The Masquerade Crew

3 tips to inspire you - syndicated from @JeanNicole19

2013-03-17T01:38:00.001-05:00

The following is syndicated from www.jeannicolerivers.com and is posted here with permission.

Black Water Tales

The Secret Keepers

by JeanNicole Rivers

Follow @JeanNicole19

Cover links to Amazon

As we kick off National Novel Writing Month, I challenge you to be inspired. Too many people sit around and wait for inspiration to hit them like an ice cream truck. Bam! Suddenly it’s raining colorful, sweet goodness, but being inspired is hardly acquired with so little merit.

If you want inspiration, you must choose it and you must claim it. Inspiration comes when you choose to live an inspired life and that is not something that is just bestowed upon you by the all benevolent writing gods (and oh, how I wish we had those); it is something that you have to make an effort toward every single day. As inspiration goes, you must dig out your own unique path, but the following tips may push you toward the first step of your inspirational journey.

Open yourself. Open yourself to joy, pain, embarrassment or whatever emotion life has in store for you at the time. One of the many reasons that children are so creative is because they are open, but as we get older and become adults we come up with an array of defense mechanisms to protect us from life and one of them is simply shutting down. While in a frenzy of fortifying ourselves from things that may hurt us, we put up walls that let nothing in, no bad, no good and certainly, no inspiration. Take a chance and open yourself to whatever may come, you may get hurt, you may get lucky, you may get a novel.

Look deeper and move slow. Stop and smell the roses; I love that cliché. Some of the greatest stories ever told have the simplest elements, storylines and meanings. Great tales are inconspicuously placed in our daily lives just waiting to be told, but we are always so busy moving, just moving to get here or there or anywhere that we miss them. Don’t miss great opportunities on your rush up the ladder; it is the great opportunities that provide the crucial steps of your ladder.

Inspire others. No matter what job or hobby we do on this planet, the one thing that matters is that we live a good life. Do things simply because they are the right thing to do even when no one is paying attention. Karma can either be a mothersucker or a fairy godmother, you choose. When you put out great stuff, you’ll be surprised what you get back.

Live an inspired life and try some of these inspirational routines to get a boost when you need one.

http://www.jeannicolerivers.com/3waysigetcreativejuicesflowing/

Be inspired.

Do Amazon and Createspace rip off Indie publishers with failure to correctly report sales?

2013-03-12T00:18:00.001-05:00

The following is syndicated from jeanettevaughan.wordpress.com and is posted here with permission.

Guest post by John. R. Clark, Managing Editor at AgeView Press

When AgeView Press Indie pubbed the book FLYING SOLO in May of 2012, the author, Jeanette Vaughan immediately began tracking sales. She heard from excited friends and family who immediately emailed when ordering their copies. The first sales were off of Createspace’s e-store with the title ID number given to the author. Then, through Amazon, a week later, when the book went live on the site. Finally on Kindle, when the ebook format was completed.

“Where, oh where are my royalties?”

Initially, things appeared kosher. People exclaiming that they had ordered the book, were showing up within a day or two on the electronic royalty reports with a reasaonable accuracy. But by June and July, sales descrepencies were noted by the author from customers claiming that they had purchased the book directly through Amazon, not an Amazon affiliate. Many of these sales were simply not listed.The author contacted Createspace customer support, who gave assurance that all sales were being accurately reported. FLYING SOLO was now also on Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) Select as well as expanded distribution channels, which included Amazon affiliates in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. Sales were being reported to the author from readers and bookclubs in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

The first note of apparent discrepancy came when a dear friend of the author ordered three copies of the book from Amazon in June. These books were ordered all at the same time, from Amazon.com direct. Yet, that cluster of three sales was never posted as such. Another instance in early July involved the same issue. Again, a customer ordered three copies, yet no sales were trackable through Amazons channels for three sale purchased on the same day.

Meantime, the author was making public appearnances, being featured on blogs and radio, and rounding with booksignings. During the months of June and July, no expanded distribution channel sales were posted on the royalty report, yet customers were emailing the author letting her know how much the book was being enjoyed overseas. More than 15 five star reviews for the novel were posted on Amazon.

What should have shown as a surge of sales, as the book peaked, never appeared on the royalty reports. The author was suspect. She contacted Ingram directly, only to be informed that they were not supposed to reveal information to an author directly. So, the Indie publisher, AgeView Press made the call. Ingram showed 16 copies of the book ordered through their system total since May. Those sales never showed on the June or July royalty report. The author filed formal complaints with Createspace customer service, but received only canned letters in response explaining that indeed there was an issue with reports in Expanded Distribution and it was being investigated. Advice to author? Please be patient.

By August, it was clear there were gross in accuracies. The 30 copies ordered from Barnes and Noble never showed up. Few if any sales were listed for August. Yet the author had confirmation of over 4,000 copies in distribution worldwide. The crowning blow came in September. A plan was devised. A friend, agreed to help with the investigation. She ordered a copy of FLYING SOLO on September 7th, taking screen shots of her order and confirmation of payment directly from Amazon. She printed out here receipt showing date and time of purchase. The book arrived on September 13, to San Jose, California. Photos were taken. The sale was complete. Copies of all screenshots and receipts were scanned and sent to the author. By September 20th, no sales were shown at all on Createspaces report. Phoning Createspace, the author was informed that no sales were showing for Amazon for the month for that title. It was time for outrage! What had been suspected, had now been proven. Not once, but twice!

Time to climb up the foodchain. After many phonecalls and emails to Createspace, a Senior customer service “executive” phoned personally and stated he would investigate. Talk about a wacky result. Due to the print on demand status of Createspace books, sometimes they are one or two books ahead. Thus even though your book was printed in one month, but sold in another, a royalty might actually show up in the prior month for that sale. What???

No one expects to get rich off of writing a book. Few and far between are the Oprah Bookclub golden orbs of success. But how are authors to trust a system, happy to take their money for assisting to create and publish a book, which does not thoroughly, detail accurate sales? Simply outrageous. What options does that leave the Indie publishers? How can they possibly track the success of their marketing efforts. Is the publishing world doomed to be controlled by the big six? Are small bookstores and Indie presses to be overrun by powershouse chains which offer the Indie published writer no turf?

How can the press or the author be sure those sales are accurate with no detail? Rise up Indie authors! Repost this story! Tweet it, facebook it. Make it go viral. Print it and send it to your local newspaper and the Associated Press. This abject fraud is outrageous and MUST STOP!

John R. Clark, Managing Editor, AgeView Press

A Writer’s Voice: "Oh, I’ll Get To That Later" - syndicated from @ImSimplyDebbie

2013-03-10T19:00:00.001-05:00

The following is syndicated from www.imsimplydebbie.com and is posted here with permission.

As a writer, I get to set my own schedule and write when I want to. In turn, I also get to not write when I actually want too. What I mean by that is, sometimes I want to write but have nothing profound to say. Other times I want to write but I am too lazy to make the huge commitment of going to my computer desk, finding something to write about and committing myself to actually write.

Debbie DeVita

Simply Debbie Follow @ImSimplyDebbie

The thoughts go through my mind of all the blog posts I need to write, the guest posts I want to query in order to get my voice out there and the necessary words I need to write for my book to get farther along than it is. However, there is this voice inside of me that sometimes says...

“I’ll get to that later”
“It isn’t that important”
“I can make my own schedule, let me relax a bit”

What I’ve realized is, no matter how I might disguise it or how I might choose to ignore it, what I am really doing is procrastinating and first and foremost sabotaging my writing career.

If you have ever been there yourself, you know exactly what I am referring to. Here are three reasons I have come to know well as to why I procrastinate.

1. A fear of failure—come on, we have all been there before. You hit the send button on an email to an editor of a magazine and you think...

“Am I really good enough?”
“Will they like me?”
“What am I even doing here?”

It can be so debilitating to our self esteem, that fear of rejection, most writers know well that we choose to stay hidden. We would rather not try sometimes than to fail.

2. You don’t have anything to say—as a writer; people think you always have something to say. We can describe things that the average person usually can’t even put into words. However, we too, get that feeling sometimes. We just don’t know what to say.

3. Problems keeping to a set schedule—admit it, sometimes you would rather read in your bed, than write. Sometimes you just don’t have the energy needed to finish that chapter, that blog post or that magazine article you’ve been meaning to write. When you work for yourself, it is hard to keep yourself motivated to write when you don’t have to. No one is forcing you to write. You don’t have a boss hanging over you all the time. The schedule sometimes gets pushed aside.

Although the above excuses are all valid reasons not to write, I will now give you two reasons why you HAVE to write. These two reasons alone get me out of my bed and get me to leave the excuses where they belong, in the past.

1. People look forward to your writing—Having a blog and readership as a writer is one of the best rewards. You have a responsibility to your audience to provide content to them at least once a week at the minimum. This keeps them interested in you and helps to keep your readers coming back to your blog. It also gives you a writer’s voice when your book is out and you want people to read it. If you write regularly, you will find the reward with blog comments, Twitter retweets, Facebook likes and even the occasional person who says “you made my day” This is reason enough for me to keep on writing.

