Things Change

So, since writing my last post a few things have happened. One, I stressed so much over Home that I gave myself an ulcer. Note to writers, don't do that. It hurts. Two, I have decided to trunk Home and work instead on a much more promising manuscript, Enemies. It's been a painful decision, and probably why I have a stomach ulcer now, but I think it's a wise one. (Thank you my dearest Amber-lynn for your advice. It is, as always, invaluable.)

Enemies is a much stronger manuscript with older characters and a much more mature writing style. Still as morbid as ever. :bigsmile: But I think it's much more interesting than Home has ever been really. It's also a lot closer to being ready to be queried which is a relief in itself. I drafted the query this morning even though I'm still smoothing things out with Enemies. It needs one last edit at least, but as far as I can tell it has no main problems and I'm just working on polishing it up. Hopefully it will be ready soon. I'm trying to work on compiling a list of prospective agents and trying to figure out which genre Enemies fits into.

Gracious, there are so many to choose from and I can't seem to tell what's one genre and what's another. I have a vampire story that's mainstream fiction, a story about werecats that's paranormal and a story about an old dragon slayer that's also mainstream. How am I supposed to tell what goes where?

So anyway, how are your projects coming? How do you decide what genre your MS fits under?

Characer Woes

I'm finding it really difficult to make my characters instantly relateable, instantly identifiable and real and someone the reader wants to care about. I'm not sure how to write in a strong emotional kind of way that connects the reader to the character. I'm thinking maybe it's just this book. Maybe it's time I just finally leave Home alone. Put it aside and work on Enemies instead. It's a much stronger book with more interesting characters. But Home has become a kind of addiction. I don't know if I'm capable of setting it aside.

So for those writers out there, how do you make your characters identifiable? How do you make the readers care about them and what they're going through? Because I'm not sure I'm doing it right. I should probably be doing research on my favorite characters and try to dissect why I care about them so much, but I'm tired right now and frankly, it's easier to whine about the flaws in my writing than it is to fix them.

Some characters for thought, Katniss from the Hunger Games, Dennis Hartraft from Honored Enemy, Faythe Sanders from Stray, Katsa from Graceling and Kahlan and Richard from The Sword of Truth. Why do I care about these characters? What makes them so real? And how can I apply that to me writing?

More food for thought: Writing a HolyCowAwesome Story
http://romanceuniversity.org/2011/07/04/writing-a-holycowawesome-story-part-1-c-j-redwine/
http://romanceuniversity.org/2011/08/01/query-101-with-c-j-redwine/