Hello, It's Me (I'm Finally Back)

You know, I used to secretly criticize people in my head when they didn't continuously update their blogs. I always thought they were such slackers. Then I became one of them.

The truth is that life happens. So, this is my attempt to get back to updating more regularly. 

The reason I've been MIA is that I just graduated from college, got a job about a week later, and went full speed ahead into preparing. I am teaching high school English, which is super exciting. As soon as I got the job, I started taking education classes, attending seminars, lesson planning, and so on. So it's been super busy on my end. Being a first year teacher is hard work!

BUT that doesn't mean I've neglected writing. I've been a little slower lately, but I'm still writing. I have currently sent completed manuscript #2 to a couple of beta readers. It's still a little short and I've reached the point where someone else's eyes need to see it because mine are no longer helpful. I'm excited for that feedback!

I'm also still working on finishing my current WIP, but because I'm me, I couldn't resist starting a new project. It just seems weird to me to only be writing one thing at a time. So I actually got a pretty good idea for a sequel to completed manuscript #2, so I've started writing that too. Obviously it's still in the early stages, but I'm excited to see where it'll go. I may even get more ideas from the beta feedback. 

These two projects are very special to me. The first manuscript I wrote was exactly that: the first. It's rough, full of plot holes, inconsistent, and not my best writing. But it was the first and it will always hold a special place in my heart. Plus the experience I gained from writing it made these other two projects possible. Maybe one day (after a LOT of editing) it'll see publication. 

But for now, I'm excited about these two. I can totally see the potential they have. Although my wonderful job has slowed me down a little, I'm still fully dedicated to making one (or both!) of these a reality. 

So that's my life update. Keep writing, people. Even if it's hard. Even if you're busy. If you really love it, you'll still love working on it.

More updates to come (I promise). 

The Mechanics of a Dual Timeline

Wow, so it's been approximately a million years since I added to this blog. Sorry about that! The last five months or so have been a little crazy. First of all, it was my last semester of college, so... yeah. That was busy. Three cheers for graduating though!

Also, I completed my second novel (that deserves several more cheers!). My second novel is very different from my first. Though both are YA, the first was an angsty fantasy while this one is a romantic coming-of-age. The two protagonists from these two novels couldn't have been more different (see my earlier post "Pushy Protagonists" for more on that), but they are both very near and dear to my heart. I'm very excited about this newest project. I'm currently in the process of editing and seeking out beta readers... more on that to come!

OKAY. Now that the update is out of the way, let's actually get to the matter at hand (aka the title of this post). Because I am determined to never take a break, I also have a third WIP (work in progress, for those new to the writing acronym world). I've had this third WIP for a while. I started writing it long ago, but I gave up on it after a couple thousand words because I decided it just wasn't the right story for me (you can read more about this one too in my post "Never Delete Anything and Never Give Up" where the WIP is dubbed manuscript #2. Apparently this is the part of the program where I plug my own blog on my blog). But I went back to it and alternated between that one and the one I just completed. I am now more than halfway through it and I'm feeling really good. It's coming together. I know where I'm going with the story (which is a first for me), and I like how it's turning out. 

So here comes the twist: this manuscript features a dual timeline.

Okay, so let's pause right there. For those who don't know, a dual timeline novel is a novel in which the timeline of the story is split into two different segments. Sometimes the two segments meet at some point,and sometimes they are a little more distanced, but they are very interesting to read. 

The first dual timeline I ever read was Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver of the Delirium series. 

(Okay, I know I talk about Delirium a lot, but for real guys, if you haven't read that series, read it. You won't regret it.)

Pandemonium is the second book of the series. Without giving anything away, I can tell you that Delirium ends with some unanswered questions in the best way. I was eager to know what happened in the rest of the series, so I immediately grabbed Pandemonium, started skimming, and realized I was reading a totally different story.

Except I wasn't.

Oliver chose to divide the book into two timelines, dubbing them "Now" and "Then." The book begins in a "Now" chapter, but what I really wanted to know was what happened "Then"? "Then" picks up right after the end of Delirium, whereas "Now" picks up some time later. The two stories eventually meet in the end. 

