Brainchild of Ansha Kotyk, How I Write is a weekly blog series all about writing and the different styles we all have. Click on the banner to go to the homepage and visit other participants or click below. This week is all about starting new WIPs and the tools to get started.
Okay, I'm going to confess something. Something deep and dark and... well just plain wrong: I HATE starting new WIPs. Hate it with a passion. I hate agonizing over the first scene and that perfect first hook to draw in the reader. I hate having to dive into the unknown. So you would think I should be a plotter. Honestly, I should be for as much as I hate starting a new WIP and not knowing where I'm going.
But no. I have to do everything difficult.
Plotting= instant brain block which = no writing of new WIP. But as much as I hate the unknown and starting anew, I LOVE new characters. Contradictions abound, no? My solution? Start in the middle. Start at the end. Start ANYWHERE but the beginning. OR try to. It's hard. It's vicious but it does work. Granted, I did try not to do this with my recent WIP- Muses and if anyone can say how much I agonized and bitched about it, it would be Kendal. I don't think I've ever complained so much as I did to her about it.
For me, I need my own hook, that one scene that grips me by the throat and threatens to tear my heart out if I don't get it down. Okay and now that I just painted a very ugly picture of my Muse... hah... I'll leave off with examples:
Fatal Vision: scene that got me hooked... scene that drew me to these chars was a scene I later cut out about a tall man with golden eyes and a lightning bolt tattoo down his neck kidnapping a molecular geneticist and her knocking his balls up to his teeth when he points a gun at her.
Fatal Temptation: ok this one was a sex scene where he barges into her room... and that's as far as I'll expand the explanation of it because the scene is still in the book. ;)
Fatal Encounters: A game of Truth or Dare.
Trust No One (my attempt at a YA in highschool): A young boy being chased because of his telepathic abilities to a new town.
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