What JK Rowling Can Teach Us about Picking a Genre

Have you heard that every author should pick a genre? It's been mentioned on Go Teen Writers and I agree with it--it gives your readers a good idea of what to expect. I, for example, write YA speculative fiction. That said...
JK Rowling shaped my childhood so much, I don't know who I'd be if I hadn't read her books.

Source My favorite J.K. Rowling book. :)

But, I have a complaint. Now that she's done with writing HP, she's willy-nilly writing whatever she feels like--adult novels! Children's books! While she has the right to publish whatever she wants, as a reader, this is kind of disorienting, because I don't know what I'm getting from her anymore. A book about dentists? An epic fantasy? A historical? It's far more comforting as a reader if I know the author will be writing something in the same genre, or a similar one. Kami Garcia, for example, after writing the Beautiful Creatures books, for example, is writing another YA paranormal romance--though I think this one is darker that BC. Her writing partner, Margaret Stohl, while she's venturing out and writing a YA scifi--which I can't wait to read!--she's still staying within YA spec fic. I have an idea of what to expect from both of them. (Or at least I think I do, lol!)
I'm not saying that you have to write the same exact genre and again. I'm not suggesting if you write historicals, you can only write about WWII forever. You can write about other periods in time. But it would be weird to see you write a fantasy.

What do you guys think? Should an author be able to write whatever comes to mind, or should they pick a genre, even if it's a general one like speculative fiction?

What BC can Teach Us About Originality in Writing

So, y'all know that I am big fan of the Caster Chronicles by now. Like, it's my second favorite series out there. (First is Harry Potter.) Anyway, the release of the movie trailer has gotten me wondering: Why do I like this series so much?

BTW, before we get too far, here is the trailer:

If that premise doesn't get you excited, I don't know what will. :P

Anyway, as you can see from the trailer, Lena doesn't get to chose if she's good or evil. It will be decided for her when she turns sixteen. I mean, that's revolutionary for a book. I've never read a book where the MC has no choice if they get to be good or evil. I mean, what? That's totally new. I mean, even in my own books, the MC gets to chose if she wants to be good or evil. Anyway, aside from the amazing characters, beautiful setting, I think what I love most about those books, is how original they manage to feel. I've felt things I've never felt before while reading this series.

Source. Englert and I-can't-spell-his-last-name don't really fit my mental picture, but this does fit the tone of the book a little. I love Ethan/Lena. I don't care how many people say she's emo, she's having a hard time. *Restrains self from going on an EthanXLena defense rant.* I WILL GO DOWN WITH THIS SHIP!

Anyway, my point here is, is that the authors take risks. They're willing to do things are the reader won't even consider in order to make their story a bit more original. Ugh, I really wish I could go into this deeper without spoilers--and trust me, you don't want the plot spoiled, but I can think of off the top of my head... Uh, five times that they did something that absolutely stunned me. And now I feel like they've challenged me as a writer to always ask... How can I take this plot further? How can I shock the reader, deepen the stakes? Make things even harder? Make the reader's heart break a little more?

More Romance Thoughts, with help from the Doctor

*spoilers from Doctor Who, mostly first two seaons*
Okay, so if you follow my tumblr then you know that I have been watching a lot of Doctor Who lately. It is an awesome show and one thing that I have grown to love is the pairing 9th/10th Doctor/Rose.

Source (I think... You never know with the internet. But yeah, thanks to whoever made this!)

Okay, so major spoiler alert from the end of season two: What makes Doctor/Rose a great pairing is that they don't end up together. The show starts with Rose accompanying the Doctor on his journeys through time and space and along the way, they fall in love. And it's a beautiful, wholesome love because they never even really act on their feelings for each other--they're just there and it's obvious they would do anything for each other.

Then stuff happens and Rose is trapped where the Doctor can't come get her. They have to say goodbye for good. It's a beautiful story:

Source (Mostly likely. Like I said, you never know. Once again, thanks whoever made this!)

Yes, I know those who like happy endings are like "What, are you kidding me?" right now. And while I think some stories can work with a happy ending, sometimes, if you want your story to really stick with people, you gotta do something that will make them cry every now and then. The Doctor and Rose wouldn't really stick with me as much right now if they didn't have a sad ending. The fact that they want to be together and can't because of where she is... So heartbreaking! Whereas if they flew off into space and stayed together for the rest of Rose's life? Boring, and very forgettable.

