My Tool Kit - Shay Fabbro

Since I write scifi/fantasy, I MUST have a notebook with all of the information on my characters and planets. Now that I’m working on the last book in the trilogy, most of the information is in my head at this point. J

But it’s nice to have the info handy in case I need some little tidbit. My notebooks are full of all sorts of neat tidbits. One section I come back to over and over is the one full of potential character names. If I hear or see a name that seems particularly interesting, I write it down for future use. For me, naming characters can be challenging. It’s important to use names that fit the genre. I find it amusing when people read a portion of a fantasy book and complain that the names are weird. They wonder why the author doesn’t use names like Kate and George. ;) Honestly, would Lord of the Rings been as powerful if Frodo and Aragon had been called Fred and Carl? Readers of the fantasy genre want to be whisked away to a different world filled with strange creatures, magic, and names and places that are unfamiliar.

 

Aspiring Writers Need to be Aware of the Demands on Their Time - Shay Fabbro

Writing can be the most rewarding experience, especially for someone who has an idea that just runs away and the book practically writes itself. And then there are the times when one must wrestle with each and every word, fling it face-down on the blank page and give it an elbow jab for good measure.

Writing, like anything else, has its up and downs. Good days and bad days. It’s the drive and passion that keeps people going, no matter what their profession. They deal with the downs because they know that soon, everything will be up again. For people like me who have a day job and write on the side, things can get a bit more complicated. I am a biology professor by day, author by night. Once a writer gets wrapped up in their characters and worlds, everything else gets pushed aside. Many an hour are spent thinking about the characters, letting them have conversations in your head, working out plot twists, getting through writers block. So between the actual writing and the thinking, this doesn’t leave a lot of time for other things. Friends, family, spouses, etc often go by the wayside when an author is in the grip of the muse.

Another aspect to writing is the marketing/promoting, which can be an even bigger time sucker than the writing itself ;) It’s hard to be in the now when you’re spending time on Facebook, Google+, Twitter, websites, and blogs. But these things are necessary for an author to sell books. It can be difficult for family, friends, and/or spouses to understand why the author spends all their free time on the computer. Aspiring writers need to be aware of the demands on their time above and beyond the actual writing process and make an extra effort to put down the computer or pen and spend some quality time with loved ones.

My Perfect Hero is Flawed - By Shay Fabbro

I think writing heroes and heroines is the hardest part of writing. I think many (if not most) writers want to create heroes that are everything we’re NOT: perfect. It’s difficult for people to face what’s not perfect about themselves and therefore it’s easy to want to live vicariously through a character without flaws. But let’s be honest!

Readers don’t want to see page after page of ridiculous perfection.

They want characters they can relate to and the only way to do that it to create characters with flaws. But with just enough flaws to be realistic. It’s a tough balancing act, actually. I tend to give my characters flaws that are similar to my own, but exaggerated a little or just a tad different. I also use annoying tendencies I observe in other people. And if the writer REALLY knows what they’re doing, they will have their hero/heroine grow and change over the course of the book.

This is even more important in the case of a series. Nothing is worse than reading three or four books where the characters are exactly the same as they were in the first book. There must be some growth. I think this is particularly important for YA books. JK Rowling was superb in her treatment of the Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Each one grew and matured in their own way and changed over the course of the seven book series.

Shay Fabbro 

Author of the Portals of Destiny series and The Adventures of Alexis Davenport series

Website: shayfabbro.com