Giving a character a flaw is about more than making them physically or emotionally imperfect. Flaws must be thought out to show opportunities for growth and development, to give us something to hope for or to show us something that will lead to the character’s ultimate downfall.

It’s not usually a good idea to sit down and randomly pick a flaw to give your character. Fleshing out your characters might start with physical appearance, but the substance of your characters’ traits will come from what they’ve done or dealt with in the past. Flaws that are the direct result of a character’s past are the most powerful flaws to give your characters.

Your heroine was burned by a good deed in the past, so she’s developed a certain amount of cynicism that the hero can’t quite understand until he gets to know her better. Take it a few steps further and you can create strongly driven characters who have something of a dark side to them.

Creating character flaws is an important overall part of your character creation. Without their flaws, their strengths won’t mean very much.

This got me to thinking about all the benefits I get from writing, whether I’m blogging, composing articles, or writing fiction. I do experience an almost euphoric sense of well-being when I’ve written something. Is the euphoria a result of my satisfaction of having completed something or a result of my having expressed myself? Some of this might be related to the phenomenon of being in “the zone” but I don’t only write when I’m on a roll. Sometimes I work at it and yet I still feel good after having done it.

I can’t say much more about the physiological effects of writing, but there are some benefits that are easy for me to define.

• Blogging makes me feel connected to other people. Even if no one comments on a post I’ve made, there’s a sense of community whenever I put something up on my blog. I never feel like I’m writing to a void. I always imagine someone reading what I’ve written and this gives me a sense of well-being that sticks with me for a while after I’ve posted.
• Writing boosts my creativity levels. Once I begin writing, I gain momentum. Ideas come to me like rain to earth and the creative energy spreads to other parts of my brain. I start to think creatively on many different planes, solving problems and questioning assumptions.
• Using a keyboard keeps my fingers limber. This might sound like I’m trying to be clever, but I truly believe that keeping my fingers moving is a way to fight off stiffness in my finger joints. Now, I’m many, many years (I hope) from having issues with things like arthritis, but one key to relieving symptoms of this inflammatory disease is to keep your joints limber by using them.

I’m sure there are other benefits to writing that I’ve missed. Consider sharing your own ideas about how writing benefits you and your health. Does it help you fight off illness?

Resources:

• Scientific American, June 2008

Here’s what the Flock website says about the blog features:

Once you set up a blog in Flock, you can copy text, pictures and videos from anywhere on the web and instantly post them into Flock’s Blog Editor or directly into your own blog. You can also monitor, manage and post to different blogs.

I really like dragging and dropping the files into the blog editor window. Makes things much simpler.

Also, it makes logging in to my accounts faster (Gmail, del.icio.us, etc.). It has support for lots of other accounts built in, but I don’t use most of those, although someone else might.

Although not technically a piece of writers’ software, Flock helps me shave time off my time online, and that itself is enough to make it a recommended piece of software for writers.

I did all that and more. I met many great authors, got to chat about and discover new books I would love to read, and spend time with friends I haven’t had a chance to see in a while. All in all, it was a wonderful trip. Best of all, I found the entire get together/conference to be highly motivating.

I’m sure I sound crazy. I’m sure I don’t care. Once the urge to write takes over, I can’t find much to hold my interest in another author’s book anyway, because of course, nothing is exactly the way I would have done it and I begin to rewrite sentences in my head. Not plot details, and I don’t know why that is, but word order and word choices and the use of clauses and adjectives. I rewrite them all, but only in my head–and do you know how hard it is to read a book when you’re reordering a sentence’s structure because it just doesn’t feel right the way it’s written?

What brought this up today is the shopping trip I just finished. I’ve bought a few of my favorites tonight, and although I’ll have them in hand in just a few days, I can’t wait to get them. I’ve actually been fighting off the urge to write until I get through a few more books, simply because I really want to read these books. However, I’ve already noticed myself rewriting sentences in my head, and when I start doing that to the likes of my favorite authors, I know it’s time to get busy writing. I have an unfinished manuscript that I left alone when I took my little hiatus last year and I have a crazy hot desire to get it completed. No particular reason except that the characters seem to deserve better than to be left as they are, in limbo. I feel bad for them, even if it doesn’t make sense that I have feelings for them.

