It's been a while...

It's been a while since I did much of anything on here. Not sure how many know that for the past couple of weeks I've had intermittent internet connection in my home. This is due to using somebody's phone for the internet as we were waiting for ours to be delivered. So, it is finally up and running.

And you would think within all of that time I would've gotten tonnes of writing done.

Truth is I work better to music. And when my laptop doesn't play CD's and when spotify will only work with a proper internet connection... there was nothing. So I did a little tiny bit of writing. Nothing more.

But. I have done more since I now have the internet. I am moving onto chapter 8 at 11,577 words and the ideas are rolling around in my mind. Unfortunately I also have a writing project that I'm working on for my dissertation for University. (Grrr) However, I am 500 words into that.

And once my third year is over I can talk all about that one 'cause I kinda love the character and I'm going to like the plot too I think. :3 Anyway. This is not a dead website. It will be updated, just intermittently.

Happy Writing.

Strong MALE characters

A while back I created a post about strong female characters. (If you missed it: http://mediocrewriterrachel.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/strong-female-characters.html go read it. Seriously. Now.) And I felt that the opposite gender needed to be stood up for as well.

So here we are.

Strong male characters. This isn't so widely touched upon as a topic for many reasons. Some of these include the fact that in stories, books, movies, TV series, we usually expect the main character to be a guy. With this comes to idea that men are typically strong, able bodied, can fight, are skinny and hot etc etc (we all know the kinds right?) But there comes the problem of making a character all of this but whiny or just like the last character.

So how do you go about making a strong male character? (There's going to be a lot of similarities to my 'female' blog but bare with me please) Think about the age of the person. The time they were brought up in. What kind of slang were they brought up around? What kind of thinking did the society have back in the day? Don't overuse slang. Especially in today's day and age. Think about what kind of character you want. Okay, so you do want a strong male character that can fight, is hot etc etc.... make them human though.

Again - Make. Them. Human.

Many characters could be read as just getting the job done for being strong and able to fight. Past that nothing much else matters. But give them emotions, humanise them. Think about the guys you know and love (or hate) and think about what kind of personalities you're going to give them. Think about the fact that the character won't be able to fight off everybody. They have to lose at some point. They need a weakness.

This is one thing that can let a character and its writer down. They may create a badass character who is lovable and desired by all the women reading about this character, but if they have no weakness? What's to love about a soldier who can power on through without stopping for anything? And I don't just mean about wounds but emotions and emotional trauma's as well.

Let's consider the fact that you may not create a male character that can fight through the toughest of battles and come out victorious. I'm going to use the examples of two characters I have created. Corporal Patrick Nelson and Sergeant Evan Torres.

Patrick Nelson: He's a junior Doctor and goofs around a lot. Does not have the greatest of skills with weapons and is only permitted to carrying a pistol. He can handle a fight so long as his opponent isn't too overpowering. (fight someone your own size kind of thing) He can lose to a female soldier and he will likely never be in command of a ship. The others keep an eye on him and put him in the middle of the group for his own safety.

Here we have a guy who is competent enough that he can hold his own, but not competent enough that could overcome somebody who is stronger than him. He isn't fantastic at shooting and his primary job is helping people. And he's a goof. (That's the humanisation of him.) He's a goof in the sense that he takes on stupid bets and deals in the heat of the moment because at heart he is still a child.

Evan Torres: Engineer who likes to tinker around with computers and electronics. He can use a standard issue rifle but not to the standard the others can. He's not much of a fighter and more of a doer or helper. If he could choose between electronics and a fight, or even fighting and restarting an entire ship, he'll take the ship. Likes to have a laugh with the rest of the crew and has a 'weak' stomach when it comes to really vile and horrible things.

Evan will throw up when something makes him gag. This is typically something we don't see in what we call 'strong' characters, but he works. He isn't a fighter in any instance and is one of the most protected of the crew. Despite being a Sergeant he is still seen as young and a little naive, not to mention that he looks for the humour in a situation.

There are two examples of (in my opinion, feel free to disagree) decent, well rounded characters that could hold up to scrutiny. I love them both and I would not change them.

So, strong does not necessarily mean a character that can fight his way out of any situation, or somebody who will jump head first as a noble sacrifice. It could very well be the guy that stays behind to bring a different series of characters back to full health or the guy that could stop the other characters from getting locked in a room full of sadistic murderers.

Have fun creating all kinds of characters. Strong means many things other than physical strength.

Happy Writing.

Back plotting away...

I'm currently at about 9,500 words into my second draft and I needed to add a reason to why Zach's German accent wasn't so strong as some of the others on the ship. And the first idea that came to mind: His parents emigrated to the states when the Third War started.

Note it does not say World War. Just Third War.

At this current moment I'm still working the basics through my mind of what this great Third War is and what happened, what the sides were and who was fighting. But it's slowly coming together. I think.

But this is one of the reasons I don't like making a note of every characters full background history. It's fun and interesting when something like this crops up. As soon as I'd finished writing it I'd stopped to look at it and I'd simply said, "Huh," with a smile on my face.

What's great about this is that I have some back story for Rhodes to add in as to why she can easily take command of a room when it isn't in Medical. My idea was already very basic and very minimal but now I can tie it into Zach's back story. Which then makes Rhodes a little older then I first thought. But that's fine by me.

So writing without the character's past can be interesting and fun. Especially during the second draft when everything unfolds itself in great wonder.

Happy Writing.

Blurbs

These pesky things can be the bane of any Writer or Author. Write a hundred word summary of your entire novel including the main character(s) and enough of the basic plot to draw a reader in and hook them from the back.

