{"id":75278,"date":"2017-08-15T16:11:27","date_gmt":"2017-08-15T05:11:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.booktopia.com.au\/?p=75278"},"modified":"2017-08-15T16:11:27","modified_gmt":"2017-08-15T05:11:27","slug":"happens-unreliable-character-pops-head","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/2017\/08\/15\/happens-unreliable-character-pops-head\/","title":{"rendered":"What happens when an unreliable character pops into your head?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What happens when an unreliable character pops into your head?<\/strong>
\nBy Kaira Rouda, a<\/strong>uthor of Best Day Ever<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The short answer: you write his story.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what happened to me. Last summer I was working on the first book in what would be a women\u2019s fiction series at the request of my agent. You see, with the exception of one of my previous novels, my books were considered women\u2019s fiction, even though some of my themes tended to be a little on the dark side. My agent was convinced my audience, and my skill set were perfect to write a sweet, contemporary story with an ensemble cast that would lead into a fun, three-book series. So that\u2019s what I did. While I was waiting for her to read the second draft of the first book, Paul Strom arrived. Literally, popped into my head. I tried to ignore him. But I couldn\u2019t. So I sat down and wrote his story. It didn\u2019t take long, not in the traditional sense of novel writing. His voice was persistent and strong. Two months later, I had finished the first draft.<\/p>\n

When I told my agent I\u2019d written Best Day Ever,<\/em> a domestic suspense novel with a male protagonist, she told me she doesn\u2019t read male protagonists written by women. She told me I need to focus on women\u2019s fiction because that\u2019s my brand and that she\u2019d have the second round of edits back soon. I put Paul away, tucked the manuscript into a folder on my computer, and returned to my series. But Paul was still on my mind. During a conversation with my friend and beta reader Andrea, she told me to send her Best Day Ever.<\/em> I told her not to bother, that the book wasn\u2019t on brand for me. She persisted and I sent her the manuscript. Andrea read Best Day Ever<\/em> overnight and pushed me to ask my agent to read it. This time, she agreed. And, well, here we are… my first traditionally published, psychological suspense. All because of Paul.<\/p>\n

Paul\u2019s singular, strong voice made the process of writing Best Day Ever<\/em> both surprisingly fast, and exceedingly creepy. When you have a guy like Paul talking to you day and night, well, it can be overwhelming to say the least. And to say the least, Paul isn\u2019t a nice man. At his worst, he is a murderer. The fun of an unreliable narrator, when writing, is understanding the layers of his lies. Paul reveals himself slowly, but methodically. He wants the reader to like him, to enjoy spending time with him, to trust him. Of course, to do that, he must lie. He must seem to be something he is not.<\/p>\n

Despite the fact he isn\u2019t a reliable guy, I hope you enjoy reading Best Day Ever<\/em>. And my takeaway? If a character pops into your head, fully formed, write his or her story.<\/p>\n

Read an extract of Best Day Ever<\/em> here. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What happens when an unreliable character pops into your head? By Kaira Rouda, author of Best Day Ever The short answer: you write his story. Here\u2019s what happened to me. Last summer I was working on the first book in what would be a women\u2019s fiction series at the request of my agent. You see, with the exception of one of my previous novels, my books were considered women\u2019s fiction, even though some of my themes tended to be a little on the dark side. My agent was convinced my audience, and my skill set were perfect to write a sweet, contemporary story with an ensemble cast that would lead into a fun, three-book series. So that\u2019s what I did. While I was waiting for her to read the second draft of the first book, Paul Strom arrived. Literally, popped into my head. I tried to ignore him. But I couldn\u2019t. So I sat down and wrote his story. It didn\u2019t take long, not in the traditional sense of novel writing. His voice was persistent and strong. Two months later, I had finished the first draft. When I told my agent I\u2019d written Best Day Ever, a domestic suspense novel…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":75281,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[6677],"tags":[7787,7788,7818,5100,6621],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Rouda-social.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75278"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75278"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75287,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75278\/revisions\/75287"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}