I’ve quite enjoyed the animated offerings from a galaxy far, far, away. That it expands on the live action universe I’ve grown up with, is a comfort, as the world awaits the upcoming series and movies in and around the Star Wars franchise. Today, I share my non-spoilery love about Star Wars: The Clone Wars spin-off series, Star Wars: The Bad Batch.
A show about a group of clone rejects, misfits, non-conformists who like to color outside the lines but get things done for the greater good, despite how others see and treat them? I’m in.
Clone Force 99, also known as the Bad Batch. Most of these clones have genetic mutations. Hunter has enhanced senses. Tech, with his heightened intelligence, is the groups IT department. Echo, who joined the squad more recently, doesn’t have genetic mutations but has augmented cybernetics from the result of experimentation while held captive. Crosshair’s sharp eyesight makes him an excellent sniper. Wrecker, and his amped up strength, lives up to his name as a wrecking machine. He loves hand to droid combat.
I was about to start the series, now seven episodes in, when I realized I needed to finish Clone Wars first. Despite the final season taunting me for a while on Disney+, I dragged my feet because I knew it would be the end of a series I’d grown to love. Naturally, by the time I finished the twelve episodes, it was bittersweet. I liked the storylines, but it left me wanting more. Good thing I already had this next series lined up that continued in the same story and timeline as Clone Wars. I still miss the characters from Clone Wars. I hope to see some character crossovers, where applicable, of course. Fans familiar with what happens in the original Star Wars trilogy already know the fate of several of the characters from the series. Still, it’s fun to explore the what-ifs.
Again, non-spoilery, so I’m going to wait at least until the first season has passed before going into more detail, but I already enjoy the character dynamics. It’s easy to laugh and yell along with this rowdy bunch. There are some interesting new characters we get to meet, as well. Interesting, not necessarily ones I’d like to hang out with. I’m sticking with Clone Force 99. The great writing makes you care about these guys.
If you haven’t binge watched these shows yet, I highly recommend them.
Stay creative, stay weird, be kind to yourself and others.
A beta reader can help you polish your manuscript and get you that much closer to seeing your brain child on a bookshelf. It’s great to have multiple beta readers because reading, as an art form, is subjective, and you’d want to cover all your bases to spot and correct every typo and wonky phrase.
It’s such a common occurrence to miss the teeniest details, such as a missing comma, writing to instead of too (or vice versa) when you’ve read and reread your work dozens of times. Beta readers can also help offer suggestions for all the times you repeated a word or phrase. They can also help you tighten up your sentences and clear up any concepts that get lost in translation.
Fresh eyes will allow others to let you know what you’ve missed and also provide insight on readability from their perspective. It’s essential to know if what you want to share with your audience effectively and accurately reaches them as intended.
This month I resumed my beta reader duties and I already have a few beta reading requests lined up for next month. Aside from building a powerful network of fellow writers, it’s also given me an opportunity to read with a writer’s mindset. Taking a break from my work to read someone else’s has allowed my brain to reset and to be more receptive to seeing where to improve aspects of their story that I might not notice right away in my manuscript.
With any skill, practice is important in order to improve and expand your knowledge base. While helping others with their writing, I’m also helping my own. You see the patterns that work and those to avoid. Reciprocity is wonderful. Everyone improves their skill set and is closer to their publication goals.
Do you like to beta read for others? What have you learned from your beta readers? I know they’re invaluable as they are essentially my focus group for a potential audience and it’s always a good thing to have your story double and triple checked so that you’re putting your best work forward and showcasing your talent in the best way possible.
Stay creative, stay weird, be kind to yourself and others.
Did you play the game Guess Who? when you were a kid? There were these pictures of people’s faces and each player had a set of multiple faces on their board. Each player would ask questions to describe the character they have in front of them. All questions needed to be answered with yes or no. Were they brunette? Did they have freckles? Did they have brown eyes? Players would continue to ask these questions until they could make an educated guess if they think they knew the exact picture the other player had. Seemed like a simple premise.
What about when you’re writing a story? Do you know what kind of story you’re writing? Do you know the audience you’re writing it for? What happens when you’re confronted with such questions that challenge the identity of the story you thought you knew?
I mean, come on. It’s your story. It started as an idea in your head and blossomed into what you hope is a beautifully crafted work of art.
