Harmony Stalter's Blog: A Writer's Journey

In order for a writer to write, there needs to be inspiration. This can come from a variety of different places. You do not need to search for inspiration. It will hit you at a moments notice. Seasoned writers will walk around with a pen and paper in hand constantly, because they never know when inspiration will hit. I would advise you to do this. Personally speaking, I have been in a restaurant, driving down the road and in the grocery store when inspiration has struck.

Inspiration can come from anything. It can come from a life experience. For instance, your current job can bring on inspiration for a character, plot, or setting. Inspiration can come from some thing you see. For instance, you could be taking a walk in your neighborhood or on a trail when you come up with scene of a chase through the woods or a neighborhood. A painting can inspire you to write about a certain time period. A drive can inspire you to write about a neighborhood. A person can inspire you to use some of their personality traits for one of your characters. A fight with a loved one can inspire you to write about a conflict in your story.

Like musicians, writers have to draw from real life experiences. Using the things that inspire you will help you become a better writer. Your imagination is the key to a good story. The next time you are in a grocery store or at a social event, look at a complete stranger and come up with their life story without ever speaking to them. Put him or her through different scenarios and come up with ways he or she came out of them. This will help you gain inspiration from different things and keep your imagination going. You will then be able to create different characters, settings, and plots for your characters.

Being able to draw inspiration from anything will help you gain a better understanding to becoming a writer. Allowing yourself to come up with different plots using different sets of characters can help you write a novel series. Remember to always carry a pen and paper with you because you never know when you need it. If you have a phone where you can get a program that allows you to write, like notepad, then be sure to have it handy at all times. You may never know when inspiration will take over, but you must always remember to be prepared for it.

The combination of time and place is what a setting consists of. It may include the physical environment your character interacts in and the cultural factors that effect how your character thinks and reacts to situations. When a well developed setting is combined with realistic characters, it will make your short story, novel, or series of novels much more believable to its readers. The plot will come together more naturally, leaving the story realistic to its readers. You never want to dump all the details about the setting out at once. This will slow the plot down. As you develop your story, the setting should be revealed slowly, allowing the reader to get a picture of the time, place and details over the course of the story. You may gather more details about a place than you will ever reveal to a reader. These details will help you to develop the story. The following steps will help you in developing a setting for your story.

First, like organizing your characters profiles, you have to organize the materials you are using to conjur up your setting. Setting up a way to gain easy access to the research material you are using for your setting is important, especially when you are writing a novel or a series of novels. Like with your character profiles, you can use files folders, notebooks, post-its, index cards, or word documents. It may take some trial and error before you figure out what works best for you, but do not get discouraged if one way does not work.

Your background information may change by the time you reach the end of your story, but doing the majority of the setting development before you begin to write will allow the process of writing to go more smoothly. You will be able to focus on the minor changes and smaller details as you write your story.

Secondly, you will need to decide on the broader picture elements. You can accomplish this by asking yourself a few questions. You need to ask what type of mood you are looking for your setting to convey throughout the story. You will need to decide if the mood is going to remain the same throughout the story or will it change throughout the scenes. You will need to ask what your time frame is for the story to take place. You will need to ask about the main location of the story.

A good way to visualize the location is to draw a rough map. You can take the time to create a separate file for each location. To get a feel for everything the character will see, hear, taste, touch, and smell, you will need to imagine yourself in the place. If you are writing a book in the current time frame, then you should take the time to explore the place and take notes on everything you see, hear, smell, taste, and touch.

Thirdly, you will need to take into consideration the physical environment and the biology encompassed in it. These elements can vary from planetary (mainly used for sci-fi books) to the physical layout of an environment (lakes, rivers, mountains, trees, plants, etc.). You will need to ask what kind of plants and animals a character will encounter. You will also need to know how each character will react to those elements.

Fourthly, you must take the time to consider your cultural elements. This area can be very broad. It can include such things as family, social structure, government, law, religion, politics, traditions, occupations, economy, communications, and different types of technology. When you are attempting to go for realism in your stories, you most likely will not have to alter much. You can focus on certain elements throughout your story that will add to it. When you are beginning from scratch, you will need to think carefully about each area. Adding a unique, yet clear, element for readers to grasp without having to have a lot of explanation about the element is important for the flow of the story.

Fifthly, you must consider the impact of the setting on each of your characters. You have to ask where your characters feel safe and where they may feel anxiety or tension. Settings will, often times, impact how a person speaks. When you are creating new words for your characters, you have to think about new ways to bring it into conversations without feeling the need to explain it to the reader. If you want to create a surprise element in your plot, you can use an environment the character generally feels safe in and compromise it. This will have a greater impact on the plot than a setting where the readers will expect things to happen.

Sixthly, you will need to see that your setting and the story you are telling are connected. While you are writing, you will see areas that need improvement. You can take the time to update the setting as your story progresses, but be sure that it does not damage the flow of the story. This will help you with future books, should you be writing a series, and help in marketing the books.

