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Writing Wednesday #2: Creating BFFs in Literature

Hello book lovers! Welcome to the second edition of Writing Wednesday! I’m so happy you could be here for this topic today, which is:


Creating BFFs in Literature

I know what you’re thinking. Writing best friends should be a piece of cake. Easier than anything! But alas, that’s so not true. A true friendship, one that a reader will feel a deep connection to, is not something you can just fake. Your characters that are BFFs should:

– Care when the other is hurting
– Have inside jokes, things that they only do/see/know
– Not show up just for kicks in a scene that doesn’t require them
– Doesn’t always have to be/agree with everything the other does
– and so much more

I’m going to help you write the best friends you’ve ever written in these few easy to follow steps and advice that I use myself, and that I’ve learned from years as a Book Blogger and Creative Writing lover. I’m not saying I’m an expert at all, or that these are musts in writing, but these things will help you (or at least be a guide) to creating BFFs that readers will also love.

BFFs aren’t like they used to be:

When we think of best friends from movies, they aren’t always like the ones we know now. How often does your best friend come over to your house and gossip about school, flipping through magazines and throw rocks at windows in the middle of the night for adventures? Not a lot anymore. So, unless your novel is set in the early 00’s or 90’s, your novel BFFs should recognize that:

– Technology is a huge part of modern friendships

– Friends can be boy/girl, girl/girl, boy/boy, or anything they identify as 

– BFFs don’t always have to fall in love or be jealous of the others partner

– Friends fight, it’s normal, and they don’t always get along 100% of the time

– Stereotypes are over-hyped. Don’t make your one BFF a goth and the other a princess, just to show how different they are. Friends don’t have to be from other sides of the track to be close, and vice versa.

– BFFs don’t always come in twos!

– Never forget that friends these days don’t always have to live in the same country to be friends



Famous best friends in literature:

Have you got a favourite friendship group in literature? Maybe you’re a Harry/Ron/Hermione fan. Or maybe you like the PLL girls. Or maybe you adore Simon/Leah’s friendship. What ties all these different characters together? When you break apart the friendships, for example, the Harry/Ron/Hermione friendship, we have a trio. Some scenes that you write aren’t going to include all three characters, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t as close as the others. Sure, Harry/Ron probably have more scenes together, but that doesn’t mean that Harry cares more about Ron than Hermione. It’s just how the story goes. Don’t focus on the amount of screen-time (metaphorically, book time) that the characters spend together, and build more on the amount that they care, or mention the friends/do things/protect/care for the friend, even when they aren’t around.



What makes a best friend their *best* friend, though?:

Sometimes there’s no BFF in a novel. Sometimes a character has a few friends, but they don’t know them like that. And in that instance, it’s other characters like family, or their love interest, that they find that connection with. But say that you’re writing a story about a girl called Clare. And Clare really likes a boy named Evan. Clare’s best friend, Freya, is the closest person to her. They’ve been friends forever. Just because Clare might start/starts dating Evan, and develops a major connection to him, it doesn’t mean that the friendship connection she has with Freya is gone. I see this happening so often in novels that when the love interest comes along, they forget about the friendships. They push them aside for love: and that’s not true to life (in most cases). 

Fancy reading with your BFF? Check out this article!

Best friend name ideas that sound awesome together:

Sasha + Patrick

Riley + Nolan

Mimi + Lydia

Sebastian + Audrey

Remi + Bonnie

Kai + Dylan

Willow + Ashlie

Penny + Sage

I hope that you’ve loved my few tips for writing BFFs in Literature!


Join me next week for:


Opening Lines!

happy writing!

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Writing Wednesday #1: Intro & Naming Characters

Hello lovely book lovers! Okay, so you’ve probably been wondering why my Blog’s design has changed up so much. Long story short, I’m really really picky. I’ve decided to change up my theme a little bit over the last few weeks and it’s now completely done and renovated! I’m really happy with it now and seeing it all together, designing and coding, has been a task. But so worth the hard work.

