Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Showing vs Telling: Examples and Exercise

This is to show you what showing and telling looks like side by side. Writing these up, for me, was certainly an exercise. I really needed to pay attention to show more for "Showing" and tell more for "Telling". I hope I did them both justice. Doing an exercise like this can really open your mind up to what showing or telling exactly feel like when you write them out.

The stories themselves, short and unfinished, are not from any story I have ever written. These were written on the spot but I hope you can get a gist of what showing and telling are.

To those of you who already are experts, let me know if I got them both right. Certainly there might be some mixing going on but the "Showing" to generally be only showing the story an the "Telling" should generally be only telling the story. To me, telling is like a kid telling a parent about a dream they had. "And then, I met a cat princess. And then the princess and I became sisters. And then we were flying in the sky. And then, we found a land of marshmallows. And then..."

So here are three stories each with a "Showing" version and a "Telling" version.

Story 1: A Winter Scene with Pigeons

Sunday, December 18, 2016

Should I Edit My Story? Is it important?

The basic of basics of being a writer is that you need to edit.

Of course, if you have money, you can get a professional editor to help you out but still you should be able to at least do a basic edit yourself.

What is editing though? Well, here is a little introduction to editing for you newbies out there.

Is Editing...?

Is editing...

Friday, December 2, 2016

Can't Have it if it's (a) too expensive, (b) only for trade, (c) friends don't read

Writers, I am in that situation before publishing and I thought I'd let you into that world just so you know what you'll be up against if you decide to publish the traditional way.

The title to this post has three walls I'm facing.

(a) too expensive means that the editing services are too expensive. Even if it's only .75 to 2 or 3 cents per word, I have over 80,000 words. I mean...things add up and I haven't the money.

(b) only for trade means that I am on "Figment: Write Yourself In" a grand writing community site. But people will only edit your novel if you edit theirs, too. Right now aside from writing I'm also going to grad school and doing research for my thesis so a full edit of a whole novel is completely out of the question for me.

(c) friends don't read means that most of my friends don't read. And if you know about me from my other blog, "World Problems and Randomness", I live in Japan and most of my friends don't read English. Darn it.

So then why not my family? Well, my Mom said she'll read it when it's done but I don't think she'll edit it and asking your family to read is not such a good idea for two reasons: they will be soft on you and they haven't got the time.


The problem right now for me is to find some super bored person who will read my novel and edit it or at least tell me about any inconsistencies and stuff. Or, I'll just have to pay over a thousand bucks, which I ain't got and starve or somethin'.


Darn this whole thing.


But I'm gonna do it. I will, you'll see.


Happy Writing!


P.S.
If you're like me and your parents don't really approve of you writing a novel, it's hard to do anything that costs (editing services, online writing boot camp, going to literary conferences...) without them finding out because they still pay for your school.

Friday, November 25, 2016

NaNoWriMo CRUNCH: The last 5000 words

Hi there, fellow NaNoWriMo warriors! :D

How is your novel coming along? For those of you who have finished, lucky you, you can sit back and relax now. No, seriously, CONGRATS! :D

What about those of you still not there yet? Is the word count still too far away? Well, just do your absolute best. Even if you don't make it in the end, at least you tried :) And, there's always next year!

What about those of you, like me, who are down to writing the last 5000 or so words?

This is the NaNoWriMo CRUNCH. The second big one besides that time of Writer'sblockitis danger.

For me, anyway,

Monday, November 14, 2016

NaNoWriMo CRUNCH: 3 Ways to Keep Going

CRUNCH! Nope, not cereal or Captain Crunch. This is about Writer'sblockitis during, oh please no but it does happen, NaNoWriMo.

I'm doing NaNo now. Currently about 20,000 words and no, not suffering from Writer'sblockitis but I have experienced this during NaNo. But I still became a WINNER.

How did I do it???

Well, there is an important thing that I keep telling myself when I feel like I'm getting to that CRUNCH in NaNoWriMo. That is,

Thursday, October 27, 2016

First Time NaNoWriMo: Prepping

With NaNoWriMo around the bend in four or five days, I thought I'd tell those of you who are doing it for the first time, how you should prep yourself for it.

