That Girl Who Wrote A Book

      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...

      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...

      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...

      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...

      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...

    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...

      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...

     An aspect of story telling that some writers struggle with where others may thrive is dialogue. I am proud to be able to say that dialogue is one of my strengths (many of my professors and readers can attest to this), so today I am going to share some of my tips and tricks.      One mistake many people make when writing dialogue is adding complex dialogue tags. For those who might not know, a dialogue tag is when you put "he/she said" at the end of a bit of dialogue to determine which character is speaking. Many novice writers like to embellish their dialogue tags by saying "she dictated" or "she told them." While these are not necessarily bad phrases to use, it can become a little distracting if every other dialogue tag is something completely different from the last. Most readers have trained their brains to ignore the phrase "he/she said," so when it get's switched up every time, it makes it harder to focus on what the characters are ...

     Everybody remembers their high school English class and having to write essays about the figurative language used in whatever book you were currently reading. I remember complaining whenever my teachers would talk about symbolism, because how do you know that's actually what the author meant? What if they didn't even mean anything by it? What if the apple is just an apple?     Today, I'd like to destroy your dreams by telling you that an apple is not just an apple.      It wasn't until I started taking writing seriously that I realized how much fun figurative language can be. It can be used symbolically, to foreshadow, and to enrich the story itself. But be careful not to overuse it. If your entire manuscript is figurative language on top of figurative language, it can become confusing and difficult to read.     My personal favorite form of figurative language to use is metaphors. Metaphors can easily be turned into a symbol that ca...

    When I say world building, most people think about the setting of each individual scene. Are they in a castle? Are they in the forest? What do those places look, feel, and smell like? But that is only the beginning.    Harry Potter. Lord of the Rings. The Hunger Games. Game of Thrones.     These are all stories where the world building is done masterfully. You have race, you have politics, you have social class, you have history embedded into all these stories. Your goal should be to do the same.  Now, I'm not saying that you're story has to have all of these themes discussed, but you should know them in the back of your head. These are the social settings that impact the way your character might think about the world, interact with others, and live their life.     Thinking about all these aspects can be daunting, so lets take a step back. Worldbuilding is one of the most important steps in writing your book, so lets break it down into fi...

First Few Words       No matter where you're starting your story, whether it be the very last chapter, the middle of an important scene, or somewhere at the beginning, there will come a time where your soul focus is the first few words of your book.       The first couple words are the most important that you will write throughout this entire process; it is what will hook your reader and encourage them to read your story. If the first sentence doesn't immediately capture your reader's attention, they are less likely to stick around for what comes after.     When considering your first words, you must also consider the overall tone of your story. If the entire book is meant to be very serious, your first sentence should also be quite serious. If you're looking for something more intense, you might want to hook them with something that immediately gets their heart pumping. If your story is more lighthearted, then it is acceptable to open y...

     One of the most important parts in creating a story is outlining. It might not always be very fun, but trust me when I say it's extremely necessary. An outline can be a crucial part in figuring out what you want to happen next: If you aren't quite sure where you want a scene to go, just glance at your outline and move on to the next event that's supposed to happen. If you know the specific plot points of your story, it's easier to fill the gaps in between.     There are many ways to create your outline. If you're a bit of a mess, like me, you can just scratch ideas out in a notebook, and then connect the dots wherever you see fit. If you're a bit more structured with your process, you can draw up a literal timeline and mark down which events you want to happen when. Or, you can even use your timeline as a sort of writing exercise: write out the entirety of what you want to happen in your novel in the form of a short story. Basically, explain all the events ...