Resolutions --- The Boring Health Ones

It’s that time of year again when I start reflecting on all the things I didn’t accomplish the year before, and for me, it usually has something to do with my health.

I’ve never been a health nut. I wish I was, but I was raised in a house where there was always junk food and pop (or soda, for other parts of the country) around. I got hooked on pop at a young age. I think I try to quit drinking it at least twice a year. Inevitably I go back and it seems harder now that I’m constantly under deadline. It never seems like the right time to quit!

But that’s a lame excuse, isn’t it? J

I’ve heard over and over again that a writer needs to take care of themselves for their writing’s sake. And you know, I’m starting to believe that.

How can our brains function properly---churning out beautiful prose, relatable characters---when our bodies are running on Cheez-its and a three-day marathon of chair sitting?

So my New Year’s resolution is, YES, predictably, boringly, health-related.

But I think my writing (and in the long run, my readers) will benefit from it. So here, in bold type, for all the world to see, are my resolutions (I can’t believe I’m posting these here, which means I will really really really have to do them unless I want to be a liar and a failure):

1. Quit drinking so much crap (to clarify, I mean my crack, AKA Mountain Dew)

2. Run a 5K (OMGGGG this one is scary, as I’ve never been a runner, but I want to be)

That’s it. Those are the biggest, but the basic-est. Kinda cut and dry. I will have to report in 2013 (provided that whole Mayan thing is a hoax) as to whether or not a) I stuck with my resolutions and b) they helped my writing.

Happy New Year, ya’ll.

Jennifer Rush is the author of ALTERED coming Fall 2012 from Little, Brown. Check out her blog for news and updates.

ALTERED Playlist

I love listening to music while I write, especially when it’s a first draft. And while I listened to a variety---lots of different playlists on Spotify, or Pandora if I wanted something random---there were a few tracks that I listened to repeatedly. I can’t NOT think about ALTERED when I hear these songs:

1. The Outsider                                  A Perfect Circle

2. The Humbling River                      Puscifer

3. Running Up That Hill                    Placebo

4. Drumming Song                            Florence + the Machine

5. Painted on my Heart                      The Cult

6. Black Dog                                      Kelli Schaefer

7. The Change                                    Evanescence

8. Rapture                                           Hurt

9. Slow Life                                        Grizzly Bear

10. Danse Russe                                 Hurt

And for those of you on Spotify, here's the full ALTERED playlist. (And if you're not on Spotify, you should be!)

Jennifer Rush is the author of ALTERED coming Fall 2012 from Little, Brown. Check out her blog for news and updates.

My Writing Distraction: Checklists

Sometimes it seems like I can only write if I get everything else done first.

Emails
Phone Calls
Twitter/Facebook (I'm an author now, this is "professional" social networking)
Laundry
Paying Bills
Washing Dishes
More Emails
Reading Books (for "research")
Exercise

I wouldn't say I have one particular vice I go to in order to avoid writing. I'm usually so busy with all these other things, I feel too guilty to spend precious time on Angry Birds. I guess I need to feel I've wasted my time productively.  When my husband gets home at the end of the day, I can list off a whole bunch of things I accomplished! That always feels good until he asks if I got any writing done. :\

The best piece of advice I've received on this so far has been: Make sure you put your writing first. This induces a struggle because...if the writing doesn't get done, nothing else will get done! And if nothing else gets done, my life will grind to a halt! And if my life grinds to a halt, how will I ever write my next book? Etc, etc...

But you know what? All The Things will still be there after I've reached my word count. And as easy as chores and checking off to-do lists may be COMPARED to writing? They're not anywhere near as satisfying to gaze at when they're complete.

Emily Hainsworth is the author of THROUGH TO YOU, (Fall 2012 Balzer+Bray / HarperCollins), a sci-fi novel about a seventeen-year-old boy grieving for his dead girlfriend until he discovers she's still alive in a parallel reality--one where he's the one who died. For more information, visit her website.

Being edited makes me happy

This is not going to come as a surprise, but I love being edited.

I wasn't sure quite what to expect when I got my first edit letter. Something awful? Something soul-rending? I've heard enough writers wail about their edit letter and the impossibleness of it that I knew enough to be nervous. But I also hoped it would be like the most amazing critique from a smart writing friend I'd ever gotten -- only BETTER.

