L.Y. Levand's Blog, page 5

Well, It's Happened

Yes, I finally took a step back and realized what the problem was.

Remember that book I wrote for NaNoWriMo? You know...in 2014? The sequel to Isomorph that should have been done ages ago?

Yeah, about that.

The rough draft was so bad, so fractured (and unrealistic and with horrific continuity problems) that I was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of work it needed. I would open the file, look at the garbage I had to work with, and close it again, frustrated before I'd even started.

I hate editing at the best of times, to be honest. And most writers have a problem with procrastination. I am no exception. Combine that with how bad the manuscript itself was, and you get a file that the author pretends doesn't exist, and sits on the computer, gathering virtual dust. Which is what Metamorphose has done.

I've felt guilty about it for months. One year should be more than enough to write, edit, and publish a 50k novel - after all, I did it with Isomorph. And then there are the people waiting to beta read, people who've been pestering me about it for what seems like forever.

And they've just entered their second year of waiting.

Well, I've finally looked objectively at the problem (shocking, I know), and I think I have a solution.

Due to the horrifically bad state of the rough draft and the sheer size of its issues, I have made the painful decision to rewrite it entirely. I will take the rough draft and write a new outline, one that should fix most of the problems that so crippled me over the last year. While I'm doing this, I also plan to divide it up into five sections to be a projected 10k each. This should help me by breaking up the pieces I need to edit into smaller fragments.

My hope is that these new strategies will have Metamorphose ready to go to beta readers by June. I can't make any promises, since I have a lot of other projects filling up the same time frame, but that's what I'm going to be working toward.

Thank you for your patience! I won't forget. :)

P. S. If anyone wants to be a beta reader (one-time or regular) comment your email below!

Expressing Emotions, Part Five: Hatred

Hatred is often portrayed as the opposite of love, being a very strong negative as opposed to a very strong positive. Elie Wiesel once said “The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference..." This may be true, but it depends on how you choose to view it. Indifference is the opposite of strong emotion itself. If you're comparing strong emotions, then indifference doesn't even enter into the category.

Hatred is defined as an intense or passionate dislike. The words aversion, extreme, and hostility are also often associated with it. If you have a character that feels hatred for a person, thing, group, behavior, or idea, it can be a challenge to show it appropriately. Hatred in particular can be difficult to portray. For our purposes, we'll be using hatred of a person as an example.

Physical differences:

Many of the physical signs of hatred are much the same as anger. Typically it's the behavior that signals hatred rather than anger, as one of the only ways to differentiate between extreme anger and hatred is the endurance of their behaviors. Anger typically fades after a time, after which a person can generally be trusted to act as they did before they became angry, and be more reasonable. Hatred, however, is different. Hatred involves a very strong or passionate dislike of something, which may or may not have to do with emotions at the time. Some of the ways that anger is expressed physically, however, can do double duty to express hatred:

flushed faceclenched fiststense musclesangry expressionloud voiceglaring Changes in behavior

Changes in a character's behavior is usually where the real evidence for hatred comes from. Hatred is generally frowned upon, which means obvious expressions of it are relatively unlikely. (The "I hate you!" scream from a teenager notwithstanding.) The behaviors below are generally not the behaviors of someone who only said they hated another person because they were angry in the moment. These behaviors require continuing intense emotion, an emotion that remains after anger would generally have diminished.

refusal to consider others (specifically the hated person) in their actionsacting to harm the person they hate (emotionally, mentally, physically)being unreasonable when it comes to the object of their hatredattempts at violence, or overt hostility
planning or preoccupation with revengestalking behaviorrefusal to share space with the hated personattempts at manipulationattempts at harming people or things the hated person cares aboutloss of appetitediminished desire for things they enjoyed in the past (reading, games, movies)
Hatred can be hot or cold; someone can act out of passion, or be calculating. If your character is overall a good person, they may feel ashamed of their hatred, and try to conceal and overcome it. They might even be unaware of it. If, however, they are not a good person, then they may embrace hatred as a means to an end. Something to make them stronger, give them drive. Either way, it's important for you to keep in mind your character's personality when choosing how they will react to feeling hatred. One change in behavior may work, one may not, or you may need a full list of them to do it justice.

Happy New Year! Bring on the resolutions!

If any of you stalk my Goodreads profile or check Amazon's new book list, you'll probably have noticed a little something like this:
This is an ebook titled Festival. You know, in case you missed the block lettering (it is kinda hard to read, so I can't poke too much fun).

Any of you who followed my blog posts in October will have seen the debut of Isolde, a new novelette that I wrote for Halloween. Well, Festival is the sequel. Sort of. It's far from that simple. You see, Isolde follows a character named (shockingly) Isolde. Festival, however, does not. In fact, it has a full cast of new characters. So how, exactly, does that make it a sequel? That's the fun part.

