Reedsy recently contacted me to do this #IWriteBecause video and I’m so happy to finally share it with all of you! If you’re a writer you’re invited to make your own #IWriteBecause video and submit it to Reedsy and for every submission, they will donate $10 to Room to Read which provides education to girls in Africa and Asia. Join the movement and share your love for writing!
See why other authors write: https://blog.reedsy.com/iwritebecause
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Miss Desiraye Williams from the WordNerds is visiting us today! If you don’t know who the WordNerds are, be sure to check out their links below, I promise you’ll love their videos! Wondering where I am on this fine Tuesday? Well then hope on over here: http://bit.ly/2oZu9Qv
WordNerds:
Website: http://yawordnerds.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/yawordnerds
Tumblr: http://yawordnerds.tumblr.com
What makes a story? The plot or the characters? It can go either way, but if you’re lucky than the two elements work together to create a gripping novel for your reads. In drafting my third novel I’ve fallen in love with character profiling. I’ve done it in the past, but I was never a fan. The prompts are great to help you figure out who your characters are, but they don’t always help you move forward in plot. Instead you end up with a lot of backstory you now feel obligated to fit into your story.
Fan of Pinterest? I’ve got a board just for character development! Find me here!
I was able to come up with a few prompts that personally helped me develop my characters for novel #3, but it did more than just that. The questions below should help you brainstorm essential traits in your characters that will drive the story forward. Maybe you’ll answer the question and realize Sammy has a lot of attitude. What is she going to do to piss everyone else off in the story? Or what about Nancy? She had a divorce. What happened to her ex-husband? Is he going to show up again? Rocky and Willow hang out a lot. They’ve best friends obviously, but how did they meet? What the one thing that could tear them apart?
See what I’m going far? Go really behind the scenes. Shack things up a bit. Sit down with one of your characters now and ask them a few of these questions:
And of course you should probably figure out what your character looks like, but that’s not as exciting.
Like these prompts? Download the character development prompts or find it on Pinterest!
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Most writers tend to have countless story ideas. This is great because we feel like we can go on forever writer! The most frightening thing for a writer is when they sick back and can’t think of anything to write. And that’s when writer’s doubt comes in. But today we’re going to be talking about the opposite problem, and that’s having too many story ideas to work with. How do you choose which one to write?
My Almost Second Novel
After I finished writing my first novel, Essence, I knew I wanted to continue writing, and I did! I started writing two novels. I am Mercy, which I’m sure you’re all familiar with, and a never-finished novel titled Ignorance. For a few months, I went back and forth on which manuscript to write. I loved the story for I am Mercy, but I was getting tired of writing in the world of an Essence. The fantasy novel I was working on was completely different and exciting! So which novel did I work on? I choose to work on Ignorance, which turned out to be a bust because it lost its luster and I got bored. The passion that called me to write Ignorance disappeared. I got to exercise my writing muscles and live in a different world for awhile, but in the end, I am Mercy was the story that needed to be told.
Go with Your Gut
The point of this little story is to say go with your gut. You have to write whatever story is calling to your most. At one point that had been Ignorance because I just wanted to write something different, but once I had done that for a little while I went back to working on I am Mercy. The thing you want to be careful with is sticking to your manuscript. Once you start it, try to finish it (unless it feels like a dead end like Ignorance, a novel that will never see the light of day). The last thing you want to do is have piles of unfinished manuscripts.
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The Zom-B Chronicles
by Darren Shan
B Smith doesn’t fully buy into Dad’s racism, but figures it’s easier to go along with it than risk the fights and abuse that will surely follow sticking up for Muslims, black, or immigrants. That is, until zombies attack. This bind-up of the first three novellas in Darren Shan’s Zom-B series leads B on a mad dash through the corridors of high school, a secret underground military complex, and the dangerous streets of a very changed London, making allegiances with anyone who has enough gall to fight off the deadly–and undead–attackers.
Proxy
by Alex London, C. Alexander London
Knox was born into one of the City’s wealthiest families. A Patron, he has everything a boy could possibly want—the latest tech, the coolest clothes, and a Proxy to take all his punishments. When Knox breaks a vase, Syd is beaten. When Knox plays a practical joke, Syd is forced to haul rocks. And when Knox crashes a car, killing one of his friends, Syd is branded and sentenced to death.