Basically, it was. I mean, yes, there were some difficult parts. You want me to do WHAT? But the first time I read the letter, I felt this huge sense of relief. It wasn't scary. I could see where my editor really cared about the story, and all the important things she spotted and wanted me to draw out. I could see where she was trying to make me a better writer.

In fact, once I was finished with editing INCARNATE, I moved on to use the same letter for book 2. Just judging by what she'd pointed out in the first, I could tell what she'd ask for in the second. I revised book 2 according to the first letter so she wouldn't have to ask for the same changes twice. Because how boring is that? This way, we could move on to new things. Better things. More advanced things. This way, book 2 will be even better than book 1. And if the pattern holds, book 3 will be best of all.

I learned that this shouldn't be a scary process. It can be intimidating, sure! But the right editor will inspire and help draw out the most important parts of the book. She will help make a good book great, and encourage the writer to try new things, to stretch herself. The right editor will make a story shine without ever showing that she was there.

So yeah, I love being edited. I love learning from someone as brilliant and inspiring as my editor.

--

Jodi Meadows is the author of INCARNATE. (January 31, 2012 - HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen Books.)

She lives and writes in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, with her husband, a Kippy*, and an alarming number of ferrets. She is a confessed book addict, and has wanted to be a writer ever since she decided against becoming an astronaut. You can find her on her website and blog.

*A Kippy is a cat.

Writing: Real job or Imaginary?

Saying you always wanted to be a writer seems like it’s synonomous with actually being a writer.  I can probably count on one hand how many people I know who are writers who kinda fell into it, instead of it being a passion from an early age.

For me, I honestly don’t know when I had that magical that’s-what-I want-to-be-when-I grow-up moment, but it was pretty young.  I always enjoyed the times in school where we were allowed to make up stories and write them down.  I even think my parents still have the books, plays, and poems. But it wasn’t until sixth grade, when my teacher loved a story I’d written for an assignment so much that she entered it into a contest and it won that I even thought about it being a profession.

I’ll always remember this teacher, unfortunately I can’t remember her name, because not only did she take the time to send that short story off to that contest, but then she took time after school to help me write better.  She encouraged me in a way no teacher—or person--had before or since. 

She even helped me write a letter to Jonathan Brandis asking if he’d let me do an autogiography on him!  Of course, I never got a reply back, but the fact that as silly as that was, she didn’t laugh and researched on her own time, what to write and who to contact to see if some silly little starry eyed redheaded 6^th grader could become his biographer is something I’ll never forget and I’ll always be grateful for.

But my parents were insistent that I focused on getting a “real” job. That is was okay to write as a hobby, but being a writer wasn’t something you did for a job.   And so, that’s what I did. I changed my choice of “real” jobs several hundred times (I wanted to be a teacher, a doctor, a marine biologist, etc.   I think I even wanted to be a cowboy astronaut ballerina at some point in there.  LOL.  Sadly there is no call for cowboy astronaut ballerinas.), but while I secretly dreamed of being a writer, I was a good girl and focused my studies on becoming a marine biologist.

I never did become a marine biologist and ended u doing a handful of different jobs, but I never felt like it was the “right one.”  It wasn’t until a little over two years ago—when I was worried to death over my youngest’s illness--that I realized life was too short for could’ve, should’ve would’ves and regrets.  So, I spent every free minute writing (which wasn’t much considering I have a special needs kid—she has Systemic JRA)  and I found what had been missing.  Writing felt right, like no other “real job” had.

And I’ve decided that if it isn’t a “real job” than I don’t want a real one.  Imaginary works just fine for me, especially since I write fiction.  :P

 

 

 

J.A. Souders is the author of RENEGADE a YA dystopian that takes place in an underwater utopian society, coming Fall 2012 from Tor Teen.  For more information visit her blog or website.

She also secretly regrets never pursuing a degree in cowboy astronaut ballerina-ing. 

Will you grow up to be a writer?

I knew I wanted to be a writer from at least fifth or sixth grade on, but sometimes it seemed inevitable that I should take that path. My parents had two daughters. They named my older sister Charlotte and then unwittingly (they claim) proceeded to dub me Emily. 

Do you know what people of a certain age say when they meet two sweet little girls named Charlotte and Emily? Every single time, they ask: "Are you going to grow up to be writers?" 

