Tag Archives: characters

The Big Reveal: WHO IS AUTHOR A & WHO IS AUTHOR B FOR WK 1-3’S STORIES?? …. #kdsuspense #amwriting

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Evening guys,

Both Didi and I have had some positive feedback from readers, about our stories. We are also both LOVING working together on them each week, it’s a shock to us to see where our story will end up, if you’re author A, as well as a shock to see what will land in your inbox to finish writing if you’re author B. Personally, I like both roles A and B I have no preference. What’s the hardest thing about working with Didi? …. Stopping writing! No matter if I’m A or B . We have both knocked out 90,000 odd word novels ,and it’s hard to put a lid on it once we’re in the groove! We Skyped about this, then guess what  we went over the word limit each again lols.. ah well. Sooooooooooooo I guess by now some of you want to know who is author A and who is author B, for the first three stories we have done. Okay your wish is our command, did you guess right…. take a look.

 

Week 1: It Was The First Time I Killed A Man. click here to read a steamy 18+ historical bit of crime fiction about a woman on death row.

 

Author A: kimknightprofilepic

 

Author B: Didi (1)

Yep I whipped up that crazy ass woman Lisa Vanicilli and handed her to my partner in crime to see what she’d do. Didi did not fail me! She aced the ending so well.  And you know what I loved writing Lisa. She’s nuts! This is my favourite story  so far. That said, this week’s one  for Tuesday maybe a close call. I heard through the grape vine a few of of you thought it may have been Didi  as author A. Humm maybe, as the main character is a blonde female from the USA….  “They say we write what we know “ well I’m from London,  my accent is nothing like the New York, Brooklyn accent that I love so much that we both tried to portray while writing. And I  could not be more far removed from the main female myself as a woman, but  we did tell you we’re skilled at adapting our writing styles. We’ll write anyone, any age, race, gender, sexuality we’ll try to step into anyone’s  shoes.

My First Reaction When I Read Didi’s Ending For This Story:

“Holy sh*it Didi is even more nuts than me in her character development, Lisa is crazy lols. Then I read real close again about two or three times and was like , hey you can’t even tell there was a change of writer. This is freaky it’s like one of us knocked out that story on our own.

Week Two: Every Time I Hear That Voice From The Basement: Click here to read. A psychological suspenseful story.

 

Author A: Didi (1)

 

Author B: kimknightprofilepic

 

My First Reaction When This Story Landed In My Inbox:

When Didi sent me over the story,  in her email she was like: ” I gatta real dochebag for ya Kim. Can’t wait to see what you do with him.” I read the email and  laughed, but never expected what I read. I loved it.

When I finished reading I was like..What a freak he is! Didi can step into the shoes of anyone, she likes to write ’em crazy all right. I had so much fun with this story as I zoned in the the “disturbed” personality our main man has. The bleach part with his wife Jolene was a creative fluke. It just came to me while I was writing, focusing on his OCD ways. In fact this story was a real “fly by the seat of my pants story”. And as many of you know,  I’m  not “a panster” as a writer I like to plot my outline, then fill in with creativity as I write, I always have a direction. With this one I just sat behind the laptop and tried to craft a character that was true to what Didi whipped up, I had no direction. I think, this story was the most fun to write for me as I stepped into the shoes of a very ill man.  I dropped in the part about London and his obsession for Dana,  rather than turn him into a serial killer or let there be a murder, just to be a little different, and more creepy/ scary. I see this guy as a more passive dangerous character ,rather than an outright murderous character like Lisa Vanacili.  George is sly, very sly not so bold. He’s a plotter very calculating he won’t lash out like Lisa. Maybe Didi feels otherwise when she crafted him, we’ll see in her reveal post.

Week Three: The  Entrance To The Tunnel Is His Only Way Out. Click Here to Read It. A short sharp bit of crime fiction.

 

Author A: kimknightprofilepic

 

Author B: Didi (1)

My First Reaction When I read Didi’s Ending For This Story:

Wow! I never saw that coming at all. Now that’s a surprise twist. I was very shocked at how Didi set me up to think that Juan would make it out okay, he just needed a little sleep. I think personally, she kept his character very true to what I created, Juan did not change. I also would NEVER have thought to go in that direction creatively at all, never ever.  I don’t know what was going through her head when she wrote the ending, but what ever it was did me proud.

 

So there you go. You know who author A and author B is for weeks one- three. Stay tuned for week four’s story which will be posted on Tuesday! Polls will go up to vote for week five’s writing prompt Wednesday. And now we have announced week four’s winning prompt…. why not write a story to the prompt with us? Leave your link on our pages and use #kdsuspense!

