Beautiful People: Falon

What is Beautiful People?

Beautiful People is a blog meme hosted by Sky @ Further Up and Further In and Cait @ Paper Fury. Every month, they post ten questions to help you get to know your characters better. 

How do I join?

Just jump in! Snag the questions, post them on your blog, and come back to add your link! I also recommend checking out the posts of the other participants. It's a great way to make new friends.

This is my first time participating, and I'm super excited to do my first one with my MC from SOUL BOUND:

Falon Byrom

1. What is their first childhood memory?
   Her first shapeshift besides Wolf. She was six, wandering the edge of the forest, when a coyote started following her, trying to feed her a dead mouse. She declined the mouse, but the coyote form is still one of her favorites to shapeshift into.
                   
2. What were their best and worst childhood experiences?
   Best: The first time she was allowed to free swim in the ocean.Worst: The time she attacked one of her classmates. He was bullying her and Wolf took control. The boy needed stitches. And no one ever looked at her the same again.  
3. What was their childhood home like?
   Falon lived with Finn in his mobile home for the first 16 years of her life. But she never spent much time indoors. Her real home was the forest and the beach. 
4. What’s something that scared them as child?
   Humans terrified Falon when she was little. She was constantly bullied at school because she had no control over her "wild" impulses. It was only when she witnessed a poacher kill the coyote that that fear of humans turned into disdain and disgust.
5. Who did they look up to most?
   Wolf. She was there for Falon in every moment of her life, providing her with strength, confidence, and courage. Even though they butt heads, and Wolf would often make it awkward and difficult for her to exist in society, there's no one Falon trusts more. 
6. Favourite and least favourite childhood foods?
   Favorite: Freshly picked blackberries.                                      
    
    Least Favorite: Black licorice (Blythe keeps it on her desk & Falon took some, then stuffed them in her mouth when she got caught, hating them immediately but having to swallow the evidence).   
7. If they had their childhood again, would they change anything?
   She'd have a childhood with both her real parents and Finn in her life.
8. What kind of child were they? Curious? Wild? Quiet? Devious?
   
   Wild. In every possible sense of the word. She was never indoors or clean for very long.
9. What was their relationship to their parents and siblings like?
   
   Falon is an orphan. The only "family" she really had was Finn. When she was younger she was very close to him, but as she grew older and she started to question both his and her pasts, he pulled away.
10. What did they want to be when they grew up, and what did they actually become?
    She wanted to be a wolf. She was convinced if she became a wolf, Wolf would separate from her and they could live in the forest together as completely different beings. Now she's a caretaker for the forest and while Wolf isn't physically by her side, she's always with her.                                    

A Writer's Recipe for a Love Story

A heaped spoonful of lust, two ripe and heaving bosoms, a pinch of drama, and a generous portion of bristling testosterone and you’ve got a love story ready for consuming. Right?

In the world of Harlequin romance novels, maybe. But many writers struggle with the recipe for writing true love, for a story about romantic love on a more complex and profound level. And while the writer may struggle, the readership DEFINITELY doesn't. Romance fiction generated $1.438 billion in sales in 2012 and was the top-performing category on the bestseller lists the same year.

Your readership exists. In huge numbers. And most crave something more than the "wham, bam, thank you ma’am" realities of modern society. Can you imagine how Jane Austen or Charlotte Bronte would feel if she found out that courtship has been reduced to swiping left or right on a phone app? Blasphemy! 

So how do you produce a good love story that will quell the hunger of millions of romantic fiction (romfic) fans? It's simple, really! So simple I'll set it up like a recipe. So simple you need only incorporate four simple ingredients!

That’s it. Four ingredients (and some culinary know-how), which should all be added in equal parts: strong characters, passion, obstacles, and growth – although change makes a good substitute.

1. Strong Characters

This is vital for all fiction, but especially so for romfic. This is because the reader must fall in love with one of your main characters. Would Mr Darcy have set readers’ hearts aflame if he were a silly cad with no redeeming qualities? Absolutely not. He was a judicious gentleman of impressive intelligence and refinement who secreted away a tender heart. You want Elizabeth and Darcy to end up together because that means you get to end up with him as well, and a character must be dynamic and three-dimensional, otherwise who will fall in love with them? Your characters need to have traits that compete against each other. They must realize and struggle against their worst qualities for the sake of love.

