Woe is Me (Awkward Writing 5)

Welcome back for the 5th and final installment of my Awkward Writing series, where we will be discussing a more broad subject: breaking cliches.

As a reminder, anyone who comments on the series posts (previous or future) will be entered into a giveaway. The giveaway will be announced on the last series post. If you make multiple comments, you receive multiple entries. Max 5 entries via comments. But...

1) If you shout out the series (FB, Twitter, Blog, etc.), you get 1 entry. Please only 1 mention for the entire series. Please also supply the shout out link in your comment.

2) If you create a post linking back to my page, or one of the posts in the series, you receive 2 entries. Please supply the post link in your comment.

That is a total of 7 entries total you can have put in the pot. Don't forget to supply those links to your blogs or social media shout outs. You must supply them to be granted the point(s).

EPIC DRUMROLL SOUNDS!

So, it's been an interesting ride with all the comments made across the Awkward Writing series. Thanks to all who've participated. We have a good 20 plus commenters, each ranging with various entries. The series will officially conclude Friday, September 3rd at 5pm EST. The winner will be announced soon after. The prize will be a $10 Amazon voucher, sent via email. Be sure to get your last comments in!

What am I currently doing? Answer: blogging, watching Blue Harvest (the Family Guy Star Wars episode) and drinking Firefly.

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So this is more of a broad subject to end the Awkward Writing series. We're going to discuss breaking cliches in writing. As natural as they feel to write, we each as growing writers try our damnedest to break cliches. All genres have their staple cliches in the various areas: character traits, world elements, plot elements. And the list can go on. The most popular cliches all in genre fiction. The search for magical artifacts, the rise of demon lords, the conquest over treasure bearing planets, et cetera.

So, as growing writers, we are challenged with breaking cliches. Those bestsellers who have come before us have set a standard which can be a "son of a beast." How in the world can you create something fresh? How is it possible to do what hasn't been done?

So I am leaving this topic way open for interpretation. Please share what you can about your journey through breaking the cliche.

Poverty, Abuse, and the Like (Awkward Writing 4)

Welcome back for the 4rd installment of my Awkward Writing series, where we will be discussing social issues in writing.

As a reminder, anyone who comments on the series posts (previous or future) will be entered into a giveaway. The giveaway will be announced on the last series post. If you make multiple comments, you receive multiple entries. Max 5 entries via comments. But...

1) If you shout out the series (FB, Twitter, Blog, etc.), you get 1 entry. Please only 1 mention for the entire series. Please also supply the shout out link in your comment.

2) If you create a post linking back to my page, or one of the posts in the series, you receive 2 entries. Please supply the post link in your comment.


That is a total of 7 entries total you can have put in the pot. Don't forget to supply those links to your blogs or social media shout outs. You must supply them to be granted the point(s).

What am I currently doing? Answer: blogging, beta edits, itching to finish my next chapter and enjoying my day off.

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I think at some point, most writers will debate including a graphic scene in their WiP that might make readers shy away. Have your characters just entered a poverty stricken village? Are they glancing over the destruction of war? Do they see a pair of children screaming for their mother? These are social issues, along with a myriad of others, that can be difficult to write. It takes will power and courage to be able to think of the scene blow-by-blow so your reader will cherish it.

As a disclaimer, I do not condone sexual or physical abuse in any form, no matter your position in life. That said, most social issues that I have seen in writing comes in the form of sexual or physical abuse. It's harrowing to think about, let alone put on paper for the general public to read, but you're not only telling a story. You're spreading a message. How often do you, the writer, learn something from the characters? Granted, they are your creations, but you may not have thought of a solution had it not been filtered through the actions of your character.

Abuse is never just a simple travesty. It has long standing effects on the world. War and poverty, hunger and famine, abuse and murder. All have their atrocious reasons for being committed, but it is through your writing that we can begin to understand it. If your character has just barged into a bedroom to prevent an innocent child from being raped, you've done well. You've decided that your character has heart and he does not revel in pain. You've created something that readers can look up to, and then say, "Would I do the same thing?"

