Guest Post: S.L. Saboviec on Growing Your Character Relationships to Grow Your Character!

 

Hello, everyone! This is S. L. Saboviec, and I’m pleased to be a guest today on Operation Awesome. I’m author of the Adult Paranormal novel Guarding Angel, and I’m here to talk a bit about my writing process.

When I first started writing, I knew very little about it. (I know, shocker!) I tried different things to flesh out my characters—character questionnaires, interviews, analyzing their personalities, taking online quizzes—but only when I evolved a character development method did I started to become comfortable. In addition to analyzing their personality traits, I examined their relationships with one another.

Let me explain.

Character Growth: Not Just For Characters

The books we most engage with are ones where characters grow as they overcome challenges. But the characters themselves don’t just grow—their relationships with everyone around them grow. Maybe they meet someone new and fall in love. Maybe they love someone but end up divorced. Maybe they have a strained relationship with their child and mend it, or have a great one and ruin it. These relationship changes are what make up good stories.

(I’m not saying you can’t have a character grow without other characters, but it’s much more interesting to see your character grow against their relationships.)

Not only that, but these growing relationships are the stuff of delicious sub-plots: the man who launches a friend’s rescue saves the world from evil aliens (Chronicles of Riddick) or the mother who struggles with her son’s heinous crime comes to terms with who she is as a person (We Need To Talk About Kevin). Chuck Wendig states it even stronger than I have: Character relationships are what makes your plot, not just your sub-plots.

How to Make Your Character Relationships Grow

When getting ready to write a first draft, I have a spreadsheet I call my “Book Map.” Yeah, I’m a plotter… But don’t run away if you’re not! Besides my plot outline, which is totally optional in this method, I keep detailed character information that I refer back to as I write.

In particular, I have a matrix of relationships. Along the top and the bottom, I have each character’s name. Where each character meets, I write about how their relationship grows:

·         How Character A sees Character B in the beginning of the novel

·         How Character A sees Character B at the end of the novel

·         Notes about their growth arc

An example of this would be one I would have done between Enael and Kaspen for Guarding Angel:

·         At the beginning, Enael sees Kaspen as: mysterious, intriguing, and more committed to his Wards’ development than any other Guardian she’s met.

·         At the end, Enael sees Kaspen as: worth fighting for, her soul mate, and strong for having struggled through so many hardships.

·         Growth arc: When Kaspen makes a poor decision because he wants to protect humans, Enael fights for him. (I’m being vague here so I don’t spoiler anything—in case you decide you’d like to read my novel—but when plotting, I would point to specific actions she takes and how it connects to my overall plot.)

I would do a similar one for how Kaspen sees Enael, which would explain why he falls in love with her. And so on, throughout all the major characters. One of my current works-in-progress has twelve major characters, so that’s 12 x 12 = 144 character opinions of other characters to consider. It was a time-consuming exercise, but I usually don’t do every single one, since not all the characters meet or have strong opinions about one another.

And it’s useful in more than one way:

·         It highlights possible sub-plots.

·         It allows me time inside the head of each character, which allows me to understand each one’s motivations more.

·         It highlights redundant or one-dimensional characters.

Hopefully this insight into a small part of my writing process has been useful. For me, the “hair color / eye color / mannerisms” character sheet lists don’t cut it. I need to get into my characters’ heads and really understand what they think of each other. Hopefully I gave you some things to think about and perhaps even strengthen your next revision.

About Me:

I’m a self-published author whose dark, thought-provoking science fiction & fantasy contains flawed, relatable characters and themes that challenge the status quo. Guarding Angel is on sale for $0.99 right now. You can find it at several major eBook retailers and on Amazon in paperback. The sequel, Reaping Angel, will be released in early 2016.

·         Kindle

·         Kobo

·         Nook

·         Google Play

·         Paperback (Amazon)

·         Goodreads

You can also follow me on social media, check out the other stops on this blog tour, or if you like my work, sign up for my newsletter:

·         My newsletter (No spam!)

