Ramblings of an Australian Writer

Via a list I sub to.

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For those of you who write short consider an excerpt of 5-10%.
Sandra

*****
This is a great and easy way for your authors to showcase their work and bring attention to it.

Best First Kiss, Due Feb. 10, 2010.

Accepting All Genres - Authors - Publishers.

Romance in the Backseat is very excited to announce that we have begun a series of monthly contests for published authors to draw attention to their work. The winner is decided by Popular Reader Votes.

Enter Pages from Your Book to be Posted on RITBS.

Pick less than 1k from your novel to enter it in the award category. Winners are selected by reader votes. Each Contest will have a division for separate genres - Contemporary - Historical - Paranormal - Suspense

Out of the four Genre Finalists a Grand Prize Winner will be selected the following week when the four winners are re-posted.

The Excerpt will be listed without title or author to keep all writers on an equal level - First Contest is Free to enter - $5 processing fee for future contests.

Enter Here - http://www.romanceinthebackseat.com/pubcon.htm

Terry Kate

To see the last contest go to - http://romanceinthebackseat.com/interviews/blog/

The stories received hundreds of reads for the first contest.

'It is a universal truth that must be acknowledged that a single man in possession of a large fortune must be in want of a wife.'

So wrote Jane Austen in Pride and Prejudice, and while I'm not looking for a single man in possession of a large fortune or, in fact, to be anyone's wife, I am a writer in possession of a large fortune of words in want of a story to put them in. (Do you like what I did there? 4:20am for the win!)

One of the things I do when embarking on a story with a character I haven't taken around the block for a spin a time or two is role play with that character. Sounds crazy, I know. I fully understand that it's not the most orthodox way of getting into a new character's head, but for me, it works. So when I first started playing around with the character of Archangel Gabriel, the initial concern was one of believability: could I make him be a likable, personable character who was also pretty badass?

Aparently I can, because even after an edit that shook me pretty hard (and edits never shake me up, I am the teflon coated writer 99.9% of the time), I was feeling fairly sorry for myself and wondering at the point of it all. We all do this from time to time, because writing is hard and writing well is harder. Anyway, imagine my shock when I discover that my baby, my cute little badass Archangel is currently number one most nominated original male character in an awards community. (Nota bene: Not linking, because I like to keep these things very separate, so, um, sorry about that.)

It's the little things and while this is probably to most people a fairly insignificant thing, to be nominated so much by my peers for this character I've slaved over and written and rewritten to the nth degree in order to make him the way I want him to be, is just incredibly touching. It's incredibly gratifying as well, and it's that jolt of positive reinforcement I needed at a moment when I felt particularly down on myself.

Sometimes, these jolts come along when you need them the most and this one was certainly the shot in the arm that I needed. Even if he doesn't win anything, the fact that he was, as of this weekend, number one most nominated original male character, is amazing to me. I'm touched, honoured and grateful that he's so appreciated and so enjoyed. And that his personality and voice is so appreciated - even if he's hated, which is also good, because he's supposed to be hated by Team Hell - is amazing to me. Using rp to flesh him out and make him more real in my head before putting him into novel format was definitely one of the best uses of my time and energy.

And it was - and is - fun. :)

In putting fingers to keyboard this Nano, I've discovered something I've long suspected to be true: writing good guys is harder than writing bad guys.

Now, just bear with me here. Bad guys generally have no morals or few morals or are morally grey and can, therefore, get away with just about anything you, the writer, put your mind to having them do. They can be evil, manipulative bastards with charm and wit and good looks, they can be sinister and depraved yet alluring and beguiling, they are, in short, the perfect carte blanche character. They have no compunction about doing things to the good guy or random red-shirt that you, the writer, want. They can inflict all kinds of misery and suffering, and often with the writer (or maybe it's just me) cackling with Machiavellian glee. Everyone loves a bad guy, they wonder at his motivation, they want to know his backstory, some even want to heal him from his bad guy ways and make him good. There is usually witty reparatee between bad guy and good guy and often a lot of UST. In short, writing them is fun.

