Wednesday, September 10, 2008

My First Blog Chain Post!



I was lucky enough to be invited to become a member of a blog chain. This blog chain is made up of WRITERS!

These wonderful, like-minded individuals (yeah, I know I'm sucking up here...my regular blogger friends just keep a lid on it) are members of QueryTracker and also RallyStorm. They have several forums set up, (a romance writers critique group, blog chain group, and a general romance writers forum) that are by invitation only.

How cool is that????

If you are anything like me, you have no idea how a blog chain works. From what I understand so far, I will link to the last person in the chain who posted, http://www.colegibsen.blogspot.com/ Senshi....and then to the next person to post http://brimfire.livejournal.com/ Brimfire.

http://leahclifford.livejournal.com/ GypsyGurl started this chain.

Kiddoc, http://hldyer.wordpress.com/ will pick the next topic and be posting soon, so go check her out!

Speaking of topics, this one is, "How real are your characters?". So here we go:

I have heard many writers can see/hear, sometimes even smell their characters (never smelled mine). When I started writing TCH, it wasn't to become published, or to write a book, it just evolved into the historical romance that it is now.

Originally, it was just to tell a story. A story that Margaret, my main character, was telling and showing me. Sounds a bit schizophrenic, huh? All of my characters speak to me, some more than others, of course.

One of my favorite characters was a complete surprise to me when he showed up. I was writing a scene towards the end of TCH, and Margaret sat in the garden, on a bench, alone. It was early morning, and I could see the swirl of fog covering the ground. Footsteps could be heard coming down the path, and a figure emerged from the wall of mist.

I typed as he made his way toward Margaret, describing the boots, the long overcoat, that swirled about him. Upward to the long dark blonde hair, chiseled jaw, intense stare...I was expecting Patrick, but instead it was one Duncan McCue (picture Fabio, add a Scottish accent, and NEVER EVER think of the word BUTTER....that's pretty darn close!) .

He will be my MC in the third book, and I so can't wait! I wanted him to be a pirate, but he had other ideas. He was a bit too honorable for that, but not quite so honorable that he wouldn't smuggle Scottish Whiskey to France, so the Brits couldn't tax it. So we both ended up happy over his chosen vocation.

Um, I guess, as you can see, my characters are very real to me. That is also a problem when you write. YOU know so much about them, that often while writing, you neglect to point things out that the reader may not know.

That's where crit groups come in! If they don't know your characters, or your story, it's easy for them to question the why, when, where, or how that you already know, but perhaps didn't convey well.

Okay, now I can't wait for my next topic! Be sure to check out the blog chain members, they are all great!

9 comments:

H. L. Dyer said...

Welcome to the chain!

Great debut post! :)

Michelle McLean said...

LOL you are so right about neglecting to point things out because you already know them. In one of my last scenes, I have one of my characters holding a knife to my MCs throat. One of the comments was "where did the knife come from?" I was thinking, "it was in his boot" - took me a minute to realize that no one else would know that. I do that with character's backgrounds, features, everything. I completely forgot to describe a character once until someone pointed out they had no idea what she looked like...I did, I just forgot no one else would :D Glad to know I'm not the only one who does that :)

Excellent first post! Welcome to the chain :D

Sandra Ulbrich Almazan said...

Welcome to the blog chain! I enjoyed your description of how you met Duncan.

TerriRainer said...

Thanks HL!

Michelle - OMG! I so knew you had an antogonist that would pull a knife from his boot!!!! Either we are both horribly cliche'd, or we ARE sisters of the pen! MWWWWAAAAHAAAAHAAAAAAA

Thanks Sandra, I SO love Duncan. He's my favorite character, which is kinda sad, since he's barely a blip in my first MS!

Anonymous said...

Wow, Terri, great job. I love how you "met" your new character. Sometimes they just pop in and we have no idea where they come from. Very insightful. :)

Anonymous said...

Very cool! I have no idea what a blog chain is, but it sounds like fun! That's a very interesting way you describe to have met your character...

Mary Duncan said...

That's just how Greame came into Eyes of Garnet. From nowhere. But apparently he made his presence felt by many, enough to make him star in the second book, big time!

I, too, love the description of Duncan. Not sure about Fabio, but I get the picture. The overcoat in a swirl around him is the prose I enjoyed.

Oh, and BTW, Scottish single malt whisky doesn't have an "e" in it. If you're talking about American whiskey, then add the "e".

Looking forward to the blog chain. Thanks for sharing!

Mary

Mrs4444 said...

This is a really great post; nice explanation, and your passion comes shining through. Have fun with your new friends (but don't forget us "old" ones! :)

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