My Baffling Brain

Celebrate the Small Things is a weekly bloghop hosted by Lexa Cain . The idea is to post anything you want to celebrate from the last week, no matter how small. Here's what I'm celebrating this week: - We had a bake off at work on Wednesday, and I won! To be fair, there weren't very many entries in the end, but I'm still pretty happy with that. Below is a picture of the same cake but made a couple of years ago - the decoration actually was better on the first attempt than the one I made this week, which is why I'm surprised I won! I forgot to take a picture of the one I made this week, but the one below looks better anyway!  - It's starting to feel very Christmassy now - only a week to go before I can start getting really excited!  - Grey's Anatomy is back on, and that always makes me happy. It can be so ridiculous sometimes, but it's still one of my favourite shows.

Celebrate the Small Things is a weekly bloghop hosted by Lexa Cain . The idea is to post anything you want to celebrate from the last week, no matter how small. Here's what I'm celebrating this week: - Cold, dark, wintry nights. I absolutely love this time of year, I love getting all of our blankets and throws out and snuggling up with a hot drink.  - The Sims 4 Cats and Dogs expansion pack comes out today, so I know what I'll be spending my night doing! Just have to get through work first.  - Speaking of work, I just found out that from next week I'll be splitting my time between the department that I'm currently on and a different department, which I'm quite happy about - I love learning new things, and this is a great opportunity for that. What are you celebrating this week?

For anyone who doesn't know, the Insecure Writer's Support Group is a group of writer's who post once a month about their insecurities, and then visit each other to offer help and support. This month's question is: Win or not, do you usually finish your NaNo project? Have any of them gone on to be published? Honestly, the only NaNo projects that I have gone on to finish were the ones I was doing as projects for university assignments.  I've won NaNo a few times, but I've never actually finished the editing process for any of these projects. My most recent win was in July for Camp NaNo, and since finishing the first draft I haven't looked at it once. I was speaking to a writer friend the other day, and it seems we have the same problem; we both work better to a deadline. Therefore I can win NaNo no problem, because it gives me a word count target and a deadline to hit it by, but I don't do as well on the editing side, because I have no...

Celebrate the Small Things is a weekly bloghop hosted by Lexa Cain . The idea is to post anything you want to celebrate from the last week, no matter how small. I haven't posted for a while, it's been a busy few weeks! Here's what I'm celebrating this week: - I had a fantastic time in Rhodes, Greece with my mum; we got back last week, and now it feels like we never went away! It was very strange being somewhere so sunny in October! - I posted for the Halloween edition for Write Edit Publish on Wednesday, and got some great feedback for my spooky story. Click here if you want to read it! The other pieces were brilliant too, as usual! - It's my favourite time of year; the nights are closing in, there's (sometimes) a cold bite to the air, and my favourite holidays are approaching!  What are you celebrating this week?

Time for my favourite month of Write Edit Publish, the Halloween edition. I can't wait to see what everyone's come up with for this prompt! Darkness ‘Faye, can you come with me?’ His voice is quiet, almost a whisper. He looks even worse than the last time I saw him; there are dark shadows under his eyes and his skin has a greyish pallor, dark stubble coming through on his jawline. It’s a stark contrast to the immaculately groomed man he was before. ‘Of course,’ I say, stepping forwards and closing the door behind me. ‘Where are we going?’ He doesn’t answer, but pulls me along behind him. Dry leaves skitter across the ground in the chilly breeze, and crunch underfoot. Autumn has arrived all of a sudden; I wrap my arms around myself, wishing I’d thought to bring a coat. ‘I wasn’t expecting to see you, it’s nice to see you out of the house. Are you … feeling better today?’ I ask gently. He slows, staring down at his feet. ‘Yes,’ he says. ‘And I’ll feel even better once...

Celebrate the Small Things is a weekly bloghop now hosted by Lexa Cain . The idea is to post anything you want to celebrate from the last week, no matter how small. Here's what I'm celebrating this week: - We went out for a meal for my dad's birthday last weekend, which was fun. I stayed over at my sister's house for the weekend, and we baked brownies, cookies, a swiss roll and a victoria sponge. It was an indulgent weekend! - I've started exercising every day - since starting my new job (which is a desk job) I've realised that I'm getting very little exercise. I've gained a little weight, so I'm determined to lose that and then to keep up with the exercising to keep fit. My sister gave me her Wii Fit, and I'm surprised by how much I enjoy exercising with it. - Just over a week until I go to Greece!

