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So Many Ideas, But Which One Do I Write?

Happy November!

It’s my birthday month, and all my favorite stores have already been making me feel special with an influx of coupons and rewards. If you’d like to do something nice as well, check out my November newsletter, out today, for a list of 10 ways you can support authors. I’d love for you to pick one of these items to support me, but if you’ve already checked them all off, well, first of all, you’re AWESOME, but pick one to do for another author or two you enjoy!

Now, on to this month’s topic. A few weeks ago, I sent my current work in progress off to a second round of readers, which left me wondering what I would work on next. The thing is, I have no shortage of ideas. Seriously, you should see the running list of story ideas in my Notes app. It’s so random. Sometimes I’m watching a movie/TV show or reading a book and think of a way I might twist that differently. Or I might be in a store, witness an interaction between two people, and it sparks an idea for a catalyst or event in a story. Or I overhear an interesting conversation or my teens tell me about an incident at school. I write it all down. Sometimes the idea is a single line. Every once in a while it’s a paragraph with bullet points underneath or even a sample scene. 

Occasionally I get so inspired by an idea I create a new note for it. Like this one that ultimately became My Second Impression of You. I don’t know exactly when I had the idea for the book, because the note with the general idea is in my long list, but I obviously kept returning to it and had this thought (at midnight!) for the scene where Maggie’s running out of Starbucks. It’s very close to the words in the final book on page 6 . Some of the other stuff in the second paragraph changed because I didn’t break my foot until a few weeks after I wrote this note, and that inspired the other half of the story premise. According to Scrivener, I created the file and started seriously planning the book in September 2019. Which seems about right, because when I look back through my emails with my agent, that’s exactly when I had sent off another project to her (more on that below). I never have just one project going unless I have some other kind of deadline and/or travel in between.

Usually when I’m ready to start writing something new, I browse through my list of story ideas, and a particular idea will grab me. Typically it’s one of these ideas I expanded on with bullet points or a scene. Back in September of 2019, it was clearly MSIOY .

Since then, I’ve worked on four other projects. First, I went back to the one I had started before MSIOY. It hadn’t been working, and I thought I could make it work, but unfortunately not. Still worth the effort I put into it! Second, I returned to that book of my heart I’ve mentioned on the blog before. While my agent was reading it, I started brainstorming another project from my idea file, but I was having trouble figuring out where to go with it. I really like the idea, and I even wrote a few sample scenes, but I ultimately decided to set that idea aside for now. Which brings us to the fourth idea, which has an interesting origin story.

I saw a TikTok from Kara McDowell about how she decided on the premise for The Prince & The Apocalypse. Another author (sorry, don’t remember who) told her to write a list of 100 things she would like to write about and mix together three favorites, and that’s how she ended up with her novel–because why wait to write about all your favorite things? So I put everything from my story idea note into a spreadsheet (have I mentioned how much I love spreadsheets?). Then I added a few other locations and random things I enjoy reading about that I would also like to write about. It’s more than 100 rows . There’s a particular idea that was rising to the top, but I couldn’t decide what else to throw in with it. On a whim, I had my teen son look through the list and told him to pick three to four things. He picked the idea I was already leaning toward (there’s a reason for that, and if this book ever gets published, I’ll totally explain), but the other two were quite intriguing, so I started playing around with them and plotting a story. That book is the YA mystery currently out with a second set of readers. It’s a different genre for me, and I’m still figuring it out, but I’ve had so much fun trying something new!

What will be next after that? Well, since I already had the spreadsheet, I decided to make it even more organized with all the new ideas I’ve had since last year. But maybe that’s a topic for another month…

Fellow writers, I’m curious how you decide what to write next. Tell me in the comments! And readers, what do you most enjoy reading about? Maybe I’ll add your ideas to my list!

The post So Many Ideas, But Which One Do I Write? appeared first on Michelle I Mason.

Will Teen Readers Recognize that Movie/TV Show Reference?

Happy October!

I hope you’re enjoying the fall. I’m still hard at work revising my current manuscript. It’s taking a bit longer than I expected–probably because of that total restructure. But maybe also because I keep getting distracted. As a result, I’ve been taking another social media break. I’m just popping back on this week to do my newsletter and promo around it.

