Tag Archives: story revision

Possible Blog Mini Series

Posted by Seriah Black Sheep on

I have a perfectly good blog sitting here, so why not put something on it?

Photo by Susan Q Yin on Unsplash

I’m thinking of doing a mini series on writing tropes or sub-genres that have been underrepresented.

What do I mean by that?

Previously, I blogged about how difficult it was to find articles on writing revenge romance. Recently, another writer confided how difficult it is for her to research her niche of cozy fantasy. I replied with how difficult it has been for me to research what type of plot pattern a good mystery needs to have, for my mystery subplot. In addition, there is an entire taboo category of romance and dark romance that gets ignored unless you’re in the right reader Facebook group. Yet, these are obviously categories many readers camp in.

Which would be fine, if we were actually teaching people how to write these things. But who can I approach to teach me how to drop mystery hints when my protagonist is not a self-proclaimed sleuth, or how far is too far in rawness in an erotic romance scene? Who can teach me how to keep readers from hating my antihero who wants revenge on the heroine, when she does not want revenge on him? What about showing and not telling, when showing is graphic, or how to write in rich metaphor without overusing “like” and “as”?

You were going to answer, “Find a how-to writing book or article,” weren’t you. (Or use software to nitpick individual words.)

Except, we have a problem: How-to books these days aren’t even what university teachers are recommending. That’s because they are so general that they rarely help other than making a writer sometimes feel less alone in the process. Which is what writing community is for, by the way. Find a workshop. Find a Discord. Find a local group. Something. Anything. Use an online search engine before you say you can’t.

I have several how-to books on my shelf. The issue isn’t that how-to books exist. The issue is that people describe the same elements and repackage them with a different cover. Plot, dialogue, character, and setting are staples. You cannot promise me YA-specific content, or NA-specific content, and then tell me all the generalized content about stories that I already know, and place a line at the end saying, “You should read books in this category to see what’s the norm.” No. That’s why I bought your book. Tell me what I’m looking for. Tell me something other than how teenagers might call me out for trying to be hip. I live in real life; I’ve already seen that. I’ve been that teen. Tell me how to craft voice when I have a younger character. Don’t chicken out because you’re an adult and you’re winging it.

There is a deficit on our bookshelves and online and on our e-readers. The topics that we very clearly need sensitivity readers for are the topics that I have a 10% chance of getting in a workshop once in two years, and almost no chance of getting anywhere else. DEI is not the only thing that got buried.

If you’re like me, in that hole, trying to research and coming up empty, I can’t give you expert advice.

What I can do is start a blog where I share what actually helps me from my search, as I’m searching. Maybe that will jumpstart your own blocked search. Maybe it will spark someone who actually is an expert in one of these categories to do more than regurgitate how important it is to have a plot, have three sections, and save a cat. Those books have already been written. We need your help with new specifics, please. We need your techniques.

Don’t worry; our writing won’t come out like yours if we’re using your technique. We’ve got our own quirks to apply your techniques to.

We talk about “writers lifts” on social media, but isn’t a true lift when we give each other the tools we’re missing, so the rare manuscript gems that are challenging us the most actually get into readers’ hands?

Since when was the status quo fun to write for books?

Let’s write what needs to be written.

I want to pause and say to the many workshop and webinar instructors and speakers I’ve been sitting under for the past two years, and earlier than that: Thank you. Thank you for taking the time and covering the difficult topics, for providing the one-sentence takeaways that I’d been searching three years to find, for answering a dozen questions in a row, for not turning away our difficult and messy endeavors and our crayon-drawing-equivalents of addressing writing prompts and trying out your techniques. It took me a long time to find workshops like yours, and I recommend them to many other writers. I can’t say they all step up to try to tackle such big ideas, but I hope in the future they will.

Beta Readers Needed for BKC

Posted by Seriah Black Sheep on

I want to take a moment and thank my FictionPress readers who have been with me since the beginning. What started as a story in a notebook when I was graduating high school has evolved over the years into a much more complex sequence of events than I ever imagined originally. Through trial and error, and with the help of your reviews, private messages, and enthusiasm, the scope of BeastKing Chronicles has grown far beyond what I could have reached alone.

