Word Counts, Timers and Chapters by Melissa Gijsbers #ChaBoochaLite

ChaBooCha Lite has started and, unlike NaNoWriMo, we all have different goals. Some of us are editing, some of us are writing a 5,000 word chapter book, and some of us are writing a 20,000 middle grade novel.

 How do we make sure we keep on track so we’re not trying to do it all in the last week?

Here are few methods for you to try:

Word count

If your goal is to write a set amount of words, this method could work well.

Divide your target words by the number of days and you will know how many words you need to write a day.

For example, if you are writing a 20,000 word middle grade novel, divide 20,000 by 30 and you will get 667 words a day (I know it’s actually 666.667, but I’ve rounded up). To keep up with your target, aim to write at least 667 words a day.

If you know you are going to have days off and will only be able to write for 20 days of the month, divide your goal by that many days. Tick off the days and word count as you go to keep on track.

If you are editing, you could also set a word count to edit each day. Be careful with this as you could lose track of the words as you add and delete words in your manuscript.

Number of Chapters

Work out how many chapters you want your book to be and how many words will be in each chapter. Based on this, work out how many chapters you will need to write each day to reach your goal.

For example, if you set a goal of 10 chapters at 500 words each, you could aim to write two chapters a day and get your draft done in 5 days. Once your manuscript is done, you would have time to write a second book.

If you are editing, you could set yourself a number of chapters to edit each day of the challenge to reach your goal.

This is the method I use during the Chapter Book Challenge each March. I aim to write at least 10 chapters of at least 750 words each. The extra days are set aside for planning and research.

Set a Timer

Depending on how you write or edit, setting a timer each day could be helpful.

Set aside an amount of time, for example half an hour, and just write or edit as much as you can in that time. Depending on what else is happening in your day, you could set aside more than one period of time a day to work on the challenge.

Your timer could be anything from a timer on your phone to the length of kids activities or even the length of a TV show!

This can also be a useful method when you have a family as you can tell them you need uninterrupted time for half an hour (or whatever the time is) and can answer their questions and do things for them when the time is up.

For me, I’ve found this works well when I’m editing.

These methods can help as you can check in every day and let the others in the group know you have achieved your daily goal and you will be able to track how you are going.

What methods do you use to keep track of your goals during a challenge?

*****

Melissa Gijsbers is an Australian author and blogger. Her first children’s book, "Swallow Me, NOW!" published in 2014, was written during the Chapter Book Challenge in 2013.  When she’s not writing or coming up with ideas for stories, she’s running around after two active boys and working in the family business. You can find her online at MelissaGijsbers.com or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/melissagijsbers.

*****

All signedoup members of the challenge who comment on this post will be entered into a drawing at the end of the month for a $5 (USD) Amazon gift certificate.

Writing Snippets - Guest post by Melissa Gijsbers (plus a giveaway)! #ChaBooChaLite

My 10 year old son is a budding composer. He loves how different notes sound on the piano and putting them together to make a piece of music. He has an amazing ability to tell a story using music.

A couple of months ago, I sat and watched him with his piano teacher as they told the story of a train leaving the platform and a man who missed that train because he was caught in the toilet!

Most recently, he’s been playing around with Garage Band, an app on my iPad that helps with composing music. Right now, he’s working on a piece about feeling sick and recording snippets of music he plays on the piano ready to mix later. Often, he’ll hear them back and think they’re rubbish, but his piano teacher told him to never delete them. You never know when they’ll be perfect to put into a composition.

What does this have to do with writing chapter books? I hear you ask. Hang in there, it will become clear.

I find that there are some days I sit down to write and will write a snippet of a story. It may be a scene, or a paragraph or a single line. Sometimes I look at this snippet and think it’s rubbish and should be thrown away, but I keep it.

I’ve found that every now and again, I’ll stumble on that snippet and find it’s the basis for a story or will fit perfectly into something I’m already writing. That character name I jotted down on the back of a receipt while I was driving might be the perfect name for my next villain, or the paragraph I wrote as part of an exercise at writers group might be the perfect opening to a new story. That silly line I wrote while waiting to pick up kids from after school activities might even fit to help me get over a major bout of writer’s block.

