Every Thursday, the writers of the Writer’s Retreat participate in the Thursday 13 meme. Come join us as we ruminate on 13 things of interest this Thanksgiving Thursday!
Tag: Dawn
-
Elements of Fiction-Characters
Throughout the next few months, I plan on doing Wiley Wednesdays that are focused on different elements of fiction. By doing this, I hope we can all learn a few things, and improve our writing (isn’t that the goal here?). Today I shall begin by talking about characters. I’ll be honest, you can have the most amazing plot in the world, but if I don’t connect with your characters, I won’t remember your story a month from now. We all want our characters to be remembered and loved, but to do that it takes time, patience and love. (Yes I said love, stop giggling and pay attention!)
Character – Any person or entity created in a fictional story.
There are many different ways and reasons to create a character. The protagonist is the main character that drives the action (Hello! That’s who the story is generally about), this is usually who we consider the good guy. You also need a character that opposes this person, like a villain. This is the antagonist, which in Greek literally means competitor, opponent or rival. Occasionally you’ll read a story from a different point of view and you’ll see the good guys as the antagonist.
So now you have two main characters to flesh out and create a story for. You’ll usually find you need others to help you along the way. This is where the supporting characters come from. They help move the plot along and can give clues and insight into your main characters.
Round and Flat characters
Your main characters are usually what would be called round characters. You’ve fleshed these characters out so well that they’re almost real. You know that they detest onions and have a secret passion for Belgium chocolate. They have good qualities and bad ones. They occasionally get caught up in their own internal conflicts and are just plain complex. Think Frodo Baggins or Sherlock Holmes.
There is another kind of character called a flat character. This is “the redneck” or “the con artist.” They have one or two traits and are pretty easy to figure out. You can usually sum them up in one sentence. “Gollum is driven to obsession by the One Ring he will forever try to recover.”
Dynamic and Static Characters
A dynamic character is one who undergoes a change. You see this alot in the coming of age stories. The protagonist starts out young and a bit naive, and by the end of the story they’ve had to grow up and they see life differently. The best example I can think of this is Harry Potter.
Static characters pretty much stay the same throughout the story. Their personalties are mainly unchanged and stable. Lots of main characters that are not the protagonist are static characters. Ysandre de la Courcel from Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel’s Dart springs to mind when I think of a static character.
This wraps up today’s study on characters. I hope it may offer some insight and help with your characters a bit. Until next time my lovelies 🙂
~Dawn
-
The Edit Bat of Doom
A friend of mine has a special bat. It’s called the Edit Bat of Doom. When the time comes, she pulls it out and uses it with great enthusiasm! Editing is a necessary evil. Everything from a thank you note to a 500 page novel requires a bit of editing. I know we’ve already talked a bit about the process this week, but here are a few more tips on it. So take your own Edit Bat of Doom out of the closet and lets learn a few new swings!
1. Read you paper out loud. It’s easier to hear a mistake than read one. If you stumble reading it, you know you have a problem. If you still aren’t sure, take it to someone you trust and ask them to do the same.
2. Leave as much time as you can between writing and editing. Fresh eyes pick out the problems faster. Try to do something in that break that gets your mind completely off your story.
3. Read the paper backward (from the end to the beginning) one sentence at a time. This helps you concentrate on sentences and words rather than on the paper’s meaning as a whole.
4. Know the errors you commonly make. Make a list of these errors so you know what to look for. For each error, read through the paper (or chapter for longer works) once. Don’t try to find all the errors on your list in one pass.
5. Use the spelling and grammar check, but don’t rely on it. Have dictionaries and thesauruses at hand and USE THEM.
6. Place **’s where you think a reviewer should pay special attention. Make sure to go back through and take these out though!
7. Ask yourself who, what, when, where, why, and how when reading for content. Does the text answer all the questions you think it should? Highlight the sentences that answer these questions. This makes it easier to see if the questions are answered in a logical manner.
8. If a character is acting out a procedure or action of some kind, do it yourself to make sure you didn’t miss any obvious steps.
9. Don’t edit under fluorescent lighting. The flicker rate is slower than regular lighting and your eyes won’t pick up inconsistencies as easily. (WOW! Learn something new every day huh?????)
-
King Cassioux
Mark sat at his computer silently studying the image on the screen. Cassioux, the character on the cover, had defeated evil and claimed the kingdom. He should be triumphant, even if he did have to sacrifice the woman. Women were a dime a dozen, he’d find another. He sighed as he pushed away from the desk, stood and crossed to the window. The problem was, he wouldn’t find another woman like Amy.
