Anna's Thought Dump: Writing, Stealing, and Maggie Stiefvater

Hullo, my people.

I'm writing this blog post because I have some thoughts consuming me, and I must write them out, and I'd like to write them out for others to read.  I'll talk a little about that later.  Right now, you need to know that this post is about Maggie Stiefvater, and it's about me, and it's about writing.  Here are the topics I want to cover, written out neatly because that will make me feel good, and so I don't forget them.

1.) Writers vs. Storytellers
2.) Stealing
3.) Probably some rant-type thing that brings everything above together

Before we move onto those topics, I need to lay the foundation for this post.  Every so often, I stalk people.  Not in an illegal way, of course.  It's just there are interesting people who post interesting things on the internet, and I like to read these things, especially if they're about writing, because I can't stop writing, but sometimes it seems like I should add poorly to that statement.  Anyhow, yesterday I went to the library, and since then I have finished five of the nine books I checked out.  As a result, my soul burned to research some of these authors and see when/if subsequent books would come out.  Even though none of these authors was Maggie Stiefvater, somehow I wandered my way over to her website, and then to her blog.  Maggie is the author of the quadrilogy, THE RAVEN CYCLE, which I enjoyed, but probably not enough to read again, and THE SCORPIO RACES, which I not only enjoyed, but adored.  She's also written other books that I haven't read.

Maggie is someone who not only writes, but thinks about writing in a way I've seen few authors do, and then she tells the world her thoughts; and for that I'm very grateful.  See, as you've probably seen in my blog posts, I also think a lot about writing, but so often I simply have to take these thoughts from me and my own writing.  However, as I discovered today, Maggie Stiefvater has a lot for me to think about, a lot to feed my brain.

So here are her thoughts, added to mine, mixed and digested thoroughly, and then spewed back out for all of y'all.

It's not as gross as it sounds.

1.) Writers vs. Storytellers

In this blog post, Maggie says that she is a storyteller, not a writer, and there is a difference.  She says that writers write for themselves; that even if they never got published, they would still keep writing, just the same as if they had crowds of people clamoring for their next work.  I believe that is true of me.  I know why I write, or at least why I started to write, and I'll explain that in my rant to come.

Storytellers, however, write for an audience, and to change others.  Maggie says if she couldn't write with words, she'd find another way to tell stories.  And often I believe this is also true of myself.  Not that writing is simply the most convenient way to tell stories for me, or something I stumbled into; no, I will always write.  I know this.  However, there are things that I want to tell the world, or at least a great many people, and even if I couldn't use my writing for that, I'd use something else.

So can someone be both a writer and a storyteller?  Or is it simply that at my age, I'm bombarded with options and possibilities, and by the time I'm an adult, I'll have settled into one or the other?

While it's fun to think about, and to wonder about, it's pointless to put stress or worrying into it.  No matter what I am, I figure I'll either find out later, or it'll stop mattering to me.  Here, have a poem I wrote once while feeling sad and overwhelmed.  (Thankfully, this poem was the first sign of that passing.)

It was once that I dreamed

Of what I might be.

Until my dreams were everything

That consumed me.

I woke to find I was nothing

But smoke and tears,

The result of a million

Wasted years.

In the end, I threw away

All my dreams.

And became what I was always

Meant to be.

(To paraphrase all that, quit stressing out about stuff, and often you'll find it works itself out in the end.  Of course, God is the Mastermind behind that.)

2.) Stealing

In this blog post, Maggie talks about writers (general term, not vs. storytellers) being artists and thieves.  Now Maggie, my sister, who is an artist herself and has a lovely cardmaking-and-other-stuff blog right here, has a book called STEAL LIKE AN ARTIST, by Austin Kleon.  I'll confess, I haven't read the whole thing, but the general point is, artists don't create out of thin air.  We steal from what's around us.  Knowing how true that is of me and the stuff I write, I wasn't at all surprised to hear Maggie Stiefvater saying the same thing.  I highly recommend you read this blog post, because not only does she make some fabulous points, she also tells a funny story, and genuinely funny stories are awesome and hard to come by.

Now, something interesting she pointed out that I'd never consciously thought about, is the relationship between artist and thief.  I'd probably know this if I'd read STEAL LIKE AN ARTIST all the way through, but I didn't.  We (artists generally, writers specifically) don't just steal stuff and then use it as art.  If I see an interesting person, I don't just stick him into my interesting story and say, "Yep, there's beauty.  There's art."  But it's also not as simple as just finding some way to fit him into my story, or fit my story around him. 

I'll confess, I have a hard time putting this into words, because for me this has strayed from being a thought thing, and instead entered the realm of instinct.  I'll do my best, but pardon me for how disjointed and clunky this may sound.

