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Maybe your protagonist is an international spy. His days are rarely boring since he’s always hopping a plane to a dangerous spot on the other side of the world.

Or not.

For most of us? Our protagonists are fairly ordinary people—like we are. But something extraordinary happens to them, pulling them out of their routine.

The moment when the story really starts has been called the “Call to Adventure” in the hero’s journey, as detailed by author Joseph Campbell.

In my books? My characters are just minding their own business when they discover a dead body.

There are many other calls that form the genesis of stories.

Protagonists:

Are confronted with a challenge—he must go on a dangerous trek to destroy an evil ring in a fiery volcano.

Are put in an extraordinary situation. This could be a plane crash, a sinking ship, a devastating natural disaster or a devastating manmade disaster (war, terrorism, etc.) A group of British schoolboys try to survive on an island after their plane is shot down during World War II. Or…a girl discovers a magical wardrobe is the gateway to another world.

Are asked for help. A Harvard professor gets an emergency phone call in the middle of the night. The curator of the Louvre has been murdered. Can he help solve a mysterious cipher?

Are on a quest for a treasure. Can Charlie find the golden ticket? Can he survive the tour of the factory to obtain a greater prize?

Meet their soul mate…the call of their heart. But the journey to a relationship is a rocky one. Twilight, anyone?

Realize their dream—and follow it. A girl realizes she wants nothing more than to return home. She embarks on a remarkable journey, encountering dangerous obstacles along the way.

The protagonist makes a decision—do they answer this call? Are they reluctant to accept? Are they dutiful, eager, terrified? Their reactions to the call help introduce the reader to the character.

Calls to Adventure usually come fairly early in a book. As a reader, I like knowing what direction the story is heading in—the sooner, the better.

Has your protagonist heard a call? How did he or she answer it?

There are books out there where the protagonist works his way through the plot solo, without friends to bump ideas or thoughts off of. Without close advisers to interact with. Without friends to support or even irritate him.

Those books tend to have a lot of internal dialogue or are man-against-nature stories of someone trying to survive while stranded out in a snowstorm or at sea.

But most books I’ve read have the protagonist paired with another character. And I think it definitely makes life easier for writers. Think of all the ways a friend can help us out:

Provide the main character with advice and insight. The protagonist needs someone to bounce a few ideas off of. I love sidekicks in mysteries—they keep the sleuth from having long internal monologues about who the killer is.

Take the plot on a different path. The friend could talk our character out of a potentially good or bad decision. He could create obstacles for our main character or help him meet his main goal.

Help the reader know what the main character is thinking or feeling about something. Maybe the friend actually analyzes the protagonist a little bit, providing us with some background depth. “I haven’t seen you this quiet since your mom’s death when we were in high school.”

Introduce conflict. Maybe this friend isn’t such a good influence. He’s been the protagonist’s friend since they were kids, but he’s been in and out of trouble his whole life. Maybe he drags our protagonist into his seamy underworld while our main character is trying to rescue him from it.

Help reveal backstory. Like the example where the character helps reveal insight into our character, the friend can also shine some light on other important, plot-related events in the protagonist’s life, through dialogue. We have to be careful not to make this an info dump and to work it in seamlessly.

Provide humor (to release tension), or a great subplot. Even thrillers can use a little comic relief every once in a while. When life starts getting really stressful and tense in our novels, a little well-timed humor can do a lot toward reducing it. Our protagonist’s friends can also provide us with an interesting subplot (extra points for tying the subplot into the main plot).

Do your protagonists have friends? What role do they play in your novel?

Headshots and short bios are useful to have around.

Even if you don’t yet have a book deal, you’ll need a picture and biography for any contests you might win or guest posts you might write.

And these days, it’s a good idea to build an author platform before you’re even published. A platform is simply a professional internet presence—a personal blog or a website, and maybe a Facebook or Twitter page. What needs to go on these web pages? A nice photo of you looking happily professional and a pithy bio to introduce you to any editors or agents who might look you up.

Headshots

Having my picture made isn’t my favorite thing to do. In fact, my photographer told me in exasperation that the toddler she’d had before me was an easier subject. I’m sure she was right. I had a pained grin in many of the pictures she took.

There are many chain studios that do headshots. You do need to be careful and inquire who holds the rights to the pictures—you want to be able to use your image wherever it needs to go: websites, books, etc.

I used Portrait Innovations which seems to be a fairly good-sized chain. They saw me the same day I called them. They asked me to bring a change of clothing—they’ll take pictures of you in more than one outfit to make it appear that you’ve had more than one sitting (and it’s just a nice change to have different looks for different purposes.)

Unfortunately, I forgot to bring a change of clothes. There are many, many pictures of me in a black dress floating around.

The cost was not prohibitive. I purchased a CD full of different pictures (although I usually use the same one over and over) for about $100. You could get it much less than that if you just purchased two or three pictures.

If you are getting a headshot for your author picture for a publisher, you’ll want to make sure that you follow their art department’s specifications. Most don’t want a full length shot (although studios like taking them)—they only want the shoulders up. And they like you looking right at the camera and not a side shot. They’re also not fond of pictures where you’re resting your head on your hands. So you might want to check in with your publisher before you get your picture made.

Author bios are another useful thing. You’ll need one even for some queries and cover letters (check the agent/publisher guidelines to see if they want it included.)

Bios are written in the third person.

Bios are really short…usually four or five sentences, max. Two or three would probably be better. The important thing is to list your qualifications for writing your novel, poem, or flash fiction piece.

Author bios usually mention the writer’s college degree, writing organizations they’re members of, and any publishing credits, like articles they’ve written or contests they’ve won.

