On History and Research

It's been awhile since I've posted anything, I know. School starts up for me on September 4th, and I've 3 summer assignments I've only just started.

Inspired by the American History summer assignment I've begun working on (inspiration in the unlikeliest of places, you know?) I decided to post about history.

I don't mean the history of your epic fantasy novel, or the history of our future in your sci-fi book. I mean real world history, chock-full of war, disease, innovation, great and terrible moments. After all, our history is the greatest of all stories -- it's the basis of all literature. A violent peasant revolt in your novel? The French Revolution. A genius innovation that changes the world? Gunpowder, the wheel, paper, the atomic bomb, etc.

 Photo in the Public Domain, found via Creative Commons

 

History can be turn a boring novel into a rich world. It can be the metaphorical light in the darkness, a spark of inspiration in a dark, meaningless story. Your writing can benefit from the vast resevoir of memory and intelligence afforded by the world around you.

 

A lot of people hate history -- why, I don't know -- but it can change your life. This isn't some weird event that happened to a bunch of dead people. Perhaps you're related to some of them. Perhaps those people were scared of the future, of death, of the unkknown, just like we are. When you think of history as full of people you can connect to, it's exactly like a book. Maybe you're destined to have others connect to these people too.

Now, I've always loved history, almost as much as I love reading. I most especially love ancient, ancient history in far-off places like Egypt or Rome. But I can appreciate American History a little more knowing I'm a descendent of Robert E. Lee, the general who surrendered to the North and ended the Civil War. I'm also related to Patrick Henry, that famous speaker from the Revolutionary War with his "Give me liberty, or give me death!" speech. This makes AP American History next year seem not so boring.

Historical Fiction isn't my style, you say. I'm a fantasy person, a modern romance kind of person, a supernatural fiction fan. What can I learn from the past?

I'm not saying you need to write historical fiction. I'm not saying to limit yourself to this genre, just because I am a history geek. But you can model any character after an ancient, real-life person.

I remember a story about an Egyptian pharaoh who built his capital city out in the desert and tried to do away with all of the old gods and goddesses, instead choosing to force his people to worship just the sun disk, Aten. This caused all sorts of tension with the priests of the old gods and goddesses, who had been at the top of the social pyramid and were now unemployed. This sort of unpopular absolute rule sounds familiar... like perhaps that cliched king in all those fantasy novels?

Think of the creation of the atomic bomb. Such a destructive weapon. We Americans unleashed it on Japan anyways, to end a war. And it caused a whole bunch of other, ethical/medical dilemmas. Was it right? Maybe your novel can benefit from a controversial weapon. Maybe your world can benefit from unlooked for problems due to a political decision.

My point, in this rambling rant about reality, is that researching the past can help any novel. It's not strictly limited to historical fiction. Even modern day romances can include a little old-school history. After all, history is full of relatable characters, interesting settings, and tension/conflict.

 

Plot Pieces

So welcome back readers. Here summer is drawing to a close, the temperatures are still very high, I'm falling behind on the stuff I have to do, and most likely, there's a few of you out there who are working on their plot like me.

I was searching the internet a while ago for a list of plot pieces for the writer not the reader when I came across this: http://www.how-to-write-a-book-now.com/plot-outline.html It's a plot exercise with all the good stuff you need.

It has eight steps: story goal, consequences, requirements, forewarnings, costs, dividends, prerequisites, and preconditions. All are very important parts of a plot that don't get very much attention.

Just go click the link above and give it a try, it will give you a new perspective on your plot and maybe, if you're like me, help you get over a rough spot in your plot. I would love to hear what you've done with it, so comment away! Good luck and keep writing!

Keep Pushing Through

I'm on Spring Break with nothing to do, so I'm posting on a random writing topic.

How To Keep Pushing Through:

I know, it's hard to keep writing. You've passed the happy, new-idea phase and you're into the oh-my-goodness-where-am-I-taking-this? phase. If you're anything like me, you've got the very basic plot down, but you're unsure of the actual details and problems that fit in between. I've hit this problem in my own writing, so I figured I'd improvise this and then follow my own advice.