2. Face it—You want to be writing—If writing is your true passion, then you understand what I mean when I say “you would rather be writing, than almost anything” Although sometimes it can be hard to think of a blog idea, write a query to a magazine or finish that chapter in your book you’ve been procrastinating on, you must admit it gets you going. You find passion in it. You are a true writer. A good writer. The best time to write is when you don’t want to. The best material by writers comes when you least expect it. So write even when you don’t think you want to, because you might just find you next great idea.

Being a writer isn’t always easy. The critics will get to you. The pay will make you wonder why you bother. Sometimes it is easier to be lazy and say “Oh, I’ll get to that later” but remember why you became a writer. Remember what made you love to write in the first place. Soon you will be writing and not even realize what time it is. A true writer will find passion even in the times they don’t want to.

“Writing isn’t always easy, it doesn’t come with immediate rewards, but a true writer that sticks with it, will find their passion is its own reward” #SimplyDebbie

Getting The Nerve To Write Again - syndicated from @ImSimplyDebbie

2013-03-10T18:51:00.001-05:00

The following is syndicated from www.imsimplydebbie.com and is posted here with permission.

I have been away from the blogging world for awhile now. Although I have blogged sporadically throughout the summer I have not been doing my usual writings on Twitter or blogging as normally as I usually do. The most important things in life have come to the surface for me in several different ways. I have come to realize through many different events that I have to find out what I truly want and go after it, no longer being afraid.

Debbie DeVita

Simply Debbie Follow @ImSimplyDebbie

A few months back I found out that I have two chronic illnesses that supposedly are incurable. I won’t bore you all with the details or the specifics because I don’t find them important and I also am a very private person when it comes to sharing very personal information over the internet. The people, who know me, know my situation well. Because of this diagnosis, I have had to revamp my dreams a bit and decide what is most important to me.

I don’t see the dreams that I originally wanted coming true, since I am unable to work 50-60 hours a week which is what would be required to be what I originally wanted to become. However, with each disappointment I have learned that new dreams and directions are just as important. God won’t let me fall. He knows what is best for me and if He changed my path, there is a very good reason for it all.

Struggling with daily pain is hard enough in this life but the depression that comes with it is sometimes impossible to shake. Although, I think of myself to be a strong person and I have loved ones who help me through it, it is still an every day battle to keep moving forward. I have found it hard to be the positive and inspiring person I have shown myself to be for so long on my main Twitter account. This is why I haven’t tweeted as regularly as I normally would. Sometimes you just can’t inspire others, till you have time to work on yourself.

While dealing with all this, I decided to write for the first time yesterday and pulled up my blog to find some hateful and evil comments on it. Since I can approve all comments, nobody but me was privy to them. I will say this; they hurt really badly especially because this person obviously knows me well because they had private information about me. All I will say is this: If you know me personally then you know what goes on in my life and who I love. If you don’t know me personally then honestly you don’t have the right to know all that I go through, or any personal information about me.

I keep myself and my personal life private because lets be honest, this is the internet and we don’t know the people who are on it. I share the things I want to share. If you don’t like it, then don’t read my blog. Don’t follow me. I never said I was perfect or that I would let you in on my entire life story. I live to inspire others which is what my purpose is here. If I can help one person each day, it would be enough. This is me. I have my flaws and imperfections. At the end of the day, all I really want is to be an inspiration on some level. This is me. Take it or leave it.

Titles Make Me Crazy! syndicated from @toithomas

2013-03-09T19:03:00.005-06:00

The following is syndicated from etoithomas.wordpress.com and is posted here with permission.

I don’t like coming up with titles, but not nearly as much I as I don’t like writing a synopsis; that’s a topic for another day. Titles are very important in many ways, but are also not import in many ways. As much as it seems to be the way to go these days, I just can’t make myself into one of those authors who comes up with the perfect title to either shock or entice an audience.

Toi Thomas

Follow @toithomas

ecsuniverse.blogspot.com

Cover links
to Amazon

So many people have told me about the misconception they believe the title of my current book gives. Eternal Curse: Giovanni’s Angel has been perceived as a dark horror story by so many that I often regret the title, though in retrospect, the title is very fitting to the actual story. I have nothing against horror, but so many people haven’t bothered to learn more about the book, simply because they think they know what it’s about already. They only reason a few people have moved beyond this is because of my tiny web presence on multiple social media channels.

I have received several emails from people who have read my bio, seen interviews, and read samples of my work who stated that they’d seen my book before and overlooked it, simply because they weren’t in the mood for horror at the time. To their surprise, while my book isn’t a light hearted fairy tale targeted at children, it’s also not a horror tale. The thing that worries me now, is that the people who’ve picked up my book expecting it to be horror, maybe disappointed, but at least they are getting a fair share of demons and nightmares.

It’s so hard to tell what it is people expect from a book these days. Several people have told me that they liked the premise of my book, but that they are avid YA readers. So, my book isn’t written as a YA novel, that doesn’t mean you wouldn’t like it…And on top of all this, I have to start thinking of titles for my next few releases. At least the companion guide for ECGA already had a title that I’m not about to change. It will be a free ebook anyway. I don’t know that the title will be much of an issue for it.

Then there is the collection of short stories I’m working on and my new romance. I have no idea what I’m going to call them. My mind is so twisted with the notation of coming up with new titles, I’ve even started to question the use of titled chapters in my book, but again, that’s a topic for another day. It’s just too bad that ideas can’t serve as titles. A gray man meets a woman online who helps him discover his true purpose in the world, only to realize that he’s not of this world, doesn’t really make for an easily searchable title.

How to Write a Review - Parts 3 and 4 - Syndicated from @toithomas

2013-03-08T14:04:00.000-06:00

The following is syndicated from ecsuniverse.blogspot.com and is posted here with permission.

Step 5. Always be honest. A good review doesn’t mean that you have to love the book, but always try to be fair. Readers can tell if you’ve written a review to falsely build up a books rating and they can tell if you are intentionally beating a book down out of spite. Also keep in mind the average person isn’t going to be as thorough in their reviews as other writers and bloggers. This is a good thing. A distinctive credibility is what you want to display when writing a review. It should help set you apart as a writer and a professional. A good review comes with clear explanations of why the book was loved, liked, ignored, or hated; without clear explanations, reviews worthless.

Toi Thomas

Follow @toithomas

ecsuniverse.blogspot.com

Cover links
to Amazon

All authors, but especially INDIE authors, need reviews!

After writing all this, I’ve decided to challenge myself to write more reviews. I also invite you to write more reviews, maybe even one for my new book Eternal Curse: Giovanni's Angel. You can find my book at the following locations: Smashwords, Amazon, Barnes&Noble, GoodReads, TheBookPatch, Diesel, and Sony…

The following is syndicated from ecsuniverse.blogspot.com and is posted here with permission.

How to write a review

Part 4

*Lastly, posting reviews can also be tricky, but I believe there is a rhyme and reason for that as well. Always try to post your review at the location or site it was purchased or obtained. Sometimes, books are received without knowing the location of purchase, but that’s not a problem. Most books are now available for viewing and reviewing at GoodReads.com.

Lastly, if you have a blog, Facebook page, Stumble Upon, Google+, twitter, or other social media outlet, post your reviews there. As with most sites these days, reviews are just the tip of the iceberg. You can also show your support by rating, ranking, and Liking books and pages where applicable. For example, most Amazon book listings come with a Like button, rate option, and review option. Take a few extra seconds and pursue all three.

I hope you found this to be helpful and wish you all the best in your reading, writing, and reviews. I think I have finalized the details of the Review Challenge that I’m going to host. I think it will be a lot of fun. I will be awarding prizes to the winners. Winners will be based solely on votes. Be sure to come back tomorrow to learn all the details of challenge and the prizes…

In the meantime, I will be posting a whole bunch of reviews I should have done ages ago. They are for traditionally published books as well as Indie published books. It’s time I started putting all my theories into practice and stop being afraid to express myself when writing reviews.

See Part 1: Steps 1 & 2, Part2: steps 3&4

How to write a review: Part 2 - syndicated from @toithomas

2013-03-07T16:55:00.000-06:00

The following is syndicated from ecsuniverse.blogspot.com and is posted here with permission.

Step 3. Summarize the book in one of two ways.

The blurb-explain what you feel the book was about providing some plot points in 100 words or less. If you are a master blurb writer, go for 100 to 200 words.
The Spoiler- explain exactly what happened in the story, beginning, middle, and end. So as not to lose your audience, try to keep your spoiler around 500 to 800 words. (Always indicate whether your review will contain spoilers as a curtsey to other readers)

Toi Thomas

Follow @toithomas

ecsuniverse.blogspot.com

All authors, but especially INDIE authors, need reviews!

Step 4. Then explain why you gave the book its overall rating. If you are not sure how to do that, simply answer the following questions. (There is no preferred word length for this)

What was the overall theme of the book and did you like it?
How did you feel about the pace of the plot and the plot development?
How did you feel about the character development?
How did you feel about the finale of the book?

