Writing Inspiration

October 26, 2012 by Leave a comment

Hello all!

It’s been a while. Sadly life has gotten in the way, as it does for so many of us.

There are times in every writer’s life when things crop up and conspire against writing. Whether it be the latest novel, your blog (if you don’t have one, you need one!), your NaNo story (it’s coming quickly folks, are you ready?) or even just a personal journal, there are times when you have no idea what to write.

Writer’s block happens to everyone and the advice I see most often is: JUST WRITE.

Well, how can I do that, I have writer’s block. That’s the whole problem.

I know that it seems counter-intuitive. If you can’t write about anything, how are you supposed to write? That’s the beauty of it, though. You don’t have to sit there and beat yourself up because you can’t get the next scene in your WIP to come out right. You can write about anything else. Once you do, it’s easier to write what you want to be writing.

So here are some ways to jumpstart those creative muscles and get them warmed up:

1) Free writing - I admit. I’m not good at this. Abysmal, in fact. But if you can make it work for you, I hear it’s an effective tool to get you going.

2) Writing prompts – This is my personal favorite way to get moving. You can find them all over the internet and here are a few of my go-to links.

3) Have you ever seen Finding Forrester? It’s a pretty good movie. In it, Sean Connery gives the budding young author a writing exercise starting with copying the first few pages of an already published work. Pick your favorite novel, short story, article, whatever and start copying the beginning. After a little while, your imagination kicks in and you can go on your merry way spinning a whole new story. Just don’t make the same mistake the kid in the movie did and leave the beginning part in if you decide to submit!

4) Daydream – I read a great blog post about this not too long ago. Think of it more as directed daydreaming. Sit down and close your eyes. Picture the scene you’re trying to write like a movie in your head. Play it over and over until it runs smoothly just the way you want it. Then, write it down!!

5) Join a writing group! Whether online or local to you, a writing group provides a great support system for times when you’re struggling and even better when you’re not.

This is by no means a comprehensive list of ways to get you going. So please, comment below and share what works for you! We can all use a little push now and then.

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Writing is Hard Work!

May 21, 2012 by 4 Comments

(Gloria Oliver is a Spec Fic author living in Texas and bowing to the never ending wishes of her feline and canine masters. She’s the author of “In the Service of Samurai”, “Vassal of El”, “Cross-eyed Dragon Troubles”, “Willing Sacrifice”, and her latest “The Price of Mercy.” For sample chapters, free reads and more, visit www.gloriaoliver.com)

Writing a story or book sounds easy. Something you can do without a lot of effort, like walking or sitting. It’s just a bunch of words strung one after the other, right? Yet the longer I write and the more I learn about writing (we never stop, not really), the more I’ve come to realize how HARD (yet fun!) it really is and how difficult it is for new writers to become conscious of that fact.

I’ve been doing this gig for a long time and I still turn in the occasional story to my critique group which then gets slashed to pieces. Usually happens to those I feel the most confident about too! I’ve also helped them with theirs and done some judging and am at times astounded at the mistakes I see. Yet the person who wrote it probably never saw them.

And it is a big stumbling block – being able to see what is wrong with our own work. It’s one of the hardest parts of this gig, in my opinion. Worse though is our own lack of knowledge, especially at the beginning. If we don’t understand how something works, how can we know it’s wrong in the first place? But it’s gotten any number of people into trouble and they never had a clue.

Easy stuff are grammar and spelling (easy as in knowing we need it, not necessarily in the doing of it. Just saying! :P ). Most people know these things are somehow involved in the process. But there is so much MORE that is a part of writing. Some tangible, some intangible. All of it making for hard work.

What am I talking about? Here’s a list: (This list is not comprehensive by any means – so feel free to add some in the comments!)

1) Flow – What this is (and it may have a better technical term out there), is the ease, or flow of words as written on the page. When read out loud do the sentences move smoothly or do they sound choppy or make you feel like you’ve tripped over something? This one took me a long time to realize. When I did, it was an epiphany! I equate this to music, how the notes flows and merge into a cohesive whole.

