Plot Twister

Salutations writers!

So.........I'M BACK! haha..yeah...sorry that I haven't written in a while.....I had exams. *yay...not* But, now I am here, ready and refreshed to write!
So...yeah......todays topic will be.......

PLOT TWISTER!!!!!!       

 Fun..right??? :):):)

So I decided to go with this blog post theme because of it's importance. (and the fact that I like the title name, plot twister) Without a thick, rich plot, your story will be dry. And readers normally seem to favor soft, moist, delicious bread, apposed to, maybe, stale nasty crunchy bread.

So what are some ways that you can escape a dry plot?

                                               You can make a plot board 

I recently tried this out, when I found that my plot was lacking a little spice. To make my plot board, I took a pice of cardboard, and covered it in white paper. Then, with a pen,  I drew lines going up and down on my cardboard. Then you should find that you have boxes on your new board. This is the fun part; you then get to fill in all of the boxes on your board with little stations of your plot. (I personally like to add pictures.....just if I see something that inspires me!)

                                             

  

(so...here is my board, partially finished! Sorry that it is so blurry I had to take it with my computer camera!) 

Run with the unexpected 

When you are writing your story, you can't just stick with the obvious. I'm not saying that your story wouldn't be good if you made a plot twister that you could kind of see coming, but you can try to make an unexpected one....here is an example of what I'm talking about!!!! 

In Harry Potter, (SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!! If you haven't read up to book 7..or really 6....then you can skip this next part! I'll tell you when you are in the clear though! :) 

Throughout the WHOLE Harry Potter series...I had my mind set on the fact that Snape was evil. And when he killed professor Dumbledore.......yeah....I was in a rage....haha! So this is where J. K. Rowling really starts to play out the plot twist....she had kinda started it in book one...because, like I said, you felt that Snape was evil...but this murder confirmed your fears.  The big plot twist is the fact that Snape was actually GOOD! Tada! PLOT TWISTER!  J. K. Rowling ran with the unexpected and really tripped us up! She built a level of normal for the reader...the fact that Snape was evil. Throughout all of the books, we travelled with Snape, and the fact that he was evil was kind of like solid ground when all kinds of crazy things were happening to Harry and Hogwarts (which in my opinion deserves the status of being called a character) So...to get back to the point.....This, in my opinion, is one of the best plot twist that I have read in a while!!! 

(Ok...you all can come out of he turtle shell! I'm finished!!!!!) 

I feel like I should just give a points about what NOT to do with plot twists.....   

Don't make your plot twist run away from your main plot. 

Your book, characters, place, story, and, of course, plot have all been carefully planned out...but sometimes you will find that they are lacking the lemonyyy plot twist! The one thing that I would like to quickly advise all of my fellow writers not to do is to make a plot twist that forces you to travel away from the plot. If I am writing a story about a boy named Stu Dent, and he lives on a beach in florida...and he has to survive, I'm not going to want to throw in the twist, "and then he found a hair dryer" if the goal of my story is to have him live on the beach, climb a tree and discover the new fruit a cocoabanana. (a cocoanut  mixed with a banana) Ya know??? :) 

Ok....So that is all that I have for you all today! So sorry that I hadn't written in a while! Enjoy writing and reading!  

salutations, 

Emily K. 

(p.s. I am sorry that all of the writing is in the middle of the page....I couldn't get it to line up at the edge...so again, sorry! :) 

What makes you keep reading- Part Three

Greeting, fellow writers! It’s Hannah again! And today, class, we are going to talk about characters! Who doesn’t love characters?!!! I LOVE CHARACTERS!!!!!!!!! THEY ARE MY FRIENDSSSSSS!!!!!!!!! I LUV DEMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 *Deep breath* *Frets to self* “Calm down, Hannah, you’re writing a blog post here. Get serious.”

 Okay, so.

 0.o

 Characters. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm……………… as you have probably guessed by now, I really like characters. Especially MY characters. I know them better than anyone. I have plans for them. I can make their life be perfect or awful! I can make them sad, happy, thoughtful, angry, strong, powerful, scared, weak, afraid, etc. Anything I want! They are in my control.

Awesome, right? This goes for everyone! Which ROCKS!

But sometimes… well, we just have to be careful.