Anyway, I thought I’d share my upcoming reading (my book order I made tonight).

Lost in Shadow: Nethercott Tales #1 (Signet Eclipse) Jocelyn Kelley

Kindred Spirits: Nethercott Tales #2 (Signet Eclipse) Jocelyn Kelley

These Jocelyn Kelley books are something I’m looking forward to, because I love paranormal, but I don’t usually enjoy vampires and the like (a major exception is Kresley Cole’s Immortals After Dark series, which I talk about constantly on The Erotic Reader website). These Jocelyn Kelley books are about ghosts, which I love dearly! And although I haven’t read any Jocelyn Kelley books before, I have no doubt these will be good, because I have read her Jo Ann Ferguson regency romances, and they’re some of my favorite books. In fact, one of my favorite regency romance novels of all time is her A Phantom Affair. It’s an old one but if you can get your hands on it and you enjoy traditional regencies, read this one. There’s even a ghost…

Captive of My Desires (Malory Family) Johanna Lindsey

I bought this because Johanna Lindsey has written some of my all time favorite books. Ever.

White Lies (The Arcane Society, Book 2) Jayne Ann Krentz - I have waffled with this book simply because of the $9.99 price tag which seems excessively high to me for a paperback book. But…my library has never gotten a copy in and I have just finally given in. I WANT to read this book. Desperately. I really do love JAK/Amanda Quick books.

Second Sight (The Arcane Society, Book 1) Amanda Quick; Hardcover; $6.99 - This was a bargain price for the hardcover copy and I LOVE hardback books! I couldn’t believe my luck. The link takes you to the bargain book, so if you’re like me and can’t pass up a good deal on a hardback, get it before it’s gone. Not to mention, I wouldn’t miss an Amanda Quick book. Love her stuff, seriously.

Anyway, the point of this post?

Write when you feel like writing (despite the fact that I’m not doing it). Everything is easier then. When you’re struggling to get anything out onto paper, you’ll hate yourself for resisting the urge when you had it!

I give myself another few hours and then I think I’m going to give in. I don’t want to be the person holding myself back. And I certainly don’t want to regret not writing when I had the desire to do so. ;-)

My Favorite Marquess was fun, lively and humorous. Widow Violet Treacher and Sebastian Cavenaugh, the Marquess of St. Just, exchange letters at the book’s opening and that correspondence starts in motion Violet’s determination to set out for Cornwall and settle in the ancient (and crumbling) Trembledown. Sebastian, helping king and country, masquerades as smuggler Robert the Brute and ends up kidnapping Violet. They share something more than smuggled brandy when they become trapped in a cave together, and suddenly Sebastian, “the Brute”, is looking on Violet as more than a nuisance. He desires her, all the while thinking she might be a spy for the French.

The e-book version of My Favorite Marquess ran 419 pages so there was plenty of story to keep me entertained. I have to admit, I had a feeling this was a second book in a series (following His Chosen Bride, it turns out), but it didn’t stop me from thoroughly enjoying the book anyway. Violet Treacher was quite obviously some other heroine’s troublemaker, but I loved her for it. Her character flaws, her take on life, these were the bits that made her unique and interesting, and not just some other heroine in a historical romance novel. Her views made for a great opportunity to poke fun. Her flaws engaged me in the story and I ended up enjoying this book more than I’ve enjoyed any historical in ages!

Violet and Sebastian sparkle when they’re together, and the chemistry, the humor, all combine to create a comedy of wit and charm. I won’t gloss over the fact that the one thing truly missing from this story was sex. The potential for passion never dissipated, the tension was there, but in the end, the story itself took precedence, leaving me cool in places where I would have loved to see a little more. Regardless of this small flaw, My Favorite Marquess has to be my favorite historical find in years.

