Best Gifts for Writers

I'm on holiday right now traveling through Europe, so I won't write out a whole post about ruined castles or ancient works of art just yet. Instead, I thought I might provide some links to a few delightful fantasy or writing-related objects I've found recently. These would make excellent birthday gifts or purchases for yourself. Enjoy!

Fandom Teas: Discover teas from Sherlock to Harry Potter to Doctor Who! They don't have tons of options, but still, I can't say no to sampling a few of these!

Trevillion Images: These are high quality professional images that are usually quite beautiful and atmospheric and would make perfect book cover elements. There are sections for historical fiction and fantasy that contain some amazing work. If you're looking to purchase images for a book cover, then look no further. This is really the best of the best. Do note that it has high prices to match the high quality!

10 of the Greatest Essays on Writing: For whenever you need a bit of motivation or wisdom. The article links to either the full text or excerpts from each of the essays. Wise words for a rainy afternoon or a lazy summer day.

Also you could always give beautiful journals -- writers will never refuse a lovely notebook, especially if it's leatherbound with gold leaf pages!

A fancy pen such as a fountain pen works well, too. Writers need good equipment.

And, of course, books of every shape and size. A gift card to a bookstore works well, but a trip to a used bookstore with shelves piled high with beautiful books is even better!

If you're short on change, consider giving them the gift of time. Offer to wash the dishes every evening for a week, or doing the household cleaning on Saturday mornings so the author can use that time to write.

One of the most meaningful gifts writers can receive is a special piece of original writing--a lovely poem with special meaning, or a notebook full of special things that the giver noticed about the receiver, or a list of blessings or prayers for the receiver. It's even better if it's illustrated!

Finally, you could give a magazine subscription to Writer's Digest or an inspiration-filled magazine such as National Geographic. To me, a magazine subscription represents prosperity and success. Receiving a magazine is like receiving a letter from the President. It's interesting to look at, read, even touch and smell. Definitely a wonderful gift idea! Plus, it's actually quite cheap--typically $20 for a year's subscription.


So there's a start of ideas for what to buy yourself or give to fellow writers! Now, tell me: what's the best writing-related gift you've ever received? Given? Or what would you like to get?


Photo by JD Hancock, Ever Present

A Few of my Favorite Fantasy Cliches

This is my 100th post! In celebration, I'd like to do something very cliche: write a post about my favorite fantasy cliches. (Cue applause.)

Also, please note that in my blog post, I've used male pronouns to refer to characters, since the majority of fantasy stories are still written about males. Hopefully someday the case will be different!

So, without further ado, I present:


My Favorite Cliches
To the tune of, "My Favorite Things"

Dark stormy nights and scales on dragons
Bright shining daggers and red glowing fire
Stacks of old parchment all tied up with strings--
These are a few of my favorite cliches.

Black or white horses and elvish lembas bread
Watch bells and beacons and Gollum with worms
Creatures that fly with the Nazgul on their wings--
These are a few of my favorite cliches.

Shield maidens in white dresses with swords at their sashes,
Arrows that barely scratch my nose and eyelashes
Silver white beards of wise old men who soon die--
These are a few of my favorite cliches.

When the Dark Lord rises, when the prophecy rhymes, when the hero's an orphan,
I simply remember my favorite cliches, and then I don't feel so bad (about my own writing)!

And now for a proper list of my favorite fantasy cliches.

1. Stock characters

Almost every single fantasy story contains an old man/wizard/wise person who imparts crucial information to the young hero, usually an orphan. Said young hero discovers he has magic powers or is the "chosen one," a fact that no one has told him all his life, and that the villains have only just discovered. Add in a handful of warrior maidens and a dragon or two, and you've got a regular soup of cliches. If you really need any examples of this, just look to Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter.


2. Prophecies or curses

Speaking of the "chosen one," any prophecy or curse of any size or shape definitely counts as cliche. Particularly if the hero is the only person that the prophecy could refer to. And if the stakes are "the end of the world as we know it." So if you're dying to make your story as cliche as possible, please, please, insert one of these. I promise it'll increase the cliche-factor by ten. Don't believe me? Ask the dishes! (Reference to Beauty and the Beast, which by the way contains a prophetic curse.)

3. Medieval setting

Despite the constant use of Medieval costumes and weapons in fantasy stories, the hygiene and medicine of fantasy stories seem to be pretty modern. Because, really, where's the plague? Furthermore, there's always a journey that takes days or weeks to get to the destination, usually by walking or riding the same horse for days on end. Honestly, how do characters in these stories manage to get anything done when they must be dead tired from traveling all the time? Walking kills your feet, kills the horses, and can't be done constantly. I'm looking at you, Lord of the Rings.


4. Good versus Evil

So your hero is battling a "Dark Lord" or the "forces of evil" or must go through the "Dark Forest" and battle an army of ugly evil orcs? Wow, how original. But let me ask a question: why should darkness be the enemy just because it's dark? Couldn't that be construed as a bit racist? And why should the whole race of elves (or dwarves, or men) be good and beautiful while orcs (or other villainous force) are always evil and ugly? The real world has good ugly humans and bad beautiful humans. Why should fantasy be any different?


