Tag Archives: Characters

Braving the Plunging Neckline (or, The Importance of Raising the Stakes)

9 Feb

This is a post about boobs.

You have been warned.

One thing I’ve noticed over the past few months as I’ve become a more discerning reader, as I’ve read friends’ manuscripts, and now as I’ve started reading for Awesome Agent, is that thing everyone talks about — raising the stakes.

And you know what? It’s true, what I’ve seen editors say: We don’t do it enough.

For a long time, raising the stakes was like show, don’t tell for me. I saw everyone talking about these things, I understood that they were somehow important, but I didn’t understand their full meaning. I now understand show, don’t tell after many painstaking hours of trying to wrap my brain around the intricate do’s and don’ts of that rule. And I also now finally understand raise the stakes.

For a long time, I thought, “Raise the stakes? Um. Der. Put your main characters through a messload of crap. I got it. I do that. Go away.”

But then I understood — we’ve got to not only put our characters through a messload of crap; we’ve got to do that, drag ‘em across a bed of hot glass shards, dangle ‘em over the edge of a volcano, pluck off their fingers, break their hearts into pieces, burn their homes to the ground and then make ‘em fight their way through an inferno to get out, all while holding a dagger to the throat of whatever they love most in the world.

They should get to the point of no return, the point where it seems all hope is lost, before finally digging in their heels and saying, “Enough.” If they don’t get to that rock-bottom point, then their fight back to the top, their journey to an ultimate triumph, won’t be the catharsis it should be.

I finally understood this when I started thinking about boobs the other day. Don’t get all giggly, you pervs. I was getting dressed up to go out and got irritated because a shirt that looked wholly innocuous on the rack…wasn’t. The neckline wasn’t necessarily plunging, but I felt like it was. I felt exposed, vulnerable, and kinda skanky.

Now, see, I can see other women wearing shirts with plunging necklines, and I’m like, “Well done. You’re rockin’ it. You WEAR that plunging neckline, sistah. REPRESENT.” These people look perfectly fine and non-skanky.

But I have this paralyzing fear that I can’t pull off anything other than a modest cut without looking like, as we called it back in my middle school days, a “hoochie mama.”

Other people can pull it off. They look pretty and classy, whereas I just feel stupid and like I’m trying too hard, when all I’m really trying to do is feel pretty and happy in a nice top.

So, as I’m sitting there the other day, trying to decide whether or not I should just say, “Screw this low-cut top, I’m putting on a T-shirt,” I realized something.

Raising the stakes = wearing a shirt with a plunging neckline.

Playing it safe = wearing a T-shirt.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with playing it safe. We have to give our characters some happy, chill moments, otherwise the noteworthy, traumatic moments have no impact. We have to wear T-shirts on occasion because it makes the moments we dress up that much more special, fun, and memorable.

There’s nothing wrong with raising the stakes, either. We can’t let ourselves get scared of donning that shirt with the plunging neckline. We can’t let ourselves think we’ll look like we’re trying too hard, or like we’re somehow bad for doing this. We can’t let ourselves think that other people can pull it off, but we can’t.

We can.

You think you’ve made it hard for your character? Make it harder.

You think you’ve pushed your character to his/her limits? Push them farther.

You think you’ve broken your character’s heart, determination, and will to keep fighting? Break them. Again and again.

We can’t let ourselves be afraid to take risks, to send our characters (and our necklines) plummeting. That doubt that creeps into our  heads, that uncertainty of “Is this too much? Too far? Too edgy?” That fear that the neckline is too low?

It’s not.

Other people pull it off. Other people push their characters to the brink and off it, making us gasp and shake our heads and admiringly wonder how they ever dared do it.

Be that person. Push your characters. Push them until they fall, crack, shatter. Push them past the point of reason, to the point where you have to stop and think, “No way. I can’t do this. It’s too much. It’s outrageous.”

It’s not.

Don’t be afraid of raising the stakes.

Don’t be afraid of the plunging neckline.

A Blog Overview and Character Anthems

31 Jan

Mornin’, y’all! How goes it?

