I want to start this blog with a  disclaimer. There will be no writing revelations, awesome tips, or new tricks revealed in the following post. In fact, there are going to be a lot more questions than answers. So prepare yourself.

Though I’ve yet to finish a full novel rough draft, I did spend more than two years with my first story, and have spent nearly six months with my second. When I first started, it was all a mystery to me. How could you know how long a book would be until you wrote it? How do you find enough interesting material to fill four hundred pages? How much rum does it take to forget I’m a hack?

Okay, forget the last one.

I’m happy to report, I’ve found the answers to the first two. Or think I have and that’s good enough for now.

But one of the toughest questions I’ve yet to answer is how do I get into the minds of my characters? How do I know what they’ll do in any given situation? (That’s two questions, so sue me.)

In general, I know the answer to their reactions is in their motivations and partially in their back story. Unfortunately, “in general” has never gotten me very far. So, I kept going, hoping I’d find more answers.

Here’s the problem with finding answers, they often lead to more questions. Last night while writing, something happened in my scene I didn’t see coming. It moved the romance plot line forward big time, fit the story perfectly, and I hate to say, wasn’t my idea in the least.

It was Nate’s. That would be Nate Campbell, the hero of Playing For Keeps.

This same thing happened in my last WIP. I needed a way to throw my H/H together. In the middle of a scene in my hero’s POV, he pops out with the perfect answer. I didn’t see it coming and was amazed at how perfectly it would work.

The connection between these incidents is the source. The only characters I seem to channel are the heroes. Which leads to more questions. Why is it always the hero and what in the world does this say about me?

Since my heroines are often just like me, I can follow the trail to some obvious implications. But I don’t wanna. So I’m putting the questions to you. Any and all input welcome.