Meg Harding's Blog
March 25, 2015
Quick Book Survey
Hey everyone, I've got a quick survey about book purchases (it's 4 multiple choice questions, super easy) that I need responses to for a project I'm doing in my masters program. If you could take a minute to fill it out I'd be really grateful!
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/YB8HRDT
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/YB8HRDT
March 23, 2015
The "Nice Guy" Trope
Everyone has heard about the so called “nice guy”. He’s the shunned friend, the man turned aside because he’s just too nice. In reality, the nice guy isn’t a nice guy at all. He’s a guy who feels entitled, who handles rejection badly, and who thinks whomever rejected him owes him something. Often in books and films we’re led to believe we should feel bad for the nice guy, and a good deal of the time the nice guy comes out on top, earning the affection of the man or woman in question. This is something that needs to end.
People don’t like the nice guy, because he’s not a nice guy. The nice guy is the guy who ruins a perfectly good friendship by telling you his feelings (which is a completely fine thing to do if the circumstances are alright) and proceeding to harp on your lack of return feelings. He does this till the friendship disintegrates into a massive pile of awkward. He leaves the other party often feeling a mix of guilt, anger, and irritation. He ruins a friendship simply because he feels he’s put in his time as friend and thinks you should like him back. This is an entitled and ridiculous view.
It’s aggravating and sends the wrong message to have the nice guy get what he wants. If he were a genuinely nice guy, as in he didn’t harass the other party with his feelings and he respected their views, then it wouldn’t be a big deal. But he’s not. In stories we don’t want to see the nice guy succeed, because he doesn’t deserve to. We want to see the guy who treats his partner with respect, and who doesn’t nag them into having return feelings, succeed in wooing his partner. We want the partner to be treated as a person, not as a trophy. You don’t earn their romantic love by putting in time as their friend first. Sorry, that’s not how the world works.
Books and films have a massive effect on a person’s perception of the world. By providing examples of the nice guy “winning”, the view that this is an acceptable way to behave is enforced. This isn’t something to be encouraged. By all means, use the nice guy trope in your work, there will always be “nice guys” out there. But don’t let them get the man/woman. Show what a nice guy really is. Show how awful he makes his friend feel. Show how it ruins a friendship. Then let that friend find love with someone who actually cares about what they want.
It’s time a stand was taken and that the meaning of the word NO was made clear. People need to learn this isn’t a word to argue with, or to try and wear down into a yes. Tropes that perpetuate that need to stop working. No one is entitled to another person’s feelings. Don’t let them think they are. Write characters who fall in love with people who genuinely respect them.
People don’t like the nice guy, because he’s not a nice guy. The nice guy is the guy who ruins a perfectly good friendship by telling you his feelings (which is a completely fine thing to do if the circumstances are alright) and proceeding to harp on your lack of return feelings. He does this till the friendship disintegrates into a massive pile of awkward. He leaves the other party often feeling a mix of guilt, anger, and irritation. He ruins a friendship simply because he feels he’s put in his time as friend and thinks you should like him back. This is an entitled and ridiculous view.
It’s aggravating and sends the wrong message to have the nice guy get what he wants. If he were a genuinely nice guy, as in he didn’t harass the other party with his feelings and he respected their views, then it wouldn’t be a big deal. But he’s not. In stories we don’t want to see the nice guy succeed, because he doesn’t deserve to. We want to see the guy who treats his partner with respect, and who doesn’t nag them into having return feelings, succeed in wooing his partner. We want the partner to be treated as a person, not as a trophy. You don’t earn their romantic love by putting in time as their friend first. Sorry, that’s not how the world works.
Books and films have a massive effect on a person’s perception of the world. By providing examples of the nice guy “winning”, the view that this is an acceptable way to behave is enforced. This isn’t something to be encouraged. By all means, use the nice guy trope in your work, there will always be “nice guys” out there. But don’t let them get the man/woman. Show what a nice guy really is. Show how awful he makes his friend feel. Show how it ruins a friendship. Then let that friend find love with someone who actually cares about what they want.