As a writer, I steal all the time, from everything around me.  There are a lot of things that I notice, and so my brain always has far too much material to write about it all.  When God made me, though, he gave me an instinct that has served me extremely well as a writer.  Over time, it filters through all the stuff I take in, and spits out a story idea.  Sometimes it's several within a few hours, other times it may take me weeks just to get one.  I get the feeling author Sarah Prineas goes through much the same process, because she once told me she had to wait for her ideas to glom before she could write a story.

The point is, when stolen things go into my story, they've been processed, sometimes reshaped, molded, and kneaded, and fit together to form the story.

Now what is most intriguing about this is that all of those stolen pieces, that be reminded, didn't come from the author's mind, still reflect the author.  Because she* may not have created those things, but who stole them?  Chose them?  Who remade them, fit them together in a way she still thinks is beautiful?  I'm sure you've heard enough of the quotes by now to know that choices simultaneously make a person and reveal who she truly is.

Now here's the beautiful enigma: her choices don't just reveal who she has made herself to be, but who God has made her to be, and who and what He has used to shape her into who she is.  The truth is, it's not by her own cleverness or observational skills that she has these things.  God gives them to her.  And here's the sad part: if she doesn't give Him the glory, then she really is stealing, and she's stealing from God.

*I'm using she because I'm a she, and when I say she, I'm half talking about myself, so deal with it.

Well, I had no idea I was going to go there.  That's an example of "glommage," as Sarah would say.

3.) The Rant, or Conclusion, Where All of Our Ropes Meet in One Knot

Here is the story of my writing, including the part I don't often talk about.

Anyway, when I was six, I started reading chapter books.  I was either six or seven when I wrote down my first, albeit incomplete, story.  For me it was just fun, but it was also a natural response to how much I was reading.  I started a few stories between the ages of seven and ten.  Maybe four or five stories, and most of them didn't get far.  It wasn't something I really felt the need to do, but I liked feeling like I was making something.

When I was ten, I started a story called FIREBREATH, which was pretty much a blatant ripoff of ERAGON.  I also started a story called STORMY HURL, which I actually think there's still some merit to.  They didn't get far.  What's more important is that when I was ten, my Book Binder came into being.  As you can probably guess, it was a binder, and my original intention was that in it I would only put the stories that I eventually wanted to publish.  See, sometime around FIREBREATH's inception, I'd decided I wanted to be a famous author.  This was when I really started writing regularly, and I didn't go anywhere without taking my Book Binder.  I didn't write every day, by any means; that came later.  But I did have it in my head a lot.

When I was twelve, disaster struck, as it often does for twelve-year-olds.  I became an angsty brat, to put it nicely.  Not intentionally, but I was completely overwhelmed with all the new emotion that comes with puberty.  I was depressed and angry all the time.  And unfortunately, I turned violent.  I didn't know why at the time, and even know it's not really clear to me.  All I know is that for no reason at all, I'd be talking to a sibling of mine, and suddenly I'd want to attack them.  And sometimes I would.  Then I'd be ashamed and even more depressed, and I'd go off and cry where nobody could see me, and then a few days later I'd do it again.  And yes, that's as miserable as it sounds.  Anger issues hurt the person suffering from them just as much as the people around her.  I had a lot of stuff going on in my head, and a ton of fears that multiplied every day, and things just seemed to be getting worse and worse.

Some part of me knew, however, that I needed some way to get rid of all the excess energy that was pouring into my emotions, and influencing me to hurt other people.  That way ended up being Katie Bolsta.  Katie Bolsta was the first character I ever wrote who wasn't just a plot device.  Katie Bolsta was myself, as I wanted to be at the time.  She was fierce, and she was self-controlled, and she was in charge.  People respected her.

KATIE BOLSTA was also the first book that I wrote not for other people to read, for my future fans, but for myself.  It was also the first book partially inspired by a dream.  This is the first time I've been able to realize, looking back, that KATIE BOLSTA was the first book I ever wrote as an artist.  It was the first book that ever "glommed" for me, and I poured my life into it.

I've known, ever since then, why I write.  It's so I don't hurt others.  It's so I don't hurt myself, emotionally speaking.  It's so I stay steady and stable, and get rid of the baggage before it drags me down, and I thank God for it.

So I don't know what Maggie Stiefvater would call me.  But I do know that I write for myself and for God, and that the things I write for myself, I want to help other people; I think they can, too.

To this day, my main characters are the people I want to be.  And to this day, I'm careful to watch what I steal, because my choices reveal and make me who I am.

Man, that was a lot.  Please tell me your own thoughts on writers vs. storytellers, stealing, and any of the other topics that catch your attention.  You can stop reading now if you want, the other stuff is kind of extra-ish.

I know this was a long post, and went a lot of different places, but I hope it was beneficial to you!  I know it was to me. 

