My Worst Distractions

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It’s hard enough to write without battling past a mass of distractions. Perhaps my worst distractions from writing match your own list?

5. This blog. Ironic, but true. A Single Bell takes time, energy, and creativity – all of which I need for fiction writing as well.

4. Good books. Hmm, read an awesome book, or try to write a scene that’s going nowhere? No contest. It’s also way easier to read than write during my commute. I hate people looking over my shoulder.

3. My budding social life. Don’t laugh. Social life is important. I actually need to try to ramp it up and go dancing. I love dancing, but haven’t in ages.

2. Real life. As sad as it is to admit, real life trumps writing life. Work, school, errands, etc. Huge time suck.

And the number one distraction from my writing?

1. Shiny new ideas! They burrow into my head and refuse to leave until either A) I write them out, or B) enough time passes I don’t need to write it out anymore. This time varies from idea to idea.

Firelite

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A Review of Firelight, by Sophie Jordan

“Will’s not my savior. He’s a killer.”
- Jacinda

Finally, a paranormal romance that doesn’t feature vampires or werewolves! Jacinda is a draki, a descendent of dragons who can disguise herself as a human. When her family escapes to a desert (and human) town, Jacinda’s inner draki is in danger of dying. The only thing that can save her? A boy named Will, who just happens to belong to family of draki hunters.

Like most paranormal romances, Firelight was fairly predictable. Girl falls for dangerous hot guy, tries to resist, realizes she doesn’t want to. I finally stopped paying attention whenever Jacinda tried to swear off the guy, because I knew it wouldn’t last five pages. The romance was also a bit too gooey for my tastes.

I know Jordan wanted/needed to make Jacinda relatable, but I think it would have been interesting to see bigger differences between human and draki culture and way of thinking – not just instinct. She was pretty 21st century American female human to me. Slightly different attitudes toward basic values would have made her character more believable to me.

But as I said before, it’s not about vampires! Jacinda was fiery (literally) and likable, Will was properly mysterious, and the bad guys were equally creepy. It was – simply – a nice, light book.

A cute, quick read to help make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, but nothing too groundbreaking.

My Rating (out of five stars)
★★★.5

Stardust Music

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How about some action music for once! It’s a short track, but fun to listen to. I usually start off with this song in my Fantasy Playlist for a reason.

Print & Prejudice

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I just received an order of four new books. Some I had seen around on the internet and wanted to buy, some were more spur of the moment as I filled up my shopping cart. I wasn’t surprised to find so many different books I wanted to read in one sitting.

I was surprised, however, when I flipped over a book and discovered it had been self-published.

The book is George Knightley, Esquire, by Barbara Cornthwaite. It’s basically Jane Austen’s Emma from the hero’s point of view. Given the title, I figured it was along the same lines as Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman and Frederick Wentworth, Captain, both series I had loved. As soon as I learned of it, I’d scoured the brick and mortar stores. Now I finally own it, and couldn’t wait to start reading.

And I am slightly ashamed to admit that as soon as I saw the back cover and confirmed on the copyright page that it was self-published, I immediately doubted its worth. If Cornthwaite couldn’t get anyone to publish it, how bad was the book? Was I about to open the cover to a vanity book, published because the author knew – no matter what legitimate publishers had told her otherwise – that her book was perfect?

Those were the types of thoughts I drudged up from my prejudiced upbringing. Publishers, I’d been taught, were the be all end all in whether a book was worth publishing or not. If you couldn’t get a bite, your novel must really be terrible.

As technology improves, and self-publishing becomes more convenient and common, I know this attitude must change. There’s a lot of trash out there, and a good chunk of it’s professionally published. Who’s to say that publishers really know what it takes to write a great novel?

I’m happy to announce that even though I’ve only read the first two chapters of Cornthwaite’s novel, I’m quite pleased. The character interactions are fun and witty, and I have high hopes for seeing the rest of Mr. Knightley’s side of the story.

How to Turn Your Readers Off

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I started to read two books recently. One was the “hit” fantasy Graceling, by Kristin Cashore. The other was the epic sci-fi Off Armaggedon Reef, by David Weber. What did they have in common?

Very bad writing.

