Tanya Lisle

  • It’s been so long since I’ve gotten something from a local author to read, but over the holidays last year I got to go to an event with Pulp Literature with a whole bunch of local authors and fill up my TBR! And, of course, I am only just now getting to reading this one.

    We follow Graciela, a young woman in a world where the metaverse is a reality. She spends her time in a virtual world, escaping from a complicated life of tragedy and complicated parental relationships. Her father has developed an AI that exists in the virtual world known as the Waves, and this creation of her father’s, who she has named Thomas, has been following her. While her father wants the AI back, but Gracie is torn between doing as she’s told and treating him like a fully formed person.

    The concept overall is interesting and, while it does have elements of “The digital world is a drug that’s harming our children” that sentiment is largely contained to the older characters. In the context of Graciela, it’s viewed more as a coping mechanism to give her the space to discover herself and give her space to deal with loss and isolation while building confidence.

    I did have a little trouble with the pacing. It’s a bit slow in the middle where she is spending more time in reality, and then everything feels like it happens in the last couple chapters. There were some things I felt could have used more setup and the tell about the truth about Thomas felt like she definitely should have recognized that a lot earlier.

    Overall, though, I really did like the story. It’s a look at what could be through the lens of someone who has not only grown up around the technology, but is using it in a way that makes sense for their own lives. If it sounds interesting, definitely check it out!

    Get it now

  • I created the Storyteller’s Workbook and the Worldbuilding Workbook because these are resources I’d made for myself and wanted to share them. They are structured in a way that makes sense for me, at least, to use them to keep track of notes as I’m writing.

    But that might not be how other people use them! I worry that there might be too many worksheets in one section and not enough in another and, well, that it’s just not flexible enough for individual writers and their projects.

    So I wanted pro propose a question to you. Would you want the worksheets in a downloadable PDF so that you could make as many as you needed for each of your projects? Printable in the standard letter and A5? Editable in something like GoodNotes?

    Do you want this? And what would work best for you?

    Write Your Story: Unlock Your Creative Potential

    Are you ready to embark on a journey into the world of storytelling? Look no further! Introducing Write Your Story, a comprehensive resource designed to fuel your imagination, enhance your storytelling skills, and bring your characters to life. Whether you’re an aspiring writer, a seasoned author, or simply someone who loves crafting stories, this workbook is your ultimate companion.

    This Workbook Contains:

    • Story planning spreads
    • Setting and location spreads
    • Character spreads
    • Writing session tracker

  • My company has been talking about this book lately. About how the leadership teams and leads are all being required to read it, about how it’s so insightful and has so many great takeaways, and so I figured why not. It looked like a quick read.

    For some context, the five questions for the modern entrepreneur or startup or what have you are:

    1. Why is this a thing to do?
    2. Who will want this?
    3. What is the expected outcome need to change?
    4. What needs to happen in order to make this?
    5. How does it happen?

    This book focuses on the the second and fourth question, contextualized appropriately: Who is this for and who will make it happen? It pitches these as the only two question you will need and everything else will fall into place. Mostly because you have now outsourced the other three questions to those two groups, which makes sense in context.

    But I work as a product designer. So this is not remotely unique of a take to me.

    It also insists that none of this is exploitation at one point which… I have no idea what that was about. Did I miss the part where you said not to pay anyone? It felt so strange, like it was bringing up an issue that didn’t exist unless the author was implementing some very shady business practices.

    If you have not read many other business or entrepreneur books from the last decade or so, it’s going to give you some new information. But if you’ve read a bunch, then this is really just a different contextualization and focuses on a different part of the standard process that is preached by these books. So… if that sounds good.

    Get it now

  • Once more I have found my way to the self help type books. I seem to have an addiction. Perhaps I’m getting to the point where they are going to actually do something. But hey, this one is supposed to focus on organization, and I do love planning and strategies to organize things, so let’s check it out!