I'm guessing you're at the end of your own personal prepping but here are a few things I do that have helped for many NaNoWriMo tries and this time as well.

1. Use the Story Outline Template

2. Look up images in Google Images that represent or loosely represent the many places you want to write about. It's good to get a visual on it.

3. Make folders and sort the pics in them.
Example: Village, Mystic Creatures, Main Character Sketch, the Main Square

4. Do a few doodles of your characters but don't push yourself to come up with the perfect look. You can always come up with the details later while you write.

5. Leave it alone but keep contemplating on it. Don't think too deeply about it until you actually need to write it.

6. Work on other projects to get a boost for your writing momentum. Writing for a whole month after having not written for weeks can be hard on you because you might end up suffering from Writer'sblockitis and get nowhere, ending up just wasting your time. To not waste your time, write little stories, even one-page short stories to keep that writing momentum. Another thing you can do is read books that inspire you or watch movies that inspire you.

IMPORTANT TIP:

Saturday, October 1, 2016

Care for my MC! Care for him, I say!

What is going on with me and my novel? Well, first, I'd like to say that I finished reading the "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" series and realized one thing at the end of the books, I cared about what was going to happen to the MC. Will he be okay? What about him and Emma? What will happen with them?

And as it so often happens with me since I started seriously writing my novel, many of the books that I read teach me something.

For instance, Peculiar Children books taught me that in order for a book to be read worthy, there are many things it has to have and one of them is an MC that the reader will care about.

Now, I recently read another book called "Skinned" and if you want to know what cliche looks like in its most natural form, you should read it. It's about a popular girl who lost everything after an accident and is now just a mind in a body and then she runs away from home after losing yet everything else including her family's love. It's a series but you can kind of tell that sooner or later they will start opposing the government. If you read it, you'll know what I'm talking about.

This book showed me how not to write an MC. I couldn't connect to her. She lost her popularity; that was how the book starts. The reader is taken through what her life used to be because she keeps remembering it and having flashbacks and wishing again that she was the center of attention and how everyone looked up to her and all that jazz.

But I just couldn't really feel sorry for her.

Typically, the popular girl in books is mean so...that was stuck in my head and it didn't seem like she was any different. I didn't even feel sorry for her when her boyfriend left her (spoiler). I was more like, well, she kind of deserved it! And when she started to fall in love maybe with this geek guy who is all timid but fascinated in her (robot kind of thing) and then they kiss but because she's just mind and not body, she doesn't know what to do with her lips and stuff and has to think about it, I was like,

"Oh yeah here you just throw in the romance for the sake of it. She's just gonna end up joining that weird group that enjoys their immortal lives by having fun to the extreme and for some strange reason she refuses to join them in the beginning and she is pathetically trying to get her popular life back..."

Sorry, that book just really wasn't doing any amazing ish for me :/ I don't read many bad books but the blurb made it SOUND interesting...

Let's get back on track. I didn't care about her so I didn't care what she did or what happened to her or if she contributed to the story at all.

Jacob, the MC in Peculiar Children, I cared about. What was going to happen to him?

What of my own story? My MC, Belome, I thought about him. He was supposed to be like a cowardly failure who is self-conscious of his weight yet manages to joke about it sometimes. He has friends and is genuinely a friendly guy but he can't speak up for himself. He doesn't have much confidence either.

Yet from the first chapter I have him as this semi-confident guy who gets to dance with the girl he likes and even gets to show off his own dancing skills.

Throughout the story we are suppose to see him develop into a guy who can stand up for himself and say things and maybe even save the day. Well, MAYBE.

But it wasn't believable and it wasn't dramatic enough. I had to make him miserable.

I'm not saying EVERY SINGLE MC in the world of books should be miserable so we can like them more but it is true how people seem to be nicer or feel sympathy for someone who is humble or who doesn't have much confidence.

To sum up, I had to make my MC a failure, a coward, a timid guy, unable to really stand up for himself, and one that generally tries to avoid being the center of attention when there are a whole bunch of people around him. That way the reader can feel "Oh yay! :D " when he does things out of his comfort zone driven by his genuine care for others, love for his family, kindness to friends...and then little by little he is SUPPOSED to start standing up for himself.

