Plotting a New Book

This is the first time I've plotted a book from the very start. I don't know if this is the correct method of plotting or even if this is a method that works for me. I'm going to give it a go and see what happens. 

In an effort to improve The Book, I have been reading a lot about how to write a compelling novel. I've read Story Engineering, Story Genius, Plot and Structure, Save the Cat!, Structuring your Novel and Writers' and Artists' Year Book and after all that, I think I finally have an idea of what I'm aiming for. 

I think reading multiple books saying the same thing in different ways really helped me to understand what they mean. After reading Story Genius, I read Plot and Structure and understood Story Genius much better. And after reading Story Engineering, I read Save the Cat! and understood both books better. 

Briefly, a book can be split into 4 parts. The setup (0% - 25%), the fun and games (25% - 50%), bad guys close in (50% - 75%) and the finale (75%  - 100%). Save the Cat breaks each of these parts of the novel down into beats. 

There's a beat sheet on Jami Gold's website which is amazing and really useful. None of this is my own idea, everything's come from everyone else. I'm still learning. 

I think the beat sheet is useful because it shows you roughly where each event should take place. It's not a noose, telling you what you should do, but a guide to help you aim for certain mile stones. 

You should absolutely read Save the Cat! if you're interested in this sort of thing, but briefly:

• Act 1,it starts with the Opening Image
  The opening image is a snap shot of your hero's life. Something that tells the reader exactly who your character is at the very start of the novel. 
  
  
• Theme Stated
  This is where someone not a main character says to the main character what their flaw is. Maybe someone tells the main character they're too aggressive, or too scared, or too greedy. 
  
  
• Catalyst
  This is where something happens that tells the main character that their life needs to change. Maybe they find a treasure map or their boss shouts at them for something they've done really wrong, or they have a huge fight with their spouse. 
  
  
• Debate
  This is where the main character make a choice. In HP it was when Harry went to Diagon Alley. It can be an actual debate or preparing for the next part of the book. 
  
  
• Break into Act 2
  This is where something monumental changes for the main character and they enter into an upside down world of Act 2, which is markedly different to Act 1. 
  
  
• B-Story
  This is often a love story, but it's something else that's happening in the story to help the main character to realise their flaw. 
  
  
• Fun and Games
  You said you were writing a romance, this is where the romance comes in. You said you're writing a science fiction, then make spacey science fiction things happen. But remember to keep up the conflict, the tension, make every scene be purposeful. 
  
  
• Midpoint
  This is the moment where everything changes for your main character and they really think about their flaw. They still don't do anything about it though, because it's still the middle of the novel. 
  
  
• Bad Guys Close In
  What happens in this beat depends on what happened at your midpoint. But your main character is now more purposeful and had a better understanding of the challenges they're facing. 
  
  
• All is Lost
  This is a low point for your main character, obviously. 
  
  
• Dark Night of the Soul
  I'm still figuring this one out but I think it's where your main character realises their flaw has caused all the trouble and they have to change to fix it. 
  
  
• Break into Act 3
  This is where your main character summons up the courage to do something about IT. 
  
  
• Finale
  Save the Cat! says that there are five steps to the finale. 
  
  
• Gathering the team, it's when the main character either calls on friends to help or gathers tools to help them achieve their task
  
  
• Storming the Castle, it's a metaphor but it's when the main character has a go at fixing the problem head on. 
  
  
• The High Tower Surprise, again another metaphor but like when Voldermort was hiding on Professor Quirrel all along
  
  
• Dig Deep Down, where the hero summons all their courage for one last stand
  
  
• Execution of the new plan, because the old plan couldn't work after the high tower surprise, or it does work but they have to use it a different way. 
  
  
• Final Image
  This is what your main character will look like after they've been through this ordeal and come out the other side. It could be a mirror of what they were like in the beginning of the story. For example, if your main character was getting told off by their boss at the beginning of the story, they could be getting a medal from their boss by the end. Something like that. 
  

