Guest Post by author Cait Drews

So I'm back. Hopefully. For now at least. I will go into detail about just what has transpired in my sad absence at My Unicorn Has Wings. For now, I have a fantabulous guest post for you all written by Cait!



 

If you’re a writer, you’ve probably heard of the adage “don’t be passive in your writing”. Funky. Specific. And easy! Right?

 

Right?

 

Well, what exactly does it mean? Does it apply to every-single-sentence-in-your-book? How do you identify a “passive” passage? What is the exact difference between passive and action sentences anyway?!

 

Keep calm. Breathe. Let’s think about this slowly and logically, okay?

 

How to identify a PASSIVE sentence

 

“Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.” – (Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by JK Rowling)

 

“There was a town, and there was a girl, and there was a theft.” – (Who Could That Be At This Hour? by Lemony Snicket)

Let’s take a closer look at these two examples, okay? They both have a certain thing in common. Hands, hands? A show of hands? Yes! The verbs are passive. Instead of action verbs like “shoved” or “ran”, they use passive verbs like “was” and “were”. I highlighted these in yellow (because I’m nice like that).

 

How to identify an ACTION sentence

 

“My mother drove me to the airport with the windows rolled down. – (Twilight by Stephanie Meyer)

 

“Rain fell that night, a fine, whispering rain.” – (Inkheart by Cornelia Funke)

This is easy now, isn’t it? Instead of passively telling us what’s happening, they use an action(“drove” and “fell”). Cornelia Funke could have said “Rain was falling…” and Stephanie Meyer could have said, “My mother was driving me…” But they chose to use action.

 

Okay, so we should always use ACTION in our writing and never be PASSIVE?

 

Gosh, no! For one, it’s impossible. And for two, there’s no need. Passive isn’t wrong, it just isn’t as strong as action. Basically, if you can show, you should.

 

In her book, What’s Left of Me, Kat Zhang could have started the first sentence like this: “Everyone was blasted from their seats by the end-of-school bell.” Instead, she decided to make the sentence into an action. The novel begins: “The end-of-school-bell blasted everyone from their seats.”

But you can’t always show.

 

Think of this sentence: “I was sad.” If you want the sentence to look and feel roughly the same, you can’t take out the passive. That’s not bad or wrong, either.

Learning to write sentences that use action verbs instead of passive ones takes practice. A little work and you can do it! ACTION can make your writing pack a punch, because it becomes tighter, smoother and connects the reader to the story by putting them in the middle of everything and not relating that it “just happened”. It’s a priceless piece of advice. I like it a lot.

 

“And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” (Sylvia Plath)


Between writing, eating peanut butter, and rereading The Hunger Games, Cait blogs at Notebook Sisters. She writes fantasy, a little on the darker side, and has finished 6 novels. Her favourite hobby is rewriting said six novels. She’s 19 years old, a homeschool graduate, and believes in Never Land.  

 

This week, the Once Upon a Time... linkup prompt will be: threats. Have fun!

 



P.S. I will also be doing the giveaway info which I missed while I was gone. Good luck to those of you who entered!

 

Guest Post by Nobody

Yeah, so, I totally didn't plan for this week at all and had no one on the list to write this guest post. I'm such a splendid organizer...

So, here I am, scrambling out some sort of post by which I can make amends. Nobody is{n't} perfect. {Pun intended...eh he...and I'm bad at making puns.} But at least this is something.

I have been reading a storm of books this last month. I've probably finished ten or eleven novels. Several of them were excellent. Several were mediocre. One of the ones I picked up was Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie. Not the children's Disney makeover, but the real classic Peter Pan. It is fantastic.

It is still a children's story {obviously}, but it is so cute. I love the narrating style and laughable moments. Of course, I am still a child at heart, so what can I say?

I have been editing my own novel In the Shadow to within and inch of my life. Someday I'll get it there....someday....

I had this ridiculous notion when I began this blog for it to be some sort of professional site with Q & A format, exact purposes, specific guidelines and picture-perfect posts. So I've given up that dream {or nightmare} because I realized that is not what I want. I want my writing to be more than that. Up front and personal. Meaningful. Useful. Not a dry, thick-worded mass through which you have to wade just to discover something interesting. {How was that for absolutely boring...}

I don't do boring. It's not my thing. Never been bored an hour in my life. I don't plan on making you bored either.

Oh, and a reminder to you all. The giveaway ends in a few days. Here are the rules and the prize!!

Rules to enter:

1: must be a member of Stories in the Mind
2: loves to read!!! :)
3: comment on the blog in one post other than this one
4: tell me what your favorite book is and why! {if you have done this, feel free to skip it and I will add you in for the 4th tag anyway, just let me know you have completed it}
5: give me one reason why I should pick you. JK!! share the giveaway on your blog and send me the link

The giveaway is open internationally.

 

 



And yes, I realize this was supposed to be up....yesterday. My Internet shut off before I could post it. Technical difficulties. Don't we all love them.