Did anyone watch the SAG Awards last night? I didn’t, because we only have rabbit ears at Mom’s, so we can’t get TBS or TNT, which is what broadcasted them. Grrr. But that’s okay. All that really matters is the Oscars, right? And I will watch the CRAP out of those.

Also, just for giggles, you should check out the Fug Girls’  HILARIOUS recap of ABC Family’s Mean Girls 2.

…

Yeah, I know. Mean Girls 2. WHY? JUST…WHY WOULD YOU — AGH. Anyway, it’s hilarious, and it also is an excellent example of the things you should NOT do as a writer, no matter what kind of story you’re telling. Enjoy.

So, all that said, on to business: I’m gonna try something a little different around here starting this week. I’m kind of already doing it, but I want to make it more blatant. I want to talk about the three things that are essential to me as a writer.

One of those is Media.

One day, I will have a home theater like this. And, oh yes, I WILL watch Men in Black on it.

Whether it’s music, movies, art, or photography, media is incredibly important to me. It’s what I look to for inspiration when I’m stuck and for creative rejuvenation when I’m worn out. So, on Media Mondays, I’m gonna post music, movie clips, art (illustrations, paintings, etc.), and photographs, and then talk about them a little bit. These posts will be short and sweet and entertaining. I love when writers — or anyone, really, but especially artist-types — talk about what inspires them, what gets them working in the mornings. Sometimes people talk about an album they’ve been writing to, or a movie they recently watched that helped them work out a Plot Knot, and I end up loving whatever they’re talking about and finding inspiration, too. So, that’s what Media Mondays will be about.

Another important thing is, obviously, Writing itself. Duh.

Call me old-fashioned, but I will always adore that opening line.^

So, Wednesdays will be Writerly Wednesdays, which they’ve already been for a while. In these posts, I’m gonna talk about the craft — the act of writing, the work that goes into making our writing better, the occasional interview with other writers, round-ups of good writerly articles, discussions about the industry, that sort of thing. EDUCATIONAL, but also AWESOME, in other words.

The third important thing is what I write about — Fantasy.

I love this creepy bird man. <3

Now, I’m not talking about fantasy, the genre. I do write that, yes. But more importantly, I write things that have fantastical elements, whether that’s dragons or androids or whatever. (Yeah, in this case, I’m including science fiction as a sub-section of fantasy, which will probably irritate some people, but we can talk about that in a future post.)

So, my fantasy comes in all shapes and sizes. It can be epic like Lord of the Rings (or like my Earthshine), post-apocalyptic and dystopian like The Hunger Games (also like Earthshine), a fairy tale re-telling like Wicked (or like my Cracked), or a haunted house story like Coraline (or like my The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls). It can be paranormal romance, urban fantasy, magical realism, even science fiction. But the common thread here is that I write about things that are extraordinary in some way — things that are magical and surreal, things that turn our normal world on its ear and introduce us to someplace totally new, whether that’s in our world or another.

On Fantasy Fridays, I’ll therefore talk about fantastical things — inspiring excerpts from my favorite fantasy books, clips from fantasy movies, articles about real-world events/people/ideas that inspire and intrigue me (like Wicca and carnival life and magicians), and discussions about fantasy tropes like The Hero, The Quest, The Magical Mentor (beware, I might link to TV Tropes during all this; oh look, I just did!). I’m also incorporating Photo Fridays into this, and post pictures and photos that are specifically fantasy-related.

…Like this one!^

So, on to our first Media Monday! (See, in normal posts, there won’t be all that explanatory stuff up there. It’ll just be the fun stuff, like below:)

Recently, a couple of my wonderful friends (let’s call them Mr. Neitzsche and Red) introduced me to blues-rock band The Black Keys via their most recent album, Brothers. When I pressed Play, I fell immediately, viscerally in love. Their music is gritty and dirty and really just makes me want to go kick some ass while looking drop-dead fabulous. So, what I’m saying is…you should check them out ASAP, my friends.