    This book is, as implied, a year long guide to help you get yourself in order. It’s broken down into advice by month and making slow, incremental changes to what you’re doing in order to create habits that stick and keep you on top of your work. And, surprisingly, your personal life! There is quite an emphasis on also working on your home life, and making sure you are able to take breaks, stay healthy, and generally disconnect outside of work. Which is fantastic!

    One thing that threw me several times, though, was just how dated the book feels. There’s specific references to PDAs and electric pencil sharpeners that feels jarring at this point. It also feels very specific to a traditional corporate setting given the inclusion of gift giving in an office setting and the need to network in order to advance in your career.

    Overall, though, it is a surprisingly good read! The high level advice is pretty solid, even if the specifics might be industry specific, and the delivery of making it a slow progression over a year rather than all at once is good for foundational work. If you’re looking for some guidance on how to get your life in general organized, work and all, this might be a good starting point.

    Get it now

  • If you have written a story and you’d like to improve it, either just so that your story is even better or because you’d like to do something with it like publish it, editing is something you are going to consider. Editing can come in a lot of different forms and phases, and here are four examples of them.

    Structural edit

    For some people, this looks like a rewrite. This phase focuses on the structure of the story, including things like the themes and pacing. This is where you can look at the story as a whole and decide if all of the events that happen in it are necessary, in the place that you want them to be, and if all the characters you have in the story need to be there.

    This phase typically involves large, overarching changes that will affect the narrative and get the story into a state where the story you’re telling is the one that you want to tell. It’s more high level and ensuring that you have the beginning, middle, and end in the places you want them to be, and that everything is appropriately introduced and wrapped up.

    Other people

    Getting another set of eyes on your work is a fantastic way to make sure your story is reading the same way to you as it is to everyone else. Having another person read your story at different points in the process means that they can bring their insight and make suggestions on how to improve your story. This can range from large structural changes, to catching where something is inconsistent, to maybe even just picking out places where you spelled a name wrong.

    This may take the form of beta readers or an editor, depending on what your intent is with this pass. Be sure to pick the right people for this phase based on what you want to get out of it.

    Line edit

    Line edits are a very detail-oriented type of edit. This is intended to make sure that all of your spelling and grammar are correct. This phase will check to make sure the details of the prose are correct, from placement of commas to ellipses, to ensuring dashes and em-dashes are being used correctly.

    This phase may be supplemented with something like ProWritingAid or Grammarly, which are both programs that will check your prose to ensure that it is grammatically correct.

    Read aloud

    Hearing your story read out loud is a great way to find small things that you might have missed in other editing rounds. Bringing it off of the page means that you will gain a different perspective on your work and it can help you to catch where things are phrased strangely, or where you maybe made other errors like missing when you changed a character’s name.

    You can read this yourself, have someone else read it to you, or even get a text-to-speech program to do it! So long as you are hearing your words, that’s all you need.

    What other editing phases do you use?

    Write Your Story: Unlock Your Creative Potential

    Are you ready to embark on a journey into the world of storytelling? Look no further! Introducing Write Your Story, a comprehensive resource designed to fuel your imagination, enhance your storytelling skills, and bring your characters to life. Whether you’re an aspiring writer, a seasoned author, or simply someone who loves crafting stories, this workbook is your ultimate companion.

    This Workbook Contains:

    • Story planning spreads
    • Setting and location spreads
    • Character spreads
    • Writing session tracker

  • I feel like someone told me about this book a while ago, but I cannot remember who or how long ago. I have a vague recollection of someone mentioning this book in the same conversation as something about Cemetery Boys, at least, so when I saw it I figured it was probably worth checking out!

    The book follows Alex, the middle of three sisters and a bruja who has been actively supressing her magic because it terrifies her. She wants nothing to do with it, but once her family finds out that her magic has appeared, she uses her death day celebration as an opportunity to try and get rid of it. This plan backfires and she ends up having to go through the portal into Los Lagos, a sort of purgatory, to try and rescue her family with Nova, a brujo with a mysterious past, and Rishi, her crush with no connection to this world.

