Thursday 31 May 2018

Ink Tip: Writing Influences

I was speaking to some other authors recently and one of them made a comment to the effect that they didn't watch or read anything in the genre that they write because they didn't want to be inadvertently influenced into copying anything.  At the time, I had a strong "But..?" reaction but let it go since I couldn't articulate why I was having such a negative reaction.

Since then, I've been doing a lot of thinking about that statement and now I can articulate why I vehemently disagree with it.  There are a couple of over-all reasons.  First, I write what I love and therefore not watching or reading stories in that genre would deprive me of a huge source of pleasure.  Second, it's way easier to avoid copying someone else's work if you know what's out there.
I know!  I could have a cop who's part robot!... Already done.  Okay, back to the drawing board.
But it also got me thinking about the writers who have influenced my writing.  The ones I aspire to match.  And so for this month's Ink Tip, I'm sharing my learn-by-example authors and I'd highly encourage people to check them out.

The first one on the list is a fellow Canadian gal: Tanya Huff, who writes in a wide variety of genres: high fantasy, urban fantasy, science fiction.  One of her series is about a vampire living in Toronto, the son of Henry the VIIIth and it was made into a television series, Blood Ties.  But my favourites of hers are the Keeper and Gale Women series, though I am also really enjoying her Peacekeeper series.

Tanya Huff was the first author I read who wrote the kind of stories that I wanted to write: fast-paced action, elements of humour that didn't undercut the characters or plot, and with strong female characters who weren't always taking time out to be kidnapped, rescued or threatened.  When I read her books, I'm not even aware of the process of internalizing the words: I'm living the story along with her characters.  She is also absolutely brilliant at creating diverse casts of characters.  She's stated that readers should assume that all of her characters are bisexual, unless otherwise made clear in the text.  And unlike many authors who have claimed that their characters are diverse but haven't included actual references in the text, there are plenty of examples to cite from within the books.  The most powerful people in her Gale Women series are the aunties, who come into their true power once they are post-menopausal.  Older women aren't sidelined, they're the magical equivalent of thermonuclear weapons.  

The next one on my list is JMS (J. Michael Stracynski) who has a long list of writing credits on various shows over the last forty years.  My favourites are the television show Babylon 5 and the comics, Midnight Nation, the Amazing Spider-Man and Rising Stars.

To say that JMS changed how television works is a fair statement.  He wrote the vast majority of the individual shows for Babylon 5 and rather than finish each episode by effectively re-setting, he allowed the characters to grow and change.  There wasn't a Big Bad each season to defeat, instead the characters dealt with a complicated world that felt real.  And that's one of the aspect of JMS's writing that I strive to recreate: how real both his characters and his world felt.  An episode might focus on the search to catch a killer, but then a newspaper headline in the background will give the result of the trial ten episodes later.  I have to remind myself that Londo and G'Kar are not real people because they were presented as such solid, three-dimensional, shades-of-gray characters that they felt absolutely real.

The other aspect of his writing that inspires me is his ability to evoke powerful emotions through his words.  In the aftermath of 9/11, the Marvel writers were trying to decide if the Marvel superheros (most of whom live in New York) would acknowledge the tragedy or if their stories would pretend it hadn't happened.  JMS wrote an incredibly powerful and moving story about Spider-Man and the other heroes dealing with the tragedy and coming to terms with not having been able to stop it.  The Declaration of Principles from Babylon 5 is still recited around the world.

That leads me smoothly to the next example on my list and this one isn't a single author, but rather an entire company: Marvel Comics and the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe).  I've been a comic book geek for a long time and enjoy both the Marvel and DC Universes (among others).  But Marvel has done something extraordinary throughout its seventy year history.  They created individual worlds and stories that overlap and connect, giving their "fantastic and amazing" stories a sense of grounded reality.  Daredevil lives in the same world as Tony Stark or Wolverine and they are all effected by the same events.  

It makes for harder writing, since writers must come up with reasons why characters in one series wouldn't call for assistance from characters in another.  And I'm sure there have been many tooth-gnashing meetings as someone realized that what they were doing in one storyline would affect those in other storylines.  But for the most part, the different characters and stories have come together smoothly enough that I believe Marvel when they say they are plotting the key points out in advance (not all of them, but enough major plot points to keep everyone moving in the right direction).  That sense of interconnected realism is something that I strive for in my own stories, though it's much easier to keep track with only one brain doing the plotting.  They are why all of my novels and short stories are set in the same universe, even though they focus on different aspects of it.

