Evolution of a Book Cover (aka Dude, that’s fickin awesome! How’d u do that?)

Posted on June 11, 2012 by admin

It’s been drawn to my attention that I have an unusual perspective when it comes to being a writer. Not only do I write and market all my books, but I also create the covers–from scratch. And not stock photography, pre-fabby, template kinda scratch. I’m talking non-Betty Crocker insta-cover, going-the-full-mile kinda scratch. The kind of covers that truly start with nothing but a camera and an idea.

Here’s what I got to work with. (Yes, I am speaking in my muppet urban vernacular in this post, because it’s fun and trendy, so you’ll have to deal).

You see this? I got a regular girl, a camera, and my brain. That’s it. That’s all I start with. (Want to see everything bigger? Click the image and it’ll open full size).

We usually shoot a few different outfits, something plain–but who likes plain? I mean, why not pull out all the stops and throw on a ball gown? These are Young Adult book covers after all. (And once you own a ballgown, I’m convinced you’ll wear it everywhere. Because they are that much fun! It’s only a matter of time until ballgowns become street clothes). Anyway, a big dress with lots of folds in the fabric adds texture, depth, and interest–in other words it photographs really fricken awesome!

Next, I find stuff that will help the flow of the final image and tie into the story. In this shoot, the model is wearing Collin’s ring and holding Shannon’s dagger. The images were shot (usually) with one large soft box and fill light. I wanted high contrast between the skin and the background and dress, so I made sure this series had more evenly lit skin in the shots for the TORN cover below. On the Demon Kissed cover (jacket pictured below), things are much more shadowy. The short lighting gives that tense ominous feeling that I <3.

After the model is set up, we start shooting. The shoot runs 2-3 hours depending on what we are doing. Going into a new shoot, I usually have an idea of the kind of feelings I want from the final image and then try to figure out the poses that match. So its like reverse-engineering a little bit. The entire series will have all the covers shot on the same day at the studio.

Most images tend to be low-key (dark images with a lot of black) since that reflects the mood of the Demon Kissed series. When I shoot romance covers next week for more Ella Steele’s upcoming releases, they’ll be brighter to match the moods of those books. (YES! I’m writing more romance under the name Ella Steele. I’ll talk more about that in another post).

I can’t tell you how important it is to make sure the mood of the book matches the mood of the cover. If you have happy hearts, bright colors, and unicorns–then read Demon Kissed–you’ll have a wtf moment and your brain will explode. Okay, maybe not explode, but if you were looking for something fun and light, and got something dark and sexy, you might not be too happy with me. The cover is one of the things that worried me about going the traditional publication route, since I’d have no control.

So, if you remember one thing from this post it should be this: MOOD MATTERS.

After the shoot, we look through the images. You might be thinking, FUN! Well, in a way it is, but what is actually happening is that I am looking at a series of sister shots (a bunch of shots that look nearly identical). It’s like looking at a filmstrip, and playing spot-the-diff. After going through each and every image, I’ll chose the one that I like best for the cover.

The 4 images above are unedited and uncropped. They’re straight out of camera – which I NEVER show to anyone cuz it’s like walking around the mall in nothing but underpants, and I’m not that kinda girl. But for the sake of art, I decided to post them today, so you can see the process that goes into making the book cover. Parts of making the cover are fun. Parts are tedious. I mean, do you see the difference b/t #1 and #3? Imagine looking at 30 shots of those, where the differences are so minor most people can’t see them. This is where being a freaky OCD perfectionist helps. I can use my super-critical skills for good instead of evil, and all while not donning a cape. (Although capes are really fun, right?)

So I chose an image. We hold a huge ceremony and bust open champagne and… well, no. Not yet. But keep your cape on. We’re almost done and you’ll want to fly and show all your friends.

The next thing is editing the image. My models wear stage make-up when we’re shooting. It makes editing go a lot faster. The thick make-up hides skin issues and makes certain that the model still has color on her face after the cover is fully processed. During the final stages of making the cover, the image’s brightness is pushed, and it’s possible to lose skin tones, so the edited image above is actually intentionally underexposed.

