Showing posts with label first book. Show all posts
Showing posts with label first book. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Thursday, August 14, 2014
Creative Death By Stupidity
I almost died Tuesday night.
Not literally, but creatively. Why, you ask? I almost lost my entire book. Entire book. All because of my stupidity.
Karma probably had something to do with it too. Spiteful thing.
I spent the majority of Tuesday working on my book... at work (shh!). My office's programs are all in the cloud. I didn't think this would be a problem, so I saved my book like normal to a USB I carry with me everywhere.
Only when I got home, the document wouldn't open. In fact, this error message popped up.
After a fair amount of "Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh" and "I'm going to die," I tried to think rationally. Maybe logging onto my office's cloud would allow me to open it. Only I didn't have the link to the log in website. Time to text a coworker. After a fair amount of taunting, he gave me the information I needed.
Hopeful, I tried opening my book again.
Same error message. There may have been tears and hysterical screaming at this point.
Then my sister came up with a genius idea that ended up saving my life. I opened my book through Word Pad, then copied and pasted everything into Microsoft Word. IT WORKED!
...Except all my formatting is now screwed up. But I have my precious words back.
And you know what I did after this? Backed my book up on every technological piece of equipment I could get my hands on.
Which is what I should've done in the first place. So, my advice to you, wonderful readers, back everything (EVERYTHING!) up. You never know what might happen. And when it comes to your precious book?
It's always best to be prepared.
Tuesday, August 12, 2014
Plotting in Pants
Plotter or pantser, that is the question...
Okay, well I suppose the first question really is: What are plotters and pantsers?
Plotters are the prepared people in our world. They know exactly where they want their book to go and start the process by creating an outline. This all takes place before they even start writing.
Pantsers are a free spirited bunch, jumping in front of computer and working magic with their fingers. They've really no idea where the story is going to take them, but that's the fun of it! No plans, no destinations, just words, words, words!
Any of this sound familiar to you? Are you a pantser or a plotter? Or maybe you fall in the grey area in-between. I like to call this location Plotting in Pants (PiP).
As I've developed my writing, I've figured out the best method for me. In my first book (which I rarely mention to anyone out of sheer embarrassment), I was a hard core pantser. I wrote without a plan... And it was a disaster.
Albeit at this time I was learning how the whole writing thing worked. It was a dark period in my life where I thought adverbs were like salt on fries, to be used generously.
Not so much.
Because I know you're an understanding reader, I'll share the horrible first line of that book with you: "The bone-chilling water was absolutely excruciating." And what was my character doing? Jumping into a pool. An indoor pool. How cold could it seriously be? Not bone-chilling, for goodness' sake.
Ahem. Moving on.
So after that blunder, I thought I'd give plotting a go. For my next book, Bound, I plotted about half and then pants-ed (is that a word?) the rest. It went okay, but I wasn't entirely happy with the results.
Now for my third book, and current work in progress, I am making use of the my PiP method. I have outlined my entire book, only the outline isn't a prison, but more of a guide. I can't begin to tell you how helpful it's been when I've gotten stuck or forgotten where I want my story to go.
Which happens more often than I'd like to mention.
But, in the end, your writing process is entirely up to you. Different methods work for different people. As you grow and experience through creating your books, you'll find the right groove.
The important thing, as always, is to write.
Okay, well I suppose the first question really is: What are plotters and pantsers?
Plotters are the prepared people in our world. They know exactly where they want their book to go and start the process by creating an outline. This all takes place before they even start writing.
Pantsers are a free spirited bunch, jumping in front of computer and working magic with their fingers. They've really no idea where the story is going to take them, but that's the fun of it! No plans, no destinations, just words, words, words!
Any of this sound familiar to you? Are you a pantser or a plotter? Or maybe you fall in the grey area in-between. I like to call this location Plotting in Pants (PiP).
As I've developed my writing, I've figured out the best method for me. In my first book (which I rarely mention to anyone out of sheer embarrassment), I was a hard core pantser. I wrote without a plan... And it was a disaster.
Albeit at this time I was learning how the whole writing thing worked. It was a dark period in my life where I thought adverbs were like salt on fries, to be used generously.
Not so much.
Because I know you're an understanding reader, I'll share the horrible first line of that book with you: "The bone-chilling water was absolutely excruciating." And what was my character doing? Jumping into a pool. An indoor pool. How cold could it seriously be? Not bone-chilling, for goodness' sake.
Ahem. Moving on.
So after that blunder, I thought I'd give plotting a go. For my next book, Bound, I plotted about half and then pants-ed (is that a word?) the rest. It went okay, but I wasn't entirely happy with the results.
Now for my third book, and current work in progress, I am making use of the my PiP method. I have outlined my entire book, only the outline isn't a prison, but more of a guide. I can't begin to tell you how helpful it's been when I've gotten stuck or forgotten where I want my story to go.
Which happens more often than I'd like to mention.
But, in the end, your writing process is entirely up to you. Different methods work for different people. As you grow and experience through creating your books, you'll find the right groove.
The important thing, as always, is to write.