Isolde kicks off the story of a world that can no longer see the sun. She aids the sun in its disappearance by killing a unicorn. But in this dark world, there is a lot more at play. Isolde will appear again in the series, as will Urwin, Forestyne, and Maurelle from Festival. Their stories are just getting started. But rather than writing it as one big, long book (I hate editing, and smaller pieces make me less likely to procrastinate) I'm writing it in smaller pieces of roughly ten thousand words. This gives me an interesting opportunity.

Because these stories are written in smaller pieces, it allows me a lot of freedom. Which, for an author, is like walking into a candy store with several hundred dollars to spend however you like. The result of this freedom is that this story is also a puzzle. Every chapter has one (or more) clues to the mysteries in the overall story. The questions you ask in each story just might be answered in a following chapter - if you can find the clues.

To make it even more fun, I am going to be jumping around in the timeline of the story. For those of you who've watched Once Upon A Time, it might feel similar.

Once I have six or seven completed and published separately, I'll be collecting them into an omnibus for sale. But until then, I plan on making them free to read for all Amazon Prime members, and only ninety-nine cents for purchase.

I have five or six more of these novelettes scheduled for the first half of next year (one of my resolutions is to write more), and to keep me on track, I'm going to post the working titles (they may change) here, along with when I hope to publish. (I saw Brandon Sanderson do something similar, and thought it was a genius idea for the new year):

Ashrinde - January

When sirens appear in the bay of the kingdom of Harch, and an army marches over their northern border, Ashrinde's talent for gossip and eavesdropping is called into service.

Melisande - February

When a stranger arrives at a powerful duke's manor to court the duke's only daughter, Melisande's maid is the only one to mistrust him. She believes he has ulterior motives for wooing her young mistress - but is she right?

Love story - February

No, I don't have a better title yet. No, I don't even have a vague synopsis. Yet. But it's February. I have to do something for Valentine's Day, right? Right.

Maurelle - March

The shadowy place called the Crossroads is where all evil is spawned, and it is Maurelle's birthplace. Brought up to believe she is human, she is kicked out of her childhood home and must find her own way. Can she survive in a world where everything that lives exists to harm humans?

Lorica - April

Orphaned and living with her ill grandfather, Lorica would do anything to save him - even make a bargain with the realm of Faerie.

Willard - May

A bounty has been announced by Queen Isolde. She wants every unicorn horn in the world, and will pay handsomely for them. Willard's master, however, wants information, not gold. Why does the queen want unicorn horns?

So there you have it. My (tentative) list of novelettes that I plan to complete and publish in the next five months. I have rough drafts for most of them completed (thank you, NaNoWriMo!) but editing still needs to be completed.

I hope everyone had a happy New Year - and good luck with those resolutions!

Expressing Emotions Part Four: Fear

It's a little late today, I know. With the holidays I didn't have a ton of time this week. But I buckled down and got it finished today anyway! I hope everyone had a great holiday. :)
Fear is similar to love, in that people often try to hide it. Occasionally, they go hand-in-hand, such as the fear of love being discovered. Fear shows up in many places and in many ways, and can be caused by many things.

Sometimes, what causes the fear affects what form showing that fear will take. As an example, someone who is afraid of losing a loved one may express that fear by being overly protective. But whatever has caused the fear to take root in your character, there are things that you can use to show it in your writing.

Physical Differences

Physical changes are often used to show a momentary fear, one that doesn't normally affect a character in their day-to-day lives (such as while watching a horror movie), or as a more immediate reaction to a long-term fear. For example, a character that's afraid of the dark will avoid the dark, but when faced with it, they may have physical reactions to it that are beyond their control:

sweatingdamp palmsknees knocking togethertrembling hands or lipspale faceshiveringfaintingweaknesslip or nail bitingblood pounding in earsnervous habits
Changes in Behavior

Changes in behavior, while more telling, also are typically shown over the course of time, such as in a fear that eats away, rather than a momentary fright. (This kind of fear could be one caused by embarrassment, which results in avoiding public places for several weeks.) Changes in behavior are usually signs of a deep fear, one your character is more aware of. These are fears your character may take action to avoid, and are also likely to have some kind of bearing on day-to-day activities, hence the changes in their behavior:

avoiding situations or peopleover protectivenessdesire to controloverreactions to surpriseswithdrawal from normal activitiesavoiding things associated with that feartendency to run from things

There are other things that can be used to show fear as well:

nightmaresflashbacksemotional outburstsirrational fear of normal thingsnauseavoice cracking when speaking

However you choose to show fear, make sure you have a relatively clear idea of what, exactly, your character is afraid of. This will help you choose ways for your character to express it, and will help keep their fears and reactions to them consistent.

