#writery

Thanks to being able to use Sarah and I's stranger things roleplay towards my word count, I am at 16,382 words

Last night, I was introduced to 4thewords, and started my first Quest (it is sooo fun!) I was able to write a fun imagine based on a gif that was sent to me. It was a fun challenge, and I'm glad I was able to think of something on the spot.

For funsies, I have included the gif

I am enjoying nano so much, and this is my first year doing it! I love doing writerly things!

Tonight I plan to work on the roleplay, and finish the timeline for Sarah's wip! I WANT TO FIND OUT WHO THE LIAR IS

-Rebecca

Go follow if you’re into that sort of thing

the idea is to post a little snippet of something you wrote recently..!

Part Five: The Re-edit

Yeah, you heard me. The re-edit. It's most the same as the first editing section, but this time it's for the finalization of you book. After you've finished re-writing and fixing your edits, you've got go re-edit for the last minutes mistakes. Some grammar things and punctuation are tricky so make sure to look them up if you don’t quite know if you should use it or if you don’t know how to use it. There will be some, I know it. This step is also kind of optional, but I highly recommend doing this because it will be in your best interest to present a nearly perfect product to just about everyone.

today i met some very cool professional composers, the sort of cool people who are doing the job i want to do when i reach their age, and one of them said something that i think applies to all creative processes.

he called it the ‘paradox of enclosed freedom’ (or something like that), and what that means is this:

total creative freedom is terrifying. 

if someone hands you a blank page and says ‘write a story’ or ‘compose a piece’ or ‘draw a picture’, that is entirely unhelpful. immediately the pressure is on you - where do you start? what should you start with? (and if you’re anxious like me - am i good enough at what i do to make something good from a blank page?) 

it is extremely difficult, creatively, to start with nothing.

BUT if you are given a piece of an idea, what a professional would call a “brief”, or you set one for yourself, you are able to build off of that and immediately your mind begins to work, and your creativity begins to flourish.

when he said this, i remembered that i’d heard this concept before in an essay by the poet George Szirtes called ‘Formal Wear’ (an excellent read, google it), in which he explains that poetic structures like rhyme, rhythm and form are retained in order to back the poet into a corner, and force them to create within a restriction. instead of stagnating, however, the poet has been given a springboard from which their creativity can flourish.

a poem doesn’t appear out of a blank page like magic, or only does so very rarely. if we say ‘i will write a sonnet’ or ‘i will use rhyme’ or ‘i will write about my goldfish’, immediately we have set ourselves a parameter, as well as using what we already know about sonnets/ rhyme/ goldfish to inspire further thought.

it has really helped me to realise that professionals, people i look up to as creative role models, feel the same way about this in their creative work - if you can’t magic something up out of thin air, you are perfectly normal.

anyway. the point is:

if you are struggling with where to start on something and all you have is a blank page, give yourself more boundaries. 

restrict yourself; reduce the number of things you could make into a certain number of things that you have to have made once you’ve finished the thing.

Part Four: The Second Writing

I know. This again. Some people have different ways of doing this part. Some skip it altogether. Some completely scratch the first draft if they really hate. The Writing Process™ is a cycle of plan, write, edit, plan write edit, planwriteedit. It’s repetitive for a reason. All of this is so your final piece will be just perfect and something you can truly be proud of showing to your grandmother who taught English Literature. Yeah, that perfect. Granted, it still will not be perfectly perfect, we are human after all, but it will be mostly perfect, which is still awesome.

This section is both optional and not optional. This section can also take as long as Part Two or super short. To me, the second writing is where you fix your draft and finalize your editing you did in Part Three. To others, this is a completely new draft that follows your plot and editing notes and extra information that a writer wants to add. Again, this stuff is completely up to you and what works for you. And you should do it again. And again. And again, in order for it to be as perfect as possible.

Part Seven: The Publishing

I am going to start out by saying this: you will get rejected. It’s inevitable. Not everyone is going to like your book or the subject or the content or the characters or the writing style. It’s just not gonna please everyone, just like everything in life doesn’t please every single person. All I’m saying is expect rejection, but hope for the best. Even if you do get rejected, don’t let that discourage you from continuing to try and find a publisher. If J.K. Rowling had given up then we wouldn’t have Harry Potter. So keep at it.

The process of publishing is a long one. It can best be compared to a quest: you’ve got the part of preparing for the quest, the Riddle Door along with the Three Elders who help on your quest and the final piece to travel on with quest: the Magical Scroll. Then you’ve got the harder parts: the Quest Member Meeting, your first monster encounter, The Winter Solstice, the scary Villain, Plan of Attack, and the Final Boss Battle. Then the latter half of the quest where things start to become last minute, crunch time processing, but also a reward: the King’s thanks, the end of quest gold, the Robin Hood Hero, and the long journey home. Even when you’re writing out your manuscript and trying to get everything wrapped up into a nice little word burrito, you’ve got things you can do that will help along your publishing quest be easier for you.

