Sarah Allen's Blog, page 31

The Good Stuff

Hey guys! So, one of my favorite YouTubers, Craig Wheezy Waiter, is doing this other project called The Good Stuff where they have different themed weeks and do awesome videos on that theme. The first week they did was Origins week, and it's been awesome ever since. I thought I'd share my favorite video they've done for your weekend enjoyment:

So awesome.

Anyway, hope you have a good weekend y'all!

Sarah

Better to Push Through or Take a Break?

So there's something that happens after you've been writing for a while. Even a short while. You finally get some words going, you get in the flow, it's coming, and then all of the sudden, it happens.

You hit the wall.
That's what runners call it anyway, and I think it's an apt metaphor. Because its an abrupt stop, ramming the momentum you had head on into brick. 
It happens to me every few hundred words. I'll get three or four hundred words down and then finish a scene or get pulled away by my wonderfully distracting sister or mindlessly clicking onto Pinterest. Then I'm stuck. The flow stops flowing. (By the way I think minimizing distractions i.e. Pinterest is key to pushing back the wall and something I'm going to try to do better at).
I'm pretty sure it happens this way for everyone. Maybe a lot of you can go a lot further than me without hitting the wall, but it happens eventually, right?
If not--if you never come up against The Wall--please tell me your magic secret? Please???
Anyway. When you get to this point, what do you think is the best thing to do?
The way I see it, there's two options. Either you sit there and push until you've broken through the wall, or you go away and use your mental powers elsewhere until the wall has gone away. Which do you think is the best thing to do?
On the one hand, we are WRITERS DANG IT and WRITERS WRITE and no dumb ol wall is going to stop us. On the other hand, sometimes it is a FREAKING THICK WALL and you don't want the writing to sound forced anyway and its Just. Not. Coming.
After some thought, I think the answer I've come up with is that neither approach will work in every situation. I think sometimes the wall isn't going to go away on its own and you have to push through. Other times no amount of shoving will budge the stupid thing, and you have to take a breather or its going to stay there like a stubborn mule.
The pattern that I think works best for me personally is this: Usually the first wall or two I come to aren't super thick. They're definitely there and they leave me staring blankly for a while, but I can push through and get another few hundred words down. Then a wall will come that really throws me off and I start feeling like my butt is beginning to fuse to the chair anyway so its time for me to at least step out onto the balcony for a while and probably get something to eat. Sometimes it takes until the next day for the wall to go away, and sometimes it still takes a little forcing, but if I make myself sit down the next day and get started, the words will eventually start flowing again.
That's how I've seen it working in my own head. Anybody else have clearer ideas or a better approach? Do you think it's better to push through or take a break?
Sarah Allen[img source]
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5 Places to Submit your Non-Fiction

Non-fiction is not my main thing, but in the recent months I've been wanting to expand my horizons and have done a bit of research into some cool places to send non-fiction. I've had some fun just looking at some of the articles and brainstorming ideas that might work. If you've got some non-fiction ready to go or are just looking for some potential ideas, here are five places to look:

1. Travel Culture Magazine: If you're looking into doing some travel writing, this might be a fun place to start. It seems pretty casual and fun.

2. Atlas Obscura: I know I've mentioned Atlas Obscura on this blog before, but among other things, it is also a great venue for more travel writing. It's a good place to get your feet wet, I think, and one I plan to use.

3. Chicken Soup for the Soul: There are always open submissions for upcoming Chicken Soup for the Soul books. My favorite right now is one about dogs. If you think you can write something suitable for one of these anthologies, it might be a great place to send your work. And if none of the current topics look interesting, check back later!

4. The Hairpin: This is one of the funner magazines I've come across. It seems fairly eclectic and creative, which is perfect. One of my favorite stories lately is called Six Fairy-tales for the Modern Woman. Check it out, read a few articles, see if you can come up with a fun idea that might fit.

5. Bright Lights Film Journal: If you're a film fanatic, as many of us are, then the Bright Lights Film Journal might be worth checking out. The articles in this journal are very smart and deeply analytical, but if you can work that, than I say go for it.

So there you have it. Obviously there are tons of places out there, but these are some that I plan to keep in mind for the future. Do you write non-fiction? Where have you submitted it in the past?

Sarah Allen
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The Writers Guide to Instagram

From my Instagram account. Find me at SarahAllenAuthorHey everyone!

