Adventures in Editing: Character Fears

GUYS.

FLESHING OUT CHARACTERS.

I THINK I MAY HAVE FOUND MY FAVORITE PART OF THE EDITING PROCESS.

In this post, I'm going to talk about a bit about character fears. Everyone is scared of something. Characters should be no different. Even someone who looks fearless is probably scared of something. 

I got started thinking about this after I read this post by S. Alex Martin, one of my writing e-friends. To sum up the post, he basically said that everyone has a deep, dark, inner fear of something.

And chances are that this fear will affect their view of the world and how they act. He gave the example of going blind.

After thinking about that for a few days, I went and I opened a brainstorming doc for my MC Gwen, and this is what I got (copied and pasted directly from the doc).

Types of fear that can apply to Gwen:

-          Fear of the unknown (good for a coming of age story)

-          Fear of being a burden.

-          Fear of being rejected (by society) (not really liking this one. Unless it's her family she fears rejection from.)

-          Fear of being betrayed again

-          Afraid that everyone is lying to her (Okay, that’s extreme, but good)

-          Afraid of letting everyone down and losing the manor.

-          Afraid of losing Bev/living without her once she [SPOILER]

-          Afraid that she, Syd, Bev, etc. will never recover from [SPOILER]

-          Afraid of screwing up the manor more than it was before.

-          Afraid of failing to protect those that need protecting (applies more to Syd).

-          Afraid of not being enough for the manor? Nah. I think she’d be more afraid of losing it.

-          Afraid of hurting someone by accident while trying to fix them up.

Lovely, isn't it? I started with a character that had the emotional range of a teaspoon, and I added all these layers to her. Now she has the emotional range of a half-cup measure, so she still needs work, but progress is progress.  Not all of these may make it directly into the story, but they will affect how she acts.

Then I realized I'd given her all these fears, but I didn't know how she dealt with them. One of my side characters, Twyla, is scared of everything and is very timid, but I didn't want Gwen to act like her. Gwen was supposed to be tough. So, Gwen deals differently with fear. I remembered a quote I'd seen somewhere that said something like "It isn't brave if you're not scared." And that clicked with Gwen quite nicely. She goes ahead and does whatever it is, even though it scares her.

Then I ran into a problem. One of the things that bugs me about this current draft is that Gwen spends more time worrying about her lack of money than she does about the fact that someone is trying to scare her away from the manor, and is willing to be destructive. Then I talked to my mom, and she said that was probably part of Gwen's character. And something clicked again. When Gwen can't do anything to face what she's afraid of, she ignores it. (I'm not sure that entirely works, because surely there's something she could do to stop the saboteur, but it's another start.) So when she is in a scary situation that she has control over, she tries to ignore her fear and plows through it. But when she can't do anything about it, she puts the situation out of her head as much as she can. In the case of the saboteur, this could be dangerous, because the longer s/he's out there, the more damage s/he does.

So, in summary, each should character fear something and deal with it in their own way. Something cool that you could do though is have multiple characters with the same fear that deal with it in different ways, OR multiple characters that deal with different fears in similar ways. Lots of fun possibilities.

One more thing before I wrap up this post. I said before that a character's fear(s) will affect their worldview. Someone afraid of going blind may be very protective of their eyes. Someone afraid of their past coming back to haunt them may not like going to museums or antique malls or other places that glorify the past. Again, lots of fun possibilities.

I think that is it.  Hopefully this post was helpful to someone, and not completely boring.

And a lovely evening/day/afternoon/midnight/whatever to you.

Tips for Maintaining Motivation and Battling the Internet Blues

Hello, chaps.

Today I'm going to talk about ways to keep yourself motivated. This isn't a guide to getting out of a rut or besting the dreaded Block, just ways I've come up with for getting past "I'm not blocked I just don't want to write" syndrome and internet distractions. My own Pinterest boards are some that get me. 'Cause looking at a storyboard I created for the story I'm writing counts as writing, right?

