7 tips for writing while traveling

If your summer is looking anything like mine, it’s packed full of trips, whether I’m going to other places or people are coming into town to visit. While I’m excited to see friends and family, I always struggle to write regularly during crazy times like this. But I’ve discovered a few things that make my writing life less haywire even when it seems like I’m traveling to a new place each week!

Take your music offline

Music is always a helpful tool to get in the “writing zone,” and it can become a crucial trigger to your creative mind when you’re forced out of your normal routine. Traveling often means a lack of wifi or a bad internet connection, so be sure to plan ahead and have a source of music you can use even if you’re disconnected. I use Spotify premium so I can download music, and they often have great deals during the summer if you just want to have it temporarily for this busy time. If you’re going on car rides, it might be time to break out some old CDs!

Create a portable routine

I’ve written about how routines are important to creativity before, but travel can leave those routines in pieces. It’s hard to light a candle or make a hot cup of tea if you’re stuck in an airport. This makes it a good time to practice being flexible in your ability to work in different settings without a routine, so don’t be afraid to try that! You can also try creating a new routine that’s more travel friendly. I’ve already mentioned keeping your music available. Maybe instead of making tea or coffee, you choose a certain flavor of gum or mint to chew while you write and keep a pack of it in your bag. Come up with a breathing routine or affirmations to repeat at the start of a session. There are any number of strategies like this that will help signal your brain that it’s time to write.

Download a writing app

Sometimes your laptop will die, or you’ll just decide to leave it at home or your hotel, only to find you’ve got some free time to write. Make sure you’ve got a notes app on your phone to take advantage of these times. I like using Evernote because it syncs with their website, so it’s easy to transfer to my full draft on my computer. If all else fails, you can always type it up in an email draft and send it to yourself!

Experiment with a new writing time

You might consider yourself a night owl writer or you might be part of the 5am write club or maybe you really rock writing just after lunch. In any case, traveling is likely going to make that ideal time hard to fill with writing each day like you normally would. Try out a new writing time of day, whether it’s staying up late after everyone else goes to bed or actually writing on that early morning flight instead of sleeping. You may end up going right back to your normal time after vacation, but even if you get a little bit of work done, it’s better than nothing. And hey, you might just find a new favorite time to write!

Bring a journal

Having a notebook with you serves two purposes: One, whether you’ve forgotten your charger or just don’t have access to a plug, the batteries of your devices will inevitably die. Having old fashion pen and paper will allow you to still get some writing done (and without all the distractions!) Two, think of traveling as research time! Journal your thoughts and emotions, the funny and crazy things that happen on your trip. It’s all fodder for some future story, so write down every detail you can.

It’s okay to take a break

Sometimes, things are so crazy, you need to take a break for a little bit. Instead of feeling guilty, plan accordingly and give yourself that space. If you can, get some extra work in the week before so you don’t feel like you’re behind. Set a definite ending—whether you decide not to write the whole summer, or just take the one week of vacation off. Having a clear end to your break helps prevent you from coming up with excuses to keep extending it! While not writing, let yourself relax and replenish your creativity. Last year, I spent two weeks in Italy and just decided I wouldn’t do any writing other than journaling about each day. And it was great—I came back full of ideas and itching to write.

If you decide to take a break, that doesn’t mean you can’t keep improving your writing! It’s the perfect time to immerse yourself in reading. Choose books that are a similar genre to what you write, or maybe even something totally different that will get you out of your comfort zone. Read them critically so you can study them with a writer’s eye. If you’re enjoying it, try to parse out what you like, whether it’s the characters, the writing style, or something else that you can emulate. Even if you don’t like it, try to pinpoint the cause of that as well, so you know what not to do!

Are you traveling anywhere this summer? What are your tips to keep writing even while you’re on the road? Let me know in the comments!

If you liked this article, pin it to share or save it for later!

Featured image by Kira auf der Heide

5 ways nature boosts your creativity

As a writer or creative, a lot of our time is spent indoors, hunched over a computer. While this is a necessary part of the job, it isn’t so great for our creativity (or our health!) I’ve found that one of the best ways to recharge is to get outside—whether it’s going for a walk or simply reading on a park bench. Turns out, science supports this! Not only is being in nature good for your physical health, it can help stimulate creativity and productivity as well.

being in nature…

Decreases your stress hormones and heart rate

Being stressed is a common hamper on creativity, but time spent outside has been proven over and over to decrease stress levels. Japanese researchers at Chiba University found that participants who walked through a forest for just fifteen minutes showed a 16% decrease in the stress hormone cortisol, a 2% decrease in blood pressure, and a 4% decrease in heart rate. You don’t have to give up indoor plumbing and become a hermit in the woods to reap the benefits of nature; a short walk each day will get the job done!

Replenishes your directed attention

Much of our day is consumed by tasks that require directed attention. This is when we choose where to focus our attention and ignore distractions. Directed attention is what enables us to get things done, but it is also a finite resource. If you push your brain too far, it can lead to mental fatigue, loss of effectiveness, and stress. The best, most direct way to restore directed attention is involuntary attention. When you’re walking through nature, there are lots of distractions and inconsequential things to focus on: the sound of water and wind, the movement of birds and plants, the way the light shifts. This doesn’t require you to focus on one single task or thing for a long time, which allows your brain to relax and restore that directed attention that you used up earlier.

Allows your prefrontal cortex to rest and restore

The brain isn’t a machine that can function for hours or days on end without rest. In fact, it gets fatigued rather easily. The part that gets the most use is the prefrontal cortex, which is like the command center of the brain. With everything clamoring for our attention these days, it’s often more like an overworked muscle. But being in nature, just like going to sleep, allows the prefrontal cortex to relax and take a break, which can significantly improve mental performance. According to the Journal of Environmental Psychology, even spending twenty minutes outside each day might be all we need in to let our brains rest and get these benefits.

