... And the hidden clues I give away about myself in my writing...
An Author Insights Article by Honey McGregor
As writers we're often asked how we come up with our characters and the methods probably vary for different writers. Some writers may spend hours with their note pad, jotting down ideas of the type of person their character is. Perhaps they look at photos online, waiting for a certain 'type' to jump out at them for inspiration. Different methods work for different people, and there is no wrong, or right, way.
For me, it's quite simple. I sit down at my keyboard and I start typing. As the words flow, so my character comes to me. To begin with she's a blank face, with no particular likes or dislikes, and then, as she embarks on her adventure, she becomes clearer and starts to appear. (I'm going with a 'she' here as most of my focal characters are female, well, I do write hot romance for women, after all...)
As an example, in my short story 'A Married Woman's Fantasy Comes True', my character prepares for her night of 'playing away' by taking a shower at work using Molton Brown body products and finishing off with a spritz of eau de toilette, all in ylang-ylang fragrance.
Why Molton Brown? Here's a clue, I probably loved Molton Brown and enjoyed their products myself when I was slightly *cough* younger and busy enjoying nights out as a single girl. I probably love ylang-ylang and subconsciously associated myself with my character in her preparations. So you get to gain a little insight into Honey McGregor, the person behind the writer.
As I relive the anticipation of preparing for a night out, I project those feelings onto my character and a little part of me starts to become part of my character. I start to see my character in my mind's eye as she comes to life on my computer screen.
When my leading lady hooks up with the man she's going to be spending the evening with he's
so handsome, so… hot! His dark hair was falling in loose curls to rest on the collar of a white dress shirt, open at the neck and his dark pants and shoes finished off the perfect look.
And so another hidden clue becomes apparent... Honey McGregor has a penchant for dark hair and a man who knows how to take care in his appearance...
There's food involved in this particular story, indeed in many of my stories, which means, yes, you've guessed it, Honey has an interest in food. Not just any old food, good food, tastefully prepared. Oysters, Champagne, hot smoked salmon salad, a good Chardonnay...
In 'While the Husband's Away', my character shops at La Senza for some white lacy underwear and loves Chanel Allure... as I typed, she became a very soft, feminine, character and , as I, Honey, just adore sexy, lacy, underwear, so her tastes were created as my thoughts drifted to buying beautiful lingerie for a special occasion, not total seduction wear, but something softer... and with that came memories of the scent of Chanel Allure, soft, feminine, and gentle, perfect for my character...
Sometimes I also include music in my stories and the story I'm referring to above had music from Paul Haslinger playing. I could hear the music in my head as I wrote, I knew what I wanted it to be, something that gently brought shivers to my character's spine, that carried her along... and upwards... towards certain pleasure... Have a listen here:
Moving on to another of my stories in my collection, 'The Night Class', and I just felt my character's naughty side as I typed. She was grown-up but liked to play, to tease, to dress-up...
Perhaps there's a clue there that Honey enjoys a little dress-up, a little role play...
Tamsin, my character, felt her power as a younger women attracting the attention of an older man (perhaps Honey has experience of this, who knows? You tell me, you'll be the detective now, as you read my stories, and other writers' stories...)
Her school girl outfit came together through my tapping fingers as my mind's images controlled my words. Had Honey played the school girl you wonder?
As I got a picture of what Tamsin looked like, so her character became clearer, a certain precociousness, confidence in her sexuality, but playful and teasing too.
My male character, Mack, grew in response to Tamsin's character, sometimes that's how it happens. I didn't know what he would be like, he virtually created himself as events unfolded. His responses were created automatically as a result of Tamsin's initial teasing. Eventually, however, his character becomes the stronger one, a masterful male, in control of the naughty school girl. He performs perfectly in his role of teacher to his student in this delicious sexy role play, and Tamsin's character subtly becomes more submissive in response to Mack.
Role play features quite heavily in my stories (another clue about Honey?) and, for this reason, I include a fun blog page, for you, my readers, to enjoy in each of my stories. If you so desire you can follow some of the tips and advice on these pages and enjoy your own role play.
To finish, not everything we write about is a clue about us as writers. We have vivid imaginations and that's why we like to write. Of course we write from experience much of the time, and we also include our own fantasies and dreams in our writing. But we also write for our readers, about what we believe they will enjoy, so you'll just have to read between the lines a little, as you try to pick up our hidden clues...
Happy detecting...
Visit www.amazon.com/author/honeymcgregor for details about my book of short hot stories for women - Private Pleasures: The Collection - available in paperback as well as for kindle.
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