End-of-Month Wrap Up: August

5:43 AM Gemma Fitz 4 Comments

Summer is almost over, guys. And since Autumn means the beach and pretty leaves and gorgeous mountains covered in pretty leaves and misty mornings and fuzzy sweaters and apples and no more peaches and my birthday, I couldn't be more ready! Bring on September!

On the Blog

In all, I published ten posts this month (this being the tenth), which I'm very happy about.

At My Writing Desk

  • I read through my novel's second draft, actually wrote an outline, and began the editing process.
  • I blogged about my writing crisis.
  • I wrote a short story, which I haven't done in a while.
  • And I had several bouts of poetic inspiration (and therefore, of insomnia) and churned out 12 new poems.
Overall, I feel like I've had a pretty good writing month, crises and insomnia aside. Plus, my adorable Fanta-guzzling character from my WIP furnishes me with the perfect excuse to drink copious amounts of orange Fanta, which couldn't please me more.

In the Books

I read 5 books this month. That's not a lot, but all five were amazing, and Pariah is my new favourite book. So I've had a great reading month as well! (So far it's looking like I've just had a good month, period.)

On the Web

With Me and My Life

Are you wondering why my blog post count has increased dramatically (if you call ten posts dramatic) this last month? It's because I've had no life lately.
  • I started school again and am feeling very unmotivated.
  • I've been selling lots of peaches at work and I really hate peaches. All peaches should be burned. I never want to see another peach.
  • I've gone on like 5 shopping trips this month. Like, what even? Oh well, it's all fun.
  • And of course I've been obsessing over my upcoming vacation. #1 perk of being a homeschooler-- you get to go to the beach in September when everyone else is in school.

Coming Soon to the Blog

I'm really bad at actually delivering on what I say I'm going to post, but I do have a few ideas knocking around as drafts right now, including:
  • A post on theme and why your story is important.
  • And another one giving reasons why I won't comment on your blog post.
We'll see if these actually end up happening or not.
So how was your August? Are you looking forward to fall as much as I am? What was your favourite thing you did this month?

4 comments:

I adore comments! Just keep it clean and respectful...please no profanity and while I respect people's opinions and love a good argument, simply bashing my post is obviously not appreciated. :)

An Extrovert's Guide to Survival in an Introvert World (aka the Internet)

12:11 PM Gemma Fitz 4 Comments

Disclaimer: No offence whatsoever is intended towards any persons, living or dead, introvert or extrovert, by this post. Really. Please don't get upset.

 One of the largest and most frequented systems in our universe is the Internet, the original homeland of that rare and mysterious species, the Introvert. Few but these savage natives would dare to venture beyond the planets of Facebook and Amazon into more dangerous areas such as Tumblr and Wattpad. Fewer still would have the courage to own their own personal asteroids, blogs, and Youtube channels. The dangers are simply too great, and so it is that, to this day, the Internet is still primarily populated by the Introverts. (That's why it's called the Internet: Inter meaning the same thing as Intro, whatever that means, and Net meaning home.)

There is, however, another vast species, known as the Extroverts. Members of said species are more often comfortable visiting the Party systems, the Friends Forever systems, and such like, but there is the occasional Extrovert who, burdened with more courage and curiosity than is good for him, sets forth to explore the uncharted territory of the Internet. It is for such a one that this guide was created.