It’s time a stand was taken and that the meaning of the word NO was made clear. People need to learn this isn’t a word to argue with, or to try and wear down into a yes. Tropes that perpetuate that need to stop working. No one is entitled to another person’s feelings. Don’t let them think they are. Write characters who fall in love with people who genuinely respect them.
March 20, 2015
Character Development: You Need It
Big or small, good or bad, there has to be some kind of character development if you want a reader to like your book. There are few things more frustrating than reading a novel and reaching the end to find that the character hasn’t changed in any way. It’s not realistic. It’s not engaging. Very often it makes readers dislike the character in question.
Recently I read a novel where the ‘protagonist’, and I use this term loosely, started off lazy and unlikeable and ended lazy and unlikeable. He went through a harrowing, life changing experience, and he came out of it exactly the same personality wise. I wanted to come through the pages and pummel him. What is the point of a character who doesn’t develop in some way? No amount of plot is going to cover up a lack of development.
Character development doesn’t have to be positive, and it doesn’t have to be dramatic. What counts is that something, in some way, is changing. You have a positive character and they go through an awful ordeal, and in the end they come out bitter? That’s fine. That’s realistic. They reacted to the situation, they were effected by it. Readers want to see that the characters have been impacted by their trials. A good example of this would be to examine a villain. How did they become a villain? Something happened to them and they changed, it may have been negative, but they aren’t the same and that’s what matters.
The same goes for positive character development. Your character should come out of the story with a new mindset, whether it’s an appreciation for something new or an understanding of something old, Want a good example of this? Look at Tolkien’s writing. It’s chock full of character development, some of it minuscule and some of it glaring.
People want to be able to connect with the characters, and if you remove the reality of personal growth through experience, that’s a hard thing to do. There’s a reason heroes and villains get so much attention. They are people who are constantly undergoing development in various ways. If your character isn’t learning something from their experience, then why are they the main character? What’s the point of the plot? Readers need to see the aftereffects. They need to see the emotion. Both require that your character come out different than they started. Character development is essential to the success of any story, don’t toss it aside.
Recently I read a novel where the ‘protagonist’, and I use this term loosely, started off lazy and unlikeable and ended lazy and unlikeable. He went through a harrowing, life changing experience, and he came out of it exactly the same personality wise. I wanted to come through the pages and pummel him. What is the point of a character who doesn’t develop in some way? No amount of plot is going to cover up a lack of development.
Character development doesn’t have to be positive, and it doesn’t have to be dramatic. What counts is that something, in some way, is changing. You have a positive character and they go through an awful ordeal, and in the end they come out bitter? That’s fine. That’s realistic. They reacted to the situation, they were effected by it. Readers want to see that the characters have been impacted by their trials. A good example of this would be to examine a villain. How did they become a villain? Something happened to them and they changed, it may have been negative, but they aren’t the same and that’s what matters.
The same goes for positive character development. Your character should come out of the story with a new mindset, whether it’s an appreciation for something new or an understanding of something old, Want a good example of this? Look at Tolkien’s writing. It’s chock full of character development, some of it minuscule and some of it glaring.
People want to be able to connect with the characters, and if you remove the reality of personal growth through experience, that’s a hard thing to do. There’s a reason heroes and villains get so much attention. They are people who are constantly undergoing development in various ways. If your character isn’t learning something from their experience, then why are they the main character? What’s the point of the plot? Readers need to see the aftereffects. They need to see the emotion. Both require that your character come out different than they started. Character development is essential to the success of any story, don’t toss it aside.
March 18, 2015
Catching Light: Excerpt
Excerpt:
“There aren’t going to be any weird creatures in the water?” he thought to ask, as Adam gave up on waiting for Oliver to make up his mind and just tugged him along to one with only two other people in it.
