Redifine how you create your characters, So that readers can relate to them.

As a avid reader I have noticed several things in great novels; One there is always something I can relate too in each Character, and Second that character must have a realistic personality. Otherwise I cannot root for that character or want them to succeed. As a reader I must have this. I am starting a new series of blogs highlighting my favorite reference books that I have used over and over to complete my short stories and novels. Each week I will use to as an example. This gives each of you a starting point in the creation of your novel. That way it can become a full length story verses just a great idea!



The two reference books I am using this week to start off this series is; "A Writers guide to Characterization." By Victoria Lynn Schmidt, and "Creating Characters; How to build story people." By Dwight V. Swain.

"A writers guide to Characterization." shows how, Characterization has a direct line to proven mythological Archetypes, and heroic journeys. She uses wonderful examples from Greek mythology.

 A lot of people turn against archetypes they do not want there character classified in such a way. I understand the parts were you don't sound cliche. This book does not do that however it shows you many different ways a character reacts, interacts, and emotionally responds to others based on a model or a particular archetype. She even has animal archetypes in this book which are in my opinion fascinating. I learned a lot about interaction in the book. I also learned that due to certain personalities if I do not have my character categorized in any way,  I cannot get him or her to function correctly. I found out this the hard way half way through my first novel! I had changed my girls personality so much she almost sounded crazy.

This however is a fantastic book in so many ways, it gives you a skeleton of personality straits, it shows you how this archetype will relate to another, it even gives you specific examples. Its great when you are trying to concoct a recipe that includes many different types of people. It shows you specifically based on your archetype how they will react to others. It is a great tool for character writing. I defiantly recommend it. Especially if your a beginner like I was an still trying to figure out how to present your character realistically.

 Lets face it we all have to do a little stereotyping when describing story people we are the ones that give them color, personality and a literal face.

This brings me to my second book of reference in this blog. "Creating Characters; How to build story people."
This book has so much information in it. I had read it twice now. I love the quotes, the humor and the insight the author gives. He breaks down each chapter as a intricate part of each character. He does not use archetype models, he uses characters from other books he has read, or real life examples. This book has 17 chapters of information and every bit of it necessary to understand all the small details that go into a seemingly simple character. Your character must be more then just words on paper, they must live, breathe, and thrive on your pages or people will not continue reading. So if you want to learn about creating story people from start to finish read this book! It is a must have for any writer in my opinion.

In conclusion to this blog. I believe that writing is a process one we need to study and learn about everyday to grow as a writer. No one wakes up one day and says "I'm going to be an author." It takes a lot of hard work to finish a novel.One quote I read "Its' easy to write a novel, all you need to do is sit at the keyboard and bleed!" I agree with this statement completely. I am still bleeding as I write my second novel, two more short stories, and complete chapter three of my children's fantasy series. Even though it makes me bleed, it also make me proud creating something memorable and entirely fictional!
"As I always say writing is a work in progress; as is life."
Until next time readers! Jessica =)
Next blog in this series; Outlining your novel

The writer who reads needs tools, The reader needs facts and tips to improve!

Hello all, it has been a busy time for me. Several new stories published in Amazon.  I have returned to college, to advance my career day job... So I decided to start a series of blogs about great writer reference books I have found, ones that have been recommended etc. I am re-reading my favorite writers reference books. I have so many, I admit it!! 

Being the reader that I am, I have course have to read good books again. 

I also want to give accolades to all the authors who have written theses wonderful books, and it's helped me become a better writer.

The current book I'm reading is called Creating Characters; How to build story people...it is written by Dwight  V. Swan

This is a fantastic read, I am enjoying it thoroughly..for the second time. This time however I'm going through each chapter and highlighting things I love, quotes etc. 

I may be a bit highlighter crazy because I'm back in college, but it's necessary on different levels I think. By using the different colors you categorize items according to what's important to you..for example Quotes, yellow. Important points, pink. Green writer prompts, blue humorous tales about writing dilemmas. 

