Why Do I Write?

For the connections it gives,

The emotion it stirs.

As hope rises and tears fall.

Laughter joins us and evil is defeated.

The oceans that keep us apart

Are easy for words to cross.

Heroes become more than something imagined in our minds.

The world can be changed by friendship and love.

The minds and hearts of readers can change.

With that change, actions done will be better for all.

The many will become one.

Thus the world will become a better place. 

A Great Hero is Destine to Suffer.

Here we are at the end of The Flaws You Expect with a Tragic Hero! Part one is Life's Full of Expectations and part two is The Worse Flaw is a Tragic Flaw! Naturally, you have read both and are now ready for me to get to the point. A tragic hero is a person of noble birth/potentially heroic qualities. They are fated by the Gods/other supernatural force to doom/destruction/or the very least great suffering. It's sad that if you're a tragic hero the minor punishment is great suffering.

But with that definition out of the way let’s talk about getting the hero of a tragic story to suffer. That suffering involves...character development. Now the hero of the story needs both good and bad qualities about them. This makes them feel more like a real person. The goal of the author is to have a simple and complex hero. The reader should be able to explain the main character in a few short sentences but have them be complex enough to drive the story. A tragic hero needs to be relatable while the main character in a teenage drama story does not. (Because who really relates to the teens in those books?)

A tragic hero has different effects on the author than they do for the reader. The obvious difference is the fact that the author is the "parent" of the book and the reader is taking the book on a "date".  An author puts a part of themselves in the story they write, so the main character is dear to them. So when the main character is a tragic hero, there is a stronger attachment because their child is suffering. That's why there are some characters that only the author can love. The reader can feel a wide range of emotions towards the tragic hero. But indifference is probably one the author doesn't want them to feel.

Before the story ends the tragic hero's biggest flaw has to trip them up. The reason for this is because a supernatural force (the author) makes sure the hero developed this flaw. The reader has to be able to figure out that this flaw is the reason why the tragic hero is going to suffer. My goal would be to make the reader see either a bit of themselves or those close to them in the tragic hero. And of course, watch as they suffer and the other characters that are around get dragged into the madness. Creating that connection with the reader is important.  After all, I do love drama, don't you?

But what does the reader want when it comes to the fall of the tragic hero? If I had to guess, that the story doesn't suck. No reader wants to be bored by the story and certainly not by the main character. This is why people are such picky book readers. (I should know because I'm picky with books.) As a reader, if you're going to be brought down by a book it should be because the story moved you; not because it was badly written. A book that does that for you is purely up to your taste in literature.

That's it for this post. It's a short one but any longer and I would be repeating things that I'd said in the first two posts of the miniseries. Be sure to Google+ and recommend this blog to anyone who would be interested in it. I update regularly and would like to hear what you have to say in the comments section because I do read all the comments. I hope that you liked this post. As for the next miniseries, they will be short stories. The next post on my blog will be a writing prompt. What that prompt is I have no idea, but whatever it is I’ll be sure to add the title to the Prompt page. 

Prompts and Miniseries Are Getting A Makeover!!!

Hello and welcome dear readers! If you are a returning reader to this blog thank you for coming back and if you're new I hope that you'll stick around. I want to change up two elements of my blog. As you can see from the title of this post those two elements are the prompts and miniseries. The writing prompts are now going to be poems and short stories that only take up a page or less. Miniseries are no longer going to be just me explaining different elements of writing. Instead, miniseries are also going to be short stories that take up more than one page.  But each post is still getting a silly title because I do love giving them funny titles. The reason for the makeover is because I want to make my blog better. So making it better is me writing more because you can't become an author if you don't write. With that part three of The Flaws, You Expect with a Tragic Hero will be up soon. Bye!

Endless Waiting

Unclear and unfocused thoughts,

Trapped in negative emotions.

I can't seem to chase away the bad thoughts.

All I can do is sit around.

I'm waiting for someone,

But I can't remember who.

I'm waiting so long...

I'm waiting for someone.

My fingers tremble from anxiety.
I can no longer feel my feet.
My very soul seems like it's frozen.
Chasing away any bad thoughts is not an option.

I'm waiting so long...
But I can't remember who.
I'm waiting for someone,
But do I even know who?
I'm waiting so long...

Courage is something I no longer have,
All I can do is look back.
But it's not like I can go back.
My face is starting to feel numb.
Anxiety is the only thing that I know.

I'm waiting for someone.
I'm waiting so long.
My feet are frozen.
Hands can do nothing but tremble.

My face is now numb.
My soul isn't warm.
I lost all my courage.

