Carolyn's blog

project type: writing a novel using first person narration. 

Big goals: write a minimum of ten chapters and however far I end up writing by march 23 should be at least 25 thousand words ( half of the minimum amount of words that a novel should be) and to have both a first draft and a second draft that includes good character development and detail for a fully immersive world. 

revisions to big goals: write a minimum of ten chapters with two drafts and fifteen chapters with one draft. by late may there should be at least 35 thousand words.

 

Progress report. 

Last blog post I had said that I was working on chapter 14 and after march 23 my plan was to switch mainly to an editorial and writing my second draft role. I have done relatively well on both fronts; I have finished chapters 14-16 and have edited chapters 1-9 as well as starting on a second draft of chapters 1–6. The editing has gone quite well, I am trying to remember everything I have been recently studying about grammar and plot. I have ended up adding quite a bit to my novel as I am starting my second draft, I am currently trying to work on adding traits to my characters that hint to later plot points and reveals concerning said characters.  

 

As I had also mentioned on my last blog post, I have begun work on a written list of magical laws for my story so that there can be fluency in the way that the characters interact with magic to avoid plot holes.  

 

Obstacles and frustrations. 

When I initially started writing my novel, while I did have a relatively detailed lay out of how things were going to work, it wasn’t perfect and as the characters have changed and been altered I’ve had to deviated from that original plan, meaning that my second draft has been an obstacle to write as it ended up being written with the ability to have a range of endings, now that I’ve come up with an ending that works, I have had to re-write quite a bit of the first few chapters to fit the end and it is taking more time then I would like; however I do understand that this is an important part of novel writing as the best things aren’t simply written, they are re-written, so it is an frustration that I will have to deal with.  I do now see how starting with a more determined end goal in mind could have cost me some of my current frustration.  

Evidence of progress  

This is (edited) chapter 3. I personally think that this is the most important chapter since it is when all the main characters are introduced. 

