hi guys it's me again, sundace (: this time we're moving on to tips and tricks to write your first or not so first book !
REMINDER: this is only my advice. I don't intend to copy other writers since I'm not really reading other tips but I listen to podcasts and analyze how they write it to improve. again this is particularly for your own good bc Um I want to help 😜
now with that settled, let's get started
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FIRST THINGS FIRST, you gotta plan your agenda. if you want to successfully launch a book, then you must set a proper schedule, plot, etc.
for example, you will write a teen fiction. you want to reach teen audiences. but you haven't planned a plot, or even ideas, not even a fucking routine 😭, and you pursued it while feeling so heavy and tired. the results? your plan failed miserably, or not so miserable.
But why is it important to consider these things?
well, for me these helped me regarding my frequently hectic schedule. my plans went pretty well thanks to my note-taking. what I mean is I immediately write down my plots and ideas before it goes Poof! and you're doomed.
But then again it's not always about schedules and agendas. it's about the way you express your love for writing and your exquisite skill. it's not just about publishing your story and that, you also need to consider: "why did I make this story?" "what was my purpose on writing a story?" "what message do I want to bring to my readers?"
If you don't discover your answers to these fellow questions, you may get stuck whenever your book gets nominated as "the best book in L.A." and be prompted to an interview. you always have to ask yourself questions regarding your book. because maybe that can take you to unexpected success.
and you can easily write your books without any sweat or hassle. and why is that? because of your proper planning. even if you don't expect, you never know where your clean and prepared mindset will take you.
Then we move to #2. you have to try different ways to catch your readers attention, like in all of the beginning of the chapters.
But how?
okay let me demonstrate. if you write a character x Y/N, lets say for example you ship Lance from Voltron x Y/N at this point. you're stuck on shelves with how to start your cliché story.
here's how.
aside from "I woke up with a raging alarm placed in my nightstand, interrupting my beauty sleep. I punched my alarm clock with a heavy slam. Somehow I managed to destroy it," try something else since that's very intriguing but common.
you can use these to apply in your books.
oh!! and you guys can continue the flow. Just giving some cool ideas (:
i. "Yay, Yay, yay!! I finally get to art school!!" I squealed while slightly jumping and dancing frantically. My friend glanced at me with a proud smirk pasted on her face.
ii. The wake of [MM/DD/YY] had popped up at the phones midnight sharp. Y/N had woke up by seven AM. “i think it’s time for a festive year,” the [Y/N's appearance e.g. young/old] mumbled. They tossed the clean blankets by their mattress and wore their fuzzy house slippers.
iii. When the night was full of terror, and his/her eyes were filled with tears, I felt their grip was like magnet clinging onto my metallic hand.
now with that settled, let's move on to consideration #3.
The third one, is relatively similar but generalized. you have to confirm the main topic of your story. but then you'll ask me, "what did you mean?"
what do I mean?
what I'm talking about is you have to configure the actual topic. you can't go dangling around with a book that's so out of the blue. or either way filled with mixed topics.
Yeah, I faced it too. But trust me, sticking with what you really desire for your book before clicking that good 'ol publish button, it might be helpful ! sometimes setting up a proper plot would hook the readers into reading it more until it's completed.
which means the readers are satisfied with the book.
quick tip #4: make a very appealing theme for your book !
I've seen this from several books. they use png + headers / dividers to make their book / chapter look appealing. or also fonts in the front page.
But the downside of using fonts are — visually impaired readers can have difficulty in reading them. since they only use text to speech / an application that supports what they're supposedly reading. it can sound different, so your idea could go boom at this point :(
however, many upsides are waiting for you though !
Just be cautious with using symbols too, especially if its from a language and ur using it as an aesthetic. I'm not sure if it's ok if it's your language anyway, but still, other languages are not aesthetics. 🙅🏻♀️
it's either OK for you if it's your native language, but may be seen negatively by your fellow people. for me, people using baybayin (ᜊ) as an aesthetic is offensive. I don't use it because it's a sign of damn disrespect :/ so whenever i see others use it as a symbol for "decor" it's pissing me off.
"Baybayin stands as a symbol of resilience and cultural pride."
here, I've found this statement in verbatim from one of the sources I used in a server from 2022.
"I've seen so many people say this to defend themselves, but alright. English is a universal language, it's used almost EVERYWHERE. As I said in the 1st page, it's alright if you know the language and if you respect it. Obviously, we all communicate in, and respect English. But the thing is, it's widely used. If you join a normal discord server, the channels are in English, well mostly. English letters are used in channels/layouts for making meaningful words, and because of them, people can navigate through the server. They mean something. For example, "General-chat", "Pictures" and "Memes". They make sense. But for other languages, half of the time you think it's a random symbol. Even if you don't, the letters are used as symbols for aesthetic purposes and to make your server look "pretty". They don't even make sense, you just put a single letter in there. So, it's fine to use English and the normal numbers/geometric symbols, because we know what it means, and we do respect it."
"All of you know what languages are, and you also know there's a history behind it. Languages were (mostly) created years ago, and all of them should be respected. What happens is that people use these languages for "aesthetic" purposes or for "decor". Maybe you're just appreciating those languages, but you should be aware that calling these LANGUAGES a bunch of cute SYMBOLS can be offensive! if you know that language, i think it should be fine, only as long as you still respect it, and did not learn it just for the "symbols". The layout looks a lot more prettier without languages too, in my opinion. When someone is educating you, atleast hear them out. It's your server/profile, it's all yours, nobody but you has control on it; but again, please know that it's disrespectful, it's now upto you if you want to remove them or not!"
— courtesy: a carrd link.
so my only reminder is, not all symbols are for decor—not exactly everything can be used for decorations / appealing designs for your platforms !
That's pretty much all. I had fun writing this tutorial (: thank you so much for reading !
sources used:
I. fonts https://twitter.com/kentcdodds/status/1083073242330361856
ii. languages
https://symbolusage.carrd.co/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Egyptian_hieroglyphs
https://apps.timwhitlock.info/unicode/inspect?s=%E2%99%A1
https://www.branah.com/tagalog
https://www.sbs.com.au/language/filipino/en/podcast-episode/reviving-baybayin-a-collective-effort-to-preserve-filipino-heritage/picscl447
© @syndxlze • 26 March 2024