As Camp Nano is in about a month, I thought I'd start a Saturday blog series about how to make sure you're ready for it! (For those of you who don't know, Camp Nano is a writing event where writers decide on a writing goal to achieve in July and then work towards it.) The first step to a successful Camp Nano, or to any writing project, is to have an outline. And yes, I know some people can write novels without them but I can't. So if you're like me and need an outline, this post is for you. Today, I thought I would share my three step process to outlining a novel. Step One: Braindump all your novel ideas If you read my post about my writing process, then you know a novel idea usually brews in my head for a while before I write the outline. The first thing I do before outlining a new novel idea is to get all those ideas out of my head and onto the page. For this, I'll pull out my journal and just jot down all the fun ideas, no matter how big or small, onto the page. This can serve as inspiration for the beat sheets and oftentimes leads to me creating fully formed characters before I even use the beat sheet. Step Two: Use the Save the Cat Beat Sheet to Organize Your Ideas If you're unfamiliar with Save the Cat Writes a Novel, you need to buy this book! The author highlights all the beats you need to craft a great novel...and the book will revolutionize your outlines--however, any three act writing structure would work here. I divide up all my ideas into different beats which belong in a three act structure. Usually, I write these out on index cards, as I did when outlining my last novel back in October of 2019. I even blogged about it in case you're curious what the cards looked like! Step Three: Divide the Beats Up into Chapters and Create a Formal Outline After I have all the beats down on index cards, I assign each index card to a chapter. I try to make sure there's about three scenes/beats per chapter so the chapters aren't too long or short, but this is just a rough guideline. Once each beat is assigned a chapter, I pulled up a Google Doc, name it "Draft 1 Outline" and set to work roughly outlining the main points of each chapter. For each chapter, I like to have mapped out any main plot points, any subplot progression, any character development, and the cliffhanger for each chapter which will keep readers reading. Curious how this all looks in action? Watch me outline in this vlog:
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I'm a big believer that success is found in the everyday. It's not the big goals and ideas which make someone successful (although they are important), it's the small day-to-day things which provide the consistency needed for success! I recently published a week in my life vlog on Youtube (which was a SUPER fun video I highly recommend checking out) but there were a couple things throughout filming which I realized allowed me to crush my goals and stay productive while having fun. Here are my top four tips to design your week for success! Tip One: Plan Your Weeks Out!! I know, I know. This might sound simple, but going into your week with an effective plan can be a game changer. For me, I like to review my quarterly goals each week, the status of all the projects I'm working on, and set weekly milestones to work towards those bigger goals and projects. For example, one project I've been working on this month is drafting my YA Thriller. My quarterly goal is to get the project done, meaning I want to write 50,000 words on it in May. Last Sunday, I calculated I needed to write 11,000 words on the project! After I create these weekly milestones, I write them up on my whiteboard so I can erase them once the weekly objective is completed. However, I also like to break these weekly tasks down into daily tasks so I write down my to-dos in my planner at the beginning of each week. There's something so satisfying about crossing off to-dos! I always devote some time on Sunday to creating extensive to-do lists as they allow me to design my day and have control over how I'm spending my time! Tip Two: But also don't be afraid to go with the flow By vlogging my week, I noticed something very interesting about my writing. Some days, I could write 1,000 words in an hour while other days it took me three hours to write 800 words! Not all days are created equal and some days, you're just feeling it and other days...not so much. In order to optimize when I'm feeling it, I try to make sure my plans are flexible. That way, if I feel inspired one day, I write more, moving some of the other to-dos that day to the next or to later in the evening. On the flipside, some days I'm not feeling it, so I give myself permission to do easier tasks or take some time off to workout, go for a hike, go for a coffee run, etc. Yes, goals are important but you shouldn't have to force yourself to do all the things on days when you feel less motivated--save that force and energy for days when you feel motivated and determined and give yourself grace when needed. Plan ahead, but optimize