Organizing your writing - Backwards outlining

How I organize my WIP...

Today I thought we could talk about one of my favorite subjects... Organizing.  A long, long time ago, I used to own my own cleaning/organizing business. I would get a tad giddy when my customers asked me to organize their storage areas. I know, weird right, but I loved it! 

It seemed only natural to carry it over into my writing.  

I discovered that my brain is a lot like a messy storage area. When I first started writing, I feverishly flew by the seat of my pants and wrote what every sprang from my thick skull, throwing away half of what I wrote in revisions or plotting errors. Once I finished, I outlined my book into chapters/scenes until I had a tidy spreadsheet. But I still thought there has to be a better way.

Epiphany--- Why didn't I organize my writing like I organized a room. I knew where I wanted everything to go, I knew the last scene. I knew what each character thought. *Head Slap - Why didn't I think of this sooner. Backwards Outline. I did a google search, and of course I wasn't the first one to think of this. Here K.M. Weiland talks about just this thing! Why couldn't I be the first, darn it. But I sure would apply it!

So I set out on my quest, Okay, it wasn't much of a quest but it sure was fun. 

1. Know your ending -  Get a general idea of how your story will end.  For me this was easy. I already saw it in my head. Don't worry too much about getting it perfect, because in step 4 you'll be writing it out.
2. Ask yourself questions -  How did they get to this point? Which characters were involved? Who did what, to whom? What happened and why did it happen? 
3. Know your key players - For me, I had already written a few chapters, so I knew which characters I was going to use. But in the midst of it all, other characters emerged to help me get to the ending point. 
4. Write the last scene - Roughly write it out. Don't obsess about the detail at this point, just get the idea on paper. 
5. Next, OUTLINE.  Start from the last scene and work your way backwards until you get to the very beginning of the story. For me that meant a post it note for each chapter.
   
6. Switch it around, organize your outline from beginning to end, until it flows. Surprisingly, even my sub-plots supported the end.
7. Now the exciting part... Write, Write, Write. 

Will things stay the same as your original outline, probably not, but it does give you a broad-stroke plan to achieve your goal, a finished book. 

Good luck and go forth and Write!

Cover reveal for Renee Donne's HUNTER

I am so thrilled to be part of the Surge Team at Anaiah Press, AND to reveal Renee Donne's cover for her new book, HUNTER!  I can't wait to read it!  Everyone check it out!

Blurb:

Moving across the country isn’t Hunter’s ideal start to her Junior year of high school. She has no friends to hang out with, no beaches to lounge on, and she’s living just a few miles from the secluded hiking trail where her father died when she was a baby.

Living in Wyoming isn’t all bad, though, thanks to Logan, the handsome veterinary assistant at the animal clinic where she lands an after school job. And he seems just as interested in her as she is in him.

As Hunter begins to settle into her new home, she learns more about the circumstances surrounding her father’s tragic death, and it may not have been the accident everyone believes. Something dangerous lurks in the woods, and Hunter might be the next victim.

Release Date: November 4, 2014

Renee Donne is a native Floridian with a penchant for writing books with a western theme. In her head she's a world traveler and an amateur chef. In real life, she's a hometown girl with an affinity for fine wine and good friends. Her favorite place to write is sitting on her veranda, overlooking the beach.

You can find Renee Donne at:

Goodreads

Anaiah Press: http://www.anaiahpress.com

My Nasty Habits!

Now that I'm finishing up my content edits, for The Last Stored. Wow wee, does it rock! I can't wait to get it out there!

Currently, I am dusting off my work-in-progress, I'm calling it The Swinging Tree. It is 4/5's of the way done. I still need to close up some plot holes, and add a few scenes here and there.

Since I've been editing for the past few months. I've learned an astounding amount of information. At times I thumped my head against my desk, or drooled on my page. BUT, I'm going to apply what I've learned.  Or at least I'll try!

All of us authors have bad habits, if you say you don't then you're probably lying.  So in an effort to be transparent I'll lay out mine!

