Ruth Ann Nordin's Blog, page 49

Winners of the Turkey Trot Blog Hop!

First off, the winner of the Amazon $50 Gift Card is Laurie whose comment on Zina Abbot’s Bridgeport Holiday Brides’ post was drawn at random.

But I do have three winners over here for the giveaway I was doing.  (I only put people in who left their email address, just as I said I would in the other post.)  I’ll be emailing the winners as soon as this post is up, so please check your inbox if you won!

Here they are:

1. sherry1969 – You will get a signed paperback copy of His Wicked Lady.

2. parisfanca – You will get a signed paperback copy of Wagon Trail Bride

3. cissie150 – You will get a signed paperback copy of The Accidental Mail Order Bride

Thank you to everyone who entered.  Rose Gordon is planning to run another giveaway blog hop, which I believe will be in January.  By then, I should have a new book out to offer.

Turkey Trot Blog Hop

In addition to other wonderful authors, I’m participating in a Turkey Trot Blog Hop this year.

First, I have to say what I’m thankful for.

What I’m thankful for is really pretty simple, so I’m going to leave it to one sentence: I’m thankful for everyone who has stuck with me through the years.

What I’m Working On For 2017

For this post, I thought I’d separate out the historical westerns from the Regencies.

Historical Westerns

1.  The Bargain Mail Order Bride (Chance at Love Series: Book 4) 

(Book 1: The Convenient Mail Order Bride; Book 2: The Mistaken Mail Order Bride; Book 3: The Accidental Mail Order Bride)

This is with my awesome editing team.

I was going to publish it at the end of December, but the Christmas through New Year time frame is such a busy one that I decided to keep the original release date of January 7.   I should have it up for pre-order on Amazon by mid-December.  It’s already on pre-order on Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and iBooks.

2. I’m thinking of writing Caleb’s story, which would be Book 5 in the Chance At Love Series.

I haven’t decided for sure on this or not.  I have a good, solid idea for this book, but parts of it will have darker elements in it that will be similar to Brave Beginnings, which is in the Native American Series.  I hesitate to write dark material because I worry that I won’t do justice to the subject matter.

What I decided to do for the time being is to start the story since it’s been pressing on my mind to write, and I’ll see how things go.

3. Groom For Hire (Pioneer Series: Book 3)

(Book 1: Wagon Trail Bride; Book 2: The Marriage Agreement)

This will complete the Pioneer Series, and I am over halfway into the book.  The expected release date is February 12.

4. His Auctioned Bride (Misled Mail Order Brides Series: Book 1)

(Other books in this series are currently not titled.)

This will come out later in 2017.  I have a soft release date set for the summer.  This is Sep’s story.  Sep, as you’ll recall, was Joel Larson’s brother-in-law in Shotgun Groom.  I don’t think I ever gave this character a last name.  April’s last name was Edwards, but that was her first husband’s last name.  I’ll go back over the book to make sure before I attach a last name to Sep.

***

I expect another historical western or two in 2017, but right now it’s too soon to tell.  All I know is that we’ll be seeing Amanda and Richard Larson’s twin sons, Mark and Anthony in the Misled Mail Order Bride Series.

Regencies

1. The Rake’s Vow (Marriage by Bargain Series: Book 2)

(Book 1: The Viscount’s Runaway Bride; Book 3: To Snare An Earl; Book 4: The Viscount’s Convenient Wife)

This will be the first Regency I’ll publish in 2017, and I’m estimating to have it out in May.

I have just started this one.  I’m nearing the end of Chapter 2.  Anyway, last night as I was working in it, it occurred to me that I needed to make a minor adjustment to the description (which I already did).  The hero and heroine will agree ahead of time to keep their marriage celibate.  It wasn’t what I originally intended.  I had thought to have the heroine be unaware of the hero’s vow to remain celibate for the rest of this life after his years of being a rake.  But then I realized the setup won’t work.

2. The Reclusive Earl (Marriage by Fate Series: Book 1)

The other books in this series haven’t been titled yet.

I plan to modify the book cover in a couple of weeks.  But for the time being, this works.  This is going to be Miss Opal Beaufort’s story.  Opal originally appeared in The Earl’s Wallflower Bride, and she’s Lord Steinbeck’s sister.  If you’ll recall, she was emotionally abused by her mother and put on the pretense of being crazy so her mother would stop being mean to her.  She’ll end up with a gentleman who needs someone with her background to make him feel like a whole person.

