Words dusted off and reused

This is another episode in the life of an amateur philologist.  As the log- will tell you, it’s about words, the philo-meaning love for ist meaning person a philologist is a person who loves words.  As a child, I studied the origins of both words and personal names, believing that the meaning of a name held clues to that person’s character.  I spent my babysitting money on baby name books to appropriately name the characters in my stories. This was long before the days of personal computers or the internet, so I typed my stories on my mother’s, and later my own typewriter.   Once in jr. high, due to a transgression, the nature of which I do not now recall, I was sentenced to a couple hours of detention, and the teacher in charge very unwisely assigned us to copying pages out of the dictionary.  I say unwisely because while he may have gotten the desired groan from the boys, in my case it was a squeal of delight. Here I was exposed to a whole wonderland of new vocabulary. He would have done better to have given me the sports pages.  That would have quelled my feeling of delight.   to suppress; put an end to; extinguish: The troops quelled the rebellion quickly. to vanquish; subdue. to quiet or allay (emotions, anxieties, etc.): The child's mother quelled his fears of the thunder. Instead, I chortled my way through the punishment, which for me, was no punishment at all.  to chuckle gleefully. verb (used with object), chor·tled, chor·tling. to express with a gleeful chuckle: to chortle one's joy. noun a gleeful chuckle. A word listed with chortle was snigger.  I always pictured this one cartoon dog sniggering.  My favorite reference defines it as snicker. WORDS RELATED TO SNIGGER dump, twit, gird, slam, deride, jest, rally, caricature, leer, snicker, swipe, insult, lampoon, decry, travesty, crack, scorn, smile, gibe, slight They’re probably not old words, but they’re good words which onomatopoeically describe the words themselves.  The great Bard William Shakespeare would have loved them. If he didn’t use them himself, which I believe he did, in at least one play, he should have.   Fustilarian is a word the Bard did use as an insult, but the dictionary lists no definition for it, but from the context I can guess at the meaning.  It would mean someone fussy about his appearance, but has no basis for being so.  onomatopoeia noun the formation of a word, as cuckoo, meow, honk, or boom, by imitation of a sound made by or associated with its referent. a word so formed. the use of imitative and naturally suggestive words for rhetorical, dramatic, or poetic effect. What words would you like to see dusted off and used again?  Words are the very stuff of writing, so there is the connection to writing.  Words are both my tools and my toys. What are words to you? Rita Trevalyan ReplyForward

Connecting with life outside of our writing

For those of us who have busy lives the worst thing is that moment when we realise we need to reconnect...Or for some of us its when our family -quite cheerfully- drags us kicking and screaming out the door away from the computer, the phone, the busy schedule that just seems to get more and more full.

Forced to do nothing but reconnect with our loved ones we're at first irritable, sullen even. Don't they understand we're trying to build something, our business, our careers, our dreams...? Too often we think, No by God they don't. They haven't got a clue what it is we're trying to do. We tell them - but its sort of like ships passing at night. There's a vague awareness of them but beyond that, they become a faint memory which stirs when its time to do bath time, homework, dinner. Do we as authors, entrepreneurs, business execs really need to spend 18 hours working to get ahead?

Oh I hear someone saying YES! Running our own business is a full time job, its a twenty-four hour thing. There is no time for procrastination or disorganisation. We must be driven. Must be willing to sacrifice ourselves for the greater good...and the bottom line.

But do we sacrifice ourselves or our families and personal lives? Recently, and yes I griped and moaned and glared my way through the first hundred kilometres, I discovered a rather shocking and horrifying fact. By burying myself in work I'm not sacrificing myself. No, I'm sacrificing the very thing which I'm doing this for....my family time. I love my family, they're why its so easy to get up in the morning. But I also have to realise they are also the ones whom I neglect because I'm working on the latest book or the latest newsletters for the month.

Half way through our trip, it hit me. I was without a computer, without my work, and I was relaxed. You wanna talk about a shocker - I spent 100 kms stressed out of my mind because I didn't have my computer, my writing, the galleys, connection to my promotion and social media...and slowly it sunk it while those people are important - I was with the ones who should always be my top priority.

Hard lesson to learn and one I'm still learning how to deal with. How can I, as a business woman and author manage to juggle my full time job, my business, my writing and still  have time to reconnect with my family? It seems now a days we have so little time to dedicated to our loved ones we have to come up with plans, ideas, schedule in time to reconnect even in the most basic of ways. It has become a lost art on how we as a society connect with those living in our homes, part of our lives. And too often, we forget to think on how we are disconnected from them.

