Four Writing Fears, Debunked

Photo credit: Daryl Cauchi on Flickr

Seeing how it's Halloween today, I thought it appropriate to talk about fear. But as we've already discussed fears that our characters have, I'd like to discuss another aspect of fear — fears that writers often have.

At a first glance, writing doesn't seem like such a terrifying endeavor—I mean, it's not like skydiving from space, or free climbing the Eiffel Tower—but setting down the path of becoming a writer, especially a writer who writes novel-length works, is quite the commitment, and it's not often an easy journey.

That being said, here are four fears that writers often have, and why you shouldn't let them scare you.

1. My writing will never be good enough. This isn't a fear exclusive to new writers—writers of all skill levels and experience often worry that their writing isn't any good, that whatever success they've had is a fluke, that secretly they're terrible writers that have been faking it. Writers without publishing credentials, meanwhile worry that their writing is so terrible they'll never be good enough to publish—traditionally or independently.
   
   This is a fear that works against you, especially if you allow it to discourage you into not writing. Regardless of what your skill level is, the only way to improve your writing is to write, and yes, sometimes that means writing badly. But if writers only wrote when they thought their writing was amazing, only the most arrogant of writers would write while everyone else allowed self-doubt to stop them from doing what they love. 


2. I'm wasting my time—this WIP will never be up to par. This tends to be a first draft fear, but it's been known to creep in during revisions, as well. No one ever said writing was easy, and refining a WIP to completed novel is even more difficult, but the only way that fear will come true is if you give up on the WIP. Work hard, revise, get tons of feedback and revise again and you'll reach a level of refinement that you hadn't originally thought possible. 


3. I'll never finish anything. In many ways, completing your first novel is the most difficult—particularly when you've started and abandoned writing projects in the past. I've written about this before, but just because you haven't finished a novel yet doesn't mean that you can't—it just means you have to sit down and be patient with yourself and the process, and persevere through the monumental task of completing a novel. 


4. I'll never be published. This, to me, is the scariest fear because it may actually be true. But this isn't a fear that I want to debunk, per say—it's one that I think every writer should come to terms with. No, you might not get published. There's a very real possibility that the novel you're writing, and the next one after that and after that may eventually end up in the drawer. But if your sole purpose of writing is to get published, then you might want to re-evaluate your reasons for putting words to the page. Getting published should never be your sole reason for writing, but if you can continue to write knowing that you may never be published, then you're on the right track. 

What writing fears have you fought against? Any extra tips for overcoming them?

How (Not) to Be an Awesome Critique Partner

Photo credit: Nic's events on Flickr

So we all know the importance of having a critique partner and how to choose a great one to work with, but now it's time to take a look at the other side of critiquing, namely, being the most incredible critique partner in the history of critique partners.

Where to begin? Well, it's simple, really: just follow these steps and you'll make writing history with your critiquing prowess.

How to Be the Most Incredible Critique Partner Ever*

1. Deadlines? What deadlines? Many times you and your new critique partner will work out a timeframe for how long you have to critique each other's work. Go ahead and agree to whatever they want, but don't stress about actually delivering on time—they'll want your critique so bad it won't matter if you deliver it in a timely fashion. 


2. Be super nice. Awesome critique partners don't hurt each other's feelings, so make sure you find something that you like on every page and go on and on about how wonderful it is and what incredible writers they are. This will also force them to be nice to you during their critique of your work. 


3. Or don't say anything at all. Sometimes the writing is so bad that you can't find anything you like—it all needs major revisions. When that happens, just leave a "no comment" note at the bottom. You know what they say, if you can't be nice... 


4. Or destroy them. Sometimes the writing is so good that you can't find anything bad—this is when you force yourself to find something bad on every page and rip it to shreds. Make sure they're so discouraged by your critique that they'll never attempt to publish it, because if they do, you're going to have some major competition. Kill the WIP! Kill it with fire! 


5. Be concise. Regardless of whether or not you decide to be nice, make sure your critique is as short and simple as possible. Responses like "cool" and "bad" and "nice" are ideal. Bonus points if you do your entire critique with smiley faces. :) :( ^_^ O.O >.< XD >:( 


6. Don't be too helpful. You don't want them to make their work too good—after all, everyone is your competition. 


7. Compare everything to your work. Your masterpiece is the gold standard—leave comments like, "Remember how I wrote x scene in my manuscript? Write it like that." 


8. Have someone else critique it. You have better things to do than critique people's work, anyway. 


9. Offer to write their WIP for them. Honestly, why are you even wasting your time critiquing their work? You could write it so much better. 


10. Why do you even need a critique partner, anyway? Your work is absolutely incredible—why did you waste your time with a critique partner? Why are you wasting your time looking at someone else's work? And why are you not getting paid yet? 

*This is another sarcastic post—as in, for the love of all things literary, please do not take these points seriously! Promise? Good.

Now it's your turn: what "tips" would you add for being a fabulous critique partner?

Ten Indisputable Signs That You’re a Writer

Photo credit: Olivander on Flickr

Think you might be a writer but aren’t 150% sure? Here are ten signs that you may very well have a budding writer inside you.

