Book Giveaway

Starting next week on the book review website Fabulous Reads (run by my friend Stephanie and myself) we will be giving away a special book autographed by one of the authors mentioned in my previous post. If you would like a chance to win such an amazing book please check out http://fabulousreads.blogspot.com/ starting Sunday for the big announcement.

Provo Children's Book Festival

This last weekend my family and I attended the Provo Children's Book Festival held at the Provo Library. I was so excited to see the enormous crowd that gathered from the smallest babe to the not so young. The festival promoted literacy by welcoming author's and illustrator's the likes of Shannon Hale (and her hubby Dean), Brandon Mull, J. Scott Savage, Ann Cannon, Mette Ivie Harrison Nathan Hale, Aprilynne Pike and many, many more.

I briefly poked my head into the Fantasy/Sci-Fi Discussion Panel which included Shannon & Dean Hale, Jessica Day George, Brandon Mull, Brandon Sanderson, J. Scott Savage and James Dashner. Everyone was so excited to see these awesome authors that there was standing room only. It felt great to get a nod from the good old James Dashner when I entered the room, and to see Jessica Day George with her baby. Everyone in the room was eager to learn from the panel what it takes to write fantasy & sci-fi (until the room rang out with the harsh sounds of the fire alarm which a wandering child had pulled). I'm glad that I took my camera though and was able to get a few pictures of the panel.



In the main room of the festival there was plenty to keep people engaged including regular puppet shows, musical chairs (to win books and posters), people dressed up in costumes, arts and crafts, and book signings from over twenty different authors and illustrators.



I was able to meet with several of my favorite authors who willing autographed books, posters, etc. that we will be prizes as future giveaway's on the book review website FabulousReads which my friend Stephanie and I run. Check us out on a regular basis to read our reviews and see what fabulous giveaways we might be running at the time.

My writer's tip for this week is to support your favorite authors by looking online to see when they maybe coming to a town or library near you. Go and sit at their feet and soak up the words they say. You might discover the one piece of information that makes everything click for you as an author, sending you down the path of publication and adventure. Good luck and keep on writing.

Check out FabulousReads

My friend Stephanie and I are managing a book review blog called Fabulous Reads which you should really check out this week. Both Stephanie and I are huge Percy Jackson fans and are so excited that Book 5 has just been released. So all this week we are having Percy Jackson Week and even have a fantastic giveaway. If you post any comments on one of our reviews this week then you are automatically entered into a drawing for an autographed copy of The Lightning Thief (Book 1 of the series). Please check it out at http://www.fabulousreads.blogspot.com/.

In the meantime, I'm working today on my character bible. I have posters all over the back of my front door where I am outling details about each of my characters. I'm having a blast. I hope you continue working on your writing talents as well. Keep up the great work.

J. Scott Savage on creating a Character Bible

At the LDS Storymaker's Conference I was able to attend a class taught by J. Scott Savage, author of the Far World series, on how to Create and Maintain a Character Bible. I was so excited about taking this class as I feel that I am relatively week in the area of fully and completely developing my characters.

I know that in the first book in the Nedaran Prophecy series that I'm writing I have some well done characters and others who need added help. For example: where by my elemental character Niall is well done and interesting, my twins (Kael and Anaya) could use some help to be more developed and well-rounded. So I sat eagerly in the front row of class - pen and paper on the ready - to listen to guidance from Mr. Savage on how I can make weak things strong through utilization of a character bible. Here is what I learned:

What is a character bible?
A character bible is a set of notes about each character that flushes out their past, the desires, their hopes that helped to make them feel real. Everybody has a history. Even if you never utilize all this information in the story, by knowing all if it you know your character, you know why they act the way they do, and you can make them stand out more in your story (make them more real).

Why a character bible?
- A lot of authors don't come to care about the characters until 3/4 the way through writing the story. Then when re-reading what they wrote they identify holes in the story, or that a character acted when way when they know that character would have done something totally different.
- If you start by identifying your characters, then you can identify how they will react throughout the story.
- First impressions of a character are vital.
- What are the motives? Helps you to know what makes the character happy/sad and what is the fundamental reason they act the way they do.
- We need to understand their past to understand their actions.
- What is their reputation
- Allows you to play around with the characters. You can take a stereotype and be willing to reverse it and give the reader the opposite image of the stereotype they expect.

Characters
- You must make the reader care about the characters as they are w hat will carry your story. (For an example of character driven stories look at Stephanie Meyer.)

Two reasons for having a Character Bible
- Create powerful meaningful character
- Keep track of your characters through the story


Types of Story (Orson Scott Card's MICE quotient)
- Milieu - Place Story (i.e. Lord of the Rings)
- Idea - Plot Heavy Story (i.e. Agatha Christie, books with a puzzle to solve)
- Character - Romance/Thriller Story (i.e. books where the character is the main point of the story)
- Event - Fantasy/Sci-fi (i.e. Something is wrong or out of order in the universe and it needs to be fixed)

Things to keep in mind when creating a character bible:
- Not every character needs the same level of detail as every other. Don't setup walk-on characters to be more than walkons or you will disappoint the reader. So don't spend too much time over describing this characters.
- Implied History - using one sentence to imply a lot about the characters past. Much better than doing an information dump which can bog down a story and provide a lot of unnecessary information.

