Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com
Showing posts with label Tips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tips. Show all posts

Thursday, December 1, 2016

NaNoWriMo 29th and 30th day log: THE END (and what's next) with video

This is the last update on NaNoWriMo. I might have more writing updates later depending how things goes.
Today is December 1st so NaNoWriMo finished at midnight last night. It was a lot of fun as usual, I didn't participate in as much word count sharing and discussion as I usually do because my schedule was a bit tight and I sort of missed that but it didn't stop me from finishing it and reaching my first goal even if I didn't make it to the second.
In this video, I talk a lot about what is coming next, that is, what I'm going to be doing writing-wise in December. I'm introducing NaNoFiMo, you can join the forum here even though it's a bit dead today, I don't know if it's going to be updated or when you can have a look here.
And also I talk about my word count spread sheet. Basically, that's what I use when there is no other place online to count my words. It's also pretty nice in the sense that I can keep the data and analyse them later and compare them to other months. If you want the spread sheet, just let me know and I'll figure out a way to give it to you.

http://www.wattpad.com/user/Crazypuce

Follow my blog with Bloglovin
Find us on Google+

Sunday, November 13, 2016

NaNoWriMo 11th and 12th Day Log, Tip 9 and backache

So here is another 2 day log update with 0 words improvement. I'm going to try to do better today but I'm not sure how that will go. I'm so glad I followed my previous advice and got as many words as possible at the beginning so that I'm not really "late" on my writing. I still have a few words in advance so I don't need to worry too much.

And then here is your advice for today too. This is tips number 9 so only one left after that.



http://www.wattpad.com/user/Crazypuce

Follow my blog with Bloglovin
Find us on Google+

Thursday, November 10, 2016

NaNoWriMo 9th day log, tip 7 and following my own advices

So I started following my own advice and had a massive catch up and a pretty good writing day. Write or Die is really too efficient for me. At this point I even felt like I could write the whole novel in one sitting, haha not happening but still it was a pretty good feeling.
I hope you'll enjoy today's new tips. I already decided to put in in practice when I finished today's writing session. Hopefully it will make tomorrow's writing even better.


http://www.wattpad.com/user/Crazypuce

Follow my blog with Bloglovin
Find us on Google+

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

NaNoWriMo 7&8th day log, tip 5 and 6, and the fire lions

So here is a double update with double tips because I didn't make a video yesterday. Yesterday I managed to make two doll videos that you might have seen about the kikipop Rourou panda doll and nothing else except sleeping. Today I slept until 4pm. I know this is crazy I have long period of insomnia when I don't sleep more than 2 hours at a time and then I sort of crash into this weird restless sleep that takes me around the clock.
I have a serious brainfog and can't concentrate much on anything for a long period of time and it's the first time it actually affect my writing that much. Anyway.
Day 7: 11 words
Day 8 so far: 377 words, more coming up.
When I say you need those words in advance, you see I'm not lying because there truly are days when nothing actually works out.
So I'm giving two tips today, just that if you are following them you don't get behind or something.


Here is the link to write or die:
http://writeordie.com/
Personally, I use the try version and it works well for me.


http://www.wattpad.com/user/Crazypuce

Follow my blog with Bloglovin
Find us on Google+

Monday, November 7, 2016

NaNoWriMo 6th day log, tip 4 and the use of flashbacks (with video

So today was a hard writing day. I actually finished the writing past midnight. One of the reason is that I don't know where this story is going. I don't know if I want Brownie to stop on the way and visit places as in an initiatic journey or if I want her to be just arriving to the place as fast as possible and just work really hard on what she needs to do to solve her problems.
Maybe I'll go for a little bit of both but I'm not sure yet how to do that.

Anyway that was right the problem I needed to implement tip 4, enjoy!

To get more tips for the smart way of doing NaNoWriMo see here, for the crazy way, see here. And for your daily NaNo tip, check my youtube channel Mes crazy expériences.

