Hey Writers!
Sorry for the prolonged absense. Things have been busier than expected. I'm here today to tell you about a great website for writers called Wattpad (www.wattpad.com). Wattpad has been called YouTube for writers. The concept of the website is that you can post stories, poetry, and parts of stories for others to read and give feedback. You can also read stories that others have posted. 
    I created an account a few days ago, and put up the beginning of the novel I'm working on. I'd love it if you'd take a look. My name on the site is extraordinary10. You can see my writing here:  
 
Hello! M here.
I have a little story/update for you:
Until a few days ago, the revisions of my novel were coming along smoothly. Sometimes, I could revise a whole chapter every day! Each scene, including the end of the book, was clearly planned out in my head - all I had to do was write it. Now, one hundred pages in, I have come to a novel writing crossroads.
Before I met with this challenge, I had already planned out that one of my main characters was going to die at the very end of the book. I clearly understood all the relationships between my characters, and how they were going to change leading up to, and after this death.
Now, another idea, one that could (maybe) create a brilliant (or at least pretty good) outcome to my novel, has burst into my head. The only problem is, it changes the dynamics of all the relationships in my novel and the outcome leaves room for a second book, which I'm not sure I want to write.
The reason this situation demands a second book, is because it leaves the state of the romantic relationships between my characters uncertain. I've been working on this novel for over two years, and I'd really like to work on a new project sometime soon. But, I do love my characters, so a sequel is something I might want to think about in coming years. Basically, the change is that instead of one character dying, it's another character who is not as close to my main character.

So, here they are, the pitfalls of my supposed brilliance now that I am in the late stages of working on this manuscript:

1. Because I've already written the end of the book (when I wrote the first draft), and I really like it, I don't know if I want to make this switch which could affect the enitre manuscript.
2. As said before, another book might be needed.
3. I don't have time to work through things, and wait until the end to decide who's going to die - if I change the ending, I have to start changing the relationships between my characters at this point in revising.
4. I don't want to cause a bout of writer's block at this point in my story, and my indecision about what to do at the end of my book could put a block in my way.
5. The new idea leaves me not understanding the relationships between my characters, especially the romantic relationships.

I think I need to expand on pitfall #1 a bit:
I looove the way my book ends currently. I wrote most of the ending in one day - almost in one sitting! The ending nearly brought me to tears to write, because of the death, and I don't want to lose that emotion by making a different character die. Because of this death, the end of the book is a funeral. If the character who dies is changed, much of what happens at the funeral will need to change as well, and the last scenes will need to examine the dynamics of the relationships between my main characters at the end of the book, rather than how they're coping with the death. That right there is the biggest challenge, because I don't know how I want things to end for my characters.

    What got me into this situation is something you may have heard writers talk about before: when characters have minds of their own. When I created these characters, the things that I wrote about them doing, such as the way they reacted to situations, and the way they intereacted with eachother, often came naturally. One character started to fall in love with another character, which lead me to the idea of the different ending. I know this sounds odd, but when you work with characters for a long period of time, they become so real that you can't ignore what they're trying to do for themselves, which may not be the same thing you intended for them to do.

Last, how I'm going to fix this:
The honest answer to the question of how I'm going to fix this is, I have no idea. I have a few options, but I think the option I may have to go with is the dangerous one - to pay attention to the characters entirely, and don't plan ahead to much. I'll let the relationships that want to expand, expand, and, in the end, when the time comes, I'll see who I think should die. Of course, one of the major things I will be doing to figure out a plan, is having long conversations with the other group members about this problem, to try and talk it out. Sometimes, when you have other people ask questions about your work in progress, it helps you sort out some things in your brain.
Whew, that was a long post. I know it took a while, but I think it's something I needed to talk about, mostly to explain my own experiences and how I got into my current situation, but also to get our blog readers thinking about problems in their own manuscripts, and how to solve them.

I'd love to hear advice from you about how to solve this problem, or about problems you've had with your writing, and how you fixed them.

Thanks for reading,
-M


 
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Not My yummily superawesomlicious (Reggie does not approve of these words) Chai tea, but my plans for the day, and my QPK Society mug!

Today is the first day of my writing summer. Which means...the party is over - I'm writing every day until the end of the summer. But, in some ways, said 'party' has just begun. 

I love to write. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Writing is something I'd like to do for the rest of my life. So, although I won't be spending the summer relaxing in front of the TV, I'm doing something that is very important to me, and also better for my brain. By the end of this summer, I would like to finish revising my novel, which will only get done if I write every day.

Next - my lovely mug. For my birthday a few years ago I was given this wonderful mug, and a special pen to draw on it with. The QPK Society seemed like a perfect thing to celebrate with the mug, so that's how I got my beloved (and HUGE) mug that I use for tea. Note about me: I am a tea lover.  

