Laura Roberts's Blog, page 25

NaNoWriMo 2017, Week 2 progress report

It’s Day 15 of NaNoWriMo, and we’re already into the second full week of the challenge!

So, how’s your word count? Mine has been terrible since Saturday, so I’m getting nervous about my chances of winning this year. I’ve had nothing but big fat zeros so far this week, and need to course correct, STAT!

Here’s a quick roundup of my daily word counts, to see where I’ve gone wrong:

Day 6: 2,028 words
Day 7: 0 words
Day 8: 1,473 words
Day 9: 2,026 words
Day 10: 521 words
Day 11: 0 words
Day 12: 0 words
Day 13: 0 words
Day 14: 0 words

NYARGH! That’s almost a full week’s worth of zeros! I’ve got a grand total of 12,253 words, and I’m supposed to be hitting the 25K mark tonight. Obviously I should NOT be wasting my time blogging, and must get back to my manuscript ASAP!

So, that’s what I’m about to do. Wish me luck – and some swift typing fingers.

Got NaNoWriMo Questions?

I’ve got NaNoWriMo answers! Join my mailing list, the Buttontapper Blotter, to get weekly updates with more NaNo news throughout the month of November AND a free copy of my book, NaNoWriMo: A Cheater’s Guide. To subscribe, just click here.

The post NaNoWriMo 2017, Week 2 progress report appeared first on Buttontapper Press.

NaNoWriMo 2017, Week 1 progress report

It’s Day 6 of NaNoWriMo, and we’re heading into the first full week of the challenge!

So, how’s your word count? Mine has been pretty consistent, so I’m excited about that. It looks like my Preptober work this year has been paying off. Who knew a reformed Pantser could learn to love outlining?

Here’s a brief roundup of my first five days’ worth of word counts, in case you’re curious:

Day 1: 1,760 words
Day 2: 1,498 words
Day 3: 1,775 words (with a bunch of outlining also accomplished at the NaNo Support Group !)
Day 4: 1,822 words
Day 5: 0 words

That comes out to a grand total of 6,855 words thus far. Compared to where I should be at by Day 5 (which is the 8,335 word mark), I’m one day behind. That makes sense, since I took Sunday off! But I’m eager to catch up today, and hit my goal of 10,002 words by midnight tonight, and I think I can do it.

Doubling up for one day shouldn’t be too difficult, as I’ve done it before in NaNos Past, but it’s obviously easier to keep up with your word counts if you stay on track every day and at least write something instead of nothing. Next weekend I will do my best not to make the same mistake!

Word Tracking

Although I love updating the NaNoWriMo site with my word counts each day, I’ve also been using Boho Berry’s NaNoWriMo Tracker to chart my progress. I really get a kick out of writing down my numbers for the day and color coding my highs and lows, so thank you to Kara for creating this lovely and useful printable. You can download your own copy for free, just by joining her Tribe, which I also highly recommend if you’re into planning or Bullet Journaling.

Writing Software

One of the biggest questions folks at my write-in had was What writing software do you use?

In case you are also curious, I told them that I mostly use Scrivener for my novel writing projects. I really like its flexibility when it comes to setting up a big project. You can easily break your chapters into different pages or documents, see everything you’ve already written at a glance, and move things around with just a drag and drop of the mouse. They even have an iPad version (which I haven’t yet tried), so you can sync between your computer and your tablet.

If you haven’t tried Scrivener yet, and tend to get lost in an incredibly long Word document (or folder full of confusingly-named docs!) during NaNoWriMo season, I’d highly recommend giving it a try. They even offer a 30-day free trial period during NaNoWriMo because so many NaNo novelists love their software.

Another program I often recommend for writers using an iPad to write on the go is Daedalus. Before Scrivener came out with their iOS version this year, I’d been using this app to draft tons of stories and blog posts in coffee shops or at the library. It’s been great, as you can either email your work to yourself when you’ve finished writing for the day, or you can sync with Dropbox to save your files there.

Unfortunately it seems they’ve recently stopped supporting Dropbox syncing, and are offering users the chance to switch over to another product by the same company called Ulysses. I’m not a fan of paying for my writing software on a monthly subscription basis (yet another reason I love Scrivener; it’s a one-and-done purchase), but at only $4.99 a month (or $39.99/year if paid in a lump sum) this might be a useful alternative for those who prefer to write on the go and want to sync across multiple computers or tablets. (One caveat: It’s only available for Mac products.)

