TODAY BY NUMBERS:
Percent progress made on The Language of the Unheard: 0%
Rejections of Finding Innisburg: 0
Days until I go down to see my parents: 2
Awesome new book ideas: 1
Entries I have finished for a Kindle from the library: 4
So I won another book from GoodReads.com! I am super stoked about this one; it's Dennis LeHane's new book (he wrote Shutter Island, one of my all-time favorites, and Mystic River) called Live by Night and it is scheduled to be released October 2nd.
So inspired by this winnage (no, that's not a word), I decided to fill you guys in on the books I'm looking forward to reading; specifically, books that have yet to be released.
1. The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Stedman. Scheduled release date: July 31, 2012. (historical fiction, something about a lighthouse)
2. The Impossible Rescue: The True Story of an Amazing Arctic Adventure by Martin W. Sandler Scheduled release date: September 11, 2012. (Historical fiction about a lost whaling expedition in the Arctic and the attempt to rescue them)
3. The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin. Scheduled release date: August 21, 2012 (Historical fiction set in the Cascade foothills here in Washington about an orchardist who finds a couple of feral children)
4. The Double Game by Dan Festerman. Scheduled release date: August 21, 2012 (Story of espionage during the Cold War)
5. Miss me When I'm Gone by Emily Arsenault. Scheduled release date: July 31, 2012 (looks like a women's lit murder mystery.)
So what books are you looking forward to reading?
Showing posts with label The Language of the Unheard. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Language of the Unheard. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Organizing Ideas
TODAY BY NUMBERS:
Total number of words on The Language of the Unheard: 52,251 (yeah, I haven't worked on it at all)
Rejections of Finding Innisburg: 0
Books read in the last week: 9.25
Entries into the library's drawing for a Kindle: 3
Well, first off, for anyone who has been keeping track, I passed my state nursing assistant exam on Thursday, so I'm officially a CNA. Yay!
So today I want to talk about organizing. Yeah. I know. Writers are not really known for their organizational skills, but I have finally won the battle against the random scribblings on pieces of paper and it's all thanks to Microsoft OneNote. Here's what I do; feel free to share your own triumphs or struggles below.
I have a OneNote notebook entitled "Writing Info." Into this notebook I throw everything I think might ever possibly be useful in a book. I have tabs across the top that are labeled: Writing Tips, Novel Ideas, Short Story Ideas, Characters, Tidbits, Settings, Screenplay Ideas, and Contests.
Some of them are pretty self-explanatory, but I think my favorite one is Writing Tips. I love to read writing "how-to" books and articles, and often a sentence or an idea will catch my attention, so I just copy and paste it right into that section. The section is divided into various pages: characters, plotting, outlining, etc. and I just stick it where it belongs. Then, when I'm brainstorming ideas for a new book, I read through all the ideas, incorporating each into my book. I sincerely believe doing this has greatly increased my writing abilities and I would highly recommend it to anyone.
In the tab labeled "Tidbits" I just put interesting things that I run across that aren't going to turn into a stand-alone book or story (probably). Right now in there I have a link to the Wikipedia article on numbers stations (which, even though they've been used in Lost, are really interesting), a quote I once read in a tabloid article about Johnny Depp that I felt would be perfect for a character to say someday, a few ideas for titles that have no stories to go with them, and on and on. Someday I feel sure I'll find a home for them.
The rest of the tabs house pretty much what you'd expect, and I suspect, if I were to combine them all, that I have over a hundred separate ideas and thoughts in there, not counting the several hundred writing tips I have accumulated.
So tell me, how do you organize your ideas and thoughts for future books or stories?
Total number of words on The Language of the Unheard: 52,251 (yeah, I haven't worked on it at all)
Rejections of Finding Innisburg: 0
Books read in the last week: 9.25
Entries into the library's drawing for a Kindle: 3
Well, first off, for anyone who has been keeping track, I passed my state nursing assistant exam on Thursday, so I'm officially a CNA. Yay!
So today I want to talk about organizing. Yeah. I know. Writers are not really known for their organizational skills, but I have finally won the battle against the random scribblings on pieces of paper and it's all thanks to Microsoft OneNote. Here's what I do; feel free to share your own triumphs or struggles below.
