• I posted a few tips on what to do when you're researching more than you're writing.
• I talked about how you can develop your characters using develop your characters using relationships.
• I offered some ways to make yourself fall in love with your characters.
• And I tried (but didn't succeed) to figure out how to schedule posts on blogger. I'll get it. Eventually.

At My Writing Desk

• I was assaulted by an army of evil plot bunnies with plans to take over the world and my brain by degrees.
• I continued rewriting Splitting Atoms.

Yeah right, who am I kidding? I did hardly any rewriting-- the plot bunnies hauled me off captive, bound hand and foot, and there were only a few instances where I wriggled free of my bonds and got some writing done on my WIP.

Enjoy a gif of evil plot bunnies hauling me off to evil-plot-bunny-land.

BUT THIS MONTH I PROMISE!!! I WILL FINISH IT!!!

I read 6 books this month, which wasn't as many as I was hoping, but more than usual. Maybe with summer upon us the pace will pick up a bit. I continued my YA adventure, and while I didn't find exactly what I was looking for, I did end up liking more of the books than I did last month. Here's my Goodreads, where you can see what I read and what I thought, if you feel like it.

Also,

• Emily@Dreaming Hobbit talked about finding high concept ideas.
• Cait@Paper Fury addressed the problems of reading YA as an adult, and, in spite of the fact that I am still a teen, I totally related with nearly all of them. Also, she's celebrating her 4th blogoversary with cake and giveaways which is fabulous.
• Aimee@To the Barricade! presented good things about revising just in time to save me from insanity at the hands of the sucky WIP, plus I flipped out when she linked to my blog in her monthly wrap-up.
• C.C.@The Authorist discussed cliche backstories and how to write one that isn't and was totally on target (not to mention epic gif use was epic).

With Me and My Life

• I FINALLY GOT TO THE ELEVENTH DOCTOR (in Doctor Who) AND ADJFLDKJF!!!! I miss Ten, though. And Nine, actually.
• Summer is here, which means I'm miserable and hot and achy from working too hard yesterday.
• Some family members played instruments at a Benefit Concert this month, and I missed all their pieces and most of the other performers, because I was stuck outside with a screaming nephew. I was not happy.

  Me for two hours.

Coming Soon to the Blog

• I've got a good friend, Lily Lindsey-Aubrey, scheduled to do a blog post about no-win scenarios in fiction.
• I'm considering either posting about my WIP or putting up a page to house my current writing projects. What do you think?
• I'm going to find out how to schedule posts with blogger. I WILL DO IT!!!!

How did your month go? Quick poll: do you or do you not like summer? And what do you want to see on the blog this June? I'm kinda stuck for ideas at the moment, but I'll get over it.

You've probably heard this one before, and your character may already have it. But if he doesn't, you need to pour some in right now.

Think about your friends. Why was it you developed relationships with these people? Chances are it was because you had something in common: a hobby, a fandom, or, if nothing else, possibly age. If you didn't have anything in common, you wouldn't have anything to talk about-- unless you were both the sort of people who love to argue, in which case, you had that in common!

It's important that you have something in common with your characters, something you can understand and identify with.

Think about your favourite character, your best friend, or your closest family member. What do you admire about each of them?

When I was trying to make Avis, my MC, more likable, I sat down and thought of all my favourite female characters in books, movies, and tv shows, the people I admired most: people like Martha Jones from Doctor Who, Ella from Cinderella, and Idril Celebrindal from the Silmarillion. Before long, I realized that they all had three things in common: they were smart, strong, and selfless.

Pick a few of the qualities that the people you admire share, and make them defining traits in your characters' personalities. It could be a sarcastic sense of humour, an eternally positive attitude, or an ability to take charge in any given situation. Whatever it is, take it and run with it.

Note: You probably admire a lot of people, and they may be very, very different. It helps if you take a small number of people who are most like your character and look for their defining traits. For instance, I love Maria Hill, but she in no way resembled Avis, so I didn't bother trying to give Avis the traits I admired in Hill.

I'm an extroverted feeler, and I highly value people and relationships. Stories where the protagonist has to learn to "believe in himself" in order to accomplish his goal don't ring true to me. I can believe in myself all I want and still fail. What do ring true to me are stories where one person isn't enough in himself-- where it takes other people to get him through to the end. That's why Avis is team oriented: she needs people, and she's knows it's important to help people as well.

What's something you value? It might be anything: peace, honesty, nature. Don't be afraid to make that a part of your character.

When your character is made up of things you care about-- yourself, your friends, your beliefs-- it's hard to feel disinterested or apathetic. You have to care. You have to relate. You have to love.

But before I fade out, I just need to say one more thing. Don't let what's "popular" and "safe" dictate your characters. Because if you just make your character into the type of person you think your reader will like, but don't particularly care for yourself, it shows. Write characters that you love, even if you think that they'll get lost among the Katniss Everdeens and Tony Starks. It's more important that you love them, even then that your readers do.

