Friday is Late Because of Dragons

Sorry I'm posting on Sunday, guys. But I felt like I owed you one because I've missed two Fridays in a row now.

And I had posts planned for them and everything. The problem is that I haven't been home for the past two Fridays. I went to school, then went out and didn't get home until early Saturday morning.

"Why?" You may ask.

Because I've been playing Dungeons & Dragons with a group of friends (Yes, I know, I am now an OFFICIAL nerd). Anyways, sorry for missing those Fridays. I'm hoping to be on schedule next Friday, but not positive about that - there might be more D&D or The Avengers or studying for AP tests.

Speaking of D&D, though. I think it's actually a great game for writers! Well, fantasy writers, especially. You have to come up with a character and their backstory; you have to know their motives, they powers, their appearance. As well how they came to be about in the group and how they interact with all the other characters. And then there's a whole plot to the game. It's just like coming up with a protagonist/story. The exciting this is that you get to BE the character! You don't always get to be your protagonist when you're writing, do you? *shakes head*

Unfortunately for me, I don't actually have a backstory for my character yet! I've been trying to think of one, but nothing's quite solid yet. And all my friends have awesome stories, so I feel like I need to live up to that string of awesome. I don't suppose all you writers out there might have suggestions for my character? She's an elf with a bow and arrow and is totally awesome. And her name is Keyleth.

Well, I need to get back to studying now. I graduate in two weeks (EXACTLY), but before that I have to take my AP tests... and those begin next Monday, so I'm dubbing this the week of intensive studying! I probably won't be online very much, but I hope to see you again next Friday! And then I will be WAY more regular about these posts! :)

Toodles!

P.S. DON'T FORGET TOMORROW IS YOUR LAST DAY TO SEND IN POSTS TO MAYBE BECOME A YA LIT SIX-ER!!! PLEASE DO!

Thursday Wonders

There are a lot of controversies in the writing world.
• To love triangle or not to love triangle
• To write for characters or to write for plot
• To plan or to sit on the seat of your pants
• To discuss sex, alcohol, and drug in YA or not to discuss sex, alcohol, and drug in YA
• To censor our writing or to say whatever flows

Personally one thing I think should be discussed more is “to create a likable character from the beginning or to create a fuller character arc”. Actually, I don’t know if this is discussed at all. I’ve never seen anything about it before which perplexes me.

Everyone says: start your story with something to make your character more likable
Everyone says: there must be a character arc or what’s the point

My WIP starts with my MC trying to kill someone. Personally, for the well being of society, I really hope many people don’t relate to wanting to kill someone. Spoiler: she does over time grow and learn to accept what’s happened to her life

This chapter was difficult for me because I didn’t want to over ride future reader with depressing thoughts that could make the reader feel distant, but I also didn’t want to make her seem like a warm and fuzzy person that people automatically relate to and risk not having a full character arc.

In the end, I had to decide whether I wanted the chapter to lean more towards character arc or a relatable character beginning.

I choose character arc because that is one of the big things about my MC. I want my future readers to see her grow.

The thing I learned that balanced the two sides out for me was adding in part of one of my subplots (a romantic subplot ;)) that makes my MC relatable. Maybe this was a “no duh” kinda thing, but this took me forever to do well.

What do you think is more important: character arc or relatable character beginnings? Do you have trouble with this? Do you think this should be discussed more in general?

Don’t forget Monday is the last day to submit YaLit Six membership forms. I really hope some of y’all send in an email. Also we also take post suggestions if you feel like there is something you would like our opinion or advice on.

Tuesday is Ironic

So there's this documentary I've been wanting so see for about a year, I think. And today I finally got to see it. It discussed how homework and America's "success culture" is stifling creativity and students' ability to learn. And now I'm home and I have...a lot of homework.

Irony.

So in lieu of this week's post I'll drop the link to the documentary's site, which is really interesting:

http://www.racetonowhere.com/

Also, what's with the new Blogger editing layout? This shall take some getting used to.

Thursday is Here to Inspire

I have never understood people who say “I’d love to write a book, BUT I don’t know what to write about.” I don’t know how I manage to nod my head like I understand because inside my jaw is to the ground.

Maybe you have this problem. My best friend even has this problem. There’s nothing wrong with it. I just don’t get it.

Ideas come to me like bugs on sugar. I have dropped more projects than I’d like to admit due to SNIs (Shiny New Ideas). I have files upon files of ideas. There were so many (with super cryptic titles that even I didn’t know what they were about) that I had to divide them into favorites, maybes, horrible, sounds too much like a published book, and books in a series. I haven’t reorganized them lately because it would take me forever.

I can understand not being able to find subplots, but basic ideas? I am completely dumbfounded.

Since there are people out there who feel this way, I thought I would mention a few ways I find inspiration.

Caution: You may soon be overwhelmed with amazing ideas that your fingers fall off from all the writing you’ll do, and you will hate me for making you see all the possible story ideas around you. Heck I hate myself some days (especially during tests) and a new ideas pops up out of nowhere. How am I supposed to take a test on biology when I have characters that NEED to be written about?

Music- I think this is a biggy. Songs are like shorter, catchy novels. A ton of songs are based real life experience. If I remember correctly, The Script (who sings “Breakeven” and “For the First Time”) named their band the Script because they realized all of their songs had a beginning, middle and end. I know a lot of people find an idea THEN find music that goes with it, but sometimes I do the opposite. I was in the car when a song came on the radio that would be an amazing story beginning. I’ve currently listened to it a billion times today even though I don’t intend to start it in the near future. Some days, I put my iPod on shuffle, and an old song I barely remember (but you know I can magically sing along especially for “Beautiful Soul” by Jesse McCartney. Don’t pretend that the second you hear that song you can’t sing along to every word) comes on. Boom! Light bulb turns on above my head. Instant idea.