I’m a culprit of this, but I’ve gotten better. And it is…

You can’t make your character perfect. They can have their wins, but they have to have some losses. They can have some victories, but they have to suffer some defeat. They can have bravery and strength, but you have to allow them to be weak and afraid in some spots too. It’s not fun, but we’re humans. We all make mistakes. (And even if your character isn’t human, this still applies) If your character is beast with, let’s say a sword, have someone beat her in a sword fight. If you character has great aim with a bow, have her miss an elusive target or someone hit a bull’s eye she couldn’t manage. Failure is a part of life. When you read about a character’s failure, you also get to understand that character more, and it makes for a better, stronger character.

 

One other important thing is: Be Unique.

I’m not saying you have to be completely out there. if your story has something to do with a 2000 year old dissected lizard or a deceased water buffalo, then maybe you should get some help… But you don’t want to have a story where the hero is perfect and super awesome and he/she is the only one who can save the world from the evil villain who is just evil because he/she feels like. There needs to be motive in all your characters. What makes them do what they do? Why do they act how they act? A big part of motive is backstory. Backstory is what happened before the book started. You might slip in hints of back stories in the course of your book to help understand your character better.

Villains’ back stories are especially fun! I love a good villainous backstory! Let’s use Harry Potter as an example again!

Harry Potter is an orphan with terrible relatives and no family. This automatically makes you feel sympathetic towards him. Your sad he has a hard life. You want him to WIN. You want his life to get better. You root for him!

Voldemort was an orphan likewise. He was creepy and demented from childhood, but played the perfect student when he arrived at Hogwarts. Everyone loved Tom! Tom couldn’t do anything wrong! Only wise Dumbly-dore could see through him. And he knew what evil was hidden in that black heart. (WOW sorry, kind of poetic there hehe) Ahh! My cat is trying to sit on the keyboard! *Slight interlude*

Okay, hehe sorry about that! Yes we were talking about villains. SO. Do you have a deliciously complicated villain? It doesn’t have to be too twisted, but the twisted ones are the best and most fun! In my book for example, the ultimate villain is an immortal illusionist who has made different names for himself and is scattered all throughout the history of earth, and my world. He’s immortal and has been waiting three thousand years so he’s patient, cunning, and crazy. Bent on revenge for reasons that I will not mention here because (1) you probably are tired of my blabbing and (2) it would spoil things because when I become a totally fabulous famous author (Sarcasm intended) I wouldn’t want the series spoiled for you!

Sorry guys, I’m on my third cup of coffee and just watched Sherlock last night so yeah… I’m kind of hyper… lolzzzzzzzzzz.

So, I’m going to wrap this up, but just so you know, there is SO much more to characters. Every story has to have that good old fashion hero/heroine and that twisted villain. The characters make the book. They are what bring realism and life to the story! And you’re going to be stuck with them for a while so you gotta stick with them and love them, even if they are just words on a page. But you know you’ve mastered the character when they begin to become more of  that. A bit of every one of your characters is in you. That’s what makes them so special… :)

So, yeah, Emily will be back Friday, won’t you Emily? *Smiles crazily* Yeah, y’all are probably getting tired of gittery, giggling Hannah so enjoy Emily’s company when she joins you Friday!

Lots of love and best wishes from the crazy-writer-girl-who-is-hyped-up-on-coffee,

Hannah W. =)

What makes you keep reading- Part Two

I want to offer a quick thanks to my lovely friend and co-blog owner, Emily K. who graciously shoots me a text every Tuesday saying, “Have you written your blog post yet?” I would not have posted the first two posts on their proper dates if not for her. Thanks Em! J

I’m sorry to say that this post is also going to be rather short due to an immense amount of work I need to get done! And Emily is very sorry she was unable to post Friday, due to some school exams (you know how those blasted muggle schools can be) and some illness in her house. She will post this Friday, once again, with her sparkling advice and words of gold.

 

So now, to our topic today…

Word craft.

Without crafting your words correctly, your reader will find your work dull, boring, and uninteresting. They will quickly lose patience due to the fact that they don’t understand the point your trying to make, or even what’s happening in the story.

In order to write a good book, you have to know the craft of writing. This is very tricky. I’ve been writing for almost three years now and I’m still far from an expert. But let me tell you, you can never MASTER word crafting. You just can’t. With every new book you read, you learn more, which is why it’s so important to immerse yourself in piles of books at every chance you have. Study what you read. See how the published authors made their work published. It’ll help more than you can imagine. Trust me.

            Every writer has a style. Style is very important. It’s a key factor in what makes an author unique. With each book you read, you may see similar writing styles, but you’ll never see writing styles that are EXACTLY the same.

