Writability

Vlog: Elements of a Great Protagonist

What makes a great protagonist? Today I'm talking five essential elements to engaging protagonists. What would you add to the list?

RELATED LINKS:

Twitter-sized bite:

What makes a great protagonist? @Ava_Jae vlogs about five essential elements of an engaging MC. (Click to tweet)

Year Four Blogoversary Celebration!

So as I mentioned on Friday, last week was Writability's fourth birthday! And this week I'm celebrating with a huge giveaway focused on the most popular giveaway item here—critiques! All the critiques!

After doing a call on Twitter for editor-types who'd be willing to help out, I have seventeen prizes to give away from some really generous editors and interns. And here they are!

Michelle Hoehn—Query critique

Michelle Hoehn was born on a Monday, married on a Saturday, and last seen purchasing what has to be (in her opinion) the most delicious mini watermelon on a Sunday. For the past year, she’s worked as an editor with REUTS Publications. Michelle loves all kinds of storytelling, especially animation, comic books and television.

Twitter: @mah_hoehn
Blog: http://www.asleuthofbears.com

Megan Easley-Walsh—5 Query critiques

Megan Easley-Walsh has over seven years experience helping others improve their writing and content editing is her speciality. She is a certified English teacher, who has taught a writing course to international college students in Dublin, Ireland by request. She is also an author and poet, won her first computer in a writing contest in college, and has had her work requested for use in classrooms in the United States and South Korea to demonstrate writing techniques.

Cait Spivey—Partial submission package critique (query, synopsis, first three chapters)

Cait Spivey is the author of the paranormal horror novella series “The Web” and the forthcoming New Adult dark fantasy, From Under the Mountain (October 2015). She is also co-owner of Bear and Black Dog Editing LLC and a lead editor for REUTS Publications, and has interned for The Bent Agency and Corvisiero Literary Agency. She loves dark stories, unlikeable protagonists, and tragic romances.

Phil Stamper—Partial submission package critique (query, synopsis, first three chapters)

Phil Stamper is a public relations professional who fled the States with his love of books to earn his M.A. in Publishing at Kingston University in London. He acts as the managing editor for RiPPLE, an annual literary magazine, and he is also an editor and proofreader for Booktrope, where he is actively taking on new projects. You can find him on Twitter, where he exclusively talks about 90s movies, British culture, and sometimes books.

Liz Furl—First 20 pages critique

Liz Furl is the founder and editor-in-chief of Real Talk Magazine and the co-host of the Getting There podcast. She is also a freelance writer and editor, and blogs at Furl Unfurled. You can find her on Twitter at @LizFurl.

K.T. Hanna—Query + first 25 pages critique

KT has been a New York City Agency intern since August 2014, ecstatically devouring manuscripts and filling in reader reports. After realizing her love of editing, she became one half of Chimera Editorial Services. Her debut novel, Chameleon (The Domino Project #1), releases August 4, 2015.

Ava Jae (me!)—Query + first 25 pages critique

Ava Jae is a YA and NA writer, an Assistant Editor at Entangled Publishing, and is represented by Louise Fury of The Bent Agency. Her YA Sci-Fi debut, BEYOND THE RED, is releasing March 2016 from Sky Pony Press. When she’s not writing about kissing, superpowers, explosions, and aliens, you can find her with her nose buried in a book, nerding out over the latest X-Men news, or hanging out on her blog, Twitter, Facebook, tumblr, Goodreads, Instagram, or YouTube channel.

Nicole Tone—First 50 pages critique

Nicole Tone is a NA and WF writer, MFA Writing candidate at Savannah College of Art and Design, an Editor at Pandamoon Publishing, and an Editorial Intern at REUTS Publications. Her NA Contemporary debut, LAKE EFFECT, is releasing Winter 2016 from REUTS Publications. When she's not writing or editing, she's playing tourist in her city or hunting for her next book idea. She's doing book reviews and travel writing on her blog, www.nicoleatone.com, and be sure to her on Twitter at @nicoleatone.

Jackson Eflin—First 50 pages critique

Jackson Eflin graduated from Ball State with an degree in Creative Writing and is trying to support his community in any way he can while assisting a teacher at an afterschool program for at-risk elementary students. He's usually in the middle of four or five different speculative fiction books and was published in No Horns on these Helmets, an anthology of Viking Fiction, this May. Follow him on Twitter here!

Anya Kagan—Query + First 50 pages critique

Anya Kagan loves helping others shape the gems of their writing, working to draw out and enhance the author's vision. Since graduating from Brandeis University with a degree in Creative Writing (as well as in French and Russian Literatures), Anya has worked with authors such as Simon Quellen Field, Gabriel Böhmer, Aubrie Dionne, Sarah Andre, and many more. She is cofounder of Touchstone Editing.

