Which Character Do You Like Best?

 Fiction Lesson:

As much as I hate admitting not buying the last couple books in the Otherworld series about the adventures of the D'Artigo sisters,   I bought Yasmine Galenorn's Blood Wyne.   I just realized that the other books didn't feature Menolly D'Artigo.  That's the vampire sister.  Now, I'm wondering why that character motivated me to buy a book and the others didn't.  It wasn't because Menolly is the shortest of the sisters.  Being a vampire, she shouldn't engage my interest since I usually don't care for much for vampires.

So, why?  Galenorn's action is in top form as the sisters fight to save Seattle from murderous ghosts ... and a more murderous vampire with an original twist.  She solves a couple of the sisters' problems.  But, she also complicates Menolly's life with two new hassles:  one a dangerous love interest and the other a new terribly dangerous possible nemesis who she owes a debt to.  [Fae are interesting in that way.]  The only reason I can come up with to answer the question "why" is that I perceive Menolly has "trying harder" to pull her weight in the team.  

Guess I think of vampires as being handicapped by any thin stray pieces of wood flying around.  Plus, she's out of commission while the sun shines.  The other two sisters just get sleep deprived.  What makes you latch onto a character in an ongoing series?

Useful Promotion Info and Other Stuff:

This week's gem comes from Justine Musk of the Tribal Writer.  Basically, she takes on the question of should you blog or not and says it depends on what you want out of it.

She also gave a useful link for gathering an email list for my Half-Elven promotions MailChimp.  A link I am suitably grateful for.  You can learn more about my thoughts on the Half-Elven blog.

Am really looking forward to this year's Northern Colorado Writers conference.  I'll be pitching a Color-a-Comic pre-primer a friend and I did years ago.  We sold a few hundred even though we knew zip about marketing.  Maybe that's one of the reasons I feature how-to-promote  info so much?

Progress on My Writing Journey:

Producing words as been as painful as pulling teeth around here.  The silly idea that I could draft a new novel and revise a previous draft got knocked out of my head.  

Why did I think I could?  After all, there're tons of blogs out there of people who write 1,000 to 5,000 words a day.  Why couldn't I plog along at my usual 500 words and revise too?  ...  Tried it.  I can't.  Have given myself permission to only revise ... and jot down weird wisps of ideas as they drift through my brain on the other WIPs.  [Yeah, there's more than one.]

When I look at what needs to be done with Emma Kloken, Reluctant Hero, it's obvious much of the revision will be like drafting a new novel.  I took a class from Trai Cartwright at Craftwrite and learned a lot about scene setting and flow.   Now I done got ta do the work to make it happen in my manuscript.

Do you design your goals too big to chew?  I find I work best with flexible goals, broken down into small bites.  The pesky things are easier to cross off that way.

I should mention my Far Isle Half-Elven blog.   Yeah, I blog twice a week.  One here [on Thursdays] about general writing stuff.  The other concentrates on building building my writer's platform ... which I do kicking and screaming and not very effectively on Mondays.  --  Last Monday, I wrote about submitting my website -- The Far Isle Half-Elven -- to 1st Turning Point for a critique.

Trivia:

I hate it when I make a comment, proof-read it a couple times, publish it ...

then, discover a typo ... or two.     

Where Authors Get Ideas

 Fiction Lessons:

Everyone wonders where author's get their ideas -- readers and writers, alike.  Fantasy writers probably make people wonder more than mainstream types.

Imagine my delight when I read the back notes in Laurell K. Hamilton's Flirt where she discusses how discovered and shaped an idea into a novel .  She also blew my mind.  Hamilton has written 29 books in 15 years, probably more since I think she's finishing one now and has another at the publishers.  --  Makes my 500 words a day [sort of] anemic at best.

Any way, to quote Hamilton:  "Flirt is my twenty-ninth novel in about fifteen years of time and space.  I know something about writing and about how to treat it like a career.  It takes a lot of hard work and a very thick skin so all those early rejections don't crush you.  But first you need an idea."

Flirt is basically a novella like Micah ... and an engrossing read.  My measure?  It kept me reading beyond 11:30 PM.  If you try to dissect novels to see what makes them work, you might use this book as a "primer".  The shortness makes it easier to see the elements that make the story ... and Hamilton's comments makes it easy to understand how she put the story together.

For us beginner types, it also emphasizes the need for revision -- however many it takes.

