Writers in the Storm

By Sharla Rae

No, I'm not discussing sharks. We're discussing the jawline, and writing facial descriptions and emotions. And …  I have another description list for you, too.

Recently in her blog, When Writing Is A Full Body Workout, Orly confessed being caught acting out what she happened to be writing, that is, she was making faces and performing her characters’ body movements. Perhaps not so surprisingly is that many of you identified with her and this peculiarity – myself included.

It’s also not so surprising to learn “why” we do this either subconsciously or deliberately. Writers want fresh descriptions that hit the mark and don’t sound hokey.

What’s hoaky? Going overboard.

We all laugh at the facial contortions made by monkeys in a zoo, but we don’t want our characters making monkey faces! I touched on this in my blog, Body Language: An Artistic Tool.

When describing a character’s actions, facial or otherwise remember whose POV you’re in.

For example:

 If we’re in Franks POV, Frank wouldn’t think about tightening his jaw in anger. He’d just do it.

 But this might be said: A deep ache settled in Frank’s jaw and realized he was clenching his teeth.  Or simply: he gritted his teeth. I’ve seen: he set his jaw, trying keep from ….  This explains Franks mindset. My favorite though is having him feel the pain or strain of his actions.

 We don’t have to tell the emotion.  The facial expression, the scene’s action and the scene itself shows it.

 My descriptions of the jaw, aren’t just about showing emotion. They also describe facial shapes or types of jaws.  

Okay, I have to ask this: Have you ever noticed how most jawline descriptions pertain to men? I believe that’s because most females find a strong jawline physically pleasing as well as a sign of strength and dominance.  It can also show that the man isn’t afraid of a taking up a challenge or throwing one out to others. This leads us down that Neanderthal road to the idea of protection. Yes, ladies, we are genetically programed to be attracted to the Master of the Universe – He Man.  But that’s another blog. See more about this in the links below.

Many times face shapes are defined by the jaw so it’s only fair to mention them.

 Seven Basic Face Shapes: oval, square, round, heart, oblong, triangle or pear.

Studying jaws of real people makes the task of describing a character’s jaw easier. Finding images of facial shapes on familiar people helps even more. Simply search google images and type jaw shapes or facial shapes. Lots of celebrity pictures pop up and if you click on the image there are explanations. Very cool.

Below I listed descriptions of jawlines, jaw movements and emotional expressions. Most are very basic, mere reminders to yank your creative chain. I included a few definitions because as I’ve mentioned in previous description blogs, definitions are descriptions. I’ve also included chins in the descriptions of jaws because they are part of the jawline.  Skin conditions and types are not included because that’s another blog.

Basic Jaw Descriptions

Bearded
Bulldog jaw
Carved/sculpted marble
Caved in cheeks sharpened his jawline
Chin like a shovel
Chiseled jawline
Chops – usually jaws of animals or slang for jaws
Clean-shaven jawline
Cleft and scooped like Kirk Douglas
Cleft chin
Delicately rounded and feminine
Emaciated/wasted/starved/caved in
Floppy double chins
Glass-jawed – a jaw easily broken
Hallow cheeked
Hallow dimple
Harsh,/sharp Indian-like cheekbones
Heavy round jaw of a Russian peasant woman
Jaw hallmarked his facial features
Jaw narrowed into a pointed little chin
Jawline disappeared in a doughy face
Jowl – low hanging cheeks; hangs loosely
Jutting chin
Lantern-jawed – a long and thin lower jaw that sticks out; usually with hollow cheeks
Large-boned features
Lean-jawed and hungry looking (perhaps real hunger; perhaps hungry for action)
Lock jaw – tetanus; tetanus of the lower jaw
Mandible – lower jaw
Masseter – lower jaw muscle
Maxilla – bone of upper jaw
Muzzle – mouth and jaws of an animal but can be slang for people
Narrow jawline that arrowed into a pointed chin
Nonexistent chin
Pick-like
Pugilistic jaw of a fighter
Receding chin made his nose seem larger
Saggy jaw that dropped into a turkey neck
Scarred along the cheek from ear to …
Spade of a chin
Strong square jaw
Triangular jaw with sharp edges
Under-hung – lower jaw protruding farther than upper
Under-jawed – prominent underjaw
Undershot – lower jaw sticks out
Weak chin beneath plump lips
Whiskered/prickly/stubble
Wobbly chins and cheeks

Jaw Movement & Expression

Braced or stiffened his jaw against the punch
Came unhinged (surprise)
Clenched his jaw
Determined set of his jaw
Dropped with surprise
Jaw tensed with anger, expectation
Jutted his chin
Locked his jaw, refusing to …
Loose-jawed with …
Puffed up his cheeks with indigence
Slacked jawed with amazement

Also see: Body Language: An Artistic Tool

Links: In discussions about the jaw, facial shapes and chins are almost always mentioned. There are a zillion websites on facial shapes and features. Here are a few to get you started.