Don't forget to have fun and see you next time.

http://www.wattpad.com/user/Crazypuce

Follow my blog with Bloglovin
Find us on Google+

Friday, November 4, 2016

NaNoWriMo 4th day log, Tip #2 and stats

It's day four of NaNoWriMo. I had a relatively late writing start today because I woke up with a headache. Then I managed to get going and reached 10791 words.
The story went from the Kitchen to the underground back to Brownie's room and "introduction" of four "new" characters. Maybe I should have started the story when she is already on her way because she seems to have a lot of trouble leaving the house. Hopefully I'll have her out by the end of the week-end.


So today we have a tour in the statistic section of the NaNoWriMo website and then I talk about today's tip.To get more tips for the smart way of doing NaNoWriMo see here, for the crazy way, see here. And for your daily NaNo tip, check my youtube channel Mes crazy expériences.

Don't forget to have fun and see you next time.
http://www.wattpad.com/user/Crazypuce

Follow my blog with Bloglovin
Find us on Google+

NaNoWriMo 3rd day log, Tip #1 Win NaNoWriMo 100% guaranteed (with video)


I think I got a little bit crazy on this one. I'll try not to go crazy as much tomorrow but seriously though, if you want to win NaNoWriMo, you don't have to write the words on the deadline, you have to write them before the deadline. And to be dead serious if you don't have extra words in you pockets for the days when you can't physically write, and you've never been possessed by the crazy writing monster, then you're predominantly screwed. That being said there is always a way to turn everything I say around but I'm giving you the 100% guaranteed win version not the How to win NaNoWriMo: The unmotivated procrastinator version (tips and tricks) 


Anyway guys, have fun with your novel.

http://www.wattpad.com/user/Crazypuce

Follow my blog with Bloglovin
Find us on Google+

Sunday, November 29, 2015

How to win NaNoWriMo: The unmotivated procrastinator version (tips and tricks)

I just won NaNoWriMo for the seventh year in a row (not even counting the JaNos.., the JuNos..., the camp NaNos... etc, etc... ). I know that totally sounds like I'm showing off but I don't think anyone should read a list of tips from someone who haven't been there and mind you I do have bragging rights. So here you'll find all the tips and tricks you really need for next year or NaNoFiMo if you want a new try as soon as possible. 

If you want the regular set of tips for beginners and people who don't feel ready to totally unleash their crazy side. Go see this post, that's what I used once upon a time when I really wanted to win but wasn't sure I would. If you are more adventurous, keep on reading. 

But first a picture of my stat for this year. Crazy, write. 
1) Don't write every day. 
I know I'm starting strong with the bad advises and that most people are going to want to kill me. Because you know you want to create good writing habits. And writers write and all that stuff. Well, see I didn't write every day and I still made it. I see people all around despairing when they miss a day, overdoing the catch up without a plan and just plain freaking out and give up. I mean why continue with the game when you've missed so many days that every one is telling you that you'll fail, you'll never win and you're not a writer anyway cause writers write. 
Well, here is the opposite side of the story, write when you can and if you can't you'll deal with it later, enjoy what you're doing now and stop thinking about the words.

2) Finish your idea. 
The idea is there, you are writing, the words are flowing, don't care about the word count, write it all, NOW. Write until you're out of juice. Yes, tomorrow it will be harder to start again because all your ideas are already on the page. Well, too bad but you needed those words yesterday too so who cares. When it's here, go and use it. Tomorrow well, that's tomorrow's problem not todays.

3) Edit as you go. 
I'm not telling you to erase anything, Erasing is strictly forbidden! If you are going to erase something just don't come and complained to me, you've been warned. But add stuff in the middle. Add paragraph of description, add feelings and colors and tastes and smell to your characters and places. Add some narrative in between the dialogue part, add add add. It's not so much as to edit the story but more as since you've run out of juice at point 2), you need a new writing starting point. 