I'll spit out another post sometime.  I think the reason my posts often go on so long is because I do them so rarely, so if you have any writing-related things you want me to blog on, I'd be happy to, and in a succinter (don't judge) way.  I'm hoping to start posting more frequent and short posts.

The Return

Behind the sinking, golden sun, she trods a path, dusty and worn.  She's not fared as well as she could; her feet are sore and bruised, and her head aches as she keeps it lowered, fast losing energy to continue.  But she is almost home, and so, dragging her long shadow behind her, she steps forward time and time again.  Her feet padding on the dirt is the only sound for a mile around.

It has been too long since she was home.  She's almost forgotten what it looks like.  She only knows that no matter how many times she leaves, she will always return to those she loves.  So she plods on, through forests of pine and fields of wheat, knowing that this is the way she will always be.  She will never know whether she will be able to return or not; but if she is, nothing short of death will stand in her way.

In a little town, people go about their business.  They sell their wares, they tend their gardens, and they converse with their neighbors.  They do not lack, but they miss.  They know one of their number still has not returned, and they wonder if she ever will.

The townspeople go silent when she rounds the bend.  Her feet are scratched and bloody.  Her head hangs low.  Her arms are limp at her sides.  She is alive, but she is not triumphant.  Wearily, she lifts her head and surveys the crowd--old friends, and family, people she thought she might never see again.  But how will they receive her?

To be continued...

(sort of...)

(not really...)

To sum it all up, folks...

How to Meet a Character: Part III, Meet Some Prime Examples

Yes, I was wrong.

It's true, no matter how much I dislike it.  I was wrong about Part II being the end, and here you have the actual coda.

I want you to see some examples of what the past two posts have been about.

So, yeah, this post is pretty much a list.  But it's a fun list!  And I might rant, so that'll be fun.  But, I mean, who knows?  I certainly don't.  I've already talked about Stanley from Holes, so that's over and done with, but that section sort of gave me the idea for this post.

A little note before we start--there will be all sorts of characters here.  They won't all be similar, but some might, and I'll probably have more boys than girls, because I'm like that, and...let's get started (sorry, I'm in a rambly mood).

Anthony Lockwood from Lockwood and Co.
I love this guy!  Seriously, one of the most charismatic, lovable characters I've ever read, and someone who you feel real pain for him.  He's probably tied for my favorite character with maybe two other guys.  The thing about Lockwood is that he's smart, confident, and approachable, but doesn't flaunt it.  He doesn't have to.  And the character development...oh, it makes me swoon.  Lucy, who is technically the main character I believe, is intrigued by him from the beginning because he seems so much older than he actually is.  As the series goes on, we see more facets to his personality, we see that he hides painful secrets, we see that he cares about everyone in his agency, and we see that we don't even know him yet.  And that's really the coolest part.  Realizing that I didn't know him yet added so much depth to his character.

Eugenides from The Queen's Thief
Okay, I'll be honest with you, I've only read the middle two books in this quartet, but I've loved them so much.  Eugenides, or Gen, is...well, he's kind of hilarious to me.  He's grumpy, can be childish, and is a thief to boot.  He's also absolutely brilliant.  People underestimate him because he seems kind of sloppy and careless, but he knows what he's doing, and he can steal anything (as he's boasted before).  He's really...well, at the risk of sounding obvious, he's quite a character.  If you've ever read Megan Whalen Turner, you'll know that she's pretty much a genius.  The best metaphor for her books I can find is chess.  She's like those players you always hear about and maybe know, the ones who know exactly what they and you will do from the beginning until they win the game.  She doesn't include a single sentence, phrase, or detail that doesn't advance the plot.  At the beginning you just read, trying to figure out what's going on and why, a little confused and frustrated, and then about halfway through things start to fall into place, and it's the most satisfying feeling in the world.  And that describes Euginedes as well, especially in the third book.  By the end, you simply adore him.

Greg Heffley from Diary of a Wimpy Kid
I'll be honest, I feel a little odd about putting Greg on this list.  It's not because I'm a snob, it's because...okay, yes, I'm totally a snob.  And Greg isn't the type of character I'd usually love.  In fact, I don't love him.  But I want to talk about him and his character development.  I've never liked DWK all that much; it's too cringe-worthy.  But Jeff Kinney did a good job of character development.  Greg is endearingly honest and self-deprecating.  He doesn't hide his tendency to get into embarrassing and painful situations.  Instead, he writes it all down in his diary--I'm sorry, journal.  He also doesn't describe himself in detail, which would have been easy for Jeff to have him do, the journal a good excuse.  No, he's...almost humble.  Not quite there, but almost.  And yet, even though he's the one narrating this whole thing, you can see some of the vanity and unabashed selfishness that he doesn't notice in himself.  He's complex.  He's likable (to a certain degree).  He's well-written.

