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Editor’s Notes: On Writing Women
BY ELIZABETH GILLILAND
As you scroll through our editor’s notes, you may notice something of a trend here at Xchyler Publishing . . . most of us are women. The same could probably be said of most publishing houses and agencies. There are a lot of women in this field. We love to read. We’re passionate about books. And if you ask most of us what we’re looking for in a story, while we might vary on plot or genre, almost all of us would probably list “strong female characters” as one of our absolute must-haves.
. . . But what does that mean, exactly?
No doubt it is due to series like Buffy the Vampire Slayerand The Hunger Games that when we now refer to a female character, she is either ‘strong’ or ‘weak.’ In a way, this is really great; our lives are saturated with kick-butt female role models who aren’t just designed to be sexual icons for men. But in a way I wonder if this hasn’t also skewed our perception of what it actually means to be strong—that a woman can be independent and empowered without whipping out tae kwon do or putting an arrow through someone’s heart. And that we do, in fact, need to see women like this in the literature we’re reading.
Frankly, I’m kind of tired of reading female characters who can beat up all the guys and have all the best lines and have all the men dropping at their feet because they’re just so fabulously sexy and witty and tough and clever all at the same time. Part of being strong is being allowed to explore what makes us weak, too. I want to be able to relate to the female characters I’m reading about, and I am none of those things all the time. Sometimes, occasionally, but definitely not all the time.
I am sometimes smart and sometimes tough and sometimes funny but also shy and awkward and don’t think of the right thing to say until way after I should have said it, and if men are falling at my feet it is probably due more to a lack of personal hygiene than a surplus of charm. That isn’t to say that you have to bring out all the worst qualities in your female characters, but allow them to have some bad qualities. Allow them to be human.
Then there’s the other end of the spectrum—where the main character is not strong AND tough AND sexy AND funny, but she’s none of those things either, because she’s mostly there to help the male character discover himself and so her character development takes a back seat. To that, I say—writers, write responsibly. If your protagonist isn’t very interesting when you take the man out of the equation, then she isn’t very interesting, period.
(For a great take on writing well-rounded characters of any gender, read Jessica Shen’s blog post, “Introductions, Please.”)
A good example of one of my favorite strong female characters who doesn’t use any weapons aside from her wit and who isn’t solely defined by her love story? Miss Elizabeth Bennet of Pride and Prejudice (did you really think I could make it through a blog post without mentioning P&P at some point?). Now granted, yes, part of why I love her story so much is because of that snobbishly dashing Darcy, but Elizabeth more than holds her own. She’s clever, she’s sharp-tongued, she’s loyal, (even when Charlotte marries that awful Mr. Collins and Lydia is… well, Lydia), she subtly defies convention (like muddying her skirts and walking by herself to get to her sick sister at Netherfield Park), she makes rash judgments (even though, as we quickly learn, her first impressions of people are not always correct—I’m looking at you here, Wickham), and she can be a bit of a snob (though she’s much quicker to find that fault in others than in herself). In short, she is a fully rounded human being who is both weak and strong, with or without a crossbow.
This isn’t to say that I don’t enjoy me some action. There is a time and a place for a girl beating the trash out of somebody who’s supposed to be bigger and tougher than she is, and a time and a place when that is flat-out awesome. But maybe it’s time to broaden our minds a little bit. Let’s not trick ourselves into thinking that the only way for a woman to be strong is to bench press 200 pounds and know the difference between a glock and a Beretta. For every Sidney Bristow, we need a Lorelai Gilmore. For every Buffy, we need a Willow. For every Sarah Connor, we need a Dr. Quinn. There’s room for all of us at the table.
As the Spice Girls so aptly put, If you wanna be my lover/you gotta get with my friends . . . or something like that. Girl power!
Author, editor, and story coach Elizabeth Gilliand currently kicks the trash out of the literature doctural program at Louisiana State University. Her most recent project. Conjectrix by Candace J. Thomas, Book 2 of the Vivatera series, was released in May of 2014. Her next project, Accidental Apprentice by Anika Arrington, is slated for release October 4, 2014.
