Challenge: Finish that Book!

I have a pile of books that are on my current reading list online and offline.  I'm thinking of starting a challenge, officially starting on September 1st, that I will finish all of the books I've started by the end of the year.  Or at least 50 percent of those books.  I'm wanting to go for all the current reading books to be finished, so we'll see how that happens.

<u>Rules</u>
1. Create a list on Goodreads.  Link to that list in a post on your own Livejournal / blog and state your goal - ie, read half of the books on the list or read all of the books on the list or whatever you want your goal to be.  Now, these books can be from whenever you started them, if it was this year, last year, ten years ago - basically, if you want to finish reading a book this year, add it to your list.

2. If you do not have a currently reading list, go through your to-read lists and make a list of books you want to complete before the end of the year.  If you don't have a to-read list, find a new author and start working through their books.

3. On September 1st, start finishing those books!  You can also add books to your currently reading list until December 1st.  After that, books can only come off but you can't add to it.

I'll probably be talking about this here and crossposting to my blog. 

Who Are We Writing For Anyways?

Hello again.  Long time, no blog posting.  I would say that I would get better at it, but we all know that's not going to be true.  I did finish a book recently - in my defense, it was a long ass book - so I might write about it later.  Or not.  We'll see how it goes when I want to.  Also, schedule a tangent into the end of today's blog post.  Mostly because I want to and mostly because I'm insane.  Let's go into the first part of that today.  From now on, I'm going to start having an insanity of the day.  If you follow me on Facebook, you'll see it there.  I might spring board it into a blog post or I might just post about it a million times on Facebook.  Depending on where you read, you might care or not care about this at the end of everything.  But moving on.

Insanity of the Day: Who do we write for?  Do we write for ourselves or do we write to impress others?  Do we write to carry on stories that we think need to be carried on?

Before I answer, a bit of history.  When telling a story first started, it started as an oral tradition.  You'd gather around a fire and watch a story being told through dance.  Or listen to someone tell a story through the first bits of language being developed along with visual clues.  As we progressed as humans, stories got written down.  Some of those stories were amazing enough to survive through to today - Chaucer, Shakespeare, so on - and some were lucky enough to get printed when they did (Treasure Island, I am looking at you).  So, bit of history background done.

Now, let's go through the questions bit by bit.  Mostly because there are three questions and we should take them all seriously. 

1. Who do we write for?

Well...that depends on what kind of writer you are.  If you're like me, you say you're writing for yourself, but in reality, you're most writing to get published and to get the voices in your head to shut up.  Also, it is due to the fact that nobody is writing what you want to read.  Like a horror / fantasy novel where vampires rule the world and there's a kick ass female character who doesn't want to fall in love but does so anyways.

Shut up.  I know my character has issues.  And some of them have a full subscription.

But, back to the point at hand - if you can figure out who you want to write for, you're pretty much set.  The other hand is wondering if you can live with the fact that you're writing for yourself instead of writing for others.  If you're being selfish, but in a good way, because in the end, you get what you want.  It isn't a bad thing.  It is what it is.  At least you know that you're writing. 

2. Do we write for ourselves or to please others?

Well, yes, number 1 can answer this question.  But what if you're not writing for yourself?  What if you're writing because you have this wonderful story that you think everyone should read?  Are you really pleasing others by thinking that everyone should read your novel or are you secretly writing for yourself? 

Yes, a question that brings questions.  Annoying, isn't it?  (Don't answer that.)

If you are truly writing to please others, then you can simply answer "yes" and go along your merry way while turning out this fiction that will withstand the tests of time and make people happy.  However, you might be wrong.  Your wonderful novel might bomb.  Or it might only be for one section of the population while you think it is for everyone.  Or people might forget about you by the next week.

Here's a secret - those who write for themselves - yes, they worry about selling but they also worry about what to do next.  What will be the next story?  Will it fit to the story that I just wrote?  Will it make my muses happy?  If you write for yourself, then you write to make yourself happy and hope that people come along for the ride.  And again, you've already answered this question when you answered the first.

3. Do we write to carry on stories that we think need to be carried on?

This is a personal question.  I can only tell you what I feel.  I feel that yes, I write to carry on stories that need to be carried on.  However, most of my stories contain the belief of things that are supernatural in nature or call upon belief in abilities that humans do not think they can use (magic).  However, with all of these stories, there is a tie to real life.  There is love or hope or rebellion or all three tied into one or even more than that.  One story cannot be put into one box and just stay there.  Look at what the big blockbusters of our time have done - Harry Potter isn't just for kids and isn't just about magic.  Hunger Games isn't just about coming of age and rebelling against those who would want your end because it fits into their version of reality television.  Both stories go beyond what the writer thought they would.  Harry Potter became a reason for kids to start reading and hoping again, while setting a standard for young adult fiction.  Hunger Games showed us that apocalyptic fiction is more than just surviving. 