Yes, this is the way it should be. We have to see the change in him. I need to make sure that his confidence toward the end of the story makes sense. This is where I am, guys. Wish me luck :/ I'm trying to finish it before NaNoWriMo because I have an epic story in mind.

Saturday, September 17, 2016

What Fiction Writing REALLY Is: Discussion

Fiction writing, no matter what sub-genre, is mostly writing about places you've never been or will never EVER go to.

Which is good because you can really go crazy with description, you are free to do (within the boundaries of your story of course) whatever you want. You can invite your readers into a world never thought possible or into your own world with a slight twist.

But, writing about places you've never been or will never EVER go to is also bad. Let me tell you why.

10 Writing Prompts for Cat Lovers

1. A girl who can change into a cat finds herself in a world where people can only change into birds and mice. She needs to learn to deal with them nicely without resorting to instincts otherwise she will change into a cat permanently. The people who can change into birds and mice do not know she can change into a cat which is their enemy.

2. A cat sorceress goes on a quest to find some secret powers. But another wild cat is after the same powers and plans to rule the world.

3. A computer-hacking war between cats and dogs end up affecting the human world and involving the FBI.

4. A cat version of Mission Impossible where all the characters are cats and all the villains are either humans or werewolves.

5. A family who hates cats wake up one day to find themselves kidnapped by cat-like aliens. To escape, they need to befriend them first but it is really hard for them because they really HATE cats. It should be a comedy.

6. There is a murder of a little boy from a poor family. The police won't help them. They find a talking cat detective that can. But some of the poor family try to find the murderer themselves to get revenge thinking the cat detective is unreliable because he is a cat. They must build trust.

7. Harry Potter fanfic where all the humans are cats and all the cats and other creatures are humans. The story takes place in the Philosopher's Stone especially during the first few days there and during the Quidditch games.

8. A scraggly cat appears in the gardens of an asylum. The nurse working there discovers that the cat is being controlled by some sorcerer outside the asylum to communicate with some of the patients and plotting an escape. But the nurse can't tell the other nurses or doctors because she will look crazy. But she needs to either prevent it from happening, or find out about this sorcerer. There is a twist ending! But no, the nurse had nothing to do with it.

9. A crazy cat lady unexpectedly passes away leaving her 400 cats to roam. But she wasn't just a crazy cat lady. She had also been experimenting with her cats. A few months later, people in that neighborhood start to suffer from a strange disease. At first no one knows where it is from but they find out the cats were spreading the disease but then they further find out that half the cats had the disease, while the other half have the cure. But killing the cats is out of the question! Scientists, health organizations, and animal specialists must work together to isolate the cats with the disease and find the ones with the cure to save humankind.

10. A fanfic about Grumpy Cat, Tardar Sauce's previous life and how her current life is both a blessing and a curse. It is from her point of view.

About My Book

Title of Book: Liaffon
Book One: East Seekers
Genre: Fantasy/Adventure
Place: World like our own
Age: In our century with characters living a traditional life, European/Victorian/Countryside style
Main message: Is change good or bad?

My book started out as just a bit of writing practice. I decided to continue it when I heard about "Figment: Write Yourself In" which is a community writing site that is free. On and off I continued writing it until I sort of finished writing Book One which took about three years to complete because of a six month gap. It was extremely short and could barely pass for a novella.

Through more fiction writing experience and trying out Camp NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and NaNoWriMo, I decided to revise it again and again. 6 years later and into the 7th this year, I figured out what my story really was and now I am rewriting the whole thing with more complete characters living in a world that could be real.

My aim this year is to finish Book One before NaNoWriMo, which is in November. My aim for Liaffon, is to write a trilogy. It will be a trilogy and I have already wrote an extremely rough draft for Book Two, and even wrote a basic first chapter for Book Three.

My final goal is to get it published through a publishing house.