For anyone who doesn't know, the Insecure Writer's Support Group is a group of writer's who post once a month about their insecurities, and then visit each other to offer help and support. This month, my insecurities revolve around what I was celebrating last month - the finished first draft of my novel, The Youngest Sorcerer.  I left it alone in August, as is usually recommended after writing a first draft, so now I'm ready to go into it with fresh eyes and edit. The only problem is, I don't have a lot of experience editing novel length stories. Flash fiction and short stories, sure, but not so much longer pieces of writing. It's been a long time since I've had to edit something so long, and it's difficult to know where to start. However, I'm also excited to get started. I already know going in that there are going to be a lot of things that need fixing - my first drafts are always terrible, just the bare bones of the story - but I'm...

It's been a couple of months since I've done a goals post, what with Camp NaNo and all. Now that it's over, and I've taken a bit of a break, it's time to get back into a regular routine of writing and blogging. Here are my goals for this month: - Plan my WEP October story - I usually have the best intentions for my WEP stories, but then I procrastinate and end up writing them the day before I post it. I'm determined not to do that this time! The theme is Dark Places , which ties up nicely with Halloween, as this is the Halloween edition of the challenge. Dark horror stories happen to be my favourite to write, so I'm excited to get started on this one. - Start edits on The Youngest Sorcerer  - I've taken the recommended break after writing my first draft, so now I'm ready to get started on the edits. I don't have a concrete plan for tackling them, as I'm pretty new to the editing process (for a novel-length story, anyway). I'm going...

Celebrate the Small Things is a weekly bloghop now hosted by Lexa Cain . The idea is to post anything you want to celebrate from the last week, no matter how small. Here's what I'm celebrating this week: - It's September! The cold weather has already started where I am, and I couldn't be happier! I much prefer autumn/winter to spring/summer, and now it's arriving (at last). - The bank holiday weekend was fantastic - an extra day off is always something to celebrate, even if I didn't do much! It was nice to be able to just relax. 

Celebrate the Small Things is a weekly bloghop now hosted by Lexa Cain . The idea is to post anything you want to celebrate from the last week, no matter how small. This week I'm celebrating: - A three day weekend! It's a bank holiday on Monday, which means an extra day off and a shorter working week, which is always fine by me! Still getting used to not having to work them now that I'm not in retail any more. - I'm meeting up with my sister and some of our old friends tomorrow (including a couple of the bridesmaids from her wedding). Not sure what we'll be doing yet, but I'm sure we'll have a great day. - My mum came over last night; we had pizza and watched Table 19, which we really enjoyed. It was nice to spend some time together, we don't see each other as much now, as she works weekends when I'm off!

Celebrate the Small Things is a weekly bloghop now hosted by Lexa Cain . The idea is to post anything you want to celebrate from the last week, no matter how small. Here's what I'm celebrating this week: - I had a fantastic time in Wales with Jamie visiting friends last week; we visited a windy beach and built a huge sandcastle, went to a pub quiz and played a lot of card games. Even the seven hour drive down there wasn't too bad! - There was another WEP challenge on Wednesday. I decided to write a poem for the first time in 3 years, and I got some really good feedback for it, which I was surprised about! If you want to check it out, click here . This month's theme was reunions.

OK guys, this month's theme is Reunions. I've gone for something a little different this month; Poetry! I haven't written a poem in about 3 years, so I'm a little rusty; hope you enjoy it anyway. Reunion Sun shines through the blinds, Eyes close Against the glare, The pain. The smell of sickness Barely there Under a heavy layer Of disinfectant. Stiff bed clothes rustle With every movement, Scraping her sore, Sensitive skin. Machines beep incessantly, Attached to her wrists, Her chest, her failing body, Each beep bringing her Closer to the end. A gentle breeze caresses, Taking away tiredness And pain. The smell of summer, Flowers and soil and The trickle of water. Eyes open again; A clear, starry sky, Trees touching the heavens Rustle in the breeze, A small stream Wends its way through The flowers and plants, A riot of colour As though lifting a shroud. Pale walls reappear, And pain, so much pain, Bone deep, And so tired. ...

