Laura Teagan's Blog, page 28

Fast-Drafting Your Novel

This summer, as I listened to podcast after podcast, I was introduced to a new concept of writing: fast-drafting. So, today, I want to talk about five things you can do to make fast-drafting work for you.

Fast-drafting is essentially what it sounds like. You write your novel fast. NaNoWriMo could be a form of fast-drafting, but ideally, you’d want to be able to do it faster than that. Fast-drafting is something you should do when you have a vacation from school or work.

There’s a few benefits to fast-drafting, including the fact that it works out your brain, but here’s my favorite reason why fast-drafting is awesome: When I was younger and I took months to finish manuscripts, I would forget details about things, wondering if I had discussed it in the draft already. Fast-drafting keeps my mind fresh on details because I just wrote those details down a day or two ago. Even a month is better than six months. You also build consistency when you fast draft, and who doesn’t want that?

1. Set a Time: If you want to fast-draft, set a time for when you write. Ideally, I’d love to be able to write first thing in the morning, but now that classes have started up again, I’m usually out the door shortly after I wake up. I need to find a time in the middle of the day when I can clear my mind and just get to work.

2. Have a Plan: I’ve talked about the importance of having an outline before, and if you’re going to be successful at fast-drafting, you have to have a plan. It doesn’t need to be detailed (make it as detailed as you want), buit you have to at least have the high and low points planned out before hand, because when you’re fast-drafting, there’s no time to sit down and twiddle your thumbs. You have to have at least a skeleton of a plan, if nothing else.

If you want a choesive first draft, you ought to try fast-drafting your novel. Here's 5 ways to…
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3. Set a Word Goal: This was what kept me going when I fast-drafted (yes, that’s now a verb) through the first half of TA2. Everyday, I had a word count of 5,000 words. Some days I hit it, some days I didn’t, and some days I had to catch up. But having that word count gave me the ability to see progress clearly, especially with my goal set up in Scrivener (She’s Novel has a great post on how to set your own goal up).

4. Keep Focused: They say if you give yourself shorter time limits, you’re more likely to get more done because you feel the pressure. If this is what keeps you focused, go for it. If not, you need to figure out what keeps you focused because you need that focus for these intense writing days.

5. Stay Inspired: Pinterest is a great tool for finding inspiration online. Whether you use it to storyboard or for promotion, there’s plenty on there for you to stay inspired.

 

 

 

 

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The Social Writer: A New Series

 

I started my last semester of college yesterday, and as a public relations major, I heard a lot about campaigns and “integrated marketing,” which basically means social media (in a really water downed way).

Given that I’m starting to look at social media more and more as a business tool rather than just for fun. Of course, it sometimes seems like writers just want to spend their time writing (I can’t blame you) and not taking the time to do some basic social media marketing.

Wondering how to use social media to build your author platform? Be sure this new series!
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So, the next few weeks, I’ll be talking about the different social media platforms that are around and how I think you can use them to promote your writing career and author brand. I’m really excited to be able to take my public relations/social media background and share techniques with everyone!

Are there any platforms that you’re extra curious about?

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5 Things on Love Triangles

Over the past few years, the love triangle has gotten a really bad rap, and I understand that. Two guys who fall in love with the main character, when she herself has thought she was unlovable? It sounds ridiculous, but I have a confession to make.

My sequel has a love triangle.

And it has become much bigger than I anticipated. But you know what? I’m okay with that. I’m okay with that for a few different reasons, and today, I’m going to (in a very broad sense) talk about 5 things on love triangles – things to consider when creating them.

1. People Like People – One of the subplots of TA 2 is Cassie having to learn how to date. This originally starts as the idea that she’ll go on dates with multiple people. In a shallow way, that in itself is a love triangle, just not totally developed.

2. The Comfort and the Exhilaration – What makes love triangles work is the juxtaposition of two love interests who don’t have much in common. Of course, there are things like cultural traditions that they may have that are the same (both my male love interests are from the United States, so they’ll have US based mannerisms and ideals), but when it comes down to thinking about it, they’re different.

Even with their careers, it comes down to what makes sense. For one relationship, it makes a lot of sense in Cassie’s mind to have that relationship, and the other one is still something she wants, even if she thinks it won’t work. One is a comfortable ideal of a relationship (as much as a relationship can be), and the other is more of an exhilaration.

