Rani Divine's Blog, page 16

Escape

Hey guys! Welcome back to Too Many Books to Count, and to our September series finale! I’m so glad you decided to stop in and read the final entry in this month’s series.
All September long, we’ve been talking about the things readers are looking for in the books they read, and the ways we can use this knowledge to better ourselves in the craft of writing. We’ve talked about characters both good and evil, about plots that make us scream and ones that make us cry, and today, we’ll discuss what I believe is the most important point of them all.
 #8: Worlds Into Which You Escape
Again, this may seem obvious, and like it’s one of the easiest things in the world to do—but it’s not easy at all.
Readers are looking for worlds they can dive into, worlds that feel more real than our own, worlds we’d rather live in, worlds we wish were real. And I mean this both for purely fiction novels and for genre fiction, taking place in worlds completely different to our own.
No matter what world you write in, it needs to be a world readers feel could be real, one readers want to escape into, worlds that make your readers pick this book up time and time again, looking for the same escape they experienced the first time through.
Doesn’t sound so easy anymore, does it?
See, world-building isn’t just about getting your map made and knowing your east from your south. It’s about visualizing something, about describing it on the page and allowing your readers to experience it the same way you do. It’s about getting that image that’s in your head onto the page, so someone else can see it the exact same way you do.
And it is, in my opinion, one of the biggest things writers need to grow in and develop. While characters are the primary draw for most readers, if the world they’re living in doesn’t seem remotely real, then what’s the point? Readers want to believe what they’re reading, and if the world isn’t believable, then they’ll put the book down in an instant.
That’s the last thing we want.
So work on your descriptions. Master your settings. Find images online that you can use to help you, to point you in the right direction and ensure you don’t describe the same place as looking two different ways.
Go into detail. Think about the things nobody thinks about, even if they won’t make it into the book. Think through every single detail and level of your world, so when your readers enter it, they’ll believe everything you told them.
Allow your world to be an escape for someone—even you.
[love]
{Rani Divine}

Write to Read

Hi there, and welcome back to Too Many Books to Count!
It’s the final week of our series! How in the world did that happen? Again. So soon! Sometimes I wonder if I should do longer series’ just so I’ll have more time to flesh everything out before we reach the end, but then, I like having a single series last as long as a month. Means I get to start fresh in more ways than one, the beginning of every month.
The month of September, we’ve been talking about the things readers are looking for in the books they read, and how we can use this information to better the writing we do on a daily basis. I’m in no way suggesting that we should write to market, that we should use reader trends to determine what we’ll be writing next, but I do believe there are always ways for us to learn, always things we could be doing better—and that a lot of times, readers are better able to teach those things to us than other writers are.
So, without further delay…
#7: Events That Make You Dream
Readers often read books in order to gain something, to feel something beyond what they feel on a general, day-to-day basis. They’re looking to get out of their own lives, to dream of a different life entirely.
That’s something we can give them, through the art of our craft.
We can give them a dream of a life unlike any they’ve before imagined.
But how do we do it, in a way readers enjoy, one they crave? Well, that’s one of the simplest things in the world—and also one of the trickiest to master.
We must enter that same dream, and live it for ourselves.
So many times, writers write stories just to get them out of our heads, just to have something to do, something to say. We write because it’s who and what we are, but during that process we forget what it’s like to be a reader, entering a story for the first time. We forget what it’s like to dream, to live as our characters live, in a life very unlike our own.
We have to dream ourselves, in order to write a dream into our stories. If we’re not dreaming, then our readers will struggle to enter the dream.
But… that still hasn’t answered the question, has it? How do we do that, how do we make sure we’re dreaming right alongside our characters?
Again, the answer is simple, and not easy in the slightest.
Let go.
It’s one of the reasons why I don’t outline, when I write a novel. If I outline, I have too much of an idea where the story is going, what’s going to happen, and I can’t bring myself to finish it. I’ve lost the spark, the dream. Yeah, I’ll have probably made a few plotholes by the time I'm done, but I can fix those when I go back to edit.
Let go of being a writer, while you’re writing. Focus on being a reader, on entering the experience of your story. Don’t write just to write. Write to read.
That’s all there is to it—and though it sounds easy, I know from personal experience that it’s one of the most difficult things to do.
[love]
{Rani Divine}