So, speaking of my work in progress, a funny disconnect happened in the comments from my readers regarding a movie reference. Early on in the book, it includes a small anecdote involving Mean Girls, which released in 2004 (before my teen characters were born). Here’s the setup: Eighteen-year-old Dove is reflecting on a scene from when she met her best friend, Reese. They were both twelve at the time. One of Reese’s defining characteristics is that she’s a total film junkie. In the flashback, Reese tells Dove that she’s just received the Regina George treatment. Afterward, Dove reflects:

Reese’s Mean Girls reference went over Dove’s head at the time, but in the years since, Reese has greatly broadened Dove’s film knowledge. 

Here’s where it got interesting. One reader basically asked if teen readers would recognize that movie because it’s so old, while another (who has teen girls) commented that most teen girls are familiar with the movie. I think they’re both right—a lot know it and many don’t. I mean, how many times did you see a Mean Girls meme or gif on Oct. 3?

But it got me thinking about older movies/TV shows and just generally about awareness. Thanks to the rise of streaming services, it seems to me that there are fewer universal references (especially for TV), while at the same time teens are exposed to a variety of older shows and movies. 

Ten years ago, everyone was watching shows from pretty much the same place–network and cable TV. So there were universal TV references like The Vampire Diaries, Gossip Girl, Glee, plus all of the reality competition shows. Even in the middle of the 2010s, Netflix was the main player, so shows like Stranger Things had widespread recognition. But as more and more streaming services popped up and then the pandemic hit, I noticed a shift in my own family’s viewing habits, and I think it’s probably true of others too. 

Regarding universality: not every family subscribes to the same services, so not everyone has access to the same shows and movies. It gets expensive adding on monthly subscriptions. Netflix is still at the top, but it’s lost some of its dominance. Of course it’s never been true that every teen was watching the same show, but with the plethora of streaming services, it’s less likely now. Just looking at this chart to the right, my own family subscribes to the top four but not the rest, and these aren’t even all of the services available. 

And then we get to the topic of how recent the show is. Newer shows that release on streaming services typically have fewer episodes than the older shows that were on network/cable. They aren’t meant to span a full year. So viewers burn through them quickly and start looking for something else to watch. They can’t create content quickly enough to keep up. As a result, I think viewers–including teens–are more aware of older shows and movies than they used to be. At least my teens seem to be. 

My 13-year-old has watched basically all the old tween and teen shows available on Disney+ and Netflix, while as a family we’ve been alternating between Once Upon A Time, The Good Place, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. My teens will watch anything with a good story. Sure, they notice it’s not from 2023, but they’ll overlook outdated special effects and technology if the characters and writing engage them. (I posted last year about catching up on shows I’d never watched the first time around. I made a note about seeing what my kids had to say about Buffy, so stay tuned. They love it so far, but we’re only on season three…)

So what does all of this mean for writers? Well, I think the comment about whether a teen reader knows a reference is not as relevant as it used to be. And I’m not saying that as license to pepper your novel with references to all of your favorite movies and TV shows from when you were a teenager. My point is more that maybe your question should not be so much: Do teen readers know that TV/movie reference? Instead, the question should be: Does your teen character know that TV/movie reference? Honestly, that probably should have been the question all along. 

Here are a few questions you might ask when considering an older movie/TV reference:

Is it available on a streaming service? Easy to check on IMDB!Are there regular memes/sounds/trends going around that highlight the movie/TV show? Certain shows & movies lend themselves to this. For example, I frequently see quotes/sounds from The Office, Friends, Gilmore Girls–all shows from decades ago that teens are likely to recognize because of trends, even if they haven’t watched them.Is there a remake or sequel? Teens are probably more familiar with Top Gun after the release of Maverick. (Side note: the name Maverick is now in the top 20 boy names of 2023 )Does it feature someone they might be curious about for other reasons? (My current binge is Suits, because I was curious about Meghan Markle as an actor.)

Even beyond these considerations, if there’s a good reason to use the reference, you still can. The truth is, even when you use a current reference, it becomes outdated pretty quickly. So if there’s a really perfect older reference that works with your character, I think it’s less of a worry than it used to be that a teen reader wouldn’t recognize it. They can always look it up.

And if you’re curious what’s trending right now, it’s pretty easy to find that on streaming services. I took screenshots last Friday for Netflix and Hulu and added years (initial release year for TV shows). Hulu doesn’t have a spot for TV shows and movies combined, so I went with TV. That one’s interesting because it includes network TV. Hey, who wants to watch sixty years of a soap opera? (I actually didn’t check if you could. But maybe…)

What have you been watching lately? What about the teens in your life?

