The Characters I Wish I Could Write

Since I've started watching Game of Thrones (I know, it seems like a lot of stuff comes back to Game of Thrones right now), I've been thinking about the kind of characters I'm seeing on the show. And I've been thinking about the kind of characters that I write.

The more I watch, and the deeper into the plot and the relationships between the characters that I see, I start to wonder if I could write better characters. I've been looking at the different types of characters that there are in my books and wondering if there are better ways to write them, or if there were more characteristics that I could give them to make them more realistic. Because the characters I've been watching in the show and reading in other books, I've been taking a closer look at the characters that I write.

Honestly, I thought I could write a pretty good character. I thought I was pretty good at descriptions and behaviors and dialogue. What more could I do to make the characters more rounded or more realistic? And how can I learn to write more or better characters altogether?

It's hard for me to do something more than what I do, because I'm not entirely sure how. But I wish I could write better villains or better leading characters. I already do character maps and self-interviews and backstories. I honestly don't know how to write a better character.

And then I start to think that maybe my characters are exactly the way they're supposed to be. I might be writing sword and sorcery and fantasy, but that doesn't mean that it has to be on the epic scale of the Game of Thrones books. And I can have a good character without them having to be an incestuous queen with a whiny son and a philandering husband. But it would be quite cool if I had a character that interesting.

But there's one thing that I can say--I can write a damn strong female character.

Who knows? Maybe I already do.

The TV Shows I Wish I'd Watched

Since I'm late to the game getting into Game of Thrones, I've been thinking back on some of the other shows that have been out that I wish I'd actually sat down to watch. And the more I think, the more I've realized I'm really picky about the shows that I watch.

And I missed a lot of good ones.

Looking back on it, I've come up with a top ten list of the shows that I wish I'd started with from the beginning.

1.  Game of Thrones
2. Agents of Shield
3. Reign
4. Arrow
5. Married to Medicine
6. The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills
7. Devious Maids
8. Dance Moms
9. The Test
10. The Cleveland Show

I may watch a lot of TV, but it seems like I miss the best shows because I don't catch them from the beginning. Or I get into them and then kind of back off before I really get through them. I'm that way with The Walking Dead. I've still got to catch up on seasons three and four. I've missed so much that I really don't know what's going on anymore. And I absolutely hate that.

At least I can say that I finally broke down and saw Frozen. Which was absolutely worth it!

Vacation is Coming

It kind of makes me laugh to say it like that, especially since I'm watching Game of Thrones now and the Starks are always saying, "Winter is coming." Maybe that's why I wrote it that way. And that's perfectly okay. It's a symbol of my dorkiness.

As the end of the semester winds down, I'll be going out on my vacation for a week before the summer session begins. I get a week off, and I'm sitting here thinking about how I'm supposed to occupy my time during those long days. It's going to be one of those very long weeks, just because I'm going to have entire days were I won't have anything to do. Maybe I'll get a lot of reading and writing done!

Having a week off is something that I'm not used to lately. With my multiple jobs and my days of working with other companies and church, time off is something that I don't normally get to deal with. And when I do get it, I don't know what to do with myself. So sitting here facing down a week of no work... I don't know how to begin planning what I'm going to do.

I suppose I should get some reading done. As I sit here and look at my reading list, I figure that a week off would let me read several different books over the course of the week. And I can really give my Kindle a workout by reading a bunch of those extra books I've got. I've got so many authors who have been incredibly patient with me waiting for their reviews. And I have to get to them just like I promised.

But of course I can't spend the whole week just reading. Now that I'll have a lot of time on my hands, I could actually buckle down and finish writing the new Elemental Royals book. I haven't had a whole lot of time to write lately, and I'd love to be able to sit down at my desk and get some real, hard-core writing done. I might even have the first draft finished by the end of the summer!

And another thing I should probably do over vacation is amp up my agent search. One of my resolutions is to have an agent by the end of the year. And that isn't going to happen if I don't get on the ball and send out more queries to more agents. It isn't like my writing is so great that they're going to come knocking on my door just because. Although that would be amazing.

So maybe my days won't be so empty of stuff to do. I might actually get some things done!

End of the Month Stress Buster

It's that time again. The month is almost over, and it's time to work on getting rid of that stress that's built up over the last thirty days. So how are we going to deal with it this month?

For this month's stress buster, we're talking about giving that stress out into the universe through meditation. One thing I want to make sure that everyone feels comfortable with is that meditation doesn't have to be a religious or spiritual exercise. It can simply be something that allows you to find your inner calm once again.

In order to do this month's stress buster, you'll need a quiet place. If you're fond of nature and the weather is nice, take a blanket and head outside under the sun. If you're staying inside, you'll need something comfortable to sit on and something to play some calming music. I would highly suggest anything on Enya's CD Paint the Sky with Stars or this noise generator that can be found here. Both have a lot of music and sounds that are highly relaxing. 

To get the most out of this stress buster, you want to give yourself time to relax and time to spend alone. You'll need some privacy just to get yourself into a calm place for yourself. 