From Our Catalog: Shadow of the Last Men by J.M. Salyards
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BY PENNY FREEMAN
The recurring criticism one hears about works like The Hunger Games is, “Why don’t they take all the money they spend on all that amazing technology and feed the people?” That’s the point, isn’t it? Dystopian books, at their finest, turn the lens onto ourselves and demand answers to questions we don’t want to ask.
Shadow of the Last Men is one such book. Author J. M. Salyards never pulls his punches when he illuminates the road down which our society mindlessly hurtles. The result is stark and brutal, but the light of hope and truth he shines into our darkest places make the journey incomparable.
Salyard allows his dead-on insight into the human condition to drive this book, creating rich, multifaceted and dynamic characters. His protagonists are flawed, his antagonists despicable but still possessed of strong veins of humanity too easily identified in ourselves. He swings from sage and profound to disturbing and violent at such speed, he keeps the reader constantly off-balance.
Salyard’s debut novel must be read and reread to fully appreciate the imagery and artistry of his prose, his mastery of the language, and his ability to layer his message deeply within the many folds of a purely entertaining novel. Based on the post-apocalyptic setting and the paramilitary window dressing, one initially assumes this a “man’s book.” However, I strongly recommend it to anyone who appreciates true literature.
Warning: staring the truth of ourselves in the bare and brazen face may cause serious self-reflection.
Join us September 2-6 on our NEXT MAN SAGA BLOG BLAST and Rafflecopter Giveaway. Share, post, LIKE, tweet for a chance to win a Xchyler t-shirt, a cover poster, or an autographed copy of Shadow of the Last Men by J.M. Salyards.
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Inside Marketing: Dressing for Success
BY PENNY FREEMAN
As writers, we’ve all got the fantasy: the six-figure advance comes dancing through the mail, trailing the high-powered agent and Big Five publisher in its wake. NYT best seller list. Movie deal. Fame. Fortune. Oprah. World tour with thousands of adoring fans queuing up to buy one of the stacks of your $35 hardbacks that flank you as you sit beneath a ten-foot banner in the highest-end bookstore in every city along the way. Perhaps it’s even THE word on the tongue of every Intelligencia wag on NPR.
And there, adorning the entire back dust cover shines your glorious face, in all your coifed and tailored glory, the perfect portrait captured by an ace photographer. A veritable work of art.
But, the reality is, you’ve got a stack of rejection letters papering your walls or propping up your computer monitor, you’ve decided to go independent, perhaps with a small boutique publishing house with an alternative business model, and your writing space is the coffee table littered with used paper plates and cats. Your publicity is your own to muddle out, and, in truth, you’re not that chic and suave author with the leather and walnut library lit by stained glass and imbued with the slightest aroma of really expensive pipe tobacco.
You’re just you. I mean, you could name a half-dozen millionaire authors who go out into public looking like back-room denizens of a comic book store, so you surely can get away with a snapshot on your Facebook or web page. After all, it’s not what you look like. It’s what you write. Right?
Wrong. Let’s face it. Although attitudes are changing, most people see “self-published” as synonymous with “bad writing.” Image does count. Readers do judge books by their covers, and, unfortunately, without the right look, even authors signed with independent publishing houses can come off looking like amateurs who got suckered into a vanity press scheme.
You’ve heard the old adage, “Dress for the job you want, not the job you have.” If you want to sell books, the same goes for authors. Portray yourself as successful as you want to be. If money is an issue, choose what strategies will give you the most return on your investment and look professional in those areas. Quality, not quantity. Here are three things you can do without spending a lot of money that will improve your “author” image.
- Personal domain name. Nothing says self-published like janewhozawhatzit.blogspot.com. A personal URL costs $15 a year to register, and a subscription to a web hosting service can be as little as $1.99 a month for the first year. Many online services, such as Blogger, WordPress, and Wix, provide easy-to-use, free templates, but still allow the incorporation of a personal URL. A private domain and a dynamic, contemporary website go a long way in dressing an author for success.
- Author portrait. Forget the snapshot from your cellphone, especially the candid one. There are times and places for those—specifically, blog posts when you want to show the world how cool your life is, but save the front page for the formal stuff. Pull that thrifty-mailer out of the trash and dig out the “free sitting” coupon from J.C. Penney or Sears or K-Mart or whatever, and get down to have your portrait taken. (Spring for the DVD. You’re an author. Respect copyright.)
