Filter Words by Janice Seagraves

I've worked with editors for many years and these are the Filter Words editors warn me about overusing.

Filter words tell your reader what you want them to notice. That's not nice. Your readers are intelligent, so all you just need to describe what is going on. 

Part of this list my editor gave me. Filter Words to avoid, or at least not use very often.

Words like thought, realized, saw, watched, pondered, noticed. 

Think of your character as your camera and microphone. What they see, hear, and feel so what you describe with without using the words see, hear, or feel. Make sense?

Trust your readers to 'get it'.

They lean toward is telling not showing. Was and were should be used less often too so they pop when they are used. 

Also turned is often overused.

I would also recommend not overusing names: like Vlad, Drac,Thor (these are done to death in paranormals IMHO), and also no Heather's, Justin's, Lindsey's, Jessica's, or Ashley's, Kate, Cait, Katie, Cat, any variation of Katherine/Caitlyln, Jacob, Jake, Jack. 

Just no.

This is my opinion only. Please take it with a grain or two of salt.

And before I leave, here is a link to my latest release:

In Regency England, Lord Godfrey negotiates for a wife, when Meredith, the weather witch, storms in she provides Godfrey with interesting possibilities, but will she embrace a chance to let go of her past and find happiness for her future?

https://www.amazon.com/Weather-Witch-Janice-Seagraves-ebook/dp/B0B17MF7ZR/

 

Conflict: What's Your Problem?

 Life causes a great deal of conflict. Some are life and death situations and others are only important to ourselves. Conflict leads to growth or experience and no novel is complete without it. So, what is conflict? Debra Dixon states, “Conflict is the why not.”

Know Thy Conflict

Conflict is the reason why your character can’t have what they want. In your novel, you, the author, must know and define what your character’s conflict is.  By knowing the character’s conflict you know what is at stake for your character. Your character must face the obstacle preventing him from attaining his goal.

Bump In The Night, Day, and Everywhere in Between

Your character’s GMC must bump, bang, and crash into each other. As these three letters are explored in your work, your character must be tested and with each test, your character will grow, develop and reach the goal most desired. These conflicting forces of your character’s GMC will make the character see if they truly wish for what they desire. This makes the character look deep within themselves and that’s internal conflict.

All in the Inside

Internal conflict is what stops our characters from learning their life lesson. Your character may have one goal he admits to the others such as Lord Bridgerton announcing that he will marry. But his internal conflict—the belief that he will die young like his father—stops him from pursuing the woman he loves. 

Internal conflict is the emotional turmoil that causes us and our characters' problems. It also stops the character from learning the life lesson. And for a satisfying end, the character must learn their life lesson.

War Games

Now you have to put it all into practice. In Goal, Motivation and Conflict, Dixon writes, “lay a foundation for conflict, create believable goals, motivate the characters, and nurture the conflict to the inevitable crisis or climax.” 

Weather Witch by Janice Seagraves

 I've published my short story, Weather Witch. A sweet romance set in the Regency period.

It's a short quick read, but exciting just the same.

Here's the book trailer. I made it with Canva and two other video editing apps. One had the rain and the other the lightning.

 

In Regency England, Lord Godfrey negotiates for a wife, when Meredith, 
the weather witch, storms in she provides Godfrey with interesting 
possibilities, but will she embrace a chance to let go of her past and 
find happiness for her future? 

Smashwords:  https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1146990

for the kindle:  https://www.amazon.com/Weather-Witch-Janice-Seagraves-ebook/dp/B0B17MF7ZR/

for the Nook:  https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/weather-witch-janice-seagraves/1141466424

Motivation. Why? Why? Why?

Many reasons exist in life for why we do what we do. In novels, our characters need one too. That’s where the M in GMC comes in. In her book, GMC: Goal, Motivation and Conflict, Debra Dixon writes, “Motivation is what drives  your character to obtain or achieve his goal.” 

Debra Dixon sets out a formula that authors can use when concocting the GMC. The character wants a goal because he is motivated. 

In last month’s post on Goal, I used the basic example of having to go to the store to get milk. Let’s suppose that our character has to get milk because her child needs it so he can have a bowl of cereal because that is the only meal she can afford to feed him. So to put the example into the formula: The mother wants to get to the store to buy milk because that is her child’s only meal. 

That motivation pulls at your heartstrings, which is another tool motivation plays in writing. Motivation helps the reader empathize with our characters as they strive to reach their goal.

Strong motivation can be used to create any tale. That isn’t the only task that strong motivation can accomplish. Strong motivation creates the emotion of the story and our characters. In our above example, we feel for the mother who has to get to the store to get that milk. She wants to feed her child his only meal of the day. We can empathize with the mother who wants to feed her child. The mother who is most likely struggling to provide for her child, a mother who most likely feels like she is a failure. 

As a reader, we are rooting for her. We feel her heartache. That makes a good story. Even if this example doesn’t make for a novel-length story. 

Motivation is the substance that glues the story’s character’s goals and conflict. Next month, the focus will settle on the C of our GMC—Conflict.  

