What Genre is Your Story?

This post was originally posted on Birds of a Writer.


Some writers only write one particular genre and stick with it, while others dare to try new ones. Some may not even be sure what genre their's falls into. And that's okay even if you're not sure what catagory your book belongs too. Some stories just don't fit nicely into one thing and sometimes you may create a new genre. But I'll remind you, that creating a new genre is hard.

I'm warning you now: This post will be long. 
You have been warned.

So if you find that a genre is missing or you would like something changed, please let me know! Also, the Word Counts (WC) are a general estimate. If you're writing in one of those catagories, you don't have to have an exact word count. It's always fine for the story to be large or smaller than the estimated word count.
Anyways, here's a quick overview of some genres and their subgenres.

1. Mainstream- To sum it up, the ever going struggle between good and evil in every person are present in these novels. Basically, these books can be hard to put into a certain catagory.
1. Contemporary- Anything really can be put into this subgenre, although it mainly involes books concerning familiy sags, coming of age, personal relationships, and so on so forth. Word Count: usually starts at 100,000.
2. Historical- Usually has something to do with real life people in fictional settings Word Count: begins at 100,000.
3. Romance- While these books are very much like books from the romance genre, the difference is that these book may not have a happy ending.
2. Young Adult- These books, YA, are stories for teenagers, generally from the ages of 12 to 18. They may mimic adult fiction but in these stories the Main Characters are teenagers. Duh. While it is one of the biggest growing parts of the publishing world (with fantasy/science fiction and paranormal romances being the most popular) it once wasn't even really a genre. These books most of the time don't contain large amounts of swearing, graphic violence, or other things that may be questionable.
1. Contemporary (Aka, General Fiction)- These books deal with real life things that most or even all (or some), teenagers face. The issues can cover everything from drugs, abuse, emotional/mental issues, and many more things. The authors try to show these things as realistically as possible. WC (word count): 40,000 to 60,000. 
2. Genre- While contemporary YA novels may give examples on what real life is like and how to deal with it, these ones may take the reader away. They cover every other genre here and their primary goal is to entertain. WC- 40,000 to 60,000. 
3. Romance- This genre may be considered the biggest genre in the publishing world. The mainly only thing that happens, the main difference, is that the couple ends up living happily forever after (or so we hope.) Since the main story point is the romance, basically anything else that happens becomes not as important as the relationship.
1. Contemporary- This subgenre deals with how to man and woman come together in today's society. They deal with people from every culture and nation. WC- 50,000 to 100,000.
2. Historical- Do I need to explain? The Heroine and Hero fall in love in a past setting. 
3. Paranormal- Probably one of the most popular genres right now, at least for the YA section. You know the drill, anything from vampires to werewolves, witches, ghosts, or whatever are in these stories except that the romance is a leading point in these stories. Twilight. Do I need to say more? WC- 85,000 to 100,000.  
4. Mystery- These novels have a wide range of ideas and basically, anything can go as long as there is mystery. I have seen that normally, it tends to be a murder and the MC has to find the killer. Or that could be because that's half the books in my house. They're not mine, they're my mom's. 
1. Thrillers- These books usually happen in the present time. A lot of violence is mixed with the mystery and we end up rooting for the good guy. The bad guy(s) tend to die in horrible ways. WC- 85,000 to 110,000.
2. Cozy Mysteries- My mom's favorite genre. I swear we have tons and tons of these, mostly paperbacks, sitting on our bookcases. The common ground between these books is that you have a nonprofessional sleuth, normal person who happens to solve the crime. For example, a baker who solves and catches the killer and mystery of her brother's death. WC- 60,000 to 100,000. 
3. Police Procedurals- These are those shows you're always seeing on TV now. If it's not a hospital show, it's a show involving a cop, someone who works with the cops, or a group of police peoples. They usually always end up in the end with the bad guy in jail. It's advised you do your research before takling this genre. Although that doesn't mean you should follow the cops like in Castle. Check out some police websites, or talk to someone you know who is a cop. 
4. Historical- A crime set in the past. The mystery here has to be solved by the items avabiile to the time your writing about. Make sure you do your research! These can also become cozy mysteries too. 
5. Hard-Boiled- Detective novels anyone? Edgar Allen Poe is not only credited as one of the first writers of horror, but he may have come up with one of the first detective stories. WC- 85,000 to 100,000. 
5. Action/Adventure- Commonly known as men's favorite genre, just like romance tends be a woman's favorite genre. The protagonist is commonly put into some kind of dangerous situation and expected to defeat the bad guy and come out alive. 
6. Fantasy- For some reason this genre and Science Fiction are usually grouped together. While they are similar, they are different. One of my favorite genres.
1. Epic- Want a couple words to sum this up? Lords of the Rings. Yep the epic (pun intended) story in which a group of heros come together to rid the world of evil, save the world, fight the last battle to end all evil, etc. This subgenre is usually very large, with well developed worlds, and the stories in which continues for several books. 
2. High- While this subgenre is close to the first, it is different. Instead of having a group of heroes, you have one who's goals are much more centered around him. The last battle will usually end up being between him and a villian and the protagonist wins. 
3. Sword and Sorcery- In here the story is spent a lot on action and less on world building. When the bad guy is end the story is mostly likely over. Usually it involves big, strong men and beautiful women. That and lots of creatures and gods, godesseses, and other mythological beings. WC- 85,000 to 150,000.
4. Dark- Often confused with horror. But it is different. Instead of finding good characters, your character may not be a good guy. In fact, the hero may not win. The world is a dark and scary place where evil regins and only the strong can live. My story, The Cursing, is strongly dark fantasy. Where the MC does some not good things and evil is very present. 
