✏ ON WRITING: Planning For Plots

Below are excerpts from NO PLOT? NO PROBLEM! By Chris Baty (Founder of National Novel Writing Month).

I've been carrying this book around with me for a week, reading it between classes, on the bus ride home, or during lunchtime and it has some pretty great information that I thought I'd share. Something that particularily interested me was the chapter on novel planning. The particular situation presented in the chapter has happened to so many of us that I'm starting to wonder how planners are able to write and stick so closely to their outlines without it getting messy. I wish that I could be a planner, but most of the time my planning is minimal at best. I go into writing a new piece with limited knowledge of three things: Characters, Plot, and Setting. Then I write and let the story fill in the extra details itself. The only time I really get into outlining is during the re-write or revisions when I find it to be the most useful. In the excerpt below if you see the word Me in paretheses then that's a thought I had while reading.

~ ~ ~

Pages 82, 83, 84 (this is a really small book)

After months of preparation, Jennifer McCreedy had an absolutely clear vision of how her intricate fantasy novel would unfurl.

"I churned out character biographies, world maps, and language keys," says the twenty-year-old one-time NaNoWriMo winner from Detroit. "I had developing culture, societies, religions, hierarchical class stuctures--even regional clothing, genetic wuirks, weapons, and customs."

When the month began, Jennifer dovein with all her notes at her side--and promptly stopped writing.

"I did so much development work on the novel that when it came time to actually write, I was horrified at what I was coming up with. I'd comitted too much to making a complete world for my novel just to watch it crumble under the needs of a November 30th deadline. So I set it aside for future work and started completely anew."

Jennifer's experience echoes the dismay of thousands of National Novel Writing Month participants who have brought months or years of novel ideas to the writing table and ended up finding them to be more of a hindrance than a help in getting something written.

It may be counterintuitive, but when it comes to novel writing, more preparation does not necessarily produce a better book. In fact, too much preparation has a way of stopping novel writing altogether.

✏ ON WRITING: Planning For Plots

iPod Apps For Writers REPOST

(This picture was made by Exceptional-Mind)

Here is a list of useful iPod Touch/ iPhone Applications for Writers that I've found in the App Store. There are a ton more but I'm only listing the ones the are for free.

WriMoDemon

The WriMoDemon was made for Nanowrimo but it can be used ANY time of the year. Use it to keep track of your progress for your WIP (daily word count, percentage of completion, days left). When you're done press the reset button and all setting will go back to zero.

Note: You don't copy and paste your work on it. All you do is write the # of words you have written.

Merriam Webster Dictionary

What is a writer without their tools: words. I use this app all the time to look up new words I don’t know. I try to use as much vocabulary as possible because the more words you have in your noggin the more tools you have at hand while you’re writing.

Note: this app also includes the word of the day, so everyday you can learn a new word.

StoryTracker

The Story Tracker helps you keep track of the submissions you’ve made for the book you’re querying for. It's really only useful for those who are currently submitting to agents.

Note: it's not the full version but it does just about the same thing.

One Word Lite

One word helps writers keep track of their daily progress. It also tells you how many words you should aim for each day in order to reach your target word count.

Note: It's just like WriMoDemon except it has pretty pictures and it doesn't show the percentage of completion. I personally prefer WriMoDemon than this.

The Writer's Hat

The Writer's hat can help you come up with really random ideas for prompts. Some of them are actually pretty interesting.

Note: It can feel really random at times

iPod Apps For Writers REPOST

On Writing: STORY STRUCTURE (Part 2)

Part 2 of STORY STRUCTURE (Part 1)

The Eight–Point Structure applied to YA Dystopian novel DIVERGENT

 

*CAUTION-CONTAINS SPOILERS*

Stasis

Normal life of Beatrice/ introduces her society/ the problem

Trigger

Picking Dauntless

Quest

Going to Dauntless/ discovering what it is like to be Dauntless/ Meeting Four

Surprise

Finding out she is divergent/Getting beat up at practices/ Learning to fight/ eventually learns how to win a fight/ Finding out her mother is divergent

Critical choice

Chooses to fight back and win the contest to become a Dauntless

Climax

She's almost killed/ her mother dies/Four loses his mind/she finds out who the antagonist/ fights/witnesses many people dying

Reversal

Things are still bad. Even though her mother is dead she's still moving on. Reversal is basically how the character is like when everything is wrong because right after the climax things aren’t automatically get better.