Just for fun: What your facial features say about your personality according to the Chinese
7 Face shapes
Data Face: allows you chose a facial feature to study
Character Creation: Physical build and Facial Features
Place That Face: Interesting evaluation of facial features
Learn Face Reading: On the surface it describes personality traits for all different kinds of facial feature shapes. But between the lines, you’ll discover all the different feature shapes and what they look like so it’s worth visiting. Pertaining to this blog, check out chin shape and face shape.
Character Emotion: Is It Written All Over The Face
Physical Thesaurus Attributes Entry: Chin and Jaws

Let’s have fun. What are some of the worst jaw/chin/face-shape descriptions or facial body language descriptions you’ve read?

Sharla has published three historical romance novels: SONG OF THE WILLOW, LOVE AND FORTUNE, and SILVER CARESS. SONG OF THE WILLOW, her first solo effort, was nominated by “Romantic Times Magazine” for best first historical. Her current work, HOW TO FELL A TIMBERMAN is in the submission process.

When she’s not writing and researching ways to bedevil her book characters, Sharla enjoys collecting authentically costumed dolls from all over the world, traveling (to seek more dolls!), and reading tons of books. You can find Sharla here at Writers In The Storm or on Twitter at @SharlaWrites.

Last Fall we started the WriterStrong series to delve deeply into the strengths writers must have for strong careers.

Social media and internet savvy is part of the job requirement for today's authors.  Today's post gets to the nitty-gritty on one important aspect of your author website or blog.

Jami's two-part series of how-to tips will help make you "TechStrong" (plus we've got a great deal for WITS readers at the bottom of this post!). Part 1 is here today, Part 2 is at her place tomorrow.

*************

Tech Talk: What’s a Hosting Company and Why Are They Important?
by Jami Gold

“Writers should have a website and blog.” If you’ve been around agents, editors, or other writers online, you’ve probably heard that advice. We need to have an online home, get our name out there, and start building a marketing platform. Great, but where do we start?

Many writers start with blogging platforms they’ve heard of from others: Google’s Blogger (also known as Blogspot) or WordPress.com. Both are free and relatively easy to set up.

They also come with strings, as any free service does. (Note the recent announcement that Google Reader is going away July 1st.) When a service is free, you’re the product, not the customer.

Author, Meet Hosting Company

Some writers decide they’d rather have more control over their site. They want to “own” their site, they want to use plugins for more functionality, they want to sell things, or they want more customization. In those cases, I recommend using the WordPress.org platform (as opposed to the free WordPress.com platform—.org versus .com—yes, it’s confusing *sigh*) on a self-hosted site.

Self-hosted? Does that mean we’re running our site from a server in the corner of our office? Nope. This is where hosting companies come in.

Unlike the basic Blogger or WordPress.com options, self-hosted sites aren’t free because we have to pay a hosting company to store the data for our site.

The hosting company keeps their servers in an internet data center, hopefully with heavy-duty air conditioning, power, and internet connectivity, so our site won’t go down every time someone sneezes.

Think of the Blogger and WordPress.com sites as renting an apartment where you have to follow the landlord’s rules. In contrast, self-hosted sites are like owning a home, with all the freedom and responsibility that comes with that situation.

It’s Our Responsibility to Pick a Good Hosting Company

The freedom of the self-hosted route means we can run into all kinds of trouble. Unlike Blogger or WordPress.com, where they don’t allow any customizations that could threaten security, self-hosted sites have no limits.

A bad plugin could crash our site. Hackers can look for vulnerabilities because the WordPress.org software is not only free but “open source”—that is, freely available to anyone.

As with anything, freedom comes with responsibility.

• We should check the ratings and comments of plugins before we install them.
• We should use strong passwords.
• And perhaps most importantly, we should choose a hosting company that’s worthy of our business.

Remember, this post is Part One of my explanation about hosting companies.

Part Two will be on my blog tomorrow (Thursday, March 28^th), where my tech guy will share a list of things hosting companies can (and probably should) do to keep their servers—and thus your site—secure.

My tech guy is a certified “white hat hacker,” and part of his job is to think the way bad guys do so he can fix server-wide problems before they occur. That expertise is just one of the reasons I chose TechSurgeons.com as my hosting company.

