Off Planet by Aileen Erin
Published by: Ink Monster LLC
Publication date: March 19th 2019
Genres: Dystopian, Young Adult
From USA Today Bestselling Author Aileen Erin
Maite Martinez has always yearned for more than waitressing in a greasy diner on the polluted ruins of planet Earth. Hiding her special abilities is a full-time job on its own, even with the government distracted by the mysterious alien race – the Aunare.
When a SpaceTech officer gets handsy with her, she reacts without thinking. Breaking his nose might not have been her smartest move. Now she’s faced with a choice: serious jail time working in a chain gang on a volcano planet or join the corporate army to fight against the impending war with the Aunare. It’s really no choice at all.
As with everything in her life, Maite quickly realizes that the war with the Aurnare isn’t what it seems. And Lorne, the Aunare prince, keeps popping up everywhere she goes. Being seen with him could get her in even deeper trouble with her commanders, but he’s the first person who sees through the wall she’s built around herself and she can’t bring herself to send him away.
When the situation between SpaceTech and the Aunare escalates, Maite has a way to end the war before it even begins. There’s only one question: Can she stop the total annihilation of humanity without getting herself killed in the process?
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10 Tips for Becoming a Better Writer
1. Write every day. You can’t be a writer if you’re not writing.
Forming the habit is important. The more you write, the easier it gets.
And I truly believe that creativity is a muscle. You have to work it.
Writing daily—even if it’s just for 10-15min at first—is so crucial when you’re just starting out.
2. Don’t be afraid to write a sh*tty first draft. Every writer has an inner editor—that little voice in their head that’s telling them what they’re writing is dumb/
waste of time/not any good/they should quit/etc. The key to writing is to keep going
even when that voice is screaming at you. To put your butt in your chair and write.
Every day. (See above.) You have to finish a book, and it’s not an easy thing to do.
Don’t stress so much about the first draft. You can’t edit a blank page. So, get
something down. Get anything you can on that page. You’ll fix it later. This is just
a first draft, and there’s no possible way that what’s on the page will be perfect the
first go round. It just won’t be. Let any perfectionism go. Writing is rewriting. (It’s a
cliché for a reason!) So, write that first draft. Let it be shitty. Give yourself the
freedom to just put what’s in your head on the page without judging it. Because
you’ll never get to somewhere great if you quit part way through. You’ll never finish
if you rewrite the first chapter over and over again. You’ll never finish if you think
every word has to be perfect from the start.
3. Learn to LOVE the editing process. Some writers get really upset when they
get notes, but the first draft isn’t going to be gold. (Again, see above!) It just won’t.
You’re going to have to revise it, and the lion’s share of the work takes place during
the editing process. There are a million ways to get from plot point a to plot point z.
You have to figure out what way is the best way for your story, for your characters,
for the world you’re building. If you can look at it as something exciting and hopeful,
then you will become an amazing writer. Editing gives the writer endless possibilities
to shine. So, learn to love it.
4. Find an editor/friend/loved one that you trust to give you honest feedback.
Every writer—EVERY SINGLE WRITER—needs an editor or critique partner or reader that you can trust. You need another person to tell you what’s working and what’s not,
to tell you if something got lost in translation as it made its way from your imagination to
the page. If you don’t have someone in your life that can do this for you, go to a local
writer’s meeting (Romance Writers of America, Horror Writers of America, etc.—all have local meetings of writers and authors) and find someone. If that seems too
scary, then find a friend or loved one, and train them to look for the problems in your
writing. Ask them the hard questions: What did you think of the book? Why?
What characters did you like? What characters did you hate? Did you feel connected
with the book? Could you “see” the scenes? (Meaning, did you describe them enough?)
Etc. Trust them to be honest, and then go back and look at your book and revise.
Repeat until your book shines! Having this person in your writing life is essential.
They’re worth their weight in gold.
5. Read. I know it sounds silly to say that you need to be able to read to become
a better writer, but I don’t just mean read. You have to be an active reader, meaning
examine the books that you’re reading. Are you enjoying the book? Why? What is
that author doing with character/description/pacing/structure that’s sucking you into the story? Are you hating this book? Don’t put it down!
You can learn a lot from a book you hate. Why don’t you like it? Write all the reasons why
you’re not enjoying it down, and then don’t do those things in your own writing.
