Alicia de los Reyes - DIY Chick Lit: A Writing Guide

~ KMR Publishing ~

The Chick Lit Cookbook:
A Guide to Writing Your Novel in 30 Minutes a Day

By Alicia de los Reyes

~

Published by KMR Publishing at Smashwords

Copyright 2013 Alicia de los Reyes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoymentonly. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people.If you would like to share this book with another person, pleasepurchase an additional copy for each recipient. If youre readingthis book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for youruse only, then please return to Smashwords.com andpurchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work ofthis author.

Dedicated to my girlfriends,
Emily, Kelly, Maddy, Meg and Megan,
for all their affirmation.

~

Table of Contents

GETTING STARTED: THE VERY, VERYBEGINNING

Chick lit arrived when I was about 12 yearsold. Helen Fieldings Bridget Joness Diary took America bystorm, and I caught myself happily under a rain cloud. I carried itwith me in my backpack and read it on the school bus and betweenclasses. Then I discovered Sophie Kinsella and hid Confessionsof a Shopaholic in my textbook during history class. I foundPatricia Cabot and Melissa Bank. I read Emily Barr and EmilyGiffin. One night, I read Marian Keyes until 6 a.m.

I was in love.

Chick lit is entertaining, funny, smartfiction about women in their 20s and 30s looking for love andfulfillment. Good chick lit will draw me in so far that Ill startto see books with hovery pink halos around them, topped with speechbubbles yelling, PICK ME UP! I will skip dinner and lunch forthese books, ignore my friends and significant other, and stay uppast my bedtime to find out if Bridget and Mark Darcy ever get pasttheir shenanigans and kiss at the end. Of course, I know they will but what if they dont?

Now, 15 years after I first discovered it,chick lit isnt a guilty pleasure for me it is simply apleasure. I do not feel bad about the quantity of pages Ivedevoured. Chick lit is to me what football is to my husband: Asmuch as you will give me, I will consume.

I, the girl who read Shopaholic TakesManhattan between classes, grew up to become a writer and awriting teacher. I spend my time thinking of ways to explain thebasics of good writing to students of every stripe, from middleschool to college. I analyze texts for a living. It took longerthan you might expect for me to apply my English class skills tochick lit, but one day, I realized that chick lit novels have a fewbasic elements anyone can use to make up her own stories, and thatI could share these with other would-be writers.

You dont need to be a practiced, publishedauthor to write a chick lit novel. Sophie Kinsella worked in thefinancial realm before publishing her first novel, The TennisParty. Emily Giffin earned a J.D. and worked as a lawyer beforewriting Something Borrowed. Marian Keyes is another lawstudent-turned-writer. Bridget Jones started out as a character inHelen Fieldings newspaper column.

To write a chick lit novel, you just need tolove chick lit. To be clear, Im not talking aboutFabio-on-the-cover, bodice-ripping, 50-shades-of-anythingpaperbacks. Im talking about novels with entertaining storylinesand characters who are flawed but funny and, yes, whooccasionally romp in the bedroom or kiss in the park. Chick lit isthe romantic comedy of books. It can be thoughtful, provocative orjust plain fun.

If you have never read a chick lit novel, Iurge you to put this book down immediately and find one. I wrotethis guide while (re-)reading volume after pink-covered volume. Tome, chick lit novels are like candy: I devour them. Thus, thisguide is rife with examples and references usually drawn from themost popular writers, with a few less well known, equallysuccessful ones mixed in. If you havent read every single title Ireference, never fear: You will still understand what Im talkingabout. But, if you have read them, youll have a slew of models tolook at.

The purpose of this guide is to explain thechick lit novel and give you tools to write one. This volume is nothere to help you publish your novel but if you already have adraft, it may help you find holes in it. It will give youconfidence and permission to put that inkling of an idea on paperand turn it into a full-fledged manuscript.

This book is meant to be a guide. It offers abasic framework that applies to many though certainly not all chick lit novels. It explains how character is important to story,and how different characters tend to come with differentstorylines. It will help you brainstorm your own character andplot. Then, it will help you sit down and write.

Each chapter is a self-contained lesson thatends with an exercise you can complete to help you design yourfirst draft. It will prompt you to think of ideas you might nothave considered and force you to write something down. Each lessonbuilds on the last to give you a completed outline and characterdescriptions, as well as tools to write.

Think of this guide as your cookbook forcomposing a chick lit novel. Ill walk you through the writingprocess step by step, just as if I were teaching you the recipe formy favorite treat: a batch of frosted cupcakes. You will start withthe basic ingredients, mix them together, decorate them and presenta sugary, delicious treat to the world.

And it will be fun! I wrote this guide tomake the process of composing a novel as enjoyable as the finishedproduct. Even if you dont love baking cupcakes as much as I do,you will love creating your main character and a world for her toadventure in.

EXERCISE 1: GATHER YOUR EQUIPMENT

Every baker knows that to achieve qualitycupcakes, you have to use the right equipment. In order to get themost out of this guide, youre going to need a mixing bowl inthis case, a writers notebook. This can be any notebook you like,but it should be dedicated to your future chick lit novel. It canbe cute, pink and hardcover, or it can be a flimsy spiral notebook whatever will get you excited to pick it up and pour in ideas.You will be doing a lot of prewriting, list-making andbrainstorming, so if you choose to use a notebook, make sure it isbig enough to spread out words, sentences and paragraphs. I writein plain spiral notebooks, but occasionally I branch out intopretty, diary-sized journals. Go to a stationery shop and browsethe options, then choose one that inspires you. Buy a set of goodnew pens (or dig up some nice sharp pencils).

Or, if you prefer, open up a file in yourfavorite word-processing software even a note-taking app on yoursmartphone. You can do these exercises anywhere: on the bus, inline at the post office, or while talking to your mother-in-law onthe phone. Make it official and save the document in a foldercalled Novel.