WRITING GETAWAY WITH MY CO-WRITER | brainstorming, outlining, & writing a new story for submission!
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.ย. 2024
- It's a mini writing retreat! My co-writer and I met up to brainstorm, outline, and write a new story to submit to Hallmark!
☟↓ QUESTIONS FOR YOU BELOOOOOW! ↓☟
D I S C U S S I O N Q U E S T I O N S :
What would you want to make your perfect writing retreat??
Have you ever submitted a story for publication or a contest? Where? What was that experience like for you?
If you've co-written a story before, what's your BIGGEST tip you'd share with someone before they start?
L I N K S M E N T I O N E D :
Hallmark's Open Submissions: www.hallmarkch...
That original, unlisted Hallmark submission vlog from April of this year: • SUBMITTING TO HALLMARK...
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I am LIVING for you guys floating along in those rings whilst discussing story stuff.
IT WAS SO FUN. All brainstorming needs to now be done while floating bahaha.
There’s a book that exists called 'Writing a Made-For-TV Christmas Movie' by Heather Hughes and Kate Wharton. They write movies for Hallmark. It’s a great book! Heather even replied to a question I emailed them.
You have inspired me to fire up the laptop and get back to my Christmas movie! Cheers!
Ahhhh yes, Barb!!! GOOD LUCK. 🎄 And thank you for the rec, I'll have to check that out!!
That's a great book! Keep going on your screenplay!
Pam & Kate, Kate & Pam! Am I psyched for this collab? I am, I am!
This video was so cute: Pool parties, besties, heart-shaped sunglasses, doggies, writerly brainstorming, hot & cold beverages, Hallmark movies & perfect lighting!
Thanks for making me smile, ladies:-)
Lolol SIO, I love this comment! I'm gonna start singing that first line to her bahaha. We had SO MUCH FUN and I'm glad it came through! :)
While I don't write novels, I am a screenwriter and have written several movies for Lifetime channel (Hallmark channel's next door neighbor). And from what I know of the Hallmark "format," I'd say watching as many of those movies as possible will only help you will your novel/pitches (which I hope get picked!).
Been watching your channel for a while. Best of luck with the submissions!
Your matching sunglasses were so cute. The writing retreat also seemed SO FUN!! Makes me want to rent a cabin for a week with some friends :)
Also your bestie and co-writer has a really pretty voice! Maybe she can do the audio book reading of your book.
To answer one of the questions:
My high school use to run the yearly "micro story" contest. It was open to every year group in the school and one winner would be picked from each group.
The rules was simple. You had to submit a story no longer than 100 words. It could be about anything. I entered twice during the entire time I was attending. My first story was just a silly story about a chicken going to war...yeah..... My second was about Helen of Troy making the decision to flee the city. (Troy the movie had just come out, and my ancient history class had finished Studying the trojan war) the second story won for that year.
The main things i learned? Writing a semi decent 100 word story is harder than it seems, getting someone to look at is a good idea, and don't just submit a silly chicken story if you want to actually win a story contest.
Lolol I am SO CURIOUS about your silly chicken story now though! They both sound intriguing!
Yay for winning one year and I love your takeaways. I have so much respect for people who can write great micro stories or flash fiction. It's incredible how much every single word matters when you have so few! I've wanted to give more micro stories a try, so your comment might just be the inspiration I needed to start! :)
I really wanna read your chicken story now lol
I also love Meg Cabot. I worked with a friend when she illustrated my picture book-it was so fun!
You make me smile :) thanks for posting keep us updated and good luck !!
A writer's retreat for me would be somewhere with no distractions no internet. LOL. So I'd have to be super prepared (research sorted), rely on my imagination and skills. I live in New Zealand so virtually anywhere is a good place to go off the grid.
I've known Hallmark takes submissions usually twice a year for a while now (it used to be October and February). I do plan to submit, but it won't be until they open submissions in 2023. Good luck with your submission.
okay well NOW my ideal writers retreat needs a lazy river!!
Omg prince route will NEVER be overdone. The royal ones are my fave 😂 🤴
Lolol same same. I don't care how many iterations I see, royalty is ALWAYS fun. (I'll just have to write them for myself. 👑)
Loved this! I’ve always thought that co-writing a book with someone could be cool at some point. I know there can be problems with it too but as long as everyone’s professional about it then hopefully people don’t experience those problems. You always inspire and motivate to write more Kate! I’m currently working on a submission to a famous publishing agency here in the UK. They are looking for disabled writers for a 9 month long mentorship which will be online. Since I fit that category I thought I’d try with my current book I’m writing. I’m currently editing it but they’re only asking for the first 3,000 words of it by October I think so should be doable. Looking forward to seeing your journey with your submission :)
Regardless of the final outcome, this sounds like an absolutely fabulous thing to be doing. And just imagine if they picked up your book and then made it into a movie!!