2) Hook – a sentence or paragraph (which can be a little longer for novels – though that’s changing too!) to grab the reader by the throat and make them read. Some say to start in the middle of action for your hook but this can be a pitfall if you push the beginning of the story too far in.

3) Speech Tags – the proper ways to set up dialogue and the tags that go with them. ‘Said’ is the auto default; most others are frowned upon. But even ‘said’ can be used too much (I know some say ‘said’ is invisible to readers, but I disagree with that. Bugs the heck out of me when I see it too often). There are other ways to let the reader know who is talking – by movements, expressions, and action.

4) Who? – a lot of beginners clump actions or speech together without letting the reader know who is actually doing these things or mix several people in the same paragraph. On the same vein though, you can tell us who too often, which will also disrupt the flow. ‘He’ and ‘she’ are great ways to not use the characters’ names too much, but if used too liberally (especially when more than two people are involved) can be just as confusing to the reader. So you have to have balance. See how this is work? lol.

5) Talking Heads – Dialogue followed by more dialogue and even more dialogue. Action will break these up and not necessarily action as in fighting. Hand gestures, facial expressions, feelings, all these can break apart chunks of dialogue into easier, more digestible bits. It will also help with not making too many speech tags and even give insights into the characters’ habits and quirks.

6) Location (of people and things) – If Mary is at the front door, but she’s suddenly seeing something that’s happening in the bathroom that’s in the back of the house, this is a problem with location. Or reaching for a cup in the cupboard when you’re in the living room. (Yes, these are exaggerated examples, but you get what I mean.) Kate slapping Mary though earlier it was mentioned that John was between Mary and Kate. If you’re in a small wooden ship’s cabin, five or six people and their luggage and pets won’t all actually fit in and be able to move around comfortably in there. Ways around this are to make a map in your mind or even on paper. See where people are and where things are in relation to them to get the actions to make sense. But don’t fall into the trap of explaining every little movement or placement either. Authors must often walk a fine line between too much and too little!

7) Info Dump – Giant blocks of information all dumped at once on the reader. Whether the information is needed or not isn’t normally the trouble. The problem stems on how it’s dumped out in giant buckets disrupting flow and pacing. Info should be seeded in small doses. Broken up by other things so it is integrated with the whole without seemingly being there. Dialogue can help here too, but beware of ‘As You Know, Bob’ syndrome, where you regurgitate info for the reader in a conversation when it is actually something already known to the other party and would never actually need to be said – not good.

8) Beginning/Middle/End – The most basic of rules for a story or novel, yet you’d be surprised how many miss the mark on this one. One main road for the story. In novels you can have some side roads tie to the whole, but the final structure must still have the three stages to make sense.

9) Conflict – Conflict is tenuous and can take many forms, but it is an integral part of any tale. Without conflict (internal, external, or both) there’s no room for the characters to grow or change. There must be stakes, things which can be lost or goals that won’t be achieved if conflict is not overcome.

10) Theme – This one is hard to explain. It’s like a uniting thread or melody within the novel or story. A message behind the words. Sometimes we know what we want it to be before we ever start the work, at others we discover it during the writing itself then make sure to weave it throughout. Themes can give extra depth to the work, even a unique flavor. Not good to force it, but good to have.

Hopefully this illustrates what I am talking about. Never underestimate the work that goes into writing! lol. This stuff is hard! (One of the main reasons I am a BIG backer of beta readers, critique groups, edits, and editors!)

Any other bits on what makes writing hard that you’ve come across or wondered about? Do you think I’m full of it? What mistakes do you see being made out there? Would love to hear your thoughts.

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Changing Expectations

March 27, 2012 by 1 Comment

I read somewhere, once upon a time, that not losing is simply a matter of redefining winning.

How on earth does that have anything to do with writing or publishing? It does, I promise!

For as long as I can remember, I’ve dreamed about being one of the “big” writers. Sought after by the major publishing houses, so awesomely famous that people would pick up my books just because I wrote them. Dreaming big is a good thing. It’s what makes us writers!