5. Unrealistic fighting

Hero learns swordplay in about a week and is suddenly a master at weapons of any kind, able to confront expert enemies who've had years of training to perfect their technique. Also, arrows never, ever run out, armor is feather-light, and shields are hardly ever necessary. Oh, and while we're on the subject, all wounds seem to be either a minor scratch or life-threatening. Don't heroes ever get paralyzed, or suffer brain damage, or have to amputate their arms?

That said, of course, these particular cliches are only cliches because they've been used very effectively in some of the greatest fantasy stories of all time, from Lord of the Rings to Harry Potter and Beauty and the Beast. So should you really always avoid using cliches?

Well, on the one hand, if you purposefully try to avoid all cliches ever, you're just going to give yourself a horrible headache while you try to think of original plot devices and methods of transportation. On the other hand, you do want to think very carefully before inserting a cliche into your story.

If you do use a cliche, make it humorous and obvious, as Patricia C. Wrede does in her hilarious Enchanted Forest Chronicles. Or try turning it on its head, as Gail Carson Levine did in her amazing novel Ella Enchanted. Recognize the cliches in your writing--and run with them! Use them for your own benefit. It's the best way to write!


Have you read any books or seen any movies with cliches? Any cliche-breaking stories you'd love to share? What about in your own writing--love them? Hate them? Avoid them like the plague?

When Life Gets in the Way: An Exercise in Courage

There are times in life when the projects you’re working on simply grind to a halt. The past two months have been such for me. As you’ve no doubt noticed, I’ve neglected blogging for more Saturdays than I care to count. I do have an excuse: two cross-continental moves between Asia and Europe, then Europe and North America, made me rather busy. That’s not to mention living out of a suitcase as well as fitting in sight-seeing in Europe and seeing friends and family in America. However, the point of the matter is that I have not been writing or blogging during this time. How can I ever find the courage to start back again?

You see, it takes courage to begin anew when you’ve neglected to work on something for a long while. Your conscience may start to bug you and you think, “I really should start to work on a new blog post…” but then things happen, and life gets in the way, and you don’t take the time to get started. In fact, it can be easier to push the projects aside and ignore that small voice in your head after a while. Soon it’ll be one month, then two, then three since you’ve written anything.

What’s a struggling sometimes-writer to do?

Here are some tips that I’ve found helpful for times like now when my writing has ground to a halt.

• Discover what made you stop in the first place: Were you bored by your story? Was your life just “too busy” for writing? Did the genre of story not appeal to you any more? Did you get five or fifteen new ideas and couldn’t decide which one to work on? Did work/school become too urgent and time-consuming? Whatever your problem was, by identifying it, you make it easier to avoid the problem this time. Think back to the last time you wrote and the circumstances surrounding it, and see if you can think of what made your writing slow down.
• Schedule time to write: there are always moments in the day in which you don’t have anything urgent or important to do. First pinpoint those times—maybe fifteen minutes after breakfast, half an hour before lunch, or an hour late at night. Then schedule some time to write then. The more intentional you are, and the more a part of your routine you make your writing, the easier it will be to start afresh.
• Remember, the first time is the hardest: Any writer will know that beginning a story, a blank page, a fresh piece of paper, can be an intimidating challenge. But you have to start somewhere. Write one word, then another, and pretty soon you’ll discover that the most difficult part was starting. (Although finishing a project can be just as tricky…but that’s a subject for another post.)
• Above all, don’t give up: It’s never too late to start writing again. Never fool yourself into thinking that you’re a horrible writer who will never finish anything and nobody wants to read your work. I want to assure you that every single person has a worthwhile story to tell. Whether or not that story is the one you’re working on now, you can be assured that you are adding something of value to the world. You can even find yourself a team of fellow writers or encouragers to keep you going and remind you that what you’re writing is significant. Just don’t give up!

So here I am, concluding the first blog post I’ve written in over a month. It’s been difficult to write, but I hope that these tips on courage help you just as much as they’ve helped me. Enjoy writing!

Writing During Vacations

In case you’ve been wondering where I’ve been these past two weeks, I had the pleasure of a wonderful holiday in Vietnam. With beaches, mountains, motorcycles, friends, shopping, and delicious Vietnamese food, I couldn’t have enjoyed myself more.

Before you start getting too jealous, I’d like to remind everyone that summer holidays are just around the corner. For many of you, you’re wrapping up school or work, and maybe even graduating within the next few weeks. Give yourself a pat on the back and a hearty congratulations. At the very least, you’ve nearly made it through the first half of the year!

With the prospect of some freedom and breathing room up ahead, that leads me naturally to the subject of what happens to our writing when we’re on vacation. How can we make writing a part of our holidays without making the vacation too stressful or unpleasant?

1. Have a plan
Deliberately schedule time each day or every few days to write. Don’t leave this to chance—if you don’t schedule time, the more fun activities of vacation (watching TV?) will take first place and you will get little or no writing done at all.