Celebrate the Small Things is a weekly bloghop now hosted by Lexa Cain . The idea is to post anything you want to celebrate from the last week, no matter how small. This week I'm celebrating: - Reaching my goal of 50,000 words for Camp NaNo - I really didn't think I would get there, so I'm very happy about this! - After today I'm off work for a week; I'm going to Wales to visit some friends, so that should be fun (once we've gotten past the 7 hour drive!)

I did it, I reached my goal for 50,000 words on my Camp NaNo project! It was touch and go there for a while; my sister got married on the 15th, which meant 4 days in a row of 0 words. I actually changed my goal from 50,000 to 40,000 at one point, but put it back up when I realised that it could be done. And I did it! Here are my final stats: I actually finished a day ahead of schedule, so I'm pretty pleased with that! The writing is absolutely awful (as first drafts so often are) but I'm looking forward to getting on with the editing process. I am going to let it rest for a while though, so I can come back to it with fresh eyes. Besides, I have other things to focus on - there's another Write Edit Publish challenge this month, this time focusing on Reunions. After writing 50,000 words, 1000 should be easy! I just need to come up with an idea...

Celebrate the Small Things is a weekly bloghop now hosted by Lexa Cain . The idea is to post anything you want to celebrate from the last week, no matter how small. This week I'm celebrating: - I'm doing well at my Camp NaNo, and as long as I continue to stick to my plan, I'll have hit 50,000 words by the end of the month. I can't believe it's August next week! As much as I've enjoyed the challenge, I'm looking forward to a couple of days off writing when I'm done! - I've watched Beauty and the Beast twice in the last week, and I've been listening to the soundtrack pretty much non stop, and I'm still not bored of it! Definitely my current obsession.

Less than a week to go! I had a fantastic writing weekend, I did 5000 words on Saturday and 4000 on Sunday, which has really helped me to catch up. I've decided to up my goal back to 50,000, because I really think I can do it; I've got a plan, and as long as I stick to it I'll definitely finish at 50,000 words. Here are my stats: I'm confident that I can reach 50,000 words; I'm going to make sure I don't make any plans on Sunday, so I can do what I did last weekend and write about 4000-5000 words in one day. I've worked out how many words I can realistically write each day, and it's more than enough to get me to 50,000 by Monday. Wish me luck!

So, I was going to use this week's Celebrate post to show you guys some pictures from my sister's wedding over the weekend. However, that was before I heard the news of the death of Chester Bennington, lead singer of Linkin Park. Linkin Park was my first ever favourite band, one of the first bands that I saw live, and basically the band behind my entire taste in music today. Their music helped me through a lot of tough times, and helped shape who I am today. I'll be forever grateful to the band, and to Chester Bennington, for that.  I still listen to their music, and will continue to do so, even if I will be a little sadder as I listen to my favourite songs. Rest in peace, Chester Bennington.  This is me, celebrating you and your music.

So the wedding over the weekend took up a lot more of my time last week than I expected it to! I hardly got any writing done last week, which put me really behind for my 50,000 words goal. Because of this, I've made the decision to reduce my goal to 40,000 words; if I'd kept at 50,000, there was almost no chance that I'd be able to achieve it, and that would have reduced my motivation to write. Here are my stats so far: I'm still going to aim for 50,000. I want to get as close as I can by the end of July. I have no plans at all this weekend coming up, so I'm planning to spend as much time writing as I can, to try and catch up. As you can see, I'm behind even for my 40,000 word goal, so I need to get a move on! P.S. Pictures of the wedding should be coming up on my Celebrate the Small Things post on Friday. Stay tuned!

What with all the preparations for my sister's wedding this Saturday, my writing has fallen by the wayside a little this week. I didn't get any done yesterday, but when I get home tonight I'm going to write as much as I can, since I won't be able to for the next few days.  Here are my stats so far: Once the wedding's over, I'm going to try and do 2000 words a day to catch up. I'm determined to get to 50,000 words by the end of July!

