Scribbled Fiction

If you didn't hear already, I published a new book back in August. So exciting! And I recently realized(due to reading a similar post by a friend) that I haven't shared much about the story or the characters to my blog in a while. So, for those of you who haven't read Robbing Centaurs and Other Bad Ideas , and even some of those of you who have and love some fun facts, let's talk about Wick. 1. Wick is a certified SoftBoi Out of the pairing, Wick is the soft child, and Archer is the savage. Wick just wants everything to work out and everyone to do what they're supposed to so that the world will be okay. He protects his friends and thinks all scenery everywhere is beautiful. He loves everything he sees. He's just a cutie. 2. He loves cooking For the first half of the book, Wick is something called a leshy(think walking tree people), and that's his natural form. But for various reasons that you will just have to discover when you read the book, he changes what...

So I've actually been an indie author(or working on being an indie author) for ages longer than I've talked about it or really had an online presence to mention it. I've wanted to be an author since I started getting into writing at age eleven, and I've always wanted to put my books into the hands of other people. Obviously, like the rest of us did, I eventually did my research and found out that doing what I wanted to do would be very hard, nearly impossible unless I really put my back into it. The world of traditional publishing involved a thousand steps I couldn't understand. But for a while, I thought it was my only real option, and it was what I pursued. There was a time where I desperately wanted to be a part of Harper Collins because I noticed they published almost all my favorite books at the time, and I considered them to be the  publishing house to go with. Bit of a shame that Harper Collins was basically ironclad and impossible to get in touch with. So I ...

Something I'm learning from this current draft of Robbing Centaurs and Other Bad Ideas is that I'm really bad at descriptions. I underdescribe, I overdescribe, I put in confusing visuals, my sentences are awkward... I'm just really bad at descriptions. And now that I think about it, descriptions are something that have always been really frustrating for me to try to write. I can picture all these cool places and ideas, but I have no idea how to make the reader see and feel them the way I do. It's probably one of the most frustrating parts of writing for me. Therefore, after seeing all the notes from my sweet editor on descriptions that could be improved, I did a hearty bit of googling on how to write descriptions. This is what I found.  Give the description a flow. Your MC spots another character in the room. What do they notice first, and why? What do they notice after that? Don't just say 'their hair was black and their eyes were blue', that doesn't wo...

Let's talk about some old WIPs of mine! Why? Who cares why! This list is in more or less chronological order of when I've written them, but it's actually roughly in order of how much I like them, or them as they are right now, unedited and possibly never seeing the light of day again. But still, whether or not they will see the light of day, I still wrote them and that gives them importance, so let's talk about them and give them a little love!  Trilagia How old I was: Roughly 11 through 12 Yeah, this was the first thing I ever wrote, and clearly, at the time I didn't know anything about a series or the fact that you had to know where it was going in order to write it, but these books are still dear to my heart even though I shall never read them again or I shall explode from cringe. Amarah was the first awesome short spunky girl character I ever wrote, and also the first lil gremlin we should not trust with matches. I also got to explore worldbuilding in this one e...

 I've written very few girl protagonists. No, it's true. If you were to look at the list of all the protagonists I've written, the list of girls would be much shorter than the guys. Even when I think about my latest WIP, it's pretty guy-heavy. Let's take a look, shall we? Jack, Thief's Son : The protagonist is Jack, a guy, and the villain is a guy. Javi and the Boats in the Sky (2018), has a boy as the protagonist.  NaNoWriMo 2017, Spectacular:  Guy protagonist. Robbing Centaurs and Other Bad Ideas (2019): Not one, but 2  guys as the protagonists. In addition, the mentor is a guy, and most of the main characters are guys too, something that I'm trying to fix, because I want more girls in there. Why do I write so many boys, you ask? *scratches head* Honestly I'm not sure. That's what I'm here to explore. Honestly, I couldn't even figure out all these reasons by myself, so I had my sister discuss with me. Thanks, Rach, you're the best. <...

 Ummmm so I'm way late on this post. I don't know how I got tagged in it in late July and am writing this when it's almost October. However! The Original Outstanding Blogger Award entries end at the end of December, so it's ok. *peaceful sounds* In other news, I was actually tagged on this tag?? Who knew this could happen?? There's a scenario where I don't just steal whatever I want and pretend I was tagged?? What a unicorn of a situation. Anyway, I was tagged by Nicole , so thanks, girl.  THE RULES: 1. Provide the link to the creator's original award post. (this is very important: see why in step five)  Fair. 2. Answer the questions provided.  Can do! 3. Create seven unique questions.  Oh, shoot, I'm toast. 4. Nominate ten bloggers. Ensure that they are aware of their nomination. Neither the award's creator nor the blogger that nominated you can be nominated. 5. At the end of 2020, every blog that ping-backs the creator's original post will be e...

