What Is Your Character's Shire?

I've been reading several stories lately with struggling characters. And by struggling, I mean characters that are inconsistent and hard to believe.

If you are struggling to make your characters come across as real, believable, and engaging to readers, here is a little piece of advice that might help.

Establish what each character's motives are. What is the one thing that that character wants, and why? Once you figure that out, everything a character does should be to achieve that goal. Even if the choices they make aren't always the smartest, in the character's mind they should be to achieve that one, all important goal. This will keep your character consistent and believable.

Your main character's objective should be obvious to the reader in the first chapter.

Example: The Hunger Games
What one goal of Katniss's drives the story forward and is at the root of nearly everything she does? Her desire to protect her sister, Prim. She volunteers to go to the games in place of Prim, and she wants to win not just to survive, but so she can be there for Prim.

Example: The Forest of Hands and Teeth
What is it that Mary longs for? To see the ocean, and thus have a connection with her mother. This is what drives Mary out when the walls are breached and keeps her going. In my opinion, this comes across as a selfish motive, but at least it is consistent. And let's face it, teens often have selfish motives.

Example: The Lord of the Rings
What objective does Frodo have in his heart that keeps him going on his impossible quest? The Shire. He wants to get back home to the Shire, and he wants the Shire to be safe and uncorrupted by Sauron.

You have to find your character's Shire.

Come back next Monday for the first of many contests leading up to the release of A Blind Eye in February!

How Do You Feel about Love Triangles

All, right. Let's get right down to it. In YA literature, love triangles are everywhere. Example from Twilight: the Edward-Bella-Jacob triangle.

I want to know how you feel about love triangles. Do you like them? Hate them? Don't really care? Depends on how it's written?

As a genreal rule, I don't like them. I don't mind so much if it's simply a case of two people liking the same person. Two boys like the same girl. What I hate is when that one person strings along the other two.

I have to fall back on the Twilight example. Bella likes Edward, and she seems set in her feelings towards him. But she also sort of likes Jacob, even though she claims there is no chance she'll ever end up with him. Instead of cutting him loose she strings him along. We see this kind of thing all the time in YA lit.

I think the reason I can't stand this type of scenario is because it makes the character doing the stringing appear unfaithful, cruel, and selfish. Why would either of the guys put up with that? The story loses credibility and my sympathy for the characters.

What are your thoughts on the love triangle?

A Rose By Any Other Name

I've always felt like it's important to give my fictional characters meaningful names. Names that say something about the character and give them added depth.

Draco Malfoy, Napoleon Dynamite, Huckleberry Finn, Ebenezer Scrooge, Malvolio. Each of these names evokes something about the character.

But it's not that easy to come up with great names.

Here are a few quick tips I picked up from various places:

1. Make it easy to read. Especially in fantasy and science fiction. Readers don't like stumbling over names as they read a story. A name can be easy to read and still sound exotic, foreign or futuristic.

2. Make the name appropriate to the time period. Use census data or the Social Security Name Popularity List to find names that were common to the time period of your story.

3. Consider the meaning of the words in the name. What does the root of the name mean? What country does it come from? For example compare the name Sunny to Draco; Lucy to Lucia.

4. Consider what the name means to the general public. If you pick the name Brittany readers will immediately think of Brittany Spears. Is that who you want your character associated with?

I have this book called The Baby Name Survey Book that lists hundreds of names and what the general public's first impression is about someone with that name.

Example: My name is Julie, here is what the book says about it: 

Image: The name Julie calls to mind a tall, quiet woman who is pleasant and average. 

And then it lists several famous Julies that people might associate with that name, such as Julie Andrews.

5. Avoid overused and cliche names. Like Jack. How many big strong heroes are named Jack? Unless of course you're going for the cliche.

What are your favorite fictional names? I'd love to hear your examples of best character names.

What are your tips for naming your own characters?

And let me know if you want me to look up your name in my awesome book.

Favorite Character Contest

I'm participating in a blogfest in which I get to highlight one of my favorite characters I've ever written.

If that isn't a hard enough decision... I'm not at all good at picking favorites. My kids always ask me what's my favorite movie/song/food/color/... I can never choose!

Anyway, I've decided for this fest to go with Scarlett: a blind girl who has been kidnapped from London. What's been fun about writing Scarlett is that she speaks with a lot of British colloquialisms. She's a small girl with a big personality.

