Nine Step Plotting For NaNoWriMo

Today's post is a post about how to outline your novel quickly and easily! Extremely quickly.

For the people who do not know, I am currently participating in NaNoWriMo, aka write 50k in a month. I'm only at 20k now, but I plan to pull several 'writing days' to get it done.

Why am I only at 20k? I forgot to outline and now have no idea what's happening next. Which inspired me to make a post on outlining!

STEP ONE: An idea. This can be anything from 'romance about a book lover and a book hater' to 'gnomes attempting to take over the world'. All you need is one or two sentences that will set up the plot.

STEP TWO: The problem. Perhaps the book lover and book hater keep fighting over whether books are good or bad, or the gnomes can be killed with chocolate chip cookies.

STEP THREE: The resolution. The book lover and book hater (I don't actually know how to happily resolve that one) break up and become much happier. The gnomes convince the world to like snickerdoodles (which are amazing) instead of chocolate chip cookies.

STEP FOUR: How to get to the resolution. One gnome starts a food blog and only posts recipes for cookies that aren't chocolate chip.

STEP FIVE: Resolution fleshing and beginning of characters. The gnome who starts the food blog will be named Shamil Raunor, sixteen, and lacking friends who like cooking. So why not start a blog? She won't know about the plan to take over the world (government officials only) but she, like all gnomes here, is allergic to chocolate chip cookies. So to make the book interesting before the take over the world plan is revealed, her parents will want her to be a doctor, not a chef. They will think the food blog is an act of rebellion and try to get her to shut it down.

STEP SIX: What will happen in each chapter? Try to do a problem per two chapters so you can have a mini-cliffhanger. However, the first chapter is usually good to just set up the characters and plot.

Chapter One: government meeting about taking over the world (very vague).

Chapter Two: set up Shamil and her life (relate it back to cooking somehow) (should have a conversation with her parents about being a chef).

Chapter Three: Shamil starts a food blog without her parents knowing. Shamil cooks some stuff and her parents get supsicus (everyone eats take out here).

Chapter Four: Shamil's parents remove the oven from their house. So she starts a new blog series on stuff you can make in a mircrowave.

Chapter Five: Shamil's blog becomes famous. Shamil finds her blog in many journals and ends up convincing a friend to cook.

Chapter Six: the government hears about this blog and posts a comment about doing cookie recipies.
Chapter Seven: Shamil can't bake. So she learns to fulfful the anyonmous comment's wishes.

Chapter Eight: Shamil's parents learn about this blog and shut it down. Shamil manages to start a new blog and leave a link to the new one on the old one.

Chapter Nine: the cookie recipies become a succuess. The government proceeds to invade.

Chapter Ten: Shamil's parents, which have wanted the gnomes to invade for aa while, decide they are for the blog after all.

BAM! Novel! All I would have to do is write it! And autcully, I have to flesh the characters....

STEP SEVEN: flesh the characters. Character questionaires and the Meyer-Briggs test are good for this.

STEP EIGHT: do all research you need to do. Research places, research races, research food, research cutltures, research techy stuff.

STEP NINE: write the book!

-Sarah

The Problem With Reading Book Samples

Hello, it is Sarah, back with another blog post. Today's post is about the problems with reading book samples, inspired by two book samples on Amazon: one has all 400 pages of the book, and the other one skips almost every page. Plus the book that can't tell you the second chapter, but can tell you the very last one, the ending. I hate you, Amazon.

3. When they stop the preview before the book gets good.

2.When they include the ending.


1. WHEN THEY INCLUDE THE WHOLE BOOK AS A SAMPLE.

Picture this: you're reading a sample for a book you want to buy. Five pages, and it isn't over. So you keep reading. Ten pages, and it isn't over. Fifty pages, and it isn't over. So you keep reading. You read to the very end of the preview and finish the book. You no longer need or want to buy the book. Amazon just lost a sale. Not only that, but the author lost a sale because of Amazon's stupidity.
Do you see the problem here?

-Sarah

The Problems With “Stay In Your Lane” Diversity

I'm thinking about writing (early stages of plotting), a book about teenagers from around the world who get selected to go to space. But the ship sinks, and they end up trying to survive in a submarine while exploring a planet.

Yep, it's very inspired by Subnatica. The similarities will get less and less however, as the plot thickens.

Now, in my research about trying to write characters from around the world with different life views and experiences, I stumbled upon some articles.

And what I found shocked me.

The article started by saying that is fine to write POC characters, but not as the MC. Harsh, but I understand. But darn, I guess that means my original main characters will have to be swapped with the (white) oringal side character.

As the article continued, it said that white people make POC characters the sidekick too often, and they need to have more of the focus for once. That conflicts with the previous point a little, but...actually I'm not sure how you can have a character that isn't an MC and isn't a side character.

Next, the article said that actually, white people should never write POC characters because we will never know what it's like, even with days and weeks and months of research, talking to people, and travel. Which I suppose means I have to kick those POC characters out of my book entirely and replace them with white people from around the world.