Useful Promotional Information:

While working to get my Half-Elven website up to snuff, I discovered a useful tool -- a site that helps you determine the rank of your website and/or blog.  No, I didn't do too well.  I hope you do better when you run the Web Grader free diagnosic.  Truth in commenting:  HubSpot uses the grader to gain business.  [This blog ranked fairly well.  The website was dismal.]

In case you're wondering.  Someday, I hope to sell enough to actually make sense to run a professional website rather than the thumb-in-the-wind I have now.

Awards and Social Networking:
One Lovely Blog Award

I've gotten awards before but never figured out a way to get the picture on the page so I more or less ignored them.  Anyway a critique partner, Jennifer Robinson, gave me an award and thought I should mention it.  Her YA blog is well worth reading.  Check it out:  Hanging on to the Wonder.  I find it a nice reminder when I'm feeling my cynical self. 

Another problem with networking is the time it takes.  At this point, I strictly limit the time I spend on Facebook, Twitter, and here.  Otherwise, I wouldn't get any writing done.

Progress:

I'm collection rejections ... and wondering why publishers often send

personal comments and requests for more.

Agents?  Form letters.

Need to organize my computer files ... and clean off my card table desk.  I thought I cleaned it off but it's piled higher and deeper.  It's completely covered at the moment ... including the old thesaurus since I recently bought a newer more recent one.  --  I'm keeping my old dictionary.  It's got a listing on when words came into usage, a handy bit for writing historical stuff.  Surprising how much 100 year old slang is still used though.

Writing?  I'm been doing some of that, but it's mostly revising.  The queries.  The first pages.  Adding a new first chapter which contains something exciting to start the draft novel off with.  Guess the new chapter could qualify as new writing.  Have decided to concentrate on revising at the beginning of the year.  What?  Emma Kloken, Reluctant Hero.

Need to think of updating this site too.  [A writer's work is never done.]

Trivia:

I've been spending lots of time traveling back and forth to a nursing home visiting a friend.  It feels good to be able to escape and go back to my house ... and computer.

Short Lessons from Short Stories

Fiction Lessons:

Two collections of short stories landed on my reading pile:  Unusual Suspects [edited by Dana Stabenow] and Songs of Love and Death [edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozoise].  I sat back in anticipation of reading some of my favorite writers [Neil Gaiman Jim Butcher, Yasmine Galenorn, Charlaine Harris,  Laurie R. King, Simon R. Green among others ... and studying what the truly expert do with their opening paragraphs.

Believe it or not, I actually did learn something from studying the openings.  I've mentioned the class I took from Trai Cartwright, sponsored by the Northern Colorado Writers.  Well, I decided Emma needed a major revision even though I had some wonderful critiques in my files [which had me condensing chapter where  not much happened].

After studying the openings, I threw a new opening paragraph on the first chapter for the class.  Got told by the teach:  I should of started with the incident I told about in the first paragraph and that the original first chapter dripped with globs of back story.  [Oh.  Oh.  Way back to the drawing board.]

Sharon Shinn also provided an illuminating moment.  She has a ghost story in Unusual Suspects, called "The House of Seven Spirits".  By the time, I got to the end I had realized not only had I noted each of the major clues ...  but ... she had still managed to pull a plot twist under my eyes.  If you're wondering how to plant red herrings without a noticible stink, you might go looking for this paperback.

Web Promotions and Other Stuff:

So you want to use Twitter to build your writer's platform?  I read enough about how I'm not doing enough with social media.  I sometimes feel like the web-o-sphere is breathing down my neck ... or it that nagging me to learn more.  My feelings?  Ugh!  Yet, I do it.   One resource I recently added to my study materials was a blog by Tamela Burke at Chiseled Rock.  If you want to get the most out of your Twitter usage, you might take a peek at Catch that Twitter Love. I doubt if I'll ever learn to love it, but I'm trying to use it.  May I like it?

I have a confession to make.  For a while there I developed the bad habit of letting emails accumulate.  I think my computer crash cured that, but I'm still working at cleaning up the back log -- the 1st Turning Point articles I subscribe to.  Tuns of good information to sort through, but I thought I'd mention the things I've failed to do.

How about the basic stuff you should have on your website.  Deborah Schneider wrote did a blog on the basic items you should have on your writer's website:  Back to The Basics.  The one thing people should easily find is publicity stuff for your publications.  Guess what.  I don't do it ... so ... more revision.  

But I have a problem.  I don't quite fit into the parameters.  My site is a "world" site not an "author site" because I thought it best since I write both adult and tween fantasy.  I was saving my "author's website" for the tween stuff.  Only time will tell if I made a serious mistake there.

