Tag Archives: Story

52 Book Challenge 2023

Last year, I stumbled across the 52 book challenge 2023. I thought it sounded like a fun idea, and decided to give it a try. I’m a busy mom, and a full-time employee, so I wasn’t sure if I was up to the challenge. I wasn’t going to put too much pressure on myself. However, I did want to discuss what I got out of the challenge, where I ended up. And my favorite books of 2023.

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52 Book Challenge 2023

What I got out of it

There are several things that I got out of the challenge. The first one was to actually keep track of how many books I was reading. I have a tendency to read whatever I feel like, and possibly put a book down if I’m not feeling it anymore. This is mainly because, since I did major in English, I like to read for pleasure. The pure joy of the thing. But, with the challenge, I pushed myself to continue reading. This was a good thing, because a lot of books have those ‘saggy’ middles. But are completely worth the read in the end.

Another thing that I got out of the challenge was reading some books that I would have never picked up otherwise. Long gone are the days when I browse shelves reading the backs of books, or the inner covers, just looking for something that catches my eye. But, with this challenge, I was constantly on the lookout for a new book to read. Because of that, I was either in different forums searching for books, authors, even titles that caught my eye, or even looking through the Libby app for a book that just sounded good to me. This reminded me of being a kid in the library, just wandering around and discovering new books.

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I am a big reader of series, I have different authors who I follow and cannot wait for their next book to come out. I think anyone who is a lifelong reader has their favorites. But, because of the challenge I was able to discover new authors who I can now read their catalog, and also enjoy their newest works once they come out.

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52 Book Challenge 2023

Where I ended up

I did not read 52 books. As I mentioned, I didn’t want to put too much pressure on myself. I ended up reading 35 books for the year 2023. I did not count any audiobooks. I don’t know how many audiobooks I listened to. That works out to be 2.91 books a month. Which is not bad. I noticed when I was in the middle of the challenge that during the summer when I was busy in my garden and with my kiddos when they were out of school, I did not read as much. This challenge is something that was done for fun, and to keep track of the books that I was reading.

52 Book Challenge 2023

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My favorite reads

I read a lot of books that I enjoyed immensely in 2023. Some of my absolute favorites were: Station Eleven, The Sea of Tranquility and The Lola Quartet by Emily St. John Mandel, Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, Mister Magic by Kiersten White, The Running Graves by Robert Galbraith, Holly by Stephen King and pretty much all of Sarah J Maas’s work.

My favorite new author that I found in 2023 was Emily St. John Mandel. Not only did I read Station Eleven for the first time last year, but I also watched the series on HBO for the first time last year. I cannot stop telling people about how amazing the book and the show are. I am a fan of Emily’s. Her prose is spare and sophisticated, and she has a lovely way of thinking about the future and the past and life that just speaks to me.

I will be writing about each book later on. Did anyone else do the 52 book challenge in 2023, and did you read anything you didn’t expect to like but loved?

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Final Draft: How do you Know When you’ve written it?

I finished a first draft of my latest project a little while ago. Ever since I wrote the end, I’ve been both excited to move on, and also scared of the process. I’d like to discuss all the expected steps in writing, and help people realize when they’ve come to the end. First, we’ll discuss the steps, and then how you know if you’ve arrived at your final draft.

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Steps

  1. Outline
  2. Zero Draft
  3. First Draft
  4. Second Draft
  5. Third Draft
  6. Final Draft

Outlining

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This step can take a lot or a little bit of time, depending on which type of writer you are. Even the most seasoned of discovery writers will still have at least some idea of the plot before they sit down to work.

An outline can be as simple as a couple of index cards that have a few vague sentences about your plot. Or as complex as a codex with character backstories and sketches, along with the economy of your fantasy world going back 1000 years.

At the end of the day, the outline should help you get started. They do say that you either spend a lot of time in edits later, or you plan everything in our outline and don’t have to do so many edits at the end to figure out how to make your plot work together.