Unfortunately, it can lead to disappointment. Getting signed on to write your traditional paperback (or hardback) book has never been an easy sort of thing. It gets harder and harder as time goes on, because let’s be honest. Your big name traditional publishers are in the business to make money. Should this discourage us as writers? Absolutely not!

So now it’s time to start redefining a win, which in this case means changing expectations attached to becoming a published author.

Thanks to the rapid advancement of technology, we now have the ability to carry around hundreds of books on very small reading devices. Sure, it may be harder to get signed on at Random House or TOR, but this astounding leap in technology has really opened doors for writers. Not only do writers have the option of getting in with growing publishers, like Loconeal, they have a variety of other ways to get their work out to the readers. The ability to self-publish electronically is also a huge breakthrough. The ultimate goal is to publish your work, whether it’s a physical or a digital book. Once you’ve succeeded in getting that first work out there, the next success is that much easier to achieve.

Are you any less a published author if you publish through a smaller house? Not at all. You published! A book no less! That’s a serious accomplishment. Sure, you may not be on the same label as Stephen King or J.K. Rowling, but you are every bit as published an author. The biggest difference is, you do a good deal of your own marketing.

That part can be intimidating. Where would you even start? Answer: Start small.

A blog is a great way to give fans a place to get to know you. Share your thoughts on the writing process, creating your world and characters, or the best way to make a smoothie and do the laundry while trying to get through writer’s block. It doesn’t have to be literature, it just has to be YOU. Readers want to connect to more than just the characters.

Writing contests are another way to get your name out into the literary world as an author. I never realized how many there were until the other day, which got me thinking about what it really means to be a published writer and how to get there. Writer’s Digest publishes a list of contests with upcoming deadlines. Google is also great for finding a contests that fits you.

Another fantastic way to connect with fans and create interest is conventions. There are tons for every imaginable subject. These allow you to connect with current and potential readers in person, not to mention other writers.

How do you build your brand as a writer? Have you published a novel or a hundred novels and have tips or stories to share about how you got there? If you’d like to share in a guest blog for us, please email me: christie@loconeal.com.

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Writing is an art

February 29, 2012 by 2 Comments

In a Youtube video an artist mentioned three dynamic laws that made him a better painter:

1) Preserve the integrity of the brushstrokes
2) Be authoritative with the decision
3) Use enough paint.

As a painter, that makes a lot of sense to me, but I also play music and write. Artists need to create. It’s like the need to eat. What is equally strange, though, is that it hardly matters which form the art takes. We can feel just as fulfilled painting, writing, dancing, acting or playing music.

The natural extension is that quality in one art should apply to different art. So, how might these three concepts of watercolor painting apply to writing?

1) Preserve the integrity of the brushstrokes

I’m inspired to correlate the first idea to essay writing. As well, the Chicago Book of Style comes to mind. I know some writers who are journalists, and they sometimes have a rigid slant on writing. One rule in particular comes to mind: Avoid alliteration (Really?). Another might be, never repeat yourself (Always?).

Just the other day a journalist told me she’d not have my character say that another one was pretty because, “Everyone has a different idea regarding pretty and you used the word two paragraphs up.” Good point.

I replied, “But this is how this POV thinks. She wouldn’t think to micromanage how the girl in question looks at that particular moment. She’d just say, pretty. That’s her head, and that’s where we’re at in that part of the story.”

Essay writers need things orderly, all the details smoothed out and in their place, conforming to some set of rules, most of which are often correct. The King’s English and the Chicago Book of Style predominate. Art is different. With art, you are on a more human level. You have to understand the Chicago Book of Style and live by it most of the time, but once in a while you don’t get out the brush and blend to make that shadow look perfect. Once in a while you leave the imperfection, so we know that we are really here, in someone’s human space.

2) Be authoritative and bold with your decision

I like this idea the most. While writing Satan’s Daughter Walks to Portugal (my current project), I lamented how I might actually get this crazy girl to walk to Portugal. It occurred to me that maybe she could walk on a boat (too much of a cop-out). After landing her car in the Atlantic, I imagined writing her walking the bottom of the ocean, all the way there (too much of a stretch of believability, even for a farce). I told all my friends that I was never going to figure it out.

