Starting your novel: Transitions

A question popped up in my e-mail today and I thought it was a great topic to address because I wandered about this myself and it isn't a no brainer.

So the question basically was...Is it OK to start your chapter at a certain time and place and then in the next chapter to transition on forward how ever.

So first of all, what are transitions? Let me start with a definition:  A transition in a book or story is pretty much any passage or device that bridges moments of discontinuity in our writing.  Changes in time, changes in setting, changes in point of view character, even changes in mood. 

This person that asked the question is talking about time transitions. And I have to say, it really depends. I think that transitions can be done well, and they can be done really badly. It really does depends so this is what I think. The huge dependency of this topic is the transition amount or area. So if you do do a transition it would be very annoying for me personally to start reading about a sixteen year old and then in the next chapter he's fifty. That would be the throw the book at the wall moment! Especially if I liked the character from the start and looked forward to reading about a teenager. But hey, if you are doing something like: Two years later...Or even a month later...Or maybe tomorrow...It can be done really well. I've seen it done well. I''ve enjoyed books that have in fact transitioned at the start, but at the same time, you are risking that flawless start in the very first chapters where you are just engaging the readers so...It is something of preference. Writing is in fact majorly based on opinion.

What do you think?

BLOG VOICE! Blah! Blah! Blah!

Having your own voice is important in blogging, I can't even say how important it is and thus far. That's why I am blogging on it now. Hey, it's like your online personality. This morning I was waking up and I was like...Hmmm, I wanna blog about something gripping. Voice!

Yes, I've sucked at keeping the blog content up to date but I am revamping the blog and starting to really seriously keep everything up to date and interesting! I don't want you guys to lose interest in the blog and I love to read all your blogs so...

The most important aspect of a successful blog is voice. You gotta yell. Sound just like yourself. I guess it's sort of like talking to your audience in a YouTube Video. If you begin to blah bblah blah and go off topic, people will lose interest which is so not good!

Blogging about writing is a great way to network because hey, maybe soon you will be published. If not, it''s fun. But the main things most blogs lack, I think, is voice and I guess a part of that is just because they are trying to sound too formal. Now, I know a ton of really great blogs you can learn from on the side bar which have amazing voices. Think like you are writing from a character and not from yourself, but maybe in that manner of having found yourself. Do I not make sense?

Alright, I hope that helps.

Let that voice loose :) or tell us how you found your voice!

Youtube

Hey everyone! It's raining here, so kinda a great day for writing. What type of weather do you guys like for writing? For me rainy is perfect for my novel setting.

I am also thinking of changing the design of the blog but am unsure because I do like this one. So apart from writing I actually recently started a Youtube channel with my sister. We founded a 100% natural  skincare company called Delizioso Skincare four years ago so we finally decided to launch it with tips and all kinds of stuff, so go on over and check it out :)

www.youtube.com/user/totallygreenme

I know this has nothing to do with writing but its something that we've been working on. We do videos and how tos so I'm just going to post one here:

http://youtu.be/mSBRGCIcvpQhttp://youtu.be/mSBRGCIcvpQ

We'd love it if you subbed! Either way, Happy Easter cause today IS Sunday. The next post is about voice in blogging, and that is something I am working on. Cheers!

What throws you off INSTANTLY about a book?

Well, first and foremost, Happy New Years! 2012 has been a busy year already.

Look out for some great interviews coming up, and contests and tips!

So what throws you off about a book? Clearly not everyone judges books too much by covers, right? Well here is a list of some very common thing that we all should avoid so that your reader won't immediately shut your book and throw it at the wall. These things are quite personal, but hey, we all need a list to avoid.

Typos

This one is pretty self explanatory. I found typos in published novel and so have everyone I know living on planet earth. It happens, but to keep your book off the wall I suggest to try to remove as many as you (and your beta) can spot after like a million read overs.

Unlikable Characters

This was actually mentioned often. But it is a toughie. You can't make everyone like your character, can you? Is it really possible? probably not. But some characters which aren't described in a great sense and are very average tend to be disliked by the majority. Especially the perfect kinds.

Boring Set Up

Can differ from one to one. I don't suggest you start every single book with the twin towers being blown but hey, we do want some sort of suspense or an interest pull. Apparently a book always has to have conflict (cough)...

Repetition

It's good here and there. Sometimes. Sometimes. Here and there. Repetition is good. But too much repetition sometimes can make my head reel.

Infodumps

We all know this classic. I didn't at first. I was infodumping badly. No explanation necessary. Won't dump too much info.

So I hope this is a cool list to start off. Do you guys have any suggestions to add? I'm sure we all have more personal ideas. Some more personal annoyances for me tend to be characters that are super super tough and unlikable, characters which are emotionless, too emotional characters, slow starts and prose, and lets just say (I'm being honest) too much prose.