Makes you nicer to yourself

Sometimes the hardest part about creating is turning off that inner critic. It turns out that nature can help with that too. Greg Bratman of Stanford University conducted a study using 38 volunteers. He scanned their brains before and after they took an hour and a half walk. Half the group walked through a large park, and the other half walked down a busy street in Palo Alto. The group that walked through nature showed decreased activity in the subgenual prefrontal cortex, which is a part of the brain connected to depressive rumination, and self-reported that they beat themselves up less. Bratman theorizes that being outside in nature takes us out of ourselves in the best way possible.

Increases your creative problem solving

There is a famous Agatha Christie quote that goes, “The best time for planning a book is while you’re doing the dishes.” Indeed, many people have experienced the phenomenon of having a brilliant idea while doing a mindless task. In 2012, the support for this grew beyond just anecdotal tales when researchers at University of California, Santa Barbara created an experiment that showed participants who returned to an intellectually challenging task after completing an undemanding task outperformed those who did nothing during a break, worked on a different rigorous task, or those who didn’t take a break at all. Nature is one of the best places to have this mind-wandering effect, and psychologists from the University of Utah and the University of Kansas found that participants who took a test that measures creative potential performed 50% higher after spending four days in nature compared to their scores before their foray into the outdoors.

What’s your favorite place to relax outdoors? Do you find that it helps your creativity? Let me know in the comments!

If you liked this post, pin it to share and save it for later!

Featured image by Max van den Oetelaar

10 books to add to your summer TBR

I love reading outdoors during a nice, sunshine-y day, so as soon as the weather starts to warm up, I beginning planning my summer TBR. Whether you’re looking for a book to read while traveling or just to enjoy reading outside, here are some of my favorite books and books I’m looking forward to reading this summer.

There’s Something About Sweetie by Sandhya Menon

I read Sandhya Menon’s first book When Dimple Met Rishi earlier this year and absolutely fell in love with Menon’s cute romances and sweet characters. When the companion novel was released in May, I knew I had to read it! It didn’t disappoint, and in many ways I liked the characters and themes even better than the first book.

Romanov by Nadine Brandes

If you’re looking for a little magic this summer, Nadine Brandes’ newest novel is the perfect choice. It’s an Anastasia retelling and includes a heartfelt love story, a creative magical system, and characters learning what it means to forgive. For more info, read my review here!

The Kiss Quotient and The Bride Test by Helen Hoang

The Kiss Quotient was hugely popular when it hit the shelves last summer, and Helen Hoang’s newest book is promised to be just as good. Both feature main characters who are autistic, and in the process of writing The Kiss Quotient Hoang actually realized she herself had high-functioning autism. These are classic summer beach reads with characters so charming, they’re hard to put down!

The Great Unknowable End by Kathryn Ormsbee

This book has a Stranger Things vibe, and the lush writing transports you to the ’70s small-town setting. Weird things are happening in the Kansas city where Stella and Galliard live, and as they begin to consider that they might be facing the end of the world, they’re forced to answer that age-old question: If you knew you would die tomorrow, what would you do with your last day? Read my interview with author Kathryn Ormsbee here!

Hot Dog Girl by Jennifer Dugan

Lou knows the secret to high school summers: it’s not the stressful pre-college summer after senior year that counts; it’s the summer after junior year, when it still seems like all the possibilities in the world are yours. And she’s determined to make the most of it. Her plans are thrown off when she’s cast as the hot dog for her summer job at the local amusement park, not to mention the guy of her dreams already has a girlfriend. This book made me laugh out loud, and I love a good “let’s pretend to date but then actually fall in love” trope, so it was right up my alley!

The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory

People have been raving about this book, so I knew I needed to add it to my summer TBR. When a power outage strands Alexa and Drew in an elevator together, she ends up agreeing to be his date to his ex’s wedding, to help him save face. Naturally, they realize that there might be something more between them than just a one-time deal. This steamy romance will leave you swooning, but it also explores interracial relationships and other important themes.

You’d Be Mine by Erin Hahn

Maybe it’s because I’m from Texas, but nothing says summer like some good ole country music. Erin Hahn’s debut novel tells the story of Clay, country music’s newest bad boy, and Annie, whose parents were country music icons who chose their music over their daughter. As the two go on tour together, they each must wrestle with the demons of their past and what their feelings mean for the future. The novel is full of witty and adorable songs, and I really just want this to be made into a movie ASAP so I can listen to them!

Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi

This has been one of my favorite reads of 2019 so far. Penny is a college freshman, and when life throws her together with Sam, the cute barista of her favorite coffee shop, she might have the chance to leave her uneventful high school life behind. Almost their entire relationship takes place over text, and their conversations just feel so real and natural that it’s hard to not fall in love with them yourself! Balancing the cute romance, the book also explores topics like sexual assault, immigration, and what it means to find yourself.

Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

To be honest, I get enough of politics in real life, so I don’t typically want to read about it in my fiction. But the buzz around Red, White, and Royal Blue is hard to ignore, and so I’ve finally added it to my TBR! When the president’s son Alex and Prince Henry of England are forced to stage a friendship to smoothe over a would-be international incident, they discover that there might be more to the other guy than they might think–but what does that mean for each of their parent’s careers?

Love & Gelato and Love & Luck by Jenna Evans Welch

I picked up Love & Gelato on a whim last summer before my trip to Italy, and was entirely unprepared for how much I would love it. Set in Florence, Italy, it balances an adorable romance, while also telling the story of the main character dealing with the death of her mother and secrets she left behind. The sequel I managed to love even more: a road trip around Ireland following a quirky guide to healing a broken heart leads to new love. Each book is full of gorgeous descriptions of the settings and relatable, lovable characters.

What books are you planning to read this summer? Let me know in the comments!

If you liked this post, pin it to share and save it for later!

Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck & Fortune: A magical concept that still feels lacking

At the news of her mother’s death, Natalie Tan returns home. The two women hadn’t spoken since Natalie left in anger seven years ago, when her mother refused to support her chosen career as a chef. Natalie is shocked to discover the vibrant neighborhood of San Francisco’s Chinatown that she remembers from her childhood is fading, with businesses failing and families moving out. She’s even more surprised to learn she has inherited her grandmother’s restaurant.

The neighborhood seer reads the restaurant’s fortune in the leaves: Natalie must cook three recipes from her grandmother’s cookbook to aid her struggling neighbors before the restaurant will succeed. Unfortunately, Natalie has no desire to help them try to turn things around–she resents the local shopkeepers for leaving her alone to take care of her agoraphobic mother when she was growing up. But with the support of a surprising new friend and a budding romance, Natalie starts to realize that maybe her neighbors really have been there for her all along.

Cover and synopsis from GoodReads

Earlier this year, I was thrilled to learn I had won a GoodReads competition for an ARC of Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck and Fortune by Roselle Lim. How many of these contests had I entered and never won?! I didn’t know much about it, but the cover was gorgeous, and I knew it featured food, so I was sold.

What I loved

The characters

What holds this book together is its characters and their relationship to each other. Throughout the book, Natalie is forming relationships both with her living neighbors and her mother and grandmother who have passed away. She realizes that everyone in her life has a story, and she has been selfish in the way she ignored the neighborhood and her family. I loved seeing how Natalie learned more about her grandmother and mother through journals, letters, and stories from her neighbors, and I adored the friendship she forms with Cecelia, who was her mother’s friend before she passed. They became so tight-knit, and it was refreshing to see an intergenerational friendship like that represented.

The magical realism

This book is overflowing with little sparks of magic. Whether it’s Natalie’s tears turning into crystals or a recipe causing someone’s skin to steam, the descriptions aren’t just metaphors for the reader’s sake—they’re actually happening to the characters. And it was such a fun touch! It took a little bit of adjusting, but that was mostly because I didn’t read the blurb so I wasn’t expecting it (whoops). I loved seeing how the author envisioned the effects the food would have on characters and how that was illustrated.

The food

When reading this book, prepare to be hungry! I swear I was craving Chinese food for a full week while I read it. Roselle Lim’s descriptions are mouthwatering, but also unique and creative—just telling us that something is ‘delicious’ over and over would get boring fast, so Lim instead infuses her writing with vivid images that convey what the food makes characters feel so that the reader feels it too. It felt a little unnecessary to have the entire recipe in the text and then repeat the ingredients again in the prose, so I ended up skimming some of those parts, but I really appreciated her descriptions of the food.

What I disliked

The writing style

Although there were moments of beautiful writing, overall the style just felt . . . clunky. I don’t want to be mean, because I was really rooting for this book. And I did receive a pretty early copy, so I’ll be interested to see if the final book has been edited more. But the sentences were so repetitive, and the prose just felt awkward. Take the opening of chapter eight: “Nothing made me happier than the act of cooking. My happiest memories were of sending time in the kitchen with Ma-ma as we prepared our meals.” Why not cut the first sentence? More than that, it has already been well established that Natalie loves cooking, so this whole bit ends up feeling unnecessary.

I can usually get over a few awkward sentences here and there, but it just seemed like every page had some paragraph that left me cringing. This was really the thing that made my rating of the book so low. Again, I really wanted to like it, but honestly if it hadn’t been an ARC that I wanted to review, I would have DNFed it because of this.

The love interest

Can you say insta-love? I liked the idea of Daniel, a geeky Silicon Valley boy who follows his nose to find Natalie’s food. But when they very first meet, Natalie feels like watching him eat is pornographic (she says this at least twice in the book that I can recall) and can barely talk around him. And I get thinking a guy is hot and you end up tripping over your words. But then when he asks her out, they go for a walk and end up kissing but they’ve said maybe fifteen sentences to each other?? Not only was it annoying, their relationship felt like I was supposed to care about it more, but I couldn’t bring myself to. I was much more interested in Natalie’s relationship with her mother, grandmother, absent father, and other neighbors. Did you notice that? There’s already a lot going on in this book, and so the love interest just seemed shoe-horned in to check off a box, when there are plenty of other characters we care about more.

Overall, it was a quick and fun read. I loved learning more about cooking and Chinese culture, and am so glad to see more diversity in books. But between the stilted writing style and unnecessary love interest, the book fell flat for me.

To order Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck & Fortune by Roselle Lim, click here.

Have you read Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck & Fortune yet? What did you think? Is it on your TBR? Let me know in the comments!

If you liked this post, pin it to share and save it for later!

The Sun Is Also A Star: How does the movie compare to the book?

In the #1 New York Times bestselling book The Sun Is Also A Star, we meet Natasha and Daniel and experience their whirlwind romance as they explore New York City. Natasha is desperate to stop her family’s deportation back to Jamaica, and Daniel is a secret romantic and poet following his Koren-native parents’ dreams for him to be a doctor. When they find each other, is it pure luck, or does the universe have something special in store?

I devoured this book in one day and was so excited to see the movie adaptation starring Yara Shahidi and Charles Melton. This is one of those books that seems like it would transition easily into a movie, and so I had high hopes. Unfortunately, the movie made some odd choices and didn’t quite capture the magic that the book held. It was still enjoyable, but let’s look at what the core of the book was and how the movie attempted to recreate it.

A teenage love story

At its heart, The Sun Is Also A Star is a young adult romance, about two teenagers falling love in the span of one day. Naturally the movie kept this as the plot: Natasha likes to keep her feet firmly on the ground and doesn’t believe in love, while Daniel is a poet who believes love is the greatest force in the universe. When Daniel dares Natasha to let him convince her he’s right, she reluctantly agrees, and—shocker—by the end of the day, they’re head over heels for each other.