I will try to get the Once Upon a Time... linkup up today. I am having troubles getting this all done. If I don't, it WILL go up tomorrow. The prompt will be: a faceoff.



Guest Post by author Charley Robson

This week we are hearing from a new going-to-be-published author!!! She will be telling us all about her book {co-authored} that will be coming out soon. I am excited!

 

 

 

 

St Mallory’s Forever! is like the puppy that your  grandmother gives you on Christmas morning. It’s unexpected, amazing, the pride of your existence . . . but you have no idea how she snuck it into the house, or how you’re going to keep it from eating your English coursework.

In conversation, my co-author Miriam Joy and I call it “a young adult mystery”. The “young adult” is fairly obvious – both of us being at least several months off the official borders of adult-ness. But it’s a slippery appellation at best. What defines “young adult”? Does that mean it’s not suitable for younger readers? Are we allowed to have our characters hacking into the data files of MI6 under the guise of “young adult” entertainment?





Sorry, I’m digressing. But my point is this: neither of us are greatly experienced in the “young adult mystery” department. We’ve both been writing a fair while, sometimes collaboratively, but both of us tend to stick to the realms of the supernatural – high fantasy, complete with neurotic sword-wielders, for me, and death and fairies (literally) for Miriam. So, suddenly, dealing with a real-world setting and a genre we’d only prodded and admired from afar was quite a challenge.

This is, of course, where the co-writing part comes in. By writing together, we stood a much better chance of actually creating a functioning plot – or at least having another head to bash against when we were really scuppered for ideas.

In fact, now that I think of it, I don’t think any one of us could have written St Mallory’s Forever! alone. Our publisher, and third head of our hydra-esque author entity, Mark, loves boarding school stories and has always had a bit of a dream about publishing one. If we hadn’t had him, we probably wouldn’t have even got started. Likewise, without Miriam, Mark and I would have been left scrabbling in pits of mutual confusion over the actual behaviour of Londoners. And without me? Well. Who else is going to tell them which way up a lacrosse stick goes? 

So this was us, hammering out tentative chapters and sending them flying through cyberspace once or twice a week. We got better as we got going, of course, and the editing process was surprisingly easy. If one of us didn’t catch that errant apostrophe lurking in Chapter Twelve, you can bet one of the others would (and slay it mercilessly into the bargain). Continuity was a bit squicky, I’ll admit, but you can blame exams, moving house, and various ill-timed illnesses for that.

Writing with other people is great fun, especially for a profession that is, archetypally, pretty lonely. Miriam and I had a bit of trouble adjusting, both being horrific control freaks, but before long we were too busy questioning the origin of references we didn’t understand and wondering if anyone actually remembered the name of the Physics teacher.



Apologies for the slightly disorganised nature of this post. I did try to keep it all in order, but writing a book is, going back to my first analogy, like trying to explain to your teacher why your pockets are full of mangled tennis balls after being woken up at three in the morning for an early morning game of catch by a damp tongue and a distinct smell of pilfered dog biscuits.

Thus, in order not to appear completely useless, I’ll leave you with a few little tidbits of advice that I’d give to myself at the beginning of the St Mall’s adventure:

1 – Listen to the experts. Even if you don’t have an incredible Obi Wan of a co-author, there are plenty of amazing blogs out there, done by people who break down the complications of the world for the newbies.  

2 – Balance your time. Miriam and I wrote most of the first draft of St Mallory’s during two of the most stressful years of our schooling, so we both had to learn to balance the immediate needs of our grades against the long-term (and much more exciting) prospect of bashing out another chapter of the novel.

3 – Enjoy yourself! Don’t think that just because it’s such a long and painful process that it’s got to suck harder than a cyclone-powered Dyson. Give yourself little treats and rewards, talk about it with your friends and family, and enjoy the journey! If you don’t enjoy writing it, nobody’s going to have much fun reading it, are they?

Thanks to all for reading, and special big thanks to the lovely blog hostess for letting me invade her pristine corner of the internet and sully it with my blithering.

 

If you want to know more about St Mallory’s Forever!, you can check out its official blog, its Facebook page!, You can also check out mine or Miriam’s blog!

~ Charley R

 

 

{Charley sent me a beautiful copy of their book cover, but because of blogger's refusal to behave, I cannot upload it. But please head over to THIS site to see both it and learn more about the book.}

 

 

Miriam Joy

Miriam Joy is the youngest member of the St Mallory’s Forever! multi-headed author entity. She has lived in South-East London all her life, working through the state education system and trying to appear as normal as a fangirling nerd ever can (she is, after all, a proud contributor to the Hamlet fandom). Recently, she became the assistant to the Teens Can Write Too! blog, which basically means answering emails and pretending to know what she’s talking about.
As well as writing, she also does ballet and archery, plays three instruments (violin, flute and piccolo), makes YouTube videos, blogs, and is learning two dead languages and a made-up one on top of her schoolwork. Despite this, she still manages to spend far too much time on Tumblr, which has led to an accumulation of quotes and facts about actors or TV shows that she will never, ever need, but likes to know anyway.
She loves mythology, especially Celtic and Norse. Her music taste varies from Shostakovich to My Chemical Romance, taking in a lot of the stuff in between, although for writing she usually prefers film or TV soundtracks.
Her short story The Eagle Child was published in volume one of the Saffina Desforges Presents… Coffee Break Collections in November 2011.

