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1. #PLANMO PROGRESS REPORT
2. DEMONGODDESS
3. NOVEL PLANNING
4. POP CULTURE CORNER: 5 TIRESOME THINGS IN HORROR MOVIES
5. TWO CENTS: PLANMO
6. SHAMELESS PLUGS
7. SUBSCRIBERS

#PLANMO PROGRESS REPORT

written by LadyLizzLovelace < PM: >

November on YWS means two main things for me: NaNoWriMo and the YWS Chef Club forums hopefully being filled up with pie recipes. But we're still in October, so that means Halloween and PlanMo.

If you haven't been paying attention lately or have just been hiding from the Empire forces, NaNoWriMo happens in November when you decide to do a 50k novel in the space of a month and PlanMo happens in October where you spend 31 days perfecting every bit of your outline. To help you out with this, we have a wonderful , and at the lead is the lovely @BiscuitsLeGuin, our first guest for the day.



BiscuitsLeGuin:go ahead



B:Other than the fact that we seem to be the ones most (over?)enthusiastic about the whole thing, we do generally work well as a team. We have similar frames of reference and attitudes to things around the site. I obviously can't speak explicitly for Kays, but I get the feeling that like me she likes to help people purely for the fact that people just write better, and feel better while they're writing. That is something that makes me happy, and from the amount that Kays reviews and how nice she is to everyone, I think it's pretty clear that she has a similar outlook. A similar outlook is super important when putting stuff together because it means we're able to present a united front and, hopefully, reassure people who might be taking on this enormous project for the first time that it's not as scary as it seems.



B:My favourite part of planning is almost always when the characters come to life and start talking to you, telling you what their story is. At that point what becomes interesting is how you're going to tell it. I think for that reason one of my favourite challenges is the one about structure. It's not something NaNo-ers would necessarily think of on their own; as in, it's not the most essential thing if you're planning the bare bones of a story. But structure can be fascinating, so I'm really glad I have a platform to share this obsession of mine with others and see if I can get them excited about it xD



B:YES. I want to give a shoutout to @ThemagicalEbonyFox whose ideas so far are full of internal conflict in characters and grey areas in characters where they're not necessarily goodies or baddies. I'm also super intrigued by @Steggy's because it's such an original idea that I have absolutely no idea where it's going to go.



B:So, I've realised recently that some people really do plan in very different ways. As a result of that realisation, I want to press that when I say these things, I mean they are what works for me, not what you should necessarily do if this is just totally unintuitive to you.

My aim when planning is generally to get far enough into my story, and my excitement about that story, to get that moment where everything just begins to spark off. I'll have a character and I'll think about a relationship with another character and I'll realise an inconvenient conflict that could be there, then a point of setting will occur to me that would emphasise this and make it more pressing for the characters. In order to get to this sort of frame of mind, I tend to do two things:

1) Ask myself loads and loads of questions about my story. If I look into enough areas, eventually one of them will explode.
2) Write some monologues or even non-plot-related dialogues from the points of view of my characters, even if I'm going to be writing in third person. This is something I find very immersive, and the immersion helps me to find out what my world is like in more detail.

For actual NaNo, my first piece of advice is DO NOT EDIT. Try not to even read what you've written, unless you need to remember a detail for continuity. Due to the speed you're writing at, this is not going to be your finest work. This is totally natural, but I can almost guarantee that if you see writing below your usual standard you will freak out and lose confidence. Avoid this at all costs because it will strangle your momentum.

The last thing I want to say is that there's no shame in not finishing. Burnout is a serious danger, and if you want to keep this project with you long term, I recommend stopping as soon as it starts to feel like a chore to even finish the sentence you're on. I don't mean like, you've written 1400 words today and you can't be bothered getting in that last 267. I mean when you wake up in the morning and can barely even countenance looking at the damn thing. That is not the frame of mind you want to be in.

But seriously everyone, remember to have fun



After a brief interlude of a cat meme, we will pick up with some of the users taking part in PlanMo.


And now that the commercial break is over, it is time for the rest of the PlanMo report. Today we talk to three participants who have made time in their busy planning sessions to talk with us.

Please welcome to the virtual arm chairs @ThemagicalEbonyFox, @DemonGoddess and @BlueAfrica.



TheMagicalEbonyFox: I think if I summarized my novel it would be something like this:
Emmeline's life suddenly changes when she discovers she's been caught up in a war that will determine the fate of both heaven and hell. A representative from each of the realms has been sent to try and convince her which side she should take, which means Emmeline has a lot of difficult decisions to make.