The same circumstance applies for all the listed social issues above. Would any of us do the same thing? If you can learn through the actions of your characters, why not? It began with you as a dormant feeling, untapped and unexplored, but now that you've been able to force it out onto paper, the effect of it all takes on a new meaning.

As difficult as the task might be to write about social issues, you're not only using them to move the story and build character relations. Use them to send a message. Take the time to invest all you have creatively into that one scene so it becomes something worth reading. If you just glance over it and get it done with, you're just writing another part of the story. Good moments of saving someone from evil takes time. It takes heart and soul. It takes cunning.

Difficult yes, but never impossible. To write it properly and with strength would be to teach someone how to avoid it. It may sound far-fetched, but words have great power to inspire and change the heart of someone. Will you be one of those writers?

Question to the Cohorts: Have you experimented in writing social complications? How did you get through the challenge and did you feel accomplished in the end?

Peace and Writing Love!

JWP

L-O-V-E (Awkward Writing 3)

Welcome back for the 3rd installment of my Awkward Writing series, where we will be discussing love.

As a reminder, anyone who comments on the series posts (previous or future) will be entered into a giveaway. The giveaway will be announced on the last series post. If you make multiple comments, you receive multiple entries. Max 5 entries via comments. But...

1) If you shout out the series (FB, Twitter, Blog, etc.), you get 1 entry. Please only 1 mention for the entire series. Please also supply the shout out link in your comment.

2) If you create a post linking back to my page, or one of the posts in the series, you receive 2 entries. Please supply the post link in your comment.

That is a total of 7 entries total you can have put in the pot. Don't forget to supply those links to your blogs or social media shout outs. You must supply them to be granted the point(s).

What am I currently doing? Answer: blogging, laundry and debating my next Kindle download.

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Nat King Cole's song, L-O-V-E, remains one of my favorite songs. It's sweet and has soul to it. As he says: "Take my heart and please don't break it/Love was made for me and you."

So let's discuss love in writing. Yes, it's sweet love that makes readers cherish the art of writing. It is raw, emotional love that makes us turn the page and want to know more about character relationships. It is the thing that makes us a bit lightheaded when it all works out for the hero or heroine. Do they find love and have they made amends with what has prevented them finding it in the past?

I don't personally think love is the most awkward topic to write in to your manuscript, but I'm sure we have our moments. Most recently, I wanted to add a sex scene into my manuscript (see Awkward Writing 1), but my faithful beta honestly told me that she did not think my MC and the female character had reached that level. I hadn't invested enough time in the plot arc to show they were in love, and thus, sex would have become a thing of lust in the writing rather than a moment of love. So, I ran with that comment and put something light in to implied the sex. From this, it showed that the characters did have something for each other. Perhaps it wasn't Nat's L-O-V-E, but it was something to keep them together and wanting.

For some, writing love in the proper context of your manuscript or WIP can be difficult. But, if you take the time to build a true character relationship, you can produce an unforgettable moment for your readers.

Question to the Cohorts: Are your characters lustful lovers or an emotional pair? What barriers have you run into when you didn't entirely believe what kind of love you have created?

Peace and Writing Love!

JWP

OH GOD, I Didn't Need to Know That! (Awkward Writing 2)

Welcome back for the 2nd installment of my Awkward Writing series, where we will be discussing writing horror and anything else graphic.

As a reminder, anyone who comments on the series posts (previous or future) will be entered into a giveaway. The giveaway will be announced on the last series post. If you make multiple comments, you receive multiple entries. Max 5 entries via comments. But...

1) If you shout out the series (FB, Twitter, Blog, etc.), you get 1 entry. Please only 1 mention for the entire series. Please also supply the shout out link in your comment.

2) If you create a post linking back to my page, or one of the posts in the series, you receive 2 entries. Please supply the post link in your comment.

That is a total of 7 entries total you can have put in the pot.

What am I currently doing? Answer: blogging, sketching and debating an all-night write.

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Nom-Nom!

So I think there is a great deal of over-dramatic gore writing out there. Some of it can be pulled off well, but what is too much? Gore writing comes in many forms: evisceration, limb hacking, bodily torture, etc. I'll also invite the topics of writing rape/sexual abuse situations into your pieces, but please comment with discretion. If you think you might be starting a comment war, it might be best to avoid it.