• Black pine chapter 3  
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•  At first, I only walked through forests, after about ten minutes I came to the end of our driveway, then I turned and started walking down the dirt road and eventually into the town. He town didn’t look much different from an old western town from movies, it had a general store, a diner and a few buildings that, while they weren’t clearly marked, looked like more stores. There was nothing familiar, I saw no brands or logos, I couldn’t have told you what time this was built, the town would have looked just as appropriate as a set on an old frontier movie as it did for me to be walking through it.  
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•  This place is stupid, I mean, yes the massive house is cool and I’m in to the rustic feel but it’s dumb! the nearest town with more than 200 people is 75 miles away. 
•  I looked up and saw a few things the first was an old general store made out of some stupidly beat up wood it looked like the was a gun shot or two in the porch and only one of the 3 windows wasn’t broken. 
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•  I figured I should stop starring at the broken building because it was making me nervous, so I closed my eyes and listened, my school councilor had said that centered you or some crap like that once, so I tried it; I heard a bird, some wind in the trees and bushes and a bell, it sounded like a school bell, at least they had a school, although apparently the high school only had 30 students. I could barely hear the chatter of students leaving and they all seemed to be moving away from me. 
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•  Like our family mansion I guess most people lived in the forest.  
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• I stood with my eyes closed until I heard something else panting and fast foot steps I looked up and saw a girl 20 or so feet away. She had long coffee brown hair in a braid that went to her waist, vivid green eyes and pale skin first she turned I thought she was looking at me, but she called out “ David” then turned the other way and smacked me in the face with her braid. 
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• It didn’t hurt, the people on my soccer team would hit each other in the face with our hair all the time, it woke us up for early practice, but the girl looked horrified “ohmygodi’msososossorry” it came out all as one word. 
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•  “hi” I said 
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•  “ don’t worry it’s not a big deal” 
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•  “still I feel terrible” she stopped and looked surprised then she looked me up and down and paused “ are you…. new here?” 
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•  “ oh um ya I am actually” 
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•  she turned around and screamed “David” at the top of her lungs 
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•   “what?” I heard a guy yell back. 
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•  he rounded a corner from about 30 feet at first there was something about him I couldn’t quite place he looked familiar, I just couldn’t figure out why… then it hit me  He looked exactly like the girl, I knew a boy and girl couldn’t be identical twins but these two must have been as close as you could get. 
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•  “ this is David” said the girl she pointed back at who I could only assume was her brother. 
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•  “ well alright but who are you” I was on edge and must  of not sounded friendly because she recoiled. 
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•  “ oh opps sorry I’m Anniya it’s nice to meet you” she said. 
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•  she was half smiling but still seemed weary of me like she had a million questions that she was deciding if she wanted to ask me.  
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• Even though she was about 3 inches shorter of me she was immediately intimidating, maybe it was the old football gear sticking out of her bag or just the way she was staring at me but she made me nervous. “ David this girl is new here” and gave her brother the weirdest look like she was trying to ask if she should run away from me. 
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•  That’s when I  started noticing the differences between the two of  them, he had on paint splattered jeans ( not in an intentional way but in an I paint so much this is just what I look like now way) and a navy blue  t-shirt. 
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•  she had on a forest green tank top, basketball shorts and her legs looked like she’d recently fallen into a blackberry bush. 
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•  Finally after 30 seconds or so the guy spoke up “ sorry we don’t exactly welcome new people” he was not intimidating in the least. 
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•  he was almost shrinking away from me he looked so shy and scared and his voice was shaking a little. 
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•  “ ok why don’t you like new people” 
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•  Anniya whispered something to David so quietly I couldn’t understand and Anniya finally responded to me “the last new person in our town killed some body” she said unbelievably bluntly. 
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•  “what?!” i screamed, “oh my god” 
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•  Anniya seemed more conferrable with me after my reaction to hearing about murder, she now spoke without looking like she was ready to tackle me “ any way what is your name?” 
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•  I started to laugh, I’d forgotten about the whole introducing my self thing “ I’m Safina Dupont.” 
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•  “ oh you’re the new people in the Dupont house” 
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•  she suddenly relaxed and her and David walked a bit closer to me “thats so awesome our parents knew the people who used to live there I think they were probably friends with your… parents?” 
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•  she seemed so questioning like I was royalty, as if I had a social standing just out of reach and if she said the wrong thing I would banish her, I wasn’t used to that I was used to within 30 seconds of meeting someone, seeing the inside of my own locker, she gave me power, the power I’d allowed my self to give to bullies, and I didn’t like it “ oh umm I guess my dad and my aunt maybe” 
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•  I was trying to be nonchalant to make her feel comfortable, but it only seemed to make her more stressed, maybe she thought I didn’t like her or something? “ that’s really cool that you play foot ball I used to play soccer at my old school”  
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• “ oh!”  
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• she looked surprised but I couldn’t quite tell by what. “ you noticed,  I love foot ball we have a stupidly small team and can only afford to play one game a season but were really good”  
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• “ she’s right they are” David chimed in. 
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•  “ oh do you play too David?” 
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•  he raised an eyebrow at me almost as if I’d asked the dumbest thing he’d ever heard the gestured at his paint splattered jeans “ I’m to busy with my art to play foot ball” his voice was still shaking a little bit . 
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• “ oh that’s really cool” I said “I’m not nearly talented enough to draw”  
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• “ oh it’s really not that hard” he seemed to be blushing. 
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•  I guess he didn’t get a lot of complements “ oh he’s just being modest he’s amazing at art” Anniya seemed to be standing up for him against, well no one. 
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•  maybe he got teased for his art? I could relate a bit to that, I just wish I had a twin who would stand up for me. Suddenly Anniya spoke up “ hey do you want us to show you around” 
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•  “ okay that would be great”  
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• I beamed at her she seemed so welcoming now, I did not at all feel like I was about to be tackled. 