What do I even mean by style? Well, let’s take describing things for an example.

When your character meets a new character, or enters a new room, or goes to an event of some type, what are the first things you point out? The colors? The types of fabrics the curtains and dresses are made of? The pinched, unpleasant expressions? The smell of the room? The smell of the person? This is a hint of style. My sister has always had a passion for doing people’s hair. She always notice’s guys hair, and girls hair, and tends to point them out, saying, “Ooh, that girl is pretty” or, “Oooooh that guy is *clicks tongue and wiggles eyebrows*” that’s usually her way of saying, “Nice hair.”

So, when going back and reading my writing, I’ve noticed that the first thing I point out in a person’s description is the hair. And I tent to give WAY to much details on how “it was pulled back in an elegant bun on the very top of her head, golden lightly curled tendrils hanging down to frame a cold, pale face… etc.” That’s my style.

What’s your style? What’s the first thing you point out in a room, or on a person? It can be anything. That’s just an example of where to find someone’s style, however, and get an idea of what it looks like.

Don’t know what your style is yet? That is perfectly okay. I didn’t have a style for the longest time, until last year when I picked up the first book in the “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” series. Then poof! My writing style, for a long time, tended to look a LOT like Rick Riordan’s. Then I branched off a little and now my writing style is part me, part his. That’s inspiration for you!

So don’t worry if you have no clue what your style is. It’ll come. Weather in the form of a book you will treasure all your life, or something else, maybe more mysterious and magical. ;)

 

I’ll come back again next Tuesday with my post on characters, part three of What makes you keep reading?

Have a blessed school week and happy writing to all!

-Hannah W.

What makes you keep Reading- Part One

            When you pick up a book off the shelf in the book store, flip it open and read the first page, or turn it over to read the summary… what makes you take it home? What makes you buy it or check it out from the library? And more importantly… after you get it… what makes you keep reading?

Maybe your friend told you about it, which is often the case. Maybe you’ve heard word of it floating around. Either way, that book interested someone, somewhere. But how? And why?

One of the most important things about a story is the idea. The spark that started you planning and writing in the first place. Without a good, strong idea… the book will be dull and uninteresting. However, the idea is not the only thing. You can have a great idea, but you won’t capture your reader’s attention, they won’t know it’s a great idea, unless you craft the words in the right way to grab the reader and carry them away with your characters.

That makes me think of another thing: Characters. What’s a book without great, strong characters? A brave, kind, noble MC… a quirky, witty, funny best friend… a sparkling, daring love interest… The characters are what give the story meaning. They get the readers rooting for the right side. At least, hopefully. Unless you have one of those twisted, evil little MCs who actually betrays them and… well, you get the point.

So I’m going to do a little series on What makes you keep reading! Today we’ll cover number one- The Idea.

Why did you pick up the pencil? (Or, since we’re in the 21 century here, why did you open a new word document?) … Nah, we’ll stick to the pencil. ;)

Something popped into your head. Maybe while you were at school, or in the shower (it happens), or at a sleepover, or in your bed room lying on your bed… or maybe in a dream! The idea, that great idea, made you want to pick up the pencil and share it to the world. But sadly, the idea is really, often, the easiest part. I can bet you that at least one out of ten of your friends has started a book. Five out of ten have come up with a great idea, but haven’t bothered putting it down on paper. And probably all of your friends could make up an idea if they wanted, but putting it on the paper is the hard part.

The Story Problem and the story world are two of the main keys to having a great idea. When I say story world, that just means the setting. You don’t have to actually have a whole world to write in, but it can be wherever. From Paris to Kansas.

The story problem is what gets the action happening. Something happens to your MC (Main Character) and they have to set off on an adventure to take care of that problem. The problem is what gives the idea action and speed. You don’t want your story moving like a slug.

Let’s use harry potter for example. We’ll stick to book one, which I’m sure just about everyone has seen or read. In the beginning, Harry Potter, an 11 year old orphan, is introduced. Young Harry hates his aunt and uncle and cousin (which is a problem, but not the main one) and longs for a life away from number 4 Privet Drive.

He gets his wish when a giant named Hagrid busts down his front door, which is also a problem, but still not the main one we’re searching for. Harry gets his supplies, and THEN he hears (from Hagrid) about the problem. The main story problem. The one that the whole book, and series, revolves around.

Voldemort, a mass murderer and dark wizard, killed his parents, and tried to kill him, but was supposedly “defeated” after a failed attempt. Later, you find out he’s coming back.