The next favourite writer on my list is another Marvel alum, Joss Whedon, whose Astonishing X-Men series is still a favourite re-read of mine.  And of course, he is also the writer behind several of my favourite television series: Buffy, Angel, and Firefly, not to mention the Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron movie.

Joss is known for his clever dialogue which tends to be full of pop-culture references.  But his ability to play with language doesn't always rely on common experience.  For Firefly, he created a new vernacular for the show, one that was still comprehensible to us but was believable as how the language could have evolved over the next few centuries.  As a language geek, I enjoyed figuring out how "shiny" became the new "cool" almost as much as the stories.  But he is also highly skilled at including humour that works to accent the horror and thrills of his stories.  The tiny breaks in the tension keep the stories from becoming overwhelming and depressingly dark, but also don't distract from the emotional impact.  They endear his characters to the audience and keep us coming back to his worlds.

And last (because I have to end this post at some point, though I could keep on citing more and more writers) but certainly not least is a relatively new (at least to me) writer, Sherrilyn Kenyon.  Her Dark Hunter and League series are both great reads with strong characters and fast-paced plots.  But the aspect of her writing that impresses me most and that I strive to emulate is her ability to take villains from one story and show them as heroes in another.

"Your villain has to see themselves as the hero of their own story" is a fairly common piece of writing advice, mainly intended to curb the tendency to treat villains as only being interested in Evil, rather than being developed characters in their own right.  But what Sherrilyn Kenyon does is more that that.  She uses her characters to show that too often, we only know small pieces of someone else's story and we judge them for it as if it was the whole truth.  The best example of this occurs in her two books: Acheron and Styxx.  Though they are number 14 and 22 in her Dark Hunter series, they can be read independently.

I could keep fan-girling on about all of these writers and their work.  And hopefully if you're not familiar with them, you'll give some of these examples a try.  But I'm also hoping that I've made my original point: to cut yourself off from any genre is to deny yourself the chance to learn from the writers in it.  There are all kinds of amazing examples to learn from out there.



For those interested in seeing how well I incorporate these examples into my own work, you can check out my Lalassu series about a secret society of superheroes.  Book 1: Revelations is on sale for 99 cents US (or local equivalent) and Book 4: Judgment just released a few weeks ago.

Previous post: The Stages of Social Awareness.  As we move through life, we can only experience our own version of the world directly, but there are lots of worlds to become aware of.  I used the process of learning about these worlds as part of the structure of Judgment.

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Monday 28 May 2018

Weekly Update: May 20 to 26

Weekly word count: 10 413 (new words, that doesn't count repurposed words from previous drafts)

Things are moving much faster on the writing front now that I'm getting into the final draft before I begin querying/pitching the manuscript to editors and agents.  It's a good illustration that the more you know about what you're writing, the faster it goes.  I now know my characters, the ins and out of my plot, how my bad guy works (as a serial killer).  It all makes it much easier to stay in voice and not have to look up previous details.

This weekend was Limestone Genre Expo in Kingston.  It was a fun weekend.  The con itself is fairly quiet, not a lot of sales at the vendor table, but lots of opportunities to network with readers and other authors.  I did some solid plugs for ORWA and the RWA, and I think I found some new recruits, which would be nice.

There were two highlights of the weekend for me:  

First and best, when Amelia bought Revelations on Saturday and came to me on Sunday to say that she'd gotten hooked on the story and if she hadn't been so exhausted, she would have stayed up all night reading.  That is the best compliment an author can ever get.




Second (and it was a close second) was hanging out and getting a chance to visit with Tanya Huff and Violette Malan, both funny, smart ladies with really good books.

I also had a lovely time hanging out with my con buddy, Julie from ORWA, who was gracious enough to man my table during panels and whose assistance made the weekend run super smoothly.

Big shout out and thank you to Liz for putting on a well-organized con.  I'm hoping that time and budget will let me come back next year.

