Gabe Cole Novoa's Blog, page 53

Vlog: How to Name Your Characters

Naming characters can be fun! But also sometimes frustrating and confusing and time-consuming. So I'm sharing my top character-naming tips. 



RELATED LINKS:
Name resources:Character Names: How Do You Choose?  What resources and methods do you use to name your characters?

Twitter-sized bite:

Ready to name your characters, but not sure where to start? @Ava_Jae vlogs her top character-naming tips. (Click to tweet) 

Here We Are

I said I wasn’t going to write a post about what happened on Twitter Friday evening, mostly for the sake of my own emotional and mental wellbeing, but then I woke up on Saturday and saw what the vast majority of people were walking away with and…well. 
Here we are.

For those who didn’t see the blowup, the general recap is this: one of my Twitter friends, who I’m not going to name because I don’t want them to get stuck in the middle of a blowup again, started asking some questions about the way diversity talks have gone in the YA community specifically, and the message that has come out of many, many blowups over time.

Because that conversation was starting, it felt like the right time for me to talk about something that’d been on my mind a lot. And so I did.




Ultimately the tweets were read out of context, and not everyone saw the whole thread which lead to a host of misinterpretations, and assumptions were made about the people talking about the issue (which wasn’t just me) so it got kind of ugly. I didn’t even see all of the ugliness because thankfully most it I wasn’t tagged directly in. I know people were talking about me and others who brought the conversation up. I know many were upset about the generalizations made about us, as was I. I don’t know the full extent of the ugliness because I didn’t need that on my stress levels so I didn’t go looking for it. I honestly just don’t want to know.

But by and large, the responses I did get? In mentions, in DMs, in e-mails—it was from writers who are either a) marginalized and afraid to tell their own stories, b) marginalized and afraid to tell anything but exactly their stories (as in writing about other marginalizations = terrifying) or c) not marginalized, but not wanting to perpetuate monolithic books and feeling like they aren’t allowed to do anything else. Everyone was feeling like it’s a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation—not because you'll get ripped apart if you don't write diverse books (because honestly? You'll probably be fine) but because a lot of writers don't want to keep perpetuating that monolith. Which is basically what my tweets were about.

But you guys, this ripple effect that is already present? These writers—and it’s heartbreaking to see how many fit into those categories above—there are so, so many of them. And nearly all of them were writers I know who care about honest, respectful representation. Writers who are diversity advocates, many of whom have been on the receiving end of bad/nonexistent representation. Writers who I know would do the research, would write as respectfully as they can, would find beta readers to help them, would and do listen listen listen.

This post is for you.

On Saturday morning, I scrolled through my tweets and read blog posts responding to the situation like this and this one, and read e-mails expressing the above that broke my heart. And I thought about one of my WIPs that I love so very much, that I wrote to the best of my ability, that I sent to readers and betas over and over and over to try to make it as authentic and respectful as possible. And I thought about whether I would’ve done anything differently, whether I wished I’d written it in a monolithic Safe Mode and the answer was obvious. No. Not for a second.

Of course, that doesn’t make the possibility of it getting published one day any less terrifying. But here we are, and now we have a choice.

We can write Safe. We can write monoliths. We can say, “if I’m stuck either way, I might as well go the way with less backlash.” For some of us, that’s a choice.

But honestly? I don’t think that’s a real option for me anymore, at least, not right now. Because on Friday night, when the responses were overwhelming and my anxiety was starting to hyperfocus on That WIP and on Every Element Ever in my work, the choice of going back to monolithic manuscripts felt like the only thing that might alleviate that anxiety.

And yet, the thought of going back to that made me so sad. Like, sinking-heart sensation, actually-getting-upset-at-the-thought sad. Because I don’t want that. Because I don’t want to perpetuate these worlds where disabled, neuroatypical, non-white, nonbinary, QUILTBAG—minority—characters don’t exist.

Because seeing my anxiety on the page in Fangirl and OCD Love Story , and a Latino character who doesn’t speak Spanish well in More Happy Than Not meant something to me.

Because not seeing chronically ill characters, except in narratives where they die or are miraculously not sick at the end still means something to me.

Because I’m a chronically ill, anxious, light-skinned Latina tomboy who buried her own identity and assimilated for so long, and I can’t go back. I won’t go back. This matters too much.

So here’s what I’m going to do.

