If you’re not into any kind of writing, then this is highly likely to not be the blog for you.
Ya think???
How and Why Does Writing Speak to Us?
The written word is something that we have in common with the ancient Egyptians, with people on the other side of the planet, and with celebrities who we will never meet.
Fiction writing, in particular, bridges gaps in the world, and through time. Have you ever read something written by an author who is long dead?
Whether it’s Jane Eyre or The Art of War, we can hear the author’s voice as we read (and yes, I am well aware that The Art of War isn’t fiction. I’m kind of tired, okay?).
But I digress.
Independent Writers Do It All
When we do it well, and we do it right, the indie author wears many hats. Researcher. Editor. Planner. Marketer. Cover artist (or at least hirer of the cover artist). Bookkeeper. Advertiser. Tax Preparer.
Indy writing is a small business. So, like it or not, you’ve got to know these things, or be able to hire someone who does.
Past, Present, and Future Authoring
One of the best things about authoring is the concept of eternity. Now, I don’t honestly expect anything I write to end up being studied in college or becoming movie fodder. But it is still there, and it can be there forever if you can (and are willing to) preserve it.
This is why I encourage publishing, by the way, even if you never make a dime.
A Show for the Galaxy takes place now or in the somewhat near future. When aliens challenge us, we expect a fight with soldiers, bombs, and guns.
But that’s not what the aliens have in mind at all.
I wrote this story during second quarter 2021. This was a year when I was writing every day, even when it wasn’t November.
Background
The Earth has two choices. Either participate in an interstellar arts competition, or lose an opportunity to join a huge intergalactic alliance. While it would not necessarily mean the end of the world, self-destruction would be inevitable without interstellar friendship.
Essentially, the fate of the world is going to be decided just like American Idol.
Plot
When the story opens, Charlotte (the narrator) describes the stakes and the production. A number of actors and behind the scenes people are chosen to represent the Earth in stagecraft.
There are other arts to represent the Earth, like sculpture and weaving. But the story is only concerned with treading the boards.
When the troupe is cut off from the grid, the cast falls into despair. They have no scripts! But then Charlotte pulls out her secret weapon—a small volume of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, which she always carries around for luck.
Charlotte has gravitas. She was already a retiree when the alien challengers chose her. And so, she ends up in a director-type role. But it’s also because she has the script.
Characters
The characters start with narrator Charlotte, who is playing Portia. The man playing Brutus is Chase Marquis, who was born Chuck McKay. Charlotte finds him attractive, but she keeps her hands to herself. After all, he’s young enough to be her son.
And, of course, there are the other people in the production and those who work behind the scenes. Plus, there are people who represent other arts on our planet. But Charlotte never names them.
There’s also President Menosky, although we only see him at the very end.
Memorable Quotes
All the others are far younger than I am. And—horrors!—we were cut off from the grid.
With no way to access scripts, my fellow thespians started to panic. That is, until I pulled out my secret weapon.
See, it was a gift from when I first started out. My acting teacher gave it to me. Now I realize she was probably hitting on me. But no mind. I kept it because I’ve always loved this play. And now, it’s the only game in town.
I’ve got a paper book. It’s Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. And thank God we can create an entire production around this little, humble book.
I was in several productions, and I’ve always played Portia, so of course I am playing her again. My Brutus is an afternoon snack of a man—Chase Marquis. Or, as he was born, Chuck McKay.
I’ve taken on a kind of director role; and thank God they all listen to me. We’ll put on the best and greatest production of Julius Caesar in the history of whatever.
Or we’ll die trying.
Rating for A Show for the Galaxy
The story has a K rating.
Takeaways for A Show for the Galaxy
I originally start to write Charlotte as almost a cougar. But then I decided she would drop anything frivolous and just concentrate on helping the troupe save the planet.
This story isn’t even 1500 words long, yet I feel it accomplishes its objective handily. I really should query this one!
I like Mandy Goes to Aspen because the character is so matter of fact about everything. Even the fact that she’s been hurt pretty badly. But then again, it’s nothing compared to what happened to other people.
This story was written during first quarter 2021. The initial prompt was a single word: avalanche.
It is the first of the short stories I wrote that year. My intention was to write every single day, and I followed through pretty well.
Background
These prompts were more or less random, and I had no plot or plan for this story. But I think it turned out pretty well. Still, the truth is, it did not start to truly come together until I changed Avalanche to A. Valanche.
And one of my favorite parts of this little story is the opening line:
Well, that sucked.
Plot
Somewhat ditzy and average-level talented Mandy Johnson goes to Aspen in order to schmooze with agents, acting coaches, directors, and other actors.
But things take a turn when Mandy is trapped in snow after an avalanche during skiing buries her.
With sardonic humor and a lot of very necessary ingenuity, this aspiring ingenue survives the big one.
Characters
The characters are Mandy (er, Amanda Catherine Johnson, to get technical) and Carol. I never give Carol a last name. There’s also Mandy’s agent, Arlene. But Mandy only mentions Arlene and we never see or hear her ‘on screen’, as it were.
There are also people in the lodge but again, Mandy only refers to them but the reader never sees them. Most of the story is more like a soliloquy.
Memorable Quotes
You know, those huge, slobbery dogs that I am totally afraid of? Those great big lumbering beasts. I hope they have tequila. Or is it brandy? Scotch? Can you tell them your preference?
I’d like a not too slobbery Saint Bernard. And put margaritas in that little keg thing they wear around their necks.
If I absolutely must sacrifice, then I suppose I will live without salt. So uncivilized.
Who am I kidding? I would kiss the first rescue dog I saw.
But not French; it’s not in my contract.
Rating for Mandy Goes to Aspen
The story has a K+ rating. After all, falling down the side of a mountain would make anyone swear.
Takeaways for Mandy Goes to Aspen
I like Mandy. She’s not only a survivor. She’s also self-aware enough to realize that she’s not going to win any prizes. Mandy would be lucky to get a part as Go-Go Dancer #3 in some screamfest. Most importantly, she can figure out how to solve a lot of her own problems.
