Why I'll Never Cheer for the Patriots and How It Relates to Writing

On Sunday, we learned that the two teams that are heading to the Superbowl are the Atlanta Falcons (woo!) and the Patriots (boo). I should apologize to the people who read this who like the Patriots, Tom Brady, or both, so I do. However, I hate both because it's just getting to be too much. When they got to their first Superbowl, back in 2001, they were the underdogs then. They were going there for the first time since 1996, without winning, and Tom Brady was a sixth round pick out of Michigan. He was only there because they literally forced the old quarterback - a guy named Drew Bledsoe to the sidelines - and Brady was good. That Superbowl in 2001 was also a very close game with the Patriots only winning by a field goal (3 points) so it was a perfect storm of wanting to cheer for them. Then the scandals started and they got so good they weren't the underdogs and I couldn't cheer for them anymore. Props to those who can, but I can't. Tom Brady became the unrelatable and unlikable character in the drama llamas that is professional football, along with the rest of his team. Do you know when they become relatable? When they lose. That's kind of sad, but there it is.

In how this relates to writing, you want to make sure that your characters remain likable unless you're writing villains. To go back to Harry Potter, like I do a lot, Severus Snape is the perfect villain that you root for. With Star Wars, as you learn more about Vader, you want to root for him to come back to good. For your hero, you want the same thing. Harry Potter, for being the chosen one against the evil of Voldemort, was still relatable because his creator wanted him to be human. She wanted to make sure that it was a normal kid underneath all the layers of chosen one. When you're creating your characters, make sure there's something that attaches them to the rest of society. If they're too perfect, then people are going to want to root against them. Your readers might stop reading and that's never good.

Now, if you want someone to hate a character? You've got a perfect template for them. Same goes for if you want someone to hate a villain, but make sure they're doing their evilness for a reason. World Domination is a reason, but why? Because the original rulers are incompetent is a very good reason or because you can do it better is a good reason. Having a shitty childhood is a good reason and you get the added bonus of people wanting to relate to them (see Kingpin in Daredevil). If you need to look up why a character has a motive for doing something evil, look to normal life. Sometime's it's as simple as wanting to keep with the Jones-es situation.

So yeah, that's why I won't be rooting for the Patriots or Tom Brady anytime soon. He had a great origin story, but honestly, someone needs to smack him to make him relatable again. Same goes for the Patriots. Hopefully the Falcons, with their underdog relatable story line, can get the job done.

Until next time, keep on writing.

Word for 2017: Human

I know that I'm late to the party to announcing it to the world - I'm part of a secret group on Facebook who already knows my word for the year - but I decided to get it off my chest. I say that because, even if I don't seem it, I am a private person at heart. I'm an introvert who masquerades as an extrovert because I have good phone skills and I don't shut down after being too long at a party. I just say that I'm good at adapting - it's a bit how nobody knew I was legally blind until a physical for a bowling team - but that's getting off track. Nobody should be surprised that I got off track that easily.

My word for 2017 is Human. It's inspired by the song from Christina Perri, as it's one of my comfort songs that I listen to when I'm having a really bad day, and it fit so perfectly into what I'm trying to do with 2017. I want progress, I don't want perfection, and if that isn't a bit human, I'm not sure what is. We fall down a lot, as a society or even as an individual, but we get up and move forward. We make progress and then smooth out the rough edges when we get there. However, it's in perfection that we lose sight of the journey, and I don't want to. I just want to keep moving forward, even if it's only writing 100 words a day or writing this blog post, or getting through a really rough page of editing.

Now, will I get frustrated with myself? Yep. However, I know what my frustration looks like so I can step back and figure out what's wrong. Maybe it'll take writing down what's going wrong in the story and figuring out that I need to set the novel back a bit. It doesn't mean that I'm going to stop writing the version I'm working on in the moment because I have things that can be used in it. Is it what other writers do or is it recommended for everyone? No, but it's what I need to do for myself.

So, for you, dear reader, what's your word of 2017? What is the one word that seems to sum up how you want to see yourself at the end of the year or even the end of the month? Feel free to leave it below in the comments and, until next time, keep on writing.

Slug Writing or When You've Reached the Dreaded Middle

Hey everyone. Today we're talking about where I am in the middle of writing and editing the projects I'm working on. I call it the dread middle because it seems, whenever I get there, that I'm not sure of the project anymore. I keep on writing, because I'm close to the end, but it's where doubt starts to creep in. Doubt that I'm writing the correct story or that I'm in the right part of the novel or that I'm even supposed to be a writer at all. The last part we'll touch on in a moment, but let's stick with the writing parts for the moment.

