Guest Post & Giveaway: THE BELLE STALKER by Minnette Meador

Hi Everyone. Please help me welcome Minnette Meador to the blog today! She is here to promote her book, The Belle Stalker. Today Minette is going to talk about her writing process and offer some great tips and tools for writers.

Monique asked me about my process for The Belle Stalker. That’s a tough question to answer without putting everyone to sleep. Writers are notoriously action packed inside their heads – but watching them work is like watching trees grow. I’ll give it my best shot…

The story starts with a question. For Belle Stalker: What if a mythical being were stuck in the human world for 2,000 years? 

I generally sit in a chair, put my feet up and daydream, or let my mind wander right before I go to sleep at night, or I take a long walk. Sounds weird, but that’s what I do. Then I just let the juices flow. Sometimes an idea comes to me very quickly, others not so quickly. With Belle Stalker it came right away.

I used to write from the hip, just letting the story and the characters guide me to where they wanted me to go. I still DO write from the hip, but now I have a bolt action, automatic holster that guides the gun to my hand. In other words, I outline everything. That doesn’t mean it ever comes out the way I’ve written it down (and it never does) but it does mean I have certain highpoints the characters need to reach, a timeline they have to keep, and an ultimate climax and resolution. Sounds boring, doesn’t it? It might be, but it keeps me on task, saves me hours of rewriting later, and makes the story tighter. 

So exclusively just for you, here are the magic tools I use to create a story. Don’t get too excited! Hope these might help those writers or wanttabe writers out there. All the links go to Google Docs and you might be asked to sign up. It’s free and a great resource if you want to share documents. If you don’t or can’t access, please make sure to drop a note to mmeador at minnettemeador dot com and I’ll send you copies. 

Characterization Survey - I use this chart for each one of my characters, but fill it out completely for the hero, heroine, and the villain. Then I write out a background story for each character in OneNote (see below). Note: The finished questionnaire gets copied into OneNote under the Characters Tab by Name.

World Building Survey - This little gem came to me from a wonderful writer Patricia Wrede. It is the quintessential guide for world building and I use it extensively for not only fantasy/sci-fi worlds, but for the modern one as well. If after filling out this survey you don’t know your world from every angle, then you haven’t done it right. 

OneNote - I use OneNote for all of my books and highly recommend it for writers. There is a screenshot of how I use it here. I use this extensively (make sure to check out the tabs under each subject) and cut and paste all my research there too. It has saved me countless hours. Character Sheets, Goals Motivations Conflicts Statements for each character, plotting, chapter/synopsis, research, and even pictures of characters and places go into this document. I keep the plot screen next to the word document I am writing in, so I can see what’s next. This is what it looks like.

Research – I do extensive research on the internet and copy and paste all my articles into OneNote, then categorize the research (see link). If you take a look at this document you’ll see on the right hand side of the screenshot a list of other subjects I’ve researched for this book. It also makes is amazingly easy at the end to do acknowledgements and bibliographies for my books. This is very handy especially if I’m writing a historical piece.

There are lots of other craft type tools I use and many of them are listed on my blog under Writing Resources if you’re interested. Note: I haven’t updated this list in a long time. If some of the links don’t work, my apologies. 

I will say this about my process: It is ever changing and differs from book to book. I’ve developed what I use over the last eight books, hopefully each time streamlining the process so that I write better and produce compelling stories ~fingers crossed~. I hope you get a change to read The Belle Stalker. The only thing I promise about the story is that it is different than most and is one wild ride… Minnette :o)

THE BELLE STALKER 
An Urban Fantasy Thriller
by Minnette Meador

The police have done all they can, but it isn’t enough. When Belle finds the mutilated body of her lover strewn across the furniture she knows only her ex-husband, Homicide Detective Mike Cranston can stop the maniac who has been dogging her steps for over a year. The only problem is the man who stalks her...is not a man at all. Belle plays a dangerous game and only hopes that Cranston can stop the monster before it’s too late.

ONE WILD RIDE

“Get down! Someone’s taking shots at us.”

It took a microsecond for that to register. Cranston instinctively crouched close to the wheel. A quick glance into the rear view mirror confirmed it. A black Pontiac, a man in a black ski mask armed with a high-powered rifle hanging out of the window and a masked driver.

“Are you okay?” he asked Mallory.

“Yeah, fine,” Mal replied bitterly. “I brought body armor. It’s in the trunk, nice and safe.”

Despite the circumstances, Cranston smiled. “Nice planning!”

Another shot whistled by his ear. He turned the wheel to the left then the right, making the car weave back and forth over the surface of the freeway. What little traffic there was took a cue and pulled over to the side, compelled by the wailing siren and the speeding bullets Cranston assumed.

A bullet careened off the street just in front of them. The gunman was getting sloppy.

“Would you please shoot that son of a bitch!” he shouted at Mallory.

THE BELLE STALKER – CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Here is where you can find Minnette and buy The Belle Stalker:

Audio Excerpt

Written Excerpt

Minnette's Blog

RESPLENDENCE PUBLISHING (all eFormats except Kindle & Nook):
AMAZON BUY LINK (KINDLE):
BARNES & NOBEL DIRECT (Nook):
ALL ROMANCE eBOOKS:

Giveaway:

1) Minnette's Daily giveaway is One hour of free tutoring in Writing Tools via Skype OR your choice of any of Minnette's eBooks in any format. 

2) She is also giving away a small Kindle ($79) plus a Portland tote filled with goodies to one one randomly drawn commenter during the entire tour.  

3) ALSO: Any reader who sends their name and address to Minnette will be sent a stack of signed swag. Just drop her a note at : mmeador@minnettemeador.com

 

The more comments you leave the better your chances of winning.

 

To Enter:

Leave a comment or question with your email address.

Be sure to visit the other blogs on this wonderful tour. Click on the tour button below for a list of participating blogs.