I have a OneNote notebook entitled "Writing Info." Into this notebook I throw everything I think might ever possibly be useful in a book. I have tabs across the top that are labeled: Writing Tips, Novel Ideas, Short Story Ideas, Characters, Tidbits, Settings, Screenplay Ideas, and Contests.
Some of them are pretty self-explanatory, but I think my favorite one is Writing Tips. I love to read writing "how-to" books and articles, and often a sentence or an idea will catch my attention, so I just copy and paste it right into that section. The section is divided into various pages: characters, plotting, outlining, etc. and I just stick it where it belongs. Then, when I'm brainstorming ideas for a new book, I read through all the ideas, incorporating each into my book. I sincerely believe doing this has greatly increased my writing abilities and I would highly recommend it to anyone.
In the tab labeled "Tidbits" I just put interesting things that I run across that aren't going to turn into a stand-alone book or story (probably). Right now in there I have a link to the Wikipedia article on numbers stations (which, even though they've been used in Lost, are really interesting), a quote I once read in a tabloid article about Johnny Depp that I felt would be perfect for a character to say someday, a few ideas for titles that have no stories to go with them, and on and on. Someday I feel sure I'll find a home for them.
The rest of the tabs house pretty much what you'd expect, and I suspect, if I were to combine them all, that I have over a hundred separate ideas and thoughts in there, not counting the several hundred writing tips I have accumulated.
So tell me, how do you organize your ideas and thoughts for future books or stories?
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Winning!
TODAY BY NUMBERS:
Total word count of The Language of the Unheard: 52,251
Number of form rejections for Finding Innisburg: 0
Number of requests for partials for Finding Innisburg: 1 (yay!)
Number of books read in the last three days: 4 (I'm a fast reader)
Days until my Certified Nursing Assistant exam: 2
So I have gotten hooked on GoodReads.com the last few days. I have found so many new books I want to read and from there I have sorted them, placed a few holds at the library and discussed book favorites with other members. And best of all, they give away free books!!! I know! FREE BOOKS!!! Authors and publishers give them away before they are actually released in hopes of getting favorable reviews and a fan base. There are no strings attached; if you win, you are encouraged to write a review, but it is not required. So I've been entering for everything that I feel like I might be interested in, and today I found out I won a book!
The book I won is Rogue, a thriller by Mark Sullivan. It should come in 4-6 weeks and I'm pretty excited. When it comes, I'll post a review here for you all. It is being released October 2nd by St. Martin's Press.
So I would encourage all my reader readers (lol) to get on GoodReads and start entering drawings. It's fun, and even if you don't win, it's a great way to find out about books you might be interested in reading before they even come out!
So I'm eagerly looking for new reading material, preferably books released in the last 2-3 years. I like mysteries, thrillers, action-adventure, memoirs, literary fiction (if it's not too slow), chick-lit (no, it's not dead) and commercial fiction. I don't like romance, stories with sad endings (with a couple of exceptions), erotica, stories about drug abuse, sex abuse, or prostitution. So what would you recommend to me? I want to know, please comment below!
Total word count of The Language of the Unheard: 52,251
Number of form rejections for Finding Innisburg: 0
Number of requests for partials for Finding Innisburg: 1 (yay!)
Number of books read in the last three days: 4 (I'm a fast reader)
Days until my Certified Nursing Assistant exam: 2
So I have gotten hooked on GoodReads.com the last few days. I have found so many new books I want to read and from there I have sorted them, placed a few holds at the library and discussed book favorites with other members. And best of all, they give away free books!!! I know! FREE BOOKS!!! Authors and publishers give them away before they are actually released in hopes of getting favorable reviews and a fan base. There are no strings attached; if you win, you are encouraged to write a review, but it is not required. So I've been entering for everything that I feel like I might be interested in, and today I found out I won a book!
The book I won is Rogue, a thriller by Mark Sullivan. It should come in 4-6 weeks and I'm pretty excited. When it comes, I'll post a review here for you all. It is being released October 2nd by St. Martin's Press.