The next step is pulling her off the background and starting the cover design. If you purchase stock to make your covers, this is where your cover begins. If you’re a control freak like me, look at all the things you didn’t get to control! Sometimes it pays to use stock, but if you are writing a series, promoting the hell out of it, and then have the same cover models as everyone else–well, it’s not very good branding. Dude, I’ve seen at least 17 covers, all by different authors, who have the same exact couple on the cover. The images were being used by the Big 6 and Indie authors.

It makes your branding moot when other people have access to the same images.

Business brains might be thinking, Yes, but is a photo shoot cost-effective? The answer: Hell yes! Stock images are expensive and now Indie authors can’t buy the little images because the pixel dimensions are too small for Amazon’s new requirements (they are asking 2500px on the longest side for ideal viewing). You want ideal viewing. That’s the whole purpose of the cover – to lure in readers. Having it showing like crap won’t help you. So, your covers suddenly shot up in price if you are using stock. Price a photoshoot. You can find anything from $30, which can include the disc, and up. Photographers’ rates are all over the place. In other words, it’s worth looking into.

So I chose the shot I want to use, but it’s not perfect. It’s not EXACTLY what I want. It has the feeling, and she looks pretty, but it needs something. I can see Shan’s blade and Collin’s ring, but I want the dress to pop more. Although I LOVE purple, the Demon Kissed cover is purple, I want this cover to be different.

So, for TORN, I decided to make her gown red to match her lips.

As soon as I change her gown to red, I can see everything. I know I want the gothic-ish overlay. The entire series uses those to help tie them together. I need to add her Martis mark to her forehead, the violet mark Ivy has in the book. I change her eye color and make them rimming violet, like in the book. And I brightened her hair. It was getting lost a little bit after applying the layers of the overlay.

So, now my image has about 35 layers. Here is a screen shot of what things look like at this point. (And I’m working in CMYK for print. I’ll convert it later to RGB for computer screens. I’ve found it’s easier to maintain rich colors that way).

Next, I take my cover image (minus the words) flatten it and drop it onto the print template. I check my gutters and crop lines (the little blue/ green rulers) to make sure everything lines up correctly so that it will print right. My books are printed at a standard trade paperback size, in this case 5″x8″. If I just made the template at 5×8, when the book is printed, it won’t look right. You have to leave extra room so the cover can be cut before it’s bound to the rest of the book. You also need to leave a place for the barcode. Your printer can give you the margins so you can place guidelines on your cover to make sure everything lines up correctly. If you can do the interior margins, this is the same kind of thing.

Next, the text is added. All my covers have large text on the back. It’s the hook from the first book in the Demon Kissed series, then they go into their own description. Then I add my other book covers from this series to the back of the book. Again, images lend to mood. The more images you have, the better. There’s a jewel pic on the spine, a little glimpse of the cover pic. And the number in the series, author, publisher, etc. I also put on the back cover a new series that is coming out next.

And this is what it looks like when the jacket is complete and ready to print.

It’s kind of cool to see the process from start to finish. It has that awesome-esk feeling of seeing a before and after shot. Below is another completed book jacket. It’s for the first book in the Demon Kissed series. Remember how I told you that I LOVE purple? Yeah, well, I have to make a consious effort not to make every single cover purple. That also means my favorite cover in the entire series is this one… cuz it’s PURPLE!

That’s the evolution of a book cover. It starts as a hunched-over, slobbering hairy guy, and ends with a pretty girl in a dress holding a dagger. Tah-dah!

GET DEMON KISSED NOW:

H.M. Ward is the bestselling author of the Demon Kissed series, and an award winning photographer. To see all of her covers, click here.

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Sneak Peek: VAMPIRE APOCALYPSE: BANE (Book #1) by H.M. Ward (Paranormal Romance)

Posted on June 7, 2012 by admin

Sneak Peek: Chapter 1 of VAMPIRE APOCALYPSE: BANE (Book #1) by H.M. Ward

That day lingered at the back of Kahli’s mind like a nightmare. The memories and emotions bled together, making every terrorizing moment painfully clear. Kahli and her mother were not halfway through the crystalized trees when the first ray of light burst forth. Icy pines jutted up out of the ground forming towering spires. Kahli remembered everything: The crisp scent of the morning air, the sunlight on her face, her mother’s voice—even and urgent—telling her to stay hidden. Every piece of information was stored with acute detail in her mind.

