I have several non-fiction books I've used as resources lately. Enjoy these mini reviews!

Beginnings, Middles, & Ends by Nancy Kress
This book covers exactly what the title indicates, including offering help if any of those three acts are a problem for you. It emphasizes why each is important, what it must do, and how to transition to the next part. I felt like this book was a bit below my level of writing understanding, because I didn't highlight a single thing in it. However, for newer writers, some of the advice offered may be new to you so for the price ($12.99 for a paperback) it might be worth it.

Mastering Suspense Structure & Plot by Jane K. Cleland
This book won the Agatha Award for best non-fiction, so I bought it from the little indie bookstore that set up at a conference recently. The book is split in two halves: planning and writing. If you're not a plotter, and don't plan to try it, then half the book may not be for you. While what it discussed was interesting, I still didn't highlight anything, which to me is telling. However, if you're new to plotting and want to try out a technique for it, this book may be of great use. It was a little more expensive (the paperback was $18.99) but at least I supported an indie bookstore.

The Negative Trait Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi
I've talked about the various thesauruses by this pair of writers before, and they never disappoint. This thesaurus helps identify negative traits to give characters, because a perfect character is a boring one, and associates them with causes, behaviors, thoughts, and examples. Some of the causes include emotional wounds, which really helps make a character cohesive. I also liked that it listed both positive and negative aspects of these traits so you can write a character where these flaws are sometimes a strength. It's safe to say I recommend it.

Botanical Curses and Poisons: The Shadow Lives of Plants by Fez Inkwright
I bought this one at an indie book stand at a Christmas market. The book is gorgeous and the topic is very in line with a new writing project I have. There's a section up front for history and then it's an encyclopedia of plants that are poisonous, associated with magic, or both. Each entry explains why the plant was included as well as interesting facts, and often an image. I left flags all over this book to come back to. If you're writing about these types of plants or are just curious, I highly recommend it. For the hardcover I paid $16.99, and supported and indie bookstore, so it was a win all around.


Have you read any of these books? Which did you find most helpful? Let's discuss in the comments!

Steering the Craft by speculative legend Ursula K. Le Guin is a non-fiction writing craft book complete with exercises. She won so many top awards in the science fiction and fantasy realm that I knew I needed to see what her writing advice entailed. 

Overview
Steering the Craft is a mere 141 pages, but don't let that fool you. The 10 chapters each focuses on an element of writing. The exercises that appear at the end of each section include solo exercises and group exercises, which Le Guin recommended. These often included tasks to break the advice just covered by the chapter, then writing the same thing following the advice, especially if the topic was a bit more obscure.

My Experience
I followed along and did each writing exercise, which is not my usual pattern, since I read on my commute. However, this book I made sure to read at home next to my laptop. I loved the exercises, because writing something that broke the lesson just learned proven the lesson was right. I learn best through failure and this forced failure exercise style really hammered home the information much better than just having me try things correctly. All in all, the book and exercises took me about two days to get through.

Is It Worth It? 
I paid $16.99 for my paperback copy from an indie bookseller at a writing conference. I'd probably be willing to pay more, honestly. This was one of the most useful craft books I've read in ages! I cannot recommend it enough to writers both new and advanced. You may think you know everything in this book, but the exercises alone are golden. This is bound to be a timeless resource!


Have you read Steering the Craft and tried all the exercises? Which was your favorite? Let's discuss in the comments!

I was recently scrolling on Instagram and was shown an add for a barrette with little books on it. I liked the concept, but the books had plain leather covers without titles. I've seen tiny books in other places; some people make tiny books of every book they read for the year, there's a mindfulness toy where you put tiny books on a tiny bookshelf, etc. So I thought, why not make tiny books of books I love and put those on barrettes instead. I made them and I LOVE them! I didn't take many photos during the process, but here's how I did it:

I followed this guide initially, but ended up having to make lots of adjustments.

Materials: 
2 ~4inch long barrettes with a nice wide surface area for gluing
​Several sheets of plain paper
Scissors and/or a paper slicer
Needle and thread (color doesn't matter)
Glue (I used both rubber cement and super glue for different portions)
Printer
Microsoft Word
Measuring tape (ideally with inches and cm)

Step 1: Make the Pages
You don't necessarily need to have real pages in your books, you can replace them with a little rectangle (2cm wide, 3cm tall, 1cm deep) of foam or cardboard. However, if you want pages, here's how:

• Cut 3cm by 4cm rectangles from plain paper. You'll need 10 for every book you make, and 4 books per barrette. 
• Fold each rectangle in half so they look 2cm by 3cm (aka hamburger style) and really press that seam with whatever you have handy. I used the flat butt of a pen and it did fine. 
• Nest five of these folded pages together.
• Sew along the fold. Keep the knots on the outside edge, rather than the inside of the book, to allow the pages to close better. This will take 2-3 stitches, so don't feel intimidated if you aren't into sewing.
• Do this until you have two bundles for every book you plan to make.