In the publishing process there are several things you’ve got to be doing. This often involves other people getting involved too. So once you’ve got your acceptance that an editor and publishing company will take your book, you have a lot to do before the book is on the shelves. You aren’t done just yet.

If you are self-publishing, your process is going to be a little different. I can’t accurately say what goes into that process, because I don’t know much about it, but it follows these same steps, but you are everyone.

Preparing For Your Quest: While you are writing you’re still on the down low working to make publishing easier. When finalizing your book, visit book stores. Be a little spy to find the competition because publishing is a very competitive field. This is kind of to scope out what’s new and what people are liking at the moment. It can also help you develop ideas to market your book, which is an important step later down the line. Build your credibility by being able to talk to publishers about other people books and how they were successful with their marketing. This will also make it easier on your publisher and you to market and sell your book. The library is also a good place to go, but a bookstore is ideal because they have a constant influx of new books to look at and spy on.

The Riddle Door: As I said before, publishing is a very competitive business. A lot of the major publishing houses will not look at your book if you don’t have an agent representing you. They solely rely on what those agents bring to them. If an editor decides to read your book then yay, but this still isn’t done yet. Your manuscript now has to pass a series of tests. The editor is like the magical doors that make you answer a riddle for you to go forward into the publishing process. If you answer correctly (the editor likes your book), then your book gets passed on the Three Elders or in this case the Committee of Editors. The Three Elders refer to the standards that your book has to pass. Elder One: the content of your book is good and the technical side is also good. Remember those minimum of two times you edited? Here is where it pays. Elder Two: your book will produce revenue and attract customers and booksellers. Remember those times you sent it to your friends and people? That will give you insight on whether or not an editor and customer will like and buy your book. Elder Three: Whether you and your book are promotable or not. If you don’t get approved by the Three Elders, then your book will be dropped. These are thing you have to think about and be careful with when trying to publish and write. If you do pass these three, then you have been accepted into the quest and given a magical scroll or a contract. Every publisher’s contract to writers are different so you’ve really got read up on the contract and what it offers and what it says. Just be careful and wise, but celebrate a little, you’ve been offered a contract. That’s awesome.

Quest Member Meeting: After you’ve got your magic scroll signed and passed the Riddle Door and the Three Elders, you’ve got to meet your team. Go to your publishing company, call your editor for a meeting and ask them to invite any people they think would be an important part of your publishing quest. This is your first impression, make it a good one, because once you sign that contract you lose rights and control on publishing your manuscript. The better the first impression, the more you can be heard by the team that is helping you publish. It’s good to build a relationship with the people who have the highest influence in your book’s publication process, this also helps your ideas be heard. If there are more important people there than just your editor and some assistants, then you are higher on their investment list. Don’t beat yourself up if you do have bunch of assistants because not a lot of first time authors are high on the list because they are new to the publishing business.

First Monster Encounter: This what is actually known as the editorial. Nowadays, editorials aren’t often needed. More and more editors are requesting very little rewrites and reworks to read. This is also the most important part too because this is where you work with your editor. Under contract, you are legally obligated to rewrite and deliver on time what they want you to. They can also change your books title. Develop a good relationship with your editor because the better the relationship, the better you will work together and understand what the other wants in regards to your book. You still legally have the copyrights of your book, but your publisher has ownership of the writing. This is not that scary if you have a good relationship with your editor and publisher. It’s important not to come off as “needy” to your editor, but do not neglect your relationship with them.

Winter Solstice: This is a fun one. It also puts into perspective that your being published. This is where schedling happens. Yes, that scheduling that sets your date of publication. It can take a while for your book to actually hit the shelves (1 to 2 years a while), but it’s really worth the wait. This can be because publishers think that a book will do better as a certain with the certain genre it is or because of how long the production takes. Keep in mind the competition at your publishing house too, you could be put almost on a back burner to what they are more invested in publishing. Just don’t stress.

The Scary Villain: This, in its basic form, is how many books do you have to sell to make a profit. This is called the “Budget Number” because this is one of the ways a publisher will prioritize, how much attention to detail your book gets, and you don’t normally know what that budget number is. Your Quest Member Meeting is the best way to figure out where you are on their priorities list. Don’t be afraid if you don’t know it, because if you’ve got a good relationship with your team, you should be good to go. Trust your team to do well with what they have, it’s their job after all.