In the book, the beginning of their relationship is given a little more time to grow; Daniel uses the 36 questions that are “scientifically proven” to make two people fall in love [LINK] and the two get to know each other, until Natasha is almost surprised by how much she cares for him. In the movie, we don’t see as much of this early stage. Daniel does bring up the 36 questions, but only asks her one or two. The conversation when they talk about their complicated relationships with their fathers is cut completely, as is one of the big reasons for Natasha’s wariness about love: her last boyfriend cheated on her for most of their relationship. Without these key points, their relationship felt stilted and awkward. Jokes that were heartwarming in the book fell flat in the movie.

Even the “one day” aspect is discarded, as Natasha and Daniel end up sleeping in Central Park and return to her family’s apartment together in the morning—which, by the way, what teenager just doesn’t come home for the night and doesn’t let her family know?? Maybe it’s because I’m not a teenager anymore, but this part bothered me more than it seemed to bother any of the characters!

Other Shelf to Screen Reviews
Dumplin’
Crazy Rich Asians

A look at how everything that happens to us is part of a chain reaction

A key theme in the book is how everything is connected through a chain reaction. Each of the characters—not just Natasha and Daniel—play a part in a series of events, whether it’s the security guard who takes too long letting Natasha into immigration services or the train conductor who makes an announcement to the train Daniel is on about his newfound faith to the driver of the BMW who almost hits Natasha, but does hit the immigration lawyer Natasha needs to meet with and Daniel has an alumni interview with. It would take way too long to lay out every connection, but the book is not just told from Daniel and Natasha’s perspective—it has chapters about all of these minor characters, so that we see what events in their lives made them who they are today, which ultimately leads to Natasha and Daniel meeting and falling in love.

I understand this is a hard aspect to retain in a movie. They do the best they can with it—we see that Daniel is attentive to “signs,” which is what causes him to try and meet Natasha and ultimately save her life. The lawyer lays it out plainly at the end—the BMW that Daniel saved Natasha from walking in front of ended up clipping his bike, but he ended up marrying his doctor he met at the hospital. So it does have that “everything happens for a reason” vibe, but it just isn’t able to explore it as much as the book does.

A love letter to New York City

Since the entire story takes place in NYC, it ends up being a love letter of sorts to the city. The movie did capture this perfectly—we see beautiful shots of the skyline, the hustle of the streets, and the numerous cultures that collide in the city. The camera work was also unique in that during establishing shots of the city, it often rotated, as if reminding the viewer that we live on a planet that is hurtling and rotating through space, which aligns with Natasha’s interest in astronomy and the title of the book and movie.

Final thoughts: Category Three

I honestly expected this to be in Category Two, where it interprets the book so well, you could probably get away with not reading it and just watching the movie. But since Natasha and Daniel’s relationship feels a bit awkward in the movie, I would still recommend reading the book to get the full experience, both of their relationship and the zoomed-out view of the other characters as we see that everything is connected.

Have you read The Sun Is Also A Star or seen the movie? What did you think? Let me know in the comments!

If you liked this post, pin it to share or save it for later!

5 steps to conquer the micro-edit (Editing Your Novel: Part Four)

This is the final part in the Editing Your Novel series. Click to read about the read-through, beta readers, and the macro-edit.

The final step in the editing process is the micro-edit. Now that you’ve fixed all the bigger problems, had other people read it for you, and fixed it again, you can dive into the nit-picky stuff. Personally, this is my favorite part of the editing process. I love being able to compare what a scene looks like when I finish it to what it looked like when I started, and clearly see how it’s improved. But not everyone feels this way—it’s wading into the weeds of your book, focusing on every sentence and making sure it’s the best it can possibly be. Which can be overwhelming, to say the least.

Once I figured out a step-by-step process for the micro-edit, it became a little less intimidating. I had a checklist and knew how to go forward, no matter what point I was at. So today, I’m sharing that process with you. You may have to adjust it to find what works best for you, but this can be a starting point so the micro-edit isn’t so daunting.

1. Find and replace

I have a list of words that often indicate I’m telling, not showing (which you can get here!). I also make a list of words that I personally tend to overuse as I write. My first step is to use the search function for these words throughout the whole document, and consider each instance: Is this telling? Can I change it? Is there anyway to make it better? Sometimes the answer is no—it just makes the most sense and sounds best to leave it as is. Often, though, replacing that word with a vivid image will drastically improve the sentence. This step is time-consuming, but I promise if you stick with it, your manuscript will already be so much better once you start reading it scene by scene.

2. Plug it into Hemingway Editor

The Hemingway Editor is possibly my favorite tool online. I’ve written about it before but it’s a crucial part of my editing process. I paste the scene I’m editing into the website, and it highlights adverbs, passive voice, and sentences that are hard to understand. I go through each of these problems and see decide if it needs to be fixed or if I should leave it for the sake of voice and clarity. Often, in dialogue, I’m more willing to leave adverbs and passive voice, since it should sound more natural anyways. But in narration, I do whatever I can to replace those adverbs with something stronger—a more active verb, a metaphor, or just deleting it entirely.

3. Read it through, thoroughly

Next, I read through the scene with a fine-tooth comb. Look at every verb, and see if it could be stronger. Do you repeat any words too close together? Does the rhythm of the sentences create a nice flow, or is it awkward? Are any of the sentences unnecessary, and need to be deleted or combined together? I try to get the prose as close to perfect as I can, reading each sentence multiple times, then reading the whole paragraph together to make sure it clicks. Obviously there will always be things to improve, and I’m sure in five years as I grow as a writer, I’ll look back on these scenes and cringe. But for now, I get it as good as I possibly can.

