Get back on that horse and write!

My apologies for my two day silence, but I wasn't in a good place. However, I'm making the effort now because you can't live in the past - you shouldn't want to, even if you could.

Rejection. It's hard not to take it personally. You see it as somebody telling you there's something about you that just isn't good enough for us. Whether you hear it from the person you're interested in dating, the employer you wish to work for - or the publisher you submitted your heart to in the form of a story/novel. I know it's not always that simple. Sometimes it's the wrong place at the wrong time, the wrong publisher. Bad timing, as in we already have too many of those, sorry, can't use any more.

But it's still hard not to take it personally. And when your writing depends on what's in your head, and how you feel, that makes it difficult to just shrug it off and go on as if it didn't cause a disturbance in your force, 'cause it did. Getting two in two days only compounds the problem. Again, a matter of bad timing, not deliberate foul intent.

But that's just what you have to do is climb back on that horse and keep riding, even if you take a little time to wallow in the trough of self-despair, gloom, and pity.And by climbing back in the saddle, I mean take that story/novel and send it somewhere else right away. No time to mourn, you have business to attend to.

My philosophy is this - everything happens for a reason. No, you don't always know right away what that reason is. Sometimes you never know, sometimes you do (such as the publisher who turns out to be shady and you're more than grateful to have dodged the bullet because they rejected you) You just need to have faith in the fact that it wasn't meant to be and move along, find what is meant to be.

Yes, it's hard to know the difference. Sometimes a publisher looks so shiny and pretty, we think they're the ones for us. Well, all that glitters is not gold, and no more than you can judge a book by its cover, you can't go by what you see, necessarily, when it comes to publishers. That's where research comes in. Avail yourself of what others have said. I always check by googling the publisher and looking for threads on Absolute Write, then read them. They're not all bad, so don't assume that they are. See what others have said. Often you will see publisher rebuttal, as well. But take that with a grain of salt. A bad publisher isn't about to admit to being bad, now is he? I know of one even now who is in severe denial of how seriously he damaged his company, and who is still luring in unsuspecting newcomers who would have no way of knowing to avoid his spider's web if not for people discussing the situation in open forum.

Check with Preditors & Editors too, another invaluable tool, as well as Piers Anthony's site. I know I do. Check the would-be publisher's site. How open is he in discussing what he wants and what he'll give? Does he offer a sample contract to be viewed? Does he answer questions openly and honestly? What about the covers? Are these covers you'd be proud to have on your book? A cover can make or break you, a bad cover just as easily as bad editing. Look at the books he publishes. Does yours fit with them? Keep in mind that his readers may come there for a particular type of book. If yours isn't one of those, you  may not thrive there, no matter how good your book.

Most of all, though, despite the rejection which is an inevitable part of the writing process, do not give up. Keep on writing. Nobody does it quite like you, and there is no better you than you. And remain open to the possibility that self-publishing is the route to go. It's not for everyone, granted. But it is an option.

Just get back on that horse and write.


Until next time, take care!

♥ Julie

Feature & Follow Friday

Another week gone, are you saying TGIF? The days have just flown by, I swear! Happy Friday to one and all and welcome to another Feature & Follow Friday. Before we get to today's question, I'm guest blogging with Lily Sawyer today, and there's a contest, so go here and check it out!

Q: What New Years Blogging or Writing resolution have you placed on yourself?

Let's take each questions separately, shall we?

Blogging: I'd like to gain more followers and blog as often as I can on my own blog, plus have  more guest bloggers and be a guest on more blog. 

Writing: I  hope to finish the Moonlit Skies series with M.A. Church this year, and start another one. I hope to finish some of the sequels I've started - for Max, Leonardo, Dark Love, among others - and finish and sub some of the flash fiction I've started: Trapped in Time, Sonny and Tim, Scent of a Wolf, Lust Never Sleeps, etc.  My fervent desire is to become self-sufficient as a writer this year without having to work outside the home (unless I choose to). And to attend GRL in Atlanta in October.

Guest Blogger Mystical Press

Please welcome Arial and AJ, the ladies of Mystical Press back to Full Moon Dreaming! Today they are going to discuss crafting believable characters, a must-read for all budding authors, and of interest to those that are published as well. Have a seat ladies, I'll make some coffee, why don't you get started?