Charley Robson

Charley Robson has a more unusual background: a proud ‘army brat’, she has lived on every major continent on Earth and is currently attending her thirteenth school, a boarding school for girls in Dorset, South England. She has tried and failed to learn several languages (though will happily insult you in both Arabic and Latin) and has met many weird and wondering people during her travels.
Her deeply-seated loathing for all things requiring a calculator means she spends most of her time reading, picking her teeth with five-page essays, covering her fingers in ink, and poking philosophical holes in reality. Aside from this and writing, which goes without saying, Charley also enjoys long walks, acting (she has been cast as nothing but villains since the age of seven), singing and watching Doctor Who. Her musical tastes range from films soundtracks to rock bands to Celtic music, and back again. She’s even been known to listen to a Disney song from time to time.
Charley is also a fairly prolific poet, and one of her poems was awarded a place in the top 20 of a Daily Telegraph poetry competition in 2010. She’ll try her hand at most types of writing, though, including articles for her school magazine and, in 2012, a pantomime for performance in the annual school Drama competition.
Charley’s short story Darkness to Light was published in the second volume of the Saffina Desforges Presents… Coffee Break Collections in February 2012.



Guest Post by Author Miss Jack Lewis Balliot

Today I have an interview by my friend Miss Jack from However Improbable. She has published her first book, Haphazardly Implausible {found HERE} and I had some questions for her. Enjoy!!!

What genre is your book in?

Steampunk, which is now my favourite genre to write. I've also done a form of fantasy, historical fiction – which I'm not much good at – and adventure.

How many “main” characters do you have?

 
Three, I suppose. A couple others like to think they are main characters, and apparently a lot of readers agree with them, but I usually just ignore said characters. When they get too pushy I'm always forced to bring out my sword.

What are their personalities?

 
Hm...I shall try to sum this up in as few words as possible.

 
Peter Jones: Daring, clueless

Singur: Somewhat of a coward, intelligent

Isidore Thaddeus Reichmann: A snob, mysterious

There is more to it then that, but you'll just have to read the books.

Where is your book set in?

 
Time period or place? The time period would be the mid 1800's, the Victorian Era in an Alternate history. The place differs. In book one it is mostly England, Scotland, and on the ocean. After that...well...



 

 

I’ve heard rumors it’s the first in a series. Is this true? How many books will there end up being?

 
Aye, you've heard right! When it is all said and done, there will be four books. I've all four written, I just have to re-do some things because my wonderful characters thought it would be great fun to leave some plot holes till the very end.

Why did you decide to self-publish?

 
I do not like how traditional publishers are doing things. Were I to go that way I would have to give up all my rights over the book, I would have to do all the marketing myself pretty much. I would make very little off of it. They could have me change things in the story (and I know changing things is good sometimes, but I like it better when they are suggested, not someone telling me it HAS to go.)

 
Also, if the publisher didn't think my book was doing as well as they thought they had the right to pull it from the shelves for a later date.

 
After going over both options I decided self-publishing fit me better.

 

Were there any problems you ran into?

 
*Snicker*

Oh, you know, just the cover, editing, formatting, marketing...

 
I knew I'd end up having to do all this on my own, but when the time came to actually do it I realized just how much work has to go into it. One cannot just make a cover. I had to research covers, study them to find out which covers drew readers in. (Books ARE judged by their covers after all.)

 
I had to study marketing and come up with something new to make my name stand out. (Three guesses as to what I did.)

 
I had to tackle an editor.

 
I had to figure out formatting. It isn't as easy as it looks. It all took a lot of time. The end result was worth it, I just went into it with no clue as to the time frame I would need and ended up doing a lot of it last minute.

How did you rise above them?

 
Well...I came to the realization that if I wanted this I had to do it. I couldn't sit about waiting for someone to come along and help me, because it wasn't going to happen. (I mean, I did get help, but this was my project, no one was ever going to care for it as much as I did. It would always be last on their list and first on mine.)

 
Finally I just sat down and found a way to do what had to be done. I learned how to format, how to put together a cover, and how to come up with a marketing plan. I also haunted authors to see what they did, and what worked or didn't work for them.



 

Why did you decide to write? Or when did you decide to write?

I decided to write because I've an insanely wild imagination and it was either write or get myself into a ton of trouble looking for adventures. (Not that I ever stopped looking.)

I decided to write when I was thirteen. One night I sat down and wrote my first story, which my dad thought was homework. (After all, why would a kid write when she didn't have to?) I've never been able to stop since.

What can people look forward to in your writing?

Hm...I suppose it would be the characters. My readers don't talk about my plots much, but they all seem to love my characters.

Also, look for swords. Aye...there is usually always at least one sword.