Resolution

Enemy is deterred (for now), Trice and Four are safe, and she is not at all the same person she was in the beginning of the book. Sets up for the next book.

Question:

Do you ever notice the structure as you're reading a book? If not, try to look for the 8 points the next time you read a book so you have a good idea of how it's done. You can find these structure point in almost every novel you read.

On Writing: STORY STRUCTURE (Part 2)

On Writing: STORY STRUCTURE (Part 1)

After I learned about Story Structure everything fell into place for me.  Plotting novels has been so much more easier for me when I have the structure in mind. I’m glad that found out about it when I did otherwise many of my books would still be unfinished. Keeping your story’s structure in mind can make a HUGE difference in your writing. It’ll help you stay on course whether you’re an outlining type of person or not.

As an example I’ll be using HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE (Part 1) and DIVEREGENT by Veronica Roth (Part 2).

What I use is a simple 8-Point Structure (made by Nigel Watts) but if you want to go into more detail you can. (Click here for more detailed structure. Scroll down to chart. )

The Eight Main Turning Points:

(Use this as a checklist as you’re writing)

1. Stasis

Introduces characters, everyday life, and problem. (Harry Living with the Dursleys)

2. Trigger

Add in a trigger that sparks off the story. (Harry getting picked up by Hagrid & finding out he’s a wizard)

3. The quest

The Trigger results in a quest. (Harry goes to the Wizarding World for the first time and enters Hogwarts, Finds out what really happened to his parents.)

4. Surprise

Surprise takes up the most part of the story. It’s basically the middles. It includes pleasant events, but more often means obstacles, complications, conflict and trouble for the protagonist. (Harry explores life in Hogwarts. Becomes friends with Ron and Hermione. Has skirmishes with Malfoy. Trouble with Professor Snape. Learns more about Voldemort.  Plays Quidditch. Learns more about his family).

5. Critical choice

At some point the character makes a critical choice. It shows what kind of person your character is and determines what the real goal will be for the rest of the story. (Harry learns that Voldemort has been trying to steal the Sorcerer’s Stone. He decides that he must find the Stone before Voldemort does.)

6. Climax

In the climax basically everything possibly bad that can happen to your character does and he/she faces their worst struggle. The climax is the highest peak of tension in your story. Up until this point your character has been struggling to get better at something and this is the big test where he/she can show us what they can really do and who they really are as a person. Note that this portion is paced really quickly. (Harry finds the Sorcerer’s Stone before Voldemort does. He comes face to face with him through Quirrel, one of Harry’s teachers. But when he touches Harry the contact burns him. He dies. Harry is safe.)

7. Reversal

The reversal is the consequence of the critical choice and the climax, and it should change the status of the characters. (When Harry regains consciousness, he is in the hospital with Dumbledore. Dumbledore explains that he saved Harry from Quirrell just in time. He adds that he and Flamel have decided to destroy the stone.)

8. Resolution

The resolution is when things return back to normal and the main conflict is resolved. The characters should be changed, wiser and enlightened in some way due to the story’s events. You can always leave a few strings open though if you’re planning on continuing with a sequel. You might want to use a different central conflict this time around because the main conflict in the first book has to be resolved. (Harry heads down to the end-of-year banquet, where Slytherin is celebrating its seventh consecutive win of the house championship cup. Dumbledore gets up and awards many last-minute points to Gryffindor for the feats of Harry and his friends, winning the house cup for Gryffindor.)

Click here to read PART 2

On Writing: STORY STRUCTURE (Part 1)

*AUGUST: Online Resources for Writers *

1. The EditMinion

Remember Write or Die? Well Dr Wicked has made another online tool for writers called the “Edit Minion”. 

“EditMinion helps you refine your writing by searching your text for some common grammatical, spelling and diction mistakes that spellcheck won’t catch. It looks for adverbs, bad dialogue attribution, commonly misspelled words and ending a sentence with a preposition. It will also count how many times a given type of mistake is found.

It’s obviously no replacement for a human copy-editor but it will give you an idea of what areas you might need to focus on revising in your writing.”

http://writeordie.com/2010/12/introducing-the-editminion/

2. The Bookshelf Muse

The Bookshelf Muse is a wonderful blog that has many resources for writers. My particular favorites (listed on the sidebar) are the Character Traits Thesaurus, Emotion Thesaurus, Setting Thesaurus, Weather & Earthly Phenomena Thesaurus, Color textures and Shapes Thesaurus, and Symbolism Thesaurus.