When encountering a Native of the Internet (namely, an Introvert):

  1. Pay attention to the native's behaviour. Contrary to popular belief, not all Introverts are the same. Some, while labouring under the delusion that they are speaking to one of their own species, in their own home world, will act friendly and even goofy, much like an Extrovert does at all times. Others will act stiff and overly-professional no matter who they are talking to and where they are.
  2. Adjust your behaviour accordingly. If the Introverts you encounter act friendly, meet them halfway. If they talk a lot and in all caps, respond in the same manner. If they are sweet but brief and uninteresting, try to imitate them. If they act aloof and condescending, make sure you act even more so, to give the impression that you are superior. In the first three examples, this improves your chance of them liking you. In the last, the Introvert in question isn't going to like you anyway-- might as well make it clear that the feeling is mutual.
  3. Do not inform them that you are, in fact, an Extrovert until they have established that they like you. In most cases, after they have made up their minds (and even gone so far as to tell you) that they think you're a great guy, they will not back out once you reveal you belong to a different species. In the infrequent event that they immediately change their minds and decide they dislike you, don't worry. You don't want to be friends with people who are that racist, anyway.

It is entirely acceptable in some circles on the internet to randomly shout out things like "PARTAY" or, "TALK TO ME". In others, it most definitely is not.

Try to keep your head down in each new area you visit until you have learned the ropes. Once you've hung out for a couple months and gotten to know some people you will have a pretty good idea of what is socially acceptable in that community and what isn't. Just be sure not to send E Mails 1,000 words long to the wrong Introvert friend...

Many Introverts are actually proud of their "freak" status.

While visiting the Internet, you will likely find yourself being referred to by words such as "weird", "freak", "nerd", and "geek" by the other inhabitants. Don't get upset. For most Introverts and inhabitants of the Internet, these are all compliments. If someone calls you "nerd", it usually means he/she likes you and thinks you're actually pretty cool. In fact, it is likely that after spending some time in the Internet system, you will adopt a similar worldview and develop a deep-rooted pride in your "geek" status.

Some clubs and cliques are closed to Extroverts.

This is fine so long as you don't tell anyone you're an Extrovert and your Introvert act is convincing enough. With a little practice and self-control (especially in the way of excessive communication and social interaction), you can bluff your way into almost any community.

WARNING: You will at some point in your travels, whether soon or late, hear hate speech against your own species, the Extroverts. This is unavoidable.

Try to keep your cool. It only makes things worse when you lose your temper, or even when you try to politely correct those spreading such vicious slander. If you feel you must intervene, do not reveal that you are yourself an extrovert. Simply point out that "That's not a nice thing to say", in a way that befits a mild-mannered Introvert.

Sometimes it's best to just come out clean and reveal your true identity.

Not all Introverts are racist. Not all Introverts hate Extroverts. In fact, not all those you meet in the Internet system are actually Introverts at all. If that's your style, you might as well just shout out, "HEY! EXTROVERT HERE!" There may be some natives who will immediately retreat back into their caves to hide, and possibly even a few who will throw rocks and nasty epithets at you, but in general, Introverts are friendly and accepting, as long as they feel comfortable and accepted themselves. The Internet is where Introverts feel most comfortable because it is there where they feel they can be themselves without being criticized. As long as you don't ruin that understanding, accepting atmosphere, you will be welcomed.

Most of the time.
Are you an Extrovert? Introvert? Have you made any good friends who belong to the other group on the Internet? Would you agree that the Internet is more Introvert friendly?

4 comments:

I adore comments! Just keep it clean and respectful...please no profanity and while I respect people's opinions and love a good argument, simply bashing my post is obviously not appreciated. :)

A Writerly Crisis

4:52 AM Gemma Fitz 2 Comments

You were going to get a nice, calm post on theme today. But that fell through because it was taking too long to write I've had a crisis and I need to talk about it. And yes, this might be a bit boring. If you want to skip it, you are entirely welcome to. Maybe we'll talk about theme next week.
So, as many of you know, I finished the second draft of my WIP recently and read back through it this past month in preparation for editing. And before we go any farther, I need to clarify that the "second draft" was a rewrite, not an edit or revision.

Now, confession time. *whispers* I've never done an official edit. Phew, there, I said it. As I just mentioned, I've done rewrites. Which kinda count, but not really. They are two very different things. As I have recently discovered.