·         July 2015 Guarding Angel Blog Tour

·         Twitter

·         Pinterest

·         FaceBook

Thank you, Operation Awesome, for having me here today!

Pre-Writing: Getting Into Character

PRE-WRITING

For May, our OA Writing Tips topic is Pre-Writing. How do you get ready to write a novel?

When I first started writing, I didn't know pre-writing existed. I dove in, head first, and felt befuddled when I bonked my head on the bottom of the pool. Through the years, I've begun to appreciate the idea of pre-writing. My favorite way to get ready for a big project, and the one I'm going to talk about today, is...

Getting Into Character:

So, taking a leaf from Twilight's Stephenie Meyer--who wrote her first book beginning with the intense emotional dream she'd just had: a conversation between a girl and a vampire about how much he wanted to kill her and how hard it was for him to refrain--I like to begin by writing a conversation between two or more characters. This gives me an idea who my main characters are, and why they are at odds with each other. It immediately establishes the main conflict, each character's main motive, and the justification each will use to feel like the good guy in the conflict.

This comes naturally to me because I often feel the impulse to open a new scene with dialogue. It's counter-intuitive for me to do what the experts say and begin by setting the scene. In my mind, it's the conversation that means the most. This type of pre-writing works with my natural inclination and gets the creative juices flowing.

Even if the conversations won't ever feature in the finished novel, they put me firmly in the heads of the characters I'm going to be leading on their wild goose chase of adventure, woe, and resolution.

How do you pre-write?

Look for answers from the rest of the OA gang throughout the month.

Is your character someone to root for?

As I've mentioned before, effective character development is something I constantly strive toward. This was especially apparent last Friday, when my story was up for critique in my MFA class. 

During the workshop, people said they didn't really like the main character--and some of them even sympathized with characters who were supposed to be adversaries. 

One classmate hit the nail on the head as to why. She said, "She wasn't really someone I could root for."

This really struck a chord with me. Because we all want our characters to be relatable. Likable. Someone our readers will want to stick with for several pages. 

But if I'm rooting for a character, I'm with them all the way, even after the wheels fall off. 

So I asked myself the following:

Which characters make me feel like this: ("Rick 'em, rack em!")

From Tumblr: "A Girl Worth Fighting For" http://i-wont-say-im-in-loveee.tumblr.com/

Instead of this: ("If he can't do it, GREAT!")

From Tumblr: "Darling You'll be Okay" http://lover-drown-me.tumblr.com/

Here are a few examples I came up with:

Matilda Wormwood (Matilda, by Roald Dahl): Matilda grows up in a family that doesn't appreciate her. But what really keeps us with her the whole way is she doesn't let this get her down, nor does she act superior (even though she is). As an agent of chaos, she fights back by playing subtle pranks on her family and other adversaries.

What Matilda teaches us: Protagonists need to see the humor in their situations, no matter how bleak they are.

Claire Beauchamp (Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon): In contrast with Matilda, Claire is an inherently strong-willed person. But what keeps us for the long haul is her vulnerability as well as her strength. Like Matilda, she's cunning, and willing to be an agent of chaos to get what she needs. Steal a horse to return to the standing stones that brought her to eighteenth century Scotland. Or defy a priest to save the life of a young boy.  But in both those situations, Claire is also inherently vulnerable. 

What Claire teaches us: Protagonists' actions need a distinct purpose in concordance with the chaos they create, and strong characters need to show their softer sides.

Tally Youngblood (Uglies, by Scott Westerfeld): Tally, like Matilda, is put in a weak position from the onset, especially after she loses her best friend Peris to the "pretties." Although Tally considers herself an "ugly," she doesn't wallow in that. And through her journey to dismantle what's been created, she figures out that being "pretty" isn't all that important anyway. 

What Tally teaches us: Protagonists need enough flexibility to grow and change. 

Notice that all three characters have something in common: a willingness to be an agent of chaos. To turn their external worlds upside down. What makes the difference is how that change relates to them as human beings.

So in this short story I wrote (it's probably going to turn into a book chapter), I've decided to make my character a little wiser (like Claire), more stoic (like Matilda) and more flexible (like Tally). And, like all three, a true agent of chaos.

