Review: Outlining Your Novel

Context

I’ve already written about K.M. Weiland, saying how impressed I was with the free learning material she offered. Among the books she has for sale, Outlining Your Novel: Map Your Way to Success is the first I bought. It’s one of my best investments ever. This 187-page book is my new bible.

I’ve struggled a lot with outlining in the past. My attempts at pantsing all ended with two or three elegant chapters, abandoned when structural issues or plot holes craters came in the way. My first attempts at outlining were not very successful either. I didn’t know how to do it properly. I half-pantsed, half-outlined my first complete novel, and as a result, I had to re-outline it and rewrite half of it from scratch. I don’t mind; I enjoyed the learning process and I’m confident that, once I’m done, the result will be as great as I could expect for a first novel. But Outlining Your Novel: Map Your Way to Success made me confident I can do it right next time and not waste so many hours fixing the mess.

Review

As usual, I’ve enjoyed Weiland’s voice: the writing it tight and to the point, with a pinch of humour. It’s pleasant to read. It’s also well structured, with handy checklists at the end of each chapter. There are a few typos, like words broken off by hyphens in the middle of a line, but nothing awful.

The book covers everything, from brainstorming to character development to setting, with examples from famous books or movies. It brushes lightly on story structure, but if you struggle with it, you can always get Structuring Your Novel from the same author. There are also interviews with other writers on their outlining processes, which I thought was a nice touch; some resonated with me a lot, other… not so much. That’s okay; it means the approaches to outlining are varied and there’s something for everyone.

I loved that the author takes you by the hand and tells you exactly how to outline the way she does. You couldn’t wish for a more comprehensive approach. Some writers might prefer a less lengthy process, but my control-freak self will have a lot of fun with it.

What my copy of the book looks like now

I didn’t just read the book from cover to cover; I worked my way through it over three months to re-outline my novel for the rewrite. I added self-stick tabs at all the important places and even savagely highlighted important passages. For a “new” book, one that’s still at the stage of idea in my mind, it would take longer. If you get the book, I encourage you to do the same. Take your time with it. Enjoy it.

There is an accompanying workbook, which I haven’t bought yet – I prefer working on loose leaves in binders over anything else. However, I got the free sample from Amazon and it does add a bit to the content of the main book, with infographics, so I might get it later.

Rating: 9.5/10

Who would I recommend this to? Every fiction writer should read this, whether they’re just starting out or a bit more experienced. Even pantsers could enjoy it and learn from it. I have no doubt it will make me able to write strong stories faster, and that it can do the same for you.

 

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NaNoWriMo 2017: Week 4

The final week! Last year, that one went smoothly… I even managed to write over 5k words in a day. This year though, the cold I’d caught during week 3 persisted all through week 4 until the very last day. I managed to kick myself in the butt, however, and write until I reached over 15k words, the equivalent of 500 words a day. I used to consider this the bare minimum, but this month was crazy busy so… this a win. If it hadn’t been for NaNoWriMo, I’d probably have written even less than that.

And now what? Well, on December 1st, I came down with a gastroenteritis. I wasn’t even fully recovered when my daughter started throwing up, too. I took a week off any self-imposed obligations and rested. This week, I’m back to blogging, although I’ll probably take it easy fiction-wise for the rest of December. There are just too many other things that need to be done this month. Besides, I still feel a bit ill, with an almost constant heartburn and occasional nausea – probably my thirties slapping me in the face.

I’ll also use this time to “regroup” and plan my next steps. I’m not sure exactly what I want to do next… Rewrite my first novel? Continue brainstorming on my NaNoWriMo 2017 project? Continue another of my several WIPs? Challenge myself to write one short story every week or month and publish it? So many possibilities!

NaNoWriMo 2017: Week 2&3

Week 2 of NaNoWriMo went a very little bit better than week 1: I wrote a total of 5,488 words, bringing my total to 9,704 words. Whoops, that’s less than I should have written in the first week. But I held on. Part of those words was my final creative writing assignment, which I am rather proud of it even if I can’t get rid of my writer insecurities.