Here's what to do for this month's stress buster:

1. Get comfortable sitting wherever you are. Sit on a blanket or a pillow to make sure that you're comfortable.
2. If you're playing music, adjust the sound so that it is low enough that you can hear it but not so loud that it's going to interfere with being able to relax and concentrate.
3. Close your eyes and relax your body. Find a comfortable position.
4. One at a time, imagine each of your worries or stressors as colored marbles that you're placing in a basket. As you place each one in the basket, name the stress and give it a color. The darker the color, the more this stress is making you worry. Use blues, purples, and reds for highly stressing subjects. 
5. Once you've placed all your marbles in the basket, imagine that you're mixing the marbles together and that they're turning into shades of paint. 
6. Imagine pouring the paint out--mixed into a thousand colors--and watching it flow away in a river. Let the stress go down the river into the universe and allow it to flow out of your body.

By naming your stress, it gives you a way to make them into a form that you can acknowledge and deal with. It helps to make your stresses manageable. 

I hope this stress buster helps to relax you and get rid of some of the stress that's built up over this month. I know it helps me to deal with stress to do this meditation visualization. 

Learning to Tweet

One of the things I've had to learn as a writer is how to use social media and other things like that to be able to spread the word about my books and myself. I suppose the biggest thing I've used to promote things is Twitter, and I've had to learn how to use that platform in order to get my words out there.

It was hard to figure out what to Tweet and how to use it. One of the things that I did at first was to follow a lot of writers and see what they tweeted about. It was a good way to see what kind of things should be put out there when it comes to my writing. And what I found out was that the writers that I followed tweeted about just about everything. It wasn't all about the books or things like that. So that meant that I had a bit of an open forum to use Twitter.

For a while, I tweeted a lot of links about this blog and other things like that. And I definitely tweet to the other authors that I follow when I read one of their books and I just love it. I've made a few friends on Twitter in other independent authors. And it means a lot to me when they talk about their books and ask about how mine is going.

Sometimes I go a few days without tweeting, but that might not be the best thing. Especially when I want to make sure that I've got a presence on social media to keep my name out there. Doesn't mean that it's always on everyone's lips, but it's good to at least keep myself out there.

So here are a few things that I learned about tweeting:

1. Be consistent and tweet often
2. But don't be obnoxious about it
3. Tweet about those things that are important
4. Use Twitter to thank the wonderful people who support you
5. Be honest and make it fun

I Need a Home Office

The longer I spend my time working and writing, I start to think about the things that I should have in my house. And the one thing I'd love to have is a full fledged home office.

In the house I live in now, there really isn't space for a real home office. There aren't enough rooms and there are too many people for me to have a space all my own for writing and all that good stuff. Right now, I have a little space in my bedroom that I'm using as an office area. But it seems like I spend very little time in that space because I'm always somewhere else in the house.

I'd like to have my own room where I can set up a little library space with a few bookcases and a desk with all of my writing materials all in the same area. A space where I can go and turn on some writing music and be able to get a lot of work done.

Maybe I feel like that would make me a more legitimate writer. But I know it would make me feel more organized if I could have all of my writing books, notes, and things all put together somewhere on the desk with my computer and everything else. Because right now I'm writing on a little desk that I can carry around my house, and I don't like it so much. Mostly because I type relatively fast and the desk wobbles whenever I get going on a roll.

Yeah, I think my goal is to be able to have my own home office.

I suppose that means that I'll have to find a new place to live. And that might not happen for a while.

My Style

Have you ever looked in the mirror and wondered who you really are? Why you talk the way you talk or dress the way you do? Or maybe even just tried to figure out why you go through the things you do and how that's shaped your view of the world. 

Sometimes I try to take a step back and figure out who I am and how the things I've gone through have made me become the person I am--both in my writing and in my life. And I wonder how those things have fed into my style. My life style, my writing style, and everything that goes along with that. 

When it comes to clothes, I'm slightly emo. I like to think that I'm a little bit rocker chick and a little bit girl next door. I'll wear flip flops with jeans, but a shirt and a scarf covered with skulls. Lots of chunky jewelry that draws attention. And I love shoes with big heels and lots of accessories. I have a pair of boots with little rivet spikes on the front that I just love. And I have LOTS of skull jewelry. I love that stuff.

Maybe it's because I work in an anatomy lab in my day job.

When it comes to my writing, I guess it's a whole other ball game. I'm not entirely sure what's going on sometimes--I just get into a writing zone and it doesn't stop easily. Sometimes it's like I put a little of myself in the writing, and the characters come out something like me and something like themselves. Other times, the characters are like people that I've never met and I'm trying to figure them out. It's like moving to a new place and knowing that you have to assimilate quickly or be an outcast forever. 

Most of my novels are written in the first person, although I've gone through a period where I wrote in third person. Somehow, that just doesn't feel like me. It doesn't seem like it's my writing style. I like to be in the mind of my characters, feeling what they're feeling and seeing what they're seeing. That's the best way.

I guess my style is something that is uniquely me. 

And that's just the way it's supposed to be.