Avoiding your Baby Otters

    Will you do me a favor? Take a moment and google baby otters. (I would have included a picture here, but I can't for the life of me figure out copyright stuff, and I don't really want to get sued.)
    Have you done it? They're adorable.
    They also have nothing to do with what you're writing.
     In Kiersten White's Teen Author Boot Camp class, she discussed avoiding your baby otter scenes. You know those scenes that are so fun, but have nothing to do with the rest of the story? Yep. It's those ones.
     They may make you so happy, but you must cut them. You don't even have to delete them. Put them in a separate document. Turn them into an AU where everything is perfect. But for the sake of your novel, don't keep them.
    There's a reason these baby otter scenes are harmful. They drain the conflict like a leech. If your characters have time to be off riding a roller coaster while their parents are being held captive by the villain, then the reader gets the impression that either a), your characters don't care about their parents, or b), that nothing really bad will happen. It takes the urgency away.
    Now I'm not saying that your characters can't have little pockets of happiness in between the times they almost die. Just be sure they mean something. Maybe they take twenty minutes to ride that roller coaster, and those end up being the twenty minutes that get someone killed. Or maybe they find a vital secret taped to their seat. Whatever the purpose is, make sure it's there. If it doesn't tie back to the story's core, then it's probably a baby otter scene.
    I'm going to expand this metaphor a bit. You have baby otters in real life, too. Things that are keeping you from your writing. They're so fluffy, but they're not productive. I don't mean everyday obligations like homework or family here. You need to do those things. But that hour you spent on Pinterest isn't getting you closer to your goals. Neither is watching Doctor Who (though Doctor Who is awesome. Keep watching it. Just not during your writing time.)
    I'm convinced that the entire universe hinges on balance. The earth can't be too close or too far away from the sun, we can't have too much or too little water, and you have to make time to write without neglecting your off-page life. Your characters have to go through suffering without being too depressing. It's a hard balance, but practice will help you achieve it.
     What do you think about this post? What are your baby otters? I'd love to hear from you below!

On Dystopia

      I'm pretty sure most people have read a dystopian novel in their lives. Particularly teenagers. They're all the rage at the moment, after all. 

     One of my favorite dystopian authors, Dan Wells, gave a keynote address at Teen Author Boot Camp a couple weeks ago. (By the way I really apologize for not posting last week. I'm trying.) But anyhow, he brought up some excellent points about the genre. My head exploded a couple of times. 

    The first thing Mr. Wells brought up (or at least the first in my notes) was the question, what is a dystopia? My, very technical, definition is a society characterized by human suffering. He simplified it a bit. At its heart, a dystopia is a terrible place. A place where the power is not shared.

     Of course, one trademark of the modern dystopian novel is that they're under the guise of perfection. So, how does one identify a dystopia?

     Do we live in one now? (cue the head-exploding)

     Dan Wells discussed Ursula K. LeGuin's short story, The Ones who Walk Away from Omelas. It's a description of a utopic society, to each person. Imagine your utopia. That's what this world is. But then, at a certain age, children learn the truth about the city--a child suffers every day to maintain it. Some choose to ignore it. Others walk away, hence the name. 

     This story was published in 1973. It bears one major difference from the majority of today's dystopias--there is no rebellion. That's because, in the olden days (meaning before about 2005), most dystopians had the terrible society, but the characters either grinned and bore it or left. The first major trendsetter for the rebellion dystopian novel was Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series. 

      Dan Wells brought up the meaning of this shift. The previous generation had a "Life sucks, oh, well." attitude to their novels. Millennials and forward have a more save-the-world approach. This could be a good thing. But revolutions aren't the best way to bring about change (more on that later).

      I'm going to jump back to the question of whether we live in a dystopia. While this is a rather large question, Dan Wells went with yes, and his reasoning made disturbing sense.

      A dystopia, as highlighted by Omelas, is a utopia for everyone but the ones who are stepped on. If you look at today's world, you'll see that. We don't notice because we live in the Capitol. But there are people in third world countries laboring, starving dying, for our luxuries. Think about that next time you want to complain about your phone service. 

    So now we're jumping back to the revolutions bit. Older dystopian novels have an "accept it and leave" approach. But there's a third option. The option to stand and fight it.

    Now would be a good time to mention that I absolutely DO NOT CONDONE VIOLENCE. The number of bloody revolutions in dystopian novels is slightly scary for this reason. There is more than one way to fight. I'm going to fight it through my art--my writing. 