What am I saying, at least for me, is that I write for myself.  I write to read what I want to read and imagine what I cannot find in real life.  When I write fanfiction, it is because I admire the author's works but yet I see what could happen if just one fact was changed or a character stepped up when they did not.  I know I am not selfish.  I just know what I want to read - and for that to happen, I must write.

Homework - Answer the questions and leave a comment with a link to your blog.

Extra Credit - Comment and share your opinion if I am right, wrong, or nothing.

Writer's Insanity: the Voices That Won't Shut Up

First - apologies for lateness.  I will take my whipping with a wet noodle.  Just realize that I might like it.  :D

I know that we usually go into these things where we springboard on the same idea but different topics.  I'm throwing that out this week to bring something up that has been happening a lot lately.  Well, not a lot as in daily but it is starting to bug me.

It is this - The Characters that will not SHUT THE FRAK UP. 

You're working on this one project that has a hard deadline - hello Leverage Reverse Big Bang fic¹ - and my original characters just start talking.  And whining.  Because I seem to be doing a lot more fanfic writing rather than letting Justinian sink his teeth into the dhampir that he's deeply in love with and won't admit it².  There doesn't seem to be any sort of cure to this other than to write the scene they want.  But then they go quiet.  So, I'm thinking that the best thing is to just ignore them and go novel crazy later.

The problem is that they shut out the project voices.  So there is no choice but to stop and make sure that you write that scene.  I wish it was different.  So, I turn to the blogging circle.

My assignment to you, o Circle-ers, is two-fold.  First - I want to hear your tales of woe about characters who will not shut up.  Secondly - I want your cure.  If it's the same as mine, I still want to hear about it.  But I must have a cure!

And that is that.  Go off and enjoy the world.  Cheers!

¹A reverse big bang is where people first create the art.  It can be any kind of art.  Then the writers get to choose what kind of story they will write based on the art.  It really is fun, if I could actually write it.  It's due at the end of the month.

²Yes, I will write it.  No, it won't be right now, but maybe tomorrow.  <--- to Keri and Tatra,  And maybe Erin.

I could quote Shakespeare, but we're talking about names here

So...I get the honor of putting up the second topic of our lovely WriYe Blogging Circle.  Today's topic: Naming Characters.  And then today's question...*drum roll* How do you name your characters? 

(Yes, I know that was expected.  I still wanted the drum roll.  Hush.)

Now, there is a ton of advice already out there about naming characters.  There is the "get a baby book and go for the meaning" type advice.  There is the going to a website and pulling up a random name.  I use this advice all the time when I am having a problem with naming a character, especially a background one.  With the background characters, at least for me, it seems to be more about getting a quick name like Mark than building any sort of depth to them with an interesting name.

Now, remember the story I told about the first character I created which lead me to understanding character depth?  You're probably wondering why I named such a character, no less a vampire, Pyre.  When you think of a pyre, you think of flames and funerals and Vikings.  Well, I think of Vikings.  You might also think of Doctor Who - oops, getting off topic.

What I wanted to do with her is be unique and a bit ironic.  Why name a vampire after something that is used to kill them?  Why not go with something a bit more towards a traditional vampire character or a normal name like Erin?  Because, even though I took the idea of blind hacker from somewhere else - we'll get back to authors stealing borrowing from other authors sometime - she needed to be different.  She needed to have a name that people would remember and to go with her oddball personality.  Erins being oddballs are a dime a dozen and we love all of them.  But it would be expected.  That would be normal.  Pyre isn't not normal.  She's brilliant and insane and...some things that really shouldn't be posted but have been uttered by others.

Once I had the name for Pyre, her back story suddenly just came out of me.  It turned out that she did have a completely normal name but Pyre was her hacker name and she had always been a computer geek.  This was the name she used to have an entirely different life and now, since she was in a different life, she embraced her hacker identity completely.

So, what I'm getting at is, unless your character is supposed to be normal or in the background, go for the gusto with naming them.  Go for the odd spelling of Christopher if you need them to stand out but you love the name.  You make the character into Kristopher and maybe now, they're a Russian spy, or were one in a past life.  Expected?  Maybe.  But you can bring depth to that character with the odd name and make them extraordinary.  Don't make your characters normal with their name.  Make them normal with what they do.  Stretch the limits with the name and you might find a back story that writes itself. 

