Sherri Haye's Guest Post & Book Giveaway

Today I'm having Sherri Hayes on my blog for the
TWCS Summer Blowout Tour. Her guest post is below.

FILL OUT RAFFLECOPTER FORM BELOW FOR ENTRY TO WIN

(SEE LINK AT END OF THIS POST THAT SAYS RAFFLECOPTER FORM-MUST HAVE JAVA ENABLED) Please leave a comment with your email address for entry to win her newest release "Slave". 5 e-copies are up for grabs. Contest ends September 15th.

How I Write

I met a friend last week for lunch. She’s been trying to write a book of her own for the last two years and wanted to know about my writing process. “How do you know where to start, where to go, how it will end? These are very common questions and she’s not the first one to ask. 

My writing process involves a lot of thinking. Before I even start writing, I’m thinking about my characters. For my newest book, Slave, I spent more than a month contemplating Stephan and Brianna before I ever put a word on paper. For me, it is very important to have that solid base. I need to know who my characters are in order to know how they will react to any given situation I place them in. 

Once I have my main characters flushed out, I begin incorporating the plot. Again, I spend a lot of time thinking and often talking out plot points. It’s not uncommon to see me during my morning walk talking to myself. I like to talk out scenes, character backgrounds, motivations… It helps me to put things into perspective because how I would react is not necessarily how my character would. 

A lot of writers use outlines. I’m not one of them. Everything about my books goes on in my head. I’ve tried outlines and they just don’t work for me. One time I spent an entire day on an outline and ended up using only pieces of it in the end and not even in the order I’d originally planned. 

When I write, I am in the moment with my characters. Whether it is a love scene or an action sequence, I’m there. I consider myself an emotional writer. If I can’t feel a scene, I have a very hard time writing it. Because of this, I spend a lot of time on character development throughout the process. 

It isn’t uncommon for me to wake myself up in the middle of the night with a story, be it the one I’m working on, or one I’m contemplating for the future. Stories are always rolling around in my head. It’s just a matter of putting them on paper or in the computer as the case may be.

I don’t hand write any of my stories as some authors do. Typing is my preferred method to write. I type much faster than I write freehand, so it allows the emotion of the scene to flow more easily through typing than writing it down with the traditional pen and paper. 

My best advice to aspiring authors, and the advice I gave to my friend… Just write! Give a little thought to your main character, set up the opening scene, and then just go for it. It doesn’t matter if the first story you write is crap. As with everything else, the more you write, the better at it you will become. You can always go back and edit, re-write, or completely trash a scene later. It’s what writer’s do, and that’s okay. Just be true to yourself and your characters. And above all else…Write for you.  

And don't forget to check out her book "Slave"

Buy Slave at Amazon


Blurb from Amazon.com
As president of a not-for-profit foundation, Stephan knows what his future holds and what he wants out of life. All that changes when a simple lunch with his college friend and Mentor, Darren, leads him to buying a slave. Brianna knows only one thing, she is a slave. She has nothing. She is nothing. Can Stephan help Brianna realize that she is much more than just a Slave?




Here is her page on TWCS.
Sherri Hayes
And on Goodreads 
Sherri Hayes on Goodreads