I'd been putting off editing for a while, but tonight I got all pumped up and motivated, listening to Audiomachine and Thomas Bergersen, and I was like, "I am so done with procrastination. Let's just edit this thing." So I pulled up Google Docs (yes, I use Google Docs-- so there), placed my hands on the keyboard, and stared at my finished second draft in dismay.

Because it suddenly struck me that after all the writing, the rewriting, the reading about editing, the talking about editing, the thinking about editing, I had no idea how to edit. There were my words sitting neatly in front of me, just as awful as I expected, and I had no idea how to change them. I knew everything I needed to change and fix and polish but I didn't know how to do it.

 A feverish search of Pinterest and Google left me no better off. Apparently no one in the whole history of writing had ever faced this problem before-- or else had never found a solution. Or maybe no one else needed step-by-step incredibly detailed instructions on how to change a single word in his or her manuscript.

I must be a terrible writer. I'm obviously not creative enough to be an author, I can't even make up a system for editing my novel.. And let's not mention the fact that I'm actually running a writing blog when I obviously know nothing about writing? What am I even doing with my life?
Around this time in my frantic thought processes, my sister walked in to go to bed (we share a room), and when I freaked out and basically screamed at her, "HOW DO I EDIT??" she was understandably not impressed and responded with a grumpy, "I don't know."

And have I mentioned that this is my super writer sister who has edited at least five books in her life time? If she doesn't know how to edit, what hope is there for me? I will never learn how to edit. 20 years from now, I'll still be sitting here staring gloomily at the computer screen, still not having edited a word. I should just give up right here and now.

But I'm not going to.

Why? I'm a writer. Writers write. They don't write perfectly, and they don't know everything. They just write. They suck, they cry, they may freak out and scream at their sisters. But they don't give up. The moment they do, they're no longer writers.

So I'm not going to give up. I'm going to keep going. After some more intensive Google searching, I was able to find some more specific tips on editing that look vaguely helpful, but even if that doesn't help, I'll keep writing. I'll find a solution.

Because I'm a writer. And that's what we do.

What are you struggling with writing-wise right now? Have you been through the whole editing phase? HOW DID YOU SURVIVE?

2 comments:

I adore comments! Just keep it clean and respectful...please no profanity and while I respect people's opinions and love a good argument, simply bashing my post is obviously not appreciated. :)

The Milk Tea Book Tag

6:31 AM Gemma Fitz 8 Comments

The lovely Aimee tagged me for this mouthwatering tag. Thank you, Aimee!

If you notice, this thing has no rules. Which is good, because I perform best when not confined to such narrow things as rules. And because there are no rules, that means I get to name as many books as I want in any given category.

And there's no one to stop me! (Brownie tea points if you understand that reference.)

Tea: the foundation of your reading life

Yup. This is where I started, peeps. Which might explain why I'm so picky about books today. Nothing can live up to Tikki Tikki Tembo, after all.

Milk: a rich, smooth book

Hmm... Rich? Smooth? Lovely prose and deep themes? Now let me think...
Haha. We all knew it had to be this one.

The Silmarillion is not only rich and creamy and easy to drown in (just like milk), it is also my favourite fictional book. Ever. (Which is kinda ironic, since I hate milk.) No seriously, if you haven't read this, go do it.

Sugar: a book you love but is controversial.

I could go ahead and say Silmarillion-- (everybody says it's boring? Like, what even?)

Or I could say The Horse and His Boy-- (people say it's random? It was my second favourite of the series.)

But I already mentioned those, so I'll go with:
Now, admittedly, this is a pretty popular book, so it probably doesn't count but, hey. I know a lot of people who really dislike it-- or simply assume that it's stupid, having never read it. And it is kinda stupid, but I like it anyway.

Ice: A book just for fun.

There are kinda a lot of these, but I'll keep it to two.
This book is hilarious. Just saying.
And this one is probably one of my favourite MG books ever. It's just adorable.

Silk Stocking: a book that's much better than it sounds.

