Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Writing Tips- Battle Wounds and Achievements

I once read an interview with Robert Liparulo where he explained the reason for his characters having so many wounds. He said that in real life, we get injured. We get paper cuts, stub our toes, bang our heads on things, so it is unrealistic for our characters to come out of life, let alone a battle, without some scrapes. This is something that I have always strove to remember when I write. My characters will be hurt, and it is important to our faith in them that they are.

Running for the Medicine.
Not only this, but they have to stay hurt. Have you ever seen a movie where in one shot, the actor has a gash on their face and the next it is gone? I have, and I have also read books like this. Your characters will need to heal (unless they have healing powers like in many of Bryan Davis' novels, or special medicines like in The Hunger Games). To not give them that time, and make their injuries take part in how they react to things, will make your story feel false.


Also, you have to remember the correct way for a character to feel their injuries. Most you will not have felt (hopefully) like a gun wound or the bite of a sword. This page gives some ways to treat injuries in your writing. I found in on the author page of Alex Lidell, who's book, The Cadet of Tildor, I will be reviewing on Friday. Hope this lists helps you, I know I will be using it.


Also, to any of you who are interested, I added a short Bio page. It will tell you a little about me and has a way for you to contact me if you want to chat.

And, as a personal update, yesterday I completed the first draft of my book that I have titled Souls of Thyne.  It is 82,433 words and 321 pages on Microsoft. My second drafts usually add 20,000 words, so this book will pass the 100,000 word mark! I am supper excited and plan to share editing tips in the future (with examples) as I work on my next draft. Do any of you have any writing mile stones to share? I would love to hear them.
What I feel like.
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5 comments:

  1. UnknownJuly 3, 2013 at 8:56 AM

    Wounds are really tough to write; especially because then you have to either heal them magically (which I think defeats the purpose) or heal them realistically, and sometimes that might mean your character doesn't actually make it. Or takes a long time to heal and should be out of the story. Or something like that, which makes it even more complicated to figure out what to do--at least, in a first draft. ;)

    Congrats on finishing your first draft! I finished one earlier this year and am currently preparing to launch into the second draft, but it's one that's going to be so drastically different than the first that it feels like I'll be writing a whole other story.

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    1. BookishqueenJuly 3, 2013 at 9:06 AM

      Thanks! I once wrote a story where the second draft changed a lot of my book. It was daunting.

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    2. UnknownJuly 3, 2013 at 10:45 AM

      Yeah, it certainly is. But I'm looking forward to making the book better and, hopefully, the book it was always meant to be. :)

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  2. HannahJuly 8, 2013 at 4:53 PM

    Oh, I just reread this article more carefully and discovered you finished your first draft! Congratulations! That's a beautiful title. Just yesterday I reached page 200 on my first draft. Still have a long ways to go...

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  3. BookishqueenJuly 9, 2013 at 7:46 PM

    Lol, thanks! And congrats on yours. I love every time I hit 200.

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