That said, this tactic can backfire if you don't use it right. The writers of DW give the Doctor plenty of time to grieve Rose after she's gone. He doesn't find someone else right away--as far as I know, he doesn't find anyone else romantically for a season and a half or something like that. (River, right? I'm only on season/series 3.) They show the Doctor grieving Rose: Wondering what she would think about things if she was there, imagining/remembering himself dancing with her when a crowd of people are dancing, finding some of her stuff on board the TARDIS. (aka his space ship, for those not in the know.) He doesn't move on right away, and if you're going to do the sad route, you have to make sure you get the pacing right, or it makes the whole storyline for nothing. If the Doctor had a new love two episodes later, it would have cheapened his and Rose's love story, in my opinion. 

Oh, and if you're going to bring in a new love interest afterward, make sure they have personality. I don't want to spend the whole new romance thinking, using the Doctor as an example, "I hate this new person, bring back Rose."  That is the last thing you want your readers thinking, so please make sure the new person is as enjoyable and has as much chemistry as the old couple. Just make sure that they are different from the old couple. I don't know about everyone else, but I don't want a repeat of what I just saw, but with a new face.

Anyway, that's all, hope you found this helpful. :)

What Evie from Paranormalcy Can Teach Us About Character Voice

Okay, so I've been rereading Paranormalcy to prepare myself for Endlessly. (I tried to read it and I couldn't remember any of the plot, lol.)

 

Source

And anyway, one thing I've always loved about Evie is that she has a great voice. Here are some things I love about her:

1. She has flaws that repulse even her. (Can't go into what, spoiler.)
2. She feels hurt and lonely at times. For example, she often feels hurt that her guardian, Raquel, isn't her real mom, and when Raquel reminds Evie that she is an employee, it hurts her feelings. 
3. Despite those things, she is happy, and blubbly; something I love. She chooses to be happy and not negative. 
4. The best things about Evie are the little details, like her love of pink, her pink-and-rimestone taser, the fact that she has a favorite TV show(Easton Heights.), how she says "bleep" in place of cuss words. Those little things make her feel so real and three dimensional to me. I mean, how do you not love a character who fangirls at lockers?
5. Just seeing Evie going about her routine is great--like when she meets with her tutor Charlotte, and hasn't done her homework(And writes in Spanish "I am dead meat." :D), to her going on a bag-and-tag (aka her job) and going to talk with her best friend when she gets back, and then chill after that by watching Easton Heights. White took the time to get to know her MC that is for sure. 

So what are some things that we can take out of Evie?

Could your story benefit from specific goals?

Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl went into writing Beautiful Creatures with a vision. A dare from teens they knew. The dare was this, write a book with the following things:

1. No vampires.
2. No whiny girl narrators.
3. Give the girl powers, not the guy.
4. Book must not be generic. (This should be a goal with every book, in my opinion!)
5. Specific setting, please.

(In other words, it sounded like the teens who dared them to write BC were sick of Twilight, lol. Anyway, the interview where I found the info on the dare can be found here.)

So, here's where I make a confession: I like paranormal romance, sometimes. Not Twilight crap. It has to, like the dare mentioned, not be generic. One of the reasons why I loved Timeless by Alexandra Monir was because it felt different from other books in the PR genre:

(Image source... BTW, isn't that cover awesome!?)

For one thing, the heroine, Michele doesn't just "curl up and die" (as the book puts it) when awful things happen. She does stuff. When her boy is in danger, she takes action. And did I mention that she can time-travel, not her boyfriend? Plus, the book has beautiful description. (Oh, and by the way, this is a book I feel like I can recommend on here! The close thing it has to swearing is stuff like taking God's name in vain, and if you're like me, you can just pretend they said "my gosh!" or something. I know we have a lot of conservative readers on here, so I try and be careful what I recommend. Other than that, no smut! :] Anyways...)

So yeah, I like the genre if the author can make the book feel unique. That's why, when planning my own paranormal romance, I went into it with my own goals:

1. Must have a unique POV.
2. Must have a specific setting, including mention of weather/decent description. (A challenge for me!)
3. Must have a amazing storyline, not just be about the romance. 
4. Like my two favorite paranormal romances, the female MC must not be whiny and she should be more powerful than the male.
5. Main characters who do stuff, stuff doesn't happen to them. (Or at least 80% of the time they do stuff, 20% of the time stuff happens to them.)
6. The main couple can live without each other, but are better together. 
7. Must not be generic. (Note that a ton of stuff my on list springs from this rule.)

