Wow! I'm back again, right on time! Who would have thought? Not me! Without further ado, here what I've been up to this week: Writing my new main Wip! ... for which I desperately need a title! Even just a working title!!! If you haven't seen it already, I have added my October accountability calendar on the homepage. This weekend I plan on finishing part 6/7 of my book. Yes, you read that right. I broke the book into seven parts to have a better overview of things, because believe me when I say a lot of things happen in the story. Not gonna brag, but my novel isn't very conventionally structured. I know this can pose a problem, but why do writing rules exist if not to break them? Basically, you'll usually have your story structure with start, climax and finish. Trust me, I know what I'm talking about, I graduated in Film Studies as well! In other words, it'll look something like this: (Image taken from www.mightybytes.com) You have the usual inciting incident, the complication, climax and then the end of the story. But boy oh boy, I would not consider this novel to fit in there. If a usual structure like the one above looks like a lonely mountain, I imagine my novel as looking more like a panorama of the Alps (trust me, I know what I'm talking about, I literally live in the Alps). So yeah, basically I am currently editing the finale, even though it's not really the finale since it's not the big battle at the end of the story. Let's just say it's a big battle preceding the finale one. I wrote in a post months ago about how I first started this book writing it in a non-chronological way, for some reason starting the novel in the middle of the story. Well, I've finally come to that part after putting everything back in order. And let's just say that the writing is somewhat outdated. Back in the day, the characters weren't fully fleshed out, nor was their history, or the worldbuilding. Meaning that most of what I had written is now unusable. Meaning that I'm going to spend most of today editing, editing, and editing some more - yay! But as they say, better to be editing than writing from scratch, right? ... Right? Now I know I am bragging, but I'm also quite a fan of what I've written, because I have been playing with a trope I haven't really tried out yet. And trust me when I say I've been having a lot of fun with it. Basically, my novel is an enemies to lovers, but I love complications, so it's much more complex than just a progression that looks like this: Enemies -> Lovers. To avoid spoilers I won't look up my notes, but the relationship between the two main characters goes a bit like this: Enemies -> Archenemies -> Enemies -> Accomplices -> Friends -> Enemies -> Accomplices -> Friends -> Almost-lovers -> Enemies -> Friends -> Lovers -> Enemies -> Friends -> Lovers -> Enemies... I think I'll stop there hahaha, you get the gist. In any case, I'm pretty proud of it and I'm excited to get to the 2nd/3rd draft stages and then be able to send it to critique partners! Besides, it's always good to have a project to keep the mind off rejected queries... Yes, Dreaming got rejected again... Maybe I shouldn't have queried one of my favourite agents at such an early stage of my querying journey but whatever. What's done is done. So far, I've sent out about 6 queries and received 3 rejections, which I think are all form rejections, as far as I can tell. Yay? Again, as you can see on the accountability calendar, my plan is to send out a second batch of queries next week. Until then, I will be re-editing my query letter, for which I have already received really helpful feedback. If you are also querying, don't hesitate getting in touch for a query letter exchange! In any case, for anyone else in the query trenches, I highly highly recommend working on another project you really love, because it does take your mind off things and reminds you that you have so many more potential projects to be published. But then again, take all of this with a grain of salt because, after all, I have really just entered the trenches, and I have only sent out so many queries. Meet me again in a year and I bet my opinions will have changed drastically! But now to a more fun thing I did this week! I read my first arc book! Yes, again, you read that right! This week, I got to read my first ARC book! An ARC book is an Advanced Reader Copy of a book that hasn’t been published yet. It is shared to reviewers so that they can get their reviews in before the book is released the general public, and to create a hype around the publication. I got the opportunity to read BIANCA TORRE IS AFRAID OF EVERYTHING by Justine Pucella Winans, a YA murder mystery with a wholesome array of queer characters. Needless to say, I absolutely loved it and downed the whole book in a day! I’m going to be posting small reviews on my goodreads and on twitter soon, and then, in March/April of 2023, nearing the official publication date, I will be posting a full-length review on this here blog (with memes, of course!). I also hope that this opportunity will push me to try and get more of a following on here and on my twitter (and on my tik tok? Maybe?), because what is a review without an audience? Haha. In the meantime, if you're lucky, you might have the privilege of getting another blog post in this coming week (shocking, I know!), because I did also want this blog to have reviews on it and so far we're at zero on that account, oops. Anyway, I was thinking of publishing my review of the series Heartbreak High while it is still relevant, before I dive more into books and keep up to date with the newest trends on that end. If you have any recommendations for books that have been published recently that you really loved (or hated, why not), be sure to let me know, my specialty being YA SFF, but I do enjoy anything contemporary, and, of course, anything LGBTQ+! Until then, have a good week, and see you soon!