What about you? Which characters do you root for most? And in turn, what do you think makes readers root for the characters you've written?

What's Your Easter Egg?

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter! I spent mine trying to get some relaxation time in, while fixing some plot and character problems in one of my manuscripts. There was a place, a little more than 30% in, where it felt flat, and had no direction. Kind of like this:

Now what?

Ultimately, it meant I hadn't yet gotten to what that story really was--it was floundering, with nothing holding it together. I'd added too many directions, and made the story wider instead of deeper.

But it needed to go deeper. That was the creamy filling that the book's egg was missing.

Which meant my character needed a clear focus, a motivation, even after she'd experienced a pretty significant trauma. And it had to directly relate to the mid-point reversal.

And then, when I saw the the end of an episode of Better Call Saul, called Pimento, I finally found my missing Easter egg.

I won't ruin Better Call Saul for those who want to see it, but suffice to say that Saul (Jimmy) finds out that he's been strung along for quite awhile by someone he thought he trusted (which is exactly what happens to my protagonist). Watch if you dare:




My protagonist's motivation was not only to try to fill the holes in her life, but acknowledge that they were there in the first place. And because the antagonist would never allow her to do that, that's where they could bat heads at the mid-point reversal.

Armed with my Easter egg (and its creamy filling) I'll go back to revising that section with a completely new purpose--both with what the antagonist intends and how my protagonist has to get around it.

To to sum up, if you have a section of your book that's falling flat, revisit the following questions:

• What does my protagonist really want here (their Easter egg)? Why do they want it? How will it help him/her?
• What does my antagonist really want here (their Easter egg)? How will he/she thwart my protagonist's efforts to get what he/she wants?
• How will this section relate to the mid-point reversal (or other places where protagonist and antagonist go head-to-head)?

Hopefully, by the time you've worked through this, you'll find Easter eggs that you might not otherwise have discovered.

Your turn. What's your protagonists's Easter egg? Antagonist's Easter egg? How will they help your plot and character development?

Antiheroes, heroes, and Superman

Google

I've never been a huge fan of antiheroes in literature. My favorite example of an antihero is Scarlett O'Hara. She's awful. Her inner voice makes all the good things she does selfish and duty-bound to the image of goodness. House, M.D. is another story with an antihero. Since he's modeled after Sherlock Holmes, we could include him in this category. It's all about the game, not necessarily the lives in jeopardy.

We all tend to love the reluctant hero, but the antihero is different. He isn't just reluctant at first, before he finally responds to the call of duty and honor. He's resentful of the duty all the way through. He has his own reasons for doing what he does, and they have nothing to do with the traditional heroic mind.

Captain America is a hero. He sacrifices willingly for a cause he perceives to be greater than himself. A reluctant hero who stays resentful of the people he must help and the cause he must serve becomes an antihero.

It's tricky to write an antihero successfully and keep people engaged. It can grate on the nerves, especially if there's no perceptible arc or growth in the character.

On the opposite side is the flawless hero. That's Superman. His only weakness is a rock from his home planet, not any kind of relatable human frailty. Just as important as being good and dependable is the necessary human foible or two that make a person relatable. Han Solo is not an antihero because he truly does care about causes and friends, though he prides himself on being tough and detached.

So go ahead and knock your heroes off their pedestals! Just don't knock them too hard. :)

Who is your favorite hero? Favorite antihero?

Pets and Peeves, the Unexpected Heroes of Fiction

Here's a Friday writing tip to get you started on your weekend writing binge.

Add an animal.

Or a spook.

Give it a personality, a driving motive, setbacks, and final triumph.

Remember Peeves, the poltergeist of Harry Potter fame, who would only listen to Fred and George Weasley?

In the book, as Fred and George ascend on broomsticks amid a tantalizing display of illicit fireworks, ready to leave Hogwarts for good (for now), their parting words are, "Give her hell for us, Peeves." It's not in the movie, but here's the scene to jog your memory:




Throughout the well-woven story, ghosts play a contributing role, whether the conundrum is solving a murder, figuring out a clue, or finding the final Horcrux.

