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byamylaurens · 3 years

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On Structuring Plot: A List Of Useful Resources + My Recent Process

I was asked on Instagram last week how I go about structuring my stories, whether there’s a set way I like to do it, or if it’s different for every story, or what. I promised an answer last week, and that didn’t happen, but hey! It is this week and now I can answer! 😀

The truth of the matter is, I feel very self-conscious about plot structure. It’s the area of writing I’m least comfortable with, and so my attempts either end up with me just writing and ignoring structure entirely (A Fox Of Storms And Starlight), or else plotting everything else in meticulous detail, usually with the help of Liana Brooks (How Not To Acquire A Castle, as evidenced in our epic plotting video).

And then there is everything else, which tends to fall in the middle. Honestly, it depends on the book, and the mood, and how much of a concrete, specific handle I need on the story before going in.

Because that varies widely, too. When Worlds Collide, the final book in the Sanctuary trilogy that won Best Children’s Book 2019 in my state? You’re reading the first draft, prettied up with some proofreading for typos. The first book in the series, on the other hand? That’s the …eighth, I think, draft? And again, everything else falls somewhere in the middle, though generally speaking I plan my novels more than my short stories, and things that feel “fast paced” more than things that luxuriate more in the prose. Though even that’s not entirely true. And it overlaps with the length tendencies.

SO. Rather than continuing to ramble about my actual processes (variable), I thought I’d share with you a range of resources that you might find useful (if you’re a writer) or simply interesting (if you’re not, or even if you are I guess).

1. Liana Brooks’ Outlining Sheet

Liana, who you probably know is my writer-buddy and co-conspirator with regards to Inkprint Press, is excellent at plot. She does developmental edits for a really reasonable rate, and is absolutely stellar at what she does. So it’s without shame that I recommend first up her outline sheet, which is a take on the Lester Dent Plot Formula (google it).

2. Beat Sheets.

For when a general outline with key touch points isn’t detailed enough, there are beat sheets. The best ones I’ve found came from Jami Gold, and you can download them here. I’ve also converted them to word docs with scenes numbered for a 40-scene/chapter book and a 20 scene-chapter book, and you can grab those here (word docx download).

3. MICE Structure.

I posted this video on Friday, but Mary Robinette Kowal’s MICE theory has been hands down THE most useful plotting resource I’ve encountered for me personally. I’ll elaborate on this a little more below, where I’ll talk specifically about a project I’m working on right now.

4. Brandon Sanderson’s Plot Lectures.

I listened to these nearly a year ago, then relistened recently and was interested to discover I’d done something similar with Moon Shot, the project I’m currently plotting. Definitely worth a listen. It’s a little more general in scope than the preceding resources, but very necessary for a sound understanding of what your plot should be DOING.

You can also check out the posts I wrote on plot structure years ago, starting here.

Okay, now to the specifics. On Tuesday, I posted the following to Instagram, which is what precipitated the question that resulted in this post:

This is me working on Moon Shot, and it’s the first time I really used the MICE process on a longer work very deliberately, and I LOVED IT.

So I thought I’d quickly delineate for you here exactly what I did. (ETA: Quickly, ha.)

Worldbuilding. I had a giant conversation with Liana about the worldbuilding for the world, and how the main sci fi element works. She took notes and emailed them to me.

Brain Dump. I did a stream-of-consciousness dump into my notes just rambling through things roughly sequentially, and stopping to research the sciencey stuff I needed.

List Of Questions. From this, I listed out on my small whiteboard (A4-ish size) all the questions that would be asked and answered in this book. Will they escape? Why can’t they go to Earth? Who are the kidnappers? Etc.

MICE. I then colour-coded each question according to it’s MICE category: milieu, inquiry, character, event. If that doesn’t make sense, go watch Kowal’s video first (resource 3 above).