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•  She pointed and talked like a tour guide at first, pointing from where we stood to all the important buildings, although there didn’t seem to be very many buildings, important or otherwise 
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•  “ ok so here is the general store” she started walking up the steps 
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•  “ hey a weird question Anniya but why are there bullet holes in the porch?” 
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•  she started laughing “ oh my god that’s such a weird story, but those aren’t bullet holes. The high school is really famous for their track team Davids on high jump I’m on the 1500 meter and 200 meter run, everyone has to participate it’s the only sport other teams come here to play against us, any ways, one time our javelin team one by  A LOT and they stared celebrating like crazy and started having a contest about who had the most accurate shot. no one was in the genral store so they started using the post on the veranda as a target that’s what the holes are and why all the windows are broken!” she told the story so comically and animated I started laughing, so did David. 
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•  “ besides” she said 
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•  “ this place has the best ice cream in the world, you need to try it” so we walked inside “hi john” she said happily to the cashier “ 3 of the usual” 
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•  “alright” he said 
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•  and passed her 3 cones with pale purple ice cream, and she turned to me “try it” I must have looked nervous “I promise it’s good”  
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• And after she handed john a few coins, we all walked outside  and down the front steps, I cautiously licked at the ice cream “wow ok, you were right Anniya this is awesome!” I said. 
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• and I wasn’t lying it tasted like blackberry with a bit of vanilla and some type of herb like maybe basil? it may sound weird, but it was awesome. After that no one said much, We all just walked and attempted awkwardly at small talk. then David spoke; it was surprising his voice wasn’t shaking and he sounded suddenly confident “ok i need to show you this if your new here”  
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• And then  ran into a stand of trees I looked at Anniya and she looked just as confused as I did but we followed we ran for at least 10 minutes I saw houses and a few smaller stores when we were near the main road but deeper into the woods there was nothing. 
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•  suddenly he stopped at a gate, a sign hung off it,  it read “private property” in big red letters Anniya looked over at David “hey uh David this just sort of looks like a fence and uh I don’t think we can go in” 
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•  “your right, we can’t but she can” and he pointed at me. 
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•   I must have looked super confused cause he pointed at some fine print “property of Dupont family” Anniya looked confused and just shrugged at me, like, do you understand what’s happening, sadly I didn’t, so we all jumped over the low fence. 
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•  “how do you even know about this place if its private property” Anniya asked skeptically.  
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•  David smiled “well uhh I used to help Mr. Dupont set up his computer and one day a landscape painting fell out of my bag he said it was good but I told him I needed something else to paint because well…l… I’ve painted everything in this town so he told me I could come back here, and paint this”  
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• as he said that the trees parted and we were standing at a lake; it wasn’t your ordinary lake either, this was emerald green and yet the water was so perfectly clear could see every detail of the bottom. I could here a little waterfall and the sound of little animals, squirrels or something scuffling around, Anniya looked like she was I shock and just stood there smiling as the two of us looked down into the crystal-clear water. 
• “ David” Anniya paused, like she was still deciding on her emotions  “ why didn’t you bring me here sooner?!?” her voice was weird, like she was laughing and getting a tiny bit mad. 
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•  David frowned, clearly not understanding her expression better then I was “ I really wanted to” he said  “ but he only let me come back here a few times and said I couldn’t bring anyone” 
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•  I stared off into  the lake I must have looked concerned  because Anniya sked me what was wrong “ oh” I said “ I guess I don’t Remember hearing about my grandpa being so strict” 
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•  David looked super confused “ he was never strict we would let me go where ever I wanted in his house” 
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•  “ then why wouldn’t he let you back here?” Anniya asked. I was squinting against the sun at this one point where there was something across the lake but for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out what the heck it was, as the two of them talked, this weird structure drew me in, I was hyper focused on the one point. 
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•  now I’m not an impulsive person but I just took off running down the lake shore, something about the object just made me curious. I was jumping over logs and boulders I’d already cut myself in a few million places but I kept going. 
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•  it was cold and the wind was whipping my hair around my face, I looked back only to see Anniya a few feet behind me apparently she didn’t mind running towards nothing at all either. I’d ran so fast I was nearly at the opposite side of the lake and i darted into the forest I’d only ran 100 meters or so and I stopped dead in my tracks. 
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•  It wasn’t a mirage, it wasn’t a deformed tree, but that didn’t mean I knew what it was. 
• We’d come to a clearing  there were no more trees the clearing was dark and cold the air was still, I looked down at the grass and there was a small pile of bricks and charred wood, that’s when I noticed the size of the clearing as I walked deeper the fog rolled in gray and thick, what looked like the burnt foot print of a building  appeared through the fog; I walked into the center. 
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•  the ground was covered in bricks and charcoal even though we’d ran a good 5 minutes I could still hear the lake echoing through the trees.  it got colder the deeper I walked into the clearing I looked back over my shoulder Anniya was following me, walking along almost cat like swerving around bricks and gracefully jumping over  charred 2 by 4’s. 
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•  through the thick trees I could barely see David standing on the beach trying to see us, finally I saw it, the thing I’d seen from the other side of the lake it was a building! 
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•  It was small maybe only a story tall and one side of it was burned, but it looked mainly intact Anniya must have seen it to because she gasped “ what is that.” 
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•  I turned around “how should I know I’ve only been here for like an hour” I paused “oh no, I told my parents I would just be out exploring the grounds for a few minutes!” I hit my palm to my forehead. 
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•  suddenly David broke through the tree and I could see his outline in the fog “ you are technically exploring the grounds of you house” he said sarcastically. 
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•  I mean he wasn’t wrong “ but still I should go” I paused “ David… how do I get back?” 
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•  he sighed and reluctantly said “ follow me” at first I though he didn’t like me but then I realized, he wasn’t ready to leave the burnt building yet he had questions that needed answers “ what if we meet here tomorrow?” I suggested “ it is Saturday tomorrow” Anniya chimed in “ ok lets do it” and as Davids words rung throughout the clearing I knew we’d made a promise we weren’t going to be aloud to break. 

