Gabriella Slade's Blog: The JOY of Writing, page 9

The Ultimate Writer’s Bucket List: Summer Edition!

Hi Friends!

Today we’re going to try something a little different and see how this turns out.  I’m going to share with you the ULTIMATE writer’s bucket list, with things that don’t include spending thousands of dollars at a conference or retreat.  I want to give a shout out to my sister, Margaret who helped put this list together.  So let’s get into it! (Also, if you are a subscriber, I will be sending out a PDF copy of this list later this week. There’s still time, so go subscribe today!)

Write all day
Binge read your favorite series
Go to a park and write down every idea you get
dress up as your protagonist, sidekick, etc for a whole day
Plot out an entire book series
Complete a writing prompt every day (even the weekends!)
Decorate your room based off your books
Make Book Posters on PicMonkey
Dream cast your main characters for a potential movie
Keep a diary every day this summer
Enter the summer reading program at your local library
Write a short story and submit it to a magazine or local newspaper
Start blogging
Draw your main characters (or ask a friend to!)
Attempt writing in a new genre (if you write paranormal, give contemporary a try!)
Turn your vacation/camping trip into your own writer’s retreat
Photograph potential settings for future reference
Sell short stories and use the money for that book you want!
Browse a bookstore
Take a day off
Take an online writer’s course
Explore every possible aspect of your fictional universe
Interview you characters
Write songs based of your books/book’s themes
Experiment with creating food dishes in your book
Look for books at garage sales
Try dance/yoga/Pilates

So there you have it–my writer’s bucket list! if you have any more suggestions, leave them in the comments below, and also let me know if I should do a winter edition of this bucket list! Till next time! Be sure to subscribe if you want that PDF!

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Featured Book of The Month: Spinner Of Secrets by Annie Louise Twitchell

NOTE: I RECEIVED AN ARC OF THIS BOOK IN EXCHANGE FOR THIS HONEST REVIEW

Hey Fellow Readers! Happy Monday!  Today is our very first Featured Book of The Month Post! (Throws confetti) For my first FBM, I will be reviewing Spinner of Secrets by Annie Louise Twitchell.  This is a YA fantasy novella, based off the classic fairy tale, Rumpleskilton, releasing on May 14, and you can pre-order your book here: Pre Order Book. 

Spinner of Secrets follows the story of a village girl named Letta, who lost her father at a very young age, and was raised by her loving mother and cruel stepfather, who only wants her out of his life.  So when Kyle, prince of the kingdom begins searching for a wife, Letta’s stepfather tells the Prince that Letta can spin straw into linen thread, when of course, she can’t.  The prince decides to marry Letta, telling her that she is lying, she will be put to death.  Letta, of course, fears for her own life, knowing that as soon as the prince discovers the truth, her life will be over.  The story follows Letta’s life in the castle, as she tries to win Prince Kyle’s affections, that her life might be spared.

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars.  I simply adored this fairy tale retelling, and finished it in a single afternoon.  I fell in love with all the characters. Ms. Louis Twitchell did an amazing job diving into the backstoriesand  exploring the whys of the story: Why does the prince want a wife who can spin straw into linen thread? Why does Letta’s father lie to the prince? and why does Letta not speak up for herself?  Although some people claim that Letta is a bit whiny at times, I believe that no main character is going to be perfect, and she has to have her flaws.

Prince Kyle was a fun character, and at times I loved him and other times I wanted to punch him in the face. His personality is so interesting, and at times I even pitied him and his situations.  The queen was sweet, and I loved the care she gave to Letta, as well as her maid.

SO WHY SHOULD YOU PICK UP THIS BOOK?

Dive into character backstories
Clean and christian friendly
Not too long
Entrancing and delightful story

So again, this book is available for Pre-Order on Amazon.com, and if you haven’t, I highly suggest you go Pre-Order it.  Right. Now.  Annie Louise Twitchell is a master at stories that draw you in, which aren’t too long, but very enjoyable.  You should do it.  You should.  

OK, I’m done for today.  Be sure to drop back next monday for a new blog post! If you haven’t already, please subscribe for new blog posts and monthly newsletters.  Love You guys!

In HIS Joy,

Gabriella Slade

Featured Book of The Month: Spinner Of Secrets by Annie Louis Twitchell

NOTE: I RECEIVED AN ARC OF THIS BOOK IN EXCHANGE FOR THIS HONEST REVIEW

Hey Fellow Readers! Happy Monday!  Today is our very first Featured Book of The Month Post! (Throws confetti) For my first FBM, I will be reviewing Spinner of Secrets by Annie Louis Twitchell.  This is a YA fantasy novella, based off the classic fairy tale, Rumpleskilton, releasing on May 14, and you can pre-order your book here: Pre Order Book. 