So I would encourage all my reader readers (lol) to get on GoodReads and start entering drawings. It's fun, and even if you don't win, it's a great way to find out about books you might be interested in reading before they even come out!
So I'm eagerly looking for new reading material, preferably books released in the last 2-3 years. I like mysteries, thrillers, action-adventure, memoirs, literary fiction (if it's not too slow), chick-lit (no, it's not dead) and commercial fiction. I don't like romance, stories with sad endings (with a couple of exceptions), erotica, stories about drug abuse, sex abuse, or prostitution. So what would you recommend to me? I want to know, please comment below!
Friday, July 13, 2012
Screenwriting for Novelists
TODAY BY NUMBERS:
Total word count of The Language of the Unheard: 52,008
Number of form rejections for Finding Innisburg: 0 (not sure if this is good or bad)
Number of books you have to read and review for the Seattle Public Library system to be entered to win a Kindle: 3
Number of free book giveaways entered on GoodReads.com: 15
So now for our main topic. Screenwriting. Last summer I decided to attempt to write a screenplay. Although I'm fairly convinced that I will never be a famous screenwriter (Hollywood has too many politics and rules and cliques. I prefer good old-fashioned publishing), writing a screenplay may have been the best thing I ever did for my writing abilities.
Screenwriting in much, much different than novel writing. I didn't even write an original screenplay, I just adapted one of my favorite novels, Rilla of Ingleside by L.M. Montgomery. Screenplays are the epitome of SHOW don't TELL. In a screenplay you can't even write a phrase like "Tom, Joe's brother, enters the room." Unless Tom is going to be wearing a sign around his neck that says "Joe's brother" you can't put it in the screenplay. You have to find a way to work it into the dialogue. This is tricky, let me tell you.
Descriptions of locations have to be kept short and sweet also. In screenwriting, one page of properly formatted text = one minute of screen time (approximately). So if a scene is going to be shown for three seconds before the characters start talking, you have to sum up the scene in only a line or two. No long-winded pages of purple prose here. The trick is to choose one or two details that "sum up" the scene. Instead of saying "The farmhouse is old and blue. There is a flower bed in front but the flowers are dead and brown. The fence running behind the house is falling down and the barbed wire is rusty. The grass is long, clearly no animals have grazed here in a while," you cut it down to the essentials: "The paint on the farmhouse is peeling and the rusty barbed wire is sagging into the overgrown grass."
In screenwriting, the specific details (the color of the house, or exactly how many plants are in front) are pointless to put in, because the director is not going to follow your directions that closely. What you want is to make a point about WHAT KIND of farmhouse this is, and let the director follow through with the details.
In novel writing, the same principle can be applied, not because a director is going to come in and change it, but because leaving some details up to your readers imagination is crucial. Unless this is a classic Martian farmhouse, a reader will be able to fill in the scene without you spelling out every detail. Pick a few things that sum up the feel of the scene and leave the rest out. Over describing can pull a reader out of the scene, while the right choice of details can make them feel like they're right there with you. Of course, if they were to draw what they pictured the farmhouse looking like, it might not be how you pictured it at all, but that's okay. When a book is read, the reader brings his or her own experiences to the table and views the story against the backdrop of his or her life.
So if you've ever been curious about writing a screenplay, even if you have no intention of selling it, I would absolutely recommend it. Screenplays are short and sweet. At 90-120 sparsely-filled pages, they are much faster to write than a novel, and you just might learn a thing or two about writing in the process. I would highly recommend the book How Not to Write a Screenplay by Denny Martin Flinn for anyone thinking of undertaking this project. The book covers formatting, plotting and everything else you need to know. Also, every April the NaNoWriMo people have a screenwriting month called Script Frenzy, in which screenwriters attempt to write 100 pages of a screenplay in a month.
Happy Noveling!
P.S. If any of you noveling folks are on GoodReads.com, you should friend me! My user name is Annakaris
Total word count of The Language of the Unheard: 52,008
Number of form rejections for Finding Innisburg: 0 (not sure if this is good or bad)
Number of books you have to read and review for the Seattle Public Library system to be entered to win a Kindle: 3
Number of free book giveaways entered on GoodReads.com: 15
So now for our main topic. Screenwriting. Last summer I decided to attempt to write a screenplay. Although I'm fairly convinced that I will never be a famous screenwriter (Hollywood has too many politics and rules and cliques. I prefer good old-fashioned publishing), writing a screenplay may have been the best thing I ever did for my writing abilities.