4) Write what you can.
Even if it's a 50 words day, get that sentence written. I know I hate it because 1666 words is a bad number enough already. 1666 is not a winner's number. Writing a daily 1666 words is a real pain. I can't write that little on a daily basis. I need a minimum of 2500 and even that has a tendency to be too little to keep me going. But you're procrastinating so hey any words are better than nothing. I had some very small days but they still counted toward the goal. 

5) Learn maths.
If you don't hate me yet, you're going to have to hate me now. The thing is NaNo is all about numbers, don't let the NaNo calculator tell you what you need to right, make your own plan. If it tells you you need 2341 words a day to finish on time, start at 2500 or 3000, round numbers are always better anyway, easier for the mind to grasp. 

6) If you know you're gonna win.
Let's face it. If I had this attitude on my first NaNo, I'll still be in the pack of those wondering how anyone can write 50k a month. The thing is I knew I was going to win again because I don't take anything less than victory. 
Sorry for the people struggling with it but for some of us, it's a walk on the beach.


http://www.wattpad.com/user/Crazypuce

Follow my blog with Bloglovin
Find us on Google+

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Editing frenzy: Check your character's voice

There are a lot of templates out there for character creation which include all the basic ingredients about who your character is. That is actually his ID card and extras.  To tell you the truth, I never use any of those. I don't have a clue when are my characters birthdays, I'm not throwing a birthday party for them. I don't need their zodiac signs or their main address and most of them don't even need a last name. I find these things rather obnoxious. 
Someone told me regarding Demon Soul's cover: "When I saw it, I though your characters were Japanese." 
And so what? My characters don't have a nationality, they don't need one, they are not checking at the airport so no passport. But hell you're gonna know if they are a demon or not because they are going to be ranting about it. 

Fitting characters in little boxes is a bad idea because you might always want to change that later if you want to have a party and you need an excuse but it's November and you're character is Taurus that's not going to be good, even if you said he was Taurus just to fill up some more words. Use the information you have on them when you need to and beside when you meet people they don't tell you straight away everything about then unless you are reviewing their CV to hire them.

My point is. Stop with the useless details and get to the point already. Surprise! surprise! To build a character, I told you before to make them realistic, you need to single out what makes them unique. 
The hair colour, the eyes colour that's just details and fill up. I love my green eyes but I don't let them define me. 

So here is one thing that your character should have and that's his particular voice, because of course you are going to write some dialogue. 

To take an extreme case of very well define character, take Francis Dolarhyde in Thomas Harris's Red Dragon. The guy is avoiding every "S" sound he can get around because of a malformation of his mouth. Seriously, I'm not saying that every single character needs to be that extreme but make sure that all your characters don't talk as "you" do.

To do that, there are several things that you can use (today we are learning by example):

A gesture that the character does before talking. If you read Ice Princess by Janine De Jesus  you'll see Sibyl liking her lips. She also likes to use movie quotes which is taken later on by another character while her friend can't get what she is talking about. 
If you look at Demon Soul and the rest of my demon novels. Isakael is always having a strange way of walking as if his wings were too heavy for him, he also always complain about being an angel.
Use a particular word that one of your character repeated all the time. Azazel recently like to say "Damn" a lot. 
Use your characters defaults as well. If your character is proud or vain that's going to show when they move and talk. 

Then when you revise your draft, make sure it's all consistent. 

Follow my blog with Bloglovin
Find us on Google+

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Linear writer or Parallel writer

For some times now I have been thinking a lot about the shapes my stories are taking.
I'm not sure if there are already terms for what I'm going to describe so let me start by explaining what I mean by linear writer and parallel writer.

A linear writer takes a character from A to Z and never leave her/him, or goes with this character all the way through time -with flashbacks in thoughts even though the flashbacks might mean that it's not really linear. See how I'm even confused about it.  