Syd is a Proxy. His life is not his own.
Then again, neither is Knox’s. Knox and Syd have more in common than either would guess. So when Knox and Syd realize that the only way to beat the system is to save each other, they flee. Yet Knox’s father is no ordinary Patron, and Syd is no ordinary Proxy. The ensuing cross-country chase will uncover a secret society of rebels, test both boys’ resolve, and shine a blinding light onto a world of those who owe and those who pay. Some debts, it turns out, cannot be repaid.
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I’ve found that I’m pretty good at editing someone else’s stories, but not my own. Of course the solution is to pretend I wasn’t the one who write the story, but that’s easier said than done. The first trick to achieving this is to just let my manuscript sit for a little bit so I actually do forget what I wrote, this way when I do go to edit, it’s with open eyes. When I go to edit I want to look for inconsistencies in the story and simple mistakes.
Now this is where things get a little hard. You have to go through your manuscript line by line editing, and almost make it a game to find as many mistakes as possible. If you don’t find many, go through it again. This is going to be a lot of work, but I promise you it will make you a better writer. The more scribbles you have on your page, the better. This way when you hand your manuscript to your editor or beta reader they won’t have as much to edit And can give you better quality feedback. After all, if you give them a sloppy manuscript, they want to edit for you again.
This post is aimed towards myself. I’m sure all you wonderful writing fanatics out there are just busting out words every day. Me? No. I wish I was, I really do! But life gets complicated. Things get in the way, and your motivation gets shot. So here some reasons I need to finish my novel.
1. Because I Said So
I’m stubborn. When I say I’m going to do something, I do it! That’s how I got my first book published, why shouldn’t it work that way for my third book?
2.You Love This Story
It’s true. Novel #3 is my favorite story I’ve written so far. It’s dramatic (in a good way) and I like to think not cheesy. I’ve grown attached to the characters, I just need to live inside their world again to get into the writing mood.
3.If It Was Easy, Everyone Would Do It
I’ve been putting off this book because it’s hard and complex to write, which means it will be a great novel when it’s finished. I just have to do that: finish. And there’s a reason not every book every person has written is amazing. Because it’s hard to write an amazing book! I’m trying to do that. Am I succeeding? I have no idea!
4.Once You Start Something, You Finish It
I feel like this motto has gotten me through a lot of things in life. Don’t half-ass it. If you started, you better finish it.
5.You’ll Regret It
I know if I put a stop to writing this manuscript that I’ll always look back and wonder if other people would have liked the novel, or if it might have been the novel that finally launched my career as an author or got me that publishing deal. I’ll never know unless I keep pushing.
6.You’ll be Proud
No matter what happen with novel #3, even if the finished manuscript never sees the light of day, I’ll be proud that I wrote it and finished it.
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My life is pretty hectic and I also have a tiny OCD problem in the fact that I love to organize things. Like, a lot. I love labels and draws and containers, and I LOVE planners. You guys have seen my Erin Condren planner a few times now, but I also have a permanent planner that I use for my permanent schedule like work, classes, and when I go to the gym (because otherwise I wouldn’t go).
How I organize my Erin Condren planner and time management: https://mandilynn.com/2014/10/10/time-management/
Get your own Erin Condren planner: https://www.erincondren.com/
Get printable weekly planners: http://elizaellis.blogspot.com.au/2016/03/free-printable-irma-weekly-planners.html
Time for a grammar lesson! Today we get to talk about all the different types of tenses you can write in!
Past tense– most traditional type of tense in writing
Present tense– seen a lot in the YA genre
Points of View!
1st person– I, me, my; talking about yourself.
2nd person– you; written like a letter, talking to the reader.
3rd person– she, he, they; an outsider’s perspective, the narrator.
Things get really complicated after this but this is how in-depth we’re going today to keep things simple.
I used to write in 1st person present, which is really odd for people to read sometimes because it’s not super common. But a lot of YA novels write like that, so that’s how I started writing in 1st person present. These days I write in 3rd person past. My writing has matured and shifted, and so has the genre I write in. Because I’m beginning to write more complex novels, I can’t tell a story through 1st person point of view.
There’s lot of different ways to tell a story. You just have play around and see which tense and POV fits your style and your story. What tense and POV do you write in?
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In this month’s box….
Dangerous Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Blythewood by Carol Goodman
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