To start off, DON'T LEAVE YOUR WRITING BECAUSE YOU'RE FRUSTRATED. Even after just a few days, you'll look at what you wrote and think, "what the freak was I thinking? This is rubbish." Then you'll put it in the recycle bin and start over. You'll get to the same point, do the same thing, and you'll think all over again that your writing isn't worth the brain cells you put into it. This is a very nasty circle-spiral of useless writing time. Stay true to your writing and improvise a temporary scene to get you through the rough patch, and change it to suit your needs during editing. Of course, your temporary scene has to be similar to what you want there, because your story is delicate. If you put that Mary Sue wants to fight an evil king, and you've hit a rough patch when she's meeting him the 1st time, you cannot make this meeting end with King Evil giving her a bunny and her promising a rainbow. Don't forget your action-reaction idea.

Another point is DON'T GO BACK AND EDIT. If you go back and edit what you've already written, then you'll end up finding so many mistakes, you'll be tempted to trash it. And you know where that'll end up. So just push through that stubborn scene and resist the temptation to edit. You have plenty of time for editing when it's all said and done.

Third point: SEEK INSPIRATION. Grab it by its bunny-rabbit ears and don't let go. Listen to new music, convince your parents to take you to the park (or drive there, if you have your license. I don't happen to have mine yet, so I have to find other transportation). Do some research on topics you enjoy: look up religion on Google, go to your library and find books on ancient civilizations. Just pick something and read up on it. Or watch documentaries, which I personally love to do. I once watched a very informative show on the history of playing cards. Just... do something worth doing.

Try a RANDOM GENERATOR. Like http://nine.frenchboys.net/housing.php or tp://seventhsanctum.com/. These are fun and can spark an idea. You won't use all of the suggestions they give you - some are so blatantly against your story that you'll have to find something else. But they're pretty reliable.

Ummm... ADD SOMETHING NEW. If you don't consider this part of inspiration. Write a dragon into your scene! Have your MC join a pirate gang! Let your MC's sister get kidnapped! Just add something worthwhile or odd into your scene and change your plot to accomadate it. If you hate it, you can come back to it in editing.

That's all I've got. I'm sorry, I feel this kind of advice has been parroted out to writers by pretty much everyone. "Don't give up!" "Find inspiration!" It is good advice, though. And all the labrynth of my mind can come up with at the moment. 

Have a blessed day and keep writing! <3

Writing Advice

Well, this is a very broad topic. I'm going to make this pretty general.

A list of things you SHOULD/MUST do:

1. Never give up. This is big - if you can't finish it, move on or change it, but don't give up on your writing unless you've been brainwashed by zombies to hate writing.
2. Keep your characters interesting and real. I (and 98% of the rest of humanity) can't stand flat, boring characters.
3. Include a background to your story; not just setting, but why things are as they are. Include who, what, when, where, why, and how. You can't just put what, when, and where.
4. Love your work. Have fun. Find beauty in the words. Even in writer's block, look at the simple beauty of language and writing, and smile.
5. Let your dreams be just as real as your writing. Let your emotions be just as real as your characters. Let your family and friends be just as real as your imagination.


A list of things you SHOULD NOT do if you value your life and/or self-esteem:

1. Don't be obviously cliche. It's like a crutch: it's okay in the first draft, but eventually your writing has to stand up on its own without looking cliche.
2. Don't let zombies brainwash you into hating writing. That's a tragedy worse than anything Shakespeare could have come up with.
3. Never plagorize. That's very uncreative, and people will catch you and tie you to a stake and leave you for the wild beasties of the night. *Ahem* Or at least thunk you over the head with your book.
4. Don't be normal, and don't let your character be, either. I went to a church event back in January, called Acquire the Fire - the entire theme was "Normal is Not Enough!" Live by those words.
5. Never, for the sake of all that's good and pure, put the almost right word. There's a big difference between skinny and emaciated. Between indigo and dark blue. Between strolling and sprinting.

In other words, be creative and fun. Love your writing and never let it go. Don't be unfun, uncreative, and a work-stealer.

Another few things:

Read a lot. And don't stick to just one genre; love general fiction, fantasy, science-fiction, romance, paranormal, adventure, dystopian, YA novels, children's books, adult series. Love nonfiction and facts and research. Love the sounds the words make. Love it all, until you feel like it'll drown you if you don't write/type them into a whole new existence.

