Movie Review: Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters

Dear Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters,
You know, I remember when I saw your older brother. I felt quite miffed about changes they made to the book and characters. Changes that, I felt, were unnecessary. But I thought it functioned relatively well as a movie in it's own right. For the most part. (I'm not going to go into Persephone and how much wrongness happened on that front)
Well, Sea of Monsters. You clearly decided to push new boundaries with quality, showing us the lengths a sequel can go to to recover from the failings of the former. So I believe thanks is in order.
First of all, I'm so glad that you decided to make your own opening. I mean, sure, I can see why a dodge ball game with monsters wouldn't be at all exciting. Not to mention better at establishing the character of Tyson before Percy realizes what he is. I'd say this paints their relationship in too positive a light. it makes Percy seem like a decent and non racist person. Which of course we can't have, can we movie? We need your forced conflict. We should have Percy be as selfish and mean as possible to his brother for the majority of the movie.
I'm also glad that we chose not to have Grover captured at the beginning of the movie. After all, isn't that too good of a motivation for Percy to go on a quest? In the book his dilemma with his father not talking to him was a side conflict, pushed aside because he was afraid for his friend. Its a good thing that in the movie he only decided to go on the quest that didn't belong to him because he wanted to be special and prophesy worthy. Going after Grover would be too selfless a motivation. We can't have ourselves liking Percy, can we? And we NEEDED Grover's unbelievable wit. What is our movie without Grover's wit?
And thank you for making Annabeth weak and useless. I always thought that she had too strong a head on her shoulders, being a daughter of Athena. I'm glad you've put her back in her place: looking to Percy for everything. No longer is her character burdened by smarts or clever ideas. Ideas are Percy's job, messiah that he is. And after all, she's JUST the daughter of wisdom. Thank goodness we took out her flaw of hubris and replaced it with good old fashion racism. That makes her even more likable.
Now to be fair, she was racist in the books. Just better written and more complex.
You know what wasn't in the books? Kronos. No. No Kronos wasn't in the books. Not yet at least. Oh he made his little dream appearances and such and Luke was trying to resurrect him with the fleece. But he didn't almost come back to life at the end and have a huge battle. But who wants to see a climax with a giant cyclops?
We also really needed that scene in the belly of the giant monster, didn't we? Gosh. So much character development. Speaking of character development I'm glad we didn't have any sirens. It kept Annabeth from being burdened by depth and made sure that we didn't have any high emotional scenes.
Movie, you understood that far more emotion is found in a million death fake outs. Even though I didn't believe for a second that Grover, Percy, Annabeth or Tyson was dead any of the times you "killed" them, I felt such emotion in those scenes. Oh, and I'm glad you're going to fake kill of Luke every single movie. It really works with the realism of your script.
Not that the actors chose to have much emotion. I'm glad that the chemistry between these characters boiled like a stagnant puddle. It made me take every single attempt at emotion as a joke. This is good, since the actual jokes for the most part weren't funny. Thanks for keeping us on our toes.
Not that your script helped. The dialogue was written very poorly as if to show that you are willing to test the boundaries of cinema. Clever writing isn't needed, you tell us. Puns are the way of the future. And by writing in only a few clever moments we make the audience cherish the laughs they have. This is a true message on life. The amusing is finite. We must appreciate it when it comes in the form of Hermes and Dionysus. 
What I'm really trying to say, movie, is that you are a piece of poorly written, poorly acted, poorly paced, poorly plotted, unengaging, unfunny, cash-grabbing, passionless cinema and that, even removed from the book you did not follow, you do not work on a movie level. I am so glad that you proved that no one should have second chances, at least in the film world.
So we are left with these new facts: Percy is selfish, Annabeth is a useless racist, Clarice is awesome, just poorly written, Luke is the worst villain ever, Kronos can be defeated in a five minute battle and the sea of monsters only has one actual monster IN the sea.
But on the plus side, Tyson was adorable and the effects were good.
-Sincerely,
Authoress Anonymous
PS: I'm not even a hard core fan of the books and you still suck

NaNoWriSe Day 11 (Little progress in writing, but the editing keeps coming)