What are some things that get you fangirling over your characters? Have you ever tried taking characteristics from your favourite characters and giving them to your own? Do you think that's plagiarism (because if it is, I'd better get running from the law...)? What are some things you value which are woven into your characters? I want to know EVERYTHING (and yes, that was just the slightest bit creepy, sorry).

It doesn't just stop with the externals, either. We can make some pretty good guesses as to their personalities and the way they see the world, too. We can tell that Aragorn believes men are weak by the way he treats Boromir and even himself. Are you familiar with the Meyers-Briggs Personality Types? We can deduce that Boromir is an F(eeler) and Aragorn is a T(hinker), simply by watching the way they interact with each other and the other members of the Fellowship.

Give them a moment, for pity's sake!

(And yes, I'm talking way too much about Boromir in this post. But seriously!!! This guy!!!)

As writers, we tend to pay more attention to what characters are inside. We emphasise their mental or emotional turmoil by climbing inside their heads and hearts and digging it out to show the reader. We investigate every inch of our characters' thoughts and feelings from our nice little inside view. And that's totally cool. Readers love the emotional attachment that comes from being inside a character's head and seeing the world through their eyes.

But ultimately it's not about what a certain character thinks or feels. It's about how he acts, how he treats those around him.

It's important that you show what the character does and how he interacts with others, not just what he feels like inside. A person in a historical novel who believes all men are created equal and that the slave trade is wrong, but acts nasty and superior to all those he comes in contact with, still isn't a nice person. We learn most from the relationships. Show us how they treat other people, and we'll know what they're like.

Make the most of the relationships. They're not just there for feels and flails. They have a purpose. Use them to their full potential.

I suffer from Lyme's disease, and I would dearly love to read a book about someone who struggles with what I struggle with. Also things like narcissism, borderline personality disorder, bi-polar depression, schizophrenia, OCD, and avoidant personality disorder. Firstly, these kinds of problems are fascinating to read about. Secondly, I can relate to characters that struggle with them. I may not technically be a narcissist, but I have narcissistic qualities which help me relate with narcissistic characters. I don't have avoidant personality disorder, but I have two sisters who have it or something very close to it and I can understand the struggle. And thirdly, people like this need a voice. We need to know what they feel like.

If you run down the list of extroverted protagonists in popular books and movies, it's a short list. The Doctor, Megamind, a few others (though I admit I'm not that familiar with popular books, so there might be more than I think). It makes sense. A majority of authors are introverts. Extroverts are becoming more and more stereotyped as obnoxious, abrasive people. But really guys, we're cool!! One episode of Doctor Who or ten minutes of Megamind and you know that. We can be really fun and fascinating. And we need more characters we can relate to.

In particular, in the area of YA dystopians, where the protagonist doesn't assume his/her life is more valuable than anybody else's. It really bugs me that survival is more important in so many books than mercy or integrity. We have Hunger Games, where teens are killing each other in order to survive, and Divergent, where *SPOILERS* Tris is willing to kill one of her closest friends because he's being mind controlled and is going to kill her if she doesn't *END SPOILERS*. That bugs me because it's morally wrong. You don't kill innocent people... kids, really... just so you'll survive. I want a hero who would rather die than kill an innocent human in cold blood. That's a real hero.

As a huge Inception fan, I'm obsessed with the dream world and the possibilities for writing. I mean, if you're dreaming, anything can happen! The possibilities are beautiful and endless. I need more books about dreaming. I've got a plot bunny for a book about dreaming, but you could write billions of dream books and still not exhaust the possibilities. I really want to read some.

Now hear me out, I'm not saying "books where the story is all about this huge family", or "books that deal with the problems and joys of being in a big family" or whatever else. I've read books like that, and I'm usually not a fan... just bored. I mean exciting adventure or fantasy or sci-fi or spy-fi or mystery books where the protagonist is actually trying to do something and, oh, by the way, he's from a really big family, and that's totally okay and cool and no big deal, but turns out there's no way he'd make it through the story and survive if it weren't that way. I want it. Now.

I don't like romance. I especially don't like romance when they're twelve. It's always like a breath of fresh air to read a book where guys and girls are just friends and no more, or, depending on age, the guys and the girls totally ignore each other and don't really mingle. Not that every story can be that way, but I want to read more of them.

This is so cool and sad and satisfying. There need to be more books like this and I need to read them.

I don't mean just Asian people, either, I mean Asian people who think and act like Asian people and who are really weird and funny and sometimes annoying. 'Cause Asians are really, super weird, which can easily translate to cool if you write it right. Plus, I'm a quarter Asian (Japanese, to be specific), so I always feel nostalgic when reading about Asians.

You can't be friends with someone who disagrees with you!! Or if you are, you're constantly fighting about it and eventually one of you 'sees the light'. I want books where everyone has differing opinions... on politics, sports, religion, moral standards, etc and it's no big deal. Maybe the characters argue about certain things sometimes, but it doesn't turn into a huge fight, and those opinions don't necessarily change.

I love superhero movies, but I haven't actually read a superhero book. I want to, though. I want to very bad. I'm even plotting one to write, but I'd like to read one first.

What books do you want to read this year? Do you have any book recommendations for me?