The good guys, however, have a tendency to end up as White Knights who can do no wrong and pontificate on the evil in the world, stand stoically enduring all that the bad guy throws at them and comes out on top and heroic with barely a scratch at the end. The good guy's journey essentially is go on a quest, solve the quest, get the girl or guy, triumph over evil, the end. In short, it's boring. Boring to write and to read. His motivation is usually morally pure and if you turned him around fast enough, he'd probably squeak with just how shiny he is.

Often to get around this, the good guy is made morally grey. He has a dark secret or a bad temper, he has a weakness or some flaw that can get him killed. There are many ways to make a good guy morally grey and still be a good guy. This makes the character much more fun to write and to read.

But what about characters who can't be morally grey? How do you write them without making them dull as ditch water, shining White Knights who you want to nickname the Milky Bar Kid? It's extremely hard, I've discovered.

In the process of writing Broken Wings (first draft of the novella now completed and sitting there until I gird up my loins to get back into it and edit it,) I've found that writing Archangels isn't as easy as you might think. I didn't want them to be all about the purity and justice, I wanted them to be personable and likable, characters the reader could identify with. However, Archangels by their very nature aren't supposed to be personable, they're supposed to be terrifying and the ultimate tools of God. Even if one isn't a believer in such things, mythology and scripture is replete with enough information about Archangels and, in fact, all angels, that it's hard to push beyond that perception to make them more believable.

Making them this way and not making them too human was another challenge. Gabriel, my protaganist, has his vices: he smokes, he drinks, he swears like a pirate. Like his brothers, he's not averse to the pleasures of the flesh and like his brothers, he's not much fussed about gender. As angels traditionally have no gender anyway, it made no sense to me for the Archangels to have any concerns over this. This gave them a non-human layer, which helped, but wasn't really enough. Sure, they have wings, they have powers, they have swords. But they're also the ultimate force of power just below God, so they can't be weak or, worse in my mind, just one-dimensional shining bastions of holiness.

The challenge I found was making the ten Archangels of God distinct characters with personalities and foibles in their own right. They each had their flaws, several of them for example, hate humanity with a passion, and only watch over Earth because they were commanded to do so by God. Others had their vices, like Gabriel, while still others, like Michael were woefully socially inept. But even with that, they could still set aside these quirks when the time came and become holy warriors and fight the good fight.

I loved writing Gabriel and his brothers, and I still do. I don't think I'll get tired of writing Gabriel any time soon, to be honest. His voice is very distinct in my head now, along with Archangel Raziel who I've also dabbled with writing as the baby Archangel of the ten. Now I just hope that Broken Wings and my Raziel short, The Gates of Edessa don't suck beyond the telling of it.

14046 / 50000 words. 28% done!

28%, eh? Not too bad at all.

10016 / 50000 words. 20% done!

And now back to bed for me. I'm exhausted and it's 5am.

So far, not too bad. 5% isn't too bad for an hour's writing. I think it's even coherent, shock, horror! Will probably write more tonight, as now the narrative is biting me in the creative parts of my brainmeats.

2457 / 50000 words. 5% done!

There is something enormously satisfying about seeing your name listed as an author in the stable of a publisher. I think that's one of my new favourite things.

Happy birthday to rian219, stuffs are coming after paying off my bills. Bills are evil and should be eradicated, in my opinion.

And sending good vibes and get well soon wishes to captlychee, who is currently recovering from surgery, and I quote, 'The operation was to remove a malteno implant in the eye. The malteno was a plastic tube, inserted into the eye to drain excess fluid resulting from glaucoma.' Get well soon!

This is just a wee post on my works in progress (WIPs), their status, etc.