Graceling failed in its character design and plot. Off Armaggedon Reef failed in its style. I simply could not read one more word in either of them. Here’s why.

Graceling
Katsa was a Mary Sue. Plain and simple. In a world where people have magically-enhanced talents called graces, Katsa is graced in killing. This means she’s excellent at wielding weapons, hand-to-hand combat, seeing in the dark, building fires, climbing trees, falling asleep, not freezing to death in the equivalent of Antarctica…you see what I mean. She’s perfect at every single thing she tries.

It’s not until half way through the book that we learn she’s not graced in killing, she’s graced in survival. Cashore might have thought this was a valid explanation, but I was tried beyond my patience. To me, it seemed like a thinly veiled excuse to have a Mary Sue.

When I was so fed up with the main character, it was hard to care about what she did. I didn’t care about the villain, or her friends, or her trials. After I realized that, I stopped reading.

Off Armaggedon Reef
I did not get very far in this book, but there were many things that annoyed me:

  • Starting the book with a character who dies in the same scene. What was the point of getting attached to captain who dies over 700 years before the actual plot begins?
  • Starting the book with a scene whose only bearing on the rest of the novel could have been covered in narration rather than narrative. Following all those people who died in the first scene (again, over 700 years before the actual plot) was a waste of my time.
  • Including scenes that do not advance plot or characterization whatsoever. It’s a large book. Trim down.
  • Future naming conventions, which boil down to adding “y’s” in every place possible. Pick some different letters! Better yet, don’t make the old names so obvious. Take a page out of Hunger Games, with altered names like Peeta (probably used to be Peter) or topical names like Thresh from the agricultural district and Glimmer from the luxury items district.

In case you were wondering, the name Wyllym was the last straw.

I can only implore you not to make the same mistakes as these authors. It’s a sure way to lose readers.

Have you read either of these books? Do you agree or disagree with my complaints?

Do Writers Sabotage Their Own Romances?

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I thought of a romance post too late for Valentine’s Day, so enjoy it now!


Courtly Love

““But if I asked you to be queen of my heart?”

Aly crinkled her nose with distaste. She had sighed over speeches like that one in the stories she had read and the romantic ballads she had heard. In real life they sounded tawdry.”

Similarly, I find some romantic gestures and speeches work well in books, but feel terribly out of place in real life. It’s partly because they sound like flowery nothings. And it’s partly because it’s too over dramatic for every day life.

I may be a romantic in my ideals, but I am certainly not in reality. Fluffy compliments and unswerving devotion make me more uncomfortable than flattered. It might work in books, but not directed toward me.

In my own stories, I try to avoid those kind of situations. I’m not sure if they bother me instinctively, or because I sense that it would be really bad writing.

Because I think the problem is also because I’m – unforgivingly – a writer.

As a younger writer, I cared more about heroines saving the day than falling in love. Now that I’m older, I like to play around with romantic subplots as well.

But is that problematic? In creating male leads on paper whom I would be glad to fall in love with, am I raising my standards – already very high – into the realm of the impossible?

Or, as an avid reader, was I doomed from the beginning? Many women search for their Mr. Right, their Mr. Darcy, their Mr. Lupin. (Okay, that last one might just be me.) Are we spoiled by men who are perfect on paper, who can’t possibly exist in real life?

Or maybe they do, and we just have to find them. Sure, they probably won’t own Pemberley or attend Hogwarts, but those aren’t exactly dealbreakers.

Then again, perhaps writing makes the situation worse. I’m used to manipulating the characters and the situations to make a satisfying scene – that’s a bit harder to do in real life. And while manipulation can be fun, it can certainly make a relationship extremely boring. Part of the fun in that comes from surprise.

As you can see, I don’t really have any answers. But I would like to hear from other writers on their experiences or revelations.

Happy Valentine’s Day

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Happy Valentine’s Day, from the Avatar the Last Stickfigure gang!

Katara: He loves me…he loves me not…
Zuko: Ugh. Not another fangirl.

