Category: Creativity (Page 14 of 20)

Cheating On My Novels With Picture Books

January 23, 2018 / Katie L. Carroll

I’ve so not been in the mood to blog lately. I have lots of things I could write about (both on the blog and in my own writing) but nothing that’s really sparking for me. So I’d rather spend my limited words on my actual writing than here.

So I’m just popping in to say that the one aspect of writing that I’m excited about is picture books. I think the short form is fitting with my attention span right now. Plus, I’ve been reading so many picture books with the boys, it’s hard not to get inspired in that area.

Writing picture books is a fun break from novel writing, which has felt like so much work lately. I’m slogging trough the long sentences and paragraphs in the novels. But my picture book is coming to me in fun little spurts. The scenes are snapshots that I have to interpret into words. Then I have to piece those snapshots together for a whole…but a short whole!

Not to say that shorter = easier. That is certainly not the case. But picture books are different than novels, and a change must be what I need. It’s almost like I’m cheating on the longer form with the shorter stuff. For me, there is less baggage when it comes to picture books. I feel a lot of pressure to get things right with this novel I’m working on, but there’s none of that with my picture books.

So I’m going with it…riding this burst of picture book creativity for now.

November #InkRipples: Finishing That Book (Or Not!)

November 13, 2017 / Katie L. Carroll

It’s no secret here on the Observation Desk that I’m a notoriously slow writer. I’ve expressed how I feel about prolific authors (see Confessions of an Author: Prolific Writers). More recently, I blogged about Why Is It Taking Me So Long To Write The Second Elixir Book. It took almost ten years from when I first started writing ELIXIR BOUND for it to become a published book. I’m not exactly winning any speed awards over here!

via GIPHY

So I am afraid I have no business offering any kind of advice on the November #InkRipples topic of Finishing that Book! I’ve tried NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, where many writers try to write a complete book, i.e. 50,000 words, in the month of November). Last year I tried a modified version of it (see Gearing up for National Novel Writing Month 2016) and fell short. One year I actually won NaNoWriMo and wrote 50,000 words of a story, but that story has since become a drawer manuscript that will probably never be published.

But you’ll tell me that no words are wasted, even the unpublished ones. Or that the words will come and to take whatever time I need writing them. This is what I tell myself (and those things are both true). But that doesn’t mean it isn’t frustrating to be a slow writer. Couple that with the fact that I never feel like I have adequate time to write, and that makes for a very frustrated writer.

Nevertheless, I’m still plugging along over here at my achingly slow snail’s pace. How about you all–what do you do to get that book finished?

#InkRipples is a monthly meme created by Katie L. Carroll, Mary Waibel, and Kai Strand. We pick a topic (November is all about Finishing that Book!), drop a ripple in the inkwell (i.e. write about it on our blogs), and see where the conversation goes. We’d love to have you join in the conversation on your own blogs or on your social media page. Full details and each month’s topic can be found on my #InkRipples page.

October #InkRipples: Writing Is My Career(ish)

October 23, 2017 / Katie L. Carroll

This month’s #Inkripples of career vs. hobby had me scratching my head. Is my writing a career or a hobby? I’m not sure. I think somewhere in between. Here’s my dilemma: I’m a stay-at-home parent who also works on the side. So family stuff is the first priority, but my main “work” (quotes because raising kids is work in and of itself, but let’s say for this post, it means something not having to do with the kiddos) right now is writing, with a little freelance editing on the side.

But I am not financially independent right now (I have a mini panic attack every time I think too hard about this fact). I depend on my husband’s job to pay the bills, for health insurance, and to make sure my kids are fed. My husband and I made the decision to become a one-income family after lots of thought and careful consideration of whether or not we could make it work financially.

The question remains whether or not writing will become my career once the kids are bigger and I go back to work. I really have no desire to go back to an office job like I had before kids (I was a puzzle magazine editor…I certainly didn’t hate the job, but after doing it for 8 years, it became tedious). And I wand to have the flexibility to be able to support my kids as they grow because even big kids will require my time. I’m not sure I want to commit full-time to a gig economy either.

Do I want to back to school? Do I want to work in a field that isn’t writing and write on the side like I did when I worked full-time? Do I want to just get a job at a bookstore or a cafe or open a tea shop and write in my free time? (Notice writing will likely always factor into the picture.)

The answers to questions definitely depend on what my situation will be when my youngest (now only 3 months old) is big enough for me to have to make a decision. So I have some time to decide. The pie-in-the-sky hope is that I end up with a string of best-selling books and I won’t have to worry about what my job will be because it will be writing. But, honestly, so few people can support themselves this way that if feels irresponsible not to at least think about what else I will do for work.

