Shackled to the Shelves

Lately I've been reading a book entitled 'How To Write Science Fiction & Fantasy' by Orson Scott Card.  If you haven't guess, it's a craft book that helps you to write science fiction and fantasy.  While I do normally write within the fantasy genre (technically Urban Fantasy) sci-fi is a realm well outside of what I would normally even so much as read.

So I bought the book, and started reading it yesterday.  So far it's been really interesting.  We haven't gotten much into the hows of writing.  He started the book by trying to define the borders of science fiction.

It's really not as easy as it sounds, as science fiction is an extremely fluid genre.  It covers so much that's it's practically impossible to define the edges of it.  Regardless of that, he did a good job.  I believe I have a much better idea of what sci-fi is, and where my stories could fit into it.

During this process, however, he talked about being published sci-fi and getting stuck within the confines of that genre.

Now, with a genre such as sci-fi, this could be not so bad, simply because of how fluid it is.  A lot can fit under the header of 'sci-fi and fantasy'.  However, it got me thinking about my own writing, and how diverse it can be.

I will write anything from High Fantasy, to Sci-Fi to YA, to literary fiction (though those are few and far between for me.  I tend to prefer a little mystic in my novels).  The last thing I want is to be confined to a single genre for my entire career (assuming, of course, that my career ever does take off and I don't spend my life going from one day job to another...but that's another story altogether.)

My first novel that I'm hoping to publish is an Urban Fantasy.  Set around a werewolf (who happens to be an assassin) and what she goes through in order to satisfy her morals.  (Yep...you read that right...morals.  Go figure, right?)

My second novel is a YA centered around a young girl who discovers that she has the ability to manipulate (and communicate with) water.  It's about as different from Pandora as you can get.

Then there's the Sci-Fi I'm in the middle of planning.

With those three novels alone, I already know that I'm not going to be able to always publish under the same genre.

This gave me a moment of worry.  I mean, am I going to be pushing away publishers and agents because I don't write only in one genre?  Is that going to effect my fan base, or publishability?  Was I making it harder on myself than I need to, just because of what I'm writing?  Should I define myself as one type of writer?

It took me a second, but I managed to calm down. (I'd like to point out, this isn't the book's fault, but rather my own overactive imagination that cast shadows across books that aren't even written yet)

Yes, there will be agents or publishers out there that might be put off by a multi-genre author.  But, obviously, those are not the agents or publishers that I want to be dealing with.  I refuse to be caged into one genre.  In fact, I demand to be allowed to move as I will, and write what I chose!

A friend of mine Eric A. Satchwill said it the best:  'Let us fly and frolic freely among the wild worlds of words!  Shake off the shackles of the shelves!'

We're writers.  We live in the worlds created by our imaginations!  Why should we be limited to one world because someone says that's who we are?  We are free to be whomever we want, no matter how many books have made it to the shelves.

I am undefinable.  I am not a Sci-Fi writer.  I am not a YA writer.  I'm not even an Urban Fantasy writer.  I'm a writer, plain and simple, and I will not limit the worlds that I live in each and every day of my life!

Do you think that writers should be confined to one genre simply because they've been published there before?

I Am A God!!

Those are the words that I first shouted to my sister and roommate over a year ago.  They, of course, didn't believe me.  They don't understand the world of writing, so I forgave them.  Then I showed them proof:

This is a map.  Clearly.  But it's not just any map.  This one hangs on my wall right behind my desk, and it has brought me much joy since it was given to me for Christmas last year.

You may notice that this particular map isn't anywhere on the known earth.  That's because this map was drawn out based on a world that I created!  That's right, I made that world.  And isn't that pretty much the sole prerequisite to being a God?  Creating an entire world out of nothing??

Sadly this world has been shelved along with the characters that I so lovingly created (and managed to gain fans for).  But the excitement I felt when I first saw the finished project is something I feel every single day when I'm planning, writing, and even editing.