I have no plans for a sequel or anything else. But I should probably clean this story up and submit it somewhere.
Consider Frances Miller Ashford, One of My Original Characters
Who is Frances Miller Ashford? And just why, exactly, does she matter to the story?
When Ceilidh gets a job to work for the Edwards, the first thing readers should notice is: it’s a really big house. There are obviously going to be other people working there. Lots and lots of them!
If you have ever watched Downton Abbey or Upstairs, Downstairs, then you know exactly what I mean.
But at the same time, I knew that not everyone would know the nuances of Victorian era living. Plus, I needed to have a good way to get across the look and feel of the Edwards House.
There would have to be a character who would, at least in part, behave as a kind of expository mouthpiece.
Enter Frances.
Margaret Qualley, who I see as Frances Miller. Image is intended for reference purposes only.
Where Did Frances Miller Ashford Come From?
I wanted very much to have an immigrant much like Ceilidh but better settled in the story.
Also, I needed for Ceilidh to have someone she could talk to. Frances fills the bill rather nicely in both areas. Furthermore, I love the idea of exploring a female friendship like this.
Further, I needed Ceilidh to have someone who had an English accent she could emulate. It didn’t seem realistic to have Ceilidh remember Captain Underwood perfectly for years. But Frances was a lot more plausible.
Originally, her last name was Marshall, but then I had too many scenes with a character named Barry Marsh. The names were starting to get confusing. And I could not change Marsh’s name, as he was named after someone I know.
Hence, Frances got a slight tweak. I also like the newer name better, because it flows much better with her (spoiler alert!) married name.
The Past is Prologue — Backstory for Frances Miller Ashford
An orphan who never knew her family, I never actually wrote about her extremely early life. But Frances could have been the child of people who died—perhaps of any of the many diseases flying around Britain at the time.
Or she could have been the child of an unwed mother, left at a church or even the orphanage where she grew up. Her mother could have even been a prostitute.
I don’t see her as a female Oliver Twist, the child who’s in the orphanage but should have been raised by their own wealthy family.
No. Frances was to be a real foundling, with a hard beginning. For an almost traditional look at someone who raised themselves up from their bootstraps, she is the one to look to.
Was Frances Originally Jewish?
The more I read about the Manchester Jewish Board of Guardians, the more I wonder if I could make her a Jewish child. Conversion of orphans in orphanages appears to have been pretty common at the time.
The Board of Guardians is developed in 1859, though, and I put her birth at 1858. But this can work for the story line.
So, prior to the creation of an appropriate orphanage to place a Jewish child in, the possibility is high that such a foundling would be put in a non-Jewish orphanage.
For a very young baby, which Frances would be, there really wouldn’t be anyone to object to someone just quietly baptizing her. But then again, who would ask about her ‘real’ origin, who would find out?
And why would it matter to them? It feels like a secret for the sake of having a secret. Which isn’t a good enough reason to include it. Ah, well.
Coming to America
In keeping with what really happened to some people, I wanted Frances to have kind of gotten to Boston in a roundabout way. Ceilidh means to go to Boston. But Frances? Not necessarily.
As she got older, the orphanage was clearly going to toss someone like her out on her ear. The orphanage wouldn’t necessarily care if she ended up working, married, turning tricks, or dead. They would simply want her bed for some other, younger child.
And so I decided there would be someone who would come and promise the older girls husbands if they left the country. This would be an irresistible offer for not only someone like Frances, but also for many other young girls like her and the orphanage itself.
But when they arrive in the United States, there are no waiting husbands. The promise was a false one. And so, rather, Frances and her cohorts become Lowell Girls, working for a mill in the area.
After she bides her time, eventually, she gets a day off and ventures into the big city of Boston. Frances has many advantages: a pleasant voice and demeanor, a high class-sounding accent to someone like Mrs. Edwards, and a willingness to work hard.
As a result, Frances gets a job in the scullery. She doesn’t keep in touch with the other girls, and has no idea what happened to them.
Her rise is slow, deliberate, and patient. I want it to feel believable. Frances knows the world does not owe her a living.
Frances Miller Ashford, a Description
So, Frances has dark eyes and dark brown curls. I always hear her as having a somewhat breathy voice. Her British accent is via Manchester. It is the kind of accent Americans generally think of when we think of British accents. Posh accents, that is.
She is not cockney and is not some latter-day Eliza Doolittle.
I recently decided on actress Margaret Qualley to be the face of Frances Miller. It was a bonus that Qualley appeared in a show called Maid!
The idea behind Frances is that she almost blends into the background in the beginning. But, of course, she ends up being a lot bigger and more important than that. Ceilidh is a big part of Frances coming into her own as, of course, Gregory Ashford is, too.
Quotes
Coming from Ballyvaughan, Ceilidh has never used indoor plumbing before. In this scene, Frances explains what to do: ~
Frances lifted the lid, and showed Ceilidh there was a lacquered wooden seat. “Now here’s all you do, see. You lift the lid like so and let it rest against the back here, see? And then you gather your skirts or your nightgown up and sit down, facing the back.”
“Right, yes, I see.”
“And you do your business, of course. Then you take a sheet of these papers and use it cleanse yourself.”
“What do you do with the paper afterwards?”
“You place it into the bowl, where you just did your business.”
“And then what do you do?”
“You see the lever, and the little frog pull?”
“Yes, ‘tis rather amusing.”
“You pull once and hold it for as long as it takes in your head, to say,” Frances giggled a little, “God Save the Queen.”
“Truly?”
“Truly!”
Relationships
Frances has two main relationships.
Plumber’s Assistant Gregory Ashford
Her romantic one is with her husband, Gregory Ashford. They meet when the plumber is called in, to clear away a clog in the bathroom shared by all the women servants. Gregory is the assistant. While fixing the toilet, he and Ceilidh talk a little. He asks her, “Who is the vision?”
Ceilidh asks for clarification, and he says the vision has brown curls. Ceilidh makes sure to tell Gregory that Frances is Miss Frances Miller.