3. To Snare An Earl (Marriage by Bargain Series: Book 3)

This is Celia’s book.  I know a lot of you hated Celia from the way she acted in The Viscount’s Runaway Bride, but that is exactly why the hero won’t want to be with her.  So I need her to be petty, annoying, and selfish in the beginning of this book.  Otherwise, there would be no conflict and no room for growth.

I currently plan to set her up with the gentleman who hates her most, and that is Lord Durrant (aka Corin who is her brother’s good friend).  I know some of you just cringed because he is such a nice guy, but like I said, there would be no conflict if he actually wanted to be with her.

4. The Viscount’s Convenient Wife (Marriage by Bargain Series: Book 4)

This will be Candace’s story.  Candace first made her appearance in Her Counterfeit Husband.  She doesn’t want to be married.  The hero, the captain I introduced in The Viscount’s Runaway Bride, also doesn’t want to get married.  But I’ll have to find a set of circumstances that pairs these two up.

***

I do have other Regencies planned for 2017, but it’s too soon to tell who will be in those books and what the titles of those will be.  What I can say is that they will be in the Marriage by Fate Series.

Updates

Link I found about Popular Romance Tropes

So I’ve been brainstorming all kinds of posts I could use about popular romance tropes over the last few months, but my mind keeps coming up blank.  I’ve started a couple of posts and just couldn’t figure out where to go without the first two or three sentences.  I found this blog post Mindy Klasky wrote which sums up a variety of tropes (some I didn’t even think about).  I’m going to link to her post so you can read it.  I’m sorry, guys, but my head just wasn’t in this particular topic.  It’s an excellent post, and I can tell she took a lot of time and thought into writing it.

I finished The Bargain Mail Order Bride!

Book 4 in the Chance At Love Series

(Book 1: The Convenient Mail Order Bride, Book 2: The Mistaken Mail Order Bride, Book 3: The Accidental Mail Order Bride)

Click here to reserve your copy today!

And I’m starting the initial edits today.   This one turned out to be 10,000 words longer than what I usually write, but since this is the last book in the Chance At Love Series, I had to tie up the loose ends in the series.  I’m extremely happy with this series, and I think it’s one of my best.  Previous characters did make appearances in this one, so you’ll see familiar faces.

I’m hoping to have this out December 3o or 31.  I’d like to get this out a week earlier than expected.

I’ll Be Getting Back to Groom For Hire

Book 3 in the Pioneer Series

(Book 1: Wagon Trail Bride, Book 2: The Marriage Agreement)

I’m well into halfway in this book, but I had to stop writing in it to finish The Bargain Mail Order Bride.

This is not on pre-order yet.

I’ll Be Getting Back to The Rake’s Vow, Too

Book 2 in the Marriage By Bargain Series

(Book 1: The Viscount’s Runaway Bride, Book 3: To Snare An Earl, Book 4: The Duke’s Convenient Wife)

Click here to reserve your copy today!

I only made it to chapter 2 before I had to focus on The Bargain Mail Order Bride.  :)

So that leaves us with what series I’m starting next…

It will be another historical western romance series, and it will focus on Sep (Joel Larson’s young brother-in-law in Shotgun Groom.

His Auctioned Bride (The Misled Mail Order Brides: Book 1)

Books 2-4 are currently untitled.

I don’t know what the plot of this will be until I write it, but I can tell you the set-up for it.

Four women arrive in Omaha, Nebraska. All are mail-order brides. The problem? They answered the same ad to a shady character who plans to auction them all off.

His Auctioned Bride starts off this series when Sep becomes aware of this and bids on the heroine.  From there, I’ll have to write the book and see what happens.

The Viscount’s Runaway Bride is Now Available!

It’s now here!

This is Book 1 in the Marriage by Bargain Series.

I’m going to start this post with a description of the book and where you can get it.  Then, I am going to give an overall view of the series, who features in this book, and I make a special offer that I rarely do.  So be sure to read to the end of this post.

Description:

What Lord Worsley really wants is a wife who can excite him, but what he ended up with was an engagement borne of necessity to his sister’s friend. So when Miss Damara Onslow intercepts his carriage on his way to his country estate, he’s immediately drawn to both her bold spirit and her beauty. Even more exciting is the offer she makes: money in exchange for marriage.

