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My Three Hundred and One WIPs (or close enough!)

Last week, I was lucky enough to be part of a Google Hangout with the incredibly lovely Millicent, Mandi and Kathleen. The four of us plus a few others are part of creative group that works to support and motivate one another, and the Hangout was helping us set that up. There will be some exciting stuff happening with this later on that I can’t wait to share with you all.

Anyway, the Hangout wasn’t all business. We had some laughs about things, and eventually we started talking about the books we were writing. So yes, I know some sneaky facts about Millicent’s upcoming book. Millie bought up this great point about sharing creative work and how there’s always that fear of plagiarism nowadays. Millie’s comment started me thinking…

I don’t share a lot about my novels, not because I’m overly worried about someone plagiarising them but more because I’m not entirely sure as to where most of them are going. I thought I would talk about that in this post today, just in case any of you are in the same position or if you have any tips.

Firstly, my main novel, the one I have talked about on here is Tied Together. My protagonist, Coralie, has been with me since I was eleven or twelve (I’m almost twenty) so this story has been floating around for a while. I’m currently 51,050 words into this — it’s kind of all over the place. I have the first fifteen chapters written in full and then after that I have some random scenes written here and there. I’ve been holding back on this a bit because the story is set in Denmark and I know I’ll be able to write it even better when I’m living there. I am incredibly good at pinning things about this though!

Secondly, I have the novel affectionately titled, Nellie, for the main character. This will eventually be a dystopian/alternate reality trilogy. It’s kind of a hard plot to describe, but it’s set in Budapest (yes, I have a thing for Europe). Nellie is a seriously kickass character and it’s a lot darker than Tied Together is. I’ve written about 3,000 of this so far and again, my Pinterest is boss.

I also have 2,000 words of a dark psychological thriller called This Bitter Dark. This one is set in England and tells the story of a girl an incredibly selective boarding school and a dark, manipulative relationship between a girl named Megan and a boy named Logan. I don’t know a lot about this yet, but I’ve been working on the Pinterest thing.

Another one I’ve got is currently called Arden, because I like to name things after my main character until I come up with a title. This is a crime/mystery novel set in New York that I started for NaNo a few years ago. At the time, Chami really liked it despite the fact I only wrote about 2,000 words of this too. This one isn’t really YA, but I don’t know that I could label it Adult or New Adult (the characters are in that age group) either… I don’t really know enough about it yet. Now that I've thought about it, I'm seriously considering making this New Adult.

I’ve got another two that don’t even have plots yet, but they Pinterest boards! Firstly, I have one that’s just been labelled as ‘1940s novel’. I know the very basics of this — Melbourne, 1940s, Polish immigrant, orphanage, love story. I couldn’t tell you how those elements fit together yet. The other one is actually based on a song, and it’s just called ‘Celtic Retelling’ at the moment but it’s based on Rhiannon by Fleetwood Mac (my dad’s favourite band and a new favourite of mine). I love Wales so I feel like this is necessary… eventually.

So that’s what I’ve got at the moment. I’ve been terrible with writing recently but I’ve been slowly getting back into it. Anyway, I’d like to know any thoughts or opinions you might have or if you’d like to be critique or accountability partners (I seriously need these).

Tell me about your writing below!

Thoughts On The Young Adult Genre: DOESN'T COUNT AS LITERATURE.

So the other day I attended a creative writing club meeting. That was all good until I found a friend from that class and started walking back to get lunch. She was nice and it is always good to find people that write like you do and we were having a great conversation until she asked me what type of things I wrote. The conversation went down like this.

Me: Oh well, I read a lot in the Young Adult genre and that is why I like to write in it. I write Young adult.

Her: So you write about vampires?

Vampires.

VAMPIRES.

VAMPIRES. IS THAT WHAT THIS GENRE IS TO YOU?

DEAR GOD WOMEN, SORT OUT YOUR PRIORITIES.

First of all, I am disappointed in myself. Instead of saying that I write young adult, I gave her a reason that I wrote in that genre and of course, that comes of as an insult to YA. I had to explain myself and I really shouldn’t need to. I should be able to just say that I write young adult because I like to.

Now that I’ve got of that my chest, let’s talk about her.

Dear god.

I can’t even.

I hate that people look down on our genre like it is a speck of dust, that it is a lesser than other genres and doesn’t count as literature. The young adult genre is not just about vampires as I’m sure you are all clear about. Yeah, sure, there are a bunch of Young adult books that have vampires but there are just as much that are not Young Adult books. For example, Dracula.

God, I just want to slap people sometimes. Slap them and then throw them off buildings and then suffocate them and then eat them.

They deserve it.

Now this is a quite random post and barely a discussion but I just wanted to write something about it. One day I will write a whole novel on this damn topic and publish it so the whole world can see it, but right now I just wanted to show a piece of ignorance and see if there are any conversations or events like this that have happened to you? Leave them in the comments! I would love to know.