General Plotting. I broke out the bigger whiteboard (A2 size?), separated it roughly into quarters across the ‘page’, and added every question to the board. Some questions are asked right at the start of the story, so that’s where their coloured line started, then I estimated roughly when the question would be answered in-plot, and ended their coloured line there. This was hands-down the most useful part of plotting, because it let me see a bunch of things in macro: I’d overloaded the third quarter with too many answers, and there wasn’t enough in the second quarter. Certain questions COULDN’T be asked until other ones were answered, and if I left the answering too late, the next arc would be too squished before the end of the book. And so forth. So I played around, adjusting arcs until I got a fairly even spread of questions and answers across the book, with little clusters at the 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 marks. I also looked to make sure that I had enough strong questions asked in the beginning that weren’t answered until the very end.

Specific Plotting. For each arc, I now knew WHEN in the book it had to be. So I grabbed three A3 pages, taped them together in a long line, divided the page into 25 columns (see point 8 for why), and wrote headings with the basic beats of a story. Call to action, midpoint, final puzzle piece, act 2 antagonist, and so forth. See resource 2 above. Then I took my MICE arcs and started filling things in: this scene needs to answer this question and raise the next one. This scene needs to answer this question. That sort of thing. Not the specifics of what the characters are doing, but the underlying bones of what the SCENE needs to be doing.

Conflict! Once the beginnings and ends of each MICE arc were in place, I referred back to the MICE principle to figure out what kinds of conflict I needed to add. For example, one of the opening MICE arcs is a milieu question: How did the kids escape? Knowing that this is a milieu, I know I need to add points throughout the story where they run into dead ends in their attempts to escape, all the way until they actually make it out. Another MICE arc revolves around a mystery, so I knew I needed to throw red herrings and misleading information in there to influence the decisions the characters are making. I used different coloured highlighter to mark the main long-running arcs to make sure I was sprinkling them evenly throughout the book, and not accidentally ignoring one for too long.

Point Of View. I now had a really good idea of what was happening in each scene, so on to POV. Most books wouldn’t need this step necessarily, but part of the POINT of this book is that it has POV scenes from all 25 of my Year 8 students from a couple of years ago (you have not LIVED until you’ve tried this, oy, my head). AND on top of that, every character has one of eight different superpowers. So I wrote out all the character names on sticky notes, colour coded according to superpower. Then I played around. Which superpower would be useful in this scene? Which would lend an interesting lens to the events? Post-its meant I could test things and swap them around easily, until I got an order I was happy with, with the superpowers kind of evenly sprinkled throughout the book (as much as possible; they’re based on Myer-Briggs personality type, which, yes, most of the students were kind enough to do the test for me so I could allocate their powers accurately, HA, but it means some superpowers are more common than others).

Text Type. One of the only ways I could think of making this book hang together cohesively was to tell it via epistolary, which means including a bunch of other text types as well as narration (or instead of). So there are story bits, but also emails, letters, maps, interviews, transcripts and more. So once I had everything else in place, I figured out which scenes were going to be which text types so that again, there was a balance of them throughout.

PHEW. What a process. Still, overall it only took me about three hours, and it was SUPER FUN AND SATISFYING to do. I’ll DEFINITELY be doing at least steps 1 – 7 for a couple of future books, because it was just a really inherently enjoyable process for me, and makes me confident going into the book that the scenes will do what they need to do.

Here’s a sneaky peek at what some of the final outline looks like… 😀

On Structuring Plot: A List Of Useful Resources + My Recent Process was originally published on Amy Laurens

#Amy Laurens #Australian author Amy #beat sheets for writers #before you write #Brandon Sanderson #Canberra writer Amy #how to plot a novel #How to Write #Jami Gold&039;s beat sheets #Mary Robinette Kowal #plot plot plot the book #plotting masterclass #structuring stories with story structure like a well-structured story with structure #writing #writing resource #writing workshop #you too can write a story woo

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impactcomicscbr · 7 years

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Beautiful Canvas - Canberra's Ryan K Lindsay writes another dark thriller with heart

Comic scribe Ryan K Lindsay loves to craft a dark tale that stretches your comfort zones and examines unusual corners of human emotions. BEAUTIFUL CANVAS is Ryan at his best, and darkest.

Beautiful Canvas #1 Cover A

BEAUTIFUL CANVAS

New monthly comics mini series starts in June 2017 (will be shipping with two covers, if you want both, order early so you don’t miss out!)