5. Historical- Must I really? Basically any fantasy world where is has strong roots in historical culture and other things. It might be a story set in Ancient Rome but where the barbarian girl goes to fight the emporer with a magical sword. 
6. Contemporary- Two words- Urban Fantasy. Yep, this subgenre is set in our time period and most often in cities like ours. The Wicked Lovely series by Melissa Marr is considered urban fantasy. Often it contains elements of the horror genre although it is not meant to be scary. 
7. Science Fiction- This genre is commonly called "si-fi" or "SF" for speculative fiction. The difference between science fiction and fantasy here is that fantasy relies upon the supernatural while science fiction must have some form of science or technology in it. One of my favorite genres.
1. Hard- This subgenre relies heavily on science itself. The authors of this genre study everything in broad areas like biology and chemistry and they are devoted to getting the facts straight. These facts will help their stories and make it more believable. Some famous authors in this genre include Issac Asimov and Greg Bear. 
2. Military- The emphasis here is placed on warfare in the future. Fighting aliens with high technologies is a common theme. Hard science fiction is a strong presence in this genre.  
3. Space Opera- Although it has themes of both military and hard science fiction in it, this one is more fun. The authors might be less worried about how their machines work than with how they look. It is more fun and less educational than the first two subgenres. But it is widely loved by many people, just look at how many people love Star Wars. My book, Night Lies, is probably is subgenre. 
4. Slipstream- This one happens to not be science fiction exactly, yet it is. Basically, it's science fiction that's all fiction but no science. The term, slipstream, was first coined by the author, Bruce Sterling. It's more of a cross between science fiction and contempory fiction, not really horror, not really about the techonology, and  but it doesn't really have dragons and wizards in it too. 
5. Cyberpunk- This genre isn't really written is our time today because the authors who first wrote it were writing about our time today. They tried imagining what the 21st century would be like. This subgenre focuses on the future of computers/information and how humans interact with machines. A famous book of the genre would be Neuromancer by William Gibson who coined the term cyberspace. 
6. Steampunk- One of the more popular genres of today. Stories like The Girl in the Steel Corset, Levithian, Clockwork Angel, and Worldshaker are just a few of the books out today.  Basically, these are books where techonolgy of the future is ran on steam (in some cases, basically techonology in general) and the story is set in Victorian times. 
7. Dystopia- This always seems to get confused with  Utopia whenever I tell someone about this genre. The different is that while a Utopia is a perfect world, a Dystopia is a perfect world with one fatal flaw. And usually there's a normal person whom experience the system mess up. Famous works include, The Hunger Games, Uglies, Delirium, Matched,and Fahrenheit 451.
8. Alternate Histories- Scott Westefeld's book series, Leviathan, is not only steampunk, but an alternative history of World War I. Although this subgenre is like steampunk, this one is more concerned with real history and facts- but with a twist. This subgenre takes real history and then asks "what if?" For example, what if the North hadn't beaten the South in America's civil war? Would there still be slaves? Would we still be one country?
8. Thrillers- This books are related to mystery books but are different. The plot usually includes something along the lines of the thing that everyone wants or is looking for no matter that cost. These books tend to be quite large, ranging from around 500 to 600 pages, and is normally told from multiple points of view. 
1. Techno-thrillers- These novels have alot to do with technology, much like military or hard science fiction. World wars are common, and they might have near-future events in them. 
2. Historical- Basically thrillers with something to do with the past. 
3. Espionage- These are your spy novels. They might have communists in them or Nazis. (In fact, the Nazi's have their own subgenre thrillers.)
4. Medical- Basically plot is that our hero finds out something awful about a hospital, research center, government lab, etc. And they usually involve human guinea pigs. 
9. Horror- This genre began with books like Frankenstein. Today's horror stories contains gruesome scenes and a good one scare someone into not sleeping. Okay maybe not that much, but they should be pretty frightening. 
1. Psychological- Most horror stories of today are set in this subgenre. These are stories that make readers question their sanity, crawl under the covers, or be generally afraid. They can be slow ad creepy or fast paced. This subgenre is set in today's times since we're most likely to be able to relate to the story. WC- 85,000 to 100,000.
2. Slasher- These are books that are similar to movies like Saw, but just in book form. They are filled with gruesome images and bloody scenes and lots and lots of violence. This is not a popular subgenre with publishers, but it can be done. WC- usually around 100,000. 
3. Paranormal- These are your ghost stories. Ones filled with horrifying vampires (ones that don't sparkle at least), werewolves, the undead, and anything else you can think of. Like that scary ghost story you used to tell at sleepovers, but much worse. WC- usually 100,000. 
10. Erotica- A genre I'd rather not get into. But I thought I should mention it. There's usually only two subgenres to this- men's and women's. 
11. Western- Probably one of the least popular genre's in today's market. Few major publishing houses will accept these novels anymore. They are sometimes called Western Historical. It is considered very important for you to do your research on the time period these novels are usually set in- 1860s to the 1880s. 
12. Memoir- I had to include these last two because I figured that there are some people out there who write these. Although similar to the autobiography, a memoir can be defined as a book that focus on a certain time in the author's life rather than the whole thing like an autobiography does. Like the autobiography, a memoir is usually written in first person. People who normally write these are famous or are upper class people.
13. Biography- I'm sure you know what these are. These are books written by another person about someone. Usually someone famous too. They cover the person's life and give glimpses into what the person was like. And yes, usually the subject is dead. 
14. Historical Fiction- This genre is commonly found in almost every other genre out there. Usually the stories include fictional characters in real historical events or settings, or real people in fictional events or settings. This is one of my favorite genres. 

