[Brandon Miller]

My absolute favorite is “Go Teen Writers” by Jill Williamson and Stephanie Morrill.  Right now I’m reading “The Art of War for Writers” and I think I like it.  Jeff Gerke’s “Writing Christian Fiction” was pretty grand, so I assume the rest of his are great as well.  (I’ve only heard good things.)

If you’re worldbuilding, “Storyworld First” is a must, but it’s more of a workbook, so bring a pencil.

[Brandon Miller]

Hey so unofficial staff recommendation:

Go Teen Writers is the best big picture craft book I have ever read. I would start with that.

If you are writing speculative fiction, Jill Williamson’s Storyworld First is also a must. (It’s really short and should be read with a notepad near at hand.)

I’ve only read a little of his stuff, but Jeff Gerke is also very good at explaining heady concepts.

Also, on the off chance that the curriculum you are referring to is OYAN, I beg you to stick with it. It can be restrictive, but that is only to encourage accelerated growth by creating focus. Even if you have to put your WIP aside for the year and write something that fits in OYAN’s mold, it is so very sorry it. I know of literally zero writing resources as comprehensive and wonderful as OYAN.

If you are not currently taking One Year Adventure Novel, I would add it to the top of my recommendations list.

[Brandon Miller]

2,000 words is a long post, for sure. But I read and enjoy a blog which goes well over that mark nearly every week. The key is keeping the content separated enough visually so that it doesn’t /look/ like it’s that long. And, like @Daeus said, content trumps everything.

[Brandon Miller]

YIPPEE! 100 Posts!
I just passed 100 posts myself, and it’s super cool. So congratulations!
Questions:
What is your favorite story, why?
What is your favorite Disney/Pixar moment, why?
What fictional character do you most look up to, why?

Congrats again!

[Brandon Miller]

OH YES.
What @ethryndal said. %200.
Make sure you have everything thoroughly documented and laid out so that you can come back to it. I just spent the ENTIRE month of June getting my current project back in my head so that I could outline the second half of it and move on. Don’t do that to yourself. Write everything down (and then put it somewhere where you’ll remember it. A Scrivener project maybe?)

[Brandon Miller]

‘Sup?

Okay, so here’s my opinion on taking some time off from a novel after you finish it.
WAIT UP.
FINISH IT? YOU FINISHED YOUR FIRST NOVEL! *alltheconfettiandcheersandlotsandlotsofcake* You get the prize.
Okay, now for the helpful (and also important) stuff. My opinion on breaks (just an opinion, but a common and heavily-tested one) YOU MUST DO THEM. All of them. Set you manuscript down and FORGET ABOUT IT. Forever.
Or at least for a month. (I shoot for at least three.) The longer you wait, the more these two things will happen:
You will gain perspective. The less and less the story becomes your baby, the less and less it will become something you can’t edit.
Also, you will become a better writer. Assuming you keep writing during this time, you can only continue to grow as a writer and become someone more capable to handle the upcoming edit.

But now as for your question, about beta readers and them wanting stuff and being impatient (albeit in a totally understandable way). Here are my thoughts:
I KNOW RIGHT!?!?!
I am so stuck in this situation now. My current novels that I have any interest in anyone reading are in pieces, and I don’t know how to just share them and ask for critiques because they make no sense cover to cover.
So basically, I feel you. We’re in the same boat (and I think it’s sinking.) Here are some thoughts. (Not answers, just thoughts.)
– It’s YOUR story. You are the one who spent hours and days and weeks and months working on it, and so you should do what is best for it. If that means that your friend has to wait to read it, that will just give them time to write their own story. Then maybe you can swap critiques.
– That being said, beta readers are BETA readers. So your story doesn’t have to be in one piece for them to read it. At all. They’re there to help your story grow, not to read a finished project and pat you on the shoulder and tell you that they liked it. So if it’s at a stage where you’re preparing for an edit, just give it to them. Let them read it while you’re taking a break from it, and when they’re done combine your notes with theirs and you’ll have double the editing power. (Cool, right?) Don’t wait until your story is ‘ready’ to share it, or it will never be ready.
Ever.

So there’s that. My two (or twenty-nine) cents worth. Hope it helps.
(And more congrats because yay, finishing novels is SWEET!)

[Brandon Miller]

I know the feel.

My current book is having all the same problems… so I did something crazy last weekend. I printed it off and read it. Like it was a novel and stuff. On paper.
Sure, it has issues. Lots of them. But I found that sitting in my reading corner with actual paper in my hands was encouraging to me in and of itself. Also, reading it from front to back let me get a feel for the building emotion and tension which, though not as strong as I had hoped, was still there and strong in some parts. Reading through my novel really helped me decide that, as I told some of my reading buddis, “if I didn’t hate it, I might actually like it.”