The amounts of things I’ve learned from this blog since I’ve found are phenomenal.  Aside from the Thesaurus’, just going through their regular posts you’ll learn so many great tips about writing.  You can tell that the people who run the blog really take their time with each and every post that they make. It truly is amazing.

I have it first on my Favorites Bar if that tells you how much I adore this blog. :)

http://thebookshelfmuse.blogspot.com/

3. What is High Concept?

Have you ever wondered what High Concept is? Why people keep talking about it?

Read this article here over at Wilde Life:

http://wildelori.blogspot.com/p/high-concept-writing.html

Have YOU found any helpful articles on writing this month? Please share ‘em if you do.

*AUGUST: Online Resources for Writers *

On Writing: Is It Really a Dystopia?

Are you writing/reading a dystopian novel? Are you unsure whether it’s really a dystopian and not a post-apocalypse novel? I find that a lot of people are confused when it comes to the difference between dystopian and post-apocalypse. Sometimes I’ll even read a book (such as the Forest of Hands and Teeth) and be told that it’s a dystopian novel when it’s clearly a post-apocalypse. SO how do you tell the difference?

Let’s start by looking at what each one is:

A dystopia is the idea of a society in a repressive and controlled state, often under the guise of being utopian. Dystopian societies feature different kinds of repressive social control systems, various forms of active and passive coercion. Ideas and works about dystopian societies often explore the concept of humans abusing technology and humans individually and collectively coping, or not being able to properly cope with technology that has progressed far more rapidly than humanity's spiritual evolution.

Post-apocalyptic fiction is set in a world or civilization after such a disaster. The time frame may be immediately after the catastrophe, focusing on the travails or psychology of survivors, or considerably later, often including the theme that the existence of pre-catastrophe civilization has been forgotten (or mythologized). Post-apocalyptic stories often take place in an agrarian, non-technological future world, or a world where only scattered elements of technology remain. There is a considerable degree of blurring between this form of science fiction and that which deals with dystopias.

But see, here’s where things get tricky: yes, it’s possible for it to be both dystopian and post-apocalyptic at the same time. Take The Hunger Games for instance, it’s set in a future apocalyptic world and yet it has enough dystopian qualities for it to be considered part dystopian.

Use this flow-chart made by Erin Bowman to see if what you’re reading/writing is really a dystopian or a post-apocalypse. (Click to see larger)

Is it Dystopia? A flowchart for de-coding the genre by Erin Bowman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at www.embowman.com. Feel free to share it for non-commercial uses.

On Writing: Is It Really a Dystopia?

On Writing: How To Write A Fight Scene

Many writers and even authors don’t know how to construct a well-written fight scene. If you have scenes in your book that require combat (or if you’re just interested) then read my take on How to Write a Fight Scene.

Action and Reaction

A key thing to remember when you are writing a fight scene is that it’s centered on these two things: Action and Reaction (In that EXACT order).

When a character gets hit they don’t just automatically start hitting back. They feel pain or they stumble backwards or they fall down…they REACT. Telling the readers the reactions of the characters will make your fight scenes much more believable.

Example of Action & Reaction

• Harry zaps Malfoy with his wand, Malfoy will react by stumbling backwards.

Do NOT say:

 Malfoy stumbles backwards when Harry zaps him with his wand.

• This is an example of Reaction to Action—which is a big no no. Show the action first, then show what happens because of that action.

Sentence Length

Another thing to pay attention to is sentence length. In fight scenes fast paced writing is a must. A mix of both short sentences/phrases and long sentences are needed to make it sound complete. Short sentences=faster paced writing. Just make sure not to have too many short sentences, or too many long sentences.

Too many short sentences:
Harry zaps Malfoy. Malfoy stumbles back. Harry zaps again. Malfoy dodges.

Too many long sentences:

Harry zaps Malfoy using the new spell he learned the day before in class. Malfoy stumbles back, falls, and curses loudly. Harry zaps again, this time aiming for his Slytherin badge. Malfoy dodges the attack just fast enough to miss it.

See the difference? Fight scenes require both long and short sentences although it is primarily made up of short ones.

