Kalayna Price

When you tell someone that you write fiction, occasionally (but more often than one might expect) one of two extreme assumptions are voiced:   1.) The writer sat down at the computer and made up the whole thing without having to deal with any pesky research. or 2.) The story is a true one that the writer somehow got someone to tell them and then changed just a few details. (This one tends to be voiced to people writing straight mysteries and such--not so much to fantasy authors.) Both of these extremes are amusing because while I'm sure there are some writers out there who do no research whatsoever, I've never personally met one. On the other extreme, well, that one is obvious--we'd call it non-fiction if that were true. Even in fantasy, there is a happy medium between making stuff up and knowing how things work. This covers everything from you have to know how the rules work before you break them, to the fact the reader needs to be grounded in certain realistic fac...

While I have a project on the back burner that is completely unrelated to either of the series under contract, nearly all of my attention is currently on the two series I'm writing. Which means everything I'm writing right now is a sequel to the book or books before it.  In a series, each book should stand alone, as in the major issue presented at the beginning of the book should be resolved to some fashion by the end so the story has its own arc. But most series are connected by more than just character and world. While the main plot might be tied up at the end of each book, plot threads are often woven through a series. Also character growth, relationships, ability development, and such are explored over the course of a series. This means that while theoretically you could pick up a series and read it out of order, you'd get a lot more out of it by starting at the beginning. That doesn't mean everyone starts at the beginning. In fact, I'd gamble from other discu...

Some would argue that the only line in a book more important than the first is the very last line. I'm not sure I would go that far, but as a reader, I know I've been sold by an opening line in the past. I discussed hooklines about two years ago , but it is a fun subject I'd like to expand upon. When I'm in a bookstore, browsing, the very first thing that draws me to a book is the cover. They always say not to judge a book by its cover, but marketers aren't stupid so different genres tend to have their own 'look'. By designing covers which look 'the same but different' within a genre, the marketing people have conditioned readers to gravitate to books that display certain visual elements. Once the cover has done its job and urged me to pick up the book, I flip it over and scan the back blurb. Now, you must understand I don't actually read the blurb. I just scan the first couple lines of the blurb. As a whole, I've grown to dislike blurbs ...

As the TriMu blog is currently on hiatus, I'm going to steal some of the questions which were asked for our "Mailbag Monday" posts and answer them here. You guys won't object to that, right? Back in February Heather Y asked: Do you ever dream about your characters after you've written their story? Short answer: No. Long answer: (come on, you knew that one was coming.) Not that I remember once I wake up in the morning. Once I start writing a character they seem pretty content to live on the page and in my conscious mind. Characters typically have well defined personalities in my head by the time I start actively writing them, which doesn't tend to meld well with the more random nature of dreams. That said, often when I'm blocked and thinking about the story before I go to bed, I wake up with the answer of how to fix whatever issue I was banging my head against the night before, so something must happen while I'm asleep. But I never remember spe...

I'm currently polishing the second Alex Craft novel in preparation of turning it over to my editor in the coming weeks. That means I'm revising. A lot. Most of the time, the line edit type revision that needs to be done is tightening, clarification, or expounding on an idea. Or, because I tend to write so fast my fingers don't always keep up with my brain, this includes adding in the words that somehow got dropped between my head and the keyboard--typically articles and preposition (I don't know why, that just seems to be the case. I know I thought them when I was composing the sentence, but upon rereading, articles and prepositions have vanished. Maybe there is a gnome that scurries through my manuscript stealing my articles and leaving 'just' and 'even' in its wake.) Anyway, most of these edits are tedious and, while important, nothing of interest.  But, as I've been working through the manuscript, I've found several very funny mistakes, which...

Sometimes characters slip away. I don't know why it happens. I'm sure, when I wrote this character, I understood him and he served a purpose. But now he is falling flat. His lines are dull, uninteresting, and I have absolutely no idea why he won't talk to me. His time has come. He is either off to the scrap folder (to live until needed--if I ever trust him again) or he has to get his act together and shed the moping puppet routine. There is no time left to be soft. I have thirty days left until I must turn in the book, so he must either pull his weight or go. Ever write a character you remember loving in an early draft, but in subsequent drafts discover he/she just doesn't work in the story anymore?

Typically I know a lot more about every person who walks onto the page of one of my stories than the reader ever needs to know. For minor, repeating characters I like to have at least a general idea of the character's back story because it influences how the character acts and reacts to what is happening in the story. For major characters, this is, of course, a necessity, but I also like to know at least a little information about every character who has a name. As I'm digging through my rough draft and starting my revision process, I'm finding myself bogged down with keeping up with characters. Not that there are all that many characters, but by chapter seven, I no longer remember what color a minor character's hair was in chapter two or if I spelled a name with an 'e' or an 'i'. Trying to keep up this information between two books is even more complicated. A system is definitely called for. At some point while working on Once Bitten, I created separat...