Celebrate the Small Things is a weekly bloghop now hosted by Lexa Cain . The idea is to post anything you want to celebrate from the last week, no matter how small. Here's what I'm celebrating this week: - I'm doing well with my Camp NaNo - I'm slightly behind at the moment, but I should be able to catch up tonight. I'm hoping to get ahead over the weekend, since next weekend my sister gets married so there will be at least 2 days where I won't be able to write. - Our family got together over the weekend for my brother's 30th birthday - we had a surprise party for him, which was fun! We ate party food and played giant Jenga in the sunshine, it was a good day! - I got together with my friends from university on Saturday, which is always fun! We visited the caves in Nottingham and then spent the evening playing games. What are you celebrating this week?

This week's question is: What is one valuable lesson you've learned since you started writing? I would say the number one lesson I've learned is write for yourself - don't worry what other people will think, don't try to write what you think other people will like. Write the story you want to read. My experience in writing has shown that when I get too bogged down with trying to write something other people will like, it discourages me from writing because it just makes it too hard. We write for ourselves, and if other people like our writing, then that's a bonus.  Camp NaNo Update: So Camp NaNo officially started on Saturday, and I'm doing quite well so far. I was a little worried about hitting my goals over the weekend, as I was busy both days, but I managed it! I'm really enjoying writing the story; it's been in my head since March this year, and I was so excited to get started on it. Here are my stats: Obviously I haven...

I didn't post my goals for June up, as I knew I'd be busy with last minute wedding planning; it's been a busy month! Here are my goals for July: - Write 50,000 words for Camp NaNo ! - So this is my huge goal for this month, I'm doing OK so far, which is good as I've had a busy weekend. I'll be posting weekly updates so you can all see how I'm getting on. - 2 blog posts a week - This should be an easy one, purely because I'll be posting a NaNo update every week alongside my usual Celebrate post on a Friday.  - Regularly visit other blogs - This is where I'm not doing great with blogging at the moment. It's easy putting blog posts up, what's harder is actually visiting other blogs regularly. In my eyes there's no point having a blog if I'm not going to read other people's. I'm determined to get back into the habit of checking my feed daily!

Celebrate the Small Things is a weekly bloghop now hosted by Lexa Cain . The idea is to post anything you want to celebrate from the last week, no matter how small. Here's what I'm celebrating this week: - Camp NaNo starts tomorrow! I've been looking forward to actually writing my story since I came up with the idea earlier this year, so I'm really excited for Camp NaNo to start tomorrow.  - My sister gets married in two weeks - it's really crept up on us, but we're all getting excited for it now that the last minute bits and pieces are getting sorted. It should be a fantastic day.

Celebrate the Small Things is a weekly bloghop now hosted by Lexa Cain . The idea is to post anything you want to celebrate from the last week, no matter how small. Sorry for the radio silence, didn't realise it had been three weeks since my last Celebrate post! Here's what I'm celebrating this week: - I posted my story for the WEP bloghop on Wednesday, and got some awesome feedback. Thanks to everyone who stopped by to read it, if you missed it you can find it here . - I've had this week off work, but it hasn't been relaxing! My sister gets married 4 weeks tomorrow, and we've been doing all the last minute bits and pieces this week, since we both had it off work. It's been stressful at times, but we're getting there now! It's also been great being able to spend so much time together this week, with our mum as well.  - Just a week to go until Camp NaNo starts! I'm super excited, though a little nervous, of course. I just can...

This month's theme for the Write Edit Publish challenge is Bridges. Hope you enjoy! The Bridge “They say it’s cursed,” Timmy whispered, his torch held up under his chin, making his face look skull-like. “Nobody who’s ever crossed it has ever come back.” Annie shivered, inching closer to the fire in the middle of the camp. “That’s a lie,” she said. “Mr Jacobson crossed it once, didn’t he?” Timmy sniggered. “Well it didn’t do him much good! He’s terrified of his own shadow!” Carl shook his head. “Timmy’s right, he’s never been the same since. Nobody knows what happened to him, or what he saw! And he’s the only person who’s ever come back. Most people don’t even use it; they go around.” “This is ridiculous,” Bernie said. “A cursed bridge, I’ve never heard of something so stupid. I’m going over it.” “You can’t!” Sarah cried. Bernie turned to her, sneering. “You’re not telling me you believe this nonsense? I thought you were smarter than that, Sarah.” Sarah stiffened. ...

