How To Write Unique and Realistic Character Voices

Characters... Potentially the most important part of your book. Meaning that what they have to say is important! How you make them speak is also important, both in making them believable and in making them memorable.
  But how . do you do that? Aren't words just words? NOPE! Here's how I make my character's voices...

1. Background Info

  Background information about them is great for this! Obviously, some rich kid is going to speak different than someone who grew up in the slums... So use this to your advantage. Where does your character come from? How do they want others to see them? Do they care about using offensive language? Etc. 

  Basically... Just get to know your character. That alone will give you a lot of information as to how they should talk. 

2. Uniquify! 

  Just like that word up there... Make it different. Give them some word that they use a lot, make them use big words that nobody knows just to mess with their friends, or... I don't know, but be creative! 

  Some good examples of this are in Brandon Sanderson's Steelheart; one character is constantly using ridiculous metaphors, and another somehow has both an Irish (Or Scottish, I forget...) and southern accent, at the same time. 

  Just give them some quirks. Ideally that make sense to their character, but you know, whatever works! 

3. Do Something Funny and Maybe Mean... 

  Go beyond the stereotypes and do something your character will hate... Make it funny. Make your villain have some ridiculously high pitched voice, which is why they love robots so much, because he can change his voice! 

  Don't do this to all your characters... But if it makes sense and you can, then great! Give them a reason to always be so quiet! 

4. Study How People Talk

  Go out in public, watch a YouTube video, whatever works for you, and listen to how people talk. The phrasing, what kind of words they use now, if they talk in complete sentences or keep breaking them off, everything! That's how you make speech realistic! 

  Also, make sure you're studying the right group of people... Mom's aren't going to say "O.M.G. that is like, so kawaii!" and likewise, teenage boys aren't going to speak kindly and cleanly when they're all alone or nobody around can/will get them in trouble. 

5. My Personal Biggest Problem...

  My personal biggest problem is that I write teenagers, and most teenagers these days have potty mouths and have no issue talking about things that shouldn't be said... 

  I actually do have a problem with that, despite the fact that I am a teenager. But I'm a teenager who has never cussed, is mortified at the thought of it, and anything more descriptive than "They kissed." makes me feel like not reading the book. So write about that? Nope! 

  This poses a problem, however, because realistically people cuss and all. So how do I make my characters realistic and keep up with my own moral standards? Here's how... 

  Firstly, I've noticed in some books it's perfectly okay to say "He swore/she cussed/etc." whenever that's supposed to happen. That's what I do, if the character must do so that badly. 

  Second, I made one of my main characters come from the 1800's, and therefore he uses 1800's slang. "Vazey fustilarian gnashgab! Is what he calls people he hates. The worst swear word he's ever said is dammit, and that's because he just doesn't know anything worse. He also works as a nice filter for my other main character, who does occasionally cuss given that she's a teenager from the 2000's, and he just explains what she says as "Words I don't know the meaning of but don't sound like they're a compliment." Still, he doesn't use some of the worse language from that time, but unless someone who's an expert on the 1800's reads the book I doubt anyone will know. 

  Thirdly, I just put them in a world where things are different. In worlds that aren't like earth, or earth in the future, or whatever, you can say whatever you want. Give people new cuss words, whatever! 

  But yeah, if you know any other ways to avoid using those kinds of things in writing I would LOVE to know!! 

Also, if you know any more ways to write good character voices I'd love to know that too. New stuff is great! 

The Greatest of Random/Weird/Dumb Writing Questions

  In honor of all the weird things about writing... Here are weird and random questions related to writing! Some of these you might wonder where I got, some you might've thought yourself and not even realized it was weird.
  So here we go, let's see what a procrastinating mind with a fever can possibly come up with...

1. Does Math Help With Writing? 

  Well let's see... NO. Or that's what my mind says, because I love writing and hate math so in no way can they have any relation to each other. 

  But, as usual, opinions are wrong. That's why nobody ever takes them seriously. Math can help you with writing, because in novels there's thing called a word count that matters, or if you have some immortal 592 year old character who's asked what his exact birthday is you might wanna be able to subtract... 

  That, and using your brain in any way just makes it overall stronger, meaning that Mental Abuse To Humans toughens up your brain... 

  And by the time your done, writers block is obliterated, you just wanna do anything but math!! 

2. You Know Your Character's Aren't Real, Right?

  Well then! I can scientifically prove you wrong! 

  The whole world is light reflected back at your eyes that your brain interprets into a picture. Meaning that the world is basically only what your brain says. And my brain is pretty obviously telling me that my book characters are real! 