I've been doing lots of editing today in order to prep my chapters for my editing group. I find that straight up writing has been eluding me for the past few days. Its a shame, since I have lots of time on my hands.
Its always when you're busy that you have the most inspiration.
Still, editing continues to be a rewarding experience. It feels as if my work is rising in quality with ever little error I correct. Not to mention those who have given me edits have great suggestions that have helped me improve upon my novels.
I'm beginning to think NaNoWriSe won't be as fruitful as I might have hoped in the writing category but I think it will be in the editing end of things. Even if I don't write six books, I should get a few rough drafts done at least. That's enough for me.
Writing is such a long, seemingly endless process. You have to wonder sometime why so many of us enjoy it so much. Are we masochists or do we genuinely love each moment we spend hovered over our keyboards, typing away.
I'd like to believe the latter is true. If I didn't enjoy this with every fiber of my being, I wouldn't be doing it. There is no love hate relationship with writing. There is only love.
The love-hate relationship is reserved for querying, but you can't adore EVERYTHING you do.
Keep following my journey, all you who are out there (That is of course, assuming anyone reads this blog). I imagine I'll have some success by the end of it.

NaNoWriSe Day 9 (Predicaments galore)

Funny enough, only a day after posting my break through post, it turned out that a lot of people liked my prologue and first chapter. I don't know how much I like it but they liked it.
However, I want to continue to see what my editing group thinks of my book as is before changing everything.
The main issue that comes with my book, Children of Ink, is POV. I hate confining POV to one character but I like the intamacy that a first person POV provides. The result is me choosing one character for first person and everyone else's POV being in third person. This is a bit unorthodox but that is how Children of Ink is written. it really can't be confined to one POV to tell the story it needs to. If all else fails I'll have to make it straight third person or straight first person. Both will be difficult for me.
For now, let's see how my editing group takes the odd POV mash up. Maybe they'll like it. Who knows?
Now off to editing! (This really is turning into a month of more editing than writing. Ah well... as long as something is getting done.)

NaNoWriSe Day 8 (Break through!)

So I'm back after a two day absence. Sorry about that.
I was feeling relatively dry of words but I participated in an editing group with two of my complete projects. I figured if I couldn't write, I could edit. With one of my projects, a Young Adult Urban Fantasy, I've had problems with the beginning and the POV for awhile. I love the project and the characters but the beginning is just tough.
But finally, I found light at the end of the tunnel. Somehow, one of the edits someone gave me caused an explosion in my mind. A break through! I knew exactly how to fix my problems with the beginning AND the POV to make it easier to swallow. This should end up tightening the novel as a whole. It will require rewriting half of the book but I don't care! If it makes it better, I'm all for it.
Thanks editing group. You have opened new doors. And now: Off to writing!

NaNoWriSe Day 5 (World building)

Oh, editing. You are such an untamable monster that hides behind corners and waits to gobble me up. You snicker in the shadows saying "Authoress, you forgot to think about this. Authoress, your world building needs work!"
The latter item was the issue today as I discovered I don't have a clear timeline for past events that happened before my book is set. The years are kind of important because they have to coincide with the ages of characters and their jobs and education and all of that good stuff.
Fortunately I nailed down my timeline today. The problem will be implementing it and making sure all of my dates are consistent.
That will be for tomorrow though. On the plus side I've joined a writing group for Speculative Fiction so I hope to get some editing done on some of my first chapters of my books. I'm excited about that. That will help me through the editing process a bit and allow me to focus on the writing part of NaNoWriSe.
Another only semi productive day down. And now, it's time for sleep. Happy NaNoWriSe everyone!

NaNoWriSe Day 4 (The wonders of Editing)

I was so busy yesterday I forgot to post last night. Oops.
No matter. Busy is a good thing. I got a descent amount of writing done on my YA Fantasy and I've gotten my query for my speculative fiction novel mostly edited. Now I just have to finish editing the actual novel. Still, having the query done kind of makes me feel good.
Let's talk about query letters shall we? One of my first posts was on query letters and how hard they are. I've actually come to terms with query letters now. They are no longer as hard for me to work out and they come a bit more naturally. That way when I post them on forums for critques, people are more nitpicking than rewriting my whole query.
It's nice because I can offer everything I've learned from writing queries to help other writers who are in the same place I was a year or so ago. I actually enjoy giving people feedback and helping them rearrange their work.
Editing is actually kind of fun, at least when it comes to other people's work. This is a strange revelation for me because I HATE editing my work. But helping other people can be very entertaining. I wonder why that is.
Speaking of editing, that's what I'm doing today... Sigh... wish me luck!

