Idea Vomit

Trying to come up with an original idea is difficult. Most ideas are actually different takes on old ideas. Like the book and movie Warm Bodies is just a zombie version of Romeo and Juliet. It's cool but everyone wants to be the original whatever. I don't want to write a story about a wizard who has to save his/her school. It's been done and it is way too soon to be starting that.

There are some days I'll be listening to a song and then BAM, an idea pops into my head. Usually they're strange in the context of the situation I'm in. Like the other day, I was pacing to "This Kiss" by my girl Carly Rae Jepsen and I got the idea for what to do with one of my side characters. I had her in jail and while the main character was visiting her, the main character would also meet an important character who would move the story along. That way it's not all in one place.

Then I thought, "what language should these creatures speak and what should I name them? They would be evolved humans and would have a slightly evolved language. Would this change the setting? The only other language I am familiar with is German, that is a sister language to English so it could work as a metaphor. What if the reader assumes they're Nazi creatures? Not all Germans are Nazis, How said is it that the stereotype of Germans are Nazis, my stereotype is VW cars,  those are hippie cars, I can have them run on renewable fuel! That would be great!"

This is basically my thought process for a couple chapters in my story.

Writing advice from other sites

From time to time I like to go on sites that say "How to Write a Book" and see what advice they give. Most of it is pretty good. The sites don't actually give you a plot but different ways of planning the book out. There is no right way to write a book. Many authors use different methods to get their ideas on the shelves of Barnes and Nobles everywhere. The important thing is actually finding a method to your madness.

Top tips:

Decide what you want to write about
        Yes it seems obvious but it's important to focus your writing. I know I have problems doing this. I had the hardest problem deciding if I wanted to change my main character's objective and who the antagonist will be. One site gave a great idea

            "Take an hour and write a one-sentence summary of your novel. Something like this: "A rogue physicist travels back in time to kill the apostle Paul." (This is the summary for my first novel, Transgression.) The sentence will serve you forever as a ten-second selling tool." Snowflake method

It's a great way to start writing a book and helpful later when you have to sell it to other people. For me Illness is "A girl who has to lead an army of teens to fight a new race of creatures who want to kill the human race". That is basically the climax of my story and what I've been building around.

What are the Issues of the Novel?
      Most teens what to read about something that they can relate too (most people do actually) and so if you want to write a YA novel, you need to thing about YA issues. What problems did you have as a teen? Where there cliques you wanted to join but couldn't because of who you were friends with? Was there a girl or guy you wanted to date but had to change who you were? Were you friendzoned by someone? Did you have a drug addiction? Did you have over baring parents? Did someone important to you die?
      All these questions and possible events can relate to someone between the age of 14-18 (the age range of a YA genre). You don't have to stick with just one. Most books have several issues all happening over the timeline of the book. You could even add other issues into the novel that you might not be as familiar with but try to stick with personal events since those would be easier to write. I know I'll never write about a love triangle because I have never had two guys follow me around and both ask for my hand in marriage (it would be kinda nice though).

Hope?
     A few sites I was looking at say a writer of YA genre should have a hopeful ending. For the most part I believe it. It's a recurring theme in most of them. "Hunger Games" has one, "Perks of a Wallflower" does, and even "Fault of Our Stars" has a bit of hope in the end. I don't think it's mandatory but I know I like books where there is hope, especially if I relate to the main character.

Favorite Author Advice:
     My favorite author of all time Ally Carter gave some advice to writing as well. I tend to look at it from time to time to see if she could help with my writers block.
    My favorite tip from her earlier post was to put the story away for a month and then come back and revise it. When I did this I realized, not only the horrid spelling and grammar errors, but how it all flows. I do depend on Feedback as well from friends and fellow YA novel enthusiast but they can't tell me where my story will ultimately end up. That is up to me and if I'm not happy with the story, why should I get it published.

Series or just one?
     A lot of the YA bestsellers are series of three or more. Not all though, "Perks of A Wallflower" doesn't need a second book to make it better (my heart couldn't take it if there was one) and nether does "Fault in Our Stars" (NO MORE TEARS!!). I plan on making Illness one book but I might make a book that deals with another character in the same town. Kind of what the other books of "The Giver" series. Don't get me wrong, I love "Hunger Games" and the "Divergent" series but I don't think I need to have such a long story line to finish Claudia's (the main character in my book) story.

To plan or not to plan:
      Plan where the story is going. You don't have to write an ending but it helps to have a "gist" of what is going on. Here is what I have for chapter 2 and 3 so far

"Chapter 2 gist:

Claudia and Iona take the test of acceptance to the new community on a new land. They watch a movie about the rules. Claudia expresses that she feels the test is easy going and that she isn't worried about passing. It’s almost like she doesn't care if she lives or not.

Chapter 3gist:

While Claudia waits for the results, she helps her parents around the house. This is when the readers will get to know the full effect of the illness."

This way I know where the characters are going and can remember later. I also write down the main events and later write down what chapter I want them in later. I've tried to write other stories with the mind set that "I know what I want and I'll just write it all right now and remember later" because you won't remember later. Just write all you want now and decide what will go in the middle later. Go with the sentence idea I introduced earlier in this post.

Write a back-story for most of the characters:
        It's not necessarily needed but it is fun to do. I also play D&D with my friends and I end up creating really interesting characters that I want to put in the story. My friends also have interesting back-stories to their characters and I usually end up reading them later. It also helps in deciding what motivates the character to do what they will do.
       Try to answer these questions when writing
        Why are they good or bad?
       What do they love the most in the word?
        Do they follow the law word for word or do they follow their own rules?
       What do they value most?
       What are the events of their past?
        How was he or she raised?
That should be a good starting point.

Angelfall Book Talk

This is a video of me giving a book talk for my Young Adult literature class (yes it's a class). I got full points for it and my classmates said that I was great.

Inspiration

        This story that I've been writing has been in the works since about 9th grade. I saw a news story on my local channel for a virus that can mess with the skin cells and make your skin fall off. I started to think "hey if this became a thing and only a small percent of the world didn't have it.... what would happen" and that is were Illness came from.
        I still only have a few chapters of it and now rewriting my plan for what will happen. I've changed the main character so much I have forgotten who she was in the beginning. I know that I was originally going to have everyone have tech names like "digit" and stuff but thought it would be too childish. So I moved towards original English and Welsh names. Some of the names are also Germanic since some of the towns are German.
        I will say that I have put this book on the back burner for a long time. I tried to tell people about it but no one wanted to hear what it was about. My mother would just nod her head every time I mentioned it. Now that I'm in college and an English major, I figured "why not". One of my classes this semester is having us write a first page of a YA novel as the final paper. I decided to kick start Illness as my book of choice. Most of the plot is written and I feel that it would be an interesting book to read (of course).