Guess what? I'm posting again! WOO-HOO! - More about plots

This is probably you:

"NOOOOOOOOOO WHERE HAVE THEY GONE I AM MELTING MELTING OH CRUEL WORLD I NEED TO BE FULLED UP WITH A BUNCH USELESS JUNK ABOUT WRITING!! *wails*"

And this is me:

"IM HERE TO HELP YOU!! *whimper whimper* DON'T KILL ME, PLEASE!!"

And this is everyone else:

"How has Emilie survived this long… o.o"

But this is the truth. I've been super busy and I've been wanting to post for a long time, so here I am! :D And now we're going to be talking about PLOTS, again.

~ ~ ~

    Considering that the world "plot" covers a very vast subject, I think it is a good idea to continue discussing it. If you start writing a book without a plot in mind, the book will train wreck and it will basically go nowhere, and you will be very sad. But here's the good news! It's easy to think of a plot, if you have an imagination. Here's the framework we will be discussing.

1. Characters
2. Motives
3. Antagonists
4. Obstacles
5. Climax

     That's a very messy list, but it will help you make the skeleton for your story. We've talked a lot about characters, but here's the deal. You need to kill some of them, add them, and make the bad guys just as developed as the good guys. Here's what I mean. It's super fun to make characters, right? And if we're not careful we can make too many, and then the story will go bland because we can't develop all of them enough to make them realistic. So here's what I suggest. WITHOUT making them up, make a list of all the characters you will need. For example.

1. Main character
2. Bad guy
3. Supporting character 1
4. Supporting character 2
5. Mother of main character
6. Teacher of the main character's school
7. Bully at the main character's school.
Et Cetera.

     After you have this list, you can fill in the blanks. Make up the the characters. Now, if you want love interests, you can make the supporting character and the main character opposite genders, but you can't add characters in randomly or else the story will become random and unorganized. You already know all that junk about making up characters, so we don't even need to discuss that.
     Next are the Motives. This is probably the most important step of all. What is the reason that the characters are doing what they're doing? If you need help to clarify, here is an example. And because I love him, I'm going to pick on Percy. Again.

Percy Jackson
Black hair, green eyes, grew up with his mom, is the son of Poseidon, very quirky and insecure
Discovers a camp full of people like him
Finds out that Kronos wants to wipe out Olympus (DING DING DING! MOTIVES COMING UP)
Goes out with his friends to stop him because he is loyal to his dad and Olympus. He knows it is his destiny and his duty.

    That whole thing about his background and description wasn't part of the motives thing, but I decided to throw it in there because it clarified the whole character thing. But you see what I mean. Without motives the story has absolutely no direction. You need the character to have a strong enough motive so that they will not give up after they are thwarted more than once in their efforts.
     Next are the Antagonists! DUN DUN DUUHHHHHHHH. These bad guys, of course, are all like, "Hey, lets stop this guy because we have a good reason and they're the bad guy and we're the good guy" blablabla. Remember that they also need to have motives, and good ones at that. No one realistically goes out and tries to ruin someone's life just because they feel like it. Your options for motives are greed, revenge, justice, or just plain because-it-needs-to-be-done. It needs to be believable that this villain isn't your classic "EVIL IS BETTER THAN GOOD" but that this villain is more like "IM THE GOOD GUY HERE". Remember that this villain's choices should be very personal, therefore strengthening his will to succeed.
     And then there are the Obstacles. The bad guy will be doing everything in his power to stop the good guy, of course, but have you ever considered the fact that maybe the bad guy is not the only source for obstacles? *gasp* SACRILEGE. But seriously, there are two main other options to make your story as realistic as possible.
     The first one is NATURE. Is there bad weather? Maybe mountains your hero has to cross, or oceans to swim. Maybe he has a disease, or a sickness.
     The other one is SELF. Is he battling his conscience? Does he grow to be more mature? Does he make a hard choice or a sacrifice?
     Considering that, you have probably realized that you will be laying the hard stuff down thick on this character. Make your character suffer! Make him go through struggles, and pain! LAUGH MANIACALLY AS YOU WATCH THEIR SITUATION GET SEEMINGLY HOPELESS!! GWAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAAHAH!
     Hem hem.
     Finally, we have the part where the reader will lay down the book, grab their pillow pet, dive under the covers, and shout, "EVERYTHING IS WRONG". Because you will be presenting them…. The Climax. 
     The Climax is that terrible moment of either peril or realization, where the book will take a sharp turn and nearly throw the reader out the window. This is the part where you reach the top of the mountain and begin to go downhill. You need to make sure you have a climax, or else your book will be bland and pointless.
     Okay, now we have our five main points. Just for fun, lets take a look at what it would be like if we didn't use these five points.