Of course, as one of the write-in attendees pointed out, the best software to use is the one that’ll get you writing. Whether you are writing with TextEdit or Word or Google Docs, scribbling with a pen and paper, or even dictating into your phone when you need to be hands-free, the best way to write is however you will actually get the writing done. I personally use Scrivener to wrangle everything together in one place, but I use a wide variety of software, as well as trusty pen and paper, to get my writing done. Then I pull it all together in Scrivener, where it can be much more easily manipulated, edited, poked, polished and eventually published.

So, don’t get lost on a quest to find The Perfect Writing Software; just pick something that works and get ‘er done!

Got NaNoWriMo Questions?

I’ve got NaNoWriMo answers! Join my mailing list, the Buttontapper Blotter, to get weekly updates with more NaNo news throughout the month of November AND a free copy of my book, NaNoWriMo: A Cheater’s Guide. To subscribe, just click here.

The post NaNoWriMo 2017, Week 1 progress report appeared first on Buttontapper Press.

NaNoWriMo begins today: Join my #NaNoWriMo Support Group!

Today’s the day! It’s the first day of NaNoWriMo 2017, and you know what that means: 1,667 WORDS OR BUST!

This year I’ve come up with some solid plans that will (hopefully) keep my novel on track throughout the month of November, despite visiting friends, Thanksgiving holidays, and prepping another issue of my literary magazine for release in December.

Here are my three main tricks for completing my novel on time this year:

Set aside specific writing times each day, and schedule them in your planner. I’ve decided to use the 5-6 AM and 5-6 PM hours of every day as my daily writing times. This means getting up an hour earlier than usual, as well as actually knocking off work at 5 PM each day (tougher than you might think, when you work from home). I figure experimenting with writing early in the morning when I’m freshly awake vs. writing in the evening when I’m tired from a day’s work (or looking for a change of pace from transcription) should provide some interesting results.
Have a Plan B for days when you can’t make your work counts. I have also decided on a “Failsafe Plan,” which involves getting ahead with my word counts on weekends, from Friday through Sunday each week.
Get accountability; do some write-in sessions. To make this one even easier, I set up my OWN write-ins this year! I’ll be at the Alpine Branch Library from 2-4 PM on Fridays and Saturdays this month, hosting drop-in writing sessions. (Please note that the library is closed on Veteran’s Day weekend and the Friday after Thanksgiving.) I’ll have no excuses not to be writing for two straight hours those days, so that’s another good part of the “failsafe” backup plan. For those not in the San Diego area, you can also join my virtual write-ins from 2-4 PM (PST) by joining my SWOOSH! Facebook group .

Got any additional ideas for how to ace NaNoWriMo this year? Let me know in the comments!

The post NaNoWriMo begins today: Join my #NaNoWriMo Support Group! appeared first on Buttontapper Press.

Plot: Setting Up the Sequel, #Preptober Day 31

Happy Halloween! Today’s the last day of Preptober, so in case you missed my previous posts, be sure to take a look at the Preptober page to catch up.

Let’s talk about setting up your sequel.

Even if you weren’t planning on setting up a sequel, you may find this info useful. After all, cliffhangers are great for sprinkling throughout your manuscript to keep readers turning pages.

As mentioned yesterday, your resolution needs to be satisfactory, no matter what kind of book you’re writing. It should tie up any loose ends, give a sense of closure, and help set up any additional stories you want to write with these characters or in the same universe.

Sequel setup is usually done with a cliffhanger. This can be literal (a character hanging off the side of a cliff!) or metaphorical (a character that appears to otherwise be in danger, a new quest that needs to be embarked upon, a new puzzle to solve, one piece leftover from the original case that can’t quite be understood, etc.). Action and adventure stories often set up the next quest, while mysteries usually set up a new case for the sleuth to solve. Romances may not typically end on cliffhangers, but could conceivably set up additional steps in the relationship (marriage, a new baby, moving to a new home) or more conflicts that threaten to tear the lovers apart.

