What makes them tick?

What makes them unique?

What tools does the writer use to draw us into this character’s world?

Every character is different, of course, and some don’t reach us the way others might. Sometimes the lesson is in what DOESN’T work, but with Odd Thomas (at least for me) it’s all about what does work. His charm. His morality. His sense of self - and his own fallibility. His understanding of grace and how it comes to us. And, of course, his sense of humor. If you’ve never read these books, check them out. And pay attention. When we aren’t learning, we’re just wasting time.

 Write More! Write Now!

J

I.Planning the Story

a.Inspiration vs. Perspiration

i. Take a look at what Gene had to say on The Authorized Version

b. Prep: Research, Character Profiles, etc.

c.Never Stop Learning

i. The First Five Pages

ii. Between The Lines

iii. How Not To Write A Novel

II. What Are You Waiting For? Write!!

a. All the planning in the world won’t get that first page written

b. Don’t let your editor brain stifle your writer brain

c. One you start – don’t stop!

III. Writing the story just isn’t enough.

a.Crafting a story takes time

b.Ask yourself the tough questions

c. Read your work aloud between each and every revision – and recruit your friends

Remember: Writing isn’t just a passion. It’s a craft. Like any craft, it must be studied, practiced, and respected. Ultimately your writing will be better for it.

Now that my wife and I are expecting a baby, I realize that the time I had planned to spend self-marketing will likely be nonexistent. Therefore, I’ve made the decision to spend a bit more time with my manuscript and work the traditional route to publication. I know, I know. There are no guarantees. Rejections are plentiful. The thing is, I really want to learn. I really want the experience. I’ve also decided to go back to such short stories and try to get them in good enough shape to pitch to magazines. Writing credits are never a bad thing, and it would be yet another experience under my belt. So wish me luck. I’ll need it, I’m sure. But it never hurts to try. If it doesn’t lead to publication, I can always self-publish later. For now, I choose to chase the dream.

 J.

     b.The Cost of?Disrespect

     c. Your Relationship With The Reader
IV. Close
V. End Credits - Scott Badley

Why? Because at the end of the day, good writers should always concern themselves more with quality than quantity. Don’t get me wrong, some may be blessed with the ability to do great work and do it quickly. God bless them. I, however, am NOT one of those people. I need time for the process – time to sort through the details. Time to discover just where the story is taking me.

Time is a bastard. There’s never enough when you need it, and all too much of it when you don’t. Even my work with The Write Crowd suffers from my lack of time. I don’t blog as much as I intended. I haven’t been able to put any effort into letting folks know what The Write Crowd is all about, or even about our nifty contest. Time seems to run from me faster than K-Fed runs from a shower.

I wonder how you (yes, you!) deal with the eternal war against time and all its manipulations. Is there a secret I’ve never been told? If there is, I wish someone would let me in on it. Time keeps kicking my tail, and I’m getting tired of feeling like a chump.

J

Write more. Write now.

After reading How I Got Published, a compilation of several authors and their success stories, I decided that I might send out a query letter or two. After all, I have until August to either fish or cut bait with Xlibris. That’s roughly seven months to get queries out, hear back, and (if someone wants to see more) get chapters out. If things go well, I can pull out of the Xlibris deal, get my money back and bet my chips on the literary agent. If no one sees my genius for what it is (snark!), I can still self-publish and put all my effort into promoting it. Then the next manuscript can get the full-on push to agents.

Now, you’re probably thinking that it’s ridiculous to allow only a few months to get something positive back from an agent. I agree. But this is a hail mary pass. It’s a chance, it just isn’t much of one. I could be a one in a million success story. Then again, I could get a mailbox full of rejection. The things is, I don’t really have anything to lose. If no one wants it, I can publish through Xlibris and put my heart and soul into branding myself and my characters. My book will see the light of day one way or the other. The hail mary is just a desperate hope flung toward the heavens with a prayer that it’ll find a receiver. If not, I still have another down with my running back, Xlibris.

Am I crazy? Sure. Most writers are. But the thing is - you have to take steps, put yourself out there, dare to dream that someone out there will really get what you’re trying to do, or the game will be over before it starts. I’m a writer. I know it. I believe that my work can be marketable. I really do. So I’m going to do what I can to get my work into the hands of people who can help me realize its potential. No matter which play gets me yardage, I’m keeping my eyes on the goal line. Are you? How committed are you to your passion for writing? If you aren’t willing to throw a hail mary from time to time, I dare say you aren’t committed enough.

Want to prove me wrong? Write more. Write now.

J

            I must confess that I am a long-time comic book aficionado. My knowledge of both Marvel and DC Comics characters is proof positive that I am unafraid to let my geek flag fly. In fact, my love for comics helped give birth to my passion for writing. For over twenty years, I have followed my favorite heroes through adventure after adventure.

Through it all, Spider-man was my favorite. Sure, Superman was godlike in power and Batman had all the cool gadgets. Wolverine and Punisher were awesome anti-heroes and Captain America was someone to look up to. But, for me at least, Spider-man was more real than them all. He was an average guy who, through a simple twist of fate (and the imagination of Stan “The Man” Lee,) became a hero. He was flawed and made mistakes, but he always learned from them. He became a better man and a better hero each month… right before our eyes.

About the time I started reading about Spider-man (1987), he married his on-again/off-again sweetheart, Mary Jane Watson. True, MJ was a model and, to this day, some think it is unrealistic for a nerd to get the hot girl. I disagree. I think it’s sexist and shallow to insist that a model would not marry a decent man like Peter Parker. I, myself, am blessed with a beautiful wife who, when I met her, seemed way out of my league. Most women reach a level of maturity where they realize it’s better to have the decent guy instead of the guy with the hot car and the gym membership. I’ve never found the MJ/Peter marriage to be anything less than good for both characters.

