This blog is chugging along at a nice pace, which means there are a lot of posts, and I’m going to be touching on a lot of the same ideas. Because of this, I’ve decided to include links whenever I refer to something I’ve said in the past. Obviously you don’t have to click them, but if you do want to check back and reread what I said so you know what I’m referring to, you’ll now be able to.
That being said, I’d like to refer back to my post about writing what you know. I stand by what I said in that post, but I thought I’d expand a bit. This time I want to talk about when it’s appropriate to write what you know.
Most often, when I find myself writing what I know, it is when I’m trying to make my characters seem human. The one thing that you (hopefully) know better than your characters is how to be real, and sometimes you can use that to make them seem real, too. What I usually do is take my own personal experiences with quirks, flaws, and traits, and I sprinkle those things throughout my stories.
For example, the first character I ever created, Shauna McKay, mentions once in her narration that she hates it when people tug on her hair. This comes directly from me. When I wear my hair in a ponytail, my dad often tugs on said ponytail, and I hate it. It’s just a thing about me that I can’t change, and other people probably wouldn’t mind it. So I used my own personal pet peeve to give my character depth, because nothing will make a fictional character seem more human than having very real, human quirks.
And, yes, I do this a lot. They’re not always my peeves or quirks, though. Sometimes I use my friends’ or my siblings’. Whatever comes to mind really. Whatever fits. Which is not to say that you can’t make up a quirk for your character.
It just so happens that the things that are inspired by real life have this great guarantee that they are absolutely true to real life. Even if people think you made them up, you’ll know that those things could absolutely happen because they actually have.
Now here’s a question: How many monkeys can be found in the average zoo? Here’s another question: What’s so important about giving your characters these little quirks? Well, I kind of already said it. The answer I’m going to give is that it makes your characters seem real. It gives them depth. It’s an added dimension to your story that people might not consciously look for, but when they see it, they might smile a little and think, I know someone who does that. Or even, That’s so funny. I do that all the time. You yourself might have thought that at one point or another while reading a story. And if that happens when someone is reading your work, then you get this wonderful thing where your reader begins to relate to your character, and the more they do that, the more invested they become in the story. If your goal is to have your reader sympathize with your character(s) and become invested in your story, then giving your characters these extra traits can help accomplish that. This all has to do with character development, something else I’ve talked about before. I believe I called it a swirling vortex of doom. These idiosyncrasies are part of that.
In conclusion, it’s okay to write what you know sometimes. I do it often when I need to draw on my humanity to make my characters seem human. I also make up things when I need to, things that are more believable than Duck Girl up there. For example, Shauna also has a thing she does that I don’t do – she carries a sketch pad with her wherever she goes and draws people. I made that up completely. I don’t know anyone who does that, and, while I like drawing, I don’t do that either. But Shauna does, and that makes her unique. That’s all I wanted to say about that. At least for now.
Word of the Day: Idiosyncrasy (n) – a characteristic, habit, mannerism, or the like that is peculiar to an individual
I don’t know why I chose to make up a word for this post’s title. I guess it’s just because I’m so excited that I thought of a temporary solution to my horrible problem. In case you can’t figure out what my problem is, I’ll tell you. My problem is that I can’t draw pretty pictures to put on my blog with my tablet right now because my computer exploded. And I thought it would be such a long time before I’d be able to get Photoshop Elements up and running again and all of my posts were going to have to be boring blocks of text and everyone would hate me and then the world would explode! But luckily for you all, I’ve figured out a way to save the world! Because I remembered this ancient technology that was widely used before computers. It’s called Paper! And I found some paper and a marker pen! And a camera! And then I drew a picture on the paper and I took a picture of it with my camera and now I can put it on my blog for you to see!
Yes it’s lined paper because I was too lazy to go downstairs and find my sketchbook, and this tiny notebook was all I found. Also I only have a black sharpie and a blue pen, so there’s not really much I can draw in the way of color…
But it’s still a pretty good solution for the time being, yeah? I’m pretty proud of myself. Now you won’t have to stare at walls of text all the time.
Since I’m writing a new post, I figure I might as well say something about writing, since that’s what this blog is all about. For the record, I do remember that I was listing my favorite authors, and I’m not going to stop doing that. I still want to write about Melissa Marr, and maybe a few others, but I don’t feel like doing that right now.
See, today while I was on the bus, I got to thinking…
And that’s not such a bad idea, because I think it’s important to spell out my reasons for doing what I do. It might help…save the world or something. I’m not sure. But it feels like a good idea so I’m going to do it!