(X posted from the Tri Mu blog .) When I was teenager, I was a member of a ballet company. One of my teachers was once told me that a ballerina could go three, maybe four days without practice, but every day after that, she was less of a dancer. I took her words to heart, maintaining a rigorous class and training schedule along with my rehearsal and performance schedule. When I stopped dancing, I felt what she meant as my muscles and flexibility suffered. What does this story have to do with writing? Well, I think my teacher’s advice can be applied to writing as well. Writers write, and if you spend a large gap of time not writing, you become less of a writer. Writing might not take hours of training and practice to build strength and flexibility, but writing regularly does develop skill and voice. It also builds a routine (even if your writing time isn’t set) and encourages the muse to make daily visits. I think most people know someone who can tell a pretty good story. This person ...

Cross posted from the Tri Mu Blog . I usually try to post craft topics to the Tri Mu blog, but I finished copy edits not too terribly long ago, so I’m in a technical mood—humor me. This is probably something everyone already knows, but I didn’t until the copy edits came in, so I’ll share. Did you know that Microsoft Words default treatment of ellipses is incorrect? For those unsure what an ellipsis is, Wikipedia defines it as “series of marks that usually indicate an intentional omission of a word or a phrase from the original text.” Fiction writers use it most commonly to indicate a character trailing off. When writing in Word, the autocorrect option automatically shrinks an ellipsis into three tight little dots, so I always assumed that was correct. Apparently not. Once I received my copyedits, I learned an ellipsis has space between the dots . . . For me, space period space period space period space is not a very natural thing to type, not to mention the spaces create the possib...

Unpublished writers are always waiting for THE CALL. Which call would that be? The call from an editor, of course. The call telling them someone wants to publish that doorstop they wrote. My call finally came. More details soon... ^_^

I know, I know; I talked about what inspires ideas in my last post. I promise, I’m not repeating the topic. No, this time I wanted to address what inspires a writer to write . Not what makes her drag her butt to the chair everyday—that’s a different topic—but what makes her need to write. What inspires her to get up early, stay up late, or miss returning to work on time because the words are pouring out of her? How does she go from scrapping the bottom of the creative well to being muse-touched? Over the past couple years, I’ve had the pleasure of talking to many different writers. A question I always find interesting to ask (whether the writer is multi-published or still struggling to finish that first manuscript) is ‘What gets your creative juices flowing?’. I’ve received a lot of answers, so I thought I’d hit on a couple. - Reading a Good Book This is something that works for me. There is nothing like reading a great book, and after the last page, thinking, “I want to write some...

[Be warned, this turned into a very long post.] If there is one benefit to being unpublished, it is the lack of a deadline. This frees a writer to experiment a little--to take chances she might not have time to take later in her career. (Not that time is ever overly abundant.) This year (all five months of it thus far) has been full of exploration for me. The Tri Mu has had writing challenges most months which have ranged from writing in different genres to including very specific elements in scenes/short stories. Besides these short challenges, I've been working off and on a literary YA, but I haven't managed to really sink my teeth into the story for an extended amount of time. This project is an interesting one, and a big stretch for be because the story includes neither fantasy nor mystery elements, the two genres I'm most familiar and comfortable with. But, I was urged to write it by a non-writer who is very important to me, so I gave it a shot, and it will probably c...

Last week, one of my fellow Tri Ms (Modern Myth Makers, the writing group that formed following NaNo last year) challenged me to write a short story targeted at a very specific line. I knew this would be something totally new for me, but as I had just finished my latest WIP, decided it would be a fun change of pace. I think that was Wednesday. At that point, I had no idea what I would write about in specifics, but I had lots of ideas that had been on the back burner. Some were obviously not a good fit for the paramaters of what I was trying to write, but over the last part of the week, I knocked enough ideas together to start a spark, worldbuild a little, and get some idea who my characters were. I did not write a full outline, but I did jot down some very basic notes of what had to happen in the story for it to be, well, a story. With that, Saturday I began writing. The word count goal of this story is 10-15k words. Now, as far as short stories go, 10k isn't that short. But, for...

I'm neck deep in plotting a short story, but I'm not ready to say much about it, so I thought I'd share some of the Comments from the MS I just finished. Rachel posts her comments to her blog once in a while, and they always fascinate/amuse me, so I hope you find mine just as interesting. The MS, which ended just under 80k, had a total of 158 comments. (For those unfamiliar with comments, they are a feature in word that highlights a section of text and puts a little bubble on the side of the page where additional text/notes can be written.) Some random comments from the first couple chapters: -"Find out the legal term for (place)" -"When talking about (deleted) is (deleted) capitalized?" -"Clunky" (referring to a paragraph I didn't like) -"Look up shoes" -"Did I give him a name earlier?" -"This is the idea. Now rewrite it to make it work." -"Long meandering description. Figure out what you want to say....