Perhaps its time to forget the business, forget the job, the career at least for a moment and do something silly be it go for a walk or just play a rounding game of cards or something that allows us to see our family and friends before us. Disconnect from the electronics and reconnect with the living, breathing people who make up our lives. Even if it is in some small way.

Author Interview: Rita Travelyn

Tuesday morning Patricia and I sat down for an interview.  One of the questions involved a term I hadn’t heard of before.  I had heard of writer’s block. I fight it constantly, like a lot of other writers.  But readers’ block I hadn’t heard of before. Patricia explained it as when you just can’t get into a book or story you’re reading. I explained that I was going through it at that very moment with a book I was reading called Goblin Corps (author’s name withheld)  I’m sure he worked very hard on his book, but I just can’t get into the story.  

I may well have used up my 15 minutes of fame by now, but it’s all right, because several of my friends who don’t want fame gave me theirs.  I need fame, because as an author my success depends on it. My favourite song by the late great David Bowie is “Fame.” It’s funny about writing.  It’s the one field I can think of where participants actively encourage those who might well become our competitors. But maybe not. After all, we are each in pursuit of our niche audience; our own special corps of readers.  My readers may find your books tedious, while your readers may find mine frivolous, and so on it goes.  

I finally thought of the word I was searching for this morning to explain how I feel when I’ve been writing.  Endorphins get released from my brain into my blood stream, and so I spend the rest of the day riding a writer’s high.  It gets to be that way when you are doing your rue Will, what you were always meant to do, and I discovered this without going into seclusion for six months to do the Abra Melin working.  It’s a working some magicians perform, to attain knowledge and conversation with their Holy Guardian Angel. But I knew mine in life, and he was always encouraging about my writing. In fact, he described NaNoWriMo as “the Olympics for writers.”  I have always fancied this comparison of writers with athletes. One of the hints I drew from a book I have on outwitting writer’s block is “the ugly notebook,” where I warm up my brain in preparation for writing, just as an athlete or dancer warms her muscles in preparation for performing her sport or dance.

We discussed briefly my current project about exploring the Andromeda Galaxy after using their new friends’ technique of felding  space to get there when it is millions of light-years distant. She was tickled when I told her that the dominant life form is feline.  They have a very delicate hold on the galaxy, mostly performing the administrative tasks necessary to hold their empire together.

It was an enjoyable experience, so much better than when I used to be interviewed for a job.  Now I’m being interviewed for what I was always meant to be, a writer, and that’s as it should be.  Stay tuned for exciting news regarding my next release.

Characters: A Vital part of any Story

Let's talk about characters. They are one part of the life’s blood of any story we offer our readers. Good, bad, every character is important to telling the story, however, not all belong in the spotlight. But all deserve the same care and consideration when being created. 

Writing believable characters is a challenge, whilst avoiding the typical cliches we all too often see. There are a number of ‘cliche characters’ we are all familiar with - the brooding Rebel, the reluctant hero, the Plain Jane, The mad scientist, the list goes on. But what makes these characters so predictable and boring to today’s reader?

These characters are interchangeable, you can put them in any situation and they fit with little effort on an author or reader’s part. Let’s get into a bit more details including some examples to clarify what I mean. First, we’ll look at a few of these cliched characters we’ve all read.

The first one is: 

• The Brooding Rebel - he’s the quiet, taciturn, loner. Brisque and standoffish he is slightly anti-social, going out of his way to avoid contact with other people. 
• His personality changes when he or she meets the man or woman of his/her dreams then he becomes a different person. We get to see the softer side of him, the more sensitive, emotional man.  
• We’ve all seen such a character in a book or movie, Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights for example. Personally, I think Wolverine from Xmen fits in here as well. 

Next of course is the: 

• The Plain Jain - the quiet, plain, unassuming man or woman everyone overlooks but at the end of it all he/she’s the smartest, kindest, his/her inner beauty is exposed. 
• The ultimate ugly duckling. She’s the woman who doesn’t attract men’s attention, yet when the hero falls in love with her he’s astounded anyone could consider her to be plain.  He’s the guy nobody notices - but once you get to know him his charm and wit is exposed and the heroine questions why nobody noticed it before. 

• The seductress - beautiful, sexy, a woman with a mind of her own who is interested in only one thing. Her own advancement. She isn’t shy and makes no secret she’s willing to do whatever she must. 
• An example of this character is the woman Sharon Stone played in Basic Instinct. Perhaps a little over the top but ultimately she is a femme fatale. 
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• The Reluctant Hero - A simple man looking for peace and quiet who finds him or herself tugged along on a journey full of excitement and adventure. Typically they rise to the occasion given to them because they must, not because they desire to. 
• A prime example of this is John Wayne’s character in Eldorado. - A great movie, where he played a gunfighter who got caught in a range war...but he wound up on the underdog’s side. I’d highly recommend it if you haven’t seen it yet. 