 

My plan for presenting my project. 

So, I plan on doing a few things for presenting my project, since it’s not really something I could take a video of (like an art project.) so I have decided to do several things to try and show how much I’ve learned. first, I will post my book summarized in a sentence, which is something I discussed with my mentor at our last meeting ‘summarizing your whole story and characters in a single sentence can be quite difficult, but it is worth it because you can easily explain the basic concepts of your story to the potential audience’ (quote Michelle, my mentor.) I will also be posting some of my favorite lines and scenes (without giving spoilers for the book.) such as jokes or statements that I am most proud of myself for writing or scenes that include lots of detail and well show case the skills I have learned for adding detail (adding detail was one of my original big goals.).  I hope the people reading my learning center will be able to see a few things 1. How much I’ve enjoyed writing my novel, I hope that if someone who has always considered writing a novel, but has never started goes through my in-depth post and sees some of the techniques I’ve discussed they might consider starting a novel, it has been a really fun experience that I’ve learned a lot of skills through. 2. I want people to see some of the behind the scenes of writing a novel, when I started this, I had no idea the amount of research that goes not only into researching different writing styles but that goes into creating a believable relm. My novel does have elements of time travel and I have put a fair amount of time into researching the past to try and make the time travel element more believable (the reader should have to suspend disbelief on the fact that it’s magic, not on how people acted in the past.)  I do think that what goes into writing a novel would be an interesting thing to see and I hope others find it interesting as well.  

For the interactive part of my presentation, I plan on turning one of my chapters into a chose your own adventure, with an assortment of endings, it will probably only take people a few minutes to click through and will act as a good introduction to my characters. 

 

 

Concepts. 

A concept that has become relatively apparent to me as I have started writing my novel is the amount that creative critique or even just general advice from other writers, amateur or professional can be extremely helpful. In our last meeting we re-visited the creative academy for writers, a website that includes masterclasses, motivational exercises and advice on writing from other writers (https://creativeacademyforwriters.com/ website link.). I have also been working on discussing my novel with my peers and classmates, several of which have taken an interest in my novel and have graciously agreed to do a peer review of my novel and have been giving my feedback on plot holes or ways to make certain areas more entertaining, easy to follow etc. As well as class mates that enjoy writing giving me general advice on how to write interesting stories. I was aware of how important the concept of asking others for advice was, but after me and my mentor discussed it I chose to be more proactive in asking others for help or advice as it’s the best way for me to grow my skills. 

 

Alternatives. 

Of course, when writing a novel there are lots of different pathways one can take; right from the beginning my mentor asked what style of narration I wanted to try and as well as listening to my idea, she suggested several other writing styles and shared their benefits. Throughout my book as I present my ideas my mentor has asked me questions about the 5W’s (who, what, when, why, where.) and has given my alternative suggestions based off what has worked in my mentors writing and what she thinks may work for my story.  

If I had been in a different situation with my mentor some different alternatives, they may have given me might have been different character ideas, while my mentor did give me some advice on how to develop my characters, by the time we had our first meeting I already had the idea of my current characters very well laid out. Perhaps in different circumstances (if I hadn’t come up with the characters before our first meeting.) my mentor could have given my more alternative character ideas.  

In-depth project 5 

Project type: writing a novel using first person narration. 

Big goals: write a minimum of ten chapters and however far I end up writing by march 23 should be at least 25 thousand words ( half of the minimum amount of words that a novel should be) and to have both a first draft and a second draft that includes good character development and detail for a fully immersive world. 

 

Progress report. 

Last week I had said that I wanted to minimum complete chapters 9 and 10 by next blog post for my goal of having a criteria meeting rough draft by March 23. I have started chapter 14 this week and have fully completed chapters 9-13 with a word count of approximately 31 thousand words, surpassing both of my length goals.  I have also named chapters 10-12. 

I think that the rough draft contains adequate detail “the first draft is getting your idea out on paper, the second draft is for making it look like you knew every detail and piece of plot the entire time” (quote Michelle Bettauer, my mentor). It also contains great character development and character arcs, that include reveals, backstory and character traits.  this week we switched focus a fair amount and started talking about false climax and developmental questions. a false climax is like a climax, but it happens earlier in the book and typically the antagonist wins. “ it’s like when you see a fight scene in a movie, and go wow that was so cool, that must be the end but, there’s still an hour left in the movie, and you get kind of confused because you thought that was the climax.” ( quote my mentor) false climax are good for character and plot development and really help with the reader having more of an attachment to a character. 

 

Developmental questions are the who, what, when, where and how’s that you use to make laws for the magic in your fictional world, readers can suspend some disbelief but the magic does have to have boundary’s that are spelled out or at least touched upon in the novel. 

 

Frustrations and obstacles. 

I’ve really just be struggling as my book Is nearing its climax. I have multiple different ideas on what might make for an interesting climax and am having trouble deciding on which one fits best with my plot. I have to clear a lot of hurdles since there are requirements with the outline of a climax and it has been a bit frustrating to figure out what I want my climax to be. 

 

Project changes. 

My project has basically stayed the same, I’ve surpassed both of my first draft goals so, I have made a new one. By the end of in-depth I want my novel to be 35 thousand words. Based off my growth of previous weeks this may not seem like a lot, but much of my focus in the coming weeks will be going in to editing and not writing new plot points. 