Plan Of Attack: This is a fun part too. This is where you get to see the development of your book. The outside cover and the interior layout of your book, the printing, and the binding of the finished product. You need to be aware of all your production dates so you can ask questions and make suggestion when you should. Remember not to be a pest and overbearing because in the end, the publisher bought the rights to your writing and can do what they want. If you have a good relationship with your quest members, your ideas may be placed into the production, but you need to know what to suggest them.

Final Boss Battle: This is the difficult one. Making your book known to the public. Promoting your book is probably one of the hardest things to do as a first time author, but with your publishers help, you can do it. They know how to market because they’ve been doing it for a while. It’s their job, so trust that they know what their doing and have you in their mind. If you have a stronger platform, you could probably more involved in this section, especially with advertising. You’ve got to have a nice mixture of promotion, publicity, and advertising because that will make your book successful in sales.

King's Thanks: This is your last meeting with your Quest Members. This is the wrap up of the process and the finalization of everything that has gone on within publishing. Everything that you have wanted to say must be said before this final meeting, otherwise, it will not happen. It’ll be too late for anything to change. Not a lot of authors get to attend this conference, but if you are invited, then good job, you’ve done something awesome. If not, don’t be upset. Asks questions about what happened there or ask to attend part of it. Observe, Network, and learn from it as well

End Of The Quest Gold: This is where sales happen to big chain bookstores like the ones that everyone knows. It really depends on how high on the list your book is for places to order copies. This is fine. The more copies sold within a small area is better than little copies sold within every single bookstore. Just be patient and calm.

Robin Hood Hero: This is the distribution. This is where your sales representative and booksellers work together to sell as many of your books as they can. They are giving your creation out in the world.

Long Journey Home: YOUR BOOK IS NOW ON SHELVES! You’ve done it. It’s now available to buy in stores and online. Be proud of what you did. Happy little pat on the back again.

It’s important to know the process that your book goes through to get published. It will also put you ahead of the game if you know what goes on before you actually start this process on your first book too.

Part Six: The Important Formatting

Before you send in your finished piece to any publisher there are some key formating things you’ve got to do. If you don’t, they will throw it out. They will not read it if it’s not formatted like they want it to be. That’s just how it goes. So below are some basics of what the format should look like. And below that is an example of it.

Formatting Basics: The basics are pretty easy to grasp, but there are a lot of them so stick with me.

Black, 12pt, Times New Roman

Margins are set an 1 inch

Left alignment, right should be scraggly

Single space after all periods, none of that double stuff they tell you about

Use double spaced lines (if you printed your book out like I did in Part Three, your book will already be formatted correctly)

Never hit tab to indent, but have it set to .5 inches

These are the ultimate basics for the entire formating. These should be used completely throughout your manuscript. Yes, I said manuscript. When formatting your book, it becomes your manuscript, which is basically your finished book that hasn’t been published yet. Also it sounds cool to say and brag about to your friends, so there’s that.

Formatting Specifics: There are specific ways you’ve got to format certain parts of your writing. For example there’s a title pages, the way the chapters are set, page numbers and breaks that are needed and where, what symbols to use when it comes to a scene break.

Title Page Formatting: this is weird and specific and ultimately, this is what the publisher or editor will see first and determine if they should throw it out. High stakes, so take time to get the formatting right here. It counts.

If you have a manager, their details should go in the top right corner of your title page, but if you don’t have one, you don’t need to worry about it

Begin in the middle of the page and centered

Your book title goes first, in caps and bolded

Enter then type “by” and then enter again

Your name goes on this line, if you have a pen name, you should put that here

The next line will be your word count line: “Approx. ___ words” (should be to the nearest hundred)

Further down the page will be your personal information.

Should be aligned to the right towards the bottom on the page

Your name is on the first line, your real name - first and last

Your address goes on the second line

Your phone number goes on the third line

Your email goes on the fourth line

At the very end in the footer you need to copywrite with your full name, ©, and the year date you finished (this will not show up on any of your other pages so be careful)

The title page is pretty simple and has a lot of white space, but it needs to be formatted perfectly or an editor will not look at it.

The Chapter Formatting: Every single chapter and page after the title is formatted like this in fiction.

Page numbers start here

Your last name and part or your entire title of your book also goes in the header next to the page number

Your chapter title should start a third of the way down the page and the your text should start two enters after the title

Every first paragraph of a chapter is aligned left, meaning there will be no indentation

When you want a scene break use  “#” centered in its own line, you can also leave it blank if you want and start two enters down from the last line of the paragraph you finished

The “#” also act like the first paragraph of a chapter, there shouldn’t be any indentation on the first paragraph after the “#”

Each chapter should start on a new page so use page breaks (a shortcut on both Word and Google Docs is ctrl+enter and that will bring you to a new page to start your chapter)

To end your book and formatting completely type “THE END” at the very end of your book two enters down from your finishing paragraph.

Here's an example.