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The Process of Publishing

      For a moment, lets imagine that you've found yourself an agent who loves your draft, and now it's time to send your manuscript to publishing houses. Grab your tissues and popcorn, because it's going to be a bumpy ride.     The best part about an agent is that they will do the advertising part for you, but at the same time it's also the scary part. It's their job to pitch your book in a way that will make a publishing company want to pick it up. If they're not very good at their job, then you're screwed, but if they are good, it'll still be an emotional roller coasters. Not everybody is going to love your manuscript as much as you and your agent do. There will be countless rejections before someone finally says yes.      Now that a publishing company has decided to take a chance on you, you will be working endlessly to be polishing that story to perfection. The manuscript will go through editors and proofreaders who will tear it apart, but th...
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Drafts Galore

      You've done it! You've finally completed the first draft of your debut novel, so now what? Are you sending it to a publishing company?  Or an editor? Maybe having a few family members read it first? Finding an agent?      No. No. Sure. Maybe.     You've just finished your first draft, but that doesn't mean you're done writing. Surprise, surprise, your first draft is not going to be a masterpiece. Now that you've finished, you've gotta start it all over again on a completely new document.      Think of it this way: your first draft you're telling yourself the story. It's not going to be perfect because you're still working out all the kinks. The first draft is for you. If you want to share it with your family and friends, go ahead, but nobody else is ever gonna see it. This draft is just the skeleton of what your story will soon become.      Your second draft is where you're telling the story to your readers...
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The End . . . or a New Beginning?

      You've made us love your characters, you've put them through hell, and they're finally coming out the other end . . . or are they? It's time to talk about the end of your story!     First things first, you've have to decide whether you want this to be a stand alone novel, or if you'd like to leave it open for a sequel or series. Secondly, you need to determine whether you're a good person or an evil person, and by that I mean are you gonna give us a happy ending or a sad one.      If you've chosen happy ending for a stand alone novel, congratulations you're a good person! You've also chosen what may be the easiest, but also one of the hardest options. It's easy because all you have to do is wrap it up and put a bow on top. Make sure your characters are fulfilled, the BBEG is defeated, and maybe even give us a glimpse what they go on to do. But it's also one of the hardest options because you and your readers have to say goodbye to t...
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The Point of No Return

      You've done it. You've reached the point in your story where everything changes, whether it be for better or worse. You're at the climax of your novel.      I've titled this post "The Point of No Return," which seems like a weird title when you're talking about events in a story, but that's what your climax should be. This is the most important part of your book: it's the part that changes your characters, changes the direction of your plot, speeds everything up and slows it all down at the same time. It's the moment where everything that's important comes out, everything begins to make sense, everything changes. It truly is the point of no return and there's no turning back now.      Generally, most people already have the climax planned before they even start outlining their story. Usually, it's this big moment that's stuck in your head that inspires the whole thing. Everything that happens leads up to and stems from thi...
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The Big Bad Evil Guy

      The villain of your story is arguably the most important character-- even more important than the protagonist. A good villain will challenge your other characters. A great villain will drive your story.      When characterizing your bad guy,  not only do you have to define why they are the way they are, but you also have to make them reasonable. You can't just give your villain a tragic backstory and call it a day, because oftentimes that's not what makes a villain a villain. There has to be some deeper reason behind it. You have to design a character with such depth that your readers can understand them. You know you've done your job well when your readers begin to sympathize with them.     Take Draco Malfoy for example. He bullies Harry Potter and all of his friends, and just generally isn't a good person. But for some reason, fans of the Harry Potter series love Draco, and some even prefer him over the other characters. That's becaus...
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Trials and Tribulations

    Trauma makes a character great. It is an understanding amongst the writing community that if you don't make your characters suffer, your story will be boring. But what nobody seems to realize is that there is a right way to torture your characters and there is a wrong way.      Let's start by discussing the wrong way to challenge your characters. Something that I find very mundane is when a character can go through hell and come out with a smile on their face. Remember that everyone has their breaking point, and so your character should too. If you want to be realistic, your character will not face everything with a big, cheesy smile. Even the most resilient characters (if written well) will reach a point where they can't seem to go on any longer.       T he moment your character breaks is the most important moment in your story. It is the moment that they change, whether it be for the better or for the worse. If you rush through this dev...
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Tragedy Strikes! You Have Writer's Block

      If you've never experienced writers block, you're lying. Or, you're a very special individual and I'm jealous of you. Either way, it's a disease that eats away at you until you force yourself to do something about it or magically manage to recover.     There are many things that may cause writer's block: you just finished a scene and don't know where to go next, you're overwhelmed with ideas that you don't know where to start, or you've been working so hard on other things that you're to mentally drained to even think about sitting down and writing. There are probably other reasons you may be feeling uninspired, but these are the ones that I find often happen to me.      If we're being completely honest, the best way to deal with writers block is to just wait for it to past. Sometimes if you actively try to overcome it, it'll just make it worse. In my experience, the best way to overcome writers block is to try not to worry abou...
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