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I’m going to try to write regularly about my process as I work on this novel, sharing what I’m doing, learning, and experimenting with over the next few weeks as I hammer out a first draft and then later when I start revising. So this week I’m going to talk about character development, one of my absolute favorite parts of writing fiction.

One of the first things I do before I start writing a new novel is to cast my characters. Sometimes I  know instantly who my leading man would be, who my main character should be, or who some of my secondary characters would be played by. Other times I spend hours pouring over celebrity photo sites looking for the right face. That’s right—I use actors and actresses, not just random photos I’ve found online or in magazines.

There are a couple of different reasons for this. The most important one to me is that it makes it easier to hear their voices in my head, to see the way they move, the way they talk, their facial expressions if I’ve actually seen them in movies. This makes it much easier to write believable dialogue and believable characters in general.

For my current novel, I’ve basically got four main characters. There’s Cass, who in my head is Kate Winslet; there’s Dave, Cass’ husband, who bears a striking resemblance to Matthew Fox; Tessa, who, in a perfect world, would be played by Charlize Theron (though a bit older); and Grady—the leading man in this particular work—Hugh Jackman in my mind (this might have something to do with recently watching both Australia and the new Wolverine movie). In addition to casting like this, I’ll save a handful of images of each actor or actress in a “characters” folder within the folder for my novel. The only thing I won’t do when working on a novel like this is watch any movies these actors appear in that are at all similar to my current work-in-progress. It’s too easy to end up making the character exactly like an existing character without even realizing it.

One of the other primary bits of character development I do is to fill out a Proust Questionnaire for each character. I’m partial to Vanity Fair‘s version, though I’ll sometimes add in questions from the Inside the Actors Studio version, too, which was modeled on Proust’s questions. Proust’s original questionnaire is helpful, too.

I keep the questionnaires in a Google doc, along with my outline and research. But more on outlines in my next post in this series.

Feel free to share your own character development tips in the comments below.

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Over the years I’ve built up plenty of strategies for keeping my motivation level high. Here are a few:

• Set yourself reachable daily goals. Whether a reachable goal for you is 200 words or 2,000 words, set a goal and stick to it. But, if for some reason you don’t make your goal one day, it’s not the end of the world. Don’t beat yourself up over it. Just get back on track the next day.
• Celebrate small successes. When you finish a chapter, or a page, or even a paragraph, celebrate. Have some chocolate. Listen to your favorite song. Watch a movie. For the bigger successes, treat yourself to dinner or a movie. And when you finish the first draft, take a few days off!
• Keep a to do list. Listing each step to reaching your goal is a good idea. Checking things off a list is a nice little boost to your motivation and keeps you moving in the right direction. Breaking things down into the smallest steps possible might look daunting at first, but you’ll check them off much quicker.
• Take a break. Sometimes, you just need a day off to let your batteries recharge. There’s nothing wrong with that. I’ve found that when I get writer’s block, forcing myself to take a weekend off can do wonders for opening the creative flood gates.
• Set deadlines. With so many writing projects, there are no deadlines. No one really cares if you finish something this week or a month from now or never at all. So set deadlines for yourself and stick to them. On my current project, because I’m self publishing, there’s no editor hanging over my head telling me to have the book done by a certain date. So I’ve set up a schedule for myself. I’ve vowed to have the first draft done by the end of April, and so far I’m on track for meeting that goal.
• Converse with others who have similar goals. Finding other people who are working on the same kinds of projects makes it easier to keep working. Consider setting goals and deadlines with each other and holding each other accountable. Sometimes the idea of disappointing another person is enough to keep you going.

If you have any other tips for keeping motivation high, please share them in the comments below.

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While novel-writing is often a seat-of-the-pants kind of adventure, non-fiction, especially that focused on technical topics, requires planning and research. I already have a couple years of experience writing about this topic, so that makes things a bit easier, as I’m familiar with what needs to be covered and where to find information I’m missing. But it still required a LOT of preplanning and notetaking.

I also have a very particular method I’m using for writing this. It’s something I found online a couple years ago, and I wish I could remember where so I could give proper credit (if anyone recognizes this, please let me know so I can attribute it properly). I just wrote it down in my notebook and put it away, knowing at some point I would find a use for it. Here’s the method:

1. Write down the general topics you want to cover in your book. You should have 15-25 of these for the average book. Use mind-mapping if you need to. These will become your chapters.
2. Write down a list of 20 or so sub-topics you want to cover or points you want to make in each chapter. I’ll admit that some of my chapters might have 25, and I have a couple of chapters that only have 10.
3. Those are going to become your sections and paragraphs. Some of them you may use for headings within your chapters, others might just take up a single paragraph within those sections.

That’s the basic formula I’m using for writing this book. I’ve set up a Word document for each chapter, and within each chapter I’ve listed out the points I want to make. In my case, a lot of these sections end up being a page or two long, while others might only be a paragraph or two.

Breaking things down in this manner makes it easier to stay on track and not feel overwhelmed. When I open up a chapter file to work on, I’m not overwhelmed by what lies ahead of me because I’m only seeing that one chapter. And seeing exactly what I need to cover makes my research easier.

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One thing I didn’t mention is the speed I write at. The first draft of my first novel was completed in five days. It was only 46,000 words (a break-neck pace of 9,200 words a day). The scary part about that was that I didn’t hole-up in my house for the entire time. I went out to see friends, went to the movies, and otherwise led a relatively normal life. I’m still not entirely sure how I managed it and haven’t been able to since. My second novel’s first draft was completed in 33 days (91,000 words). The third was finished in a couple of months, and was around 56,000 words. The fourth was finished in 13 days and came in at a whopping 95,000 words (that’s an average of around 7,200 words a day). The fifth was written in approximately a month and came in at 62,000 words.