  That wasn't enough for you? Well how about this: Define real. To me, real is anything I can experience in any way. And I can experience my characters and anything they experience. Here's some stuff to think about... If someone you love has died, are they not real? You can't see, hear, touch, taste, or smell them (I hope!) but they're still real, right? You can still think about them and love them? Yep. 

  Same with my book characters, I'm more obsessed with them than anyone I know in real life as of now! Just because they're thoughts and memories doesn't mean they aren't real! 

  (I don't know whether or not I explained that adequately or not, and I had another point but I forgot it... Maybe I'll come back and edit this when my brain is functioning better.)

3. Do Writer's Write Their Fantasy and Self-Insert?

  Um, I dunno about other people... But I don't really want my parents to ditch me after a traumatic event that includes me killing someone and go to a prison where you stay until you die very quickly, and have various mental disorders... Sure it all turns out okay, but why would I want to do that? 

  Why would Suzanne Collins want to be entered in a tournament where she fights to the death with kids? 

  Why would Stephanie Meyers want her unborn baby to break her spine? 

  Why anything! Man, whoever says this either reads a lot of romances that have not nearly enough drama, or you are like, crazy? I dunno... 

4. Why Are You So Protective Of Your Laptop? What Are You Hiding? 

  Lemme see... Is it the search history? Maybe some of the images I downloaded for book covers? Or is it the actual book, which cannot be seen until's it's been edited? 

  Probably mostly the search history, here are some of my most recent searches: 

• How long does boomslang snake venom take to kill you?
• How much radiation does it take to serious mutate someone?
• How much does it bleed when someone gets stabbed in the stomach?
• Why does nobody know the answer to how much you bleed from getting stabbed in the stomach? (Really though, I don't care how long before they die, how much do they bleed??)
• How do plants grow? 
• How do you give someone PTSD?
• How to make someone unconscious with your hands (Descriptive, I know...) 
• Did people cuss in the 1800's? 
• 46 - 24 answer

See what I mean? Nobody should ever know that! Which is exactly why I'm putting up for public viewing! 

  Yeah, so... Now you know, stop trying to find out my secrets that I hide on here! 

5. Do Writers Love Their Characters? 

  Well duh, no! We only took exactly months finding out every detail about and writing the story of people we hate! Why on earth would we create characters that we love when we could hate their guts instead? 

  Okay, excuse my sarcasm. That's my humor, offensive or no, if you haven't noticed by now! Anyway, most of the time we writers love our characters to death! Literally! 

  But... There are some exceptions... For me, at least. Those are either when the character is destined to die, is just the overall jerky bad guy, or one special situation I'll explain in a second... 

  If a character is going to die and I've planned that from the beginning, I make them be someone I'd personally hate. I make them use words I hate (ex. pet peeve, O.M.G., etc.) I give them a personality that both matches the story and makes me want to scream, and usually they wear yellow... By the time I get around to chapter death, they're good to go! Make it stop!!! 

  The bad guy... I dunno, sometimes I like them okay, but often times they're like a destined-to-die who's on the opposing side and may or may not actually die. But most of the things that make people bad, like being selfish or sadistic or something, are things that bug me. 

  Then there's that special case there... I'm not going to point fingers or anything (Avoiding prejudice!), but girl I made you and your guy! And I kind of regret letting you have him!! So... Maybe go die? Please? Except I can't kill you because that defeats the point of the story... 

6. Are You All Poor? 

  Yeah, Stephen King and J.K. Rowling and Stephanie Meyer and Suzanne Collins are pretty poor... I know, thousands to millions isn't a lot... 

  C'mon people, sure some of us are poor... Like me. But that doesn't mean we don't have potential or that it's impossible!! 

7. What's So Great About Writing? 

  Here's my personal list: 

• I can be whoever I want in writing, literally. Same way readers immerse in the story while reading, I do while writing. Maybe even more than readers, because I don't remember ever feeling the same panic, pain,  and all as my characters to the point of having to stop when I'm reading. 
• Creative outlet. Best ever, in my opinion! 
• The clicking sound keys on a keyboard make. 
• Knowing almost unjustifiable creepy facts, like exactly how certain serial killers murdered people and what it looks like.
• Psychology chance of all chances... I CAN DO ANYTHING!!!! 

Do you have any questions about writing? Weird, useful, or otherwise? Because I would love to answer them! (I don't bite, unless you happen to come to my prison >:) Don't worry!) Questions or comments are welcome! Hate is also welcome, as long as you don't mind my sarcastic replies. Thank you!! 