I'm waiting for...
I'm waiting...
I'm...

Stuck with an afterimage of myself.
It does nothing,
For I can't go back.
Someone will one day come.

But do I even know who?
I'm waiting for someone,
I'm waiting so long...
And yet no one comes.
But do I even know who?

Does it even matter now?
I've frozen over,
Waiting for someone who can't even come.
After all, I've given up on myself.
I'm waiting...

The Worse Flaw is a Tragic Flaw!

It's time to finally talk about tragic flaws! But if you have not already, please read The Flaws You Expect with a Tragic Hero and Life's Full of Expectations first before you read part two of this three-part miniseries. If you are a regular reader of this blog you know that I've been skipping out in explaining fully what a tragic flaw is. The reason is that I want to do an entire post on the subject. And here is my chance to finally do that. First thing first, what is a tragic flaw? A tragic flaw is a weakness of a character that leads to their downfall.  So now that we got that out of the way it's time for me to rant.

As I had stated in different posts that developing the characters of a story is important and an author should never do it halfheartedly. When the characters of a story are created they need flaws that fit with the type of person they are. These flaws also don't have to be traits that are viewed negatively either.  An example of a common negative trait would be cockiness. On the flip side kindness is a positive trait that can be worked into being a tragic flaw. How you go about this depends on the writer.  Common traits that lead to a character's downfall are:

• Revenge
• Lust for power
• Depression
• An unjust government
• Love
• Pride
• Greed
• A lust for war
• Trusting those who will cause you harm
• Going mad
• Not being able to figure out what you want in life
• Being a liar
• Being two-faced

Of course, the examples I just gave are just a few from the top of my head. A character can have a number of these traits that can be manipulated by the author. A tragic flaw is the one damning trait that leads to the characters' misfortune.

As I stated in Life's Full of Expectations traditional tragedies were about people of high status. Their downfall comes about through different elements that are unavoidable. The reason for their unavoidable ending is because of fate. Fate (the author) brings characters with different agendas and conflicting personalities to a setting where tensions are high. This brings out the worse in the characters and allows them to fight for whatever their cause is until there is only one left standing. The chaotic energy that is unleashed through the actions of the character makes the story memorable. And whoever is left is only a broken reflection of themselves with little to no hope of being fixed.

The people who manage to still be alive at the end of a tragedy are important. At least when they play a large role in the story. Their connection to that main character whether it was positive or negative matters. These characters are what is left when hell has finally left the stage. Those that are alive are the ones who have to fix the damage that was done. But more often in tragedies, the remaining characters are just meant to live with the trauma. The reader, in my opinion, must be able to feel how hollow the remaining characters are now. At least when they are written well.

The characters who died in the tragedy become the message that the author wants to tell the reader.  That message could be about how greed will lead to your downfall. Trusting everyone without thought can lead to serious conquests. Or that sometimes you just can't help being in the wrong place at the wrong time. When a character dies is also important along with when they die in the story. If a character dies at the beginning of the story it is usually to raise the tension of the characters. If characters are dying in the middle of the story that is the height of the conflict. Finally,  if there are character deaths near or at the end of the story it could mean that most of the major players of the story's conflict have lost their power and status.

The characters in a tragedy need to be engaging. Their goals, relationships, and eventual end have to keep the readers invested. It helps when the driving forces of the story are interesting. The reader should probably be able to tell what is the reason for the fall of a character. The ones that are the most important need to be active in the conflict of the story.  No one wants to see a duck sitting in the middle of a battlefield.

Characters need to be active. That doesn't mean they need to start a fistfight or anything but spreading lies and tricking others into doing their dirty work is being an active player in the story. The use of knowledge and social status can be useful tools for characters as well.

A tragedy's job is to be entertaining to the reader. A reader should want to view the story repeatedly and look at it from different angles and see elements of the story in a different light. Now does that mean the author has to continually think of different ways their story can be interpreted? No, that's something the reader does themself. That's why everyone can see and read the same movie or book and have different opinions about them. This is a good if not troublesome thing. Because negative elements of a book can lead to being read as positive. Which is something that you most likely don't want to happen with a tragedy.

Something that I think is important to note is that the characters' flaws are what makes them relatable. A characters' success is what makes them respectable. I wanted to state this because no one can honestly relate to someone who on paper is perfect. We all have problems that are and aren't worth a large amount of drama. Stories in a sense, comment on these problems. The problems in the world that an author takes issue with are retold in a controlled and structured story. Conversations that are not normally had at the table can be brought up and exposed. Things that are not a concern for one group of people can be shown to them. The issues of the world can be made to look different than themselves in reality. Our flaws can be simplified and put in a narrative that can lead to the characters' downfall.

