Welcome to Blog Your Book in 30 Days 2016 #BYBin30

Today is the first day of the Blog Your Book in 30 Days 2016 challenge! We have a new badge, if you'd like to use it.

First, for those of you who are new, here's a bit of information about the challenge (which you can also find by clicking on some of the links at the top of the page).

About the challenge:
Blog Your Book in 30 Days is a challenge to write the first draft of your book by posting one chapter a day for an entire month. During the month of the challenge, helpful blog posts will be shared on the website.

The challenge is here to help you write the book you have always wanted to write but have never written. Whether you want to write a memoir, a fiction novel, a comic book, a children's chapter book or middle grade novel or a non-fiction book, this challenge is going to help you get it done. 

Every day, you are going to do any research that is needed for the day's writing and your are going to post a blog post of one chapter of your book. By the end of the month, you should have 30 chapters and a completed first draft.

This way of writing your books works best if you are planning to self-publish your book, but there are some instances where blogs have garnered the attention of agents and publishers and resulted in book deals. Those instances are the exception though, not the rule.
Sign up here.

But the rules are much more flexible than they may seem by reading the "about" section, so here are the rules (which can also be found by clicking on one of the links at the top of the page).

The rules of the challenge:
Sign up. You will not be entered into the prize drawings unless you are signed up.

You have from the first of the month until the 30th of the month to complete the first draft of your book. No starting early, unless it is only research and outline you are working on beforehand.

On the 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th and 30th of the month, you will do a quick comment on that day's blog post posted on this blog about that week stating how the week has gone for you and anything you have learned or achieved from the challenge that week. Your comment might be quoted in the Blog Your Book in 30 Days book when it comes out or later in the blog itself and, by commenting, you are giving permission for your quote to be used. (You will be named with the quote.)

Each day, you are to write one chapter and then copy and paste it into your day's blog post. By the end of the challenge, you should have a final word count. On the 30th, your comment will include your final word count and whether or not you have finished your first draft. Everyone who completes their first draft will be entered into a prize drawing. (The prize this year is a collection of different, mostly home-made things, and the items will be pictured on the blog as we go through the challenge, one thing at a time.) Every time you leave a comment on (one comment per post) a blog post, you will earn one more entry into the drawing. Your comments on the 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th and 30th will earn you two entries into the drawing, and my favorite comment from each of those five days will earn an extra entry. 

This challenge is self-driven and monitored. It is a way to keep yourself accountable as you write.

There are some optional ways of following this challenge for those who plan on having their books published traditionally rather than self-published.

1. Write your one chapter every day, but only post on your blog about the writing, such as how much you wrote, what part of the story you were working on, what was easy about it, what was difficult about it, whether it stayed on plan or strayed from the original plot idea, etc. (Have you made a book cover for your book, even just a working cover? Share that too!)

2. Write your one chapter every day, but only post a small (one paragraph) excerpt from that day's writing as your blog post for the day.

3. Blog your book as per the original plan, but leave out important chapters, which will only be seen in the finished product. (This is a good idea even for those who plan on self-publishing.)

4. Use this challenge to edit a previously written book and make notes on the blog about the editing process as you work through the different issues in your book.

The main point of this challenge is to get your book written and to build up a following for it before it comes out. 

Good luck!

Go ahead and grab a badge from below:

Writing Fight Scenes #BYBin30

image from Pinterest

Writing a convincing fight scene can be a struggle. Many writers have never been in a physical fight, or at least, have never been in one that would be riveting to onlookers. So how exactly is a writer supposed to write a fight scene that will not only convince the reader that a fight is occurring but that will also create the sense of suspense that is needed to make the scene really fascinating?

Here are a few tips to writing a gripping fight scene:

Don't describe every little detail. Let the reader fill in some of the blanks. Blow-by-blow description of the fight can become tedious. You want your reader to be enthralled with the fight so much that they picture it in their minds, and if you fill in too much of the detail, instead of visualizing the fight, they are more likely to become bored and skim over the blow-by-blow description of it. 

Your fight scene has to be believable. The fight has to appear to be a real fight. You don't want your reader to have to suspend disbelief too much to believe your fight scene is real. Your characters have their adrenalin surging through them, and certain actions, like too much talking, will not be likely to happen. Your readers will expect the fighters to become winded and be breathing heavily after a few minutes of battle, not to be feeling fresh as a daisy after fighting for twenty minutes straight.

Your fight scene should reveal something about the character. Is your main character weaker than his or her opponent? Stronger? Is he or she afraid? Is your main character willing to fight even when it looks like he or she is going to lose? Your fight scene can show other facets of your protagonist that might not be as easily demonstrated in any other type of scene.

The fight scene should advance the plot. What happens after the fight? Is your character changed in some way? Is he or she injured? Is your protagonist more determined to succeed against all odds or are they feeling less capable? Does the win or loss of the fight change the odds of succeeding in whatever quest the story involves? This fight scene should have some effect on how the plot moves along; otherwise, it's an unnecessary scene and should be cut in the edits.

