Posts
I have been away forever, I know. There is a reason. Firstly, I was on hiatus for Sex in Teen Lit Month on Once Upon a Bookcase, and then I went on holiday. And then I realised that my antagonist problem just wasn't resolving itself. Researching wasn't helping, and I just didn't know how I could continue. There needs to be an antagonist, and I just couldn't find him/her.
But then, after I finished a book last week, I wasn't thinking about my own story. I may not have posted in a while, but my story is always there in the back of my mind, and other scenes/dialogue/characters keep making an appearance. More on that later. So yeah, I was thinking about my story after the book I had just finished, and it was kind of like "that wouldn't happen in my book because..." and the thought continued and continued, and then suddenly, POOF! There was my antagonist, standing right in front of my eyes, as clear as anything! God, is he evil! With his arrival came some other realisations. Reasons for things changed. A few blog posts ago, I mentioned that the main male character got kicked out of college/uni. He didn't. He just stopped going. Why? Because he was so mentally effected by something he saw, that he's kind of shut down. He's not a vegetable, he still does stuff (get up, go to work, etc), but he's practically dead inside. What did he see? I don't know exactly what, but he did see the villain!
So things are working out. I don't know the villians name, what he wants, what he's doing, why. So I still have some holes, BUT I know more now than I did before. I had started writing my first chapter months back, but I now need to re-write, because things happen differently. That's fine though, this new beginning is right. And I'm excited to get it down on paper!
Because I can now write the first part of my book. I had a brainstorming session with my Dad yesterday, where he would ask questions which would make me think of answers I didn't know yet. I can thread some of my scenes and dialogue together, and the bits in between, and get to a certain point where villain needs to show me more. I'm hoping when I get to that point, I'll know what the villain is up to!
I mentioned earlier that new characters have shown themselves to me. One of them is Lexie's brother. I already knew about him, but he has become more rounded as he's shown himself in my head. The guy is HILARIOUS! Seriously, he has me in fits. I just hope I can do him justice when I write him. Fingers crossed!
You should be hearing from me a lot more often from now on. Things are looking good!
Ohh, before I go, I have a question. Beta readers; do writers really need one? What do they do? If you can tell me any info, I would be grateful. I want to work out if I need/want one. Cheers!
Sunday, 25 October 2009
Friday, 5 June 2009
Meet Mr. Dude and Lexie. And Mini-Hiatus.
I know I haven't given any of you any real info about my story, so I'll give you a few details now. It's set in America, somewhere. Not sure yet where. As things stand now, it'll be a multiple point of view story, may or may not change later. The two main characters are an American guy, who's yet to give me his name, so I refer to him as Mr. Dude in my head. He's 19, with long-ish (for a guy) dark, curly hair, and green eyes. He's been kicked out of school for reasons he's yet to disclose to me. He comes home and finds his parents gone. Unfortunately, he tell me much, so I don't know why they've disappeared, if he even knows. He lives by a hilly park though.
My female character is Lexie. She's British, with bright red - as in British double-decker buses red - hair, which she normally keeps in two scruffy buns which she keeps up with pencils, and looks Mr. Dude's age. She's enthusiastic, energetic, quirky, happy-go-lucky, and a generally happy, nice girl. And we meet her in America. I could tell you a whole lot more about her, but I wouldn't want to spoil the story.
Mr. Dude has decided to give up a bit of info. He's informed me that he's a bit nifty with a camera, and that he was a Photography student. Thanks to a wonderful post over on Catherine Haines' writing blog, Working Title, Friends: A Brilliant Resource, I had a bit of a think, and realised I know someone who takes Photography classes; Vania of Reverie Media. I dropped her an email, and she kindly enough gave me some details of her course which I can use as a starting point when it comes to research.
If Mr. Dude -as I am calling him until he gives me his name - is going to talk about his classes to anyone, say Lexie, which he will, I'm going to need to provide some details. So thanks both to Catherine and Vania for their help on this! I don't think Photography will be playing a huge roll in the story, but his studying will, because, well, there's got to be a reason why he got kicked out. About that, he's been hinting, but I haven't managed to coax the whole reason out of him yet. Bloody typical. Lexie I know pretty well, but Mr. Dude? He just won't open up. *eye roll* Bloody men.
