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I would like to start a new chapter in both my books, P.S I Love You and Love and Demons but i'm not sure how to start. I would love to hear some of your guys' recommendations to improve my books. 
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I'm not exactly sure what you're asking here. Can you give us more information? An example?
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Im having trouble trying to write other chapter for my two books. I don't really know how to start. With P.S I Love You its about a girl named Amy and a boy named Andy. They are both 14 years old. They both have trouble falling in love. But Andy was diagnosed with leukemia when he ws 11. But he survived the cancer. Amy and Andy meet through friends at they go on instant message and that's how they talk. After a few days, Andy and his family are invited to Amy's house for dinner. At her house Andy and Amy kiss. After that Andy leaves. So now im on chapter 7 of P.S I Love You. After the kiss I don't know how to start. Like im having trouble with that to start another chapter. Like after what happened after the kiss. I don't know what to do afterwards.
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Joined: 10/20/2011
Posts: 350
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Kayla, why don't you try writing the characters' thoughts following the kiss? Start there and see where it takes you.
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Yeah like I started like one of the characters, the boy andy, wanted to talk to her about the kiss so they IM. And right after the kids, andy texted the girl about the kiss. Is that good? Or should I think of something else?
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Joined: 10/20/2011
Posts: 350
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What's good is subjective to you, it's your story. And I'm a bit lost here without being able to read the actual story. But that's all what they do. What do they think? Is this her first kiss? His? Did it live up to the fantasy she may have had? Did it surpass it? Don't be afraid of just writing an introspective. In a romance, you need to develop the characters and get the readers to care about them. If we care about the characters, we'll care about the romance.
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I haven't read your story either, but I think you are asking what should you write about right after these two young kids have their first kiss. Just a suggestion. Since that was a lovey, dovey nice and happy scene, maybe start with something horrible happening to up the tension.
Andy had leukemia and recovered when he was 11. Maybe it starts off with her waiting to hear from him. She waits and waits and waits, maybe a few days. Where has he gone? So she is all sad and thinks he doesn't like her, or that she was a bad kisser and thinks she is gross now. So, after a week, she goes to see him, and he is all distant and doesn't want to talk to her, which breaks her heart. Finally, she finds out the day after they kissed he went to the hospital. The cancer is back. He didn't want to tell her, so he is pulling away.
When you don't know what to do next, set up some hurdles and watch as your characters try to jump over them.
And, I don't know if you realize it, but you say *like* often. I used to do that and learned to quit in a public speaking class. Unless you are in character for your story and that is how your main character talks
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Oh, and what Alexandria suggested is good too. Having a tense sense followed by introspection and down time works too.
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Yeah i'm doing that. Andy is going to the doctors and the doctor wants him to schedule an appointment for tests to find the cancer if its in his body. Then he tells Amy and she comes with him :/
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Joined: 4/7/2013
Posts: 26
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Roadblocks. Set 'em up. They need to be obstacles that your characters have to overcome. I haven't read the book but here are a few options:
A new person enters the picture and asks Andy or Amy on a date. What now?
Or maybe there's a mysterious call warning Andy or Amy to stay away from the other. Who was the caller? What do they want?
Or maybe a parent intervenes and encourages/forbids them from seeing the other. If it worked for Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet, it can work for you, with some additional twist.
You get the idea. But I agree with the others that for every scene, there should be a sequel where the character gets to experience the emotion of what happened, review what happened, think about a choice that they need to make, and then make that choice. And then repeat that process of scene and sequel until you reach the story climax.
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Thank you so much! Like im making andy and Amy go to a doctors appointment to do some tests to see of he still has cancer. There's a little fuzzy thing in his liver what is it. Then they do some other tests and that stuff.
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Joined: 9/7/2013
Posts: 1
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Breaking down a book into an outline makes it easier to go from chapter to chapter. Consider this: the more objective the writer is, the more seamless the books writing will be.
