From imagination to paper

As I said before, most of my ideas come of asking myself ‘what if’? But what happens after that?

That is when my imagination starts to run. In my head, before I put any words down on paper (or computer, in my case), I’m already creating stories. The characters, dialog and descriptions come to life in my head where I fully realize them. Sideplots, locations – even their pets and idiosyncrasies are designed before I start writing.

Some of my characters, like Jess and Gabriel, have been running around my head for years, while others, like Aine and Deimos, are newly minted, which makes for interesting writing as I discover them while I’m writing.

When I’m in the midst of writing, I’m still writing their stories in my head. Much like musicians hear music, I can see my stories developing. If I’m stuck, I might take a break and work out the next steps mentally before I go back to the page. I might ask myself ‘what if’ to try and solve a difficult issue – and I usually find it resolved when I further explore the issue.

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