Scarlet McAdams

Purveyor of contemporary and historical romances.

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  • Planster 4 Lyfe

    Orange image with black frame that says Pantser 4 Lyfe

    Sorry, friends, for the late post. I have two writing projects due this week, so everything takes a backseat.

    There are three types of writers: plotters, pansters, and plansters. A plotter plots out their stories, pansters write by the seat of their pants, and plansters are a combination of both.

    I’m a planster.

    In the past, it would begin with having an idea and writing the story as it came to me (pantsing), but eventually, at 5,000 or even 10,000 words, I’d stop. I could visualize the story in my head, but I would get paralyzed and not continue with the writing.

    This is why I rarely finish stories!

    I knew if I wanted to write stories (shorts, novellas, novels, etc), I had to find a new writing system, but I didn’t think of myself as a plotter. Shit changes on the fly in my brain, and I didn’t think that keeping an outline would be useful for that very reason. Oh, silly Scarlet. How little do you know!

    In several writing communities I’m in, the word “plantster” started to surface. It was a happy medium for those who straddle the pantster and plotter lives. Around this same time, I got turned onto Plottr (not an affiliate link). Plottr is software to help you not only outline your stories but also help flesh out locations, scenes, and characters. I bought a subscription (It was cheap at $35/year) and then sat on it for six months. I decided that I needed to use it or lose it, so I sat in on a webinar to use Plottr, and wow, I had no idea it was that powerful and how easy it could be to plot a story.

    I created my own Plottr file as a reference point while following along with the webinar, and it’s been super helpful. Now, granted, I won’t have dozens of people helping me plot my story, but that’s okay. I learned enough to do it on my own. I started Going Crazy using Plottr, and it helped flesh out characters and locations as well as the story. But, and this is a big but, the actual writing is done pantsing. Many plot points have changed since I’m in the heavy editing phase for a contest (due tomorrow!), but the gist of the story has remained.

    Yesterday, I wrote Love in the Time of Cherry Season, an 8,000 word story in one day, and completely pantsed it. I had the opening line (hook) and away I went. (It took me eight solid hours to write the short story with a few breaks in between.) With Love in the Time of Cherry Season, I saw the actions of the characters as the story moved along, so the writing was actually easy. Will every story have this kind of ease in pantsing? Probably not, but at least I know I can do it.

    Knowing I can be a planster has taken a lot of pressure off my brain. I know that I’m capable of getting a basic outline done to follow, but also giving myself room to breathe if all doesn’t go according to plan.

  • Writing Diverse Characters

    Clipart of figures in different colors with the words "embrace diversity" above the figures.

    One of my writing groups has a weekly craft talk where we vote on a topic. This week it was on writing diverse and inclusive characters.

    Instead of writing a screed, I thought a bullet point list might be more useful.

    If you want to write a characters that is nothing like you whether it is race, culture, religion, sexuality/gender, or any other marginalized groups, keep the following in mind:

    • Talk to more than one person; everyone has a different lived experience
    • Be respectful
    • Don’t make assumptions
    • Don’t write stereotypes
    • When writing a diverse character, think about why this person’s race, culture, etc is important to the story
    • Be mindful of the language and terminology you use; a word that one person may find to be appropriate, another one may not
    • When reaching out to support groups, follow their rules of engagement
    • Use Google responsibly for research on primary and secondary sources
    • Describe the character authentically (re: no stereotypes)
    • Utilize your network
    • Don’t make that diverse character’s thing their main attribute, such as don’t take someone who is mentally ill and sculpt their personality around their illness, or someone who is BIPO,C and that is their only quality
    • Write fully formed characters
    • Don’t write characters just for the sake of fulfilling some kind of quota
    • Check your hidden bias
    • Get feedback from sensitivity readers
    • Don’t be ambiguous or assume the reader will infer the character from brief descriptions
    • Don’t compare people to objects or food
    • Understand the difference between race, ethnicity, and culture
    • Don’t make your character a token character (see fulfilling the quota)

    Here are additional resources to utilize when writing and researching diverse characters:

  • Why Research is Important: Where to Research

    Image of a stack of books with Do Your Research Part Two

    In Part One of this series, because who knows, I may do more, I discussed how readers tend to catch, very easily, when an author doesn’t do research. In some cases, it can be jarring and takes away from the story. And honestly? It’s lazy ass writing.

    Since I am a librarian by training (and career path), I thought it might be a good idea to list places you can research online without leaving your house.

