There are a lot of amazing bookish blogs out there. Some deal with writing, some with books, and some with just general bookish things. There are so many it is impossible to read them all (unless you have an army of dragon clones in which case I highly envy you and can I have one please?). Today I’d like to recommend five of my favourite bookish blog things I read regularly. Some are blogs, and some are blog series, and all of them are epic. Ready? Let’s begin.

Out Of Coffee Out Of Mind

A blog by Liz Brooks

This is an awesome blog all round. It’s a little bit books, a little bit writing, and a whole heaping of epic Lizness all round. Serious, this girl is all humour, personality, and deep thoughts. If you haven’t given this blog a look yet, you definitely should.

How to Write:…

A blog series by Krissy Aleman

This is a relatively new blog series on Krissy’s blog Words In My Soul. Each post features tips on how to write in a certain genre, such as the latest post, which is all about steampunk. They’re fun, and also super helpful.

Paper Fury

A blog by Cait Drews

This blog probably needs no explanation. If you haven’t come across the queen of blogging by now, then you really need to hop over and check out Cait’s blog at once. It’s all about books, book reviews, and bookish discussions, with liberal helpings of cake and dragons.

So Your Characters Is From…

A blog series by Victoria Grace Howell

This is a brand new blog series that focuses on helping writers authentically write characters from other countries and cultures. It’s super informative, and, as an added little bonus, I was asked to feature in the first post, which is all about Australia!

The Devil Orders Takeout

A blog by Alyssa Carlier

This blog is an amazing mix of writing, takeout, and Chinese culture. If you’re interested in deep discussions about character types, or learning more about Chinese customs and culture in general, you really need to check out Alyssa’s blog pronto!

And there we have it. Five bookish blog things I highly recommend. What blogs, or blog features and series would you recommend people check out? Leave links in the comments so everyone can discover some new amazing bookish blog things.

Right now, we’re over a week into March, which mean two things. 1) It’s almost time for Camp NaNoWriMo, and 2) I’m well past my deadline for finish editing Snow. The plan was to have Snow finished by the end of February, but of course that hasn’t happened. However, I am 60k/80k of the way through, so hopefully it will be finished well in time for Camp NaNoWriMo. Planning for which event is my other main writing concern this month.

Camp NaNoWriMo is always exciting because you get to pick your own goal, and, if you feel like writing something different, you can pick a project type, such as editing, which is what I hope to do in the second Camp NaNoWriMo later this year. I particularly like being able to choose my own word goal and make my own challenge. For this first session, I decided that, after all this editing I’m doing right now, drafting something new would be a nice break from the heavy work Snow has required.

So, what am I planning on writing? Well, I’m glad you asked that question. At this point in time, I’m probably going to rewrite one of my fantasy books. Again. For the second time. Somehow this always seems to happen. I’ll write a bad first draft. Then I’ll scrap it and write a somewhat less terrible draft. And then, if I’m really unlucky, I’ll scrap that one as well and write a completely new first draft. It happened with The Crystal Tree, one of my other fantasies, and with several of my other books too.

This particular book is currently titled The Dragon Thief. Which, I admit, is a terrible title considering the main character is the thief and she is in no way a dragon. However, she does have a dragon as a friend and companion, so that almost makes the title fit, right? (I really need to come up with a better one. Help!) So far I know it’s about dragons (yay!), thieves (also yay. I love a good story about thieves), and a bargain struck for freedom. And that’s about all I know about it at the moment. However, it does have a Pinterest board for inspiration, and this month, as well as finishing editing Snow, I’m also planning The Dragon Thief.

So, that’s where I’m at this week. But tell me, where are you at with your current project? Are you doing Camp NaNoWriMo? If so, do you know what you’re going to be writing yet? If not, have you ever considered giving it a go?