     Once upon a time, there was a girl who woke up in her bed and went downstairs to have breakfast. The end.

Pretty boring. Okay, now let's add those five points and see what happens.

    Once upon a time, there was a girl named Ellie who went downstairs to eat her breakfast. But suddenly, as she was sitting there, her mother got snatched out the door by a bunch of slimy tentacles! She knew it was up to her to save her mother. So she leapt after her, grabbing onto her dear mother's foot, but as she did so she slipped and fell into a big canyon full of boiling lava. Hanging desperately on a lifesaving ledge, she grasped her mother's arm, and pulled herself up to her feet, helping her mother do the same. They both crouched at the ledge, watching the monster swim in the boiling lava beneath them. The tentacles reached up to grasp them, but suddenly Mother pulled out a bow and arrow! She was the female version of Robin Hood! She shot arrows, riding her brilliantly pink unicorn, galloping like a beautiful archer queen, and swooping down, she picked up Ellie and they rode away to safety.

So, there you go. Have fun spicing up your plots!

Keep writing!
- Emilie

How to create the perfect first chapter.

Hiiii, people. Yeah... you're probably pretty frustrated that it's me... again. But, that's fine. BECAUSE. I am frustrated that it's YOU. AGAIN.
Actually, I'm not. That was joke, guys... Please don't be mad at me forever. I really love you guys...

Anyway... It's Patricia, here on this bee-autiful afternoon, and I'm here to talk about your first chapter.

Your first chapter is possibly the most important one you will write. Most people, decide whether to read the book, or not, by reading the first chapter. You want one that will really suck your reader into another dimension. Here are a few tips to creating the most perfect mind-blowing first chapter in existence:

1. En media res. (I think I spelled that right.) ~ En media res is Latin, for "In the middle of things". You could write your first chapter, or prologue, or prelude, or whatever you call it, in the middle of things. Starting in the middle of the action is always exciting... But... with that comes challenges. If you're going to start WRITING in the middle of the plot, than you're going to have to keep a careful record of what happens. For example... You might start in the middle of a battle scene, which will take place later on in the book. However, in order for that to happen, you will have a lot of explaining to do, as you go along. You don't want your book to end up like this: Chapter 1: It was a foggy Saturday morning, in the month of April. Several lines of soldiers were preparing for battle. (Skip ahead twenty chapters) Chapter 20: It was a clear, sunny, Tuesday morning. 13,000 soldiers were preparing for battle. This is why, my dear readers, if you are going to start en media res, you are better off to start your story off normally, and then when your first draft is done, to copy and paste a middle scene into the front of the novel; and name it "Prelude".
2. Try to veil your character. ~ If your character seems a little bit more suspicious or 'shady', the reader will want to fine out why. Therefore, perking their interest in reading further.

Those are two reason... But... I have a treat for you guys *claps hands excitedly*. I'm going to give you the first chapter of my book. I am getting close to being finished with the first draft, so please leave me feedback in the comment section. If there are typos... I apologize. I haven't had much time for editing.

Have an amazing day!

~
Keep writing!

<3

Patricia Rane

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rescuing the Fretholyne

By Patricia Rane

 

Chapter 1

 

            “Oh, come on,” Abbie groaned, hitting the steering wheel. “We’re gonna be late for school, and you’ll be to blame,” she yelled at the car. She tucked a strand of her light brown hair behind her ear. Her gold flecked eyes flashed in anger, but she tried to calm down.

            “I’ll check the fluids,” Jake offered. Abbie nodded.

            “I’ll help him!” Skylar eagerly offered, unbuckling her seatbelt. Abbie rolled her eyes, but unlocked the SUV’ door.

            “Just don’t stain your uniform,” Heather said, examining her manicure.

After five more minutes of sitting there, Abbie made up her mind. “That’s it,” she ordered. “We are not being late for school, just because some stupid, mortal car won’t start.” She opened the door to the driver seat. Fifteen year old Heather got out on the passenger side. The sound of opening doors echoed in the garage.

            “Guys,” Heather said to Jake and Skylar. “Stop fiddling with that, you’re gonna get your clothes dirty.”

            Abbie produced her amulet, which made Leiza cough uncomfortably. “Um, Abbie?” She asked. “You’re not planning on using that, are you?”

            “You know dad will have a cow if—,” Heather was interrupted.