;)
I'm on a bit of a hiatus right now when it comes to writing. When ideas come to me, I'll make a note of them in my file, but a few things are going on right now.
I have some books for review I need to get read, and then I'll be holding Sex in Teen Lit Month over on Ink and Paper Specials, my book blog's sub-blog. Please check it out.
Until that's finished, I don't think there'll be too many posts on here for a while. No writing, or writing related stuff going on, there's not really a whole lot I can blog about.
My female character is Lexie. She's British, with bright red - as in British double-decker buses red - hair, which she normally keeps in two scruffy buns which she keeps up with pencils, and looks Mr. Dude's age. She's enthusiastic, energetic, quirky, happy-go-lucky, and a generally happy, nice girl. And we meet her in America. I could tell you a whole lot more about her, but I wouldn't want to spoil the story.
Mr. Dude has decided to give up a bit of info. He's informed me that he's a bit nifty with a camera, and that he was a Photography student. Thanks to a wonderful post over on Catherine Haines' writing blog, Working Title, Friends: A Brilliant Resource, I had a bit of a think, and realised I know someone who takes Photography classes; Vania of Reverie Media. I dropped her an email, and she kindly enough gave me some details of her course which I can use as a starting point when it comes to research.
If Mr. Dude -as I am calling him until he gives me his name - is going to talk about his classes to anyone, say Lexie, which he will, I'm going to need to provide some details. So thanks both to Catherine and Vania for their help on this! I don't think Photography will be playing a huge roll in the story, but his studying will, because, well, there's got to be a reason why he got kicked out. About that, he's been hinting, but I haven't managed to coax the whole reason out of him yet. Bloody typical. Lexie I know pretty well, but Mr. Dude? He just won't open up. *eye roll* Bloody men.
;)
I'm on a bit of a hiatus right now when it comes to writing. When ideas come to me, I'll make a note of them in my file, but a few things are going on right now.
I have some books for review I need to get read, and then I'll be holding Sex in Teen Lit Month over on Ink and Paper Specials, my book blog's sub-blog. Please check it out.
Until that's finished, I don't think there'll be too many posts on here for a while. No writing, or writing related stuff going on, there's not really a whole lot I can blog about.
Saturday, 30 May 2009
Another Dream and Another Question
I obviously spend far too much time online. I had a dream last night that I had started a book by Suzanne McLeod - author of The Sweet Scent of Blood, which I own, but yet to read - and I got some of the story read. Then there was a Q&A with her on Twitter, and there was some talk over an illustration that was originally going to be in the book, but isn't now - and there was a contest to win the illustration.
But the story in my dream had absolutely nothing to do with any of the creatures in her books. And I also remember thinking, while reading/seeing the story progress, that there aren't any beautiful, exotic beaches near London - where her books are set.
So perhaps, somehow, I've found myself another story. Why this girl goes to this beach, which is right outside what I can only describe as a pirate town, to meet some guy called "Sethen" I have no idea. And I don't get why they dance either. And I'm not exactly sure what they were doing to that little camp fire, throwing things into it or something. And I'm not sure why some other guy didn't like the girl going off, worried for her, and then started spying on her. Not a huge amount to go on, but perhaps I could let it swirl around my head for a while, and see what comes up.
Can't believe another possible story has come to me, when I havn't even started the first one yet.
On another point, I have a question for you: Do you think it would be ok to have my characters drink alcohol, even though they're around 18, and it's set in America where the law is different? If i had them do it at home, do you think that would be all right? It's kind of important to the story.
But the story in my dream had absolutely nothing to do with any of the creatures in her books. And I also remember thinking, while reading/seeing the story progress, that there aren't any beautiful, exotic beaches near London - where her books are set.
So perhaps, somehow, I've found myself another story. Why this girl goes to this beach, which is right outside what I can only describe as a pirate town, to meet some guy called "Sethen" I have no idea. And I don't get why they dance either. And I'm not exactly sure what they were doing to that little camp fire, throwing things into it or something. And I'm not sure why some other guy didn't like the girl going off, worried for her, and then started spying on her. Not a huge amount to go on, but perhaps I could let it swirl around my head for a while, and see what comes up.
