Top Ten Characters I Wish Would Get Their OWN Book

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asimov, Characters I Wish Would Get Their OWN Book, Daneel, Darkling, Discworld, Grisha, Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Infernal Devices, Jem, minor characters, nicci, Nico, Peeta, Percy Jackson, sherlock holmes, Sirius Black, Skulduggery Pleasant, Sword of Truth, top 10 tuesday, Top Ten Characters I Wish Would Get Their OWN Book, top ten tuesday, Vetinari

I finally did it! I finished a Top Ten Tuesday post on time! (I’ve been trying since July 15th)

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. They come up with top ten lists that people can blog about every week.

I found this on Pintrest while I was looking for art to use for the character pictures and it was just too perfect! (Like half my list are the villains!)

Click on the art to go to the artist’s webpage. I own NOTHING.

1. Nico di Angelo (Percy Jackson) (Sequel or retelling)

“Nico didn’t like to be touched, but somehow this brief contact with his father felt reassuring – the same way the Chapel of Bones was reassuring. Like death, his father’s presence was cold and often callous, but it was real – brutally honest, inescapably dependable.” Blood of Olympus

Nico is the son of Hades and as such he has powers over the Dead. He appears younger than the main characters, but he’s actually over seventy years old. (It’s complicated.) He’s a complex character who’s (whose?) suffered numerous hardships and his fatal flaw is holding grudges.

Nico is one of the most interesting characters in Percy Jackson & The Heroes of Olympus, but until Blood of Olympus he never even got a Point of View! I’d like to hear more for him, he could have his own book or even series!

2. Sirius Black (Harry Potter) (Prequel)

“We’ve all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That’s who we really are.” Order of the Phoenix

Although a pureblooded wizard whose entire family has been in Slytherin, Sirius is a Griffindor. There he made good friends and proved himself quite the jokster, as well as expert wizard. His mother wrote him off after this and he’s had a complicated home life, but his new family was always there for him. (Trying not to spoil anything for those who didn’t read the book yet)

Okay so basically I just want a book about the Marauders, but Sirius would be the best narrator for it. The logical choice would be James, but I think Sirius is more interesting.

3.Havelock Vetinari (Discworld) (Prequel or retelling)

“I believe you find life such a problem because you think there are good people and bad people. You’re wrong, of course. There are, always and only, the bad people, but some of them are on opposite sides.” Guards Guards

Lord Vetinari is the Patrician (benevolent dictator) of the city-state of Ankh Morpork and though there are numerous people with magic and armies, he’s proved that manipulation and intellect can get you further. “One Man, One Vote,” in which Vetinari is the Man, and has the Vote. A previous member of the assassin’s guild. He’s involved in all of the attempts to get him out of office, to insure that they fail. He may be unpopular, but he makes sure that life in the city is better with him than without him. He knows everything going on in the city or at least everyone thinks he does.

Almost every character in Discworld character’s gotten their own book, except Vetinari! (He finally got a small pov in Night Watch, but it wasn’t enough) I want to see how he took over the city at least! His life story would be wonderful!

4. The Darkling (Grisha) (Prequel)

“The problem with wanting is that it makes us weak” Shadow and Bone

The Darkling is the only one with the power over darkness. He leads the Grisha. He’s ambitious and older than he appears, but much mystery surrounds him.

I want to know his history! (and get inside that lovely brain)

5. Jem (Infernal Devices)(Sequel) I would put Magnus, but he sort of just got one. (I would’ve preferred a novel to short stories though.)

“I know you feel inhuman, as if you are set apart, away from life and love, but… I promise you, the right man won’t care.” Clockwork Angel

Jem is a shadowhunter and orphan living in the London institute in the 1970s. His Parabotai is Will Herondale. Despite his dark past he always sees the good in people.

I’d like to find out what happens to him next. So often the nice guy/ friend character doesn’t get his happily ever after.

6. Peeta (Hunger Games) (Retelling)

“Well, there is this one girl. I’ve had a crush on her ever since I can remember. But I’m pretty sure she didn’t know I was alive until the reaping.” Hunger Games

Peeta works is his family bakery. He’s the strong silent sweet type of guy.

I’d like at least a short story where we got to get inside Peeta’s head during the games.

 

 7. R. Daneel Olivaw (Asimov’s Robot books) (Retelling)

“Aimless extension of knowledge, however, which is what I think you really mean by the term curiosity, is merely inefficiency. I am designed to avoid inefficiency.” Caves of Steel

A robot created to look exactly like his creator, Daneel teams up with a detective to solve his creator’s murder.

He doesn’t grow old so his life story could be quite long and I always wondered what he was thinking as he learned to act more like a human.

8. Nicci (Sword of Truth) (Prequel & Retelling)

“She was probably the most powerful sorceress ever to have drawn a breath.” –Richard Rahl, Phantom

Supporter of the Imperial Order she has nicknames such as “Death’s Mistress” and the “Slave Queen”. She learns much from Richard when she captures him.

