Yay! I hit my goal of editing three chapters a week.
I really enjoyed working on this chapter as well. I forgot how intense the emotions are and her powers coming to life and the promise of a beautiful romance.
But… is this the midpoint? The false win? You’ll have to read it and see.
If you would like to see the new chapter on Wattpad, click here.
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How much development do you give you Secondary characters?
Have you ever heard of hump day? It’s the term given to the midweek blues. Like when people get to Wednesday in their 5 day work week and they just need to get through the day to see the promise of the weekend.
I have that feeling with Jewel of the Sea at the moment. I am currently about midway through editing it. I feel like I’m loosing steam. I feel like I’ve been working on it for so long and yet there is still so far to go. I’m trying really hard to focus on the positives to keep myself motivated.
If you would like to see the new chapter on Wattpad, click here.
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A little post on how I am doing…
Last night, I watched Game of Thrones so no writing happened. I was disappointed by the episode, I won’t spoil for anyone watching but I feel that writers make promises to their fans and they have to deliver on those promises.
When, you read a murder mystery you expect a dead body and clues that lead to discovering the murderer. When you read a romance novel you expect the love interest to get together. In last nights, GOT, I felt we have been following certain characters development and these were all undone. I felt a little like arcs were unravelling in the last episode. It feels like they are rushing to finish the series and aren’t caring about what is true to the character anymore.
Tonight, I started out editing the wrong chapter. I kept getting a de-ja-vu feeling I had noted which chapter to edit next. The familiarity kept coming back so I checked and turns out I hadn’t updated my note with where I was up to. Luckily, there was still enough time to get this chapter edited.
If you would like to see the new chapter on Wattpad, click here.
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Goals: Progress since Jan 2019
What to watch if you love mermaids!
I’m really impressed with myself for getting another chapter edited and posted on Wattpad tonight and it was another 3.5k chapter! My word count is soaring today.
I have added a note to check it again at a later date as I changed a lot of tenses and I want to make sure my grammar is correct.
If you would like to see the new chapter on Wattpad, click here.
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Camp NaNoWriMo Diary (middle to end)
The new chapter has taken a few days to edit. Here are the challenges I faced whilst editing this chapter.
The main delay was due to changing the role of Ana in the story.
In the original version, she goes away to see a specialist doctor in America to get help with her sleep disorder. This resulted in her being away for most of the story.
In my current rewrite I have decided Ana will have a bigger part to play. She doesn’t go away, Mariah confides in her and together they experiment with magic. I’m enjoying writing the new content but it is slowing me down.
In addition, chapter 13 is 3.5k words long. This is long for me as my chapters generally tend to be half that.
The last delay on this chapter is that Aria is going through a nocturnal stage so I’m spending more of my evening settling her than working on my novel.
If you would like to see the new chapter on Wattpad, click here.
If you like this post, you may enjoy:
Camp NaNoWriMo Diary (middle to end)
I’m really impressed that I managed to get a chapter edited today. Aria has refused to nap all day so I am shattered but I really wanted to get another one done.
I think the next chapter will be tricky because I have changed the role of Ana in the new outline. This will impact the next chapter as I will need to add in some new content to make it work.
I find editing really hard but I will write a post soon covering the methods I use that make it a little easier. But, I would love to hear the methods you use?
If you would like to see the new chapter on Wattpad, click here.
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A Group For Writers with a Side Hustle
What theme is heavily portrayed in your story?
Do you keep notebooks of story ideas?
My main time to write is in the evenings. I started working on this chapter on Wednesday but since then there have been a number of personal distractions.
One of my best friends is in hospital with her baby and I wanted to do something to cheer her up. I gave up an evening to work on creating her a special letter and gift. Another evening was lost to looking at my families finances and trying to work out how we will afford everything this month as I am no longer bringing in any money on maternity leave.
Today, I have taken every chance I have had to get some writing done and I have finally finished editing the chapter to post on Wattpad. If you have time to take a look, please do give it a read and let me know what you think.
How are you progressing towards your writing goals?
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How much development do you give you Secondary characters?
Hand write to boost creativity
My best kept writing secret of last year (Happily Ever Author)
Author CL Walters was looking to feature writers from Instagram on her blog and I got picked. You can read her post about yours truly by clicking here.
