The title says it all.
Have a blessed, joyous, holiday.

"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."
Isaiah 9:6 KJV

With Benayle Makes a Cake officially published, my friend and publisher is trying to decide what coloring book should be next. You can vote here in the comments to help her decide.
The choices are:
Sajani and the Magic Coin (a story about bullying)
Chass and the First Day of School (a story about being helpful in unfamiliar places)
Sajani and the Overdue Library Book (a story about owning mistakes and fixing them)
Benayle Pretends (a story about choosing a profession and dreaming)
I think at least one of the other polls is running a week, but the decision will be sooner than that.

One of the features of the Terah novels is supposed to be that they can be enjoyed by all ages. Officially, they are considered young adult. That's because the reading level is about 10th grade and the plot structure is closest to that age category. But people of all ages should be able to enjoy it. I've heard of it being read to six year olds. The oldest readers who have enjoyed the stories, that I know of anyway, are in their 80s.
The tricky part is that different age groups tend to look for different things in a story and what one group might want is not something you can even consider giving to a younger audience. By the same token, older readers won't enjoy a story that's written exclusively for a younger audience.
What you end up doing is something I like to think of as multi-layer story telling.
Here are a few concepts that help:
Sexual tension - this is actually the most common one out there and while just about everyone seems to know it exists, they often miss WHY it exists. Sexual tension means that there are two characters in the story who are appropriately matched to be sexually attracted to each other, but for one reason or another, mostly avoid a relationship. If you're familiar with Disney's TaleSpin, then you've watched Baloo's interactions with Rebecca. They even go on dates, always business related, but the relationship stays employee/boss. To a younger audience, it looks like two adults whose interaction is closest to child/parent in their understanding. An older audience will see that they might be interested in a relationship. Adults will sit there wondering when they're finally going to get together. Since relationships are a constant in all stories, this has a very universal appeal. By specifically NOT defining the relationship, you automagically scale it to the age of the reader. A Ship Called Hope uses this technique extensively, almost constantly.
Innuendo - You've seen this tool many times. You're watching a cartoon because either you're confident enough in your own adulthood to do so, or you're watching with children because it gives you an excuse. Out of the blue comes an inuendo. It's probably not even that subtle if you're an adult. But it's nearly impossible that someone under the age of 10 is going to have any sort of clue about it. I'm actually not supposed to use this one in my stories. I've never needed it to be honest. But by putting that vague reference in, you've increased your audience.
Unqualified actions - There's a rape scene in Faux Scent. Just about any adult who reads it will recognize it for what it is, but you can safely read it to a six year old because at that age, all that will be seen is that someone is about to get hurt. I did this by never defining the specific actions of the villain. He's moving her to another location and uses a knife. His dialogue hints at his intentions without directly saying them. He only takes actions that are open to interpretation. It also makes use of my next point.
Fade Out - In the scene above, the rape is stopped before I get to the point where I'd have to describe more. By bringing the scene to the point where the reader is sure what is happening, if I leave off or end the scene before it's defined, I don't need to be specific. If the scene ends definitively, the reader imagines the scene to have come as close to the horrible event (an event that is totally defined by the reader) as desired. If the scene is dropped completely, the reader will, just by nature of being human, fill in the blanks and those blanks are drawn 100% from the reader's previous experience and knowledge. Another example is in the first chapter of Wolf's Pawn. Sestus draws a pistol and fires it. The scene ends. You know he just mercilessly killed an unarmed person, but you don't need to see it happen to know that. This scene also makes use of the final concept I'll cover today.
Unwritten descriptions - There are some rather violent scenes in my books. At one point in What Once Was Eden, someone gets her throat ripped out. I don't even tell the reader that's what happened. The lady is pinned when the vykati over her bites down on her throat. A little later the vykati spits something out. Just about all ages are going to know what happened, but the level of detail is entirely determined by the reader, not by me. How much blood is there? Is the heart still beating and causing blood to surge out? Is there some other gross thing I can say here? Probably, but I don't want to. I'm done. Another reader might have filled in more blanks and some might have filled in less. It's determined by two factors: what the reader wants to see and what the reader's experience allows to be seen. This is often under-used in writing. Author's often feel every detail must be describe, but like the drawing of a sheep in a box in The Little Prince, by leaving out the specifics you're allowing your readers to envision that scene perfectly, at least in their own minds.
There are many other techniques, but these are the ones I've used the most often in my writing. Feel free to leave a response or send a note if you'd like suggestions on a scene you're working on. (keep it as PG as possible please. I'm old enough to be your mom, if not your grandma.) May you keep running forward and never look back.

Tradjen (aka Carl Rossi), the Operations Manager at Rossi Publishing Games, the people who publish my novels, will be at Painted Desert Fur Con at the end of December. He was the publisher there, but they did some rearranging and now his wife has his title. (She's better at it anyway.)
Here's his panel schedule.
Friday 1pm - 3pm Publishing Basics.
Friday 4pm - 6pm Furry Writer Meet and Greet (what are those anyway?)
Saturday 1pm - 3pm Writing Your Novel
Sunday 11:30am - 1:30pm Publishing Folklore and Antecedents.
Stop by and see him, or more importantly, stop by the booth, buy my books, and meet his wife. She actually has a personality.

I'll be getting to my series about the Hero's Journey in a couple weeks. Just thought I'd let you know I haven't forgotten. In the meantime, I learned about a hashtag some of you writers looking for agents and/or publishers might like to know about. It's #mswl (It's so intuitive, I'm surprised I never figured it out on my own. Well, not really...)

It stands for manuscript wish list, the same way DFAC in the Army stands for Dining Facility.

Search that hashtag on your favorite social media and find out what agents and publishers are currently looking for.

Here's a little teaser from the upcoming short story compilation, Blood and Pelt.

The forest was thick and the ground muddy. The recent monsoon left a pounded layer of pine needles mixed with soil that was thick and sticky like mortar. Sunshine was just starting to break through the clouds, forming shadows that could signal both hope and destruction, depending on where one stood. It barely touched the deeper parts of the wood, but with the light mist it caused to rise in some areas, it could cast a brilliant flash, like a piece of heaven suddenly bursting from the ground.
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The forest surrounding Altaza was considered both a line of defense by the protectors and a cloak to mask numbers by any who attacked. That cloak was useless now. Or would be. He just had to make it a half kilometer or so. Just a little further.
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The black furred vykati running through the forest was moving much slower than usual for his kind and was having difficulty keeping his footing. If the mud wasn’t sticking to his foot paws and holding him back, it was causing him to slip. His eyes were wide and fearful and his breathing, labored and heavy. A cough escaped and caused him to lose his balance. Dropping to all fours, he continued, managing to keep the same steady pace which was only slightly faster than walking. He wanted to go faster. He needed to go faster. The news was too urgent. Even a few minutes would make a difference to an officer like Colonel Adida. The pine needles dug into his palms as he ran, piercing his skin and causing light bleeding. It didn’t matter. The need to warn his fellows was larger than his pain.
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He glanced briefly over his shoulder. Surely no one had seen him. He was almost certain he’d passed their outlying scouts without detection. But every sound caused rising fear. Squirrel or scout, in his fevered mind the sound itself was enough to cause panic.
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The forest ended and revealed the garrison he’d spent the last 24 hours running towards. The stone walls obscured all but the huge roof of the central chapel. A metal gate was his prime target. He just needed to get to that. He could hear some shouting from the wall and as he got closer, he clearly heard Sergeant Whist shout, “Damn the protocol! If that’s not a scout with an urgent message, I’ll face the charges. Open that gate!”
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The normal creaking he often heard as the gate opened was silent to his ears. He rose to his feet as he passed through, took the few steps necessary to face the quickly approaching brown and gray vykati with a crisp uniform and the triple stripes of his rank. A short female wolf with copper fur was standing next to the sergeant. The exhausted scout snapped to attention, brought his right hand up to his left should in salute and said, “Sir, Corporal Dinnus reports.”
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His mind struggled to stay conscious. The world had started spinning and it made it impossible to see what was happening around him. Maybe if he closed his eyes for just a moment, he could get his bearings. He only needed to stay conscious a moment more so he could give his report. “Enemy division…” His attempt to stay conscious failed and he collapsed at the feet of his commander and sergeant.

Recently the publisher changed the official genre of my books. Weird huh? They were classed as steampunk and on some marketplaces, you can get that designation. It's now being called "Fantasy Steampunk" which doesn't have an official designation anywhere unless you can mix genres. It's more accurate.

If you've enjoyed my stories, maybe you'll enjoy the roleplaying game being written to go with it. It mostly follows your standard d20 rules, but changes some stuff to make it more fantasy steampunk relevant. I got a live link from the publisher to the playtest book. You'll want to be cautious about printing it up, because the "live" part of that description is accurate. When he makes changes to the document, it appears there in real time. The book explains how to provide feedback.

Right now, it's free. At some point, probably around the end of the year, the link will end up going to a document that will explain how to purchase the playtest book. It won't be expensive. The publisher figures that people are more likely to give feedback on something they had to pay for. Don't quote me on it, but I think the print version will be around $10 and the digital version will be $5.

If you do decide to download it with this link: https://1drv.ms/w/s!AjWsFtm4hcPFpdp.....YByyA?e=IAwX5k feel free to post below letting me know. I'm curious if there's any interest. You can also give me feedback here and I'll pass it on.

