Author Liesel K. Hill's Musings on Fantasia...
Showing posts with label writing inspiration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing inspiration. Show all posts
Friday, January 5, 2018
Writing Advice NOT to Heed: Strong Female Characters
Lately I've been thinking about all the advice newbie writers are given. Some of it is good. Other pieces are great. But as is the case when learning any craft or industry, you end up getting a lot of advice that simply isn't worth heeding. Of course you often don't know it until years later.
When I was shopping around my first book, Citadels of Fire, to traditional publishers, what I heard over and over again was that I needed a strong female character and to sell the book, I needed to capitalize on her strengths in the description.
The problem with that is that my female character, Inga, isn't what most people would consider traditionally strong. In fact, I sort of wrote her to be weak in the beginning so the audience could see the dynamic change in her over the course of the trilogy. Even though I thought she was a compelling character, I couldn't think of any particular strengths she had that I could capitalize on, so I had a hard time selling the story to traditional publishers and agents.
Part of the problem was being so new and not understanding how to frame my story in a way that readers and others in the industry can latch on to. That's a skill that comes over time
But my point is that if you listened to traditional publishing advice, it starts to sound like every story must contain a tough-as-nails, leather-wearing, Laura-Croft-type kickass character or the story won't sell.
That's simply not true.
I'd venture to guess that any character you write will have strengths. They just may not be the traditionally "strong" female characters that the industry likes to rave about. Anything can be a strength. Even things that are low key. Look at Jane Eyre. On the surface, she appeared quite plain and boring to most people, but she's one of the most beloved female characters of all time. Decide what your character's strengths are and play them up. A lot. Just don't assume they have to fit into any particular mould.
And don't get me wrong: kickass characters are great and they do tend to be fan favorites. But there are other fish in the sea. And there's a lot to be said for starting your character off in a place of weakness and letting your audience watch her/him grow. My audience has connected with Inga in a way that has pleased me immensely. They love her because they can see her growing stronger from one book to the next.
I'm gonna go out on a limb here (sarcasm) and say that it's less important for your character, male or female, to be "strong" (what's the definition on that anyway; it's a total umbrella term) than to be relatable. It's the characters unique traits that will connect your audience to them.
Let's take a look at a couple of character examples who tend to be fan favorites: Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley.
Hermione definitely kicked butt with her spells various times over the series, but she wasn't exactly a leather-wearing martial arts expert. Her strength was in her goodness and her academic smarts. She wasn't strong in a physical or conventional sense, but because everyone either knew a girl like her, or WAS a girl like her during their school days, she's very relatable.
And how about Ron? He doesn't have any tangible qualities to point to. He's your average every-boy. His strengths are in the non-tangible: humility, kindness, and loyalty to his friends and family. But because he's just so human and boyish, he's someone every single one of us can relate to.
See what I mean? So pick your characters' major traits (the less like other characters, the better, in my opinion) and just bring them across in a strong way.
Ignore the hype that suggests every successful story must have a strong female character, a vampire or werewolf, an exotic setting and a pornographic love scene. Because if that's all we had to read, well...that would be awful. ;D
How do YOU bring across strength in your characters?
The problem with that is that my female character, Inga, isn't what most people would consider traditionally strong. In fact, I sort of wrote her to be weak in the beginning so the audience could see the dynamic change in her over the course of the trilogy. Even though I thought she was a compelling character, I couldn't think of any particular strengths she had that I could capitalize on, so I had a hard time selling the story to traditional publishers and agents.
Part of the problem was being so new and not understanding how to frame my story in a way that readers and others in the industry can latch on to. That's a skill that comes over time
But my point is that if you listened to traditional publishing advice, it starts to sound like every story must contain a tough-as-nails, leather-wearing, Laura-Croft-type kickass character or the story won't sell.
That's simply not true.
I'd venture to guess that any character you write will have strengths. They just may not be the traditionally "strong" female characters that the industry likes to rave about. Anything can be a strength. Even things that are low key. Look at Jane Eyre. On the surface, she appeared quite plain and boring to most people, but she's one of the most beloved female characters of all time. Decide what your character's strengths are and play them up. A lot. Just don't assume they have to fit into any particular mould.
And don't get me wrong: kickass characters are great and they do tend to be fan favorites. But there are other fish in the sea. And there's a lot to be said for starting your character off in a place of weakness and letting your audience watch her/him grow. My audience has connected with Inga in a way that has pleased me immensely. They love her because they can see her growing stronger from one book to the next.
I'm gonna go out on a limb here (sarcasm) and say that it's less important for your character, male or female, to be "strong" (what's the definition on that anyway; it's a total umbrella term) than to be relatable. It's the characters unique traits that will connect your audience to them.
Let's take a look at a couple of character examples who tend to be fan favorites: Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley.
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Hermione definitely kicked butt with her spells various times over the series, but she wasn't exactly a leather-wearing martial arts expert. Her strength was in her goodness and her academic smarts. She wasn't strong in a physical or conventional sense, but because everyone either knew a girl like her, or WAS a girl like her during their school days, she's very relatable.