I tore through the first few chapters of the book and quickly realized I was fully invested in both timelines. As each chapter ended, I was sad to have to wait to see what happened in one timeline, but was eager to get back to the other. It was fascinating. I have since read several dual timeline novels and I love them. They are really cool to read.

That's actually how I broke writer's block on this current WIP. I realized that traditional storytelling format didn't fit this story (pretty typical of the protagonist, if you ask me. He's a little bit of a nonconformist troublemaker). So I switched the formatting to a dual timeline and ohmygoodness it is sooo much better. This is quickly becoming one of my favorite formats and I'm definitely planning on using it in the future.

But I've discovered some inherent difficulties that come with trying to write in this format that I hadn't expected. Here's what I learned about writing a dual timeline:

1. Keeping little details straight is SO much harder. 

This particular story is a magical realism (with a little bit of dystopian type stuff thrown in) so it's a little complicated. Trying to keep the dynamics of a story with fantastical elements straight is already hard enough. Trying to keep them straight when you're writing in two different timelines? SO hard! 

Even trying to keep little things straight like which scene came before which becomes much harder. I constantly have to go back and check what happened when. It's not a huge roadblock, but be aware of it if you choose to write a dual timeline.

2. You can still write a dual timeline chronologically.

I don't usually write in chronological order, so I wasn't concerned with the fact that this chronology was going to be totally crazy. However, writing a dual timeline as the reader would read it is kind of impossible. If that's how Lauren Oliver and others did it, then I have crazy levels of respect for them. I can't do it. 

Here's what I did. I use Scrivener, which is a software program designed for writers. It is literally the best (side note: I am not getting paid to say this. I just love Scrivener that much). Scrivener lets you split your novel into individual chapters and scenes. When I first started writing, I tried to alternate between Now and Then but it got super confusing. So what I did was create two chapter folders in Scrivener. One is titled "THEN" and the other is titled "NOW." See where I'm going with this? I have two master lists of scenes, one for each timeline. When the novel is complete, I will splice them together the way I want them, adjusting as necessary. But having them split like this makes it so much easier for now. Basically, the story is in chronological order right now. I still write out of order, but when I scroll through the scenes, they are in order. It makes keeping things straight a whole lot easier. 

3. Trying a new technique makes you feel so awesome.

I like to think I'm a fairly good writer, but nothing makes you feel like a legit writer like trying something new and liking it. Writing in a format I'd never tried before was a very daunting undertaking (and still is at times), but when a scene comes out really well, or you make the perfect connection between the two timelines, it feels really good. I know I'm far from knowing everything about writing, but successfully writing a dual timeline kind of feels like mastering it. I am currently doing it successfully, so surely I can do it again. Or try something else and master that. It's fun. 

It also breaks up the monotony. I love writing, but the first two manuscripts were similar in a lot of ways. Both YA, both first person, both young, female protagonists, both traditional storytelling, and so on. But this one is different. Not only is this one different because even though it's YA, the protagonist is a teenage guy (which is a topic for a whole other blog post... help me...), but it is super different because the storytelling is totally different. It distinguishes it from my other works in a really cool way.

Basically, what I'm trying to say is that venturing out of your writing comfort zone is fun.

I've really enjoyed writing this WIP and I'm still enjoying it. I'm very excited to see how it turns out. In the future, I'll definitely be up for more dual timelines and for trying new things. I have always wanted to do a dual perspective..... hmm.....

KMG

Let People (Who Aren't You) Read Your Work

So this past week, my boyfriend read my completed manuscript. Now, let's take a moment to appreciate that this guy sat down one Saturday and read my entire 374-page 87,000-word manuscript in one day. Because, wow.

But after he read it, he told me some of the things that didn't sit well with him or that he didn't really like. He explained the things that he thought got in the way of the story. He also suggested a few alternatives for what could possibly happen instead. 

But you know what's funny?

