Blog Update

I started a new job two weeks ago, and with a new job comes a new schedule.

While I adjust, it has come to my attention that I may not always be able to blog on Tuesdays. That being said, I am still committed to blogging every week.

So, what if we compromise?

I'll post a new blog post sometime between 12:00 am on Sunday and 11:59 pm on Wednesday.

The new post could come in on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, or during the day or evening of Wednesday, but it will come!

So, if you want to keep checking back every Tuesday like normal, feel free. However, be assured that a new post will be available to read by Thursday morning. Check back every Thursday for guaranteed new content.

This will take some of the pressure off me as I learn my new job and adjust to my new (highly fluctuating) schedule.

How does this sound to you? Is this a worthy compromise?

Let me know your thoughts in the comments, and until next time we speak, keep writing! :)

Why It's Important To Ride Out The Storm

I recently wrote a short story with a pretty great plot (as long as my writing group isn't lying to me) that all stemmed from one simple thing: Brainstorming.

Remember in elementary school when your teacher would set aside ten minutes a day for you to brainstorm new ideas for your writing journal or so you could come up with a slightly more creative approach to your essay on the Underground Railroad? I sure do. A good 80% of the time, it worked, too.

And yet, very few writers brainstorm daily or even when they're out of ideas.

Instead, we wait around for inspiration to strike. We do laundry, we go to the store, we sit and stare at a blank screen at the coffee shop. We think, "It'll happen. I'll just ignore it and it'll come forward like a shy deer." When a smidgen of an idea does finally come, we usually stop it before it grows to its full potential. We outline it and worry about the characters to fill the idea, but we never let the idea grow crazy and wild before trimming it back. We wish it to grow inside our defined little box of "my genre" and "things I write".

But if brainstorming proved to be so beneficial as children, why do we so easily turn our backs on it?

The answer is, because it can be difficult.

It's scary to go unbridled into the lightning and thunder. It's dark most of the time. What if we can't come up with any ideas? What if we come up with a ton and they all suck?

These are questions everyone has asked before brainstorming.

And it's true: sometimes, nothing happens.

However, other times bad ideas turn not so bad. They grow and shift and change with each strike of lightning - illuminating themselves a little more to the writer.

I've personally set a goal to brainstorm at least once per week. Rather than getting stuck on my writing and going off to make cookies, grocery shop, or watch Project Runway (admit it, you've been there), I force my creative muscles to flex. I sit down with a timer, gluing my fingers to the keys and my butt to the seat.

And you know what? It works. Pretty soon ideas come and characters show themselves and plots unravel. Pretty soon my brain stops procrastinating and shrieking like a tired two year-old and it starts to have some fun.

That's why we got into this in the first place - it's why we do what we do - because we find writing intoxicatingly fun and we can't stop.

So, next time you're at your rope's end and you want to throw your hands up in frustration, try brainstorming. It may give you a new idea for a poem or novel, or it may help you riddle through the portion of your work-in-progress that has you at a standstill.

Need a new idea? Brainstorm.

Can't think of a title? Brainstorm.

Have an extra ten minutes while the soup boils? Brainstorm.

Incredible things happen when you give your creativity slack like that. You'll bring up things you never thought imaginable. They're all right there in your head, waiting for you to get out of the way so they can be seen.

Indirect Speech (AKA: "What could you possibly mean?" "Why, let me tell you." "Oh, please do." "With pleasure.")

Early post this week because I start my new day-job tomorrow (wish me luck!).

This week I want to discuss something with you that often gets overlooked: Indirect Speech. Sure, we spend loads of time talking about successful character development, dialogue, and setting, but what about some of the more subtle tools in the writer craft box?

Indirect speech is one of those tools.

To put it simply, indirect speech is the method of paraphrasing your character's actions and dialogue when the information is already known to the reader.

For instance, if your protagonist just learned the evil plot of the antagonist in a long chapter with tons of wonderful dialogue, when she teams up again with her sidekick, she doesn't need to repeat the entire plan because the reader just heard it. Instead, the writer may write something like:

Protag launched into the revelation of Antag's plan as soon as she saw Sidey-Man. 

