Adding new characters so people don’t hate them

If you’re writing a series, you’re going to find that your cast changes over time. This makes sense and is realistic in real life. If your MC is learning, growing, and changing then people are going to leave and come to their lives. They might move, go to school, change jobs, or get a new neighbor. Maybe a family member needs to come stay with them for some unexplained reason.

Sometimes this is great. Some fantastic characters have been added later in a series. Using some TV examples because they’re the best known, here are some later added characters I loved.

Patrick from Schitt’s Creek.

Kimmi from Rugrats.

Ben and Chris from Parks and Rec.

Alex from Chuck.

Natalie from Monk.

Chris from 30 Rock

Jessie from Burn Notice.

All of these characters were great additions to their respective shows.

But not all characters added later in a series are great. Some are Godawful. And the examples of that are downright cringy. Think of Dill from Rugrats, Suzie from Space Cases, Scrappy Doo, and the much despised Bobby from Brady Bunch. This horrible addition trend is so well understood, that it was mocked by the Simpsons in their eighth season.

So how do we do it right? How do we add to our cast without creating a Poochie? Well to me, this involves a series of do’s and don’ts.

Do add something to the story that was missing

Most of the characters in my ‘good’ list fall under this rule. Patrick added a straight man (comedic straight) to a pretty zany cast. Kimmi gave Chucky someone who admired him in Rugrats. Alex gave Casey a softer side that he needed in Chuck.

Do you have a character that is a little too silly? Too responsible? Too damn irritating? Give them a character that has the opposite qualities to balance them out. If your story is just a little too dark, add a character that can give levity.

Do give them a believable and sensible reason to be there.

How did this new character join your cast? Did they move? Okay, why did they move?

Kimmi’s a good example of this. She and her mom joined the cast after the Rugrats went to Paris. Her mom was working for the antagonist, fell in love with Chaz, and moved back to the States with him. That makes sense. Well, not in the real world. But in the lovely fictional world in which a school teacher can afford to keep her family in a house in the suburbs.

As a bad example, we can look at Scrappy Doo. Why is he hanging out with his uncle? Why did we never meet his parents? Why doesn’t he ever go home?

It needs to

Do make sure they fit the style and overall theme of the show

We all know that fiction content tends to have a certain vibe. Some shows are warm and cozy, some are more dark. For this example, let’s consider The Good Place with The Boys. In The Good Place, everyone seems to be a little messed up, but essentially decent people.

Compare that to The Boys, where no one seems like an essentially decent person except the two main characters, Hughie and Annie. And even they, if they were plopped into The Good Place, would seem far too dark and messed up to belong there.

So, as much as you’re trying to bring something new and different to your universe, you don’t want them to be so different as to feel like they don’t fit into the world you’ve already created.

Don’t force this character to take up too much space

Now, we’ve reached the don’ts. And this first one is a doozy.

If you’re adding a new character, you don’t want them to necessarily take over as the main character. So they shouldn’t be treated as such. Yes, they should have some storylines. Yes, they should take up space in the world. Yes, they should be important to the plot. But they shouldn’t be the new focus, to the detriment of other characters.

A great example of this done wrong was Rugrats. Dill took over too many of the storylines. Now that there was a baby who needed looked after and cared for by the rest of the cast, every story had to be about him in some way. Before, each episode told a story of one baby, or the assembled cast facing a problem. Now all the problems were about dealing with Dill. Or they were exacerbated by his presence.

Honestly, did Stu and Didi never actually watch their kids?

Don’t take the place of existing characters

This one is a personal issue with me. And it started young. I’m likely dating myself here, but when I was a kid I loved the show Space Cases. It was kind of like Voyager, but with a younger crew. A ship was lost in way outer space, carrying two adults and a group of teens. Scifi hilarity ensued.

My favorite character was Catalina. At the end of season two, she was replaced by her best friend Suzee, who until this moment most of us thought was an imaginary friend.

And I never got over that.

Of course, if you’re writing anything that requires actors, you’re sometimes going to have to replace people. I had a few actors leave my podcast between seasons one and two.

Some of the characters I recast. Some I simply wrote out and didn’t replace. But if you’re writing for TV, you can’t always just replace an actor.

(Yes, sometimes it can be pulled off.)

Then there are examples like Space Cases, or Charmed, where an actor leaves and their position is simply taken over by a new character. And that’s a jarring situation.

If you’re writing a book series, you don’t have to worry about actors leaving. So you do not ever need to shoehorn a new character in to take the place of somebody else. So, you know, don’t do it.

Don’t add a character just because they’re cute

Alright, you all knew this was coming. That’s why I saved it for last. I have some words of revulsion for the Scrappy Doo, Dill Pickles, and Cousin Oliver sort.

We do not need a character added just for the sake of being cute young and new. We don’t need it. If you find yourself writing a new baby, a new puppy, or a new adorable pet sidekick to keep things interesting and fresh, stop right there. Your story doesn’t need it, and it won’t be the saving grace you think it would be. That stunt has worked once and only once, and that was on Sailor Moon.