In the same series, animals play pivotal roles. There's Hedwig the loyal snowy owl, without whom Harry's lonely summers would be unbearable. And there's Buckbeak, a hippogriff who is only misunderstood, according to Hagrid. Buckbeak flies in to save another misunderstood creature, Sirius Black, from the kiss of death.

Hippogriff Wiki

If one were to take out all the ghosts and animals from the Harry Potter series, the story would fall apart. There'd be no Aragog the giant spider or Moaning Myrtle to tell the morbid story of her death or Fluffy the Three-Headed Dog to guard the Sorcerer's Stone.

For a more realistic fiction approach to animal characters, read Where the Red Fern Grows. There's a story about two canine characters with personality, heart, and character arcs to rival any human story.

Do you have an animal muse at home?

Here's one of mine doing what she does best: Playing with the kids in all weather.

Happy Writing Weekend!

Writing: Breaking out of the white mold

photo courtesy of Frerieke via Wikimedia Commons

Hi guys. Today we're going to talk about diversity. Not because I'm trying to be politically correct or because I think this is a heated topic (in fact, I almost *didn't* bring it up because it is a heated topic), but because the more I see YA covers the more I see white females and a whole lot of white males and the more books I add to my TBR the more I see how many white females lead YA literature (that I, myself, read, too--I want to be clear about this). So the reason for my post isn't to stir anything up; it's to ask you, as writers, what you think about it. (I have no idea what the demographics are for authors (white versus everyone else) but to me, white authors seem to take precedence in the media. It's just how it is.)

So. Diversity. Recently, I got addicted to CW's Arrow. Lovemuffin and I watched a ton of shows back to back for an entire weekend, and were only a few episodes in when I observed that almost every scene had a white character right alongside an African-American. This has changed a bit as the series has progressed, but at that point I was like, "Wow. This is so cool." (Keep in mind that I don't watch TV ever, really, so perhaps this is now the norm. If so, whoops.) But to me, seeing both in almost every scene was proof that this wasn't some coincidence; their show was seriously trying to make it happen.

As someone who is very active on Twitter and Goodreads, I've noticed that many of the teens I interact with or follow or "squee" over stuff with are *not* white. And, I've noticed that they read the same things I do. Which means they too are not reading much about characters like them. And that, I think, is  quite unfair.

I have one series where almost every character is a different nationality specifically because I wanted it to look like a skin rainbow when the entire group hung out. My other series? Well, let's just say I saw them all as white Cali kids. Of course, neither of these make me (or anyone else) a better or worse author, but after watching Arrow I got to thinking: How hard would it be to throw in a nationality or two (even as secondary characters), and why don't we, as a society, do it more often?

Like I said, this post wasn't to start anything, but to see what you guys think. Sometimes books are best written to where the readers can decide for themselves what nationality a character is. But, I tell ya what: I can't even imagine how frustrated I would be if almost every book cover and character showed a Portuguese girl (when I am so *not* remotely Portuguese at all). It would probably be fine at first, but after years upon years of this, I'm pretty sure I'd be like, "Can't they find anyone else to put on their covers? Don't they know there are many more people in this world besides girls with dark hair?"

The mic is on! I'd love to hear your thoughts. :)

***Note: It occured to me days after writing this post that I had seen another post recently about diversity by Aimee Hyndman. You can check it out here.

Characterization exercises

Happy Friday, everyone. I hope that you and your loved ones are all okay. It's been a tough week for a lot of people, and if you guys could use a distraction as much as I could, you've come to the right place.

EDIT: And I scheduled this post last night, before the current situation developed, so I'd like to stress the above words in the strongest possible terms: I hope you and yours are okay. Praying that this situation in my beloved hometown of Boston is resolved very soon.

To me, characterization is one of the most exciting parts of writing. I mean, who doesn't like creating people from scratch? Some characters just show up in your brain, fully formed, and have voices that just gush from your fingertips. But sometimes, those characters are a little harder to get to know, and it takes several drafts to figure out who these people are.