When you are done with your outline, you move onto…

Zero Draft

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The zero draft is the draft that you are okay to mess up a bunch. I like the term zero draft, because it feels like, with this draft there are no stakes. One of the best things you can do for your writing habit is to take the pressure off. If you feel like you need to have a certain feeling, or write during a certain time or in a specific location or using something special; you are putting too much pressure on yourself.

If, because you have to be in a certain place or use something specific to write, and you find yourself not wanting to do so because of it. Then, stop. Writing is a difficult and messy process. There is no reason why, if you are thinking about something, not to jot it down anywhere. You can write on and with almost anything. Although, I wouldn’t suggest trying to write the great American novel with blood. Ha.

The zero draft is the first time the story that’s been in your head for so long will come together. Even if you’ve been outlining for weeks and feel like you know everything that will happen, at least in my experience, it will change. The zero draft gives you permission to make the changes, to allow all the messy nonsense to happen on the page.

Then, after you’ve finished your draft, you’ll move onto….

The First Draft

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It’s okay for your first draft to be messy. You also want to go through and begin clean up.

It’s always important to think globally before you think locally. By this, I simply mean to fix big problems before you start fiddling with the small ones. So, if you’ve outlined a lot maybe you don’t worry so much how your plot hangs together, but it is important to be aware of all of the big idea items. Make sure that the gun that was on the wall in act 1 is used during the climax in act 3.

After you finish a first draft, you may feel like giving it to an alpha reader. That’s fine. Not necessary, but fine.

Then, you’ll move onto…

The Second Draft

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When your work is ready to be considered a second draft, it should have a plot that makes sense. It’s okay to still have grammar errors at the second draft.

This means, that during the second draft, you should start working through which characters are doing what and why, does it make sense for the overall plot? You should have a working understanding of all of your characters and their motivations, you should know if it makes sense for a character to run into a dangerous situation, and if it doesn’t make sense but you need it for the plot, then you need to figure out what kind of extraordinary circumstances they would require in order to go into the situation, and then make those present in the work.

Once the plot is in line, and the characters are acting in ways that make sense, you can send the draft to an alpha reader. Still not required, but definitely going to be a good option.

Then, you’ll move onto…

The Third Draft (not the final draft yet)

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Edits. This is where you will want to start editing. You want your syntax to shine. The words should work together to build the story you are trying to tell. Editing also happens from “big” to “small.” As you’ve gone through the drafting process, you will have already done some editing. The first type of editing, developmental editing, is what you are going through as you get your plot in line, and make sure your characters make sense.

In the third draft, you get more granular. Starting with line editing. Line editing is where you focus on the flow and style of your prose. Then, you’ll want to do proofreading, where you identify and correct your grammar and spelling errors.

Now, it is absolutely time to give the draft to several beta readers for feedback. You can always give them a list of things you are concerned about, and make sure to get feedback on those things. It is not helpful to have a couple friends read your work, and tell you it’s amazing. If you want to feel good, it’s wonderful. But, if you want constructive feedback, you’ll most likely need to find people who are going to be impartial judges of your work. That is the best way to get it to shine

Final Draft

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Once you’ve received and corrected the novel as much as you can, taking into mind all the feedback from your readers, then it will be time to send it out to wherever you want it to go.

Congratulations on finishing!!

Writing Inspiration: Folklore

One of the common pearls of wisdom about writing is to do it everyday. Another is that you aren’t supposed to wait around for inspiration. However, in my experience, writing inspiration is an important piece of the overall writing journey. And I’d like to start discussing this by talking about folklore.

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Writing Inspriation

Folklore

Folklore is something that is misunderstood. People think of folklore as the fairy or folk tales, or maybe the old wives tales that were told by the people of “long ago” and while those things can be helpful in finding some types of inspiration; I am thinking about the broader definition of folklore, the one that folklorists use today. The one that says that folklore is the expression of the body of culture shared by a particular groupd of people.