A special thank you to Julie for having us as her guest today. She was very gracious to squeeze us in on her calendar! Mwah!

Nothing gets a rejection faster than unrealistic characters. From the opening page, everything revealed about them builds expectations. And a story falls flat when the characters fail to uphold those expectations. The result is a contrived story that will make readers put your book down…and that’s the last thing we want!

Behold, 3 Valuable Tips for Creating Realistic Characters

Tip #1—Give Your Character Personal Motivation

Only one thing drives a story forward: Character motivation. A plethora of authors make the mistake of drafting detailed storylines and plugging their characters into place. Though a storyline may give direction, Alan Watt advises we should hold our stories loosely in his book The 90-Day Novel: Unlocking the Story Within.

 If the character isn’t motivated to achieve something personal, the story drags. In other words, if your characters don’t care, neither will your readers.

Storyline with No Character Motivation: Tad Smith is determined to follow family tradition and climb Mount Everest—both his father and grandfather tried and succeeded. Tad and his crew encounter trials and tribulations on the treacherous journey and Tad even loses his best friend George along the way. In the end, he reaches the top…but at what price? Tad learns a hard-knock lesson in priorities that forever changes his life.

While this is nice, there’s not really anything driving us to read this story. A bunch of guys climb a mountain, stuff happens to them along the way and in the end they learn a lesson. But there’s nothing to care about. Let’s revise a little, shall we?

Storyline with Character Motivation: Tad Smith’s father believes he isn’t strong enough to carry on the family tradition of climbing Mount Everest…but Tad is determined to prove his father wrong and gathers a crew who are just as resolute. With his best friend George at his side, Tad and his crew encounter trials and tribulations on the treacherous journey, but giving up is not an option. If Tad accepts defeat, his father will be right, and the crew is determined to conquer the mountain for fortune and glory. George is fatally injured and, with his dying breath, tells Tad he can do anything…he just needs to believe in himself. Tad demands his crew turn back. He won’t lose anyone else to his personal ambitions and vows to continue alone. George’s sacrifice will not be in vain. The crew refuses to abandon Tad and they all agree to continue. In the end, they reach the top and Tad can finally gain the respect of his father...but his father doesn’t care and refuses to acknowledge Tad’s achievement. Only then does Tad realize the truth—he didn’t need his father to believe in him; he needed to believe in himself. The crew receives honor, glory and riches for their efforts, but their victory is bittersweet as they toast to George’s empty chair.

This revised storyline is more about the characters’ relationships versus a bunch of guys climbing a mountain. It’s about brotherhood and learning how to believe in yourself. The story has potential because the character motivation is linked to personal goals.

Tip #2—KNOW Your Characters

Many authors make their characters do things with the sole purpose of driving the storyline in a certain direction. All authors should ask themselves one question as they write: “How would my character respond in this situation?” Let’s say you’re writing a sci-fi story and a vicious, drooling alien is about to attack a defenseless child. Your shy, bookworm heroine suddenly finds hidden courage, draws the nearby Samurai swords on display and hacks the alien into sushi. You may need your character to do this, but unless you establish a hidden strength in your shy character early in the story, the actions come off as phony.

Here’s another way of putting it. Imagine someone you’ve known most of your life (e.g., your overprotective, neat-freak grandmother) and plug them into your latest story. Now rephrase the question, “How would Grandma respond in this situation?” Grandma might glance at the swords, but in reality she would pick up her trusty broom, stand like a lioness in front of the child and scold the alien for the slimy mess it’s making before whacking it into submission. The point is you wouldn’t have Grandma wielding Samurai swords and hacking the alien into sushi because you know Grandma hates sushi. All joking aside, you get the point?

This is the level of depth you must establish when creating your characters. You must know them—inside and out.

Tip #3—Listen to Real Dialogue between Real People

Dialogue is a great way to reveal information in a story. However, a lot of authors take this tip to an unrealistic level. Let’s use Tad for our example and engage him in some dialogue with his father.

“I’ve told you a hundred times, Tad, you’re not strong enough to climb Mount Everest. You’ll never have the honor of achieving the family tradition your grandfather and I obtained.”

