HOUR OF MISCHIEF RELEASE DAY!

Hey guys! Guys! Guess what? HOUR OF MISCHIEF officially comes out today!

I mean... wow. I never thought I'd get to this point. I dreamed of it but I never really pictured it so clearly in my head. Even when I did, I always thought of this day as some far off date. But here it is. I'm freaking out.

This book never could have happened without the help of so many people. My friends, my family, my agent, Laura Zats, my critique group, my publisher, Shared Worlds creative writing camp and all my mentors through out the years. It takes a whole lot of people to make a book. So I thank all of those people who made this happen for me.

And if you love Young adult fantasy, check out HOUR OF MISCHIEF on amazon today. Thanks as always for reading!

http://www.amazon.com/Hour-Mischief-Aimee-Hyndman/dp/1620079429/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1441637585&sr=8-1

HOUR OF MISCHIEF COVER REVEAL!!!

Its here, its here, its here! BEHOLD, the amazing cover for HOUR OF MISCHIEF~

I've been obsessing over this cover since I first saw it two months ago. Its absolutely gorgeous and really captures a lot of the aesthetics I wanted. Also, green never hurts :)

You can preorder it for your kindle as well here. Not yet a print copy. I'll let you know when those become available if you're holding out for one of those. Other than that, spread the word far and wide! Add it to goodreads. I really appreciated it!

Happy Monday everyone! And happy writing along with it.

Book Reviews: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Sometime after getting my agent, I was looking through my local Barnes and Noble for books that could possibly work as comp titles for my novel. Because what better way to excuse buying a bunch of books than putting together a book proposal? (On a side note, proposals are evil, but that’s a topic for another time) While scanning for steampunk titles, I stumbled across Cinder by Marissa Meyer. I had heard about it and it had been in the back of my mind for a long time. Might as well pick it up and see how I like it, right?

Thank you book proposal requirements.

The Plot: Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl.

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

Characters- As someone who was never a big fan of Cinderella from the original fairy tale or her portrayal and most of the updates and remakes, I really appreciate Cinder. She’s resourceful and empathetic. She keeps all of the original character’s good qualities while adding on and becoming her own person. Prince Kai is slightly less interesting, but at least he has a very understandable conflict. The original prince in Cinderella was such a nothing character he almost didn’t exist. Kai deals well with the struggles of his kingdom so I enjoyed reading about him too. Shout out to the crazy, mind-control villain, Lavinia, because I love mind control and villains. So many possibilities.

The Good Points- Obviously I love the characters, but besides this, I love the set up and the world. I love steampunk and fairy tale retellings, so I'm surprised I didn't pick this book up sooner. The set up this world and the aesthetics of it is unique. I thought the changes made to the source material were very clever (particularly the part with the foot. Those who have read the book know what I mean). The story wasn't afraid to throw in a few emotional blows for Cinder that I didn't expect. Really, this book took me to lots of unexpected places.

The Bad Points- Unexpected places, except for the major twist. The major twist is a good twist I just wished it had been disguised a bit better and I think there was an easy way to do that. I guessed the twist as soon as the first clue was revealed so that took away from the final punch. But sometimes the best books come from the journey and not the final destination.

I loved Cinder, and I love the other two books in the series, which I may review at a later date once Winter comes out. The easily guessed twist could have been played better, but over all this was an enjoyable read. I recommend it to any fans of fairy tale retellings or steampunk fantasy. This one is definitely worth it!

Final Rating- 4.5/5

The Work is Never Done

Editing is hard. Not just because it involves ripping your book apart from the inside out and completely rewiring the words you worked so hard to piece together. But because its never really finished.

No matter how many times you edit your manuscript, you always find something you wished you changed or handled better. Going through a new round of edits this past week I ended up completely rewriting a romantic encounter between my two leads because I didn't like how I originally wrote it. That's after reading over my book some thousand times.

And, from what I've heard, this madness doesn't stop after you get published. Even J.K Rowling announced that she regretted the way she handled the relationship of Ron and Hermione just this past year. And those books are the best sellers of best sellers. The point is, nothing is ever going to be perfect.

And that's okay. Because no writer is perfect. We all have room to grow and learn. Some days we love our work and some days we want to hit the delete button and start from scratch. I've gone through all kinds of ups and downs on HOUR OF MISCHIEF from thinking 'this is the best thing I've written' 

To 'why did I write this and why does anyone like this book at all'. 