I didn't get the joke for the longest time, and it was even more confusing when I explained our name-pairing was an accident, so finally I learned to simply smile and give a shy, "Maybe." Then one day I discovered an old elegant hardbound set on my parents' bookshelf of JANE EYRE and WUTHERING HEIGHTS by these two girls, Charlotte and Emily Bronte. I ran to my parents like, "Did you know these two girls with OUR names wrote some books?" I think the reaction I got was similar to the day I asked my dad if he'd heard of a band called The Beatles. 

I was probably around nine years old when this went down. I sat and tried to read JANE EYRE, probably because the pictures on the cover were of little school girls and not some gross kissy-face couple under a tree. I distinctly remember that all the school girls had their eyes closed, but ONE girl's eyes were open. This haunted me for years, and I never did read past the time Jane suffered at Lowood School. 

Years later, in college, I read WUTHERING HEIGHTS in an English Lit class. Thankfully, I had a professor with a deep understanding of this book, and it came alive for me. I finally finished reading JANE EYRE soon afterward and loved it even more. Sibling rivalry still boiled in my blood though, and I was annoyed that EMILY hadn't written the book I loved more. Why did Charlotte have to write it? 

My sister and I eventually learned to like each other (for the most part). But I doubt I actually became a writer because of my parents' choice in names (if I had been a boy, I was going to be Ross...yeah). But you know, if you want a kid to consider writing, it doesn't hurt to have people asking at every turn, "Are you going to grow up to be writers?" 

I'm still trying to get Charlotte to give it a go. ;) 

Emily Hainsworth is the author of THROUGH TO YOU, (Fall 2012 Balzer+Bray / HarperCollins), a sci-fi novel about a seventeen-year-old boy grieving for his dead girlfriend until he discovers she's still alive in a parallel reality--one where he's the one who died. For more information, visit her website.

Revision, pouting, and shading

I like revising, so I find I don't need a lot of tricks or things to get myself in the revision mood. I just sit down to work. It makes me happy.

The thing I have discovered about my revision process is this: sometimes I need a draft or two to get used to the idea of big changes.

Recently I was working on revising the beginning of a book. I knew it didn't work. I KNEW it. The beginning made the structure wonky, the pacing weird, brought up things that were never mentioned again in the book . . . yeah. It didn't work. It had to change.

But let me tell you, I resisted. I revised those first few chapters over and over, determined to keep them because the setting/information/revelations were going to be important in the next book in the series. But what I SHOULD have been thinking about was what was important for THIS book.

After a couple friends said, "Jodi, this isn't working," and I slumped in my chair to pout for a few days, I finally accepted the idea of having to make a huge change.

I tried on several new beginnings to see how they looked, and to see whether I could find a way to include the same information that I'd thought was so important.

It turns out? Yes. All that was possible, even though the idea of such a big change after so much was written -- that was scary. My new beginning still required a few more drafts to fit juuuust right, because I'm a shader -- I shade in depth, worldbuilding, information, and all that good stuff in the revisions -- but in the end, I was much happier with the story. And the next person who read it? Had nothing to negative to say about the beginning.

--

Jodi Meadows is the author of INCARNATE, book one of the Newsoul Trilogy. (January 31, 2012 - HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen Books.)

She lives and writes in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, with her husband, a Kippy*, and an alarming number of ferrets. She is a confessed book addict, and has wanted to be a writer ever since she decided against becoming an astronaut. You can find her on her website and blog.

*A Kippy is a cat.

Quitting the Day Job

I recently quit the day job to write full-time. Before I left, I had this vision in my head of what my new, carefree life would be like.

I would rise from bed somewhere around 7:00 a.m. I would write for a few hours and take a mid-morning break for Yoga. After a sensible lunch, I would get online for an hour, then continue writing. After dinner, I would go for a jog. Nights would be used for family time. After 9:00 p.m. I would watch some TV and then snuggle into bed and dream happily about another carefree day ahead. 

But that's not quite how it turned out. 

I crawl from bed somewhere around 11:00. The house is a mess by then because my daughter has been terrorizing the place for a good four hours while my husband does his homework. I check my email. Check Twitter. Check my email. Eat breakfast (lunch?). Watch an episode of Project Runway.

The rest of the afternoon is spent doing what Her Highness (my daughter) demands. I try to fit in a trip to the gym, or a jog in the evening. Breakfast is my only sensible meal of the day and that's because my husband made it and set it in front of me. Mostly I eat pretzels. Somewhere around 8:00 p.m. I look at my to-do list and then shove it beneath a pile of stuff. Then I check my email. Check Twitter. Check my email. Drool over all the pretty things on Tumblr.