What kinds of cliffhangers could you leave your readers with? Feel free to get spooky – it’s Halloween, after all! And you never know what might be lurking just around the corner, or down that dark alley…

The End?

Though Preptober is drawing to a close, tomorrow is the first day of NaNoWriMo, the main event we’ve all be prepping for! Join me on the NaNoWriMo website to find out more about my writing project as it progresses during the month of November, add me as a writing buddy, or join my Facebook group for friendly advice, encouragement, and a dash of competition. I’ll be hosting weekly virtual write-ins there from 2-4 PM (PST), so pop in and join me.

Want to write a book with me?

Share your book’s title, or tell us how your prep has been going so far in the comments. Or, post about your progress on your blog, and be sure to use the hashtag #Preptober when sharing on social media so we can find each other.

Don’t forget to grab a free copy of my Preptober Prompts Printable, which you can print out for personal use during NaNoWriMo and beyond.

See you tomorrow for the first day of NaNoWriMo!

The post Plot: Setting Up the Sequel, #Preptober Day 31 appeared first on Buttontapper Press.

Plot: Resolution, #Preptober Day 30

Yesterday we talked about how to reach your novel’s climax, so today we’re talking about resolution.

Preptober is almost over – we have just ONE DAY LEFT! – and so this is the perfect time to talk about how to end your novel.

It might sound simple, but it’s a little bit more complicated than just writing “THE END” after the last sentence you wrote. So, how can you crush your novel’s resolution?

First off, what the heck is a resolution, and does it have anything to do with New Year’s Day?

To answer your second question first, NO. But as for what resolution in a novel means, most folks define it as the “falling action” or conclusion or denouement. To properly resolve your novel, you need to hit your climax and then tie up all the loose ends (which is sort of ironic, since the word denouement actually means to untie in French – oh, those tricky Frenchmen!).

In my opinion, you don’t necessarily need to explain everything that just happened in a big ol’ Evil Villain Speech (as in most superhero tales and James Bond films, where the motive for the evil plan is explained right before the hero finally crushes the villain), but bringing together a bit of an answer to the question “What just happened here, and why?” is never a bad idea. Readers like to feel they understood the books they just read, so giving them a bit more insight or understanding about what happened in the previous scene is a good thing.

Also important to remember is that part of your resolution can also be the setup to another story – or even a whole new book. But we’ll talk more about that tomorrow!

For now, you’ll need to think about your climax and how this wraps up the action to your story. Or, if it doesn’t, how you can use that unresolved scene to kick off a new book without leaving your readers feeling disappointed by your first book’s ending.

Want to prep with me?

Share your Preptober story’s title, or tell us how your prep has been going so far in the comments. Or, post about your progress on your blog, and be sure to use the hashtag #Preptober when sharing on social media so we can find each other.

Don’t forget to grab a free copy of my Preptober Prompts Printable, which you can print out for personal use.

See you tomorrow with my final Preptober prompt!

The post Plot: Resolution, #Preptober Day 30 appeared first on Buttontapper Press.

Plot: Climax, #Preptober Day 29

Preptober is almost over! That means NaNoWriMo is almost here! Where did all the time go?!

With just three days left in the month of October, it’s time to talk about the climax of your story.

First, just what is a climax, and why do you need one? The obvious answer is that this is the Big Moment that your whole story has been leading up to, whether it’s a big reveal (Clark Kent is really Superman!), a big wedding proposal (yay, s/he finally popped the question!), a big showdown between the hero and the villain (hooray, the bad guy is FINALLY defeated!), or something else BIG, it’s THE definitive moment in your story – the moment your reader has been waiting for all this time.

The climax is the highest point in your story. Tensions are high. Nerves are steeled. Everything hangs in the balance at the very top of the roller coaster’s ascent…

And then WHOOSH! it’s all downhill from there as you tip from build-up to resolution. Which is, coincidentally, tomorrow’s topic!

Naturally, I can’t tell you what the climax for my story is (I mean, why would you still want to read the book if I just gave everything away?), but that’s the gist of what you’re aiming to do in your climax. This is another good place to ask yourself “Where is my story headed, and how do I get there?” If you haven’t hit your climax by the end of the book, something is missing. So make sure to aim all of your metaphorical arrows at this point, because that’s where your hero is heading from day 1 – even if they don’t know that yet.

