Storming the Brain
Friday, September 19th, 2008
Shiver me timbers! That’s an eye-popping topic.
Greetings, fellow bilgemates. Kimberly Killion here, back for another dose of merriment on the ship. I’d like to set this frig off-kilter today and dig for a little treasure. That treasure doesn’t come in the form of booty, but ideas. Where do we get them? Batten down the canvas, this could be quite a storm…
After sending in a third book to my agent, I am at a horrible place where I’m staring out into the vast blue yonder and asking myself, what now? I’ve played with the idea of writing another Scottish tale, but my agent wants me to do something ‘BIGGER’. What the bloody hell does that mean? BIGGER? I feel like that whiney grommet who was just told to swab the deck.
BIGGER?
I don’t wanna write something BIGGER! <pout>
Are you as tired as I am of hearing the words: fresh and unique? It’s easy for us to fall into the task of writing another book we are comfortable in. For me, that book would be another tale of a Scottish Laird who falls in love. It’s been done. Cooked. Baked. Burnt! Well, hell, mates! It’s all been done. Or has it?
So, pass the rum my way and let’s talk shop. If you were starting from scratch what would you do? Would you get out the ye ole globe, spin it, and point? Do you start with setting? Or do you start with plot? OR…do you start with characters?
So we don’t run out of rum, let’s start with characters and see where they take us.
The hero: Who is he? What does he do?
OR the heroine: Who is she? What does she do?
Let’s roll some bones to see who goes first…shake, rattle, roll… Cor Blimey! Snake eyes. That’s me.
Fine. I’ll start: Gareth. Aye. I like Gareth MacSomething. See I’m still stuck in Scotland. Let me try again…How about Azreal? He’s an assassin and guess who he has to kill…Lily, pure, sweet, innocent Lily. Hmmm…too cliché. How about she is the assassin and he is pure and noble. Now we are cookin’. So that’s how this is going to play out.
If given the task to write a character that is outside your comfort zone, who would you write about? Where would you set it? You don’t have to answer all these questions, just take a sip of rum, close your eyes, and…I know he’s hot…I can see him…sweat slicked, nice abs, he has a sword…but who is he and where is he at?
Okay, crew & lubbers, this is your Captain speaking (wow, I totally feel like I’m one of those AA pilots, don’t you?)–the best hottie and scenerio will win some pirate booty from the Captain’s own treasure chest (no, Jack, not that Treasure Chest and I could hardly share that, could I?), including a copy of Her One Desire by Kimberly Killion! Woot, woot! Brainstorm, luvies, brainstorm….