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- Whether in a book or real life, a kiss, either innocent or passionate, is an open door. Writers, like boxers, are always looking for an opening. What you do when you cross the threshold of that open door will determine the durability of your creative mettle.Those stymied by a lack of imagination will see nothing much at all, while those brimming with imagination will see the magical land of Oz. Your characters are young people who should have no trouble parlaying an innocent kiss into the adventure of a lifetime.
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Joined: 11/17/2011
Posts: 1016
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Writers, like boxers, are always looking for an opening.
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Yes, indeed. That's the reason I've given up on outlining. I never stick to it. I have a roadmap in my head, and in random notes. Anything beyond that has proven to be a waste of time for me.
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Mimi: If you're writing War and Peace you would need multiple outlines just to make sure that the proper soldiers make it to the proper battlefield. I don't like outlines because they can be too confining and dictatorial. Some years ago my wife and I built a house together, using a minimum of help, such as when pouring the foundation and raising high the roof beam with a carpenter named Seymour. Construction for me was tantamount to writing a spontaneous poem. Conditioned to doing things by the book, my wife sketched a basic outline of what the house should look like. I told her that each day of building was yet another line of my contemporaneous poem that could not be confined with preconceived ideas. So we made it up as we went along; a tiny room became a broom closet; a larger one became a bedroom. The appellations followed the construction, not vice versa. Thus I write as I build: nothing preplanned, no map to enforce a preconceived route. Rather than an outline, I rely on my characters to construct a plot, the way people do in real life; the author is not some omniscient God giving preemptory commands. Once the main characters are breathing, speaking and scheming, they become ad hoc co-authors-- co-conspirators if you will. We write the book together. My major requirement is to keep them contained on the field of schemes, i.,e., the pages of the book.The journey is over after all the characters have resolved the various conflicts driving their interactions, either by death or riding off into the sunset, or forming more perfect unions that will lay the groundwork for a sequel or reincarnation on some distant horizon in which a new book is percolating.
Mimi-- I enjoy discussing things with you.
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Joined: 11/17/2011
Posts: 1016
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No wonder I like you. We do think alike. Peas in a pod, I'd say.
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My plot expands as ideas pop into my mind. And ideas are always popping into my mind, even in areas that I have considered finito. This is like connect-the-dots. On a whim, I added a bit of business to my Bishop of Haute Navarre (Haute-Nowhere, as Sly likes to call it) and - sha-zam! - I have a new delightful avenue to explore.
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If I ever get Sly to Paris the two will meet up. I don't know how I'm going to manage it, he's on the coast of France, in a circus, and he's just been kidnapped by a jealous bear-handler. A few pages later he falls out the window of an inn in a burlap bag, is knocked unconscious, and, landing on a pile of similar packages, is packed up and carted off to England by a group of men intent on assassinating Queen Elizabeth.
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You're talking to the ultimate seat-of-the-pantser here. That way lies madness, my friend. But, what fun!
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It sounds like the problem is that there's no story. You're simply following some nice people arouns as they live, with a pencil and paper, recording what happens and hoping something interesting happens. But it hasn't, and now you want to know what to make them do next.
That's a chronicle not a story. Every story is, at its heard about a problem that needs resolving. Someone, usually the protagonist, has a predictable life. They might hate it, it might be torture or bliss, but it is predictable and usually acceptable to that character. Snow White, for example disliked her life, but while she dreamed of better, accepted it as her lot in life.
Then, something we call the inciting incident throws our protagonist for a loop and out of their comfort zone. For Snow White it was, first, seeing her prince, which caused her to long for better, and become more dissatisfied with her life. This was the beginning of a subplot. But the true inciting incident is her being taken out into the woods and abandoned and in danger. Her goal is to regain control of her life and go back to what she had. What follows is her reaction to the situation she finds herself in. Throughout the rest of the story her goal is to find stability.
To be compelling your story must follow the same general arc. We meet the protagonist and come to know the situation and that character's goals. Then things go wrong, and a series of scenes ensue. In each the protagonist trues to get things back on track and under control, without success. For a bit more on the general structure of a story you might look at this: http://jaygreenstein.wordpress.com/2011/06/27/the-grumpy-writing-coach-6/
--edited by Jay Greenstein on 1/7/2014, 9:10 PM--
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