Can't believe another possible story has come to me, when I havn't even started the first one yet.
On another point, I have a question for you: Do you think it would be ok to have my characters drink alcohol, even though they're around 18, and it's set in America where the law is different? If i had them do it at home, do you think that would be all right? It's kind of important to the story.
Sunday, 24 May 2009
Things to Share and Questions to ask
I am going to do some writing today, but before I do there are some things I want to ask/discuss/share/mention before I forget. This may be a long post, please bear with me.
RE Last Post: My Ideas, or Are They?
In my last post I discussed details for story and whether or not they are things I'm unconciously "borrowing" from other novels or not, in an email to me, fantasy author Brian Rathbone said:
"World building is tricky stuff, and it's easy to go overboard--overthinking details that readers will never consider, but then again fantasy readers are notoriously fastidous. I found if I thought about all that too much, I'd just get stuck, so I wrote a really terrible first draft, not caring about mistakes or typos. I just dumped the story from my brian. From there I foud it easier to rearrange, clean up, and edit ad nauseum."
I thought that was pretty good advice, and thought maybe someone reading may find it helpful.
YA
This will be similar-ish to a post I wrote on my book blog, but from the writer's rather than the reader's perspective. A few posts ago, I said that my story would be a YA urban fantasy. While I've been thinking about my story, I've realised my main male character will be around 18-19 years old. No matter what the outcome to this blog, he still will be that age, and whoever enjoys my story enjoys it, but do you think the story could still be considered YA if he's 18-19?
A few months ago I was taking a Writing for Children's class, and one of the things my teacher said made a YA novel a YA novel was having a protagonist who was within the YA age, i.e. a teenager. Is my teenager too old to be considered an actual teenager/young adult? Things will blur slightly for me here, as living in the UK, anyone over 18 is considered an adult - completely legal, where as things are different in the US, where my story will be set. Research is needed, I get that, but isn't this point more of an opinion thing? How old is too old for a YA story/novel? Should I not bother labelling my story either YA or Adult, and just write it? What do you think?
Antagonist
I've realised my story is only kind of half formed in my mind; there's no problem. There are problems within the story which cause the story to come about, but no Problem - personified - who is causing it all. In other words, I have no antagonist, and if there story is going to get anywhere, I need mine to show his or her face. As an inexperienced writer - who knows hardly anything - three options come to me:
Catherine Haines' Blog
Catherine Haines is a book blogger and an aspiring author, and I follow her various blogs, both on, writing and on reading. I am yet to move on to her blog that is just for writing, Working Title, for posts that will help me personally, but on her website, Catherine-Haines.com, she has a few posts on writing that I found quite interesting and helpful. One was Laying Down the Law, where she discusses questions she has to ask herself regarding the limitations of the fantasy elements of her stories (which will help for my antagonist, probably), and the other, Wiki for Worldbuilding? Apparently So! was about how a private Wiki can be used to keep notes on a story - I just need to work out how to get one.
If anyone knows of any other aspiring or published authors who have blogs where they discuss the writing process, I would really appreciate it if you could send me the links. You can never learn too much, can you?
Beta Readers
This is a question for other writers. What's the deal with beta readers? Do all writer's need a beta reader? Can anyone be a beta reader? If not, how do you go about getting one? I don't think I need one just yet - I'd assume you'd have to have at least a chapter done before getting your work beta-ed, but the info would be useful.
Writer's Block/Stuck Exercise
This is something I thought I would share as it looks like it will be quite useful. I was browsing fantasy author Beth Revis' blog, and I saw a link in one of her posts to an exercise writer's can do when they're stuck on blog Inside a Dog. It gives a step-by-step of things to include in a paragraph of prose, which could lead on to an idea or a scene in your story. Looks quite good to me!
Ok, that's me done for now. Now to researching and thinking and brain storming and some writing possibly ;)
RE Last Post: My Ideas, or Are They?
In my last post I discussed details for story and whether or not they are things I'm unconciously "borrowing" from other novels or not, in an email to me, fantasy author Brian Rathbone said:
"World building is tricky stuff, and it's easy to go overboard--overthinking details that readers will never consider, but then again fantasy readers are notoriously fastidous. I found if I thought about all that too much, I'd just get stuck, so I wrote a really terrible first draft, not caring about mistakes or typos. I just dumped the story from my brian. From there I foud it easier to rearrange, clean up, and edit ad nauseum."