While I've been plotting Book 2 of my currently unpublished series, I've been keeping all these plot points in mind. I try not to think of them as constraints but rather a road map that you could use anywhere, and for anything. 

While I'm sketching out ideas, I've used postit note so I don't cover my book with scribbles of things I don't like. It also allows me to pile on ideas and switch things around if I want to do it a different way. 

I've had an idea for my opening image which shows the main character in her status quo world, doing things she's used to and familiar with. I know what's going to happen in the debate, I'm sure of what Break into 2 is going to look like and now I'm just working on the other beats. Fun and Games, and Bad Guys Close In are the most difficult parts for me. I write a saggy middle. It's what I need to work on. I always have an excitement packed setup and an action packed finale, but in the middle, I have pointless ramblings. 

Well, no more! Now that I am plotting out my novel, I should be able to make it work better and only include scenes that move the plot on or show character development, or ideally, both! I have to remember:

Action - Reaction - More Action

Let's see how this first draft turns out!

Also, I'm entering Pitch Wars today, so wish me luck! 

How Did the Editing Go?

I have posted before about going into editing and using a number of editing books to help me with the process. I thought I'd report back and let you know how it went. 

I used Fix Your Damn Book by James Osiris Baldwin. I really liked this book because I really connected with the voice and the first thing James says to do is to be kind to yourself. Sometimes I need a reminder. 

There are a few things I was looking for when editing my book, and I took all these from Fix Your Damn Book. 

As I was reading through, I was looking for: 

• identifying the writer's voice, and keeping it consistent throughout
• accents, appearance and culture
• balancing description, exposition and action
• catharsis - why have it switch off when you can have it blow up?
• characters
• head-hopping and faulty exposition
• lazy writing
• plot holes
• pacing
• scenes - do they have a start, middle and finish? Do characters have time to reflect, make a decision and act on a decision?

I had this written on a note next to me so I don't forget and kept it in mind while I was reading through The Book. I'm not saying that the editing was perfect at this point, but I think I got it. 

I started editing immediately after finishing The Book, the next day in fact. James says in Fix Your Damn Book that you should leave your book between 2 - 6 weeks to let it sit and do other things in the mean time, before editing. I didn't do that, mainly because I needed to be finished in time for Pitch Wars. 

Luckily for me, I have a terrible memory so sometimes it is as if I've left the book for 2 - 6 weeks because sometimes I forget what I've written. I forgot that I'd cut out a teleportation scene that did nothing except show that the setting had teleporters. I was going to rewrite it and make it more interesting but it turned out I'd cut it out. I left it that way. 

The first round of edits on the 1st draft, I moved scenes, edited whole scenes and tried to make sure the book flowed. I cut events, moved them and added conflict. I tried not to do a line edit but I find it really difficult to leave clumsy writing if I spot it so I did do some line editing but mainly I took my metaphorical scissors to the manuscript and chopped it where I thought it needed chopping up. 

The second round of editing was to check that the chops made sense and to go through the scenes to cut or add sentences/paragraphs/words that were or weren't needed. I must have chopped quite a few words from the manuscript as I went from 65,000 down to 59,000. Fingers crossed the chops were right for the story. 

The third edit was going through each line and making sure it flowed correctly, it went together with the story, the parts where I'd stitched the story together were seamless. I also had to check POV because it turns out, when I'm tired, I switch POV backwards and forwards even in a single sentence. I checked spelling mistakes, typing errors, character names and everything was in the correct spot. 

What I wasn't supposed to do in this round of editing was add in an entirely new challenge for my protagonists. However, reading the novel through from the start, which went a lot quicker when I wasn't trying to edit the entire thing, it made a lot of sense to link an event from the middle into a challenge in the climax. That was only an additional 500 words so I didn't think it mattered that I added it in at the wrong part of editing. It is an evolving process, after all. 

