Glee. Just…Glee. I’ve posted in the past about watching great shows to improve your writing (and because they’re awesome and we love good stories). I’ve been a fairly long-standing fan of Ryan Murphy (and later Brad Falchuk). The Shield, Nip/Tuck, American Horror Story. Good shows. Great characters.

But, Glee. I’ve watched it on Netflix and my becoming enamored with it started one boring, cold Saturday morning. I turned it on. I gasped. I laughed. I called to my teenage daughter to get in there because I was watching the best television show I’d ever seen and she had to see it.

I’ve fallen in love with the characters because they’re so not perfect. They make mistakes, they’re human and flawed. But they’re real and they grow, so I care about them. And, I think I’ve learned from this show, antagonist or protagonist, what matters is to make your characters realistic, to have strengths and flaws, to make them stretch and grow into more than they were when they began.

Aside from being a writer, from the perspective of being someone who messes up and deals with the fact that sometimes life sucks, from the perspective of a parent of a child who has been bullied and is a minority, I love that this show is about loving the “loser” that we all are. I don’t know who coined the phrase “let your freak flag fly,” but I live by it and I wish that in finding the things about ourselves that make us unique and special (and unicorns), we’d learn to embrace those things in other people.

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I wrote a short Christmas story and it’s being hosted over @ Passionate Critters as part of their 12 Days of Christmas. Please go read and give me some comment luv!

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Happy turkey-Christmas-Solstice, whatever you celebrate during this time of year.

I’ll be back in 2012.

Except I have a surprise on the 19th. Naturally, I’ll be back to let you all in on that. Until then, merry holiday!

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As mentioned on many occasions, I have become a full on convert to the digital reading experience. However, I still enjoy the occasional magazine (I got suckered into a year’s subscription when my kid was fundraising so she could have a fifty cent toy).

So, I’m scanning through the magazine, and I see this ad.

And so many thoughts occur to me. I will share.

• She has Oscar Mayer food, including Jello, in her purse. Sometimes, I throw my lunch in my purse for the ten minute drive to the office. I get how this could happen. But… there’s no context here. Just… Jewel likes Oscar Mayer so much, she carries it in her purse.
• There’s makeup and guitar picks (which I totally get–I’m a writer. Good luck catching me without a pen and something to write on.). But… seashells? Seashells. Really?

• There’s a picture of her and her husband in there. Aw. And peaking out of the very top is a tube of Butt Paste. No, you guys. It’s for babies. But, there’s absolutely nothing else in her entire purse to indicate she has children. So I look some more. Hair stuff, mix CDs, a pen, makeup. No, no kid stuff.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m so not above carrying Butt Paste in my purse. But it’s not top of the list. I’d probably have some toys in there, a snack (for my kids, not this Oscar Mayer fancy Triscuit and Jello mousse crap), some wipes. What mother doesn’t carry wipes? I just… don’t buy it. Either she has a diaper bag and the Butt Paste was thrown in there for effect or she is the most ill prepared parent in the history of ever. What the hell, Jewel?

In closing, I can only say this: Don’t show me what’s in your purse–I will judge you.

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The Museum of Idiosyncrasy is a Tumblr blog about sexytimes and romance. I once told @EroticClara that her site was like poetry in images to me.

If you’re under 18 or easily offended, you absolutely should not check out this site; otherwise, go there and see for yourself.

I go there to get inspiration when I need to write sexy scenes. Every image, to me, tells a story. It evokes a feeling. Every quote speaks truthfully. And, I love it.

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We all know (or should) that I love me some Lani Diane Rich (@lanidianerich on Twitter). I read her book, Ex and the Single Girl, a couple of years ago, and mentioned how much I loved it in another A Glance At post. Personally, I admire her, I’d love to take one of her Storywonk classes, I listen to Storywonk podcasts on the way to work. Kinda. Love. Her.

But, whatever. It doesn’t negate the very awesomeness of this book. So, like the other glances (which,  you know, isn’t an in-depth look), I’m just going to go into what I loved about this book. But, first! The blurb:

 When Tucson Today segment producer Carly McKay visits the quirky artist’s community of Bilby, Arizona, to do a story on a psychic quiltmaker, she receives an odd reading… and her life falls apart in eerie harmony with what the quilt foretold. Her best friend professes his undying love; her show gets canceled; and the mother who disappeared seventeen years ago appears on their doorstep, getting instant forgiveness from the entire family… except Carly.

Carly rushes off to Bilby to return the cursed quilt, and then surprises herself; she stays. She rents a cabin, gets a job, and meets an artist who shows her new ways to look at life, and love. Can she run away and start a new life, or should she go back and stitch her old one back together?

And why is it so hard to get a straight answer from a psychic, anyway?

The best thing about this book (and this book has a lot going for it) are the characters. You’ve got a psychic quiltmaker. And her ex-husband, who is now the owner of the art supply shop in town. And a woman. An adorable beta artist as love interest. Sisters who are all so individual. A mom who disappeared 17 years ago and suddenly comes home. There is a big cast. And they all contribute. And they’re all real, complex, fully-formed. And yet, they don’t overpower the story.

And, at it’s core, it feels good. There are messages about accepting oneself and forgiveness that are very personal and moving (mostly because you come to care so much for these people. Um, characters.).

It’s one of those books you’re satisfied in a deep way when you put it down and yet a little sad to leave that world. And that, my friends, is kinda the point of storytelling.

Buy it: The Fortune Quilt

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He wasn’t broken. He was a good dog. Well, no, it’s okay. He’s still a good dog.

