Ask the Author: Marsha Ward
Answered Questions (6)
Marsha Ward
I'm writing a piece about a character from TRAIL OF STORMS. It's a "seasoned" romantic story, featuring older characters getting a second chance at love.
Marsha Ward
Like many authors, I have Characters in My Head who beg, plead, and even demand that I tell a story about them. When it's the turn of a particular character, I listen very hard. Very often, an idea is drifting around the universe, waiting for an author who is listening to grab it, which I may do. That idea gets mixed with others, along with "what-ifs" I ask, and miscellaneous bits of information I've squirreled away from all the reading I do. I stir gently, then begin to write what the character begins to tell me. Easy, right? Nooooo!
Marsha Ward
Like many authors, I have Characters in My Head who beg, plead, and even demand that I tell a story about them. When it's the turn of a particular character, I listen very hard. Very often, an idea is drifting around the universe, waiting for an author who is listening to grab it, which I may do. That idea gets mixed with others, along with "what-ifs" I ask, and miscellaneous bits of information I've squirreled away from all the reading I do. I stir gently, then begin to write what the character begins to tell me. Easy, right? Nooooo!
Marsha Ward
I've often wondered what happened to a certain young man I met in South America. Maybe that's not a mystery, but I've wondered. Circumstances could have been so different in my life . . .
Marsha Ward
Usually I curl up into a ball for several days, whimpering pitifully.
Then, because nobody is paying me any attention anyway, I uncurl, get up, go to my computer, open a doc file, and ask my characters what I did wrong.
Did I try to force one or more of them to do something that's not in their nature?
Did I lose sight of the true story and go chasing something down a rabbit hole?
Is there an unknown character hiding behind a bush that I should be including?
Once I know where I went wrong, or how I need to change my attitude, I usually get back on track and race forward again.
Then, because nobody is paying me any attention anyway, I uncurl, get up, go to my computer, open a doc file, and ask my characters what I did wrong.
Did I try to force one or more of them to do something that's not in their nature?
Did I lose sight of the true story and go chasing something down a rabbit hole?
Is there an unknown character hiding behind a bush that I should be including?
Once I know where I went wrong, or how I need to change my attitude, I usually get back on track and race forward again.
Marsha Ward
The best thing? Hands down, that's got to be communicating with readers!
Marsha Ward
I'm writing a book that ties up a few loose ends for a character in GONE FOR A SOLDIER, my Civil War novel. I'm also developing ideas for the second and third PROMISED VALLEY series novels and a second novella for the MEN OF HAUGHT SPRINGS series. Ideas are out there. I just have to snatch them up as they waft by.
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