I always considered myself a linear writer. But come to think of it even in Demon Soul there are always some parts where I'm not only with Brownie. For example during Sahel's training in the Demon World. In that case, the story is linear in time only, despite the background flashbacks in Brownie's thoughts.
My only story that would be purely linear is then Rainbow Catcher and I can tell you that sticking with Jason was so hellish that I actually had two characters around him to spice things up a bit and it took me a lot longer to write with a big break. Then again, I don't know how the entire linear writing will survive the multiple editing.
The thing that made me believe I was a linear writer is more how I always started my stories, Demon Soul, Attic Mirror, Demon and Fairy, Rainbow Catcher, Vampire heart... with only one character to follow and then things changed a bit as the story developed but probably not to much, after all, I'm a planner. 
In Demon and Fairy, the story would have been completely linear (and it was) if I didn't add the Kelpie story line in part 2. This story line is only really useful for the reader when they reach my current WIP Blue Angel so it took me a long time to decide if I wanted to include it or not in full. 
What I like in linear writing is the intimacy. You get to know the character very well because they are all you see, this is sometimes difficult to handle as a writer because it doesn't leave any space for inconsistencies in the character's timeline or behavior, if you want them to do something special out of their usual behavior, you need to give them a special trigger related to something that happened in their past. Of course, ideally you need that for every characters, but it's more complex when the number of characters is reduced. 
I especially like this complexity in the character development in Vampire Heart because I think it works pretty well with the first person narrative, even if I escape in the third person with another character from time to time. It allows me to give Viorel so many layers of personality that it even makes me confused at time.
In Harajuku Kiss, I write in third person and the linearity in this point of view helps me detached a bit from the main character to emphasize how depressed she is and how the one particular event of the story can completely shift her state of mine and her life.
I think I like to have my reader feel the same way the main character does.
In Demon and Fairy, the linearity at the beginning of the novel allows the reader to feel the Chaos in Seti's head as something omnipresent that they don't fully understand, it's oppressing and you can't help but want to get ride of it. My only fear is that the reader might be annoyed enough by it to stop reading.




















Then a parallel writer is a writer who starts the novel with different story lines which join each other at some point or at the conclusion where everything fixes itself, or a writer who writes a story where the time line is a mix of present, past, future in any order you would like. 
The only problem with me calling it parallel is that parallel lines are not supposed to join, ever, but then in a story that would be pretty weird.

I think I'm starting to be parallel writer. It started with Demon World. I had three story lines going on. And I have Brownie and Sahel's minds jump from past life to past life multiple time leading to no linearity in time. I still need to edit this part to make sure that it's blurry enough and still clear enough. It's something nice to balance and I really enjoyed this part. It gave my characters some new dimensions as their souls travel back in time.
Now, in Blue Angel, I have five story lines as you might have noticed. I go from one to the other in order. At first, I thought the story lines belonged to particular characters but when Isakael joined Sahel and the other by going home, one story line was close but a new story line opened in the Angel World with Ezechial so maybe they belong to places.
This allowed me to give a new dimension to the story by developing my villain. In the previous novel, the villains seem under developed as we spend so much time with the protagonists. This will be fixed as the villains become more and more prominent in the story because the protagonists discover their purposes.
I really enjoy the mystery part in parallel writing. When you go from one group of characters to another, there is always something in me that wants to know what will happen to the previous groups of characters. It also gives a rather epic dimension to the story with a lot of things happening and allows me to create a world more complete and complex. It also let me play with a lot of characters, it's like having many friends.

So linear or parallel? How do you like your stories? How do you like your writing? Let me know!
Find us on Google+

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Telling a story: The so called Head-hopping

The more I learn about writing, the more I dislike the rules people are giving. One of the reason why I dislike those rules is that they are often contradictory from one writer to another, confusing and at best ready to be broken.

I want to talk about something that a lot of writers look upon with disgust while others, like me, like to embrace it, to give another dimension to the story. I'm going to talk about "head-hopping."