My Favorite Things About Being A Writer

  While there's good and bad in everything you do, and I've already talked about some of the things that suck about writing... (That's just amateur writing, not writing for a living!) It's time for everything I love about writing!
  Some of these are kind of universal writing things, some of these are things that I've never heard before, but they're all things that motivate me to keep writing!

1. Being Someone Else

  True, most of my characters are treated extremely horribly, many have some sort of mental disorder (I mean, Jamie has PTSD and Bree has Trauma Induced Amnesia, those take quite a bit of trauma to get...) So it's not like a want to be them, have their life, or anything along those lines. But as someone interested in psychology, I LOVE making complex characters, backstories, and being able to delve into someone else's mind and understand everything perfectly. And I generally do this to the point that I feel like I am that character, and sometimes even experience physical symptoms of what's going on for them (Only when I'm writing them; I don't randomly get Jamie's flashbacks in the middle of my day or anything! I'm not that crazy!) Which honestly, even though feeling what I make them go through can suck, I think it's the most amazingly awesome thing about writing. 

2. Venting

  I don't always do this when I write, but if I happen to be furious at the same time that my characters are... Well they're gonna be spitting venomous hatred at whoever messed with them! Sure, I write some pretty good emotions when I don't really feel it... But there is nothing better than when a character and I agree. 

  That's not even to mention that by the time I'm done, I can easily detach from the emotion. The anger is all Bree's now! Not mine anymore, and it won't bug me again. 

3. Conveying All Of The Things

   I also love to convey messages, share my thoughts with people and all... And so I use my books to do exactly that! Whenever I have some thought that I want to share with the world, I see if it'll fit into any of my current projects smoothly, and if not I write it down and promptly lose the piece of paper!
  But yeah, that's why John Green is one of my favorite authors. I love how each of his books has such a deep, "WOW" kind of message. That right there is my aspiration.

4. That Heart Attack

  Oh, you know when you give someone your completed work that you put a lot of time and heart and life into? Yeah, that heart attack. When you're so scared and excited and just can't wait... I love that feeling. Most people seem to hate it... Like, have anxiety just from that, but I guess I'm one of the few people who thinks that's the most exciting and alive feeling ever.
  Either I experience that differently than others, or I'm sadistic towards myself (There's probably a real word for that, but I can't find it, so you just have to be smart enough to get the idea!)

5. Every. Single. Song. 

  Every single song I listen to reminds me of either a book or a character. And that's awesome. No more needs to be said about this.
  Except I love it. I love relating everything to my characters.     

6. The Danger! *Gasps* 

  Have you seen the newest news thing?! Oh my gosh, somebody was killed by writing! They thought it was just a minor injury, but within 48 hours they were dead!! I mean, writing is so dangerous! Why would anyone want to do that?! 

  Nah, just kidding. Writing is one of the best activities ever that really can't hurt you in any way... Never mind kill you. I've never gotten hurt from writing, and I haven't heard anyone who has! 

  As long as you don't suck and are trying to make a living writing garbage, you kind of really can't fail or get hurt here. It's so awesome!! 

7. Crazy

  Being crazy, that's the best. Not literally crazy, because crazy people aren't allowed to be a psychiatrist and that's what I want to do. But seriously, you can do whatever you want in your book world! And you're even allowed to be unusual in the real world; as in you can stutter and bounce around because you figured out a plot-point, or watch people in the name of research, or zone out randomly, or be shut away from the world for days because you're working on a masterpiece! That's all kind of expected from authors or anyone creative really, so yeah!!

  Plus I can be a murderer in my book. And even though writing someone into my book just to kill them is too much work... That's what short stories and flash-fiction are for!! 

How Learning A New Language Helps You To Be A Better Writer

  But how will learning a new language help me write in English? Unless I want to write a book in French, why would learning French help me?!
  That's a good question, and it has good answers too! Since I'm currently learning two new languages, I thought that now might be a good time to write about this...

1. Blow Your Mind! 

  Maybe not quite that big, but learning a new language helps to improve your memory, cognitive abilities, connect things in your mind, and just make you generally smarter. This helps you in writing to make new connections between plots and characters and all that important stuff, remember more words you learn in English that you can use, and subconsciously improves your writing ability. 

  Learning in general helps with all those things, but especially learning new ways to communicate! Not to mention that English seems a whole lot easier and simpler after trying to learn a new language... 

2. More Hands-On Sort Of Thing? 

  A more directly obvious way that learning a new language can help you write better is it opens up new character options! If you know French, make a character who speaks French! It'll make them much more unique, and some people who want to learn French might pick up your book just for that (Me!!!) 