Haha... I like this category...
Obviously. It sounds just about as stupid and cliche and unoriginal as it can get, title wise. And what's with calling things "Calamity" and "Epics" and "Reckoners"? Cheeeeesyyy. But! The book was amazing and awesome (even if it made my story seem like a cheap ripoff). Totally worth my time.

Yingyang: a book with foreign influence

...
Can I go ahead and say Tikki Tikki Tembo again?
*sigh*
This one doesn't really count, because, while it's set in "New Beijing", it does NOT feel Chinese. (Actually, it feels more Japanese to me, simply because the way the author describes Prince Kai sounds exactly like a Manga character.) But I had to go ahead and put it because, well-- I haven't read much else with foreign influence? Unless British counts as foreign? Apparently I need to read more diverse books. I just haven't come across a whole lot of foreign-influenced books that look like my thing.

So that's that then! Thanks again, Aimee.

I tag: A.M, Bailey, Gabrielle, and Lily. Per usual, don't feel obligated to do it if I tagged you and you don't want to, and if I didn't tag you and you do want to, go for it! (And give me a link to your post, maybe?)

Have you ever had milk tea? (It's good.) Have you read any of these books? Do you have any recommendations as to culturally diverse books I should read?

8 comments:

I adore comments! Just keep it clean and respectful...please no profanity and while I respect people's opinions and love a good argument, simply bashing my post is obviously not appreciated. :)

How to Read Your Novel: Realizing It's Okay To Suck

3:36 PM Gemma Fitz 10 Comments

I suck at writing.

No, it's true. I suck. The words come out stilted and stupid or trip over each other and land in an illogical chaos. Kinda like that last sentence there. Only sometimes worse.

My novel is a complete rubbish heap of words. There are useless dialogue tags gushing happily everywhere, disturbing imagery at every painful, bleeding scene change, plot holes swallowing entire chapters of hard won text, and annoying characters whining through every step of the way. In short, it sucks.

And I've realized I'm okay with that.

This is the last post in my three part series on how to read your novel. You can find the first post here and the second here.

If we're honest, writing is one of those things you'll never do perfectly. Ever. If your works are ever published and on book store shelves and you deign to skim through the pages of your best-selling tome, constant face-palming is basically inevitable. You'll probably want to disappear off the face of the earth for awhile. (And, by the way, this is reason #463 why I should never pursue publication. I will anyway.)

This is super depressing to realize. Until you accept that it's okay to suck. (Okay, even after you accept that, it's still depressing. But not as depressing.)

You're going to suck. Your novel's got problems and you may think that a few more tweaks, drafts, years even, and it will be perfect. Right?

No.

No it won't.

You could always make it better. You could always find another typo or replace another word or cut another character. Your book is set in Japan? Guess what, for the entire rest of your life you are going to be learning more and more about Japan (maybe from some enraged reviews of your someday published book). It's impossible to know it all now. You're going to get something wrong. And all the rewrites and revisions and edits and beta readers and line edits in the world aren't going to change that.

When you're reading your novel, give yourself permission to suck. Don't be a perfectionist about something that will never can never be perfect. Polish that story up as much as you can, but don't beat yourself up when it's not how you want it. Keep writing and getting better at it, but don't beat yourself up when you're not as good as you want to be. Try to get every word perfect, but don't be disappointed when you come back and the words aren't so perfect after all.

You're always going to suck-- a little bit.

And that's okay.

Well, wasn't that depressing? Do you think it's possible to write a "perfect" novel? Are you okay with sucking?

10 comments:

I adore comments! Just keep it clean and respectful...please no profanity and while I respect people's opinions and love a good argument, simply bashing my post is obviously not appreciated. :)

7 Reasons You Should Be Writing Right Now (in gifs)

8:32 AM Gemma Fitz 9 Comments

As writers, sometimes we just need someone to yell at us "START WRITING!"