Even if you don’t have any professional credits, you can still state something like “Jane Doe is a paranormal romance writer living in Arkansas. She is a member of the SFWA and RWA and is currently working on a …..”

Because Jane Doe is a writer. She’s just not published yet.

Once you have your headshot and bio, it’s a great idea to post them on your website, especially if you’ve got a book coming out. That way, a news organization can just download a copy of the picture and take the bio off your page.

As a reminder, I’m opening up Fridays, starting this Friday (Jan. 29) for guest posts on the writing process. In addition, the blog is available for promo spots for authors with upcoming and new releases. For more information, please check the post: http://tinyurl.com/ybm3s58 . I’m booked every Friday until April—so you’ll have plenty of time to come up with a post if you’re interested. :)

Terry Odell will be kicking us off this Friday with her post, titled “Plotting? Moi?”

I read a lot of blogs during the week and get a lot from what I read. Sometimes I read something that really stops me cold and makes me think.

When I read this interview with Christina Katz on Debbie Ridpath Ohi’s InkyGirl’s blog, I read one part several times through (and I have cut a couple of sentences here. Read this for the full interview):

What advice do you have for writers who are “time management”-challenged?

I’d tell them there is no such thing as time-management challenged. What we are probably talking about is that most left-brained time-management techniques don’t work for right-brained people. So people are not actually “time-management challenged.” They are likely right-brained trying to live in a left-brained world.

If a right-brain person is waiting to be more like a left-brain person before they can master time, they are going to be waiting for a long time. But if they explore and experiment with what works for them within their current work context, and strive for their own definition of time-management success (assuming it harmonizes with those around them), they will start to thrive and be more productive.

I’ve heard and read a myth that left-brained techniques work for right-brained people, if we’d only use them. But I’m pretty sure that’s the road to misery and frustration for anybody right-brained person, who buys into that myth.

My first instinct (because I’m super Type A and an organization nut) was to completely disagree.

After a couple of days, I completely agreed with Christina. Because what I’m doing to organize my day and my writing isn’t exactly a left-brained method. But it works. (Except some days…days that explode out of control. But it works 80% of the time.)

But I’d never thought about the fact that it’s not something you’d read about in 12 Steps to an Organized Life. And I keep thinking there’s a *better* method out there. But I can’t stick to the *better* method.

What works for me is to forgive myself for deviating off the schedule. But I do have an ideal routine that I have on paper as what I’d like to follow. In the perfect world…a world my brain and I don’t live in.

Instead, I’ll deviate off sections of it. Some days just seem to need a different order of events than others.

Some days I’ll start off writing.

Some days I’ll start off answering emails for 15 minutes.

Some days I’ll visit blogs first thing.

For me, mornings are key. The more I can knock out in the morning, the more productive I am for the rest of the day. I’m not sure why that is.

I do live by my calendar (online calendar and physical calendar).

I do realize that anything that doesn’t get done will either get done during my catch-up time right before I turn in at night (after family time is over) or else…it just won’t get done that day. And I forgive myself for that.

I do my writing on the go. And I allow myself some flexibility.

What’s your overall plan for getting things done that you need to accomplish? Do you follow a right brained plan or a left brained one?

I was checking out at the grocery store yesterday with a shopping buggy jam-packed with food. An elderly African American man came up in line behind me with cucumbers and a bottle of Ranch dressing.

“Would you like to go ahead of me?” I asked, continuing to throw cans and boxes at the conveyor belt.

“No thanks,” he said.

“No, really—It’s going to take me a while to unload this cart. Why don’t you just slip ahead of me?” I’m still flinging things on the belt, not even looking at him.

“No thank you. If I go ahead of you, maybe it wasn’t meant to be. Maybe I’ll walk outside and get hit by a car. Because I wasn’t supposed to be there—I was supposed to be behind you at that moment. Instead, my cutting in line sends my day on a different path.”

Now I looked at at him. He solemnly watched me as I continued pelting the conveyor belt with food while I mulled this over.

“Maybe,” I said, “you’d be saving my life if you went ahead of me, though. Maybe if I get delayed by a few seconds then I won’t be in the wrong place at the wrong time. It might be the right decision.”

He nodded. “Just the same, though, I’ll stay put. I don’t want to jinx anything.”

Superstitious place, the American South.

“And..by the way? And I don’t mean anything by it,” he said. “But you’re going to rush yourself right into a grave if you don’t slow down.”

I looked at him again. He gravely studied me above his glasses. He reminded me of that billboard with the eyes from The Great Gatsby.

I slowed down.

This is why my books are full of as many psychics and superstitious people as church-going congregants. The quirky characters around me color my manuscript.

Looking at the mystery market (and the trend may also be true for other genres), there’s a lot of interest in unusual settings for books.

What’s unusual to a publisher? It seems to be anything that’s not in New York, the hub of the publishing industry.

Stieg Larsson’s series is set in Sweden. Louise Penny’s series set in a Canadian village near Montreal is enjoying great success. My friends Jim and Joyce Lavene have a brand new series for Berkley set in the small town of Duck, North Carolina.

The exciting thing for writers is that our own experiences and personal knowledge of our region drifts into our manuscript. Since we live in so many different areas and our readers hail from different regions, it makes our writing seem even richer.

Of course, some writers write about regions in which they don’t reside. Martha Grimes is an American who has done extremely well with her Inspector Jury series set in Britain. I can only imagine the research she’s had to do.

If we write our region? Local color is as close as our grocery store. And we produce something original–an appealing commodity for publishers–in the process.