Tips For Completing Your First Book

  To all those writers out there who haven't finished their first book, are thinking about writing a book, or happen to be reading this... This is for you!
  Writing a book can be hard. Sometimes the words do not fluently flow onto the paper in ways that you think they should, or you don't know where the story is going, or any number of issues like that. So here's what helped me finish the first draft of my first book!

1. Quantity Over Quality

  When you're writing the first draft... Forget quality. It's not gonna be perfect, that's why we have this thing called the editing stage. Again, FORGET QUALITY. Just get words in a semi-coherent form onto paper until you reach the end of your story. Okay? You can edit the thing once you've got something on the paper, but you're at step one the longer you don't. 

  Here are some more reasons to forget quality... The majority of the time when writing, you might change something somewhere, and have to go rewrite that thing. You might find that that scene is unnecessary and just delete it. Chances are good though that something's gonna happen and you're going to end up deleting or rewriting something... (If you don't, that means you haven't improved, so yeah.) 

2. Don't Touch It

  Don't edit until you reach the end... Seriously. For some people, they get sucked into the endless pit of editing to perfection (in your eyes it's never gonna perfect, that's the truth of it!) and that is an amazing way to feel discouraged and give up writing. 

  And what I said in #1 holds true here as well: Things change. You're most likely going to cut something out or have to redo it, and that's gonna be painful if you spent hours or days editing! Leave it be until you get to the editing stage! 

3. Trust Whoever Reads That... 

  Especially on the first book, your self-confidence can a touchy thing. Don't hand off your partly written thing to someone who doesn't like the genre, or has a reputation of being blunt to the point of hurting people, or an unsupportive friend. Having someone read your book before it's published is a great idea, but don't hand it to someone who's gonna tear you down. 

  Constructive criticism is a useful tool, but if it doesn't come in a kind form, it can be painful. So for that first book especially, protect your feelings and love for it by being careful who it let read it. 

4. Take A Break

  Until you're a professional writer making their living off writing books, it's perfectly fine if you take a break. Even a long break. Everyone always makes a big deal about consistency and dedication, writing every single day without a fail, all that stuff. But seriously, if you need a break, taking a break is okay. If you're anything like me, you'll be thinking about the book a lot over your break anyway, and might even gain some great insights or ideas that might not have happened had you been forcing yourself to write. Within a few days, you should feel refreshed and ready to get going again! (Writer's block? Here's how to deal with that.)

5. That Spark Isn't Always Gonna Be There

  You know that excitement you get when you have this awesome idea, that inspiration, and you can't wait to get started? Yeah, it's gonna ditch you. That inspiration and excitement aren't always gonna be there, and when it goes away, you've still gotta write. You can't just quit writing until you feel motivated and expect to get the book written in a timely manner. The good news is, the spark almost always comes back! It's not always there, but it consistently comes to visit.

6. Writing Tools

  I have a whole post about writing tools, all of which should be free because I'm stingy and broke. From what to use to write, to improving your work, to finding inspiration, you should find what you need! Read the post Here. 

How To Develop A Story Idea

  Chances are, you've got an idea for a story... Maybe even multiple ideas. But can that idea last a whole book? Is it half-thought out, and you don't know how to flesh it out a little more? Do you need to make the plot more complicated?
  Well if yes, here are my favorite ways to develop my story ideas...

1. Subplots

  Subplots are awesome. More ways to show who your character is, more stress on the character, and a way to switch things up a little! I'm pretty sure everyone knows what subplots are so I won't give an explanation for that, but here some pointers to make sure you've got the right subplots...

•  It adds to the story
•  It's not redundant (for example, if you've got a superhero story and add in another villain as a subplot.)
• It ties in with the main plot somehow (as in it shouldn't be a totally different story within your story, it should be woven in with the main plot and other subplots. It should also influence your character and the other plots.) 
• It's something that fits your character (Shouldn't need to be said, but yeah. If your character is a loyal guy happily in a relationship, then a subplot of him trying to cope with the loss of his ex doesn't fit and sends conflicting signals that could make him look bad!) 
• It's not cliche. 

2. What Could Go Wrong? 

  Time to bring out your inner sadistic self and think... What's the worst, most painful thing that could happen? (Within reason! Don't kill too many people or ruin the story!) Conflict of any sort is what keeps the story going, stop your character from reaching their goals! 

  I personally have a notebook full of ideas... Anytime I hear about an accident, natural disaster, a horrible way someone got cheated or dumped, sickness I've never heard of, murder, etc. I write it in the notebook and reference it whenever I don't know how to crush my character's dreams... 

