Tag: thoughts

Posted in NaNoWriMo, Writing

The Countdown Begins

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

We have 22 days until November and the race is on to prepare for NaNoWriMo. I have officially added Phantom Blade as my novel on the National Novel Writing Month website. My goal is to finish another novel this year so I can start shortening the list of stories I want to write. Hopefully this year I can finally put this story to rest.

The good thing about NaNoWriMo is that, for me, it gives me an opportunity to experiment. The story doesn’t have to make sense and my scenes can be out of place. Sure, eventually I would have to edit and revise so much but I don’t mind doing that. I have the liberty to write whatever I want to write and the editor inside of me can take a break. The outline I made for Phantom Blade will help and it will keep me grounded so that my creativity won’t get out of hand.

I have started hinting to my friends and family members of the upcoming month where I won’t be very social. This also means that I’ll have to plan out how many words I have to write if I plan to go out one day because I really want to finish the novel this month. 

The last thing I will say is that I’ll be posting blogs in my NaNoWrimo 2016 blog once November starts but once the day approaches I’ll have more details.  

Posted in Uncategorized

Random thoughts on Chapter Titles 

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

As a wattpad member, I like to name my chapters no matter what story I write. It’s a way for me to basically summarize what the chapter is about and to give the reader a hint about what they are getting into. It adds mystery and the ‘theme’, in a essence, of the chapter. At least, that is the plan. Sometimes I hit the nail on the head and sometimes, I miss completely. Personally, this is something that I like to do.

In my novel, Clan of Ash, I don’t have any chapter titles which is totally fine by me. There’s pros and cons whether or not to name chapters. Say for example, you stop reading (online) and for some reason, you last page wasn’t saved (I’m speaking hypothetically here). You come back to reading and then there’s a problem. What was the last chapter you were on? Who knows. All the chapters are named but there’s no number. Okay, so I’m exaggerating a bit. All of this can easily be fixed with: 1. Bunny. You got a number and a name. Everything is fine.

However, whether to name your chapter is ultimately up to you. But what do you call a chapter if you have a lot of juice things happening? Do you make the chapter shorter? With Wattpad, cutting chapters into two parts or having small chapters work. Personally, while reading chapters in novels, I’d like for them to be average. Not to long, not too short. Heck, I like reading books that make me keeping reading without making me worry about what chapter I’m on.

Anyways, naming chapters all have to do with preference. It’s not really a must.How discreet do you want to be? Do you like giving your readers a hint on what to expect in the next chapter? To me, chapter names allude to what the chapter is going to be about. It’s a window into the next segment of the book. Over the course of the many books that I read, I know that someone of them use quotes and other creative ways to let the reader know what they’re getting into and, as a reader, I really enjoy that.

It’s all about the hints and the mystery and, at the end of the day, it is up to you.