4. Put yourself in your characters’ shoes

I usually write to instrumental music, because I get too distracted by lyrics. But once I hit this stage, I created playlists for each of my biggest characters (the ones who appear most often and have the largest effect on the plot). After I’ve gotten the scene as tight as I can, I read it through once from the perspective of every major character in the scene. I’ll put on the playlist for that character, put myself into their head, and start reading. I usually mentally act out their actions, and if anything I naturally do in my head isn’t in the scene—like walking to a table, crossing their arms, rolling their eyes—I’ll add it in. I also closely examine their dialogue here. Does it sound like something they would say? Can it be tightened at all? Would they use that word? What tone would they have? When I’m really in the zone, I’ll actually have to take a second to switch into third person when making an edit, out of the first person I’m using in my head. Depending on how many characters you have and how complex the scene is, this step can take a while as well. It may mean rereading three or four times, if all your big characters are in the scene together. But especially if your book primarily takes place from one character’s perspective that you’re used to reading it from, it’s helpful to think through how the other characters are feeling and what they’re doing in a scene.

5. Read it out loud

The final step is to actually read it out loud to yourself. You’d be amazed at all the skipped or repeated words and awkward phrasing you’ve missed before that you pick up on when trying to say it aloud. It can also help to have your computer read the scene to you, since your brain might still automatically fix things, but the computer will read it exactly as it’s written and allow you to catch any slip-ups.

The micro-edit can be a tedious process, but it’s the final step to making sure your book is as good as it can be. At this point, you’re polishing everything before you send it to your beta readers one last time, and then to an agent. Decide that your writing and your story are worth the time, and be willing to commit to do whatever it takes to make it better—even if that means reading each scene half a dozen times! As I mentioned at the start, these steps are what works for me, but they may not make sense for you. Hopefully, you can use some of them as a jumping off point, and tweak your process until it becomes something that fits your writing style and personality.

Want to give yourself a boost in micro-editing? Get the Micro-Editing Checklist here!

If you liked this post, pin it to share and save it for later!

Featured image by Angelina Litvin

Book Lover Blog Tag!

Today I’m excited to take part in the Book Lover Blog Tag! (In which I break all the rules…) Thanks to Marie from Writing In Color for tagging me, and to Bella from The Pen & the Pages for creating the tag. Let’s get started!

Tag Rules:

Thank the blogger who nominated you and link back to their blog.
Include the Book Lover Blog Tag graphic and rules in your post.
Answer the questions.
Nominate at least 5 new bloggers to do the tag.

Questions

What is your favorite thing about reading?

Probably how it allows me to both escape into another world, but can also act as a mirror to what human nature is like and challenge my beliefs and worldviews (in a good way!).

Which male character is your favorite?

LOL like I can choose just one. Some top faves are: Kaz Brekker from Six of Crows, Lupin from Harry Potter, Samwise from Lord of the Rings, Ponyboy from The Outsiders….

Which female character is your favorite?

Again, definitely can’t choose just one: Hermione and Mrs. Weasley from Harry Potter, Inej from Six of Crows, Laurie from MissMatch…

Who is your favorite villain of all time?

Ooh…I love Loki from the Marvel Universe (they’re comic books, that counts right?) and Edmund from King Lear. I love a good “bastard son just wants the love of his father but takes it out on the rest of the world” trope. I also love Opal from Artemis Fowle and Killmonger from Black Panther.

Who is your least favorite character of all time?

Hmm…I mean, Umbridge from Harry Potter is pretty bad. Eustace Scrubb from Voyage of the Dawn Treader is pretty annoying, but what can you expect with a name like that?

Which book do you think has the strongest plot?

The Harry Potter, Six of Crows, and Throne of Glass series are all just masterclasses in complex plots that involve little details from early on coming back at the end to be an OMG moment. Descendant of the Crane is also a fantastic example of a plot that’s super intricate, but also not hard to follow and really suspenseful.

What gets on your nerves the most in a story (a boring character, an unrealistic plot, etc.)?

I definitely hate it when characters are boring or inconsistent. Characters are my favorite part of any book, so when they’re a let-down, it’s the worst. I also easily get annoyed by bad prose–not that I’m a master, but I feel like sometimes a book just hasn’t been edited and I wonder how it got published.

Which book has the best cover (share a picture!)?

The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi

The Boy Who Steals Houses by C.G. Drews (you can’t tell from the graphic, but IRL the keys are shiny!)

Do you let people borrow your books? If so, are you specific about how they treat them?

I do let people borrow them, but I have a lecture about how to treat them right lol. I also have some books that I won’t let anyone touch-my personalized signed copies of Six of Crows and The Book Thief, for instance.

If a movie could be made based on any book, which book would you choose?

My answer to this used to be Six of Crows, but it’s officially being made now! *cue happy dance*

So now I would say either the Throne of Glass series or Descendant of the Crane. Both epic fantasies with badass women and complex worlds. Um, HBO, get on this please.

Which author has inspired you most?

So many! Beverly Cleary when I was younger–I loved her books and she’s the person who made me first realize being an author was A Thing You Could Do.

J.K. Rowling–I aspire to create a world and characters like hers that have captivated so many people (if only she could stop talking and ruining it now…)

Markus Zusak–His writing style in The Book Thief absolutely blew me away when I first read it, and challenged me to keep improving my own writing.

Leigh Bardugo–Again, creating an intricate world and characters that are funny but damaged, otherworldly yet relatable…*sigh* She also has really diverse characters, without it being forced or feeling like tokenism.

What single book would you be unable to live without?

This is a dumb question and I hate it. The Harry Potter series. The Six of Crows duology. The MissMatch series. The Outsiders. The Book Thief. Okay I’ll stop for now…

Thanks to Marie for tagging me! Be sure to check out her blog for more bookish and writing-related content.

People I’m Tagging

Rebecca Caraway

Madeline Nixon

Samantha R. Glas

Maggie Suggett

Laura Rinaldi

Zoe DeVoe

The four most important parts of the macro-edit (Editing Your Novel: Part Three)

Once you’ve finished the read-through, you’re ready to start editing! *insert applause sound effects*

Before you jump in at page one and start fixing every little thing, stop and take into consideration the list you made during your read-through. It’s organized from big problems to little problems. Your macro-edit is the beginning of this list: all the bird’s eye view issues that affect the whole book. Start by fixing these. Often, this will result in you deleting entire paragraphs, scenes, or even chapters. That’s why you don’t want to start with little tweaks—there’s no point in polishing the details of a sentence if you end up deleting it, and it wastes your precious writing time!

