POV: How to Fix Head Hopping

Tags

close third, editing advice, editing tips, head hopping, omniscient, POV shift, Sherrily Kenyon, writing advice, writing technique, writing tips

I had this post requested a while ago, and I couldn’t figure out how to put it into words at first. But as I’ve been writing lessons for a mentoring program I’m working on, I finally figured it out.

So here it goes.

First, head hopping is when we dip into more than one character’s POV in a single scene. This isn’t omniscient POV, but rather a switch between close-third perspectives.

Most editors advise against head-hopping because when we switch mid-scene, we’re not often warned that the change has occurred, and the reader is more likely to grow confused. My argument is that writers should do their best to structure of everything clearly so that the work happens in creating imagery out of language, and the reader can delve into the world instead of staying on the surface to decipher what’s happening and where.

Now, it’s been said that head hopping is more acceptable in romance and erotica because the relationship is more important than the characters individually. It helps increase tension to have access to both of their thoughts.

Do I write my romance/erotic fiction this way? No. I’m not convinced. I have seen romance writers do this successfully, like Sherrilyn Kenyon does in her Dark Hunter series, but overall, I’m not a fan of it. It confuses me too often, and I have a harder time connecting with a particular character.

So, with that out of the way, let’s talk about how we identify head hopping.

The best way to identify is to categorize, or color code, a first draft. It’s easiest to do this to a first draft so that you don’t waste time making the parts you cut and have to redraft pretty.

You can color code on a printed copy or in your word processer. Simply section highlight the parts of the story that dip into a character’s POV. This will be their internal thoughts/dialogue, the analysis of the scene or characters, and their opinions of/reactions to what’s happening in the story.

Here’s an example:

Jennifer rushed into the room, adrenaline numbing her legs and burning her lungs. The giant’s destructive footsteps didn’t shake this far into the farmland, yet.

Her hair fell from her ponytail as she swung the door closed and grabbed for everything she thought might be valuable on the move.

Frank didn’t know yet, that a giant fell from a beanstalk that’d grown overnight on the other side of the city, so he shook his head and poured another cup of coffee. What is she looking for?

Note how we’ve gone from inside of Jennifer—as she’s the only one who knows about the giant—to inside of Frank, who doesn’t understand why she’s rummaging through their stuff. There are several places where small tweaks can keep this in Jennifer’s POV.

Jennifer rushed into the room, adrenaline numbing her legs and burning her lungs. The giant’s destructive footsteps didn’t shake this far into the farmland, yet.

Her hair fell from her ponytail, teasing the corners of her eyes, as she swung the door closed and grabbed for everything that might be valuable on the move.

A giant fell from a beanstalk that’d grown overnight on the other side of the city.

Frank, her husband, shook his head and poured a cup of coffee in the small, attached kitchen. “What are you looking for?”

In this version, no one needs to tell us that Frank doesn’t know about the giant, we can see that he doesn’t by his external reaction to her. The rest is a reflection of Jennifer’s reaction to her situation: she saw the giant; she’s freaked out; she’s searching; she places who Frank is for us; and she hears him ask the question.

This creates clarity for the reader to experience the situation rather than being told about it, another reason to stay in POV. Readers like to put the pieces together because they’re smart.

Another clue of a POV shift is description. If the character is describing themselves physically, we’ve shifted out of their POV. The camera-effect shifts us into the omniscient perspective. We can’t see ourselves, except in mirrors, and that’s often a cliché technique.

This may be a pesky task the first few times you try it, but seeing a draft in colors rather than chapters helps separate us from the story to see its parts.

Once you have the whole thing color-coded—or the parts you’ve identified as problematic—see what color is most present in the scene/chapter. That’s likely the POV character for that scene and the rest should shift to his or her perspective. Some of it may not make it. If it’s an important detail, find another way to include it—dialogue, a new scene in the other character’s POV, some prop that can provide the information needed.

Sometimes, all you need to do is split a scene in two and allow more than one character to describe what’s going on and fill in the gaps. I often like the tension that comes in a mid-scene cut to the other perspective. It’s a nice trick to use every now and again.

Well, there’s my opinion and advice.

How do you identify and/or fix head hopping? When do you feel like it works or doesn’t work? Got any questions? Let me know in the comments below.

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The Woes of Retitling Works-in-Progress

Tags

Buffy, how to title your novel, Lucifer's Daughter, Paranormal high school, Parody, satire, title generator, Twilight, writing advice, YA Paranormal

So, I still don’t have an official title for my new novel—the one I’m almost done writing, the one that is separate from my other series, the one that reeks of parody and satire.

