Plot twists: Making Your Reader Gasp

You've made it to page two hundred of a three hundred book. The major plot points are resolved, the characters successful. The world is safe and the villain imprisoned. Everything is all set up for a happy ending, but you know by that chunk of pages left in your right hand that it's deceptive, that something is amiss. Anxiously you wait for the reveal, the kickoff to the climax and finally-!

One hero betrays the others.

The revelation jarred you out of reading and you had to set the book down to process. Suddenly so many things make sense and as you look back on the rest of the book, you see things now that didn't make sense before. The lead up. 

Hello everyone and welcome to another Friday article! After a long work week I'm honored to be able to invite you into my Homestead and give you rest. Here's a weighted blanket and some hot tea. Settle in as we discussed how to make any plot twist shock your readers. 

 There are many types of plot twists in books today and not all of them occur before the climax of the book. Plot twists are the most essential tool for keeping your readers on their toes. It adds a level of excitement when your reader expects one thing and gets another, but this trick must be used judiciously. Too many plot twists can make your writing seem chaotic and confusing. Plot twists, like communication, is a circle. An action occurs, the book transmits it to the reader, the reader receives it, then keeps reading. If you move on too quickly, or don't follow through on a plot twist it can confuse your readers. Don't leave your readers behind, they want to love the story! A recent book I'm enjoying, Powerless by Lauren Roberts, does an excellent job of giving the reader expectations and twisting them on their head in the first 50 pages. Spoilers ahead. For those who haven't read it and want to avoid spoilers skip to the all caps below. Kai Azer is portrayed as a stone cold executioner with no feelings of sympathy for his victims. He's depicted as having a strong moral compass and enjoys bringing justice to criminals. One of his introduction scenes is going to take an Ordinary from her family and kill her for not having magic, as is their law. The little girl accepts her fate and Lauren Roberts builds tension until the moment the dagger comes down. And the ropes fall loose from the girl. This plot twist expertly intertwines what we know about Kai with what we are still learning. It tells us that although we know the executioner, there is a character underneath that is still human. Let's dissect what Lauren Roberts did.

Our first impression of Kai was clearly given to us. There is no second guessing and he leads with his blades. Everything Lauren showed us supported this idea. When Kai took the little girl, we expected to see him ruthlessly dispose of her, but he spared her. Why? Characters, like us, are full of contradictions and opposites. This is what creates the internal conflict that drives the story. Kai knows he has a job to do, but he can't hurt a child. [SPOILERS ENDED] This makes the reader think and thinking is the highest compliment a reader can give you. Good writing will stay with you. It'll invade your thoughts when you hear a phrase, it'll come back months later as a memory. This is why we write plot twists, to keep the reader engaged and keep the plot unpredictable. A predictable book is an unfinished book. Your goal as a writer is to create conversation. Make the readers so excited that they buzz and tell everyone they meet “You have to read this book!” Because that will boost sales and increase popularity. The ultimate goal of writers isn't who can sell the most books, but who can touch the most lives. That's why you want to keep the reader engaged and drooling over your writing. And the best way to do that is through plot twists.

Thank you for making it this far! Next week will be another special article as we take a deep dive into the second of the three protagonists of The King's Actors, Ava Charlie Evans, the child actress whose deepest desire is to be loved. I can't wait to see you there and until then, stay tuned!

Trope or Cliche?

 Most Fantasy and YA novels read pretty similar, but why? If the stories are completely different and the magic system is creatively unique, why is there the overwhelming feeling that you've read this book before. The answer is simple; tropes. Welcome to the Homestead, where I serve writing advice and your mama's cooking in digestible articles to read on the fly. Whether you're at home or in a restaurant, welcome to today's article about what is a trope, which ones are popular, how to ensure your novel doesn't use something overly cliche and if it does, how to twist it into something incredibly creative! Let's get into it.

There are hundreds of different tropes in the world, some more common than others but first, let's boil down exactly what is a trope. A trope is a reoccurring theme, character personality, or plot device. Writing a book without any tropes, while not impossible, isn't easy. With such a saturated market most ideas have already been used and labeled as “A trope”. A trope is close to a cliche, except one is still popular, whereas the other has been overused and now is considered cringe. Common popular fantasy tropes include One bed, Enemies to Lovers, The Chosen One, Not like other girls, Ancient Prophecy, Forbidden Magic, Tragic Backstory and so many more. For a complete list, Google is a good resource, so is Reedsy, they have articles with lists of popular tropes. 

When using popular tropes it's important to not use them in a way that's boring or predictable. Reading is supposed to engage your brain and make you think. If you hand the reader all the answers in the first 50 pages, why would they want to finish the other 250? The more creative the better. If you use a trope, there needs to be a twist, something that makes your book stand out. For an example, a twist on the “Chosen One” trope could be that the chosen one was chosen to be the villain. Even though they love their friend, they're fated to schism apart and hate each other. This is where your imagination will be your greatest asset. 