My October newsletter is out today! In addition to this feature, it also includes a Halloween character corner, book club info, and more info on what I’m currently reading/watching. Subscribe to catch the next issue!

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How I Restructured My Work In Progress Using Save the Cat

Happy September, friends!

You may recall a few months ago I talked about tackling a self-edit for my current manuscript. One thing I didn’t get into during those posts is that I had tried something rather ambitious when I drafted the book–and I already knew it might not work. In the first step I mentioned in my earlier post–the one where I said I read it like a critique partner and note big picture plot and character issues–I noted that it was very possible the structure didn’t make sense. But I left it as is, because I felt too close to it to make that call. Instead, when I sent it to my critique partners, I specifically asked them about it.

In an interesting twist, right after I sent the manuscript off to my critique partners, a local writing group asked me to present on brainstorming and outlining. Ha! Normally, I’m a dedicated outliner, But if you recall, for this book, I got stuck during the brainstorming phase and decided to just start writing.

As I started preparing for the presentation, I realized almost immediately that I’d skipped one of my usual steps before sending to critique partners–inputting the chapter-by-chapter word counts into a spreadsheet to check that my story beats are on target. Considering that I hadn’t outlined this book, I really should have done that…

Anyway, I’ve always used K.M. Weiland’s Structuring Your Novel, which follows a three-act structure. When I put all the chapter word counts into the spreadsheet, I was even more sure my critique partners would be coming back to me with the news that the structure wasn’t working. But back to the presentation, I wanted more than one outlining resource, and I’ve always heard good things about Jessica Brody’s Save the Cat Writes A Novel. I attended Jessica Brody’s intro webinar, signed up for her newsletter (which is fantastic, by the way!), and put together a presentation that incorporated both structures. Meanwhile, I added a new sheet in my spreadsheet for Save the Cat beats, and nothing was hitting right there either.

So it was no surprise when the notes came back from my critique partners, confirming my suspicion that I needed to restructure the novel. They didn’t all just come out and say that, but reading between the lines on other comments about how information was being disseminated throughout the story, I knew restructuring the book would solve 90 percent of what they’d said.

I don’t regret trying the ambitious structure, because if I hadn’t, I probably would have always wondered if it would have worked. I started making notes about how to approach the restructure based on the feedback, and the day Jessica Brody’s new book–Save the Cat Writes A Young Adult Novel–released, I picked up a copy. I spent a week just reading and absorbing the knowledge. At first, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to apply it to my WIP because it includes multiple points of view, but lo and behold, Jessica Brody includes special examples for that too!

So when I dove back into the revision, I had an entirely new focus. Following Jessica’s advice, I created a dual beat sheet, following each POV character. By the time I reached the end, the dual structure lined up quite nicely. It isn’t perfect yet, but now that it’s all laid out, I know where I need to make cuts/expand for each character and how to whip the rest of the book into shape. All I needed was a little structure!

Which, actually, is not new information. I’ve always appreciated structure. I just got a bit off track with this book. It was fun just writing with no direction, but now we’ll return to our regularly scheduled programming, thank you very much.

If you’re looking for some structure, here are a couple of resources:

K.M. Weiland: https://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/how-to-outline-your-novel/

Jessica Brody: https://www.jessicabrody.com/save-the-cat-starter-kit/

My September newsletter is also out today. In addition to an abbreviated version of this feature, it includes a research corner on the use of phones in Your Life Has Been Delayed, what I’m reading and watching now, and a subscriber-only giveaway to celebrate the anniversaries of both Your Life Has Been Delayed and My Second Impression of You, so be sure to subscribe if you want in on future giveaways!

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All My X’s Live in… The Former Twitterverse?

Greetings from the Lake of the Ozarks!

It’s the last week before school starts, and I’m hanging out here with my family. I mostly wrote my newsletter–out today–before we left town Saturday, but finishing up the last few details on that and this blog post today while working in this lovely room is not a bad deal .

So, about that headline. I don’t know how often any of you visit my website, but two weeks ago I noticed that under “My Tweets” it says “Nothing to see here – yet.” Um, what? I’ve been tweeting since (I think) 2008. There’s so much to see. So I checked in with my web designer, who told me everyone’s site is messed up with all the changes to Twitter. She said most of her clients were taking a wait and see approach. That made sense to me.

Then, last week, the change to X. I knew Twitter was going to be rebranded, but I don’t really get it. Now my tweets are… X’s? Sorry, but mostly X’s make me think of big fat no’s.

