alextriestowritestuff - Tumblr blog

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What if I were...to come back to tumblr?

I'm not dead, I just moved abroad to an African country for two years lmao

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Quarterly Writing Goals Jan-March Update!

Hey friends! Another quarter down, time to update what goals I did and didn't accomplish. If you don’t know how these go, I set a few goals to accomplish (All are more manageable pieces of my overarching 2022 goals which can be found here) every three months and at the end of those three months, I update this post to see what I did, (and more often) what I did not accomplish.

1. Finish beta read-ing a novel for one of my critique partners. It’s a YA fantasy and I have about 100 pages left!

Done! I finished this in January, the same week I posted the quaterly goals. Coincendentally, this author now has an agent for this book so that's super awesome!!! She had gone through betas and revisions months before I read and was actively querying already so it wasn't like my reading had anything to do with her success in acquiring an agent, I was reading it for funsies, but I'm still so proud of her!

2. Read my book’s club book of the month. So technically there will be 3 books in this singular goal since this is a quarterly goal but currently, our January pick is The Girls I’ve Been by Tess Sharpe.

Did this in January, hated the book haha. I didn't read our Feburary pick so this goal is partially fulfilled and our March read actually got moved to April.

3. Read Story Genius by Lisa Cron. It’s a craft book, I just like to brush up on some skills so might as well.

Done! I did this in February. So freaking helpful but the author goes on tangents, I recommend reading after page 100 because the first 100 pages are literally so irrelevant and full of personal anecdotes. This book is heavy on character development so if your story is character-driven, I highly recommend it. I usually get a complete sense of characters AFTER the first draft which is good but a pain because then I have to insert their voice more clearly in the second draft but with this book, I knew the motivations and how the characters impacted the plot right away.

4. Outline Heavy is the Crown. This is my YA historical fiction retelling about 2 twins who masquerade as one person–the princess’ guard–in order to kill the Queen and reclaim their rightful throne.

Done, did this after reading Story Genius in Feburary.

5. Draft Heavy is the Crown. That being said, I don’t think I’ll finish the draft in three months, I think I’ll finish it in April so that’d be next quarter but for now this goal is just requiring me to at least start on it.

I'm half laughing at this one lmao, did I think I could write consistently for three months straight lmaoo. But I consider this one completed, I wrote the first 10,000 words in feburary/march. It's currently April 2nd and I have 11,676 words.

I think this is the first month where all my goals have been accomplished (more or less) so yay! I think making them attainable has really helped. Thanks for reading, my quaterly goals for April-June are coming up soon!

[alextriestowritestuff]

Quarterly Writing Goals

I feel like the moment I stopped doing these is when I stopped writing consistently haha so we're bringing them back. If you don't know how these go, I set a few goals to accomplish (All are more manageable pieces of my overarching 2022 goals which can be found here) every three months and at the end of those three months, I update this post to see what I did, (and more often) what I did not accomplish.

1. Finish beta read-ing a novel for one of my critique partners. It's a YA fantasy and I have about 100 pages left!

2. Read my book's club book of the month. So technically there will be 3 books in this singular goal since this is a quarterly goal but currently, our January pick is The Girls I've Been by Tess Sharpe.

3. Read Story Genius by Lisa Cron. It's a craft book, I just like to brush up on some skills so might as well.

4. Outline Heavy is the Crown. This is my YA historical fiction retelling about 2 twins who masquerade as one person--the princess' guard--in order to kill the Queen and reclaim their rightful throne.

5. Draft Heavy is the Crown. That being said, I don't think I'll finish the draft in three months, I think I'll finish it in April so that'd be next quarter but for now this goal is just requiring me to at least start on it.

So future Alex, best of luck. If you guys are working on anything, let me know! Have a great day!!!

[alextriestowritestuff]

Quarterly Writing Goals

I feel like the moment I stopped doing these is when I stopped writing consistently haha so we're bringing them back. If you don't know how these go, I set a few goals to accomplish (All are more manageable pieces of my overarching 2022 goals which can be found here) every three months and at the end of those three months, I update this post to see what I did, (and more often) what I did not accomplish.

1. Finish beta read-ing a novel for one of my critique partners. It's a YA fantasy and I have about 100 pages left!

2. Read my book's club book of the month. So technically there will be 3 books in this singular goal since this is a quarterly goal but currently, our January pick is The Girls I've Been by Tess Sharpe.

3. Read Story Genius by Lisa Cron. It's a craft book, I just like to brush up on some skills so might as well.

4. Outline Heavy is the Crown. This is my YA historical fiction retelling about 2 twins who masquerade as one person--the princess' guard--in order to kill the Queen and reclaim their rightful throne.