Jami Nord—Full MS critique

Jami Nord has interned for Entangled Publishing, Bree Ogden, and a NYC Agency she’s pretty sure is Voldemort, since she’s not allowed to say their name. She comprises half of Chimera Editing, and still spends her nights curled up with great books.

Kisa Whipkey—Full MS critique

Kisa Whipkey is a dark fantasy author, a martial arts demo team expert, and a complete sucker for Cadbury Mini-eggs. She's also the Editorial Director for YA/NA publisher, REUTS Publications. Her personal blog--featuring sarcastic commentary on all things storytelling--is located at www.kisawhipkey.com.

Nicole Frail—Proposal + Full MS Critique (for fiction or non-fiction)

Nicole Frail is an editor of both fiction and nonfiction at Skyhorse Publishing in New York City. She acquires mainly cooking and lifestyle/hobby, adult genre fiction, and young adult fiction. Main interests include reading, writing, sleeping, and eating!

Note from Ava: Also, Nicole is my editor. So. Just saying. ;)

So many critiques! I've decided this time to put everything into one giant rafflecopter this time, so you only have one to enter. :) The giveaway will run until next Monday, May 18th at 11:59 PM EST. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Finally, if you don't have anything ready for critique, you can still enter to win hardcovers of Trish Doller's Something Like Normal and Where the Stars Still Shine as well as an ARC of The Devil You Know in this guest post! If I wasn't hosting, I would totally enter. Just saying.

Thanks for all of your awesome support! Happy entering. :)

Writability Turns Four!

Photo credit: billerickson on Flickr

So technically Writability’s fourth birthday was on Wednesday (May 6th), but I’m writing about it today because I’d already scheduled Wednesday’s post when I realized what day it was. Which is fine. This is close enough.

Writability has hit a ton of milestones over the last four years, which has been really incredible to see. This blog has taken off way beyond any expectations I had when I first nervously posted four years ago, and I’ve met and connected with so many people because of it, and all in all it’s just been a really wonderful experience.

So I have you guys to thank for that. Whether this is the first post of mine you’re reading, or the 696th, thank you.

I’m currently in the process of setting up something really great for you guys that I think you’ll like. The details will be up Monday, and I’m pretty excited about it.

In the meantime, I’m just going to leave this short post saying thank you. Writability’s success would not have happened without your amazing comments, lovely RTs and shares and inspiring suggestions.

Without your support, Writability wouldn’t exist. So thank you, thank you, thank you.

Why the “Miracle Cure” Trope Hurts

Photo credit: Moi

So I have a lot of feelings about the Miracle Cure trope. And while I’ve kind of talked about it online, I haven’t much, mainly because talking about it borders on talking about something else that I’ve deliberately not spoken about online. Namely, why it matters so much to me.

But lately I’ve been wanting to talk about it openly. I’ve had a lot of feelings about a lot of related things and I want to be able to say something without feeling like I’m talking over someone else.

So I guess I’m going to talk about it now.

Back in October I took the post picture during the WDNB initiative. And then when time came to post it, I hesitated.

I looked at the picture, and I looked at the Internet, and thought am I ready to tell everyone? I’ve talked about my anxiety stuff before, but this always felt different to me somehow. Maybe because I wasn’t diagnosed until after I started Twitter stuff. Maybe because this was physical, and newish, and I still haven’t digested it emotionally some days.

Maybe because I’m starting to understand I may never fully digest it emotionally.

I wasn't ready then, and I'm not sure I'm ready now, but I’m just going to say it. I have rheumatoid arthritis.

For those who don’t know, which I’m assuming is most of you, the lowdown is this: rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease that causes my body to attack itself, particularly my joints and the lining between my joints. It’s a debilitating, incurable (thus, chronic) disease that causes chronic pain and usually affects people twice my age or older, but has also been known to attack many in my age group and even younger. I was diagnosed at twenty, but my symptoms started at nineteen. I’ll save the story for another day because this isn’t actually about that.

This is about the Miracle Cure trope.

There are many problems with the Miracle Cure trope, but the biggest, to me, is the insinuation that people who are chronically ill/disabled/neuroatypical can’t have happiness if they aren’t cured. This repetition of the happy ending = Miracle Cure is a punch in the stomach that says you aren’t whole unless you’re healthy.

What’s worse is that people believe it.

What made my diagnosis even more difficult for me, was many of my well-intentioned family members didn’t want to accept it. I can’t tell you how many times I heard something along the lines of “Don’t worry, we’ll find a way to make you healthy.” I can’t tell you how many arguments I had where I was told off for having a bad attitude when I said, “There isn’t a cure. I need to accept this.”

I’m not blaming anymore. I’m not complaining. I love my family and it just took time for everyone to come to terms with what was happening.

But a large part of the reason why that transition period was so rocky, and why those arguments were so hurtful was because we were back to the Miracle Cure that everyone was expecting. There was this message, over and over, of “you can’t be happy until you’re cured.”

Except I probably wasn’t going to be cured. Right now, at least, there isn’t a cure.

