Tag: dabbling in the art of writing

Posted in updates, Writing

August . . . It’s coming

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

We’re at the end of July which means my work is going to start up again. As far as I know, I’m teaching first grade again. Definitely going to have some changes this year. Hopefully, it won’t be too bad. It also means that my vacation is coming to an end. I won’t have the same amount of time as before.

It’s a little unclear how my work schedule will affect my writing schedule, but I’m hoping it won’t affect it too much. Granted the first two months will be super busy and thankfully, I won’t have extra training (?).

My biggest fear is to stop writing altogether. Sure, writing a sentence or paragraph is still writing, but I want to make faster progress on my WIPs. I’ve gotten into a groove and I don’t want to loose it.

In retrospect, this might cause me unnecessary stress due to the fact that I want to write more but can’t because of my schedule. Then, writing will become a chore and I won’t enjoy it as much and . . .

I’ve definitely been overthinking this.

I think I need to roll with it. Balance is everything.

Posted in updates, Writing

Back from Vacation

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

It’s been about two weeks since my last post and boy, has it been busy.

The five hour drive back home wasn’t bad. The heat definitely didn’t make it any better. We went shopping the next day before going to the beach and a water park the next two days. Luckily, I didn’t get sunburned unlike my family. I’m sure they’re still peeling even now despite wearing sunscreen.

My cats were not happy with me when I picked them up. Of course, they changed their minds when it was time for dinner and I fed them. My first cat, Princess, drooled when I petted her and held her in general. I definitely felt guilty for leaving her with the sitter. My second cat, Olive, didn’t seem too upset with my absence, but she has definitely been very cuddly lately.

It wasn’t all fun and games, however. There’s some family drama going on that (thankfully), my immediate family isn’t involved in, but it still put a damper on things. We also had a death in the family, a cousin. Been supporting his family this past week. I didn’t know him very well and it’d been years since we last saw each other. Despite that, it hurts. All I can do is be there for his family and for his parents.

Everything affected my writing schedule, but I know it wasn’t because of laziness or procrastination. Unexpected things happen and we have to roll with the punches. Sometimes, they can be good. Sometimes, they can be bad. All we can do is keep moving forward.

Posted in updates, Writing

My Writing Schedule – An update

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

Recently, I discovered a writing schedule for myself where three or four days out of the week would go towards editing/ rewriting chapters of one of the novels I was working on. The other days would be reserved for writing a new chapter for the second novel I’ve been working on. This only worked because I decided to limit myself to only focus on two novels. Having multiple projects at one time is not helpful to the completion of any projects. Plus, it helps that the projects are from the same novel series.

This past week, I’ve followed the writing schedule I set for myself and found two things that I’ve noticed.

First, while I usually aim to editing one chapter a day, it came to my attention that sometimes I want to do more. I had to remind myself that it was okay to work on two chapters a day instead. Limiting myself wasn’t the aim here.

Second, I’m having a little trouble with the writing portion of the week. I don’t necessarily have a word count for the day, and that hasn’t been an issue before. Mostly, I think it has to do with my plotting where I didn’t plan all the details and only focused on the major points. That can be taken care of easily.

Five hundred words or more is what I think is a good amount for the day. The novel I’m writing is an online novel so word count works differently. Three thousands words a chapter is pushing it for an online platform.

In general, I’d like to say that this writing schedule definitely works for me. Switching between editing and writing makes me feel a lot more productive. There are days where I don’t work as much as the others, but I don’t feel like I’m being lazy. Taking breaks is important too. Burning out or making this feel like a chore won’t be helpful in the long run.

Next week, I’ll be going on vacation. I haven’t decided if I’m going to take a break from writing and editing in general, but I’ll still take my laptop to do a little work just in case.

Posted in Writing

Back in the Saddle

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

After the long vacation, I took from writing, I like to say that I’m back.

The last time you heard from me was that I was getting married and I apparently forgot how to time manage a lot of things. However, I’m here to say that I’m happily married and, now that everything has calmed down, I’m ready to restart my writing adventure. Truth be told, I didn’t exactly stop altogether but I wasn’t as focused on it as I should have been. I had been updating my Wattpad story, The Vampire Prince Returns to High School, as well as, continuing to rewrite The Vampire Princes goes to High School (the first in the series).

As it stands now, I want to focus more on getting my novels published. I can’t say that this is my New Year’s resolution mostly because it’s something that I always wanted to do and it’s not new. I have started looking for potential agents for a novel of mine I’ve titled Clan of Ash as motivation to finish revising the last handful of chapters. Sending out queries is a little too early at the moment but I’ll use whatever works to get me motivated.

Lastly, thanks to everyone who has followed me. I hope to update more frequently in the future. I don’t have a schedule yet. I’m going to play it by ear and see how it goes.

Thanks.

Posted in Methods, Resources, Writing

Plot Twist – Revisited

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

plot twist ideas

Plot Twist Ideas

What is a Plot Twist?

A plot twist is a literary device where the author subverts knowledge that a reader already knows or think they have figured out. It’s used to disrupt the flow of the story in a new direction. It’s also used to prevent stories from being predictable.

My two cents

In my writing, I don’t tend to think about plot twists from the start. At times, I don’t think about them at all. It just so happens that as I write, I suddenly think of a twist an include that in the novel. Usually, I think of this as something that just developed from my writing as opposed to purposely knowing I was going to put that plot twist in the story.

I believe that to purposely put in a plot twist, you have to know from the beginning that there is a plot twist. Or at least, had a vague idea of one, otherwise it would seem like the whole idea was shoe-horned in. There’s a fine line between coincidence (and it just happened to turn out that way) and forcing something to happen that shouldn’t. In those instances, the plot twist doesn’t seem natural.

Plot twists aren’t necessary, in my opinion, to make a good story. There might be surprising turn of events but I don’t consider that a plot twist specifically. I feel most plot twist are used in crime/ mystery fiction. Much like romance, there is a certain formula those genre novels follow. IMHO, plot twists are part of that formula.

Whether a novel needs a plot twist or not, is up to the author. Is there such thing as too many plot twists? I would say no but use it sparingly. As a reader, my heart can’t take too many roller coasters so, please be mindful. As an author, I’d use it sparingly when I intentionally use a plot twist.