Adventures Up North

Hi everyone, IT'S 2017!!!  And I'm back with a writing blog post!! Editing a first draft can be very daunting, especially for new writers.  First drafts are usually a complete mess, and it's scary to approach editing the first draft when it's such a mess.  But with a little preparation and brainstorming, you'll find that the editing process is much less overwhelming than you thought. I've been editing my current project for a while now, and I feel like I have found both helpful techniques and unhelpful ones.  So today I thought I'd share these tips!! :) 1.  After finishing your rough draft, LEAVE THE PROJECT BE.   Yes, I KNOW, you're dying to go back and reread that one scene in chapter 14, or make that data consistent that you changed halfway through the book.  But it really is best if you just leave your project entirely for at least a week or two and let your mind sift through everything before coming back.  You'll be less likely to burn ...

Note: I'm very busy with Christmas stuff, school, church, and a million other things.  Even NaNoWriMo has gotten pushed to the sideline.  So this will be a quick, last-minute blog post.  Hopefully I can have something a little more substantial for you next week! Okay, everyone, I am completely straying from my usual writing-based posts, and tackling a completely unrelated topic: friendships. Now, if you didn't already know this, friendships are very important.  Very important.  I'm a very social person, and I really need to have relationships with people I enjoy and get along with. The tips I am about to give are not for how to make new friends.  These tips should be used once you know the person a little bit, but aren't close in any way. 1.  Be open, be honest, be vulnerable.   In relationships, honesty is SO IMPORTANT.  Be vulnerable to your friends, let them see your faults and your weaknesses.  Because it's actually strong of...

Hey there guys! My name is Sarah. Luke is one of my oldest friends and always a great encouragement when it comes to writing, so I was thrilled when he asked if I would write a post for his blog! And by thrilled I mean I thought it was really cool… But in the midst of life's craziness, this task kinda got lost in the pile of other things that I need or want to do. Now it's down to the night I have to send it in to Luke. It's now or never. Do I want to write it? Yes! Do I want to write it now? No… It's a Friday night. I want to curl up on a couch and watch a movie and drink hot chocolate. But instead, I need to write a blog post and I haven't even picked a topic. Hmmmm how about “How to write when you don't want to?” That seems applicable. I can't be the only one with this problem. The constant paradox of wanting to write but not wanting to write in that moment… What do you do in that situation? Tip #1: Write SOMETHING. How many articles/blog posts hav...

Not all of us enjoy music when writing.  But some of us don't like absolute silence either.  Sometimes, an ambient sound mixer is exactly what we need. :) Basically, an ambient sound mixer or background noise generator is an online tool that plays an ordinary ambient sound, usually one long track or a few tracks playing together.  You can usually mix these yourself, with simple sliders to adjust the sound volume of each track playing.  I find these sound mixers extremely calming, stress-relieving, and (most importantly) they help me concentrate when writing.  Here's a list of my absolute favorite online ambient sound mixers: #1: Rainy Mood.   Rainy Mood might be the most popular on this list, but in all truthfulness, it's probably my least personal favorite.  This is mainly because I find the sound of a thunderstorm rather depressing, and also rather out-of-place if it's sunny outside.  But this is a very popular and high-quality ambient sound...

NaNoWriMo is less than two weeks away.  Cue panicky GIF: So for those of you who don't know, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month.  NaNoWriMo takes place in November, in which around half a million people around the world attempt to write a 50,000 word novel in the 30 days of November.   To find out more, visit NaNoWriMo's About page. (Someone count how many times I say 'NaNoWriMo' in this post. :P ) Surviving NaNoWriMo is no easy task.  Believe me, I've participated since 2012 (and never been very effective at it either...the best I've ever done was last year with 30,000 words).  In order to stay alive this month, a Survival Kit is necessary.  Naturally, since each writer is different, each writer's kit will be different, too.  But these are that things I need to survive this November: 1.  Computer.  Now, technically speaking, I don't have my own computer, but our family's laptop is barely ever used by anyone else,...