So, Instagram has kind of exploded in the last year or so as like, the awesome new thing. Even if you don't use Instagram, image based platforms (*ahem* Pinterest and Tumblr *ahem*) are the biggest things right now, and what users are becoming used to. Short version, images are the thing on the interwebz.

But our medium of choice, as writers, is text, right? We use words, not images. Hopefully evocative words, but still, words. So how can we use image based platforms like Instagram to our advantage? For networking, marketing, inspiring, all that kind of stuff. Here are a few cool writerly things I've seen people do on Instagram.

1. Notecard Poetry: One thing I've seen people do is to write a very short two or three line poem on a note card, place it against a nice background like a wood table, take a picture and upload it to Instagram. Personally I like this better than people using the comments section for their work, because I honestly don't really read that part.

2. Overlayed Quotes: There are a lot of cool designy quotes about writing on Instagram. What I've done is find/create them on my computer, put them on my Pinterest board, then download them from Pinterest to my phone, then upload them to Instagram. Since Instagram isn't a computer/tablet app yet. It works, and its probably the thing I've had the most success with so far.

3. Am Working Images: Take a picture of your work space or a screenshot of a small piece of your work in progress and put those on Instagram. It's a fun camaraderie thing, and I know I always like real life shots of how other writers are working.

4. Covers: Take pictures of the books you're reading, or, of course, upload an image of the cover of your book. Another way to get the picture of your book in peoples heads.

5. Other artsy projects: And of course, if you are artistically inclined in any way, by all means share your work. Your pictures, your illustrations in progress, your comic strips, all that good stuff.

So those are some things you can put on Instagram, but other than that, what do you actually do on Instagram to be involved in the Instagram community.

*Like and comment other peoples stuff
*Hashtags are super big on Instagram, so make sure you're using all the right ones to get your work noticed.
*Browse hashtags to find cool people to like/comment/follow

Those are my Instagram tips, from my limited experience. Even if you don't use Instagram, hopefully some of these tips can also be applied to those other image based platforms.

Are you an Instagramer? What types of images do you find most intriguing on places like Instagram, Pinterest, or Tumblr?

Sarah Allen

An Insane Awesome List of Resources for Writers

So, this incredibly amazing list was brought to my attention and so I had to share it with you all.

And here it is :)

Check it out. I haven't had a chance yet to go through each item and check them out individually, but I plan to.

In other news, I finally succumbed and started Buffy the Vampire Slayer last night. Maybe slightly dated, but my first impression is that it's basically text-book perfect plotting and raising stakes. (Get it...Stakes...) But yeah, Joss Whedon is pretty much reigning king of television storytelling. And it gets talked about a lot how feminism friendly that show is, and how awesome it is to have such kick-butt female leads, and I was like, yeah, but now that I've actually watched it, I'm like, YEAH!!!

Anyway, it's pretty awesome. And I'll leave you with a song that takes my breath away every freaking time.

And have a good weekend everybody!

Sarah

Six Ways to Escalate the Plot

We all know we need tension on every page. That the story and plot has to be gripping enough to pull the reader from page to page. There's the old metaphor of how, when a scene starts slowing down, you bring in a man with a gun. But beyond actually doing that, (and that might not fit anyway), what are some things you can do to boost the tension? Here are some ideas.

1. Give your protagonist a handicap. Maybe physical. If they're in a hurry, give them a bum knee or a flat tire. If they have to give a speech make them lose their voice. If they have to take a test give them a head-cold. Do NOT make things easy for them.

2. Increase "room conflict." In theater/acting, the term "room conflict" refers to how the room or place the characters are in makes the situation even more difficult. For example, if it's really cold or really hot. Or if it's so noisy they can barely hear each other. Or if it smells really bad or your characters allergic to the cat. I think this could work in writing too, and it only makes things harder for your characters.

3. Take away the main ally. If your character has a best friend or supportive parent or mentor, take them away. Or at least remove them from each other. Maybe the mentor has helped him up to this point, but now he has to do it on his own. Dumbledore could only help Harry so much, and then he had to do it all by himself/with the ghosts (?) of his dead parents.

4. Bring in the one person your protagonist DOESN'T want to see. Her ex? His old boss? The co-worker he screwed over? The brother he hasn't spoken with in seven years? Bring them in.

