Today we're going to be talking about reliable writing resources. Everyone has those go-to sites that help them get new story ideas and/or just help them write better. But how can we determine whether their dependable or not?
Truly this is a personal decision, as all of us are different, yet there are a few tricks I've found over the years that have proven quite helpful in picking writing sources:
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I've decided that I wanted to do a writing series, not only do I want to post more about writing, I wanted to talk about a few things. They aren't necessarily writing tips, but I do want to share some writing advice that I've gotten through the years. The first thing that I'll be talking about is: Making A Memorable MC I have a ton of great MC's. I have little Abbie from my WIP Another Imagination and I've got Ebinicah James from my paused WIP Ebinicah James and the Crystal Orb. I know Rehe only reason I've said two MC's is because I'm working on some secret books and I don't want to reveal who the main characters are just yet. Yet all of these main characters started out like normal ordinary people. They had something special that inspired us to write a book about THEM and THEIR journey.
Here are some questions I asked myself whenever I made a new MC:
After that step, I have one thing I must accomplish with my MC before I begin to write them: LEAVE. I put my character away for a few days, I don't think about the story (even though I end up thinking about it in the end), mention the character and I just go about my life. Then I go back to my MC to see if they're still fresh and new feeling (because I don't want a reader to be so into one of my books and then they, reluctantly, put down the book and come back to it later to just wanting to put it down again... Does that make sense?) There we go! My three handy-dandy steps I use to make a memorable character.
What I am about to say is my opinion and my opinion only. If other people agree with me, than they do. If they don't, they don't. It's as simple as that. I would love to talk to you if you have a similar, sort-of similar, or don't have a similar opinion with me about this certain topic. Thanks! I have a new story idea and I'm really happy about it. But, I have to say this first: I am tired of reading about a re-telling of a certain princess (Cinderella, Aurora, Belle, etc.). I'm just tired of them. Why can't people make stories about the supporting characters from each of the stories instead?! Let's take Disney's version of Beauty and the Beast for an example. Somewhere in the movie (I haven't seen it in such a long time...) there is a mural of the prince before he turned into the very-attractive/handsome beast. What's up with the dog? Who are those villagers? What happened to his parents? What's up with the day and night? Was there already a curse on the prince even before he turned into the Beast? See?!?!?!? Wouldn't that be such an amazing book, finding out the Beast's origins (gahh, does anyone know his real name? Adam... maybe Edward?)? Let's do Pinocchio. Who's the Blue Fairy from Pinocchio? Is she the Mother of Stars? Or is she somehow related to the fairy godmother's in Sleeping Beauty? Why is the Blue Fairy and not the White Fairy? Now off to Peter Pan. I feel as if this story would be a bit harder to do an origin story for, but has anybody thought to do a origin story for Captain Hook's silly friend, Mr. Smee? Did/does he have a mental illness? Why is he with Captain Hook when he's so nice? Okay, we've gotten those stories out of the way, why not look at a story that's more widely know. Cinderella. What happened to Lady Tremaine before she got married to Cinderella's father? Was she a super nice, really pretty young girl? Did she have any siblings? Was it because Cinderella reminded Lady Tremaine of her past self was the reason she was so mean to Cinderella? And the final story that I will be talking about, Aladdin. Who was Jasmine's mother? Was she royalty or a peasant (was the word peasant even in that timeline?)? Why did she marry the Sultan? Why is the Sultan so darn adorable?!
Me: Really? *begins getting upset* Why CINDERELLA?! She literally has enough stories to last A LIFE TIME.
And how come authors aren't focusing on the prince's perspective of a story? COME ON PEOPLE, I WANNA FIND OUT NAVEEN'S LIFE BEFORE HE MET HIS PARTNER/SPOUSE!!! (You know, from The Princess and the Frog?) Now since I've given you your inspiration, go write. *nicely shoo's everyone away to go start writing* Now don't forget, if you're not ready to leave yet, you can always chat in the comments and have a full, head-on conversation about this. I went to one of my Creative Writing classes today and we were learning on how to make our story successful, Pixar style. It was a good class, yes, but something else stuck out to me. I think it was my teacher, but she said something out making a book seem real and alive and that is how I came up with this quote! So yup! That's the quote's little story. Please feel free to share this quote, but please give credit back to me. I worked hard to make this and you might feel guilty if you don't say it's mine (I don't want you to feel guilty!).
I know it may sound cheesy and all, but I really like it! I'm going to try and be calm. Everyone... I won NaNoWriMo. I finished my book yesterday, Sunday, and I... I got it done. I'm not sure whether I should be screaming (I had my moments) or whether I should by forcing people to read my first draft (that's coming soon). My finished word count is 15,004 words. Can you believe it?
