I’m about to walk out the door on my way to the airport.

I’m heading to NYC to meet up with the great and lovely Susan May Warren at the Romance Writer’s of America conference.

Looking forward to seeing Beth Vogt, Lisa Jordan, Kimberly Buckner and Elaine Clampitt (PJ Riley) as well.

So, this will be short and sweet.

In the throws of writing your novel, remember that characters are discovered as much as they are planned.

We teach a lot about planning a character here at MBT — wound, lie, fear, greatest dream, etc.

But it’s not until they characters start talking that things come alive.

This is why I harp on, “Tell the story between the quotes.”

If your characters aren’t talking — and moving — we can’t get a mental or emotional picture of them.

Neither can the reader.

I’m working on The Wedding Shop and while I have developed characters “on paper” the moment they start moving on the page, and talking. I discover things.

The things I discover MUST fit into my over all plan, but wow, they teach me who they are as I write.

This is the nitty gritty of your characters.

Some characters are more alive to you than others.

I always have a hard time with the present-day heroine when writing slip-time stories.

She’s the least alive to me so I have to work harder to get a feel for her.

To discover her nitty gritty.

In the end, she’s usually a pretty strong character.

I’m not going to give you 5 points on how to discover your character’s nitty gritty.

I’m going to tell you to write the next scene.

And the one after that…

Pause, ponder, think.

Turn off the music, the social media, the TV.

Do some research.

Then write the next scene.

The nitty gritty of your characters lies between your first inspiring thought of who they might be and the last word you write in the manuscript.

You discover more about them every time you rewrite and edit.

I know a lot of people do not like to rewrite but it’s in those phases the characters really deepen. Where you find symbols and metaphors.

Stick with it.

You’ll get there. Trust me.

Go write something that will eventually be brilliant.

Hubby’s put my suitcase in the car. Time to go. Forgive the typos.