Hi there, fellow NaNoWriMo warriors! :D
How is your novel coming along? For those of you who have finished, lucky you, you can sit back and relax now. No, seriously, CONGRATS! :D
What about those of you still not there yet? Is the word count still too far away? Well, just do your absolute best. Even if you don't make it in the end, at least you tried :) And, there's always next year!
What about those of you, like me, who are down to writing the last 5000 or so words?
This is the NaNoWriMo CRUNCH. The second big one besides that time of Writer'sblockitis danger.
For me, anyway,
Friday, November 25, 2016
Monday, November 14, 2016
NaNoWriMo CRUNCH: 3 Ways to Keep Going
CRUNCH! Nope, not cereal or Captain Crunch. This is about Writer'sblockitis during, oh please no but it does happen, NaNoWriMo.
I'm doing NaNo now. Currently about 20,000 words and no, not suffering from Writer'sblockitis but I have experienced this during NaNo. But I still became a WINNER.
How did I do it???
Well, there is an important thing that I keep telling myself when I feel like I'm getting to that CRUNCH in NaNoWriMo. That is,
I'm doing NaNo now. Currently about 20,000 words and no, not suffering from Writer'sblockitis but I have experienced this during NaNo. But I still became a WINNER.
How did I do it???
Well, there is an important thing that I keep telling myself when I feel like I'm getting to that CRUNCH in NaNoWriMo. That is,
Thursday, October 27, 2016
First Time NaNoWriMo: Prepping
With NaNoWriMo around the bend in four or five days, I thought I'd tell those of you who are doing it for the first time, how you should prep yourself for it.
I'm guessing you're at the end of your own personal prepping but here are a few things I do that have helped for many NaNoWriMo tries and this time as well.
1. Use the Story Outline Template
2. Look up images in Google Images that represent or loosely represent the many places you want to write about. It's good to get a visual on it.
3. Make folders and sort the pics in them.
Example: Village, Mystic Creatures, Main Character Sketch, the Main Square
4. Do a few doodles of your characters but don't push yourself to come up with the perfect look. You can always come up with the details later while you write.
5. Leave it alone but keep contemplating on it. Don't think too deeply about it until you actually need to write it.
6. Work on other projects to get a boost for your writing momentum. Writing for a whole month after having not written for weeks can be hard on you because you might end up suffering from Writer'sblockitis and get nowhere, ending up just wasting your time. To not waste your time, write little stories, even one-page short stories to keep that writing momentum. Another thing you can do is read books that inspire you or watch movies that inspire you.
IMPORTANT TIP:
I'm guessing you're at the end of your own personal prepping but here are a few things I do that have helped for many NaNoWriMo tries and this time as well.
1. Use the Story Outline Template
2. Look up images in Google Images that represent or loosely represent the many places you want to write about. It's good to get a visual on it.
3. Make folders and sort the pics in them.
Example: Village, Mystic Creatures, Main Character Sketch, the Main Square
4. Do a few doodles of your characters but don't push yourself to come up with the perfect look. You can always come up with the details later while you write.
5. Leave it alone but keep contemplating on it. Don't think too deeply about it until you actually need to write it.
6. Work on other projects to get a boost for your writing momentum. Writing for a whole month after having not written for weeks can be hard on you because you might end up suffering from Writer'sblockitis and get nowhere, ending up just wasting your time. To not waste your time, write little stories, even one-page short stories to keep that writing momentum. Another thing you can do is read books that inspire you or watch movies that inspire you.
IMPORTANT TIP:
Saturday, October 1, 2016
Care for my MC! Care for him, I say!
What is going on with me and my novel? Well, first, I'd like to say that I finished reading the "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" series and realized one thing at the end of the books, I cared about what was going to happen to the MC. Will he be okay? What about him and Emma? What will happen with them?
And as it so often happens with me since I started seriously writing my novel, many of the books that I read teach me something.
For instance, Peculiar Children books taught me that in order for a book to be read worthy, there are many things it has to have and one of them is an MC that the reader will care about.
