Do you have all your stories planned out?

That was Elizabeth's question to me ... two weeks ago, because I've been a bad girl and not blogged for ages :(

The quick answer to that is, no. I have a beginning planned, and I usually have up to three endings planned, and then I have a few key points in the middle planned, and I leave everything else up to chance, and occasionally the things that I have planned will change. But I love writing this way. For me, it gives the characters the best chance possible to grow. The downside is that sometimes the blurb has to change - a total pain when you've already made promo materials! But hey, it makes all the stuff that little bit more exclusive :)

And speaking of characters and stories, I have some awesome stuff happening right now over Halloween:

1. Claim Lawrence as your paranormal book boyfriend here (and win signed stuff) - http://closeencounterswiththenightkind.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/troll-y-yours-speed-date-party-hour-9.html (and check out ALL the authors taking part)
2. Contest for limited edition signed swag for The Spell of Summer here - https://www.facebook.com/events/525653997517504 (The cover and blurb reveal is tomorrow with more chances to win.)
3. A $10 or £10 Amazon gift voucher will be up for grabs from 2nd - 16th November - go to number two's link to keep updated.

Have spooky fun tonight!

Dianna xx

How I get my story ideas.

That was Elizabeth's question for me this week: How do you get your story ideas? (Do they come in forms of dialogue, images? Do you meet the characters first? Does everything hit at once or does it come in pieces?)

I have a philosophy: if I have to work too hard for an idea, I'm not going to be able to write it.

Most of my ideas are just in my head; I don't have to work so much to get them. Sometimes, writing one book (or one scene) will lead to another idea. It was writing about the difference between werewolves and shifters in The Sands Of Time, that gave me the idea for some of the storyline for the Eye Of The Storm series.

The idea for The Witching Pen literally "fell out of the sky and onto my lap" when I was trying to figure out what to do with my domain name.

'Til Death Do Us Part, I didn't think about at all - that book was fuelled with pent up anger that I simply had to get out of my system. I started writing it, because if I didn't write something, I would explode, and that book just became what it is.

And I have some ideas for other stories there in my head. Sometimes the ideas work out and sometimes they don't, but I'm a character-led writer: Start with good characters and just one scene, and the characters will lead me to where they (and me, as they are me) want to go, and eventually (hopefully) I end up with a book.

I have a vague idea of the end - sometimes a concrete idea - and I roughly know what's supposed to happen in the middle, but other than  that, I let it all flow and see where I end up. Sometimes, it's not where I thought, and that just makes both the writing and the story all the more exciting, as far as I'm concerned :)

All of my current ideas, can now be downloaded from Amazon ;)

Dianna xxx

Writing on The Last Dragon has "officially" begun.

And this was my excuse for not blogging last night. I felt the pull of writing and really needed to get stuck back into it for my own sake - to know that I still could!

I'm not a writer who can finish one project and go straight into the next. I need to be "obsessed" with my characters to a certain extent to write them, so I sort of feel like I need to get to know them all over again to be able to write from inside their heads.

Well, I'm pleased to say that last night, the characters came to life and the writing flowed smoothly :) All under the Scorpio, partially eclipsed, full moon. I completed 1160 words, and since my aim is 1000 words a day, that's good.

Unfortunately, the rest of the night was difficult, with my daughter awake for most of the night with a healing (and highly itchy, and still slightly gungey) inner-ear - no fun at all. I finally got some sleep from about 5:30am. Needless to say, my sense of humour appears to be missing this morning.

Anyway, onto more motivational thoughts... I posted this up on my FB page and thought I'd share it here too:

Yeah ... I'm looking forward to this too :D

Have a great weekend, everyone.

Dianna xxx