Accepting Your Flaws

Not everyone is a good writer, it's important to recognize this. I had a hard time recognizing this. This is an excerpt of a reflection on my writing from an essay for English 1010:

"Many of the arguments I had with my mom during my middle school years were over my writing quality. I had this idea where I was the best writer in the world and every time someone criticized my work it was because they were jealous. I didn’t know how to take criticism at all, eventually my mom learned how to approach the subject, usually giving me minor things and letting me discover everything else on my own. My teachers tended to come back with similar advice as my mom had given me on my papers, and I would take it better from them, which is something I do not understand to this day. One of the major influences on my writing was my teacher Mrs. Heern who came from another country. She always encouraged me to write and kept up my moral as I began to realize just how horrible my writing really was."

I was dreadful, I can admit it to anyone today and I've learned how to take criticism. It's going to take a while, perhaps you still think your writing is wonderful and this could've been led on by a teacher who wanted to be nice to you because you're a sensitive person. It could be led on by anything, but if you are going to say you are better than every writer out there, then you can never make any spelling mistakes, you can never have holes in your plot, you can never rethink anything that you've written, and people will never find anything wrong with your writing. That's the extent of it. I have a copy of the third Harry Potter book where "Dumbledore" is spelled "Dumblefore" in print. Even the many editors who went over it several times didn't catch it, for this printing. There are people who do have it fixed in their copies, but it still stands in mine as a constant reminder that even the most famous of authors can make mistakes. No famous writer I have ever met/watched has stated they have no room for improvement and that they are the best writer in the world.

I have a distinct feeling many of you reading this are upset at me, perhaps you don't agree with what I'm saying, but just try and send your work to a professional editor or publishing company, it's not an easy journey and you are going to be turned down a million times before someone finally takes pity on you and there's a chance they're a scam. I'm not pretending to be a wonderful writer either, I know there is a lot of holes in my story, but I think my writing is great, wonderful, and me. Accepting your flaws in writing does not mean you beat yourself up, or tear yourself down about your writing. No, that is not going to help you get any better. What helps you get better, is writing even more. Go back and rewrite what you've already got, if you've been writing for two years and only have one story from that time, go back to the beginning, you're bound to find things you want to change or spice up, and this is where you'll start. Something you find in the beginning of your story could very well change the way you write the end of your story.

You have to simply accept the fact you are not the best writer in the world and that there is always room for improvement. Now that I've accepted it, I have the chance to watch how much my writing has changed. I have 2 copies of my novel, the original I had planned on writing without anything really behind it, and the new edition as I re-write the story. I look back often and I sort of laugh at myself for ever thinking my story was grand and brilliant when I know so much more about my world now than I did then. I can't wait for another 2 years when I come back to the edited copy and laugh at myself once more for ever thinking what I'm writing right now is the best-but it is the best for me. It's the best I can do at this point in my life and that's exactly what I need to know.

My point over all of this is: Don't give up. Accept you have flaws. Continue to Improve.

Who Are Your Characters?

A grand question which was hard for me to answer for ages. It's easy to know characters from books you read, but when you have to create your own, who exactly are they? Your characters should be an extension from yourself. I say, they first thing you need to do to figure out who your characters are, is talk to them. You may say I'm insane, or ask me how that would help, but I believe if you do not talk to yourself then you are not a writer. A writer has to be someone who could be put in an insane asylum because they appear to have multiple personalities, but the difference is, they are still considered a part of society which will not harm you further than your feelings.

I love the site springhole.net, especially the generators they have available. It helped me out a lot and I will be pulling from things I learned there to help you create your characters.

So you've been talking to your characters, hopefully they've replied back because if they haven't you can't move forward. Once you've had some good conversation with them, you're bound to know some of their personality and part of their back story. Write down what you know about them, start from when they were a child and work to what age they are at now/when your novel takes place. Now you know their back story from age 0 to 19, let's say for this, and you are ready to get writing. Not yet, this is not enough information about them.

What kind of society do they live in? This is going to play a major role on who your character is and who they have yet to become. Define your society and see how it has shaped your character in their past, start planning part of your plot so you know how they will react as they grow older.

