Category: Writing (Page 21 of 73)

Recognizing Different Kinds of Productivity

June 21, 2017 / Katie L. Carroll

I’ve been feeling particularly unproductive this year, in part because I haven’t been doing much drafting. It’s my favorite part of the writing process and the one that creatively feels the most fulfilling. I feel whole when I’m in the midst of a draft and able to lose myself in the process of adding words to the page.

The other part of feeling unproductive is being pregnant. With the bad colds all winter long, the morning sickness for the first half of the pregnancy, and the fatigue and swelling that’s come with the last trimester and warmer weather, I haven’t exactly been racking up the work hours. I get that my limits are temporary and necessary right now, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t frustrating as well.

So I’m trying to recognize other ways I’ve been productive this year. The obvious one is I’m growing a baby (no small feat!). I’m also bringing a book baby into the world in October with my middle grade adventure PIRATE ISLAND. I’ts the first time I’m self-publishing a book, and I’ve learned a ton about the process this year, much of which I’ve enjoyed…even when it’s slightly frustrating and takes more time than I had hoped.

Then there are those other little guys (The Boy and The Prince) who demand so much of my time. The Boy flourished in kindergarten and is on his way to being a big first-grader. The Prince is learning and growing so much and will start preschool in the fall. I’ve been doing my best to spend as much quality time with those two before baby (a.k.a. The Gentleman) comes.

I’ve been working on a picture book, doing some freelance work, and working on other small projects as well. Then there’s the veggie garden (we picked our first peas of the season the other day), prepping for baby (six months worth of laundry washed, sorted, and folded and new mini-van purchased), blogging, and all those other things that require time and attention (grocery shopping and dinner, I’m looking at you!).

So, yeah, I think it’s fair to say that I’ve been as productive as I can be with the time and energy I have right now. And it’s important to recognize that (even blog about it) to validate that I’m doing stuff…even if it’s not all the stuff!

What kind of productive have you been lately?

June #InkRipples: Utilizing Blurbs in the Drafting Process

June 7, 2017 / Katie L. Carroll

When I first found out I was expected to write my own blurb for ELIXIR BOUND, I was kind of terrified. The blurb is one of the most important selling tools of a book, probably only second to the cover. If a cover and title draw in a reader, chances are the next thing they’ll look at is the blurb in order to decide if they’re going to read the book.

What exactly is a book blurb? It’s what some call jacket copy, and it’s the brief description of the story you find on the back or inner jacket of a print book and in the book’s listing online. Some big publishing companies will write the blurbs for their authors (though they may take phrases from the author’s or agent’s original pitch of the book), but small presses often look to authors to provide one. And in self-publishing, of course, it’s up to the author to write a blurb or hire someone to do it for them.

Here’s what I came up with for ELIXIR BOUND.

Katora Kase is next in line to take over as guardian to a secret and powerful healing Elixir. Now she must journey into the wilds of Faway Forest to find the ingredient that gives the Elixir its potency. Even though she has her sister and brother, an old family friend, and the handsome son of a mapmaker as companions, she feels alone. It is her decision alone whether or not to bind herself to the Elixir to serve and protect it until it chooses a new guardian. The forest hosts many dangers, including wicked beings that will stop at nothing to gain power, but the biggest danger Katora may face is whether or not to open up her heart to love.”

I have actually started writing blurbs for stories as part of my drafting process. Sometimes I do this right at the beginning of the first draft and other times I’ll use the blurb writing as a tool to get me unstuck when I reach a tricky part of the drafting process that has me stalled.

I don’t generally outline a story before I write it (I’m what’s referred to as a panster vs. a plotter, who will outline the entire story before starting to write it), though I do usually know what the end point of the plot will be and at least some of the main plot points along the way (I do this all in my head in the beginning). I’ve found the blurb is a good tool to help me shape the story as I move along with it, and it also serves as a good reminder of what my original intentions were.

A blurb is not as rigid or detailed as an outline, so there’s plenty of room to move and change the story. It generally doesn’t take too long for me to whip up a blurb these days, so it’s not something that requires a huge time investment. That way I don’t feel like I’ve wasted time if I end up throwing the whole blurb out at the end and starting over once the draft is finished. As opposed to having a whole outline already written out and then having the book take an unexpected turn and having to rethink the entire outline. (I’m not disparaging plotters…I think we all work in the best way we can and every writer needs to do what works for them.)

Since writing that first blurb for ELIXIR BOUND, I’ve had a lot more practice with them, both for my own stories and as an editor for other writers’ stories. If I could do it all over again, I’d probably make some changes to the ELIXIR BOUND blurb, but it’s sufficient enough to leave as is…for now anyway!

