Outlining Your Novel

Writing Stats: Edits 80%

So anyway back to the world of writing that's about to get crazy in about three weeks.

It's time for my favorite time of the year NATIONAL NOVEL WRITING MONTH otherwise known as NaNoWriMo. I cannot emphasize how much I love NaNoWriMo. It gives me the fire to get that draft done and to spend countless amounts of time editing it so it's awesome!

In order to help other writers with NaNoWriMo I'm going to do a series of post to help you prepare for it.

So you want to write a book? Well NaNoWriMo is the perfect time to write that book you've always said you were going to write but never had the time.This is your chance.

Often a writer will ask themselves "what do I write." Today's post is something that is going to be very useful to you to get those important scenes written.

First start with a clean document.

Then make a navigation panel in word for your chapters. If you don't know how to do this look at the blog post on Natasha Neagle site! http://natashaneagle.com/organizing-your-manuscript-in-word/

(TIP: Her trick is going to save me so much editing time!)

Once you already have in mind how many chapters your book is going to be just add them to the navigation plane before you start. You can always add more later. (Again see Natasha's blog post)

After you have completed adding all your chapters to the navigation plane start doing little bullets for each scene in a chapter. For my example I'm just going to use Harry Potter I don't want to spoil my super secret project.

Then when it comes time to start writing just write the scene like you outlined on top. You can just subtract how many words were your outline from the total.

That's one of my secrets to survive NaNoWriMo! I would write each scene underneath it's bullet point! Here is how this helped me last year. I was able to see the bullet point above each scene I was writing. It would help just in case I couldn't figure out which scene I was going to work on next. Each of my scenes average to about 2k. 

Then when it came time to the revisions I would weave all the scenes together. Plus with Natasha's new trick in word it's going to save me so much time scrolling through the document. This is one way I outline a novel before NaNoWriMo normally I would plot as I go along. But this trick I found saves me countless times of copying and pasting scenes around in a single word document.

I hope you get the chance to try out this outline! I'm going to see about posting another outline for NaNoWriMo prep. If you use my trick let me know how you like it!

Stephen King Quotes

The best quote I have found by Stephen King on writing!In which I believe in every single word he said. My next book purchase shall be his book on writing!


"I believe the first draft of a book — even a long one — should take no more than three months…Any longer and — for me, at least — the story begins to take on an odd foreign feel, like a dispatch from the Romanian Department of Public Affairs, or something broadcast on high-band shortwave duiring a period of severe sunspot activity.

The scariest moment is always just before you start.

If you're not talented, you won't succeed. And if you're not succeeding, you should know when to quit. When is that? I don't know. It's different for each writer. Not after six rejection slips, certainly, nor after sixty. But after six hundred? Maybe. After six thousand? My friend, after six thousand pinks, it's time you tried painting or computer programming."

REIGN SEASON 2

Season premiere of REIGN is on tonight!

Book Blitz: Scratch by Rhonda Helms

The most painful scars are the ones you never see.

In her DJ booth at a Cleveland dance club, Casey feels a sense of connection that’s the closest she ever gets to normal. On her college campus, she’s reserved, practical–all too aware of the disaster that can result when you trust the wrong person. But inexplicably, Daniel refuses to pay attention to the walls she’s put up. Like Casey, he’s a senior. In every other way, he’s her opposite.

Sexy, open, effortlessly charming, Daniel is willing to take chances and show his feelings. For some reason Casey can’t fathom, he’s intent on drawing her out of her bubble and back into a world that’s messy and unpredictable. He doesn’t know about the deep scars that pucker her stomach–or the deeper secret behind them. Since the violent night when everything changed, Casey has never let anyone get close enough to hurt her again. Now, she might be tempted to try.

EXCERPT

He looked down at my mouth again, then back in my eyes, and his eyelids grew hooded. He leaned a fraction closer. “I have a confession.”

My pulse kicked up just a notch. “Why?”


“Why . . . what?”


I swallowed, fought every instinct to stare at his mouth. His full lips, now only six inches from mine. My body began to respond to his nearness, and I dragged in a ragged breath of his cologne. He smelled fresh, like a soft breeze on a spring day at the lake. I wanted to inch closer. No, stop it, I ordered myself. This was dangerous, to let myself even be this close to him.

“Um, why are you confessing something to me?” I finally asked him.

“You ask me the most unusual questions.” He gave a ghost of a smile. “Honestly, I don’t know. But I feel like I want to talk to you all night. Which is why I wanted to confess that I haven’t been able to get you off my mind.”

I swallowed, let his words sink in, then swallowed again. His honesty was disarming me, chipping piece by piece at the careful shield I had around myself.

“Casey,” he said on a soft breath. “You intrigue me.”

