So, not that long ago I picked up Million Dollar Outlines by David Farland and I loved it. I have often struggled with Outlining versus Discovery writing because I fell into the category that once I had dreamed up the whole thing into an Outline, I no longer had the motivation to write the story. Mr. Farland’s advice to take the middle ground has been life-changing. I do still write that sketchy outline (I’ve shown pictures of it before) but especially at the beginning of a novel I feel free to toss that puppy out the window once I get going.
Like I did with Last Child of Winter recently.
No, seriously. 30% of that outline got tossed because the characters on the page led me to something a little different.
So I’m still Discovery Writing, seeing where the characters lead, but I have a rough idea of where I need this story to end. And since this book is about a Talent Show, all roads lead to the stage.
But I think the part that I loved most about Million Dollar Outlines is that he gave me space to brainstorm. He admitted to sometimes staring at a blank screen for an hour and working things out in his head, and to be frank… I always got frustrated with myself for doing that.
An hour staring at the screen with no words pouring onto the page? Such waste! Such laziness!
Except, it isn’t.
There might not be anything written down, but every single time I do it, I come away with a better grasp of the story I’m telling. This is why I keep notebooks and pens beside my computer. Because I can jot things down and circle/highlight/underline juicy bits that I need to explore later.
But when it comes to worldbuilding, sometimes things come out in the process of discovery writing too. Such as when this last week I was confronted by a Faery tradition regarding the Fates. No spoilers here, but suffice… it took me by surprise. I had been so centered on the fact that Fae folk had been forced to acclimate to living on Earth that I hadn’t really looked at all the traditions they left behind. Looking into this aspect of their culture has deepened my understanding of the world, the characters, and the story I am telling.
So, Worldbuilding and Me… I suppose this is all to say that writing is amazing and I deeply enjoy being surprised by what shows up on the page.
Happy writing, to those of you who do so. Happy Reading to everyone!
Welcome back to the Round Robin Posts! This first topic is New Beginnings – how do you motivate yourself to get back to writing when life has interrupted your flow?
I did take some time off from writing for the holidays and, as per usual, had to drag out some tricks to get back into the groove of writing. These tricks mostly include re-reading what has already been put on the page and visiting the ever-evolving outline. For Last Child of Winter, I actually made a skeleton outline before I got started and I am quite amused at how the story has changed.
I should say first that I adore outlining.
It makes me feel smart.
However, when it comes to the actual act of writing the novel, that poor outline gets burned midway through. Or in the case of this novel, it was burned by chapter three. Now I’m sitting with no outline, but a pretty good idea of what happens in the next chapter, and while I have no idea how it’s all going to come together in the end, I am confident that my characters are leading me in the right direction.
It is always exciting when the novel takes a life of its own, so do not take any of that as a complaint. I am captivated by what is happening with this story and can sense the threads are leaning toward one another correctly, but with the holidays letting my mind wander for as long as I did, a little refresher was still needed.
So here are some of the things I do to get me back into the groove.
#1 – The re-read.
This one seems self-explanatory. Nothing helps more than revisiting what I’ve already written.
#2 – Dust off the outline.
Admittedly, my outlines are precisely one handwritten page. Yes, the picture off to the side is a real example. These ones work for me, particularly when I’m in the early stages of the novel. When I go to do the first pass of editing, a more detailed outline is created for help with the synopsis.
#3 – Work on the Blurb
The blurb is that thing that goes on the back of the book. The thing that’s supposed to grab a reader’s attention and get them to pick up the book. It is forever evolving, but I know when it’s done its job if it makes me excited to get back to work. And because this was recently re-worked, I’ll go ahead and conclude the current working blurb for Last Child of Winter.
Last Child of Winter
In the aftermath of the great war in Faery, bright folk raced through the divide to live as refugees on Earth. But Old Man Winter’s death had far-reaching consequences and earth’s landscape dramatically changed. Blamed for the loss of resources and despised for crowding an already over-populated planet, bright folk carve out lives for themselves working menial labor and low-paying jobs.