His Majesty’s Mediocre Dragon

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A Review of His Majesty’s Dragon, by Naomi Novik

“No, my dear. I would rather have you than any ship in the Navy.”
- Laurence

It’s the Napoleonic Wars, and both sides are trying to build their dragon corps. The latest aviator for England is a Naval captain who found a dragon egg on a French prize ship and befriended the hatchling. Captain Laurence and Temeraire strike up a wonderfully sweet friendship and join the corps to help defend the country from Napoleon’s boldest move yet.

The premise is fun, and Temeraire is the most adorable dragon I’ve ever met. He’s clever and curious and sweet. There were a few heart-wrenching moments with him and some of the other dragons.

But the novel, however, quickly plateaus. I’m not sure if it’s the writing, or the tone, or the non-existant character development. No matter how many battles there were, the novel never seemed to go anywhere. It was just flat.

My Rating (out of five stars)
★★★

Latest E-Book Convert

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My super old iPod that I got when I graduated from high school is almost dead, so on Wednesday I bought an iPod Touch. I wanted the Touch over a Classic so that I could access my e-mail and in the internet, and have apps (I have a strong belief that phones should remain only phones).

The first – and so far only – app I downloaded? The Kindle App.

I am now an e-book convert.

I’ve heard about e-books for a while. I know the pros and cons. Heck, I’m in publishing grad school. It was practically an entire class.

But I was a firm lover of print books – and still am – and refused to think about using e-books. Not that they’re bad, or the bane of a publisher’s existence – which they’re not – they just weren’t for me. If I had to read a book, I’d rather have one in print.

Until today, when the print book I was reading, Off Armaggeddon Reef, thoroughly got on my nerves (more about this next week). I spent the rest of my commute, and the commute to class, listening to the Tangled Soundtrack I’d bought the night before.

When I reached my classroom, I was finally in range of a wi-fi network, and decided to test out some of the internet-happy features on my new iPod. Cue the App Store, and the Kindle App. In a few minutes I had downloaded Mansfield Park and was reading away.

I like the page action (versus computer screen scrolling) and the instant bookmark. I didn’t mind the small screen. This Jane Austen’s got some pretty dense paragraphs, so the size neatly breaks them up into easier chunks. And bonus, Mansfield Park was free because it’s in the public domain – good thing too, I already bought a print version.

Now, I would never curl up on the sofa with my iPod. What a waste of a good print book. But for traveling (it’s even got an airplane mode) or waiting for an appointment or whatever, this sure is a nifty feature.

Winners Are Boring

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You’ll probably want your main characters to win – eventually. But if they win every battle, every contest, every parlor game, your readers are going to be very very bored.

One of the problems with Mary Sues is that they are perfect – and win everything. I know you don’t want to write Mary Sues. So let’s remember this, shall we?

In my first two drafts of Narrator, I made my characters too successful. They certainly didn’t win every battle, but their plans worked out more often than not. There was probably tension and suspense and all that in those scenes, but definitely not as much as there could be.

For example, Calder and gang get taken prisoner and stuffed in a basement until they can be killed. One of them picks the lock, they all bust out, and quickly take down the bad guys.

In the third draft, I’m changing this. They won’t be able to pick the lock, or bust out. Instead, they’ll be marched to their execution, and one of them is going to be a knife-prick away from dying.

Much headier stuff. Compared to this, that first scene is just plain boring.

So which do you want to write? Constant winners, or those who only win when it counts (and sometimes not even then)?

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  • Welcome

    new haircut

    Hi, I'm Jenn, new grad student and old YA fantasy writer. I've long dreamed of being a novelist, and I bet you have too. I hope you find my blog helpful, inspiring, and maybe just a little bit fun. (But not too much fun. Writing is serious business, you know.)

    You can follow me on Twitter or Facebook, or email me at:
    jennifer.a.johnson7 at gmail dot com

  • Official Progress


    4/21 segments

    A narrator hijacks a cliche fantasy story, much to the chagrin of its characters.

    Status: Second revision



    1,639/70,000 words
    A young noblewoman with strange powers must choose: her king or her soul.

    Status: First draft



    1,087/70,000 words
    When a girl's heart is stolen, she's plunged into a world of magic and shadows - but can she get her heart back before she loses it completely?

    Status: First draft





  • All writing, unless otherwise specified, is the property of
    Jennifer Johnson © 2010