voted off (your secondary characters)

Last night (Wednesday's night) to the shock of many Alexis Graces was voted off season 8 of American Idol. Ryan say at the beginning of every show "Anything can happen" and last night it did.

Now how to transport this into a lesson on how to write... Well I don't know about other writers, but I always have to many secondary characters in my story. People tell me all the time that my stories are confusing because the reader can't tell who talking or doing what.
So I have to "vote off" my secondary characters. I have to look at their performance to decide who stay and who goes.
Are they written well?
Are the a "whole person" or a "stick drawing person"? What i mean are they well developed or are they flat on the page like a stick drawing a child does.
And most important Do they move the story a long?

Dear Reader,
Do you think the judges and the people who called in made the wrong decision by letting Alexis go? Also what do you think of secondary characters you come across in books, TV shows and movies. And writers what do you do about your secondary characters?

Characters' desires

Dear Reader,
For you to enjoy a book or any other type of story, do you have to know what the main character wants or desires?

What is the character's desires in your favorite books and what are the titles of those books?

And other writers, how do you chose to express your characters' desires?

Characters' habits

The best way to change a bad habit is to change it to a good habit. We are creatures of habits might as well have many good habits vs. having many bad habits.

I think when I notice a character in a book having a habit, good or bad, it make them more human and real.

I often write my heroes running their hand through their hairs when nervous.

Dear Readers,
what habits do you notice in books or real life? If you are a writer what often show up in your books?

Rewriting- my first mistake

Turned out the best first step to rewriting a novel is to take a break from the first draft. *Laugh* I knew this but I didn't give myself a break. I jumped right in and started trying to fix the first problem I came across. A bad begining. Then in turn I decided I need to start over and just write the story again. I didn't give my story a chance before I decide to change the whole thing.

Last night I read in an article on the Writer’s Digest website that you need to take two weeks, at least, off from your first draft. A month is better but who can wait that long? The article was titled "Revising Your Manuscript"

So I'm not to think about Keep Faith for two weeks. No more trying to change it, for now. ;)
Then once the two weeks is over, I'm to read my story as if it's a book I just brought. And go from there!

Oh my the way, for Lent I'm staying about from reading others' blogs. So my Internet friends I'm be back commenting on your blogs after Easter!

So
Dear Reader
What do you do to remove yourself from your first draft?
or
What do you do to escape the world about you?

Are your characters normal?

I heard this Title of this book yesterday, "Everybody's Normal Till You Get to Know Them" by John Ortberg. I laugh everytime I think of it. I haven't read it but I bet its funny.

Anyway,
Are your characters normal? I hope not! I hope they stand out and have something loveable about them, hero and villian.

So Dear Reader
What not normal about your characters?
And yes I'm trying to answer that story about my own characters. Luke is the flirty, charming bad boy who might turn out good. Marty is .... well I'm having a harder time getting to know Marty. I don't want her to turn out like me, I want her different. I have a bad habit of creating heroine who have my personality traits, so I'm working on that. Starting with Marty.

A writer's woe

In the world of writers there is a lot of criticism about our works. Some days we take it well, others...not so well.

I have had a bad week of not so well. First I posted the end of a chapter on Miss Snark's First Victim. Great blog, by the way. In her drop the needle critic section for this month. I had so many grammar errors everyone who commented thougth English was my second language. I laughed, everyone I shared this comment laughed too. I made fun of it.

It sat in the back of my mind every time I sat down to try to rewrite my story. In those times I did not find it funny. The serpent, who some people named self doubt, and others have a different name for him, had crept in. I just took the time to check a dictionnary to see if crept or creep is correct. In case you are wondering I had creep written first. People I found this comment funny because I have an hearing loss, I know for a fact I don't hear the ending of words. So I mess up on present and past tense when writing as well as when I speak. People always want to know where I'm from. At the time I posted part of my chapter I was not thinking about my grammar. In fact I believed I pretty good grammar. Wrong! I glad I know now. I'm taking it with a big shovel of salt.
And then today I sat in my writing class after reading the first two pages of my YA novel, taking more criticsim. This time I'm told I need to state what my main character wants. While I had a hook, no one could tell what my MC wanted. The teacher also said a few things, basicly saying I had to learn how to set up my plot. Needless to say, I wanted to quit.
By the way, I'm not quitting!
I'm taking the writing class for a reason. To learn!
So back to the drawing board.
What does my main character want?
At what point does she start wanting it? Start the story there.
Find out how to increase tensing in plot.

Dear Reader,
What do you think?

5th day of sweat

Still in the seventy days of sweat Challenge by alison kent.
It's the end of day 5. I'm still going strong! I found that I write best between 7-10 something at night. I never dreamed that would end up my best time to write. For the last 2 days I've gone 730 words over my daily goal. so alittle over 2000 words a day. Wow! I'm that much closer to my over all goal, that what I keep telling myself.

3rd sweaty day

ok it the 3rd day of Alison Kent's seventy days of sweat! This challenge is just what i need to sit my butt down to write! Goodness know that what authors do day in and day out they sit at thier computer and write. And most days I never get around to writing. It like I'm scare or something. Scare i fail and i have yet to try so I have failed if i haven't tried. Now thanks to Seventy days of sweat I'm trying and I'm now farther in my book.
As I said in the earlier post my goal is 85000 words in 70 days. I figured out that about 1300 words a day. That number alittle over but still doable.
So on sunday I found out about the challenge from Marjorie M Liu's LiveJournal Blog. She didn't say much but I was then curious so I click the link to Alison's blog. Wow like I keep saying just what I needed so I signed up. It was late on sunday but I started writing. I wrote least then a page but it got me started! Yesterday (monday) I read the posts that Alison linked in her blog, realized that I don't have so much on my plate as some of the authors in this chanenge it was a wow moment. also on monday I wrote my words count for the day I still behind becouse of sunday but it's ok I'm writing!! that what matter! and i'm closer to finish my book then i was on sunday. That what I keep telling myself I'm closer. I'm closer! Great feeling! So I need to go write for today. Thank you for visiting my blog! ~A

Writing what you know

Write what you know, I have heard that since I started writing for a hobby. (Yes, a hobby, right now it’s a hobby.) How boring, write what you know sound! What I know is my life and believe me it’s boring!!! I write romance, the modern vision of fairy tales, and paranormal romance at that. That writing very, very far from what I know. (Believe me there’s not much romance in my life... and for sure that no vampire or shape shifter either.)
But wait... thinks back to anything you have read, watched on T.V. or seen in a movie. What really, I mean really, kept you interested? Most of the time its something you can relate too. So maybe these people have a point, maybe we should write what we know. I’m talking about making these characters, ploys, and stories real by putting what you know inside them. You know what you were feeling when you got angry at your boy/girlfriend that time, or how you felt when you someone surprise you with something that made you happy. Describe these emotions when you write to make your characters come alive. Use something that happened to you to enrich your ploy. Draw from your life to improve your story. I know I’m going to try this in my writing. Remember I’m just an amateur too.