She is the author of two novels that can be bought from Amazon.com:
“What do you do when your world has fallen apart, and there doesn’t seem to be a way to put it back together? Abby Kaiāulu (Kaw ee aw oo loo) gets the chance to start over when her family relocates from Hawaii to a small town on the Oregon coast. But she’s hiding a secret. Leaving the past and the cultural lessons of her Hawaiian grandfather behind, Abby redefines who she is to hide it. There’s Good Abby – she makes and follows the rules – and there’s Bad Abby – she always questions them. But both leave Abby wondering: which one is she really? Her road of self-discovery takes her on a journey where she must discover the truth of who she is as a daughter, a sister, a woman, a Hawaiian and as a friend. But just when she thinks her world might be coming back together, it falls apart all over again. “
https://www.amazon.com/Swimming-Sideways-Cantos-Chronicles-Walters/dp/172408710X
“ Seth Peters has been angry for a long time. Living with an abusive, alcoholic father has that effect. But when he wakes up in a hospital – outside of his body – due to an accident that he doesn’t remember, Seth is no longer angry; he’s terrified. When his memories begin to return, he is confronted with a legacy of lies he’s constructed to survive the pain of his own life. Realizing he’s no different than the man he’s loathed his whole life, Seth’s learns that his choices have set into motion far-reaching and terrible consequences for the only true friend he’s ever had, Gabe Daniels. Challenged with wallowing in the pain or confronting his fears and admitting to the ugly truth about himself, Seth must decide if facing what he fears most to save his friend’s life is worth the risk of losing his own. “
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1520940459/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0
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Image from Unsplash artist Kinga Cichewicz of how I picture grown up Denny https://ift.tt/2DByKkK
View on Instagram https://ift.tt/2Ofw15V
Gwyn had been a mother and best friend all rolled into one neat package. I picked the sticky tape off another cardboard box. Packing up had been a difficult chore but unpacking was a never ending task.
Revealing the contents, I realised this would be no quick task. At the top was a powder blue photo album with white writing ‘My Baby’. I can’t resist the urge to look at pictures of my son. I clutched it to my chest in the same manner I had when he had been small enough to do so.
The first page was a photo of him only hours old. Gwyneth had been my only visitor at hospital and took the photo for me.
Gosh, I look so young. Too young to be a mum!
I pulled the rigid board of the front cover free from the slip to retrieve a picture I had hidden there. It had been taken in a photo booth, a sketch of us together in black and white. Dean believed pictures looked better like that. Now, it was disappointing as the picture didn’t show the kaleidoscope of golds his hair had shone that hot May.
The Easter fair had been in town, we were down for the holidays. Mum had given my brother Greg and I some money to go ‘treat ourselves’.
“What ride do you want to go on first?” Greg asked as we walked along the closed off road.
It was dark and the rides were lit up by brightly coloured bulbs and painted with images of seductive looking women with large breasts and glossy lips.
“I don’t know,” I shrugged. “They all look lame to me.”
Image from Unsplash artist Gabriel Matula of how I picture a teenage Denny: https://unsplash.com/@gmat07
There was the familiar crashing of bumper cars and the rotation of horses on the carousel. There were the more dangerous rides for older kids like Rock City where a row of chains rotated up and down getting faster and faster, Metropolis where everyone put their faith in centrifugal force as they stood in the cage of a spinning wheel tipping on its side as they stuck to the wall. There was Niagara Falls which consisted of two carpeted tubes that spun in different direction causing you to fall to the ground. Last time we were here it gave me carpet burn. All of them looked like they would either make me sick or cover me in bruises.
“I’m gonna get some candy floss.” My brother said irritated by my lack of adventure. He had been bored at the caravan and the fair was all that had kept him going.
I begrudgingly followed him whilst he flirted with two young girls in the queue. He allowed them to steal bites of the blue fluffy cloud of sugary sweetness. My brother was terrible with his cheesy lines ‘are all the girls around here as gorgeous as you?’
One of the girls, who had slicked her hair back into a ponytail eyed me with her dark lined eyes, “Your girlfriend?”
“Sister.” My brother quickly corrected her but his grin clearly read ‘I’m in there!’
The girl rubbed her arms to brush off the cold. “Wanna game of pool?”
Obviously my brother said yes. He had lost all interest in the rides now his sole attention was on this girl, who to me looked like a slapper. Sadly, that was probably what he liked about her.
Her friend was chewing gum and seemed to be eyeing everyone up for a fight. Even when she smiled at my brother her eyes were half closed and she almost looked as if she was snarling, so I was surprised when she said, “You want to play?”
I shook my head. “I’ll just watch.”
I felt a little like a gooseberry standing on the side lines watching my brother tickle this girl every time she tried to take a shot. She giggled and blushed, “Stop cheating!”
I saw a pinball machine and decided to give it a go. The popular theme tune to the Adams Family started up. I pulled back the lever and let it go. The spring raced forward, smacking into the round silver ball and spinning it onto the table. The ball bounced off some bells and was heading down towards the bottom. My hands leaned over the edge of the table ready to hit the buttons to cause the flickers to stop the ball from being lost.
