Gabe Cole Novoa's Blog, page 43
March 15, 2016
Vlog: 5 Dialogue Don'ts
Oh, look! It's a dialogue vlog on bookishpixie! Dialogue is one of my favorite parts of writing, but sometimes it can be tricky to get right. So here are five quick things you DON'T want to do while writing dialogue.
RELATED LINKS:
Writing Tip: Don't Be Afraid of SaidThe Dangers of DialectOn Writing Realistic DialogueHow to Write Realistic DialogueHow (Not) to Write Dialogue
Have you made these common dialogue mistakes? What other issues do you frequently see with dialogue?
Twitter-sized bites:
RELATED LINKS:
Writing Tip: Don't Be Afraid of SaidThe Dangers of DialectOn Writing Realistic DialogueHow to Write Realistic DialogueHow (Not) to Write Dialogue
Have you made these common dialogue mistakes? What other issues do you frequently see with dialogue?
Twitter-sized bites:
Not sure where to start w/ dialogue? @Ava_Jae vlogs about 5 things you DON'T want to do when writing dialogue. (Click to tweet)
Author @Ava_Jae vlogs about 5 common problems w/ dialogue—are you making this common mistakes? #writetip (Click to tweet)





Published on March 15, 2016 04:00
March 14, 2016
Fixing the First Page Feature Giveaway #21!

So! The 21st Fixing the First Page giveaway is a go!
For those who’ve missed it in the past, the Fixing the First Page features is a public first 250 word critique. Using the lovely rafflecopter widget, anyone interested in winning a PUBLIC (as in, featured in a post on this blog) first page critique can enter.
For an example of what this critique will look like, here's the last Fixing the First Page post.
Rules!
ONLY the first 250 words will be critiqued (up to finishing the sentence). If you win and send me more, I will crop it myself. No exceptions.
ONLY the first page. I don’t want 250 random words from your manuscript, or from chapter 3. If you win the critique and send me anything other than the first 250 words of your manuscript, I will choose someone else.
I will actually critique it. Here. On the blog. I will say things as nicely as I can, but I do tend to be a little blunt. If you’re not sure you can handle a public critique, then you may want to take some time to think about it before you enter.
Genre restrictions. I'm most experienced with YA & NA, but I will still accept MG and Adult. HOWEVER. If your first page has any erotic content on it, I ask that you don’t enter. I want to be able to post the critique and the first 250 in its entirety without making anyone uncomfortable, and if you win and you enter a page with erotic content, I will choose someone else.
You must have your first page ready. Should you win, you need to be able to submit your first page within 48 hours of my contacting you to let you know you won. If 48 hours pass and I haven’t heard from you, again, I will choose someone else.
You’ll get the most out of this if it isn’t a first draft. Obviously, I have no way of knowing if you’re handing me a first draft (though I will probably suspect because it’s usually not that difficult to tell). I won’t refuse your page if it’s a first draft, but you should know that this critique will likely be of more use if you’ve already had your betas/CPs look over it. Why? Because if you don’t, the critique I give you will probably contain a lot of notes that your betas & CPs could have/would have told you.
There will not be a round 2 (unless you win again in a future contest). I hate to have to say this, but if you win a critique, it’s NOT an invitation to send me a bunch of your revisions. I wish I had the time available to be able to look at revisions, but sadly, I don’t. If you try to break this rule, I will nicely say no, and also remember to choose someone else should you win a second contest. Which would make me sad. :(
So that’s it! If you’re okay with all of the above and would like to enter to be the twentieth public critique on Writability, do the thing with the rafflecopter widget below. You have until Wednesday, March 23 at 11:59 EST to enter!
a Rafflecopter giveaway





Published on March 14, 2016 04:00
March 11, 2016
World Building: Insider vs. Outsider

The first provides a sort of outsider perspective, often (though not always) from a neutral, third-person narration, even if the characters themselves are from the world being built. This perspective explains a lot of background and details, delving into why things are the way they are, how things work, etc. while continuing with the story—almost as if the narrator is aware that someone outside of the world is reading the story and could use background information. This can be a really effective way to give readers a large scope of the world and everything involved. The good and bad, past and present, etc. is woven into the text alongside the story, and readers often walk away with a detailed understanding of what the world is like.
The second is a subtler approach, and provides what I like to think of as an insider perspective. Often, (though again, not always), this is done with a first person perspective, in which the protagonist experiences the world but doesn't necessarily explain every detail. Here, the presumption is that the readers will be able to put the gaps together themselves, because the protagonist, who is part of the world, wouldn't realistically feel a need to explain things that are obvious and natural to them. Instead, cultural tidbits are revealed to the reader as the protagonist experiences them, and are often left for the reader to interpret with minimal explanation.
Both methods require careful balance. With the outsider perspective, background information and explanations can easily become tedious and significantly slow down the plot if the author doesn't balance it with enough action and story. With the insider perspective, the world building can be confusing and incomplete if the author doesn't weave enough information into the book—the key is to give just enough information to immerse readers fully into the story world without going overboard.
In my own writing, I definitely tend toward the insider perspective strategy, though I think both can be exceptionally effective when handled well. Ultimately which strategy you'll use as a writer will depend on preference, but it's another way to think about crafting a world that'll live in your readers' imaginations forever.
Which method do you tend to prefer in your writing or reading?
Twitter-sized bites:
Struggling with world building? @Ava_Jae shares two strategies for approaching story world creation. (Click to tweet)





