Writing is the one occupation/activity where you can have voices in your head and people don’t think you are crazy. Well, people who aren’t writers might. As my career has progressed the voices have grown louder. They began with the first book I ever wrote, which eventually became my fifth book to be published, The Demon King and I. A friend had challenged me to write the book, and I’d never done anything like that. I remember staring at my computer and that blank page for a moment, and all of the sudden people began a conversation in my head. I didn’t really understand what was going on, but I wrote it down. I could see where they were, their gestures and I was transported into their world. The voices were so strong, that I sat down and wrote that book in two weeks, while working two full-time jobs.
The next book, the voices were even louder. That book was Charmed & Dangerous. The day before I was to meet my very first big editor from a publishing house, my friend Britta Coleman (Potter Springs) and I did some role play where she pretended to an editor. She had been through it before, but I had not. I’m a person who interviews Tom Hanks and Tom Cruise without even thinking about it, but the idea of speaking with an editor gave me hives. For real. One of the questions my friend asked me during that mock pitch, was what did I have next? I stared at her dumbfounded. I’d written an entire book, wasn’t that enough? She explained that editors and agents wanted to know that you had future potential beyond what you had already done.
I left her house in a panic. I had to come up with a new idea for another book before my meeting at 9 a.m. the morning. I sat on my bed with notebook, and all of the sudden this voice said, “I’m Bronwyn.” I kid you not, that voice was so loud that I jumped up because I thought someone was in my room. Then I worried I really was going crazy. (I’d been worried about that for years. 
Now I don’t care.) The next thing she said, was something that changed my life forever. “I’m a witch, think bad Willow on ‘Buffy,’ but I’m a good guy. I don’t take any crap, and I can seriously kick some ass.” I wrote down everything she said. Then she told me about this crazy job she had about protecting the British Prime Minister, and falling in love with a doctor and a powerful sheik. And that is how Charmed & Dangerous was born. That next day the editor liked the pages I’d sent before the meeting and asked me to send those to another editor at the publishing house. Sure enough she asked what I was working on next, and I told her about Bronwyn. She asked me to send it to her. Of course then I had to go home and write it.
Sometimes those voices are strong from the beginning, other times, like with Dragons Prefer Blondes I get to know them better as we go along. Alex in Dragons was strong and cut throat, but very different from her sister Gillian. By the time I finished the book she was my favorite sister, and her voice still won’t shut up in my head. If a miracle happens and I get to finish that series, I have a feeling she’ll have her way in the remaining books.
For my latest book, Take Me If You Dare, it was a man talking in my head. That was a little different for me. I was expecting to write this story about a recent college grad who was stuck running her mom’s investigative firm, and she was in over her head. But when I sat down to write a proposal for the editor, Jackson popped in. He said, “Where am I?” Instantly my mind flashed to this filthy hotel room in Thailand. “I can move my legs,” he said, “at least there is that.” (That honestly freaked me out a little.) Then he let me know he’d been beat to a pulp and left in this room without any idea how he’d arrived. He told the story so fast that almost couldn’t keep up with the typing. That book is written in third person, all the rest I’d done were in first person. So it was kind of weird to have two voices, sometimes going at the same time.
You’ve read this far and you’re thinking, “Okay, chick, you really are insane.” But I promise this is how I do what I do. People always ask how I come up with these wild and inventive stories, and the truth is I cheat. My characters tell me everything. And I quite frankly hope that never stops. I will say that they can keep me up nights, and drive me crazy throughout the day. It’s funny, because the voices are almost always there when I need them. When I start a new book, they show up for work.
If you’re a writer, do you have voices in your head? I know a lot of great writers who don’t work the way I do, so how do you do it?
And if you aren’t a writer, how does your creative process work for whatever it is you do?
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Uh… Sometimes. Sometimes I hear voices. Sometime nothing happens, and sometimes it turns out to something more.
Right now, the one that is on the threshold is this sentence:
Yellowstone- the world’s oldest and largest reservate. For weres. Not that humans know that.
It intrigues me, and normally I would explore it. But I am hesitating. I am worried that it is too similiar to Robin D Owen’s upcoming novel. Stupid of me, I know.
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Mikaela, I’ve never read Robin and you have to think about that. Whatever you did with the story would be different because it’s by you. And you never know, some other publisher, who isn’t Robins, might be looking for stories like that.
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Candace, I agree.. Mikaela… have you ever read “Old Man’s War” by John Scalzi? The plot has an arc and substance that is incredibly similar to “The Forever War” by Joe Haldeman, to the point where even Scalzi is frightened by the similarity.
Scalzi himself admitted that had he read Forever War before working on his own novel… he probably would have changed it, and not in a good way.
Old Man’s War really launched Scalzi’s career… I’m glad he didn’t change it
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GO FOR IT!
Yellowstone is a setting for Enchanted No More for about half the book, but that’s all. As far as I know, the place won’t appear in any of the other books.
I have NO werefolk in Enchanted No More.
DO IT!
Take care,
Robin
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Did you see what Robin said? And now that she did that, I’m so going to read her books! LOL. She just moved up to the top of the TBR pile. I love it when authors are supportive like that.
Go Robin!
Now Mikela, you have no EXCUSES!!!
Thanks Robin,
Candy
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Voices and images, just like watching a movie.
It doesn’t bother me. When I was studying music, I used to hear multi-part performances in my head all the time.
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Charlene, I sort of envy you that with the music. I honestly think that would be cool.
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You mean not every writer hears voices!?
Color me shocked.