NaNoWriSe Day 3 (Some progress)

Got back from Disney World at 12:00 yesterday and immediately crashed without writing, but who can blame me?

Fortunately there were some helpful plot bunnies today. I wrote a fight scene that I'm rather happy with. Fight scenes can often be difficult, given that some moves are difficult to translate into words. This one turned out well though.

The subject of progress today was my Young Adult Fantasy. The working title is Double Edged Blades but that could very well change. I'm certainly enjoying my characters but I think the most difficult part will be keeping the plot moving along.

Still, every chapter I complete is another step towards a finished manuscript so I shall trek on. I plan to wake up earlier tomorrow to get a jump on the day.
In the mean time, happy NaNoWriSe everyone!

NaNoWriSe Day 2 (The First Month Novels)

Alright, it's day 2 of NaNoWriSe and unfortunately I will not be able to post tommorow or the next day because I'm going to Disney World and Universal. We'll be on the move all day, so I won't have time to be on my laptop.
However I will have my journal which I will use for ever important brainstorming.
Today I thought I would mention the genre of my first month novels. This month's victims are an Adult Crime Thriller and a Young Adult Fantasy. Really, the two books couldn't be more different. But that's a good thing. When I'm not in a fantasy mood and I want to write something more realistic and gritty, I turn to the Crime thriller and vice versa.
The novel I'm editing is actually my NaNoWriMo novel, an adult speculative fiction. It needs some serious beefing up and reordering but I think it has a decent base.
Whatever the case I have a lot to work with. I just won't be able to do anything for the next two days. I'll be enjoying the nostalgia of Disney.
And who knows? Maybe I'll get inspired there!

NaNoWriSe (A New Adventure in Writing)

Hello everyone,
It has been quite awhile since I've posted and you can chalk all that up to life. However, with the Summer finally here I find myself reinvigorated and ready to embark on a rather lengthy and difficult writing quest that may or may not rid me of my remaining sanity.
I experienced an untold of amount of productivity during National Novel Writing Month and instead of 1,667 words a day I wrote 5,000 words a day and had hit my deadline 10 days into the month. I wondered how this could have happened, especially since I was very busy at the time with other pursuits, including tech week for a musical. Anyone who has ever experienced tech week, knows how difficult and long rehearsals can be. I decided that this is because I work well under pressure. Specifically, I work well under deadlines.
So since I'm not doing much this summer outside of a lot of reading and anime watching, I decided to invent my own, "National Novel Writing" event which I am probably the only one insane enough to participate in. I call it "National Novel Writing Season" or "NaNoWriSe". The perimeters are as follows:
- I will write two novel rough drafts each month in the months of June, July and August
- I will edit one previously completed rough draft each month
- I will not completely lose my mind.
Best case scenario, I leave the summer armed with six new rough drafts and three polished novels so that I can pick and choose based on the market which I should try to query. Worst case I will only have three new rough drafts and one polished novel. I will not allow myself to leave the summer with less than that.
Am I crazy? Absolutely. But, I am determined to be held accountable so I turn to you, my loyal readers (If I have any that is) for help. I shall be reporting on my progress throughout the summer and I will blog every day, if possible.
Wish me luck... and let NaNoWriSe begin!

Parents (Which I sort of already did but whatever)

Number 1: Yes, I know I haven't updated in a little while. Life happens :P

Number 2: I know that I've already sort of talked about this character in my post about mothers but hey, fathers should be thrown into the mix as well.

Parents are tricky in all genres of fiction, but especially in Young adult. That's because most people think that the best way to capture the mind set of a teenager is to pit them against their parents who totally don't understand them. They're, like, so old fashion.

This gets under my skin, of course, but that's not to say it can't be done well. So let's take a look at stereotypes vs. 3D characters for parents!

