Write Me A World: March 2012

Gearing Up for A to Z

This year, I'm taking the plunge into the crazy fun of the A to Z blogging challenge. It starts in April, and the challenge is to blog every day (except Sundays) according to the letters of the alphabet.

I used my bookshelf as inspiration for the posts, so you'll be getting a glimpse of some of my favorite reads - what I loved and what I learned from them.

Hope you'll join me for the wild ride!

Print or E-Book? Which Are You?

A favorite topic in the blogosphere is about print vs. e-books: which is better, does it have to be an either-or scenario, or can we just have both, etc., etc..

Here’s the best analogy I’ve come up with so far for my own thoughts:

I love email! I use it all day, every day. It’s the main way I keep up with friends. It’s fast, it’s flexible and it makes a lot of sense for our world today.

Yet, both of my grandmas still send me handwritten cards. I hold these even more dear. Not many people send handwritten notes these days. It takes time and thought. It’s slower. It seems kind of old fashioned. It’s quickly becoming a lost art and that kind of makes me sad. As much as I love and use email, I get an extra little warm delight from seeing a tangible piece of mail in my mailbox.

There’s a layer of connection and emotion attached to it. I want to curl up in a comfy chair and read about what’s been happening in this person’s life. It’s like sharing a secret.

I’m sure you can all see where this is going. E-books in my mind are more like email. I’m incredibly excited by all the possibilities they offer and by how they connect the world. But I don’t think I’ll ever have the same level of deep love and appreciation for them as I have for printed books.

Stories in print, like handwritten notes, move me on a deep, personal level. For me, they’re something to be treasured. While I trade emails all day, those handwritten cards are my most special kind of communication.

I think, in the end, readers need both and it would be sad if we lost either one.

Characters in Flux: Making ‘em Multi-dimensional

Creating multi-dimensional characters is all about change. Think about yourself at this time last year. Were you the same as you are now?

Let’s hope not.

You’ve probably had countless experiences since then that have changed you, forced you to grow, taught you new lessons and, perhaps, left you a little wiser.

Writing good believable characters is less about making them good or bad, and more about making them real, personable and believable. We all have faults. We all have things we wish we hadn’t said or actions we wish we could do differently. But we also have really kick-ass shining moments and times where we rose to the occasion more than we thought we could.

Your job as a writer is to push your characters toward bigger and bigger moments of change. Note: This is very different than pushing them toward moments of big action, which is also important. The Moment of Action might be the big battle in the war. The Moment of Change is a split-second battlefield decision of life and death…and how your character lives with that decision in the quiet that comes after the battle itself.

Everyone has a different method for getting to know their characters. I like asking questions. Here are some of the ones I’ve considered while daydreaming about my characters:

What has been your character’s most defining moment up to this point in life? How does it still affect him or her?
What would your character never do? How can you make them do that? What is the price?
What are your favorite aspects of your character?
What are your least favorite aspects of your character? (Hint: You SHOULD have a list of these)
What are your character’s flaws?
Find places for your character to make a mistake or be wrong about something. How do they react?

Keep On Dreamin' Even If It Breaks Your Heart

A bit of musical muse for you guys today from the Eli Young Band. I heard this song a few weeks ago and fell in love with its sentiment...because which of us hasn't felt challenged, beat-up and utterly weary about our pursuit of dreams at one point or another.

I love the song even more because:

It doesn't tell us it'll be easy; instead it reminds us the journey will one day be worth it and that there's value simply in our dreaming, even if we never fully achieve it.
It lets us know there are other dreamers out there who validate and share our own struggles and dreams.

I especially like this verse:

Some dreams stay with you forever
Drag you around then bring you back to where you were
Some dreams keep on getting better, gotta keep believing if you wanna know for sure

So, for those of you out there needing a little boost of strength and heart to keep dreaming...this one's for you! :)

Blog O'Blarney

Happy early St. Paddy's Day! Mark Koopmans is hosting the Got Green? Blog O'hop about our favorite Irish-inspired thoughts, memories or ideas. I love Ireland, so I'm excited about this one!

My Mom and I went to Ireland for about 10 days a couple years ago, and it was one of the most fascinating trips I've ever done. I really enjoy the people, the culture, the language and, most of all, the stories. Ireland has such a mythic and turbulent history with strong, passionate figures, filled with all the elements of a great epic. It definitely gets the ideas sparking for me!