What I’m particularly proud of is that I managed to write a whole story in under 1,000 words. I don’t write short stories because whenever I try, I end up wanting to expand and expand on them until they’re novel-length. Even for this one, one of my teacher’s comments was:

It […] feels like it could keep going, as the world of the story feels fleshed out and inhabitable. It reads a bit like an opening chapter or a television pilot, where you could keep the story going significantly after this.

Yeah. Absolutely. I know at least 3 different possible directions in which to extend this into a novel. Buuut it can also be read as a short story, and that’s an achievement for me.

As for my NaNoWriMo project, it became… weirder. The hero developed a taste for BDSM – though he’s a teenager – and the heroin sort of digs it. Ahem. That might not make it into the final draft.

Week 3 was uh… a warp zone. Poof! Before I knew it, it was week 4 already and I almost hadn’t written anything. See the sad, flat line in the graph, like a dead person’s ECG?

sigh

I went to a Lego convention on Nov. 17, 18 and 19 and came back with a bad cold. If I wanted to be able to work 8 hours in a row, I had to go to bed right after supper. I know all too well that trying to “push through” at that point would have been harmful to my physical and mental health.

Now week 4 is well underway and I’m still sick, but I feel a bit better. My total word count is 12,177 words. It is clear that reaching 50,000 words won’t be possible for me this month. I know people who can write 10,000 words per day, but I’m not one of them. It’s disappointing. However, I’ll write as much as I can until November 30 (and beyond) because the ultimate goal is to write the story without compromising my health or my enjoyment in the process.

Don’t give up, people. NaNoWriMo is hard and it’s not for everybody, but the good news is there are 12 months in a year. November is just one of them, so keep writing.

Blocked? Get to know your characters

It can happen any time: during the outlining, the drafting, the rewriting or the editing process. You feel blocked. No worries, there are a number of ways to get you going again. One of them is getting to know your characters. Here are a few ideas to get you started.

Character sheets

I used to love creating character sheets, then abandoned it because “hey, I know my characters, they’re mine”. But I’m starting to do it again, except I don’t write the same things I used to. For example, I used to skip the part about inner conflict. “Why, it’s all over the pages!” I’d think. Except summarizing it is an excellent way to see whether it “holds up”. A story is a bit like a labyrinth: the characters and the reader don’t know its exact configuration, but the writer must know it to make sure it is sound. It wouldn’t do to have holes or too many ways leading to the center (or climax) or none at all.

There are a plethora of templates online, from basic to elaborate. I find the basic ones useful while I’m outlining, but while editing I use one that’s much more elaborate. For instance, in the past couple of weeks I wrote several pages of background story, inner conflict, motivation, and ghosts (aka those things that haunt people). Doing this helped me realize that I didn’t understand my main character quite as well as I used to think.

Character interviews

You get to mimic your own favourite interviewer and ask your characters all kinds of questions. I don’t actually watch interviews, so I use Marcel Proust’s questionnaire to get me started. My characters don’t always tell me the truth… but I know when they’re lying and what they’re lying about tells me a bit more about what they’re ashamed of or how they’d like people to see them. Then I go deep, CIA agent-like, and discover the truth. This might sound weird, but I think reading Get the Truth made me a better writer.

Another way of “interviewing” your characters would be to make them complete a personality test. I have already stated my love for the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (or MBTI), but I know a lot of people like The Enneagram too. If you’re more esoterically oriented, name meanings and astrology can help, too… even tarot cards or runes, if you’re into that. You can even sort them in one of the houses at Hogwarts!

Simulations

I’m not sure whether a lot of writers do this, but sometimes I like to momentarily take a character out of their normal context and see how they react. Write a scene or two of them meeting people they’ll never actually meet in the story, or make them do crazy things that they’d never actually do. Sometimes, those can end up in the actual story as a “fantasy” of theirs. Most of the time it only serves as fuel, but it’s an exercise that I find so fun and entertaining it also provides powerful motivation.

Finally, we tend to want to focus on main characters, but do not forget to do it for your secondary characters, too. They have their own agenda and can sometimes impact the main plot in unexpected ways (as they should).  In fact, in my current project, it’s a secondary character that helped me get unstuck. I also like to imagine what a story centered on their lives would be like… though that’s dangerous. It can make you want to make them more important in your main character’s story than they should be, or give you more story ideas than you could possibly write in a lifetime. But it’s a good problem to have, I guess.

