Updates: 

While my Extoria Rewrite has been acting up like a spoiled child, I finally have the restructured plot laid out and ready to go. Right now, I am working on putting the pieces of the stories in the correct places. This will still take a little longer than copying and pasting as I adjust the timelines a little. My Beta readers played a large part in this rewrite and I once again thank them for their time. If you’ve been staying up to date on The Day the Earth Went Dark, you know I closed out the storyline in September. Now I hope you’re ready for 31 days of horror filled fun in my blog story The Exhibit, more on that later. In November I will start a weekly Podcast titled Authors of Tomorrow. I want to use it to help motivate Authors and maybe help those taking part in NaNoWriMo with the process. 

What’s in store for October?

The Exhibit began on October 1, 2021, and I created a post for each day of the month of October. The Exhibit finds Ben a year after the events of Thank You for Your Donation and sends him on a date with his new girlfriend. After hiding away for a year, appreciating the continued excuse of COVID isolations, Ben dares to join his girlfriend at an art show. Everything seems normal until they heard the first scream. Follow Ben and his girlfriend through the exhibits of inner beauty. Who knows, Ben might just make someone beautiful himself. My book review for this month will be an Indie Author I found at random while perusing books on Audible. Look forward to the review of Unhappenings by Edward Aubry, a fantastic time traveling novel. Check out Instagram for some posts on Halloween, horror/thriller novels/authors, and other fun information. Thank you to all of my readers who continue to support my writing!

October Writing Tip: Preparing to Write a Novel

I’ll admit, when I started my first novel, I started with a character, an idea, and a blank word document, then wrote. I didn’t understand the concept of outlining, never mind character arcs, plot, or the ever-elusive theme. Mind you, I understood the basics of each, but I found pure bliss in writing without a clue on where I wanted to go. I’ve since changed my practices. Next month is NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, where Authors around the world are challenged to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days. This sets the daily word goal at 1667. I wanted to give you some tips I learned to help me get ready to write a novel.

1. Write your elevator pitch. This is usually one to two sentences that you would use to convince a publisher stuck in an elevator with you. What summary of your idea will sell your story?
2. Determine your main character (s). You can have a great story idea, but without people to execute the storyline, it will fall flat. 
3. Break your story into three acts (or parts, if that works better for you). A book is a large project, so chunk it down to size. Work with the smaller chunks, scenes, before you worry about the sizeable chunk, your novel. 
4. Write summaries of each act (or part). Getting the overall ideas for each act helps writers see plot holes, flaws in the storyline, or work through ideas.
5. Research. Whether you’re reading books within your genre, listening to podcasts, watching movies, or going old school and visiting a library, research will be the difference in the time spent looking away from your novel as you write.