Here are a few of my favorite inspiration spots from our trip:

Trinity College
A mainstay in the setting of one of my fave urban fantasy series, plus the long room is like the mother ship for those who love books!

Tintern Abbey
Totally carried me back in time - I was writing the outline of a new abbey-inspired story as I sat in our farmhouse B&B that night!

The Rock of Cashel

Visually stunning with some incredible, humbling historical features. We saw cemetaries with graves that dated back to the 1100s.

The Ring of Kerry
You know those vibrant green fields and the warm welcoming charm you envision when you think of Ireland? The Ring of Kerry is the real life version of that!

Cliffs of Moher

Hauntingly beautiful! We watched the clouds and rain blow across a gray-blue sea and shroud the cliffs in mist. You better believe I had all sorts of epic, heartbreaking story scenes rolling through my head as we stood there atop the world.

Ballynahinch Castle
We stayed in a castle!! That's one bucket-list item accomplished for sure! It's actually an old elegant hunting manor, and the surrounding grounds and countryside offered some amazing photo opps. While eating in front of the fireside one night, my Mom and I overheard an entire conversation in Gaelic. I was giddy!

Kylemore Abbey
Another incredible stone structure! You look at it and just know it has so many stories to tell. It makes me want to wander through the halls and discover whatever unfolds.

Dunluce Castle
I think this was my favorite castle of all the ones we visited. It's on the very edge of the northern coast (some of it actually fell into the sea ages ago), and you can see Scotland from its ruins. This was another place absolutely steeped in history and stories.

Giant's Causeway
If you want to feel out of this world, go to Giant's Causeway. It'll make you imagine volcanoes and alien landscapes in the middle of rural Ireland.

St. Paddy's Traditions
A little closer to home, my friends and I love to watch the local St. Patrick's Day parade from the top floor of our favorite Irish restaurant. We all crowd near the wrap-around windows so we can see the parade from both sides of the building, then run downstairs and out the side-door to get free items thrown by the float-riders as they turn the corner. There's live Irish music, lots of craic and never-ending baskets of Lucky Charms at the tables. If you're ever in Milwaukee near March 17, check it out!

SLAINTE!

Bransforumfest Wrap-Up

Thanks to Sommer Leigh for the awesome retreat artwork!

Hello again! I’m back from the desert and the slot machines, and all the great fellow Bransforumers I met out in Las Vegas.

I wish all of you could have been there too! To give you a taste, here are some of the highlights:

The Meet Ups: It was a blast to meet everyone in person after knowing online personalities for so long. Nathan joined us for a bit, and we all walked down to watch the Bellagio Fountains – a great time! We also exchanged delicious Swag Bags, which you can see on Nathan’s blog here. Yum, yum – we had writing sustenance from each of our hometowns. Who could ask for more

Margo’s Dialogue Exercise: Change your dialogue to insults. (Yes, it’s as fun and crazy as it sounds). You don’t necessarily use the insult version, but it does a wonderful job of bringing forth whatever emotions are inherent in the scene. A very cool and challenging exercise that gave me a new perspective on what writers can do with dialogue if we truly push the envelope.

Claudie’s Character Session: We had an awesome chat about character arcs and how you can get to know your characters better. Are you an author who starts out knowing your characters or do you know your setting or plot and then search for the best character to tell the story? And, speaking of characters, Laura asked about developing multi-dimensional characters in the comments trail a few weeks back, so I’ll be doing a more detailed post on this next week.

My Editing Session: It was really interesting to learn about everyone’s individual editing processes and hear some of the common questions. Check out the packet of exercises and references I put together.

Our Crit Session: I loved our Bransforumfest crit group! We had five folks – me, Brenda, Sheila, Tricia and Caitlin, and we’d each read a combination of each other’s pages. We swapped feedback and snacks while 90+ mile-an-hour winds swirled sand and debris outside our 25th floor window. It was wild! And incredibly helpful. Thanks again to my fellow critters! I loved reading everyone’s pages. Really talented people with very thoughtful feedback.

Brenda’s Story Session: Sadly, I was on my return flight during this session, but I got a preview from Brenda during the character discussion. She used Larry Brooks' Four Act Story Structure to explain how writers can manage their story framework and plot.