  Just be sure that you don't lose your readers in the process... If half the dialogue is in French, either you'll be doing a lot of translating (Boring to some people) or a lot of dialogue that a lot of people won't have a clue what you're saying (Boring to some people). 

  What a lot of writers do about this is that one character speaks the language, and another doesn't, so there's natural translation but not too much speaking in that language for the sake of nonlanguagespeaking character!

   Also, I just had an awesome idea that you can steal if you want, but I might use it at some point... Two people who both speak a different language and English! (To be clear, like someone who speaks French and English and another person who speaks Japanese and English.) I don't know, it doesn't sound quite as cool when I write it down, but okay! 

3. Vocabulary!! 

  This is my favorite thing... Vocabulary! Learning words in another language helps your English language vocabulary! Since English is a derivative from a bunch of other languages, learning those languages teaches you more words, some of which are used in English! 

  Like bouquet from French, or a ton of words that have roots from Latin or Greek, and - Okay, do I sound like a nerdy geek yet? Because I feel like one! 

  Anyway, you'll be able to at least guess the meanings of a lot more English words, and therefore use them in your writing. Again, don't make it confusing to your readers or they'll leave, but have fun with it! Mess with your friends! All that stuff!! 

So yeah, learning another language helps your writing mostly by just making you smarter. So learn another language. Plus it's fun. 

Unlike Biology and Math. 

I hope my Biology and Math teachers don't read that... Sorry if you do!! It's not personal!

My 7 Biggest Writer Pet Peeves

  Firstly, the words "pet peeve" are a pet peeve of mine. I don't know why, but they're almost as bad as fingernails on jeans... So I'm not going to be using that word anymore, I'll be finding a lot of synonyms! (If there's a ridiculously big word that nobody knows, it's a synonym!)
  So, now that that's all clear, let's get into my list of pesky writing  annoyances! (These aren't listed in order by the way, but the first one is the worst...)

1. What Part 0f FICTION Do You Not Understand?! 

  Whenever I say that I'm a writer, people ask what I write... And I say fiction, and it's like their heads can't handle it. Not as a job. You know, it's not like Stephen King and J.K. Rowling exist or anything, or like fiction is one of the biggest genres ever or anything... 

  They can't just admit it though, what do they say? 

  "You could write political speeches!" 

  "Have you thought of being a copywriter?" 

  "Look at this article in newspaper, you could have your own column!"

  "Here's a book on how to write self-help books!" 

  Gee thanks... But there's kind of a world of difference between fiction and any of the above! Literally, a world, as in one world is real and the other is full of vampires and demons and psychopathic murderers bent on destroying you! And guess which world I chose to live in!! 

  I mean, I appreciate the thought, I get that fiction is rough... But did you seriously think that I didn't think of all that before I decided to do this? 

  Yeah, so there's #1! Please recognize the difference in everything about fiction and nonfiction... 

2. That World You Were Creating Clashes Pretty Bad With The Real World... 

  This isn't exactly one of those vexatious topics of things other people do... More like something the world does. When I'm planning my alternate book world, the real world is supposed to just disappear... Not throw a rattlesnake at me. Yeah, I get that you're upset that I'm replacing you, but you're 4.543 billion years old! Grow up!
  I'm not even kidding though, there was one time I was walking around outside planning my story-world and out of nowhere there's a rattlesnake less than a foot away from me! Thankfully it was cool enough out that it wasn't feeling good enough to bite me... But that almost gave me a heart attack!
  This happens quite a bit, not with rattlesnakes specifically, but unless I'm home alone, locked in my room, under a blanket, something happens that's distracting all the time! 
  Again world... Grow up please.

Here's that snake by the way!

3. Those Tiny Little Details... That Totally Kill The Story. 

  You've got a book written, mostly edited, ready to go! And then you realize... Oh, this person has been in prison for a hundred years and never been out of his cell. I took care of how that's possible in the first place, but why his hair still in this complicated short haircut? This isn't fantasy, he isn't a fairy or an angel... Ugh!!

  Or when the girl is 17, and then in 75 years she'll be a hundred... Wow me. Kudos, you did something that not even fantasy or magic can explain!  Easily enough fixed, but how on earth did I even do that? 

  Wait, I know! Actually, I don't. I just hate math to the point that I disregard numbers. Haha. 

4. Apathetic Melodrama. 

  That is a huge problem for me, and I hate it. I can't even explain how querulous this makes me, rereading over what I just wrote and seeing that wow, that was way more emotion than getting caught by the police which is what you wanted in the first place calls for! But you're totally disregarding the fact that you just killed the third person in a row! 

