I Buy Book for Free and Here's How. . .

I don't think there's one person on earth who doesn't enjoy free things. I know I LOVE free things. In fact, you could sum my personality up with synonyms such as a cheap scape, penny hoarder, frugal, or even overly intense money-saver. I'm always looking for deals and steals, especially with books. Being eighteen and all, I'm not exactly rich and I have an unfortunate habit of buying books and music all too often. However, I have discovered a new method of affordability for myself: it's called Swagbucks.

What is Swagbucks, you might ask? 

Swagbucks is a search engine that earns you points every time you search the web, watch videos,

answer polls, play games, Et Cetera. These points are called Swagbucks. Once you accumulate enough Swagbucks, you can redeem them for gift cards. My favorite gift cards are the ones for Amazon, Ebay, and PayPal. However, you can purchase gift cards to use at several popular retailers such as Nike, Longhorn Steakhouse, iTunes, and more!

How Do I Sign Up? 

Signing up is free and easy and you can do so HERE. Once you do this, you can quickly earn points by completing your profile and making Swagbucks your default search engine. You also earn more points by adding the "SwagButton" browser extension to your web browser.

How Do I Earn Points? 

Browsing the Web

This is my main method of earning Swagbucks because I'm already surfing the web anyway. You won't receive points every time you search but once you get going, you'll likely make between 15-50 Swagbucks a day. The thing about this is that you're already doing it anyway, so you mine as well be compensated for it.

Shopping Online 

Next to searching the web, this is my second favorite way to earn Swagbucks. In fact, you can make a lot of Swagbucks quickly doing this. This is very similar to cash back from Ebates where you earn rewards by shopping through their links. There are hundreds of stores affiliated with Swagbucks, including Amazon, Ebay, and Walmart.

If you install the SwagButton, it will alert you every time you go to a site that you can earn Swagbucks with.

Surveys

I can't give you a voucher for these because I don't like taking surveys but Swagbucks has several from which you can choose from if you qualify. From what I've seen you can make anyway from 3 SB to 300 SB, depending on which one you choose. However, the more Swagbucks offered, the longer the survey.

Videos

Sort of like YouTube, Swagbucks has its own collection of videos to watch and even more awesome is you get paid to watch them! I don't really take the time to watch them but I've heard of people making tons of Swagbucks using this method.

Coupons

What? Swagbucks offers coupons too?! Yup. It's true. For example, if you use a Swagbuck's coupon for $0.15 off of a product at the store, you'll get 15 SB. Seems like a sweet deal to me! Just make sure you actually use the coupon or else you won't receive any Swagbucks.

Referrals 

Another excellent way to earn Swagbucks quickly is through referrals. Swagbucks will provide you with a special link that is connected to your account and you can share it via Facebook, Twitter, email, on your blog, or wherever. Every time somebody signs up through your link, you earn 10% of the Swagbucks your referral earns. . .for life!

Finally. . .

How to Get the Cha-Chings (cashing out)

As I mentioned above, Swagbucks pays in card retailers to tons of different places. My personal favorite would be PayPal because that's essentially free money that I can spend anywhere.

1 SB equals about $0.01, so 100 SB=$1.00, 500=$5.00 and so on. I've personally earned over $200 with Swagbucks which I have spent on a multitude of things, particularly books. Unlike other point redeeming websites, it's actually really easy to earn points. About every two to three week, I earn $5.00. I'll admit, it can sometimes be frustrating--especially when you just start--to make Swagbucks. However, once you get into the swing of things and hopefully get some referrals, you'll find yourself making Swagbucks much faster.

Swagbucks is one of the best money-maker websites I've ever found and it has helped me afford the things I couldn't binge on before like books and music. Now I get them for 100% free for something I was already doing anyway. I'm not saying you're going to get rich using Swagbucks but it's nice to have an extra $5-$10 each month that you can spend on whatever you want.

In fact, between Swagbucks and a few other free point redeeming programs I actively use, I was able to buy $85 worth of Christmas gifts last year with only $5 out of my pocket. I think The Krazy Koupon Lady and The Penny Hoarder blogs would be proud of me.