No. It's just distracting and gets me out of the story. Maybe, maybe I'll find something that helps, but that hardly ever happens.

So, here are my ideas:

1. Set goals: I've done this a couple of ways. When I participated in 100-for-100, I had to write 100 words a day for 100 days, end of subject. And 100 words is easy. Sometimes I would get in the flow and end up writing more.  Another thing I've done is tell myself that I need to write X many words before a certain time. A way to get around internet distractions is I've told myself that I had to right X many words before I check email or Pinterest or whatever.
2. Set a time limit: This is similar to the one above, in that I've told myself I couldn't get on the internet until I'd written for a certain amount of time.
3. Turn off the internet: A good way to avoid the internet is by making it hard to get on it. Close down the browser, email, and disconnect the WiFi.
4. Make a really scary consequence for failure to reach the word goal: Remember that time at the beginning of this year when I made a vow to read a book a week? Yeah, that failed. A consequence I've been considering is writing a really short story about a zombie romance. That's not going to happen. The reading time lost is consequence enough. Anyway, it would be easy to set up a similar consequence for failing to reach a word goal.
5. Get competitive: Compete with a writing friend in a word war. Pretend the fate of the world rests on you winning said war. I know of a case where two guys did an extreme word war, the loser of which had to sing and preform a song written by the winner. The result was The Pirate Baron Theme Song. They posted a video of it on YouTube here, and it is hilarious. That was their second extreme word war. In the first one, the loser had to eat a chocolate-covered grasshopper. There's a video of that one too (there should be a link in the other video) and I suggest you watch the first part just to see the excerpt he included of what he wrote for the war (before he actually eats the grasshopper). Hilarious.
6. Set up a point system: Erin from Laughing at Live Dragons created a point system for herself to motivate her to write, and she posted about it in this post. She gives herself one point for every one hundred words she writes. I think that's a brilliant idea, and I'm working on an editing version.
7. Check out a motivation website: 750words.com is designed to get to you to write 750 words a day. You post what you've written in their word processor, and then it analyzes your writing and tells you cool stuff about it, like what it's rated, what words you used the most often, emotions you used, etc. There's also Write Or Die, but I've never used it myself. The hardest setting you can put it on is called Kamikaze, and it starts deleting what you've written if you don't write fast enough. I think that's insane, but some people like it. There are other, less severe modes, that just make annoying noises or something if you don't write fast enough.  Another one is Written? Kitten! and it gives you a new picture of a kitten after you write so many words. Too bad there isn't a Written? Dragon! That would be fun.
8. Hold yourself accountable: I'm participating in NaNoCritMo this month, so I have a critique partner waiting for new chapters of my story (hi, Kendra!).  Having someone waiting to read your story, an alpha reader, crit petc, can be good motivation. Hold yourself accountable for getting it to him/her on time.

So! There you have it. Hopefully one of you lovely readers will find it helpful.

And a good afternoon/morning/evening/whatever to you. 

You're Researching What? TCWT Blog Chain May 2013

So, this month the prompt for the Teens Can Write, Too! blog chain came from yours truly. My prompt is thus:

“What are some of the coolest/weirdest/funniest/most disturbing things you’ve researched for a story?”

This is going to be fun.

I have looked up:

• What color violet eyes actually are (they're either pale greyish or dark, dark blue)
• Names that mean "Stupid" (there aren't any)
• "Weird antiques" so I could put some in a fictional antique shop
• The history of bottled water
• Crimes punishable by death
• Ossuaries (really, really want to put one in a story. Maybe as part of a prison)
• A bit about the Barbary Pirates, specifically the capture and sinking of the USS Philadelphia.
• Medieval herbal medical practices (From a book my family owns. That book scares me. They used highly toxic convallaria [lily of the valley] as medicine.)
• Making candles
• Growing and using various kinds of natural dyes (indigo, sumac, madder, etc)
• The branding of slaves (This was an image search. Didn't find what I was looking for.) 
• Different kinds of weird silverware
• Thatching for roofs
• Old fashioned names

I like The Given Names Frequency Project for that last one. I found it when I was trying to find a name for a character who lived in the 1800s, and it was very helpful and extremely interesting. The resource from them  I used (the link called "popular given names, US 1801 - 1999") was a collection of names with the number of times they appeared in censuses during the 1840s. I just looked at their website again, and there are other resources there I haven't investigated yet that look promising.

