Author: Rose Sparrowking

Quick Review: Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse

~ Rose Sparrowking

 

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Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse

This has been on my to-be-read pile for a while now. A post-apocalyptic fantasy that isn’t set in some pseudo-medieval very white European facsimile. Our hero is Maggie, of the Diné (Navajo) and she’s a monster hunter/slayer. Since the great flood, gods and monsters and powers have returned to the world. The Trickster, Coyote, figures prominently in the story, reminding me of Patricia Briggs and her Mercy Thompson series. This Coyote came across more malicious than tricky but maybe that’s how he’s portrayed in Diné mythology. The conclusion was inevitable but not surprising. I knew she’d have to confront this person in the place. I was surprised in one aspect in the climax but the rest I had figured out. The plot flowed well, one event leading to another, and the writing was tight. I like that she was a bad-ass (and had reason to be) and that contrasted with Kai, who so focused on peace. Maybe the characters were a bit too black and white but frankly if their genders were reversed, no one would question it. The ending left things hanging and I’m looking forward to the next book in the series.

Recent Great Writing Articles

~ Rose Sparrowking
black ball point pen with brown spiral notebook
Photo by Tirachard Kumtanom on Pexels.com

I am sensing a theme in choosing these writing articles. My sub-conscious is telling me to focus on what my characters want!

“I’m here to tell you that nothing—I mean nothing—makes a novel harder to follow, much less care about, than not knowing what it is the characters want.”

https://litreactor.com/columns/dirty-little-secrets-part-two-why-your-beta-readers-never-finished-your-novel

“Can writing advice be distilled down to one game-changing essential nugget? I’d say yes: What does this character want? Well, that’s obvious, you think, as obvious as smiling at your kids. But just like that nugget of parenting wisdom, there’s more to it than that. Because what your character wants may conflict with the wants of a host of other characters, for starters. What your character wants may put them at odds with themselves. What your character wants may be not one thing but two things, and those two things may be at odds. And if you can stay focused on all those wants, you will end up with one hell of a story.”

https://writerunboxed.com/2019/02/20/parenting-advice-elevator-pitches-and-the-essential-heart-of-story/

“Four qualities are spot-on in this speech. These are common to all great Villain Speeches and they always work.”

https://stevenpressfield.com/2019/02/harvey-keitels-villain-speech-in-cop-land/

Book Rec:

I’m working on an outline for my novel, since I’m stuck and need the help. I’ve had this book for ages (again! I really need to read all the books I already own) and have found it great for getting my creative side working again. I have more of her books which I need to read next.

Outlining Your Novel: Map Your Way to Success by K. M. Weiland.

“What a character wants is bound inextricably to the arc he will follow over the course of the book. The changes that transform him from who he was at the beginning of the book to who he is at the end will be the direct result of how he goes about getting what he wants, or perhaps how the course of the story changes what he wants.”

Links List

~ Rose Sparrowking
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Photo by Art Lasovsky on Unsplash

Writing links

How to Create Conflict by Discovering Your Character’s Objects of Desire. “But when you keep your characters loyal to their external wants and bound to their internal needs, making innovative choice after innovative choice to somehow achieve both objects of desire despite the odds and consequences, readers will love you for it.”

Do You Have a Story Concept, or Just a Cool Idea? Three elements for a story concept: “At least one character that is actively pursuing a goal,” “Urgent motivation for said goal,” and “Obvious and escalating conflict for the goal.”

Change How You Think links

3 Ways to Make Stress Your Friend. “Choose a different perspective.” “Shift how you interpret your body’s signals.” “Train with the Body Scan meditation.” This and the next link relate back to my post about shifting the way you think so you can change the way you live.

Change Your Language, Change Your Life. “Replace I have to with I get to.” “Instead of I’m going through something difficult, how about I’m growing through something difficult?” “Rather than should, must, or ought to, use prefer to, want to, or choose to.” “Try the shift from I can’t do this or I’m not good at this to This is challenging, and I’ll get it, or I’m still learning, and I’ll keep at it.”   