For Frances, Gregory is utterly unexpected. She and Ceilidh are what anyone of the time would have called old maids. While Frances has always wished and hoped for a family, she is a practical person at heart. Her dreams of love would not necessarily come true.
And so Gregory is a pleasant surprise. He is also kind and gentle and truly cares for her. Frances gets a middle class life, and that is perfect for her.
Ceilidh O’Malley
The only other relationship (really) for Frances is her close friendship with Ceilidh. When Ceilidh arrives, unsure of whether she’ll get work, Frances is the one to help Ceilidh along and assure she gets a job as a scullery maid. Frances wants a friend, someone she can talk to.
No one else in the Edwards household can fill that need for her.
And so Frances kind of puts her thumb on the scale and rigs Ceilidh’s test to be hired. Without Frances and her help, Ceilidh would not have gotten such a good job. And certainly nowhere near as quickly.
The truest of friends, Ceilidh convinces Frances to give Gregory a chance, because plumbers will always have work, so she’ll never starve. Coming from grinding poverty, that’s an enormous plus, so far as Ceilidh is concerned.
The biggest bonus is when Gregory turns out not only to be all right, but to truly be an almost (this is the 1870s and 1880s we’re talking about) equal partner.
Other Servants
Just like Ceilidh and other women of the time, Frances is a victim of what today we would refer to as sexual harassment.
Donald Smith is nasty to everyone, and he leers at virtually every woman he sees. This comes to a stop when Gregory finally steps in and makes it clear that Frances is his girl. At least Donald backs off.
With the other servants, Frances is cordial but not overly friendly. There is nothing about the woman who Ceilidh ends up replacing. I never mention her by name, and neither does Frances. And so I feel we can conclude that the two women were not too terribly close.
Conflict and Turning Point
In the first book, The Real Hub of the Universe, the conflict and turning point for Frances are nearly the same as those for Ceilidh. Without getting too far into spoiler territory, the real issue is that both Ceilidh and Frances could have lost everything.
When Judge Lowell helps out, Frances realizes she’s come from nothing, but has come to have powerful friends.
Her gratitude goes beyond measure. She will do nearly anything to return the favor that’s been granted to her.
By the time the series ends, she has achieved a great deal of the middle class dream. In particular, in comparison to someone like the wealthy Margery Cabot Edwards, Frances has true happiness.
Continuity/Easter Eggs
Gregory’s Brighton, Massachusetts house ties in with, of all things, Mettle. It’s just down the street from the house where Craig and Mei-Lin find the solar panels—about 140 years later.
Also, as an expository character, she aligns somewhat with Ixalla from Untrustworthy. But only a little. Ixalla, after all, is well-educated. Frances, while she can ostensibly read and write, has what is likely what we would call dyslexic today.
Also, her name ties her directly to Josie James’s sixth-eldest sibling, Frances Farrah James Walsh.
But Francie is a professional ballerina, and has a divorce in her past. She shares custody of her daughter, Gina, with her ex-husband, Clayton. Francie Walsh lives on Titania, a Uranian moon. Her ex has main custody of Gina and they live on another Uranian moon, Umbriel.
And so Frances and Francie really just share a name, but nothing else.
Future Plans
I don’t really have future places for her, simply because the series is done. But never say never, for I did write a few short one-offs with her, Ceilidh, Gregory, and Devon. She may very well turn up again. Here’s hoping!
There are also enough hints that there could very well be a sequel series if I ever get a true plot together…
Frances as an old woman could be truly compelling. With her birth in 1858, she could conceivably live into the 1930s. Without it being too much of a stretch, that is. Her earlier, harder life could even give her an advantage during the Great Depression.
But she would still be about seventy-one when it starts, and that’s pretty old for that era. For a person with a difficult early life, even a survivor like Frances Miller Ashford might not live past her sixties, if that.
Frances Miller Ashford: Takeaways
Every main character needs a sidekick, a kind of bounce off person. Frances is that type of character. This survivor, against all odds, is still sweet and charming. This makes her one of the more optimistic characters I have ever written.
Frances Miller Ashford — because so many main characters need a true best friend.
Want More of Frances Miller Ashford?
If Frances resonates with you, then please check out my other articles about them, Ceilidh, Johnny, Devon, Frances, and everyone else as they work to prevent an alien war from destroying human civilization by way of collateral damage.
How was third quarter 2024 for writing? So, I spent the third quarter 2024 writing new short stories. Also, I spent time seriously considering the final Obolonk trilogy and its plot.
Another story was Message in an Odd Bottle. Also, there was the full-length novel story, The Duck in the Seat Cushion.
Then on Wattpad I posted nowhere, and really just went there in order to check on my stats.
Milestones
Also, I have written over 3.5 million words (fan fiction and wholly original fiction combined). So right now my stats on Wattpad for wholly original works are as follows:
• Dinosaurs – 42 reads, 11 comments
† How to NaNoWriMo – 26,183 reads, 340 comments (pulled from Wattpad due to their severing their association with NaNoWriMo)
• My Favorite Things (like kibble) – 992 reads, 133 comments
† Revved Up – 59,486 reads, 531 comments
• Side By Side – 21 reads, 2 comments
† Social Media Guide for Wattpad – 16,862 reads, 592 comments
• The Canadian Caper – 510 reads, 37 comments
† The Dish – 251 reads, 24 comments
• There is a Road – 189 reads, 28 comments
Published Works as of Third Quarter 2024
Also, I am amassing quite the collection of published works! So, here’s everything that has found a home so far.
Untrustworthy, which is my first published novel. So yay!
A True Believer in Skepticism, published in Mythic Magazine.
Almost Shipwrecked, a story in the January 2019 edition of Empyreome, a site which unfortunately is no more.
Canaries, a short story in the March 29, 2019, edition of Theme of Absence.
Complications, a story in the Queer Sci Fi Discovery anthology. So this is an anthology where the proceeds went to supporting the QSF website.