Or, pester your friend who just bought that new SLR from Costco. At the very, very least, use an honest-to-goodness camera and strike a pose. Present to the world a high-density, high-quality image of yourself—something by which you’ll want them to remember you after they’ve navigated away from your website, blog, or profile page.
- ISBN. Every book published through CreateSpace and most other ebook or print-on-demand services require an International Standard Book Number. It’s that number on the back of books that identifies it in catalogs in libraries and bookstores across the world. This number is attached to the publisher who purchased it. Therefore, if you do not directly purchase an ISBN, CreateSpace will do it for you. If they do, they will be listed as the publisher of your book on all product information pages. If you want to appear professional, buy your own ISBN. Prices vary widely, from $18 for a single ISBN to $125 for a package deal, so do your homework to ensure you know what you’re getting and you get what you need.
I can hear you adding up the ka’chings in your head, but take things one step at a time. This is an investment in your future, and, in the grand scheme of things, a very small one. Whether you’ve signed with a publisher, are going it alone, or are building the foundation of a following, you be in control of your image, your brand. Start out right from the very beginning, and always put your best face forward. Show the world (and yourself) the author you want to be.
Editor in Chief Penny Freeman lives, writes, edits, and markets from her home in southeast Texas. She currently supervises several editorial and marketing projects.
Editor’s Notes: The Notebook
BY RIE SHERIDAN ROSE
No, I am not talking about that movie with Gena Rowlands and James Garner , or even the book it was based on. I am talking about the indispensable tool that no writer should be without.
Last week, MeriLyn Oblad talked about how important punctuation is as a tool. Last month, Jessica Shen talked about how vital it is to have a good beta reader. There have been blog posts on many other aspects of grammar, editing, writing in general, but to me, the most important tool an author can have is a notebook. A writer’s notebook is like a piece of his or her soul. It is more than a mere journal, though it can serve that function in part.
For many, many years—and I have the filled pages to prove it—this, to me, was an actual, physical object. When I was working for a corporation that will not be named, the only thing that kept me sane on some of those overnight shifts was the spiral notebook that just fit into my smock pocket. In down time, on breaks, at “lunch” (at 2:00 AM, it feels funny to call it that) I could scribble down ideas, write poetry, note a plot bunny, whatever I needed. You would be surprised what can trigger a story idea—and when.
Today, with smartphones practically glued to one’s hand, there isn’t really any need for a physical notebook because “there’s an app for that!”—though I would argue that the sensation of writing is its own reward sometimes, and I think I still carry two or three notebooks in my car and purse.
One of my personal favorites, because it can be synced with the new Office 365 over all of your devices is One Note (caveat—I am an Android girl, and have no idea what is available for Apple use) I have been a proponent of One Note for years, and now that Office is all online, the ease of sync is amazing. You can section your “notebook” as needed, and adding pages is a breeze.
Another useful app is Evernote. It performs most of the same functions as One Note, but I personally don’t find it as adaptable to my needs.
When I first got my tablet, I downloaded My Binder, which I really liked, because it had separate notebooks for different things, like story ideas, titles, short stories, poetry, etc. I don’t use it on my phone because the screen is so small, but your mileage may vary.
Choosing the proper notebook is almost as important as filling it—for example, when using a physical notebook, I also prefer to have unlined pages, because occasionally I sketch a prop or costume beside the piece I am writing, but this is also a matter of personal choice.
The process of choosing a notebook should be looked at as an opportunity to express yourself to yourself. Take your time and enjoy the search. I usually browse the journal section in any bookstore, stationary, or paper store I enter. You never know when you will find the perfect writing companion. I usually have my next book (or two, or four) waiting for me to finish my current one.
What do you write in your book once you find it? Anything and everything. Here is a sample of the things in one of my notebooks: email addresses from friends and possible research URLs that I don’t want to forget; scraps of scenes I am working on at any given time; outlines of action to work out plot details; a transcript of a chat session that might make an interesting story someday; plot bunnies; maps of my fictional lands; poems; personal exercises (one volume had swatches of fabric taped into it and then descriptions of the characters who might wear them); and yes, journal entries—personal frustrations, triumphs, fears, feelings, all the things that you would tell a diary.
The important word that kept popping up in the last couple of paragraphs was “personal.”