"But why would he rob Starbucks?" Sidey-Man asked.

This way, the protagonist relays the important information to a supporting character without taking up valuable page-time. (Also note that directly after the indirect speech, the writer flows right into the necessary dialogue in the new scene without any breaks.)

Indirect speech is also important to help cut out common human interactions that your character may think are necessary, but that your reader doesn't want to continuously get stuck reading.

For instance, if you introduce your character as a polite person, they may begin their third conversation in the book like this:

"Hello, Mr. Johnson."

"Hello, Anvil, how's your day going."

"Just fine, how is yours?"

"Splendid. How can I help you?"

"Well, I don't want to alarm you, but I'm looking for a serial killer and I wondered if I could have a peek at your security camera footage?"

This will get mighty tedious mighty fast for your reader. Instead, employ indirect speech:

Anvil greeted Mr. Johnson warmly, then said, "I don't want to alarm you, but I'm looking for a serial killer and I wondered if I could have a peek at your security camera footage?"

This way, Anvil is true to his kind personality and the reader recognizes who this character is, but only the important need-to-know info is given the mighty distinction of quotation marks. 

So, the next time you're writing and find that

1) you're writing the same information over and over again

2) you need to cut word count, or

3) you receive critiques that say there is a lot of repeating information or phrases in your text

have a thought for indirect speech. It may be the subtle, underutilized writing tool your novel needs to kick it up a notch.

Happy Writing this week! I'm going to try and keep up a schedule, but with new jobs and training it's always difficult. Ah, the life of the poor scribe ;)

How to Write a Strong Female Protagonist

Making sure our female leads are strong, confident, and capable is something extremely important for writers (like me) who want to promote feminism and gender equality across the board. And while most writers have good intentions when they set out with their "strong female character" to conquer the world, I've read a number of stories and novels that go about portraying her the wrong way.

While it's great to show your protagonist in a predominantly "male" employment - like kicking butt, taking names, crunching numbers, and leading tech companies - this does not instantly make her "strong". Her body count racking up higher than the man's does not mean you've succeeded at writing her as a real, tangible character. Do you know why? Because that woman is normally portrayed through a lens of masculine characteristics.

She's an island without a single friend or family member. She's generally rude and terrible to be around. She swears to feel tough. She drinks to fit in. She's all around overly aggressive.

Why is this hurtful to women? Because it prolongs gender inequality by saying that woman can only be considered strong if they portray overtly masculine qualities.

Your character can in fact know that she is beautiful. This is not vanity. This is called not promoting body dysmorphic thoughts.

Your character can be confident with aspirations and goals and still be kind and have friends. This is reality. This is being a good person. This is not called being feminine and weak.

Your character needn't sit like a man, dress like a man, think like a man, belch like a man, and drink like one too...all while not falling over in her seven inch heels. This does not make her more confident or strong. This is called transforming her into the "tough guy" or even more insulting the T-U-F-F "tuff guy".

So, if none of this names a strong female protagonist, what does?

The answer lies in the most basic forms of story writing : character and plot.

Your character must make decisions, have desires, and affect the plot. The action of the story will unfold because of how she acts on the plot not on how she reacts to it. She must be the active driving force.

A woman who hates her job but does nothing about it but hope and pray that it gets better as she lives her day the same as she always does is being reactive.

Whereas, a woman who is unhappy in her marriage crashes her car and decides to fake her own death is being active. The plot now unfolds from her decisions and motivations rather than the things that happen to her. She's made the choice to do something about her situation. She's a fully fledged character.

It doesn't matter if your female character is a computer programmer or a preschool teacher. It doesn't matter if she wears high heels or flat shoes. It doesn't matter if she can take a person three times her size down in a parking garage or gets anxiety when she holds a gun.

The only way you can write a strong female protagonist is by making her the catalyst through which the plot flows. Make sure she has desires and motivations. Make sure she DOES stuff and doesn't just let stuff happen to her. And above all, make sure that she's strong because she has desires and gets things done, and not because she portrays the most stereotyped of masculine qualities.