Word Cloud

Hi friends,

To celebrate the fact that I've finally nailed the introduction for my (still untitled) WIP, I decided to make a word cloud. 

If you're not familiar with word clouds, you paste text into a box and it analyses the words that come up most frequently, presenting it in a visual "cloud". They can be a handy tool for writers as they quickly point out any excessive repetitions. Thanks to my word cloud, I see I have a tendency to focus on people's eyes and hands. The word "back" is also very large, so I will go through the piece and see if it can be eliminated anywhere. That great big "like" could be a warning sign that I've gone a bit heavy handed on the similes. However, I'm pretty pleased to see that "heart" hasn't made it in there, nor has "say" or any distancing words like "think", "smell" and "see", and that most of the other big words are proper nouns. 

Word clouds are also a neat way to get a "flavour" of the piece. "Water", "ocean", "harbour", "lake" and "church" all make appearances, which makes me confident the world building is stronger than it previously was. The "dialect" is also prevalent. "Ye" (you), "ta" (to), "ma" (my) and "aye" (yes) are all there, all of which enrich the world building. I'm pleased to see that a tiny "witches" has crept in. Although nothing magical happens in the introduction, I've tried to include magical elements as a hint towards future events, so it doesn't come out of the blue or feel jarring.

One word that no longer makes an appearance is "ring". The ring, upon which the whole narrative relies is now absent in the introduction. Though we're often told as YA writers to "jump straight into the action", or "start with the point of change", a lot of books I enjoy don't do this. Instead, I prefer the tension to build up until the "inciting event" hits. The inciting event in my book (i.e. the discovery of the ring) comes after the reader knows exactly what Tripp stands to lose. Hopefully, this will turn out to be the best course of action!

If you fancy getting a world cloud for your own book, I recommend Wordle which is where I created this one.

Happy writing and reading, friends!

-CB Soulsby

First Page Critique

Recently, the first page of my current WIP was picked up for a critique on YA Confidential Blog. The blog is an awesome resource for writers as real teenagers do the critiques. Being someone with a complete lack of access to teenagers this makes the feedback even more valuable for me!

You can see my first page in all its glory and the feedback it received here.