Hope Yancey from Hope Was Here
I know I've talked about this book on here before, but let's talk about the MC specifically.  Hope is strong, her name fits her perfectly (she picked it herself), and she's also a terrific and experienced waitress.  That last part I love so much, because Hope is one of those characters who knows what she's doing and that she wants to keep doing it, and that's really cool for me.  People often underestimate her because of her youth, but she surprises them, and it's obvious that she has real people skills.  Her aunt is a chef who travels around, helping pick up old restaurants and diners and get their business booming--until they close down and she and Hope have to move on again.  Hope's parents are out of the picture, and all Hope has from her mother are her waitressing tips (which are actually really useful).  Hope is very mature and wants to find her father.

Y'all, you can tell I'm tired when I start rattling facts without bringing my sentences together well.  I need a tea break.

*twenty nine minutes pass*

And I'm back, with a nice mug of hot Jasmine tea straight from Indonesia.  Seriously.  My friends brought it back from Indonesia.

Let's dive straight back in:

Lemony Snicket from All the Wrong Questions
How could I not mention this guy?  Lemony Snicket is the best fiction writer I have ever read, and his character development is a beautiful thing to see.  He's a mystery, and yet he's right in front of you, as real as anyone around you.  Except that he's a character from a book.  I read back over the last few sentences, and they're kind of confusing.  All I can say is, Lemony Character is as believable as anyone I've ever read, including the real ones.  I don't know how to add to that.  It's too perfect and complex to describe (plus, the tea, wonderful as it is, can only do so much).

Jackson Greene from The Great Greene Heist
Like the last two, you've heard this before.  But it bears mentioning again.  Because Jackson is in middle school.  AND HE WEARS A TIE.  I don't know why that's oh-so-wonderful for me, but I love it!  He's such an intriguing mix of rebel and traditionalist, formal and casual, laid-back and uptight.  And his older brother, his inspiration, is just as cool, if not cooler.

Man, I feel like such a writer right now.  Type a few sentences, take a sip from my mug, return to typing.  I'm so industrious.  This is the life.

Rose Howard from Rain Reign
This is a character I almost didn't put in, not because she wasn't written well, but because this book was painful for me emotionally.  But I know I should put it in, so I am.  We get to know Rose through first person.  She is autistic.  This book and the way she's written kind of opened my eyes, but I have to confess that the person I related to more was her father, Wesley.  I understand that feeling of loving someone but not knowing what to do with them.  I wish the book had ended differently, but even the way it ended I'll be thinking about it for years.

James from Midnight Thief
James was definitely my favorite character from this book, even though he wasn't the MC.  *SPOILER ALERT*  He was painful to read, because you care so much about him, and the whole time you know things are going to end with him being the bad guy.  One of the hardest parts was when he stabs Kyra, and you can tell some part of him doesn't want to, but it's not enough to stop him.  But as much as I love him, his whole character reinforced my knowledge that a person's actions will show the true state of their heart.  As far as character development goes, he was perfect.  We see little bits of him slowly emerge.  We're not told, we're shown.  And he's very real.  He makes human decisions, has human reasons and human reactions.  He would be purely lovable if it weren't for the fact that he's an evil murderer.  Yeah, there is that.

Ender Wiggins from Ender's Game
Last, but definitely not least.  I read Ender's Game for the first time when I was ten, I believe.  I started reading it in the evening and read until two or three in the morning, when I finished it.  And for days, all I could do was think about it.  Ender is by far the character I relate to the most, of all the characters I've ever read.  We meet him when he's six and follow his development from a smart young boy who likes to keep to himself to a young man who is a brilliant leader and strategist.  The whole time, there's a similar theme--he doesn't want to hurt anyone, but he'll do what he has to do to get peace for himself.  He's not described at all, except in words from others, but the whole time, you can just feel how worn out with the whole thing he's becoming.  He never wants to hurt anybody, and yet, by the end of the book he's almost completely destroyed an intelligent species.  The thing that really struck me about Ender is that, true to human nature, he doesn't always do what you'd expect him to do.  His actions aren't always logical.  He'll do something without knowing why he's doing it, knowing that he's causing a person pain and that it's his choice, but he'll still do it, even as he asks why.  It's really sad, but also beautiful to read.

Read some more lists.

Here are some lists of similar characters.  The first list contains my favorite "type" of character, so pay special attention to that.  I don't know how authors can keep writing very similar characters and I love them all so much, but somehow they do.  This isn't a very good sign, but I'm going to add my Theodore to the list.  Some of these characters I've already mentioned above.