The Weepies

Hey there! Welcome back to Too Many Books to Count! I’m glad you decided to stop by. Always makes my day brighter, knowing you’re here.*
This month, we’ve been talking about the things readers are looking for in good writing, and how we, as writers, can use those things to mold the stories we write. I’m not suggesting that we write to market, that we should bend our writing style to fit what the current market is looking for—on the contrary, I’m suggesting that we grow our writing potential, using the things readers are looking for in fiction. I’m suggesting that we grow as writers in general, honestly.
#6: Stories that make you cry
Readers love being brought to tears by the books they read. It makes us sound a little strange, but it’s true. We love to feel emotion, and to be brought into that emotion via the things we’re reading. It’s one of the reasons why we read, why we long for story. We long for emotion.
For my own reading, I love finding a new book that makes me feel things I haven’t felt in a long time. I love falling in love, alongside a character. I love crying with them when they’re in pain (and I hate crying, so that’s really saying something). I love every bit of emotion that grows from story, and it’s one of the things I always look for in fiction. Always.
Have you ever heard the saying, “No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader?” It’s true. I’ve noticed it, when my beta readers read my work. If I’m trying to write an emotional scene and I don’t feel that emotion myself, my readers won’t feel it either.
So in order to write the type of gripping and moving stories that really get to our readers, we have to let our stories get to us, too. It’s not nearly as easy as it sounds.
Living in that kind of an emotional rollercoaster is just as difficult as it sounds. It’s like living multiple lives at the same time, and it’s one of the many reasons why writers so often struggle with our own emotions. It’s why we sometimes have difficulty separating ourselves from our works, and why it’s so difficult for us when people don’t love our work as much as we do.
But you know what?
It’s also what makes us pretty amazing, because it’s not just anyone who can live that many lives, who can experience that level of emotion over and over again, and stand up tall even when we don’t want to, just so people can read what we’ve written.
You’re pretty special, if you’re a writer.
You can make people cry, you can make them feel things they’ve never felt before.
Never forget that, okay?
[love]
{Rani Divine}

* I’m serious, when I say things like that. I know from my end you might think you're little more than a number on a screen, unless you leave me a comment—but just seeing those numbers, just knowing you’re out there, experiencing life at the same time as me, is really amazing. I love you. All of you.

Shout it out

Hello, friends! Welcome back to Too Many Books to Count! I’m glad you stopped by for today’s post. All month long, we’ve been talking about the things readers are looking for in the things they read, and discussing how we can apply those things to our own works of fiction. After all, we’re writing a story that someone will read, so we ought to make stories which those people love.
Thus far in the series, we’ve talked a bit about characters, about stories that make us really think (and maybe even learn something), and about the stories that make us feel, in a way we’ve never felt before. These are things that readers love in stories, things that readers look for, long for. But there’s more than just that.
#5: Stories that make you scream
I mean this in a couple different ways, of course.
For you horror writers, I mean this in the way you think I mean it. Readers are looking for a story that will make them scream out loud, close the book, but be too enthralled by the story to put it down for very long.
But for the rest of us, this is also a key point. Many readers look for tough stories, stories that make us so frustrated that we can’t help but scream.
And that’s what I really want to talk about today.
See, this is a lesson I actually need to learn. I hate writing stories like this, with frustrating characters or plot lines that annoy me to the point that I just want to scream. But I know a great many readers who love those stories, and so I really do try my best to write them. The editing process isn’t so fun on those, either.
Sometimes, we readers get the most out of the books we read when they frustrate us to the point of screaming. Those are the books we remember, the stories we can’t get enough of. Those are the ones that mean the most to us, the ones that have really made us feel, made us think.
All because of a bit of frustration.
But how do we, as writers, achieve this?
I’m still figuring that out, in some ways. Really, it’s all about making characters and storylines that, in many ways, frustrate us as well. It’s about making sure our characters make enough wrong decisions that sometimes don’t make any sense at all—all for the betterment of the story, and so when our protagonist wins in the end, it actually means something.
We writers tend to forget the number of bad decisions that happen in real life, and don’t write them into our stories. But really, bad decisions are what make people what they are. We learn through bad decisions. So our characters should, as well. Even when those decisions are stupid and we hate writing them, even when we find ourselves hating that we’re putting our characters through them. 
That's what readers are looking for, because it's more real than the average book. 
It’s just making art imitate life, a little better than usual.
[love]
{Rani Divine}