Step 2: Make the Covers

• Select the books you want to recreate. 
• Use Google images, Amazon, Goodreads, etc. to find images of the front cover, back cover, and spine. (The spines were trouble for me, see below to help if this plagues you too.)
• Copy the image and paste into Microsoft Word. In Word, change the size of the images (and deselect the option to maintain the current aspect ratio):
  • Front/back covers: 1.33 inches tall, 0.95 inches wide
  • Spine: 1.33 inches tall, 0.19 inches wide. 
• Arrange the images to that the back cover is on the left, then the spine, then the front cover, and all are touching.
• If you struggle to find an image of the spine alone, crop an image of the book from a bookstack. If no images of the spine exist (maybe it's a super new book) just crop the title from the cover image. These will end up tiny, so imperfections aren't a huge deal. 
• Print your images. 

My barrettes turned out so cute and I cannot wait to wear them to the conference I'm attending later this month. I think they're great conversation starters. One features comps for the book I'll be pitching and the other features books I love to chat about. Because I owned all of the supplies except for the barrettes, this project only cost me $3.

If you try this craft, let me know how it goes! 

This post has been on my to-do list for a while. Back in January, I contacted a professional freelance editor about getting a developmental edit. I worked with Jeni Chappelle, who has a great website and newsletter and she has participated in RevPit, a pitch contest to get a free developmental edit. I ended up purchasing what she called a Manuscript Critique, which has the same type of feedback as her developmental edit, but includes a couple fewer things (no list of resources, fewer calls, etc.). I wanted to discover what type of feedback a paid edit would get me vs a free beta read from my writing groups and some reader friends. Is a developmental edit/manuscript critique different or better than a beta read? 

I want to emphasize one of my points here: having others beta read your book is expected by agents before your query. (It's so expected that you don't need to mention it in your query.) However, no agent will reject your work solely because you didn't have a developmental edit. That type of edit might help you solve problems that then take your manuscript from a rejection to an acceptance, but:

No professional editing is required in order to sign with an agent.

My experience with Jeni Chappelle was awesome. She gave me incredible feedback, and our call together made me so inspired to work on my novel again. She was genuinely enthused about my project and was such a nice and caring person. If you're considering a developmental edit/manuscript critique and she seems like a fit for your story and budget, I recommend her.

My beta reader pros and cons are based on several years' worth of beta feedback on my current project and three previous novels. I've worked with betas in my writing groups and friends who were more readers than writers. Your beta experience will vary. Choose wisely and know when you've gotten enough beta readers to give you feedback (you can have too many.)


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Overall, getting a developmental edit is significantly different from receiving beta reads. In my experience, the developmental edit was better specifically for big-picture feedback, but that's what it's designed for. I would never skip beta reading, with or without a developmental edit, because the beta feedback's granularity and variety is also incredibly useful.

The Letters of Enchantment series by Rebecca Ross includes two novels: Divine Rivals and Ruthless Vows. Divine Rivals was recommended to me by the editor I hired (remember that new years' goal? I'll post about that experience soon!) She said it would be a good comparison title for my manuscript, and when I started reading, I couldn't put it down! (Am I flattered she thinks this is a comp for me? YES!)

Divine Rivals and Ruthless Vows follow Iris Winnow and Roman C. Kitt, two budding journalists, in an early 20th century fantasy world. War has broken out between two of the last gods, Enva and Dacre, and though their city remains neutral, Iris wants to report more about the war because her brother enlisted--and hasn't been heard from since. In the meantime, Iris is competing with Roman to be hired full time by the best paper in town. Iris is barely keeping afloat financially as her drunken mother drinks their income, while Roman is the son of a cold railroad mogul. What connects these rivals are their enchanted typewriters, which allow them to send letters magically to each other--but only Roman knows who he is writing.  Rivals at work and lovers by letter--it's a WWI/magical twist on the movie You've Got Mail.

I loved this series. I normally dislike rivals to lovers because I often get infuriated with whichever of them I think is in the wrong as a rival. However, this couple really worked for me. At the end of the first book I screamed and race to download the sequel. I'll probably buy hardcopies because I enjoyed them so much--an honor I've only ever bestowed on one other ebook. 

Could I find something to complain about in this series? I'm sure, if I tried hard enough. But I devoured them so quickly and was so absorbed by them that I didn't have time to be distracted by any faults. 

