Tuesday, October 19, 2021

The Abuse of Censorship

Should censorship be a four-letter word?

Eeeeuhm. There's a loaded question. We have a knee-jerk reaction to the term "censorship" because we see it being abused as a political weapon and a tool of suppression for civil rights and social progress. What we tend to forget are the instances where censorship is beneficial and necessary. There are reasons How To Be A Pedophile and Maintaining The Upper Hand: The Benefits of Beating Your Wife aren't readily accessible to the mainstream. One has to go deep into the troll dungeons to find that shit. 

There are different types of censorship: government, religious, and free-market being the most obvious. While we want to chafe against any institution trying to control what we can and cannot access, we do so from within a space that's already been protected from the deluge of horrific crap. When the crap barriers weaken, we get things like Facebook and YouTube with their enabling and promotion of bad actors. 

So, short answer, no, "censorship" is not a four-letter word. Censorship is built upon the gray wobbly foundation of "morality." Alas, mortality is gleefully exploited by those lacking it. The ways to combat censorship abuse...would require me to write multiple doctoral theses. The shortest and most glib answer is "follow the money then take it away."

Sunday, October 17, 2021

Hmm...F*CK

This week's topic here at the SFF Seven is 'Should censorship be a four-letter word?' My response when I read that was very much a Geralt of Rivia moment--Hmm, F*CK.

I'll be honest. I'm not sure what this topic even means. I think it means--Should censorship be something we don't say or talk about? But I like four-letter words, so my entire understanding of this question is probably different from what it should be. Also, this subject can get really expansive, so I'll be brief.

What I'll say is this: Censorship means different things to different people, usually based on their politics and sometimes (often) religion. Someone might fight the school board to remove a book with gay characters from the school library. This is an attempt to censor what people read based on personal beliefs. It is not a danger to expose and educate kids on diversity and tough topics--people and parts of the world they live in. It can build empathy and understanding--these are good things. If parents think it's harmful, they can discuss that with their children. What IS dangerous is promoting hate speech or books that promote hate against marginalized communities. 

It really isn't hard. If So and So Author wants to publish a book that promotes neo-Nazi activity, it shouldn't be a surprise if this is prevented or the book rejected or removed from libraries or schools. Decisions should be based on certain professional judgments and standards, not government or religious beliefs and not even on personal taste or because someone doesn't like the ideas presented. 

Also...people. Not educating your kids about the real world around them is doing them a tremendous disservice. 

NOW TO A HAPPIER TOPIC!

I'm announcing a couple of cool things this week on Instagram, so if you don't follow me, come say hi! 

One cool thing that I'll post here is that I received an author blurb from the AMAZING Juliet Marillier, who I admire so much. I was so nervous the entire time she was reading my book ;) But I think it turned out okay!

"If you like your fantasy with complex magic, an intriguing protagonist, a powerful romance, and a great cast of supporting characters, I highly recommend The Witch Collector. Charissa Weaks's high-stakes storytelling will leave you waiting eagerly for the next installment." — Juliet Marillier, award-winning author of the Warrior Bards series



If you'd like to pre-order the ebook or purchase the paperback, check here for links. BUT, that cool news? It might be about another reading option, so check out my Insta tomorrow!



I hope you all have a fabulous week!




Friday, October 15, 2021

What I Write Before I Write

 

I can tell you all about what I write before I start writing a draft of a book. But the fact is that I'm in the market at the moment. What I've been doing is inadequate to the way my life works right now. Flux is the kindest word I can conjure. Here's what I've done in the past, though:

Nothing. I jump in. I usually have a concept. From that concept, I see if I can write three chapters as a proof of concept. If I can do that, THEN I stop and go back to pre-writing work. That comes in the form of super in-depth character templates. I use the ones from Break into Fiction by Mary Buckham. They begin and end with what drives your characters. It's a lot of psychology and delving into old psychic wounds. It's really great if you're a character driven writer. It worked brilliantly for me for years - years I didn't have an overwhelming full time job, and aging parents living with me. It worked when I had time and brain space for staying immersed in the characters and their feelz.

Those days are gone for the moment. I can either admit that, or I can go on wasting my life waiting for it to 'get better'. What I need now is a means for adding a plot outline or a necessary scene list so I can maximize the tiny windows of writing time I do have. The downfall of the character templates is that they leave your story open - you can still pants your way through a book with character drives and emotions and wounds. That's fine - it's just a bigger investment in time, in my experience. Lovely if you have the privilege. Less so if you're working three jobs.

