How I Planned my Novel (A Crown of Sea and Stone) | Writer Tips

Every writer/blogger/project-lover plans. You can’t avoid it. And everyone has their own methods, their own ideas on how to plan a project/article/book.

I feel like I’ve really honed my planning technique with this book, so, I thought I would share how I planned my latest novel: A Crown of Sea & Stone.

The Initial Idea:

Whether you’ve had it in the back of you mind for months, or you wake up one day with it, we all gets ideas. When I get an idea for a novel, I like to go with the flow; write the idea down as it came to me, and see what it looks like.

Is there something interesting there?

Can I work with it?

Is this a good idea for a novel or a short story?

Is it total rubbish?

Often at this point, I like to read the idea aloud, whether to myself or someone else, and see what changes as I attempt to explain my (very raw) idea. This usually helps me flesh it out/work out the major plot holes.

Getting It On Paper:

Next, I flesh it out on paper. In the initial process, I usually make rough notes, but I use this next stage to really fill in the blanks. I usually write 2-5 pages summarizing the story to myself in linear order.

@melholdenbooks

Notebooks:

I do all of my notes, planning, character and location descriptions in one notebook. That way, I’m not frantically searching for random pieces of paper or documents.

I will continue to use this notebook the whole way through the writing process, and during publication too.

Mood Boards:

This book is the first time I’ve used mood boards, and I regret waiting so long! I really struggle with visualizing characters and locations, so this really helped. (Here are my boards for A Crown of Sea & Stone if you’re interested.)

Excerpts:

Despite my best efforts, I don’t always write my novels in linear progression. Sometimes, when I’m stuck on a scene, I move on to a different one further on in the story, and eventually the two pieces will meet in the middle.

This can backfire, and you can end up writing yourself into a corner and then having to spend ages correcting it, so approach this tip with caution.

Word Count Tracker:

I use social media (mostly my Instagram to hold me to the mark when it comes to word count. For this novel, I wrote the first 50,000 words during Camp NaNoWriMo 2020.

The next 15,000 came gradually over the space of 3 months, interrupted by lots of editing and re-drafting.

I like the pressure of being kept accountable by my friends and followers; knowing someone is aware that I am writing really helps me focus.

However that pressure can be quite intimidating, so do whatever makes you feel most comfortable.

Talk It Out:

This book would gathering dust on my hard-drive if I hadn’t had several chances to talk it out. My main sounding board was my best friend, but another surprising listener was my partner’s best friend.

Whenever he came over, he would ask how the book was going, and the poor sod would have to listen to me frantically try and piece the story together enough to explain it to another person. It really helps find the plot holes, the twists that don’t make sense, and to get another persons perspective on your characters.

The Drafting Process:

Now, depending on your method, the drafting and editing processes’ could easily be switched/intertwined here. I like to do a mini edit to each chapter as I go – it saves some embarrassing grammar errors being missed in the long run.

After I’ve got one complete draft, I comb through looking for more glaring errors, go back and correct a few plot holes, and then ignore it for at least a month. That way I am able to be more critical as I become more detached. You can’t spot most mistakes whilst you are writing.

Editing:

See above?

In fairness, I struggle to separate editing and drafting. Although, I would like to think I do different layers of editing: grammar, structure, plot, layout, character consistency, and location consistency (i.e.: a door has moved from one scene to another, a character’s hair has changed colour, etc.)

Once I am happy that the manuscript is finished, I send it off to a few beta readers and wait for feedback. Once I have collated their notes, I do a min (or major) redraft, and finish the book.

Cover Design/Visuals/Marketing/Release:

Yay! I’ve got a manuscript. Now, I’ve just got to publish it… ugh.

Personally, I prefer to self-publish using Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, but this would also be a great point to seek out a literary agent or publishers.

I do all the cover design, interior design and layout, formatting, publishing and marketing myself, (although this time my lovely best friend, Ash designed the book cover with me [thanks, Ash!]).

And that’s it, you’ve written and published a book. Wasn’t that easy?

**EXCLUSIVE** extract from ‘A Crown of Sea and Stone’ by Melissa Holden

****EXCLUSIVE**** extract from my new novel, A Crown of Sea & Stone:

Mercina could feel his eyes on hers, and she knew their colour took him. Even among mermaids, starry silver eyes were unheard of, and many people recognised the princess from her eyes alone. Many mermaids had red tails or pink hair, but none had the beauty of her shining silver irises.

Usually, Mercina became irritated whenever someone called her beautiful or pretty; seeing it as a veiled attempt to curry favour with a member of the royal family, but this was different. The human prince had no reason to assuage her, and so instead of annoyance, Mercina found herself staring back at him, taking in his beauty.

“You are the most beautiful man I have ever seen, my prince.” Mercina replied, and then smirked, “However, you are also the only human I have seen so closely, so perhaps you are an eyesore to the others of your kind. Even so, I think you are beautiful, and I thank you for deciding to spare me.”

“Everyone deserves a chance to live, princess.”