  Don't go too overkill with this, if your character can't realistically get through it and get to their goal then you're just going to look desperate and melodramatic. 

3. Build The Characters and The Plot at The Same Time 

  The plot revolves around the character, challenging and changing them. And the character does the same to the plot, trying to get through and make it to their end goal. They've got to fit together like puzzle pieces, perfect for each other, completing each other. The best way to accomplish this is to build them off each other, at the same time. 

  How you do this is have the basic idea for your plot, and then figure out what kind of character would be needed to be able to overcome the challenges while still being challenged. Then once you've got that basic character thing, you add onto it and see how the new additions affect the plot, then just keep adding and seeing what happens until you have a deep, detailed plot and character. 

4. Add More Characters? 

  This one... I hate to say is usually not a valid option, but it worked for me. My story wasn't nearly as long as I wanted it to be and I had no idea what to do to make it longer without making it cluttered, so I added in the point of view of another character. This doubled the length, and I was able to get much deeper into the story! 

  Doing this just because is generally a bad idea... Done right, yes, it can be awesome. But not done right, and you've just kind of got this messy thing that seems unnecessary... 

When You Don't Feel Like Writing, Blogging, or Whatever You Do...

So. It's been fifteen days since I last updated my blog, which I had previously been updating at least every other day. Have I had school, emergencies, sickness, internet issues? Nope. I've had weeks with absolutely nothing to do. Nothing has gone wrong, I haven't been on a do-nothing-whatsoever-vacation, so why haven't I been keeping up?
  Well, I've decided to turn this into a good message. Everyone has this issue, right? So I'm going to explain why I haven't updated, why it applies to you, and why it's totally not an issue.

• So the main reason I haven't been writing: my interests have a cycle. Writing and blogging aren't all I do! I also dance, I read a lot, I study psychology (more specifically mental illnesses, criminal profiling, and serial killers.), and I have zone-out days. All these interests go in cycles; I rarely watch psychology videos and dance videos on the same day. For about a week I do dance, then I feel like doing nothing for a day or so, then I transition into psychology, do nothing, and the cycle goes on. So in short, I felt like dancing and turning myself into pretzel/rubberband instead of writing. 
• My point here: I don't have a million or even a thousand readers. I don't make money for this. I have legit no reason why I have to write this. I do it because I feel like it, so when the cycle moves on to another interest, I'd rather pour my heart and soul into that interest than force myself to write a blog post that won't give me anything. 
• A lot of people seem to have this thing where they force themselves to write, blog, vlog, etc. because they feel they should. That's not right. That's what ruins things for me, is forcing myself to do the thing. That gives me negative emotional associations with the activity, and soon I hate it as much as I hate biology. So the thing is, if you don't have a valid reason such as money, a promise, or something of the sort, don't force yourself to keep up with these things. It's okay to do something else for a while. 

Should You Ditch Your Project?

  Everyone has moments of doubt when writing... It's a natural part of the writing process. It's a natural part of everything in life! But how do you know if you should ditch the project, or keep going? Is there any instance when giving up on something is a good idea?
  Well, you're about to find that out... Here are some of the instances when ditching that project is for the better. (This also applies for most things in life! Jobs, hobbies, relationships (to a degree), etc.)

1. If You Outgrow It

  If you start a project when you're 13, you won't have the same taste when you're 20. You grow and evolve, you aren't the same person, your preferences change. You won't want to write the same book you wanted to then! If your story happened to take 7 years to write and evolved with you or you're still invested in it, then good for you, keep on writing! But if you look back on that half-finished draft and it just looks childish and boring, then don't force yourself to write it if you don't want to. 

  So scenario #1: You've grown past interest in your story. 

2. Life. 

  Sometimes life happens. Sometimes you have to prioritize. It makes me sad that this has happened to me, to a degree, and I've had to postpone writing until I have the time. With school, life in general, trying to fix my brain, and dance, I haven't had the time nor energy to write. I've wanted to badly, but I just can't at the moment. 

  This isn't so much a project-ditcher as a postpone, but it still counts. You shouldn't feel guilty for having higher priorities than writing (as long as the writing isn't your job!)

3. Prolonged Hatred

  It happens... You don't feel motivated, you've gotta force yourself to write, that's normal. It's when you feel that way for a prolonged period of time that you should seriously reconsider your project. As for what time period prolonged would be... I'd say about a minimum of a month, in which you have forced yourself to write and tried various methods of getting reinvested in the story. 

  But if you don't feel motivated to write for a long time, then you shouldn't be using your time and effort for something you don't believe in. There's nothing wrong with leaving a project (or writing at all, for that matter!) if it doesn't genuinely make you happy and you have to force yourself to work on it. 