Writing, Reading and Gratitude

~ Rose Sparrowking
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sun over clouds by rose.sparrowking

Grateful for today:

The magnificent blue sky.

Recent Writing Bookmarks:

My Ongoing Feud with Billy Joel. Great advice for writing dialogue. Make dialogue a confrontation not a conversation. Give each character a distinct voice. Look for other ways to make how your character talks memorable. Don’t be a name dropper. Don’t go nuts with dialogue tags. Don’t go overboard with dialect.

The Villain Adapts, but Does Not Change. Keep the villains coming at the hero from everywhere. The villain adapts but does not change. The hero is the one who changes. If the villain changed, he’d be the hero.

The Key Components of a Compelling Character (According to Psychology). Make them want. Make them unique. Make them more.

The Inner Struggle: How to Show a Character’s Repressed Emotions. Over and under-reactions. Tics and tells. Flight, fight or freeze. Passive-aggressive reactions. Incongruencies.

Recent Reads

Romancing the Beat: Story Structure for Romance Novels (How to Write Kissing Books) (Volume 1). This really made me re-think and re-structure my novel. Which was supposed to be a thriller romance but wasn’t working on the romance front.

Fear of Why

~ Rose Sparrowking

luka-vovk-1309002-unsplashPhoto by Luka Vovk on Unsplash

I don’t know if I’m ready to think about my why’s.

What the hell does that mean?

So, I’ve only recently started listening to podcasts. Yeah, yeah. I’m always running behind. I’ve enjoyed Fit Bottomed Girls blog for some time and now listen to their podcast. They recently interviewed Patricia Moreno (here and here) and it really got me to thinking about two things.

  1. Your thoughts drive your life.
  2. You need to dig deep and figure out your why.

These are the notes that I jotted down after listening to the first podcast, twice:

  • Your self-talk is your destiny
  • The things you say to yourself constantly becomes your destiny
  • How you feel as result of what focusing on, what saying to yourself and how you’re moving your body.

I’ve been pushing myself to lose weight and to work on my novel. At one point I though about writing ‘fat’ on the back of one hand and ‘lazy’ on the back of the other to remind myself what not to be. OMG!!! What kind of messages am I giving to myself!? Why the hell would I tell myself that I’m fat and lazy!? Why would I think that about myself and why would I want to reinforce those beliefs about myself?

But I don’t know if I’m ready to do the deep digging and find out why I’m so mean to myself. If someone called me fat and lazy, would I just accept that as truth? No, I’d be pissed off and hurt. So why do I allow myself to talk to me that way? I just don’t know if I’m ready for the emotional toll it will take to do this digging into why.

I catch myself operating on an emotional anesthesia track. If it gets too tough, too hard, too real, then I back off (do laundry), do something that requires little thought or mental work, tell myself there’s nothing I can do about it (whatever it is) in the moment and push it on the back burner.

My back burner must be close to an avalanche.

I’m going to have to dig. But I’m afraid of what I’ll find.

Since I’m not tackling that right now, I can tackle a bit of my self-talk. No putting ‘fat’ or ‘lazy’ on my hands but what would I write on my hands to give me the better message? Grateful. Love. Healthy. Strong. Worthy. Peace.

Since I’m not writing on my hands and am not ready for a tattoo, I’m thinking it might be bracelet making time.

Another thing Patricia spoke about was writing down something you’re grateful for each day and that it sounds ridiculous, but the consistency of it will slowly change your self-talk.

Today I’m grateful for Patricia Moreno and Fit Bottomed Girls for giving me such powerful things to think about.

Links List

~ Rose Sparrowking

Sperm Count Zero:

It’s “just a waiting game until one or another of the stupid things our stupid species is up to finally gets us. But as it turns out, no surprise: men first. Second instance of no surprise: We’re going to take the women down with us.”