OUT NOW on Amazon Kindle for £1.79/$2.99

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08WZ4TMK7

(Extract included belongs to the author, Melissa Holden, copyright 2021, and therefore is subject to all copyright laws.)

A Crown of Sea and Stone – BOOK COVER REVEAL

A Crown of Sea and Stone by Melissa Holden

Book Cover by Ashleigh Watkins

Synopsis:

Princess Marina wants nothing more than to live a peaceful life protecting the reef, instead, she is next Queen of Oceania. Rivalled only by her uncle, Lord Lucian, Marina knows her royal duties come before everything, even love.

When Marina discovers secrets to her families past in a lost shipwreck, it turns into a journey she thought she would never make… to the land above.

Can Marina finally unravel the families long-forgotten secrets and will a chance encounter with a stranger be her undoing?

Coming to your e-reader February 2021

OUT NOW on Amazon Kindle!

To Finish or Not To Finish: a Novel in Limbo

I spend a lot of my time sat in the dark as I feed my baby, staring at a picture of a girl in a yellow dress. And now one thing for sure: her story isn’t over yet.

When I started my Master’s a year ago, I did it with the intention of using the time to work on the sequel to Searching For Katherine (r.2014), which has sat unfinished in my proverbial desk draw for the past three years.

However, three months into my course – I found out I was pregnant. Overwhelmed by work, university and now pregnancy – the novel remained unfinished.

Well now I am on maternity leave, my degree has come to an end, and I have a month-old baby boy – my time is both free and less so at the same time.

Hanging on my living room wall is the original sketch – done by an old friend of mine – of the cover for Searching For Katherine.

It is of Katherine in a torn yellow dress, walking through the forest. I always loved the drawing because it was of a pivotal moment in Katherine’s story; of limbo. She finds herself leaving one hell, with no promise of salvation or safety once she gets wherever she’s going – but she still takes the journey. And thus, I too am in limbo when it comes to this book.

But now it’s time to come out of the forest and choose a path. Do I scrap the book altogether, and take time as a sign that some books just shouldn’t be finished? Do I pick up where I left off? Or do I start the manuscript again; and embellish it with the things I have learned in life since last writing it?

I always felt a duty to Katherine to finish her story, I still intend on doing so, but perhaps not in the way I originally planned.

I think I’ll dust off the old hard drive tomorrow and see where we left off, and if there is a story yet to be salvaged.

500 Followers, A Milestone Post

Since it’s conception in 2013, this blog has had many purposes, many milestones, many birthdays. It is the one safe place; the one continuous space, where I can write freely and know my words will not only be seen but appreciated.

Originally posted on my Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/BWZvn22D9vT/?taken-by=melissaholden94

I just wanted to say thanks, to old and new followers – you make it worth posting. I know I am a bit of a sporadic blogger, but my work/life balance leaves something to be desired. I really appreciate the loyalty.

Thank you all so much for the love and support, and I hope we will be seeing more of each other soon.

Love, Mel ❤

Chapter Eleven | Finding Jennifer Book Teaser

Here is a little taste of what’s going on in Chapter Eleven of my upcoming novel – and sequel in the SEARCHING FOR KATHERINE series, FINDING JENNIFER. Enjoy!

Sex In Books | Not That Sexy (16+ content)

Everyone loves a cheeky sex scene in a romance novel; or those secret make-out sessions in your favourite Young Adult series, but there’s a line.

With a society that is climatized to seeing sex in everything, perhaps no sex in a book is the New Sexy?

If an author tells you they have never written a salacious sex scene – they ar lying. But, ask them if it ended up in the book, and some will say no.

For my novel, Searching For Katherine, I wrote a sex scene for the night of Jennifer’s wedding – and then deleted half of it. Yes, I kept some of the build-up and the tension in, but there is no actual sex in the sex scene.

Sometimes, the idea of sex is sexier than the act itself. And sometimes, sex isn’t sexy. 

In The Russian Concubine by Kate Furvinall, there is a sex scene between the two main characters who are roughly fifteen or sixteen years old. The boy is injured and weak, the girl tending to his wounds as she hides him the shed from her family.

It is a sweet, tender moment, but it is – naturally – a very awkward and fumbling scene. Why? Because virgin teenagers don’t know how to have sex, so it would be ridiculous for the author to have pretended otherwise. It is a beautifully written scene and one I have specially marked in my copy. I read it when I need reminding that sex isn’t always the sinners show it’s perceived to be. Sometimes, sex is communication.

It is a beautifully written scene and one I have specially marked in my copy. I read it when I need reminding that sex isn’t always the sinners show it’s perceived to be. Sometimes, sex is communication.

It’s difficult to write an article about sex in books without mentioning the elephant in the room: Fifty Shades of Grey. Originally written as a sexy Twilight fan-fic, and quickly tidied up when the website when crazy and was picked up by a publishing house; Fifty Shades is the perfect example of Sex Overload in fiction.

