If you’ve been following me on Instagram lately, you’ll know that I’m currently planning for my next novel project.
It’s a long time coming project, since the last time I published a novel was at the end of 2017—I couldn’t even remember how many times readers and my editor had asked me if I was working on my next book.
Writing a novel is always hard. It doesn’t matter if I’ve done it in a short amount of time; I still shudder in fear whenever I think of the days I’ll spend getting stuck on a nasty writer’s block, trying my best to finish just one last scene before grabbing dinner to-go.
Scared as I was, I kept on trodding the uncertainty of “starting a brand new novel project”. And although it took me quite a while to gather my ideas and build up excitement for the project, I currently feel like I’m ready to start writing it.
But what about the in-betweens? You might not have the luxury to afford a writing retreat, and you might already have been doing all the decompression methods I’ve talked about, but you still feel burnt out at the end of each week. Take a step back; it’s normal to feel overwhelmed. Calm down. Take a deep breath. We’ve got this.
It’s that time of the year again. Even if you don’t celebrate Christmas, there’s got to be something to look forward to during this end-year.
I personally love December.
Not only do I get some time off from work, but I also get to spend my days celebrating the holiday season with my family. There’s just something magical with end year gatherings—you know, with all the scrumptious food and decadent desserts. And since I didn’t even try to hide my jittery excitement towards the end year, it may come as no surprise at all when I say that above all that, I also love giving presents to my family and friends.
Not because I don’t love receiving them, of course. But it’s more because people rarely give me presents I actually want. Of course, I know I have to be grateful for receiving any presents at all, but when you’ve spent your whole life getting socks and t-shirts for Christmas presents, you’d eventually get sick of it.
So here’s a list of 5 Gift Ideas for the writers in your life. If you know an aspiring author or even an established author, I’d hazard a guess that they’re probably getting tired with all the uninspiring, run-of-the-mill, boring presents they’ve been getting all their lives. Granted, these are more like my own personal wish-list, to say the least, but I think writers like me would appreciate these items just the same. Continue reading “5 Gift Ideas for the Writers in Your Life”→
Back in 2017, when I challenged myself to be more active in this blogosphere, I half-expected myself to quit halfway through, just like how I usually do my new year’s resolutions. In fact, looking back, I am astounded by my own persistence in writing blog posts, to the point where I started questioning why I started doing it in the first place. Continue reading “Why I Started Blogging & How I Blog Regularly for Over a Year”→
NaNoWrimo 2018 is just around the corner, guys. How is your writer’s notebook coming along? If you haven’t started filling in the information for your story’s settings, then I hope this blog post is what you’re looking for. (But even if you’re not doing NaNo, I hope these articles will prove to be useful to anyone who’s planning to work on a novel project.)
Previously, we have covered how I set up my project statistics, plotting, and character sheets in my writer’s notebook. I’ll leave the relevant links down below, in case you’ve missed some of them:
When you work on your plotting, you are defining “what happens with your story” and “how does it happen”. Similarly, when you work on your character sheets, you are defining the “who is involved” and “why are they involved”. Settings, on the other hand, is simply defining “where does the story take place” and “when is this happening”.
A good story doesn’t only need to have a solid plot and characters, but it also needs enough information about the when and where the story takes place. Imagine watching a stage play; settings are the backdrops behind the characters; the ambiance and lightings. They never take center stage, but they are important nonetheless.
Personally, my golden rule with having a “good enough” settings information for my novel project is to have just enough information so I can imagine being in the story with no problem.
It’s the third week of Preptober, and NaNoWriMo 2018 is just around the corner, everyone! Now that we have our project statistics and plot established, we’re going to move on to perhaps the most exciting bits to write in your writer’s notebook: characters!
It is no secret that what I love the most about writing a book is the characters. After all, they’re the ones keeping me awake at night, pleading to me so I could stay up for a couple more hours and write the continuation of their stories. Most of the time, this means pulling an all-nighter just to get the story written.
And although it means me catching a cold, familiarizing myself with my characters allow me to write my stories faster.
Disclaimer: As my previous post, unfortunately, I wouldn’t be able to disclose the characters of my upcoming project, since:
They are still very confidential—I haven’t written the manuscript yet!
They are mostly incomplete, as I tend to add more information as I draft my manuscript.
We’re less than a month away from NaNoWriMo, everyone! In the last post, I’ve talked quite extensively about how I set up my writer’s notebook in preparation of NaNoWriMo—especially in defining the project statistics and brainstorming for the story. This week, we’re going to tackle the heart of any novel: the plot.
The plot is what makes your story. It is what happens to your characters, and also what happens after it happens. It is the action and reaction, the cause and consequence of everything that transpires inside your fictional realm. It could be the most exciting part of writing a book, as well as the most frustrating.
Personally, I’ve never been a good match with plotting. More often than not, I would know all about my characters, locations, and even wrap up my research for the project—but still, have no clue about what happens inside my book. Sounds crazy, I know, but it happens all the time. Continue reading “NaNoWriMo 2018 Prep: Setting Up a Writer’s Notebook – Part 2”→
Now I’ve talked quite extensively about how I used a Midori Style Traveler’s Notebook as my writer’s notebook last year, but I’ve decided to shake things up a little bit for this year’s challenge. Don’t worry—I still use my Midori Style Traveler’s Notebook regularly. I just thought that for NaNoWriMo 2018, I would need a separate system to organize my thoughts about the writing project.
I have this strange hobby of learning how other authors work on their projects. This sometimes means stalking their Instagram feeds, or even their Twitter pages. But one of my favorite pastimes, aside from blog walking, is to watch Writing VLOGS on Youtube.
There is just something so productively encouraging about seeing how other writers struggle, and finally, emerge victorious from this figurative war against their writer’s block, for example.
That being said, here are some of my favorite Writing-related VLOGS I’ve found on Youtube. They might prove to be either educational, inspirational, or both. Please enjoy this master list! Continue reading “My Favorite Writing VLOGS on Youtube”→
And if you are a writer like me, or if you at least have tried creative writing to some extent, you’d probably realize that this is true. I’ve heard professional authors who preached about writing as some sort of a habit, and that inspiration is overrated—but there’s no denying that the stuff you do feel really strongly about makes a better piece of art than the stuff you don’t.
Alicia Lidwina 