I’m going to write as honestly and respectfully as I can. I’m going to listen and listen and listen. I’m going to read #ownvoices books, and I’m going to listen to critique, and I’m going to keep finding betas to help whether I write my own experience or not, and I’m going to learn. And maybe I’m going to mess up anyway, and if that happens I’m going to listen and listen and listen and absorb as much as I can so I can do better. And then I’m going to keep writing.

And on the days when even that feels like it’s not enough, when my anxiety says why are you doing this to yourself, I’m going to take a step back and talk to my friends who get it. Who have reached out to me and said, “I’m here.” And I’m going to listen. And I’m going to learn. And I’m going to write.

And maybe one day, if I keep going, if I keep writing as honestly and truthfully as I know how, someone will see themselves in my work. And maybe, just maybe I’ll find out about it, and you know? If that happens to just one person, the stress will be worth it. The fear will be worth it.




This is me, promising to you, to do my best. This is me, acknowledging to you, that I’m not perfect and I might mess up. This is me, promising to you, to listen, and learn, and do better if that happens.

But I’m not going to stop talking about it, and I’m not going to stop writing about it, because it just matters too much.

And to those of you who are with me, I’m here for you. I see you. And if you ever need to talk, my inbox is open to you.

How to Write Transitions

Photo credit: Geraint Rowland Photography on FlickrSo a few days ago a funny thing happened where two people suggested basically the same post, on two different social media channels. One requested a post, one requested a vlog, and I ultimately decided a post would be more suited for this question, so. Here we go. 
Transitions. 
Once upon a time in your writing class, or on Twitter, or in a writing book—whatever—you read and heard over and over about the importance of showing rather than telling. “Remember, show don’t tell!” you heard over and over and over, until you pretty much had the words branded to your brain. 
You may remember, if you’ve been around Writability for two years, that I once wrote a post about when is a good time to tell (rather than show). And this right here—the passage of time—is one of those times when telling is key. 
So PSA: readers do not need to know what your characters have experienced every single moment of every single day until the story has ended. The lulls in the day, the passages of uneventful weeks (or months!) is something that as writers we need to learn to navigate without putting our readers to sleep. 
The key, honestly, is the easiest transition in the history of transitions: you skip the whole thing and sum it up with a phrase or sentence. 
Some phrases that are useful with this kind of transition include:
[Passage of time] later… —A month later…After [passage of time] of [what’s been going on]… —After three weeks of falling asleep in the back of class…The next [passage of time]… —The next day… [Protagonist] has been [doing whatever] for [passage of time]. —I’ve been passing out in math class for three weeks.
So on and so forth. 
The key to think about when writing these transitions is to answer two questions: How much time has passed? What do my readers need to know about what happened during that time? 
Sometimes, as is often the case with shorter passages of time (an hour, a day, etc.), the answer to the second question is nothing. That’s when “The next day” or “Three hours later” work perfectly without any further explanation. 
Oftentimes with longer passages of time, however, readers need just a little information to fill in that gap. Usually you can fill this in in under a sentence (as per the example of “After three weeks of falling asleep in the back of class”) and then move on to whatever is happening in the present. Sometimes, when a little more has happened during that time, but not enough to merit writing it out scene by scene, a few sentences of summarization can fill in the pertinent information before you move on to the important now stuff. 
Last thing you’ll want to think about is whether you make the transition in mid-chapter (usually after a scene break, but sometimes without even that) or at the start of a new chapter. Both can work, and honestly I think it just depends on how you structure your chapters and where the transition fits in naturally. CPs can help you figure out whether you’ve structured your transitions in a way that flows or not. 
Once you’ve done all that, voila! You’ve now skipped over the boring part of your protagonist’s story. A+.
Do you struggle with transitions? What tips do you have? 

Twitter-sized bites: 

Not sure how to handle passages of time in your WIP? @Ava_Jae breaks down how use transitions. (Click to tweet) 

Not sure how to skip a day/week/month, etc. in your WIP? @Ava_Jae explains how to use transitions. #writetip (Click to tweet)

POV Choices in YA

Photo credit: Hometown Beauty on FlickrFor many years now, as a writer I’ve been drawn to first person narratives. All but one (my first) of my many WIPs were written with “I”s and “me”s and to say that I’ve devoured a ton of first person YA narratives over the years is an understatement.

As of late, and for a while now, first person has become super popular in YA (I’m guessing Twilight may have something to do with this, given that it was the first first-person YA I’d ever come across and that series was kiiiiinda a big deal, but don’t quote me on that) though it is absolutely not the only POV option out there. So as a writer trying to decide which POV to use, how do you make that choice?