There are many more questions that could be included in your assessment, but these are the basic points I think most people look for in a good review…I’m still working out the details of what I’m now calling, A Review Challenge. What do you think of the image so far?

See Part 1: Steps 1 & 2.

How to write a review: Part 1 - syndicated from @toithomas

2013-03-04T19:23:00.001-06:00

The following is syndicated from ecsuniverse.blogspot.com and is posted here with permission.

As many of you may know, I am not the best review writer. I lack the confidence to praise a good work and to criticize one that could have used some more work. I also have had trouble trying to be consistent with my reviews, making sure to be fair and uniform for all the books I review. So, I’ve decided to write out a plan or instructions for writing reviews in hopes that it will make me a better review writer…and if you have been reluctant to write a review of your own because you weren’t sure how, maybe this will help you. Just know that I’m new at this myself, so if you have or find a better method, by all means, use it. The important thing is to just WRITE THE REVIEW.

Toi Thomas

Follow @toithomas

ecsuniverse.blogspot.com

All authors, but especially INDIE authors, need reviews!

Step 1. Indicate the title and edition of the book if applicable. If the book is part of a series, mention the series title and which installment the review book is. Indicate the Author’s name. If you are familiar with other works by this author, mention it briefly, other wise move on.

Step 2. Give the book an overall rating. Use a system that makes sense to you and is easy to understand by others. For example, on a scale of 1 to 5, five being the best, “I give Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern a solid 5.”

I must admit that these are things that I have tried to do consistently in the past, but haven’t always succeeded with. Now that I’ve written these principles down, maybe I’ll be better at carrying them out.

I want to do something to help Indie Authors get reviews. So far, I think I’m leaning towards doing a challenge that will involve people voting on their favorite reviews. As much as I’d love for people to review my book, I think it would only be fair to keep the review selections open to the readers. I’m still working on the details, but I’m excited about the possibilities and hope you are too. In case anyone is interested in my book, you can get it here: Smashwords, Amazon, GoodReads, TheBookPatch, Diesel, and Sony.

The Dreaded Outline - syndicated from @DeAubreyDigest

2013-02-17T15:04:00.001-06:00

The following is syndicated from deaubreydigest.wordpress.com and is posted here with permission.

I am not an outliner. I never have been. I most likely never WILL be. I enjoy the ways the story takes me, the art of crafting it and the surprise of writing it was my characters take me along their story. This, however, is not how you sell books, by all accounts. Unless you’re naturally good at your characters sticking to what’s important, you have to have some idea where the story is supposed to go.

C.V. Perkins

Follow @DeAubreyDigest

deaubreydigest.wordpress.com

Several years ago, someone sent me an email telling me he could make me a writer, all I had to do was sign up for his classes and he’d take me from a wannabe writer into someone published and profitable and beloved by all. I could have been J.K. Rowling or Stephanie Meyers before they were them by his accounts. He’d helped hundreds of writers become kings of writing by his program.

I declined his offer and told him thanks but no thanks. Being maybe 25, I was probably a smartass about it. He took it upon himself to instant message me and ask me about my writing and my writing habits. Being 25 and know there was no way I was going to make writing a full-time gig, I answered off the cuff. I wasn’t interested in his program, I wasn’t going to pay him to tell me how to write and I honestly wasn’t sure why he was still talking to me. The thing I remember most out of his comments and questions was when he asked me how often I wrote. I answered honestly, “I just write when inspiration strikes”. I did. And had inspiration strike me all the time. It wasn’t like I considered myself anywhere near publishable work and I honestly wasn’t ready.

His next comment not only pissed me off, but it turned me off writing for a good long while. Every single time I see someone make a comment about how they were “talking to a girl who said they only write when inspired”, hackles instantly raise. He told me that unless I took my writing seriously and buckled down and started treating it like a job, I would never once be published. He continued with some scathing remarks about how I shouldn’t call myself a writer when all I did was dabble and gave me a tongue in cheek wish for good luck with my dribbling in the future. I know I’ve seen this person write for various functions and I know he’s done a pep talk for NaNoWriMo. I deleted it the minute I read his “talked with a young woman” line.

Since then I have deliberately shied away from any kind of structure to my writing because he basically told me I HAD TO. I shied away from deadlines and writing goals because if I was having a good day, I could crank out 5k. If I wasn’t I managed a couple of hundred. In the long run, I felt good if I’d written 10k in a week because my life wasn’t structured, I wasn’t grasping for time and I had the energy and creativity necessary to actually write. While his system was probably good for him, it would have crushed my creativity and spirit, much like his assumption that inspired writing wasn’t real writing or whatever it was he believed.

With this beast of a plot I’ve been nursing for the last ten years or better, I need outlines. I need a vague direction and something outlining the major plot points that need to happen. I need to know all the major events and I need to keep a timeline so when I get to book 6 or 123 or what have you, I’m not leaving plot inconsistencies. I need to have some kind of a wire frame that I can start to mold clay around. I refuse to force my characters into a cookie cutter, but at the same time, I have to have points to drive my car to, otherwise I’m just wasting gas.

Therefore, this next section has been helpful to me and I’m going to share a few things that I think will help and rebut a point he makes for those of us who are perfectionists.

Through National Novel Writer’s month, I have learned the beauty of daily writing quotas. Setting a goal for yourself is a plus. Setting an attainable goal is a double plus. For me, however, I will wrack myself with guilt if I don’t get those words done. When I fall behind on them, I have this rolling rock that smashes my flowers and tramples my grass and then as it gets bigger and bigger, I just give up writing altogether. I give up on the project and walk away.

This is why I didn’t finish my first NaNo.

I’ve learned the beauty of goals, but I have had to really teach myself that falling behind on my goals is okay. If there’s no pressure, I will still get it done, but I don’t have this insurmountable mountain building over my head. Write every day, fine. Yay. But I do it in my time, on my schedule and NOT first thing in the morning. Oh my GOD I am a ZOMBIE when I wake up for the first hour or two of my day. That includes while I’m at work. My brain doesn’t come online until the evening and the best time for me to write is after work before I cook dinner. That’s my sweet spot. That’s when I write. If I make 1600 words, YAY! If not, oh well. If I don’t write at all, it’s because that day has been crap. I pick back up the next day like nothing ever happened. I’m okay with this. No one is dogging me.

The second bit of advice comes in re-reading what you’ve written the day before. Yes, and no. I’m definitely one of those people who reads the last bit of what I wrote if I had to end in the middle of a scene, but if I go back and start reading everything I’ve written from the day before, I end up editing and making small changes and tweaks and wanting to re-write things and then, before I know it, I’ve wasted all the time I have for writing by being obsessive over having things right. That’s another thing I have to work on, not being ridiculous about perfection until editing, but I really think it can hamper my progress, especially if I’m on a deadline. On the other hand, it would stop me from having my main character take off his shoes twice in a scene.

The last bit of advice he gives is you should record your plot journey with dates and times and plot points so you can keep track of the linear flow. If you’re plotting a monstrosity like I am, you’ll need this to keep your story straight. He actually suggests a huge piece of butcher paper and sticky notes that roll up into a poster roll. I am in LOVE with this idea. Postits aren’t permanent, I can use my erasable pens and highlighters and super sticky sticky notes, tape it to the wall to work and then roll it up and put it away when not using it. BRILLIANT! I can divide the entire butcher paper in the three acts in the structure, have different colored notes for all the main characters and what their points will be in the scenes and make sure I’ve got my Opening, Beginning Disturbance, 1st Door, 2nd Door and Ending… everything else is just gravy!

But, since I’m not a complete planner, there is a lot that I can see that will need work, especially given the middle of Baby’s story is what I really want to tell and what I have the least amount of information for. For those of us who are hybrids, he recommends beginning with the LOCK system and writing the back cover copy for your book. From there, you can generate more ideas as they story develops. He recommends asking yourself these questions before progressing forward:

What is my character’s emotional state and the end of the scene?
How will he react in the next scene?
What is the next action my character needs to take?
What strong scene up ahead needs transitional scenes before it?
Do I need to add any new characters?
Has a character in the scene I’ve just written suggest other plot developments?

I’m not sure how many of those questions I would be using, but it at least gives me hope that I don’t have to plan everything and I can just set the framework and let my imagination soar when inspiration strikes.

Self Marketing for Writers: Personal Brand - syndicated from @DeAubreyDigest

2013-02-16T19:33:00.001-06:00

The following is syndicated from deaubreydigest.wordpress.com and is posted here with permission.

As stated in my last post, a lot of publishing companies are requiring writers to market for themselves. Rather this is to keep costs down so publishers don’t have to charge as much for books or if it’s to keep small and indie presses flowing smoothly, it’s something we all are going to need going into the future. How do we market ourselves? In the research I’ve done, it seems like a pretty simple thing. All we have to do is what the business world calls a “Personal Brand”.

C.V. Perkins

Follow @DeAubreyDigest

deaubreydigest.wordpress.com

A personal brand is simply the face we put forward into our professional scope. To create a personal brand, you really only have to do the things you’re already doing.

