Welcome to Roleplay – Population: Fangirls

Last night, B introduced me to the world of roleplay. And, to put it simply, I can feel a future obsession in the works.

Now, I’ve never really had an interest in roleplaying. I’ve had a couple of friends who were into it, but it was never something I found appealing. To me, from what I’d heard, it always sounded similar to fanfictions which, as I’ve said before, I’ve had no interest in, either. But, after actually participating in it, I can say this isn’t true. Roleplay is more like… improvisational writing.

For anyone who doesn’t know, this is how a roleplay (in mine and B’s case, at least) works: Each person picks a character to play, and then takes turns writing an excerpt. You can not write lines for the other character, but you can write their actions, or prompt them to speak by ending your excerpt with something like “and then ________ approached me.”

What I like about roleplay is that you no longer have total control over the events of your story. You control one character, and one alone, but even then, you can’t control everything that happens to them. It provides an interesting writing experience and a way to exercise your creativity. Especially if you’re like me, and plan things out in your head way before the time comes to write it, it’s a good thing to pick up. Letting the control be taken away from you allows for some pretty creative results.

Mind you, all of this is being reported to you by a massive fangirl. I play out stories with characters in my head all the time, and sometimes I tend to love my own stories more than the storylines of the TV shows. Roleplays often have a focus on the romance between two characters, and that alone is enough to hook me, regardless of whether I get to plan every detail or not. That being said, B is a Twi-hard fan (our characters being Jacob Black & Leah Clearwater), and I have never liked any aspect of the Twilight series. Still, I’m into it – if anything it’s a fun pass-time.

So for any of you fangirls (or boys!) out there who are looking for a creative outlet, give it a try. It’s fun, it’s creative, it’s a new experience, and if nothing else it’s practice!

My Writing Binder

Hello Roses! So I don’t have time for an actual blog post today, so instead I thought I’d just share this gallery of all the writing tips & rules I’ve collected from various websites. None of these are mine; I’ve just found them very helpful and thought that some of you might be able to benefit from them, too. If You have any more, be sure to send them in and I’ll add them to the gallery!

Writing Fanfiction: Helpful or Harmful?

There’s been a frenzy sweeping the internet and fandoms everywhere for quite some time now: Fanfiction.

For those of you who don’t know (if you even exist), Fanfiction is when fans of a TV series, book, movie, etc. write their own stories based on the fandom; their own events and ideas, and occasionally one of their own characters is thrown into the mix.

As a massive fangirl who gets way too emotionally invested in TV shows, I spend a lot of time in my head with fictional characters. Lately, said character has been Sam Winchester from Supernatural. I’ve been hooked on this show for ages, and I’ve been binge-watching like crazy. And if I’m not binge-watching, I’m in a daze, imagining my fictional life with Sam & Dean, travelling with them, fighting demons across the globe (Yeah, I’m a dork, I know). I’ve been considering taking this fantasy life of mine and writing it all down, but I’ve never really been one for fanfiction. I’m not sure if it would improve my writing at all, or if it would make it lack luster.

On the other hand, a friend of mine, B, swears by fanfiction. She prefers it to writing original stories, claiming she can never come up with good, three dimensional characters for her own work. With fanfictions, you already know the characters inside and out; you just have to adapt your writing to their personality. I’ve read some of B’s original work, and it’s brilliant. But whenever we talk about fanfiction I can’t help but wonder: Does it help her by exercizing her writing skills? Or is it more likely to keep her from improving her skills writing characters, setting, and the like?

So, without further adieu, here’s The Pros & Cons of Writing Fanfiction, and I’ll leave the decision making up to you.