A combination of the two:
Harry zaps Malfoy. Malfoy stumbles back and curses. Harry zaps again, aiming for his Slytherin badge. Malfoy jumps to the side and dodges it.

Extra advice:

Start with the fast pace stuff first, then as the fight dwindles down you can go back to a more normal pace.

The best way to really describe how a fight works is to watch one yourself. Pull out a favorite action movie of yours and pay close attention to the Actions and Reactions of the fighters. Take down notes! Also if your MC is using a weapon to fight make a list of your favorite weapons and chose one (or more) that you think your character will need. (You might want to make sure no one gets the wrong idea about it…having a favorite weapon list can seem kinda creepy :D). There are many different types of daggers/swords/guns. Do your research and search them up! Google holds the answer to everything. Or, you can design you own weapon.

  

Extra Resources:

• Check out this detailed article on How to Write a Fight Scene.
• Also, check out this post Gail (Author of Ella Enchanted) wrote for her blog.

On Writing: How To Write A Fight Scene

Tip Tuesdays

These are 5 random tips I often point out when giving critiques. Feel free to add a tip that’s not already on here.

• Be careful of how many times you use the forms of to be (for ex. am, is, are, was, were, being, been) in your writing.

• Read over sentences and see if you can change it to make it sound more active. Active sentences add more life to your writing. To learn the difference between active and passive verb tenses go here.

• Often times the place where you start your novel (i.e the first chapter) might not be the best way to start it off. Look for a place in the beginning of your WIP that you think would be the perfect starting place for your novel, then go back to your old one and compare.

Which opening is more un-put-down-able?

• Do you know what side of the bed your characters wake up on? Their next door neighbor? Their favorite things to eat? If not, you might want to take some time to get to know your characters a little better. Put them in odd scenarios and see how they react to them. Their reactions to said scenario should be unique to their character.

• The dog was brown. The dog was brown and furry. The golden retriever was a light shade of brown, his coat as furry as my winter coat.

Be descriptive. Add some visual to your words.

 

Tip Tuesdays

Trends In YA

I’m sure most of you have heard of the term “trend” before. The dictionary meaning of trend is “a current style or preference”. In our case it means a certain genre is currently hot in the market.

If I remember correctly first there was the vampire trend, then the angel/demon trend, a faerie trend, and then a dystopian trend.

Lately I’ve seen a new trend of books with characters living in European countries (Scotland, France, and England) rather than the US, Steampunk, and books that involve Gods/Goddesses from Greek myth.

Do NOT write a book if your only reason is to fit the trends. The trend might be really hot at the moment but they can eventually die out. The reality is that by the time you’ve finished writing your book there may be a new one. So my advice to you is to not write for the trends, become a trendsetter. The dictionary meaning of trendsetter is “one that sets a trend”.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Trends can make a comeback.

I know Julie is working on a vampire novel that's been approved to published within the next year or so. And Tahereh is debuting with a dystopian novel this November.

If you are writing a book that is currently trendy the key is to MAKE IT ORIGINAL. Whatever makes your book different from all the others in that genre, make it stand out. So if you find that you are writing a book that was/is trendy remember that uniqueness is a very important factor.

Trends In YA

Are You a Panster or Planner?

First off, what exactly is a panster?

A panster is a writer who writes with very little knowledge to where the story is going. Story planning is just not for them. They do all the planning subconsciously in their mind. Pansters are writers who want to be just as surprised as their readers will be while they are crafting their novel. It’s the need to find out what is going to happen next with their characters and world that keeps them plowing through their novel.

So then what’s a planner?

(You know, besides the thing that you use to keep track of things). ;)

A planner is exactly the way it sounds. It’s a writer that plans things usually before the actual writing process starts. They outline the story whether it’s a one sentence description or a whole page on what will happen in each chapter. They do character outlines, and they have a clear depiction of what’s going to happen in the beginning, the middle, and the end of their novel.

So which is better?

There is no real answer to that. Different things work for different people. Sure one way can be a lot more strenuous than the other, but in the end they all come to the same conclusion—a completed book. The road to getting there is the hard part.

Both ways have pros and cons. A con to being a panster would be that it could get you into some sticky situations such as not knowing the key points of your novel and getting stuck. A con to being a planner is knowing too much about your novel and getting bored with it.

As for me, I do a little bit of both. I know where the story’s headed but I leave out enough room to maneuver. I like to be surprised as well, but not so much that I’d end up re-writing the whole thing twice just to get the story’s plot right.

