Wednesday, 29 May 2019
Tuesday, 28 May 2019
Jewel of the Sea – Chapter 21
I rushed editing this chapter so I have made a note on my spreadsheet to come back and look at it again before I finish.
I’m right in the middle of the novel and I feel like I have come so far but still have a long way to go. It’s like the midweek hump. I just have to get through it to see the end.
The second half of the novel is very distinctive as it has a very different feel to it. Mariah thinks she has got what she wants but is suffering memory loss. She knows something isn’t quite right but doesn’t know why.
Is you midpoint distinctive?
Click here to read chapter 21
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Jewel of the Sea – Chapter 19 & 20
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Monday, 27 May 2019
Tips on naming your character
Today, I am going to share with you some of the methods I use for choosing my characters names. Please cherry pick the ones that work for you.
Naming you character
Choosing a name for your character can be difficult. My preferred methods is to choose names that are an Aptronym.
Try to think about who they are and where they are from in your decision making:
Finding a name
- Period in time: If your story is set in the past, you should research typical names for the time otherwise it won’t be believable.
- Geographic: Find names that tell your reader where they are from. For example, if they have moved to America from Africa use a typical African name.
- Personality: Check the meanings of names to see if it reflects their personality. For example, are they bitter or a happy person.
- Characteristics: Check the meaning of names to see if they describe the way their look. For example, do they have dark hair or blue eyes and they a runner with strong legs.
- Abilities: Check the meaning of names for their abilities i.e. are they clever, a singer or do they have super powers connected to water.
- Position: Check the meaning of names based on their relationship in the story for example are they the friend, lover, teacher, mother or leader (boss/manager).
- Relatives: If your characters are part of a family then it is more realistic that the parents chose similar style of names. For example, a hippy parent might call their children “Rainbow” and “Sage” and it would be odd if one child was called “Elizabeth” which has a very different feel to it. When naming siblings try to stick to names that sound like they would have been chosen by the same person.
Visit baby naming websites with tools to enable you to search for names, meanings and themes. You can also use a search engine to see if anyone else has made a suitable list for example “Rock Star names”.
Here are some good sites:
- She Knows: http://www.sheknows.com/baby-names
- Behind the name: https://www.behindthename.com/
- Baby Names: http://www.babynames.net/
If you are using software specially for writers, see if it has a name generator as part of the application.
If you like something physical to use, there are tons of baby naming books that you can buy and some that are for certain themes i.e. Celtic names.
Record your name research
Keep a list of your favourites and important information about them. This will help you in future. For example, if you are writing a story about Witches and researched 18th Century names then this list will come in handy for introducing future characters and save you precious time.
I like using Wunderlist for this.
Pronounceable
Make sure the name you have chosen is easy for the reader to pronounce (even in their head). It is incredibly off putting if you’ve made up a name that slows down the pace of your story because your reader has to think about what it says.
Sometimes, Fantasy writers will create strange names to illustrate that their character is from another species. This is fine but don’t make it illegible.
Things to avoid
If you are writing fiction make sure that your character is not named after someone.
- Named after someone: Be careful if your characters name is the same as a living person and make sure it is clear that your fictional character isn’t based on them. You can write a disclaimer to cover this and there are some great examples on The Book Designer.
- Multiple nicknames: If you use a nickname for your character, stick to one. If your character goes by many names it can get very confusing and frustrating for your reader to keep up.
Temporary names
If you still don’t know what to call your character, choose something that is easy to replace i.e. something unique. Then when you have made your mind up, use Find and Replace in your word processing software to change the name.
Learn from my mistake: I once had this problem and called my character “Sam”. When I finished my 65,000 word manuscript and wanted to change the name it was horribly difficult. You wouldn’t believe the number of words that have ‘sam’ appears within it. This made it a very tedious task. If I had picked something unique like Bartholomew then the correction could have been made in a few clicks.
Please note, this is a rewrite of my blog post originally posted here.
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Sunday, 26 May 2019
Jewel of the Sea – Chapter 19 & 20
Earlier this week I published the new improved chapter 19 and 20 but I didn’t have time to write about it on my blog.
Chapter 19 is told from Gwyn’s perspective in third person which is different from the rest of the novel. I wondered whether to cut this chapter out completely but I decided to keep it as the foreshadowing is important for the readers tension.
How do you feel about changing the point of view within a novel?
Click here to read chapter 19
Chapter 20 took a little longer to edit as the original chapter was a whopping 5k words. Often my chapters are quite short and I have to merge them together to make a better length. This is because I’m naturally a fan of short chapters, so I have no idea how this happened. And, I need to add in more content between the scenes so this word count is going to get bigger. I decided to cut it into two chapters but it may even become three chapters.
Do you prefer long or short chapters?
Click here to read chapter 20.
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Tuesday, 21 May 2019
Jewel of the Sea – Chapter 18
Yay! I hit my goal of editing three chapters a week.