More than happy to get out of the marriage he was dreading, he agrees, and soon they are husband and wife. From the moment they exchange vows, it appears as if he’s found the perfect lady, and his marriage is the love match he’s always wanted. But not everyone is happy about it. To make matters worse, he never thought to ask Damara why she was so eager to get married, and the truth might be the undoing of them both.

Where you can find this book:

Amazon 

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

iBooks

Smashwords

A quick view of the series:

I am currently working on Book 2, which is The Rake’s Vow.  Book 2 is going to be Loretta’s story.  Book 3, which is To Snare An Earl, is going to be Celia’s story.  (Yes, I do know that I have a lot of work to do on Loretta and Celia, especially Celia.)  Book 4, which is not titled yet, will be Candace’s story.  I’ll be working on each book back to back.  So as soon as I finish Book 2, I’ll go into Book 3, etc.  I won’t leave you hanging for a long time on what happens next.  This series of books are surprisingly woven together, so what happens in one book impacts the next.  Most series I write aren’t quite so “tightly” related to each other.  At the moment, I’m almost in Chapter 3 in The Rake’s Vow.

Who is in this book that you’ll recognize from past Regency books?

That all being said, this book follows the events that took place in The Earl’s Wallflower Bride.  You’ll be seeing Warren and Iris again.  You’ll also be seeing the two ladies Iris hated (Celia and Loretta).  You’ll also be seeing an old face from the Regency book I wrote called Her Counterfeit Husband.  Candace (who was the heroine’s friend) will finally get her happy ending.

Coupon for a Free Download of Her Counterfeit Husband.  (Offer good until November 28, 2016)

I don’t often make an offer of a free download at Smashwords, but in this case, I am offering a free copy of Her Counterfeit Husband.  So if you haven’t read it yet, you can meet Candace (who is a secondary character).  That way you can get the background into Candace’s story.   It’s only available on Smashwords though.

Here’s the link to the book’s page.   And here’s the coupon you can use to download it for free: HA84F.

New Release On Oct 29 and Wattpad

On October 29, The Viscount’s Runaway Bride will be out

(This is Book 1 in the Marriage by Bargain Series)

Click here to reserve your copy!

For those of you who read The Earl’s Wallflower Bride, you’ll recall that Warren Beaufort (aka. Lord Steinbeck) had a friend Anthony Worsley (aka Viscount Worsley), and this friend had a wicked sister (Celia) who gave Lady Iris a hard time.  Both Anthony and Celia are featured in The Viscount’s Runaway Bride.  I do bring back Warren and Iris into this book, so you’ll be seeing some familiar faces again.

Turning A Villain Into A Hero

Thanks to a comment from another post, I got an idea to discuss the way a villain can be morphed into a hero.  This won’t happen for every single villain.  There are some villains who can’t be redeemed no matter how hard you try because they are so dark.  But there are those you can transform over the course of one book or a series.

Please note: this strategy isn’t the only one at your disposal.  It’s just the one that I noticed while I was discussing imperfect characters.

ID 31478951 © Iqoncept | Dreamstime.com

 

Today, I’ll discuss the evolution of a villain turning into a hero from studying different TV shows and movies that have successfully done this.

First, you present the villain in all their awfulness.

I agree you wouldn’t want to push the line too far.  You don’t want the character to be so incredibly awful that they doesn’t have any humanity in them.  There must be room for redemption.  So be mindful of how horrible you are going to make this character when you present them before the reader.

The best way to introduce the villain is from the viewpoint of another character because the other character will best see the bad in the villain.  The wonderful thing about point of view is that each character in your book is going to perceive other characters in their own unique way.  You can use this to your advantage.  Remember, your point of view character does NOT know why the villain is the way he is.  All your point of view character can know is what he sees, thinks, and hears.  What your point of view character believes to be true about the villain will be the reader’s perception.

Until…

Second, give the villain’s point of view.

This is key.  The reader needs to get a look an accurate view of the villain.  To do that, we need to get into the villain’s head.   We need to see things from the villain’s perspective.  When we do that, we need to show the sympathetic side to him.  It doesn’t have to be something that is overtly sympathetic.  It can be subtle.  But there has to be something there that makes the villain seem human.

Remember, no human being is perfect.  We all have areas where we’re weak.  So you need to tap into the villain’s weakness in a way that offers a glimmer of sympathy.  It doesn’t have to be something huge.  It can be just a spark.  All you’re doing at this stage is opening the door that will allow the villain to transition from a villain to a hero.