I hope you enjoyed this post! Feel free to share your own techniques to get to know your characters.

How I love my love stories (or not)

I was supposed to post the second episode of “Declutter your text”, talking about editing two weeks in a row felt a bit… heavy, so I figured I’d post something lighter today. That being said, here is today’s program:

Pride and Prejudice

Before I met my husband, I thought I hated love stories. That is… most love stories. I’ve always been a huge fan of Pride and Prejudice. But the movies my more romantic female friends loved made me want to barf.

I never really asked myself why that was because as a rule, I hated things “stereotypical girls” loved: romance movies and books, pop music, shopping, make-up, skirts and even shorts, talking about boys, public display of emotions, etc. I was a tomboy and didn’t care to pretend otherwise.

My meeting with my husband made me discover a sweet side in myself I didn’t know I had. I started to binge-watch Japanese dramas, I read everything Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë… I thought I had changed.

I hadn’t. I tried watching some TV series the other day, and the well-known “excuse me while I barf” feeling came right back. Now, that series has been super popular, so I again felt like an alien not liking it. I made it my mission to watch that show until I discovered what it was I hated so much, and what it was I loved so much in the guilty pleasure romances I indulge in from time to time. I have finally found it.

Buzzer Beat

I love when the story revolves around one or both character’s passion for something, be it dance, piano, drawing, cooking or even eating, getting one’s revenge or running a million dollar business. The characters then proceed to support each other in their own passion, and together they’ll be able to accomplish great things. I am drawn to that kind of stories like a fly to honey, because they leave me feeling motivated to pursue my own passion.

I hate when love and romantic relationships are the one thing every single character ever care or talk about. Now, I can be understanding: I had a friend in high school who cared a lot about guys and romantic relationships, so much that she’d talk about that 80% of the time. It’s fine. But that the whole cast is like that? It doesn’t feel realistic and there is no character I can identify with.

Also, I’ve watched or read stories in which the “fated couple” have an extremely toxic influence on each other, sometimes to the point where one of them (typically the girl) wants to commit suicide. And that’s not mentioning those in which suicide happens because those are classified as tragedies, not romances. But still… she loves him so much and blah blah blah. Excuse me, but somebody who plays with my heart strings to the point of making me want to die doesn’t deserve the tiniest place in my heart… Again, I know that some girls can’t help it, they love the jerk that disrespects them… I don’t.

Densha Otoko

Finally, I love when men feel “real”. I love when they’re shy, clumsy or unsure what to do, but trying to do it right. I love when they won’t say that perfect sentence the girl wants to hear, but end up conveying their feelings in their own ways. In other words, I love when they’re not just there as a handsome prop.

Of course, those are all just personal opinions. There are no “dos and don’ts” here. Just my own tastes. But I am really happy to realise that the single love story I’ve written reflects what I love, and stays away from what I hate… despite it having been written before I analysed my tastes. After all, my goal is to write a book I’d love to read.

Declutter your text: Narrow your scope

Am I the only one who gets discouraged when, scrolling down a possibly interesting blog post, I see that it’s obviously a few thousand words? Unless the writer is a friend or an amazing writer, I’ll tend to pass. Maybe the writer had a lot to say, in which case all is well, or maybe they rambled forever… which is one of the surest ways to lose my attention.

When you start off as a blogger, you try to say everything in one post. I did. Then, that annoying advice my college teacher would repeat me until I got my essay topic approved came to haunt me again:

“Narrow it down.”

That’s when I realised I was trying to fit 3 posts in 1. From there, it was easy to separate them. What’s difficult is seeing that there are, indeed, 3 distinct ideas. They are so intricately weaved together in your head that you don’t see the different threads. Readers, however, could end up confused or bored and you don’t want that.

So you have a neverending first draft. Excellent! Now, figure out the “point” of your article. You have to be able to summarise it in a few words – your title. If you’d be tempted to add commas, or if nothing seems to grasp the entirety of your content… you might have more than one article in there.

Once you know what your point is, analyse every paragraph, then every sentence in your post. Delete or copy/paste everything that’s irrelevant. Even the funniest of anecdotes will fall flat if it’s not relevant in context. If you have such a jewel, keep it and make it shine bright where it belongs.