4. What Not To Leave it For

  Okay, so that's that... Now here's what you shouldn't leave a project for. 

• Disinterest that isn't prolonged
• Self-doubt
• Shiny ideas (other book ideas)
• Criticism
• Feeling like no one will like your story
• A random bout of rage or depression 

And never, I mean never, just delete your draft... You can still use that, or give it to someone else who's interested in writing it! Never, never, never ctrl + a backspace that thing!! 

How To Stay Focused on a Single Writing Project

  50,000 - an infinite amount of words is a lot to write... And I don't know about you, but sometimes I have trouble focusing for five to ten minutes, never mind those potential months that are crucial for writing a whole book! But obviously, there are billions of books out there... Are they all written by people with magical superpowers?
  Nope, they're written by people who have figured out this mystical focus ability! Including me, I've finished the first draft of my book, meaning that I have mastered the focus for 100,000 words. Sadly, now that I've finished, I'm having quite a time starting the next book... So I thought now would be an amazing time to remind myself to channel the inner laser and share what I've done to finish that first book!
  So here are the ways to get the thing done...

1. Get Immersed

  This is my very favorite part of all writing. Getting so immersed in the world I've created that it becomes real, that the story plays out in my head (Actually it doesn't, more on that here, but in a way it does?), that nothing, not even my annoying and rambly notes in the middle of the text, can interrupt that world. If you are fully living in that world, the next shiny idea will have a much tougher time distracting you! Not to mention it'll be harder to leave in general, given that you've spent so much time and love on it... (Ways to get to know characters, more on world immersion coming soon.)

2. Don't Deny

  When a shiny thought is recurrent, don't ignore it. Even if it's not recurrent and it's just cool, don't ignore it. When the shiny thoughts come in, they're exciting and asking you to take action, so taking action will make them go away. The thing is, you can't just deny them any attention, but you can't give away all your current project's attention... 

  So there's a simple solution! A notebook, with each page dedicated to a shiny idea. Write as much or as little as you want on that one page, get the idea out onto paper, and then move back to your work in progress. This works because it gives the shiny ideas closure, they've been dealt with, but since you're limited to a page you can't go overboard and obsess about them too much. Not to mention that by the time you finish your current project, imagine all the potential candidates you'll have for your next masterpiece! (On deciding on that project...)

3. Just. Write. 

  My most common loss of interest cue is writer's block. At a certain point in every story, I just don't want to write, and it's during that phase that I question everything. The thing to do here is to just write, even if it looks absolutely awful. That's what gets me out of writer's block (along with these other tips)
  So when you've lost the motivation and excitement for a project, don't wait for it to come back... School papers don't work that way, and neither do novels. Just write the thing, you can come back and edit later, and getting back into the story is the best way to get back into the zone!

4. Guilt is a Major Tool

 I do this to myself... Like a lot. When I'm distracted or in some way having trouble writing, I draw the most hideous sketches of my characters you've ever imagined on my whiteboard with little speech bubbles that say things like, "I thought you loved me..." "Why are you forgetting about us?" "Are we not good enough?" "What did we do wrong?" 

  Those always get me into action, sometimes even tears, because I don't want them to be sad and of course they blame themselves! So I have my characters guilt me into writing, staying focused, or figuring out that issue I've been avoiding... 

  There are other ways to guilt yourself into writing! But you'll have to figure out what works for you... :) 

5. Accept It

  Accept the fact that you get distracted, lose motivation, hate the story at times, and aren't always the avid, loving creator of worlds that you want to see yourself as. Accepting that takes A LOT of stress off of writing, and therefore makes writing more enjoyable. Accepting this makes decisions less stressful, staying focused a reality, and is just overall helpful in every aspect. 

  Don't confuse this for it's okay to be lazy, that's not it at all. It's okay to not be perfect. 

Writing With Aphantasia

  I'm going to ask you to complete a simple test... Okay? All you have to do is follow the instructions, and remember what details you can. Ready?
 Imagine a tree. What kind of tree is it? Is it summer or winter? What's the background like? Is it day or night? Can you change the color of the tree? Change the time of day, the background, the season? Can you put birds in the tree?
  Okay, now that you've completed that... From a Scale of 0 to 10, how detailed and easily changeable were the mental images? 0 is absolutely nothing, no image at all, and 10 is as vivid as if the tree was right in front of you.
  Now, for those of you like me who answered zero... You have aphantasia. Congrats! Aphantasia is basically the inability to see things in your mind, you just see a blank space up there no matter you do. 1 to 10, you have varying levels of inner sight, and good for you! Don't take it for granted!
  So now that you know if you have aphantasia or not, how does that have anything to do with writing? Well, it's mostly just a useful thing to note, but sometimes it can actually suck. So see below for the list of places it affects my writing (and reading!)