Here is another awesome quote: How do you adapt the characters you zero in on to your story? Alfred Hitchcock put it well: "first you decide what the characters are going to do, and then you provide them with enough characteristics to make it plausible that they should do it." This is such a fantastic point. I have read so many stories with fantastical themes, and other worlds... But unless I can believe that character should be there, unless that author gives me concrete plausible facts, I have no interest in reading further!

I start this series of blogs this week after my extended hiatus. Thank you for your readership. 

The writer who creates villains, the reader who fears them, yet understands them...

When creating a villain one has to understand how an evil mind works. It is strange when writing a character who kills; how we become attached to them. We create the motivation that causes them to kill. Yet we have to foil his plan. It is a slippery slope for an an author. It's  strange how we become fond of them. How twisted their mind. Becomes our mind as the reader. I am a huge fan of a good villain. Disney is a one company that creates great Villains. The evil queen, Frollo from hunchback of Notre Dame, Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty; to name a few. They do such a good job of creating a story that is plausible we understand the villains and their motivations. As a writer we must follow the same guidelines, and reasons for the bad guys to do the things they do. We must create fear for the life of our main character. Fear can be created through emotional conflict, family conflict, or physical conflict caused by villain. 

In that fear the villain must be a very good at his evil deeds. Blackmail, threats,  physical harm to increase the fear.   

Otherwise our attention is lost. We lose interest in the strength of our hero or heroine. They must overcome this obstacle, this villain. Sometimes emotional conflict is more difficult then physical harm. Sometimes a character can be there own worst critic, villain. 

 As I am creating a villain that will carry through in four novels. I'm finding different elements to carry him through all four stories. It is challenging especially in a series, to find a way for the good guys not to find him. But there must; be a good reason why. It must; make sense otherwise we lose the reader. If you the reader do not believe that this villain can truly succeed, or that our hero can overcome him there is no point to the story. Without our twisted villains, are antagonists; that create all of this conflict, suspense, our story is nothing. Even without a serial killer, or some action to cause our character to fail before they reach their happy ending there is no story. That my friends is the key to a great story, internal conflict, emotional conflict, physical conflict, these are all things that propel our hero forward. These are also things that propel our villain forward. If these are not in the story there is no story. So in conclusion, make sure your Villains are as developed, with backstory, motivations, conflicts, as your Heroes it will make the story more interesting, and you as readers will enjoy the story more. 

~Writing as in everything is a work in progress...Until next time readers! 😃 Jess~

The Writer who creates enduring love, The reader who follows the love story, believing in that happy ending."

I don't know about you; I personally love a good love story. It's the stories that have complications, conflicts, emotional and or physical that make the best stories. And I personally love seeing the happy ending. This happens in classic fairytales as well as in real life or 

In the books we read. The books be read if the characters are created correctly are the ones that we remember for a long time. One of my favorite stories of all time is the notebook by Nicholas Sparks this book travels through time and follows a love story all the way to the end of this couples life. If you have dry eyes at the end of this movie that's impressive. 

A good author creates a character that we love. In that love we will follow that character all the way to the end of their story. It may not be the romantic love. But it's definitely any emotional love, to see that character succeed and get their conclusion hopefully happy is what authors strive for.

So the question is how do you do this as a writer. Well in my experience I used to love stories from my past, with my grandparents, or my parents and take from them a story and then create my own from that. Every good story stems from something in our lives. Emotional love is usually involved in those decisions  or stories we tell, the pages that make up our life.

This goes back to your character description, the background story you create. The setting, any historical elements add details needed to enhance your tapestry, your story. That idea may seem romantic to you, its the truth. 

Everyone in their life has experienced some kind of love whether it be maternal, paternal, from grandparents or your very first love. So you take these aspects from your life, romantic, even sad. These become the basis of your love story. And that love story can be one of an animal that you adore, a parent that is no longer with you, a grandparent who is in heaven watching from above. All of those things are love stories. And we are the ones that make them.