“the human race is apparently on a trend line toward becoming unable to reproduce itself. Sperm counts went from 99 million sperm per milliliter of semen in 1973 to 47 million per milliliter in 2011, and the decline has been accelerating.”

Terrifying on how we’re destroying ourselves. This article gave me ideas for a novel.

Preventing Muscle Loss as We Age:

“no matter how old or out of shape you are, you can restore much of the strength you already lost. ”

“start a strength-training program using free weights, resistance bands or machines”

I’ll be phasing in a strength training program soon as I am now beginning an aerobic program while changing my eating habits. Don’t do everything at once!

Quick Review: Final Girls by Riley Sager

~ Rose Sparrowking

Final Girls by Riley Sager

I’ve been reading a lot of thrillers and murder mysteries, especially Harry Bosch and Lisbeth Salander, lately and picked this novel up a while ago when replenishing my unread book pile. I should’ve been warned away by the comparison to Gone Girl on the cover. I had no empathy for the characters in that book. So little that I read maybe a chapter before moving on to another book.

The same thing with Final Girls. I just don’t care what happens. I’m half way through and dropping it. Since the original murderer died, then the current murderer can only be one of two characters. There just aren’t that many characters in the story. … I skipped to the end and I was right. One of two characters.

I guess the book didn’t hook me. I did not race through to find out what happens next. I was never surprised or shocked. And one of the murdered character’s stupidity just irked me.

That’s a no for me. Donating to the library.

Men Vs Women Fears

~ Rose Sparrowking

“Why do men feel threatened by women?” I asked a male friend of mine. So this male friend of mine, who does by the way exist, conveniently entered into the following dialogue. “I mean,” I said, “men are bigger, most of the time, they can run faster, strangle better, and they have on the average a lot more money and power.” “They’re afraid women will laugh at them,” he said. “Undercut their world view.” Then I asked some women students in a quickie poetry seminar I was giving, “Why do women feel threatened by men?” “They’re afraid of being killed,” they said.

~Atwood, Margaret, Writing the Male Character (1982)

Links List

~ Rose Sparrowking

 

  • The Bodies of the Girls Who Made Me: Fanfic and the Modern World. I’ve written fanfic and this essay was such a revelation for me. “I honestly think the reason so many fanfic writers are women/girls [or gay, or gender-noncomforting, or some combination of the above] is a mixture of social stigma [“ew, fanfic is a GIRLY thing, ew, it’s all PORN, and most of it is GAY PORN”] and seeking a way to empathize with The Default. I also think this contributes to the prevalence of male/male couples in fanfic even when written by authors who identify as straight: by being only The Default, we move away from the “ew icky girls” reactions. But that’s another conversation.” AND “Enter The Default, that strong-jawed, clear-eyed, straight, white, cisgendered, able-bodied, vaguely Christian (but not too Christian) male.”
  • Keto for Women: 7 Tips to Make it Work. I’m on keto day #9 and I’ve lost 4 pounds so far. I’ve been focusing on adding more protein and fat and less carbs. All the rest I can add in if I think it’s necessary and if I think it will help with my goals.
  • None to Run. I am walker but I’d like to be a runner. Again, I think it will help with my help goals, I don’t have to join a gym (although, I may) and I can do it anywhere. I just started this on Monday. Eight 30 second runs each followed by a 2 minute recovery—not too bad. Challenging enough but not impossible for me. And it builds gradually.
  • Evolve by Imagine Dragons. Music I’m listening to now. Great to walk/fun to. Good beat. A little bit different. Great lyrics.
  • Brave Enough by Lindsey Stirling. More music I’m loving right now. I guess I’m enjoying something a bit different from the pop music on the radio. Bought this for the song “Something Wild” and I am enjoying the whole album.
  • Mark Hamill Instagram. I may join Instagram just to follow him. He dressed as a Stormtrooper and moved through the San Diego Comic Con incognito. Love this!