With a new law on the table that could allow bright folk to vote, prejudice has never been higher. When fanatics threaten his foster father’s life, Jack Selvik takes the only path open to a mistweaver like himself and signs up for the wildly popular Bright Talent show. Pit against other bright folk, Jack must undergo several challenges to win a seat at the judges table or be forced through the only working portal back to Faery.
Check out what some authors do to get back into the groove of things!
So here’s the plan… Last Child of Winter is nearly complete. It turned out longer than I intended, which I think is probably good because it means I have more I can edit out come the revision pass. In any case, my beloved husband got me a Planner for Christmas and I have plotted out the first several months of 2023.
Why am I telling this to you, gentle, kind, lovely Reader (or listener, if you prefer the podcast version)?
Because those plans include a release date!
On May 9th, 2023, Nora and the Werewolf Wedding will be out for sale. And, fingers crossed, I hope to have an audio version released at the same time. It’s a learning process with audio rights and things, but hopefully we will see them both available on the same date.
Nora’s stories are my first real leap into Urban Fantasy, and for those who have been following along, I’m sure you recognize her name. She’s only been stirring around my creative brain for three years now, after a Twitter conversation gone awry. I started her story as alternate history fantasy, based in a steampunk version of our world but her voice was too sharp and by chapter four of the rough draft I had to change it.
This was the right call because her story opened up as soon as I made the choice and it’s grown enough in my head to be an entity of its own. In fact, her second book was written in three months flat and her third is being outlined.
And really, it makes sense since Nora’s character was inspired by Deanna Troi from Star Trek the Next Generation. (More on this in a later post.) Trying to shove Nora into 1820’s Boston stymied my creative Muse, as it were, and I came to a standstill. So, even if I think Nora doesn’t wear enough leather pants to truly qualify for Urban Fantasy, this is where we are.
I suppose it does have werewolves, and that seems to be on the Urban Fantasy Checklist these days.
This is vastly different from the recent release – Paw Prints on the Wall – which is still doing fabulous and I keep hearing from readers who enjoyed it. Thank you, forever and always, to everyone who has picked up a copy.
Nora’s book is a popcorn novel. Which means it’s a lot of fantastic adventure and fun, something you can enjoy while munching on popcorn or nestled in for a rainy weekend. I poke fun at a couple of tropes, lean into some cliches because, I mean, werewolves, guys. All around, Nora’s stories are great fun to write and I am looking forward to digging into the book once more as we prepare for that May 9th release.
P.S. Totally a placeholder cover. I have another cover in the works. A better cover. The best of all covers.
We are coming up on the holidays and I am about to take a step back from Blogging so that I can concentrate on family and reading and winding down, so this will be my last real post of the year. That means I get to talk about all the amazing things I managed to get done this year AND what I hope to accomplish next year.
This is my happy post because I get to brag a little.
And I do enjoy making goals for next year, even if I don’t manage to get them all done.
DRAFTS
We will start with the number of drafts I got finished in the year because honestly, this is what takes up the most time. I started the year with The World Beside Us, the second of the Nora Grayson novels. The first draft is completed and I managed to run it through the first revision pass, but it still needs another two or three passes before it is up to par and will be ready for publication.
Then I picked up Melody of Bones again, which I know I promised was a “little darling” that had been slain but let’s face it, an entire book as a “little darling” is hard to accept. It was literal years of my life I was trying to kill off and that didn’t seem at all fair. So I found a serial novel place called Novel Cat where I was able to sign the book and it is presently available in completed form. There are some charges you will have to pay to read the whole thing, if you’re interested, but it is relatively cheap. You can find my dragon Pru and her story HERE if you are interested.
