Starting New Projects

First of all, I must apologise for the lack of updates recently, blame a 20th birthday, a tonne of assignments, preparing for a house move, and a new project, which is what I want to talk about in this blog.
Recently I started a new project, and by project, I mean a new story. I'd finished my old one (finally, after changing my self imposed finish date four times) and had had this idea in my head for a long time, so I had been excited to start it. The only problem was that I didn't know where to start.
One of the worst parts of being a writer is finding a place to start. So often a project sounds perfect inside the mind, but when it gets put on paper, it falls to pieces, or holes start appearing, or sometimes the story logistics get changed round. What's more, you have to get a feel for the characters again, find the voices of these people, possibly world build around them, and basically start from scratch. And that is difficult. We get so caught up in our projects that when we have to let go of them to start a new one, it's hard to let go. I've been a victim of this time and time again.
Even when I have been writing a sequel, I find it quite hard to get into the new story, even when it is the same characters I've been writing for a long time. Keeping them consistent is hard, as is keeping their voice flowing, and I think it's because it's the daunting idea of the new story that causes it.
But new characters in new stories are the toughest offenders. Characters, plot, setting and everything has to be reintroduced. Old stories have to be forgotten about, everything is fresh. You can't get into the plot and sink your teeth in because you have to establish things, and get a feel for what you're writing. And it's tough, so, so tough. To be perfectly honest, it's one of the things I hate the most about writing, because it's so hard to get things flowing in a new story. Of course I know I can rewrite later on, but I like to get everything going ASAP, and when I can't get the details right, I can't move forward. I get stuck, feeling desperate to just get on with it, but unable to until the details are right, especially when they're essential to further the plot later on.
I need to learn to control this perfectionism, but at the moment, it feels impossible.
It's murder on the brain, and can be a great one way ticket to the horrible land of Writers Block, something every writer wants to avoid. All I can do in this situation is push through, do my best, and tweak as needed later on. Book openings have to be written, characters need introductions, setting needs to be placed, and plot needs to be at least hinted at before anything else can happen. It's the hardest thing, but it's worth it. The time used writing introductions etc helps to introduce me as a writer to the characters, and everything else, to give me a feel for how this book (or draft at least) is going to turn out. From the introducing paragraphs, I can ascertain just how dark it's going to be written in, what POV I'm writing from, as well as tense and everything else.
I like to view these hard first few paragraphs the testers, to where I can prepare myself for what I'm getting myself into, and know what kind of thing I'm subconsciously going for with the story. I can set out my tone and get a feel for my new story, so I know where I need to go from here. It also helps me figure out if I need to go back to the drawing board and plan out a few more things. I've found it's so much harder to write myself out of a plot hole when writing the middle section of a book, than it is to write myself out when I'm at the beginning.
Basically, this long, winding post that probably doesn't make sense (it's late, straight after a bank holiday weekend, and I'm writing this after I melted my brain on assignments, don't blame me) is trying to say that really, beginnings are a struggle, but a good thing. Beginnings are needed to introduce you the writer to the story, and gives you the chance to go back to the drawing board if needs be. It's so hard to write, and sometimes you just want to jump the gun and get on with it, but it's worth it. In fact, it's a necessity. So don't skip your beginnings, don't leave them until the end of the book to write. Go and write them now, if they suck, you can tweak them later, but for now, get the testing ground going. You'll thank me later.

A Letter To The Ten Year Old Me

Happy World Book Day!

I love books, always have done, ever since I was a small kid. I was lucky enough to be brought up by a Mum who is a true bookworm, and so was always being read to, and reading by myself. It was to a point where I was reading on twenty minute car journey's (without feeling sick, might I add), and I ran out of room on my shelves, so had to get rid of a load (which hurt, a lot). I read so much that by the time I was ten, I had run out of children's books to read and so started on Kathy Reiches - and I'm really not joking on that one either. At ten, I was reading Kathy Reiches' Bones series.
As a high schooler, I read nearly the entire Angus, Thongs, And Perfect Snogging books in two weeks, which inspired several more trips to Waterstones to pick up book-to-film/film-to-book adaptions. I had to slow down a bit for my GCSE's and A levels (and to start writing too, of course), but I still kept at it really quite diligently.
Even now, I'm a big fan of books, I want to be an author when I graduate, so of course I love books. As I write this, I'm listening to a song called Boys In Books Are Better by Carrie Hope Fletcher, because I relate to it so much. If you haven't heard that song, here's the link:

But what is it about books that I love so much? Well, that's a hard question, because there's so much. 

