Mwahaha...Villains!

I've written a number of villains in my books: a sorcerer, a manipulative aunt, an enslaving king. In my opinion, a villain is great when he or she is still kind of likeable. I try to create that with the villain being humorous and relatable, and I think understanding is another key aspect.

I don't to be told that a villain does something, I want to know why he's doing it.


Baby Quasimodo...
not that cute...

Nobody is born evil, so how did the villain end up how he did? What are the motives behind his actions?

Does the villain have any redeeming qualities?

Most villains, including those in our own history, think that what they're doing is right -- people don't go around doing things just for the sake of being "evil." Whether motivated by greed, power, or money, villains have a driving force.

I think one of my favorite villains in literature (although I will argue to the death that he is only misunderstood!) is Dom Claude Frollo from Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I am definitely referring to the book, not the Disney movie (even though it's totally different, I love that too!) He starts out good -- he actually saves Quasimodo as a child when everyone else wants to burn him for his ugliness. But eventually his lust for Esmeralda does him in. What makes it so great is the internal stuggle he goes though -- he wants her, but he's a priest, it goes against everything he's ever known. Eventually he's consumed by the turmoil inside him.

Of course, that was a very brief summary of an incredibly complex character and story. Who are some of your favorite villains?

How to Write a Historical Romance Novel.

The first time I read a historical romance novel, I really liked it. Then I read another. And another. And I realized, I liked them a lot more before that. THEY ARE ALL THE SAME. I wrote my own last year and it probably sucks so bad it will never see the light of day. This is not to knock anybody who enjoys reading/ writing historical romances, they can be very entertaining! I'd know.

BUT WAIT, you shout, I want to write one too! How ever do I do it??

I'll tell you how!

Optional: Pants
Not optional: Fabio



1) Your heroine needs to be strikingly beautiful. Spend pages and pages reminding your reader of this. She needs to be thin but with "shapely" calves and huge boobs. And nothing against brown eyes, but she can't have them. Acceptable colors include: aquamarine, emerald, silver, sapphire, and although nobody has them in real life, violet. Hair must be described as either a long curtain or waterfall of either shimmering gold, shining mahogany, liquid ebony, or fiery red. No, once again, "brown" will simply not do. I really can't stress that enough. Most importanly, she must be oblivious to how beautiful she is. This is probably to make the heart of gold she (must) have believable.

2) Your male love interest, hereafter referred to as the hero, must be the most handsome and dashing man in the book, and probably who ever lived, period. He must be tall, muscular, tan, and have dark, cropped hair that he runs his fingers through when frustrated. Oh, and did I mention he has to be ridiculously wealthy? We're talking Bill Gates wealthy, people. Unless you want readers flinging your book across the room in disgust, he should also probably be a duke. At the very least, a marquess (which means he gets to be duke when the current duke dies).

3) Plot doesn't matter much. You can distract the reader from it with descriptions of your heroine's hair color and kissing scenes. As long as your hero and heroine hate each other when they first meet, the rest is trivial.

4) There has to be a major misunderstanding that almost breaks up your main characters. Is it a problem that could be easily solved by a short talk/ clarification? Excellent! Now, don't let that happen. Your characters need to wallow in misery until the very end, when one realizes their fight was based on a misunderstanding. "Wait...you mean to tell me that when my rival, the jealous and jilted ex - lover said she slept with my husband, she was lying?!?! Well, I never!"

Optional feautres of your novel include:
- A kidnapping either committed or foiled by the hero
- Lengthy descriptions of your heroine's every gown
- An evil twin that tries to seduce someone
- A jealous family member, possibly creating a love triangle
- A character who everybody thought was dead but turns out they aren't

Go!

I'm Getting Interviewed! Among Other Things.

Tomorrow I will be interviewed by the awesome Leigh Covington over on her blog. I've never been interviewed before so hopefully none of my answers come off as awkward!

This new semester I just started is crazy! I'm taking five classes, upper division English ones for my major. The reading load is so heavy, that's the main problem. I've hardly had any time to work on my WIP.

On the plus side, I got a new job :) I'll be moving from being a checker at a retail store to a checker at a grocery store that's about to have it's grand opening.

Back to the WIP. I hate being super busy with school, because aside from my natural tendency to be lazy, when I actually do write I feel guilty for not doing something for school. So I don't concentrate on writing and then feel guilty for totally blowing off my "write one page a day" resolution. Oops. What do you do about writing when everything else in life gets super busy?

Mountain Climbing!

So maybe Toms aren't
the best shoes for this...