5. Tighten the deadline. What's worse than a bomb? A bomb that's going to go off in FIVE MINUTES. If your character is chasing down a killer, give the killer a flight to Cuba in four hours. If your character has a paper due in two weeks, shorten it to two days. If your character is trying to find something for a birthday party, make that birthday party tomorrow. Or better yet, in fifteen minutes. If your character doesn't have a deadline, give them one, and if they do, shorten it.

6. Secondary Character Misfire. Say your main character has a younger brother. What is the one thing she would never expect him to do? Have him do it. Is her boyfriend a Darcy-esque silent type? What would she do if all the sudden he went loopy? Is his boss usually a pushover? What if today he was a total jerk? This isn't a change in your protagonist herself, but it gives her something else she has to deal with, at least temporarily.

So there you have it, six ways to escalate tension and quicken your plot. Hopefully they help. Anything else you would add to this list?

Sarah Allen

What social media site do you use the most?

It's a simple question I have for you today.

Out of all the options out there (and they are legion) which social media site do you like/use the most?

Facebook?
Twitter?
Tumblr?
Pinterest?
LinkedIn?
Goodreads?
YouTube?
Google+?
Reddit?

Some sites are more niche or obscure, while others are more general use, but I think people still have loyalties and preferences. Even if they use multiple sites, they enjoy one over the rest.

So which is it for you all? Which site do you spend most of your social media time on? And a follow up question. What do you do mostly do on that site? I'm talking specifics. I'm curious. If it's Facebook, do you look through pictures? If it's Twitter, do you browse celebrity feeds? If it's Pinterest, do you mainly browse for recipes?

Yes, this is basically a poll post, but I'd still love all y'all to answer :)

Sarah

Here, have some nerd flare

Just thought I'd share some awesome stuff I've found. So yeah. Here.


I'll leave it there for now. Have a good weekend everybody!

Sarah Allen

Deleting 3,000 words of my novel

Yesterday I had to back up in my novel about 3,000 words. Delete them. All.

I've never had to do that before. Usually I try and plow through and leave the rest for editing. But I just was not feeling this scene. Not just the scene, but the whole plot thread that had taken up the last 3,000 words. I doubted it so strongly that I thought, well, if I'm liking this so little then there's no way readers are going to like it.

So I deleted it. It wasn't as scary as I thought, although seeing my word-count go down that much was extremely disappointing. But I've figured out what I think needs to go there instead, and I believe it works much better. It fills the need for that space, and I think it will be much, much less off-putting.

Eventually maybe I'll write a post about what I had there first and what I have there now, but I hope it all makes it a better story in the end. Because that's the goal, right?

How far have you had to back up? Have you deleted big chunks of your story before?

Sarah Allen
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Sometimes I Just Play Temple Run

I'm getting pretty darn good at it, guys.

The last few days have been tired days. It's hard for me to write when I feel too tired, slash after I've been at work all day. The most productive time for me is definitely when I have a night shift and sleep in and work in the early afternoon before I go. I try to work every day, obviously, but those days seem to work the best.

When you're tired or come to a stuck place in your writing, do you think it's better to push through it or to take a break and do something else? I honestly can't decide. I want the writing to be the best it can be, unforced, and obviously it feels nice to take a break, but on the other hand I'm a writer dang it and a writer writes and I want this novel DONE. So I can't decide. What do you think?

There's also some weirdness going on with my first novel. It's been a while since I've looked at it, but this past week I decided it was time for another Very Deep Edit so I started going through it and I feel like I've learned so much writing this novel and writing my new novel and then when I go back to the old one it's like it all goes away. A large part of me is terrified that it's actually terrible and the only way to fix it is to completely start over and start from scratch. Yes I do want to the writing to be the best it can be and I want it to find an agent but also STARTING OVER IS TERRIFYING. I'm not going to make any final decision on that at least until I am done with novel two and have something else to query.

I still have faith in George and his story. Absolutely. And I feel like I'm just ready for a professional editor at a Real Life Publishing House. And I am so, so incredibly excited about this new novel and it's getting so close to being done and I hope my writing has leveled up and we'll see what happens with it but I'm just glad to have both novels and hopefully something will happen soon and the important thing is just to keep writing and writing and getting better and better. Every day.

And taking breaks is good, I think. Maybe it's not a decision between forcing or taking a break, but seeing what works best every day in every unique situation.

So sometimes I just play Temple Run.