Name That Book

I believe that a compelling story needs an equally compelling title. 

Why?

Titles matter. Think about the titles of the most beloved books in literature and you will find that they are not only unique but also memorable. Same goes for the books on the best seller’s lists. Titles are, at times, what originally draw readers in.

Here are a list of my favorite book titles, even though they are not always my favorite books.

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky (One of my favorite books of all time)

Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (Also a favorite)

The Winter of our Discontent by John Steinbeck

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

Fifty Shades of Gray by E.L.James (I loathe this book but the title is memorable and catchy)

Of course there are many many more, but looking at these titles should give an idea of what I mean. These titles are catchy, unique, and memorable. Just think if these books had generic titles, would they have caught people’s eyes on bookshelves?

So, how does one come up with a badass title?

I actually find my inspiration in music and from my own writing. The story I am working on now is called “Reigniting Salem.” It came from a line in the story, it’s funny because its a minor character who says it, but it works on so many levels.

When it comes to using music, sometimes a line in the song becomes the title or it becomes the inspiration behind the story and weaves itself into it.

My one piece of advice for naming your story is to write it first. I never give a story a title until a good chunk of it is written. 

Do you have any advice for coming up with titles? Let me know in the comments!

It's Not Goodbye. It's See You Later.

Tomorrow marks the end of an era. Hate him or love him, Donald Trump will become the President of the United States. He doesn’t deserve it and sure as hell doesn’t have the temperament for it. He is not “my” president. Even saying that, I truly do wish him the best. Why? Because if he fails, America fails, and I refuse to fail.

BUT… Today is President Obama’s last full day as Commander-In-Chief and I want to honor him. He is the epitome of class and dignity. I will miss him, I swear, it feels like I’m losing a friend. So, in honor of “my” president, here are some of his best quotes:

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek."

"We need to internalize this idea of excellence. Not many folks spend a lot of time trying to be excellent." 

"You can’t let your failures define you. You have to let your failures teach you."

“We are big and vast and diverse; a nation of people with different backgrounds and beliefs, different experiences and stories, but bound by our shared ideal that no matter who you are or what you look like, how you started off, or how and who you love, America is a place where you can write your own destiny.”

"My fellow Americans, it has been the honor of my life to serve you. I won't stop; in fact, I will be right there with you, as a citizen, for all my remaining days ... I am asking you to believe. Not in my ability to bring about change -- but in yours."

Well, it's been a great ride President Obama. Thank you for all that you have done. I wish you nothing but the best.

(I'm not sure what next week's post will be about. Give me some ideas in the comments if you like!)

Computer Woes

I would like to apologize if this post ends up making no sense. I took some strong cold medicine and it has made me pretty loopy.  I swear, it's been a long time since my body hurt this much. My face feels like someone has punched it and my throat is throbbing as if I swallowed gravel. I absolutely hate having a cold or whatever this is.

Anyway, this last week I had some computer woes. I turned on my computer on and it couldn't find the hard drive. Turns out my hard drive had been corrupted somehow. I couldn't tell you what happened, I never download files that aren't from the App Store or scanned for viruses, but the only thing I could do was erase it. I ended up losing a few Apps I paid for (still crying about Scrivener, I got it for half off with my NaNoWriMo goodies and now it's gone!) 

BUT I didn't lose any of my stories! Why? Because I back them up multiple ways. I email them to myself, I save them to the cloud, and I save them to my flash drive. Basically, if one back up fails, I always have more.

I'm sorry, but I think I am going to go pass out now.

I do want to leave you with two pieces of advice:

1. Always save and back up everything.
2. Don't blog while on cold medicine...

Going Beyond the Big Picture

After I do my cutting and deepening drafts I move on to actually editing. My personal editing style has two steps: macro and micro-editing.

The macro editing is still in the realm of the big picture and that is why I do it before I micro-edit.
The things I look for during this edit are:

1. The story moves under its own power and that nothing about it feels forced. 
2. The story is dramatic. No one wants to read a story where there is no conflict. We might say that we hate drama, but that only applies to our own lives, we want drama in our fiction.
3. It is intimate and I don't mean it has sex in it (but it isn't a problem if there is.) What I do mean is that the reader gets to know and care about the characters. Good stories have characters that readers bond with and feel as if they really know.
4. The story takes place in a special world. It doesn't have to be the magical wizarding world but it does need to feel exclusive while also being relatable.
5. It is somewhat compressed. I am neither a minimalist or a maximalist, I fall somewhere in between. When I look for compression in a story I look for a day to read like a day and not like five days. Sometimes writers get ahead themselves and pack too much action into one day and that only works in stories that take place in a day and doesn't work well for series. (I also make sure each paragraph is no longer than eight sentences long, no one wants to read a wall of text.)
6. The language is consciously crafted. The words being used to tell the story have to reflect it. I would never tell a story about the Battle of Culloden and have the characters speaking with New Yark accents and using American slang. 
7. Lastly, the story is complete and satisfying.

If I have to fix anything from above in my story then I go back and do another cutting and deepening draft before I move on to micro-editing.

When I have looked for all of those things and feel satisfied with it then I start looking at the small stuff. I read each sentence out loud. Doing that allows me to find the missing words, the typos, the misused punctuation, and the grammar mistakes. I also have someone else read it as well. That someone doesn't have to be an English major, they're just a second set of eyes to help you catch things.

After editing the whole story, I save it and walk away from it for a while. I give it a couple of days and then at look at it again. I look for the same things, the same mistakes, and fix them.

I hope that helps you with any future editing.

I am not sure what next week's post will be about, but I'm sure I will come up with something. Have a lovely weekend!