Hi lovely people!
I am still around. I keep thinking I'm going to be able to post more and then life happens.
1. I'm not one who needs to vent online. I understand there are some people who do and that's fine, but I have a great and physically present support group that helps me out without a need to share it out even more.
2. When I say life happens, I mean exactly that. Nothing horrible is happening, but things are changing and I'm finding myself with less time to post than I originally planned.
I like lists though, so here's a partial list of things I'm busy with.
1. I do volunteer work for my church. Many other people also have busy lives and so I've found myself needed more often. They're fine if I need to say no. I'm not guilted into doing things, so I'm happy to give them a little extra time.
2. The long awaited children's books Benyale Makes a Cake, Chass and the First Day of School, and Sajani and the Magic Coin now have an artist. It's the wonderful artist behind the webcomic Furry Experience,  Ellen-Natalie. This is a really easy project for me because my publisher handles all the formatting and similar issues and I get to just watch it happen and go: "Uh huh. I love it. You are the bestest artist Ellen!" It's true! (There are many bestest, but she's the bestest when I say that.)
3. RP Games decided to run a short story collection called Blood and Pelt about the wolf people in their game world. Most (if not all) of the stories in it will be by me. A good number were already written, but there's more work to do. This takes some time.
4 The final book in the A Ship Called Hope triolgy: Benayle's Gambit, is over two years past deadline and it's all my fault. I need to just finally buckle down and write the scene were (redacted) gets (redacted). I think that's my big hold up.
Look to see more of me in the future though. I'll be posting some cover work soon. I'm very excited about  GoldenDruid 's take on Sajani for the cover of Blood and Pelt.

I was asked to do a journal on writing in first person. It's kind of funny that I'd be asked because I rarely use it.

First person is the perspective used in writing and/or storytelling where the story is told directly from a character's point of view. (For those wondering, second person is told from an instructive point of view. Instead of "I did this" it's more of a "you did this.") First person enables the author to put the reader directly in the story, allows the reader to know the thoughts of the character in real time, and makes developing that character easier. One of the most famous first person novels is The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie. It set a high standard for writing from that perspective because of its use in a mystery novel and because it reaffirmed the author's superiority in the genre. I could say more about it, but the rest would be spoilers. I recommend the book for seeing how that perspective can be used effectively.

Like many mechanics used in writing it also has its disadvantages. You're locked into one point of view. While it's possible (by breaking some rules) to show the reader things not seen by the narrator, it's not recommended as it pulls the reader away from the story and puts you, as the author, in a position where you have to work to put her back into the story. The biggest and best example of where this limitation can hurt is in Twighlight. The narrator falls unconscious before the final fight and wakes up after it's over. The writer spends most of the length of her novel building up to that fight and the reader never sees it.

Along the same lines, character development of other characters tends to be overshadowed because the thoughts and actions of the narrator are always at the forefront. There are ways to overcome this, especially through the use of literary foils, but you're at a slight disadvantage when everything everyone else does is going through the thought filter of the narrator.

It's not so much a drawback (although it can be) as it is an observation, but first person also tends to be a little too much when it comes to putting the author in the story. It's easy for it to become so obvious that the reader feels removed from the character rather than inside the character. In the same way, with only one person for the reader to directly relate to, it can have the same effect.

Writing from this point of view requires a higher level of knowledge about the character and forces the author to directly enter the persona. In that way, writing in first person is a lot like acting in a play or movie. It's not enough to know how the character thinks: you have to know about the character's hopes, dreams, aspirations, history, and in many cases, future. True, knowing those things will help your writing for all characters in third person as well, but this point of view requires it to an extreme level. You need to be able to convince the reader that you are that character.

Those who follow me know that I'm against any kind writing drill. They tend to engrain bad habits more than help you polish your work. Here's something you can do on a regular basis that can help without hurting your writing skills: narrate your life. Don't write it down, just narrate it as it happens, a little like those old private eye TV shows used to do. It can make you more self aware in regards to your thoughts and reactions to different events. Classes in acting can also help.

That's about all I have on this topic. Like I mentioned at the start, it's not my favorite PoV, although I do use it at times. Even in third person, you might sometimes find yourself having a character relate a short event. Don't use it though if you can show the actual event. Hopefully you find this helpful. I try to write in an upbeat and fun way that avoids the usual writer angst so prevalent in writing advice. As always, if you have any suggestions for future posts, let me know through DM or through my email at chaaya dot chandra at outlook dot com. In the meantime, may you keep running forward and never look back.

Yes, the spelling on the title is intentional.
For those unfamiliar with the concept of Chekov's Gun, it refers to something from the playwright's letters, wherein posited that nothing should be shown to the reader or viewer that did not serve a future purpose.

This seems like a good time to bring up another literary device, known as a red herring. A red herring can be something a writer puts in a story specifically to tick off Chekov... well, not really. It's an event, person, or object that seems important to the story, but ultimately is not. The term might come from a strong pickled fish believed to be able to throw off pursuing hounds. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle made use of the literary concept more than once.

These two concepts do a wonderful job of demonstrating something I'm noticing more frequently lately: the internet allows a lot of bad writing advice to become popular. Like I've said many times in these journals, it's best to look at why someone gives the advise before you accept it as scripture.

Chekov was a Russian playwright who authored hundreds of short stories. He also wrote a single novella. His work has endured and he is considered by some to be the great short fiction writer to ever live. Obviously such a title is going to be debated, but not by me. I want to concentrate on what Chekov wrote: namely short stories and plays. It seems to me that his advice is very good advice for most short stories, plays, and film--especially for plays, where you have limited stage space. Like most good advice, however, it does have limits and can be overdone.

One iconic form of the red herring in literature is found in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's A Study in Scarlett, when the German word "rache" is written on the wall in blood to distract the police. So at least one author thought it was ok. Interestingly enough, you'll find red herrings are frequently used in mysteries. It has the effect of making it more difficult to determine which are the real clues. Just about any time someone seems to be guilty, but isn't comes down to the author doing just that. Faux Scent makes use of it, but I don't want to give any spoilers.

Chekov even ignores his own rule in his play The Cherry Orchard, where two loaded rifles show up, but are never fired. Possible he was mocking himself.

Both Chass and Ambassador Genis were originally meant to be disposable characters who just showed up and never really did much. I liked them both so much, I kept them in. Their continued existence has nothing to do with Chekov's Gun.

What is important is that you don't burden readers with a lot of useless information. The problem comes in when you try to define useless. Descriptions add depth, scenes might just make time to even out pacing or create a mood, and sometimes a gun is just a gun. Making canon out of Chekov's Gun can burden your writing unnecessarily and make for a story that's too sterile.

That's it for this week. May you keep running forward and never look back.

I've been busy lately and the website and journals have fallen a bit behind.
I do plan on returning soon though. Things will be mirrored at the furry sites and my website, so you won't have to go looking for me.

Some quick news. My publisher was at Anthro Weekend Utah (AWU) last weekend. He did some panels where he says he recommended people read my journals. I'll work on that, although it will probably be once a week, maybe even once every other week to start. He sold out of Wolf's Pawn there and nearly sold out on the other two novels. I guess AWU is now a real convention. Keep looking for RP Games at those, I'm told that there will be signed copies available in the future. Hopefully I'll spell my pen name right this time.

Also, the publisher is working a contract with an artist for the Terah Tails stories. These were originally just something I did on the side, but my friend talked the publisher into getting involved. The artist is REDACTED

Apparently I'm not supposed to give out the name until the ink dries on the contract, but I'm very excited.

For those who might not know, the Terah Tails series is a set of children's books based in the world of Terah with characters from my novels. Those who have read my stuff know that Benayle really likes cake and Benayle Makes a Cake tells about his first attempt at making one. It's a fun little ditty about well, making a cake. Sajani and the Magic Coin takes place in Sajani's hometown of Adido. It follows a little wolf named Tebbs as she struggles to deal with bullies. She gets help from Sajani, Chass, and a magic coin. Chass and the First Day of School is about how Chass deals with being a 5'8" tall six-year old. Yes, I did the math on that using growth charts and to be his grown height, he'd have been almost six feet tall at the age of six. The story is a fun look at dealing with problems and keeping a positive attitude, something Chass is very good at.

If those do well, I'm planning another book called Tess and the Flying Cookie Jar. This book expands on something mentioned in passing in Faux Scent. I was going to quote it, but it's quite the spoiler. Tess and her sister contrive a plan to get to the hidden cookie jar, but the plan doesn't go the way they want it.

Hi again wonderful people!

I'm back! I promised I would be!

I've started with the regular entries again, but my publisher made a few changes to how things work with the agreement.

In the past, I posted story updates with special permission and the intent was ALWAYS to eventually have a specialized and central site for me to yammer from. Well, that site is here now! I'm so excited! I'll still post random things on the furry sites, (except furraffinity, but that's another story).

You'll find me posting older stuff inbetween the new stuff. We're looking for a good way to organize things to make it easier. So far, you can use the catagories on the sidebar to search for things by topic.

Be sure to stop by the official Sajani Tails Website!

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Hi Everyone!
Just a quick note. You may have noticed the stories and writing journals have stopped. Nothing's wrong. I don't have COVID-19. I'm not dead yet. Family is happy. Cats are happy. Everyone (except my publisher) is happy.
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I'm a little behind on the next Sajani story and decided that I'd take a break to destress a little. Between the holidays and everything I needed a bit of a breather.
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The cover for the next book is out. Golden Druid did a wonderful job as always on it. I'll be posting that later this week. I'm just waiting for approval from the publisher. Sheesh. You'd think he owned the copyright or something. *wink*
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Stay chill. Stay fun. And...

May you keep running forward and never look back.