When I started the Lily Graves Series, I was ripe with references to other paranormal high school books, tv shows, movies…Buffy, Twilight, Harry Potter…and mixed them with other fantasy, mythological, and religious references, like Snow White, Supernatural, Adam & Eve, Lucifer, and the War in Heaven.

This book is choking on lore and creatures. I’ve grouped them into thirteen general categories: Angels, Demons, Gods, Chimera, Shifters, Elementals, Fey, Ghosts, Muses, Reapers, Vampires, Witches, and The Law. They all break down further, and that’s part of the fun. Lily Graves is the new REP-agent-in-training, and she’s only fourteen. Product of Lucifer and a top-notch geneticist, she’s tasked herself with learning the intricacies of the new social hierarchy she’s been dumped into.

Cue the snark and teenage angst. Lily is witty and can throw a quip as well as she can kick her soccer ball, but she has no idea how to control the arch angel power eager to escape her. Then pair her with a power-tripping demon mentor, Adam, who’s made sarcasm and punishing students an Olympic sport. Add her two besties: the teenage version of my husband, Evan—a leather-clad, evil genius with a pet dragon and a strange sense of moral and intellectual superiority; and Starr, the glamourous Snow White whose desperate to be taken seriously as a smart young woman rather than a bombshell with breeding.

I have so many other fun characters, like Thorn—*coughs* Spike.

See, we’re all just having fun here.

Now, I should really figure out what to name this thing. I might need some help…

 

The Officially Almost Completed Back Cover Blurb

Lily is the daughter of Lucifer, a mother she’s never met.

When she’s laughed off the soccer field, Lily’s delivered to her FBI uncle and a new, paranormal, high school where she’ll be trained to keep other creatures in line.

Gaining few allies under the thumb of her obsessive mentor, she struggles to prove that something more is going on in their little town than the anyone wants to admit.

If you like the innocence of Twilight, the snark from Buffy, and the wit of the Lunar Chronicles, you’ll be engrossed by Alisha Costanzo’s new dark and satirical YA series.

Read Lucifer’s Daughter and fall into a world worse than hell—welcome back to high school.

 

As you can see at first, I was thinking Lucifer’s Daughter, but other authors have published that book in the time since I announced its name, so I’m brainstorming again…

The Amateur Sleuth

or

The Girl with the Glowing Hair

Want to help me decide? Comment below or vote on my facebook poll.

Guilty of Goal Goldbricking.

Tags

back on track, get shit done, goals, guilt, NaNoWriMo, procrastination, tips, writing, writing goals

Let’s talk about goals.

I made a lot for this month, and I tried for the first half to keep on track, but as usual, I got caught up with life and my family, and now, I’m behind. A thousand-words-a-day behind.

But let me say something about goals and procrastination. The only thing that will keep me from finishing this is me. Getting behind doesn’t mean giving up, and I’m happy, frankly, that I’m getting anything done, as I’d let this story sit dormant for almost a year as other projects took over. I’m okay with the other three sitting and waiting for this one to get done, since it, too, will have to sit and wait to be edited afterwards.

Nanowrimo, for me, is designed to kick my rear back into action so that I can get my own creative work done because the rest of the year will be devoted to editing.

So, as long as I keep going, I’ll get my shit done and meet my goals.

Without the guilt of not getting it done sooner.

Are you participating in Camp Nanowrimo? Link me to your project below.

Not participating but still have massive goals to meet? Tell me about them and your tricks for staying on track.

The Past Life Paradigm

Tags

atlantis, Broken World, Ever After, goddess, past lives, Pride and Prejudice, reincarnation, Sale, thirteen

Hello, lovelies.

I wanted to talk about Ria. Oh, Ria. That poor girl had no chance at a normal life. Between her abnormal birth, sharing a soul with her mother, and being the reincarnation of the Atlantean goddess, Meleia, it’s no wonder Ria’s got a shit storm to work through.