2. Passion

Once you have strong characters, stick them together with a generous dollop of passion. If characters are really in love, a sense of passion should also be provoked within the reader – they need to feel the depth of your characters’ emotions for one another. Passion measures this depth and is the rubber band that you tie around them. No matter how hard they pull and stretch apart, that passion will bring them back together in the end.
Passion also means that your characters must fall for each other, hard. They can play around with the idea and question their true feelings, but the reader must know that, when push comes to shove, their love is unquestionably genuine.
Dialogue is essential in communicating this. Professions of love are acts of passion. A character is exposing their vulnerability during these moments of confession, articulating their deepest feelings. ‘Hey, I love you,’ just doesn’t cut it. They need to reach down deep and lay their beating heart on the table.

3. Obstacles.

Now that you’ve tied the passion band around your characters, toss in a liberal amount of obstacles to test its elasticity and your characters’ resolve. This can be in the form of an antagonist – in love stories, sometimes the best antagonists are the couple themselves – or a circumstance which makes being together impossible.
An effective obstacle is separation. They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, but your love-struck protagonists don't know that. Our star-crossed lovers must attempt to live without each other and then come to realize that, no matter ho hard things are while together, it's impossible to stay apart (think Tristan & Isolde, Romeo & Juliet, Pride & Prejudice, even Twilight for goodness sake). During this separation, the obstacles are the characters themselves. They think that, by being apart, because they're angry at each other or because they feel it's "for the best," they can dismiss their feelings. But never underestimate the power of that rubber ban of passion. 

4. Character Growth

These obstacles should come after growth and a sort of enlightenment from your main characters, which means they can overcome them. They should be able to recognize their negative traits, their differences and their flaws, and only then can they overcome the hurdles. Your characters need to grow and conquer their own negative qualities because of their love for each other. True love should inspire your characters to be the best they can be.

Now that you understand the ingredients, mix them together, follow the preparation steps (write the novel), and pop your love story in the oven. But remove just after marriage! The ending of a love story is extremely important. It needs to be optimistic and emotionally satisfying. Few readers want to read about life after marriage – it’s full of realistic issues we’re all too familiar with, problems that not even the greatest of romfic’s couples can avoid. Readers need to believe that the couple who have fought so hard to be together will live happily ever after. They’re finally happy, and that’s enough for us.

These are the basic ingredients of a love story. They’re a great start, but you’ll also need a dish to bake it in (the plot), some added spices (climaxes), a garnish or two (themes), and some nice china to serve it on (the setting). But if you’ve mixed in those four essential elements, the product will be a well-balanced meal of reading delights. Once finished, the yield will serve millions of women (and a number of curious men) who seek to experience true love through romantic fiction. As long as you have those four simple ingredients you can create the love story that mass-market publishers are looking for. You are the chef, the publishers are the restaurants, your readers the eager foodies, and your love story is the pièce de résistance.

New Twitter Chat! #DarkLitChat -- Join us on June, 21st at 8pm EST!

What is #DarkLitChat?

#DarkLitChat is a monthly Twitter chat for writers, authors, or readers who appreciate dark fiction. Writers and authors at all stages are welcome, and encouraged to join in. Whether you're plotting, procrastinating, or published, you're welcome to join us!

When is #DarkLitChat?

Tuesday, June 21st at 8pm EST, on Twitter. (You can find us for subsequent chats every 3rd Tuesday of the month, at 8pm EST)

Why #DarkLitChat?

Writing dark fiction can be hard -- and it can be lonely. Many times it's difficult to find other writers who appreciate a good blood bath in a world filled with happily ever after. Network with other writers of Dark Fiction while we discuss the ups and downs of writing dark fiction.

Who's hosting #DarkLitChat?

D.H. Poirier (@PoirierPages): Young Adult Author of dark historical fantasy, and horror. 

& 

Elesha Teskey (@e_teskey): Urban Fantasy Author, and Publicist for Pen And Kink Publishing.

What is Dark Lit?

Any genre or market covering darker topics. Thrillers, horror, suspense, urban fantasy, mysteries, etc. Dark Lit would include murder, crime, abuse, drugs -- things of that nature. Dark Lit is subjective, if you think you write Dark Lit, chances are -- you do.

How can I help?

Help us get the word out on your blog, and on twitter.

#DarkLitChat Future Chats

We're looking for published authors open to doing Q&As for future chats. If you're interested, tweet at PoirierPages on Twitter, or DM.

Need a reminder for #DarkLitChat? You can sign up for an email reminder for the chat here.

May in Review

May was kind of a black hole month for me. I'm not sure what I did or where the time went. Probably because my main focus of the month was doing edits and revisions for my #FicFest entry, which is due for the agent round on the 30th of this month. Woooweee, that's coming up fast!