Other times, we need that someone to resort to more persuasive tactics. We're skeptical. We need reasons. Just WHY should you be writing right now?

Have no fear, lazy bum oh courageous author! I am here to help with 7 reasons why you should close this tab immediately and step into the glorious realm of Microsoft Word (or Google Docs, or a notebook, or whatever you use)!

 1. Your idea is really, really awesome.
No, seriously, it is. You've got a prize winning plot bunny in your head right now (or maybe even partially on paper!), and you're the only one who can write it. So what are you waiting for? Get busy!!

2. YOUR CHARACTERS MISS YOU!
Especially that little secondary character that you really adore and secretly want to marry, and who is destined to die soon. Better spend time with him while you can, you know. Try to ease his last moments, and all that jazz.

3. Much better now than later.
Basically, if you don't do it right now, you'll read some blog post about how you should write everyday and get guilted into writing at midnight, and that never goes so well...

4. Your Mom is probably going to call you in about ten seconds to ask if you're "busy"...
Which is another way of saying "There's this really nasty chore that I want you to do, but thankfully I'm still leaving you a loophole for some unexplained reason." And I firmly believe that "writing" counts as "busy".

5. You'll forget all your ideas if you don't write them down!
...
Or am I the only one who has this problem?

6. The zombie apocalypse might happen tonight and you might be turned into a zombie and I'm pretty sure zombies can't write...
Actually though, if we're following this argument to it's logical conclusion, we may have some trouble deciding whether to actually write or to go bake (and eat) some chocolate chip cookies. So-- why not just do both?

7. This blog post is boring anyway.
SERIOUSLY. What are you doing reading this stupid post by a random stranger on the internet when you could be WRITING???
Unlike in your super exciting adventure novel.
Well, that escalated quickly. *cough* But that doesn't matter because you're not even supposed to be here. Get writing. NOW.

What are some creative methods you employ to inspire yourself to write? Am I the only person who forgets all her story ideas? WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE AND NOT WRITING??

9 comments:

I adore comments! Just keep it clean and respectful...please no profanity and while I respect people's opinions and love a good argument, simply bashing my post is obviously not appreciated. :)

How to Read Your Novel: Reading With the Intent to Review

4:36 AM Gemma Fitz 2 Comments

I don't know about you, but I try to review everything I read. Even when I decide not to post it all over Goodreads and my blog, I still usually have a review for it tucked away in a private notebook somewhere.

The beauty of a review is that it's not a detailed outline of every flaw or an in-depth analysis of the book. It's just a brief recap of some of the best and worst thing about the story and whether (and why) you liked it or not. You note things like major plot-holes, unlikable characters, and clunky writing style, but also things like an adorable MC, hilarious sense of humour, and some killer plot twists. You don't mention everything, but the big stuff, the stuff that really bothered/excited you, gets into the review.
When we read our own books, it's easy to get bogged down in every single detail-- and suddenly we're doing line edits at the very beginning of round one of revision, perfecting the dialogue in a scene that we're going to end up cutting later on, anyway. Before long we're drowning in all the things that need fixing and are 200% done with our novel.

The way I like to combat this is to review my own work, just like I would review another book. I read through it once, making note of the big things that bother me or impress me, then I write it all down in my review notebook along with a star rating (which is never quite unbiased, but I do my best).

This way, I not only know what the high priority problems are that are going to stand out most to my reader and which I need to work on fixing first, but I've also got one or two things that I actually liked about my sucky story which I can use to encourage myself. And the star rating helps me know how much farther I need to go before my story is "good enough" (yeah right, it's never good enough).

