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Why is Character Development Important?

~ Kristina Stanley ~ Leave a comment

While I spend time in Canada during the summer, I get to watch the news on TV, something that never happens in the Bahamas.

I’ve been watching how friends and family react to news, and I started thinking about character development in a novel and why it’s so important.

Witnessing a car crash, or the aftermath of a car crash, on TV can be upsetting, or make a person sad, but once the clip is over, everyone focuses on the next news clip.

But, what if someone you know is in the car? Then, I think, most people react a little differently. All of sudden, there is a vested interest in the crash. Were the people hurt? Are they in the hospital? Will they recover?

Why? Because you are personally involved.

I find if I can’t put a novel down, it’s usually because I feel like I know the characters and I care about what happens to them. To me, this means the author has done a great job of developing the characters. As a writer, I think it’s important for me to spend time on developing characters. Then maybe I’ll get lucky, and my readers won’t want to put my book down.

Flying With Your Dog.

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 2 Comments

Is your dog crate trained?  This summer I’m taking Farley, my wheaten terrier, on a plane for the first time. I’ve flown several times with Chica, my yellow lab, but never with Farley.

Farley was crate trained as a puppy, but hasn’t been in a crate for three years.

Farley at 3 Months Old

I decided I better get him used to it.

This is how I did it:

  • Put him in crate and let him walk right back out
  • Fed him in crate for four days in a row and let him get out as soon as he finished eating. The gate remained open during this time.
  • Put him in crate for 10 minutes with door open and me the room.
  • Increased time by 10 minutes each day up to an hour.
  • Closed the door, but I stayed in the room
  • Started leaving room for 10 minute intervals, then increased the time.
  • I remove him from the crate before he started to fuss.

Yesterday was the big break through. Farley fell asleep in the crate.

I hope this helps you if you are trying to get your dog crate trained. Farley rarely barks, so barking in the crate hasn’t been an issue.

Let me know if you have any other tricks that might help.

Farley Crate Training
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Does Your Writing Give You Nightmares?

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 8 Comments

This is my latest discovery. I’ve been sailing my Lagoon 380 S2 for three years now and never had a bad dream about it. Well, life changes.

My fourth novel, yet to be named, takes place on a sailboat in the Bahamas. So this week, I’ve been dreaming scary dreams about sailing, and it occurred to me it’s because I’m writing a murder mystery set on a boat.

Bad weather, sailing alone, boat malfunctions, crazy people who try to get on my boat . . . and I’m only 20,000 words in. What’s going to happen by the end?

I wonder what Stephen King or Dean Koontz dream about. It can’t be good.

Has your writing changed what you dream about?

Cruising with Manatees

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 2 Comments

Cruising with Manatees.

Very strange . . . So anyone who uses wordpress knows you get stats on search terms. I had a look at mine today, and the third most popular search tag is Kissing Manatees. Since I write mostly about writing, then about dogs, and then cruising – and on cruising only half the year – this is not what I expected. Now I’m not sure what to do with this information, but it was interesting.

I made the original post last fall.

The Novel Spreadsheet

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 9 Comments

After completing three novels using my handy-dandy spreadsheet and being 10,000 words into my fourth,  I discovered I was lacking a column.

This far into the game, I thought I would have had my spreadsheet nailed. The joke’s on me.

My first three novels take place in a fictitious ski resort (Stone Mountain) in British Columbia. I needed one location column when I had one town and a bunch of locations within the town. All I needed to note in the location column was where the scene took place within Stone Mountain. That meant on the ski lift, in an office, on a trail, in the forest, in a car, etc.

My fourth novel starts out in Kingston, ON, moves to Ft. Lauderdale, FL, and then makes its way through the Bahamian island chain.

Now, I need to keep track of locations within the new locations. The new column lists the town or island where the scene takes place. The existing column still works and lists where in the town or island the scene happens. This means on a beach, at anchor, in the dinghy, etc.

I guess my spreadsheet will continue to evolve as I write more novels.

Special Saturday Post: Maxwell Huxley’s Demon

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 9 Comments

Exciting new novel just published by Canadian Author Michael Conn.

Why am I so excited? Michael is my brother. In Maxwell Huxley’s Demon you’ll encounter  . . .

In MAXWELL HUXLEY’S DEMON, when nine-year-old Maxwell Huxley and three others break free from their mountain-top “school” for gifted children – a place where kids mysteriously vanish when they turn ten – a fantastical chase around the world begins. Pursuing answers and freedom, Max unintentionally creates a new world: a world where friends and family meet their demons, where artificial beings come to life, and where nanotechnology is indistinguishable from magic. Maxwell pays a heavy price, the loss of friends and family, to discover what he was bred for.

One part Ender, one part Jason Bourne, and a dash of Harry.

If you get the chance it’s on amazon.

How Do You Exercise Your Dog in the Heat?

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 4 Comments

I don’t know about your dog, but mine gets lazy when it’s too hot out and doesn’t want to go for a walk.

My last dog, Chica, a beautiful yellow lab, needed a lot of exercise or she was a handful. I worried about her overheating, so for us, water was the answer.

Here she is diving into a pond (and yes I photo-shopped this photo) at the magnificent Greywolf Golf Course in Panorama BC.

The pond was only a few minutes from our house, but still, I had to drag her there. She knew lying is the shade was a good answer, but once I got her to the water she could retrieve floating objects forever.

If only I could have stopped her from stealing golf balls.

Where do Characters Come From?

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 9 Comments

Do you plot or do you let the characters do the plotting?

Each writer is unique in how they create a story. I don’t like to plot the entire story before I write. I find it boring. Once I’ve plotted it, I’m no longer interested in writing the novel.

I don’t want to give the wrong idea about how I write. I’m very organized. I keep track of everything in a spreadsheet. At the end of a day of writing, I make myself update the spreadsheet. It’s not the most exciting thing to do, but since I haven’t plotted the story, it’s important for me to keep track of it.

Sometimes when I update the spreadsheet, the next scene magically announces itself to me. Then I jot a few notes, leave it for the night and have a starting point the next morning.

I have a general idea of what the story is, sometimes I even know the climax, but I never know when or where new characters are going to appear. I don’t base characters on people I know. I find this hard to do as it is restrictive, and again, not that interesting. I like to make them up from scratch.
For me new characters usually appear when I take my protagonist to a new location. Somehow that stimulates my brain.  Mostly, it’s the nastier characters that appear out of nowhere, so I don’t know what that says about me.
Where do your characters come from?

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Traveling with a Dog

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 2 Comments

The two thousand kilometres from Ottawa to Winnipeg is a lot easier to travel in a car when you take a break. The temptation is not to stop, to keep covering miles as the pavement slips by, barely touched be out tires.

Farley, our wheaten, makes sure we don’t take the drive for granted. With him along, we stopped for hikes at some amazing places. Another great reason to travel with a dog.

This photo was taken somewhere in Northern Ontario, but is typical of the beauty we discovered. My husband is trying not to get his feet wet while Farley tastes the cold river water.

Farley’s on a leash because there are bears in the area, and we don’t really want a dog-bear encounter. Who would?