How long did it take you to write this book?

Less then a year. It took a year for me to write all four books.

How many drafts did you go through?

About five, or six. Not as bad as some of my other work. I have one that is on its...11^thor 12^thdraft. I keep silently hoping this will be the last. Also, The Broken Blade is on it's 6^thor so draft and it has never yet been through a complete writing. (Those two are exceptions though. Usually I can write the first draft much faster.)

What are some things you’d like to pass on to other writers who are hoping to publish their books {self-published or not}?

 
Be prepared for a lot of opposition. Becoming published, in most people's minds, is for J.K Rowling and almost dead men with long beards. Prepare yourself now to meet with a lot of people who will tell you how impossible it is to publish, and how you cannot make a living at it.

Yet, also remember if you really want to publish you can over come any of the problems. I'm kind of proof of that. It is hard, but it is also worth it.

(If anyone has any direct questions on publishing I would be more then happy to give advice or offer any help I can. You can email me atjacklewisbaillot@gmail.com)


Jack Lewis Baillot is not impossible, just a bit unlikely. She is the author of Haphazardly Implausible, owns a pet hedgehog named John, and blogs over at However Improbable.



{For those of you who are wanting to do the linkup tomorrow, the prompt is going to be: what if? Have fun and I can't wait to see what you com up with!!!}

 

Guest Post by author Mime Drews

And it's time to be back!!! The blog is looking a bit more normal again. We're getting back into routine after all the holiday buzz and, ahem, silence... :D Today's guest post is by my friend Mime from Notebook Sisters. Enjoy!!!!



Dialogue is my favourite part of reading. And writing. Maybe In my opinion, a snappy, realistic, or heart-wrenching dialogue can tilt the scale from ‘another book on the shelf’ to ‘good old favourite.’

Some books just nail it. Like Ranger’s Apprentice (John Flanagan). The plot is... not exceptional for most of the books. You could even say it’s Lord of the Rings come general fantasy/medieval-ness. And yet... I still have fond memories of reading all eleven books. Why? The dialogue. The characters are great, sarcastic, and tease each other mercilessly. That’s exactly the sort of humour that appeals to me—I love sarcasm in dialogue.

 



Also, a normal voice helps. I am awed by people like Tolkien who can have extensive dialogue passages in “thee’s” and “thou’s” and really long sentences. I think they must be very patient. But personally, I prefer reading normal, conversational tones. This usually comes across with more modern books—contemporaries, dystopian, or just ones set in the current/future world. The Gallagher Girls series (Ally Carter) is a perfect example. Every girl in the spy school talks like a normal teenage girl. It makes the book easy to read, and I identify with the characters better.

But that’s not to say you have to have your 18^thcentury courtiers talking modern slang. In Johnny Tremain (Esther Forbes), they manage to speak clearly and understandably. The sentences don’t go on forever, and even though it feels a bit more old-fashioned, you still get the same love for the characters’ voices.

To me, dialogue needs to be spread throughout the book generously. It’s so much fun to read. While you can’t have the whole thing being dialogue, I think it makes things come across easier than a lot of narrative, which I tend to find quite boring. Too much narrative, and I yawn, and say, “I’m sorry, but I got lost a while back.” Dialogue can make me laugh or cry, or just plain enjoy the book more. Of course, on the flip side, if there’s too much dialogue, I say, “What is going on here?” There’s a good medium, and it’s different for every story.



Dialogue’s important for letting the reader get to know the characters, particularly in 3^rd person. The way someone talks tells a lot about them—the way they were brought up, the way they think of things, their common phrases, their nationality, or their amount of talkativeness. I know that if there’d been no dialogue in Detectives in Togas (Henry Winterfeld) I would have had no idea who was who. Dialogue defines characters, and that, I think, is why it’s really important.

I think the trick to good dialogue is making sure your character's voice is strong, and that their personality shines through the way they talk.

What are some of your favourite books for the dialogue aspect?

 



 



Guest Post by writer Treskie

 

This week I asked my friend Treskie to do the guest post and explain to us all about NaNoWriMo {because I must admit it still confuses me though I have had many friends tell me about it...}. And she has done an exceptional job! Enjoy!!!!!

 



 

 

 

If you've been in the blogging world at all, you have probably heard of the National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, for short. Am I right? No? Oh. 

Well.... for those of you who have not heard of NaNoWriMo, I've been asked to explain it to you. 

*smirk*

So, NaNo is basically a get-up-and-go for writers. You know that feeling, when you have this perfect idea for a story, but the notion of sitting down and writing is overwhelming and terrifying? NaNo gives you the kick in the pants you need to get you sitting down at your computer and doing the impossible: Writing.

In a sentence, the gist of NaNo is that you write a 50,000 word novel in thirty days. 

Thirty days. 

And you're like..... 