 

Evidence of progress, 

Chapter 2 of my book ( rough draft) 

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•                                                               Chapter 2  
•                                          Musical interlude  

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• As we pulled out on to the high way headed north: I put in my ear buds and it drowned out the noise of the car and my parents talking a fell into my world of music.
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•  I checked my phone “no new messages” sign popped up on the screen, I quietly laughed to myself; you’ve lived in the same town your whole life yet no one even knows your gone 
•   “funny movie kiddo” my dad asked. 

 I took out a headphone “ sure dad” 

 he seemed a lot calmer now that we were on the road, maybe he was like me, indecisive till someone makes you do something, then it’s the best moment of your life, that’s why we needed my mom she ran in head first, she had moved to America by her self when she was 18! Only four years older than I was, I took comfort in that, if she could do that, I can do this. 

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We drove through only forest for a long time, not passing anything other than a few rest stops, an old dinner called “the pine tree” and a  motel  that was actually called “the rest stop” with a bunch of z’s coming out of the rest on the flickering neon sign, I guess the word “rest” was asleep, 

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 we’ve been on the road for what feels like hours but according to my phone had only been about 90 minutes. So, I started scrolling through old photos; most people had pictures of them and their friends by the side of a lake or at a mall, or wherever other teenage girls hung out, I had very random pictures of forests, the skyscrapers from Milwaukee and a picture of a juice bottle for some reason unknown even to myself. 

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 I ran out of pictures pretty quickly but I felt cramped in the back of the car; I tried to read but it made me feel sick so I tried to open a window which still did nothing, 

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 I want to crawl out of my own skin just so I can move, but in this stupid hot car I felt worse and worse so, I wanted to get out and run around on the side of the road but my dad said we were on a tight schedule, what schedule!  I thought to myself, the moving truck wasn’t coming to black pine  till 8 or 9 and it was 10 am! 

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 my mind started to wonder about possibility’s, maybe the neighbors were going to through us a welcome party, was that normal? I’d never moved before, I didn’t know how other people reacted, would there be chips? Because I was starving; I honestly don’t know how moving works, maybe we had to do something to set up the house before the movers got there?  

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I was letting my imagination wander and as I looked out the window I started to dream about the forest, it looked so open and cool, I saw a deer poke its head out of a bush and watch our car go by, 

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 we put animals in a zoos, just so that we could observe them and see them, but I wonder when animals are in the wild, do they stare at us in our cars like we’re in the zoo? 

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 my mind drifted to all of my thoughts, I thought about gardens and tree houses and milkshakes.  this was when I think I started to drift off.  

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I don’t really know how long I was asleep for I just know that when I woke up, it had gotten brighter out, it must have been 1 or 2 by now  , 

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 I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and squinted at something in the trees, a glittery star was hung off a branch “ hey mom?” my voice still sounded groggy “ what was in that tree” 

 

 she turned around to face  me “ the star?” 

 

 “ uh huh” 

 

 “ sweety that’s to mark a drive way it’s hard to see them through the trees so people hang stuff off of the trees In front of there houses” 

 

 I sat bolt upright “ are we in black pine!?” 

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 she smiled “ well the out skirts at least” 

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 some one might as well have glued my face to the window I wanted to see everything even if it was just a bunch more trees “ hey dad”  

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“ yes” he said 

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 “ how many people live here” 

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 “about 200” 

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 “ is there a school” 

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 “yes” 

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 “ how many students? 

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” “30 ish”  

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“ what does the house look like”  

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“ safina we’ll be there in a few minutes, no more questions” he was clearly getting nervous,  

 

he was humming blackbirds by the Beatles he always did that when he was nervous. 

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 we pasted another star about 5 minutes later, then two minutes after that then one minute after that! They were getting closer together till we hit the main road, 

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 ok road was a stretch, it was dirt with no trees or brush; we pasted a few stores but nothing that looked like a house. then we pasted the school, it was about 3 minutes from the nearest store and was definitely in the middle of the forest, 

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 we kept going down the dirt road until we got to a blue star on a tree, my mom checked her phone “ this is us” she said as we turned down the drive way. 

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 we went for a few minutes down a winding drive way, and then I got my first glimpse of the house; it was tall and made of dark wood, it looked colonial era and had a spire on top. all of the windows were shuttered and ivy was growing up one wall, it was the only clearing in a massive forest. 

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 I put my head out the  window I smelled strong pine and dirt “ this is home” said my mom, suddenly my stomach dropped, I felt like I was about to throw up, this was home we weren’t going back to Milwaukee this was where I lived now, it was the middle of nowhere, there was no super markets, no McDonalds, no high-rises. What if everyone here hated me,  I bet forest kids are rough what if they killed me, my mind was going faster than the car was, it was a like a dream as the car stopped and I grabbed my bag and went inside, it was a blur, 

•  

 as I walked down the long entry way and up the dark spiral stairs holding the curved railing like my life depended on it; a voice broke my trance “ Saf your room’s the second on the left” my dad yelled. Ok deep breath, only a few more steps I turned and walked through the door. 