Hopes and Expectations (working title).
Genre: Sci-fi, alternate history, romance, gay (m/m).
Status: In edit.
Synopsis: The Roman Empire has been resurrected and is the controlling authority on Earth, expanding into space. In the year 2345 AD, scientist Dr Jonas Schlesinger is en route to Station Augustus in stationary orbit around Jupiter. He is to join a team of scientists there looking to set up planetary domes for humanity to establish colonies on the planet. The heir to the throne of the Roman Empire, Marius, is also en route to the station on a goodwill tour. This novel contains intrigue, espionage, science and romance.

The Order of Shadows Trilogy.
Genre: Fantasy, alternate history.
Status: In progress. Half way through book two of three.
Synopsis: Set five hundred years in the future and after a global war where all technology has been destroyed... or has it?

Broken Wings.
Genre: Supernatural, Apocalyptic, romance, gay (m/m).
Status: Researching.
Synopsis: Declan comes from a long line of demon hunters. One night a hunt goes wrong and he's reassigned by the Vatican to the other side of the world and placed under the watchful – and often annoyed – protection of Archangel Gabriel.

The Chase.
Genre: Young adult, sci-fi, romance.
Status: stalled.
Synopsis: Part of the Clockworld collective. This project is currently on hiatus.

No, really, it is. And I say this as someone who can churn out 500-1500 words a day without any problem if I put my mind to it.

But churning it out isn't the issue. Making it good is what makes it hard. You write and then reread to fix up errors and find yourself thinking, 'Hm, how many times have I used this word in this sentence... and I've run out of similies!' Or my other personal favourite, which runs along the lines of 'Holy run-on sentence, Batman!'

I admit I'm the queen of the run-on sentence. I love my sentences and I love words, but I really need to learn to use the full-stop more. I should make an inspirational poster saying 'Be not afraid of the full-stop! The full-stop is your friend.' And for every full-stop I don't use, oh, I abuse the comma. The comma and I have a love/hate relationship, as Rian commented to me a little while ago, it's either a feast or a famine.

I've been to university, I went to one of the top three high schools in my state. I have had an excellent (and varied) education. But part of the education system in Australia in the 70s and 80s was that grammar and basic English were taught specifically in primary school as a framework for further learning. (Primary school, for non-Aussies, is for children between ages 5 and 12.)

Because my primary education was in years pre-internet there was no way that parents could research options for schooling. They had to place their trust in the school their children were going to and hope that the education was satisfactory. Luckily, I got into an excellent high school - by pure accident, I sometimes think - and so I have no doubt that eased my parents minds quite a bit. However, the education I recieved prior to that was sub-par by anyone's standards.

Never have I felt so out of my depth as I did in year 8, the first year of high school. Because what we were taught in primary school was woefully inadequate to any high school education system, I did appallingly in the maths and sciences because I'd had absolutely no prior education in those fields at all - except for multiplication tables, basic adding and subtracting. Science was based on watching a show made for children once a week, which was boring because we didn't understand it. English wasn't much better - spelling and reading comprehension were taught but that was about it. Grammar? Touched on lightly, perhaps once. An old friend from primary school once remarked that "It was more of a glorified daycare center than a school," and he's right.

What saved me from failing English forever was no doubt my love of reading and of writing. I might not be able to tell you what, exactly, an adverb is, but I do know how to form a sentence!

Which brings me back to the original statement: writing is hard.

I'm still in research mode for Broken Wings, a novel with the Archangel Gabriel as the main character. Research mode is lasting longer in this case because of who he is - I don't want to be defending lack of knowledge of a certain point of obscure Orthodoxy theory, for example. Not that this material would go into the story, but I want to be able to have Gabriel sound like an Archangel and not just like a bad tempered, egomaniacal, immortal brat with wings.

My main problem at this point, in preliminary writings, has been his dialogue. Should I write his accent phonetically? Should I just mention that yes, he does sound like a dockworker from London in the 60s living in the present day? Should I do a combination of both? And when I do use certain phonetics, such as 'y' know' or 'an'' or 'this is that and there, right,' etc, should I use the full word or the slang spelling?

Writing is hard. And Gabe's dialogue structure is going to confound me for weeks.