Back in the Saddle

Hey there all you romance lovers, long time no see. I’ve been taking a break; a break from writing, blogging, and marketing. But I’m back in the saddle.

My last release, Choosing to Dream, took a lot out of me. I love my book and am thrilled it’s out there in the world looking for love from romance readers like you. But the week I took off from the day job to push the release, left me with a month-long marketing hangover.

Marketing, for lack of a better term, is a selfish bitch. She takes and takes until there’s nothing left, but it’s part of the package when you’re a writer who wants actual human beings to read your work. So, I did it. Yay!

Now what?

Now I’m finally ready to re-enter the writing world. I never left completely, but I haven’t written anything new for quite some time.

Time to face my laptop again and organize all the ideas that have been swimming around in my head for my next book. I have a general outline, but I’ve been thinking a lot about backstory and specific scenes. With the way this book has been coming together in my head, I may end up writing it scene by scene instead of in order. I’ve never written that way before as my stories always come to me in chronological order, but sometimes it’s hard to control the creative juices, and there are scenes toward the end of the book that I want to get down on paper as soon as possible.

So what did I do as soon as I sat down at the park on Sunday with pencil and notebook in hand? I wrote the first draft of chapter one. Go figure.

The truth about my writing life is I don’t write every day. But I wrote yesterday, and am hoping to write another scene out tonight. Time to dust off my riding boots, or writing boots…

Do you find taking breaks help or inhibit your creativity? Sound off.

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Find me at www.jennifersenhajiauthor.com

Character Development- The Personality Test

This weekend I worked on an outline for a new series. Originally, it was just going to be a short, but the story has grown into more than just one book. So now, in order for me to write the short, I need to plan out the series. Yeah. It's a bit of a project. Not one I was planning, but I'm very excited about it. 

Which is why I need to do it right. I may only be writing a short for now, but if I want this to be the beginning of a series, then I have to know everything about my characters. What are their secrets? What are their habits; good and bad. What is their history? What is their motivation? I already know what the characters look like, how they interact with each other. But, in order for my story, and ultimately my series to be consistent, I need to know what makes each of them tick.

So I took a personality test as my FMC and MMC, separately, to find out their personality types. The results were consistent with what I had imagined for each character, but none the less, fascinating. It's too early to go into too much detail about the story or series, but I will reveal the results of the personality tests.

My heroine came back with a INTJ, also known as The Architect or The Mastermind. According to http://www.16personalities.com/intj-personality, "People with the INTJ personality type are imaginative yet decisive, ambitious yet private, amazingly curious, but they do not squander their energy." According to http://www.truity.com/personality-type/intj, "Although INTJs aren’t usually warm or particularly gregarious, they tend to have a self-assured manner with people based on their own security in their intelligence. They relate their ideas with confidence, and once they have arrived at a conclusion they fully expect others to see the wisdom in their perceptions. They are typically perfectionists and appreciate an environment of intellectual challenge." Yep, that is her.

My hero came back with ENTP, also known as The Visionary or The Debater. According to http://www.16personalities.com/entp-personality, "Taking a certain pleasure in being the underdog, ENTPs enjoy the mental exercise found in questioning the prevailing mode of thought, making them irreplaceable in reworking existing systems or shaking things up and pushing them in clever new directions." According to http://www.truity.com/personality-type/ENTP, "ENTPs are typically friendly and often charming. They usually want to be seen as clever and may try to impress others with their quick wit and incisive humor. They are curious about the world around them, and want to know how things work. However, for the ENTP, the rules of the universe are made to be broken." I can't wait to write him.

I love it. These tests tell me what I know, but also what I haven't even thought of yet. They give me a chance to round out the characters. This is the first time I have taken a personality test as one of my characters, but it won't be the last.
This project is where my love of history and researching locations will come in to play. It will also test my organizational skills. But that's a different blog post.

Have you ever taken a personality test for yourself? Have you ever used one to assist in your character development? Did the results surprise you?

Come find me online at www.jennifersenhajiauthor.com

Location, Location, Location- 5 Ways to make your novel more believable

There are lots of ways to draw the reader in. Characters, drama, conflict, location...Ah, yes, let's talk about this today. Location is a very important thing. Not where you write, but where you write about. Did you know the streets of San Juan are paved with blue glazed cobblestones?