I liked Nicci better than Kahlan. I know I’m probably the only one, but she just has more depth.

9. Sherlock Holmes (Retelling)

(Yes I know, I took great pains to find art that looked like how I pictured every character, but I couldn’t resist Benedict! #sorrynotsorry)

“What you do in this world is a matter of no consequence. The question is what can you make people believe you have done.” A Study In Scarlet

The genius detective. (Do I really need to say more?)

I want to be inside his head! But there’s probably a reason we never were.

10. Skulduggery Pleasant (Prequel)

“I am a rational man, but haven’t you heard? i’m also insane. It gives me a unique perspective on things.” Death Bringer

Witty, condicending, sarcastic genius. Pleasant was “killed” years ago, but somehow came back to life, though he was then only a skeleton. He works as a detective for the Wizard’s Sanctuary and is wildly feared if not respected.

Like Sherlock Holmes, though he’s the title character he never narrates.

What character do you wish had their own novel? Any of these? Someone else in any of these books? Someone else entirely? 

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Top 10 most read authors!

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A Song of Fire and Ice, author, book, books, Cassandra Clare, characters, comedy, Corean Chronicles, Derek Landy, Discworld, Dresden Files, Epic Fantasy, fantasy, fiction, Foundation trilogy, Game of Thrones, George RR Martin, Harry Potter, I robot, Imager portfolio, Infernal Devices, Isaac Asimov, Jim Butcher, JK Rowling, LE Modesitt Jr, Middle Grade, Modesitt, mortal instruments, most read authors, novel, Percy Jackson, read, reader, Recluse saga, review, Rick Riordan, robot books, romance, science fiction, scifi, Skulduggery Pleasant, Spellsong cycle, Sword of Truth, Terry Goodkind, Terry Pratchett, top 10, writer, YA, young adult

Blogging has really been good for me to branch out my reading. (for years the only thing I read was the Harry Potter series on repeat) Then I found an author I liked and stuck with them until I’d read everything they ever wrote. (I chose prolific authors)

Since I procrastinate too much to do the official top ten lists I thought I’d come up with one of my own. My top ten most read authors.

Goodreads made this easy, (I didn’t even know about this feature until recently, so I’m sharing in case someone else hasn’t found it yet either.) Under the shelves there’s recommendations, widgets, ect. One of those is most read authors!

 

1. Terry Pratchett…… 48 Books! (My Favorite: The Color of Magic)

He’s obviously my favorite author, and for good reason. His books are hilarious, each one I crack up multiple times. They also have great characters and a cool world. As with most authors his first few aren’t as well written, but they’re still some of my favorites. There are also all sorts of magical craetures, warewolves, vampires, undeaad, igors, dwarves. All with their own Pratchett flair of course. My favorite was when he spoofed Twilight before Twilight even existed! (He’s that good) In Carpe Jugulum.

His main series is Discworld and there are multiple storylines, so you can pick up any number of books to start. My favorite story line is about the inept wizard Rincewind, who is a huge coward. His storyline starts the first book in the whole series The Color of Magic. (It starts kind of weird, but stick with it, it’s worth it!) My second favorite is the guards (which must be popular because they have the most books, and originally it was only going to be one book!) which feature the city guards as they solve mysteries. (Guards, Guards! Is the first book) The main character Vimes leads the guards, and he’s great. He says he’s not very smart, but he sticks with it. My third favorite is DEATH, yes that death. He has a granddaughter too. It starts with the story of Mort. The other storylines are the wizards at the college (which starts with Rincewind’s story Sorcery), the witches (which starts with Equal Rights), a young adult series staring a witch named Tiffany Aching, (The Wee Free Men) the new storyline of Moist Von Lipwig as his tries to improve the main city, Ankh Morpork. (Going Postal) There are also plenty of stand alones. (This was all done from memory, so if anything is wrong I’ve failed as a Pratchett fangirl!)

2. L.E. Modesitt Jr…… 34 Books! (My Favorite: Alector’s Choice (Book 4)

(I won’t even go into how inaccurate that cover is…)

Modesitte writes epic fantasy and I love his worlds and magic systems.

His main series is the Recluse saga (though he’s got like a ten series, in both fantasy and scifi). He writes Recluse strangely, the first 5 is like the main story line (and oddly not my favorite) but after that they jump back and forth in time with usually two books in each time line. My favorites are Cerryl (The White Order, Colors of Chaos) and Lorn (Magi’i of Cyador, Scion of Cyador). My favorite series is the Corean Chronicles, which is about aliens and magic. It’s hard to explain! (And I wouldn’t want spoilers.) It’s good, let’s go with that. He also writes the Spellsong Cycle where singing is magic and a woman from Earth winds up there. (I think that’s his only series to connect with earth), and his latest series the Imager Portfolio which has magic that can create items. And I’m sure there are more I’m forgetting.