5. Draft Heavy is the Crown. That being said, I don't think I'll finish the draft in three months, I think I'll finish it in April so that'd be next quarter but for now this goal is just requiring me to at least start on it.

So future Alex, best of luck. If you guys are working on anything, let me know! Have a great day!!!

[alextriestowritestuff]

Group Home Not Feeding Me - Plz, Plz Help!

I live in a group home supposedly for my well-being - I have blackouts that can make it dangerous for me to live on my own. Except the group home I live in has consistently proven to be abusive and only interested in their own financial gain.

Right now, they are taking $900 per rent every month. This is supposedly for medical care, food, and board. However, right now I manage my own medication, pay for insurance, AND they have decided they are no longer going to feed me.

This has left me completely broke - and without the money I need to buy the food I'm supposedly buying for myself.

I am trying to find a way to get out of here. But it isn't easy. Right now, I just need a bit of help keeping myself fed. Any little bit helps.

paypal.me/legitwritingtips

Cashapp - $legitwritermeg

Venmo - @meg-moore-87

[alextriestowritestuff]

2022 Goals

Hi y'all so my goals are self explanatory so I won't drone on but yeah, I work full time now so I don't want to bite off more than I can chew. I'm not making any plans to query any project rn simply because there's so many variants with that (if I get feedback that I need to overhaul and that takes months, etc.) but these are a good start and hopefully, I'll accomplish more.

My goals are

Draw 20 drawings

Read 30 books (includes any books I've beta read)

Finish drafting KODD. KODD is about 5 dead teens who strike a deal with Lucifer's overworked assistant to save mortals in order to avoid a final death. Read about it here.

Draft Heavy is the Crown. This is a Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens retelling. Two brothers aim to reclaim their rightful throne by killing the queen. They masquerade as one person-- the princess' body guard--but one brother ends up falling for her. Read about it here.

Submit a short story to 10 magazines/presses

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I'm back....

I don't think anyone noticed my absence or particularly cares but I'm back. Nothing happened, I kind of just dropped off of tumblr because my writing has been inconsistent but I want to be more consistent in 2022. So I'm back! I hope to write more and provide updates. I don't have any writing news haha, but I've update my WIPS and added a new one ( a loose retelling of A tale of Two Cities! emphasis on the loose!) but that's all. Hope everyone is doing well and let's get some writing done in the new year!

[alextriestowritestuff]

really popped off in the zoom writing workshop today ….

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It’s a constant state of being 

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Reblogging to reference that website but the cover is gorg! Love the opposite reflection and animals!!!

[image id: a photo of a book standing upright against a vase of flowers. The book cover has a black background and an image of an orange multi-spired church centered on the bottom. The same image is on the top, flipped upside down. White text in all caps reads “AN ARCANE FAITH” and below it, slightly smaller, “Avi Burton”. The text is surrounded by a circle of gold rays. Overlaid over the circle is the silhouette of two orange cats– one walking upright on top, the other upside down on the bottom. end id/] what’s this?? it’s my book!! details: I ordered a couple copies of my book, An Arcane Faith, for myself and some friends! I designed the cover and wrote all the content myself (obviously). It is not for sale or self-pubbed, these are personal copies only. I still intend on pursuing traditional publishing. I used this website to order it, and I am absolutely thrilled with how it turned out!! 1000/10 would recommend, I’ve been riding this serotonin high for two days now. (more pics under the cut, bc that one doesn’t show how shiny the cover is)

Keep reading

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questions to ask your beta readers!

(pls add on!) i’m currently working with betas seriously for the first time, so i made a list of questions that have become increasingly helpful as i have those discussions! in addition to these, it’s also good to ask a few big questions specific to your piece.

GENERAL

what do you like most about this piece?

what doesn’t make sense to you/what was confusing?

what big questions do you still have?

what felt incomplete?

what do you think this story is about?

what were you most/least invested in?

CHARACTERS

always ask for “your thoughts” on your most important characters. nothing like “did tyrone come off as shy?” or “does leah seem bossy to you?”, because that can sometimes sway responses.

also ask for “thoughts” on key relationships between characters.

who is your favorite character?

who is the strongest character?

who do you wish you saw more of?

who do you wish you saw less of?

are there characters who don’t add anything to the story? what would make them add more?

did you confuse any characters with one another? (if you have a big cast)

what did you think about [character a] versus [character b]? (if you have two very similar characters)

if a character has a moral conflict in the story/does something morally grey, ask where they stand on that character’s actions. if they have a strong reaction with a different opinion, that might be something to look into.

which characters did you dislike (as people, not as characters)?

do any of the characters ever act out of character?

does the main character/narrator feel like the best person to be telling the story? if not, who does?