each day to how you're feeling! Tip Three: Devote Time to Your Personal Growth I love working on my goals and on more occasions than I'd like to admit, I've let my personal growth fall to the wayside. But self-care is about more than working hard all day and collapsing onto the coach at night to watch Netflix. It's also about growing into your ideal self. Last week, I made a manageable but powerful goal to meditate two days and journal three days. By adding personal growth to the to-do list and devoting time to refill my well, I actually found I was more productive...even though my meditation and journaling time could have been used for work! Tip Four: Don't Forget to Have Fun One of my most productive days last week was Thursday. On Thursday, I worked on my secret project, wrote 3,000 words, edited and turned in a history essay, and led a meeting for my part-time job. But I also got in a leg workout, spent time outside, read an amazing book, meditated, and went for a walk with my friend. Balance is key to success so when planning out your weeks, ask yourself, "Do I have time for fun?" Today I'm sharing my favorites apps and technologies for writers and the best part? Every program mentioned in this post is FREE (at least at the time this post was published). Read on to see what websites and apps you should be using to uplevel your writing life!!! These technologies can help with your planning, content creation, and your writing! 1. The Dunkin/Starbucks App So I didn't mention this in the original video but let's face it; writers LOVE to write in coffeeshops/go on coffee runs. And if you're going to be spending *too much* money on coffee, you might as well be rewarded by downloading the app of your favorite coffee chain! 2. Google Calendar Time blocks can change your life...especially when it comes to writing. Google Calendar is a free technology where you can block out 15 minute increments on your day. Every day, I map out an hour or so to work on my novel...and color code writing time in pink because pink is my favorite color! 3. PowerPoint I use a PowerPoint template I made when I first started my writing platform to create my quarterly goals. This template is branded with my color scheme and includes all the areas of my writing life which I usually plan. Creating a template catered to your needs on PowerPoint can be a great way to develop and track quarterly goals. 4. Sticky Notes on Laptop Screen Not physical paper sticky notes, but ones on my desktop screen. I have one sticky note for each project I am currently working on. Anytime I have an idea for a project, I write it on the sticky for that project. This is a great way to organize all my projects and remember what I'm working on every time I see my desktop screen. 5. Canva Do I really need to go into detail about the awesomeness of Canva? While there are paid options, the free version still allows you to create beautiful graphic design projects. AND you don't have to be a graphic designed to create something beautiful. I design all my Youtube thumbnails, Instagram story templates, Pinterest posts, and blog graphics on Canva. It's a free, user-friendly way to up the aesthetic of your writing platform. 6. Preview Preview is a free app where you can plan out your Instagram posts. Preview allows you to schedule your posts as well as add hashtag groups and captions to post. This is key to being consistent on Instagram if you're forgetful of social media posting like I am but want to have a consistent schedule. 7. Google Docs and Microsoft Word While you can invest in Scrivner, free word processing systems also work to write and revise a novel. I've done all my writing and revising in Google docs and haven't ran into any issues yet! The 10K Challenge by Mandi Lynn has been a popular competition going around the online writing community, and for great reason. The challenge asks writers to write 10,000 words in a single day. The truth is, I've been doing these challenges before it became viral. I love 10K days during the drafting process because it provides me with the ability to progress quicker in my manuscript. For those of you who haven't watched my writing process video or read the blog post, I write the first draft of my projects in one to two months. I wrote the YA contemporary project over January and May of last year (odd time gap, I know) and I'm looking to finish this YA thriller over May and June of this year. So what's the big secret to getting a first draft done so quickly? 