My overall thoughts on pansting/planning:

I think it’s a good idea to know where your story’s going before you start. Sometimes if you go into it without some kind of guide, whether it’s a detailed outline or a short synopsis, you can either end up getting stuck or spending a lot more time writing it than you normally would have. Outlines are only as detailed as you make them so don’t be afraid to use them. I used to because I thought they’d only lead me to a dreaded dead end trap but now I’m okay with it. It just takes some getting used to.

***

 Question of the day:

What are your thoughts on pansting? Are you a planner/panster yourself?



Are You a Panster or Planner?

Ezmirelda On Writing: MS Format

One of the first things I learned when I got into novel-writing was manuscript format. I personally love the format and use it even when I know no one’s going to see it. It’s clean, easy to read, and easy to edit.

Font

12 point Times New Roman

Courier New (I don’t really like this font)

Margins

1 inches on all sides

Page Header

Your name/Name of your book/page # in the top right corner of the screen.

Paragraphs


Double spaced, the first sentences of each new paragraph should be indented (5 spaces).

Don’t put any extra spaces between paragraphs; it’s already double spaced.

When you use em dashes (--) don’t put spaces before and after it. If your word processor can make the connected em dash (—) then use that one instead.

Chapters

Start  chapters on new pages.

Center the title and start about 1/3 of the way down the page.

Scene breaks

I use either # or *** centered as a scene break.

I’ve seen people do all sorts of things for this like ~*~*~ or - - - - - - -

I think it’s kind of distracting, and I advise people not to do it.

Then there’s the Cover Page . It’s more often used by people who are pursuing publication.

• Your contact information/ or your agent’s

• The title of your story

• Word count

A site that has lots of good info on manuscript format is William Shunn’s, although I’m not sure if the part about underlining instead of using italics is outdated or not. You might want to check up on that.

Ezmirelda On Writing: MS Format

iPod Apps For Writers

(This picture was made by Exceptional-Mind)

Here is a list of useful iPod Touch/ iPhone Applications for Writers that I've found in the App Store. There are a ton more but I'm only listing the ones the are for free.

WriMoDemon

The WriMoDemon was made for Nanowrimo but it can be used ANY time of the year. Use it to keep track of your progress for your WIP (daily word count, percentage of completion, days left). When you're done press the reset button and all setting will go back to zero.

Note: You don't copy and paste your work on it. All you do is write the # of words you have written.

Merriam Webster Dictionary

What is a writer without their tools: words. I use this app all the time to look up new words I don’t know. I try to use as much vocabulary as possible because the more words you have in your noggin the more tools you have at hand while you’re writing.

Note: this app also includes the word of the day, so everyday you can learn a new word.

StoryTracker

The Story Tracker helps you keep track of the submissions you’ve made for the book you’re querying for. It's really only useful for those who are currently submitting to agents.

Note: it's not the full version but it does just about the same thing.

One Word Lite

One word helps writers keep track of their daily progress. It also tells you how many words you should aim for each day in order to reach your target word count.

Note: It's just like WriMoDemon except it has pretty pictures and it doesn't show the percentage of completion. I personally prefer WriMoDemon than this.

The Writer's Hat

The Writer's hat can help you come up with really random ideas for prompts. Some of them are actually pretty interesting.

Note: It can feel really random at times

iPod Apps For Writers

Ezmirelda On Writing: Revising

Nanowrimo has ended and now I and about a million other people have an unedited newly written novel in their hands that needs some serious work done to it. Everyone has different ways that work for them when they’re revising so I thought I’d share my own.

Step 1- Waiting and Doing Nothing

The first thing I do when I’m done with my WIP is to wait about a month before I look at it again. I distract myself with books, and maybe even move on to another project I’ve put aside previously. The reason is because when you look at your book you want to be able to look at it with fresh eyes. My eyes glaze over a lot of mistakes after I’ve read over a chapter so many times I practically have it memorized. Time away from the book will help you see mistakes more clearly—at least for me it does.

Step 2- Plot Revamp

Next I go through it and try to find plot holes. I try to make sure all the events are in the right place and help the story move forward. If there are scenes/chapters that do not move the story forward or support the main conflict then I take them out no matter how much I loved it. I don't delete it though, I just put it in a word document I call Outakes.