Now, I'm very excited to share this opportunity with you. I promise that Swagbucks is not a scam and is very much free. I've been using it for over two years and I've never had any issues.

Finally convinced? You can sign up here.

Learn How to Avoid Writers Block (for the most part)

Instagram @Tiffany_A_Smith_

There is no doubt: writers' block sucks. It's a writers' worst nightmare, especially when all you want to do is write that darn book. Some people might claim they know the cure to writers' block but don't believe them. There is no such thing. It's as simple as: if you write, you're going to experience it. However, I have discovered a method for myself that helps ward off the wall for a longer period of time. I call it. . .(drum roll please). . .The Outline.

Everybody has a very different method for planning their plots out. Me? I write a partially detailed synopsis of each chapter in a notebook. The first time I ever wrote a book, I didn't write an outline, which consequently happened to be my worst mistake ever. I spent months rewriting the plot because I was an idiot and didn't have a plan. Not to say that writing without a plan is bad. I think it honestly depends on how you write best so if winging it works for you, use it, even if it doesn't work for me. The next novel I wrote (keep in mind that I haven't published any of these novels yet), I was somewhat wiser and decided to at least attempt to outline. Call it cheating if you'd like, but the book I wrote during NaNoWriMo was actually planned during the entire month of October. For each chapter, I would write the synopsis of what major events happened and I would also occasionally write out a brief version of a scene if I knew what it would entail. For this reason and only this reason, was I able to breeze through my NaNoWriMo book in a month and a half. Okay. So, maybe it was more like draft 1.5 but I completed it and that's what counts.

In the conclusion of all things, this method seemed to keep writers block from plaguing me quite so often. Of course, no matter what, writers' block is still inedible and happens to the best of us. I still have my days where I want to bang my head off a wall and chuck my Mac out the window. Also, creating an outline may not help you with writers' block as it has helped me. All writers have different methods and ways that they go about things. However, if you are having troubles, I sincerely hope this post will help you. Just remember, even if you only squeeze out 100 words that you'll probably end up deleting later while editing, it's still considered progress. Just keep writing!

How To Build More Complex Characters In 20 Questions

Instagram @Tiffany_A_Smith_

Writing a novel is a complicated process. I've written one and am in the midst of trying to figure out how to go about publishing it (a story for another day). Next to plot, characters are the most important thing you have going because a plot without characters is really no story at all and a story with underdeveloped characters is equally as bad. My suggestion is that you build a character profile portfolio with all of your characters. 

If you live with the struggle of only being able to build underdeveloped characters or just feel as if your character needs more spice, try answering these 20 questions about them.  Even if you never even use a certain detail in the book such as so-and-so's favorite ice-cream flavor, it doesn't matter because your character has already crossed over the one-dimensional line into something better. 

Creating Characters In 20 Questions:

1. If you were walking down the street and saw your character for the first time, what would be your first impression? Is he/she simply stunning or a total creeper? Has a strange walk? Emits the faint scent of lemons as you pass by? 

2. What is your character's general physical appearance? In your profile, describe with lots of detail and single out the most important qualities. Does he/she have a long but off-centered nose (a possible sign that it might be broken)? Small, slender hands? A pink scar barely seen behind the ear? 

3. What does your character wear? Likes to wear pink? Only wears tattered Chuck Taylors with a hole in the toe? Wears sweatshirts all the time?

4. What does your character sound like? Does he/she sound like she was raised in the streets of New York City? Is their voice pitchy or deep? Sounds like he/she smokes a pack a day? 

5. Does your character accept the standards of his/her day when things go wrong? 

6. Does your character make the best of his/her day?  

7. What is your character's earliest most important influences? A teacher who taught the daughter of a dysfunctional family to read? A blind piano instructor who inspired a disabled student to pursue his/her dream? Even someone as simple as a favorite band or their parents. 

