The post 287 Aristotle for Novelists – Principles on the Art of Story with Douglas Vigliotti appeared first on Sacha Black.

It’s that time of the year again, as the Northern hemisphere slips into the burnt orange hues of autumn and the Southern hemisphere whips out its sparkly hot pants ready for spring, writers around the world receive their annual knicker-twitch. It’s time to dig deep, feel the burn, polish off the whiskey in brazen midnight flurries of word vomit and author tears. NaNoWriMo is back bitches. But how to prepare? NaNoWriMo is a towering Everest. A giant fire breathing dragon. How the hell does one write 50,000 words in a month anyway? Fear not young wordsmith, I am here to help. This is 6 ways to prepare for NaNoWriMo.

Way 1: Up the Ante with your Craft Learning

Hear ye, hear ye, there’s never been a better time to brush up your craft skills. We all know NaNoWriMo is fueled by the food poisoning of writing. It’s a race to see who can purge their author-guts the fastest and get as many words down as possible. There’s no time to stop and edit, no time to polish. So then, it makes sense to brush up before you start NaNo, to ensure your craft —even when you’re churning out the words—is as good as it can be.

I have the perfect polisher for you.

I’ve just launched The Anatomy of Prose The Senses course. The first in an on going series of craft courses designed to help you write better stories, characters and descriptions.

What will you learn?

• You’ll discover the pillars of all good sensory writing and how to implement them in your own work.
• You’ll learn the psychology behind sensory descriptions, how to use psychology to your advantage and the impact it has on the reader.
• You’ll receive a detailed breakdown of how to create rich descriptions for each individual sense.
• You’ll learn when you should and shouldn’t use each sense.
• You’ll get a raft of tools, tips, tricks and techniques to help you improve all five senses.
• You’ll identify why published examples of sensory description work and how to use the same techniques in your own work.
• You’ll understand the mistakes many writers make with the senses and how to fix them.
• You’ll receive course exercises to put lessons into practice.

Find out more about The Senses course

Way 2: Sprint Those Words, Baby!

NaNoWriMo Bootcamp hosted by Daniel Willcocks is a team effort. Don’t be alone this NaNoWriMo. Work in a virtual office with other fellow NaNoers. Together you’ll set the timer, sprint till your fingers bleed and then go at it all over again. NaNoWriMo Bootcamp is a twice-weekly gathering of fired-up writers all with one singular goal: to SMASH 50,000 words in 30 days.

Guided by international bestselling author, Daniel Willcocks, this 30-day Boot Camp guarantees to hold your feet to the fire and get that book written in time for NaNoWriMo—at least the first draft, anyway.

Join NaNoWriMo Bootcamp

Way 3: Connect with NaNo Buddies

No one will deny that doing NaNoWriMo is fifty shades of brutal. It’s one thing to write a book, but to write it in 30 days is quite the feat. Support is vital if you want to reach the finish line. Having friends, fellow writers and NaNoers to help you celebrate and push you on during those tricky days can be the difference between hitting 5 words and 50,000 words.

Ask your friends to connect with you, to “buddy” up and invite them to join you on the NaNoWriMo website.

You can find my profile here.

Way 4: Top up Your Craft Book Collection

Kevin J Anderson has curated an ENORMOUS bundle of craft, marketing and business books. In fact, this StoryBundle has a whopping 17 books in it and a course worth $150.

For StoryBundle, you decide what price you want to pay. For $5 (or more, if you’re feeling generous), you’ll get the basic bundle of five books in any ebook format—WORLDWIDE.

• The 5 Day Novel by Scott King
• Stop Worrying; Start Writing by Sarah Painter
• The Well-Presented Manuscript by Mike Reeves-McMillan
• Simply Synopsis by Michelle Somers
• Business for Breakfast Vol. 13: NaNoWriMo for the Rest of Us by Leah Cutter

If you pay at least the bonus price of just $20, you get all five of the regular books, plus ELEVEN more books and a $150 video class!

• WMG Publishing Presents: How Can Your Business Survive the Downturn? by Dean Wesley Smith
• Turning Setbacks into Opportunity by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
• Essoe’s Guides to Writing Action Sequences and Sex Scenes by Joshua Essoe (two books in one!)
• Audio for Authors by Joanna Penn
• The In(s) and Out(s) of Series and Story Guides by C. Michelle Jefferies
• Mastering Amazon Descriptions by Brian D. Meeks
• Writing Better Fiction by Brent Nichols
• Killer Subject Lines by Andrea Pearson
• 13 Steps to Evil: How to Craft Superbad Villains by Sacha Black
• 10 Steps to Hero: How to Craft a Kickass Protagonist by Sacha Black
• The Nifty 15 by Honorée Corder and Brian D. Meeks

Tell me more about the StoryBundle

If you only want one or two books, then here are four of the craft books that have had the biggest impact on my writing.

The Emotion Thesaurus and The Emotional Wound Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi 

These thesauri are exceptional. They give you ideas and suggestions for how to show rather than tell emotions. Ways to connect theme to your hero’s wounds and flaws. Methods of digging deeper and looking at body language and long term effects of sustained emotions. They are truly phenomenal.