Like you got the wrong answer on a game show. Or shouldn’t watch that X-rated movie. Or the teacher put an X on your paper.

The other thing that comes to mind is an ex-boyfriend or girlfriend. Maybe you stay friends, but in general, you mostly stay away. And if they’re a friend’s ex… oh, wait. Poor Carson.

I guess if we want to think positively, it could be this kind of x, but I’m still not sure I’m prepared to think of my social media posts as kisses either.

Perhaps I’m being overly resistant to the rebranding, but I just can’t wrap my brain around calling my posts on the platform formerly known as Twitter X’s.

I haven’t decided what to do about the feed on my website yet. To be honest, I’m not really sure what to do about the platform in general. I used to be very active there. I found community on Twitter, connected with some of my closest writer friends, and used it as a source of industry news. I’m not ready to give up on it, but I also don’t post there much anymore. Mostly I’m just reposting content from my other platforms.

Speaking of which, you’ll still find me on Instagram and TikTok. I resisted TikTok for a long time, but I’ve been on for more than a year now, and I really like it–maybe because I’m more comfortable talking to a camera than posing still pictures. (How do people make books look so pretty??) I’ve found that a lot of the writing community that used to be on Twitter has shifted to TikTok. I follow a number authors, editors, and agents who give great writing and publishing advice. There’s a learning curve, but isn’t that the case with any platform?

What else have you tried? Threads? Blue Sky? Something else? I keep hearing about others but am not quite ready to jump on another platform. I also read a recent article about how authors should be using Pinterest. I find that idea intriguing–building boards with images about your books. I’ve already collected them to use in marketing materials. I’m just not sure how to get started or if it’s something readers would actually follow. Fellow authors, if you’re using Pinterest to promote your books, I’d love to see examples! And readers, if there are authors you follow on Pinterest, please also send me links. I’d love to see what authors are doing that works.

As for X, there’s plenty to see there, but I don’t know what I think about it… yet.

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Easy Words & Phrases You Can Cut to Tighten Your Manuscript

How’s everyone’s summer going?

I just returned from New York with my family, where we filled the week with Broadway shows and all the major tourist attractions you’d expect. It occurred to me on our return home that both of my books have ties to New York. Jenny (Your Life Has Been Delayed) boards a flight from New York in 1995 and begins the story wanting to attend Columbia’s journalism program. Meanwhile, Maggie (My Second Impression of You) hopes to one day perform on Broadway. So if you check out my July newsletter–out today–I’ve included a feature with their comments of some of the attractions we visited.

Last month I talked about how I self-edited the first draft of my work in progress and promised I’d return this month with a focus on how I tightened and cleaned the manuscript. I cut approximately 7,000 words during my edit despite adding two scenes. Most of these are easy words and phrases you can scan through to eliminate, and they’ll also make your prose more active.

To be verbs + ing verbs

This combination is a particular weakness for me. I can’t tell you how many I found, and it’s almost never necessary. Here are a few examples:

I am wishing = I wishThey were dancing = They dancedHe is waving = He wavesWe are hoping = We hopeShe is glittering = She glittersWords you probably don’t need

I bet you’ve seen the words on this list before. They can be helpful for emphasis and voice, but I encourage you to examine every instance and ensure you need them. Ninety-nine percent of the time, you can probably delete the word/phrase.

SomethingJustVeryReallyHave toThe factKind ofSomehowThatEvenStillSort ofBackUpLikeOverExtra body parts

Here’s another fun one–body parts that are unnecessary because they’re already implied. Do you nod your knees? Shrug your feet? Readers already know what these body parts are, so you can cut them.

Wave a handNod my headWink or blink my eyesListen with my earShrug my shouldersCrawl on hands and kneesStep with a footThings to cut at the beginning of sentencesAnd/But/Because – It’s not because you can’t start a sentence with a conjunction. Novelists do it all the time. I do it. The question is: how often are you using them? I find myself using them way too often, so I make a pass through to decide which ones I like most for emphasis or voice.I think/I realize/I know/I’m sure/I notice/I hear – Whatever comes next should signal that the character has thought/realized/noticed/etc. Same goes for close third person. So use sparingly for voice or emphasis.I say/she says/he says when followed by an action beat. “Said” is one of those words that disappears into the background, but if you’re already using an action beat as well, it can disappear altogether.Things to cut at the end of sentences

Is the object already obvious? If so, you can probably delete it from the end of the sentence.

to myselfto me/to him/to her/to them/to usLook for phrases you can make more concise and/or more active

Some examples from my current novel:

I expect there will be = I anticipateCome up with = develop, contrive, conceive, formulateCome out = emergeAre going to = willGo on = happenIf it weren’t = exceptThe truth is = truthfullyAre out of = escape

What other suggestions do you have for tightening your manuscript?