  Yeah, total newbie mistake, but editing my writing just makes me so annoyed sometimes... 

5. Distractions

  No, not the same as world distractions. Those are things that I have no control over, like stepping on snakes! These distractions are more along the lines of the music that I always use for writing suddenly demanding that I sing along, or the beat just needs me to dance to it. Or every time I sit down to write my mind reminds me of how I haven't checked my email, or seen if my schoolwork has been graded yet, or have I kept up with my 102 day french streak?! 

  Yeah, those. I can't work with those, because they take my illogical stubbornness and use it against me. Even now, they're creeping into my mind because I'm thinking about them... 

6. Can I See? 

  "What are you doing? Can I see?"

  "I'm writing, and no you can't see it!" 

  "Why not? OMG are you writing bad things?! Why don't you want me to see, what are you hiding??" 

  If by that you mean totally sucky writing about people being murdered... Yeah. But you know what? You can't see because I don't want criticism yet! And because even after it's edited to perfection, it's really not your genre and you won't like it. And by the way, I say this exactly 100% of the time you ask that! 

  Yeah, we all know those people, don't we? 

7. Must... Keep... Writing! 

  So we've got too distracted to write... And then we've got it's impossible to write because I'm at dance class or in a video chat lesson for school, but the only thing on my mind is how awesome that story is and how I have to write it now before the magic disappears! 

  Maybe by now I should have learned to carry a notebook around to write ideas or whatever in, but nah... That's too much effort. And my notebook is about as big as my laptop, and I don't really want to buy another one so I can forget it at the library or Walmart. 

So that's all the churlishly annoying things I've got for now! The Distracting Thoughts came through again, so now all I've got is how excited I am that my early morning class tomorrow is about mental illnesses! Because I'm not sadistic or anything!

  No really, I'm not... That's why I'm being a Psychiatrist as well as an author. 

Bye. Vale. Au revoir. Adios. 

How I'm Finding What's Wrong With My Book and Fixing It!

Fun fact about me - I wrote a book and published it on Amazon!
Fun fact #2 - It didn't sell to anyone except my family and a few friends.
Fun fact #3 - A year later, I read over it and... Oh my gosh, does it need serious help!

  My mistake, as an overly excited, inexperienced writer is the fact that I forgot to edit. Or make sure my characters were good. Or make an outline. Or 75% of the stuff you usually do when you publish a book.
  So now I'm editing that book, and fixing the hundreds of problems I found! Am I at all frustrated or have any negative emotions about this? NOPE. I'm actually overjoyed, because not only have I learned so much in a year that my previous writing looks like trash, but I get to go back into that world and make it better! Because if I'm honest with myself, I never really left that world.
  Anyway, as a useful learning experience to others and because I really feel like writing this right now, here are all the things that went wrong and how I'm fixing them!

!!!!Spoiler Alerts Ahead!!!!!

1. Your Names, Goodness! 

  Newbie mistake, pointed out by various YouTubers multiple times... Do not let your characters have similar names, or names that start with the same letter! 

  So guess what my two biggest characters were named? Jenna and Jamie. And guess what else? Jenna is my main character, Jamie is a love interest, and I'm totally attached to both of their names. 

  Turns out though, that I was more attached to Jamie's name than Jenna's. I renamed Jenna, now she's Sabrina, and even though I still haven't quite gotten over it I'm not as upset as I was at the thought of renaming Jamie (I mean, Mark and Alfred are great names... But they aren't Jamie!) 

  This leads me on to my next problem... 

2. My Main Character SUCKS 

  Reason #1 that my main character got renamed instead of the not main character? Sabrina sucks. Plainly, she's nothing special. Average teenage girl who happens to have killed people; that's it.
  She's way underdeveloped, and I realized that both as I was reading the book and as I was making her character sheet. What are her hobbies? NIL What kind of music? NIL. Backstory? NIL. Family life? NIL. Personality? Depends on the situation. Sometimes snarky, sometimes mushy, always open to everyone about everything.
  Not only that, but she makes it onto everyone's pet peeves in writing list! Saved by guys all the time? Check! Can't make up her mind between two guys who dote on her in full knowledge of her liking both of them? Check!
  I almost hate this girl... But no worries, I'm making some major changes!
  What am I doing to fix such a bad character? Firstly, I'm making a list of everything about her. Every single itty bitty detail! Second, I'm showing her through different eyes. (More on that in a second!) And third, since I already changed her name, I'm just making her into a completely new, not as hateble character.