Blogging

How many of us don’t have a blog nowadays? Most everyone has a blog, including inkslinging monkeys banging their face against a keyboard and leaving it for the world like some primate Picasso. I have this blog for writing and storytelling. I have another for cooking recipes and yet another for my gaming woes. When you’re working with your personal brand, you need to add regular content. When your readers can rely on a post, they’ll come back for more. By the time you start talking about your next novel coming out, the established reader base you already have is going to be there waiting.

This means, however, that you’re going to need a reader base. There are a few simple things you can do to draw people in. Go to other blogs and Twitter feeds. Read their stuff and comment. Open a dialogue between other readers and writers like yourself. Post reviews of the books you’ve read on Goodreads. You can do guest posts for other people’s blogs. It’s like a vicious cycle that isn’t vicious. You learn things, they learn things and people follow people. Easy, right? (Just don’t be “that guy” and go everywhere spamming that you’re a writer and you have a great book everyone needs to read. We’re all pretty sick of hearing that already.)

On that topic: Be active in social media

Twitter is like an addiction for me. Since I use Tweetcaster paired with Readability, I can cruise through my Twitter feed, read all about people’s lives, save interesting articles to read later and keep up on what’s coming and going in the world of writing. I can comment directly in Readability and others who use the site can see what I’ve written. I retweet like a fiend when I’ve found an interesting bit of online knowledge. Most of what I post on Twitter posts automatically to my Facebook page. I can keep several options open.

Don’t do like I did and join all the things. Stick with the social media sites you’ll actually use. My twitter feed posts to Facebook, but I actually have to check in on Facebook to see if anyone is replying to what I’ve written and do it sooner rather than later. There’s nothing worse than feeling connected to an author for some reason or another, leaving them a little post and never hearing from them. You get lost in the floe of posts coming to those popular people and carried away. It could be what makes or breaks a connection with someone else.

I post not only a lot of retweets (which I do too much sometimes) but also content of my own, what’s going on in my life, pictures of my animals, my new haircut… You get the idea. I take what I enjoy reading about other people and I do the same thing. I’m active there and when I publish, I might actually have a few people who are genuinely interested in hearing what I have to say. I’ve posted once about what annoys me on Twitter and another on what I want to see in writer blogs, but it bears repeating: Don’t be “that guy”. We want to know some things about you personally just as much as we want to know what you’ve written.

Do a meetup

Many people I’ve talked to have spoken on attending writer’s groups for people to bounce story ideas off of, get information and research, cover angles you haven’t thought of and to get good, honest critique before you ship your babies off to be cowboys or, in the case of bad writing, hamburger. Do a quick Google search of writers groups in the area.

My favorite meetup is NaNoWriMo. For those of you who may not have heard of it before, it’s a month of crazy writers drinking too much coffee and writing a terrible 50,000 word novel in 30 days. It’s all self-paced and nominated. There are no judges, no one who picks whose novel is best or worst. A bunch of us crazy people get together in coffeehouses, restaurants, bookstores, libraries and even grocery stores and write throughout the month of November. I love it enough I work as a municipal liaison for Columbus. Previously I worked as ML in Findlay. I have met some wonderful, incredible, horribly knowledgeable people who have given me the best advice and invited me to so many fun things. It really is an experience you should try at least once. If nothing else, it teaches you to sit down and write a little every day.

The most important thing in developing your personal brand seems to be just getting out there and having a good time with other people. Do guest blog posts. Record a video blog. Do some blogging of your own. Come stalk me on twitter. Read the articles I’ve saved to read on Readability. Check out my reviews on Goodreads. Talk to me about your books. I’ll even do reviews for you. Without sounding too desperate, I LIKE hearing from people and I LOVE making new friends. Let’s improve our brand (and our chances at getting published) together.

Marketing for Writers: Professional Bio - syndicated from @DeAubreyDigest

2013-02-15T03:21:00.002-06:00

The following is syndicated from deaubreydigest.wordpress.com and is posted here with permission.

I am absolutely horrible when it comes to writing any sort of bio for anything. I hate talking about myself, I hate talking about myself in the third person and I either give too much information or too little. Just when I think I’ve got a winner, something comes along and changes it in three months and I have to update. I never know how to truncate my bio for something like twitter where I have only a few characters to tell you all about me.

C.V. Perkins

Follow @DeAubreyDigest

deaubreydigest.wordpress.com

The writers at The Undercover Recruiter suggest having three different bios to fit different size limits.

The smallest of your bios should be able to fit in your twitter bio, so fewer than 160 characters. It should be one or two sentences telling everyone how you’re unique. If someone’s twitter bio doesn’t reach out and grab me, I’m hard pressed to go in and look at their tweets to see if they’re someone I want to follow. In the business world, this brief statement about yourself is called a “brand statement”. It should have a mixture of shock and delight, according to the Undercover Recruiter, and be simple enough an eight year old can understand it and tell you your value.

To pick what should be included, sit down and write out your key attributes on a paper. Pick those that make you unique and write it out telling people what value you provide, how you do it uniquely and who you do it for.

While you’re cruising through Twitter to update, make sure you link your personal sites, have a good profile pic and your location data is in your profile so people can find you. If you live near someone, they’re more likely to follow you.

Once you’re done with the short and sweet version, you’ve already done some of the setup for your longer, one page bio. This is a nice little story about you that tells everyone who you are and what you do in a way they’ll want to read it. It’s generally done in the third person so it’s like someone else is writing about what a great author you are and what kind of fun things you do.

Included in this one page babble about yourself, you should include:

Your name in the first sentence (so people know ‘who’ if they jump from Google.)
Where you’ve been published or featured (link to it if possible)
Any awards or acknowledgements for writing
Education or credentials, and not just for writing
Hobbies or interests
Contact details

Be sure you have someone read over your bio to make sure you haven’t forgotten anything important and you haven’t forgotten a word or punctuation. Editing isn’t just for novels. They also suggest cruising through your biography monthly just to make sure nothing has changed. You don’t want to forget a recent publication or public appearance and have someone skip your page thinking they’ve found the wrong person.

Any biography posted with a picture gets more views. Make sure pictures you use for promotion are of professional quality, aren’t reminiscent of a My Space photo you took at the bar and wouldn’t make your mother blush to see it on the back cover of your novel (unless that’s the image you’re going for).

Get out there and wow them! (And give me a link to check it out if this blurb helped you.)

Critic for Hire: A Thought Exercise - syndicated from @adamshaftoe

2013-02-14T15:53:00.002-06:00

The following is syndicated from www.pageofreviews.com and is posted here with permission.

Since the New York Times broke the story on Todd Rutherford’s reviewer for hire service, there’s been no so shortage of justifiable outrage orbiting critics who get paid to write glowing reviews regardless of the text under examination’s actual quality. Over at The Mad Reviewer Carrie Slager calls the transaction of cash for disingenuous praise “unethical on the reviewer’s part and laughably pathetic on the author’s.” At Salon.com Erin Keane says that buying rave reviews is “lazy and counter to the true indie sprit.” Do a few more google searches on “Paying for book reviews” and a theme of near universal condemnation for said practice will emerge.

Adam Shaftoe, M.A.

Editor-in-Chief, The Page of Reviews

Follow @adamshaftoe

www.pageofreviews.com

And generally, I agree with their sentiments. Any critic worth their salt knows not to intentionally misrepresent a given work. So please, dear readers, go forth in this missive knowing that I do not advocate being paid to spread lies.

However, I would ask if it is sensible to expect non-professional critics (that is critics not paid a fixed salary to review life, the universe, and everything) to maintain a level of integrity and impartiality akin to that of the Jedi Knights? Idealism is all well and good, but more often than not it loses out to pragmatism. Allow me to draw a comparison.

During the glory days of the Roman Republic, the Senate thought it best not to pay citizens who held various public offices. The dominant rationale being civic virtue and a sense of service to Rome was ample reward for a year spent as a city magistrate, judge, or septic engineer. This idealism was bolstered by the fact that any Roman who had the means and social connections to consider a life in politics was, by and large, of an old moneyed family. Yet this reality did not prevent a measure of corruption from winding its way into even the lowest levels of Roman bureaucracy.

So as an artistic community, are we not setting ourselves up for disappointment by expecting critics, who probably can’t claim the same sort of financial backing as a Roman aristocrat, to act as beacons of virtue? Indie authors, depending on how they market themselves and the quality of their work, can at least hope to find some form of eventual compensation for their labour. Even if those returns on a self-published novel amount to a penny per word, it’s more than most critics can hope to see given this now explicit expectation of monastic purity and poverty; at least monks received a warm bed, food, and beer in exchange for their daily scribbles.

Once again, I’m not advocating for the sort of disingenuous practices that Todd Rutherford was employing in the name of supply and demand. Yet Rutherford reminds us all that words arranged in a pleasing fashion are a commodity, fiction and editorial alike. Therein he and his ilk illustrate what I see as the crux of this issue. While writers, and perhaps even artists at large, now have venues to create for free with the expectation of deferred compensation, no such effective model exists for independent critics. Those few reviewers who are alternatively audacious or desperate enough to sell their services can now look forward to being anathematized by the writing community, and subjected to the digital age’s equivalent of being pilloried and flogged in the town square.

