Mood Boards to Write:

Sometimes the writer hits that brick wall where nothing seems to inspire, the words don't come as easily -- or not at all.

Scary stuff. What does one do?

Give up? Never -- or at least, maybe for a while. I'll be the first to admit it. If the blank screen or white page is staring me in the face with that "go ahead, I dare you" attitude, I throw up my hands and walk away.

Walking is good. It clears the head of all the extraneous crap, allowing fresh ideas and thoughts to emerge. Creating something with your hands or digitally helps also. I like to fiddle with Photoshop and Paintshop, altering images, enhancing, embellishing until something unique evolves.

These are my two mood boards to help me get past the "great swampy middle," as Joe Butcher phrased it. I'm mired in revising and editing, and everything seems stale at this point. I realize what it is, but it doesn't make it any easier to deal with.

So today was a "play" day for me. No writing except for this blog. This first mood board symbolizes my heroine, Meredith Lambert, a young woman just returned to Regency England after a long hiatus in southern France with her mother and step-father. She is elegant, beautiful, smart and terribly in love with the hero, her old childhood friend, William Burnham, now the Marquis of Huntington. After almost ten years, they meet for the first time only to end up arguing like they were children again.

And this board is for William Burnham, the Marquis -- a confirmed bachelor, self-centered, experienced in war, a financial wizard. Tall, dark and handsome, of course.There are secondary characters as well -- all widows and still young enough to want more out of life, especially fun and passion during the holiday season -- much to Burnham's chagrin.

Well, let's hope this dead-in-the-water phase dissipates soon. My deadline for release is December 1st, so I'd better get cracking! I think I'll start with a fresh scene -- the love scene between Meredith and William. That usually gets the blood stirring -- hmmmm!

Here's a sneak peak at the ebook cover -- I hope it intrigues you! If I can move onto the final revisions soon, I'll post an excerpt for you to read.

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More Secondary Characters

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Threads of Feeling

In "Captive for Christmas" (just released last week; see Books above), I wrote a brief scene between Felicity Drummond and Chandler Rhys in which she shows him a one-hundred year old scrapbook that her grandmothers and mother kept of the orphans who came to live at the family estate over the years. This is based on true fact, and that is what I love about historical fiction -- using facts and events to create a world more rich for the reader. archives, Foundling Hospital Museum sample fragment left with a female child The Founding Hospital was founded by Thomas Coram who wanted to give abandoned children a decent life. The hospital opened its doors in 1741, and children were accepted anonymously so women were not publicly shamed into abandoning their babies elsewhere. The mothers were encouraged to leave a small token, which was then added to the admission books with the details of the child. The tokens include ribbons, fabric scraps and baby clothes...

Claire Hadleigh

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