10K days. Think about it. If the minimum a novel needs to be is 50k, 10k is one fifth a novel written in a day. If you're like me and your novels are a bit larger, it's still a decent chunk. My projects are around 80,000 words so a 10K day means I wrote over 12% of my novel in one day. Wow. That's still pretty darn impressive. Plus, 10K days can be really fun when done right. During my latest 10K day, I filmed the entire process as well as thought of a couple tips and tricks to conquer a 10K writing day. 1. Chose a day where you don't have a lot going on I know. I know. Life is crazy and there's all some obligation or responsibility but when planning 10K writing days, plans ahead so you can schedule one on a day where you have little to no other responsibilities. For me, I usually schedule mine for Saturdays because I am off work and can do any weekend homework on Sundays. I also schedule them a month out so I know not to make any plans with friends on those days. However, sometimes I will use plans with friends as reward. For the 10K day where I ended up writing 15,000 words last year, I had planned on hanging out with friends after finishing (even if I did end up bailing for an introvert night). This time around, my 9am break was a run with one of my old cross country friends. The day doesn't have to be completely clear, but planning a 10K day sometime when a lot is happening might not be the smartest idea. 2. Have productive and fun rewards I try to brainstorm 5-10 rewards before each 10K day. Usually, one of my favorite rewards is going to a coffeeshop to write for a portion of the day but with all the craziness which is 2020, I wasn't able to do that this. However, one of my rewards was still going through the Dunkin Drive Through for a latte. Another productive reward was writing outside once I hit 5,000 words. I also try to make sure at least one of my rewards is some form of exercise (yoga, running, Just Dance videos, etc.) because moving my body helps re-engerize me throughout the day. Other than that, my other rewards can vary greatly. I do always have one big final reward...which usually involves pizza, ice cream, and binge watching Netflix. Having a big reward to look forward to can help up your writing progress. 3. Track your progress During 10K days, I track my progress in my journal and up on my white board. On my white board, I have little squares to fill in for each 500 words. To be honest, filling in the squares is a reward in and of itself! In my journal, I write down the time stamps of each word sprint as well as the word count for that sprint and the total word count. No matter how good you are at math, make sure to keep diligent records so you know when you hit 10,000 words. 3. Start early Set your alarm for a little earlier. Make some coffee. And get some words written. 4. But don't be deterred if the day doesn't start as planned In this last 10K challenge, I only wrote 1,000 words before 10:30am...yikes, especially since I'm a morning writer. Yet, just like NaNoWriMo, a bad start doesn't have to determine if you reach your goal or not. I kept pushing harder as the day went on (and made myself some coffee which admittedly helped). Don't let a bad beginning determine your end, even if, like me, you hoped to get a lot written early in the day. 5. Don't let past failures define your current 10K challenge Last November, I tried to do a 10K challenge and failed. Epically. As in, I think I only wrote 4,000 words that day. Going into this 10K challenge, I was nervous, especially after such a dismal start. However, I got into the mindset that I could do this. Lots of people do 10K challenges and I even completed one a year ago. Who cares if the last time I tried this, I failed? Last time does not equal this time. No matter what happened in the past or earlier the day of your 10K challenge, don't let it define the outcome. Keep going and believe you can do it! Also, life hack: everything is easier if you believe you can do it, no matter the odds or your history. I remember when I was new to journaling, naive as to how much the practice would improve my life for the better and, more importantly, unsure what to write about! Sometimes, it can seem like our lives are too boring or mundane to write journal entries about, but finding content in the mundane is part of the fun! Here's 10 journal prompts for when you don't know what to journal about!
Writing a novel is learning process...one with many mistakes and solutions which aren't always so obvious. In today's post, I wanted to go over five of the most common content-mistakes in novels and how to fix them. These mistakes are found in every genre and can sometimes be tricky to fix, but not with this nifty guide! The Mistake: Depending on dialogue to tell the story If your story is all dialogue, some of it has to go. Solution A: make the characters more active—have them act out the dialogue. Instead of a character saying, “you’re such a jokester, Harry," show Harry play a prank on his teacher. Solution B: change some of the dialogue to an internal thought process, but have those paragraphs be from a unique voice. Instead of having a conversation worrying about something going wrong, change it to a series of paragraphs from a history-lover comparing what could go wrong to the disastrous beginning of WW1 The Mistake: Revealing too much, too soon Readers should get to know characters the same way they get to know people--gradually. The Solution: Reveal your characters personality gradually. Don't tell me so and so are best friends, show me over the course