Places- Street names and neighborhood names (do they have an official name?) are really nice for characters and setting. There is a neighborhood I pass on my way to school that became a major building block for a series of mine. It was one of those things I saw, and it just clicked. Street names are also fun since some of them are named after people. I like to play around with street names and go “what type of person would be named _____?” Sometimes all you need is a character who just starts the idea snowball.

Pictures- On my personal blog, I had a segment called A Pictures Worth a Thousand Words as a way for writers to come up with ideas from pictures. I really believe the statement that a pictures worth a thousand words. I have folders on my computer dedicated solely to pictures that inspire me. I have people, places, situations, love, clothes, makeup, hair, etc pictures that just beg to be written. What were the people in the picture doing? What is their life story? What if _____ happened to them?

Dreams- This is the hardest one for me personally. I don’t really remember my dreams. I think some people keep a dream journal to record their dreams in case something could be used as a novel. If I remember correctly, Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight Saga was based on a dream. This doesn’t work for everyone. I can only remember two dreams that I would ever consider making a real story, but for some people, this is where the gold comes from.

Around and About- This is the hardest for me to explain. I guess this is something that comes from experience though this has always been a gimme for me. Basically, this is where you see something, and it clicks. An idea snowballs from a simple phrase or quote. I guess this kinda just sums up everything above. Over time the ideas will just come from the weirdest of places. They’ll attack your mind. One day one of these ideas might be THE idea that changes you from writing as a hobby to a writer. Sounds scary write (yes I know it should be right, but I couldn’t resist the pun).

I hope you find THE idea.

Now I must sing along with Beautiful Soul. Yes, I remember every word even though I haven’t heard it in forever.

How do you come up with ideas? Do you have problem with coming up with ideas?

Don’t forget we are still accepting membership posts! We would love for y’all to send in your work and join us here.

Tuesday Looks Back

You know (maybe) how when you're driving, and you want to change lanes, you need to look behind you? And not just in the mirrors, but the blind spot as well, to get the full picture? Or else you end up like this?

(Pause for chuckling at above video.)

Turns out you need to do this in writing, too. And by this I mean, before you change a story's direction or move along with the plot, you need to fill in the reader on their blind spot--aka, backstory the character knows but has not conveyed yet that will make changing lanes/directions much smoother.

However, like in driving, you can't just whip around and stare at the blind spot like the freaky chipmunk and forget to look in front of you, because then your driving gets all wibbly and so does the plot. What I'm getting at here is that backstory must be worked in like a cool, nonchalant glance to the rear. The car/plot stays on course, but you know have a glimpse of the full picture.

For example:

UNCOOL FREAKY CHIPMUNK STARE: "Humphrey barreled across the corner, nearly knocking into me. This was significant because the first time we met Humphrey ran into me and we fell halfway down a flight of stairs, but that was okay because he was really hot and had a Hungarian accent and bought me a latte to apologize. Anyway, he didn't actually hit me this time, so let's move along with the story."

COOL REAR GLANCE: "Humphrey barreled around the corner, signature Humphrey style. I automatically stepped out of the way. Someday I might just let him run into me again--last time, which happened to be the first time we met--he bought me a latte as an apology for knocking me down half a flight of stairs. (Really, the Hungarian accent was enough to make me forget the whole bruised-tailbone, thing, but, you know, can't turn down the free coffee.)"

Maybe you prefer the former, but I find that the latter incorporates info in with voice and gives the backstory from the main character's perspective and reads like a conversation rather than notes from a creepy third-party stalker.

How do you prefer to work in the backstory?

Kieryn

www.kierynnicolas.com

Saturday and the Tale of the Twisted Times

Or: That is one of the worst titles I've ever come up with; also, plot and such.

I've probably blogged about this before, but I can't remember if I have so hopefully you guys can't either.

Here's something you may or may not know about me: I am not good at plot.

Wait, hold on. Bacon.

Okay, I'm back. Also, yum. Anyways, I'm not good at plot. I'm better at the mushy-gushy emotional stuff. And there's nothing wrong with a purely character or emotion-driven plot, obviously, but the books I write need the other kind, too.

Basically, people be dying a lot in my books.

I have a few tips for stronger plots, too.

1. Either before or after the rough draft, depending on which one will make you less crazy, an outline is a great idea. Sometimes an outline before I draft helps me write stronger initially, sometimes I need to just pants things. Either way, rough draft outlining.

2. Update the rough outline. Whenever you change a plot event, update your outline. Otherwise, what good will it do for you, right?

3. Motivation. If your books are anything like mine, someone is trying to kill someone else. This is kind of a Big Deal. Most people don't just decide to murder someone. You really, really need to think about why the character thinks that this is their only option left. What happened that they think they can live with the death of a person on their hands?

4. Cut scenes that are not important to the plot or character development. Sometimes, you will write awesome incredible scenes that you love dearly. Sometimes you will have to cut these same scenes. Not always, but sometimes some scenes are just filler and you don't need them.

5. Make someone else do it. Okay, this isn't REALLY a tip, but honestly, my crit partners have given me AWESOME advice about plot and I couldn't do this whole writing thing without them.

Since this honestly isn't my best area, you guys tell me now! What are your best tips for writing strong plots?

Peace and cookies,
Laina