FebruaryFiction

Today is the 1st February, that means FebruaryFiction is starting. So here you'll get my first post with micro fiction for #FebruaryFiction. All themicro fiction will be gathered in a tab too ;)

A glimpse of red caught my eye. I stopped, with a frown I took a step back, and then leaned closer. I tryingly moved forward to take a better look at this object that had caught my attention in a second. My blue eyes fleetingly peeked around before my hesitating fingertips glided over the hard surface as I studied the shapes, contours and words. More confident I picked it up, it was heavier than I thought and turned it in my hands, now winning me over completely. Fearlessly I moved towards the black counter to pay for my new book. 

The importance of Beta readers and some tips on how to proofread your own work

First off it’s hard to find beta readers. My personal beta readers is to find within my family/friend base. (I have only found one from a writers group I didn’t know in advance) But let’s start with family/friend beta readers.
If you ask friends/family to be beta readers make sure to make the ‘rules’ clear.
1. Don’t tell me it’s good just because you are my friend/sister/mom.
2. Ask for constructive criticism. Not just ‘it’s good/it’s bad’, but this part’s good because… this part’s bad because…
3. Let them know they can quit if the genre/story/plot isn’t in their taste. Don’t hang them up on reading through 500 pages of something that doesn’t interest them. Fantasy isn’t for everybody, thrillers isn’t for everybody, criminal stuff isn’t for everybody and praise the difference in people’s taste.
4. Tell them not to be afraid to point out mistakes (spelling/typos/info/the tattoo/birthmark/scar is suddenly on the left arm instead of the right arm), come with ideas, (either completely new ones, or ideas for changes).

Note to ‘rule’ 4. Just because your friends/family come with ideas or changes doesn’t mean you absolutely have to do it. Listen to their idea and take a standpoint. You love it? – Roll with it. You kinda like it? – Modify it until you love it. You hate it? – Don’t do it, but thank them for their input. It may spark another idea along the way. 

Personally one of my best friends have spent God knows how long on reading through my crap (Yes, back then it was actually crappy!) She isn’t afraid of saying exactly what’s on her mind and I love her for that. She spits out ideas with every breath. Some of them I instantly loved, some we discussed and modified until they were perfect, and some of them I didn’t like, but that’s how it is with brainstorming/spit balling, you empty your brain for ideas. Some of them are gold and some of them are shit, but don’t be afraid to let them out.

The other thing is:
When you try to proofread your own story you aren’t actually R E A D I N G the words, because you already know what’s written, and what it’s supposed to say. That’s why it’s always good to get a new set of eyes on it to spot the spelling mistakes and typos and missing words. I read some place (Sorry I can’t remember where, if you know or is the person who wrote it, please let me know so I can credit the awesome idea) that reading your story upside down helps you to actually read the words instead of running through them like a well-known nursery rhyme. To be honest I haven’t tried this technique, yet. But I think this works best if you print out the pages and then read them upside down.
Another thing you can do it put your story away for a while. I’m not talking about a couple of days, I’m talking about months. Because then you ‘forget’ what every sentence is supposed to look like, and therefor get kinda new eyes on it. No, actually t more like fresher eyes. And you’ll have a greater chance to spot mistakes plus maybe see where some threads aren’t followed up on.
If you – like me – can’t put away your story for more than two days then you can read your story backwards. Then, like the upside down technique force your mind to read every word instead of ‘scanning’ the sentence.

I hope this helped you.

Praise the world for beta readers, and the work, and sometimes horrible written phrases they have to go through for us before its gold.

Character development/evolving: (And apparently my opinion on The Hunger Games. Don’t know where that came from?)

When I found a 100 question sheet for my character I realized that there are things about my characters I need to work into the story. Not because it’s relevant for the story, but because it makes the characters more alive/real. It’s important to remember. Here’s the golden ‘100 question sheet’ I found out was the most helpful tool for my character development. Try your best to answer EVERY question on your characters behalf, do research, put yourself in their place, be creative, and really spend time on this because it’ll be really rewarding for the story. Otherwise we end up with more Peeta Mellark’s that only have two traits – bread and loving, absolutely no development throughout the story. His world starts and stops with Katniss. And is that a life? Is that independence? No. Sorry I got my own point of view into this blog. Don’t get me wrong, I love The Hunger Games, and Katniss. But Peeta is a thorn in my eye. He’s lovely and handsome sure, but he’s a cardboard figure with only one purpose: to love Katniss unconditionally. Now that we are in the personal opinion area I’ll say I love Joanna Mason. And I was disappointed when hers and Katniss ‘getting ready for combat love/hate relationship bunker buddies’ was cut out of the film. But besides that I think they nailed it. 
Back to the point:
I learned a lot here, be free to share your own opinion of the character sheet, plus what other tools and methods and stuff you have used in character development/evolving on my facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/aurorafleurauthor/
And when I have enough I’ll gather it all in a post for future help. Maybe put my own characters through and give constructive feedback on the different tools/methods.