Recently I revealed the cover and blurb for PIRATE ISLAND. I decided to do a tagline teaser at the beginning before launching into the summary part of the blurb. One difference between writing a blurb for a YA or adult book vs. one for a middle grade book is that many middle grade books are bought by parents for their kids, whereas YA and adult books are primarily bought by the person who is going to read it. So that’s an extra layer of audience that needs to be kept in mind. I’m hoping young readers and their parents will be drawn in to the story based on what I came up with for PIRATE ISLAND:

A thrice cursed island, a legendary pirate treasure, and one not-so-brave boy. What could possibly go wrong?

For centuries, the whereabouts of Captain William Kidd’s lost pirate treasure has remained a mystery. When Billy’s best friend, Andy, proposes they look for it on nearby Pirate Island, Billy thinks it’s just another one of their crazy adventures. It’s usually Billy who ends up in trouble as a result, but he goes along for the ride…like always. The more he delves into the life and death of Kidd, the more he thinks the treasure is real and that it might be buried on the small island in Long Island Sound. Billy—nope, call him William—becomes obsessed with the captain of the same first name. He even believes he’s possessed by Kidd’s restless soul. Now he and the spirit of a long-dead pirate are leading the crazy adventure on Pirate Island. And what they find is far bigger than the treasure they imagined.”

A lot of blurb writing is about finding the right balance between giving enough specifics to entice a reader in while also not giving away too much of story to spoil it. You also want to make the writing interesting and not read like a plot summary (because that’s boring). It’s tempting to be all movie trailer dramatic in a blurb and be too generic. I find phrases like “must save the world” or “will the star-crossed lovers ever be together?” to be far less effective than something more specific to the actual story. Hooky sound-bites are great, so long as they offer something unique to the story.

What kinds of blurbs have your read that made you just have to pick up a book?

#InkRipples is a monthly meme created by Katie L. Carroll, Mary Waibel, and Kai Strand. We pick a topic (June is all about book blurbs), 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.

May #InkRipples: 10 YA and MG Novels Inspired by Fairy Tales & Myths

May 8, 2017 / Katie L. Carroll

Last week I touched on why fairy tales make for such good fodder for story ideas. And as promised, here are some of my favorite YA and MG novels that drew inspiration from fairy tales and myths (I’ve included myths here because they are also great sources of inspiration for similar reasons that fairy tales are…and I happen to have some great examples!) with quotes from the authors to give you even further insight into their ideas.

CRUEL BEAUTY by Rosamund Hodge

“A good fairy tale retelling taps into that sense of story-behind-story. It feels inevitable. You read it and you think, Yes, obviously, this is what happened. This is what it means. Writing a fairy tale retelling feels like discovery, not invention. Why did I combine Beauty and the Beast with Bluebeard? Because I was thinking about those stories one day and I realized, Beauty married the Beast in order to kill him. She’s afraid she will die like his previous wives. That’s what happened. How else could it be?” ~Rosamund Hodge (from an interview on Epic Reads)

ASH by Malinda Lo

“Ash has gotten a lot of attention because it is a lesbian retelling of Cinderella. But my first draft had nothing gay about it–Ash, the main character, fell in love with the prince…. After I got some feedback from a friend, I realized that Ash was actually much more interested in one of the female characters, the huntress. That realization was startling to me; I had written all of that into the story without even consciously knowing it.” ~Malinda Lo (from an interview on Cynsations)

THE LIGHTNING THIEF by Rick Riordan

“My son Haley asked me to tell him some bedtime stories about the Greek gods and heroes…. I remembered a creative writing project I used to do with my sixth graders — I would let them create their own demigod hero, the son or daughter of any god they wanted, and have them describe a Greek-style quest for that hero. Off the top of my head, I made up Percy Jackson and told Haley all about his quest to recover Zeus’ lightning bolt in modern day America.” ~Rick Riordan (from the author’s website FAQ)

BEAUTY (and ROSE DAUGHTER) by Robin McKinley

“Beauty and the Beast has been my favourite fairy-tale since I was about six; I still have the book I first read it in. When I wrote Beauty, I sat down, as I thought, to write a short story, and found I had more to say than I expected…. Beauty and the Beast is still my favourite fairy-tale…it was the only fairy-tale around that didn’t have the heroine waiting limply to be rescued by the hero…. I wrote Rose Daughter, as I say, in a six-month hurtle. And in hindsight I realize what fueled the hurtle, why, having tapped into a new lode of Beauty and the Beast in my mind and heart and bloodstream, the story shaped itself and shot out onto the page as it did.” ~Robin McKinley (from an essay on author’s website)