Resources
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing a Novel By Tom Monteleone
The Everything Guide to Writing a Novel  by Joyce and Jim Lavene
The Guide to Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction by Philip Athans

So what is your favorite genre to write? What is your favorite to read? Which categories (or category) does your stories fit into?

Sincerely,
Sareh

Word Count Anxiety

Word count is something that many writers needlessly worry about while writing their books. Is the book going to reach a publishable word count? What's an acceptable word count? Will it be too long, too short, will baby sloths overrun the planet?

Definitely a picture we can relate to.

I say "needlessly" because, while you're writing, word count is not something you need to think about. Yes, it is important. Just not yet.

While you're writing, word count is not important. Yes, do set word count goals for yourself. But don't stress over it. If you're going along, writing your book, and estimate that it'll end up being 55,000 words, that's great. And if you end up writing 70,000, that's great too. If you end up with 45,000, it's still great. Before you stress over what's publishable, finish the book. Write the story as it wants to be told. If your characters want to pull you into an 120,000 beast, go with it. If you find that you're at 50,000 words with nothing more to say, awesome. At this point, it doesn't matter.

T-shirt wisdom.

If you don't care about getting published, the word count is never going to matter. But now, if you do care about getting published, then the revision stage is when you should start thinking about word count. Think about it...when was the last time you read a 200-page YA epic fantasy? A 750-page contemporary romance?

There's not a definite word count that your novel should be. YA novels are quite a range of lengths. The general consensus seems to be that standard YA novels are somewhere between 50,000 and 90,000 words (and this is a very generous estimate with a rather wide range). There are exceptions, of course, but that's the general range. YA epic fantasy has a little more wiggle room on top, and can be in the 100,000s or even 110,000s.