Here's the 100 character question sheet. (I'm sorry if there is a way to put in a document here, but I am not very 'technical'. Hope you can live with it ;) and I am sorry I can't remember where I found this piece of gold. If you know who's the creator please let me know so I can credit them.)

-Part 1: The Basics
1. What is your full name?
2. Where and when were you born?
3. Who are/were your parents? (Know their names, occupations, personalities, etc.)
4. Do you have any siblings? What are/were they like?
5. Where do you live now, and with whom? Describe the place and the person/people.
6. What is your occupation?
7. Write a full physical description of yourself. You might want to consider factors such as: height, weight, race, hair and eye color, style of dress, and any tattoos, scars, or distinguishing marks.
8. To which social class do you belong?
9. Do you have any allergies, diseases, or other physical weaknesses?
10. Are you right- or left-handed?
11. What does your voice sound like?
12. What words and/or phrases do you use very frequently?
13. What do you have in your pockets?
14. Do you have any quirks, strange mannerisms, annoying habits, or other defining characteristics?
-Part 2: Growing Up
15. How would you describe your childhood in general?
16. What is your earliest memory?
17. How much schooling have you had?
18. Did you enjoy school?
19. Where did you learn most of your skills and other abilities?
20. While growing up, did you have any role models? If so, describe them.
21. While growing up, how did you get along with the other members of your family?
22. As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
23. As a child, what were your favorite activities?
24. As a child, what kinds of personality traits did you display?
25. As a child, were you popular? Who were your friends, and what were they like?
26. When and with whom was your first kiss?
27. Are you a virgin? If not, when and with whom did you lose your virginity?
28. Describe any influences in your past that led you to do the things you do today.
-Part 3: Past Influences
29. What do you consider the most important event of your life so far?
30. Who has had the most influence on you?
31. What do you consider your greatest achievement?
32. What is your greatest regret?
33. What is the most evil thing you have ever done?
34. Do you have a criminal record of any kind?
35. When was the time you were the most frightened?
36. What is the most embarrassing thing ever to happen to you?
37. If you could change one thing from your past, what would it be, and why?
38. What is your best memory?
39. What is your worst memory?
-Part 4: Beliefs and Opinions
40. Are you basically optimistic or pessimistic?
41. What is your greatest fear?
42. What are your religious views?
43. What are your political views?
44. What are your views on sex?
45. Are you able to kill? Under what circumstances do you find killing to be acceptable or unacceptable?
46. In your opinion, what is the most evil thing any human being could do?
47. Do you believe in the existence of soul mates and/or true love?
48. What do you believe makes a successful life?
49. How honest are you about your thoughts and feelings (i.e. do you hide your true self from others, and in what way)?
50. Do you have any biases or prejudices?
51. Is there anything you absolutely refuse to do under any circumstances? Why do you refuse to do it?
52. Who or what, if anything, would you die for (or otherwise go to extremes for)?
-Part 5: Relationships with Others
53. In general, how do you treat others (politely, rudely, by keeping them at a distance, etc.)? Does your treatment of them change depending on how well you know them, and if so, how?
54. Who is the most important person in your life, and why?
55. Who is the person you respect the most, and why?
56. Who are your friends? Do you have a best friend? Describe these people.
57. Do you have a spouse or significant other? If so, describe this person.
58. Have you ever been in love? If so, describe what happened.
59. What do you look for in a potential lover?
60. How close are you to your family?
61. Have you started your own family? If so, describe them. If not, do you want to? Why or why not?
62. Who would you turn to if you were in desperate need of help?
63. Do you trust anyone to protect you? Who, and why?
64. If you died or went missing, who would miss you?
65. Who is the person you despise the most, and why?
66. Do you tend to argue with people, or avoid conflict?
67. Do you tend to take on leadership roles in social situations?
68. Do you like interacting with large groups of people? Why or why not?
69. Do you care what others think of you?
-Part 6: Likes and Dislikes
70. What is/are your favorite hobbies and pastimes?
71. What is your most treasured possession?
72. What is your favorite color?
73. What is your favorite food?
74. What, if anything, do you like to read?
75. What is your idea of good entertainment (consider music, dance, art, etc.)?
76. Do you smoke, drink, or use drugs? If so, why? Do you want to quit?
77. How do you spend a typical Darkening (night) off?
78. What makes you laugh?
79. What, if anything, shocks or offends you?
80. What would you do if you had insomnia and had to find something to do to amuse yourself?
81. How do you deal with stress?
82. Are you spontaneous, or do you always need to have a plan?
83. What are your pet peeves?
-Part 7: Self Images and Etc.
84. Describe the routine of a normal day for you. How do you feel when this routine is disrupted?
85. What is your greatest strength as a person?
86. What is your greatest weakness?
87. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
88. Are you generally introverted or extroverted?
89. Are you generally organized or messy?
90. Name three things you consider yourself to be very good at, and three things you consider yourself to be very bad at.
91. Do you like yourself?
92. What are your reasons for being an adventurer (or doing the strange and heroic things that RPG characters do)? Are your real reasons for doing this different than the ones you tell people in public? (If so, detail both sets of reasons...)
93. What goal do you most want to accomplish in your lifetime?
94. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
95. If you could choose, how would you want to die?
96. If you knew you were going to die in 24 hours, name three things you would do in the time you had left.
97. What is the one thing for which you would most like to be remembered after your death?
98. What three words best describe your personality?
99. What three words would others probably use to describe you?
100. If you could, what advice would you, the player, give to your character? (You might even want to speak as if he or she were sitting right here in front of you, and use proper tone so he or she might heed your advice...

