LIZORAE

People are always hyping up likeable characters. You'll see lists on how to make a character more likeable. How to encourage readers to adore your characters. How to let readers root for your characters.  But is making your character likeable important? Is it really as necessary as it seems?  Let's get to!  What is likeability?  The first thing you need to know is what  likeability is. Google defines it as: "pleasant, friendly, easy to like." It's true, but broad. When it comes to books, who does the character need to be pleasant and friendly to? Who needs to easily like them -- the characters or the readers?  Here's the most common criterias. These are all valid ways of choosing likeability, but I'll be judging them on how necessary they are to a reader's experience.  The readers should like them in real life.  Importance Rating: Low For a character to be likeable in this way, the reader wouldn't mind going out of hot chocolate and cake with t...

Authors need to read. It's a necessity of writing. While books are the best option for authors, you also need to take some hints from other mediums. Like movies, TV shows and video games.  Also, webcomics. I haven't read many physical comics, but I've tasted tonnes of webcomics. There's a goldmine on Webtoon, but you can also find some individual sites that hold absolute gems.  So here's a list of webcomics I love.  Let's get to!  Disclaimer: The information in this post is correct as of the time it is written. It may not be constant.    1. The Silver Eye  by Laura Hollingsworth Status: Incomplete Genre: Fantasy Action-Adventure Official Description: Two rival royal families are always at odds. The conflict reaches a point where one child king, Apen, sacrifices himself and his country to prevent another war. This leads to some disastrous consequences. The story follows his journey to try to set things right, and if he’s going to do so, he has to wor...

Music. Curtain. Lights.  Fancy Dude: Oh, the fire in my bosom, the beating in my chest, the pan to my cakes. Scarf Girl: What is it, my love? Fancy Dude: I've been thinking about what I'm about to ask you long and hard. I have debated and quarrelled with the inner beings of our selves for years on end. *faraway look* Scarf Girl: Yes, my love? Fancy Dude: *kneels* Will you eat fried chicken with me? *applause* What was that? Only an example of character chemistry! (Albeit, not a great one.) That's right, folks. It's the long promised post on character chemistry. I've been talking about this since December, so it's about time. Let's get to! What's character chemistry anyway?  Character chemistry is the interaction between characters. It doesn't matter whether the relationship between them is platonic or romantic, nor how many characters are interacting. It happens whenever there is interaction. Between lovers, coworkers, family, friends, pets, etc. Y...

Transcript -  Finding Your Writing Voice THE FOUR STEPS: Forget what school taught you. Type however you want. Ignore spelling and grammar if you want to. Type how you talk. Bring proper spelling and grammar back. TIPS: Write often. Experiment with different styles. Listen to yourself talk. Your voice is important and unique!   

Hey, authors! Welcome to the first  5th Week Update  of 2021! It's been a solid four months. Life happened and writing posts became difficult. But I made it through! So let's get to! Milestones  Maybe this is not a milestone. But December's to January's posts seem super solid to me. Most of them, at least. It took me a few days to write them. A normal post is around 1000-1500 words. Some of them during those months reached above 2000. Yay to building writing muscle!  Pinterest has seen a pin redesign! It's something I've been talking about since the first 5WU post. Leave a comment below telling me what you think about it! New Posts Stories and Reality MISCOMMUNICATION: Why it sucks and how to fix it 1 Year Blogiversary 4 Lessons From Final Fantasy 15 #WQT: WRITING WITH PERFECTIONISM MAKING READERS FEEL SOMETHING: 6 Secrets To Writing Powerful Emotions Celebrating Aussie Authors! 6.5 Lessons From The Whisper Duology #WQT: 10 Tips To Ace Cowriting BEFORE YOU BEC...