I sought something bolder. And, once I found it, I dove to it. They snuck into the space center, put on some spare spacesuits, shoved three astronauts into a closet, and since nobody could see past their faceplates, ended up in outer space. Ruth took a spacewalk while looking for her waylaid angel boyfriend (perfect).

To me, this is a law. Always seek the unusual, and give your readers something special. It should pain you when you are predictable. While being unpredictable make utter sense. That’s the dichotomy that makes anything worth reading. You want your readers to be subconsciously thinking, “Oh my God! But wait, that makes sense. How whack!”

Be dynamic. When I took sculpture class at CCAD, I sucked. It was my worst class. But, one thing I learned was to be dynamic. The imperfect departure from the plain sphere or the plain white canvas has to move people to the point where they at least think the cost of the materials was worth it.

3) Use enough paint.

This relates to the notion of being direct and dynamic, but I think I’d rather illustrate my thoughts on it with some text from a short story I wrote for “Loconeal” last week:

“I’m letting my toenails dry,” I said. Stupid, stupid, stupid; it will only encourage her.

“I do that at home. You know, a place with walls and a roof, not aluminum and likely to blow away, along with the outhouse, in a tornado.”

“If there was someone else here, would you be talking to me?”

“No.”

Imagine, for a moment, each line of this dialogue as paint. Are any of the lines transparent washes, or has it been applied in thick layers that present unavoidable attitude, points of view, directness, detail and color?

While this example is pretty dramatic, I know enough about art to appreciate white on off-white, if it can be pulled off nice and thick. Subtlety can also be very dramatic when applied with a deft hand. Drama is not always about a hammer, but like art, we know it when we see it.

What I detest is wishy-washy, plain, drab writing. The fact is these two girls don’t really like each other. They might have beat around the bush. They might have said their peace in four times the number of lines. Someone might have even mumbled hello. Or, avoiding item two above, they might have found more conventional ways of saying they disliked each other.

If you really want to do art, though, it’s often a good idea to get the big tube out, squeeze half of it onto the pallet, and get busy being direct.

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Book Review-I was Jerry Lewis’ Bodyguard for 10 Minutes!

February 10, 2012 by Leave a comment

Akron Jewish News~Book Review… By Cathi Conti Sinsabaugh, Editor, AJN

“…a fascinating collection of interviews that Korman conducted with show business icons as an entertainment writer for various Northeast Ohio publications between 1978 and 2008…”

“Korman’s book gives us a fascinating glimpse–a snapshot–into the lives of entertainment legends…”

“Korman’s breezy writing style makes the book a pleasure to read, and Korman packs it full of interesting facts, photos, and revealing anecdotes about each celebrity.”

“Korman kept…“time capsule” files on each celebrity he interviewed over the years–quite an extensive collection.”

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Literary, the classics, and how pragmatic is that for the rest of us?