    Now, I will admit that I may have had trouble with this book as I read it while I was sick with Covid, but I had trouble keeping track of things. I disagreed with which parts were interesting, and the things that it lingered on had me a little bored. I wasn’t sure what made Alex special or why only she was, and there is a lot of longing looks in the love subplot that were losing me when I wanted some more foundational information about what was happening.

    There was also random animal murder? Apparently everyone is just okay with stabbing a parakeet.

    The plot progressed pretty briskly, though, and some of the concepts were pretty interesting. I did like the world of Los Lagos, though I never fully understood it ((There was some religious stuff in there, I think? Which would explain why, I am very bad at understanding that kind of thing)) and enjoyed the overall story of trying to rescue her family.

    Overall, not bad! It certainly got me through a rough patch, and it’s an interesting concept. If you’re looking for a YA read, this might be something to check out.

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  • One thing that people have trouble with when they start a project is whether they want to make their story into a series or a stand alone. There’s a lot to consider, from the size of the story you want to tell to what you ultimately want to do with it when you’re done.

    Definitions

    What is a standalone?

    A standalone novel is a single novel with a beginning, middle, and end of a story. If you read just this one book, you could be satisfied that you knew everything about the story that you needed to know. All the major mysteries and plots wrap up, though there may be a few dangling questions at the end.

    What is a series?

    A series is multiple books that tell a story. Usually each individual book contains a beginning, middle, and end, but the story from book to book may feel somewhat incomplete. These stories usually have an overarching plot that does not get wrapped up until the final book and the story does not have a satisfying conclusion until the reader has gotten through all volumes.

    Which should I write?

    That depends on your story! There’s a lot of considerations when it comes to determining how to tell your story, even down to how many volumes it could be. Some things to think about are:

    How complicated is your story?

    The more complicated a story is, the more likely it is you will want to tell it as a series. If you have a lot of subplots or character perspectives that you would like to explore, then you may want to make the story longer so that you have the time to go into everything.

    How long is the draft?

    Sometimes it’s just a matter of sheer length. If your book is really long, it might be best to cut it up into smaller pieces, just so that your audience can take a rest and not be so intimidated by the sheer size of the book you’ve created.

    Do you have multiple endings?

    In a series, there tend to be individual book arcs as well as the overarching plot. If you have several end points where a number of plots are resolved, those might be good points in which you can split your work into a series. If you do not have these break points, then it is probably best to keep everything together.

    What do you want to do with it?

    The publishing question. Do you want to publish it and if so, do you want to do so traditionally or indie?

    Traditional houses are currently leaning towards taking standalone novels, sometimes standalone novels with series potential. So if you have a standalone, that might be a good route.

    If you are going to indie or self publishing route, series tend to do better in that market.

    What I did

    I am a series writer. I have tried to write standalone novels, but it just doesn’t work out very well for me and I end up writing more. White Noise was supposed to be one book that turned into a trilogy a few years. City Without Heroes hit that point in the middle where it just didn’t feel write keeping that as one book.

    But ultimately, it is your story and up to you. So which are you writing?

    Write Your Story: Unlock Your Creative Potential

    Are you ready to embark on a journey into the world of storytelling? Look no further! Introducing Write Your Story, a comprehensive resource designed to fuel your imagination, enhance your storytelling skills, and bring your characters to life. Whether you’re an aspiring writer, a seasoned author, or simply someone who loves crafting stories, this workbook is your ultimate companion.

    This Workbook Contains:

    • Story planning spreads
    • Setting and location spreads
    • Character spreads
    • Writing session tracker

  • You know how I keep saying I’m not going to read any more self help style books? I think at this point we all knew that wasn’t going to stick for very long, given the number of times I’ve gone back to them. And well, here’s another one!

    You Will Get Through This Night is interesting in that it feels like a very practical guide being told through the lens of someone who has been through it. Rather than framing it as “This is the thing that works, always do this” it’s more along the lines of “This is what worked for me and why” which is messaging that I’m more aligned with.