The 21st Century is amazing in a lot of ways.  We have medicine and other medical technologies that help us remain healthy.  We have electronics that help us stay closer connected.  We've made our own culture, the likes of which the world has never seen before.  And we have Twitter.  Twitter is definitely the best part of the 21st Century. While many aspects of life now are much better, one of the hardest things about living in the modern age is the difficulty to connect to the past.  Even 100 years ago, culture was far closer to the ancient cultures of Rome and England, China and Egypt, to name a few.  In other words, our culture is so different from those we learn about in History class that it becomes hard to relate to them and envision them. This is especially difficult for writers because unlike  commoners  non-writers, many of us write historically-based works.  Some of us write about specific moments in history, like durin...

Hey Everyone! My name is Abby, and Luke asked me to guest blog this week. A little about me: I met Luke through our homeschool group, I could eat pizza everyday, I LOVE reading and writing books\stories, I have a blog but I don’t post there, I procrastinate alot, I like snapchat, I hate when people eat food loudly and I am probably going to be the youngest guest blogger here. Now that we are acquainted let me tell you why I decided to talk about writing life hacks. As I was mulling over millions of ideas (okay it was only 5 but...) the idea of trying some writing tips came to my mind. I had several ideas of things I could try, and several other ideas I had seen on Pinterest. However, then I remembered how on YouTube the whole “life hacks” and “trying ___” has been super popular! What better of a way then to kind of poke fun at it a little bit, and title this Trying Writing Life Hacks. Hack #1: Download the app Evernote I saw a lot of writers recommending this app, so ...

Today is blogger's choice, which means I can talk about whatever I want!  Mwahahahahaha... But we're still talking about writing today!  Kinda.  Sorta.  Not really. I don't know about you, but I am one of those people who has a really hard time getting things done.  Like important things.  I am a world-class procrastinator.  I'm also terrible with mental to-do lists (I always forget everything).    So one of the best ways to combat that, I have found, is to make a list of my monthly goals.  This is similar to quarterly goals (which is probably more common that monthly goals) but I find monthly goals much more attainable than quarterly goals for some reason.  I guess for me, three whole months allows too much time for procrastination, whereas with a month, you only have 30ish days to finish the list.  That just works better for me. So here's how I like to prepare and accomplish my monthly goals!  I thought this ...

Last month, I talked about writing first sentences .  Thanks to all of you who read that post, and special thanks to Hannah Heath for tweeting about it!  I owe you. :)  So today, I'm going to continue that topic into something that includes the first sentence: the first chapter. Chapter One is IMPORTANT.  In many ways, it's the most important chapter in your entire novel.  This is because most readers won't keep going if they don't like your first chapter too well.  That's a lot of pressure on the author. The ultimate purpose of the first chapter is to introduce the story and hook the readers so they want to keep reading.  That's a lot easier said than done.  So without further delay, here's my list of everything that should be true of (basically) any first chapter: 1.  The first chapter should hook the readers in.  That doesn't necessarily mean a fast-paced beginning, however.  The hook can can come in all forms: an ...

First, a huge thanks to my friend Rachel for guest blogging for me last week!   She’ll probably be back in a few months, after I give my other friends a chance to guest blog for me first. :) One map is more helpful than an entire travel guide.   Maps visually reveal the location of important countries, cities, and landmarks, and even more important, where all those places are in relation to each other.   All that can be shown on one screen or sheet of paper.   That kind of information is invaluable. So obviously, then, you need a map for your novel! I have gone through several drafts of maps for my novel’s world (I drew my first map for the book I’m currently editing when I was thirteen), but the basic directional locations stayed the same.   Now, I’m completely satisfied with my novel’s map, and hopefully some of the tools and techniques I used can help you in some way. In my opinion, every novel needs a map, at least a reference map for yo...

Alright, I guess I'll just jump right in.  Hi, I'm Rachel.  I'm a friend of Luke's.  I've know him for probably about four years, maybe only three, but it seems like longer.  We met through our home-school group.  So yes, I was also home-schooled.  I say was, because I just graduated high-school this past May/June.  I have been traveling for the last month.  And in case, you're wondering, no I'm not going to college right away, but that's a topic for another time. Anyway, I love reading.  Reading has always been a huge part of my life.  Writing?  Not until middle school.  That's when I started writing poetry.  I started story writing some time around that time, I don't remember, but I wasn't quite as interested or concerned about how well I wrote until a couple years ago.  So I thought I would share some things that I have learned with y'all. Here are some tips for you. 1. Write when you're inspired or have...