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Choosing the right templates.
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In 1871 anthropologist Edward Burnette Tylor proposed that mythology and literature often follow a specific pattern. Eventually this pattern would be filtered and added upon by several others and eventually solidified by Joseph Campbell. It would come to be known as the monomyth or “the hero’s journey.”
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For the next weeks I’ll be doing a little bit of a run down on this theory, including my personal thoughts and criticisms on it. I hope you’ll find these things useful in your writing. I use the term archetype to cover a broad spectrum, from the anthropomorphism of set character traits to the flow of the story.
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Let me start by saying that I don’t fully support this theory. From a folklore standpoint, for instance, it shows a severe amount of selective sampling. There are several myths and theologies that only fit if you use a large hammer. What parts do match aren’t part of any grand unification theory for literature so much as they’re simply a part of the human condition and, to us, are the purpose of telling a story.
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It’s not that all good stories have contained those things. It’s more that if you remove some of those things, you defeat the purpose of telling the story. They are core things that I can comfortably say you should do in a certain way. I’ll get to that at a later journal, provided I don’t get… squirrel!
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Some of the metaphysical crap that’s been attached to it… well, by wording it that way, I think I gave you my opinion. I do believe in some metaphysical things, but the hocus pocus attached to the monomyth is a little over the top for me. Like I said, there’s nothing special about having things a certain way in the story. It’s just the purpose of telling the story—nothing more or less than that.
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I’ll start by explaining the concept of character archetypes in a story. A character archetype is a little like a template for designing your characters. Just like a basic template, it gives you an outline, but leaves additional details up to you. You’ll hear some different definitions than mine. Hear them out but remember Chaaya’s first rule of writing: There are no hard rules.
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As with a lot of things we’ve talked about; this is something that can be overdone. Like the first Sword of Shannara books, where you can point to each character in turn and say, “This one is Bilbo and this one is Gandalf…” you can rely too much on the template and take away any chance of creating depth to your characters. There’s no depth when you can see the bottom. That’s where my “gives you an outline” comment is coming from. When you use these archetypes be careful to fill in the inside yourself.
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I’ll start with the hero. The MC. The personification of yourself in the story (unless you’re me. I’m not Sajani). According to Joseph Campbell, the hero needs to go through some trials and then come out different than when she started. Seriously? It took an anthropologist to come up with that? The difference can be subtle (it is in the first two Sajani Tails) or it can be fairly drastic, like it is A Ship Called Hope. I’ve used the term before: Bildungsroman. That’s what is expected of your hero. To be honest though: if you end in the exact same place you started, with no change to the character or the environment, then why did you bother trying to tell a story?
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The reason I’m covering this, even though they are pretty obvious, is to make you more conscious of their presence. It can help the planning or the pantsing if you are actively thinking of the role your characters might be playing in each scene. It can also confuse the crap out of you, in which case, ignore me.
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There are more specifics to the plot, but I’ll cover that when I cover… plot.
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The next archetype I’ll cover is the mentor. I learned this archetype as the old man, but I guess it’s mentor now. In my books it’s the same every time—it’s Benayle. This is the person that guides the hero through her journey or acts as an advisor. I’ll mention it here because it’s going to come up later, but a particular character can fill more than one role and you can have multiple characters filling a role as well. That’s true of the hero as well.
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Also, the archetypes don’t necessarily have to be filled by a person. Benayle isn’t around to help Sajani directly in the Ship series. So while he does fill the mentor role by sending help and fighting the opposition on his end of things, I use a series of books that Gregor and Sajani have read as a way to give advice they need—The Prequel to Alpha series. The hero of those books is very similar to Benayle and the young pair learns from and receives encouragement from the books.
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This archetype is almost a no-brainer for showing up
in your book. Let’s say you’re writing a book about someone going on a lunch break (don’t laugh. It’s been done) and the server hands the hero a menu. Guess what? The hero learned something from that menu. That menu could be called a mentor archetype. So could the server.
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We’ve covered two archetypes today and hopefully you can see what I’ve meant about not being impressed with the theory. I chose these two in particular because not only are they among the first you’ll encounter in a tale, they’re also two that you will most likely automagically have in your story. (There is a case of a book where there’s a main character that isn’t a hero and makes no change over the course the story. It’s called The Difference Engine. It seriously bucks all of this.)
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Next week, I’ll get into other archetypes—some that you’d be hard pressed to leave out and some that are fun to have, like the trickster.
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As always, thank you so much to my few followers. I do this for you. Hopefully it gives you some insight into new ways to enhance your writing. You can find additional information on the internet about this topic. I suggest doing a search for “Glove and Boots: hero’s journey.” I don’t recommend the Wikipedia article. It’s pretty awful.
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May you keep running forward and never look back.

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Starting your group
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I usually start these out thinking, “Wow, Chaaya, you’re going to have trouble talking about this for 1.3k words. You’ll be lucky to see 500.” And then I have no problem whatsoever and end up doing an extra installment.
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Anyway, today I’m going to talk about some things that are important when starting your own writers’ group, but first, I wanted to talk about what I heard in comments and notes about people being solitary and not really wanting to do writers’ groups. Wow. I have a bone fide medical reason for not doing groups. I also have a contract that lays out terms for when I can reveal my identity, so if I did a writers’ group, I’d have to only do things that couldn’t be linked to my novels.
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You might reconsider. From what I’ve seen, a good group will do you more good than most of the $10k writer conferences.
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Ok. I’ll start with the meeting place. The big thing right now is virtual meetings. These can be good, but people sitting in front of a camera behave a lot differently than people sitting in a group. Just ask Jeffrey Toobin. One of the potential good things that come out of a group can be the interaction with people. It’s better to meet outside, socially distanced and wearing masks, in my opinion anyway than it is to do a virtual meeting where the mute key is close by. That said, a virtual meeting is better than nothing.
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Finding people can be challenging, especially locally. Colleges are a good place to find people as are local game stores and bookstores. You can often find places to leave a card advertising such things. This is good because you’re getting people that get out sometimes.
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Another good place to find people is through local FB groups. Most places have meet and greet places on FB where neighbors can bring up local issues and trade information, announce yard sales, and pawn off non-working appliances with no warranty.
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Having a set genre can be nice in some ways but being open to all genres can help as well. A Ship Called Hope trilogy has many elements of mainstream fiction in it and the same can be said about many great works. A lot of good books that aren’t categorized as romance, have romantic elements and someone with direct experience in the genre can be a boon. Make sure you agree in advance on what types of stories are allowed.
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Along those lines, be sure to set the adult level of the stories. Some groups do allow stories to be completely erotic, while some groups want to keep it PG or maybe R. Setting this in advance can save a lot of embarrassment. You want everyone in the group to feel like they belong and weeding out material in advance is much better than having someone feel like they need to miss a meeting because of objectional material. Be wary of phrases like “necessary to the story” as that’s so open to interpretation as to cause future problems.
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Be sure to create rules of conduct. I touched on this a little last week and the week before. It’s important that the group have a system approaching stories. One group I looked at was called BWA or Bad Writers Anonymous. Members we expected to appreciate that they had room for improvement and that the group (like an AA meeting) was to support people in their journey forward.
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Rules should clearly state things like the order of people speaking, how to deal with the sudden need to interject your opinion now because by the time the person is finished what you have won’t make sense, how much time each speaker is given (30 seconds to unlimited), and what the reviewed author is allowed to say. What the exact rules are isn’t nearly as important as the fact they are clearly described and universally known.
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I love kids, but they aren’t always a good idea at groups. If you have a group of moms meeting, it’s usually ok. They’re all used to things like that, but chances are not everyone is going to be ready for that.
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Work with the other members to create a name. This helps develop some asprit de corps, and also keeps the group going. People are more likely to feel like they belong if they’re attending a group called “Unicorns Never Follow Instructions Tenaciously (UNFIT) than they are with “our writing group.” Sample group names I got from my publisher were: Bad Writer’s Anonymous, Near Letter Quality (us old people who had dot matrix printers will get it) and Xenobia (taken from a mispronunciation of Xenophobia).
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Have a set time for your meetings. If you don’t have a story to review one time, you can either replace it with a discussion about a published book, or just make it a social get-together. These help people make sure the time is set aside and has the added benefit of causing slight discomfort, since everyone knows it’s not the purpose of the meeting. So they try harder to have material to review.
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To prevent that problem from happening too often, set the time between meetings so that it accommodates people’s writing and personal schedule. While forming the group it doesn’t hurt to ask people how often they have stories. For the college groups I heard about, once a week was barely enough, but for most settled adult groups, once a month might be as close together as you can get the meetings.
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Food. One of the groups I looked at had meetings that averaged about six hours. They usually took a break and went to a local restaurant where they continued to discuss the story. By prior agreement, those that could afford it helped cover those that couldn’t and that varied from week to week, because they were all college students. Consider the timeframe the meeting covers and set things up accordingly. This should be a shared responsibility and not be left to one or two people unless they genuinely want it (there are people like that). Leaving someone to shoulder that every meeting gets old fast.
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Make sure you have an exit plan. This is especially true for groups made of random people. I honestly don’t have suggestions for this. It’s more something that came up and people didn’t know what to do, but part of my coping with PTSD is having an exit plan wherever I go, and it seems like it would help here. You need a way to kindly not invite someone back. There will be bad feelings but it won’t be nearly as bad if something is worked out in advance.
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That about covers everything that was suggested to me. Feel free to leave stuff I might have missed in the comments.
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Thank you to my gracious followers. I do this for you. In addition, I’d like to thank Carl and Magen Rossi of Rossi Publishing Games for their input. I couldn’t have written this without their help, since I have mostly tangential experience with writing groups.
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If you have suggestions for future writing journals, let me know. I have plenty of topics left in mind, but if you need something for that next great novel, I’m happy to help. You can leave suggestions in the comments, send me a note, or contact my publisher through social media at realRPGames.
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Until next week.
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May you keep running forward and never look back.