Then we come to Paw Prints on the Wall, which went through several drafts before it became available for purchase in November. This story is near and dear to my heart and I am so pleased that people have been enjoying it. There are already a couple of reviews out there and I am hopeful that more people can find something that touches their hearts in the story. You can find it HERE if you are interested.
And to wrap up the year I have written (am nearly finished with) Last Child of Winter, which is a tale about a fairy talent show that I am super excited to see out in the world. It’s got fae folk as refugees on Earth and is a kind of mystery/love story/horror story all bundled into one. I adore it.
Or at least, I haven’t been working on it so long that I’ve hit the point where I hate it yet. Because that’s part of the writing process too. Don’t worry, by the time the editing process is done I’ll love it again.
BEYOND WRITING
Also this year I started podcasting this very blog. Which means you can read it OR you can have me read it to you. It has been interesting learning how to get all this done. I’m still a little wobbly when it comes to vocal editing and annunciating every word the way my high school drama teacher always taught me to do, but I will get there.
For those curious, this is the first step toward audiobooks. I have had several requests for this, and I have some vocal talent lined up for Tapped and Enemy Souls, but it is a process. With any luck, the first audio version of Tapped will be ready about the same time that the third book in the series – tentatively titled Tango Five – is ready for publication next year.
Which brings me to NEXT YEAR…
The first three months of 2023 are going to be dedicated to the completing Last Child of Winter, which is turning out to be bigger than I thought it would be. After this I will turn my focus to producing the audio version of Nora and the Big Werewolf Wedding. I am hoping for this to take no more than 6 weeks out of the year, so by the middle of May I should have something decent to present for Beta-Listeners. And then there will be announcements for a release date of the audio and print versions of the book.
For my second novel of the year I want to dive back into science fiction and get the next Tapped novel finished. Right now it is tentatively titled Tango Five, but that is likely to change mid-draft.
Titles are hard, alright?
I would also like to have edits for The World Beside Us completed, and to have a rough draft of the third novel in her series done.
I’ve learned that three major projects a year is plenty for me. It is an achievable goal and I do so enjoy achieving goals. But here are some things I would also like to complete, and/or at least begin working on:
The Little-Big Book of Testimonies – Christian Fiction
Nora and the Minotaur’s Wife – Short story
Fantasy Anthology – Possible Christmas 2023 release because I only need a couple more short stories to fill the pages. This is basically because you cannot get Torven in print anymore thanks to new guidelines/rules at Amazon. You can still get that book in digital format on Kindle.
The Debrief – Prequel Novelette for the Tapped series. This one’s been waiting in the back of my head for several years now and just needs a clear conclusion.
And that’s it. We will see what 2023 brings because I am old enough to know better than to think it will all go my way.
Happy Holidays, everyone. I hope you stay warm and safe and I look forward to seeing you all in the new year.
The official NaNoWriMo is over, but for many of us the writing continues well into December. While it is amazing to write 50,000 words in 30 days, most novels are more than that, and my current project is no exception. However, Nation Novel Writing Month comes with some awesome winner’s goodies that always make me take a closer look at the software I use for writing.
Honestly, I love looking at all the new fangled things that software designers have thrown into the market. I enjoy the Free Trials, and only ever play with them for a day or maybe a couple of hours. Maybe it’s because of my age – I am not a young’un anymore – but while these all look pretty, my creative brain always stalls when I try to use them.
The first stories I ever wrote were done in little journals. And the ones I was particularly proud of got typed up on my mother’s electronic typewriter.
Or, one, really. I wrote a small adventure story featuring myself and my cousins getting lost in the Alaskan wilderness and I typed that one up. We had just gone on vacation to visit said cousins up in Kenai and my mind was full of the chill, rough terrain and, well, I had to capture it somehow. I’ve seen a lot of beautiful places in my life, but none really come close to Alaska.
But I digress. We’re talking about writing software here, and my general lack of adventure when it comes to switching. I made the switch from Word Perfect to Microsoft Word decades ago and I simply cannot find a system that I like better. Because of space issues and a general desire to stop killing our forests so much, I have switched from a corkboard and 3×5 cards to Scrivener.