Many of you have voiced that you are still hoping that further chapters will be posted. As of right now, my intent is to post through the end of Book 2 on FictionPress. I believe you deserve that closure for still holding on with me after all these years.

I do intend to make some changes from here on out, however. You have seen me go through revisions, and have even commented that you see the story improving with each revision. I appreciate your encouragement. I want this story to be the best that it can be. Over the last four or five years, I came to recognize that this story had outgrown my skill level. Since 2019, I have been looking for ways to level up my writing and, with it, elevate my manuscript to a publishable level. At this stage, I am pursuing a Master of Fine Arts degree with a concentration in fiction novel writing, to this end.

I am about ten chapters into a rewrite of Book 1, and I admit, it has been like pulling teeth since March. I am reaching a stage where I need beta readers who have been with me since the beginning to tell me what is working and what is not. Specifically, I would like readers who could tell me whether they feel a character is acting out-of-character in the beginning of the series, based on what they know of later events and the sense they have already developed about the characters, their personalities, and their reveals. I am incorporating a revenge plot, a Fantasy subplot, earlier Pandora actions, and a fair bit more characterization for Bre. But that is not the only new content to which you would be privy, if you decide to beta-read. I have already begun writing into Book 3, and my current intention is not to post it on FictionPress, because I believe I will be much closer to publication by the time Books 1 and 2 are sorted. In other words, when I do take stories down from FictionPress for publication, you would get to keep reading. And I promise you, I haven’t even hit half of the plot twists and relational developments I have planned, so it will definitely be worth it.

If you are interested in beta reading, please either DM me on FictionPress or submit an “inquiry” on my Authorship page, accessible on the top navigation bar on this site.

I am also excited to announce I have some emerging short stories, which I will be seeking to publish on platforms other than FictionPress. Two novellas are emerging from the BeastKing Chronicles world, simply because they may not fit within the scope of Books 2 and 3. They will be treated as part of the series, featuring the same main cast of characters, and thus will be directly referenced within the main books. One novella is set to take place between Books 2 and 3, as a stage-setter. Major romantic developments between Rome and Bre will be happening in there, so don’t miss it. The other novella features Kitiora. I’m not a big fan of switching to main characters. But as a “chapter,” this would have had to be written in Kit’s POV, and (on purpose) I did not structure my novels to accommodate that kind of random POV shift. Let’s just say, once Kit decides to finally stop sitting out the dating game, she grossly underestimates the identity of the man she chooses for a one-night stand in the face of what seems to be the end of the world as they know it. Even Rome and Bre are unnerved by her choice. Though, it may take someone getting stabbed next to her for her to realize why.

I also have a short story about a water dragon and a village girl, playing off of the classic girl-offered-to-dragon and beast-vs.-lord tropes. Because it drops very quickly into a one-night stand before tapering up to actual Romance, I’m going to have to classify that one as either Erotic Paranormal Romance or Erotic Fantasy. But it is not sex only. You know me: Nothing can be that simple. Not even Kit’s oneshot.

I also have a planned short story about a dragon and a bard. And one about a dragonfly castle. And one about the boogie man. I doubt any of these will turn into full-fledged novels. Not that anything I write doesn’t have that potential. After all, BeastKing Chronicles started off as only a one-liner idea.

The story that very well might turn into a novel is Poppin’s story, Fire and Lyra. Once upon a time, I was forced to create short stories for undergrad courses, which I had never seriously attempted prior. It birthed the water dragon story and the aerial dancer story. Poppin is the aerialist. He’s also a transient kleptomaniac with portal-jumping abilities. (Because, you know me: I can’t just make a normal character. That would be boring. I don’t do boring characters. He has to be a drug-addicted, flame-dancing fire god descendant who hangs out in rafters like a bat.) Poppin’s story isn’t a Romance—not even in subplots—unlike pretty much every other story I have ever written, whether seen by others or hidden away. If you’re a fan of Doctor Who, you might favor some of his travels on his way to retrieve the box he stole that got stolen from him. Right now, it’s a serial, with each short story acting as a publishable standalone. Read in sequence, they would create what may eventually equate to a novel-length work.