BlueAfrica:I'm actually rebelling this year and working on two stories. One is of course the Chosen Grandma story, which I'll continue working on as usual for LMS: it's about an 83-year-old woman who becomes the Chosen One and has to face dragons, skepticism, and technology before she can defeat the antagonist.

The other story is The Story Formerly Known As The Book Man, which I'm revising. I'm hoping NaNoWriMo kicks my butt into gear so I actually finish this draft. The plot is a lot more complex than it used to be, but the tl;dr version is there's a magical park in Scotland with an ancient beast trapped beneath it and more beasts outside the walls, ready to do his bidding.

DemonGoddess:Sarah and Tamara are students at the best university in England that are haunted by a malicious ghost. When the ghost kidnaps them, they are whisked to a world where reality are dreams and dreams are reality.



F:My favourite challenge so far has been world building. It's been great fun coming up with all the history of the two realms and trying to imagine what they would look like and exploring the rest of the nonsense inside my head.

BA:Gosh, I haven't even done most of the challenges yet. I quite enjoyed filling out the side-character questionnaire for two awesome ladies from The Book Man, but the plot outline feedback is probably going to be the most helpful.

DG:I'm really behind. I'm still working on Worldbuilding. Once I get past that, though, I think I'll be able to catch up.



F:This is my first time attempting NaNo. I'm hoping for the best.

BA: I've participated in NaNo in some form or another every year since 2010.

D:This is my first time. I'm really nervous O.o



F:My favourite thing is probably the fact that there isn't really one particular villain on my story; it's all to do with your perspective. There's lots of points where neither side is justified in there actions, and Emmeline has to learn that the world isn't made of bad guys and good guys, just people with different opinions.

BA:Oh, man. There are so many things I love about The Book Man, after so much time spent with it. I enjoy all the relationships between various characters, even though I feel like that could make it hard to market someday since it's a fantasy novel that focuses heavily on these relationships.

Probably my single favorite thing about the Chosen Grandma story is the line, "Alas, it was only a magical sword, not a magical fire-extinguisher."

DG:The idea, I guess. That dreams are reality and that reality are dreams.



F:I'm not a very experienced writer, but my top tip would be to stop thinking about all that planning you're going to do, or all those words you're going to write, and actually sit down and write them. I've had to learn the hard way that fantasising about making progress isn't very productive, however putting the work in does pay off in the end.

BA: I have lots of NaNo-related advice, but the two most important bits of it I can give are: find a community and make time.

November is a great time to be a writer, because you take a normally solitary pursuit and make it more of a group activity. Set your region on the site to find out what events are taking place near you. Go to a write-in! Make NaNo-buddies! Find a pen pal! It's a lot more fun this way and you'll have people to encourage you and hold you accountable.

As for time restraints, a lot of people say, "I just don't have the time!" which might be true - I've done NaNoWriMo while going to school and working two jobs, plus you still have to clean, eat, etc. But if you really want to do this, you can find the time. Carve it out of your day. Write on your fifteen-minute break at work. Write as the teacher sets up for class. Write during meals. Even if you don't reach 50,000 words, you'll be amazed how much writing you can get done if you actually take the time to do it.

DG:Don't get behind like I did XD

That's all we've got for today folks. Please stay tuned for the rest of the news.

FEATURED MEMBER: DEMONGODDESSwritten by LUMI < PM: >

Beloved listeners, I'm so glad you're here! Not just moments after you entered the skating rink slash hair salon owned by @Aley and @Saruka, @DemonGoddess sauntered in, ready to strike out some of those...err. What do you call them? The white sticks that you knock over in bowling--? Pins! She wanted to knock over some pins! I promised her a free game if she'd share this interview, and she said yes! So we are back at the Studio of Voice-To-Pixel, which DemonGoddess is insisting I reveal to be a simple yPhone, and we are ready for a power-packed interview!


DemonGoddess: What are these pancakes you speak of? I also prefer my dogs and cats roasted, thank you very much. Fluffy dogs and cats are just disgusting. **sips drink, which is filled with a strange colorful liquid**


DG: Oh, of course that message is important. I mean, I keep myself optimistic all the time at the prospect that reviewing will get me souls. Souls are very important to me. As are roasted animals. Those are a tasty treat.


DG: What mints? I dislike mints. I would prefer souls. I love to eat them. Great snacking. Yours was particulary good to eat. Tasted almost like... coffee candy. I usually don't like coffee, but there was a bit of a spice in it that made it interesting! I like interesting in my souls.


DG: I don't. I live in heck, of course. You don't keep things chilly there. I mostly just roast them over a fire and eat them. I don't mind the soul juice on my bed. It makes the bed all rainbowish and pretty and confuses the crap out of my minions.