•  

The room was made of the same wood as everything else, the rug in the middle of the room was a beautiful dark green and the bed had a canopy with dark green mosquito netting,  

•  

light came in from the back where there was a arched green stained glass window with a pine tree in the middle as well as a large picture window, 

•  

 I dropped my bag on the bed and walked over to it all I could see was trees I looked at the ground, first I saw a path leading away from my house the I noticed a rope ladder hanging out of my window,  good, an opportunity to just run and not be cramped anymore, 

•  

I ran over to my backpack , ripped a piece of paper out of my note book and scribbled out a note  “ going out to explore the grounds – saf” I dropped the note on the bed and climbed out the window, down the rope ladder and started following the path.  

 

resources 

 

https://www.answers.com/Q/What_is_a_false_climax 

 A website about false climax’s. 

 

• https://bigthink.com/culture-religion/vonnegut-shapes?rebelltitem=3#rebelltitem3
   
• https://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/write-character-arcs/
   
• https://writersedit.com/fiction-writing/create-compelling-characters-character-arcs/ 

A collection of sources on writing character emotions and arcs.  

 

 

Mentor: M 

Me(carolyn): C 

 

Discussing false climax’s (some statements were slightly edited for length and clarity) 

 

White hat: I think this qualified as me using the white hat since I asked for the hard facts of using false climax’s in writing like, what’s their purpose or when should I use them.  

C: I believe the purpose of a false climax is to give the reader a taste of what’s to come later in the book, is there more to false climax then that? 

M: yes so that’s the base idea, you think it’s the big thing and then you realize There’s more to come but you can also use it to help the reader build more attachment to your character. 

C: when would I use that, when does it apply? 

M: you might use it to build tension, a few chapter before your climax.  

 

Red hat: I think I used the red hat here since I expressed my emotional interest that has come from other books/movies in using false climax’s. 

C: using false climax’s seem like a good Idea for reader attachment, I definitely want to use these in my book (here I shared the idea of what chapter in my book I would put the false climax and what it would be) 

M: yes ok I get why you would want to have a false climax there, I like this idea, that works really well for the limits of a false climax, it also speaks to your characters growth. 

Black hat  

The above mentor comment I think plays well into the black hat, we spoke about how the false climax I had decided on played into my story’s theme of trusts and plot twists. My decided on false climax both fit the values of my book and of a false climax. This was something both me and my mentor agreed on. 

 

Green hat. My mentor asked about a different solution/  novel design that would hit the same goals, I did bring up a few but I still plan to use the false climax. I think it fits best with my book 

M: what could you do instead of a false climax? 

C: I could try a false defeat, or moment of weakness of the characters? 

M: yes those do work. you might want to try more of a reveal, like you find out There’s a new villain.  

C: ok so I could use a reveal instead? 

M: yes, this adds a new level of narrative which is often useful. 

C: that sound cool, but I think a false climax works best with the placement and character development in my novel. 

 

 

Yellow hat. I think this is an example of the yellow hat since we agreed that using false climax’s would be better for everyone’s time and was a good use of my time. 

C: I think what would make everyone’s effort worthwhile is that false climax, it could really help build a connection between the reader and the story. 

 

M: yes, this is definitely worth spending time on because as well as reader and story bonding it can really help with character growth which is very important to the story. It’s a simple tool of raising tension and stakes, it’s not mandatory, but a false climax is definitely worth spending time on. 

 

Blue hat. 

The total focus of our conversation was false climax’s and how useful they can be in a story to shoe characters in a new light, to allow character growth, build suspense and develop a reader character bond. 

 

 

 

 

 

Progress report  

i have made quite a bit of progress since last week, in accordance with me and my mentors conversation before my previous blog post, I have been researching grammar in writing of novels or “non-scientific styles of writing”, and have begun my first edit on chapters 1, 2 and 9, I plan to have done a first mainly grammatic edit on chapters 3-7 by next blog post. Me and my mentor have continued to discuss the grammar of my book and the plot, “the plot shows a lot of potential” ( quote Michelle Bettauer my in depth mentor). 

 

Since my last blog post I have completed the rough draft of chapters 7-9 and have a good plan for chapter ten and possibly eleven ( assuming time permits). Making the outline of what I want chapters 9 and 10 to look like has been an obstacle since this is the first time that my characters go out of there element which covers steps 5 and 6 of the Heros Journey, the crossing of the threshold and tests, allies and enemies; in many books this is where the first character arc or if following the save the cat style ( explained below) the beginning of the secondary plot and the second act. 

