WUW: Spring is coming!
What’s Up Wednesday is a weekly blog hop that’s easy and fun. All you do is answer the four main questions, then visit the other participants’ blogs to see what they’re up to this week. Join us! Jooooiiiin uussss!
I’m about 100 pages into Sarah J. Maas’s Throne of Glass and I’m really starting to enjoy it. Truth be told, it took me a while to get into it, but now I’m clicking along. I actually started it over a week ago, but took a break to read a friend’s manuscript. Ahhh, I love critiquing. After published author, my dream job is fiction editor. How fun it would be to critique manuscripts all day and get paid for it! 😀
WHAT I’M WRITING
Because I was behind on getting my friend’s manuscript back to them, reading usurped writing time last week. But now I’m back and I’m ready to go. I outlined my three main characters for my book, came up with the Hook and Inciting Event, have a fairly good idea of what my 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Plot Points are (and I suspect as I get into the first act, those will solidify), and also have a fairly good idea at what the Climax will be. Outlining my characters has been particularly helpful. Today, I should finally be able to start writing. Eeeee! I’ve been dreaming of this story for almost 3 years, so I’m excited to finally get to it!
WHAT INSPIRES ME
I saw The Naked and Famous and Imagine Dragons on Saturday night. Sooooo good. I love love love TNaF, and it was wonderful hearing them live. Their music really gets me in the feels, man. And while I liked Imagine Dragons, I wasn’t necessarily super excited to see them (I went for TNaF). But man they made a true fan out of me. Those guys are serious performers! While they were on, I kept getting all kinds of inspiration for the LI for my new book.
Also, I’ve found (courtesy of a fab member of my fab writing group) the best writing site: Helping Writers Become Authors. I’ve read at least a few articles every day, and have picked up Weiland’s book, Structuring Your Novel, and have been making my way through it. It’s a fabulous book on plot and I highly recommend it. In the last section, when I talked about outlining my characters, I got the idea from this site, as well all that about the Hook, Inciting Event, etc. (That’s awesome because it’s a very boiled down version of the first part of the book. However! I still recommend the book! This chick knows her stuff.) Her series on outlining characters/character arcs is particularly genius:
“Too often, character and plot are viewed as separate entities—to the point that we often pit them against each other, trying to determine which is more important. But nothing could be farther from the truth. Plot and character are integral to one other. Remove either one from the equation, or even just try to approach them as if they were independent of one another, and you risk creating a story that may have awesome parts, but which will not be an awesome whole.”
Ding ding ding! Of course plot and character are integral to each other. So yes, this site (and that series in particular) is a top recommendation from me.
WHAT ELSE I’M UP TO
We’ve lived in our house for 5 years (in June) and the backyard is just plain embarrassing. It really belongs to the dogs. BUT! This year we take it back! And it’s starting this weekend. My MIL is coming in town, and we’re going to put up the dog run and cement our plans (patio, sod vs. seed, patio covering, what we’ll do ourselves vs. what we’ll hire a contractor for). I’m so excited! Turbo’s always dying to go out there but it’s a veritable mine field, thanks to the pups. So it’ll be nice to let him loose. And I’m going to have so many get-togethers to enjoy the patio. Heck, I’m sure I’ll read out there at least once a week. The cute new WUW picture has me even more stoked. So yay!
How’s your week going? Do tell!
#writing #sarahjmaas #youngadultbooks #reading #creativewriting #youngadultfiction #fiction