Problematic.

But thinking about it more, I realized that “life experiences” will apply to everything. With those rules, it means my book characters should become 10 white teens from Canada who are distantly francophone in a small town with short brown hair. They're all going to be white, straight, cisgender girls.

The article also said that say, Chinese characters should only write Chinese characters for the sake of “diversity”. No South African characters, because “that will make your book bad”. I find that just as problematic as my previous statement.

The article finished with a rant about how few books are diverse.

Is this truly the path to diversity?

-Sarah

Bilingualism and Synesthesia

Learning another language is like teaching yourself to have synesthesia. Teaching yourself to not only look at a strawberry and think:
"strawberry,"
but also think:
"fraise," "ichigo," 
No matter how many times I say I can speak French, it is a lie. I do not think in French. I think in English.    
I shall never be truly bilingual until I think strawberry, fraise, and ichigo interchangeably.

-Sarah

Differences Between YA and Middle-Grade

Hello, this is Sarah, and this post is on the differences between YA and middle-grade (MG). 
I'll just say one thing first: there are none. Well, practically none. 
But what actually divides young adult and middle grade?


Reason No. 2: Age (of Protagonists)

Age is important, as if you write two books, one featuring a twelve year old, one featuring a fifteen year old, each book discussing the same topics, etc. Essentially, the same book but with age of protagonists switched. The first book, the one about the 12 year old, will most likely be labeled MG. The second book has high chances of being labeled YA. 


Reason No. 1: Content 

However, age isn't the most important factor. That honor goes to content. A book labeled MG will probably not be packed with swear words and sex scenes/references. A book labeled YA will mostly likely not be about crushes or first kiss, and so on. 


However, at the end of the day, there are few lines between middle grade and young adult. There is no difference in story quality, neither of them are going to be bad just because the book is YA/MG. 

-Sarah


Links
http://thelearnedfangirl.com/2017/04/there-is-a-difference-between-middle-grade-and-young-adult-lit-and-it-does-matter/
http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/the-key-differences-between-middle-grade-vs-young-adult

YA Recommendations Part One

Hello! Today I am recommending YA books. I will state what I like about the book and what I didn't like about it. These are arranged in random order.

Calvin is a book about a kid whose diagnosed with schizophrenia, Calvin (the kid), decides the best way to deal with this is to cross Lake Erie in January, to find the creator of Calvin and Hobbes who has become a hermit. 
The author sucks you into Calvin's mind, where it all make sense. Calvin's hallucinations make sense, joyriding in cars on frozen Lake Erie makes sense, Hobbes (like Hobbes from Calvin and Hobbes) is alive, real, and hungry. It all makes sense. 
This book mentions quite a bit of stuff from Calvin and Hobbes, so it's best to read after reading Calvin and Hobbes. 
Author: Martine Leavitt 
Rating: Four stars

Turtles All The Way Down is about Aza. This book focuses on three things a) the disappearance of a billionaire, b) Davis Pickett, because this is a John Green novel, and c) Anxiety and mortality. 

This book also sucks you into the mind of Aza, and John Green did such a good job with the anxiety this book will literally make you anxious, warning. 

Plus Daisy, Aza's best friend , is complete nerd. Five hundred percent. Not only is she a fanfiction writer, she speaks the language of the Wookies. 

This book is so delightfully weird, fortunes are left to reptiles, people speak Wookie, and somehow the main characters end up getting years worth of coupons. 

Author: John Green

Rating: Five stars

Eleanor and Park is..I don't know how to describe it. But it's a masterpiece and you should read it. 

It takes place in the 80s and it seems so much like a time machine.

It is a romance that you will most likely enjoy even if you do not like romances.

It will make you cry...probably.

Eleanor and Park's friendship (yes they can be friends and dating) is based around comics and music, unlike other characters in romance novels, who are dating but barely know each other.

Author: Rainbow Rowell

Rating: Five stars

What are you waiting for? Go read these amazing books! 

-Sarah

The True, You Can't See The Elephants Book Mini Review.

A while ago I posted a rant on a book I found about child abuse. It didn't really count as a review, so today I (mini) review You Can't See The Elephants. 
I didn't add that many more points but I decided it would be better than reading a rant.

"When thirteen-year-old Mascha is sent to her grandparents' for the summer, she spends her days bored and lonely at a nearby playground. There she meets Julia and Max, two young siblings who are incredibly shy and withdrawn. Mascha soon begins to suspect that they are being physically abused by their father, a prominent member of their small community. She tells her grandparents and the authorities, but they all refuse to believe her."

PROS OF THIS BOOK

-Not many middle grade books deal with child abuse.

-Julia and Max's response was believable.

CONS OF THIS BOOK

-Mascha literally tells everyone she knows. Now, they've always know that Julia and Max are abused, but none of them want to do anything about it. 

-Mascha is left with no other choice but to kidnap Julia and Max (according to the book)

-You don't root for Mascha, Mascha causes the effect like when you're reading a book where the protagonist is an antihero. 

-Sarah