My first voice came to me during a very dark time in my life. Having no outlet for boiling anger and fear, I picked up a pen and a voice I did not know spoke. “My name is Amadeus. I am the Beloved of God.” And her story of betrayal and love lost exploded out of me. 80,000 words later I realized I was writing what the Industry called High Fantasy (and a dark one at that) and I had no idea what I was doing.
The voices have never been the same since. Many more have come, each with a need and a dream all their own. But hearing them over Expectation’s fanged hiss is difficult.
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That is very cool.
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I envy writers who get voices and images in thier heads. I don’t. For me, I start with an idea. One I actually have to think up or create myself. Then I have to decide where to start, deliberately. NOthing comes to me. It might be why I tell people I love being an author but I dislike the actual physical act of writing. It’s hard, and too much thinking. BUt when I get into it, when I can sit and write and not have to go to work or do others things, then the story and the characters somehow slowly take over. I stop thinking and my fingers just keep going. I still don’t hear voices, or see images, but I also don’t think about things either.
It’s sort of weird, in a good way, once I can get going and turn off my brain. LOL
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Sasha, I call that the writer’s high when the story just pours out. That happens to me to, but when there is dialogue the characters are always visually in my head. I think it’s because I’m such a visual person. But I love that we all have different ways of working.
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Oddly, the books are the voices. Writing is reading to me. It’s like I’m actually reading a book in my head trying to write it down before the words fade. Sometimes, I’ll watch a movie instead, but usually those are much more work and I don’t write them down. Recently though, I’ve taken to trying to write those down.
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Megs, That’s a cool way of looking at it. Interesting.
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I been practicing the whole writing process with the voices. I don’t hear the voices unless i get off track, like in the one i am writing now, i was being yelled at by the dragon, because i made him too sissy. I usually though try to get in that deep concentration, like a meditation state and write from there. if you read my dream article at paranormalchicks.com you would see what i mean by it.
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Andrew, I will check out the link.
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It’s a movie for me. A movie with touch and taste and smell. The trick is slowing things down and getting them onto the page, since I don’t always have good control over the remote. Also, filtering what is and isn’t useful to stick in, because there are too many details in my head. It’s sort of like translating for me.
Also, because of this, it took me a long time to really start to get character voice and close POV. Going into people’s heads wasn’t a part of the original experience, but slowly my brain movies are changing and I hear/feel a lot more of what people in them are thinking and feeling.
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It was tough for me at first when I went from writing first person to third, but now I can pop into anyone’s head. LOL. I like your comment about controlling the remote. I sometimes have that problem too when everything moves so fast I can’t keep up.
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When I write true..it is the voices that drive me…when I force it, I have to go back and add in the color and character. I so much prefer to hear the voices….but I shut them away for so long, I have to force them out now, so they learn they can take over again.
Damn that Prowriting focus on the job.
But, it’s getting better. OMG….I want to hear the voices in my head again…that says a lot…
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Scenes. I very often have scenes, almost like a movie reel-a silent movie sometimes, although I know what’s going on and what I’m supposed to do is transcribe everything, kind of the way I’d do if I was trying to explain the scene to somebody who couldn’t see it.
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I totally hear the voices, too! Sometimes they even catch me by surprise and I’ll look back on the page and–whoa, did I write that?! and I realize how much more clever my characters are than I am. Kinda funny, but the truth.
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I used to describe how my writing was going when asked by non-writers by what by characters decided to do as if they were real people because they very much are in my head and without them I would have far greater difficulty writing. I got a lot of weird looks and “Ooookay.” I’m so glad the insanity is typical with other writers. It makes me feel like I’ve really found my niche.
Though, I think the greatest difficulty I have now is when characters from different stories compete to get their story told. They try to run over each other and show me that their scene or problems are most interesting. I almost wish I could split myself in multiple parts and write several stories all at once.
Thanks for the post, Candy. Your words did not make me think you insane, just wonderfully comforting in your similarity to me.
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Oh thank god.
I thought it was just me and I was probably the only one. I’m not even remotely published though; I’m still at that entry level stage of “I know I can do this, but how? Where to start?” overload so keep reading sites like this (and I love this, already read everything up to this page just tonight
) to find answers to my zillion questions.
I have been writing stories – or more honestly, plots for them since I was 9 years old. I’ll avoid confessing my current age so the words “procrastinating loser” doesn’t jump out in future replies…lots of awesome, intriguing ideas, characters galore sitting patiently and collecting dust in my head, still talking…but it’s like I can’t seem to pick one and just move. Just “start”…getting bogged down on where and how and all the rules and crap all of you repeatedly say to avoid and ignore.
Blank pages creep me out.
Anyway, this article helped tremendously, I guess because I thought that was the wrong way to get started…that there must be some secret formula you all know that’s out there, just have to find the right blog or whatever and learn what it is. Now that I see all your comments of similar predicaments, it’s added motivation to just pull up Open Office and plug in any of my 500 plot ideas and make something happen.
So thanks!
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PS – sorry, had to add this too on the “writer’s high” – this just happened to me in Feb. (2011) and of all things made its presence known in the genre of erotic thriller…nothing I’ve ever been that interested in and rarely read. In fact, I rarely even read fiction, but this one idea jumped in my head, inspired by some guy I met and the next thing I knew I’d written the whole thing – plot though – start to finish and then it expanded…a prequel to that for three of the supporting characters…and then a completely different story idea for two utterly incidental characters…and then a sequel to the original and next thing happens is STONE WALL.
It got way too big so I’ve been sitting on it while doing as I said above. I’ve never had one come to me so completely that it’s clear as if it was a movie in my head, crisp details. Once I get it written, I’ll be back looking for the instructions on what to do with it!