Arranged (Vidarian Chronicles Book 1)

What is a writer without anything to show for it. 

Earlier posts in my blog introduced my first book, There is no Prince Charming, 

which has been met with good reviews and many purchases (yay money!) 

Anyway, during this post, I would like to introduce my SECOND book!

ARRANGED

Overview

With an uncle determined to control her life and more importantly, her inheritance by arranging her marriage, Alison Forbush sees no choice but to run from the life she knew.
Her rebellion would spark a chain reaction that would not only change her life, but effect an entire kingdom.
Discovered, captured and imprisoned by strange creatures that inhabit an underground world where every shadow holds danger, Alison struggles to maintain her independence, especially when their fierce King takes an interest in her.
She must ask herself if this strange world could hold everything she'd been looking for or, following her uncles example, was all of this Arranged from the beginning?

Great read! And not just cause I'm bias. :)

I appreciate your support. I promise you won't be disappointed.

Kindle Edition: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/arranged-c-m-ortega/1117397976?ean=2940149594580

Nook Edition: http://www.amazon.com/Arranged-Vidarian-Chronicles-Crystyl-Ortega-ebook/dp/B00IZ8SNSA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395102242&sr=8-1&keywords=arranged+crystyl+ortega

6 Reasons Why Reading Is Critical to Writing

As a writer, the best advice I could give is to READ. 

Sounds strange right? 

Not to say that learning grammar and spelling aren't important or building your characters up, but reading is a critical aspect of writing. 

And I'm not just talking about reading/editing your own stuff either.

I've read a lot of tips on writing and everyone says the same thing, it's important to read.

Here are the reasons why 

1- Reading gives your mind a rest from actually writing your story, but allows to you continue to be receptive to inspiration. Struggling with writers block? Take a break and read a book. It usually is enough to get those creative juices flowing again.

2- As you read, you pick up on grammar and vocabulary that you can later use in your own story. 

(I've noticed with my own writing that I do this all the time.) 

3- As you read, you learn about more character development. If you feel like you keep repeating the same mannerisms in a character, reading may give you an idea of how to spice things up a bit.

4- You will begin to mimic the flow of the stories you enjoy the most, as in the flow of your words in your story. For example, you will have less awkward stops between sentences and learn to portray dialogue in a natural way.

5- Reading many genres will expand your creativeness. It is important to keep a constant feed of inspiration coming through, or else you will never grow. You can only recreate yourself so many times before there's nothing left to pull from.

6- Reading is like taking a vacation, even if you can't afford one. It's a stress reliever and stress is one of the reasons writers get the horrible disease known as writers block!

Characters

I have been writing for about ten years now and there are many things that I have learned during that time. 

I've had to practically learn how to use grammar all over again (I didn't really listen in school the first time around).

I've made up my own shorthand language for when I write longhand at work.

I've learned to take, as well as give, constructive criticism.

But most of all, I've learned that writing can be unpredictable!

 You may say, "Crystyl, if you're the author, how can your story take you by surprise?"

That's a good question, to which I only have one answer...my characters take over!

If you write fiction, you may know what I'm talking about, but right now I bet a bunch of you are thinking that I'm crazy.

Yes, my characters take over. 

Sometimes, it is all I can do to write fast enough to keep up with them!

I'm getting ahead of myself. 

How do characters take over?

Well, when you write, if you develop a great character (good guy or bad guy, doesn't matter), it is easy to "fall for them". 

If the character is believable, they become like their own living entity within your mind (like a good friend that you've known for years). You become as attached to them as the reader does, if not more.

So, I have these "entities" in my mind while I write as well as a general idea of the direction that I'm going to guide them in, but sometimes...they throw a fast one at me!

I will have a dramatic scene worked up in my mind and as I'm writing, suddenly my heroine decides to say something that changes everything. Boom! My imagined scene is shattered, as is all the after affects to go with it.

But this is not a bad thing. Most of the time, it adds to another layer of the story and works out to be a much cooler idea and conclusion than I had originally planned.

So, you can see why I like to let them take over (most of the time). 

When I write, I like to immerse myself into the world of my characters as much as I can. That way I can properly describe surroundings as well as feelings. 

Not to mention, it's fun!

It's like watching a movie (which means my hand is cramping because I'm writing so fast) and I am just as excited as any other audience member to see what happens next.

So, now my secret is out...I sound nuts.

haha

Does anyone else have anything similar happen to them or am I really just looney?

Idea Book

Writing ideas on scraps of paper is great, but what happens if you lose that scrap? 

Poof! Your brilliant novel and movie trilogy idea is gone!

All right, maybe that is a little dramatic, but if this has ever happened to you, you know that losing a paper with your precious idea on it can be devastating. 

You can try your best to rewrite it, but it wont be the same. :(

To avoid this, I suggest you start keeping an Idea Book! 

This is also a great idea for those whose imagination is on constant overdrive and there is no way you can write all those gems at one time.

There are times when I have so many ideas bouncing around in my mind that I feel like a schizophrenic who can't concentrate on any one thing, instead I'm always in my imaginary world because I don't want to lose the cool ideas.

My mind tends to be like a bucket full of water. If I add another drop, some of the other water falls out. Haha

To avoid this, I write down my ideas. 

It's like purging the "voices" from my mind. (I really don't have schizophrenia guys) 

(This one isn't mine, but it's a good example)

For my Idea Book, I found a fat notebook with a strong binding so that it could handle lots of rough use. I decorated the front (because I'm like that) and made it something that I wouldn't mind using all the time. I carry it around in my bag.

Any time I have an idea, I jot it down in there and then I know that it is safe until I have time to look upon it again.

It's great to have everything in one place. 

If I get a new idea and I think "Hey, this is like one of my other ideas", I can flip through my notebook and find out if my thought is correct or not.

The Idea Book also helps me when I'm feeling writers block. 

If I'm working on a story and I'm just plain stuck, I turn to my book and write a little more about one of those ideas. 

Sometimes, getting my mind off of what I am writing at the time and looking back through my old ideas is enough to spark my creative juices. 

The book is also a good place to stick photos of something that inspired you. I cut out pictures from magazines all the time. 

Sometimes, visualizing isn't enough. If I see it, I can better describe it in my story.

It's also really fun to see how many ideas and potential stories I can collect. 

I'm currently a 12! 

Who would have thought that I could think of 12 stories. Granted, not all of them are worked through and plotted out. 

A few of them are just random dreams that I've had and thought "That's make a cool story".

Also, I keep a list at the back of my book of names that I think are cool. That way, when I write in a new character, I can flip to that page and create an awesome name that will catch the readers eye.

If you haven't started an idea book, I suggest you do. This can be used for more than just stories. 

Poetry, for example, would make excellent use of an Idea book.

If you have something similar to this that you keep track of your thoughts in, I'd love to hear about it.