How i come up with my book names

Coming up with book names can be one of the hardest things you will do for your book but i am going to tell you how i name my books so you can get a brief idea of how to do it yourself.

first thing first is i write the book. while i am writing book names pop into my head so i write them down on a note on my laptop screen to make it easier to come back to.

say i was writing a book about a killer teddy bear some name ideas i would think of would be

• killer bear
• the silent killer
• whats wrong with teddy: a death story
• teddybear in new york killing edition
• the bloody bear
• the surprise killer 

i would then have to go online and search up each book name and see if a book already has that name. normally my search will look like {name} book so for example killer bear book.

while i am doing the searches any books with that name will be removed.

so after my search, my list looks like

• whats wrong with teddy: a death story
• teddybear in new york killing edition
• the bloody bear
• the surprise killer 

as you can see there was already books called the silent killer and killer bear so they were removed. because there are four names left i have to work out which would be the most eye-catching and that i will think will get the most sales.

so say my book was based in Canada and not new york i obviously wouldn't use teddybear in new york killing edition. but if it was in new york the edition part would most likely make people think there will be more books in the series in different places. which would be fine if it was a series but if it was a solo book it wouldn't work.

something like what's wrong with teddy: a death story may make little kids pick it up and the parents not see a death story so that wouldn't be the best either. which narrows it down to the bloody bear and the surprise killer. 

the bloody bear shows its a story about a bear and if the cover of the book was a bear covered in blood it would be pretty obvious about what it is about but if i was writing a mystery the surprise killer would get peoples attention and would be a major twist in the story what is actually a teddy. 

so i personally would pick the surprise killer because it would be a major twist. and because my book will have already been written i would know that the bear was a twist in the story which makes it perfect.

there you have it, how do you name your books? let me know in the comments and have a wonderful day.

monthly challenge | writing as many words as i can in a month

in January 2020 I gave myself a challenge. I had to write as many words as I could in a month and this is how I did.
video:

January was a bit different than my normal months because I had to go to wellington on the fourteenth for a night, so the fourteenth and fifteenth I had to handwrite on the plan which isn't fun in any shape or form for me because my fingers cramp up and make it hard to write for long periods of time with a pen.

I split my writing into a few different categories. blog one (endometriosis) blog two (this blog right here) blog three (my main blog) Wattpad books and my novels, novellas and short stories.

after seven days I had a grand total of 14,996 words and that's with me not writing any words on the third.

by day fourteen my word count was up to 27,613 words by this point I hadn't written on two days day three and day twelve.

at day twenty-three I had a grand total of 42,276.
blog one-548
blog two-2,549
blog three-2,319
Wattpad-25,606
books-11,254

by the end of the experiment, I had a total of 61,875 words
blog one-758
blog two-3220
blog three-2879
wattpad-36,908
books- 16,130

Rant about word counts and hate comments.

I am one of those writers where I love to celebrate different milestones with my followers. things like a higher word per minute total or doing a writing sprint and getting a higher word count, reaching a certain amount of words in my story or finishing it.

but with that comes the hate. it's quality over quantity. messages saying you won't make it and just trying to bring you down and stop you feeling good about your writing.

one of which inspired this blog post. I was asking questions for my book I am writing about endometriosis and someone slides upon the question and wrote a message telling me to get a real job and that I need to stop being happy about how many words I wrote because they will be all shit anyway.

these messages don't discourage me they make me work harder. I am not one to get down and think about what I'm doing wrong, well I am but when it comes to writing I can get all these feelings out on paper and turn it into something more, something amazing.

for the longest time, I took these messages as this is what I should be doing, by stoping every chapter, every page to rewrite and edit and do all the stuff I do now at the end of the book I stopped loving writing, it was no longer something I love but more of a chore. I got myself into writers' block badly, I left books unfinished because I just couldn't make it perfect and now I fix it at the end. my first draft is getting the story down no matter how good or bad it will be and then going through and fixing it, putting it away for three months and coming back with a clear mind, no longer having my head tell me everything that needs to be done still.

on the getting a 'real' job front it's very complicated, I hate to drop out of high school because of endometriosis and any boss says that I would be unreliable and can't have a job there so I made my writing my job. I have a fiver where I offer to ghostwrite and beta read, write blog posts and even proofread and edit things. I also do freelance gigs, working in a normal 9 to 5 job is impossible for me so I had to find a way to make a job out of something I love and can do and that is writing, that is youtube and that is my business.  whats to say that I am no good at writing and cant to make it a career? I am about to query one of my books to publishing houses and I'm excited for how far I have come in this world of writing.

what I'm getting at is that people are going to hate no matter what and what works for you is what matters not what people think you should be doing, keep your head high and push through it, find a way that works for you and stick to it and the first draft is never going to be perfect no matter how hard you try that's what editing and proofreading are for.