“You’ll never beat my score.”
I jumped and hit the button too late. Angrily, I searched for the person responsible for my loss, only to be taken back by the most beautiful eyes and gorgeous smile I had ever had the pleasure of meeting. As if moving in slow motion, I blushed as I watched the ball bounce and roll down the middle bringing the game to a halt.
“Dean.” He said confidently.
All I could see was his cocky grin and cool blue eyes. He had long blond hair that swept across his face in rebellious waves. He looked like he had stepped off the set of some Californian beach surfer movie and I couldn’t take my eyes off him.
“You’ve still got another ball.” He said with a thick Suffolk accent that killed my Mr Muscle Beach fantasy.
My hands shook rapidly to the beat of my heart and it was more difficult to pull the bar back the second time. I let it go and tried again to keep the ball on the table but I was all flustered. I managed to hit it back into the game twice more before it disappeared for good.
“It’s your last ball. Do you want my help?”
My throat was tied up in knots, pretty much like my stomach and I couldn’t speak. I gave a nod. The next thing I knew, he was standing behind me. His hand clasped over mine and we drew back the lever together. “Never go all the way.” His hot breath tickled my neck like a forewarning my body wanted to rebel against. “Otherwise the ball will be too fast to keep up with. You need it to be just enough to put it on the board and get stuck behind those bells. Then you will get the maximum points.” He let go of my hand and I released it. I let it go and as my hands fumbled for the buttons, I felt his fingers guiding me into place, finally resting gently over the top of mine.
That was how my romance for ‘Hugo Boss’ had begun. The scent surrounded me in the same way his arms were. It was intoxicating the way it gripped my senses and spun my world like the little silver ball. From that day forward, it became the smell that I associated with summer, replacing the uplifting fresh salty sea breeze and lashings of sun lotion. I no longer hungered for the tantalising sweetness of a ninety-nine vanilla ice-cream and chocolate flake; I just wanted to taste Dean. That was the start of the holiday romance that broke my heart and changed my life eternally.
Looking at the photo, I was surprised to discover how similar Dean looked to Jace. I shouldn’t have been surprised, after all Dean was his dad. The last time he had come to mind had been when I met Dave, my fiancé. The first thing that caught my attention was the heart capturing scent of Hugo.
Now Jace was wearing it thanks to Dave trying to bond with him “Wear this, the women love it.” I never told Dave why this woman loved it.
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/WJTXDCh2YiA?rel=0&showinfo=0&enablejsapi=1
This song has beautiful imagary that I feel captures the intoxicating feeling of first love and the magic of the whirlwind, followed by the crushing destruction when all is not as it was and all you have left is sweet memories that are painful to carry. I think it captures the emotions of the scene above well.
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What theme is heavily portrayed in your story?
Do you keep notebooks of story ideas?
Does your story have an antagonist/bad guy?
Classifying your genre will be one of the first things you do. However, this may not be as simple as it sounds. Many novels, scripts and other works of art will combine elements of more than one genre within the story that is told. However, there will still be one main genre that flows steadily throughout your story (or series).
I watched Reign on Netflix. This series is classified as a Costume Drama. The main character is Mary Queen of Scots so some might say it is a Period Drama or Historical fiction, but to make compelling viewing the gripping storylines are fictional and I’ve seen it described as Fan Fiction. In addition, there is a lot of Political Drama and Religious Conflict. Many of the storylines are romantic making it Romance fiction.
Sometimes the genre can be tricky to pinpoint as the definitions can be confusing and sound similar to each other.
I’ve had this issue trying to understand what is Magical Realism’? Or, what’s the difference between Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance? Then, some genres are based on the target audience of the reader i.e. by age (MG, Tween, YA, etc) or gender (Chick Lit) or personal identification (LGBTQ, Multicultural).
To tackle this, I suggest looking up the definitions online from more than one source. Also, check how novels similar to yours have been classified. Read novels of the genres you are considering and see which feels most similar to yours.
It is important to get this correct to enable the right readers to find your novel.
Say you’ve written a YA, Historical Horror with a cross-dressing African bi-sexual and all the genres remain strong throughout the novel?
Then you have to ask yourself how similar novels have been classified or which market you feel your novel will thrive most strongly (i.e. if there is a current demand for Horror fiction, perhaps place it there).
Write for Kids has an article that goes into more detail on this subject – click here.
These are the main genres most people think of when classifying fiction:
More information on this can be found on Fiction Factor:
My novel Jewel of the sea (formerly Drift) is:
I have classified it as a YA Urban Fantasy Novel.
Does your novel have multiple genres?
Please let me know if these descriptions helped you classify your novel’s genres.
This article was previously posted on my old blog and has been updated.