2. Write as early in the day as possible
Yes, I understand you want to sleep in (heaven knows we all need more sleep!), but once you’re up, don’t wait until later to write. Get it done early on.

3. Don’t stress about quality
You’re on holiday, for goodness’ sake, so relax a bit! Don’t worry about getting the story perfect. Just get it done! Particularly when you are writing your first draft, your focus should be on writing, not on how good your writing is. Even if you decide to edit rather than write over the vacation, you should still take it easy on yourself. Have confidence in the small steps you’re taking. Don’t let yourself stress about the final product before the story is even finished.

4. Determine what you want to focus on: researching/planning, drafting, editing
Each person has different writing strengths and weaknesses. For me, writing the first draft is the most difficult part of the writing process. I’ve found that, when I’m drafting large chunks of story, long uninterrupted vacation times are essential. Then during the rest of the year, it’s a lot easier to carefully edit what I’ve written. So for example, I wrote my first full draft of my novel Red Sun Blue Earth over the month of June last year, when I was on holiday. During the rest of the year, I primarily spent my time editing. Of course, each person is different, so make sure you’ve pinpointed what portion of the writing process you want to tackle over your vacation.

5. After your vacation, focus on the positives
If you’re anything like me, you probably didn’t accomplish quite as much as you’d hoped over the holidays. Rather than bemoaning the fact that you didn’t write four hours a day, however, you should congratulate yourself on what you did do. Re-read what you’ve written, if you’d like. Maybe tally up your total wordcount or pagecount. Reward yourself for what you’ve accomplished.


And that’s it—just a few pointers about enjoying yourself (and your writing) over the holidays. So tell me, do you have any ideas yet for what writing you want to accomplish over the summer? Are you planning to travel anywhere exciting? Do you prefer drafting, editing, or researching/planning over the holidays? Let me know in the comments!

Fanfiction

Star Trek devotees started the fanficiton
craze with the magazine above 

I must confess to a recent obsession with fanfiction--not of the fantasy sort, but more along the lines of Jane Austen novels. The variations and the scope within even the seemingly limited world of Jane Austen have me amazed at every turn. This minor obsession has led me to wonder about writing fanfiction myself. In today's blog post, then, I'd like to explore some of the pros and cons of writing fanfiction, whether for fantasy or other stories.

Before I begin, though, let me mention that my first full-length story (ahem, first forty-page scribbled notebook story!) was a fanfiction of Nancy Rue's Josiah Hutchinson stories. I used to love the characters and conflicts of Josiah's life in Salem and, naturally, I wanted in on the action. Since completing that story, I've dabbled into fanfiction only once in a two-page story about Eragon that I began but very quickly abandoned. Now, however, I find myself rather tempted by the thought of exploring Jane Austen through fanfiction!

Which leads me to wonder...should I or shouldn't I? To help me decide, I'll be exploring the pros and cons of fanfiction in today's post.

Pros:

• Head start on the story: One of the greatest benefits of fanfiction is that the story contains already developed characters and a "storyworld"--or setting--that gives you a head start in your writing. You don't need to worry about what the characters look, act, or talk like; all you need to worry about is the plot.
• Motivation: If you already love the stories and the world, then writing fanfiction may give you the right motivation to carry your story through to the end. You might not be motivated enough to write your own story, but a fanfiction of Lord of the Rings? Bring it on!
• Fan base: A definite benefit of writing a story in a genre that has a fan base is that you have an instant audience for your story. A niche market for a particular type of fanfiction can provide your first readers and critiquers, who will eagerly devour and help improve your story.

Cons:

• Copyright issues: This is the main issue in writing fanfiction. Because of copyright issues, your work must remain private and non-commercial unless you write a fanfiction of an older story without copyright restrictions (such as Jane Austen's works). Thus, be aware that even if you write a stunning fanfiction, you might never be able to publish your work.
• Lack of originality and freedom: When you write fanfiction, you don't have very much room to change characters or to develop the story in your own directions. You may feel a bit confined, particularly to the author's original writing style. While I of course realize that you want to respect the original author's works, I would recommend that you don't confine yourself to do exactly as the original author did. Otherwise, you risk being predictable. Instead, explore and push the limits, even in your fanfiction.
• Perceived image: A risk of writing fanfiction is that you may end up looking like you're piggy-backing off of someone else's work. Readers may wonder whether your writing would stand up on its own, without the framework of someone else's story. Be prepared for questions and doubts, both of your own making and of your readers' making.
• Restricted imagination: Personally, I believe making up your own characters and setting is a unique opportunity for your imagination to grow and develop. If you never branch out on your own, you may end up restricting your imagination (not to mention your confidence for future writing!). Make sure, therefore, to keep fanfiction in balance with works that come from your own imagination.

That brings us to the end of our pro-and-con evaluation. So, will I end up writing some Jane Austen fanfiction? I'm thinking, for now, I'll focus on writing my own stories. Perhaps someday, though, Austen's characters and stories will re-awaken to life under my pen!