I've had the urge to write historical fiction (not the story referred to above) since my Anatomy and Physiology class went to the Indiana Medical History Museum, which is housed in what used to be the pathology building for the no-longer-existent Central State Hospital for the Insane. Oh yeah.  Now I really want to set a story there in the 1900s, a few years after the pathology building opened. Other than visiting the museum, I haven't done any research, but I really want to. They had books there from 1850. 1850! Books the original doctors had brought with them when the building opened. And this pair of old, real human skeletons that they had ordered in the day from a medical supply catalog (Just a little creepy...). Oh, and all the old equipment. They had an autopsy table from the 1920s. And this really cool pH color comparer thing...

Okay, I'll stop now. I need to actually come up with a story to set there. 

Another cool historical thing I stumbled upon once was a set of local coroner's records from 1896 to 1935.  I didn't go out looking for them (I accidentally found them on my library's website), but I think I did use them as a historical reference for a story idea that ended up dying. (Dying, coroner's reports, ha.) Depressing, really depressing, but fascinating. Several people got hit by trains. Swallowing acid was a popular form of suicide. Lots of babies died. Teenage boys were stupid. Oh, and there was this murder... which I don't remember all the details to at the moment, and actually there were several murders, but If you want to read more about what I found, I posted a bit about them a while back in this post. 

So, there's my post, with a bonus ramble about historical loony bins. Big thanks to John from TCWT for letting me host this month, and to all the bloggers who participated in the chain. Here's a list of all the participants (you should totally check them out):

5^th – http://theloonyteenwriter.wordpress.com/

6^th – http://deborahrocheleau.wordpress.com/

7^th – http://bloodoverithaca.wordpress.com/

8^th – http://charleyrobson.blogspot.com/

9^th – http://musingsfromnevillesnavel.wordpress.com/

10^th – http://nonconformistwriter.blogspot.com/

11^th – http://dearsaul.wordpress.com/

12^th – http://missalexandrinabrant.wordpress.com/

13^th – http://insideliamsbrain.wordpress.com/

14^th – http://cinderscoria.blogspot.com/

15^th – http://emilyvaneaton.wordpress.com/

16^th – http://www.brookeharrison.com/

17^th – http://thespasticwriter.blogspot.com/

18^th – http://veewhoa.wordpress.com/

19^th – http://www.mandilynn.com/

20^th – http://theteenagewriter.wordpress.com/

21^st – http://avonsbabbles.wordpress.com/

22^nd – http://realityisimaginary.blogspot.com

23^rd – http://miriamjoywrites.wordpress.com/

24^th – http://anomalous93.blogspot.com/

25^th – http://thelittleenginethatcouldnt.wordpress.com/

26^th – http://ktlemonhead.wordpress.com/

27^th – http://dreamerheadquarters.wordpress.com/

28^th – http://paulinaczarnecki.wordpress.com/

29^th – http://www.lilyjenness.blogspot.com/

30th – http://teenscanwritetoo.wordpress.com/ (We’ll announce the topic for next month’s chain)

And a wondrous day/night/morning/midnight/mid-afternoon/whatever to you. 

Adventures in Editing - The Oh Carp Stage And The Battle Plan

*Theme music*

Welcome to Adventures in Editing!  A series of blog posts in which you will see a young writer figure out how the heck to edit a novel. Heeere's your host, Lily!

*Scattered applause*

So. This week I started editing my NaNoWriMo 2012 novel, Noxumbra. (Yes, I did change the title from Noxumbra Manor.)