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I recently stumbled upon a tweet asking writers whether they listened to music while writing, and if so, what kind of music it was. There's much debate to be had about listening to music while writing/working. It can set the mood, but it can also distract, and at times even hinder the writer from finding their words. In the past, there have even been occasions where looking for the right soundtrack took longer than the writing session itself! So is it wrong to listen to music? Or can it actually help with writing elements such as consistency in voice? The simple answer is that everyone writes differently, so it depends. Even for a single person many factors can influence how helpful or unhelpful different music can be. I've seen people talk about how even the weather can influence their choice on whether or not to listen to music. So without further ado, let me tell you about all the music I've come across and used in the past! The music of my current project For the project I'm querying, I didn't listen to any specific music. For the one I'm currently working on, however, I really do have particular playlist. Over time, I've curated a playlist made up of mainly ABBA songs, simply because they fit the vibe of the novel. A lot of their songs, in my opinion, fit well to a relationship between two characters that love but also hate each other. And, as the novel I'm writing is an ✨ enemies-to-lovers ✨, the songs couldn't fit better. "The Winner Takes It All", "Angeleyes", "Lay All You Love On Me", the list of perfect songs goes on and on. I'm really glad I found an artist (very niche, may I add!) where I could just pick out so many songs and put them together and create a consistent feel, all while having a variety of songs to work with. In the past, for other projects, finding music that fit the 'vibe' has generally been much much more difficult! Love them or hate them, I also enjoy listening to songs that people use for tiktok edits. That's simply because most songs used for these types of edits have a sort of particular aesthetic. As such, they can help with visualizing scenes of the story, and, quite honestly, they help make the writing feel more epic. Songs I've been listening to a lot in this category are for example Hayloft by Mother Mother, Don't Blame Me by Taylor Swift, or Wannabe by why mona. Speaking of edits, I actually remember hoping to get published and have my novel(s) adapted just so that people would make these types of edits of my characters. This goal dates back to my days in high school but it remains something I'm looking forward to! 😂 Then you also have the classics (no pun intended): classical or soundtrack music that fits the mood of the novel or whatever specific scene you might be writing. Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones music is great for fantasy novels, Batman music for epic scenes, and Detroit Become Human soundtrack for sci-fi leaning stories, and those are just some of my favourite picks. Similarly, one can't forget ambient sounds and soundtracks. So many things are available on youtube these days, where you'll be able to find the most niche ambiences. From The Shire Ambience to Ancient Library Room Ambience, there are so many different sub-genres, you'll be able to find just about everything! Plus, most of the videos are long (over an hour, sometimes even eight hours long), so a video alone can be used for a whole writing session! When writing more specific scenes, it's also interesting to look for particular songs that fit the mood. Especially when writing sad, or 'rock bottom' scenes, there are some specific soundtrack songs that I always listen to. Classics such as Time by Hans Zimmer, or On the Nature of Daylight by Max Richter never fail to set the tone. And of course I can't forget to mention my all time favourite sad soundtrack, Haunted Ocean, which is also by Max Richter. Similar to the ambient videos on youtube, an array of lofi-beats videos are available online. Most of these are also very long, or are simply livestreams. Lofi music can be helpful because it also has no singing (most of the time), and it's definitely interesting if you're looking for a more modern beat, rather than soundtrack music that can sometimes feel too 'classical', if you know what I mean. In any case, I'd definitely associate lofi music with more contemporary and YA novels for example. My one issue with lofi is that there seem to be a lot of lofi options to choose from on youtube, but you can still sometimes end up hearing similar sounding songs over and over again, even when you're looking for something new. TL;DR After having written specific scenes, or after wrapping it on a whole novel, it's also interesting to think about what music would accompany the reader, which is another story entirely. What song would play at which part? What soundtrack would accompany the novel's climax? After writing, it's good to go back and find the fitting music, especially when editing to check for consistency in tone. Additionally, there's also the question of diegetic music (yes, I am a film studies graduate, how could you tell?), meaning the music that plays in the novel itself. For example, what music would be playing at the high school party the main character goes to? What music is playing at the club? What playlist does the character listen to on the way to school/uni/work? This music, while associated with the novel itself, isn't necessarily the music you'd listen to while writing, but it's a fun exercice to think about afterwards. I have an example of a playlist I created which you can check out on the DREAMING page. It gives an idea as to what kind of music the character(s) might listen to. Well that's