Chris Baty's Blog, page 46

30 Covers, 30 Days 2020: Day 17

Check out this cool watercolor-inspired cover designed by Kevin Perry based on the Mainstream novel M.A. Trainor! How cool is this?

The Headmaster’s Daughters

After a geographically tumultuous childhood scattered across six states, sisters Lucy and Pearl have finally settled into places they can call home. For Lucy, it’s Boston, where she’s just finished college. For Pearl, it’s a small town in Alabama, where she’s starting her senior year of high school. But when their father loses his job unexpectedly and the family plans to move again, the sisters are forced to reckon with what it really means to call a place home.

About The Author

This author has chosen to keep their identity a secret! But their NaNo project is amazing.

About The Designer  

Kevin Perry is a designer, educator and organizational leader with two decades of agency experience. He currently oversees talent and operations at Struck, an internationally acclaimed creative agency whose clients include Utah Office of Tourism, Nickelodeon, Universal Studios, and McDonald’s.

Kevin speaks around the country and teaches at the University of Utah. His work has been recognized by some of the industry’s most respected organizations and publications including AIGA and Print Magazine. In 2014 he was selected by Graphic Design USA as one of the “People to Watch”. Kevin is the cofounder of Salt Lake Design Week and the ReVinylize project and has held a number of roles with AIGA, the professional association for design, where he most recently served on the national board of directors.

7 Ways to Stay Inspired During NaNoWriMo

Every year, we’re lucky to have great sponsors for our nonprofit events. Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), a 2020 NaNoWriMo sponsor, allows you to put your creativity in the hands of hungry readers, bringing your best book to market in multiple formats. However, the key is having the inspiration to start in the first place. Kelly Yonce, author and member of Amazon’s KDP team, came out of November 2019 with a finished novel. Here are some of Kelly’s recommendations to stay inspired this November:  

Inspiration was hard to find during NaNoWriMo 2019. Caffeine in hand (but never enough), I lived with a constant sense of urgency each day as I moved from role to role: parent, caregiver, employee, and now author. For some aspiring authors, starting a book in the midst of today’s real-life responsibility and chaos can feel ludicrous and daunting. As you navigate NaNoWriMo 2020, here are a few tools I used to get through it, even on the most uninspiring of days. 

1. Create a playlist for your book and characters. 

Throughout history, art of all kinds has fostered emotional and cultural expression. When you take in art that inspires you, the output will be art that inspires other people.  

2. Create a storyboard with images for each of your characters and settings.

Aesthetics bring everything to life and build dimensions that make your novel become tangible to the reader. While it is important to write with action and movement that propels the story along, details enrich a story and evoke emotions and drama. 

3. Let your characters make their own decisions. 

Some authors lose inspiration when they are led by their own emotions and how they want a story to unfold. Allow your characters to create inner and outer conflict and then follow them down each rabbit hole. It may be uncomfortable, and you may scrap some of what you write, but it prevents writer’s block and helps you grow as a writer. 

4. Write out of order. 

Yes, we see you with the brilliantly detailed outline and schedule. Bravo. Now, insert life. There will be days that you aren’t inspired to write what’s on your outline, and that’s OK. Use whatever inspiration you can muster to write about what is in your brain. Because creativity always trumps a rigid outline.  

5. Decide how you want people to feel when they read your book. 

Understand that your story can and will be an escape for someone who needs it. If your goal is to muster forgiveness, draw from this and be in that mindset when you write. 

6. Go back in time. 

Do you remember the stories that healed you? The songs that brought you to life? Can you remember the day you decided to write a book? Hold onto that like a warm blanket. 

7. You are human. 

Let that be your strength and never see it as a weakness. Let everything that’s ever happened—good and bad—give you the courage to sit down and type. Let your humanity fuel you. Always.

Kelly Sullivan Yonce works on the KDP team and loves being a part of a publishing experience that puts control and creativity in the hands of authors. As an author herself, Kelly published multiple books through KDP and continues to embrace the NaNoWriMo experience. Kelly is a mommy to four, blogs and writes as often as possible, and in her day job she is consistently rejuvenated by the creativity of teammates and the authors they support.

Top photo by Diego PH on Unsplash

30 Covers, 30 Days 2020: Day 16

For today’s cover we have this awesome design by Courtney Glancy based on the Satire/Humor novel by J. Paddon

Acquiescent

Steve is a Government-sanctioned Evil Sorcerer who has been slacking on his evil duties, and is ten days from being financially cut off. With the reluctant help of his roommate Cho (short for: Chosen Hero Whom Shall Save The World) and his dog Spot (who is big, lovable, and very much undead), Steve has ten days to make a four day journey to the Capital. And in a world of heroes, villains, magic, and orcs, nothing bad could possibly happen on the way, right?  

