When I’m writing, I don’t actually sit down and draw out a character sketch before I begin a story. Sure, I figure out what my characters look like. I jot down notes to keep their images strong in my mind. And sometimes I go ahead and write notes on motivation. But often, well, the character motivation and history comes to me as I write the story.

I know many writers use character sketches. I also know some of these sketches can be quite detailed (I’ve heard talk of a sketch with 80+ questions). I found this character sketch on the internet and it got me to wondering…am I in the minority here? For any writers out there–do you sketch? Or do you create as you go?

It’s time for me to begin a new novel (yay!), but in the last few days, I’ve been really torn about the story I want to write. Several ideas have been milling around in my mind, making me seem very absent-minded because I keep trying to work them out in my head and, ah, I seem to miss actual, real-life conversations while I’m doing the said working out.

But anyway…tonight I’ve narrowed down my focus to just two stories. Both paranormal (of course) but with very different plots and beginnings.

Oh, the beginnings. Lately, when I’m trying to decide if I’m really “feeling” a story, I’ll write a few pages of one tale, then try writing a few pages of a different story. The story that flows the best for me, well, that’s what I write, and the other goes into my idea file (so I’m ahead of the game for next time).

This time, both stories flowed well for me. One is about a psychic, specifically, a woman who has premonitions (I think I’ve mentioned this idea before) and the other is about vampires and murder. Now, the premonition story has a rather light-hearted beginning (and this finally gets me to the topic of this blog!) but the tale later takes a darker turn (at least in my mind, seeing as I haven’t actually written that far yet). As for the second story, well, the beginning is very dark and very violent–definitely the darkest I’ve ever written.

I read both beginnings one more time before I started this blog, and I think I’m leaning toward a favorite now. I’m going to sleep on it tonight, then get into the story seriously tomorrow (yeah, back to my 10 pages a day goal).

So, now I wonder, does anyone out there have a preference for light or “dark” stories? And if so, why?

Just a quick note…I updated my author page last night. Included some random bits of trivia. Let me know what you think.

Okay, thanks to my husband Nicholas for sending me this link to the rare video footage of the Frilled Shark. It’s a shame this creature didn’t survive, but I truly think this shark is fascinating.

So, I thought (just for the heck of it!) that I’d list some of my favorite reference books. Here goes:

For crime:

*Scene of the Crime: A writer’s guide to crime-scene investigations
*Deadly Does: A writer’s guide to poisons
*Cause of Death: A writer’s guide to death, murder, and forensic medicine
*Police Procedural: A writer’s guide to the police and how they work
The Criminal Mind: A Writer’s guide to Forensic Psychology
Forensics: True Crime Scene Investigation

*Indicates books are part of the really simple, easy to understand Howdunit series.

For the paranormal:

The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Mythical Creature
The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures
The Vampire Book
Haunted Britain and Ireland
The Encyclopedia of Superstitutions
Monsters–An investigator’s guide to magical beings
Psychic-True paranormal experiences
The History of Mythology

For history:

Tutankhamun
Valley of the Golden Mummies
British Kings and Queens
Everyday life in the Middle Ages
What life was like in the age of Chivalry
The Medieval Warrior
Armor
Anatomy of the Castle
The history of Archaeology

There are many books of this sort lining my shelves–I’ve admitted it before and I’ll do it again, I’m a reference book addict. For any writer out there who wishes to build his/her own reference library, my advice is simple: Begin by hunting through the bargain books at Barnes and Noble or Books-a-Million–I’ve found so many great books there–and saved myself huge amounts of money.

Tell me, do you have a favorite reference book you’d like to share? Perhaps one I should get for my little library?