Angela Ackerman over at the Bookshelf Muse is talking about Bravery as a Character Trait.

At The Write Practice.com, Danielle Duvick gives us 3 Reasons to Write a Stream of Consciousness Narrative to help you get into the head of your character and find out who she is.

And at Go Teen Writers, guest blogger Cara Putman shared 3 Steps to Creating an Occupation for Your Characters. This is a fun post to get you thinking of a job that will really add to your character and make them engaging and deeper. 

Have any questions? Leave a comment here or on the Go Teen Writer blog.

Me learning to shoot a rifle

I wrote a four-part series over at Go Teen Writers on how to write fight scenes and battles. Here are the links:

My first post, Writing the Action/Fight Scene, talks about three things you need to know before writing out your fight scene.

In Editing the Action Scene: Seven Ways to Make it Stronger I  talk about believability, research, cliches, dialogue, pacing, and what happens after the fight.

In The Wizards Duel I talk about what makes magical battles different from other fight scenes.

And in The Great War I discuss how to tackle writing out a major war in your novel. 

Have any questions? Leave a comment here or on the Go Teen Writer blog.

Stina Lindenblatt over at QueryTracker is talking about Being Subtle With Subtext. This is a great post to get you thinking about adding hidden meaning to your writing.

What Lie Does your Character Believe? –On the Go Teen Writers blog, Stephanie Morrill challenges you to think about what lies your character believes about himself or the world that motivates his actions.

Margaret Brownley is sharing her secrets for What’s So Funny? in her post on the ACFW blog about how to lighten up your story and get your readers to laugh. 

And over at the Steve Laube Agency Blog, Tamela Hancock Murray is taking about choosing names for characters. In her post, Any Name Will Do, she offers up some great ideas for finding the perfect name.

Keep on writing!

Here is my character inspiration for Captives, the dystopian novel I’m writing for Zonderkidz. I sometimes have the tendency to pick famous people who pop into my head and are easy to find pictures for. Sometimes I spend a lot of time on iStockPhoto or Shutterstock looking for characters. FYI, you don’t have to pay for images you print out and look at in your home. You only have to pay for images you are going to put on a product and sell. You also have to be careful putting images on your blog.

So what do you think of my character board? You can click on it to see a larger image and zoom in.

I try to find a few pictures of each main character with different expressions. Have you ever made a character board?

What I Didn’t Know–and what You Should–Before Querying Literary Agents –This is an older post from author Stephanie Morrill, but it’s a great bit of information to think about.

How to Negotiate a Book Contract, Part 1 –Don’t have an agent? Veteran literary agent Chip MacGregor gives his thoughts on how to negotiate your own book contract. 

How Does a Publishing Auction Work –A publishing auction is every author’s dream. Agent Rachelle Gardner gets to the bottom of this mystery.More on How to Negotiate a Book Contract… –And Chip had so much great advice to offer, he blogged on this topic a second day.

I’m on vacation right now, but when I get back, I’ll start blogging again.

Click on the image to see a bigger version that you can zoom in on.

How about you? Post a picture of your desk and tag me in the comments. 

Interview your character

Character Questions: How To Dig Deep –Over at Romance University, author Lynne Marshall talks about how to deepen characters by asking them questions. 

Know Your Competition –Serious authors need to know about their industry. And part of that is knowing what books are for sale in your genre. Literary agent Rachelle Gardner give some great tips for how to write that “Competitive Titles” section of your book proposal.

Babe Ruth and Bad Books –Stephanie Morrill is talking about conquering writing fears.

The Secrets of Story Structure –K.M. Weiland talks about why authors should care about story structure.

And don’t forget! Teen Critique Groups are Being Formed at NextGenWriters! Deadline to sign up is March 15, 2012.

Looking for a writer’s critique group designed for teen writers? Go Teen Writers, Teenage Authors, Choices (nicoleodell.com), and NextGenWriters.com join forces to build and encourage writers under twenty. Click here to register now for the small groups designed to hone, encourage, and critique your stories. Registration closes March 15, so don’t delay. In the meantime, make sure to read Nicole O’Dell’s critique sandwich (great how-to tips) on NextGenWriters.com. Got a question, leave a comment and ask me. Looking forward to this!

Roselynne,

If you format your manuscript with 1″ margins all around and use 12-point font, double spaced, it’s generally about the same as a novel. So a 300 page manuscript will be roughly a 300-page book.  

According to SCWBI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators), early readers should be about 20 pages (5,000 words) and chapter books should be from 40-60 pages (10-15,000 words). And most middle grade novels are in the 20,000 to 40,000 range.  The Magic Treehouse books are about 5,000 to 12,000 words, depending on which one you pick up. 

Also, around 80,000 words is about a 300-page novel. That’s a good target length if you are writing YA novels or adult novels. Replication: The Jason Experiment is 85, 214 words long and the final book is 294 pages.

I thought some of you might find this tool helpful. Be sure to check out Michael’s website at: http://www.storymastery.com/.

TITLE is a GENRE about HERO, a ROLE, who EMPATHY/SET UP. When HERO is OPPORTUNITY, s/he decides to NEW SITUATION/PRELIMINARY GOAL. But when CHANGE OF PLANS, s/he now must OUTER MOTIVATION/PRIMARY GOAL by HERO’s PLAN as well as SECOND GOAL in spite of the fact that OUTER CONFLICT.

My example:

By Darkness Hid is an medieval fantasy story, about Achan, a stray boy, who is about to become a man, who lives under the ale casks in the cellar of the kitchens of Sitna Manor because he is owned by Lord Nathak and was raised by Poril, the cook.

When Achan is offered the opportunity to train to be a squire, even though it’s against the law for strays, he decides to train anyway, in hopes of becoming worthy of Gren, the peasant girl he loves. But when Lord Nathak discovers Achan’s training and forces Achan to squire for Prince Gidon, and the prince tries to take Gren for himself, Achan now must help Gren marry another and keep her life safe by pledging to serve the evil prince for life, as well as give up his dreams of freedom, in spite of the fact that he is now hearing voices in his head.

Now you try it:

______________ is a ________________ about __________, a ________________, who ________________________. When ____________ is ___________________, s/he decides to ____________________. But when  _______________________, s/he now must ________________________________ by ______________    as well as ____________________ in spite of the fact that _______________________.

How did it work? Is this something you might find useful in the future? Leave a comment and let me know what you think.