Most days I don’t actually start writing till 11:00 p.m. and then work till 4:00ish. It’s worked for me so far (besides the sleeping half a day thing). There are no distractions, but do I really want to spend the rest of my life living half my day in the dark? Probably not.

With any big change or transition, I think you need to set a routine as quickly as possible. And I think that’s important for every writer. Some are better at it than others. I’m still trying to figure out a good schedule for myself. I think it would help if I had my own writing cottage so I could write carefree, distraction-free, throughout the day.

What do you think? Google tells me this is Roald Dahl’s writing cottage. I want it. 

Jennifer Rush is the author of ALTERED coming Fall 2012 from Little, Brown. Check out her blog for news and updates.

How I make my characters suffer with school

I write fantasy/dystopian/sci-fi/something not quite definable, so my characters are rarely in actual school -- at least for the duration of the story. Or, rather, if they have school, it's not like school as we know it.

In INCARNATE, Ana is basically shuffled around from expert to expert. If she wants to learn about beekeeping, she goes to that person's house and learns about beekeeping. If she wants to learn baking -- same thing. The powers that be in Range do care about Ana's schooling, which they show by requiring yearly examinations and monthly progress reports.

The thing I've found about characters in school is this: it's not usually very interesting. We've all been to school. We know what it's like. And we don't need the classes again unless plot is happening there.

What interests me more about characters in school is their decisions and consequences. What happens if they don't do well enough? What happens if they get caught skipping for the sake of the plot? What happens if they skip the plot for school?

Give them a choice. Make big consequences for either response.

The focus on Ana's schooling in INCARNATE is minimal. I bring it up every now and then, because it's important to know that she's not just whiling away her hours at home. She's out there doing stuff. I have other characters nag her about progress reports. I introduce a few threats of what will happen if she doesn't go to school.

For me, school is a complication for the characters. It's a real thing! They have to go there and deal with it! But I see it more as a source of conflict.

I like it when the characters have conflict.

--

Jodi Meadows is the author of INCARNATE, book one of the Newsoul Trilogy. (January 31, 2012 - HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen Books.)

She lives and writes in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, with her husband, a Kippy*, and an alarming number of ferrets. She is a confessed book addict, and has wanted to be a writer ever since she decided against becoming an astronaut. You can find her on her website and blog.

*A Kippy is a cat.

Four tricks for making your middle more interesting

Middles are TOUGH. Whether it be the middle of a book, or the middle of a series (dreaded Middle Book Syndrome!), it can be hard to keep the story momentum going, keep the surprises coming, and keep the reader on the edge of their seat.

The alternative is letting the reader wonder when something interesting is going to happen. *shudder*

I have a few tricks for keeping the middle interesting.

1. If it isn't interesting, skip it.

For real. Just chop it out. If you're bored by it, the reader will be to. Cut it. No one wants to read boring.

2. Blow up something.

It doesn't have to be a literal explosion (though it can be!), but external conflicts are filled with potential. Who did the exploding? Why? Was their goal accomplished? How does it affect the protagonist? What will the protagonist do about it? Basically, complicate things. No, REALLY complicate things.

3. Have someone change sides.

What if a bad guy becomes a good guy? (Can the good guys trust him/her?) What if a good guy becomes a bad guy? (Did s/he really change sides, or are they secretly a double agent?) Or-- It doesn't even have to be as literal as that. Take a character's (and therefore reader's) assumption and turn it over. NOW what happens?

4. Tell the reader a secret.

I think too often we try to keep the really good reveals for the end. And while, yes, some must be held for the last moment, think about what you're holding back. How would it change things if the character knew . . . earlier? What would they do? How would they react?

What about you? Any favorite tricks for dealing with the middle of the story?

--

Jodi Meadows is the author of INCARNATE, book one of the Newsoul Trilogy. (January 31, 2012 - HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen Books.)

She lives and writes in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, with her husband, a Kippy*, and an alarming number of ferrets. She is a confessed book addict, and has wanted to be a writer ever since she decided against becoming an astronaut. You can find her on her website and blog.

*A Kippy is a cat.

Cream Filling

The pants'ers are going to argue with me on this (I spent a long time arguing with myself), but in order to make it through writing the dreaded middle of a book, I really feel you have to understand your beginning and end.