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What to look for
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There are two reasons I don’t use writers’ groups. The first is kind of obvious to the people that know me. I can’t do a “group” thing. I get very nervous and panic easily and then end up saying things that are tactless even by my standards. Having social anxiety and PTSD just makes it difficult and then my second reason makes it so that I have no desire to push myself.
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I don’t trust the groups. As you’ve probably noticed from my journals, I’m pretty opinionated about a lot of things writers tend to discuss. I don’t fit the culture overall and I tend to add a little too much salt to the advice groups give, making it pretty useless.
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I consider these more personal problems than professional advice though. A good writers’ group can really improve your skill and help you get some social interaction with likeminded individuals. Just the exposure to different personalities can be helpful.
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So what to look at in a group: the good, the bad, and the literary horror story.
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My first warning is about what I think of as the group patriarch/matriarch. Every group is going to have an organizer or two. There’ll be people that’re the glue that holds the group together (more on them later), but what you don’t want to see is the one like the lady in my friend’s group, to whom all others will defer. This person is usually published and actually goes to lengths to ensure that no other published individual joins the group. You will find this person, if present, at the very first meeting because if she isn’t present, they cancel the meeting. Her opinion tends to work a little like a black hole: sucking the light from other people’s comments and forcing them to submit to her greater experience. You won’t develop as a writer in a group with one like that. You’ll instead be reforged into a mini version of the great matriarch, except without your own soul in there, your works will be second rate at best. Groups like this also tend to suffer from inbreeding, which I’ll get to later.
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What you do want to see, is a core group: people that have been with the group for a long time and complete each other’s sentences or movie quotes. Unlike the matriarch, these people exude energy and likeability. They have knowledge they want to share and are excited to learn more. You’ll recognize these people at the first meeting as well. There are usually one or two that actually organize the meetings, but the circle is larger than that. When things are being discussed, you’ll notice that they don’t always agree with each other. You might even see one ask another about a specific area that perhaps is an expertise to that person. If they have food, these are the people that have Doritos and Mountain Dew or, if they’re health conscious, something like a taco bar. They never serve cucumber sandwiches.
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A good group sees a little turnover. Ask how long people have been with the group. You’re looking for a little bit of a spread if the group’s established. If it’s new, ask a simple question about maybe inviting a friend, not someone specific but just in case you happen upon someone. Many groups will have a limit to their number, so being told no isn’t the problem. Being told that they never accept new members or that they have a type of vetting process usually isn’t a good sign. A group needs new blood every now and again. It adds a new perspective and gives it a broader knowledge base.
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And of course, it goes without saying that a good group is willing to help you get better. That means that criticism is presented in a way to help you get better, not in a way that only makes the critic feel better. You’ll hear all kinds of garbage about “tough love” and stuff. In my experience, it’s usually an excuse to act like a jerk. Like I mentioned in my last journal, they should talk about the writing, not confuse a different perspective with being right or wrong, and not attack the author personally. If you come back from the group feeling worse about your skill, it’s not helping you get better. You should see clearly where you are, but the group should be concentrating more on what’s ahead.
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The last thing I’ll talk about for groups is the rules. A good group has a set format and some basic ground rules. It’s not so important what the rules are as it is that they exist. Without rules things tend to break down fast and you’ll often have most of the discussion dominated by a few people. On the other extreme, if there are too many rules it can often leave people feeling cautious about saying things. Not all groups have the rule, but I’m pretty partial to the “no specific spelling, grammar, or punctation comments.” If the person consistently misuses commas you can mention that it’s something that needs work, but none of that “page 22, third paragraph, second line, fifth word should be capitalized” crap. Waste of time. If the person wanted an editor, she should hire an editor, not go to a writing group.
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I’ll close by talking about something that I see a lot in the writing community and while it doesn’t just happen in groups, it often does. I call it inbreeding. (Blame my biology degree.) “I don’t get it, I write at least an hour a day and have been for the last five years, why aren’t I getting published?” “But Chaaya, I’ve done everything they taught at my yearly writing seminar and I don’t feel like it’s made any difference.” My publisher’s favorite, “I’ve been writing longer than you’ve been alive. You just lack the intelligence to see its greatness.”
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Let me put this as gently as I can… It doesn’t matter how much you write, if you stink and don’t want to admit you stink, you’re not going to get any better. Writing based on the opinion of the 25 people at the seminar doesn’t mean anything, especially since money was weighed more than skill. Telling a 50-year-old publisher that you’ve been writing longer than he’s been alive and that he’s not smart enough to appreciate your work says a lot more about your intelligence than it does his. (He looks around 35.)
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In all of these cases, the writers are not getting a broad enough view on their work. The expanded view can come from reading books about writing (not my favorite), going to writers’ groups (also not my favorite), or attending different seminars (still not my favorite.)
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My favorite method, it turns out, doesn’t work for many people. I write a scene and then find something similar that’s been published. I then compare it, looking at emotive power, pacing, word use, clarity, and a bunch of other things. Reading a lot of stuff isn’t enough. For this to work, you need to be making active comparisons. It helps even more if you can compare to multiple sources. I also actively watch that stuff when I read and compare it back to things I’ve written, so it works both ways.
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By only listening to the same friends, by writing every day the same way you always write, or by keeping an attitude where you expect others to understand you and never work to be understood, you’re suffering from inbreeding and will never improve.
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That’s about it for this week. I’ll give some tips about starting a writers’ group next week. They’ll be coming from others because I’ve honestly never started one, but it seems like something people would be interested in doing.
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Thank you to my few followers. I’ve gained a bunch lately and that’s exciting. I told myself when I came to FA that I’d be happy to have 25 followers and now I’m near 50. Not bad for an author. I’m sure there’re some with a lot more, but I’m very happy.
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If you have suggestions, you can send a note, mention it in the comments, or contact my publisher on social media (RealRPGames). I’m also excited to hear if anyone has any other pointers on what to look for in a group. I’ll admit my experience is from another age, but from what I’ve heard this still applies.
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Be well friends.
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May you keep running forward and never look back.

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A few reasons why I don’t use them, but maybe you should.
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A writers’ group is a group of people that get together to discuss stories written by members of the group with the intent of improving authorial skill and assisting to build confidence.
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Ready for some more black and white style Chaaya? Here we go.
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I was talking to a friend recently who’d given a writers’ group a try and found it to be a really negative experience. I listened to her for a while and was surprised to hear it’d gone so badly. Not only had I read her work, her novel had been reviewed by RP Games (as a favor to me). The publisher gave some feedback on it and said it was a good story. He wished her luck on finding a publisher, since it wasn’t in the company’s genre, but offered to assist her in self-publishing if conventional publishing didn’t work out for her.
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So basically, her novel was accepted by a publisher, not a very big one, but a publisher nonetheless. As I continued to listen to this friend, I realized she was pretty laid back about that acceptance. In other words, it hadn’t gone to her head. She understood she had room for improvement.
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So here was a budding author, with enough skill to be able to help others and enough humility to recognize there was room to improve herself as well. These are two good qualities for a contributing member of a writing group. Without being in the group it’d be impossible to know how much was her and how much was the group, but I knew some good questions to ask, so by the end of the conversation I was pretty sure it was them.
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I’ll start with what you can do to be a strong contributing member. Here are a few things to consider. Do you read enough to know what you like? Do you read enough to know that there’s more than one way to accomplish the same goal in writing? Do you find enjoyment in reading rather than just reading to enjoy?
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You probably noticed that I didn’t say anything about your writing. Submitting your story to a group has a minimal impact on the group itself. It’s meant to have an impact on you, not on them. I’ve heard of groups with some people that never submit any stories. There’s a good chance those are the people you want to hear from the most.
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So, do you read enough to know what you like? Seems like a pretty innocuous question doesn’t it? What kind of writer doesn’t read? You’d be surprised. It’s not just how much you read, it’s what you read as well. To really be effective in a group, you need to have read, not just the things you like, but a good portion of things you don’t like. I’ll get more into that in a moment, but for now, realize that when you’re going to comment on a story in a writing group, you need to understand the difference between something being liked and something being right. If you haven’t run into this with books, you’ve probably run into this with movies. There’s no way you’ve avoided having it happen with food.
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How do you like your steak cooked? Do you know someone that likes theirs cooked a different way? Is your way right and their way wrong? It has to do with preference, not right and wrong. (Provided they don’t think it should be well done. That’s just wrong. People were never meant to eat charcoal.) Now let’s say you ordered your steak medium well and the server comes back with a steak that’s medium rare. Is it possible that your definition is a little different? Possible, so hopefully you’re one of those people that can graciously accept something being a little different. But getting the steak medium rare when you ordered medium well is wrong. It’s important that you understand the difference between those things in writing as well. This leads me to my next point.
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I hope I’ve already brought this home to you through my other journals, but just in case, let me reiterate my personal philosophy on writing advice. There’re a few areas that are do’s and don’ts, but there are millions more areas that’re based on personal preference and style. If you’re ever in a writers’ group and you hear yourself say something like, “Well, I would have done it this way…”, please slap yourself for me. If you’re saying that, you’re wrong. You can say things like, “I think it would have been more impactful to…” or “A different order to this scene might make it a little easier to follow.” It’s not about how you would write the story; it’s about improving the story. I hope you see the difference. For example, let’s suppose I notice that an author is trying to make a character appealing, and I’m just not feeling it. I can say something like, “I honestly don’t find this character likeable. I feel that adding this might help make the character a little more universally appealing.” Blunt like I normally am, but still leaving things up to author. You’re not attacking the writing itself; you’re expressing a way that you feel might improve it. Contrast that with something like, “Wow, you really stink at making likable characters. You should do this instead.”
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I have a friend who once spent some time working for a semi-pro magazine where she had to read stories to see if they could be published. The rules for reading volunteers required that, as long as it didn’t violate copyright or editorial standards, she read the entire story and make comments on it. It goes without saying that some of these stories were pretty awful. If you get into a writers’ group, you’re going to see some stuff that you wouldn’t read otherwise, so take a note from what they taught her and find enjoyment in reading, even when you can’t enjoy reading: glory in the awful. She worked for that magazine almost thirty years ago and the stories she remembers the best are the ones that were the most horrible. From what she says, they were more likely to pass on a story to another reader with the comment, “You have to read this one! It’s hideous!” than they were to pass it on saying, “This one is a good read.” She also points out that the bad writing became a good source for leaning where she could improve. She does good work now. I like her Everquest fan fiction.
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Disclaimer: Just because you glory in the awfulness, doesn’t mean you should tell that to the author. I get the impression most people are more tactful than I am, but I figured I’d mention that.
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In addition to laughing about the awful, you should also be looking for the good. Savor what’s done right. You can learn what to do right from a bad author too; people have a tendency to spend so much time criticizing that they forget to take the time to learn. You’ll want to find those things so that you can mention them at the next group meeting.
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Well, that’s about it for this week. Next week I’ll get into why I don’t use writers’ groups and some of the things to look for in a group or in making a group. I’ll also talk about what my friend calls “inbreeding” in writing, since that goes along well with groups. If there’s time, I’ll get some info from my friends on how to start a group of your own.
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Thank you so much to my few followers. I do this all for you. I like to present things in a fun and light-hearted way that avoids the authoritarian and angsty stuff you probably see way too often.
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If you have requests on future topics, feel free to comment here or contact RP Games through social media (realRPGames). They’ll pass suggestions on to me.
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May you keep running forward and never look back.

