Should authors produce similar content?

This was one of my problems when I first published an adult novel and then switched to Young Adult.

Branding

Should authors produce the same kinds of stories? Personally I loved reading Maria V Snyder’s Poison Study series and then the Healer series and finding them both basically the same kind of story, with the same type of heroine, love interest, and even a pair of allies who treated the heroine like a sister.

The same with David Gemmell’s heroic fantasy novels – mostly starring loner former heroes past their prime (Druss, Waylander, Jon Shannow) or young outcasts (Skilgannon, Gaelen) with a token warrior woman who will still need rescuing, often with some kind of man-beast hybrid that would have to be murdered eventually. I could pick up any Gemmell book and know exactly what I would be getting. There is always a quiet swordsman, a brute, and an archer in the team novels.

John Green writes manic pixie dream girls and boys as love interests.

Rick Riordan writes about descendants of mythological gods.

Cassandra Clare writes thinly veiled Harry Potter fanfiction.

Richelle Mead writes YA heroines who are smart and sassy and go-getters.

Stephanie Meyer specialises in weird love triangles.

Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

Personally I like being able to say, “I feel exactly like a David Gemmell novel” and being able to pick up one that hits all the right buttons.

My own writing

Both of my full-length novels are wildly different.

Adult vs teen protagonist.
POC vs white ‘goth’ girl
Sci-fi vs paranormal.
Established relationship vs new love interest.
Deep space vs suburbia.
Limited characters vs larger cast.

But there are certain similarities:

Strong/powerful female lead
Diverse cast
Feminist slant on the storyline
Both heroines overcome their own issues and are the agents of their own stories
BUT both heroines need the help of their friends/allies to do so
Both characters’ actions propel the storyline forward.
I like to think of them as both active heroines, not passive.

That is what I’m aiming for in my ‘branding’.

In all of the stories I write, I want those similarities to be there. I want someone to be able to identify a Lissa Bilyk novel and be able to say, “Yes, I recognise those elements from her other novels” even though I’m writing in different genres with different plots and different characters.

I want my books to be different but familiar.

Write What You Know: Knowing More Than You Put On The Page

As a writer, I feel the need to really know my characters, their situations, their props and settings.

For The Edge of Darkness, that wasn’t so hard. It was largely a made-up world, set in deep space on a spaceship and the weapons used were also made up.

Internet-Based Research

I did some research on amputees and prosthetics to try to get a feel for what Max might be feeling as a cyborg with a robotic arm. I researched what kind of food could theoretically be grown on a spaceship. I researched some other science-y things. But when I wrote the story, I probably knew a lot more than I was putting in to the book.

With Winter Witch, one of my characters wears a monocle. I had no idea how monocles stayed put, so I did some research to better understand my character. I found out how someone inserts and wears a monocle, and I felt like I had a strong grasp on the eyepiece and I wrote it into the book.

When I mentioned the research to friends, another author piped up that she was interested in how people wore monocles. I was surprised, because I was sure I’d read one of her characters in one of her books I’d read actually did wear a monocle. I was surprised because this author didn’t know how her character wore a monocle and she clearly hadn’t done the research into finding it out. Maybe she didn’t care. Maybe it wasn’t important. The character wore a monocle and that’s all we needed to know.

Write what you know.

“Write what you know” is probably one of the most repeated pieces of writing advice out there. And it’s true, you should write about what you know. But you can always expand upon what you know by research.

As for me? I didn’t feel comfortable writing about a character who wore a monocle until I knew exactly how a monocle worked. I think it’s an issue with my perfectionism that I needed to research something so foreign to me. But I didn’t want to make some basic mistake that a monocle-wearing fan might point out in the book.

My character doesn’t even take his monocle off or put it back on, so I’m not quite sure why it was so important to me to know these things. Maybe for future reference? I’m sure I only mention the monocle in passing.

The research I did certainly wasn’t earth-shattering, but as a writer I felt like I needed to know more than I was putting on the page.

I think that’s why we’re told to write what we know.

Beautiful People May 2016

Beautiful People is a linkup hosted by Cait @ Paper Fury and Sky @ Further Up and Further In.

It’s aimed at writers so we can answer the questions about our characters and our books. It’s designed to help you get to know your book better! (And also give your followers a sneak peek of your works-in-progresses.)

Beautiful People

I’ve decided to take part in Beautiful People this month because a) I just finished the first draft of my newest WIP, in April’s Camp NaNoWriMo after not writing anything in 2015 due to personal issues, and b) I realised I used to be quite involved in the writing community a few years ago but I seem to have lost contact with everyone. I’d love to make some new friends and find like-minded people to help encourage and console.

The Book

My WIP is called Winter Witch and it’s ‘Frozen meets Throne of Glass’. It’s about a young woman called Tally who has the ‘cursed’ power of causing instant death by touch, but who can also secretly bring the dead back to life, and as a valuable magician she is forced to become the Crown Prince’s bodyguard of sorts. But people are being murdered in the palace and everyone thinks Tally is to blame, because prejudice.

The Questions

1. How often do they smile? Would they smile at a stranger?

Tally’s not really the smiling sort, I don’t think. She smiles gratefully at people who understand her, because she’s terribly misunderstood and suffers from a lot of prejudice. I don’t think she would smile at a stranger unless that stranger was a child who was unafraid of her.