Here is a summary of the book:

Having a natural talent for it, Belome Konas of Liaffon Village is Named under the Guardians as Glass Wielder, a job traditionally for the first born of the family. His older brother is furious with him for becoming so skilled that his baby brother would be chosen instead. Not one person is aware of this horrendous incident. If they find out, the Konases may be exiled. Before the brothers can tell their father to redo the ceremony, Belome is called by the Guardians to embark on a journey to the futuristic Eastlands. A traveler from there has visited them and wishes to bring change onto the village but is it good or bad? The Eastlands have only been something of a child's tale. But now it is real and Belome suddenly must face the unknown traveling further East than any villager ever did.

Introduction to "An Authoress Experience"

Labeled "An Authoress Experience", in this series I will talk about my own experiences with my novel-in-progress, or commonly said in writerly jargon, my WIP.

Though I do make references in other articles to my own experiences with certain aspects of writing, I don't really talk about the ongoing experiences with my own novel.

My hopes is that you can walk through this with me, experience it, learn from it, and relate to it.

Some themes I hope to address are:

  • Research for worldbuilding
  • Hurdles I've come across and how I dealt with them
  • Interesting things I've learned
  • Creative ways I've had to come up with with writing my novel
  • Getting feedback and dealing with it
  • How I have been getting my novel known to the world


Without further ado, let's get started! (Rosana Pansino reference)

Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Four Protagonist Criteria: Deciding on your MC

You've built your world, now you need to write your story.

But wait, you've got all these juicy characters and all of them seem like they would make fascinating MCs.

How do you decide?

Let me tell you how I did it. I didn't worldbuild, I just dove into the bulk of the story and suddenly I had two MCs. And that was about 7 years ago.

This year I found out that only one of my MCs was the actual protagonist.

Well, how did I find that out?

Sunday, September 11, 2016

How to: Increase tension?

How do you go from writing a scene where it is sunny, nice, blue sky, ocean, freedom, peaceful, happy to TENSION MADNESS PANIC! ???

What I have found through experience, especially listening to others' opinions in Writers' Workshops on stories that need tension, the most suggested was to shorten sentences.

Now, just saying shortened sentences might not give you much idea...so here is an example from my own novel.

What to do with Antagonists (in general)?

Every hero story has a bad guy in it. The villain.

Harry Potter vs Lord Voldemort
Frodo Baggins vs Sauron
Luke Skywalker vs Darth Vader...you get the idea.

Watching them from afar is okay. You're not the writer, you don't need to worry about how the villain plays a role in the MC's plotline.

But when you're the writer, you have to think, who are my bad guys? Or,

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

How much research should I do?

With "how much" I mean "to what extent" and this is something I am currently dealing with so I don't have a clear-cut answer. But I hope to give you some insight, and maybe some reassurance with research in worldbuilding.

Spellcheck is telling me "worldbuilding" isn't one word but I think it should be so let's roll with that.

How much research should I do?

I ask myself this a lot, and more so recently since I'm aiming for publication. The point of research is

Sunday, August 28, 2016

Write this Story: 5 Inspirational Covers for Prompts

Here are some random covers I made using random pics which you can use as writing prompts. I had ideas behind the covers but you are not pressured to use them.

Maybe they can inspire you out of Writer'sblockitis.


My idea: The MC meets a girl who is a heavy smoker. Later they find out in the news of a terrible serial killer on the loose. The descriptions by one survivor sounds just like the girl they met. The MC only knows that she smoked but they did meet her. They eventually get caught up in this murder mystery.

Next!

Saturday, August 27, 2016

Conquering Writer'sblockitis: Ask IF

Often we writers suffer from Writer'sblockitis. Here is something you can do that might help.



If...if is good.

Let me demonstrate:

What is "Writer'sblockitis"?

Writer'sblockitis. If you frequent my blog, you might find this word appear in many places. It's my own little word, or it could've been someone else's but for all I know it's my own little word.

Anyway, I say "writer'sblockitis" as a sort of joke for writer's block. "Itis", pronounced EYE-TISS is typically put at the end of a sickness name.

Writer's block sometimes feels like a sickness. So...Writer'sblockitis which is sometimes written as Writersblockitis cuz it looks more disease-ish that way, is a sickness which I define as...

Monday, August 22, 2016

Types of Beginnings: The First Line

You walk up to the center of the square. Thousands of people walk by everyday. You need to grab their attention from the first line.



What do you say?