I've given myself a challenge - and you an opportunity to read some of my work

Okay boys and girls. I saw this post one day, and it made me think. yeah, i can actually do that sometimes. Back to the point: this post is about posting 'micro fiction' in February. (You can read the whole post below. I stumbled across it on Facebook.) And to be honest I saw it as a challenge and an opportunity. A challenge to be creative, but not too time-consuming as I would like to use most of my time on 'The Hunt'. An opportunity for you to get a little peek of my writing style. So far I don't know how many stories I'll be posting throughout the month, but I can promise you at least one every week. Here on the blog I'll make a tab for all my 'micro fiction'.

All there's left to say must be: Game on!

You who are reading this can also participate in this fun 'game', it's for everyone!

The post:

FebruaryFICTION is an initiative that allows anyone to publish their own micro fiction. Write a story each day of the month of February and post it on your blog, on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or on the nearest lamppost where you live. Share your stories, and become an even better writer and narrator.

There are no limits to what you can write about, or what language you can write in, but there are a few rules you must follow:

1. The story must be a maximum of 100 words

2. You must strive to have a beginning, a middle, and an end

3. The story must be shared with someone, either digitally, as a post, as a reading or by handing it over. You decide, as long as your stories are shared

4. You must use the #februaryfiction when you share digitally

5. Do it every day, every other day or every week, but do it through out February

Anyone can tell a story, and you're no exception.

New work tool

Lookie what I just got today. A portable laptop tray to work more comfortable on the couch :P

The king of the lap

Sometimes this little dude insists on cuddletime. Complicating my writing sometimes, but the laptop always has to give up its place in the end for the little king. (His name's Bisser)

Good news plus a small writing tip

Good news everyone!
11 months later I'm finally done with book one of The Hunt.
38 chapters, 463 pages, 280,363 words.
It needs to be edited two or three times before I'm completely done, but as I almost just did that (before I wrote the last five chapters) I'll wait with that. Or my good friend Sharona have just looked through the lately written chapters, so I'll look through her corrections and awesome ideas before I put it away and begin on book two.

It's also a good thing to put your story away for a month or two so you can 'forget' it before going through it again.Makes you more prone to catch mistakes, and look slightly more objective on it. I know it can be hard to put it away for so long, and in those 11 months it took to write this one I haven't even put it away for a week. But now I'm done with the writing part and can finally put it aside while I look over my plan for the next book and then write.

If you haven't been though my whole blog (that's not so big right now anyway) and now thinks I'll publish I'll have to disappoint you. I'm perfectionistic, and I plan to write Val and Jake story to the end before showing it to any publishers or agents. I want to be able to go back and correct details and shit as I see fit. I hope you'll continue to follow this project to the end (and more to come, but I can only multitask to a certain extend. Read: write and drinking coffee) I can't work on two book at the time though I'd love to be able to do that.