Published on March 11, 2016 04:00
March 9, 2016
Guest Post Contest Winners!

That said! I do indeed have five winners to announce, whose fantastic posts will be up on March 16th, 18th, 21st, 23rd, and 25th (so keep an eye out!).
And the winners are...
Alyssa CarlierJulia EmberLara WillardDanika StoneWendy ChenYay! Congratulations, guys! I'll be e-mailing you shortly with your date and instructions for any more things I need from you.
To everyone else, thank you again for entering! I sincerely hope you post your entries online, because I really enjoyed reading them, and as I said, it was super difficult to choose.
I can't wait to share these fantastic posts with you guys shortly! :)





Published on March 09, 2016 04:00
March 8, 2016
Vlog: How to Title Your WIP
Coming up with a title for your manuscript isn't easy—trust me, I get it. So today I'm sharing my favorite manuscript-titling strategy, shared with me by my title master critique partner.
RELATED LINKS:
Book Titles: How Do You Choose?What Are Your Favorite Titles?How to Name Your Characters
What strategies do you use to name your manuscripts?
Twitter-sized bite:
RELATED LINKS:
Book Titles: How Do You Choose?What Are Your Favorite Titles?How to Name Your Characters
What strategies do you use to name your manuscripts?
Twitter-sized bite:
Struggling to title your WIP? @Ava_Jae vlogs about her favorite titling strategy. #writetip (Click to tweet)





Published on March 08, 2016 04:00
March 7, 2016
Plot Essentials: Climax

The Climax is the moment the entire book has been leading up to: when the protagonist comes head to head with the antagonist or antagonizing force. In Speculative Fiction, this often means the hero coming against the bad guy in some kind of epic showdown; in Romance, it's the Grand Gesture, where the hero or heroine has to overcome their flaw and make up for being a jerk previously. Everything hinges on this moment: will the hero overcome insurmountable odds?
Sticking with examples from the previous posts, here are the climaxes for some popular novels (and, obviously, they contain spoilers, so skip if you haven't read them!):
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (J.K. Rowling): Surprise! Harry isn't dead after all—or at least, not permanently—and now he's back and ready to take on Voldemort once and for all, while the Battle of Hogwarts rages around them.
City of Bones (Cassandra Clare): Clary finds Valentine and Jace, who seems to be helping him. Valentine reveals a massive secret: in a Luke and Leia twist, he's Clary and Jace's father and they are—surprise!—siblings. Luke helps Clary fight Valentine off, but will they be able to defeat him and keep the Mortal Cup safe?
Divergent (Veronica Roth): Tris and simulation-controlled Four come head to head. Tris needs to shut down the simulation to save her friends, but can she do so without killing Four in the process? Or getting killed herself?
The climax, for me, is the most difficult part of writing a book—and it's the part I often dread reaching while first drafting. But with the right set-up and a sequence that gives your protagonist a significant role in the outcome (as in, no one should do the hard work for them), you'll craft a climax that keeps your readers hooked.
What are your favorite climatic scenes from books or movies?
Twitter-sized bite:
Do you struggle to write your WIP's climax? So does @Ava_Jae—but today she's talking tips and examples. (Click to tweet)





Published on March 07, 2016 04:00
March 4, 2016
Winners, Giveaway & Fun Announcement!

I also have the winners for the pre-order giveaway! And they are...
Rebecca Kelsey SampsonMichelle Yolanda HellebrandGwen ColeErin Deets BeatyKelly DeVosMagdalyn AnnEllie EghigianlovelypatchworknerdJuniper NicholsAnna LeightonJessica GunnFrancesca BartolomeyLayneSkylar ScharrerTilly Latimer
Congratulations, guys! I'll be e-mailing you all shortly with directions for claiming your prize. Yay! And to the rest of you, thank you so much for pre-ordering and entering! I appreciate it more than you can know. <3
There are, however, still more fun announcements! For example, for those of you who don't have a copy of Beyond the Red yet, there's still a chance to win one! Like so!
RT this tweet by 3/29 to enter to win a final copy of BEYOND THE RED + signed swag! US only. #BTRLaunch pic.twitter.com/nyYTr1R8m2— Ava Jae (@Ava_Jae) March 2, 2016
And! There from now until the end of the month, there is a Beyond the Red fan art contest! The details of which look like

So those are all the announcements! A few short weeks from now I'll be touring in Maryland and Virginia, and I hope I'll see some of you guys there!