List 1: Young, Enigmatic, Charismatic Males
Anthony Lockwood
Richard Campbell Gansey III (Raven Cycle)
Artemis Fowl II
W.W. Hale V (This is open to debate, since Hale isn't the main character or one in charge.) (Heist Society)
Theodore Richard Norwood IV
Jackson Greene

List 2:  Young Main Characters With Specific and Useful Skill Sets
Max Starling [actor] (Mister Max)
Hope Yancey [waitress] (Hope Was Here)
Tess Kendrick [fixes people's problems] (The Fixer)
Connwaer [thief] (The Magic Thief)
Theodore Boone [lawyer] (Theodore Boone, Kid Lawyer)
Katarina Bishop [thief] (Heist Society) 
Fletcher Moon [detective] (Half Moon Investigations)
Jackson Greene [con artist] (The Great Greene Heist)

List 3:  Characters Who Find Home in Unique and Unexpected Places
Charlotte Doyle [Seahawk] (The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle)
Piper [401] (The Mark of the Dragonfly)
Abilene Tucker [Manifest] (Moon over Manifest)
Capricorn Anderson [C Average] (Schooled)

Okay, we're done here.  I hope you've found some new books to read and have discovered things about character and writing that you didn't know before.

And with that, I conclude the three-part series, How to Meet a Character.

Finis

 
 

How to Meet a Character: Part II, Creating and Adjusting

To continue the character vs. story discussion...

So, yesterday my darling sister confronted me about the next to last section from Part I.  She disagreed with my statement that the story is more important than the character, bringing up Anne of Green Gables as an example.  She said that those books don't really have a plot, and the whole point is Anne.  Well, I've thought of that before.  I thought of it months ago when I was first discovering all this stuff, trying to figure it out, to untangle all the knots in my head.  And this is what I wrote down then.

If you're trying too hard to build your character, you're detracting from the story.  And if readers aren't interested in your story, they're not interested in your character.  That's why characters often aren't complete, and it's okay.  Because the book is a story, and the writer realizes that.  He tells us what happens to the character as it relates to the story.

"But Anna, what if there's a book where the entire point is to get to know the character?"

The writer would give the information necessary to know the character.  If not, the book would be rambling and boring.

"But Anna, what if it's a memoir?"

Then we're back at square one, because the only reason memoirs are written is that the person has a story.

The above is edited to be shorter, but the main points are there.  To respond to what Rebecca said: the only reason we love Anne so much is her story.  She is the story.  I think especially in a case like this, it's impossible to separate character and story.  They're two sides of the same coin.

I'm going to share another quote from this same paper, because I think it helps sum up a lot of what I've been trying to say this whole time.

Fact is, the less you describe your character, the more room your readers have to come in and give him the benefit of the doubt.  All people see others differently, and as long as you give them the cold, hard facts, they probably won't be wrong about your character.  People are complicated, so do everyone a favor and let your character be complicated too.

I hope this is all explained to everyone's satisfaction.  Now, to other matters.

Let's talk about character vision.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has imagined an awesome character, tried to write him or her, and been depressed by how flat the attempt fell.  I hate that feeling, when it's like your character is just completely out of your control.  And then you try to wrest them back to what you wanted, and they're just...fake.  Disjointed.  Often bipolar.  At some point you may just throw your pencil down and lean back, sighing in frustration.

Don't sigh.  Get to work.  In order to reunite you and your estranged character, it's important to understand why he left you in the first place.  Normally it's one of two reasons.

1. You try to describe your character too much.
We've talked about this.  We're done with this.

2. You've got no idea who your character is.
To be fair, the second option really isn't likely with the scenario I described at the top, because this is lack of vision.  So let's try and figure this thing out.

I had a huge problem with one of my stories.  Its inspiration was a sentence, which grew until I had a world I wanted to fill with a story.  I also had a role that my main character had to fill.  The problem?  The role had nothing to do with her personality.  I ended up with enough to make a fantastic fairy tale-type story.  A novel?  Not so much.  The thing is, when I was coming up with this whole story, I neglected to figure the character's own personal choices into the plot.  She really could have been anyone.  But what she ended up being was shallow and vague.

Now take Rivenbark (which is the book that I'm currently super proud of).  Theodore was its inception.  I had a definite vision for him: rich, comes across as arrogant, smart, thoughtful, enigmatic, charismatic, surprising.  And the whole story revolves around him.  It doesn't seem that way all the time, but in the end, it does.  The story affects dozens of people, but Theodore is the one who starts the chain reaction, who moves things along when they threaten to slow.  He's the mastermind and, in a way, the victim, and I wrote him because he had that potential.

And thirdly, I am the Enemy is a story I've done a lot of brainstorming for, but haven't written anything except a short prologue for.  It was inspired while I was watching a Republican presidential debate, and politics has a large part in it.  But even before I realized it, I had a vision for the character who would be born out of all the chaos IATE begins with.  Before I knew it, I was fitting the story around my MC (whose name I completely forget, shame on me), and it became her story.

I don't know exactly what application to make after those three paragraphs.  I guess the only thing I can think to say is, when you've got an idea for a story plot, make sure you have a character that figures into it.

