Writing

Teaser Tuesday: The Plot Whisperer Workbook (October 16, 2012)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
The Plot Whisperer Workbook

Challenge yourself to shape your character to reflect unique feelings, ones perhaps that show life differently than those traditionally depicted in stories. Only she feels about her life the way she does.

~ pg 27, Plot Whisperer Workbook

I haven’t picked up a new fiction book since finishing Cinder and now I’m in frantic planning mode for NaNo, so I don’t think I’ll be starting one anytime soon.  Then comes NaNo itself, so I’m wondering if I’ll make my Fall Into Reading goal to read seven more books by December 21.

In preparing for NaNo, I’ve starting working through the Plot Whisperer Workbook. I’ve read The Plot Whisperer, and quite honestly was more confused than anything.  I watched the videos and that helped, but I’m hoping that working through the workbook along side The Plot Whisperer book will help me get at least the framework of a plot together for NaNo.  We’ll see.

 

Amazon links are affiliate links.

christiespeich 3 Comments

Need a Custom Design for Your Blog? Check Out Calimera Web!

So it’s been almost eight weeks since my new blog design went up, and I still absolutely love it.  Every time I see it, I have to smile.  Every. Single. Time.

I mean, just look at it! Pretty colors, sweet pictures, and bubbles…what more could you want?  It’s exactly how I feel when I read a good YA romance novel, and how I want my readers to feel when they read mine (ya know, someday.)

Linda Tieu of Calimera Web created this custom design, and I don’t think anyone could have done a better job capturing my tone.  When we started the process, I wasn’t sure what I wanted, but Linda knew the questions to ask to get the information she needed. I sent her my rambling answers, sure the whole exercise was going to be a waste of time. After all, if I didn’t know what I wanted, how could I possibly communicate it to someone else?

My jaw dropped when I saw the first mockups Linda sent me.  A few small revisions later, I had a blog design that truly felt like ME.  I hadn’t told Linda that purple was my favorite color because I didn’t want narrow the options of what she might create,  so it felt like magic when that was one of the colors she’d picked from the very beginning.

It didn’t even matter that Linda lived on the other side of the world because everything was done via e-mail. The entire process was simple and painless, only requiring a bit of thinking on my part.  Although I was primarily interested in her blog design services, Linda is very knowledgeable about WordPress and took the time to answer some questions I had.

I absolutely recommend Calimera Web for anyone looking to build a WordPress blog or just redesign their existing blog.  Linda is professional, easy to work with, and responds quickly. She can help you get set up, even if you’ve never used WordPress before.

 

christiespeich 1 Comment

Road Trip Wednesday: Season Changes

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway’s contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered.

This Week’s Topic

October!! It is SO fall! How does your writing (place, time, inspiration, etc) change with the seasons?

My Answer

Although I’ve been writing since 2009, it’s only been since May of this year that I’ve been writing seriously and consistently with the intent to publish.  The major change in my writing due to seasons was simply that over the summer, my son was home from school. It meant more time traveling to activities during the day, more time playing referee between him and his sister, more time spent away from home on vacations… In short, less time to write.

Over the summer I took Candace Haven’s Comprehensive Writing class, hoping it would help me get Brotherly Love finished.  I did a lot of thinking about my story. Perhaps too much. I’m still lost in deciding which way the ending should go, and that’s freezing me up from revising any part of it as well.  *sigh*

Now that I think about it, the fall has changed my writing thought process, because NaNoWriMo is coming up. October will be about planning for NaNo…if I can get the Brotherly Love boys out of my head!

christiespeich Leave a comment

Road Trip Wednesday: Retelling Fables and Stories

Road Trip Wednesdays with YA HighwayRoad Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway’s contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s unique take on the topic.

This Week’s Topic

In honor of this month’s Bookmobile book, Marissa Meyer’s Cinder, name a fable or story you’d like to see a retelling of.  If you’re feeling creative, come up with a premise of your own!

My Answer

This is a timely question for me, as the story I’m considering writing for NaNoWriMo this year is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty.  I’m a bit nervous about it though, because re-writing  fairy tales seems to be very popular right now.  “They” tell you to never write to trends because by the time your book is ready for submission, the trend is over-saturated.  But, “they” also say that any well-written book with the right hook can be picked up regardless of the trends.

So all I can do is write the best story I can and cross my fingers.

What story would you retell? Check out everyone else’s answers at YA Highway.
christiespeich 11 Comments