kelyghtbooks

[kelyghtbooks]

Stretch goals : Character inspired tea blends.

After the timeline, of course.

Timeline after these next two books are out!

Can't wait to post it, been wanting to make a big graphic of events and the books in chronological order. They can, of course, be read in published order, I just think it would be neat to show you when it all happens in relation to each other!

I don't *write in chronological order. I write for whatever story I am feeling the most in the moment but that means sometimes a finished book will have to wait on another book before it can be published.

It's just easier to go with the flow, right? I am sure a lot of other writers feel the same way.

Don't worry! Proper organization will keep it nice and clear!

[kelyghtbooks]

Hello!!

I have an OC who speaks several languages. Her native tongue is Arabic, the setting she normally is in speaks Japanese, and the language I'm writing in is English. She speaks more, but these three are the important ones.

I occasionally write a scene in the story from her POV, where she speaks Arabic at home with her grandfather, and Japanese with her friends and strangers. There are also other scenes where she may speak with a friend in Arabic and Japanese (a mix of sorts), and another friend in all three of Arabic English and Japanese, and other scenes where she talks to herself in Arabic in the presence of other characters. As a result I've a number of closely related questions:

How do I indicate that she's changing languages when writing from her point of view?

Is it necessary to? If so, when?

How do I do so organically without having to explicitly "tell" it?

Where does transliteration become necessary?

Arabic is a very God-centric language, where God is often mentioned in the most mundane (though not vain!!!) contexts. English is not so much. How could I "translate" that into the writing when the language POV is Arabic, considering that I'm writing in English?

I appreciate your blog and your answers. Thank you in advance. I hope you have an amazing day :)

Multilingual Character Issues

How do I indicate that she's changing languages when writing from her point of view? Is it necessary to? If so, when? How do I do so organically without having to explicitly "tell" it?

This is one of those situations where it's absolutely fine to "tell" the reader the language that they're speaking. For example...

Grandfather was sitting on a bench enjoying the afternoon breeze. "How are you doing today, Grandfather?" I asked in Arabic.

If you have multiple scenes that have cultural and character cues that will let the reader know where the character is, and therefore what language they'd be speaking, you can potentially highlight those cues and use language cues to "show" the language without a direct tell. Using Spanish as an example, something like this:

My abuela was working in her garden, probably picking fresh ingredients for tonight's pozole. ¡Hola, mi chiquita! she said, looking up with a smile. "I hope you've brought a big appetite for supper."

You can still pepper in the occasional reminder that they are, in fact, speaking Spanish. Again, it's okay to tell when you think it's necessary.

Where does transliteration become necessary?

If you're using mostly English to convey the other language, relying on telling and contextual clues to illustrate that it is the other language, I'm not sure when transliteration would be necessary. But, using my Spanish example above... I do not think it would be necessary to either transliterate or translate "pozole" or "chiquita." The general meaning of both are relatively clear via context. If she's gathering fresh ingredients for tonight's pozole, and later asks her granddaughter if she brought her appetite, it's pretty clear that pozole is a food. If you wanted to add more context for exactly the type of food, you could have the character muse about other preparations she's likely to have already made for other ingredients, or imagine tasting the hominy and meat-based stew. Transliteration... conveying how a word is pronounced... isn't necessary, especially when you have a story that's potentially going to contain a lot of words in other languages. Transliterating all or even some of them would bog down the story.

Arabic is a very God-centric language, where God is often mentioned in the most mundane (though not vain!!!) contexts. English is not so much. How could I "translate" that into the writing when the language POV is Arabic, considering that I'm writing in English?

Well, first of all, I don't think that's true about English at all. English-speakers often weave God into everyday/mundane language in much the same way as Arabic speakers, and not in vain. Some examples:

-- God willing, we'll have good weather for the game tomorrow. -- Praise God, the line is finally moving! -- As God as my witness, I will ground you if you're a second late. -- Oh, thank God my paycheck came in a little early this week! -- God bless, she is just the sweetest creature alive!