Add to your standing order

Lon Eisley is a hitwoman hired to kill a small child a few days after discovering her girlfriend pregnant. In a bold declaration of uncertainty, she saves the boy and hits the road, despite the fact her boss clearly wanted him dead for a reason.

This warped crime dystopia delves into the emotional dichotomy of creator/destroyer as Lon tries to connect the two very different worlds she now inhabits.

From Sami Kivela (Chum) & Canberra’s Ryan K Lindsay (Negative Space, DC Writers Workshop) comes a gonzo tale of personal discovery, animal/hybrid hit troupes, and reactive pyrokinesis.

Beautiful Canvas #1 Cover B

Learn more about Ryan [HERE]

Start a standing order for BEAUTIFUL CANVAS [HERE]

Order Ryan’s other comics simply by asking an Impact Comics imp [HERE]

#Australian creator #Crime #featured #Noir #Ryan K Lindsay

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byamylaurens · 3 years

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A Reminder That You're Actually Allowed To Breathe, Okay?

Almost two years ago to the day, I wrote the below post. Apparently I needed a reminder of its message, because the internet randomly spat it back up at me yesterday, and I just… I don’t know. I needed to hear it. You know?

It’s okay to slow down. It’s okay to take time to breathe. It’s okay if reaching your goals takes a lifetime. It’s okay to make the journey fun along the way, instead of filled with cramped pressure and tight deadlines. It’s okay.

It’s okay.

ON DOING ENOUGH – Oct 17, 2019

There’s this glorious big dogwood tree outside my office, and right now it’s in full and glorious bloom. Honestly, it’s stunning. I want to spend half an hour comprehensively photographing it every time I walk past.

On my way out to the carpark yesterday, I overheard one of the head gardeners chatting with a woman who was concerned for the fate of the tree now that building extensions have been announced. The gardener noted that a tree of that size had to be at least 50 years old.

And I noticed, as I walked back to my office, having got to the carpark and realised that I had everything I needed for a class in my arms, and nothing I particularly needed for going home (such as, you know, car keys >.<), that another one of the trees near my building is flowering. It’s also a dogwood, unless there is suddenly a species of tree that mimics dogwood flowers precisely, but I would never have assumed it to be such.

Why? Because it’s about a tenth of the size: maybe my height, give or take a handful of inches, round like a bubble bush, and entirely leafless at the moment, with a couple of sparse-ish pink flowers. This tree would, I imagine, be in its teens.

I’ll be 34 soon-ish, and while that’s not particularly old, on the other hand it’s a scant 16 years until 50. My writing career is only just in its infancy, but I’m “supposed” to be in the prime of my life. These two things cause cognitive dissonance, sometimes; frustration, impatience – at life, which gets in the way of writing time, and myself, who is frequently guilty of sabotaging my writing through procrastination and fear.

I’m 34. (Nearly.) Shouldn’t my career be up and running and stable by now? Shouldn’t I be earning a stable income from it now? Shouldn’t I shouldn’t I shouldn’t I?

It’s hard, when you’re chasing non-conventional lifestyles, whatever they may be, to balance carving your own path with the pressure to keep up with ‘normal’ milestones. It’s hard to remember, when you’re surrounded by peers who are being successful in more traditional lifestyles that the reason you’re not matching them in wages or spare time or whatever your measure of success is, that the reason you’re “behind” is not because you’re a failure, it’s because you’re taking a different path.

Teenage trees aren’t much to look at, compared to fifty-year-old glories. But if every teenage tree compared themselves to the grand denizens of the forests – well, they could take one of two paths. They could lament that they ‘aren’t there yet’… Or they could take joy from seeing what their future will hold, if they are patient, if they keep growing – if they just don’t give up and quit first.

Humans are not, by nature, terribly patient creatures. And so, it’s worth taking a lesson or two from the trees around us.

Yes, you – and I – might not be in full bloom right this second. But we’ll get there. Don’t let comparisons with others or expectations of where you ‘should’ be devalue or derail your dreams.

Hang in there. Be patient. We shall conquer the world, if but slowly.

A Reminder That You’re Actually Allowed To Breathe, Okay? was originally published on Amy Laurens

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byamylaurens · 3 years

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IT'S A (PARANORMAL) WRAP!!

