Waiting for Hope

Behind The Scenes

You may or may not have any interest in the inner workings of my semi-creative mind, but I thought I would add this part as a compliment to the FAQs at the end of Guarded Hope.

So, here are a few facts about the progression of this series:

How Waiting for Hope got started:

As I was writing GH, I was excited by all that Ethan had gone through leading up to Hope's story. I wanted to explore his emotional journey more deeply than just in my side notes or on my own. I also just love it when an author writes the other MCs POV. Going back over both perspectives of the same scene is fascinating to me. That was what prompted me to get started.

Ethan's story was written with a different theme than Hope's. I mentioned in one of my authors notes that her story was based on her insecurities and fears. That was what motivated all of her choices and reactions. I had a similar personality and spent much time in my late teens working my way out of being controlled by fear. That feeling of being 'not enough' can permeate every choice you make, and effect relationships.

Ethan's story was all about guilt and shame. Even before the tragedy with Will, Ethan had a sense of shame surrounding his fathers abandonment. He kept those feelings to himself but it manifested in his need to take care of his mom. The hyper-inflated sense of responsibility was reflected in his choir boy nickname as well as his need to be loyal to Hope, who really didn't know he existed.

I loved writing his story. It was deep, emotional and layered, for me anyway. I was giddy at the end of each chapter because I knew I would be able to start the next one soon.

How I organize my writing

Well, I don't. No but really, it starts with the very basic outline of a plot, sometimes just a sentence or two. I usually know the very beginning and the end. I tend to work out the middle as I go, sometimes on the fly as I am writing it and sometimes through a brainstorming session.

I love character development so that is what I lean towards in terms of plot development. Asking myself what a particular character would do faced with a specific event leads to the action of each chapter. Other times I get into the head of a reader and respond to the obvious question they may have.

Here's an example. When Ethan was talking to Hope about staying at his moms place when she came to visit, I knew some readers would be thinking "why not stay with Ethan". Therefore, the very next paragraph was Ethan's thoughts which would answer that very question. The same thing happened in GH when Will tells Hope about Ethan's interest in her. I read it back and realized that it sounded stalkerish so rather than change it, I used it as Will's next line.

This method also leads to writers block. I was completely stuck on the second half of the big SLO date for a while because I had a hard time getting into Ethan's head without sounding too sappy. I finally just scrapped what I had and started over. But it worked out.

I realized late in the story that I used very little setting description in WFH (also, those initials certainly seem like I'm cursing!! Oh well), but there are two reasons why that's the case. First, it wasn't as relevant to his story as it was to Hope's. Second, I hate setting descriptions. That's the stuff I skim in books I read. I love character and plot, so that seems to be what I write. And I think that Ethan's story is so much stronger, deeper and just generally better than the first book. It actually makes me feel a little bad for Hope. Who I realize is a fictional character. But whatever.

Music again?

Yup. What can I say, I like music. A lot. I did a ton of musical theater growing up and one director put it this way. There is a progression with which we express emotion. We speak, but when words aren't enough, we sing. When our feelings are stronger than song, we dance. Since I can't dance you a story, I use music to expand on the emotional thread of the chapter. I don't do this for every book I write, but these two characters gave me the songs so I shared them with you.