Pros:

• Adapting your writing around someone else’s character is a good practice. While I think this can also hold you back (we’ll come back to this in the cons section), it’s a good exercise to get into. When writing your own story, you’ll need to be able to give each character a distinct voice and actions. Practicing this with someone else’s character can be helpful. Write the scene, then go back, highlighting anything they do or say that seems out of character, and fix it.
• It can make for some great inspiration. Sometimes it’s interesting to take the characters of a show or book series and place them in a different setting, or give them an unusal quirk, etc. Fanfiction writers do this all the time, for example taking characters from a sci-fi or supernatural show and placing them in high school as ordinary people. You can’t claim the characters as your own, but you can take the setting, select events, and apply them to new characters and voila! Your own original story.
• You get inside a character’s head. Referring back to point one for this one. To write a good fanfiction, you need to think and act like the character. But more than just helping you give them distinct personalities, you can really get inside a character’s head and understand them. Don’t write the character, be the character. Find out what makes them the way they are, what makes them tick. It’ll help you get a better grasp on creating your own characters – you’ll get an idea of what their personality needs to make them go from one dimensional to three.

Cons:

• When it comes to your own work, you won’t have that starting point anymore. Don’t become too dependent on someone else’s characters and setting. Otherwise, once it’s time to write your own novel, and none of this is mapped out for you, you won’t know where to begin.
• Another author’s voice might flow into your own. This is my biggest concern about taking up fanfiction. I’m the kind of person who will unconsciously pick up someone’s British accent just after a two minute conversation with them. This is more a problem for fanfictions of book series than television shows. Often times, while writing a fanfiction, you try to make the words flow as though the original author wrote it. You want it to be on point, the characters acting as the author wrote them, the narration being the same as the author’s, etc. The issue is that when it’s time to come to your own work, you might not be able to pick up your own voice again. Worse yet, you might not even realize it.
• It’s plagiarism in sheep’s clothing. Mind you, I’m iffy on this point. It kind of goes hand in hand with the pro about getting inspiration. People have turned all kinds of fanfictions into best selling novels, making them their own, simply by changing the characters names, settings, etc. Most recently, Fifty Shades of Grey became a top seller, originally a Twilight fanfiction. This is something you need to be careful about though – mind the number of similarities between your fanfiction and the original characters and storyline. If it seems too alike and you’re claiming it as an original, you could wind up with a serious lawsuit on your hands.

Well, that’s my Pros & Cons list. Even after writing all of that out, I’m still on the fence about the whole fanfiction thing. What about you guys? Do you think it helped improve your writing? Let me know in the comments! Now, in the meantime, I think I have time for just a couple of Supernatural episodes before work…

The Writing Hiatus, and How You Can Fight It

Well, Roses, it’s been a long time.

For those of you who remember me, I apologize for falling off the face of the earth rather than updating my blog. And for those of you who don’t remember me – well, let’s see if we can change that this time around.

It’s been months since I’ve updated this blog, and it’s about time I put some effort back into it.

To give you a quick update on the last few months, I’ve moved into my own apartment. I have a pet cat, I’ve been (very) slowly but surely working on Bad Acid, and I am now actively trying to make some extra money writing articles as a freelancer. I’ve had no such luck yet, but I’ll keep trying. In the meantime, my blogging hiatus is over – I refuse to let it go on any further.

While I’m not exactly sure what sparked my sudden passion for writing again, I do know exactly where my hiatus came from. Somewhere along the line, I had started to given up. I wouldn’t admit it to myself, but inside I was losing hope – that I would ever finish my novel, that I would ever get published, or that, even if I did get published, I would ever make back as much money as I put into publishing it. As I lost hope, I began writing less, and eventually not at all.

I didn’t take my hiatus by choice, as many writers do. In my opinion, a hiatus is a good way to fall out of the habit of writing altogether. I’ve spent so much time getting into the habit of writing everyday that taking a hiatus just seemed like a cruel way to spit on all the efforts I’ve made. It was a slap in the face to all the passion and work put into Bad Acid, to the part of my heart that kept saying, “You have to work hard for what you want to accomplish”.

Recently, I had a couple of days off in a row and nothing to do. On a whim, I decided to pick up Bad Acid and start reviewing it. I began retyping it in a fresh document, making minimal changes as I went. As I typed, I would brainstorm ways to fix newly discovered potholes or come up with new ideas for chapters, and the ending result was that I’ve started a whole new draft. I’m back in the writing game, and this time I plan to stay.