Phew!

I’m not sure if I’ve comprehensively detailed this here yet or not but last year, I was contracted by Aurealis (Australia’s top sff magazine and home of the globally recognised Aurealis Awards) to write a 7-part series on the symbolic origin of paranormal creatures.

Well, last night I handed in the last article. PHEW. ‘Goblins: Greed, Anti-Semitism and Neurodivergence Throughout History’ is coming to an Aurealis magazine near you in, I think, December.

Relatedly, issue #145 just came out, and it contains my penultimate contribution: ‘Dragons: World Origins, Evil and Knowledge Throughout History.’

Not only has this series been a blast to research and write (even if I did miss literally every deadline by a few days >.< ), I also have plans to use the research as the basis for a series of paranormal holiday romances in the future, AND I’m planning to bundle the seven articles together into a little non-fiction book that will come out in early 2023: On The Origin Of (Paranormal) Species, coming to a bookstore near you in only about 18 months’ time 😀 haha.

So yes. It’s been fun and worthwhile and valuable – and at the same time it was a real relief to get the last article done and sorted. One article every two months does not SOUND like very often, but let me assure you, it comes around faster than you’d think >.<

I’ll leave you with a question. This is the list of creatures I’ve written about – which one intrigues you the most?!

Goblins: Greed, Anti-Semitism and Neurodivergence Dragons: World Origins, Evil and Knowledge Werewolves: Liminality, Power and Transformation Unicorns: Strength, Freedom and Awe Fairies: Malevolence, Beneficence and Nature Vampires: Death, Attraction and Belonging Mermaids: Desire, Longing And Death

Hello, I Am Alive...

New Release! The Witch Blue Universe Is Finally Here 🙂

In Which I Am A Terrible Person, OR Why The Right Book Makes a Difference

IT’S A (PARANORMAL) WRAP!! was originally published on Amy Laurens

#Amy Laurens #Aurealis Magazine #Australian author Amy #books by Amy Laurens #Canberra writer Amy #fairy tales #folklore #good writing days are like flying #History has its secrets #i have this amazing idea for a book!#mythic and legendary #new books coming soon!#On The Origin Of (Paranormal) Species #shapeshifters and werewolves oh my #transforming into a werewolf #what has Amy Laurens written?#writing

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byamylaurens · 3 years

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Different Things You Need To Know Before Writing

I was chatting with Liana on the weekend about #SekritNovel, which for whatever reason is playing on my mind again (look, I’ve learned not to ask these questions. My brain dwells on the books it’s interested in at the time, and I just have to run with that), and we got to a point in the conversation where I’d explained a bunch of the worldbuilding to her, and she was all, Yes, your story is X group of people learn Y life lesson.

All of a sudden, the whole series (four books) leapt into crystal clarity.

I don’t mean, like, that I have a scene-by-scene outline for the series. What I mean is that I now understand the PURPOSE of the series, what I’m trying to aim for, what I’m trying to say.

That, for me, is critical. I *can* write a story without what is essentially my Major Theme, but for me, it’s a heck of a lot *easier* if I do have it in mind. It’s impossible to hold every piece of a novel in your head all at once; it’s just too big. So knowing the major theme like this is like a shortcut for me, a way to hold in mind at once much of the shape and structure and motivation of the piece without having to hold on to all those little details that tend to slip through your metaphorical fingers.

Of course, not everyone writes like this. Liana is persistently bemused by my super-big-picture approach like this. It’s not that she doesn’t write with themes in mind – and all texts have themes, it’s inescapable – but rather than her approach to plotting is more logic oriented: who is the character, what do they want, and thus how logically will they behave?

This seems like a sensible way to approach things, and indeed, it’s how a lot of big name authors who share their writing processes seem to function.

But for whatever reason, it just doesn’t gel as well when I try to approach writing like that. My way is more intuitive, which is great because when I get it right, it’s a lot less work, both in terms of pre-planning, and in terms of numbers of drafts I need to do – but it’s also a pain in the butt, because until I figure out what that Major Theme *is*, I’m mired.