I know that I'm not alone in the fact that the middle is where writers get nervous about what they're doing. It happens to a lot of writers and authors - even Neil Gaiman touched upon it in a NaNoWriMo pep letter - so it's not unique to one person. If you're able to get through the middle without dread, I'd love to hear how you do it. So, please, leave comments below or hit me up on Facebook or Twitter about it. But, for the rest of us / me, I can never get through it without some sort of worry. Some sort of wondering if I'm doing the right thing. That's where slug writing comes in. I slow down to the point where I'm moving as fast as a slug, getting in a few words there and a few words here, so it takes me a few days to write a chapter instead of hours.

I wish I had more tips for this other than you just have to get through it. The few words here and there, the few days to write a chapter, is so much better than not doing it at all. It is so much better to get as much as you can on the page until you feel like you can't anymore. We're human - it's my word for 2017 - and we need to realize our limits in order to not stress out more when things are not going our way. So it took me a few days to get through a chapter but the chapter is now done. It's a lot better than where I was before the chapter was done, which was staring at a blank page wondering what the hell I was doing. It is a lot better than having nothing down at all. Even if I have to go back and edit - I do, it's over 4,000 words - but it's done. I'm getting ever so closer to the end and I can write the fun chapter next of being at a gala and surprise.

So, like I always say, it's best to keep on writing. When you are able to do that, then you can come to the next part of the problem, where you wonder if you really can call yourself a writer or an author. Thanks to Elon James White of This Week in Blackness podcast, I've come to know about this as imposter syndrome. It's where you're highly motivated to achieve or have achieved great accomplishments but you're afraid that you're going to be exposed as a fraud and you haven't done all these great things. I am the highly motivated part, as I want to move onto the achieved great things, but I also fear that none of it's going to happen. That everyone is humoring me when they read and say that my plot and characters are great but my grammar sucks.

Yes, that's actually a compliment. Grammar's fixable, plot and characters are a bigger problem. I am worried that when I start to pitch my novels that I'm just going to get laughed at. That it's all been done before and that I will never be published or taken seriously as a writer. That's what comes to me when I reach the middle of my novels and I know it's stupid. I know it's wrong. If I cannot get published through traditional means, there's self publishing. Sure, it's not as grand, but I'll still be an author. I'll still be awesome and I'll be doing what I love to do. It's just the hard part of getting through it and realizing that it'll pass. It passes every time I get out of the middle and goes away until I reach the middle part of my editing. But it'll pass. It always does.

So, that's it for today. Keep on writing. Sometimes it's the only thing that will make everything okay in the end.

This Year's Goal: Progress, Not Perfection

Gather 'round everyone and come to see the WriYe Blogging Circle post for January. It also explains the title of this blog post and what I'm going to try to make my mantra for 2017. We're going for progress, not absolute perfection. To be published, not fully polished but polished enough that they'll take the book seriously. In other words, get things done and not worry if they're going to be perfect. Get the words on the page and make sure that you're moving forward instead of staying in one place.

What is your WriYe goal for the year and why did you choose it?
It's 200,000 words, with at least 50,000 of those words to be written in November for NaNoWriMo. This is based off of a challenge idea from Keri of WriYe to finish off some trilogies or series this year. You have to write and edit at least three of a series or a trilogy. I'm going to start with Mystery of the Dark - there's one in editing mode, one in writing mode, and one in plot mode - and then go from there. Watchers will be next, followed by Power (oh everything help me), and then others.

What are you going to be focusing on this year? 
I'm focusing on getting published with Mystery of the Dark while continuing to write with different projects. We'll see how it goes but that's the plan for the moment. After that, I'm going to focus on new and old projects so I have something else to put out there as well.

What are you doing differently this year compared to last year?
I'm focusing on the way forward rather than deciding to be perfect with everything. If words on the page, then it's a win for the day because that's more words than I had before. If I don't do anything for the day, then I'm not going to blame myself. I have to learn to love a bit of myself as well during the process and not worry about what else could be done. I need to focus on what I do get done and celebrate that.

So, what are you focusing on in 2017? What projects are you starting? Feel free to comment below and, until next time, keep on writing.