Different Levels of Characters
- Protagonist - Know a lot about protagonist even if you don't know a lot. This is where you know everything about a character even though you might never tell the reader.
- Antagonist - Antagonist tells less than the protagonist, but put yourself in that role and see why he does what he does. Try to understand his reasoning as best you can.
- Sidekick - For the sidekick you need to know what role they are to play in the story. For example in the Harry Potter books Hermione plays the information source and Ron plays the comic relief and the reliant companion.
- Background - Background characters (i.e. Colin Creevey) has details and may recur in later stories, but you don't need the same level of knowledge or description as any of the about characters. You need just enough information about these characters to make them feel reel.
- Walk-on - People like the waiter in a restaurant that brings the main characters food. Be careful about over describing. Keep simple.

Attributes vs. Gimmicks
Examples: eats a lot, sings, twirls his rings, certain expressions...
- Turn a gimmick into an attribute. (i.e. habit - twirling a ring, attribute - twisting the ring is a reminder of having failed to save a loved one)

Who are you going to root for?
- We like what is like us or have the same moral code.
- They must have attributes we can root for.
- Don't focus on physical characteristics so much so that the reader can imagine what they are like. With less physical description the reader can more readily insert themselves into the character's role.
- Strong jaw/firm handshake gives image of good guy/positive character.
- Give clues not physical characteristics.
- Who's the victim, savior, sacrifice.
- The main character needs a noble goal (motive & actions)
- The common man trying to do something uncommon.
- The superman who discovers imperfections.

How is your character going to grow?
Note: Make sure to update the bible as your characters grow in order to keep things consistent.
- You get a wish granted, but it costs something or turns out not to have been a good thing.

Last Thoughts
- Keep your character bible open as you write and continually reference it. Make sure to note every time your character makes a decision and why he made it and how it changed him.
- You have to know "why" your character changed. You need to know why they do what they do at all times.
- Allows you to create and track information.
- Evaluate your characters. Your main character can only be acted upon so many times before they have to act themselves.

I was so excited by the information that J. Scott Savage provided in his class that I know have poster board pasted on the back of my front door where I am keeping track of my characters and what happened in their lives to make them who they are by the time my story starts. I am so excited at how this will help further develop my characters and I hope this information helps you. Keep up the good work.

Julie Wright - Editor & Author Extraordinaire

A few weekends ago I attended the LDS Storymakers conference in Provo. One of the classes I took was from Julie Wright (a fabulous woman who happens to have read my book The Nedaran Prophecy as an editor and has provided me with some wonderful and incredibly helpful feedback). OK, so I think she is marvelous. Can you tell?

Anyway, the following are my personal notes from Julie's class:

It's Alive
Dialogue -
Dialogue is imperative in a good story. As such, the dialogue should be impressive, sets the mood, and foreshadows what is to come. Things to keep in mind while writing dialogue:
- We reveal a lot about ourselves by what we don't say.
- Don't have characters whose whole purpose is to tell back story.
- You can tell some back story through dialogue, but you have to be VERY careful.
Point of View
Point of View (a.k.a. POV) is who is telling the story. Here are some POV strategies:
- If your going to be in a single person's mind, then you must tell the story from only that persons POV.
- If you as the writer are writing from the main character's POV than don't describe you character as a passerby (i.e. don't say that you has the main character has small hands, black hair, brown eyes. How do you in reality describe yourself?...I hate my hair, maybe I should dye it because....yadayadayada...or I wish I didn't look like I was constantly in a hair state of electric shock.)
- It is better to use he said, she said with dialogue than overkilling dialogue tags with things like "he was enraged."
- To get a good idea on how to write dialogue, it is vital that you read everything (especially outside of your genre). By reading you are getting a subconscious education on how to write.
- Write - write everything. Nothing you write is wasted. Even if no one ever reads it, it is something that has come alive in you and has helped you become a better writer.

Voice
Don't lose your voice in pandering to the public. Make sure that you are writing for yourself and no one else.
- Resonate - Write things that resonates to you. Stay passionate about your topic.
- Use plain language that resonates to the reader. Flowery language or description (even written well) can lose a reader's focus, causing them to skip ahead to dialogue.

Redundancy
Simplify your descriptions to get rid of redundancy.
- It's BAD
- Keep your stuff fresh and unique
- Turn the story on its head
- Don't make all your heros the same
- Challenge yourself & your characters
- Keep it new and different (i.e. try not to write about elves and orcs, but about something no one but you has ever imagined)

Setting
Write as if the setting where its own character.
- The setting should be a living, tactile, breathing thing that shows up in your writing.
- Be aware where your character is standing and where they are going. Know (visualize) where they are.
- Be aware of surroundings - i.e. empty room vs. coffee ship - which is more interesting?
- Include smells, sounds, etc, even if it is only seen as character's are talking while walking.

You
Don't give up (You have no right!)
- Just because you get rejected doesn't mean you should give up.
- You have something in you that needs to be written and needs to be read by someone else.
- You do not have the right to deny your own future. Who knows if the next letter you decided not to send out would have been the one to get you an agent or publisher?

I would like to personally thank Julie Write for her thoughts, and again for her fabulous feedback and suggestions on my book.

For all the other writer's out there I would like to echo Julie's thoughts and say to you Please, Don't Give Up. You have a great story within you and the rest of us our eagerly waiting to read it. Keep up the good work.