Your Hero is a Genius

Einstein said, Genius is …“regard(ing) old questions from a new angle.” Genius is not a know-it-all but a see-it-all. A true genius makes our lives more difficult, more unsettled. Said another way, it is not easy to change when a genius takes us down a different and new path. Think of how tidy the world was before Darwin. So we evolve.

In writing your hero as a genius be mindful of him earning it, and, of course, we as writers must show the process. Now, that’s tough, because change in a work of fiction must be believable and dramatic. Is your genius hero hard to live with because he is so focused on his creation [picture Doctor Frankenstein]? Must the heroine make him give up his contribution to humanity to love her? No, she should be a good partner and help. Even a genius can learn that one-plus-one is way more than two.

A heroine can be blessed with the same problem (genius). It’s all in how you decide to structure your conflict and characterizations.

The smartest person I had ever met was a secretarial school drop out [to be sung to Beauty School Drop Out], couldn’t do math unless it was home finances, and was “just” a mom. She seemed to read minds and mend hearts as if dispensing miracles. Her reaction time (quick wit & observations) was beyond scary. Say anything and it would be translated into what you really meant. She’d see what was missing from the equation or problem while the rest of us didn’t know we had an equation or a problem. I’m not talking male-female interactions exclusively. Her empathy for another human being gave her an EQ (and I suggest IQ) too high to measure. That’s the point of life, isn’t it? Love at work.

Don’t tell me your character is a genius, show me.

A rare Albert Einstein interview:

KEY WORDS

WORDS CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE

Last week I wrote about how a young woman used certain key words to make an alpha male fall instantly in love with her (on their first date). Of course, her words were accompanied with body and facial language, heart and emotion. I also said I'd fall for her well-thought-out approach too, provided there was chemistry.

Yesterday, at the RWASD meeting, Penny Sansevieri presented, among other things, the importance of key words in helping potential readers find your novel. This lesson is critically important in today's publishing world.

Okay, here comes the boring or shameless self promotion part which you can skip by going right to the video. I don't write this blog to sell my books. I write to entertain and inform. If you want to buy my book, I promise I won't stop you. LOL. I decided to not only use a "normal" description of my new novel, Autumn Breeze, which is posted on Amazon, but will add key words to the bottom of the description. This is, as far as I know, not done! I'll let you know if this increases sales. I'm putting my proposed add-on to the description below the video.

Here's the promo for A Novel Romance, A Hallmark Channel movie first released last week. I feature it because it's a romance and it's about a writer. Also, it highlights the struggle to say what you mean. Imagine a (boring) novel/movie, in which the hero or heroine is so quick on their feet, they immediately solve problems created by the incomplete use of the English language. I'd bet, especially in comedies, that a majority of problems are created by poorly thought out and therefore incomplete verbal communications. The irony in this movie centers around a writer. I.e. a hero whose proper use of words is his critical path to success in his art and his love.

A Novel Romance, Hallmark, Trailer 2015:

P.s. I enjoyed the movie.







A different way to handle Key Words by putting them in the description:
Rather than go on with more information that might spoil the plot or story, the author offers the following words or phrases that describe major and minor themes occurring in this novel. Regarding the girl’s, detective’s and spy’s internal stories we have literary romance, teenage love stories and angst, coming of age, young adult, family, friendship, college, scholarship, multicultural, multiracial, interracial, immigration, Caribbean, marriage, wedding, adoption. Regarding the external plot we have 9/11, mystery, thriller, intrigue, suspense, spy, assassins, police procedural, terrorists, terrorism, military, war, cloak and dagger, mass murder, political, anti-terrorism taskforce, CIA, NSA, NCS, Homeland Security, and martial arts. And as catch alls for various plot twists, we have contemporary romance, wealthy, literature, American, ghosts, paranormal. And then, New York City, Manhattan, Brooklyn and Trinidad. Let’s not forget Rudy Giuliani and the ever popular historical 21^st century.



My new book and its description can be seen at:
http://www.amazon.com/Autumn-Breeze-Carlos-RW-Richard/dp/0980080487/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1421613702&sr=1-3&keywords=autumn+breeze

Switching Genres

I've asked a non-writer friend to check this post out today because she's a fan of a certain super star. So we all have to pretend to be non-geeky and not introverted selves. You see, friend, we writers like to hole up in our work cave.

There's a lot of controversy about switching genres. If you have loads of talent, a dedication to your craft understand good story structure and take promoting (social media - these days) seriously and expertly, go ahead and switch.

So which writer just just switched genres and still went number one?

You've just watched* Taylor Swift in her smash hit, "Shake It Off" 2014. My take, in a brilliant stroke, she presents herself as self-aware and self-effacing, she has fun with her detractors and fans. In this "I am who I am" song, in spite of detractors she will always be true to the genius God gave her to develop. (And I love that.) Whether you have one sale or a million be true to yourself. There's always some sick troll out there who feels better by trying to make other people feel worse and may not be capable of love or in spotting it in others.
*I know some of you may not enjoy pop music, but think twice, not too many of us can claim to be literary writers, although...

EXTRA CREDIT:
Here's some info on the artist and her song from Wikipedia.
Lyrically, the song is dedicated to Swift's detractors. Swift explained that, "I’ve learned a pretty tough lesson that people can say whatever they want about us at any time, and we cannot control that. The only thing we can control is our reaction to that."^[14] In an interview for Rolling Stone, Swift further elaborated, "I've had every part of my life dissected—my choices, my actions, my words, my body, my style, my music. When you live your life under that kind of scrutiny, you can either let it break you, or you can get really good at dodging punches. And when one lands, you know how to deal with it. And I guess the way that I deal with it is to shake it off."^[15] With NPR she gave a detailed explanation of the lyrics:

With the song 'Shake It Off,' I really wanted to kind of take back the narrative, and have more of a sense of humor about people who kind of get under my skin — and not let them get under my skin. There's a song that I wrote a couple years ago called 'Mean', where I addressed the same issue but I addressed it very differently. I said, 'Why you gotta be so mean?', from kind of a victimized perspective, which is how we all approach bullying or gossip when it happens to us for the first time. But in the last few years I've gotten better at just kind of laughing off things that absolutely have no bearing on my real life. I think it's important to be self-aware about what people are saying about you, but even more so, be very aware of who you actually are, and to have that be the main priority.^[16]