Get the Emotion Thesaurus at: Kobo, Apple, Amazon UK, Amazon USA

Get the Wound Thesaurus at: Kobo, Apple, Amazon UK, Amazon USA

The Emotional Craft of Fiction by Donald Maass

This book changed the way I look at emotion in fiction. The thesauri are fantastic for showing emotion, but this book took my emotional writing to a deeper level. It gave me insight into humanity’s relationship with emotions and how to push characterization to a deeper level using emotion.

Get the Emotional Craft of Fiction at: Kobo, Apple, Amazon UK, Amazon USA

The Anatomy of Prose by Sacha Black

This book I wrote, but the learnings inside changed the way I write forever. The book focuses on sentence level craft, giving you a raft of tips and tricks to help you improve your descriptions, dialogue, characterization and more. If you like dark humor, learning through examples and want to create perfect prose, then you’ll love this book.

Click here to read The Anatomy of Prose

Way 5: For the Outliners

Look, I know everyone gets stroppy over the great plot-pants debate. But guys, it really doesn’t matter whether you plot, pants or stumble like a bumbling drunk through the weeds of your novel. What matters is that you get to the end. That said, I’ve got some useful tips for both camps.

For the outliners, I love Libbie Hawker’s method of outlining. If you don’t want to buy the book, then start with this cracking and mind-blowing episode of The Rebel Author podcast where I grill Libbie all about how to outline better.

She has some fantastic tips that help you outline more effectively. She also dishes out some tasty tricks to help those who, like me, get stuck part way through their outlines.

If you’re not an audio girl, then try reading K.M. Weiland’s 10-part blog series on outlining or her 12-part series on structuring your novel. She has some fantastic graphics and timelines that help you plot out that story to perfection.

Way 6: For the Writer Who Writes into the Dark

For those that don’t like to outline but trip off the high of “who the fuck knows” while they write, I recommend a couple of things. First up, there’s a great book I read by Dean Wesley Smith a few years ago called Write into The Dark. It gives you some home truths and some great tips for when you hit stumbling blocks.

Get Write into the Dark at: Kobo, Apple, Amazon UK, Amazon USA

Next, if you don’t fancy reading, then my biggest tip is to create an inspiration bucket. For example, I often create playlists to write to. You can find a playlist of music I wrote my first book, Keepers, to on Apple Music. The reason I did it is because sometimes having music can help jog your ideas. It helps keep you in the “mood” and mindset of your story.

Listen here

If you’re not into music, then how about making some aesthetics to remind you of the mood and feeling of your story? I use Canva and choose two colors I want to represent my story. Then I find images that best suit or match the feeling, atmosphere, locations and characters. I sometimes print them and hang them up or use them as phone or computer backgrounds and go back to them anytime I’m stuck.

The aesthetic on the left is from the novel I’m currently working on, The Scent of Death.

Please note, I do use affiliate links. This means that should you choose to purchase something based off my recommendations, I will earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. These things help feed my coffee addiction! Also note I only recommend things I personally use and love.

The post 6 Ways to Prepare for NaNoWriMo appeared first on Sacha Black.

Sentient.

I’m telling you.

Those little story critters know exactly what their doing. Lulling us into a false sense of security and then when we’re balls deep into the flabby middle, they slap us upside the head with something so good, we can’t ignore it. Tyrants. Heathens. Thou cullionly idle-headed hedge-pigs!

And so, the plot is messed up, the timeline fudged and your brain a crockpot of drafts, twists, confused dialogue and stroppy characters.

What to do?

Here’s a quick tip to help you beat those little darlings back into shape.

The reason why most of us get confused when a left field twist appears at an inconvenient time, is because the timeline is inevitably bumfuckled. Subplots need pulling out, crunching up, shredding and peppering back into the right place. But if your plot is even remotely complicated that is no easy task. After all, it’s why you wrote an outline from the start.

So. Here’s my quick tip:

Ingredients

1. Obscenely large paper (or normal bits stuck together)
2. Post its (in a variety of colours), or if you don’t own post its (WHY NOT, YOU STATIONERY HEATHENS?) coloured pens for differentiation purposes.
3. Your brain (if an introverted thinker)
4. Or if an extroverted thinker – another person if you have one available. If not, try kidnapping, bribery or blackmail.

Method

Take each chapter in chronological order, and talk (or think) through every point that happens in that chapter, then write it down. Go in chronological order, from start to finish.

On your bits of paper, use each column (vertically) to represent your chapter. Each key point from a subplot should be colour coded:

This is so you can:

a) see how your subplots move through the story

b) whether or not you have a gap

c) and if they’re rounded off nicely.

Keep going until you hit the final chapter. Once there, review each coloured subplot for the above points. Then review your entire story, notes, text or info you’re holding in your head to look for gaps – you would be amazed how easy it is to leave things unfinished.

There we have it. One super quick tip to untangle plot problems.

What methods do you guys use to work out your plot issues?