1. You constantly edit. Whether it’s while you’re driving down the street and pass a misspelled sign, or grammatical errors in Facebook posts, you fix errors constantly in your mind—and sometimes not so silently. 


2. You’re highly observant. And not only do you notice things all the time, but you file them away in your I could write about this later folder. 


3. You often ask, “How could I describe this?” You don’t ignore your life experiences—everything from walking outside during a torrential downpour, to burning yourself while cooking, to taking the first bite of a piping-hot homemade chocolate chip cookie can be used in your writing, and you often pause to think about how you would describe it in words. 


4. You have a hyperactive imagination. There’s never a dull moment in that head of yours—your imagination is always working on overtime to keep you entertained and give you fresh ideas. 


5. You feel inspired to write after reading a good book. Enough said. 


6. You often daydream about your WIPs. Your characters never completely leave you— they walk alongside you throughout the day and give you new ideas when you least expect it. 


7. You feel guilty if you haven’t written anything in a while. What a “while” is depends, but after a writing hiatus, a part of you begins to demand that you get back to the keyboard and reprimands you if you don’t. 


8. Grammar jokes are funny. Well, they are. 


9. You can’t get enough books. After all, every new book is a couple hours worth of inspiration. 


10. You keep doing this writing thing. It doesn’t matter if you’re not published, if no one else cares if you continue to write, if you don’t make a penny off of the words that you put on the page—none of that matters, because you’ll continue to write anyway. 

Now it’s your turn: what signs would you add to the list?

Twitter-sized bites: 

Think you might be a writer but aren't 150% sure? Here are ten signs that you very well might be. (Click to tweet)

Think you might be a writer? How many signs do you have? (Click to tweet) 

Writing Discussion: Are You Guilty of Parenticide?

Photo credit: B Tal on Flickr

What do Harry Potter, Katniss Everdeen, Emerson Cole, Juliette Ferrars and the Baudelaire children have in common? If you looked at the title of this post, you can probably guess: they all have at least one missing or deceased parent.

While I suppose part of me (at least subconsciously) knew this was somewhat of a trend, it was really brought to my attention a couple years ago when the ever-fabulous Nathan Bransford talked about it in his Defense of Dead Parents post.

Since then I've been more aware of the issue, and as of late (perhaps partially due to the fact that I've been watching Revolution), I started thinking about it again.

As a writer, it's easy to see why so many parents are, er, removed from the story early on, especially in YA and MG novels. Many novels that feature young protagonists carry the same theme of self-discovery and coming of age—regardless of the situations our young heroes are thrust into, the plot usually involves character growth that will eventually lead them to be strong, self-sustaining individuals that aren't dependent on adults for guidance. In order to reach that stage, however, we need to force our characters to learn to be independent—and that often involves removing a parent or two from the picture.

Of course that's not the only reason—I'm not going to pretend that it's not easier to have MIA parents in novels that feature minors as protagonists for various reasons, the least of which include characters who aren't worried about being home by dinner so that they can go off and have their adventures. Combine that with the fact that a happy family background isn't always the most interesting background, and it's understandable why so many characters are missing parental units.

But then I've seen really fantastic parents in books, from Tris's epically cool mother in Divergent, to the unforgettable Mrs. Weasley in Harry Potter, to Percy Jackson's continuously fabulous mom, and it's got me thinking—are we missing valuable opportunities by ousting the parents before giving them a chance?

I want to hear from you—are you guilty of parenticide in your novels? What do you think of the trend that's permeated books and other media? Share your thoughts in the comments below! 

Why I Have Yet to Write a Sequel

Photo credit: AhBook on Flickr

When it comes to reading, I’m a big fan of the series. I love watching characters grow over the course of several novels and really getting to know them as they face increasingly difficult challenges. I love diving back into the world the author has created and discovering new rules and aspects of society that I hadn't previously learned about. And most of all, I love being able to spend extra time with characters that I've really connected with.

And yet, I have yet to write a sequel.

Well, that's not entirely true—after writing my very first novel, I wrote half of the sequel before realizing that I wasn't going to be able to sell the first book of the series and I'd be better off spending time writing something new.

And there lies the problem with writing a series while you're unpublished and seeking a traditional publishing route—if you don't get the first book published, you're going to find it very difficult to find representation for the second book.

At this point I've written eight novels—and with each book I had ideas for a series. And yet, when the time came to put those WIPs away (for those that have been shelved, that is), I didn't allow myself to even consider writing the sequel—and not because I didn't want to.

The thing is, when you're an unpublished writer and your goal is to publish traditionally, writing a sequel before you've sold the first book is an enormous risk, because it doesn't matter how fantastic that sequel is if you can't get the first book published.

It may seem like defeatist thinking to refuse to write a sequel because you might not be able to sell the first book, but rather than focusing on the this might not get published part, I like to think of writing a sequel as a reward, or a celebration of sorts. You see, I've made this unwritten pact with myself that I won't write a sequel until I've sold a book, so the ability to write a series has, in a sense, become a sort of milestone for me.