Throughout the next year, I intend to submit short stories to contests and journals. These will likely include shorter ideas not listed here. If any stories are chosen, I will post here and on Twitter to notify you so you can go read them.

Inside of Bre

Posted by Seriah Black Sheep on

A growing concern in my mind over the years has been the increasing sense that Labriella, the semi-normal-perspectived main character, is a flat character. Most of that stemmed from having little to no interest in her. In the beginning, turning from a Damsel in Distress into a Damsel with a Kick was the main point of Bre’s origins and tendencies. Basically, she existed to show off Rome, and she was built to want to show off Rome.

But as any of my readers would readily tell you, Rome is not the type of guy to love a dunce just because she was there. Especially when she is the reason he hit rock-bottom for the second time in his long life, Rome would be more prone to kick the girl to the curb definitively than to wishy-wash back and forth with uncontrollable emotion over her exit. The magnitude of this is seen not only in Rome’s dealings with shopkeepers and employees, and with nobles, but also with the nobles’ showcases. A remote attraction to Kitiora can only be true if she has a brain, and the balls to kick him in them.

And yes, if you haven’t noticed, Bre’s concern over that last bit is grounded in reality, not jealous paranoia.

So, what is an author to do with a heroine who exists to be as unobtrusive to and un-hated by female readers as possible?

The first major recognition is that Bre lives in a world outside of my area of expertise. I do have professional ties to the medical world and service experience through prior employment. I know masseuses, nurses, and mushroom hunters. I now live in a wooded area. I grew up in a conservative religious culture. I have a family member who beat cancer post-surgery through homeopathic supplements and dietary changes. I have another family member who made burn cream in her backyard. But what do I really know about binding wounds, tinctures and tonics, poultices, and poisons? What about those “long-lost” apothecary skills? What about herbal remedies that aren’t attached to witchcraft?

Throughout (or despite, or because of) my long college career, I gradually found the opportunity to study some of these things: CPR, Wilderness First Aid, mushrooms and poisons books through inter-library loan and a co-worker, and tonics and tinctures through another co-worker, plus pheromonal experimental study results as they relate to psychology.

Today, I add to that study through a couple preliminary classes on Udemy about massage and herbs.

The amount of behind-the-scenes research we conduct, even as Fantasy or Romance authors, is amazing. Just because we can create our own world from scratch, doesn’t mean we aren’t cobbling together actual starting matter based on real-world principles.

Workshop Help: Information vs. Perspective

Posted by Seriah Black Sheep on

I recently realized I hadn’t updated my Volume 1 info page. Whoops. Fixed that.

As I mentioned before, I’ve been dragging my heels in my writing a bit because I signed up for some online writing workshops.

“Do those really help?”

Yes and no. There’s always the stuff you already know from experience, the stuff you’ve already researched, and the stuff you can’t figure out how to assimilate. The farther along you are in your writing, the more narrowed your focus. For instance, I now know that I am writing an antihero (as opposed to a Prince Charming or an epic hero), and my Fantasy story’s plot decided it wants to be a Romance. So every time I read advice about what a hero should and shouldn’t have, and what they should and shouldn’t do, I’m seeing it through a Romance/Antihero lens. I take some things, and I toss the rest. What to take vs. what to toss is the pivotal question. My male counterpart is an Antihero, he’s discreetly muscled and slimly built, and I loathe irrelevant book covers, so I automatically dismiss the idea of having a book cover image depicting a headless muscly chest, and I’m going to ignore any advice on how to make him extra-fluffy lovable. On the other hand, he’s damaged with a past, I want readers to be sympathetic, and I’ve got to get my heroine (and my readers) to fall for him. So I’m more than happy to take advice about how to write in his sexy quirks every couple lines, and build questions and intrigue through his actions and reactions.

Information is what is helpful in these workshops. It’s authors handing you tools. It’s social connections. And it’s awareness of your contemporaries and the current book market.

Perspective is a totally different issue. The best perspective help I’ve had volunteered actually comes from readers in the genre, down to the subgenre and the sub-subgenre. There’s no substitute for it. Readers intrinsically know what they’re looking for in a subgenre—or rather, they can tell whether what they’re looking for is or isn’t present. Some readers will just drift away if they feel your story is lacking. But other readers will leave a line or two—or even a few paragraphs—if they know you’re interested in what they have to say.

