For the longest time I found it hard to commit time in my day to writing, and in some ways I still do.  However, I finally learned that I’m really creative at night.  After dinner something just happens to my brain and I go crazy!  It’s like, ‘okay, time to go to bed’ and suddenly my brain says, ‘NO!  Don’t sleep like a sane person!!!  Stay up late and write!!!’  So I do.  I take my laptop into bed and read two or three chapters each night (I don’t plan that, I just stay up until ten, so how many I read depends on how much time I have, length of chapters, etc.).  In the afternoon I have loads of time, but for some reason I just can’t concentrate.  I get really tired and easily bored.  I used to try to use all that time to write, but now just a half hour before bed gets more work done than two hours in the afternoon.  So study yourself and figure out when you’re most productive and leave that time free for writing.  And also know your personality: I do well with routine and schedules, but maybe you’re better just wingin’ it!

I don’t know about you, but perhaps my biggest problem is finishing a novel once I’ve started it.  Countless stories have died in my imagination before they ever got to paper or computer, and many that I start writing never get beyond a few sentences.  In fact, if you think about it, so far I’ve only finished two out of the hundreds I’ve started.  That’s not very good odds.  Before I finished Dragon’s Heart, my biggest challenge was persevering and completing what I had begun.  Writing all of Dragon’s Heart from beginning to end taught me a lot about writing and how to finish.  Still, I undertook a lot of projects after that, and none of them stuck.

And then came the novel that I’m working on now.  Only a month had gone by when I knew that this book was different.  I was thinking about it all the time; I heard the characters in songs, got inspirations for plot twists everywhere I went, and I was enchanted by the imaginary world they lived in.  Never once did I think I wouldn’t finish it.  Something inside me just knew I was going to.  Certainly, writer’s block and phases of disinterest inevitably came, but there was never a question in my mind about getting through.  It was just a matter of time.  At times there were rivals to my attention: other stories I also developed simultaneously, and I confess sometimes I found them more interesting.  But as the months (and eventually years) passed, they fell away and this novel alone stood as my goal.  I wondered what exactly it was about this book that was different and had kept it alive after all this time.

Finally it came to me.  What made this story so thrilling to me was a character.  Just this one character (and his relationship to the main character) kept me coming back.  As dictated by the plot, he had to be a complex and three-dimensional character with many, many layers.  To clearly understand his motives, em0tions, and actions, I had to invent a past for him, and know his hidden thoughts, even if none of them ever came up in the book.  For a writer, that’s absolutely fascinating.  There was (and is) always something new to learn about him.  I came to know him so well I can see his face clearly in my mind, and he doesn’t just look like someone I know or someone from a movie.  He’s his own unique person.  This is true of any story I write; as much as I may like the theme or plot, what I love best about writing is watching the characters come to life.  That’s what keeps me going.  It doesn’t take long for me to become convinced they’re real.  They become my best friends.

What all these vague and off-topic paragraphs are leading up to is simply this: find what enchants you about writing in general and your novel in particular and focus on that.  Whether it’s the characters, the plot, your theme, or something else entirely, find it, hold it tight, and develop it until you finish.  Then let it go, stand back, and admire your work.

When moving through various stages of character development, always be sure there’s contiguity.  I’ve never devised a character yet that ends up the way I originally planned them.  Sometimes they don’t even stay the same in the transition from my mind to the page; often I’ll imagine them in my mind one way, and they’ll come out entirely different.  Plot and characters depend upon each other; plots grow and change to accommodate characters and the characters will evolve and change to help the plot.  Thus, if your character is required to talk to a lot of people and do it well, it wouldn’t make much sense for her to be shy.  If in the first draft you describe her as shy and then in later drafts have her be very socially comfortable, it’s going to seem silly to the reader, and make any previous descriptions contradictory.  Remember, actions speak louder than words.  Change and develop the character as the story grows.  This may mean old drafts of a chapter have to be trashed or completely redone, or that the plot or even the ending redirected, but don’t try to fight it; if you let them, your character will naturally become exactly who they need to be, and the best version they can.