The Obolonk Murders Trilogy – so this one is all about a tripartite society. But who’s killing the aliens?
The Enigman Cave – can we find life on another planet and not screw it up? You know, like we do everything else?
The Real Hub of the Universe Trilogy – so the aliens who live among us in the 1870s and 1880s are at war. But why is that?
Mettle – so it’s all about how society goes to hell in a hand basket when the metals of the periodic table start to disappear. But then what?
Time Addicts – No One is Safe – so this one is all about what happens in the future when time travel becomes possible via narcotic.
Time Addicts – Nothing is Permanent – this is the second in this trilogy. What happens when time is tampered with and manipulated in all sorts of ways? It’s the ultimate in gaslighting, for one thing.
Time Addicts – Everything is Up For Grabs – as the timelines smack together and continue to diverge, it gets harder to tell the “real” timeline from all the newer fake ones. And what if some of the changes are for the better?
Prep Work
So currently, my intention, for 2025’s 30Day50k, is to write the third trilogy in the Time Addicts/Obolonks universe. But I need to iron out the plot! So a lot of this year has been spent on that. I have no name for this one yet. However, I think I’m getting closer….
It’s been quiet. But that has been by design. Right now, I just plain don’t feel like putting myself out there these days. There, I said it.
In Progress
As of third quarter 2024, the following are still technically in the running for publishing:
This list is the name of the story and then the name of the potential publisher.
† I Used to Be Happy – Gemini Magazine
• Justice – Adbusters
† Mettle – RAB
• Soul Rentals ‘R’ Us – A Thousand One Stories
† Who Do We Blame for This? – Sonder Review
But it’s highly doubtful any of them will become acceptances this late in the game.
Third Quarter 2024 – Productivity Killers
So it’s looking for work, what else? But third quarter 2024 is about to segue into this year’s 30Day50k. I. Can’t. Wait.
Dammit. So, have you heard the latest, about how NaNo has essentially shot themselves in the foot, again? This one is harder to forgive than the community management debacle. And so, I am drawing a line in the sand (finally, I suppose). Sorry, but RIP NaNoWriMo.
Why Would I Ever Say RIP NaNoWriMo? And Why Now?
I’ll start from the semi-beginning. NaNoWriMo was fun and cute and kinda wholesome. It’s how Untrustworthy was published in the first place. Then, in the last year or so, their forums moderation truly fell apart.
Apparently, pedo-type content was being served to minors. Lovely, not.
And so, NaNo decided, okay, we’ll certify our volunteer moderators. But then I thought, well, it’s not great, but it’s something. And, I’ve seen plenty of places simply fall down when it came to moderation. Yeah, I’m looking at you, Facebook.
And, in retrospect, it feels like the issue with content moderation was almost inevitable. Why? Because they really didn’t have good safeguards in place, and there were minors on the site, with very little supervision.
It all started on my birthday. Er, thanks, universe. NaNoWriMo put out this FAQ about AI.
In case they yank it later, it starts off like this:
NaNoWriMo does not explicitly support any specific approach to writing, nor does it explicitly condemn any approach, including the use of AI.
Sounds kinda promising, eh?
If they had stopped there, I could have cautiously thrown my support, albeit with some personal reservations about it. But then, they added this:
We believe that to categorically condemn AI would be to ignore classist and ableist issues surrounding the use of the technology, and that questions around the use of AI tie to questions around privilege.
Wait, what?
Classism
NaNo wrote:
Not all writers have the financial ability to hire humans to help at certain phases of their writing. For some writers, the decision to use AI is a practical, not an ideological, one. The financial ability to engage a human for feedback and review assumes a level of privilege that not all community members possess.
Using AI as a spellchecker or a grammar checker is not the issue, or at least it should not be. And if people aren’t in critique groups or can’t find one or don’t like them, using AI instead is, I suppose, a decent substitute.
So far, so good. Kinda, sorta.
But I’m already uncomfortable.
Ableism
NaNo wrote:
Not all brains have same abilities and not all writers function at the same level of education or proficiency in the language in which they are writing. Some brains and ability levels require outside help or accommodations to achieve certain goals. The notion that all writers “should“ be able to perform certain functions independently or is a position that we disagree with wholeheartedly. There is a wealth of reasons why individuals can’t “see” the issues in their writing without help.
This is why editors exist. Critique partners and groups. Friends. Hell, the reviews on Amazon (assuming they’re not just from someone with an axe to grind) can help to do this.
As real-life writers who I know, who are disabled have said—we (er, they) may do it more slowly, but they can still git ‘er done. And without dragging AI into it.
General Access Issues
NaNo wrote:
All of these considerations exist within a larger system in which writers don’t always have equal access to resources along the chain. For example, underrepresented minorities are less likely to be offered traditional publishing contracts, which places some, by default, into the indie author space, which inequitably creates upfront cost burdens that authors who do not suffer from systemic discrimination may have to incur.
… and what? The fact that some writers have less financial means than others is nothing new. And the fact that a good cover is expensive? Not news, either. Is this to somehow wrap the use of AI for a cover in virtue? Well, I got some virtue-style news for NaNo.
Given that AI is trained on all sorts of stuff with no artist permissions, it is the biggest copyright infringer on the planet. So, what’s better? A lousy cover that at least you own? But you don’t sell anything? Or a sharpish AI cover which infringes and looks creepy?
And maybe you don’t sell anything with the AI cover, either. It’s not like it’s a guarantee, or anything.
Therefore, don’t they both stink, not just in terms of virtue, but in terms of feeling like you’re doing the right thing?
Or, hey, here’s an idea.
How about paying an actual artist?
Oh, and Here’s Another Reason Not to Use AI
Training an AI model is problematic because it’s got a huge carbon footprint. Much like, surprise, surprise—cryptocurrency.
But, but Costs!
Yeah, I get it. It’s not cheap. Nope, it’s not. Writing is a pretty expensive hobby/side gig.
So, try Fiverr.
Here’s another idea. Work with someone you know who’s got a decent handle on Photoshop or Adobe InDesign, and get a good photograph. How do you get a good photograph? Take one if you’re talented or pay someone you know who’s talented.