    You can quietly show the issues you are passionate about through the lens of a story. And there are plenty of issues. We may not even know about some of them. Women have constantly been underrepresented in media for decades, but we're only just noticing it. What else are we missing? These are the things you can explore in your stories--dystopia or not. 

    Of course, before we're writing to show important issues, we're writing to tell a story. And even before that, it's because we love it. Never forget that passion. If you can hold on to it, you can use your art to change the world. 

Finding your Story's Core

 
   I spent all of Saturday at Teen Author Boot Camp, a writing conference designed for teens. It was AMAZING. Plus, it gave me material for several weeks' worth of blog posts.
    Today I'll be sharing what I learned from Catherine Linka's class, Writing that's Ripped (or Make your Editor Swoon). The title came from an underwear model analogy, but I'm not going to go into that. Suffice it to say, she taught us how to tighten our story's core-- and how to find it.
      To get a great story, according to the presenter, you need it to diet and exercise--AKA you need to revise it. She brought up the point that there is no good writing, but only rewriting. And while rewriting is a large, and often daunting, process, knowing your story's core can help.
      At this point, I was confused. I'd never heard of a story's core (which just goes to show that as soon as you think you've got it figured out, you find something you don't know.). Basically, the core supports the characters, theme, and plot.
      Catherine Linka taught us three exercises to find and implement your story's core. She said they were simple, but not always easy. So, here they are--
     Exercise #1-
        What does your main character want? What does he/she yearn for? And what lengths are they willing to go to to get it? Sometimes they themselves aren't entirely aware of what it is, but you, as the writer, ought to know. My writing mantra is Motivation is Everything. What they want most will drive them throughout the story.
      To find what your character really wants, you can think long and hard about it. If that's not working, try reading through what you've written for clues. You can also ask a friend to help you--sometimes you need an outside point of view.
     Exercise #2-
         What is your story really about? The good thing about this is that it also works for a quick-ish pitch. Ms. Linka gave us a basic formula for this--
        -Who the character is
        -What they want/need/long for
        -Something that happens to change their life
        -They have to choose between multiple paths
        -But their journey is made harder by their flaws
      Once you have this core, you can use it to link each chapter. Each scene should be related to one of these five elements. And each of these should be present. If they aren't, find ways to implement them. You also may need to cut bits that don't relate to the core. I put my cut bits in a separate document. I can often find new homes for them later. 
       Element #3-
          Ms. Linka started this section of her presentation with a slide that said these four words-- Deed, Decision, Discovery, and Accident. Just because your character is doing something doesn't mean they're moving the plot forward. Each scene should fall under one of those categories.
        A Deed is an action that puts them closer (or further) from what they want.
        A Decision is a choice that affects the rest of the story.
        A Discovery is when your character learns something that affects the goal, their feelings about it, or how they need to achieve it.
        An Accident is an unexpected occurrence that affects the story goal.
        Each scene and chapter should have at least one of these; otherwise, it's not moving the plot forward. It's what another presenter, Kiersten White, termed a "baby otter scene." It's adorable and you want to keep it and snuggle it, but it just doesn't work (I'll talk more about that class another week).
           Look for the scenes that don't tie into the core. Rework them, or find new homes for them. Also look for scenes that repeat earlier scenes. It's hard to cut them, but your story will be 1000% better when you do.
     
     P.S. Catherine Linka's novel is entitled A Girl Called Fearless. I haven't read it, but it sounds super cool, so you should look at it.
       
  

An Apology

So I won't be doing my regularly scheduled post this weekend. It's one of those hectic weeks, and I have to get up at the crack of dawn tomorrow for a writing conference.
I might be able to post about it on Sunday. I apologize for the delay, and thanks for understanding!

15 Things I Love About Writing

   So, technically, this is a tag-your-fellow-bloggers thing that's been going around, but I saw it on one of my favorite writing blogs (You should look at it. It's at http://hannahheath-writer.blogspot.com/2015/05/15-things-i-love-about-being-writer.html ) and wanted to do it. I'm also not going to tag anyone, mostly because I don't actually know any other people who have a writing blog. So, if you have a blog, feel free to consider yourself tagged. Now, here are my fifteen things I love about writing--
     1- Characters
         I've mentioned this before, but my characters are my favorite part of writing. Creating them, fleshing them out, filling in character sheets, and then setting them loose on the page... it's incredible. Also occasionally frustrating, when they don't do what you want them to do, but the way they develop a will of their own is amazing. I don't write their stories. I stick them in a situation and see what they do with it.
    2- My desk
         While I do a lot of writing at school, when I'm at home, I usually use my desk. I adore that space. I love pinning random ideas and reference images and quotes to my bulletin board. I love the clay dragons that keep me company, and the dream catcher I hang nearby, because I'm not that superstitious, but it seems like a great way to invite ideas.