All of that is a bit vague, so here’s a concrete example. I tried reading a book review recently and I could not finish it. There was a lengthy introduction about the theme of the book, a rather long synopsis and a few opinions scattered here and there.

I don’t know about you, but when I read reviews, all I want is an opinion. I want to know what worked and didn’t work for you. I can read the blurb on Goodreads, and it will be one that has been rewritten several times by professionals. Actually, most of the times when I read a review, that’s because I’ve already read it and was intrigued by it. Retelling me is redundant.

As for the theme… you can mention it, but make it more than a sentence long and it might look out of place. If that theme is important to you and you feel the need to talk more about it… make another post!

It’s alright to ramble when writing your first draft. That’s what first drafts are for. It’s even okay to post some rambling, especially if you’re talking about your life. But sometimes you have to be to the point.

Of course, time being a limited resource, you have to let go eventually. I’ve rewritten this twice and edited it for several hours… It’s fiiiiine. *publish*

Rewriting is the essence of writing well: it’s where the game is won or lost. That idea is hard to accept. We all have an emotional equity in our first draft; we can’t believe that it wasn’t born perfect. But the odds are close to 100 percent that it wasn’t.
– William Zinsser

Other posts in this series: Use modifiers in moderation, Beware of repetitions, Don’t dump details.

Review: Witch & Wizard

Context

Witch & Wizard has been on my Amazon wishlist for a while, which means I wasn’t sure about it. I did see it on some top fantasy series list, but I’m ever sceptical – especially when it comes to fantasy. So I let it marinate for a while.

I am currently working on a fantasy novel about a witch, so I thought I would give this a try. However, when it arrived, I was in the middle of reading To Kill a Mockingbird, which I was enjoying and intended to review today (well, ahem, yesterday actually), so I just put it on the to-read pile.

Then, at a family party, my sister told me about this amazing thriller she’d just read by James Patterson. I was like: “James Patterson? Where have I seen that name?”. Don’t ask me how I could ignore the existence of such a famous writer, I just did. Back at home, I checked the novel I’d just bought and saw the name written in golden letters, above the co-author’s name, Gabrielle Charbonnet.

So I picked it up. I thought I’d read just the first chapter. I ended up ditching To Kill a Mockingbird and binge-read Witch & Wizard. This is possibly the best fantasy novel I’ve read since finishing the Harry Potter series. It was worth posting the March review late.

Review

The chapters are very short: like two or three pages. If you’ve been following me carefully, you might know that I prefer long chapters. However, these were so ridiculously short that I ended up completely ignoring chapter changes, just like I do page changes, which made me read super quickly like I do chapter-less books.

The story is gripping from start to finish. It is action-packed, and unlike in (most) blockbusters, the story doesn’t suffer from it – quite the opposite. Sometimes, in slower books, I feel like the authors had only a short story to tell but desperately added stuff until it was novel-length. Literary dilution of sorts. Witch & Wizard is 100% pure story, not made from concentrate.

I liked the main characters a lot and found them believable and endearing. The villains, on the other hand, I didn’t find too believable. However, neither did the main characters. And if I judge by the awards James Patterson received… I’m guessing something will come up in the next volumes to explain why “regular humans” would act like psychopaths.

I loved that the narration was split between Wisty’s and Whit’s point of view. I identified a lot with Wisty, despite her being a lot different from myself. Not so much with Whit, but he felt real nonetheless. Also, something that happens too rarely: each had their own recognizable voice, like they were really written by a different person. Yet, it was also “homogenized”, so that neither looked like a better storyteller than the other. Awesome work, really.

You can bet the next volume in the series won’t even spend a minute on my wishlist – it’s going straight to my cart! Interesting fact: each book in the series is co-authored with a different writer.

Rating: 9.5/10, give or take .5 depending on the rest of the series.

Who would I recommend this to? Everyone. Really. I don’t guarantee you’ll like it, but it certainly is worth reading.

Bonus thoughts

For the second time in two months, a book made me discouraged at my own level as a writer. I was ready to give up writing. Of course, giving up writing is a thing I cannot do because I need it too much, but you get the idea.