ONE: It’s fun. This seems pretty self-explanatory, but hey, I’ll elaborate a bit anyway. You know all those things I talk about in this blog? The creating of worlds and getting to know characters and stuff? All that is fun for me. Don’t get me wrong. It can be tiring and frustrating and all that, but it can also be invigorating and entertaining. And it also feels like it’s a part of me now, which is kinda cool.
TWO: It’s an escape. I sometimes say that I don’t write non-fiction because if I wanted to experience real life, I’d just live it. I write fiction and fantasy because that means that, in some small way, I get to live in made up worlds with new and different rules. It also helps on those few occasions when I’m not so happy with my (real) world. If that happens, I can just go somewhere else for a while, so to speak. Also…
THREE: I can do things in my books that I could never do in real life. My characters can do all kinds of amazing things that I could never do. For example, among all of my characters, the following skills have been accumulated: Magic, shape shifting, fighting, ballet, gymnastics, healthy eating habits, courage, confidence, liking cats, um…being male? On top of that, they have experience in their lives that I don’t have yet, and possibly never could have. Like that being male thing. Or having a boyfriend/husband. Not that I couldn’t have a boyfriend! I just haven’t yet. But that same constraint doesn’t exist for some of my characters. Get it? So even though I can’t do/haven’t done a lot of those things, in a way, I still have. Thanks to (to name a few) Riley, Shauna, Eric, Aaron, Cady, Serrafiel, Molly, Cage, Aiden, Elysia, Aradia, and Kemnebi.
FOUR: I want to share my stories. Please note that “share” is different than “sell”. Yes, it would be awesome if I could sell my stories because money is important. But that’s not why I write. I mean, come on. No one ever says, “I really want to make money. I think I’ll invest any energy at all in becoming an author. That’ll be worthwhile.” So no, money is not the ultimate goal. But I strive to get published and I write this blog because I like to share my stories. It’s hard to explain, but there’s a lot of satisfaction in it. I feel like…if I can just entertain one person, or make someone feel something…then maybe my efforts have been validated. And it doesn’t count if it’s someone who knows me, because truthfully I can’t stand sharing my stories with friends and family. It’s basically like bearing your soul to someone close to you and then just…living with that. Like I’m putting myself up on display. And I really don’t feel comfortable with that. Some form of anonymity feels better. Which is why getting published is preferable to emailing my relatives every time I finish a new book.
I think that’s it. Those are the main reasons anyway. So that’s it for now! I hope you like my pictures! I guess you still saw a wall of text in this one but…here, I’ll make it up to you!
Word of the Day: Invigorate (v) – to fill with life and energy; energize
So a friend of mine, Alan [EDIT 3/13/21: LOL I am married to Alan now. We just celebrated our sixth anniversary, and we have two kids. Funny to see this post now.], shared a link with me on the Facebooks. It is funny and involves writing, so I am posting it here for your amusement:
For those who don’t have three minutes to spare for this video, here’s the gist: Success is hard to come by, but if you work at it, you’ll eventually get there. This guy, John Green, is speaking from experience. He wanted to write, he took some menial jobs after graduating, and eventually he found a mentor who helped him write and publish his book. This is very great for him. BUT, because there’s always a but, I can’t totally appreciate the happy message in this video because I have trouble with other people’s success stories. Honestly, I do. Because A) I am a person who is very prone to jealousy, so I am literally jealous of every successful author on the planet, and B) my brain is prone to anxiety, depression, and exaggeration, the last being evidenced by point A. So when I see someone else’s success story, I tend to view it as them taking up my chance at being successful. Like, I see success as a finite resource, and I work myself into a nervous frenzy thinking that if I don’t jump on that train soon, all the success is going to get used up and then I won’t have any chance at it ever. Here is an illustration of this crazy view, in chart form:
Yes, I know that this is a crazy way to look at things, but hear me out. In other careers, there is at least some guarantee that new positions will open up for newcomers because the old hats will retire/die. But with authors it’s different, because authors can die and their books will still be published and put on the shelves and held as a standard that new authors must live up to. It’s maddening!
And now I have officially been a Debby Downer for too long, so let’s move on to some lighter material.
