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I am trying to understand the creative process. So I hope you don't take my questions the wrong way.
No, that's totally cool and turn about is fair play.
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I asked why a bounty hunter as the character, you stated that you are a writer that characters speak to you. They just come to you.
What is that like?
Are you driving to work one day and BAM, the idea smacks you in the face. I am curious how this happens.
Kind of? I used to dabble in other peoples sandboxes... I would fall in love with a character someone else created and want to know more than what the original author gave me, so I would wonder... what would Wolverine do if ??? And then I'd make up a scene in my head, then I got to writing it down and found out other people did the same thing... I did this for years with different characters I liked. I realized along the way I was getting pretty good at the writing thing, but I knew, that if I was ever going to do it for real, I would have to create a character that I could fall in love with - and I don't mean just his physical attributes. And I started thinking about that and since I'm a visual person, visualizing him. If he could be anything I wanted in the realm of fantasy what would he be. I had some stipulations about physical appearance and when I started building him in my head I saw him wearing black and with a gun and a bullet proof vest. He had long hair, so he wasn't a cop... but he's a good guy, so someone the cops would respect. So, I thought FRA. Music also plays a huge part in building the character of this guy inside... I play music that tells me who he is...it is like a soundtrack to a movie in my head... and things develop from there. He's hard on the outside because of crap he's been through, but the hard outside is just because he doesn't want to get hurt. So, I start developing his attitude. And somewhere along the way the first scene starts unfolding in my head. If I'm lucky, I'm somewhere (NOT in the car! LOL) where I can write it down. In my first scene he's trying to coax a bail jumper out of a house with his team stationed around it. They are pretty sure the guy is in there, but when the house blows up...
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If it is the character and not the action or plot, then why not a mechanic, bus driver or salesman?
Let's face it, mechanics, bus drivers and salesmen are NOT very romantic. Unless the salesman is leading a double life as a spy or some other twist. I write romance and suspense. Women want heroes. They want a man that can rescue them if they need rescuing. You'll probably kill me for saying this - and don't get me wrong, I'm learning how hard you all work - but bounty hunters are percieved as dangerous, yet they are still the good guy - the bad boy with a heart of gold...(sorry ladies!)
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I know that would require different senarios but, if it is the character that pops up, is there anything that would trigger a particular profession? A recent movie your saw or a news article?
Hummm.. good question. I've written doctors, vampires, rockstars, vampire-rockstars...I like immortals. I've also written human intrest pieces that could go in Readers Digest or Good Housekeeping... LOL. This guy needed a profession he could do nearly anywhere, when I saw him and asked myself who he was FRA seemed to keep making sense. His background made it impossible for him to be a cop, his girlfriend came along as the daughter of an ex-cop whose partner doesn't like FRA's, so sort of like a puzzle with the pieces fitting in place. Trust me, I knew/know how much I don't know about this industry. Heck, I dont' even know much about guns, so I am industry challenged and weapons challenged. But I know I'm smart and I know I can learn, and I think, as a woman that reads romance novels and likes a lot of plot to her romance, I can write better than most romance novelists out there. For instance, I read Twilight, which is obviously completely fictional (yet the town the author based the story in is real, and she'd never been there! They are enjoying quite the economic upswing because of her!) BUT, I found myself very frustrated reading her book because she gave NO logical reason for a supposedly 90 something year old vampire to be wholly obsessed by and attracted to a so-so looking 19 year old girl. Now, I do like the vampire character, Edward, but she gave him no back bone and no logical motivation, so fiction or not, it's boring.
There is something called 'suspension of disbelief'. That means as an author I need to write a tale so compelling and realistic, that you forget that it's not possible. I need to write my guy so well that the fact that he's an alien from another world inhabiting a human form seems not only possible, but probable. (Okay, he's not an alien, but see what I mean?) And you not only like him in spite of it, but because of it.
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You stated that this will be your first book. Have you written any other stories, fiction or otherwise?
Yep. Lots.(But not in X-Men, even if Wolverine is sort of sexy
) But I have never tried to sell anything. Deadly License will hopefully end up in print, but if I can't sell it in print, I'll try eBook. However, I like my guy well enough that I'm not going to sell him short without a fight.
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What is your writing process like. Do you lock yourself in a room? Write on you lunch break?
Sometimes yes to both. I don't like to be interrupted once I get going, so I usually don't start something if I know I can't continue. Sometimes I write six lines, go put a load of laundry in and walk around picking up, thinking about what I'm writing or seeing it in a video in my head, then I have to figure out how to put in on paper so I can show the reader what I want them to see. Other times, I just start and let it flow until I don't have anything else to say. I'm pretty meticulous, so often I'll let that sit for a day or two, then go back over it, editing and then continuing.
I try to set a goal of x amount of words per day. And I have a complete goal of 80,000 words for this book. I need a least that, more is okay, over 120,000 is another book. I'm actually hoping that readers will like my guy enough to want another book or two.
A lot of times I find myself writing people you typically think of as good, being bad or vice versa. Or like the cop at the end of the movie that's pointing his gun at the guy that shot and killed his partner, will he shoot him or will he stand down? Suspense.
When you go after that fugitive you never know what's going to happen. You study your file, think you can guess how its going to go down, but in the end....
that's the epitome of suspense, isn't it?