If you aren't in this range, you won't automatically get rejected by every agent you query. For many agents, word count itself is not a cause for rejection. If you query a YA book on the upper ends of this spectrum, it might be a red flag for that agent, but it doesn't mean they won't consider you.

The key is that if your book is going to be that long, there needs to be a good reason for it. Many times, novels are overly long because the author uses too much description and is too wordy. Sometimes, though, books are long because they have a complex story to tell. If you want to get your long book published, you need to make sure every word counts. You need to prove to agents and publishers that every word is worth it.

Having a book that's too short is a less common problem. If your book is way below this range, agents are going to start to question your ability to flesh out characters and plots, and your knowledge of the YA genre (as in, is your 40,000 word book actually more MG but you're calling it YA because you haven't done your research?

To give you a frame of reference, here are the word counts of some familiar YA novels. Many of these have rather unusual word counts. I'm just giving you these numbers so you can get a better idea of how big of a book a certain word count translates to.
Eragon by Christopher Paolini: 157,220
Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer: 56,684
The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan: 87,223
Holes by Louis Sachar: 47,079
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins: 99,750
Paper Towns by John Green: 81,739
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis: 36,363
Harry Potter 1: 76,944
2: 85,141
3: 107,253
4: 190,637
5: 257,045
6: 168,923
7: 198,227
(Look at that. Look. At. That. 257,045. That might get you insta-rejection from most agents if you're a debut author. Just goes to show that it pays to be an established author with a ginormous fanbase. Can you imagine typing that many words? And Inheritance is actually a few thousand words longer!)

To sum it up, don't worry about your word count while you're writing. Don't let thoughts of word count interfere with the natural telling of your story. And even after that, you should be aware of the general publishable range, but nothing is ever set in stone. Don't let word count run your story.

Originally posted at in District 3.14, aka The Epic, the Awesome, and the Random.

The Danger of Plagiarism and How to Prevent It.

*This post was originally posted on my blog Birds of a Writer.

Today we are going to talk about a very important subject- plagiarism. There are many ways you can plagiarize and sometimes it happens without you meaning too. Plagiarism is something that not only happens in school but in the professional world of writing and other things. The penalities for copying someone else's work without their premission can be very high.



In my school they recently started having us all submit our papers to Turnitin.com, a site for schools and I guess other places where when you submit something it will judge your paper against thousands of other works and tell you how much you plagiarized. Here if you are found guilty of copying something you get a zero on your whatever, your parents are called, and you get a detention. In some colleges it can be worse, you can get kicked out of college for it.


I briefly talked about copyrighting and stealing in last week's post The Good and the Bad: Writing websites. Here I will talk more extensively on how to prevent yourself from doing it and how to prevent it from happening to you. And why people steal other ideas. 


Why People Steal Ideas 

• Laziness- Some people are just too lazy and don't want to take the time to write their own stuff. So they steal others and hope they get away with it. Hopefully they won't. 
• Inferior Feelings- Some people feel like what somebody else wrote won't be as good as theirs so they take the sentence or whatever.
• The Thrill- Now why people get a thrill and love doing something bad is beyond me. Sure I've had this feeling before but just because you like a thrill of doing something bad doesn't mean you should. If you really want a thrill of danger go ride a roller coaster or join the army and ask to be put on the front lines. 
• Wasting Time- Some people procrastinate to the point where it actually starts to hurt them. If you do have this problem you should get help or try and stop it. Ways you can better manage your time is by doing something as soon as you should and make time for it if you don't. 