Today I want to talk about writing blurbs and pitches. Blurbs are used for many different things: they are included in query letters, pitched to agents/editors at a conferences, and some end up on book jackets. In all cases, the blurb serves the same purpose, to entice the intended audience into reading more. Most blurbs are only a couple lines long, maybe a couple paragraphs at most, and they have a lot to do in that small amount of space. Each word counts, and should work toward introducing main characters and throwing out a plot hook strong enough to draw in readers. I've written a handful of blurbs (that may or may not be any good) but all have been for 'first books'. A couple days ago, I had a chance to see my agent face to face, and she asked me to send her a blurb for the sequel to the book she is currently pitching to editors, so she can pitch it as a series with a little more authority. My first thought was, "Hey, no problem. I can do that." After all, I ...

I was talking about hooklines with one of the "Tri M"s the other day, and she suggested I blog about it. Now, I know there are dozens of other, probably better informed, bloggers out there who have tackled the hookline topic, but I decided to give it a go. *Note: this post is completely composed of my own take on the subject gathered from what I've learned as a reader and what I've gleaned from other writers. As it is largely opinion, I may change it one day, and it may not be the same as other peoples.* Hooklines: What are they and why do readers want to read them? A hookline, in the sense I will be discussing today, is typically the first line (or paragraph) of a book. (Of course there are often hooks and hooklines at ends and beginnings of chapters, but that is a totally different discussion.) The hook is the first thing a potential reader finds when she/he opens a book, and hopefully grabs her attention. The best that I've read do at least a couple of the foll...

They say you learn something with every word you write. Well, I'm certainly learning today (I hope.) Today I'm tackling something new, and if you're glancing at the title of this post and trying to guess what it is, I'll you a hint: I've written LOTS of fight scenes. That's right, I'm writing my very first love scene today. Yes, I've written two novels with romantic subplots before, and while there is (hopefully) a lot of sexual tension and some 'hot' moments, the relationship doesn't progress all the way to the bedroom (though if I ever write the rest of the books plotted for the series, they will get there.) I also wrote a short story last year that included a heavy hand of romance, but I copped out and (if you will humor me by accepting a film-technique analogy) panned out at the bedroom scene. This WIP is different. I knew, almost from the get-go, that my main characters would end up rumpling the sheets at some point in the book. I starte...

When I was writing my plot outline, there were a couple places I knew I wanted to insert a subplot to get me from one point to another. Unfortunately, while plotting I didn't have any idea what that subplot would be, so I noted the chapter, put in a couple points of stuff that needed to happen before the next scene I knew and left myself the note "something happens here--not sure what. Subplot?" I actually have two chapters in a row where I did this. I guess I thought that by the time I got to the end of the outline I'd know what would go there. Instead I forgot all about it. Skip ahead a week to last night. It's NaNo day 7, and for the most part I've been making pretty good progress. I'm expanding and fleshing things out following the outline, a couple surprises here or there as my characters develop on the page, but so far this story has stuck very close to the outline, more so than anything else I've written. So, I'm trucking along, making most...

The idea for my NaNo story has been percolating in the back of my mind for months. Even before I sat down and really started thinking about it, I had a rough idea of the world, my main characters, and the general plot (thank goodness about that last one, nailing down the plot is one of the hardest things for me typically.) The past few weeks I have been brainstorming with pen and paper because it lends itself to more organic organization. I might post what some of my brainstorming on paper looks like later, but, to give you a quick description, it typically includes very few paragraphs with lots of circles and squares of text linked together with lines. (Oh yeah, and doodles. I never remember drawing them, but give me a pen and doodles will end up in the margins of about any piece of paper I'm around for an extended period of time.) I'll be honest, I don't spend a lot of time going back over the mess I make while brainstorming, but it helps me to get it out there. After a c...

I've been silent for a little while. Sometimes the days just slip away. In the interim, my computer has come home and I finished the major rewrite I've been working on. My wonderful agent really put a fire under me to finish that last one. I'd told her it was almost ready, and as she'd seen an earlier draft of the MS and happened to be on the phone with an editor who asked "What else do you have", she pitched the story. I didn't get a chance to agonize over the last few chapters, (because that is what I've been doing, agonizing over every last word--not so productive. lol) or send the chapters to my CP. So, currently I'm not opening the file because I really don't want to see if there are things I missed. It's gone, and probably on the editors desk by now. Who knows how long it will be there, so its best for my nerves to forget about it. Now it's time to sit back and wait. And by wait I mean start a new project. Over the last couple day...