Human Nature - Holding a Grudge

Happy Tuesday, good people of the blogosphere! This week I'm going to be discussing a few different facets of human nature as they relate to characters and writing. See the quick schedule below:

• The Love Affair
• Holding a Grudge
• Seeking Revenge
• Situation Reaction
• Thought Processes

Day 2 is here so let's talk about Holding a Grudge. Grab your paper and pens and let's get going!

When we are wronged in some way, it tends to stick with us for a long period of time. Humans aren't equipped to deal with betrayal when someone has our perfect trust unless we work very hard at it. It makes us angry and, sometimes, we hold on to that anger far longer than we should. Letting go is an art form. This should happen the same way with your character. Remember to be true to life first.

If you have immortal characters, holding a grudge can be a good way to move toward Seeking Revenge. However, you can use a grudge from a betrayal to help your reader get a better sense of your character's personality. There are three basic types of characterization here:

1. Never Letting it Go - These people can't get over even the smallest slight that's done to them by anyone. They allow hurts and betrayals to fester and boil. It destroys friendships, families, and possibly entire worlds in its wake. Pain is taken to a bitter place and makes the person ugly on the inside. But, on the bright side, this person is an honest one who refuses to lie about how people make them feel. On the dark side, it usually leads to Seeking Revenge and the character never trusting another person. Ever.
2. Pretending to Let it Go - People who pretend to let it go but don't really are the ones most commonly found. Most people don't want anyone to know they hold the grudge so will pretend like the act of betrayal didn't bother them as much as it did. These are the people plotting a slow death via a sneak attack against whoever wronged them in the first place. They may still be friends with the person who did them wrong; but it's all an act. It's almost impossible for them to forgive completely. Relationships with others become strained from this person's POV. Everyone else should believe things are fine. This person oftentimes also never trusts anyone else but they also never let on they feel that way.
3. Forgiving Completely - Complete forgiveness takes a special kind of person. These are ones who will try to see all sides of the picture and gather an understanding of why the wrong was done in the first place. Now, that's not to say this person will continue to be friends with the person who committed the wrong; it's just that they won't hold the hurt in their heart. There's no revenge plotting going on with this type of person; they just release the other into the wild and bid them adieu. This person will trust another blindly and will oftentimes end up hurt again down the road the same way. It's a vicious cycle.

All three of these types of people make great characters. If you use the first, you can create either a really evil character or one who is very honest. Perhaps they move on to Seeking Revenge, perhaps not. But it's that difference that will make or break the persona you create. When using the second, you're guaranteed to create a lying, backstabbing, vengeful character who grows bitter. Special characters should be reserved for those that you want to be good through and through. This is not to say they can't struggle with the decision. It also doesn't mean they can't start out as type one. Hell, it's a journey, right? Change them in that way.

You're the writer. These are all decisions you make as you write (or before you begin). Remember that in order to have a character who reacts appropriately to a situation, you first must have a deep understanding of every facet of their personality. You may change them along the way, but it needs to be part of the journey.

Question of the day: What's the most common type you've encountered?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Human Nature - The Love Affair

Happy Monday, good people of the blogosphere! This week I'm going to be discussing a few different facets of human nature as they relate to characters and writing. See the quick schedule below:

• The Love Affair
• Holding a Grudge
• Seeking Revenge
• Situation Reaction
• Thought Processes

You can see today is about Love Affairs and why characters have them. Let's get started, shall we?

As writers, we are students of human nature. If you're a reader as well (and you should be if you're a writer), you've met a lot of people. Yes, many of them were fictional. But I'd be willing to bet you've thought how similar a character's actions are to what someone you know would do. It's because that writer pulled information from life to create the character.

