Articles written by Jen Nipps

To develop a compelling character that readers will relate to we need to give him a few flaws. There are lists of traits and imperfections we could introduce and some of their problems can affect our characters, and the plot of their story, in radical ways. Our characters need to be flawed, especially our main characters, we know that. We work to give them challenges. Goodness knows I do. But have you ever written a character who is going through rehab?

I considering developing a character for a future story who is sent to rehab. As soon as my historical romances reach relatively modern times I want to give them modern flaws. What kind of rehab should they go to, though? I’ve taken a look at three different kinds of rehab to evaluate my options. Physical Injury, Sex Addiction, and Substance Abuse. What other types of rehabilitation could our characters face?

1. Physical Injury

Perhaps the most common type of rehab is physical rehabilitation. If someone has a serious injury, they attend physical therapy to restore normal movement and function to their bodies. Broken bones, back problems, weak ankles, strokes, and head injuries often get this treatment. If they had rehab in the early Middle Ages, Kiernan (the protagonist from my historical romance novel KIERNAN’S CURSE) would have been sent to physical therapy after his head injury and again after his knee was badly injured during a duel. Benen (from BENEN’S BURDEN, set 200 years after KIERNAN) undergoes a primitive type of physical rehabilitation by the woman he eventually marries, Nerys, who is determined to prove the healer’s assumption, that the duke will die from injuries received in a fire, wrong.

2. Sex Addiction

Before the Tiger Woods’ scandal broke, did you really give much thought to sex addiction or the need for sex therapy or rehabilitation? The whole idea made me think of Dr. Ruth. In the back of our minds, though, we all know about someone who can’t keep their pants zipped or their legs together. (Yes, I went there.) We tend to call them sluts, whores, gigolos, etc. In looking at my characters, Trevor (in TREVOR’S TRIUMPH, 300 years after KIERNAN) might have been a candidate for some sort of sex rehab. That is, he would have before he met and married Shae.

3. Substance Abuse

We can probably name at least three celebrities who have gone through rehab for drugs or alcohol abuse, whether voluntary or court-ordered. For a recent example, look to Lindsay Lohan. Because of all the complexities involved and the potential for underlying mental or physical disorders, I don’t know that I’ll have a primary character go through this type of rehabilitation. But there are many stories where overcoming addiction can be a powerful catalyst in the life of fictional characters.

One thing to remember is that there are many other things to consider when you decide to put your fictional characters in rehab, regardless of what type. There are layers of complexities, ranging from other physical limitations, illnesses, or disorders to additional psychological issues that underlie the problem for which they are treated. Do your homework. Talk to doctors, physical therapists, psychiatrist, psychologists, or counselors. Failing to consider additional factors can blow your credibility when you’re questioned on your research by one of those professionals.

What other types of rehab are there? Have you ever written about a character who had been through or was going through rehab? How do you think rehabilitation could add dimension to the character development of your protagonist?

When I see discussions about your versus you’re, I imagine a voice coming over a loud-speaker at a sports arena. There are two figures, huddled in opposite corners of a boxing ring.

“Ladies and gentlemen, in this corner, weighing in at four letters, we have the challenger “your.” And in this corner, weighing in at a hefty five letters PLUS an apostrophe, we have another challenger, “you’re.”"

Yes, two challengers. We do not have a defending champion, as is the case with most grammatical matches involving words that sound alike but are quite different.

Let us review the English Grammar Online rules of the your versus you’re match, then.

Your

This is a possessive pronoun indicating ownership of something, whether temporary or permanent. It is not a verb form.

Examples:
Your car
Your name
Your hotel room

You’re

This is the contraction form of “you are.” It can be a complete sentence on its own acknowledging your existence. It can be followed by a verb or an adjective. It is not possessive unless someone else is talking to you, as in “You are mine.”

Examples
You’re pretty.
You’re running.
You’re going home.

English Grammar Online Championship Exercises

To get a little practice in before the match results are in, try your hand at these. Are they right or wrong?

• You’re sister wants you to call.
  (Wrong. While you might be a sister, this is supposed to mean that the sister you have, your sister, wants you to call.)

• Your car needs washing.
  (Right. It is a car you have, so it is your car.)

• You’re out of money.
  (Right. It describes a condition you have.)

• Your going home.
  (Wrong. You don’t own a “going home.” It’s something you are doing.)

The You’re Versus You’re English Grammar Online Winner Is…

There is no winner in this English Grammar Online battle. It’s a tie. Both you’re and your are either challengers or champions. Neither is less than the other. They are not interchangeable.

I could quote English grammar rules, but they don’t often help in real-world situations because they remind us (yes, even me) of being in Ms. So-and-so’s English/grammar class getting the rules drilled into you. Instead, think about this:

Be careful when you’re using “you’re” and “your” in your writing. They might sound alike, but they’re not. These two basic tips can help you decide which one is appropriate.

• If it is something “you” have, such as an object, name, location, or trait, use “your.”
• If it is a verb form meaning “you are” and using another verb or an adjective to describe someone, use “you’re.”

Can you write a sentence or two using your and you’re correctly? Give it a go in the comments below.