Onto the theme: Writing Wednesdays. I’ve always wanted to do a segment on PLM about writing, because aside from reading, it’s my favourite thing to do. Writing brings me peace and creating stories has been in a major fixture in my life since I was a young child. So, Writing Wednesdays was brought into the world a couple weeks ago when I was hunting for a theme to do. I decided that, because they both begin with a W, that they were a perfect fit (cliche, I know).


This week’s topic is:

Naming Characters (and ideas!)

Sometimes, the right name just doesn’t come to you. At all. And then you’re left wondering how this incredible story can go on inside your head without a name for your leading character. Yeah, I know the feeling. It’s tough. And it’s happened a lot to me, you know, there’s the story in your head, but no name. Sometimes, on a rare occasion, a name will come to me, but most often they don’t. So, I turn to the internet and things around me for ideas and inspiration. Even then, there’s not always a great fit. Sometimes you just want a cute, preppy name, or others, a medieval sounding name for a viking. Either way, I’ve got you covered below with tips, ideas and where to find those killer names.



Girl Names that I love for writing:

Astrid 

Ava

Anna

Allison

Aly

Anastasia

Avril

April

Beatrice

Beatrix

Bea

Bonnie

Candice

Callie 

Camille

Dinah

Destiny

Elly

Eva

Etta

Freya

Fiona

Georgie

Gretchen

Greta

Hanna

Hallie

Harriet

Iris

Ingrid

Josie

Jade

Jilly

Kat

Kathrine

Kimmie

Kami

Leona

Lana

Monique

Marin

Maren

Maddie

Madison

Natalia

Nina

Ophelia

Opal

Penelope 

Penny

Piper

Phoebe

Queen

Rebecca 

Rivka

Rachael

Rhea

Sophie

Sofia

Sadie

Serena

Sienna

Tina

Tiana

Tabitha

Tate

Ursula

Vivian

Willow

Willa

Xena

Yaella

Zelda



Boy Names that I love for writing:

Aaron

Austin

Benjamin

Bill

Bernie

Calvin

Cameron

Cole

Colton

Danny

Devin

Dan

Drew

Evan

Elliot

Ewan

Freddie

Frankie

George

Grant

Hank

Holton

Ian

Iain

Isaiah

Isaac

Joe

Jolyon

Jerry

Justin

Kane

Kev

Liam

Lewis

Levi

Monty

Melvin

Mikey

Mason

Noah

Nick

Nev

Oliver

Oli

Peter

Phil

Quentin

Roberto

Ricky

Randall

Simon

Sid

Seth

Timmy

Tate

Tom

Trent

Ugo

Victor

Vincent

Will

Weston

Witt

Xavier

Yael

Zane

Picking Origin, Season & Themed Names:

When it comes to picking a unique name that fits your novel perfectly, sometimes you’ll find that picking a name based on a season (Summer, Autumn) is sentimental for a seasonal based novel. Likewise for books set in Space and picking names (Astrid, Venus) you’ll get a more authentic feel. You get a cleaner, believable novel. For me, if I started reading a book set in the future and in some dystopian land, and the characters name was Ed, it would throw me off a bit. You’d think that in an advanced timeline, the names would be more adventurous. Say, for example, adding extra letters to the names, like Edde, but pronounced the same way you’d say Ed, would be a thousand times better.

Picking a name for your characters really can determine the readability. 



Where can I find more names?

There are countless websites on the internet (even some books in your local Library!) with tons of names. You’ll most likely find these in the baby names section, because so far, there isn’t a section for creating names for characters (sadly). Sometimes searching the internet is so much easier! When I’m stuck for names, I normally head on over to Nameberry. They have sections based on letters, seasons, origins and so much more. They’re one of the most fluid websites for picking unisex names, finding what names mean (did you know my name, Rebecca, means knotted cord / captivating?) and name ranking worldwide! And best of all, it’s free to browse. 


What are the most popular names right now?