            “Well we can’t be late for school, now, can we?” Abbie snapped. The stress of going to mortal school was enough, but having car troubles, and the thought of being late looming overhead…?

            “But, Abbie,” twelve year old Carter protested. “This could get us expelled!”

She hesitated at this thought. But then the determined look was back. “Nobody will find out about this. Right?” she looked sharply around at them all. No one said anything. “Good.”

Everyone put one finger on the tiny glass item the sixteen year old held in her hand. Amulets were one thing that each Hero was expected to have. It would help get you out of tight situations if your certain power didn’t apply. It could save your life, in very extreme matters.

            “Jackson Jewitt high school.”

Everyone opened their eyes, and they were standing on the front lawn of a large brick building. Heather took one look at Skylar and rolled her eyes. She started patting her little sister’s auburn hair back into place. The sun glinted off of Heather’s blonde hair, and nearly blinded Carter, but he just grinned. Heather was SO prim, and perfect. Long blonde hair, and curious blue eyes. It made him smile again, thinking about how motherly she was.

These seven kids were all going to experience their first day of mortal school. Their father and mother, Damien and Miridia Ferguson had been hesitant to let their children leave the safety of their home, in the hills of Denver, Colorado. But when they had seen how persistent their children were in going to see what mortal schools were like, they had finally gave in, entrusting them all into the care of Abigail, their oldest daughter. Damien had made them all promise that they wouldn’t use their powers. At all. And, on their first day, Abbie had just broken that promise. They had moved into a small house that was fifteen minutes away from the school, in New York City, New York. It was a disadvantage, the school being so far away, but it was the only one he could find without records of shadow heroes.

Abbie and Heather raced into the English classroom, where a tall, skinny, English professor had just begun the class. “Ladies,” he said, clearing his throat as they rushed to take their seats, “Tardiness is not a characteristic you will want to be characterized by in my class.” He adjusted his wire framed glasses.

            “I’m sorry, Professor,” Abbie apologized. “We had car problems this morning,” she said truthfully.

“Please turn to page 13 in your English textbooks. You will also need to take out your copy of Shakespeare’s, ‘A Midsummer’s Night Dream’.”

The rest of the class was mainly talking about how Shakespeare was a “True Writer”, and how much their professor adored him.

At the end of the learning session, the two teenagers were starting to realize why mortals hated school so much.

 

***

Fifteen year old Jake, fourteen year old Leiza, and thirteen year old Skylar slid into their seats, just seconds before the bell rang. “Good morning, class,” the math professor said, eyeing them. She was tall, and thin. Wearing a light purple and gray, dress suit, she looked quite intimidating. The class murmured a greeting, and the teacher turned her attention to the three kids. She smoothed her hair, which was pulled into a tight bun, straightened her glasses, and said, “I see we have some new students.”

Jake looked around to make sure that she wasn’t talking about someone else. “You three,” she said. “In the back.” Inwardly, Leiza groaned. Why couldn’t they have come in two minutes earlier? “Could you three please come up here?”

Jake slowly stood up, his younger sisters following his example. They made their way to the front, the teacher looming in front of them. “Welcome to Jackson Jewitt,” she said. “I’m Professor Jewitt.” Skylar gulped. They had the headmistress, and the owner of the school as a math teacher? Well… this would be interesting. Just so long that she doesn’t find out that we know her powerful position, Skylar thought.

            “You’re the headmistress?” Leiza asked, running her fingers through her dark brown hair.  Skylar wanted to punch her. The teacher looked pleased.

            “Yes,” she nodded. “Yes, I am.” She looked somewhat triumphant that they had noticed her position of authority. “And you are?”

            “Leiza,” she answered.

            “I’m Jake,” their brother said. “And the quiet one with the murderous look on her face is Skylar. Usually, we can’t get her to shut up.” Now Skylar wanted to punch Jake, too. Why couldn’t they just shut their mouths?

            “I see,” the Professor said, pursing her lips. There was something about this professor that made Skylar uneasy. “Well, you may take your seats.”

            “Open your math books to page four,” said Professor Jewitt. Then she narrowed her eyes, looking directly at Skylar. “We’ll see just how much you know.”

 

***

Twelve year old Carter, and eleven year old Kendra raced through the empty halls of the school. “Using her power amulet, indeed,” Carter huffed. “We’re gonna get in trouble if dad finds out!”

            “Carter,” Kendra said, glaring at him, “We’re definitely going to be in trouble, if we can’t find our classroom,” she said as-a-matter-a-factly.

