The Book I've Been Waiting For

Hey everyone!
So, guess what book I just picked up from the library?

This one! Percy Jackson's Greek gods by Rick Riordan!!!
I'm a HUGE Greek mythology fan, so this book is right up my alley! 
Written in Percy's 'voice' this book offers compiled stories from early writers of Greek mythology, as well as humor, and some pretty great pictures. I would definitely recommend reading it; Especially if you are studying the Ancient Greeks in school this year, like I am. It's always a good idea to know what their ideas of creation and 'gods' were, so that we can better understand a lot of the motives behind what they did in battle, in philosophy, in all things. Now, don't yell at me, because I'm not saying we BELIEVE what they believed, we've just got to know what it is they believed. Right? Right.

                                                ~Katie~

We All Need A Laugh!

Don't forget to "be kind, please rewind"

The question is really, is a peach a vegetable?

It burnses, it burses!

What was I doing? Oh yeah, just running for my life.

What is this Show-er you speak of?

We never expected you to survive anyway.

Writing an emotional scene from a male POV

    Ladies, we've all had our struggles. We really need to get inside this male character's head, but we don't know how! Well, I'm not a guy, so I'm no expert. However, I have 3 brothers, and no sisters, so I know quite a bit.

Guys have emotions, but they don't act emotional
  So, if you tell a guy you don't like him, sure he'll be sad. He will not, however, run off and cry. However, if someone they love dies, chances are they will cry, but not in front of people. This is a terrible example, but when our cat died a year ago, my brother was 11. He's the oldest boy in the family, and has one of those "rough and tough guy" exteriors. But as I'm standing there, with my arms wrapped around him, sobbing, he's completely stiff. I got angry "What's wrong with you? Don't you care?" I wanted to scream. But I look up, and a tear is just barely escaping his eye. He storms away, and slams the front door closed behind him. Art is his way of expressing himself, so he drew a picture of our cat, and wrote a little bit. When we buried our cat, he put the picture in the "grave", and perhaps cried a bit. Meanwhile, I had written emotional words that I couldn't even say, because I was too choked up with tears, and couldn't stop crying. Now, not all guys are just like that, and not all girls are just like me. But guys in general don't show outward emotion. My brother Josh, who was 9 at the time never shed a tear. He had probably played with Eddie (our cat) the most, cuddled him the most, and been closest to him. But he never once showed a hint of outward emotion. He just kept talking and talking all day long.


                                                  ~Katie~

What's in a Great Main Character Anyway?

    So, maybe you're prepping for NaNo14, or maybe you're writing a novel outside of NaNoWriMo. Whatever you may be working on, I bet you've got a MC, otherwise, you wouldn't have a story. So, what makes a great MC? What makes a Protagonist that your readers actually care about? What makes us connect to a character, and hope they'll win in the end? Let's go over a few points.

1. They have to be fighting for something worthwhile.
That doesn't always mean they're going on a quest to save the world (although sometimes it does). What that means is that they care about their desired goal. There has to be a reason. In one of my novels-in-progress, my MC is trying to find a cure for an illness that's killing several people. The main reason she's going for this cure? The Illness killed her mother, and could be endangering her aunt, uncle, and cousins. She has a reason outside of just "It's the right thing to do" for her desired goal.

2. They need to have flaws.
 I get it, you love you're MC. You want him/her to be a model citizen. You want them to be everything they should be. Maybe you're trying to make them everything you're not. I've got one simple thing to say about this. Don't. Don't make that character perfect. Make them weak, either mentally, emotionally, or physically. Make them fail time after time. Make him/her doubt their ability to reach their desired goal. Make them believe they aren't good enough, and that they don't deserve so much help from friends, or strangers. If you're character can fly through everything with ne'er a failure or doubt, you have a big problem. 

3. A good  GREAT supporting cast.
If you have a well-balanced, exciting MC who is fighting for something worthwhile, but you have a bad supporting cast... hear that? It's the sound of your Protagonist failing. Every good hero needs a good group of friends. It's in all good books, from Percy Jackson and the Olympians, to The Lord of the Rings. The cold hard truth is that you're MC is nothing without a great supporting cast.

4. A formidable foe.
If the villain in your story (whether your villain in a person, a sickness, a condition) has to be difficult to fight, otherwise the Protagonist in unnecessary. If your evil scientist's contraption was going to fail in the first place, the hero doesn't need to be there to foil him, right? If your villain is easy to defeat, your readers aren't going to believe your MC is a hero. They just did what anyone else could have done.


Now, I'm not a professional writer. In fact, I've only published one novel as of now, though I'm working on 3 more. But even if you've only written a single novel, you have something to give. Writing is an art, and it can never be perfected. That favorite author of yours? He's still learning the art of writing. I only hope that I could help give you a better understanding of what is needed in a good, believable Main Character.

                                                       ~Katie~