I'm bad at naming chapters. The worst, actually. I used to write out the whole chapter without naming it, then go back through, agonizing over what to use as the title name. All the titles I could think of were either over-the-top or just lame. It was a pain for so long before I finally started paying attention to the chapter titles in other books and realized that a traditional chapter title was not required. I really have no idea if this is a common issue with other writers, for all I know everyone else can name chapters with less effort than it takes to blink. But if it's hard for you like it's hard for me, keep reading. This one's for you. ;) Idea #1: Don't name them! Just use numbers. You don't always need a title, and frankly, readers put very little pressure on you to title them in the first place. You can skip the name and just give the chapter a number. And there are many ways to number, too! You can use just plain numbers(20,21,22) or write them out(Tw...

Hey look another tag that nobody technically tagged me in! But I was looking for blog post ideas and was sent this one by Nicole , so I will thank her anyway. Thanks, Nicole! I owe you one.  I have no other words in my brain, so here we go! Las Reglas parra Tag: Regla Uno:  Thank the blogger who tagged you and provide a link to their post. (see above) Regla Dos: Answer the inquires, including any added ones by means of "Regla Seis". Regla Tres:  Always  use your own characters. No exception, unless you don't actually have sibling characters (in which case you need to go write up some) or you don't write (in which case you need to start ASAP). Regla Quatro: Tag three other bloggers. Regla Cinco: If you happen to have any siblings who blog, they are automatically tagged and cannot count towards your three. Regla Seis: Add one question or prompt to the list of questions the person before you answered relating to siblings and/or characters. Answer the...

Massive confession here: I don't write a lot of romance. I am well known for being the one and only Big Ball of Nope when it comes to romance, whether I'm writing it or reading it or just... it makes me really uncomfortable. *nervous laugh* So because I am the one and only Big Ball of Nope about romance, I haven't written many romances. When I was first planning to do this tag, I was worried I'd only have like 3 romances to reference, but I went through my many many notebooks and I've actually found some! I have a whole post-it note in front of me full of names. Now, there are 14 questions in this tag, and I definitely don't have even that many otps(otp stands for one true pairing, or in other words a romantic couple, for those of you who didn't know), but I'm gonna do it anyway because the few romantic children I do have deserve some attention. Anyway, I totally stole this tag from Kenzie , but it was kindly shared with my hapless blogging self by  Nico...

It has been ages  since I uploaded a short story or something, so I am back!! (confession: I almost couldn't find the file to make the cover image for this post, which nearly ended in total disaster). Anyway, I whipped up some flash fiction for you, and here it is! I don't have a lot of time this morning before I have to go to work, so I don't have the time to make it into a pdf before uploading it. Therefore I'm just putting it straight into Blogger itself. Here's your reminder that this is my intellectual property, my characters, etc., etc., and while I don't actually think any of you would try to steal my work, I'm going to remind you that you can't copy and paste this story or anything, and you can't sell it as your own. Thanks! Spice                 Wick opened the spice cabinet, and his eyes roved over the wealth of jars inside. He felt like a peasant that had stumbled upon a dragon’s hoard. Humans had so many spices! How on earth could...

I realized just the other day reading Lacy's post about her WIPs that I haven't talked about mine in who knows how long! I talk about it constantly on my Instagram and Twitter(where you should be following me, btw), but very seldom on the blog! I give monthly updates in my wrapups, but do I really talk  about what the story is about? No. AND WHY ON EARTH HAVEN'T I??? I don't know. But we're fixing that, okay? Here we go. Here's the working cover for the novel right now. It's obviously not going to be the permanent cover when it gets published because this one is home-made and not that good, but for now, this is what we got: Robbing Centaurs and Other Bad Ideas, or RCOBI for short because it's such a mouthful to say Robbing Centaurs and Other aBad Ideas every. Single. Time I mention it, is a YA fantasy comedy. I'm still not sure if 'comedy' is the word to use, but I'm trying to tell you that I poured my heart and soul into making it funny...