Writing Is Hard

Writing Is Hard

I wish not to stream forth less-than-eloquently about the audacity at people to reject my oh-so-beautiful manuscript. Nor do I want to appear frustrated, tired, or otherwise perturbed by the awesomeness that is writing.

However, I would like to point out that writing is hard.

“Thank you, Mackenzie,” You force a smile, “But I know that already.”

I don’t care whether or not you know it. I just want to talk about it. (Read: Ramble on and on about a topic that I, and only I care about. But it’s my blog, so haha!)

So yeah. Writing is hard. Writing sucks sometimes. I just put myself on a ridiculous deadline schedule that will require me to outline the rest of my novel today, and that is looking really scary right now. I don’t know how I want the beginning to pan out, but I need this novel finished.

Also, I’ve started a shakedown draft for two other novels. And trying to get a short story written so I can start getting a real readership. And about a hundred other things all at the same time that are all directly linked to my life as a writer.

And geezums, sometimes I look at it all and want to give up. I’m putting undue stress on myself by trying to hit outrageous deadlines, and forcing myself to work harder than I ever have before. Of course, I know my limit, and I know that I can always slow down a little. But I’m going full speed ahead right now, oblivious to any possible de-railment in the future.

It’s worth it.

I’ve been writing for six-ish years now, and I have loved it. Every. Second. True, it’s disappointing when someone doesn’t like your story. Yes, it’s frustrating when you come up with a beautiful plot about human slaves under robots and a thing called ‘The Matrix’ that controls them all, only to be told that this is the plot of a movie you have never heard of before (True story). And of course, it’s always a feather ruffle when people reject your manuscript (Although God Bless Cameron McClure for giving me an actual critique instead of a form letter. You are truly wonderful in my sight).

Despite setbacks and challenges galore, I’ve pushed through it. Read books on writing and listened to comic con panels on how to worldbuild. Wrote draft after draft of an MS, pushing away things like food, sleep, and people to get this dumb story onto paper. Because it’s worth it. Writing is really fulfilling. When you write the last word, or get a really nice review, or have someone tell you that they had a dream about your story and they need the next chapter now now now!...those are the best moments.

It’s one of those things that makes you really question existence. You are playing God with people and worlds of our own invention. You are learning things about yourself as you continue down this path.

True, there are other things I could have done with my life. Music, video games, cinematography, art. They are all things I enjoy and am good at. But I really, really, really like writing. I couldn’t pinpoint the moment when I started to love it, but at some point over the past six years, I did. My books got steadily longer, steadily better, and I started to realize I had potential. More and more people started reading my work and I got steadily happier.

I would die of boredom and/or depression if I couldn’t write. Maybe a few years ago, it would be different, but I have so fully devoted myself into this life that I couldn’t imagine life without it. I literally start to cry when I think about my life in depth if I couldn’t write. It just...it sucks.

So yeah. Writing is really hard.

But it’s also really worth it.

Love Triangles Are NOT For Your Novel

It’s the classic, cliche romantic ‘subplot’--the strong female lead falls for two equally heart throbbing boys, one usually mysterious and angsty, the other bright and caring. Commence an entire book of proving how indecisive your main character is. It isn’t romantic, it doesn’t character build, it’s just annoying.

So don’t do it.

There is a difference between acknowledging that there are two or more characters compatible with your protagonist, and having chapter after chapter of her simply whining because she can’t decide.

Yes, some love triangles have been done well--The Selection by Kiera Cass brought an interesting love triangle in because there were multiple occurring at the same time (Aspen vs. Maxon, America vs. Kriss, America vs. Lucy, etc). That’s the only one I can come up with off the top of my head, because doing it correctly is so rarely seen, it should just be marked off as a writing sin. Even The Hunger Games didn’t do it right, though I’m sure that given adequate time, Suzanne Collins could have delivered it masterfully as well.

The main issue with love triangles is that it provides meaningless, uncreative story arcs, and paves the way for flat characters. If you are willing to take the time to make sure that every romantic scene had the same quality of vibrance, that every character has a rich voice and personality, and then go above and beyond to find ways that genuinely make both candidates a wonderful choice, then it would be okay to write a love triangle. But in no other case is this acceptable. Also note that I have never once seen a triangle from a boy’s perspective. Because apparently only girls can find two equally suitable partners. Everyone knows that law.

So what do you do?

