Tales of Magic, Adventure, and Romance

I’m sure this useful tool is known by different names but I know it as a world bible: everything a writer needs to remember about her world. For fantasy writers writing in a made up world, a world bible is essential. Which King ruled which kingdom when? Who slayed the Great Ogre of Ben’alwen? … Where is Ben’alwen? … What does the name mean? etc.

A world bible records everything about the world, anything you mention that pertains to it. A world bible also records character details, eye and hair color, personal history, family history, goal and motivations.

Every writer has his or her own technique to building a world bible. Here are a few tips that I found helpful (particularly when working on a series).

1) Use a spreadsheet program. One workbook with a series of worksheets lets you create a sheet for your cast list, a sheet for each significant character’s bio, and sheets for different types of world information (in my current project I have sheets for things like history, politics, the rules to magic, population divisions, languages, etc).

2) Reference your information. Whatever method you record your information in, in whatever manner your choose to record it, reference it as best you can. In the event that you need to go back and look at the context in which you relay the information, reference the book (if you’re working on a multi-book series), and if possible the chapter. Chapters and page numbers change from draft to draft, but so does your prose, which means that the “find” feature won’t necessarily work when searching for a specific detail. And the idea of referencing (and using “find”) is so you won’t have to reread your manuscript when looking for a tiny detail (like what year your heroine broke her foot while playing soccer).

3) Actively keep your world bible while you write. You don’t have to stop for every detail, because things do change during the editing period. However it’s helpful to record things such as general descriptions for every character, even minor characters. Having these details readily available means when you get halfway into your book and your scene just isn’t working and you realize that if the barmaid from the beginning of the book showed up the conflict between the hero and heroine would jump back to life, you can click to her information page and know, without any searching, that she had purple hair and silver eyes and is the sister of the town’s Magistrate.

As with everything in writing, there is no right or wrong way to do anything. Different things work for different people. These are just a few techniques that work for me. Do you keep a world bible for your stories and what techniques do you use?

read novels online .ca

Last week I attended a fabulous workshop by Historical Romance author Robyn DeHart called Bigger Than Botox. Robyn used the metaphor of different types of surgery to illustrate the different levels of revision a writer needs to consider when rewriting. And given that I’m currently in the rewriting stage I found the whole workshop helpful and informative.

I’m not going give all the details of the workshop away (since they’re not mine to give) but I do want to share a few sage comments that Robyn made. The first is what revisions aren’t.

Revisions are not: proofreading, line editing, verb strengthening, spell-checking.

These are the little tweaks that we do once revisions are done. Revisions are big issue items involving plot, character, goals, motivation, etc. And Robyn provided excellent questions to consider when looking at the big picture things.

The other sage comment: you don’t have to do it all at once.

This is something I believe in as well. Novels are large. Let’s not fool ourselves about it. And crafting a good story that captures a reader’s imagination involves successfully incorporating all the aspects of the writing craft, big and small. Looking at all those aspects as a whole can be overwhelming. How can I make my plot makes sense, while making my characters likable, and keep the pace moving all at the same time.

The trick is, you don’t have to. When tackling revisions, pick something, be it plot, character, world building, pacing, etc, and focus on that. All of a sudden, the prospect of revising a manuscript doesn’t seem as difficult. At least that’s how it works for me. I start thinking, “ya, something small. I can look at my heroine’s motivation and patch up her character arc over the length of the book.” And when that’s done, I pick something else, and before I know it, I’ve looked at all the major revision issues and the book is ready for things like spell-checking.

So, because I’m currently revising and because Robyn DeHart has made be wonder about how other writers tackle revising, how do you handle revision? Do you have trick or technique that you use?

read novels online .ca

A few days ago I opened a paranormal romance and encountered an alpha hero. This isn’t a rare occurrence, alpha heroes are popular in romance (and urban fantasy), but made me wonder what the attraction is to the alpha hero. Or rather the attraction to an alpha hero who exhibits extreme alpha behavior.