Definition

This definition means that folklore is everywhere. It can be as simple as a song that your work team plays every time a new member is added, or leaves. That is a piece of folklore for your team’s subgroup or group culutre at work. And as a writer, you can stuff that little piece of culutre away for future use in a story.

Writing Inspriation:

Folklore and the Internet

Another place rife with folklore and therefore inspiration is the internet. The internet has memes, which are folkloric, in fact, there are folklorists that study memes, meme-culture and where memes come from. You know those websites that discuss the origins of memes? Those have to have been started by folklorists, because they are fascinated–not only by internet-culture–but specifically by meme-culture. These are people who have masters degrees mind you, and they work “in the field” gathering information. Something to think about. I know I do. There are archives, in libraries gathering information on memes for future generations of academics to ponder and write papers on.

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One of the internet places that I find absolutely full of inspirational, and also one that is completely folkloric, is the urban legend. There are almost too many to choose from. Typically, when these were told to one another, it was always someone’s sister’s cousin who heard the thing. But now it’s on websites where these legends begin. I want to take some time to explore the different sites, talking about the inspiration that I’ve found. And how they have inspired me and to what end.

Thank you for reading this far, I am looking forward to diving into the things thave have brought me writing inspiration lately and sharing them.

Book Review: Two for One

I’m enough of a dork to be a frequent visitor on Reddit. One of the sub-Reddits that I like to visit is called “horrorlit.” In this space, horror fans will ask for and receive book recommendations. I recently came across a post where the OP was requesting books with an unreliable narrator. I thought this was interesting. So, I took a look myself, and grabbed some of the titles to read. I ran through two such books fairly quickly. Because I read them back-to-back, I am reviewing them together, in this double book review post. Enjoy!

Book Review #1

I’m Thinking of Ending Things

I will start by reviewing Iain Reid’s I’m Thinking of Ending Things. It’s worth noting that there is a Netflix series made from this book. I’ve not seen the series. So, I won’t make any comparisons there. The plot of the book is simple, on the surface. It’s a journey/travel novel. A lot of the action takes place in a car, or at places that are unknown to the protagonist.

Book Review Cover

Once you reach the end, it’s hard to say whether the narrator is unreliable or not. Are they really that unreliable? Or are they simply playing out a fantasy? Do they believe the fantasy? Or do they understand everything that happened? You have to decide. The ending is not ambiguous, but the reliability or unreliability of the narrator, in my opinion, is up for debate.

The prose is incredibly precise, and the book is a work of art unto itself. Yes, I picked it out of a horror literature forum, and that’s probably where it’s shelved in a bookstore. However, based off of the character-driven plot and the beauty of the prose, this book is very likely considered literary.

If you are reading this book as a writer, and you are looking precisely at how to write unreliable narrators, this is a great book to read.

Book Review #2

A Head Full of Ghosts

So the next review, Paul Tremblay’s A Head Full of Ghosts, is a very different tale from the first. This one is the story of a crumbling family. There is a mentally ill sister, a suddenly religious father, a stressed mother, and a little sister who is witness. In addition to this, there is a camera crew who is there to record the family’s undoing.

Book Review Cover

This story is one that wants you to ask questions from the start. It invites you to try and figure out what’s going on. The argument for the unreliability of the narrator is made because she’s young.

But the narrator presents herself as reliable, and the readers never find any reason not to trust her. Even at the end, where the audience learns that things happened differently than everyone would have believed in the world of the book, she still doesn’t appear, to me, at least; to be an untrustworthy narrator.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, if you are looking to write something with an unreliable narrator. It is important to present evidence for the readers that shows the differences between the world the character sees, and the way things actually are.

In, I’m Thinking of Ending Things, the title itself has two meanings. By the end of the book, the tragedy of the whole thing crashes down on the reader. How much do I misunderstand? How much of a life can pass a person by? In A Head Full of Ghosts, much of the misunderstandings can be explained either by the youngness of the narrator, or by the fact that she wouldn’t have been told certain things, etc.