Use your subconscious in a productive way:
Okay, here’s my first writing tip for you guys. I hope you like it – there’s plenty more to come.
I don’t know about you, but I have an overly active subconscious. I’ll let you know exactly how I trick myself to take advantage of this. If you still look befuddled at the screen, and can’t relate to this at all you can keep reading just for the kicks of getting the opportunity to get a peek into someone else’s head, or be disturbed at some level and hope the subconscious never get the upper hand over mankind. (Insert decent levels of sarcasm here, please.)
To the point.
The best example to use is simply how I got the idea to the ending of ‘The Hunt’.
After a month of writing I slowly started to plan Val and Jake’s future. What happens with them? What obstacles do they face along the way? And of course the ending. How’s the book with their story gonna end? And I mean get a decent ending, collecting all the threads, and leave nothing to question or to coincidence. I started simply by asked myself ‘How does it end?’ And I asked that at least 10 times over a couple of minutes, but didn’t come up with anything. And then pushed it aside and left the work for my subconscious. Now my mind is aware of the obstacle I as a writer is facing. Over the next couple of days I would now and then ‘check in’ with my subconscious to see if it had come up with something, and it hadn’t. Sometimes in other scenarios my subconscious would provide me with an idea or fragments of an idea. But this time it took longer than usual. One day I was standing in the shower, minding my own business when suddenly *BAM* my subconscious ambush me with not only an idea or fragments of an idea, but the whole damn solution on a silver plate with a freaking bow on top. Sliding around, dripping wet I rush to my laptop like I was a cat being chased by a Great Dane, and started writing.
But this is just how I productively use my subconscious. Or trick it to my advantage. If you aren’t able to manage it as freaky as I do I suggest you simply ask yourself the question you want answers on a dozen times, and then leave it at that. Don’t try to force your mind to come up with something when it can’t. Instead leave to simmer for two weeks and try again. Use some time for brainstorming, write down your ideas even though they seem out of place, and then leave it again to simmer for a week or two. It doesn’t matter that it takes time. Perfection takes times, but you also have to actively work on it at the right times. Find your own balance, believe in yourself and keep writing. 

Writer's everyday

Got a new cup from my wonderful sister to contain the writers most important tool, besides the laptop of course. (It's coffee if you didn't know already :P )

Optimist - babysit four kids and still hope to get some work done

Finally got my sisters four kids chased into their beds. I've never known peace like this ! Now I just need the stupid birds to shut up too. Luckily I have my best friend coffee to help me finish this chapter.

Believe in yourself, but don't be afraid to ask for help

A wise friend of mine showed me this picture when I kept telling her how dissatisfied I was with chapter 1 even after looking through it loads of times. I couldn't get my brain fired up to get the editing progress started on this particular chapter. Normally that's not a problem for me. But as the awesome friend she is, she sat down and started changing what she thought sounded off, moved some words around, added and removed a few sentences too, and that helped loads! Suddenly I was able to start seeing what was wrong with the chapter, and really gave it an overhaul.

Anyway, my point with this post is: Don't be afraid to get other eyes on your project. Fresh eyes can spot what could be wrong, what could be changed, what totally works, and even new possibilities.
When I first told her about the first chapter I would've rated it 3/10. But after her help I got it up to 7/10. So it's definitely an improvement. Keep believing in yourself, and don't be afraid to ask for help.

Welcome !

Welcome to my blog!
I’m very happy and very excited to share this with you. First of course you’ll get a little information on the actual book in production:
Valery stumbles across Jake and his father Bill 6 years ago on a hunting trip. They join forces after learning
they’re after the same thing. None of them are normal hunters, but vampire hunters. And they’re after Sinanima who killed Val’s mom 10 years ago, and tried to kill Jake 18 years ago, which led to Jake’s mom committing suicide.

Five weeks ago Bill dies a horrible death, which leaves Val and Jake, now 27 and 28 years old, alone in this dangerous world. They learn that they need each other now more than ever, an in their need for each other they engage in a turbulent relationship filled with anger, grief, and an intensity that is to be felt. They kill all the vampires they encounter on their hunt for Sinanima.
They have to find and kill her, and they have to find a way out of their abusive relationship…

And now a little boring info about me:
I’m a Danish girl who have lived for 25 dreadful winters. I’ve always been interesting in writing, and wrote my first story when I was 11. It was called ‘The Dream Horse’ of course as I was obsessed with horses, and in my teenage-, and adult life worked as a living with them until I unfortunately had a clash with a pissed off horse, resulting in hoof to head. Thereafter a long journey back from cognitive issues, including memory loss. But I won’t bore you with the details. Anyway for many years my creative process was at a shutdown, but suddenly one lonely night under the covers, petting my cat, and watching South Park an idea sparked. And for the next two weeks I lived purely on coffee and an inspiration-high, going on minus 6 hours sleep and a red hot laptop. After the first two weeks I cooled down to a more humane level, and therefore could also maintain a normal life outside writing again. But all in all I’ve been on this project since February 25^th, 2015.
As it is now I’m almost done with book one. I have Val and Jake’s story planned out, but right now I don’t know how many pages, and words it’ll take to tell this story. So it’s uncertain if there’s gonna be 2 or 3 books in total. But I’ll let you know along the way.
Sorry this first post got a little long. I hope you can live with it, or maybe you haven’t even reached this far, but for those who have: Thank you and welcome to my private messed up universe! I sincerely hope you’ll enjoy your stay.
Stay tuned for my top tips on writing, follow my process on how the books are coming along, previews, and maybe a competition or two. :P