This, my friends, is the sparkling story problem. Harry must fight Lord Voldemort to help save those he loves. Sometimes, half the book will pass and you still have no idea what the main story problem is. This can be good, if done right, but bad if you don’t throw some interesting stuff in there to keep the story moving.

The second key to a great story idea is the setting. The story world. In Harry Potter, we are sent to the magical school of Hogwarts, a fantastical castle with moving stairs, talking paintings, moody ghosts, secret passages, three headed dogs and tons of other monsters in the forbidden forest. This gives the story an air of mystery and suspense. Who knows what could be waiting around the corner of a forbidden corridor for Harry and his friends?

A good, strong setting gives you a lot to work with. You can practically throw whatever you want at your characters if you have the right setting. Put them in a strange city or strand them on a mysterious island. Often, the setting and the idea can work together to make the story problem. Like having your character get shipwrecked on a mysterious island. Island-setting. Shipwrecked-Well… that’s slightly problematic… don’t you think? ;)

I hope this post has served helpful to you! I will write about the art of crafting your words next post!

Lots of love, Hannah W.

Descriptions-Part 2

Salutations Writers,

   Today I am going to post about the second part of my descriptions series, places. It may seem that at first places and character description are fairly similar, but they really aren’t. When you describe a character you have facial expressions, personal features, clothing etc. But when you are describing a place you have to find different information to describe (landmarks, terrain, weather…)

  

    The first thing that you have to do to describe a place is to think of it as a person.  

Your land mass has personal features…I mean, look…. there’s a rock over there in your story land that is dying to be written about…or a tree in the far corner… or a sound in the wind. Imagine that your land, real or not, is like a living breathing being, your place is your character. 

So what are some of the things that you might want to put into a place description?

    When you are writing a description, it is key to write with your five senses.

•Feel

•Taste

•See

•Hear

•Smell

You don’t have to use all of these, but it is helpful to use some.

  When you are describing the feeling of the setting, you may want to try to say how the soil felt under your characters feet, or how your characters fingertips felt pressed up against a large rock. 

  For taste, you could describe how the salty sea waves splashed into the person’s mouth and filled your characters mouth with a salty tinge.  

 

“See” is one of the harder ones. You can’t just describe what you see and you can’t make a parts list (like the one I talked about in my previous post) you have to give specific features that you see and describe them creatively. In a first draft you might write something like this:

There were large white cliffs.

When you are editing your book, you can spruce up your description by either creatively saying something, or adding words, which will give feeling or depth.  Then you can have an improved sentence that sounds something like this:

There was a massive cliff edge, which had chalk-white walls that shot up towards the crystal blue sky-dome.

Ok…so that might not be a perfect description, but it is an example. 

So far we have travelled through three senses, only two more to go! :D

  Next up is “hear.” This sense a fairly self-explanatory. You can describe the sound of waves, the rustling of trees, the honking of a horn, etc.

Last but not least we have smell. When you smell something, it can create a whole band of emotions. Imagine warm cinnamon buns. What do they make you think of? A family reunion? Your birthday?  A loved grandparent? See how describing a smell creates a whole selection of emotions!? If your trying to describe a cultured market, you will want to say what your character can smell.  Your character can describe spices, oils, incense, dust, and all kinds of things.  

So in conclusion, you have to describe a place like it is it’s own character. It is a living, breathing thing that you think about all the time. You can use the 5 senses rule if you are trying to add depth to a description or you are just lost in trying to write the description. 

 

 Thanks for reading, writers. I hope this post has been helpful! Oh, and PLEASE comment on the blog!!!! I would love to hear what you have to say!

Enjoy writing,

Emily k.

(p.s. HAPPY NEW YEAR! What are your new year resolutions???)

Great Quotes from Great Writers

Often we run into problems. Obstacles in our writing. Little annoying problems that we aren’t sure what to do about. But others have been there. And here are some great quotes I’ve found over the years that will hopefully be as helpful to you as they were to me!