As you work through the bigger changes, there are four main areas to keep in mind. Any problem that lasts throughout the book will likely have a root in one of these four focal points. You might want to read through your book once for every area, focusing on the consistency and strength of each.

This post is part of the Editing Your Novel series. Click through to read about the read-through, beta readers, and the micro-edit.

Plot

Whether you’re a plotter or a pantser, it’s important to examine each plot point and make sure they follow logically. Is each point linked together through a natural cause and effect? Each scene should either be an emotional reaction to the action of the previous scene, or up the ante with more action. Try to look at it with the eyes of a typical reader: Does the pace drag at some point? You may have too many emotion-heavy scenes in a row. Does it seem confusing or overwhelming anywhere? You might need to add in some scenes that grow the characters and allow them to express emotion to decompress in between the action.

Characters

Looking for consistency in your characters doesn’t mean they shouldn’t change—in fact, it’s going to be a pretty boring story if they haven’t. But the progression of their character arc should make sense. If your character started off selfish, there should be clear incidents throughout the plot that push them into growing and becoming more selfless, so that by the end of the story, the change they’ve gone through feels natural.

Within each scene, the characters’ reactions and dialogue should also be consistent. One of the best ways to do a quick test is to whittle down the core of your character into a few words. Something like “sarcastic, guarded, control-freak.” In every scene, examine if your character’s interactions line up with this central truth. Depending on who they’re interacting with and what point in the story they’re at, some of these words will hold a bigger sway than others. Your character may be going through an arc that teaches them to trust people, so by the end of the story, they shouldn’t be guarded in their interactions. But they might always be sarcastic. (Aren’t all the best characters?)

Theme

Theme is what connects your plot and your characters. It defines how your characters change and why the plot changes them in that way. So, it’s important that it’s consistent. Again, you may have your theme planned out before you start writing, and everything is perfectly plotted around it. Great! You should still read through with a careful eye, making sure each plot beat and point in your character arc are connected through theme in a way that doesn’t feel forced.

Or, you may discover your theme as you write. Also great! Once you’ve reached the end of your draft, you should be able to condense your theme into a single phrase or word. Now you can go through your plot and characters and make sure it all lines up. If your theme is love and your main characters needs to learn to love themselves first (whatever, I know it’s cheesy, go with it), then your character should start out feeling insecure, and the plot should gradually challenge their view of themselves until they’ve changed by the end. They shouldn’t spend the whole story focused on avenging their father’s death, going through a character arc that is begging for the story to end with them realizing the importance of forgiveness, and then at the end suddenly decide they need to love themselves exactly the way they are. It feels forced, and isn’t a satisfying ending the story you’ve actually written.

Setting

Naturally, the setting and worldbuilding part of the story is more prominent in some genres than others. If you’re writing fantasy, sci-fi, or historical fiction, you’ve probably already put a lot of thought into the setting your characters are interacting with. But even if you’re writing something set in a more modern context that you feel familiar with, you’re still creating a world. In both cases, make sure things are consistent. If you describe the house as one story, your character shouldn’t need to go up any stairs once they get inside. The changing of seasons and days of the week should fit into the world’s rules. Whatever rules you make for your magic shouldn’t shift without a reason. As you’re reading your book, make a note of every detail about the setting. Whether it’s a limitation on how long the spaceship can last in hyperspeed or where the fridge is located, write it down. Then look through the list and make sure nothing contradicts. Refer back to the list as you add more detail about the setting where your story takes place.

Realize that the macro-edit isn’t just a second draft. You’ll likely be in this stage for a while, depending on how much you plotted beforehand. As you tweak one aspect, you may realize that means another area needs to be changed, which means another draft. Don’t freak out! This is just how the editing process goes. Your book is basically a big Jenga tower: when you take out one problem, you discover other weak points that were relying on it. But that means, slowly but surely, you’ll root out all the weaknesses in your manuscript until it’s the strongest it can possibly be.

Which of these four areas do you struggle with the most? Have you gone through a macro-edit yet? Let me know in the comments!

If you liked this post, pin it to share and save it for later!

8 tips for finding your perfect beta readers (Editing Your Novel: Part Two)

At some point in the editing process, you’ll need to share your writing. NOT with an agent yet—when you submit your manuscript to query, the agent shouldn’t be the only person other than you to have seen it!

Instead, you should gather a good group of beta readers.

What exactly are beta readers, you ask? They’re other people—both writers and readers—who will read through your manuscript and give you advice on what’s working, what’s not, and how to fix it.

If handing over your book baby for people to read sounds scary: good. It should. It means you’ve put part of yourself on the page, and you care about what you’ve written. But just because it’s scary doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it! This is absolutely the best way to improve your book. You can take all the breaks you want, but you just won’t be able to get the same objectivity as someone who is reading it for the first time and hasn’t spent months or years struggling over it. And that kind of outside opinion is critical to making sure your book is the best it can be.

One of the hardest parts about this process is knowing when to bring in beta readers. This timing is different for everyone, and depends on your process. The best advice I can offer is to send it when you’ve done enough work that you feel like you’re not really improving things; you’re just changing them. Whether you know there’s a problem but are stuck, or you just can’t see anything else to do to your manuscript, that’s a good sign that you should send it off to get fresh eyes on it.

Finding beta readers is a bit scary, and it’s important to not just let anybody read your work if you want to get the best advice you can. So here are a few tips to help you find the perfect beta reader for you and your manuscript.

This post is part of the Editing Your Novel series. Click through to read about the read-through, the macro-edit, and the micro-edit.