Let's pick this apart a little...what IS the middle? It's a whole lot of information and actions that you're not going to really care about--might not even make sense--without the beginning of the story. And if you take away the ending, none of the actions or information given are going to go anywhere either.

This is why most writers hate the middle. Because everything that takes place in the center of the story has to make that brilliant concept or idea hold up. THIS is where you sit down with your amazing hook about futuristic germ people falling in love despite their dystopian disinfectant environment and have to ask yourself...but what actually happens?

I'm feeling a little lazy, so let's think of the beginning and end of Twilight (JUST the first book) out of context:

Beginning: Human girl meets sexy/angsty/tortured boy.

End: Girl gets the freaking CRAP beaten out of her by a total psycho with a grudge.

Without knowing the middle--OH, he's a sparkly vampire who wants to love, but has trouble restraining eating human girl--it's difficult to really care about the tortured boy or whether the girl will die in the end (if you have a stone cold heart like me).

Vice versa, would you care about a girl who is in love with a vampire stalker for no apparent reason? (don't answer that question). The middle is just as disappointing on its own without the rest of the donut...and so Edward Cullen is basically cream filling (go wherever you want with that).

My point, if I haven't lost you completely by now: Even though the MIDDLE is the place where most of us tear our hair out, consume vast amounts of sugary foods, and ask ourselves why we ever thought this stupid idea could work in the first place... It's because the middle is where your concept transforms from IDEA into STORY. And if there's nothing of substance in there, all you'll have in the end is a disappointing donut.

Emily Hainsworth is the author of THROUGH TO YOU, (Fall 2012 Balzer+Bray / HarperCollins), a sci-fi novel about a seventeen-year-old boy grieving for his dead girlfriend until he discovers she's still alive in a parallel reality--one where he's the one who died. For more information, visit her website.

Supporting characters, uh, support?

Secondary characters give primary characters life.

When we're writing, it's easy to focus on the main characters. I don't know about the rest of you, but it's usually the main characters who inspire me to write the book in the first place. I get attached to their story and want need to tell it. I could follow the characters around for chapters not caring about anything else.

Except there's, you know, that whole story thing. And story typically involves a few more characters.

The truth is, it's hard to see who the main character is when we've got her by herself. But when you let her interact with other characters, we begin to see the way she changes (or doesn't change) to fit with them. And maybe we know she's going to behave one way with the love interest because she's got the hots for him, but we see more sides of her when there are supporting characters around. Not just the side she wants to present to the love interest.

They give the worldbuilding depth and the story scope. Secondary characters do jobs in the world, like run businesses or teach the main character an invaluable skill. They keep the world from toppling over. It's hard to believe an entire complex society might exist if there are only two or three people in it.

And their stories influence -- and are influenced by -- the plot the main character is dealing with. Secondary characters can get in the way of a car chase, or help out. Their minor crisis at home might escalate and cause them to do something crazy in the main character's path, causing the main character to deal with the fallout from that.

There are lots of opportunities for secondary characters to shine. It's easy to overlook them, especially when we're writing and not quite as in love with them as we are other characters. But take a moment to think about your secondary characters. What can they do today? How can they help or hinder your main character? There's a lot of untapped value there.

--

Jodi Meadows is the author of INCARNATE, book one of the Newsoul Trilogy. (January 31, 2012 - HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen Books.)

She lives and writes in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, with her husband, a Kippy*, and an alarming number of ferrets. She is a confessed book addict, and has wanted to be a writer ever since she decided against becoming an astronaut. You can find her on her website and blog.

*A Kippy is a cat.

Heroic qualities

I can't say I have a favorite hero. I hate picking favorites! It makes me feel so guilty. Instead, I will tell you about the qualities of my favorite type of hero.

Smartsiness: They don't have to be a brain surgeon, but I do like to imagine the character possesses a brain. My ideal hero doesn't forget things when it's convenient for the plot, or struggle with simple plot problems because it makes their head overheat. My ideal hero is reasonably clever.

Common sense: Similar to smartsiness, but different. This is the character who decides not to go into the basement during a midnight thunderstorm because they heard a noise. This is the character who takes warnings into account and knows that if the sky is cloudy it might rain.

Wit: I love characters with a sharp sense of humor. This is hard to pull off, because humor is so subjective, but yeah, I like it when they're funny.

Strength: To do what is right, even when it hurts. Especially when it hurts.
Wisdom: To know what is right. To consider other people's feelings. To make difficult choices. To step up to a challenge when no one else will. To question things others won't.

