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Where to start as a beginner writer

Are you new to the world of writing? Here are some pointers to consider when starting out your journey!

Define your purpose

A super important first step for any writer is to ask themselves why they are actually writing. What sort of message do you want to put out into the world, what types of stories are you going to tell? Do you want to make people cry, laugh, do you want to inspire them, do you want to shine a torch on important issues, do you want to thrill them or make them feel good?

Familiarize yourself with character arcs

Before plot, there is character! Character arcs are a great way to get yourself started on your writing journey. Learn about internal conflict, misbelief, positive and negative arcs, backstories... Once you know this, the plotting side of things clicks into place much easier.

Understand the basics of story structure

You do not need to be a plot-genius to write a good book. As long as you have a good grasp on your character arcs, and a basic understand of how a story is structured, you’re good to go! It’s great to read about 3-act, 5-act, hero’s journey, and other structures on examples of books you’ve read or films you’ve seen.

Read in your genre

Cannot stress this enough! Every writer should be a reader. It’s so important to read within and outside of your genre, because reading is the best way to learn and grow and improve.

Don’t be afraid to write whatever comes to mind

All writers get stuck into certain parts of their writing, and we all become victims of perfectionism or procrastination one way or another. Don’t let this be a thing to discourage you. What’s important to know about writing is that the more you do it, the more you will improve. So even if you’re writing something for fun, or you’re not entirely happy with the quality, know that actually writing it will help you more than avoiding it.

Did you know I have a free novel plan to get you started on your writing journey?

You can grab it through the [link here] or below!

the-plottery.com

The Plottery Links

The Plottery offers writing services such as book coaching, book editing, novel plotting digital courses, and theory books on the craft of w

Sad? Insecure? Looking for a sign? This 2 minute song may change the way you look at yourself.

4 Easy Steps for Outlining a Novel as a Pantser

Every year, we’re lucky to have great sponsors for our nonprofit events. Plottr, a 2021 NaNo sponsor, is a visual outlining software that helps you plan your book for success. Today, author Troy Lambert shares some tips for outlining a novel when you’re used to flying by the seat of your pants:

Pantsing a novel can be great—after all, writing into the dark and discovering the story as you go is kinda fun, right? 

But you probably also know it can lead to nonsensical plots, writer’s block, and endless rewrites.

Well, don’t worry. As a book coach, editor, and mystery author of over 25 novels, I’ve been there myself… and I understand exactly what you’re experiencing.

The good news is you can use this simple four step formula to give yourself the best of both worlds: a general roadmap for your novel that still lets you take fun detours along the way.

Keep reading

Perspectives

2.-Seems to me you are thinking in a broader audience, and it knock my head “Why not"?”. Why should you submit your writings into a reduced web space, when you can think in a broader audience, so that is a yes.

3.- I’m not afraid to go that road. I got no fear to go into that road. I got no lack mentality in the sense that I’m not able to do it in an awesome way. I’m confident in that respect, and I know that I can kick some ass

4.- The problem is going into the web where you don’t know, who is evaluating what, under what rules, who are the participants, who are the judges. Judges dressed in the web as bartenders, or drunken people, or people that do not really know about writing stories?

Secondly, it seems to me that writing sometimes is related to a culture, and every culture is different. “Ciudades Desiertas” de Enrique Aviles Fabila has that concept, a Mexican looking into the American culture, and taking a look at the USA from his perspective that he call those cities  “Ciudades Desiertas”, y después miras a Ernest Hemingway “For whom the Bells Tolls” and there you see a gringo looking at the Spanish culture, in a very deep social transformation.

What does that means?  Who is going to judge,  under what rules, under what concept? and good luck there!

However, if there is a real one chance, like hispanic literature with hispanic judges, there might be a chance.

Why?

Because those perspectives varies depending on the culture, as I proved in the paragraph above. And talking about culture, “women” are not seen seemingly the same in the American culture than in the Mexican culture. In the Mexican culture, women are a token, vital icon of society expecting to have some roles into the family that varies differently from the American society, more liberated, and mixed in the supposedly “equality gender”.  (And man arrested for supposedly beat a wife with no evidence, but for the sake of this night, let’s put him in jail. Child support for the husband in a cheating wife? What the heck? ) Those issues might be a wonderful topic to explore. Are we in an equal society in every aspect of life?

“One thousand And One Night with Miss Beautiful” still has some doubts about that role, between the Mexican and the American way of life.

5.- To submit, an article, into a web site, where there is a lack of rules, clear rules, real names, leads into fake polls, that’s why I have been insisting into going real, because real, counts, and there is no cheating audiences, no cheating surveys, no cheating counts, etc etc etc. (Do you agree with me?, do I lie in that sense?)