How to come up with character names + 100 names

it can be very hard to come up with names for your book characters, i spend hours per name trying to find the right name on baby name sites and generators. so i have come up with a quick list of ways to come up with character names as well as well as listed 50 female and 50 male names (and names that can be used for both) remember you can always mix names together to make new names altogether 

1. try to avoid using names starting with the same letter to ease confusion
2. look through baby name websites 
3. search for a name relating to your characters traits and country of origin
4. consider the era your character lives in. you wouldn't find the name apple over in France in the 1600s but you might have found someone with the name Nicolas

now that you have that to consider i will go onto my list of 50 female names and 50 males names, some can be used for both genders. 

Female

1- Mei

2- Dolly

3- Bethany

4- Cher

5- Demi

6- Ruby

7- Poppy

8- Summer

9- Indie

10- Sienna 

11- Emma 

12- Paige 

13- Rachael

14- Savannah

15- Chole

16- Bonnie

17- Tianna 

18- Fleur 

19- Kimmy

20- Claudia 

21- Elizabeth

22- Abagail

23- Rebecca 

24- Aira

25- Aleisha

26- Hannah

27- Ashley

28- Olivia

29- Charlotte

30- Mia

31- Amelia

32- Sophia

33- Ashley

34- Victoria

35- Isabella

36- Alleah

37- Camila

38- Taina

39- Ella

40- Amber

41- Nefertari

42- Shukura

43- Athalia

44- Beata

45- Cyra

46- Avery 

47- Chelsea

48- Teresia

49- Alyssa

50- Tracey

Male

1- Arlo
2- Joe
3- Casper
4- Lee
5- Joey
6- Shawn
7- Alfie
8- Shane
9- Jack
10-  Nathon
11- Alex
12- Willie
13- Sam
14- Hamish
15- Blake
16- Quin
17- Bruin
18- George
19- William
20- John
21- Nathaniel
22- Connor
23- Jaden
24- Patrick
25- Jacob
26- Xander
27- Parker
28- Riley
29- Jordon 
30- Felix
31- Ben
32- Phenix 
33- Arron 
34- Skyler
35- Apollo
36- Cato
37- Morgan 
38- Homer
39- River
40- Adam
41- Harley
42- Julius
43- Jake
44- Ethan
45- Aiden
46- David
47- Luke
48- Asher
49- Sage
50- Angel

How to win Camp NaNoWriMo

if you prefer to watch rather then read How to win Camp NaNoWriMo

back in July 2019, i participated in my first every camp NaNoWriMo which was amazing, i set myself a goal of 50,000 words on my project which i was able to hit on day 25 in this post i am going to give you 10 tips on how to survive camp NaNoWriMo and win, all of which i did.

1. Pace yourself

while it may sound like a good idea to sit down and write for five hours each day you will drain yourself a lot faster, work out what you are working towards and then work out what the minimum you have to do each day to win nano. my goal was 50k words so the minimum i had to write was 1612.90 words a day (July has 31 camp days) some days you are going to be over that and other under but if you know that you have to write or spend a certain amount of time each day then the days you go over makes up for the days you are under and you won't be draining yourself

2. Set goals

while whatever number you set up on camp is your overall goal think of your weekly goals, my first week of Julys 2019 camp i set a goal of 10k words which i had already passed on day 6. if you know you have a goal and a deadline to get to that goal you are more likely to pass the goal, while the end goal is to win camp seeing that with the days ticking by you don't think about how close you really are so you are more likely to quit.

3. Outline

while i myself am more of a pantser like the famous author Stephen King, i did do a brief outline of my project, and when i mean this i mean i wrote the chapter numbers down and under each chapter wrote what i hoped would happen, as one of mine for chapter 4 was find out Clyde is a wolf, it left it to my imagination on everything with just knowing hey i need to find a way to write Clyde as a wolf, this was the first time i ever did any kind of outline.

4. Get inspired

there are many ways to do this, you could go for a walk, listen to music, go and be with nature it really depends on you. i personally search up on google "writing prompts" and look at pictures or follow links and find one best fitted for my novel i am writing. i find this really helpful and i immediately find inspiration

5. Leave it unfinished

when you know you are going to be finishing writing, for the time being, if it is for a few hours or for the day that doesn't matter, the best thing to do so you don't come back and go well what to do now start the next sentence and don't finish it. for me, i finished writing for the day and knew i wouldn't know where to start again so i finished off with 'i walked into the kitchen and saw' while you wouldn't want to finish a chapter, paragraph or bookending like that it just means you can come back and it will be super easy to get back into it, meaning fewer writers block moments.