Thursday 24 May 2018

Stages of Awareness

One of my favourite things about researching a book is getting to walk a mile in all sorts of shoes.  Sometimes those shoes take me to exciting places, like sleight of hand training or burlesque dancing.  And sometimes they take me to places I should have known existed, but didn't.  In the last three years, I've learned a lot about micro-aggressions and how relentless they can be.  It got me thinking about how many parallel worlds are out there, and I'm not talking about Star Trek multiple realities, but rather the worlds we all live in.  The world that I experience as a cishet white woman is different from the worlds that some of my friends live in.  I've been learning to see the worlds that they see and there are some amazing things in those worlds and there are some scary things, too.

That was why I decided to structure Judgment as a journey of awareness and use the stages of awareness to to define the acts of the story.  There's no official consensus on the stages but these are the ones I used.

Or not.  Depending on your point of view.
Denial: There's a temptation to vilify people who are in this stage, the ones who insist that the problem is blown out of proportion or that it can't possibly be as bad as people say.  The ones who think there must be innocent explanations and who urge those harmed to be understanding and not so sensitive.  And there's reason to be cautious, because a lot of trolls hide in the ranks of the deniers and they use fake ignorance as an attack technique to wear down their targets.

However, I also think there's a lot of wishfulness behind the denial stage.  I can understand the impulse to believe that the world is a better place than it is.  That everything can be solved with an explanation and nothing is ever more harmful than a misunderstanding.  It's the world most of us would like to live in.  But it isn't the real world and hiding in denial doesn't fix the problems that need to be solved.

Knowledge: Education is the opposite of denial.  Once a person acknowledges that the issues are real, then there's no choice but to begin to learn about them.  It takes time to educate oneself and it takes a critical mind to sort through the conflicting reports and the nuanced ways of seeing the world.

I'm very careful not to describe this stage as finding the truth.  Because it's not as simple as sorting through truth and lies.  There are multiple perspectives and each of them holds an aspect of the truth.  Some people will say that a situation isn't ideal, but not a big deal.  Others will be drastically hurt by the same situation.  Both are true and valid reactions.

Self-Awareness: As a person becomes aware of what's going on in the world around them, they also become aware of how their own actions may have impacted others.  A word choice, a joke that relies on harmful assumptions, inadvertent excluding of entire groups.  

This is a very hard stage to go through.  If a person is truly dedicated to doing better, the process of awareness can feel like it's eroding their self-confidence.  It can feel like the whole world is getting turned around and nothing is certain any more.  People don't deal well with uncertainty and it can be tempting to clamp down on convenient excuses rather than continuing.

Negotiation: As a person starts to navigate through the new landmarks, they often want to help others come to the same understanding that they've struggled through.  There's a get-it-done rush to "fix" the problem by educating others.  And there are a lot of people who will respond to education.

But there are also a lot of people who aren't interested in education or who don't care about harm that is being done to others.  This is where a lot of people burn out, feeling as if they are being endlessly drained in their efforts to educate.

Anger: There are certain situations where we should be angry.  Anger is our mind's way to signal that something is wrong.  Realizing that some people either don't care or are okay with deliberately harming others is a situation that should make us angry.  

Action: Once there's no longer a veil of denial to hide behind, and a person is aware that progress is not inevitable, then it's time for action beyond education.  Good intentions aren't enough to protect the vulnerable.  That's why we need laws, enforcement and accountability.

Like the stages of grieving, not everyone goes through every stage and certainly not in the same order.  But I've found that thinking about awareness this way has helped me to be more patient and less prone to burn out.  It gives me more hope that even though someone doesn't understand now, it doesn't mean they won't understand later.  And maybe then someday we can get the kind of world that we've always hoped for and that I think we deserve: one where a misunderstanding really is as bad as it gets.


Judgment is now available in ebook and print.  And if you'd new to the lalassu, give book one: Revelations a try for less than the price of a cup of coffee.

Previous post: Ways to Separate the Malicious from the Ignorant

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Monday 21 May 2018

Weekly Update: May 13 to 19

Weekly word count: 5786

I'm moving into the final draft stage of Deadly Potential (by which I mean the final draft before I'll let someone else start reading it, there's going to still be lots of revisions on it).  When I begin working on a manuscript, I only have a very rough idea of where everything is going to go.  I used to have a detailed outline, but often two-thirds of it would get tossed as I found more promising ideas.  So now I start with five or six key plot points or scenes that I know I want to hit, and I only outline for the next few chapters.  Gradually I build up the story until things start to get shaky, then I prune it back and move forward.