I hope this post has helped you. And I hope I didn’t trash-talk a character you loved. If I did, please let me know in the comments. And if there’s a later addition character I didn’t reference that you think deserves some love, please let me know about them too.

Paper Beats World is a labor of love. If you love what we do here, please consider supporting the site on Ko-fi.

And don’t forget that Nova, book five of Station 86 starts on Monday! And yes it does have one later series addition, a survivor from Station Central. See you then.

0

Some thoughts on Tradwives

Have you ever been so obsessed with one topic that you just cannot shut up about it? Like to the point where all of your friends and family, and even your therapist are sick of you talking about it, even though they agree with you?

That’s where I am right now with tradwives.

On the off chance you don’t know what a tradwife is, let me give you a description with as little of my personal bias as I can. A tradwife is a woman who believes in and practices traditional gender roles.

To be clear, I am not talking about homemakers. I am not talking about people who enjoy home crafts, cooking, cleaning, or domestic tasks. I enjoy these things myself. I think most of us enjoy home crafting to some degree, no matter our gender.

And to be clear, I don’t care if a woman chooses to be a tradwife. If she and her family can afford for her to stay home, that’s her life. None of my business. That’s the whole point of feminism, after all. She chose to stay home, I chose to have a career and neither one of us can choose our medical care in several states.

Wait, that last one doesn’t sound right. We’ll circle back to that.

No, what I’m mostly upset about are tradwife influencers. People like Mrs. Midwest, Girl Defined, and Paul and Morgan.

I have a complicated relationship with traditional gender roles. For those of you who don’t know, I was raised in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I wrote all about it here. I was a tradwife for years.

And I mean that in the literal sense. I believed that my place was in the home taking care of my family. I was also a pro-life conservative Mormon woman who thought I was straight and had a lot of guilt over my love of playing cards. I had a lot of guilt over a lot of things.

Maybe that’s why I put up with my first partner being mentally, physically, and sexually abusive. I thought that I deserved it because I was dumb enough to have a baby with him.

And obviously, I’m not the only woman who went through that. Hell, my mom went through it. My aunt went through it. My grandmother went through it twice.

I just do not believe that a relationship is healthy when both people don’t see each other as equal. I have lived it. I’ve seen other women live it. I’ve frequently seen women say that God calls us to be Christian wives even if our husbands are not doing their part. Even if a man is beating us, cheating on us, or abusing us, God wants us to try to make it work.

I call bullshit on that.

I crawled out of that. It was hard. I’m still healing from that. And now, I’m watching all these young women run right into the trap I escaped. Worse, they’re trying to drag other women along with them.

Now, I’m going to generalize a bit with this next part. I am not saying that all tradwives are like this. I am saying that the vast majority of tradwife influencers are like this. And again, that’s who I’m mad at.

Tradwife influencers are against every single thing that I’ve built my life around. They sure wouldn’t be working a full-time job like I do. They never seem to be big readers, so I’m guessing they’re not really into sci-fi or speculative fiction. At least, the high-profile ones I see on social media aren’t ever reading anything but the KJV Bible. They seem to be pretty sure that positive affirmations are too close to witchcraft to be trusted, so my tarot-reading self would be an affront to them. They are anti-choice, anti-birth control. Many of them are super racist and xenophobic, too. And I assume I don’t need to tell you what they think of the LGBTQ+ community.

Most of these influencers don’t even have pets.

And yet, there are two things that I do have in common with most tradwife influencers. I am married to a man and I am a Christian.

This brings me to the first reason why I am so angry at tradwives. They have taken the two things in my life that give me the most support and peace, and they’ve turned them into nightmares.

My husband and I have been married for nine years now. Our relationship is a comfort to me. I have a best friend who lives with me, and who will share the burdens that life puts on us. Having a steady long-term relationship should be part of your support system. Your partner should truly be your partner, and they should make your life easier. They should make your life better.

Likewise, I get a lot of comfort from my faith. I understand that this isn’t for everyone, and that’s fine. I know plenty of other people who have deconstructed who do not want a relationship with any religion and that is more than valid. The point is, that my faith makes my life better. My partner makes my life better.

So here is the thing that tradwives do that bothers me the most. They have taken two things that are very good for me in my personal life, and they’ve twisted them. They say first that everyone has to have those things, it’s non-negotiable. Then they say that these things shouldn’t make you happy. Your partner doesn’t have to make you happy. Your relationship with your deity shouldn’t make you happy. If you’re expecting that sort of relationship with your spouse or with God, you’re wrong for that. In the world of a tradwife, you as the wife are there to support your husband, he is not there to support you outside of financially. Your faith isn’t supposed to lead you to good things or a better understanding of yourself and the world you live in.