Overwhelming? Oh, yes. So many levels of yes.

There is so much to fix. Plot holes, flat characters, a not-yet-built-enough world, some Insta!Luv (sorta).... lots of things that just need to be redone and reworked.

This would be the first "Oh carp what I have I done what was I thinking that first page tastes like cardboard" stage. I would be surprised if another didn't visit me half-way through.

One cannot edit, or do anything productive, during an Oh Carp stage.  So I kissed it goodbye and sent it off to torment someone else. It still sends me postcards, very depressing post cards, but I try to ignore them and give them to my sister so she can use them as litter for her ducklings.

So, after spending an afternoon or so wallowing in self-pity and general overwhelmed-ness, I decided to develop a battle plan.

Everything gets better when you have a battle plan. Time to pull the Battle Axe of Editing from the dungeon.  

I'm still working on my battle plan, but basically it looks like this:

1.  Make sure the chapters work so I can torment work with a crit partner for NaNoCritMo.  
2. Work on fleshing out the characters. Their backstories etc, will influence the plot.
3. Work on the plot: 

• Fill in the big BREAKS I left in my manuscript during NaNoWriMo when I needed to get my 2000 words in but had writers' block so I switched scenes.
• Obliterate the Insta!Luv and develop the Nomance properly. 
• Develop a reasonable way for the Manor to earn money.
• Make Gwen's life harder.
• Etc, etc, etc.   

     4. Worldbuild. A lot.

That's it so far. No doubt it will change somewhat.

I think that's all for this episode. Time to pull the Battle Axe of Editing from the dungeon.

Do you have any advice/questions/random statements about glittered armadillos? Please utilize the handy comment box below!

And a good night/morning/afternoon/whatever to you.

*Lights dim. Closing theme music* 

Viola and Zella's Theme Song

NOTICE: This post will most likely turn out to be me fangirling over a song and how well it fits with two of my characters. Ish. I may also get a few words in about character theme songs in general. We'll see.

One of the things my writerly side does is analyze nearly every song I hear to see if it fits with a character. Break up songs, love songs, songs about death, about partying, about tractors, you name it. It can get rather annoying, actually. But sometimes my head puts a song with a character and it's so perfect I grin every time I hear the song and I make a mental music video of my characters to the music. 

This happened a while back with Thompson Square's If I Didn't Have You, and my characters Viola and Zella. Now, If I Didn't Have You is a romantic love song, but I ignore all the purely romantic lyrics and fantasize about Vi and Zella to all the "Can apply to love in general" lyrics.

Here's the song:

It all started when I listened to this song and thought "what if they meant 'this life would kill me if I didn't have you' literally?" And almost immediately, Vi and Zella came to mind. Zella gives Vi a reason to fight and survive, and Vi rescued Zella when she was just a wee thing. Both are orphans of war, and they bonded to each other when their parents died.

I won't go into the rest of their story, but if you want to hear more about it, ask me in a comment. Also, if you want your daily dose of depression, go check out the Pinterest board I have for them. I'm pretty sure that story idea is the result of my dark side watching my interest in writing grow and saying "Hey! I want in the fun!" So, yeah, not a happy Pinterest board.

Well, that wasn't a great excuse for a blog post, but hey, I got new content up.  And I never did say anything worth while about character theme songs in general. Oh well, maybe another time.

And a wondrous day/night/evening/afternoon/whatever to you.

Announcing NaNoCritMo!

Hey guys, Sarah F. from Inklined and I are organizing a new event called NaNoCritMo, like NaNoWriMo, only for critiquing.  Check out the CritMo blog here: http://nanocritmo.blogspot.com/

We should have more up later today! You should totally check it out.

UDATED TO ADD:
The June test run for NaNoCritMo is now live! This is a trial run to work out any kinks in our system, but if you want to participate, you can register on the blog. We plan on doing another CritMo in September, so if you can't make it to the June event, check back then.

Character Question: What is Love?