Challenge: Write a scene in which your character is afraid. Don't use the words fear, afraid, frightened, frightening, scare, scared, panic, panicky, panicked, terror, terrified, or scary. Try to show that your character is afraid, and what they're frightened of. (Post it below, and I'd be happy to leave a critique!)

Expressing Emotions, Part Three: Love

Welcome back to our expressing emotions series! As I've said before, showing is much harder than telling, because you have to convince your readers what your characters are feeling, rather than just telling them and expecting them to go along with it. Last week we did anger. This week, we're tackling love.

Love is more difficult to show than anger, because definitions of love can vary widely, and people often try to hide it. They don't want to be discovered. Imagine a teenager in love with their best friend. They probably expend a lot of effort trying to keep that friend from discovering it, yes? So the signs of love are often very subtle.

Physical Differences

While people have a tendency to try and hide them, these changes sometimes happen if they love a person, or (more often) are attracted to someone:

adjusting clothing, hair, etc.smilingleaning toward the personeye contactmirroring the other person's actionssidelong glancesplaying with hairlingering touches
These things are relatively subtle, and some can be a sign of nerves or feeling uncomfortable as well, such adjusting clothing and a smile (if it's nervous). Others can be attributed to things like nervous habits (playing with hair), interesting conversation (leaning), or a fastidious personality (adjusting clothing or hair). And then there's also the fact that unless your character wants the object of their affections to be aware of this, that they're probably going to be making an effort to hide it.

This can make it hard to lead your readers in the right direction. Unless, of course, you want it to be a surprise for them as well. In which case, you may want to downplay these physical differences while also making sure the reader is aware of them.

Changes in Behavior

being protectiveacting possessivedisinterest in datingsudden interest in appearancejealousyshowing offdepressionlaughing at things they don't really find funnyloss or change of appetite
These signs are often more pronounced and harder to hide, so if you're wanting to show a lovesick character, they may be your best shot (depending on the story and the character, of course). Some people can tell when reading that a character has romantic feelings even if those behaviors are present from the beginning. However, this might not be true for every reader. So you may want to consider showing that this behavior is in some way abnormal for them.

Some other signs that you can use to show your character might be in love:

sudden clumsinessinability to think clearlyunexplained nervousnessdesire to be near the object of their affectionsabotaging the other person's attempts at relationships with othersattempting to provoke jealousy
Many of these evidences are best shown over a longer period of time, particularly if you're trying to show love, and not attraction. So it may be best (again, depending on your own character and story) to have a big reveal of their feelings later in the story rather than sooner, if you're going to reveal them at all.

Next week we're going after fear, so keep an eye out!

Expressing Emotions, Part Two: Anger

So. Your character is angry, and you're trying to show, not tell. First of all, congratulations! You're trying to improve the story (and your writing skill) by learning how to show and not tell.

As I mentioned in my last blog post, showing is more difficult than telling, since you have to lead your readers to come to the correct conclusion without actually saying what you want them to think. This means showing body language, tone of voice, facial expression, and physical actions rather than saying "they were angry."

The first thing you need to do is decide what your character's typical response to anger is. If you have a detailed character bio you should have something to start with; if not, then how they express emotions is a great place to start!

Anger is a very passionate and heated emotion. People who are angry often do or say things that under normal circumstances they wouldn't. (Remember the last time you said something you didn't mean during an argument?) Changes in behavior as well as physical differences are an easy and dependable way to demonstrate anger without flat-out telling someone. That's what we're going to focus on today.

Physical Differences

The body sometimes changes when a person is angry. Some of these changes are:reddening faceclenched handstense musclesgrinding teethnegative facial expression
Changes in Behavior

Changes in behavior often occur when someone is angry. Someone who may normally not be destructive might throw things, or hit things; for example:yellingfoul languagethreatsthrowing thingsslamming doorsstomping feetinsultsviolence
Keeping in mind that for these to be shown as a break from your character's normal, you need to establish what their normal is. It is possible to have a character that normally uses foul language, or stomps their feet. In that case, those things may not be an indicator of anger for that particular character. Your readers need to be able to tell that this is a departure from normal in some way, even if that's not made obvious until later in the story.

In addition, there are other signs of anger that you may use to describe a character:flashing eyestone of voice (angry, like a growl, hiss, snarl)internal dialogue (what the character is thinking)description of feelings (stomach roiling, a red-hot wave, a strong desire to break something)the reactions of other characters (backing away, silence, averted eyes, fear)character dialogue (someone asking what's wrong, saying they look upset, etc.)
So rather than just saying that your character is angry, describe what their body is doing, how their voice sounds, what the people around them are doing, and what they're doing.

Challenge: Describe a scene in which a character is angry without using the words angry, furious, or mad.