I've been hammering story over character so much now that I seem to have forgotten to mention that character is crucial. I truly believe that story is more important, but not by much.  Character is so, so important.  To use an analogy that is probably inaccurate, character is the beans to story's rice.  I'm too tired to come up with something better than that. 

My humble belief is, you should never get really into a story where you're not just as into its main character.

And...I have nothing left to say.  Or if I do and I forgot, it'll go into a part three.  But I think this is it.

Seriously.  I'm so tired.

How to Meet a Character: Part I, Less Telling is More Better

Writing is hopeless.

This statement would probably surprise anyone, and if you know me, even more so.  Since I was ten years old, I've known I wanted a career as a writer, and that hasn't changed.  So why would I write that sentence?

Well, in a way it's false.  Not all writing is hopeless, and none of it completely so.  So let me rephrase it.

It is hopeless when writing fiction to try to explain/reveal/exhibit human nature.

I've always thought fiction was about humans.  I've always thought the point was to explore our nature, to lay it open.  Think about it--we read a book; we enter someone's head.  We think what they think, we feel what they feel, we see what they see.  We become two people at once.  And yet, we think of the character as a person, someone who isn't us.  We know them, but we are not them.

As a writer, I've always struggled with making a character real.  The human I know best is...myself, but I can't make every character like myself.  But I can take little snippets from people I know, put them together, substitute and combine, and I end up with a Patchwork Personality, someone who isn't anyone, but is everyone.

But there are always more problems.  How do you put an entire person on paper?  How can you represent all the individual facets, the quirks, the different angles, the joy, pain, confusion, and a hundred different emotions we all experience at the same time?  The answer is fairly simple: you can't.

I'll just lay it out for you--you'll never, ever, ever know a character as well as you know yourself, unless they're one-dimensional and badly written.  Your only hope would be to know them as well as you know a close friend or family member, if that well.  Honestly, human nature doesn't really follow hard-and-fast rules.  We change, we develop, we go through seasons, and it's not predictable.  The best rule I can find for writing my characters is this one:

More is less.

The more a character is described, the less believable they are.  If you know every single thing about a person, if you can always predict what he's going to do, chances are he's a pretty boring person.  If someone doesn't have any mysteries, just how interesting is he?

With this past November's NaNo novel, I was in large part experimenting.  The main character, Theodore, has two chapters in Rivenbark that show his point of view.  The entire rest of the book is told in third person objective to dozens of other people, some who we know better than others.  And yet, there's never any doubt that Theodore is the main character.  What I tried to do, and what I hope I accomplished, is to make readers so eager to find out about Theodore and his personality that they'll keep reading, searching deep for any snippet that explains his personality.  He is mostly a mystery, and yet we care about him, we sympathize with him.

Here's an excerpt from near the beginning of Rivenbark.  It's unedited, so don't judge.  But it shows some of Theodore's personality.  As the book goes on, we see different sides of him, and he gets more complex.

“It’s inexcusable,” Theodore announced.  “Absolutely inexcusable, Sebastian.  I find myself bored.”

Sebastian looked over at his friend, noticing the way Theodore’s eyes were narrowed in frustration, his lips pressed in a straight, firm line.  Every feature of him spoke rigidity.  Though only sixteen years old, Theodore Richard Norwood IV was more imposing a picture than most adults.

“How about a trip to Arrowood?” he suggested.  

“I have been to Arrowood,” the boy said, his voice dripping with disapproval.  “I like it.  It belongs to me.  But I have been there, and there is a whole world outside of mine that I have not explored.”

“And?”

“I want to explore it.  I’ve come to realize that there is something that appeals to me about always taking the hardest way.”  Theodore’s gaze was unreadable, his face bathed in evening light as he stared out across the river.  A face like stone, Sebastian thought.  A wall more impenetrable than any ancient civilization had ever built.  “If you’re trying to make things as difficult as possible, you’ll never be disappointed.  Life will be regretless.”  A hint of a smile cracked the stone wall.  “Of course, it’s hope that gets in the way.  It’s hard to prepare for despair when there’s a nagging expectation that something good will happen.”

    Sebastian didn’t say a word.  He knew that whatever Theodore said next, it would be important.  Really, things that his best friend said were almost always important.  But Theodore was evidently restless, and that meant anything could happen.

A bird called out as it dipped low over the water, and Theodore’s eyes followed it, he evidently lost in thought.  Sebastian tore a piece of grass apart, waiting for his companion to speak.

“Pack your bags,” Theodore said suddenly.  “We leave tomorrow.”

Sebastian was used to surprises, so he merely nodded.  “Where to?”

Theodore looked calmly over at him.  “Somewhere far away.  Somewhere very, very different.”