Spinner of Secrets follows the story of a village girl named Letta, who lost her father at a very young age, and was raised by her loving mother and cruel stepfather, who only wants her out of his life.  So when Kyle, prince of the kingdom begins searching for a wife, Letta’s stepfather tells the Prince that Letta can spin straw into linen thread, when of course, she can’t.  The prince decides to marry Letta, telling her that she is lying, she will be put to death.  Letta, of course, fears for her own life, knowing that as soon as the prince discovers the truth, her life will be over.  The story follows Letta’s life in the castle, as she tries to win Prince Kyle’s affections, that her life might be spared.

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars.  I simply adored this fairy tale retelling, and finished it in a single afternoon.  I fell in love with all the characters. Ms. Louis Twitchell did an amazing job diving into the backstoriesand  exploring the whys of the story: Why does the prince want a wife who can spin straw into linen thread? Why does Letta’s father lie to the prince? and why does Letta not speak up for herself?  Although some people claim that Letta is a bit whiny at times, I believe that no main character is going to be perfect, and she has to have her flaws.

Prince Kyle was a fun character, and at times I loved him and other times I wanted to punch him in the face. His personality is so interesting, and at times I even pitied him and his situations.  The queen was sweet, and I loved the care she gave to Letta, as well as her maid.

SO WHY SHOULD YOU PICK UP THIS BOOK?

Dive into character backstories
Clean and christian friendly
Not too long
Entrancing and delightful story

So again, this book is available for Pre-Order on Amazon.com, and if you haven’t, I highly suggest you go Pre-Order it.  Right. Now.  Annie Louis Twitchell is a master at stories that draw you in, which aren’t too long, but very enjoyable.  You should do it.  You should.  

OK, I’m done for today.  Be sure to drop back next monday for a new blog post! If you haven’t already, please subscribe for new blog posts and monthly newsletters.  Love You guys!

In HIS Joy,

Gabriella Slade

#destiny17 Updates

Hey Fam!

Today, since I have been so immersed in my edits for #destiny17, I figured that i would shorten the normal post, and do a #destiny17 updates post.

First of all

I finished #destiny17 at 45,758 words, which I consider to be very underwritten, since I originally set a goal for 75,000 words.
My story took a turn for the  better with a GENRE CHANGE! The originally YA epic steampunk fantasy is now a YA dark urban fantasy! This also included name changes in characters and places as well as title names.
I changed many plot points in this book, which I am currently incorporating into my novel.

So I am planning on revealing the novel officially in fall (September) of 2017, but I might do it earlier, depending on when I complete many of the major edits.  I had some exciting news for the book, as I was able to  get a cover designer to do my cover! (Yay!) and I am also being interviewed by a couple sites soon, which is super exciting!  I’m probably going to put up a teaser trailer soon, whenever I get the time to make one, and probably some pinnable images to help build buzz (have you followed me on Pinterest yet?

New Things Coming in May!

Hey Friends!

I get to finally announce to you–my fellow readers–that I officially completed the first draft of #destiny17, which is my debut Novel!  I’ve already dove into edits, and I am getting super excited to share this with you! If you want more details about the book, before I share them on my blog, be sure to Subscribe to my blog today! (I also happen to be giving away free copies of one of my novellas to new subscribers, so…

9 Things Writers can do Offline to Get Inspired

How Y’all doing fellow writers? It is the middle of Camp NaNoWriMo, so things have been hectic lately.  I am in the midst of writing #destiny17, but it is very underwritten. But enough about me.  How many of you want to be inspired, but can find no other way to do this, besides the internet?  If this an issue for you, worry no more!  Today, I am going to share with you 9 offline ways to get inspired for your writing.  Are you ready? Let’s do this!

 Read a Book  This is probably pretty generic advice, but it’s undoubtedly good nonetheless.  There are millions of reading choices out there, dozens of genres to choose from, and no end to the possiblities when it comes to the inspiration you can get, just from reading a book. And do this the way you best like it.  I prefer to keep a pad nearby to list ideas, and I love to eat while eating.

#destiny17 Clue 2!

Yay! It’s April 10th! I am so excited to finally reveal the second clue to #destiny17! For those of you who donn’t know, #destiny17 is my debut novel.  I am slowly revealing in the length of several months.  The first clue, revealed a few months earlier, was that the protagonist is male.  Yep. A guy hero.  But today, it’s time to reveal the second clue.  So yes, this is a rather short post.  The Second clue (drumroll please…)  is…

The Main Character is living in a culture other than his own

P.S. BONUS CLUE: Since some of you may not know already, I figured that I would put it out there that this is a YA Fantasy Novel! So, Yay for bonus clues!!!!!

That is it! The second clue! Be on a lookout for Clue #3!

In HIS Joy,

Gabriella J. Slade

The Top 8 Books for Fantasy Writers

Happy Monday!