As he watched out the window a woman walked out of the shop across the street and looked up at him. They both just stood there and stared for a moment before she grabbed her keys and got in the car. His book was finished, and it would definitely be a best seller. So why did he feel like Cassioux and he had both lost? The women. They just didn’t understand that it had to be this way. He couldn’t settle down with Amy any more than Cassioux could make Quardidra his queen.
His computer beeped, signaling a new email. He walked over and seeing it was from his brother, he opened it immediately only to regret it. The nosey bastard wanted to know why the hell he’d let Amy get away. Why? Because he wasn’t ready for love and marriage and all that goopy shit he knew she deserved. It wasn’t for him, plain and simple. She needed some nice, considerate, town leader type guy to set up house with. The kind that would remember to bring her flowers on her birthday and take her to all those stupid town functions she loved so damn much. Not him, a roaming jackass more comfortable holed up in a hotel with his laptop than, well, anything really. She’d thank him one day. Really. Right?
He put his head in his hands and groaned. The thought of her with someone else damn near killed him. Hell, even if he thought he could try to be what she needed, she probably wouldn’t take him back now. He’d made sure of that days ago. She was sweet as could be, and it was hard to get her mad at you, but once she was mad…
He felt his jaw where she’d slugged him. He still couldn’t believe his sweet little Amy had that good of a punch, or that she’d used it on him. On second thought, a woman like that could probably handle a roaming jackass like himself just fine. He should at least give her a chance, right? He replied to his brothers email and left.
Bro,
Sorry, can’t talk. Gotta go get my woman back.
-M
-
The Historical Society
Sara stood, leaning over Bryce’s shoulder to take in the sketch he’d found. “Do you really think I can pull this off?” she questioned, feeling unsure.
“We don’t have a choice. Besides, it has to be a woman, and you’re the only one around here with brains and balls,” he grinned at her, “You can do it, Sara, I know you can. Just stay focused on the mission. Get in, find the papers, and get back out. The less people you talk to, the better off you’ll be. If you get into any trouble, hit the panic button and I’ll be there in less than a minute.”
She sighed. This was the first mission she’d ever gone on by herself. Up till now, it’d always been her and Bryce, the Dynamic Duo they called them. They had been childhood friends, college roommates, and partners for the past seven years for the Historical Society. Time and again they went back in history, filling in the blanks. They’d seen the Great Sphinx during construction and brought pictures of the missing colors and facial features, so that it could be restored to its original splendor. They had cried together as they watched helplessly in the Nazi concentration camps, and had stood in awe as they watched Moses part the Red Sea and walk through on dry sand. They’d seen the world through the ages together, and it had been wonderful and terrifying.
There was a knock on the door and Cloe stuck her head in. “Your costume is ready and I can do your hair when you like.”
“Thanks, Cloe, I’ll be there in a moment.”
The door shut and she closed her eyes, trying to steady herself. She would be going back in history to 1892 to gather information about the depression and the newly re-elected president, Grover Cleveland. It was not a particularly dangerous mission; in fact, it would probably be dull in comparison to their usual journeys. The only thing troubling her was the fact that she’d be alone. Alone in a way she’d never been alone before. The only person in the world not from that time.
She shook herself a bit and plastered on a fake smile. “Need to get dressed, see you at the time pit!” she said and ruffled Bryce’s hair a bit.
An hour later she stood on the platform ready for transport. He stood next to the control desk and they locked eyes. They held eye contact till the room started to loose focus. When she opened her eyes again she was looking at the White House, one hundred and seventy four years in the past.
-
Tips from The Artist’s Way
Happy Wednesday! Today is my turn to do the Wiley Wednesday post, and I’ve decided to share a bit about Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. I’m part of an online cluster going through this book. Basically, Ms. Cameron takes us on a journey to unblock our creativity. I want to point out that this is my first time with the journey, and I’m not through. However, there were some important lessons I thought I’d like to share with everyone. So here we go!
Morning Pages. These are 3 pages written longhand every morning. It’s a way to unleash all the negative so you can let loose the creativity and get the day rolling. I’ll be honest and say I’ve had a hard time getting used to it. I don’t write a lot at once, so three pages a day is quite a feat for me! I can tell that it’s getting the job done though. There are days were I sit at my journal and whine and complain for three pages. Other days I make lists of lists of lists. If you do morning pages long enough though, you’ll eventually let loose something you’ve been holding back. To me, it’s like cleaning a wound. We all have bad thoughts/feeling/experiences that have festered. Maybe you think you’ve dealt with it and moved on, and maybe you actually have. Most of the time though, we’ve just buried it. I’ve found that if I turn on my music, sit down with my journal and just feel, these thoughts and memories come pouring out in my Morning Pages. It’s cleansing getting all that bad stuff out.