There’s little doubt about it. Fiction writers are more creativity-centered than number-centered. We don’t want – or need – an elaborate bookkeeping system. We just need to know what’s going out (submissions, payments, commissioned work, assigned projects) and what’s coming in (assignments, money, bills). Is there a simple way to do this or do we have to invest in a high-dollar computer program or keep an accountant on retainer?

The tips and suggestions here are not meant to take the place of an accountant or tax professional. Please consult an accountant for more detailed information. With that said, here are some tips for simple bookkeeping for freelancers.

1. Design a spreadsheet. When we’re starting, even when we’re established, most of us likely don’t have the finances to purchase a software program for keeping records. Our computers likely came with a spreadsheet program, either Microsoft Excel for PC or the equivalent for Mac. Figure out how many columns you need. In my spreadsheet, there are columns for “Title,” “Written,” “Submitted,” “Market,” “Status,” “Rights,” “Genre,” “Length,” “Published,” “Pay,” and “Notes.” It’s also color-coded to be able to see what is out and what is coming in with one look. Updated regularly, the spreadsheet can keep you on track and organized.
2. Use an invoice template in your word processor software. Programs such as Microsoft Word and WordPerfect have invoice templates. If your program doesn’t, an invoice can be as simple as a letterhead with the publication’s information, project information, and agreed payment.  When you send invoices, be certain to log them in your spreadsheet that indicates income. Additionally, keep track of when you send the invoices.
3. Take advantage of the invoicing option PayPal. If publications, typically online markets, want to pay via PayPal, you can send an invoice through their system instead of sending a print or e-mail attachment invoice. When viewing your account overview, click on the “Request Money” tab at the top. You can create invoice templates for repeat clients and send from within their system. Be aware that PayPal does charge a fee for this and include that fee in your bookkeeping.
4. If you’re tech-savvy, design a database. If you’re a programmer by day (or if you’re married to one), you might want something a bit more advanced than the simple bookkeeping and records on Excel. Microsoft Access is good for designing databases on your PC or you could find (or create) website alternatives with MySQL.
5. Use your paper planner. Simple bookkeeping doesn’t have to be computerized. Heiddi Zalamar, a writer in New York City, uses her planner. She says, “I use my planner as a record keeper and actually keep them after using them for the year.”

After you have been using a simple bookkeeping system for a while, you might be ready to use software to consolidate everything in one program. But, as a creative person instead of a numbers person, that is entirely up to you.

How do you manage your bookkeeping and records?

[Editor's Tip: Invest in the full Microsoft Office bundle to save on these fantastic software products. They don't always come standard with your PC and the most recent version has great new features earlier versions don't have.]

Writers in general, and novelists in particular, are creative people, but it can be difficult to find time for creative play when you’re faced with deadlines (even if you’re the one setting them), and everything else you have going on in your life. Here are twenty-five ways you can find time for creative play that will help you keep the ideas coming for your fiction writing.

1. Schedule time for creativity.
2. If your projects allow, create in the car while you’re waiting on your kids at ball practice.
3. Plan your projects for creative play in short bursts of time so you will have time to make progress.
4. Get up 30 minutes or so early.
5. Go to bed 30 minutes or so later.
6. Work on your favorite project on your lunch hour.
7. If you have a day job and if your project allows, go in to work 30 minutes or so early to work on it.
8. Stay at work 30 minutes or so late to work on it. (This has the added benefit of helping you miss the worst of rush hour.)
9. Take advantage of built-in holidays and devote those days to your creative project(s).
10. Take a look at how much TV you watch in the evenings. Cut out a program or two to free up time for creative play.
11. Practice delayed creative play. If you’re in the car or at work and can’t stop to work on your project, make notes to yourself so you don’t lose the inspiration/idea when you have time later.
12. If you can’t make notes (such as if you’re driving), use a digital voice recorder or the voice record option on your mobile phone to leave verbal notes for yourself.
13. Or, call your house and leave a message on your answering machine.
14. Keep a notebook & pen by your bed to jot down ideas in the middle of the night and remember to work on them the next day.
15. Keep a notebook and pen in the bathroom to write down ideas that come to you in the shower and remember to work on them later in the day (or the next day, if you shower in the evening).
16. On weekends or when school is out, put a movie in for your kids and use that time to work on your creative projects.



17. When the weather is nice and you have a transportable project, take your kids to the park and spend that time working on your project (while also, of course, keeping an eye on the kids).
18. If your kids are small and take naps, use their nap time to work on your creative projects.
19. Invest in your creative projects. When you spend money on something, you generally hate to feel like it’s wasted, so you make time to use the supplies you’ve bought.
20. Instead of turning the TV on, put a music CD in or turn on your iPod with motivational music (whatever you find motivational, whether rock or classical or country) and work on your creative project while it plays.
21. Start a blog to talk about your progress on your creative projects. You probably won’t like going too long without posting an update with actual progress, so you’ll be more motivated to work on it.
22. Take pictures of your progress to post to your blog as additional motivation.
23. Find a group of like-minded people that meets regularly. Meetings require updates, which will also get you working on your creative projects.
24. Join an online community (like The Craft or Writing Fiction!) devoted to your area of creativity and answer questions about technique. Talking about what you do and how you did it motivates you to keep doing it.
25. Give yourself deadlines that you have to meet. You schedule time to work on projects with deadlines. Give your creative play the same level of importance.

