January 23 2017 // Day 9 of 30 // a photo of your desk in use
I’ve been pretty busy for the past two weeks and its been a while since I’ve posted anything. Finally found some time to relax today and decided to make some changes to my study space, I guess I’m going for an autumn black/gold/white theme? ( special thanks to @emmastudies for the wall art!)
I also really like this page of my hobonichi..I’ve been using it as a bullet journal/planner/sketchbook/journal and so far it’s been working out pretty well!
With NaNoWriMo around the corner, I thought I might show you how I plotted my novel.
This is the story structure I used:
0% inciting incident
0%-20% introduction in the world, ends with a point of no return
20% first plot point: the hero receives his marching orders
20%-50% response to the first plot point
35% first pinch point: reminder of the nature of the antagonistic force
50% midpoint: big fat plot twist that changes the hero’s AND reader’s experience
50%-80% attack: the stakes are higher now
65% second pinch point: again reminding the reader of the antagonistic forces at hand
80%
second plot point: the final injection of new information into the
story to give the hero everything she needs to become the primary
catalyst in the story’s conclusion (no new information past this point)
80%-100% resolution + final conflict + return home
I
didn’t make this up. I think it’s by Larry Brooks, if The Internet
informs me correctly. Fun Fact: once you pay attention to it, you’ll see
this structure everywhere. Just take a look at any Harry Potter book,
for example.
These points are the “bones” of my story. Next, I decided what “flesh” to put on them.
I simply made a list of things I like to read about:
Books about books and libraries
Magic
Quirky characters
Intelligent, fast-paced and sometimes silly
So, I combined this list and the structure points into a story that makes sense.
Because I don’t want to spoil my plot / I am still to shy about my wip,
I will make up a new plot for this post, so I can show you.
0%:
The hero does something magical without knowing how she did it. She
discards it, because everybody knows it can’t have been real.
0%-20%:
We see the daily life of the hero: she is unhappy because all she wants
to do is read, but she is not allowed to. She reads in the dead of
night and is punished for it by her evil stepcousin. She finds a book on
magic.
20% It all clicks together: she can do magic!
20%-50%
The daily life for the hero changes. Instead of reading all night, she
practices magic. She now loves books even more. She has little victories
over her evil stepcousin, but hasn’t won yet.
35% The evil stepcousin finds out that she can do magic and takes away the magic book.
50% She discovers she can do magic without the book.
50%-80%
The hero is not the only one who is bullied by the evil stepcousin. Her
younger cousin is a victim as well, and he doesn’t have magic to defend
himself. The stakes are raised, this is bigger than herself now. The
younger cousin also wants to read, so they have several bonding moments
over reading.
65% The evil stepcousin hurts the younger cousin, he’s in a coma now.
80% The hero discovers the evil stepcousin could do all these evil things because he knows magic too.
80%-100%
The hero confronts the evil stepcousin, fights him off, nearly loses
but wins in the end. He gives up and releases his power over the younger
cousin who wakes up from the coma.
It’s not the most
genius plot ever, but I literally made this up in minutes. So can you!
And imagine the genius plot you can come up with if you spend more than a
few minutes on it.
Then I calculated how many scenes I need in which part of the story.
My wip is a YA or 12+ book, so I want it to contain about 75,000 words
in total. I want my scenes to be around 1,000 words long to keep it
snappy, so I need 75 scenes.
Scene number 1 (0%) is the
inciting incident, scene number 15 (20%) is the first plot point, scene
number 26 (35%) is the first pinch point, scene number 37 (50%) is the
midpoint, scene number 49 (65%) is the second pinch point, scene number
60 (80%) is the second plot point and scene 75 (100%) is the last scene.
Some sidenotes on the 1,000-word scenes:
That’s
more of a vague rule of thumb than a strict rule. If your scene needs
to be longer or shorter, make it longer or shorter of course. My wip has
some 2,300-word scenes as well.
Having 1,000-word scenes does
not mean I have 1,000-word chapters, that would be really short. I will
divide my novel into chapters after I’m finished writing my first draft.