Keeper of the Lost Cities  is a MG fantasy series by Shannon Messenger. It's currently 8.5 books long and it gets so much hype. With one more book on the way, what can we look forward to? Despite all its hype, there's a lot  that has been complained about. And most of it is justified.  I've been with this series since the release of Neverseen , Book 4. While I enjoyed it at first, the more I read it, the less I enjoy it. I feel like the series began with so much potential, but missed the mark by a long shot.  Here's the four biggest problems we can take away from this series. Let's get to!    1. Special snowflake and cardboard cutouts  Our main character, Sophie Foster, is a special snowflake. She's the specialest of special snowflakes. First, what does it mean?  To be a special snowflake means that the character is treated differently, generally worshipped, because of their supposedly amazing qualities. Here's a few common traits: The world re...

Fiction impacts lives. You can't call something "just a story" because it isn't. Stories have messages, intentional or unintentional, and the readers will be affected. Sometimes, it's obvious. Sometimes, it's not so obvious.  When you're writing something, it's important to make sure you're intentional about your content. While it's okay to write from a perspective you don't agree with, you need to make sure you're framing it with intent.  The following topics on this list are objectively  bad. I'm not saying never ever write a story that has this in it, because that's wrong. Everything here has a place in fiction. What I am saying is that you should not romanticise them.  I have seen them many, many times in fiction. It's horrifying how some of them are portrayed to be good for you. Like you should wish to go through it.  Yeah nah, mate. It's painful. You don't want to experience any of these, and you don't want...

To be a successful author , building your writing muscle is something you should focus on as early as possible.  Why? It will make your writing life SO much easier. It will take you less time to warm up, help you write more in less time and ultimately, you'll get more books out.  The best thing about this part is that you can start now. It's easier than struggling through a novel - and much faster too.  So here's five ways to hone your writing muscle. Let's get to!    1. Blogging  Starting with an obvious one, blogging! This has been paramount to building my writing muscle. You can compare my older and newer posts to see how far I've come.  Blogging has a huge influence on your writing. It has a consistent nature, so you become used to writing on a regular basis. It also helps you find your  voice  and share your ideas to the public. An engaged audience will help shape you into the best you can.  It doesn't matter what you're blogging...

Transcript Killing your darlings? WHAT IT MEANS: To delete anything that doesn't work in your story, no matter how much you like it. WHAT TO DO INSTEAD: Make it about your darling. Give your darling a reason. Change your darling to fit. It only needs to be by a bit. Keep your darling for a future story. You won't be killing your darling, you'll be making them move house. Only kill your darling completely if you can't save them!

The Boy and the Spy  by Felice Arena is a MG historical fiction set during one of the World Wars. I can't remember since it's been a while since I read it. (Edit: WW2, thank you Goodreads reviews.) I try to keep the  Lessons From The Media   positive, even when noting the weaker aspect. Unfortunately, out of my February reads,  The Boy and the Spy  is one of two books I can formulate a post on. I happen to dislike this one slightly less than the other one, so here's the three main things that threw me off.  Disclaimer: this is more of a rant than an informative post. Apologies in advance.  Let's get to!    1. Clumsy prose.  Simple prose has a certain charm to it. Take The Travelling Cat Chronicles  for example. It's another February read I will recommend to anyone who wants a bittersweet, slow read. The prose is simple but still captures the reader's attention. It helps that Nana, the narrator, has a  personality-filled ...

Hey authors! This post is going to be formatted a little differently from normal, because I'm going to talk about my philosophy on teaching writing. It's going to be more a chill monologue about what I think about the stuff I write on this blog. *cue non-existent theme song* Let's get to!      The thing about writing is that, there's only one rule: There is no rule. There's no hard and fast law that every  author has to follow. There's no secret ingredient to writing a guaranteed bestseller.  Everything I say here, and everything other author bloggers say, are guidelines. Except for, maybe, grammar and topics like that. But everything else is a giant ehh, maybe?   Honestly, I skip out a lot of "generally" and "typically" and "usually" and "mostly" and...you get the gist. If I did add them, my word count would increase by at least 10%. I try to add them when I first bring up a point, but I write as if I'm talking so it...