Let’s face it, writers; when it comes to writing a book, romance is the hardest thing to write.  There are two things you can do: swear off all romance in a book or grit your teeth and bear it.  The first is definitely an option, but if you’re even considering romance in your novel, chances are that’s because you want it there and wouldn’t find the story nearly as interesting without it.  I’m not sure what it is about romance, but out of all the categories (action, emotion, dialogue, etc.) it is the hardest, most boring, most embarrassing, most aggravating kind of writing to tackle.  In my case I’m sure part of the problem is I’ve never been in love.  I don’t know what one feels or acts or says.  Unlike the rest of my writing, I can’t draw from my own personal experience, so I’m forced to study other people’s, which contributes to my second problem: I’m really just copying off the words of other writers I’ve read.  This means two things happen: it ceases to be my natural style (it becomes stiff and stands out from the rest of the chapter) and I easily fall into cliches and excessive mushiness.  Suddenly I find it’s not my story at all.  No longer are you reading the brilliant and original work of Amanda Kenney; you suddenly find that you are reading every boring, hackneyed love scene you have read a hundred times before, the only difference being that this version is a little more annoying.  Then I’m caught between two extremes: taking their romance a little too seriously, or not taking it seriously enough.  The first time I write it, I tend toward the former.  When I come back and read it later, red with embarrassment, I hack it down to the bare bones and try to make it almost a joke.  That’s just my natural approach to things, but it does make it difficult for the characters to ever get serious about each other.  I personally prefer the type of relationship where the two involved are a really natural pair, so being together is just a normal, everyday thing; they don’t need a bunch of drama and mushy sentences whenever they look at each other.  That sort of stuff is reserved for special occasions.  Most of the time they just want to work and laugh together, which is fun to write and to read.  That takes care of my problem for the majority of the book, but on the other hand it amplifies it when it comes time to take care of those ‘special occasions’.  I’ve been putting off all mushy words between them, so when they finally say them it doesn’t sound like something they’d say; I have to work and sweat and beat the words out to make it sound natural and smooth.  I can’t stand characters being mushy and lovestruck 24/7, but if being romantic is awkward because it’s not their pattern of behavior (to the point of being practically against their nature), it makes my job twice as hard.  The first kiss becomes almost unbearable because it’s so unusual.

So what’s a writer to do?  Well, unfortunately, the best thing to do is just keep hacking at it until you finally get it right, even if it takes a hundred rewrites.  You work it out until it’s balanced.  Fortunately, there are some things you can do to hopefully make it easier.  One thing is know your characters really well.  That way you know what they would say and how they would say it; it’ll sound natural.  Secondly, a good way to cut down on the mushy and melodramatic in your scene is to narrate as little as possible.  Don’t try to describe the emotions and sensations the character is feeling; just tell the bald, honest facts.  Keep it short and to the point.  Be charming and light about the whole matter.  Generally I’ve found the less you say the better.  If your reader likes your characters and their relationship, they’ll generate enough emotions over the romantic sequence for ten people.  Too many cliched, abstract descriptions tend to cut down on the ability of the reader to connect with the characters.  A short ‘Her heart was racing’ is ten times better than ‘She felt like lightning was running through her’ or ‘She felt like she could fly’.  Leastways I think it is.  This is where it’s important to rely on your best ally: your own style and your own honest writer’s instinct.  Let them be your guide.  After all, part of the problem is being too influenced by things you’ve read before.  Last of all, be balanced; don’t hold back but don’t let your writing run away with you.  And that’s the real challenge: making your words sound natural while controlling them tightly.

Describing things can be one of the most challenging things for a writer to tackle.  Sometimes you just can’t picture it or find the right words.  Still, it’s important to describe the world around your characters so the reader feels like they’re actually settled in real place, instead of just floating through events.  A well done and well placed description could set their feet firmly in the dust of your awesome imaginary world.  So the ‘secret’ to good descriptions is a well developed world.  If you can see it, the reader will too.  In the early stages of your writing, when you’re planning characters and plots, give some thought to setting.  What kind of place is it: forest, desert, plains, mountains, cold, warm, lots of river, oceans, etc?  What’s the history of this world?  How do the common people live?  How do they feel about different things, like nature, art, violence, or strangers?  What are their customs?  Don’t go overboard with this cultural planning, since it’ll grow as the rest of your story does.  You’ll likely come across the answers as your character interacts with other people and the world around them.