This has been an interview brought to you by BeeLine Reader , the only way Lumi confesses to read long novel chapters and storybook posts without getting headaches! From his desk:

Due to the changing colors--ever-so-slightly over time--your pace of reading picks up, and your eyes don't trip over themselves upon reading, say...difficult words or phrasing that may seem clunky or too verbose. In fact, when you do slow down for them, you'll know it's a point of improvement for the writer! The pasteboard is always free, so check it out whenever!

What's that, Aley? Shameless plugs? Oh, sure I'll put this in shameless plugs. But I also have something else planned for it as well.

NOVEL PLANNINGwritten by EternalRain < PM: >

Since it’s October, also known as PlanMo or pre-NaNoWriMo, I thought I’d discuss how I plan my novels! There are tons of different ways to plan your story or characters - whether it’s a detailed story arc, the snowflake method, or even no planning, it’s a lot easier to write your novel when you find the right method for yourself.

I’ve written a novel with hardly any planning before and personally, for me, that did not go well. However, for some people it’s easier to just throw up words onto the page and edit them later. I can’t do that - everything ends up getting so mixed up for me, and there end up being way too many plot holes!

So, I usually stick to two methods of planning. My first method is a numbered list of what goes on in the book. Usually, I’ll start by figuring out the start and the ending, and from there create a small numbered list of events in chronological order. I’ll then go and make it more detailed. This carves the path for my writing, and I’m easily able to follow along with the list!

This is an example:

1. Sally wakes up, goes to first day at her new school.
2. At school, Sally meets the most popular guy in school, and makes friends with Lilly and Emma.
3. Sally is made fun of in the halls by the mean girls who are jealous of her encounter with said popular guy.
4. A few days later, Sally tries out for the cheerleading team and the mean girls get mad when she’s accepted.
5. Next day, popular guy asks if Sally wants to go to the movies with him.

Etc, etc

My second method is really similar, and that is a chapter-by-chapter outline. This method helps me a lot with pacing, as well as organizes what’s happening when in a very neat manner. A chapter by chapter outline usually takes me a longer time, but for me helps a lot more than a numbered list. However, this method does feel a bit more constricted which may not be the best for someone who loves the flow of words whenever and wherever they want.

To do my chapter by chapter outline, I simply go chapter by chapter and give a one to two sentence summary of what will happen in the chapter. Here’s an example, of the same scenario above:

Chapter 1: Sally wakes up for the first day of school (nervous). She bumps into popular dude, gets embarrassed. At lunch, she meets up with two other girls. Later in the day, Sally is made fun of in the halls by the mean girls.
Chapter 2: Sally tries out for the cheerleading team, and the mean girls don’t treat her nicely. Then, popular guy asks if she wants to go to the movies with him.

Etc, etc

The chapter by chapter outline is much more compressed than the numbered list. The numbered list doesn’t have much going on per number, so a few numbers can be compressed into one chapter. My numbered lists vary in vagueness, and it all depends on what you want and what feels right.

For my characters, I usually simply list main qualities, appearance, quirks, traits, and any other notes (like birthdays). I tend to neglect my characters when it comes to planning and instead focus more on plot - which is something I personally should work on a bit.

Obviously you don’t have to use the same method as me! But maybe if you’re stuck on how to plan - or maybe you want to try a new approach - you can try one of these out. I’m not a fan for super detailed planning (the time, ugh!) but I do need some guidance or else my novel will spin out of control. Have fun PlanMo-ing!

POP CULTURE CORNER: 5 TIRESOME THINGS IN HORROR MOVIES

written by LadyLizzLovelace < PM: >

It is almost Halloween and that means you will spend at least one night watching horror movies. Like all other genres of movies, it has a bunch of different little recurring things that you can spot over and over and over again. Now they're not necessarily a signal of the movie being of poor quality or a film that should have never been made, but they do show up enough to make you doubt filmmakers. If you weren't already in the doubting filmmaker boat already.
Just buckle in for the ride folks.

Jump Scare is the absolute best type of horror...not
If you have been hiding under a rock, for good reason this time, jump scares are essentially what they sound like. Big shockers that the writer just repeatedly throws into the plot line when you need to change it up a bit. In the realistic fiction genre, this would be equivalent to finding out a character was pregnant, having an affair, and/or dying. Horror just likes to use more creepy clowns busting out from crates in abandoned warehouses and more blood dropping out of the ceiling.
Now as a regulated thing, these are used in lots of stories, often for revealing the villain. Keeping a shroud of mystery around the identity of public enemy number one, is an effective use. But creating an entire movie around it is torture. In the same way cursing often goes overboard in movies, sometimes justified because "holy word way worse than crap, that zombie just tried to kill us", but saying it 50 times in a row leads to "holy word zombies meh."