6.- On this end of the rope, there’s a man trying to go for a line of honor and respect doing wonderful things with my own hands, and I said “wonderful” because my hands and my body and my soul are connected into creating wonderful never seen, nor done, nor expected things (I said trying becauseI don't do things perfectly all the time); and on the other side of the rope, cheating games, fake people, fake statistics responding in a cheated way to a man that is giving the opposite, the best?

7.- P.D : I never work against me. My strengths I develop more, and my other skills are my strengths in a developing circle. We are humans, not binary human beings as computers going for yes as “1″, and “no” for 0. We are only humans, not R2D2 lifting the hand according to a command “1″,  and “0″ for No (Do not do it!) We are humans may friend! 

Hey and DO NOT DO those #$%^&^ ID’s. I HATE them! Me caen USURA!  (Mexican slang referring to the most hated issue, in a mouth of a well being raised highly educated human being of the Mexican upper class).

* Ms Therapist? Can we go for a session into how I started to hate fake ID?

There’s one thing you can absolutely, 100 percent rely on, which is that if you show five different people the same thing, they’re all going to have a different complaint or compliment. Each is going to have a different response, and you’d better know what you’re gonna do, otherwise you’re going to get confused… [H]ow much good can come from putting any time into studying how people are responding to your movies? The best case scenario is that it makes you feel flattered for a certain period of time, which doesn’t really buy you much, in life: and inevitably, it’s not going to just be the best-case scenario, so learn to spare yourself that experience, I’d say. – Wes Anderson

Writing Tips

Story Endings

✦

Importance of the Ending

↣ readers invested their time into your publication ; make it worth it!

↣ the conclusion turns readers into fans

↣ endings should be memorable & satisfying ; this will make the readers want to indulge in more of your work

✦

Choosing Your Ending

↣ know your genre ; different genres can get away with different endings

↣ a thriller novel ending unexpectedly or ambiguously would be more satisfying to readers than a romance novel ending that way ; and vise vera, a romance novel ending emotionally and with happily ever after would be more satisfying than a thriller ending that way

↣ make it unpredictable but fair ; readers should feel like they could have seen it coming

↣ find a happy medium between what your readers want and what is unexpected

↣ be careful with unresolved or ambiguous endings ; regardless of the ending, the readers need to feel satisfied or they won’t come back

↣ be careful with expanded endings ; most editors frown upon relying on epilogues to reach a satisfying resolution

↣ have your ending in mind from the beginning ; this isn’t always plausible, but it’s very helpful — you’ll end up having hints to the resolution you may not even realize, & readers want that

✦

Types of Endings

⤷ ambiguous

→ an ending open to interpretation ; allows readers to come to their own conclusions

⤷ dialogue

→ ending with a quote from one of the characters

⤷ emotional

→ leaving the readers feeling some intense emotion ; negative, positive, or bittersweet

⤷ expanded

→ expands past the events of the narrative to resolve aspects that may not be explained in the main chapters ; usually takes form of an epilogue with a time skip

⤷ happily ever after

→ type of resolved ending where everything works out in the end

⤷ humorous

→ ends with a joke or in an ironic way

⤷ lesson learned

→ ends with clear, profound character development

⤷ reflection

→ ends with characters looking back on their choices, achievements, and experiences

⤷ resolved

→ leaves reader with no questions or loose ends ; all aspects have been clearly & satisfyingly resolved

⤷ tied

→ brings the story full-circle so it ends where it began

⤷ unexpected

→ a twist the readers did not see coming but also makes sense

⤷ unresolved

→ leaves readers with unanswered questions ; usually to lead into the next book

You Guys are Too Hard on Yourselves

Sometimes after I post a piece of advice or a suggestion for improving your craft, I see a lot of you guys in the reblogs talking about how you wish you could be a good writer and take said advice, or that you feel like a failure for not already doing it.

Now listen here, look me in the eyes, you are doing enough.

The last thing I want is to discourage anyone from writing, so I need you to internalize this. You are doing enough as a writer. Yes even if you haven’t written in a while, even if you’ve never been published, or have been rejected a million times, or have never finished a draft. You guys are enough for even trying, and I need you to start recognizing yourselves and being proud of the work you do and/or the ideas you have.

At the very least, start practicing not getting down on yourselves when you hear advice or read someone else’s work. You will only ever get better, don’t start doubting yourself now.

Let’s do a little exercise. Reblog this with three things you think you are totally nailing as a writer, I’ll go first:

                I have a keen sense of pacing.

                I create interesting dynamics between complex characters.

                My ideas are weird and fun and reflect me as a person.

Now go forth with positivity!

The meaning of compromise!

I can relate to this

Cascade Handcrafted offers different building styles for beautiful log homes.  A couple of the different styles are known as “Piece en Piece” or “Staggered Flares”.  Piece en Piece is where the traditional cross corners have been replaced by large cedar flared posts.   Staggered log flares, is where the root butt of the logs are exposed on every second wall log at the corners. 

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Burn the bridges! otherwise you come back to the same roads