In my recent review of Nova Ren Suma's 17 & GONE, I talked a little about why I loved her characterization so much, even for characters who were only there for a couple paragraphs. It was the specificity - even the most mundane details weren't the kind of generic statements that could apply to any stock character. You could tell that she knew all of these characters so well.

And one of my favorite ways to get to that place with my own cast? Character sheets, baby.

My first writing partner gave me these - a fairly basic but still comprehensive one, and an extremely detailed one that's perfect for your protagonists, or even your awesome villain. They're a bit long, so I set each of them up in a Google doc for you to play around with.

The basic one

The detailed one

I hope you guys enjoy these - they always make me smile! And it's a great way to work out some interesting, specific tidbits, even if you never use them in the story.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Plinkett Test

I'm about to do something unfair.

Under no circumstances click on the following link unless you have two hours to kill and want to see an amazing takedown and analysis of the Star Wars prequels, during which you will alternately wince in horror and laugh uproariously depending on your own personal damage.

Here's the link.

The Plinkett reviews (of which there are more—that's the second unfair thing I'll do today, tell you there are more of these) are one of my favorite guides to how movies, and stories in general, can go wrong.  This also makes them a good resource for figuring out how to make stories go right.

About twenty minutes in, the reviewer analyzes characterization problems in Star Wars: Episode I compared to the original trilogy.  He gives some friends a simple test—describe a given character from the original trilogy without using their name, physical description, or job.  Then do the same for a character in the prequel trilogy.  Han Solo, Obi Wan Kenobi, Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, all prompt excited responses, and dead-on descriptions.  When we get to the prequel trilogy, the interviewees umm and aaah all over the place.

When I first watched the Plinkett Review a couple years ago (yes, dear reader, I've watched these multiple times, and no, I'm not sure what that says about myself), that test stuck with me.  Afterward, editing, I posed the question to myself: could I describe my characters without reference to their job, name, or appearance?  We remember characters who pass—Han Solo, Ellen Ripley, Marian Ravenwood, Indiana Jones, Sherlock Holmes, Phillip Marlowe, Aerin Firehair, heck, even Humbert Humbert—while those who fail slip away into memory.

(Failing isn't necessarily a bad thing if your main character isn't the point of your story.  The narrator of Kafka's Penal Colony doesn't pass this test.  The Officer, though, does…)

Whatever you think of the Plinkett reviews as a whole, I think this test is useful for structural and character edits.  What about you?  How do you test your characters?  What happens when one doesn't hold up?

Secondary Characters Who Sizzle: Georgia McBride

This may seem like a cop-out, but when I think of great secondary characters, I think of Harry Potter and Twilight. These authors knew what they were doing when they expertly chose certain secondary characters as plot catalysts, plot resolution agents, and characterization reinforcement. However, you aren't JK Rowling or Stephenie Meyer, so I have some advice for writing secondary characters who sizzle. When writing a novel, why should the main character have all the fun? It is impossible (and frankly lazy) for your main characters to drive the plot alone, develop character in a bubble and offer authentic and believable resolution to the story all on their own. And, even if (s)he does, the only way to make it interesting and richly layered is to have amazing (think scene-stealers and best supporting award roles) secondary characters to break up the obvious awesomeness of the main character. Why? Because all awesome all the time is BORING. Below is a list of some of my favorite secondary characters from the aforementioned series and why I like them.

  

The Dursleys by Harry Potter Wikia

Harry Potter 

The Dursleys – hardly major characters, their decisions and actions played a major role in driving the story forward, and sending Harry on his quest in book one. Without the Dursleys, Harry likely would have been resolved to staying under the stairs until it was time to move away. Preventing him from using magic made his interest in his ability and heritage even greater. I dare say their distaste for all things magic was instrumental in driving Harry to want to learn the truth. Through the introduction of these secondary characters the author was able to offer solid character motivation (what drove Harry to want to leave initially), characterization (via Harry’s reactions to the Dursleys and their treatment of him), story set up (this story is about x), the Muggle world (subtle worldbuilding), and also give us a hint of the young man Harry would become.