6. Know your genre. Every genre has core tropes and rules. They’re things that the
readers want to see. Knowing what rules and tropes other authors are using and which
ones they’re breaking/ignoring is key to making your book stand out. Most readers
want 60-80% from a genre that they know, but the rest needs to be fresh and new.
Something they didn’t know that they wanted. So, you have to be well versed in
your genre. Play to reader expectations, but also know when to break the rules.
7. Research, but not too much. If you have something in your book that needs facts,
those need to be accurate. Especially if you’re writing anything historical. So, research.
Get those facts correct. But some writers get into research mode and have a hard time
getting out of it. They never start writing or constantly break their flow to go back
into research. That can be so frustrating and can create a bit of writer’s block for some.
I like to do research at the beginning when I’m brainstorming and plotting, but then I
put away the research when it’s time to write my first draft. When I’m writing and
come across a spot where I need a fact, but I haven’t researched that topic yet or it’s
not handy, I skip over it. I hate breaking my flow, so I’ll mark it with an XXfactgoeshere
or XXlookupnameofthis or XXsidecharactername. Then, when I’m done with my first
draft, I search for XX and do a wave of research. It’s necessary to do the research but be
wary of spending too much time on it. The best stories are the ones with characters that I
can connect with, not the facts.
8. Write characters that the reader can connect with. This is one of the big reasons
why I either love a book or don’t finish it. I need a character that I can connect root for.
Someone that I can admire enough that I want to go on a journey with them. They need
to be an active participant in the story and likeable for me to really enjoy the book. Some
readers love an unlikeable protagonist, but those books are not for me. Also, making sure
that the protagonist is DOING something in the story instead of everything happening TO
them is really important. That’s what makes me turn the pages.
9. Know the rules and if/when they should be broken. Writers often hear things like
show, don’t tell. How to tag dialogue. And different styles of story structure. It’s important
to know all of these rules. Some of them can be broken. Some of them should never, ever
be broken. But knowing the basics of the craft and why these rules exist is so important.
This goes without saying, but I noted it here anyway. My favorite book for this is Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Browne & King. It’s a fantastic primer on editing, but also
gives some great examples of the basic rules and why you shouldn’t break them. But there
are always times when you will. So, know the rules, and then be strategic about how and
why you’re breaking them.
10. Don’t listen to bad reviews. This might sound contrary to 3 & 4, but reviews are
something entirely different than listening to your editor. Not every book is for every
person. There are plenty of people that don’t like my books, and that’s totally okay
with me. I don’t believe in writing bad reviews. Every book will be someone’s
favorite book. And every author that has a book out there put their blood, sweat,
and tears into it. It does no good to trash it. If I didn’t enjoy it, then that book just
wasn’t for me. But that’s the norm. After you get published, bad reviews will happen.
They happen to every single author. Full stop. I have a 1* review for Becoming Alpha
(my werewolf series) that simply says, “I hate werewolf books.” The cover literally has
a wolf on the cover and the blurb talks about werewolves. But still, this person bought
and paid for the book, and didn’t care for it. That’s okay. Werewolf books aren’t for them.
But if I read that and got upset and it ruined a day of my writing or worse—it snowballed into writer’s block—well, that would really stink. Especially since I know that my book was not for them. Your editor is different.
Listen to them. Listen to your beta readers. Listen to your best friend who also loves
the genre you’re writing. But don’t pay attention to bad reviews. If they upset you,
don’t read them. You can filter the ones you see on Goodreads and Amazon to show
only the 5* or 4* ones. Because the people who hated the book? You didn’t write it
for them. You wrote it for the people who loved it. So, don’t let their negativity affect
your writing life. Keep writing. Keep revising. Keep learning and growing. And you’ll
become a better writer every day.
Author Bio
Aileen Erin is half-Irish, half-Mexican, and 100% nerd–from Star Wars (prequels don’t count) to Star Trek (TNG FTW), she reads Quenya and some Sindarin, and has a severe fascination with the supernatural. Aileen has a BS in Radio-TV-Film from the University of Texas at Austin, and an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. She lives with her husband in Los Angeles, and spends her days doing her favorite things: reading books, creating worlds, and kicking ass.
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I love the cover!
ReplyDeleteLotte | www.lottelauv.blogspot.co.uk
Great post, ladies! Thanks for being on the tour, Jess! :)
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