The Miracle Cure trope isn’t just something stupid we occasionally see in fiction. It’s a real, damaging thing that feels like a knife to the gut to those who are chronically ill/disabled/neuroatypical.

The Miracle Cure says, “it’s too hard for me to see you as Sick. I’d rather pretend you’ll be Healthy again soon.”

The Miracle Cure says, “thinking about you having an incurable condition is too scary. I’d rather pretend you’ll be Normal again.”

The Miracle Cure says, “you aren’t whole if you aren’t healthy, neurotypical, and able-bodied.”

The Miracle Cure trope hurts. And if I never see it again in fiction, or hear it referenced again in reality, it’ll be too soon.

Twitter-sized bites:

What's the big deal about the "Miracle Cure" trope? @Ava_Jae explains why it's so damaging on & off the page. (Click to tweet)

"The Miracle Cure trope isn't just something stupid we occasionally see in fiction." (Click to tweet)

Vlog: How to Get Book Ideas

For me, figuring out the next book idea can often be the hardest and scariest part of the writing process. But here are some steps as to how I approach it:

RELATED LINKS:

How do you approach developing book ideas?

Twitter-sized bites:

Writer @Ava_Jae vlogs about the scariest part of her writing process: figuring out the next book idea. (Click to tweet)

Struggling to get ideas for your next book? Writer @Ava_Jae vlogs her idea-generating process. (Click to tweet)

Discussion: How Do You Rate Books?

Photo credit: guzzphoto on Flickr

So I've been doing a lot of book reviews lately, and it got me thinking about book ratings. Specifically, how drastically different some people approach the five-star rating and how some people (like myself) give five stars much more easily than others.

When I approach a book rating, I generally think of a book as starting at five stars. If I get through the book and I really loved it and I didn't see any major issues, it gets a five star rating.

If I read and find that I really enjoyed the book, but there was one thing that threw me off, or many several small things that bugged me, then it'll get four stars.

Three stars go to books that I enjoyed, but [something]. Sometimes it's a pacing or voice issue, sometimes it's a bunch of small issues, etc. But I still consider three stars a good rating and I give books that I enjoyed three stars.

Two stars drifts into "this was okay" territory. These books I didn't outright hate, but I wouldn't say I really liked them, either.

One star is...well...I think everyone knows what one star means.

Anything in between those gets a half star, and I round up when rating on Goodreads (but will say at the top of the review if I actually mean four and a half stars instead of five, for example.

So now I'm curious: how do you approach star ratings when reviewing a book?

Twitter-sized bite:

How do you choose star ratings when reviewing a book? Join the discussion on @Ava_Jae's blog. (Click to tweet)

Book Review: HALF WILD by Sally Green

Photo credit: Goodreads

Once upon a time I read and reviewed Half Bad by Sally Green, then went on to tell a whole bunch of people about my favorite read of 2014 (which was, of course, the aforementioned dark YA Fantasy novel). So it’s probably little surprise that I pre-ordered Half Wild and was just a little excited to read it.

But before I go on, here’s the Goodreads summary:

“‘You will have a powerful Gift, but it’s how you use it that will show you to be good or bad.’

In a modern-day England where two warring factions of witches live amongst humans, seventeen-year-old Nathan is an abomination, the illegitimate son of the world's most powerful and violent witch. Nathan is hunted from all sides: nowhere is safe and no one can be trusted. Now, Nathan has come into his own unique magical Gift, and he's on the run--but the Hunters are close behind, and they will stop at nothing until they have captured Nathan and destroyed his father.”

It can be a little hard to know what to expect from a sequel. Sometimes an author hits it out of the park, and it’s amazing, and sometimes it’s a let down (which is especially sadmaking when you loved the first book).

Half Wild, however, was definitely the former.

I had pretty high expectations jumping into the Half Bad sequel, and I have to say, those expectations were totally met. Half Wild is dark, exciting, full of action and complicated characters (and character relationships) and I was racing through this book to find out what happened. Nathan/Gabriel are one of my favorite ships, and I really loved some of the new characters and magic introduced in this book.

Like Half Bad, the voice is raw and arresting and it was interesting to see Green play with different formats and stylistic choices. There isn’t nearly as much second person POV in Half Wild as there was in Half Bad, but even though I loved the second person POV in Half Bad, I didn’t mind the shift.

Nathan’s character development has been super fascinating to watch, and the ending was seriously awesome, and 2016 is too far away because I want the next book now. If you like dark, violent, gritty YA fantasy, I honestly cannot recommend this series more. It’s on my perma-favorites list for sure.

Have you read the Half Life series?

Twitter-sized bites:

.@Ava_Jae gives 5/5 stars to HALF WILD by @Sa11eGreen. Have you read this dark, gritty YA fantasy? (Click to tweet)

Looking for an intense, action-packed YA fantasy? Check out HALF WILD by Sally Green. (Click to tweet)