December 21, 2011 by 7 Comments

The classics were commercial genre in their day. I’m imagining myself pretty out there with such a claim, but I’m hunting for the exception. For example, Melville was Van Gogh’s literature. He wrote about working stiffs, in a day when more institutionally respected writers wrote about God and king. There probably are exceptions to my observation, but I’m guessing those exceptions are modern anomalies.
This brings us to the form ordained for greatness, literary. One’s book cannot become a classic without being literary, can it? And yet, I repeat, I can’t think of many classics that weren’t pushing back the favorite literary forms of their day, and that thought goes all the way back to the bawdy houses of Shakespeare. My assertion that yesterday’s commercial genre is how the classics were made, seems to confront all the assumptions that literary is superior. I kind of like banging that drum, not because of what it says about pipe-smoking professors wearing cardigan sweaters, but because of what it says about the potential within genre literature; more on that later.
Let’s look at a common definition of this thing called literary: ‘Literary fiction is a term that came into common usage during the early 1960s. The term is principally used to distinguish “serious fiction” which is a work that claims to hold literary merit, compared to genre fiction and popular fiction. In broad terms, literary fiction focuses more upon style, psychological depth, and character. This is in contrast to mainstream commercial fiction (what I’m loosely calling genre in this post), which focuses more on narrative and plot. Literary fiction may also be characterized as lasting fiction (destined to be the source of future classics).’
Now, let’s just take a moment to look at all the assumptions in that definition. First, the definition starts off with circular reasoning. Literary is serious fiction and has merit. Why? Well, because the way it is written has more merit than any other way of working, and therefore is serious. This means genre fiction is not serious and has no merit, or at least by comparison. Those who are serious, and who have merit, claim it so from the bell towers.
We are also told that literary fiction can be identified as having style, psychological depth and focus on characters. Oh, and if it has significant plot, that’s a big no-no.
As a writer, this kind of pompous crap just blows me away because it has been a very long time since I’ve thought it optional to neglect the very basics of good story. You should have great style, internal depth and vivid characters in every story. It isn’t optional.
There are two silly positions born from this claptrap. One is the assertion that one writing form holds ownership over style, psychological depth and characterization. Some on the other side suggest that, as a genre writer, there’s a pass on these concerns if the external plot is interesting. The latter I hate even worse than the former because it dumbs down our work and gives the critics all the excuse they need to continue with the claims that literary is “serious fiction” worthy of “classic status,” someday, and by comparison, our work isn’t, in spite of the fact that nearly everything ever declared a classic was genre in its day.
I’m reminded of a very nice lady in one of my writers groups several years back. I told her, “You know, you need to decide what your story is about, given it is leaning several directions. I suggest a romance, considering the type of relationships you are spending all your time building in the first fifty pages.”
Her response was an aghast, “Oh no! I’m writing literary.”
This sort of assumed superiority of form leaves me feeling a little insulted, but we genre writers are used to that, and the lady didn’t have a mean bone in her body.
If you put a couple of romantic scenes in a book that obviously screams for them, you’ve somehow reduced yourself to the slag-heap of poor writers by writing a romance and joining half the bookstore’s inferior commercial offerings. In the minds of some, that’s unconscionable. But I ask: what about a couple of romantic scenes automatically make it trivial literature lacking in style, depth and characterization, even though everything else in the work is supposedly literary? God forbid I should have suggested making a main character a vampire. That would have doomed it, regardless of the style, depth and characterization. Give it a better plot, and off with her head. Let’s be real, a moment, here. Did Moby Dick have a plot? It did? Oh, never mind.

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It’s almost over!

November 30, 2011 by Leave a comment

NaNoWriMo is almost over for another year.

For many it’s been a mad rush of creativity that catapaulted them well over the 50k mark early on. For others, well, let’s just say that it hasn’t been quite that easy.

I’ve accepted that I’m not going to make it to 50k by Wednesday. I’m actually more okay with that than I thought I would be.

Don’t get me wrong, I loathe not reaching a goal that I’ve set for myself; I’m definitely an overachiever. However, I’ve learned a lot from this experience. Some of the things that I mentioned last time, like just writing and not worrying about little details. But there’s a lot more that I’ve learned.

DO

Write everyday. No matter what. I would skip days, because I was busy or tired from the other things that I had going on. Now, I know better and next year I will sit down and write something every single day, even if it’s only a paragraph or two.

Write what is in your head. Sure, you have an outline and a general idea where the story should go. Let’s face it though, that isn’t always the way that it works. Be flexible about it. This one was a tough one for me to learn, as I tend to be very orderly, but I’ve already told you folks how that turned out!

Be comfortable. If you need to have a ton of noise to tune out so you can write, crank up the music or have a movie marathon. If you need it quiet, shoo everyone out the door and drag something heavy in front of it until you’re finished for the day. I discovered that I can write just about anywhere, but that the noise level was a mood thing. There were some days when having a movie playing and animals wrestling under my feet didn’t phase me. Other days, though, every little noise threw me off my groove.

DON’T

Sweat the small stuff. The NaNo folks tell you this over and over again. Don’t worry if you’ve misspelled a word or dropped a semi-colon in the wrong place.