Now everywhere I go, I'm carrying the Go Teen Writers: How To Turn Your First Draft Into A Published Book. This book is literally my best friend, well other than Charisma (and another great friend of mine!) of course. Although, I'm kind of scared/pumped up for the editing stage. I just hope everyone likes my characters. Does anyone have any tips on the editing process or how they edit their books? And how long do you have to wait/celebrate before you start editing? Oh! And, since it's Thanksgiving break (techincally), I have the new Rick Riordian book awaiting to be read... You know, Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard: The Sword of Summer? Yeah, you know that book. And I am so excited to read it! :D People have asked if I was going to be posting snippets of my story here on the blog. While I am still thinking whether I should or not, I will be giving out what I like to call 'Photo Pharses' and I will be doing a character interview soon or later. Also, since I love you guys, I'm going to give you all some special news! As I was writing Another Imagination, Charisma gave me the idea to write a sequel to the book. So that's what I'm going to do! Another Imagination is going to, officially, be a duology! I'll be revealing the title of the second book somewhere in the near future (maybe in Janurary or February of 2016). Everyone, I am so very excited and this is my first book I've ever really finished. Have a happy Thanksgiving everyone! Hey guys! Sorry I haven't been posting a ton. Not only am I rushing to prepare myself for NaNoWriMo (which is only 23 days away), I'm trying to catch up on school (which I am kind of behind in... I still have an 'A' though!). What are YOU doing to prepare for NaNoWriMo? I've been thinking about this question a TON lately, and I realized--nothing. All I've done is make my 'book cover' (it's cool... But it could be WAY cooler), think up a book summary and name it. Then, I'm going to panster it all the way through (so much for being a planner... -_-). Would you like to know what my NaNoWriMo book is called and is about? I'm not going to leave you in the suspense this time. :D My book is called 'Another Imagination'. Abbie can see things others can't. A rare ability to some, a curse to others. Watching the beautiful creatures move around and about has people scared that she'll be influenced to do something she's not suppose to, but on the contrary the creatures that she sees want to be her friend, to be laughed with, to have someone love them. Do you like it? I can't wait to start writing! I'm going to have a character interview with Abbie some Thursday this month, so be on a look out! Are YOU participating in NaNoWriMo? Are you thinking about doing it this year? Do you have a book that you're about to start (even if you aren't doing NaNoWriMo)? By the way, I'm thinking about having a 'Book Cover Contest' for my book because I made a cover for myself, but I'm not sure if it really fits... If you like the idea, I'll consider putting the contest into action. Thank you so much everyone for what you do! (c) All rights reserved. Please do not reproduce, plagarize, or dulicate any work on this site. Links back to the site are encouraged and welcomed. Hey there everybody! As you can see on my Writing Progress, my New Book (which has a name, I just haven't revealed it yet) has 20, 470 words. I am so proud that I've written that many words! My personal due date for finishing the book is November 7th. I know that cuts into NaNoWriMo time, but since I've committed to finishing my book AND starting a new book for NaNoWriMo, I'm gonna do it. Honestly, I can't wait. I'm trying to prepare two books so I can pick which book I want to do for NaNoWriMo but I haven't completely finished the preparations. I hope I can become a winner this year. Although this is my second year doing YWP NaNoWriMo, I know that my older sister did Camp NaNoWriMo for one year and I think she did NaNoWriMo and she had lots of fun doing it. She's one of the reasons why I'm writing. :D The hard part for me is deciding whether I'm a planner or a panster.
Source: NaNoWriMo Prep Last year, I was a total Panster. I had NO idea what I was doing, only that I was writing a story that I barely knew anything about (which was Ebinicah James and the Crystal Orb. Don't get me wrong. It is still a fantastic book. It just needs to be seen with a new eye). It was fun being a Panster though (*grins*). But this year, I am going to TRY and be a planner and see whether being a Planner or a Panster is easier for me.
Guys, I am SO excited to start NaNoWriMo! Are you doing NaNoWriMo this year? YWP NaNoWriMo (they're getting a new website this year!)? Have you done NaNoWriMo in past years? If so, do you have any writer-to-writer advice you would like to give? Have a fantastic day! Looking around at authors blogs (I find it a very convenient thing to do when you have nothing to do... Or don't want to do anything...) and I found this link to a website called: http://bookreviewsandgiveaways.org/ Pretty sweet right? But it gets even better. If you scroll down a little bit on the site, you find this beauty. And if you look at the bottom right hand corner, you see someones signature and below their name it says 'Photography'. I immediately thought, "Whoa, that's a REAL place?" after staring at it for hours on end (a.k.a. a minute).
It is truly beautiful. (BTW, this isn't the end of the post! there is a 'Read More' very close to this sentence. It is to the right and slightly to the bottom!) I am so sorry that I haven't been posting recently, summer is proving to be more hectic than planned. I've decided that I'm going to be starting up Nex Gen Justice League when the new school year begins, because then I'll have to fit blogging into my schedule and whatever is in my schedule must come to past! Anyway, I was looking at this REALLY cool blog called Lazy Penguins and she did a post about that included watches (here is the original post: 10 Extreme Cool Items You May Love To Wear) and the two that I'm going to blog about really stood out to me. :3 The first watch: Midnight Planetarium Watch. Site Link Beautiful, right? Kind of reminds me of what Dumbledore would wear. That's a watch I would definitely get if I would remember how it works (lol). The next watch: Ring Clock. Site Link
Awesome right? I've never seen anything like it in my whole entire life! Thanks everyone and check out Lazy Penguins! Hey everybody! Today, I'm going to be talking about how I write books. You know how some people outline their stories? Yeah, this may sound crazy, but I don't do that. I'm not sure why, but I feel it to be unnecessary. I actually just start writing my story on a Microsoft document. When I first start writing, I close my eyes for at least 2 minutes and picture everything in my head like a movie. Only, I can see it more in my head then I can when writing it (thank Cybertron that there is a writing stage called editing!). After I finish watching the opening act of my story in my head, I go and write it. Yet, I must admit, I am terrible at G.U.M. (grammar, usage and mechanics) which is an essential part to writing. I know! How can I be good at writing if I'm terrible at G.U.M.? Let us save that question for another time... Anyway, after I start writing, I get to at least chapter 3 and I'm not sure what to write! I have to Pixlrize pictures and then look at quotes for weeks before I can actually think of what next to write. And in that very moment, I wished I outlined.
Well, that's it for today! Part 2 will be coming soon! |
I am the Smol Scribble. I came to realize that, even though the first drafts of books aren't perfect, they are the closest to my heart...
The Ancient Past of the Scribbler
July 2019
(c) All rights reserved. Please do not reproduce, plagarize, or dulicate any work on this site. Links back to the site are encouraged and welcomed.
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