I’ve only just realised that this is a Thing in my writing process, the thing that makes the difference between the stories that click right away and those that are laborsome, so for me now the next step is to figure out how I can get at the theme quickly and more efficiently. Because sitting around waiting for it to appear – or not – is not exactly a reliable course to productivity.

Plotting the scenes like Normal Writers(tm) do seems so much more straightforward.

So the point, then, is twofold: one, don’t force yourself to fit into writing processes, patterns and routines that don’t work for you just because Common Wisdom(tm) says they ought to work; and two, remember that actually, there’s no such thing as a Normal Writer(tm). Partly because if we were normal we probably wouldn’t be writing 😛 but also because there are as many ways to write a book as there are books to be written. Some patterns, processes and routines might be more common than others… but it doesn’t make them the rule.

Wonder how many other things in life that applies to… 😉

3 of the Most Highly Awesome Animals With Pointy Bits On Their Faces

Made It Monday: Party Decorations!

Million Miles Away Cover

Different Things You Need To Know Before Writing was originally published on Amy Laurens

#a writing relationship #Amy Laurens #Australian author Amy #before you write #Canberra writer Amy #good writing days are like flying #how many ways can I emphasise a word in one post #How To Theme #How to Write #how to write theme #inconsistency of formatting is apparently key #inside my brain #theme for writers #writing #writing habits

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byamylaurens · 3 years

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Cook With Amy: Potato & Leek Soup

If I have to hear one more celebrity chef tell me that this meal “only takes 15 minutes” while standing in front of a bench covered with bowls of perfectly pre-diced and -sliced ingredients, I’m going to scream. We all know it: those recipes DO NOT take 15 minutes to create. That’s why I’ve created Cook With Amy, a monthly podcast where you can cook along with me in REAL time and see what’s it like to make a recipe when you DON’T have a bevy of assistants to do the prep work, when getting anything from your kitchen pantry is like playing TETRIS, and when you CAN’T chop things faster than the speed of light. Come join me on a culinary adventure for the rest of us. Real cooking for real people.

Woohoo! Welcome to this month’s Cook With Amy, a random project I started to a) keep me entertained while cooking in the kitchen the weeks my Spousal Person is away, and b) to start keeping track of how long recipes REALLY take to cook!

This month’s instalment is the shortest yet: the potato and leek soup was ready in 36 minutes from start to finish, and honestly the first two minutes is me gabbling at you, so it’s really 34-minute soup, and that includes plating. So grab your speaker, put on your apron, and let’s get cooking!

EQUIPMENT

Knife Chopping board Large pot (optionally with lid) Wooden spoon Teaspoon to measure out stock if you use powder instead of cubes Can opener, if required

INGREDIENTS

2 leeks Optionally, 1 onion Garlic – 4-6 cloves or 1TBS of dried garlic granules 50g butter Drizzle of olive oil – 2-3TBS 4 very heaped tsp stock powder or 6-7 stock cubes 2TBS flour/cornflour/rice flour, optional 6c water (warm, if possible) 4-5 med potatoes, or equivalent (I use 3 med and 3 small) 100g or a little more of tasty or cheddar cheese, grated (about 1c?), or 125 – 250g of crumbled feta 1 x 420g can of corn kernels Salt, to taste 2 tsp dried sage 1/2 tsp powdered lavender 1/2c milk Tasty bread with optional butter to serve <3

Made-It Monday: The 'Real' Cake

Stages of Love - Commitment and Happily Ever After

Ouch :\

Cook With Amy: Potato & Leek Soup was originally published on Amy Laurens

#Amy Laurens #Australian author Amy #Canberra writer Amy #Cook With Amy #food glorious food #healthy vegetarian recipes #how to cook the food things #real cooking #real cooking for real people #soup recipe #tasty vegetarian dinner

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byamylaurens · 3 years

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A Meta-Garden Update And Discussion Of New Future Plans

Welp, I was going to post a garden video update video today, but our internet still won’t connect at the new house, and I’m very nearly out of phone data, so you get a couple of pictures of the new yard instead.