5 Things to help you create a believable love triangle.
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3. The Background – Cassie’s background, and even the events of The Assassin, play a big part in her relationships in this book. One guy has ties to the events in the first book, the second one doesn’t. Obviously, when thinking about where a relationship is going, you have to think about where that relationship has been.

4. The Heroine’s Self-Esteem – One of the biggest things I see in these love triangles is the lack of self-esteem in the heroine. Yes, I know that many young women nowadays have little self-esteem (sometimes, I am one of them), but make her have something. Yes, we all go through moments of doubt, but if you’re going to make your heroine totally self-loathing, give her a legitimate reason.

5. Give Them Meaning – Don’t add a love triangle just because you want to add one. Make each of these love interests give the main character something besides love. Give them a meaning. One of the love interests in TA2 will give Cassie information that will help propel some big events later on in the series. Make the characters dynamic, give them more than one reason for existence.

Crafting a love triangle can be hard, but if you want to get it right, take the time to really develop your characters. After all, that’s what love is about, the people who are in love.

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My New Outlining Method

I’ve always been a very linear outliner. I can’t help it, I just think in order.When I working on The Assassin, I always knew the general direction and the end that the book would have, even though the details changed a lot.

When it came time to sit down and plan out the sequel, TA2 (I suck at titles), I really had no idea where to begin. I had a few loose ideas, but I wasn’t anywhere close to having a plot or an outline. My normal method of starting out with “Chapter One” on a piece of notebook paper wasn’t going to work.

Which is how I discovered the greatness of notecards. Well, I knew about the notecard method, but I had never really used it. The one time I had tried it, I tried to do it starting at the beginning and working toward the ending.

When you don’t really know where the ending of the book is, it’s hard to do that. I started out with my arc notebook, where I carry around a bunch of ideas that I may or may not use in a book. Of course, I chose red because that tends to be the theme color of my books (because blood is red and it’s about a serial killer, yeah…)

Every time I have an idea, I write it on the notecard. This could be a general idea for a chapter, or a specific detail that I want to implement into the story. As I write these all down, I start getting a picture of what the story is starting to shape into and that’s when the notecards meet the wall.

I’m visual in the sense that I want to see all the notecards spread out. Scrivener has a great feature for this, but with my small laptop screen, I can’t see the whole story arc on it. So, I use some sticky tack and the wall to form the story.

As I do this, I can pace the story out, and fill in some gaps that I see. Once it’s good, then, I take it and import the notecards into Scrivener. I separate my stories out by day, so I’ve been importing the notecards one day at a time.

Since I’ll be working on the third book in the new few months, I can’t wait to get back at this method, because I really loved using it. I think my old ways of outlining are over.

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When Should You Sequel?

In traditional publishing, there’s often a one year wait between a book and it’s sequel. Of course, in indie publishing, all of that notion that readers have to wait a year is thrown out the window. But if we’re throwing out the traditional publishing cycle, what are we replacing it with?

Well, that’s the great thing about indie publishing. You get to decide. Depending on what you’re writing and where you are in your indie career, this can easily vary. Today, we’re going to break down when you should start working on the sequel and when you should release it in relation to the first story.

My Story

Right now, I don’t have a book out. I’m hoping really soon to make an announcement on that and when it will be coming out. Even though I haven’t released the first book, I’m already 25,000 words into the first draft of the sequel. Why?

Because, in order to build momentum and really start kick an indie career, you need to have multiple works. If you make people wait a whole year for the next book, they’re probably going to forget about you by the time it’s out.

So, I’ll finish the first draft of the sequel before I go back to classes, probably the night before. Then I’ll turn around and finish edits for the first book with my editor. Release the first book, edit the second, release the second one, and then turn around and write the third one. It’s an aggressive schedule, but if I want to be a successful indie author and one day write full time, I have to be aggressive.

Wondering when you should start working on your sequel? here's your answer #indieauthor
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Because I’m being aggressive, I’m working fast to get the second book done. Of course, I’m writing full-length novels. The cool thing about self-publishing is that you don’t have to stick with full novels. You can write serials, novellas, novels, short stories. There’s no rule saying you have to abide by a story length.