Writing as in everything is a work in progress. 

Until next time readers. 😄 Jess

The Writer that uses Culture and Historical Elements to add more, The Reader who Demands Accuracy when using them...

 When I began reading romance all the books I read were historical. At one time I was a history major, so it was a favorite niche of mine. I even wrote a Civil War christian romance in the 5th grade! In one of those 80 page notebooks! I still have it, is has since evolved in to a quartet of books with my girl character and her brothers. It is still a work in process though. It is not the finished draft I have been chronicling here. I only am using the historical pictures to state a fact, when you are writing a historical piece it is so important to be accurate. I have read so many that are not, and it ruins the story for me as a reader. I am a fan of plausible reality in fictional settings, such as my current series set within all four seasons. Like when I spoke of settings in a earlier blog it touched on this. If my story is set in fall the setting should reflect that weather, and that clothing the character wearing, food they are eating, holidays too. I have actually read books that I shall not name that say they are holiday story and they forget the holiday all together! As a reader this is very frustrating. For this blog, I am using this culture reference because my characters even though set in modern day are from different backgrounds and ethnicity and it is important to me if they are Italian, like my guy character, to be able to speak Italian. I spent hours on you tube learning Italian phrases so I can be accurate with my guy in the Italian Rivera.

Why are these details important, to some this may be silly,to me it is a matter of being authentic in  what you are writing. If I have not done my research so that I give you the correct info, I have not done my job. Someone will notice. I want my readers to be transported and captivated. I am striving for the accuracy. So I may be a perfectionist when it comes to this but so be it. Its who I am as a reader and as a writer. Being true to yourself it absolute when writing. It is also important to remember this when you are being critiqued, you must be true to yourself and your story. The contributions are just that someones opinion.In the case of historical fiction, historical facts must be accurate, and the timelines exact otherwise its not a historical work. So it requires more attention to detail and more research.This is the same with vehicles, homes, clothing, accents, hairstyles etc. all of these details when accurate make more depth, it gives the reader that much more to be enveloped into the world you create for them.

So I'll end with this, Historical accuracy is a must. Instead of looking at it like its a bad thing, think of it as enhancing your story that much more, in most cases you can find visual reference for historical events so it helps to visually see what you are describing. History can be very fascinating and filled with wonderful drama, intrigue, and mystery. it can also give you something else for your character to feel more passionate about, and propel the story further, maybe even give you a new story idea all together! This is just another in a long list of details, another element to make your story that much better and more interesting.

~Life is a work in progress as writing is...Until next time readers, and hopeful writers. Jess =)

The Writer creates a state of Anxious Uncertainty, the Reader has Tension in Uncertainity...

I have been away for a while and I apologize. Life just got in the way in so many ways. I am starting fresh and new and this blog is about my current rewrite, I originally wanted to make it a romantic suspense novel. I unfortunately doubted myself and deleted all my tension, and uncertainty. I am now removing my mediocrity and writing it the way I wanted originally so it has the feeling I want it too. I want my story to be a page turner, so I am making it so.

I have said many times that writing is a process, as a writer I want to research everything, as a reader I read everything. I have recently been reading a series of books by one of my favorite authors. Her name is Julie Garwood. She is wonderful at romantic suspense. Here's her website if you are interested in her works.(http://juliegarwood.com/)

 Its funny I used to read her historical novels and then I discovered her contemporaries last summer. She does a wonderful job of weaving the suspense, the passion, an the romance into her books. I am so impressed with them. I am striving to create something like this. I love series books as I have said before and that is what I am writing. It is a strange place to be as a writer when you have others critique you work and then you completely second guess it. Not in a harsh or negative way but thankfully in a constructive way. I keep wondering why I didn't let other people read my story before. If I was being honest with myself I would say its because I wasn't prepared for criticism, or any negatives at all. I understand now that I am confident in my abilities as a writer to allow others to give me feedback. it has taken me a long time though.