    It is also filled with a lot more of the practical tools to help, split up in a more practical way (Based on stage of crisis you are currently in) which I think is useful for readers who might be looking for some guidance in dark moments. Once you are through one phase, you can move on to the next and the next, and I think it’s just generally much more practical than most of the other books of this sort that I’ve read so far, as it focuses very much on the reader and their needs over the author enforcing their authority on the subject matter.

    Overall, it was an interesting read. If you deal with depression or other mental health issues, it might be interesting for you as well.

    Get it now

  • I’ve had this book sitting in my to check out list for my library for a while, and I have finally gotten around to it! The story of an underground post apocalyptic city on the verge of collapse just felt weirdly right for the moment.

    The book follows Lina, a young woman who has been given a job in the City of Ember, a place that has been having issues of late. The crops are starting to fail, the large storage of food is running out, and the power is going out, which is an issue when you live underground. But Lina’s friend, Doon, is starting to learn more about the inner workings of the city and Lina has uncovered a mysterious note that might be the way for them to leave the only place anyone living in the city has ever known.

    Apparently this was a movie, which makes a weird amount of sense because it is written like it wanted a screen adaptation for a Disney movie and it was paced pretty similarly. I wasn’t quite sure how old the characters were for most of the book, but they read like they were twelve or thirteen, even though you later learn that they are much older. The motivations are uncomplicated and things are pretty straight forward, with very clear lines between good and evil.

    The universe is still pretty interesting, though. The idea of an underground city and the things that would be put in place to maintain it for a finite amount of time was done very well, and the idea that the people who created it left behind such a flimsy method to tell people how to when the time comes is…. well, I’m in tech, I can believe it. It’s ridiculous, but I believe it.

    Overall, it was cute. The characters read younger than they are, so it’s honestly better to pretend they are younger and think of it as a family movie. I don’t know how it stacks up to the movie, but it is a fun book.

    Get it now

  • I may not be great with description, but I love writing dialog. I find it to be one of the most fun parts of the process and it really helps me to understand how my characters interact with the people around them.

    I know it’s not for everyone, though, so here’s some things you should keep in mind when writing dialog between two or more characters.

    You should learn something new or reinforce something established

    Banter is a lot of fun, but when two people are talking, there should be some purpose behind the conversation. Either this should be a time to introduce some new information or there should be some reinforcement of information that has already been established that you want to remind the audience of. Ideally, conversations should at some point touch on one of these three elements:

    • The plot
    • The characters
    • The setting or atmosphere

    The characters should want something different

    In order to keep a conversation interesting, the characters involved should have some different motivations or goals for the conversation. Some form of tension or motivation to keep revealing information or emotions will keep the conversation going and give you more opportunity to play with the characters.

    It’s important to note that this does not necessarily mean conflict. This could be as simple as one character wants to know what is going on because they are scared and the other character wants to explain what is going on because they want the other to calm down. If it is two characters just stating the same information with no tension it gets dull.

    Their voices should be different

    This does not mean give everyone an accent. This does mean that it should be clear who is speaking without a dialog tag. ((A said, B asked, etc.)) I find this can be the trickiest part of crafting dialog, especially if you haven’t given much thought to how characters talk.

    This is, however, a great time to draw on a character’s background and use it. If they are stern, serious, and to the point, you can use shorter sentences. If they are younger, they may have different slang terms. If they are from different areas, they may have different accent words or terms of endearment ((Hun, sweetie, darling)) and different ways of using them with people.

    What other tricks do you have for crafting dialog?

    Write Your Story: Unlock Your Creative Potential

    Are you ready to embark on a journey into the world of storytelling? Look no further! Introducing Write Your Story, a comprehensive resource designed to fuel your imagination, enhance your storytelling skills, and bring your characters to life. Whether you’re an aspiring writer, a seasoned author, or simply someone who loves crafting stories, this workbook is your ultimate companion.

    This Workbook Contains:

    • Story planning spreads
    • Setting and location spreads
    • Character spreads
    • Writing session tracker

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