 

 “At any given moment you have the power to say, this is NOT how the story is going to end.” –Unknown

“We edit to let the fire show through the smoke.” –Arthur Plotnik

“A writer’s life is a strange mix of, “Wow, I wrote THAT?” and “Oh, wow, I wrote that.”” –Unknown

“What doesn’t kill us gives us something new to write about.” –Julie Wright

“Write it so that people can hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart.” –Maya Angelou

“It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard…. Is what makes it great.” –A league of their own

“The secret to editing your work is simple: you need to become its READER instead of its writer.” –Ladie Smith

“Creativity takes courage.” –Henri Matisse

“Listen to music to find a way into the story you’re telling. Music is incredibly evocative: find the right piece that reflects the world you’re writing about, and you’re halfway there.” –Anthony Neilson

“Treat your secondary characters like they think the book’s about them.” –Jocelyn Hughes

“Writing to me, is simply thinking through my fingers.” –Isaac Asimov

“If it scares you, it might be a good thing to try.” –Seth Godin

“And never forget that writing is as close as we get to keeping a hold on the thousand and one things- Childhood, Certainties, Cities, Doubts, Dreams, Instants, Phrases, Parents, Loves- that go on slipping , like sand, through our fingers.” –Salman Rushdie

“Bad decisions make awesome stories…” –Unknown

“Three paragraphs a day, keeps the writer’s block away.” –Unknown

“You can only learn to be a better writer by actually writing.” –Doris Lessing

“Books and doors are the same thing. You open them, and you go through into another world.” –Jeanette Winterson

“To gain your own voice, you have to forget about having it heard.”
—Allen Ginsberg, WD

“Not a wasted word. This has been a main point to my literary thinking all my life.”
—Hunter S. Thompson

“We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.”
—Ernest Hemingway

“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a library to make one book.”
—Samuel Johnson

“There are no laws for the novel. There never have been, nor can there ever be.”
—Doris Lessing

“Style is to forget all styles.”
—Jules Renard

“I don’t believe in being serious about anything. I think life is too serious to be taken seriously.”
—Ray Bradbury, WD

Hope these will serve helpful to you! Have a happy new year’s!

 -Hannah W.

Descriptions-Part 1

Salutations Writers,  

  

 Before I really start talking about today’s topic, I thought I ought to say something that I forgot to put into our Welcome Post. Hannah and I will be writing on Tuesdays and Fridays. We might occasionally have to post something on Saturday, or decide that we want to post something on Monday, but Tuesday/Friday will be our basic blogging calendar. 

    Now on to today’s subject!  I thought for one of our first post, I would start a small series of post about descriptions (i.e. Characters, places, etc.). Today, I will be talking about Character descriptions. 

  When you are writing a Character description, one thing that you will want to stay away from is a parts list. Some times, when I am going through and editing a chapter of my book I will read something like this:

 A tall, bald man who had tan skin, blue eyes, and moccasins walked in the door.

Gee…. that is a beautiful description. What I just wrote was (in my opinion) a parts list. I listed character traits, but when you read through them, it is boring, dull, and unexciting. 

    When you are writing a Character Description, you need to paint a verbal picture for your reader, and don’t worry about using the bold oil paints. Your description needs to live and breathe in the reader’s mind.  Stay away from the average features (like the features that you might have to fill in on the doctors office form.) Add birthmarks, and tell us what makes your character unique. What makes this person frightening, jolly, shy, or sick? Does your character have gnarled face, red cheeks, which are the color of roses, a furrowed brow and eyes that continually stray away towards the corner? These are tiny details. Little pixels that, when pieced together, make a painting of your character. 

J. R. R. Tolkien wrote a masterful description of Strider, in The Fellowship Of The Ring.  
     

         “Suddenly Frodo noticed a strange-looking weather-beaten man, sitting in the shadows near the wall, was also listening intently to the hobbit-talk. He had a tall tankard in front of him, and was smoking a long-stemmed pipe curiously carved. His legs were stretched out before him, showing high boots of supple leather that fitted him well, but had seen much wear and were now caked with mud. A travel-stained cloak of heavy dark-green cloth was drawn close about him, and in spite of the heat of the room he wore a hood that overshadowed his face; but the gleam of his eyes could be seen as he watched the hobbits.” 

 Tokien- Fellowship of the ring-p 153

This description perfectly explains strider’s character, without even a single word of dialogue. 

  Another (shorter) description can be found in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone:

            "A tall, black-haired witch in emerald green robes stood there She had a very stern face and Harry’s first thought was that this was not someone to cross.

Rowling-Harry Potter and the sorcerer’s Stone- Chapter 7 pg113

This description is short, but it shows a lot of foreshadowing into Professor McGonagall’s character. J. K. Rowling wrote about her facial expressions in order to portray the Professor’s character traits.

That is all I have for today, my fellow writers. Hannah will post another entry on Tuesday! I hope you all found that helpful!

Salutations and a belated Merry Christmas,  

Emily K.