Poem: Receive

 Gail Carson Levine challenged her blog readers to write a free verse poem about their horoscope for the day. Here's my offering:

It's not popular anymore to accept advice,

like it's a weakness,

like the offeror must be overbearing, out of touch, offensive.
Even after asking, I have to take a breath,
open my mind,
sift through their words and translate them into my voice.
Help comes,
financial, practical, emotional,
even intuition, maybe.
Complexities become clear
if I am willing to receive. 

Our audiobook story, so far

My first audiobook is coming out soon! I've had people ask about the process, so here's a quick sum up about our journey so far:

I decided to try making an audiobook for my standalone book, Mira's Griffin. I figured I would test the waters, if you will, with a standalone before I committed to a whole series.

First, I used acx, which is amazon's audiobook branch. I chose a sample from my book that included dialogue from most of my characters, especially the ones with accents and that needed special effects (mind-to-mind speech, in this case). I put it up for audition. ACX asked me to provide the age, gender, accent, and style of the narration I'd like, and showed my book to those. Two people auditioned within the first week or so. I chose the best one, Talon David, and we exchanged some messages, making sure that we got along and could work well together, before I made it official. 

I chose royalty share for our payment option, which means that the royalties we earn are split 50/50 between the two of us. You can pay a narrator outright, but it will cost many hundreds of dollars, so you'll have to be certain that you can sell enough books to cover the cost. And, of course, you can do it yourself, if you have the equipment and are willing to learn how.

I, as the author, was in charge of setting a date. I looked at my publishing schedule and sent Talon a large range, asking when she thought would be best (communication with your narrator is super important). She told me how long she thought it would take, I added on a couple weeks just in case, and we were ready to go. I sent her a pronunciation guide for some of the words and names unique to my fantasy world. 

While she was recording, I did the cover. I made my own cover for Mira's Griffin, so it was pretty easy to adapt it to audiobook. The cover for audiobooks needs to be a perfect square, and they require that the bottom right corner be left without important information in case they want to stick promotional information there. 

After she submitted, I listened to the whole thing and wrote down a few things that needed to be changed, and sent it back. It's really cool to hear the story come together--and it's also important to remember that it's not going to sound exactly like me, and that's okay.

I put my book up for audition on May 3, 2021, and right now it's being reviewed by acx. It should be available for purchase sometime near the end of the month, so all in all, it took about 3 months. It's been a great experience so far. We'll see how it goes!

Plot Structure Systems

 

When I first started learning about story structure, I first adopted the model made by Christopher Booker in "Seven Basic Plots" (a fascinating but extremely lengthy read). Once I started looking at other plotting systems, I noticed a lot of similarities. It bugged me at first, because I'd already learned one set of terminology and didn't want to learn another. But if you look at it, the systems are all very similar to one another. 

Most of these plots have, at their base, the seven-point story structure. These are the bare bones that make a story work, and a huge variety of authors use it. 

KM Weiland adds details about the key event and inciting incident. She has a ton more interesting information on her website, from how to integrate a character arc into this system, to how Marvel movies use (or don't use) structure in their movies, to archetypal character arcs based on a human's life cycle. It's all fascinating stuff!

I wanted to break down story structure further, so I took the typical three-act story and broke each act into parts. This takes a long novel and breaks it up into manageable pieces. With the overall picture managed by this outline, my creative mind has more space to work on emotion, theme, growth, detail, and other aspects of writing.

Save the Cat uses different terminology, but still, many of the points line up. It was originally designed for screenwriters but adapted to novels. Save the Cat has more specific story advice and details than the other methods.

Seven Basic Plots divides all stories into seven different categories. These are plots, not genres, and different examples of these can be found in most traditional genres. All seven plots follow a basic pattern.

The Hero's Journey is much older than these methods but is still in use today. It follows a specific type of story, one that is often used today.

There is more information out there to dive into. This blog gives an excellent rundown of several different methods of organization.

Feel free to compare the information and make your own guidelines--or simply wing it. Have fun!