1. Worldbuilding

  Yep, worldbuilding. I have a pretty good dislike for describing surroundings, or worse, creating a fantasy world. I can't see any of this in my head, and I don't see any of it in my head when I read either, so for me describing or creating a world is useless. However, most people do actually see that world in their mind... So someone's gotta tell them what it looks like. 

  My remedy for this has two pieces... One, you find pictures of the setting or even have the setting be your own town. Something you can physically see for yourself and describe from the picture. This is much easier than making something up and hoping it's consistent every time I mention something. 

  Second and lastly, when I'm working on my first draft, I write how I naturally write. Everything is in the character's heads, all about their thoughts and emotions, and small snippets of out in the world. (Personally, I'd love a book like that, because again... I connect to these people emotionally, I enter their mental world, not the outer one. So if someone cut all the scenery and put more emphasis on the people, I'd love that book to the ends of the earth! But everyone's not me, so...) Then, number one on my list of editing is to go in and add more world details. What do people look like, what does this prison look like, what do the woods look like? And then I describe those pictures more deeply and have someone read it to make sure I'm doing it right. 

2. Le Crie

  That's a random title thing up there... But yes, true. I can't see my precious characters. 

  A while ago I heard someone say something along the lines of, "I'm never going to watch The Hunger Games movies because it'd ruin my mental image of the characters!" I honestly thought they were either crazy or overly dramatic... What mental image? I've read hundreds of books, and have never once seen a "mental image". If you gave me a picture of Katniss Everdeen with Bella Swan and no hints like a bow and arrow, there's no way I'd be able to tell them apart! Now that I know that seeing characters is a very real thing, just not for me, that random title comes into play. I can't see Jamie or Sabrina either and have no idea what they look like, aside from the pictures on their character pages. Thing is, those pictures aren't perfect, and I don't know what exactly is wrong with them. But those aren't the real Jamie and Sabrina, that's all I know... And I can't draw them or have someone else draw them, because there's no image and I have no idea how to describe them aside from the basics... 

  What I've learned from this, anyways, is that I have to find a picture and build a character off the picture. Not build a character and try to find a person who looks similar enough. And then with reading, you just hope there's a picture on the cover or a movie adaption or forget the idea of actually seeing them. 

3. Fight Scenes

  These suck... Because they're so suspenseful and action-packed, holding so much of the future of the story, and I can't visualize them. It's very difficult to describe the moves and get the pacing right when I feel like I'm watching a movie with the sound on and my eyes closed. Like, someone got hit, but who? How? Where? What's happening now?? There are too many "in a blur" "quicker than I could see" etc. in every fight/action scene because it happens so fast and I can't see it. Yes, it's very frustrating, but there is a solution! 

  That solution is basically finding characters in a book or movie that have similar powers and kind of copying the scene. What I do is copy the scene, add a few changes: maybe some dialogue, brief description, change up the order, get someone stabbed in a different place, etc. But just taking the basic essence of an already successful fight and sticking your characters in is actually very efficient. I don't know if it's plagiarism or not... But if you change it enough you should be fine. 

4. In Reading - Fantasy and Large Casts

  In writing, I can find ways around this. Research, extensive editing, and having someone else read it. In reading, however, I'm just stuck. (Beware: Large rant ahead. Only read if you want to, for some reason! Thanks!)

  There are certain books, such as Lord of The Rings, that everyone loves and I just don't get it. Up until now, I hadn't given why much thought, but now I know. There are so many places, inhuman creatures, and people in general that I get lost in the journey. My mind gets bored of hearing descriptions of places and people that I can't see, and by the time I get all the details of one place straight, they've moved onto another! (To make this clearer, I don't see things in my mind, but I memorize facts. The room is large, doors are here and here, second floor, blank walls, etc. And I like to feel I know the surroundings so I'm not left in the middle of a fight wondering if that doorway has always been there or if it was a convenient escape. So I can innerly yell at their stupidity of missing that door if they don't use it.) And then with so many characters, again, I connect emotionally with them and remember them based on personality and all. When you have a lot of characters mainly distinguishable by the fact that one's an elf and one's a human, but they act similarly and don't give me anything to connect with, they just blur together and I hate that. 