Here are a few of her lines:

"All parents are berks."

"We're here to gen up, savvy?"

"Pull yer finger out."

And the always classic, "Right you are, Guv'nah."

She makes a fun contrast to the stoic American kid who's trying to help her.

Thanks for stopping by and if you follow me, I will always return the favor!

*Click on the button above for full details and to sign up. You could win a critique from Melanie Billings, Acquisitions Editor at Whiskey Creek Press and other cool prizes.

Character Quirks

Quote of the Day: "Why don't they just makes phones that are connected to the base?" From my son after I duct taped the cordless phone to its base with a piece of yarn because I was so sick of it being lost!

A friend of mine and author Tamara Hart Heiner recently wrote a blog about giving our characters personality quirks--little traits that set the character apart from the rest of the world.

Everyone has them. It's what makes us unique.

So here are some of mine:

• I am obsessed with expiration dates. I check the date on everything before I buy it and I throw out tons of unused food just because it's a few days past expiration.

• I have to have clean sheets. I wash my sheets sometimes two or three times a week. And only I can make the bed, otherwise, the sheets aren't to my liking.

• I don't eat leftovers.

• I'm obsessed with London, England, and the whole of the British Isles. I lived there growing up, and it is my home away from home. 

• I have to carry dental floss with me at all times. I keep it in my purse, my car, and in various places around the house. 

• I smell everything. New books, plastic wrappers, even glasses as they come out of the dishwasher.

• I have a hard time with subtlety. I speak too frankly, offend people by accident, and don't pick up on the nuances of society very well. I think if people have something to say, they should just speak up and say it in as polite a way as possible instead of beating around the bush. Life would be so much easier.

• I am a little bit obsessed with skulls. Especially the skull and crossbones. 

• I carry Vervain scented lotion with me at all times. If you know why, great, we're on the same wavelength. If you don't know why, then God have mercy on your soul.

• I love maps and sometimes I just sit and study them. Any map. 

So, there's ten quickies I just came up with off the top of my head. 

Making this list has got me thinking about quirks I could give my main character to set him apart and boost his personality. But not too many quirks, otherwise it becomes annoying. Just one or maybe two. 

I Can Bring Home the Bacon!

Song of the Day: "Quiet Little Voices" ~We Were Promised Jet Packs


Deren Hansen posted on Utah Children's Writers regarding what it means to have a strong female main character in YA novels. This is something I've thought a lot about, so I decided to add my own opinion on my blog.


Here are the two quotes Deren used that were meaningful to me:


Sheila Nielson


"There are more kinds of strength than the 'kick butt' kind. The women who had the greatest influence on me all had a quiet, daily kind of strength."


Clint  Johnson


"In the best stories, the strongest characters are those that act with the greatest strength in spite of their weaknesses."


When I read agent blogs, I frequently find that agents are looking for stories with "a strong female lead."


I think writers tend to interpret that as kick butt heroines, like Angelina Jolie in Salt. Girls that can go in with guns blazing. And sure, they have a softer side, a weak spot, but it's buried so deep, very few get to see it.


Unfortunately, while that makes a great action movie, I don't think it's the best for YA. Most teenage girls don't relate to characters like that. YA girls are vulnerable, conflicted--they want to fit in, but they also want to stand out, they want to find their place in life. Like Anne of Green Gables.


I believe teen girls today relate to the kinds of characters mentioned by Sheila and Clint. Regular girls just trying to figure out life, but when faced with difficult circumstances, they put their weaknesses aside and step up to the plate. 


As Exhibit A, I submit Twilight. Why is that book so darn popular? I think teens relate to Bella. An average girl, average intelligence, living an average life--just trying to fit in while still maintaining her identity. 


Then of course, when the handsome, immortal hottie shows interest in her, it's every teenage girl's dream come true. If it could happen to regular old Bella, it could happen to them.


But is Bella a "strong female lead"? Good question. She seems a little bland, vulnerable. For an answer I submit Exhibit B, Twilight. In the end *spoiler alert* Bella is faced with an option to sacrifice herself to save her mother. This is a choice that almost all teens can relate to. It's personal, not save the world or the random hostage, it's save someone you know and love and who loves you. Teens, as we all know, are very "me" centered. 