Believe it or not, a snippet written while waiting for school pick-up formed the basis of Swallow Me, NOW! the manuscript I wrote during the March 2013 Chapter Book Challenge and is now due for release next month.

Hold on to those snippets of writing, just as my son holds on to his snippets of composition. You never know when they may be just the line of text you are looking for.

***** 

Melissa Gijsbers is an Australian author and blogger. She has had flash fiction stories feature in a number of anthologies and her first children’s book, Swallow Me, NOW! is due for release in October 2014. When she’s not writing or coming up with ideas for stories, she’s running around after two active boys and working in the family business. You can find her online at MelissaGijsbers.com or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/melissagijsbers.

LINK: Swallow Me, NOW!   

*****

Give-away

One person who comments on this post (and is signed-up for the challenge) will win a handmade charm bookmark made by me (Becky). Winner will be selected by a random number generator and announced on September 30th, 2014.

Make Writing Fun by Victoria Boulton (guest post) #ChaBooChaLite

Make Writing Fun

I’m sure you’re all hard at work on your stories, so I’ll keep this brief (but I’m also sure you’ll be happy for a short distraction)!

I’m an editor by trade, but I’m also a writer. I know how easy it is for writing to become work, especially if you’re doing a lot of it. What starts out as a creative frenzy can quickly become a second day-job.

Don’t make writing a second day-job. Make writing fun.

Write the scenes you most want to write

Sometimes we get bogged down in the technicalities of what we’re writing. It can pay to skip ahead to the parts of the story you’re really passionate about. Forget that plot integral breakfast scene or the boring sections of travel. Write the fun bits. Write villain battles and first dates and the dog biting the evil teacher on the bum. Write the scenes you first imagined when you came up with the story. Write what excites you.

Play with your characters

Epic character moments are guaranteed fun. Don’t be afraid to subject your character to extreme lows – or let them climb to extreme highs. Let them grate against each other and the plot. Try things out with them – things you didn’t plan, but just seem right. As your characters develop, so will your love of writing.

Stray from the path

Your first draft is the perfect opportunity to try things out. You’re going to edit later, when things all have to make perfect sense, but right now you can let creativity rule. Take your characters to new settings, introduce characters you never planned, and write the scenes where everything goes a bit mad. If it goes wrong, you can always cut it later, but first drafts are your creative flint and steel. Strike your ideas together and see what makes sparks – maybe you’ll hit on something that takes your story from candlelight to raging fire!

Reward yourself

You have taken on a creative challenge, and I will certainly applaud you for that, but sometimes you want something a little more tangible. I always find that buying some special chocolaty writing rewards really makes writing enjoyable, but go for whatever you like. Celebrate every day you write, and every session, and you’ll find that writing looks a lot less like work and a lot more like fun.

Writing won’t always be fun, and it’s okay for it to be hard. But as much as possible, I hope you will keep the joy alive.

Anyway, I don’t want to keep you from your stories. I wish you all a fantastic ChaBooChaLite and a month of FUN!

*****

Victoria Boulton is a freelance editor at www.storyfox.co.uk, specialising in children’s and YA fiction. She’s a Ravenclaw, weirdly emotional about Avatar: The Last Airbender and adores her stupid, chubby, wonderful cat. You can follow her on twitter at www.twitter.com/vicorva. She’d love to hear from you!

***** 

There is a special offer from Storyfox Editing Services for ChaBooCha Lite members. Storyfox is offering a 20% discount on its services for ChaBooCha Lite members. Some of you may not know that our mascot, the badger, is named Nabu after the Assyrian and Babylonian god of wisdom and writing. In honor of this, Storyfox has given you a coupon code of Naboo (spelled differently in order to use up the number of letters needed for the code).  The coupon is valid through the end of October, so if you complete your story during this challenge in September, you have time to get it ready for a proper editing service to have a look at it.

*****

To top this off, I am offering one person who comments on this post (and is signed up to the challenge) a book cover, created by me or my talented husband, for their story. If you are wondering why you would want a mock book cover, it's because a book cover, even a temporary one, can sometimes give you an additional impetus to keep writing. It gives you an idea of how your book might look when it's published. My book covers are limited by what I have in terms of stock photos and ability, but I still manage to come up with some decent book covers. The book covers showing "The Fae World Anthology" series are examples of the book covers for a series of anthologies that Melusine Muse Press is taking submissions for; the book covers were created by me, so it gives you examples of what I can do. (They are mock covers in the sense that I will be making subtle changes to them before the anthologies are published.)