  So I don't like fantasy because so much is based on the unique looks of the character's and world, there are new rules, and I can't see any of it. It's much simpler to read about a bunch of humans in an average town so I can feel I already have a sense of how the world works/looks, and move on with the story instead of getting caught up in the details. 

Tips For Successful Writing as A Pantser

  Some people are organized, some people aren't, and I'm so unorganized I don't actually know where this sentence was supposed to be going. How can someone that disorganized write a 100,000-word story, have it all make sense, and be relevant?
  That, fellow humans, is what being a pantser is about. (That word really annoys me for some reason, who knows why, but from here on out that word will be replaced by disorganized writers.)  However, most writing tips out there are meant for the organized writers, especially the posts dedicated to outlining! So this is all I've got on the subject of disorganized writing...

1. Immerse Yourself

  This should just be a general writing tip, but especially for those of us who don't make a clear plan... Immerse yourself in the story, the characters, the setting. Make it like your new home. You know how everything works, what your characters will and won't do, it's a fully developed world and people living in it. This way, if you get stuck, you won't have to go through all the notes to see if your idea will work. And you won't have characters that personality-shift to fit what "needs" to happen for the story to move forward. You basically have everything you need to make sure everything can happen smoothly without having some major revisions in the editing stage. (Trust me, having rewrite half of a main character's scenes because they changed drastically for no good reason part-way through the book is the worst kind of editing...) 

  Not to mention this is enjoyable, at least for me! I love feeling that I know my characters so well that they're like a friend. I can look up at the full moon and my first thought is, "Wow, Jamie would love to see this!" or reading a funny quote and thinking "That sounds like something Bree would say!" As us writers tend to be the slightest bit reclusive and antisocial, it's nice to have someone you know well, even if they don't really exist... 

2. Have These Clearly In Your Mind... 

  I'm not going to be one of those people who tell you to begin with the end in mind, or know where your story is going, or any of that really amazing advice that I ignore on a daily basis... But I will tell you one thing: Know what each of your characters wants. 

  It's okay to not know how the story will end, but you need to know what motivates each character. What they're aiming for. That will keep them moving towards a goal, which, whether it gets completed or not, is crucial to having a good story. Knowing the goal will keep your characters on track, give you a general idea of where you should be going, and just give you some overall consistency. 

  This should be a thing to keep in mind for every character who is important to the story: the love interest, any family that keeps popping up, bad guys, everyone. Because if your main character really wants to be with the love interest, who really wants to go to college in another country, it's going to seem pretty unrealistic if the L.I. ditches their plans at the end of the book and doesn't seem bothered in the slightest. 

3. Edit Different

  There's a pretty clear cut way of editing, give or take a few details. And honestly, that doesn't work for me at all. I can't go through my book twenty times and focus on one thing throughout each readthrough... I don't have that kind of attention span, nor patience. So I came up with my own method of editing, which is pretty unconventional, but that's just how I work. I've reinvented quite a few wheels, and I did a good job of it too! 

  Anyways, I've written a whole post about my new editing method, which can be found here. Or here --> https://jaciknight.blogspot.com/2018/11/how-to-self-edit-your-book-unique.html Or here: Link. Yes, I'm weird... 

4. The Horror! 

  An issue for me: Okay, what can I do to make this more interesting? 

  A solution for me: Every time you see something horrible, write it down! 

  Seriously, if you hear about a horrible sickness, someone breaking a bone, a particularly nasty murder, some of my typos before I fix them, a mental illness that's terrifying, how someone cheated on a celebrity, anything you hear about politics, how someone's dreams were crushed forever, or a whole variety of things... Write them down in a notebook. That's your character's worst nightmare and imminent future right there! If your book seems to be at a standstill, like a rerun of problems that aren't going away or something of the sort, you look through that notebook until a problem that would work sufficiently pops up. 

  You don't want to go overkill with this; a stroke that ends up paralyzing your character is an amazing idea, but if they have a big, unavoidable fight coming up soon and the world will be destroyed if your character can't make it, maybe just stick with a broken arm or a mental block. 

5. Don't Look at The Shiny

  An important part of writing: Don't touch the shiny. The new ideas, that seem so much cooler than what you've got. Being a disorganized writer, this can come in as more than ideas for a new book, this can be ideas for the story you're writing right now. What if this happened? And that happened! And dragons are awesome, let's put a dragon in somehow! 

  Nu-uh, don't do that... Unnecessary clutter in your writing isn't good, having too many unrelated problems isn't good, and turning your "normal" romance into a fantasy just because you like fantasy too isn't really a good thing. It's bad writing... 

  So focus on your story, and be realistic as to what should happen in your story. Shiny is okay, blinding and neon shiny all over isn't.