What I mean is, he is a sweet dog. He always came home. He was never aggressive. He never peed on anything in the house. In fact, I think he’d let his bladder burst first. (Ew, I know). He never tried to get intimate with anyone’s legs.

But, I got a girl dog. And she matured sooner than expected. And hadn’t been fixed. So, I decided to “fix” them both. Him, first. Her, in a month or so. When she’s not still maturing all over the place.

I drive the dog to the vet. It’s an hour away, but takes like an hour and forty-five minutes since I go slow so as not to alarm him. I talked to him the whole way. And not like, “Yes, well, this is going to be a lovely morning, I believe.” No, it was things like:

• “I promise, after this, we’re going to treat you like a king. Totally.”
• “Just think, things are going to be better after this. Well, not immediately after this. This is going to suck. But, this is like the first step in things being better. Just think of it that way.”

And let me reiterate: he’s a dog. He has no idea what I’m saying. Likely, my voice was comforting. But, really? He doesn’t care if it’s the first step. He cares that those people at the place with all the cool smells castrated him. And he’s sore. Actually, I’ve read that dogs live in the now, so he probably doesn’t even remember he used to be… more masculine. Down there. He just knows it doesn’t feel good. Probably.

Boy, am I losing the trail of this story.

The point is, he’s fixed. And I’m the crazy dog lady.

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One of THE best writing articles I’ve ever read:

Simply put, in every social interaction, one person has (or attempts to have) more of a dominant role. Those in authority or those who want to exert authority use a collection of verbal and nonverbal cues to gain and maintain higher status. But it’s not just authority figures who do this. In daily life all of us are constantly adjusting and negotiating the amount of status we portray as we face different situations and interact with different people.

Novelists have the daunting task of showing this dynamic of shifting submission and dominance through dialogue, posture, pauses, communication patterns, body language, action and inner dialogue.

How to Raise Your Characters Above the Status Quo | WritersDigest.com.

Just… go read it. Print it out. Tape it to your wall.  It’s that good.

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And I’m not going to review it. Because far better and more knowledgeable than me have already done so.  I will, however, share my condensed experience.

My Boss: Read this.  It’s good.

Me: Okay, cool.

Two days later,

Me: That first book is incredible. I can’t put it down.

My Boss: When you get to the end you’re going to be really annoyed.

Me, in my head, because he’s my boss: Then why did you tell me to read it?

Later the next day:

Me: You can have your books back.

My Boss: You didn’t like it?

Me: I bought them for my Kindle, because I know I’ll enjoy them more that way… I realize I’m a sick person.

Two days later, in the middle of Catching Fire:

Spoilers Below

I storm into his office at lunch.

Me: What is wrong with you? First it’s all, “Oh, Peeta, Oh, Gale.”  That was bad enough.  But now?  They’re sending them back into the Games?  Do you know I read romance novels?  What were you thinking?

My Boss: What did you think about the conversation where Haymitch explains everything?

Me: Are you even listening to me?  I’m not that far yet.  But, thanks!

And the ending?

Me: It wasn’t as bad as you said.

My Boss: You didn’t hate that her sister died?

Me: No, there’s symmetry in that.  And it was foreshadowed. I could totally buy that.  I hate that she didn’t kill Snow after promising every person he ever screwed with. But, it was okay.  It’s difficult to end books that are that full and strong.

My Boss: I thought it was messed up.

Me: I might’ve felt differently if someone hadn’t warned me I’d hate the end so I spent the entire time trying to guess what could happen that I would hate. I could be wrong.

*My boss is actually superdiliawesome. I may have exaggerated his cluenessness for the sake of amusement.  Yours and mine.

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Alicia Rasley (blog) is a wildly talented writer and teacher who should get more recognition than she does. I bought her e-book in PDF, Discovering the Story Within, before people were even reading e-books. (My only complaint: it’s full of awesome worksheets, but the PDF is protected against copying, pasting, highlighting–anything you right-click to do, so printing is difficult.)

Plotting

But, for today, and for GMC month, I’d like to point you to an article she did on her site called Plotting Without Fears.

In this article she tells you the quick and dirty way to plot a story. Find your one-sentence idea, your theme,  and your hero. Then, she shows you how to figure out what questions your story will answer and the goals and conflicts.  Finally, taking that information, she shows you how to use structure to form a plot.

There’s a lot of vital information packed in this article.

Motivation

This article, also by Alicia, on motivation is made up of three parts to help you get GMC right.  First, knowing the difference between your (the author’s) goal and your character’s goal. This is a crucial distinction.  Nothing should ever happen in a story because you need it to happen; rather, it should happen organically from the character’s goals, motivation, and because of conflict with the antagonist.

Second, she says motivation should pro-active:

Pro-active: Motivating movement TOWARDS something. Success is a pro-active motivation because it draws the character forward towards itself.

Reactive: Motivating movement AWAY from something. Guilt is a reactive motivation because it propels the person away from itself.

Finally, she urges us to know the difference between external and internal motivation.  To help you understand the difference, she says:

External motivations tend to be more or less universal. Internal motivations are what will individualize your character. Most of us want success; the question is why? Your internal motivation for wanting success (to win the love of your father) might be different from mine (to get revenge against those who scorned me).

Then, she includes a fantastic list of some external and internal motivations that are worth the click there, just by themselves.

She concludes by distinguishing between story and backstory,  goal and motivation, motivation and action.

Motivation is the past.
Goal is the future.
Conflict is the present.

I urge anyone who writes, whether they’re just starting out or have been doing it for years, to explore the wonderful articles on her site.

Photo by Patrick Hajzler used with permission. Find Patrick on stock.xchng.

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