Think about real life--romance is so much more complex than a simple sway between two hot guys. There’s Gavin, who’s jock-ish and headstrong, but has a nice smile and treats you right. Max is a little more aloof, and keeps giving you telling glances from across the room. And James is all-out perfect--except for the fact that he doesn’t like you.

In three sentences I’ve given a romantic subplot filled with questions that actually make sense. What does your character really value? What things really appeal to them in a partner? Are they even ready to make this decision yet, which is a perfectly good resolution, because it shows that your character really does know themself.

And it can go even more complex than that! If you really want an arc that will rivet your readers (and I’ve thought long and hard over this question) go into the love interest’s motivations. I have one plot where the MC is politically engaged to the King who has a reputation for being harsh, and falls in love with the King’s younger brother, who turns out to be a cheating scamp, and eventually finds out that the all along the King has been developing feelings for her, but held them back due to a previous love-life. Not only does that explore your main character’s feelings, but it helps the other supporting characters feel more real.

Below is a list of characters and plots that you may want to incorporate into your novel as a love interest idea. Remember that mixing and matching is perfectly fine--that’s called creativity and it is generally encouraged among writers.

Contemporary Romance

-Classic heartthrob type character who is a real jerk to some people, but is a saint to others. What groups bring out these different emotions and why? (This is invalid if they are only nice to your MC)

-A shy artist who takes real pride in their work, and falls in love with your MC as your MC falls in love with their work...and eventually them.

-The one constantly on their phone runs into them in the hallway.

-Plaid-shirt, chunky glasses, sardonic humor, and an affinity for cosmetology

-Dreamer that loves space and stargazing, who takes the MC on philosophical and hypothetical adventures (bonus points if it’s an adorkable boy)

-A girl that has traits of masculinity--like an assertive role in the relationship, and dominant personality traits.

-California beach type who can’t stand drama falls for the popular kid.

-Quiet, kind of creepy, always analyzing everyone, comes up to the MC and asks a very blunt, very odd question about them (i.e. I can’t figure out why you dye your hair pink. It doesn’t fit with your personality)

Fantasy (This goes off of the assumption that this a more YA styled fantasy, but is still applicable to High and Heroic....not so sure about Epic)

-A stable hand who is more concerned with his work than with love.

-A Blacksmith’s apprentice who showers your main character with gifts (bonus points if your MC liked them before then)

-A journeyman of some sort comes into town, and takes a liking to your MC

-Any type of soldier story is a good setup for a romantic tragedy. This is one to apply with care--you must know the grief cycle well before incorporating it into a romance

It is important to remember that the primary difficulty in writing any sort of relationship is that people have different ‘personas’ (to use the words of Orson Scott Card) when they speak and interact with various people. Certain personality traits bring out others. Think about the way that you speak to your friends or your parents, or your boy/girlfriend or your teachers. If you can master the changing of voice, you can master the basic relationship model, and from there write an excellent love story.

The reason why love triangles are so popular (among authors, not readers, which is an important distinction) is that I believe some authors see it as a shortcut to an active fan base (cue teaser for next week’s article). If they can duke it out over two boys, raging about which one is the best, that’s a key to fame. And while yes, debates of Team Edward vs. Team Jacob and Team Xander vs. Team Ky did create a short burst of popularity, those were outliers in the average scale of fan activity. Think about it. No one really cares anymore about the love triangles, because they do not prove a point about the main character’s personality. A riveting romantic subplot may be just the thing you need to keep the pages turning fast enough to quit your day job.

With that in mind, keep focusing on developing your craft. Writing is a learned skill.

And who knows? Maybe one day you’ll even be good enough to write a love triangle.

The SSIFL, and Why She's Annoying

The SSIFL, And Why She’s Annoying

(Written with help from Katie Walch)

I may not be the only voice on the internet giving tips, ideas, and advice for writing--there are other people out there who have words of wisdom as well. But in all of my years of writing and looking at other peoples’ advice, I have never once stumbled across a blog post about the SSIFL (Not to say that it doesn’t exist, but I haven’t found it f it does).

The SSIFL is my given acronym for the Sexy Sassy Independent Female Lead, generally with the subtitle ‘who doesn’t take crap from anyone”. Yes, there is the idea of Feminism, and I do believe that girls can do most of the same things that boys can. But there also exists something called Overcompensation. I cannot tell you how many times I have picked up a book that actually looked fairly good for contemporary fiction, got excited about the book jacket, then opened to the first page, and immediately put it back on the shelf.