I've done two major prunings so far on Deadly Potential and now I'm far enough along that it was time to map out the entire thing.  So I made detailed notes on what had been written, what subplots I want to keep (and which I want to toss), and then came up with a detailed chapter-by-chapter outline of the entire book.  I'll be able to keep about 70-80% of what I've written, but it's not going to be in the same order and location as before.  I'm effectively starting at the beginning but I should still be able to get everything done before RWA Nationals in July.

The chapter by chapter author commentary for Judgment is done and I'll be putting that up either today or tomorrow.

And I'm excited to be getting everything ready for Limestone Genre Expo this weekend.  I've got a lot of good panels and a book launch for Judgment (there will be cookies and I thought I'd open it up for an informal Q&A).  My print copies have shipped from Createspace, so hopefully they will get here before Friday.  I'm getting really excited about getting to share it with everyone.

Thursday 17 May 2018

Ways To Separate The Malicious From the Ignorant

I was raised to believe that progress had eradicated prejudice and hatred, aside from a few small brush fires from those who really should be pitied for their pathetic, hateful lives.  But those teaching me were confident that humanity had collectively progressed and that as we gained access to more and more information, cultures, and knowledge, then we would get closer and closer to the Star Trek ideal of many groups working together without any one claiming to be superior to the others.


Not pictured: people

The last few years have buried the remaining shreds of that belief.  As much as I (and I'm sure many others) would like to believe that any remaining horridness is merely an education issue (i.e. show them in a constructive way why they are mistaken and everything will be better), the truth is that there are many who cling to their hatred and enjoy attacking others.

But here's the thing that keeps me going: it's not all of them.

There are still many people who spout or support prejudice and hateful ideas because they have been taken in by malicious individuals who use their audience's limited experience to present things in a way which seems plausible and then fans the flames of outrage.  It's effectively a magic trick in that it only works from very precise angles.  Step even an inch either way, and it's revealed as a complete fraud.

I still believe it is possible to reach many of those people through education and exposure.  However, there's a challenge in that many of the malicious will hide their attacks behind a pose of ignorance and use it as a shield for micro-aggressions and outright lies.  This gets exhausting for the targets of their anger and often provokes them into justified anger, which then gets interpreted as "oversensitivity" and "irrationality" by their attackers.

So here's the second thing: how is anyone supposed to be able to separate out those malicious attackers from those who can be educated?  There are actually some very consistent cues that I've found can help.

Is the information they present factual?

This is the basic line of defense.  When someone claims that 95% of all rape cases are dismissed because the police discover the victim is lying, that's an easy number to check.  Even a basic google search can reveal the common lies told by the various hate groups as part of their recruitment and justification strategies.  And most of them have clearly defined and researched debunkings.  This research is dismissed by these groups as part of a wide-spread conspiracy to keep them oppressed and people fooled.  That's a very simple litmus test: if someone's "truth" requires that large segments of the population be actively lying and withholding accurate information, then it's probably less truthy than they'd like to accept.

The ignorant can usually accept education (even if it is painfully slow sometimes).  There is a challenge in that many malicious attackers use a technique called sea lioning, where they will insist on endlessly cited sources but then refuse to accept any of them.

It can be tiring to have to constantly research to make certain that you're not falling for false facts, but if it means that you're also not supporting a hate group, I personally feel it's worth the effort.

Do they constantly change the topic?  

"Drunk driving is bad."  
"But what about people who drive while high?"  
"That's bad, too."
"But what about cultures where refusing hospitality is seen as rude?"

There can't be a discussion if the other party insists on either dragging in a lot of false equivalencies (like driving high) or completely unrelated topics (hospitality culture).  While discussions do naturally tend to follow tangents, if you constantly find yourself having to present more and more information on a wider and wider net, without the other person ever acknowledging the previous points you've made, that person is likely unwilling to be educated and is attempting to wear you down.

Do they use a lot of "But ...."?

You may have noticed that a lot of the previous examples start with the word "but" which is one of those critical words that can tell you what someone really thinks.  If a lot of statements start with but, then it's a deflection strategy.  If the but is in the middle of the sentence it can be a little trickier to figure out.  Generally, a person feels stronger about whatever is presented after the but; i.e., I think that restaurant is good but the waiters are really surly.  Most people understand that the surly waiters outweigh the goodness of the restaurant.  And most people saying that would be using "I think that the restaurant is good" as a social soothing technique to soften the upcoming criticism.

