of mush inside. I've always loved the way love stories make me feel but have been terrified to write my own down and even more terrified to release them into the wild. But the combination of hitting middle age and finding a space to share that has been so amazingly supportive and generous has allowed me to reach the "ah, what the hell?" stage of my creative existence. Because what the hell, right? Make the thing. Ship the thing. Make the next thing. And so on. I'm preaching to the creative output choir over here, I realize. 🙂
Wow! Reading this post felt a lot like reading about myself. I am a pantser, through and through! I am fully on board with character-driven, first person, love stories right now. They are my absolute go to read (and write) for the last few years! Who doesn't love a good epilogue? It was super cool of you to share these things about yourself and your novels. It's so fun to learn the 'inner workings' of other writers. We're all similar and way different at the same time!
Hi Claire! TBH, I was hesitant to write this piece and to share it, for fear it would come across as "author speak" or that folks might see it as me peddling my methods as THE WAY to do things. I've seen other writers actually put a little disclaimer somewhere in their craft exposes (accent over 'e'), but I decided in the end not to do that. So, it makes me really happy that you enjoyed this for what it really is, just me sharing a little about how my crazy writer brain works and how I build stories. I have a novel writing friend who plots everything and writes a complete beat to beat outline for her novels before she starts writing them. That's her way. It fascinates me that she and I are essentially working toward creating the same thing but going about it in outstandingly different ways. So cool. 💛
It takes looking back (sometimes a long way) to figure out that the "voice" we're all searching for all the time has been with us since birth. Someday, when you're bored you can read this little gem of satirical fiction I wrote when I was nine. 🙂
I also love character based stories. I wrote two novels (one is a novella, if you want to get picky like writers do) based on a character I created. An unlikely pirate in the 18th century. Then I decided he would be a better as a secondary character so I created a character to be the lead character. Then I created other characters I loved to interact with him. It is mainly about the characters for me. And I love first person also.
They are adventures with humor, action, and romance, set in the 18th century, so I knew they would have little appeal to traditional publishers. Plus they are a bit wacky with names like Baron Britpop Blastfurnace. 🤣 So I self published them. And serialized them on my Substack. I actually wrote the second book one chapter at a time on my Substack and got helpful feedback.
I did outline them. Which I rarely do. But the outline started very vague with items like “adventures in France” and grew as the story unfolded.
A traditional editor would have probably hacked them to bits, if I could find one that didn’t reject them outright, so self publishing was my preferred route. Readers get what I envisioned, like it or not. 🤣
I have one more to go in the series (at least.)
Best of luck on your novel journey.
Blastfurnace is a tremendous last name. I enjoy coming up with first names for my characters, and subsequently become VERY attached to them, but last names often stump me. Secondary characters rarely have them mentioned in my books at all which saves me the agony of coming up with them in the first place. In my favorite of my YA novels, the protagonist's last name is NEVER MENTIONED. I still haven't come up with one and probably won't. 😂 Meanwhile her two love interests are named Joshua Jameson and Bud Beaumont. The alliteration there was accidental, but I enjoy it so much now. I'm considering serializing my one adult contemporary novel this spring or summer. It's actually an EPILOGUE IN ITSELF, as it's set in the same world and around the same characters as my aforementioned favorite YA yarn.
Thanks for reading, Mark!
I love making up goofy names based on the character. Britpop was a blacksmith so Blastfurnace fit as a last name. I would name a mailman Lester Carrier. Or have a Sheriff Orderman. Or Mayor Blabbings. Or a grouchy old guy named Oldman Cardigan. Not very commercial but I enjoy it. 🤣
It’s really neat to hear about your novels, Meg. (And five in one year?! That’s a hell of a feat!)
My writing process is similar to yours. I do like to start with a basic outline in mind (the beginning, ending, and some “waypoints” in between), and I tend to find it helpful. Most of the time, my characters end up driving the story in a completely different direction. I don’t let the outline box me in. Better to let the characters drive the story and tell their tale!
Since I do a bit of plotting and just as much “pantsing”, I think I fall into the realm of plantser. 😄
Thank you for the enjoyable read!
When I tried to "plot" my nanowrimo project this year, I REALLY went for it. It was all index cards in a very specific order with the major plot turns established and I was so proud of my color-coding skills. I started writing and veered off course after about ten pages. 😂 I tried to get back on track a couple of times, but it was futile. The cards sat in a stack, mocking me, for the remainder of the writing process. I don't know why I didn't just throw them away! 😂 But in the end, the story I wrote was better than the story I plotted, because the action was more truthful for my characters. One thing I always do, in lieu of plotting, is a brainstorm of the story before I start writing. It's just a word doc. where I ramble on for three or four pages about this happens and then this happens and then... I keep those notes, but don't really look at them again until I'm done writing. Then I usually have a good laugh about how far from my original idea the end product is. But that's fun for me. I like writing by the seat of my pants... hence... pantser. Which TBH, just sounds like I run around pantsing people, so I do wish they'd come up with another term for it. 😊
This is my third, fourth time reading this ... and I still like it!
Thank you, Tom. 🙂
Damn Meg, that is an impressive amount of output. I appreciate the fact that you write about love proudly. I find that regardless of what I write love is always a thread that runs through it.
Thanks Ben. Me too. For someone who is outwardly very snarky and sarcastic, I'm a big pile of mush inside. I've always loved the way love stories make me feel but have been terrified to write my own down and even more terrified to release them into the wild. But the combination of hitting middle age and finding a space to share that has been so amazingly supportive and generous has allowed me to reach the "ah, what the hell?" stage of my creative existence. Because what the hell, right? Make the thing. Ship the thing. Make the next thing. And so on. I'm preaching to the creative output choir over here, I realize. 🙂
Wow! Reading this post felt a lot like reading about myself. I am a pantser, through and through! I am fully on board with character-driven, first person, love stories right now. They are my absolute go to read (and write) for the last few years! Who doesn't love a good epilogue? It was super cool of you to share these things about yourself and your novels. It's so fun to learn the 'inner workings' of other writers. We're all similar and way different at the same time!
Hi Claire! TBH, I was hesitant to write this piece and to share it, for fear it would come across as "author speak" or that folks might see it as me peddling my methods as THE WAY to do things. I've seen other writers actually put a little disclaimer somewhere in their craft exposes (accent over 'e'), but I decided in the end not to do that. So, it makes me really happy that you enjoyed this for what it really is, just me sharing a little about how my crazy writer brain works and how I build stories. I have a novel writing friend who plots everything and writes a complete beat to beat outline for her novels before she starts writing them. That's her way. It fascinates me that she and I are essentially working toward creating the same thing but going about it in outstandingly different ways. So cool. 💛
Fantastic, revelatory piece. It's like you know what kind of writer you are, or something. What a treat.
It takes looking back (sometimes a long way) to figure out that the "voice" we're all searching for all the time has been with us since birth. Someday, when you're bored you can read this little gem of satirical fiction I wrote when I was nine. 🙂
https://stockfiction.substack.com/p/snow-white-my-version