 

 

But actually, it's not as hard as it sounds. 50,000 words is only about a hundred and seventy-five pages. And that is only about five pages a day. And that is only 1,667 words a day. Two hours of writing. (If you're good and don't blog surf or pinterest.... if you do those, it'll be a bit longer. *grin*)

Now, before you get all, "Haaaaaahahaha! No way can I write a good novel in the single month of November!" Bear in mind that it is not supposed to be a masterpiece. It's about quantity, not quality, and you just want to get the words in. The story doesn't have to be perfect, it doesn't need a tight plot, it doesn't need deep characters. All it needs is fifty-thousand words. You don't need to obsess over details, or if the MC has a character arc.

I'm not going to lie though, it's not easy, it's not a breeze. In fact, it's pretty hard. Especially if you're like me and don't usually write more than 500 words a week. But with the proper incentive, you can do anything. 

 

 

It's not something to stress over, you don't even need to let people read it. It's not judged or seen by anyone besides you. 

It is just a motivational thing. 

It's there to make you brainstorm and write without thinking.

It's there to make you write the rough draft which you can go back and tighten up later.

And it works! 

I have always had a hard time writing. Don't get me wrong; I love writing, it's awesome! I find words fascinating and creating characters whom I can fall in love with is wonderful. But I am a perfectionist and it's hard for me to have this spectacular story in my mind and not have it turn out as epic as I envisioned it. So I'm that writer who has massive amounts of novel beginnings on my laptop, and up til now, I had only ever finished one book, which I wrote in about two months when I was thirteen. 

NaNoWriMo made me finish a second book. 

Sure, Myths and Magic is in serious need of editing, and re-writing, and tightening up. But the point is, I wrote it. I wrote it in thirty days! 

So, is NaNo worth it? Is it worth spending a few hours on your laptop ever day for a month? 

I'm going to say yes, it's definitely worth the time and effort. Because when it's done, you have an entire novel just waiting to be fixed up and sent to a publisher. 

You can find the website here. Sign up! If you have any questions they have an awesome FAQ page. Also, the good news is: if you missed NaNoWriMo in November, you don't have to wait a year, you can do it this summer! There's a NaNo in June and August as well which I'm planning to do. 

Be defiant. 

God bless!

~Treskie~

Hey! Call me Treskie. I'm a seventeen year old girl from somewhere in the Sierra Mountains. I enjoy doing loads of artsy things, drawing being something particularly special to me. I sing all the time, and I want to one day soon get married and have a big family. I blog over at Occasional Randomness, and I can promise you a cup of coffee--or tea, if you prefer--if you come by and visit. 



 

Guest Post by poet Hananiah Bechard

This week I am posting a poem by a friend of mine. It is a work in progress, raw and uncompleted.







Who am I?
Am I a lost and lonely sailor in the ocean
Who's lost his crew; his men; his comrades, to the ravishing sea, who's lost his sweet lover back at the place of which I call home
Can I go home? Do I have a home?
Will they know me anymore? Will they recognize this saltwater beaten face?
I am but a man, searching, longing; but for what you ask, only God knows.
For the searcher knows not what he searches.
The explorer not what he explores, until he discovers.
But is that enough? Will what he discovers satisfy him? Quench his thirst for discovery?
Will he return to the peace of his loyal land, for he has found the one thing? I dare say not.
For what if? Dangerous question that is....
What if there's more to be explored, to be discovered?

 

 

He will be posting the finished poem at his new blog The Captain's Life. Drop by and say hello!

 

 



 



 

Guest Post by poet Grace

This week's guest post is by my dear friend Grace, from Poems and Ponderings. She has created a beautiful post about inspiration. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did.





Inspiration.
 

It’s a silly, wild, elusive little thing, isn’t it? So necessary to art and writing and life, yet so often hard to catch.
 

Catch? Hmmm. No, that’s not quite right...

 

Inspiration may elude or even run from us, but it is not something that can be captured. It was not made to be caught and tamed, put on display and wondered at.

 

Oh, but it certainly is something to be wondered at. It is quite possibly the very life-blood of a writer’s existence.

So why does it seem so hard to come by sometimes? That we can sit and stare at paper or screen for hours and have nothing to say, no words to describe, no ideas to present...

 

Ahhhhh, writer’s block! We moan. We doodle. We daydream. We poke around on Pinterest. But nothing comes...must just be out of inspiration. It must be hiding again...hmmm.
 

Well maybe it’s not quite so rare as we might think.

 

 

 

What if we could open our eyes to see that inspiration really is in and all around us – the people we know and the strangers we don’t, the world we live in and the places in us that we no longer visit? What if I told you that inspiration is all about how you see the world around you and yourself and the things you write or sing or draw about?

 

(Because let’s face it, we’re all artists whether our tools are paint and canvas or pen and paper or keys and computer screen...but you knew that.)

 

Our task is to capture the wonder of people and life and emotion through story and words, to inspire our readers, to find it for ourselves...
 

Wait what? Write to be amazed ourselves? Oh but don’t we? Isn't that the first reason we write – to discover for ourselves the wonder of a beautifully described character, a perfectly conveyed emotion, a scene so clear you can see it, a line of poetry so pure it gives you shivers?