Why do humans have love affairs? There are a multitude of reasons behind them. This gives you a plethora of selections when deciding why your character is going to do it. They aren't always epic reasons. Sometimes, it's as simple as a feeling the person is having in the moment, drugs, or alcohol in copious amounts. Let's go through them:

1. Feelings of Loneliness - This is probably the most common reason. Even if someone has a multitude of friends and a significant other in their lives, they will have a moment where they will feel lonely. The feeling can cause even the most astute person to lash or act out by seeking someone to fill the void they have.
2. A Life-changing Event - Another common cause. If a person has a huge event happen in their life that changes the way they think or if the event causes them pain, they may seek out a romantic involvement to ease the blow.
3. Opportunity - If a person puts themselves in a situation where the opportunity is there, they might take it just because they can. Especially if they're pretty sure no one will know or find out about it.
4. Fights with a Significant Other - Fights can increase in frequency if the person discovers it leads to solitude in which they can do whatever they wish. They won't have to worry about being bothered by the person they had the fight with while they're seeking out or spending time with someone else.
5. A Desire to Cause Pain - This may stem from a painful breakup or anger the person is harboring in their heart toward their ex-significant other or current significant other. Chances are, this will happen and the significant other will either be told or will be allowed to find out in some way.
6. High Sex-Drive - Sex is not synonymous with a love affair. Sometimes, love affairs are simply affairs of the heart. However, someone with a high sex-drive is more likely to step out of their relationship boundaries if that relationship isn't meeting their needs.
7. Neglect - If the person's significant other isn't showing them enough attention, it may lead to the person seeking out someone who will. This can happen in a variety of ways and commonly ends in a love affair even if that wasn't the initial intention. It's caused by the person finding someone who allows their world to revolve around the person in question. Revolution leads to admiration which leads to a love affair.
8. Drunk or High - Many times these factors inhibit the normal thought process and lower morals. If you have a person who does this often, they're probably going to screw up at some point and regret it later. These folks sometimes tell what happened, sometimes not.

Now, any character that's going to do these things (if they're a good person), is going to struggle with the initial decision. It's going to cause strife and pain in their life if they choose to move forward. They'll change the way they interacted with people before the love affair began and they may begin to act out in other ways:

• Excessive Drinking
• Bouts of Anger
• Lethargy
• Feelings of Being Evil
• Suspicion of their Significant Other
• Withdrawal
• Refusal to do Things they Enjoyed Before
• Drug Use

A decision to engage in these activities should not be made lightly. Your character should go back and forth between yes and no. After, you can make the fallout be unbelievably bad. It's one version of a Monkey Wrench.

Your character should have something worth losing or the whole thing becomes an exercise in futility. But this option opens a lot of doors and gives you a chance to rebuild that character as a better individual as the story continues. They can now fully grasp the implications of deviant behavior and swear never to do it again, go through rehab, or connect with another character who helps them re-build their lives. It also gives you the ability to re-build the character's significant other if they stay together.

Question of the day: Can you think of another reason your character might have a love affair?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Release Party Dark Expectations

Happy Release day to Janiera Eldrige and help her celebrate the release of  Dark Expectations!

Synopsis:

 With Ani taking her place as queen, there are some enemies lurking she
could never imagine! There's a secret compound in California that wants
to know the secrets to making a vampire or werewolf. When they kidnap
Ani during a trip back to California they might actually get what they
want. Her sister Dana, her lover Diego and other vampires do everything
they can to get her back. If they don't succeed,they face being
controlled completely by the human race forever! Dark Expectations is
the exciting sequel to Soul Sisters that's full of adventure, danger and
what it means to be queen!

Grab your copy on Amazon.com

then

stop by the release party to celebrate the release by playing some games and winning some awesome prizes  from authors

• Cambria Herbert
• Jo michaels
• Alyssa Rose Ivy
• Yours truly
• .....and more!

Just click the button below to join in on the fun!

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo    

Woman v/s Women

Happy Black Friday, good people of the blogosphere! Today, I'd like to talk about that pesky word woman and the plural form women. I see this mistake so often, it's all I can do to not rip out my hair and bang my head on my desk. So, please be so kind as to read on and save me from uglification (holy crapballs, that's a word!).