In the world, currently ranking on Nameberry states that these are the top girl names:


Olivia

Cora

Amelia

Charlotte

Isla

Isabella

Maia

Aurora

Amara

Ava


And these are the top boy names currently worldwide:


Atticus

Asher

Jack

Theodore

Jasper

Milo

Oliver

Silas

Henry

Wyatt

So there we have it. A whole lot of names, information and hopefully a kick-start to making that novel of yours EVEN BETTER! And I can’t wait to read your novel someday, because I can already tell that you are doing amazing. So set your goals, get picking names, and crush your writing! Remember to aim for 1k – 3k a day to maintain a nice, healthy streak and rack up those numbers.

See you next week for: FRIENDSHIP – HOW TO WRITE BFFS IN LITERATURE.

happy writing!

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If We Were Having Coffee Together… #1

I have never felt like any of my posts here, about books, could allow you all to get to know who I am. Yes, there’s Q&A’s, but that’s just pointless, in my opinion. There’s Twitter, but updating you on my personal life, on other things, is strange to do over Twitter (huge things, anyway. Not that there is huge news, or anything. Same old, same old.) But I wanted to do something, nonetheless. So when I stumbled upon a meme a lot of bloggers did called If We Were Having Coffee, I thought, “Brilliant! I love coffee!” But promptly realized we wouldn’t actually be having a latte at Starbucks and gossiping about stuff. Still, this is as close as we can get to it, so let’s get on with the post…


 If we were having coffee…I would tell you that a little shop I’ve been talking about for a long time called Lacuna Candle Co just opened up on Etsy. If you love bookish and seasonal candles, you’ll definitely want to stop by. They are some of the nicest scents ever! (If I may say so myself…) 


If we were having coffee…I would try to get you to listen to Kacey Musgraves new album Golden Hour. She’s such a talented writer and singer. Even if you don’t like Country music, you’ll at least like one song from her album. My favourites are Slow Burn, Rainbow and Love is A Wild Thing so far. But picking just one is like trying to decide what book to read next! 

If we were having coffee…I would tell you that I’ve started writing, again. Me and Writing have a love/hate relationship. Sometimes I feel so confident in what I’ve written, but other times are rough. I scrap and start again, over and over. So when I got this idea last week, I’ve been dabbling in it while blogging and trying to get my writing mojo back. For now, it’s going well (fingers crossed) so you never know! There could be a novel at the end! Because all jokes aside, writing is my passion. It’s what drives half of my love for blogging. So, I’ll always go back to it.

If we were having coffee…I would ask if you’ve read anything lately that’s changed the way you see yourself, or changed what you previously thought about a topic. This happens to me a lot when I read a new genre for the first time and it totally changes my opinions on things.

If we were having coffee…I would ask if you’ve seen a good movie lately. We recently saw Baywatch and I really loved it! It was funny and action-packed (the best kind of movie!). It’s probably the best movie I’ve seen since I went to watch Love, Simon, when it came out at the theater. So, I’d ask you if you’ve seen Love, Simon, as well. Because if you haven’t, well, you’re majorly missing out. 

If we were having coffee…I’d tell you I have to go and write some reviews because I’m on four blog tours this month and there’s a lot going on! But that we must, must, must do this again. Because I’ve missed getting to talk to you as non-book-review-writing Becca. 

happy reading!

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How to Become the Blogger of your Dreams

When I first started blogging, I never thought that I should be any way. My love of Books just turned into wanting to express my thoughts through this platform, but an idealistic “blogger of my dreams” had never crossed my mind. That was until I delved further into the Blogger world. Then I saw so many big names that had made their blogs EPIC and here I was, with a little blog no one had heard of and only a few blog posts to my name.

So I made a plan. And it took a really long time to get to a place where I didn’t feel like my blog wasn’t worth reading. It’s dawned on me that a lot of other people might feel the same way as me; totally overwhelmed by all these big-name Bloggers while we’re still trying to find a way through the crowd and be noticed. I compiled a few hints and tips that I’ve learned over the last few years that I wish I had known a few years ago! I’m hoping that even if this only reaches a few of you, you’ll get one step closer to being the Blogger of your Dreams. 


One: Forget Design, Focus on Content

The first thing to remember when you’re just starting out blogging, or even a few years down the line, is that Design? It’s not everything. Sure, a pretty header is nice to look at, but are you going to care about a header when you’re reading the content of the blog? Not really. 