of multiple chapters how their friendship pans out! The Mistake: Telling readers what happens before it happens You might think you’re not doing this, but any time you reveal something because it seems needed for plot clarity, it’s probably not needed. Two common instances of this are: A. A morning getting ready scene B. Revealing plans The Solution: cut out the scene and see if the story still makes sense. Or, if you're not ready to cut, ask yourself "does the story need this to make sense?" Answer honestly and if the answer is no, cut! A good rule of thumb when it comes to revealing plans is to only reveal a plan/show plan brainstorming when the plan will fail. For example, if a heist is gonna fail, show the robbers discussing their plan beforehand. But if the heist is gonna succeed, just go straight into the heist action! The Mistake: Resolving too many subplots/small problems Some things can be open ended. No character’s life should be perfect at the end of the novel. The Solution: Focus on resolving the big plot issues and see where there are opportunities to resolve the small plot. Outline act 3 for the big plot and see where there’s built-in opportunities to resolve smaller plots. As the good army storms the castle to defeat the evil king in a story, there’s an opportunity for the foreign princess to kiss the captain of the troops. Have this romantic tension between the princess and the captain resolve IF it will give them hope to come out victorious from battle. If not, there's no reason to resolve this tension (and that will keep readers coming for the sequel) The Mistake: Passive characters No one likes to read about a character who is all talk and Netflixing. People want to read about active characters. The Solution: Passive characters are a result of passive situations, so put your characters in situations where they have to be active. An easy way to make the situation more active is to change the setting. Change that chatty first date over coffee to a cliff diving date. Want more examples and a more in depth analysis of these five mistakes and solutions? Check out the video I made on the topic! And it's a collab with my friend Melissa, so after you watch my video, you can check out hers for more novel writing mistakes and how to fix them! When it comes to my writing process and how I write books in 6 months to a year, there's two areas I think of: my overall timeline and what I'm doing each day. In order to write a book or finish any other main project, you must pay attention to the overall strategy and what you are doing each day. The big goals give us direction, but the day-to-day is where the work gets done! The Big Picture My timeline for the big picture is quite simple and can be divided into five main phases. Phases 1: Outline and Ruminate This phase can take anywhere from one month to five months. Usually I ruminated on my next project during the final phases of my current one. For the YA thriller I just started, I considered where I wanted it to go and what the story would be since January, but I didn't sit down to write my outline until May 1st...and then I started writing it May 2nd. Phase 2: Draft I like to fast draft my projects. When drafting, I don't edit anything. No matter how stupid something sounds, I still write it down because it's easier to edit a horrible page than a blank one. Usually, drafting a novel takes 1-2 months. I let the novel sit for a couple weeks after it's done and then I do a read through. During the read through, I don't edit anything, instead taking notes on the necessary big picture changes. Phase 3: Developmental Revisions Here is where the bulk of my writing process lies. Usually containing drafts 2, 3, and sometimes 4, developmental revisions are improvements to the story so it, well, makes sense. This is where the magic happens and the story truly comes together. After I'm done with these revisions, I ship my WIP off to my critique partner to make sure there's nothing huge I'm missing. I also do another read through to assess if more developmental revisions are needed or if I can move on to phase 4. Phase 4: Voice Edits and Line Edits Here, I work on smaller sentence by sentence changes that can take a story from good to oh-my-god-I-can't-put-this-down!! Usually, this phase takes 2-3 months. During this time, I also write and revise my query letter and synopsis. Then, I send the novel out to betas and back to my critique partner for more feedback! Phase 5: Querying + Publication If betas like the story, I move on to phase 5. If not, it's back to revising. Phase 5 is where the writing stops and the business begins--it's when I query literary agents and hopefully set off down the path to being published. The Day-to-Day Try to find a routine which works for you! For me, my routine is: 1. Turn on my writing playlist. I also have a blog post about how to create a writing playlist if you don't have one yet!! 2. Freewrite Get out all the junk from the day and write your goals for the writing session 3. Open up the draft and