And, at the end of the day, even if you're using English to write what is supposed to be spoken Arabic, the context isn't English. So, when it makes sense, just be direct. But sometimes it doesn't make sense to be direct... using Spanish as an example again, someone might say, "Hoy voy a echar la flojera en casa," which basically means "I'm going to be lazy at home today," but the literal translation is, "today I am going to throw laziness at home." This is one of those cases where it just wouldn't make sense to be literal. It would be better to just have the character say, "I'm going to be lazy at home today," because as writers, our ultimate goal is clarity. We never want to sacrifice clarity for ambience or anything else.

I hope this makes sense, and please keep an eye on the comments in case any Arabic or Spanish speakers have anything they want to add, or in case I got something wrong.

Happy writing!

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I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here

[kelyghtbooks]

A friend of mine drew Yurt! He came out looking adorable!

[kelyghtbooks]

What they don’t tell you about storytelling is that it becomes an instinct over time. You learn how to kind of … intuitively chain events together over time. That doesn’t mean it’s a cakewalk, or that you never get stuck on plotbeats, but you have a better time walking yourself out of corners that you as a less experienced writer would have been tempted to abandon your story over. Because you’ve been stuck in similar corners before; you know how you get out now.

I know its frustrating to keep hitting dead ends, but you got this. You’ll learn a little from every roadblock you hit.

[kelyghtbooks]

Is BookTok worth it? Does the length of the book matter?

[kelyghtbooks]

No better way to start a story than the discovery of a naked corpse, right Mr. Sam Lake?

Particularly one that doesn't stay dead.

[kelyghtbooks]

Writing on a typewriter seems so charming but I couldn't do it. I need my copy/paste/backspace.

[kelyghtbooks]

I hope you like them.

[kelyghtbooks]

Help I'm stuck in narration mode and I need to shift into dialogue.

[kelyghtbooks]

Now that The House of Dentium is finally released, I can get back to work on TIOPS. Please look forward to it!

Part two of House of Dentium IS fully drafted an in editing! I won't leave you guys waiting too long!

[kelyghtbooks]

Come and See.

The House of Dentium is out now! Order a paperback via Amazon or a digital copy! Celebrating release day with us is Dentium, himself! Art by @tangledarts, as the rest of the promotional materials. Plot synopsis below:

Yurt is a walking, talking self-proclaimed priceless antique who finds himself stolen from his very store by a rascal of a boy, Jacob Wilkins, and taken into a broken home.

Eugene Lazlo is a hapless layabout with little more on his mind than getting his own car who wanders absently right into nightmare.

Samantha Hale is a high school dropout and a single mother plagued by visions of death and despair. Dr. Edwin Rutherford serves as her therapist, attempting to make sense of her morbid fantasies.

Tremors in Telafette is a "reality" show, investigating the strange happenings around the decaying city. The trio behind the show stumble into an inexpiable mystery, far more real than their usual haunts, as past meets present in a horrifying brew of superstition and suffering.

A boy and his bear. A listless fast food employee. A timid single mother. A resentful scholar. Five missing children. And a TV show on the verge of collapse. All these fates mix and intertwine in the stagnant morass of small town Telafette.

[kelyghtbooks]

Tomorrow is the big day!

[kelyghtbooks]

October is getting closer and closer!

I'm so excited for the launch of this book! In the mean time, part two is in the editing phase. I made sure to have it done before launching part one so readers would not have to wait so long for it.

It's good to keep busy!

[kelyghtbooks]

Preorder The House of Dentium for kindle! Both physical and digital editions will release October 11th! Art by : @tangledarts

A boy and his bear. A listless fast food employee. A timid single mother. A resentful scholar. Five missing children. And a TV show on the verge of collapse. All these fates mix and intertwine in the stagnant morass of small town Telafette.

[kelyghtbooks]

i'm having trouble with getting my story's opening written out. i have a loose idea of what should happen but when i start writing it i feel like it needs more honing and isn't just what it needs to be. i do have much of the later story planned out better but i feel like when i try to write those later parts out they feel sort of hollow when i'm not sure what i'm building from since the start is kind of unclear. i'm still in the planning stage/on my first draft so i know there's plenty of room to change stuff and getting through the first draft will help me figure everything out better but it's hard to stay motivated when what i'm writing feels kind of flimsy.