With that in mind, I wanted to give y’all a peek at Ria’s past lives as they are a major part of her story. So here is the quick list:

Meleia—goddess of chaos (8100 BCE)

Isura—Mesopotamia (5512 BCE)

Bianca—Italy (4027 BCE)

Niabi—Japan (1377BCE)

Colista—Greece (184 CE)

Sura—Germany (481 CE)

Benny—Spanish (714 CE)

Valarie—French (933 CE)

Zyanya—China (1212 CE)

Sophia—Ireland (1416 CE)

Layla—Scotland (1632 CE)

Dashay—Jamaica (1799 CE)

Tatiana—America (1969 CE)

It’s a long list. Thirteen past lives in all, which is linked to the chaos from her original form, or maybe because thirteen is an unlucky number. Either way, it’s my favorite. (I’m a serious lover of Friday the thirteenth—the day, not the movies. Although…)

Now, the author honesty. I don’t know much more about these women than I’ve created them in the books. Well, with a few exceptions. Ria’s mother, Tatiana, is forming herself in my fire story, featuring Ria’s father. I know a bit more about Bianca and Colista and Layla than I’ve let y’all in on.

I feel as though Layla is my most interesting of the women—the most independent and vulnerable. Maybe it’s because she reminds me a bit of Cinderella—of Drew Barrymore’s version in Ever After—and of Lizzie from Pride & Prejudice. She takes on her role as the eldest-daughter-turned-mother when her parents died in the Great Plague of Edinburgh along with two of her siblings.

At thirteen, she had to navigate a devastated city to feed her three remaining brothers and sisters. And for the next four years, she struggles to do so every day, until she meets a man who eventually takes care of her…but he vanishes a decade later.

If you haven’t guessed it, and maybe you haven’t because you don’t know Ria’s story, but that man was Gene (whom I like to think of as my Mr. Darcy), and Layla is the spitfire that pops up when the two of them are fighting.

This is because of the fire in Layla from the life she was dealt and her ability to adapt. Ria has a lot of the same characteristics but could learn a lot from Layla still.

Before I turn this into some twisted circle of babbling, let me wrap this up.

Want to know more about these past life connections? Feel free to ask me questions!

And check out the first novel in my series, it’s on sale for 99 cents to celebrate my upcoming installment in the series on May 9^th.

Drop the Deets: My tip for eliminating pesky dialogue tags

Tags

details, dialogue tags, dont just dont, editing, how to, humor, pet peeve, showing not telling, triggered, writers, writing

Hi, I’m Alisha, and I don’t like dialogue tags.

Aware that a great many readers and writers could give two shits about when, where, how often, and which dialogue tags are used, they rile me up.  Plain and simple.

Let me show you why.

First, to clarify, dialogue tags are necessary. They keep us on track when characters have extended conversations. And if said or asked is used to do this, they essentially become invisible. No problem here. Use them to assign a speaker—sparingly.

Now, where I get to be a bit of an editing snob: if your readers can’t tell the difference between most of your characters when they speak, this means other issues need addressed. However, the below suggestions can help with that stage of revision, too.

Next, cut the fluffy, telling dialogue tags. The ones that say how someone speaks rather than earning the true emotion of the speaker.  I’m talking about growled, mumbled, whispered, and hissing, etc. Side note, don’t have characters’ hiss without at least a few s-words. Yes, I’ve seen it, and yes, it’s infuriating. Or, god forbid, the use of adverbs to indicate these things, like he said wistfully or she said teasingly. Don’t. Just don’t.

The trick is to drop details between dialogue to nix these and develop scene, character, and tension.

Develop scene by scattering descriptions when a pause is needed. If you struggle setting scene, as I often have issue with, this is a great place for small details: a loud, neon pink duvet; the rubber frog stuck in an inner-tube on the bookshelf; a sun-bleached couch hidden in the tall grass. Be specific, use details that differentiate the scene or that reflect what the characters are thinking about.

This type of detailing helps slow down a tense scene where a lot of dialogue takes place. If you want the tension to grow, let the reader dwell on what’s said by providing sensory input that heightens the feel of the scene.

Also, to slow down and deepen tensions means providing internalization. We don’t simply talk and listen during a conversation. We digest and respond to the other person. Maybe your characters are on the same page, and their blood is pumping, their excited, and they’re thinking, Yes! Yes, finally someone who isn’t a moron. They get it. Thus, when they respond verbally with, “I absolutely agree,” you won’t need to dump why they agree into their conversation. It’s not needed. The reader feels the same.

But maybe, the characters are not in agreement with each other, and they’re trying to navigate unfriendly territory without slitting each other’s throats. Then amidst the conversation, your POV character might think to himself, This guy. How do they keep making this guy? All slick and shiny with his clichéd euphemisms and shoddy tan. Forget this, I won’t buy from him. All the while, the other guy is selling him a used car—persistent beyond normal pleasantries.

