Hudson's 1st Law (Or Writing Romance: Sarah Style)

For this post, I'm going to depart from my usual rule and actually try to tell people what to do. Shocking, I know. But recently I've read a number of books which did not do this well, and ended up souring my love for an otherwise excellent book (sometimes an entire series!) Since I can't actually talk to the offending authors themselves, I'm talking to you.

Before I want to go any further, I want to clarify that I'm talking about writing books with romance in them, not romances. There's a distinct difference, and I don't actually have any experience writing romances.

That said, I'm sure the following rules apply to any love story.

1. CHARACTERS BEFORE RELATIONSHIP: Writing Excuses had a few excellent things to say on this subject a while back. (I believe it was in this podcast.) It ties into the concept of character-driven plots versus plot-driven characters. If you want your readers to fall in love with a relationship, first make them love the characters. When we love both characters, we will want them to be happy.

This will make your job much, much easier. If your heroine is whiny and suicidal and your hero is a jerk ... well, you might be able to pull it off. But only if you follow the next rule perfectly.

2. BUILD THEM UP: Loving each other should make your characters better people. I mean, if you want their relationship to last, there has to be something deeper than attraction involved. Identify your characters' emotional needs and weaknesses. Now figure out how their loved one meets those needs and builds up those weak places.

This is the reason I was Team Peeta every page of The Hunger Games. It's the reason Elizabeth and Darcy are meant for each other. They complete each other. They build each other up. No matter how good your individual characters are, their relationship won't go anywhere if you can't find some concrete reason they should be together. And once you have ...

3. KEEP YOUR PROMISES: I cannot stress this rule enough. This is where so many good books go wrong. Once you've made two wonderful characters and drawn a connection between them -- even if it's just the barest hint of foreshadowing -- you MUST follow through. You must.

I'm not saying that every couple you've ever hinted at has to end up together. If that were so, love triangles would be much more creepy. I'm saying that if they don't end up together, you need a really solid reason. Right now, I can only think of three.

a) One of them dies. That's a pretty good reason not to get married. It's also one that will make a lot of people angry with you, so be prepared. Also, it's a good idea to have some satisfying resolution before death steps in, to make your readers feel less cheated.

b) There's someone else who's TRULY a better match. This is a very tricky line to walk. Love triangles are becoming more and more popular these days. I've never written one myself, but I have enjoyed several books that utilize them. (See Hunger Games above.)

This solution itself has a few rules, the first and biggest one being FORESHADOWING. It boggles my mind when I read a five-book series where a possible relationship is very clearly underlined, then disrupted with an alternate love interest who turns out to be evil, leaving the way open for the relationship again ... and then in the VERY LAST BOOK a spanking new character shows up and skips away with the main character's heart. I mean, really? I put that book down feeling cheated and generally dissatisfied.

Do not do this. I beg you. If you're going to end with an alternate relationship, introduce the other character at least half-way through the book (or if it's a series, even the penultimate book will do.) Make it clear to the readers what advantage this second character has over the first.

c) Your book is a tragedy, or otherwise an exception. I hate tragedies, myself. I don't just think they're depressing -- I think they're unrealistic. I personally believe that everyone's ending is happy, even if it involves their own gory death. If a book ends sadly, it ends too soon. But that's just me, and there must be plenty of other people out there who like sad endings.

As far as other exceptions go, the only thing I can think of is Star Wars. There were several hints of a possible Luke/Leia relationship throughout the movies. Obviously, this turned out to be impossible, since they were actually twins. Still, I've always been a little disappointed with Luke's ending. He obviously wants someone, yet he seems doomed to live his life alone. Depressing. But I still watch the movies, even though they broke their promise to me and to Luke.


I have several more rules for my own romance writing, but those are the only ones I really think should be universal. To be honest, I don't understand why so many people break them. Perhaps they're afraid of being 'too predictable', or doing the same thing everyone else does. I have news for those people -- good plotting is not cliché. It's what makes me read a book more than once. And as a reader, I would a million times rather be able to predict the ending than feel that it was contrived and unnatural.

Please, please, please write romance that builds my faith in love, rather than convincing me that I'm better off alone. The world needs your help. So do I.

Rant over. You may turn the Christmas music on now. (December! Eee!) (Does this mean I'm allowed to wear my snowman pajama pants now? Cause I sort of broke them out in October ...)

Butterflies (Or First Drafts: Sarah Style)

When I first started writing, I read a lot of books about (would you believe it) writing. Among them was Seize The Story, by Victoria Hanley. I highly recommend this book -- it gave me the perfect combination of inspiring advice and kick in the pants that got me through Sarawen. But today, I'd like to quote the only sentences that I do not relate to.

"I dread starting a new book the way I'd dread living in the middle of an especially disturbing nightmare. Getting through that first draft feels very much like clawing my way through solid rock using only my fingernails."

This image caught my fancy so much that I have it heavily underlined in my copy of the book. It was my mantra as I launched each failed beginning, my solace when I began to believe that I could never make it. "So what if it's terrible?" I'd tell myself. "All first drafts are terrible, and none of them are fun. If I just make it to the end, then I can revise! That's the fun part."

I'm not sure when I realized just how ridiculous that was. It might have been Christmas Eve of 2009, when I stayed up until two in the morning wrapping presents, and then pulled out my laptop to get just a few more words in before bed. It might have been in March 2010, when I wrote my first love scene, a scene that made my mother cry. It was surely before that October day when I wrote my first 8k day and crested the climax of the book. It doesn't really matter when I realized it, because it's true.

I love first drafts.

Are they hard? Yes. Are they long? Yes. Do I sometimes stare at the stationary, blinking cursor until I'm sure my eyeballs are bleeding? Absolutely. But with all the pain, with all the heartache and the frustration, there is nothing more beautiful than watching your precious story take shape before your eyes. It's magical. It gives me butterflies.

On November first, I started my new novel, A Winters Tale. The first day was agony. The second was better. On the seventh, I fell in love. I wrote a scene so glorious, it kept me up three hours past my bedtime. I danced all the way to bed and rose in the morning with a song in my heart. That scene stayed with me all day, glowing somewhere near my abdomen. I wanted to curl around it and never let it go. I wanted to share it with the world.

Three days later, I am rattled. I am vexed. I may even be frothing at the mouth. Why, you ask? Today, I reached a scene that WILL NOT WRITE! I am currently beating it into submission, abusing my poor keyboard in my fury. But beneath it all, the glow is still there. I am a writer. And this is what I love.

Inspiration: Sarah Style

Being fresh out of blogging ideas, I thought I'd take a leaf out of the clever and talented Shannon Whitney Messenger's blog and begin a post series, giving you guys a glimpse at my personal writing process. (Incidentally, Shannon recently sold LOTS OF BOOKS. Yay! *throws confetti*)

So. Ahem. Anyway, today's post is about inspiration. A writing buddy of mine (Hi Charity! *waves*) recently sent me an email asking about my inspiration for Sarawen. Can you say big topic? I can. BIG TOPIC. I'm going to do my best to cover it, but I am easily distracted by sparkles and gummy bears, so you'll just have to bear with me a little.

First thing I must establish: I CAN NEVER LOCATE ALL MY SOURCES OF INSPIRATION. Every second of my life inspires me. Even this one, probably. But I can pinpoint the main sources. So that's what I'm going to do. Right now. For every book I have ever begun to write. In. My. Life.

This should be interesting.

1.) BREAK FORTH THE SEERS: Yes, the title is dreadful. Rest assured, the book is worse. I came up with this story at age 11. It was what carried me from 'I hate writing' to 'I must write'.
Plot: Seers revolves around a teenage girl -- fourteen, I think -- named Kestyn (pronounced kess-teen). Red hair. Blue eyes. Clumsy, animal-loving, and otherwise suspiciously like her youthful creator. The plot? Basically, the humans are at war against the Sendrants, a race of brightly colored winged cat-things who used to be their friends. Kestyn goes on her first hunting expedition and is given the prestigious job of smashing the egg (yes, apparently cats lay eggs) of a pair of slaughtered Sendrants. Being animal-loving and clumsy, she fails at this and ends up with a very snarky (and WAY too intelligent) Sendrant baby on her hands. This was the beginning of a nine (NINE) book series I called Prophesy, where each title was a new line in a prophetic poem.

Status: I ... think I wrote about thirty pages. But I had the whole series plotted out in painful detail with gaping plot holes.

Compares to other books?: Um, I guess it was kind of like Paolini's Eragon, if anything. Teenager accidentally comes into possession of magical egg and then ends up at the center of the movement to bring down the Evil Emperor. But Seers? Had SEVEN teenagers. More complicated=better to 11-year-old Sarah.

Inspiration: Oddly enough, this story was inspired by the Sendrants. My school at the time, Hillview Elementary in Vernon B.C., had an annual Create A Creature contest, where students were invited to create a picture and a brief description of an original creature. As one might imagine, I rocked at this. Imagining fantastical things was my forte, and the Sendrant won the contest for my grade level. But I couldn't leave it alone. I kept imagining events happening around these Sendrants, and soon I had a full-fledged story screaming at me. I tried to shove it off onto my mother -- she was the writer, not me -- but she didn't have time. Eventually, I grudgingly began to write it myself, and I never stopped. That is, until ...

Seers crashed. It popped like a balloon blown up too big, leaving me with NO BOOK. My solution? Cannibalism, of course!

2.) ELEMENTS: This was a rough working title -- I never got around to finding a more official one.
Plot: Elements cannibalized my favorite bits of Prophesy -- three characters and a volcano -- and built a brand new world and story around them. Kestyn's bossy cousin Aidail became my new MC, the slave girl with the scar on her face became Aidail's scar-free cousin, and Margarita the peddler got a name change. (Margarita was the best part of Prophesy. I'll post it someday so you can see.) Add a couple boys and a whole new mythology, reintroduce the SAME evil emperor/king and voila! We have a four book series.

Status: Believe it or not, I actually intend to continue this one. There are some elements (ha ha) to it that I absolutely LOVE. (Yes, the volcano is at the top of that list.) (As is Aidail, who's like Sara+Netta+feminism, for those of you who've read Sarawen.) Is it going to be the same when I go back to it? Definitely not. Since I put it on hold, I've already blinded a major character, aged Aidail and cousin several years, and added a whole new race of dirt people. And I haven't even been working on it.

Compares to other books?: Uh ... there are elements people. Like, fire people and water people and stuff. Other books have those, right? Just ... never like wanted them. Elements has them like I want them.

Inspiration: I think we covered that already. Elements was made out of the cannibalized remains of Prophesy. Which I then covered with plastic so that I didn't have to touch anything someone else had chewed on. Yech.

Elements was great for a while. But my talents as a writer were growing rapidly, and pretty soon I had grown out of the story I had planned. I started to itch for something new. Something with dragons.

Enter ...

 3.) SARAWEN My baby. No, that title is not changing unless a publisher requires it. I like it just the way it is.
Plot: Sixteen-year-old rebel Sarawen DaiClar meets a dragon in a (forbidden) tunnel and ends up with an orphaned egg and a map embedded in her subconscious mind. Is her Village going to go along with her plan to take them across the (also forbidden) mountains? Um, they'd better, right? Otherwise she's going to have to do something stupid ...

Status: I finished the first draft of the first book last November and got about 80k into the second before I realized I really can't put off revisions any longer. Revisions. *whimpers* *hides under rock*

Compares to other books?: So far, readers have compared it to two other works, Eragon (cause it has dragons) (and other reasons, but I can't remember them) and Lund's Fire of the Covenant (because of the trek across icy mountains, probably. Except that it has to be more than that, because more than one person has brought it up. Anybody want to help me out here?)

Inspiration: I was so stuck in Elements. So, so stuck. My dear, dear mother, sick of hearing my cry about how bad my life was, offered to write me a story starter so I could try something new (with dragons). I accepted. She produced this:

Kaidra hunched in the sweltering tunnel, hardly daring to breath, every inch of her tensed, every thought focussed on the hot, rhythmic wind flowing over her and the rasping sound that accompanied it. Her knees were bruised and bloody, her throat parched and raw, and her breeches in tatters from the hours of crawling toward the enormous Presence that was source of both the wind and the noise. Now, at last, she felt the tunnel opening and was overwhelmed with the nearness of its breathing. Certain that the beast must be just around the next bend, she found herself fighting down the urge to scuttle away as fast as caution would permit. Surely her courage wouldn't fail her now? 

I took it from there.

4.) PRINCE KAZOOLI AND THE QUEST FOR THE MAIDEN: I know, I know. You thought Sarawen was the end, given that I'm working on it right now. But I just couldn't resist a little Kaz ...
Plot: Thirteen-year-old Prince Kazooli Nevillax Percivitus Yerkobitz XXII runs away from home to find adventure (or just get away from his sister -- he's not picky), but gets a bit more than he bargained for. Guaranteed to include hags, talking swords, and way too many kittens. My only middle grade book (so far).

Status: Currently on hiatus at 21,000 words. I doubt that will last long.

Compares to other books?: Think Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles. There's a similar zany randomness to Kaz. Also, there are many cats.

Inspiration: My dear brother. He wanted ideas for his writing, so I gave him some, in the form of 5 minute story starters. Including this:

Prince Kerr Berkowitz IV, the heir to the kingdom of Marcelox, hated his sister. "I really do," he told the elaborate shield hanging on his bedroom wall. "She's snobby, and ugly. And she smells bad."
The shield didn't answer.

I wrote it. I gave it to him. Three days later, I took it back. Aren't I a great sister? (Just so you know, he'd already decided to go with one of the OTHER story starters I gave him. I'm not that mean.) Fatigued by the enormous task of drafting Sarawen, I liked the randomness of this idea, and I wanted to see where I could go with it. Man, did I ever go somewhere. It's planned as a five book series (yes, I like those) but I might cut a book as I fine-tune the story. I don't know. But rest assured, this story is going to go places NO ONE expects. Quest for the Maiden might seem like lighthearted fluff, but Soul of the Sword? Not. Fluff.

I'd better move on before I spill all my Kaz secrets.

5.) IMAGINATE: I came up with this story two weeks ago, okay? I don't need a new title yet.

Plot: Grade 11 boy Shawn O'Connel (with only one L, please and thank you) might be flunking science, but he has access to powers other people can't imagine. Emphasis on imagine. Involves flying skateboards, microwave dinners and a world where science is actually important. Obviously fantasy.

Status: In the delightful fluffy pink stage where ideas are falling like frogs from the sky.

Compares to other books?: Best I've got is Sanderson's Alcatraz. I don't even know why I am comparing the two of them. Probably just because I adore Sanderson and would love to compare ANYTHING I wrote to his stuff.

Inspiration: I do not have an imaginary bicycle. This book was born of my longings for one. (But Shawn doesn't have an imaginary bicycle either. Sigh. My life is hard.)

Conclusion? I have lots of ideas. Lots and lots and lots. And you can too. Let's run over the main ways I spark stories:

1.) Let your imagination run wild. Like to draw? Great! Grab a pencil and doodle something no one has ever seen. (Or, if you're really good, draw someone. Characters are the foundation of story, after all.) If not artistically inclined, freewrite. Give yourself a time limit, then write whatever comes into your head until the time runs out. No censoring. No editing. Just write. You will either get ideas or become really, really good at rewriting your ABC's. I have done both.

2.) Write about things you want. Now I'm not talking about Mary Sue characters here. Please, please do not insert yourself as the protagonist in your story. Your character will inevitably end up flat and boring, as poor Kestyn's did. Sara, on the other hand, is very much her own character, despite her name. (It's a funny story how she got that ...) Let your characters be their own people ... but build the story around things you like. If you've always dreamed of meeting a mermaid? Toss one in. Have an obsession with mountain climbing? Please, write me a book about mountains. Make sure your book is chock full of the things that interest you, because trust me, you're going to need as much incentive as you can find to finish it.

3.) Cannibalism is acceptable. Everything you write serves a purpose. Yes, even that horrible story from third grade. If you're stuck for an idea, reread your old stuff, laugh at it a little, then see if there's anything good to rework. Who knows? You might just find the answer to that plot hole.

4.) Ask for directions. There are people out there to help you! You might not have a writer mother like mine, but you know lots of other people. Like me! Feel free to brainstorm with us any time. I promise not to steal your ideas. And if I take my own back ... it will be with your permission.

Wow, that was a long post. If you read all of it, I commend you. If not ... what, did you skip to the end? Go back and read it for real. Sheesh. You lazy sillyhead.

I Am Not A Stalker (That's Why I'm Staring Through Your Window With Binoculars)

It took me a while to decide what to post about today. I'd come up with an idea, and then I'd wonder: does anyone else care? It's not like you really want to hear about the dream I had Thursday night where both my arms were amputated or the huge discoveries I recently made about characters you've never read about. I need to write about things I'm doing, sure, but you also need to care about them, or you won't read.

Hence this post. Which is about research.

Research and I have a tolerate/hate relationship. I tolerate it. It hates me. Oh, there are moments, like when I discover the site that has exactly the info I need (with sources and everything!) and the facts happen to perfectly coincide with what I already had in mind. But those are few and far between.

Most of the time, my researching technique is much different. Below is a sample, taken from a research 'opportunity' that I actually went through in Sarawen.

Me: Oh my goodness, I need to hurt her, and I don't know how. She can't be too mangled, because she needs to recover, and I don't want her to die, but I want her to almost die. How do you do that? I mean, it's a big cat; it'll go for her neck, right? Don't cats do that? I'd better learn more about cats.

[Several hours omitted, in which I learn a lot about cats. None of it is of use.]

Me: I know! I'll have her be bleeding to death. That's nice. But … where do I make the wound? It ought to cut an artery, I think. Where are her arteries?

[Even more hours omitted, in which I learn that human bodies have way too many arteries. Finally, I choose one.]

Me: I think I can make that work. Probably. Oh my goodness, what if a doctor reads my book and realizes that I don't know much about arteries? I'll die of shame! Or what if it's such an obvious mistake everyone can tell, not just doctors? I'm only sixteen! I've never been to medical school! I'm gonna die …

That about sums it up. Research hates me. But oh, I do a lot of it. So, at risk of making this blog post unreadably long, I'm going to tell you how I do it.

1. Books. Advantages: Books are excellent research buddies, because they have focus. A book will set out to tell you about a certain thing, and then it will. Disadvantages: It's really, really awkward for a sixteen-year-old girl to check out a pregnancy book from the library. So mostly I hide in the corner and read them. And jot down notes. And stammer if anyone sees me.
2. The Internet. Advantages: No one calls the police on you for researching the most fatal places to cut someone. And you can access any information without moving off the couch. Disadvantages: You can access any information without moving off the couch. There's nasty stuff on the Internet, and you always have to be on guard. It's also much harder to verify your info. And it's not as focused as a book, meaning it can take forever to find your information.
3. Real People: Advantages: This is definitely the easiest and most enjoyable of my sources. Instead of combing the Internet for sources and notes about triplet babies, why not read the blog of someone who has triplet babies? And look at their adorable pictures? You get the full picture, not just scattered pieces of information. And you know your source knows what they're talking about. This doesn't just apply to blogs, by the way. I've learned a lot by observing people around me. Disadvantages: It's hard to thank someone for their wonderfully relevant piece of information that saved your book, because the last thing you want is to make them think of you as a stalker. And people tend to freak out if they think you're 'writing them into a book'. (By the way, I would never do that. Way too hard. I will, however, lift characteristics and circumstances and apply them to my own characters.)

Hopefully that information is helpful and relevant. If not, at least you can imagine me hiding outside your house with binoculars. Who knows. Maybe I'm actually out there. (I love the windows. Think you should lose the blinds, though.)