Expressing Emotions, Part One: Introduction

One of the many things authors are told constantly is to show, not tell. This always seemed, to me, like rather vague advice. You pretty much tell your readers what's going on all the time, that's part of what writing is. If you didn't tell them anything there wouldn't be a story.

What I think it really means is tell them, but don't be super obvious about it. Instead of telling the reader your character is angry, for instance, you tell them other things that lead the readers to come to the conclusion that the character is angry. Which is a lot more difficult than just saying "He/she was angry." No, no, you have to be able to make them believe the character is angry without straight-out telling them.

I always saw this as a roundabout way of doing the same thing. You're still telling them the character is angry, it's just instead of saying they're angry, you're gently leading them to figure it out for themselves.

Which is all very important, of course. I just think it's a confusing way of putting it, since you're not really showing anything, you're telling the reader everything. Even if it's "she clenched her hands into fists and her eyes were flashing" rather than "she was angry."

So here's the breakdown of it.

Telling: Is easy. You simply tell the reader how your character is feeling and what they're doing.

Showing: Is hard. You can't just say "He/she felt like this" you have to describe what they're doing, their facial expression, tone of voice, and interaction with people and objects so that the reader will figure out what you're trying to say on their own.

The difference: With telling, you're putting your own conclusions in the text and expecting the reader to follow along. A lot of readers don't like that, being the rebellious sort. With showing, you're still telling the reader what's going on, but they draw their own conclusions.

Example:

Telling: Mary was angry.

Showing: Mary slammed into the house, threw her purse down with more force than necessary, and stomped up the stairs.

In both examples, you're telling the reader that Mary is angry. But in the second example, you're letting the readers come to that conclusion on their own.

With that said, emotions can difficult, so that's what my new series is for. Expressing emotions in your writing. Up next week, we're going to get started with anger. See you then!

I'm Ba-ack!

For those of you who follow my blog, you're probably wondering where I've been, and what happened to my weekly posts. I am still alive, for anyone concerned. I was just sucked into NaNoWriMo. That yearly journey insane authors from across the country and the world take part in every November.

NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month. The challenge to write fifty thousand words in thirty days. I've done it the last two years, and tackled it again this year. If you've ever done it, you know the anxiety you can experience from falling behind, the frantic "What happens next?" when you get stuck, and the research you have to do to make sure things are accurate. There was rather more research for me this time around than there has been before, which took up a lot more time than I originally thought it would.

But I finally finished up (the 50k; the story isn't finished quite yet) and I'm planning on getting back to posting regular blog posts soon. Yay!

I've decided to attempt another 50k in thirty days for the month of December. We'll see how that goes, and if I can pull off doing blog posts at the same time. ;) Wish me luck!

For those of you who completed the 50k challenge, congratulations! For those who didn't make it as far as they wanted, you got something done, and should still be proud of yourselves. For those of you who didn't do it, you missed out, but maybe next year?

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving!

As Promised...

How does "free" sound?

I've been posting creepy, scary, spooky, Halloween-themed book and author quotes on Facebook all month, counting down to today. Because I've got a surprise!

Over the last few weeks I've been working on something special. It's not a big project, but it is free until November third. After that it goes up to ninety-nine cents, which isn't much. But you can't beat free. ;)
As you can see, there is a book cover in this post. The title is Isolde. If you click on the image, it will take you to a sale page. (Obviously.)

Anyway, I've been working on Isolde for a while; off and on for several months. It's a novelette, meaning it's longer than a short story but shorter than a novella, hence why the normal price is ninety-nine cents.

This particular story is rather different from what I normally write, mostly because it falls into the category of dark fantasy. In case you couldn't tell from the cover.

Isolde is the story of a girl named - wait for it - Isolde, who is suspected of being a vampire. She's dragged before the king, and told that to prove her innocence she has to capture a unicorn and bring back its horn. Can't tell you much more than that; it's not a very long fairy tale.
What I can tell you is that the world in which it takes place is dying. I can't tell you why - you'll have to read it yourself for that. ;) But the world is dying, and Isolde will either help it on its way, or not.

Anyway, I published it a few days ago, and I've made it free until November third. So go grab it and tell me what you think! :)

(By the way, any reviews are much appreciated!)

Featured Villain #4

Our final villain comes to us from the world of Harry Potter.
Name: Voldemort, Tom Riddle

Book/movie: Harry Potter series

What makes him a villain: Bent on eternal life and world-domination, Voldemort allowed himself to be twisted by dark magic, and committed murder many, many times - sometimes for no more reason than to split his soul and produce a horcrux, which he believed would keep him alive.

In an effort to kill the baby he believed could be his downfall, he helped form the one person that could kill him. At the battle of Hogwarts, Voldemort was killed in a duel with Harry Potter, the one known person to have survived the powerful killing curse.