Want to prep with me?

Share your Preptober story’s title, or tell us how your prep has been going so far in the comments. Or, post about your progress on your blog, and be sure to use the hashtag #Preptober when sharing on social media so we can find each other.

Don’t forget to grab a free copy of my Preptober Prompts Printable, which you can print out for personal use.

See you tomorrow with a new prompt!

The post Plot: Climax, #Preptober Day 29 appeared first on Buttontapper Press.

Plot: Twists, #Preptober Day 28

PLOT TWIST!

The plot twist is the simplest solution to any perceived problem in your novel, and is often shouted by frustrated NaNoWriMo novelists who have found their “Eureka!” moment.

Plot twists are also a) necessary, b) unavoidable, and c) a great way to keep your reader from getting bored.

Let’s explore.

First, what’s a plot twist? It can be as simple as an unexpected action (which, for reference purposes, Hollywood usually calls a reversal). For this, think of the scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark, where Indiana Jones is suddenly faced with a swordfighter showing off his moves. At first, he’s terrified. This guy is going to behead him! He doesn’t even have a sword! He’s no swordfighter! But then a look of recognition crosses his face. He grabs his trusty pistol and simply shoots the sucker. BANG! Problem solved.

That’s a quick plot twist. There’s a setup (angry swordfighter! danger!), with an expected payoff (Indiana Jones is killed by angry swordfighter!), and then you yank the rug out and give a different result instead (Indy shoots the swordfighter).

Another awesome thing about that particular plot twist is that it was supposedly improvised by Harrison Ford. Nice work, Solo!

But back to our main focus… how else can you work in some plot twists?

Some of this depends on your genre. Mysteries, for instance, require far more plot twists than any other genre, though action/adventure stories also require quite a few twists and turns. When writing a romance, you may want to fake out your readers occasionally, but ultimately the ending isn’t going to be a surprise or switcheroo; we want to know that the main characters end up together, happily. But all genres need plot twists, to keep readers interested in the story. If they can see all of your plot points coming from a mile away, then something is wrong. It’s definitely time to stand up, shout “PLOT TWIST!”, and change things up.

The basic thing to remember is that ANYTHING can become a plot twist, if you let it. Now, I’m not talking about unintentional mistakes, such as accidentally describing your brown-eyed character as having blue eyes, but here’s an idea from a book I recently read that could have been a plot twist. The main character was told to find a red envelope stuck under a particular park bench. When she and her friend went out to find it, they ultimately discovered a yellow envelope instead. I kept waiting for it to be revealed that this was the wrong envelope, that the person who had sent them in search of the red one had actually left two envelopes, each with different instructions… but the red envelope never materialized. That could’ve been an interesting plot twist, particularly since this was a book about learning how to code, which requires following directions and precise input. Instead, I think it was simply an editing mistake. But think about the possibilities!

Whenever you’re stuck, ask yourself “What if?” Come up with a couple of different ideas and alternatives to the first thing that pops into your head, and see where they might lead. For every road, there’s always a fork. Take the less-traveled path. Follow that white rabbit. Explore plot twists, and have fun!

Want to prep with me?

Share one of YOUR story’s plot twists (preferably not a key plot point!), or tell us how your prepping is going in the comments. Or, post about your progress on your blog, and be sure to use the hashtag #Preptober when sharing on social media so we can find each other.

Don’t forget to grab a free copy of my Preptober Prompts Printable, which you can print out for personal use.

See you tomorrow with a new prompt!

The post Plot: Twists, #Preptober Day 28 appeared first on Buttontapper Press.

Plot: Fill, #Preptober Day 27

As noted yesterday, today’s goal is to start filling in the gaps between the big plot points you sketched out yesterday.

Now, I don’t want to give away my whole novel here, so I’ll spare you all the minute details of my own plot, but the basic idea is to keep building on your outline. Right now you’ve got several big scenes chunked out, so fill in additional important scenes that will take you from one to the next.

If you’ve already got it chunked out as much as you can, start thinking about beats.

What’s a beat? Screenwriters and playwrights use this term to mean the smallest unit in fiction. These could be single lines of dialogue, images, emotions, settings, or moments of action (or inaction). As with sketching out a big picture, beats are the kind of shorthand sketches of smaller pieces of your story that can jog your memory about things you need to include. I think of them as the To Do List of writing your story. Fill them in, and your story will start to take shape.