We write ourselves into other lands and other people and other times. We write ourselves in and out of emotions and joy and pain.

 

And inspiration fuels it all.
 

What is inspiration really?
 

I looked it up and one resource defined inspiration as “the act of drawing in.” I like that. It’s so true.

 

When we open our eyes to the little things around us – the way the sun catches the autumn trees, the mischievous grin of your favorite two-year-old, the friendly twinkle in the eye of that old lady in front of you at the grocery store, that song that comes on the radio at just the right time – drawing in all those things that make it worth climbing out from the warm covers into the freezing room in the morning...that’s where inspiration flows freely from the world and into us and then out of our fingers onto paper and screen.

 

That’s when you realize that all the inspiration you need is right there in your backyard and your house and yourself – like that funny quirk your neighbor has of standing by the mailbox and throwing away half his mail without opening it, or your little brother’s habit of singing while he does the dishes, or the way you turn to writing when you’re trying to figure something out.

 

It’s all right there. We just have to learn how to see...


Grace is the oldest of six crazy kids. She loves Jesus, books, writing, poetry, music, and making treats for her family. In her free time you can most likely find her with her nose in a good book or playing around on her dad’s guitar. Someday she hopes to write bible studies, finish her two novels-in-progress, and publish an anthology of her poetry and prose.

 

 

 

Guest Post by author Charley Robson

This week's guest post is by Charley Robson, from The Leaning Tower of Plot. I hope you all enjoy her awesome work!!!

 



Writing for your Audience

 

If J.K. Rowling ever won some fictional writing-based Oscars, I like to think she’d open her speech with “I’d like to thank my mum, my cat, and my readership”.

As far as planning a book goes, knowing who you write for is right up there with all the fundamentals: perspective, length, ratio of ninjas to pirates. Your audience will affect not only what you write, but how you write it. I know I’d have a hard time marketing my twisted, psychological dystopian to a group of five-to-seven year olds – they’d never sit through all that boring dialogue, and would probably get all the characters’ names mixed up.

But how do you know who you write for? And, if you’re not sure, how can you work out an appropriate age range for your book?

I’m going to use a shameless bit of self-promotion here: this year, my lovely co-author and I wrote a mystery story, set in a girl’s boarding school. We called it St Mallory’s Forever! and the title features a bright bold font, a lacrosse stick, and a school kilt whose pattern sends my brain whizzing off down Nostalgia Avenue faster than you can say “prep time”.

Officially, we haven’t decided on an age range for the book, but to me, the target audience is kids who are just starting secondary school. As all of our narrators are girls, and the setting is almost exclusively female, I think it is also safe to assume that most of our readers – parents and enthusiastic friends aside – will also be female.

We’ve also kept the tone of the book fairly light-hearted, with plenty of hi-jinx and mischief and fun pop-culture references – more St Trinians than Sherlock Holmes in the mystery style. So, it would probably be suitable for slightly younger readers too.

From this, I can guess that our target audience is mostly female, from the ages of about 10 upwards. I can’t put a top limit on it – it’s hard to do that on any book that isn’t The Very Hungry Caterpillar – but that’s not really necessary. All I need to know is, write it as if my ten year old cousin were to read it. This means quick pace, maximum action, and plenty of entertainment value. Oh, and no murder, drugs or hacking into MI6.

However, as important as checking out your target audience is, it’s not the end of the world. I’m pretty sure Tolkein didn’t expect enthusiastic fourteen-year-olds to be curled up under their beds reading The Silmarillion, and Cornelia Funke would probably laugh herself into stitches if she knew that the seventeen-year-old Oxford hopeful still keeps a very battered copy of Dragon Rider and The Thief Lord on her shelf.

Those examples are completely random and not anecdotal in any way, just so you know.

That’s the joy of books, you see. It doesn’t matter how old you are – what matters is what you find in them. Sure, if you’re writing a kids’ book you may want to avoid adding that scene where the cat decorates the doorstep with fifteen dead blackbirds. Unless that was the point of your story, of course – in which case I want to know what sort of sugar you put in your cereal this morning, and can I have some?

So, to finish, here’s my list of things that will help you pick out the target audience for your burgeoning literary masterpiece. Bearing in mind that these are my personal selections, and depending on the type of book you’re writing they may vary in degrees of importance or relevance.

1 – Length.

2 – Plot complexity.

3 – Age of the protagonists.

4 – Possibly wobbly content (coarse language, “mature” content, things that might upset your granny over her tea and biscuits).

5 – Content of characters’ jokes and references (I know I’d certainly be left rather confused by jokes referring to figures who died before I was out of nappies).

Thanks very much for reading – and special thanks to our lovely host for letting me come by and bother you all with my waffling. Happy writing!