            “OUR SISTER JUST VIOLATED THE ONLY RULE THAT WE HAD TO FOLLOW, ON OUR FIRST DAY!” He yelled, his voice echoing down the halls.

            “Will you please shut up?” she asked. “You’re the one who is gonna get us in trouble, screaming it to the whole world.” She said grumpily.

He glared at her. “DO YOU KNOW HOW DANGEROUS IT IS TO USE OUR AMULETS—,” he was interrupted,

            “Is there something wrong?” a female voice asked coldly. The two kids whirled around. A woman was standing in the doorway of a classroom right behind them.

            “Um, no, Professor,” Kendra squeaked. “We were just… Um… looking for our classroom.” She gently flipped her honey-colored hair over her shoulder.

            “Please follow me.” The teacher said, motioning into the classroom behind her. The classroom, just happened to be full of students. Carter scanned the class, and then he spotted Jake, Leiza, and Skylar near the back. “Leiza,” she said. The girl looked up from her homework sheet. She looked surprised.

“Yes, Professor Jewitt?”

“Are these your… relatives…?” This time, Leiza looked over at Skylar. Skylar gave her ‘The look’.

“No, Professor.” Leiza lied. She had a feeling that Skylar sensed that this was dangerous.

Carter opened his mouth, but Kendra jabbed her elbow into his side. He shut his mouth, and remained silent.  She knew that their older siblings had a good reason to lie, whatever it may be.  The Professor looked surprised. “You’re… quite sure?” she asked.

            “Of course we are,” Skylar sneered. “Don’t you think we would know who we’re related to?”

Jake gave her a warning look. “Please, Professor,” Kendra began, “We’re late for our class. Could you please direct to the correct room?”

            “What class is it that you want?” Professor Jewitt asked, the cold tone returning to her voice.

            “General science, grade eight,” she answered.

            “It’s door eight, over in the next hallway.”

 

Kendra murmured a thank you, and then dragged Carter from the room. They entered the classroom and looked around. It was empty. “Hmm,” Kendra mused. “Maybe she misspoke herself,” she said after checking the door number. “Well, this is the general science room,” she pointed to a sign on the wall. It read, “Jackson Jewitt loves General Science.”

           
“Maybe we’re early,” Carter offered.

            “We can’t be early,” Kendra murmured, looking fixatedly at the blackboard. She glanced at her watch. “Classes for this time frame should be almost halfway through.”

Carter saw some movement out of the corner of his eye, near the window of the room. He started walking toward the general area he saw the movement in.

Suddenly, Kendra heard a scuffle out in the hall. She turned, just in time to see Skylar burst into the room. “Carter!” she yelled. “It’s a trap!”  

 

 

Heyyy, guys! It's Patricia... and please feel free to ignore Emilie's comment about me being gone, and her posting all the time. I WAS gone. But SO WAS SHE. XD.
Anyway, down to business.
I have thought of some new ideas for you...

1. Keep a journal with daily entries on how much you've written. In the Go Teen Writer's word war, I started doing this, and it has helped me a TONNNN. Ex: 4-7-14. Word count at beginning of day: 14,612. Word count at end of day: 16,466. It's as simple as that.
2. Have a word war. I mentioned Go Teen Writer's word war, earlier, and I am referring to it again. IT WAS AMAZHANG. It really helped me connect with other authors, who are my age, and gave me GREAT headway on my novel. Here's the link: http://goteenwriters.blogspot.com You really should check it out! But... I'll give you a quick description. A word war is... a war... Either against a fellow author, or against the clock. (For either) You set your timer for the amount of time that you've chosen, and you just write. That. Whole. Entire. Time. But it is SO productive. In one hour, I was able to write over 3k words. That's a lot of words, for me, to write, in one hour.

Sorry this is short, guys... But I have some stuff to do.

Talk to you soon! (Hopefully.)

~
Keep writing!

<3
Patricia Rane

Hullo!

Heyyyyy it's Emilie again! Imma back to posting! And Patricia is starting to be the one that's NOT. WHO'S NOT POSTING NOW, HUH SHMARTYPANTS?

Anywho, I wanted to ask you a couple questions. And no, you're not in trouble.

Well, actually, they're not questions as much as they're just suggestions and requests.

FIRST REQUEST: Email us if you need help!!

I know we all kinda avoid doing stuff like that, but please, we're here to help. And no matter how dumb you think your story is, it doesn't take much to impress me. So if your story is like, "once upon a time there was a girl who died. The end." I'll be like, "WHAT IS THIS BRILLIANCE?" so it's really okay to email us. We really want to help you out.