Winner will be selected through a random number generator and announced on September 15th.

Interview with Jo Michaels, author of The Abigale Chronicles

Jo Michaels is a  friend of mine. We met during the Author Blog Challenge. I loved reading her blog during the challenge, and she is one of those naturally generous writers who commented on everyone else's blogs during the challenge and was willing to spend her time helping others. I asked her if she's be willing to do an interview for the Chapter Book Challenge and she graciously agreed.

When did you know you wanted to be a writer?
I can’t remember the exact day/time that I decided I wanted to be a writer. It’s always been a part of me for as long as I can remember. I learned to read because I remember being little and staring at the words typed across the page and thinking: There is some great mystery in this because all the adults do it. What are they hiding from me? I have to learn! But writing just came naturally. If you’re asking when I decided to write full-time, that was last year. I decided to grab my proverbial bull by the horns and live the life I wanted, rather than the life I was told I should live.


What inspired you to write your chapter book series The Abigale Chronicles?
Simple answer: my daughter. Not so simple answer: I was making notes in my idea book while thinking of something my daughter might like to read and came up with the idea for a series about a little girl who loses herself in her stories – literally. I thought how great it would be if I threw in a twist about the girl not knowing if she was dreaming or really taking her little trips. There are clues in the books that will tell you the answer if you’re a good detective.


You have both a historical fiction book, Yassa, and a nonfiction book, The Indie Author's Guide to: Building a Great Book out.  How was writing your chapter books different from writing your historical fiction and your nonfiction books?
There are so many differences with all three. Yassa required a ton of research because it’s based on actual events, The Indie Author’s Guide to: Building a Great Book didn’t because the content stemmed from my own knowledge as a designer and indie publisher, and The Abigale Chronicles series allows me to use my imagination along with a little research. For book two, I used a lot of references I found around the web about cat breeds. You won’t find a ton of description about the cats in the book because I want kids to be inspired to look things up.


What made you decide to self-publish your chapter books?
Truth be told, I never even sought a publisher for that series. I’d like to keep as much of my profits as possible, and with my design knowledge I can put out quality material with little effort on the design end.


Would you recommend self-publishing to other chapter book authors?
Absolutely. But I will also issue a warning to anyone wishing to write and publish juvenile fiction: There are a ton of us out there and your competition is heady. Two of the most published types of books are juvenile fiction and how-to books. Know your market.


What would you do differently now if you could start over (if anything)?
I would have taken more risks in the publishing world sooner and done more research about what I was getting into before I dove in. There just wasn’t a book like The Indie Author’s Guide out there anywhere. It was disheartening and I flailed around trying. My personal experiences with distributors are outlined in the book, and I hope that tidbit of information helps others avoid the same mistakes I made.


Any tips for aspiring chapter book authors?Don’t stop writing if your first book doesn’t sell well. You have to have a lot of books out there before you can hope to be discovered easily. A good example is The Abigale Chronicles – Book One. When it went up for free, I only garnered about 25 downloads. My thought was: Gee, I can’t even give this book away. Why bother continuing? But then I got a couple of really great reviews and sales picked up! When book two launched, my first giveaway garnered over 50 downloads. My hopes are that people will become fans of the series by reading the first few and come back for more. I plan to write until Abigale is 18 years old (she’ll age by one year every three or four books) so there will be a lot of them before a definite end is reached. That’s another tip! Have the end in mind if you’re planning a series.

Do you have any books in the works?Yes. I have three. A series for Young Adults called Mystic (due out in October, 2012), a romance novel titled Player (December, 2012), and The Abigale Chronicles – Book Three (due out in September, 2012).

Abigale Book One Synopsis:
Abigale Fontenot is a 12 year old girl living in West Bluff, Louisiana, who believes she is perfectly ordinary. When she is threatened by a bully on her way to school one day, what happens causes Abigale to begin a new journey; she has to ask herself: "Is it real or is it all just a dream?"As Abigale learns in Book One, things are rarely exactly as they seem. Friendships are formed with unlikely people: a wizened old woman and Abigale's arch nemesis, Emmett, and with their help Abigale learns she is far from ordinary. Book One of The Abigale Chronicles will leave readers itching for more to find out for themselves just what in the World is happening to Abigale.