Every single thing he pointed out was something with which I already had an issue. The second he would bring up a scene or chapter, I knew exactly what he was going to say. I'm not blind to the faults of my manuscript. I knew they were there long before he pointed them out.

The difference is that I had let myself become complacent. I had been working on this thing for so long and I had done about six or seven rounds of edits back to back and, frankly, I was tired of looking at it. I didn't like it anymore. I didn't like the story, my writing, certain scenes, certain characters, nothing. I was over it. I didn't want to look at it anymore. I put it aside and started writing other stuff.

Now don't get me wrong. It was absolutely the right decision to step away for a little while. I was burned out. Continuing to work on it at that point would have been unproductive and frustrating. 

But my problem is that I never let anyone else read it. I let one writer friend read about two, maybe three, non-sequential chapters and I sent the entire manuscript to another friend who hasn't actually read it yet because life gets crazy sometimes. Other than those two, I have never let anyone read this work at all. At. All. So the fact that someone was even willing to sit down and read the entire lengthy mess, much less all at once, is rather remarkable (he kind of likes me).

But because I was so frustrated with my work, I started ignoring the faults mostly because I didn't know how to fix them. It was like when you are searching for just the right word. You can think of synonyms that aren't really what you're looking for, but you just can't place the word you're trying to remember so you settle for the inferior synonym. That's how I'd become. I knew certain scenes or events were wrong, didn't fit, or weren't believable, but I didn't know what the right answer was. 

My boyfriend, because he was fresh to the project and outside of my own head, was able to look at it with a different perspective and tell me exactly what was wrong and pinpoint exactly what was causing it to be wrong. Now, to be honest, a few suggestions didn't really work, but that's not his fault. That was due to the fact that, as the author, I have knowledge of what will happen later on in the story. Because he doesn't have that information, he made a few suggestions that would not work. But for the most part, every suggestion was either perfect or sparked another idea in my head. 

I did about half the edits we discussed and it already feels so much better. Scenes that I had grown to hate because I knew they were wrong suddenly feel so much better. Obviously, I still have work to do, but his critique was far more helpful than I think he'll ever know. 

So, the moral of the story: let someone (who isn't you) read your work. 

I'm a writer, okay. I know how absurdly terrifying, nauseating, and anxiety-inducing it is to let eyes that aren't your own see your words, but trust me, it's needed. I might have never figured out how to fix those problems if he hadn't talked it over with me. Even just talking through the story made me see some holes that he hadn't noticed. 

I know it's scary, but do it. Start with just one person you trust and work from there. Try for more after that. More perspectives can't hurt. It was scary for me, but talking about my book with someone reinvigorated me about it and made me excited about it again. 

Plus, it's just fun to hear someone else talk about characters you created. It's more fun than you think.

The Book that Made Me Want to be a Writer

When people find out that I'm an English major or that I write creatively in my spare time, usually this question comes up:

So what's your favorite book/author?

And this is such a daunting question and only other readers understand just how impossible such a question is to answer. I am incapable of picking just one book or even just one author. I have a hard time even picking just one book per genre. The Hunger Games is one of my favorite books in the world, but so is Jane Eyre and those are not comparable. Throw in books like To Kill A Mockingbird, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Pride and Prejudice, Divergent, and The Great Gatsby and you've got a mess that cannot possibly be sorted. At first I'd think I would have to pick something like Jane Eyre over something like The Hunger Games because it is a classic, but does that make THG any less important? Of course not. That discredits both books.

What I can tell you is the book that made me realize I wanted to write. I've wanted to be a writer since I was a little kid and even though I've strayed at times from that goal, the deep desire to write never left me. That passion for arranging words on paper all comes down to one pivotal book I read when I was six years old.:

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis.

C. S. Lewis is arguably one of my top three favorite authors of all time and the Narnia series certainly ranks similarly, but like I said, I can't say it is my all-time favorite. That is simply impossible. 

What I do know is that when I read that book for the first time, I was enraptured by it. All I could think was How did this man tell such a story? That was the moment that I knew I wanted to write.