 

Save the cat writing style (explained in more detail then in previous posts) 

The save the cat writing style in the division of certain “times” in your novel ( such as “the villains close in” or ”the time for the protagonist to make a choice”) divided up by either page number or percentage. 

The steps are: opening image ( page 1), the theme/main idea (pg 5), background for story (pg1-10), set story in motion/ change the world ( pg 12), choice for the protagonist ( 12-25), enter new situation/ act 2 (25-30), second plot line (30), promise of the premise ( 30-55), false victory or defeat (55), villains close in(55-65), all is lost ( 75), why is all this happening? ( 75-85), the eureka moment/ act 3 (85), solve problems, defeat the villains (85-110), the final image, this can be a mirror image of the first image(110). 

 

This may sound much more complicated and structured then the heroes journey ( and it can be), so for my person writing style of combined the two styles, using the heros journey 12 steps as the structure and using save the cat, to fill in blank spots or to use if I’m having some degree of writers block or simply don’t know what order to put in different plot points. 

 

Frustrations  

I’m a bit frustrated with semi colons at the moment, I have asked my mentor about where they should be applied and done some research, but I am still struggling to figure out where I should use them. 

 

 

Changes to process 

With the information I’ve collected since the beginning of this project I’ve mainly had to make changes to dates  that I want things to be done by my current schedule from now on is.. 

February 28	Complete rough drafts of chapters 1-9
March 11	Complete chapters 10 and 11
March 22	Do first preliminary edit ( mainly spelling)
March 23	Begin second draft (most likely the last draft I’ll be able to do)

I hope that the rest of my project time line will stay the same. 

 

Resources  

A website for improving punctuation  

https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/punctuation/punctuation/punctuation_in_sentences.html 

The every thing guide to writing your first novel 

A book that seems to include almost every technique in the novel writing business 

By Hallie Ephron   

 

Evidence of progress  

The second half of chapter one and my finalized names for chapters 1-9  

there was one thing that I still had to do I climbed up the loft bed, checking out my window that my parents weren’t watching, ok good they were packing the car. I leaned out over the side till I barely touched the wall and pealed back a bit of the blue wallpaper behind it was a small hole in the wall. 

 

 it was where I kept the presents…. 

•  

If your not in my family or you’ve never met me then you won’t know what the “presents” are every year on my birthday my parents give me one present and hide one with very complex clues, we’ve done it for decades, probably centuries  it was one of the things we just did, I’d never known anything else, 

  it was just a fun thing that we did as a family; I never really learned where it started but I heard it was because my family used to be very poor and had very little, it was a way of making presents seem more special. 

 it was a fun tradition but it got… competitive my dad and his twin sister competed on his 18th birthday to win there fathers fortune; neither of them ever found it, and so when my grandpa  passed away his house was left to my dad, 

 both my dad and aunt left home after they realized that there whole life at there fathers house had been a contest to prove them selves worthily of his money, 

 my dad moved to Milwaukee and met my mom, 

 my aunt moved to France, we haven’t heard from her since. 

 My dad refuses to talk about anything from before Milwaukee but I guess I’m going to find out about the town he grew up in, because that’s where we’re going now. 

 Weirdly enough I was- Concerned to go there, my dad had such an aversion to even the memory of the place  it has to be awful, 

 its in the middle of no where of course its awful! I told my self and with that cheery thought I started pushing over filled boxes out into the hall, 

 the long red and green embroidered  carpet was covered in boxes of all shapes and size, several of which were blocking the door making the hall way dark and claustrophobic. 

 I crawled out under the long mirror and stood up, my mildly insane looking curly dark brown and blue hair looked like I’d been pulled through a lake and it had been tied in a bun before it had a chance to dry and my eyes were still red from not getting any sleep, well they were red and almost black brown and I had a random spray of freckles across my nose. 

 I rubbed some Dorito dust of my face 

 “safina” my mom shouted, 

 down to one world, she must  be mad now, I crawled as quickly as possible jammed a last few thing in my backpack and prepared to leave, 

 I looked around for one last time and smiled “bye… I guess”  I whispered,  

ok deep breath; I crawled out of my room and bolted out of my house down the lawn and turned around, 

 the window and doors almost looked like a face, an old friend ready to say good bye, how had I never noticed that before. 

 “ safina c’mon” my dad snapped, 

 he’d been uptight  since we decided to move back to black pine. Black pine, black pine, black pine. 

  I ran the name over in my head, it was a cool name for a town. 

 I looked back at the house,  I thought about waving bye to the house but that was childish, so I took my backpack and hopped in the car, it was an old blue SUV with  massive comfy backseat, 

 my mom turned around “ what took you so long” 

 I blushed “ I forgot to pack a few things”  

  she smiled “oh, ok just a few things?” she winked 

 “ just a few” I smiled, 

 and with that my dad speed out of the driveway, 

 I looked out the rear view mirror for one last look at the house it was old and quaint, it  was made of bricks and had the most beautiful garden, and it used to be home. 

