Crafting the Story from the PSWA Conference

A photo from a previous conferenc.

This was a fun panel I was on. I'm going to answer the questions I was sent my the moderator--not necessarily answered during the panel, but I liked the questions.

Mostly I've written in the modern time-period, but I've also written two historical family sagas. Because both my series began in the early 1980s there are many changes overtime. 

I'm a pantser--but doing research of any kind often gives me ideas for the plot.

(Pantser means writing by the seat of your pants, rather than plotting ahead of time.)

Some of the resources to help bring the writing to life, no matter the time period is using all the senses--sight, sound, touch, smell, taste, etc. 

For the question, where do you get your ideas--some of my ideas come from things that have happened that i know about, read in the paper or on the Internet,, ideas from things speakers have shared at a PSWA conference, or just popped into my head.

Using dialogue that mores the story along and develops or reveals the characters.

I've researched location both by finding out information about the place and actually going there.

Bear Creek in the Tempe Crabtree series is based on the place I live though I moved it 1,000 feet higher in the mountains. (Wanted different trees and more changes in the weather.)

Rocky Bluff in the Rocky Bluff P.D. series is fictional, though I can see it in my mind's eyes like it is real.

Both of my series are finished. I'm now working on a memoir of when I was a child during World War II. 

Marilyn