It sure didn’t help that the dystopian world resembled my own dystopian world in my most favourite, most precious original story, except 100 times better in terms of world-building. It was like: “Here! Compare your amateur drawing with one by an experienced pro. The same thing is pictured, but the results are completely different so you can clearly see just how much you suck.”

When I finished the book, however, I was as motivated as ever. I’m 29. If everything goes well, I should have at least another 40 years on this planet. I can learn. I will learn. James Patterson even has an online course in which he teaches his craft. I might sign up for it when I have the funds.

I will probably never get to the level I aim for. But like they say: “Aim for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.”

Review: Spanking Shakespeare

Last November, my NaNoWriMo project included the point of view of a 17-year-old boy. Now, this might come as a surprise, but I’ve never been a 17-year-old boy. I’ve hung out with a lot of them, but I never was in their minds. So for research’s sake, I googled books that would show the “uncensored” thoughts of that particular species.

Spanking Shakespeare by Jake Wizner is the one that caught my attention… and I am so glad it did. My only disappointment is: Why is there no French translation of that book? This should be translated! It is a debut novel by a man whose main source of income isn’t writing, and yet it is the kind of writing that makes me despair I’ll never write so well (right until it becomes a challenge, haha). I guess Random House know how to choose their manuscripts.

The voice is the best. Although some anecdotes are funny in themselves, some are only funny because of the way they’re told. Know someone who can fascinate a crowd talking about their trip to the convenience store? That’s the kind of skill I’m talking about. As a writer, I can only admire that.

Shakespear Shapiro’s inner dialogue and the jokes, and the ideas not always well-thought-out… It rings so true to my experience hanging out with boys (and even men). I guess some of the content could hurt “female delicacy”, but I never had that.

The story isn’t one that will change your life, but it is still rather deep under the humour. Serious subjects are broached. The main theme, though subtle, is strong.

The characters are all endearing (and sometimes annoying) in their own way. They reminded me of people I used to know. I didn’t really identify with any of them, feeling instead like I was there with them.

The only thing that bothered me a little would be the structure. The entire book alternates between the present, where you’re in Shakespeare’s mind, and the past, written down by Shakespeare for his class. While those written pieces are funny and beautifully written, some of them are not absolutely vital to the story and I tend to dislike scenes that just “stall” the story.

Rating: 8.5/10

Who would I recommend this to? The obvious answer would be teenage boys, especially those who like literature because there are a lot of references to famous writers in there. However, I do believe anyone over 13 could enjoy this book as long as they’re not too easily offended and can tolerate teenage boys’ humour.

My creative process: writing the first draft

Bakuman illustration by Takeshi Obata

Learning about people’s creative process or “watching them create” is one of my favourite things. I’ve spent hours watching  YouTube videos of Takeshi Obata just drawing (he’s the mangaka who drew Hikaru no Go, Death Note and Bakuman, among other things). So I thought today I’d talk about my own creative process, because it’s fun to share and because maybe next year or in two or three years I’ll look back to this post and be amazed at how much my process has changed. Or not.

The idea

It all starts with an idea. It can come from vastly different things: a passer-by can sprout a character, a feeling can become a theme, etc. You have ideas, you know what I mean.

The daydream

There is a kind of natural selections in my ideas. I almost don’t consciously “choose” which one I’ll pursue, I just go with the one that obsesses me the most. After all, I write for fun. So, that natural selection occurs during my daydreams. Because I’m busy, I don’t just lie down to daydream like I used to when I was a teenager – I daydreaming while doing other things. My personal favourite moment is while waiting for sleep, since I can just lie down and be happy in my own world for 15 minutes to 2 hours. It has the added benefit to keep me from worrying about… you know… real life.

The first words

When I have daydreamed a lot and I’m scared I might forget those dreams, I start writing. No plan, no plot, no nothing, just my ideas and my daydreams. And maybe notes taken in earlier steps. Normally, a “good” idea will get me to write over 10k words (sometimes even up to 20k words) virtually effortlessly. Those words would be written very quickly, like 10k over the weekend or 20k in two weeks.

The plot

Then, I stare at the mess reread the thing, and see where that could lead me or what I’d like to do with it. I write down key words for my different scenes on small pieces of paper and paste them on my wall. The mad artist look at that point is desirable. Then I try to come up with any missing element or plot point.

