Barbie Bohrman, Author of SOMETHING MORE THAN THIS, Talks All Things Writing (with a giveaway!)

What inspired me to write Something More Than This?

The main inspiration for this story was my very first crush growing up. Without naming names and going into too many details, there was a boy who lived around the corner from me who I thought was the greatest thing since sliced bread. He never knew until it was too late how I felt about him. And when he found out, I was so nervous about it that I actually threw up on him…well, his feet technically. It was the most mortifying and awful experience ever… or at least up until that time in my life, which was only twelve years old. But to his credit, he never told anyone about it. He didn’t reciprocate my feelings… and that was fine, I guess. At the time, I thought I would never “love” again, but alas, that was not the end of my love life.

Music or no music to write to…

The answer is simple, no music at all. No noise, nothing but peace and quiet. But, I do hear songs that inspire scenes, dialogue and characters. For example, the title of the book, Something More Than This, is directly from Bryan Ferry’s song “More Than This.” Specifically the opening lyric: “I could feel at the time, there was no way of knowing.”

Character names

I have a thing about including my real-life friend’s names into my books. But I also have a thing about using names that seem relatively “normal.” I say “normal,” because I have a hard time taking someone seriously in my real life if they were named something like “Xanthippe.” (That’s a character’s name from “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” by the way.) So, Katy got her name from a second cousin of mine, Conner…I just love that name for a boy. And Dylan, well, he got his name from the one and only original Dylan McKay from old school 90210.

Where do my characters come from?

All of my main characters all have a little bit of me in them. One of my MC’s has a lot of me in her, dialogue especially, but her actions and my other MC’s, are all working on a mind of their own. The men/romantic interests in each of my books usually start off inspired by someone I was with my past or met previously, but I also let them play out completely differently than how it ended up in my real life.

Favorite writing advice

Write what you want and how you want to write it. Don’t take reviews personally…you have to know going in that not every single person is going to like/love your book. Reading is subjective and try to be grateful that the person who reviewed your book unfavorably chose to read your book to begin with. Because there are thousands upon thousands of books out there to choose from…they chose yours…get over it. And…a three star review is a good review, btw.

Writer fashion

This would be sweatpants with a very oversized t-shirt and maybe a hooded sweatshirt on over it. I like to write in complete comfort so nothing says comfort than clothes that are too big for me.

How do I keep my ideas organized?

I usually get the beginnings of a story idea in my head while driving into my actual day job because I have a fairly long commute. So the next step is to plot it out in order even though I may already have complete scenes in my head playing out. I’ll outline the entire book… as much as I can at that time since it may change later on as I’m writing it. The scenes I had already in my head are included in the outline, but I still write the entire book in chronological order. But before I start writing the actual book, after I outline, I complete character profiles of the main characters. This helps to keep myself in check while I’m writing so that something that a main character does fits to how I envisioned them in the first place. And even though the story is outlined in full, the actual telling of it may change while I’m writing. Which is fine, but it’s nice to have a starting off point…it helps a lot!