The first book in The Baronessa Chronicles is just a bit closer to completion thanks to my novel writing class this semester and NaNoWriMo. As much as I hated that daily word count sometimes, I am grateful that I had motivation pushing me to keep working. Especially working through the throes of prepping for finals and graduation next month. And yes, I did win NaNoWriMo this year! I was only able to reach the goal of 50,000 words because I dug deep down and used every spare moment I could to write. For a while I’d not considered the train a place that I could write it, but with some strategic seat choosing, I found ways to make it work. Having time to write has been one of the few good things to come out of my four hour round trip commute. Reaching my goal also came about because ofRead More
Formulaic. This is a word I’ve found to be taboo in the minds of many writers. The fear of one’s writing being predicable or unoriginal even had me steering clear of plots or character types that smacked of being overly used or cliché. To that end, I hadn’t even considered using structures such as the three act or the hero’s journey. Earlier this year, I’d heard about something called Save the Cat!, a type of plotting often used in successful screenplays and movies. I didn’t give it too much thought, thinking that I would never take the time to look into it. I was completely disinterested. Meanwhile, I continued to try and plot my story. There were a lot of good things that came from trying the seven point plot structure, but I was still struggling to get a hold on this unwieldy story that couldn’t decide what kind ofRead More