The other technique is to look at which side of the sentence has more detailed information.  If someone says "The last time I was at the restaurant, the waiter made a rude comment and they messed up my order, but I'm sure it's a perfectly good place most of the time."  then the specific complaints outweigh the generic reassurance.  This kind of sentence structure is usually a sign that the person realizes they may have gone too far and is trying to back-pedal to prevent exposure.

Sometimes people have mixed feelings or an issue is genuinely complicated and then they have to use a but to accurately express herself.  However, if there are a lot of buts and the emphasis is continually on a hateful point of view, then there is likely an element of maliciousness behind them.

Do they deflect, claiming to be joking or just asking questions?

Claiming to be joking and deriding the other person for not having a sense of humour is one of the oldest tools in the bully's tool kit, but it continues to be surprisingly effective.  It falls apart on closer view though.  Why is it funny that someone is hurt or upset?  Even common jokes lose their humor when viewed with empathy and separated from surprise: eg: A man and his wife are in the hospital and he's dying.  He tells her: "Before I go, I need to tell you that I had an affair."  She replies: "I know, that's why I poisoned you."  

When someone thinks about it, that's not terribly funny.  Murder, affairs, and painful deaths are sad, not funny.  And I say this as someone who constantly needs to double check my own gallows humour.  But I would be horribly hurt and embarrassed if I realized a joke of mine had hurt someone else, not dismissive of their pain.

A variant on the "I was just joking" is the "I'm just asking questions" technique, but too often it's a deflection from sea lioning.  If someone has indicated questions are intrusive, or have already been answered, or that the questioner is not acknowledging the information already presented, then they cannot hide behind "just asking."

The joking/question approach is often used as a silencing attack.  The attacker causes harm to the victim and when the victim tries to raise awareness or seek reparations, the secondary attack is intended to keep them from doing so again.  

Are there logic gaps in their position?

Dumb solutions follow nearly every exposure of hatred.  "If they just <blank> then it wouldn't have happened" is the time-honoured formula.  It's presented as simplistic and obvious and for those who have not been exposed to underlying issues, it can seem plausible.  But those simplistic solutions usually have some serious logic gaps.

Recently, an author has been attacking other authors for using a common English word in their book titles which she has also used in her titles.  She has defended her actions, claiming that there is no cost or penalty if those authors just retitle their books so that they cannot be confused with their own.  However, if she truly believed there was no penalty to retitling, why did she not retitle her own books with something unique?  Why attack other authors with threats of legal action if there's an easier solution that is entirely within her control and which she believes is harmless?

Or what about those who claim the men arrested at Starbucks should have ordered something before waiting or that the boys questioned by police during a campus tour should have worn a lanyard to identify themselves as legitimate prospective students?  They overlook the fact that minorities face much more frequent harassment and focus attention on those who were victims rather than on those who acted inappropriately by calling police.

It can be hard to pick up on the logic gaps sometimes, particularly if a person only has limited experience.  The best way to overcome that limited experience is to seek out alternate points of view from those who directly experience these issues.  It can be hard to listen without being defensive, but it can also be rewarding.

There's so much out there these days that it can be hard to know what's truth and what's not sometimes.  But we can't allow the malicious to be the only ones still talking.  I hope that some of you find this post helpful because I think we all need to work together.  And then maybe we can make the vision of a respectful and supportive society into a reality.



Book 4 of my Lalassu series: Judgment is now out!  And Book 1: Revelations is on sale for less than the price of a cup of coffee.

Previous Post: Heroine Fix: Celebrating Angry Girls with Meg Murry of A Wrinkle In Time

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Monday 14 May 2018

Weekly Update: May 6 to May 12

Weekly word count: 6177 words

What a whirl last week was!  The final prep to get everything ready for Judgment's release today, presenting at Ottawa Comic Con (and spending a solid weekend immersed in my happy geekdom), and preparing for my presentation at Ottawa Independent Writers on Tuesday.  Whew!  I'm kind of shocked that I made it.

First and most important: Judgment (Book 4 of the Lalassu) releases today in ebook.  Unfortunately, there was trouble with the proof, so the print version is not yet ready but will be coming out soon.  And with all the whirl, I didn't quite get the chapter by chapter author commentary up on my website yet, but that will be done by the end of this week.  Judgment was probably the most emotionally intense book that I've written and I think everyone is going to be pleased to find out what happens to Martha and her daughter Bernie (from Revelations and Inquisition) and Lou (Lily's brother, first appearing in Metamorphosis). 

