Lost by Karen Fainges

There are times when you just feel totally lost. Everything is too hard and there are a 100 reasons to get out of bed and none of them are worth it.

As a depressive, that is a bad spiral to get into. You feel so guilty about not doing something that you end up doing nothing at all.

Well, I just found one way to get myself out of it, read back over past successes.

I was in an online writing group and reading back over the years of posts, I could see times I wrote really good stuff, times it was full of typos and times it stunk. Most of all though, I saw that for years, I was writing and having a ball with people who became my friends. People from all over the world that I probably would never meet but I would miss when they were gone. People who I had shared jokes and tears with. People who had created an online world and let me join in. Being a part of ASR will always be something special to me.

Sometimes you need to be part of something. Writing can be a lonely business and being part of something special gives you that reason to go on.

“Audience” by Karen Fainges

Writing for your audience is one of the first lessons taught in Writing school. You should adapt your words, style, grammar and presentation to suit the audience you are writing for. Sometimes that is easier said than done.

I find it quite difficult to separate myself from my characters long enough to look at them with fresh eyes. If I was a new reader who had never met Lisa or Talkar before, what would I want to know about them? How about their world, it is so different from ours, should I spend ages describing it or will that just bore the audience to tears. Do you write for the average reading level or delight the delicate palate of the connoisseur?

Personally, I love it when the author leaves a lot to my imagination, sketching in broad strokes and leaving the colours to me. I also know that many find that annoying. So do I keep to my style or try for the bigger market?

I think it is compromise. You need to keep your own voice. You also need to adjust your voice to suit the circumstances. I speak differently before a class than I do before a Board meeting but it is still me in both cases. So my writing should adapt too. At least I think so, what do you think?

Your Inner Editor by Karen Fainges

My daughter recently celebrated a joint birthday party with her friends from school, all born within a few days of each other. They played games, swam, ate, talked, probably drove the poor mum who volunteered her place crazy, and read each other’s books.

It amazed me that Jess spent time at a party getting someone to look at her writing and tell her what they thought. Still, we all want that feedback, so I suppose it makes sense. What really amazed me was that Jess listened and took it on board, something she rarely does with me.

Our most critical reader is often ourselves. We look at it and rewrite, judge, pick on single words, spend ages with a thesaurus, a dozen changes big and small. Sometimes you need to tell the inner editor to shut up and just let you write. I call mine Fred. Fred gets locked in a cupboard when I really need to do some writing. I only let him out when it comes time to proof.

I wonder if I should get a stuffed toy or something called Fred so I can shove him in a cupboard for real. Could be fun. The dog would probably chew him though. …. now that’s a thought.

Are All Writers Introverts? by Christine Duncan

Julie Lomoe recently did a post on Crimespace asking this very question. Are all writers introverts? Julie even included a link to the Jung typology test just in case you didn’t know and needed to figure it out.

In my case, it was a no-brainer. I took the test anyway. And as expected, I tested out as extremely introverted (89%).

The thing with these kinds of tests is that you KNOW that if you answer a certain way, you are going to get that result. One of the questions for example: Would you rather attend a party or stay home and read a good book?

Any good introvert automatically knows the answer. The fact of the matter is though, if I know most everyone at the party (and like them–that’s important too) I might like to go to the party–especially at this time of year. Even we introverts celebrate occasionally and we know that good books will keep until we get there.

Of course knowing the answer will lead to a given result doesn’t negate the fact that if I feel that way a lot of the time, that is the way I should answer the test if I want to get a realistic test result.

But it got me to thinking about how just a few words skew a reader’s perceptions. I’ve been doing this anyway as I revise my manuscript because my critique group had made a few comments a long while back about my heroine’s ex. Specifically, one critique group member called the ex a jerk. It surprised the heck out of me, because I hadn’t written all that much about the guy.

Going back over what I’d written, I realized that while I hadn’t spent much ink on the character, what I had written was bound to elicit a bad reaction from women. We do these things as writers in an effort to bring the reader up to speed. We intend to skew the results and work hard to learn how to do it right. It is, simply put, characterization.

As many of the writers who had read the post recorded their results in the comment section, I realized that many writers also scored in the judgmental range. Writers need to make judgments of course. You have an opinion or else what would you write about?

But think about this then. Do judgmental introverts (writers) then have more influence on societal mores than extroverts since presumably more people are reading our stuff than we would ever reach at that party?

Or maybe it’s more important to ask this question: Do extroverts read?

I wonder if there is a test for that.

Complete Characters by Karen Fainges

Well rounded characters are one of the main features of a good book. So how do you create them? And how do you get them on the page without boring the reader with irrelevancies?

Ever received one of those emails that asks a ton of questions like steak or potatoes, first pet and favourite TV show? Filling one of those out as your characters is a great way to really get to know them. It allows you to really get into their history and feelings. As an author, knowing your character’s favourite colour is red is important. It says a lot about them. But does the reader need to know it? Well probably not.

The important thing is to add emotions to the mix.

Her last step heading for the interview, was to reach for her red jacket. The colour was her favourite and even if it didn’t really compliment her dark looks, it did bolster her confidence and she needed all the confidence bolstering she could get.

So we learn that she gets her confidence, not from how she looks, but from having things she likes close. The jacket is a talisman not an accessory. 

Adding emotions has its own problems. What if the reader really thinks appearance is important, especially for interviews? Will they keep reading or write the character off?

Here, I doubt the impact is that great but for other issues, like saying a quick prayer, kicking a dog away or swearing at a child, those will give very strong reactions. You might want the reader to hate or love this character. Subliminal clues help in this regard, but different people have different reactions. Don’t assume that they way you think is the way they do.

What is something that really turns you off characters?

Talk about the weather

Destiny Sets - read the first chapter free online

My mother always told me don’t talk about religion or politics. You’ll only get into arguments. So what about when you are writing? Should you mention them then?

I feel a hearty Yes coming on.

After all, you are not supposed to talk about those things because they lead to arguments. People feel strongly about them. If you leave them out of your books, you leave a big hole in your characters.

So where do you draw the line between well rounded character and someone that is just a vehicle for your own beliefs?

The question holds the answer. Is this really the character speaking? Is that a legitimate point of view for them to have, and would they really say that out loud?

One of my favourite authors is John Ringo. His characters are often quite pronounced in their beliefs. Occasionally he can stray into the realms of proselytising  but it’s rare. (Or maybe it’s only when I disagree with him that I notice it.) Most of the times, it rings very true for the character, even if they are complete blow hards. And the characters around them treat them accordingly.

That is the other litmus test for me. Do the people around the character react in a realistic way? When proofing, I often try to put the other character’s hat on and think about their reaction while this is happening. It can drive your editor mad when your point of view shifts mid stream and you didn’t notice, but it really does make for a more realistic flow to the action.

So what do you think? Should we talk politics or the weather?