I hope I am not the only writer out there that feels this way? I mean we literally bleed, and sweat for some of these pages and stories. In my case the bleeding part is usually because I trip, or fall. I am a genuine klutz. So I may put that in some of characters for comic relief. I usually make fun of myself too. anyways my rambles aside I have been researching how to create the right kind of suspense, and tension. Conflicts and relationships. All these factors are what give us those tense moments. So I am adding them. It is strange going into already made chapters an adding them. At the same time if gives my story more dimension. I have a wonderful villain who is becoming more real as well he is one crazy dude, but so calculating hes scary. It is fun to see him come to life. I cannot wait for others to meet him and fear him. So that is what I am working on at the moment. I have not decided if he gets to survive all four books of if he only makes it to book number two. I will keep you posted.

 In my research I have discovered that the villain is as important as the main characters because he is who propels the story forward in a suspense driven way. I am working on pacing. If you place the action in the wrong segment it looses its fervor. I have learned this through different critiques and I am thoroughly enjoying this process.

The key to this genre, I have learned is to stubbly weave in the actions, the questions, and boom the peril. It is a little strange going back to my draft and weaving these in now, I am kicking myself for deleting them previously. I was so worried that I was putting to many ideas into the story. For example its: like a cake that is decorated to much and you cannot even taste it because of the all the decorations and frosting. That is my best description. Instead of editing some of the sugar flowers, I deleted them all. So not I feel like I am playing catch up, or redo. It is a weird feeling. It is work in progress just like a first time recipe. This is my first time writing a novel so that is what I compare it too.

Again with the recipe reference, I tried a new soup recipe recently and I added to much pasta so it became a pasta dish instead of a soup the next day. I can laugh about it now, same as with my book. I don't want to end up with that again. I am going in like a surgeon and precisely adding, important tension elements, and suspense from my villain. I hope you all will enjoy the final product. I am very anxious to complete it the right way, but it has taken me ten years to complete the book, so I need to remember to take my time with it so that time will be the last until the editor gets a hold of it.

~Life is a work in progress as writing is...Until next time readers, and hopeful writers. Jess =)

The Writer who creates death, the Reader who embraces it with complete emotion and tears.

 Everyone has read that one book, where a character you love dies. It is one of those heart wrenching moments. Sometimes it adds more depth to your protagonist, and other times it is the protagonist. I have read books where I love the character, get all the way to the end and the author kills them! My first reaction is to throw book across room, second reaction is of disbelief. I think their is a small measure of grief that comes with that characters demise even if its in a fictional world. One that tore me apart was when Professor Dumbledore died, I was devastated. I wasn't even sure I wanted to read Deathly Hallows after his demise. It would not be the same. However I did read Deathly Hallows and it was explained why that character died and much of his life was given in that book too. It to this day is still one of my most favorite series of books, and the movies were pretty good too.

 In my book I just finished writing their was a poignant scene in which my guy protagonists mother dies from cancer, it was one of those times I struggled so much as a writer because I loved her so much. I was sad and emotional and I found that I couldn't write it. Instead I had her live to see the happy ending and then after the wedding pass. It was a scene I still wonder if I should include that death scene or leave be.

In my personal life right now I am dealing with the last days of my ailing grandfather he is not doing well and I am struggling to grieve and still be brave for my mothers whose father is dying, my siblings losing their grandfather, and my children who are losing a great-grandfather. I am somehow holding in my grief for the benefit of others, I am not sure if this is healthy but I am dealing with it slowly I think. As soon as he left the hospital after two weeks I understood it was not a good sign, the doctors said there was nothing else they could do. I can handle the facts. Today though I was told by the doctors and hospice nurse said that it will be anywhere from two days to two weeks that he will be gone. It is so strange that now having a date, or supposed date it is final, like its already over. In a book as a reader you don't have time to plan or expect the demise it just happens there is not time to grieve or wonder..It is sudden an awful at times, that is the emotions that the author portrays.