Its a slippery slope, being a writer.

But if you put your best foot forward, if your passionate about your work and if you're always open to the advice and encouragement of others, you'll go far. No matter how many edits it takes.

Sunday Soundtracks: Skillet (Part I)

Happy Easter Sunday everyone! Its time for yet another Sunday Soundtracks! So how about we do something appropriate to the day with a christian band (which happens to be amazing for writing music).

Today we are going to talk about a band that is very close to my heart. They are one of those bands that can put out any song and I will listen to it... at least ten times. Their music is infectious and so often fits my characters and I'm going to talk about them today. They are:

SKILLET! I love skillet. I love them so much. I started listening to them back and middle school and low and behold their music still sticks with me. I haven't thrown their CDs into the 'never to be opened again' time capsule of my awkward years. I still play them loud and proud.

There's a lot of reasons I love this band. I love the sound of the music first of all. The passionate guitar, the hard hitting drum beats, the bass that punches you in the pit of your stomach and stirs up your soul. It might seem over dramatic, but the very sound of Skillet is emotional and full of life.

I love the lyrics too. This is a Christian band but the words are vague enough that it can be applied to relationships and other situations as well, which make it great fodder for story brainstorming.

The thing is, I can't do just one post on their music and my personal favorite songs because I adore so many of them. So I'm going to do a two parter on this, with another Sunday Soundtracks on them next week. But for this week lets focus on two of their albums: 'Awake' and 'Comatose' and my favorite tracks from those.

I should note that I love most of the songs on these albums and that I recommend buying both of them, but held at gun point, these are the best tracks for writing inspiration.

Awake- My very first Skillet album and my second favorite of theirs that I own. Its got some real winners so lets take a look.

Monster- This is a great song for a conflicted character. I loved this song enough in high school to make a music video to it, which meant listening to the song no less than one million times. But, years later, I still like it. I've always been one for tortured and conflicted characters so a song expressing the anguish of guilt is always great for a writing soundtrack.

Awake and Alive- This is one of the most passionate of the Skillet songs. Its a roaring anthem for taking back your life and living to the fullest. And it is excellent for an action scene. It really jazzes you up for ass kicking, particularly if its an inspirational ass kicking. This is a personal favorite and another song I once made a music video to. (ALL the music videos)

One Day too Late- This is a softer song compared to the last two but still a very powerful song. Its one of those that makes you want to take back your life but in a more peaceful way. It just makes life sound nice and its one of those that makes me want to walk briskly across an open field, arms swinging by my sides and a smile on my face. It also makes you want to do something nice for someone else. I've always found it to be a good writing track for inspirational scenes and I've PICTURED several music videos to this song. (Noticing a trend here? Skillet is good for music videos)

Forgiven- Yay relationship songs! Though this is technically a song about God, it works for a normal relationship as well and it really captures the relieving nature of forgiveness. Its a desperate song but its desperately grateful and very powerful. One of the more emotional songs on the list.

Lucy- This song tells a specific story so it might not be good for just any writing soundtrack. I mostly put it here because I really like the story it tells. It would be a great track for a contemporary novel (unlike most of the stuff on this list, which is better for action adventure, fantasy or sci-fi. Anything with fight scenes really). I just couldn't in good conscious leave this off a list of my favorite skillet songs.

Comatose- This is my least favorite of the albums I own, but that's kind of like saying that dark chocolate is my least favorite kind of chocolate. I like ALL chocolate (except the kind with fruit filling) so this album still has some winners.

Rebirthing- Another one of those rousing, take-back-your-life anthems in the same vein as Awake and Alive. Its just as powerful and passionate and great for an action scene. It also has some good lyrics for relationships so using it for a scene in which two lovers are hopelessly outnumbered in a fight to the death would be a great idea. Or for any fight scene. Its just a good song in general.

The Last Night- Yay, more desperate relationships between broken people. Because those are my favorite to write and read about. This works for relationships in any genre and the addition of the female vocalist is welcome (I'm a huge fan of her voice). I've applied this song to a lot of characters and maybe you'll find some love birds who fit in with the lyrics.

Better than Drugs- ANOTHER desperate relationship song (there are a lot of those on this album). This is about people who desperately need each other and was the perfect match two of my characters (the ones from Giving Plot to the Plotless. You know, the little stinkers who revolted and had an affair with each other). I love the instrumentation and build of this song. Another personal favorite of mine.