For more info on beats and how to write them, check out Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat! website, where you can find beat sheets for tons of your favorite movies. You can also download his free 15-point beat sheet to help you structure your story around standard screenwriting beats.

Want to prep with me?

Start filling in YOUR story’s plot today and tell us how your prepping is going in the comments! Or, post about your progress on your blog, and be sure to use the hashtag #Preptober when sharing on social media so we can find each other.

Don’t forget to grab a free copy of my Preptober Prompts Printable, which you can print out for personal use.

See you tomorrow with a new prompt!

The post Plot: Fill, #Preptober Day 27 appeared first on Buttontapper Press.

Plot: Sketch, #Preptober Day 26

Today it’s finally time to start plotting that novel. There’s a little less than a week left in Preptober, and we’ve got to get to the heart of this story, stat!

Whenever I start outlining my novels, I usually do some brainstorming to begin with. As explained in this post on outlining, I jot down every bit and piece no matter how wild and crazy and off track it may sound, and then sort through it later. The idea is to just get all your jumbled thoughts down on paper, and then we can pick through them for plot points.

Next you’ll want to go through your story from A to Z. Starting with your pitch or logline, ask yourself what the biggest scenes are – the ones you absolutely MUST include – to hopscotch your way from the start to the finish. No need to get too detailed just yet; just get the basic stepping stones down.

So, for my ninja story, I’d try to capture the big picture in a few sentences like this: a ninja-in-training loses her parent/mentors in the forest, and can’t meet up with them to complete their mission. While trying to escape pursuers, she breaks her ankle. Eventually she’s discovered by a local boy, who sneaks her into his tree house and takes care of her until she recovers. The boy and ninja girl become friends, and when his parents discover her, she is forced to join him at school. With no experience in a public school, the ninja girl is embarrassed in one class after another – until she finally wows them with her ninja skills. Once her ankle has fully healed, and despite settling into a rather normal existence with her new friend’s family, ninja girl misses her own family and decides to try to find them so she can complete her training and become a full-fledged ninja. With the boy tagging along on this new adventure, she sets out on her quest to reconnect with her parents – which is also the setup for a second book in the series.

Tomorrow I’ll fill in the holes between these plot points, and turn this quick sketch into a more detailed outline!

Want to prep with me?

Share YOUR story’s quick plot sketch in the comments, or post it on your blog, and be sure to use the hashtag #Preptober when sharing on social media so we can find each other.

Don’t forget to grab a free copy of my Preptober Prompts Printable, which you can print out for personal use.

See you tomorrow with a new prompt!

The post Plot: Sketch, #Preptober Day 26 appeared first on Buttontapper Press.

Scenes: Emotions, #Preptober, Day 25

Today’s topic: How do we make sure that our scenes are conveying the right kinds of emotions?

One of the most important things your scenes need to do is strike the right emotional chord, which involves setting the mood.

A scene about losing your family in the forest, for instance, should call up feelings of fear and frustration in your character, leading to distress – and possibly even anger (“How could they leave me behind?!”).

Each scene can either stand alone or build upon previous scenes to help create the overall mood of your novel.

For a coming-of-age story, like the one I’ll be writing, emotions can be mixed. There might be excitement about growing up, fear or apprehension about new developments or responsibilities, and maybe some resentment or frustration with how fast or slowly things are changing, or how parents and teachers fail to recognize you as a budding adult and treat you with the proper respect. Growing up may even inspire feelings of ambivalence in your characters, who could be responding “Who cares?” to everything anyone says to them.

Just remember to show us these emotions instead of simply telling us what they are. You can try Angela Ackerman’s excellent book, The Emotion Thesaurus, if you need help finding good ways to express different emotional states.

So, let’s get emotional!

Want to prep with me?

Share one of YOUR scene’s emotions in the comments, or post it on your blog, and be sure to use the hashtag #Preptober when sharing on social media so we can find each other.

Don’t forget to grab a free copy of my Preptober Prompts Printable, which you can print out for personal use.

See you tomorrow with a new prompt!

The post Scenes: Emotions, #Preptober, Day 25 appeared first on Buttontapper Press.