Joe Quesada, current EIC at Marvel, disagrees and has done so quite vocally over the years. To my horror and dismay, he co-wrote the latest Spider-man tale “One More Day,” which found Peter and Mary Jane making a deal with Mephisto (Marvel’s version of Hilary Clinton) to save the life of Peter’s elderly and perpetually hanging-on-by-a-thread Aunt May. To save her, all they had to do was let Mephisto wipe their marriage out of existence. Your eyes aren’t deceiving you, friend. They traded their marriage so that Peter’s octogenarian aunt could have a few more days to be victimized by whatever villain comes along. They even had MJ convince Mephisto to erase people’s memory of Peter’s recent unmasking so May would no longer be in danger. Right. Because she was never in danger BEFORE people knew Peter and Spidey were one and the same.

Don’t get me wrong. Bad writing happens all the time in comics and is no stranger to Spidey (though the majority of J. Michael Straczynski’s run has been stellar considering the editorial pressure he was under.) To intentionally make the decision to wipe away 20 years of continuity and character growth is insanely shallow and childish. It’s as though a bonged-out frat boy who can’t see his way past his zipper has been put in charge of the character development of an icon. Now Joe Q will say he isn’t wiping away continuity – that everything we read happened – that MJ and Peter were a couple, just not a married couple – but that’s BS. It still makes the last 20 years of stories feel like they were a waste of my time and money. Oh, and the webshooters are back (Pete had developed organic webspinners like in the movie,) so I hope Joe Q can explain how “not remembering” the marriage retconned that little detail. No, folks, this Marvel’s EIC deciding to reset 20 years of continuity to his own liking.

Why? Well, he told the folks at CBR the following:

When Peter Parker got married, it caused the character to be cut off from many of the social situations and settings that put him at conflict with his family, friends, and especially the girl he was dating. Suddenly, something as simple as the tension he had with Felicia Hardy was completely defused; if Peter ever gave in to temptation or even considered it, he would be, in the eyes of the fans, the lousiest guy in the world. It became harder to place Peter in situations where he could hang out with other single characters, without him seeming like the oldest person in the room, even if he wasn’t. And whatever nerdish sex appeal he possessed, we had to tread very carefully. He became the perpetual “designated driver.” Sure, Peter could hang around with other married folk — I bet that would be exciting!

Let me try to put this as plainly as I can, and let’s be really honest here, let’s really look at marriage for a second. I’ll get personal, for a moment. I have an incredible marriage and a fantastic kid, but there is no question that my life was much more story-worthy when I was single. Was I happier? Absolutely not. Was my life a better story from a drama sense? Ummmm, yeah. It had many more twists and turns and theater and was a bit of a mess. Now let me say, not everyone, but for most: When people get married, they tend to settle down — life slows down and you gain different responsibilities, grown-up responsibilities, boring responsibilities. You go out to dinner less, see fewer movies, your social life is curtailed and revolves, as it should, around your significant other. In short, life hands you a mini van. While marriage makes for an okay story, there is less drama in a (healthy) marriage than in a single relationship. That’s one of the many reason we get married — we want stability, we want comfort, we want kids, etc., etc. No one gets married because they want more drama in their life.

(If you want to read the Q & A in its entirety, check it out here.)

Now, Joe Q thinks that there are more stories he can tell with a single Spider-man. Wow. Really. That just screams to me that he isn’t very imaginative. I don’t care about his explanations. I don’t care “how” Spider-man got married, how rushed it seemed or what led to the decision. It happened and Spider-man was better for it. Peter grew up (just a bit) and got married. I find Quesada’s quotes about marriage to be insulting. Marriages (good or bad) hold plenty of drama even for those of us who have not been bitten by radioactive spiders.

He goes on to make the argument that “married Peter” is less relatable than “single Peter” and that they want to continue to draw in each new generation of fans. I contend that Marvel Adventures: Spider-man (a line geared toward the younger crowd) and Ultimate Spider-man (set in an alternate universe with a younger Peter) fulfill that goal. There are two viable alternatives for people who do not want to read about a happily married superhero. I, however, am now left with a 30-something-year-old hero who rides a bike to work and lives with his aunt (like a loser) who (gulp!) calls him “Tiger,” a pet name commonly used by his wife. Ugh. I would rather have seen MJ die is some tragic way than have she and Pete make a deal with the devil to save someone who, on a good day, could go at any minute. Folks, it’s just bad storytelling – no matter how hard Joe Q tries to weasel out of it.

I, for one, will show my disproval by refraining from purchasing any more Spider-man titles. Unless this stupid show of frat boy disdain for marriage is erased and continuity righted, I’m done. As far as I’m concerned, Spider-man died at the hands of Joe Quesada and any Marvel staffer foolish enough to believe this is for the best. They had the power – but used it irresponsibly.

As a writer, I pray that I am never so unjust to the characters entrusted to my care.

                                                                                                                                                                                                               J

[EDIT] After posting this, I had another thought. Joe Q goes on and on about the next generation of readers. Does he really want to send the message that a married man has less fun - or is somehow less relevant or interesting - than a single twerp who lives with his bonesack of an aunt? How healthy is that?

The holidays mean I’ll be away from the blog, but expect new podcasts from me in 2008 as well as my continued blogging. In the meantime, be giving some thought to entering the First Official Write Crowd Contest. We have some cool prizes, plus bragging rights!

 I hope the holidays - however you choose to spend them - will bring you joy and inspiration for your first bestseller!

J. Patrick Lemarr

II. Welcome- J. Patrick Lemarr

III. The Act of Creation:

     a. Conceiving Your Idea (imagination)

     b. Writing the Bones (storytelling)

     c. Fleshing It Out (crafting)

IV. Close

V. End Credits - Scott Badley

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