If you liked this post, why not get even more awesome writing tips in the book 13 Steps To Evil – How to Craft Superbad Villains. Click this link and just tap the logo of your device or regular bookshop and it will take you to the right page. You can also get a FREE villains cheatsheet by joining my mailing list just click here.

Read Keepers, the first book in my Young Adult fantasy series now. Or to hear more about the release of the sequels as well as get regular CogMail updates you can do so here.

You can also find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Goodreads

The post Untangle Plot Problems With This Quick Tip #MondayBlogs #amwriting appeared first on Sacha Black.

Which is why, when I first started writing, I knew without hesitation I was a plotter. Except that I really wasn’t. I tried to plot my way through to finishing a novel and I couldn’t.

Plotting led to me drowning myself in cliches: balled up scraps of paper littered my living room, my laptop screen lay barer than the sahara and enough empty coffee cups loitered on my table to waken even the most exhausted mother. I was blocked.

In the end I threw my rigid-frigid-plotting rule book in the fuck it bucket and NaNo’d the shit out of November 2014. Victory was mine. I finished off the manuscript triumphant. I was a fucking writer at last. The arrogance did not last. After a 3 month break I picked up the manuscript and nearly paper machè myself a coffin out of it. It was worse than finding a maggot in your apple.

Right there. That was the moment I knew then I had to find a way to prevent myself from ever having to re-write anything again.

So I have amassed X different methods to outlining and made suggestions as to how you can use them as a pantser. A few too many for one post – so as is becoming a habit lately, I’ve split them over more than one post.

Before I start, Rowena needs a quick mention. She recalled something fascinating she heard in a seminar. She said that pantsers end up re-writing and editing for much longer than plotters. But plotters end up unable to create enough mood and atmosphere.

What do you think? I’m a pantser and ended up having to re-write my manuscript. What are you and how true do you think that statement is? Let me know in the comments. 

Method ONE – Chapter Outlines

I was forced into plotting half way through my second draft. When I realised it was going to end in a cluster fuck if I didn’t work out the plot twists.

This method does what it says on the tin. Literally. You write down notes for each chapter. Key action, any bits of conversation that need to happen, any twists or foreshadowing you need to include.

Good for Plotters: Because you have an outline for every single chapter you want to write.

Good for Pantsers: Because you can add as much or as little detail to each chapter as needed. You can even leave chapters blank or just use one word.

Method TWO – 7 Point Party

Dan Wells, author of Partials among other books, is infamous for using the 7 Point Plot Plan. I am sure others have used, but I found it through his lecture series, (shared below) so your stuck with me talking about it like it’s his creation.

Like the 3 Point Plot Plan, there are only seven sentences. Course, if you want to pad, then make it 7 paragraphs or you could don your best plotter lab coat and write a page for each point. The main structuring tactic here, is to work backwards…

Good for Plotters: Because it hits every key point in a novel, giving structure to your books pivotal moments before you start.

Good for Pantsers: Because you only have to write 7 sentences if you don’t want to expand. Leaving stacks of room for spontaneity while writing, but enough detail on the key points you don’t fuck shit up by killing a darling that needs to live. It’s also flexible enough you can pad it out when you want to.

Hook – (Do this 2nd) If you managed to note your ending without breaking out in plottery hives, then the hook is easy. The start of a book is generally the opposite to the ending. Take Stephen King’s Shawshank Redemption – At the start he’s trapped in prison, at the end he’s free… oops… should have said, spoiler alert.

Plot Turn 1 – (Do this 4th) Your books jollying along nicely, everyone’s happy and BAM, conflict/problem/world ending disaster fucks shit up for your hero. This sets your characters on the the hook to the midpoint

Pinch 1 – (Do this 6th) Conflict got shoved in earlier and now you get to rub your evil authorly hands together and make shit a lot harder for your hero. Apply pressure, use the villain.

Midpoint – (Do this 3rd) The mid point is pivotal not just because you’re half way through your blood sweat and tears journey but because your characters move from reaction, to action. Of course it doesn’t need to be the actual middle, it could be 30 or 70% of the way through but wherever it is, its a change in the characters that moves from the villain driving the plot to the protagonist driving it.

Pinch 2 – (Do this last) This is the fun bit, you do your absolute worst and beat your hero with the villain stick while cackling and drinking a GnT. Screw shit up so bad for your hero that everything seems utterly hopeless. The villain’s clearly guna win cause he defeated the hero in on battle already and left the hero.

Plot Turn 2  – (Do this 5th) This is where your hero has an epiphany, solves the final clue or sets sail for an epic battle. It’s the point in your novel that moves you from midpoint to ending.

Resolution – (START HERE) Every word you bleed onto the page leads to the ending. With the exception of hooking people in at the start, its the most critical part of any book. Even as a pantser I have a general idea of how I want my story to end. Note it down first.

You can see the first part of Dan Wells’ 5 part lecture series on this system here:

Method THREE – 3 Point Party

Just like the 7 Point Plot Plan, this could only require three sentences for your entire outline. Or you could extend each one into a paragraph or a page.

Quite simply, a sentence about your beginning, another about the ending and one covering the middle.