A while back, I wrote a post about the elements that go into making a great mystery. And afterwards, I kind of wanted to share my own process for writing in this genre. As a self-confessed chronic pantser who has a major aversion to anything that could possibly be classed as an outline, mystery writing really hasn’t come naturally to me. It’s taken me a while to find a process that works for me, and I’m certainly not claiming that this is the best process ever. But a process it is, and it is mine, and it works. And today I want to share it with you.

What’s The Big Idea?

Every mystery starts with a big idea. A murder. A theft. A kidnapping. Whatever it is, this is the first thing I know for sure about my book. Usually, when I’m coming up with my big idea, I also find out its unique or special factor. If it’s a murder, it’s committed in a waxwork museum. If it’s a theft, the thief is stealing a jewelled mask at a masquerade party. I try and nail down this idea as solidly as possible right off the bat.

Brainstorming Bonanza

This is the most enjoyable part of the whole planning process. In this step, I get to make a list of everything I’d like to include in the book. I might want twins to be part of the solution, or have parallel mysteries, that tie together at the end or maybe I’d rather like to shoehorn a cupcake shop in there somewhere. It doesn’t matter how random or out of place the idea is, it all goes on the list. The more ideas I get down now, the more I have to work with later.

Hero VS Villain

One of the other really important pieces I like to get straight before I start plotting the book is the identity of the hero and villain. It is especially important to know who the villain is as the whole solution to the mystery is based around that fact. But knowing who the hero is also gives me the chance to make the mystery more personal to them. Maybe it involves war crimes and they were a solider, or they know the villain, or the case is super personal to them because of a past experience. If I know who the hero is, I can work this sort of thing in right from the start.

Putting the Puzzle Together

This is painstakingly slow bit, and is probably the hardest step for me as a pantser. For a mystery to work, you have to do at least a little plotting, even if you’re a pantser (unless you’re super smart, in which case I salute you). Taking the pieces I’ve already brainstormed, I start fitting them together. Usually they go together in disconnected segments. I might have some ideas about the end, a section around the first murder, and a nice little sequence involving cupcakes. From here I build up around them as much as possible.

Activate the Timeline

This is as organised and as close to an outline as I ever get, but it does make the plotting and writing of mysteries much easier for me. Once I have enough plot to be going on with, I slot all the events in a timeline. This way I can see how everything pans out, whether there are any parts with too much or too little happening, whether the timeframe is realistic and, most importantly, where I have gaps in the plot.

At this point, it’s usually pretty easy to see where I need to do research, and this is when I start looking into that to help me make sense of the plot and fill the gaps in my story. I don’t really do a lot of in depth research at this point. Just enough to let me know whether what I’m planning sounds plausible or not. And usually this research sparks a few other ideas that are mighty helpful as well.

For me, this timeline is very basic. As a pantser, I don’t like working with lots of details, so usually I have a day, and a few bullet points for the important events. This gives me enough knowledge of the plot so that everything should make sense, I don’t get lost, and everything should tie together nicely at the end, but leaves all the fun bits to be worked out during the writing stage, which appeases my pantser personality.

Fill in the Holes

Timelining points out all the holes. And there are a lot of them. This is the point where I usually need a brainstorming buddy to help me work out how to bridge my solid sections and tie the threads together. This is the most time consuming, frustrating stage for me, and it’s only with the great help of my brainstorming partner and sister that I ever get through it.

Logic Check

The final step, after I’ve completed my timeline and brainstormed to fill all the holes, is to do one final check to make sure that everything happens logically. I also like to check to make sure things aren’t happening by coincidence, the hero has to work for the ending, and that things don’t run too smoothly.

Let’s Write This Thing!

After all the planning, checking and (shudder) outlining, it’s time to write the book. At this point I set out in my epic adventure, armed with my basic outline, and (hopefully) still full of enthusiasm for the original idea. Anchors away, and this mystery is ready to set sail!

So that’s how I write mysteries and thrillers. Have you seen my other post, Elements of A GoodMystery yet? Do you write mysteries or thrillers? Are you a plotter or a pantser? How much do you like to have planned before you start writing your book?