My second, and much more effective, method for reviving my passion for a lulling story is to force myself to write 100 words a day. 100 stupid words. Some days I blow past that and write more. Some days I have to strap myself to the chair until my thumbs have hit the space bar at 100 appropriate intervals.
Sometimes it takes weeks, or months, one time it took me all Summer of 100 word days, but eventually my momentum builds back to a point where I’m enjoying my writing again.

All that said, if you want to write a screenplay, WRITE A SCREENPLAY. (But I know nothing about that… so I can’t help you there. 😛 )

Hope some of that was helpful!

[Brandon Miller]

@mark-kamibaya I was just rephrasing what you said. All the points go to you. 😛

[Brandon Miller]

I have been tagged.
Again.
Which is fantastic, because even though I don’t find a lot of time to spend here, this is the topic I want to spend it in. Also, I think that my lack of actually showing up for this discussion has made me into something of a legend. (@Mark-Kamibaya “master of science fiction” Thanks, that’s really sweet of you but lolno. I am master of… nothing, at this point. But Maybe I’m getting there… but I’m not there yet.)

That being said, I did read something that helped me move forward toward that quest: Mark’s reply a couple of posts up from mine. It brought to the forefront something that I have been aware of (but not consciously): Sci-Fi, for all of it’s crazy, alien, fantastic elements, is completely, one-hundred percent, no-getting-around-it about human beings. A good sci fi story always explores what it means to be human in the present, by exploring alternative realities, past or present, and highlighting humanities strengths and weaknesses in those settings.

Also… much belated but @emily-d
Here are some of my favorite Christian Sci-Fi books:
<i>The Lamb Among the Stars</i> by Chris Walley is fantastic! A bit imposing just because of it’s length, but SO worth the read.
<i>Out of Time</i> series by Nadine Brandes is quickly becoming a favorite. (I’m in the middle of the last book.)
Jill Williamson’s <i>The Safelands</i> Trilogy is absolutely fantastic, but not completely clean. (Topics of sex, drugs, and (if I remember correctly) suicide are handled, though in what I believe to be a Christian manner.)
Also, if you haven’t read it yet, please read <i>Frankenstein</i>. It is, technically, a horror book that meant something totally different back then than it does now. The book is intellectually engaging and /not/ physically repulsive or terrifying. Definitely worth a read. (So is <i>The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde</i>, actually.)

Okay, that’s all I have for now, but if you want more I can go back to my shelf and pull a few up from my memory. Let me know if you read/have read any of these and want to discuss them!

[Brandon Miller]

Just that. Good clean laughs.

[Brandon Miller]

I honestly haven’t spent a lot of time on the website, but the Go Teen Writers book was amazing, so In would check that out if I were you. Other than that, my favorites are forgingofstories.blogspot.com and woodlandquill.com (Which may or may not be my own blog. # shamelessselfpromotion). Also, I’ve just started following helpingwrigersecomeauthors and it’s great. Oh, and author Nadine Brandes’ blog is great, but not alwAys about writing.

[Brandon Miller]

@Holly-Nelson-Gray
Hahahahahahahaha. Did someone say something about balance?
Lolno. I cannot express how bad I am at this. All the same, here is the little advice I have:
Use dialogue beats instead of tags. Beats always describe an action of one of the speakers, and look like this in a sentence: “What?” Wesley gasped. “No way!” They are to the description of the scene by adding physical action into the dialoge, and keeping more than just the ears engaged.
Here’s more on the subject: http://www.woodlandquill.com/dialogue-basics-what-you-need-to-know/
Also, dialogue and prose just look different on a page. It’s always worthwhile to glance back through your work and just check for a visual balance.

[Brandon Miller]

So… I have been tagged.
I would love to share a bunch of great “how to write sci fi” info with you… but I have two issues:
1. I really don’t know much. I didn’t spend a lot of time in the genre until a couple of years ago and I’m still playing catch up. Yes, I write it… but not terribly well. Not yet.
2. What little I do know I just put into my next writing team article which will be published here in June (as in, not in May) so my hands are kind of tied.

But yes! June is going to be our Sci-Fi month, so maybe you’ll find that super helpful. Also, the second One Year Adventure Novel curriculum (Other Worlds) is FANTASTIC… but you kind of have to do OYAN first (but it’s fantastic too so do that as well.)

ANYWAY, before this turns into a big OYAN add, It’s really late and I don’t have any great, super helpful sci-fi lecture to have, but if you want to dialogue about it… it is my favorite genre (depending on the phase of the moon) so that’s cool with me.