I thought that was pretty good advice, and thought maybe someone reading may find it helpful.
YA
This will be similar-ish to a post I wrote on my book blog, but from the writer's rather than the reader's perspective. A few posts ago, I said that my story would be a YA urban fantasy. While I've been thinking about my story, I've realised my main male character will be around 18-19 years old. No matter what the outcome to this blog, he still will be that age, and whoever enjoys my story enjoys it, but do you think the story could still be considered YA if he's 18-19?
A few months ago I was taking a Writing for Children's class, and one of the things my teacher said made a YA novel a YA novel was having a protagonist who was within the YA age, i.e. a teenager. Is my teenager too old to be considered an actual teenager/young adult? Things will blur slightly for me here, as living in the UK, anyone over 18 is considered an adult - completely legal, where as things are different in the US, where my story will be set. Research is needed, I get that, but isn't this point more of an opinion thing? How old is too old for a YA story/novel? Should I not bother labelling my story either YA or Adult, and just write it? What do you think?
Antagonist
I've realised my story is only kind of half formed in my mind; there's no problem. There are problems within the story which cause the story to come about, but no Problem - personified - who is causing it all. In other words, I have no antagonist, and if there story is going to get anywhere, I need mine to show his or her face. As an inexperienced writer - who knows hardly anything - three options come to me:
- I can research my fantasy element, and see what comes up in regards to enemies, and see if I create my own, or
- I take the view that I don't know about my antagonist because my protags don't know about him/her yet, so I should just write until he/she makes an appearance, or
- A mixture of the two above
Catherine Haines' Blog
Catherine Haines is a book blogger and an aspiring author, and I follow her various blogs, both on, writing and on reading. I am yet to move on to her blog that is just for writing, Working Title, for posts that will help me personally, but on her website, Catherine-Haines.com, she has a few posts on writing that I found quite interesting and helpful. One was Laying Down the Law, where she discusses questions she has to ask herself regarding the limitations of the fantasy elements of her stories (which will help for my antagonist, probably), and the other, Wiki for Worldbuilding? Apparently So! was about how a private Wiki can be used to keep notes on a story - I just need to work out how to get one.
If anyone knows of any other aspiring or published authors who have blogs where they discuss the writing process, I would really appreciate it if you could send me the links. You can never learn too much, can you?
Beta Readers
This is a question for other writers. What's the deal with beta readers? Do all writer's need a beta reader? Can anyone be a beta reader? If not, how do you go about getting one? I don't think I need one just yet - I'd assume you'd have to have at least a chapter done before getting your work beta-ed, but the info would be useful.
Writer's Block/Stuck Exercise
This is something I thought I would share as it looks like it will be quite useful. I was browsing fantasy author Beth Revis' blog, and I saw a link in one of her posts to an exercise writer's can do when they're stuck on blog Inside a Dog. It gives a step-by-step of things to include in a paragraph of prose, which could lead on to an idea or a scene in your story. Looks quite good to me!
Ok, that's me done for now. Now to researching and thinking and brain storming and some writing possibly ;)
Thursday, 21 May 2009
My Ideas, or Are They?
As I've said in the previous post, I'm trying to write urban fantasy, so there has to be a fantasy element. Trying to sort out the world building, and the rules of my fantasy aspect is a little harder than I thought it would be.
My Dad was the one who got me into reading, and over the years, we've had lots of discussions regarding books. Several times he has told me that he would love to try writing a book himself, but he thinks he would just end up writing something he's already read.
This is kind of the problem I'm having now. Not everything, but some details I come up with that I think will work I realise are part of something I've read by someone else. I don't want to steal anyone's ideas, obviously, but trying to come up with the details is a little difficult. I don't want to end up writing something that is an amalgamation of everything I've read. I need to think harder.
My Dad was the one who got me into reading, and over the years, we've had lots of discussions regarding books. Several times he has told me that he would love to try writing a book himself, but he thinks he would just end up writing something he's already read.