Your fight scene should not be too easy for your protagonist. If your main character sails through the fight without much difficulty and without a scratch on him or her, then not only is the fight going to be less believable, but it serves no purpose within your plot. It won't reveal anything about your character and makes the overall conflict in the story less urgent.

The fight scene needs to be full of suspense. The outcome should not be a foregone conclusion. If your reader already knows who is going to win, the suspense is gone. You might think that it is not an easy task to create suspense when you write in a genre where the hero always wins, but, when properly done, a fight scene can make your reader forget that the hero is going to win. If the fight scene is not the final scene in your story or the deciding factor in the hero's overcoming the obstacle or challenge of the story, then he or she won't necessarily win every fight or every battle. And even if the fight scene is the one that starts the conclusion of the story, a good fight scene can make a reader wonder what the cost of winning will be for your hero.

Your fight scene needs to include emotion. Even the coldest of mercenaries will feel something when they fight. Don't forget to show us what your hero, and even the villain of the story, are feeling through their actions during the fight. Does the villain say something to anger the hero, causing a sudden burst of fury-led violence from the hero? Or does the villain start backing away when he begins to fear the outcome of the battle will not be in his favor? Clenched fists can be a sign of anger as well as preparation for a punch. Does your protagonist curl his or her lip in disgust at the antagonist? Make your readers feel the emotions emanating between your two characters as they face off against one another.

*****

Give-away

Today's prize is a copy of "Writing Fight Scenes" by Rain Hall. If you are a signed-up member of the challenge, all you need to do to be entered into the drawing to win this book is leave a comment on this blog post. Do you like writing fight scenes? Do any of your stories include fight scenes? The winner will be drawn by a random number generator on March 30th, at noon GMT and announced here later the same day.

Welcome to Blog Your Book in 30 Days 2015! #BYBin30

Welcome to the second Blog Your Book in 30 Days!

Feel free to use the above badge and add it to your blog. (Please link it back to here.)

Last year, I wrote a post a day on the subject of writing for you to read and learn from, and I gave away a prize a week. (I also blogged a 30-story collection of mermaid-themed flash and short fiction as well as editing a non-fiction book that I wrote in the previous February.) This year, I intend to let you read over previous posts, and I will post once or twice a week on the subject of writing. Feel free to read over last year's posts. If there are any topics in previous posts which you feel I should expand on (or a writing or publishing related topic you would like to see covered), please let me know and I will do so on a new post on the blog.

During this challenge, I will also be working on another fiction collection of short stories to go with a world I created for one of my novels. I will share the occasional excerpt here.

I'm also accepting guest posts. I want to hear about your work in progress. What are you working on this month? What is your plan for this month's challenge; how do you intend to complete the challenge? Have you written novels before? Are you published? Do you have any knowledge that might be helpful to others in the challenge? If you would like to guest post, please let me know in the comments. And if not, I'd still love to hear in the comments what type of book you will be working on this month. (There's a poll in the side-bar you can vote in too.)

I will post a bit about marketing your books as well, and how blogging your book can help with marketing before your book is even published.

Feel free to "like" the BYBin30 Facebook page and to join the BYBin30 Facebook group where we can discuss our books together.

If you want to accept the challenge, but, for whatever reason, don't want to make any part of your book public by blogging it, there are alternative ways to join in the challenge.

There is a sign-up form for the challenge, which is required for being eligible for the prizes. Don't worry. I won't use your sign-up to spam you or e-mail you any of the posts. It will just make it easier for me to contact you if you win a prize, and it helps me keep tabs on the number of official members.

Below are the links to last year's post. The topics include a variety of writing subjects for fiction writing, non-fiction writing and blogging. I hope you find them helpful.

Day 1: Planning and Plotting

Day 2: Research

Day 3: Hook your Readers in the First Chapter

Day 4: Conflict

Day 5: Supporting Topics/Supporting Characters

Day 6: How to Create Convincing Villains

Day 7: Becoming an Expert on your Book Topic

Day 8: Writing Memorable Dialogue

Day 9: An Alternate Method of the Hero's Journey

Day 10: Making your Blog Attractive to Readers

Day 11: Writing a Series Book

Day 12: Taking a Break from Writing to Refuel your Muse

Day 13: Creating Character Emotions

Day 14: Creating Fantasy Worlds and Creatures

Day 15: How to Avoid Writer's Block and Get your Story Written

Day 16: Writing the Middle of your Book

Day 17: Repurposing Old Blog Posts for your Book

Day 18: Changing Focus in the Middle of the Book; What Happens When Your Book Has to Be Altered Drastically?