Stereotype: This can go several different ways. First, the parent can be there just to be a part of the conflict. They hold the MC back, cause drama in their life, or just don't understand. This usually falls short when the issues they get in fights over are trivial, as opposed to something really debilitating (Like physical and emotional abuse). Bad parents in fiction aren't bad, per say  unless their arguments with their child are trivial and, like, so old fashion. (Ok I'll stop with the 'like' bit).

The other stereotype is the dead parent... yeah. YA books have crazy 'kill off the parents' syndrome, often because they just don't want to have to deal with writing their characters. This can work too, so long as it has purpose in the story. Like the death of the MC's parents come into play or effect them throughout the book.

3D characters: This can go several ways as well. First of all, if you're going to make your parents emotionally or physically abusive, they should have a reason. No one is abusive just to be abusive (Outside of psychopaths but we will get to them later) so every parent who hurts their child must have some kind of reason to do so. There should be an attempt at understanding why the parent does what they do. They shouldn't just be villainized.

The dead or missing parent should also have a reason, as I said, for being dead or missing. At the start of my book, the father is dead and left the MC at a young age. But he plays a really major role in the story both plot wise, and in developing my MC's character.

Or, crazy thought, you could make the parents nice.

Mind blown? I'll give you a moment.

Done? Ok good.

You see, I like reading books about genuinely helpful parents. I love Mo in Inkheart as he is such a carrying, awesome dad. I love Molly Weasley. I like Tris' mom in the Divergent books. Nice parents can be really awesome. They don't have to be the source of conflict. They can help the MC.

That's jut my personal thoughts on 3D vs. stereotypical characters. Of course your opinion is your opinion and I can sometimes be guilty of that 'dead parent' stereotype.

In other news I got another partial request, and then rejection. True I've gotten two partial rejections, but at least I got requests in the first place!

Now I'm kind of a contest guru. I'm obsessively entering in whatever I can find, so fingers crossed for good results!

Not sure what my next special will be on but see you then!

-Authoress Anonymous

The Bullies (Those soulless brats we deeply resent)

Let's face it: Writers love throwing in bully characters for the sole purpose of humiliating them. Probably because a lot of us were made fun of in school so we want to get back at those bullies by making fun of them for all of the world to see.

Believe it or not, I don't hate this one, depending on how it's done. If the stereotypical bully is a recurring, important part of the plot I will hate their guts. And not in a good way. I don't like one dimensional recurring characters. If you're going to keep the bully around, give them some development.

However sometimes bullies are very minor parts  of a story and only present for a few scenes. In that case, I'm willing to overlook them.

So let's take a dive into the stereotype and the 3D character.

Stereotype: This all depends on the gender. The male bully will usually be a popular jock who everyone loves but who is so mean and evil and shallow and all that bad stuff we're supposed to dislike. He beats up on the male MC, teases the female MC and is just a bastard. He doesn't have any real motivation for doing this outside of maybe, I don't know, the MC is new or different or something.

Same with the female bully except they are usually a super popular, beautiful gossip who uses emotionally crippling scenarios to ruin the MC. (Though wouldn't it be funny to see it the other way around? The male who gossips and the female who beats people up? But I digress) Whatever their gender or their look, they are pure evil.

The 3D character: Again, this depends on handling the bully. If the bully is a small part of your story, why spend time developing him? I personally have a bully around for two scenes and both are used to establish the violent personality of my MC's best friend. He's a tool and I didn't really mean for him to be an important part of the story.

But if the bully is a long term thing, give them something to redeem them. Tragic back story, motivation, it doesn't matter but they need a reason for hating you MC so much. Maybe the MC reminds them of their sibling who died in an accident they caused and because of their crushing guilt they feel a need to pick on the MC for bringing up such terrible memories.

That's just an idea, but I don't want to spend a huge portion of a book with a character who is jut cruel. I know that some kids really are cruel. I knew kids like that. But there's always a reason and that reason should be explored.

Bottom line, keep the bullies in but try to put a new twist on them. Depending on how you use them, they can be very interesting tools.