Links for Naming Websites

Baby Names Website: http://www.weddingvendors.com/baby-names/

Behind the Name Random Generator: http://www.behindthename.com/random

Seventh Sanctum Name Generators: http://www.seventhsanctum.com/index-name.php

Links to Other People's Answers
Cherri: WriYe Blogging Circle #2  
J. Wesley: Character Names
Keri: I Think Your Name Means Dumb
Siana Blackwood: Blogging Circle Post 2

A Long Time Ago, In a Galaxy Far Away (Or, as we know it, Wisconsin)

Ugh - this is such a hard question, the "how do I give my characters depth" one.  it doesn't help that other people have been awesome on the subject - one person included drawings (*cough*Keri*cough*) - and I'm sitting here trying to think on how to answer it.  I'm trying to think on how I created my characters in the first place for my series and then I look over to my messy bookshelf that contains a binder of character sheets, gaming books, and a dice bag.  So, gather round children, for I am going to answer the question, but I am also going to give you a story.  I'm going to tell you about my first character ever for a role playing game and how I learned to bring depth to my characters.

First things first - this was September of 2000.  If you've read my "About Me" page or know me, I started to seriously write in 2001.  So, take notes and all.  Second thing - the role playing game is a Live Action Role Play (LARP) and it was with Vampire: the Masquerade from White Wolf publishing.  Thirdly, I have not changed names to protect the innocent.  They can come forward and wap me later.

So, traveling back in time to September of 2000 (I think it was September, it might have been October).  I was at Beloit, at college of all things, and I was starting to get into the gaming scene.  One of my friends - I believe it was Jenn - had heard about the fact that there was this live action role playing.  I was curious, so I went along to the character creation.  Back then, it wasn't filling out these little dots if you want more in charisma instead of intelligence or if you wanted more wits.  Sure, there was some of that involved, but there was also the question of how to make that character come alive.  I remember sitting there thinking about it and the GM (game master), Gretchen, came over to help me with my character. 

"Well, what do you want the character to be like?" She asked.

And I realized and answered "I want the character to be like me."

It was a lot easier after that to take such a small concept and just roll with it.  I use a red tipped cane because I'm legally blind in real life, so we put it into the character and made her completely blind. 

Another side note: Since it was the game it was, there were thirteen different clans.  The ugliest clan is known as the Nosferatu.  When they are embraced, the change makes their appearance drop to zero.  Think the original Phantom in Phantom of the Opera.  Or, the movie Nosferatu.  :D  That's basically the model of the clan.  This comes in handy in a moment.  :D

So, the question came - why is she blind?  What happened to a completely normal woman embraced to such a clan?  Also, why was she embraced in the first place?  Why her, out of everyone else in the human population, was she picked?  Was she a loner and they picked out a weak human to prey on? 

(Do you see character questions that go into character depth for when you write your novel?  If you do, give yourself a cookie.  If not, read on.)

The answers came in a simple form though.  Answer #1: The Nosferatu get insanely ugly on embrace.  So, she was blind because her forehead fell in on her eyes.  There was no brain exposed, just a big shifting and regrowing of bone and that was her one big disfiguration with no eyes.  Awesomeness thing ever.  Answer #2: She's a computer genius and the Nosferatu were building a big computer network at the time of her embrace.  They needed her knowledge, so they embraced her.  And thus, the answer to that mess of questions came the bare bones for a character who was only dots and the hint of an idea.  And now, she is one of my favorite characters to pull out as a random contact when I'm the game master to everyone's dismay (or joy.  Some people like Pyre).

So, the point to this longish story is the following: To give your characters depth, you need to not be afraid to ask why you want this character in your story.  If it is the main character, why is this great horrible thing known as a journey happening to him/her?  Or, if they're a side character, why is he/she a peasant or a princess or something in between?  For all characters: Why are they doing what they are doing?  When you figure out the why, your character grows and sinks into your brain as they put out roots to stay there to give life to the forest that is your story.  If you cannot figure out the why, the question becomes "do I need this character" rather than trying to force yourself to figure out the why.

Tune in to the next WriYe Blogging Circle chapter where I'll answer another question (no, I don't know when).  And I might bore you with another story.

Welcome to the Blog

Hello and welcome to my blog.  I originally set this up a while ago, thinking that I was going to use it to review books and talk about writing.  So, I am dusting off this blog and starting with doing that.  I don't know when and I don't know what I'll be writing about, but we'll try to do that.  Hopefully more than once a month, but I'm not holding my breath.

Until later, blog.  For then, I will talk about The Hunger Games and the overall trilogy and how it is eating my brain.  In a good way.

Cheers!