Tag: dabbling in the art of writing

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.

Posted in Writing

Quick Update

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

In the past few weeks, life has been moving too quickly. I haven’t had much time for some “me” time. There have been some set backs in the whole wedding planning but I think I have it back on track. Not to mention that there’s a lot of things I have to do until that special day. Luckily, I was able to find the PERFECT DRESS all in two hours. I’m glad that I was able to get that out of the way. At least now I have a some time to start looking at invitations and all that good stuff.

Unfortunately, my blogging has come to a stand still. Hopefully, I’ll find some breathing room and still post on here. I have found some wiggle room to keep working on a synopsis but it’s not much. Everything is on a snail’s pace right now but at least there’s some progress. I’ll have to wait and see how that goes.

Posted in Resources, Writing

Synopsis: Tricks? Tips?

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

In a dusty drawer, there lives a story untouched for a very long time.

Well, sort of.

As the projects that I want to work accumulate, I go back to my more “essential” novels. What exactly does this mean? For starters, as I wasn’t able to complete writing The Vampire Prince returns to High School last month, I’ll still continue to write it in my free time. However, in my free “free” I’ve started working on the synopsis for a certain novel I’ve called Clan of Ash.

There’s some history to this story. I’ve actually sent this novel out to agents but without any success. I took a break from it and I’ve gone through it before, checking it for various things. Though the title of this post may suggest it, I’m not planning on sending out this novel right now. However, I’m using the process of writing a synopsis to help me out.

How does this work? Well, a synopsis is basically a summary of your novel that showcases the most important details to an agent. So, what I have done (and doing) is to read over my novel and summarize each chapter. As I’ve summarized, I have realized the details that have struck out to me (those being the most important).

Reading through each chapter and summarizing it, puts into perspective some story details that need to change or that are working correctly. This method makes me a step back and look at the bigger picture.

Not only that, once I’ve finished summarizing all the chapters, I can take a look and pick out what details I want to put into the future synopsis for this novel. Of course, the length of that synopsis depends on the agent’s submission guidelines. However, even if it’s only a page or two at most, you have all the details already in front of you. You can pick and choose what you need.

So far, it has worked for me. Writing a novel synopsis can be so stressful and overwhelming. However, I’ve found that this method works for me. It’s less stressful and I don’t feel so pressured or overwhelmed. So, when I’m ready (aka the novel) is ready to be sent out and I need a synopsis, I’ll know where to look. Most of that job is already completed.