Making their way down the icy slope of the mountain had taken longer than expected that day. It was nearly ten years ago now. She was barely seven. Just after they’d entered the woods, Kahli’s mother turned sharply. Instinctively, she grabbed her daughter’s hand, and searched the landscape behind them. Mother’s heart stopped. The Trackers were too close. If she didn’t do something, they would both be captured.

Her grip on Kahli’s small hand tightened. Leaning closer to her daughter, she whispered in her ear, “Run.”

Kahli blinked, shaking her head. It felt like she was stuck in a dream and time had stopped. Her mind couldn’t comprehend what her mother had done. What she said. This couldn’t be real. But it was. Mom ran directly toward the Trackers, leaving her behind.

Ignoring the terror that rushed through her tiny body, Kahli finally turned and sprinted in the opposite direction. The pounding of her heart echoed in her ears as she gasped in the frigid air. Cold dry wind whipped her small cheeks. Kahli’s spiked shoes cut deep into the glittering snow, but they left no foot print, only tiny holes left by the spikes. They would soon be covered with the dry powdery snow that blew through the air like dust.

Kahli ran until the stitch in her side felt like it was going to burst. Her legs screamed in protest, burning, begging her to stop, but she didn’t. She couldn’t. Sucking in huge breaths, Kahli ignored the needles pinching her lungs and fled. She didn’t look back. There were no sounds other than the thumping of her heart and the howl of wind ripping through the trees, nothing that indicated pursuit. She didn’t know what her mother heard, but she knew without a doubt that there was danger behind her, and that her mother had run straight into it. Kahli stumbled, forcing her feet to continue.

The brightness of the frozen trees shone in her eyes like a thousand suns, blinding her. They should have passed through these woods earlier. It was her fault they were here now, trying to escape from creatures that couldn’t be outrun. Her heart hammered harder, her small body filled to the brim with fear, shaking as she ran. The ski mask that covered her face to protect her from the wind made it difficult to see. She’d nearly collided with a tree. It didn’t fit quite right. The worn wool was slightly too large for her small head. Kahli untied her hood and tore off the mask. She decided it was better than slamming into one of the ancient aspens. Gasping for air, she shoved the mask in her pocket. Fiery red hair streamed behind her as she fled.

Nearing the edge of the woods, Kahli slowed. A sound carried through the trees to her left. Jerking her head toward the noise, Kahli saw her mother rush through a thicket of briars, shattering them into tiny fragments as she thrashed her way through.

Breathless, Mother reached for Kahli, and shoved her into the frozen thicket. The branches gave way without shattering, concealing the small child. Leaning down, Mother breathed so hard that Kahli could barely understand her. “Stay in there. Don’t come out.” She put her finger on her lips, and backed away from her daughter’s frightened green eyes and small round face.

Mother was within reach when the Trackers burst into the clearing. A large man with a thick coat that barely concealed his round belly said, “Thought you could escape, did you?” He wore white like we did, so he could blend into the landscape. The man moved towards Mother, who stood utterly still. The dark-haired man examined her, sliding his eyes up and down her thin frame. Her fingers fisted at her sides, ready to fight. The man’s narrow eyes ignored the gesture. Stubble lined his jowls, as if he hadn’t shaved for days. He scratched his chin like he’d forgotten something.

A boy appeared next to him. He couldn’t have been more than 8 years old. His gangly frame seemed too tall for his thin body. He was like the other man—pale with dark hair. Stepping into the clearing, he stopped behind the man. The boy appeared frail, but Kahli knew he wasn’t. That boy was a Tracker, a vampire, like the fat man.

Kahli pressed her face to the cold ground, trying not to breathe. She didn’t know what they were doing. Tears stung the corners of her eyes as terror coursed through her veins, but she remained hidden as her mother said.

Mother held her chin up high, “I evaded you long enough.” She’d lost her mask. Wisps of dark hair blew gently away from her face.

He laughed, reaching into the bag he carried across his chest. “Not much good it did you.” He removed something that glittered in the sunlight.