6. Sprint

for this, all you need to do is search up NaNoWordSprints on twitter and wait for the people to come on, or you can set your own timer up on your laptop or phone. a word sprint is when you have a timer for a certain amount of time and you just flat out write, then you take a break when you are done before going straight back into it.

7. Accept That Your Manuscript Will Not Be Perfect
dont try and make it perfect, that will only help you not make your word goal, realize that no matter what there is going to be major editing involved so there is no point in worrying about it all being perfect now when that is the least of your concerns, the faster you realize that the more easier it will for the words to flow.

8. Network

sometimes having friends who are also writers help they know the struggle and can help you keep going even on tough days, there is nothing like not knowing what to do or not having anyone there who understand what you are going through.

9. Environment 

no matter if you like a clean desk or a messy one, work where you know you work best, for me i work best in my best with my curtain open. coffee beside me and my laptop on my black pillow on my lap. that is how i write best so make sure you have the space you will be writing in looking just the way you like it.

10. Write

sometimes the best thing to do is just write, even if it is never going to make it into the final copy of your project, every word counts when you start writing the words should just start to flow meaning while it most likely won't make sense it still counts towards your word goal and you may make something that you can use for your book

My experience Camp NaNoWriMo July 2019

for the first time ever i decided to participate in a Camp NaNoWriMo and my first one being July 2019. i set my goal of 50,000 words and knew i had to complete that goal.
{this is in a dairy sort of format with my thoughts, emotions and word counts}

Day One: today was really easy. i landed up writing a full chapter of 2291 words except when i put that across to Camp NaNoWriMo site to work out the number difference it told me i only wrote 2816 words which isn't a big difference but it made me realize that the app i use to write counts these " ' , as words which is weird but its good to actually know it does that. something i would never have known if i didn't do camp. i was definitely excited to try.

Day Two: today was also easy the words just seemed to flow. i used @NaNoWordSprints today to get some words in. i did three sprints a 10 minute, a 20 minute and a 14 minute. i landed up with 1,647‬ words from all three combined. i wrote half a chapter today and landed up with 1,914 words for the day according to the NaNo site which puts me at 4,730 words in two days! i am meant to get 1,612.90 words a day if i want to win NaNo which means i am already over by 1,504.2 words. almost a full days worth of writing.

Day Three: Today was took a bit longer than the other days i got in 1948 words according to the site my camp finally remembered that camp was on which is good i don't like writing alone. i am now extremely tired but i am doing amazing and i am so proud of myself. i can't wait to see how many words i can get by day 7.

Day Four: I'm bored of not having any real writer friends who do youtube so we can support each other etc. i got 2121 all while sprinting because i really wasn't in the mood to write, for some reason i was quite depressed today so i couldn't find any motivation to write, i have set a goal of 10k by Day Seven.

Day Five: today i got the least amount of words so far with a total of 1134 nano words while i am not proud of myself for getting this number i know it is better than getting nothing at all. i am on a roll with writing and i am so far really enjoying the experience. i am already working on chapter six which means in five days i have written four chapters.

Day Six: i wrote 1245 words today, my words each day seem to go down and up but i have not gotten under 1,000 words so far which i am proud of. i filmed my week one update since it is getting filmed every 6th day and uploaded every 7th.

Day Seven: i was over my word count goal with a total of 12192 for the first week. i wrote 1014 words today according to the site all of which i had validated. i am feeling very proud of myself for reaching this number Week one update

Day Eight: today i filmed a 12-hour write-a-ton which i worked on five different projects but out of the five different projects i was able to write 5157 of the words on my camp project, today was the first day of week two and i am so happy that i started it off with a bang, if i can write any words tomorrow is the major question right now because my mind is mash potatoes. but my goal this week is to write 11k words

Day Nine: today I only wrote 128 words, which is the lowest yet but i think it's okay because of doing so much writing yesterday

Day Ten: today i was able to get 1199 words out and onto the paper, a lot better then the day before but i am definitely behind in the words i should be writing, while i am reaching my goal thank god, if i don't get a move on i will have to add more chapters, maybe instead of hammering a chapter out a day i spread it out three days to get the word in? i have no idea.

Day Eleven: today was way better than the last two days at 1865 words. finally getting somewhere haha

Day Twelve: going downwards again, only was able to write 602 words, i am losing motivation to write, which is never a good thing.

Day Thirteen: managed to get out 1342, at the moment i am just on my way yo hitting my daily goals each day but it is not easy.