Experiment with your writing. I admit, I have trouble on this one - but playing it safe leads to a boring book. If you add something new, it interests you and the reader. Add a crazy character! Change your plot drastically! Turn your MC into a unicorn! Make it take place in space instead of New York! Change it from first person to third person! Make it in future tense!

Put yourself in your character's shoes. Unless they need them, of course. And I'm not asking you to go kill a dragon or fall in love with a vampire (unless he actually drinks human blood and doesn't sparkle). I just want you to imagine doing them, and how you'd feel. We will know you ignored this advice if your character is happy and laughing in a hostage negotiation (unless they're hyped up on drugs).

Push through to the end of the book. I know I said earlier you can move on, but that's kind of relative. I mean, if you change the plot enough because your original idea didn't work, didn't you already move on and create a whole new book? The content of your story is a delicate balance; when you make a major change, you've already made a major change to the ending. You've made a major change to that entire world.

This is pretty good for improvisation. (I really should think more before I post these posts.) Anyways, have a blessed week and happy writing! <3

Voices

*This was supposed to have been posted yesterday, sorry. I had a big history project.*

Voice- what your character sounds like. Word choice, sentence type, intentional grammar mistakes, and regionally acceptable words (like "y'all"). There are more, but that's all I'm focusing on here.

VOCABULARY. This is very, very important. Do not let your happy-go-lucky five-year-old go around using words like "evanescent" and "expurgate". Don't let your Britsh official say words like "potty" and "nappy". Vocabulary is important because it really brings your character to life, and don't just avoid using wrong vocabulary in dialogue - their thoughts and how you're describing your (oops, their) surroundings should include words that they'd know and use. Like, a perky teenage girl might say "sunny yellow", while a depressed girl might descibe the same shade (or any shade) "puke yellow". Look at it from their perspective, through not just through their eyes but through their minds.

SENTENCE TYPE. Simple, compound, complex, compound-complex. I find that not only I but my character prefer simple sentences. Long ones, with multiple verbs, but still simple. And to review/inform you of the types: simple= 1 independent clause, 0 dependent clauses. compound= 2+ Ind. clauses, 0 dependent clauses. Complex=1 ind. clause, 1+ dep. clauses. Compound-complex= 2+ ind. clauses, 1+ dep. clauses. Clauses are a subject and verb, independent means it can stand alone as a sentence. If you have one subject and multiple verbs, they're still simple.

INTENTIONALLY INCORRECT GRAMMAR. Double negatives ("don't got nothing") and perhaps sort of slurring words together ("kinda", "sorta", "alright") is what immediately comes to mind. Don't confuse this with regular mistakes, though. Using the wrong "it's" does not fall under this category. This is kind of regional too, I suppose. But not always.

REGIONALLY ACCEPTABLE TERMS. "Y'all", "ain't", and of course, "soda" vs. "pop". Know the local terms of a place before you try to write this. It's important - like if my character's from where I'm from, it's soda. If she lived in New York, it'd be pop (right?). You might occasionally see me use the word y'all, because it's perfectly acceptable where I live. If I went to New York, they might snicker at me for that same word. This makes your characters realistic. It'd look pretty ridiculous otherwise, especially for the people who actually live in the same area as your character. You don't have that problem with fantasy worlds, but make sure they have special region words as well, to spice it up a little.

Another thing I forgot is SLANG. I don't know if I should include this in that last category, but you know. Your teenager is more likely to use slang, your adult isn't. This one is kind of obvious to me - even fantasy worlds should have slang terms. Not that I like slang, but you can't deny its influence.

This is a quick overview of the topic. You as a writer have a responsibility to make sure your character's voice comes out true. Follow the above, listen to people from that area if it's not where you're from (if you can), at least look it up on Google or make it up as you go along. These are important things that'll enhance your writing. It makes your characters realistic and really brings them off the page.

So, hope this has helped. Y'all have a great day and blessed weekend. ;D

Morals and Epic Changes

We know that in order to have a good story, the MC has to learn something. But what is your character supposed to learn over the course of your story?

