Comic Con Giveaway! (and a Blog Tour)

UPDATE: Congrats to Haley Scully for being our winner! She picked the pocket watch!

Hey everyone! I promised to do a giveaway after Comic Con. I wanted to bring back something cool, but there was just so much going on! So instead I picked a bunch of prizes online from the fandoms I saw (and one writing book for the writers).

How to Enter:

**You must be a friend/follower to win 

- Like, or share the giveaway post on Facebook. Do both to enter twice. (Make sure when you share that it's set to "public" so that I can see that you shared it.)

- Retweet this tweet on Twitter or reply to it telling me what prize you would pick. Do both to enter twice.

- Like or Reblog this post on Tumblr. Do both to enter twice.

- Comment on this blog post, telling me what prize you would pick if you won. (must be a follower of this blog)

So, you can enter up to seven times.

(Please note I reserve the right to change prizes if for some reason the item becomes unavailable.)

Is this an international giveaway? Yes! and no. It depends on the prize you want. So if you win and you live outside of the U.S. we'll talk :)

UPDATE: Winner will be selected Dec. 14th

Prizes:

 One winner will pick from these prizes:

- (my followers' favorite) Fullmetal Alchemist Pocket Watch (become a dog of the military)
- Harry Potter Time Turner Necklace (Need a few extra minutes? No problem!)
- A key to 221b Baker Street--who wouldn't want that ;) --key chain, so you can entertain Sherlock when he's bored.
- Dr. Who Soap (Defeat Daleks by washing your hands!)
- Attack on Titan Cape (Defeat Titans in uniform!)
- Hunger Games Shirt (Gain sponsors by looking your best in this t-shirt)
- DBZ Goku Art (It's over 9000!)
- The Emotion Thesaurus. Learn how every mood is expressed physically, internally, mentally, and how it is suppressed, then learn how to write it! (This is an ebook copy, no a physical copy.) (I use this book almost every week.)

**See bigger pictures of each prize at the end of the post!

Blog Tour

This giveaway is also part of what turned into a guest post blog tour of sorts! These bloggers are awesome and will be having me as a guest over the next several weeks. :') Please visit them! And follow them! And check their blogs for a post by me :)

WritersPayItForward.Org (My post will be there Oct. 27th!)

Bonnie Gwyn (My post will be there the 1st week of November)

Amanda K. Thompson (1st week of November)

James Duckett (2nd week of November)

Jake Jeffries (3rd week of November)

Ronda Hinrichsen (3rd week of November)

Lysandra James (4th week of November)

Jay S. Willis (4th week of November)

Tristi Pinkston  (November 30th)

Konstanz Silverbow (TBD)

Nathan Barra (TBD)

Katherine Ann Olsen (December 12th)

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Editing with the Elrics: Creating Complex Characters through Contradictions

One of my writing mentors, David Farland, gave this advice in a writing tip: create complex characters by giving them contradictory attitudes.

The first time I read that I said, Huh? Isn't that inconsistent characterization? Won't it look like a continuity error, a mistake? I get internal conflicts, but straight-up contradictions? Really?

Really.

I had a hard time understanding this at first because in my head "contradictions" meant undefined characterization--having moments where your character was out of character. I mean, how can you establish a character when he contradicts himself? How can you lay a foundation for one with that advice?

I get it now. It's kind of like having a conflicted character, but not exactly. Not all conflicted characters are contradicting ones, but I think all contradicting characters are conflicted--whether or not the character realizes he is himself.

In Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, we learn in episode two that years ago the protagonist, Edward Elric, had an afterlife experience of sorts where he met God.

But then in episode three, Ed says he doesn't believe in God. And later still, he says he doesn't believe in praying to a god. There is even one part in the series where he very vehemently proclaims himself an atheist.

And yet. . . in other parts, he talks about God and gods as if he believes they exist. He even suggests that he and his brother should pray to God once, even though Ed's not a fan of the guy.

Is this bad characterization?

No.

So which is it? Does Ed believe in God or doesn't he?

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Editing with the Elrics: 10 Methods to Make Characters Likeable

Over the winter Holidays, my sister-in-law and I watched Les Miserables. It was her first time seeing the latest film. And when it was over she said, "Every character in that movie made an emotional connection to the audience." She's right. Valjean, Eponine, Cosette, Marius, even Javert--we felt something for all of them.

Later, I was watching this show called Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, and my brother asked me how it was. "It's getting so crazy," I said. "There are like 12 main characters (I might have exaggerated a bit for effect), and they're all in different battles at the same time. And they all have different goals."

"12? I thought it was just that guy in the red coat who was the main character," he said.

"Well, it started out that way, and then changes as he meets more people."

Not gonna lie. When I started Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood and met some of the characters, I wasn't impressed with them. But by the climax of the story, I was in love with all of them! I wanted everyone to win, even though some of their goals completely contradicted each other's. Like my sister-in-law said, by that point, "Every character made an emotional connection to the audience." It's not just the protagonist's story anymore. It's everyone's.

How do you create that? In the writing world, authors often talk about making characters "likeable." We have to like the person before we are going to connect with them on an emotional level.  Here are 10 ways to make your character likeable, with examples of each from Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood.

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