So lately, I've been having trouble with blogging. The only post I've been regularly putting up is the post I put up every Friday for the Celebrate the Small Things blog hop, and I rarely visit other bloggers now. Blogging has become more of a chore than anything, which I absolutely hate because I used to love blogging so much. Upon reflection, I think the issue is that my blog doesn't have direction; I see it as a writing blog, and that limits what I can put on it quite a lot. It's made it quite stressful trying to choose topics to blog about, so I just don't bother. I'm not ready to give up blogging; I still love being a part of the blogging community, and taking part in writing challenges like Write Edit Publish, but on the other hand those can't be the only posts that I write. I've decided to give my blog a thematic makeover; instead of only making it about my writing, I'm going to make it about me. There's a lot more to me than just...

Celebrate the Small Things is a weekly bloghop now hosted by Lexa Cain . The idea is to post anything you want to celebrate from the last week, no matter how small. Here's what I'm celebrating this week: - I spent the weekend in my hometown with my dad and sister, the weather was lovely all weekend, which we took advantage of by having a barbecue on Sunday.  - This month's WEP challenge has been announced; the prompt is Bridges, and I can't wait to start writing my piece. - I've put my novel information in the Camp NaNoWriMo site, all ready for taking the challenge in July. I haven't participated in a NaNo event for a good couple of years now, so I'm excited to take part! I've pretty much finished my planning for the project; I just want to start writing!

Celebrate the Small Things is a weekly bloghop now hosted by Lexa Cain . The idea is to post anything you want to celebrate from the last week, no matter how small. This week I'm celebrating: - Sunshine! It's been lovely, sunny and warm this week, a rarity here in England! I am a winter girl but I do like the odd bit of sunny weather. - Looking forward to a three day weekend due to the bank holiday on Monday - hopefully the weather stays nice!  - I can play a full piano piece now (albeit slowly, and with a few mistakes here and there) - I see this as a huge achievement, as I've never even been able to play anything on any instrument before, let alone a full piece of music. 

Celebrate the Small Things is a weekly bloghop now hosted by Lexa Cain . The idea is to post anything you want to celebrate from the last week, no matter how small. Here's what I'm celebrating this week: - The piano playing is still going well - I can almost play a whole piece now, just a few more bars to learn. I'm slowly getting better at sight-reading, but it's a hard thing to learn! - I'm going to be bridesmaid for my sister when she gets married in July. The bridesmaid dresses arrived a couple of weeks ago, and we're all meeting up to see them and try them on tomorrow. I can't wait to see what they look like! - Pottermore  are hosting a Wizarding World Book Club  in June, and as I am a huge Harry Potter nerd, I'm very excited about this! Any excuse to read and/or talk about Harry Potter is fine by me! 

Celebrate the Small Things is a weekly bloghop now hosted by Lexa Cain . The idea is to post anything you want to celebrate from the last week, no matter how small. This week I'm celebrating: - A Court of Wings and Ruin  by Sarah J. Maas. It's a huge book, and I finished it in 5 days, which is quite good since I've been at work. I stayed up until 1.30 Sunday morning reading it; something I haven't done in a long time!  - Coffee - I'm really appreciating it this week! - I've been teaching myself to play the piano, and it's going quite well - there's nothing like creating music with your own hands.

Celebrate the Small Things is a weekly bloghop now hosted by Lexa Cain . The idea is to post anything you want to celebrate from the last week, no matter how small. Here's what I'm celebrating this week: - I only had to do a 4 day week at work, so that's always a bonus! - My dad and sister are coming over tomorrow and we're going out for lunch, so that should be nice. - Mario Kart came out on the Nintendo Switch last weekend, so I've been playing a lot of that - I don't play a lot of games, but that is one that I like. 

I finally finished the outline for my novel last week, which is great - I think it's the first actual novel outline I've done. All my previous ones were just a couple of sentences - I used index cards for this one, writing out all the scenes I wanted to include, and then used the three act plan to outline the novel. However, I've come to a bit of a standstill working on my characters - every time I sit down to do a character outline, I go blank and then get distracted. I'm blaming it on names; it's really hard to come up with character names! I think I'm overthinking it; I need to just choose some random names, at least for now, otherwise I can see it taking me way too long just to come up with names for all of my characters. In my notes, they all have nicknames like "Mentor Guy" and "Villain Guy" - maybe I should just stick with those! Despite this, I'm not feeling too insecure this month. I published a piece of flash fiction for...