Both books are excellent examples of their genre. Both are stories worth reading, but only one has a truly unreliable narrator, even though they are both first person, which does mean that the narrators will be unreliable–to a degree.

Thank you for reading! Let me know if you enjoyed this double book review and if you would like to see more of this, or if you’d like to see something different. Thank you!

Plot:Character Arc

Recently, I realized while writing my current WIP, one of my main characters had an issue with their arc. After discussing it with a friend, I thought it may be a good subject to write about. Not only the issue at hand, but also how do we make character arcs that are compelling? Read on for more information about character arc, how to write it, why it’s important, and what kind of impact it has on the plot.

Character Arc

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What is it?

The character arc is the inner journey that the main character or characters go through over the course of the story. Usually, there is some important trait that the character(s) need to develop in order for the plot to resolve itself. For example: in A Christmas Carol the main character goes from being an old miser, who wants only to keep all of his money, to being a generous person. His inner journey is that arc. It walks hand-in-glove with the plot, all the elements that are happening on the outside.

How do you make one?

How do you make your character arc? Essentially, the first thing is to envision what you want the character to be at the end of the story. Do you want them to learn a lesson about being a better fighter? Do you want them to learn that it’s not good to be a bully? Whatever the story is that you are telling, you need to think about what you want the character to learn, and then you work from there. If you want your character to be harder than they were at the beginning, then make sure that they are soft when the story begins. If you want them to learn about kindness, then they need to be unkind.

How does this work into Plot?

It is, and it isn’t the plot, if that makes sense. The plot is the thing that the story lives on. The skeleton, or the roadmap, or whatever you want to call it. The character arc is the meat that goes on the bones, kind of, or the way that the story becomes believable, or maybe the way that the reader is able to suspend their disbelief long enough for the story to take place. The character arc is written into many plot points. There are moments where the character is able to learn a new skill. Or do something they failed at before. Those moments not only require that the character is at the right location at the right time, but that they have gone through enough mental growth that the moments are possible.

Character Arc Image
Character Arc Image

I don’t think I have one, do I need one?

Probably. Most stories involve some kind of personal growth. Even if that growth is learning a new skill (like going from being a down-on-their-luck paper pusher to being a CIA agent, or something). It is still mental and physical change, of some kind. Learning a skill will take not only practice, but also confidence building, and probably encouragement from someone the character admires. However, I will put a caveat here: there are some stories that don’t have a character arc, really long series’ like Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum novels. In these, the character doesn’t change much over the course of a single novel; simply because the reader expects that they will be getting into the same kind of antics during the course of the next one. Because of that expectation, we cannot have the character change and get their life together every single novel, just to have it fall apart again.

Character Arc Conclusion

At the end of the day, when you make a character arc, the trick is to think about where you want your main character(s) to end up. Then, think about what kind of story you are telling. Where can those two things meet? If you want to write a horror story, and you want to end up with a character who has learned that it doesn’t pay to be a bully; maybe you start out with your characters as camp counselors, and your main character is making the younger kids feel bad. Maybe there is one in particular they are picking on. Then, the horror starts, and the main character has to take care of the kids and make sure they are okay, and the main character’s arc is getting the kid that he made fun of to trust him, so that he will survive the ordeal.

Even though I am what you would call a pantser or a discovery writer. These things, if you want them to come out right, they do take planning. You either plan before, or you change everything during a rewriter when you figure out it didn’t work.

Plot Archetypes

Now that I’ve gone over the different plot structures here, here, here and here; I want to talk about types of plots. They say that there are only seven plots out there. That those seven plot archetypes can encapsulate all literature, and every story ever written.

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The seven plot archetypes are:

  1. Overcoming the Monster
  2. Rags to Riches
  3. The Quest
  4. Voyage and Return
  5. Comedy
  6. Tragedy
  7. Rebirth

Let’s go ahead and look at each of the archetypes in detail and what kind of story you would tell while using it.