Twilight by Twilght Saga Wikia

Twilight Saga 

One of my favorite secondary characters in the series is Renesmee Cullen. So it’s the worst name in history, but Renesmee influences the plot and characters like no other. Just by existing, she cements the bond between the vampires and werewolves, reduces the Volturi to nothing more than mall cops and helps Team Jacob members feel better about their loss. No other minor character in recent YA history has had such an influence on the outcome of a novel, the main character’s ultimate development, or the resolution of conflict that had been building through four novels in a series.

Cinna by hungergamesmovie.com

So, when writing sizzling secondary characters, remember those who have gone before you. You have wonderful examples here and in many other popular titles (Think Cinna and Effie Trinket from The Hunger Games). What it is it about these characters that makes them memorable even after you finish reading the book? What makes them secondary characters who sizzle?

 If you have other examples, please comment below. Write well!

*******

Georgia loves a good story. Whether it’s writing her own, or publishing someone else’s, story is at the heart of everything Georgia does. Founder of Month9Books, YALITCHAT.ORG and the weekly #yalitchat on Twitter, Georgia spends most of her days writing, editing, or talking about books. That is, of course, when she is not blasting really loud music or reading. She is represented by Tamar Rydzinski of The Laura Dail Literary Agency. Her debut YA novel, PRAEFATIO releases May 2013 from Month 9 Books

Visit Georgia online at: www.georgiamcbride.com or www.month9books.com

Facebook: facebook.com/georgiamcbride

Twitter: @georgia_mcbride

Pinterest: pinterest.com/georgiamcbride

Instagram: IamGeorgiaMcBride

Letting Characters Be Themselves - Elana Johnson

Characters are the heart and soul of novels. They can make a reader clutch the book to their chest, sighing with happiness when things go well. And a well-developed character can also make a cry when something horrible happens.

It’s the people we care about when we read. If we don’t care about the character, chances are we won’t finish the book.

So the first lesson on characterization is this: Let your character be themselves. They should have a fully formed personality, and they should not deviate from who they are for any reason—even if it’s to fit your plot.

I say, mold your plot around your character, not the other way around.

Of course, we want to see growth and change in a character. Those kinds of things should happen through the story as the character undergoes new challenges and must make difficult choices. Perhaps they learn something about themselves they never knew before—or refused to recognize.

That’s all fine. But ultimately, we want to see a character who does, says, and chooses exactly what you, as the author, set them up to do, say, and choose.

Easy, right? Uh…

Some tips:

1. Be consistent. If your main character hates talking on the phone—and that’s not a flaw you want them to have to overcome—then they never talk on the phone. This is an easy one, I know, but still. All those nuances you’ve given your character? They should serve a purpose. Some are flaws you’ll want them to overcome, and others are the fine details all characters need to be made into three-dimensional people a reader will care about. So if they drive slow, they never drive fast. If they can’t talk to girls, then they don’t suddenly start snapping off witty remarks with females. It’s in these little details that readers will recognize the care with which you molded your characters. 
2. Give your character something to believe in. There’s nothing more boring than vanilla, even if it is delicious. We want to read about a character that has passions, dreams, troubles. Because we have passions, dreams, and troubles. If the MC is just getting up and going to school every day, the book’s a snooze-fest. If you give your character something to believe in, or something to care about, that establishes a motivation for their growth and change. This worthy cause/motivation is also good for your plot. 
3. When writing, put your MC in a high-stress, angry, or tense situation. What do they do? What might they say? Write it out. This will establish how the character will act during your climax—as this is one of the most troubling spots for authors to keep their characters in, well, character. 
4. Lastly, if something feels off in your novel and you don’t know what, start by evaluating your character. More often than not, the flaw lies in their development or their subsequent consistency. 

Examine what your character does, says, and chooses. Those three things contribute to who that character is, and must be in line with the established persona of the character.