1. Eliminate Overused words! We all have them.  I even have  a list: Did, wells up, crisp, remains, surrounds me, reveals (plus many more I've probably forgotten). And I'm pretty sure I'll dig up some new words for my WIP.  
2. Passive Voice- Sometimes a passive voice is okay because it just fits, but it is more exciting to the reader to live in the moment!  So what are some things to look for to clue you in that you're stuck in passive voice?  Words like, be, am, is, are, was... Reword the sentence, or even cut. Keep it clear, keep it safe... wait that's talking about something else, but you get the idea.
3. I've been known to use 'as' wrong, oh and I really like the phrase as if when I really should be using like.  Check out Clifford Garstang's tips for writers! Excellent. 
4. And lastly, have your characters interact with their environment.  Ground them in the scene, give them something to do. Keep it lively, I'm not going to lie, I've been known to act out the scenes. I've fought many a Moriavis, or fallen from a tower.  

It's time for me to get busy, and get to work. Someone once said, "if we never made a mistake, we'd never learn."  So I'm keeping a running list of my stumbling blocks handy. 

Do you have any issues?  What are they?

Homeschooling --- Yay I didn't ruin my kids!!

We homeschool...

Immedinatly you get either an oh cool, or do your kids have friends, look. 

When I first started out teaching at home, I used to feel the need to justify my reasons, like public school was not a good fit for my autistic son.  They thought it was a good idea to hold him back three years in a row. Or my daughter liked reading more advanced books than they thought she should. And the other biggie, we didn't like doing four hours of homework every night. Needless to say public school did not fit our family, we tried, we really tried. 

I had people telling me I was nuts, we weren't qualified, or the granddaddy of them all, our kids will be social outcasts. 

We made the leap anyways and started this incredible journey. Was it easy, heck NO. Year after year we made adjustments, fixing and tweaking things until we graduated our oldest.  Suddenly I no longer felt the need to justify my decisions because she landed a huge (Yeah $52,000) scholarship at her university. Family members who used to shake their heads at how sad our kids' lives were, now wanted to know what we did. Seems we might have done something right. The hard work we poured into them paid off. Our kids had some manners, loved learning, and actually wanted to go to church with us.

Since then our son has graduated high school. College isn't the right road for him, but he is working full time and I'm so proud of him.  Pretty awesome for a kid the school said should be in first grade for three years, apparently the school did not understand Aspergers. 

That leaves us with one at home and she's a busy bee. I can't wait to see what she has in store for us.

Are my kids perfect, NO, was I a perfect parent, a resounding NO, but our efforts have yielded some fantastic results. 

All of this got me to thinking... 

I actually didn't screw up my kids. Woooh big pressure off my back. HARD work does pay off. But more importantly all those prayers for help, God did answer! He gave me three pretty awesome kids and I'm just glad to have spent the little bit of time we had with them.   

1 Corinthians 9:26Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air.

***Okay clarification time, cause many of us moms can beat ourselves up over this.--- Homeschooling isn't for everyone, not everyone can and should do it.  AND there were times I sent my kids to public/or private school because I thought it best for that year. As I've said before, you know what is right for your kids! Now go be awesome parents!!!

Blurb for THE LAST STORED:

After the sudden death of her parents, making it through the day is a struggle for Amber Megan Peel. In the midst of her grief, an exquisite bird perches on her garden fence and shows her visions of a vivid landscape and a dark lord slouching upon a throne.  She thinks the visions are tied to her sorrow. But when a boy flies through her kitchen window to tell her she’s the Last Stored, she wonders if she’s just lost her mind.

Cree of Din is tasked with one job: Bring Amber home. For seven years, Cree has trained as her protector and it is the ultimate responsibility. Failure means Amber’s certain death, and that’s not an option for Cree – especially since he’s falling in love with her.

The Returning has begun. Now all Amber and Cree have to do is enter Tali, a world of unimaginable splendor and equally unimaginable horror, and defeat Lorthis. If they can’t, not only will Tali plunge into darkness, but so will Earth.

Available January 6^th 2015

You can find The Last Stored here:

Amazon

You can connect with me here:

FacebookFacebook

Goodreads

Twitter:@SoniaPoy 

Pinterest Board for you Novel

Today I thought I would talk about Pinterest and creating a board for your book.

But before I do that, I promised I would share a little about my up and coming book The Last Stored, which will be published through Anaiah Press  January 2015. Currently I am knee deep in edits, woozier, am I enjoying myself, trying to soak it all in, learn, and apply.  I can already tell a vast improvement, and I can't wait to share it with you all!  So what is my book about?