What about everyone else? Have any of you written fanfiction? What are some pros or cons you've experienced?

Warning: One does not simply write fanfiction...without going a little bit insane.

Saying Goodbye

"Parting is such sweet sorrow," said Shakespeare. Well, he was wrong: saying goodbye is all sorrow and no sweet. The problem is, there are times in life when we as writers need to say goodbye, whether to people, places, stories, or fantasy worlds. I've been reminded of this idea lately because I'll soon be saying goodbye to Asia and moving to the US. There's another reason, too -- I finished my first novel Red Sun Blue Earth last month (you can get it here on Amazon), but that means the story is over. It's done. I need to move on with my writing to a different world populated by different characters.

But what I'm learning is that it's hard to say goodbye.

Now I certainly hope I'm not alone here. Most people have moved to a different house at least once or twice in their lives. Some have even moved to different sates or countries. So you know what I mean--saying goodbye to a beloved place or friend can be difficult.

As writers, though, it can be even more difficult to say goodbye to our favorite stories. When we write, the words and actions and places and people of the story consume us. Even when we finish a rough draft, there's still a lot of editing and revising to do. We have to go back and tinker with sentences or tweak character traits. We see the action in our heads and hear the voices of characters over and over. But, eventually, there comes a time when the story is done. Maybe it's as good as it'll ever be, or maybe you've realized you need to set it aside for now even if it isn't perfect. Maybe you decide there's another story you'd rather be writing. Either way, saying goodbye can be hard.

What can we do, then, as writers? Must our hearts be broken each time we move on to the next story? I think not. Below are some ways to cope with saying goodbye to a story.

1. Keep a list of your favorite quotes from the old story to inspire you and keep you from feeling discouraged at the problems that arise in your writing. You can even collect pictures in an album or on Pinterest and look through them occasionally to revisit the good old days. However, don't leave these out in a too-obvious place--you need to be reminded, but you don't want to compare your new project with the old one. Each project should be uniquely special to you.

2. Get excited about your new project. Write like mad, every day if you possibly can, and be inspired by new character voices and fantastic places. It's a lot easier to remember the old place fondly if you're having fun in the new place!

For me, I've been writing a fantasy story that is really bad in quality but amazing in quantity--in the past four weeks, I've written over 40,000 words/200 (notebook) pages! My philosophy is to focus on writing more pages and enjoying the story, not stressing about whether it's good. (In case anyone's interested, the story is set in modern Ireland/a parallel magical Ireland, and the main character, Kelsey Marx, must take part in political revolutions and act in saintly plays and fight Vikings.) So, all that to say: deeply involve yourself in your new project, and keep at it!

3. Always remember that you can go back. If you really want to, you could write a short story or a poem about those characters from that story. Even better, you can go back and read what you've written. However, your focus should not be on looking back but on looking ahead. Rest assured, greater things are yet to come so long as you keep on writing!

4. If all else fails, eat chocolate and do something un-writing-related (just do not laze around on the Internet!). Maybe buy an awesome 500-piece puzzle. Paint a picture. Play a board game. Take some photos. Then, once you start feeling better, get to work on your new project. And have fun with it! Don't pressure yourself to be perfect, just pressure yourself to enjoy your writing and your life!


So that's it, folks -- your trusty tips to overcoming post-writing-depression. Let me know in the comments if you've ever suffered from this peculiar illness or if you have any other tips on saying goodbye that you'd like to add.

Food & Fantasy

I love food. Cranberry scones, lemon sorbet, apple pie, Japanese hiyashi-chuka noodles, fresh-baked bread, thin crust pizza...food can be so delicious and amazing!

Then again, sometimes it's more weird than wonderful--bird's nests, shark fin soup, grubs, fried crickets, and more. As fantasy writers and readers, we can be alert to using all of the mighty powers of food for many different purposes.

That's what today's blog post is about: food and fantasy.

1. Everyday-subsistence food
Your story may be a fantasy, but your characters do need to eat. (Unless they are some sort of non-eating-elemental-beings, in which case they probably need energy like moonbeams rather than food.)

Think carefully about what the ordinary people in your story eat on a daily basis. Do they have wheat and corn and potatoes, as in our world? Is there a ready supply of meat? Or are they vegetarians (like me)? Are there any types of daily foods that are unique to your world--special fruits, for example, or maybe a type of vegetable that your main character hates?

If your characters travel over the course of your story, be sure to have them sample different cuisines along the way. There's no better way to add realism to your story than by describing the different sorts of foods your characters encounter along the way!

A few words of warning: while food is an interesting detail that adds texture to your story, don't let it be unnecessarily prominent. Don't just mention food for the sake of mentioning food. Whenever you mention food, make it part of the conflict: the main character doesn't want to offend her host, but she hates eating zinzer roots; some village children are falling sick because of malnutrition; your crew of hearty sailors have scurvy or are running short of food. You get the picture. Make food interesting, important, and maybe dangerous.

