Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Kick Them While They're Down

So, yeah, this is me right now. I even have the same hair style. Kind of.

I was chugging along the other day, writing away, when, all of a sudden, I felt that something was off. And then, I was stuck.

"What is wrong? Something is wrong! Where do I go from here?" Then came the downward spiral of "my book is crap and I can't fix it".

Thank goodness for writer buddies. I sent Stefanie what I had up to that point. By the end of the conversation, I realized something VERY important. It was time to beat my character up. I needed to kick her while she was down. Which sucks because I really like my main character and, just like any person I like, I don't want to see her do something stupid. I don't want her to be an idiot or have someone treat her badly. But, you know what, if I didn't do that, then what kind of story would this be.

Harry Potter is always my go to when I feel like I need to learn a lesson about writing. Remember when everyone and their momma thought Harry was the heir to Slytherin? Remember when Harry and Ron had a fight in Goblet of Fire? When those things happened, you felt for Harry, you wanted him to succeed despite all those hardships.

So, the moral of this blog is: Don't be afraid to kick the sh** out of your character! Plain and simple.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

YouTube Tuesday

Charlieissocoollike! Watch and love :)


Quickie

I wanted to do this quick post about yWriter5. It's a free program for writers and, um, I'm kinda in love with it. It's basically an outlining program where you can keep track of characters, locations, scenes, chapters, word counts of chapters, notes, descriptions of all these things, and you can even upload the pictures you might use for inspiration. But, my favorite feature is the reading feature. Just put your cursor at the beginning of your content and press the little play button and the computer lady reads your book to you. Of course, she's not perfect, but I've caught so many little errors and other problems so far that my eyes just didn't see. Plus, it's just plain fun to hear someone else, even if it is a non-sentient being, read my book.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Writer Buddies

The other day I did that post on inspiration for writers here, but I made a big oopsie. I forgot one of the most important things. And I feel like such a goofball. I totally forgot about all my amazeballs writer buddies! So, since I forgot to mention them, I thought I'd do a big post and give you links to all of their wonderful stuff.

1. Juliana Brandt - Such a dear, cool lady! We are both at pretty much the same place in our first drafts so it helps to have someone to talk to about the dreaded middle of the story. Her story is awesome, she is awesome, go check her out (but not in a creepy way :P )!
Twitter
Blog - I Aspire to be...

2. JJ Toner - A very cool dude with a straight forward critiquing style. I always know I'll get the honest truth from JJ. His new book, a thriller called St. Patrick's Day Special, was just released on Sept. 1.
Twitter
Blog - Wild Thoughts by JJ Toner

3. Misty Provencer - Misty is super supportive and always willing to talk writing with me. She also just got repped by Caryn Wiseman at Andrea Brown. Hurray Misty!
Twitter
Blog - Nothing Cannot Happen Today

4. Stefanie Gaither - Last but certainly not least, Stef has been my writer buddy for a while and we talk pretty regularly. We also device ways to distract each other, including trading pictures like this:

I want you to take these rhinestones and make it so they're my hair.
and videos like this:


All in the name of keeping each other sane as we traverse this thing called writing. Not to mention she's always willing to read my stuff and I'm always willing to read hers (cuz it's awesome!). I've learned so much about writing from her. She's a great critiquer (yeah, I know it's not a word, but it should be). She's a great brainstormer. Follow her, love her!
Twitter
Blog - A Sort of Mental Squint
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If you came to this post looking for ways to find writer buddies, I don't really have a tried and true process. I met Stefanie on the Absolute Write forums after posting that I was looking for a writer buddy. I met Juliana, JJ, and Misty after commenting on a blog that was setting up crit groups. They invited me in. The only advice I can give is to keep trying. You're not going to mesh with every person you trade chapters with or who responds to a forum post. But, you'll never find anyone if you don't try.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

YouTube Tuesday

Intro of darkness then redness then whiteness! 

Yeah, that doesn't really work as well on a blog as it does for TobyTurner.

This guy does lots of other YouTube channels (that I'll probably feature in a later YouTube Tuesday), but I really like his lazy vlogs. There's just something about watching him be completely rambley and easily distracted that just brightens my day. There's really not much I can say to fully describe Tobuscus' lazy vlogs. You just have to watch.


There you have it :) Do you have any YouTube addictions that brighten your day? Share them with everyone in the comments!

So, that's it. Bless your face! If you sneezed during the reading of this blog, bless you! Peace off!
 

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