Zombies: America's undead sweetheart or crazy next door neighbor
Every movie with zombies goes along the lines of isolated town, voodoo, rise of zombies, townspeople die, and select band of heroes. Bonus points if it's an old crazed Marine, jock from the football team, a cheer leader, a female teacher and some standard characters. Half of them will die by the end of the movie so we don't really need to worry about them, just remember their sacrifice to the mob of zombies. And most of the select team lives, fights till dawn when these like vampire/zombie hybrids retreat to the graveyard and then save the day. Or they might do it with a grenade or fire or more fire. It doesn't matter how they do it, they always save the day.
Granted I have not gotten in a full dose of zombie movies for awhile but the Walking Dead being a tv series that lasted for more than one season, just makes me further doubtful of horror movies at a whole.

If there's a serial killer, the blond female nerd is gonna end up with the male jock no matter what other things happen in the plot.
It's unfortunate that Hollywood doesn't know that more than these same 10 characters exist. We also know that the kind of chubby companion to the jock is gonna bit the dust. Well most likely will unless there is a teacher with them or a sheriff's deputy, because serial killers go after authority figures like a bloodhound on bird. Those two characters mentioned above, will be too focused on fixing their non-existent relationship rather than saving their friends who are hanging from meat hooks in the garage.


Vampires
They are the blood sucking demons that come straight from Hell and the hero is going to send them right back there with a stake to the heart. Or chopping them into bits with an axe. Maybe even lighting them on fire, all depending on what movie you're watching and what lore they decided to follow. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is actually a fairly good example of the multiple ways to kill vampires, in which Abe uses almost all of them. Even if they're not from Romania, we can automatically expect them to have weird accents because such is the life of vampires. Your accent might be more British than anything else but you're not gonna survive the movie, so I wouldn't worry about it too much.
Unless this is Twilight so start worrying.

BLOOD
Keep in mind that stage blood is the old corn starch and dye trick or jam or some chemicals that you don't want to known the name of. But the way that blood is often presented is why it managed to make this list, rather than the ghosts that I was originally going to talk about. Ghosts have 50 million different things going, blood can be narrowed down a bit from that wide expanse.
Some movies fill up the screen with the crimson liquid, believing that as long as you have this one thing, you don't need a plot at all. Personally I don't mind gore much but I've seen too many movies being ruined by it being a bit too over the top. One that sticks out to me here is Hot Fuzz. (wonderful movie but it's got issues) I know several people who liked the premise but wouldn't watch it because of that "over the top" factor.

Well folks that's all I've got for now. Stay tuned for the next edition of Pop Culture Corner, which will explore Young Frankenstein.

TWO CENTS: PLANMOwritten by Aley < PM: >

This month has been PlanMo and I have been loving the recent activity in the clubs. The Official PlanMo Club has been the home hub for everything PlanMo, so here's the skinny on this amazing event in case you've lost the plot.

PlanMo was originated as a way to gear everyone up for NaNo, or National Novel Writing Month in November. At that time, novelists all across the US and other countries try to write 50,000 words in a month, and often get distracted by encouragement and participation treats. It's like NaPo if you're more familiar with that, but for novels.

Because NaNo pushes for 50,000 words in a month, it is good to have a game plan going into the novel and that means world building, which means a month of planning is just about right. PlanMo, therefore, is to try to plan out the novel, fanfiction, short story book, etc, that you're going to write for the next month attempting to get to 50,000 more words than you had.

On YWS we run planning events like workshops and challenges for the month. We like to talk about what makes a good story, and how to plan better so we can avoid plot holes, and in the end, we get something like the PlanMo club as a tool for the year, and the years to come.

I think PlanMo the best part of PlanMo is getting a chance to just focus on the set up. More often than not, a novel idea gets away from us because we get so excited about one scene, that we forget there needs to be a beginning, climax, and end. Without a series of events that leads up to some sort of grand finally, the readers are left unsatisfied, or grossly disappointed. We want to make our readers think, so we have to plan the path they're going to travel.

Although this PlanMo is almost over, you still have time to jump into planning whatever venture you have in the works. After all, half of writing is pre-writing. outlines, world building, character creation, plotting, diagrams, maps, society standards, and conflicts all need time to develop in your head before you can get it down on paper in a cohesive manner.

As long as you're thinking about your next big idea, you're planning, so let's "daydream" for another week.

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