As a writer, every day I get to create worlds.  I get to dream up new games, and creatures.  I get to commit words to paper that one day may even get read by others.

In fact, when I'm writing, all I ever think about is how the people reading my words will get involved in the worlds I've created.  Will they care about the main characters and the plights they have to survive?  Will they want to visit that part of the world because they would really love to see that creature I created?  Will they get so mad at someone that they'll be tempted to stop reading because if they don't they might just throw the book against the wall?

Will they fall in love with a character and cry when they die?  Will they clap and laugh in glee when those two characters that have been fighting the attraction they obviously feel for each other finally get together?  Will their eyes mist when a new life is brought in to that world?

I want my world's to be as real to my readers as they are to me.  I want my readers to feel like they're there.  Like they knew the cities and the countries that I create.  Like they're best friends with my characters.

If I can achieve that, no matter how well I do as an author (according to the publishing houses and whatever agent I may eventually get) then I know I have achieved everything a writer could ever really want.

So, I will continue to be a God.  To play around with the world's I create, throw my character's twists that they never saw coming, and kill off characters that I would rather see live, because it's what I do.  I am a writer.


**Map created by the ever amazing Eric A. Satchwill.  Visit his site to find out how to order your own map of your world, and become a God by your own right!**

Who I Don't Want To Be

I spend a lot of time on this blog talking about what I want to be.  The things I want to see happen in my career.  About where I want to go with it, and how I want my readers to feel while they're reading my books.  I have a lot of goals for my writing, and I think I've shared each and everyone of them on my blog.

Lately, though, I've been reading a lot of books, and I've been watching some shows, and I've started to come across things that I don't ever want to do with my writing.  Things that I see in other people's writing that makes me hit my head on the wall or wonder how they've managed to get published (or had their work turned into a tv show) when there are so many talented writers out there that struggle to even be recognized as writers.

So today I decided that instead of focusing on what I want, I'm going to tell you what I don't want:

I don't want the stupid ball to be a main character in any of my books or scripts.  For those of you who may not know, the stupid ball is the thing that some characters in books or shows carry (or throw up in the air repeatedly to have it land directly on their heads) that seems to be the only explanation to why they're suddenly stupid.  I've seen characters tossing this ball around like you wouldn't believe.  Intelligent, believable characters suddenly become the stupidest beings because it's too early in the book or show for them to figure out what's right in front of their faces.

I don't want to have to use Plot Devices in order to make my stories work.  A plot device is something that randomly pops up that most people think is coincidence.  It isn't.  It happened because the writer just realized that they had no way to make that work, and they just threw it in there because they wanted to.  It's generally unbelievable, and often is often accompanied by the stupid ball.  If you've ever read a book, or watched a show and thought 'well, that was awfully convenient', congratulations.  You've just discovered a plot device.

Characters who have one role in the entire novel and that's it.  Everyone knows these characters.  They're the ones that show up in a novel, and you think they're important, but it turns out that they're only there to serve one specific purpose (I remember reading one novel where a female character was there who could climb, and that was literally all they did.)  These characters never grow, they never become important, and I, for one, always find myself feeling just a little disappointed.

I don't want my ending guessed within the first chapter of the book. Okay, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration.  I've never guessed the ending that quickly, but I have done so by the middle of the book.  Then the rest of it isn't a surprise.  On more than one occasion I've read the ends of books actually hoping I was wrong, only to find out I wasn't.  This goes for tv shows, too.  If I can guess who the killer is the minute they step onto the screen, you need to have a few more twists to throw me off the scent.

My biggest pet peeve, and the thing that I don't want the most desperately is plot holes. Sometimes these are really hard to avoid.  Best practice is and will always be to have other people read your work to ensure there are as few of these as possible.  I can't imagine a single person out there who has read a book rife with plot hole and hasn't wanted to throw it across the room (in a bad way)  Plot holes are nasty little buggers that pop up and have your readers thinking 'yeah, but why didn't they just do this'.  They're hard to see because most writers spend their time thinking of complex solutions and miss the simple ones right in front of their faces.