And thinking about all this right now gives me anxiety. I guess for now, I’ll just try to enjoy taking care of my little ones and being able to squeeze in the writing time when I can.

How about you? Do you have any hobbies that could potentially become a career? Or do you like that your hobbies are just that, hobbies?

#InkRipples is a monthly meme created by Katie L. Carroll, Mary Waibel, and Kai Strand. We pick a topic (October is all about Career vs. Hobby), drop a ripple in the inkwell (i.e. write about it on our blogs), and see where the conversation goes. We’d love to have you join in the conversation on your own blogs or on your social media page. Full details and each month’s topic can be found on my #InkRipples page.

September #InkRipples: Building a Fictional World

September 8, 2017 / Katie L. Carroll

What exactly is world building (or worldbuilding if your prefer is as one word)? Basically, it’s the creation of a fictional world. More than that, though, it’s how that world is explained within the confines of a story. The imagining and creating is the easy part (in my opinion). It’s choosing which pieces to include in the story and how to include those pieces with out a big info-dump that is the tricky part.

The reader must be grounded in the world and be able to feel like they are immersed in it, but you don’t want to bore them with too many details and world-building elements that aren’t essential to the plot and character development. It’s highly subjective, too. One reader may love lavish descriptions and explanations of how one aspect of your fictional world works, while another may skim through all that to get to the action.

And world building isn’t just for fantasy or sci-fi writers. Even if a story takes place in a high school and most of your readers are in high school or have been to one, you still need to establish the world of your high school. There’s a lot already written on ways to execute world building, so instead of me blathering on with tips, I’ll leave some links at the end of the post for you to peruse at your leisure.

Some of my favorite world building exercises have been making a map for the ELIXIR BOUND (see the picture at the beginning of the post and the entry “Exploring the world of Elixir Bound”). For PIRATE ISLAND, part of my world building included creating a chart with realistic tides and moon cycles. So much of my world building goes on behind the scenes, but having all that information in my head makes for a rich world on the page, even if the reader only sees a small portion of what the world entails. Plus, those elements that don’t make it directly into the story are great for things like blog posts and bonuses for readers.

Okay, before we get to the links, I’d love to hear some of your world-building techniques in the comments!

“Tips on World Building for Writers — How to Make Your Imaginary World Real” by Chuck Sambuchino

“The Ultimate Guide to World-Building: How To Write Fantasy, Sci-Fi, And Real-Life Worlds” by Claire Bradshaw

“25 Things You Should Know About Worldbuilding” by Chuck Wendig

(Apparently people named Chuck have a lot to say about world building!)

#InkRipples is a monthly meme created by Katie L. Carroll, Mary Waibel, and Kai Strand. We pick a topic (September is all about world building), drop a ripple in the inkwell (i.e. write about it on our blogs), and see where the conversation goes. We’d love to have you join in the conversation on your own blogs or on your social media page. Full details and each month’s topic can be found on my #InkRipples page.

July #InkRipples: The Hero Is the Villain

July 3, 2017 / Katie L. Carroll

When I think about the July #InkRipples topic of heroes/villains, I always think about the many quotes along the lines of everyone is the hero of their own story (there are so many versions of this quote with different attributions, I’m not even going to try attribute a direct quote).

I think this idea is especially interesting when applied to villains. The most interesting villains feel totally justified in their actions in their own minds as opposed to a villain who is presented as simply an evil character. We may judge those actions to be horrible, but for whatever reason–be that twisted or misguided or maybe a little justified but still ultimately bad–the villain considers themselves the hero.

On the flip side, others may view the hero of a story as a villain. Perhaps what the hero sees as a justified, noble deed is harmful to another. Now the person being harmed may be harming others and the moral thing to do is to stop them, but they will still categorize the hero as a villain in their own mind. And no hero of a story should be perfect…that would be boring. Heroes need to have flaws.

As a writer, it’s really all about how the story is framed. Vengeance can be a way for a reader to relate to and root for a hero, or it could be the means by which a character becomes a villain. I find stories with lots of shades of gray in the good vs. evil area to be incredible compelling.

What’s your take on heroes and villains?

#InkRipples is a monthly meme created by Katie L. Carroll, Mary Waibel, and Kai Strand. We pick a topic (July is all about heroes/villains), drop a ripple in the inkwell (i.e. write about it on our blogs), and see where the conversation goes. We’d love to have you join in the conversation on your own blogs or on your social media page. Full details and each month’s topic can be found on my #InkRipples page.