Samhain Publishing Ltd Weblog

The Vampire...In My Dreams & How I Come Up with Story Ideas

When I’m writing a story, I always come up with four things, and only four things, because I can’t plot for the life of me. For me, outlining is an impossibility, so I write strictly from the seat of the pants.

In the beginning, I think of a hero and heroine and what it is they have to have—their goal in the story—their unbending quest. What motivates them to want to reach this goal—their deep secrets that make this so important to them they have to keep trying or die (not literally, but you know what I mean). What time constraint are they under that makes them have to get to this goal now, not twenty years from now—the ticking time bomb? And finally, how the hero and heroine meet in some unique and intriguing way that hooks the reader.

And that’s it. The characters develop as the story progresses, the goals may change as situations evolve, the characters must grow, and they must reach the goal by story end. It might not be the one they started out with…but they accomplish something important enough to satisfy the reader.

In The Vampire…In My Dreams I started out with an idea…girl who is witch, but not a very capable witch, is pushed by her girlfriend to find out if a guy hanging around the burger shop is a vampire. Now the girlfriend is everything that Marissa isn’t, beautiful, athetically inclined, and really good at her potions and witches spells. So we have an underdog type character and at first a reluctant heroine. The hero is the opposite, totally confident—arrogantly so, yet he targets Marissa to help him in his quest. Her goal to start out with was to determine if he was a vampire. But his goal is to solicit her help in stopping the vampiric process from claiming him forever and it has to be done by week’s end. Now, her motivation for trying to determine if he’s a vampire? Fame and fortune will be hers. Her motivation to help Dominic in his quest?

Terry Lee Wilde
Come join Marissa and Dominic and find out!
http://www.terrywildeteenbooks.com

Excerpt from The Vampire…In My Dreams:

Kissing Dominic had been the most profound experience I’d ever had. Every fiber of my being had been on high alert, anxious about his taking my blood. But when he bit me, it was nothing more than a pricking sensation, and then oh so sweet. For once in my life, I, Marissa, ordinary witch who’d never caught a guy’s eye, was loved. Yeah, by a vampire.

But what a vampire…Prince of Darkness, rather. Hmmm, what if I told Kate I had found my very own prince?
Dominic smiled.

I forgot he could read my thoughts, and immediately my face heated with embarrassment. “I guess if you’ve fed enough, it’s really time for me to get to bed. I’ve got to go to school early.”

“Show me the way, princess of my dreams.”

Feeling extremely tired, I led him up the stairs that seemed to grow longer with every step. A charmer, that’s what he was. I loved how he seemed to cherish me. But had he been like that before the vampire got hold of him?

“I’ve always liked girls, if that’s what you mean. You know, the kind of guy who preferred talking to girls over fighting a guy at recess like so many of the clowns did.”

“Ahhhh. Been a lot of girls, have there?”

He chuckled behind me.

After leading him down the hallway, I opened the door to the guest bedroom.

“One too many girls,” he finally said. “The last nearly did me in. Guess I should have stuck to proving how macho I could be fighting the guys.”

He joked as if it didn’t bother him, but I could tell from the wrinkle of his brow and soulful eyes, he hung on to a thread of a life he so longed to have back.

“You will return to the way you were, right after we’re through with her, right?”

“One of the other vamps hinted I’d be much better off. I assumed I’d get my regular life back.”

Pain squeezed my heart like a symbiotic reaction. I leaned over and kissed his cheek, wondering how he had won me over in an instant. Lynetta. I could still envision her soulless eyes narrowed at me and her teeth bared. Even now, chill bumps trailed down my arms, and I shuddered. I knew I had to save him.