Yeah, I know that's a weird title. Allow me to explain.

Last night, I was watching Lark Rise to Candleford (a really great period drama TV show that any Austen/Gaskell fans should check out) and the conflict for one of the characters was the question above. What is love? She was kinda freaking out about it. Anyway, when she asked that question the first time, one of my characters answered her in my head. "Love is giving your life for someone else's." Now, this doesn't fit the Lark Rise episode in any way, shape, or form, but I was intrigued. Viola, my character, answered what love is to her. So, I decided to see what some of my other characters had to say.

Marius: Love is accepting/loving someone despite their past.
Bev: Love is being accepted for who you are.
Joy: .... Is this a trick question?
Silla: Love is being accepted, even when you're not what was wanted.
Gwen: Love is working hard for the good of others.
Chad: See Shakespeare's sonnet 116. I painted it on the side of the abandoned crematorium.
Farold: Love is protecting your loved ones from the past.
Henley Sayer: Love is avenging your family.
Lizzie: Ooh, I should ask my characters that.... 

I'm not sure some of these even make sense, but I thought it was interesting to see how differently the characters reacted. And thank heaven they reacted differently, or I would have some serious character development to do for everybody.

As you may or may not be able to see, some of these characters have insecurities that affect their view of this subject (Marius, Bev, Silla...).  Hopefully, that makes them more like chocolate lava cakes and less like cardboard.

If you're a writer (and I assume most of my few readers are), how did your characters react to this question? And I'd love to hear input from all the non-writers too.

A good evening/morning/day/whatever to you.

Characters in Costume - Vorsilla Silverbeetle

Gillian from Of Battles, Dragons, and Swords of Adamant hosts a Characters in Costume blog event every month, in which you dress up as one of your characters, and I thought I'd participate this time (though I'm actually two days late in posting this, which is kinda ironic since Gillian did a post on Go Teen Writers last week called "Procrastination Doesn't Pay.") This month's theme is villains.

So, allow me to introduce you to a minor antagonist from my work-in-progress Noxumbra Manor: Vorsilla Silverbeetle.

I look nothing like Silla, and that setting is all wrong (I wanted to go to the local cemetery and take pictures there, but I ran out of time), but I think she would wear that dress.

Silla doesn't play that much of a part in the current draft of Noxumbra Manor (something I intend to change), but when I worked on figuring out who she was, I grew to really like her, and I've decided to make her the protagonist of the sequel, which has no title or plot yet.

Her mother died in childbirth, and her father had wanted a boy, an heir to his estate. As a result, Silla grew up in the shadow of male cousins and other relatives, watching them get praised, while her accomplishments were ignored. This left her as bitter and frosty as a winter's wind.

Then I went and broke her heart. And she was set on revenge. Thus began her role as an antagonist.

If you want to see what Silla looks like in my head, click here for a nearly perfect likeness I found on Pinterest. And you can find my Noxumbra Manor Pinterest board here.

And in case you were wondering, I've Seen Hell from the North & South soundtrack is her theme song.

Be sure to check out the other Characters in Costume participants! There's a list here on Gillian's blog.

And a good night/day/morning/evening/whatever to you. 

Of Character Correctness

One of the things I did wrong in my first novel was that Lizzie, my MC, was always right. She found the true meaning of every clue right away. This does not make for a good story. It makes for an okay story, but it would have been better (and will be, when I pull that manuscript from the dungeon again) if she'd misinterpreted a clue or two, or only realized half of what it meant.

Why? you ask? Because my friends, that makes for plot twists of awesome.

Think about it. You're reading along, what the MC says makes sense, and then KABLOOIE, the condemning footprint couldn't have belonged to the postman, or the dead guys isn't really dead, or that chandlery isn't just a cover for a bad guy on the run - it's a smuggling ring too, or the man who everyone thought was the father of the illegitimate son is actually covering for the real father, or the MC has two potential villains to follow, and she picks the wrong one.