Step 3- Character Repairs

Then I go and make sure all the characters are in character. I make sure that if they have hazel eyes and blond hair in the first chapter that they don’t end up with brown eyes and blue hair in chapter 7.

Step 4- Rewriting…A lot

Step 4 happens even in steps 2-3. Sometimes I add more to a chapter or just end up re-writing it entirely.

Step 5- Grammar

I fix grammar and spelling errors last—the reason being is that while I’m doing so much rewriting it would be kind of pointless for me to fix spelling mistakes. Chances are it was going to be changed anyways. I try to make this one of the very last things I have to do.

Step 6- Talking to Myself

This step earns me a number of stares from people. I read my book out loud to myself when it’s done. I catch the strangest things that my eyes didn’t pick up that my ears did. It really works!

You can also print it out. This is just a more visual method than one above but I don’t do it as often.

Step 7- Beta get a Beta

After painstaking amounts of editing, and revising  I send my book out to betas; preferably people I know will give me HONEST feedback and constructive criticism.

So do you have a specific way of revising your WIP? I'd love to hear it.

Ezmirelda On Writing: Revising

Ezmirelda On Writing: Voice

My take on Voice,where it comes from, and how to find it.

No guys *rolls eyes*, I'm not talking about that type of voice. I'm talking about a writer's voice--but you get the point, haha. :)

 

What is this funny little thing we call “Voice”?

n. Voice is the author's style, the quality that makes his or her writing unique, and which conveys the author's attitude, personality, and character.

n. Voice is the characteristic speech and thought patterns of a first-person narrator; a persona.

So why do we keep on hearing so much about it?

Because voice has so much to do with the reader's experience of a work of literature, it is one of the most important elements of a piece of writing.

So here’s the good news folks:

Voice is something that emerges naturally as a writer develops. So, yes, eventually (if you are constantly developing your style and skill) you will find your voice.

As always voice is something you’re going to have to work at before you get it right. So don’t get discouraged just yet—give yourself some time to grow.

How to develop your voice:

-I think this is kind of obvious but the best way to develop your voice is to write—A LOT.

-Figure out what your voice is. Poetic, morbid, funny, informational, romantic. A mix of the aforementioned?

-Let your writing become a reflection of yourself on paper.

-Make it sound unique and original—your thoughts and emotions and opinions should be your own.

Want an example?

Pick up two books (written by two different authors of course). Compare their words, style, and tone.

*Waits while you go and grab a book from your bookshelf which is probably too full to fit the books you recently brought, but you’ll try to cram it in somehow anyways*

Now that you’ve gotten your two books and have skimmed through them a bit, ask yourself--Do they sound the same?

And the answer is—of course they’re not the same! They’re written by two different authors, with two very different experiences, feelings and emotions.

That right there is Voice.

**Note: If you have anything to share about your experience with finding voice please feel free to share. I’m a developing learner of voice myself.

Ezmirelda On Writing: Voice

Novel, Novella, Novelette

The Length of a Story

I have heard from somewhere that if your work is less than 80,000 or greater than 110,000 and you’re a first-time novelist that publishers will be wary of taking your work. So I did a little research on word count and this is what I found out.

Micro-fiction-

100 word story
Publishers like these because it doesn’t cost them so much money trying to sell it, so it’s a win-win situation.

Flash-fiction-

100-1,000 words
They usually publish these in magazines.

Short Story-
 1,000-7,500 words
Usually published in anthology collections.

Novelette-

7,500-20,000 words
Publishers don’t really like this because it’s too long to insert into a magazine, and too short to stand on its own as a novel.

Novella-

20,000-50,000 words
Even though this is kind of short online publishers like them. This is mostly because people with shorter-attention spans/ people who don’t have much time to read enjoy books that aren’t as long as novels.

Novel-

50,000-110,000 words
I heard that most publishers consider 80,000 the minimum word count for a novel and 110,000 the maximum.

Epics/sequels-

Over 110,000

So if you’re writing a sequel to a novel you can extend the word count, but it’s most likely that publishers won’t accept something this long from a new-author. But if you’re a really famous author like J.K Rowling or Stephen King then it doesn’t really matter what your word count is. But anyways, if you’re writing a novel and its over 110,00 words then you should either condense it or figure out how to make it into a series.