Now, I recently read another book called "Skinned" and if you want to know what cliche looks like in its most natural form, you should read it. It's about a popular girl who lost everything after an accident and is now just a mind in a body and then she runs away from home after losing yet everything else including her family's love. It's a series but you can kind of tell that sooner or later they will start opposing the government. If you read it, you'll know what I'm talking about.
This book showed me how not to write an MC. I couldn't connect to her. She lost her popularity; that was how the book starts. The reader is taken through what her life used to be because she keeps remembering it and having flashbacks and wishing again that she was the center of attention and how everyone looked up to her and all that jazz.
But I just couldn't really feel sorry for her.
Typically, the popular girl in books is mean so...that was stuck in my head and it didn't seem like she was any different. I didn't even feel sorry for her when her boyfriend left her (spoiler). I was more like, well, she kind of deserved it! And when she started to fall in love maybe with this geek guy who is all timid but fascinated in her (robot kind of thing) and then they kiss but because she's just mind and not body, she doesn't know what to do with her lips and stuff and has to think about it, I was like,
"Oh yeah here you just throw in the romance for the sake of it. She's just gonna end up joining that weird group that enjoys their immortal lives by having fun to the extreme and for some strange reason she refuses to join them in the beginning and she is pathetically trying to get her popular life back..."
Sorry, that book just really wasn't doing any amazing ish for me :/ I don't read many bad books but the blurb made it SOUND interesting...
Let's get back on track. I didn't care about her so I didn't care what she did or what happened to her or if she contributed to the story at all.
Jacob, the MC in Peculiar Children, I cared about. What was going to happen to him?
What of my own story? My MC, Belome, I thought about him. He was supposed to be like a cowardly failure who is self-conscious of his weight yet manages to joke about it sometimes. He has friends and is genuinely a friendly guy but he can't speak up for himself. He doesn't have much confidence either.
Yet from the first chapter I have him as this semi-confident guy who gets to dance with the girl he likes and even gets to show off his own dancing skills.
Throughout the story we are suppose to see him develop into a guy who can stand up for himself and say things and maybe even save the day. Well, MAYBE.
But it wasn't believable and it wasn't dramatic enough. I had to make him miserable.
I'm not saying EVERY SINGLE MC in the world of books should be miserable so we can like them more but it is true how people seem to be nicer or feel sympathy for someone who is humble or who doesn't have much confidence.
To sum up, I had to make my MC a failure, a coward, a timid guy, unable to really stand up for himself, and one that generally tries to avoid being the center of attention when there are a whole bunch of people around him. That way the reader can feel "Oh yay! :D " when he does things out of his comfort zone driven by his genuine care for others, love for his family, kindness to friends...and then little by little he is SUPPOSED to start standing up for himself.
Yes, this is the way it should be. We have to see the change in him. I need to make sure that his confidence toward the end of the story makes sense. This is where I am, guys. Wish me luck :/ I'm trying to finish it before NaNoWriMo because I have an epic story in mind.
And as it so often happens with me since I started seriously writing my novel, many of the books that I read teach me something.
For instance, Peculiar Children books taught me that in order for a book to be read worthy, there are many things it has to have and one of them is an MC that the reader will care about.
Now, I recently read another book called "Skinned" and if you want to know what cliche looks like in its most natural form, you should read it. It's about a popular girl who lost everything after an accident and is now just a mind in a body and then she runs away from home after losing yet everything else including her family's love. It's a series but you can kind of tell that sooner or later they will start opposing the government. If you read it, you'll know what I'm talking about.
This book showed me how not to write an MC. I couldn't connect to her. She lost her popularity; that was how the book starts. The reader is taken through what her life used to be because she keeps remembering it and having flashbacks and wishing again that she was the center of attention and how everyone looked up to her and all that jazz.
But I just couldn't really feel sorry for her.
Typically, the popular girl in books is mean so...that was stuck in my head and it didn't seem like she was any different. I didn't even feel sorry for her when her boyfriend left her (spoiler). I was more like, well, she kind of deserved it! And when she started to fall in love maybe with this geek guy who is all timid but fascinated in her (robot kind of thing) and then they kiss but because she's just mind and not body, she doesn't know what to do with her lips and stuff and has to think about it, I was like,
"Oh yeah here you just throw in the romance for the sake of it. She's just gonna end up joining that weird group that enjoys their immortal lives by having fun to the extreme and for some strange reason she refuses to join them in the beginning and she is pathetically trying to get her popular life back..."