actually get writing Whew! This is what you came for!! 4. Once I've reached my goal, I set my goals for the next session By always having my goals ready to go for next time, I'm eliminating any excuses about not knowing what to write! If you want to learn more about writing when unmotivated or how to develop a nighttime writing routine, I have blog posts about that too!! What do your writing process and writing routine look like? April Recap Wow April was the quite year. Seriously? Is it just me or is anyone else shocked that it's finally over. I thought it was going to last forever. If I'm being honest....April was a rough month for me. I went into detail about it in my latest video as well as the silver lining to the tough time but in today's post, I wanted to recap on everything happy which happened and look forward to May. Ok. Let's start out with my favorites over the past month. Favorite Book: Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen M. McManus Favorite TV show: Never Have I Ever (technically I watched this May 2nd but it's a must watch for any YA lover) Favorite Memory: Learning new TikTok dances with my family Food I Craved: Vanilla Oreos...I'm only human Biggest Wins: 1. Growing my Youtube channel (Hello new subscribers!!!) 2. Starting a mastermind group with some of my writing friends 3. Doing another round of edits on my YA contemporary Little Wins: 1. Reconnecting with an old friend 2. Getting back into running 3. Starting this little blog :) Biggest Lesson Learned: Don't fall into the trap of comparing your life to where you're supposed to be. "Supposed to be" is a fictional world that only draws us away from the present and steals our happiness. Instead, focus on how you can make today a little brighter and work towards your goals from where you are at today. I also had a productive writing month. I sent my novel out to betas on May 1st and am excited to analyze their feedback and do one more round of edits before querying my novel. Eep! It's so crazy how far I've come in the year I've spent working on this project! hMay Goals So in my last Youtube video, I talked about my writing goals. I also went more in depth about those goals in my May newsletter but I thought this might be a nice place to look at my goals from a more wholistic, lifestyle way. For the month of May, I have 10 main goals. 1. Get 40,000 words on my YA thriller Yes. You heard that right. I have started a new project while my YA contemporary is off with other people to critique (cringes nervously). I haven't drafted anything since NaNoWriMo and it's weird to get back into drafting, but I think once I immerse myself in this story, the words will flow easily. I'm about 3,000 words in as I write this post and I love the voice and premise of this book. My goal is to write about 10,000 words a week...although I may or may not have a 10k day scheduled to help me with my goal! 2. Compile list of literary agents I started creating my list in April and wow. As soon as you start writing down the submission information for different agents, ish gets real! I also wonder with this goal if I should start using my Twitter more to follow these agents online, but we'll see what happens. 3. Analyze beta feedback This probably won't happen until the end of the month, but I have been monitoring the feedback as it comes in, just not analyzing it yet. I'm super excited to see what my betas say about my work...and this will be a true sign of if I'm ready to query or not!!! 4. Film 6 Youtube videos Yup. I post videos every Wednesday, but my goal is to post more than one video a week...at least for the next couple of weeks. Because of how the New Zealand semester falls, I don't think I'll be able to post two videos a week later this month but for this week and next, there will be two videos so make sure you're subscribed for all the writing vlogs. 5. Write ten blog posts Wow. That's a BIG goal. But for the first couple months of this blog, I want to write two posts a week so I can get into the habit of writing before (probably) scaling back to one post a week. I'm still a little hesitant about blogging--do people even read blogs anymore???--but I just got this gut instinct that I should be blogging and went with it. 6. Start drafting my research thesis For those of you who don't know, I am doing a giant research project on how to communicate about sexual assault prevention on college campuses. Other than my writing life, this is another big passion of mine and I'm excited to see how my 2+ years of research culminates into a thesis, articles for publication, and recommendations to improve prevention at universities! 