Good for Plotters: Actually, this one probably isnt comprehensive enough for a true plotter. But it does at least have a beginning, middle and end noted down with the potential for expanding them.

Good for Pantsers: Because it’s the ultimate quick tool. You have your outline in three quick sentences. There’s enough freedom to vomit words and just enough structure you know what to do to get from the beginning to the middle and the middle to the end.

That’s it for this week. Next week I’ll cover:

The Snowflake method, visual writers methods of outlining, equipment and contextual outlining among others.

If you liked this post, why not sign up for more just like it straight to your mailbox. Sign up here.

The post Master The Outline – 12 Methods For Plotters & Pantsers – Part I appeared first on Sacha Black.

Today the lovely Icy Sedgwick, who came to the Bloggers Bash 2016 is talking to us about an area of her expertise: gothic stories. Icy is studying a PhD in film studies looking at space in haunted houses, so she really does know a thing or two about this.

If you want to know some neat little tricks to perfecting gothic tales, check out Icy’s tips below:

You can find Gothic stories in some form or another right through history. But as a genre, you have to go to 1764 to find the first novel, Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto. Since then, Gothic has given us Frankenstein and his Creature, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Dorian Gray, Dracula, Melmoth the Wanderer, Lord Ruthven, Sweeney Todd, and many more.

It’s never really gone away, though its popularity goes up and down depending on the society of the time. It’s had a recent boom in interest through the ‘dreadpunk’ genre, spawned from TV shows like Penny Dreadful, and Stranger Things brought a taste of the Gothic to Netflix.

It’s a really fun genre (well to write, not necessarily to read), and it is well worth having a go if you’re into all things dark, spooky, or just not-quite-right.

There are loads of characteristics to the Gothic as a genre, but what 3 things make an awesome Gothic story if you’re just starting out?

ONE – INTERESTING SPACES

Space is crucial to the Gothic. On one hand, you’ve got your stereotypical crumbling castles, isolated manor houses, and creaky cabins in the wood. On the other hand, you’ve got dilapidated apartments in modern cities, suburban duplexes and even hospitals.

In some ways, it’s even creepier if the weird stuff happens somewhere totally normal. It can also be funnier – see What We Do In The Shadows (2014).

Think of the spaces as being the world building you’d do in fantasy or sci fi. What does it look like? Sound like? Smell like? Is there an atmosphere?

And think smaller. Look at the parts of the building. A haunting might affect the whole building, but it’ll always start in one particular room. Is there a weird stairwell in a block of flats? A cupboard no one will use?

Look at your own life. Everyone has a space they never liked, but couldn’t figure out why. I still don’t like walking under our loft hatch on the upstairs landing.

In The Skeleton Key (2005), Kate Hudson’s character finds a locked room in the attic. In The Conjuring (2013), clues hide in the wall spaces, as well as the basement. Ghostwatch (1992) made good use of the cupboard under the stairs.

Those spaces are the ones where the magic happens.

TWO – BURIED SECRETS

Spaces are super important to our next element – the buried secret. You need somewhere to put it, right?

Whether it’s a portrait in the attic, a long lost twin, a torture chamber under the stairs, or a skeleton bricked up in the outhouse, your story needs a buried secret. It doesn’t have to be literally buried, just hidden in some way.

At their heart, Gothic narratives are about investigating a mystery. The classic stories often feature heroines prying into locked rooms, or exploring winding corridors. Jane Austen even parodied the Gothic novels of Ann Radcliffe in her own Northanger Abbey (1817).

More recently, you have characters investigating the history of a house to explain a haunting. In The Others (2001), a photograph in a servant’s room unlocked the mystery. Even in Poltergeist (1982), there are buried secrets – quite literally under the house!

You don’t need skeletons to burst through the floor, but you do need your characters to make some kind of discovery.

The heroes want to uncover the secret, and the villains want to keep it hidden. Check out Stir of Echoes (1999) for this concept put very, very literally. And speaking of villains…

THREE – MONSTERS – FIGURATIVE AND LITERAL

You need villains. They nearly always take the form of a monster, but that’s not to say they should be Boris Karloff clones.

Gothic literature (and later, cinema) has given us some of the best monsters in popular culture. Frankenstein’s Creature, Dracula, the Wolf Man – there would be no Supernatural or Buffy the Vampire Slayer without them.

You’ve really got three kinds of monsters.

The accidental monster

This is your Wolf Man, or your Creature. Ghosts sometimes fall into this category, especially if they died at the hands of someone else.

The monster didn’t ever intend to be that way. They’re sympathetic in a lot of ways, but essentially they still have to be destroyed by the end of the story.

The intentional monster

Think Dracula. They’re out for what they can get, and the hero/heroine is about to get in their way. But the monster doesn’t always have to be an obvious thing. A lot of people argue that the house in Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House (1959) is the real monster of the story.

The figurative monster

These are the monsters who aren’t the ones who hide under your bed. Vincent Price’s Witchfinder General or Hannibal Lecter are good examples. The Gothic isn’t just about monsters and demons. At its heart, it’s about the battle between darkness and light. It’s often referred to as the primitive opposed with the civilised.