“What is it with you and your fear of sea creatures?” Adam muttered as he scrambled over a rock and slid right into the water.
Oliver watched as he then proceeded to hiss and jump around, arms wrapped around himself. The couple in this particular little niche giggled at Adam’s antics and the woman expressed her sympathy. Her teeth were chattering the entire time. Oliver sat on one of the rocks and dipped a toe in. He yanked it back out. Ice. It felt like the water was made of ice. The rock he sat on, in contrast, felt nice and toasty warm.
The rock was looking like a pretty good bet.
Hands circled his ankles and he was being forcibly yanked down into the pool of ice. His squawk was high pitched and angry and abruptly cut off by the chattering of his teeth. He was clinging to Adam like a monkey, wrapped around him and trying to climb up him to get out of the water almost.
“You bastard,” he gritted out.
It was like little icy needles were stabbing his flesh.
Adam dunked him.
Oliver’s eyes bolted shut and then opened wide to stare into the blurred face of the massive pain in his ass. Adam’s eyes were wide open and looking back, his lips quirked upwards in a close-lipped smile. Oliver narrowed his eyes and set about doing his level best to knock Adam over.
They grappled under the water till Oliver’s lungs were burning and he absolutely had to come up for air. He took in great gasping breaths as his head broke the water, his chest heaving to restore the air. Beside him Adam was doing the same, though a little more calmly. He would probably have been able to hold his breath for another thirty seconds if he needed to.
The couple in the water with them had backed away from their splash zone, but they were smiling fondly at them, clearly amused.
Oliver braced himself against one of the rocks, letting himself just float in the water. When Adam came near he put his hand out palm forward in a stop gesture. “Don’t even think about doing anything other than sitting here.”
Adam rolled his eyes and collapsed next to Oliver, letting his head thunk against the rock. “I think we should find some hot springs next,” he said. “I’ll ask the guide if there’s any on the island.”
Tired and just wanting to relax, Oliver let his head slide down to rest on Adam’s shoulder. His body felt heavy and his eyes were drooping. Laughing, Adam prodded him up and out of the water. They stretched out on two long rocks and Oliver closed his eyes. He moved his hand till he felt Adam’s and Adam turned his over, interlocking their fingers.
***
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Currently on a Kindle Countdown Sale.
March 13, 2015
The Element of Surprise
One of the most powerful tools any writer has at their fingertips is the element of surprise. This element can make or break a story. Readers don’t want to close a book and think, “Ah, yes. I called every last bit of it.” They want that plot twist to smack them in the face. They want to be so engaged in trying to figure out the surprise that they can’t put the book down. You don’t want all your reviews to read ‘predictable’. If you’re going to take the time to add in a major plot twist — be it a secret, a reveal, or a betrayal, then do it right.
Give the reader options, and make all the options just as believable. If you’re trying to find the murderer, or you’re trying to work out who betrayed who: Don’t single out one character and provide irrefutable hints way before the big moment. Lead your reader on a merry chase. Give them a million hints for three or four different characters, and then make it a random character that no one had suspected. Convince them one of your selected suspects is innocent and then rip that belief away. Don’t make one character any more believable than another till you’re ready to do the reveal.
Be subtle with your clues. Nine times out of ten when the clues pointing to someone are blatantly obvious, then they’re not the ones that did it. So you might be thinking this is providing a surprise or a twist, but it’s not. It is going to disappoint your readers, though. They want something intriguing and complex. They don’t want to feel like they just spent hours reading this whole book, when you actually wrapped it up in the first quarter or half, and they could have stopped then. Avoid making your readers feel like they wasted their time.
Leave the reader hanging. Have a character that you “killed”, but they’re not actually dead? Don’t say they’re not dead in the next sentence, or the next paragraph, or even the next page. Draw that out. Make that a huge surprise when they come back. Shock people. There’s a lot of things that a writer can play with in scenarios like this. Don’t miss that opportunity. Have some fun with it. Let your reader have time to work up some feelings about it. Don’t present every bit of information you’ve got right away, drag the process out. Make the reader have to read the whole book to get the full picture.