So I didn't set any goals for April because of the A to Z Challenge, which I didn't see through to the end anyway, so April wasn't a great month for goals! However, I did put an entry up for WEP, and I got the encouragement award for it, which is just fantastic. That said, I'm hoping I do a lot better with my May goals, which are as follows: - Put up two blog posts a week - So I've been setting myself this goal every month, and I don't think there's been a month where I've actually achieved it yet. Pretty much my only regular post is my Friday "Celebrate the Small Things" post, which isn't great. I need to add some variety! - Read 4 books  - Even though I have so much more time for reading, I'm still not getting many books read. I'm 2 books behind on my Goodreads target, which I can easily catch up on if I really try. - Story planning - I finished my main outline for my novel last weekend, but I've come to a standstill ...

Celebrate the Small Things is a weekly bloghop now hosted by Lexa Cain . The idea is to post anything you want to celebrate from the last week, no matter how small. Here's what I'm celebrating this week: - So unfortunately, as some of you may have noticed, I've given up on the A to Z challenge. I really wanted to see it through to the end this year, but it just wasn't to be. I was away for a long weekend a couple of weeks ago, and then of course there was Easter, so I just ran out of time. Once again, I gave myself far too much to do! I'm celebrating this because it was the right decision; next year I will plan all of my posts in advance! - I put up a piece of flash fiction for this month's WEP challenge , and I got some really good comments back from it, which is great because I struggled with the prompt this time. If you want to read it, click here  (it's really short!).

OK, so I've really struggled with this theme. It's very much a "happy" theme, and I'm not a "happy" writer - I'm trying not to think too much about what this means about me! Anyway, I almost gave up, but I was determined to put something up, so here it is. Peace and Love If you could give your life to create peace, would you do it? I look at my friends around me. He was standing to my right, the usual calm, almost bored expression on his face. I was one of the only ones who could see through the mask. He knew we wouldn’t make it through this, and yet he stayed by my side, ready to fight to the death. She was on my other side, as always, that fierce look on her face. She never did know when to back down, just like me. I suppose we were a good match. I guess I’ll never find out for sure. I step forward, towards the approaching army. The leader sees my movement, and smiles, curious. He’s not worried. He should be. I take another s...

My theme for the A to Z challenge this year is Storytelling. I'll be writing posts on what I think you need to create a good story; the posts will vary from basics that all writers use in their stories, to themes/tropes that I love to see in stories that I read, and that I use when I write. H is for Heartache My favourite kind of story is one that makes you really feel . When you're reading a novel, and you're so into the story that you feel like you're right there alongside the characters, experiencing their fear, their pain, their happiness. The expression I use is a story that hurts my heart , because that's how I feel; my heart aches for these characters and the struggles that they are going through. I'm so invested in the story and the characters that when they are in pain, so am I. When they're happy, I'm happy. This is my goal as a writer; to make my readers experience this. There's nothing like a story that stays with you long afte...

My theme for the A to Z challenge this year is Storytelling. I'll be writing posts on what I think you need to create a good story; the posts will vary from basics that all writers use in their stories, to themes/tropes that I love to see in stories that I read, and that I use when I write. G is for Goals All of your characters need at least one goal to aim towards during the course of the story. This will add depth to the character, and make them more relatable. Goals provide motivation for your characters, and obstacles that get in the way of your characters achieving that goal provide tension to the story. If your character doesn't have a goal, they have nothing to motivate them throughout the story. The goal is likely to change throughout the course of the story, which is a good thing; your character should be a completely different person by the end of the story, so of course they will want different things. Of course, they might achieve their goal, but they al...

My theme for the A to Z challenge this year is Storytelling. I'll be writing posts on what I think you need to create a good story; the posts will vary from basics that all writers use in their stories, to themes/tropes that I love to see in stories that I read, and that I use when I write. F is for Flaws I think it's hugely important to give all of your characters flaws; it helps the reader to relate to them, and therefore care about them more. Think about it; nobody is perfect. Everybody has personality traits, fears and habits that hold them back, and your characters are no different. Who wants to read a book about someone who does the right thing all the time, with no consequences for their actions? That would be boring, and really unrealistic.  Your character's flaws should prevent them from reaching their goal; this creates an internal conflict for the character. They are basically stopping themselves from getting what they want. It also creates te...