ELLA ENCHANTED by Gail Carson Levine

“I wrote [Ella Enchanted] because I love fairy tales and I’d just read Beauty by Robin McKinley, which I admired enormously…. I was starting a new writing class and needed an idea, so I thought maybe I could expand a fairy tale too. “Cinderella” is such an important tale, it’s the first one I thought of. But when I considered it, I realized I didn’t like Cinderella or understand her. She’s so disgustingly good! And why does she take orders from her horrible stepmother and stepsisters?” ~Gail Carson Levine (from the author’s website)

ICE by Sarah Beth Durst

“I was initially inspired by a picture book of the Norwegian folktale “East of the Sun and West of the Moon” illustrated by P.J. Lynch. Specifically, there’s one illustration in there of the “lassie” where she has her hand on her hip and she’s wearing this you-won’t-stop-me expression. As soon as I saw that illustration, I knew I wanted to write about that kind of girl–a fearless girl who won’t be stopped.” ~Sarah Beth Durst (from an interview on YA Book Queen)

THE HUNGER GAMES by Suzanne Collins

“[The Hunger Games is] very much based on the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, which I read when I was eight years old. I was a huge fan of Greek and Roman mythology. As punishment for displeasing Crete, Athens periodically had to send seven youths and seven maidens to Crete, where they were thrown into the labyrinth and devoured by the Minotaur, which is a monster that’s half man and half bull. Even when I was a little kid, the story took my breath away, because it was so cruel, and Crete was so ruthless.” ~Suzanne Collins (from an interview with the School Library Journal)

QUEST OF THE HART by Mary Waibel

“Quest of the Hart…the first book in the Princess of Valendria series, is a reverse Sleeping Beauty. This story all started when a friend suggested I write a book where the girly-girl saves the guy. While thinking about how to adapt this idea, I kept thinking of the princess in the tower needing rescue, and Sleeping Beauty popped into my mind. I pulled out my DVD, sat down with pen and paper, and jotted down the sequence of how things happened in the Disney version. Armed with a plan, I started working on my own version, and Quest of the Hart was born.” ~Mary Waibel (from an email from the author)

CINDER by Marissa Meyer

“I entered a writing contest [and chose two prompts]: Set the story in the future and include a fairy-tale character. My contest entry was a sci-fi version of “Puss in Boots” and I had so much fun writing it that I thought I would try to do an entire series of science-fiction fairy tales!… So I started to brainstorm what futuristic twists I could give to some of my favorite fairy tales. A couple months later I was drifting off to sleep when the lightning bolt struck: Cinderella… as a cyborg! My head instantly filled with all sorts of ideas and I had to crawl out of bed and start taking notes.” ~Marissa Meyer (from the author’s website FAQ)

ENTWINED by Heather Dixon

“I’ve always loved the Twelve Dancing Princesses. I remember looking through page after page of a beautifully illustrated storybook when I was a kid, and just wishing I could live in their world. So, the visual element just really stuck for me.

I also have, like, a million sisters.” ~Heather Dixon (from an interview on Enchanted by a Book)

Okay, now it’s your turn to share your favorite retellings (and feel free to branch out from books and include other media)!

#InkRipples is a monthly meme created by Katie L. Carroll, Mary Waibel, and Kai Strand. We pick a topic (May is about fairy tales), 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.

May #InkRipples: Mining Fairy Tales for Story Ideas

May 1, 2017 / Katie L. Carroll

When Monday falls on the first day of the month, #InkRipples always sneaks up on me. I made sure to get my post up on time because I was particularly excited about this month’s topic of fairy tales. One of my most popular archived posts is “Fairy Tale One-Liners” and I’ve taught a writing workshop about mining story ideas from myths, fairy tales, and legends.

Back when #InkRipples was talking tropes (see “Tropes Are All In The Execution”), I said that all tropes have been used before, so it’s all about how you use them in your own way. I believe that’s also true of story ideas. They’ve all been done before, so why not borrow/steal/draw inspiration from other people’s stories. Fairy tales are ripe for the picking because of the universality of themes, their use of archetypes, the fact that many leave threads open in their plots, and the many different fairy tales out there from cultures all over the world.

You might be thinking that there are so many fairy tales retelling that there simply can’t be room for one more. While I’ve thought that myself, it never fails that another retelling comes out to great success. Seems people can’t get enough of retellings and even plan-old redoings (see the long list in “Disney Live-Action Remakes & Other Fairy Tale Movies Release Schedule”).