Creative writers, academic writers, play-writes, journalists, all struggle with the beginning. The first sentence. The hook.

You hope to grab the reader from the beginning and hold them there, and make them want more.

But it's always hard. For my own novel, I have rewritten that first line so many times I've lost count. Nothing seemed right. I've looked up first lines and even gone back to my favorite books to see how the pros do it.

What then, do published first lines look like?

Sunday, August 21, 2016

How to: Start Fiction? Like...how???

So, I thought this question was pretty interesting considering, well, I had never thought about it really. Fiction writing has just been my natural style of things. Maybe it's because I read a lot of fiction, perhaps that influenced the kind of writing I eventually plunged myself into. I also loved playing make-believe when I was little so maybe that came into play, as well.

I asked on Whisper, of all places, what questions they (other writers) had about writing fiction.

One was, how to start fiction.

Nothing else. Just, how to start fiction.

Well, I would have to imagine myself in their shoes for a moment. Perhaps, say, some of you have NEVER really read a good fiction story. All you have read are non-fiction stories, magazine articles, or some very heavy philosophical, political, or religious books. Maybe when you read books for class they were just FOR CLASS and you were never interested in the sequel. Maybe you have never even read any of the famous books. Nothing's wrong with that. Of course not :)

But then one day you are intrigued by fiction and want to start writing it. You have been writing memoirs, non-fiction stories, articles...but never true fiction. You never made up a whole entire story.

What do you do?

Friday, August 5, 2016

How to: Worldbuilding - Use Wikipedia, I'm Not Kidding

My novel was born like this.

Since I just jumped into it, I already had a basic world, a basic image typed up. All I needed to do was to expand that.

It might be different from the typical worldbuilding style where you might plan things out more before getting into the grit. I just dove into the mess and just added things here or deleted things there and just tried to sort out what I was imagining in my mind.

Worldbuilding is so frickin hard! Good heckish goddish heck! :0 Oh mah gawd! I used the Internet a lot, looking up how to build a fantasy world, trying those tips and drawing a makeshift map, looking up "fantasy village" in Google Image Search, reading the first book of Lord of the Rings to see how the big guys do it...

THEN I had an idea...the perfect GOLDEN solution! ... ... Wait for it...

Showing or Telling: Don't bore the reader, entertain them

I have said that description is magic.

I have said that here.

But don't be too descriptive within the same paragraph where a character has said something otherwise it just gets so lengthy and you don't feel like reading it.

Such as,

Character Crisis: Same-gender characters talking together

(This post is based on personal experience. Take away from it whatever you can.)

OMG! The same-gender characters have to talk to each other! How the heck am I going to distinguish one from the other?

I have trouble with that in my novel. My MC is a guy, his best friend is an old guy, his neighborhood enemy is a guy, he has an older brother, he has lots of guy friends and they all have a drink together in the village they live in!

Sheesh!

I have to distinguish them without having to say,

"How are you?" asked Belome (my MC).

"I'm fine," answered Velodis (his best friend).

"Me, too!" said Iyar (his drinking friend).

"It's a good day today," remarked Belome looking up at the sky.

"Sure is," said Iyar.

"Great day," nodded Velodis.


SOUNDS LIKE a children's book.

How do I make it not sound like a children's book?

How much should I worry about grammar?

Writers' workshops have at least one of them. But sometimes it can get ugly and we can be outnumbered.
Just realized there's some grammar errors in this meme :P
Wonder if it's on purpose...hmm
*shudder*

But then, do we grammar Nazi or grammar not-zi?

I hear many views about grammar in writing.

Such as,

Grammar is important.

It's okay for it to be messed up because that's the way the character speaks.

As long as it isn't so heavy that it takes the reader away from the writing then a little here and there is okay.

Word Spellcheck system doesn't always correct everything. So then it must be sort of okay.


Well then, how much should we worry about grammar?

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Should I worry about chapter length?

Some of you might be wondering this and the answer is no, not really.

I say "not really" because you do need to think about it if wordcount is important (NaNoWriMo).

For NaNoWriMo, I usually aim for 8-10 pages in the Word Document A4 size, single space.

