I don’t normally go on a post that’s a pure rant like this one is, but I feel the need to vent. On one of the writing forums is a wannabe intellectual who has diarrhea of the fingers. Today he’s trying to tell folks chapters have
to be a certain length.

What a pile of complete bullshit!

Chapters in a novel are as long as they need to be! While I tend to write 3-5k chapters, that doesn’t mean every book needs ones that big. Some are as long as one word, one sentence or one paragraph. But to tell someone they have to be a certain length not only forces a new writer into a mold they don’t need to be in but it can hurt them in the long run.

Frankly, I get so damn tired of listening to the bullshit that comes from so many artistes who will never be published in their lives. All they want to do is tell folks how to be ‘artists’ but it pushes new and aspiring authors into going in a direction that’s not commercially viable.

If you sit back and read other novels, which I challenge folks to do, you’ll find that each writer’s chapters are a different length. There’s no hard and set rule about it!

God, I’m so tired of seeing such stupid shit pushed upon aspiring writers as a rule.

I have 8″ of snow on the ground, freezing rain falling, which has stuck to the trees, making them pretty and more coming today. I took some pictures a little bit ago. Will post some of them later today.

One hour ago it started snowing less than 100 miles from my house. The sense of both excitement and dread hangs in the air like the odor from a dead fish.

We’re still preparing like crazy for the incoming storm. The kerosene heaters aren’t working so we’re getting new ones for the house in case of loss of power. The graphics card for my desktop has arrived, and been installed so that’s taken care of. Now, I’m just sitting back, writing and waiting for the snow to fall. With any luck it’ll start during the daylight hours so I can see it.

One thing I see discussed a lot on the internet is how to make believable characters, which I admit can be bit of a challenge. So, let’s sit down and discuss this for a couple minutes.

Ok, first off, what makes a believable character? Well, he or she needs to be well-rounded. And what I mean by this is that they need to have both strengths and weaknesses. My character Athol is skilled at killing, in fact she’s one of the best assassins in the Alliance, but she’s also temperamental and arrogant, which can lead to making critical mistakes. Talia? She thinks so highly of herself that she calls herself a ‘tactical genius’ even though most of her plans go south. Throw in a sinister and cruel undercurrent and she’s got enough flaws to choke a horse.

I have to admit though, that creating characters is easy for me now; it’s naming them that I have great difficulty doing. In fact, Athol popped into being all because of the two lines that started off the short story with her. When I wrote them, I didn’t have a clear idea of who the character was until she revealed herself to be this teenaged assassin. That’s why the stories with her are written in first person and as a stream of consciousness. Athol’s telling her own life story, not me, and she’s handling everything.

Now, for most people, creating that character might seem daunting, but it really isn’t. A lot of times, they’ll show themselves as you start your story. Someone I know by the name Maia once told me “just write a story,” which became the mantra I live by. Because here’s why: when you do that, the character will unveil himself or herself to you to start off with, and then as the story progresses they will tell you more about themselves.

See, to me, all of them are real people and I deal with them just like I would you and I. We talk, communicate, and I learn about them and they learn from me. To those who aren’t truly artistically inclined, this might be hard to understand, but it’s truly simple. You want a realistic character, then let them come to life and tell their own life story. You, the writer, are nothing more than the one putting the story to paper. Remember that.