What happens when you think you know what you know but discover you’re not sure if what you know is what the reader needs to know, you know? Ain’t so simple now, eh?
This is the current challenge I’m facing with the revised draft of a manuscript (formerly known as the MG Fantasy) that I so brazenly believed I could whip into shape in a couple of weeks to shove off for querying.
Well, shove off is right. Right off a cliff. I’m certainly grateful I asked the questions and had those questions give me pause. It wouldn’t do anyone any good if I were to toss this manuscript into the sea, as is, and hope a literary agent somewhere in the big blue yonder would bite.
I’ve certainly made progress in this work in progress, but it begs the question, how do I proceed with what I’ve learned? Well, there are many avenues to explore, as I touched upon in my Camp NaNo Week Two Roundup.
I’ve since connected with MG/YA author, Michelle Schusterman, who had a similar issue with her manuscript when she ran it by a critique partner. What she believed to be an MG book was actually YA and thus, the author had to rewrite the entire story with this in mind.
So what is the difference between MG and YA?
In her presentation on “The Magic of Middle Grade” on reedsy, Schusterman was told this distinction between the two categories: “it isn’t about the physical age of your protagonist. It’s about their emotional age. A Middle Grade protagonist is discovering how they fit into the world. A Young Adult protagonist is discovering how they can change and affect the world.”Â
You can watch the reedsy video here and check out Michelle’s YouTube channel here to learn more about the writing life of an author from draft to publication.
When it came to my WIP, the various feedback received included:
MG stories shouldn’t have adult POVs because children don’t want to read what the adults are doing/thinking. They want the kids to be the focus of the story.
You should only have X amount of POV shifts, and only written in a particular sequence.
Make sure you have recent comps when querying.
Then, I also heard the following:
Why wouldn’t you want adult POVs in the story? MG kids are the perfect age where they eavesdrop on what the adults are talking about, especially if they try to keep the kids out of the conversation.
The POV character should have a character arc and stakes that move the story forward. You can have over two POVCs, but they need to deserve their chapter. Don’t just give them one because you like the character.
Recent comps are nice when querying, even if you do a combo with a show or film. However, they’re not a deal breaker. A literary agent is interested in a strong query and synopsis that appeals to them.
I can take any, all, or none of the feedback shared. The goal would be to take these elements and analyze how they would best serve my story. Right now, I’m leaning towards MG Urban Fantasy because I feel that the MC’s age works in how I want to tell the story. I have considered experimenting with scenes and aging the MC. This could serve as a workaround if I were to change the POV to a single character (his) and not include some adult POVs that were necessary in my original draft because they involved those adults in scenes needed to move the plot forward.
What I have, at the moment, is a draft that has a mix of POV shifts. Some, I agree, can merge into other existing POV chapters and admittedly, I thought it would interest the reader to have scenes from those characters’ perspectives. However, if they’re only going to have one or two chapters in an entire book, then it’s unnecessary for them to take the reins of a chapter. Other than that, there’s no particular sequence of who’s POV comes next. Each POV follows the organic progression of the story.
While it’s a great compliment to be told I’m a visual writer, it also worked against me, in this case, because I wrote this cinematically. In a movie, you can easily switch to a scene that doesn’t have the MC (who is a child) and the story still makes sense. However, in literature, there are a lot more conventions to keep track of to ensure I immerse the reader in a solid story.
All this is before I’ve even begun working in the possible Asian Folklore into the narrative. I just might table that for another story idea and focus on polishing this draft even further. Maybe when it’s gone through more beta reads, other writers will tell me if that other layer is even necessary for this story.
For now the revising continues. No one ever said writing was easy, but so far, it definitely hasn’t been boring either. We write on!
Stay creative, stay weird, be kind to yourself and others.
Social media has never been more impactful than it has in the past few years. The world has come together to discuss, debate, and challenge many social issues. It has given us a sense of community and inclusion in a time when a global pandemic is keeping us apart.
There are so many formats in social media that it’s easy to get lost, but, if you find methods that work for you as a writer, social media is a solid way to get your name out there. This website currently houses my blog, but I’ll be reworking the site to accommodate any of my published works and future related writing projects. I have an Author Page on Facebook, and I also created an Instagram account. On Facebook, I’ve joined groups that allow users to join as a Page versus personal account, and I also cross post whenever there’s something new on the blog here. I intend to use Instagram for book promotion and other writing-related posts that are more visual. For now, it’s on standby.