For those unfamiliar with an alpha hero, a brief definition: “According to Jayne Ann Krentz in her groundbreaking Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women, the “alpha males” can be described as “tough, hard-edged, tormented heroes. . . These are the heroes who made Harlequin famous. These are the heroes feminist critics despise” (page 132).”  Taken from All About Romance.

And with that explanation a part of me can understand the attraction. We all want to be with—or rather, tame—the bad boy (or bad girl). We want the intensity of their emotion and desire fully focused on us and know that they WANT us because of who we are (yes, capital want). Their sense of danger and their brooding moods are exciting, tantalizing, and through the safety of the printed word we can savor the experience.

As well, we all want to see the damaged, sensitive  inside of a hero who faces danger with a snarl of confidence, and we all want to see that hero heal (usually through his interaction with the heroine). Because if he can be hurting on the inside and still able to bravely carry on in the face of great adversity we can, too. And if he is worthy of healing and love, so are we.

At least, that’s how I understand the desire to read about alpha heroes. Which, now that I think about it, is probably my personal definition of alpha hero. Everyone seems to have their own take on what an alpha hero is.

The alpha hero that I sometimes encounter which confuses me, is the hero who’s so completely obsessed with his attraction for the heroine that he doesn’t respect or listen to her.

I am not alone in my confusion regarding the alpha hero or even how an alpha hero is defined. Robin at Romancing The Blog posed the same question in her post In Search of the Alpha Hero, asking her readers about their perfect alpha hero and the traits he possess back in 2009.

Candy at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, asked it in her post On Alpha Heroes in 2007.

The romance community has been discussing the topic for a long time and it doesn’t seem there will be a consensus. Of course, because writing is a creative form and everyone has different likes and dislikes consensus isn’t necessary.  What I like, you might not. However, from a commercial writer’s perspective I think it’s important to understand and tap that attraction … now if I could only figure out what it is.

On an interesting note, from the perspective of three editors, while the heroine in romance and urban fantasy books has undergone significant changes (from meek to kick-ass), the hero has predominately remained the same. Check out Melissa Ann Singer’s interview Editorial Roundtable: Paranormal Romance Heroines and Heroes for thoughts on this from Deb Werksman, Editorial Manager, Sourcebooks, Monique Patterson, Senior Editor, St. Martin’s Press, and Alicia Condon, Editorial Director, Brava.

What are you thoughts in alpha heroes? Do you have a favorite and what traits does he have that makes you love him?

read novels online .ca

The other day I learned something new: not everyone eats salad the way I do.

Now, I’m sure this statement is a given. We are all different, we all have different ways of doing things, but I’d always kind of assumed eating salad was a little like putting on one’s pants: there are only so many variations on the action ( … although now that I think about putting on pants, a writer could have a lot of fun exploring those variations.)

The epiphany came at dinnertime with my husband. I had prepared a salad and he had commented that the pieces were too big – he prefers small pieces. And this is the moment where I realized there were two types of salad-eaters. Spearers and Scoupers.

I’m a Spearer. If the pieces are too small they’re hard to get on my fork and I can’t spear enough for a satisfying mouthful. My husband, on the other hand, is a Scouper. If the pieces are too big they fall off his fork and he can’t get a satisfying mouthful.

As a result of this difference, when I make a salad, I chop the veggies into spearable chunks. When my husband makes a salad, he dices the veggies into scoupable pieces.

What does all of this mean for a writer and characterization?

When you’re creating your multi-dimensional characters, consider cause and effect. How your character prepares a salad will depend on whether your character is a Spearer or a Scouper.

(and now you’re supposed to translate this theory to other actions – like putting on one’s pants)

read novels online .ca

Recently I had a conversation with a few writer friends. I was rambling about Hero’s Calling: book two, talking about where I was in the story and where I wanted to take the book and how I was stalled at the moment. Other writing needs had demanded my attention and I needed to reconnect with the story. But I wasn’t reconnecting for some reason. That’s when I realized I was avoiding something. My story needed to go in a direction I wasn’t comfortable with and I was resisting that.

