Category: Writing

Writing By The Seat Of My Pants

By: Ember-Raine Winters Author of Born To Resist

I was never one to make outlines. When I was in school, I got in trouble all the time in my research writing class because I could never stick to the outline. (If I wrote one in the first place) I was notorious for flying by the seat of my pants while writing.

It was no different when I decided to write Born To Resist. I had an idea and I ran with it. For me, when I write something I care about deeply, it just flows. It didn’t take me long to write the first draft. I never even really thought much about plotting out each scene I just wrote and wrote.

I think it probably has something to do with the organizational skills of the person writing. I have never been one with great organizational skills. While working with my mother on her business (my day job). I am known as the tornado. I know where everything I need is, but no one else could find it to save their lives. I’m not saying that it’s not good for everything to always be in its proper place and completely organized. It really is. I wish I could be like that. As it is, I work best in the chaos that is my own head.

My writing is much the same. If I were to try to map everything out ahead of time I could almost guarantee that by the time I was done it would be totally different then what I intended in the beginning. Which, when I was in college was the bane of my English teachers existence.

I have heard from many authors in writing groups that I am a part of on Facebook, that they allow the characters to lead the story. The characters tell them how the story will go. At first, I thought they were crazy. I mean I am extremely involved with my characters. I even have my favorites, but I thought, that is a bit ridiculous.

It wasn’t until I started writing Born For War, the sequel to Born To Resist, that I realized what they had been saying was true. I was getting to some pivotal war scenes and I was writing things that had never even occurred to me before. I was writing their story not my own. It was as if they were living things telling their story through me. It was surreal.

I realized then, even though the organization and plotting work for some people, it definitely wouldn’t work for me.

It occurred to me today that while I have talked about my book I hadn’t told you what it was all about so here is the synopsis.

Seventeen years after a series of immigration wars that rocked the former United States, sixteen year old Alexa from rural Texas finds out that her ex-military father may have had a greater part in the wars than she ever could have imagined. He is arrested for treason by the new oppressive government (RONA or the Republic of New America) and given no explanation as to why. Alexa finds herself and her best friend Jacob on a journey to California to find the mother, who she thought died when she was a baby, and the resistance who plans to stop the RONA once and for all. Along the way, Alexa and Jacobs longtime friendship changes into something much more when they both realize they have loved each other since childhood. When they meet Xander, a boy their age who was sent by her mother to bring them to California, they find out how much trouble they are truly in. RONA has been searching for Alexa since she left her small town in Texas and will stop at nothing to bring her in. The journey to California is a rocky one. They are constantly running from RONA and dealing with some not so friendly allies. Meanwhile, they are given no information about what is happening and why. Frustration mounts for Alexa when she is left with nothing but cryptic messages from her mother and prophetic dreams. She tastes death for the first time, ending her childhood innocence forever. She is met with condescending questions from commanders at each resistance base she visits. She does the only thing she can do, the one thing her father taught her well. She fights to survive long enough to save her father from death.

Alexa has one goal in mind to rescue her dad from prison but first she must confront her mother. The relationship between Alexa and her mother is strained because she continues to lie to her about her past. Alexa and her friends, Xander, Kara, Jed, and Jacob defy her mother, the leader of the resistance, and take off on their own rescue mission across the country to save her father. They not only have RONA to watch out for, but the resistance has also placed a price on their heads. During her quest to save her father she finds out everything is not what it seems and her parents are harboring yet a another explosive secret. Will they defeat the odds? Or be captured by one of the groups in the process?

Hey everyone! I finally finished editing! I think it turned out great! I self published with smashwords and it should be in most major ebook retailers within the next couple days!

I had a friend do the art for the cover I think it turned out beautifully. Catch Born To Resist coming to Ebook retailers soon!!!

Loved this post especially since there are so many stereotypes and cliches often used in spec fiction.