Koriana Brackson's Blog, page 9

Behind the Writer #1: Plotter vs Pantser

There's no right or wrong when it comes to HOW one chooses to write (outlining or not), despite what some people try to say. Outlining a book doesn't make that book inherently better and nor does pantsing a book make it inherently worse. Skill of how one writes matter, not the ways in which the words get on the page.

Though it does seem like there are more plotters / outliners / architects out there than there are pantsers / gardeners / discovery writers, there are plenty of each and both ways, as well as everything in between is valid. You do you!

That said, I'm a PROUD pantser! An author friend (go say hi to them on my sidebar - Maggie Hemlock) suggested I try it when I started writing last year. Yes, I've only been writing just over a year now. Click here to discover how I started writing, so I gave it a try. Like my inability to pick out books to read ahead of time, it didn't go well. I ended up with a 32 word "road map" that I only followed about a third of. I just can not plan, at all. It's not in me.

Case in point was earlier this month. I sat down to do my editing of Book 2 and instead I wrote the opening scene of "A Discovery of BDSM". It was fine and I edited it, and then like 5 days later I decided it was too much of a scene and not a story, so I expanded on it, on the fly, no idea to do it before I sat to write it. I knew nothing of what would happen, except I knew the last line. That's the extent of my "plan". Funny enough, I knew the last line of Natural Exposure during the middle of writing.

With all three of my Books in the Bijou Basin series - Natural Exposure which is self-published, Book 2 which is 90% complete first draft (working on 2nd), and Book 3 which has 70% or so of fist draft complete - I discovery wrote each. After the first, obviously I knew the characters but I never set out with any direction or purpose, the story just spilled out as I wrote. DisBDSM came out of the blue as did "A Bijou Beginning" - though that one I wrote during Camp April of 2019 when I was first writing Natural Exposure.

I'd love to hear from you. Are you a plotter or a pantser? Have you tried the other way just to see what it would be like? How did it work out? Did you do one book one way and another book another?






My Books
Natural Exposure on Amazon
Natural Exposure on Smashwords - on $$SALE$$ for $2.40
Natural Exposure on Goodreads

A Bijou Beginning on Wattpad - FREE short story
A Bijou Beginning on Goodreads

A Discovery of BDSM on Amazon
A Discovery of BDSM on Goodreads

Natural Exposure - Meet the Characters

I haven't felt well today, so instead of the regularly scheduled blog post (which I was going to write today) I'm going to give you a brief look into the characters of my novel Natural Exposure. In the coming weeks, I'll be giving you a closer look at each.

For now, take a look at the 3 MCs.


MacKenzie (Kenzie) Holliday

Age: 44
Occupation: Erotic Nude / boudoir photographer - Former Disney Cast Member
Marital status: Married to her high school sweetheart, Jarrett
Orientation: bi / pan & polyamorous
Gender: Cis-Female
Hobbies: Theme parks, swimming, video games, photography, reading


Ripley Owens

Age: 40
Occupation: Accountant
Marital status: single
Orientation: pansexual
Gender: Cis-Female
Hobbies: Reading, swimming, crafting, puzzles


Jarrett Holliday

Age: 45
Occupation: Tattoo Artist
Marital status: Married to his high school sweetheart, Kenzie
Orientation: straight / poly
Gender: Cis-Male
Hobbies: Tattoos, drawing, video games, reading, poker




My Books
Natural Exposure on Amazon
Natural Exposure on Smashwords - on $$SALE$$ for $2.40
Natural Exposure on Goodreads

A Bijou Beginning on Wattpad - FREE short story
A Bijou Beginning on Goodreads

A Discovery of BDSM on Amazon
A Discovery of BDSM on Goodreads

Novel Exposure - Meet the Characters

I haven't felt well today, so instead of the regularly scheduled blog post (which I was going to write today) I'm going to give you a brief look into the characters of my novel Natural Exposure. In the coming weeks, I'll be giving you a closer look at each.

For now, take a look at the 3 MCs.