Still, prosecuting these offenders, at least within a Western tradition of justice, is not always as reductive as condemning a guilty act. Ask yourself if an extreme reaction against buying and selling reviews is warranted when the mens rea is simply a writer wanting to be paid for their words? Show me a writer, any writer, who doesn’t crave a vision of the future where they can write for a living, or even write for the occasional bottle of scotch, and I’ll gladly kiss your ring.

If we take it at face value that the digital age has democratized publications, and further assume that the ideal state for publication 2.0 is a meritocracy wherein good independent authors are rewarded with sales, then shouldn’t it follow that there is a similar revolution awaiting criticism and reviewing? Treating critics and reviewers as a limitless gestalt of free opinions is the same sort of tack some elements in the publishing industry struck with writers prior to the rise of e-publication. We need only look for diminishing sales and stock values to see how mindless adherence to tradition is faring in those quarters.

More to the point, can we really expect this new system to flourish if there are no incentives for reviewers to resist the temptation to mindlessly shill? Perhaps a good place to start is asking if there is a way to reconcile buying a critic’s services without buying the critic wholesale? Because as the indie publishing market grows, the problem of reviewers as paid PR stooges is only going to grow with it.

Write the Book You Want to Read - syndicated from @arogers907

2013-02-13T15:05:00.000-06:00

The following is syndicated from arogers907.wordpress.com and is posted here with permission.

I recently finished writing the first novel in an urban fantasy series. I am very proud of the accomplishment. The series is called The Guardian Diaries, and I am currently working on the second novel now. I have many tales I wish to tell in my fantasy world.

While the interest to pour a story out onto paper has been with me for the entirety of my adult life, the motivation to commit the effort has not been. I can recall the moment when that motivation resolved.

I think that it’s interesting – for me it is, at least – that the catalyst for my novel wasn’t something that happened to me. It wasn’t some other work I read that inspired me. Rather, it was something that I didn’t experience that pushed me to dump over half a year’s worth of very late nights into Cravings, the first of The Guardian Diaries.

In this post, I will try to capture the essence of that motivation and why I think that it is a good and healthy thing for writers to experience.

Catalyst

It was March 23, 2011 and it was bathtime for our two children. They were splashing in the tub and I was sitting beside it, trying to keep the water off of my keyboard. I browsed Amazon and GoodReads, searching for a new book to read. I had, for several months, been tearing through the urban fantasy genre in search of another world to catch and hold my attention.

I had just finished the fourth or fifth book of a quite decent series. I should have been excited to pick up the next book in line. Alternatively, I might have been frustrated that I would have to wait for the next sequel to be published. In this case, the next several books were already available. I was not, however, interested in diving into the next one.

The books had all been very well written. The stories were interesting. The characters were genuine, and I was invested in their success and personal development. I should have been all jazzed up for more. There was a piece that was missing for me, though.

I was really jonesing for a male protagonist.

I am, by inclination, an epic fantasy zealot. I enjoy science fiction, but I’m not passionate about it. My interest in urban fantasy sprang from several very exciting campaigns with my gaming group that were each based in a modern fantasy setting. We are all older now and have a lot of other competing interests. We don’t get to game regularly like we used to. Lucky for me, I had been able to scratch my geek itch by reading about some very well crafted magically modern worlds.

The problem I ran into is that the urban fantasy genre is a very young one. I tore through the bulk of it and was hungry for more. The books I found were becoming increasing built around strong, dangerous female protagonists engaged in cumbersome romantic tangles with males from whatever species filled the role of apex predator in that particular fantasy world.

Again, I’m not saying that I wasn’t still finding fascinating stories by incredibly talented authors. I just kept hoping to find an interesting male protagonist that I could relate to. I branched out into steampunk, Cuthulu, and even some of the darker fantasy and horror stuff. A lot of those works get too occult for me, though. I can appreciate them when they are done well. Still, I don’t really enjoy them.

What I wanted was more urban fantasy books with male protagonists.

So… I decided to write my own.

Method

I set about writing the book that I wanted to read.

So, what did I have to work with?

I knew that I wanted to write an urban fantasy novel with a male lead.

Ok…

That’s all well and good.

However, I don’t think that ‘there is this guy and magic is a real thing’ is the makings of a good story. I spent the next nine months jotting down notes and leaving myself little audio memos. Then, on December 22, 2011, I asked myself some questions that I was willing to write a novel to explore.

There are all sorts of talents and tools that can be dangerous or even deadly if used in appropriately.

What would happen if a tool existed that needed to be kept secret?
What would happen if that tool turned out to be dangerous?
What if, in ignorance, that tool was used to kill?

These questions gave me an interesting philosophical and ethical topic to explore.

Cravings is a story about the danger of power without knowledge.

Without getting into spoilers, these questions gave me the story that I wanted to tell. They also provided the justification to include magic in the world. You can write a romping who-done-it in any genre, but this one doesn’t work without including something like magic.

Cravings is the kind of book that I want to read. I still have plans to someday write 4000 pages of high-fantasy swords and sorcery. Maybe I’ll even come up with a question worth asking of that genre. For these past several months, though, I’ve been able to explore the characters, problems and settings that I hope to find every time I walk into Barnes & Noble and prowl through the fiction shelves.

We should write the books that we want to read. We should put those stories out there for the world to devour. In doing so, I can only hope that we create some fans and grow the genre. And maybe… if we’re lucky, one or two new fans will be inspired to write the books that they want to read.

Then we can all enjoy them.

Author Bio

Father, husband, outdoorsman, writer, gamer and retro-geek. We’re talking dice and cards here, folks. You can keep your gadgets.

Follow me on Twitter: @arogers907

Find me on Facebook: facebook.com/arogers907

Find me on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/pangoandyrogers

Fiction is Never Finished - syndicated post from @JCGAuthor

2013-02-12T10:46:00.000-06:00

The following is syndicated from jonathancg.net and is posted here with permission.

Chief among many classical philosophies is the idea that whatever object a person creates can be nothing more than something approaching what is desired. For example, a chair is not a chair — it’s the idea of a chair. The craftsman gets as far as possible, but is forever incapable of achieving the exact end-result he chases.

Fiction-writing, please report front-and-center.

I received the first proof of The Tyrant Strategy: Revenant Man a few days ago. It is stunning. It looks cinematic, which is what I wanted. It needed a minor layout issue corrected, which has been done, so I should have the revised proof in-hand in a few days, at which point only a final re-read will be needed. (CreateSpace advocates three re-reads, focusing on a different aspect of the book’s production each time, making me wonder who would ever allow a book to reach the proof phase with so many potential issues).

Revenant Man, the first part of The Tyrant Strategy, was first drafted some three years ago. I’m not plugging my book here; I’m honestly going to make a point in a moment, but some backdrop is necessary to support it.

Anyway, in the years since the first draft was written (and filed away for a while), the book has gone through the following:

An initial re-write, addressing high-level details of plot, character development, theme, and consistency.
A second re-write, addressing fine details: prose structure, grammar, technology, cultural artifacts, battle sequences, and other nits to pick.
A commented first-read from a professional writer.
A commented first-read from my darling wife.
A third re-write, focusing on areas of agreement with the first readers, as well as more items I noticed myself.
A full pass by an editor.
A full pass by my book prepper, who did final copy-editing.
A pass by your humble author, with final, minor spot changes made.
A last re-read of the manuscript. This was the “sanity check” step.

Consider, then, that when I cracked open the proof and thumbed through it, I still found things I wanted to change. I was completely aware that the average reader would not care about what I noticed, but, but…this is my book, dang it, and I wanted it to be perfect.

Can’t it be perfect?

There, friends, is the ugly trap at the end of any creative endeavor. Your work-in-progress will always feel like a work-in-progress, and nothing you or anyone else does will ever eliminate that feeling. For those of you writing your first novel (I have three under my belt, though this is the first one I’m publishing) — I will warn you that you can, and will meet the point of diminished returns. You will arrive at the juncture where you can choose to publish, or spend the rest of your life working on an unpublished manuscript.

You’ll be very aware that the book you hold is only the idea of the book in your head.

This is why I tell folks all the time: Fiction is never finished. It simply reaches a state of rest.

Writers do not endure this phenomenon alone. Bono of U2 struggles with perfectionism. Amanda Hocking has lamented before that her books never feel done (forgive me, I can’t find the exact blog post). It carries over to enterprise, too: Steve Jobs, a notorious perfectionist, had NeXT factory equipment repainted multiple times, chasing just the right color scheme.

Professionals recognize when their work is as complete as it will ever be, and move on. And that’s how books are written, and that’s how you had something to sit on while you read this post.

Author Bio

Cover links
to Amazon

Jonathan C. Gillespie has been writing genre fiction for over a decade. His stories have been published in a variety of outlets on three continents, including “The Drabblecast”, “Spinetingler Magazine”, and “Murky Depths”, and have been nominated for a number of awards.

He is an active independent publisher. His flagship series is The Tyrant Strategy — an epic military sci-fi thriller saga — for Kindle, Nook, Kobo, and other formats. The series begins with The Tyrant Strategy: Revenant Man.