1. Start with a relationship

Some of the best beta readers you’ll find won’t come from a specific search for beta readers; they start as friendships with other writers. Whether online or in person, you should be connecting to other writers regardless of where you are in the book writing process. When it comes time to show your work to other people, start by asking the writers you already know who you think would make a great fit. And of course, be open to reading their work as well.

2. Be specific about what kind of edits you’re looking for

You’ll likely have several rounds of beta readers throughout the whole editing process, and the type of feedback you need will change depending on what point you’re at. When you ask people to read for you and send your work to them, be clear about what kind of edits you’re expecting: Do you want big picture feedback? Or are you ready for people to nitpick sentence structure and typos? When everyone is on the same page, it makes it easier for your beta reader and gives you the information you need.

3. Be open to swapping services

Not everyone has the luxury to beta read just for the fun of it. It’s more work than just reading a novel, and ultimately requires a lot of time and effort. If you think someone would make a good beta reader but they aren’t able to swing it, consider seeing if they’re open to a trade. This might mean beta reading for them (more on that in a bit!) but could also mean another skill you have: graphic design, help with social media, editing their blog—anything that they might normally have to pay for that you could offer in exchange for reading your book.

4. Make sure you have a mix of beta reader “types”

As you recruit people to read your book, you’ll want a variety of people to get their eyes on it. Find people who will be honest, even if you may not like what you hear. Have a cheerleader in there as well—your mom, best friend, significant other, whatever. Someone who will love whatever you write simply because you wrote it. Because, hey, we can all use some encouragement! You’ll also want to include people you’ve been talking to about the book and know your vision for it, as well as people who have no idea what it’s about other than the short synopsis you gave them, so they have totally fresh eyes.

Depending on what point in the editing process you’re at, you’ll also want varying ratios of writers to readers-only. Earlier in the process, it’s more helpful to have other writers look at your work, as they’ll be able to suss out what exactly is and isn’t working, and how to fix it. As you near the end, having people who don’t write but are avid readers can help you get an idea of how your book feels to the typical reader.

5. Share a short sample with them first

If someone is interested in reading your work, don’t send over the entire manuscript if you’ve never worked with them before. Send the first chapter or so, and then look at their edits. This is a trial period for both of you. It allows you to see what their editing style is like, and gives them a chance to better understand what your book is. Both of you should be honest and feel comfortable saying no if you feel it’s not the right fit.

6. Fit your beta readers to your ideal audience

Your beta readers should be pretty similar to your ideal audience. If you’re writing YA, that means finding some teenagers to read your book, as well as other YA writers who can help with the mechanics of writing for that age. Your beta readers should be pretty familiar with whatever genre you’re writing, as well. When I first sent out my book to beta readers, I was devastated by one person’s feedback who clearly did not like it. As I compared it to other feedback I got, I realized that this person just wasn’t my target reader for this book, and it made sense that they didn’t enjoy it. This isn’t to say they didn’t have some good edits that I took into consideration, but I would have saved myself some heartache and saved that person’s time if I had been clearer about what I was writing and what they should expect.

7. Find readers who share experiences with your characters

Unless you’re writing something close to an autobiography, you likely have characters who have different experiences than you. To make sure these details ring true, it’s important to get beta readers who have actually experienced these things. It might be something small, like living in a different city or having a certain job. Or it might be a bigger point, like having a disability or being of a different race. In these cases, it’s usually best to pay someone to be a sensitivity reader, so that they can focus on those specific areas.

8. Be nice. Seriously.

When someone beta reads for you, they are doing you a HUGE favor. So, like, be a decent person. SAY THANK YOU, for Pete’s sake! It takes one minute to send them a sincere thank you email, and it’s the least you can do. If you disagree with comments they left you, don’t attack them. Either ignore the comments, or ask if they can explain them more (after sleeping on it—don’t contact them right away, or you’ll likely end up sounding snarky even if you think you aren’t). And offer to beta read for them as well. It’s super common to swap manuscripts to beta read, and this is probably the best way to say thank you!

What has helped you find good beta readers? Have you ever been a beta reader? Let me know in the comments!

If you liked this post, pin it to share it and save for later!

Featured image by Ben White

The Goodbye Summer: relatable friendships, but falls flat

Caroline can’t wait for summer to end so that she and her older boyfriend, Jake, can run away together. She decides to spend her last summer at home saving money working at the local aquarium gift shop–and spending all the rest of her time hanging with Jake.

Then she meets Georgia, a counselor at the aquarium camp. Georgia weaves her way into Caroline’s life and suddenly the summer feels a lot less lonely.

The stronger Georgia and Caroline’s bond grows, the more uneasy Caroline becomes about her plans to leave. When summer comes to a close, she will have to say goodbye to someone… but who is she willing to lose?

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the free copy in exchange for my honest review.

The Goodbye Summer is a fun story of friendship and figuring out who you are as you get older.

The book is driven more by characters than by plot, and these inter-character relationships are certainly where the story shines. Caroline and Georgia’s friendship is the focus of the book, and it’s refreshing to see a female friendship that doesn’t need drama or cattiness. I firmly believe we need more of those examples in media, and so I loved seeing them navigate the obstacles of their summer together, rather than fighting with each other as the driving force of the plot. Their friendship was so well-balanced by their personalities and family experiences, and it was a joy to see them grow closer and support each other through the story.

Beyond that, I also really enjoyed seeing Caroline’s relationships with the other characters grow as well. I absolutely loved when her boss Jenny encouraged her despite not knowing what was going on, and providing some older-sister type guidance. It was also good to see Caroline’s relationship with her parents grow and fluctuate throughout the summer. It’s clear that her boyfriend Jake had negatively affected that, and to see her gradually realize she’s still a kid and needs her parent was sweet, and something less frequently explored in YA novels.