Comatose- Here we have a, you guessed it, DESPERATE RELATIONSHIP SONG! (soo many of these on this album) I love how many of these are on here, partially because it actually encapsulates the ups and downs of a relationship with god, and partially because it means lost of fodder for my writing. Basically, you should be listening to this band if any of your characters have romantic entanglements like the ones I have described.

Falling Inside the Black- So this song is more in the vein of MONSTER as its about losing yourself to... well it could be anything really. Sin, addiction, self loathing. Its good for the conflicted soul and it has some really great instrumentation.

There are actually a lot of softer songs on the Skillet albums and songs about sweeter relationships. I just tend to like the harder stuff more. But there songs are diverse and good for writing anything with action. And there's even something for contemporary with no action. Any emotional story could benefit from a writing soundtrack of Skillet songs.

Next week we'll be talking about my favorite Skillet album and also why I appreciate them as a Christian band. Until then, happy Easter and have a good week!

My Personal take on Writing Diversity

Ah, diversity. How often we hear this word as writers. And not without good reason. Until very recently, fiction for all ages was relatively lacking in diversity of gender, race, culture, physicality and mentality in its characters. It still is, but now our attention is being drawn to it more.

I read a post on diversity and the Neil Gaiman effect by my lovely agent, Laura Zats, (Check it out here: http://redsofaliterary.com/2014/03/02/notes-from-the-armchair-8-the-neil-gaiman-effect/  ) and I decided it would be appropriate for me to do a post on how I write diversity. And also, how I don't write diversity.

Writers have a tendency to write characters similar to them and the people they've grown up around. I mean, the first rule they teach in creative writing class is "Write what you know". So a lot of us start out writing what we know best: ourselves. So in my early writing there were a suspiciously large amount of brown haired, dark eyed, pale skinned, nerdy girls who were outcasts *looks around* so you know, totally different from ME.

But write what you know doesn't just mean write about yourself. It can also mean write about the world you see around you. And I grew up all my life right next to what is, apparently, the most diverse zip code in the US. Name a race or country of origin and we probably have it. In my high school years especially, I had classes with Koreans, Japanese, Chinese, Indians, African Americans, Latino Americans and Caucasians. I was a minority in most of my classes in Junior and Senior year, actually, surrounded mostly by kids of Asian and Indian heritage. (I was in the International Baccalaureate program. Kind of like Advanced Placement but WAY more pretentious sounding. Its where all the cool kids went, in my humble but correct opinion.)

So naturally, since I saw so many diverse groups of people, I wrote books with the characters the same way. But, being a writer of fantasy more than anything else, I couldn't use nationalities to describe a race. Much like Hunger Games, where races are no longer acknowledged, I was limited by skin color. Dark skin, pale skin, tan skin, brown skin, olive skin etc. I saw my characters certain ways but I didn't always specify the exact way I saw them (I am sometimes bad at including all the appearance details of characters). I didn't think about it much until I read Ms. Zats post but... how many people will assume my characters are white if I simply omit skin color?

POCs are clearly common in our world. We see them everyday. So why are they so often absent from our media? Why is 'white' the definition of normal for us.

In the named cast of my YA Steampunk fantasy novel, HOUR OF MISCHIEF, I can count seven non-white characters. Two I picture as Indian in appearance. One I picture as Chinese, one as Latino, one as Arab and one as black. And my MC Janet? She's mixed race. In later books, there are even more named characters. But I can't say this specifically with ethnicity because this is a fantasy world. I never really specify skin tone for most of my cast. Hair, eyes and build, yes, but rarely skin tone. I mean it well when I don't mention skin, but during a time when the perceived 'normal' is Caucasian, the views DO need to be challenged.

Neil Gaiman made it impossible for readers to assume his characters in American Gods and Anansi Boys were just Caucasian. He didn't define the characters by their race but he wrote fleshed out characters that happened to be of a Non-Caucasian heritage. One day, specifying race might not be necessary or important. It will be another detail as arbitrary as hair or eye color. Same with sexuality. Maybe one day, diversity will become the norm. But until then, we have the responsibility as writers to change the established perception of the default race.

I personally can't wait for a day where diversity comes naturally to all of us and people don't throw temper tantrums when an actress with dark skin is cast to play a character who has dark skin (*cough* Rue *cough*). But we have to get there step by step. So for now, I'll add in details to make sure readers see my characters how I want them to be seen, and hope it might make a difference in how people see 'normal'.