No one is going to read a mystery novel if they can solve the mystery in the first fifty pages. You’re not going to get a return reader if your fantasy novel’s plot twist is bland and not actually a twist. If the hero/heroine of your romance novel has a secret and their partner finds it out right away, your readers are going to be disappointed. Play with your plot. Make your book a maze, and let your readers hit some dead ends.
Give the reader options, and make all the options just as believable. If you’re trying to find the murderer, or you’re trying to work out who betrayed who: Don’t single out one character and provide irrefutable hints way before the big moment. Lead your reader on a merry chase. Give them a million hints for three or four different characters, and then make it a random character that no one had suspected. Convince them one of your selected suspects is innocent and then rip that belief away. Don’t make one character any more believable than another till you’re ready to do the reveal.
Be subtle with your clues. Nine times out of ten when the clues pointing to someone are blatantly obvious, then they’re not the ones that did it. So you might be thinking this is providing a surprise or a twist, but it’s not. It is going to disappoint your readers, though. They want something intriguing and complex. They don’t want to feel like they just spent hours reading this whole book, when you actually wrapped it up in the first quarter or half, and they could have stopped then. Avoid making your readers feel like they wasted their time.
Leave the reader hanging. Have a character that you “killed”, but they’re not actually dead? Don’t say they’re not dead in the next sentence, or the next paragraph, or even the next page. Draw that out. Make that a huge surprise when they come back. Shock people. There’s a lot of things that a writer can play with in scenarios like this. Don’t miss that opportunity. Have some fun with it. Let your reader have time to work up some feelings about it. Don’t present every bit of information you’ve got right away, drag the process out. Make the reader have to read the whole book to get the full picture.
No one is going to read a mystery novel if they can solve the mystery in the first fifty pages. You’re not going to get a return reader if your fantasy novel’s plot twist is bland and not actually a twist. If the hero/heroine of your romance novel has a secret and their partner finds it out right away, your readers are going to be disappointed. Play with your plot. Make your book a maze, and let your readers hit some dead ends.
March 10, 2015
The Repetitive Word
You’re in the zone, you’ve been hard at work and you’ve got thousands of words that have poured from your mind onto the document. Then you reread the last couple paragraphs you wrote and you notice you’ve used the same word, or the same phrase, far too many times. It’s glaring. It’s annoying. You can’t think of one other phrase that could possibly fill its place. The next step is to pop up the search bar and type in that word or phrase, so you can watch as the counter steadily goes up and your headache steadily inclines with it.
We all do this. Common words or phrases I’ve found myself crying over include: at that moment, said, down, and walk(ed). Said, in particular, is a pain to fix. There’s lots of ways to describe how someone is saying something, but it’s very hard to either, A) think of them or B) find one that fits a normal tone or mood. Every book or story has a different overused word. There’s no rhyme or reason to why one specific word wants to be present in a particular story.
So, how do you fix it? You can’t just go through and change all, or even half, of the offenders to some other word. You’ve got to come up with an entire arsenal of words with the same meaning, that you can plug into about 75% of the overused word’s spots. It’s not an easy task. Some of the instances where you see the overused word or phrase need to be cut from the story entirely. If you find yourself using the same word in a sentence twice (and its not something generic), you’re going to want to delete it. If you find yourself using the same phrase multiple times in a paragraph, you’re going to want to rewrite that. Few things are more time consuming than an overused word.
You could just leave the overused word in the story, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Your readers are going to notice, and chances are it’s going to start to annoy them. Every time that word pops up it’s all they’re going to be able to see. Their eyes are going to go immediately to that word. It’s going to drive them crazy that you’ve said it fifty million times. Do yourself and everyone else a favor. Fix it. It’s time consuming. It’s headache inducing. That’s part of being a writer.