Oh, and yes. The best way to get in touch with a genre is to read all of the stuff written it it. if you want some clean Christian Sci-Fi recommendations, just ask. 😀

[Brandon Miller]

@that_writer_girl_99
Yes, you did just make Brandon’s day, thank you very much! I’m glad I can pretend to be helpful and actually pull it off.

Also, Nadine Brandes’ blog (and newsletter) are fantastic. Check them out. (But you know that, don’t you Rolena…)

[Brandon Miller]

@graciegirl
(Okay, weird tech things. It says I’ve already posted, but I can’t see it so I’m posing again…)

Okay, so I’m tired and I’ve been sitting in front of my computer all day so words are going to sound harsh… just know that and take all of the following with a grain of salt. 😉

1. In a word… no. I know Daeus said yes, but… he wrong. (Okay, I think this probably varies on a person-to-person basis, but here’s my opinion.) No. Writing a blog will not help you write regularly. My reasoning? I’ve been posting on my blog every week for two years now. During that time, there have been a few lulls where I have gone through months without writing any fiction. If you’re hoping your blogging will stimulate your writing, I wouldn’t count on it.
Also, while I have been able to be successful keeping my posts consistent, I didn’t really have a problem with inconsistency in my writing when I started. I don’t know if just blogging will force you to be disciplined, or just kind of expose the problem. So… I can’t help you there. Sorry

2.While blogging is another writing outlet, I find that it does not regularly satisfy me need to sit down and write prose. In fact, some times it gets in the way. Sometimes when I’m in a writing lull and I finally get the courage to start writing again, it’s time to write a blog post. That can be really deflating… when I can’t just sit down to write even when I want too. Make sense? So again, I don’t know that blogging will be great for that. (On the flip side though, sometimes when I’m writing a post and I figure stuff out it floods me with creative energy to keep me going for a long time.) But yeah, kind of looks like we’re 0-2.

3.Wordpress is the real deal. It is industry standard. It’s what all the free tutorials are for. Do wordpress. If you find you hate it, you can switch, but I don’t think that’s likely
(YAY THAT’S A W!)

Okay, now for the other side of the story.
I have all these negative things that I’ve said about blogging… but I’m still doing it after two years.
Here is why:
It is rewarding. It’s cool just mentally and emotionally to put something out there and have people read it. My blog isn’t terribly popular, even after two years of steady work. I have about forty different viewers per week. For my first year and a half, I was lucky to get twenty. But even when I just had ten people coming and checking my stuff out, I found that it was really cool just to sit back and realize that other people were reading what I was writing. That still hasn’t changed.
It helps me organize my thoughts. Seemingly all of my posts start out when I’m not sure about something so I start thinking it through… then end up with an informed opinion. (My blog, woodlandquill.com, is for other young writers. In case I didn’t say that.) The first person who learns from my blog posts is me. Just spending the time to think through things like POV, character development, and storyworld conflict help me figure out… writing. I wouldn’t be aware of hardly any of what I know today as a writer if I hadn’t blogged about it first.
Blogging helps me meet new writers. It took seemingly forever since I got my first comment on my blog, and it was from a good non-writer friend of mine who was just stopping by to be nice. Even now, the comments just kind of trickle in at an agonizingly slow rate. That being said, I do have a couple of regular readers who drop comments pretty often, and I’m getting to know them pretty well. I’ve also been able to look at a couple of their writing excerpts and brainstorm with them about story ideas. It’s always fun to meet new writers, and my blog gives me the opportunity to do that.
Blogging is fun.
Like, there are weeks when I hate it and I don’t feel like I have anything to post about and I have to physically bleed to get words onto the website, but also… it’s fun. I really enjoy it most days, and as long as it’s fun, I’ll keep doing it.
So… should you start a blog? YES.
Don’t expect it to grow super fast or fix your writing life or any of that. Expect to spend months posting on it, doing hard, grassroots growing of it… but if you find you like it… do it. Also, if you decide you do want to go forward with it (or if you just want to discuss it more) shoot me an email at thewoodlandquill@gmail.com. You can just reply here… but there’s every chance I won’t see it. Someday are just too busy and I just delete forum notifs I can’t get to so… shoot me an email and you’ll hear back.
(And please do, because I like talking about blog stuff… and after two years I at leas know something about the ins and outs of it. Something.)

Anyway… there’s that. Take it for what it’s worth. Don’t let me discourage you, but do weigh what I have to say. Blogging is awesome, even if it can be hard work.

[Author]

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