-Authoress Anonymous

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

Death Scenes (And my love hate relationship with them)

Since I'm back from the lovely writing workshop I suppose I'd better blog about what I've learned I'm good at. You know, my greatest strengths in writing. I have a lot of weaknesses too but there are a few things that just flow more easily onto the page when I type.

One of those things is death scenes.

Ah, death scenes. How I both love and despise you. What is it about you that makes me such a time bomb of emotional instability?

Well it's the reader and writer at war inside me of course. The reader in me is screaming, "HOW COULD YOU?! YOU ARE A TERRIBLE HUMAN BEING AND YOU DON'T DESERVE TO LIVE!" But the writer is saying, "Good, good! Make your readers cry! Squeeze every drop of depressing you possibly can out of these words. Dance puppets, dance!"

This is all going on at the same time while I write death scenes. I can't help but feel both self hatred and joy when I write because I am good at death scenes. I don't know what that says about me as a person but I'm good at making people cry.

So this year at the workshop I decided to try an experiment. I met a friend while I was there who was very empathetic and easily prone to tears. She cried at everything... well not everything... but she got easily invested in characters so when it came time for them to die she was sobbing. It was a kind of empathy that I really admired in her (Being a cold, heartless, cynic myself)

So I decided to try an experiment. I had written a death scene for my current project that was undoubtedly the saddest thing I ever wrote. It was so brutal I was crying when I wrote it and I don't really cry at books. So I wanted to take this scene that my friend had no prior emotional investment in and see if she would cry.

She did. Hard. And she screamed at me. Even though she didn't know this character. And I couldn't stop smiling because, well, SUCCESS!

Now, that's just my empathetic friend but imagine if she had been with these characters for four books. The reaction would be much more intense.

It's interesting that this is my talent because I've never witnessed death. The people I've known who have died I haven't been particularly close to. I don't know what it's like to feel that empty and can't right from experience. I just create it in my head somehow. I imagine the feeling. According to people who have read my stuff I'm pretty close.

Death scenes are also difficult for me to write in an emotional sense because I always seem to kill off my favorite characters. In fact in my top ten characters for my book every single one of them dies, almost dies or is psychologically tortured. Or sometimes more than one of these. It's just because I love them that much I guess.

What are your strengths in writing? What scenes come the easiest to you?

-Authoress Anonymous

Creative explosions (What happens in a void of creativity)

So I've been gone for the past... oh... three weeks. I didn't intend for that to happen at all. I was fully planning on updating at least every two days. Clearly that didn't happen.

You see for the last three weeks I have been entrapped in a void where time and space have no meaning; a void where reality doesn't exist. I was at a two week long creative writing workshop and then at a close friend's house for the next four days. I just got in last night.

In this workshop, which shall remain nameless in hopes of protecting my identity (An endeavor that I doubt will succeed for long), about fifty five aspiring writers were split into five groups of eleven. The first week we created our very own fantasy world together. And I mean the whole thing. Religion, species, gods, environment, cultures, politics, economy, fashion. Everything all in one week. And it's not like we were locked in to our groups either. When we weren't in our groups we were listening to lectures by visiting writers, eating meals and talking non stop with each other, taking trips to the local book store etc. And of course we were writing in our spare time.

In the second week, we began writing our short stories. They had to be 3,500 to 8,000 words. Which may seem like plenty of room but in two days, I hit 9,200 words and I had to cut 1,200 words out of my story. Exactly that amount. In the end my work was exactly 8,000 words.

The short stories were then critiqued in a few days by the visiting authors and we got some wonderful feedback on our strengths and weakness. I made so many wonderful and true friends there that I was very sad to leave. It's a good sign when you feel like you've known the people for months rather than days.

So, as you can see, I was in a creativity void, in which I am often prone to creative explosions. I pumped out over 9,000 words in two days which is much faster than my usual rate. Everyone else thought I was psycho too.

"So how much do you have so far?"

"Oh I just broke the minimum."

"I've got 4,000 now!"

"Oh that's good! What about you?"

"I have 9,200."

"...Seriously?"

"...Yeah..."

Usually I'm more of a 2,000 words a day kind of girl but that's what this workshop does to me.