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Don’t fall into these two too common pitfalls.

Helix the Fallen asked me to cover a common scam that befalls writers: Vanity Press. I decided to also cover another prevalent scam: literary agents. I’ll talk a little about what is and isn’t vanity press and get into ways to separate the good agents from the bad. Because of the nature of this discussion, I’ll be pulling heavily from my publisher. He has a lot of information on this but couldn’t present it in a way that would allow my readers to stay conscious. I dare him to try and deny it.
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Also, let me say, unlike my other journals, this journal contains things you should never do. Even if you feel like there’s a logical exception to what I’m saying, and there very well might be, do not give these people money. Even if it works for you, it allows them to hold you up as an example to lure in other unsuspecting people.
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Vanity press refers to a publisher who offers to publish your work for a fee in exchange for “exposure.” Let me start by saying something that I’ll be saying a lot in this journal: You don’t pay to be published.
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In Soviet Russia publisher is paid by you! Well, not really, but I thought it was funny. Publishers (not to be confused with printers. I’ll touch on that in a moment) receive manuscripts from prospective authors and/or agents and decide what will sell and then pay the author (and agent if applicable) for the work.
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A place my publisher worked was once accused of being a vanity press. They had a small volunteer staff that read the stories. Measures were taken to assure each story was anonymous and decisions were made prior to an author being identified. The staff also knew what the staff liked and so it wasn’t uncommon (maybe as much as 20%, but I’m told it was probably much lower than that) of what was printed was by staff. Sounds a little like something that was happening for vanity reasons, but it cost those authors nothing and the pay was a half cent a word, so it wasn’t paying much. ($50 at the most.) In addition, the magazine had a subscription base, and was read by a number of famous people. It actually gave exposure. So, you’ll see little semi-professional publications like this all the time, but they’re not vanity press.
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Right now there are quite a few places that will offer print on demand. You put your stuff together and format it and they’ll print it. They’ll send you a royalty based on what sells, but do not charge you unless something sells. This is a legitimate business model and can be a good way for small authors to make money, provided they can get the word out. So to be clear, this is a print service, not a publisher and not in any way vanity press.
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Vanity press used to come in the mail (now they spam your email). It plays on the poor misunderstood artiste mentality that I despise. It asks you if you have something worth publishing and offers to publish it for you. All you have to do is pay x dollars up front to cover expenses and they’ll print it or all you have to do is submit and then if you want a copy of the finished work at about $100 a copy, you can buy it. Many will add a “you’ll be put in a drawing to actually get some real money” line too.
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People like that don’t have your best interests in mind. They want your money and once they have that there’s absolutely no obligation to do anything else for you. If that “exposure” lands you money, they don’t get any of it, so why would they care?
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I’ve tried to be thorough, but if you have experience that can show more versions of how this is currently happening, please leave it in the comments.
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Now let me talk a little bit about agents. A literary agent is a person that works with authors and publishers to facilitate finding new talent. Let me be very clear on this: an agent works for the publisher. An agent doesn’t work for you. Look at it this way. You go Panda Express to get some of their yummy orange chicken with their overly-cabbage-ized chow mien. The cute guy at the counter takes your money or runs your credit card. Does that guy work for you? No. None of that money goes to him, it all goes to the company. He works for Panda Express and that’s who pays him.
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Now let’s take it step further. Let’s say that the cute guy is a jerk (because that never happens) who takes your money and pockets it and then says that you never paid the company, so you don’t get any food. There’s no way, no matter how cute he is, that he’d get away with that right? You’d have to be really sleepy or something to let that happen.
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Well, some agents do that, and some authors let them. They do things like call it a “reading fee” or a “screening fee” and charge you to see if they can get you published. They’ll usually even tell you that they can and give you a list of authors they’ve worked with. These fees can be anywhere from $50 on up. I’ve heard of some in the $1000s.
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You’re probably thinking, “But Chaaya, they have to spend time reading your story. They deserve some money for that don’t they?” I can say the same thing about the cute guy at Panda Express. He deserves to be paid. That’s true. It’s also true that I will be getting some food for that money or I’ll be going all Chaaya on him. In this case, you’re getting a possibility of money back. You can try to call that investment, but let me show you why it’s closer to gambling.
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How long does it take you to read 1000 words? Not terribly long huh? For most adults, that’s about 4-5 minutes. Now let’s take some information from my publisher. He says that for 80% of the stuff he receives, he can determine if it’s unpublishable in 1000 words or less and for at least half that, it’s within the first two paragraphs. Less than 10% require a full reading and of those perhaps half are worth sending on for approval. Even fewer will be accepted.
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That means that, provided someone who reads for a living reads at the rate of the slowest adults, there’s a good chance your “next great American novel” got less than 3 minutes of this person’s consideration. Add a paragraph to their standard response, which is now all on email, and maybe you got 4 minutes of their time.
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But they got your money and they want to get more of your money, so why would they tell you that? Instead they’ll tell you that they’re looking through possibilities and they think they might have a deal with some big publisher, but be sure to send your next story, just in case.
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A good return on an investment is ten percent. You’re not likely to see that. You’re more likely to lose money. Where I grew up, they called that gambling. It’s not even a risky investment at that success rate.
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Now what if they get lucky and your stuff actually is publishable? Then they’ll give you a cut of what the publisher pays. They’ll take the rest and still get your “reading fee.” In addition, they probably had you sign something to begin with that’ll allow them to show off the fact that they got you published. That’ll help them lure in more authors. In addition, they end up on a publisher’s “official agent” list.
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Well, that wasn’t my usual type of material for a journal, but I agree with Helix, it’s good stuff for writers to know about. If you have personal experience with this stuff, let me know in the comments.
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I hope you enjoyed my ramblings. I try to present stuff in a fun and light-hearted way. This one is the kind of authoritarian stuff I shy away from, but I’ll call it a necessary evil. It’s pretty much angst-free though. If you have suggestions for future topics, you can message me or say something in the comments.
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Thank you so much to my few followers. I honestly do all this for you. You’re the best.
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May you keep running forward and never look back.

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Here's your chance!
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Just got word of this from RP Games. This means there are a total of four open calls for writers out there right now, two for novelists.
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What is an open call?
Some publishers look for a broad range of stories and take just about anything they receive. Some, like RP Games work in much more narrow field: they look for stories about a very specific topic and in a particular setting. When the publisher decides there's a need for a type of story, he'll put out an open call. Submissions to RP Games that don't fit an open call are automatically rejected.
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**OPEN CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS**
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RP Games is looking to expand its novel line into the Terah nation of Zenache, which is based loosely on Germany. I'm looking for authors to pursue a line of mystery novels. The protagonist will be a creation of the author.
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To apply send a compete story of no more than 15k words to carl(a)rossipublishinggames.com The genre of the story must be steampunk mystery and should be based in a German society. Accuracy to the Terah shared world is appreciated, but not required. You can email me if you would like more information about the world.

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How to get more for your effort when writing.