 Chapter names   

1  house of boxes                         6 they didn’t question me  

2 musical interlude                      7 lying about broccoli  

3  running towards nothing         8 something any logical person could dismiss                          

4  boring cases of arson               9 the girl who died  

5 half way to a gas station            

 

I wanted each of the chapter names to represent both the emotion of the chapter and represent my main characters a bit chaotic and unique train of thought. 

How to have a beautiful mind  

 

 

1.What new information are you getting and what did you ask to probe further into the information. 

My mentor is teaching me a lot about grammar right now as that is what both she and I feel that I need the most work on, this week I have been focusing mostly on spacing out blocks of text and researching the proper use of colons and semi-colons, I both asked her about the use of a semi colon and how it adds to the readability, character development, conversation and context in novels  

 

2.Discuss any new points of view you’ve developed while talking with your mentor  

I think speaking with my mentor for the past few months has shown me how much detail goes into a novel, you want to be so familiar with your characters that you could answer questions about them that may never come up in the book I.e there favorite foods, books and family history ( although family history does come up in my story) and how many subconscious “tells” you need to write into your characters and how they should interact with other characters based on the emotional scars. 

I never realized how big of a  deal these sorts of details  are to making a good book and, as I read back through some of my favorite books, I have grown a new appreciation for the time and effort that I know goes into creating characters and places out of thin air. 

3. an alternative perspective that is new to me is how important grammar and spacing are to a novels enjoyability as a reader, despite the fact that I read all the time it had never truly occurred to me how differently spaced and formatted novels are; well writing I’ve never really put a priority on spacing or using colons, my mentor has showed me her perspective on how utterly important spacing and grammar are to the reader and to the way that the story and characters sound. 

 

4. How do your mentors values differ from yours  

 as mentioned above I think that my mentor focuses more on things like spacing then I do, but aside from that I think we have similar values when it comes to writing, all ideas that she’s introduced me to have seemed like good ones, I think we both put emphasis on have fully developed characters with emotional arcs and adding detail. 

 

5.What questions did you ask on facts or details. Elaborate  

This week along with talking about grammar we talked about emotional arcs, this is when a character has a moment of severe emotional development, such as when someone shows great sadness that is part of the plot or secondary plot to show great emotional growth/how the character reacts to emotion. So I asked a lot of questions about emotional growth such as is there a limit on the type of emotion the person should experience in their arc. When should emotional arcs come in, in the plot line. I asked these questions because I am new to writing emotional arcs and didn’t know if there was a set of rules I had to follow, which it turns out as long as there is an unusual ( for the character) emotion to show growth there is very little criteria. “ with rules in writing you can often break them, but before you break them you have to fully understand the rule” ( quote Michelle Bettauer)  

 

6.  ask questions, record them. Why did you ask these

Most of the questions that I asked this week had to do with emotional arcs as shown above, such as is there a limit on the type of emotion the person should experience in their arc. When should emotional arcs come in, in the plot line. And some questions about punctuation in spacing such as, if lines need to be broken up because of a line of speaking can I end a line on a coma or semi-colon such as  

“Hello” bob said, 

He sounded much happier than usual this morning. 

Because in writing I have already been taught that after you find out who said something ( like we know bob did) you should move on the  next line. 

I think I asked these questions to clarify  and review things that I’ve already been taught ( this week we mainly went back over stuff I already learned and was unclear on). 

7.Ask explanation for a certain skill you are learning. 

As I mentioned last blog post, I was confused and continued to be during our last conversation as to how the spacing and colons were important, it seemed like it could be a lot of extra work, I asked both my mentor and consulted a website that she had recommended to me that was about the importance of colons in writing to explain the point that your trying to get across in your writing. 

8. ask a multiple choice question, was this helpful? 

I think giving someone multiple choices whilst they’re trying to explain something to you is always useful as it can remind them of ideas they meant to share with you but have forgotten or gives them a better idea of what your interested in as far as what your mentor needs to teach you and what you do not fully understand. In almost all situations asking multiple choice questions can clarify both yours and your mentor ( or any other person your talking with) points. 

 

 

9.Ask questions to clarify the persons thinking or feelings. 

I tried to ask questions as much as possible, for the last two meetings me and my mentor have been mostly working on grammar and I was quite confused as to why this was so important to my mentor in novel writing, she has continued to specify it has to do with her love of reading “ I like reading different stories online but if I see bad spacing or large text blocks I often won’t read something that sounded like it could have been a good story” ( quote Michelle Bettauer). So, it was important that I had good grammar and spacing to her because she wanted people to want and enjoy reading my novel.