Do they come from any kind of culture? If they do, you're going to need to do some research. Let's say your character is a Russian living in America, he knows English but he obviously has an accent. Find out what a Russian accent sounds like, be able to portray it whenever he speaks. Also, people from other countries tend to know the English word but will say it in Russian from time to time, the most common are "yes" and "no." If he's asked a question in which he can use either of these two words, he's going to be likely to reply "da" or "nyet." The wh sound in words will also come out sound like a v, so if you want to make it a little more realistic for your readers, then change some or all of them to a v instead. It's like how J.K. Rowling portrayed Viktor Krum and Fleur Delacour because their first language was not English, so she made them have an accent in her writing.

The final step is now knowing how they might react in certain situations. Put them in a white room and see how they respond in your head, write down your observations.

It's also safe to say, you should know when your story is taking place and when every character's birthday is so you can cover it if you so desire. Some people will choose not to speak about birthday's, but the character's still have them and the author knows exactly when they are.

Now, for the final step on creating your character. There is a template for figuring out some minor things about your character:

Courteous: 

Risk-Taking:

Ambitious:

Curious:

Self-Controlled:

Nurturing:

Trusting:

Honest:

Loyal:

Affectionate:

Romantic:

Flirty:

Sympathetic:

Altruistic:

Optimistic:

Observant:

Logical:

Social:

Emotions:

These are not simple "yes or no" questions either, so don't get too ahead of yourself saying this is "easy." You are going to put a more in depth answer to all of these and it will take some time and possibly more observations of your character. For most of these you can answer with: always, usually, sometimes, occasionally, not really, never. Others may require something more along the lines of: thrives on it, hidden, very, definitely, okay with it, scared, hates it (these might apply to social or emotions).

I put all of my character information in a note on the original text document where I'm writing, as well as in a separate document where it is easier to view. I set it up so I have their name, what their life was like, minor information, culture, how they respond, birthday. It looks much like this:

Catrina: Catrina was born in England and her family moved to America when she was a child. There is a group of people called the etc. etc. etc.

Courteous: Rarely, Risk-Taking: Rarely, Ambitious: Rarely, Curious: Rarely, Self-Controlled: Usually, Nurturing: Never, Trusting: Rarely, Honest: Always, Loyal: Usually, Affectionate: Rarely, Romantic: Mostly, Flirty: Always, Sympathetic: Rarely, Altruistic: Sometimes, Optimistic: Barely, Observant: Sometimes, Logical: Always, Social: Not Really, Emotions: Hidden.

Catrina's Culture: how the place she came from affects her, some things which differ between America and Great Britain, food preferences, etc.

How they react in this situation: they scream and clutch their head.

Birthday: June 25, 1972

It'll take some time, but it's nice to have a reference, especially since I won't have to remember millions of words or tiny pieces of culture which goes with each character 100% of the time.

Finding Your Setting

A large part of even beginning to write your novel, is your setting. Some people choose to have a vague idea of their setting so it can evolve with the characters, others like to meticulously plan it out until they have everything in place before setting their characters down inside it. Whether you are either person, at one point you are going to come to a place where you need to know the ins and outs of your setting before you can continue any further.

I speak from experience. I was working on one of my stories with a slight idea of where everything was going on, a big building with a Greek Mythological Mount Olympus feel, maybe with the Parthenon at the top, but more of an academic looking school with a whole society living under it. The outside was made out of rich materials which would cost millions of dollars and the inside was made of white walls and no color. That was all I had, I didn't know anything else about my world and I got stuck quite quickly.

After six chapters of useless information I will use maybe half of (if I'm lucky), I realized I needed a foundation. I needed a fully worked out setting, the laws of where I was working, the looks, the feel, the technology, everything. I've been working on creating a guide line for my own future stories so I will fully know my setting before I start another writing project.