Now let's remember, I was six. Writing stories back then consisted of the worst sentences you've ever read and only about four of them. But that passion persisted. Throughout elementary school I wrote short stories that were a couple of pages long. By middle school, I could rack up about ten pages. In high school I started my first novel. In college I finished my first novel and started others while also writing several short stories.

Observing what C. S. Lewis was able to do with just words was astounding. Now, I am in no way comparing myself to him because I think the world of Lewis. Words cannot really express how much I love his writing. But reading Narnia showed me the potential that words can have in the right order, under the right hand. 

So can I accurately say that C. S. Lewis is my favorite author? No, I have too many. Can I say that Narnia is my favorite book? Of course not, I could never choose just one. But Narnia will always be close to my heart not just as merely one of my favorites, but as the book that showed me how powerful storytelling can be. Lewis showed me the magical power a simple lamppost can have. Lewis showed me how long a book can stick in your mind, something I'm reminded of every time I check a closet for tree branches and snow. Lewis showed me that good writing is a kind of magic in and of itself and it is unlike anything else.

So what is that book for you? What is that book that really impressed you and made you consider writing? I'd love to hear it in the comments!

You, The Author, Controls the Story (Also, Losing Writing Sucks)

So this post is kind of two-fold. Let's start with the first fold (see what I did there? I'm sorry...).

So this past week, I experienced every writer's worst fear: some of my WIP manuscript was corrupted and I lost over 2,500 words. My computer had some weird meltdown and I had to force close and when I restarted, Scrivener had lost the most recent scene I had written.

(Let's be clear. I emailed Scrivener support and they were wonderful, but unfortunately, the problem couldn't be fixed. Not their fault, but still devastating.)

So what did I do? Well, like any mature adult, I took notes from my computer and also had a full on meltdown. I was gloomy the rest of the day, moped well into the next, and then desperately googled any solutions I could find, but none worked.

The good news: I could reproduce the last 500 words or so from memory because I wrote them so recently. I also remembered that I wrote about 600 by hand and I still had the paper, so I could perfectly redo that part as well.

The bad news: I couldn't for the life of me remember how the scene started. I could remember parts of it, but not nearly all 1,400 words. It bothered me not being able to remember the scene, let alone the exact words I used. I whined and complained about that to my boyfriend and like the encouraging, supportive person he is, he said to me, "It may not be exactly what you wrote before, but it will still be good because you are a good writer. If you need time to vent, then vent. But then you can redo it."

Now, I was grouchy when he said this, but his words weren't lost on me. That was probably the best thing anyone could have said to a writer who just lost 2,500 words of writing. (Side note: He's pretty wonderful all the time.)

But that was still a hard concept for me to accept. I have a pretty good memory, even photographic at times, so not being able to reproduce the words exactly as they were bugs me. I can read a sentence, know that the words are not identical to before, but still not be able to remember them. And I hate that. 

And here's where we transition into the second fold (again, sorry). I promise the two are related.

I have a really hard time taking helpful criticism from people for one specific reason: I don't like when people suggest big changes. Tell me that you think the dialogue would sound better this way, fine. Tell me I didn't describe the setting at all, we're cool. But tell me to change a character's name or change their actions in a scene, and I will bristle. I know that sounds weird so hear me out.

I once saw a quote that said something along the lines of writers don't control characters, they just follow them with a pen and write down what happens (please comment if you know what quote I'm talking about, I can't find it). I've always kind of operated under this philosophy. The characters have become so real to me that I often forget that I created them, that I control them. 

Now, that's not to say that I don't experience that thing that many writers describe where the scene you intend to write morphs entirely because the characters basically gave you the middle finger and did whatever they wanted (okay, I definitely sound crazy). 

But I constantly have to remind myself that I do have some control over what words appear on the page. So maybe I can't reproduce the lost scene exactly the way it was (and I'm still kind of grumpy about that, even though I have since redone it). And maybe I have to change actions I don't want to change because they don't fit the story. At some point, I have to trust what my boyfriend said, that I am a good writer, and that I can, in fact, manipulate the story to make it the best it can be. It's not always easy, but it's worth it.