Pixar's 22 Rules of Storytelling

Who loves stories and doesn't love Pixar? They are some the most fantastic storytellers today! You don't watch one of their movies without being awestruck by some amazing element. So, I decided to share Pixar's personal rules for creating stories! Why not learn from the masters?

(Pinterest Source)

Writer Tip Wednesday: Finding Enjoyment while Editing

Behold, the frightening editing process has begun! This book has been difficult for me, because I did
not plot it before I wrote it. I had the idea and concept, knew were it was going, but never did a detailed plot. Now I am going over it tying up plot holes and cringing at the amount of errors. I keep controlling myself before I throw the whole rough draft across the room and say I'm done.

So, I have decided to search out ways to make the editing process more enjoyable.


1. Rewards

Yes, perhaps I am like a little child who needs to be told I can have a piece of candy once I finish one more page of reading. But let me tell you, it works. I like giving myself rewards like, finish ten pages of edits and watch a movie. Every page does gets an m&m. Things like that really help pushing you to go just a little further.






2. Pinterest
When I began my novel a year ago, I created a secret board on Pinterest holding anything that maypertain to my novel. Characters, scenes, world building, you name it. Those were the dreaming days of my novel. I like to bring it all back now as I edit. Going back through the board, searching for new inspirations and getting the inspiration and hope for the story flowing once more.




3. Tools 
I used a pink pen for edits rather then red for editing. Big difference between the two. I need to give myself those little things that help me to be excited to get back to work. The pink pen makes me smile, and be encouraged that I enjoy writing with it. Same as my notebook, a floral pink and blue notebook, given to me by my best friend is the perfect tool. Another tool I enjoy getting to pull out.











4. Environment
Give yourself a place you will enjoy editing in. Wherever you may normally write, try cleaning it up,
putting up encouraging notes, posters, etc. If you write in your bedroom (like me) try to find a good area to always have tidy and ready for you to work in. Make it the no mess zone, ready for work. Add some music to the whole package and make yourself excited to sit and work.




Hope this helps, if you need a little boost for the editing process! What do you normally do to help editing not feel so unenjoyable?




-Melody

Setting Goals: Writing Tip Wednesday

I recently began the large task of editing my rough draft. After all the horror stories I have heard
about editing, I hesitated. I really didn't want to dive in just yet, but I knew if I didn't now I never would. So I began to simply read the novel through first. Trust me when I say, this is not as easy as it sounds. It involves a lot of embarrassment and face palms. So, I found it difficult to want to go back and even read it.
It was just so bad.





So I needed a goal. Because in the past as I wrote rough drafts, the thing that pushed me to keep going, was a goal. So I did it. I estimated the amount of pages I had left, figured when I wanted to be done reading through, then split the work among the days. After that, I forced myself to sit down, read through and examine my work, knowing I could stop after I did five more pages.

I am now nearly finished reading through and having a little more hope for my rough draft.

You may laugh at my small attempts, but for people like me who need a goal, it works wonders.

When writing, I like setting a word count per day. 300 words is always my minimum, but I normally hit between 500-1,000.

When you set a small goal, you tend to go over it and enjoy doing so, feeling confident. 

At the beginning of a week, setting a week long goal is always good. Some times I can finish it all on Monday, then I am excited to add to my list through the week. By the end of the week, I can look back and see what I accomplished and what I lacked doing. Then I can rearrange my schedule for the next week to be sure to get those things done.

Hope you all learned something from this little tip! Do you set goals? If so, do you always finish them? Keep writing and editing on!

-Melody

How I Organize My WIP

Here's the deal: I'm an organizational junkie.  Especially when it comes to creative projects.  I hate not being able to locate things when I'm trying to get something done!  I crave efficiency.  I'm terrified of losing momentum on a project, not finishing it because so many things are slowing me down!




Another thing:  I'm extremely visual.  (Probably explains why I'm practically addicted to Pinterest *blush*!)  I like being able to see everything.  Sure, I have my ideas in my head, but when I can see them on my computer either in the form of lists, or photos, or random scenes written in Word docs, it helps me so much in getting the final story put together!

So, I created a system just with simple folders on my desktop for my current work in progress, and I thought I'd share it with you all!



I started by just creating one whole folder to hold my whole WIP:

(This name is tentative, btw...so ignore it, lol!)

Then, within the main folder, I created separate folders for 

each of my most prominent Characters (I have about 4 right now: Lylia, Ayden, the Queen, the Dragon), 

Drafts (so that I have all multiple copies of the different stages of drafts in one place), 

Inspirations (where I put random visuals or scenes that inspire the writing process), 

my B-Plot (in this case, the relationship between Lylia and Ayden), 

my Outline/Ramblings (random scenes, scribblings about plot ideas, etc), 

Random (for things I'm not sure where else to put...or ideas for new characters that I'm not sure that I want to actually use), 

Settings (visuals or descriptions of my storyworld).

Got all that?  And I know that it's not totally exhaustive for some, and it may be too exhaustive for some, but I found that these main folders work for me.  

Okay, now time for things to get more complicated, haha! 

Within each of the main Character folders, I listed 3 sub-folders: Histories, Visual, and Words.

Then, within each of the folders, I place the appropriate visuals--photos, Word docs with descriptions, scenes, etc.

You can see within the Visuals folder, I have pretty much all photos.  But I could also write up a description of exactly what I want him to look like and stick it in a Word doc in this folder too.

Here in the Histories folder, you see that I have a few photos that give me inspiration for Ayden's history--but I also have a Word doc in which I have actually written some scenes and a synopsis of vital things that happened in his early life.

Here in the Words folder, I have quotes that either I want my character to actually say, think, or have said to him.  I also have things about his personality...

Anything extra that doesn't fit into these three folder categories, I usually just stick in the main Character folder, or I create another folder and label it Random.  (I love that word...!)

Check out Lylia's folders, in a different format:

And that's pretty much the gist of it!  The other main folders didn't need sub-folders as much as the main Characters' however, I usually end up adding some as I come upon ideas that I want to store.  For example, in my Random folder, I ended up adding a Characters sub-folder for new character inspiration--characters that I'm not sure whether I'll use or not, but when I want to add someone new, I know where to look! :-)

My next area to organize will probably be the Settings folder.  I'm just about to jump into creating my storyworld, collecting images and ideas for my various scene settings.  I will probably divide the folder into sub-folders with the titles of the country/city/region.  I'm character driven, so I have more fun creating my people rather than my places--thus why I haven't gotten to it yet! :P

...and this was the point that my mom patted me on the head when she saw my system, lol!

How do you organize your writing projects?  

Do you use a system like mine, or do you use something else?  

Or do you do better when everything is all in one place, like Melody?

I'd love to hear, please feel free to share in the comments! :)

~Amy