Tad clenched his fists at his side. “You’re wrong, Dad! I’ve been training for years, just like you and Grandpa did. I’m going to make you proud. You’ll see!”

“It has less to do with physical strength, son.” Jeremy poked his finger into Tad’s chest. “Have you forgotten you were in therapy for three years trying to recover from your mother’s death? Don’t you remember how your grandfather almost died climbing that mountain? He trained for ten years and had two failed attempts before he succeeded. Everest changed him. He experienced hallucinations, lost friends!”

 Question:  if Tad’s whole purpose is to follow in his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps, doesn’t he know all this already? Two people don’t rehash information they both already know. The only purpose of this dialogue is to inform the reader about their history. It sounds stilted, forced and contrived. Also, there’s no mystery to make the readers want to keep flipping pages. Let’s try again:

Jeremy crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes. “I talked Bradley out of sponsoring you.”

 “You did what?” Tad clenched his jaw, waiting for an explanation, but his father offered none. He steadied his breath. “I have plenty of other sponsors I can—”

“And I’ll talk them out of it, too.” Jeremy stalked forward until he was nose-to-nose with Tad. “You know how I feel about this.”

“What more can I do prove I’m ready for this? Don’t you think I’ve trained hard enough over the last ten years?” Tad crossed his own arms in defiance. “I’ve endured—”

“You don’t get it!” Jeremy threw his hands in the air. “Conquering Everest isn’t about physical strength, son!” He stabbed his index finger into Tad’s chest. “You’re not strong here! You’re not like me, and that mountain will kill you like it almost killed your grandfather. That’s why he was never the same after he came home.”

Tad fought the stinging in his eyes and inwardly cursed when tears slipped down his cheek.

“See what I mean? You can’t even handle a simple truth about yourself. You couldn’t even deal with your mother’s death.” Jeremy stomped to the door. “You’re not going,” he said over his shoulder. “That’s final.”

This dialogue reveals their feelings for each other while leaving many things unsaid that scream through the undertones of their behavior. Also, keep in mind the information left out can be woven into the story later where it’s more appropriate. The most important thing is to let the dialogue unfold naturally.

We Can Help!

 There is so much more that contributes to realistic, believable and even memorable characters: backstory, foundational behavior that establishes a character’s personality through actions, psychology and human nature. The list goes on and on.

This fall, Mystical Press Services is releasing a list of classes geared toward character development: Character Development Essentials (CDE) Power Class (coming soon) and Crafting Believable Characters (CBC) Class Series (available for pre-order now). We have another class coming in early 2013 titled Creating Memorable Characters (CMC). Why so many? Because crafting believable characters is paramount to writing a great story. When you register on our site, be sure to let us know which blog referred you so your hostess will be recognized. Registered users will be informed when new classes are added to the catalogue.

Prizes!!!

We encourage you to share some of your experiences with creating characters or valuable tips you may have learned along the way. If you have any questions, please ask! Leave a comment or question and we’ll enter you in a drawing for a $25 eGift good toward any services or classes at our website. Good luck and thanks for participating!

Editor Bios

 Mystical Press Services is the culmination of two authors and professionally trained editors—Arial Burnz and AJ Nuest—who help authors bridge the gap between the form rejection letter and publication. In fact, we believe in this venture so passionately, our tagline is “Helping authors achieve their dreams.” We also assist authors for self-publication. Come dream with us! 

 Thank you both for stopping by today! You always have interesting information to impart! Come back soon!

Be sure to ask questions, or comment on what they've said!

Until next time, take care!

♥ Julie

Life isn't black and white, neither should your characters be

I was watching the latest episode of Hell on Wheels this morning - which was excellent, by the way, as always - and I was struck by something. The characters are so very well written, and so well rounded that it isn't just a matter of black and white, good and evil. They are fleshed out in such a way that you can't always be sure how to feel about them. As I noticed from the beginning of the season, although I've never liked the Swede, and he's a complete and total ass, I've come to admire his strength of character. After his fall from grace, having been tarred and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail at the end of the first season, his status in the town dropped as low as it possibly could. Mr. Durant, out of the "kindness" of his heart, kept him on, but he's been reduced to collecting the town's slops. But the thing is, he does it to the best of his ability and with a certain diligence and integrity, because he has this work ethic. No, I still don't like him, but I respect him more. Even the hero of the series, Cullen Bohannon, is not a cut and dried good guy. He's very complex, and he does what he needs to do. He's still incredibly hot, though, that hasn't changed.