I reject that. I reject the thought that God doesn’t want me to be happy. I reject the notion that I am meant to be a helpmate to my husband and not expect that same help and support in return. I frankly reject anything that isn’t a net positive in my life. I reject that not just for myself, but for the next generation.

And here is the point that I want to get to. So many of these tradwife influencers are younger than me. These are younger millennials and Zoomers who were happy crying and dancing in the streets when Roe V. Wade was overturned.

So, what the hell happened here?

I am not going to claim that I’ve been leading the charge for female empowerment. I had to fight for my liberation, but I didn’t have anything to do with societal liberation.

But I think that we, as elder Millennials and Gen X, let go of something. We inherited a world that didn’t have as many barriers for women as those before us. There are still some, but not as many. I was born into a world where I could have an abortion, have a credit card, own property, have a bank account, and get a no-fault divorce. My mother was not. Any woman born before 1974 was not.

I feel like we got distracted. We didn’t get lazy, that’s not fair. But we got distracted trying to survive and we forgot about these battles. Maybe because just providing for our families has gotten so hard. Maybe because we’ve seen so much violence in our lifetimes. Maybe it’s hard to worry about whether or not we’re still treated as equals when there’s another school shooting every week and it feels like WWIII is gonna break out if one more country bats an eyelash weird. Maybe it’s because we thought we had our rights on lock, so we could keep moving forward.

Whatever the reason, we dropped the ball. And we’ve got to pick it back up again.

Now, I’m not telling you to go off on these tradwives on social. What I’m suggesting is that we don’t engage with them at all. Don’t give them attention. Understand that anyone can be a homemaker, but nobody has to be. And if you know a young woman who’s going down this road, check in on her with compassion. Don’t judge, but do give her the support she needs. And vote for politicians who will fight for gender equality. Write to your politicians, call them, and attend protests. Don’t believe that we are safe because the rise of the tradwives means that we are not.

These constricting, dehumanizing rules don’t belong in the world our mothers and grandmothers fought to give us, and they don’t belong in the world we’re giving our daughters.

In conclusion, let me leave you with this. I’m a Christian, but I’m also a witch. As such, I like the Wicca rede. As it harms none, do what you will. If tradwives weren’t harming anyone, I would not be upset about what they’re doing. But the way they prop up and romanticize these dangerous, self-hating ways of life is hurting people. And we have got to be loud enough denouncing it to drown them out.

If you want to learn more about this phenomenon, please check out Fundie Fridays on Youtube. It’s a great place to learn about dangerous fundamentalism.

Don’t forget, Nova starts on February 5th. And you can get book one of Station 86 for free right now on Smashwords.

Paper Beats World is a labor of love. If you want to support what we do, you can do so on Ko-fi.

1

How my day job makes me a better writer

I am a writer. I am a professional writer. Most of you already know this, assuming this isn’t the first post of mine you’ve read. I have been a professional writer for a good long time at this point, ever since I started submitting to agents for my first novel, Broken Patterns. I’m a novelist, podcast author, blogger, and critic.

I also have a full-time job that has nothing at all to do with my writing, because writing just does not pay all of my bills.

Hell, it doesn’t pay most of my bills.

So yes, I still work a day job. And while I hope someday to leave that day job, it’s going to be a while. In the meantime, I’m trying to be thankful for what having a day job does for my writing. Because even though I would love to write full-time, having a steady day job does have some benefits to a creative life.

I have to focus

The first thing I want to talk about is the small windows of time in which I have to write. I generally have an hour in the morning, a few hours Sunday afternoon, and one whole day a week to write. In many ways, this sucks.

But in other ways, having less time to write forces me to be more intentional about my projects and what I’m doing about them. When I only have an hour to write, I need to sit down and actually write. There’s some pressure behind the pen.

I have time

Conversely, having a day job also means I have more time to develop my career. Because I don’t need my writing to make money to, you know, eat, I can focus on projects and creative works that will pay out in the long run.

The sad truth is that writing a novel unless you’re already famous, is probably not going to make you any money in the short term. But it might make you money in the long term.

Might.

Creating a successful writing career takes time. You work your way up through short stories. You write and publish books and short stories to build a backlog. You create a platform of people who trust you to put out good content regularly, whatever regular might look like.

All of this takes time. You can write as fast as you want, and work as much as you want, and it’s still going to take time to build a writing career. It’s nice to not have to eat like a college student while you’re building that.

I can write what I want to write

Listen, I get that speculative fiction is not a huge money-maker. If I were writing to feed my family, that would be a serious concern. I might consider selling feet pics. I might consider selling James’s feet pics.

I might consider writing romance novels disguised as fantasy because that shit sells like chocolate on February 12th. But I don’t want to write that. I want to write about ghosts, dragons, and space stations. I sure as hell wouldn’t be publishing my entire new science fiction novel right here on Paper Beats World before I publish it anywhere else. But because I don’t need writing money to live, I can do that. And I am, starting on February 5th.