    • Local library offers online databases and reference guides. Best part? It’s all free! Here is a link to the services one of my libraries offers:
    • Online newspapers for your area
      • Search for “city +newspapers” (sans quotes)
    • Newspapers.com has over 25,000 newspapers from around the world stretching back into the early 19th century. (There is a fee, of course, but it’s not terrible.)
    • Use Google maps and Street View to get to know the area and help build your own
    • Responsibly use Wikipedia
      • Wikipedia has come a long way on being factual in that a list of legit sources is now a typical component of an article rather than Vanguard66 just writing the article.
    • JSTOR provides access, for free (but there is a paid option), to over 12 million items such as books, journals, and articles across 75 disciplines. Great if you’re doing academic research.
    • Ancestry.com for your genealogical needs
    • Interlibrary loan (links to Michigan state ILL) can be tricky to find but it is available via your local and academic libraries. How does it work? You go to your home library and request a title they do not own and they will find it for you at a participating library. The book is then shipped to your home library and you get to check it out for 14 or 21 days or whatever. Once you’re done, you drop it off at your local library. MEL, for Michigan, is awesome because it is a separate website that allows you to login with your home library credentials, search for books and media like DVDs and CDs, and check them out and boom! Delivered to your home library to pick up. The ship time can be as little as a week or in Kentucky, as long as six weeks. Depends on where the book is coming from. You typically cannot check out ebooks.
    • WorldCat If you want to see which libraries have a copy of a book or if you just want to see where you’re home library is, WorldCat has you covered
      • You can also search for “city +library” (sans quotes) to find the local library for that area
    • Dictionaries and thesauruses such as Merriem-Webster, dictionary.com, thesaurus.com, and Oxford English Dictionary are great for the history of the word, other word options, various spellings, synonym,and antonyms. (Some sites like OED do have a subscription.)
    • ResearchGate for your scientific research
    • Google Scholar
    • PubMed provides thousands of articles in thousands of journals on the latest medical research which you can access for free
    • Academic libraries often provide, free of charge, day passes for non-students to use their materials
    • Museums and archives have libraries or collections you can request to visit for research
    • Smithsonian libraries and archives provides access to millions of digital objects and databases and journals
    • The following libraries will allow you to get a non-resident library card, for digital materials, for a small fee. This is especially helpful if you need access to a larger set of databases or digital materials. I have verified all these libraries.

  • Writing those sex (sweet, spicy, erotica) scenes

    Image of a man and a woman about to kiss. Photo by Zelle Duda on Unsplash.)
    Photo by Zelle Duda on Unsplash.

    Sex scenes can be closed door to sweet to spicy to erotica.

    Closed door is when the hero and heroine link hands, meander to the bedroom, and the chapter ends. Next chapter is the morning after. Sweet romance is where a description of a kiss happens with a bit more oomph; nothing overtly sexual. Spicy is overtly sexual (penis into vagina), and erotica is no holds barred. Double entry? No problem. Shackled to a wall? Also, no problem.

    Writing sex scenes is hard. Yes, it’s great to have an imagination but at the same time,how do you write the scenes without becoming boring or cliche? How many ways can you say dick (cock, bulge, etc)? What about pussy (her center, wetness, etc)? Turns out, a lot!

    I asked Sarah in one of my weekly writer’s groups, whose writing a m/m paranormal romance, how to write a sex scene that isn’t a cliche or boring.

    Sarah pulled out a stack of books:

    I bought them all.

    Other resources included a PDF on a survey of preferred lewd names! (I highly recommend reading these as the variations of names for pussy, dick, ass, and so on gets pretty funny.)

    I added the Sexy Thesaurus list I found a few years ago:

    I’ve been inhaling spicy romances and there are a few common threads. (I primarily read on my Kindle so I’m using percentages instead of page numbers.)

    1. The slow burn starts around 20% mark.
    2. The first sexy scene happens at around the 50% mark. (Sometimes around the 40 – 45% mark but never after the 50% mark.)
    3. Second sex scene happens around the 75% mark.

    As I read the sex scenes, I imagine what’s going on. Okay, so, she’s on her stomach with knees up and he’s entering her from behind. I can see that. In Morbidly Yours, there is a cuddle fuck (the couple are spooning and he enters from behind). Personally, I’m a big fan of cuddle sex and Morbidly Yours is the first book I’ve read representing this position. (I highly recommend Morbidly Yours.)

    The thing to watch out for in reading spicy romances is becoming desensitized to the sex scenes which is not great for the inspiration or imagination. There is only so many times you can read variations of a cock/dick/staff entering a pussy/center/wetness. I treat each scene as titillation and research.

    If you’re interested in beta testing either author’s work, let me know!

     

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  • Introducing Scarlet McAdams

    Scarlet McAdams came about a few years ago for several reasons. First, my government name has a long storied history, keeping an online journal since 1998, and more recently a newsletter where I write weekly on my life, and there is no theme or specific topic. Plus, just regular life is attached to that name.

    Second, I wanted to separate what kind of content I was writing. Government name was all over the place in non-fiction, poetry, and prose. I wanted a clear delineation between genres. Common thought process in the author world is that if a reader picks up a book by you in cozy mystery and then discovers you’re also writing erotica, there is a possibility you can lose a reader. (You may also gain readers; it’s a crap shot.) In the many, many writers’ groups I’m in, it’s not uncommon for established authors to have more than one pen name based on the genres they are writing in.

    In a recent weekly writer’s group meeting, a discussion came up about pen names and online presence. One person, who is a hybrid author (published traditional and indie), discussed that even if you don’t have your work out yet, which I do not, it would still behoove you to get an online presence going to build your following. This has been echoed many times to me over the last year. Writing a book and doing my own PR (which I hate doing btw) is difficult.

    Shit is a lot of work.

    Also, starting a blog? I’m unhinged.

    What am I going to write about here? Good question.

    • Updates to my work
    • Serialized stories
    • Bookish/author-ish things that I find interesting
    • Related crap

    I’m going to keep the posts between 250 and 300 words so they are short and sweet. I’m going to post every other week to begin. I do not have the brain power to post more.

    Until next time,

    scarlet x