Pest judging my writing
Because yes, Scrivener has a corkboard function that makes my creative muse happy to look at. I also use Scrivener for character sheets and world building notes. But for the actual writing process, it is Microsoft Word all the way. I can’t write on the Scrivener software because, and I know this sounds silly, I just don’t like the way it looks. Now, I also have a physical notebook beside me while I write that has a rough (single page) outline and some general notes for when I inevitably get stuck and have to review the book.
And yes, often if a scene is not coming to me, I pull out a pen and paper and handwrite the scene until I have a handle on it. I enjoy the scratch of pen on paper. Character voices are often clearer when I am handwriting too, so that is always nice.
I did check out some of the new plotting software on the market this year, but alas, these have not lasted the 14-day free trial either. I’m sure they work wonders for other writers, but I am perhaps showing my age in that I know what works for me and I would rather not muck it up. So I will stick with my Microsoft Word program and Scrivener’s corkboard for now. Maybe next year I will find the one that sweeps me off my feet, but I doubt it.
I hope everyone is having a lovely Thanksgiving weekend here in America. The past few years have been rough. The effects of COVID are long-reaching, from losing loved ones to losing jobs, and the world is still limping along, trying to find its feet again.
It’s better this year for many of us.
I am grateful for that.
I am grateful for many luxuries that some people cannot afford, from candles to warm blankets to the food in my cupboards.
I am grateful for my husband, who makes me laugh every day. And for my son, who has grown taller than me and finds this fact quite entertaining.
I am grateful for books and bookstores and authors who plug away at their craft every day so that I can visit new and exciting worlds.
And I am always, always grateful for Readers. Not just the ones who pick up my work, but readers across the globe who pick up anyone’s work and explore what it means to be human through the written word. And I don’t care what genre you prefer either.
You enjoy romance novels? Great! So do I!
Prefer Young Adult? That’s amazing! Some of my favorite books are categorized there!
Don’t listen to the snobs who insist that you should be focused on one type of book over another. They’re absolutely wrong and they can come fight me for it if they want. In a world that is increasingly digital, where you can flick through TikTok/Facebook/Twitter or choose a streaming service to get your stories on a screen rather than in book form, it is beyond wonderful that you choose to read a novel instead.
Now, I enjoy movies and shows as much as the next person. So don’t get me wrong. I never would have discovered the Grishaverse were it not for Shadow and Bone on Netflix. (Which, by the way, Thank you Netflix for producing this one! My husband and I devoured several novels because of this.)
What else am I grateful for this year?
Honestly, the list is so long I’ve been writing it down in my journal all month. But suffice, I am counting my blessings this Thanksgiving.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. I hope you are equally blessed.
Since Paw Prints on the Wall has been released and continues to do well – thank you again to everyone who has purchased my novel – it is now my job to pick up the next project and continue working on it.
Or, well, that’s been my job the whole time. I never really stopped working on it.
It’s a never-ending juggle of time as an author. Either I’m marketing, writing, worldbuilding, or reading.
And yes, reading is an integral part of being a writer. Don’t let anyone tell you different.
But that’s a tangent for another day.
Today I want to look at how very different (and still the same) the genres are between Pawprints on the Wall and my current work in progress. Because yes, there are different tools I lean on more when I am writing Fantasy as opposed to Contemporary fiction. And honestly, Last Child of Winter is a weird mix of contemporary and fantasy, so I’m getting to use both this time around.
#1 – Graphic Texture
For Fantasy, I find that my books are heavy in the visual aspect of Graphic Texture, which I use to describe anything from sights to sounds and smells. This is because I am literally trying to make a whole new setting come alive. Yes, you’ve seen a forest before. But you haven’t seen a forest with an Eldur fortress grown out of the trees themselves. For that, I need to rely on descriptions.