Ways to Avoid Plagiarism

• Poor Man's Copyright- One of the ways you can prevent this is from using the poor man's copyright system. If you're a writer, I'm sure you've heard of this, but if you don't I'll explain. It's quite simple actually. All you have to is put your manuscript or whatever in a sealed envelope, mail it to yourself, put it somewhere safe, and whatever you do don't open it! 
• Starting Dates- Legally if you have to, you can always prove that something was yours first by the date you started it. If you have a computer and you write everything on it, to find your created date go to your manuscript or whatever, right click properties, and then a box should appear with the information. It's have your created date and the date last modified. You can also search for previous versions. On sites like Inkpop, they record the date you originally put the project up and this you can use if you find that someone has taken something of yours by proving that you created it first. Also it helps to start a document, write down a short synopsis and the general information of your story, save it and don't change it. 
• Paraphrasing- While substituting different words for others may seem like a good idea, it isn't. Paraphrasing someone else's work is not a good idea. To prevent this from happening, don't look at the material when you start writing. Write everything in your own words. 
• Quotation Marks- This is the easiest way to use someone else's words. But as my english teacher advises, try to not quote something as much as possible. If half your paper or whatever is filled with quotes your reader may as well go and read the other work themselves instead of bothering with yours. If you only want to use part of a quote and another put ... in between in so you don't have to use all of it.
• Citation- On Blogger or example, there is a quote button, this button when clicked will make whatever your quoting look different. You can also say the person's name or the article and do so-and-so said "..." or so-and-so says "...". You can also use citing formats such as MLA that provide ways to cite books, websites, etc. If you can't find a book on how to cite something you can look it up on Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) or there are sites that will do it for you like Easybib. 
• Using Your Time Wisely- My teachers have often told us that one of the reasons kids copy something is because they wasted time and don't have the time to finish something. Or they didn't study. To prevent yourself from falling under the temptation to copy something not yours while under stress is to do it early or not wait until the last moment. Not only will your work look better but you won't have to copy something to get it done on time. 
• Legally Copyright It- The U.S government will give you a patent on their copyright registry for pretty much anything. This way you can be sure that it's copyrighted from people who steal and you can sue the crap out of somebody in court if they steal it. The U.S Copyright Registry

Some articles on Plagiarizing [Resources Used For This Post] (And yes, I used all buzzle articles for these) 

Detecting Plagiarism on the Internet

Types of Plagiarism

How You Can Prevent It

How to Avoid Plagiarism

So have you ever copied something you shouldn't have? Did you have something of yours copied? How did you find out about it and what did you do about it?

Sincerely,

Sareh

Endings

Endings are vitally important to novels. This seems rather obvious, but it always baffles me how so many people spend hours and hours tweaking their beginnings, when they have no idea how their ending will play out.

When you start writing, you have to have an ending in mind. Always. Even if you know nothing else, know the ending. You can't just sit down and try to write a book without knowing where you are going. It doesn't work. You'll end up floundering in the middle and you won't get anywhere.

You don't have to know every little detail about the end. For example, if you're writing about Bob the explorer, a man who is searching for a lost Mayan statue that could stop the 2012 apocalypse from occurring. You know that in the end, he’ll find this statue, and he’ll find it with the use of his trusty flashlight in an ancient temple in Peru, 20 minutes before the so-called apocalypse begins. You don’t necessarily need to know that he’ll be with his sidekick Winston, or that there is an army of zombies chasing him. You just need to know the basics: what happens, where/when it happens, and the general how it happens. Just know the foundations of your ending, and it will go a long way in moving your story along.

Your ending should, in most cases, tie up loose ends. It's okay to leave a few threads hanging, but not too many. It’s fine to leave the reader wondering about one or two things (though some readers are more okay with this than others), but don’t overdo it. It’s also fine to tie up every loose end, as long as you don’t have too much falling action. (More on this in a later post. Falling action and I do not get along well.)

There should be a sense of closure to your ending. I once read somewhere that a good ending is utterly unexpected, yet still feels inevitable to the reader. I think this is an excellent way to put it. Make your ending unpredictable, but at the same time, make it feel like there’s no other way it could have ended.

Also, before you even start writing, you should probably know what kind of ending you want. The endings of most books can be sorted into three categories. These categories are:

Happily-ever-after ending: Fairly self-explanatory. The good guys win. The protagonists get what they want. People are, well, happy. The bad guy, if there is one, gets executed or thrown into Mordor or forced to listen to the Bill Nye theme nonstop. It's predictable, which isn't always a bad thing. Examples: most Disney movies, Harry Potter, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Non-ending: In a non-ending, the immediate conflict isn't really resolved. There's not much closure, because the story just kind of...ends. Now, this isn't always a bad thing (I'm the .001% of people who likes the ending of The Giver). This can also be known as the "make the fandom want to sue you" ending. Examples: The Giver, many series books, the seventh Harry Potter movie, part 1