My wall; there are 7 books there. And a drawing of Haruma Miura because… uh… whatever. Who needs a reason to put up drawings of beautiful people on their wall?

The research

During my initial 10-20k words, I will most likely have broached subjects I know little about, so while plotting, I’ll do some research and see what fun ideas emerge. Then I go back to plotting and alternate both until I have a pretty strong sequence of events.

The plan

Yes, because I don’t consider “plotting” as planning. For me, planning deals with questions like: How long’s it gonna be? What kind of narrator will I use? What artistic direction do I want to use? Stuff like that. I’ll also create an actual outline of the plot with target word counts in Scrivener.

The first draft

Then I go ahead and write the first draft. I used to write by bursts until I found that writing between 500 and 1,000 words a day worked better for me. I work on my story every day unless there is a special occasion (Christmas, a wedding, etc.) or I’m sick. At first, it needs some getting used to, then it gets addictive, and finally it becomes a routine that you simply won’t question.

Typically, I’ll do some research all along the way (I try to limit this to 30 minutes a day, otherwise it tends to take up all my writing time). After a chunk of 10-20k words, I’ll also go back to what I have written, rearrange things as necessary (this usually takes 2-3 days, no more than a week), and then go back to drafting. That last step is crucial. I have been caught in a loop of editing the first 20k of a manuscript forever and ending up never finishing the thing. The saddest part is: I now plan on finishing that story at last, and I might just end up scrapping that whole beautifully written intro and starting from scratch.

That’s it for this week. The editing process will require a post of its own when I’m done with my current novel, which probably means much later this year.

I’m writing a first draft and reminding myself that I’m simply shoveling sand into a box so that later I can build castles.
– Shannon Hale

Resolution for 2017

Happy New Year, everyone!

January’s book review will be pushed to next week since special occasions outrank scheduled posts.

Today is the very first day of the new year and I want to take some time to think about a theme for the year to come. What I mean by theme is actually a very vague resolution like “become more self-confident” or “take better care of my health”. In 2016, my theme was to maintain my mental health. I have actually improved it a little.

For 2017, I want to continue what I’ve started in the second half of 2016 and which actually helped my mental health: following my dream, which is writing, if that wasn’t clear enough yet.

I have one decent first draft that I am currently editing/rewriting and one “very first draft” (or a 50,175 words outline if you prefer) that I have no intention of touching again this year. The year has 365 days. Knowing that, let’s make goals.

2017 theme: plot your own life (I’ve borrowed that idea from a friend)

Plotting my own life means to stop just going through every day passively as I would do in a former life and start working actively toward what I want. That means being mindful, every day, that what I do or do not do will determine my probabilities of getting where I want to go.

So this year, I want to plan my next moves because really, that’s the smart thing to do and most importantly, that’s my M.O. in everything else, so why I failed to make a bigger plan for myself (and stick to it) so far is beyond me.

Here are the goals I’ve set for myself in 2017 (in no particular order):

1. Finish rewriting book 1.

   

   Tower of Books by Platapiotr on DeviantArt

2. Have book 1 beta read;
3. Edit book 1 again;
4. Participate to camp NaNo in April with my NaNo community;
5. Finish another first draft;
6. Read at least one book every two weeks on average, for a total of 26 books this year. As a writer, I should read at least this much. See my list on Goodreads (subject to changes);
7. Continue to post weekly on this blog;
8. Write or edit anything daily;
9. Take a walk at least 5 days a week to avoid becoming too sedentary (with some luck, I’ll find a job within walking distance from my home – that is, less than 60 minutes and this point will be a no-brainer);
10. Research editing, pitching, querying, publishing, (or any other relevant subject surrounding the publishing process);
11. Research blogging;
12. Work on my anxiety;
13. Take at least one Creative Writing course.

Thirteen goals; it happened like that, but I’m glad it did, 13 is my lucky number.

As you can see, “publishing on Wattpad” is not there; that is because, since I wrote a book, I might as well use it to experiment with traditional publishing. I have no real hope of actually finding an agent or getting that particular book published (I’d rather it not be my official debut novel), but I believe that “practice makes perfect”, and that it’s also the case with pitching and querying. I’ll probably end up publishing that book on Wattpad eventually… just not in February 2017.

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
― Eleanor Roosevelt.