Blurb:

On the night eighteen-year-old Amber discovers a spoken letter from her dead parents, she also didn’t expect a boy to fly through her kitchen window. Her small-town life is forever altered as Cree explains he’s a Windrider, charged as her protector and tasked to bring her home to a different world.  

Amber was one of three children stored on Earth by The Light because they held the power to control the book of secrets. They were kept safe from the evils of Lorthis, who cursed their land and turned the people into his mindless slaves. The other two children were murdered as they returned home. Cree can’t let this happen to Amber, the last Stored. Only she has the power to close the book sealing Lorthis’s fate, but to do so Amber must come face to face with his wickedness. His touch might corrupt her soul forever. If they fail, Lorthis won’t stop with the destruction of their home, his depraved disease will bleed to Earth as well. 

Okay, now let's talk about Pinterest! 

I have been using their site for a while and I love it.  I keep a board up for each of my books I am working on, keeping it secret until I am ready to share. If I see a picture that applies to my writing, I pin it.  What do I pin?

1. Book covers that I like which might work for my book.  
2. Characters - I had one character in particular who I couldn't for the life of me picture.  I scoured the web until I found just the right image and after that he leapt off the page for me.  He quickly became one of my favorite characters. 
3. Places - This is great for world building. Seldom do I find a picture which meets all my ideas, but I usually pick and choose what I like. 
4. Textures - for example, just seeing a picture of leather can cause my mind to think about how it feels, smells, or the way it looks.

So why don't you give it a try, you will be surprised how much you enjoy it and how much it really grows your writing.  If you want to check out by board you can do so here: 

The Last Stored Board

Everyone take care and Happy Writing!

Cover Reveal for In The Rearview

Maria Ann Green has been such a writing gold mine for me. We met on social media and boy I am glad we did. She has helped me out immensely and I am so excited to share her cover reveal with you today: 

Blurb: When Meagan’s secret is found out, and she realizes there is no way to outrun her habit of cutting, she tries to work through it, and her depression, before she cuts too deep, making a mistake that can never be undone.

Meagan's problems aren't like every other adolescent's no matter how much she wishes they could be. Hers are worse. They've pulled her down into the depths of a depression that is anything but normal. She begins her pattern of self-harm as her depression threatens to drown her. She starts with one cut that leads to the next, and the next. After starting, it's apparent that there's no stopping, and Meagan spirals into a dark and cruel world she doesn't understand. Meagan cuts to feel better, but that comfort doesn't last long enough, and soon life is worse than it ever was before.

While learning to quit cutting Meagan faces life-altering obstacles and grows up in the process. IN THE REARVIEW is a story of pain, loss, confusion, and hope told through Meagan’s poems, journal entries, and a splash of narrative.

Release date: August 19th, 2014 

Maria Green currently lives in Minnesota, despite its bitter winters, with her husband. She graduated with a degree in Psychology and a minor in English. When she isn’t writing, Maria loves to read with a cup of strong coffee or a glass of sweet wine, craft, and spend time with her family. This is her first published novel. 

You can find her here: www.mariaanngreen.com

Or here: www.mariaanngreen.com/blog

Way to go Maria!  I can't wait to read it!

Jiminy Crickets-- I'm about to be PUBLISHED!

SOOOOOOOOooooo  Okay! Seriously, my book THE LAST STORED will be available through Anaiah Press! So stoked about this.

I would do a backflip but my spine probably wouldn't survive. Someone, other than my family and friends, read my work and actually liked it. My characters, Amber and Cree, will live in the minds of others not just in my own bizarre brain. That alone is pretty incredible.

When might you ask will my young adult fantasy novel be available?  So glad you asked, 

January 2015!

But there is still so much to do. I am blessed beyond measure to be working with the talented people of Anaiah Press. They are walking me through each step of the process, from edits, book covers, to blog tours. My little book is in good hands, even though it is hard to let go of my baby.


Currently I am knee deep in edits. I've turned in my first round of developmental edits. Woohoo! Next content edits. So many man hours and people to get a book ready for 'print'. I am both overwhelmed and excited. Who would have thought when I first started my journey that I would make it this far.

Next week a little taste of what my book is about until then here is a nibble:

The Light stored three children on Earth to save their dying land.  Only one child survived, Amber. She alone holds the power to save this world. Now with the help of Cree, her protector, they must destroy the evil Lorthis before his wickedness bleeds to Earth.