 The book "If I stay."by Gayle Foreman that question of mortality is taken to another plain entirely what if you were trapped between life and death what would you chose? This is a great book if you haven't read it.. I am reading it for a second time. I just rented to movie so I hope that turns out good too. To continue if an author is successful you are also immersed in that story and fully in that pain. It is a type of grief, I think all readers should experience at least once. As a writer however this is more difficult to write, I think because you have to reach deep into yourself an actually feel the pain. That is why I am struggling with it. I feel its necessary to go back into my book and write this scene and with all the emotion I am feeling now with my grandfather it will be raw and genuine I hope it will translate like I want it too.

 Another character and a completely different film that was difficult to see a character die was the one and only Obi Wan Can-obi, it was so sudden and shocking it took a few scenes to actually digest that it happened. I think that is what made it more powerful too. It is funny, if a writer tells the story correctly it doesn't matter if we are in space on on earth, or even a space between life an death we are there and feeling that grief. Yet if that death had not happened would Luke have stepped up and became a Jedi, or if Dumbledore had not sacrificed himself would Harry have done what he needed too to defeat Voldemort? These things not matter how horrible shaped these characters lives and helped them became the brave heroes they needed to be in their story. Without there bravery we would not have wanted Luke or Harry to succeed. Harry avenged his parents, and Dumbledore. Luke was able to see the good in his father when everyone else said he was a lost cause. Even though his father was a villain he died a hero. It made the story that much better with those added deaths, and it gave us the emotional pull to continue to read.

 Real life is like this, I mean we have all these struggles, trials, obstacles to overcome. Health, financial, transportation whatever your trial is, if you didn't have it, what would you have to work for? How would you be grateful for what you accomplished without them. I feel a huge responsibility as the oldest daughter and oldest granddaughter to try and take care of everyone, and it is virtually impossible..Yet I still try to do it. I still put my needs behind those of my family, children, husband. It is something my mother does too. I am most concerned about her because this is her father. He has been in her primary care for the last four years and lived with her. It is especially hard to know that the end for him is coming an I wonder how do I prepare for that? How to I plan, cope, deal. My first reaction is to cry my eyes out. Then I remember I have to be brave for everybody, and strong for my mom and its exhausting yet fulfilling too. I feel like I can do something for her. I wish I could do more.

 This last quote above is one of my favorites. It is so true. I know that this is part of life. My grandfather is 90 years old he has survived multiple wars, multiple heart attacks, the death of his beloved wife of 50 years, and he has managed to stay on this earth for much longer then he planned. However while here he has taught us about, life, love, religion, politics, and he had an amazing sense of humor, always laughing and joking. I remember all the times he made my grandma so mad. These are the wonderful things I will remember. That is what makes it that much harder to say goodbye, because I will miss all those things, all those discussions where he said he had disowned me because i was a democrat, and all those times he made me laugh just because he could. He loves chocolate milk and pecan pie I will never look at those things the same way again but I will always love them. I wish I had said more things to him, or asked him more questions. I do know that I told him every day I saw him " I love you." I hope he knows that. I look at him now an all his fragility, it is so hard to see that strong an stubborn man I have known all my life reduced to this. However I need to remind myself that life is a gift, and I believe he has lived his to the absolute fullest.  I need to follow that example an reach for everything I want out of this life, and no holding back. That is what he has done. I hope I get the privilege to live until I am 90 years old and tell all the amazing stories of my life, and all the amazing books I want to write. I hope I have grandchildren someday that will look upon me with the same love and affection I have for my grandfather and think that I have not wasted this life, I have loved, and lived and laughed a lot.

 So I will leave you with a poem I found.

~Life is a work in progress as writing is...Until next time readers, and hopeful writers. Jess =)