For my novel, I also aim for the same amount but if it happens that when I'm writing, I feel a finish coming up and it's only 6 pages in or I'm not done yet and it's over 12 pages, it's completely fine :)

I have seen chapters in books only a few pages long and others that go on for a big humongous chunk. But as long as "Each chapter in your book tells a mini-story that forwards your overall plot" then it's gonna be completely utterly okay (quote from Writer's Digest, 2015, Brian A. Klems).

So unless it's for NaNo, DO NOT worry about the chapter length. That is the LEAST of your problems, trust me (says me).

Story Outline Template

I used this for NaNoWriMo but you can definitely use it for any fiction story.
===================================
Title(s): Name of Title for story. If you have several ideas, write them all down. If you're unsatisfied with what you have come up with, just keep it there for now or just don't write anything.

Main Character Name and Character Description/Profile: Such as Age, Color of Hair, Height, Fashion, Hairstyle, Personality, What their face looks like (e.g., old for his/her age, freckles, blue eyes, gray eyes, short nose, unibrow...etc.), Occupation, Species (if it's important to make a point about this, otherwise you can let yourself assume most of your characters are human so you don't need to keep mentioning it)

Secondary Character(s) Name and Description/Profile: If you don't know the details yet, just list up some names you want to use and keep it as that.

Chapter 1: Basically write what is going to happen in this chapter. Doesn't have to be complete sentences. This is just for you to look at and reference to.

Chapter 2: Do the same for this chapter. Let me give you an example from a Camp NaNoWriMo I did in 2013.
EXAMPLE:

Chapter 2
Calico goes into the city.  Gets lost.  Finds a place to keep dry as it has started raining though there is no cloud in the sky and the stars are shining.  He is there for quite a while when he feels a scruffy hand on his arm.  It is Jonnie the Janitor.  Jonnie takes Calico to his house.  Calico meets three other kids who have been taken under Jonnie’s wing.  Calico talks to them.  The eldest suggests they go out to find the shards.  Calico agrees.  Jonnie suggests they visit the gypsy woman because she might know something with her power. (copyrighted 2013 N. J. Folettia).

See? Just nice and simple. Like a memo to yourself.

Chapter 3 and so on: Do the same thing for all the chapters.

Continue on with this until you come to a sort of ending. Just write in short sentences and don't even bother with the details, you'll deal with those when you actually write.

How to: Begin Writing a New Story (5 Tips)

If you've already been to my blog and already looked at all the articles you might think,

NVM about that stuff, how should I even frickin start writing this ish? (iiSuperwomanii reference)

So, let me give you some tips so you can write your ish.

These tips will be very very VERY helpful IF you have a basic plot line. I'll show you one of my NaNoWriMo plot lines later in the blog label "Editorial Details". Keep in mind, as long as you get everything in that is important to your story, then it is okay to drive completely off your plot line road.

Okay now that we've established that,

Tip 1: Just write. Even if it sounds stupid just write. I mentioned this same tip in "How to: Start Writing Again" and I think it's a pretty good start. You'll start writing and then you'll be "AH! I know how this should go."



Tip 2: If that doesn't work,

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

How to: Start Writing Again

So you've had a busy month, months, or even a year and you had ZERO time to write. How do you get back into it again after such a long time?

Writing is just like going to work or school on a Monday or after a long holiday. You are dragging that enertia, that sluggishness with you and the first day is like major Writersblockitis.

Note
Writersblockitis: A sickness/disease that only writers get. Symptoms are, writersblock, enertia, a drive but no creativity, easily distracted, and if any story comes out it sounds awful.

So what should you do?

There are several ways to conquer Writersblockitis. I will introduce ways I have conquered it especially at times when I had a deadline like NaNoWriMo but keep in mind that not every single way is going to work for you. I will also introduce suggestions from other writers so it's not just my preferences.

1. Just write even if it sounds stupid.

Even if it sounds like a five-year-old wrote it, write anyway. Sooner or later after several stories of "Pickles the Dog Meets A Duck!" your brain will start going into its creative zone again and you'll find yourself back in your momentum. Then you can expertly go back and edit out that storybook you have shoved in the middle of your grand masterpiece.