     3-The community
        Oh, where do I even start on this? The 'yes! I made my beta readers cry!' moment that we all take pride in. The joking about our search histories. All of us having imaginary friends. I joined the Go Teen Writers Community Facebook group a little over a year ago, and my first post was about character death. I had NO EARTHLY IDEA what I was getting myself into. But those are my favorite people on the internet. They can joke with me about the stranger bits, cry with me when I have feels, and cheer me on when I have a victory.
     4- Plot Bunnies
        Getting random ideas, listening to people talk for snippets of dialogue, and carrying a notebook and pen in my pocket to write them down. I love the a-ha! moment where I get an idea that ties everything together.
    5-First Drafts
         Some writers prefer edits, but I love the feeling of writing new words, creating new worlds and people and describing and developing. Edits are great, but nothing can match the magic of a first draft. Which brings me to my next point...
   6- The magic
      One of my favorite sayings about writing is, "I write because creating things that didn't exist before is as close to magic as I'll ever get." I love that thought, because really, writing is basically telepathy. You take ideas from your head and transfer them into a format that will put them into other people's heads. I think that's pretty cool.
    7- The flexibility
        I am not particularly fond of math, largely because all the hard work leads up to only one possible answer, and if you get something different, you're wrong. Writing is different. With only my fingers and a keyboard, I can craft the same idea in a thousand different ways, and it will never be the same as someone else's, because I'm different from all of the other writers in the world. It's individual. It's creative.
    8- I can give others what books have given me
       My dad read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to me when I was in kindergarten. I've loved books, especially fantasy books, ever since. I love the feeling of being so enraptured by reading that I forget what's around me. I love being in someone else's head and experiencing the fantastical with them. Through my writing, maybe I can do the same for someone else.
    9-Ships
        As a fangirl, I am all too familiar with ships, and all the emotions they cause (I'm still getting over the Doctor and Rose). I take a kind of evil pleasure in giving others the same feels. And writing little bits of romance, despite never even having been on a date. Those are fun.
    10-My crazy dreams can be useful.
        I once had a dream in which I was stabbed in a surprisingly well-developed fantasy world. It was scary, but then I woke up and wrote it down because PLOT BUNNIES! Same with the descendant of Midas, and a thousand other nonsensical dreams.
    11- Random Facts
         I pick up on the oddest little facts when I'm doing research. For example, you can die if you get air in your bloodstream. It's called an air embolism. The earliest forms of biological warfare were people catapulting bodies of plague victims over their walls. Lots of creepy, but cool, information.
    12- Making Collages
       I spend a large potion of my time procrastinating working on my novel by finding reference images on Pinterest and making collages with them. They're rather pointless, but they're fun.
    13-Because I love thinking of the future I could have with it.
       Even if I don't have a bestseller, just being published would be incredible. Holding my hours of work in my hands, in hardcover format, seeing my book on Amazon, reading reviews...it's a distant dream, but so real in my mind. And if I work hard and keep writing, I could make it come true.
    14-Because I can experience anything
         Through my writing, I can fly and travel to amazing places and touch the stars. I can live my character's lives with them, and I can cheer them on and explore. I can have a thousand first kisses (despite not having had one). I can live all of these lives, and see anything, without leaving my home.
    15-Because I don't know what I'd do without it.
       I've only been writing seriously for less than two years, but I've always dabbled in it. I've come across hand-scrawled pages of stories I wrote in second and third grade. I've always had these ideas in my head. Some people can't imagine living without sports. Some people can't imagine living without drawing. I can't imagine living without writing.