Elana is the author of the Possession series, which includes full-length novels POSSESSION and SURRENDER, and short stories REGRET (ebook only) and RESIST (free here!).

Elana wishes she could experience her first kiss again, tell the mean girl where to shove it, and have cool superpowers like reading minds and controlling fire. To fulfill her desires, she writes young adult science fiction and fantasy. Using her boring human powers, she graduated from Southern Utah University with Summa Cum Laude honors in Elementary Education with a minor in Mathematics. She started her teaching career as an upper grade music and art specialist. After a four-year stint in 3rd grade, she is currently the technology specialist.

In her world, Oreos and bacon would be the only food groups. Everyone would drive 10 over the speed limit. Winter would be eliminated as a season, and Jeff Probst would be President. As it is, she lives with her husband and two kids in central Utah, gets cited when she drives too fast and eats Oreos only on special occasions.

She is the author of From the Query to the Call, an ebook that every writer needs to read before they query. She runs a personal blog on publishing and is a founding author of the QueryTracker blog, a regular contributor to The League of Extraordinary Writers, and a co-organizer of WriteOnCon. She is a member of SCBWI, ANWA, and LDStorymakers. CLICK HERE to find her elsewhere around the web.

Elana is represented by Michelle Andelman of Regal Literary.

BUY LINKS:

Possession - Amazon; B&N; Books a Million

Toe the line between rule-following and rule-breaking in this tense and twisted start to a smart and sexy dystopian trilogy.

Vi knows the Rule: Girls don’t walk with boys, and they never even think about kissing them. But no one makes Vi want to break the Rules more than Zenn…and since the Thinkers have chosen him as Vi’s future match, how much trouble can one kiss cause? The Thinkers may have brainwashed the rest of the population, but Vi is determined to think for herself.

But the Thinkers are unusually persuasive, and they’re set on convincing Vi to become one of them….starting by brainwashed Zenn. Vi can’t leave Zenn in the Thinkers’ hands, but she’s wary of joining the rebellion, especially since that means teaming up with Jag. Jag is egotistical, charismatic, and dangerous: everything Zenn’s not. Vi can’t quite trust Jag and can’t quite resist him, but she also can’t give up on Zenn.

This is a game of control or be controlled. And Vi has no choice but to play.

Surrender - Amazon; B&N; Books a Million

The thrilling and seductive sequel to Possession puts love on the line in a dystopian struggle for independent thought.

Forbidden love, intoxicating power, and the terror of control…

Raine has always been a good girl. She lives by the rules in Freedom. After all, they are her father’s rules: He’s the Director. It’s because of him that Raine is willing to use her talent—a power so dangerous, no one else is allowed to know about it. Not even her roommate, Vi.

All of that changes when Raine falls for Gunner. Raine’s got every reason in the world to stay away from Gunn, but she just can’t. Especially when she discovers his connection to Vi’s boyfriend, Zenn.

Raine has never known anyone as heavily brainwashed as Vi. Raine’s father expects her to spy on Vi and report back to him. But Raine is beginning to wonder what Vi knows that her father is so anxious to keep hidden, and what might happen if she helps Vi remember it. She’s even starting to suspect Vi’s secrets might involve Freedom’s newest prisoner, the rebel Jag Barque….

Abandon (available for pre-order) - Amazon; B&N; Books a Million

The fight for independent thought becomes a matter of life or death in this sizzling and intense conclusion to the Possession trilogy.

Vi has made her choice between Jag and Zenn, and the resistance may have suffered for it. But with the Thinkers as strong as ever, the rebels still have a job to do. Vi knows better than anyone that there’s more at stake than a few broken hearts.

But there is a traitor among them…and the choices he makes could lead to the total destruction of everything Vi has fought for.

Vi, Jag, and Zenn must set their problems aside for the resistance to have any hope of ending the Thinkers’ reign. Their success means everything…and their failure means death.

Creating Unique Characters - Bethany Wiggins

First of all, I have to say thank you for letting me post on your blog! It is an honor.

Now, let's talk a little bit about characters. What makes a character likeable? Interesting? Despised? Here are a few thoughts.