And remember …. WE NEVER DISCUSS WHO SHOULD WRITE WHAT, OR HOW THE STORIES SHOULD START OR END. ONCE WE HAVE AUTHOR A AND B AGREED… AUTHOR A WRITES, HANDS HER STORY TO AUTHOR B, SHE WRITES, WE PUT THEM TOGETHER, GIGGLE  HARD …AND PRESS PUBLISH!

Have a wonderful start to your week tomorrow.

Updated-Telling-Tales-Weekly-Challenege-Kim-&-Didi

 

 

Writing Tip: Character Profiles & Their Importance #writerslife #amwriting

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I’ve just sat down to do a couple hours work on the next novella story for my Romance Set in Paradise series, I started to think a lot about character development (as I normally do) as I’m creating a scene that’s unfamiliar to me. On top of that my main character is in a situation also unfamiliar to me. In order to do this  scene and story justice, other than research, one thing I have learned while creating unfamiliar or difficult scenes is it’s helpful to react to things as your character would rather than yourself. In order to do this you need a detailed character profile. (In my humble view).

When I wrote A Stranger in France, all 90,000 words were mapped out across chapters and character profiles, it helped A LOT especially as the characters are so far removed from me. I also wrote from a male POV – two very different males! So I had to keep in line with what my character’s traits are rather than me a thirty four year old woman. The benefits of a character profile I can not stress enough to every aspiring or even established writer out there. Here’s my take on this and why I’d say use them, don’t write blindly…. even if Stephen King does it!

  1. You’ll be consistent and save yourself a hell of a lot of headache while editing, you’ll have less red pen marks on your work from your editor saying ” you said x on page 57 now you say y on page 78″ LOL.
  2. Your stories will pop and so will your characters.
  3. You’ll write in an unbiased way, as your characters react to things based on who THEY ARE not  who you are.
  4. Character profiles can help move your story in a new and exciting direction!
  5. You’ll suffer less so called “writer’s block”.

So how do you go about developing a character profile? Here’s how I approach it as a tip generally you could….

  1. First see them as real 3D people. How they look, sound, smell, dress, talk. This helps to enhance your writing. ( I feel) and the reader’s experience.
  2. Interview them. Where do they live, car they drive, hobbies, interests, their general take on life?
  3. What is their overall goal in your story? What do they need to make sure happens to achieve it? What will happen if they don’t achieve their goal? What’s at stake?
  4. Take into consideration your genre and story length. I say this as you don’t want to take up all your words on too much of this if you’re writing a short story- a short story to me is like 30k words, to others this can be as little as 10k…. If you’re crafting a full blown novel over 40k words then by all means really work on your character’s profile and make them pop. With genre, I’m all about the suspense! 🙂 this is where my talent is, so to make the suspense come across character development helps within my genre, as I am SHOWING readers things via the moments of my characters rather than TELLING. Some genres don’t need this much work on characters to create the atmosphere of the genre.

And that’s my reflection on creating difficult scenes, and how to make your characters come across as some what believable! If you’re a writer what approach do you take? Do you even agree that character profiles are useful and important?

I better get back to work on my character profile and try to finish up this scene. In the mean time, drop me a comment writers what’s your view?

 

Success

Character Development- Guest Blog

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Are you a writer? Or an aspiring writer? How do you find character development as a task while writing? Sometimes it can be quite a task to bring your characters alive on paper. For me as a reader I always love it when writers really develop their  characters  so well,  I can get a good sense of what a character is like  as a person. Or I have enough detail in the story to work with, to decide whether I like a character or not. 

I personally find that writing from a first person point of view ( which I love to do) also helps with character development, as you get right up and close to a character as the writer and reader. 

I done a guest blog on the topic of character development over at Serious Reading.  Here I share my top tips on developing  your characters  in your writing, you can have a read of the blog post by clicking here.

Day #84

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Oh as the deadline for submission to my publisher draws near I am now getting  REALLY excited for the book, and the characters in the book. I’m now wrapping up the story and around 75,000 words deep pre editing!

Today, I was thinking about the way stories end, and  as a writer you always aim to please your readers, however what if the ending you have in mind is not a happy ending for all characters? This is not the case with my story, what I’ve plot out is some kind of happy ending that’s satisfying; however a few weeks ago I had a conversation with a friend of mine she to is writing a novel (or has been writing this novel for some time), her predicament is that her ending is not  too pretty. We discussed whether an ending in a story ALWAYS needs to be happy; personally I don’t feel it always has to be what do you think? Life  is not always pretty and if you’re writing a plot line with rather deep or serious issues sometimes things may not turn out pretty in reality. Also sometimes it’s  refreshing to read something that’s not all sunshine and roses. This is just my view.