First let me define what is Head-hopping

When writing a story, writers chose a point of view to tell it. It can be the first person, the third person restricted to a character or the third person omniscient or what we would call head-hopping. Head-hopping, the topic of today consist in changing point of view to feed the need of your story.
Choosing a point of view is a very important step when deciding to write a story and so is changing it during the story.

The main complains of the one who don't like "head-hopping" are as follows,



1) It's confusing
 2) You don't know in who's head you are
 3) You need to share too many feelings
 4) The reader can't relate to the character
 5) The reader wont care/bond about the characters

If those concerns are louable and might make sense, it is very unclear what the experience of the reader will actually be like with or without head-hopping.
Image from Hyberbole and a Half
As a reader I have to say that I personally don't stop at every sentence to ask myself in which character's head I am and what is the point of view. I believe that the writer is actually giving me the information for a reason, that's his job to analyse, not mine. For a personal experience, I have to say that there is only one time when the change of point of view actually annoyed me. It was in "Red Mars", I read about 60 pages in mostly Maya's point of view and at the next chapter it changes suddenly to Nadia's point of view, while calling her "she" first for a while. At that time I truly believed that I was still with Maya. I remember asking myself where the hell is Maya, who is that. I closed the book and gave myself few days to get back. That kind of change of POV is apparently acceptable because it's "clear", well I would have highly prefered a smooth transition even if I got used to Nadia and maybe even liked her better as her personality is closer to mine. 

Here are the reason why I like the "head-hopping."

 1) More flexibility: when dealing with a group of character, it's very easy to have from time to time a character with a more appropriate POV. It is way more efficient to tell epic stories with complicated plots and subplots involving a lot of characters. (You must remember that I like having a lot of characters in my stories.)
Image from Hyberbole and a Half
 2) Staying with the action even when a character leaves: You can look at it in the same way you would have a conversation with several people but at some point the conversation split in two groups and you need to decide which one to follow. I
 3) Your characters are talking to you for a reason: Writers often say that the characters are talking to them. If a character tells you how he feels at a particular moment maybe it's a good idea to give him/her some attention.
 4) It makes the narrator more reliable. Being with only one character at a time of intense emotion is very difficult for the reader as well as because as a person they are able to catch the emotions of others. By letting the point of view change you give your reader a more accurate version of what everyone feels.
 5) The thoughts verb use against head-hopping. Thought verbs are something that I tend to avoid because it falls in the category of telling instead of showing.  is really bad because it makes your character do assumption on others behavior and mislead the reader, it makes the narrator unreliable. It gives him a self centered personality like everything is about him.

Here are few posts by others about change of POV:

3 Tips for Using Mulitple Point of View Characters
The Rules of Writing: Switching POV, or “Head-Hopping”
Head hopping done right
What Makes Omniscient POV Different from Head-Hopping?

 These are of course no restrictive. 
Just a warning when you read blog posts with rules, the writers tend to write the example with the broken rules badly so that it actually defies the point of the all post in my opinion. 

Conclusion

The only thing I would recommend if you are confused about your writing point of view and if you are doing it "right" is to grab few of your favorite novels and see how they do it in there. Frank Herbert, Hemingway and Stephen King can go with Head-hopping, well I think I'm good to stick with it.

 
   
Find us on Google+

Friday, September 27, 2013

Writing with a constraint: Mich's Summer Mystery

I spend the Summer working on the Mich's Summer Mystery. The solution to the mystery is that the letter A has been missing and the main character finally finds in it a book liberating my writing. This type of story is called a lipogram, it's not something new or something I created but it has been used by others before.

Why did I chose to write this story without the letter A?