Published on March 04, 2016 04:00
March 3, 2016
Vlog: Self-Publishing: Not a Plan B
Self-publishing is a great option for some people and works well for many indie authors—but today I'm talking about why it shouldn't be used like a casual backup option.
RELATED LINKS:
Self-Publishing: It's Not for EveryoneSelf vs. Traditional Publishing: Stop Arguing (vlog)Publishing: Indie or Traditional?How (Not) to Become the Next Kindle BazillionaireOn Writing and Giving Up
Twitter-sized bites:
RELATED LINKS:
Self-Publishing: It's Not for EveryoneSelf vs. Traditional Publishing: Stop Arguing (vlog)Publishing: Indie or Traditional?How (Not) to Become the Next Kindle BazillionaireOn Writing and Giving Up
Twitter-sized bites:
"If your MS isn't ready to be traditionally pub'd, then it's...not ready to be self-pub'd, either." (Click to tweet)
"[Self-publishing] is a career-altering move...not a stepping stone towards traditional publishing." (Click to tweet)





Published on March 03, 2016 04:00
March 2, 2016
myWriteClub’s Word Sprints

So I did, two days in a row. And I have to say, I like it even better than Write or Die.
Write or Die functioned with negative reinforcement—in that the screen would turn red and a loud noise would start up if you stopped typing for too long. And while this was pretty effective, it also meant I quickly figured out a loophole that made the negative reinforcement moot, anyway. Which is fine, because it still kept me typing, but anyway.
myWriteClub’s word sprints, however, use positive reinforcement to encourage you to write more, and if you want, it also connects you to other sprinters to race against.
So how does it work?
First you log into myWriteClub and go to their sprinting page. From there you can join either a global sprint or a custom sprint. From there you type in the browser, which looks like this:

The sprints start every half hour and go for 25 minutes, but you’re free to write before or after that—your word count will continue to grow. You get a green star for every 100 words that you write, and a gold star for every 1000 words. The progress bar also grows as you type until you reach 100 words, you get a star, and it starts over.
I haven’t sprinted with anyone else yet, but if you do you’ll be able to see the other person’s word count grow, which could be fun if you’re competitive (you can’t see each other’s words, though). It automatically saves to dropbox if you have that activated, and otherwise just automatically saves to the browser—I was pleasantly surprised to find my words from the previous day still in the browser when I logged in the next day (according to the site, your words are stored on your computer and not on myWriteClub’s server, so don’t worry). Usually I write, copy/paste whatever I wrote into my Scrivener doc, then close out. There’s also a chat function which I probably won’t use because distracting.
At some point I’ll probably try sprinting with others, but I still find it really helpful and motivational when writing alone. Between the timer counting down, which encourages me to write faster, and the progress bar and stars, the interface really helps me focus and get words down on the page. Which ultimately is the most important part. :)
I definitely recommend myWriteClub’s word sprint feature to those who like a little competition and/or accountability. It’s a fantastic addition to an already awesome productivity site.
Have you ever used myWriteClub’s word sprint feature?
Twitter-sized bite:
Need some writing motivation? Check out @my_write_club's Word Sprints feature and start first drafting! (Click to tweet)





Published on March 02, 2016 04:00
February 29, 2016
Fixing the First Page Feature #20