So I’d like to say “thank you” to those readers who reviewed my most recent chapter, and those who have reviewed my story in the past. Also, a special “thank you” to those readers who reviewed multiple versions of my story. It is your comments I keep in mind when I revise, and when I try to figure out where to write to next. It is your comments that I use to write myself out of corners. And your comments have helped make me a better writer. Don’t think that your one little nay-saying comment is not heard inside a bunch of yay’s, or vice versa. I know I have cut scenes some of you liked, but don’t think I’ve deleted them. They’re still here, waiting to be added back in.

That being said, I am slowly realizing that all of my focus on the “right” ways to do things in order to get published has both helped and stunted my writing. I’ve been outlining and re-outlining, trying to figure out where to go next. That’s necessary, at certain stages. But I’m looking at two more events before the end of the second book, and realizing my writing went so much faster when I just free-wrote. Sure, I wrote myself into a bunch of corners. Sure, I had a bunch of adverbs and repetitive sentence structures. But I also chalked scenes full of emotion and used them as catalysts for unexpected plot turns…and I did it without hardly thinking about it. I just followed my pen. The next revision I have in mind for my manuscript is actually way closer to my original plot ideas, because my story has taken on a life of its own and thus far I have opted to blindly follow it, into whatever unexpected turmoil my pen may lead. I’m not sure which is better to publish: the original plot, or the raw, character-charged emotional turns of events. But with the end of the second book finally taking shape, I think I might just throw myself into it. After all, that’s where all the limes are going to hit the fan.

The second event at the end of this book, I was actually considering moving to the end of the first book. But now I’m not so sure. I guess I’ll figure it out after it’s written. After all, no matter which order events fall in for these two books, events in the next portion of the story should progress the same.

I don’t know if I will go right into writing and posting the next book after I finish Book 2. I might, if I have momentum. But it seems like a great breaking point for revisions.

Anyway, I’m finishing up a Male P.O.V. workshop by Sascha Illyvich (previously entitled “Inside the Male Mind”). I’m starting in on a Romance Writers of America workshop called “Killer Openings” by Alexa Bourne, which should help with the revisions I’ve been toying with for the beginning of my series. I’m also attending a one-night class on publishing and a seminar about characters this month. After those, my two-month workshop madness will be complete. It’s quite the marathon, and it can be difficult to switch back and forth between question mode, social mode, revision mode, and writing mode. Who knew authors had to be such multi-taskers? But after that, it should slow down…and my writing should pick back up. Theoretically.

Chapter 12 is underway; don’t think I’ve forgotten about it just ’cause I’m in a workshop frenzy. I’ve spent a lot of time mulling it over, attempting outlines, and brainstorming specific prospective scenes. I’m being careful, because recent discussions about bondage and alphas has helped me see how important it is that I handle the details of Lord Alonza’s party the right way. Rome may be dominant, but it is very important that you (my dear readers) see that his brand of dominance distinguishes itself that of the corrupt nobility—that they’re about a lot of things that he’s not. I believe the best way to do that is to stick Rome in a noble-dominant situation, and contrast his desires (and how he handles them) within the same situation.

I should warn you, though: Some bad crap is going to happen to Labriella. And, Sheryl, you’re right; Labriella has been growing more timid. But, if I play my cards right, the aftermath of said “bad crap” is going to change that. 😉

So stay tuned!

Complex Plotting: Zero = Four

Posted by Seriah Black Sheep on

For months—maybe even over a year—I have been frustrated with my first book, because I could not find a plot in it. With all the fiction I’ve read over the course of my life, and all the stories read to me before I could even read, and all those classes where teachers made me analyze and chart plot structures, how in the world could I create a book without a plot?! The possibility had never even occurred to me. And once I began to scrutinize the possibility, I was even more disheartened to find it true. Because what else could be the problem?

But after my sixth attempt to outline my plot points—always getting stuck in the same place—I tried a new approach, and finally realized my problem. It’s not that I don’t have a plot. It’s that I have four plots running concurrently, and the primary focus is the romantic one, so no traditional plotline gets the limelight enough to emerge as the official identifiable plot. In fact, you might argue that all four of these plotlines are actually story arcs—meaning they span at least part of the series, rather than being resolved in a single book.