Serials and novellas are shorter, and because of this, if you want to be aggressive, start them before you’re done with the first part. If you really want to be on top of it, wait until you’re done with the whole section (like a season in a serial) before you start releasing. Finish it all at once.

Novels, because they take more time, you can have a little bit more time, but if you want to ride that momentum of the first book, you need to be fast. You can’t go into self-publishing without a long-term goal, and if you’re trying to build a community around your book, you’re going to want a sequel, two, or even three (or nine sequels if you’re like me).

If you want to write a stand alone as a indie author, take the time and wait on it, from a marketing standpoint, you want readers to develop a love of the same characters, so that the reader trusts you enough to take a chance on your other characters.

So, when should you start your sequel? More times than not, I’d say before the first book is out.

When do you plan to start your sequel?

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Finding Your Community on Twitter

Major thanks to Faye from Writerology for the topic suggestion. 

I’ve talked about how you build your book a following before it’s published, but what about a community of fans and supporters and cheerleaders for you as a writer? I’ve spent a lot of time trying to  build a community of people, people who I could connect to.

My solution? The best place so far is twitter, specifically twitter chats. The one that I’ve really grown to love is Story Social.

I don’t remember how I specifically found Jenny Bravo of Blots and Plots, but I’ve definitely grown to know her on twitter. She and Kristen of She’s Novel run the twitter chat every week. It’s a twitter chat about social media and branding for authors, which is something that is totally up my alley.

But, besides the fact that I’ve found the chat to be my total niche, the people there are great. In every twitter chat, you’re going to find people who have great ideas, people who can share what works and what doesn’t, bounce off strategies.

I’ve also found a really awesome Facebook group because of twitter. Jenny wrote a blog post about everything related to self-publishing, including a few podcasts. I found another podcast from listening to those, and this podcast has a Facebook group (it’s Author Strong – they come out with episodes everyday!).

The truth is, if you’re looking to sell books at some point (whether you want to do the traditional route or self-publish), you need to have a community. People who will cheer you on, and love you, even with your failures.

If you’re looking to join a twitter chat and meet new people, find new friends, and just learn some awesome information, try story social. I’m sure there’s other great ones out there, but I absolutely love story social.

Since I don’t really know of any others, tell me, what twitter chats do you participate in?

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The Badass Guide to Pen Names

 

Originally, I thought The Badass Guides would just be more for craft-related things, but this is a big post. So, it’s a Badass Guide.

Pen names, many authors use them, but how do you know if it’s right for you? There’s several reasons an author could use a pen name, and today, we’re going to talk about some of the reasons you may decide you need a pen name, or why you may want one.

Here’s a few reasons you may consider a pen name.

1. Your Real Name: Maybe you were blessed with a super long last name, like mine. Maybe people butcher the spelling and pronunciation all the time. Or, if you’re like me, people brag to you when they finally figure out how to spell your last name (#truestory).

2. You Write in Different Genres: The famous example of this would be if you wrote children’s books, but you also wrote erotica. Obviously, you not want those linked together because you’d probably have lots of mad parents.

3. Going Incognito: If for whatever reason, you decide that you don’t actually want people to link your writing to you, you can use a pen name to hid your writing. Maybe you don’t want people to bug you about your writing, or judge, or whatever the case is, if you want to be separate from your writing, a pen name could be you.

4. Gender-less? There’s been studies shown that sometimes, especially depending on the genre, you may need a gender-specific name for better success. Or lack there of. J.K. Rowling used initials because it can be harder for women to sell fantasy. She’s also used another pen name (a masculine one) for a mystery book. Do your research on your genre to decide if you need a pen name or not.

5. Your Real Name, part two: Say you were blessed with a common name that everyone knows how to spell. That could be a double-edged sword, though. If you have a common name, what happens when someone else with your name is also a writer?

So, You Decided You’ll Use a Pen Name. Now What? 

6. Do Your Research: Make sure that the names you’re thinking of aren’t taken. If you’re looking for a specific meaning of a last name, is a great resource.

7. Make a List. Make a list of all the names you like, and if you’re doing both first and last names, make sure you combine different combinations of the names. Keep going until you find a name that you love. A name you can build a career on.

Need a pen name for your writing? On the fence about whether you do or not? Here's the badass…

8. Social Media. Do you need to update social media? Make new accounts? If you’re trying to keep your real identity a secret, make some new accounts.