Good heart: For me, this is a must. It doesn't have to be obvious -- even darker anti-heroes can have good hearts -- but it must be there. It must inform their choices, their sense of duty, and give them honor.

This may seem like a pretty strict set of requirements for my ideal hero, but it's really not. There's room for all kinds of characters with all kinds of personalities. It's unreasonable to expect a character to have all that all the time. It leaves no room for growth if they're already perfect, and character growth is one of the things that makes characters fascinating. I love watching a hero develop the strength and confidence to take on the world. I love watching their wisdom expand, their wit evolve.

Flaws make characters interesting. They make characters relatable because who here is perfect? (You with your hand up -- do you fart rainbows? YES??!?? There's medication for that. Seek help now.)

What about you? What quality do you admire most in a hero?

--

Jodi Meadows is the author of INCARNATE, book one of the Newsoul Trilogy. (January 31, 2012 - HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen Books.)

She lives and writes in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, with her husband, a Kippy*, and an alarming number of ferrets. She is a confessed book addict, and has wanted to be a writer ever since she decided against becoming an astronaut. You can find her on her website and blog.

*A Kippy is a cat.

Top Ten Bad Boy Characteristics

Since we’ve already talked in depth about villains, I’m going to take a minor step toward the side of good and talk a little bit about bad boys.

Even bad boys need a magazine

I think bad boys tend to toe the line between good and down right evil. Which is the whole reason we love them. Today they might help your grandma cross the street only because it’s The Right Thing To Do, but tomorrow they’ll bash someone’s face in simply because they questioned Bad Boy’s motives.

And I’ll be the first to admit, bad boys might be a tad cliché. Inherently, I think they’re similar. Because what makes a bad boy? Dark, moody, strong-willed, badass.

But let me say this: I DON’T CARE.

I want my bad boys moody, broody and sexy. And I want them to be badass. So a writer’s biggest challenge is to make a bad boy bad, but give him a characteristic totally unexpected.

Make him a genius. Give him a weird habit, like drinking a seaweed smoothie every morning. Maybe he does Yoga. Maybe he’s religious. Something to twist that cliché a little bit and make it crack.

With that said, let’s go over the Top Ten Things I see often in bad boys in fiction, so you can either a) use them or b) avoid them. Or z) just wing it and see what you come up with. I’m willing to give a nerdy bad boy who knits and smokes a pipe a chance.

Top Ten Bad Boy Characteristics

1. Wears a leather jacket

2. Speaks a foreign language

3. Shows little emotion

4. Has a dark past

5. Drives a classic muscle car

6. Rides a motorcycle

7. Killer abs

8. Night owl

9. Doesn’t say much

10. Powerful (either because he’s a badass magic-wielder or because he knows how to properly fistfight/use a gun)

[Side note: Wanna know which of the Top Ten apply to Sam from ALTERED? 2, 3, 4, 7, 10 --- but you can bet I would have given him a leather jacket if I could have --- they were fresh out of leather in the lab where he was ALTERED J ]

Jennifer Rush is the author of ALTERED coming Fall 2012 from Little, Brown. Check out her blog for news and updates. 

Why I Don't Write Fluffy Kitty Fiction

In Real Life, I'm a mother of two, a wife to one, and a professional bill-payer. So it's not surprising that in my writing life, I like a little more action and grit. Escape crying two-year-olds for a good hand-to-hand fight? Yes please. Put off vacuuming in favor of writing a hot kissing scene? Double yeah.

Writing allows me to escape Real Life, and honestly, it keeps me sane (saner). So...

Why I Don't Write Fluffy Kitty Fiction
(besides the obvious reason that my Real Life is pretty lame)

1. No guns.

2. Less opportunity to punch people in the face.

3. F-bombs not allowed (and I effing love my F-bombs).

4. Instead of car chases --- skipping races

5. Fight scenes end in kumbayas

6. Villains bleed rainbows

[Not to say fluffy kitty fiction doesn't have its place in the world---it certainly does. Just, ya know, not in mine.]

Why my genre gets a venn diagram

Because of my premise -- everyone is reincarnated -- my genre was chosen for me. Sort of.

INCARNATE's genre is hard to pin down because it has so many different elements by the premise's very nature, so I find myself sneaking into lots of different subgenre groups.

