Leave The Reader Some Hope

VS

 I finished reading Matched last night. It's not a thin book and I read it in one day so that should tell you something. Matched has been compared to the Hunger Games, but I think it's more like the book 1984, but not so horrible. In fact life in Matched seems almost ideal and perfect until the facade is torn away bit by bit.


Matched is actually quite tame compared to the Hunger Games and 1984, but Condie does an incredible job of building the tension as more and more of what's lying beneath the idyllic surface is revealed. Unlike 1984 though, that leaves us completely without hope of beating the system, Matched leaves us some hope.


I'm the type of person who loves happy endings, but if I don't get a happy ending I need to feel that there is some hope that happiness is on the horizon. When I finished reading 1984 I was so bereft of hope I felt icky and hollow for days. I suppose the book is worth reading once, but I had to get the book out of my house and I never want to read it again. Have you ever felt that way about a book?


Matched is a trilogy so it's far from finished, but Condie has left me with hope and I can't wait to read the rest. Thank you Jennifer from the YA Audiobook Addict blog for matching this book to me in her book giveaway.


On a side note:  one of my beta readers gave me some really positive feedback after reading some of my WIP and since I hadn't read my story in awhile I went back and read the beginning. It's been months since I've even looked at my story, so it felt fresh and new and even though I had received Matched in the mail and had even read a few pages of it - my WIP kept calling me to finish reading. It's not perfect - it needs lots of work, but now I have hope and faith that finishing my WIP is not a complete waste of time. I guess I just needed some validation because I'm itching to get writing it again. Thank you L.T.


Also I've turned comments back on. It was an interesting experiment and I felt more free in what I wrote about, but I've missed hearing from all of you.

Grit, Wit and It - Writing Compelling Characters

Yay it's time for The Great Blogging Experiment brought to you by - Elana Johnson, Jen Daiker and Alex Cavanaugh. I'm really excited for this because it's going to be not only informative, but an interesting experiment in voice. Today over 150 bloggers will be posting about the same thing - Writing Compelling Characters. To read what others have to say on the subject please go here.

Writing Compelling Characters:

According to mystery writer, James Scott Bell, compelling characters need to have at least one of these three attributes:

Grit

 A character with grit gives us something to care about and root for. A wimpy character is a boring character.

Wit

  A character that points out the humor in the people and world around them while also poking fun at themselves, is very appealing and can keep us reading even through slower parts.

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It

 Characters with it - are those characters that we admire because of their magnetism(charisma), sex appeal, or power

Here's a few tips on how to write characters that compel:

1. Interview your character. Allowing our characters to spill their guts is a great way to know them better and helps us to know their - hopes, dreams, secrets, background, embarrassing moments, etc. The better we know the character the better we are able to write them. 

2. Let the character define themselves by their actions. Create situations or scenes that will show a characters strengths and weaknesses. When we allow characters to act instead of just react - they become more vibrant and memorable.

3. Give us something to care about. Show us the characters needs, desires or what they long for. They need to have a goal - a problem or challenge to overcome that will test them.

4. Give your characters duality. Characters need to be multifaceted. Show us their good qualities and their flaws. Give them interesting quirks.

"You can never know enough about your characters." 
 ~ W. Somerset Maugham

An Unpopular Opinion BUT I'm SPEAKing It Anyway

All around the blogosphere people are speaking out about the man who wants to remove the book Speak from a school library. I've never even heard of this book before now so I don't really care what's in it, but I'm going to say something that is going to get people upset. I think if a community decides that they don't want a book in a school library they have the right to choose that. 

Now, before you all start seeing red please keep in mind that I said Community and School library not Public library. I firmly believe in the first amendment and I do not condone the banning of books from the public library. But, I do believe that a community has the right to decide what they want to have in their school libraries. A school library is small - it can't hold every book in the world and so the school and community must pick and choose what they will have in their school libraries. 


I do not believe that one person has the right to choose for everyone, but I do think that if a community decides to have certain books over other books that is their right. They do not, however, have the right to ban the book from the public library, and kids who want to read a particular book will still have access to it. There is a difference between banning a book and not condoning a book.

This is an unpopular opinion so I will allow comments today. I welcome discussion and free flow of ideas, but I do expect everyone to express their opinions in a respectful manner.

Creating Quirky Characters

Quirky characters in a book or movie are usually the ones we end up remembering and quoting. When we say quirky we mean the eccentric or unique characters that stand out. To write a character like this it's important to understand what makes them interesting and what it is you want them to achieve.

1. Humor - Quirky characters are often everyday people with a few outlandish character traits that make us laugh. These are usually side characters.

Cameron Frye from Ferris Bueller's Day Off is a great example of a quirky character used for comedic effect. Cameron is a best friend, but he's far from average. Instead of just making him the poor rich kid cliche - Cameron is a hypochondriac. He deals with his unhappiness by hoping that he's going to die soon. This characteristic could be sad, but taken to the extreme it's hilarious. Cameron is very quoteable - more so even than the main character Ferris.


Tip & Warning: Overemphasing a character trait or flaw that you might have or one that someone else you know has is a great way to bring humor to a story. You're familiar with these traits so they are easier to write, but you have to be careful to not let a side character overshadow the main character or plot.