There is still one scene that I don't like at all. I took it out to edit it, or completely rewrite it but I'm not sure what to do with it. I know the aim. Hopefully a publisher or agent will have an idea for that part, or a Pitch Wars mentor if they pick me. 

All in all, I think I did follow the Fix Your Damn Book method for editing. I definitely knew what to look out for when editing. Consistency in voice was not something I'd thought of before. It's about the voice.That's one thing I kept an eye out for in my book when editing. 

Fingers crossed that this has made my book compelling. 

What's Next?

I can't sit on my hands and do nothing. I could take up one of my other hobbies but that wouldn't fix my need to keep writing! 

I think the next step for me is to enter the query trenches. I am going to apply for #PitchWars. This is a mentoring program where writers help writers to improve their craft. 

I know that I've finished my book as much as I can do on my own, and I'm hoping that if I can get into #PitchWars and really make my novel shine. 

However, I might not get picked. With 70+ manuscripts for each mentor or mentor team, there are a lot of manuscripts that are either better than mine or that the mentor connects with more than mine and that's ok. 

If I'm not picked, I will enter the query trenches. A query is a letter/email you sent to an agent or publisher which pitches your book. The query consists of a short (200-300 words) blurb about the book, a bio and a personalised paragraph explaining why you've chosen to submit to that agent or publisher. If I get picked, I'll go into details about my pitch but as I've never been published or taken on as a writer by anyone, I doubt I'm in a good position to say what a good pitch is. 

It does take a while to get a rejection back from an agent or publisher (I've never had an acceptance so not sure how long it takes to have an acceptance back) so in the mean time, I'm going to be plotting book two in the series. 

I'm really excited about this because I wasn't sure if I should start my series with book 2 and have book 1 as a prequel but in the end I picked book 1 because I thought that goes towards what I'm trying to say, the message I'm trying to put across. I have had book 2 in my head for years and now I finally get to write it! 

I also had the final image of the series pop into my head. I don't know what inspired it. I was just idling one day this week and it flooded into my imagination. The end of the last book of the series is going to be absolutely epic. I can't wait! 

Another thing I need to do is plot the series! That's fairly important. I know book 2 is going to be about learning the new environment the character finds herself in. After that, book 3 is going to cover more of the wider environment that the character lives in, and include more of the galactic community. I think I just need to add some specifics into the plan so I know what's going to happen and add some foreshaddowing into book 2. 

IT'S FINISHED!

Well, it's as finished as much as I can finish it on my own. I know that if it does get picked by an agent, they're going to want me to change a few things, and if it gets picked by a publisher, they'll want to change some things. 

So, when I say it's finsihed, I think I mean as much as I can do on my own, it is finished. 

I feel as if I've just walked up an enormous hill and I can finally stop and take in the view. 

My husband has been incredibly supportive while I've been writing and now I have time to pause, I'm feeling so completely grateful. 

I have printed out The Book, double sided and comb bound it so it feels like a real book. It's too big, and floppy, and sometimes the combs pop out but it's as real as I have at the moment. 

It feels so surreal to say that it's finished. I started writing this book in the summer of 2017. Three years feels like such a long time. The number of characters I have add, cut and repurposed seems incredible. One of my characters has changed his name so often that I have to really think about what his name is now. (It's Yeren, he's a Yeti.) 

Yeren is actually the character that's changed the most. First he was a bar tender in a pub, then a coffee shop owner, then a tourist guide and now he's settled in his role as chief engineer. His personality and accent have both changed over time too, and his prominence in the book. He was a side character who chipped in with observations and information, and now he's a mentor. 

It's funny to think back on the characters and their characterisations at the start of writing the book, when I started writing, before I learnt about how to write. 

I think the breakthrough with this book was learning about the Midpoint. None of my books had a midpoint but they certainly had a saggy middle where not much happened except rambling about the place. Now, I've built up to the middle, had a dramatic incident, and it all changes then until the climax. 

Now I can only hope that the book is picked up by #PitchWars, and if not, that it's good enough for the query trenches. Fingers crossed! 