Which. Um. Means it's time for the next Fixing the First Page feature before I go make a blanket fort. Eeep!
As these things go, I'll start by posting the full first 250 excerpt, after which I'll share my overall thoughts, then my redline critique. I encourage you guys to share your own thoughts and critiques in the comments (because I'm one person with one opinion!), as long as it's polite, thoughtful, and constructive. Any rude or mean comments will be unceremoniously deleted.
Here we go!
Title: WILD CALLING
Genre/Category: YA Historical Paranormal
First 250:
"I sing song after song calling to my Maybelle. I ask the oceans to take the songs to her, to call her back to me.
Chapter One
My Da was Petey Langton, the best liar in the Caribbean; he had to be as a pirate captain. I knew he loved me, I trusted him in that unthinking way you do as a child. I never thought he'd lie to me. I was wrong. He lied to me all my life about Mam, even about who and what I was. Back then I knew nothing of that.
Running over the sand of the bank I leapt out, flying over the water shrieking. Lifting my knees up I hugged them to me, falling with a smack onto the river. It slapped my feet and I sank through the surface, I had to try hard not to gasp at the freshness of the water. My feet hit the mud of the bottom. Pushing down, I flew back up through the water, my arms reaching upwards. Opening my eyes I saw the clear green water streaming past me. I broke through the river into the hot blue air, spluttering.
I yelled at Billy and the other ship's boys on the bank.
'Come in, it's great!'
They stared at me without answering and didn't follow me. Whenever the Silver Cutlass was moored up at Matthewstown me, Billy, and the youngest of the ship's boys had a good deal of fun playing with the village children."
Okay! So, firstly, I am such a fan of the rise in pirates in YA, like, yes. But anyway, the excerpt. I want to start by saying that "Historical Paranormal" would probably be more effectively described as Historical Fantasy, which is an established genre.
As for the excerpt itself, I like the italicized line at the beginning, but I feel like it would work better in the text somewhere, with context. Without the context, it sounds nice, but it doesn't really mean much to me, so as a reader I just skip over it. I also feel like you may want to consider cutting the first paragraph—I understand what the intended purpose is (to establish some conflict upfront), but the whole thing sounds reminiscent to me, like an adult looking back at their child self, which pulls it out of YA. It also gives away a lot of the surprises in the text—I don't want to be told that her father is a liar, I want to be as surprised as she is when she discovers it herself in the plot. Giving away a surprise upfront by telling the readers, to me, lessens the effect of the surprise, and also gives readers the impression that there's likely to be a lot of explaining the plot in the story, which isn't beneficial.
When you remove the first paragraph, of course, you then have a new issue: there isn't really an effective hook in the opening. I think this could probably be tweaked by thinking about the opening scene—whatever the conflict is in the opening scene, is there a way you could allude to it from the start? I can't answer this with just the first 250, but I have a feeling there probably is a way.
Now for the in-line edits:
"I sing song after song calling to my Maybelle. I ask the oceans to take the songs to her, to call her back to me.
Chapter One
My Da was Petey Langton, the best liar in the Caribbean; he had to be as a pirate captain. I knew he loved me, I trusted him in that unthinking way you do as a child. I never thought he'd lie to me. I was wrong. He lied to me all my life about Mam, even about who and what I was. Back then I knew nothing of that. I already said above why I think these should be cut/moved.
Running over the sand of the bank I leapt out, shrieking as I flew over the water flying over the water shrieking. Adjusted for flow purposes—I think this is a little easier to understand. Lifting my knees up I hugged my knees to my chest them to me, falling with a smack onto the river. Again, adjusted to improve the flow of the sentence. It slapped my feet and I sank through the surface, I had to try hard not to gasp at the freshness of the water. This sentence reads awkwardly to me, and it's a bit of a run on. Maybe try something like, "The fresh water slapped my feet—I clamped down on a gasp as I sank below the surface." This cuts some of the wordiness out and also makes the sentence more active. My feet hit the [insert adjective: slick? cold? slimy?] mud of the bottom. Pushing down, ("Pushing down" is confusing with this context—maybe "kicking off"?) I flew back up through the water, my arms reaching upwards There's a lot of wordiness here, too, and the repetition of "up" brings attention to it. Try rewording this sentence by shortening it and removing the repetition (For example: "I rocketed towards the surface with my arms above my head"). Opening my eyes I saw the clear green water streaming past me Filter phrase alert! Try rewriting without "I saw". I broke through the river into the hot blue air, spluttering. I really like the imagery here, especially "hot blue air." Very nice. :)
I yelled at Billy and the other ship's boys on the bank. I feel like she would know the name of the other ship, right? It'd be a nice detail to place here.
'Come in, it's great!'
They stared at me without answering and didn't follow me You don't need the second half of this sentence—just leaving at the boys staring says well enough that they aren't following her in or speaking. Whenever the Silver Cutlass was moored up at Matthewstown, me, Billy, and the youngest of the ship's boys had a good deal of fun playing with the village children." Technically the bolded is grammatically incorrect...but that could be done on purpose for voice purposes, so I'm letting it slide. :)
Despite my many, many suggestions, I actually do like this opening, and I'm curious to see what happens (did I mention I really like pirate books?). This is a fun start, and with some tweaks I think it could potentially be strong—we could just use a hint of tension, some rewording, and some details here and there to solidify the imagery. If I saw this in the slush, I would tentatively continue reading to see how the scene played out.
I hope that helps! Thanks for sharing your first 250 with us, Kathryn!
Would you like to be featured in a Fixing the First Page Feature? Keep an eye out for the next critique giveaway in March!
Twitter-sized bite:
.@Ava_Jae talks wordiness, details, and avoiding spoilers in the 20th Fixing the First Page critique. (Click to tweet)





Published on February 29, 2016 04:00