Also, this is a random time to mention, but I am going to be starting a new sub-brand for garden-related adventures. Years back, pre-children, my spousal person and I were registered Labrador breeders. Our breeder name was Duskwood, and we know that if ever we get that acreage we’re dreaming of, it will be called Duskwood. But now that I’ve moved somewhere that actually has a garden worth keeping up with, we talked about it and decided that it was a good time to launch a Duskwood brand, and start practising producing content. Practising in public, right?

So. Duskwood. It’ll be a thing. Hopefully soon. Like, as soon as I get functional internet again >.<

In the meantime, some pictures of some highlights of the new garden 🙂

A beautiful red camelia by the front gate 🙂

Corner full of loganberries, which are now starting to bloom! (This picture is, I think, 2 weeks old?)

Volunteer* potato plants! I doubt they’ll produce many tubers because they’re rogues and haven’t been hilled up, but that’s okay. They still make me happy 🙂

So yes. Inheriting a yard several several times larger than the old one with roses, strawberries, raspberries, loganberries, potatoes and the camelia? Much happiness indeed *hearty eyes*

* Volunteer plants are ones that planted themselves.

Made It Monday: Vegetable Muffins - A Kid-Approved Snack

Cook With Amy: Potato & Leek Soup

Abandoned Words: The Project Ch 3

A Meta-Garden Update And Discussion Of New Future Plans was originally published on Amy Laurens

#Amy Laurens #Amy Laurens&039; Garden #Australian author Amy #Canberra writer Amy #Duskwood #gardener&039;s high #gardening #gardening updates #green is my favourite colour #homesteading #restoration of my soul #things green and growing

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byamylaurens · 3 years

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Pins Of The Week: Bilingual Whales, Human Kindness, Christmas Beetles, Dirk Gently & Puns

It’s Friday! And that means my top pins of the week – or at least, it means a handful of pins I’ve randomly selected out of the probable-hundreds I’ve stress-pinned this week :’D

With no further ado, this week’s selection, for your perusing pleasure <3 (Some of them are cut off in the gallery below – just click and they’ll pop up for you to read!)

What’s your favourite (or completely random) thing on the net this week? <3

So I Guess I Have A Book To Write Now? O:)

Portrait With The International Space Station

Made-It Monday: A Cactus Cake!

Pins Of The Week: Bilingual Whales, Human Kindness, Christmas Beetles, Dirk Gently & Puns was originally published on Amy Laurens

#Amy Laurens #Australian author Amy #biology is the best science #ByAmyLaurens #Canberra writer Amy #dad jokes #Dirk Gently appreciation #History has its secrets #maths jokes #me too Dirk me too #pinterest #pinterest boards #Pun - pun away while you still can!#puns are the best #science told me so #these are a few of my favourite things

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byamylaurens · 3 years

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Why The Ancient Greeks Couldn't See Blue

Stumbled across this video earlier in the week and thought it was interesting enough to share. The video sliiiiightly simplifies the situation – I actually did a paper on this during university! – but it’s a clear enough introduction to the topic if it’s not something you’re familiar with.

So. Why DIDN’T Ancient Greek have a word for blue??

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A useful thing to consider if ever you’re creating your own language/s for any project 🙂 😀

What have you found on the netsies this week? Do share! 🙂

Why The Ancient Greeks Couldn’t See Blue was originally published on Amy Laurens

#Amy Laurens #art and language #Australian author Amy #awesome nerdy videos #Canberra writer Amy #Celebrate - it's FRIDAY #color theory #colour theory #Happy Friday Every Onez #linguistic diversity #video love #worldbuilding for sci fi and fantasy writers

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byamylaurens · 3 years

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Made-It Monday: Cook With Amy? (Indian Chickpea Curry)

Welcome to #MadeItMonday, where I post something I’ve made in the previous week, and where you can join in and post something you made too! The rules are easy: post a pic somewhere of something you’ve made in the last week (ish; let’s say in the last month as the hard-and-fast) and tag it. Sit back and enjoy scrolling through all the beautiful things we’ve collectively created, and celebrate the fact that humans can be awesome!