Third, show a redeeming quality or two that still exists within the villain.

Redeeming qualities come in many shapes and forms, so you have to think wide on this one.  So think broad when considering what redeeming quality is in the character.  The character is still a villain at this stage, but the possibility of this villain becoming a hero is opened to the reader.

You can choose to show this from the villain’s point of view.  If you choose this method, the reader is the one who has to come to the conclusion that there is a redeeming quality in the villain.  This requires the reader to take the thoughts and actions of the villain and deduct, “I guess the villain isn’t so bad after all.” The villain isn’t going to be thinking, “Hey, I guess I do have some goodness in me.” The villain can be conflicted.  There can be a struggle with him that he’s aware of, but it should be the reader who comes to the conclusion that the villain is in the process of becoming a hero.   For example, in the movie Megamind, the villain sets out to make a new hero he can fight in epic battles because he gets bored by having everything.  He’s not aware that he is going something good by creating the hero.  His motives are selfish, but in creating a hero and then training the hero to defeat him, he is actually showing a redeeming quality.

You can also show this redeeming quality from the point of view of  a character who knows the villain.  This character can be anyone in the story.   If you choose this method, then the purpose is to shed light on the goodness that exists (deep down) in the villain, and it will be the character who realizes the villain isn’t all bad.  The character is the one who reveals the potential for goodness to the reader.  For example, in the TV series Bates Motel, the sheriff initially comes off as the villain until the point in the first season where he is willing to lie about a crime in order to protect our main characters (the heroine) because he knows she was trying to protect herself and her son.  This way, she avoids going to prison.  Now, it’s not really the audience who has to realize this because the heroine comes out and says it when she talks to her oldest son about it.

Fourth, present someone even worse than they are.

I’ve been surprised by how well this tactic works in TV shows and movies. I can hate a certain character, but since I am already familiar with that character, when someone worse comes along, I start to root for the original bad guy. There is something psychological about this tactic. I think familiarity with a character bonds the reader to him on a subconscious level.  So once you establish the villain has something redeemable about him, you can introduce someone even worse so the villain looks even better.  The key, of course, is that the second villain is a lot worse than the one the reader is already familiar with.

Fifth, the villain starts making choices that make him a hero.

The second villain is instrumental in this.  The first villain is forced to start making good decisions to counter the evil acts of the second villain.  The more often the first villain does this, the easier it will be for the reader to him.

There are a wide variety of options to go with this one, but I’ll use Megamind as an example.  Megamind created the hero to be the good guy that would put him in jail for being bad.  But then this new hero turned out to be the kind of person who wanted to steal and hurt people.  This new hero didn’t want to be a hero, after all.  This made him the second villain.  Megamind, for all his faults, was pretty harmless.  He never set out to hurt people.  The second villain, however, was perfectly willing to hurt people in order to get what he wanted.  This forced Megamind to change his tactics and save the people of the city.  The more decisions he made toward this goal, the more of a hero he became.

The process of choosing the right choices is usually done with some reluctance.  The first villain, after all, was used to be bad.  But overtime, it gets easier and easier to keep making the right decisions.

Sixth, the villain is now a hero.

The first villain will probably defeat the second one, and by that time, the first villain is no longer a villain at all.  He has completely redeemed himself.   The evolution of the villain from bad guy to good is now done.

One thing I will add is that the villain doesn’t always have to succeed once he does become a hero.  There are instances where he is defeated by the second villain.  For example, in the TV series Bates Motel, the last season ended with the sheriff (our villain turned hero) going after the second villain (who was a hero turned villain).  If you have seen the movie Psycho, you know the second villain wins.  He has to win because he ends up killing the woman who comes to his hotel.

So whether or not, your first villain will have a happy ending depends on the type of genre you’re writing.  In romance, if the villain becomes a hero, then he must defeat the second villain (or the second villain must also become a hero).  Romances are all about happy endings.  However, with other genres, you get your pick.

***

What are your thoughts about villains?  Are there other strategies you’ve seen at work when it comes to making the villain a hero?

Updates on What I’m Doing

Which Books Has Crossover Into Other Series

I finally sat down and created a page on this blog that show which of my books correspond to other books I’ve done in other series.