I encouraged my friend to keep writing, and write what feels natural if there is a death, suicide, murder or something a bit ”unpretty” at the end of the plot so be it! Yes, 9/10 readers may want a nice ending but reality needs to also be considered also.

So my question is, when it comes to your reading pleasure do you always need a happy ending? Does genre play a part in whether an ending should be happy or not? When it comes to the  romance genre (as that’s what I’m writing now) do you as a romance reader need a pretty, happy and loved up ending or not? Do you feel dissatisfied if you don’t have this in a romance genre book?

These questions I feel are good research into the genre to see what  romance readers generally feel and think… let me know your thoughts with a comment.

 

A Tiny Taste of What’s to Come

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Well, I thought I’d give you all a bit of a taste of what  I’m writing currently, that’s due for release in September 2016.  I’m keeping my cards very  close to my chest! But here is a taster of what inspired the story.

 It’s a modern day romance/suspense story with, glitz and glam, old sckool falling in love, and of course emotional at times. Within the story for the Heroine she has  ”conflicts” that the average women could relate to,  her conflicts are in no way old fashioned or a plot that has been done and dusted a million times (as far as I know) and it is not a typical ” love triangle”. There are some themes that may have in the past and currently do impact on everyday women regardless of age or race  in our day to day society.

The story  is set in  my home town the city of London UK,the south of France and the English coast, UK. Why 3 different settings you say? Well this is a roller coaster and whirlwind romance story (with added suspense), the twists in the plot need different locations to keep the plot alive, and relate to the Hero and Heroine and their current life situations and conflicts I have plot out for them. In addition to this, I just love diversity so why keep the story in one central place? It works so I’m rollin’ with it y’all.

 Romance generally speaking as a genre for me is all about love, emotion, escaping and the sexy times  too but it’s important to me personally, that romance is believable and realistic as well. Yes there can be some glitz and  glam and extravagance  but the underlining issues should be realistic, believable and even shocking if need be. Me I’ve  tried to go for all 3 realistic, believable and in some places a little surprising.

What inspired this story was life, my love for the country France, its language and culture. I also really like how society is made up in this day and age,  and wanted to reflect this. In London you will find so many different cultures  and so my  characters  represent the normal people I see in society  day to day, this is not an all white or all black character line up it’s just like London diverse. I also feel that sometimes when I’m reading books are just not diverse enough in character and the writer writes what they know, the culture they know, the race they know etc too one sided.

Now you may think, this is boring what’s the suspense? Where’s the romance? Where’s the glitz and glam ? Where’s the conflict for the characters? And where the hell are the sexy times?… Well, dear reader this is all the juicy stuff; and if I told you I would ruin the surprise and my publisher would probably kill me! But what I will say is I’m loving every moment of writing and I am writing from the heart , and I hope you enjoy, in fact I am glued to the lap top every chance I can get. And still can’t believe I am about to be a published author. What a head f*ck LOL.

Stay tuned ! Via blog or Twitter. Get to know me, I don’t bite (most of the time), and you’ll get regular updates too on the release of my 1st book.

 

 

Character Development… Humm

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As I’m now knee deep in writing the plot for my story, character development has been playing on my mind a lot. This is something I really want to get right in my first book. To me, what has made some of the best books I’ve ever read would be the characters; or even if it was not the best storyline or book in the world well rounded characters kept me turning pages.

So, in my personal view, I know what I like when it comes to main characters in plots, but now I am no longer writing for myself! I’d like to know what the masses think about character development. What makes a character memorable? likeable? Stand out and not just appear flat.

I thought of some of the books I have read with characters I really enjoyed, even if I did not like the actual character. Gillian Flynn’s ” Gone Girl” came to mind, the main female character I hated her but the point is I could tell she was a crack pot with a super twisted personality right the word go as I read that book. (Which I love), also ”Sharp Objects” by Gillian Flynn, some super dark and twisted characters in that one too they really stood out.  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s ” Americanah” the main female character just popped in her writing,  strong, bold, a no shit kinda women, but she also has a soft side -I loved her and the book too.

See where I’m going with this? For you what makes a character ”well developed” and memorable even if you did not like them? Is it important to like them? Or identify with them in some way?  Especially in a romance novel if you’re a big romance reader.

I could not identify with Gillian Flynn’s main female character in ” Gone Girl” but I sure do remember that chick! She’s crazy as hell.

Comment below or tweet me I’d love to hear your thoughts.