3. Isaac Asimov…… 27 Books! (My Favorite: Prelude to Foundation)

(Most of these are short story collections, which have overlapping stories, so it really isn’t all that many) Asimov is my favorite short story writer! All of the plots of his short stories could’ve easily been novels. He had so many ideas! My favorite is the the robot books, (like I, Robot, which the movie was VERY loosely based on). He also wrote the Foundation trilogy, which he is best known for. He was working on merging the two when he died. (Aids from a blood transfusion in the 80s) Other authors have attempted to write the books he didn’t, but I can’t bring myself to read them.

4. Terry Goodkind…… 13 Books (My Favorite: Faith of the Fallen (Book 6)

Goodkind writes the epic fantasy series The Sword of Truth, which I read because my sister liked it. (The tv show is rubbish) It’s a really good series even though the main character is like perfect and he sometimes gets a little preachy towards the end. (Not religious preachy, just righteous) But I can ignore all that, because they’re so good! I love the characters and how the main character Richard is always so tough, but that doesn’t make the plot predictable or dull in the least. The female main character kicks butt too, no one needs to save Kahlan. (Goodkind tried to end the series, but his next book flopped, so he went back to Richard and Kahlan, but my sister’s told me about the second series and I don’t think I want to read it.)

5. J.K. Rowling…… 10 Books (My Favorite: Prisoner of Azkaban (Book 3)

Yes, I’m counting her short stories. I don’t think I’ve read any series more. (I’m joking about the think part. I have no clue how many times I’ve read and listened to these books!) If anyone hasn’t read Harry Potter yet, they should! Everyone should read it, at least to know what all of the hype is about. For once the hype is so worth it! I’m not a fan of the last book *don’t throw fruit* so I’ve only read that once. Did anyone else go to the bookstore at midnight to get one of the books? I did! Number 7!!

6. Rick Riordan…… 10 Books (My Favorite: Mark of Athena (Book 3)

How could this list not include Riordan? I just wrote a gush post about Percy Jackson, so I won’t say anything more except he has the best sense of humor! Riordan’s one author I’d like to know in real life!

7. Cassandra Clare…… 10 Books (My Favorite: Clockwork Princess (Book 3)

I didn’t read the Mortal Instruments until this year, because they didn’t sound like my kind of book. I was wrong. (It happens.) I’ve already wrote a post about these books, so I’ll just say I would love to be a warlock. How awesome are those powers?

8. Derek Landy…… 10 Books (My Favorite: Skulduggery Pleasant)

 

Again, I’ve already talked about them. I’m working on a post for the last books right now. I just have to get my hands on book Nine! It came out in August, I’m so behind.

9. Jim Butcher…… 9 Books (My Favorite: Summer Knight (Book 4)

My first foray in to urban fantasy. Harry Dresden is a wizard for hire, he’s in the phone book and everything. These books have a fantastic world, great characters, a sense of humor, and kick buttery. In other words, they rock! The Dresden Files are fantasy and mystery with tons of action! Dresden is a bit like Bruce Willis in the Die Hard movies, he always kicks butt, but he gets abused while doing it. The first 3 books of the series were great, but then they got even better! I haven’t liked the last few as much, they’re longer and they don’t seem to hold my attention as well. I still highly recommend this series! (Note: there is adult content in these books, mostly in the first one though. Harry doesn’t get lucky much after that.) Butcher also writes an epic fantasy series, which has been gathering dust on my shelf.

10. George R.R. Martin…… 9 Books (My Favorite: A Clash of Kings (Book 2)

Technically only 6 books, because goodreads counts short stories, but since his books are so long, (I’ve read 5774 pages by Martin) he still deserves to be on the list. The description of these books totally doesn’t sound like me, so it’s a good thing I started them years ago, with only the back cover to go on. I know there’s now a tv show everybody watches and raves about, but I can easily skip the adult content in the books (because wow, yeah lots of adult-ness) but it’s not so easy in a tv show. (which is on HBO, so I know it’s going to be very adult) Surprisingly there is little fantasy in these books. (I know you’ve probably heard about the dragons and the ‘dead like’ people) But most of the story is about various families trying to get the throne. (The Iron throne) There’s political intrigue, plotting, backstabbing, epic battles. (inbreeding) These books have it all! Why do I love them though? The characters! There are TONS of view points and oodles of characters and they are all so unique (I could never start a chapter and mistake one character for another) and there’s really no good and bad, but lots of gray. Martin writes for the ‘villains’ as much as the ‘heroes’ and I find myself rooting for both! My favorite characters are Tyrion, Jamie (surprisingly, once he gets a POV), Jon Snow, and Arya Stark. I know I didn’t list Dany, but I hate her storylines! Can anything else bad happen to the poor girl? (Note: Martin needs to write faster! The first book came out in 1996 and we’re only on book 5 now.)