Writing Styles

Last month I participated in, and won, NaNoWriMo. I wrote the first 50,000 words of my novel ‘Tied Together’ which I think it’s probably going to be about 100,000 words in total. Anyway, after November ended I decided I needed a break from that story and started a new novel.

I’ve been working on both Tied Together and this new novel, which is currently being referred to as ‘Megan’ (my main characters’ name) for several years now but I’ve never really written them- not the extent that I am now. They’ve both changed drastically over time and they’ve kind of become opposites to one another.

For example, Tied Together is a novel set in Copenhagen, Denmark about a girl named Coralie and her family and friends. There are some magical elements to the story as well, but it really is a novel about friendship, family and even a little bit of romance. Basically, where I’m going with this is that it’s a very light story, it’s a feel good story in the end.

‘Megan’, on the other hand, is about Megan Hill – the coldest, most manipulative, just generally horrible, main character that I have ever written. She doesn’t really have any friends or family, nor does she want any. Her story is about how ambition can tear you apart, and there is definitely not a happy ending.

Do you see what I mean?

I wanted to write this post because I’ve been talking with two of my friends, who are both writers as well, about the difference in writing style and tone in our own novels. In general, my novels usually are more like Tied Together – I like focusing on the positives in life, but I’m really enjoying writing Megan just because it’s so different.

My question for you guys is, do you notice a difference in style in your own writing or do you tend to lean towards the same sort of tone? I’m really interested to see what all of you have to say. Also, I’m looking for a critique partner/group if anyone is interested.

Beautiful Books #1

The lovely Cait and Sky are organising a new three month event/link-up called Beautiful Books. I'd tell you all about it but since I'm absolutely terrible at explaining things- I'll just link their posts here and here. Today I'm going to be answering the fifteen questions about my NaNoWriMo novel which currently doesn't have a proper title...


1. What came first: characters or plot idea? Are you a plotter or a pantser?
Usually I get plot ideas first for my novels, but for this one the characters just attacked me one day and wouldn't leave alone until I wrote them down. I'm definitely a plotter- almost my entire novel is already planned out.  

2. Do you have a title and/or a “back-cover-blurb”? 
No and no. I usually leave these things until last because I'm really, really terrible with coming up with names and like I mentioned...explaining things isn't really my forte.

3. What wordcount are you aiming for when your novel is finished?
I have no idea - it could be anywhere between about 70,000 and 150,000. It's a big story. 

4. Sum up your novel in 3 sentences.
A girl and her family move to a new country and the main girl discovers sometimes you can't just run anyway from your problems. She also learns about friendship, love and fitting in. Oh, and a REALLY old curse.  

5. Sum up your characters in one word each.
I have quite a few characters so I'll just do the main few. Coralie - determined. Kiki - wild. Bria - sweet. Nathaniel - marvellous.  

6. Which character are you most excited to write? Tell us about them! 
This is sort of a hard one to pick. I love Coralie- she's probably my favourite character of mine ever, but I also really love Nathaniel (who is just beautiful) and Sarah (Cora's friend) because she's based on one of my best friends.  

7. What about your villain? Who is he, what is his goal?
His name is Leo and I cannot tell you his goal because then that ruins the entire book. I can tell you this - he's really not nice, and in a way that means nobody could ever actually like him. We're talking like Umbridge level of dislike here.

8. What is your protagonist’s goal? And what stands in the way? 
Cora's simple- she just wants to be happy and for her family to be safe. Obviously, Leo doesn't exactly want that.  

9. What inciting incident begins your protagonist’s journey?
Incidentally, it's Leo that forces Coralie on her journey. 

10. Where is your novel set?
Copenhagen in Denmark, because I love Europe too much.

 11. What are three big scenes in your novel that change the game completely?
Oooh, this is a hard one. I can't really mention any of the big scenes without ruining the whole story! 

 12. What is the most dynamic relationship your character has? Who else do they come in contact with or become close to during the story?
Cora has some really great relationships with her family - they are definitely some of my favourite scenes to write, but I also really love me some Cora/Nate or her friendship with Bria and Sarah.  

13. How does your protagonist change by the end of the novel?
She's much more confident, more determined, more fierce but I just love her a lot already.  

14. Do you have an ending in mind, or do you plan to see what happens?
After the characters, the ending was pretty much the next thing I planned. There's also going to be a sequel, but I don't know whether it'll be a duology or series yet. I don't have endings for those.

15. What are your hopes and dreams for your book? What impressions are you hoping this novel will leave on your readers and yourself?
My main dream for this book at the moment is to actually finish it. I have a track record of starting novels, getting a few chapters in and then never touching them again. Ultimately, yes I would like to be able to publish it but that's a long way off. I'm hoping that any readers I may have would see Cora as an interesting character, but also as a good role model - I think that's very important for a YA audience. 

So that's the basics of my unnamed story. Since I haven't actually written it yet, it's kind of hard to describe everything in detail as of right now. I will actually be doing updates here throughout the whole of NaNoWriMo, if you're interested :) Thanks for reading!