This is kind of the problem I'm having now. Not everything, but some details I come up with that I think will work I realise are part of something I've read by someone else. I don't want to steal anyone's ideas, obviously, but trying to come up with the details is a little difficult. I don't want to end up writing something that is an amalgamation of everything I've read. I need to think harder.
Getting Started
The story I'm starting originated from a dream I had several months ago. I wrote notes about it at the time, because it was just so vivid - so vivid in fact that I could do without those notes, I remember it so clearly. It's been rolling around in my mind for quite a while now, and after encouragement from my Dad to write for myself, I'm going to give it a go.
I know it's going to be a Young Adult Urban Fantasy, but I have no title yet. To be perfectly honest, I thought about writing it about a week after I had the dream. I got to 700 words, and haven't written anymore since, and a lot needs changing after learning more from the optional modules I've taken (see About Me), but I'm quite happy with the prologue. But I'm going back even further. After some advice from the author of the Raine Benares fantasy series, Lisa Shearin, I'm making notes.
What do these notes consist of? As they're notes, it's all rough, but I have a basic premise, (very) basic character sketches of the two main characters, some world building, and a list of the various moments I have in mind.
The story isn't flowing in my mind yet as consequtive events. I have what I call "moments"; various individual small scenes of the story, but quite a few of them. I'll start by writing all those moments before I actually get into starting the story properly.
I still haven't worked everything out, so please excuse me for being vague about what the story is about. I don't want to tell you something that may end up being a spoiler later on as the story progresses. Please be patient with me :)
I know it's going to be a Young Adult Urban Fantasy, but I have no title yet. To be perfectly honest, I thought about writing it about a week after I had the dream. I got to 700 words, and haven't written anymore since, and a lot needs changing after learning more from the optional modules I've taken (see About Me), but I'm quite happy with the prologue. But I'm going back even further. After some advice from the author of the Raine Benares fantasy series, Lisa Shearin, I'm making notes.
What do these notes consist of? As they're notes, it's all rough, but I have a basic premise, (very) basic character sketches of the two main characters, some world building, and a list of the various moments I have in mind.
The story isn't flowing in my mind yet as consequtive events. I have what I call "moments"; various individual small scenes of the story, but quite a few of them. I'll start by writing all those moments before I actually get into starting the story properly.
I still haven't worked everything out, so please excuse me for being vague about what the story is about. I don't want to tell you something that may end up being a spoiler later on as the story progresses. Please be patient with me :)
About Me
I'm Jo, I'm 22 years old, and I live in London, England. I'm an avid reader, and read a whole lot of fantasy, all sub-genres I know of. I have a book blog, Ink and Paper, on which I write fantasy book reviews.
I studied Journalism at uni, finishing in May '09. During my time there, I took optional modules Writing for Children, The Editing Process, Autobiography, Fiction and History, Creative Writing and Place and Writing for Children. Covered in those subjects was writing creatively, and analysing books, which I enjoyed, and took as a bit of a hobby. I wrote a few short stories for those subjects, and, as you do, I let my family read them. I got a lot of praise, especially from my Dad who told me I Should write outside of lessons just for fun, as I'm good at it. So I'm giving it a try.
This is my writing blog. Here I will discuss how things are going, problems I'm having, solutions I got through, etc. I'm a bit of a procrastinator, so I'm using this blog as a way to help motivate me to write, so I have something to post about. I hope you enjoy reading about how I'm getting on. Thanks.
I studied Journalism at uni, finishing in May '09. During my time there, I took optional modules Writing for Children, The Editing Process, Autobiography, Fiction and History, Creative Writing and Place and Writing for Children. Covered in those subjects was writing creatively, and analysing books, which I enjoyed, and took as a bit of a hobby. I wrote a few short stories for those subjects, and, as you do, I let my family read them. I got a lot of praise, especially from my Dad who told me I Should write outside of lessons just for fun, as I'm good at it. So I'm giving it a try.
This is my writing blog. Here I will discuss how things are going, problems I'm having, solutions I got through, etc. I'm a bit of a procrastinator, so I'm using this blog as a way to help motivate me to write, so I have something to post about. I hope you enjoy reading about how I'm getting on. Thanks.
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