Or buy one from a place that sells stock photos.
Another idea? Save your pennies. And yeah, it won’t happen immediately. Maybe your up to the minute, ripped from the headlines thriller is a rush and should be out there ASAP.
But that’s an exception, not the rule.
Here’s a Little Secret
Shh. Tell no one!
But seriously, folks. The world can wait a bit for your novel about a vampire rodeo rider from Alpha Centauri who fights crime in their spare time.
Dang, now I want to write this.
But in the meantime, I hate to say it, but the world can wait. There’s no reason to feel it’s got to get a release date of right now, no matter how impatient you may be.
I’m sorry, but it’s over. It’s not me, it’s you. So RIP NaNoWriMo. We had a good run, you and me. I loved you fiercely. But it’s over.
But What About This November and the Others, Ever Onward?
So, here’s another little secret.
You don’t need them, and neither do I. We can write whenever we want to. I loved the urgency of it, and the event feeling of it. But the event feeling has been gone for a while now. And guess what? I (and you, too) can create my own urgency.
I like doing this in November, partly for nostalgic reasons but also because it’s a holiday-like event. And I like that it’s near the end of the year, but not quite.
This gives me an incentive to plan all year, particularly in October.
So, I’ll be doing something similar. But I’ll call it 30Day50k.
You want to join me? It’s free. There are no forums. No police. And no counters. It’s totally the honor system. Ain’t got no prizes.
Just… write.
RIP NaNoWriMo. And long live 30Day50k.
So, RIP NaNoWriMo FerRealz
I received this on March 31, 2025, and, frankly, it just plain saddens me.
Let’s Look at the Background of Character Creation
Character creation is rather personal. It depends on how organized you are, and how much you like to plan. So every writer’s character creation will vary. This is what I tend to do. However, my methods are not necessarily the best or the most consistent ones.
Your mileage, when it comes to character creation, will undoubtedly vary. And that is perfectly okay.
Origins for Some of My Character Creation
For me, characters arise in a few ways. One is just that I can ‘hear’ their ‘voices’. Or I might see a face clearly. Lots of situations or activities can create a focus.
One way is, I might walk around my neighborhood and consider what I see. This is whether it’s something from nature or just someone’s illegally parked car. Music in particular can be helpful for this, although it is not absolutely necessary.
For a fanfiction bad girl character I named Pamela Hudson, her personality came barreling in when I heard the Amy Winehouse song, You Know I’m No Good.
And sometimes, characters just appear, fully formed. I tend to consider names in the context of how they sound and what they mean.
Hence a character like Marnie Shapiro Chase came out of nowhere because I liked how her name sounded. Then I worked on putting her together. The same was true of Colonel Craig Firenze. He started off sounding good and I built from that.
For Josie James, I didn’t hear her voice until I changed her name from Jodie James.
Character Creation: Ethnicity
Still other characters might arise out of names and ethnicity. Or even national origin. Jazminder Parikh and Akanksha Kondapalli are both Indian women, but Jazzie is a doctor, whereas Akanksha is an attorney.
I also tend to like someone to be from the southern US. Hence Jeannie Louise Scutter and Patricia LaRue arose.
Characters from the UK might be Dave Shepherd, super-spy, or Dr. Devon Grace. Plus there are also scullery maids Frances Miller and Ceilidh O’Malley. And psychiatrist Dr. Carmen D’Angelo. So it runs the gamut of rich and poor.
In addition, I try to write some characters of races different from my own. These run the gamut from Dr. Elise Jeffries and Dr. Mei-Lin Quan to Solar System President Fankald Williams and her sister, Tamara Woods.
What’s in a Name?
While draping a character around the meaning of their name is kind of silly, it can sometimes help to inspire. I liked the name Ceilidh O’Malley, and it was a bonus that her name means a type of jig.
Hence someone who grew up in grinding poverty had a rather frivolous name. So I gave her the middle name of Aisling, which is Irish Gaelic for dream.
Dave Shepherd didn’t originate as a protector in the Obolonk universe, but as I wrote him, he became one.
Other characters just almost tell me their names. This was certainly the case with Craig Firenze and Kitty Kowalski in Mettle. In Mettle, the two bratty tweens were always going to be Kitty and Mink. Tathrelle was another name that sprang up, for Untrustworthy.
Frances always existed in The Real Hub of the Universe, but her surname started off as Marshall, not Miller. But I ended up changing her name, as a character named Marsh was mentioned too often with her.
Other characters are named for people I know, in whole or in part. The Enigman Cave is particularly chock full of such characters.
It’s everyone from the Chief Veterinarian to a space defender to the Chief Engineer. The Real Hub of the Universe has some, including the Chief of Police. Plus the Ashford baby is named for a man I know from the online writing community.
Character Creation: Time to Show Some Emotion
Characters also exist to make the main character feel something. And this isn’t always something good. Ben Chase exists to piss Marnie off in The Enigman Cave.
Johnny Barnes exists in The Real Hub of the Universe to terrify Ceilidh and force her into action. Jeannie exists in Mettle to anger Craig and eventually make him not feel too bad about getting on a plane.
And one of the reasons Dave Shepherd exists in the Obolonk universe is to help Peri get over Charlie.
Oh, and Bobby Brodie exists to be an uncouth lout. Which he does a little too well.
Plus there are always love interest characters, even if they don’t last. For example, that’s Lex Feldman in Enigmans and Dalton Farouk in Time Addicts, the 2019 NaNoWriMo novel.
Shapiro, Shapiro, Shapiro
As a kind of personal ‘tell’ and Easter egg in my works, every longer piece (except for Untrustworthy, as none of those characters are human), somebody is named Shapiro.
This is even true in fan fiction, where characters Ethan and Rebecca Shapiro (father and daughter) figure prominently in the overall storyline.
The Obolonks series has Greg Shapiro. He’s a wisecracking cop living in Connecticut. The Enigman Cave has Marnie Shapiro Chase, the captain of the spaceship. Marnie’s kind of frumpy and nerdy but also very smart.