Screenwriting in much, much different than novel writing. I didn't even write an original screenplay, I just adapted one of my favorite novels, Rilla of Ingleside by L.M. Montgomery. Screenplays are the epitome of SHOW don't TELL. In a screenplay you can't even write a phrase like "Tom, Joe's brother, enters the room." Unless Tom is going to be wearing a sign around his neck that says "Joe's brother" you can't put it in the screenplay. You have to find a way to work it into the dialogue. This is tricky, let me tell you.
Descriptions of locations have to be kept short and sweet also. In screenwriting, one page of properly formatted text = one minute of screen time (approximately). So if a scene is going to be shown for three seconds before the characters start talking, you have to sum up the scene in only a line or two. No long-winded pages of purple prose here. The trick is to choose one or two details that "sum up" the scene. Instead of saying "The farmhouse is old and blue. There is a flower bed in front but the flowers are dead and brown. The fence running behind the house is falling down and the barbed wire is rusty. The grass is long, clearly no animals have grazed here in a while," you cut it down to the essentials: "The paint on the farmhouse is peeling and the rusty barbed wire is sagging into the overgrown grass."
In screenwriting, the specific details (the color of the house, or exactly how many plants are in front) are pointless to put in, because the director is not going to follow your directions that closely. What you want is to make a point about WHAT KIND of farmhouse this is, and let the director follow through with the details.
In novel writing, the same principle can be applied, not because a director is going to come in and change it, but because leaving some details up to your readers imagination is crucial. Unless this is a classic Martian farmhouse, a reader will be able to fill in the scene without you spelling out every detail. Pick a few things that sum up the feel of the scene and leave the rest out. Over describing can pull a reader out of the scene, while the right choice of details can make them feel like they're right there with you. Of course, if they were to draw what they pictured the farmhouse looking like, it might not be how you pictured it at all, but that's okay. When a book is read, the reader brings his or her own experiences to the table and views the story against the backdrop of his or her life.
So if you've ever been curious about writing a screenplay, even if you have no intention of selling it, I would absolutely recommend it. Screenplays are short and sweet. At 90-120 sparsely-filled pages, they are much faster to write than a novel, and you just might learn a thing or two about writing in the process. I would highly recommend the book How Not to Write a Screenplay by Denny Martin Flinn for anyone thinking of undertaking this project. The book covers formatting, plotting and everything else you need to know. Also, every April the NaNoWriMo people have a screenwriting month called Script Frenzy, in which screenwriters attempt to write 100 pages of a screenplay in a month.
Happy Noveling!
P.S. If any of you noveling folks are on GoodReads.com, you should friend me! My user name is Annakaris
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
On libraries, planning and psyching myself out
Word count on The Language of the Unheard: 51,012
Form Rejections on Finding Innisburg: 1 (so far. Although it's almost 9 PM in NYC so that's probably it for tonight.
Super nice emails from the Agency Gatekeeper: 1
Volunteer Hours at Harborview Medical Center: 3
Holds placed at the library: 3
So about a year ago, I went on a library borrowing spree, checked out a TON of books, and then couldn't get myself over to the library to return them until they were...pretty late. So I've had about 40 dollars in late fees that I have been putting off paying, and as a result, I have been buying books instead of borrowing them from the library. Finally I realized that didn't make any financial sense, and I really wanted to read some new books (not ones I could find for cheap at the used bookstore next door), so I am going to go into the library tomorrow and pay my fees. And from now on, I'm going to be good and return my books on time. And I placed three holds on books from my GoodReads "to read" list.
I'm mulling over ideas for my next book(s). For NaNoWriMo, I think I'm going to attempt my first fantasy novel but between now and then, I'm going to try to outline another book to write after the fantasy novel is finished. The problem is, I have about four ideas and I can't decide which one I want to do. So that's where you come in. Here are the four choices, so leave me a comment and tell me which one you think you'd most like to read.
