Writing a Book: Plotting

Camp NaNoWriMo has been happening for a week already - with me completely behind - so here's me getting even more behind with talking about plotting. Plotting is one of those things that you can either not do, which is called pantsing; do so well a job that it's like you're writing another book; or in a way that gives you the skeleton of the book while leaving you a lot of space to move and grow. While there is no right way to do this, I like to do where I give myself a skeleton and then move and grow while writing the book. There are parts that are somewhat set in stone and there are other parts that can be changed at any given moment.

The thing that you want to do first is have some idea of the story you're going to write. Even if it's a long rambling summary, that's part of the plotting idea. In fact, there's a lot of writers who just go with the rambling plot outline for writing their first draft and then tighten it up in other drafts. For me, I usually write around three to five sentences and leave the plot rambling to another document all together. Also, this can be done on the computer or on paper. There's a few plot bunnies that I've got written down to help with the process and others that work better when typing it out in a Google Document or your program of choice. A lot of my planning goes into Google Docs because I can and will access it from anywhere. That includes my phone, since I have one big enough for typing with both thumbs. Just use what is best for you when giving shape to plot bunnies.

Now, for the next part, there's no right or wrong to what you do first. Some do characters first and some create the world first. I am known to create characters first and world second, because I'm more about a character driven plot. That means that I like the characters to steer the ship. Sometimes this is literally as in the case of Kris in Of the Sky that I'm working on a first draft of but it's more to tell their story in a way that connects everything. The entire book or series will center around them and the connections to others that they make, for good or bad, and then the plot goes from there. That also goes for creating the world. For me, I work on the world where the main character lives first and then do the rest of the world building after I have a good idea of the home country.

For novels set in the real world, as in the case of Mystery of the Dark, I really try to go off of the cities I know or I can go visit to get a lay of the land. It's why, in the first book, you see a lot of St Louis and Asheville. My great-uncle lived in St Louis, along with his home being the basis for Mark's home, and Asheville is where a good friend / family in all but blood lives. Strong connections to each help with making the writing flow easier. Knowing this is probably why I'm having such a hard time with the sequel. They had to move from St Louis due to the plot of the first book and there's no good central ground that I want to set them in. I'm really tempted to let it take on a nomad type vibe with Kate never settling down and trusting the space. But, I'm getting off the topic. For real world settings, it is best to go with what you know. It's why everyone gives that advice - it works.

Ok - you've got your idea down, you have your characters and your world. The next question goes into how much you want to put your plot down on paper or not. You could have all of what you need written down and then decide to pants the rest. You just go where the novel takes you and you'll end up at your destination eventually. What I do is take on a process that I was first taught about by erin is to number a document 1 to 30 and write out 30 scenes with the midpoint being 15-17 and your secondary plot point being 25-27. Every number is a scene or a chapter that you're writing. You could take the same idea but have the number be whatever you like between 1 and infinity as long as you get to an ending. I like doing it in terms of chapters and then shorten / make it longer as needed. For example, Mystery of the Dark is only 28 chapters while Of the Sky will probably be 30 or more. So it's a nice little system.

After that, the best thing to do is sit in the chair and write. It's the only thing that can be done, in the end, if you want to get your book out of your head and onto paper. The plotting helps to bring some order to the chaos but there's nothing stopping you from just writing. So, until next time, keep on putting that butt in the chair and write.

Bout of Books Update: Monday and Tuesday

I know I said I'd update once a day, but we all knew how that was going to go. Also, life kind of exploded. I'm working on different projects, again, querying, and trying to figure out if I want to invest in training that might lead to a job. It's on the expensive side, but, you know, it would be an awesome opportunity. So, yeah, a lot on the mental plate at the moment.

I'm still slugging through Will Grayson, Will Grayson. I can't decide what is wrong about the book, but there's something off. I first thought it was my age being so different than the characters and who the audience is supposed to be. However, as I thought on that, I realized it was a bunch of shit. I've read a good amount of fiction that is not for my age group and I've never felt like I was an outsider listening in on a conversation. I always felt that I was one of the people in the group of the main characters. It could be that I'm just not meshing with the authors' writing style, but I don't know. I'm not even half way through the book, but I'm going to keep on trying with it.

After I get some writing in, I'm going to start Beneath a Scarlet Sky and hope for the best. It seems really good and I think I could burn through it in a day or two. The after effects of an English Lit degree is that you can burn through thick books without thinking about it while retaining all the useful info. It's like having a superpower. A boring superpower, but a superpower nonetheless. After or during that, I'll probably start Moriarty because I'm itching to start that one and there's no reason I can't be reading three books at once.