This post got longer than I planned… Sorry for all of the book babble.

What are your top authors and how many books by each have you read?

 

A Guide to the Plot Structure of a Novel (With examples from Harry Potter and The Hunger Games)

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author, book, books, chapter, characters, editing, fantasy, fiction, first draft, friendship, Harry Potter, Hunger Games, ideas, literature, novel, panster, personality, planning, plot, plot point, plotter, plotting, read, reader, rough draft, science fiction, scifi, stories, story, structure, write, writer, writing

What do you mean I need a plot outline? But, my brain doesn’t work that way!

A successful plot has certain elements throughout the novel as the protagonist battles the antagonist and it is easier to plan where these are going as you write. (Learn from my mistakes.)

When I started writing, I just sat down and wrote, but now I have to go back and “fix” my plot. It would have been so much easier if I had a clue where things were going the first time through. That’s what I’ve been doing these last two weeks, rearranging and rewriting my plot. (I’ve been so consumed with my writing that I forgot about everything else, like this blog… Sorry about that.)

A couple of months ago I wrote a blog post about why to plot, but I didn’t write how to plot, because I hadn’t figured it out yet. Now that I have, I’m sharing what I’ve learned. (Aren’t you lucky? I hope this helps.)

A good method for plotting the structure of a story is Larry Brook’s. (His website is here.)

A story can be broken down into four parts and three plot points (and two reminders of the bad guy). All of which are necessary for a good plot.

Each part makes up about 25% of the story. (Part one and four can be shorter, about 20%, making parts two and three 30% each.)

Part one– Introduction and set up of characters, setting, and world. What is everyday life like? This is where the stakes are established and the reader is made to care about the characters. The character’s motivations are clear. What do they want?

Plot point one– The turning point. Something monumental happens, something that changes the main character’s life forever. It does not have to do with the antagonist. This is just the point of no return. In my novel, my main character becomes an apprentice in magic.

Part two– Trying to achieve their goal, reacting to what just happened. (There needs to be a hint of the bad guy to remind readers that he’s out there about halfway through this part.)

Plot Point Two– Another twist, something is revealed. (See examples of this from Harry Potter and The Hunger Games below.)

Part three– The hero investigates and fights back. He or she has learned from their experiences, making them stronger and smarter. (Again, there needs to be a hint of the bad guy about halfway through.)

Plot Point Three– The last revelation, there’s no new information, or characters after this point.

Part four– Fighting the bad guy, time to kick butt! Followed by the resolution, where everyone lives happily ever after. (or not.)

Does your novel have all of these parts? If not, you might want to think about changing that. Believe me I know how hard it is, but it’s worth it in the end. (Plus, it’s fun. I know I’m weird, but I’ve really enjoyed it.)

Still confused? Here are examples of the plot points from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and The Hunger Games. (Warning: Spoilers ahead, though I tried not to spoil anything too big.)

Plot point 1–

Harry Potter- Harry boards the train for Hogwarts

Hunger Games- Katniss accepts Peeta as her partner

Plot point 2–

Harry Potter- Harry realizes Hagrid’s package was in the vault that was broken into at Gringotts

Hunger Games- Katniss decides to fight back (tracker jackers)

Plot point 3–

Harry Potter- Harry realizes it’s Voldemort who wants the stone

Hunger Games- Katniss finds Peeta injured

Killing… Off Characters

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Everyone has a strong opinion about killing off characters, and I’m no exception. I think that if done right, killing of a character can increase the stakes and add to the realism of a story.

In a war or a struggle if no one ever dies I think that the risk is lost. If I know everyone is always going to be okay, than it isn’t nearly as exciting. I like when they die on stage, so to speak, when it is mentioned afterwards it doesn’t have the same impact.

A death has to fit the tone of the rest of the book. It can come as a surprise, but it should still fit the mood of the story. When someone dies it should be important to the plot and change things, so there’s a reason behind the death. The main character has to be affected, so that the death affects the readers. If the reader doesn’t care what happens to the characters than I’m doing my job.

Some people think that for it to be happily ever after no one can die, but I disagree, look at how many characters die in Disney movies.

Death can’t be undone, or shouldn’t be, unless it is a book about the undead, so be certain before deciding to kill a character. They have to die for a reason, which is true to the character and the rest of the story. Don’t kill for the sake of having a character die for shock value or to prove a point, like war is bad.

Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Game of Thrones, lots of big name authors are killing off characters, but that doesn’t mean that we should follow suit. Every author is different and should do what they think is best for their story. That’s the great part about being the writer. We get to decide who lives and who dies.

What is you think about authors killing off their characters? Have you killed anyone? (In your writing, of course)