Maybe this is where writing goes from being self-indulgent fun thing to wallow around in and explore. Maybe under duress, it grows up into something a little more -- I don't know. Packaged? I feel like I'm asking for creative briefs for my own content. Oh hey, did I mention I'm a technical writer for the day job? Yeah. That's all packaged. It's my job to interview the person who hired us and find out what they want in a piece of writing (and when and for how much). Then I find out what source material they have to teach me and the other writers about the product we'll write about. I'm proposing using the character templates as my source material to teach me about my own content. My goal now is to come up with a clearly defined definition of what's required in the end product based on what I know from the source material and what I know about what I'll find fun and interesting about the story.

I mean it *sounds* like a good idea.

Here's hoping it'll do the job. Cause what's happening (or not) right now, just ain't working.

Thursday, October 14, 2021

Before Chapter One: Outline

close up image from Alexia's spiral bound notebook where she's drawn out a three act graph to fill in with plot details

 How do you start a book? 

That seems to be the most common question I get asked once it becomes known I’m a writer. And it also happens that this week’s topic is Before Chapter One: What do you have in place before you start drafting?


I may not physically be a laboratorian any longer, but inside I’ll always and forever be a lab girl. And lab people follow the procedure! Each step of the way. 


Step one, for me which means YMMV: outline


It seems like I’m in the minority when talking to others in the writing community. I love having an outline. I love knowing the main plot points from beginning to end. I love being able to see the story’s loose form right away and watch it tighten into a solid novel. 


I’m going off the before you start drafting here. Because technically before I do an outline or being my detailed synopsis, I have a scene in my mind. It’s always in full technicolor—meaning I can see, smell, feel, and hear everything in that scene. 


Preferably, I want that key scene to marinate in my brain for a good 3-6 months before I explore it further. And I really want to have a story idea for a solid year before I start writing it. I find that the words flow out of me much easier if I take the time to do that. 


Once I have the scene and MCs (main characters) formed, I do a three act outline and from there I start my synopsis which usually rounds out around 6 pages. From there I break the synopsis into chapters so I have at least one sentence for each one. As this process is happening I’m researching names and places and adding images to their respective folder in Scrivener. 


Does anyone else pre-plan the crap out of their novel? And if you do, how much do you put into your program/Scrivener? 

Wednesday, October 13, 2021

FIRE OF THE FROST Cover Reveal!

Cover reveal!!!

I'm super excited to share the cover for FIRE OF THE FROST! Out December 2, 2021, this midwinter holiday fantasy romance anthology includes stories from the fabulous Darynda Jones, Amanda Bouchet, Grace Draven and myself. You can preorder the ebook now from all the major retailers (iBooks coming soon) and the print preorder through my webstore. (There will be print available from the other retailers eventually, but not until release day.)

   


From Darynda Jones, a standalone novella set in a world where vampyres are hunted for sport. The only thing standing between them and total annihilation is Winter, a warrior bred to save them from extinction. Forbidden to fall in love, Winter cares only about her oaths… until she meets the devilish prince of the underworld.

Amanda Bouchet transports The Kingmaker Chronicles to modern-day New York City. An exiled warrior finds himself in the Big Apple just before the holidays. On a vital mission for Athena, he meets an imperiled French teacher from Connecticut, and soon they’re knee-deep in inexplicable phenomena.

Grace Draven brings a novella-length expansion of a stand-alone short story in which a cursed mage-king from a frozen kingdom is obligated to marry a woman of high-ranking nobility but meets his soulmate in a lowly scribe.

From Jeffe Kennedy comes a standalone novella in the Dark Wizard world, where an ancient holiday is resurrected and clandestine lovers find the courage to pursue forbidden joy.

   

This week at the SFF Seven our topic is: Before Chapter One. We're asking each other, "What do you have in place before you start drafting? Inspiration board? Top-level plot bullets? Full outline? Flushed out Character Profiles? Etc."

This is kind of funny for me to answer today because I'm starting Chapter One on the novella for this anthology. And yes, it will be Chapter One, because I'm a linear writer. What do I know about the story at this point? I know this: 

It's set in my Dark Wizard world (Bonds of Magic), where an ancient holiday is resurrected and clandestine lovers find the courage to pursue forbidden joy.

Heh. I had to figure out that much so I had something to say for the reveal.

At least I know the world? That's because I've already written and published the first two books in the Bonds of Magic series, DARK WIZARD and BRIGHT FAMILIAR. My as-yet-untitled story in FIRE OF THE FROST occurs away from the protagonists of the main arc, but I don't know yet who the characters will be. This is a departure for me as I start with character 99% of the time. So, this will be interesting!

But my short answer to the question is: nothing. Pretty much all I have before I start drafting is a twinkle in my eye, as it were. 

Let it shine, baby. Let it shine!

Tuesday, October 12, 2021

Before Chapter One: Skeletal Plotting

Before Chapter One: What do I have in place before I start drafting? Inspiration board, plot bullets, full outline, character profiles, etc?