With so much of the focus on the characters, however, it was easy to get frustrated with Caroline and how much she put up with from her older boyfriend Jake. It’s clear to the reader from the very start that he’s not good for her and has been detrimental to pretty much every other relationship Caroline has in the book–her parents, her friends at school, and eventually the friends she makes while working in the aquarium. He really didn’t seem to have any redeeming qualities, and so with Caroline being smart and ambitious, it was hard to understand why she stayed with him.

There’s also an important scene between the two of them that didn’t receive as much attention as I felt it should have. Towards the end of the book, Jake tries to convince Caroline to have sex, but she clearly doesn’t want to. She resists, but he continues, and eventually she gives in. Since it’s not their first time together, we clearly see in Caroline’s thoughts how much she doesn’t enjoy it and wishes he had stopped. This scene is never really addressed again beyond Caroline viewing it as “bad sex.” That’s a problem. With the targeted audience as teenage girls, it’s important to highlight the nuances of experiences like this. While it wasn’t technically rape, Jake clearly knowing Caroline didn’t want to sleep with him and pushing her to anyway is way beyond bad sex. I really wish Caroline had mentioned it to Georgia, and they could have had a real, honest discussion about experiences like this, because unfortunately they’re not all that uncommon. This could have been a great opportunity to show teenage girls that just because your partner wants to have sex doesn’t mean you’re obligated to comply, and also reveal how talking honestly, both with your partner and trusted people close to you, about sex is healthy and important.

While the focus is more on the characters, there still didn’t seem like a clear character arc for Caroline that provided a semblance of a plot. Often, it felt more like a collection of vignettes from throughout the summer. Which, again, could have worked better if we saw more of Caroline’s growth. Instead, it felt like sometimes she started to grow and rethink her decision to run away with Jake, but then she would backtrack and be firm about how she felt about him. It was a little frustrating as a reader.

This also means that at the end, the climax fell a little flat. When Caroline does finally make the decision to stay at home for her senior year and not join Jake when he leaves, it didn’t feel believable since just the day before she had been 100% set on going. And there wasn’t anything big that actually happened to make Caroline do such a 180—she simply was at the amusement park with friends and suddenly had this realization. While it was a beautifully written scene, it lost much of its power since it felt like it hadn’t been foreshadowed earlier in the book.

That said, The Goodbye Summer does a remarkable job of capturing that “summer in high school” feeling, particularly one when you believe everything is going to change. It reminded me of my summer after 12^th grade, when everything somehow felt the same and yet different, as I kept my normal summer routine but also prepared to go to college. While Caroline’s experience is a little different since she’s preparing to drop out and run away with Jake, it still has that bittersweet feeling that I think many people are familiar with. The writing style is beautiful, and there were numerous lines that made me say, “Wow. How did she put that into words so perfectly?” While this book was a little disappointing, I do look forward to reading more work by Sarah Van Name and following her growth as a writer.

You can preorder The Goodbye Summer by Sarah Van Name here!

Are you looking forward to The Goodbye Summer? What are your favorite summer reads? Let me know in the comments!

If you liked this post, pin it to share it and save for later!

Take your music offline

Create a portable routine

Download a writing app

Experiment with a new writing time

Bring a journal

It’s okay to take a break

Read more

Are you traveling anywhere this summer? What are your tips to keep writing even while you’re on the road? Let me know in the comments!

being in nature…

Decreases your stress hormones and heart rate

Replenishes your directed attention

Allows your prefrontal cortex to rest and restore

Makes you nicer to yourself

Increases your creative problem solving

What’s your favorite place to relax outdoors? Do you find that it helps your creativity? Let me know in the comments!

There’s Something About Sweetie by Sandhya Menon

Romanov by Nadine Brandes

The Kiss Quotient and The Bride Test by Helen Hoang

The Great Unknowable End by Kathryn Ormsbee

Hot Dog Girl by Jennifer Dugan

The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory

You’d Be Mine by Erin Hahn

Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi

Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

Love & Gelato and Love & Luck by Jenna Evans Welch

What books are you planning to read this summer? Let me know in the comments!

What I loved

What I disliked

To order Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck & Fortune by Roselle Lim, click here.

Have you read Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck & Fortune yet? What did you think? Is it on your TBR? Let me know in the comments!

A teenage love story

Other Shelf to Screen Reviews Dumplin’ Crazy Rich Asians

A look at how everything that happens to us is part of a chain reaction

A love letter to New York City

Final thoughts: Category Three

Have you read The Sun Is Also A Star or seen the movie? What did you think? Let me know in the comments!

1. Find and replace

2. Plug it into Hemingway Editor

3. Read it through, thoroughly

4. Put yourself in your characters’ shoes

5. Read it out loud

Want to give yourself a boost in micro-editing? Get the Micro-Editing Checklist here!

Tag Rules:

Questions

What is your favorite thing about reading?

Which male character is your favorite?

Which female character is your favorite?

Who is your favorite villain of all time?

Who is your least favorite character of all time?

Which book do you think has the strongest plot?

What gets on your nerves the most in a story (a boring character, an unrealistic plot, etc.)?

Which book has the best cover (share a picture!)?

Do you let people borrow your books? If so, are you specific about how they treat them?

If a movie could be made based on any book, which book would you choose?

Which author has inspired you most?

What single book would you be unable to live without?

People I’m Tagging

Plot

Characters

Theme

Setting

Which of these four areas do you struggle with the most? Have you gone through a macro-edit yet? Let me know in the comments!

1. Start with a relationship

2. Be specific about what kind of edits you’re looking for

3. Be open to swapping services

4. Make sure you have a mix of beta reader “types”

5. Share a short sample with them first

6. Fit your beta readers to your ideal audience

7. Find readers who share experiences with your characters

8. Be nice. Seriously.

What has helped you find good beta readers? Have you ever been a beta reader? Let me know in the comments!

You can preorder The Goodbye Summer by Sarah Van Name here!

Are you looking forward to The Goodbye Summer? What are your favorite summer reads? Let me know in the comments!

Other Shelf to Screen Reviews
Dumplin’
Crazy Rich Asians