In my novel Sweet Dreams, several locations are mentioned. Most real and one totally made up. The story takes place in Maple Grove, a fictional town about three hours north of San Francisco, California. There are also scenes in Pompeii, Naples, Amalfi, and...I think that's it. Although other cities, including San Francisco, are mentioned.

My holiday short, Angels in Disguise, featured in Unwrapping Love, takes place in Santa Monica.

In Choosing to Dream, the sequel to Sweet Dreams, coming soon, we return to Maple Grove, but also travel to Denver and Malibu.

Blah, blah, blah, I have another book coming out. I know, get to the point.

It's because of research I've been doing on my current WIP, a summer short entitled Sea Breeze scheduled for release this summer, that I'm writing this post. The story takes place on a Caribbean cruise and there are a couple of places where my FMC and MMC will be going ashore.

Let me say this now. I've never, to date, been on a cruise or to the places featured in Sea Breeze, although I hope to someday. So what is a writer to do?

Here's what I do:

1. Get in the map- For goodness sakes, find your location on a map and study it. If you are talking about Amalfi, Italy, which is in the south, you can't reference a thirty minute drive to Lake Como, which is close to the boarder of Switzerland when in reality it's a nine hour drive. Know the lay of the land. It doesn't hurt to look at a street map as well, especially if you are going to be referencing real street names and places. And by all means, look at pictures.
2. Get up and go- Yeah, this would be my personal preference too. In a perfect world, I would be able to travel to all the locations I write about. Italy, Puerto Rico, Jamaica...sigh. I have a friend who is also a writer, traveling next week to Ireland to write on location. Yes, she is writing a novel that has scenes set in Ireland and is traveling there to write. Lucky wench. Can you tell I'm jealous? I should be on a cruise ship to San Juan right now for research, but alas, it's not in the budget this month. Ah well, I hope someday to have the kind of success as a writer, that I can travel the globe, using my travels and experiences as research for my books.
3. Been there, done that- Write what you know. We've heard it a million times, but in this situation, I'm talking about location. I can write about San Francisco with ease and confidence because I was born and lived most of my life there. I know what it smells like on a foggy fall evening. I know what bus to take to get from point A to point B, and I know what each and every neighborhood is called and how to get there. I've been to Italy, so I used some of my experience there to help with writing about it in Sweet Dreams.
4. Eat, drink, dance- Go seek out a new restaurant that serves authentic food from the location you are writing about. Your heroine is traveling in Indonesia? Go have Indonesian food. You live in Farmville USA middle of nowhere, and can't find an authentic restaurant for the place you are writing about? Look up a recipe online. Try the staples and the local beverages. Oh, and listen to the music. It doesn't have to be the original indigenous music of the locale, or it could. But it could also be what is popular there now. Is there a famous singer from that area? Look them up on iTunes.Writing about Puerto Rico? Go listen to some reggaeton or salsa and bust a move. Can't find a club or bar that plays this kind of music locally? Find a radio station that does. Look up videos on the ethnic dance of the region.
5. Hot or cold- Find out what the weather is like in the location you are writing about. Figure out the time of year and what to expect. Does it snow. Is it 90 degrees and humid? Should I expect cicadas? Ew.

So you are writing about Wisconsin. You've never been there, but that is the locale for your story. Google it. Get in a map, and virtually walk the streets. Do your research. Look up good eats online and on Yelp. Find out where locals hang out. What is the food like? Does the younger crowd listen to pop, rock, or country music? What's the weather like at the time of year your story takes place?

Lastly, if you have created your own world or fictional place, you will need to also create all of the above and write it down. Draw a map of your village or world and where each place you mention is so you can be consistent. Keep notes about the food, weather, culture, streets, appearance....you get the drift.

In any case, these are things I do to make sure my writing is accurate in the location department. Believe me, I would love to hear a person in San Juan, Puerto Rico was reading my book. Let's hope I got the lay of the land correct so I don't piss them off.

Writers, are there any tricks you use to keep your locations authentic that you can share?
Readers, have you ever read a book about a location you were familiar with and found inconsistencies?
Let me know your experiences.
Thanks for reading.
You can find me online at www.jennifersenhajiauthor.com