Should I type or have another beer?

The last few days have been a real struggle and am asking myself should I type?  It has been a scorcher here in the UK and writing while even your eyeballs are sweating has been a chore.  But!… Even though the fingers would rather be around a cold glass I have resisted the temptation of diving into the fridge and have instead been thinking and plotting. 

I gave up trying to write a few chapters as it was simply too hot to focus.  Back in the shade, I have been able to come up with a better plotline to Book 2 in the new Sci-fi adventure thriller I am currently into.  It works for me and keeps me from sitting with a bottle of ‘Ghost Ship’ wondering what I should be doing.

So how is the second book going? It has started really well.  Surprising how far I have crawled into the characters heads that I have created.

I have a weird technique where I put each character into a situation and imagine what they would do and how they would react. 

Here’s an example.  Brennon, the ship’s engineer is a bit bullish and tends to blunder through without a real plan.  I imagined him in the situation where he had to make a snap decision where that decision had to be right, or the crew could all die.  My conclusion was that for all his bravado, he would not make the decision without asking one or maybe two others, because underneath it all he’s not really confident. 

Doing this exercise, which places each character out of their comfort zone, really helps in building their overall credibility to the reader.  It’s all well and good making notes…character A – description/home life/life events/ personality/ hair and eye color etc. are all well and good.  But, there is nothing better than putting them in a challenging scene and running it through your head. 

This really works for me and although I have just started doing this I know it will be in every book prep’ I do from now on. Give it a go…it might work for you!