I've gotten a lot done on my WIP since winter break started. Went from 24,253 to 40,276 words. Woo! I'm not totally sure how it's going to end, but I hope to be done by mid April. I just started school yesterday. My schedule is terrible, with driving and all I was at school for eleven hours yesterday -_- And even dozed off in my Milton class! What a great way to start the semester!

The Boyfriend and I had our six month anniversary a few weeks ago. We went on a walk before dinner as we were bored, and I didn't feel like walking all the way around his street and back up a hill to get back to his house. I saw house from the street below and said we should just climb up the back way.

It looked a lot easier than it was! The only reason I didn't turn back was because it looked too steep. Then we got to the top and had to climb over the fence! I'd thought there'd be a gate...probably not going to do that again haha.

How Do You Write a Tricky Scene?

I feel a little weird/ unqualified to be giving writing advice. So instead I'm just going to share how I write a tricky scene. Not every scene comes out of my head perfectly written or formed, occasionally I get stuck. Sometimes the scene is a really important one, and I want to think it out before I try to tackle it.

I have a little laundry list of questions that I write out the answers to for when either of those situations arises, then use those as something of a structure for the scene.

1. What is the purpose of this scene?
Yes, sometimes I helps to remember why I'm writing the scene in the first place. Also known as, what needs to happen in this scene? Where should the emphasis be? If it's about delivering information, what's the most interesting or exciting way I can do it?

2. Who needs to be there?
Having extra characters who kind of just hang around or don't say much is often unnecessary. I try to stick to the characters who are relevant or have a purpose being present.

3. How does my MC feel while this is happening?
My WIP is first person, which can be limiting. But also awesome because you can get so much more personal and really into the character's thoughts. Thinking about how the MC feels and reacts to the scene can put more emphasis on the showing, not telling. I don't want my MC to seem passive and just relate what's happening.

4. Is there a way to make this more exciting?
I was recently writing something of a fight/ escape scene, and originally my MC was just going to observe. But I asked myself how it could be more exciting for her and the reader, so I had her join in near the end. It was still realistic (she didn't all of a sudden develop super strength or something equally ridiculous) and the scene is better for it. Sometimes the first way I think of to write a scene isn't the best.

How do you write tricky scenes? Do you just do it the first try, or do you make something of an outline?

The Magical First Draft.

When I started getting serious about writing a couple years ago, I was under the (horribly mistaken, completely inaccurate) impression that my first draft of a novel would be good enough.

I'm a good writer, I thought. My first draft is going to be awesome. It'll go straight to being published when I finally get an agent, I won't need to change anything.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

While I still think I'm a good writer (at least I hope so!) I'm much more realistic about the whole process. Even when I've gone back and added stuff in my WIP, I've found quite a bit to reword and edit. I'm trying hard not to edit as I go and just get my first draft done before I go back and do edits.

What about you? Did you think things were going to be easier than they are when you first started writing?

Building Believable Romance.

It's inevitable in my book as it is in so many: my main character falls in love with someone. 

Am I the only one who
thinks this version is sooooo
much better than the Leonardo
DiCaprio/ Claire Danes one?

Le gasp! No problem, right?

But it is! A subject like that is complicated, and I feel like most books either approach it one of two ways: love at first sight, or gradually developing, more realistic love. Of course there are stories that are in between these two spectrums, these just seem to be the extremes in YA literature.

I'm not one to write the whole "love at first sight" story. I have personally never really been into the whole "Oh hey I don't even know you BUT OH MY GOD I LOVE YOU SO MUCH I WOULD DIE FOR YOUUUUU" angle. Not that it's a bad thing, necessarily. In fact, one of the most famous pieces of literature was written about just that.

So since I won't write that, at least not in my WIP, I'm trying to create romance/ love that the reader believes. I want the reader to know why one character loves another and see it, instead of just be told that the love's there. It's hard to describe how I do it, kind of just let it develop gradually over several chapters (not at a snail's pace or anything though, that would just get boring.) But I feel like a lot of YA literature has love that seems mostly centered around how "gorgeous" the other person is (Firelight and Halo, to name a couple) and I want to make sure my book has substance.

Then there are others where the romance isn't right away, but it kind of stays lacking and you never really feel it there. I enjoyed the humor and originality in Paranormalcy, but I personally couldn't feel the love or chemistry between Evie and Lend. Just my opinion.

What about you, do you try to build up the love gradually or take a more "love at first sight" approach? What books, in your opinion, do a good job of building the romance gradually?