So, with my mug poised and my novel ready and beckoning, my writing summer begins. Also, another special event is beginning today...but that'll be for the next post.
Ciao,
-M


 
    I hope you enjoyed the first post in the series! This post will discuss meetings,  the jobs of each group member, and how to organize your meetings.

Meetings
    The Qpk Society has several times when we meet up  - Christmas, and other holidays where we are all together, the Family/Memorial Day weekend, and at the end of the summer. Sometimes we also meet over Skype. It is difficult to meet regularly because we don't live in the same city, but we keep in touch as often as we can, and often send pieces of our writing through email so other group members can read them. 
    When creating a group, if everyone in your group lives in the same area, it is ideal to meet once a week, or once every two weeks. Make sure you find a time when everyone in your group is available. On days when you don't meet, make sure that you work on your work-in-progress so that you can discuss it at the next meeting. The way we make sure we don't use up our writing time because of our meetings is to have two meetings a day when we are all together. Our first meeting takes place from 3:45pm until 5:00pm. At this meeting, we do writing activities and all the things mentioned in the meeting post. The next meeting time goes from after dinner until we go to bed. This time is called Reading and Writing Hour, where we spend time working on our novels or stories, or reading. At various intervals, we stop and read parts of what we've just written to entertain everyone, and to get feedback. It is a good idea to meet with your group to do a version of Reading and Writing Hour because it allows you to have an audience for your work. Plus, if you don't feel comfortable sharing your work, you always have the option of just working on your writing and not sharing.

Whoa thats a lot about meetings. Briefly, enjoy this picture of a cute cat in a box!


Awww...kitty :)

Now, back to the post.

The Jobs of Group Members
    To keep our meetings running smoothly, each group member has certain jobs that they do in the meeting and to prepare for the meeting.

President - M
I'm the president of the group, which means I have to make sure everyone is prepared and on time for the meeting. I also have to plan out the order in which the meeting will go, and speak at the start of each meeting about what the goal of the meeting is. As you have probably noticed, I'm also the primary poster on the blog.

Vice President - S
S is the vice president of the group. She helps the President organise group events and makes sure the room where we meet is set up for our meetings. She also dicusses with the President what the goals for the group are, and updates we should make to the website.

Secretary - R
R deals with concerns related to people outside our group. She organizes when we have visitors, and makes sure the visitors are signed in and prepared for the meetings. R also does the words of the day at every meeting.

Assistant/Alternate - K
Whenever one of the other group members needs help with an activity or if they aren't able to attend the meeting, K fills in for them.

In addition to these jobs, each group member prepares an activity for the group to do.

Planning Your Meetings

Everyone has a preference about how things are organized, so you will have to discuss an order of events for your meetings with all the group members.

Here is a typical plan for the QPK Meeting:

Opening announcements - M - We usually just repeat the group motto and slogan and dicuss what we are going to do at the meeting.

Words of the Day - R - R chooses three words from Reggie and reads them to us with a definition so we can write them down.

*NEW* Writing News - Alternates Members at Each Meeting -  This new part of the meetings, which we will start at the next meeting, is where we find articles about writing in the newpaper or online and share them with the group.

Free write - Find a pencil or pen and paper. Set a timer for five minutes. Write whatever comes into your head and don't lift your pencil from the page. If you think: eat to like the cookies and the bullfrogs that sing when the breeze goes the trees that are glowing red and orange, write that down. Write anything and everything that comes into your head. It doesn't have to be gramatically correct.

K - K does her activity with the group. The order in which we do our activities changes at each meeting.

R - Activity.

S - Activity.

M- Activity.

Extras - Anyone else who wants to do an activity can do theirs at this time.

Closing announcements - We generally talk about what we learned from the meeting, what our favourite parts were, and what our goal is at Reading and Writing Hour.

Your meeting can include any or all of these activities, plus anything that you want to add that we don't have. For the activities, you can use activities that we talk about in our meeting posts, or ones that we post on the activities blog. I'm sorry that there are not many up there right now, but as the summer progresses, we'll add some more.

In the last post in the series, I'll be talking about special activities that you can do with your writing group, and some other things to consider when creating your group.

In the comments, we'd love to hear some suggestions from you about what we should add to our meetings. We're always interested in new ideas!

Hope you got some great ideas from this post!