Sometimes you’ll see a character who was a secondary character in one series become a main character in another series.  For example, Eva Connelly was a secondary character in Isaac’s Decision, which is in the Nebraska Series.  Later on, she was the heroine in Boaz’s Wager, which is in the Montana Series.  Another example, Eliza is a secondary character in His Redeeming Bride, which is in the Nebraska Series.  Later on, she became the heroine in Loving Eliza, which is a book in the South Dakota Series.

At other times, you’ll notice I will slip characters into a book so they have a brief encounter with other characters.  For example, toward the end of Brave Beginnings (which is part of the Native American Series), I brought in Ann and Todd Brothers from the standalone book Falling In Love With Her Husband.  Another example, in Bride of Second Chances (which is part of the South Dakota Series), Jeremy, the hero, briefly meets Dave Larson and his son, Jacob, at the mercantile.

So what I tried to do in the “Crossovers in My Romances” page on this blog was to tie in the overlap between different characters and the books/series they appear in.  Click here to go to the page.

The Viscount’s Runaway Bride will be out October 29!

Click here to reserve your copy!

The Viscount’s Runaway Bride is Book 1 in the Marriage by Bargain Series.

Technically, this follows The Earl’s Wallflower Bride (which is Book 3 in the Marriage by Arrangement Series), but the way the characters are introduced in The Viscount’s Runaway Bride demand I make it the first book in a new series.

Anyway, this is probably the first book I’ve ever done where every character has serious flaws.  That’s not to say they don’t have their strengths.  They do.  But I have never noticed how flawed a character can really be.  I’ll probably discuss this more in detail in another post, but suffice it to say, all of the characters who will have a main role in the four books in this series have major flaws to overcome, and they won’t all overcome them in one book.  This will span the whole series.

This book is now available for pre-order on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and iBooks.  You can add it to your library on Smashwords or check out the sample over there.

The Bargain Mail Order Bride Will Be Out January 7

Click here to reserve your copy!

The Bargain Mail Order Bride is Book 4 in the Chance At Love Series.

(Book 1: The Convenient Mail Order Bride; Book 2: The Mistaken Mail Order Bride; Book 3: The Accidental Mail Order Bride)

I was hoping to have this out before January 7, but it’s not looking like I’ll be able to.  The main factor is all the holidays coming up.  We have Thanksgiving in late November.  Then there’s Christmas.  I don’t know the exact days Apple won’t be uploading any books to their iBookstore, but for the last couple of years, they have taken some days off.  This means I don’t have as much wiggle room to play with dates that I usually would.  I’ll have to get this uploaded right before Christmas, but I can’t guarantee it can go through all the channels before the 7th.

The good news is that I’m about halfway into the book.

I Have Groom For Hire Set for February 12

Groom For Hire is Book 3 in the Pioneer Series.

(Book 1 is Wagon Trail Bride and Book 2 is The Marriage Agreement)

I still don’t have a pre-order page for this.  I’m currently halfway into this one, but The Bargain Mail Order Bride has taken center stage, so the word count is minimal at best.  I’ve had an issue with my eyes that have required me to take things slower.  It’s nothing serious.  It’s dry eye, and if I don’t make sure I have a regular sleeping schedule, if I spend too much time at the computer, or if the temperature drastically changes, it gets worse.  Recently, there was a sudden drop in temperature, and this is what triggered it.  Once the cooler weather settles in, things will get better.  Until then, I keep on pacing myself and taking frequent breaks in writing so I’m not spending too much time at the computer.

***

On that note, I am working on a blog post that I hope to have out in a couple days on transforming a villain into a hero.  I was working on it when the kids interrupted me and I lost my train of thought.  Hopefully, I can get back into soon.  I was enjoying the post because the topic of turning a bad guy into a good one fascinates me.

Until next time, happy reading!

Why I Became An Indie Author (#PoweredByIndie)

I saw this thing Amazon is doing, and I thought, “That sounds like a neat idea.”

Before I share my story, I want to invite those of you who buy books on Amazon to check out their Powered by Indie page that is up for the month of October.  One of the things I hear most from people who like to read books that are self-published is that they can tell the author loved writing the story.  That’s not to say that traditionally published authors don’t enjoy writing, but I think when an author publishes the book on their own, they have full creative control over the story.

ID 60734512 © Copacool | Dreamstime.com

In a nutshell, that is why I became an indie author.  I wanted full creative control of my stories.

It all started in 2002.