Fortunately, 1st Turning Point has an answer for this double bind.  Amber Scott did an interview with author Eileen Cook, who writes adult, young adult, and middle grade, and finds she gets a lot of cross-over.  Her basic advice is to set up a marketing budget in both time and money ... and use a number of promotional tools to get the word out when you're published. 

Of course, my Half-Elven stuff isn't published yet.  Also, subsequent books would be a little racy for middle grade readers.  Even Dark Solstice, which I toned down, is beyond MG parameters -- the reason I figured I'd have to do two sites.  Some might say that YA takes on some racy subject matter ... but the next two books skim along the border of unacceptable subject matter.

Since I just printed out the article/blog, I thought I'd add a blog on Twittering I'm also studying:  Shelli Stevens blog on "Make Every Tweet Count".  Again, this comes from 1st Turning Point.  [If I'm ever successful at this writing game, 1st Turning Point is going to be blamed.]

Progress:

Had a thought when writing my Half-Elven focused blog the other day.   Why bother trying to sell what you write?  Heresy, I know.  But, I'm more comfortable growling in my corner than engaging with people.  I can tolerate the disconnect in attitude ... but sometimes, I wonder if I want to bother.  On the other hand, Cartwright said why bother learning craft skills if you don't use them ... or something to that effect.

Heh.  Heh.  Heh.  I think I'm getting a little more organized.  I'm actually making progress on a new Renna's tale, drafting more pages for Maren, and revising Emma Kloken, Reluctant Hero.  Actually, I'm drafting a whole new first chapter for Emma ... but who's going to nit-pick?

Trivia:

The weather is bright with sun and warm enough you only need a sweater.  Sure hope March sends us some snow.  It's so dry around here, the old man had to water the south side garden.

 

Gods as Characters

The Read ...

Can you tell I'm thinking a lot about characters and how to depict them?  [ Look at the title of my last blog. ]  

Read Tamora Pierce's Tricker's Queen.  Review:  It's a well-written, suspenseful book which gives the reader a few twists along the way.  More important, she got me thinking about gods (okay, and goddesses) as characters.

A given -- for both believers and non-believers -- is that gods like to meddle in human business.  The "least devout" might say that gods are human excuses for human failures.  The devout might think: if something goes wrong, someone must have something "agin' yah", like as not some persnickety god or the witch down the road.

Pierce makes her meddling gods ... delightfully human.  More.  She has taken bits of the Greek/Roman/pan-European pantheon and added Coyote to create a trickster god.  [At least, it felt that way when I read the book.]  Coyote isn't per se really a god, but he can create havoc with the best of them.  The manipulating god in the Trickster series creates lots of consternation for people ... but all's well in the end since Aly, the main character, grows up as she faces the challenges thrown her way.

What does all that mean for writers staring at a work-in-progress?  Well, you can study the various pantheons and mix-and-match traits to create your own meddling god ... or you can apply the traits to a human character.  Since actual plot lines repeat themselves, you can even retell a god's story within a human setting.

Web Promotion and Other Stuff ...

Have you noticed I'm twisting in the wind here?  Mostly, about what to do about the time social media takes.  Granted I had an enormous learning curve to climb ... but I still feel like I'm talking to myself.  Yeah, I know I have some loyal readers ... and I never expected to have a "popular" blog.  Still.  There are time constraints to blogging.  I'm still posting "Lessons" once a week, but I'm aiming for Wednesdays now.

That preface leads up to a thanks to Patti Struble who pointed me in the direction of Celery Tree, a gathering place for authors.  They have an immensely helpful article on getting the most out of the time you spend social networking.  Reading the Top Ten Rules of Social Media is well worth your time ... even if you're in a hurry.  --  Oh, Patti's worth reading too.  She's been giving useful craft info that every writer should practice.

Okay.  I'm a slow learner.  Just discovered the #marketing listing at Twitter.  You might find some useful info there.  Another free marketing resource can by found at AW Water Cooler.  They have a forum where writer's discuss marketing e-publications.  ...  If I ever get my act together, I plan to actually study some of the info I've just scanned.

Progress ...

The snail needs to get some giddity-up-and-go.  2-300 words a day isn't going to cut it no matter what else I'm cleaning up. Next big project?  

I need to double proof-read my website.  Why?  I going to take my pride in hand and submit it to 1st Turning Point for a critique.  Plan?  To correct what "mistakes" I can before "Taking Vengeance" is published. 

Trivia ...

The cat has been ignoring my lap in favor of watching the birds.  I've been enjoying how the chickadees sneak into the feeder and rush out before the finches realize they are there too.