I won’t waste too much time talking about this series, but if memory serves me right; there’s a lot of pretty ridiculous sex in this book series. They have sex anywhere and everywhere, several times a day and it some strange positions and situations. I think Mr .Grey needs to see a therapist because he just can’t keep it in his pants.

The sex is completely unrealistic – however, it also proves that sometimes there is only one way to write a sex scene: badly. E.L James repeats the same phrases and rhythms throughout the book, giving all the scenes a very samey vibe. But, she is an international best-selling author; so she must have gotten something right!

Perhaps sex scenes in books scene somewhat ridiculous because they are a little bit more real than we’re used to.

Most adults have watch pornography at some time or another, and we’ve all seen those perfect six-pack muscle men with engorged penises and perfect bodies. They give women expectations of what a man should look like in bed, and I’m afraid to say that not every man is built like Superman. Nor, should they be!

And for the men, those poor bastards are relentlessly shown swimwear models with tidy, toned bodies and tiny waists. None of these women have scars or stretch marks, none have bore children and they certainly don’t look like the women we see in the high street doing their shopping.

Why is porn so popular? Because we like to fantasize. Why does sex suck in books? Because sometimes… you’ve just got to use your imagination – and the only references most of us have are porn sites and some embarrassing sex stories of our own.

And because reading the word penis is never going to be as sexy as seeing one! 

So maybe next time you read an awkward sex scene in a book; remember that sometimes it’s better in real life than it is on the page; give the author the benefit of the doubt. And, if it’s really bad, just skip it.

Got an opinion? Share it in the comments! 

The Snow Killer | Free On Kindle This Weekend!

As my book birthdays are fast approaching, I thought I’d celebrate by making The Snow Killer FREE on Amazon Kindle! Details and links below.

The Snow Killer (plot):

When Danny Fores loses his family in a car accident, he sinks into depression. Two years later, he’s still blaming himself for their death. When Danny meets Diane Warner, a thirty-five year old lawyer: she brings the good, the bad and the murderous to his door.

But can he cope?

Term start date: October 28, 2016
Term end date:   October 31, 2016

The Snow Killer is available on the following and more sites for FREE:

Amazon UK   Amazon US   Amazon FR   Amazon CA   Amazon AU  Amazon DE

The Fraudulent Writer | Prose | 22 Blog Series

There’s nothing worse than feeling like a fraud. Telling people you’re something, an ideal, that you haven’t been in a very long time.

I am a writer.

Lies, all lies. Haven’t been one of those for months now. And months, inside the head of a strangled creative, is a lifetime when you can’t express yourself. Everything comes out harsh and dramatic and whiny. You and the keyboard aren’t talking anymore. You can’t bring yourself to open your manuscript and stare at words a past version of you typed and labored and loved.

The world is in a funk, that grey mess of a cloud; your brain turning to soup. Like an addict, your cells are dying the longer you pretend to live a normal life. That 9-5er day in day out dragging you down into the mundane abyss of the working age. Any attempt to take yourself back to your own personal Renaissance ends in a self-hating war that lasts days.

Nothing happy sticks.

Not being able to get out of bed in the morning, even though there is nothing officially wrong with your life, no one understands. That sinister melancholy clutching onto your skin like a cheap shower gel that won’t wash off. No amount of scrubbing or crying or screaming is going to get that melancholy off.

Not until you get the fuck out of your own head. GET OUT! Stop being a liar, a fraud claiming to be creative! Stop being the one that can’t see past the cloud. Where’s your curiosity? Run through the fog, arms flailing, singing along to stupid songs that make you want to dance.

You always want to write when you’re happy. And that boy is making you happy. You’re just being stubborn. So stop being a misog. Go and fucking write.

 

Read the rest of the 22 Blog Series here. 

Indie Pride Day | Book Giveaway

Today is #IndieBooksBeSeen Indie Pride Day: a day to celebrate and share independent authors and poets from all across the world via social media.

Today, if you check the hashtags #IndieBooksBeSeen or #IndiePrideDay, you will see thousands of photos of Indie Authors holding up their #ISupportIndieBooksBeSeen signs, as well as a copy of their own book.

In celebration of #IndiePrideDay, I am doing my biggest giveway yet! Check my Instagram for full details and the actual post. 

QUOTE YOURSELF A FREEBIE! All you have to do to win is comment below with your all-time favourite book quote! I will be announcing the winner Saturday 2nd July 2016.

The winner will receive:

• A printed and signed copy of THE SNOW KILLER
• A printed and signed copy of SEARCHING FOR KATHERINE
• A sneak preview of my new novel in the Searching For Katherine series, FINDING JENNIFER
• Some Melissa Holden merchandise

The rules are:

• One entry per person.
• No giveaway-only accounts (I will be checking!)
• Must be entered on July 1st 2016. Any entries after midnight will not be counted.
• You must be aged 13 or over (some of my books have explicit content) or have the permission of a parent/guardian to enter.
• This is a world-wide competition.
• Your entry must be in the comments/ Tweets of one of my original posts, i.e: this blog post, the Facebook or Twitter posts, or on my Instagram.

Good luck, and may the best bookworm win!