So that's an extremely quick update on the reading front at the moment. I'll be back tomorrow with Wednesday's progress. Until then, happy reading.

Bout of Books: My TBR List

Hey everyone! This really is just what it says on the can. I'm going to post my video on this below, but I thought people would like to see what my to be read list is instead of just having to listen to me. Also, not listed in the video, my stretch list! Basically, it's a switching in things in case I need to or reading more because I have the time.

1. Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan
2. The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas
3. The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco
4. Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan
5. Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz

My Stretch List:
1. I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara
2. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

Books Review: Norse Mythology and Arrows of the Queen

One of these were on my to be read (TBR) list and one of them was accidentally finished one night when I couldn't sleep. Norse Mythology is the one that I accidentally finished and Arrows of the Queen was on my TBR list. I've been trying to get going on the Valdemar series, which I did last month with finally finishing Magic's Price, so now it's working on the second trilogy and then beyond. However, that is neither here or there at the moment. For now, let's talk books. Also, both images are thanks to Goodreads and are not mine. 

Norse Mythology is a collection slash retelling of the myths of old. Two of the reasons I was drawn to this book in the first place is written by a favorite author and I've been wanting to know more about the background of Thor as he was originally known. Now, that is because of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and not because the idea just popped into my head, but knowing the original stories of some of those characters help them make more sense. Loki lying and cheating his way out of everything, even with knowing he's the God of Mischief, makes a ton more sense to me knowing his stories. I now understand why most people were saying that they were making Thor too uptight in the movies - he's so different in the stories - so, yeah, that was the two big reasons why. Going into the stories themselves, we see Gaiman's short story chops shine. While he respects the original story, we also get to see other characters have a stronger voice. For me, Hela felt that she was taken care of better in his retelling than what happened to her in the original as it felt like she was listened to instead of just cast aside like her brothers. You cared about the fact that they tricked Fenrir and felt the pain of Tyr as he had to take his part in binding the wolf. I thought the depth that he brought worked very well. 

The only two missteps of the entire book were the last two stories. The Last Days of Loki felt out of character to the extreme. Yes, he's the God of Mischief. Yes, he's going to make the other Gods mad. But what he did there with pissing the other Gods off made no sense because there wasn't any plan for it. He was doing it for the sake of doing it, which does not feel like the Loki we know throughout the other stories. In the other ones, there's always a plan and a way out. This had no way out and I wish we could have had why. Maybe he was tired of being what he was or wanted the end to come because he thought he could rule so it leads into Ragnarok? But that's speculation. Maybe that's the point of the story, but... I dunno. It feels very undone and untidy which is so not Loki. The other misstep story, Ragnarok: the Final Destiny of the Gods, felt rushed. It felt like we were rushing to the end instead of savoring the end. While the descriptions of the battle were good, I can't help but get a feeling that he just wanted it to be done. I think I'm wrong about that and Ragnarok is probably a rush job in the original story as well, but I wish it could have been more spread out. That said, the ending of Ragnarok / the entire book? I love it. I can see that happening easily and everything happening all over again is nice. 

The next book, which was on my TBR list for April and moved over to May, is Arrows of the Queen. It's set about five hundred years after Magic's Price / Last Herald Mage trilogy which is part why the series is so good. Originally, I was kind of sad that we were getting such a big jump. I wanted to see more of the characters that I grew to love in the Last Herald Mage trilogy, along with seeing the aftermath of the events of that trilogy. What I didn't expect is that I would get that in this book. I was able to see the after effects of what happened because it's tied into Talia, the main character of this book, reading about the events as it's told as a story now. It is one of the things that Mercedes Lackey does well during this book, along with the tension that's strung along until the middle of the book and it just didn't go away easily. Others might be annoyed by it, but I thought it worked well.

Talia, for all her strength and the role she's thrown into as Queen's Own (meaning she's the confidant / personal adviser of the Queen and the princess), doesn't start out that way. She starts out as a child who wants to be a Herald more than anything in the world and she gets her wish. I think, in the next two books in the trilogy, we're going to get a bit of "be careful what you wish for" as a subtle undertone. I say that because, as a writer myself, I couldn't help but put that into my own work if I set it up that way in the first book. However, Talia has to learn to trust and her gradually opening until she's forced to worked really well for character development. It helped me connect to her and trust her as the narrator of the story, even though we did POV jump, and made me not want to put the book down. The other part that made me not want to put the book down was the POV jumping because it was done seamlessly. Lackey went to another character's perspective only when it was needed to enhance the story and not hinder it. I think anybody who wants to do that in their own writing needs to read this book to see how it is done. Not forcing it at chapters but just weaving it in like it is supposed to be there all along worked wonders. 

