Lately I’ve really paid attention when I’ve had an “aha!” moment when talking to people. You know the kind of moment: one minute you’re having a boring conversation with a mom about the snack schedule for soccer practice—and then you happen to notice she has a Grateful Dead tattoo.

Maybe there is something about an acquaintance that really gets under your skin. They’re chronically late, but always blame it on a litany of unlikely occurrences. Or your friend frequently gets annoying songs stuck in his head and keeps singing the tunes so they’re now stuck in your head. Or your plumber has an odd take on news events that’s very different from everyone else: “Well, the reason General Motors is in so much trouble is because our military is spread all over the world trying to fix other people’s problems.” Uh…right.

How about the people who have a completely different side of them? The “Clark Kent” syndrome. One minute she’s a mild-mannered banker, then she gets off work and joins her friends to see Rocky Horror Picture Show for the 4,000th time.

When I’m with someone and they’re either really fascinating me by throwing me a complete curveball (I didn’t know they lived at a commune before they became church-going choir members!) or they’re doing something I find really annoying (you’re chewing gum? At a funeral? And blowing bubbles?) I pay attention. I write it down. Maybe I can use it to flesh out a character. Maybe I can use it to create a bit character. But these types of encounters really spotlight how different we all are from each other…and that’s worth writing about.

I’m definitely a morning person. I get up at 5:00 each morning, if not before. Actually, I’m up most of the night, but that’s the insomnia thing.

Because of this schedule, I find I’m most productive first thing in the morning. That’s when my writing flows fastest and when I’m more creative.

In afternoon, I’ve already switched to mindless housework (laundry, straightening up, wiping down counters and bathrooms).

By evening, I’m pretty much done. I watch the news, read a book, shoot emails, and go to bed (I get my best sleep before 1:00 A.M., then the insomnia kicks in.)

Today, I’m going to try to switch this completely around.

Can it be done? I have no idea. But my daughter is having a sleep-over here tonight, and the girls will be up really late. I need to be up late too, and I thought I may as well get some good writing time in while the girls were occupied with movies, nail painting, and Barbies.

This means, though, that I will be writing at night. And I’m not a night writer.

I’m curious to see how this experiment goes. Are there many night writers out there? Do you write in both morning and evening?

The Devil in Manuscript: Nathaniel Hawthorne

“I do believe,” said he, soberly, “or, at least, I could believe, if I chose, that there is a devil in this pile of blotted papers.”

I was having a conversation with my online author friend Galen Kindley, and the topic of abandoned manuscripts came up.

Does everyone have a book graveyard at their house? Either a manuscript that they gave up on (or got disgusted with) or a novel they bought and intended to read until it started dragging in the early chapters?

Even Samuel Clemens had an abandoned work-in-progress: a nonfiction book on England that he was trying to write at the same time as Tom Sawyer. Can you imagine? Writing Tom Sawyer would be draining enough.

Sometimes I’ll wonder if I’ll ever go back to these rusty old projects of mine. I’m thinking no. Maybe the original idea was a good one—I know it must have been one that I was originally excited about, or I wouldn’t have started writing. But at some point I realized it stunk. I hate to put it so bluntly, but there it is.

What made Samuel Clemens give up? Did he read another author’s fabulous account of England and realize his came up lacking in comparison? Did he just take on too much at one time? Was he more excited about his Tom Sawyer WIP (who wouldn’t have been?)

Here’s what made me give up on the projects in my graveyard:

My protagonists didn’t have “it.” They simply weren’t interesting enough to carry a story.

The plot didn’t have a hook. It was too derivative of similar books in that genre.

I’d written myself into a huge hole. I do this with other books, but can always write my way out of them. But with these books, I was so disgusted with the WIP by that point that I let my protagonist live eternally in my plot hole.

Do you have a manuscript graveyard?

Today I’m guest blogging at the Darkened Jade website.  I’m discussing what happens after you get the initial idea for a manuscript (which I really think depends on the type of person you are.)  Hope you’ll pop by.

Iago made the perfect Shakespearean villain. Evil to the core, he was determined to abuse Othello’s trust. He manipulates Othello and plots to destroy him.

Wow. My bad guys are murderers, but Iago would eat their lunch. But then, that’s Shakespeare for you.

What makes a really frightening villain? I’ve always found the calm, emotionless psychopaths in movies and literature to be terrifying.

What about the eerie “bad seed” children out there in books? They give me the willies, too.

Extremely capable villains are frightening. More than competent in their evil-doing, they match wits with authorities and win over and over—until the end of the book when they’re (usually) captured.

The British newspaper Telegraph did a piece last December on “The 50 Greatest Villains in Literature.” I thought that was a pretty provocative title, and sure enough, there were plenty of dissenters. Some of the greatest villains were a little odd, but the list as a whole was very interesting.

One interesting point they made was in reference to Moby Dick. Was Ahab the bad guy, or was the whale the villain? Interesting.

Here’s a recap of the Top 10. See what you think:

10 Vindice from The Revenger’s Tragedy, by Thomas Middleton

9 Mr Kurtz from Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad

8 Claudius from Hamlet, by William Shakespeare

7 Ambrosio from The Monk, by M G Lewis

6 Robert Lovelace from Clarissa, by Samuel Richardson

5 Voldemort from the Harry Potter series by JK Rowling

4 Iago from Othello, by William Shakespeare

3 Cruella de Vil from The Hundred and One Dalmatians, by Dodie Smith

2 Samuel Whiskers from The Tale of Samuel Whiskers, by Beatrix Potter

1 Satan from Paradise Lost, by John Milton