I managed to squeeze in ONE book and ONE movie in May. That was seriously it! Luckily, both were FANTASTIC, so it made my media intake last month, though small, supremely satisfying!

Here's my very short May in review:

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo.

Holy cow, can I just dive into this book and live in this world please? Just a few pages in I could tell Bardugo was an author I would follow throughout her career. Her writing style is crisp and concise, but descriptive and expertly embellished. 

Bardugo masterfully jumps from the shoulder of one character to the next, shifting POVs seamlessly throughout. Her snippets of backstory and flashbacks came and went at precisely the right times and made you so curious about the origins of each character that it was hard not to flip ahead to fill in the gaps. The plot itself was intricate and intelligent, the characters unique, distinct, and deliciously vivid. 

I have only two gripes with this book.

One: the number of secrets kept from the reader and the other characters. To have this done a couple of times feels like wonderfully well done set ups and pay offs, but after the fifth or sixth time it felt too much like a repetitive .

Two: the characters ages. They're all in their mid teens and they do NOT act or think like their age. I felt like Bardugo might have planned for them all to be older but in the interest of fitting more solidly within the YA genre, knocked off a couple years. But neither are big issues and they did not detract from how much I enjoyed the story. 

It's Ocean's Eleven meets YA Fantasy in a wonderfully vivid world that I can't wait to enter again. And you should DEFINITELY give it a read. I'll hopefully be diving into her Grisha Trilogy VERY soon.    

Captain America: Civil War: 9/10. 

MARVEL MASTERPIECE. 

SUPERHERO BRAWL. 

BANTER. 

FEELS. 

HOLY @#$%, SPIDERMAN. 

#TeamCap

My Problem with Triangles

No not triangles of the isosceles or equilateral variety. LOVE triangles! *gag*

The kind of love triangle I'm referring to is the Frankenstein creation that came from a YA trend, where the girl (or guy) "A" claims to love BOTH his/her pursuers "B" and "C."

NOT the kind where A loves B and C comes along and can't take the hint. Or A loves B, but B loves C, but C loves A (yeah, good luck with that conundrum).

Here's the difference as visuals:

A PROPER Love Triangle

@#$% YOU, PROTAGONIST!

Proper love triangle, that's fine, you can't control how others feel. But claiming to LOVE two people equally? HA! *face palm* No. That's taking the piss.

I'm not sure where this degree (get it? geometry lols) of fascination with the YA Love Triangle came from, why people believe you can truly love two people at once and that in doing so you actually love either. To me, that's not love at all--it's selfish indecision.

Here are my issues with the YA Love Triangle:

• YOU'RE UNDERMINING THE POTENTIAL FOR AN ACTUAL LOVE STORY. This kind of love triangle, to me, isn't love at all. If you can't choose between two people that love you, you reaaalllyyy don't deserve either of them. This destroys any chance of a believable love story because it reduces the notion of true love, which is supposed to be selfless and unconditional, to completely conditional and selfish. Who's going to sing songs about that? You think Shakespeare would've written sonnets about this kind of "love?" Doubt it.
• YOU'RE MOST LIKELY REDUCING YOUR PROTAGONIST TO A WHINY TWIT.
  So often the story starts out with a strong protagonist who is soon reduced to constant indecision over which person they should choose and a constant inner monologue comparing them against each other. "Omg, they both just love me SO much even though I've done nothing to deserve such devotion, how will I ever choose?" 
• THE LOVE TRIANGLE CAN EASILY TAKE OVER THE PLOT.
  My biggest problem is that the YA Love Triangle is rarely done well.  So often I start reading a book that promises this awesome, action-filled story with a kick-ass protagonist. Then the love triangle strikes and it takes over the plot AND the narrative. Too much room is made for what should be a subplot, too many aspects of the plot removed to adjust focus to the "love" story, too many random plot tools used at the end when they have to make a choice.   

This is obviously just my opinion. But I truly truly think you're doing a disservice to your young and sometimes impressionable audience by, essentially, telling them it's okay to love two people, that doing so still constitutes love, and that people will be climbing out of the woodworks to love them.

I promise to never EVER write a love triangle. Quote me on that right now. I'll chisel it into stone and hang the slab above the mantle. TATOO IT ON MY FACE.

TRUE LOVE FTW! Since I'm so demanding and anti-this-kind-of-love-story, I'll be following up on this post with another about how to write a compelling love story. Hold out for that. All the loves!

~Be mindful of the example you set with your words. People will take your message to heart.~