Sorry, that book just really wasn't doing any amazing ish for me :/ I don't read many bad books but the blurb made it SOUND interesting...
Let's get back on track. I didn't care about her so I didn't care what she did or what happened to her or if she contributed to the story at all.
Jacob, the MC in Peculiar Children, I cared about. What was going to happen to him?
What of my own story? My MC, Belome, I thought about him. He was supposed to be like a cowardly failure who is self-conscious of his weight yet manages to joke about it sometimes. He has friends and is genuinely a friendly guy but he can't speak up for himself. He doesn't have much confidence either.
Yet from the first chapter I have him as this semi-confident guy who gets to dance with the girl he likes and even gets to show off his own dancing skills.
Throughout the story we are suppose to see him develop into a guy who can stand up for himself and say things and maybe even save the day. Well, MAYBE.
But it wasn't believable and it wasn't dramatic enough. I had to make him miserable.
I'm not saying EVERY SINGLE MC in the world of books should be miserable so we can like them more but it is true how people seem to be nicer or feel sympathy for someone who is humble or who doesn't have much confidence.
To sum up, I had to make my MC a failure, a coward, a timid guy, unable to really stand up for himself, and one that generally tries to avoid being the center of attention when there are a whole bunch of people around him. That way the reader can feel "Oh yay! :D " when he does things out of his comfort zone driven by his genuine care for others, love for his family, kindness to friends...and then little by little he is SUPPOSED to start standing up for himself.
Yes, this is the way it should be. We have to see the change in him. I need to make sure that his confidence toward the end of the story makes sense. This is where I am, guys. Wish me luck :/ I'm trying to finish it before NaNoWriMo because I have an epic story in mind.
Saturday, September 17, 2016
What Fiction Writing REALLY Is: Discussion
Fiction writing, no matter what sub-genre, is mostly writing about places you've never been or will never EVER go to.
Which is good because you can really go crazy with description, you are free to do (within the boundaries of your story of course) whatever you want. You can invite your readers into a world never thought possible or into your own world with a slight twist.
But, writing about places you've never been or will never EVER go to is also bad. Let me tell you why.
Which is good because you can really go crazy with description, you are free to do (within the boundaries of your story of course) whatever you want. You can invite your readers into a world never thought possible or into your own world with a slight twist.
But, writing about places you've never been or will never EVER go to is also bad. Let me tell you why.
10 Writing Prompts for Cat Lovers
1. A girl who can change into a cat finds herself in a world where people can only change into birds and mice. She needs to learn to deal with them nicely without resorting to instincts otherwise she will change into a cat permanently. The people who can change into birds and mice do not know she can change into a cat which is their enemy.
2. A cat sorceress goes on a quest to find some secret powers. But another wild cat is after the same powers and plans to rule the world.
3. A computer-hacking war between cats and dogs end up affecting the human world and involving the FBI.
4. A cat version of Mission Impossible where all the characters are cats and all the villains are either humans or werewolves.
5. A family who hates cats wake up one day to find themselves kidnapped by cat-like aliens. To escape, they need to befriend them first but it is really hard for them because they really HATE cats. It should be a comedy.
6. There is a murder of a little boy from a poor family. The police won't help them. They find a talking cat detective that can. But some of the poor family try to find the murderer themselves to get revenge thinking the cat detective is unreliable because he is a cat. They must build trust.
7. Harry Potter fanfic where all the humans are cats and all the cats and other creatures are humans. The story takes place in the Philosopher's Stone especially during the first few days there and during the Quidditch games.
8. A scraggly cat appears in the gardens of an asylum. The nurse working there discovers that the cat is being controlled by some sorcerer outside the asylum to communicate with some of the patients and plotting an escape. But the nurse can't tell the other nurses or doctors because she will look crazy. But she needs to either prevent it from happening, or find out about this sorcerer. There is a twist ending! But no, the nurse had nothing to do with it.