Anger. Anger is not a bad emotion, it’s actually your friend. Ms. Cameron says that anger is our fuel. It shows us our boundaries and where we want to go. It shows just how far we can be pushed. She says that anger propels us out of our old lives and into the new life we create for our self . It’s not the action, but the actions invitation. If we can harness this anger and channel it into our creativity, great things can happen.
The last thing I’ll talk about is criticism. We’ve all had criticism before, good and bad. These are her rules for dealing with it.
1. Receive the criticism all the way through and get it over with.
2. Jot down notes to yourself on what concepts or phrases bother you.
3. Jot down notes to yourself on what concepts or phrases seem useful.
4. Do something very nurturing for yourself-read an old good review or recall a compliment.
5. Remember that even if you have made a truly rotten piece of art, it may be necessary stepping-stone to your next work. Art matures spasmodically and requires ugly-duckling growth stages.
6. Look at the criticism again. Does it remind you of any criticism of your past-particularly shaming childhood criticism? Acknowledge to yourself that the current criticism is triggering grief over a long-standing wound.
7. Write a letter to the critic-not to be mailed, most probably. Defend your work and acknowledge what was helpful, if anything, in the criticism proffered.
8. Get back on the horse. Make an immediate commitment to do something creative.
9. Do it. Creativity is the only cure for criticism!
I want to once again say that these are not my ideas. This is from the incredible Julia Cameron’s book The Artist’s Way. I would suggest that any struggling artist, or maybe one like me, that’s just starting out, needs to go find a copy of the book.
I’m sending out hugs to all! I hope everyone has a happy and creative day! 🙂
~Dawn
-
The Earl of Bloody Perfection
Adrianna stripped down to her chemise, and hung her dress over a nearby branch. She slipped into the water and let out a contented sigh; this was exactly what she had needed. Time to just be alone and relax, to be herself again. She certainly didn’t feel much like herself when she was around their visitor. No, every time she was around the Earl of Hollingsworth she seemed to forget how to speak. It was horribly embarrassing, but then again, so was walking into things, and she’d done quite a bit of that lately as well. Thank God he didn’t seem to notice much! It was beginning to go past embarrassing to just plain annoying.
She was normally a very smart person, and she’d never had any problems talking. If anything, she talked too much, according to her mother. So why was she suddenly struck with this awkwardness? A man. A big, handsome, strong, rich man. It was really all his fault, who could blame her? The man was too perfect, and if she could only find the flaw, she was sure she could get her head back together and act like a normal person around him. She was known for her beauty and wit and brains, all she had to do was embrace that side of herself again. She would not keep acting like a lovestruck idiot every time the blasted man came around.
A sound made her look to the shore, where who else but the Earl of Bloody Perfection stood there staring at her. When she saw him she tried to stand up, slipped and went under. Suddenly he was in the water dragging her up.
“Are you alright, my lady?” he asked worriedly as he held her close.
“Wha-What are you doing here?!” she sputtered, horrified that he had once again witnessed her embarrassment.
He sighed and ran a hand through his wet hair. “You have avoided me all bloody week! I can’t get within twenty feet of you in the castle, so I followed you out here.”
“And what is it you so desperately wish to speak of?” She was painfully aware of the wet chemise clinging to her skin and his hard body pressing against hers.
He lifted her face till she met his eyes and saw the hunger there. “I find that I’m no longer in the mood to talk,” he murmured before his lips found hers.
The kiss was gentle and a bit coaxing. After a moment, she felt his tongue lightly brush her lips. She gasped. He took the opportunity to deepen the kiss. At the same time she felt his hand slide up caress her breast. In her excitement, she couldn’t seem to breathe! When she pulled her mouth away he slid his mouth down to her neck and across her collarbone.
He picked her up, walked to the bank and laid her down. He kissed her again as he slid his hand down the front of her body. She shivered as he lightly cupped the spot between her legs. As he started to rub he let out a small groan and dragged his mouth down her neck and to her chest.
“Adrianna? Adrianna, are you still out here?”