Think too hard about your word count. The theory is that if you write 1,667 words a day, you will hit the 50k mark on time. Ordinarily 1,667 words is a piece of cake. I can manage it in about an hour. Unless I’m thinking about it. I found that the more I worried about how many words I was getting down, the harder it was for me to write. My best day, I wrote about five thousand words. Because I stopped thinking.

Kick yourself for not finishing. I know that I’m not going to, but I’m going to keep writing up until the last minute. At that point, even though I won’t have won NaNoWriMo for the year, I will have definitely logged a personal win. I’ll have written more of a novel than I ever have before! More importantly, I’ll keep plugging away at it, until it really is finished.

That, is perhaps the biggest lesson I’ve learned from all of this. Don’t quit. Or, if you’re a Galaxy Quest fan: Never give up. Never surrender!

PS. I’ll put my final word count in the comments on Thursday, just in case anyone is curious about how far I made it! I’d love to know how everyone else did, too.

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NaNoWriMo 2011

November 19, 2011 by 4 Comments

We’re halfway through the month of Novemeber. For a lot of people, this means that we’re that much closer to Thanksgiving and turkey induced comas. However, for writers all around the world it means a mad dash of writing frenzy geared towards writing 50,000 words of a novel in a mere 30 days.

National Novel Writing Month has been sending writers into an over-caffeinated state of creative fever since 1999. Winners have the satisfaction of meeting the goal, getting posted on the winners’ page on the NaNoWriMo website, a certificate, and a snazzy web badge.

I’ve been meaning to participate in NaNo for several years and have only just managed to actually write something this year.

I’m currently sitting at 10,824 words. It’s considerably less than the halfway mark that I should have hit by now. On the other hand, it’s 10,824 words better than I’ve done in previous years.

One of the pieces of advice they give you on the NaNo website is not to worry about quality. Just write. Don’t worry about editing or getting everything just so, get the words on the paper (or screen). It sounds really easy in theory, but it’s been anything but!

I can admit that I am totally a ‘Type ‘A’ personality. I edit things as I write, agonizing over every sentence to make sure it reads just the way I want it to and conveys exactly the right thought. Needless to say it tends to take me a while to get things finished. But oh boy, are they pretty when they’re done!

This has been a huge hurdle that I’ve had to overcome this year. In order to get to 50,000 words, I’m having to forget about that and write a bunch of stuff that I would never want anyone to read as a finished product. It’s just flat out embarrassing sometimes. Or it was up until the point where I was sitting at around 5,000 words this weekend thinking that I was never going to finish.

That was just unacceptable. Definitely worse than writing some trash!

So I stopped trying to write the story in order, stopped trying to plan and plot it all out in advance, stopped trying to follow the notes I’d already jotted down in preparation, and just wrote. I made far more progress in just a few days than I had in the eleven days leading up to that point.

I also discovered that I was definitely what writers refer to as a ‘pantser’. If I try to plan out more than a loose outline and some general motivations for my characters, the story just doesn’t want to write itself. It’s made a big difference in my outlook on the contest and my novel. Not to mention the boost in confidence!

So, how do you write? Are you a planner or a pantser? If you’re participating in NaNo, how are you doing and what’s your writing groove? If you’re not participating in NaNo and have always wanted to write a novel, it isn’t too late. Even if you only get partly finished, it’s a huge step towards writing that book you’ve always wanted to write. And that is just one more step closer to being published!

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MMORPG: to raid or not to raid

November 7, 2011 by 1 Comment

[Adam "Ferrel" Trzonkowski is a guild leader, professional raider, freelance writer, and a long-time blogger. For over fifteen years he has immersed himself in the world of MMORPG (Massive Multi-player Online Role Playing Game) raiding and leadership. After writing extensively on EpicSlant.com about guild management and raiding he published his first book, The Guild Leader's Companion, to share experiences with other organizational leaders and aid them in achieving their goals.]