So if you’re a “pantser,” and you’re having trouble unearthing that plot that seems like it’s hiding or nonexistent, I suggest writing out a play-by-play outline, and then an extremely vague outline of points, and see if you can divide things up by topic.

If you can’t abide pinning down your work like that, write down your ideas in different colored pens, and then take a look at what kinds of things ended up in each color. Surprise! You’ve drawn yourself a mind map, and now all you need to do is draw up the key. That’s what I did. Sometimes you just need to look at your thoughts differently to understand what’s going on and roll with it.

These are my plots, as I discovered them when I tried separating them out into categories (as defined by the parties involved):

  • Pandora
  • Temple
  • Noble
  • Romance

I suppose I could split “Romance” again, into “Gian & Labriella” and “Rome & Labriella“…but I would actually prefer to stick with a triangular effect. I want to use Gian to enhance and/or force out a definition of Rome and Labriella’s relationship, and use the nobles (and Pandora, and the temple) to further force it out of the shadows. That probably means I need to scatter Gian’s parts throughout the timeline a bit more, instead of having so many chapters between him and Labriella in the first book.

In my case, does the solution to having four plots entail untangling those plots? Or maybe picking just one per book? Ummm….Ew. I mean, I could do that, but I wove all those plots together subconsciously for a reason; they add depth to one another. At first glance it appears that there is no plot, because you’re walking through the characters’ lives. It’s those elements in their lives that brought them together, and that make up all those plots. Each is a festering issue that needs to be dealt with–and each starts out very small.

Part of the reason I’m so set on revising my first book again, is because I want to resolve either the noble plot or the temple plot (or both) by the end of the first book. I now suspect the noble plot will be more of an undercurrent that will come to a head on several supporting occasions. So I’m fixing my attention on the temple plot. If I start book one with the temple, then I should end book one with the temple. Otherwise, Labriella being considered a “runaway” becomes old news and eventually feels buried or ignored.

Previously the first book revolved around the question of whether Rome would allow Labriella to stay with him. But a few of my readers complained that they were running so many insecure circles around one another that it was slowing down and lengthening the story. And I agree. At least one set of circumstances needs to be sealed in by the end of the first book.

I feel like I’m trying to cram in a lot of things. But maybe, if I eliminate lengthy descriptions, consolidate scenes, and get rid of reflective dialogue, I might still be able to shorten things up. After all, my goal for revising this time around is to keep the plot moving.

Writing Style Change

Posted by Seriah Black Sheep on

I realized after working on finishing chapter 2, and then jumping back to work on chapter 10, that my writing style has changed again. … Drat. This is a problem. I went from uber broad, to social-centered, and now to super detailed.

Given that the prologue isn’t supposed to fit style-wise with anything…except maybe some future “interludes” to give dramatic insight (foreshadowing) into some not-so-closely-followed characters. Or maybe ultimately I’ll just end up making the prologue read like the rest of the novel. I don’t know at this point.

But the problem I’m having that chapters 1 & 2 don’t read like 4 & 5, and 6 & 7 stand out above the rest like a monument–which is finally being overshadowed by the not-so-eventful chapter 10. And somewhere roundabout the scourge on my writing abilities/conscience that is chapter 8, my writing style tried to mutate once again. So I went back and added more detail to chapters 1 & 2…only to discover that my writing style has mutated AGAIN, and this time it’s so detail-oriented that I either have to scrap what I’ve rewritten and go back to the original, or revert the whole thing (all 10 chapters) to detail.

And, well, sorry to those of you that like a simple or easygoing read, but…I think detail is gonna win out on this one. The story just…READS better with the details; the emotion comes across more vividly. And really, the emotion is what this story is all about. If this story reads in monotone for you, you have every reason to call it trash. So at the risk of sensory overload (which is how my dad reacted when I read him the first couple lines of the dream sequence in chapters 1&2), I will be converting the story.

No worries. Basic plotline stays the same. No new plotline “events,” I think; just more social interactions (aka dialogues), and loads more description where there isn’t dialogue. …We’ll see about how much description ends up framing the dialogue.