The story is set in another world and has dragons, which sort of makes it fantasy. But the world also has lasers and automated work drones, which sort of makes it science fiction. There's a love story between the only girl who's new and one of the people who's been reincarnated for the last very long time, and that sort of makes this a paranormal romance. Finally, there's eugenics-as-a-good-thing and a perfect-society-except-spoiler, which sort of makes it dystopian.

It's a little bit of a lot of things, which can be awkward to explain, but I've learned to embrace my story's differences and refusal to conform. The truth is, I like things that are different, and things that challenge me to think in new ways. I enjoy mixing genres and seeing where stories take me when I don't try to contain them.

But Jodi, you may be saying, your book is listed under dystopian on this very blog!

That's true, but I have to call it something, and my editor likes calling it dystopian. Individual readers may see it as more one subgenre than another, and that's absolutely fine with me.

Why I Write About Characters Taking Risks

When I was a kid, my dad was something of a fantasy nerd. And a computer nerd. As a result, I grew up on video games like ULTIMA, MIGHT AND MAGIC, and WIZARDRY.

Well, less WIZARDRY because the one game I tried in that series, you could save the game, but if your characters died, that was it. They were dead. I did not like that.

See, I anthropomorphize and personify things like nobody's business. I could tell you about the legions of stuffed animals I kept as a kid, even when they turned old and ratty, because I couldn't stand to hurt their feelings by throwing them away. But I won't. This time.

But all that to say, I really felt for the characters in those games. I couldn't stand to see them get hurt. One of my earliest games was ULTIMA: EXODUS. I honestly don't remember much about that game, because I was just a little Jodi, but I do remember having to get my characters out of the city, monsters in the wilderness, encroaching darkness . . . and how I got to the same point in the game at least four times and refused to go on, because that would mean risking my characters' lives.

Then the (virtual) world ended.

One of the important things my dad said to me was, "Save your game." I got used to doing this any time there was a monster fight. And then again after. I became a compulsive saver and eventually learned how to risk my characters' lives, because I knew I could resurrect them if it came to it, and putting the characters through all the monster-slaying and whatnot was the only way for them to level up and save the world.

When I started writing, the same thing happened. I was afraid to risk characters. I loved them! They were the children of my brain! How could I even think about hurting them? But then I realized that by doing that, I wasn't using them to their full potential. The world would end for them, just like it did for the poor characters in ULTIMA: EXODUS. If I wanted to test the characters and make the story worth experiencing, I had to learn to let them take risks.

I had to take risks in order to make the story worth reading.

So thanks, nearly traumatizing video games! Thanks to all the world-ending (though somehow it survived enough to get a sequel, in spite of the way I didn't save the world), and thanks to the characters dying everywhere. Thanks to the magic save button.

Just thinking about that, I'm inspired to let my characters take a few risks. (Maybe they'll die. Maybe they won't. Who knows!)

Putting Characters In Peril!!

Putting Characters In Peril -- I think that's the basic description of what I do as a writer. What most writers do, really :)  Whether it's explosion-kind-of-peril or emotional-peril, storytelling centers around this constant: conflict.

I was talking about first chapters with a friend who's starting his first novel. He asked for advice about beginnings, and I was like, well, first chapters are tricky (I should know, I've written about five different ones for Glitch!), but the basics are: 1) set up the central conflict and 2) give us a reason to give a damn about your main character dealing with the aforementioned conflict.

The same day, I was working on Book II of my trilogy, writing a very perilous scene. With explosions. And I felt this giddy excitement as I sat down to write, thinking mwahahaha! I'm gonna put my characters through hell today!

*then I paused and wondered about my mental health*

Because I do. I love a good death-threatening situation. And, alternately, I love digging into the painful emotional bits. Really grinding in and rubbing salt on every open wound, pushing painful conflicts to feel out the edges and steeps and hidden crevices. But then I realized, it's what all writers do--It's our job as to wring every drop of genuine emotion out of a situation, to make it resonate with readers so that some scene or bit of dialogue is impossible to get out of a reader's head.

An interviewer once asked Joss Whedon why he kept killing off beloved characters in his TV series'-- Buffy, Angel, Firefly (esp. the movie that came after, Serenity). His answer? "Because it hurts."

And that's it folks--the simple truth of what we writers are trying to do--to make it hurt. Or to make you tingle. Or to make you cry, or to make that winged thing in your chest take flight at some bit of beauty we're able to convey. Those are the magic moments. It's why we writers do what we do.

*well, that, and because we don't want grown-up jobs at offices* ;)