Today I’m going to talk about improvisation, often called improv for short. It’s an element of the creative process that’s unplanned and spontaneous. In the case of writing, it’s something that comes up as you’re telling the story and (hopefully) enhances it.
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I talked a little before about pantsing, which is still a rather silly and distasteful term, where instead of meticulously planning, the writer has a set objective and just freely writes to get to that objective. What I’m talking about today is a more specific form of pantsing and, it’s important to note, is not something that all authors need to do. A lot of the recommended “drills” I hear about for authors (and never do) have to do with learning to be spontaneous. My experience has been that not all writers use it and for some it can actually be more hinderance than help.
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I’ll start by talking about how it can be a hinderance. Mostly it’s a hinderance to planners—people that make sure every detail of their story is meticulously thought out prior to it going on paper. When I talked about writer’s block, I mentioned that sometimes the reason you don’t know where to go from a particular point is because you wrote yourself into a dead end. For planners, that only happens if you tried to do something spontaneous. Here’s a few guidelines for planners on how you can do little things to be spontaneous, that won’t put you in a dead end. Don’t do those stupid drills I keep reading about. You’ll hurt yourself.
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Improv for a planner should be simple things to start—things that a pantser does all the time and, I’d suspect, most writers do without a problem. When new characters come into my story, planned or otherwise, I usually know nothing about their appearance. I have to make that up as I go. It’s a simple process and, even if you heavily plan out things like that, switching it into surprise mode is something you can do that’ll help stretch those creative muscles without writing you into a corner. Descriptions of locations fall into the same category. Try to find things that do not affect the plot.
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The next stop is to find ways that it can affect the plot. Something small and insignificant. For example, Tess’ ability to mimic voices was something added for the fun of it, mostly because I wanted a way to tease Simon. No sooner did I come up with that idea then I realized there was something I could do later in the story that would be fun. The plot remained unchanged, I only had to make a minor adjustment later and viola! Instant color.
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Let’s take a look at something hypothetical. Since most of my work has to do with the wolf folk, the vykati, I’ll use one of them. Red fur is something that’s unique to the royal family, but red hair is not. Historically, wolves with red fur will always have white hair. Red hair is something that usually comes from the vykati of the Vharkil Mountains. So let’s give a vykati red hair and let’s make her a villain. I very literally have been making this up as I go along. So later in the story when they’re in Ritayai and they’re seeking her out, they discover her because her hair color stands out there. They would have discovered her either way, but here I took an opportunity to use something subtle and insignificant and turn it into a major plot point.
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…in under five minutes.
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Once those muscles have been stretched a little, you can do even larger things through improv. The next higher level involves taking elements of the story, either developed or spontaneous, and finding creative ways to weave them into the story. In Fugitive’s Trust, Sajani and Gregor are presented in several different situations that involve combat. Both are portrayed as young and capable. In the process of developing the characters, it’s mentioned that Gregor’s father taught him some basics to protect himself and it’s mentioned that Sajani’s mother taught her some combat-oriented skills. I can’t say this was a spontaneous addition because it wasn’t. It was planned. What did end up being spontaneous is how that effects things in the future. In What Once Was Eden, Sajani and Gregor spend a good amount of time walking with the caravan. Their personalities aren’t sedentary. They’re both really active youth. It’s not in their character to just ride or walk along. Gregor is a very obedient person and Sajani is starting to follow his lead, so causing trouble isn’t really a possibility. I need something legal and mostly safe… well, not deadly anyway, to pass the time. They both know sword fighting. Can they get something to practice with? Yes. There’re guards in the caravan and they most likely would be doing drills, so wooden practice swords are there. If they weren’t, since it’s a merchant caravan, it’d be pretty easy to have them as part of the merchandise.
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Ok, so here’s something that happened prior. It was sort of spontaneous. It’s known that people in the caravan like to place small bets to pass the time. So what’s going to happen when they find out these two are sparring? There’ll probably be bets. Eventually they convince the pair to do something challenging. Since Sajani is beating Gregor fairly easily, it’s not much of a bet. What if she fences left-handed? Yes, that would seem like a challenge at first. The story goes from there. When the book comes out, read through that section and realize that the entire thing was an improv, not from thin air, but from things that happened previously in the story. All I was doing was thinking them through.
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You can see from these examples that improv is a great way to give depth to your story and can be used to create unique and memorable situations that might not have been planned.
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Along those lines, let me ask a quick question of those that might play tabletop roleplaying games. You all have those stories that you repeat to each other time and again (even though you all know the story) and that you tell at every convention or new group you go to. How many of those stories are of events that were planned out? None. I’d be willing to bet none of them were. Most involve a die roll and well, if you can plan those out, you’re wasting your time in RPGs. You need to head to Vegas.
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Once you’ve stretched yourself to this level, you’ll find that things do come a lot easier, “writer’s block” stops happening and life becomes all rainbows and unicorn poop.
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Well, one out of three is true anyway.
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It’s at this point that some of those drills you’ve heard about where you write from a prompt for two minutes or other insanity actually becomes fun. You’ll also discover, you don’t need those drills anymore anyway.
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I hope you enjoyed this week’s journal. I’m told these will be moving to a new location shortly. I’m not sure if I’ll want to post them at four sites or not, but they’re going to be integrated into RP Games’ website. I’ll be allowed to post them, so no hate mail, but I’m not sure I’m excited about doing four posts, since one won’t be on Post Birby’s list.
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I try to keep these lighthearted and open. There’s too much angst and “author-aterian” junk out there for writers. Feel free to share the links and the love.
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May you keep on running and never look back.

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Writer Blockhead

I do occasionally get asked what to do about writers’ block. I’m one of the last people you should be asking, but I figured I’d put together some information on it. These are things that I’ve seen regularly. I’ve heard of lots of things like writing drills and prompts and well… Those probably work for some people. I hope they do because they’re mentioned often enough.

Writers’ block is a theoretical condition that inhibits an author from acting in her normally creative medium and expressing herself in the written word. I’ll start with my usual blunt technique and go from there. I didn’t use the word “theoretical” without knowing exactly what it means. The vast majority of the cases I hear about are either not writers’ block or are a writer insisting on taking an approach that isn’t working. A third, less common reason, is the person needs to get out more. I’ll also deal with another factor that I call fragility. Small disclaimer: Remember, this is me. I’m pretty adamant with my views on this, but I never believe that my opinions are true for everything. You might have experienced real writers’ block and I’m sorry if my direct approach bothers you.

Let’s look at the case of it being something other than writer’s block. This one honestly bugs the daylights out of me (what are daylights and how do they bug out?). This is one that Ray Bradbury took by the horns in an interview with “The Leading Edge Magazine” in 1988. I can’t find the original article (pronounced “I’m too lazy to dig through all my junk that never got unpacked from the last move”) so let me summarize: Whatever you’re doing, stop it! He actually included the friends you hang out with as a possible cause of the problem. I’ll add, emotional baggage, and spending too much time on social media. Whatever the cause, the supposed writers’ block is really just a symptom of the real problem. You have something you need to change or take care of and you’re not doing it.

I’ll give a few great examples. I lost a family member not that long ago. I didn’t feel like writing. That’s not writers’ block, that’s something called grieving. I’ve also had problems with depression and as such didn’t find as much enjoyment in things I normally liked, such as writing. That’s not writers’ block, that’s depression. One of my children got very sick and I couldn’t bring myself to really write anything. That’s not writers’ block. That’s called being a parent. Am I being a little harsh here? I don’t think so, but if I am, please realize this one important fact: to overcome a problem, you must first identify it as a problem. In cases like this, you’re labelling the problem as something it isn’t. Look for the real problem and face it like a soldier.

While writing the Ship Called Hope trilogy something kind of new happened to me. I got to a few places in the story and discovered that I had no idea what happened next or even how it fit in with the rest of the story. I’m one that writes out of order, so I’d just go and pick up on the next thing I knew happened. One of two things occurred. Either I figured out the connection and was able to write it out or I realized that what I’d written wasn’t really the direction the story wanted to go. In the latter case, I’d go back a few pages and start writing again from there. Now if you’re the sort of writer that has the very valid style of writing completely linearly, you need to just stop a moment and see if there’s a point a little further back that you can start writing from. I’d be willing to bet, in many cases, there will be one. A lot of the cases I hear from people, this is what’s happening.

Another way many authors keep trying an approach that isn’t working (another thing that gets my dander up) is they try to do what other writers have told them to do. There’s a big reason most of my advice is framed with “this works for me” and “there’s always an exception to this.” I don’t want to lead you into this trap. I hear about different drills and practices that people suggest and I always end up asking myself, “Chaaya, WTH is that all about? Sounds like a load of crap.” I’ll admit, they do seem to work for some people, but if it doesn’t, I’ll tell you something really important. You ready? Lean in close so you’re sure to hear it. STOP DOING IT!!!! Oh, and if you’re like me (and I know I am) and you have no idea what the purpose of a drill or practice is, find out before you put a lot of effort into it. I don’t really need practice writing to prompts. I do it for fun, but for some people it can help improve their ability to improvise (oh, that’s a good topic for next week. Don’t let me forget).

Moving on. Some people might be able to approach this next delicate topic with tact and real empathy. Sorry. I’m not those “some people.” Friend, you might need to get out more. Writing is a method of holding a mirror to things around us in such a way that allows others to see it more clearly and from a new point of view. Fiction or nonfiction. (Read my journals about suspension of disbelief if you haven’t yet). The sad truth is that if you haven’t experienced that world much and have stayed mostly locked inside suffering because you’ve been told that’s what writers are supposed to, not only are you missing out and not really living, you’re depriving yourself of material and inspiration.

I’ve climbed mountains and repelled down cliffs and fought fires. I’ve studied wolves and conservation biology. I’ve fought in a war. I’ve driven over 100mph on the Autobahn in Germany and flown in helicopters. I’ve been shot at and returned fire and led people in battle. And, I’ve done all those things with lots of people around me, where I can see how they did things differently than I do. Your experiences will have, no doubt, been different, but you must have them to be able to write. You have to actually live before you can put the lives of others down on paper. This is one of the few immutable rules I will ever present. Live first, then write.

Lastly, I’ll touch on something that I call fragility. My publisher was telling me a story about a writer he’d worked with briefly (you’ll understand the briefly part in a moment) She was constantly past deadline…

Let me interrupt here. Carl, at RP Games, can be a little difficult to work with at times. He’s a publisher and not an author. He thinks of word count in terms of money, both to the author and to the printer. I don’t agree with him much of the time, but he does expect people to respect deadlines, not necessarily meet them. I’m waaaaayyyyy past deadline right now (another story on its own, but I hinted at parts of it). That’s not an issue to him. An issue would be if I ignored the deadline. I just wanted to let you know exactly what that “past deadline” comment means in context. Ok, back to what I was saying.

The reasons (pronounced excuses) she’d give were, well, I find them pretty funny. It came to some really odd stuff. The cat had been using the litter box when she sat down and the smell bothered her and after she cleaned it up, found she just couldn’t write anymore. Her husband replaced her old CRT monitor with a flatscreen when hers died and she couldn’t write until he found a CRT to replace it. She needed time to get used to her new office chair. It was the same type as the last one but felt different.

I think you can see what I’m getting at. She’d set herself up for failure by creating such a fragile environment in which to write. I wrote in a dark room (there weren’t lights in there yet) in Iraq with no AC, sweat dripping down my nose, falling on the keyboard and causing my fingers to slip. I’ve written while observing wildlife in Yellowstone and at the college food court. I write in the summer with my kids yelling and playing around me and in the beautifully peaceful house when everyone is at work or school. I didn’t realize it until just now, but really this falls under the last thing I talked about. Write as you live. Don’t live to write.