When I was about 14 years old, my French teacher introduced a book called "La disparition" by Georges Perec. The entire novel is a mystery written in lipogram where the letter E has disappeared. I thought it was a brilliant idea and I really wanted to try to write something like that but I never thought I could. It is really hard to come up with twists and turns to make up for the lack of one single letter. At that time it was way beyond my writings abilities but then of course, somehow, I grew up and my skills grew and my confidence grew as well. 
I decided to give it a try. I decided for the letter A because well E had been done already and A is a really extensively used letter as well. I mean I was writing in Mich's point of view in the first person and I couldn't use anything like "I am", "I was" or even "There was". Something was missing and I couldn't even have other people ask her "What" it was. So this is the reason why A disappeared because I was sure it was something that people would notice. But they actually didn't.

What writing with a constraint did to my writing?

Well I have to say the first few posts were hell. I didn't have anything else than the idea that it needed to be a mystery and that I couldn't use any A. I had no plot, no characters and no location for it. I was on my own without As. The first thing that came to my mind was to get the main character to look for the As everywhere. I also decided to make the place a little foggy so everything around became Weird, not Strange, not Bizarre, just Weird. Then I needed to have her wake up, breathing, eating, walking and going to the bathroom without As. It was hell.
And then suddenly it seemed that my mind accustomed itself to it. When I opened the story the words would just flow out without A as if it was something absolutely normal. It surprised myself so much that I had to double check by underlining every A in the post. But the story was still without As. 
I think it helped me lot to get new vocabulary, especially different verbs, it helped me think the world differently as well, as every character and place needed to adapt to the new alphabet. It was a really enriching exercise. Maybe I'll do it again, who knows?

For the record, this post has 510 words and 165 As.

Find us on Google+

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Indie Block Party Post 8: Social Media & Networking Tips

Let's conclude with the last post of the Indie Block Party. Indie authors have gathered to talk about... Indie author stuff, like writing and stories and trying not to bored the readers, you should check them out HERE it might be fun.
Today I'm supposed to give you some tips about networking and social media.
I'm not really a social media or networking champion so I don't really know if I'm qualified to give any tips. More likely I'm still just experimenting with facebook and twitter mostly. I have a faint presence on google+ and goodread. 
So this is what I do in no particular order, I'm not sure if it's working or not though:
1) I use social media to be around and show people what I'm doing. 
2) Use reciprocity one retweet for one retweet for example. 
3) I refuse to post about other people on my facebook pages (blog page, author page) (except when I have a guest blog post) this is because I'm annoyed when I see a writer I like having everything about other writers on their page. If I wanted to know about them I would follow them and I think a lot of people think the same way. 
4) Participate to blog hops (Week-end Writing Warriors, Hump Day Hook, Snippet Sunday and from this week Travel Tuesday)
5) Comment on everyone during the blog hops (it show your name there even if they don't visit you) 
6) Optimize the twitter's hashtag (please retweet people retweeting you)
7) Give reviews on Createspace (those are private reviews and it sometimes work like an exchange)
8) Participate to writers groups on facebook.
9) I have an amazon author page, a goodread author page linking to my blog. 
10) Selling my novel characters dolls on etsy.
11) I also have a youtube channel which should be waking up soon (at least I hope)
12) Organizing crazy contest: On going, Mich's Summer Mystery
13) I use futurestweets to get my tweets out when I sleep so that I can read readers from the other side of Earth. 

That's about it. Sometimes it's fun and sometimes it can also feel like it's draining my energy away. Remember to turn off the computer sometimes.
Find us on Google+

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Indie Block Party Post 7: Writing Tips

Let's continue with the second week of the Indie Block Party. Indie authors have gathered to talk about... Indie author stuff, like writing and stories and trying not to bored the readers, you should check them out HERE it might be fun.
Today I'm supposed to give you some writing tips. I think I'm being mean by telling people what (not) to do.

I think the first tips I can give to someone who wants to write is to WRITE and I also think it's not only a good advice for writers but it goes for everyone else. You want to do physics, DO PHYSICS, you want to play basketball, well PLAY BASKETBALL. I mean why not? That's what most successful people actually do, you can't be a writer if you don't write.