My theme for the A to Z challenge this year is Storytelling. I'll be writing posts on what I think you need to create a good story; the posts will vary from basics that all writers use in their stories, to themes/tropes that I love to see in stories that I read, and that I use when I write. E is for Evil Good vs Evil is one of the most classic themes for stories. However, it's not always that black and white. The best stories are the ones that blur the lines; where the "good" guys have a bad side, or the villain of the story actually has a pretty good reason for doing the "evil" things that they're doing.  All stories need to have one side that the reader can root for, and another side that the reader can root against. If you can blur the lines between the two, it gives the story so much more depth. I think stories where the good guys are perfect are boring, because nobody is perfect; it's just not realistic.  The "Evil" ...

I've got a few insecurities this month, mostly because I've got so much going on. There's the planning for the novel idea I had a few weeks ago, planning for the story I need to write for the WEP Challenge, and then the A to Z Challenge, which I'm determined to take part in until the end this year. Mostly my insecurities come down to the same thing they always do; time management! I know I can get all of these things done if I prioritise properly and manage my time well (which at the moment I'm not doing!) However, I'm determined to complete all of these things, so I will start to manage my time better. Do you have any insecurities this month?

My theme for the A to Z challenge this year is Storytelling. I'll be writing posts on what I think you need to create a good story; the posts will vary from basics that all writers use in their stories, to themes/tropes that I love to see in stories that I read, and that I use when I write. D is for Darkness Now, this isn't something that is needed to create a good story; it's just something that I like to see in the stories that I read/watch. I'm really not one for soppy stories. You know the type; all rainbows and sunshine, where the characters all skip through life and get their super happy endings with barely any struggle. Don't get me wrong; I do like my character's to get a happy ending (although I am also a fan of the bittersweet ending), but I'd rather they had to really fight for it. The best kind of character is one who's faced darkness, and beat it.  My favourite stories are the ones that are so dark, you honestly have no id...

My theme for the A to Z challenge this year is Storytelling. I'll be writing posts on what I think you need to create a good story; the posts will vary from basics that all writers use in their stories, to themes/tropes that I love to see in stories that I read, and that I use when I write. C is for Conflict Another thing that is absolutely essential in storytelling is conflict; without it, a story is boring. It has no teeth. Conflict is basically anything that stops a character from getting what they want, and this, as the author, is our goal. If you're writing a story and your character gets everything they want without having to work for it, you've got no conflict.  Conflict keeps the reader hooked; they'll keep reading, wondering if the characters will ever get what they want, what will happen if they do, and which characters will triumph and which will fail.  It can come in many forms; the main kind of conflict you'll have will probably be be...

My theme for the A to Z challenge this year is Storytelling. I'll be writing posts on what I think you need to create a good story; the posts will vary from basics that all writers use in their stories, to themes/tropes that I love to see in stories that I read, and that I use when I write. B is for Backstory Backstory is hugely important to every story; it gives your characters and your world depth. If they don't have backstory then they're just empty shells; they don't have any motivation, no reason for doing what they're doing.  Now, I'm not saying that you need to include all of the backstory right from the beginning. In fact, I would advise against this; it would just lead to a huge info dump, which would stall the Action (which I talked about in the previous post) and bore the reader.  It is a good idea, however, to be aware of the backstory before you start writing. You need to know what is motivating your character, why your world is h...

My theme for the A to Z challenge this year, is Storytelling. I'll be writing posts on what I think you need to create a good story; the posts will vary from basics that all writers use in their stories, to themes/tropes that I love to see in stories that I read, and that I use when I write. A is for Action No good story exists without some kind of action taking place. Action keeps the plot moving; if there's no action, there's no story. There are small actions, like a conversation between characters that moves the story from one scene to the next, and then there are the bigger actions, like the inciting incident, that pushes the story into its next stage. Basically, if there's no action in your story, the reader will get bored. Every single scene in a story needs to move the plot on in some way; if it doesn't, it needs to be cut. The action needs to start right on the first page; you need to hook your reader straight away, throw them straight into the...