Just Showing my Work!

So . . . I'm about to release All I Never Wanted. 

The cover has been revealed, the synopsis is posted, the bookstore links are in progress, and, if you're on my newsletter list, you just received the first five chapters to peruse. :P

Now that I'm in the home stretch, I thought I'd share some screenshots of a few of the things I see on my end when I'm working on a project. 

First, I work in Scrivener, which is an absolute Godsend (i.e. I highly recommend it). 

Here's my screenshot of the Prologue:

And here are some of the final stats for this particular project:

Here's part of the "Bible" I use to keep my characters and locations straight:

It's so easy to forget the name of a character or the name of a shop or town, so as soon as I write something new into the story, a note immediately goes into my "Bible."

This is what I love most about Scrivener: everything I need to write the story is in one convenient location. 

Even my characters:

Be Brilliant!

~Katie~ 

Coming v. Soon!

What happens when a boy from a privileged, upper-middle-class family falls for a girl in a rehabilitation facility accused of murdering her best friend?

In a world of mansions, expensive prep schools, and elite colleges, where money means favors and the right price will buy a ticket into or out of just about any situation, Trent Moreau is living easy. 

Drugs, parties, breaking and entering, traffic violations, property damage . . . it’s nothing for Trent’s father to swoop in and buy his son’s way out of trouble. Only this time, he and his brother have gone too far.

After ruining one of his father’s executive gatherings, Crewe is sent to rehab, and Trent is forced to live on campus (and on a budget) under the watchful eye of a roommate who reports back to (and is likely getting paid by) Trent’s father.

When he’s caught tampering with files at Crewe’s facility, Trent is assigned (more) community service hours to be fulfilled by spending time with seventeen-year-old Summer Evans, resident psychopath. 

The previous year, Summer’s best friend was found dead in her backyard swimming pool. Summer, the only known witness, remembers nothing about that night. Because foul play was suspected and she was a minor, Summer and her family agreed to rehab in lieu of a prison sentence.  

But the more time Trent spends with Summer, and the more he learns about the events surrounding her friend’s mysterious death, the less sense it all makes. 

What if Summer isn’t guilty at all?

What if she’s innocent, and he can prove it?

As Trent quietly falls for the extraordinary artist, his investigation is going to take a dramatic turn, sending him spiraling deeper into the egotism and entitlement edging his own privileged lifestyle. 

Flat Characters vs. Round Characters

What's the difference between flat and round characters?

A flat character will have a fixed set of (usually predictable) traits. None of these are likely to drive or create any real conflicts within the story. 

Round characters are more complex and have traits that often conflict with one another. 

An old man can be both a miser with his time and affection, but generous financially to the charities he supports. 
The mother can be frivolous with her money, but responsible when it comes to her career or children. 
The teenager may not speak to his parents, but will willingly offer his friends advice/help whenever they ask. 

The best characters are rife with contradictions.

There's nothing inherently wrong with incorporating a flat character into your story, but they don't deserve center stage or even a strong supporting role. 

Keep them strictly to the background. 

Be Brilliant!

~Katie~       

Just Start

I've said it before and I'll say it again.

I'll say it ad nauseam.

Don't wait until you're inspired to write. 

You're more likely to find inspiration once you sit down at the computer or open that notebook and put the pen to the page or fingers to the keyboard than you are maneuvering blindly about, waiting for that perfect "lightning" sentence or word or idea.

Don't wait for "the mood."

There is no mood. The mood doesn't exist.

(But if there is a "mood," again, you certainly won't find it until you sit down and begin to work.)

Put your current mood to work.

Don't know what to write? 

Start with a prompt. Start with a character. Start with a setting. Start with a list of words that you love. Start with "I don't know what to write." Fill the page if you must.

Just start.

Be Brilliant!

~Katie~

Plot and Character

According to Josip Novakovich (Fiction Writer's Workshop), plot can grow out of character, but character doesn't necessarily grow out of plot.

Stock characters, for instance--let's use a detective as our example--don't always change as the plot thickens around them, as they grow closer to solving the murder. In the next book with a new case to solve, the detective is likely to be the same dependable gentleman he was before. If he's part of a series, then these books could be read in any order and very little information would be lost in the process.

A well-rounded character acting in unpredictable ways, however, will naturally drive the plot, as the decisions he makes cause new things to happen. If done correctly he will, at times, become his own contradiction. This is what makes him intriguing. 

There's nothing wrong with writing a story with a stock character--a character doesn't have to change to be worth reading--but it helps to know before you begin what you're trying to accomplish with your tale, and which kind of character will best serve your story's purpose. 

Be Brilliant!

~Katie~ 
 

On Making Time

I love what Dorothea Brande (Becoming a Writer) says about making time for Art:

"There is almost no wage slave so driven that he cannot snatch a quarter of an hour from a busy day if he is in earnest about it."

But Katie, Brande wrote this the early 1930s! Of course there was time to create. They didn't have television or Netflix or the internet. They didn't drive their kids to and from practices every night of the week. They didn't have news and information tossed at them from every angle from one day to the next.

Yes, dear reader, this is true, but Brande's generation dealt with its own struggles, and the point here is that if we have something worth saying (or writing) or something worth making or something worth inventing, then it's up to us to be good stewards of our time.

We can all find an extra 30 minutes in our day--it's probably just a matter of turning off Pinterest or Facebook and staying away from Netflix for a while, or even waking up a few minutes early. 

What it comes down to is our priorities. We make time for what matters most to us. If that priority is Netflix, then we should own it without lamenting there's "no time" to write down the story that's swimming in our heads.

Be Brilliant (especially when it comes to your time)!

~Katie~ 

Setting the (Story) Stage

Many readers prefer the fast pace of dialogue and action (the exciting parts of a novel) as opposed to information about the setting.

(In truth, this is why I was unable to finish Lord of the Rings. Sacrilege, I know.)

On the other hand, there are readers who love those milieus--pages and pages of vivid, detailed descriptions. I think sci-fi, fantasy, and historical writers are the most adept at creating worlds and drawing the reader into the characters' space.

If you're not creating a new world but writing about the world we're currently in, it can be tempting to gloss over the details and ask the reader to fill in the blanks (which, as readers, we're pretty good at doing, actually).

Still, our environments directly affect who we (and our characters) are, and if we're going to fully explore those characters, a strong sense of place is mandatory. 

Don't think, however, that you have to present every aspect of the "where" and the "when" upfront. 

Drop little hints along the way. Intersperse the details between the dialogue and action. Use the surroundings to tell us more about the character.

Give us that "establishing shot." Let us know where we are, what time of day (or night!) it is, give us a clear view of where your current action is set, and remember to always point out the surprising. 

Do this between the action and dialogue, and you won't be at risk of losing the reader to those long, flowery passages of description that tend to remove us from the story.

And, as always . . . 

Be Brilliant!

~Katie~