3. Finally, A Guy To Save The Day THE RIGHT WAY

  Jamie, best guy ever, he's saving the whole book... As in he's saving the low word count, the fact that Bree is a bland, unlikable brat... Basically solving every big problem in the book. 

  Basically, as opposed to Sabrina, he has hobbies, a detailed backstory, and a dramatic family life! So he's been hired as main character #2! 

  I'm adding his point of view into the book, because he's developed, he loves Bree so he's going to act a pink filter to show off all the reasons to like her, and having his thoughts in there will double the skimpy word count! 

  Plus, he contrasts the new Sabrina perfectly! Bree is sarcastic, Jamie has a lighter, more jokes-and-puns sense of humor. Bree is reckless, Jamie is protective and more rational. Bree is more out in the world, Jamie is more in his head. And yet they have enough similarities that they don't look like polar opposites who don't stand a chance at being together! 

4. If English Was My Best Subject, I Must've Sucked At School... 

  Seriously, even if creative writing isn't taught in school, good lord! Spelling mistakes, clunky sentences, passive voice, so many filter words, not to mention that half of my first chapter (Yes, the beginning half, the most important words in the whole book, my hook and all that!!) were totally uninteresting and unnecessary. Who cares about Bree's friend asking if she can come over?!?!?!

  Seriously, I don't know what I was thinking... Even though all these mistakes are easy enough to fix, I can't believe that I didn't see them sooner! 

5. I'm Either Melodramatic Or Apathetic

  Throughout the book... It's either way too much emotion until it looks silly, or absolutely nothing. 

  Bree's Mom leaves her at prison? Oh my gosh, end of the world, I can't even breathe or think! I'm gonna die, and vomit, and ooohhh noooo!.... Important person in life dies? Oh well, that's too bad! I guess we'd better run off into the woods so we don't get caught or suspected! 

  Yeah. Exactly. Better fix that, right? Or like, he was only important for so many reasons like breaking out of prison, keeping us all safe, and being a love interest, but he's dead now so we don't have to be sad because he'll never know? 

  

6. Nobody, At All, Roots For The Love Interest Who Wins

  I don't know, do people just all like vampires best? Or what? Because 100% of people who've read the book have said, "Oh, I hope she chooses the vampire!" What's she do? Nope. No vampire. 

  Yeah, I get that in any book there will be people who root for the losing dude. Or maybe even some random character who is an enemy or already married or whatever! But at least some people should ship the couple who actually is together, right?! 

  So basically... Both the love interests were too similar. And people just love vampire, so they vote team vampire. Even though in reality, the reality that I failed to write good, team vampire only likes Bree because he's selfish! Not because he loves her or has her best interests at heart. 

  Yet another reason why I think Bree shouldn't have much of a choice... Not only because any intelligent guy shouldn't waste his time with a girl who can't choose who she likes, and makes no attempt at hiding it, but because there's no way she can be happy with vampire dude!!

  So now I have to make that character clearer, until there's not much of a way that Sabrina or anyone else could like him... 

7. Ages. And Ages of Ages Editing. 

  Yeah, I'm a writer, not a mathematician... But even I should be able to get these ages right! If Jamie's born in the 1800's and it's around 2010, why on earth would he be 254? And how does this complicated parents thing that I arranged to make things more awkward for him work? That's totally off... Gees! Too bad! Oh, and Bree's "younger" brother was the same age as her too... Not twins. And she's twenty, why on earth would it be 75 years until she's 100?!
  I hate math, but it's necessary... Very necessary.  Because someday I'm gonna have someone asking what the heck, and I'll have no excuse except, "I'm lazy! Woo Hoo!!"
  At least that's easy enough to fix, once I get it all figured out!

8. So... What's The Point of ALL THIS?! 

  Oh, I don't know... What is the point of the story? Is it the romance, or the family issues, or escaping the vampires? I don't know, and whichever it is, it sure didn't get tied up at the end! We're all just left hanging, and there's no book 2 in sight... 

  I seriously, still do not know what the point of the book is. What's the main thing to be accomplished and learned? Or is this a bunch of random subplots that nobody will ever know how they end? 

  I feel awful for all I put those poor characters through, and there isn't even a valid reason... Wow. Great job me. 

  My first order of business is to create a point to the story. Which I already have a pretty good idea what it is, thanks again, to Jamie... But I'm not going to tell you, so you'll still have to read the book. 

