Answering a question: "How long..."

Question: How long did you brainstorm before you began writing Cursed with Power? How long did it take you to create the landscape, character descriptions, ect. ?


Asked by: Tessa Faith at Witty Writer


I'm a bit late on answering this question, but at last I have gotten to it.
Well, I think it took me several good weeks to start brainstorming for Cursed with Power.  At first I was solely brainstorming because I had tried to keep from starting on the book until I finished with Certain Fate or Everblue.  However, as we all know, that didn't go as planned.  I got into deep outlining for Cursed with Power and then I simply had to start writing it before the ideas left my mind.
It took me a long time to create the landscape and the characters.  The landscape, I suppose, was not as difficult because they live in Romania so I can continue to research the landscape there.  However, the magical places --such as Belsgar--were more challenging because those I had to come up all on my own without any additional help.
Character descriptions, of course, took a great amount of time, effort, patience, and more time.  The characters not only had to fit into the time period with the right clothes and so forth, but their descriptions also needed to make them seem more significant than other characters.  As you may have noticed Celestria is the only one in the book with red hair, and the way she describes Dyanna gives her sister even a special look to her that makes her unmistakable.  Her "golden hair" cannot be mistaken for another's.  Then there is Leal, whose "calm blue eyes" are something constantly brought into the book again and again.  If there is anything you should not forget about him, it is his blue eyes.  Characters like Mervyn and Keina were simple because they are minor characters, but characters such as Leal and Alaire who are of more wealthy statuses it took a longer time.
Leal's character I actually spent a good amount of time on because with how readers were reacting to him, I had to make sure I didn't suddenly say something about him that would turn off their interest toward him. I guess I ended up doing all right with his character; I haven't heard complaints yet.
Alaire's character was inspired by a picture I saw of a model.  As you probably remember me saying in November, the picture inspired me to give Alaire a somewhat ironic addition to his character in which he wore a silver cross.
Celestria also took a while to create because since she tells the story, I had to have her notice her appearance by other means than just telling it.  Instead there are times when she looks into another character's eyes and sees her reflection.

All in all, though, I suppose I've come pretty far with the characters and landscape.  I assure you that each time a new character or new place is added into the book it takes several hours or so for me --especially with characters--to come up with a complete idea of their significance and so forth.

Thanks for the great question, and in the near future I hope you'll have more questions to ask.

"There's a lot that I want." He said. He smirked as he said it like he knew he was pushing my patience.