7. All the tests and papers for my academic semester Ugh. Hate that this is here, especially with the stress of online classes and grief of paying for a semester abroad while at home, but it is something on my plate for May. 8. Workout six times a week Lately, I've been running for 30 minutes to an hour five times a week and weightlifting five times a week. I know...I know...2 workouts a day is a lot but it helps with my anxiety and anything which helps with anxiety is needed during this time! 9. Read 4 books I read a book a week in April and I want to keep that up. To me, this goal comes down to saying no to TV at the end of the work day and yes to my love for reading. This decision isn't always easy, but I always feel more relaxed and content when I chose the "harder" option of reading. 10. Remember to connect with friends every once in a while...as opposed to hustling 24/7 Last week, I was hustling like no one's business. I worked from 7am to 9pm and while long days are the reality for me, it's still good to take time off. By Saturday, I felt a little burnt out and took the night off. I went to my friend's Zoom party then Facetimed some other friends. It was almost like a virtual party hop! Saturday night was so fun, but also a reminder that I need to keep in touch with my friends more, both for sake of maintaining my friendships and for my own mental health. What are your goals for May? What were your biggest wins in April? Writing playlists transformed my productivity. When I started creating playlist for each WIP, I instantly wrote more often as the music served as a psychological trigger for knowing when to write. When I hear one of my WIP playlists, I instantly want to work on that project. Why? Writing playlists help us maintain the aesthetic of the novel. It's kinda like a vision board, but for your ears. So how do you create a writing playlist? I create mine in the following seven steps using Spotify: Step 1: Write down a few words to describe the aesthetic of your novel For my contemporary romance project, I would use: -cutesy -indie movie -cozy sweaters -pink decor and fairy lights For my upcoming thriller project, I would use: --dark --badass females --mysterious ambiance --hazy Take a moment right now to write down random words for the aesthetic of your novel. Step 2: Link your descriptive words to a genre of music And get really specific about the genre. Don't just link it to pop but to main female powered, upbeat pop or slow and romantic pop. This can give you an idea of what sort of music to be on the hunt for, For my contemporary, I linked it to indie folk music you would play at Sunday brunch For my thriller, I linked it to dark, mysterious pop that bordered on indie rock. Step 3: Decide if you're doing instrumental music or music with lyrics Try out writing to both types of music and decide what works best for you. For me, I write with music that has lyrics although I think I'm the exception to the rule. Most writers I know write to instrumental music and that's great! There's tons of spotify playlists out there with instrumental music for any genre. Step 4: Think of one song or artist that defines the genre you chose Usually, this comes pretty naturally once you have determined the genre. Ask yourself, who is my favorite artist in that genre? What song in the genre speaks to me? For my contemporary, I chose the song Sunbleached Girl by Shag Rock For my thriller, I was stuck between two artists and chose both--Hozier (especially his newest album) and Billie Eilish Step 5: Create the actual playlist and add your guiding song(s) Remember to name your playlist something fun. And don't worry if you don't have a name for your book yet, just name it something you will remember it by. When I first created the playlist for my contemporary, I called the playlist "Fun Lil Novel". My thriller playlist is currently called "Thrills and Chills". After you add the first song, think of any songs by the same artist or similar artists that might fight the vibe of the book. Add those to the playlist as well. Step 6: Once you run out of your own ideas, add songs based on Spotify's recommendations Once you have added all the songs you can think of, Spotify should autogenerate some song recommendations. Listen to them and decide which ones to add. Usually, I know within the first thirty seconds of a song if it will fit the vibe of the playlist. Another tool to find more music is to go to the artist's page on Spotify. From there, Spotify will recommend similar artists and you can look through their stuff to see if any resonates with the vibe of your playlist. Invest the time to look for the perfect songs! Step 7: You have a completed playlist!! Congrats!! A rule of thumb I use to know when a playlist is created is when a WIP playlist has 30-50 songs. I do add new songs as I'm drafting and revising, but 30 songs gives you enough content to listen to the songs without them becoming repetitive and tiresome. This number might change for longer, instrumental pieces, but is a great baseline for songs between 2 and 6 minutes! Congrats! Listen away!! And if you want more tips, check out my friend, Madeline's blog post about how she creates her writing playlists!! |
AuthorI'm Angela Anne, a Young Adult contemporary writer committed to helping you achieve your writing goals + giving you writing inspiration. ArchivesCategories
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