That’s a little more than usual, but I hope you enjoyed it. Hopefully I didn’t upset my few followers by being so direct. This will, most likely, be my most insistent journal ever. I try to write journals that aren’t authoritarian or full of angst, but there a few areas I tend to be very passionate about.

I plan on discussing methods of improvising next week, but I’m always open to suggestions. You can suggest things through notes, comments, or I’m actually on one social media site. I’m now on Parler as ChaayaChandra. I don’t have many followers, but for some reason people find me amusing there. Until next time beautiful people.

May you keep on running and never look back.

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Today I’m going to conclude the series on reader engagement. I'll be talking about using character conflict. This will concentrate on four main types: the unknown, internal, interpersonal, and direct conflict. Like a lot of what I discuss, you’ll find quite a bit of overlap and in most cases, you’ll be using a combination of these. For the sake of this journal though, I’ll be concentrating on a specific type of conflict in my examples, even if more than one applies.

Conflict as it relates to the unknown means that we know something is wrong and causing problems, but we either don’t know what it is, or if we do, the resolution of the problem is based on something that we cannot see. In Wolf’s Pawn, Ambassador Ghenis suffers from the after affects of the Rhidayar Border Skirmish and his role in eliminating that threat. I could have done a better job of it, but there are a few early signs that everything is not quite right. He doesn’t like to acknowledge his role in the battle and while he’s willing to tell Sajani he was present and allows her to read the citation for his Medal of Valor, he does it more for the sake of Sajani being the daughter of hero of Altaza, than he does to laud is his role. He never mentions it to anyone else. In fact, he downplays his heroics by saying he regrets he couldn’t have been there for Sajani’s mother. There’s no visible resolution to this problem. His redemption doesn’t come until <redacted>. In his case we just know that there’s an issue of some kind and there may or may not be a resolution. (It’s also internal).

Internal conflict is one of the best, in my opinion, and is more likely to be under-used than over-used. An internal conflict is one that takes place entirely in the mind of the character. In Fugitive’s Trust, Sajani has…guess what? Bueller… Bueller… She has trust issues. She very rarely expresses it, but it does show up as being a problem. We know, from the title and probably from our own personal experiences, that this is something that can be overcome. We know that Gregor is someone that can be trusted. So essentially, we not only know the problem, we also have a pretty good idea of what’s going to be done to solve it. And that’s ok because your reader will still want to see it happen. There’s no sword play or fancy fight scenes to this type of conflict. Very few people have been through things like the those, but I’d be surprised if there’s anyone out there that doesn’t know what it’s like to lose trust in someone else. That’s part of the human condition and people are more likely to keep reading when they care about what happens.

Interpersonal conflict was one of my very weak areas. I got over it while writing Fugitive’s Trust, but I made decent use of it in Faux Scent. It’s pretty obvious from the first time you see Annalace and Track together that he’s trying to like her, and she sees no reason to reciprocate. There’s a fun twist I see on this one where you keep expecting something to happen where the two get along and then they never do. No matter what you do though, the reader will expect some kind of resolution. We’ve all had people we don’t get along with and that’s usually resolved in some way, even if means the other person died. This type of conflict can also include things going the other direction, as in when two people who used to love each other end up distancing instead of growing closer. As a side note. SPOILER. Skip to the next paragraph if you don’t want to know. Track and Annalace do end up getting married. They have a child together. That’s all outside the books. I don’t think you’ll end up seeing them again.

Direct conflict is usually a plot level thing. It involves something similar to the case with Annalace and Track, but rather than involving feelings, it involves physical action. The conflict between Sestus and Sajani is direct conflict. If those two ever meet up, you KNOW there’ll be a fight and I’ll go out on a limb and say that there might be one or two readers that really want to see that happen. In Stephanie Meyers’ Twilight series (don’t’ judge me. I liked it), the reader realizes pretty soon that James and Edward are probably going to end up fighting it out. One way or another you know James is going to get it. There are other things that keep the reader turning pages—you need a lot more than one—but in that case the big event is what keeps you going. (So of course, the author has the narrator unconscious for the big fight). Along those lines, if you do use this method, realize that your reader will be expecting an action scene worthy of what you’ve built. Have a decent reason for being disappointing.

That’s a little shorter than usual, but that’s ok. Thank you so much to my few followers. You keep me going. I hope you enjoy these little jaunts. There’s a shortage of writing advice that isn’t authoritarian or angst filled. I try to stay upbeat and encouraging. Writing isn’t a set path. You have to navigate it your own way or your story loses its heart. Be well lovely people.

May you keep running and never look back.

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Back to where I left off two weeks ago. This’ll probably be a short journal because I don’t have much to say about it… um… I’m not sure that last part is possible. I always have much to say. This week I’ll talk about keeping the reader emotionally involved in the story using conflict. As you’ll see, most of this requires that the reader have some kind of emotional attachment to your characters. Otherwise, there’s no reason to find out what happens next.

Let’s start with a definition. Literary conflict involves much more than how conflict alone is usually defined. Literary conflict is the prime reason for telling the story (as in there’s a problem and it needs to be solved). It also refers to any interaction by characters with other characters or objects that results in a situation that requires resolution or discovery. Phew. That’s a long one.

I’ll start with that last part because it’s often overlooked and under-emphasized. People have a tendency to just look at the human interaction side of conflict (and I’ll get that later, I promise), but conflict in a story can be something as simple as the reader not knowing something and reading on to discover it.

One the macro scale of writing, the whole book is a voyage of discovery. One of the things I feel like I could have done better in Wolf’s Pawn was to develop the overarching conflict sooner. The war with the elves is always a conflict in the background of all the books, but since it’s not resolved until the end of what is planned to be a very long series, it can’t be used to keep the reader involved in a single book. That book uses the conflict of the forward supply depot and what Sajani is going to do about it.

I’m happier with Faux Scent and the way the conflict is introduced and resolved. You know that Sestus is up to something and you know it has something to do with archeology, but what it is and what it’ll be used for is a mystery until the end. In order to find out what’s happening, the reader has to continue and hopefully, knowing Sestus and his strong will to win the war, the reader is worried enough for the characters that she’ll keep reading to find out what happens to them.

One of the things I dislike about modern mainstream fiction is the bar on this is set pretty low. High fantasy and mystery and suspense novels set the bar much higher. As a general rule, the more that’s at risk to the people the reader cares about, the more likely the reader is to be involved in the story. This doesn’t mean everything has to be Michael Bay or Peter Jackson over the top type stuff. If everything is a constant race to prevent the end of the world, it tugs a lot at suspension of disbelief: how has a world threatened this often managed to survive long enough for civilization to reach this point?

Now for something more on the micro scale. Small conflicts should be scattered throughout the story. These can be something as broad as a subplot or as small as a break before revealing what really happened. In Wolf’s Pawn, Benayle is up to something. He’s meeting with people in secret and arranging something that will supposedly help Sajani. Simon is involved in it, so that implies it’s not exactly public knowledge. Having it be secret was convenient, because it gave me a reason to not tell the reader what exactly was happening.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle made frequent use of this technique, as do most mystery authors. I don’t have time to go into too much detail on the ups and downs on this, so I’ll start by suggesting that you read A Study in Scarlet and Agatha Christie’s novel, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. Compare the light-handed technique of Christie with the heavy-handed technique of Doyle.

Avoid keeping secrets from the reader by not showing pertinent material to the reader. In many mystery novels, it’s assumed you’re not going to see the actual crime take place (Columbo is an obvious and fun exception), but the reader wants to be able to see all the clues the detective sees. As always, there’s a proper time and place for exceptions to this but overdoing it can become annoying.
Smaller conflicts are the things that lead the reader to keep going past the chapter breaks or in some cases, onto the next novel in a series. The more dramatic use of this technique is often called a cliffhanger, but it doesn’t have to be as emotionally charged as waiting to find out if the mountain climber managed to hang on or if she falls.

In Fugitive’s Trust, Gregor loses the backpack that contains his share of the food for himself and Sajani, basically making it impossible for them to have enough food to reach East Oasis. The conflict itself was never intended to be something that was drawn out through the story. In a few pages, the problem is solved. But while waiting for that resolution, the reader’s concern for the characters keeps her emotionally involved in the story.

Well, that’s pretty close to my word limit for this week. The publisher is wanting to know if anyone is interested in seeing my journals in book form. It’d have the ideas organized and fleshed out and (hopefully) still have my unique method of presenting things tongue in cheek. I have quite a few more topics I want to cover first, but this has gotten almost as much traction as my stories, so I asked him about it and he thought it might be possible. Let me know in the comments.

Thank you so much to my followers. I keep writing just for you. I’ll finish up the human conflict side of this next week, but feel free to make suggestions or if it’s more helpful, link a story to me. I can’t promise I’ll read the whole thing, it’s a busy week with nonwriter type stuff to make up for the busy weeks before deadline. I will see if it inspires a topic though. Have a great week everyone.

May you keep running and never look back.

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I had another topic lined up for today, but my publisher texted to suggest a journal on character development, specifically the difference between history and character. I guess someone requested it, because he yammers on about it often enough, I doubt he needs more. I’ve talked about building likable characters as a means of engaging the reader before, but this is a little different.

Character development is the literary process by which an author establishes her character, displaying a fictional or real person in such a way as to make it both believable and interest worthy.

One of the major parts of Sajani’s character is the death of her mother. Anyone that’s read the books can tell you that’s a defining moment in her life and a lot of things she says and does are a reflection of that one tragedy. There’s a part at the end of Wolf’s Pawn that brings that into focus. Benayle tells her, “You really are your mother’s daughter.” It’s huge compliment. It means she’s established herself as a national hero and that he knows people look up to her, just as much as they do to her mother. Sajani doesn’t, however, want to be just the progeny of her mother. She wants to establish herself as something that is shared with her mother, other than just the relation, so she says, “No, I am the copper wolf!” You find out later that the moniker is something that is generations old. Sajani is saying in essence, I’ve established myself. I’m more than just my mother’s daughter.

