Young Writers Society

Let's go NaNo!!

Some of you may have been around a few years ago when I posted a draft of Liz + Zac here. This story dates all the way back to 2014, and it's honestly my favorite cast I've ever written. I wrote several drafts of this story and queried it back in 2018/2019 and got absolutely no bites. Looking at it with fresh eyes now, I see the big flaws with the story as it stood then.

But. I still love those characters and I still love elements of the story so much. I've had thoughts brewing for a while now about how I could totally revamp the story and I want to give it a try!! While I know the main three characters very well, the story is going to be all new. I'm not referencing any of the old drafts whatsoever.

It will no longer be titled Liz + Zac but I have no idea what the new title will be yet so I'm sticking with "L+Z revamp" until it comes to me

It's a YA contemporary romance because THAT'S MY JAM YA KNOW. It's also DARK.

Our main characters are Liz, Zac, and Cherry. The story is Liz's POV.

Some elements of the story include: figure skating, secrets, complicated families, and LOVE.

I'm a pantser at heart. I have a vague idea of where I'm going and some of the big plot points along the way. I know where we're starting and where we're ending and what the general arc will be. But I can't say too much about the plot just yet because I DON'T KNOW! I'll figure it out as I go, as I do

Can't wait to share more about my darlings as we go <3

I'm saving this post so I can add in like a pitch or more about the premise or something when I feel like it....

I know barely anything about L+Z, but I've seen you talk about it on your wall for ages! I can't wait to see how you handle the rewrite of it. <3

I am so excited for this!!! I feel like I am going to feel so bad for all my favorite characters cause you're probably going to do more terrible things to them now that this novel is Dark, but they'll be okay in the end! (Right??? Maybe??? )

@Mea remember the backstories? I was flirting with it being dark then. Those will be more in the forefront which will make it dark. But it’ll end relatively the same! Less running away for Liz but more Nassar-esque sports scandal for Zac and more Romeo for Cherry.

(Liz and Zac get married in my brain. Cherry also has a happily ever after in my brain which could be a companion novel someday.)

<3 <3

Yes yes yes! I have so much love for this story so I'm glad you're reviving it! If you're posting it here please tag me and if not but you want someone to read it I definitely volunteer!

I remember some bad things in your character's pasts that were a little dark but I'm a little worried about them getting darker... poor babies <3

PlanMo: Part One

I'm going to try for all of the journal prompts!!

1. World-building! What world do your characters live in? A fantasy world? A sci-fi world? The real world? If in the real world--what place? What makes the world your characters live in unique? Describe in your thread what your world looks like.

The Liz+Zac reboot is a contemporary story with no magical or supernatural elements. In my brain, the story takes place in 2014 because that's when the idea first came to me, but that won't really be apparent in the story. I generally try to avoid big time markers in stories because that dates them.

Liz lives in Denver, CO and attends a regular high school. Cherry also lives in Denver, CO and attends the same high school which is how they become friends. Zac lives in Colorado Springs, CO. The reason I'm setting it in Colorado is because I was in Colorado in 2014 when the idea came to me and I love it there :p Also because Zac is an elite figure skater and Colorado Springs is a big skating hub in the US. There is a rink there called the World Ice Area which is part of the Broadmoor Skating Club and a lot of top US athletes train there. I've always envisioned Zac skating there. Now, in the book I'll probably give the club and rink a different name, but it'll be based on that club.

Liz and Zac will meet in Chapter One, but we'll get to the how and why when they don't live in the same city later

We'll spend time around Denver and around Colorado Springs. We'll spend a fair amount of time at the ice rink. Liz and Zac went to a lot of Denver parks the first time around and I don't know yet if they're still going to be into that this round. We'll see!

I've visited Denver and Colorado Springs before. I've never been to the World Ice Arena but I'd love to go and skate a public session there sometime!!

PlanMo: Part Two

2. Have a think about your opening scene. Write about what plot points will be hit and what information will be shared in your first scene, or first scene that you consider to be important.

My opening scene is one of the few I actually have figured out!
Liz has a brother with special needs. They saw a news story about a local teen who won a medal at the Junior World Figure Skating Championships (Zac). Liz's brother (Jack) watches Zac's skate over and over and over again. His physical/occupational therapy place often does special classes and experiences and have offered an 8 week Special Olympics skating class at the World Ice Arena (which is a real place and I'm probably going to change the name) in Colorado Springs. Liz and Jack's parents sign him up for it. A chaperone needs to go with him each week for the Saturday morning class and Liz offers to do it.

So the first scene is Liz taking her brother to the rink for his first class. The class is set up to be a 30 minute class where everyone is paired with a physical or occupational therapist helper and a skating helper. The second half hour the chaperones can get on the ice too and skate. Zac is one of the skater helpers and while he's not paired with Jack, during the free skate portion when Liz joins her brother on the ice, they both meet Zac. And there will be feelings

There will be some set-up with her close bond to her younger brother and her strained relationship with her parents. But the most important part is that the story kicks off with our little lovebirds meeting. Their love story will be central throughout!

PlanMo: Part Three

3. Don't neglect your villain. We may spend less time with this character, but it is crucial to the existence of the plot that your character's opposition be as believable and interesting as possible. For this challenge, either write about your antagonist's aims, characteristics, flaws, fears etc or, if you're feeling musical, write a lament-style song for them.