About The Author

J. Paddon has chosen to keep their secret identity in tact!

About The Designer

Courtney is an award-winning art director at idfive, a mission-based marketing agency in Baltimore. She works in all facets of design and strategy, from brand to digital to design thinking. An industry veteran, there are few challenges she hasn’t tackled. Courtney also served as Programming Director for the Baltimore chapter of AIGA for three years. Aside from design, if you mention travel, food, or cats, she’ll talk your ear off.

Check out her portfolio! Or follow her on Instagram @charm_city_gal

30 Covers, 30 Days 2020: Day 15

Here is a cover designed by Joe Schwartz based on the YA Mystery novel The Monsters Inside Us by YWP Participant Eli Lodge

The Monster’s Inside Us

Ayesha’s best friend is dead. Suicide? Murder? No one knows. Until the day Ayesha gets a letter in her mailbox that was seemingly sent to her from Jane. It was mailed to Jane 2 months before her death. It’s a threat letter. The next day, Ayesha gets another letter, also seemingly sent from Jane. It happens every day until Ayesha has a stack of 20 letters, all leading up to the day before Jane’s death.  As Ayesha is struggling to find out the truth of Jane’s death, she starts to see things. And hear things. Mysterious things. Things possibly supernatural,  haunting. Ayesha sets to find the truth of Jane’s death and to find the truth behind the mysterious noises and sights she experiences daily. But the truth is not all what it appears to be.  

About The Author

Eli Lodge is an 8th grader who spends most of her time listening to music, playing cello and singing, or reading and writing. When she’s not doing those things, she is most likely daydreaming, studying, playing photographer with her dad’s camera, messing around with her friends or cousins, as well as playing with her younger siblings. Or you might find her trying to figure out how in the world will she ever end her many started stories that seemingly never have an end to them. She currently lives in the Pacific North West with her family and their leopard gecko.

About The Designer

Joe Schwartz is happy to be invited back to be a designer for his fourth NaNoWriMo book cover. The process of design is Joe’s “happy place”, but when he’s not creating design work Joe is a design teacher at Spotswood High School and a design professor at Kean University’s Michael Graves College, both in New Jersey.  he is also the co-founder of DESIGN-ED, an education nonprofit that helps teachers and students use design as a tool for teaching and learning.

A small portfolio of Joe’s work (including past NaNoWriMo covers) can be found at: www.schwartzdesign.biz

30 Covers, 30 Days 2020: Day 14

Look at this amazing YA novel brought to us by YWP Participant Cata Elvander! This stunning cover was designed by Kelley Kempel! Let’s give them both a round of applause!

Find Me Where You Were

Gaby’s parents have both died, but its not a big deal. It was their own fault, anyway. But then she receives a box of envelopes from her mother-to her. Her mother tells Gaby to go to different locations. Each one will reveal something about her mother. So Gaby follows the clues, learning about her mother’s life and eventual death.  

About The Author

Cata is a 7th grader living in Massachusetts. She is dancer who loves photography, reading, writing, baking, and walking her dog, which is when she tends to brainstorm.

About The Designer

Kelley Kempel is a packaging guru, adventurer, and creative director. Kelley helps companies and business owners build brands they love.
http://www.hiddenpathcreative.com

Finally Writing That One Scene: Tips On Getting Through

What writer hasn’t felt like banging their head against the wall because of writer’s block? And there is always that one scene that just doesn’t seem to work the way you wish it would. Thanks to YWP Participant Anastasia 

Sukhoverkhova for giving us a few tips to get through that dreaded scene!

Writing is not easy. While it is not that hard to imagine something in your mind, turning it into words and presenting it as a whole can be a challenging task. Sometimes even though you know what you need to write, you completely lose any motivation to actually do so. Those tricky scenes you don’t want to touch or those important moments that need your undivided attention can be put off for a long time. So, what can you do to actually get to writing them? Here are some helpful tips:

1. Stop and rethink.

If you can’t for the life of you write the scene, no matter how hard you try, most likely the problem is not you, but the scene itself. Of course, it looks so good in your head, but often, the way we imagine things is not the way we write them. Sometimes they turn out to be over-complicated or they just don’t fit for your writing style. What exactly bothers you when writing it? What is it you are failing to do? It is important to pause and think about the problem.