If you’ve met people that you connect with or dislike immediately, you know the emotion that comes with this, but readers should get a taste, too. Hence, internalizing. This doesn’t just mean thoughts. It means physical reactions, too. The heat of anger, the cold of fear, the frenzy of adrenaline, the gooeyness of love. Throw some of that in there, too. Steer clear of the clichés with personification or metaphor.

Finally, show a bit more character, beyond scene and internalization are other senses that we can appeal to, other details that we can drop. Build a character slowly through a conversation. First, notice the elaborate ring on the old man’s middle finger that seems to glow strangely when the sun hits it right. Then when he speaks of a long-gone lover, show how his dark eyes shine, glossy with a deep pain that crinkles when he looks away. Catch a whiff of his cologne, astringent with undertones of grease and cedar. Finally, the notch in his ear, twisting his lobe that you didn’t notice under the shadow of his hat until he leaned forward.

We don’t see everything about a person at once. If we did, life would be boring, and when we do it in writing, our stories grow boring. And don’t merely show us things. Make us feel them, taste them, and smell them.

Don’t be afraid to give your characters’ tics—picking at their nails, rubbing their hands together, tugging at their shirt hem—we all have tells for our emotions. The reader might not know exactly why a character keeps spinning their ring around their finger, but the writer should, and they should show it.

Let me know your tips and tricks for eliminating dialogue tags and world-building. Or disagree with me, I can take it.

Daydreaming in Ink

Tags

addiction, bujo, bullet journal, daydreaming, do it yourself, ink, inspiration, planners, project planning, tracker, washitape, writing

I may be a wee bit addicted to planning and notebooks…and pens…and paper…and markers…okay, I’m just a big kid who likes to daydream in ink.

But I’ve finally found a way to make it work in my favor.

See, the internet has blown up with this new planning market in the last few years—for real, go check out YouTube or Pinterest or Instagram and drown in the bombardment of it. I love every bit of it, too, and probably consume more of it than I should, but that’s not really the point…is it?

No, seriously, it’s not. Step off my walnut.

So, I’ve been planning for the last year, mixing a multitude of formats and systems to make sure I break down my big plans and don’t forget any of those small steps…you know, the ones that come back and bite you in the ass at the last second.

Without any further side-tracking, hopefully, let me show you.

Here are three examples of my main project tracker, the one that shows me the entire project from start to finish in one page. It reminds me of my important tasks and allows me to track my progress and mark things out.

The simple ability to fill in my word count or how many chapters I’ve edited in a manuscript helps me feel like I’m accomplishing something even though I know I have a long way to go.

And these babies are new to me this year, after months of struggling to balance my tracking, so I’m excited to finally complete one of these. (Hint: the green one, Blood Phoenix: Imprinted should by full by the end of next quarter, to include publishing and promotion and giveaways and a whole lot of jazz. Squee.) You can see I have a whole lot sitting there in one place.

Here’s another way I help track from month to month to be sure I’m completing the tasks from my project list.

This I took from Lisa Jacobs. I bought her workbook, Your Best Year 2017, and this allows me to take the chunking from my project plans—in conjunction with my marketing and publishing outlines—and implement them into each week of the month so I know when I need that little shit done by to stay on target.

Let me be honest, I don’t always stick to this. Life happens, shit gets shifted around, but now, I know when I’ve missed stuff and can figure out how to finish those things and keep moving forward.

It also lets me know when I have to let some tasks go. I have big dreams and big plans, and I pile a lot onto my own plate. So when I miss something consistently, I know it’s not meant to happen for a particular project. And that’s fine. I’ll try it next time.

Well, that’s it. That’s how I’ve made my tendency to goof off and doodle and journal into a productive and rewarding practice. Best of all, I really love doing it.

What do you do to plan out your creative projects? Do you have creative energy that you channel in your favor? Tell me about it.

Closing Circles: My ultimate project timeline

Tags

2017, bullet journal, closing circles, editing tips, plan, project tracker, Timeline, writing tips

This last week, sick with some extra ick had its grubby grip on my faculties. Luckily, I had a blessed four-day weekend and spent some much-needed time writing in a personal project.

I’m pretty much the example of why writers shouldn’t have multiple projects going at once. I jump back and forth across multiple works, add to that the editing and the teaching, it may make a bit of sense as to why I operate like plate spinner.

I will say that I typically only write one project at a time—at least, one book. Short stories, sure, I can juggle a few. This is also the product of my master’s degree in creative writing. Deadlines are deadlines after all.