Feel the Force

Happy Thursday, everyone! Welcome back to Too Many Books to Count! I’m glad you’re here. It’s really not the same without you.
This month, we’ve been talking about the things that readers are looking for when it comes to good fiction. We’ve spent some time talking about characters, both the good and the evil, and also about the stories that really make us think. So, now, I have a bit of a logical progression for us (because we all know how fond I am of logic).
#4: Plots That Make You Feel
Again, this isn’t always easy to do. It’s something that I’ve struggled with, from time to time, but something that my readers have adored when I’ve gotten it right.
After all, how much do you love a story that moves you to tears? (in a good way, not like Where the Red Fern Grows) How many times have you reread those stories that give you those nostalgia tears? How often do you find yourself thinking about those stories, relating back to them, linking yourself with those characters?
Exactly why that’s what we should be writing.
Readers are always looking for a way to connect themselves to our stories, to attach themselves to our characters, to become them, in a way. But while the characters help in creating this, it’s the plots that really drive the point forward.
We love a story where a character redeems themselves, in a way that moves us to tears. We love reading and living in a world where our most beloved character finally receives what they’ve been looking for, only to have it ripped from under them in a single instant. We adore reading those stories where our beloved ones reach their goal, only for their lives to end before our eyes.
Yeesh. You’d think we were a bunch of crazy people.
But really, we love when we get so connected to a story, to a plot and a character within it, that we can’t give up on it. That we feel everything they feel, that we live their lives for the term of the book in our hands.
That’s what we’re always hoping for, when we pick up a new book to read. That’s what we all desire.
And that’s what we, as writers, need to give to our readers. Always.
Remember: no tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. So don’t be afraid to get so attached yourself. It really helps.
[love]
{Rani Divine}

Oh Pooh

Hey-O! Welcome back to Too Many Books to Count! I’m glad you stopped by. All month long, we’re talking about the things that readers are looking for in the books they read—because if writers don’t know what readers are looking for, it makes it a whole lot harder to know which stories to write.
Now, before you go getting any ideas based off that last paragraph, I’ll be the first to tell you that writing to market is not that great an idea. The things you write will likely not end up being your favorite works, and they’ll be for nothing more than an attempt at making money. And, as we all know, writing is about story. It’s about sharing a part of ourselves with the world. We’ll deal with the money part later, because, yes, making money is great too. 
For now:
#3: Plots That Make You Think
It’s not as easy as it sounds! I would know, because this is one of the things I pride myself in doing, when I write my novels. I want my readers to think, I want them to learn something, I want them to come on this adventure of discovery with me.
And that, wouldn’t you know it, is something a lot of readers are actually looking for.
I know, I know, some readers aren’t. Some readers want drivel, the same things they’ve read over and over again, because then they don’t have to think and it’s just mindless reading. But the real readers, the avid readers, are looking for something that will get their blood pumping and their brain going a mile a minute.
So let’s do that. Let’s have them join us for a wild ride.
But, how do you write something that makes your readers think?
Like I said, it’s not as easy as it sounds.
It all starts will determining your story. You need to know what you hope to gain through this story, and what you hope your reader will gain through this story. It can’t just be a story that’s there for the sake of being a story—it has to be something with purpose.
Now that you have your purpose, work it into your fiction. Make your protagonist lacking in that purpose, and go on an adventure to discover it. Make everyone in your world lacking in that purpose, so it’s even more critical when they reach it. But most importantly, it’s important that you find it yourself. It’s important that your readers feel you learning, thinking, deciphering, right alongside them.
See what I mean about it not being easy?
Create a goal that requires thought, or create a world that requires attention to make sense of it. Consider the Druid Novels (because I know you’ve read all of them ;-)). The world of the druids is in many ways opposite to that of humanity, and there’s a very distinct reasoning for it. That reasoning is not always explicitly stated. Those differences are always sharp and distinct, but I work very hard at making sure my readers have to learn something about humanity, about themselves, in order to understand the druids.
Because, after all, we could all stand to think a little more.
[love]
{Rani Divine}