Designing My Writing Schedule

I have a Day Job, that I love, that demands a lot of my time. Writing is my passion. I'm happiest when I'm writing and when I'm not writing, I'm thinking about writing.

To be able to write effectively and produce quality work, I had to make a writing schedule.

As an ex-pantser, a schedule is all new to me. I didn't know what would be coming so I used to just write as I went. However, I have planned this novel down to the tiniest arc, so I knew what needed to happen in each chapter. (Subject to creative change. - When I say I had planned it, if the story went another direction, I just re-planned accordingly.)

The main thing I had to consider when I prepared my writing schedule was the fact that I had to be Kind to Myself. I am one person and I can only do so much. I have children, a job, family commitments. All of this needs to be considered when planning your schedule.

I planned to write roughly 1000 words each writing session. For me, this is a manageable number, especially using my plan to help me. I type very quickly so I knew I could manage to write that many words.

I don't have a picture of my writing schedule but the editing one is here:

With my writing schedule, I didn't plan to write at the weekend. If I found I had time or had some ideas, I did add them in here and there, but mainly the weekends were family time. (This wasn't true for my editing schedule but I feel as if that's a different process.)

I factored in days where I was seeing friends or eating out and wouldn't be able to commit as much time to writing on that day.

My writing plan was realistic, kind and achievable. I had a deadline in mind. I didn't want to be writing the first draft in September so it had to be finished in August. But, baring that in mind, I was able to create a schedule that was something I could stick to without exhausting myself or taking time away from family and friends, or just chilling out.

I have to admit, I did sacrifice Me Time to make sure The Book was finished. I think it was worth it. And I love writing!

In a nutshell, for me, my writing schedule was

• realistictic
• achievable
• kind

For example, a typical week would go like this:

Monday
- write scene 3 (1000 words-ish)
Tuesday
- read scene 3, write scene 4 and 5 (1000 words-ish together)

And so on. Having a schedule to follow made me more focused, meant that I had a target for that day and that I wasn't pressured to write the entire book in the evening, squished between putting the kids to bed and my bedtime.

It doesn't always work, however. I have written a querying schedule but I was back to work in September and found that I'm too exhausted to stick to my schedule. I'm going to work on it.

It's Been a Long Slog

Now that I'm getting closer to the point where this book is actually going to be as finished as I can make it, I'm looking back at the process that got me here.

I started my book in the summer of 2017. I remember the moment I got the idea. I was talking to some children about a young adult book I'd been working on, but didn't feel as if it was going anywhere.

As we chatted, the idea for This Book slowly formed in my head. It started with the image of two children flying a spaceship to the Moon. Why were they in a spaceship? The story actually started as a build up to the children somehow getting aboard a spaceship, knowing how to fly it and then zooming off into space.

But I had to think about where they lived, what they'd be doing. The very first draft of The Book back in 2017 actually looks nothing like the finished one, except that the two main characters have remained constant.

I thought about adding in a little alien friend and about changing the settings. The main characters primary carers have lived, divorced, been absent and died all in different drafts.

Like many writers, I also have a demanding Day Job, so writing has been done in dribs and drabs. It's not until I made a writing schedule that I really made progress on this book. I've never tried it before because how can you schedule creativity? But actually, it made me more focused. Istead of writing an entire book in an evening, squished between the kids bedtime and when I passed out exhausted, I only had to write two scenes, or a chapter. It made everything so much more manageable. It also meant what I was working on that day was better quality because I wasn't trying to rush through it. For me, the difference is really noticeable.

I did the same for my editing schedule. I made a pretty editing schedule in my bullet journal whereas with my writing schedule, I just added it to my normal weekly tasks so I don't have a pretty page to show you.

As you can see, on the first day I bunched together six chapters which really wasn't very realistic. It was a weekend (I think?) so I did manage to finish it off but I wasn't able to do much else that day.

I made a much more manageable editing schedule for the following days. And, as you can see, I made notes to myself on the schedule too, where I've merged scenes/chapters and split scenes or chapters.