Sunday Soundtrack: Attack on Titan

Well, Valentines weekend is over, effectively reminding all the single people in the world how lonely they are.

Or I guess that's how some single's felt. But its hard to feel alone when you hole yourself up in a room with your fellow single friends, a cookie cake and Sherlock.

This is our special Valentines Day Cake :)

Yes, we spent the whole evening marathoning Sherlock, as well as various different animes. Why have real men when the ones on screen are just so delicious?

Of course, I have other reasons for liking shows besides the incredibly attractive men and interesting plot lines (Though don't get me wrong, those are GREAT reasons to like a show). I'm also a sucker for good music. I'm a musical person, for those who don't know. I like making music videos for movies and TV shows in my spare time and I've played the piano since I was five. I just have a really good sense of rhythm and melody. So its not surprising that music has a huge impact on how I view media and the world. Its a source of inspiration for me.

In any movie or show, the music is an often under appreciated ingredient. It compliments the images but its not always the first thing people look at. Never the less its a vital part of setting the tone for the images on screen.

Sherlock, for instance, has a very eclectic soundtrack that fits well with the tone on the show. Sometimes its tense and suspenseful, sometimes its fast paced and action packed, and sometimes it utilizes silence to its advantage. It also has some great stand alone pieces. Particularly in the final episode of season 2.

Music is also probably the most terrifying element of horror movies, heightening the sense of anxiety in the audience on a psychological level that makes the images much more terrifying. Ever try watching a horror movie without the sound? It suddenly loses many of its scares.

Why do I bring this up? Because music can also be a source of inspiration and motivation for writing and whenever my fingers start flying, they are never without musical accompaniment. So, since music is so important to me, I've decided to start this new segment: Sunday Soundtracks. Every Sunday I'll talk about a new piece of music or band or singer or film score which inspires me to write. Some will be suited to specific genres or characters and some won't. Either way, you might find something to listen to and enjoy.

So what's the subject of today's Sunday Soundtracks? A little anime called Attack on Titan.

This little piece of awesome

I'll probably do another post on the anime as a whole, because it really is a triumph in a lot of areas, especially in its animation, action, fast paced plot, and likable characters. But today, let's focus on the music.

The opening theme alone took the anime community by storm with the show first aired. Its a fast paced combination of heart stopping instrumentation and exuberant, dramatic choirs, backing a passionate singer with wonderful vocals. Everyone was talking about the opening theme. And one would think it would be hard to top such a masterpiece. You can watch it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OkpRK2_gVs

But the entire show has a consistently amazing soundtrack. It has a lot of wonderful music for action scenes, as one would expect from the opening, but it also has some heart wrenchingly beautiful piano music and softer vocals that really hit you right in the feels. The soundtrack has music for everything. The high points, the low points, the moments when all is lost and the spirited comebacks that make you want to cheer. Nearly every track hits it out of the park and the variety makes it perfect music to to type too. 

For those who are easily distracted by music with lyrics, most of the singing is done in Japanese, so unless you know Japanese, the vocals become just another instrument with the ensemble. I recommend it for anyone who's writing an epic fantasy or sci-fi action novel. Dystopians and post-apocolyptic books can find inspiration here too. There's just a grandness to the music that suits an epic setting, both bleak and hopeful.

There's a mix of the music on youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PCgJGxz-FU

You can get a since of whether or not you like the music pretty quickly. And if you do, I definitely recommend buying it. My personal favorite music is in the first five minutes. Its just so beautiful.

For those who want to watch the show, you can find it on Crunchyroll.com. I highly recommend it, but be warned it does get a little (okay, a lot) bloody and its not for the faint of heart. Basically if you get scared by zombie movies... this might not be your thing.

The titans make scary faces like this... So tread lightly

Think this music is good for your writing? Have your own writing tunes you want to share? Leave a comment and let me know!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and get some good writing done before the daily grind starts up again!

Giving Plot to the Plotless Part 6: The Journey Goes On

Its only been a little over a year since the initial affair which sparked so many words and characters. It feels like forever ago. Not just fifteen measly months. A writer's world and skill set can change a lot in fifteen months.

This series began as an experiment for me in a lot of ways. An experiment in pantsing rather than plotting. A test to see if I could collaborate with another writer. A challenge to see if I could work backwards from my usual process, shoving material into a structure rather than creating the structure before the material.