2. Special-occasion food
In our world, food is so often tied to celebrations. Think of Thanksgiving dinner. What would it be without turkey and cranberry sauce and stuffing? Then there's Easter, which is practically synonymous with eggs. Or what about Chinese New Year--you have your springrolls, your pineapple tarts, your lo hei/yusheng. Food is an inescapable part of celebrating.

So in your fantasy world, when you have celebrations of the new year or for a coronation or for the king's birthday or for the Harvest Festival, be sure to concoct some special and essential foods to celebrate.

3. Food with special properties
Think of all the examples: Snow White's poisoned apple. The elves' lembas bread from Lord of the Rings. The Weasley twins' nosebleed nougats and canary creams from Harry Potter. We're writing fantasy stories, so we really can let our imagination run wild with our foods. Make your foods poisonous, deceiving to the eye (maybe it looks like sugar and tastes like coal), bestow strength on the eater, make the eater turn into a canary, make the eater invisible...the possibilities are endless.

If you're really interested in the possibilities of magical food in fantasy, study J.K. Rowling's use of candies and foods in Harry Potter. Food is one of the many things that makes Rowling's stories come to life in readers' heads.


A note on presentation: in some cultures, like Japan, the arrangement of the food is crucial. The food is meant not just to be useful but to be beautiful. The colors are chosen to create harmony on the plate; the foods are arranged in special shapes and positions. In such cultures, food can be an art form in and of itself. You could write an entire book about a girl determined to succeed as a food artist but prevented by the traditional heirarchy of her fantasy world. My point here is, don't just think about food as a detail or sustenance for your character. Make the food and the presentation of the food woven seamlessly into the fabric of your fantasy culture.


All this talk about food is making me hungry! Good thing it's almost lunchtime. Let me know if you've made up any foods for your fantasy world, or if you have any cool examples to share of uses of food in the stories you've read.

What to Do When You're Self-Publishing

For those of you who don't know, I'm self-publishing my first novel, Red Sun Blue Earth, in only five weeks on March 11, 2013. It's the story of a teen girl caught in Japan's 2011 tsunami, and how she survives and tries to find her family. As you can imagine, my story has been consuming a lot of my thoughts and energy lately. I thought I'd take advantage of the things I've learned so far in the process and write a post on resources you can use when you've reached the self-publishing stage.

Mini story, "The Two Princess and Freddie," by yours truly

1. Get yourself a professional cover.
Seriously, folks, it's that important. The cover is your first impression, the first connection between your readers and your story. It's a method of communication in the same way that your first page is. Your cover could in fact make or break your story. Don't skimp here! Budget carefully so that you can hire the best.

The cover designer I'm using for Red Sun Blue Earth is Scarlett Rugers. I've been very impressed with her services thus far, and her prices are fairly reasonable for the industry. Here's a blog post on covers for self-published authors, and one on getting cover art. Other cover designers that I researched are Damonza and Historical Editorial. Self publishing companies such as CreateSpace also offer basic cover design, but not sure that I'd recommend using those resources. They may not offer professional quality covers or enough flexibility to get a cover you like.

2. You need feedback. Hire an editor, or at the very least have a team of test-readers edit and critique your book.
What I said above really says it all. The stereotype of self-published books is that they are poor quality and badly written. Who doesn't like busting stereotypes? So be sure to make your book the best it possibly can be by offering it up as a sacrificial offering to the eyes of editors and test readers who may butcher it but who will probably ensure that your book is better than it would've been on its own.

For my book, once I was finished with two drafts on my own, I got together a team of test readers from my favorite writing forum, HolyWorlds, who gave me some good feedback. I also got feedback from family and friends at this point. After incorporating their feedback in a third and fourth draft, I hired what's called an editorial evaluation, which is where editors give me their feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of my story in about a six or eight page Word document. (It's less detailed and more general than page-by-page editorial services, but since hiring a professional editor costs one or two thousand dollars or more, I needed to economize a bit!) I got the evaluation from CreateSpace, and was very pleased with the quality and depth of it. If you are looking for a full editor, I'd suggest the following resources as a starting point: Book Editing Associates, Through the Looking Glass, G-Revisions, Editorial Freelancers Association, and Hock's Editing Services.

3. Appearances matter, so be sure to format it or hire a formatter.
This one's a bit more basic. The technical details of preparing a Word document or manuscript to sell online can get a bit complex, so I'd recommend hiring someone to take care of it for you. However, it's definitely possible to DIY this one, especially if you've got an eye and the time for nitty-gritty details. Here's a tutorial that walks you through formatting your book in HTML. Although I haven't hired a formatter yet, I'm planning to use the skills of Aubrey Hansen, who has done some excellent formatting in books that I've read in the past. Plus she's extremely affordable.


There's more involved, of course, but these are the three major elements that every self-publishing author needs to deeply consider before the book becomes public. I may post later about other aspects of self-publishing to keep in mind. This is quite enough information to start off with, though, in my opinion!