When I think of books with good character development, my mind immediately goes to the book Holes by Louis Sachar.  We start out not knowing much about Stanley, and the only way we progress from there is by being given the facts, like what he says, how he reacts to things, the way things are described and you can tell it's how he thinks of them.

And then there's his friend Zero, who we know even less about, and care about just as much.

If you're trying to describe a character for your readers by filling in every last detail you can, you're not giving them enough credit.  That's a cool thing about humans--they can think.  They can draw their own conclusions from what you give them, and they can fill things in on their own.  They can adjust their thinking when it needs to be adjusted, and they can follow a story without knowing everything about the main character.

Ready for another surprise?

A book isn't about its main character.

This is a point that most people don't get.  People don't read a book because they just love this character so much.  They read a book because of what that character does.  That's why books have such a thing as a plot.  The story is what matters, and if one person is at the center of this story, then good.  Fine.  He's privileged.

But remember that.  A character isn't important, what a character does is.

Don't be that person.

You know, the one who will tell your whole life story to the first person you meet.  Or rather, don't let your character be that person.  Like any person, your readers will get to know him, and if they know so much about him at the beginning, just the sheer amount of information becomes part of his personality, and it weighs the story down.  And the story is what's important here.

Part II coming soon.

Back to the Books

Hello, all you lovely, lovely people.  First of all, my sister's lovely blog has inspired me to make my own lovelier.  Therefore, you have her to thank for my new background.  Seriously, click that link, visit her blog, and thank her in the comments of her most recent post.  I'm counting on you.

Now, back to me!  Most of y'all know that I plan to be an author, hopefully a really famous one.  What you might not know (but probably do, since I blasted it to the world on Google+) is that I recently participated in and won NaNoWriMo.  That's National Novel Writing Month for you ignorant folks who don't care enough about me to know what I've done the last two Novembers.

Just kidding.  I love you, and you know it.

Anyway, I did NaNo and it was pretty great. 

Oops, I totally just randomly pasted my whole NaNo book onto this draft.

Anyway. Have a banner.    Now that we're finished with that, I have a blog post to get to, and this has already gotten chaotic and off-track enough.

Let's talk about books!  Now that NaNoWriMo is over, I have some books to talk about, things I've read and things I'd recommend, and maybe even talk of my own book!

Books to Recommend

All the Wrong Questions, a series by Lemony Snicket (All ages)
Because it's awesome.  It's new and interesting, but subtle and sophisticated at the same time.  It contains possible the best writing I've ever had the privilege of reading, and is hilarious to boot.  It may be my favorite series, and I can't for the life of me decide which book is my favorite.

Mister Max, by Cynthia Voigt (All ages)
Because it's clever, exciting, and helps satisfy that part of me that is always sticking up for the kids, saying they can do anything an adult can.  Because it's written for kids but doesn't talk down to anyone.  Because it has a strong, bright, male protagonist and I'm tired of girls hogging everything.  Because it's fabulous, and you should read it.

The Agency, a series by Y. S. Lee
Not only is it set in Victorian England, which is pretty awesome on its own, but it deals with a lot of things besides.  It was a little refreshing to see the women here using the misconceptions about them to their advantage instead of whining and complaining like I've seen other places.  Also...spies.  When a book combines women in gorgeous dresses with martial arts and subterfuge, it's  got to be pretty awesome.  Another part of the story that I was not anticipating but found much enhanced the depth and interest of the story was the main character, Mary's, half-Chinese background.  I wasn't aware of that racial tension between Asians and English during that time period, but it does seem to fit, and is heightened by the fact that the author is Singaporian (not sure if that's a real word, but whatever).

The Fixer, by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
I loved the main character, Tess.  She's tough, smart, and kind of sarcastic, but she's not rude or a total smart-aleck like so many others.  That's refreshing.  She's also got a lot of stuff on her plate, which is added to a whole lot by the suspected murder of someone high up in D.C.  Then there's the whole Fixer thing, which is pretty awesome.  To quote the jacket: "When sixteen-year-old Tess Kendrick is sent to live with her older sister, Ivy, she has no idea that the infamous Ivy Kendrick is Washington D.C.'s #1 “fixer,” known for making politicians' scandals go away for a price."

Hope was Here, by Joan Bauer (All ages)
I love books that feature MCs with a specific skill and place in life, and that's why I read Hope was Here.  Hope has grown up with her aunt, travelling from place to place as they work at and slowly improve restaurants.  Her aunt cooks, and Hope is a very experienced waitress.  And then there's the whole politics thing, which I also find very intriguing.  I'm not going to lay out the plot, I'm just going to tell you to read it.

