The kid character (Just to start small)

Let's talk today about 'that kid character'. Now depending on what you are writing, this could mean different things. If you're writing fiction for children then your kid character is most likely the main character. But in this case I'm referring more to Young Adult and Adult books. This is the adorable character who often draws affection from most of the good guys. They are innocent, eager, and totally unaware of the harsh reality of life. So let's dive in and see the stereotype and the three dimensional character.

The stereotype: The child is a generic, cute younger sibling, friend or child of the main character, made either for the purpose of showing a harsher characters soft side or giving you a taste of the main characters normal life. Later on in the story they will likely be put in some kind of horrible danger (Kidnapped or something of that sort) and the main character will have to save them. We want to see them succeed because we don't want to see a kid get hurt or killed.

The problem with this kind of character, however, is that they're not really a character. They're more a tool to pull out feelings from the main character or motivate them to do something. Outside of a bubbly, innocent exterior, they are a plot device. And you never want your character to just be a plot device.

The 3D character: A kid becomes a character when they start making contributions on a deeper level. Maybe they help the main character out, maybe they make an emotional contribution outside of just making the readers go "aw!" Maybe they actually have some insight into a situation that adults couldn't see. The kid should have an arc like anyone else. It also helps if you don't just put them in there to be kidnapped.

A good example of a stereotype turned 3D in books is Prim Everdeen from the Hunger Games. She did basically start out as an innocent, adorable motivator to get Katniss into the Hunger Games. But later on in the books she contributes more. We get to see her connect more with her sister. She's a good nurse and she really wants to help people. Plus she's a little older than a typical younger sibling which allowed for a little more depth.

In anime, a character named Edward is a good example of a 3D kid character. She is from Cowboy Bebop (Yes I said she.) and she is bat s*** crazy insane. However, she's a genius, and can hack practically anything which helps the rest of the adult crew when they're trying to catch bounty heads. She is never kidnapped and she rarely is any danger at all. But she's still very helpful and her character doesn't need that 'Oh no! She's in danger!' aspect to make her awesome. Edward is still one of my favorite characters of all time.

In my book I have a character a little similar to Edward, except for she is more of a twelve year old stuck with a six year old mind. She isn't a hacker, but she can shape shift into a cat, which gives her the opportunity to spy on the villains. She contributes and she rarely gets into fights with them. I actually play with the idea of kids just being innocent because that's what a lot of the other characters think about her to. When things start getting darker, they want her to stay out of it, so she decides to prove she is useful to them. Even though she's young, she's not stupid.

And that's the key. Children aren't just innocent, adorable balls of fun. They are very smart and perceptive and they understand more than some people think. They can be a great tool so use them to your advantage!

-Authoress Anonymous

Characters (And the Joys they bring me)

Well it's been a little while since I did a series on something. I've done a series of posts on romance and a series of posts on women in fiction and now I'm just going to do a series on characters in general.

A little while back I did a post on my favorite characters in books and movies and how predictable they often are. Well now I'm just going to talk about every kind of character. And I mean every type. These posts will be categorized by stereotypes but will also verge into the characters that really go the extra mile to become less of a category and more of a real person.

So as a preface to this series, I'd like to talk about what characters mean to me.

I may have said it already on this blog but characters are my absolute favorite thing about both writing and reading. To create identifiable people who are almost as real as people in real life is a real treat. I like to fall for characters, become obsessed with characters, memorize every iota of the characters back story and rant about it to whoever will listen. When a character doesn't have a back story, I make it up, because I can.

In my own books I take character very seriously, to the point where I will do hundreds of character activities just for fun. I want to get to know my characters beyond what I write about them on a page. I know some things about my characters that most people will never know.

And that is a wonderful thing. Somehow I think characters reach people even better than a plot or a theme. Characters are the things we can relate the most to and the aspects of a novel that pull us the most into the book. They must be carefully constructed or you don't really have a novel.

Take as much care with your characters as you do your world and your theme. Because it's only through people that said plot and theme can really come across.

-Authoress Anonymous

Music (And the inspirational qualities it possesses)

I love music. I'm envious of it in fact. I'm envious of it's elusive ability to capture the realm of emotion with such perfection. Music can accomplish with emotion what words never can.

But as annoying it is that musicians can so accomplish what we authors cannot, it can also be inspirational. I know that I personally have created several playlists for my writing. Songs for action packed, epic scenes, songs for characters, songs for happy tones and depressing tones. But especially songs for pure emotion.

I find instrumental songs to be the best for this category. Songs that do not use words and are thus, somehow beyond a plain of existence we can totally understand.

I often turn to one composer in particular for my instrumental needs. Her name is Yoko Kanno. Ms. Kanno is a Japanese composer who can literally compose for every single genre. From heavy metal to beautiful classical pieces that fully capture emotions from joy and exhilaration to heartbreak and agony. Her work that isn't instrumental is sung in anything from English to Japanese to a language that she just...  made up herself. I know. Don't you just love those people?

She has music for just about every genre and every mood so I highly recommend checking her out. Look up Yoko Kanno playlist on youtube and you'll have a lot to work with.

What kind of music do you use for inspiration? Let me know.

That special moment (When you almost die of joy)

So, I don't know if you've been keeping up, but since going on submission, I haven't been getting a lot of positive feedback. Just form rejections. I was starting to feel a little discouraged, as everyone gets, and even starting consider all the reasons my project wouldn't get represented. I was thinking about moving on and trying again later with this manuscript. This afternoon I half heartidly sent out a few more queries.

Then one agent (Who apparently has an 8 week response time) asked for the first 100 pages within two hours. And I. Just. Died.

First came the shock. The "Am I really seeing this" moment. It lasted for about two blinks. Then I opened my mouth to scream, but nothing came out. I was such a ball of energy in that moment that I could have won the Olympics in track. So I ran about my house, shouting my news to the world. Then I collapsed on the floor of my bed room, muttering incoherently.

Familiar with this feeling? If you're not, I hope you will be soon.

The funny thing is, even if this isn't the agent I end up signing with, it doesn't matter. This was just the right sign I needed to know my idea is worth pursuing. Maybe my writing still needs work or the actual book needs fixing but I have hope.

And hope is a great thing.

But it would be nice to sign with this agent too.

-Authoress Anonymous

Wow... I haven't blogged in awhile (What to talk about...)

It is beyond me how a blog continues to get hits despite the fact that it has not been updated in several weeks. But hey, apparently people are interested. (Accidentally stumbled across someone quoting me... that was an interesting experience)
I suppose I should do a report on how the publishing journey is going. I'm still on submission for agents and haven't gotten requests yet, but I'm not discouraged. I decided to revise my query letter completely so maybe that will turn in different results.
I've also decided to do a complete overhaul edit of book 3 in the series. Just for a little back ground info, the history of my book 3 has been an interesting one. I ended up making a huge plot change last spring which was going to make the book much longer. I decided to break up book 3 into two books because I didn't want the third book to be too much longer than the other two (I'm a consistency person, what can I say? I'm the same way with the lengths of my chapters)
But dividing the book into two was spreading the plot too thin. It seemed like I was needlessly dragging out scenes, taking too long with the plot, and writing too many scenes that weren't required for the plot to move forward. So I decided to combine two books into one again. With that I will have to delete several scenes, condense others and get the book moving more quickly. It's certainly not easy but it will be worth it in the end. I think it's better for a book to be packed with drama and turmoil than stretched too thin and moving at a boringly slow pace.
I've planned out my edit but have yet to enact it. So, (Wipes brow and takes a deep breath) wish me luck!

-Authoress Anonymous