Plot Archetypes

Overcoming the Monster

This one would be used when you have a character who has an issue that needs to be resolved internally. Maybe they are an addict, and the story is about their journey to sobriety. Another, more literal interpretation could be a fantasy story where someone is captured by some kind of monster, and they have to either befriend or defeat the monster in some way. The Princess Bride definitely has this plot type.

Rags to Riches

Easy enough to figure out this story. A poor person finds success. I would say that we see this one more commonly, where someone in the first exposition has everything; then they lose it, and they have to gain it again from nothing. Cinderella would be an example, although in more modern re-tellings Cinderella does get to gain her good fortune back, in the old fairy tales, she just waited for rescue in a more passive role.

The Quest

Our characters have to do something. There are usually pretty high stakes in these types of tales, it’s important to get the baby to the person because the world may end. The most modern example of this I can think of is Disney’s Onward. Which is, of course, a movie. A book that has a quest plot is really any fantasy book you pick up. The Way of Kings has some questing, Words of Radiance as well. Any story where the characters need to find something, and the stakes are high would qualify.

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Voyage and Return

This is The Hero’s Journey. The characters go on a journey, and then they return home. The journey could be far reaching, it could take them into a whole other dimension–like in The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe, or across the universe like in: The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. The most popular example of this archetype is, I think, The Lord of the Rings.

Comedy and Tragedy

As they say, comedy ends with a wedding and tragedy, a funeral. When I think of these two types, I think of Shakespeare. There are so many examples of both in his works. The comedies normally revolved around a mistaken identity, while the tragedies dealt with all kinds of heavy subjects. A lot can be learned by studying the bard’s works.

Rebirth

The character is born anew. The Hunger Games books do this, do a degree. The Katniss we meet at the beginning of book one, and the Katniss that we end the last book with, are very different people. Although, whether that is due to her own inner thought processes, or simple PTSD is left up to the reader/audience to decide.

The Plot Archetypes are a mix and match bag of tricks for the writer to use. Use a Quest and a Comedy, or a Rebirth and a Tragedy. It’s important to know what kind of story that you are writing. One part of knowing that, is to understand what kinds of stories are out there. The only way to understand what exists in the world is to study it. I know it sounds boring, but it is important to know what you are doing.

Thank you for reading my post about plot archetypes, please let me know if you would like to see more of this kind of thing, or if you would like to know something else.

Save the Cat Story Structure

Save the Cat is a plot type where the different parts of the plot are broken into “beats.” All the beats have a particular percentage associated with them. Which allows an aspiring writer to understand how much of the story belong to each part. Without further ado, here is Save the Cat story structure.

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Save the Cat Story Structure Beats

Act 1

  1. Opening Image (0-1%): A snapshot of the protagonist and their world.
  2. Theme Stated (5%): A statement, made by someone else, not the protagonist. It hints at what the character arc for the protagonist is going to be. This is also referred to as a life lesson.
  3. Set up (1-10%): This is what I call the “day in the life of.” This is where you see the protagonist’s world before things change for them.
  4. Catalyst (10%): This is the inciting incident, the thing that happens that changes everything for the protagonist, and makes their old life impossible to go back to.
  5. Debate (10-20%): A section where the protagonist debates about what to do next. This should show their resistance to change.

Act 2

  1. Break into 2 (20%): This is the moment where the protagonist accepts the call to action, essentially they decide to take action in a way that moves the story forward.
  2. B Story (22%): A new character is introduced that will help the protagonist along the way. This person will help the protagonist grow, and assist in resolving their character arc.
  3. Fun and Games (20-50%): This is where we see the character in the new world, they are either succeeding or floundering. This section represents the “hook” of the story.
  4. Midpoint (50%): The fun and games section culminates in either a false victory, or false defeat, and should raise the stakes and push the story forward for the protagonist.
  5. Bad Guys Close In (50-75%): If the mid-point ended with a false victory, then everything should start to get worse. If it ended in a false defeat, then things should start to look up for the protagonist. Either way, the protagonist’s deep-rooted flaws are closing in.
  6. All is lost (75%): The lowest point. Something pushes our protagonist to rock-bottom.
  7. Dark Night of the Soul (75-80%): A moment where the protagonist reacts to everything that has happened so far. They should be worse off than they were at the beginning of the story. This is the moment right before they figure everything out.
Photo by Marco Comolatti