I actually have a couple agents interested in my novel now, and I'm revising so lots of stuff going on but how's it going? Ha, that was terrible. Basically, look out for my next post hopefully tomorrow about too many projects.



WINNERS!!!WINNERS!!!

Ok so if you guys remember I made that giveaway contest a couple months back....Yep it was THAT long and yep time does pass like mad when you are trying to squeeze everything into a short or long time frame. The contest HAS been extended previously, but I've gotten all the prizes here so that I can give them away to you. Sweet, right? Ok. Cool. Lets get started!

I decided to randomize the entries as this is a very comfortable thing to do because I don't pick favourites...lol...Of course not. Whoever had more points got more entries into the randomizer and this was an online thing since I didn't have much paper to write on...Shrugs. Believe it or not, I actually wrote my whole first novel on paper. Lined school paper. The good kind. Is there a bad kind? I wrote during French Class all year. My teacher took it away from me allot. But I always got it back in the end. It sucked. But it was my first writing attempt and I'm glad I didn't stop. I sort of started in the first place because I was bored...Off topic!!!

Back to the winners. So I am opening the randomizer right now. Typing the names in. I've got all the points and things and all that stuff and click. This one goes for first place. Its Loading. Loading. Loading. Is my computer THAT slow?

First place goes to...

Evangeline a.k.a Vangie

Congratulations!!

Second Place goes to...

FantasyGirl2000

Third Place goes to...

Kayeleen Hamblin

If you see this than e-mail me at arielemerald at rocketmail.com to collect your stuffs...HEHE. If you don't, I will come down to your blog to let you know...soon. Promise!

Cheers

Battle & Action Scenes

I thought that a post about action would be a great idea for today. Action is apparently, according to a couple agent critiques, the best part of my writing. I love action and I am speaking about the type of action that happens in battle and in war. Yes, truthfully speaking everything is action, even Jenny going to talk to Sally is an action. But today, I want to talk about battle. The epic kind.

                                            

1. Visualize. That is your #1 target. You really have to see every swift movement of the body, every slice of the blade and describe it in order to create a very realistic scene for your audience. The precision, the fear, the consequence. When writing battle scenes, I think that seeing the scene in your head is the best way to get better and better at them.

2. Research and analyze. I don't do this often but I suppose that watching movies with lots of battle scenes does act as visual research on some occasions. The only problem is...Battle scenes in movies are rarely realistic. Keep in mind that many of them I notice glitches and issues in. Still...Basically speaking, you cannot write about battle if you haven't seen any battles and most us that live in North America only get to see really high quality battles in movies. Thus, sometimes its better to speak to someone who has a knowledge of realistic battle. That is a perfect idea of how to learn to write about battles. But movies are still great tools. We don't need dry battle scenes. We are writing Fantasy here. Since visualization is the key to a great battle scene in a novel, watching epic battle scenes will really get you the idea of what you are aiming for and how it is done in entertainment. In case you are treading unfamiliar grounds, and have never had the thought of battle it IS a very good idea to pick up a novel that has scenes of war and read. It is costly to make errors when writing about battle. Especially errors that are unrealistic and long time Fantasy readers would immediately notice, not to mention agents.

3. Stay Tight. We want to know what senses your MC is feeling as he/she battles his/her way through the war field. We want to know the emotional aspect of life and death, but never focus too much on this as when people fight, they tend not to think too much. Over thinkers will die. Because if you think too much, you don't focus. But you have to keep your focus on the main action, don't describe the wind, or how the sky looks or whatnot. Eyes on the prize.

So with these three points in mind, go and get your buts in your chairs and keep writing those battle scenes, but before you do...Don't forget to scroll to older posts and enter my contest. It ends on October 13! Cheers!

Don't care. Write. Live.

When I first started out on my writing journey I was fourteen years old. Now, a few years later, I am not published like I imagined I'd have been. In fact, when I look back at my fourteen year old self I can't help but giggle because I actually had sent out three queries and thought agents would be fighting for my novel and a quick F.Y.I to my fourteen year old self, the query sucked! Go throw that query out!

Here I am now, and I've been offered representation which I've declined because it wasn't the right fit. I'm looking at things totally differently. Writing a book is like walking a long damn road, super long, and littered with broken glass. All those ugly or may I say kinda interesting chunks of broken glass represent all those obstacles of getting published. But hey, I don't care anymore. I honestly don't care. Hell, I am enjoying writing and reworking my book so much that I'd rather wait longer to get it published and now that I look at it, I wouldn't have wanted my fourteen year old self to publish. Why? Because everything pretty much sucked. It was like the very start to a skeleton which I've built on, and if I would have published that skeleton, I would have never been able to take it back. Yikes. So basically I don't care about getting published as much as I used to and believe it or not, its brought me luck. I mean, I have a great agent waiting for a rewrite and a request from another large agency. We'll see how that goes. Just this time, I'm not dying from checking my e-mail every 5 minutes. What have you learnt from your writing journey?