In addition to providing quality fiction, he wants to address an important objective with his work.

He lives near Atlanta, Georgia, with his wife, Michelle, his daughter, and three cats.

Interested parties are invited to contact Mr. Gillespie via this page.

The Nightmare of Revision: Drinking with Dante and Wilde

2013-02-10T17:54:00.000-06:00

The following is syndicated from Lauren Grimley: Writing, Life, and Other Misadventures and is posted here with permission.

riter Oscar Wilde summed up the final stages of revisions aptly when he said, “This morning I took out a comma and this afternoon I put it back in again.” What he didn't explain to non-writers is that in the hours in between those decisions he had obssessed over whether such a minute change would drastically alter the effectiveness of his sentence, which could determine the outcome of a scene, which would ultimately make or break the entire plot. Yup, the final stages of revision suck. They suck the joy you once had in your characters, your plot, your style. They suck your confidence in your ability to write anything more interesting than the back of a cereal box. Actually cereal boxes seem quite entertaining compared to some of the scenes I've revised recently.

In the early stages of a draft, the solitude of writing is joyful. It's just the writer with their characters and ideas. It's a happy little secret that no one can spoil. The ideas as well as the writing might be rough, but they're also virginal, untainted by the harsh voices of critics, editors, and readers, which will eventually all creep in–long before a critic, editor, or reader ever gets his hands on it. Whoever originally dubbed these pieces "shitty first drafts" had obviously left the Neverland of writing and had fallen hard on their rump in the land of revision.

That's not to say that my first drafts aren't indeed craptastic. When my pudgy smudgy hand pens the final line of my handwritten draft, there is dire need for revision. I've even grown to like these early stages. I love how my brain works differently going from paper to screen than it does when I initially scratch out my ideas. I love fixing an awkward line, only to reread it and think, damn, I'm good. I've even gotten to the point where I can cut major scenes without mourning over the loss of a great, but unnecessary, one-liner or superfluous character development. Revision in the early stages is rewarding. You know what's wrong, so you fix it.

Revision in the later stages is a lonely, maddening head game. You're driven crazy by the feeling there is more to be fixed, but you no longer know what that is, or worse, you do, but haven't a clue how to fix it. Those imaginary voices that crept in and taunted you during your initial revisions have all gone mute. Instead of enjoying the silence, you desperately hope they'll return. Because no critic, real or imaginary, can be more severe, more crushing to your self-esteem as a writer than your own voice at this stage. You second-guess every decision, wondering if it's possible that you're actually making the draft worse. You spend more time with your finger lingering over the delete button than you do actually rewriting. You become Oscar Wilde, pondering punctuation for hours, truly believing the placement of a comma could make or break not just this one book, but your entire writing career.

This is where I've spent the last week and a half. Writer's hell, the final stages of revision. I'm beginning to see why so many of the great writers took to drinking. Fortunately, I have managed, so far, to get by on lesser vices, the caffeine in my mid-morning iced-coffees and the sun of my mid-afternoon walks. Sometime midweek, I turned off my inner-critic and slipped back into writer mode. Problems suddenly had solutions. Cut scenes found a home in a separate saved document where I feel less sad and guilty about leaving them. Back-story finally fit in polite unobtrusive places later in the story. And character development learned to play nicely with plot.

My sanity is mostly in tact. My draft on book two, Unveiled, I hope, is starting to resemble something publishable. When I can manage to make it through breakfast without worrying that my opening pages aren't worthy of the back of the Fiber One box, I'll know it's time to move onto to my next favorite stage of writing: submission, otherwise known as Purgatory. I wonder who drank more, Wilde or Dante?

Bio and Book Link

Unforeseen

by Lauren Grimley
Follow @legrimley

Lauren Grimley lives in central Massachusetts where she grew up, but her heart is on the beaches of Cape Cod where she spends as much of her time as possible. After graduating from Boston University she became a middle school English teacher. She has her seventh graders to thank for starting her on this path; it was they who convinced a rather skeptical new teacher vampire stories were worth reading.

She now spends her time writing them when she should be correcting papers. If she finds free time beyond these activities, she’s likely to spend it on a beach with a book and bottle of wine close by.

Creating a Magic System: Randomness, Sourcing, and Range - syndicated from @thefourpartland

2013-01-26T18:53:00.000-06:00

The following is syndicated from The Four Part Land and is posted here with permission.

Over the course of the series, I've looked at how Strength and Prevalence affect a magic system and a setting, how Style and Powers shape and define that magic system, and finally how Magical Interaction and Items and Artefacts impact the setting and system. Today is the last of the posts in this part of the series, and I'll be looking at a few bits and pieces that have cropped up during the course of writing. I won't be marking them as choices, because I don't think they're on the same level, but I do think they are rather important all the same.

Randomness – Is magic in the setting random? If so, how much? Randomness can be outstanding fun as an author, because it allows your mage to try killing the villain with a massive spell, only to have him turn in a small cuddly penguin instead. But it can also be a crutch, because it allows the writer to conjure wildly improbable effects to rescue the protagonists from trouble, rather than intelligently writing the scene.

The other way in which random magic can be used is in a grim manner, wherein the casting character is begging and pleading for things to work, but knows that they will not, that most of the time, the magic that he is calling upon will either do nothing or actively harm him in some way.

It is important to note the distinction between random spellcasting and random spell effects. Random spell effects are usually used in a humorous manner, although this isn't always true. Random spellcasting often endangers the life of the character or those around him, and is generally the method of choice for grimmer outlooks on magic.

Sourcing – Where does the magic come from? I've spoken about this a little before, but it needs going into in further detail. Is the power a gift from the gods, dependant on that god still being ascendant, and upon that god's whim? Is it from blood sacrifice, where only the death of a living creature will call the forces to the caster? Is it from infernal sources, a dark pact with a demon?

Each of these affects the way the magic is portrayed, and also the reliability of that magic. In general, sources that come from nature (the character, the elements, even blood sacrifice) tend to be stable in usage. Their strength and powers are repeatable. Whereas demonic or religious power often depends on the whim of a malevolent outside force, one who would be all too happy to see the character fail.

This often ties into randomness, for certain sources are more likely to be random than others. Likewise, it impacts how the character is portrayed. If the power is within him, it is entirely and exclusively his own. If the power is external, he is a conduit for a source greater than himself. If it is demonic or blood related, the character is usually, but not always, evil in nature. Or at least straddling that line. On the other hand, elemental and natural powers imply a close bond to the land, to the outdoors, and so on.

Range – How far can the magic reach? At first this sounds like a bit of an odd statement, but it's a rather important one. If a magician can cast a spell hundreds or thousands of miles (say, through a looking glass), then the writer has created a character who has godlike powers to a greater or lesser degree. He can look in upon characters and curse them, slay them, or bless them as might be his wont for the day. This generally means that there has to be a way to avoid the omniscient gaze, and often much of the story revolves around hiding from sight.

The other aspect that comes into play frequently is teleporting. If it is that easy for a character to cover great distances, then it is disruptive to the world as a whole, because there is very little information lag, and there is no great need to journey through wilderness. It is an even faster method of transportation than aeroplane, and think of how international flight has changed the modern world. It's certainly something to consider when designing a magic system and a setting.

That wraps up my advice on Creating a Magic System. The next two posts will be me exploring the choices raised herein as I design a new magic system as an example.

About

Bringing life to a new captivating world of literature, James Tallett is the innovative author behind the fantasy series, The Four Part Land. The first installment of this provocative new series, Tarranau, was published by Deepwood Publishing in July 2011.

Delving into the trenches of a perplexing world far beyond our imaginations, James also created the Splintered Lands anthology project. The fantasy realm of the Splintered Lands takes readers on a mythical adventure and introduces readers to an assortment of colorful and endearing characters. Bringing together four outstanding writers, James Tallett led the birth of a dynamic literature collaboration for the Splintered Lands project.

James Tallett, an avid global traveler, infuses his passion for hiking and cultural exploration within his writing. He whimsically incorporates his most beloved travel destinations into his vivid storytelling.

Follow @thefourpartland

Blog – www.thefourpartland.com
Twitter - @thefourpartland
Facebook – HERE

Rewriting Early - syndicated post from @JamesWymore

2013-01-19T03:32:00.000-06:00

The following is syndicated from the blog of James Wymore and is posted with permission.

FOR THE BOOK I am working in now, I am taking a different path. The scope of this series will be very broad. So I have a lot of considerations I normally don’t spend much time on. For example, how do you treat a secondary character in the first book who will be the protagonist in a later book?

But one of the biggest differences is that I keep stopping to re-write after only the first five chapters. In the past I have just jotted down notes and left the fixes for future drafts. But I have learned that strategy is not a good one. First of all it causes me to ignore things that need to be fixed and propagate them through the whole book. Second, it makes the rewrite harder because it is now a gigantic text to fix and not just a small portion.

Theocracide

by
James Wymore

Follow @JamesWymore

Click Here to check out the book on Amazon.