Tragedies can teach us many things about ourselves and the world we live in. When they're written well that is. Giving characters tragic flaws helps with making the story believable because we can't see fate pull the strings that connect the characters. But we can see the results of what flaws do to the characters' relationships and livelihood. And with that, we end this conversation. Don't forget to Google+ this post and come back for the third and last part of this miniseries. Also, check out earlier posts on my blog and leave a comment because I do read all the comments that you post on this blog.

Life's Full of Expectations

Hello and welcome to part one of the three-part miniseries The Flaws You Expect with a Tragic Hero. Naturally, you read the introduction post for this miniseries so I don't have to backtrack and we can get to the meat of the conversation. We all have expectations of how the world works, like when you first fall in love, and of yourself. Unless that's just me; which I hope it's not. But what do expectations have to do with tragedy?

 There are elements in a tragedy that are expected. These are:

· The main character comes from a privileged background.

· They are successful in their field of expertise.

· Fate, to a point, has been good to them.

· They have a character flaw that leads towards their downfall.

· Fate continually has the main character fall farther from grace.

· It ends with the main characters' death.

My short examples come from a more traditional way of writing tragedies. Elements have changed of course since there are a number of ways to write a tragedy. These elements are so common that you come to expect them.

So, let’s dive deeper into the bullet points starting with the main character comes from a privileged background. In traditional tragedies, only those that fall from grace are worth the title of a tragic hero. That means everyone who is not rich cannot be a tragic figure. Bad things just naturally happen to everyday people. This changed when modern tragedies started shining a light on the terrible things that happen to everyday people. Tragic characters also tended to be males since they're the ones that hold the position of power. That does not mean that they're not any female characters in traditional tragedies, they're usually not the main character.

Next point is that the main character is successful in their field of expertise. In traditional tragedies, the main character may come from a military background. Or the main character can be a child of a rich merchant, a noble, or a king. Or the main character themselves holds this position. Because of their privileged background, the main character has access to a wealth of knowledge. What the character does with this knowledge leads them to their greatness.

Fate or destiny also has a role in tragedies.  Usually when all is going well for the main character fate is smiling brightly on them.  It is because of fate that the main character is fed with a golden spoon. Destiny made it so that the main character will be a legend on the battlefield. Fame and fortune are certain when fate is on their side. Because the heavens love the main character. The stars shine brighter because they were born. Too bad for that nasty flaw.

When the narrative of the story is supposed to be in favor of the main character it is because they have a character trait that is their saving grace. On the flip side, in a tragedy, the main character has a damning flaw which leads to their downfall. Now, to make a character realistic, a character needs flaws. If they don't have flaws then there is nothing with which they struggle with. A tragic flaw has to be able to be the downfall of the character and also something that can be identified by the readers. This flaw is something that the villain of the story usually possesses. But there's going to be an entire post talking about tragic flaws so this is going to have to be all you're getting for now.

Just as fate or destiny leads the main character to be born with riches or leads them to success, it also screws them over. Because fate also blessed the main character with their tragic flaw, so their downfall was always destined to happen. At least that's how it works out for the main character in tragedies. It is that feeling of betrayal from fate that gets at you. After all this character is great and stands on top and seeing their downfall is saddening.

Lastly is the main characters death. After their fall, it is only death that welcomes them with open arms. Well, not all tragedies end with the main character's death. But I can't think of one where someone didn't die. The death of the main character is supposed to make the readers feel something as well as learning something. What the reader learns depends on the author. But the death of the main character has to mean something to the story because you're killing them.

Now for a more modern tragic story, the main character doesn't have to come from a privileged background. They can be an everyday person. When the story comes from this angle the feeling of the story is about how cruel the world is to the main character or how it is rigged against the everyday person. The downfall isn't about the character falling from grace, but the emptiness that anyone can feel while living in a draining world.

The effects that both have are different for each person. A tragedy about an everyday person can make it harder for the reader to alienate themselves from the main character. On the other hand seeing a great person fall from grace is just as jarring but is more epic. But once you're at the top, the only way to fall down is with great dramatics. At least that's what I think because the ride down needs to be epic. But a normal main character has to have the dramatics that everyday life has to offer which makes their downfall sometimes hard to watch because that can very well be you or someone you know. The point, I think, of an everyday tragic character is that they could be you.

On that somber note, we end the first part of the three-part miniseries. Next up is The Worse Flaw is a Tragic Flaw! Be ready for it since that is the one I have been waiting to explain. Be sure to Google+ this post and follow up on the different posts that are up on my blog. Hope you come back again to have a good time with me and leave comments because I do read them.