In many ways, I got a lot out of this experiment and I continue to do so. I enjoyed the freedom it gives me. I enjoyed the sensation of being bossed around by my characters and watching things I thought were absolute and immovable change before my eyes, heedless of my thoughts. Going with the flow of my creativity and whims to this degree felt really good.

It still does. Because my friend and I still have the freedom to make this series what we want it to be. We can take it new directions. We can write whatever scenes we want even if we don’t plan on including them in the final product.

I guess, more than anything, I took away a sense of the diversity of writing. There is no one way to go about something. Writing can be solitary but it can also be done with company. Writing can be organized or it can be free formed. Writing can remain forever in a secret folder on the computer or it can be finish and sent out into the wide, vast world of publishing. It all depends on what the writer wants. Whether or not they want control or they want to let their characters take them for a ride.
And sometimes, a balance of all these elements isn’t so bad either.

I’d encourage other writers to jump out of their comfort zone in future projects. Experimentation in writing is your friend. If you're predominately a first person POV writer, delve into the 3rd person. If you prefer the comforts of fantasy, experiment with a little straight realism. If you like dark, gritty drama, try your hand out at whimsical comedy. It doesn't have to be GOOD. It can suck and when its done you can lock it in a 'never again' folder.

I could have easily discovered a deep rooted hatred for pantsing with this experiment with my friend. If I had, that would have been fine. But at least I tried. The best writing has always come from trying out an idea that seems ridiculous and will probably never work. Whether it be a genre or a category. Genre fiction wasn't always so respected by the world. And who'd have thought 20 years ago that there would be a huge explosion in Young Adult fiction? Heck, who'd have thought five years ago that New Adult would become such a thing?

Great things come from experimentation and throwing your muse out into the great unknown. At least in my case, I got a lot out of the experiment and I will continue to do so in the weeks, months, maybe years, to come.

Thanks for following me on this little journey and there will be more posts on the way soon!

Giving Plot to the Plotless Part 5: Plot vs. Extra

Last time we discussed love triangles and how they factored into the biggest switch in my friend and I's pet project. Well, now let's talk about fanfiction and its merits. This does have a connection to putting plot to the plotless so bare with me.

There’s a reason fanfiction is such a big deal. Because any good book has a world beneath the words on the page. A realm of characters not yet fully explored. A treasure trove of extra moments to make the reader laugh and cry. Books are like icebergs, only the very tip breaks the surface of a veritable ocean of other stories and characters. For this reason, I will debate the worth of fanfiction all day. Because it can change our perspective on the world we thought we knew and offer more depth to what was already there. Heck, even some of the most beloved stories, movies and musicals of all time are the fanfiction of classics (Wicked, anyone?).

So what does this have to do with giving plot to a pile of plotless scenes. Well, this project of ours had a lot of characters, scenes and alternate plot threads. And one of the challenges we faced when putting this jumble of words into a plot structure was figuring out which scenes to cut and which to keep. Which would be part of the main canon and which would remain little extras that only we knew about. Fanfiction, if you will.

You see, fanfiction often allows complete freedom. Alternate universes, non-canon pairings and pointless fluff are all free game. But with a novel, each scene and character needs to be intentional and important to a book with a distinctive arc. A set beginning, middle and end. Cramming what we had into this kind of mold meant some stuff needed to be cut.

Extra points of view, for instance. In a novel, too many points of view get confusing. It’s hard for the reader to form an emotional connection with one character when they keep on being thrust into the heads of several others. Some people can pull off multiple POVs well (Michael Grant and George R. R Martin come to mind) but most books with more than one POV stick with two or three. Maybe four or five if the author feels bold. So, a lot of scenes where only non-POV characters were present in our books had to be cut.

Back when we weren’t sure of the direction of our story, we also took a lot of experimental routes. These were paths we weren’t exactly sure of, and we wrote them mostly for fun. But when it came to the main plot, other, stronger plot lines had to take precedent. Its another sacrifice, but an easier one to make, especially when our experiments turned out a little goofy. (One of our villains turned good and went on a crusade to save stray cats, if that gives you a clue)

And there are a host of fluffy, fun scenes we wrote for the sole purpose of boredom that have to be cut because they don’t have a huge bearing on the plot. They're only there as a funny moment. Which is fine for fanfiction and fun, but in an actual novel, it slows the pacing to a dead halt.