Subsequent drafts are done at a similar pace. I edited my first novel, adding 13,000 words to it and changing tense from present to past in about a week. I can realistically edit about 20,000 words in a day if that’s my only project (it rarely is). I redrafted my fourth novel (95k words) twice in the scope of a week, tightening up the prose and adding in bits here and there.

I couldn’t handle these kinds of schedules if I had a full time job outside the house. I write and copyedit on a freelance basis, and pick up web and graphic design projects here and there. If I didn’t work from home, my writing time would amount to an hour or two a day, instead of 8-10 hours a day (sometimes 12-14 hours if I’m on a roll or trying to meet a deadline). I write 7 days a week, even when I’m between projects. I’m always planning for the next one or the one after that even. On weekends I do try to cut my writing time back to 3 or 4 hours a day, though it doesn’t always work, especially if I’m working on a new project.

Here’s a bit more about how I write, and more details on specific projects. This is just how I manage it, and should by no means be taken as a definitive guide on how to write or anything to strive for.

Sometimes I start with an idea, other times a character. Inspiration comes from everything around me. Sometimes I’m inspired by something else I’ve read. Sometimes it’s a movie I’ve seen or a TV show. It could be a photo, or just an idea that pops into my head while I’m driving around or trying to fall asleep. My best ideas come while I’m in the shower or the car wash. I find it funny that water is so closely linked to my creative process since I’m an Aries (fire sign). I’m considering getting one of those desk-top fountains for my office.

When I get into the groove of a new novel, my characters talk to me. That’s actually how I know it’s time to start writing. When I can picture my characters and their interactions, that’s when I know it’s time to put them to paper. I start with an outline. This is usually hashed out in a day or two and might range from a page to ten pages, depending on how much of the story has already formed in my head. I can’t begin writing until I have an ending.

At the same time I do research and planning on the setting, characters, time period, etc. (depending on the genre I’m working in). With my first novel, this involved creating a map of the world it was set in and a listing of the different races and creatures in that world. I also had to sketch out how magic worked in this world and other things that were different from out own world. For my fifth novel, the women’s fiction novel set in the present, there was a lot less research and planning to do. The setting was based on a town not too far from where I used to live.

When all of my notes are done, I start writing. My notes are mostly kept in hard copy (or sometimes Google Docs). But I write in Microsoft Word (for Mac). I could not get by without my laptop. It makes it possible for me to write from the couch (regularly), from bed (occasionally), and in the car (obviously not while I’m driving). I couldn’t write at this pace if I was tethered to a desk all day. As I mentioned before, I write for 8-10 hours a day most days. I don’t take days off unless I’m between projects. Some days I might only write a thousand words, other days I might write 15,000 (that’s my record).

In school, I always did reports and papers the night before they were due, no matter how much time we were supposed to devote to them. And, I always got As. If I had failed, I might have changed my methods, but since I didn’t, that is the way that I write most effectively – in as little time as possible. Writing until I physically can’t write anymore or until my brain just absolutely refuses to keep going is the way that works for me.

I started out writing screenplays. I wrote my first one in four days, with no revisions. I then submitted to an online peer-review site, and got pretty good reviews – only minor changes were recommended. Screenwriting is such a competitive business that I never bothered pursuing it beyond that. But screenwriting is how I learned to write dialogue. And churning out a 120-page screenplay is, to me at least, way easier than writing a 70-80k word novel.

I’m currently between novel projects, though I have at least three ideas floating around in my head. Non-fiction is taking precedence at the moment, but by summer I’ll be back onto novel-writing. I’d like to try my hand at writing short stories and flash fiction, too, though I find the abbreviated format much more challenging than novel writing.

Here are some tips for writing this way, whether you are a first-time novelist or a seasoned pro:

1. Buy a laptop. This way you can write anywhere. I wrote in the car on the way to the movies one day. My personal favorite is the MacBook, though any laptop will work. I’d actually recommend going on the smaller size if you’re only going to use it for writing, as it makes it lighter-weight and much more portable.
2. Cast your novel. This helps with characterization. Pick actors and actresses for each of your major characters. It makes it easier to write character descriptions and makes your characters more life-like. When you can picture them in your head this way, the way the speak, the way they move, it makes it that much easier to bring them to life. You can use people from real life as well, just be careful not to base a character too closely on a friend or relative.
3. Use maps. If you’re writing speculative fiction, create a map for your world. If you’re writing something based in the real world, either use a map or create a fake one to keep your locations straight. If the bakery is next to the grocery store one day and then behind the library the next, it’s going to confuse people.
4. Outline. Create a scene-by-scene outline of what is happening in your novel. I change mine throughout writing, but at least it gives me an idea of where I’m going and where I’ve been. It’s a valuable tool if you get stuck while you’re writing and as a way to get to know your characters better.
5. Consider writing your beginning and ending first. When you have an outline, you can do this. Without the outline it’s much harder. If you’ve got your ending done, you know exactly where you need to end up. It makes it easier to get somewhere if you know your destination. This is something I did on my first novel, though I haven’t done it the same way since. Mostly because I never have quite as clear-cut of an ending in mind as I did then.

Feel free to share your own writing methods below or any tips you may have!