You want to remember that content is your best friend. Everyone will come to your blog for your writing, your voice and most of all, the personality that you radiate through the content. Try to type like you’re talking to a friend. Want to use cap locks? GO AHEAD. I do it all the time! It’s endearing. Want to use Gifs to express a feeling? YAS. They are a huge plus for me. What I’m trying to say is just come across as you. Because you’re pretty darn magical. 




Two: Friends not Foes

If you’re making enemies in the Blogging world, you’re going about everything wrong. Yes, not everyone is going to like you, or your brand/beliefs, but making enemies isn’t the right thing. What you should be focusing on is making connections, including: like-minded blogger friends, brand connections, finding your audience, and most importantly, finding people you can talk about the highs and lows of running a blog with. Find your friends, not your foes. There’s enough bad in this world, and surely enough drama, already. I live for three rules of engaging in any confrontation: keep it classy, keep it friendly, keep it vague. So, if you’re going to tweet about a topic that’s going to cause drama, try being vague about the topic, so it’s not totally obvious. (But think about it a lot before ever sending anything that’s going to be harmful, and never tweet anything offensive.)


Three: Social Media = free publicity

Have you ever thought about it that way? That social media is basically free publicity for your brand? Well, it is, kinda. Tweeting a link, using hashtags, taking an Insta pic, basically anything, is free publicity for your blog/brand. You can use this to your advantage! Want to reach a particular audience? Use a hashtag. Want to make an image that’s versatile across all platforms? My go-to is Canva. It’s a free site that allows you to create stunning pictures for your posts. Do you want to go that little bit further and invest in your blog? Try using a call-to-action post on available social media platforms, or purchase an Ad. But basically, all in all, our free social media accounts are the best free publicity you’ll ever get. 



Four: Start and Finish your Goals

There’s nothing better than a #GirlBoss notebook to get your goals written down. But if you’re one of those people that makes a lot of goals but doesn’t finish them (I’m kind of guilty of this myself) then I have the perfect solution! Every time you complete a goal, reward yourself. So, if you’re needing to write five blog posts about Fashion, reward yourself with something at the end of that task. Or if you want a new book but haven’t read your TBR, try reading five books and then reward yourself with that book you wanted! A reward system is the best system, I mean, it works for kids, right? The whole gold star thing might not be your thing, but taking your goals one step further surely is.



Five: Listen to your heart, and your head

There’s a saying about that, right? Do you choose your heart or your head more? I personally prefer the method of heart over head, except when it’s a life-changing decision. Your heart basically makes 90% of your emotional decisions, whereas your head is more of the logical thinker. But when it comes to your blog, it’s both your job and your hobby, so the wires between heart and head thinking and choices can get super messy. I live by the rule that if it’s a big decision, go with the choice that scares you the most. Another saying I’ve seen on Pinterest is that being scared means you’re about to do something really, really brave, and that’s okay! But if it’s a business approach, involves a lot of thought and is long-term, I always go with my head. It’s not because it’s always right, or anything, but because it’s going to have that edge over your emotional-based decisions. But what I’m trying to say is listen to both, because more often than not, you’ll know which is right. 


Six: Never forget where you started

I will never forget that teenage girl that felt like books were her only friend, starting a blog, barely a shot in the dark. You have to remember where you started, because there will be thousands more people just like you who are desperate to be a blogger, who are struggling. Maybe they look up to you (which is honestly an amazing thought). If anyone ever asks for a little guidance, never turn your nose up. Remember where you started. Ask yourself if that person who started out would turn away from someone who wanted a little help. That’s why I have a HELP page on my blog dedicated to new bloggers. It’s because I know how stressful it can be when you don’t have a big following or any blogger friends. So never forget that you were once someone with a ten followers to their name, who still didn’t know what HTML meant. Trust me, the best things in life come to those who help other people.


So, maybe you haven’t become the Blogger of your Dreams yet. But can I tell you a secret? 

I haven’t either. 

But we’re all in this Bloggers boat together, boosting each other up and reaching for the stars. And I’m hoping my little words of wisdom have given you a bit of inspiration today. 

happy blogging!

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