One more example of a character’s history being used to establish character and then I’ll get into some other suggestions on it. In Fugitive’s Trust Sajani has a dream. In it, the Aspects of Governance ask her, “Do you know who you are?” Her first response is, “I’m Sajani Adida,” to which they respond, “Adida is your mother’s name. If you take that away, do you know who you are?” The story of the prequel trilogy is the quest for her to find out who she is. In the end, when she’s told that her mother left her a huge pawprint to fill, she responds, “I make my own prints sir. I don’t walk in anyone else’s.”

A character’s history can be a great way to help you determine her response to events or conflicts. Sajani was a paladin at one point. She has a hard time taking on the name of “pirate.” When she does acquire money or equipment, she feels a need to share it out. She also went without a mother as she was growing up, so does what she can to prevent that from happening to others. Her time in the military and in the paladin order give her constant desire to have structure and to plan things out. Something else that a few people have caught and mentioned, she has ADHD, inattentive type. (ADD to those of us that grew up with it). The adult adaptation to that is she often gets hyper focused.

When you do use history as part of character development, it’s a good idea to ask yourself how that will affect the character in the current timeline. I’ve shown a few examples of that in my own writing. The longest (and too far) drawn out example I can think of is with the Star Wars prequels. With how dark Darth Vader’s character is portrayed, it was important to George Lucas to establish the history that created such corruption. It can be a fun mental exercise. Like a lot of literary tools, it can also be overdone.

An important element to remember when using history as part of your character development: a person is more than her history. That’s actually a central theme in Faux Scent. Unfortunately, there’s not much I can reference from there without spoilers. Many things that make us who we are come from an innate personality. Anyone that’s raised kids can tell you that it’s not all genetic or all environment. Some kids are born tricksters and some born angels. Even identical twins have differences there.

Some of these personality quirks are subtle. Sajani likes puns. Benayle doesn’t like tea. Gregor has a tendency to say, “huh” randomly and stutters when relationships are mentioned or implied. Jackel drops the first word of each sentence. Blade can’t pronounce “th.” In the original Sajani story, there’s a sergeant that blurts out “dah” all the time. These are all examples of characterization that is not based in history, but rather is just a part of the person.

Quite a few of these examples have to do with dialogue, so let me touch a little on that. One of those “don’t do” rules that annoy me says to never use accents. Horse poop. And probably some hamster poop to go with it. If Samuel Clemens was around, I’d like to see those people say that to his face. Break out the popcorn!. If they’d rather debate it with someone famous that’s alive, they can talk to Phil and Kaja Foglio, the authors of the Girl Genius webcomic. Both are amazingly successful and both use accents frequently.

When using indicators in dialogue, it is important to ensure it’s not so over the top that your reader is going to have to stop and have someone say the lines to her. Another important consideration is the reading level of your audience. Accents in books for second graders? Not a great idea.

Other parts of your character that don’t have to do with dialogue are small things that you should avoid mentioning directly but that come up in other ways. Sajani’s sense of humor comes up often, but there’s only a couple of places where it’s directly mentioned. My personal favorite is in Faux Scent where she encounters an elf with a similar sense of humor. “Great, someone with a sense of humor like hers. How inconvenient.” Benayle’s dislike of tea is a little harder to hide, but it comes up a few times.

Along that line, an important part of personality is in likes and dislikes. I enjoy using these to establish a sense of connection with the reader. I personally don’t mind my middle name at all, but there’re some that don’t like theirs. That led to this short conversation between Gregor and Sajani in Fugitive’s Trust:
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“Okay,” he said, “but before I begin, how do you pronounce your middle name? I’d hate to…”
“I don’t pronounce my middle name,” she said curtly, “and neither do you.”
That got a deep chuckle from her friend. “I… can almost understand that,” he said with amusement.
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I’ve seen some writers that meticulously write down all this stuff and that’s great. I try to more engrain it directly into the character. If I have to look it up, then I haven’t been consistently using it.

Well, that’s about my word limit. I hope you find this helpful, whoever it was that asked for it. I try to avoid the authoritarian and angsty approach I see too much in writing advice. I also try to stay upbeat and encouraging. As always, thank you so much to my few followers. You make this worthwhile.

If you have any suggestions on future journals, let me know through a direct message or in the comments. You can also contact the publisher through fb or twitter or parler. I’ll pick on getting your reader emotionally involved in the story using conflict next week, like I originally planned this week.

May you keep on running and never look back.

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Hi again! Today I thought I’d take a bit of a break from the technical stuff I’ve been covering and get into something that’s a little more philosophical and almost entirely personal based. It’s about creating an emotional investment for your readers.

I’ve read a few books and stories (and seen a few movies) where after a little while I just stopped reading or watching. That’s very rare actually. As the vykati like to say, I can count the number on one paw without using my thumb. Feel free to mention in the comments some of your favorite least favorites. Chances are what I’m discussing here played at least a small role. In my case it applied for every single one and was the main reason.

Given the time it takes to read a book, there’s a certain level of emotional commitment involved. We read to experience new places and people and emotions. If we wanted to feel what we normally experience in a day, we’d go wash the dishes for fourteen hours. We keep turning the pages because we want to know what happens next. The dishes are the same ones over and over, but a book… a book doesn’t make dirty dishes.

There are two keys to ensure that those pages keep turning: your characters and your conflict. Today, I’m going to focus on characters and I’ll pick up conflict next week.

For the sake of discussion in this week’s journal, when I talk about characters, I’m talking specifically about the ones that’re directly involved in some kind of conflict. Obviously, any person mentioned in your book is technically a character, but most are merely the grease that helps the engine run and not the parts making the actual movement.

It seems to me like it’s a complete no brainer, but I’ve seen it ignored often enough, that it apparently isn’t. If people don’t care about your characters, they won’t care what happens to them. If people don’t care what happens in your story, there’s no reason for them to read it. I’m not saying your characters have to be very likable and charismatic. I’m just saying that there has to be a reason people want to follow their actions.

This is another area that I could probably write weeks’ worth of journals about, but for the sake of time and my sanity, I’ll stick with just the two biggest areas that make a difference. The first is what I’ve heard called, “the human condition.” On that required reading list I’ve talked about before, is Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet. Seems pretty weird huh? What’s a seventeenth century play doing on the required reading list to write in a steampunk world? The Difference Engine made sense, but that? Well, rereading it gave me a pretty good idea of why it was included. Almost every one of the characters in that play has a real-world friend or acquaintance that I can directly compare them to. Polonius? The political schemer. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern? Those friends that always seem to have their own motives. Gertrude? A person that was horribly deceived.

The play is full of that human condition. It’s still around today because even though it was written 417 years ago, we can still relate to the people that’re involved. The world around us has changed so drastically and how we interact with that world has evolved but the truth is people haven’t changed.

It’s an important element that gets often overlooked, especially in “furry” fiction and re-emphasizes something I’ve mentioned before. The best thing you can do to help your writing outside of practice is to get out in the world and LIVE. You need experience that human condition firsthand in order to be able to put it into your stories. Your characters should have likes and loves. Real people have concepts and people they value. They should have foibles and weaknesses, times of doubt, and should be acquainted with success and failure. You might not be able to demonstrate all that, but the more you know before you put that character on paper, the more life will be breathed into your creation.

Side note here. Don’t’ feel like you need to come up with all that and meticulously write it all out. I know that recommendation is out there and I’m sure it’s great for some people. But a lot of times I don’t know the answer to those questions until the character faces them and then, I know the character well enough to know the answer. I knew Sajani’s mother had fur the same color and pattern as her daughter’s from the start of the book. I didn’t know she died defending her country until Chapter 3.

The human condition is a bit deeper concept philosophically than some of my other suggestions, so it doesn’t surprise me too much when it fails to come into play in a story. What does surprise me to see is protagonists that aren’t likeable. Even the main villain in my books, General Sestus, was intentionally given some minor characteristics that show a human and likable person. He’ll do anything to protect his people. He has a warped sense of humor that isn’t cruel. I want readers to cheer if he’s finally defeated (spoiler: he isn’t), but I didn’t want the reader to feel a constant need to punch him.

If it can be important in a recurring villain, it should be of paramount importance to your main character. There are so many ways to make your characters likeable, but I don’t think I need to hit every single one of them. Instead, I’ll give you an easy suggestion: if you like your characters, there’s a good chance others will like them. If you can make characters that most of your friends will like, there’s an even better chance people will them.

A couple of simple hints that tend to be rather universal. Have the character do something kind. This falls a little back on the human condition thing. Most of us, no matter how depraved and messed up, want to see kindness. It doesn’t have to be anything major. Sajani shows she admires Simon in little ways, while still mostly making fun of him. Sestus tells a soldier that she’s not responsible for what her sergeant did. Benayle smiles at everyone.

The other great thing is for the character to have a noble aspiration—something that she really admires or is willing to fight to the death for. Sajani wants to keep her people free. Benayle wants his people to be accepted by others. Sestus wants to keep his people safe. Lady Trafey wants to study Terahn archeology without military interference. We all have goals in our lives and things that are really important to us are often shared by many.

Well, that’s about it for this week. Thank you so much to my few followers. I keep going for you. I hope you’ve enjoyed this installment. I like to present tips in a way that isn’t insistent or angsty. If you have ideas for future journals let me know in the comments or email me at chaaya.chandra(a)outlook.com Next week will be about getting your reader emotionally involved with your story by using conflict. Until then, may you keep on running and never look back. (the traditional ending to a vykati faery tale)

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