Turning Real Life into Fiction

This week's video is all about using things you have experienced in real life to make a story. As most of you have found, writing can be a great form of therapy  but there are things you need to consider if you want to publish a story that is based off of what you've experienced. And of course I use Titanic an alliteration! 

P.S.-I was getting over a cold when I filmed this so my voice is a bit off...

Have you ever used something that's happened to you in your writing?

Click here to read my guest post on Courtney King's blog: http://courtneysking.wordpress.com/2012/12/02/guest-post-mandi-lynn-author-of-essence/

Finishing NaNoWriMo!

So many people wrote and FINISHED a 50,000+ word novel in just one month, but that's not the end of your writing. You've got re-writings and editing, and oh so much to do!

Comment and tell me how many words you got this month! I don't care if you didn't win, any writing is good writing!

Read Your Writing!

This is an idea I go when I read Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass. Somewhere in the forward (by Anne Perry) it mentions how, as readers, we read what we love. But when it comes to being an author we often avoid reading our own work at all costs. What does this mean? Maybe we don't enjoy our own writing. How can anyone else even like our writing if we don't love the words we put on paper?

I dare you to read your the stories you've written. If you don't love any aspect re-write until you do love it.

Approaching Writing a Novel

This week I have two videos for you guys to watch. The second video is by Alex Schnee, but we both talk about what we do to write out novels.

And also Alex's videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGe7lPxnqqo

Be sure to visit her blog: www.alexinksit.wordpress.com
And also her twitter: www.twitter.com/alexinksit

Writing is my Life!

It'a all in the video!

If anyone wants to feature one of my videos or anything like that don't be afraid to comment below!

Novel Series

Obviously when you hear about successful novel series you think of the big three: Harry Potter, Twilight, and the Hunger Games. Of course there are TONS of them and I don't doubt that there will be more novels series that are turned into movies (cause they are awesome).

But if your thinking about making your own novel into a series, it's not always crystal clear as to whether it's meant to be a stand alone or series.

What's your favorite series that you're read? What was it that you liked so much?

Sympathy for Villains

This week's video is a little different from what I normally do, but I'm hoping it will spark your interest. With new novels constantly coming out you want your book to stand out from the others. How do you do that? Complex characters. In this case it's our villain.

Comment below if you want other videos like this were I talk about different elements you can through into a story, OR if you have questions about an aspect in writing or publishing comment below and I'll make a video on it!

NaNoWrimo!

Yup, it's that time of year again. National Novel Writing Month is just around the corner so get your outlines ready and brace yourself to finish a novel in just one month!

Don't forget to share the video so as many writers know about NaNoWriMo!

Vacations Improve Your Writing!

Don't go on vacation and stress about achieving your writing goal. Enjoy the time off that you have! Give yourself the chance to finally sit back and breath. Look at things from a different prospective and use the little details to improve description in your writing.

So now is the fun part: Where would you go, if money wasn't an option what-so-ever? There is a catch though. Wherever you visit has to be to do some "writing research." I would go to France because there's a story I'm working on that takes place there (plus I've always wanted to go to Paris!).

Read the Good and the Bad

We've all experienced it. Those mediocre books that make you wonder, "How in the world did this get published?" Well, don't just push the book away. Read it! Use the book as a learning experience of what NOT to do.

But then there's always those amazing books that you cherish and hold close to your heart. You know, the type of book that reminds you why you started writing in the first place.

What are some book that have inspired you to write?

Loosing Focus in Writing

The thing I was trying to say in this video is that loosing focus isn't always a bad thing. In fact, sometimes it can be a very good thing! Left the words flow, write then down and don't worry about how everything will come together until you finish the first draft of the manuscript/story. Then for draft two you can make sure everything flows.

So, are your best ideas the spontaneous ones that come in the moment of writing. Or are your best ideas the planned out ones you make...say, when writing an outline?

Emotions in Writing

Here's something that a lot of people seem to ask about: writing with emotion. Now everyone has a different way to approach this, so in this video I just wanted to talk about what it is and how to notice it. Once you can see it and understand it you can write about it. I can't express enough, writing is about living! You can't stay cooped up at your desk and expect to know how to write characters with emotion if you don't experience and witness it firsthand.

That said, this video won't tell you how to write with emotion; that's for another video. But this will warm you up for that next video so you'll already have your observations on how people act and, most importantly, re-act.

So what do you think? Do have any other tricks to noticing and understanding emotion?

Writer's Intensive & National Zoo

So I got to attend my first writer's intensive last weekend! I have to say the most important thing I learned is that I cannot run on 3 hours of sleep and NEVER count on sleeping on a train if you have an important event the next day. That said both me and my mom still had a great time. Watch the video below to find out more!

Outline Misconceptions

Just because I've come to love outlines so much I chose to, once again, talk about them! Though this time I do go into much more detail. Enjoy and don't forget to comment!

Forming a Story

I don't know about you but I'm the type of person who can just sit down and write. I have to have a geam plan! So here it is, the simple things I do BEFORE I start writing a story.

Are you one of the lucky people who can just sit down and write? Or are you like me? Having to make an outline and figure out all the detail before hand?

Avoiding Clichés

Almost forgot to write this blog! Better late then never!

In this episode of YA Ink I talk all about how to avoid writing clichés and two amazing books that done so in an amazing way by surprising readers! 

Don't forget to comment below on how YOU avoid writing clichés in your story/novel!

Finding the Inspriation

This week's YA Ink video is all about finding inspiration to write. Whether you may know it or not sometimes that involves not writing at all, but just taking a breather.

The tips featured in the video can also be applied for that annoying period of time when you have writer's block.

The Dreaded Synopsis

As many of you know a synopsis is a BIG deal when it comes to publishing. If you are lucky enough to get an agent asking for a book proposal then you'll have a few things you'll need and one of the most important is a synopsis (of course every part of a book proposal is important in order to sell your book to an agent).

The synopsis lets the agent see the entire plot of your book without actually reading the manuscript. The hard part is getting that lengthy piece of work into something that can be as short as one page long. Can it be done? Yes, of course. Is it easy? If you know what to do!

So that's what this video is for. Explaining the basics of what you'll need to do in order to write an amazing synopsis; whether it be one page, three pages, or even twelve pages.