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How I Self-Edit A First Draft

Happy summer!

It’s in full swing here–at least schedule wise. The weather has been unusually cool the past few days thanks to a storm that came through over the weekend, but I expect the heat to return soon. Missouri is notorious for jumping from 60 degrees to 90 in a single week.

On Friday, I sent off my latest work in progress to my critique partners–cause for celebration! But it wasn’t without some prodding to get it done. See, I work best on a deadline. I think it’s why I did so well working at a public relations agency. Everything was on deadline there, and I worked very efficiently. So a little less than a month ago, my husband asked if I had set myself a deadline to send this manuscript to my critique partners.

Nope. But he was right that I needed to. I set it for June 9, and I achieved the deadline. It required cutting out social media for the last two weeks and working a bunch of extra hours last week, but I did it! I share some extra thoughts about the social media piece of it in my June newsletter today. Subscribe to make sure you catch all my news.

But back to my topic for today, my favorite of all: revising!

While I have to come up with all kinds of tricks to get through drafting–like setting daily word count goals and jumping around in the manuscript to stay interested–I enjoy diving into a revision and fixing the words that are already there. Some drafts are more put together than others, and a lot of that depends on how well I plan them in advance.

I did not plan this draft well in advance. You may recall my post on not getting stuck in your writing process. I started writing this book without a full outline, which was sort of fun but also left me with way more work than usual when revising the first draft. As a result, I took a very structured approach to my self-edit.

1. Read through & make notes like a critique partner

In the past, I’ve sometimes jumped right into revising without reading through the whole manuscript. I’ve learned that’s not always the best approach. Particularly for a tricky first draft–like this one–I find it helpful to read through the entire book like I would for a critique partner, making notes, but not changing anything yet. Here’s why.

By reading straight through, I get the big picture of the story. This helps me determine what I need to tackle overall from a plot and character standpoint.It reveals where I need to do more research before I jump back in.I never remember everything I wrote. I was sure I was missing a key motivation for one of the characters. I read through the first couple chapters and spent a good couple hours agonizing over it, brainstorming solutions. I kept reading and guess what? I’d already written something in I’d forgotten about. That is why I recommend reading the whole thing before worrying about it. Make a note of the issue and move on, because you might have already solved it. If you didn’t, you’ll know that soon enough.2. Do additional research

Since I randomly decided to start drafting during my brainstorming/outlining phase, I left a lot of gaps where I needed to confirm facts and dig more deeply into how certain things would play out. As a result, before I could dive back into revisions, I conducted a couple of interviews, checked out a stack of library books, watched a bunch of research materials, and generally nailed things down to ensure any future copyeditors (fingers crossed!) won’t be questioning my facts.

But even when I have carefully outlined books in the past, I have still found places where I needed to do additional research after the first draft.

3. Create a revision checklist

If I’m revising based on notes from other people, I generally already have a kind of checklist. Using the in-line notes from my read-through, I developed a revision checklist for myself that addressed:

Major and minor plot issues/solutionsCharacter arcs/mannerismsNew threads to be addedResearch to be addedCharacter motivations to be woven throughoutInformation to be moved to a different part of the book4. Revise!

I always tackle big picture issues first, because they tend to trickle down and affect minor plot issues as well. Next I cross off (and yes, I literally cross them off) the other plot items. I address character items last. With this book, I have two points of view, so I handled each POV separately to ensure they sounded distinct.

As I’m going through, I also clean and tighten the text, but that’s a whole other post. I cut this manuscript by 7,000 words, despite adding two scenes.

5. Final read-through/add chapters

As I was getting close to my self-imposed deadline, my final read-through was more of a skim, but my main purpose was to add chapters to the book. I write in scenes rather than chapters, so a first draft is never formatted properly for readers. Scenes often become chapters, but sometimes they’re way too long and need to be chopped into shorter chunks to keep the book moving along. Once the manuscript is formatted, I send it off to readers!

How do you self-edit? Do you have any other steps? Or any questions about my process?

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Introducing the My Second Impression of You Book Club Kit!

I’m excited to introduce the My Second Impression of You Book Club Kit!