So many things have to be taken into account in a novel. Pacing, arc, tone, character, structure. A lot of details and they become more apparent when you’re trying to stuff what is already written into the right structure. Its kind of like a puzzle. A fun and challenging puzzle with extra pieces thrown in to make things harder. Once the extra pieces are weeded out, the main puzzle goes together easier. It’s a challenge but its rewarding and fun.

So where does one go after weeding out the weaker scenes and establishing the framework and world for their story? Well, we're still on that journey. We're not at the finishing line yet.

Join me next time for the conclusion of this epic- Part 6: The Journey Goes On

Giving Plot to the Plotless Part 4: The Big Switch

So, let's talk for a minute about love triangles.

I think there’s a reason many people are growing tired with love triangles in literature. I mean, sure, they’re over used and repetitive and often unnecessary, but why are people really tired of them? I think its because they’re boring. In most books with a love triangle, it’s easy to tell who the girl will end up choosing from the very beginning. Usually they stay with the boy they show interest in in the first, say, 30 pages.

The problem is most love triangles don’t present a very compelling dilemma. Either the third wheel is an asshole, or we don’t feel a genuine struggle in the love triangle that gives us any reason to think the main character at the center will change their minds. This is either the Titantic or the Twilight dilemma.

In the Titanic dilemma, the third wheel of the love triangle is a cartoonishly scummy and stuck up upper class citizen who never has any chance of competing with the perfect, charming, struggling artist, Jack. He basically exists as an obstacle rather than a compelling person. Of course Rose isn't going to end up with him. He's a bump in her road to true love (Eventually ending in tragedy, but that's beside the point)

More common as of late though is the Twilight dilemma, where even though we know Jacob is probably a much better choice for Bella, we know she won’t pick him. She has already demonstrated her complete addiction to Edward and his attention by her complete emotional break down during book 2. Maybe this could have been more compelling is she did consider the possibility of being with Jacob but she never really does, except when Edward is out of the picture. Therefore we’re just left wanting the damn triangle to end and for someone to put poor Jacob out of his misery.

It is a rare occurrence when a character starts out with one character, truly caring about them, but ends up with another character by the end because of various circumstances. It is very rare that the reader feels genuine tension over which guy/ girl the main character will choose. I think the most compelling love triangle I ever read was in the Matched Trilogy, by Allie Condie, where I genuinely thought both boys in the love triangle had their worth. I still had a good idea about how it was going to end but it kept my attention.

Love triangles are hard. And we had a love kite on our hands. So, in the original rendition of my friend and I’s book, we originally started with a bit of a Twilight dilemma.

We kept the original pairings together because we had it in our mind that it was necessary and ‘best’ in some way. But in the process their relationships reached a point where they went flat and stopped changing and evolving. The only things evolving were the ‘affair relationships.’ They continued where the other relationships left off and really developed the main characters. All of them. No matter which way I looked at it, the affairs that had happened by chance needed to become the official pairings. And when I realized this I couldn't help but panic.

Oh god… how was I going to tell my friend that we needed to make this HUGE change to the story? This would change so many different scenes and moments. For the better, but it was still a change. And the problem with writing with another person is you BOTH have to be behind whatever direction you choose to take.

Truth be told, I didn't know how she’d take the switch. I thought she might take it badly. I thought she might argue the point. So of course, I do what I do and I wrote a fourteen page analytic argument about why the official pairings had to switch. Fourteen pages. More than 4,000 words if you were wondering. Longer than any research paper I ever had to write.

This is how I deal with arguments.

Funny enough, she took the change well. And she ended up giving a lot of good input on the theories and ideas I had already concocted. After a nearly all night brain storming session, it was official. We were switching the pairings. And the characters were better for it. They had more cohesive arcs ending in a much more satisfying conclusion. And the relationships didn't have quite as many nasty implications as the original ones did. I felt a lot better about the direction we were taking the story.

But while this solved character problems, it didn’t account for how many scenes we had to fit into a book series. Join me in Part 5 for Plot vs. Extras.

Giving Plot to the Plotless Part 3: A Whole New World

If you can forgive my Disney reference in the title, welcome back to Giving Plot to the Plotless, after what seems like forever. I’ve been… busy *Looks around suspiciously* More on why soon. But for now let’s continue with this little venture.

Anyone close to me knows how my creative process works, most probably because I zone out as soon as the process starts. The moment I get a tiny inkling of an idea I find interesting, my brain explodes and goes to work on it. 