My point is, workshops are wonderful opportunities. Opportunities to form lifelong relationships, opportunities to connect on what you love to do (Because even though a lot of us are quiet, when someone is listening to us we love to babble on and on) and an opportunity to really let yourself go. You can't worry about outside distractions so you just write.

It's definitely worth the money.

-Authoress Anonymous

Severus Snape (And why he's a brilliant character)

So after my rant about my favorite characters the other day, this post came to mind. Because out of all those characters I'd say probably my favorite is Severus Snape, my favorite character of the Harry Potter series. Especially when Alan Rickman is in mind because he gave such a stellar performance of that character.

I find that I'm not alone in liking Snape. And why should I be? He has a dry sense of humor and a mysterious edge about him... and he switches sides way more than any character ever. Honestly. I think J.K. Rowling just enjoyed throwing him back and forth like that to confuse the readers.

First Snape is bad because he's mean and Harry thinks he wants the philosopher's stone.

But it turns out he was actually protecting Harry the whole time and VOLDEMORT was behind it!

Then in book four it turns out he was a death eater and might still be helping Voldemort.

But it turns out it was Barty Crouch Jr. Disguised as Mad eyed moody and Snape really IS on the good side.

Then in Book 6, Snape kills Dumbledore. Surely he's bad now right?

Nope, in Book 7 the entire thing is revealed and Snape is truly a good guy... OR IS HE?

Yeah. Yeah, he is. But readers everywhere were struggling to figure him out all across the series. Which of course is a mark of a complex character and what makes me love him. He played is role so well that he had the readers confused, therefore it made sense that Voldemort would trust him.

I myself was in denial when I read Dumbledore's death. And when everyone was saying "Well, guess Snape really was evil" I was defending him. Why? Because it didn't make sense that after flip flopping Snape back and forth between good and evil so many times that J.K Rowling would keep him evil. That wouldn't have been a fitting end to his character. Snape is one case where if he had been a straight up villain he would have been less complex. Plus we wouldn't have stumbled on one of my favorite themes in literature.

What is it? Well, I'll tell you.

Redemption.

I love redemption, wherever it is, just so long as it makes sense. I know there are plenty of cynics out there who say that people don't change and once you're bad you're always bad but I've never adopted that point of view. And I'm pretty cynical.

Nothing gives me greater joy (OK maybe some things but, you know) than seeing a character you thought was all bad do something genuinely good. Like when Darth Vader saved Luke from the Emperor. Or when Smegal banished his demons and really tried to help Frodo (Granted he succumbed to Golem again later which was probably one of the saddest things ever, but more on that in another post)

Because I do believe in forgiveness and redemption and change. People are constantly changing because of their environment. Often times evil characters are the product of terrible and heart breaking circumstances. Seeing a "bad guy" triumph in spite of that makes me happy, and it almost assuredly makes them my favorite character in the book.

The sad part about Snape's redemption was he was already dead when it happened and I was beat my head against my bed going "WHY, WHY, WHY!" The chapter where Harry finds out everything about Snape is my favorite chapter in all of the Harry Potter Books. I practically have it memorized because I read it so much.

Not to mention that after I finished the book I went running around to all my friends who doubted Snape going "HAHAHAHA! I was right!" (Including my brother. Best day of my life)

In these next few days I'll be going over my other favorite themes in fiction. Until then!

-Authoress Anonymous

My favorite characters (And how they're predictable)

I'm a predictable person when it comes to what I like. If you know me you can pretty much pick up any book at all and pick out my favorite character. If it's the right type of book. Generally it has to be fantasy, dystopian or adventure based in some way. Not realistic fiction. That's a bit more complex. But with those other genres it's pretty easy.

Basically most of my favorite characters are complex, sarcastic, middle aged men. Which is weird. Because I'm not at middle age yet so you'd think I'd still like the younger love interest.

I do not.

Not that I don't like those characters. I do. I just don't ever find myself as interested in them. Maybe it's because I'm a writer and I'm drawn to a more mysterious character I don't know as much about. If I don't know as much about them then I can fill in the gaps for myself and have a ton of fun thinking what might be their back story before the author themselves reveal it. Maybe it's because I have a very dry wit and you usually don't find that kind of humor in younger characters. Maybe I just like characters with a dark streak or a dark brooding past. Younger characters haven't had much time to have a dark brooding past. They're not even two decades old.