If done successfully your book could be flying off the shelves whether they be electronic or actual shelves.

But if done wrongly your book could slump to the bargain bucket within weeks.

There is no right or wrong way of doing a blurb, no format for writing a star winning blurb every time. It is hit and miss and it will always be hit and miss. What's the point of this post then? To go over a few things to include and to show my approach to writing a blurb. (Even I'm uncertain with them)

Okay, so, key things that need to be included in your blurb;
1) Main character (or characters if there's two)
2) Genre. (Subtlety is key. This is a science fiction story about.. <- no. On the way back to Earth the starship Apollo... <- better.)
3) Main problem (Sandra is a sad girl who doesn't feel comfortable in social situations. But then there was a guy.. <-nah Nobody understood the way her mind worked and this was why Sandra couldn't get along with people. Until.. <- I prefer this approach)
4) Drama. Suspense. Mystery.

Okay so that might not make much sense (In regards to numbers 3  and 4) but points one and two are easy. Name and where they/what kind of world they live in/what to expect. The genre comes with the main problem and the drama/suspense/mystery you're talking about. The main problem is the single point in your story that sparks the adventure to begin. For example, in Aries that I'm writing, the single point would be when a ship appears out of nowhere on radar and seconds later it becomes an emergency beacon. The drama/suspense/mystery is not knowing how or why that ship was there and where it appeared from.

Now, as I said there's no set way to write a blurb but just pick up a few books you own (or somebody else does) and just read them.Think about what they contain. The main character, a problem, a worrying thought and within all that the genre to some degree. Now, not all books may have the characters name on the back, or it won't have much of a problem in the blurb.

But in my opinion, as a general rule, make sure to contain the previously mentioned four items within your blurb. Keep it short and you're 90% of the way there. Even I haven't mastered how to write a blurb and I am still learning. But keep at it. Change your first blurb. Tweak it. Make it different. Make many different versions and keep going until you've found the one you love.

Happy Writing.

All over the place.

My second draft, plot wise/action wise/what happens next wise... is all over the place.

Compared to my first draft. Standing alone the second draft is going fine and super duper dandy (Yeah it's going slow. This is the FIRST second draft I have ever gotten to.) But when I look at my paper copy first draft and try to look at what happens next or where my characters are going next or even who does what next...

I'm looking everywhere and anywhere.

According to my first draft technically I still have information on page five to put down. In my second draft I am on page 12. There are a lot of things I have taken out from page 5 alone yet there is a lot more I have added in too. But apparently I've already jumped through to a scene that happens on page 8 which was Chapter 4. That scene now is on page 11 which is Chapter 5.

After this I've added an extra scene in which Charlie tries to raise the crew on Aries. Which kind of works. But then I need to go back to something that happened on page 5 (original) and add it into page 12 (new). Then I'm jumping to page 8 (original) once more to then get back onto track on page 9 (original).

It is all confusing.

Not to mention that half the notes I made in dirty red biro are being ignored because of further changes I did mentally after them.

Sigh.

It ain't easy being a writer.

But it sure is damn rewarding.

Happy Writing.

Update

Okay so it's been a couple of posts since I spoke about my personal writing. Well, it's going a little slowly. The past 1785 words have been improvised and added. They didn't exist and so I've been cross referencing it with the original draft and making sure the information correlates well.

Not to mention trying to add back story. (Just a little.)

Also, Rhodes has got a bigger role now and she's fleshed out a little more as a character.

But, it is going slowly. As I said, I am adding in scenes which didn't exist and I'm jumping about, scene-wise, in comparison to my first draft so I'm double checking that I'm getting everything in and more. It's not easy and I've been ready to bang my head more than a few times.

Happy Writing.

Strong FEMALE characters

I've seen a lot of "How do I write female characters?" or "I can't write a woman" or "What is a strong female character." Now I've done some reading up on this from other people and sites, to see what they have to say as well.

And all of our thoughts generally run along the lines of 'It's a character not a gender you're writing.'

That might make very little sense to you so I'll elaborate. A character is that. A character. You could give them a gender and the body parts to go with it, but it is still a character. Whether or not it is a female or a male character should be irrelevant. Nine times out of ten, if you've written a story about a male character, you could probably change the name and the gender and it would still work fine.

But we don't realise this.

Society has embedded in us that 'female characters' don't really exist other than to be there as a romantic interest or a piece of fleshy meat to show off. One prime example of a male role being given a female character is Starbuck from Battlestar Galactica. Some of you may not have heard of her/him but in the original series it was a male character. He smoked, played poker, got into fights, drank heavily, could out drink most others, was an excellent pilot, great shot, has an attitude, hates following orders all of the time. The female Starbuck in the remake series is exactly the same. She out drinks most people, smokes, plays poker and wins, gets into fist fights, has an attitude, will disregard orders, is an excellent pilot and a great shot. And it worked wonderfully.

Ellen Ripley from Alien (We've all heard of this film surely), I believe was meant to be cast as a male character up until the last minute where somebody decided "Let's make a it a girl actually. Keep everything, just change the name." And again, it worked. We have a kick ass female lead.

The point I am trying to make is that you don't always have to think about a 'girls' perspective. Just think about what kind of character you want. Do they smoke? Have kids? Have a mental disorder? Do they like to gamble? Drive a motorcycle? Not drive? Drink? Non-drinker? Believer of God? Atheist? Buddhist? Do not think about the character as a female but as a character. Imagine what your character would do, in character, and write it.

Gender shouldn't dictate what your character does or how they act. They may be a Femme Fatale or a romantic at heart, but male characters could fill those roles just as well. It works both ways.

So don't write for the gender, writer for the character.

Happy Writing.