So why the hell am I talking about it? Because too often, we writers and editors spout advice and our own stories with a great deal of confidence and certainty. I don’t want to come off like my way is the right way or the only way. It’s simply the way I do things, and my process changes depending on my project.

But in all of them, planning has come in handy—even though I consider myself a panster.

Ultimately, I wanted to share the new way I track my projects for the year.

 

This is my yearly projects at a glance, so I know when I should be doing what. This includes the planning, writing, editing, pre- and post-marketing, when to ask for help, and when to launch. This baby has all of the basics.

You’ll notice I limit myself to four projects on any given month. They’re in varying places of production to keep me from trying to create too much at once or edit too much at once, etc.

I will also be tracking the realities of my work ethic and ability to keep to deadlines. So far, I’m pretty close.

But it is just January.

How are you staying on track for your 2017 closing circles goals?

Closing Circles: A peek at my four-step planning process.

Tags

#ClosingCircles, ahea, bullet journal, goals, marketing plan, project management, publishing, Timeline, to-do list

If you follow my business partner, co-editor and co-publisher at Transmundane Press, you’ve heard of this process of closing circles. If you haven’t, you should really follow him.

Anyways, here’s Anthony’s plan:

• Figure out what projects are worthy of completion
• Organize and Prioritize
• Follow through

His goal is to clear his slate before starting new projects.

My plan is a long-term plan, a now-until-2030 plan. Everything I start is important enough to finish. The steps are a bit different. It’s just the way I think and plan and process. Which is not to say that I don’t have small, lingering unfinished stories and projects, but they’re on my list. And when the time is right, I will finish them.

Here’s my plan:

• Brainstorm and list making
• Create a timeline
• Break list down into actionable tasks
• Follow through

I use a series of planners and white boards and post-it notes to help me. I’ve mentioned and posted videos about the system called bullet journaling, but I’ve never shown mine.

So, here’s my system.

• Brainstorm and list making

I do this in several places, like I said above, I have notes and lists everywhere.

Much like Anthony, I need to decide which are priorities and which projects can wait, but for this part of my process, I prefer to jot down EVERYTHING lingering in my mind. Every connection I can make between characters and plot points that might generate an interesting story. I don’t want to dismiss anything.

I know this seems counterintuitive for closing circles and finishing projects, but if I don’t know the possibilities available, I can’t plan my future properly.

I also use this system to keep track of my marketing plan and ideas.

And here’s one of my planning partners, Tecnn, and yes, he’s as big as he looks at 28 pounds of black, furry flubber. He loves to help me read, write, and edit as well.

 

• Create a timeline

I work with a strict timeline for my series, and I have a lot of characters that demand stories. And they all take place at the same time.

Here’s a peak at my ideal write/publish plan until 2030.

For business purposes, I keep another timeline of my writing with other publications, including Anthony’s, to keep our press on schedule. This also allows me to know when I can devote time to writing, editing, and marketing for each project.

 

• Break list down into actionable tasks

Obviously, the next thirteen years is a long time to plan out, so I work in the next five years, the next year, its quarters, months, and weeks.

You can see how I brainstormed my next year’s projects and the major steps needed to complete them. Then I divided these steps into quarters so that I know when I need each step completed by. From here, I work out my quarter and my month, becoming increasingly smaller and more specific until I come to my weekly planning.

 

• Follow through

I track my progress to keep myself accountable. I can only re-write the same task so many times before I feel guilty for not having it done already.

Weekly planning works the best for me as I can slip the rest of my life into the days on the left and keep a tracking page for the week on the right. Note how I track when I work on my craft, my job, and my goals. I also categorize my weekly tasks: business, create, plan. The rest is personal tracking for my health and my family and my home.

Finally, I also break down projects, like my novel or blog post planning and tracking. Honestly, if I hadn’t had this process for AHEA, I’d probably still be editing and planning rather than marketing and selling, which again, I also track. I have to note everything or I don’t remember what works and what doesn’t.

Share your process for planning and completing projects with the hashtag #ClosingCircles.

The Almost-Death of an Over-Zealous Editor: the After the Happily Ever After official release

Tags

#fracturedfairytales, ahea, Author Feature, closing circles, new release, Transmundane Press

It’s here! It’s here! It’s finally here!

<Collapses on the floor from exhaustion. Mumbles to self and takes a nap.>

I’ve been taking a lot of those lately as I’ve neared the end of the semester and the completion of this gigantically massive anthology. If you follow me on social media, you’ve seen this cover and heard me talk about this project and its size.