And how about Ron? He doesn't have any tangible qualities to point to. He's your average every-boy. His strengths are in the non-tangible: humility, kindness, and loyalty to his friends and family. But because he's just so human and boyish, he's someone every single one of us can relate to.
See what I mean? So pick your characters' major traits (the less like other characters, the better, in my opinion) and just bring them across in a strong way.
Ignore the hype that suggests every successful story must have a strong female character, a vampire or werewolf, an exotic setting and a pornographic love scene. Because if that's all we had to read, well...that would be awful. ;D
How do YOU bring across strength in your characters?
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
Why Authors Should Read Motivational Books
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So right now I'm reading Brendon Burchard's The Charge and I'm loving it. It's fantastic. So inspirational! And it's meant to be. It's motivational book, after all. But that's not why I'm advising authors to read books like this.
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Let's talk about THEME for a minute. All stories we write have themes, yeah? Part of our craft is learning to incorporate theme into plot so that it's a natural part of the story. So we aren't telling or sounding to preachy. But sometimes, it can be a challenge to figure out what theme we're going for in a story.
A story that meanders along and needs help probably doesn't have a concrete theme. Once the author figures out the theme, the entire story comes together. And this doesn't always happen by the author having a light bulb moment about "theme." Sometimes by figuring out events in the plot, things fall into place. But chances are those events complete a theme the author didn't even know they were aiming for. It's a beautiful thing when that happens.
So what's that got to do with motivational books or my current read?
Well, it's been a while since I read a motivational book. Probably about a year. But I've been annotating the crap out of this book. So many of the statements in it have jumped out at me as relevant to my WIPs. I've thought a lot about why that is. Some of the topics covered by author include how to train our brains to be motivated and follow through on our goals and aspirations. He talks about mechanisms in the brain that are keeping us from doing that.
"Emotion, it turns out, is the spark that compels us to care in the first place."--Brendon Burchard, The Charge, pg 100.
Since my Interchron series is all about the brain and how it connects to the soul, obviously this is going to strike a chord with me.
But that's not all that's jumped out at me. Other things have struck me as relevant to other novels, including my crime fiction series and the high fantasy/dragon series that I'm still working on and haven't started publishing yet. So it can't just be a matter of something being specific to me and oh what great luck that I picked this book up. It's more than that.
Finally, the other day, it hit me: General, true, motivational statements are inherent themes.
"Our desire to bond and belong outweighs almost every other desire--often even our desire for survival..."--Brendon Burchard, The Charge, pg. 117
Let's take a really vague and obvious example like "You should always put your children first." Now, again, if you have your characters say this a million times, or point it out in the narrative a bunch of times, that will come off as preachy and it's obvious the author is trying to tell their audience something. A great writer will create a story with flawed characters and show this theme. Make the audience really feel it. Maybe even show the negative consequences of when this isn't done.
But you all know that. It's the definition of great story-telling, right?
My point is that motivational statements, by definition, are themes. Not every motivation statement you read will be applicable to your WIP by far, but some will. They can help you come up with theme, which can only help you craft your story more effectively. So if this is something you're struggling with, pick up a motivational book.
"There is a bolder man inside you than the one sitting next to me now."--Brendon Burchard, The Charge, pg. 145.
My personal and of course very objective suggestion would be The Charge. ;D
Do you struggle with theme? How do you push through to define it? What's your favorite motivational book?
Monday, January 16, 2017
Monday Thoughts for Writing Inspiration
Good morning and Happy Monday! Hope everyone had a phenomenal weekend. I was actually very productive this weekend. Quite proud of myself.
So just a quick thought this morning. Last week I was watching a film with my brothers and something came into my mind. And the funny thing is that it really had nothing at all to do with what I watching. It was sparked by the film, but was completely unrelated to the plot and themes of the film. (Ah the magic of inspiration.)
So the thought was just this:
Probably sounds very random to most people, but I've had my dystopian saga, Interchron, on the brain lately, and I'm sure what this turn of thought was about. I'm currently working on my crime fiction series, but next month I'll get back to Interchron. I'll probably find a way to incorporate this thought into the story.
It was just my latest random inspiration, so I thought I'd share it. Remember, such things can come from absolutely anywhere.
Where did your latest, most random inspiration come from?
Persistence of Vision, Book 1 of Interchron available on Amazon and most major retailers.
Quantum Entanglement, Book 2 of Interchron available on Amazon and most other retailers.
So just a quick thought this morning. Last week I was watching a film with my brothers and something came into my mind. And the funny thing is that it really had nothing at all to do with what I watching. It was sparked by the film, but was completely unrelated to the plot and themes of the film. (Ah the magic of inspiration.)
So the thought was just this:
This is what people do. They find like-minded people, get together and find ways to express themselves. Even if the powers that be say the can't or try to stop them, they'll find some other way, some other place to do it.
It was just my latest random inspiration, so I thought I'd share it. Remember, such things can come from absolutely anywhere.
Where did your latest, most random inspiration come from?
Persistence of Vision, Book 1 of Interchron available on Amazon and most major retailers.
Quantum Entanglement, Book 2 of Interchron available on Amazon and most other retailers.
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