~ Charley R

 

Charley R is a young author from the UK. Her first co-authored novel, St Mallory's Forever! is due to be published sometime in the near future by Mark Williams International. When not buried deep within the recesses of her favourite books, Charley likes to entertain herself by acting, hiking, attempting poetry, and perfecting the art of procrastination. She is also an avid fan of all things Doctor Who, Star Trek, The Avengers or Tolkein related, and may or may not be a professional troll hunter in her spare time. Charley's misadventures - as well as almost everything else - can be found on her blog: The Leaning Tower of Plot.

 

 

P.S. This week's Once Upon a Time... linkup will be on: memories. Have fun and see you all tomorrow!!!

 

Guest Post by author Mary Ruth Pursselley

This week I contacted my dear friend Mary about doing the guest post on writers' quirks. She has done a fabulous job! I hope you all enjoy it!!!

 



Writers – Weird and Loving It

Anyone who’s a writer knows it. Anyone who knows a writer knows it. The fact is, writers are weird.

I’m sorry to have to put it so bluntly, but it’s the truth. Our brains just aren’t wired like everyone else’s. It has to be that way—it’s what allows us to do what we do—but it can still get tiresome and even stressful from time to time, and a lot of writers struggle with it. “Why can’t we just be normal?” they moan.

Well, the fact is, if you were ‘normal’, you wouldn’t be a writer. That’s just the way the cookie crumbles, and there’s nothing we can do about it. So my advice is to enjoy the humor that comes in the wake of your weirdness. Learn to laugh about it.

I know, laughing at yourself isn’t always easy—we writers do have our egos, after all—but if you can learn to do it, I think you’ll find that the writing life just got even more fun. And there’s rarely a shortage of hilarious writer moments to laugh about.

Not convinced? Let me give you a few examples of weird but hilarious moments from my own writing life.

 

My brother once walked into the living room to find me hanging onto the top of a doorframe with my right hand while waving a sword with my left. After a moment of staring, he asked “Do I want to know?”

I smiled sheepishly and responded: “Choreography. For a fight scene while the character is handcuffed to the ceiling.”

He shook his head and walked off. “Wow, you’re weird.”

 

Another time, as I was working on story ideas while sitting in the car next to my mother (who was driving), I was suddenly struck by the horrible realization that two main characters from two completely unrelated story ideas had the same name. Horrors! Without thinking I gasped and said “Oh no!”.

Mom, who was driving through an intersection at the moment, gasped and looked around frantically, no doubt anticipating something along the lines of a dump truck smashing us. When she realized no such thing was happening, she turned to me and demanded “What is it?!”

My memory chose that woefully late moment to remind me that the characters didn’t actually have the same name, just similar ones: Nyah and Nira.

Unfortunately, Mom didn’t really appreciate the gravity of my almost-disaster, and was rather put out with me. In all fairness, though, I probably deserved it that time.

 



On yet another occasion, while still writing my first novel, one of my very favorite characters died. I was home alone when I wrote his death scene, which was fortunate because I bawled my eyes out and it would have been embarrassing to do so in front of my family. Scarcely had I managed to dry my tears and pull myself together (more or less) when my brother returned home and offered to help me make supper. We were in the kitchen listening to Christmas music, and one of the songs on the CD featured a solo on the Spanish guitar. During said solo, my brother took it upon himself to perform his impression of traditional Spanish dancing (both the male and female roles).

Still emotionally fragile from my earlier meltdown, and watching him spin around the kitchen in an imaginary sombrero while waving imaginary skirts over his head, I lost it completely. Within seconds I was totally disabled, collapsed in the kitchen floor and laughing too hard to move or even breathe. My brother finished his impersonation, then stood by staring at me calmly while I pulled myself to a sitting position… and burst into tears again. (Yeah, it was a rough day.)

 

I haven’t said all this just to show off my own peculiar case of writerly weirdness. (Remember what I said about a writer’s ego? Well, I’ve got one too, and some of this stuff is still embarrassing to me.) I’ve said it in the hope that it might encourage other writers—particularly young or new-to-the-field writers—who might be finding it hard to be ‘the weird one’. I know it’s hard. It’s extremely hard sometimes. But our weirdness is just one side of a fantastic gift: the ability to create and convey stories that thrill and enchant other people.



And remember, you are not alone. You’re not the only one who gets mad at imaginary people. You’re not the only one who can’t get people and events you created to cooperate. You’re not the only one who listens to music and tries to make every song fit into a character’s perspective or a story’s plot. You’re not the only one who carries on multi-sided conversations out loud with yourself to make sure characters’ dialogue sounds natural. Whatever it is you do and are sure you’re the only one who does it, however quirky and crazy it is, believe me there are others who do it. Call it a shared bond, if you will.

And, since we’ve all got it, can’t get rid of it, and, deep down, wouldn’t want to get rid of it if we could, we might as well learn to laugh and have some fun with it.

So here’s to weirdness. Write on!