I have the freedom to write experimental things. To write things that I enjoy. I hope you like them too.

I don’t seek out sponsorships

Lots of blogs and podcasts have sponsorships. YouTube content certainly does. My podcast, AA, does. But this site doesn’t. I’m not writing sponsored posts, or creating sponsored content. Because I don’t have to.

For many creators, making sponsored content can take as much time or more than they’re spending on their actual creative work. It in effect takes the role of a day job, working to build a brand and company for someone else dependent on outside requirements and deadlines. As far as I’m concerned, seeking out sponsorships is the same as having a day job, just without the medical insurance.

This isn’t to disparage sponsorships! Like I said, I do one for AA. My favorite YouTube channel, Watcher, does them all the time. I have a friend who does them for her content. But because I have a full-time job, I don’t have to do that. And I’m really glad I don’t.

I don’t have to take on freelance work

Another thing I don’t have to do is write freelance content. I used to do this, and honestly, I hated it.

Freelance work is hard. It takes time and creative effort. It takes so much time.

There was a time when I needed that work because I was struggling to make ends meet with my day job. And I was thankful for the little extra I could make with it. But I’ve learned over the years that I only have a certain amount of writing energy every day. And if I use it up writing ad copy for a company I don’t care about, I’m not going to have any for the writing I want to do. So if I was writing freelance work, it might quickly become the only writing I was doing.

I’m constantly inspired by new stories

Finally, I want to talk a little bit about the work itself. I’m not going to give many details about what I do, because I work hard to keep my writing and work life separate. But one thing I can tell you is that I talk to people all day every day. And like in any job where you work with people, sometimes they tell me their stories.

No, most people don’t just start unraveling a yarn of their lives unprompted. Though at least one time a man spent 45 minutes telling me about his experiences in Vietnam and finished this by telling me he felt like he was supposed to tell me these stories. I didn’t ask for them. I was shocked by them. But I’m so thankful for the privilege of having heard them.

I learn their stories as they tell me about what kind of day they’re having. How it snowed, and it made them think of a storm when they were kids. How their kids are driving them nuts. Or they just got back from a funeral. Or how they just lost their job or got a new one, or their daughter had a baby. All of these wonderful, worrying, scary, sad, happy stories that people just tell you when you seem willing to listen.

That feeds my soul. But it also feeds my creativity. I talk to people who see the world in a completely different way than I do. I learn new things and gain a new perspective. Granted, some days I learn new ways to be irritated by people. But I also learn compassion and patience.

Anything that makes you a more well-rounded person is going to make you a better artist. The more sides of the world you can see, the more you can write from.

All of this is not to say that I don’t want to write full-time. It’s certainly not to say that writers don’t need and deserve to get paid for their writing. Creative work is work. Emotional work is work. I’d love to quit my day job and write full-time, so I’m not literally working two jobs.

But the truth is that creative work isn’t paying enough to keep me alive right now. And that’s the reality for most writers, sadly. So if we have to work while we create our careers, we can at least lean into the positives.

Nova will start on February 5th. But if you need to start at the beginning, you can get Seeming for free on Smashwords right now.

Paper Beats World is a labor of love. If you love what we do here, please consider supporting me on Ko-fi.

0

Writing when you work from home

It’s snowing where I am as I write this. Not just snow, but a messy sleety wet slop that is freezing when it hits the road. There is nothing I want to do less than leave my home. Thankfully, I work from home.

While many people have transitioned back to offices, lots of us are still working from home. And it is a blessing.

Before we go forward, please let me be clear that this is a blessing and I am not complaining about it. That being said, working from home isn’t without its challenges. Especially when you, like me, already work a creative job from home.

Working from home when you also have a creative hustle has its own challenges. For one thing, there’s only so much time one should spend staring at the same four walls. For another, it’s just hard to spend more time in our creative space when it’s also now our workspace. Listen, I like my day job and there are still some days where I don’t want to step away from my desk so much as set it on fire and run screaming from it. And then I’m expected to spend more time at that same desk?!

I’m a big fan of basically tricking my brain to get it to do what I need. And I’m also a big fan of, you know, doing the thing I love no matter what. So here’s what I do to juggle both working and writing from home.

Have a specific start and end time

This is a piece of information that’s been around for WFH folks forever. But frankly, it bears repeating because this is harder when you’re creating from home.

Have a specific start and end time for your day job. This is easy when we’re working at the office, because you clock out and head home, not to see your work PC until next you clock in.

If you’re working from home, your PC is there with you. Waiting. Judging.

When I’m doing things around the house, making dinner, or watering plants, I can ignore the PC with ease. But when I sit down back at the desk, back where I was performing a specific action all day, I start to think about things that happened at work.

Did this person respond to my email? Did that guy do the thing I needed him to do? Did I take care of my part of that other thing?

This sucks. But it’s important to stick to your intentions. You were at work already. You have a specific amount of time that you and your boss agreed to. There is no reason to jump on there at any other time.