This is a great question because I don't know! That's a lie. I thought about it for two seconds and I do know :p

I wouldn't call them "villains" because that feels weird in contemporary romance. But I definitely have antagonists.

For Liz, her parents fall into this category. Liz is a talented piano player and this is something she wants to pursue in college (although she doesn't know what she wants to do with it career wise yet). Her parents stopped paying for her piano lessons years ago because they've prioritized all of the therapies and things her brother with special needs needs to have. This causes a rift with Liz and her parents that only widens as time goes on. She feels ignored by them, used by them in some ways, and as if she can't do anything right in their eyes. They assume Liz is fine and they don't have to worry about her because she never says anything to the contrary. Jack (the brother) has so many needs that they don't have time to think about hers.

Also for Liz, in the previous version of this story there were also some girls at school who were major antagonists and were sort of a catalyst for some choices she made in that book. I'm toying with having a similar school issue happening this time around. One of the original idea sparks for this book was exploring "slut shaming" culture and I'd still like to do something with that. There will probably be some antagonists at her school that shame her for her sexual choices.

For Zac, his parents can probably also fall into this category. They're sort of the opposite of Liz's parents - over-involved, micro managers, pushing him to stay at the elite figure skating level and do whatever it takes (which leads to a big problem early on and another antagonist that I don't want to talk about for him yet because it's sort of a twist?) The parents mean well. Zac is very talented and loves the sport and they want him to succeed. But their pushing might not yield what they're hoping for.

Cherry's parents are also complicated people but only her mom is involved and I'll keep her in the complicated category rather than an antagonist category. I also don't want to get into the antagonist in her story line just yet because that person is also sort of a build up and a twist.

PlanMo: Part Four

4. Fill out the following questionnaire from the NaNo site about at least one of your side characters, though the more you do the more prepared you will be.

Okay I never do these because they're usually not helpful to me. I do a lot of thinking about characters before I start but these aren't the kinds of things I usually spend time figuring out. But hey, let's give it a shot. I'll answer as many as I can for Liz, Zac, and Cherry.



Omg this is why I never do these. It takes forever :p
Maybe I'll do the rest another time.

PlanMo: Part Five

5. Two alternatives for outlining your plot: 1. Draw them as a graph, 2. Write a list of everything important that happens and in the margins make not of what happens in between.

7. Post a brief outline of your plot on the club wall then go around all the other posts asking questions and suggesting plot holes that the author might want to correct.

8. Give a rough outline of the key moment in your story so far. What is that one scene you're really, really excited to write?

These are all similar questions so I'm going to answer them all together.

As I've said a bunch already, I'm a pantser when I write a first draft and I'm a discovery writer. I enjoy learning more about my characters/world/story through the act of writing and spending a bunch of time outlining before I start is not only not helpful to me, but also takes some of the joy from me because I like to give my characters the space to do what they're going to do in a first draft and then in subsequent drafts I definitely do more plotting and planning beforehand.

All that being said, I still try to follow story beats as I write and even as I'm pantsing I have the general story beats I need to hit in the back of my mind to help keep me on track and so we don't totally go off the rails. I also don't really map out what each beat will be before I start either, but when I go to do the subsequent drafts I definitely take the time to make sure I'm hitting each beat and tightening up the general arc.

This is the one I like because I write romance, but you can apply this to any genre or find one specific to your genre. I ignore the word count stuff and just focus on the actual beats.

I know those are all of the emotional notes I'm trying to hit and I have some vague ideas at the moment of how I'll hit them, but I'm going to figure it out as I go (and that works for me!)

I love that you have a beat sheet! I'm going to go hunting for one I can use as my stories tend to get away from me.

And you do you! Planning isn't for everyone and the original was certainly great so I can't wait to see what this new version brings <3

Day One

Working on: Finishing draft 1 of Dark Corners, Bright Spaces
Word crawl of the day: Halloween Crawl (because I didn't finish it yesterday :p)
Listened to: the laundry and children playing soccer in the field by the house
Words written today: 2833/1667
Total manuscript words: 52,283
Total NaNo words: 2833

Favorite line of the day:
"I didn’t want to fill her with platitudes that it was all going to be okay and she didn’t have to worry about a thing, because I didn’t know that."

Day Two

Working on: Finishing draft 1 of Dark Corners, Bright Spaces
Word crawl of the day: Back to the Mean Girls Crawl
Listened to: boy is watching car youtube in the other room and then Easy Breezy Fall Study Ambience on Youtube. (this listened to thing will be more important when I get to the L+Z rewrite...)
Words written today: 1139/1667 (hit a wall but I'm above the goal and I'm confident I can stay ahead tomorrow!
Total manuscript words: 53422
Total NaNo words: 3972

Favorite line of the day:
"Silence had never been an enemy to us."

Day Three

Working on: Finishing draft 1 of Dark Corners, Bright Spaces
Word crawl of the day: Still on the Mean Girls Crawl
Listened to: THE ELECTION COVERAGE x_x
Words written today: need at least 1029 today to stay on track! 317/1667
Total manuscript words: 53739
Total NaNo words: 4289

Favorite line of the day:
Um... none of them were good? :p

My friend also called and we talked for an hour about non election things so..... Guess I really need to write 1667 tomorrow! I can catch up over the weekend. I just can't get more behind this week!