That's my list, so far.  All the things I don't want to see in my work.  I don't know that I'll be able to do it.  In fact, I think my characters may just be prone to holding onto that stupid ball just a little bit too long, but I'm working on it.

What do you never want to see in your work?

And They're Off!

On Tuesday I finished my editing.

That sounds like such an awesome statement, doesn't it?  Just uttering those words gives me a satisfaction that there are literally no words to describe.  Let me say it again.  I finished my editing.

Now that I've heaved that huge sigh of relief, it's time to face reality.

As of Tuesday I was officially done my third draft.  That doesn't mean that the book is perfect, of course.  Far from it.  In fact, I noticed a few things after finishing that will need to be fixed.  It bugged me for about a minute and a half before I remembered that this is far from the last draft of this novel that I will be writing.  I know that, once I get feedback from the beta readers, I'm planning on doing at least one more draft before even considering sending it out to agents.  And that might even end up turning into two, depending on the feedback I get.

Normally this thought might depress me.  I mean, I just finished editing, and already I'm thinking about what else I'm going to have to fix.  This time, though, that depression isn't showing up.  And I think I know why.

I've always struggled getting through this draft.  (In fact, I've never managed to get through a book in the editing stages the first time.  I always find way too much wrong with it, so I end up shelving it and never coming back.) While some writers struggle getting that first draft out, I don't seem to have that problem.  It's reading it over and seeing all the mistakes I've made that I start to feel like I'm in over my head.

Finally I've manged to get all the way through my editing.  I've even sent it to Beta Readers!  Even though I know it's not perfect, and certainly not ready to be sent out to agents, I know that I put a lot of effort into making that novel as good as it could be before I needed another set of eyes to pick out the weaknesses.  (Yes, I do still have some minor line edits that also need to be worked on, but I'll fix those as much as I can as I go through it next time.  Despite the nickname, I'm only human.  Therefore I do make mistakes.)

I'm excited, though.  Beta readers means that I'm one step closer to the goal of being published.  It means that I felt confident enough in my work to give it to friends and cross my fingers that I won't get it back with four notes telling me that maybe this isn't the book that will get published.

Now, more than ever, I'm confident that I'm going to become a published author.  This dream will come true.  I just have to persevere!  And put in the work.  One day I will see The Commons on the shelves at Chapters, and I can't wait.

Falling Into Your World

In an average month I can read between five and fifteen books in a month (depending on how much time I have, what's going on in my life, and how many books are in my 'to read' pile.) I get into these novels like most people wouldn't believe. I often can't hear what's going on around me because I'm so focused in. I cry when characters die, and throw the book across the room when the author pisses me off. (I refrain from doing this when I'm reading on my kindle...I hear it isn't so good for it...)

In other words, its about the same as when I'm writing.

This month I have yet to read a single book. I think I may be going into withdrawal, in fact. I'll let you know in the next couple of days if I see any more symptems. Anyway, the point of the matter is, I haven't jumped into any one else's worlds, or grown attached to anyone elses characters in 21 days, and I should be feeling like I need to. Those books piled up should be calling to me. Begging me to pick them up, to read them. Condemning me for neglecting them.

Instead all of those voices have been shoved aside, their room claimed by my characters that are making their presence known. They've figured out that they have a limited time with my full attention, and they're fighting for it.

Now I'm falling into my own worlds. Getting caught up in the lives of my own characters (which are often vastly different that I originally planned for them. Who would have thought. And I don't want to pick up those books. I don't want to get caught up in another world, not while things in mine are so tense.

I think I realized this for the first time the other day. When I realized that I hadn't carried a book even in my bag the entire month, replaced as they were by the laptop that now travels with me everywhere in case I have time to get some writing done.

It was when this realization hit me that I truly began to believe that I am now more a writer than a reader. Rather than being the person that reads someone elses words and yells at their choices, I'm making my own. I'm putting myself out there instead of pretending that I don't have any characters bouncing around in my head.