Physical boundaries

Of course, this is easier said than done. When you’re computer is right there, it’s harder to just say no.

And I get it. I’m lucky to have any devoted space in my home for working, it’s a small place. So my desk is the place where I work from home and do all of my writing. Same little desk, same squeaky chair, same Peanuts calendar. And I’m not going to move my work pc every time I want to write.

So what I do instead is to place a scarf over the whole PC when I’m not at work. I turn it off, and I cover it with a nice maroon scarf. Out of sight, out of mind.

Tricking your senses

Getting my work PC out of sight is just one way I trick my senses into thinking this is a different workspace. I’m careful to keep certain practices separate.

When I’m working the day job, I listen to jazz music. I don’t light candles or incense. I’m generally drinking water or coffee.

When I’m writing, I like to listen to either nature sounds or work with me videos. I almost always have something nice smelling lit. I also tend to prefer tea while I’m writing. It’s all about creating the right kind of vibe. When I’m doing day job work, I want to feel alert and not stressed out. When I’m writing, I want to feel creative and soft.

Get out of the house when you can

Finally, I try to write outside of the house when I can. Not all the time, frankly I write too much to do it all the time. But I like to go to a coffee shop or the library and get some work done. Especially when I’m feeling like I’m in a slump, or the four walls of my office are getting to me.

Writing outside of the house has all kinds of benefits. Especially when you’re spending 40+ hours a week in your usual writing spot.

If you can’t leave the house, which might be the case for me as I’m looking down a snowstorm this weekend, try to switch up where you write. While I don’t suggest writing in bed, maybe there’s somewhere else in your home you can write from. I’ll often write reviews on my couch, for instance, my laptop balanced on a lap desk.

Now, if you feel like a lot of this advice sounds the same, you’re right. These are all examples of what boils down to the same advice.

Make your creating time as separate from your work time as possible. Because the last thing you want when you’re writing is to feel like you’re at work.

Nova will start on February 5th. But if you need to start at the beginning, you can get Seeming for free on Smashwords right now.

Paper Beats World is a labor of love. If you love what we do here, please consider supporting me on Ko-fi.

0

An overdue announcement (Yes, it’s a new book)

I’ve become the thing I’ve most hated. I’ve become that writer who leaves horrid long stretches between their books. I know how you feel, believe me. Tamora Pierce published Tempest and Slaughter in 2018, and there’s no sequel in sight.

Look, we can’t all be Brandon Sanderson, as much as we might want to be.

But that’s done now. The wait is nearly over.

Nova, the fifth book of Station 86, is launching right here on February 5th.

And I understand that the wait has been quite long. Literally, it’s been five years. Things are going to be a bit different this time around. Previous Station 86 books have, first off, been much shorter than this one. None of them before have reached novel length, and Nova exceeds it, clocking in at just under 70,000 words. So instead of posting one episode a week, I’ll be posting three. One on Monday, another on Wednesday, and a third on Friday.

You’re also going to meet a character that, if you only read what’s on the website, you haven’t had the chance to yet. His name is Michael, Godfrey’s father. He’s a survivor of the Hollow Suits on Earth, and he’s been collecting lost children to protect them. This time around, his story became too integral to what was going on aboard Station 86 to leave him to his own devices.

And besides that, I like Michael. I didn’t really mean to make a hero out of him. But here we are.

There is no secret episode this time around. It’s all going to be published here, one chapter at a time, from February 5th to April 17th. And the reason for that is simple. You deserve it.

You, who’ve been reading Station 86 since Seeming launched in 2016. You, who found the series or this blog somewhere along the way and decided to stick around. And even you if this is the very first time you’ve been here. You all deserve a full, complete, good story about a group of people trying to survive against impossible odds. Because while we aren’t facing hollow suits of armor intent upon killing us, we are all trying to survive against what seems like impossible odds.

Finally, I’ll be offering a limited number of beta copies of Nova. And I mean a very few. Because you are all my beta readers. Nova will be available here in its entirety for two weeks after its finale to make sure everyone gets a chance to read it who wants to. If you like it, I’d love it if you’d share it with your friends. It would mean the world to me.

Just in case this is your first time here, or you’ve never heard me talk about this series before, here are links to the whole series on Smashwords. And to help you get into the world quicker, book one is free.

Seeming

You Can’t Trust The AI

Virus

Station Central

0

The many uses of subplots

So, you want to write a book. You have a vision for a story, and it’s wonderful. You have a beginning, a middle, and an end.

But, what about subplots?

A subplot, just in case this is all very new to you, is a story within your story that is not directly part of your main plotline. Today, we’re going to be using the novel Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix as an example because I’m tired of using Harry Potter and everyone should read Slaying Vampires.

So, as an example, in Slaying Vampires the main story is about a vampire that moves to a suburban town and starts feeding on people. One of the subplots is the main character, Patricia, struggling with her relationships with her husband and children.