Then in Real Hub of the Universe, the name is subtle. Blima Shapiro Taub is a character never actually seen ‘on screen’. Blima is known more for her jealousy than anything else. But I give her a bit of a voice in the short story, The Bride.
In Mettle, Shapiro is Eleanor Braverman’s maiden name. Eleanor suffers from Alzheimer’s.
So you can see that the Easter egg characters are all rather different.
In the November 2019 NaNoWriMo novel, the name shows up as a the married name of Josie James’s older sister, Hayley.
Character Creation: Purposeful Characters
Sometimes characters are necessary to fulfill some purpose or another. Technically, that’s supposed to be the case with all characters (oops!). Either advance the plot or be background exposition.
Hence Noah Braverman’s fellow reporter, Francine O’Donnell, serves to give him a bit of a reason to express his thoughts out loud in Mettle.
Ben Chase serves as Marnie’s foil, but he also makes a big discovery which helps drive the Enigman plot. And I needed Livia Thorson in Obolonks to explain some of the robotics, just as I needed Ned O’Malley in Real Hub to explain how Ceilidh was going to get to the states.
Sometimes purposeful characters come in the form of radio or TV show hosts, or nameless people reading news stories aloud or commenting on them.
How many times have you stood in line at a coffee shop and heard people discuss the events of the day? Even if it’s the sports section or politics or whatever, it can still help to orient readers as to time and place.
In Untrustworthy, Ixalla started off as a kind of explainer character, but then the role grew when I turned her into a revolutionary.
Takeaways
Why do you need a character? Do you like them? Do they drive the plot? Will you kill them off if you have to? Make characters to fulfill these purposes or to add depth and background. Give your story dimension with people who feel real.
Character creation is a personal process. It can be planned and detail-oriented. Or it can be haphazard. You make the call!
Here’s some straight talk on how to edit a manuscript. Whether you’re new to writing or it’s old hat, you have got to know how to do this.
Let’s start with the negative.
Here’s Not How to Edit a Manuscript
Let’s start with what should be basic but, sadly, is anything but.
You have to edit your work. It doesn’t matter how good you are. It doesn’t matter how smart you are. And it doesn’t matter how experienced you are. Or, you think you are.
Because every single piece of writing needs editing. There are no exceptions to this rule.
Once more, for the cheap seats: YOU. MUST. EDIT. YOUR. WORK.
Betas and Sensitivity Readers
Without getting too far into what either of the above are, the bottom line is that it’s not their job to fix your stuff on the technical level. Yes, everybody makes typos. And that’s normal. Because a stray comma or a homophone (e. g. they’re for their) is no big deal.
The real issue is when a writer dumps their first draft onto beta readers. I have had this happen to me more than once, and here is what I do.
I kick it back. Yes, really! Because I have no time to correct great big swaths of someone else’s MS. And, let’s face it, editors charge by the word. Making your beta readers do this is essentially demanding that you get something for free from them.
They already agreed to read your stellarish prose. So don’t make them waste their time correcting the technical stuff.
Self-Publishing
There is a lot of great self-published work out there. And there is also a lot of self-published junk. Want to be the former, rather than the latter? The road to great work of any sort is to edit that sucker.
So, will your work be wonderful, famous, popular, and beloved? Not necessarily. But at least people won’t lose their place or guess the killer too soon or otherwise want to throw your book across the room.
How to Edit a Manuscript, Really, I Mean it This Time!
So, this is the advice I give everyone.
Stage 0: Preliminaries
Leave it alone for 3 months.
Don’t cheat and go back early!
In the meantime, write short stories. Nothing fancy; they can be fluffy fanfiction. You just want to keep writing. Why? Because it’s a good habit to stay in, if you can.
Stage 1: How to Edit a Manuscript? It Really Starts With Simple Word Searching
So, those 3 months are up? Run searches for words like—
† That
• Just
† Very
• Actually
† Seem (and all of its variants)
• See (and its numerous variants, including words like Look) – yes, of course characters look at each other! But this is for anything where you write something like, She could see he was tired. Eventually, you should just change it to something like He yawned.
Keep the numbers to the side. A scratch pad is fine.
Stage 2: You Are Your Own Biggest Fan
Now read your MS like a reader. You’re not looking for errors. You are a fan and you are reading the latest work from your favorite author.
Take note (that scratch pad comes to the rescue again) of when—
• You get confused
† Or you can’t tell characters apart
• You get bored
† Or you can’t picture something
• You guessed the twist or the killer, whatever the surprise/denouement is
Done?
Stage 3: Dumping Crutch Words and Repetitive Words
Now start the real business of editing. Remember your words like that, etc.? There are actually more words which should be on your list but those are a good start. Reread sentences. Can they make sense without those words? Then out they go.
And consider some body language-style changes like I suggest above with the tired-to-yawn substitution. They will paint a much more colorful picture for your readers.
Stage 4: How to Edit a Manuscript by Fixing Characters, Plot, and Dialogue
Characters are hard to distinguish? Then consider what makes people unique. And see if you can combine two minor characters.
Is the twist given away too early? Then introduce complications. Throw in some monkey wrenches.
Read the dialogue out loud. If you have trouble saying it, then it may not be realistic. Or, you might just have a bunch of run-on sentences.
Done?
Stage 5: Beta Readers and Sensitivity Readers
Find beta readers. And offer to read their work. Be kind, fair, constructive, and helpful. Hopefully they will be as well.
Listen to beta readers but their words aren’t necessarily gospel.
If your work is about a marginalized community that you are not a part of, sensitivity readers can be a very good idea. As in, writing gay people if you’re straight, or Black characters when you’re white. You don’t have to do this for every single side character with only three lines.
But a major character or a memorable minor one? You want to make sure you’re not stereotyping or othering or exoticizing people. Why? Because present-day readers will tear you apart if you do. And they would be right to do so.
Done?
