October 2014 - Ruth Madison

When a Character Comes Alive

My goal in all my stories is to create really vivid characters. Characters who will be memorable, who will make the story. I was struggling at first with the main character for The Billionaire’s Secretary. The basic plot is not exactly new! I wanted to bring my own style to it, but Chloe was feeling very bland in the first few drafts. I’m not sure how I thought of it, but the strangest thing brought her to life. I didn’t expect something so superficial to make such a difference, but when I got a sense of Chloe’s fashion style, everything changed! I tweaked her hair and described her whimsical clothes and in moments she felt so much more alive to me. I understood her in a whole new way. In honor of Chloe’s fashion sense, I created a...

Posted by RuthMadison on Oct 24, 2014 in Updates on Ruth's Fiction | 0 comments

Changing Titles

So now that I’ve passed in The Billionaire’s Secretary for final proofreading, I’m looking at what story to work on next. A while ago I was working on a story of two brothers and a singing career. I’ve run into a lot of trouble developing the plot. I’ve got characters, but the plot is not solid. For Nano I may rework the whole outline and start fresh on it. I was initially calling the story Be(Longing) but I realized that that style of title is really more appropriate for the Elizabeth line of books. I.e., (W)hole and Breath(e). I do plan to do a third Elizabeth book. I’d like to keep following her throughout her life and watch how her devness develops over the years. So I will save that title for her third book and do a...