The second tips is the one I usually get yelled at for but in the end I don't really mind anymore because it doesn't mean it doesn't work, it just mean people are to self-conscious and righteous to actually take it (seriously): write it (your story, novel, PhD thesis, whatever) as badly as you can. And yes, I'm absolutely serious about that, I'm not a funny person. This is the best advices I was ever given, I read it on All Japanese All The Time. Technically, why would you even bother to have the grammar, tenses, well chosen words on a first draft that will dramatically be changed in the second rewrite and editing (there is no saving time on editing for later, that just doesn't exist). Trying to make things perfect the first time is 1) not going to happen, 2) a waste of your time 3) getting you all stressed out... 

The third tips is to get the first draft done with no matter how bad it is. It is really easy to give up on a story if you only managed to write 5 brilliant, spotless, perfect pages, (really?) It is a lot harder to give up on 50k words, 100k words, 153858 words (I need to finish that one)...

The fourth tips is to read writing advices on internet and NOT to take them. I use to believe that I didn't know what I was doing and so I would read other people's advices and take them all and apply them all. The problem is, the more you read advices on writing, the more you find out that they are contradictory, at time irrelevant, and that people giving them can totally be mistaken (including me!) Read those advices, go back to a book you really love and see if the writer there use it or not. If he doesn't, you can ditch it. That goes especially for advices you actually didn't like in the first place. ;) (Example: Never, ever put the name of a character in the first sentence of your book! Wait? What? Open Tom Sawyer)

The fifth tips is that every words count. This is true if you are participating to writing context like NaNoWriMo but it is also true when editing. I read a lot of post telling you to stop using verbs like "fell, like, wonder..." and to put a description instead so that it can be more precise and let the reader experience exactly what the character experience. I have mix feelings about that kind of advices. It might be good as an exercise to help you develop a sense for details but it doesn't mean those words should be annihilated. There are times in the story when you need them. If the reader already know the details there is no need to push them back some more when a single verb can do the trick. Be wise and careful when choosing your words and style. Ask yourself how many times you use those words in conversation.

The sixth tips is don't ask other people for ideas. It's your world you are creating, why would you need someone's else vision of it? It's your job to actually think about all the details, why the hell are you taking a short cut and asking someone else to do the job for you, they might as well write your novel while they are at it. If you can't figure out what is happening next in your own story or why the bad guy is a bad guy, nobody can, the story just takes a turn for the worse and you'll get stuck again later cause you were trying to write from someone else's mind. That's not brilliant. Plus it takes away all the fun of writing. If stuck, just you re-plot the all thing, not someone else.

The seventh tips is don't write to please anyone else but yourself. Even if no one else read those story, you created something extraordinary. Those characters will give you love when no one else does.

More writing tips:  


Find us on Google+

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Editing tips 2: Spotting plot's holes

As I have been doing a lot of editing lately I decided to save the way I did it as blog post tips. The first tips was on copy editing which is the last part of your edit. Today, I want to talk more about developmental editing, and the first thing I always look at is the plot. Can it stand by itself or are things missing?

Here is my way of finding the plot's holes and make sure that the story flows from one point to the others with nothing missing. 

1) Read through your manuscript and summarize what happens in every chapters.

Reading through the manuscript is really important, I know too many people who just start on fixing grammar as soon as they are finished with the draft. I consider it really bad for several reasons:
1) You are beating yourself up for a draft badly written. Better a finished draft poorly written than no draft at all.
2) Your story needs to stand up before you go into details. What's the point of creating a perfect paragraph that will be cut out of the story. It's just a waste of your time and energy which would be better focused elsewhere. 
3) You need to know your story before starting to change it. I generally let my draft rest for few months, before even looking at them while working on something else. This allows me to disconnect the emotional bound with my story and characters. It is always said that writers are too close to their story to properly edit it, you need to forget it and to relearn it to be efficient. 