8. What is the most important thing to your character? A physical item of possession? A significant other? A feeling? 

9. What does your character fear the most? Arachnaphobia (that would be me)? Rejection? Death? 

10. How does your character handle competition, defeat, and lost? Does your character fall to their knees and sob until the sun falls from the sky? Do they hold up their head high and march on with pride? 

11. How does your character react towards children?

12. How does your character react in general? Does he/she become easily angered? Weepy? Overly sentimental?  

13. Does your character know why he/she behaves the way he/she does or is it a subconscious thing?

14. What does your character desire the most? True love? Fame? A black belt in karate? 

15. What does your character need the most? 

16. What is your character's worst quality or flaw? Being a know-it-all? Overconfidence?

17. How will your character change? Will he/she be stronger or weaker? Did your character learn a valuable lesson and if so, how will he/she use this lesson to make good? 

18. What is your character's full name? 

19. What is your character's major conflict? 

And finally. . .

20. What are the little details about your character? Favorite foods? Favorite color? Celebrity crush?

You don't have to answer all of these and you can even make your own questions but I find spending time getting to know your characters in this way is just as important as plotting. Suddenly, you'll find that they have a personality, depth, and qualities all their own. In fact, I usually even write a biography about their life starting from the day they were born up until present time in my novel.

I'll admit, when I first began writing my first novel, Caged (due to published soon), I was an inexperienced idiot and didn't create detailed character sketches, which resulted in a lot of problems, In another novel I'm writing, things went much more smoothly because I took as much time to develop my characters as my plot.

Of course, everybody does things differently, but I hope this helps you in your writing journeys as
much as it has helped me.

Post-NaNoWriMo--3 Key Writing Rules That Will Make You Win

NaNoWriMo ended a few weeks ago for me and when I reached that 50,000 word milestone, I was elated. I wasn't sure whether I had it in me to write another book. I know there are many good and bad things said about NaNoWriMo, but I did it because I wanted to feel involved and have some kind of incentive--a motivation--to write this new novel I've been tentatively plotting in my head for a year. However, I learned something very important: I cannot write a novel in a month.

I have precisely half of a first draft begging to be finished on my Macbook. Still, I've made a promise to myself that I will finish it.

As it was my first time participating in NaNoWriMo, I had to conduct some research prior to participating and I'm glad I did. It helped me keep on track and create rules for myself.

I thought I'd share some of my personal NaNoWriMo rules:

Plan

Plan your NaNoWriMo project out. Whether it be a short synopsis, a detailed summary, or a full blow detailed outline of each chapter like I did, just do some planning. Establish your characters a little and have at least a partially clear idea of what you're writing about. A murder? A zombie apocalypse? A girl who has to go on a journey to save her friend from the depths of Hell (that's actually a real book--EXCELLENT read!)

I grabbed a notebook (and pen) and over the course of two months, I wrote a summary for each chapter that I knew would happen. It didn't fill in my entire plot, but it helped me stay on track.

Keep A Writing Schedule

I do actually have a finished novel that I'm FINALLY looking into getting published. When I tell people this, sometimes they say that they wished that they had time to write a novel or that maybe one day they will. The truth is, you will never have time unless you make time. Prioritize. TV or write? Look at Facebook or write? Knit or write? You have more time than you think and with NaNoWriMo, make a schedule, stick to it, and write everyday that you can. No excuses.

Just Write 

I honestly think the hardest part about writing a novel is finishing it. I know people who start a book and it's great for the first chapter or two, then WHAM! They don't know what to write or they just think that their writing sucks, or even more irritating is the intense urge to go back and edit.

My advice: don't do it! Don't go back and edit until your first draft is finished. Just write, no matter how bad you think your work is. I once made the mistake of going back to edit an unfinished first draft in a past writing project. It created problems because how can you edit the beginning if you don't even know how it ends? If you have this problem, know that it is a "writer thing." I can nearly guarantee you that every writer in the world experiences this at one time or another.

Even right now I'm experiencing that terrible feeling in my gut that every sentence I write in my NaNoWriMo novel is a collection of the worst sentences ever.

Conclusion

Just write. Don't look back. You can do it.