So, I enjoy my forms of gore. I like to see the bad guys really get gritty and show the fires of war at their best. When vikings pillage and people are staked and crucified, I can appreciate what it might have taken to write such a scene. However, have you seen bad gore writing? Have you seen obscene and overly abstract metaphors applied to the scene so you "get the most out of it."

I have seen such writing and it made me queasy. I didn't need to know the stench of bodies haunting a young girl who watched her village burn. That got to me. I needed some moderation. I did not want to read about bodily innards being on display in ritualistic manners, but I have. If applied correctly, the visual could be graphically stunning and blow your setting out of the water. But when done incorrectly, you find yourself shying away or even just laughing at it. I have had an experience of laughing at gore.

It can be tough and agonizing to write horror and graphically because you're wondering why you're able to think of such dark things. Do you have something wrong with you because you can visualize death in that manner? OF COURSE YOU DO! But no, it's a part of the creative process to want to experiment in something. There's nothing wrong with painting the walls red, but do so in the right circumstance and with as little humor as possible.

Question to the Cohorts: Have you experimented in gore and graphic writing? What has been the hardest part of that challenge?

Share and comment. Bye for now!

JWP

Let's Talk About SEX Baby! (Awkward Writing 1)

My next blog series, titled Awkward Writing, is in honor of getting so many new followers from Tessa's Blog Hop: The Life Fantastic and her most recent blogfest. This series will focus on areas of writing that some writers shy away from. Perhaps that is too strong a word, but it's the areas that writers beat themselves up over, deciding to no end if their novel can carry such a theme or scene.

Before we begin, a few announcements:

Any comments made on this series will be thrown into a contest. I will be doing at least 3 posts of the series, possibly more. If you comment on multiple posts within the series, you get multiple entries.

Tessa's Blog Fest: The Life Fantastic is still ongoing and is the perfect way to score more followers, subbers and writerly underlings (I mean friends).

At the end of this week, Donna Hole is hosting her Milestones blogfest. This is been another invaluable tool for me on the cohort-gathering front.

What am I currently doing? Answer: Blogging (of course), enjoying my third cup of coffee and playing Leapfrog Math Missions with my three-year-old cousin.

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So let's talk about sex. We've all made it through sex education in school, the most grueling and unforgiving class any of us was forced to take. Now that we're adults, or most us, what really prevents us from writing in those tender scenes into our manuscripts? What is the hold-up? More often than not, the scene you want to write are not to showcase your future erotica-novel that you're currently querying (WHAT @.@), but it is to show how two characters interact in that next thin line of scene writing: Love. It isn't smut or a porno. It isn't even lust (or maybe it is for those sex-crazed vampires), but it's a display of how your two choice characters have grown on each other.

If you've chosen to add a sex scene, ask yourself if you are first making the right decision. Are your characters who will be involved on the right "level" with each other? Or are you purely doing it to get it done. Let's nudge away the latter.

Never write a sex scene into your manuscript just to have it there. Why put yourself through the trouble explaining a blow-by-blow intimate encounter when you may not really need it at all? I am currently facing that issue and at the level I have been drawing my characters, I'm not sure if my protagonist and his love-interest are there yet. Are your characters there yet? I have added a sensual scene and that might be enough, but only time will really tell.

Don't shoot to impress in the scene. We don't need to see how you are in bed through your character. That may sound awkward, but we want to prevent this at all costs. At no point do you want paragraphs of thick, raw sexual description. No-one really wants to read that and be drawn away from the story and what brought the characters to this point. We want to see an encounter that we can enjoy, love and feel pleasure over. We want to cheer for our hero/heroine when they find that love they've been looking for.

So, there's a lot to consider when you want to write a sex scene. Make it beautiful, short and with descriptors that can creatively describe the most stressful part of writing intimate characters together. Never divulge into dark, sexual crap writing for the sake of just showing you can do it. Your writing will suffer, but more importantly, the fortitude of your plot arc may be thrown off.

Question to the Cohorts: Do you currently have a sex scene written or are considering one? Have you made all the preparations, creatively and mentally, to write intimacy into your manuscript?

I'm very curious for your responses.

Bye for now!

JWP