SECOND REQUEST: Comment!!

We're looking for comments, peeps! So leave them so we can look at them! We totally swarmed that other person's comment like flies on honey! (Wait a minute, I thought flies ate dead stuff. And wouldn't it be bees swarming the honey? THIS LIFE DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE)

THIRD REQUEST: Actually, there's no third request. BUT I TRICKED YA!

So, thank you all for reading our blog, and good night! *vanishes in a puff of smoke*

Keep writing!
- Emilie

How to Improve Your Humor, So That It's Actually Funny

Hi, this is Emilie. I'm going to help you with your comical relief, humor,  and basically everything else that makes you laugh. Like when the eleventh Doctor is trying to get used to his tastebuds. I can't really help with that, it's already perfect.

The Doctor: "You're Scottish, fry something!"
**bacon is handed to him**
The Doctor: "Ooh, bacon. I love bacon. **tastes bacon** AGH THIS IS BACON ARE YOU TRYING TO POISON ME?"

Ahem...

Anywho, the name of this post is incredibly long, I know, but I hope you get my point. Humor makes you laugh. Obviously. But when it comes to making OTHER people laugh, well, then, this is where I come in. Here are some simple steps to make your writing funnier.

1. Say something unexpected.

When being unexpected, you:
- Say something very strange and maybe even creepy. "I don't usually panic, but when I do, I run around screaming with my head stuck in a lampshade."

- Say something that plays on a common annoyance or something that everybody knows well. In this excerpt from my friend's book, Finding the Flame, Sativa is answering the phone, but is watching out for any of her enemies. My friend (who's name is Kaylee Bowing) wrote that little part at the end because she finds that all telemarketers that call her ask if she wants whatever she's asking about in plaid. She was playing on that common nuisance to generate humor.  Sativa picked up the phone. "Hello? And if you're a soul-sucking telemarketer, I don't want any magical love stones, or anything with plaid."

When saying something no one expects, it generates a funny mental picture and makes almost anyone smile. You can't be too random, however, or people may think the line is cheesy. Balance out the unexpectedness and the context, so that you have a perfectly-crafted punchline that'll really make everyone smile.

2. Use lots of quirky metaphors and similes. 

When using metaphors, you:
- Try to create a funny and humorous mental picture. This is a excerpt from Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, when Percy says something surprising to Annabeth. She looked like I'd just said, "I need to eat a large, smelly boot." This is not exactly a metaphor, but it creates the mental picture of Percy eating a large smelly boot, which is both disgusting and hilarious. Another example is, for instance, if someone has just seen something disturbing, you could say, "He/She looked as if she'd/he'd just seen the result of a frog and a donkey having a baby." This might make you think of a nasty little brown hairy frog with two gigantic donkey ears making it impossible for it to hop around. Doesn't that make you want to laugh?

- Make it longer than usual, therefore avoiding a cliche. If someone said, "the peanut butter was as sticky as glue," that isn't funny. It's kind of annoying, actually, considering everyone on the planet uses that metaphor. Instead you could think of something ELSE that's sticky, like duct tape, and then think about what could make it even stickier. So, instead you could say, "the peanut butter was as sticky as a piece of duct tape that had just run a marathon." Again, it creates a very strange mental picture of a piece of duct tape with one of those elastic bands around the top of it inching along the track. In a similar way, instead of saying "My friend looked sad," you could say, "my friend looked like she'd just found a dead puppy in her bed." How sad would you be if you saw a dead puppy in your bed?

3. Comical wording.

When wording things comically, you:
- Use funny words. Try to make something that someone says into a funny sentence by switching words around or using different punctuation. Read this little scene:

I looked over at Drew, who was tugging at the bars wildly. "Stop," I said. "It's not going to do anything. We're trapped."
"Well we have to get out!" Drew panted.
"Well, yeah!" I said.

Okay, you get the picture. Apparently you and a guy named Drew are stuck somewhere. If you want comic relief, you could say:

I looked over at Drew, who was tugging at the bars wildly. "Stop," I said. "It's not going to do anything. We're trapped."
"Well we have to get out!" Drew panted.
I snorted. "Well, duh."

Okay, that sounds much funnier. You know why? Because I used the word snorted. That kind of word always makes people laugh. It's just that kind of word. It sounds funny. Another selection of funny words is: Chortled, giggled, snickered, and wailed.