Next and still geeking out: Comic Con.  It was an amazing con this year.  I met Doug Jones, who was wonderfully sweet and gave me a hug as well as an autograph.  He is an amazing creature actor (Shape of Water, Hellboy, Star Trek: Discovery - to name a few of my favourites).  I also got to see Bruce Boxleitner, Karl Urban, Brent Spiner, Jewel Staite, Finn Jones, and Matt Smith.  I was disappointed that Jason Momoa decided to cancel his Q&A, and that Mike Colter wasn't able to come, but I had an amazing time.  Our panel on publishing (with the talented and wonderful 'Nathan Burgoine, Eve Langlais, and Lucy Farago) was standing room only and people seemed really happy to get books for asking questions.  There were some cautious inquiries as to whether or not we'd be willing to do it again, to which I reply: Heck, yeah!

I'm making sure that I'm fully recovered for my presentation for the Ottawa Independent Writers, happening tomorrow (Tuesday, May 15th) at the Hintonburg Community Centre, starting at 6:30.  I'll be talking about emotions and body language and how writers can use it to bring greater depth and expressiveness to their characters.

For my WIP, Deadly Potential, I've reached the point where I'll need to spend a day or two doing a detailed mapping everything out to make sure everything fits together, so my writing goal is 5000 words for this week instead of 6000.  We'll see if I make it.  Thanks everyone for all of your encouragement and to my readers for their loyalty and patience.

Thursday 10 May 2018

Heroine Fix: Celebrating Angry Girls with Meg Murry

Heroine Fix is a monthly feature looking at characters that I admire and who influence my own writing. (Warning: this article will contain spoilers.)


A Wrinkle In Time was one of the first books that came alive for me and that I connected to in a meaningful way.  I was hugely excited with the new Disney movie as it was so visually gorgeous and was a chance to bring this world to life.  However, I was a little disappointed that they shifted emphasis on one of my favourite aspects of the character: Meg's anger being a strength.

In the new film, Meg's anger and distrust is referred to as a sign of darkness inside her, which is a major threat within the Wrinkle universe.  Mrs. Whatsit expresses doubt and distrust about Meg and whether or not she'll be able to succeed in the mission to defeat the darkness in the universe (IT and the Echthroi for those familiar with the series).  She suggests leaving Meg behind multiple times.

One of the reasons why I connected strongly with Meg was because of her anger.  I was also picked on at school by teachers and students and I got so tired of the message that I needed to be calm and understanding and not do anything to cause trouble.  Meg's anger gave her strength.  She tells the Happy Medium: "It really helped ever so much because it made me mad and when I'm mad I don't have room to be scared."

Anger gets a bad reputation in our society.  In another Disney film Inside Out the characters learn the value of sadness: that it allows others to know when we need help and consideration.  But they didn't cover the value of anger: it alerts us to when something is wrong.

The actions we take when angry aren't always good choices, but anger itself is a valuable emotional tool.  There are many things in life that should make us angry.

In the original book, A Wrinkle In Time, (which I highly recommend reading even as an adult) the enemy isn't anger, it's hatred.  I think that's an important distinction to make.  The evil IT thrives on hatred, especially for anything that is different.  Anything inconvenient, inefficient or different is destroyed, creating the terrifying sameness of Camazotz.  In contrast, the creatures of Ixchel are truly alien but are caring and loving.  It was a very powerful illustrations of a person's actions counting more than their appearance.

Meg survives Camazotz and rescues her father and brother because she is angry and questions authority, something that children in general and girls in particular are discouraged from doing.  She doesn't take what the adults around her say on faith, demanding answers.  Part of her character arc is to learn that she cannot wait for adults to do things for her, when something is wrong she has to take action herself.  Her faults allow her to see problems that others don't and her stubbornness and determination allow her to fight for what needs to happen.  She's a magnificent role model, especially for girls, and has influenced all of my rebellious heroines.

The evil IT encourages Meg to relax and accept what's going on.  "On this planet everything is in perfect order because everyone has learned to relax, to give in, and submit."  Too often, we're encouraged to do exactly that.  Just accept the world as it is rather than going to the effort to fight it.  Meg doesn't accept it and she fights.  The book doesn't shy away from showing the difficulty and loneliness of being a fighter, but it also celebrates it.