Abigale Book Two Synopsis:
Twelve-year-old Abigale Fontenot is struggling to figure out whether her adventures are real or imagined. After an adventure with Amazonian women in book one, Abigale and Emmett have formed a bond through mutual trust and secrets, but Kristy has turned against Abigale because of it. Now, Abigale again finds herself in a precarious situation with a city full of talking cats. Emmett is once more by her side as she faces down a vicious cat queen in an attempt to avoid certain death and restore the leadership of the city to its rightful owner. Will they succeed, or will they be roasted alive? What will happen when Kristy overhears the discussions about the adventures with Ada?

Abigale Book Three Synopsis:
Abigale Fontenot is turning thirteen. Just when she thinks her birthday couldn't possibly get any worse, a new adventure takes hold. Abigale and Emmett are whisked away to a world of fantasy where knights, dragons, and princesses are the order of the day. Abigale is kidnapped by an evil prince in a nearby kingdom, and it's up to Emmett to rescue her. But Abigale finds that escape is not the most important thing; restoring the evil prince's kindness that has been locked away in a magical book by a wicked sorceress must come first. While Emmett is trying to rescue Abigale, she is trying to free the prince from his curse. Will she succeed in her quest before the evil prince kills Emmett, or will she fail and lose her new best friend? Will death matter if the whole thing is a dream, or are the adventures real and truly dangerous?

You can find Jo on her blog or via Twitter. All books are linked on the top of the blog.

Bio:

Jo Michaels was born in 1977 in Tennessee. She moved to Louisiana when she was four, then to Georgia in 2010. Her first book, The Abigale Chronicles - Book One, has received many accolades for its original and inspiring protagonist, Abigale Fontenot. The children's chapter book was written for Jo's daughter and is about the power of imagination helping someone become extraordinary. Michaels holds a degree in Graphic Design and all artwork associated with her material is original and done by her.

Chapter Book Challenge 2012 - Final Day Progress Reports

2012

Well, the month of March is officially over now, and we have all either completed our chapter books or or further along in writing them than we were at the beginning of March. For those of you who didn't get the chance to read yesterday's post, I have given an extension to the challenge, only because this is the first year of the challenge. Everyone who hasn't quite completed their chapter book now has one extra week to do so. The extra week will not be given in future challenges, only this year's challenge.

For a while, I thought I was going to need the extension to complete my chapter book, but I managed to finish my chapter book yesterday.  It's only a rough draft. It's 11 chapters and around 10,000 words long. I think, as I edit it, it might grow a bit as I can think of a few things that I meant to add into the story and forgot about while writing it. When I say it is a rough draft, I mean it is a VERY rough draft and it is going to need some serious and extensive editing before it is ready for the next stage of critiquing.

How did everyone else do? I really want to know, so please let me know in the comments. Don't worry if you didn't finish as you still have the extra week to try and complete your manuscript.

You might ask why I am giving an extra week when the challenge is self-monitored anyway. The reason is that I will be sending out winner magnets to everyone who completed the challenge on time, and I want to make sure everyone has the chance to complete the challenge. Naturally, I need mailing addresses in order to send the magnets out, so if you have completed the challenge (and you are officially signed up to the challenge), then let me know where to send your winner magnet. Private message me through Facebook or send me an e-mail through the "contact me" link in the sidebar.

Using the random number generator at Random.org, I now have a winner to announce for last week's prize of the Chapter Book Challenge 2012 official mug.




The winner is Alison K Hertz! Alison, I need a mailing address to send your prize to you.

I have a surprise though. One person was remarkably helpful and active (and very positive) in the Facebook group. Louise Nottingham has also won a Chapter Book Challenge 2012 official mug for her helpfulness and for being so active in the group. (Melissa Gijsbers Khalinsky, you were a close second behind her, so you will have tiny little surprise in the mail to you as a thank you.)