Note: Super-duper Tech Guy is also teaching a class on Internet Privacy and Security for Authors tomorrow night that I think every writer would benefit from. Details here.

How Do I Know What to Look for in a Hosting Company?

Other things we can look for include:

• Do they install the WordPress software for you? This is the difference between your hosting company emailing you with a link to your site along with your user ID and temporary password versus having to download the software, unzip the file, create a database, rename files, edit files, upload files, and run the installation script yourself. Um, yeah, I’ll take option number one, thanks.
• Do they do at least daily backups? Backups of your site are essential. They keep hacking attempts, us accidentally blowing up our site (*raises hand* been there, done that), or any hosting company server issues from becoming a major problem.
• Can they help you register your domain (the yourname.com web address) with “Whois shielding”? All information you provide when registering your domain name—including your home address—becomes public information unless you have Whois (i.e., who is) shielding.
• Do they offer URL forwarding? If you want to forward visitors from an old domain name to a new domain name, your hosting company might be able to help.
• Do they offer email accounts? Want your email to be yourname@yourname.com? If your hosting company offers email, this is easy.
• Can they help you move your site from Blogger or WordPress.com? Depending on the hosting company and the situation, they might be able to move the old database for you, give you tips or support on the move, and/or help with URL forwarding so your old blog now points to your new one. Every situation is different, so no hosting company can guarantee a certain level of service for every customer.

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been blogging about whether we need a website and a blog, why I recommend WordPress over Blogger, and what elements we should have on our website.

In addition to tomorrow’s post about security at hosting companies, stop by my blog over the next couple of weeks for insight into when we should stick with the free WordPress.com option or when we should invest the money for a WordPress.org self-hosted site.

If you’re considering setting up a website or blog for the first time, I’m offering two workshops at the end of April. Registration is currently open for these two workshops designed for those with no knowledge of WordPress, websites, or blogs. Interested?

Writers In The Storm readers can use Promo Code “jamisave” to save $5 on registration. Here are the details about each of the workshops:

• For a free website/blog (WordPress.com): “Develop a Free Author Website in 60 Minutes (or Less!)”
• To set up a website/blog you own (WordPress.org): “A Newbie’s Guide to Building a Self-Hosted Blog or Website.”

Did you learn something new about hosting companies? Do you use one? If so, have you had any issues you'd like to share? Does your hosting company offer other services not listed above? Were you aware of issues (like your personal information being visible) when you register a domain?

Jami will be hanging out in the comments section to answer your questions, and she might be able to convince Jay Donovan, her tech guy, to stop by too. :-)

About Jami

After triggering the vampire/werewolf feud with an errant typo, Jami Gold moved to Arizona and decided to become a writer, where she could put her talent for making up stuff to good use.  Fortunately, her muse, an arrogant male who delights in making her sound as insane as possible, rewards her with unique and rich story ideas.

Fueled by chocolate, she writes paranormal romance and urban fantasy tales that range from dark to humorous, but one thing remains the same:  Normal need not apply.  Just ask her family—and zombie cat.

Find Jami at her blog, Twitter, Google+, Facebook, Pinterest, and Goodreads.

by Jenny Hansen

There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.
~W. Somerset Maugham

Novel writing isn't for sissies.

I know we've talked about this before. I've even brought you people like Margie Lawson, Susan Mallery and Stephen J. Cannell who know way more than I do on the subject.

However, since this is Spring, it felt right to step out of my happy little pre-published cozy zone and share my "3 Writing Commandments."

We'll see if y'all agree (or disagree) that these three babies will help you keep your sanity while you go through the long, often lonely process of penning your stories. Just so there's no ambiguity, I even put them in my order of importance. *drumroll please*

Commandment #1 ~ Thou shalt not quit.

"The only way to guarantee failure is to stop trying."

Susan Mallery was the one who really brought this home to me in the talk I linked to above (just click her name). She freely admitted to being "an OK writer who didn't give up until she became a good writer."

Note: In my humble opinion, she's a damn good romance writer at least 95% of the time and I don't think you can ask for more than that in this business.

All the writers I know, except a few tentative ones who worked hard on their craft before they put their babies books out there, were rejected for years...

• By agents and editors they really, really wanted
• In contests they wanted to place in
• By critique groups
• By family members and friends who pooh-poohed their dreams

Did they give up?? No they did not.

They kept learning and working until the doors that were previously closed inched open. Maybe those doors only opened a teensy little crack but, like the prisoner who digs for freedom one spoonful of dirt at a time, these writers kept writing.