Let’s take a look at your options.
First person:

“This is worse, so much worse, than them seeing some stupid drawings. 

(Self-Portrait: Funeral in the Forest) 

But Zephyr’s not saying anything, he’s just standing there, looking like his Viking self, except all weird and mute. Why? 

Did I disable him with my mind?” 

-I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson, page 5

I suspect first person is so popular now in YA especially because it gives a direct access to the emotional and tumultuous minds of teen protagonists, with the opportunity of a boatload of voice to boot. It’s easy enough for readers to transition into because we generally think in first person, so it feels as though the readers are really in the protagonist’s head, rather than being in a story. I find it an effortless POV to slip into while writing, and it frequently just comes to me naturally which is why I tend to use it so often, but that’s not necessarily the case with everyone.

Second person:

“You’re going to get out. You’ve beaten her. You can find Mercury. You will get three gifts.

But you’ve got to keep going.

You’ll be at the end of the loch in a minute.

Doing well. Doing well.

Not far now.

Soon be able to see over into the valley, and—” 

-Half Bad by Sally Green, page 12

Second person POV is the POV we all learned in middle school not to use. I remember my English teachers telling us second person POV was pretty near pointless to attempt because it was too easy for readers to pull out of the narrative (along the lines of I'm not doing what the book says I'm doing), and generally, second person POV is very rare in YA.

Now while I've yet to come across a YA written entirely in second person (the example I gave above uses sections of second person narrative, but is primarily written in first person), that's not to say that it can't be done. It would, however, probably be super difficult, given alone that readers just aren't used to it. (And honestly? Noooo idea how that would sell, publishing-wise.)

All of that said, you may want to play around with second person if you'd like to try a raw, immediate, and unsettling POV that'll keep your readers on the edge of feeling like everything is a little off.  

Third person: 

“Walking to school over the snow-muffled cobbles, Karou had no sinister premonitions about the day. It seemed like just another Monday, innocent but for its essential Mondayness, not to mention its Januaryness. It was cold, and it was dark—in the dead of winter the sun didn’t rise until eight—but it was also lovely. The falling snow and the early hour conspired to pain Prague ghostly, like a tintype photograph, all silver and haze.”

-Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor, page 1

So I frequently mention voice when talking about first person, but the truth is the third person YAs I’ve read are also really really voice-y. Like the above. Mondayness and Januaryness and that imagery and—

I should probably stop fangirling and talk to you about third person perspective.

In terms of distance, third person perspective is slightly more distant to readers in that they aren’t plopped right in the POV character’s head—instead, they’re fed the story through a narrator, who, depending on how the POV is written (third person limited vs. omniscient, for example) will filter the story through that particular characters thoughts and feelings like first person, but through a separate narration.

That was confusing. Third person can do just about everything first person can do, but can also pull back more than first person can (though it doesn’t have to).

So what POV should you use? The truth is, it’s totally up to you to decide what feels most natural for the story (and for you). But the above are some things you may want to consider when deciding. If you experiment and read widely, you’ll figure out what’s right for your manuscript.

What POV do you prefer to read/write?

Twitter-sized bite:

Brainstorming a new WIP idea and not sure what POV to use? @Ava_Jae breaks down your options & things to consider. (Click to tweet)

Fixing the First Page Giveaway Winner #15!

Photo credit: Genna G on FlickrSuper quick pre-post post today to announce the winner of the fifteenth fixing the first page feature giveaway! So here we go!

*drumroll*

The winner is…
E.G. MOORE
Yay! Congratulations, E.G.! Expect an e-mail from me shortly.
Thank you to all you lovely entrants! If you didn't win, as always, there will be another fixing the first page giveaway next month, so keep an eye out! :)

Vlog: 4 Mistakes I Made as a New Writer

I made a lot of mistakes when I first started writing, and now I'm sharing them with you so hopefully you don't make the same ones. Enjoy!


RELATED LINKS:

Why You Need Critique Partners (vlog)Why Writers Must ReadWhy Writers Must Read (vlog version)Time is On Your SideHow to Choose Critique PartnersCritique Partners: They're Not Optional5 Places to Find Critique PartnersHow to Love Editing (vlog)How to Edit: The First Read Through (vlog)How to Edit: The Second Draft (vlog)How to Edit: The CP Trade (vlog)
Have you made any of these mistakes? 
Twitter-sized bites: 

Writer @Ava_Jae vlogs about mistakes she made as a new writer. Have you made any of these mistakes? (Click to tweet)  

"It was really hard for me to let go of the expectation of getting pub'd as a teen." —@Ava_Jae on new writer errors. (Click to tweet)

End of Year Goals

Photo credit: angietorres on FlickrSo we have a little less than fifteen weeks of 2015 (those of you who were enjoying bliss ignorance, I apologize), so I thought it might be fun to start thinking about things I’d like to do before 2016. Call them resolutions or goals or just things to look forward to, but here are my goals for the rest of the year.