9. The legalities. If you’re going to accept money from people under this pen name, you need fill out some paperwork. You’ll need to have the proper paperwork. This is a of pen names and the law. You’ll need to do more research about receiving payment under a pen name, but this is a great starting point.

10. Start Building Your Brand: It’s important that you start working on your new pen name as soon as you can once you decide on it. If you’re about to publish a book, get a website up, and start connecting with people.

11. I have to confess: Over the weekend, I got a new identity. You see, for a long time now, I’ve gone back and forth on whether to use my last name, just because it’s so hard. It’s long, it’s not pronounced the way it’s spelled, and it’s just a mouthful.

So, on Saturday, Laura Teagan was born. What does this mean? Well, Ginger & Co./Ginger & Books will still be their own things, written by Laura Toeniskoetter, because most people find the blogs based on their names.

But, my book will be published by Laura Teagan. It’s different enough that I’ll be unique, but easier than “Toeniskoetter.” That also means brand new social media accounts to establish Laura Teagan online, so if she follows you on social media, that’s me. I promise, neither Laura bites.

Now tell me, if you use a pen name, what made you decide you needed it?

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Pump Yourself Up for Writing

One of the hardest things to do in writing is to start writing, right? Once you get started, it seems like it’s much easier to get the words out onto the screen, but starting is just hard. This was something I used to struggle with constantly, and I still do to some extent: You need to pump yourself up for writing. Now Laura, how do I do that? You may be asking yourself that question (or is it asking me?). Lucky for both of us, I have the answer. Today, let’s talk about five ways to pump yourself up for writing. 

1. Have a mini dance party. Sometimes, we need to just get the blood flowing. Ever have an awesome five minute dance party? It just naturally boosts your mood and you’re ready to take on the world after…. or your manuscript.

2. Read one of your favorite scenes. If you feel like you’re not getting anywhere with your book, you need to figure out why you love your story to begin with. Go back and find a scene you absolutely loved writing and read it!

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3. Take a break. If you’ve been working on other things, or even staring at your manuscript for a while, take a break. Go for a walk, or if you can’t go for a walk, get up and grab a snack or a drink of water.

4. Set a timer and read. Set a five minute timer and read one of your favorite books. Read a book that inspires you, so you’ll be excited to create your own awesome stories.

5. Say a few affirmations to yourself in the mirror. Pump yourself up in general. Make yourself feel good. There’s benefits to saying affirmations to yourself in the mirror. Use these to build some confidence in yourself, which will then help your writing. If you feel confident about your writing, you’ll be pumped to write!

How else do you pump yourself up for writing?

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The Badass Guide to Naming Your Main Character

Naming your main character is one of the most important things you can do, but figuring it out can be hard. Trust me, when I come up with a new idea for a story, I probably spend three days asking people to throw out names for characters. I know that when I find that name, I’ll know that I’ve found that name.

But finding that name is hard. Trust me, I’ve struggled with naming character my whole entire writing career. In fact, this post is party inspired because I’m struggling with a name for a character in the sequel. Because of this, today, I bring you 11 tips for crafting that perfect name for your main character.

1. Make a List: First, you should make a list of virtually every name you could ever think of that you like. In fact, I need to do this. If you have a list of every name, you’ll be able to come back to it later on for other ideas. The only thing I’d keep off of it are names you think you’d like to name your kids. If you’ve already named all your children, this doesn’t apply to you. I just know, personally, I have names I’d love to name my actual flesh and blood (or adopted) children, so I won’t name main characters these names.

2. Think About Trends in Your Book/Time Frame: When does your story take place? Names go in and out with trends, and for the most part, you want to stick with the trends for the time frame. For instance, you aren’t going to find many girls from the 1990s named Cecilia (that was my confirmation name, though, and I’m from the 90s, but I chose that name for other reasons). You can check the United States for almost any year from 1879 to 2014.

3. Heritage: With that in mind, when you’re crafting your character, does your character have a specific heritage to follow? For instance, if you’re writing a medieval piece where your main character is going to be king someday, there’s a specific heritage with that. Future kings are given a short list of names because these names emulate the greats. While your character may not have a kingdom in his future, there can still be heritage attached to his life, and thus, his name.