2. Google Wallpaper

I know you're probably like "Wha da heck???" but

What Literary Agents say NOT to do in a story: I am guilty

THIS WEBSITE

“The [adjective] [adjective] sun rose in the [adjective] [adjective] sky, shedding its [adjective] light across the [adjective] [adjective] [adjective] land.”
Chip MacGregor, MacGregor Literary

LOL. This is so true! I think I might do it sometimes because I just want to show off my creative writing skills...eeps! GUILTY.

“Characters that are moving around doing little things, but essentially nothing. Washing dishes & thinking, staring out the window & thinking, tying shoes, thinking.”
Dan Lazar, Writers House

I keep laughing at these cuz it is so true and I really need to go back into my story to make sure nothing is tedious but I would like to say

How Many Characters is Too Many?

I have wondered just as you have. After how many characters will my reader flip and have to be sent to a psychiatric hospital? *blowing things up here yep*

The most I tampered with is two MCs and let me tell you even two is hard. Especially if they are of the same gender.

I read a book called, "These Things Hidden" by Heather Gudenkauf (which will make you want to cry if you read it...in other words, it was a good book) and she switches between same-gender characters constantly and I do remember that at first it was hard to understand why there were so many and to remember who was who and how they were related or not related. She switched between four different characters.

Four. And I have heard from other writers that FIVE is probably the limit. Six is pushing it and seven is a no-no.

But

How to: Colors of Things and Feeling the Five Senses

Moved from the original post on my other blog, World Problems and Randomness.
Which explains the bluntness and the sarcasm and the frankness.
===========================================================

Colors of Things:
Eye color, hair color, the color of clothes, accessories, and anything else your character owns

Okay that's it! I'm gonna talk about this.

"His grey eyes made contact with my blue ones"

This is a sentence from someone's writing piece (I am not stealing because it is something someone partially posted on Whisper) but I have seen lots of people do this (I'm not calling you idiots. I do it, too. And I stop myself but sometimes...well *looks sheepish*).

Imagine a moment when someone is looking into your eyes. Do you think "His brown eyes made contact with my brown ones?" NO! We do not normally think about the color of our eyes. The color of the eyes of your character has little value. The color of your character's ANYTHING frankly has little value.

UNLESS...

Types of Chapter Names

When you write a story, usually chapter names become a problem BECAUSE they kinda represent that chapter. I have found these types of chapter names and maybe they can give you an idea on how to do your own. But keep in mind these are only ones that I have seen or done.

The number chapters

like, Chapter One or Chapter 1 or Chapter I or Ch. 1


The numbers without the chapters

like, One, or 1, or I


Then there are the humorous chapters

like In Which She Hit Her Head, Tomorrow's Last Day of School or some other witty chapter name that makes you smile in the beginning. These are made-up chapters so they probably won't make you smile.


The Summary Chapters

Writers Unite!

This blog is for writers and writers only. I focus on fiction and especially fantasy/adventure but I do give advice for other genres cuz this authoress reads a LOT!

Why do I consider myself an authoress? Because I have been writing for over 8 years and published (sort of, well, if university creative writing magazines count) and I have been to three different creative writing classes in university for a whole semester and I think I have a pretty good grip on how to write. I have also been blogging for about 3 years now and my main blog World Problems and Randomness has over 200 posts now (July, 2016).

Currently, I'm working on a fantasy/adventure novel. It's got over 60,000 words now! Woo! :D

If that "woo" offended anyone, then please, by all means, translate it into your own exclamation-of-utter-joy-and-excitement cry.

I wish I could give you a pitch but I've just started looking into the publishing world and it looks pretty daunting but I'm going to try to take it step by step and if I find anything good to share with you I will :)

You can check out my other blogs World Problems and Randomness where I talk about everything else besides writing advice and there is a label Creative Writing: Fiction which is not about advice but about my personal stuff and I posted some stories there, too...I might move it here someday but not today :) Or, you can visit my art blog Magic Cover Shop or you can look at my informative blog about Save the Wildlife which isn't so active because information on wild animals doesn't update every single day.

So anyway, hope you can get something out of this blog and there might be a chance I will learn things with you sometimes.

Happy Writing fellow writers! :D