There's the escapism element, for a start. I love getting lost in a story line, being completely and utterly swept up in it all. I tend to read teen fiction and things about the supernatural, I love getting so lost in it, I forget that vampires/werewolves/whichever mythical creature is involved isn't real. 

Falling for the characters is another reason, because as Carrie above says, boys in books really are better. Who wants a real guy when you can read about Finnick Odair or Draco Malfoy? (I'm a Slytherin, what can I say?) Nobody! Fictional men may not be perfect, they may have their flaws, but damn it I love them anyway (even when most of them are dead... and not coming back). 

Finding strength in characters too, I have always looked up to strong female characters. So while I fall for Kili, Draco and Shane Collins, I'm also looking up to Katniss, Eve Rosser and Valkyrie Cain. I love to read about these brilliant outcasts, who come in and save the world. Sometimes I like to imagine that I'd be as amazing as them in the same situation, even when I know that I'd die within five minutes. It's fun to pretend for a little while, after all. 

Before I spend the next six years telling you all the reasons why I love books, I should probably wrap this up. Basically, I love it all. Books are an incredible thing. They provide hours of entertainment, introduce us to new concepts, inspire us, and so much more. And all of it with just words, just 26 letters, rearranged again and again, to make sentences, which make paragraphs, which makes stories. Honestly, where would we be without stories? Without Harry Potter, without Bilbo Baggins, without Skullduggery Pleasant? Nowhere, we would be bored, we wouldn't know what adventure and bravery was. 

But with books, we can sail the high seas, fight the Capital, stop Valentine. We fall in love, solve mysteries and crimes, travel to far off places - some of which don't even exist. We can do all of that and more. For someone like me, who's socially awkward and doesn't like to leave the house all too often, a book is a godsend. 

So what is it that I love about books? Everything, really. I love it all. Books are magical things, and if everybody spent more time reading them, I think we would all be that little bit more magical ourselves. 

Why Jessica Jones Is Important.

Good Deadpool? Bad Deadpool? GOOD DEADPOOL!

I've literally just come back from watching Deadpool and I have to get out my feelings right now, because my God Deadpool is amazing! I loved every single second of this madcap, fourth-wall breaking, swearing, gory, laugh out loud funny origin film, and I'd highly recommend that everybody go and see it... Unless you're squeamish, or have a delicate disposition, then I'd say stay away as far as possible. If you're into this sort of stuff, then you're going to LOVE this film.
Going into Deadpool, all I knew about him was the basics - he breaks the fourth wall, swears a lot, and is known as the 'Merc With A Mouth,' other than that, I knew nothing. I'd seen Wolverine Origins (which gets ripped to shreds in this film, or at least Hugh Jackman does anyway) but my knowledge was so skin thin I could have gone in completely ignorant. What I got in return was absolute genius - a completely new take on the 'hero origin' story, where the hero doesn't even want to be a hero. Wade Wilson (the man behind the mask) just wants revenge on the man who gave him his powers and destroyed his skin, and to save his girlfriend from the same man, he doesn't want to be a hero, and he makes sure everybody knows it.
To be honest, this is more of a revenge story than anything else, it's nearly two hours of Wade seeking revenge, with pieces of flashback to explain why Wade is after this guy in the first place. And somehow, that works, and more importantly, you fall in love with Wade as he does this.
From the opening scene, Wade Wilson is having gory shoot outs with his enemies henchman, destroying cars and turning one guy into a shish-kabob. The audience knows straight away that Wade is not a good person at all, and yet, as his story is told, you fall in love with him. It's all through his wise cracks and his love for his girlfriend Vanessa. He's ridiculous in so many ways, but absolutely lovable, not in a way that you'd take him home to meet your mum, but still very lovable. His jokes about Hugh Jackman (of which there are many), the X-Men in general, and pop culture are completely on point and hilarious.
At points, he gets a bit near the mark with his sex jokes, but that was the whole point of Deadpool in the first place - he's not supposed to be correct all the time. He's supposed to be absolutely insane, rude and dangerous, the antithesis of the anti-hero. And in this film, it's perfect for him. No other hero could pull this off at all, Wade Wilson is the least politically correct super hero ever, and it's absolutely perfect.
Deadpool in fact doesn't pull any punches, or hold back in any shape or form. The fourth wall breaks are everywhere, some so subtle you nearly miss them, and others right in your face. Swear words fly around so damn often you forget that this is a Marvel film, they're not at all bleeped out like they are in the comics. The blood and guts are absolutely everywhere, hell even the naked shots aren't held back either. Where other films would use tasteful angles to avoid showing someone's manhood in the middle of a fight, Deadpool doesn't shy away at all. Nothing in Deadpool is shy, or chaste, or anything of the sort. It's loud, in your face, hilarious, and absolutely brilliant. I only have two objections - 1) Hugh Jackman doesn't actually turn up, and neither does Wolverine, even though both are mentioned, and 2) Deadpool never physically meets Stan Lee, which could have been epic. Oh well, there's always next time for these two wishes!
In all seriousness though, Deadpool is an incredible film, and the perfect way to start this year's superhero offerings from Marvel. I can't wait to see what Wade will get up to next, all I can say is that it'll be absolutely epic.