Life as a Pirate

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The afternoon sun shines through a glassless window. A lightly dirty man wakes from the sunlight. Getting up from the cot he finds his clothes and takes a look at the woman he brought for the evening. He grins to himself seeing that he picked a good woman last night. Exciting out of the room the pirate makes his way to his favorite hell hole.

His walk towards the pub is relaxing. He picked pocket three drinks and flirts with a redhead who will be working this evening. Continuing down the dirt road he sees the ship Lost Faith. The ship is lovely against the blue sea and sky. He can't help but wonder what it would be like to be a part of her crew. He reaches the pub and orders a nice hot meal with a cool cup of water. Paying with the money he has stolen he makes his way to the beach.

Finding a shady spot the pirate takes a nap so he can be well-rested for this evening's pleasure. After all, that lovely redhead is working tonight. His eyelids slowly close and the hot afternoon air blankets him as he sleeps. 

The Flaws You Expect with a Tragic Hero

Back in 2015, I did a miniseries called A Drama with Comedy Ending in Tragedy. In the third part of the miniseries, I mentioned that I would come back to talk some more about the elements of tragedy. And this is the revisit to that topic. Now as I stated before in my previous mini-series, I'm coming from the viewpoint of a writer. That means I won't really be looking at the topics from there theater origins. The reasoning for this is because the mini-series do take more effort to produce than the writing prompts. (Which requires you to vote on.) This series will also be done in three parts.
They are:

• Life's Full of Expectations
• The Worse Flaw is a Tragic Flaw!
• A Great Hero is Destine to Suffer.

The conversation will contain how these elements that affect a tragic story: a rant about character development, and the emotions you want the reader to feel while reading the story. There's also going to be a brief history of a traditional tragic hero and a modern tragic hero. My personal feelings on how a hero should fall from grace. I also want to talk about how the ending of the story affects the author and the reader. Naturally, I don't want the conversation to get too dark because this blog isn't about heavy subjects but I have a strong feeling about the topic and it requires me to be serious. That doesn't mean we can't have fun with this little chat.

This is the end of the introduction to the next mini-series. Bye!

Trying Prompt Polls Again.

So if you are a new reader to my blog I would like to welcome you. When I first started this blog I had a different polls that the readers voted on so that I know want prompt you would like to read about. If you don't know what a prompt is look in the 2015 part of my blog archive for What are writing prompt? for an explanation. I stopped doing the polls because not all the votes where being counted which is annoying because some of the polls ended in a tie. So I'm bringing the polls back in the hope that it will work. Of course I expect for you to vote on the polls since polls are made to be voted on. To find the name of pervious prompts I've done, go to the tab name Prompts and there is a list of the different prompts. You can find all of them in the blog archive as well.

The prompts are:

1. Captain off Deck- Out at sea a ship and it's crew gets attack by a sea monster and the captain is nowhere to be found.
2. Life as a Pirate- Describe a perfect day for a pirate.
3. Create a list of thing that make me angry.- I believe that explains itself just fine.

Those are the three prompts. Since there's not any big holidays going on I hope to be able to do two prompts instead of just one this month. But I have to see how long it takes me to do this month's mini series. But that's something you need not worry about. I'm excited to start the polls again and I hope that all of you will take the time to vote for the one you like the most.

A New Year and Goals to Complete

It is the new year, which means everyone is going to set up goals that will possibly be forgotten about in a month or so. But that's okay we can still make a list of goals. Before we do that, I hope everyone had a good winter holiday. Mine was good, but I wish I was able to see more of my relatives during the holidays. Now with that out of the way, lets talk about new year resolutions.

1. I wish to continue this blog and improve it's quality.
2. To grow a bigger audience.
3. To keep busting out new topics to talk about with you, my dear readers.

So those are my three resolution for the blog. Please leave your new year resolution in the comment section because I do read the comments left by readers. This month is going to be interesting because I have a surprise for you! What it is you're going to have to wait and find out. But for now let's get back to the swing of things since we just got over the holiday madness.

Novels and Book Series, I Want to do Both!

And here we are my dear readers! The final part of the three-part miniseries. Part one is Everyone's a Poet and part two is When does a Short Story become a Book? you can find both in the blog archive. But before we get to the meat of the conversation we'll soon be in the new year and I hope that you the readers will be sticking around. I hope everyone's holiday has been great as we wrap up the season.