Yep, that long ago.  But back then there was no such thing as directly publishing a book on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, iBooks, Smashwords, or Draft 2 Digital.  There were vanity presses.  I won’t go into which companies I used, but I did get my feet wet in self-publishing that way.  (I had no idea you could take a book to a local printing shop.)

Back then, however, I was too scared to write romance because my family and friends all thought romance weren’t “real” books.  Even if I was caught reading one, I’d usually hear something like, “What are you doing reading that trash?” So yeah, I wasn’t about to write it. Instead, I wrote science fiction, fantasy, and thrillers.

All of these were in paperback only, and as you’d guess, no one knew they existed, which is probably good since now I know I was meant to write romance all along.

The end of 2007 saw the beginning of the romances.

By chance, I received a postcard in my mailbox advertising romance books.  These were sweet romances.  I read a couple, and I remembered my love for romance books.  Since these romances didn’t contain sex (which was the trashy part my family and friends had complained about), I thought, “I can finally write romance without embarrassing them!” Because honestly, they would have put paper bags over their heads had I used my real name on them.

I wrote a couple of sweet romances over the course of 2008, and again, I was using vanity presses to get them published and they were only paperbacks.  I was thrilled to be writing romances, but I couldn’t get rid of the feeling that something was missing.  That something was spice.  I wanted to know how my characters would relate to each other in bed.  I tried to tell myself I didn’t need to add sex scenes, but no matter how hard I tried, the books felt incomplete.  So I went back and put them, and finally, I was happy with the stories.

Toward the end of 2008, I became aware of CreateSpace on Amazon, which allowed me to publish paperbacks without paying hundreds to a thousand dollars for each book.  All CreateSpace wanted was for me to pay for the proof copy of the paperback so I could make sure it looked good before I put it up in the Amazon store.

 

Publishing on Amazon and Smashwords began in 2009.

This was the game changer.  I was so excited to be able to publish books so easily without paying anything that I vamped up my writing.  It was a good thing this came along after I had figured out what type of romances I wanted to write.  (Those with spice.)  I would have hated to hit the ebook scene with romances I wasn’t fully satisfied with.

Between 2009-2010, I struggled with whether to keep self-publishing or go the traditional route.

I started getting active in writing groups, and you wouldn’t believe the hostility there was toward indie books.  It was awful.  As soon as I mentioned committing the “sin” of self-publishing, I was pretty much thrown to the bottom of the ladder in the groups.  I had no qualifications, and any opinions I had didn’t count.

This did compel me to look into traditional publishing.  I submitted to a couple of them, but each company wanted me to change something in my stories and resubmit them.  The books I had submitted were Eye of the Beholder and His Redeeming Bride.  I had received positive feedback, but the problem was, “The couple didn’t fight enough.” I couldn’t bring myself to make those couples fight because it would have changed the stories into something I didn’t want.  I thought Dave and Mary in Eye of the Beholder were stronger because he supported her at all times.  As for Neil and Sarah, once she understood he had changed, I couldn’t see her giving him a difficult time.  And those were the things that bothered the publishers the most.

So I opted to keep self-publishing.  At the time I made the announcement on my blog, Myspace (this was before Facebook came on the scene), and LiveJournal, I got a few emails from well-meaning writers who wanted to save me from killing any chances I had of having a successful writing career.  Most advised if I was going to persist in this foolishness, I should at least not mention I was actually “self-publishing” to the public.

I was proud of going indie, and I decided to be open about it.

I was born with a stubborn streak.  My parents are no longer alive to testify to this, but they would tell you that when I set my mind to something, I did it regardless of what anyone said.  I don’t regret being vocal about self-publishing.  I was happier with my stories than I ever would have been if I had gone with a publisher because going with a publisher meant I couldn’t write them my way.  I wouldn’t have stayed true to my characters.  I would have had to force my characters into a plot that would have seemed forced.

This way, I got to write the stories as they were meant to be.  I’m not saying everyone has been happy with the way I wrote them, but I have no regrets in writing them the way they are.  Has my writing improved over the years?  Sure.  My understanding of story elements has improved, too.  You learn as you go.  But I can look back on those books that I wrote during that time of my life, and I still remember how much fun they were to write.  I don’t think I would have had that much fun writing for a publisher.

As a quick side note: I publish a couple of books with a small publisher (Parchment & Plume) these days, but Parchment & Plume allows me to keep the stories the way I want them. (I even get control over the cover and release date.)  I still self-publish most of my books, though, because I enjoy it.