Story Structure for kids (and other beginners)

I've been writing stories since I was a young child, yet I didn't publish my first story until I was 28. That's about twenty years of practice before my stories were ready. I learned by trial and error and developed skills slowly over time. 

The biggest issue with my early stories was that they had no structure. I just wrote whatever came to mind. After a lot of practice, I finally developed a feel for how stories needed to progress. I only discovered story structure after I had written my first book, The Spectra Unearthed, yet that one does fit the beats of a structured story. 

Note: The color coding matches up to my system, which I will discuss later. Note that I have three shades of blue in the middle when I should have only two.

Again, it took me twenty years to get to that point, and about four years of working on that one book. Some authors still write by instinct, and their stories still end up having structure even if they don't do it deliberately. Personally, I find that story structure lets me write faster, and my stories turn out better.

 Nine steps for a simple story

Today I gave my kids a nine-step formula for writing a structured story. I had them write down one sentence per step. When I write, I use a similar formula, though for me, one step equals about three chapters.

1. Who and what is your character? What do they want? Why are they interesting?

2. What will happen to your character? (passive) 3. How does your character choose to change? (active) They choose to interact with step #2. 4. Who or what is stopping your main character? 5. What does your character learn about themselves and the world? 6. What can your character lose? What will happen if they don't win? 7. What goes wrong? 8. What happens when your character faces what's stopping them in step 5? 9. How has your character changed?

Half steps for a more advanced story

For more advanced writers, you might want to add half-steps in between some of these major beats:

2.5: What was your character's life like before the story? 3.5: What is your character's new life like now that they have chosen to change? 4.5: How does your character react to their troubles? 5.5: How does your character prepare to face their troubles? 6.5: What convinces your character to keep trying? 7.5: What hidden strengths can your character draw on to rise above everything that went wrong?

Next, my kids and I looked at KM Weiland's Story Structure database to learn how stories that we already know and love fit our model. We used Harry Potter 1. I've also used the movies Frozen and Aladdin.

(More advanced) My structure system

I used my own story structure system to come up with those nine steps. Many different authors have come up with different story structure systems. They all have similarities, but some of them use different labels for the same point. I started using KM Weiland's model, but soon adapted it for myself. 

Here's a quick overview of my system:

I took the three acts and broke them into eight pieces. Each piece has a specific job and ends in a specific "beat" (which I defined in the steps above).

Look at how my "climax" beats align to the steps/questions from earlier:

1. Who and what is your character? What do they want? Why are they interesting? (Characteristic Moment/Hook)

2. What will happen to your character? (Key Event)

3. How does your character choose to change? They choose to interact with step #2. (First Plot Point)

4. Who or what is stopping your main character? (First Pinch Point)

5. What does your character learn about themselves and the world? (Midpoint)

6. What can your character lose? What will happen if they don't win? (Second Pinch Point)

7. What goes wrong? (Second Plot Point/Low Point)

8. What happens when your character faces what's stopping them in step 5? (Climax)

9. How has your character changed? (Resolution)

Story Structure in The Spectra Books

For my first few Keita's Wings books, I used story structure to turn a messy rough draft into a publishable story. Now I also use it to create an outline before I start writing. I update my outline as I go to help me keep track of where I am in the story and what I need to do next.

Here are some of the finished outlines for some of my books (some of them are cropped to remove spoilers).

Mira's Griffin:

Keita's Wings series

These are color coded instead of labeled by section. Act 1 is yellow, Act 2.A-B are green, Act 2.C-D are blue, Act 3 is red, and I colored the resolution yellow as well.

DreamRovers

I broke up each chapter into scenes for DreamRovers to help me keep track of the three point of views. 

Yes, I am a bit obsessed with spreadsheets.

Story structure is a huge topic and I hope this is useful. This is an amazing age when more information abounds if you wish to search for it. Have fun!

Introvert at the doctors'

I struggle with doctor visits. The only doctor I've ever actually liked was my midwife for two of my kids. I've never really teased out why, before now. 