Trying something new this week…

Was chatting to friends at work last week about a new way I’m working on of organising my recipes and nightly cooking so that I don’t have to THINK about what to have for dinner, and what to shop for each week, and so on and so forth. We spiralled into a conversation about how recipes never give you an accurate estimate of the time it takes for a NORMAL HUMAN to cook them, rather than a super-powered professional with amazing knife skills and everything pre-prepped.

And then one of them handed me an idea for a New Project, and my brain being what it is, we now have a Big New Project in the works, oy.

But in the meantime, I thought it would be fun to share something I recorded at the end of last week as a tester-type thing.

So, behold: Cook With Amy.

If you are so inclined, you can grab the ingredients and equipment listed below, listen to me natter away, and cook an Indian-style chickpea curry for dinner in exactly 46 minutes. Ha.

INGREDIENTS

Olive oil, or canola oil, or any good frying oil with a neutral-ish flavour 3c water 1.5c basmati or other plain white rice 2 zucchinis (corgettes) 2 large carrots Knob of ginger about the size of your thumb (optional, listen to the audio for the joke here) 4 cloves of garlic 2 x 400g chickpeas (garbanzo beans) 100g tandori paste 100g tomato paste 2c water, additional 300mL pouring cream/pure cream (use half-and-half if you prefer, or coconut milk if you’re dairy free, though note that this will make the curry more Thai and less Indian) 1tbs brown sugar 1tsp salt (or to taste) 1 supermarket ‘bunch’ of mint (optional, again, see audio for my complete lack of preparedness here) 1 long or 2 short cucumbers 200g Greek yogurt 120g baby spinach (or less, ah ha ha).

EQUIPMENT

Medium saucepan with lid Sharp veggie knife Chopping board Micro-grater or garlic press Sieve or colander (optional) Large frying pan Wooden spoon or equivalent Grater Small bowl Additional spoon for mixing the sauce

A COUPLE OF NOTES

I mention that I’m using canola oil instead of olive because: salicylate intolerance playing up, and then I go and dump in tomato paste and so forth. Look. It’s a balance, okay? Canola reduces salicylates without compromising flavour. You could leave the tomato out, but it would change the flavour. I’m not trying to avoid sal’s entirely, just lighten my body’s load of them for a bit. 😉

I haven’t edited this at all. I haven’t fixed background noise or sound levels or anything. It is what it is.

Relatedly, I did make the kids go play upstairs while I did this but honestly they are sometimes audible in the background. Let’s lean into this and call it part of the ‘authentic cooking experience’, m’kay? 😀

I don’t know. I had fun with this. I’ll probably do it semi-regularly. Any recipes you’d care to experience? 😀 <3 <3

What have you made this week? Don’t forget to tag your contribution, or even better, leave a link in the comments!! I love seeing what inspiring things other people have made 🙂 🙂 🙂

Made-It Monday: Cook With Amy? (Indian Chickpea Curry) was originally published on Amy Laurens

#Amy Laurens #Australian author Amy #Canberra writer Amy #come hear me ramble!#Cook With Amy #food glorious food #food intolerant #made it Monday #made-it Monday #tasty vegetarian dinner

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byamylaurens · 3 years

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An Interview With Moi

Hi, do you wish to see my face? Do you wish to see my face WHILE IT’S TALKING?!?! HA.

Happy Friday. The lovely Barney from StoryComic had me on the show again and we had a blast chatting about indie vs. traditional publishing, my bizarre writing processes, why most of my books are set in Australia, and what I’m working on right now. You can check out the full video below, and it’s also available as a podcast wherever you like to get your podcasts from – just search for “StoryComic presents” 🙂

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Happy Friday, everyone! <3

An Interview With Moi was originally published on Amy Laurens

#Amy Laurens #Australian author Amy #books set in Australia #ByAmyLaurens #Canberra writer Amy #fun video #Happy Friday Every Onez #How to Write #how to write theme #indie publishing #Inkprint Press #Interview With Amy #StoryComic

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byamylaurens · 3 years

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Your Future Self Thinks You're Great

Just some midweek encouragement to keep us all going:

showerthoughtsofficial: Your future self is hating you for the poor decisions you’re making today.

coffeeandcastiel: bold of you to assume current me isnt also hating myself for making the decisions that i am making

duamuteffe: Hello, I am old and thus have a large amount of past self to think/have thought about, and I’d like you to know that your future self is looking back on your past self with mingled love and sorrow and compassion, because thye know how hard you were trying and how difficult the going was. Your future self wishes they could give you a hug and tell you to keep at it. Your future self wishes they could spare you the pain of hating yourself when they know that you are trying the best you can. Your future self isn’t mad. Your future self forgives you and would like you to take as good care of yourself as you can.