Hello, my name is KAK, and I'm a skeletal plotter. That means before I start drafting I have something between plot bullets and a full outline. I know if the book is a stand-alone or part of a series, and the respective story arcs. I know my primary and secondary character names, dominant attributes, and points of introduction. I know what relationship and purpose those characters have with the main character. I have a vague idea of setting/environment. I know the highlights of the magic system and if there are magical creatures. I know the plot's three arcs and the ending. I have a primary theme/purpose for every chapter, thus I know the path of the primary plot. I also highlight relationship milestones/changes/challenges chapter-by-chapter.

I also know that 60% of that outline isn't going to reflect the final story once it's drafted. It's okay. The 40% that remains is what keeps the story on track. The 60% isn't wasted effort; it's the flexibility that still allows me the wonder and enjoyment of discovery without jumping off the rails.


Monday, October 11, 2021

How to get started

So this week's subject is how to get started on yiur next novel. What do you have reeady to go before hyouremready to go as it were.

Wel, that's an interestintg question, especially since Im a pantser. I basically just sit down ad start. I don't have a list of prepared character names. I don'tnusually do outlines. I have never even once filled out charcter cards, though the idea always sounds interesting to e. No 3x5 index xards, no tree of possibe scenes. It just isn't my thing.

I have nothing, ecept a vague notion of what I want to see when it's all said and done. I MIGHT have a few vague ideas for scenes in my head, but the closest comparison I cn give is a few stepping stones to help e across the river as I start my walk.

Here's the thing: for me, half the fun is the mystery. I know that I'll need a town before it's all said and done. I often prefer small town settings, because there' a certain level of intimacy to them that is washed away in big city settings. I know I'll ned a few character, but I like to learn about them the same way that readere learn about them. That is to say I like to learn abot them as I move throgh the story. It is eceedingly rare for me to have a well deeloped notion of what a chaaracter will become as the story progresses, because I DO think chaarcters should change as they move through a tale. Like all of us, they shouod be shped by their surroundings by their past, and by what happens to them in every day events.

Let me put thT in a slightoy different way. When I strted writing I was a very different peron than I am now. My beliefs were different, my lifestyle was certainoy different, and I promise you the me from 25 years ago would have never expected the me that lives in my skin now. I have eveolved as a result of life events, changes in my environment, and incidents that reshaped me in commpketeoy unexpected ways. I bet if you look back even a decade, you can say the same and if I am wrong, yu are very much an exception to the rules.

Oh, some things haven't changed much. I still love Halloween and I think Stephen King is about he best writer out there these days. I think my writing has evolved immensely, and I know that my opinions arent what they were half a lifetime ago. I have, in some ways, become jaded. I have, in other way, remained remarkaboy the same.

But what has n9t changed is my preference to go into a story with onoy a seed of an idea. I find the mysteries that unfod as I write are haof the fun. I can look back at my very first novel, UNDER THE OVERTREE, and I can remember how surprised I was by some of the charctes. Lisa Scarabeeli comes to mind. I made her to be a throaway. She was supposed to die horribly in the story, but she surprised me No matter what I hit her with, and I hit her ith a LOT, she simply would not die. If I had outlined the novel as thoroughy as some writer I know, that wouodnt have happenede She'd have asted two scenes and then she wouod have been gone I would have lost tht element of surprise. A writer I knew for a long time. Rick Hautala, once had a long debate with me about that Rick outlined everything meticulousy, effectively writing so detiled an outline for himself that it wouod tke 20,000 words to finish the outline he wouod then flesh out that that outline and have a finished novel. I toold him then, and I still hold to it, tht for me, the element of surprise is removed by having a detailed outline. I can no longer surprise myself, so how can I expect to surprise the reader?

He never quite got that. That's okay, I couod never quite work my wy through his form of outlining, either.

The thing to remember is that there is nio right ot wrong in writing. There is only what is right or wrong for YOU.

Do you need an outliune? Maybe you do. All I need are my aforementioned stepping stones Brief snippets of scenes thT might or might not actually take place in my stories. I had one scene in y head when I started writing that first novel. It was a scene tht wouod not leave me alone and I wrote un til I had that scene fleshed out properly, which was roughoy fifteen thousand words in three days. By the time I had finished writing that scene, I knew what the next few importaant beats in the story wouod be and that was how I kept writing. 178,000 or so words later, I had finished my first novel's first draft.And I was happy with it, and I still am. Oh donpt get me wroing, I'd have written a very different story than what I wrote then if I were to start with the same seed as I did back in the day. I am, as I have already sid, a very different person than I was back then. Different aspects of the sme tle woulde ahve been moe important to me if I wrote the book today instead of in the pst.