Well, anything. It depends on a lot of variables such as your character's personality and what you're subjecting them to. Here are a few specific examples of change:

RELIGIOUS. If Aladdin stumbled into a church and was awed and inspired by the sermons and artwork, then he decided to become a Christian, that's a major change. What did Aladdin learn? Christianity. (Especially since he more than likely would have been Muslim, as the Middle East... well, always has been. That region was originally united by Islam, wasn't it?) I would put "religion to atheism" here as well, even though by definition "atheism" isn't a religion at all.

IDEAS. Or idealogies, or whatever. It can relate to religion, but this is broader. For example, Opal (that name reminds me of the Artemis Fowl series, haha) wanted to be a ballerina her whole life, then breaks her legs and is forced to join art therapy by her mother. She finds she loves building sculptures more than she ever loved ballet, and decides to be an artist. This is an ideological change. It includes things like career paths, how they view the world, pretty much their beliefs in general. This is a big category.

CLIQUE. I know, but it's true. If your character is popular and decides that she is really happier off at being a nerd. If your goth girl is suddenly thrown into the world of politics and socialness, and finds that she doesn't actually mind it. If your popular jock announces to the school he's gay and would rather be hanging out with emo kids anyway (I don't see why it's such a big deal being gay or emo, but hey, whatever). I think you get it.

EMOTION. If your character is always happy, then goes through a torture session and ends up perpetually angry. Your character is grieving but finds a way through it. In a way, this can connect with all three of the above.

Basically, your character can only go two different directions - they can turn good, or they can turn bad. Usually good, but one of a good guy turned bad would be awesome to read. Those categories above are specific ways that change can happen. It can happen in a sudden epiphany, or so gradual, your character doesn't notice until they look back. There are infinite possibilities from those two choices.

There are more categories, and this barely scratches the scratch on the surface (I cannot remember where I get that particular saying - some book. Just know that wasn't mine). But this is a place to start.

Have a blessed week, keep writing, and love books! <3

Rising Action

RISING ACTION ~ a related series of incidents in a literary plot that build toward the point of greatest interest.

In other words, all of your character's hard work to get to the point where (s)he wins or loses. You've probably seen one of those graphs up above, or something similar. We're only focusing on rising action, that arrow pointing right to the upwards climb.

Which is what rising action really is - a climb. The beginning introduces your character and gets the reader excited about them, but your character has to keep up the hard work and keep the reader interested. You cannot skip straight to the climax. That is really important, because of three reasons.

ONE, rising action helps your reader know your character better. If you introduce Mary Sue as a fun loving redhead, and all of a sudden you drop her into this epic fight scene and she's grimly hacking off the evil king's head, you and the reader are going to be confused. What? When did sweet little Mary Sue learn how to use a sword, let alone gather the guts to kill someone? Your entire story turns into this muddied, confusing, random jumble of scenes. Because, although your climax is super important, so is the rising action that gets her to that point. The key to preventing this is to take your time and introduce smaller conflicts. Start with introducing Mary Sue, then have her meet the evil king who immediately takes a disliking to her and her ragtag team of friends (not forgetting to introduce her friends, as well). He tries to smite them immediately and fails, and some of the nobles around him notice just how crazy and evil His Majesty truly is. They join up with Mary Sue, one of them teaches her how to use a sword, another gives this wise lecture on how sometimes, hurting one person is best for all the people. Finally, you can have them traveling back to the castle, where now you can have the epic fight scene.

TWO, the rising action makes up quite a bit, if not most, of the story. You cannot really suspend an introduction to the character, a climax, and tying up some loose knots without missing a pretty big chunk in the middle (including the loose knots that you're supposedly tying up). The rising action is that section between the beginning and end that you always imagine as bigger than the other two (or if you're math-inclined, that line that connects the two dots). It supports the entire story. You remember how Mary Sue was confusing if you simply dropped her into the highest point? (You'd better.) Notice how I took longer to describe the rising action than it did to describe that climax. Without the rising action, your story is a bunch of rocks sticking up from a stream bed. With it, your story is the stream, and the wildlife and greenery on its banks, along with those rocks.