So how does your figurative monster represent the primitive?

No matter which monster you choose, just remember that whatever they want is just as important as whatever the hero wants. It’s the conflict between those competing desires that creates the tension.

Putting it all together

So now you’ve thought of your fascinating space. You have to figure out how to isolate it from its surroundings. Maybe you’ve picked an apartment building, and your heroine is a new tenant who doesn’t know anyone yet. Look at The Shining (1977) – the Overlook is literally cut off in the winter when the snow comes.

Think up the backstory for your space. How does it relate to the villain? What did they do there, or what do they want to do there?

Now you have your space, you understand its history, and it’s cut off in some way. What are you going to hide in it? Choose something logical but maybe choose an out of the way hiding spot. It’s rare that a Gothic heroine finds herself investigating a kitchen (unless you find Zuul living in your refrigerator).

So how does your secret tie to your monster? And what will the monster do when the heroine starts investigating?

Eeek the tension!

I hope you’ve found this helpful, and that you’re going to have a go at writing a Gothic story! Remember, atmosphere is everything, and you don’t need to add gore unless you want to.

Happy Haunting!

About Icy

Icy Sedgwick is a writer, as well as Gothic Studies scholar specialising in Film. She blogs about folklore and speculative fiction here because it gives her an excuse to poke around in old graveyards! If you enjoy weird tales of ghosts and goddesses, you can get a free copy of her Harbingers: Dark Tales of Speculative Fiction short story collection here. Find her on Twitter @IcySedgwick or drop her a line at icy@icysedgwick.com.

The post 3 Things You Need To Create The Perfect Gothic Story With @Icysedgwick appeared first on Sacha Black.

Sixteen was this magical creature where suddenly I would be grown up and allowed to do lots of things. I’d be a ‘real’ teenager. Sixteen came and went, and then eighteen arrived and before I blinked I was twenty-one. By the time I was twenty-five, I realised I’d made a heinous fucking mistake.

Adulthood is the equivalent of being slapped daily with a decomposing Kipper infested with rabies. My life was filled with a suburban nightmare, bills, a work monotony that could make paint drying seem like the Oscars and a side order of fuck my life.

Peter Pan syndrome rapidly kicked in. I wanted to be a child forever. I rebelled against the rules, had a bit of a break down, got very fucking drunk, had my skin inked and then bitch slapped the sense back in. I had to tell myself:

That magical envelope was not going to fly down my chimney and whisk me off to wizarding school, neither would Edward Cullen fall in love with me and make me immortal, and sadly, I had neither angel nor demon blood, so I wasn’t a shadow hunter either.

I spiralled into an intensely primal binge fest of YA fiction and TV series and then I had an epiphany. If I wrote it, I could live it.

But understanding the differences between Middle Grade (MG), Young Adult (YA) and New Adult (NA) fiction is easier said than done.

Now, before you read this, let me make a caveat: I am not a publisher, nor (unfortunately) am I J.K. Rowling. I am just a lowly writer, reader and lover of YA stories.

Some time ago, I promised a two-part series on sex in YA and MG and NA fiction. I will deliver but those posts are still in research. First, I wanted to define the differences.

Way back when I was still in nappies, and drooling over a hot milk and mush, there was only MG and YA fiction. NA fiction is a relatively new appearance. But even my mum knows, if you want a publisher you need to know your market. So understanding what NA is, is vital.

MIDDLE GRADE

Shorter than traditional fiction and ranging somewhere around the 25K – 50K word count.

Like me as a child, reader ages are ALWAYS younger than the protagonist. Kids are idiots. They want to grow up which is what makes pitching the themes and content such a sticky topic.

Readers are 9-12.

These kids and characters alike are pre teen, they are just beginning to find themselves. Which means the topics and themes in the books need to be pre teen too.

For example, school issues, bullying, friendships, difficulties at home, parents, fitting in, sibling rivalry and family conflict.

The books generally have short chapters, parents remain an integral influence in stories, occasionally there are still small illustrations, love is kept to a minimum, although in some modern books there are ‘first kisses’ and young love and there doesn’t tend to be much violence. Although, who am I to forget some of my favourite childhood books like Goosebumps.

They tend to have more basic language and few if any subplots.

YOUNG ADULT

Is marginally shorter than traditional fiction but more and more often now sits at the lower end of a normal novel length. Depending on where you pitch the books age range, the length could be anything from:

Protagonists can be any age that encompasses teenager! 13 up to about 17.

Readers are 13+ up to about 17.

Themes are understandably older like finding oneself and ones role in life, tragedy, loss, difficult choices, sacrifice, relationships, first love, identity, becoming an adult.

These books are grittier than MG books, often mimicking adult styling, such as subplots, adult language and some violence, sex and the occasional cuss. Except that the pace, is almost always fast.

These novels are real, representing real stories and real issues that teenagers feel. If there is even a hint of patronisation your book will get chucked on every teens slush pile never to be opened again.

The majority of YA novels are about ‘coming of age’.

NEW ADULT

Is effectively a book for younger adults, and the word count range is reflected accordingly: 60K-85K.