So, for both my advantage and yours, here’s a few tips to help fight the writing hiatus:

• Get Support. As I’ve mentioned several times over the course of this blog, Bad Acid was inspired by real people, many of whom were my motivation to keep writing in the early days. If you don’t have anyone in person to read your work, try an online writing community; let yourself be critiqued by other writers.
• Make an Even Schedule. If you find yourself constantly considering a hiatus, try taking several small breaks, rather than one large one. Create a schedule, allowing yourself plenty of time to write each day but also plenty of time to relax. This way you can get your writing done but avoid overthinking or overworking yourself to the point of exhaustion or frustration.
• Remember Your Goals. Don’t ever let doubt get the better of you. While realistically you need to keep in mind that many goals as a writer are hard to achieve, don’t let the hard work scare you away from reaping the rewards. If you want to be the next big hit, sometimes you’ve just gotta push through ’til the end.

Being writers, we all opted for a career full of hard work, loneliness, and a lot of risk. That makes us some pretty stubborn people. When everyone else told us to pick a different career, we chose to stick with our dreams, so don’t give up on them now. I promise you, in the end, it’ll be worth it.

Bad Acid is on Twitter: Building a Social Media Platform

#Hello everybody!

Well, I’ve finally done it. I’ve made a Twitter account. Not for myself, but for my book. Bad Acid officially has a Twitter account @BadAcidBook, and I’m going to try my hardest to make #BadAcid a trending topic. So, why do I have a Twitter page for a book that isn’t even finished yet? Let alone published?

To get ahead of the game.

It’s the same reason I created this blog: To Sell. Social media is, in my opinion, anyway, a debut author’s best friend. It’s the greatest way to connect, promote, and build hype, even before your book hits the shelves. And from what I’ve been told, most publishers and agents won’t even consider you unless you have a social media platform built for yourself already.

Why, though, of all the websites, did I choose Twitter? Because Twitter is perfect for sneak previews, but with the character limit it helps from giving away too much. Because posting a photo/quote with a status update is a great way to post a teaser. Because – and this is the really important one – followers can retweet or interact with you.

Having a platform where I can interact with potential readers is something that’s always been important to me. Some of you know that from previous posts – I like to get you guys involved, too. On top of that, retweeting is a gift from the heavens. Allowing people to share your update only allows more people to view it.

What sets apart websites like Twitter and Facebook from writing communities online is the concept of writers vs. readers. Generally speaking, the users on a writing website are writers, they’re there to promote their own writing, not to read yours (for the most part, at least). My advice is to branch out to other communities. Allow anyone to read your work; people with no writing experience whatsoever or some of the greats who may have even inspired you. Don’t limit yourself to just being seen by other writers. Get feedback from the readers, see which of your followers would be interested in reading your type of book.

That way, when you nervously give your manuscript to an editor, hands shaking, heart racing, you’ll at least be able to say – with proof – “This book will sell.”

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If you enjoy my writing, think Bad Acid sounds interesting, and want to keep updated on my progress with it, please follow me @BadAcidBook . You may get a better sense of what the book is about through Twitter than I’ve been giving on here. In any event, I hope you all follow and I encourage you to make pages for your up-and-coming books, as well!

Life Update: NaNoWriMo is Consuming My Life

Hello, Roses!

You guys thought I forgot about you, didn’t you? Well, I’m still here. Tired and a little bit sick, but I’m here. I didn’t mean to neglect you guys at all, but – as anyone who’s done NaNoWriMo understands – November is a busy month for me. NaNoWriMo has been taking control of my life, and honestly, I didn’t expect that I would stick to it for this long. But all of my free time has gone towards it, and I really don’t have that much free time to begin with.

No matter how little time to myself I have, there’s still no excuse for neglecting my blog. And while I don’t have a normal blog post topic in mind right now, I thought I’d at least update you on where I am with NaNoWriMo.

Most of you know that NaNo isn’t meant for second drafts. It’s mostly used for first drafts, as a tool to get new or inexperienced writers in the habit of writing every day. Most novels take years to complete, so NaNo is kind of like a kick start, encouraging you to write the first draft within thirty days. However, it’s not a contest per say, so there are no real rules telling you that you can’t write a second draft. So that’s exactly what I’m doing.