A. A paranormal thriller about a little boy sucked into a creepy wormhole by an evil child, and his sister's quest to get him back.
B. A historical fiction novel about a female pirate. NOT a romance novel, more action-adventure. Set in the golden age of piracy (1700's-ish)
C. A mystery novel about a woman who was given a necklace many years earlier by Elvis, and discovers that it holds the secret to a series of murders.
D. A journalist goes undercover as a prostitute and gets mixed up with the mob/a gang and has to fight for her life and the life of her young child.
So anyway, tell me what you think!
I've been reading a lot of blogs and writing sites lately and I have to keep remembering not to get too caught up in trends. It's not so much that I want to write books that are trendy, that's never really been desire of mine, but when I have an idea for a book, and then I read something that says that books like that are "out" I get freaked out. For example, my fantasy novel that I'm planning for NaNoWriMo, is technically a "portal fantasy" and apparently portal fantasy is not cool anymore. But I am reminding myself to write what I love and not worry about it.
Form Rejections on Finding Innisburg: 1 (so far. Although it's almost 9 PM in NYC so that's probably it for tonight.
Super nice emails from the Agency Gatekeeper: 1
Volunteer Hours at Harborview Medical Center: 3
Holds placed at the library: 3
So about a year ago, I went on a library borrowing spree, checked out a TON of books, and then couldn't get myself over to the library to return them until they were...pretty late. So I've had about 40 dollars in late fees that I have been putting off paying, and as a result, I have been buying books instead of borrowing them from the library. Finally I realized that didn't make any financial sense, and I really wanted to read some new books (not ones I could find for cheap at the used bookstore next door), so I am going to go into the library tomorrow and pay my fees. And from now on, I'm going to be good and return my books on time. And I placed three holds on books from my GoodReads "to read" list.
I'm mulling over ideas for my next book(s). For NaNoWriMo, I think I'm going to attempt my first fantasy novel but between now and then, I'm going to try to outline another book to write after the fantasy novel is finished. The problem is, I have about four ideas and I can't decide which one I want to do. So that's where you come in. Here are the four choices, so leave me a comment and tell me which one you think you'd most like to read.
A. A paranormal thriller about a little boy sucked into a creepy wormhole by an evil child, and his sister's quest to get him back.
B. A historical fiction novel about a female pirate. NOT a romance novel, more action-adventure. Set in the golden age of piracy (1700's-ish)
C. A mystery novel about a woman who was given a necklace many years earlier by Elvis, and discovers that it holds the secret to a series of murders.
D. A journalist goes undercover as a prostitute and gets mixed up with the mob/a gang and has to fight for her life and the life of her young child.
So anyway, tell me what you think!
I've been reading a lot of blogs and writing sites lately and I have to keep remembering not to get too caught up in trends. It's not so much that I want to write books that are trendy, that's never really been desire of mine, but when I have an idea for a book, and then I read something that says that books like that are "out" I get freaked out. For example, my fantasy novel that I'm planning for NaNoWriMo, is technically a "portal fantasy" and apparently portal fantasy is not cool anymore. But I am reminding myself to write what I love and not worry about it.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
The Language of the Unheard
I more or less finished "North to the Klondike." It needs a bunch more work but the main story frame is out on paper. I started the 'zombie' story, "The Language of the Unheard" on Sunday and right now I am eight scenes and 10,000 words in. The extensive outlining that I did on notecards has really been helping me. I just went through and made one notecard for each scene and on that card I listed the plot points and details that needed to make it into each scene. Then as I go along, I'm still creating a lot of the story but I'm not missing anything important to the story. It's really helped me reveal my character's backstory (which is one of her main motivations for this story) a little at a time. And as I go into the five digit word counts, where I start to second guess myself, I know that I have a good plan ahead of me and if I just follow what I've laid out, the story will come together in the end. So far I feel really good about the story and if I can keep my words per scene up at this same level, I'll have the longest book I've ever written. I'm striving for at least 80,000 words but we'll see how that plays out. I have twenty more days until I start school for summer quarter so we'll see how far I can get by then. But even after school starts, I won't be working so I should still have some time to work on it.
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