Because this post is really short, I'll go ahead and include a review of my story as an example. (And just so you're aware, my story is stupid. Don't judge.)
Splitting Atoms by Gemma Fitz
3.5 out of 5 stars
Well, that was-- interesting.
The writing was awkward and the voice was-- unusual? (Not entirely sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.) There were several places where it just felt clunky and some of the chapter breaks felt really weird and abrupt.
The plot was kinda confusing, not to mention cheesy and predictable. Also, the pacing felt off. Still, some of the scenes were a ton of fun to read.
My favourite part of the book, then, was the characters. I adore David, Damian, Dylan (though what's with all the 'D' names? Might be a little too confusing), Benton, and Hudson. They are so cute and all the different relationship dynamics were really fun. The problem is, all the secondary and tertiary characters kind of distracted from the MC, Avis, who wasn't nearly as lovable.
Also, the end. It wasn't as well executed as I would have liked, but the messages, and the friendships, and the feels. So much love.
Overall, it was a good idea, but poorly executed. The author needs to do some more editing.
So there I have my thoughts all written out to refer back to while I edit. From this review, I can see that the things I most need to work on are:
  • Flow of the writing and chapter breaks (though I won't obsess over that 'til near the end of the editing process).
  • Ironing out the story arc until it's clear and logical.
  • Pacing.
  • Maybe change a couple characters' names.
  • My protagonist-- I need to make her more interesting and lovable.
Also, once I get a scene or two cleaned up enough, I'll probably want one of my writer friends to look one over and tell me what they think of my voice.

Just from that one short review, I've got a neat to-do list to work on as I edit, plus a couple reasons why this story is worth my time in the first place. This review doesn't mention every single problem, but it gives me a starting place and makes the task seem a lot less daunting.

 Do you usually review the books you read? Have you ever tried reviewing your own books? What is the biggest issue with your story that would come up in a review? What's the best area that the reviewer would mention?

2 comments:

I adore comments! Just keep it clean and respectful...please no profanity and while I respect people's opinions and love a good argument, simply bashing my post is obviously not appreciated. :)

The Tag of Happiness

6:15 PM Gemma Fitz 10 Comments

The awesome Bailey created and tagged me for this gloriously cheerful thingummy, which I had a ton of fun filling out. Thank you, Bailey!!
Guidelines: 

Take the banner and put it in your post
List as many things as you want in each category
Come up with more categories if you wish
Tag as many people as you want
So let's get started.

1. Some songs that make you happy.


There are kind of a lot of these. Bah, who am I kidding, there is a huge long list of these and I could never list them all. But we'll give it a shot anyway. (And if you are by any chance interested in listening to any of these songs, I know for a fact you can find them all on Spotify.)

"Yellow Shoes" by Gracie Schram
"Taylor, the Latte Boy" by Kristen Chenowerth
"Love You Like the Movies" by Anthem Lights
"Top of the World" by Anthem Lights
"Loser Like Me (Glee Season 5 Version)" by Glee Cast
"Unbelievable" by Owl City

And of course the number one (which is the only one on this list that you absolutely MUST listen to):
"Life's a Happy Song" by Bret McKenzie and Kermit the Frog
(And yes, it has to be this cover, because Lindir. And Kermit the Frog.)

Admittedly, "Taylor, the Latte Boy", "Love You Like the Movies", "Loser Like Me", and "Unbelievable" make me laugh more than they actually make me happy, but I think it's close enough.

2. Some books that make you happy.


This one is harder, because most of my favourite books are not the fluffy, comfortable sort of books that make you happy. Most of them are more the sort of book that rips your heart out with a spoon and then squishes it. But then, I guess that's still okay, because:
Sally Sparrow is my spirit animal.
So, having assured myself that it's not cheating and therefore satisfied my conscience, I must of course mention my favourite book ever--
Also, for a book that isn't sad,
Take that back, it is sad.

3. Some foods that make you happy.


Ooooh. Food is good. Sooo good. But obviously chocolate wins this one.
Also, there are several foods that are part of my family's tradition which give me aaaaaallll the good vibes, including:

Home made (sashimi free) sushi. We eat it every New Years, because my grandma was Japanese.
Home made peirogies. (I still don't know how to spell that.) We eat these every Christmas and other special family times, because my other Grandma was Ukranian/Polish.
Home made doughnuts. We eat these the first snowfall of every winter.