Let me know in the comments if you've ever self-published, and what resources you've used, and if you have any questions on self-publishing or any tips to share from your experiences. Have a great week!

Ships & the Ocean in Fantasy

Occasionally I will open a new book, and, within the first few pages, I’ll notice something different: the salty tang of the ocean breeze, the soft splash of waves breaking against the prow of a ship, the creak of the rigging—in short, the story is set at sea.

Fantasy stories set in or around the sea are somewhat rare, but a few authors have produced lovely stories of ships, islands, and voyages. Some prime examples are C. S. Lewis’ Voyage of the Dawn Treader and Ursula K. LeGuin’s Earthsea Chronicles.

Today, we’ll discuss several things that make sea stories powerful—and then, some warnings and cautions when writing tales set at sea. First, the positives.

The most important aspect is how rare oceanic settings are in fantasy. So few fantasy stories are set at sea that it’s always refreshing to read one. (Mind you, other elements—such as air—are even more neglected and deserve a few well-crafted fantasies of their own.)

Second, stories of voyages always possess a lovely old-fashioned medieval atmosphere. Ships and the sea possess a nostalgia as we moderns become ever more confined to cars, airplanes, and our electric-lighted-GPS-guided cities. To be out on the open sea, able to gaze up at the Milky Way (or, rather, the constellations of your own galaxies)—it’s a beauty we seldom enjoy. (That’s not to say that everything about sailing was golden. Remember, sailors sometimes had to eat rats! Don’t let life on board the ship get too comfortable!)

Next, stories of voyages have the potential to explore any number of fantastic settings in the form of islands along the way. In Voyage of the Dawn Treader, there’s a desert island inhabited by a dragon; a prosperous and independent island tyrannized by slave traders; an island with little invisible dwarf-like creatures each possessing a single enormous foot; and more. The possibilities for variations of culture, dress, language, and so forth on various islands are nearly limitless.

Furthermore, oceanic tales afford the possibility for underwater fantasy creatures. Among the possibilities are merfolk, nereids, talking seahorses, krakens, or some species of your own design. If you do write a sea story, be sure to include some sort of fantasy sea creatures so that your readers are reminded that this is no ordinary oceanic tale.

Finally, stories set at sea can offer the dual sense of discovery and danger. Voyages have defined goals or purposes (traveling from point A to point B is common, but exploration—say, for new lands or for lost people or for gold—are often used as well) that serve to give the story united thrust. There’s constant tension in the form of the potential of running out of food or of being shipwrecked or lost at sea. The sense of direction and danger in sea stories give them a hidden power.

However, before you run to your pen/computer to begin writing, let me warn you that oceanic fantasy stories have severe flaws that we as writers must face.

The first and most crucial warning is that stories of voyages have the potential to get very boring, very fast. Because there are a limited number of characters on ship, there’s not as much suspense. Readers can guess the source of the conflicts, and thus they don’t have the sense of “what’ll happen next” to keep them turning pages. Just as the ocean starts to look the same after a while, so too do stories of voyages.

Furthermore, oceanic stories are often episodic, with each stop on an island like a “mini-story” in the middle of one long, boring voyage. Unlike most stories, which possess a cohesive narrative that makes the story flow smoothly from one scene to the next, stories of voyages often jerk the reader from one island to the next in a series of unconnected adventures.

Finally, stories set at sea are predictable. The same obstacles seem to come up in all of them: hunger, storms, shipwreck, sea monsters, drowning…the list goes on. Again, this will leave your reader bored and without suspense.

However, there is redeeming potential in oceanic fantasies. As always, my recommendation is to invert the expected elements to make them the opposite of what readers will be watching for. For example, try making the sea bright pink instead of blue. I guarantee that your readers will be at least momentarily diverted. You could also have portals inside the ship that transport characters to other places, making the ship a transportation device on the inside rather than the outside. Or you could place the ocean in the interior of a ship rather than its exterior. Once you begin looking for ways to contradict the expected norms, the opportunities are endless.

What about you—have you read any good fantasies set at sea? Have you ever written any oceanic fantasy tales? Any pros or cons or helpful tips to add to the list above?

Day of Rest and Review, Part 2

Two weeks ago, the first part of my series of two posts on a "day of rest and review" was featured on the Holy Worlds blog. Here's the opening of part 2, published today.

In part 1, I discussed the concept of a “DoRR”: a Day of Rest and Review devoted to God and centered on your writing. Just to recap, here’s the overall structure I suggested for your day:

1. Begin with Scripture, prayer, and journaling.
2. Look Back
3. Look Now
4. Look Ahead
5. Close in Scripture, prayer, and journaling.

In today’s post, I’ll take a closer look at the “meat” of the DoRR—the three middle portions of look back, look now, and look ahead.

Read the rest of the blog post at this link. And, for a dose of much-needed writing humor, here is Calvin and Hobbes.

Colors in Fantasy, Part 2: Opposites

In last week's post, I discussed the surprising lessons on writing that I've learned from Photoshop. I went into detail on Photoshop's tools of hue, value, and saturation, and shared their applications to fantasy. This week, I'd like to look at another facet of colors and writing: color opposites.