Summarizing the chapters will help you to see the big picture. If you are like me and don't have chapters find key points, those can be change of location, new characters arriving....
If there is a part missing in the story it will automatically when the chapter summaries don't make a complete and clear story line. At that stage, you are still working a rough draft so feel the blanks however you please as long as you get a clear and complete pictures. It is the time when you should add more and forget about removing. The only reason to remove anything at this stage is when one chapter clearly stands out of the line and can be seen as the story going crazy where is shouldn't have gone before getting back on track. Don't erase it, copy it in your cut out file.

2) Have a read through your chapters and summarize what happens in every paragraphs and Answer the plot questions

Once you are done and satisfied with the big picture of your novel, go through it one more time summarizing each paragraphs.
Summarizing the paragraphs will give you a better picture of what is going on in each chapter and spot inconsistencies. (more of that in another post)
Here are some of the plot questions I use, and examples from Demon and Fairy's opening chapter.

1) What happens here?
This should be the main line of your paragraph summary.
 Seti is flying to the beach.

2) Why it happens?
There is a reason for everything, if you can't find it go back to the previous paragraphs, if it's still not there either you are introducing something new which will require an explanation now or later (clues) or the paragraph is unnecessary and need to be taken out. (Don't erase it, copy it in your cut out file.)
Seti has a head ache and looking at Kallisto is the only thing making it disappear. 

3) Who is here and why?
You can have one or more characters in the story they all have a reason to be there.
I'm going to use a controversial example here because that's a part the critique thought unnecessary.
Who : Seti, in Seti's thoughts Kallisto and Kelpie
Why : Seti is on the beach because of the headache.
          Kallisto is in Seti's thoughts because he wanted her to cure his headache.
           Kelpie is in Seti's thoughts because it shows what kind of relationship Seti doesn't have and longs for. It also introduces the surrounding of Kallisto and shows what kind of person she is.

4) Does it follows what happens in the previous paragraphs?
Sometimes you have so many things happening that you need to go back far or look further. If you are writing in several characters point of view for example in different chapters, go back where you left them. If you are in the middle of the action make sure it follows through. If you can't find any relations get that part the cut out file.
Seti is flying to the beach to see Kallisto  → She is not there →  He tries to think about her to feel better → It doesn't work so he goes home....
Make sure everything follows each other logically.

5) Can this be listed as a clue?
What I call clues are important part of the stories which are lightly mentioned, several time through the beginning and developed later on. If it keeps the reader hanging for more wondering what is going on I call them strong clues. They are generally given as things happening without the main character noticing or in the thoughts of another character.
Without a last look, he flew away and didn’t notice the other demon who had just landed in the garden of her house and flew high speed through one of the second floor bedroom’s window. 
If they are meant to be forgotten, I call them subtle clues. These are the clues that the readers will forget or disregard a detail and have a Ah-moment later on as the clue take it's importance. "I should have known that!!"
Kallisto gives fairy powder to Seti. (This is even a hidden clue.)
It is important to spot your clues to remember that you have to use them later, no point of having a clue that is never used it's just unnerving. Remember, everything happens for a reason.


3) Fill the blanks by adding paragraphs or chapters to link them together.
As much as you need to cut out the unnecessary, illogical paragraphs but it is likely that you will have missing parts. Generally I have something like 10000 to 20000 words added and deleted so the length of my novel doesn't change much but the content does.
If one paragraph fits with what comes next, but not with what happens before, you need to fill the bank.
Create a chain of events from where you are at to where you need to go next, and write your story for those. It can be as short as a linking sentence or as long as a chapter.
In the case of a sentence it is easily done.
In the case of a full chapter, you need to see if the part you are trying to link your beginning to really follows the story, and you need think a bit more carefully before doing it, no need to link something to a paragraph which doesn't lead anywhere.
But I trust you on taking the right option for your story. Writing is never lost, it always fit in the cut out files and can be used for other purpose later, at worse it helps you learn how to be a better writer.

How do you edit your stories? How do you find your plot holes and fix them? I hope you'll find something helpful here and let me know if I miss something.



Find us on Google+