Dreams Are Just Goals With Deadlines

In the development of characters, GMC plays an important part in their creation. GMC stands for Goal, Motivation, Conflict. Every character, plot, and a story needs and requires GMC. This post will focus on the first letter—Goal.

In Goal, Motivation and Conflict by Debra Dixon, she writes, “A goal is a desired result, a purpose or an objective. A goal is the prize or reward your character wants to obtain or achieve.” We all can relate to those statements. We have goals in life, some grand and others are small. Whether it’s to get this month’s rent or get to the store to buy milk. We all have a desired result, purpose, or objective. In our stories, the Goal must be something we are desperate to have. Also, a goal must be acted upon. Our characters must pursue their goal through action. Without action, a goal can never be accomplished. 

Let’s say our objective is to buy milk. We will act by getting dressed, traveling to the store, and buying the milk. Once we walk out of the store with the milk, our goal has been achieved. This example isn’t a goal worthy of a novel but a simplified example of a goal.

 I highly recommend that if Debra Dixon’s book, Goal, Motivation and Conflict isn’t on your bookshelf then get your copy now. 

Next month, I’ll talk about the M—Motivation. 

New Release: Dragon Mirror by Janice Seagraves

 I have a new release this month, Dragon Mirror

 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09TL34PX7/

Blurb: Kidnapped and impregnated, Crystal Wedgewood will do anything to get back to her husband. Even fight a king dragon with her bare hands.

 It's a short only six chapters and only .99 cents. 

A lot of things happen in only six chapters and it's the first book in my dragon Magick series. 

2022 Goals by Janice Seagraves

 

Goals.

I have them.

I don't make resolutions because they are too pie in the sky-ish, too far away to reach, so I don't make them.

I have my rights back to my Chronicles of Arcon series.

I've been publishing my series and renumbering them.

My mini series that starts off the series is number: 1, 2, and 3.

 

Alien Desire is now number Four.

 

Alien Heart is now number Five.

 

And my recent book Alien Enslaved is number Six.

 

Alien Collision is number seven and will be published sometime this year.

 

Hobbies...We Don't Need No Stinkin' Hobbies

The number of hobbies in the world is equal to the number of stars. Though, that may be hyperbole. You get my point. During the pandemic, two subjects dominated the news—the Covid (naturally) and hobbies. People were making sourdough, exercising, knitting or painting, or some other activity that I can't think of at this moment. 

Not me. 

I didn’t acquire a new one. First, I’m an author of historical romance so writing is my career. I’ve always read, which led to the author part of my life. I don’t cook or bake. My hands aren’t made for knitting anymore (too much typing among other factors) and painting—no, I don’t want to invest in art supplies besides, I live in New York City. I don’t have the space. 

But I must admit that I have been thinking of acquiring a new one. Something to help me reduce my anxiety, stress and just to escape boredom. Then it dawned on me. When I have free time, I don’t want to do anything. I want to sit down or lie down and let my mind stop working. 

We don’t need to be busy every minute of the day. We can relax, be bored and do nothing. 

That sounds like a great idea, doesn’t it? Lives have enough happening to fill the twenty-four hours of the day. Family, friends, pets, work, home, self-care. So, I say your new hobby has to be doing nothing. You deserve it. 

Book Trailer for my new Release by Janice Seagraves

Book Trailer for Alien Enslaved Book Six in the Chronicles of Arcon.

I made it on https://www.canva.com/ a free website. I linked pages to create this book trailer using my book images and the free images on the canva. 

Super easy to use.

After his planet’s destruction, the Arcon slave, Chase Starstrider, seeks death in every gladiator match. He’s tempted by his master’s gift of the curvaceous Earthling whose touch awakens him like no other, but the Intergalactic Gladiator Starship is no safe place for a mate. Kasandra Lee Sinclair, and known as Kaz to her friends, wouldn’t mind rocking the hunky Arcon’s world for a way home to Earth, but there are dangers on board the spaceship and, in the arena, even for a sex slave like her.

 

For the Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09LKS3V31/

For the Nook: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/alien-enslaved-janice-seagraves/1140548269

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1116279

New Year, New You?

 It’s resolution time. 

Exercise three times a week. 

Dry January. 

Read more. 

The options are endless. 

I never like resolutions. The pressure of the new year to makeover your life and lifestyle seemed a recipe to fail. Writing down all the things you’ve failed to do in your life the other 365 days of the last year can certainly knock down the level of your self-esteem. Then as the resolutions fall to the wayside, you feel even worse about yourself. 

I certainly don’t want to feel that way. We have enough hard times in life. So, I deal with the new year and all those bombarding messages of New Year, New You by doing nothing. Sure, I want to exercise more and learn something new and many other things but I don’t try to change my whole life because I know that it won’t happen. 

So what to do then?

Well, as the year unfolds slowly incorporate those new choices in your life. If you have fifteen minutes or an hour, go take that walk for exercise, read two pages of that book you promised to get to. Then if you don’t get to it the next day, that’s fine but maybe the next day, you do. Just take a step. You only need to take the first one then, the next. Thinking about changing your life is too hard but changing an hour of one day is easier to fit those changes into your life.

Remember, January 1 is just another day. So, if you don’t get to it today, there is tomorrow. You’ll get there.