Summary:
I liked it.
I laughed aloud more than once as I read it.
I might read it again, especially if I have the opportunity to read His Chosen Bride.
I would certainly recommended it to my family and friends.

Dr. David Tennant is a member of the secret government agency working on Project Trinity. He doesn’t exactly believe in God, but after a Super MRI he’s developed narcolepsy and he has vivid dreams that he’s begun to believe are rememberances–of Jesus. A tragic event in his past connected him with psychiatrist Rachel Weiss. Now they’re on the run together as they try to figure out the connection between David’s dreams and the future of mankind.

Writers –> If you’re looking for advice on how to create opening hooks, read the opening of this book. It was strong enough to push me into an impulse buy in my local Walmart.

“My name is David Tennant, M.D. I’m professor of ethics at the University of Virginia Medical School, and if you’re watching this tape, I’m dead.”

I took a breath and gathered myself. I didn’t want to rant. I’d mounted my Sony camcorder on a tripod and rotated the LCD screen in order to see myself as I spoke. I’d lost weight over the past weeks. My eyes were red with fatigue, the orbits shiny and dark. I looked more like a hunted criminal than a grieving friend.

“I don’t really know where to begin. I keep seeing Andrew lying on the floor. And I know they killed him. But…I’m getting ahead of myself. You need facts. I was born in 1961 in Los Alamos, New Mexico. My father was James Howard Tennant, the nuclear physicist. My mother was Ann Tennant, a pediatrician. I’m making this tape in a sober state of mind, and I’m going to deposit it with my attorney as soon as I finish, on the understanding that it should be opened if I die for any reason.

“Six hours ago, my colleague Dr. Andrew Fielding was found dead beside his desk, the victim of an apparent stroke. I can’t prove it, but I know Fielding was murdered. For the past two years, he and I have been part of a scientific team funded by the National Security Agency and DARPA — the government agency that created the Internet in the 1970s. Under the highest security classification, that team and its work are known as Project Trinity.”

I glanced down at the short-barreled Smith & Wesson .38 in my lap. I’d made sure the pistol wasn’t visible on camera, but it calmed me to have it within reach.

Although I enjoyed The Footprints of God as an engaging thriller until about 75 pages from the end (the book ran 546 pages), the tension in the story didn’t hold out. The romance between the main characters was interesting if rushed, and the finale lacked any real punch.

Rachel didn’t want to believe David had lost his mind, but she never seemed to truly believe in him either. My take on her at the beginning made me discount her feelings for David simply because her mind seemed closed to the possibility that he was anything but crazy. So why then did she love him?

As far as the scientific aspects of the story, I was intrigued, again until those last 75 pages.

I had told my mother about the book, offering my copy to her, but once I made it through the book, I didn’t feel I could recommend the book after all.

So, this one ended up on my recycle pile. I’ll donate it to the library book sale, or I’ll give it away.

Summary:
I read it.
I liked it well enough to finish it.
I wouldn’t read it again.
I wouldn’t ask my family to read it.

If you don’t have passion and purpose, greater productivity won’t help you

If you want to write, but aren’t sure what’s holding you back, maybe you’re on the wrong track.

This post spoke to me today (and it’s not audio, so it’s a big deal to me). Having passion for your work is essential to a fiction writer, simply because it’s so easy to not write. What’s holding you back? Lack of true passion for what you’re doing? If you think you’re having trouble sticking to your goals now, just wait until you’re answering to someone for your work.

Your passion must push you to work even when you don’t want to.

If you’re having trouble writing, are you writing the right thing? Does your current work in progress have a hold on you? Is it keeping you up at night as you work out plot details, and are you growing right along with your characters? Are you thinking about your book even when you don’t want to think about it? Are you consumed by the desire to finish what you’ve started?

The truth is, work is work, but how much sweeter it is when you’re filled with a passionate desire to do that work.