I know I’ve told this story before, but maybe you’re new here so it’s new to you… Several years ago, my son and a friend hosted a book club. As they were in elementary school, I assisted with planning. You can probably imagine that a bunch of fifth graders want to do more than just sit and talk about a book for an hour. I visited author websites and discovered that some authors had these magical tools called book kits, with frequently asked questions, suggested discussion questions, snack ideas, activity sheets, and more. I immediately decided that should I ever have a published book, I would definitely create a book club kit.

I had a lot of fun making the book club kit for Your Life Has Been Delayed, and I went even further with My Second Impression of You, soliciting feedback from my newsletter subscribers. As a result, this kit includes even more features than my first kit. Inside you will find:

Frequently asked questionsWhere to host your meetingSnacks & drinks (including a recipe to make mocha cookie crumble Frappuccino at home)A playlistA watchlistThe cover story for the bookDiscussion questionsCreate your own Best Day App activity sheetCharacter quizBroadway or Shakespeare quizWhat to read after My Second Impression of You

I hope you’ll check out the kit, but please note that if you haven’t read the book yet, the activities and questions do include spoilers! Click on the image or here to download/view the kit: MSIOY Book Club Kit

If you decide to host a book club using the kit, please get in touch with me. I would love to send you bookmarks. If you purchase books for the meeting, I’ll also send signed bookplates, and if the timing works out, perhaps we can even set up a Zoom for you to ask me questions directly. I love talking with readers!

I also love visiting schools, and if you’d like a peek inside recent visits, check out my May newsletter, which includes a recap with photos. There’s also an update on what I’m writing now, as well as other news. Subscribe to catch all the updates!

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Why I Stop Writing When I Reach My Daily Word Count Goal

Happy April!

Spring is in full swing here in Missouri now–and it even feels like it! I took some visiting family downtown to the Gateway Arch yesterday, and it was lovely walking around, soaking in the sun.

My April newsletter is out today, with a fun extra for My Second Impression of You readers. It includes a quiz to discover which character you’re most like. I hope you’ll check it out and let me know who you get!

Last month I posted about why I love writing out of order, and I also mentioned that I  set a daily word count goal–and I stop writing as soon as I reach that goal for the day.

I usually set a deadline 2-3 months out from my start date.

I love that Scrivener allows me to choose which days I typically write (weekdays) and then calculates my daily goal based on the number of days per week and my end date.

I do all of my writing in Scrivener, which offers many options for daily word count goals. Usually I set an overall word count, select which days I plan to write, and choose an end date that puts me somewhere around 1,700 words per day. That puts me at 8,500 words per typical work week. Without interruptions, I usually finish a draft in about two and a half months. I’ve found that to be my sweet spot.

With this current project, I started drafting without a full outline, so I began at 500 words per day and added 100 more words per day until I got up to 1,700 words per day.

But Michelle, what if you’re in the middle of a scene? Don’t you want to write to the end of it?

Nope! Sometimes I stop in the middle of a paragraph. I’ve even been known to stop in the middle of a sentence.

But Michelle! Ahh! What if you don’t remember what you were going to write next?

I get it. Every writer is different. I recently read a book in which a writer had been stuck for months with no inspiration. When it suddenly struck, she wrote non-stop for like twenty-four hours.

And that sounds impossible to me. I could not sit at my computer and pound out words with no end in sight.

As I write each day, a bar across the top shows my progress toward the overall goal (I’ve surpassed that for this project), while another bar across the bottom shows my progress toward the daily goal. When it reaches the far right, I know I’m finished for the day.

The biggest reason? I hate drafting, and I need goals to get through it. If you love drafting, you’re probably like this fictional writer, happily in the zone, putting 30,000 words on a page in twenty-four hours. Meanwhile, I spend each day watching the bar on my Scrivener file creep toward the goal, anticipating the moment I can rejoice in my daily accomplishment and move on to a diffferent task.

Another reason I love stopping when I reach my daily goal is that I am not starting with an entirely new thought the next day. It’s the best feeling to open up my file, skim over what I wrote the day before, and jump right in mid-thought. I find it much easier to start writing in the middle of a scene than to start a brand new one each day.

Finally, I feel that my writing is stronger when I give my brain a break from drafting to work on other things. Whether it’s reading for a critique partner, making a social media graphic, working on a freelance assignment, or reading, my brain works best if it’s not focused solely on drafting. Honestly, most of my best ideas happen right before bed or in the shower. Who’s with me?