Pro Tips - First Drafts

Top 5 Most Important Editing Points

Hey, so here’s the start of my series of blogs/vlogs on editing your novels! I thought I’d start off with a check list of the most important things you need to check for in your work. It’s so important that you get these things right, as these are the basics of a novel that you have to get right in order to get anywhere else.

11)      Check for spelling and grammar mistakes. That’s an obvious one really, because spelling and grammar are very important things. Spelling should be relatively easy thanks to spell check, but grammar is a bit harder to deal with, but there’s a few things you can do to help yourself out. One is to read your work allowed to yourself, speaking and reading engages different parts of the brain, so you pick up more mistakes if you’re reading aloud. It sounds nuts, I know, but it actually works. I’ve done it before, and have had it recommended by several tutors so I know it works a treat.  And two, you can use a website called Hemingway, which checks through your work and clearly highlights sentences that need improving. I’ve used it loads and it works great.

22)      Check your story for coherency. Make sure that your story makes sense and that it is easy to understand. I’m not saying you can’t have a convoluted plot, if you want that, go for it, but you have to make it easy to understand, or you will lose your readers. Make sure that you’ve explained your plot fully in your story as you’ve gone along, and not suddenly including an important element with no explanation as to how it got there.

33)      Make sure you have tied up all loose ends. Unless you’re writing a series and are planning on tying up loose ends in a further book, all the fragments of the story have to come together to make sense by the end. Go through and make a list of all your plot points, and check off each thing you resolve and see if you have anything left over by the end. If you do, you’re probably going to have to go back and resolve that point somewhere. Obviously, if you’re planning a series out, you can resolve plot points in a further book, but make sure that by the end of the series you have actually done that. As for one off books, then you have to resolve all plot points or you’re going to anger a lot of readers, as they will want answers.

44)      Make sure you’re consistent. If you’ve started writing in first person, make sure you’ve stayed in first person throughout, unless you have a specific reason to change it. Check to make sure your characters physical attributes are consistent and haven’t suddenly changed for no reason, make sure you’ve kept to the same tense throughout (a flashback/memory is mostly where a change from present to past tense is allowed, everything else should be in the same tense). All of these things are really important, and you have to make sure you have kept everything like that the exact same way throughout the novel, unless there’s reason for things to change. If there’s no need for things to suddenly jump from present to past tense, then make sure you’ve stayed in the original tense.

55)      Keep your story line on the right track. You have to be certain that you’ve kept to your story line from the beginning until the end. A story is going to go nowhere if your character starts off trying to find their parents at the beginning, and ends up battling demons by the end, unless they have been drawn into doing that while on their original quest. If they’ve completed their original quest and have had to go on another straight away, fair enough, but you have to make sure that that original quest has come to completion by the end.

It’s all about consistency people; every single thing has to be consistent and kept on a similar path. And yes, editing is boring, I know. But it’s an incredibly important part of the writing process, and will be the thing that sharpens your story into the incredible epic it can be. The editing is so, so important, and you have to check for these things and change anything that is wrong, or your novel won’t go anywhere.

If you guys have anything else you check for when you’re editing your stories, please comment below, I’ll add anything to this main post, or start a new one, so we can create one massive checklist of editing!