Why?

The voice of the main character.

There is a certain type of female lead which seems to be carbon copied into almost every book written within the last few years. This is not due to people stealing other’s ideas, but more about the fact that as a whole, our society has developed a certain voice. We talk a way, and expect others to do the same. This is why older books sound more fancy, more formal. In that time, that was the colloquial way of speaking, at least for the more educated (It holds true today--the way I speak with my friends is very different from the way others do. But I digress). Nowadays, people speak a certain way, which then translates into writing that way.

Are they stealing characters? No. Are they being uncreative? Absolutely.

I won’t beat around the bush in saying that you are being uncreative, because the first step to fixing a problem is identifying it. Below is a list of traits that the SSIFL commonly has to help you see if you are guilty of this expedient narrator choice.

-The manuscript is likely in first person (Which is not a bad thing, but I’ve never seen an SSIFL in third)

-She always has a witty remark when the plot calls for something funny that feels awkward and somewhat out of character

-Her character ‘flaw’ is something usually connected to Angst/Tragic Backstory

-The ‘I don’t need no man!’ idea....which connects straight into a love interest or love triangle (which in and of itself is a sin, but that will be covered next week)

-Intense moments of second hand embarrassment for and because of this girl

-Character Breaks. Everywhere.

-They are over dramatic or take themselves too seriously

-They likely have some major insecurity that aforementioned love interest(s) need to shore up in order for her to continue with her quest

-Is she leading the rebellion to take down the government? 100% guaranteed, your character is an SSIFL. No arguments. I have read many books. Never has the above statement been contradicted

-She and the love interest(s) are the only cool ones. Everyone is background noise

-The voice feels disconnected , and not empathetic.

-Whenever they fight or something, they always look good while doing it (Because who needs protective armor?)

-They sound like a stereotypical ‘stereotype’ teenager.

-They only have a few interests outside of the main plot
Or, just look at this nifty post that pretty much sums up bad YA novels.

Basically, if this sounds like your book...your character is an SSIFL.

Now, before you get pissy and try to tell me how you are special because it is your book and how dare I try to criticize your precious baby, stop. I say this not to offend you, but fix a problem I and many others feel degrades the quality of contemporary literature. Yes, on very rare occasions, the SSIFL is a good choice for your book’s protagonist, but if people used her as sparingly as they ought to, this blog post wouldn’t exist. This is a real problem. It’s annoying. Trust me, we’ve all done it at some point or another, because that is what we are exposed to. I’m beginning to feel like people write with this character because they know nothing else. That’s just how it’s done right?

Wrong.

There is another way.

Remember how I said that the SSIFL was uncreative? We’re going to talk about that again, but with the context of fixing the problem. Yes, that’s right ladies, gentlemen, and variations thereupon: I not only criticize authors, I find ways to help them.

In this case, the solution is simple.

Re-Write your book with a changed narrative voice.

Don’t give me that groaning, you were going to have to do it anyway. So shut up and listen.

One of the things that makes me love a character is if they have something to fight for beyond the main plot and love subplot. Kaladin, from Brandon Sanderson’s The Way of Kings is a rich, developed character, because he fights not only for justice, but with the idea that he might actually be able to change something. He gets discouraged quite often in this endeavor, but always manages to see that in the end, he is doing something worthwhile. It’s more than drive--it’s his reason for living, literally (He was about to kill himself when he finally realized this).

Your SSIFL character needs something to fight for. Not a tragic backstory, please no. They have their place, but that should not be their ultimate motive. No, their idea is the core belief they take into every emotional. spiritual, and physical battle that they ever have, and it’s different for everyone.

Analogously, think of it this way. Every person that you see on a daily basis has their own sense of conscious existence. It’s a hard concept to grasp. Imagine that another person you met had the exact same life as you, the same problems, the same hardships, and were in the same phase of it as you, and you were actively aware of it--would it change how you viewed and treated them? Of course. Now, recognize that they not only have problems, but that the things they are going through are just as valid and difficult as yours. We understand ourselves better than anyone else ever could. Think about what motivates you to wake up every morning and run the rat race, be it simply going through the motions to get to that brighter day, or the conviction that today is going to be a good one.

Now think of a good reason, which could be your own, and give that to your main character.