How to Create a Setting:

1. What are the people like?
While you may think your people have nothing to do with your setting, they have a large part to do with it. Don't name any of them, don't give them any personalities, just look at them.
-Are your people human?
If so, do they live on Earth or are in they in some other universe, planet, science center, space station?
-Are you creating a new race?
They have blue skin, but they have a human body, perhaps they have a tail. Give them a scientific name. Homo aer or Homo cauda.
Imagine your people, your race, your characters and form a world for them or use an already created one in which they can be placed.

2. Creation Myths.
Every world has a story of creation, Earth has many. Science will explain it one way, while religious texts will portray another more spiritual or meaningful way based on their people and culture. I never knew how my world was created, I took a mixture of science and then the race I had created helped along what science had done for it. It all started with Pangea on Earth. Find your creation myth, how did your world form, where was the start of a different kind of people. Are there people who may have caused it, maybe there was a war.

3. Now you have your people, you have your creation myth, what does the world look like?
If you've chosen Earth, this could be an easy subject, however, you'll have a much harder time perhaps if you want to include many cultures when you create your characters. If you are on Earth, then choose a city, a state, a province, a country, wherever you'd like to place it based on your loose ideas for your plot. If you're going to create a world all your own, then plan how big it is. Is the planet flat, circular? Do your characters walk everywhere, are they primitive, do they choose to be primitive? Think the process through very carefully.

4. Now you have your place, what do the houses look like? Where are you characters going to live?
You can choose based on photos or drawings from different time periods, you create something entirely your own, or perhaps your people don't live in homes. You have full creative range with this unless you are writing a historical fiction, because then you should line up the existing time period with what you are writing. Research time! You may hate research, but it's a necessary part to writing. I used to hate doing research, but then I started to enjoy it when I began to pick places and time periods I like. I once printed out 16 pages of research on pirates alone just so I could accurately write an AU (alternate universe) Harry Potter FanFiction in which Lily Evans is a pirate. It absolutely fascinated me, I highlighted, underlined, wrote notes. and pretty much murdered every inch of those 16 pages until I found exactly what I wanted for my story.

5. Now you have the lay of the land, but who or what rules it?
Do you have a monarchy, a dictatorship, a system like America. If you're setting this in a certain time period or a place, then look up what kind of a ruling system the country has/had. If you're creating it, you get to decide, so do more research, find what would best suit the people you are going to be writing about. This should not be taken lightly as it may be impossible to change later on.

6. Now you have your ruling class, what kind of laws do your people have to abide by?
There are laws for every people, every religion, every anything. There will also be retribution if you fall out of line, so what punishments are the people given if they do not abide by these rules. This can often be the most fun part if you are creating it yourself rather than doing, yet again, more research about the area.

7. Laws, ruling class, people, planet, area, buildings, everything seems pretty well rounded up. Yet, there is another part; what is the culture?
Every country or parts of the same country will have a different culture. Just look at how much America is split up. the North is different from the South, the East from the West, Utah to California... There are endless possibilities and every where has such different background from what you might expect. Look up the culture if you don't know it, create your own, mix several known cultures together, whatever you'd like. Just make sure it fits with the land you've created, you can't have a conflicting culture or there won't be harmony.

8. Last part of figuring out your setting, language. This may not seem like a big part of setting, but it is. What language do your characters speak?
Perhaps they have several different languages, are they required to learn them in school, from their families, does the government train them, do they automatically know them because of some magical force? We don't know, but you definitely do. Take some time to figure out just what their language might be, because maybe they won't know all the languages like you will, but they could learn them.

Take the time to play around with your setting, if you start to write and something feels off, go back through your notes and research and tweak what you have. It may not be perfect on the first run through. If you want to know more, put yourself in an interview situation. Try and explain what you have to someone and then let them ask questions where they might be confused, then answer them in detail and take note of what you say. If you don't have anyone to help you with this, then ask yourself. Maybe there's something even you don't fully understand, so ask yourself and wait patiently for an answer as you never know when one might come to you. Keep trying and remember, this is just an outline so you don't have to follow it step for step, but they are some great things to consider when creating your world.

Let me know what you think down in the comments below, call me out on some points if you disagree, throw in your own advice for creating a setting, whatever you want. Maybe you agreed with the process, tell me. I'll discuss anything with you guys in the comments below.

Until next time!