I am very much an introvert. As such, it takes a lot of social energy for me to talk to people. I can answer questions without too much trouble, but taking the initiative in a conversation is difficult. I have to think up my statement/question, consider my phrasing, find the right time to bring it up, and then judge reactions carefully. It takes a lot of mental effort. If I'm confronted unexpectedly, there's a good chance my brain will go blank and I will struggle to put two words together. I'm not shy. I don't dislike people. This is just how my brain works. 

So, the reason I don't like doctor visits is because the communication breaks down so easily. Requiring so many steps means it's easy for things to go wrong. I will forget questions or statements I wanted to make. If I do remember, I have to find the right time to say it. If I don't feel like I'm being heard, I will have an even harder time forcing myself to let down filters enough to speak. And if I disagree with something, getting that through the filters is even harder (if I've ever disagreed with you face to face, you may consider us the closest of friends). Most likely, the negative thoughts will stay trapped, festering in my head. 

And return visits? Much worse. I've already put a lot of social energy into this, but I can't be sure how much the doctor remembers. It adds several more filters: I can't expect them to remember--I know they're busy and I'm just one person--but I don't want to repeat what they already know. This is assuming it got through the very first filter: do I even remember what I need to convey?

 As for the one midwife I actually liked: on our very first visit, we had a conversation where we related to each other as individuals. Every time I brought something up, she answered without judgment, dismissal, or conflict. I grew to trust her. I even had her personal number on my phone, and she was nothing but supportive on the couple times I used it. She wasn't just a doctor. She was my friend.

My Writing Process

 I've probably written about my writing process before, but it's an ever evolving, ever refining thing. Right now, I'd like to describe the stages that a story goes through before I publish it.

This is the system I use. It works for me, and it's fast--I can publish at least a book a year, start to finish, with my method. But this is a very individual exercise, and everyone works a bit differently. You'll want to adapt what you learn and come up with your own.

Step 1: Daydream. This is where I do my "pantsing". I watch it in my head like a movie, and throw in whatever seems appealing. It's a mess, and that's fine. Most likely, I'll eventually tire of it, and the whole story moves to "the compost of my imagination". Ideas get recycled and reused in different forms. Eventually an actual story emerges, ready for the next step.

Step 2: Outline. I'll make a form with the basic story structure, which I've adapted from KM Weiland's blog. I'll fill in just a couple lines for each major beat. (Key moment, inciting incident, first plot point, first pinch point, etc.)

This is for a book I have yet to write, and it will change a lot before it's finished. That's perfectly fine.

Step 3: Rough draft. I usually do this for NaNoWriMo or in that style. I'll use the outline as a rough guide, so I know where I'm heading next, and then just get all those words out, unedited, unpolished. If I realize that an earlier part needs to change, I'll go up and make a note, right in the document. I may even stop and do some brainstorming (stream-of-conscious typing about the story) or write notes and suggestions to myself.

Step 4: First draft. I take the mess that is the rough draft, look at all the notes I've made, and turn it into something presentable. This is the stage that takes the longest. 

Being me, I'll also make all kinds of spreadsheets to help me keep track of where the story is and what needs to happen next. Here's the one from my DreamRovers series:

Step 5: Get feedback. Some of these steps will be going concurrently. I'll be submitting chapters for beta-readers before I've finished the whole first draft, for instance.  I have three main beta-readers right now, plus at least one stranger to my style/world, if I can find one. Reading out loud might happen anywhere in the process. It's great for catching plot holes as well as mistakes. My kids enjoy being my test audience. Both the beta-readers and my kids act as motivation to get that next chapter done on time.

Step 6: Polishing. This will include making changes that I've found, as well as incorporating advice from the feedback I've received. This will take several drafts.  

Step 7: Proofing. I'll make the cover and do the formatting, then order a copy of a physical proof from amazon. This will allow me to pick out mistakes and make changes that I wouldn't have noticed in another format, like a screen.

Step 8s and beyond: Publish! And market like crazy. But that's another topic... 

If you'd like to check out the finished results, you can find my books at www.thespectrabooks.com

I hope you find something useful here. Enjoy!