Friendships and loyalty to others personally drives me--I can’t wait to tell them my problems, hear theirs, exchange a joke and try to forget that life is giving each and every one of us a waking nightmare. I take the knowledge that I have other people who care about me into the field of battle every day as I go against problems that I know I will have to live with every day for the rest of my life.

Deep, right?

I'm a real person. But your character can have that same depth. All they need is purpose beyond bringing down the tyrannical government.

It’s so easy to forget that characters are real people too. We construct a basic scaffolding, and everything else develops from there. If we build the rafters and catwalks for a strong, real person, with their own mind, their own problems, their own things that they fight through and win, the idea of an SSIFL is completely obsolete, because they won’t exist. The main problem with her is that she’s empty--she has no real substance, because we don’t want our characters to be as real as people. It’s instinctual to skim over problems, but problems make us who we are, and so problems will make your character who she is.

In the end, I can promise you that your entire book will benefit from having a character who is real, and not simply a copy of society’s voice--without the flaws.

Who We Are; Why We Are

When I say to someone “Oh, I’m an author,” the reactions are quite varied. Some nod their head, impressed, others give me less than a parting glance. On few glorious occasions, their face will brighten up and they will reply with “Really? Me too!” Yet there is at least a 50% chance that they will say “I have a story I started writing once,” or even more frequently, “Yes, I’ve had a few story ideas myself that I never wrote down.”

To others, writing might seem like a pastime, a hobby. But for those of us who do or intend to write for a living understand that writing is not mere pleasure activity--it is life. I’ve often said to peers and relatives that if I didn’t write, I wouldn’t know what to do with myself. I am always thinking of my next or current story, looking up inspiration and writing tips. It has encompassed everything that I do in that the thought of writing is never far from my mind. I know that many of you can relate.

So who are we, we mysterious sect of authors? There’s something that defines mere writing from the ultimate path down to authorship. I would say that it is the way that we see the world. Others might look past the large concrete building housing the software company; authors see it and think ‘What if that company was actually trying to produce an Artificial Intelligence unit?” A simple outing to a ‘normal’ person would be filed away as scenes to be used for later. Interesting or beautiful people become characters. Forests and parks become entire worlds for which one person’s fantasy can play out. Beth Revis sums it up quite well: “My inspiration tends to come from two words. The two most important words to a writer: What if?”

So who are we, the strange creatures known as authors? We are the creator of worlds, worlds where we can do anything we wish. We are the speakers of our soul, and we share these pieces of ourselves with others so that they might learn to live their lives better. We are the mothers and fathers of a generation that exist only in ink and paper. We have laughed with them, cried with them, borne their burdens with them. We have loved them. We have grieved the lives of a thousand men, lived the days of ten thousand. We are a legion of people, a single person, a hero, a villain, a savior, a friend.

In the end, we are dreamers.

That is all we need be.

But why?

Why do I write?

I might answer this question with one of my own: “Why do you breathe? Why does your heart beat?”

“I must,” You reply. “Or I will die.”

“So I write, or surely I will die.” I frown. “Of course, it goes much deeper than that. Why do you believe in things, be it God, yourself, science, or the words of some old eccentric who seems to understand life better than you?”

“Well...” You reply. “I must. Or I will cease to find purpose in my existence.”

I smile. “So I write--that I may find purpose in mine. Yet it goes far deeper than even that. Ask yourself: Why do you imagine or dream? Why does so much of your life fall to wistful fancies and impossible desires?”

You begin to grow rather frustrated. “I dream because that is who I am. If I did not, I would be denying myself.”

“So I write, that I may not deny myself.” I pause a moment before continuing. “And yet...why do you laugh? Why do you cry? Why do you continue day to day, caught up in the world of life, in the beautiful, horrible, insane tumult of life only to wake the next day and continue, and still find joy in it?”

“It is my soul!” You shout. “I do everything you have mentioned because if I do not do these things, I will die. I do them so that I may live!”

My smile deepens. “Writing is my soul. It is everything I am, everything I could be, stretching from the beginning of time to the end of the eternities. I write, not only so that I may not die.” I point a finger to your chest. “I write that through reading my writing, through living through my own soul that I give to the world, you my friend, may thrive in a way you never could have alone.

And only then, may I truly live.”

Being an author is more than simply putting pen to paper. It is almost a second living conscience--any good author will tell you that stories write themselves. So let it be your soul. It is truly who we are, and why we are.

-Mackenzie Seidel