~  ~  ~

Hopefully I have officially enlightened you on how to make your story more funny! I might make a second part to this, so leave a comment below to tell me if you think that's a good idea. But now...

Keep writing!
- Emilie

Perfect characters aren't legit.

Okay... so I was thinking. (I do that a lot). And my thoughts were all about our blog... and writing problems that I run into. (Well, they were also on my algebra homework, which I was doing... Hey, I love multitasking...)
And I figured that the NUMBER 1 PROBLEM that I run into with my characters... IS... Making them seem 'real'. Now, I know that we did a post on 'Making your scene real' and all that rot... BUUTTTTTT. I realized that I didn't really talk about characters that much.
So.......... HERE WE GO.

Hello, readers! It's Patricia on this lovely day, and I am going to be talking about making your characters seem realistic.
Here are a few questions that you can ask yourselves...

1. Does your character experience real life emotions? Sadness, depression, frustration, confusion, anxiety... blah, blah, blah... Because I know, as an author, that if I don't try reallllllly harddddd to make my characters seem TRULY going through those emotions, than they seem HAPPAHAPPAHAPPAHY all the time. A way that I 'live' through my characters, or see life through their perspective is keep a journal written by them. I know that I have already said this, but it relates to the topic at hand. It REALLLLY HELPS. 

2. If your characters do, than are they feeling this way in an unrealistic amount? Like, all the time?
Are they too moody? Well, you probably want to know how to fix it... Just change the adjectives describing the person... Or their attributes... Or... Etc.

3. Does everything just work out fine and dandy all the time. Your answer should be: NO. 

Whale... Hopes this helps you. And please ignore Emilie... She hadn't been on for weeks... XD. Sooo yeah. Feel da burn, Emilie, Hun. Haha! I just rhymed!!!

Ah, well. We all know who the funniest one is... XD. 

~~

Keep writing!

<3

Patricia Rane 

A couple of random thoughts for you.

Heeeey, guys.......... It's Patricia, again. Yeah. Emilie is NOT dead, which is good, since (MOST OF THE TIME), she has awesome ideas, and adds productive stuff to our blog. MOST. OF. DE. TIME. Can you tell that we really love each other...? Cuz, I certainly can!
Anywho... (SOS, Patricia! You're supposed to be blogging!).

So, this blog post has several points I want to make with you... So let's get started!

First of all, I want to let you know of some other notable, and awesome sites you can turn to, if you get totally annoyed and upset with us for being silly, and not staying on track. And.... They... Are... (see what I mean...?) *drumroll* (did I ever tell you about the time that Emilie got run over by a cow...?) :

http://goteenwriters.blogspot.com

http://towritetheway.blogspot.com

These are two WONDERFUL sites for you to look at, so please do! ('nuff said. I don't want to start sobbing about how wonderful they are, and get all blubbery on my computer.) But, seriously. **sobs**. They are so wonderful. Just take 2 seconds-- (if you have a super-duper fast, highspeed browser that takes nanoseconds to loadddd.) -- and look at them.

Second of all, I want to talk length. Yup. One of the most commonly asked questions in the authoring world is: How long should my novel be?
Weeelll... this might not satisfy you... but: THERE IS NO RIGHT OR WRONG ANSWER.

Your novel should be as long as you want it, and if the publisher doesn't like it, then... well... PFFT. SORRY FOR BUSTING YOUR BUBBLE, MR. PUBLISHING-PANTS, BUT YOU DONT DESERVE MY BOOK. (!!!)

I recently read a novella that was 61 pages. It was AMAZING. I recently read an 870 paged book. It was AMAZING. Just be thorough in what you want to say, and don't leave out descriptions. Descriptions will fill in the empty space for you.


Thirdly, some advice. Be yourself in your writing. Don't be other people. If I write, strictly using Rick Riordan's style, than I wouldn't be being Patricia Rane. I would be being Rick Riordan (And I would probably get into trouble for plagerism.) While I use Riordan's style, and many other's, as well, I have my own twist to things.

And, lastly: DONT BE AFRAID TO EXPAND.
I'll be sitting at my desk writing, and get an idea for another story... it happens. It really does.
If you're not 'feeling it' anymore, or think that you can't finish it because your writing is flawed, here is a list of stuff you can try:

• Try changing POV. A new character's perspective might put a fresh view on things.
• Add a new character.
• Write down your other ideas on notecards so that you can focus on completing your original work.
• If you want, begin those new ideas. The birth of a new story always helps to make things positive!
• Take a break.

Hope this advice helps!

~ ~

Keep writing!

<3

Patricia Rane