The point of the Chapter Book Challenge is to help inspire us as authors and writers, to give us the additional help of a community who are working on a similar form of book and to give us all the kick up the backside that we need to keep us writing. We have all been learning through this (I hope), and I plan on continuing to learn about the process of writing chapter books and to share what I've learned. The official challenge is over until March 2013, but that doesn't mean that I will just neglect this blog or the Facebook group. The group will be staying open, and I will continue looking for published chapter book authors and agents and publishers of chapter books to guest post here and share some of their knowledge with us.

We are all in this writing business together, so the more we help one another, the more we learn and grow in our own writing.

(I will post another update post next week to see what the final tally is for participants.)

Writing for Children in Today's Society & Keeping Them Hooked! - guest post by published chapter book author Martin King

There’s been a big hoo-hah in the press just recently over violent video games having a damaging effect on primary school children. It’s been claimed that many are staying up beyond midnight whilst playing games unsupervised by their parents.

Now while I’m not here to express my opinion on what is, or is not right for children of that age, one fact is clear, books are fast in danger of becoming a thing of the past. They simply cannot compete. Not only are games pushing the boundaries of adrenalin fuelled action, but everything else available to a child is raising the bar.

Mobile phones that have metamorphosis into smart phones (now known as mobile devices), use of internet, and handy tablets like iPad’s are just a few of those items. Then there’s 24 hour TV with 100’s of channels, catch up on demand and memory hard drives to store all your favourites on. Not to mention HDTV, 3D, Blu ray, bigger and more spectacular special effects in movies. Dare I go on...?

And what have publishers done with books in all of this time? Absolutely nothing!

But have no fear because schools are fighting back with reading schemes. Children are encouraged to take nominated books home, read them and write a review. But what happens if a child is given a book they don’t like? They still have to read it because it is part of their lesson. One forced book that a child does not want to read can destroy a life time of reading.

This post is not about the rights and wrongs of what should or should not be undertaken. It is merely pointing out the challenges facing young readers today. As an author, I felt it was my duty to do everything within my writing power to bring back the readability factor into a story, the fun into the novel, the excitement into the adventure.

So that is exactly what I set out to achieve. I asked myself as I put some of the finishing touches to the first Jack Hunter novel, if I was a child today, would I want to sacrifice many of the above time wasting activities for my book? As well as a child friendly story with villains and clues, twists and mystery, I wove a game into the pages. Not only that, but I made the book interactive with the internet. What I tried to do was give a young modern-day reader a fighting chance of living their adventure in the pages of a book just like I did when I was young.

Who should you write for?

When writing your book, try and look at life through the eyes when you were a child. Every word and sentence you craft should steal away a child’s imagination. When you walk along the pavement, you walk with a purpose, serious and determined – you have a deadline.

Now picture yourself walking that same journey as a child? You jump up and run along the wall, swing around the lamppost, skip up and down the kerb and weave in and out of passengers. You may even pluck leaves and flower heads off a shrub overhanging from a garden, or pick up a stick and rattle it along a fence. That is how you should write...

Why write?

Not to be rich...wrong answer, now go to the back of the class! For the audience, for the passion and for fun!

When to write?

Write every single day!

Martin King is a UK-based author of Jack Hunter - Secret of the King and has a website for children.

Martin King's website
Martin King's blog
Martin King on Twitter
Martin King on Facebook

Fourth & Final Week of the Chapter Book Challenge Starts Now!

Just days left to go until our chapter books are supposed to be finished. We should be almost ready to wrap up the writing on our first draft, so that we can turn to editing and cleaning our manuscripts up after this month ends.

How are you doing with the challenge? Have you, as I have, fallen behind? Are you planning to fit in a lot of writing time in this last week? Or are you almost finshed and planning to begin your editing in this last week? Wherever you are in the process, let us know in the comments.


There is now a selection of products with the challenges logo on them. I still need to go in and clean up some of the products by making sure that the logo fits correctly, and I will have it all looking good a few days from now, but the mugs and t-shirts should all be looking good already.