Yes, some of these tips are silly. The idea is that you should make time (and you can find time if you really look for it) for creative play and you’ll be surprised at how helpful it can be for you.

How do you find time to play or write creatively? What other ideas would you add to this list?

Photo Credit: 03-13-08 © YinYang
Photo Credit: 06-14-10 © Morten Heiselberg

No matter what kind of fiction you write, you have to have a main character, a hero, with various traits. This is especially true in romance writing. Your characters are tall, dark, and handsome. They’re perfect….

Or are they?

Romantic heroes should have great qualities. Here are five qualities your heroes need to be well-rounded, believable characters:

1. Likeability

If you don’t like your hero, your reader won’t either. More importantly, neither will his intended love interest. No interest on the heroine’s part, no story regardless of how much your hero wants to be with her.

Even if he isn’t likeable in general at the beginning of your story, he has to have at least one likeable quality. He also needs potential to grow to be more likeable.

2. A flaw

Let’s face it: People aren’t perfect. Your hero shouldn’t be either. He needs to be flawed.

Give him a physical imperfection. He’s tall, dark, and handsome… with a limp. His face is badly scarred from being burned in a fire.

Give him a psychological imperfection. His uncle is a renegade vigilante who leads bands of clansmen to ambush rival clans as they travel. He’s a womanizer who has been told he has to get married or lose his title and position.

3. A love interest

While your hero could be narcissistic and love himself, he also needs to have an external love interest. What else is a romance but a story between two people, regardless of sexual orientation, as they fall in love and deal with the conflicts that arise as their relationship grows? Well, okay, it could also be a suspense, mystery, or historical, just to name a few. The lover needs to give the hero a reason to grow, to change. He can’t be the exact same person at the end of the story as he was at the beginning.

4. Other interests/events

Do you have one interest and only one interest in your life? I think the answer is no. You have more than one interest. Your hero should, too.

What else is going on in his life that takes his attention away from his one-and-only? War drags him away just as things are starting to get hot and heavy. Hunting takes him away for shorter times. Injury, and possibly near-death, keep him away for longer (but also serves for good growth in their relationship if his love interest is willing to act as his nurse). His job makes him travel cross-country. Football keeps him glued to the television on Mondays.

Give him something else to be interested in. Otherwise, you will have a flat character that no one – including you – cares about.

5. Motivation

What drives your character?

Other than spending time with his heroine, there is another driving force in your hero’s life. Perhaps it is protecting his people, getting a promotion, defending his family’s honor, or making enough money to live comfortably. Without motivation, your character is a dead-beat.

That’s not very romantic.

There are a lot of factors that go into creating a strong character. These five traits, while not exhaustive by any means, provide a good foundation for creating your hero. They are also not exclusive to men. Your heroines also need these qualities, which should complement the hero’s, at least in some ways.

Above all, your heroes and heroines need to be individuals and not cookie-cutter copies of previous characters with different names. Figuring out these main five traits will help develop their individuality. How else can you set your heroes and heroines apart from other characters?

Jen Nipps is a talented romance author and freelance writer/editor based in south-central Oklahoma, USA. She currently spends time in the hands of her love, the hero of her latest historical romance, “Trevor’s Triumph”.

Through the month of November, Jen Nipps participated in what has become an international event, National Novel Writing Month. She was kind enough to share her post-NaNoWriMo thoughts with us. Do you have any reflections post-NaNoWriMo to share?

Another National Novel Writing Month ended a few days ago. Whether I won or lost doesn’t matter, even though I do prefer to “win” (reach 50,000 words).

Regardless of whether or not I win, NaNoWriMo is a catalyst for getting a project started. I intend to use it to get the bones of a story down. After that, I can go back in and flesh out what is too lean and trim back on what has too much. If I don’t get it done, at the very least, I have more at the end of the month than I did before NaNoWriMo.

That’s the point of it, as far as I can tell: to be a catalyst. Even if you are a fast writer, chances are you can’t produce a completed, polished manuscript in 30 days.

Novels written quickly need work. They have plot holes that need to be filled, character discrepancies that need to be revised, and passive voice that needs to be activated, just to name a few things.

My current novel is half-way through the rough draft stage. At the rate I have been going, It will be done by Christmas. I had three false starts and one stall-out before I pulled it out again for NaNoWriMo.

At almost 30,000 words, I am leaps and bounds beyond where I was before NaNo. So, no, I did not win, but I “won” in that I have a great deal to work with in a story I like with characters that are well developed and (to my thinking) likeable.

“Jen Nipps is a freelance writer in south-central Oklahoma. She currently writes website reviews for the OWFI Report, the newsletter for the Oklahoma Writers’ Federation, Inc., and has been published in WritingForDollars. Progress notes on her work(s)-in-progress and other writing-related posts can be found on her blog, Creatif.”

How did you fair in NaNoWriMo this year? Did you ‘win’? More importantly, did you have fun and create unique?