My point is that characters are not static, nor are they completely one way or another - neither wholly good nor wholly evil. Even the bad ones have redeeming qualities. Depends on the writer whether you can see that or not. It's too easy to set up a cartoonish world of right and wrong, where the hero - dressed in white - always wins, and the villain - forever in black - comes out on the losing side in the end. Life is not like that, as we know. Evil can and does win, and nothing is guaranteed. Good, because frankly, that gets damn boring time after time after time. Good needs a challenge to keep it on its toes, and temptation to show its human.

Take for example one of the books I'm currently reading - Paradise Lost, by John Milton. The undoubted hero of this piece if Lucifer, the fallen angel, who comes off as far more heroic, brave, and virtuous than the man who tossed him and his compadres from Heaven. This is one hell of a book - no pun intended - and I've gotten a lot out of it, and I'm only half way done. But it's no easy task to take a character that historically viewed as the epitome of everything that is dark and evil in this world and make him appear in a more sympathetic light. As I said, not everyone is all good or all bad. Not even God and the devil. By the way, did you know that Satan means adversary? It's taken on whole new meanings, and is instantly identifiable with the bad side, with devils and demons, etc, but that is the original meaning.

It's such a temptation to write our heroes as perfect, unblemished, wonderful, beautiful, etc - because that's how we want to see them. But oh how boring that would be if true. Perfection is just boring, to the max. There's a reason that women love their bad boys. Seriously. Differences and imperfections are what makes the world go round. Different strokes for different folks and all that. From what I've been reading of Paradise, it was boring. I would have to take umbrage with so many things, not least of which is being under Adam's control (he comes across to me as a bit of a mindless oaf). Also, there are no books! What's a world without reading? B-o-r-i-n-g, that's what. All they did was tend the trees in the garden (except for the forbidden one, of course. Hey, I'm not gardener, that just sounds damn boring. And singing hosannas and praises all the time? Really?  Okay, I guess there was sex. Had to be. They were naked, they were human, and they were intended to procreate. Had I been Eve, I would have gone for the serpent/Lucifer too. By the way, Eve was supposed to populate the world? What, alone? That's a vagina, not a clown car! Get real! And then think about it, if everyone born (let's say she cranked out twenty kids, which is a lot, but let's go with it), then these twenty people only have themselves to procreate with... well, you get the gist, right? WTH? According to that line of reasoning (and for those who take the Bible literally, which doesn't include me), then we're all the long term products of incest. Well, I can see it with some...

Okay, back to the subject.

Make your characters believable and make them human. Even the villain has something about him or her that isn't wholly bad or wrong. Also, put them on a somewhat equal footing. What does it prove if the hero defeats a villain he far outclasses? What test of his worthiness is that?

Change up the problems too. If you write m/m, don't always use the nobody likes gays trope, that gets old. Don't make your characters' sexuality their sole problem in life. You won't garner a mainstream audience by constantly throwing sexuality in the reader's faces. No, it has to be more subtle than that. Create characters that people can sympathize with, get to know and like for who they are, and let sexuality be a part of who they are, but not the whole enchilada. Change doesn't come easily and it doesn't come quickly. Sometimes you have to be subtle and come in the backdoor. Then before you know it, you've affected the mindset of a whole lot of people, and they in turn will pass it on to future generations, and suddenly it will just be, and people will wonder at the ignorance of people, as we make fun of those who thought the world is flat and that man can never fly.

Make your reader care even a little bit for your villain, even if he or she will never truly like him. Same with the hero. Give him a flaw, something to overcome, something to strive toward. It makes for richer and better reading, and characters that will live in readers' minds long after the last page has been turned.

Until next time, take care! I'm off to see Lawless, and no doubt I'll review it and give you my impressions!

♥ Julie