Here's what I really need to get strted i need an idea. I need at least one scene that I a desperately eage to write, and I need to hav4 a vague notion of what I want to have hapening somwhere near the end of the book. That's it. everything else isw done spur of the moment. i do not have a list of nakes, when I start. I make them up as I go. Those names will be added to a one or two page leicon as I go along. Especially in a fantasy settting where the names are markedly different than the common names I find in my world. That lexicon will include the naes of characters, often with a one sentence description to help me remembr imortant things about them. Tyler wilso-smart ass-nerd-very near sighted, wears glasses. Mark Howell--overwight, dremer, holds a grudge. cassie Monroe, athletic, jogs every day, is adrift emotionally. Thaat's three chrcters and as fleshed out as they were when I started.

I do the same with locations: Summitvikle, small town, near a big lake, xenophobic atmsphere.

How much mire do you need?I want enough to fire my neurons and remind me of the peron/place. That's all. I don;t outline.I ask myself questions. I don't answer them diretly. I answer them in the story. I might add in the name of good friends or family member as I go. Cindy Howell, Narks mom, was fifteen when she had her son. Blonde hair.

The rest is details, The notes are the clay I'm sculpting from as it were. I don't want more than tht I want the shpe and teture nd design to suprise me as I go along.

Probaboy thtt isnpt a helpful pile of inforation I know most of the writers I deal with hve very different processes than I do. I collaborte with riters with fair regularity and most of them outline much more than I do, The exception is my friend Chrles rutledge, with whom I regularly collaboraate. Charles is as weird s me, and whoile we ahve written several novels and novellas together, the closest we've ever come to an outline is about three sentences worth of story idea, followed by a luch meeting ot two when we were halfway through a book. But as I have waid before, I'm not normal and neither is Charles.The first novel we worked on together, BLIND SHADOWS, took us three weeks to write. The second novel we worked on together, CONGREGATIONS OF THE DEAD took us two weeks. The third, A HELL WITHIN, was about five months, The thing is we had three books and a novella come out of bout hree sengtences. We should do a story with the local cop and a detective who run across a monster when they're just going abiut their normal days. Mayne set it in the mountains. Do it sa a crime story, but there's also this supernaatural thing going on, too.

That was enough. We had a blast firing chptes back and forth on each and every tale.

I say again, and with feeling, tee is no right or wrong way, theres onoy the way that works for you.

Friday, October 8, 2021

Queries, Synopses, and Taglines, Oh My

If the question is are queries and synopses bane, benefit, or both, my answer is yes. All the things. I have a decidedly love/hate relationship with them. 

I've spent months (possibly years, to my dismay) thinking in terms of broad strokes, long arcs, interwoven threads, and the details that build a complete sensory world in a book. It took me way too many words to do so. Now you want me to boil it down into a single page synopsis? This is bane. It's bane because of the cognitive shift that has to happen from writer to marketeer - a shift that apparently comes at emotional cost for a lot of authors, including me. 

However, synopses done well are absolutely a benefit. They really do force you to distill the main conflict, emotion, and themes. From that synopses, a query can be born. From that synopses, pithy one liners about the story and the characters can be used as teasers across social media and ads if you're so inclined. If you'd asked me what was good about a synopses a few years ago, I'd have said, 'when they're over'. But somewhere along the way, a critique partner relayed a message from her editor at a large house - learn to love synopses because it's how the big trad houses sell you and your story. Did you think anyone other than your editor read your book? Doesn't happen. The cover art skims the synopsis. Marketing skims the synopsis. If that synopsis is a toss off, it shows. Love that impossible quest to write a synopsis. It's what gets you where you want to go. 

I'm aware of a couple of schools of thought on synopses. One is that synopses are nothing more than a point by point logical flow through the plot. The second says that synopses are a story in and of themselves that should reflect the voice and feel of the book. My synopses tend to fall into that second category. I want the feeling in the synopsis. I want all that character angst sitting on some marketing person's chest, staring into their eyes. That means I select for melodrama when I undertake a synopsis.

Don't think there aren't several false starts, hair tearing, and wails of 'why is this so hard'? I usually end up with a couple of half done versions full of stilted phrases around what happens in the book. Then I get mad, say 'melodrama, stupid' and go for a paragraph describing the heroine and her goal, one for the hero and his goal, and then the rest is how those goals collide and how everyone's gonna die if the two of them can't get it together. It's not a patented formula or anything, but it does seem to work well. 

I also only speak in terms of the synopsis because for me, the query is the teaser for the synopsis and is derived from it. Some authors start with a tagline and then build longer and longer focused content until they hit synopsis length. I go the other direction. Long form that boils down farther and farther until I have a single tagline. But by the time I'm done, I have a query, a synopsis, and a back cover blurb all ready to go in a media kit that I can pull from easily. 

But ye gods, I still dislike having to stare at a blank page and a flashing cursor after having written 'The End' on something else.