I really enjoyed working on this chapter as well. I forgot how intense the emotions are and her powers coming to life and the promise of a beatiful romance.
But… is this the midpoint? The false win? You’ll have to read it and see.
If you would like to see the new chapter on Wattpad, click here.
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Friday, 17 May 2019
Jewel of the Sea – Chapter 17
Yay! I hit my weekly of editing three chapters a week.
I really enjoyed working on this chapter as well. I forgot how intense the emotions are and her powers coming to life and the promise of a beautiful romance.
But… is this the midpoint? The false win? You’ll have to read it and see.
If you would like to see the new chapter on Wattpad, click here.
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Thursday, 16 May 2019
Tuesday, 14 May 2019
Jewel of the Sea – Chapter 15
Last night, I watched Game of Thrones so no writing happened. I was disappointed by the episode, I won’t spoil for anyone watching but I feel that writers make promises to their fans and they have to deliver on those promises.
When, you read a murder mystery you expect a dead body and clues that lead to discovering the murderer. When you read a romance novel you expect the love interest to get together. In last nights, GOT, I felt we have been following certain characters development and these were all undone. I felt a little like arcs were unravelling in the last episode. It feels like they are rushing to finish the series and aren’t caring about what is true to the character anymore.
Tonight, I started out editing the wrong chapter. I kept getting a de-ja-vu feeling I had noted which chapter to edit next. The familiarity kept coming back so I checked and turns out I hadn’t updated my note with where I was up to. Luckily, there was still enough time to get this chapter edited.
If you would like to see the new chapter on Wattpad, click here.
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Monday, 13 May 2019
Saturday, 11 May 2019
My new Carpe Diem planner
I saw a great deal at Craftelier and decided to treat myself to a new planner. I was choosing between Happy Planner and Carpe Diem. The Happy Planners in my price range were dated which meant the first few months would be useless. It is such a waste. So, I went with Carpe Diem (undated) as I would be able to use everything and it came with co-ordinating stickers to start me off.
I have used it for the first time for planning May.
Month spread
This is my spread for the month of May. I love the stickers that come with the planner as they colours look beautiful and compliment each other. It is so pretty.
What I am not keen on is the week starting on a Sunday? It kept throwing me and I kept writing things on the wrong day. I used stickers to cover up my mistakes but someone on IG recommended I buy Frixion pens as these can be erased.
I do like that these pages are undated. This means the months that I have not used for this year (Jan to April) can be used next year.
This Month
This page is an overview of the month ahead when you can add important reminders like birthdays or important dates. You can set monthly goals and To-do-lists.
I’m not sure how useful I will find this page. I tend to set myself weekly targets and quarterly targets. I also would rather a daily to-do-list than a monthly one. If something needs to be done I’ll do it as soon as possible, I couldn’t wait a month.
Week schedule
This page has plenty of space to write what I have planned for each day. I have decided to use the Notes section as my weekly to do list. This is my favourite page and I need to get better at decorating it.
Thoughts so far
I love how pretty this planner is. I am enjoying it more than my previous planner. I would like to get some dotted paper so I could do some bullet journal style pages too.
I will definitly look at getting the erasable pens as I get really upset when I make a mistake. I would like to get different colours so I can use it for social media plans and writing plans too.
I need to get more stickers so I dont feel so precious about using the ones I have – at the moment I feel a little like I am rationing them.
I already feel more organised. Even though I had things saved on my mobile calendar, I was still trying to remember it all. Pysically seeing what I have planned and what I have achieved makes me feel like I can relax.
Have you any tips for me?
I am new to planning and know I have a lot to learn. If you can help me out with tips or people to follow for inspiration or good planner supply stores, please let me know. Many thanks.
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Thursday, 9 May 2019
Jewel of the Sea – Chapter 14
I’m really impressed with myself for getting another chapter edited and posted on Wattpad tonight and it was another 3.5k chapter! My word count is soaring today.
I have added a note to check it again at a later date as I changed a lot of tenses and I want to make sure my grammar is correct.
If you would like to see the new chapter on Wattpad, click here.
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Jewel of the Sea – Chapter 13
The new chapter has taken a few days to edit. Here are the challenges I faced whilst editing this chapter.
The main delay was due to changing the role of Ana in the story.
In the original version, she goes away to see a specialist doctor in America to get help with her sleep disorder. This resulted in her being away for most of the story.
In my current rewrite I have decided Ana will have a bigger part to play. She doesn’t go away, Mariah confides in her and together they experiment with magic. I’m enjoying writing the new content but it is slowing me down.
In addition, chapter 13 is 3.5k words long. This is long for me as my chapters generally tend to be half that.
The last delay on this chapter is that Aria is going through a nocturnal stage so I’m spending more of my evening settling her than working on my novel.
If you would like to see the new chapter on Wattpad, click here.
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