about it for the music, I'll see you all next week with a new topic. Until then, have a good weekend, and write well! So you want to start writing, but there's a question on your mind: where does this story take place? If you're lucky enough and it takes place in a real place, nowadays, you'll have plenty of opportunities to look up the area in google maps, street view, or to even go there in person. However, more than not, when writing fiction, especially in the areas of fantasy and science fiction, you're not going to be as lucky. I myself have finally started writing my manual book, and I've settled for a pirate story that's set on an alternate planet. I would have gone for alternate history, but I'm pretty sure that alternate history implies that the geography of the world remains intact, meaning that the places in the story will be real ones. However, in this case, I wanted to make up my own islands. What a disaster! I think one of the hardest things to do when world-building is getting the geography right. My go-to is to try to map out the world: where are the borders, the cities? Don't even get me started on getting the distances right and knowing how long it would take a character to walk/horse-ride/sail from one point to another! My goodness, to get to that point is such a pile of work. The first thing I tend to do is try and draw a rough outline of the map to get a feeling for the layout of everything. But how does one go about sketching this map? There are many online tools, but a lot of them seem more work than it's worth - unless you really know your world and already have maps at the ready. One of my favourite map generators is Azgaar's Fantasy Map Generator. It's fun to play with, and it provides a lot of inspiration or pointers. The main problem is that it can be pretty specific (with kingdom names, etc), and IMO things like that shouldn't be decided by some website, since kingdom layouts and names all will have to do with the history you're planning for your world: should the kingdoms sound more alien-like? Do they have Latin names? Or are they more of the high fantasy type? Their borders also have huge consequences on the story, so if you already have ideas on that, it can be difficult to use tools such as these. Here's what such a generated map might look like: I'm also a huge fan of the fantasy name generator. Not only can you generate names for characters and places, but you can also create custom maps. But here, it's better for those that already have a rough idea of their land layout. I have maps in my computer book folders (from many different websites and drawing apps) that I would not want to show anyone by how bad and half-attempted they are. Thus, I'm left with drawing them by hand. Yikes. Technically, it's much faster and easier to draw up a map than to find a tool to make one online. But then, of course, there's the questions of drawing capabilities. And though I don't think myself that bad of an artist, I must say, drawing maps by hand is another skill entirely. I end up cringing at my countries when they look crooked and oh so fake. For the handwritten WIP, I've even tried the orange method - where you peal an orange and let the pieces fall on the paper, and then trace the contours to create the map. But it just didn't look right. In the end, I used the contours of the orange peals and displaced them as I traced the outlines. Luckily for me, instead of planning a whole continent, I settled for a single island, with a rough idea of the main trading currents. Now I just need to do the layout of the provinces and cities. No big deal, haha... Here's the island for now: Let me know how you go about creating world maps! A big thanks to all those that have submitted in last week's post! From the look of things, you were all writing novels for Nanowrimo and were more or less on track, which is awesome! As is, a month seems to have already passed... somehow. It's already December. Meaning NaNoWriMo is over and we're faced with one question: What now? (Great question by the way). The first thing that comes to mind (mainly because it's literally tomorrow), is Pitmad. Now don't quote me on this, because I am not as well versed in Pitmad as I am in NaNoWriMo. I only participated once and didn't get very far, probably because I participated on a whim, in the moment, and hadn't planned it in advance. Not that I'm any more prepared this time lol, but whatever. For those that don't know, Pitmad, to my knowledge, is a manuscript showcase that happens on twitter. You basically pitch your novel(s) in a tiny paragraph (like, 280 words). You then add in the relevant hashtag (#pitmad) and the hashtags relevant to the genre of your novel (#YA for young adult, for example, or #SFF for sci-fi/fantasy). Agents will be on twitter, looking around and liking all those that are of interest to them. As such, a like is very much like an invitation to pitch that specific agent. That is also why the goal is for your tweet to be seen by as many people as possible. But how? Mainly by retweets. So you need to have followers, or friends, or reach out to others to swap retweets - an introvert's nightmare. That is why Pitmad, in my humble opinion, is stressful. Unlike Nanowrimo, Pitmad revolves around the fact that you're pitching your novel to the public. Everyone. And it's especially awkward when you're not on twitter any other time of the year. So in order to participate, not only does your novel need to be ready, but you've also got to be ready to share the pitch of your WIP for the world to see. Though it's not like many people will see it, if you've got as many followers as me, but still. It's out there. I'll let you know how it went in my next post, but you can also see it happen live on my twitter (@zoe7_justine) if you want to have a laugh. What about you all then? |