Creating a character that is realistic and believable is one of the most important parts of novel or novel series. Without a realistic character, your novel will not come together as well as it should. Introducing a character takes finesse. Dumping a list of traits on your readers is not good character development. Throughout the story it is important that you weave details about the characters without bringing the plot to a halt. Traits can be linked to behaviors. Showing actions with your characters will allow the reader to see the traits without you telling the reader the trait you are looking to portray. There are steps to achieving a proper character development.

First, organization is important when you are creating character profiles. You will need to organize the materials you are using for the characters you are creating. When you are creating a short story, this step may not be necessary, but when you are creating a novel and a series of novels you will have to reference profiles often. Being prepared will allow your characters to become more realistic, because you can be consistent with even the smallest details. For instance, if the character had brown hair in one book, you do not want him or her to have sandy blonde hair in another book. Your readers will spot the inconsistency in your character. It will take a bit of work to create your character before diving into your plot, but keeping consistent will allow the writing process to flow better.

Your personality comes into play when you are organizing your character profiles. You could be a person who likes physical documents, such as file folders, note cards, or post-its. This will allow you to move things around for a different combination of things. You may prefer to keep everything on your computer. This allows you to open documents in addition to the manuscript. You can keep the profiles as detailed as you need them to be, but keep the organization of these profiles simple. You do not want to be stressed out when you are looking for the profiles, because it can cause you not to make progress in your books.

Secondly, you will need to begin to develop your characters traits and backgrounds. Each character that appears in your novels should have a list of general traits and a background that can be worked into the story. You can make a list of traits. The physical attributes can consist of eye color, hair color, height, weight, and body type. The Demographics should consist of age, birth order, place of birth, and income level. The personality type and other related traits should consist of whether the character is an extrovert or introvert, is organized or disorganized, driven or relaxed, and any other aspect that may be important to the story you plan to write. For example, if you are writing a sci-fi/fantasy novel, then there will need to be more details added that characters in other genres may not need. The dominant traits of your character should have range. What is the strong trait in one part of the story should be the weak trait in another part of the story.

Psychology plays a part in how you turn out in life. You could have a twin that is the complete opposite of you, even though you have both had the same upbringing. Your personal choices and beliefs will shape who you are as a person. This same holds true for your characters. You will have to put some thought into what makes your character special and different. What traits your character has will allow him or her to overcome conflicts and obstacles he or she may encounter within your plot.

If you can draw or know someone who can, you can create a sketch of your character to include with the profiles for your own use. You can also use magazine clips or internet images. These can help you to visualize and understand your characters better.

Thirdly, when you are ready to begin your story you must determine where you are going to need extra research. Your characters may have different experiences and careers from what you have had. This will require some research. Your knowledgeable readers will notice the inconsistency in the details of the profession or experience. This will cause them to put the book down and not continue reading. It is hard to bring these readers back to your story. You will need to take notes on the areas that you will need to research, so your character will be more believable to those readers.

Fourthly, there will be a connection between your characters and books; you will need to be able to recognize it. Ideas will surface about your characters as you are writing your books that were not there while you were profiling your characters. This is a normal part of the process. Keeping your profiles in a format that is easily edited and manipulated is very important. When you have decided to write a novel series, the characters profiles will grow larger in time. Keeping the profiles separate will save you the trouble of going through different books to ensure that you have the right traits for each character.

Fifthly, save your character profiles for future use, even after your story has been completed. There are times that you may know more about your characters than you will reveal to your readers. Using these characters profiles is great for marketing your books. You can reveal more on sites that allow author’s to provide extra tidbits about the characters in books.

Saving the profiles can also help if and when your book is adapted into a movie format. The detailed material you have gathered will help the actor or actress get to know your character better and portray him or her to the readers liking.

Writing your first novel and sending it to a publisher can be a daunting task. I always say that finishing your first book and sending it off to a publisher is like sending your child into the world on their own for the first time. You are scared to let go, but want to see him or her succeed. Writing a series of novels with the same characters is a concept many writers take on. There are important steps to remember when you are taking on such a task.

First, you need to pay attention to the novel series you enjoy. Most people, who read for pleasure, do not pay much attention to why he or she enjoys the series books. You will have to go back through these novels and do a break down. The elements you will need to look for in the series of books are character, setting, plot structure, conflict, and suspense. These different elements will help you to understand what needs to done in order for you to write a series of books. Once you have broken down the books, you can apply your own unique style to writing your series.

Secondly, the elements that have a stronger importance are characters and settings. When you are creating a series, you must have your characters and setting completely developed before coming up with the plot and the rest of the elements required for writing a book. Part of your plot is character driven. When you take the time to develop your characters first, it will help you in structuring the series. The impact that setting and characters have on each other will add a sense of realism and depth to your series. When you are writing a series, there may be more ideas and details that come to you. This is a normal process. As you write, you can update your setting and characters.