Finalize the #YAFantasyWIP. This is my NaNo manuscript from 2013 (yes, the one I wrote stupidly fast), so it’s been a long time coming, but I’ll very shortly be embarking of the last couple rounds of revision for this manuscript. Seeing how much this WIP has developed from first draft to pre-final revision draft has already been totally amazing, so I look forward giving it the final shine it needs.
Start working on a new project after #YAFantasyWIP revisions are 100% complete. Because I’m going to need a distraction when that project is done to keep me sane. Heh.
Finish (and beat) GR reading challenge (only four books to go!). My Goodreads reading challenge goal was fifty books this year, and it looks like at the rate I’m going I’ll very easily surpass that. My goal is to hit fifty and keep going—just to see how many I can squeeze in before the end of the year. :)
Finish second to last semester at college. Considering I just started school again three weeks ago, this feels like a weird goal. But it is, crazily, something that will happen before the end of the year! 
Write 800th blog post (21 to go). Pretty self-explanatory, so…yep. 
Post 80th vlog (ten to go). It’s kind of incredible to me that this is even a plausible goal, and yet! Boy, does time fly…
Make five diet-friendly meals/desserts I’ve never made before. Due to my medical stuff, I have a ridiculously strict diet. But! It means I’ve learned to cook, and though I’ve been lazy lately with the stuff I’ve been making, I think this is a good goal to have. Because most of the time I really like the new recipes I try out. So. Food.
Get Beyond the Red ARCs. I guess this is unfair to set as a goal since it’s mostly out of my hands, but this is a thing that will happen before 2016! And that’s exciting. And I can’t wait. :D
What end of year goals do you have?

Twitter-sized bite:

Writer @Ava_Jae shares some goals she has before 2016 arrives. What end of year goals do you have? (Click to tweet)

Fixing the First Page Feature Giveaway #15

Photo credit: angelocesare on FlickrYou guys. You guys. We are not halfway through September, I can't. I just. How?

Anyway, good news for you because it's time to get ready for the next Fixing the First Page giveaway! Yay!

For those who’ve missed it in the past, the Fixing the First Page features is a public first 250 word critique. Using the lovely rafflecopter widget, anyone interested in winning a PUBLIC (as in, featured in a post on this blog) first page critique can enter.
For an example of what this critique will look like, here's the last Fixing the First Page post.
Rules!

ONLY the first 250 words will be critiqued (up to finishing the sentence). If you win and send me more, I will crop it myself. No exceptions.
ONLY the first page. I don’t want 250 random words from your manuscript, or from chapter 3. If you win the critique and send me anything other than the first 250 words of your manuscript, I will choose someone else.
I will actually critique it. Here. On the blog. I will say things as nicely as I can, but I do tend to be a little blunt. If you’re not sure you can handle a public critique, then you may want to take some time to think about it before you enter.
Genre restrictions. I'm most experienced with YA & NA, but I will still accept MG and Adult. HOWEVER. If your first page has any erotic content on it, I ask that you don’t enter. I want to be able to post the critique and the first 250 in its entirety without making anyone uncomfortable, and if you win and you enter a page with erotic content, I will choose someone else.
You must have your first page ready. Should you win, you need to be able to submit your first page within 48 hours of my contacting you to let you know you won. If 48 hours pass and I haven’t heard from you, again, I will choose someone else.
You’ll get the most out of this if it isn’t a first draft. Obviously, I have no way of knowing if you’re handing me a first draft (though I will probably suspect because it’s usually not that difficult to tell). I won’t refuse your page if it’s a first draft, but you should know that this critique will likely be of more use if you’ve already had your betas/CPs look over it. Why? Because if you don’t, the critique I give you will probably contain a lot of notes that your betas & CPs could have/would have told you.
There will not be a round 2 (unless you win again in a future contest). I hate to have to say this, but if you win a critique, it’s NOT an invitation to send me a bunch of your revisions. I wish I had the time available to be able to look at revisions, but sadly, I don’t. If you try to break this rule, I will nicely say no, and also remember to choose someone else should you win a second contest. Which would make me sad. :(
So that’s it! If you’re okay with all of the above and would like to enter to be the fifteenth public critique on Writability, do the thing with the rafflecopter widget below. You have until Tuesday, September 22 at 11:59 EST to enter!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Do You Have to Write Diverse Characters?