9. Title. 

  That title... That sucked almost as much as my main character! The Bad Ones.  Not only did that not describe the book, but it also was a cliche in a different genre that I do not, under any circumstances, want to be associated with!! 

  Thankfully, I realized that and changed the title. Now it's The Parasites That Live in The Cracks. That title accurately describes multiple aspects of the book, as well as being much more unique! 

  Moral of that story: Do your research. And think. 

That's all for now... I have work to do, which if it wasn't obvious by now, I've been procrastinating been writing about it instead of doing it! 

How to Write Emotions That You Don't Feel

  When you're writing, chances are good that at some point you're going to have to write an emotion that either you don't know or don't currently feel. Never been in love? Me neither, and writing the romance that's in my books isn't easy! You're angry and sad, but your character is exuding happiness? If you're like I used to be, then that happy character has a major disappointment coming there way in about 2 seconds...
  That, aside from being unfair to your character, makes for a bit on a confusing roller-coaster of random events and emotions. Not great writing!
  Here are some ways you can fix this, and write any emotion that you need to accurately: 

1. Skip! 

  If you have a story outline, or even an accurate idea of what comes next, then you can skip around a little bit. I do this a lot! If I have to write a scene with negative emotions and I'm happy, I usually don't want to use tip 2, so I just skip ahead to a happy scene! 

  There's nothing wrong with skipping, although it doesn't work for everyone. Sometimes it does create a bit of smoothing out during the editing phase, but I personally think that writing accurate, believable emotions is more important than a little extra work later on! 

2. Kill Your Mood

  That's right... Kill it! How we gonna do this? Guillotine?  Bullet? Whatever makes you happy. Or sad. Or whatever emotion you're trying to write.
  Basically, make yourself feel how your character is feeling. That isn't always going to be fun, because we writers can be sadistic and mean! But it's important.
  How you do this is different for everyone. For me, I just imagine that it's me in that situation and how do I feel? (I usually over dramatize it so I really get into the mood!) And how well does this work? Sometimes, like the time Jamie thought Sabrina had died, I got myself so panicked and sad that I felt physically light headed and nauseous to the point that I had to stop writing. But that scene is amazingly realistic!!
  If that doesn't work for you, here are some other ideas to try:

• Making playlists of music that make you feel a certain way
• Watching videos/reading stories that make you feel a certain way
• Writing about how that feels, every. Single. Detail. 
• Play the scene like a movie in your mind
• Think about similar things that have happened in your life (Or at least things that would get a similar emotion!) 

3. Steal The Emotions! 

  Is there a book or movie that has someone similar to your character in a similar situation? Great! You're going to do a little low key plagiarism... No, just kidding. Just because we can legally murder, abuse, and kidnap people doesn't mean that it's okay to do that. 

  But get some ideas... If you have a character who's similar to Katniss from The Hunger Games (Personality-wise) and she hears some really bad news, take a look at various scenes where Katniss hears bad news and analyze what she does and what goes on in her mind. Now use that information to describe how your own character thinks and feels about this! 

Pro Tip #1: Don't copy word for word, or make it too similar, because not only is that plagiarism but it'll obviously be a different writing style, which will make your writing worse! It should all be obviously yours! 

Pro Tip #2: Make a quick check that your character isn't too similar to the one you're using for research. Readers pick up on a lot of things, especially things like two characters from different books sounding like the same person! 

4. But How About Emotions That I Don't Know!!???? 

  Emotions that you don't know can be pretty difficult... Like, especially kissing if you've never kissed anyone. How is smashing your face against someone's mouth and like... Yeah. How is that anything but disgusting?  More importantly, why is it such a big deal??
  Okay, I got a little sidetracked there... But here's what you can do!
  Firstly, research! Read books about people who feel that way, there's a book with any emotion or anything you could imagine... Read and learn! Or if it's mental problems, look it up! There are articles and videos about the symptoms of each, and what it feels like!
  Second, you can use the tips above! I have no idea what it feels like to turn into a werewolf or have a vampire drink my blood, but I've written all about those things! All because I thought about how that would feel! (I could tell you every detail of the process; sights, sounds, thoughts, feelings, everything!)
  What if your character is like the polar opposite of you? Here's what you can do... I'll use the vampire example. Obviously, everyone would be afraid (Unless you're some immortal demi-god who could kill the vampire in a single blow or something), so use fear as your starting emotion. Now, how does your character react to fear? Some people get really angry when their afraid, like parents after they find out you did something stupid and dangerous! Or maybe your character has experience with fear and is so used to masking it that they start cracking jokes or something! Just take the base emotion of any situation, and ask yourself how that character reacts to that emotion.