Story's Opening Needs More Honing

Writing Great Beginnings and Endings Figuring Out Where to Start a Story Deciding How to Open Your Book Plot & Story Structure Master List

Happy writing!

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I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here

[kelyghtbooks]

how does one manage when there's no feedback, no engagement, no... anything? the last few things i've published have gotten zero. it's frustrating. it's discouraging.

Getting No Feedback/Engagement

It's frustrating when you put your work out there and don't get any engagement or feedback. However, what to do about it (if anything at all) depends on how you're publishing and what you want the feedback for.

Whether you're publishing books/e-books or publishing online via your blog or a fiction-sharing site like AO3, it's never a good idea to rely on reader comments for feedback to help you improve your writing. If you want feedback for improvement, it's best to utilize alpha and beta readers, critique groups, critique partners, and feedback exchanges with other writers.

If you want the feedback an engagement because you want to know that someone is enjoying your work, or because you want to make sure you're building a following, you'll need to spend some time learning how to build an audience on the platform you're using. It's so important to remember that there are over 6 million registered users on AO3, for example, and over 11 million stories. Kindle Direct Publishing on Amazon hosts a couple million authors, with millions of books being sold each year. Tumblr has 135 million active users with 21 million new posts created each day. So, you no matter where you're publishing your stories, there is an unimaginable amount of competition. Unfortunately, you can't just post your stories and expect people to flock to them. That's why it's so important to learn how to build an audience on the particular platforms you're publishing on, and then you'll want to learn how to utilize social media to help get your work out there. For example, if you publish on a fiction-sharing site or your blog, you'll want to make sure you're using all the right tags and other metrics to draw people to your story. It's also extremely important that you support and engage with other writers... read and comment on their stories, boost them when appropriate. You might also consider starting a social media page specifically to find more readers. For example, let's say you write Supernatural fic and post it to AO3. You might make an Instagram page for your fiction, post SPN related memes and content, and update potential readers when new stories go up. Again, symbiosis is super important. If you don't engage with others, they won't engage with you.

If you're publishing books/e-books, you'll want to spend some time learning the best ways to promote your books, which will include things like figuring out who your audience is and where to find them, learning the proper tags, figuring out what kind of advertising speaks to them most, and learning to create promotional images and videos.

No matter what, it's really a matter of taking the time to get your work out there and find your audience. Because regardless of where you publish, they're unlikely to find you if you don't do the work to find them first.

Best of luck! ♥

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I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here

[kelyghtbooks]

There's only one reason I didn't give up on my manuscript

For those of you that don't know, I recently finished Draft 13 of my manuscript which was a big one because unlike drafts 1-12, I didn't see a huge glaring problem with it.

Someone in my replies said once, "I keep editing until it 'works'..." and I was like, yes exactly that. I can't explain how I know that it isn't 'working' but I know, and I need to keep going until it does.

So long story short, Draft 13 was that draft--where things finally 'worked' and fit together and read like a story. It took 7 years, and it very nearly didn't happen at all.

Around Draft 4 or 5 I got frustrated with all the major problems I kept running into in each draft. I thought it would just never 'work', that the story I wanted to tell was impossible somehow (??) and I put it away for good. I tried writing something else but my confidence was so shot that I could barely get words on the page for fear of suffering another failed manuscript, and I basically stopped writing altogether for like two years.

I had always told my friends and family that they could read my story when it was finished, but because I had given up on it, it was about as finished as it would ever get, so I relented and sent it to my best friend.

And thank god I did.

She loved it. It was unfinished, and in my eyes a total mess, but she saw through the flaws into the story and exactly what I was trying to do, and told me over and over again that I couldn't give up on it. It took a year of nagging encouragement, a whole lot of cheerleading and getting me excited about my own manuscript again, and a boost to my confidence before I tried to pick it back up again.

And you know what? After all that time, I read over it, and it was not as messy as I had thought. Every problem that felt so insurmountable before had suddenly become small, fixable, workable. It wasn't ruined. It wasn't impossible. I went on to Draft 6 to fix it.

And then Draft 7, 8, and 9 when I got some major feedback that led to 10, 11, 12, and now 13.

All because I sent it to a friend that could see the good in everything and was stubborn enough to keep on me about it until I saw it too.