Act 3

  1. Break Into 3 (80%): The moment when the protagonist realizes what needs to be done to fix the problems from Act 2, and also to fix themselves. Their character arc is almost completed.
  2. Finale (80-99%): The protagonist enacts the plan that they came up with. The world is not only saved, it’s better than it was before.
  3. Final image (99-100%): This is a mirror to the opening image, where everything is fixed.

If you have read some of my other posts, or you have some knowledge of plot structure, you will notice the similarity to Freytag’s pyramid, and to the three-act-story-structure. In reality, most plot types will follow the same trajectory. This is one is good if you need to know about specific things and when they should happen in your story to keep yourself on track.

The next time I discuss plot, we will look at a structure that is near and dear to my heart, the hero’s journey. So stay tuned for that, and thank you for reading and let me know if you have any questions.

Coming up with Story Ideas

I once had a class where an author came and spoke about the differences between writers, and everyone else. What are these differences? Writers take their weird thoughts and expand on them. Non-writers will just shrug them off, and move on. With that being said, let’s talk about coming up with story ideas.

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How?

How does a person come up with an idea for a story? Lots of ways. I will go over a few that I’ve used below.

Writing Prompts

One of the easiest ways to come up with an idea is to look at a prompt. A writing prompt is a couple of sentences. They will usually detail a situation, and maybe a character. Then they will ask the writer to take the situation/character from there. You can sign up to get writing prompts sent to your email, or they can be found through social media.

Pictures

Grab a picture that you really love. It could be anything, it could be a photograph, it could be a painting, a drawing, maybe even a sculpture. Make a story that revolves around the picture. Imagine what the world of the picture is like, if it’s a surreal, imagine a whole where that kind of landscape can exist. If it’s a photograph, if there is a person in it, what are they like (if it’s a photo of someone you know, then focus on another aspect of the picture).

If it’s a beautiful landscape, what can you imagine happening there? What if that beautiful landscape was previously the site of a large battle, what if that landscape was the home of a fantastic creature, or a horrible murder, or what if the children gathered there on the night their parents died, or their house burned, or maybe the mountain is the one that the woman summited after she’d gone through so much, and she was finally gaining her own power back.

Photo by cottonbro

Folk/fairy Tales

Re-told fairy tales have been something that people are interested in reading for a long time now. Because they are well-known, they may be harder to get published. However, that shouldn’t stop anyone from taking their favorite folk and fairy tales and then bringing them into the 21st Century and making them their own. You can even ditch the magical aspects, or maybe remain more faithful to the Grim’s version, or alternatively, you can take multiple tales and weave them together. Maybe Beauty is a badass carpenter, and instead of being pressured to marry the town jerk, she gets called to a mansion to make some kind of chair or railing or something, and on the way there she meets up with red riding hood or Hansel and Gretel.

Also, because the fairy tales have been done so many times and are well-known, it may be worth it to look into legends from different areas, or ones that aren’t that well-known in your area. Or you can use it as a framework for the story, without making it apparent that it came from a folk or fairy tale.

Pay Attention

This last idea is simply about paying attention to the world around you when you are out and about. When you are walking down the street, and you see someone that you find to be completely interesting, put them in a work, or use them as a jumping off point for a story. Or when you have weird occurrences happen to you, and you think “what if,” either write those down, or just try to remember them when it’s time to write.

So when coming up with story ideas, one size doesn’t fit all. But, there are enough ways to come up with a story that everyone should be able to find something to work for them.

Thank you for reading! Please let me know if you want to hear more about how to come up with ideas, or maybe a writing prompt? Let me know what you are looking for.