Protagonists 17 – 25

Readers – now this is where I will deviate from the accepted norm. Traditionally this is for readers aged 18 to mid twenties. However, like with most things in growing up and with the other genres, kids read above their age. At 16 I would have and did pick up books for adults (or what would now be known as NA fiction). Personally, I feel like the readers are more likely to be 16+ with the majority being 18+.

BUT, and this comes from snippets of quotes I have read  from literary agents. NA is NOT just YA with sex. It is an older target market with older protagonists. Think back to 17,  I am sure you were totally different four years later at 21. Those differences in thought pattern, emotional intelligence, decision making. All need to be reflected in your characters.

It’s the whole, ‘shit I’m legally an adult and have to deal with bills and crap,’ realisation whilst knowing deep down you’re still a teenybopper who doesn’t want to do their uni work on a Friday night when it’s pound a pint. You get the picture.

Themes: Independence, learning to be independent, experiencing the difficulties of being independent. Being an adult for the first time with adult responsibilities (looking after ones self, a house, bills etc) without having a mum and dad to fall back on. Experiencing adulthood without the emotional capability to deal with it yet. Looking to adult life, relationships, careers etc whilst trying to figure out what the fuck being an adult and specifically ‘their version of an adult’ means.

On a different note… I am taking a pause on the blog. My posts will be a little slower for a few months, my comments which I already take an age to respond to, will take me that bit longer. I will reply to every one, but it may take me a few days.

Why am I slowing down? Because, I owe it to myself to finish my books. Whilst I am working on them in the background, it’s not the pace I would like. As much as this physically pains me, (and it really does) I have to accept that I do actually need some sleep! I hope you will stick with me even though I will be a little slack.

Thoughts? What do you think the differences are between the genres? What good books have you read in each genre?

The post Understanding YA, NA and MG – A Writers Bible appeared first on Sacha Black.

I listened to the advice you gave on what I should do next, which was… Nothing – Lock the manuscript in a dark cupboard and throw away the key for months. I did. Sort of. I may have peaked at the first few chapters.

That was a mistake.

It was of course, total shit. More than shit, I wouldn’t have wiped my butt cheeks with it. Seriously. I may have cried, ok, I didn’t cry. But I did shed some tears on the inside. All those months of sweat and tapping, for what? A massive steaming pile of turd. A twitch formed on my eyelid as a heady mix of panic and fear set in. How was I ever going to rectify this mess? I hated editing. I can’t do detail and didn’t know a comma from a bloody apostrophe. So how I was ever going to be a writer? I was blocked. Big Time.

Then, I had a realisation.

Editing, isn’t just editing.

I read an interesting (and well-timed) article this week from a woman called Joan Dempsey, in it she described two types of writers.

The – vomit on the page must get the story out on paper at all costs even if it’s a pile of shit – writers

AND

The – I can’t possibly write past a missing comma in this sentence, everything needs to be perfect in my first draft – writers.

I am most definitely the former. I spew out word vomit faster than the speed of light, without a care in the world for grammar, spellings or beauty. It’s ugly, but its out of my head.

The point is, whichever camp you fall into, you will approach editing in a different way. The latter – the edit as you go types – will have less of a task when it comes to their first revision. They may find things that still don’t work, chapters that need to move,  but what they have is probably more fluent with less mistakes than the first group of writers who might have a draft completed quickly but its choc full of problems.

So what do you do?

Well, you don’t edit that’s for sure.

You revise.

I know, I know, it sounds the same. Apparently it’s not. The first step of editing isn’t actually editing at all. It’s revising. Especially if you fall into the first camp.

What’s the difference? Quite a lot so I’ve learnt.

Revising is sorting out the big picture, it’s:

• Making sure your story flows
• The pace and structure are right
• The characters are perfected with the right depth
• You have a hook
• Ensuring all the subplots are story lines are rounded off at the end

Editing is sorting out the detail, it’s:

• Checking grammar
• Punctuation and typos
• Checking for consistencies and continuity
• Its correcting formatting errors

I’m a visual person, so I made a visual – Clearly there are things that overlap, they are in essence part and parcel of one process.

If you’re intending on working with a professional editor, then there will be dozens of types of edits you could have, from developmental edits, to line edits, and everything in between. If you are paying for it, choose carefully. But I am only at the beginning of this process, and despite what I thought, I’m not even at the editing stage yet! I’m revising.

Changing the way I saw editing, completely removed the block I had.

It meant I was no longer terrified to pick up my manuscript. I could attack the second draft with the same force I attacked the first one; hacking it to pieces and this time crafting something that looked more like a story instead of a turd.

Are you afraid of editing? Which kind of writer are you? The vomit crap on the page kind, or the snails pace perfectionist? Let me know in the comments below.

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The post Everything You Need To Know BEFORE You Start To Edit appeared first on Sacha Black.

It got me thinking about just how similar being a parent is to being a writer. Here’s why:

ONE

I love my son unconditionally – even when he’s been naughty.