Open-ended ending: The immediate conflict is probably resolved, but after that, much is left up to the reader to decide. Do the main characters grow up and get married? Does the plague come back and everyone dies? Does the MC become an insurance salesman? We don't know. Some people hate these, but I like them. They give the reader a chance to make up their own mind about the story. Examples: The Scorpio Races, the Chaos Walking Trilogy, I Am the Messenger

Bittersweet ending: My favorite kind. The immediate conflict is resolved. There's some amount of happy-ever-after, but there's also some amount of sadness. Maybe the main characters might have to part forever, or a friend has died, or nothing will ever be the same again. I love these kinds of endings. There's a definite sense of closure, but there's also a definite sense that these characters went through a lot, so the story left a lasting impression on them. Examples: Lord of the Rings, The Book Thief, Inheritance, pretty much every Warriors book

(There's also the "loop ending", but that probably only applies to Pendragon.)

Each of these types of endings are options for your book. Keep in mind, though, that some endings might not be as appropriate for some types of books. As in, should your dark, gritty horror story have a happily-ever-after sort of ending? Maybe not. Non-endings, or even open-ended endings, to some extent, tend to leave readers feeling like they were cheated, so you also might want to take that into account.

Also, here is a list of books with fabulous endings. I highly recommend reading, um, all of them.

What kind of ending does your book have? What kind do you prefer to read? Feel free to chime in with other comments about endings in general.

Originally posted in the lands of unicorns and glitter, aka The Epic, the Awesome, and the Random.

Do You Really Need That "Big Secret"?

This post was originally posted on Birds of a Writer.

So today we are going to talk about "that big secret" or "a bunch of little secrets". What I'm talking about is that major secret that the plot and story hangs on or a big reveal nobody saw coming. Many authors feel as if they need a big turning point in their story, one that often comes in the form of finding out that someone betrayed a character or something.


But do you really need a big secret to make your story good?

Not necessarily. Although you'll find a lot of books that have this, you don't always need them. Sometimes, a story can be good with a bunch of little secrets or multiple big secrets for more power. But sometimes, those big secrets can make or break a story. When you have a big turning point, you risk the chance of it either being too big or not big enough.

In Night Lies, I have a giant turning point that I don't think that my readers will see coming. Oh I'm sure some will realize it before I reveal it, but most probably won't. InThe Cursing I have a bunch of little turning points. Most end up being big to Tatiana, but some of them aren't huge. In The Prophecy, I have several big turning points, although I sprinkle them up among the story and the other books in the series rather then all in the first book.

Reasons for Big Points 

• Starting a book
• Changing a Character's mind
• Cliff hangers
• To keep the story interesting
• To introduce a new idea or a new subplot
• To torture your characters more
• To lengthen the story 
• Ending a book

If you have a big turning point...
What exactly your big reveal, your turning point, or whatever you want to call it is depends on your story. Not every type of secret is right for your story (long lost friend, everything's a lie, so and so isn't really dead, etc) and you shouldn't put a big reveal in if it actually doesn't have anything else to do with your story other than you want one because it'd be cool and dramatic.

And your big reveal also depends on what your characters can do. Are they up to handling something big? If you have a dangerous secret will they be able to resolve the issue or what will they do if they find this big secret out. Some secrets can be too big or too little for certain characters. If your character finds out that he's the only person who can save the world, does he have the abilities and resources to do so? If your character is one of the only people to survive a hurricane, will they be able to make it to safety in time or save people other than themselves?  

There's also the case of when to reveal the big turning point. Some authors wait until the story starts getting boring to reveal a big secret to make the story more interesting, reveal at the beginning for a motive, or wait until the end for a final punch in the gut.

And its the big reveal that not only matters, but the timing is also very important. Reveal too early and you may find yourself with not enough power to get through the rest of the book. Reveal too late and you may not have enough time to resolve the issue.

To make things even more exciting you could add more than one giant turning point for an extra whammy. But be careful, you might find yourself in deeper trouble than you thought. Also remember that if you have a big turning point, your character should be able to fix it (or fail. That could be exciting too.).

If you don't have a big turning point...
That's okay. Remember that its okay to have a bunch of smaller ones. Smaller turning points can be just as dramatic as big ones because you give your characters more than one problem to deal with and they may have a more dramatic effect than one giant one.