For
NaNoWriMo, maybe you could write scenes of 1,667 words, so you do one
scene per day. A 50,000-word novel has 30 scenes of 1,667 words.
Inciting incident is at scene 1, first plot point at scene 6, first
pinch point at scene 11, midpoint at scene 15, second pinch point at
scene 20, second plot point at scene 24 and scene 30 is your last scene.
That’s just an idea, you got to see what works for you.
Then I made up in one sentence what will happen in every scene.
For example: “They meet the dragon and he sends them on a sidequest.”
Now my outline consists of 75 one-sentence scenes. This way, I prevent
the problem of the sagging middle and other pacing problems and I still
get to surprise myself when writing.
And that’s my first draft! I hope everything is clear. Feel free to ask me questions if it isn’t.
I’m
gonna tag a few people I admire, who I hope are interested. If you
aren’t, feel free to ignore me, or message me to take you off my tag
list. If you would like to be added to my writing advice tag list, let
me know.
i just want people to know that engaging in disordered eating patterns is harmful and difficult regardless of whether it never morphs into a clinically diagnosable eating disorder, and if you are dealing with any of this you have my utmost sympathy and care. i am so tired of diet culture treating these behaviors as though they’re completely fine as long as they’re not “bad enough.”
Taken from Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents by Lindsay C. Gibson, Psy.D. A summary of the tips the book hands you on how to recognize emotionally healthy people.
They’re realistic and reliable
They work with reality rather than fighting it. They see problems and try to fix them, instead of overreacting with a fixation on how things should be.
They can feel and think at the same time. The ability to think even when upset makes an emotionally mature person someone you can reason with. They don’t lose their ability to see another perspective just because they aren’t getting what they want.
Their consistency makes them reliable. Because they have an integrated sense of self, they usually won’t surprise you with unexpected inconsistencies.
They don’t take everything personally. They can laugh at themselves and their foibles. They’re realistic enough to not feel unloved just because you made a mistake.
They’re respectful and reciprocal
They respect your boundaries. They’re looking for connection and closeness, not intrusion, control or enmeshment. They respect your individuality and that others have the final say on what their motivations are. They may tell you how they feel about what you did, but they don’t pretend to know you better than you know yourself.
They give back. They don’t like taking advantage of people, nor do they like the feeling of being used.
They are flexible and compromise well. Because collaborative, mature people don’t have an agenda to win at all costs, you won’t feel like you’re being taken advantage of. Compromise doesn’t mean mutual sacrifice; it means a mutual balancing of desires. They care about how you feel and don’t want to leave you feeling unsatisfied.
They’re even-tempered. They don’t sulk or pout for long periods of time or make you walk on eggshells.
When angered, they will usually tell you what’s wrong and ask you to do things differently. They’re willing to take the initiative to bring conflict to a close.
They are willing to be influenced. They don’t feel threatened when other people see things differently, nor are they afraid of seeming weak if they don’t know something. They may not agree, but they’ll try to understand your point of view.
They’re truthful. They understand why you’re upset if they lie or give you a false impression.
They apologize and make amends. They want to be responsible for their own behavior and are willing to apologize when needed.
They’re responsive
Their empathy makes you feel safe. Along with self-awareness, empathy is the soul of emotional intelligence.
They make you feel seen and understood. Their behavior reflects their desire to really get to know you, rather than looking for you to mirror them. They aren’t afraid of your emotions and don’t tell you that you should be feeling some other way.
They like to comfort and be comforted. They are sympathetic and know how crucial friendly support can be.
They reflect on their actions and try to change. They clearly understand how people affect each other emotionally. They take you seriously if you tell them about a behavior of theirs that makes you uncomfortable. They’ll remain aware of the issue and demonstrate follow-through in their attempts to change.
They can laugh and be playful. Laughter is a form of egalitarian play between people and reflects an ability to relinquish control and follow someone else’s lead.
They’re enjoyable to be around. They aren’t always happy, but for the most part they seem able to generate their own good feelings and enjoy life.