There is this thing called the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award that runs every year. The submission period just opened, and yesterday I submitted one of my books. I did this last year, too, with a different book. And I didn’t even make it past round one. But I didn’t give up, see? I’m trying again with a different book, because I do believe that true failure only occurs when you give up, or worse, never try at all. So I’m going to keep trying, and if I don’t make it this year, I’ll try again next year. (I’ve got a lot of books to work with) And if I make it to Round 2 this year, but not Round 3, then I’ll still consider that a win on my part, because that’s better than I did last year. Also, I have to remind myself that this contest is very subjective. Just because I don’t make it doesn’t mean my idea or my writing isn’t good. It just means that the judges weren’t looking for that particular idea or style of writing. So no, don’t give up. Ever!
I don’t want this post to go on too long, but I realize some of you might be curious as to what books I submitted to this contest, so their summaries will be below the Word of the Day for those who are interested. Not their official summaries that have to be all concise and carefully worded. It’ll just be whatever I come up with at this particular moment.
Word of the Day: Perseverance (n) – Steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, etc., especially in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement.
Summary of Ink Stains, my 2011 submission:
Riley doesn’t know her last name or her parents’ names or anything like that. She has some pretty bad amnesia. But she does know how to kill a man with her bare hands. She works for this super secret organization of vigilante-types, and she has a tattoo for every life she’s saved. The best part is that she’s the only woman in this group of vigilante do-gooders, so the other guys give her a rough time, but some of them only do it jokingly (her friends Aaron, Joker, and Kris) and some of them, and by “some” I mean “one,” are really jerks (Paul). So Riley does stuff along the lines of catching criminals, bounty hunting, body guarding, etc., but then someone starts leaving her little notes. And these notes are totally creepy, like the person leaving them knows more about her past than she does. And Riley is used to being on top of things and one step ahead, so when she’s put in this position where she’s suddenly the prey instead of the predator, it wigs her out. And there’s also the fact that she has to figure out who’s leaving all the creepy letters before they do something seriously harmful to her or the people she cares about.
Summary of Hellbound, my 2012 submission:
Way back when, I did a post on books about dreams. This is one of them.
Aiden is the son of Tor, who is better known as the Devil, and a human woman. He lives in Tor (both the name of his father and the name of this Hellish dimension) which is also better known as Hell, and he hates it there. Every now and then, a person conducts a ritual that allows a soul to escape from Hell/Tor and bind themselves to that person on earth. It’s Aiden’s job to go to Earth and find the person who is possessed and bring the soul back to Hell. But Aiden loves it on Earth and hates it in Hell, so he tries to prolong his stay on Earth by not doing his job. If he doesn’t find the escaped soul, he doesn’t have to go back to Hell. With me so far? So yeah, the book starts with Aiden getting sent to a high school to find an escaped soul. And at first he thinks it’ll be really cool because he’ll get to be around other kids “his age.” It’s in quotes because he’s 366 years old, but since he’s immortal he still looks and acts like a teenager. Right, so Aiden goes to school and tries really hard not to do his job, but then he meets this girl (as often happens in these types of stories) and starts to fall for her. The problem is that this girl, Elysia, is clearly tied up in the evil soul’s plot, so he’s faced with this dilemma because saving her means he’ll get forced back into Hell, and then he’ll never see her again. But if he doesn’t save her, obviously she’s gonna be in constant danger. There’s also more to Elysia than meets the eye, though she is completely unaware of that, and I won’t reveal what that means because it’s supposed to be kind of a mystery.
And that’s it! If you want to know more about either of these books, or read some of them, let me know and I just might indulge you. Oh, and if you want to know the dream that led to Hellbound:
In the dream, there was this guy and a girl who fell in love in that vague sort of dream-logic way, and there was this scene I remember clearly where they were kind of lounging in a grassy park somewhere, on a hill, under a tree. And then this man – early fifties, bald except for some hair around the crown of his head – in a white suit approaches and asks the guy, “Aren’t you going to tell her what you really are?” Then the boyfriend guy gets all angry and the two of them kind of…run at each other, and they both burst out of their skins into these huge, dog-like creatures with immense bat wings. The guy in the white suit is white, and the boyfriend character is red. And they had this epic battle, like they both used their wings to keep themselves steady while standing on their hind legs, and then they shot into the air and had a huge battle in the air, and then somehow the white dog thing went away and the girl asked the guy, who had turned back into a human, what he was. His response: “I’m a Reditor. The Hero of Hell.” And I woke up and was like, “What the what? How do you get to be the Hero of Hell? Does that mean you’re evil because Hell’s Hero would be a bad guy?” So I wrote a book about it. Don’t know where the dream came from. I swear I’m not on drugs. Ok, now I’m done. Phew.
Potato Lady Blogs 