Using MBTI to Develop Characters

   

   I don't know about you, but developing characters is one of my favorite parts of writing. Figuring out who they are, and why, is incredible, and seeing them run loose on the page is, while occasionally exasperating, really quite cool.
    But sometimes they decide not to talk to me. That's a problem. I know something will happen, but I have no clue how they'd react. This is where Myers-Briggs comes in handy. I can hop onto the writing group on Facebook that I'm part of, type up a quick question addressed to people of the same type as my character, and get some ideas of how my character would react.
    By the way, for those who don't know, MBTI stands for Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (or instrument, depending on who you ask). Each person will be a four-letter type, and use four of eight functions (which are super confusing and I'm not good at them, so if you want to know about them, google MBTI functions). So, for a quick rundown of the system--
    Introversion/Extraversion- This is where you get your energy. Introverts expend energy in social situations, while Extraverts gain it. Introversion is abbreviated as I, and Extraversion is abbreviated as E.
    Sensing/Intuition- This is how the inner world is structured. Sensors prefer concrete details, while Intuits tend to lean more towards the big picture and what it means, rather than what it is. Intuition is abbreviated as N, to differentiate it from Introversion. Sensing is shortened to S.
   Thinking/Feeling- This is how you make decisions. Thinkers rely on objective reasoning, while Feelers are more likely to 'follow their hearts.' These two abbreviations are easy; just T/F.
   Judging/Perceiving- This is how the outer world is structured. Judgers prefer schedules, order and tidiness, while Perceivers would rather go with the flow. The abbreviations are J/P.
   Each person has one of eac of these, and you put the letters together to make your type. I'm an INFJ, which stands for Introversion, Intuition, Feeling, Judging. My four-letter opposite would be an ESTP, which stands for Extraversion, Sensing, Thinking, Perceiving.
    If you want to find out your type, there are online tests, but those aren't the most accurate. If you have to, use a test that measures the funtions, rather than letters, and then read about types to figure out the best fit.
    To figure out your character's type, follow the same process.
    Anyhow, once you know your character's type, it gives you a good way to figure out reactions you're not sure of. My current main character is an ESTP, so I'm often lost on what she would do. Because I know her type, though, I can either Google it (ESTP and anger, for instance), ask ESTPs I know in real life, or ask other ESTPs on the internet.
   It also gives a framework to work with for your character. While Myers-Briggs isn't a cookie cutter mold, it can give you a good idea of some common traits. When I create a character, the first thing I usually do for personality is MBTI type. It gives me a good idea of some basics, and helps me get a good foundation for further detail.
     P.S. Here are some of my favorite MBTI resources-
     http://oddlydevelopedtypes.com/survival_quiz  This is mostly just fun. It has short stories about each type in a zombie apocalypse, and is...definitely interesting.
     http://www.keys2cognition.com/explore.htm   If you MUST use an online test, this one is decent. It measures the functions, and will suggest the main type it thinks you are, plus the next two.
     http://typelogic.com/fa.html   This gives a description of each type, using functions.
    Do you have any questions? What are your characters' types? What are yours? Let me know in the comments!

Writing Terminology: A Guide for New Writers

    When I first started writing seriously, I looked up tons of stuff online, and eventually stumbled into a Facebook group for writers. Most of them had been writing for much longer than I had, and there was a lot of terminology I didn't understand. So, I'm writing this guide now to help new writers be able to understand their more experienced friends. Here's a few of the more common terms:

Plot Bunny- This is a bit of a story idea. It rarely has any real connection, or even much substance, but they can develop into great stories. It's called a plot bunny because it's fluffy and cute and you want to abandon your current project to chase it.

WIP- Short for Work In Progress. The project you're working on right now.

MC- Main Character. You'll also sometimes see FMC and MMC, which stand for Female Main Character and Male Main Character, respectively.

Ship- This is mostly fandom, but applies to writing as well. When you ship two characters, you want them to end up together, even if they won't/can't. Shipping is the act of having a ship.

Word War- When two or more writers get together and write for a certain amount of time. Whoever writes the most wins.

OC-Original Character. A character you made up.

Canon- Also fandom but may be useful for fanfic writers. Canon is the events that happen in the original books, movie, or show. Some people also include later content by the author, like J.K. Rowling's extra information on Pottermore.

MG- Middle Grade.

YA- Young adult

OTP- One true pairing. Your favorite ship.

POV- Point of view. The character whose eyes the story is told through.

Feels- When your story gives you too many emotions. This one's also used commonly in fandom.

AU- Alternate universe. Placing your characters in another world.

     I think that about covers the main ones. Are there any I missed? Which terms confused you most? Let me know in the comments!