Melissa Gijsbers Khalinsky from the Chapter Book Challenge Facebook group mentioned her 10 year old son giggling as he read her manuscript, and it got me to thinking about my own manuscript. I don't know why I haven't had my 9 year old read it yet. I am working on three different stories and dividing my time between them because I can't decide which one I want to work on more. Melissa gave me the idea that I should have my daughter read them and tell me which one she enjoys the most of the three. Then I could focus on that one first.
The prize for this week is an official Chapter Book Challenge 2012 mug. All you need to do to be entered into the drawing to win this book is to be officially signed up to the Chapter Book Challenge and to comment on this post, letting me know how you are doing in the challenge so far. The winner will be chosen by a random drawing.



It's time to announce the winner of last week's prize, selected by random drawing. Last week's prize was the "The Everything Guide to Writing Children's Books: How to Write, Publish, and Promote Books for Children of All Ages!" by Peter Abrahams.




And the winner of last week's prize is: Rena J. Traxel! Rena e-mail me your mailing address so I can send this out to you.

Humour is the Best - guest post by chapter book author Adam Wallace

HUMOUR IS THE BEST.

Yep. Chuck out the rest. Humour rules. Humour is king. Humour rocks my world. Oh. Maybe I have said too much.

Anyway. Let’s move on.

Why is humour so important in books for children? What is it about humour that gets kids hooked, gets them reading and gets them excited about books?

The short answer is … who cares??? However it does it, it does it! And getting children excited about books and reading is just about the most important thing in the world (after world peace, eradicating poverty, etc etc of course).

The long answer is that humour makes books seem fun, especially for younger readers. Children are forced to read a lot of books at school that there is no way they would normally choose. There is probably no way we would normally force our kids to read them either. They have their place, these books, but they cater to “all children.” The problem is that “all children” don’t like reading the same thing, they don’t learn to read in the same manner, and they get bored to death reading about a worm in the garden, a worm on the flower, a worm blah blah blah.

Who wouldn’t go and play a computer game?

Books by authors such as Dr Seuss, Roald Dahl, Andy Griffiths, Jeff Kinney. These books are often frowned upon as being bad influences on our kids. By getting them reading? By having them sharing books and laughs instead of punches and cyber put downs? Ooooookay then.

The thing is that some of these books may be gross. Some of these books may be a little bit close to the edge. But they are starting a lifelong interest in reading, and before long the kids reading these books will want to look for other books to read. They will be asking who else writes good books. They may even want to, gasp, go to the library! They will branch out, and they will discover new and exciting styles of writing.

But humour is often the key to getting them in, even if the books have so much more to offer. The amazing Harry Potter books (some more that were thought inappropriate by many parents) have humour woven through their stories. But they also have courage and honour and loyalty and love and excitement and danger and good and evil and friendship. This is true of many stories. They may be bathed in humour, and they can be read at that level, but delve a little deeper, and you will often find there is a lot more to the stories than you may have first imagined.

Oh. And for authors, there is one more bonus to a book having humour.

They are so much fun to write!

Adam's top three tips for writing chapter books:

1: Write! As much as possible. And, as much as possible, write in the
style you enjoy. Don't be influenced by popular topics and styles if they
aren't your thing.

2: Ask questions of those who have made it. Email, write letters,
whatever. I have found authors to be an amazingly friendly and giving
group of people. Even those who have sold hundreds of thousands of books
have written back or even called with advice when I have contacted them.

3: Persist. Not just with sending out to publishers, but with your
writing. Not everything will fall into place straight away, but the moreyou write, the more you find your voice, the easier it will become.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A qualified Engineer and Primary School Teacher, Adam Wallace settled on
writing books for children as his career of choice. With 20 published,
including Better Out Than In and the How to Draw series, Adam is fast
becoming a well-known name in the world of children’s books.
You can find Adam's books at Adam Wallace Books and his Facebook author page here.



Adam Wallace's books:
Better Out Than In.
The Share-a-not
Mac O'Beasty
The Negatees
The Incredible Journey of Pete McGee
The Giant Book of Jokes Binder
Fun Ferret Classroom Chaos
Fun Ferret On the Loose
The How to Draw Series (12 books)
Coming in 2012 - Pete McGee and the Dawn of the Zombie Knights
Better Out Than In Number Twos

There is a very special give-away today.  Adam Wallace has offered to do a short and simple critique of one lucky Chapter Book Challenge member's FIRST CHAPTER! All you need to do to be entered is to be signed up officially to the challenge and comment on this post. The winner will be drawn through a random number generator.