However, if I wanted to be a good writer, I needed to accept the truth and be mean to my characters.

There are those reading this who know what I’m talking about (and you’re nodding your heads right now). For those who are wondering why a writer should be cruel to her characters, let me explain.

Ever read a book where the characters do things, and things happen, and issues are resolved, but you’re not satisfied at the end? One reason could be because the struggle wasn’t big enough for the characters. We (readers) enjoy journeys and struggle and growth so when the heroine gets the guy or the bad guy is brought to justice we’re satisfied. That struggle can’t be on the surface alone and it can’t be a problem easily solved.

For satisfaction, we want to see the hero work for it.

I mean, really work for it.

Why? Because we struggle and work every day of our lives. And if the heroine’s life is so much worse than ours and she gets a happy ending, we, too, can get our happy ending.

(That’s one of the secrets to genre fiction. Note: literary fiction has difference rules – and maybe I’ll ramble about the general difference between genre and literary fiction).

What this means for writers is that we need to make our characters suffer. When we see an opportunity to make our characters’ lives more difficult, we need to be brave and take it. If we’re stuck or resistant to writing a scene it means (at least for me) that we’re avoiding being cruel, when really we should embrace our inner villain.

So practice your evil villain laugh and look at your writing and see if you can make your characters suffer more. Readers will thank you for it.

read novels online .ca

To take a pen name or not take a pen name.  The question has haunted many writers since the beginning of time (more or less).

For those of you who started reading Hero’s Calling early on, you know I recently tackled the question of a pen name and chose to write as Kelsey Card. Which then lead to a lot of questions from family and friends about why.  Was I ashamed of what I wrote? Did I want to hide my identity? Wouldn’t having a pen name confuse things?

In short: no, I’m not ashamed of what I write. I love the stories I tell.  Can I keep my identity secret?  I doubt it. Living in the internet age I suspect it’s impossible to keep one’s identity a secret, so I’m not particularly concerned about that. And as for confusion … I suppose that having a pen name might get confusing. It hasn’t happened yet, but I haven’t completely transitioned over to Kelsey Card (I’ll let you know if it does).

So why pick a pen name?

In all honesty: for business.

A few posts ago I mentioned that while I was honing my craft as a writer I was also learning to be a small business owner (hopefully someday I’ll be a big business owner).  And a part of owning a business is defining it and branding it (to use an industry term).  When I find a writer I really love, I go to the book store looking for her, not her books (perhaps her series).  This tells me that while the book is the product the author is the brand.  (Kind of like a certain big burger that can be found at a certain restaurant with golden arches. When you want the burger you start looking for the restaurant).

Thinking about this, it felt strange to image little ol’ me as a brand, a thing that people would search out–okay, it’s a little flattering, too–but to help me focus on “me the business” I decided to give “me the business” a name.

What this does it is helps me to separate business from personal issues.  It helps me sit down at the computer and decide to go to work.  If I’m working for me it still feels like a hobby, nothing serious. But I’m no longer working for me.  I work for Kelsey Card.  And while I have great aspirations, Kelsey Card has a five and ten year business plan. Kelsey Card expects research and writing and marketing to be accomplished in a timely matter to achieve those plans.

Now,  I suppose, the question becomes, does this take all the joy out of writing? (I was wondering that, too, when I first contemplated this issue)

And I can say with confidence, absolutely not! I love go to work every day. It’s always an adventure and Kelsey’s deadlines help to keep me focused.

I’m still trying to figure out how Kelsey the identity and the brand works (I’m not naive enough to think I still won’t face growing pains this early in the transition), but I don’t doubt it will be an adventure. Thank you for joining me on this journey.

Enjoyed the post? You don’t have to wait a week for more. Hang out with me on Facebook.

read novels online .ca