2. Relatable and Interesting: A main character with some quirky character traits is a great way to make them more interesting and unique. Their quirky traits could even be the main plot or could create some great plots for your story. We're also able to relate to them more. People in general are quirky - we love to read or watch characters that surprise us and show depth by being different than we expected.

Remy from the Disney movie Ratatouille is a great example of a main character being and doing things we don't expect. Remy is a rat who wants to cook. He feels there is more to life than rummaging through and eating garbage. His love of good food and cooking is what drives the plot. He's interesting because he has a trait we don't expect and this trait makes him more relatable. Even if cooking isn't our thing, we can all understand his feelings of not quite fitting in with his family and following our dreams even when others don't understand.

Warning: It's best to only emphasize one or two traits at most in a quirky character. The more bizarre habits or elements they have, the less people will be able to connect with them.

3. Humanize the Antagonist - Antagonists who are just evil can be boring and cliche. But if you have an evil character who loves birds and often helps wounded birds, they suddenly become more human and more interesting. 

Darth Vader is the ultimate bad guy. Dark and menacing and so evil he kills his own men and entire planets without batting an eye. But then we find out he was once a hero and someone loved him. He had children with that someone. He's Luke's father. Whoa. Even if the original episodes of Star Wars were all we ever saw, Darth Vader is not your average bad guy. We start to wonder what made him become evil and is there a chance we could do the same?

Julia Roberts' character in My Best Friend's Wedding is an excellent example of a quirky antagonist. In spite of all her evil plotting to destroy her best friend's wedding we love her, we even root for her. She is not your average boring antagonist - she's a beautiful, intelligent food critic and she's the main character. We relate to this character - we can see ourselves being this character.

For some more awesome info on writing quirky characters you can go here and listen to a recent podcast on character quirks from the Writing Excuses crew - Bree Despain author of The Dark Divine is a guest host this week.

I'm turning on comments for this post - so if you have something you'd like to add on character quirks or anything else that comes to mind, please do so.

My 5 Word Challenge Results - Day 3 of Living

It's so strange not to get comments. I have no idea if anyone is reading or not. It's sort of freeing in a way. Like I can write anything, and it doesn't matter if someone likes it or not. 


I haven't had any takers on the 5 Word Challenge Yet. Just to remind you, I had writer's block yesterday so I gave myself 5 words that I needed to work into a story. The words are:

Shark, Face, Rose, Tuna, Car

I know you can do better than me. Mine is really lame, but it doesn't matter. The point is I was writing. So if you'd like to show us what you can do with these 5 words e-mail me here and I'll post it on my blog - I'll even turn comments back on in your honor. No more than 500 words please. Come on people. Let me know there's still someone reading, not just void.

Now for my results:

The carnival like atmosphere of the grocery store didn't phase me until they handed me the long-stemmed rose, blood red and barely blooming. My poor cat had been eating nothing but tuna for the last couple of days and I'd only come for some cat food. I was in a rush and had no time to play their free-bag-of-groceries-giveaway drawings or the steak walk down by the butcher block. Had the world gone crazy? This was a grocery store for freaks sake, not a circus.

As I studied the delicate petals my eyes grew misty. I looked up at the cashier and her plain face looked different somehow. She smiled as she handed my little boy R.J. a free bottle of bubbles and a balloon. I'd always thought of her as shrewish, but with the rose between my fingertips I realized she was nice.

Over the intercom came a deep, pleasant voice announcing that the shark walk was about to begin. 

"If your number gets chosen, you'll get to take home 1lb of genuine shark meat!" said the voice.

I'd never tasted shark and I was tempted to rush back there, but R.J. had let go of his balloon. With his little face crumpled in sadness, he pointed to the balloon bouncing against the ceiling and said, "Mom...alloon." 

The balloons were free so I grabbed another and placed it in his eager hands. The green balloon worked the same magic on R.J. as the rose had done to me. His face lit up and though he's normally shy, he flashed his sweet smile at everyone around him.

When we reached the car I laid my rose on the front seat and loaded up the cat food and R.J. He must have been afraid he might lose it again, because his chubby fingers gripped the balloon string so tight his hands had turned white.

I left my rose on the seat next to me as I drove home. I wanted to admire the pretty object that had transformed an ordinary day.

“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that’s all.” ~ Oscar Wilde

September 11, 2001

Never Forget

5 Word Challenge - Day 2 of My Plan to Live

Guess what I did last night. If you guessed that I slept - you're right! I fell asleep at 10:30pm after a busy evening of grocery shopping, parent teachers conference, scouts, dinner and homework. I tried to read, but fell asleep. The hubs was needed as a substitute for his parent's bridge club game. Yes he can play bridge and so can I. I learned to play for him, and we play it with his parents a lot of Sunday evenings. Surprisingly there's a lot of strategy involved and I also like how 1950ish it feels. But I digress. The point is I got some sleep.


