Category Archives: characters

Cross-Pollinating 101 "How on earth do you decide which characters to involve?"

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I posted a promo that I’m working on book 4 in the Rain Falls series, and got this response from one of my readers: Cindy Compton YES!!! then maybe a cross-pollination book 2? Pretty peaz… 😜 Kelli Jae Baeli yes there will be another Cross-Pollination book. After i decide which characters. any suggestions? Cindy Compton Sorry I missed this…I thought about that with C-P1, how on earth do you decide which characters to involve in weaving several stories into one captivating tale and still do them all justice without the storyline suffering. But you’re a pro at this, so you always manage to pull … Continue reading →

Thoughts on The Thief of Time by John Boyles I was intrigued by the idea of immortality, and the jaunt through history

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I have missed sitting down with a physical book and reading. My recent decision to take a sabbatical and just allow myself to be creative and deadline-free, had me standing in front of my fiction bookshelf, seeking something new. Something enjoyable. As most of you know by now, I have become quite finicky about my fiction reading. I read so much of my own work in pumping out work in the last ten years, that I have had little time to read for pleasure, and when I do, it’s inevitably just before I go to sleep, and by then, my … Continue reading →

Fiction as World View I'm a firm believer in Recycling--except not when it's a character or a plot.

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I have had some criticism from a few readers who were disappointed when I introduced new characters and locations and plots in my series fiction, and allowed the main characters to have a slightly smaller role to make room; apparently these readers wanted the same story again, the same characters, the same sex scenes, the same dynamics, the same formulaic challenges, the same everything. Essentially, they wanted to read about characters who lived in a vacuum, and never had any interaction with others, nor any natural progression. This mindset is not only elitist, fearful, and unrealistic, but within fiction, stale, … Continue reading →

Glaring Errors

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  This is a wide subject area, but I want to focus on just a few things. As a segue, I have to share this post I came across. I was on a forum where people were posting for help about making money blogging. One poster was frustrated and confused and posted this: “Been using these for over a year and made 2 penies.  How do I earn money on goggle.  It is simply frostrating.  I posted so many adds  on my blog but I have earned no money. what is happening? I have been trying to write all the … Continue reading →

Distracting Fiction: Brand vs. Generic

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Recently, a reader mentioned my use of specific products in my books, and called it “distracting.” First of all, this reader I mentioned is from New Zealand, and I write toward an American audience. These product names and brands I might use are all familiar to American readers, and so it does create a clearer picture for them than it would a reader who might not even recognize what that some brands are. So the tendency to want generic, might be predicated on a need for familiarity. This is precisely the reason I don’t read books with foreign settings, or … Continue reading →

Also Known as Syzygy (The Next Big Thing Blog Hop)

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The Next Big Thing Blog Hop, wherein writers talk about their current Work in Progress (WIP), has apparently been going strong for 26 weeks, and so many writers have taken part, that I had a hard time finding the originator of the idea… I could have found it, eventually, but then, that would have me spending way too much time on Google, and not enough writing. I’ve been guilty of that before. Guilty of that often. Guilty. Most of the time. Did I mention I’m legally changing my middle name to Google? But this NBT Blog Hop thing has taken … Continue reading →

Stranger Fiction, Reviews & Truthiness

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Historically, there has been a notable chasm between the author’s craft and the reading public’s knowledge of what that craft includes.  And until recently, we never heard much from authors on a personal level about what they thought and felt, what their creative process was, what their methodology entailed. Nor could readers communicate with their favorite authors in any meaningful way. Now, with the advent of Indie authoring and publishing, writers and readers may actually converse with each other. It might spoil the mystique of being a writer– that romantic idea of an angst-ridden wordsmith closed up in a candlelit … Continue reading →

Springboarding

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Most often, we write from what we know. We write from a place of experience and sensation, because that’s part of who we are, and so it must show up on the page in some way. But I recognize the danger in putting so much of myself into my characters…it could just become some glorified masturbation. Yet, a bit of literary self-cloning is inevitable and unavoidable. I did it today–put myself into some characters…and then I realized it’s a very effective means of getting the story written. Partially, my initial process involves research, as I tend to be a more … Continue reading →

Bloody Hands Every novelist should sit down at the keyboard with blood on their hands.

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Every novelist should sit down at the keyboard with blood on their hands. To know what it feels like to have been wronged and to have wronged. To be guilty and innocent. A novelist must have truly lived her life–sucked the marrow, tended the wounds, lashed out in fear and anger, in order to write a story that speaks authentically at deeper levels; that explores human nature and the human condition in all its beauty and ugliness. A novelist must have experienced life–that visceral knowledge that comes only from having felt the range of emotions, discovered the myriad permutations of … Continue reading →

The Truth of Fiction

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I was just thinking about what a reader said to me about one of my books–that it bothered her it was not explained why one character did something to another. I assumed this would be obvious by the context and the characters and also knowing that people just do things for their own reasons and you can usually guess what that is if you’re absorbing the nuances of the story. But no. Some readers seem to want an explanation for everything, even when an explanation can be interpreted or assumed. Perhaps this is because in reading fiction, we want to … Continue reading →

Space Invader

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[Blast from the past–from April 8, 2004] It started out with me on my way to the grocery store, having awakened with no coffee in the house-a tragedy all on its own. I thought of that little coffeeshop down the street and thought maybe I’d stop in to check it out, so I brought what i lovingly refer to as my Tippi Tap Typer just in case. Roscoe’s Music and Espresso Cafe was a tiny establishment, but intriguing. It was time I tried to get out of the house a little and use my new toy in a different environment. … Continue reading →

Critique of Bad Fiction

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Several years ago, I did a critique for a friend who wanted my editorial-writerly insight on some stories she wrote. After I read them, I was then uneasy, because I am not willing to lie, yet I didn’t want to hurt her feelings. When she asked about the results of my reading, I told her I was afraid she wouldn’t like my critique. She stated emphatically that she wanted the cold hard truth. And so, that’s what I gave her. Below, is the critique, and I post it because I feel it covers lots of territory that every new writer … Continue reading →

New Review on As You Were

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New Review of my book, As You Were, on Smashwords. Review by: UnfortunateGhost on Feb. 28, 2011 : 5 Stars “It is obvious right from the beginning of this book that Kelli Jae Baeli knows how to craft a great story. Her main character is the sort of woman you’d love to meet in real life, and I warmed to her immediately. She’s that well-rounded type of character that makes reading a real pleasure. This is a story about a relationship, but it’s set against a backdrop of events and places that serve to introduce and develop that relationship in … Continue reading →

Characters: Names & Numbers

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I have noticed this issue with seasoned and novice writers alike: a tendency to not only confuse the reader with changing character names and designations, but to use too many characters when it’s not necessary. When you introduce characters, it’s okay to use their full names, but at some point you should try to settle on one name by which to refer to them. Otherwise your reader will be confused and might have to page back to the previous pages to hunt for who it is. This is not something you want your readers to have to do. I know … Continue reading →