Stage 6: Take a Break
Give it another 3 weeks to a month to sit around. Write more short stories in the meantime.
Stage 7: Cut, Slash, and Burn
Is that time up? Read again, the whole thing, this time as the writer. Edit it until it bleeds.
Congratulations. You’ve just edited your MS.
Takeaways for How to Edit a Manuscript
So the truth is, editing can be an incredibly daunting process. This is particularly true if you’re a pantser, so you’re not planning your work before you start. Personally, that would drive me nuts.
But this method of how to edit a manuscript can work for either plotters or pantsers. And it can even work for folks in the middle, just like me: the so-called plantsers.
If you think you like how I know how to edit a manuscript, then contact me! I do a little freelance editing at times, and would love to contract with you for some work!
Want More on Beta Reading and Editing?
If you want more on beta reading and editing, then please be sure to check out the following blog posts:
Children characters can present their own set of challenges. And keep in mind, I wrote a bit about kids in the Aging post. However, now it’s time for a deeper dive into what it means to write about children.
Don’t gloss over childhood. It’s not all sunshine and roses. Some kids have truly horrible lives – bullying, abuse, poverty, and trafficking are all still with us. Some kids aren’t wanted. Or they don’t look like society thinks they should. And don’t forget, even infants can get cancer. But right now, let’s concentrate on some issues that are a lot easier to take.
Infants and Toddlers
The very young can change in rather rapid and surprising ways. Fortunately, several developmental charts exist. And they can give you an idea of what a baby or child can do at a certain stage. Hence, for example, a newborn should not be out of diapers unless they have help or you are writing some sort of fantasy. Furthermore, while these charts give an idea of what to expect, they’re not laws.
Kids develop at their own paces. So recognize that while your newborn character going diaper-less is probably not going to be believable, you can still write a range for these milestones. Furthermore, you can also use standard milestones as a way to signal problems with a baby, such as by showing the reader a child who should be crawling as barely holding his head up.
Preschoolers and Elementary School Children
The start of school is a major event in a young child’s life. And so are other firsts, such as learning to read and beginning to really socialize. And their vocabularies are growing as their worlds continue to expand. By this time, they probably have a good idea of their sexuality even if girls are icky and boys are gross.
For the most part, a child does not naturally lisp! Adding lisping and other affectations will just irritate most readers. However, you can indicate immaturity with simpler sentence structures and vocabulary. A young child has not read Kierkegaard. And they probably don’t know what plenipotentiary means, either. Unless, of course, they’re a genius.
But use genius characters sparingly. Most people just plain aren’t Einstein or Hawking, etc. Too many geniuses, unless you make them some sort of a special program, are just going to be annoying to readers.
Tweens and Teens
As with younger children, these older kids have their own developmental milestones. Puberty in girls comes with not only the development of secondary sex characteristics, but also menarche. Adolescence in boys can arrive later than in girls.
Writing a historical novel? Then know that menarche (a girl’s first menstrual period) occurs about three years earlier now than it did a century ago. This is due to, among other things, better nutrition.
Kids in these age groups tend to start to get interested in relationships (although asexual folks beg to differ). Plus, everything can be ultra-dramatic. Some may be losing their virginity or facing pregnancy issues. And others might be late bloomers, wondering why things are happening to everyone but them.
Our present-day culture attaches a number of privileges to this time, including becoming old enough to drive, work, drink, marry, go to war, and even vote.
Takeaways
Kids are more than their developmental stages. However, it still pays to know these and follow them, even if you want your characters to subvert them. And as with all characters, do your best to avoid clichés.
How was second quarter 2024 for writing? So I spent second quarter 2024 writing and editing a ton of short stories. But I am also looking for work. So, that takes precedence.
Second Quarter 2024 Posted Works
First of all, I worked on a number of new short stories. A lot of these had been drafted on paper and so I spent some time editing them.
Then on Wattpad I posted nowhere. Am I completely done with that platform? It’s… starting to look that way. Because, frankly, for the sake of my own mental health, the last thing I need is to post in places which just aren’t the right audience for what I create.
Second Quarter 2024 Drafts
So far, and a few of these are from first quarter 2024, but I forgot to post them (oops!), here’s what I’ve been working on:
• The New Kid – after an Earth-alien war ends, the parties decide on a student exchange. What could possibly go wrong?
† The Walls Came Tumbling Down… Again – when a temporal mercenary upends the timeline so Rome never fell, it’s up to Rachel Shapiro and her work mishpacha to correct the timeline to fix the present day and end slavery.
• What’s an Animal? – the humans of the future have killed or destroyed the habitats of every animal on Earth. The world is divided into uniform grids where people pollinate the plants, because there aren’t any more insects. Until one day a little girl named Cherish finds… something.
† Recruitment Time (I don’t love this title) – time traveler Sharon Ensley was supposed to go to 16th century Turkey. But her path is diverted, and she ends up in New Jersey the day before 9/11. But the events of 9/11 seem to be happening on 9/10, and now include more plane crashes, in NATO countries in Europe. Everything is worse. But how, and why?
• A Fairy Tale for Skeptical Adults – when Flora Levy turns 60, she inherits her great-grandmother Florence’s books. There’s a Torah, a family cookbook, and more. But there’s also an odd book which doesn’t seem to belong with the others. When Flora starts to read it aloud, she summons… someone from the book itself.
Milestones
Also, I have written over 3.5 million words (fan fiction and wholly original fiction combined; there’s slightly more original stuff these days). So right now my stats on Wattpad for wholly original works are as follows:
† Dinosaurs – 42 reads, 11 comments
• How to NaNoWriMo – 26,183 reads, 340 comments (pulled from Wattpad due to their severing their association with NaNoWriMo)
† My Favorite Things (like kibble) – 994 reads, 133 comments
• Revved Up – 59,491 reads, 531 comments
† Side By Side – 21 reads, 2 comments
• Social Media Guide for Wattpad – 16,862+ reads, 592 comments
† The Canadian Caper – 511 reads, 37 comments
• The Dish – 253 reads, 24 comments
† There is a Road – 189 reads, 28 comments
Published Works as of Second Quarter 2024
Also, I am amassing quite the collection of published works! So, here’s everything that has found a home so far.