Maybe I have learned patience. Or maybe I have finally realized its easier to fix things early on. In the past I was excited about getting through the story and having a full book draft done. But now I have finally embraced re-writing. Maybe I’ve done enough of it to not fear and hate it now. I admit it felt like an enemy before. It was a necessary evil. However, having done enough of it at last, I can accept re-writing as a part of the process. In fact, it is the more important part.

I have about 12,500 words done on the book. But I have twice stopped and gone back to re-write those words. And I just realized I have to go back and do even more work on them now. I really want to push forward and unfold the story. It wouldn’t be in my best interest, though. at long last I figured out that correcting course early on saves a lot of backtracking later. I know I will have to come back and work on these five chapters when the draft is done. But fixing them now will save me a lot of work fixing forty chapters later.

So I have finally crossed a threshold. Don’t procrastinate re-writing.

What are two of the most important lessons you ever learned about writing?

2013-01-15T11:16:00.002-06:00

The following is syndicated from Writing Off The Rails and is posted here with permission.

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Hey, hey readers. I am fresh from my long hiatus from the social networking sphere, given that I’ve been focusing on my writing and all the organization that comes with writing novel-length works. With that in mind, let me herald my return with an interview I secured with Mr. Thomas McCormack, now a playwright and a former CEO of St. Martin’s Press. So as not to delay, take it away, sir! Ooh, slight rhyme.

Interview Questions and Answers

1. What are your top tips for building up the endurance to finish a work, i.e. a novel or a screenplay?

I wrote a book titled The Fiction Editor, The Novel and The Novelist that summed up most of what I learned about the crafts involved. I confess I don’t anywhere in the book tackle the problem of building the needed endurance. Some fleeting thoughts do come to mind, the first few of which aim at fending off the eroders of endurance. And they’re all a bit obvious: To the extent that staying healthy is a matter of will-power, do it. Avoid addictions, get sleep, avoid taking a day-job that will invade your night hours. For example, being a book-editor can exhaust the pertinent sensibility and energy, and it can require your allegedly off-hours be used to read and work on the writings of someone else.

Adopt and adhere to a writing discipline, ideally every day – a time you will devote to working on your idea or manuscript. At least once a week set aside a chunk of time to read the best writers in the genre you’re pursuing for yourself.

Here’s a suggestion that’s difficult to execute. Make sure the idea you are working on is a good, substantial one, something that will generate enduring determination. In other words, make sure the novel/screenplay involves a subject/plot you deeply believe in. Admittedly, some writers – Doctorow, Didion – have described how they must start writing even when they don’t know where they want to go, they have to discover the book as they write at it.

Still, there will be times when a shiny but shallow idea will start you going, an idea too slight to support sustained attention. This easy to say, but again hard to carry out. When you see the central notion is simply not going to be executable – or worth executing – abandon it. It can eat you up fruitlessly for years.

Just how one discerns the distinction between hard to execute and impossible to execute – I can’t give any rules for this. And it entails a dilemma. A novelist needs determination, application, a ‘heavy ass’ for sitting at the machine for hours. And yet exactly this devotion can blind him or her to the fact that the idea is not viable.

2. What are two of the most important lessons you ever learned about writing?

Read, read, read. Or, if it’s a screenplay, watch, watch watch movies. Second, dare to be different. You mustn’t ignore the audience entirely, but don’t take your assignment to be that of creating a shadow, a replica of some successful work, either its style or its structure. Though when you’re very young, this can be good practice. Just keep in mind it’s practice, not the real thing.

3. In what way has writing opened your eyes, changed your life or given you wisdom?

E.M. Forster wrote, “How do I know what I think until I see what I say?”

I believe Flannery O’Connor said something similar.

My own version of that is slightly different. My fingers are much smarter and more honest than my tongue. My tongue is fast, glib, and it has a knack for snappy phrases, but my fingers regularly say to me, “Now, wait a minute, you.” I have often watched my fingers type out the truer insights. Give your fingers a chance.

4. Do you have a statement for writers, i.e. something to motivate or inspire them?

Nothing general, no.

Occasionally, when you know something specific in a writer’s life, you can say, “You ought to write that.” But if the writer isn’t moved by it, that’s that.

When I was in the army, I had an experience with a beginning, middle, and end, with heroes and villains. People would say to me, “You ought to write that.” But I had to respond that mere reportage did not interest me. Using whatever creative imagination I have is what has regularly motivated me to sit down at the keyboard every morning.

Beware of young allegedly ‘creative’ writers who talk about how much they want to ‘say’. They should go write non-fiction. Guaranteed. Except for a few passing rants, Shakespeare didn’t write Hamlet to say something. He wanted to do something. Which he could – to those who listened, and saw, and felt.

* Well, that’s it, folks. Advice from someone who’s been on both sides of the fence. Mr. McCormack has been in the publishing industry, yet he’s also been in the creative writing set. Currently, he is working as playwright and pursuing his varied interests. You can visit his site by clicking here. If you want to connect with me, on the other hand, I’m always spouting off on Twitter, which you can see here.

3 Things To Be Aware Of When Editing Your Manuscript - syndicated from @JeanNicole19

2013-01-14T11:40:00.000-06:00

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The following is syndicated from the blog of JeanNicole Rivers and is posted here with permission.

1. The number of times you use a particular word.

After writing my first novel, The Secret Keepers, I realized that one of my favorite words (unbeknownst to me) was “had”. I used the word so many times that I lost count after the first two chapters. During one of my many edits, I red-flagged each page where I used the word and almost every page was flagged with several uses of the word. Edit by reading your story out loud and abundant use of any particular word will become clear.

2. Times of day.

Make sure that the days in your story progress naturally. You can’t have your characters go for an early morning jog in one paragraph and in the next paragraph talk about how beautiful the sunset is unless you make it clear with your words that the story has quickly progressed into the evening. The scariest thing about this blog is that I would not be giving these particular tips if they were not things that I found in my own writing during the editing phases *shiver*.

3. Spelling of names.

Make sure that you are consistent with the spelling of character names. You can’t have half of the story speak of the main character, Hannah, and the other half speak of the main character, Hanna; that dog just won’t hunt.

Your reader is watching and they will be very critical of careless mistakes, but, also remember that, “a collection of mistakes is called experience and experience is the key to success!”

About JeanNicole

Syndicated from her website

I was born in the tiny, but lovable town of Centralia, IL which has a two screen movie theatre, one high school and still celebrates May Fete, so I had no choice, but to develop a fantastic imagination. Since childhood I have been writing everything from short stories to songs, but I have always aspired to compose a novel. Black Water Tales: The Secret Keepers is my first novel and the first book in what will be a series of thriller novels.

Philosophy was my study in college and I received a Bachelor of Arts in the subject from Florida International University. Writing is one of my most favored artistic pursuits, but my love for the arts does not stop there, I am also a vocalist and actress and participate in local theater in Houston Texas.

Follow her on Twitter: @JeanNicole19
Check out her blog: HERE

What’s the Best Point of View? syndicated from @JamesWymore

2013-01-13T08:08:00.001-06:00

The following is syndicated from the blog of James Wymore and is posted with permission.

I WAS FIVE chapters into my book when I realized I was making a mistake. After writing my last book in third person single character limited, I forgot that most commercial fiction books are not limited to a single character. So I had to go back and switch two of the chapters to be from the POV (point of view) of different characters.

There are really only four functional POV choices for fiction.

1. First Person
2. Third Person Omniscient
3. Third Person Limited, Single Character
4. Third Person Limited, Multiple Characters

Here is a quick run down.

Theocracide

by
James Wymore

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Click Here to check out the book on Amazon.

1. First person is when the character talks as the narrator. The character says “I” and “my” a lot. It is used in young children’s chapter books. A few classics were done in it. But most people agree that after Great Expectations it has never been done well. Detective Noir novels are done in it with a lot of character voice. Short stories often use this because they aren’t long enough for the voice to bug people. (I just finished Riordan’s Kane Chronicles where he switches between two characters in first person. Very cool that he found a way to stretch the norms… And a great book.)

2. Third Omniscient is when the narrator knows everything in everybody’s mind and tells what they are thinking when the narrator feels like it. It’s hard to do well because people don’t like to jump from one mind to another or analyze emotions comparatively. It can be distracting.

3. Third limited single is common in YA (like Harry Potter). The narrator speaks about the main character, but we never get to go anywhere except where the main character is. It’s a good compromise for getting into the head and heart of a single character without the annoying voice of first person.

4. The multiple character version of third limited is the most common choice of commercial adult fiction. The narrator tells the story, but each scene is kept to the actions and feelings of one of the characters, while changing between scenes. It lets the author explore many characters in deeper depth. It has the drawback of feeling like cheating if the author uses this POV but keeps back info from the readers.

So the book I’m writing now is the first of an epic series. It has tons of characters and complex plot. I already know future sequels will have different protagonists. So the single character limited third person POV was completely wrong. But it wasn’t until five chapters in that I realized what I was doing wrong. That and I had several characters I hadn’t named yet.

So two questions.

First, does anybody else go that far before deciding on names?