First up is warm versus cool. Warm colors are basically colors that make you feel warm: yellows and reds and oranges. Cool colors, then, are colors that feel cold: blues and greens and purples. The contrast between warm and cool can be used in your writing, not just in colors.

A lot of stories will assign the "bad guys" to either warm or cool colors, and then make the "good guys" have an opposite color scheme. For example, the White Witch's castle in Narnia was made of ice, which has cool blue tones. In contrast, Aslan's camp featured bright reds and oranges, and Aslan himself was a tawny gold. Writers often use the opposite pattern, too, and give the villains red colors (like in Star Wars, the Sith have red lightsabers) and give the good guys cold colors (again in Star Wars, the Jedi have blue and green and purple lightsabers). Experiment with the contrasts that work best in your story, and remember to have the color scheme flow from your characters. The White Witch's personality was icy and so her color scheme was cool; Aslan's character was roaring like a fire and so his color scheme was warm.

Next, we have the contrast between light and dark. We've discussed it a bit in last week's section on "value," but let me add a couple more thoughts here. The obvious way for writers to use light and darkness is to add mystery and danger to the setting. Dark scenes seem more evil or more ominous.

However, that's not how it has to be! What if you led your character down a brightly-lit white corridor rather than a dark, spooky one? You'd need to be more subtle about the sense of approaching danger, but it's quite possible to have a sense of looming evil in light just as much as darkness. One such setting I remember from a childhood classic was in Charlie and the Chocolate factory, when Charlie entered the pure-white Television Chocolate Room. While it didn't feel evil by any means, there were hints of "darkness" and danger even in the spotless room. So play with your use of light and darkness, and, as I said last week, never fear to invert.

The last area of contrast we'll look at today is analogous, complementary, and tertiary colors. For all of you who have never taken an art class, let me explain those daunting terms. Look at the circle of color (also called "color wheel") on the right. The colors right next to each other--orange and yellow, for example--are analogous. The colors directly opposite each other--red and green or purple and yellow--are complementary. Tertiary colors are the colors that intersect at each third of the wheel--so we have red, blue, and yellow on the one hand or purple, orange, and green on the other. (Do note that Photoshop uses a somewhat different color wheel that I thought would be a bit too confusing to explain here. If you're interested, here's a link to a great explanation.)

Surprisingly, these color divisions can be quite helpful in crafting your story. As with the other contrasting areas, a major way to use these colors is to show the difference between your good and evil characters. Many writers use complementary (directly opposite) colors to differentiate good and evil. For example, in the movie versions of Harry Potter, the villain's magic was green and the hero's was red (red and green are complementary/opposites). You'll notice that these colors also contrast by being warm and cold. The other color divisions are mostly helpful when you're short on ideas of details you can use to make your characters memorable. Instead of saying X character wore a purple sweater, say she wore a lavender one (analogous colors). These colors are also good to explore what colors work well in overall scenery (say, in the king's court): you can have his standard composed of blue and red elements on a background of green (tertiary colors).

I'll now venture into the most controversial area of color in fantasy: racial diversity. The color of each character's skin in a fantasy story is more important--and more overlooked--than one might think. For example, did you realize that all characters in Tolkien's Middle Earth are white (aside from orcs, who may or may not be underneath all that grime)? In Christopher Paolini's Eragon, only a few characters were black and none had features that I recognized as Asian/otherwise-non-white. I'd like to appeal to all aspiring fantasy writers, then, to add a bit more diversity to your tales. Skin tones are areas where we as fantasy writers have such incredible room for imagination. Don't feel confined to white characters simply because you've never read of blue-skinned elves! Use the color of your character's skin as another medium to communicate the deep themes of your story or the imagination of your world.

Overall, using opposite color elements (whether in warm v. cool, light v. dark, or complementary/analogous/tertiary) is a great way to add contrast to your writing. And, too, adding details of color makes the story more memorable to your readers. Use color as an opportunity to explore and expand your fantasy world!

All the best in your writing this week!

Color in Fantasy, Part 1: Tools

Over the past few weeks, I've been learning the delicate, obstinate, and so-called art of Photoshop. I've spent many frustrated hours staring at a canvas, paintbrush in hand, contemplating the next brushstroke--excuse me, I should say, hunched over the keyboard, manipulating pixels click by click. But let me get to my point. Through my journey in photoshop, I've learned quite a few things about correcting, manipulating, and applying color in digital images. And then I realized something even more interesting (especially for those who have stuck with me through this introductory paragraph): writers can learn a lot about using color in writing fantasy from Photoshop.

How do colors apply to fantasy, you ask? Well, let's look at it as Photoshop would: tool-by-tool.

First up is hue. The hue refers to the pure, undiluted, rainbow-like colors that most people would consider "colors." Hue means yellow, green, blue, red, magenta, orange--in their purest form. From a writing perspective, you want to make full use of the range of colors hue offers. If one character has a green cardigan, then for goodness' sake don't give another character a green scarf! Add variety and even spice to your story by mixing up the colors you use. A girl wears purple glasses. A boy has orange shoelaces. Hue is excellent for variety in details, and for making particular characters distinct based on what color they are associated with.