Many of the modern YA heroines are emotionally passive, even when they are also revolutionaries.  They are numb to the outrages around them.  Meg is raw and unfiltered, demanding that things need to be fixed.  And I, for one, am glad that I found her.

Keep reading for more information on next month's Heroine Fix and a special offer on my books.

Are you addicted to strong and interesting heroines like I am?  Share your favourite heroines with me on Twitter (@jclewisupdate) with the hashtag #HeroineFix


And if you like to check out my strong, rebellious heroines who keep fighting until things are made right, right now you can pick up the first book in the Lalassu series, Revelations, for less than the price of a cup of coffee.  

A secret society of superheroes is living among us and someone is beginning to collect them.  Dani and Michael team up to find the ones they care about but the chemistry between them threatens to unlock an ancient and powerful threat.

Previous blogpost: Some Thoughts on Cliff-Hangers

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Previous Heroine Fix: Crafting A Great Bad Girl - Letty from Good Behaviour


Revelations is now available at a wide variety of ebook retailers for only $ 0.99 US.



Next month's Heroine Fix will look at Quake from Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.  Join me on June 14th to celebrate one of the newest additions to the take-no-prisoners ladies of Marvel.



Monday 7 May 2018

Weekly Update: April 29 to May 5

Weekly word count: 5975

There are ten weeks left before RWA Nationals and I've done the math on what I need to do in order to have a completed first draft done.  (And reaffirmed that doing the math is never a sign of something pleasant.)  I've got 57k done, and there will likely be another 50 to 60k for the manuscript.  So that means I need to do at least 5-6k every week and realistically, I should be aiming for 6-7k each week, because not every word that I write deserves to be kept.

When I first started, I thought I might be able to achieve 2k per day on weekdays.  If I had my scheduled 2 hours each day, then 2000 words is a possibility.  But I rarely get my full two hours.  Things nibble into that margin and I usually lose at least half an hour.

I'm fighting a bit of give-up-itis.  It's actually kind of impressive how far my brain can go down the cascade of failures:  I'll never get it done.  Even if I get it done, it won't be good.  Even if I think it's good, agents and editors won't want it.  Even if they want it, book sales are down... so on and so on.  I think I eventually get to the point where I'm hiding alone and unloved in a basement somewhere, having been exposed as a total fraud and hack.

Here's the thing: I know this is all garbage.  My goals are still achievable and while there's plenty out of my control, the parts that are under my control are very do-able.  So I'm going to go ahead and register to pitch to agents and editors at RWA and then it's going to be up to fate and the gods about what happens next.  But I refuse to let the dark little voice inside my head win.  It's stolen enough of my life with its false predictions. 

Thursday 3 May 2018

Some Thoughts on Cliffhangers

The cliffhanger used to be a staple of story-telling.  Scheherazade used them to extend her life for a 1001 days.  The term "cliffhanger" comes from the old serial adventure films, which often ended with the heroes hanging off an actual cliff, the villain about to succeed, and the admonition to "Tune in next week!" to find out what happened.


I'm sure he'll be fine.
Today, though, they're not as popular, at least not on the audience side.  It can be incredibly frustrating to see To Be Continued... crawl across the screen when it's not expected.  Or to get to the last page and still not know who the Big Bad is, or what their plan is, or how our heroes are going to thwart it.

The issue goes back to story structure.  Regardless of whether one uses a three act structure, a five act structure or the 22 plot points of the Hero's Journey, a resolution is always the last step.  It's not always in the heroes' favour but it is an ending, one way or another.

There are points where I feel that cliffhangers are acceptable.  Some stories are too big to be told within typical page or time limits.  Dividing them into several parts is a valid choice but it's a challenge to make sure that the audience is satisfied at the end of each installment.  And it's critical that the audience knows that the story is ongoing.

I am not a fan of the start-on-a-cliffhanger technique, where the audience is shown the heroes in peril or doing something uncharacteristic, and then we flash back to "Two days earlier" and the creator shows how they got to that point.  It invariably feels like a cheap tactic to generate tension.  It's not even a particularly effective tactic since it's been used so many times. 

If an audience thinks the creator is stringing them along in order extort more sales, they will be rightfully furious.  It's a fine line between a hook and a cliffhanger, and it's mostly in the audience's perception.