Subplots have the power to make or break your book. And it’s almost impossible to write a novel without some subplots. So let’s talk today about how subplots can make your story better.

Subplots work best when they have something to do with the main story. Even when they don’t seem to at first. Especially when they don’t seem to at first. For instance, in Slaying Vampires, there’s a subplot regarding Patricia’s mother-in-law coming to live with them. While that might not seem like it has anything to do with a vampire attack, it sure as hell has a lot to do with the story by the end of it.

Foreshadowing

One of my favorite ways to use a subplot is for foreshadowing. We can do this by adding subtle (or not-so-subtle) hints that appear to have nothing to do with the main plot.

For example, let’s consider Patricia’s mother-in-law. She is suffering from advanced stages of dementia. So when she first sees our vampire, she calls him by another name. This is pretty common behavior for someone with dementia. Which makes this subplot a strong and useful one.

When they provide character development.

Early in Slaying Vampires, Patricia’s husband gives her a pair of earrings. And these earrings have a whole journey on their own.

This story starts when Patricia is worried her book club friends will think she’s showing off, wearing big diamonds to their meeting. Then, one of them is bitten off her head and swallowed by someone infected by the vampire.

Bitten off and swallowed.

When Patricia starts to cry, telling her husband that she’s sorry she lost his expensive gift, this asshole loving husband starts laughing at her. He tells her that those earrings were costume jewelry, and he got them from one of his patients. His therapist patients.

This little story tells us something about Patricia. It tells us that she’s desperately worried about what her friends think of her. It also tells us that she’s uncomfortable with how much money her family makes and that she tends to think that everything is her fault.

What we learn about her husband is that he doesn’t put much care into giving his wife meaningful gifts and that he doesn’t consider it his responsibility to care for her when she’s emotionally distraught. You know, because somebody bit her ear off. It also tells us that he doesn’t care much for the ethics that go along with his profession, since therapists aren’t supposed to accept gifts from their clients.

That’s a lot of lifting for a three-part subplot.

When they balance out the main story.

Some stories are heavy. They’re full of dark content, upsetting themes, and serious subject matter.

That is important work that we undertake as artists. But sometimes, it’s a lot.

For our sake and the readers, we need to lighten the story up a little.

Southern Vampires is of course, about a vampire. It’s also about austerity, and how far people will go to get it. It’s about race inequality. It’s about financial abuse (and physical abuse) in gender-normative relationships.

To balance that out, we need some funny in the story. We need some heartwarming moments in the story. And so we have Patricia’s son as a subplot, with a fascination with nazis. ( Not as good guys. They aren’t from that part of the south.)

We also have the subplot, possibly the most important one of the book, of the creation of the book club itself. We see scene after scene of the women talking about their books, their families, their struggles, and their successes. We see their polite friendships grow into strong sisterhoods, without which their eventual success over the vampire would be impossible. But before it gets too far, these scenes help to lighten what is at its core a very dark story.

Do not add subplots just to add subplots.

Finally, I’d like to leave you with this important suggestion. Subplots only work if they factor in, in some way, with the main storyline. This is why most romantic subplots annoy me because they could be removed from the book and leave no plot holes.

That is a good test for your subplots. If you remove them from the story, what kind of impact will that have on the story as a whole? If not, maybe this is a subplot that should be left out altogether.

That’s all I have to say about subplots for the day, but it’s not all for the day as a whole. Check back in about fifteen minutes, I have a great announcement.

Paper Beats World is a labor of love. If you love what we do, please consider supporting me on Ko-fi.

0

The best books of 2023

Christmas is over. 2023 is basically over. And it has been a hell of a year. There have been some wonderful moments. Book launches, conventions, birthdays and holidays. But there have been some not-so-great things as well. Mostly the world is still on fire.

But that’s not what we’re here to talk about. Today, we’re here to talk about the best books I’ve read this year.

And it’s been a good year for books, let me tell you. I’ve discovered several new authors that I am in love with. And I can’t wait to share my list with you.

Some of these books I reviewed on Haunted MTL. If you’re interested in reading them, I’ll include links.

Dread Nation/Deathless Divide by Justina Ireland

I talked about these books in my mid-year check-in, and I’m still just not over how good they are. If you like historical fiction, zombies, or just great storytelling, you should read these books.

Cord Magic by Brandy Williams

This is the only nonfiction book to make it onto my list. But it deserves the position. I learned so much from this book about magic. It is wonderful.

Silver Nitrate By Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Moreno-Garcia is one of my favorite authors, but I wasn’t as thrilled with her last book, The Daughter of Doctor Moreau. So the fact that Silver Nitrate was such a fantastic book was honestly a relief.

It’s also got sort of a Christmas vibe. So if you’re not done with egg nog and fruit cake yet, it’s not a bad time to read it.

Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix

This book was so much fun. Again, I did a whole review on Haunted MTL. As a fan of slasher flicks who also understands that they’re a bit shallow and exploitative, this book felt tailor-made for me.