Second, we've got value. That's how much darkness each color has. To get a bit technical, a value of 50% is the pure color, the hue, that we talked about above. Black is 0% value. White is 100% value. Now this is all quite fascinating, but from a writer's perspective, the "value" tool has a practical usefulness. The levels of darkness (value) in each setting, each object, and even each character add depth and symbolism to your story. Obviously, a darker setting is more mysterious, more scary, more evil--in short, it's metaphorically darker. Tolkien's Mines of Moria were in deep darkness, which added to the spookiness and the sense of danger in the setting. Even objects that are darker in value seem to be symbolically darker in purpose. So play around with the value tool in your writing, and consider the levels of darkness in your story and how they affect the tale.

Third up is saturation. Saturation is the "purity" of each color. Again, to be technical, 100% saturation is the hue (pure color), and 0% saturation is white. Value measures from white to black; saturation only measures from white to hue (pure color). Why is saturation valuable for fantasy writers especially? Obviously, as with hue and value, saturation is great for adding a variety of memorable colors to your story (chartreuse, for example). It's also great for atmosphere in settings. Even further, though, one of the most fantastic parts of fantasy is that we don't have to accept the world the way it is. For example, what if your villain threatens to remove all the saturation from the world, making the world a colorless white? Or what if your world is colorless (0% saturation), and then your hero(ine) discovers color? It's fascinating to imagine the implications!

To sum up what we've been discussing, these three tools--hue, value, and saturation--together produce all the colors possible. Any color you can imagine (and a few that you probably can't) comes from a combination of hue, saturation, and value (commonly abbreviated HSB in physics textbooks and Photoshop alike).  Use them to add detail, variety, mood, and the fantastic to your story.

One last comment about color tools: when in doubt, invert. Do the opposite of what you normally would. Give your villains something white to wear and hide the scary monsters in the light forest rather than the dark one. Have the villains attempt to unleash color on the unsuspecting population, and make your heroes defend the cause of 0% saturation! Consider making your hero's favorite color your personal least favorite. Each of these "unusual" choices will add a definitely unique flavor to your fantasy. Always experiment and invert!

There's a lot more to consider about colors in fantasy, so be on the lookout for part 2 coming next week!

Review: Peter's Angel

Title: Peter’s Angel (first volume in the Peter’s Angel trilogy)

Author: Aubrey Hansen

Page Count: 336 pages

Stars: 4.5 of 5

• 4.5 = an excellent book that was gripping and enjoyable

Teaser: In the wake of a lost War for Independence, Peter Jameson, a young colonel, struggles to protect his tiny patriot state of Rhode Island from the oppression of New Britain. When New Britain invades, Peter finds himself leading his small cavalry against the massive British army. But war becomes the least of his worries when his own men kidnap him and hold him for ransom. Facing certain death, Peter is freed by a mysterious boy who vanishes without leaving his name. Peter determines to find his "angel" and reward him. But his rescuer has a secret of his own, and he will do anything to keep from being found.

That summary barely does anything to scratch the multifaceted surface of Peter's Angel, but it'll have to do for now until you read the book for yourself!

Age level: Teens and up (13+)

Violence: 2 of 5

• 2 = PG-level violence that's a minor theme in the book

Romance: 2 of 5

• 2 = romance is minor but present

Language: 0 of 5 (although language is implied in one scene)

Christian worldview: Peter’s Angel is an explicitly religious/Christian novel, which makes it particularly interesting to read and review. Altogether, I was pleasantly surprised by the subtle-yet-present thread of spiritual commentary throughout the story. It worked perfectly in light of the setting in alternate-American-colonial-times. Also, Hansen wove in discussions on courtship, swearing, and God’s role in world events in an extremely skillful way—some of the best I’ve read in Christian fiction. Peter’s Angel presents an excellent example of how to write a Christian book.

My Personal Opinion: First, a few comments about what bumped this book from 5-star status. The beginning felt a bit heavy and factual and, although interesting, it could’ve used a bit more conflict. Also, even considering that Peter’s Angel is a trilogy, the ending felt rather abrupt and made me very, very impatient for the next book.

Now for the good points. The concept itself is extremely fascinating. It’s historical fiction plus that sense of questioning and exploring reality, that sense of asking, “what if something had happened differently?” In terms of the writing, the characters were my favorite aspect of the book. Each voice was distinct and the use of details to differentiate the various characters worked well. Although the action may have been slow to start, once it did begin, there was an excellent balance of character and plot-driven conflict. The setting was well-crafted, and Hansen’s marvelous use of details made each scene spring to life before my eyes.

All in all, I’d highly recommend Peter’s Angel. If you’re at all interested in Christian fiction, I’d definitely suggest that you read Peter’s Angel, both for pleasure and to learn from a job well done!