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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 |
| I want to make a bet with you: you could be writing right now. Is it true? Is this writing time going to waste right now? If so, you may read on. If no, also. Why aren't you writing right now? Do you have a nagging writer's block, a huge plot hole in your project that threatens to swallow everything, or self-doubt? Or just no motivation? All of these are something between reasons and excuses. Do you complain that you don't have enough time to write? Yes? Then why don't you write? You can work on plot holes. You can shrink them and make them disappear. But in the writing phase, I would advise you to just make a little note and keep writing. You can take care of it in the correction phase. SELF-DOUBT Self-doubt is a monster, unlike the other points, because it can kill your novel in the middle of a scene faster than you can get to the end. Declare war on them! You can write your novel, you've come this far, then you can finish it! Sometimes it helps to give the first chapter to a potential test reader, have them divide their feedback into positive and negative and only read through the positive feedback. You can deal with the negative feedback in the correction phase. A very good tip for all doubters is the shadow novel: Either you pretend that you will never show what you write to anyone. When you've finished it, you can always decide whether it was a trick to fool yourself or not. I recommend the latter. When you finish your first novel, you're still at the very beginning. Practice makes perfect. Your second novel will be better, your third will be even better. You must decide when the time has come to show your novel to someone. You and you alone. The extreme version of this is to write the novel white on white or black on black. But I would recommend this more for short stories. MOTIVATION You might want to read my two articles on motivation tips, it might help some people 😉 . If not, I would encourage you to write even if you have no motivation. In my experience, once you start writing, motivation comes naturally. If it doesn't, you should start something new. Are you writing romance? Write a crime novel (whether short story, novella or novel). Do you write thrillers? What do you think of fantasy? Do you write SciFi? What do you think of YA or NA? Do you write YA/NA? What do you think of historical novels? I could go on with this list forever! xD It can help you tremendously to step out of your comfort zone and explore something new. Even if you produce the most kitsch on earth, you've learned something new. And maybe what you wrote isn't so bad? AND NOW: WRITE! |
| Good morning! I have already written about writing tours. Now I have come up with a second one. I wish you a lot of fun with it! WRITING TOUR: VISIT TO PARIS 1. arrival If you want to arrive by car, write for ten minutes while stuck in traffic! If you prefer to arrive by plane, you'll have plenty of time to write at the airport. Write 200 words, taking as much time as you need. If you prefer to travel by train, you must write 500 words in 10 minutes while running to the train. If you fail to do this, you will miss the train and have to travel by car or plane, or write for 15 minutes while waiting for the next train. 2. Check-in You have finally arrived in Paris! Complete at least three of the following stops in an order that makes sense to you: *you eat a croissant: generate a random number between 50 and 350 and write that many words *you check in at the hotel and read a bit in your book: write as many words as your favorite book has *pages (approximately). If there are more than 500, subtract three hundred words. *you are talking on the phone with a friend: write for five minutes *you are cleaning out your suitcase: generate a random number between 1 and 6, multiply it by 60 and write that many words. *you are having a drink: write the last three digits of your current wordcount again while waiting to be served 3. louvre Now you have a visit to the Louvre coming up. If you're just here for the architecture of the building, sprint to the nearest thousand as you traverse the building. If you're looking at each work of art individually, do a 20-minute WordWar. If you'd rather do something in between, set your own goal. 4. Eiffel Tower You can see it from miles away: the Eiffel Tower. It was built for the World's Fair. If you like to sprint up its stairs, do a 5-minute WordWar. If you prefer to take it easy, write 150 words and take as much time as you need. 5. walk Before you eat lunch, you decide to take a little walk. You unfortunately get lost and write as many words as you have main characters in your current story times a hundred. (If you have more than 5 main characters, you can just write for 15 minutes). You'll pass some beautiful buildings and treat yourself to three or four macarons. Set your own goal as you look out over the Seine. 6. Lunch You find a nice little restaurant and have lunch there. Unfortunately, it's much more expensive than you expected. Try your hand at a 50-headed Hydra while discussing with the waitress (500 words in 5 minutes). If you don't succeed, start another attempt. If you lose again, you can skip to the next point. If you prefer to eat some croissants, write for ten minutes. 7. shopping spree You decide to do some more shopping. A pair of shoes here, a bar of chocolate there... Write as many words as you have pairs of shoes times a hundred. (Exactly, if you own 80 pairs of shoes... bad luck for you). Then you visit an old school friend who lives on the outskirts of town. Together you go to the café that her wife runs and chat for hours. There is so much to talk about! Write for ten minutes, take a five-minute break, and write for another ten minutes. 8. evening The day is coming to an end. You go back to the hotel and decide to watch one more episode of a series before you write. Write as many words as the series you are watching has seasons, times fifty. If you're not watching a show, generate a random number between one hundred and three hundred. Now you finally get to writing. Sprint to the end of your current scene! 9. departure The departure the next day goes like clockwork. Write 200 words while driving or walking to the train station/airport or write for ten minutes. Your stay in the capital of France was a complete success! |