Mother stepped away, ready to run. But she didn’t want to flee and leave her daughter with the Trackers. Even the boy was dangerous, but there were no other options. When the man moved to wrap the gleaming metal around her wrists, Mother lifted her foot and stabbed the man in the leg with the spikes of her shoe. A wild howl tore from his throat. The nails pierced his skin, leaving long deep holes in his flesh. Blood covered his shin in long lines where metal met flesh and blackened blood poured down his leg.

The dark haired boy came to life. He moved faster than she could see. Before her mother got in another shot, she heard her hit the ground. A gush of air was forced out of her lungs when she fell on the packed snow.

The fat man reached for Mother, jerking her to her feet. “You’ll pay for that.” Without another word, his hand collided with the side of her face. The sound filled Kahli’s ears. Her tiny stomach lurched within her, her small eyes wide and frightened. His hand landed squarely on her mother’s jaw with such force that her head turned to the side.

Mother didn’t scream. She just closed her eyes. When she reopened them, she glared at him.

The man ignored her glare, and cast his gaze at every tree in the clearing. The holes in his leg had already healed, but his pants were stained with blood. The boy watched, standing nearby, his eyes scanning the trees.

He addressed the boy, his dark eyes searching the gleaming forest. “She doubled back. There has to be a reason.”

The boy was quiet for a moment and then asked, “Do you think she has young nearby?”

Mother didn’t move. Her expression remained the same. Kahli’s heart was beating so fast within her tiny body that she thought they would hear it. She stuffed her mittens into her mouth to keep from crying. They’d find her. They knew she was there. Hidden at their feet.

The man nodded, his lips snaked into a grin, “It stands to reason…”

The boy stepped forward and began to move methodically through the clearing. Looking between the branches in the frozen thickets, his ungloved hands pushed through thorns, bending back the branches. The ice-covered brambles slid against his pale skin, but he did not bleed. He continued pulling vines and branches, parting them and peering into the shadows until he was next to the exact place Kahli was hiding.

Kahli held her breath. Her mother’s eyes were glued to the boy’s back as his hands were dangerously close to her daughter. Mother’s entire body was stiff. She swallowed hard, watching the boy get closer and closer.

Kahli’s heart slammed into her ribs. Air wouldn’t come. She couldn’t breathe. The boy crouched, parting the thicket and bent down low. He was standing just above her, his hands right above her head. And then he stopped. His blue eyes stared into the dark place where Kahli hid deep within the thicket.

His eyes locked on hers.

Kahli’s small body was frozen. A scream was stuck in her throat, refusing to come out. Her teeth were biting into her mitten, and she couldn’t stop. Every part of her wanted to scream.

His blue eyes remained fixed on hers, but the boy didn’t move. He simply stared. She wasn’t certain if he saw her among the shadows or not. After a moment he turned away. The branches flew back into place, concealing Kahli.

“There’s nothing here, but frozen thorns. Whatever she had is gone,” the boy stated.

The man grunted, displeased. “Then find her. You know the situation we’re in. Bringing in a wild female and her young would fix everything. We’d be welcomed back by the Queen herself.” He beamed, imagining it.

The boy nodded, dark hair falling in his eyes, “Yes, Sir.” And he took off between the trees, tracking down a girl that was hidden right in front of him.”

BUY BANE: VAMPIRE APOCALYPSE #1 TODAY

-Excerpt from VAMPIRE APOCALYPSE: BANE (Book #1) by H.M. Ward, a paranormal romance novel. Release date: June 15, 2012. Please note that this is not the final copy. Changes may be made prior to publication.

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Shattering the Myth: You CAN use facebook to promote your book! (marketing basics for writers and authors)

Posted on February 2, 2012 by admin

I was in YAlitchat on twitter the other night and won a book for SHATTERING THIS MYTH:

YOU CAN’T PROMOTE YOUNG ADULT BOOKS ON FACEBOOK. <–BUSTED!

I honestly didn’t realize that was a myth. Then we started talking about it and I realized there’s a simple reason why I didn’t buy into the myth.

I have over 43,000 facebook fans and have sold over 15,000 YA DEMON KISSED books in less than a year.

And I focused entirely on facebook.