Have I ever mentioned that food is really important? There are certain foods that just make me feel awesome.

4. Some words that make you happy.


There are a lot of these, and oddly enough, they are mostly names of trees. Like lombardy, birch, chestnut, poplar, maple, and beech. I also like the way analyse, glamorous, enchantment, and venn diagram roll off the tongue.

5. Some scents that make you happy.


I have to say it again-- chocolate! Also the smell of:
  • Freshly baked bread.
  • Newly mown grass.
  • Clean towels.
  • Lavender.
  • Rain at night.
  • A campfire.

6. Some random things that make you happy.


  • Moonlight.
  • The ocean (or water in general).
  • Family vacations and holidays.
  • Forgotten money, candy, or even shirts randomly found in my dresser drawers.
  • My lovely little Chromebook. (It's so tiny and adorable.)
  • Orange leaves in the fall.
  • People.
  • RORY.
So there you have some things that make me happy. I tag A.M., Aneeqah, Annika, and Lily, but don't feel obligated to do it if you don't want to, and if I didn't tag you and you want to do it, please, feel free!!

10 comments:

I adore comments! Just keep it clean and respectful...please no profanity and while I respect people's opinions and love a good argument, simply bashing my post is obviously not appreciated. :)

How to Read Your Novel: Taking a Step Back

8:00 AM Gemma Fitz 12 Comments

So with CampNaNo finally over, I threw my then-WIP into the cellar to rot for a couple months and pulled out my Big Baby-- the sci-fi, spy thriller, dystopian-ish, cyber punk young adult thingummy I drafted this past November, rewrote this past April-May, and put aside for a quick breather in July. I cheerfully fished it out of my files and decided to read through it just to get back into the rewriting/revising/editing groove.

It sucks.
I have no idea what this is from, but it is too accurate to not use.
No, it really, really sucks. Reading the first couple paragraphs felt like being stabbed in the stomach with a pitchfork. And if you think that's a graphic description don't read those first couple paragraphs. Because that description, however graphic, does not even come close to explaining how I felt about my rotten little story.

And seriously, being stabbed in the stomach with a pitchfork is not a pleasant sensation. It's more the kind of sensation that makes you want to pull the pitchfork out and run away and cry and maybe see a doctor. The last thing it makes you want to do is sit down and start washing the blood off the prongs, bending them back into shape, taping the handle that splitting apart back together, and basically making the sharp, pointy thing that's sticking out of you look beautiful. It's also the kind of sensation that makes you ask yourself "What was I thinking to leave sharp pointy objects lying around where I could so easily run right into them and get stabbed in the stomach???"

The problem was, I didn't know how to read my own story. And I think that a lot of us probably have that problem. We tend to scroll through our manuscripts alternating between "I'm a genius! This is the most awesome thing ever! Let's go publish it right now!" and (more often), "This sucks! I'm a horrible writer! Let's destroy this thing in the most violent way possible!" And with either of these attitudes, it's super hard to make our stories any better.

So, because I'm a nice, generous, I've done my best to find a comparatively painless way to read through your novel, and I'll be sharing some tips with y'all over the next few weeks.

Aha! Finally we get to the picture. Sorry for the super long introduction, but it was so much fun to write about pitchforks I felt it was necessary.

Today I'm addressing the most important aspect of reading your novel (or anything else you've written), and that is taking a step back. You need to view your book objectively, through a perspective other than that of the author. When a writer reads his own story, it's hard for him to see what's good and what's bad. This is why we have beta-readers, but most of us don't want a beta to see our first-- or even our second or third-- draft. You need to become your own beta reader.

So take a step back. Think of it as a book somebody else wrote-- someone you don't know and someone who is definitely not you. Try to treat your novel as just another book on your TBR stack. You hope it will be good, but you know it might let you down, because books just do that, sometimes.