I usually discover pictures on Pinterest. All those glorious photos waiting for me to claim them as current or future inspiration (or just gorgeous things to stare at. I’m not above pinning a few of those). But while browsing the other day, I stumbled across some music videos. And quickly discovered a whole new amazing genre of music: Hang music. This is music played on a Hang, or a Hand pan, which is a kind of metal hand drum. If you have a few spare minutes, I would highly recommend looking them up. They’re really interesting.

One of my favourite pieces of Hang music is Sam’s Dance. This piece has a haunting sound combined with a dance-like beat. It has an almost tribal feel to it actually. This song would make great inspiration for native tribes of all kinds, or as unusual music for fantasy settings. I could also see this song as a background for a strange ritual.

For anyone interested in knowing a little more about the Hang as an instrument, you should check out this video, which will give you a bit more information.

And, while we’re on the subject of Pinterest, I’d like to announce that Writing Music officially has its own Pinterest board! If you’re a fan of this series then you might like to check out its board. It contains every piece of music I’ve ever shared on this blog, as well as more interesting pieces that I’ve found and added in between times. If you’re looking for musical inspiration, you should definitely check it out HERE.

Have you ever heard of the Hang before? Do you like this kind of music? What other unusual instruments do you like listening to? Are you planning on checking out the Writing Music Pinterest board? And tell me, what music is getting you inspired at the moment?

A couple of weeks ago, Katie Grace@A Writer’s Faith wrote about how she goes about writing a blog post. Now, I love seeing other people’s processes, comparing them to my own, and picking up helpful tips, so I was instantly intrigued. And also wanted to write one of my own. So today, for your viewing pleasure and amusement, I present you with my personal process for writing blog posts. It will be highly illuminating, and entirely useless for gaining tips from (unless you want to know the worst way to be a blogger that is, in which case do I have the post for you!)

The Beginning

Open a Word document. Stare at it blankly. Open YouTube. Contemplate giving up and hiding in a cave for the rest of my existence.

Blogging is hard.

The Idea

Right. A post will never be written without a subject. What kind of post? I could use a topic from my super organised phone list. Or I could write about robot chickens.

Robot chickens it is.

The Plan

Whip out that trusty notebook and smudgy pen, because we’ve got a post to plan. And by plan I mean scrawling a couple of dodgy bullet points of course. Alternatively, if we’re not writing an Elements Of or list post, we could just dispense with the whole planning thing and smash some words out onto the page.

Who needs plans anyway?

The Writing

Smash words onto the screen like Hulk. Actually, that’s pretty terrible. Rewrite that beginning. Six times…Meh, I’ll come back and write that later. Smash more words on the screen. Write half a draft. Ooh, what’s that on YouTube? New video, score!

Wait, what was I doing again?

Right. Let’s do this post writing thing. More words on the screen. Hulk has nothing on my smashing abilities. Ooh, that’s actually not bad. I think I’ve got it this time. Oh wait, what was I writing about? This wasn’t in the plan. Plan, what plan? This is way better.

The Re-Writing

This is awful.

What was I thinking? *cringe* Quick, delete. DELETE. Wait, that line there’s ok. First paragraph has got to go though. Rewrite every word twice. Much better. Ok, go through every paragraph one more time. But as you finish each one, paste it in Blogger. Then you can feel accomplished. Nice work!

The Formatting

Picture. Picture. What do I do for a picture? Can I possibly get away with another free photo of paper and pens? Maybe another paper texture of the background? I could take a photo of my own…No. That’s a terrible idea. Stock photo it is then. Fonts. Fonts. Which fonts go together? How does one know which fonts to pair together? Hey, that looks rather good. I should be a graphic designer.

Scratch that, it’s awful.

There. Picture done. Format the list. Bold. Centre. Large font. Bold. Centre. Large Font. NO. Don’t turn the whole post bold. Gah, why is formatting so hard? I’ve done rather a lot of this list posts recently actually. Maybe I should cut back a bit.

