Catégorie : Writing project

Diary of a new writing project. Day 6: Writing Goals

Writing goals really helps me to stay motivated, it pushes me forward.

Writing goals are super important, in my humble opinion.

Especially for me, since I’m an aspiring author with a day job, a kid, a need-to-read habit. Plus, more often then I care to say, I play video games as soon as I wake up.

Keeping a word count and stick to word count goals: those writing tips changed my writing game.
Before embracing the writing goals, it would take me 3, 4, even 5 years to finish a book.
Granted, I considered writing as a hobby (and one I would never tell my family about, simply because they all thought writing is a useless waste of time that doesn’t even pay well; they still do), but even then… come on girl!

Writing goals really helps me to stay motivated, it pushes me forward.

2019 YA-WIP goals

I started the new writing project early in September.

By now, I did some research, wrote backstories for the main characters, wrote an outlined. So I feel semi-confident I will be able to finish 2019 YA-WIP in 3 months.

Before I set my writing goals, I look at the family calendar. For us, autumn is birthday season, plus Holidays. How on earth will she find time to write, some may ask?
I work from home. The time I spent in the commute, I now can sometimes spend on writing.

I couldn’t even dream of finishing a book in 3 months when I was working in retail stores. Even less when I got to work in official offices, alongside official adults (often younger than me) doing adults stuff, like talking about their pools and their next vacations in a resort near the ocean.

I am in total WOW, like bowing deeply, at all those aspiring authors out there who make it happened while having to get out of the house 5 or 6 times a week and work for 8 to 10 hours, often surrounded by people. W.O.W.

On with the writing goals, ambitious (for me) but do-able:

  • 85 000 words
  • 7000 words a week
  • 1400 words a day

Deadline : December 31st

I will not, however, drive myself crazy with this deadline, nor with the writing goals. I will do everything I can to reach them, but I also don’t want to get mad if I don’t make it to 1 400 words one day, or feel like a darn looser if the first draft is not finished by December 31st.

Writing is my happy place, and I want it to remain that way.

Until next time !

Diary of a new writing project. Day 4-5: where we struggle big time to outline a YA novel

I never outlined any of the novels (YA, Middle-Grade or else) I wrote over the course of the past 20 years. I do not like outlining a story. For many reasons. The main one being, for me, it takes away the fun of writing.

With this new project, let’s call it YA-WIP, I thought I would give this good old outline a novel thing a try. A real one. Dreading, dreading, dreading.

But, since I am determined to query this book in by the end of March 2020, I need to step up my game and use all the tricks and tips out there. Because it usually takes me, what 6 months minimum, only to get through the very first, rough draft.

I loosely based my outline for YA-WIP on 3 outlining methods I really find inspiring (I did attempt outlining before, but…) and built my « own » from there.

Will outlining help me write faster this precious first draft?

Let’s outline and see…

Oh dear, common tropes city…

The first outline took me less than an hour to write. I did tough a lot the past months about the story, so I had a very good idea of where the story was going.

And I realized how much my story was sitting on common tropes. It a good story, I still like it. Although, it certainly needs way more work.

So, here’s my method for outlining a novel: write several outlines over the course of several hours, days.

I worked two days (let’s be clear, on and off; I still have a day job and basic needs to take care of, like showering and eating and stuff) on my outline.

End results

First outlines were a frustrating mess, mainly because I felt like I had to suff in some scenes just to meet the outlines requirements. It made the story feel like very old, rolling on common tropes and common characters. In one word, the first outline’s were hitting all the right points and I thought it was boring as s***.
Then, I simplified my outline more and more, to the point were I had the main points every story structure needs without being overly… commercial beat sheet.
So, yeah, I have a good-enough-for-now outline. Yay!

I really struggled with outlining this project though. Oh là là! Part of the discovery writer in me still thinks the outline will end up in the trash anyway.
But, it’s done and now, it’s time to start writing.

Oh yeah! Very excited about that part.

Until next time!


Diary of a new Writing Project. Day 2-3: Characters and bullet lists

I really wanted to layout thoroughly the main characters, so I would have a strong base to work with.
I tried a new process to attempt to get there.

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The first cast of characters I came up with for this story ruined it. I set the project aside, thinking I needed to add something fresh, fun, fabulous to it to make it work.

The awaited lightbulb moment came while I was researching publishers editorial lines. One fun publisher is looking for YA novels.

That was it. This story would totally work with a cast of teenagers and there’s a market opening.

It meant scrapping 10 000 words, an entire cast of adult characters, hours of worldbuilding… So be it.

Creating Characters

I really wanted to layout thoroughly the main characters, so I would have a strong base to work on. I tried a new process to attempt to get there.

I made a list of what I wanted to achieve for the character, some basic stuff, some level 1 stuff:

  • research and choose names & write the family history related to the names
  • describe and draw the layouts of the places (town, neighborhood high-school, the third place of interest)
  • find out what the main characters want, what drives them, what they need
  • find what makes them different (passion, crazy dreams, impactful event)

I also used one of the writing tips I pick up from Chris Fox’s « 5,000 words per hour ». I removed from my reach my distractions of choice: phone (a.k.a Candy Crush device), paying work-related stuff, grocery list, etc.
Small difference: I kept the Internet on. Because I am a very visual, it-must-respect-the-law-of-physics kind of writer, I use the Internet-verse or actual books to double-check everything, no matter the literary genre I choose.

It usually takes me a little more than a week to create characters and do a bit of worldbuilding, but this project is « rushed ». I plan to query this book in six months, top (the high of query season here).

Although, I haven’t set goals for that project yet; and that is for another writing diary day.

Until next time!