But if you choose along that path, keep in mind that too many small but big points may overwhelm the story or the characters. And the more problems you have, the more loose ends you'll have to keep track of. It'd be bad to introduce five or six problems and then more than halfway through realize that your characters never fixed three of those problems. And now you have to fix those plot holes.

Other tips
And even if you want a bunch of small points or a big one, you can always put that point or other points into another book. Not every idea you have has to go into this one story. And spreading things out can make keep the story fresh, alive, and exciting.

And you don't even have to have a bunch of small ones or a big one. Some stories are fine without the extra baggage and with the one main conflict. Your characters may have enough on their plate without dealing with more.  

If you have a big secret or several, it's a good idea to drop hints before hand rather than suddenly drop it out of nowhere. If you do drop it out of nowhere, your readers may accuse you of not being able to continue with the main plot or something equally horrible.

Plus, the best big secrets are the ones that are out in the open but hidden cleverly enough you never really guessed it till it was revealed (Note: this plan may result in side affects in readers such as outbursts of "I should have seen that coming! Or How in the world did I not realize that?" Other symptons of surprise may result in anger, throwing the book across the room, or calling a friend and revealing the big secret.)

Of course, you could always just reveal something out of nowhere, but I find it more fun to toy with readers and characters with hints of the truth rather than a big sudden reveal. Plus, its more fun to watch readers try to figure something out on their own and desperately read the book to find out if they're right or not or whatever.

Four types of big secrets

• Only the author knows (both reader and character are clueless)- Where everyone but you is left in the dark. Sometimes this is effective for bigger surprises rather than little ones. 
• Only the author and readers know (character is clueless)- Ah, those times when your readers are either told something important or realize something before the characters do. 
• Other characters know (except for certain characters and readers)-Times when your main character is clueless of something everyone else seems to realize (That reminds me of an article I read where firefighters were called to a burning apartment. After putting out the fire, the found the owner of the house still sleeping on his bed. Apparently he hadn't woken once during the whole thing and never felt the heat.)
• Only the author and the characters know (readers are clueless)- This one I don't think I see a lot of, but I'm sure it can happen. When your characters are all aware of something not made known to the readers. 

Examples

• A Million Suns
• A Long Long Sleep
• Wired
• A ton of other books. 

Genres I think that have the most surprises:

• Science fiction
• Dystopian
• Mystery (duh!)
• Fantasy
• Thrillers
• Other genres of course but those are my top five. 

So, do you have any big turning points in your story? What's your favorite one?

Sincerely,
Sareh

Creating Unforgettable Characters

Before you read on, check this out: What? Were you raised by wolves? I just thought I would share.

With great characters, one can make an addictive book even if the plot is a little thin. This is what real life is like, isn't it? Life doesn't have a plot or intricate storylines, but you'll find wonderful people (maybe not in all cases, but certainly memorable).

Every character should act like a real person who has been shaped and influenced by life. Everyone has been shaped by a past. They should have an automatic reaction to their surroundings. If say, a character was betrayed by a friend, they might have trust issues later on in their life. If they were attacked by dogs as a child, they might end up having a fear of dogs and will be uneasy around them even after counselling and therapy.

Why are you writing a story? What makes you to spend hours upon hours sitting there, trying to put your story into words? We all have something we want to achieve in life, right? We make our decisions to help us get there. We may waver at certain times or even stop chasing it altogether and find something else. Characters should be the same. What motivates a character and guides their decisions?

Adding to this, characters have basic and secondary motivations just like us. Everything that we (and your characters) do, there's something that influences every aspect of our lives, like a fear, desire or need. This includes times when we think we're not using our heads and acting based on instinct. This is called basic motivation.
Secondary motivations represent needs and desires that can be satisfied. If a writer writes books to earn money, they might stop once they're satisfied with the amount of money. This is secondary motivation. If a writer writes books because of their passion, then they would keep on writing even if they have enough money to live comfortably for the rest of their life. This would be the basic motivation that would keep them going.

Characters need to be consistent. If a character has a fear of any type of transportation and gets sick on them, they're not going to willingly ride a train. They can't get over a fear easily when they have to fight while the train is moving. They're going to be sick and be pummeled by their enemy unless someone comes to their rescue or the train stops.   

Not every character will reveal his/her motivations to the reader. Focus on motivations supporting the plot, the ones you want to matter to the reader. Don't go around creating backstories for characters who appear in one scene and putting it in your work. If it helps you make them more realistic, then go ahead and keep it stored away somewhere safe. Think about it like this; readers don't want to read about the person walking by for pages while your main character is crying on a bench.