And as I sat in my school library one day, thinking about maybe doing homework (as students sometimes do), I came upon one such spark of an idea: What if my friend and I were able to change the world and plot enough to make an entirely new book series based on what we had already written. After all, we’d spent so much time. Thousands upon thousands of words had gone into, essentially, experimental scenes that wouldn’t come to anything. Unless we found a way to make an original story out of it.

My brain took this as a challenge and accepted it readily, immediately going to work, riddling through all the elements that would need to be expanded and changed. Within an hour of sitting in the library, I had concocted a basic world and plot in which to fit our scenes into. It had a lot of holes and was far from complete but it was something.

I excitedly relayed everything I had come up with to my friend. We started getting together on weekends for massive brainstorm sessions to piece our cobbled together scenes into a cohesive world. And it was fun. Challenging but fun. It felt like dumping a 1000 piece puzzle of characters, plot points and relationships onto a pile on the floor and scrambling to put them all together to see the whole picture.

We got really into the world building aspect of our project. And let's be honest, it was fun. 

There are so many aspects to consider when shaping a world: history, culture, religion, dress, gender roles, geography, politics, leisure, and societal systems just to name a few. Where are the most important landmarks and locations? Do certain members of society have an advantage over others? Is this a corrupt society and why has it become that way? What are the visual aesthetics of the world? What historical events still hold the most significance over the present day? Why do people believe what they believe? 

This is just brushing the surface of world building, which I will probably do a post about on a later date. But you can see how involved we got in the world building process and how many details there were to consider, especially considering the number of scenes and characters we'd already established. After all, before one can fit something plotless into a plot, they have to fit it into a world. Without a living, breathing world, the characters and plot have no credibility. 

But it wasn't a one way street. We didn’t simply fit scenes into the world. The world created new scenes as it developed. With the change in venue, we ended up introducing whole new characters and concepts we hadn’t thought about before. Though we had about 300,000 words already written. We churned out another 200,000 words in new plot lines and extras written with our new characters. We rewrote old scenes in a new light. Took new pathways to expand ideas. And we started fleshing out the characters.

Of course, you always run into problems trying to make a world and new plot around already established characters. And the problems we experienced were of the relationship variety. Despite the affair our main characters had, the original pairings were still intact. A and T still ended up together in the end. So, did M and L. But as we continued to flesh out our new plot and world a little seed of doubt grew in the back of my mind. An analytic seed, fertilized by my years of reading and writing. And when allowed to grow long enough this seed resulted in one of the biggest changes to our magnum opus.

More on that in Part 4: The Big Switch

Giving Plot to the Plotless (Part 2: The Love Kite)

Hey everyone! Its been awhile hasn't it? Finals sure do make updating difficult and the holidays are surprisingly busy so I haven't gotten time in awhile. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. But, without further ado: Part 2 of Giving Plot to the Plotless!

Alright, so if you've been following the last posts, you know that character A and R decided to have an affair behind my friend and I's backs. And when we tried to restrain them, they basically gave us the literary middle finger and took over our typing fingers, forcing us to write more scenes.
But of course they were not only screwing us over but also their original literary partners. We'll call them characters L and T. What were we going to do with them? I mean they had to find out right?

No, of course not. We were just going to keep it a complete secret from them and--

Just kidding, they found out pretty quickly. In fact, L and T only ever met because the original affair happen. And that eventually resulted in them getting together as revenge.

And then they kept getting together. Just as A and R kept getting together.

Inadvertently, with our anger with A and R, we made an entirely new affair that lasted a lot longer than it should have. You've heard of love triangles? Well, this was a love kite. All the characters were torn between two different people.

And I was freaking out a bit. I mean, what the heck were we doing? Neither of us liked writing romance that much. It's not our genre. But the couples were just so FUN to mess with. How would they react in this situation? Let's try it. What if we put them here with these characters? No harm in that.

And the scenes between the rebellious, unofficial, totally-not-an-actual-thing couples continued. They continued to develop and expand and before long we had a LOT of scenes written. Three months after we first started we had almost 200,000 words worth of material. All completely plotless of course.

That's not to say that only A, R, L, and T were the focus of these scenes. We started tossing in more of our characters and experimenting with how they would react to certain situations. We explored a lot of our characters insecurities and fears and discovered some new ones.