Here’s a list of sites that can help you with this problem:
Alternatives to Said: http://writeworld.org/saiddialogue
Alternatives to Walk: http://www.dailywritingtips.com/60-sy...
Overall Finder of Alternatives: http://www.wordhippo.com/
Avoid ‘Also’: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/topic...
We all do this. Common words or phrases I’ve found myself crying over include: at that moment, said, down, and walk(ed). Said, in particular, is a pain to fix. There’s lots of ways to describe how someone is saying something, but it’s very hard to either, A) think of them or B) find one that fits a normal tone or mood. Every book or story has a different overused word. There’s no rhyme or reason to why one specific word wants to be present in a particular story.
So, how do you fix it? You can’t just go through and change all, or even half, of the offenders to some other word. You’ve got to come up with an entire arsenal of words with the same meaning, that you can plug into about 75% of the overused word’s spots. It’s not an easy task. Some of the instances where you see the overused word or phrase need to be cut from the story entirely. If you find yourself using the same word in a sentence twice (and its not something generic), you’re going to want to delete it. If you find yourself using the same phrase multiple times in a paragraph, you’re going to want to rewrite that. Few things are more time consuming than an overused word.
You could just leave the overused word in the story, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Your readers are going to notice, and chances are it’s going to start to annoy them. Every time that word pops up it’s all they’re going to be able to see. Their eyes are going to go immediately to that word. It’s going to drive them crazy that you’ve said it fifty million times. Do yourself and everyone else a favor. Fix it. It’s time consuming. It’s headache inducing. That’s part of being a writer.
Here’s a list of sites that can help you with this problem:
Alternatives to Said: http://writeworld.org/saiddialogue
Alternatives to Walk: http://www.dailywritingtips.com/60-sy...
Overall Finder of Alternatives: http://www.wordhippo.com/
Avoid ‘Also’: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/topic...
March 7, 2015
To Flaw, Or not?
It absolutely baffles me that people equate flaws with weakness. Why can a woman or a man not be a strong human being if they have a flaw? I see no reason why that should matter. After all, flaws are what make you human. You’re not going to find even one person out in the world who isn’t in possession of a handful of flaws. This applies to fictional human beings as well.
Giving your leading lady or man a flaw (or several of them) isn’t going to detract from them being a strong lead. In fact, it’s going to aid it. Let’s be honest, if your character has no room to grow or learn, then they’re not a strong character and why are we reading this story?Strong leads need flaws. The point of a strong lead is that they are undeniably human, that they are learning to overcome some flaws and embrace others. They are learning to work with their flaws.
If you don’t have a flawed character, you don’t have a story. Equally, if you don’t have a strong lead, you don’t have a story. And those background characters of yours? They’re not interesting if they don’t have flaws. Quite often background characters can outshine the lead because of their particular flaws and how they deal with them. If that’s the case, you should probably rewrite your story with them as the lead. Why? Because people like strong leads, with their flaws and all.
I’m not sure where this belief came about regarding flaws and weakness, but I think it’s one that needs to be put to rest. Do you look at the people around you and think, “Ah, yes, you have a flaw so you’re not a strong person?” I’m thinking you probably don’t. Women are allowed to not be perfect. Men are allowed to not be perfect. Our obsession with perfection is absolutely ridiculous. Ladies and gentlemen, it doesn’t exist.
Embrace your flaws. Stop thinking they’re signs of weakness. Make your characters flawed AND strong. Forget perfection and look for inspiration.
Giving your leading lady or man a flaw (or several of them) isn’t going to detract from them being a strong lead. In fact, it’s going to aid it. Let’s be honest, if your character has no room to grow or learn, then they’re not a strong character and why are we reading this story?Strong leads need flaws. The point of a strong lead is that they are undeniably human, that they are learning to overcome some flaws and embrace others. They are learning to work with their flaws.