THREE, everyone knows that it's the journey that matters. It's not the destination. So don't rush to get there. Have your angsty main character Zane relax and listen, or do something heroic, like risk his life for a peasant five year old. Watching him change and grow as a person is usually more entertaining than him defeating his father. When you connect with a character, it's more than just his battles, or just his looks, or just his job. You connect with his thoughts, his feelings, his view on life. The same goes for a girl, and this is a common place for your FMC to go whiny. You find a way to show their hidden traits, their ability to flex their stubborn ways into something gentler and more heroic. 

So, that's the importance of them. How do you write good rising action?

The key is to watch your pace. It naturally flows faster at a fight scene or a tense moment. But you have to slow down and describe the details occasionally, especially on internal conflict if you're writing romance. You don't always think fast and you're not always filled with adrenaline. You need a balance between these smaller events. 

Another thing is that your character generally needs to be getting stronger. If they're getting weaker, then you're going to back your character into a corner with no way around his/her enemies. Mary Sue unwittingly gathered allies to support her, and they help her to think stronger and deadlier so she can chop off that king's head. If Zane goes from this powerful minister's son to starving in some dungeon, and then climbs into daylight and immediately faces his father, it's not hard to guess who'll win.

Small events + stronger character + good pacing = (somewhat) decent rising action. Of course, there are plenty of other things to focus on, but these are the basics, I hope. If I forgot something (because I can't think of anything else at the moment), please let me know. 

To recap, rising action is the climbing middle of your story that supports pretty much everything. You cannot skip it. So, keep on with your writing, don't forget your small, well-paced events, and have a blessed day. :)

     

Adding Holidays

Holidays. They don't seem too important. From Christmas to Hanukkah to Earth Day to President's Day to Halloween, most people celebrate holidays more than once a year. So why should your characters be any different?

There are three main points I'm gonna discuss. They barely scratch the surface, but I can't think of any more right this second.

First of all, holidays add to WORLD-BUILDING. It adds details to your story. Is this holiday celebrating a state/popular religion, such as Christmas? (I think plenty of atheists celebrate Christmas as well though, so be careful with that one and be specific- if your people are Christian, it'd be wise to mention it.) Perhaps it is celebrating important dead people, like President's Day? Is it celebrating nature, like Earth Day? You don't have to stick to these holidays; make one up if you want to. For example... the Gregorian Moon festival held in December celebrates the four elements in the world of Noria. Something like that. But now, Noria isn't some world you don't know or care about: you know they celebrate the 4 elements and they have a festival in December dedicated to them.

Another thing about holidays is that they can mark IMPORTANT EVENTS. An example of this is in The Scarlet Letter (by Nathaniel Hawthorne). At the end of the book, on Election Day (politics is mighty important to a town that's just starting out) Dimmesdale makes a huge, important speech, finally (sort of) confesses to his adultery with Hester, and he dies. Holidays can highlight the fact that something important is about to happen. You can start on one as well, part of that let's-drop-the-reader-into-the-middle-of-some-action kind of beginning. Or it can be somewhere in the middle, like your villain is about to set off some Independence Day fireworks as a distraction so he can slip away from you unnoticed. Or, like The Scarlet Letter, it can happen at the end, finishing your story with a grand finale.

The last thing: CHARACTER-BUILDING. Holidays can introduce facts about your character without having to come right out and saying it. For example, if your character is Muslim and you start your book during Ramadan, you don't have to outright say "Christina is Muslim." Or Hanukkah: you don't have to say "Bobby Joe is Jewish." If your character isn't religious at all, then maybe they are celebrating some holiday that they care about, like if they're an environmentalist and celebrating Earth Day. Character building is vital to a story, and adding holidays is one way of building up who they are as a person.

Holidays are an important factor to consider in your story, just as important as language or culture or history. In many ways, it actually adds to those three. Readers love a world that could they can almost reach out and touch, and knowing that Noria celebrates the Gregorian Moon festival, or that this tiny Muslim village in the Middle East during the 800s AD is celebrating Ramadan (Did they have Ramadan in that time period?) makes your story realistic and imaginable.

While this post doesn't cover everything, and I would like to elaborate more, I have to get off now (too much homework, not enough hours in a day). So, good luck with your writing, remember the points I have made, and have a blessed day. :D