Day 19: How to Successfully Weave Backstory into your Plot

Day 20: Be Cruel to your Protagonist

Day 21: The Value of your Book

Day 22: Using your Minor Characters to Fuel your Story

Day 23: Tips for Growing your Blog Readership

Day 24: Believe in your Ability to Write your Book

Day 25: Self-Editing your Manuscript

Day 26: Self-Publishing your Manuscript

Day 27: Humor in Writing

Day 28: Point of View

Day 29: Happily Ever After: Writing a Satisfying Story Ending

Day 30: Writing an Epilogue

Day Twenty-Seven: Humor in Writing #BYBin30

comic by Robert Fyfe

Humor adds an element to fiction that keeps readers engaged. It gives them a break in the drama or suspense. It can produce some memorable lines. It can help create more realistic and multi-dimensional characters. There are many reasons to use humor in your novel, but there are also many types of humor that can be used.

1. Sarcasm or wit - This form of humor is usually shown through word-play. Your characters can be sarcastic or witty through their dialogue with one another. Sarcasm is the use of irony to show contempt for something or someone. Wit is more about the intelligence and ability to think quickly when using sarcasm.

2. Dark  - This form of comedy covers jokes about the morbid, evil or depressing. If your character makes a joke about the form of his imminent death, that is an example of dark humor. Dark humor is comedy that makes light of dark situations or subject matter.

3. Satire - This form of comedy points out human flaws while also making fun of them. Although it is meant to be funny, it usually has an underlying point to make. It is used to make fun of or point out people's vices or stupidity.

4. Slap-stick - This is physical comedy. If you have a clumsy character, you might employ a lot of slap-stick comedy in your writing. "The Three Stooges" films were full of slap-stick humor. The physical actions in slap-stick humor have no boundaries or common sense. This humor is often physically violent.

5. Farce - This is an exaggerated form of comedy, where your characters get themselves into completely improbably situations. It often incorporates slap-stick elements, and often has absurd plot twists. "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Dougless Adams is an example of farce comedy.

6. Parody - This form of comedy makes fun of other artistic pieces, either of previously written stories or of movies and shows. It tends to pretend to be those shows or stories while changing enough to make them utterly ridiculous. The relatively new influx of zombie stories based on literary classics, such as "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" by Quirk Classics is an example of parody.

One thing is certain, if your story make your readers laugh, they will remember it.

Day Four: Conflict #BYBin30

It might seem strange to refer to conflict for non-fiction books, but I think of it more as introducing the reason for your readers to want to learn whatever it is your book has to teach them. For example, I recently discovered a YouTube video for mermaid lovers who want to swim like mermaids. The video explained what the conflict was: Buying professionally created mermaid tails is very expensive and many people can't afford them. And it presented itself, a video on how to make your own mermaid tail inexpensively, as the solution. In a travel guide, the conflict is that you want to travel but don't know which hotels are the best or which sights there are to see in the place you want to visit. The travel guide itself is the solution to the conflict.

In non-fiction books, the conflict is implied rather than written into the book. The book itself is the solution to the conflict. If you want to learn more about Christopher Columbus, you find the solution - a biography about him. If you want to grow your own garden but don't have a lot of garden space, you might find that a book about container gardening will give you the answers you need. If you want to sell your own house, you can easily find a book on the subject which will help you learn what you need to know.

Fiction novels have a deeper dependency on conflict within the story. Without conflict in a fictional story, you won't have much of a story. Conflict is the driving force in the story. The conflict that your character faces drives his or her actions. The goal of the story is for your protagonist to overcome the conflict. There can be other conflicts in the story which help to fuel the main conflict, such as your character having an argument with the one person who holds the answer to something your protagonist needs to know or your protagonist and his or her charming secondary character/sidekick getting separated and needing to find each other again before they can, together, defeat, whatever it is that's causing the original problem.

If done correctly, the journey to overcome the conflict your protagonist faces, should, in some way, change your protagonist. He or she should grow as a result of defeating the obstacles along the way. Every decision your protagonist makes and every event that occurs as a result of those decisions should help shape your protagonists later decisions.

There are four main types of conflict in stories: man verses man - you have a protagonist and an antagonist pitted against each other, man verses self - where the biggest challenge for the protagonist is to overcome his or her own shortcomings, man verses nature - where man must overcome the forces of nature or creatures within nature to survive, and man verses society - where man must overcome the restrictions of society in order to succeed. These can sometimes overlap in stories. Others have suggested that there are more types of conflict for modern stories, such as man verses fate, man verses the supernatural and man verses technology, but, again, many of these types of conflict will overlap within stories.

If you are writing a non-fiction book, ask yourself; what is the implied conflict for which my book is the solution?

If you are writing a fiction novel, ask yourself these questions:

What does my protagonist want?

What obstacles or problems is my protagonist facing?

How will my protagonist need to change, or what will he or she need to do differently, in order to overcome the obstacles or problems being faced?