Day Fourteen: i hit my word goal of 11k. i wrote 1233 words today putting me at 11528 words for the week. week two update is out.

Day Fifteen: setting myself a goal of 12k words for this week. which will put me at 35,718 words which means in the last 10 days i will only have to write 14,282 words which is really easy. i also wrote 2623 words today which means i am 47 words away from the half waypoint. i know i can do this and it makes me so happy

Day Sixteen: only was able to get in 689 words because i had to go to the doctors

Day Seventeen: 917 words gotten in today, i couldn't concentrate very well and i started to lose motivation to write

Day Eighteen: i got 3018 words in which is awesome, getting close to the end of my story which i am excited about, only one more chapter after this one to go but i still have a lot of words to go which is stressful

Day Nineteen: i easily got 1760 words today, landed up writing 500 of that in ten minutes which was impressive

Day Twenty: landed up with 1342 words today, i wrote the engagement sense which made me cry since i got into a fight with my crush so wasn't in the mood to write any kind of an engagement bit

Day Twenty-one: let's just say i am proud that i got 14641 words this week and 4292 of those words today, i have just over 11k words left to add though rewrites because i wrote the last chapter today, camp NaNoWriMo week three update | July 2019

Day Twenty-two: this weeks goal is 7k words, i wrote 1100 words which is impressive since i am now having to add words via re-reading the script,

Day Twenty-three: today i wrote putting me up for a total of 827 words for the day which puts me at a grand total of 40,289 i think the 9,711 i am missing will be easy to get since we still have 7 days to get it

Day Twenty-four: today i wrote 5515 words, i don't know if i will win this week but i know i will win

Day Twenty-five: today i wrote 4235 words making me at a grand total of 50,036 words. I WON I won Camp NaNoWriMo week for update | July 2019

15,000 words in a week challenge

on June 1st, 2019 i asked my Instagram story a question. they had to decide if i did a 12-hour writing sprint or if i had to write 15k words in a seven day period. they, of course, decided i had to write 15,000 words in a week so i did. i set out to work out how many words i had to write in a day to pass the challenge the number, of course, was unrealistic at 2142.857143 so i had to round up to 2143 words a day. i had three projects the words could go towards. project transfer. my wattpad book The Heartless Alpha or this very blog.

Day One

day one was very easy, i was able to write a grand total of 2212 putting me over my word count for the day by 69 words. 1320 of my word count was on my wattpad book. i decided not to write for my blog at this stage so the remaining 892 words were on my novel. i found it quite easy to do this because i had all the inspiration in the world that i needed at this point.

Day Two

day two was very similar to the day before. i had managed to write 2208 words all of which were on my novel. giving me an extra 65 words on top of the 69 from the day before. i was very happy with the turnout and knew if i kept up the way i was going i would be done in no time.

Day Three

day three was when everything went downhill i had only managed to write 274 words on my novel making the few words i had made up for look really bad in comparison. even with the 134 words i had leftover it only put me up to 408 words which meant i was still 1735 words behind. i put the lag of work down to the fact i had to go in for an appointment and i wasn't very motivated when i finally did get home.

Day Four

day four kept me on the very big standstill. i was able to write 713 words. i don't know what was really stopping me other than a mental block. this put me behind by 3165 words. not sure how i was meant to fix this small block i decided to put it off and hope that the last three days would go well

Day Five

day five was a very good day in one aspect while i was able to write 4380 words, 1491 words on my blog with my post, Author interview with myself and the 2889 words leftover were on my wattpad book. while that was very good. keeping in mind i was over by 2237 words it still left me under what i should be by 276 words.

Day Six

day six was a very long day. we had to drive an hour away for multiple appointments and shopping i had only managed to write 960 words which added to what i was already behind wasn't promising what so ever i was now behind by 1459 words putting my total so far at 10747 words. knowing i had to write 4253 words the next day i was sure i would be failing unless i had another good day like day five

Day Seven

waking up day six i was a nervous wreck. i had the worst sleep of my life and a huge goal in front of me that i wasn't sure how to fix. i joined my writing sprint group for a 25-minute word sprint which gave with 939 words in a very short amount of time. very happy with the results i went and started writing this blog post which put me up by 763 words. i took it away and was left with 2565 words left to write. determined to pass this challenge and not fail i went back to my novel and did a draft plan of what i needed to write and then started writing again landing up with an extra 1751 words unhappy with the outcome since i was 800 words behind i took to wattpad and wrote 849 words I decided to tally it all up and was amazed that i had written 1751 words putting me at a grand total of 4305 words for the day. i had finally passed my goal of 15k words in a week and i was even over by 49 words. i know for a fact i will definitely try this again.