Cordelia Kingsbridge's Blog, page 8

To Re-up the Anon saying they were excited for A Chip and a Chair ... i'm supposed to get the paperback copy from patreon, but it happen that i'm going on a trip to Florida that week, so I'll buy the Ebook so i won't have to wait for it. I need to read it

That’s awesome, thank you! I hope you enjoy. :-)

And this brings me to a timely PSA: If you are one of the patrons who’s receiving a signed paperback copy as your tier reward, keep in mind that there’ll be a slight delay. Riptide has to ship the books to me first so I can sign them, and then I have to ship them back out, so factor that into your expectations!

I'm so excited for the last SoS book coming so soon! I can't even imagine the blood, sweat, and tears you've put into this amazing series and I hope you take a well-deserved break when all is said and done! Thank you for being so amazing despite everything

Thank you very much! I’m super excited for everyone to read it. We did an anti-spoiler review blackout for this one, which means pretty much everyone will get it at the same time. That’s been ratcheting up the suspense for me!

Hello I'm not sure if you've already answered this but will there be a The Blue Orchid update?

Oh boy, anon, you have no idea how much I wish the answer to this question was yes. I’ve wanted to get back to writing The Blue Orchid for so long, and it’s a project so close to my heart, but somehow it always ends up coming in near the bottom of my ever-expanding To Do list.

If I can be painfully honest, between my many professional commitments and my health (which is… not great), I have the constant feeling that I’m desperately trying not to face-plant on a treadmill that’s going way too fast. It’s all I can do to stay on my feet, let alone catch up. Every time I cross out one item on my list, three more get tacked on.

I’m already late with several Patreon posts that were supposed to come out in February - mostly because we’re scrambling to finish last-minute edits on A Chip and a Chair before its March 11 release. Nothing makes me more upset and stressed out than not meeting my commitments, so right now I’m just like a bundle of frayed nerves and self-recrimination.

I’d love nothing more than to tell you that there’ll be a TBO update soon. Nothing would make me happier than to be working on that story again. But it’ll probably be a while before that’s the case.

I booked some time off work tomorrow so once I do some stuff that needs to be done, I’ll be planning my reread of the SoS series over the weekend! I’m so so excited for the last book!

That’s so awesome! I’m really excited for everyone to read it - it’s the culmination of so many years of planning and dreaming and hard work. The book was very cathartic to write, and I’m looking forward to everyone’s reactions!

I’ve been waiting for years because I was living out of boxes but now my house is finished and I have a bookshelf and the first thing I did was buying the printed copy of CHFM and the 4 SoS and now they are here!!!! I’m so happy!!! I will never thank you e

That is so wonderfully sweet! Thank you very much for sharing this. :D

I know you haven't been feeling the best lately and that your life has gotten a little crazier, so I just wanted to say I really appreciate the new content that you've still posted this month and I'm really proud of you for making it through and keeping u

That means a lot to me, thank you! I do my best to limit the impact that my mental health and other RL issues have on my professional commitments, but sometimes it’s a grueling uphill battle. I’m really touched that you recognize that, and I appreciate your support and encouragement more than I can say.

Hi, Cordelia, this might be a bad question, so I want to apologize beforehand - sorry. How do you write your characters without making them into Mary Sues/Gary Stus? They’re pretty much all beautiful, likeable or like-ably dislikeable, have backstories of

I don’t think the question is offensive at all! Being told that your characters feel like real people is one of the best compliments an author can receive, IMO. And I actually think this question makes a lot of sense, because if you pare it down to the basics, it’s asking how a character can be “heroic” without crossing the dreaded line into being a Mary Sue/Gary Stu.

It occurs to me that not everyone reading this may be familiar with the terms Mary Sue/Gary Stu - if you Google them, you’ll find a ton of essays and things, but this one is particularly good.

It’s totally possible to have your protagonists be larger-than-life BAMFs without veering into MS/GS territory. Here’s a quick contrast between heroic characters and MS/GS characters:

Heroes excel at a few things, into which they’ve visibly invested serious time and effort, are average at most things, and suck pretty badly at a handful of things. A MS/GS is good at everything, inexplicably and without effort.Heroes have plausible relationships with the people around them. More importantly, their behavior in the story affects those relationships in ways that make sense. One of the defining characteristics of a MS/GS is that everybody adores them, regardless of how they actually treat people. Nothing the MS/GS does to another character ever causes that character to see them in a negative light.Heroes have major flaws that logically stem from the false internal beliefs created by painful events in their pasts. Their behavior is always consistent with these flaws, even when it causes them to make grave mistakes that directly impact them in a negative way. If a MS/GS has any flaws at all, they’re just window dressing, and never cause any negative consequences. Sometimes those “flaws” are actually advantages in a flimsy disguise.Related to the previous point, heroes make mistakes - and larger-than-life characters make larger-than-life mistakes. When heroic characters fuck up, they fuck up royally. Their mistakes cause significant problems that require genuine effort to fix. A MS/GS either never makes mistakes, or their mistakes are immediately solved without any effort, struggle, or negative impact.Heroes earn their rewards. They engage in real struggles and solve problems in ways that are authentic to their characterization and the situation. They fail, often terribly, but then they get back up and try again. When they finally achieve their goals, there’s a satisfying sense of them having earned it. Because a MS/GS never suffers or puts actual effort into anything, their success feels false and undeserved, and is therefore unsatisfying to the reader.

Some writers are afraid to make their protagonists too awesome for fear of ending up with a MS/GS. But protagonists should be awesome; in certain genres, such as thriller, fantasy, etc., they should be truly heroic as well. That’s part of what makes stories so much fun to read.

The key is that characters need to genuinely earn their awesomeness and their heroic stature through their actions - just like real people do.

Hey Cordelia! In one of your pateron workshop, you recommanded the book Outlining your novel Workbook by K.M. Weiland. I was wondering if you had any other recommandations for authors that you used yourself or heard good thing about?

Sure! I never used to be into craft books, but after finishing the rough draft of A Chip and a Chair, I was having a lot of trouble focusing on what to do next. So I started dicking around on Amazon Kindle and checking out various titles.

At this point, I don’t really need help with the basics of plotting, characterization, etc., but some books are great at getting you to look at story elements from another perspective, and sparking ideas and inspiration you might not have had otherwise. That’s something an author can always use!

What I look for in craft books are concrete exercises and brainstorming prompts, as opposed to essay-type explanations which are aimed more at newer writers. That’s what I like about Outlining Your Novel Workbook by K.M. Weiland, as you mentioned, and another book by the same author - Structuring Your Novel Workbook.

Both of those workbooks have separate companion books by the same titles. I haven’t read those, because again I was only really interested in the exercises, but newer writers might want to check out both. I can say that a lot of the workbook exercises are pretty fun and have gotten me thinking more deeply about various elements of the new projects I’m considering.

Another set of books I like are The Positive Trait Thesaurus, The Negative Trait Thesaurus, and The Emotional Wound Thesaurus, all by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi. These are great for thinking more deeply about characterization, and are just plain interesting in their own right.

I had a BV moment this weekend! I saw a performance at Harvard and realized it involves part of the orchestra. Cellos sounded good!

Awesome! The cello is my favorite instrument - I don’t play, but I think cello music is one of the most beautiful sounds in the world.

happy birthday!

Thank you!