Before we knew it we had a network of characters on our hands. It kind of seemed like the building blocks for a plot. Possibly a new book that was a completely original thing. All we had to do was change a few names at that point because our characters really had developed into completely new entities. R, L and T were especially different than who they were at the start.

So, one day, in the library, I pulled open my laptop and started brainstorming a new world for our characters to fit into. And that, of course, is where the real challenge began.

Join me next time for Part 3: A Whole New World...hopefully it will not be as delayed as part 2. *Hangs head in shame* The holidays really do make things busy don't they?

Til next time!

~Aimee

The Nerves of the Waiting Game

Any writer who has ever been in the querying trenches knows of the harrowing ordeals. Ordeals of patience, which when you're waiting for a response to a query, you don't have much of.

It gets worse once you send out partials or fulls. Then you have to wait even longer. And by that point the ever torturous seed of hope has taken root in your chest. "They liked the beginning," you tell yourself. "They saw something in my idea. Maybe, just maybe, they'll like the whole book."

I've recently reentered the trenches and I know this feeling. Upon entering #pitmad I got a few requests to see pages so I sent them out. I also sent out a few queries. I was fine. Playing it cool. I wasn't going to get as freaked out as I did the FIRST time I started querying. Whatever happens, happens.

But hope does wonders to the calm mind. I was sitting in History of English class when I got an email. Casually I checked to see who it was from. One of the agents I sent my pages to.

They wanted a full.

Apologies to my History of English professor because my mind short circuited the moment I read those words. She was still talking but I watched her lips move and heard gibberish. All attempts to process the lecture were in vain.

Suddenly, I've gone crazy. Checking my email a million times a day, hovering over query tracker and twitter. I'm a ball of nerves.

Last night I had a dream I got an offer of representation. After which I started wondering if it was a dream. My dream family said it was and I started arguing with them about why it wasn't a dream, even though I knew it in the back of my mind (This dream also included space school but I don't need to get into that). It was kind of depressing to wake up the next morning.

The point is, every writer has been there. When you look for an agent you WANT it so bad and you hope and pray and pray some more that you might finally find the right one. You want someone to see something in your work.

You want to be an author. No, you NEED it.

Keep hoping and dreaming and never lose that edge. The dream is what keeps us going. But also keep calm in the face of rejection. Accept it. Busy yourself with other projects. Go outside every once and awhile. Breathe. Its going to be okay.

When the time is right, your book will find a home and you will see it in print. It could be this book or a few books from now. Heck, you could get the call tomorrow. But we all have a lot of life to live and a lot of time to live it.

Now if I could just take my own advice, I'll be dandy!

-Aimee

How I Blog and What I Write

Hey there,

So, being in college, trying to triple major and constantly writing every hour on the hour, I figured I'd add something else to my plate: Blogging.
Why?
Because everyone's doing it.
Okay, I have more reason for blogging than jumping on the bandwagon. I think blogging is a good thing for aspiring authors. It gets them out there in the literary world and allows them to engage with hundreds of other writers from all around the globe. Thousands depending on how much time you have to spare wandering around the internet.
I am a writer but I'm also aspiring to one day enter the publishing world as a literary agent or editor. Because of this I like to talk about the craft of writing.
A lot.
To everyone I ever meet ever. And the ones who don't run away are the ones I induct into my circle of friends.
So what do I write, you might ask?
Pretty much everything
But mostly speculative fiction. I've completed five books so far (three from one series) The series is YA Urban Fantasy. The other two books are a YA Steampunk and an Adult Speculative. The book I'm writing currently and almost done with is MG magical realism. And the book I plan on writing this year for NaNoWriMo is an Adult Paranormal Thriller.
You see what I mean?
All of these books are vastly different in their genre, audience and goals but I like it that way. I write whatever I feel like writing at the time. We don't even need to get into all my other works in progress. Because that would take forever.
I've begun to send out queries for my YA Steampunk and I'm currently waiting on pins and needles to hear back. As I'm sure many of you writer's out there are.
Assuming anyone is reading this. I like to pretend you are.
What will you find on this blog?
- Book Reviews
- Movie Reviews
- Writing tips and advice
- Random musings
- Writing journey joys and woes.
- And probably much more.
I love engaging in conversations about writing so drop me a comment if you have any questions or thoughts.
This weeks question is: What is your favorite genre to write in?
Thanks for reading!

-Aimee (Aka: Kallypso)

PS: Wondering where I got my pen name? I'll answer next time :)