And honestly, most people who pick up fantasy novels are in it for the world.
Yeah, they want to see heroes do cool stuff, but they mostly want to be transported to an unfamiliar place.
Bonus points for authors who can find the happy balance between pacing and description. I often find myself failing in that regard.
For Contemporary fiction, I still need my setting described, but I loosen the reins a bit. You don’t need to know about the history of the building the characters are sitting in (unless it’s relevant to the plot) and I don’t have to make it believable that they have paper and/or technology because I’m using what’s already in the world. I can say “smartphone” and not “flat, rectangular handheld device with a cracked screen that lit up when she looked at it.”
#2 – Characters
One of the tools that remains the same, however, is characterization. We won’t go into the debate on what comes first, plot or character, because honestly, one can’t exist without the other. I’ve mentioned before that I like to think of the first draft of a novel like a character interview. I’m exploring who they are every bit as much as the reader will when they pick up the novel for the first time. The difference is, I get to argue with them.
For any novel I write, getting to know the quirks of each character is both a struggle and a joy. I’m not sure how other authors do this, but characters come to me whole and I have to pry and nudge and watch them on the page to get to know them. I don’t build a character sheet and fashion the person I want to star in the book because every time I’ve tried, I end up not being able to write the book.
What I do instead is name three things for each POV character, and then add information I learn along the journey to their notebook page. Because yes, I still write things in notebooks with pen and paper. This trusty story-bible sits beside me until the novel is published.
What are the three things?
Glad you asked!
*What does (name) want most?
*What does (name) fear most?
*Who is the most important person to (Name)?
#3 – Pacing
This is the most significant difference between a fantasy novel and a contemporary novel. Fantasy novels are given a larger frame to work in. They can be anywhere up to 100,000-120,000 words in length and people will read them because they go into the novel expecting a quest. The worldbuilding alone takes up a great deal of space and the characters on the page are allowed to meander a bit.
For a contemporary novel, readers expect the pace to be faster. Yes, things foul up the character’s plans and such, but the time to get from beginning to end of a novel is much less. They are between 75,000-85,000 in length, so the frame to write the story in is smaller. So you can’t drag on about every pet the character ever owned from youth to adulthood, you have to pick the relevant ones that both drive home the point of the story and keep the pace moving.
The rest of the toolbox is still open, of course. I can’t sacrifice setting just because it’s contemporary, and just because I have more space in a fantasy novel to write in doesn’t mean I should use it all. Each story is different and there’s no one-size fits all for how to go about crafting it.
Trust me.
I’ve tried concentrating on the 3-Act Structure and all that. It’s important to know how that works, so don’t get me wrong, you should absolutely know these things about writing because it is a part of the writer’s toolbox. But, for me anyway, it is not helpful to look at that stuff until I’m writing the second draft. For the first draft, which is where I’m at with Last Child of Winter, I can only plot things out 2 or 3 chapters in advance, and oftentimes I get it wrong and have to fix it as I go.
In the end, this is a craft. And it’s art. So I just take a deep breath and try to learn who my characters are and what they have to teach me.
There was a time I swore I would never write First Person POV outside of my own journal. To me, the lines between author and character blurred far too much, which is likely because my first attempts at writing were done in this vein. Back in the 6th Grade – yes, that’s when I first started scribbling stories down – it was easy to write that way because I was the hero.
Peeping out the window during the storm.
I was the warrior princess scaling the mountainside, intent on visiting the wizard.
I was the dragon slayer.
And the character had no true development because my still-developing brain was focused on the adventure and not the true story. Because at the heart of every story is a character who must grow in some way. If that growth does not happen, you have cool set pieces and neat action sequences, but no real story.
That isn’t to say I haven’t tried first person POV since abandoning it as an endeavor of my youth. Persona’s first drafts were done in the first person. I’m not sure why I changed it, other than I thought a requirement of “real stories” that it be in the third person limited.