2. What is the cruelest thing they’ve ever been told? And what was their reaction?

That she’s a monster, and she ran away. This is after accidentally bringing her dead grandmother back to life as a child. The whole village tried to murder her so she had to leave.

3. What is the kindest thing they’ve ever been told? And what was their reaction?

“You don’t have to pretend to be strong with me, Tally.”

Prince Ford said this to her just after she’d nearly died saving his life.

4. What is one strong memory that has stuck with your character from childhood? Why is it so powerful and lasting?

Because of Tally’s power, when she was young it was untrained and uncontrollable. The first village she was living in turned against her when she accidentally brought her dead grandmother back to life, and tried to bury her alive by throwing her down a well and trying to cover her with earth. She escaped, but the memory of being buried alive rises up when she is caught by the snare poles the military use to capture and control winter witches without them being able to touch their captors (you know, like dog catchers use on dangerous dogs), and whenever something tightens around Tally’s neck, like a rope, or a snare collar, or even a necklace, she can taste the earth of being buried alive and her stomach rebels and makes her throw up. It’s a very powerful memory that affects her physically, and it’s something that makes Prince Ford take pity on her when they first meet.

5. What book (a real actual published book!) do you think your character would benefit from reading?

The Hunger Games. I think she’d like Katniss and the book would help her to understand ruthlessness and survival and compassion.

6. Have they ever been seriously injured? How severely? How did they react?

In the WIP her throat is cut and she bleeds almost to death, but a summer witch heals her just in time. Her reaction is to take a bath and go to bed. She’s practical like that.

7. Do they like and get along with their neighbours?

No. The other people who live in the palace are suspicious of her, and she keeps her distance.

8. On a scale from 1 to 10 (1 being easy and 10 being difficult) how easy are they to get along with?

Tally’s standoffish and doesn’t trust easily due to a history of people turning against her. On the other hand, once she’s decided to trust you she’s fiercely loyal. So I’d give her about a 5.

9. If they could travel anywhere in the world, where would they go?

Far south to try to find more winter witches that haven’t been forced to fight the king’s war.

10. Who was the last person they held hands with?

Prince Ford, but I can’t give the context because it’s a massive spoiler.

Camp NaNoWriMo April 2016 – We Have A Winner!

win

Technically we have a winner.

My aim was to finish the novel I started in NaNoWriMo November 2014.

I didn’t know how many words I would need to finish it and I wasn’t 100% sure of where it would actually end, but I estimated I might have needed around 20,000 words.

I couldn’t change that goal once people started verifying, so I had to grab a chunk I’d written previously to help me verify.

I ended up needing only 13,595 to finish this first draft. It should go without saying that more words will be added, changed, and culled in the editing process.

It wasn’t easy for me to slip back into writing every day and there was about a week and a half I simply didn’t feel like writing and wanted to just veg out after work and hang out with my husband. I suspect this is because the closer I got to the end of the book, the more I rebelled against finishing it. Once I recognised this, I put my butt in my chair and tried to think up some more exciting scenes to get me to the ending.

The ending actually came at a bit of a surprise. I thought I would write one more scene, but the one I was writing at the time felt like the right place to end – and also, the scene I wanted to write next would make a better opening for Book #2.

It also changes how I was going to approach Book #2, because something pretty major happened that I wasn’t planning on happening this early. It’s changed a large amount of what I had planned for Book #2, so I’m actually kind of excited (and dreading) writing the next one!

I feel good about this book. There’s a lot of work to be done and one major plot hole I need to fix, but I feel good where it’s ended, and I know I have issues with endings.

I may not have achieved my goal of 20K words, but that was only an estimate. The goal was to get writing again and finish the book I’d started and wanted to finish.

Achievement unlocked. CNW_Winner_200

Is Perfectionism Holding You Back?

perfectionism

Recently I’ve come to realise that my perfectionism is holding me back when it comes to delivering complete manuscripts.

I’m afraid that once I finish it, that’s it. And it’s true, that is it. Except for editing.

But you know, it’s always better in my head. So I don’t want to finish. And my excuse for not publishing anything is that it’s not finished.

It’s a no-win situation.

I don’t know why I feel like this. I’ve published two books and two short story collections. I know how to do this. I’ve had good reviews and bad reviews. I’ve had campaigns organised designed to drive me off the internet. I’ve retreated from any author communities and basically just stay by myself.

My plan this year was to write three complete novels using the Camp NaNoWriMo and November NaNoWriMo to give me the encouragement I needed, but that plan’s gone out the window.

Since I haven’t written anything in over a year now, I’m afraid I simply won’t have the juice to get going. Like an abandoned car whose engine won’t tick over.

So I’m going to tackle this perfectionism/procrastination issue by finishing my 2014 NaNo novel and another novella I’ve had sitting around waiting for me to just finish it.

I know how both of them end, so it should be easy, but a part of me doesn’t want to finish either project. I’m dreading locking myself away for hours on end in my office to write.

This is probably why I could never write anything to deadline. Or maybe a deadline would help. Who knows?

So it boils down to:

Can I still write?
Can I face hours of loneliness writing by myself?
Can I finish those manuscripts?

Ah, the life of a full-time employed self-published author. We’re good at beating ourselves up.