Guest Post: Reyna Hawk on Character Creation

Characters are what take a book from "good" to "amazing". I always wonder how authors go about creating them. Do they take pieces of the people around them, or do they just come to be inside of their heads? I asked author Reyna Hawk to speak her mind on the matter. Make sure you also check out her website!

The Guest Post

Character Creation

When I’m in the beginning processes of writing a novel or book I tend to begin with a scenario or chain of events and build my characters around the particular events. I will decide in the early stages whether the main character will be male, female, or perhaps a couple of main characters. I will then build the characters from there. I will try to do a small outline for the character’s events as a guide; although I do not always adhere to the outline. From the start I have decided what the characters will look like and their personality types. I have to be able to visualize each character as a person, if I can’t then they usually either get axed from the script or meet an early demise.

Many times the characters will have attributes of people in real life that I know; whether this is physical or personality wise. I may place a family member, friend, or even my own personality or mannerism to the character. I have also put celebrity faces to the characters in order to be able to visualize them in my head as I am progressing through the storyline. I must feel some kind of connection or warmth to the character and have even gotten attached to some of the characters. This always makes it rather sad when the book ends.

Many characters have evolved into the storyline or into a completely different person. As I am writing I may become unhappy with where the story is going; so I stop and completely re-work it and possibly add additional characters to help the progression. I usually have a general idea on what will happen with each character. However, there have been events that came out of the blue, but fit the plot or direction of the storyline.

In my recent book, “Looking Through Blind Eyes”, there are several events that were re-worked numerous times. I don’t want to say too much as not to give any of the details away. I will just say some of the events I didn’t know would happen as they did until that precise moment.

Bio

Reyna Hawk is a 44 year old mother of one son and grandmother to one beautiful 3 year old little girl. Born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio Reyna has always loved writing and story-telling. From a very young age she was making up stories to tell her school friends. Reyna has an Associate of Arts in Psychology and a Bachelor of Arts in Cultural Anthropology.

Her newest book “Looking Through Blind Eyes” was released on May 17, 2012 and is book one in a series of three concerning the character Janie Valentine. This series follows the twists and turns of Janie’s life when she unknowingly becomes entangled with the Petrilo Crime Family.

Book two of the series is titled “The Reflection of Secrets”; book three is tentatively titled “Shattered Visions Haunted Memories” no release date has been set as of yet for either book. Other book projects Reyna is working on: Angels and Arrows and Family or Foe.

Project And-Now-I'm-Gonna-Write-The-Damn-Thing

A lot of us readers are secretly admiring all of our favourite authors and think "I wish I could be an author someday"... I've been creating little stories in my head since I can remember and I've written a short story or two, but I never put one of my longer stories on paper. That was, until a week ago. I downloaded the free trial version of Scrivener (a writing software thing - for more info visit their site) and just got on with it.

I declare May the month where I will spend one hour every day to Project And-Now-I'm-Gonna-Write-The-Damn-Thing, or Project ANIGWTDT for short. Okay, I might have to work on the name for a bit.

For those of you who are curious about my writing endeavours, I made a separate blog for it. Visit me! I just posted a very cool excerpt, check it out (:

So what about you guys? Do you ever dream of becoming a published author? Or do you write yourself? (If so, leave me a link, I would love to add you to my little "Fellow Writers" list!)

Guest Post: Emily Cale on Writing

Being a writer is such a mystical job. And the world usually thinks it must be easy, just write some words on paper and make money. Well, Emily is here today to disprove all of the writing myths!

The Guest Post

You might think working from home and writing is all fun and games. Who doesn't want to spend their day sitting at a fancy desk, typing, sipping coffee, and chatting with their author friends? I almost forgot to mention the fun of not having to deal with traffic, coworkers, or an angry boss. When I first imagined being an author, I figured it would be the most glamorous life possible. I forgot about a few things.

1. You actually have to write. Don't get me wrong, I love writing and adore my characters. The problem is that some days they don't love me. In an ideal world, I want to write 5000 words a day when I sit down. I fall short of that goal a lot. Sometimes it is because I'm goofing off on the internet or watching TV. Other times it's because the book simply won't behave and even though my hands have been on the keyboard all day, I have less than a page to show.

2. You have to do more than write books. Yeah, I never thought about that part either. There are multiple sets of edits that take up a huge chunk of time (self edits, content edits, line edits, proofreading). Then there is all the promotion after a book comes out. Writing blog posts (like this one) and dealing with email all take up a huge amount of time, but have to be done. Then there is all the social networking. Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, and whatever sites you are involved on are important ways to network and meet new friends, but they can also turn into a time suck.

3. It gets lonely. Sure, I have friends and a husband, but sometimes living in your head becomes a very solitary place. When I'm at the office for my day job, the other people in my office stop by to chat, my office mate and I complain to one another, and there is a general sense of shared suffering. When I'm in my office at home, it's just me and my cat.

Despite these things, I wouldn't change a thing. Being an author was a dream of mine since I was in elementary school and I am so lucky that I got to make my dreams come true. The truth is that if I was to make a list of the things I love it would take up more space than my general host would allow me.

Okay, question time. Ask me anything. I reserve the right not to answer if the question is too personal, but I'm pretty open.

Bio

Emily Cale spent the majority of her childhood as a visitor to the worlds of her favorite authors. With encouragement from her English teachers, she put pen to paper and began imagining her own stories. Preferring the fascinating lives of her characters, she majored in creative writing. When not lost in a manuscript or a good book, she enjoys crocheting, rock climbing, and playing board games. She
currently lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with her husband and a very spoiled cat. You can find her on her blog (http://www.emilycale.blogspot.com) or on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/emilycale).

Her Book

Emily's LGBT erotic short Public Display of Affection is out now through Decadent Publishing. Click on the image to read the blurb & to find information on buying it. (I decided not to post the blurb here as it contains content that might offend some of my readers ^^)

You can also find this book on Amazon and on All Romance.