2. Change.

Even if the problem is actually your procrastination, changing the scene often helps to change your perception of it. You can change something not relevant to the plot, like the weather or a character’s clothes, or something bigger, like the setting of the scene and adding (or removing) certain characters from it. Did it change for better or for worse? Why? Remember that any alteration you make is reversible, the change is only to help you get a fresh outlook.  

3. Skip it.

Why, what can be easier than to forget that that one scene should be written and just move on with the story, assuming it already happened? Concentrating too much on that one scene gives it too much power. Your story is bigger than that. Write ahead—maybe only a few paragraphs, maybe a whole chapter. Then come back and read it as a whole. What is the best way to tie these two pieces together and fill the blank space?

4. Move.

You know yourself that this scene is different, so why not write it somewhere special? Changing the environment in an unusual way can help you concentrate. You can’t bail on writing when you put so much effort into even getting to the place, right? After all, this is your favorite coffee shop, library or park. You can’t let them down, so might as well do it.

5. Get the wildest idea. Add it in.

It’s more of a writing exercise than an actual tip, but it helps you to understand both the scene and the characters better. Interrupt the scene. Make your heroes do something out of their character. What changed? What didn’t?

We all get tough moments with our writing sometimes. Keep up the good work! It will all be worth it in the end.

Anastasia is a fifteen-year-old who lives in Ukraine, and writing and reading were her first hobbies. Reading is what essentially drove her to all my other passions, so she have a soft spot for it. Writing a book one day has always been her dream, but she did not have the support she needed. Finding out about writing communities such as NaNoWriMo has been a big step for her and changed the way she looks at writing. Typically, she writes short stories, but this year she is planning to write my first novel.

Top photo licensed under Creative Commons by tracyshaun on Flickr.

30 Covers, 30 Days 2020: Day 13

Today’s novel is brought to us by YWP author Mei M. It is an Experimental novel and this cool cover was designed by Robb Smigielski. 

Cookies With A Cup of Poison

He only stayed home with Mami and Dadi. That was it. He never touched a single drop of someone else’s blood, nor encountered so much things in his life all because of one choice. He was a shy little half-wolf who is a complete couch potato.
Well, that’s going to change pretty fast. At least there are cookies and chips involved.  

About The Author

Mei M. is a young writer who moved to Maryland recently. When she was young, she tends to write many novels and learns from many other writers. Mostly, she would stare at the ceiling while playing with her pillow to compose a random idea. She is a fan of drawing, anime, manga, reading, writing, and the piano.

About The Designer

Robb Smigielski is a 20-year practicing graphic designer specializing in branding, digital product development, and advertising. He’s long been involved with AIGA and previously served as president of the Kansas City chapter. Having worked in both the US and in the UK, he now serves as the North American Head of Design for VMLY&R where he most recently launched the redesigned brand identity for Intel. He is also an avid collector of modern board games and is frequently found camping with his wife and cat in their vintage travel trailer.

The Most Basic Roadmap Through Your Novel with Ninja Writers

Every year, we’re lucky to have great sponsors for our nonprofit events. Ninja Writers, a 2020 NaNo sponsor, is a writing community that helps you build a bridge between your imagination and your novel. Today, Ninja Writers creator Shaunta Grimes shares a helpful story structure to keep you on track with your writing:

Imagine it’s the beginning of November and you’re starting an epic month-long road trip. You’re headed from California to New York City! You’ve got your car packed, your playlist loaded, the good snacks in the front seat. You’re ready to go.

So, you pull out of your driveway and you start driving. You even manage to get going eastward, but you end up in Florida a month from now after winding all over the place between Canada and Mexico.

Ah, right. You forgot your roadmap. 

Starting NaNoWriMo with the spark of a story idea is like an epic road trip we take every November. The good news is, we don’t have to head off without a roadmap. There are five key plot points that every story has. (Yes. Even yours!) If you figure yours out for your story, you’ll have some guideposts to keep you headed in the right direction all month long (or to get back on track if you’ve gotten lost).

I’ve taught thousands of Ninja Writers how to easily and quickly plot this course through their stories. It’s often the difference between a good start that goes nowhere and a great finish.

You can learn more about these plot points and how to use them to go deeper into plotting before you start writing. I even wrote a book about it. But just having these basic guideposts creates a roadmap that’s really all you need.

The Inciting Incident

I like to think of the inciting incident, or the call to action, as a question. Often, it literally is. The question at its core is this: Do you want to come into this story? This is the first really unusual thing that happens to your protagonist in the story.

The Inciting Incident generally happens somewhere in the first half of Act I, after you’ve developed the ordinary world.