INNER TURMOIL, MOTIVATION, and COMPASSION!

These three things are very typically wrapped up in each other. Some of the best characters are not only plagued by difficult pasts, but it is that very past--that inner turmoil--that motivates them to do interesting and amazing things. Think Batman/Bruce Wayne. His parents were murdered in front of his face. Because of that traumatic event, he decides to grow up and fight bad guys. Not only does this motivate him to kick some butt, it also makes us feel something for him . . . compassion! And when you feel compassion for a character, it builds a bond with that character and something happens. You LIKE him. And if you like the character, you want to know what happens to him.

So, know your character's past, and know how that past motivates him.

FLAWS and IDIOSYNCRASIES!

Are you perfect? Is anyone perfect? Yes, actually we are all perfect in our uniqueness and personal quirks--and that's what makes us so special and loveable. This is also what makes a character special. BUT you can't tell us what her flaws are (ie: A door slammed and the power went out. She was nervous so she chewed her fingernails until they bled.). You have to show us her flaws (ie: A door slammed and the power went out. She caught her nail between her teeth and started chewing while she waited for her pulse to slow down.). Flaws/idiosyncrasies can be simple things, like only wearing white socks, or they can be deeper things like not trusting people or being scared of what's under the bed or carrying around a special handkerchief because it belonged to a long-dead grandma.

So, know what makes your character quirky. Know her flaws. Know her odd habits. And embrace them.

Last of all, and this was touched on already, because it is the most important thing you can know about a character: PAST PAST PAST!!!

To know someone's present personality, you have to know their past. You have to know why they act the way they do. Why they respond to situations the way they do. Why they love or hate a certain thing, why they're scared of certain things, why we should love them. So, get to know your character. Make up his/her past! What traumatic things happened to him in grade school? What were her parents like? What was the best day of his life? The worst? The saddest? The scariest? Know these things, and then while you're writing, you not only know what makes your character tick, you can also give us little tidbits of his/her past.

Most importantly, have fun with your characters. Make them unique and pitiful and funny, and then we won't be able to help ourselves. We will fall in love with them.

Bethany Wiggins has always been an avid reader, but not an avid writer. She failed ninth grade English because she read novels instead of doing her homework. In high school, she sat alone at lunch and read massive hardback fantasy novels (Tad Williams and Robert Jordan anyone?). It wasn't until the end of her senior year that the other students realized she was reading fiction--not the Bible. Several years later, Bethany's sister dared her to start writing an hour a day until she completed a novel. Bethany wrote a seven-hundred page fantasy novel that she wisely let no one read--but it taught her how to write. The rest is history.

You can find Bethany at:

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BUY LINKS:

Shifting - Amazon; B&N; Books a Million

Eighteen-year-old Magdalene is transferred to what should be her last foster home in Silver City, New Mexico. Fitting in has never been her strong suit, but it's not for the reasons most people would expect-it's because Magdalene is a shape shifter. But even in her new home danger lurks, waiting in the shadows to pounce. Those hunting her are the Skinwalkers of Navajo legend, who have traded their souls to become the animal whose skin they wear- and Maggie is their next target.

Full of romance, mysticism, and intrigue, this dark take on Navajo legend will haunt readers to the final page.

Stung (available for pre-order) - Amazon; B&N; Books a Million

Fiona doesn't remember going to sleep. But when she opens her eyes, she discovers her entire world has been altered-her house is abandoned and broken, and the entire neighborhood is barren and dead. Even stranger is the tattoo on her right wrist-a black oval with five marks on either side-that she doesn't remember getting but somehow knows she must cover at any cost. And she's right. When the honeybee population collapsed, a worldwide pandemic occurred and the government tried to bio-engineer a cure. Only the solution was deadlier than the original problem-the vaccination turned people into ferocious, deadly beasts who were branded as a warning to un-vaccinated survivors. Key people needed to rebuild society are protected from disease and beasts inside a fortress-like wall. But Fiona has awakened branded, alone-and on the wrong side of the wall . . .