Thirdly, you must remember that each book has a purpose. When you are writing a series of books, the plot or main story should reach across the entire series of books. You have to think about the end of the series first, and then work you way backwards. Each book can encompass the different events leading up to the end of the series. Each book must have its own mini plot. The first book will set up the main characters and the setting surrounding them. The middle books in the series will allow you to further develop the characters in the book and build tension and conflicts. You can use cliffhangers to entice a person to pick up the next book in the series. The final book of the series will resolve the main conflict and tie up all the loose ends left over from the previous books in the series.

Fourthly, when you are developing your series, you must remember to use multiple conflicts. This will build a strong pacing and suspense throughout your series. Your core set of characters should have a main conflict and a secondary conflict that need to be resolved. You can then switch off between the two as the series develops. When one of the conflicts reaches a critical moment, then you should switch over to the other
conflict. This will cause the reader to want to continue to read your series.

Lastly, you must develop a habit of working on your series of novels daily. If you are able to complete one novel per year, then you are in good standing. Doing this will practice will not be able to begin overnight. You will need to figure a few things out first. Making adjustments in your current schedule and figuring out what time of day is best for you to write are the main things that need to be developed. While you are going about the rest of your day, you should be observing your surroundings and brainstorming ideas to further your story along. If you are thinking that writing a novel or a series of novels is a massive project, you can break it down into smaller projects. First, focus on the preparation of the one chapter or scene at a time. Then once you are comfortable with that, you can move on to the next one. Given some time, the process of writing a novel will turn into a habit and you will do it without thinking about the steps involved.

There are similarities and differences in non-fiction and fiction writing. Both types of writing call for flow. The book needs to read like it is meant to be together. A non-fiction book needs to flow like a fiction story will. There needs to be consistency within the language used. The structures of fiction and non-fiction books vary. The structure of a non-fiction book can be matched with an outline. Outlines make non-fiction books easier to write. Fiction books will not follow an outline. Research varies between fiction and non-fiction. Research is a big part of non-fiction writing. When you are writing on a specific subject, you have to do extensive amounts of research. You want to be sure all your facts are correct on the subject matter you have chosen to write about. Always choose a subject you are passionate about when you are writing non-fiction books. With fiction books, there may be some research needed. You may want to right about a place or a time period. If this is the case, then you will need to research the area and the time period to ensure your accounts are correct. Most of the time, a fiction story is just something that comes from your own imagination. There are those who can write entire books without doing any or a minimal amount of research because it is all in their minds.
When it comes to writing non-fiction material, there is one rule of thumb. Always write about what you know. If you stick to writing about things you know something about and are able to research what you do not know about, then you will be able to see success in books. When it comes to fiction writing, your imagination is the only tool you really need. Well, that and enough paper and writing utensils, whether it is a pen or a computer. Words of advice--always back up your files, this is extremely important, especially if you are only using a computer to write your manuscripts. You need to invest in a jump drive, the larger the capacity the better.


Some writers, like me, hand write manuscripts before typing. This allows us to edit as we are typing. You can choose to do it this way or type up the entire thing, walk away from the story, then go back a few days later with fresh eyes to read through it and make changes. Then you can submit the manuscript to a publishing company, but be sure to read the guidelines first. Some companies only ask for the first three chapters. They use this to determine if they are going to publish your manuscript. It will take some time for them to get back to you. Do not get discouraged when you do not hear back right away.

Writing a book can be hard. There may be times when a story begins to form in your head and you put it down on paper. Then, suddenly, there is nothing. This may happen a few times. You will begin a book or story and then get stuck. Often times, you will have to walk away from it and put it aside for a few months. Sometimes, those stories will be put away for years, forgotten about. You may find yourself with several stories only partly written. This happens to the best authors. For instance, Stephen King had begun Under the Dome in 1976 and just finished the over 1,000 page book in early 2009. He stopped writing it for quite some time because he did not know where he wanted to take it.

Do not let the unfinished stories stop you from writing. You will get back to them. There may be some that never get turned into books. Some stories are not meant to be books. These stories are meant to be short stories. If you can finish these stories quickly, then you can compile a book of short stories. If you decide to create a book of short stories, then you have to be sure they are all the same genre. A short story book can be anywhere from four to ten stories depending on the length of the stories. You can also release these stories as singles, thanks to the invention of the different e-readers. Releasing these stories as singles can get a reader interested in your full length books. Never be discouraged, no matter what happens. If you are meant to be a writer, you will be one. Write no matter what happens. Write your thoughts, poetry, and stories, anything that comes to mind. It will help you hone your skills. Ask for opinions on your stories, this will help you to continue on, but do not get discouraged if someone gives you criticism. Some of your harshest critics will be family and friends. Continue to write; knowing that one day you will sell a book or story to the masses.