There are more than these few, and we’ve all seen them...perhaps we’ve even written them. I know I have, without even realizing I’ve done so. It’s not unusual to write characters we are familiar with, and we are very comfortable with these ones. Many if not all of these characters are classics, which inspired writer after writer to model their character after them and thus we have become so used to them they’ve become the cookie-cutter model. There isn’t anything wrong with starting with some of their personality points, though if you can expand on them, give them more depth it would be a good idea. Remember, the trick is to learn and adapt and make your characters three dimensional and unique. Playing off the typical cliche characters' strengths is a step onto the path but not the whole journey.

So how do we make a character interesting while avoiding the cliche trap?

Well, the first step I believe to doing this, is to know your characters. Knowing everything about them is vital, and I mean everything from their favorite food to what cut of underwear they like, what are their fears, their dreams, their desires. 

Before I start any project, I take the time to do a major character interview of the two main characters. These can range anywhere from 5 pages up to 15 if I feel it is necessary. Other characters get a more basic interview so there is some awareness and knowledge of the subsequent characters. Even if a character has only a couple of lines, I believe it is a good idea to do an interview with them as well. You never know when a minor character may shift and become much more active and play a more invested part in the story.

There are some excellent interview questions you can get with a simple google - I’ll put some links in the description box for you. 

When you’re creating your characters, one thing to keep in mind. Never think small, consider every detail, think outside of the box when it comes to questions about your characters. You may find you don’t use every detail but having them at hand will make your life much easier. 

Your main characters need to be three dimensional, so the reader feels like they’re getting to know an actual person. One thing you want to avoid when you’re writing is leaving the characters blank. Describe them, as you go, so the reader can picture them. Paint their image for the reader and really allow the reader to connect with them. When you’re lacking a description, or you leave your character’s image ambiguous it has an effect on the reader’s enjoyment of the book.

Don’t just tell the reader what the character looks like in one massive information dump. This is jarring and creates a passive description in my opinion. You want to sprinkle it into the book. Think of each interaction the character has as a chance for you to show the reader a detail of the character, from the Point of View of another character. You’ve given the reader the same information but in an active manner rather than simply telling him or her. 

Remember we don’t spend a lot of time in the mirror saying to ourselves: I’m this tall, weight this much, my eyes are blue/green and so on. 

You can show a reader details about the character’s personality as well in the narrative where they’re enjoying their hobby or a particular food or whatever the detail is. Weaving in these character features may seem to be a lot of work, but the end your character is well rounded and identifiable to the reader. Not only as the main character in your novel but as an individual. 

A great resource you can utilize is Pinterest. Creating a board for inspiration for your book is a huge time saver. You can have a visual representation of your characters, your setting, your plot points, all in one place. This will make things much easier for you as you go along. 

Just as important as knowing your character is understanding their Goals, Motivations, and Conflicts. For example you have a heroine who hates relationships - she has no interest in them… why? What are her reasons for her beliefs? Name a goal of hers which could create conflict be it internal or external? Having parents who died is often used - and if you’re going to do so you will need to ensure the spin you put on it is unique and original to avoid another cliche. 

What motivates a character to do their job? To be a playboy or a seductress? Are there secrets out there which could influence how others see them? Motivation is a huge part of every aspect of life and writing a character with little motivation to do anything leaves the reader with a bad feeling of the book and can ultimately kill the reader’s interest. 

Be creative with your answers, think outside the box. Perhaps your heroine is a serial killer and uses sex to kill her victims… how would that impact your story? How would it impact her ability to have a relationship?  

Remember your hero/heroine can be the anti-hero/anti-heroine. They don’t have to be pure, innocent, heart of gold people. There must be conflicts within themselves to allow for growth as a character. If character A is perfect and a wonderful person - it lends a certain boredom to the reader’s experience. Having flaws, bad habits, and such do not detract from an amazing character, rather it adds a layer of depth and life to your characters. 

Characters are, in my opinion, one-third of what makes a great story. You can have a wonderful story idea, a great setting, but if the characters are boring - the book won’t be read. Can you imagine Harry Potter without Harry Potter? 

No, he’s as much a part of the storytelling as the location, as the magic, and it shows. Readers are looking for an escape when we pick up a book. A character we can identify with, even if it is to love to hate is still interesting and 3 dimensional and will keep the reader hooked. Think of your characters in your books as individuals, with identities, experiences, feelings when you’re writing. Engage all their senses, I want to feel what they feel, hear, smell, see… for those moments when I’m reading, I want to experience the story through the eyes of those who are ‘living’ it.