When I start a novel, I list all the tropes I'm planning on using and try to reverse them, or think of how I can make each trope more interesting. Some tropes will be harder than others, for example enemies to lovers. There's not much you can do with that one. They were enemies and then they were lovers. Pretty self explanatory. But you could use a different variation of that trope; Friends to lovers, rivals to lovers, lovers to enemies. An example of a reversal could be the one bed trope. Maybe the bed is beside an open window and it's pouring rain. Now they have to sleep on the floor. One floor trope, Haha!

A harder example would be the “not like other girls” trope because its opposite is the “Exactly like other girls” trope. Since it already has a reversed trope, we need to find a grey area in between the two that's both creative and refreshing. Maybe she's not like other girls because she's a completely different species, then you can add in the fish out of water trope. This is what I did with Chestnut in The King's Actors. The possibilities are endless and as long as you can imagine it, you can write it! 

Thank you all for stopping in! Next week I'll be teaching you about how to write a compelling plot twist. Until then, stay tuned!

Fishing Out Words. Three Words to Remove for Better Prose

 “I just wanted a really big hamburger. I was starting to get hungry. Why was this taking so long? I waited as I scanned the area” Alternatively “She just wanted a really big hamburger. She was starting to get hungry. Why was this taking so long? She thought. She waited as she scanned the area”

If what you're writing sounds like this,you’ve come to the right place, my friends. Welcome to the Homestead, the cozy home for writers looking to improve their craft. If you don’t know me, I’m Kaylee Umstead, author of The King’s Actors, and I have spent the last six years developing and researching my craft. I’m here today to share my advice to new writers that I wish someone would have told me when I first started. Today we’re heading down to the lake to fish out words that are hindering your writing from evolving from good to irresistible! I highly advise you to look up “words that weaken prose” because there are a lot that I won’t have time to cover today, but I wanted to highlight my favourite three.

Now that we’ve baited the hook and tossed it in, let’s talk about our first fish; “Just”. Just is one of those words that is filler. It’s fluff. We can get rid of it. We don’t need it. Instead of writing “I just really wanted a hamburger” which could be mistaken for a character moment, would be stronger if you simply said “I craved a hamburger” It’s one less word, yet makes the sentence not only more concise, but more interesting to read. If a writer wanted to make this a character moment, something I do for my characters (because I personally don’t curse) is attribute a curse word to each of them, tailored to their personality. Rex has an arsenal of alternatives he switches between, but Chestnut just has one that I can add in front of the sentence to make it feel closer to the character. 

Our second fish is “Really”. This is one of the greatest hindrances in descriptive paragraphs. “The leaves were really green” is undeniably much more boring than “The leaves shimmered a vibrant green”. The difference between the two is that I attributed an action and an adjective to the leaves that went beyond a be verb, “were”, and the bland adjective, “really”. This fish is the difference between “Really happy” and "Ecstatic"; “Really wanted” and “craved”.

The third fish is one that often gives writers trouble. It’s an essential element to the story, but if overdone can be detrimental to the prose. Pronouns. He, She, They, I, Us, We– whatever point of view (POV) you are writing in, pronouns are one of the most important components of a sentence, else you’re left with “Steve ran. Glinda talked. Arthur asked” which, after any length of time becomes excruciatingly redundant. A balance is in order to make sure that your writing doesn’t sound like the first sentence of the article. Just as saying “Steve ran. Then Steve sat. Then Steve went to play baseball” is redundant, so can the pronoun be. My general rule of thumb for a well put together paragraph starts with a name, is followed by a pronoun, and ends with a description/action. Sometimes I break from this pattern, but it’s a good formula to practice to stimulate those brain juices. Disclaimer: your writing will sound equally as stiff if you use this formula without varying it. For example, let me create a makeshift excerpt. 

Daniel stilled once a loud thud resounded around the cave. “Please say you just finished a seven course meal.” His whisper reached the length of his sword, then tapered off into silence. Troll breath warmed the air and by instinct Daniel swung his sword, slicing into the leg of the beast.

Here we see the name, “Daniel”, the pronoun “His”, and the description of the breath followed by the action of the swinging sword.

That concludes our fishing session! We can close the lid of the cooler and skin these later for a nice home cooked meal. When seared and left to bake, Just becomes irrelevant, Really becomes a stronger adjective, and the fat of excess pronouns melts right off. Thank you for visiting the Homestead! Next week we’ll discuss another mistake new writers can make that hinders their prose, Active vs. Passive voice! Stay tuned, friends!