Two decades later and I’m sitting before my computer, writing in first person POV with a character named Nora Grayson who is most assuredly her own person. While I have given her empathy as her superpower because I am a deeply empathetic person, that is really the only thing that I can point to and say for certain it came from me. And she is growing.
Not only that, but I find her delightful.
So delightful that I am far and away over my projected word count. I enjoy lingering with her late into the evening, when I should have closed up my laptop and called it a day. The entire world she is seeped into is a place I want to visit, which admittedly isn’t difficult because who doesn’t want to visit the land of Fairy?
Point of View is just another tool in the writer’s toolbox, and I’m glad to have finally learned this lesson. I cannot imagine Nora’s books without her clear voice on the page, and while there are arguments to be made that adult novels steer away from the first person, what it ultimately comes down to is what story you’re telling. When taken as a whole, this series of books could not be told without Nora as the central “I” shown on the page.
This past week the writing community lost a beloved mentor and author. David Wolverton Farland was introduced to me by my husband while we were dating. It was one of those dating things you do where you trade books to show different tastes and whatnot, and my husband offered up Runelords to me.
Needless to say, I loved the book. It was creative and interesting and I loved the magic system he built.
Flash forward several years and I came to a place as an author where I recognized I was missing something in my craft. My husband learned Mr. Farland had a writing class and encouraged me to check it out. I found My Story Doctor and the Apex Writer’s Group and took several of his classes and my writing most certainly improved. While I could never afford the larger packages, he had something affordable for even me.
My regret is that I was never able to work with him directly.
Sure, I got to learn from his recorded classes, but I didn’t get the one-one-one that I know several others have benefited from. Even without meeting him, though, he impacted how I approached my writing. And I will be forever grateful for that.
From the moment I learned of his passing I have struggled with a way to honor him. His family were gracious through their heartbreak, sharing the memorial remotely to those lives Mr. Farland had touched far and wide. It has been humbling to watch just how many people have stepped forward with testimonies of his encouragement and instruction, and I daresay we will never have another teacher like him.
In my meager attempt to honor him somehow, I picked up one of his books – Million Dollar Outlines.
I hadn’t gotten to that one in his classes, mostly because I struggle to finish a book if I have completed a full outline up front. Imagine my entertainment when he addresses that very problem in the first pages of the book? And my pleasure that the mini-outline I have come to embrace, where I only outline a couple of chapters ahead while drafting, was one that he himself used.
While I did not get to meet him personally, he affected my life and my writing and I will be forever grateful. His books are still out there, his instruction recorded, and I suspect he will be impacting lives and careers long into the future.
With NanoWriMo 2021 officially over, I can report that during the last 30 days I not only managed to edit one novel to its completion, but two. And then I started working on a third.
Because why not?
The two novels I edited took about a week and a half a piece, with dedicated writing times that ran past dinner and forced me to get creative with feeding the family. (One must never, ever besmirch their slow cooker.)
This success has led me to prepping for the infamous #PitMad that will happen on December 2nd. I will admit that this is my first real attempt at the Twitter party. I want to say I tried once before with Melody of Bones, but didn’t fully understand the rules. I only pitched it once that day and apparently you’re allowed 3 pitches per book during the allotted timeframe.
For those who are unaware of #PitMad, you can find all their information here.
I only recently learned of this neat little Twitter party last year or so, but I’m sure there are more people out there who hermit themselves away as much, if not more, than I do. If you’re one of them, I promise to report my findings for this party and you can decide for yourselves if you want to join in the next one.
To all who participated in NanoWrimo this year, I salute you. Win or lose, words got on the page. Maybe they’re bad words and you only keep 10% of what you wrote, but the page isn’t empty. Let’s work with that.
Oh, and just for the fun of it, here are the “placeholder covers” I used during Nano. (Yes, I’m still in a love affair with Canva. Eventually the novelty will fade.)