Hate it or Love it

Why hello there! Welcome back! I hope your week hasn’t been too rough on you. Me, I’m knee deep in editing Anialych, the next of the Druid Novels. Yes, I’m still editing it. I think this will be the last intensive editing round though. Hopefully. The book is getting to where I love it again, so I know I'm on the right track!
But I’ve digressed. This month, I wanted to take some time to talk about the things that make up a good story, and so I asked myself one simple question:
What are readers looking for in a novel?
Think you know the answer? I have a pretty good idea, and for the month of September, I’ll be sharing my thoughts with you.
#2: Characters We Hate
Last time, we talked about the exact opposite of this—and I’m guessing that one made a little bit more sense. I’m sure at least some of you are wondering why hated characters would be something readers look for in a novel, but please, hear me out.
There has to be a bad guy. Has to. We love for there to be someone we hate, someone we just cannot stand. We love to have a character to bash on, a character who’s the polar opposite to the one we love.
It’s a very important part of plot development, in some stories, and in almost all of them it’s very nearly a dire requirement. I mean, if there's no bad guy, then what's really the point? ;-)
But how do we create a character we hate, and how do we know if we’ve succeeded?
If you read Tuesday’s post, this might be an easy answer, so I’ll try a new spin on it.
Hated characters are the ones we create out of the deepest darkest parts of ourselves, sometimes to the point that we didn’t even know we could go. Personally, I’ve created some big bad baddies that I’ve had to go so far as to tone down for the final version of a book, because I didn’t want to shock my readers. Those characters, those hated and despised characters, come from the darkness we see in the world around us.
That’s not as hard to come up with as it should be, if you ask me.
We know we’ve succeeded in making this kind of character when it makes us cringe, when we dislike the things we’ve written simply because we dislike this character so much. Because if we hate them so much, so will our readers.
Plain and simple.
Next time, let’s get off the character train, shall we?
[love]
{Rani Divine}

Love it or Hate it

Hey guys! Welcome back to Too Many Books to Count! I sincerely hope you enjoyed last month’s series, and I’m pretty excited to see what you think of the new one. It always takes me a while to think up a new series for a month, primarily because I want to share things with you that I’ve learned, things I’ve experienced, or even things I think we could change about the writing world… but this month, I wanted to take a more fun route. And this month, it’s for the writers out there.
What are readers looking for in a novel? Do you know? I have a pretty good idea, and I’ve put together eight to share with you this month.
#1: Characters We Love
Obvious, no? But it’s harder to create than you might think. In fact, it’s downright impossible to create a character who everyone will love. Everyone takes issue with something these days. Our job, as writers, is to create a character who is loveable in our eyes—because if the character is loveable to us, he’ll be loveable to the readers we’re trying to reach.
But how do we create a loveable character? What does it mean to create a loveable character? How do we know when we’ve done it?
These are a bit harder to quantify, but I’ll do my best for you.
Loveable characters are the ones readers can’t get enough of—and by extension, it usually means they’re the ones we can’t get enough of, either. They’re characters we’d be more than happy to laugh with, cry with, do just about anything with. They’re the ones we’d like to be friends with, the ones we look up to, the ones we aspire to be like. They’re the characters we idolize in society in this day and age.
If you’ve created a loveable character, then you’ve created a character who will keep readers coming back to your story time and time again. You’ll have made someone they want to be with, someone they enjoy the company of—and by extension, you’ll have started something they can’t get enough of.
But, of course, how do we know when we’ve done it?
For me, I judge by my own love of my characters. I do this because I’ve noticed, after years of writing, that the characters I love the most are the characters my readers love the most. If I’m not as fond of the main character in a given book, my readers aren’t either. But when I love my character, when I cherish them, my readers will too.
But, of course, loveable characters are only one piece of the fictive puzzle that makes up our worldmaking lives. Thursday, let's talk about another.
[love]
{Rani Divine}