When I started this blog, I made it clear that I was struggling with editing and revising Bad Acid. But as November turned the corner, I thought it might be a good idea to give myself a time limit to finish my second draft, and it turns out I was right. At the seventeen day mark, I’m already on Chapter 12 out of 15, with my word count standing at 35,671. I’m making great time, but here’s my problem.

To reach the 50, 000 word mark, I have at least 14,329 to go. with three and a half chapters left, this means that each chapter needs to be around 4,094 words. I’m considering adding another chapter though, which puts the mark at 3,185. On average, my chapters have been around 3,242 words, so it’s achievable, but I may miss the mark by the slightest bit.

I don’t know why, but hitting 50,000 words is a pretty big deal for me. In my mind it just makes the difference between a novel and a novella. I’m so anxious to make sure that I hit that word count, and for me, one month seems to be taking almost too long.

A writer friend of mine, Douglas Rappaport (Victim of Circumstance, which I designed the cover for), says that a second draft should take a long time, and I need to make sure that I’m not rushing it. I’m sure that a lot of people would agree with him. But with NaNoWriMo I’ve discovered that I work much better with a deadline, in that I’m still taking my time with things, but devoting all of my time to it, as well.

So that’s just what works for me. For some, writing a novel in thirty days is a piece of cake, and for others, it’s not. You need to find what works for you, and everything will work out for the best.

(PS. I’m thinking of posting these “Life Updates” more often, as a better way for you guys to get to know me. They won’t all necessarily be writing related, but if you like the idea then please let me know!)

Writing Is a Dying Art

We tell ourselves stories in order to live. – Joan Didion, The White Album

If you’re a writer like me, you no doubt know the struggle of trying to explain your frustrations to somebody who’s never written a word. And it happens a lot, because not many people write these days. Writing is something that is slowly dissolving into something of the past, and it really, really sucks.

Just two days ago, my friend and I were browsing around our local Chapters (and if that’s not local where you live, it’s basically Canada’s Barnes & Noble). As usual, my friend went to the Manga/Graphic Novel section while I headed towards the section full of writing books (a single bookshelf, I’m sad to say). After skimming it briefly, I remembered NaNoWriMo is coming up, and there was a great kit I wanted to buy in preparation for it. Rather than search for something that may not be there, I checked for it in the computer.

While I was searching, I was approached by one of the Chapters employees, and she asked if she could help me find anything. I explained to her what I was looking for and she then asked if I was a writer. I told her I was, and so was she. She led me back to the writing section, and while they didn’t have what I was looking for, she gave me a reccomendation on several books, many of which I already have.

After that, we must have had at least a ten minute conversation about writing, and how we’re both doing NaNoWriMo. She gave me her email and we have plans to meet up next week. But, throughout our conversation, we both came to the same conclusion: it’s hard to find friends who are writers. We talked about the happiness we had with finishing our first manuscripts, and the frustration of nobody else understanding that feeling. Between the both of us, we couldn’t think of one friend who was fully able to appreciate that feeling. I have one friend who dabbles with writing, and so did she, but that was it.

Not many people are writers these days, even though everyone tells stories on a daily basis. Over the hundreds of years, storytelling became less of an entertainment and more of an escape. Every day, every night, we dream, and often times wind up creating a whole new world. Somewhere along the line, though,  people stopped writing their stories down. Writing became viewed as something you had to be gifted with – you had to be born with a knack for it; you just somehow knew.

That’s about the least true thing on the planet. Like any other art form, writing comes with practice. In my opinion, talent isn’t born – it’s created. Talent is something that only comes with years of experience and hours and hours of practice. We all tell stories – if not to anyone else, to ourselves. It’s just a matter of putting a pencil to the paper and taking a couple of extra english classes.

So, if you’re reading this, and you don’t dare to share your story, or you think your writing isn’t good enough, I beg of you to let those silly ideas go. The world could use some more writers. And it could sure as hell use some more stories.

Write. Just write, if only to see how it feels. And struggle with writer’s block, if only to prove to yourself that you can move past it. And finish telling your story, if only to see how it ends. – Laura Allan, Writing Is A Dying Art

NaNoWriMo: What It Is and What It Can Do For You

It’s officially November, and man, does time ever fly. While most people are starting to string up their Christmas lights (I dunno about you, but where I live people do that ridiculously early), us writers are probably stressing out. And if you’re a writer and don’t know why, you need to know.