Untrustworthy, which is my first published novel. So yay!
A True Believer in Skepticism, published in Mythic Magazine.
Almost Shipwrecked, a story in the January 2019 edition of Empyreome, a site which unfortunately is no more.
Canaries, a short story in the March 29, 2019, edition of Theme of Absence.
Complications, a story in the Queer Sci Fi Discovery anthology. So this is an anthology where the proceeds went to supporting the QSF website.
The Obolonk Murders Trilogy – so this one is all about a tripartite society. But who’s killing the aliens?
The Enigman Cave – can we find life on another planet and not screw it up? You know, like we do everything else?
The Real Hub of the Universe Trilogy – so the aliens who live among us in the 1870s and 1880s are at war. But why is that?
Mettle – so it’s all about how society goes to hell in a hand basket when the metals of the periodic table start to disappear. But then what?
Time Addicts – No One is Safe – so this one is all about what happens in the future when time travel becomes possible via narcotic.
Time Addicts – Nothing is Permanent – this is the second in this trilogy. What happens when time is tampered with and manipulated in all sorts of ways? It’s the ultimate in gaslighting, for one thing.
Time Addicts – Everything is Up For Grabs – as the timelines smack together and continue to diverge, it gets harder to tell the “real” timeline from all the newer fake ones. And what if some of the changes are for the better?
Prep Work
So currently, my intention, for 2025’s NaNoWriMo, is to start to write the third trilogy in the Time Addicts/Obolonks universe. But I need to iron out the plot! So a bit of this year has been spent on that. I have no name for this one yet.
In 2022, I wrote the prequels for Time Addicts (The Dust Between Our Stars) and The Real Hub of the Universe (The East Side of the Universe). For 2023, it was the Untrustworthy prequel (Unreliable) and Obolonk prequel (Eros vs. Thanatos). And for 2024, it is the Enigman Cave and Mettle prequels.
So, I anticipate a lot of fun and perhaps a little confusion. But it’s all good!
It’s been quiet. But that has been by design. Right now, I just plain don’t feel like putting myself out there these days. There, I said it.
In Progress
As of the end of second quarter 2024, the following are still technically in the running for publishing:
This list is the name of the story and then the name of the potential publisher.
† I Used to Be Happy – Gemini Magazine
• Justice – Adbusters
† Mettle – RAB
• Soul Rentals ‘R’ Us – A Thousand One Stories
† Who Do We Blame for This? – Sonder Review
But the truth is, I am not kidding myself. Those aren’t going to magically turn into acceptances, I bet.
Second Quarter 2024 – Productivity Killers
So it’s work, what else? I am working on a ton of things and since that is also writing, it can sometimes burn me out. Because second quarter 2024 is evidently not the end of that!
Let’s Look at Starting a Piece, Any Kind of Writing
Starting can be fraught with stress and worry. You can, at times, wonder if what you’re doing is worthwhile at all. But don’t worry; it is. And your own personal writing process may end up looking rather different.
That’s totally fine. There is no one way to do this!
One year I created a kind of web. I had the main character and put her name in a circle on paper.
Then I drew a bunch of lines radiating out. I connected her to other characters and then, on the lines, wrote why they connected—whatever it was (and she didn’t have to connect to everyone, of course).
That got me to start creating scenes, and I ordered them.
Some ended up just being little scenelets. I did this with all of the major characters and eliminated redundancies. Once I had the order down, I started to think about transitions between scenes.
Points of View
This web concept worked very well for a story with one main character. For The Real Hub of the Universe series, Ceilidh was always the center of things and everything would happen from her point of view.
If she did not directly witness something, she would have to read about it or learn about it in some other fashion.
Sometimes this meant that another character would have to have a conversation with her. This would get her back up to speed.
Multiple POVs
For a piece with multiple points of view, the process can differ. This time, the web is more like a series of intersecting rings. How do characters relate? What do they see, feel, and hear, touch and taste? Who do they know, or like, or despise?
What are their goals? What are their prejudices?
With Mettle, there are nine separate points of view, although some of them (like Eleanor’s) aren’t the focus too often. Instead, characters with more “screen time”, such as Nell, Craig, and Elise, had to do more of the heavy lifting.
One thing which helped a great deal (and it was serendipity, I swear!) was that one of the major plot points concerned lessons which the middle schooler characters had not yet had.
Therefore, a part of the exposition became teaching them. As they learned, so did the reader.
This is one of the reasons why so many television programs kick off with someone moving or getting a new job, or the start of a relationship.
Newness is appealing, yes, but it’s also because that gives an expository “out”. If everyone in the book or TV show knows how high Niagara Falls is, then they won’t need to bother talking about it.
But if one character does not know, then the audience or reader learns this piece of information at the same time that the ignorant character does. That’s ignorant in terms of “not knowing” rather than being dumb, FYI.
But at the same time, don’t go nuts with this. Exposition should be spooned out via teaspoons and not ladles. Just because you researched something, does not mean it has to end up on the page.
Fun Ways to Get Started
If your initial line or lines can also inject some exposition, that can be terrific when it comes to orienting your readers as to time and place. And when you’re writing about something wholly alien, you’re practically forced to do so, anyway.
At other times, your initial line(s) can be a means of misdirecting the reader. Consider Small Acts of Defiance, where the first line is simply:
We crossed when I was five.
Since the story is about border crossing, this works well. It also helps to put the reader on a path to thinking these are border crossings from Mexico to the United States. But they’re not…
My name is Cherish, and I’m eleven years old. My Momma got me this diary because she said a girl my age would want to write down her deepest, darkest secrets.
With an immediate orientation as to age, but nothing else, Cherish could be like almost anyone with a diary.
Starting a Piece: Some Takeaways
If you’re still having a hard time starting, recognize that it can also be a species of writer’s block. But if the stress is really bad, you can always write about that, too.
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