This is something I haven't done before. So I can't really say what I feel I need improvement on. But I can talk about what my fears are when it comes to writing a book. The most visible fear is that I'll write a bad book. Not because of lack of editing, bad spelling, or incorrect grammar but that the story isn't interesting. I've ranted about it before but a good story plus good characters are what makes a book worth picking up. I want the books that I write to be worth picking up and to be reread. I fear my stories will not make those who read them look at the world differently.

Another fear I have is being limited to a small audience of readers. (If you didn't know I'm an African American who is also female.) I don't want my race to limit me to only other black Americans and females. That is not to say I don't want these groups to read my books. I just don't want my race and gender to limit who would find my books interesting. I feel that this is something that I have to think about when it comes to marketing my books. I greatly desire to appeal to as many readers as possible.

The final fear of mine is how I manage what I write. As the title says I want to write novels and different book series. This has more to do with my organization skills and my thought process. My brain comes up with more ideas than I know what to do with and I can't focus on all of them. After all, I'm still trying to get a higher education. But I guess for now I'll just focus on the ideas I like the most. Then again I have little to no control of my imagination so I might be out of luck.

I'm excited to write out the many ideas in my head into stories. I want to create an experience with the books I write. But most of all I want to help connect people with each other and let everyone get a bit closer to understanding each other. That is my strongest desire in what I wish to accomplish with my writing.

That is it for this mini series! We'll be back on for January with more fun conversation. I hope you're ready for the new year, I know I'm curious to what 2016 will bring. Hopefully, it with bring about positive changes but who really knows with this crazy world.

When does a Short Story become a Book?

And we're back for part two of the three-part miniseries The Styles I Write In. For part one check out Everyone's a Poet. The winter holidays I'm sure is keeping a lot of us busy, but for right now sit back and let's have a smooth conversation. The topic of the conversation is short stories! Short stories can be the length of a full page to multiple of pages.

Short stories are usually something that is known for entertaining children. But there are many short stories meant for older youth and adults. Like books, short stories come in many different genres and come in different lengths. But like their name suggests, short stories are a breeze to get through. If you're not big on reading books you should give short stories a try. You also can find different authors who write short stories.

I like short stories because of how easy you can get through them. That is not to say short stories lack depth in plot. Because of the length, the story is only focused on the plot and develops to the conclusion quickly. Short stories are not normally filled with a large cast of characters which means you don't have to remember a list of characters. When it gets down to it, I hate it when the plot doesn't get to the point. It feels like the author is stalling and padding the story to get a higher page count. With a short story, this doesn't happen.

I don't think I'm special when it comes to why I like writing short stories. But seeing this mini-series is about me here's my reason. I will get an idea for a story but when I start writing (with a pencil and paper) the story ends up shorter than what I originally thought it was going to be. It's when I'm typing up the story and adding more details that help it get longer. I haven't written a short story that's longer that 10 pages yet. The shortest short story I've written is at least three-fourths of a page. Which isn't that short since I have read a short story that was only half a page.

I feel, when you write a short story you have to know where it ends. Otherwise, you could possibly write yourself in a corner or drag out a section of the story for too long. Although it is hard to judge which sections of a story to extend and which to shorten. An easy choice for me is when it feels like I'm repeating myself. Because when you reread your work repeats of things that are written gets tiresome for you and possibly the reader.

Short story characters are usually simple. The reason for this is because of the length of the stories. An author can pour page after page on the characters. Whereas in a short story the writer has to pick which characters get developed. Even then the reader has to be able to understand the characters in a matter of sentences.

As for the plot of the short stories they can be about anything. You can count the prompts that I did as short stories themselves. I like to think that I'm pretty good at writing short stories. Like what I did with poetry, I write down whatever pops into my head. It's a habit that I'm getting out of. I now prefer to fully think out what I want to write so I won't have hundreds of ideas fighting for attention. I really enjoy feedback because it gives me another view on how my work affects others. Which is why I try to give small nudges to you my dear readers to leave comments. And yes I know that it is your choice but it can't hurt to ask.

To further explain this, the reason for your comments on my writing is for me to become a better writer. The time and effort I put into my projects are more meaningful when you Google+ a post of mine. Or when you leave a comment about how you enjoy a way I explained something. I read the comments that are left because you took the time to write them when you didn't have to. I feel that an author needs the feedback of the readers. So when I have short stories up on my blog, please give me feedback so I can be a better writer.

I do feel that this is a good place to end our conversation. I hope everyone is having a good December and that you all have been enjoying the mini series. Do come back for the third and final part which is called Novels and Book Series, I Want to do Both! This will be posted before the New Year! At least I hope so.