I can't WAIT to watch this after work.
YAY! Hope the workday goes quickly for you! :)
I just LOVED the water park floating-chilling chat 😆😆💙💙
I love how supportive you are of your friend, that's so lovely. And also, it's just super fun to write fun things with friends right? Good luck with the submission!!
I love meg Cabot!! I didn’t grow up with the princess stories as I’m older tho I have read the last grown up versions such as the princess wedding. Because of this I don’t know any of my friends read her work. I love the original ideas she came up with, my favourites are the mediator series, struck by lighting series ,the heather wells and airheads series. I feel that Young adult series allows you to be more creative with plots. This is why I’m not super into the island series as they’re typical straight up romance stories. I will still buy them tho!
Good luck!
I haven’t co-written before, but my bff and I are getting started on making a webcomic together! So seeing how you approach co-writing is super helpful. I agree the brainstorming is better in chunks and best done while chilling out (esp. in a lazy river lol)
This is so fun! I can't wait to hear more about this project :)
I am excited for your submission. I am considering Hallmark but since I write series I am unsure if they will take my stories. My HEA/HFNs happen books after we meet the characters, and because I write overcomer fiction there are triggers (SO MANY TRIGGERS). I don't know if Hallmark would want to deal with such difficult subjects. I wish you all the best co-writing.
Thank you!! We're two chapters in now and are really excited about it. :)
I definitely see what you mean! On their open submission page, they have some info on what they are looking for and what they are NOT looking for, and I'd definitely check it out!
I wish I had someone to write with. Looks like a lot of fun you had there. Hope it gets a successful submission :)
Love the matching sunglasses
Oooh can't wait to watch.
Cad, Cad, The Secret Mario Lad. (I don't know why this is always the tune I hear your username in bahaha.)
LOVE love love the glasses
I never submitted, but I wrote a "Halmark Christmas Movie" about 8 years ago. I realized after I wrote it, it was a little too racey for Halmark and didn't realize that pregnant romances were frowned upon. It had other issues, but it was a first draft so it could be fixed.
I have a niggling of a story that might work for a Halloween Romance, but I've not really taken the time to let myself really think about it beyond It happens at Halloween, Girl returns home for x reason meets boy. That's all.
As for co-writing, I've not tried it. My husband and I want to put together a Sci Fi short story collection/anthology, but I'd write my stories, he'd write his not really writing them together.
I also have a long term business idea with a group of book series that are spin offs of eachother and they cross over occationally. I can't describe it better without giving away the concept. But that's long term like after the boys start school maybe even start second grade.
Your journey of cowriting with your best friend is similar to my journey with my cowriter! We met in college and he quickly became a close friend. He, my husband and I all live together in our house now, and we dedicate one night a week to making progress on our book!
What's working so far for us:
*Outlining is essential. We're on draft 2, so we talk about how we want elements of the plot to go and how to fix things that aren't working, sometimes taking Thursdays to figure out what to do the following Monday so we're not trying to plan and write at the same time. We outline chapters before writing them and keep the outlines at the bottom of the Google doc. Outlines also change frequently as we draft and think of solutions to problems, and that's ok!
*We split up scenes. My cowriter tends to be faster than me, so we split up scenes in the outline and I bridge the scenes together. We edit each others' work as we go. He's very open to me changing things and vice versa -- our attitude is that if it's better for the book, we can't be precious about what we've written. I usually use what he has written as the basis of what I add or change, because his ideas are solid, but if I think something doesn't work I'll talk to him about it.
*Pomodoro timers. Since we only write one night a week, we try to maximize our time as well as our word count. This is something new we've started doing, but I think it'll stick! Our usual goal is 1k a week. By splitting the work and timing our output, we found we were able to write about 1.2k in 40 minutes!
Also something to note: my cowriter is a fantastic world builder and history buff. He's done the most heavy lifting in that regard. I bring more writing experience. We share the same attitude and goal: make the best book possible and publish it. I know this was long, but I hope this was helpful for folks!
Finally!
:D
Hey, Kate what price do you think is a good average to pay for a book cover art? Not considering famous artists.
WHAT is that melting drink and how do I make it (what's the recipe)?
Submissions suspended when i went to the site. Did you get in?!!
Where can we read your writing? :)
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HI AMY
@@KateCavanaugh HEY, KATE!! 😊✌️