As the Tweeting rolled along, I noticed that there are a TON of writers out there who don’t know marketing basics. And why would you? You’re a writer, not a marketing maniac.

But in today’s market you have to be both. This is the reason I didn’t go the traditional publication route. The publishers and agent asked me - how do we convert the facebook fans to buyers? I couldn’t believe they asked me that. I couldn’t believe they didn’t know. That’s their job. How did I know, and they didn’t? I pulled my manuscript and walked away. And I haven’t looked back.

The marketing world is shifting, and it’s not only affecting publishers. I’m self-employed and have been for years. Learning these things is so important. Even if you are traditionally published. No one – NO ONE – can promote your books better than you. Period.

So, how do you learn these things? Most of us didn’t go to school for marketing. And learning by trial and error is expensive. And stupid. Well, guess what? There are easy ways to avoid costly mistakes.

BOOKS. You’re gonna slap yourself in the head when you realize how much you can learn on your own. When a person first looks at marketing there is a total information overload. If you look for marketing books on Amazon or in BAM – there are TONS OF THEM. There are words you’ve never heard before. And what kind of marketing information do you need? Traditional? Networking? Gorilla? If you’re like me your first thought was, WTF is Gorilla Marketing?

Marketing as a whole appears daunting, but it isn’t once you are aware of the basics. And that’s what I’m going to talk about.

There will be a series of blog posts about some of the basics of marketing, including stuff about social media, expensive/stupid things that don’t work, and marketing techniques that are so simple – you can do them right away. And you can use this info if you are traditionally published or Indie.

So what’s MARKETING anyway? Marketing is what you do to promote your book. It’s the means of getting your ads in front of people. Think of an ad as a static means of communicating that you have a book for sale. Marketing is active. It’s how you go about promoting your book. See the ‘ing’? That infers you’ll be doing something. Don’t expect money to fall from the sky just because you have a pretty ad. Life doesn’t work that way.

Since this topic scares the hell out of people, I’ll start small. Think of it as an introduction to help you understand this crazy world of promotion. If the word marketing makes you feel queesy, think of it as ‘making your book visible to the public.’ Because that’s what you will be doing.

While we are talking about marketing, you will read the term ‘channel.’ Each ‘channel’ is a different means of advertising your work. Examples of different channels are: a movie theater ad, a newspaper ad, and a cardboard display at Barnes & Noble. Typically, marketing is done most effectively using three different channels simultaneously.

Each is channel different. Each channel targets differently. There is statistical information for each, including typical response rates. Based on what I was hearing on Twitter, I wanted to talk about some of the most common marketing channels used by authors. It should help you consider what is effective and reconsider what’s not.

PRINT ADS: PHYSICALLY PRINTING AN AD

Think twice about doing anything in print. This includes but isn’t limited to postcards, mailings, billboards, newspaper ads, etc. You can tell it’s a print ad if the marketing campaign requires you to physically print something.

Print is very costly with a low return rate – and that is assuming you created your ad with a call to action, correct prompts, and a deadline. How low? Say you do a mailing. You make a pretty little postcard and mail those babies. The cost is $100′s of dollars, and that is assuming you create your cards and mail them yourself to a small number of people (1,000 or less).

What is the statistical response rate on snail mail? 1%-3%. That’s it. Using snail mail to entice people to buy your book is expensive. Example: A mailing of 1,000 pieces can easily cost you $1 a piece. That’s $1,000 that you would need to recover before turning a profit. Mathematically, a 3% response rate on your book is 30 people. The average author is making $1.14 profit on a book, which means – if you did well – that you made $34.20 from that mailing. And honestly, 3% is high and is usually from a targeted mailing – not a wide spread, un-targeted mailing. (We’ll get into target demographics in another post). Do the math. How many books would you have to sell to make that postcard print run and mailing financially worth it? The math doesn’t add up. And any time the math doesn’t add up – DON’T DO IT! This promotion cost you -$965.80. That sucks. And it doesn’t have to be that way.

Some people will cry and ask - Well, what else is there? Marketing is expensive and return rates suck on everything! Yeah, that’s just not true. Some very effective marketing is very cheap. Most people think of mail when they go to promote their book, because they get so much crap themselves. But there are better ways to spend your money.