MacKenzie (Kenzie) Holliday

Age: 44
Occupation: Erotic Nude / boudoir photographer - Former Disney Cast Member
Marital status: Married to her high school sweetheart, Jarrett
Orientation: bi / pan & polyamorous
Gender: Cis-Female
Hobbies: Theme parks, swimming, video games, photography, reading


Ripley Owens

Age: 40
Occupation: Accountant
Marital status: single
Orientation: pansexual
Gender: Cis-Female
Hobbies: Reading, swimming, crafting, puzzles


Jarrett Holliday

Age: 45
Occupation: Tattoo Artist
Marital status: Married to his high school sweetheart, Kenzie
Orientation: straight / poly
Gender: Cis-Male
Hobbies: Tattoos, drawing, video games, reading, poker




My Books
Natural Exposure on Amazon
Natural Exposure on Smashwords - on $$SALE$$ for $2.40
Natural Exposure on Goodreads

A Bijou Beginning on Wattpad - FREE short story
A Bijou Beginning on Goodreads

A Discovery of BDSM on Amazon
A Discovery of BDSM on Goodreads

Dewey's Wrap-Up

Oh wow! New Questions.



How would you assess your reading overall?
Reading time wasn't bad - just over 18 out of the 24 hours. Not my best, but not the worst. The quality of reading though - that was perhaps the worst. I decided to support some fellow Indie Authors and the writing was, sadly, not good. One of the five that I read by Indie Authors (not including my own short story) was well written / edited. The others not so much. It saddened me as an Indie Author because I've put a lot of work into my book, making it a quality read. It's sad such books can be out there that are so recklessly put together and just shoved out.

Did you have a strategy, and if so, did you stick to it?
Just to read. Took a little too long around dinner with the Hubby but other than that, all went well.

What was your favorite snack?
Ice Cream

Wanna volunteer for our next event? Stay tuned for the recap post!
Nah - sorry. I prefer to just read.



Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-Thon StatsI completed 13 books, started 1 (that will likely be a DNF)I read approximately 1700 pages (with some "Audible Originals" pg counts are estimates) I read 8 books on my KindleI listened to 5 books as audiobooksI read 3 Novels, the rest Novellas & Short Stories (a prequel of the student one not shown)I read for approximately 18 hours 15 minutes (13hr 45min on Kindle, 4hrs 15min hours on Audio)


Completed:









Started, but did not finish:





How was your Read-a-Thon? Leave me a comment and tell me about it, or link me to your blog!






My Books
Natural Exposure on Amazon
Natural Exposure on Smashwords - on $$SALE$$ for $2.40
Natural Exposure on Goodreads

A Bijou Beginning on Wattpad - FREE short story
A Bijou Beginning on Goodreads

A Discovery of BDSM on Amazon
A Discovery of BDSM on Goodreads

Dewey's Mid-Event Survey

Mid-Event Survey

1. What are you reading right now?
At 12 hours in I started A Murder of Manatees by Larry Correia - it was pretty bad :)

2. How many books have you read so far?
Finished 8, started one other.

3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon?
Not sure, haven't planned ahead.

4. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those?
Other than Hubby getting in from work, I haven't had any interruptions. I took 2 hours off when we had dinner.

5. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far?
Nothing changes, so nothing.



My Books
Natural Exposure on Amazon
Natural Exposure on Smashwords - on $$SALE$$ for $2.40
Natural Exposure on Goodreads

A Bijou Beginning on Wattpad - FREE short story
A Bijou Beginning on Goodreads

A Discovery of BDSM on Amazon
A Discovery of BDSM on Goodreads

Dewey's Opening Meme

It's time for Dewey's! This is my 16th, so I'm gonna be a little lazy and reuse some of these answers and this opening statement as well. Ha!

I'm excited for this Dewey's, as I'm behind with my reading this year. Last year, during April, I started writing for the first time. SMH. It's something I never thought I'd do. A year later? I've self-published my first novel (here's how I even came to write it and my first novelette. I'm doing Camp NaNoWriMo (Which was when I began writing last year) but this year I'm doing re-writes of Book 2 which has about a 90% completed draft. What a weird weird ride it's been for me. I write Erotic Romance, so not everyone's cup of tea, but if it's yours, feel free to check it out.

What's your read-a-thon plans for the day? Leave me a link, and I'll come visit you!