Try to emotionally distance yourself from your novel. When you run into a huge plot hole, don't think "Oh my word, this sucks! I need to fix this!", think, "Hmm... the author didn't do a very good job with the plot-- maybe it'll make sense later on?" You'll have time to fix everything later. For now, you just need to make note of any major problems, and it's not going to help to get worked up over them.  (I'll talk more about this in a later post, so stay tuned.)

Another way to emotionally distance yourself from the novel is to keep telling yourself that you are not responsible for your story. As I was reading through my WIP, I would say things like, "I'm not the one who wrote this, I can't change any of this, I'm just reading a book, and when I'm done I'll decide whether I like it or not." (I probably looked insane, wriggling uncomfortably, grimacing, and muttering things under my breath, but I was alone in my room as always, so there was no one to see me.)  Just saying, "I'm not responsible," relieves a ton of stress and can allow you to enjoy your novel objectively, without obsessing over the problems.
Once you've succeeded in seeing your novel from the perspective of a reader-- not the author-- it will be significantly easier to push through your manuscript, noticing the flaws, but not having hour long sob-fests every other paragraph.

How do you read your stories? Do you ever get overwhelmed by the sheer suckiness of them? Or do no one else's stories suck as much as mine do?

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I adore comments! Just keep it clean and respectful...please no profanity and while I respect people's opinions and love a good argument, simply bashing my post is obviously not appreciated. :)

End of Month Wrap-Up: July

9:06 AM Gemma Fitz 2 Comments

So I've been having trouble posting on time, especially with these monthly wrap-ups.

I do have an excuse this time, though. My internet has been down since early Thursday afternoon, which is also why I haven't been commenting on blogs, pinning wondrous things on pinterest, and making y'all's days infinitely more beautiful with my brilliant blog posts.
Yeah right, I was gone for three days.

On the Blog

At My Writing Desk

  • I participated in Camp NaNo again.
I was aiming for 22,000 words, and that didn't happen. I had a crazy busy month, kept getting stuck, and my novel basically threw a tantrum whenever I tried to write. It was all super stressful and I've decided I really hate writing. But! I got nearly 10,000 words written, which is insanely sucky, but still something. I don't want to look at my novel again in a million years, but I'll get over that in a couple months and give it another go. Because I do miss Keiran.

In the Books

I read a grand total of 3 books this month.
The good news is that where quantity was lacking, I was pleasantly surprised by quality. I enjoyed everything I read, which doesn't happen often. (I'm such a picky bookworm...)

On the Web

With Me and My Life

Basically I've been crazy busy and stressed out and hot. Always hot.
  • CampNaNo swallowed copious amounts of time and energy with very little written to show for it. But hey! I had an awesome cabin full of awesome people whom I had an awesome time writing alongside.
  • I took swimming lessons, because I amwas (ha!) unable to swim at the age of 15 and that's super embarrassing.
  • My social life spun wildly out of control with work, multiple church/youth group functions, friends over constantly (I mean, seriously-- since when do I have friends??!!), and to crown it all a Japanese Foreign Exchange student living in my house with my family for a month. Which is all really nice and all, for extrovert me, but air. I need air.

Coming Soon to the Blog

Lately, I've just been trying to survive one day to the next-- you honestly expect me to know what I'll be doing this August?? *insert derisive, hysterical laugh*

But there is a possibility you may get a post on sudden mental, emotional, physical, and literal collapse, resulting from exhaustion, confusion, and severe over-heating later this week. (Don't forget the over-heating.)

How was your month? Did you participate in CampNaNo? Did you win? (If so, go enjoy some ice cream and my envy.)

2 comments:

I adore comments! Just keep it clean and respectful...please no profanity and while I respect people's opinions and love a good argument, simply bashing my post is obviously not appreciated. :)

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