Yes, you can share your book with friends or relatives if you want, but if you never want to show any of it to another soul, you don’t have to. And you can expand the idea of a personal writing notebook to more than one level. For example, I have my “writer’s notebook” which I carry everywhere, though I don’t always have time to use it, but I also have another notebook specifically for writing down dreams, some of which have later become plot outlines.
What this rather rambling column is getting at this month is that no writer should be without a notebook. Not only does it help you organize current projects, it also makes sure that you don’t lose that precious scrap of an idea that might one day become a best seller.
Most importantly, it keeps you writing, and by daily communication with your silent partner—whether physical or electronic—you keep your creative juices flowing and the wheels of your imagination turning away. Choose the size and shape that best suits you, but always have something on hand. You never know when inspiration will strike.
Rie writes, edits, and proofs for The X from her home in Austin, Texas. A prolific writer, her short story, “Seven-year Itch,” is featured in Terra Mechanica: A Steampunk Anthology. Her first project for The X, Relative Evil by Debra Erfert, was released in July, 2014.
Editor’s Notes: Tearing It Down
BY JESSICA SHEN
Making Your Hero Suffer
On Editor’s Notes, we’ve talked about all kinds of things that will make your story better, from how and when to break grammatical rules , to choosing a good name for your character. Today, let’s turn to the dark side of storytelling: how to make your hero suffer.
Some of you may relish in the idea of being the evil puppet-master, while others may dread the idea of causing harm to your precious character. If you’re as devious as I know some of you are, great—you’ll need no encouragement. For the reluctant ones, think of yourself as the archetypal hard-ass dad—the one who (lovingly) breaks their kids down to “build character.” You know who I’m talking about.
So, why would you want to do this? Why do you want to make life harder for your hero? You’ve already got a good plot in hand, you know how he or she is going to navigate through those twists and turns.
Let’s pause for a moment and talk about bodybuilding. One of the central tenets of bodybuilding (and strength training in general) is to work to failure. By the end of your workout session, you want the muscle group you’ve been working to be exhausted. While you’re huffing and panting lifting those weights, what you’re doing is creating tiny tears within your muscle fibers. As they repair, the muscle fibers grow bigger, much like scar tissue. Your muscles will never grow any bigger if you don’t tear them down, first.
Now, let’s put two and two together. Your hero, like your muscles, will never come out stronger if you don’t break him down, first. Think about what is your character’s strongest trait. Maybe she’s a math whiz, or a track star, or the best jiu jitsu fighter in the county. Maybe he’s super level-headed and logical, or has exceptional powers of observation. How can you take these traits away from your character? What makes your character strong, and what can you do to make him weak? How can you take your characters to the very edge of their sanity? How can you break them down? Answering these types of questions is what will get your readers invested in your story. If nothing of consequence happens, if your hero can skate through the story without ever getting to the breaking point, what’s the point?
To that end, don’t be afraid to be dramatic. Don’t be afraid to put it all out there. Of course, your entire story can’t be a 10 on the intensity scale, but when it comes to the climax—don’t hold back. This should be the point in the story where it’s do-or-die for your hero. She’s sad? Make her devastated. He’s weakened? He should be at death’s door. She can’t run anymore? It’s probably because she’s worn her feet down to the bone and now she’s leaving bloody trails in her wake. You know what I mean. The worst thing that will happen is that your editor will tell you to tone it down—but honestly, if you do it right, the chance of that will be pretty slim.
So, whether you want to play evil puppet-master or the reluctant character-building dad, make your hero suffer. Treat him like Arnold Schwarzenegger would treat his body during a training session. Because at the end of the day, after being broken and beaten down and left for dead, when your hero is able to come back from that precipice, your story, like Arnie’s famously bulgy muscles, will be all the stronger for it.
Jessica Shen knows of what she speaks and has a legion of tormented souls to show for it. Kingdom City: Resurrection by Ben Ireland, was released in February 2014. Her latest project, Vanguard Legacy: Reflected by Joanne Kershaw, was released in March 2014.
Jessica’s next project, On The Isle of Sound and Wonder, a Steampunk fantasy by Alyson Grauer, is slated for release in November 2014. Jessica lives, works, and tortures from her home in northern California.
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