 -M




 
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Summer is nearly here and the QPK Society has many exciting things planned - besides lounging on the dock at the cottage and relaxing with a good book. There will be many new updates on the blog, including book recomendations for some of the books that we read this summer, the other posts in the series for starting your own writing group, and some more activities! Plus, updates on our writing and meetings. Sadly, the full group will not be able to meet until the end of the summer because S and K will not be at the cottage, but R and I (as in me, M) will have a few meetings and write whenever we can. 
I am looking forward to summer primarily because I get to spend more time writing and blogging (although swimming is a plus too!). I would really like to finish revising my novel by the end of the summer, but I also plan on taking some open courses on writing and other subjects that interest me, to become a better writer. Here is the site to find courses in case anyone is interested: http://www.openculture.com/freeonlinecourses

I'd love to hear what our readers' writing goals and plans are for the summer, so post in the comments about what you're going to do!

Write, write write :)
- M
    

 
Hey everyone, M here!
I told you earlier that I'd keep you updated on how I did in the short story contest I entered, so....................I WON! I'm really excited because my story will be published in the local newspaper and I get to go to a special banquet dinner this summer. Plus, I get a big bag of books!

    This contest has been such a great writing experience for me. I started out with a good concept and worked very hard to revise my work before submitting. I really proved to myself that if I work hard and follow through, great things can happen. I suggest that everyone enter contests because who knows? You might win!
Here are the steps I took when writing my short story:
1. Come up with an idea. This step is a must for every story, for obvious reasons. Finding your idea can be as simple as listening to things people say in your everday life. 
2. Write the first draft of your story. I wrote the first draft of my story in one sitting. It didn't take long, but the first draft was pretty messy.
3. Revise. I went through and cleaned up as many mistakes as I could see and improved language here and there. I also tightened up the plot by adding extra details.
4. Find a trusted friend to read your work. My first reader picked out all the parts that they thought I could improve on or that were confusing.
5. Repeat Step 4. I repeated step 4 countless times. It was an involved process, but it paid off in the end.
6. Have your family read your work. My family pointed out things they thought were confusing and I fixed them up.
7. Copy edit. I went over my story several more times and checked for grammar and punctuation errors.
8. Submit. I submitted it to the contest! Make sure when you do this that you follow all the rules, including the word count, the genre, and the number of copies you need to submit.

Last friday night, a woman from the contest called me to tell me that I'd won. It kind of felt like I was in a dream. At first I was even afraid to tell people because I thought it was all in my head - seriously, it's a crazy feeling, you can comprehend it until you experience it.  Basically, I screamed for a little while and then called my family and the other group members to tell them the news.

So, find a contest in your area, and enter it...you never know how it will turn out!
Happy Writing,
-M
 
Based on experience, I've compiled a list of the top five reasons I get bored when writing my novel. It's this boredom that leads future famous novelists to say "Good Riddance!" and begin a new project.

1. Your novel is dreary. You might as well be watching paint dry.
Fix: Make your characters more interesting by giving them odd quirks or more difficult goals to achieve. Add some spice to your plot by throwing in a few really tense scenes. If it's a certain part of your story that is making your eyelids droop, stop where you are and skip to a different part! Maybe you'll find out the you don't need the boring part after all.

2. You hate spending time with your characters. Occasionally you say to yourself "Why don't I drop a bomb on all these lousy people."
Fix: First, why is it that you don't like them? For me, I often read a really good book and think about how my characters have nowhere near as much depth and interest as the characters I read about. If this is the case, consider what the author you are reading has done to create such lifelike characters. Try and apply some of the techniques she/he used to your characters. Characters can always be remolded. Nothing is set in stone. You can always go back and change your characters appearances and give them litle quirks and different voices.

3. You're watching TV and using "I think my novel's boring" as an excuse for not using your time productively. 
Fix: I'm not sure whether there's too much advice I can give you about this one, but one thing I can do, is say that, at least for me, once I sit down and start writing, I find it hard to start watching TV again.

4. Cute Baby Animals, nuff said.
Fix: Seriously, this is a big one. I play on a soccer team, and whenever any dogs are in the vicinity, no one focuses on soccer for a good ten minutes. The best thing you can do about this one is to plan your writng time when there are no cute things around (babies included).

5. You've been working yourself too hard.
Fix: Maybe you have been busy with other work, or you need to clean your room, maybe you've walked your dog, or already worked on your writing every day this week. No matter what the reason is, the only thing you can do is TAKE A BREAK. Just have a nap, or read a book, go for a walk, or play a  sport. Even watch a little TV! Go on, I give you permission to rest for as long as you need to get rejuvenated.

So go ahead! Fall back in love with your writing!
Happy Writing!
-M





 
Hi everyone, I just wanted to give you a  bit of info about commenting.
First of all: We LOVE to hear from you. If you have any suggestions, questions, absolutely anything.
Secondly: When  you comment, it asks you for your email and a website. Both of these are completely optional, so if you don't have a website or you don't want to share your email, that's completely fine.
Last: Commenting helps us know what YOU want to hear about. If there's something you're interested in, we can give you our thoughts and experiences, as well as research that other writers have to say on the subject.
Happy Commenting!
-M