 

The Good and the Bad in an Emotionally Engaging Character

I just finished writing The Viscount’s Runaway Bride, and while writing it, I learned something new about writing the emotionally engaging character, which I’ll share with you in this post.

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People Have Flaws

And characters should be no different.  Now, I know right away that a flawed character will earn criticism from some readers, but guess what: every single person has a weakness.  These weaknesses, when used to enhance the plot, can make the characters three-dimensional, and three-dimensional characters are relatable.  They are real.  We might not like everything about them, but they come across as authentic.

For example, my hero acted before thinking in a certain matter, and he’s easily manipulated.  Those are two huge flaws.  In real life, however, don’t we all know someone that has a tendency to make decisions before thinking them through?  We might even consider such a person “impulsive” and “stupid”.  We might consider a person who is easily manipulated to be “spineless” and “in need of a brain”.

Another example, the villainess in my book is the manipulator, but only because she honestly thinks she is doing what’s best for the hero.  She is well aware of his flaw to being too naive for his own good.  (In other words, she sees how “impulsive and stupid” he can be in certain situations, and what she’s trying to do is help him make the right decisions.)  But her flaw is that she wants to control him.  I’m sure you can think of someone in your life who has a tendency to be bossy because they think they know what’s best for you or someone you know.

My point to all of this is that characters, even our heroes, can be more realistic if they aren’t perfect.

People also have strengths.

Characters should have strengths, too, and those strengths can help provide a balance to their weaknesses.  In fact, I think a story is even stronger if one character is strong in an area where the other character is weak.  You get those two together, and they provide an excellent balance.

For example, let’s say you have a character who excels at resolving conflict.  I’m sure we can think of someone who is good at this kind of thing in real life.  This is the person with a cool head who seems to know the right thing to say at the right time.  This character is a peacemaker and can soothe over things for the other characters in your story.

Another example, let’s say you have a character who is a good judge of people.  In real life, we might know someone who seems to have a gut instinct about other people.  This person can’t often explain how they know whether someone can be trusted or not until after that person does something that makes us think, “Wow, that person was right!  I can’t believe it.” This type of character can be used in a story to foreshadow future events in a story.  The character doesn’t necessarily have to point out the “danger” another character presents, but the character can warn others of a situation or event that is going to happen.  (For example, I’m thinking of a movie where a character warns others of a catastrophic natural disaster.)  This character can cue the reader into something that becomes important later in the story.

No One is 100% Bad or Good

This ties into what I said above about strengths and weaknesses.  Characters, even a hero, can do something wrong.  The hero, of course, will redeem him/herself.  The hero won’t stay stuck in that wrong statement/action.  Sometimes I think a story can be more powerful if the hero makes some tragic error in the middle of the story that makes the reader think, “Oh no!  How will he/she ever recover from this?”

When I was in the 8th grade, there was a book I read where I started to panic over a decision the character made.  I got sick to my stomach because I couldn’t see a way that things could be satisfactorily resolved.  I looked up from the book and remembered that it was fiction.  At that point, I was able to relax.  But see what happened?  I was so engaged with this character that I was right there with that character in the middle of that horrible moment.  Obviously, this tactic won’t be used in every story you write.  You would end up with stories that all seem the same. But this is one tool that can be used in storytelling.

Another thing you can do with a hero is take advantage of the weakness.  We all have areas where we’re more likely to fail.  This can cover a wide range of things.  In the case of the hero that is easily manipulated, the hero can be convinced to make the wrong decision by another character’s influence.

The villain, however, might stay stuck in it.  Not all villains are the same, nor should they be.  Just because your character is a villain, it doesn’t mean that character has to be all bad. Now, the character might be irredeemable.  There might be no way you can make the character likable.  But even a drop down dirty character can be right about something.  For example, the villain might accurately point out the hero’s weakness.

I actually find a villain who has a sympathetic angle to be the most interesting characters in a story.  A villain can be overtly bad in the beginning of a story, but as the story progresses, the villain shows something good, it can be a game changer in how the reader responds to that character.  Suddenly, the character isn’t as awful as originally thought.  Personally, I love villains like this because they aren’t cardboard cutout characters of what you would normally expect.

Bottom Line

Utilize these strengths and weaknesses to enhance your story as it advances the plot.  Focus in on those traits that directly impact the story.  Doing so will also add to the depth of the character.