Holly by Stephen King

I was looking forward to this book before it was even written, I’m pretty sure. Holly is such a pure, wonderful character. And this book was super fun.

The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kiersten White

If you loved Frankenstein, but always felt like Victor’s story was a little suspicious, this is the story for you. It’s dark, it’s thought-provoking, and it’s terrific.

Hide by Kiersten White

I picked up this book because I wanted a fun, scary romp through an abandoned amusement park. And I got that. But I also got a deep look at the terrors of inheritance and the lengths people will go to for privilege. This book is a wild ride, is what I’m saying.

Kind of like an amusement park ride.

Delicate Condition by Danielle Valentine

I did not shut up about this book on Haunted MTL. I talked about it when I reviewed it. I talked about it when I was looking forward to the next season of American Horror Story. I talked about it the whole time I was reviewing American Horror Story. And I’ll probably still be talking about it when I review the second part of the latest American Horror Story season.

Go read this book, it’s awesome.

How to sell a haunted house by Grady Hendrix

I read this book in one day. It was amazing and sent me seeking every other book I could get my hands on by this author.

Again, I thought this book was going to be funny. I thought it was going to be a light romp through a haunted house while a haggard person tried to sell it. I was not expecting an introspective look at how we can pass down emotional trauma in a family while never even talking about it.

The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

I told my therapist about this book because I was literally crying over this book and kind of being mean to my husband about it. I was angry at the male gender reading this book. But it was fantastic.

I loved this book more than most books I’ve read in the last five years. It was funny. It was sad. It hit every one of my real-world fear buttons before we even got to the vampire antagonist. This book was, in short, perfect.

So that’s the top ten best books I read in 2023. Now I want to hear what you think. What were your favorite reads this year? What are you looking forward to reading next year? Let us know in the comments. And I’ll see you next year.

If you want to support Paper Beats World, you can do so on Ko-fi.

0

The books I’m reading this winter

Winter starts next week. So it’s time for my quarterly reading goals.

I wear a lot of hats in my life. I’m a writer, blogger, critic, and witch. What do all these things have in common? They demand lots and lots of reading. As such, every year my Goodreads goal gets bigger. And I would like to read something now and again just because it’s fun.

I can’t remember the last time I did a why it works post here.

In the hopes of being more intentional, which is my word of the year, I’m trying to make sure I’m hitting all my bases. So here are the twelve books I intend to read before spring. If you’re a writer, maybe you want to read some of these with me. If you’re a witch (or witch curious) you might find some fun books here. And if you just love reading, I’m sure there are some suggestions here.

Art Magick by Molly Roberts

Molly Roberts is such a wonderful, uplifting soul. I’ve been wanting to read this since it came out. It’s a collection of art magic spells, and I can’t wait to try some out.

The Witching Year by Diana Helmuth

I’m kind of cheating here because I already started this one before Christmas started and I began reading all Christmas books all the time. But so far it’s an incredible journey through the first year of witchcraft. And it feels very much like my first year of witchcraft.

This is going to hurt by Adam Kay

Every year I read Twas the Nightshift Before Christmas. And every year I say I’m going to read the proceeding book. And every year I forget. Well this year, I’m going to be intentional (see that word of the year in there?) and read it early.

Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty

I fell in love with Mur Lafferty listening to her podcast Ditch Diggers. And I’ve been meaning to read her book forever. I’m finally getting around to it this year, so help me.

Let the whole Thundering world come down by Natalie Goldberg

We know I love Natalie Goldberg. So when I found a memoir of hers that I hadn’t read yet, I had to add it to my list.

Where the gods left off by Sara Razteresen

Razteresen is a fellow Christian witch, and I’m fascinated to hear what she has to say about it. This book appears to be about other deities and their relationships with Christian witchcraft.

The Hacienda by Isabel Canas

Someone on Instagram described this book as Mexican Gothic meets Rebecca. And honestly, that’s all I needed. Oh, and there’s a witch priest.

New Moon Magic by Risa Dickens and Amy Torok

This cover grabbed my attention, and I love moon magic. So this was as well a no-brainer.

Welcome to Nightvale by Joseph Fink

While I’ve never listened to Welcome to Nightvale, I did listen to Alice Isn’t Dead. Then I read the book Alice Isn’t Dead because I loved it that much. I know that Welcome to Nightvale is his better-known podcast. So I’m excited to explore it.

Self Publishers Legal Handbook by Helen Sedwick

I know nothing about the legal aspects of self-publishing. I’ve self-published six novels. I should maybe learn about the legal side of self-publishing.

Save The Cat Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody

Look, I don’t know what to tell you. I thought I should have read this one before now too. It’s a well-loved writing manual, and it’s past time I knew what the hell it has to say.

A Tea Witch’s Grimoire by S.M Harlow

I don’t want to say that tea is a gateway to witchcraft. But it was sure my gateway to herbs, and witchcraft.