Come back later for the next marketing post: Marketing for Writers & Authors Part I: Making the Most of Your Online Presence. It’s simple, easy, and cheap and/or free. And you can do it right away!

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Tips for Young Writers Part II: Plot, Dialogue, Descriptions, & Age

Posted on January 29, 2012 by admin

-This is a repost of one of the popular topics from Holly’s old blog, originally dated Mar 6, 2011.-

I recently asked Demon Kissed book fans via our Facebook fan page what questions they had about writing. There were several about plot and publishing. I’ll answer stuff Q&A style this time.

“Do you believe a 17 year old should get a book published?” – Audrey

Age has nothing to do with your ability to tell a story. There are people who write well and are natural born storytellers. They enjoy writing, so their ability begins to exceed their age. That happened with me. And of course there are several writers that were young and published – Eragon author Christopher Paolini is a contemporary writer who started writing his first published novel at age 15. He took two years to complete his manuscript at which point his family self-published his book. That was how he started. Jane Austen wrote Sense and Sensibly when she was 21 years old or younger. I’ve read that she was 18 years old in some sources, and 21 in others. At any rate, she wasn’t an old crone. Her novel wasn’t published until later, but the story originated when she was young. Which is awesome! I think there is a place for teen writers, and I think it would be awesome to see more of their work spread into the marketplace. The folks that are hesitant are the ones who don’t think you guys pay attention to grammar and spelling. Prove them wrong! Write a kick ass story, and go for it!

“Dialogue please – mine never feels like real.” -Grace

Recognizing that dialogue doesn’t feel real is the first step in correcting the problem, so you are half way there. Writing dialogue is somewhere between reality and make-believe. If you transcribed an entire conversation, it gets dull. The words need to be tweaked for reading. Basically, you cut out the fat-anything extra that does not propel the plot, but you have to leave enough so the reader knows what’s going on. The easiest way to practice is to write down a conversation you had. Don’t try to polish it at all. Just notice what’s there. Next, take a red pen and start striking out anything that isn’t central to the conversation. You should automatically remove: um, like, and other filler phrases. You can also watch conversations. A good conversation goes back and forth, but not with every sentence. Changing speakers too often stunts your story. If you hear a conversation in real life, and someone is telling you a story or explaining something, you may interrupt from time to time, but not every sentence. If a BFF is spilling coveted info about some guy that you’ve been dying to hear about, you want the info as fast as possible. Your readers are the same way. You may slow things down to create suspense or for your story’s flow, but it should be done intentionally and not throughout. So the short version is – dialogue should reflect real conversations, but cut out the fluff and jump to the important stuff.

“How do you add enough desciption? Like for the charecters surrounding.” -Jessica

This varies between genre. Example: Fantasy, epic stories, historical fiction, and literary fiction have a LOT more descriptions going on. It seemed like the first 80 pages of Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence was description. I read that when I was 19 years old, for fun. I love that book. Anyway, in YA books the surroundings are more like snapshots that are infused into the story. Their purpose is to support the story, and not distract or slow the pacing. It’s a carefully orchestrated balance to let your reader know where your hero is, without that becoming the focal point. In one contemporary series (meaning something that was written in the last decade or so), you know where Stephanie Plum is in One for the Money, because it’s smooshed throughout the story. The author, Janet Evanovich, sprinkles it in throughout. You can’t forget Stephanie’s a Jersey girl – it’s part of the story. The descriptions should always be lending toward your story. And avoid info dumps. That is where you dump a bunch of info the reader needs to know instead of threading it into the story. Weave it into your story, and you’ll be good.

The rest of the questions were about plot and publishing. I’ll answer the publishing hoopla in another thread because there are so many things going on that it totally needs its own post.

Plot, Story Lines, & Sorting Things Out

Several of you asked how the heck can you keep the plot and all it’s intricacies straight in your head. I talked about this a little bit in a previous post about how I did it for Demon Kissed. As I started writing the second book, Cursed, I changed what I was doing a little bit. I’ll share with you what I’m currently doing.