Novel, Novella, Novelette

Publishing Terms

A List of Publishing Terms

I made this list (yeah, another list) of all the publishing terms I know. Most of them are pretty basic. If you have anything to add to this list please feel free to comment.

A picture by deviantart artist m0thyyku

Advance- An advance payment that an author gets when a publisher decides to publish their work.


Agent - A person who will represent your book and helps you get it published. An author never pays an agent—they get a percentage of your book earnings.


Book Proposal- A proposal that an author sends to a publisher about their book. It usually includes the first few chapters and an outline.


Contract- A contract that basically says that the publisher has permission to publish the sell your book.


Copy Editing- Editing that focuses on grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc.)


Copyright - Legal rights that an author’s work can not be reproduced without their consent.


Critique- A critique is an evaluation of your manuscript on plot, character, and overall structure.


Development Editor- The development author works with the author on revisions. They pay attention to pacing, plot, and structure.


Draft- An manuscript that is in the process of being edited until it becomes a final draft.


Editorial Board- A group of people who decide that they will publish your book. People from the sales and marketing department are a part of the editorial board.


Manuscript- Another word for your book. It’s also called MS, and MSS.


Proofreading - The final copy of your manuscript, that cleans up any noticeable errors before it get printed.


Query Letter- A letter that is sent to an agent asking for representation.


Revisions- Changes made to the manuscript, usually they are big changes.


Slush Pile- Manuscript that a publishing house receives that are unsolicited and not represented by an agent. Those books get put in a big pile of manuscripts called the slush pile.


Submissions- A manuscript sent by an agent to a publisher.

 
If one of these are wrong, or if you have anything to add please feel free to comment. :)


Happy writing,


Ezmirelda

Publishing Terms

Online tools for Writers

Happy 4th of July Weekend! Hope you guys are enjoying the firework dislays that are everwhere. I know I am. :)
Just thought I'd make a small list of Online Tools for Writers. I seem to have a thing for lists...hehe...I make them all the time.


Useful Online Tools for Writers:

Write or Die-

An online tool for writers who get distracted. If you stop writing for too long it will make a noise and flash until you write more.


http://writeordie.drwicked.com/


PDF Creator-
Make a PDF file for your novel so that when you send it out for critiques it’s in a safer format.


http://www.primopdf.com/index.aspx


Creative Writing Prompts-
Prompts are a great way to build your writing skills. Try them out some time.


http://www.creativewritingprompts.com/


TagCrowd-
Use tagcrowd to highlights words that are used repetitively in your manuscript. The bigger the word is in the word cloud, the more frequently you have used it. Chances are that the word you used too much could need editing. For example: I used the word “looked” too much, and had to find substitutes/ better ways to describe the action of “looking.”


http://tagcrowd.com/


Readers/critique partners-
Probably the most important one. Find someone who you trust and gives constructive criticism, and ask them to read your work. There are many critque sites online where you can find critique partners. I suggest you google that one and find the one thats right for you.

Online tools for Writers

The Art of “Not Procrastinating”

Procrastination

a writer's greatest enemy

I think it’s safe to say we’ve all done it before. You make a plan to write, you’re thinking “I’m going to write” all day, but then somehow you never get to it. Something distracting gets in the way and your minds tricks you into forgetting the things you need to do. Long term procrastination normally leads to a dreaded case of writer’s block-and we don’t want that now don’t we?

  

Comic made by Debbie Ridpath Ohi

Tips on how to master the ‘Art of Not Procrastinating’:

1. Set a goal that’s at your comfort level, and not an enormous one that you know you’re too lazy/ don’t have the time to do.

2. Have something to remind you so that you don’t forget. For example, little sticky notes that say: Write or forever be cursed with Lazywritertidus! (Yeah, that sticky note is on my wall).

3. Tell close friends and family about your writing. Nothing makes for better motivation than the people you love cheering you on.

4. Make writing fun. Doing something you love is different then doing something you consider a chore. Procrastination often starts when writing seems more like a chore. Remember that nothing you write is set into stone. You can change the plot in any new direction you want.

5. Do something else. If you write TOO much, you’re bound to get lazy or tired at some point. Give yourself a break. Have a few laughs, read a book, hang out with friends. Our ideas don’t just come out of nowhere—we get them from experience through our everyday lives.

***

Note: I managed to get 15k done this week by using these methods. Hopefully it helps you guys too.

Happy writing. :) 

The Art of “Not Procrastinating”