Love you guys. Take care of yourself, and be kind – to others, but also to yourself <3

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Your Future Self Thinks You’re Great was originally published on Amy Laurens

#Amy Laurens #Australian author Amy #be gentle fellow humans #ByAmyLaurens #Canberra writer Amy #encouragement #Humans Humanning Well #keep on keeping on #learn how to human well #makes all my happy squishy parts go SQUISH #throwing starfish #why is humanity so awful

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byamylaurens · 3 years

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First-In-Series Sale! 20-50% off ebooks :)

Just a quick note to let you know that all the Inkprint Press first-in-series ebook titles are on sale for between 20 and 50% off from April 1 to 15 🙂 You can see the titles and pick up your ebook in both epub and mobi right here 🙂

First-In-Series Sale! 20-50% off ebooks :) was originally published on Amy Laurens

#A Fox Of Storms And Starlight #All I Want For Christmas Is A Werewolf #Amy Laurens #Australian author Amy #BOOKS ON SALE #Canberra writer Amy #Even Villains Fall in Love #Fleet of Malik #Inkprint Press #Kaditeos series #Liana Brooks #Where Shadows Rise

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byamylaurens · 3 years

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Cook With Amy: Vegetarian Nachos

We all know it: those recipes DO NOT take 15 minutes to create.

That’s why I’ve created Cook With Amy, a monthly podcast where you can cook along with me in REAL time and see what’s it like to make a recipe when you DON’T have a bevy of assistants to do the prep work, when getting anything from your kitchen pantry is like playing TETRIS, and when you CAN’T chop things faster than the speed of light.

Come join me on a culinary adventure for the rest of us. Real cooking for real people.

Welcome to Episode 2 of Cook With Amy! Today, we’re making Vegetarian Nachos 🙂 The recipe I based this off claims that this is “speedy” vegetarian nachos, which you’ll hear me mention in the audio. Spoiler: this is not what I would consider speedy. It took me 52 minutes to make alone. Oy.

However, these nachos are entirely delicious, and are a regular staple in our house, so I do definitely recommend the recipe. And of course, you can rope in some people to help, and that will make it speedier!

INGREDIENTS

Oil for frying 2 brown onions 2 red capsicums (bell peppers) (use any colour) 2 zucchini (courgette) 2 tins kidney beans (approx. 420g cans) 4 cloves garlic 20g/1TB of your favourite Mexican spice mix – a taco seasoning works well (add more to taste) 2 sachets tomato paste (approx. 100g) 1/2 warm water 100 – 150g grated cheese (approx. 1 – 1.5c, loosely packed) 1 avocado (optional) 1c Greek yogurt or sour cream, if not using the avocado 4TB sour cream if you are using the avocado 1/2 bunch coriander (cilantro) (about 3TB once chopped) 1/2 lemon, juice only g corn tortilla chips

EQUIPMENT

Chopping board Sharp knife Saute pan (or high-walled fry pan, or wok, etc) Wooden spoon Garlic press or micro-grater Small bowl Mixing spoon Grater

RECIPE NOTES

So, I wondered why this tasted a little bit different to usual, and it’s because I totally forgot that we usually GRATE the zucchini in rather than slicing it!! The sliced zucchini was fine, but it’s even BETTER grated, so I do recommend doing that rather than slicing 🙂 Do everything else exactly the same way.

Let me know if you make these nachos, and if so, how they turn out! <3

Cook With Amy: Vegetarian Nachos was originally published on Amy Laurens

#Amy Laurens #Australian author Amy #Canberra writer Amy #Cook With Amy #food glorious food #how long does that recipe REALLY take?#Mexican Bean Nachos #recipe #vegetarian nachos #vegetarian recipe

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