The first part of turning the amazing story in your head into an amazing story on paper is to map out your plot. The plot is the sequence of events that leads your hero from the beginning of the story to the end of the story. Some of you asked how to identify the beginning of the story, which is an excellent question. If you start too soon, you bore people. If you start too late, people aren’t sure what’s going on. General rule of thumb – start as late as you can. I think it should be near the story’s catalyst.

There is a catalyst, an event, that spurs your story into motion. Without this event, you would have no story. Identify what that is and it will help you decide where to start. I can’t talk about Demon Kissed too much because it’s not out yet, but since this event occurs in the first chapter (which has been released), I’ll demonstrate with that. The event that spurs Ivy’s story into motion is when Jake attacks her. Without that key event, there is no story. That single event creates a domino effect, which when combined with her decisions, propels her along the plot line and through the story. Make sense? You MUST have that moment in your plot. If you don’t have one, you will have serious issues trying to control where the plot is going, what is happening to the character, and why.

When you start your story, have a beginning and an ending in mind. I’ll pick a story that everyone knows - Harry Potter & the Sorcerer’s Stone. The story starts with normal Harry not knowing he is a wizard, and ends with Harry, the novice wizard, defeating Voldemort. The writer can then go and fill in the plot holes from there by asking questions: How does Harry find out he’s a wizard? How does he learn his skills to defeat Voldemort? All the stuff he learned in the book supported the task he had to accomplish at the end of it.

As for keeping things straight while you accomplish this daunting task – remember most YA books have 80,000-100,000 words right now. That’s a lot of stuff to organize. Trying to keep it all in your brain may not be the best method. In my other post I mentioned using cork board and index cards to try and keep things straight. The progression I made since then is easier for me. Maybe it’ll help you too.

I mapped the beginning and ending of the book on paper – the middle is blank. This is a stepping stone/ bridging method. The writer knows the beginning and the end and must connect the two. Honestly, I didn’t see how to bridge the gap in all it’s glorious detail. Normally, I would have started writing now and assumed my brain would close the gap as I wrote. I didn’t do that this time and it helped me much more. Instead, I imagined the opening scene in my head over and over. My imagination started to spread past that with several different ideas, and then finally latched onto a plot path that made sense, was interesting, and added another stepping stone to the plot. That became chapter 2. After I had all the key details of that scene I wrote it down as an outline. So I had a complete chapter outline on the opening scene, scene two, and the ending. (I think of chapters like scenes – it helps me organize the story). Then I did the same thing, trying to move forward to scene 3. There were several different directions to go, but the one I chose had to be awesome and line my story up with the final chapter. I moved along like that, dreaming up the scene, determing which version to use, and then writing down the scene’s key components in an outline so that I wouldnt forget.

Holy crap! This helped my writing and plot like nothing I’ve ever done before. I love stories with a rich plot, that turns and threads the story together in an intricate pattern. Organizing all the thoughts that go into it were insane. Doing it this way: Map, Dream, Outline helped SO much. Now, I can sit down and write 60 pages at once. And I don’t have to stop because I got stuck and don’t know what to do next. The plot is all mapped out on paper well enough to tip the vivid memories I created in my mind. It also helped with revisions and editing. Now I don’t have to go back and junk as much stuff because I planned it all out.

Plotting this way can seem really intimidating. It was for me. Seeing a blank page for such a long time, while working things out in my head was scary. I thought I might lose some of the details and forget stuff. But I didn’t. I put enough info in the outline to keep my thoughts in check. It even allowed me to write more freely because I knew where the story was going. I could scatter in deeper meaning and foreshadowing into places on the first pass, instead of adding it much later during revisions.

Every writer handles plots differently. Some people write on the fly, while others spend 12 months plotting points in their novel without ever writing a word. I found, the more info you can capture and pre-map, the easier it gets to actually write the story. I spent about two to four weeks dreaming the scenes in Demon Kissed: Curse of the Valefar one by one. Everyone will find something that works for them. The main thing is to grab that plot and smooth it out in a way that makes it easy for you to remember and work with.

I hoped this stuff helped! We now have over 30,000 Demon Kissed fans, of which many are young writers. You guys have amazing talent! Thanks so much for following Demon Kissed and telling your friends! I cannot wait to share the book with you!!!

This popular post originally appeared on Holly’s old blog on Mar 6, 2011.

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