So let's dive into my psyche shall we, and find out why I like the characters I do.

1. I like bad guys

I'm not going to deny it. I have a soft spot for villains. In almost every book, move or anime I have a villain that I just enjoy the hell out of every time they make an appearance. 

I blame this on events deeply rooted in my childhood (Though that makes it sound really dramatic doesn't it?). My main playmate when I was a kid (Four or five) was my brother. My brother was the type of person who loved to stage epic battles between his action figures. Battles between good and evil that involved death and triumph. It's a lot for a five year old to absorb. Especially when said five year old's brother tried to make the battles complex. Like the bad guys sometimes won. Or if the bad guy didn't win and died, he had a son that he left behind. Or he had a tortured past. Or he and the main good guy used to be best friends.

Yep. Guess that explains my dark side. My brother instilled it in me at a young and impressible age.

But I'd like to clarify that my favorite character isn't usually the main bad guy. Like Voldemort wasn't my favorite character in Harry Potter. Sauron wasn't my favorite character in Lord of the Rings. And Lord Citius wasn't my favorite character in Star Wars. I like the side villains because they're generally less evil and more complex. And I can hypothesize a lot more about their fall from grace.

Really villains are just some of the most interesting characters because we want to know, as readers, where they went wrong. How did they fall so far and reach this point? What terrible things brought them to this state? Is there any humanity left in them? Is their hope for redemption?

With the main character and love interest, we nearly always know the good guy is going to make the right decision in the end, even if there are challenges and they are tempted by the bad side. Unless the book or movie is some character study about a fall from grace. Or a Shakespeare play. In YA in particular, the main good guys usually overcome the challenges. It's the side villains who are less predictable. We want to see if maybe there is more to them or if they'll do something good in the end.

And even if they don't we can always write alternate endings.

2. If they aren't a straight villain: They're still screwed up.

Even if my favorite character is on the "Good side", they still are very messed up. They still have done something bad in the past or make a huge mistake over the course of the book, they've had something horrible happen to them and they're jaded because of it, or it's just hard to get a read on them.

Or in my ideal character: All four.

Let's take a look at some of my favorite characters shall we?

Snape (Harry Potter): He's done something bad in the past, he's had horrible things happen to him, he's jaded, he's hard to get a read on and he switches sides about fifty thousand times (Or not really. We just think he does. I LOVE SNAPE!)

Darth Vadar (Like I need to tell you): He's screwed up, has made mistakes but was ultimately redeemed. My favorite kind of villain!

Basta (Inkheart): He's a villain, it is implied that he has had terrible things happen to him and he's not a nice guy over the course of the book. We also never find out in detail what happened to him so gues who's imagination got to go wild!

Joe Solomon (Gallagher Girl's series): He worked for an evil organization in the past, he's made mistakes, it's hard to get a read on him, and he's bad ass (Like James Bond if he wasn't a sexist pig and was actually an interesting character)

Boromir (Lord of the Rings): He was tempted by the ring and almost killed Frodo to get it. That's a pretty big mistake. (Also my second favorite character is Golum so... yeah, do I even need to list what's wrong with him?)

Haymitch (The Hunger Games): Horrible things have happened to him, he's made mistakes, he's jaded and he's a sarcastic drunk as an extra plus!

Spotting the trend now? I could list a lot of others and honestly the only reason that a sarcastic, mysterious, middle aged man with a bad streak isn't my favorite character in every single book I read is because sometimes there isn't one of those in the book.

Funny enough, they aren't my favorite characters because I'm attracted to them or anything like that. I would not want to date these guys. They would be trouble. I do feel like this kind of character is often liked by women who really want a project. Someone to fix. That's fine for them but I'm just that nerdy writer who likes characters because they're good characters.

It's a concept that a lot of people fail to understand when I say: My favorite character is Haymitch. They reply "You like him? Peeta is the hottest."

Since when did your favorite character have to be the one you're attracted to? Thank God I didn't say Effie.

-Authoress Anonymous