For now, I've written eight different worlds with eight different sets of characters and eight different adventures—and I don't regret not writing a sequel for a second. The experience of starting fresh with every WIP has taught me that I'm capable of writing more than one unrelated novel, and that it's perfectly possible to fall in love with a new cast of characters over and over again.

And those are two important lessons that I might not have learned otherwise.

Have you ever written a sequel? Why or why not? If you don't write, do you prefer reading series or standalone novels?

Reviving Characters: Should It Be Done?

Photo credit: Superburschi on Flickr

Now that we've discussed how to kill our characters off, I'd like to talk about a related (and less depressing) issue: bringing our characters back from the dead.

I'm sure most of you have encountered this phenomena in a book—and if you haven't, you almost certainly have seen it in a movie: the protagonist (or an otherwise beloved character) is presumed dead, then—TA DA!—by some miraculous feat/magic/loophole/bending of time and space the character turns out to be alive.

I sort of have mixed feelings on the whole just kidding, he's not dead thing. On one hand, it usually turns out to be either a character that we absolutely adore, so I'm normally pretty happy that said character survived, if only because the alternative is slightly horrible. On the other hand, the technique sometimes feels like cheating.

That's not to say that every character revival ever written is cheating, and so it should never be used—I think when handled well, character revivals can be a great way to play with the reader's emotions. However, if you aren't careful, character revivals can start to cheapen death within the story.

What I mean is this—when the character revival trick is overdone, readers start to expect it. Future character deaths become less meaningful because readers begin to anticipate that chances are, the character will be revived later on. It's not permanent—it doesn't mean anything.

And even if the revivals aren't overdone, it's very easy for a character to start to feel invincible after cheating death. After all, if he can't die, that's one less thing for the reader to worry about.

I'm not saying that I don't enjoy the occasional character revival (particularly when they save my favorite characters), nor am I saying that I've never (or never will) write a character revival—as I said earlier, I think there's a time and place for them and that they can be effective, when done carefully.

But as writers, it is something we have to be careful with if we don't want to risk cheating our readers.

So what do you think? Should character revivals be used? Do you enjoy reading or writing them, or do they make you feel cheated? Don't forget to share your thoughts in the comments below!

How to Kill Characters With Impact

"You are writing children's books. You need to be a ruthless killer." —J.K. Rowling (via this fabulous interview on BBC) 

Photo credit: bionicteaching on Flickr

A somewhat morbid topic, today.

Depending on the genre, it's not uncommon for writers to begin a novel knowing that not all characters will survive to see the final pages. Writing an effective character death, however, is more than just describing how they meet their unfortunate end—you have to make the readers care. But how?

Let's take a look at some examples:

SPOILER WARNING: If you haven't read any of the below books (or seen their movies, for that matter), please skip over their examples, unless you'd like to see some major plot spoilers.

• The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins): Yes, I know I use this example a lot, but it was particularly fitting for this post. Needless to say, a lot of characters die over the course of The Hunger Games trilogy, and some character deaths left more impact than others. The first few unnamed tributes who die around the cornucopia at the very beginning of the hunger games have forgettable deaths—Katniss doesn't even know their names, and as horrible as it sounds, when they die the readers don't particularly care. This is the case for many of the less important tributes that Katniss isn't emotionally connected with.
  
  But then Rue passes away, and everything changes. Rue's death matters to Katniss, and so it matters to us. She's more than just another tribute—Katniss had taken a protective role over her, so when Rue dies, Katniss is devastated, and it certainly does not go forgotten amongst the readers.


• The Fellowship of the Ring (J.R.R. Tolkien): Like The Hunger Games, to say that a lot of characters die throughout the course of the Lord of the Rings trilogy is a bit of an understatement. In books like these with a lot of character deaths, it is especially important to make certain deaths matter. Near the end of The Fellowship of the Ring when Gandalf is pulled into the abyss of the cavern (and thus, supposedly dies), he leaves the fellowship deeply impacted by his absence. Gandalf was the wisest and in many ways strongest of the fellowship, so when he is lost, the fellowship loses a great deal of hope with him. His death matters.


• Harry Potter (J.K. Rowling): There were quite a few powerful character deaths throughout the course of the Harry Potter series, but the one that affected me the most was that of Sirius Black. Sirius was by no means a perfect godfather to Harry, but he represented hope for change and a better life for Harry. For the first time, Harry had the opportunity to live away from the Dursleys, to live with a wizard who understood him, cared for him and actually valued him. Even more so—Sirius was a link to the parents that Harry never knew.
  
  So when he died, readers were stunned. Harry was entirely ripped apart by Sirius' death, and even J.K. Rowling admitted that she cried after writing it. Why? Because his death left great emotional impact—it mattered. 

I think the pattern here is clear—reader cared about these various character deaths because their deaths left an impact. These weren't arbitrary characters— they were important to the protagonists of their respective novels, and thus important to the readers.

The key to making your readers care about a character death is a) to choose characters who have connected with the readers and b) make those deaths mean something—not just to the plot, but to the surviving characters.

If it matters to the protagonist, chances are it's going to matter to the readers. Allow your character deaths to leave a large impact and your readers will remember it.

What do you think goes into an effective character death? Any tips for writing the end of a character?