Mary is a homeschool graduate with several works published. She's a dyed-in-the-wool Ozarks hillbilly girl who lives on a ranch in the beautiful Ozark Mountains along with her family, a pack of dogs, a swarm of chickens, a lazy horse, and a herd of cows. She comes from a devout Christian family. Her faith in Jesus Christ is everything to her. She's been making up stories in her head for as long as she can remember, and writing them down since she learned how to hold a pencil. The early ones, written almost nightly, were usually embellished versions of whatever imagination game she and her Yorkie Terrier Ezmerelda had played that day. Oddly enough, she was thirteen before she realized that she was actually going to be a writer when she grew up. But since then her writing has come a long way (now with the help of a new Yorkie Terrier sidekick named Cricket). She blogs at The Writer's Lair.

 

P.S. This week, the Once Upon a Time... linkup will be for: forgiveness.
Come back Wednesday and check out all the links and add your own!!

Guest Post by author Jack Lewis Baillot

I asked Miss Jack over at However Improbable to do the second guest post here at Stories in the Mind! She has done an excellent job and I can't wait to share it with you all! Enjoy!!!

First off I'd like to thank Grace for asking me to guest post. THANK YOU, GRACE!

 

Second, I hope you don't mind I call you Grace.

 

Third...John says hi.

 

Fourth, let's get down to business..to defeat the Huns. Did they send me...oh, what? No Huns? That's sad.

 

Okay, serious now. Grace asked me to do a post on Developing New and Creative Ideas for Plots. I'm probably the last person in the world who should be attempting this. Why, you ask. You see, I don't come up with new plots. I plan something out and my characters change it half way through. However, I've learned a few tricks I will share with you.

 

 

One. Let your characters tell the story the way they want. They will end up anyways and usually they have great ideas, but don't tell them this or they will get a big head.

Two. READ. A lot. I'm not going to say read everything you can get your hands on because a lot of books out there aren't that great. But look for unusual books. Lemony Snicket is a good example. Look for things with new plots, things you've not seen before. (It is easy to find books with the simple plot of, “Girl is hiding from past. Meets boy hiding from past. Two don't like each other. They are forced to work together for some reason. They fall in love. The end.” If you want to stretch your imagination, you have to find stories without the typical plots. Movies help too, if you are a visual writer. Again, try and find something with unpredictable plots.

 

Three. Think outside the box. You want to write a story about a girl and a boy going on a quest. Well, that is done a lot. Even throwing in a dragon is very common now. So try something new.

 

I'm soddy at this without using examples. I've mentioned Lemony Snicket. He took a typical plot found in a lot of children's books. Orphans having to cope without their parents. But he put them in a world we are never really sure what it is like. Even the whole world is shrouded in mystery. Then he put in a villain who is evil and greedy and scary. Later he adds more mystery when the children realize that maybe their mum and dad weren't as perfect as they thought. And at the end, he adds a final twist with Count Olaf and Kit.

Even using a new setting helps. Another series I read which is a good example is the Larklight series, this series took another typical plot and added a new twist by setting.

 

The plot is basically a brother and a sister realizing the kingdom is in danger and it is up to them to save it, and along the way they met a dashing boy pirate who is running from a painful past. (Look in the book store, this plot is almost everywhere.) However, to make it new and interesting, the author took said brother and sister, moved them to space, set them in the Victorian Era, added some Aliens from Jupiter and Saturn, and put a floating house in the middle of it all – then he added new elements to the pirate which I cannot talk about without giving a lot away. Now his typical plot was new, exciting, and unlike anything else in the world.

 

Scot Westerfeld. He took a historical story and put a twist on it. WWI, the start of the war, the assassination of the Archduke of Austria. We know about this from school. However, he added in living airships, tank like things which moved by legs, not wheels. Even though he uses another typical plot idea, a girl disguised as a boy and a prince on the run, he added in so many new ideas that this typical plot isn't dull and boring.

 

Basically, you can, you HAVE to use basic plot ideas. All plot ideas are pretty much the same. It is what you add into them which makes them new and creative. And for that you have to stretch your imagination.

 

So, think up the story you WANT to write. Don't worry if it sounds like all the new books coming out. Once you have the basic outline, think of ways you can make it different. (You've seen all the books out there. Go look online at teen books coming out. Most of them sound the same.) But, if you add in a dragon slayer who befriends a dragon – no, I'm not thinking How to Train your Dragon – and said dragon saves his life, and everyone sees, what is said dragon slayer to do? His reputation is ruined! Does he kill his new friend? Or does he swallow his pride and find a new profession? What if his pride is too big to swallow and he tells everyone he will slay the dragon for them all to see?

 

Or you could take a myth, or an event from history, and add your own twist to it. Look at the TV show Merlin.

 

What if a time traveler goes back in time and accidentally saves the life of a man who originally died?History is all messed up now, but to fix it, the man must make sure the fellow he saved dies...but they've become friends.



 

So, I hope this gives you new ideas. But remember, if you have characters like me, don't become too attached to your ideas...because your evil characters will likely just change everything anyways.

 

Thank you again, Grace for the chance to guest post!

Allons-y!

Jack Lewis Baillot is not impossible, just a bit unlikely. She is the author of Haphazardly Implausible, owns a pet hedgehog named John, and blogs over at However Improbable.