How Active Voice Improves Your Prose

 Hello! Good morning, or evening, and welcome to this week's article, How Active Voice Improves Your Prose. If you're new, Hi! I'm Kaylee Umstead, author of the book The King's Actors and after six years of intensive research and study on improving my prose, I'm here to cut out the middle man and make your writing journey easier by sharing what I've learned! Here at the Homestead, I strive to equip new writers with the tools needed to make their novel shine. Today we will discuss the importance of voice, more specifically, active versus passive voice.So without further ado, let's get into it.

You probably remember learning about active and passive voice in English class as a kid. Us pre-covid students sat in desks all tightly fitted into rows and recited the definition “Active voice: The subject performs an action, Passive voice: the subject is acted upon”. If this is familiar, like me, you probably thought it was silly and once you took the test, promptly forgot about it. I'm going to reteach it to you today in a way that's applicable to you and your writing.

Passive voice in modern writing is one of the red flags that a writer is just starting out. Sentences like “The ball was rolled by Alex” or “Alex was rolling the ball” are sentences weighed down by the word “was”. Passive voice doesn't excite the reader's imagination and leaves them feeling bored and uninterested. Your writing should be so gripping that the reader struggles to put it down. Chapter after chapter they flip, just waiting for what happens next! Now most authors believe “I'll hire an editor and they'll fix all that for me.” There are different types of editors, developmental editors which focus on plot, characters, and construction, and copy editors who focus on the grammar and spelling of the materials. Neither of these changes your words. However if you hire a line editor, they focus on sentence clarity and construction, but can be expensive. Now that we've determined the problem, the question is, if passive voice will undermine my prose, what will enhance it?

First we need to remove the sticky words, words that keep together a sentence. You have the important words like nouns and verbs, and then the sticky words that keep them together. These are words such as conjunctions, linking verbs, or participals. If there are too many sticky words, you have a cluttered mess. Instead of saying “Alex was rolling the ball" we can improve it by saying “Alex rolled the ball”. It's incredible how much a small change can impact a sentence, but I promise that the switch to Active voice is worthwhile. Active voice is structured as “subject does something”. It can be used for inanimate objects like leaves or buildings. “The building stretched tall” versus “Stretching tall was the building” (alternatively “The buildings were stretching tall”). By using Active voice instead of Passive voice, we can strengthen our prose into lyrical genius. 

Thank you for stopping in, friends! Next week I'll be explaining what is a trope, which ones are popular, how to ensure your novel doesn't use something overly cliche and if it does, how to twist it into something incredibly creative! See you next week, but until then, stay tuned!

Charting a Path to Organization

 Salutations Readers! If you're new, welcome to the Homestead. Last week we discussed three ways to make your first sentence/paragraph shine and entice readers. This week we'll look at my guide to plotting a Fiction novel. 

First, let's start with a disclaimer. Every writer is different and what works for one might not work for someone else. The key to seeking out advice from other readers is not to copy them, but be inspired by them. It's all about fine tuning and personalization. Trust me, customizing a template is much more fun than replicating a process. With that said, I'm a plotter, a heavy plotter. My first book had absolutely no forethought, and after many different iterations, writing, cutting, and rewriting I finally had something I was happy with. That process took me six years. When I wrote my second novel, a prequel to the first, I semi-plotted it, but still played it by ear and winged it. That book took me three years and is only on the second draft now. The third book I wrote, I had finally dialed in a process. I organized everything in a notebook and the first draft was completed in less than six months. 

First thing I do when I have a new idea for a novel is buy a notebook, decorate it, and write the title on the front. Any thought, any feeling, any idea that ever crossed my mind occupies a page in that notebook. I can reference it at any time and especially for High Fantasy books with alot of world building, this is essential. Other things I've tried in the past were Pinterest boards, character playlists, character design, and Venn Diagrams of each main character to make sure they weren't too similar, but still complimented each other. Once I get a grasp on character arcs, setting, and plot, I move on to the next major step.

Chapter by Chapter outline. It sounds like a beast, I know, but it's the most efficient way to know where you're going. It's like a map. A good map will steer you away from tangent bogs and writer's block trolls. Once you have a to-do list of scenes you need to write, the process flows smoother. Note: as you actually write the chapters, you may need to shift and combine to accommodate pace and chapter length. These chapter outlines can be as thorough or generic as you want but they should include the point of view character (if there are multiple, conflict, action, and a launching point for the next chapter. The story must keep momentum. Stakes rising, bad becoming worse, fear leading to horror all build up to the great climax that has your reader screaming and flying through the book like it was their favorite roller coaster. I'll talk about momentum in a future article, but for now, let's return to plotting. 

Like I said, these outlines can contain as little or as much information you please. There's no wrong way to write a book. You'll know what feels right. If writing feels torturous, try something else, there are tons of different opinions on everything regarding writing. Find what works for you!