For anyone who’s never heard of it before, NaNoWriMo stands for National November Writing Month. It’s a sort of contest held every year, where participants have thirty days to write a 50,000+ word novel. You update your word count every day, with stats available to help you keep track of your progress. At the end, if you’ve reached the word count (which must be validated by the website), your book is printed in hardcover and mailed to you, and I believe they may also be viewed by literary agents.

It’s time consuming, stressful, and for some, near impossible, but worth it. So, what can NaNo do for you? For one, it can be exactly what you need to form the habit of writing every day. Or, if you’re like me, it may be a great way to rewrite your first novel.

If you’ve kept up with this blog, you know that I’ve been having trouble editing Bad Acid. It’s not as easy as the writing was (which was not at all, by the way), and I couldn’t keep to it. But NaNoWriMo is proving to be my solution. My motivation is the hardcover copy – I want to see my book printed, because I know it will help me never give up on getting it published. So I plan to rewrite Bad Acid, editing as I go, chapter by chapter, and updating my word count, forming my second draft within a month.

So far I’ve thought up some great ideas for Bad Acid that I didn’t think of before, including a few that will play a part in the spin-off, Adrienne. And next year for NaNo, I plan to write the first draft of Adrienne, if I haven’t finished it already.

NaNoWriMo is definitely something worth checking out, especially for the first time writer. It’s also a great way to meet other writers like you, and in most places people hold potlucks and the like. Look into it – it may be just the inspiration you need.

Just a Little Something to Brighten Your Day

I grew up listening to Weird Al Yankovic’s parodies, but this time I must admit he’s outdone himself. The comedic singer has made a parody of Blurred Lines, and it’s entirely about grammar and other common writing mistakes. You can watch it below, but believe me, it’s catchier than Blurred Lines ever was!

The Past, The Future, and the In-Betweens

I’m going to let you know right now, this blog post is different from my usual stuff. It’s still about writing, of course, but it’s not a “how to” type post or a post that’s filled with words of wisdom. It’s really just to distract myself.

I don’t know what it is, but today, out of nowhere, I’ve become ridiculously eager. I desperately want to skip ahead, to fast forward and hook a literary agent, see Bad Acid published, watch it play out on the big screen at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Those things are years down the road, and for all I know they may never happen. But I just can’t get them out of my head. I can’t even focus on editing Bad Acid this past week, and here I am searching online for literary agents looking for the next Twilight.

I think it’s just one of those days. You know, the ones where the nostalgia hits you hard, and then because you’re thinking about the past you start imagining your future. That’s a really scary word at nineteen. But it’s there, in the back of our minds, all the time.

The thing is, even if I could skip ahead to all those things, I shouldn’t want to. They’re things I’m beyond excited for, but I don’t want to miss all the in-betweens.

Maybe it’s Bad Acid that’s making me feel like this. Reading over it, seeing how Tyler changed as a person. I didn’t plan for a lot of those things to happen – they just did. Because Tyler to me is no longer a fictional character; he never really was. Remember, he’s based on someone I used to be great friends with. We don’t talk much anymore, but I hear things every now and then, and it’s funny to see how things turned out for him. Throughout Bad Acid, Tyler changed as a person. From good, to bad, to worse, to doing just fine. The same happened to my friend, only it was after Bad Acid was finished.

Drugs are really scary things. Whether you’ll admit that or not, they are. They can change people so quickly, and often times it goes unnoticed by the very person it’s affecting. But I think that when reality strikes, you can make the decision to think about your future, no matter how young you are or how far away that seems. Because it’s the things we do now, the choices we make in our lives right now that shape our future.

So that’s why I’m here, blogging away about nothing in particular at eleven o’clock at night. To distract myself, because it’s not time for me to put my future in action yet. The in-betweens are important, and one of those in-betweens is editing. Bad Acid still has a long way to go, and I don’t want anyone to read it until I see that book change and grow as much as Tyler does. And that book is never going to go anywhere unless I can pull myself out of this lazy rut and edit. So that’s exactly what I’m going to do.