Every character has their own point of view. We all perceive things differently based on our thoughts, experiences, attitude, memories and emotions. Characters have their own unique views, just like we do. It's very important to know your character's history and background to know their attitude and their perception.  

Every character has more than one problem. Their only problem shouldn't just be the main conflict of the story. They have everyday problems to worry about, just like you and me. Granted, they might be different problems like keeping dwarves from diggy-digging holes under their houses or stopping android prototypes from wreaking havoc in their lab. Just don't give them too many problems or they'll end up stealing the story away from the main conflict.

Characters need to have realistic-sounding voices. Not everyone speaks in proper English while talking to people. Some have accents. If they're immigrants, those who are in their teens and older tend to have slightly accented English (or another language), but children usually learn to speak like they were born in the country and might forget their first language. Some (or most) teenagers use slang and invent new terms. Just go to Urban Dictionary to see some.
No writing dialogue like you're writing a research paper and using fancy-schmancy terminology unless the character has a good reason to, like if they're a researcher trying to explain what they do. 

Another thing to remember is that characters need to grow and develop over the course of the story. It's rather boring if one character who rushes into things without thinking stays the same way by the end. There should be something that makes them think twice about doing that. Maybe someone important to them got hurt as a consequence in the middle of the story. Things like this are what make stories interesting.

One trick I discovered to creating realistic characters is to put them into various situations and watch how they get themselves out of it. Don't just order them what to do, say or think. Let them figure it out. Poke them with sticks and see how they react. Will they cry, yell at you to stop or break the stick (and your arm) in half?
This might end up driving you crazy if your characters develop to the point where they are fully conscious and start judging your life from your brain...no...I'm not saying this from personal experience, what are you talking about? (= _ = ;)

Love Triangles

This post is (kind of) a follow-up on Kaye's post on how not to write romance.  One thing I keep seeing over and over again in young adult fiction is the love triangle. The dreaded, the abominable, the ubiquitous...love triangle.

A love triangle happens when one girl is in love with two guys at once, and can't decide between them (it could happen the opposite way, too, with one guy and two girls, but it's much less common). Both guys are in love with the girl, leaving the girl with a predicament. The girl also loves both the guys. Which should she choose? Oh the horror.

Okay, technically, it wouldn't be a love triangle unless both the guys were in love with each other, too. But I won't go there.

There's my amazing Paint skill coming through, right there.

There's a problem with this, though...have you ever seen a love triangle in real life? No. At least, I haven't. Let's face it: love triangles just don't happen that much in real life. So why should every YA book have one?

This brings me to my next point. Nearly every single YA book these days has a love triangle of some sort. Why? Readers want plot. We don't want to sit there and read about some girl whining because she can't decide who to love. If she loves two guys at once, it can't even be true love, anyways. It's just some extra friendliness and a little lust.

Love triangles are also highly predictable. Have you ever seen the girl end up with the nice, normal guy? No. She always ends up with the supernatural guy. If you're going to write a paranormal romance, someone should shake it up and write a story where the girl doesn't go for the supernatural guy.

I'll be honest. I have formed a deep hatred for love triangles. And for good reason: the vast majority of them are anything but well-executed. But, to be fair, I have read some books that pulled off a fantastic love triangle.

Like Eona: The Last Dragoneye, for example. That's the most convoluted love triangle you'll ever see, my friends. Or The Hunger Games Trilogy.  Also, Kenneth Oppel's This Dark Endeavor has a noteworthy love triangle, because it actually contributes to the plot.   *gasp*

Or the Seven Realms series. That one is amazing, but...you could argue that it's actually a love pentagon. Yeah. (I tried to make a diagram showing this, but failed epically.) Han is (or was) in love with Raisa, who loves him back. Raisa also loved Amon, and Amon did love her back, until he got engaged to someone else. Then there's Reid, who seems to have a thing for Raisa. Love pentagon.

So, amigos...I beg of you...don't write a love triangle, unless you've got a really interesting twist to it, or you can do it like Alison Goodman. And please don't write a love triangle for the sake of a love triangle. That's the last thing the world needs.

This post was originally spotted in the castle at Cair Paravel, aka The Epic, the Awesome, and the Random.