Today, we’re looking into the top eight books for those of you who write fantasy.  Now mind you, I have certainly not read every book out there, and I’m sure there very well may be other great books out there, but these are my top picks based off of what I’ve read.  I’ll write a description under each book,

Tips for Making the Most out of Evernote (For Fiction Writers!)

Hello Friends!

Today, I am going to share my tips for using one of my favorite programs of all time–Evernote!! (Excited Squeal) For those of you who don’t know what Evernote is, you can read all about it here.  So I’m going to dive right into this post, and if you’re not already subscribed, please subscribe! You’ll get all my new posts in your email, and I’m planning on sharing some goodies with my subscribers this summer, so join the party so that you get access to them!

So, my Tips for making the most out of Evernote. Here we go.

Use Evernote for Making Character Profiles.

I’m assuming most of you guys write fiction.  So if you do, write your Character profiles here.  It’s great.  You won’t lose them, and yeah, it’s just awesome.  I honestly don’t know what to say that will convince you to do this.  If you guys want me to share one of my character profile’s in a future blog post, and go through it, let me know in the comments below! I love getting feedback from you guys!

2. Get the app for your phone

In this day and age, everyone has a phone.  So get the app.  The free version of Evernote (which I use) allows you to have Evernote on up to two devices.  I have it on my computer and on my phone.  This means that you have access to all of your notes even if you’re out and about.

3.  Organize your notes in notebooks

This is like one of their most basic features, but I thought I would share it anyways.  This is awesome because you can have your characters in one notebook, or your story ideas in another and it is so sweet because they’re all in one place.  Bonus: Put your Notebooks into Stacks. This is cool.  You can stack your characters, settings and plot notebooks etc.  I don’t use this feature myself, but it is still pretty cool.  So, why not?

4.  Use Tags

Like Notebooks, all of your tagged notes are in one place.  This is great because if you need your boy characters who are good guys, having separate tags for boy characters and bad guys allows you to acccess them both together or by themselves.  I think that this has to be my favorite feature.

5. Scan important papers

Very useful.  Trust me.  You jot down that little note on a sticky note.  It’s like the best story idea ever.  And then, you lose it.  Never again. Scan that sticky note, as well as other important documents onto Evernote.  Even better, put all those documents in a journal so that you can find them all. Ingenious! 

6.  Go Through Your Notes often and Clean out What You Don’t Need

This helps to keep your Evernote account nice and tidy,and then you can also kind and use all of the one-liner notes you wrote down while you were sitting at the waiting room at the dentist, or wherever you were when you wrote down that amazing note that got lost in all of your character profiles and plot outlines. Or, perhaps you realize that amazing idea wasn’t so amazing after all. So chuck it.  Keep your Evernote fresh, and not full of notes you forgot you wrote down.

So those were my tips for making the most out of Evernote.  I really hope you consiter getting this program if you don’t already have it.  It is amazing. Be sure to check back next Monday for a new post.  And don’t forget to subscribe if you haven’t already.

Do you use Evernote? What’s your favorite feature? If you don’t have Evernote, is there another program you use to help you during your writing?  Share in the comments below! 

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My Favorite Writing Websites

Greetings!

Today we are going to dive into looking at my favorite websites.  This does not include personal blogs or diaries, but websites created specifically for writers who like learning good techniques and such.  If you have heard of any of these, or have any other personal recommendations, feel free to list them down below.  Also, if at any time you have blog post ideas, also share those in the comments as well, as I strive to produce content that my readers want. If you like this post, don’t forget to subscribe. Now let’s get started!

The Better Novel Project  This resource is great for those who are interested in outlining, but don’t have any idea for what scenes you want in your book, this site breaks down three popular YA books and compares what the books have in common.  You should really check this out, even if you are a pantser.
Ink and Quills  At Ink and Quills You can learn anything from how do you write dialogue to the do’s and don’t of Character Bios.  Subscribing to her blog gives you access to her Secret Archives, full of worksheets and other fun resources.  I love getting emails from this blog because she always teaches me something I don’t know, and I absolutely love it.
Now Novel  Now granted, this does include a cool writing tool you have to pay to use, but I’m really only here for the blog posts. Now Novel teaches awesome writing tequniques and they come up with some of the most creative Ideas for posts that I have ever seen.  Make sure you stop by, as they are so cool!
Go Teen Writers  This happens to be one of my favorite Websites ever. They are so amazing and I have been subscribed to their blog over a year now, and I am still amazed at the great quality blog posts Stephanie, Jill and Shannon crank out, as well as all of the amazing guest posters.  Evern if you are not a teen, you need to go subscribe to this site!
Well Storied  Formerly known as She’s Novel, well storied is a cool site much like Ink and Quills, dedicated to writing quality blog posts, as well as email Newsletters.  I love reading Kristen’s blog posts, and her voice is so passionate for her topic, it is so inspiring.  She also just came out with a new free ebook called Write With Purpose.  So make sure to go snatch that up.