This morning I woke up at 5:30am. Early I know. I was a little groggy but determined to write. I grabbed pen and paper, itching to find out what would come. After minutes of staring at a blank page I realized nothing was going to come. I didn't feel like working on my WIP so I decided to just use a writing prompt. It helped. I gave myself 5 words that I needed to weave into a story and I did it. Tomorrow I'll share what I wrote. If you're in need of some writing inspiration or you just want to take a break from your WIP - here are the words I used:

Shark, Rose, Tuna, Car, Face

If you'd like to e-mail me what you came up with - I'd be happy to share my favorites on my blog. No more than 500 words please. Please e-mail results here and I'll choose my favorites and post them on Monday.


P.S. - Turning off comments is harder than I thought it would be. I miss all of you. I'm suffering from withdrawals.

Early to Bed, Early To Rise...Part One Of My Plan To Live

"Early to bed, early to rise, makes you healthy, wealthy and wise." - Benjamin Franklin

In a previous post I shared some thoughts about my substitutes for living. Well, part I of my plan to feel alive is to get more sleep. For the past couple of years I've been going to bed around midnight or later and still waking up around 6 or 6:30am. I'm in a fog most of the day and it needs to stop.

This isn't going to be easy to do. My husband is a night owl and he wants me to stay up and watch movies with him. It's also nice to have time together without the kids. It was so much easier when my kids went to bed at 8pm, but now my oldest won't go to sleep until 10pm. I've been trying to get to bed early the last couple of nights, but my body isn't used to it and my brain won't shut down. But I'm determined to work on it. I'm tired all the time. My body deserves better and my family deserves better.

I've found that my best time for writing is in the morning, the only trouble is: lately I've been waking up still foggy and tired and I can't focus. So not much writing has been happening for months. Another issue is:  I get the munchies at night. 

If I was sleeping I wouldn't be eating.

I'm going to work on my sleeping habits for the next couple of weeks and then I'll reveal the next part of my plan. Also, because I want to focus my time on my writing and my family - I'm turning comments off. I love getting comments and I focus way too much on them. I don't have time to comment on blogs like I used to and I feel guilty when I don't respond to the comments that I get, so I'm turning them off. You're all welcome to e-mail me if you'd like. 

"And if tonight my soul may find her peace

in sleep, and sink in good oblivion,

and in the morning wake like a new-opened flower

then I have been' dipped again in God, and new-created."

~D.H. Lawrence

Mixed Reviews But I Loved It

 ***NO SPOILERS HERE***

Favorite Quote:

"What I need is the dandelion in spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses." - Katniss Everdeen

I had to wait a week for Mockingjay after it was released and so many people were discussing and posting reviews and thoughts. I couldn't help myself. I read some of them - and then I was worried. What if I didn't like it? Don't you hate when you invest so much in a series and then you're disappointed? I finished reading it yesterday and I loved it.


I hate when people reveal too much so all I want to say is this:
Collins did an incredible job of capturing the horror and inspiring moments that can come in war. The cost of freedom is always great, and those who are willing to give their lives and do whatever it takes for the quest for freedom should be honored, but so often they aren't. 

Katniss never wanted to be a hero or a symbol, she just wanted to feed and protect her family. But when the hero call came Katniss answered it. I love Katniss. She is so far from perfect, but like Peeta and Gale and everyone who meets her, we love her anyway. Many people didn't like the end of the book, but I think it's romantic, poignant...perfect.  

What are your thoughts?

Substitutes for Living

My formula for living is quite simple.  I get up in the morning and I go to bed at night.  In between, I occupy myself as best I can.  ~ Cary Grant

I'm still waiting for Mockingjay. I know. I pre-ordered from Amazon thinking I was going to get it sooner, but no. Last week I wanted to read it so badly I went to Costco and guess what - there weren't any. I kept circling the book section hoping I had missed it or maybe I thought somehow it would magically appear and I'd have it in my hands. It didn't happen. After I stopped circling the book section I found myself in the snacks section. You know the one that has all the chips and cookies and candy. I stopped circling when I realized what I was doing. I couldn't believe that I was actually searching for something to eat because I couldn't have what I wanted. 


A good friend has been bravely posting about how she uses food as a way to avoid feeling, living. And it got me thinking about all the things I do to avoid living. Reading, blogging, facebooking, eating, writing, T.V. watching. Just like Cary Grant, I get up, occupy myself the best I can and then I go to bed. It's pathetic really. 


The most miserable time of my life was junior high. I was overweight, my family was in turmoil and I wanted to hide. I stayed in my room most of the time - reading, watching t.v., eating. All I wanted to do was disappear. I didn't like the way I looked or felt so I hid. The summer before I started high school I saw an ad for a weight loss program and I showed it to my mom. We joined it together. I lost 40lbs and at the same time I gained a whole new outlook on life. Instead of hiding, I wanted to live. 


Now, many years later, I'm hiding again. I'm avoiding life. I don't want to do that anymore. Have you ever noticed how happy little kids are when they see bubbles? Their faces light up with excitement and they are giddy with joy. I want to feel that way. I'm mulling over a plan right now that I hope will help me to feel this way. Stay tuned - when I have it all figured out I'll share it with you.

What about all of you? Do you have substitutes for living?