Our own Laura Drake went through 13 years of rejections before her door opened. Here's her post on the subject: 5 Things I Wish I'd Believed Before I Sold.

Commandment #2 ~ Thou shalt not adopt nonsensical rules.

The only rules that matter are the ones that work for you. Really. Truly. I promise.

I'm not saying you don't need to have great Craft and good structure. I believe you do. A novel without structure is a paper brick you'll end up heaving under the bed with your dustbunnies.

Those of you who've been at this for a while probably shake your head over your early work. This is what beta readers and critique partners are for, so you don't throw that brick onto Amazon before you know better.

The point of this commandment is you must write your stories in a way that allows you to finish them. Period.

It doesn't matter if you're surrounded by linear, plotting writers. If YOU aren't linear in your process, nothing -- not rivers of chocolate or jiggy dancing tunes -- is going to lure you to The End of that book.

No magic potion will help you zoom straight through to the end using "someone else's methods" because you can't. Your brain doesn't work that way. It works your way.

Learn good craft, but above all learn your own process! Part of why I'm unpublished is it took me so damn long to figure out I'm a scene writer. I don't write straight through a book. I simply can't do it.

And -- important side note here -- I was hung up on that silly, stupid, stopping "S" word: Should. *boo-hiss. throws virtual tomatoes*

I HATE that freaking word. It has wasted a boatload of my time.

What I can do is build a basic structure to work in, even though I write my scenes out of order. (I know all you organized linear peeps just got the heebie-jeebies over that last sentence.)

Here's how it works for me:

• I lay out some character sketches - often in the form of short stories.
• My critique group helps me hash out the basic 3-act structure and turning points.
• I scribble up a list of all the scenes I know (sometimes this takes a few sessions).
• I write those scenes as they come to me, with an approximate idea of what comes before and after each one.
• I stitch it all together later.

Diana Gabaldon and Lorna Landvik write like this too, which makes me feel better since I love their books.

Writing like my linear pantser friends gave me nothing but frustration and bad self-esteem.

Using other peoples' processes ensured that somewhere between page sixty and one hundred, I'd start moaning to the Writing Gods about what a failure I was. My old ways guaranteed that I'd grow bored with my books because I never progressed past the beginning of the second act.

My way lets me see pages pile up and allows me to participate in challenges like ROW80 and Fast Draft. Plus, now that I've figured out "my system," I've got about 9 books to finish. Sweet!!

This leads me to my third point, and the one I'm working madly at right now...

Commandment #3 ~ Thou shalt finish thy books.

I wrote a post called The Most Important Writing Lesson I Ever Learned about a conversation I had with my pal, Natalie Hartford.

Quick excerpt:

No one has a masterpiece on the first run. The key is to start writing. Remember, done is better than good, my friend. You can make your “done” into “very good” MUCH easier than you can make a little bit of good stuff into a finished novel.

We went on a bit longer, but basically this conversation was about fear. Like all writers, Natalie was floundering out of the gate because she felt like she had to get some “BIG IDEA” to run with.

There’s only like six story ideas on the planet so we all need to chill and just write. And never, ever forget that “done is better than good.”

If you’re staring at your blank screen and need brainstorming ideas, you might also enjoy this post.

One last thought:

Part of the writing pain that led to Commandment #2 was good old fashioned fear. It's hard to make rational decisions about your story when you're scared.

The best post I've ever read on dealing with this kind of fear is called Talking Back To Your Brain. Susan and Harry Squires wrote it here at WITS. I'm not going to say too much more because you really need to click that link but here's an example:

We’re not asking questions like: How can I make this a better book? Too big, too vague, and way too scary.

We’re not asking negative questions such as, “Why isn’t my heroine likable? A really long list of answers will just be depressing.

Keep it small (one scene, even one paragraph, one character, one action, etc.). Then let your brain work.

That's the kind of advice that helps me stay sane during this crazy writing process.

Do you have some hard and fast "writing commandments?" What are they? What's guaranteed to take you in the other direction and hold up your forward progress? What's your position on the "S" word?

Jenny

About Jenny Hansen

Jenny fills her nights with humor: writing memoir, women’s fiction, chick lit, short stories (and chasing after the newly walking Baby Girl). By day, she provides training and social media marketing for an accounting firm. After 15 years as a corporate software trainer, she’s digging this sit down and write thing.

When she’s not at her blog, More Cowbell, Jenny can be found on Twitter at JennyHansenCA and here at Writers In The Storm. Every Saturday, she writes the Risky Baby Business posts at More Cowbell, a series that focuses on babies, new parents and high-risk pregnancy.