And that my friends are my methods for plotting a book and organizing my thoughts. Writers, I'd love to hear what worked for you, feel free to shoot me a DM on Instagram or Facebook! Thank you for stopping by. Until next time, friends!

The First Sentence

 Hello everyone! If you're new, welcome to the Homestead! Today we're talking about how to start writing once you have the motivation and the idea. The infamous first page, but more importantly. The first sentence/paragraph. 

The first paragraph determines the sale. Imagine you’re in a bookstore. A book cover catches your eye and you pick it up. The back of the book sounds intriguing and the book is enticing, but you crack open the first page and read the first sentence. It feels uninspired or doesn't grab your attention the way other books do. You frown, then set it down and move on. Why did this happen? There are a few reasons, the major one being personal taste. This isn't a fail-safe to solidify more sales, but it helps. There are 3 things that are going to lose readers in the first 5 words. 

1: Lore dumping

Landing in a new book is always disorienting for the reader and the worst thing you can do is start the novel with information about heritage, lineage, or history. It's easy to give into the temptation “Well they won't understand anything else if they don't know this” in that case, it's good to put it in the first chapter, but not the opening. I'm not a fan of the saying “show don't tell” because sometimes you need narration to balance the action and dialogue, so instead I advise new writers to explore not explain. You want to explore the surroundings and the personality through your character instead of explaining it to the reader. You want to start with a strong action or character that can cement the readers into this new world

2. Opening with dialogue

Now don't misunderstand me, there are some really good books that open with dialogue! If done well it can be a great opening, but you'll need to establish characters with the dialogue. Opening with a powerful zinger without a tag line will leave readers confused. You'll want to establish a setting or give your readers a grounding point. 

3. Trying to establish Mystery

Mystery is essential to a good opening. It ensures that the reader will want to continue reading. It's essential to balance mystery with reward. The enigma surrounding setting, plot, or characters must be skillfully crafted to not pose a question, but infer a question. Readers will wonder to themselves “Hm. I wonder what this means” and then two sentences later when you answer their question, they feel fulfilled and satisfied that they have found the answer. It's all about keeping them engaged. 

Those are my three tips for writing the first sentence/paragraph, tune in next week for a surface dive into plotting out a novel and what has helped me stay organized. As always, thank you for reading, you can contact me on my socials, or view my novel, The King's Actors, on Amazon! Thank you for visiting the Homestead and as always, stay tuned!

STARTING A NOVEL: How to Stop Chasing the Rabbit

 Hey guys! Welcome back to Homestead. I got many comments from writers in my article last week that the problem they were facing wasn't that they didn't think enough, it was that they thought too much. I wanted to help the writers who are, like me, overthinkers. So, settle in as we discover how to overcome the planning phase. 

For the past six years, since I started writing I've definitely fallen deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole. Everyone has a rabbit. A rabbit is anything that you’re chasing. That can be a car, a promotion, or a relationship. In writing, it can be searching for a character trope that will hook your reader, or a dynamic you're so obsessed with you can't stop thinking about, or a plot point you find yourself giggling and kicking your feet over. These are rabbits. Say hi to your rabbit. Give them some lettuce, some scritches, some love. These are all things we love doing and are good to do, but only in moderation. If we chase after these things long enough, we can lose ourselves. My Dad called it quality of life. It’s all about balance. 

 If you focus too much on what readers will enjoy, you'll forget what it's like to enjoy writing for you.  

If you think too much about a dynamic, you may become so fixed on it that your creative flow is impeded. 

If you're busy enjoying the thought of something, you'll become addicted to thinking about it and never actually write it.  

Not to fear! With every downside, there are three upsides. 1:3 is a nice ratio, and the best part is that chasing a rabbit into its bunker fulfills something you as a writer are craving. But like Alice, if you chase it too deeply, you'll end up losing yourself. 

This happened to me about two years ago. I was so consumed with just dreaming and imagining scenes that I forgot two important things.  

1) What reality is like 
2) In order to be a writer, you have to actually write 

How I overcame this was writing out of order, which I know isn't recommended for writers, but this helped me get out of my funk. I wrote down everything I was excited to write and used that as a launching pad to fill in the gaps. The first draft isn't supposed to be perfect and coherent. It’s just supposed to exist. That's what editing is for. Also, you know that big scene that you must write that the entire plot hinges on? Yeah, that scene in particular. Write it. Stop running from your responsibilities!  

Another way to stop chasing rabbits is to hone in and focus. Lock in. Keeping a journal helps, I have a notebook for every story. Using Pinterest to visualize characters and settings and drawing your character can also help bring your ideas out of your mind and into the real world!
 
That's all for today folks, thanks for joining me and as always, stay tuned!