Now I can't wait to discover just how many worlds are trapped in my brain, just waiting to make their way to the page and show themselves to other people.

I'll get back to the books in December. For now, I'm happy to be writing.

Here We Go Again

So here we are again. Only a few short thousand words away from finishing my second novel of the month, and I'm starting to get exhausted, and yet exhilarated all at once. Never in my life did I ever think that I would actually finish three novels in a single month, and yet here we are, 20 days in and two novels done!

I have mixed feelings as I always do. First, I don't want to leave these characters. They're starting to really open up to me, and I'm starting to get the impression that there's even more going on in this world than even I was aware if, including one good guy that's really a bad guy, and one love interest who has currently set his sights on the wrong girl. Neither or which are something that I like to turn my back on, but as I don't have a sequel to this planned out and I do have a different novel planned out, I think we all know which one I'm going to do.

Before we go any further, I'd like to mention that yes, I am a freak of nature, yes I have been told that, and yes people have pointed to my nano chart and called it a mutant. Moving on.

The problem is that as my characters start to open up it's harder and harder to tear myself away from them. I want to continue their story to find out what else is going to happen. And whose going to end up together, because at this point I really don't know if it's who I originally thought would. Just like a reader who isn't satisfied with reading one book in a series, I find myself wanting to write more and more.

But I know I have to force myself out of that world for a while. For one thing, if I stay there too long I'm going to get sick of it, and then I wont want to write the entire series. For another, I have other things I need to focus on, much as I may not want to. I have other novels that I have started, and other series that are begging me for my attention. Besides, if I stay buried in the world for too long someone might report me as missing, and that would be really embarrassing when the police showed up at my house and found me frantically writing at my computer long after November ended. Just saying.

So despite how much I want to stick with it, I have to finish off these last few chapters and move on. I have to give these characters a chance to take a break. To breath while I work on something else for a while.

They can rest assured, however, as there's no way I'm not coming back to it. Not with all of these little twists that even I didn't predict.

Killing Our Characters

The killing of characters can be a sad or happy occasion. I recently wrote a scene where I killed a character that I happened to like. Unfortunately, it had to happen. Her death is the catalyst for one of my other characters realizing that she's really not in a good situation. It's the reason that she leaves that situation. If her death didn't happen, my main character couldn't learn what she needs to learn, and the story would never move forward.

The problem is that, as I was writing the scene, I wanted to cry. I wanted to put the book down and walk away. Pretend I had never written that scene and act like she was still alive. That's what I do when I'm reading a book, so why can't I do that when I'm writing it?

Characters, much as we may not like to admit it, are just tools that writers have to use. Yes, my characters are now all yelling at me about how they're not just tools, and how dare I refer to them as such, but we all know it's true. They're how we tell a story, and sometimes that means that we have to kill them. Or have something horrible happen to them. (And now they're all cowering in a corner and promising to be good if I just don't kill them. Too bad for them I'm a particularly morbid author, and plan and killing most of the Muahahah!!)

*Ahem* anyway. The point of the matter is that it's a necessary evil. Our characters have to sometimes be killed for either a plot point, or to motivate another one of our characters. It must be done! And what you need to remember (okay...and maybe I need to remember too) is that those reactions that we're having, where we're practically crying or just plain angry that we had to do it, that is what our readers are going to have too. They're going to be the ones crying, or throwing their books across the room and declaring that they're pissed and how dare we (as the authors) kill off their favorite character. Do we even realize what we have done?

That is what motivates me to continue. Despite all the protesting from the characters who die in my head. Or the other characters telling us that we can't do that to them. What are they going to do without that other character? I keep reminding myself of what it will be like the first time someone tells me that they threw their book across the room. (Which is a good thing for me...as that's what I do when I'm angry at something in a book)

More than anything I want to evoke emotions in my readers. I want them to cry, to yell at the books, to throw them. Whatever they have to do. I don't care. I just want people to feel what I felt when I wrote it.

That is the goal of any writer.