Then there’s the opposite problem: knowing it too well.  Sometimes you can see something or someone so clearly it’s like they’re right in front of you.  You just want to describe them perfectly.  One problem you may run into when you try to describe them is it’s just a bunch of big, confusing, and vague words that the reader just skims through.  Trying to describe dimensions and sizes can easily backfire.  You can get too particular about the description.  You may end up just repeating yourself and annoying your reader.

So where’s the balance?  Well, describe enough to give the reader the general sense of what you’re trying to get across, but leave enough for their imagination to play around in.  That is the fun part after all!  If you do all the work for them and set rigid rules, there’s no room for their minds to expand into your story and make it their own.

You know how exacting I am about punctuation?  Well, case in point:

I said to my kitten today, “You’re lucky; I nearly stepped on you there.”  If you left out the semicolon the sentence would be, ‘You’re lucky I nearly stepped on you there.”  Two totally different meanings!  I repeat what I always say: punctuation is important!

Just as real estate has its ‘location, location, location’, writing has its punctuation.  I cannot stress this enough.  Perhaps I’m too picky, but when people don’t use proper punctuation, it takes all my self-control not to scream.  Proper punctuation makes whatever you write easier to read and understand, besides giving your work a more professional feel.  If your sentences are similar to a kindergartener’s, it’s rather hard to take it seriously.  Without proper punctuation, everything looks and sounds sloppy, and shows indifference and lack of effort on the part of the writer that is palpable to the reader.  Not to mention that publishers want work that’s well-written, and a big part of that is punctuation.  So please, for the sake of picky people everywhere, use proper punctuation.

Every writer’s got some sort of phrase they repeat over and over in their writing.  In fact, everyone has something they say often.  If you know someone well, chances are you could tell me exactly what they would say in a certain situation.  These things can be endearing between two persons and for a reader with their favorite author, but you, as a writer, should keep a sharp eye on it.  It’s one of those things that can easily annoy a reader and a publisher just because it’s something they notice.  John Flanagan tends to use the word ‘philosophically’ a dozen times in a book.  I have caught myself using the phrase ‘she had never been so _____ in her entire life’ over and over again.  When I read my sister’s work a couple years ago, I noticed she had the word ‘she started’ on every other page.  There are just certain words you think of first when you’re writing.  Just remember to try to vary your words a little to help give it more flavor and just to mix things up.

Character arc is the character’s status as he or she goes through the story, in a process of some kind of change or transformation.  If a character is the same at the end of the story as at the beginning, there isn’t really any story.  And actually, the plot and the characters are dependant on each other; one develops because of the other.  So if your character hasn’t developed much or at all by the words ‘The End’ that’s a bad sign.  You have no story.  I don’t know what you call all those words between ‘Once upon a time’ and ‘the end’ but it’s not a story.

However, it’s important to note that a character shouldn’t change suddenly and drastically without anything in the story to explain why they have changed.  Write a plot that will demand and nurture change and growth in your character; have that be a major focus of your plot coursing.  Without it, a plot is nothing.  There’s always a bigger game going on outside of your character’s little lives, but that doesn’t mean you can ignore their little lives for the sake of the bigger picture.  A tale is empty that way.  And besides, little lives are far more interesting, to you and the reader.  Not that you should lose sight of the big picture or not try to impress it upon your reader; I’ve talked before about the importance of a complex, realistic world in the background for your story.  But ultimately it’s the small story that you focus on.

So, in conclusion, when planning your plot, which I will talk about in detail later, you should be thinking, “How does my character start off and what will I do in the story to have them be _____?”  Or, “How do they start off and what will the story change them into?”  And be sure to keep a tab on ‘character arc’ while your writing.  This can actually help you figure out what to do with the next chapter.  “Where do I need to take the character now and how am I going to do that?” usually cures chapter block.

I don’t know how knowledgeable you are about grammar; personally I stink at it, I don’t understand it at all, but I have picked up a few things along the way.  For your own education, here is a quick note about then.  Or than.  Do you know the difference?

Funny I used that word, difference.  Then is for time purposes: ‘She raked and then mowed the lawn.’  ‘Then the dog suddenly pulled on the leash.’  Then is used to describe an action taking place after the aforementioned.  However, than is about difference.  ‘That is better than this.’  ‘She ran slower than him.’

It’s important not to get too carried away, but little things like that make a big difference.  So learn little rules.  Go in from the moment you start the book armed with simple knowledge and you’ll have less work in the editing process.