This series is for you if you enjoy rivals to lovers, fantasy with 20th century technology, and You've Got Mail. This series will not be for you if you want a real world WWI novelization, if you are not in the headspace to read about alcoholic family members, or if you are not in the headspace to read about war and being in a warzone. 


Have you read Divine Rivals and Ruthless Vows? (I won't bother asking if you only read one, the ending of Divine Rivals demands you pick up the sequel!) Let's discuss in the comments!

As mentioned in an earlier post, it's time to set new goals for the year. I took some time considering what I want to accomplish and how my goals last year worked out for me. Honestly, my biggest take away was that having a page count goal was exhausting and stressful, I felt rushed through books. And while my goals for what kinds of books to read pushed me to try some titles I wouldn't have considered otherwise, my goal to read more indies led to hours of stress to pick books I ended up not finishing. So this year's goals are a lot gentler than last year's. 

Reading Goals

1) Read my physical TBR
I have a stockpile of gifts from Christmas and other events to get through. If I have a physical book, I need to read it. 

2) Read what my friends are gushing about
It was so fun to read Fourth Wing and Iron Flame at the same time as a group of friends from work. I loved discussing theories and the buzzy energy as we all raced to finished Iron Flame so we could chat without anyone being spoiled. I want more of that!

3) Find comps for my next book
I think it's important to read anything I use as a comp, so I want to find and read them for the novel I'll be querying.

4) Keep track of reading stats, but don't sweat
I love knowing what books I read, and sharing them. I like trying to err on the side of diverse reading. However, I don't want to chain myself to anything. What will be will be, including my final page count. 

Writing Goals

1) See what working with a professional editor is like
I've never hired an editor for previous manuscripts, so this year I'm testing it out. I'm sure to get good feedback and learn things.

2) Polish my manuscript and send my first query for my next book
This might take all year, who knows, but I want to push for it as early as I can. Time to head back to the query trenches. Fourth time's the charm?

3) Keep up with my writing groups
One of the few goals I'm renewing is to keep up with my critique groups. I joined a new one this year too, so it's a lot of reading. However, I'm happy to do it! Editing others helps hone the editorial eye for your own work too!



That's it! A short but sweet list of specific but gentle goals for 2024. What do you hope to accomplish this year? Let's discuss in the comments. 

Fall is spooky season and one of the main Halloween monsters is of course Frankenstein's monster, sometimes called Adam. Since it is a foundational text to scifi--the very first scifi, in fact--I decided to read the original Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Rather than review it, I decided to write about what I learned about writing irom this classic novel (or really a novella, it was about 110 pages). 

1) Don't be afraid of a unique story structure
Frankenstein is actually a letter written by a sea captain to his sister about meeting Dr. Frankenstein and that man's story. So the meat of the book is "story within a story" since you know in the end things will circle back to that boat captain. At one point, the story becomes the monster's story being told to Dr. Frankenstein being told to the captain. Like Russian nesting dolls. However, this complicated structure was made very clear and even acted as foreshadowing of excitement when the start of Dr. Frankenstein's tale got a little dry.

2) Don't overdo the backstory
While it may have been the style of the time, modern readers now don't need Dr. Frankenstein's life story to begin with his parents meeting. When I saw that was how the story began, I was dreading the rest. It didn't get interesting until Dr. Frankenstein left for college. So while it's good to read classics, keep in mind how very different the market is today, and don't accidentally pick up on very out of date style choices.

3) Build sympathy by showing what your characters wants most
We were all a little afraid of Frankenstein's monster after his first kill, naturally, because he's not on the page much to defend himself. However, he makes it clear exactly what he wants: a lover. He is so intensely lonely and in need of contact that after he explains it, you can't avoid sympathy. There is even some sympathy for Dr. Frankenstein when he just wants to protect others. Get your readers to choose sides by showing a deep want and explaining why--and why they can't have it (yet).

4) Keep up with the latest innovations
Mary Shelley was inspired by Galvanism and advances with electricity. If she'd only stayed aware of what was going on in the literary world, she wouldn't have run into the concepts that allowed her to conceive of Frankenstein. When looking for inspiration, look at innovations in fields that excite you: space, medicine, engineering, environmental science, oceanography, etc. Even keeping up with new historical finds in archaeology or anthropology, if you're more of a history/fantasy writer. You never know when you'll run into something that will inspire, so get out of your typical bubble.

Those are my big takeaways from Frankenstein for writers. I will admit I was very surprised that a lot of classic Frankenstein tropes weren't in the original book--no castle, no Igor, no villagers with pitchforks and torches. He literally made his monster in his dorm room. (Try explaining that mess to your R.A.) I think he was even described as yellow, not green. So the Hollywood-ization of Frankenstein has clearly overshadowed the original for my entire experience. Kind of wild! 