9. A crazy cat lady unexpectedly passes away leaving her 400 cats to roam. But she wasn't just a crazy cat lady. She had also been experimenting with her cats. A few months later, people in that neighborhood start to suffer from a strange disease. At first no one knows where it is from but they find out the cats were spreading the disease but then they further find out that half the cats had the disease, while the other half have the cure. But killing the cats is out of the question! Scientists, health organizations, and animal specialists must work together to isolate the cats with the disease and find the ones with the cure to save humankind.
10. A fanfic about Grumpy Cat, Tardar Sauce's previous life and how her current life is both a blessing and a curse. It is from her point of view.
2. A cat sorceress goes on a quest to find some secret powers. But another wild cat is after the same powers and plans to rule the world.
3. A computer-hacking war between cats and dogs end up affecting the human world and involving the FBI.
4. A cat version of Mission Impossible where all the characters are cats and all the villains are either humans or werewolves.
5. A family who hates cats wake up one day to find themselves kidnapped by cat-like aliens. To escape, they need to befriend them first but it is really hard for them because they really HATE cats. It should be a comedy.
6. There is a murder of a little boy from a poor family. The police won't help them. They find a talking cat detective that can. But some of the poor family try to find the murderer themselves to get revenge thinking the cat detective is unreliable because he is a cat. They must build trust.
7. Harry Potter fanfic where all the humans are cats and all the cats and other creatures are humans. The story takes place in the Philosopher's Stone especially during the first few days there and during the Quidditch games.
8. A scraggly cat appears in the gardens of an asylum. The nurse working there discovers that the cat is being controlled by some sorcerer outside the asylum to communicate with some of the patients and plotting an escape. But the nurse can't tell the other nurses or doctors because she will look crazy. But she needs to either prevent it from happening, or find out about this sorcerer. There is a twist ending! But no, the nurse had nothing to do with it.
9. A crazy cat lady unexpectedly passes away leaving her 400 cats to roam. But she wasn't just a crazy cat lady. She had also been experimenting with her cats. A few months later, people in that neighborhood start to suffer from a strange disease. At first no one knows where it is from but they find out the cats were spreading the disease but then they further find out that half the cats had the disease, while the other half have the cure. But killing the cats is out of the question! Scientists, health organizations, and animal specialists must work together to isolate the cats with the disease and find the ones with the cure to save humankind.
10. A fanfic about Grumpy Cat, Tardar Sauce's previous life and how her current life is both a blessing and a curse. It is from her point of view.
About My Book
Book One: East Seekers
Genre: Fantasy/Adventure
Place: World like our own
Age: In our century with characters living a traditional life, European/Victorian/Countryside style
Main message: Is change good or bad?
My book started out as just a bit of writing practice. I decided to continue it when I heard about "Figment: Write Yourself In" which is a community writing site that is free. On and off I continued writing it until I sort of finished writing Book One which took about three years to complete because of a six month gap. It was extremely short and could barely pass for a novella.
Through more fiction writing experience and trying out Camp NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and NaNoWriMo, I decided to revise it again and again. 6 years later and into the 7th this year, I figured out what my story really was and now I am rewriting the whole thing with more complete characters living in a world that could be real.
My aim this year is to finish Book One before NaNoWriMo, which is in November. My aim for Liaffon, is to write a trilogy. It will be a trilogy and I have already wrote an extremely rough draft for Book Two, and even wrote a basic first chapter for Book Three.
My final goal is to get it published through a publishing house.
Here is a summary of the book:
Having a natural talent for it, Belome Konas of Liaffon Village is Named under the Guardians as Glass Wielder, a job traditionally for the first born of the family. His older brother is furious with him for becoming so skilled that his baby brother would be chosen instead. Not one person is aware of this horrendous incident. If they find out, the Konases may be exiled. Before the brothers can tell their father to redo the ceremony, Belome is called by the Guardians to embark on a journey to the futuristic Eastlands. A traveler from there has visited them and wishes to bring change onto the village but is it good or bad? The Eastlands have only been something of a child's tale. But now it is real and Belome suddenly must face the unknown traveling further East than any villager ever did.
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