I also tried to balance out where the midpoint was, by moving chapters or scenes to later parts of the book. There are two pieces that would fit after the midpoint, so they were moved to help things balance a bit better.

Now I'm just on the final edit. I'm checking it all makes sense, the words are all where they should be, the plot holes are filled in and everything works as it should do. Then, The Book I started in 2017 might actually be finished, properly finished, for the first time.

I've learnt a lot about writing in the mean time. I still have those first drafts in the folder for this book. I can't face looking at them. I've read a lot of books about writing. I've read books and blogs and vlogs and posts about editing. Hopefully it's all made a difference.

So, What's Happening?

I haven't been blogging as much recently and there's two reasons for this:

1) I am back at Day Job so I'm much more tired in the evenings and don't have as much energy for personal projects. It's really noticeable by 8:30pm, I'm exhausted and my mental energy is next to nothing.

2) The small amounts of energy I do have are spent on working on the manuscript. This isn't leaving much time for blogging, but I'm back!

How's The Book?

My manuscript at the moment is with a very kind beta reader (my dad) who is helping me with repeated sentences, things that aren't clear, grammatical errors, etc. Then I generally do make the changes he's suggested. There's one sentence here or there he's said to delete but I think they work for cadence and for my voice, so I've kept them.

After that, I'm reading the book aloud. This has helped me spot any errors that aren't clear, because my audience asks questions!

For example, one of my characters was hiding but the audience thought the character wasn't even there at all. I had to rewrite a part of that scene to give a clue that the character was the house afterall.

So I'm working on reading the second draft aloud and using that to compile the third draft. In theory, I'm going to have a very polished manuscript on my hands!

Even I can say it's the best I've ever written, but I'm not sure if that's saying much.

Self Published

I've always wanted to have a copy of my own book in my hand. It's the dream. I love watching the unboxing videos because they're amazing. 

I once thought it might be nice to have a copy of my book that I

published by myself. Just a one time thing. Even if it never gets published, I'll still have a copy of it.

I've been looking into it and Lulu.com have been recommended by other authors. 

I once asked my husband for a published copy of my book as a Christmas present. It turned out that I needed to do a complete rewrite before Christmas and didn't have it finished in time for it to be a Christmas present. 

It's going to be finished in time now! 

What do you think? Is it better to wait until it's the official published copy, or just have my own copy published by myself just to have the book in my hand? 

Beta Reading

Now that I've finished editing the first draft, the book is with my beta reader. I've had the first 12 chapters back, just hanging on for a few more.

Then, I'm going to read through it again and check for anything that doesn't make sense.

There's nothing more anxious than waiting for beta reading feedback.

While I'm waiting for beta feedback, I'm going to be working on my synopsis and my query letter.

I've got a book on that too! I'm going to be reading and hopefully my synopsis will be good.

It's really hard to condense all the story into just one page of text and make sure all the cliff hangers, tension, plot threads shine through.

After lots of hard work and with fingers crossed, hopefully I'll get it right. 

Second Draft Done!

It is such a nice feeling to get to the end of the book and know that my first pass through it is done!

I've really enjoyed reading my book. There's lots that needed to be changed,

edited, adjusted and moved. I cut out a lot of words and even merged two chapters that had no jeopardy. Making each scene in those chapters shorter added a bit more conflict, I think.

I hope, anyway.

I find I second guess myself a lot. I've been reading all these books about reading and just hoping that I'm doing the right thing.

Scenes can only stay in the book if they have a mission that moves the plot along or shows character development. They have to contain conflict, stakes, have a clear beginning, middle and end. There's so much to remember and I hope that I've included it in every chapter.

It's such a relief knowing that it's done, for the moment. I'm going to leave it now for a couple of days and read through the next draft and see if it flows after the first edit. All I want is for it to make sense, flow, become a page turner and be a good story. I can make it into a good story just by wishing it, right? Right?