But that’s how my brain works. What about you? Do you have a set routine for drafting, or do you just write straight through until you reach the end?

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Why I Love Writing Out of Order

Who’s ready for spring?

I know I am. It may not officially be here yet, but as of the end of the school day, spring break is! I’m so ready.

As a result, my March newsletter is out a few days early. In addition to the writing topic here, it also includes a sneak peek at the draft of the My Second Impression of You book club kit, a recipe, and a Women’s History Month book recommendation. I hope you’ll check it out and subscribe.

On to the writing topic. Does that title scare you? Are you a writer who starts at the beginning and writes straight through to “The End”? If so, you’d probably be quite appalled by that time I wrote a book in reverse, but let me explain why I love writing out of order.

First I’m going to back up and tell you why I decided to talk about this in the first place. When I participated in World Read Aloud Day back in February, I received a number of great questions from students. I wrote them all down and have been answering them on TikTok.

One of the great questions I received was:

How do you avoid writer’s block? Or, what do you do when you get stuck?

I drilled this answer down to three things:

An outlineDaily word count goalStopping as soon as I reach that goal for the day

The reason I love outlining is because if I do get stuck in a particular scene, I can jump ahead to a different part of the book and start writing. I do this ALL THE TIME.

It was key to how I drafted My Second Impression of You. I think I probably did start at the very beginning of the story, but I know that I jumped forward to the Best Day scenes in order to figure out exactly how all of that would go wrong for her, then came back to the scenes leading up to them. I often had two scenes open in Scrivener at the same time, so I could go back and forth between Maggie’s worst-case and best-day scenarios for contrast. My first draft for that book was really long, but it was there. That’s all I cared about.

I’m doing something similar with my current work in progress, which will tentatively have three parts. I don’t have as full of an outline for this book as I usually do (see my post about avoiding writing ruts), but I have loose scenes planned for each section. When I began drafting this book, I actually started with Part 2, went back to Part 1, and have been alternating between the two depending on what I feel like writing each day. Then, last week I had a breakthrough in how I anticipated executing Part 3 and started working on that before jumping back to the earlier sections. I’m now up to 60,000 words! As with MSIOY, I know this first draft will be long, but it will exist, and then I can get rid of anything extra I wrote because I was skipping around.

I realize the idea of writing out of order may sound terrifying to some writers–that you might feel bound to write your story chronologically. But here are a few benefits I see to writing out of order:

You are less likely to load backstory into the opening chaptersIf you write later scenes first, you will know what foreshadowing/clues are necessary in earlier scenesAs already mentioned, you always have somewhere else to start writing if you’re stuck

While I do like to outline, I don’t think you must have an outline to write out of order. Do you just generally know where your story is going?

If you’re writing romance and you get stuck, write the first kiss scene–or even the climax, when they finally get together. That may help you figure out how they get there.If you’re writing a mystery and you get stuck, write the scene where they solve it all.If you’re writing a horror and you get stuck, write the scene where they catch the killer (or I guess where they die ).If you’re writing fantasy or sci-fi, write the final battle or end to the quest.

Guess what? If you write something you don’t want to keep later, you can change it!

But hey, maybe you don’t need this kind of trick and you can happily write from beginning to end. If you try this for the first time, let me know how it works for you!

The post Why I Love Writing Out of Order appeared first on Michelle I Mason.

Austen, Twilight, and Other Book-to-Screen Ramblings

Happy Valentine’s Day!

I hope you’re celebrating with loved ones. I’m celebrating by sending out my monthly newsletter and talking about one of my favorite topics–book-to-screen adaptations. In addition to this topic, the newsletter also includes a “Who’s Your Character Valentine?” quiz featuring the main characters and love interests from Your Life Has Been Delayed and My Second Impression of You, as well as YA romance book recommendations, a student Q&A, and other news. You can check it out here and be sure to subscribe if you want to catch the next issue.

But back to today’s topic…

What’s your favorite book-to-screen adaptation and why?

My favorite adaptation is the 1995 BBC Pride and Prejudice mini-series. Why? Because Pride and Prejudice is my favorite book, so it follows I’m going to choose an adaptation that brings it to life. This particular one because I believe it’s the most faithful to the book.

