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 |  Here you'll get lots of tips, motivation and experience to finally write your novel |
 Welcome and great that you found your way to my blog! My name is Evie and I write books that take readers out of their own worlds and into new ones that readers won't soon forget. I blog for artists, writers, creatives, multi-talents and all those who want to become one. In life, you don't need to be rich: Joy, curiosity and commitment are enough to reach your goal. Just like I am doing right now. In this blog, I'll give you tips on how to finish the monster "book project“. I'll also give you tips on how to find motivation to write (daily?) and how to incorporate it into your everyday life. You can also expect some prompts, ideas and step-by-step instructions here. Let me surprise you! I wish you a lot of fun with writing, Evie |
| The question always comes up in author circles, "Are you a plotter or a pantser?" There are both. Both types are good, both can be successful, and neither is better than the other. Personally, I say there are not just those two types. There are also planners who plan their story in advance but don't do scene outlines, etc. Personally, I panned my first novel, knowing only three or four things I wanted it to deal with. The second one I planned and now - oh wonder! - I'm plotting. If you'd asked me two or three years ago if I thought I'd ever plot, I'd have said, "No. I'm born to plot. I'm a born pantser!" The truth is, I'm not. I just didn't try it because it seemed "too elaborate." So I can only suggest you give it a try. But now to the first area. 1. PLANNING Legs Planning is mainly about creating a solid basic framework. For some, it's so polished that it's almost a millionaire's mansion without decorations (when plotting, the decorations would already be there 😉 ), for others it's more like a shopping list with bricks on it. There are just different people and therefore different approaches, and that's fine. But ... how do I plan now? You should answer the basic story questions when planning: - How does the book start? (a boy finds out he's a wizard). - What is the middle like? (he lives in a wizard boarding school, learns magic, befriends a smart girl, etc.) - How does it end? (it's the vacations and he goes back home). Hello Harry Potter! 👋 Some people find it easier to plan the middle first because you can develop a beginning and an end from it. Just see how it fits for you. Now you can go a little deeper into the details: - What are the characters' names? (Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Lord Voldemort, etc.) - What are their main character traits? (brave/nice/smart/scrupulous/strategic/helpful/etc.) - What are their relationships like with each other? (Friends/enemies/partners/opponents/lovers/relatives/unknowns/etc.) And now you can think about the readers*: - What feelings do you want the book to evoke? What adjective should it use to describe it? (exciting/quiet/interesting/satisfaction/gratitude/grief/etc.) - What genre should it be assigned to? (Fantasy/Romance/Romantasy/SciFi/Crime/Mystery/Comedy/Erotic/LGBTQI*/etc.) - Who is the target audience? (Children/youth/[age]/adults/retirees/small children/parents/teachers/students/Americans/depressed/lonely/LGBTQI*/women/etc). If you want, you can walk further towards the millionaire's mansion. Or you can go straight over to the ... 2. PLOTS The best tip for all plotting that I have is *drum roll* the snowflake method. It divides plotting into 10 steps. You start with one sentence and move step by step to 1 paragraph plot, 1 page plot, 4 page plot, scene list and much more. You can find it here: https://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/articles/snowflake-method/ I highly recommend this method. However, you must not feel intimidated by the steps or the information about them. Omit steps that you feel are unnecessary, add ones that you feel are necessary or fun, and take as much time as you need! What you won't find in this method are character sheets. There is a wonderful character sheet by a German author and blogger who wrote twelve books in one year. You can find this one here: https://schriftsteller-werden.de/dokumente/Charakterbogen.doc It is in German, but you can translate the file easily, for free and without registration e.g. with DeepL.com. You can find the explanation here: https://schriftsteller-werden.de/dokumente/Charakter-erlaeuterung.pdf If you want to design your characters without help, do it. But do you want to make it unnecessarily difficult for yourself? You should write these few things in your character sheet: - First impression (appearance, effect, etc.) - Appearance (attitude, clothing, speech/voice, characteristics, etc.) - Motivation (goals, dreams, etc.) - Inner conflict - Character traits - Status (profession, income, etc.) - Body (age, height, weight, build, reaction, strength, skin, body color, hair color & style, eye color, face, effect, etc.) - Mind (intuition, willpower, persuasion, etc.) - Likes and dislikes - Friends and family - Enemies - Abilities of mind and body - Home - Past (facts, changes, knowledge/education, social environment, etc.). I think I've said enough about plotting for now. Let's move on to the ... 3. PANTSER How to effectively be a Pantser is easy to answer: you write away. You don't have to have anything but a vague idea in your head. It can be helpful to track your progress, because some (the emphasis is on some!) Pantsers tend to give up more quickly because they don't know how to continue. E.g. if you have written a thousand words, you can put one paperclip on the next, and after 50,000 words you already have 50 paperclips. This way you make your progress tangible. Or do like I do and enter when you write and how much on NaNoWriMo.org and have stats, charts, and average times and speeds effortlessly generated. To sum it up, decide if you: have more or less of a plan -> planning have a more detailed process and plan -> plotting want to write on the fly -> pantsing Have fun writing/planning/plotting, Evie |
| Want to become really successful? Get rich from your books? Only write bestsellers? I can show you how to get a good step closer to that. But first, we need to clarify: What is success anyway? SUCCESS According to duden.de, success is a "positive result of an effort; occurrence of an intended, desired effect." According to spektrum.de, "Success, in motivation or learning psychology, refers to certain reinforcers that make similar future behavior more likely and generally have an activating effect (formation of contingencies between action and reward)." So success is achieving goals that you have previously defined or which are generally desirable. What is your goal? That your book will be a bestseller? Forget it. I have a feeling that many think success is easy. They say many novels and books have become bestsellers "overnight" after all. But is that true? The short answer is no. The long answer is: Behind these novels, too, there are years of practice and experience. There is also a lot of work behind them. In most cases, it's not the first book that succeeds. Maybe the first one published. But not the first. You might not see in the book how much work is behind it. But it is behind it. HOW DO YOU BECOME SUCCESSFUL? If you have understood that being successful is not that easy, you definitely want to know how to become successful now. The key to success is continuity. To be successful, you have to write more and more books. You will get better and better. With each chapter, with each book. And if you enjoy writing, isn't writing what you want to do every day? Yes? Great! Then I'd say you should do one thing right now: write. BONUS TIP My fans, or those who stop by the Community Newsfeed often, may already know it. We've all had those days where sitting down to write those 1,667 words seems impossible. But 10 words? You can do that. And then 15 words? You can do that too! The idea of this crawl is to break up a big wordcount into tiny, manageable chunks so it doesn't seem as daunting. It's really good for days when you just don't feel like writing, because by the time you've gotten through a few steps, you're ready to keep going! So without further ado... Write: - 10 words. - 15 words. - 25 words. - 50 words. - 75 words. - 100 words. - 100 words. - 75 words. - 100 words. - 110 words. - 120 words. - 125 words. - 150 words. - 100 words. - 125 words. - 150 words. - 120 words. - 100 words. - 80 words. - 60 words. - 50 words. - 75 words. - 100 words. - 150 words. - 200 words. - 175 words. - 150 words. - 125 words. - 100 words. - 150 words. TOTAL: 3,065 words Try it out! When is a better time than now? Now! |
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