PLOT

are there scenes/chapters/plot points that don’t add to the story?

do any moments seem out of place?

how would you have wanted this to end?

if you’re considering taking a scene out, ask what that adds to the story, and what it would lose without the scene.

same goes with adding a scene!

which scene felt like the most important scene?

what was your favorite part?

if you could change anything about the plot, what would it be?

how did [particular scene] make you feel?

alternatively, which scene made you feel the strongest emotions?

STYLE

does this feel like the right pov narration (1st person, 3rd person, etc.) for this piece?

does this feel like the right tense?

are there any phrases, metaphors, etc. that were confusingly worded?

if the piece uses a unique writing style, what do you think about [style]?

if it has multiple povs/narrators, could you tell the difference between voices? which voice was your favorite?

OTHER

are there any grammatical errors? (optional, if you have a 300 page novel please do not make your betas do this)

what is your favorite restaurant/coffee shop/store so i can buy you a meal and/or gift card as a thank you for being a crucial part of my writing process?

[alextriestowritestuff]

I’m interning for a non profit aimed at helping domestic violence victims and yeah, it’s heavy. I didn’t really think about a victim’s last moments until I saw this. We have to do better as a society and small things like not saying sexist slurs (or slurs of any kind) is good way to do this. 

50,000 women a year die due to domestic violence. how many of those women died with a man’s hands around their neck, with the last words they’d ever hear being “fucking cunt” or “fucking bitch.” how many women that go missing and are found murdered, left naked, and the last things anyone on earth ever called them was a cunt or a bitch or a whore. how many men harass women on the street and call us cunts or bitches when we rebuff them, and then they follow and assault or murder us? violent language breeds violent actions. sexist slurs are inseparable from sexist violence

[alextriestowritestuff]

I love how we’re all laughing about Trump being banned from most social media sites but what if he starts posting on this hellhole? This is our trash, not his.

[alextriestowritestuff]

Writing Update!

You guys will hear more from me when I review my 2020 goals but I just want to say I’ve made a pretty drastic change to my novel, The Island. 

There’s this mentor program I’ve had my eye for a while, it’s called Author Mentor Match. Published and agented authors mentor a writer who has submitted a polished, complete manuscript + query materials. It starts on January 11-14th and this is the website if anyone is interested: http://authormentormatch.com/

You have to pick 4 mentors to submit to and I was having a hard time figuring who to pick because my novel is a dystopian which is more or less, a dead genre. I asked the mentors on twitter who would be interested in a dystopian and several of them commented they would be. One in particular advised me to submit it based on the overall genre-most dystopians nowadays are sold as Sci-Fi or Fantasy. I don’t have many Sci-Fi elements but I decided I need to re-direct The Island and make it a Sci-Fi. This will also make it easier when I go to query-there are very few agents who want a dystopian (it’s harder to sell since it’s been saturated *looks at Divergent*) but there’s a lot more YA sci-fi agents. So I have to re-write the 1st and 3rd Act at least to incorporate those dystopian elements and make sure the 2nd act blends into the new material. 

I’m super excited for this change even though it’s going to be a lot of work. I’m pretty much going from a 5th draft to a 1st draft. I don’t know if I’ll get the re-write done in time for AMM but AMM only requires the first 50 pages or 3 chapters. I can definitely revise that and while the mentors make their decision, I can finish the re-write. So far I’ve research sci fi (I’ve never read a sci-fi for fun. I’ve read 1984 and some Ursula K Le Guin) tropes and brainstorm ways to make the book more sci-fi. I have re-done the timeline because Act 1 will take place over 5 days now and just to make sure I know where I’m at in the story. I’ve made a document outlining the World building elements-- the test in my novel is now an AI algorithm! And hopefully by the end of tonight, I can start and finish my new outline (It takes me a day to outline so I think it can be sone). Then I’ll be writing the first Act and sending it to my critique partners on the 27th eeeek! Wish me luck!!

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I’m such a clown. Welp. Instead of writing, I decided to subtract words from KODD because I think Act 1 is too long. So yep, didn’t win nano. Cut probably 5k words which is no where near the 12k I wanted to cut but it is what it is. Hopefully everyone else was successful though! I have some interesting posts coming up for you guys soon so stayed tuned for that as well as my end of the year goal reflection! 

Nanowrimo 2020 Week 1 Update!

Sooooooo, in my last update I mentioned I hadn’t finished my outline for Knocking on Death’s Door which is my primary Nano project and that was in October. It’s November and I still haven’t gotten around to it. I did read KODD Act 1 so I’ve done something. But no fresh writing. But I’m going to dive in to Nano now (a little late) and try to do 1.6k words a day from now on. I’ll see if I can make up those first week of words but I’m not holding myself to it. So that makes my goal now 38, 331 (Subtracted 7 days) words. Cheers! Let me know how y’all are doing in the comments or reblog this post. I love hearing from you all :) 

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I’m not wrong.