Opening Meme:

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?
Sparta, NC ~ the middle of no where. :)

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
None stick out too much this time, I think because I'm behind more than I planned on being at this point and there's a bunch I want to read. I'm hoping to read some other Indie Authors for IndieApril, and I have a few erotic / erotic romance lined up for that.

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?
No special Dewey's snack trip this time, it kind of snuck up on me. But I have a few flavors of ice cream and some cheesy puffs. It'll have to do, though I'll miss having a little grabby snack like Sour Patch Kids or something.

4) Tell us a little something about yourself!
HI! I'm Karsyn (some of you who have been around a while will know me as Karsyn @ KaKiJoKoJa - my book review blog), over 40 (though much much younger in spirit), deeply in love with and married to my high school best friend. I LOVE to read, obviously, and am blessed with a ton of time to read. In a typical month I will read 15-20 books, often more, and when there's something going on, like Dewey's, I read a ton more! Since I started writing, my reading has suffered and I'm behind on the challenge for the year, but I'm enjoying writing. Beyond my books, I'm a gamer, and I built my own Gaming PC, 5 years ago, which I named Widget (after The Night Circus character). Widget is GREAT and we've had so much fun playing games on him! Lately I've been playing some PS4 games (Days Gone & Horizon Zero Dawn).

5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to?
This is my 16th Dewey's so I'll do what I've been doing. :)

Here's a few books on my potential TBR today:










My Books
Natural Exposure on Amazon
Natural Exposure on Smashwords - on $$SALE$$ for $2.40
Natural Exposure on Goodreads

A Bijou Beginning on Wattpad - FREE short story
A Bijou Beginning on Goodreads

A Discovery of BDSM on Amazon
A Discovery of BDSM on Goodreads

I'm doing Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-Thon!

That time of the year again! Once again, too quick that it comes around. How is it almost May?

You know - I left that same line above that I wrote LAST April. Time flies too fast!

I believe this is my 16th Dewey's, I think. I really need to find out which I'm on. It's been a lot.

I went all 24 hours every time, which I loved, until last April. Then, I was doing Camp NaNoWriMo, and I wanted to write rather than read so I made sure to sleep. I don't care for the Reverse Dewey's (has me awake more like 36 hours rather than 24) so I slept some then too.

Planning to do the full 24 hours this time, but don't know if I will or not. We'll see. :) Not going to push it. I'm doing Camp again this year, but only for editing, not for writing the full book. I'm editing Book 2 and am about half way through on re-writes

I used to post on my Book Review blog -
Karsyn's Kickass Jocoserious Jannock Kooky Book Blogbut now I'm here as I build up this blog.

If you're new, welcome! I'm Karsyn and I'm a brand new author, pen name Koriana Brackson! My debut book just released 4/4. You can see it on the side ---> still on sale at Smashwords. It's an Erotic Romance so not for everyone. Down at the bottom are the direct links to Goodreads if you'd like to check out the blurb. Feel free to subscribe to my newsletter, which I send out once or twice a month, or here at the blog where I post daily.


Back to Dewey and as usual, I have no plans, as I'm a diehard Flybyer. (I'm also a pantser when it comes to writing, so I just don't do plans!) I have some books on my radar, but dunno if I'll get to them or not. A few that are likely are:










My Books
Natural Exposure on Amazon
Natural Exposure on Smashwords - on $$SALE$$ for $2.40
Natural Exposure on Goodreads

A Bijou Beginning on Wattpad - FREE short story
A Bijou Beginning on Goodreads

A Discovery of BDSM on Amazon
A Discovery of BDSM on Goodreads

Thursday Aesthetic of Natural Exposure

I decided to switch up the planned post for today since it was too similar to Monday's post. So instead, I'm going to give you an Aesthetic I created for Natural Exposure a few weeks back.

You'll have to read the book to find out how these all fit into the story. :)



In other news, I have a newsletter (see top right of blog to subscribe) and A Discovery of BDSM released yesterday, click on the link below to get it - it's free on Kindle Unlimited.

If you missed the blog yesterday, it was a bit of Disney Trivia - see the sidebar to check it out.

Tomorrow I'll be back with a Character Background on the central character of the Bijou Basin series - Kenzie. You meet her in Natural Exposure, or A Discovery of BDSM if you read that first. Kenzie and her photography studio (aptly named Natural Exposure) are at the center of a core group of great friends. Click on one of the links below to get Natural Exposure today and meet Kenzie, Ripley, Jarrett and others from Bijou Basin.