As mentioned previously, I’ve joined writing communities via Facebook where we share ideas, ask questions, and provide feedback to fellow writers. Goodreads helps me track the books I’ve read, want to read, and what other people I follow recommend. The To Be Read Pile never dwindles. Other writing based websites offer events, webinars, courses and various opportunities to interact with like-minded individuals.
Recently, however, I’ve re-entered the wonderful world of Twitter. While Facebook requires a different type of involvement, for direct interaction with people in the industry, I’m most active on Twitter, at the moment. It’s more than just liking or retweeting a someone’s tweet. There are great opportunities to engage in some seriously infotaining dialogue with people from around the world. You can build connections, find beta readers or critique partners, and learn what it is literary agents are looking for, so you know whom to query when the time comes.
At present, I don’t have any intention of using a pseudonym or nom de plume for my books, regardless if they’re for kids or adults. My name is my brand. I mentioned in the last post how it’s important to think of my writing as a business. There needs to be consistency across all platforms. While there’s been a change in readership directly on the blog in the last month or so, I’ve seen an increase of people engaging with the blogs via other platform links found on Facebook and Twitter, for example.
I’m still uncertain if there’s a problem with WordPress or if people just shifted their interests and aren’t connecting with my posts of late. While that could be the case, I need to remind myself that my writing will not reach everyone or please everyone. That doesn’t mean that I should stop with the blog or completely change the type of content I’m writing about. I’ve maintained a solid blogging schedule since November of last year and given The Life and Times of Tonette dela Luna in, say, the last five years, at least, this is an amazing feat.
I’m gonna keep on keepin’ on and if you enjoy the content, I’m glad. And I thank you for reading along on the journey. If you’d like to connect with me on social media, I would love to know what compels you as a writer, reader, and/or lover of the arts. What are your favorite platforms? Are there others not mentioned that you’d recommend to a writer? There are a few others that I’m still trying to establish (and navigate), such as Discord, tumblr, and Reddit, but for now, you can find me at:
… and of course, I’m here every week and will continue to share the ups, downs, lefts, and rights of my writing journey, putting it out into the ether and making my presence known.
Stay creative, stay weird, be kind to yourself and others.
It’s the fifth day of the fifth month. How’s it going in your corner of the interwebs? When life hands you lemons, make chocolate chip cookies, because why not? April ended and May began with some moderate setbacks. But I’m hoping to get back on track this week.
I’ve got a whole new list of submissions to work out, some critique partner work coming up, as well as a beta read, and I plan on continuing to revise my MG Fantasy manuscript. Then I’ll do some genre reading on the side, so, you know, I’ll have a steady flow of words coming at me, at all times.
I haven’t considered doing simultaneous submissions, as yet. I wonder if I should submit it, as is, or see if I can tweak it, in case something came to me after the other submission? Have you ever done that before? Which story outcome would you prefer to use, in such a case? Or would you submit identical pieces to multiple publications and see who bites?
Other submissions seem like they’re not my jam, but I’ve noted the theme and filed them away in a story prompt folder. Who knows, incorporating multiple ideas might work for a different submission and you’ll have a masterpiece on your hands. I stand by the practice of never deleting previous drafts. You never know if you can repurpose something discarded from an earlier draft into a greater story.
Besides all this, because of elevated stress levels affecting my health, I’ve taken more active measures at self-care, this month, even if it means, I step away from the keyboard to recharge, refuel, and reassess the situation to see how best to proceed before I burn out. I’m walking more, thanks to the nicer weather. Masks (yes, double layer), and socially distant. I will continue this once I get vaccinated, as well. We all have to do our part. Reading for leisure is also high on my list of relaxation methods, as well as streaming shows I’ve fallen behind on, or discovering new ones that will thrill, inspire, and awe.
Life’s been overwhelming, both health and work wise, but I’m chugging along, rolling with the punches, adjusting where necessary, and everything is five by five.
Stay creative, stay weird, be kind to yourself and others.
Textploits of the Writerly Persuasion 