Well, it’s finally here, and I damn-near killed myself doing it…Anthony, too…

But, I am so, so proud of this beast. I’m proud of the cover art, of the interior art, of each and every story, and that I finally completed my submission…four days before publication. Yeah.

My authors have especially made me proud. They’ve joined together to create a community, and the genuine appreciation that they’ve shown Anthony and me for the work it took to wrangle this beautiful thing together…it truly was a pleasure to get to know them and watch so many grow.

And one last thing before I flee to the sleepy languor that is a completed project and a closed circle. Thank you to those who supported the Kickstarter. Thank you to those who bought the first twenty signed, Limited-Edition Hardbacks. And as a thank you, we’re selling the e-book at a discount until New Years.

Here it is: Limited-Edition Hardback  |  Paperback  |  Kindle

As a thank you to Claudia Quint, who has been holding interviews with the other contributors on her blog, here, we’ve created our first-ever special author feature in our Transmundane Press Newsletters. It’s coming out tomorrow, so sign up now.

Hugs & Kisses, lovelies.

Writing Tip: How to write a strong-female protagonist.

Tags

Arya Stark, blood phoenix, bossy, Broken World, character, complex, contradiction, fantasy, feminine, Game of Thrones, gender roles, Gwendoline, horror, kaia, Katniss, kick ass, love-triangle, Loving Red, Maleficent, mocking jay, motherly, nurture, paranormal, Peeta, protagonist, rebellion, renegade, Ria, strong, strong-female, The Hunger Games, trend, urban fantasy, vampire, warrior, water boarding, writing, writing tips

Writing Tip: How to write a strong-female protagonist.

First, I am not advocating that there is a single, right way to write a strong-female lead; however, I have noticed a rather disturbing trend in the practice, and that’s to make the female strong by inhabiting male characteristics, as deemed by society: i.e. to be physically strong, good with weapons, and to be a good leader (otherwise known as bossy), and the list continues.

However, you might imagine a male as strong, yes, a female can be strong in these ways as well. But why can’t a female character be strong and still be feminine—a woman who uses her emotions to carry her through a taxing adventure, who has mercy, who is smart and resourceful, who can nurture at the same time she kicks ass. Why not? Why do these gender roles have to be mutually exclusive?

Granted, we are starting to see these types of characters. The ever-popular Katniss from The Hunger Games series embodies a nice mixture of so-called male and female traits. She’s motherly. Her strong moments come when she is a woman, emotional, compassionate, bossy, resourceful. They even highlight these in the last installment when a group of leaders try to decide how to transform her into the mocking jay for the rebellion.

She even lacks a certain silliness that many female characters have (especially when a love-triangle is present, although some of my friends disagree with my interpretation). She doesn’t seem focused on her love life, rather she seems at a loss of why who she chooses matters when the world has larger problems.

For heaven’s sake, why can’t we all just get along! I imagine her screaming as the boys compete for and try to woo her. She seems disinterested in being some boy’s prize, rather using her public romance with Peeta as a political move. (This one is strangely genderless).

Okay, I like examples, let me give some of my own.

In my first series, based on a renegade vampire’s introduction to the paranormal world, my main character is a brat. She’s strong-headed, strong-willed, and she can fight (having a background in kick-boxing/martial arts). She can take care of herself and has for years, with the help of her bestie. She’s also emotional, breaking down several times as the monstrosity of her new world rains down on her. She feels compassion for the people she kills, worries over the others she leaves alive, and cares for a child meant to be her dinner. Is all of this strictly male or female? No. Ria’s complex, like a character should be, because people are complex.

In another novel, my female character is strong in other ways. Although she goes through some physical trials, like being water boarded, she isn’t physically strong. She’s got the mental fortitude of a warrior, however. She’s brave, she stands up for what’s right, she uses what she knows to survive. She’s allowed to be both smart and beautiful, allowed to cry and joke, allowed to be stern and unsure of herself. Kaia is allowed to be a contradiction.

Again, we’re all complex. We’re all contradictions of ourselves given the different situations we’re challenged with.

So, what I’m saying is that not all strong women need to be warriors, like that blonde Amazon in Game of Thrones, Gwendoline; they don’t all need to be wicked like Maleficent or out for revenge like Arya Stark. They don’t all need to be Katniss.

We need variation because we all have the propensity to be strong in our own ways if we have strength in our character and our beliefs (even if that makes us the bad guy). And we need to showcase these differences for the same reasons we need different personalities for different story plots.

Oh, and the same goes for men. But that’s a different post.

 

Want to meet my strong-female protagonists? Click here.