As a long time raider and guild leader I’ve always been fascinated with the psychology and science behind MMORPGs. It astounds me how saying the same thing in two different ways can mean the difference between winning an encounter and losing horribly. I’m enthralled with how one tweak to a loot system can motivate everyone to work harder. Over the years I’ve collected all sorts of experiences such as these (almost all based on real events that happened in the course of running Iniquity) and I’ve started to reflect heavily on what works and what doesn’t. It is in The Raider’s Companion that I collected this information so that it could be shared with others and hopefully aid them in achieving their goals.

I really wanted to share those experiences with as many people as possible. When it comes to my free time I can’t see anything more fun than raiding. Getting together with a bunch of friends to take on a seemingly insurmountable challenge is great. That is why it made sense to do what I can to help others have some of the same successes that I have had. By giving players a leg up in their raiding you can start to build a better community around the play style. As the community grows and changes the new players will need to be properly trained and if that is done then everyone benefits. That is very important to me! The larger the raiding play style is the more content we’ll see.

My first book, The Guild Leader’s Companion, was aimed at a very small segment of MMORPG players. When I set out to do a new manuscript I knew I wanted to go after a broader audience. I also knew I had to remain in a discipline that I’m extremely familiar with. I’ve been raiding for over ten years at a very high level and I know how to take what seems to be a mysterious encounter and turn it into an easy “loot farm.” Writing a book about raiding made the most sense and it really shows in the manuscript. It took a lot less time to do a whole lot more this time around. I’m extremely proud of the product and can’t wait to see it in book form.

The majority of my time as a raider has been spent in pretty hardcore environments and I wanted to be sure I didn’t let that dominate the whole book. These days not everyone wants to take on a second job in their raiding. The vast majority of players that raid may only do so one or two nights a week. That is who I wanted to write for primarily. I start from the very beginning and cover the basics like what a main assist is and how to prepare each week for your raids. From there I start to work deeply into the hardcore environment. I discuss what you should watch for and how to take a raid apart so that you can understand what is necessary to defeat it. That will be very helpful to players that are attempting new content where there isn’t a guide out yet. Regardless of whether you’re new or have been raiding since EverQuest you’ll find something you can use to achieving your raiding goals, whether they be casual, hardcore, or competitive.

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Protagonists

October 31, 2011 by 7 Comments

I sometimes state, “Your protagonist doesn’t protag.”

My Webster suggests that a protagonist is the prominent figure in a real situation. It is usually a good idea to have someone to care about, plot point by plot point. This might seem to be fundamentally given, but I’m surprised how often the issue comes up.

Writers often work directly from plot, building characters much like they do setting; a little of this, a little of that. Once halfway through a hundred thousand word novel, the question creeps up: Who exactly am I rooting for?
This is a hard problem to ignore, given my axiom that a novel is finished when the internal struggle of the main character finds a different comfort level. If we can’t do the first (define the main character), it’s impossible to find the second (define the internal struggle).

A number of writers have said they prefer more than one main character, but this obviously presents problems with internal struggles, making it a difficult concept. I suggest having a prominent figure in a realistic situation.

I’ve noticed a kind of pattern with many novels, of late. There is a tendency to work at creating the sympathetic character that is utterly downtrodden. I do this too, and the novel, Shaman Within is an example. At first the protagonist has a problem, then the character has a bigger problem. Some are resolved early, but the cycle continues until nothing but problems abound. The strategy of building sympathy bears taking a closer look because there’s more to it than just beating on the kid.

Let’s start that closer look with the second definition of the protagonist: The advocate or champion of a cause or idea. Usually the lack of this strategy is why I end up saying, “Your protagonist isn’t being a protagonist.”
Even while your main character is suffering from mounting problems and deeper downtrodden depths, he or she should act. Nobody likes a moping character. (See Twilight for the lonely exception; not that I can explain why people like it).

Sympathy has two components to it, in my opinion. One is a need for our sympathy because problems and conflicts accost the character. The second component is that we see the person struggling to earn our respect. The character might be downtrodden, but the character doesn’t necessarily deserve to be treated so poorly. My protagonists protag. They are always fighting back.

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