Inspiration Board #1 part one

December 21, 2013March 16, 2016 / melindamariealexander / Leave a comment

Images, make my story come to life!

They inspire me, they help me see my characters, where they go, what kind of trouble they get into, and sets the mood of the story. That’s why most of the images are dark and moody…with a little touch of color here and there. Just like my story!

Images are such a useful tool for me, especially since I’m an artist/designer/potter/photographer and writer. They help me design my story world. I can visualize my story in my mind, but seeing images related to my story takes it a step further!

That’s why I make these inspiration boards.

Inspiration Boards

November 15, 2013March 16, 2016 / melindamariealexander / 2 Comments

When I started my book, I started collecting photos.

Being an artist, images help me, especially since I’m not a plotter…I write by the seat of my pants. I first started with photos of my characters, because I needed to see them, and the photos made them come to life. Now I have a huge collection of images, that allow me to physically see what’s going on in each chapter.

This is inspiration board #1…Prologue

How I create Three-Dimensional Characters

September 2, 2013October 2, 2017 / melindamariealexander / Leave a comment

Being an artist, my world revolves around color, form, and function.

I tend to be methodical, concerned with thoroughness, and attention to detail.

So, this is what I do…to make my characters come to life.

After giving my characters a name, I start hunting for photos of people who resembled my characters. I have an idea of what they look like, but they don’t start coming to life until I find images of people who look like…the characters in my head. However, sometimes it doesn’t always happen that way. Sometimes, I stumble across a face that looks like the character in my head first, and then it takes me a while to find the right name.

Naming a character is not always easy, sometimes my characters go through several name changes before I find the right one. Thankfully, most of them have their original name. I’m not really sure why some characters are easy to name and others are not?

After giving my characters a name and a birthday, I dig out this book “The Power of Birthdays, Stars & Numbers – The Complete Personology Reference Guide by Saffi Crawford and Geraldine Sullivan.” Which I purchased from Amazon.com. This book has a wealth of information, about every single birthday.

This book is one of my favorite writing tools for character development.

I use it over, and over again.

I read the information, to see if it fits my character. Write the important stuff down on a legal pad, then type it into a Word Document, and save it to a file. Each and every character has a file, no matter how large of small their part is.

Then I make a list of positive and negative traits for each Zodiac sign. This is so helpful!

https://melindamariealexander.com/zodiac-traits-keywords/

And now I have everything I need…at the tip of my fingers.

How It All Started

August 16, 2013October 2, 2017 / melindamariealexander / 2 Comments

Once I decided to write a novel…

The first thing I did…was to come up with a theme.

Then I picked a location. It didn’t take me long to come up with the perfect place for my story. I picked it, because I’ve loved it ever since I was little. The setting for my book is South Dartmouth, Massachusetts, but I changed the name. I changed it, because I read in one of my many writing books, that it’s best not to use the real name of a place…just in case.

Then I picked a specific place in Dartmouth, that fascinated me ever since I can remember. We drove by it every Sunday, on our way to my grandparents house. I’d stare at from the back seat of my parents car, until I couldn’t see it anymore. I’m not sure why it fascinated me? I can only remember wanting to go inside.

The place that fascinated me so much, is called Round Hill.

Better known by us locals, as Colonel Greens.

I suppose it fascinated me because it was so huge and mysterious.

I wanted to know who lived there.

And probably because it was right on the ocean.

You can barely see it…but that’s Round Hill, in the photo.

Once I had my theme, my setting and my location…I started to develop my characters.

I’m a little obsessive about character development. I have a file for each character. Even the ones who may not even appear in my book. I like to collect photos of them, so I can see what they look like. I give them birthdays, a street address, and families. Then I research zodiac traits. It helps me make them into real people, with flaws and quirks.

I spend so much time on character development, because I want people to fall in love with my characters…like I do.

Then I stared to write

I choose…to start with a prologue, even though some writing books say not too. I like action, mystery and suspense, and my prologue gives me that right away. My main character is running for her life, and at the end of the prologue…you have no idea what happened to her…so, you have to keep reading.

So…come on in

It’s going to be a scary ride, with twists and turns, family secrets, lies, betrayal, danger, adventure, suspense, and a little romance.

A Twist of Fate

August 9, 2013October 2, 2017 / melindamariealexander / 1 Comment

Before I was a Writer…

I was a Potter!

Then one day…everything changed!

October 26, 2000…was a day I will never forget, even though I’d like too. It was a day that changed my life and not for the better, although maybe it has and I just hadn’t realized it until now! When I woke up that morning, little did I know my life was about to change. It started out just like any other day. I had thrown some mugs, then cleaned up and got ready for my chiropractor appointment. I’d been going to a chiropractor for years, so it wasn’t a big deal…so I thought. But something happened while he was working on me. For a few “long” minutes, I couldn’t move! I remember thinking…that I might not ever walk again. They put me in a wheel chair, wheeled me to a back room, and after almost an hour with ice on my back, I was finally able to walk out of the chiropractor’s office…but not like I had walked in, and I was in excruciating pain! A few weeks later, I found out that my chiropractor had herniated my disc…the disc between L3 and L4. I wasn’t able to have surgery because of the position of the herniated disc…it was pressing on my spine. So I went for physical therapy and while going through that, I developed another problem. Seven months later I did have surgery, but not on my back. So not only did I still have to deal with my back problems, I had to recover from major surgery too. I never did get a chance to finish those mugs…never got to put the handles on, or get to glaze them, or fire them…they ended up in the trash.

Then about a year later, I was diagnosed with “Fibromyalgia.”

Unfortunately all pottery production came to a stop.

While I was recuperating from my back injury and my health problems…I was totally bored! It drove me nuts, not to be able to do something creative. But then one day, I had an idea. I’m not sure where it came from, especially since English was not my favorite subject in school. I really never thought that I would actually be doing this, but I did…I started to write a book.

For the first time in a long time, I was actually excited about something. I fell in love with my characters, and there was no turning back. But when I was able to make pottery again…I put my book away. So, I’ve been working on this book for quite some time now. Every once in a while, I’d take it out and work on it. Then put it away again. But lately I’ve been compelled to finish it! So I put my Etsy Shop on vacation mode, so I could work on my book.