And it’s not just retellings that can be inspired by fairy tales. I love when a minor fairy tale character gets their own story or when a story is written from a villain’s view point. Even an interesting take on a classic fairy tale theme, i.e. rags to riches or true love’s kiss, can be taken in many different directions.

If I haven’t yet convinced you that there so many ways to use fairy tales for inspiration, stay tuned next week for a post about some of my favorite stories that stemmed from fairy tales, myths, and legends!

What are your favorite fairy tales and stories that mined from those tales?

The Inspiration Behind TWICE BETRAYED by Gayle C. Krause

April 26, 2017 / Katie L. Carroll

I’m pleased to welcome writer friend Gayle C. Krause to the blog today. She is celebrating her latest release, the middle grade historical fiction TWICE BETRAYED, and sharing the inspiration behind the book. Welcome, Gayle!

Thanks for having me on your blog today, Katie. I’m so proud to share my newest novel with your readers. If you like the 1776 era in American history, the story of a young girl’s loyalty to her friends, mystery, danger, and spies, TWICE BETRAYED is for you.

So, what inspired me to write TWICE BETRAYED?

Well, I’ve always loved history and discovering how things came to be.

When I walked in Pompeii, I felt like I had been there before.

In the Coliseum, a new story about one of the entertainers blossomed, which I’ve yet to write, but it’s taken its place in my brain queue.

In the Caribbean, I’m positive the long-lost pirates whispered to me with each crash of the waves, and so I also have a female pirate story I’m working on.

But Perdy’s story was different. I wrote it first, and when I visited the Betsy Ross House, after the story was completed, I froze in my tracks. My husband asked me what was wrong.

But nothing was wrong…it was right. I had described the shop, the kitchen, the bedroom Perdy shared with her sister and grandmother in great detail, with the only difference between Twice Betrayed and the real thing being the shape of the stairs. Mine are square with landings between floors and the real house has circular stairs within the walls.

And since the whole story about Betsy Ross making the first flag is a legend, with no real proof that she actually made it (ask any historian), it was a perfect setting for my story.

I come from a long line of seamstresses and am a certified Home Economics teacher, where I also taught sewing to my students, so you can see how the sewing bits in the story are relevant.

TWICE BETRAYED is a mix of fact and fiction stitched together to bring a new light to the fabric of our beginnings, told from the eyes of a thirteen-year-old girl, who fell into a web of deceit and struggled to win her freedom, just like the country being born around her.

TWICE BETRAYED blurb:

With the spark of independence crackling in Colonial Philadelphia, three girls dress as boys and head to the river to put a perilous plan into action, but only two return. The third, a milliner’s assistant, is found drowned, with gold in her hems, coded spy letters in her bodice, and a journal implicating another sewing apprentice in the treacherous plot.

All eyes turn toward Perdy Rogers, Betsy Ross’ thirteen-year-old apprentice, but she’s no spy! With her life on the line, she struggles to untangle herself from the web of deceit and learns the hard way that freedom, whether an individual’s or a country’s, comes at a cost.

If you or you followers read TWICE BETRAYED, I’d appreciate a review on Amazon and Goodreads. Thanks for having me. Remember…

“The golden thread of friendship is what stitches hearts together!”

TWICE BETRAYED is available in paperback and ebook.

I also have a new picture book coming out this year. DADDY CAN YOU SEEE THE MOON? will be released November 7, 2017 from Clear Fork Publishing. It’s about a young boy and his soldier dad sharing special moments by looking at the moon each night. But when Dad comes home a wounded warrior, his son discovers it’s the power of love that kept them connected all along.

About the Author:

Gayle C. Krause is a member of SCBWI, KIDLIT, Ink, KSRA, and a past member of the Historical Novel Society and the Poet’s Garage. She’s served on the Rhyming Revolution Selection Committee, choosing the “best” rhyming picture book for 2015 and 2016. A Master educator, she’s taught Children’s Literature to prospective teachers at the secondary and post-secondary levels. Ms. Krause writes fantasy, contemporary, and historical fiction for Young Adult, Middle Grade, and young children. Her publishing credits include:

Rock Star Santa – Scholastic 2008.
RATGIRL: Song of the Viper – Noble Young Adult /Trowbridge Books 2013
Scheherazade’s Secret – Trowbridge Books 2014
Twice Betrayed – Trowbridge Books 2017
And coming November 7, 2017 – Daddy, Can You See the Moon? – Clear Fork Publishing.

She lives in a small town not far from where she was born. She listens to her muse sing through the trees of the Pocono Mountains and is inspired to write for children everyday. For more about Gayle, visit her website gayleckrause.com, Twitter @GeeCeeK, Facebook, and Goodreads pages.