Pffft. Nah.

The Proofreading

Preview. Ok, everything looks like it’s in the right post. You got all your fingers and toes there buddy? That’s nice. And PUBLISH.

Wait.

Wait.

WHAT IS THAT NOTE IN BRACKETS STILL DOING IN THERE? Is that half a paragraph missing? And oh my goodness, someone take my writer’s badge back. I wrote ‘your’ instead of ‘you’re’ the whole way through. Mayday! Mayday! Writer meltdown. Delete. Delete. BURN IT WITH FIRE.

The Aftermath

That wasn’t too bad actually. I could do more of these in a week I’m sure. Maybe I could be one of those daily bloggers. Or next time I could make picture headings instead of just text. The possibilities are endless.

Wait…what am I going to write tomorrow?

And that’s basically my process. Anyone else relate to this? If you want to see a slightly more organised and helpful post, you should check out Katie Grace’s one HERE (sorry about this post Katie. I did try to be sensible. Or it was in the plan somewhere, I’m sure…). My friend Sunny@A Splash of Ink also did one of these posts. It is amazing, and you should hop over HERE and give that a look too. And tell me, what does your blog post writing process look like?

To tell the truth, I’ve been in a writing slump this week. Plot issues stalled the edits, I had to go back and rewrite large portions of what I had already done, which was demoralising, and I haven’t got back to where I was before so I can move on with the story, which is frustrating. All in all, it’s very easy to feel down about my book at the moment. At times, I’m very tempted to chuck it in the bin, and give up on this whole editing thing.

The book is being difficult right now, but, in a slightly more positive point of view, the fact that I know I have to rewrite things means that I’m making progress. I can obviously see what’s working and what’s not, and that’s a good thing. From what I can figure, the way that I see it, there are two ways I can look at this at the moment. I can either sit in a puddle and weep about the unfairness of life (a highly attractive option at this point), or look at it as a good thing for my book and push on with the edits.

At the moment, I’m trying to go with option two. Objectively, I know that the fact that I’ve identified the problem with my book and am working to fix it is a good thing. Inside though, I really, REALLY don’t want to rewrite this all again. But that’s the way with writing really, isn’t it? Sometimes things get tough and you just have to push through it and keep going. That’s what being a writer is about sometimes. Not that I want to hear that right at the moment. Chocolate, books, and hiding from edits sound so much nicer right now…

So that’s what I’m trying to do at the moment. My end of February deadline has come and gone, but I’m still determined to get this thing finished. I’m trying to think positively about things at the moment. Because after all, these changes have to happen anyway, so may as well be positive about it, right? Besides, the more positively I can think, the easier the writing is. So, onwards and upwards! Time to get this thing finished before Camp NaNoWriMo.

Speaking of CampNaNo, sign-ups for April Camp have opened. Time to start prepping the novels, gathering the inspiration, and setting sail on the Camp train (boat? canoe?) for the first session of the year. Anyone else planning on doing Camp in April?

Photo credit: Evelyn Flint (Daydreaming Images) via Foter.com / CC BY

“This is not Monday,” I hear you say. Very true. But most people in my house have been sick, and everything’s all topsy turvey over here at the moment as we nurse the sick ones, so Monday became Tuesday and you’re getting a post today instead of yesterday. Many apologies. But it does mean that it’s time to talk about a subject that I’m always interested in. Namely, the beta reader process. Now, never having reached a stage where I’ve been able to give my book to beta readers (hopefully changing that this year though!) I don’t have a process yet, so I’m doubly interested in seeing how other people go about this.

So tell me, how do you go about the beta reader process? Do you like to send your book out chapter by chapter or all at once? How many beta readers do you like to have at once? Do you send out a general call for readers, or do you select them carefully? At what point do you actually decide it’s ready for betas? Any advice for people who haven’t yet had betas for their book?