As for missteps, I didn't really find any or I didn't have the same that others had. The only thing that I wished was changed was having Skif and Talia realize they should have been friends from the beginning. However, I'm also someone who likes it when fantasy stays away from romance all of the time, so that might be my own bias. 

So, those are my two reviews of what I've been reading so far in the month of May. I should have more coming up soon but, if you want to see my reviews from April, go check out my YouTube channel here. Until next time, happy writing and reading!

Three Things

1. Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology is excellent, as is Mercedes Lackey's Arrows of the Queen, and I should have a book review up before the end of the week for both.

2. I'm participating in Bout of Books readathon next week, so there might be daily updates next week. Might.

3. I so totally wrote Justinian's proposal to Kate yesterday for #1linewed theme of humble: "I don't have all the answers, Katelyn," Justinian said. "I never will. I am asking, possibly begging, for you to simply say yes. If I have to, I'll get on my knees, but only for you. You're the only one worth it."

That's it for now. To be honest, check out my twitter at @CrescentLizzy or my YouTube channel as I update those a lot more. I'm sorry for those who read my blog but I just can't commit to updating on a regular schedule. Anyways, until next time, keep on writing.

Where have I been and where am I going?

Hello again. It's been an interesting turn of events since I last showed up here. I would apologize for disappearing, but this is always the first plate that gets dropped when I start doing a million things at once. I don't mean it to be that way, but it's what happens. Anyways, let's go into what's happening now.

1. I'm querying Mystery of the Dark - what this means is that I am looking up agents and sending out a letter asking them to please look at my novel. In some cases, it means sending them parts of the novel too, which worries me, but only because I'm sending out my baby into the world. It's taken a very long time to get from draft one to sending to agents and while I love it, I'm also anxious about making sure everything is perfect. It's kind of fun and kind of getting more gray hair at the same time.

2. I changed the name of the blog back to Words 'n Books. I'm starting to do a lot of reading again, which is a ton of fun, and I'm glad I'm getting back into the swing of it. I've also started putting videos up on booktube, which is a section of YouTube that deals with all things books, and it's been fun. I just finished Wicked Deep yesterday and will have a spoiler filled review of the book up sometime over the weekend, but I'll link it here. I'm also taking part in the OWLs readathon and I've got two of my OWLs done. One more and I'll have exceeded expectations and that's all kind of awesome. You can find my YouTube channel here.

3. I'm editing Power, which is a trip because my writing is so horrible from 2008, and working on the second book of the Mystery of the Dark series. It's slow, for both of them, but at least I'm getting towards having things done, which is always fun, and then throwing them out to readers / editors / what have you to mix it all up.

4. I have a Facebook author page now! You can find it here.

So, that's where I have been. It's been interesting and a bit insane, but let's talk about where we're going.

1. This Sunday, there's a publishers panel at my library that I'm going to. It'll be interesting to network and hear what people have to say and so on. I'm a bit worried about it, mostly because I tend to be shy and I have to put myself forward, but we'll see how it goes. I'll update on that come next week sometime.

2. I'm going to attempt to post more. I'm not going to say how much, but I will work on it. At least once a month, I think, but we'll see.

3. More querying and trying not to have panic attacks with sending emails. The worst thing they're going to say is nothing, the second worst thing is going to be no. So, really, it's not as horrible as I'm making it out to be. Damn anxiety.

So that's that. Bit of an update and a bit of where we're going to try to go from here. Until next time, as there will be one, happy writing.

The Ultimate Book Tag

Hi everyone! I watch YouTube a lot and sometimes the people I watch do tags where there's a set of questions that everyone answers while they film their video. One of my more favorite YouTubers put up a book tag for Riverdale and I thought of doing something similar for the blog. In stumbling around Google, I found the Ultimate Book Tag by ChapterChicks that I thought would be fun to do. So, we'll get started. If you decide to do the tag, please leave me a comment with a link to your blog as I'd love to see your answers. 

The Ultimate Book Tag

1. Do you get sick while reading in the car?: I used to all the time but it's less now. I'm not sure if my body just got used to me reading in the car thanks to being on my phone all the time or what. 

2. Which author’s writing style is completely unique to you and why?: For me, it's a tie between Stephen King and John Irving. Stephen King has a style that sucks you into a book, no matter if it's a horror story or something else, and just holds you in until you can't read anymore or the book is over. John Irving has the older storyteller vibe from ages ago that makes you just want to sit down and listen to everything he has to say. A Prayer for Owen Meany is an excellent example of this and you should go read it if you haven't already.