  I hope you found these tips helpful! Come back soon for more writing tips, or leave a comment with any questions or posts you want to see!
(Here's an exercise: Imagine you're a writer who just started a blog, and after weeks of thinking that it's an island with no people visiting... You get a comment and follower!)

How to Get Writing Time In With School. And Work. And Daily Human Being Functioning.

  "I didn't have time" is a common excuse for a reason! It's not about being lazy, or not liking writing enough, life happens...
 But that isn't the end of the line! There are things you can do when life seems way too busy, that don't include staying up half the night or compromising your grades.
  Here are 5 things you can do to help get daily writing time in, even with school, work, insane amounts of doctors visits, a zombie apocalypse, or any other not so natural disaster that might happen...

1. Map Out Your Time

  Make a blank schedule with each part of the day that you're awake in half-hour sections, and as you go through the day just write down what you do... Then at the end of the day, or the next day, or whenever you can sit down and think, look back at what you did. 

  Some things, like school or eating or breathing, you can't really do that much about (Unless you happen to spend two hours on dinner or something), but other things, like watching TV or YouTube, browsing social media, and texting your friends could be sacrificed. You heard me right; tie 'em up, stick 'em in a bonfire, and pray to the almighty writing gods while ignoring the screams and explosions! 

  No, just kidding, you can't really write in prison so that won't work...  Instead, just take some of the time you use for those things and write instead! It doesn't have to be all the time, even just half an hour is good progress! But chances are, writing a page of your book is going to be more helpful that knowing which celebrity dissed who this week... (What do you even do with that information?? Really, I want to know, please tell me!!) 

2. Don't Write. 

  That sounds like the world's worst tip, doesn't it? Well just hang on a second! I can explain... 

  Some days you just don't have the time. You have a big test, big doctor issues, vampires are stalking around just waiting for the sun to go down... Things happen! 

  But what you CAN do on those days is think about writing. It's been scientifically proven that thinking about doing something can make you better at it, not to mention that you can get to know you're characters or world really good by thinking about them! Not all of writing happens on paper, it starts in your head, evolves in your head, it literally all happens in your head expect the part where you translate your neurons firing at each other to comprehensible words you can share without telepathy. So think! Think about anything in your book; characters, the world, plot holes, individual scenes, backstory, or (My favorite!) totally unrelated scenes with your characters involved that let's you get to know them better! (Is it obvious that I'm in the character development/obsession stage?)

3. Writing Club

  Join a writing club; online or at your school! Having fellow writers around with the same issues as you can be very motivating, not to mention when writing block sets in!
  Anyway, since a club at school is time out of your day dedicated to writing, talking about writing, or planning your writing, it's perfect! Even though writing doesn't seem like a social thing, there are plenty of things to talk about relating to writing and having a critique group is awesome!
  If there isn't a writing club you can join... Make one! Or, if you're like me, spend eternity trying to make yourself do it until someone else has the idea! (Don't do that; it's counterproductive!)
 

4. Give Yourself Permission To Write the Most Horrible Thing on Planet Mars   

  A big factor in the fact that aspiring writers don't write is because they want it to be perfect... Well you know what? It's not gonna be perfect. Even professional, millionaire writers don't write perfect. They edit a lot.  

  So accept the fact that it isn't going to be perfect, stop procrastinating, and get words down! Take all that incomprehensible, glittery sludge from your head, throw it onto a piece of paper, and start drawing the pictures you see in your head with it! (That's really I think about when I write, because that's exactly what my first drafts look like... Mixed and messed gunk, full of glitter because it's shiny enough to be worth looking at, and then rearrange until the shiny is on top and you'd never know how much slime I got rid of!) 

  I've found that the more I feel like my writing isn't good enough, the less I write, and the more totally necessary things like checking school discussion boards for the tenth time today I do... 

  Just do the thing! Because editing a blank page is hard, and extremely boring! 

5. Multitask

  Don't multitask with important things, but you can do more than one thing at once! Riding to school on the bus? Write too! Sitting at lunch while your friends talk about something you have no interest in? Write! Your math teacher droning on and on AGAIN? Listen to him! You won't fail that way!
  Anyway, there are plenty of things that you can write while doing. Mostly things you're obligated to do but really only to get on to the next thing. You shouldn't write during family dinner, that's rude, but if everyone's watching that TV show that your brother loves and has only seen every day for the last two years, go ahead and write...
 
That's what you can do if you don't have time to write. Take it all with a grain of salt, because salt tastes bad enough that it'll stop your mind from floating too far out of the real world!