If you don’t have a flawed character, you don’t have a story. Equally, if you don’t have a strong lead, you don’t have a story. And those background characters of yours? They’re not interesting if they don’t have flaws. Quite often background characters can outshine the lead because of their particular flaws and how they deal with them. If that’s the case, you should probably rewrite your story with them as the lead. Why? Because people like strong leads, with their flaws and all.
I’m not sure where this belief came about regarding flaws and weakness, but I think it’s one that needs to be put to rest. Do you look at the people around you and think, “Ah, yes, you have a flaw so you’re not a strong person?” I’m thinking you probably don’t. Women are allowed to not be perfect. Men are allowed to not be perfect. Our obsession with perfection is absolutely ridiculous. Ladies and gentlemen, it doesn’t exist.
Embrace your flaws. Stop thinking they’re signs of weakness. Make your characters flawed AND strong. Forget perfection and look for inspiration.
March 5, 2015
She's Not a Prop
There seems to be several misconceptions that exist in the fictional world — and in the real world as well, about women. We’re not “catty bitches”. If a woman’s best friend is a guy, she’s not going to hate whatever women he dates. She might dislike ones that mistreat him, but she’s not going to hate that woman instantly, just for talking to her friend. If a woman has a male friend, chances are he’s just a male friend. There normally isn’t some secret, pining love going on in the background. And finally, I feel I must address the belief so many seem to harbor, that pitting ladies against each other is necessary. It’s not. It’s trite. It’s old. It’s just plain boring. It’s this last one that I’m going to discuss.
People like strong female leads, and they want to see strong female leads. They don’t want to hear about the myth of the strong female lead. A strong female lead can accept help, being rescued isn’t the end of the world. They can start out quiet and shy, they can end quiet and shy. But they don’t let people walk all over them. They grow and they learn, and in the end they kick ass.
This isn’t achieved by making two female characters go head to head. Who would win in a fight? Who wears what better? No one cares. They want to see the ladies kicking ass, together, against a common enemy. They don’t want to see the ladies bickering the whole damn book and hating each other. It’s overdone. And there’s nothing, absolutely nothing, worse than having two female characters go at it over a guy.
Write strong ladies. Write ladies who help each other rather than tearing each other down. Write ladies who aren’t a side note to the men in the book. Write ladies with a real purpose. No one wants to read your book where the woman is the equivalent of a fluffer. She shouldn’t be there to feed someones ego. In closing, if a major part of your plot is two women fighting over something trivial, in a search to see who is —by some unfathomable standard—better, then you’re doing something wrong.
People like strong female leads, and they want to see strong female leads. They don’t want to hear about the myth of the strong female lead. A strong female lead can accept help, being rescued isn’t the end of the world. They can start out quiet and shy, they can end quiet and shy. But they don’t let people walk all over them. They grow and they learn, and in the end they kick ass.
This isn’t achieved by making two female characters go head to head. Who would win in a fight? Who wears what better? No one cares. They want to see the ladies kicking ass, together, against a common enemy. They don’t want to see the ladies bickering the whole damn book and hating each other. It’s overdone. And there’s nothing, absolutely nothing, worse than having two female characters go at it over a guy.
Write strong ladies. Write ladies who help each other rather than tearing each other down. Write ladies who aren’t a side note to the men in the book. Write ladies with a real purpose. No one wants to read your book where the woman is the equivalent of a fluffer. She shouldn’t be there to feed someones ego. In closing, if a major part of your plot is two women fighting over something trivial, in a search to see who is —by some unfathomable standard—better, then you’re doing something wrong.
February 28, 2015
Meet Ugly or Meet Cute?
I saw a post on tumblr the other day saying that instead of meet cutes, there should be more meet uglies: I accidently hit you with my car. I left an angry note because your parking was bad. I slammed the door in your face or knocked you over and didn't apologise. The idea has stuck with me since I read it. Are meet cutes overdone? Would readers prefer meet uglies? I for one think the latter might provide a new element of entertainment and tension. What do you think?