3. Harry Potter Series or the Twilight Saga? Give 3 points to defend your answer.: ...well, fine. It is going to be Harry Potter.

1. It is not in first person and, while Harry is the focus, you get more of a view of what the other characters are doing. In Twilight Saga, it is all Bella all the time and there are points where you just have to reach in and strangle her for all she's doing. 

2. I like magic and magical schools.

3. I have never cried like I have cried over the death of characters like that series. I'm not just talking Dumbledore and Snape, but a lot of other characters. I call book 7 the book of death considering the death count there.

4. Do you carry a book bag? If so, what is it in (besides books…)?: No, but I have a big messenger bag. The book in there right now is The Fire Pit by Chris Ould. Other than that, I have my wallet, my phone, and usually my iPad or Kindle to read other things on if I want to.

5. Do you smell your books?: ...People don't smell their books? How weird.

6. Books with or without little illustrations?: It depends on the book. I like it when books have maps, which I'm not sure counts or not with the illustrations.

7. What book did you love while reading but discovered later it wasn’t quality writing? (Ex. I read Twilight before I read HP and thought the writing was amazing but read HP and now think Twilight is a little bit of a joke.): My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. There was just so much with that book that was so wrong. The parents not seeing reason, the ending that came out of nowhere, and... it is the first book that I cannot even with. Now, I have a rule that there are great authors out there that have that one or two books where they're just wrong. It was a great idea but it just falls flat, so I have to try at least two books by the same author before I put them on my never read again list. I tried Nineteen Minutes and... yeah, no. Her writing is nice but the quality of plot was just wrong. So, she's not my cup of tea, which is sad, but that's where I am at the moment.

8. Do you have any funny stories involving books from your childhood? Please share!: Mom likes to tell the story where I had to have Three Little Pigs read to me or I would throw fits and not go to sleep. That's about it.

9. What is the thinnest book on your shelf?: Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey.

10. What is the thickest book on your shelf?: Three way tie between complete version of Chronicles of Narnia, complete version of Lord of the Rings, and the Mists of Avalon. 

11. Do you write as well as read? Do you see yourself in the future as being an author?: I do, with both questions, and, hopefully, it'll be this year that I am finally an author. 

12. When did you get into reading?: My family likes to joke that I was born reading, so it's been from a very early age. I did not teach myself how to read, but my mom did, and she loves reading. So she passed it onto me. 

13. What is your favorite classic book?: Hmm... this is a tough question. I have way too many classic books that I like. If you were to tie me to a chair with a gun to my head and I could only pick one, it would have to be Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger. It introduced me to the idea that not all heroes are good with the antihero. Until I read that book, I thought that all protagonists were straight and narrow good guys. The idea of the antihero blew my brain and I've been loving the idea ever since. 

14. In school was your best subject Language Arts/English?: It was one of my bests. I also was amazing in math and science but got my BA in English Literature. Now I see plot holes everywhere. 

15. If you were given a book as a present that you had read before and hated…what would you do?: Say thank you and go to Half Price Books to turn it in to get another book.

16. What is a lesser known series that you know of that is similar to Harry Potter or the Hunger Games?: In the idea of a magic school type place, I would say the Harper Hall trilogy by Anne McCaffrey is a good place to start. I'm not sure for Hunger Games.

17. What is a bad habit you always do in writing?: I am horrible at describing places. It's called white box syndrome and I'm working on it.

18. What is your favorite word?: Coccyx. I have yet to use it while writing. 

19. Are you a nerd, dork, or dweeb? Or all of the above?: I'm me and awesome, so it doesn't matter? 

20. Vampires or Fairies? Why?: Both, but fairies are more powerful.

21. Shapeshifters or Angels? Why?: Both but angels are more powerful due to that backing from God thing. 

22. Spirits or Werewolves? Why?: Both but werewolves are more powerful because they're in the living world. Spirits have to cross over and can only do so with the aid of someone who has spirit magic, related to them, or both. 

23. Zombies or Vampires?: What kind of zombies are we talking about here? If we're talking the Max Brooks kind, then zombies. If we're talking about Anne Rice vampires (or my own), then vampires. This is too broad of a question. 

24. Love Triangle or Forbidden Love?: Forbidden love! Love triangles just make me work out how they would be a threesome or more because why not. Honestly. There's not enough time in the world to limit love to just one person. 

25. AND FINALLY: Full on romance books or action-packed with a few love scenes mixed in?: Action-packed with a few love scenes mixed in. I used to be the person who loved to read full on romance but my tastes have changed. 

So, that's that! I hoped you liked reading my answers and I tag anyone who wants to join in on the fun. You can either link me to your own post or answer in the comments. Until next time, happy reading!