Woman is the singular. Women is the plural. When you confuse the two, you look uneducated. Period. Grammar Nazi or no, you need to not confuse the simplest parts of speech if you want people to take you seriously as a writer.

Woman - Examples of correct usage:
That woman left her kids in the car all day with no air conditioning!
Would you please tell a woman today how beautiful she is?
Woman, bring me another beer!
Get that woman a mop, because she needs to clean my floors.

Note the word woman generally follows the word a or the word that. Singular. Not they, them, those, we, or otherwise.

Women - Examples of correct usage:
Those women need to buy a clue; that dude isn't interested.
We have five women here today to speak on behalf of our project.
Hard working women are God's gift to the lazy men of the world.
Women, as a collective, need to be kinder to one another!

Note the use of those, are, collective, and five. All of these words give you a clue that we're talking about more than one woman.

Incorrect usage:
That women left her kids in the car yesterday while she went into work!
Would you please tell a women today how beautiful they are?
Those woman are hard working.

I'm hoping you're getting my point. Please please try and remember the difference. An easy way: Men is plural for man. Easy peasy.

What confusion drives you batty?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Giving Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving, good people of the blogosphere! Today, a post about thanks. Buckle in and have a few laughs and a few tears with me!!

First off, let me begin by thanking people:

The Best Boyfriend in the World - Thank you for believing in me and encouraging me every day. It means the world. Your advice is always spot on and I love you more than words. I know I'm a giant pain in the ass sometimes, but you're still here! I'm thankful for you every day.

My Mom - You've always been such an advocate of me, no matter what I was trying to do with myself. Your support has carried me through some very dark times, got me off my ass and made me try harder, and given me strength when I was weak. Your words, "We don't give up. Ever." meant so much to me. Thank you for being an awesome parent.

My Kidlings - You guys always make me think outside the box. You make me clean, too, but that's a good thing (at least we have a tidy house). Without you five in my life, I would be a lazy buggar. Thank you for every hug, every "I love you, Mom." and every smile you deign to pass my way. I love you all.

My Peers - Thank you for your encouragement, comments, following, and all around awesomeness. I wouldn't trade this community for a million bucks. You guys ROCK.

My Readers - Without you, what would I be? A person hitting keys without direction. You make me a success with every review, kind word, and display of excitement when I have a new book coming out. Thank you for taking a chance on an unknown author and letting me know your opinion of my works. Even when they're bad, they're awesome. Why? Because you took the time to let me know.

My Friends - Some of my peers have become my friends. They know who they are. I look forward to reading your comments on my posts and reading/commenting on yours. I thank you for all your feedback on my books, artworks, and posts. Those of you that have joined forces with me in one way or another: THANK YOU so much for taking the time to get to know me and letting me get to know you.

Now, I'll thank corporations:

Amazon - Thank you for creating KDP publishing!
Smashwords - Thank you for giving me a distribution platform!
Rafflecopter - Thank you for giving me a way to handle promotions!
Blogger/Google - Thank you for the web space and for being such an awesome host!

Well, that's all for today, folks! HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Lionel's Christmas Adventure Blog Tour

Good morning, lovely people of the blogosphere! Today, I bring you a guest post! Please enjoy.

Hello there everyone, Paul R. Hewlett here. I'm a children's book author and today I like to discuss what it's like writing chapter books for children. First, I would like to than Jo for having me and Kathy at I Am A Reader Not A Writer for hosting the Got Great Giveaways Hop. Thanks also go to Candace at Candace's Book Blog and Lori at Pure Imagination for hosting the Saturday Situation Giveaway linky. I'm currently on the Lionel's Christmas Adventure blog tour, for a full list of dates click here. For a sneak peak at what the books about, watch the trailer below. Make sure to enter the Rafflecopter below for your chance to win a $25 Amazon gift card and a 3-pack of my ebooks.