There Is Good in This World and It's Worth Fighting For

My last post of 2016 was going to be about editing, but with how horrible 2016 has been that didn’t feel quite right. I had also considered writing an “In Memoriam” but that didn’t feel right either. What did feel right was listing the positive things that did happen this year (some are personal, some are positive things I read about on the internet.) I hope my list brings you some happiness and I hope you share your positive experiences of 2016 with me in the comments. (I will also be using the #RememberTheGood in my social media posts to share some positive vibes.)

• I graduated college with a degree in English with an emphasis on Creative Writing
• Thanks to the ice bucket challenge the gene responsible for ALS has been found, meaning we are closer to an effective treatment 
• The Orlando Shakespeare Festival showed up with angel wings to block funeral-goers for the Orlando Pulse victims view from anti-gay protesters
• Leonardo DiCaprio won an Oscar (finally!)
• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them came out on my birthday and it felt like returning home
• Chewbacca Mom
• For the first time ever a woman was nominated for President of United States and even though she didn’t win, her concession speech moved me to my core:

"I know we have still not shattered that highest and hardest glass ceiling, but someday someone will, and hopefully sooner than we might think right now. And to all of the little girls who are watching this, never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world to pursue and achieve your own dreams.” - Hillary Clinton. 

• The manatee population is no longer endangered
• Green sea turtles were taken off the endangered list as well
• The number of tigers rose for the first time in 100 years
• It was announced that Harriet Tubman would replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill
• The Chicago Cubs won the World Series (one year after my Royals did!)
• The big hole in the ozone is starting to heal
• West Africa is now ebola-free
• Bernie Sanders started a fire that can’t be put out
• Standing Rock stood its ground and won
• Joe Biden memes and all of their glory brought me laughter when I needed it most

I truly hope that everyone has a fantastic New Year’s eve and that the New Year brings everyone love, happiness, and most of all hope.

See you next year!

Big Picture Revision: Part 2

My Deepening Draft

The second part of my big picture revision process is what I call the “The Deepening Draft.” In this draft you still don’t look at the spelling errors, grammatical mistakes, or punctuation issues, this is the draft where you replace that 35% to 45%  that you took out during the cutting process.

A deepening draft is exactly what is sounds like, its the draft that you add more to your story; and by more, I don’t mean that you add fluff. This is where you add depth, to both your characters and your story. You fill in the plot holes. You move around scenes. You answer any questions that were left unanswered. The deepening draft is where you fill in the small details to make your story come to life. Those details help to make your story more organic and realistic, and to add a cohesion that might not have been there during the original draft.

When I do the deepening draft I try to print my story and write out everything I want to add by hand, but I know that isn’t practical. So, what I would suggest is to add your changes in your word document like normal, but underscore them. Why? So, when you go back and re-read it, you will know where you made changes.

After adding your changes, save it, and walk away from it for a few days or weeks. Again, distance will give you some clarity and will make it easier to see any issues than if you were to read over it an hour later.

So, at this point, you have two options: 1. You can repeat the cutting and deepening process again (in fact, I recommend repeating the process a few times.) And 2. You can look beyond the big picture and move on to editing.

Next week I will give some tips on editing. I really hope that everyone has a happy holiday and great night!

Big Picture Revision: Part One

My Cutting Draft for my Capstone.

So, it’s a been a little over two weeks since National Novel Writing Month came to an end and I haven’t looked at my story again once.

Why?

Well, if I am to edit it and revise it, I need some time away from it. Trying to edit anything immediately after writing it won’t do any good. The story is too fresh, you will miss mistakes and errors because you will see them for what you want them to be and not for the mistakes and errors that they are. Also, time heals all wounds, and if you hated your story or parts of it, you might just delete too much and lose an amazing novel. Time will let you see your story clearly.

Personally, I won’t be starting my editing process until after the new year. I like to put some distance in between the writing and editing, if I can. But, if an idea for my novel comes into my head, I write it down in my “handy-dandy” notebook that I keep with me at all times. (I would advise anyone who writes to do this. I have notebooks upon notebook filled with names and ideas and places and random plot lines, I go back them for inspiration.)

Editing is time consuming and has a lot of steps, so this is just part one of my editing process.

This is the big picture revision.

Anyway, the first step I take when revising my story is to read it all. Rereading the story allows me to get reacquainted with it. I will also read it aloud, because that allows me to hear the mistakes and hear when dialog doesn’t sound natural. When I do come across those moments I underline them, so I can revisit them later on. (I would suggest printing the story off if you can, editing on a computer is difficult, but printing so many pages isn't always feasible.) 

After that, I do what I call my “cutting draft.” I go through my story and strikeout everything I hate or deem unnecessary. My goal is to cut at least 30-45% of it. I know that sounds like a lot, but when you think of all of the fluff that you added to reach your 50k word count, you hopefully won’t be cutting the meat of your story and only the fat. Things I normally cut are adverbs, overly wordy dialog tags, and scenes that add nothing to the plot. I get rid of characters who add nothing to the story or only seem to show up as a plot device. I look for scenes that take too long and for distracting verbiage. 

I do not edit spelling mistakes or grammar errors during this process. This is just  about the story and not its readability. 

When you are done cutting your story to pieces you should save that draft with the unwanted material still there but struck out, and then open a new document. Copy and paste the whole thing into it and then delete the crossed out items. Why keep a copy with the things you want to get rid of? Well, you just may need those ideas for a different story or you might want to reuse those things in the story but somewhere else in it.

And that brings us to the next phase of my big picture revision, which I will blog about next week. I hope you come back to read about my “deepening draft.”

Have a great weekend!