Five Thing about Character Creation

While finishing writing Misguided Confession, I’ve begun the tentative steps of platting out a project for the summer and another series for later in the year.  I use Scrivener quite a bit, but I also keep a story bible in a little spiral notebook plus I have a cork board over my desk which I put my story board.   The picture above is my 2016 story bible, it’s covered in stickers because I’m a nerd.  I’ll use it for all the stories big and small that I write this year.

Anyway, here’s a few things about how I build a world for myself.

1. Sexy hot men are great for inspiration, writer’s block and drooling on keyboards.
2. Even if it never makes it into the story, know what my characters prefers to wear, eat, read, watch, etc.  It helps solidify them in my mind.
3. Create a story board and add all the details into my story bible.
4. Make sure the spelling of names and places are written out clearly.  This is very important because once I didn’t do this and consistently spelled the same character’s name wrong throughout a novel about five different ways.   I was consistently inconsistent as it were.
5. Create a music playlist that reminds me of the characters, the plot and the mood of the story.

How do you build out the story in your mind before writing it?