LRR

It’s finale day! I sincerely hope that you’ve all enjoyed this month’s series, and that you’ve maybe learned a little bit more about writers in general, and how to be a friend to us. I know we can be something of a strange variety, but I promise we’re not always as crazy as we seem.
This month, in our determination to support our indie author friends, we’ve bought, read, and reviewed their books. We’ve told others about that book. We’ve refrained from telling our author friend about any errors we found in the book. We’ve encouraged them to keep writing, no matter what. And, on Tuesday, we started talking to them about their current projects, too.
So what else is there? What more could we possibly do, to support our author friends?
That’s easy.
#8. Lather, Rinse, Repeat
Yeah. Repeat the process for every book your friend puts out.
I know it’s a lot of effort. I know it’s a lot of time taken out of the way you usually live your life. I know that it can be a hassle, and that we’ve probably never asked you to do this for us. But isn’t that all the more reason for you to do it?
I love my friends. I try to support them in any way I can. Even if I’m not fond of the creative things they do, I try to show support in any way I can. Even if I don’t really like their writing, I still try to show that there are good things in their writing, and I do my best to keep up on their new releases.
That’s my challenge to you.
Buy your friend’s books. All of them. I know it can be a lot of money in the long run, but isn’t your friend worth more to you than that?
Read your friend’s books. All of them. I know it can take a lot of time, but isn’t your friend worth that extra time?
Review your friend’s books. All of them. I know it can be a challenge to come up with something to say, but isn’t your friend worth that effort?
Don’t nitpick the errors. Any of them. I know your instinct is to tell us when you’ve found something wrong in the book, but how would you feel, if someone did that to you?
Tell other people about the books. All of them. I know, you don’t always want to talk about reading, but when it comes up in conversation, what harm would it do to mention your author friend?
Encourage your friend. All the time. I know you know writers often struggle with depression, anxiety, fear of failure—wouldn’t you love to help your friend through that?
Talk to your friend about their writing. All of it. I know it’s what we talk about all the time, but it’s our life. Don’t you want to hear about us, too?

That’s all it is. It’s being a friend. And we’ll always be thankful to have you in our lives.
After all, for many writers, friendships are few and far between.
[love]
{Rani Divine}

Talky Talks

We’re in the last week of August—can you believe it? That also means we’re down to the last two ways I’ve thought of for you to support your indie author friends. I know you know at least one of us, with how many people write and publish these days. You may not know you know them… but there are ways to find these things out ;-)
So far this month, we’ve bought, read, and reviewed our friend’s book, we’ve told others about it, we’ve refrained from telling our author friend about any errors we found in the book, and we’ve encouraged them to continue writing—even if we didn’t really enjoy the book we read. So today, I have a (probably) more fun way you can support the authors in your life.
#7: Talk to Them
What?! I want you to talk to your friends?! How dare I?!
Well, it’s really just that simple, and it’s probably something that’s at least occasionally occurred to you to do.
Talk to your author friends about the projects their working on now. Most of us, from what I’ve heard, are working on a couple projects at a time. We have all sorts of ideas in our little writer noggins, you know.
So, talk to us about it!
We’d love to tell you all about the new characters in our heads, the stories we’re working on, the ideas we have spiraling around inside us. Most of us are probably getting pretty good at not giving away spoilers too, if that’s your thing.
But really, when you talk to us about our writing, please don’t mind a few spoilers. We can’t help it if we just really want to tell you about this epic scene we got to write today, or this really good idea that came to us while we were in the shower.
Thing is, what are the odds that you’re going to distinctly remember this one conversation anyway? I’ll tell you. They’re slim. So let us talk, let us tell you about our stories and our ideas, and let us talk freely about them, if you can.
I understand that for some of you, spoilers are the bane of your existence. You hate them. You simply cannot abide them. But that doesn’t mean you can’t talk to us at all about our work at all. I guarantee we have lots to say that wouldn’t involve a single real spoiler, while still telling you all about our current projects.
So, talk to us.
That’s it.
That’s all you have to do.
Just talk to us about our projects, let us talk about our work, our passion, our love. Let us share it with you. We really want to.
[love]
{Rani Divine}