I already have a few personal recipes for magical tea. But I could sure learn a ton more. It’s an incredibly complex subject.

So, that’s my winter reading list. Now, I want to hear from you. What are you planning to read this winter? Have you picked out your word for 2024, if you do words of the year? Let us know in the comments.

And I do want to let you know that I won’t be posting next week, as I’m taking some time off for the holiday. I hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas, Yule, Hannukah (last night), or anything else that you’re celebrating. I’ll see you back here on the 29th.

If you want to support Paper Beats World, you can do so on Ko-fi.

0

How I won Nanowrimo this year

We’re a week into December now, and most of us have put Nanowrimo aside for the year. And I have as well. I’m thrilled to be able to say that I did win this year.

Especially because last year I didn’t win. And I have to be honest, that kind of messed with me.

It really messed with me.

See, I always win Nano. I mean, I’ve been doing Nanowrimo or Nanoedmo every year since I started this blog. But last year, in addition to losing Nano, I turned 36. This year, I turned 37. And ever since last November, there’s been a little voice in the back of my mind, suggesting that I might be getting past my prime.

I might be slowing down.

All this to say, my confidence took a hit. And I’ve spent the past year trying to get that confidence back. Now that I won Nano, I’m feeling a lot better.

Winning Nanowrimo was a challenge. It required me to work in a way that I’d never done before. I disregarded all of my usual advice. Here’s what I did instead.

I just focused on hitting par every day.

In the past, I’ve tried to write more than 1,667 words at the start of November. And because of that, I got ahead of schedule.

And then I got cocky. And frankly, a little worn out. So I skipped a day or two. And that’s when I’d lose momentum.

This year, I focused on hitting par every day. Actually, I tried to hit 1,700 every day. This was manageable and sustainable. At least for a month. So I wasn’t feeling as burned out by writing 4,000 words in a day, and then expecting my brain to function creatively the next day.

I didn’t participate in a lot of online groups.

Well, that’s not entirely true. I did join a new writing group. But I wasn’t all that active. I’d jump on to commiserate or celebrate with other writers only after I’d reached my word count for the day.

Before, I was jumping into my groups and getting discouraged by all the people who were not getting their word counts in. Worse, I was irritated by anyone who was getting their words in. Were they better than me? Were they younger? Was I just lazy? No, it’s not that one, laziness doesn’t exist.

Was I just old?

Of course, it wasn’t any of those things. It was just that I was struggling. My struggle didn’t have anything to do with my fellow writers. And rather than letting them inspire me, I let their success condemn me.

This year, I wasn’t competing with anyone but me. It was just me and my word count, come hell or high water.

I didn’t attend write-ins

Write-ins are fun if you’ve got the time for them. They’re a great place to meet other writers and network.

And meeting other writers is a wonderful thing.

I’ve attended write-ins, study halls, and group work hours in the past. But I don’t do a lot of writing at them. At least not as much as if I were to just take the same amount of time to just write as I was taking to get to the event, do all the meet and greet events, and get settled into the location.

Plus, I used to have a little touch of social anxiety. Now, after Covid shutdowns working from home and generally not interacting with anyone for more than three minutes at a time, I have a lot of social anxiety. So when I try to write around other people, I’m focusing on all the wrong things. Are people looking at me? Does my shirt smell like cat pee? Is my lipstick smudged? Do I look like an introspective writer, working away at her project? Or do I look like a hunchbacked old woman trying to fit in with a bunch of kids?

None of this is helping me get words on the page. So I skipped the live events.

I didn’t write out in public, except for on the last day.

This point is similar to the last one. The year before I was making time to write in coffee shops, diners, and libraries. And yes, that is sometimes wonderful. But when I’m in crunch time, that is not the time to be writing in public. Writing at the library or my favorite coffee shop is for days when I’m lacking motivation or need a treat. It’s not the place to be if I need to get a significant amount of words on the page.

I did write at a coffee shop on the last day of November. And it was fantastic.

If you didn’t win, you’re no less of a writer and you can still do hard things

Now I told you all this not to make you feel bad if you didn’t win Nanowrimo this year. I told you all this to inspire you to win next time. Or, not. Maybe this will just inspire you to not be down on yourself if you didn’t make it. Because there are a lot of reasons to not succeed at something we want to do, no matter how much we want to do it.

I think it’s only now as I write this that I’m realizing something important. Last November was not a good mental health time for me. And despite the stereotype of the tortured writer, a bad place emotionally isn’t a good place to write from. It’s not a place to do anything but to heal. I needed to heal so that I could do hard things again.

Just because we fail at one hard thing doesn’t mean we can’t do other hard things. Just because we don’t achieve what we want, doesn’t mean we will never achieve it again.

Sometimes we just need to rethink our approach.

If you love what we do here, you can support us on Ko-fi

0

A WordPress.com Website.

Up ↑