I love my WIP unconditionally – even when it’s been naughty and won’t finish a scene or keeps changing things

TWO

My son is extremely unpredictable – apparently he already has a mind of his own

My WIP is extremely unpredictable – it is prone to change its mind suddenly, adding an unexpected twist or killing off an entire character mid scene

THREE

My son drives me to insanity – when he doesn’t know the right words to tell me whats wrong

My WIP drives me to insanity – constantly when it halts suddenly in the middle of a scene and refuses to tell me how it ends and all I can do is sit and wait patiently until it decides to play ball

FOUR

My son exhausts me – keeping me up in the middle of the night

My WIP exhausts me – keeping me up in the middle of the night either writing it, or waking me up having thought of ideas

FIVE

I am extremely proud of my son – every time he does something new or smiles, or breathes for that matter!

I am extremely proud of my WIP – writing novels is hard work, and I am really proud to say that I amongst my crazy life I still find time to write actual novels

SIX

My son costs a shit load of money!

My WIP costs a shit load of money – I buy software and dozens of ‘how to write books’ thinking it will help me write better, not to mention the obsessive notebook collection I have going or the expensive research field trips!

SEVEN

My son makes me repeat myself constantly – ‘eat with your mouth closed, it’s YES not yeah, don’t pull the cats ear…’

My WIP makes me repeat myself constantly – remember those pesky crutch words I spoke about? in the secret to the quickest edit you can do? There are just some words that I can’t help but repeat!

EIGHT

My son makes me shout at him – when he’s been very very naughty like when I picked him up from the childminder the other day and he bonked another kid on the head and then tried to bite his leg!

My WIP makes me shout at it – in frustration when it won’t play ball or it made me write something silly AGAIN, or tricked me and made me rewrite a chapter for the 5th time.

NINE

My son needs a lot of attention – he needs love, and kindness and story time.

My WIP needs a lot of attention – spent tapping away mindlessly at the keyboard, or hours researching or editing.

TEN

My son is a cause for celebration – the first time he walked, his first word… hopefully his first poo on a potty!

My WIP is a cause for celebration – and toasting the end of the first draft – the end of the first edit… hopefully one day…publication?!

If you’re a parent – how does your WIP compare to parenthood? Or if you’re not a parent – what does your WIP do to you?

This marks the last day of NaNo – if you participated – did you win? Was your target 50K? 

Next week, because NaNo is over I’m back to normal posts deconstructing the writing process see you then

The post 10 Reasons Why Being A Writer is Like Being A Parent appeared first on Sacha Black.

Can anyone tell me a blockbuster famous novel they have read with a main character that was either gay or lesbian? Don’t worry, I’ll wait whilst you scratch your head to think… still haven’t thought of one? No. Me neither. Anyone else got an issue with that? Because I really do.

Statistics vary, but it is said that the LGBT population is anywhere from 6-10% of the population. So why, doesn’t LGBT fiction make up 6-10% of mainstream fiction or even 6-10% of mainstream characters? Just where are all the LGBT characters in mainstream books?

The first time I read about a gay character was in Bookends, by Jane Green. She’s a fantastic chick flick writer, but the character was a minor character (a gay male) and cliched, in a bad way. He had HIV. Ugh. Really? Come on, aren’t we over that stereotype by now?

Don’t get me wrong, there are some extraordinarily talented writers that are writing about LGBT characters, I have featured a couple on here: James Howell, and I wrote about that book, over on Ula’s blog the other day. There’s also the critically acclaimed V.G Lee, Michael Harwood, and recently featured Anne Goodwin, then there’s also Kiki Archer, who is obscenely funny (I’ve seen her read an excerpt from her book Too Late… I Love You) and Paul Burston who wrote The Gay Divorcee and also happens to run an amazing Polari literary group in London for LGBT authors.  All these authors are successful in my eyes with bags of talent and genuinely brilliant novels and more importantly make money from their books.

Maybe I am being a little facetious. I did just give you an awesome list of books, and the quantity of LGBT books being published is beginning to grow exponentially.

There is a rather exciting bookshop in Kings Cross, called Gays the Word. If you’re ever in Kings Cross with a few minutes to spare, check it out, and feast your eyes upon an entire bookshop FULL of LGBT fiction. It ONLY sells LGBT fiction. My jaw about hit the floor when I discovered it. If you haven’t read an LGBT book before then it’s a must do pit stop. But really, must all the LGBT books in the world be huddled in one book shop? I struggle to find anything other than tipping the velvet in a waterstones or WHsmiths.

Despite all the books I just listed. LGBT fiction is not mainstream, ok maybe Sarah Waters’ Tipping The Velvet is. But one book does not make an entire genre mainstream.

More to the point, most of what you can find without searching hard, is erotica. *foreheadslap* I mean, really? No one actually scissors people, and honestly, some of us actually like reading ‘STORIES’ you know the ones with conflict, plot twists and a little character depth that’s more involved than whose lips are whose and I don’t mean the ones on your face! *sigh* I’m ranting, I know.