Or, you're reading along, what the MC makes sense, and what do you know? She's right. She's so clever. She followed the right guy, and fit every clue together perfectly, and thanks to her, the bad guys will rot in jail for eternity.

Which is more fun to read? The first.

Readers like being proved wrong (as long as the new explanation makes sense). Or they like figuring out the true meaning of the clues before the MC, and being proved right.  Either way, proving the MC wrong will throw him/her for a loop, and make the story that much more interesting.

As a side note, characters with secrets are an excellent way  to prove the MC wrong. Henry lied, and the MC believed him, or Agnes told the MC the truth, and he/she didn't believe her. The MC builds an idea around what s/he believes, and then POP goes that idea, and in the soap suds of its death, a new idea is born, and this one is one step closer to the truth.

What do you think? Feel free to debate and expound upon this idea. I'd love to hear your input.

And a good night/day/afternoon/morning/whatever to you.

The Next Big Thing Blog Hop: 10 Questions about Noxumbra Manor

Emily Rachelle from Emily Rachelle Writes has nominated me to participate in The Next Big Thing Blog Hop. Thanks Emily! To participate, I have to answer 10 questions about my current work in progress, and so I shall.

1: What is the working title of your book?
Noxumbra Manor because that's where a good portion of the story takes place. I've also considered The Lady Lord, but my mom said that might sound like the main character is a transvestite, and I just didn't want to go there.

2: Where did the idea come from for the book?
The original idea spark came in the summer of 2011, when my mom asked me what my dream pen name would be.  I'd recently become infatuated with the name Gwendolyn, and I'd just seen the name "Copperstone" somewhere, so I said Gwendolyn Copperstone. That November, I used "Gwendolyn Copperstone" as my NaNoWriMo username. Well, Gwen wasn't happy just being a username. Before long, she'd evolved into a really flat, story-less character, who I decided should be a fantasy-set detective. When NaNo 2012 started to draw near, I decided I'd give Gwen a story. After some brainstorming, she was no longer a detective, but an heiress of an estate that someone didn't want her to have.

3: What genre does your book come under?
Fantasy and mystery, though I've removed pretty much all of the traditional fantasy story elements. So it's a mystery set in a world that doesn't exist.


4: Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
Honestly, I've been so focused on writing the thing, that I haven't thought of this. Except for one character. If this were to be made into a movie, I'd want Ben Aldridge to play Lord Delstone, the guy I put in an unrequited love situation I refer to as The Nomance.

I do, however, have a Pinterest board with some pictures of character look-a-likes on it here.

5: What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book? 
A young herbalist is flung into a world of mystery and deceit when she inherits an insolvent estate that someone doesn't want her to have.

I've very proud of this elevator pitch, since it placed in the top 25 finalists in the Go Teen Writers Pitch Us Your Story contest. It didn't make the top ten, but out of 140 contestants, one of the top 25 isn't bad.

6: Is your book self-published, published by an independent publisher, or represented by an agency?
None of the above. It's still in the Really Big Mess first draft stage. 


7: How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
I started it back in November for NaNoWriMo, and I typed the words "the end" a couple of weeks ago, but there's a bunch of stuff in the middle that I skipped over that I need to fill in. 


8: What other books would you compare this story to within your genre? 
I have no idea. You could say it's like a Dickens-ish or Austen-ish story set in a world that doesn't exist, but that might be kind of a stretch.


9: Who or what inspired you to write this book?
I needed a story to write for NaNo '12, and I wanted to try my hand at fantasy, so I chose this one over all my other ideas.

10: What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
Well, there aren't many fantasy-set mysteries out there (that I'm aware of, at least), and it's got lies and betrayal and scandal and secrets, and other good stuff like that.

If you have any other questions about Noxumbra, leave a comment and I shall answer them.

Now I'm supposed to nominate five other bloggers, but pretty much everyone else has done this already, so I nominate anyone who reads this and wants to give it a go. 

And a good day/night/morning/afternoon/whatever to you.