The Safe Lands, a series by Jill Williamson
First I'll just say, this is a bit of a strange concept--a dystopian retelling of the story of Daniel.  But it worked for me.  Now, all of the Bible isn't PG, and this series wasn't either.  It dealt with some pretty serious issues, including drug use and sexual promiscuity (not at all descriptive).  But the whole way through, it's showing how these are wrong, so I didn't object to them like I would have in most other books.  The writing was good, the concepts were intriguing, and it had a happy ending.  I'm happy.  I will say, though, at the end I was wiped out, because I felt like I'd been completely plunged into another world.

Moon over Manifest, by Claire Vanderpool
Looking at it in retrospect, I'm just going to say this: this book made me cry so much.  So.  Much.  But it also made me laugh, cry with joy, and smile unstoppably at the end.  It pulls you in deep and doesn't let you go until you've felt every emotion possible.

The Great Greene Heist, by Varian Johnson (All ages)
Not many people know this, but I absolutely adore heist stories, especially clean heist stories.  And I love this book.  It has a smart, enigmatic main character who always wears a tie (one of my favorite details) who also has a really cool brother, and some friends with special and varied skills.  It's exciting, quirky, and even manages to be unique.  The dialogue is some of the best I've read, and always manages to draw me in to read more.


Okay, I'm finished with book recommendations for now.  What to do next...  Oh, I know!  I'll talk about some of my characters from my NaNo book!

Theodore Richard Norwood IV
He's rich, got a private island for his birthday once (I forget which birthday), and is pretty fancy.  He also likes to come up with detailed plots and not tell anyone about them, but still tell them what to do in order to further the cause.  I won't tell you some of the most important things about him, though, because it would ruin the book for you once it's written.  I will say, however, that he can be pretty arrogant sometimes, but he can also be really nice and thoughtful (though he'd never admit it).  He likes to drink coffee every morning as he reads the paper; black coffee, of course.  Anything else would ruin it.  He also can pick locks.

John Sebastian Northmond
He's Theodore's best friend, hired as such when Theodore was ten.  He's a pretty big guy and can seem pretty intimidating; he's often mistaken as Theodore's bodyguard.  He's very observant and can kick a door in (yes, he's quite awesome).  He's not very good with kids, but he likes them all the same.

Josephine Cora Greenleaf
She's a redhead who likes to keep her feelings to herself.  She runs an insane asylum where most of the inhabitants aren't really insane.  She's nice and quirky, but can be quite dangerous to her enemies.  Her biggest asset is that she has plenty of loyal friends and she's extremely loyal herself.

Rain Nomwo
She doesn't have a middle name, but she does have a big family.  Rain is the oldest of nine kids, and does quite a bit of hiding from her responsibilities.  She's a little shy and withdrawn, but can be bold with people she's comfortable with.

EDIT that I completely forgot to include earlier:  If you have any book suggestions for me, please tell me in the comments!  Thanks!

That's it.

So long, y'all!

-Anna

"Let it Rain" and Just Deserts (which is ironic because it's very dry in the desert)

And a nice picture so my face doesn't show up on the G+ post

David Nail's song, "Let it Rain," has received many criticisms since it came out in 2011.  Most of them I don't disagree with, especially the point that the hook is pretty weak and misplaced.  I do, however, have something to add to them.

Examine:

So let it rain, let it pour, if she don’t love me anymore,
Just let it come down on me, let it come down on me,
Every word, let it hurt, even more than I deserve,
Let it come down on me, let it come down on me, let it rain

This is the chorus.  Ignore the bad grammar and focus on the third line.  Then focus even more on the second half of the third line.  ...even more than I deserve...

If you ask me, that sounds pretty arrogant.  Now, let's examine this closely.  To start, I'll tell you what the song is about.  It's pretty much about this guy who cheats on his wife this one night and then he (rightly) feels awful and ashamed about it, but his wife is of course pretty angry and throws all his stuff out the window.  Part of me wonders how much in the house is his and how long it took for her to throw it out, and did she just keep the stuff they owned equally?  But the other part of me likes to stay on-track, so that's what I'll do.  The parts of the song that don't explain that story are him talking about how bad he feels and how he is so ashamed.

Now, before you get to that third line, you're thinking, "Okay, this guy's really sorry and thinks he can't ever do enough to atone for his mistake."  And then you hit those five words.  ...even more than I deserve...

Now, why would anyone ever want to be hurt more than he deserves?  The concept of deserving something means that those things are equal.  You get the feel from most of "Let it Rain" that he thinks that compensation could never be equal to the sin he's committed.  But the third line makes it clear that he wants words that hurt more than what he did.  This essentially means that he's weighed the sin and found that it can be justified.  To carry it even further, he wants the sin to be more than justified.  He wants to be the victim.

Martyr complex, anyone?

You might think I'm looking too deep into this, especially since it's just a fictional situation and it can be hard to find the right words in songwriting, but I disagree.  That line ruins the whole song for me.  It, in my opinion, makes it much more self-centered and really trashes the whole shame theme.

Have a good day!