I should mention that I wrote my college honors thesis on Jane Austen film adaptations. Granted, I wrote it in 2000, and several additional Jane Austen adaptations have released since then, but just as Mr. Darcy’s love for Elizabeth remains unchanged, so does my affection for the 1995 mini-series. No matter how well the 2005 movie was made–and it really is quite a good effort–it loses so much plot just because it condenses the story into a little over two hours. I do like how the characters are portrayed, but they lose me a bit in that final scene at Pemberley. I’m sorry, but Jane Austen would not write the whole “my pearl” and “goddess divine” thing. If the 1995 version didn’t exist, I’d probably be an even bigger fan of this one, and I do still recommend it to anyone who isn’t up for four and a half hours … [end tangent]

My twelve-year-old seems to be on the same page as me, preferring true-to-the-book adaptations. She recently flew through both the To All the Boys series by Jenny Han and the Twilight books by Stephenie Meyer and proceeded to pick apart every difference in the movies. I hadn’t read To All the Boys or Twilight in years, so while I knew there were differences, I mostly felt they stayed true to the overall character of the books. I’m clearly not as passionate about these books as I am about Pride and Prejudice .

But I think that’s a really important point. Because for any book that’s adapted, there are passionate readers who want to see the book they love come to life. As a result, it seems to me that the most successful adaptations stick pretty closely to the books (accounting for the fact that movies in particular can’t possibly include all plot points without running several hours). I asked TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter the same question at the top of this post. Here are some of the answers.

Regarding favorite adaptations:

HolesHarry PotterHunger GamesCarrie (1976)Bridge to TerabithiaCall the MidwifeThe Princess DiariesElla Enchanted

Regarding what’s most important:

They follow the book better than mostCharacter ages and attitudes are more important than character appearanceDon’t like it when they cut scenes that are important for characterization and heartEven when plot is different, characters stay the same and that’s most important for the story resolution (multiple people said something like this)Caused me to feel the same emotions as the bookWhile different, builds on and expands the original story in new ways

I love these points, and I find it interesting that for most people who responded, plot was not the most important aspect of the story. How sad for us plotters… but not really, if you think about it, because plot should be driven by character. Writing for the screen is a very different skill set than writing novels, and I don’t pretend to understand what all goes into the planning. There are many different considerations when you’re watching the story rather than experiencing it alongside the characters, getting an inside look at their thoughts and motivations. Screenwriters have to find creative ways to convey those motivations.

Let’s take those two examples I mentioned at the top–To All the Boys and Twilight. Netflix changed quite a few plot points in To All the Boys, but to me, the characters were still at heart the same. I think some of the changes may also have been the decade or so gap between the books and the adaptation. For Twilight, particularly in the second movie, they handled Bella hearing Edward’s voice with a visual representation. Made sense to me! And (SPOILER ALERT!) I loved the scene in Breaking Dawn Part 2 when they confront the Volturi. There are a number of reasons why it couldn’t have actually happened that way, based on the book and even what was said in earlier movies, but I don’t care. It’s really well done, and I still remember my reaction in the theater.

In addition to polling my own circle, I found these two Buzzfeed articles: 17 Excellent Book Adaptations That Don’t Make Readers Fall To Their Knees And Curse Hollywood and 19 Book-To-Movie Adaptations That Were Disappointing Enough That People’s Souls Were Affected. It’s all subjective, of course, but it’s interesting one of the first book series mentioned in the positive adaptation article is Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton books, which are quite different. At the same time, one of the adaptations someone mentioned to me as a favorite (Ella Enchanted) is on the worst adaptations list–and I think it’s because of that first point I made: the person who listed it as the worst is very passionate about the book so didn’t like the changes.

I find that when I discover a book or series as a result of watching a TV show or movie, I’m much more forgiving of changes than if I read the book first. That’s certainly the case for Enola Holmes, which I didn’t realize was a book series until I’d watched the Netflix movies. I just read the first book, and I was a bit disappointed to discover Tewkesbury is only twelve to Enola’s fourteen, in addition to some other differences. But you know what’s the same? Enola’s spirit and drive to solve crimes. So I’m on board for more movies if they make them, as well as reading the rest of the books. (Interestingly, I also read both The Princess Diaries and Ella Enchanted after watching the movies, so I didn’t mind as much how very different they are. Spoiler alert: there’s no Chris Pine character in the Princess Diaries books.)

I also really love when they do modern adaptations of classics, like Clueless (which I totally included in the aforementioned thesis as it’s an adaptation of Emma) or 10 Things I Hate About You (which is Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew). Obviously these are taking huge license, but you still recognize the characters and plot points you love about the original story.

Do let me know your favorite adaptations, because I’m always looking for more book and movie recommendations!

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