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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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. 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? We've all been there...we sit down to write and the words just won't come out. Or maybe we can't even motivate ourselves to sit down and write. And with the added stress of a global pandemic, it can be even harder to sit down and get those words out. But your stories matter and deserve to be written, possibly more now than ever before. In today's post, I'm going to share 4 tips to write when you aren't feeling motivated. 1. Change up your location I know, I know we all have to stay inside right now so this can be hard, but you can still change up your location in your house. Write in the kitchen instead of your bedroom, the living room instead of your office, etc. Even if you can't change locations, you can change the location you do have. For example, I almost always write at my desk in my room. However, this past week I added some more decor to make my days at my desk more enjoyable. Decorations or even rearranging furniture can give you a fresh perspective. And a fresh perspective and change can often lead to motivation. 2. Focus on time goals, not word count goals When you're feeling blah, giving yourself outcome-based goals can fail miserably. Instead, try to give yourself time based goals. Having to write 1,000 words today? That can feel insurmountable when you're unmotivated. Having to sit at your computer and try to write for an hour? Much less scary. With time based goals, we take out the expectations. I can sit anywhere for an hour but I can't always write 1,000 words in an hour. By removing the expectations for our sessions, we eliminate some of the pressure we put on ourselves, allowing us to breathe and do what we can--even if today won't be the most productive day. 3. Treat yourself well You can't expect yourself to feel energetic and ready to go if you're not eating the right foods, drinking enough water, taking care of your mental health, etc. Ask yourself a couple questions to see if maybe your problem is related to not taking care of yourself instead of motivation: --Have I drank enough water today? --Have I moved my body today? --Are my thoughts positive? --Have I washed my face and brushed my teeth? --Have I checked in with myself to see how I feel? --Have I gone outside? --Have I laughed today? --Have I eaten a solid meal full of nutritional food? --Do I need to eat some veggies or fruit? --Have I reached out to a friend or loved one recently for a chat? --Am I getting enough sleep? --Am I paying attention to what my body needs? If the answer to any of these questions is no, go and fix the problem. Then, come back to write and see if the words flow any easier. 4. Dress the part Sometimes, all you need to get work done is get out of the jammies you've been wearing the past few days (quarantine life, am I right) and change your outfit. Dress for the life you want to live. For me, that includes a lot of artsy, creative outfits I imagine a bestselling author would wear. It also involves cozy outfits that are a step above pajamas or sweats because cozy is still realistic, but not as bad as sweats. This might not work for everyone, but changing my outfit can change my perspective on the today, what I feel I can accomplish, and even how I view myself. Of course, if all else fails, give yourself grace. Some days we just aren't productive and that is ok. Celebrate what progress you have made, practice self care, and forget the rest. Oh, and before you leave, if you want to see these motivation tips in action, check out my latest writing vlog: |
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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