To write about me, to not write about me? That is NOT the question

At first, I thought creating an MC who was a version of myself was bad news: too easy, self-involved, embarrassing. Then gradually over time I accepted that both my female MCs are like me in some ways...well, a lot of ways.

And that's okay.

I say:

Write about yourself. Don't write about yourself. Either is fine. You'll probably end up doing both. This is the disclaimer: don't make the decision before you start writing.

You never know what sort of situations your characters will get themselves into. If you're a pre-plotter you might know, but you probably won't fully understand what moments in your life those events are based in. You won't understand what personal truths draw you to the fictional story. For most writers, the story comes and then they understand the core later.

Don't block your own experiences. If you can't stand the thought of people likening you to your MC, you will deny the things that make you similar. As a writer, you have to assimilate with the MC. You have to be sensitive to what they're going through. You have to empathize. If you make the decision that your MC will not be like you then you may subconsciously block the material you have to tell the story.

You need all of your life experiences available--as clay to the potter--to tell your story.

I say:

Don't decide. There are those writers who badmouth writers who make stuff up. They think fake fiction is not rich, unimportant...commercial. There are those who think writing about yourself is not challenging enough. Let all those other writers fight about it.

Be open. Let your characters carry you where they please, whether that be to a story you know nothing about or to the very heart of a memory that is deep inside of you.

Combining minor characters

C'mon, if The Hills can do it, you can too. Like we're supposed to believe that Stacy the bartender/homewrecker of Speidi all the sudden was Kristin's best friend with absolutely no explanation.

And that Spencer's sister Stephenie was conveniently in Lauren's class and served as Heidi's replacement of sorts. And then Roxy who was Stephenie's sidekick in some blatantly Lauren-hating drama become Whitney's sidekick and business partner in New York.

And then both Kristin and Audrina fell for both Justin and Brody? Well...we can believe that. All The Hills girls love bad boys, with the exception of Lo.

Anyways. MTV is brilliant. Because they listen to fourteen year olds? .......NO!! Because they combine minor characters! You can do it too.

I had to do it. During the climax of my book, I killed off a recently introduced character. Later on, it occurred to me that not only was it trite and unconvincing but also bereft of emotional impact. I need someone to die for the climax to work, so I decided to kill off somebody else, who was in the story earlier on. Somebody I like. I don't want to kill him, but it's gonna happen. Making this change pulls his family members into the story even more, and since they were already featured, it makes a lot of sense.


Do you have a minor character that you can do away with? Is there a character who plays some necesarry part in your story, but whose action could be given to someone else, thus eliminanting him? How do you shorten your cast list?

Why is this even important? I guess because it gives the reader less people to remember, thus ensuring they can be more acquainted with who's left. Maybe also because it highlights the little-worldness of the story, that all these characters are orbiting around the main one, affecting things time and time again.

p.s. don't hate because I watched the hills. its over alright? its over.

inhuman limitations

My WIP is a fantasy. One of the things about the MS that has plagued me is making sure the rules of the magic are clear. Wait, no. I'm being too kind to myself. I didn't even really phrase the issue that way until a couple weeks ago. My original thought was more like this: Something doesn't feel right. Hmmm...

Now, though, I've got the issued pinned. I need to make sure that the reader knows what sort of magic the MC can do and how their abilities compare to others (magical, non-magical, both) in the world, whether that world be epic fantasy or urban fantasy, sci-fi, what have you. And that needs to be accomplished early on.

Case-in-point: Harry Potter. (Did I yet mention that I love JK Rowling?) Harry starts out as a weird but normal kid, and he gradually transforms into a wizard. The reader is there for that transformation. We know at all times what Harry can and can't do. We attend Hogwarts classes and even learn the spells. Alohomora! Expelliarmus! Expecto Patronum!

I'm only on page 96 of The Hunger Games, but Suzanne Collins is doing the same thing. We know that Katniss is a darn good hunter, and then we discover what other skills she and Peeta pick up in training.

In fact, all good fantasy/sci-fi...scratch that! In fact, all good books do this. We have to know what the MC can do or else we wouldn't know what to expect or how to feel in a given scene. We could be enthralled in a super scary fight scene and think the MC is going to be maimed but then he blasts his opponent to smithereens with a magical boom-blaster. That would seriously tick off any reader. He had a boom-blaster?

All books must set limitations. Are there telephones in this time period? Does the MC have a car? Can the MC afford airfare? A poor man cannot escape the mafia on plane.

While my WIP does not include boom-blasters, there is some magic. I don't do a terrible job of revealing what my MC can do, but I know I could do with some clarification. Why?

To develop character and setting. Providing limitations does both. Harry Potter is way cooler than you or I, but is he smarter than Hermione? Is he more powerful than Draco? Those answers tell us more about who Harry Potter is in relation to his own kind.

I do compare my magically powerful MC to others of her kind, but I'm lacking a list (so-to-speak) of her abilities. She kind of discovers/hones her abilities along the way. That's fine, to an extent, so long as everything is clear. What did she teach herself? What did she already know? The reader should never have to guess. And there should never be moments where boom-blasters appear that the reader didn't know about.

p.s.
I just saw the first cockroach in my house. I've seen several on the streets of Honolulu, but this one was in my house! It was an inch long. Ewww...
Am I going to let cockroaches encroach on my enjoyment of tropical life? Am I going to let my fears outweigh my passion for fresh pineapple and mango? Am I going to scream? No. No, I am not.