One of the tracks is called “Sinister Kid,” and it’s PERFECT for one of my Earthshine characters. What I mean by that is, as I’m sure a lot of writers do, I love choosing anthems for my characters — songs that perfectly encapsulate part of what makes that character tick.

This particular character, Simon, is…troubled. He’s an operative who makes his own rules, he’s angry, he’s more than a little schizo, he’s obsessive, he’s tragic, and he revels in the moments he gets to slash people to pieces. He has very little regard for his own safety, because the only thing he cares about is getting one of my MCs, Eliana, where she needs to go. She’s the only thing that matters in his life anymore. Well, that and going nutso on people with a knife.

What are some anthems you’ve picked for your various characters? Tell me about them — the anthems AND the characters, if you want! I’m ALWAYS on the look-out for new music (and awesome new stories from my writerly friends). :)

Being Afraid (or, What’s Worth Fighting For)

18 Nov

I’ve been really afraid lately.

I’ve been afraid of what the future holds. I’m graduating in December and am currently applying for jobs, but I haven’t had any leads yet.

I’ve been afraid that my stories aren’t worthwhile, that I’ll never affect others as my favorite authors have affected me, that I’ll never touch people’s lives and make them cry or laugh or think.

I’ve been afraid, even though I’m well aware I shouldn’t do anything else, that I’m wasting my time trying to be a writer.

I’m not proud of these fears, but they’re here, and I’ve got to deal with them.

The problem is, after a while, dealing with these fears gets exhausting. I start feeling so overwhelmed by the sheer amount of decisions I need to make and the work I need to do that I just want to curl myself away until I don’t have to think about them anymore. As much as I love what I do, I get tired of struggling, of staying up till all hours of the night reading, researching, writing, revising, when others are warm and comfy in their beds — and all this with no real assurance that I’m on the right track.

Blah blah whine whine, right?

But seriously, I understand that learning how to write well and trying to get published takes a long time, and it’s not always a FUN long time; in fact, sometimes it’s painful and maddening and soul-crushing. Believe me, I get that. And you’ve got to know all that and keep going anyway, even when it seems futile. And some days are harder than others. Some days, what you’re trying to do seems impossible.

Lately, I’ve had many of those “some days.”

Yesterday was one of them.

Then, my friend Susan (Twitter | blog) said something to me that made me step back and check myself before I completely wrecked myself. (Oh yeah, I totally did.)

She said, “It’s a discouraging business. You have to be one of those brave-in-the-face-of-seemingly-insurmountable-odds characters. You must Lyra.“

Immediately, my mood lifted.

Lyra.

For those who don’t know, Lyra is the protagonist of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, and I just love her to death. She is definitely in my Top Five Fictional Females list. Perhaps in my Top Five Fictional Characters EVER list. Scrappy and stubborn and a bit of a brat, she doesn’t always do the right thing, but she tries her darnedest, and she’s brave to the point of truly earning the word “fierce.”

Here she is, doing some first class sneaking.

Here she is, riding Iorek Byrnison, king of the Panserbjørne, aka, frickin’ ARMORED POLAR BEARS:

I know, right? Girlfriend’s got some serious chutzpah.

She makes mistakes, she is herself to a fault sometimes, but she is always herself, and whenever she falters or loses a bit of her bravery, she spits and curses an orphan’s curse or two and kicks whatever brought her down IN THE FACE and gets right back up, even fiercer than before.

This is what I need to do. This is what Susan was telling me I need to do.

I must Lyra.

And while I’m trying to be all courageous and resilient and Lyratic, I’ve got to keep in mind how much I love my stories and my characters, and if there’s even the tiniest chance that some day, my stories will be read, and if even one of my characters can reach somebody somewhere the way characters like Lyra have reached me, then it’s worth it.

It’s worth all the frustration, the uncertainty, the long nights.

It’s worth being afraid.

It’s worth fighting for.

What about you? In your darkest writerly days, what keeps you going? Is it the love you have for your characters? The encouragement of others who believe in you? Sheer stubbornness? The idea of making a difference and leaving something worthwhile behind?

Please share below. I’d love to hear from you!

← Older Entries