He opened his mouth to speak again, but before he could get out another word, I pushed my head forward, past the last few inches separating us, and pressed my lips to his. Daniel froze in surprise for just a moment, then slipped a hand to my forearm, stroking down until his fingers met mine.

With his other hand he cupped the back of my head and teased my mouth open with his tongue, tilting so he could deepen the kiss. He tasted like chocolate and Coke and something purely male, a combination that intoxicated me more than the beer.

My heart thrummed in a wild, erratic beat as he drank from my mouth. I opened wider, our tongues slipping and sliding, my breaths falling into his mouth in little pants. I moved closer, breasts brushing his lean and firm chest. His hand tangled deeper in my hair, and his body heat flooded through my thin shirt into my torso.

I was dizzy, drunk on him, aching with a surge of something intangible coursing through my veins. My core tightened; my belly fluttered.

He pulled back for a moment with a small gasp of air, eyes nearly black as he peered down at me. Then he gave me a crooked smile and kissed me again. Took my mouth in a sensual move that fluttered my lower belly.

I cupped his shoulders with both hands. His muscles bunched and flexed beneath my fingers. Heat poured off him, thickened the air around us.

His fingers stroked my scalp as he tasted me. The thumb on his right hand brushed against my thigh then moved up my leg, to the crease between my thigh and torso. The sensation of him so close to my stomach gave me a brief pause.

When his hand moved aside the bottom of my shirt and the very tip of his fingers brushed my bare stomach, I jerked away, pulling back to the other side of the car. It was like a bucket of ice water had been poured over my head. I tugged my shirt down as low as it could go, heart jackhammering against my rib cage.

God, please tell me he didn’t feel it, I prayed. I wasn’t ready. I wasn’t ready.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20257114-scratch?ac=1

Purchase:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Scratch-Rhonda-Helms-ebook/dp/B00J7W1E20/

B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/scratch-rhonda-helms/1117797579?ean=9781617731204

Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-CA/ebook/scratch-13

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/scratch/id847632228?mt=11

AUTHOR BIO:

Rhonda Helms started writing several years ago and loves writing teen and New Adult romance. She has a Master's degree in English and a Bachelor's degree in Creative Writing. She also freelance edits manuscripts.

When she isn't writing, she likes to do amateur photography, dig her toes into the sand, read for hours at a time, and eat scads of cheese. WAY too much cheese.

Rhonda lives in Northeast Ohio with her husband, two kids, a dog and a really loud cat. 

Visit her website at http://www.rhondahelmsbooks.com for more information about her and her releases.

Author links:

http://www.rhondahelmsbooks.com/

https://twitter.com/rhelmsbooks

https://www.facebook.com/rhondahelmsbooks

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5555317.Rhonda_Helms

AUTHOR INTERVIEW WITH RHONDA HELMS

Music is a strong running element in SCRATCH, which even includes a playlist at the end. How has music factored in your own life?

I started in music when I was 9—I played clarinet. Stayed involved in band through high school and college. I sang in a jazz ensemble, was a singer in a cover band, and I even DJ’d for a while. In short, music was a huge part of my life for a long time. I miss performing and have even been considering getting involved in it again!

Where did you get the idea for SCRATCH?

Part of it came from a real-life incident I’d heard that had stuck with me for many years. I always wondered what had happened to the girl who’d gone through such a traumatic event. How did she cope? How did she move on to love and trust again? This book was my exploration of how a woman who’d gone through hell could move forward and find real happiness.

Which scene in SCRATCH was the hardest for you to write?

Oh, it had to be the scene where Casey confesses to Daniel about her past. Finally opens up and divulges the painful truth. I sobbed as I wrote it—her pain was so vivid to me that I couldn’t shake it off for a while afterward. That was actually one of the hardest scenes I’ve ever written in my whole publishing career.

What is the follow-up book to SCRATCH?

The sequel to SCRATCH is BREAK YOUR HEART, which is her roommate Megan’s story. I can’t wait for you guys to read it—this one’s a little sexier, a little scandalous. And Nick is so foxy. ;-) Coming end of July, 2015!

You write young adult novels too—what do you have coming out in teen romance?

Next year I have two teen romances coming out with Simon Pulse—SPARKS IN SCOTLAND, which is a Scotland-set story about a girl who falls for a local Scottish boy while on vacation, and PROMPOSAL, which follows a girl and her best guy friend as they navigate love and drama during prom season. You can go to rhondahelmsbooks.com to find out more about the other teen romances I have out, too!

Giveaway

Blitz-wide giveaway

• A $25 iTunes gift card (INTL)
• An e-copy of ALL I EVER WANTED (INTL)
• A paperback copy of Scratch (US/Can)

a Rafflecopter giveaway