But the real heart of the matter is that Bella chooses to live life on her own terms. And that is something all YA girls want. And that is why Twilight has sold over a million copies. Bella may not be the strongest of female lead characters in terms of fight, but she is the kind teen girls totally relate to, and that's what teen girls want. 


*Please note that I refer only to Twilight, and none of the other books in the saga. They are a completely different story!

Don't Let Your Protagonist Be a Loser

Currently Reading: "Book of a Thousand Days" (again) by Shannon Hale. Actually, just finished it yesterday but I'm still basking in it's glory.  

When I read a book, I want a main character I can like and relate to, at least in some way. But occasionally I come across a protag who is so completely unlikeable that the whole book/movie/TV show is ruined. See my previous post for an example.

So, as promised, here is the definitive list of what makes a protagonist likeable or hateable.*  Obviously, there are a lot of gray areas and overlapping traits. And a protag need not have ALL of these to be successful, but it's good food for thought.

Likeable

-A desire to do what's right even though they make many mistakes. Which also requires a basic knowledge of right and wrong. They have to recognize their own mistakes.

-Some level of underlying kindness or humanity.

-Have a backbone or spirit, even if it takes a while to reveal itself. Someone who, in the end, is able to rise to the challenge.

-Tend to be true to themselves, even if finding their way there is a long and winding road.

-Sense of humor. Every reader wants to smile occasionally.

-Some level of vulnerability. Too perfect and the reader can't relate to them.

-Depth, they can't be one dimensional or they are boring. I want to know what goes on beneath their public face.

-Have intelligence or curiosity. Not that they have to be Einstein--there are MANY other kinds of intelligence besides book-smarts or scientific genius!

-They must be written well enough that the reader is able to sympathize with them and care about them. If not, there's no point in reading the book.

Hateable  And I'm NOT talking about the antagonist or villain, but the main character.

-So completely selfish that they do whatever they want to get what they want with no thought of how it might affect others.

-Involved in a wishy-washy love triangle. A girl loves Boy A but then meets Boy B and then drags both boys along forever because she can't make up her fragile mind. And what guy worth having would put up with that?

-Underlying cruelty.

-Self-absorbed and overly whiny. Everyone has problems, and the protag better have some too or where's the story? But too much indulgence in self-pity is a turn off.

-No sense of priorities based on a moral code. Not everyone shares the same moral code, but a protag with ALL the wrong priorities is hard to like.

This is the list I came up with. What are some characteristics that make you love or hate a protagonist? Who are some protagonists that you love or hate?


*Based completely on my own opinion.   :)

Hate is a Four Letter Word

Weather Check: Nice and rainy. Too bad I can't stay home and write today.


Quote of the day:  "I before E except after C, and when sounding like A and in neighbor and weigh, and on weekends and holidays and all throughout May, and you'll always be wrong no matter what you say!" ~Brian Reagen


I watched a movie recently with a main character so self absorbed and self pitying I could barely make it through the film. She had a great husband and nice friends who loved her and wanted her to be happy, but she couldn't find inner peace and balance. So, she breaks her husband's heart by divorcing him to go in search of herself.

After traveling the world on a trip of selfish indulgence, she finally learns the great lesson in life--sometimes you have to lose balance to find balance. Suddenly, she is now capable of love. Whaaaat?

I kept waiting for her to have a change of heart and really learn something about priorities and happiness, especially when she sees kids eating garbage out of the gutter in a third-world country. But no. She's too busy struggling to forgive herself for the huge mistake she made when she married this really awesome and devoted husband. Then she ... Well, I should probably stop there. All I'm saying is that I hated this character.

Anyway, it made me wonder about main characters, and how to give them flaws and shortcomings, but still make them likable.

I think Margaret Mitchell's Scarlett O'Hara is a masterful example. She's kind of a despicable, selfish person and easy to hate, but somehow, she gets under our skin. We love her anyway and want her to be happy, but at the same time, when she gets what she deserves, there is a sense of justice.

Another great example is Harry Potter. He's far from perfect--sometimes selfish, judgmental, not the brightest kid--but his kind heart, sense of humor, and desire to do good despite his mistakes make him lovable.

How do we find the balance? Tune in on Wednesday when I will post a definitive* answer to what makes characters likable and hateable.

*Definitive based on my own personal opinion.