My Books
Natural Exposure on Amazon
Natural Exposure on Smashwords - on $$SALE$$ for $2.40
Natural Exposure on Goodreads

A Bijou Beginning on Wattpad - FREE short story
A Bijou Beginning on Goodreads

A Discovery of BDSM on Amazon
A Discovery of BDSM on Goodreads

I have a Newsletter!

Yup, I decided to take the plunge and make a newsletter. I've blogged for years, but this will be my first NL. Anyone have any tips?

For now, I'll be sending out the Newsletter roughly monthly, though occasionally a random one may pop up. I'll update what's been happening on the blog (I'm posting here daily), supporting other writers, joining in swaps and promos, and anything else I can think of.

To join, just enter your email and click subscribe on the top right corner ----> the first thing in the sidebar. Also available, the ability to follow my blog via email or RSS.

Thank you in advance for signing up. I appreciate it so very much!!





My Books
Natural Exposure on Amazon
Natural Exposure on Smashwords - on $$SALE$$ for $2.40
Natural Exposure on Goodreads

A Bijou Beginning on Wattpad - FREE short story
A Bijou Beginning on Goodreads

A Discovery of BDSM on Amazon
A Discovery of BDSM on Goodreads

Disney Tips, Trivia & Tidbits

Disney!
Like you, I'm a fan. Unlike many of you, I grew up with WDW in my back yard.

Living near the theme parks is something only understood by other people who live in touristy towns. People in Vegas don't live life the same way as someone say in backasswards mountains of NC, and I can use that as an example, since that's where I live now. Likewise, people outside the parks just don't grasp what it means to be there, ALL THE TIME.

Most people save a LOOONG time for one or two ever trips to the parks. It's a magical time, one some have waited lifetimes for.

I didn't realize until I was older how lucky I was.

I moved to Central Florida just a month after my 13th birthday and while we didn't have much, we always had Disney annual passes. Back then, the prices aren't what they are today. After the initial cost, it was cheap for my childhood - run through a drive-thru, go to the parks for a few hours, and head home. It took gas money, and being about 25 miles away, it wasn't much.

At the front of the parks there are/were the ones who'd stop you and ask questions about your visit. I always bypassed them but when I couldn't they'd ask 'how many times have you visited the park' and my answer was always the same, just like Haunted Mansion - 999. The reason? That was the highest number they could enter.

I've since moved out of the state and the only THING I miss about FL are the parks. I had annual passes from 1990 - 2006, worked there around 1998, and was married to a cast member for 7 years. I was ALWAYS there.

We would have had them a couple years after that but prices got high, and hard times happened. I sadly, don't remember when the last time I was at Disney was, though the last time we were in Universal was fall 2011. We moved to NC May 2012.

Enough rambling already. Geesh!

What is Disney Tips, Trivia & Tidbits? Whatever I, and you, want it to be. What have YOU always wanted to know about Disney? I'm most familiar with WDW, but I have been to Disneyland and California Adventures, although it's been many years. We visited 4 or 5 times.

So, my Disney days will just be any bit of information that pops into my head, and if any of you want to hit me up on TWitter, email, or leave a comment here, I'll be glad to answer questions.


Disney Trivia #1
Since I already mentioned Haunted Mansion, did you know the Hitchhiking Ghosts have names? They are Ezra, Gus, and Phineas. The Portrait Gallery is one of my favorite places in the attraction and when I went to Disneyland the first time, I was delighted to finally experience their elevator. At Disneyland and Disneyland Paris, you actually go down, where as in Magic Kingdom, you don't move, the walls rise up.


Too mundane of trivia for you? What do you want to know next?

Did you notice the "Hidden Mickey" in the banner above?


A Discovery of BDSM released TODAY 4/22/20!!
Live now on Amazon and free on KU!






My Books
Natural Exposure on Amazon
Natural Exposure on Smashwords - on $$SALE$$ for $2.40
Natural Exposure on Goodreads

A Bijou Beginning on Wattpad - FREE short story
A Bijou Beginning on Goodreads

A Discovery of BDSM on Amazon
A Discovery of BDSM on Goodreads