Photo credit: aurelio.asiain on FlickrIf you're involved in the online publishing/writing community at all, then chances are extremely likely you've heard about the We Need Diverse Books initiative and ones like it, like diversifYA, Diversity in YA, Gay YA, Disability in Kidlit, and many others. Hell, if you've been to this blog more than a few times, you've likely seen me talk about why representation is important to me, and more recently, about the importance of chronic illness rep in YA.

What I'm trying to say is as of late, there have been a lot of pushes towards encouraging writers to write diversely and readers to read (and support) diverse lit. And you know? A lot of good has come out of it. There have been books with marginalized protags getting huge marketing budgets and promoted to the masses, which is incredibly awesome. There have been writers coming together to try to write as respectfully and realistically as possible. And probably most importantly: there's been more visibility of representation in literature.
Of course, we still have a long way to go, but there's been progress. And progress is awesome.
But at the same time, there have also been internet uproars related to the causes, usually surrounding poor (or even harmful) representation, whether in a book, on a panel, etc. Which is understandable, because poor representation needs to be discussed and pointed out. But at the same time, it can be scary as a writer trying to write a diverse cast in a respectful way (or as a writer trying to decide whether or not they should write diverse characters at all), to see that. There have been authors chased off their social media accounts after getting slammed over not-so-great representation in their books—which is probably every writer's worst nightmare.
Stemming from all this comes a sort of guilt or pressure to write diverse characters. Writers sometimes come across diversity talks and walk away with guilt for not writing a diverse cast. So the question is sometimes asked: do you have to write diverse characters?
The short answer? No. Including diverse characters in your book is not a requirement—furthermore, it's unlikely anyone will shame you for writing a book without any minority characters. It happens all the time, and by and large, goes unnoticed from readers who aren't looking for it. You won't be branded a jerk, or unworthy of writing, or anything like that if you don't write books with a diverse cast.
That said, you might decide you want to take a risk and write a diverse cast into your book anyway. Not for the sake of diversity (which is something I see people say, and oh, does it make me cringe), but for the sake of reality. As Mary Robinette Kowal put it:

It's not about adding diversity for the sake of diversity, it's about subtracting homogeneity for the sake of realism.— Mary Robinette Kowal (@MaryRobinette) December 18, 2014

Because our world? It's not a monolith. We live in a world full of unique people of all races, ethnicities, body types, levels of ability, levels of neuro(a)typicalities, sexual orientations, genders, socioeconomic classes, and religions. So if you choose to write a book without a diverse cast, know that you're not writing a world reflective of our own. Which is okay. You're allowed to make that choice. But it is a choice.
I guess what I'm trying to say, is out of all of these initiatives, no one is saying you have to write a diverse cast in your book. But maybe they're saying to pay attention to the world around you. Maybe they're saying realize that white, cis, heterosexual, middle class, able-bodied, neurotypical, athletic people aren't the only people with stories worth telling.
But is it a requirement to write diverse characters? Not really. But in my experience at least, the more you pay attention to the world around you, the harder it becomes to write worlds that aren't reflective of that reality.

What do you think? 

Twitter-sized bites: 

Is it a requirement to write diverse characters? @Ava_Jae shares her thoughts. (Click to tweet)  

Writer @Ava_Jae says you're not required to write diverse characters, but you might decide you want to anyway. (Click to tweet)

Vlog: How to Juggle Writing & School

So for many of us, school is now in session! Which means all the extra, easy-to-find free time for writing is no more. So what do you do when you're a writer who goes to school? How do you juggle the two? Today I'm sharing my top tips picked up through writing through high school and going on five years of college.


RELATED LINKS: 

Balancing Writing with School (Julia Byers's post)How I Became a Morning Person How to Write When You Don't Want To (vlog)On Finding Time to Write (vlog)Do You Have to Write Every Day? (vlog)Do You Need a Degree to Get Published? (vlog)
What tips do you have for juggling writing with school or work?
Twitter-sized bites:

Struggling to juggle your writing with school or work? @Ava_Jae vlogs about her top five tips. (Click to tweet)  

How do you find time to write a book while at school or working full time? @Ava_Jae vlogs her top tips. (Click to tweet)