Writing for the children's/middle grade age group that the Lionel's Grand Adventure series targets can be a challenge. One doesn't want to talk over their heads, but you don't want to dumb things down too much either. This age group is actually quite amazing. On one hand they are perfectly willing to accept magic and fantasy, but on the other hand they do not like having things explained over and over to them.

Another thing about this age group, in some cases the older reader might need things explained to them and are willing to accept and even expect it. This age group, not so. They are remarkable, particularly those that seek out reading, in their ability to make leaps without a lot of explanation. They are able, or at least more willing to do this than older readers.

The middle grade, and even the lower YA age, are really eager to be bigger and more grownup than they are. They really want to experience grown up things. I know that I loved Encyclopedia Brown books growing up for that very reason. Here was a boy my age that was working as a detective, solving grown up crimes. This age group really want to experience grown up things. It's important to use your main character for this. Kids usually relate to and want to read about characters a bit older than they are. As an example a nine year old will be happy to read about a twelve year old, while a twelve year old probably won't be interested in the adventures of a nine year old (unless it's Harry Potter of course).


It's important not to use too sophisticated of words. It is okay to use bigger words, but in that case it's best to define them within the sentence and story. If you can't do that effectively, it's probably too big of a word. I personally like to keep the sentence structure simple. I think that is goes without saying that 6-12 year olds are much more mature these days than I was at the same age, but I still don't see the benefit of complex sentence structures. One thing that I feel goes over particularly well with this age group is similes. Using the description "like" really brings things to life for this age group. Compare the following sentences.

"Well you better...hey! What are you doing with Ma's yardstick?" asked Feeney.

"Well you better...hey! What are you doing with Ma's yardstick?" asked Feeney, his jaw sticking out like a cash register.

Certainly in the first sentence it's obvious that Feeney is unhappy, perhaps even angry, but in the second sentence he is indignant, even outraged. It's simple things like this that are often overlooked when writing for older readers that really make the pages come alive for middle grade readers.

These are few of my thoughts on writing chapter books for children. I
think my favorite quote, from the Russian writer Maxim Gorky says it
best, "You must write for children the same way you write for adults,
only better."




I'd like to thank Jo once again for having me on her blog. Make sure to pick up your copy of Lionel's Christmas Adventure, available now on Amazon in paperback or ebook. If you haven't read any of Jo's books, make sure you take a look at them all here.



For more information about author Paul R. Hewlett click here. He co-authors a middlegrade/YA blog at SherAHart: My Written Art. Keep up with what's new on Lionel's Grand Adventure FB page.

 My next stop on the tour is tomorrow at Kindle Book Promos. Now onto the giveaway. As a thank you to the reader's, I'm  giving away a
$25 Amazon gift card and 3-pack of my ebooks. Be sure to leave a comment!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I hope you've all enjoyed this post! Thank you, Paul, for coming by and giving us a guest post talking about your books AND for the lovely giveaway!

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

NaNoWriMo Check In and Winners

Happy Tuesday, good people of the blogosphere! Time for my NaNoWriMo check-in!

As of today, I'm sitting at 40,193 words. HOLY MOLY! It's been a great time. Sadly, my story must begin to end. There must be a final battle and resolution of some kind. It probably won't happen until next week. I have family coming in for the holidays and won't be doing much writing while I'm busy being thankful for those I love.

While I'd LOVE to give you all an excerpt, I'm not sure I can do anything without giving away some of the great surprises that await you in The Bird. But wait! I do have the first of three covers to put out here. Remember, this isn't a sure thing and I always ALWAYS do three versions before I choose a favorite.

Without further ado:

As you can see, this one is all about strong typography.

The next one will be more focused on imagery.

The last will be completely different from the first two.

How's it look?







Now, to announce the winners of the rafflecopter drawing!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

CONGRATULATIONS!! I'll be in touch shortly!

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo