Critiques, Movies, and Writing

Kind of all over today--the last movie I discuss will relate to writing.

Managing Your Critiques
Over at the iWriteNetwork blog, I wrote a post about a handy technique that will make it easier to manage all the critiques you get back for a WiP. You can check it out here.

Movies
Hubby and I finally got to see a couple of movies that were on our to-watch list. The first was The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

I don't know yet if I liked it. I'm going to hold my judgement until the third movie comes out because I had some plot issues that might be resolved there. It was definitely slower paced, and I kept having feelings of 'been there, done that'.

And good grief but Tolkien sure had a lot of "men who should be king" running around Middle Earth, didn't he?

I knew that the Martin Freeman who plays Dr. Watson on the BBC series Sherlock Holmes (love it!) was Bilbo, but I didn't realize they'd enlisted the aid of Benedict Cumberbatch who plays Holmes to be the voice of the dragon Smaug. Cumberbatch's voice is so deliciously deep that it's perfect--as you can see in this clip:





The second movie was Saving Mr. Banks. Wonderful story and the acting is exceptional. I've watched the movie Mary Poppins many times over the years, but now I want to see it again. I'm sure I'll view it differently.



This story totally supports one of my favorite saying:

You are who you are because of where you were when ...  

What happens to us and around us shapes who we are, how we view the world. Ask Baby Boomers where they were when John Kennedy was assassinated. Few won't be able to tell you--in great detail. It was the same way for people when Pearl Harbor was bombed and when the Twin Towers fell.

One of the (only) advantages to getting older is living enough years to be able to put things in perspective, to have lived through the changing times so you saw the transition.

What does this have to do with writing? 
Writers should be thinking about that statement--we are who we are because of where we were when...--as we craft our characters' backstories. If we're writing contemporary or even historical fiction, we need to consider what major events might have shaped our characters. If we're writing fantasy, we have more latitude since we're making it up anyway, but we should still be asking ourselves what happened to our characters to make them so passionate about whatever it is that drives them.

But, as so deftly shown in Saving Mr. Banks, we must also consider what personal or family tragedy might have made the characters the way they are in the book. This can be so much fun with antagonists, finding what happened to make them believe a certain way.

What about you?

What do you do to manage your critiques?

Have you seen either of those films? Did you like them?
Have you lived through an historical event you'll never forget?

LTUE Thought

I know I've been having a lot of blog posts lately what with cover reveals and book launches this month and I even skipped my conference recap last Wednesday.

But I wanted to share one little thought from the class Character, Conflict and Plot by Craig Nybo, author of Allied Zombies for Peace--he was hilarious and energetic, by the way.

If you find yourself writing "he said" take a knife and stab yourself in the hand and then delete it [not your hand] and find a better way to show it.

That just made me smile.

But it does beg the question: are you a fan of dialogue tags?

LTUE Recap - Writing Memorable Characters

I wish I could credit this panel of authors, but I can't find description in my conference booklet.

Source: PowerPoint

The better we know our characters the better we can tell their stories.

1. Choose a name that fits. Don't give similar character names or only in a situation where there's no way they can be confused--an example might be a young male child and an old man. Last names suggest ethnicity--if that's not your intent, you may want to reconsider. Be careful of the baggage names can bring.

2. Know your characters in and out--you should know how they'd react in any given situation. What are their food likes and dislikes? Do they obsess about anything? What motivates them to do something? Be careful with speech patterns. A lot of heavy phonetic language is hard to edit and to read. Slang and colloquial terms go out of date quickly. Unique mannerisms, attitudes, abilities, and capabilities are options but be sure you provide good descriptions.

3. Flaws - life altering attributes

4. Strong sense of purpose - your main characters should have solid belief and value systems. Those can be flawed. Have to want/need something badly.

5. Smart, tenacious, perceptive, dedicated, and tough--but they need to be sympathetic when appropriate. Readers want the characters to be capable but not perfect so the reader can relate to them.

6. Characters should have emotional baggage so they'll have something to overcome. They have to grow.

7. Relationships - family, friends, acquaintances. Do their relationships drag them down or support them? How different do they act depending upon who they're with? Are the characters surprised when something new is foisted on them?

8. Give the characters something the readers can identify with. Whatever emotion the story is invoking should be relatable. What commonality could they all have? The character could be the readers' best friend, next door neighbor, etc. But your characters should also be uncommon enough to be interesting. Protagonist shouldn't be perfect and the antagonist shouldn't be perfectly evil.

9. Give your character a phobia and play on it.

10. A talent, definite tastes or knowledge--show this early on and play on it throughout the story. 

11. Work against stereotypes.

12.  Give habits or patterns that make your characters unique. Is your character a slob or a clean freak? Make sure you stay true to those characteristics throughout--unless the changes are part of the characters' growth.. If they deviate, it should be a sign that something's afoot.

13. Write what is going underneath--when the characters act out of sync, there should be a reason for it.

What do you do to help flesh out and make your characters three dimensional and believable?

Guest Post - Author Adrienne Monson

I'm taking a break from our Kiersey personality trait discussions for a special guest--paranormal author Adrienne Monson--who's going to talk a bit about characters. I loves me some talk about characters. Adrienne's a wife and mother of two children. One child has the angelic role while the other is its exact counterpart. Together, they make quite an interesting team against their mom. When she’s not playing with her kids, she’s writing at the computer, or reading a good book. Besides her passion for reading, she enjoys weight training and Zumba. Check out her debut novel, Dissension, is scheduled for release on February 23.

Thanks for having me as a guest, Donna!

There’s so many different writing tips that could put to good use, so I had a hard time just coming up with one. However, I prevailed over my rambling mind and was able to focus on a singular topic.

Characterization. This is something I’ve personally had to improve on. The first draft for my novel was decent. The plot moved quickly and there was lots of action, but none of my beta readers cared about the characters. Once I got this feedback, I tried to immerse myself in different processes to having solid, three-dimensional characters. The tips I share in this post are ones that helped me the most, but keep in mind that every writer has their own process and you need to utilize what works for you. We writers love trial and error!

I’m very much a plot oriented author, so I still like to write out a rough draft before I get to work on my characters. Once that’s completed, I write a file on each character. It has notes on their physical attributes as well as mannerisms that are unique to them. Then I write up a full bio in those same files. I like to be detail oriented here: dynamics with family when growing up, failed relationships, things they fear, their favorite animal, color, food, etc. I realize most of this information isn’t written into the manuscript, but it really does help me to write the characters more clearly.

The next part of my process is kind of fun. I look up random personality quizzes online and take them from the perspective of a character. I usually just do these for the main characters, and it really does help me to think about things from their point of view.

Okay, so this next part can be a little tedious, but it seriously helps. What I do is read my manuscript from just one character’s point of view. If they’re not in some scenes, then I go ahead and skip them, but if they’re just a small part of other scenes, then I read it from their perspective anyway. As I do this, I’ll make some changes/additions depending on how I think that character would react. Once done, I start from the beginning with a different character’s point of view in mind. This is another process that I specifically use for the main characters, but I’ll also try to pay attention to the other characters while I’m doing a final read-through.

It’s crazy how attached I’ve become to some of my characters, even the evil villains. Because I know them so well, it’s sometimes difficult to remember that they’re not real people. When my sister-in-law told me the name they’d decided on for her baby, I got excited and said, “That’s the name for the main character in my demon novel!” After a hesitation, she forced some enthusiasm, but I could tell she didn’t love the idea that I was comparing her flesh and blood daughter to one of my characters. I do think my niece will have fun with that when she gets older, though.

How immersed in your characters do you get?

Kiersey Combinatons

This is Part 6 of my series on personality types (character traits) based upon the Kiersey Personality Sorter. You can find Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, Part 4 here, and Part 5 here.

I've reviewed the basic, single personality attributes:
Extrovert (75% of the population)
Introvert (25% of the population)

Sensing (75% of the population)
Intuitive (25% of the population)

Thinking (50% of the population)
Feeling (50% of the population)

Judging (50% of the population)
Perceiving (50% of the population)

There are certain character traits that come from pairing just two of these.

SP - These people wish to be free to be spontaneous and act on a moment's notice. They believe life is to be enjoyed, should be fun and varied and full of excitement. They tend to live in the moment, are playful and light-hearted. With endurance and stamina, they are born adventurers and take risks, testing the limits of life. Routine jobs bore the SP but love tools and can see them as extensions of themselves. They're natural performers and can become frustrated when their current pursuits are blocked. In love, they look for shared activity and interests, wanting to explore new vacation spots or restaurants or way to keep the relationship fresh. They can be charming, witty, generous and warm.

SJ - These folks want the freedom to be responsible. Sensible, punctual, and practical, they believe in earning their way. They need to feel like they belong and can be unappreciated. Parental by nature, they like taking care of others and do well in fields like teaching, sales, business, and medicine. The bring stability and maintain the organization for smooth functionality. They tend to be rule-keepers. As for love, they are drawn to traditional and conservative views of marriage, expecting their mates to work with them. They tend to be loyal, faithful, and dependable. (I'm an SJ--the S because of my X--sounds like a dog to me.) 

NF - These guys need the freedom to seek out the significance and meaning of life. They want their lives to count for something. Honesty and integrity is important and they can be spiritual and idealistic. While wanting to authentic, they also desire unity with others. The NF makes commitments. Being communicative, creative, and people-oriented, they have the power to influence others. They often find work in "helping" professions, teaching, creative arts, and communication fields. In romance, they seek harmony. They are the true romantics, believing in the perfect love, and bring empathy, drama, and warmth to their relationship.

NT - The NTs desire freedom to use their intelligence, going after wisdom and knowledge. Life should make sense. They seek to control their environments by being able to predict them. Having a low tolerance for emotional or illogical  thinking (according to them), they can have a difficult time interacting with others. NTs have a drive for perfection and can deserve the title "workaholic". In love, they aren't looking for complex relationships, wanting the head to rule over the heart. They can be uncomfortable losing control to their emotions and don't like repetition. "I told you I loved you already. Why do I have to keep saying it?"

Remember when you took the Kiersey test? There were no right answers. It merely identifies how you view the world.

How often do your characters fit these descriptions? Are you consistent in your personality types? 

Judgers and Perceivers

This is Part 5 of my series on personality types (character traits) based upon the Kiersey Personality Sorter. You can find Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, and Part 4 here.

Remember, I'm an EXFJ. My "X" is special, so if you want to understand that, you'll need to read Part 3.

Today we're talking about the final pair, P and J.

Perceiving: These folks tend to prefer open-endedness, delaying judgement (decisions) in order to collect information. Because of this, deadlines are not their friends since they prefer flexibility and open options. They're frequently playful and are apt to put things off.

Judging: We judgers like closure. We want things to be tied down because things tend to be more orderly that way. Judging folks like deadlines and take them seriously, seeking decisions. The can believe work comes before anything else.

Um, I'm not that last statement.

Things to be wary of for each:

Perceivers can spend so much time gathering information that they miss out on opportunities (deadlines). I just need a little more time before I decide.

Judging types must be careful not to be in such a hurry to get  closure that they make a decision too soon, that they don't collect enough data.

Perceivers are big picture people. They like to look at the grand design. Judgers are detailed oriented--mix the J with and S, and you have really organized people.

Real life examples.

My husband is a P. He was a general contractor before he retired and had to balance things all the time between various jobs. Seriously, he would have five jobs going at once and when the weather was bad or supplies didn't arrive in time, no biggie. He'd work on one of his other jobs.

Hmm. That would absolutely drive me nuts. I'm a J. I start a project and finish it. Then I start another project. And finish it. Having several unfinished projects hanging over me would make me run screaming from the room.

Hubby's Perceiverness came into play when we first got married. His approach to bookkeeping (I used to be a bookkeeper) is very different from mine. Once again, he's a big picture guy. I'm into the details. When we were looking to pay our debt down, he was interested in things like interest rates overall. I just wanted to know if I could pay our bills that month. But don't mistake my concern for the current for being a long-range planner. Budget? That's me, right down to the day something's paid off and those funds then move to pay something else off.

Until I took the Kiersey the first time and found out the his approach was a legitimate way to view the world, I thought he was being irritating on purpose. Learning about his Kiersey results, took a lot of strain off our relationship. I know. Petty of me to assume he was doing it to bug me. I know. I suck.

Work example. I worked in a place that oversaw hundreds of building. The director (my boss) was a hands-on, detail guy. The finance guy prepared the initial budget proposal accordingly because the director was right in there all the way. However, he retired. I'm sure the new director was a P. Very big picture. The finance guy put the initial budget together just like he did for the old director. Finance guy made the observation after the first budget meeting with the new director: "I would have planned that very differently if I'd known."

What kind of potential conflict do you see in your WIPs with characters who view things so differently?

Thinkers and Feelers

This is Part 4 of my series on personality types (character traits, if you will) based upon the Kiersey Personality Sorter. You can find Part 1 here, Part 2 here, and Part 3 here.

Remember, I'm an EXFJ.

Today I'm talking about the T(hinking) and F(eeling). From mine, you can see that I'm a Feeler. And since I've always taken the paper copy of the Kiersey, I know how many of my answers are Ts and how many are Fs.

Um, I'm not just an Feeler, I'm a flaming Feeler.

So what does that even mean?

Source: PowerPoint

Thinking: These are the folks who make decisions based upon logic, going for impersonal findings. They tend to be objective when making decisions and evaluate their options based on laws, principles, and policies. Good at arguments, they try to influence people using logic rather than emotions. They experience emotion just as much as the Feelers do but are less likely to show their feelings.

Feeling: We tend to make our decisions based on subjective reasoning and choose in the context of how our decisions impact ourselves and others. We don't usually hide our emotions. Our evaluations are usually in terms of circumstances, values, and good or bad. We can be very persuasive and appeal to emotions.

If you want to convince someone to do something, it comes in handy if you know if this person is a Thinker or a Feeler. Make your case to a Thinker using emotions or subjective reasoning, what do you think will happen?

In the communications class where I first studied the Kiersey, we were required to make three speeches. The first one was extemporaneous. The second one was to persuade using logic, and the third was to persuade using emotion.

I did okay with the first one. And I got an A with the logic speech, but the Prof said I knocked her socks off with the third one. You gotta play to your strengths.

An interesting tidbit about Thinkers and Feelers is how they react to strife. A Thinker boss facing the need to fire an employee will "feel" just as bad as the Feeler boss does. However, the Thinker boss is much less likely to have a sleepless night the day before. The Feeler has a harder time letting that kind of thing go. General office or family conflict tends to bleed into other aspects of a Feeler's life, much more so than it does to a Thinker.

Once again, there are degrees to which we may be a Thinker or a Feeler (or any of the other character groups). Someone who scores closely between the two will be different from someone like me who tests very high on the Feeler side.

So what about the main characters in your current WIP? Do you think they're Thinkers or Feelers? How might that impact how they handle the mean evil things you keep doing to them?

Introverts and Extroverts, Again

Last week I took up my goal again of posting about personality types (character traits, if you will) based upon the Kiersey Personality Sorter.

Today I'm going to talk about introverts and extroverts. Frequently people think introverts are shy and extroverts are not. Sometimes that's true, but sometimes it isn't.

The way to think about the introvert / extrovert traits is in terms of energy.

An introvert isn't necessarily shy. An introvert is simply energized by solitude, while an extrovert is energized by being around people.

Real life examples.

#1
I have a friend who didn't marry until she was nearly 30. She lived on her own in an apartment, but she had a day job where she worked in a solitary office and almost never dealt with people face to face. She's an extrovert, and it really wore on her. In order to get her energy back up, she needed to be with real, live people.

So she got a roommate.

However, the roommate--an introvert--was an insurance person. She dealt with people all day. By the time she got home at night, all she wanted was to go to her bedroom and be alone.

My friend said she felt lonelier with this roommate than she had when she lived by herself.

#2
My professor who taught the class where we learned about the Kiersey shared this experience. She was a therapist for many years and spent her days interacting with people. She's an introvert. By now you know what she needed when she got home. Quiet. Solitude. Time to lay in the bathtub and contemplate the universe.

Enter her younger sister who wanted to share an apartment. Not just an extrovert, but a flaming extrovert.

Anybody see potential problems?

Professor would come home from work, needing time to rejuvenate. About the time she'd just get her stuff settled, her younger sister would arrive at the apartment after work and blast the radio, sing, and want to chat with Professor.

Guess what Professor wanted to do to younger sister?

Obviously, Professor was a mature, intelligent woman, and she didn't act on her impulse to silence kid sister forever. What she did was talk with her sibling about being quiet for an hour when she first got home, so Professor had some time to fill her batteries again. Then she'd be happy to talk.

What did younger sister do? Not chill in a silent apartment. She hung out with her friends a little longer before coming home. Win/win.

My score balance for the Kiersey for years was 7 extrovert and 3 introvert. As you can see, it's not like people must be all of one or all of the other. As you consider the description of yourself, you should keep that in mind. Someone who is an extrovert with a 9 / 1 score would view things a bit differently than an extrovert with a score of 6 / 4.

Does the energy concept make you look at any of your characters differently?

Personalities, Again

One of the goals I had for 2012 was to do a series of posts about personality types, based upon the Kiersey Personality Sorter, which I find fascinating.

Epic fail.

Not the Kiersery, but my follow through. Well, I'm going to try again. Someday, I'd like to write a novel where I base the characteristics completely upon the sixteen personality types. Which is kind of funny, really, considering that I'm a hybrid on one area. Keep reading to find out.

My first two posts will be repeats of posts I did last year.

I've been fascinated for years (all right, decades) with the Kiersey Personality Sorter. It was based on the MMPI, which is a comprehensive test, something like 600 questions. The MMPI is used a lot in dealing with mental illness, but for people trained in what to look for it tells a lot more about the people taking it than they would ever dream.

The Kiersey is much shorter and has many practical uses. They give it to department heads at work. There are no right or wrong answers to the questions, but merely give insight into how the taker views the world.

Here's a real life example from the business world. I used to work as the lead secretary for a department that oversaw physical facilities--buildings, etc. My old boss developed a health issue and retired. He was a detail-oriented person when it came to the budget and was very hands on. His replacement, however, was a big picture kind of guy. The finance director commented after the first budget meeting with the new director that he wished he'd known this about the new boss because he'd have prepared his presentation completely differently.

People's personalities change a lot as they mature, but settle in somewhere around age twenty-five. So for young people under that age, their results are . . . questionable. Once you reach twenty-five, your scores aren't likely to change much. Now, there can be traumatic things people go through that would impact how they answer the questions, but eventually things settle down again.

Some people also answer the questions differently if they're looking at them as they are at home as opposed to at work. When I had a coworker mention that, it floored me because I am what I am. I'm the same at home or at work. With me, what you see is what you get.

What does this have to do with writing? When you're creating characters, their personality traits are important if you don't want them to be flat. But what characteristics fit which personality types? The Kiersey would be a great tool for that.

So over the next few blog posts, I'm going to be talking about different aspects of the Kiersey and what it has to say about people. It separates people into sixteen different personality types. I'll start with me.

I'm an EXFJ.

The E means I'm an extrovert. (the other option is introvert, of course)

The X is going to be confusing because it means that I test dead even between the two options: S (sensing--dealing with information from your five sense) and N (intuitive).

The F means I'm a feeler. (the other choice is a thinker--don't even say it!)

The J is for judging. (the other option is perceiving).

If you have the time, I suggest you go and take the test and find out what you are. I'll start with the introvert/extravert topic next week.

ETA: I think it's important to know what your split is between the types, so if you're interested in taking the test to find that out, email me and I'll send you a pdf of the test.

Have you ever taken a personality test? If so what kind was it? What did you think of the results?

I Love Life . . . and Motherhood (in its many manifestations)

I love my book. 

 I better. 

I'm its mother.

No one, not even my sweet hubby who's been so supportive of my journey, is as deeply invested in it and my characters as I am. Friends and family try to be good sports about it. There's a lot of eye rolling, but I'm used to it. I went through that with them about Harry Potter, too.

They love me me anyway.

With this R&R, I'm on the 13th edit/rewrite. I've spent so many hours in my characters' company that I know them really well. Better than some of my dearest friends--because real people don't spill all their guts.

My life changed when I had my first child, a son. Until that moment, I'd never truly realized the depth of human love. Of a mother's love. It worried me as I prepared for the birth of my second child if the love I felt for my son would be diminished, divided, with the new addition. Or if I might not be able to love the new baby as much.

Stupid woman.

The love for my son didn't lessen with the coming of my daughter, and the love I felt for my beautiful daughter was no less than what I felt for my son. I discovered an important lesson.

Love defies mathematics.

I'd been operating on the assumption that my capacity to love was a finite thing.

Wrong!

With the addition of each child, I found that my capacity to love increased. It grew so I not only had a greater ability to love all these wonderful little people I had the privilege of mothering, but that I had more love for everyone else as well.

So how does this relate to my book? My other baby?

It means it's okay to fall in love with new projects, new characters, new worlds.

*sigh*

I love being a writer.

Have a wonderful weekend. Summer is almost here. 

 Life is good.

Personalities

I've been fascinated for years (all right, decades) with the Kiersey Personality Sorter. It was based on the MMPI, which is a comprehensive test, something like 600 questions. The MMPI is used a lot in dealing with mental illness, but for people trained in what to look for it tells a lot more about the people taking it than they would ever dream.

The Kiersey is much shorter and has many practical uses. They give it to department heads at work. There are no right or wrong answers to the questions, but merely give insight into how the taker views the world.

Here's a real life example from the business world. I used to work as the lead secretary for a department that oversaw physical facilities--buildings, etc. My old boss developed a health issue and retired. He was a detail oriented person when it came to the budget and was very hands on. His replacement, however, was a big picture kind of guy. The finance director commented after the first budget meeting with the new director that he wished he'd known this about the new boss because he'd have prepared his presentation completely differently.

People's personalities change a lot as they mature, but settle in somewhere around twenty-five. So for young people under that age, their results are . . . questionable. Once you reach twenty-five, your scores aren't likely to change much. Now, there can be traumatic things people go through that would impact how they answer the questions, but eventually things settle down again.

Some people also answer the questions differently if they're looking at them as they are at home as opposed to at work. When I had a coworker mention that, it floored me because I am what I am. I'm the same at home or at work. With me, what you see is what you get.

What does this have to do with writing? When you're creating characters, their personality traits are important if you don't want them to be flat. But what characteristics fit which personality types? The Kiersey would be a great tool for that.

So over the next few blog posts, I'm going to be talking about different aspects of the Kiersey and what it has to say about people. It separates people into sixteen different personality types. I'll start with me. 

I'm an EXFJ.

The E means I'm an extrovert. (the other option is introvert, of course)

The X is going to be confusing because it means that I test dead even between the two options: S (sensing--dealing with information from your five sense) and N (intuitive).

The F means I'm a feeler. (the other choice is a thinker--don't even say it!)

The J is for judging. (the other option is perceiving).

If you have the time, I suggest you go and take the test and find out what you are. I'll start with the introvert/extravert topic next week.

Have you ever taken a personality test? If so what kind was it? What did you think of the results?

Blogging Challenge L(ies)

"Don't let the truth get in the way of a good story."

Lies. What are lies? 

Are they simply tall tales? Like in the song by Gaelic Storm in the video below?

Or are they just the attempts to get out of trouble? You know. Like when you were a little kid. Mom goes into the restroom and notices someone has used the last of the toilet paper and calls out, "Who used the last of the toilet paper?" Your heartbeat races as you remember pulling off the last few squares--just enough to do the job--but then you totally forgot to put on a new roll, so you call out, "Not me."

Are they the little social "white" lies people tell each other all the time? Like when the quirky girl at the office decides to go really bizarre with her hairstyle and has all her purple hair cut off and her head bicked, so you say, "Wow, looks great." even though you think she looks absolutely ridiculous and can hardly stop yourself from laughing everytime you look at her. At least until you realize some guys think a girl with a bald head is sexy.

Are lies a social lubricant that smooth our interactions, or are they slowly tearing away at another social lubricant--trust? As a very little girl, I was an almost compulsive liar, and it took many years of being completely honest to gain my parents' trust. As a result, I'm ruthlessly honest now. Or silent if I can't think of a creative way to get around awkward social moments.

Do your characters lie? What do you think is a good reason for people to lie? Or do you think there never is a good reason to lie?