Have you read Frankenstein? What were your writing (or reading) takeaways? What are some of your spooky season favorites? Let's discuss in the comments!

Putting the Fact in Fantasy is a collection of essays by subject matter experts about various topics that are often portrayed poorly in fantasy books, movies, and TV. The collection was edited by Dan Koboldt. I came across this book in an Indie bookstore and thought it would probably be helpful for my adult fantasy WIP. 

Overview
The fifty essays cover topics such as history as inspiration (female professions in medieval Europe, feudal nobility), languages and culture (realistic translation, developing a culture), worldbuilding (magic academies, money, political systems), weapons (archery, soldiers, martial arts), horses (so many horses), and adventure (hiking, castles and ruins). Pretty large variety! Most entries are less than ten pages, and the entire book is only 332 in paperback.


My Experience
There is a large skew toward European information, but some sections specifically call out non-Western information, like the feudal nobility section which included Middle Eastern titles. Very few sections are focused solely on non-Western information. Most of the historical info is also medieval or even Renaissance, with very little historical focus on more recent time periods. Some essays in the worldbuilding section are less about time period and more about making you think more deeply about your world, which was very helpful. I marked many sections I want to return to, including one about plants. I will say, the horse section went on a bit too long.

Is It Worth It?
I paid $20 at an indie bookstore for a paperback copy. The ebook is slightly cheaper ($14.99) but if you want to highlight or bookmark sections that you want to think about later, a physical copy is a good investment.
This book could be worth it if you're writing a historical fantasy or secondary world fantasy. If you're writing urban fantasy, magical realism, or contemporary fantasy, this book will not be as valuable to you. (Unless you're writing about horses and know nothing about horses.) This book may also be useful for other writers who are writing secondary worlds, since the worldbuilding section is pretty flexible. Bonus, there's also a section about Westerns!
Overall, it was worth the price to me.


Have you read Putting the Fact in Fantasy? What about the other anthology edited by Dan Koboldt, Putting the Science in Fiction? Let's discuss in the comments!

The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language by John McWhorter was published in the very early 2000s and discusses how languages arise, evolve, split, and go extinct. Why am I writing this as an "Is It Worth It" and not a book review? Well, I realized early in the book that if I was going to create a fantasy or scifi language, this book included a lot of information about how to make a fake language feel real and not just some made up words in an English grammar scheme. 

Overview
This book covers a lot of ground in 303 pages, including discussing different grammatical boxes in which languages can be categorized and how languages tend to morph words (because there are reliable patterns). A lot of space is also dedicated to discussing dialects and creole languages.

My Experience
I enjoyed many of the interesting facts in the book, and learned so much about language in general that I'd never considered. In fact, one of the facts I read was tweeted by Merriam Webster while I was reading. What are the odds? However, it was a little dry and spent a long time explaining things. There were also a lot of Bill Clinton jokes.

Is It Worth It?
I got this paperback book from an indie bookstore for $17.99. If I was trying to build a language for a story, I think it would be a huge resource to get started with the basic concepts of how the language would operate. However, if you're just a linguistics nerd, or someone who got excited by the etymology in R.F. Kuang's Babel, then this is probably not the book you are hoping it is. 


Have you ever tried to create a language for a project? What sources did you find helpful? Let's discuss in the comments!

Story Genius: How to us Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel by Lisa Cron is one of those writing books that I constantly hear about. After my lackluster experience with the similarly lauded Bird by Bird, I worried this would also be a stinker. However, I had an hour to kill at a Barnes and Noble, and when I spotted Story Genius, my curiosity outweighed my hesitance.

Overview
Story Genius breaks its advice into a couple sections, but in general it gives instructions on how to plot from idea through first draft. The main focus is to create a story that has a cohesive character arc and an external plot that specifically drives that arc. It also includes how this approach appeals to the brain so well. There are templates and spots where the book instructs the reader to stop and do an exercise that builds toward having a draft. 

My Experience
I highlighted so much of this book. From the advice on point of view to the tips and tricks for each stage of brainstorming and outlining. This book really appealed to how I usually plot anyway, but added ideas to make that even better. I can't wait to try this method, not just with a fresh story but use it on my current WIP to make sure my external and internal plots mesh well. 

Is It Worth It? 
I bought a paperback for $14.99, but if e-book is your thing it can be yours for $9.99. 
Honestly, this book is precisely for the type of writer that I am. I wish I'd bought it sooner, because I think I'll incorporate its method into every project from now on. I think this book is 100% worth the price!


Have you read Story Genius? Have you used the method? What did you think? Let's discuss in the comments.