The Lock-In

If the inciting incident is a question, the lock-in is the answer. Spoiler alert: the answer is always yes. Always. One way or the other, your protagonist has to get from the ordinary world into the world of the story.  The lock-in is the transition between Act I and Act II of your story. It happens about a quarter of the way through. 

The Midpoint

The midpoint is the second biggest moment in your whole book. In a non-tragic story, it’s a big, big win for your main character. I like to think of this as a window into what things could be like if everything just happens the way it should.

As its name implies, the midpoint happens in the middle of the book. It bisects Act II. 

The Main Climax

This is the biggest scene in your whole book. The main climax, in a non-tragic story, is often called the dark night of the soul. Everything is lost. The reader and the protagonist both don’t know how this could possibly turn around. 

The main climax happens at the end of Act II, about three-quarters of the way through your story.

A Note About Tragedies

Quick note before we move on. If you’re writing a true tragedy—meaning your main character is either dead at the end or would be better off dead—then your midpoint and main climax will be inverse. 

Your dark night of the soul, mirroring the tragedy of the end, will happen in the middle of Act II. Your high moment, the really good win for your protagonist, will happen at the end of Act II, to give you protagonist a big cliff to fall from into the tragic end.

Third Act Twist

The third act twist is the part where your protagonist takes everything they’ve learned through your story, and whatever strength they already had, and figures a way out of their mess.

Shaunta Grimes is a middle grade and YA author and a teacher. Ninja Writers lets her do both and is her happy place. Ninja Writers is dedicated to helping new writers become working writers. We offer dozens of live online classes and workshops every week and the opportunity to join a thriving writing community.

You can connect with Shaunta and Ninja Writers on Facebook or Substack. Click here to try the Ninja Writers Club for $5 for the first month.

30 Covers, 30 Days 2020: Day 12

Today’s cover is based on the YA/Fantasy novel A Phoenix Turned To Ash by R. Aislyn and designed by Victor Davila!

A Phoenix Turned To Ash

In Eritzia, a land of both human and Fae, twins are a rarity. The most powerful Fae arrived in Eritzia many millenia ago, in pursuit of humans to share their magic with; to dilute it and prevent it from consuming their souls. With twins however, the magic of two often flows into one, giving one twin an unfathomable amount of power- if they can learn to control it. Damini, the firstborn princess of Asah is a natural born warrior- and a twin. She has felt her country’s fire magic flow through her veins and she is ready to master it.

For years, following the invasion of Aflary, a kingdom of conquerors, Asah has fed on ruins. It has been a country crippled by poverty. And it is not the only one. Nearly every country in Eritzia has felt the aftereffects of Aflary’s brutality. Damini must use her power to bring together the rulers of Eritzia’s fallen kingdoms against the might of Aflary. It is time for the conquered to rise from the ashes they have been reduced to. It is time for them to take back their power.  

About The Author

The author has always loved YA novels for how they help her escape from the real world and take her on fantastical adventures. After reading hundreds of them, she thought she’d finally try her hand at writing her own. This will be her first NaNoWriMo and she’s excited to delve more deeply into her outline and begin writing her first book! In her free time, she loves baking sweet treats, exploring the natural wonders of her home state, California, and, of course, reading.

About The Designer

Victor Davila is an illustrator and designer from the Orlando, FL area, as well as an Assistant Professor in the University of Central Florida’s School of Visual Arts and Design teaching illustration and design. He has worked on everything from character designs and storyboards for animation, to editorial illustrations, interactive games, and children’s books.

Victor is also the founder of the central Florida illustrator collective Giant Illustrators, President Emeritus of AIGA Orlando, on the organizing committee of Creative Mornings Orlando, an Affiliate Faculty at Limitless Solutions, and an Adobe Education Leader.

“Stories can heal, and we are in desperate need of...

“Stories can heal, and we are in desperate need of healing.”

—Alexis Daria is a native New Yorker, former NaNoWriMo Municipal Liaison, and award-winning author writing stories about successful Latinx characters and their (occasionally messy) familias. Her debut Take the Lead won the 2018 RITA® Award for “Best First Book” and was one of the “Best Romance Novels of 2017” in The Washington Post and Entertainment Weekly. Her super powers include spotting celebrities in NYC, winning Broadway ticket lotteries, and live-tweeting.

Read Alexis’s full pep talk here.

Loved Alexis’s pep talk? Let her know!

Want to hear more from Alexis? Listen to her episode on the official NaNoWriMo podcast.

Image created by Sandra Moore.