4. Expectations: This kind of goes with heritage, but what expectations are expected out of your character? If he is going to be king, you want a name that reflects that. Please don’t name your king “Sprinkles.”

5. If you go unique, have a reason. If you have to name your king “Sprinkles” please have a solid reason for doing so. Remember, this character has to spend the rest of entirety stuck on the page with the name you bestow upon him, so be nice. Unless Sprinkles is taunted for his name and that’s a part of his character development, but beyond that, don’t name your king “Sprinkles,” please.

Struggling with naming your main character? Here's the badass guide to finding that name.

6. What about a nickname? For instance, my main character, Cassie, goes by her nickname. Her full name is Cassandra, but I actually decided upon Cassandra being her full name after I landed on Cassie. If you land on a name, think about possible nicknames for this character. Even if you don’t have your character typically go by a nickname, it can be a great thing for another character to use for your MC.

7. Combine Your Ideas. If you have two names you absolutely love, use both of them. People have a middle name, too! Once you have that list of ideas, you can start combining names to find something that sounds right.

8. Make sure it flows. That being said, when you find something that sounds right, make sure it flows. You don’t want people tripping up over your character’s name unless that’s a part of the character development (see #5 for that). Think about your own name, I’m sure there’s a pattern or flow to it, yes? Give your character that, too.

9. The kid test. I talked about this in #1, but if it’s a name you want to give your child later on in life, don’t give it to your character. If you do, your child may never forgive you for the constant comparison you’re inviting upon him. But, when picking a name, make sure it’s a name you would be comfortable naming your child, even if it’s not a top pick. Don’t make it embarrassing.

10. Say it out loud. When you think you’ve landed on a name, say it out loud. Why? Because you have no idea what it sounds like out loud. Cassie’s last name is Dreandry, a name I totally made up. I always imagined that you would say it just as it’s spelled: Drean (like “clean”)-dry. Well, when you say that out loud, it sounds kind of weird, but it’s too late now. Cassie is stuck with it. Don’t be mean to your character like I am to mine.

11. Use a name generator. If you’re really struggling, you can use a name generator. There’s a few online, and Scrivener has one. You never know if it’ll spit out a name that fits, but you never thought of. You could also thumb through a baby name website if that doesn’t work either.

While all of these can help you go through the process of picking a name, the truth is, you’ll only know when you know. Do you have any tips for picking your main character’s name?

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5 Things to Do While You Wait for the Editor

Tuesday night, at around 11:30pm, I finished the edits on my book. At least, my own personal edits. today, I dropped that sucker into the inbox of my editor. To be honest, right now, I’m feeling a bit lost. I spent so much time in July preparing this manuscript, and I feel really good about it, y’all.

But now, I’m in a bit of a waiting period while my editor goes through the manuscript before we go head first into edits (I’m comma happy, so we have lots of those to clean up). So, today, we’re going to talk about somethings you can do while you wait for your editor to come back with the notes.

5 Things to Do While You Wait for the Editor

Start the Sequel – If you’re an indie publisher, you don’t have to wait a year to put your next book out, because you dictate the schedule, woohoo! A lot of people in the indie world say to have three books ready before you actually start to see a lot of momentum. So, I’m trying to finish the first draft of the sequel to my book this month before I go back to class. That way, once the first book is released, I won’t be starting from scratch on this one.

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Make a Markting Plan – Whether you’re indie or traditional, you will have to do some of your own marketing. That is just a fact. No one will be more dedicated to finding readers for your book than you are. Decide on some of the big things now, even if those things change. Will you do a book tour? Will you buy ads? Hashtags? The list is endless.

Create a Community – This is still in the works, but I’m working on building a little community where writers can meet one another and talk about everything writing and book related. It’s still a work in progress, but I’m hoping to build it up and really have an awesome community where I can connect with people.

Make an Editorial Calendar – Blogging is another great way to connect with readers and other writers, but sometimes, it can be hard to come up with ideas. Making a calendar (and sticking to it), will make it easier to build that platform for when you launch your book.

Catch Up on Your Reading – I know when I get deep down in the editing hole, I don’t really read. Take some time to catch up on your favorite authors’ works, or find a new favorite.

Even if you aren’t working on your novel this very moment, you can still do plenty of things to help yourself for when the book does launch. Do you have anything you’d add to the list?

 

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