But the reason I am talking about this is because I want to write a middle-ish grade LGBT novel. Think Jacqueline Wilson Girls In Love – that kind of age group, but with all LGBT characters. It got me thinking about how little blockbuster famous LGBT fiction there is out there, and even less for younger teens. I know of a handful, most notably I read Ash and Huntress by Malinda Lo, both of which, actually, were fantasy, another surprise because it’s nigh on impossible to find any LGBT fantasy, and definitely no LGBT YA fantasy.

If you’re about to say, well you’re a lesbian, you write the YA fantasy LGBT stuff. I know. I could. I’d love to in fact. Except that…I can’t… You know how stories and characters ‘come to you’ in moments of inspiration? Well apparently my muse does not wear a rainbow tutu. That or, she is preoccupied being a Diva.

So what is it that stops LGBT fiction becoming blockbuster hits like the Hunger games? Is there something stopping writers crafting gay characters? Fear? the unknown? terminology? and if writers are writing LGBT fiction, then what’s stopping it from becoming mainstream?

Believe me, life isn’t that different. Someone still has to do the washing up, someone still gets up in the middle of the night when the baby wakes up, trash still gets taken out, clothes get washed, food shops get done. I mean, to be honest, other than the distinct lack of a male appendage I don’t see much difference in this relationship than any of my previous ones. So seriously, TELL ME? Why? What am I missing? 

This is part 1 of a two part post. Next week, I give you my list of  The Top Ten Things You Need To Know When Crafting A Lesbian Character.

The post Where Are All The LGBT Characters? appeared first on Sacha Black.

Do you have a smell, or ‘thing’ that makes you recall an incident or memory vividly? If so what is it? Let me know in the comments. Is it a sound? Or smell? Or maybe the feel of a certain fabric?

I tend to have certain songs that remind me of people or times in my life, a few particularly from uni, like Mr Brightside. Every time I would hear that song in a club at uni, I would drunk dial my bezzie mate (if she wasn’t with me) and slur at the top of my voice down the phone vaguely in time to the lyrics. It was like a love note to my buddy. Now when I hear the song, it reminds me of sweaty dancing, dingy union club nights and a lot of happy times.

I also get the same thing with smells. They seem to evoke the strongest sense of memory. Nag Champa incense sticks for example, fling me back to Nepal and my days trekking in the Himalayas. How wonderful that things can do this to us, but how? And how can we transfer that into our writing?

Smell is so important – think about when you get a cold. You can’t taste a damn thing can you? Well – that’s because taste and smell – although separate senses, are intricately linked, but you can read about that here. And what of the perfume industry? It has always been a wonder to me that girls buy girls perfume and boys buy boy perfume. Personally I love the smell of boys perfume – it was designed for women to love it, to find it attractive. SO WHY DON’T GIRLS WEAR IT? If it was designed for us to love it seems bonkers we don’t wear it. Can you tell this annoys me? I always wear boys perfume in protest!

The parts of the brain most commonly associated with memory are the amygdala in the temporal lobe and the hippocampus. Smells are processed by the olfactory bulbs – which start in the nose and run under the brain, close to the hippocampus and the amygdala which controls memory.

However,  sight, sound and touch sensory information don’t run near these parts of the brain which is why smell more than any other part of the brain is so closely linked to memory. Smell and memory perception centres in the brain cross over and get caught in each others paths. Giving us this wonderful opportunity as a writer to exploit its benefits.

Plenty of scientific articles demonstrate using fMRI scanning that the brain displays more activity when intense memories are evoked through smell. Unfortunately for us writers, studies also show that the brain is more active when actually smelling the aroma rather than reading the word(1).

That being said, I also know, having read a lot of psychology science papers at uni that, when a person reads the word associated to a smell, the same areas of the brain are lit up on the scanners – meaning their brains are having similar experiences as if they were actually smelling it for real, albeit less intensely.

So what does this mean as writers?

I was chatting to Jane a while back, about how smell is always the forgotten sense. But actually it gives so much depth to a piece of writing, some authors are able to capture smell so vividly you can actually taste the air, or feel your stomach gurgle as a juicy piece of cake is laid on the table for a characters birthday. My point is, I often neglect other senses on a first draft, and actually you don’t need reams of aromatic description, the odd well placed sentence is more than enough.

A couple of examples for you:

“The house smelled musty and damp, and a little sweet, as if it were haunted by the ghosts of long-dead cookies.” ― Neil Gaiman, American Gods

“He wraps his arms around me and holds me tight for a few seconds. His breaths tickle my ear, and I close my eyes, letting myself finally relax. He smells like wind and sweat and soap, like Tobias and like safety.”  ― Veronica Roth, Allegiant

How have you used smell in your work? Or do you have a certain smell or sound that evokes a memory for you? Let me know in the comments. 

Here’s one more random question, I couldn’t decide which photo to use as my blog post cover. Which do you prefer – the one at the top, or this one, and why?

References

(1) Arshamian A, Iannilli E, Gerber JC, Willander J, Persson J, Seo H-S, Hummel T, & Larsson M. The functional neuroanatomy of odor evoked autobiographical memories cued by odors and words. Neuropsychologia 51 (2013), 123-131.

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