Adrianna jerked upright in horror. “Oh! Hurry, you must hide. Quickly man! Do you want to end up married?” She looked at him in bewilderment. She could hear her cousin making her way towards them. If he didn’t react soon that was exactly what would happen. Instead of moving, however, he just sat there looking at her.
“That’s exactly what I want, darling,” he grinning wickedly as he pulled her to him for another smoldering kiss.
-
Lets Get Inspired!
As I was sitting here trying to figure out what to write, a very good friend suggested sharing what inspires me! So big thanks to Cat for the idea and Gwen for the pep talk 🙂
Okay, so onto the inspiration people! What inspires me? What do I do while I’m writing? What starts my mind twirling towards a story? Honestly, a little bit of everything. Music, food, men, cars, a fabulous new pair of shoes! Let’s start with the first though. Music is always a source of inspiration for me. The drawl of a country song, the anguished scream of rock, the arrogance and confidence from a pop song. It all blends together to make fascinating characters to me.
Miranda Lambert has a great country song Gunpowder and Lead that gets me fired up and wanting to kick major male…err…booty! It brings to the page a tough as nails little spitfire. I can see her now. Black eye, split lip, messy hair and murder in her eyes. Next on the playlist is Korn. Gives me more of a creepy vibe. Sets me in a dark, smoky little bar. There’s a man in the corner staring at me with a gleam in his yellowed eyes. The hairs on the back of my neck are standing up and I want to leave. Now. But I can’t, because I have to be there. Why? I don’t know-I haven’t written the story yet 🙂 But as you can tell, songs are a major source of inspiration. They take me away to another time and place.
What else inspires me? Food. I love to cook, and I love to eat. Sometimes as I’m cooking I imagine I’m a cook in a manor in the 1800’s. I’m cooking a big southern feast for twenty plus people. Or maybe I’m cooking dinner for my boyfriend for the first time. Or as I’m standing there cooking an escaped convict breaks in and holds me hostage! EEP!! Hahaha My imagination often gets the better of me and I find myself terrified for no reason at all!
I think the last thing I’ll talk about today is men. I know that sounds bad-but hear me out! The male characters are always the easiest for me to come up with. Part of it is because I’m surrounded by men. I have very few female friends on this side of the country so most of my time is spent hanging around my husband and his friends. Often one of the boys will get in a situation and say something that drives me nuts! I constantly think if they’d only listen to me I could fix their lives hahaha (me? a control freak? nooooo…err..yes. very much so!) So I will write a story based on them. It starts out as their story but I “fix” it. I also tend to find my friends a happily ever after. Besides stories about “the boys” I have to ask-what woman doesn’t occasionally fantasize about the drop dead sexy man in the grocery store??? Haha My fantasies just happen to get written down!
Okay, so this was your glimpse into my head. There are many many more things that inspire me, but hopefully this little bit helps to inspire you some too!
-
Halfway To The Grave
Hello boys and girls, I am Dawn and I will be your blogger for today! For my first post, I thought I’d review a favorite book of mine. Halfway To The Grave, by Jeaniene Frost, is an urban fantasy romance starring Cat Crawfield. I’ll try not to spoil the ending for you, but I’ll give you a brief look at the main characters and the plot.Cat’s mother (who you will despise and pity) was raped by a vampire at what we assume is a young age. She kept Cat and so the whole town treated her horribly for being an unwed mother. The fact that she filed a report for rape, is apparently of no concern to the townsfolk. This is the ONE thing in the book that galled me. This is set in the 2000’s, yet her family and the whole town acted as if it was 1950.
Anywho, back to the story! Cat’s mother raised her to believe that she was half evil and that all vampires were completely evil and should be killed. Cat killed her first vampire at 16, and continued to do so with her mothers full support. (Can you tell why I don’t like this mother??)
So one night, while out killing vampires, Cat picked the wrong guy. This was a master vampire who quite easily overpowered her. Bones is a vampire bounty hunter who forces her to work with him. He trains her ruthlessly and together, they work to take down a group of killers.
I’m afraid that is all I can say with turning into a squee-ing fangirl and ruining the story. The plot was full of twists and turns and the voice of the story was excellent. I could not put the book down till it was finished. This is actually one of the few books I have ever read twice, and the only book I’ve read more than twice. My copy is now worn and tattered and dogeared at so many places I’m afraid I’ll have to start using tabs and color codes!! The writer managed to pull out a “new” vampire story, which gets harder and harder as time goes by. I was very impressed and will definitely be picking up the sequel, One Foot In The Grave, when it comes out this April 29th!