And that's all I can think of in terms of goals for my book at the moment. Do you guys have goals for your books? Do you think you could benefit from them? I think that this is really helpful--to close on the words of Margaret Stohl from the same interview above "...When you read a book, read it critically and think, “Did I like that, yes or no? Why didn’t I like that?” What were the components that made it interesting to you, because then you start to develop a perspective and I think that’s kinda the first thing to developing a voice which is more than anything something an author needs to have."

Writer's Depression

Taking a break from my series about learning from good books to focus on something very important: Writer's Depression.

All writers probably get insecure from time to time. I have. Probably you do, too. Anyway, this post has been brewing at the back of my mind for a while now. Basically, here's what happens:
You're reading your favorite book and once the 'wow, this is amazing!' thoughts are done, all you can do is thinking about how you're not as good of a writer as Author X, and never will be. Here are some things to keep in mind:

• You cannot compare your book to a published book. This isn't really my advice, it actually comes from Kami Garcia, in an interview. That had to be some of the most helpful advice I've ever read as a writer: Don't compare your work to something finished! Especially not something that has been gone over by the authors, beta readers, agents, publishers, etc 1 million times. A draft that isn't even done isn't the same as a published book. Pause to reflect on that before you go on. 
• Even authors you love write awful first drafts. This ties into the interview I mentioned above, where Garcia says something like "I wish you could see what the original story was like, before we edited it." How humbling to know that one of my favorite books was awful when it was first written. I love that! Even more humbling, was when I told Garcia that I felt that way on twitter, she said that she finds it encouraging when authors she loves write bad drafts. 
• Even really successful people (including writers) get insecure. A week or so ago, I watched Oprah interview Lady Gaga on her show Oprah's Next Chapter and one thing that shocked me was when Gaga said that she found Born This Way an intimidating song to write, and she had to imagine Whitney Houston singing it in order to write the song. Wow. I mean, no matter how you feel about Gaga, it's hard to imagine her feeling insecure, isn't it? I mean, this is a woman who isn't afraid to go out in public wearing meat.
• Even authors you love have errors in their books. Including published ones. I've been rereading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone lately, and so far I've found two errors. And it's a published book and a bestseller, not to mention something that totally changed my life. Even J.K. Rowling is human. 
• If you let someone read your book, they might like it. After a mass editing spree, I sent an unfinished book my mine to be read by a friend. I thought she would hate it, and that it would be too confusing for her to like; too this, too that. But she told me on Facebook she liked where it was going. 
• If you find yourself hating your book, keep in mind that there was once a time you liked it. If you still hate it, put it away and come back to it. Reread it and then see if you like still like it. Often, I weed out the ideas I love from those I don't because the ideas I love are the ones that don't leave me alone. 
• If you can, study other authors and see what makes them so good. I've been having fun doing with my series about 'What my Favorite Books have Taught me about Writing."

How to Write a Good Climax

Okay, so once again, I'm using this book as an example:

From here

This book had a kick-butt climax for many reasons. Here are some:

• Secrets are revealed. Like a traitor, for example. There are loads more, but I don't want to spoil it. But even the secrets have extra twists to them that make them unique.
• There is a ticking clock. For both the bad guys and the good. They have to accomplish their goal by midnight, or bad stuff happens.
• The authors took risks. They weren't afriad to do things that made me go "Whoa, what just happened???" And their other climaxes are just as explosive, in the other books in the series. I advise you to take risks, if you can. Do something the reader won't expect. And readers are used to predictable plots, so I advise you to be creative. 
• They did something different, like switching the POV, which meant the reader went into book 2 sharing a secret with the MC's girlfriend and housekeeper. You, and those two are the only ones who know, for a part of book two, what really happened. Even the main character of #2 doesn't know. Which diffinately made book 2 interesting. 
• The villains are bad. They don't hesistant to do things or hand out info that makes me go :O. Like, in the climax, there is a moment where I think (SPOILER): "WOW, how could a mother do something like that to her own child??? Killing her daughter's boyfriend! What a little #%@&*." Well, I wasn't swearing, but it made me want too. 
• The characters use every weapon they can. Like I mentioned in my how to write a good emotional fight post.
• Have stuff happen in your climax that the MC doesn't know about. This is the best tip I can give you. In the series I'm using as am example, in the following two books we are learning at least once per book secrets on what happened in the climax of the first book. How was this done? Well:
• Characters are doing things that the MC doesn't know about. This ties into advice that Stephanie Morrill gave on her blog about every character thinking they are the main character. Have other characters do stuff. Don't have the MC know about it. Plan your climax before you write it. 
• Things are happening that no one knew about or could have predicted. For example, in Beautiful Creatures, a bit of magic goes wrong in the climax... But no one realizes it until book 3.