| Today I want to address an important but often overlooked topic: where you write. We all write. Some write grocery lists, some write poetry, some write short stories, and some write novels. (We won't get into those who just write grocery lists 😉 but we, the novelists, especially.) Many of us probably write at a desk. I admit, a comfortable desk chair and a neat desk are great for that. But what if... ... you procrastinate a lot at your desk? ... you work slower than you did a month ago (and not because of illness or worry)? ... your mind is always somewhere else when you write at your desk? I can tell you what to do: Change your place. There are two types of "place": a plastic place, e.g. your desk A non-plastic place, such as your word processor. The first thing you should do is change the second kind of place. Instead of writing in Word, try writing in Google Docs (copy+paste saves lives here) and try writing at writer.bighugelabs.com. You'll see, you can break records with a location change that doesn't even require you to move 🥳! Now, of course, you can change the location of the sculpture. And this is your homework: by the next blog post, write in at least five different plastic places and at least three different non-plastic places. For example, I suggest your bed, kitchen table, park bench, bus/train/train stop, and/or carpet as plastic places. The non-plastic places can be: a voice recorder of your choice, your favorite writing program (e.g. Word or Scrivener), Google Docs, writer.bighugelabs.com, and/or a piece of paper (hopefully it won't be just one 😉 ). Have fun experimenting and increasing your productivity! |
| Do you LOVE to plot, but have no idea how? Want to get more structure into your next story? Or ... just want to procrastinate and read this article? You can find the method as a YouTube video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe3eodLF_Uo Katytastic, writer and YouTuber, had an interesting idea. The method she developed is made for you if you ... ... like plotting and creating outlines ... love the three-act structure ... like to plot more details of your story ... want to avoid plot holes as best as possible So ... here we go! Your method is based on the three-act structure. This consists of three so-called acts. In the first act, protagonists are introduced and the story begins. At the end of the first act there is the first turning point. In the middle of the second act there is the midpoint and at the end of the second act there is the second turning point. The third act is followed by the battle or climax. With the end of the third act, the novel also ends. If you want to learn more about the three-act structure, check out this link: https://blog.reedsy.com/guide/story-structure/three-act-structure/ . However, this is not necessary. The 3 Act / 9 Block / 27 Chapter Outline method is about a simple principle: each act is divided into three blocks and each block is divided into 3 chapters. Since 3*3=9 and 9*3=27, you end up with nine blocks and 27 chapters. This table (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1k386XircYTMLIIb5gc5S7UvY9sNFcPGysQHGW0V2...) is used to show this graphically. If you have google docs (docs.google.com), click on "File", then "Make a copy" to make a copy that you can fill in. Otherwise, design - by hand or in the spreadsheet program of your choice - a table as shown. I can already hear some crying out, "Tables ... argh!!!" Calm down. You're writing a novel - or have already managed to do so - are you honestly going to whitewash yourselves into thinking you can't operate a spreadsheet? Come on. It's not as bad as it sounds. Just try it out. The spreadsheet has a description for each chapter that tells in one word what happens (e.g., a plot twist). Follow these directions and in the box next to each write a description about the scene you are planning, e.g. x goes home, cake is on the table, doesn't have a birthday, wonders, snacks a bit, the doorbell rings, etc. I won't keep you any longer and hope you have fun! |
| Every novel has and needs them: characters. Learn how to invent them, develop them, and "make them real" with the help of this article. CHARACTER QUESTIONNAIRES There are quite a few on the Internet. You can use some combined, fill in only one or two character sheets, or design your own character sheets. Below are four of the best I could find & use: https://www.writerswrite.co.za/the-character-questionnaire-you-need-to-complete/... https://www.writingclasses.com/toolbox/character-questionnaire https://azure.wgp-cdn.co.uk/app-writers-online/posts/CharacterProfileTemplate.pd... http://www.kkitts.net/downloads/files/CharacterWorksheetKK.pdf The last two are rather shorter. I suggest combining them. THESE ARE THE TWO THINGS YOU NEED TO PAY ATTENTION TO When creating characters, you definitely need to pay attention to two things. BELIEVABILITY Every character needs a handful of weaknesses, a past, desires and goals. In short: he must be like a human being. How does your character become believable? I'll tell you: through depth. Through details. He must be different from others and still seem human. A character MUST: be afraid of something have more than one bad habit (e.g. procrastination, apologizing too much, etc.) have a past -> include some flashbacks! have an inner conflict have a goal, a wish and a dream etc. One more thing: please don't describe a character's appearance with just "he had brown eyes and street-kid blond hair". Also mention in the character sheet and (best casually) in the story, the shape of the nose and eyes, the shape of the face, the color of the skin, the build and so on. That's why I can only urge everyone to develop the characters extensively. The (sample) readers will thank you for it. PURPOSE Don't randomly invent minor characters whose names no one can remember! If possible, try to "merge" or "cut out" minor characters. In any case, don't let them die so you don't have to take them out! |
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