Second, have any of you had to deal with POV problems like this?

Write What You Know No More - syndicated from @legrimley

2013-01-12T09:32:00.001-06:00

The following is syndicated from Lauren Grimley: Writing, Life, and Other Misadventures and is posted here with permission.

Blog inspired by various speakers at Backspace Writers Conference 2012 including Jessica Anya Blau, Jael McHenry, Lauren Baratz-Logsted, and David Robbins, among others. Thanks for the advice and inspiration!

"Write what you know."

Every writer has heard it. As a writing teacher, I'm guilty of having said it to my students. It seems like such logical advice. Of course one can write more convincingly about the experiences he has had in life: the jobs he's held, the places he's visited, the crushing relationships he's started and ended. But if you really think about it, what would books be like if writers only wrote what they knew? To start, there'd be no fantasy, no dystopian tales, no science fiction, so good-bye Harry Potter, Hunger Games, and Star Wars. Shades of Grey would only exist if someone was saucy enough to admit to living such a lifestyle. We'd know for sure Stephen King ought to be locked up in a padded room somewhere. Even realistic fiction would vanish. Readers looking for a story would be left only with memoirs.

"The human experience is universal." – Jessica Anya Blau

Of course, most writing instructors telling their students to write what they know probably had a less literal meaning in mind. In a more broad sense, most writers should and do write what they know. They write about the experiences we share as humans (or fantastical creatures with human qualities). Writers take in the world around them, experiencing life's best and worst moments through close observations of family, friends, coworkers, even people in the news. These observations, coupled with writers' own life experiences, give them an entry point. Imagination takes them the rest of the way.

"Find a seed, grow a flower." – Jael McHenry

Writers find seeds everywhere. Those seeds are the small bits of truth, of knowledge, that they plant in a story to make it believable, no matter how far from the reader's reality the story may be. Without those roots for readers to grab hold of, they wouldn't be able to suspend their disbelief in the more fantastical or intense moments. But stories can't be just seeds. Writers need to have the imagination and creativity to grow and develop tales beyond what they themselves or their readers have experienced. None of us have twirled a twig and rid our world of all evil, but all of us have had to experience the same coming-of-age trials of self-discovery and acceptance that Harry and the trio went through in the Potter series. Rowling made her young characters' conflicts echo enough of our own experiences, that we were willing to tag along in their world and not question it's more outrageous details.

The seed is what a writer knows. Everyone has a bag of seeds in their back pocket, but most grow dime-a-dozen dandelions that wouldn't hold our attention for more than a second. A writer's challenge is to take those same seeds and grow a garden of flowers that readers can't necessarily name and can't quite touch, but never want to leave.

I'll never again tell my students to write what they know. But I will encourage them to be collectors of seeds, growers of gardens, and reapers of fantastic and fantastical fiction.

Bio and Book Link

Unforeseen

by Lauren Grimley
Follow @legrimley

Creating a Magic System: Interaction, Items and Artifacts - syndicated from @thefourpartland

2012-12-29T09:38:00.000-06:00

The following is syndicated from The Four Part Land and is posted here with permission.

So over the course of the series, I've looked at how Strength and Prevalence affect both a magic system and a setting, and how Style and Powers shape and define that magic system. Now I'm going to examine Magical Interaction and Items and Artifacts.

The second of these, Items and Artifacts, is something that as fantasy readers and writers we understand and is near and dear to our hearts. Magical Interaction is a little bit more of a nebulous concept, because there's two distinct areas that qualify, and I'm going to try and cover both today.

Magical Interaction is either how magic interacts with itself, or how people interact with magic. Both of these are critical when designing a magic system, as one has a huge impact on what it can do, and the other on how it cane be used.

And now to the choices!

Choice #5: Magical Interaction – How does magic affect magic? Does the concept of counterspelling or disruptive magic exist? Are there chaotic effects or logical ones? Counterspelling, spell-breaking, etc. has a long history in fantasy stories, most commonly when dealing with enchantments or curses. In most cases, there has to be a way to undo the damage being caused, because without it the story cannot advance.

But what about combat spellcasting? Should a mage be able to cast a spell that negates those of the opposing side? Not negates in the sense of equal yet opposing powers, but simply cancelling out, stopping the spell from ever being cast? And then how easy or hard is it to do? If spell-breaking is easier than spellcasting, then magic is a very weak and feeble force. If it is too hard to spell-break a casting, then it will feel as if the opportunity does not exist, or isn't the smart choice. After all, if it's easier to hit the opposing wizard with a fireball than try and cancel his spell, why not just kill him?

A careful balance must be struck if using spell-breaking, for regardless of the difficulty of the approach, if it's only used by the good forces (or the bad), it then starts to feel like a contrived plot device to force the story in a given direction, rather than another ability that lives within the world.

Now for the second part of Magical Interaction – how people interact with magic. Are they afraid of it? Accept it amongst their daily lives? View it as the province of the elite? This ties in heavily with Prevalence, but is not the same. If magic is common in the world, it could be that magic is another tool, and the cobblers use it to mend shoes better. Or it could be that those born with the magic are seen as shapeshifting demons who will eat their souls in the night, and that gifted children are slain at birth if caught.

Obviously many other parts of the setting factor into this decision, but it plays an important role in devising the setting. In both The Four Part Land and Splintered Lands, there are about the same number of mages to population (or at least it feels that way). In The Four Part Land, they serve as mining engineers, ship captains, factory workers, architects, using their talents to perform at fairly normal and mundane jobs. In Splintered Lands, they are hunted and killed whenever they are found, for they are seen as being responsible for the breaking of the lands.

Possessing magic could also be the instant ticket to the nobility that so many dream of, or it could see people relegated to the gutter as vile refuse. There are many different ways to choose, and it is up to the author to determine the best one for the style of story he wishes to write.

Choice #6: Items and Artifacts – Can magic be put into items? If so, how powerful is that magic? Common? Extremely rare? This in many ways determines how accessible magic is to the non-gifted characters in the story. If the only source of magic is from within a character or at a predetermined location, then it is quite rare, but if Backpacks of Spell Generation are going for five quid over at the local corner shop, then it's quite a different place.

There is no right or wrong answer to these questions, but the more common magical items are, the higher the ambient level of magic usually is, and thus main character magicians tend to be even more powerful, so that they stand out above the general level of the background. Likewise, having magical items tends to mean that non-gifted characters have the ability to perform more and varied actions, through the use of the tools they acquire over the years.

Now, powerful magic items are very often used as quest hooks or pivotal plot points, so removing them entirely from the setting does reduce the author's options in some ways. But it is also possible to have the items dominate the action, where it becomes about them and the new an interesting ways they can be used, rather than about the character or the story. If an author finds themselves writing so they can do something cool, rather than writing what fits the story, then they are using items as a crutch that pushes them away from the core plot.

In some ways, Magical Items have all of the same problems as a magic system. What Power and Prevalence are they, what Style and Strength, and how do people interact with them? If the author chooses to have Magical Items in their setting, I would recommend running through Choices #1-#5 again, only thinking about the Magical Items.

That wraps up the six main choices that I use when designing a magic system. Next, I'll be talking about Other Considerations, a collection of ideas and suggestions that can dramatically change a magic system.

About

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Blog – www.thefourpartland.com
Twitter - @thefourpartland
Facebook – HERE

More On Amazon Reviews And Indie Authors

2012-11-08T21:21:00.000-06:00

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The following is syndicated from To Become A Writer and is posted here with permission.

Okay, by now I’m sure you’ve all heard about the stink with Amazon reviews and how it’s affecting indie authors. I’ve read a lot of blogs, Facebook groups, twitter feeds and more about this hot and controversial topic and here’s the latest, as I’ve heard it…and the latest from Amazon. Read on…

Indie Authors – How/When Did This Start?

I’ve read a lot of posts that say that this all started when the New York Times printed an article about John Locke buying reviews. Actually, indie authors were reporting that they were losing reviews before the NYT article went public. One theory I’ve heard (from JA Konrath), is that the site No Sock Puppets Here Please (a site where you could agree that you wouldn’t create fake reviews) is the culprit for all of this happening. According to Konrath (at least as far as I can tell) is that if this group had kept their mouths shut, Amazon wouldn’t have gone to all this trouble to over-enforce their review rules. Again, the problem here is that reviews started disappearing before NSPHP’s post (that group may still have influenced Amazon, who knows?).

Indie Authors – A Reasoned Response to JA Konrath

JA Konrath has written at length about this issue. I, for one, think he’s deflected the issue away from the actual issue of people faking reviews and onto those that complained about it (NSPHP in particular). For a great look at JA Konrath’s posts and more about what Amazon is probably doing, read a wonderful post by Edward Robertson. And as Edward notes (as I did above), reviews started disappearing before the John Locke issue came to light (also, if you read my first post on this, Indie Authors And Amazon Removing Reviews, you’ll see that it was post in July, well before the John Locke issue). For a great discussion on why Amazon is removing reviews, read this post from the Amazon forums…and read the ones where reviewers are now questioning if they want to review anything anymore. Is this what Amazon wants? After all, reviews help sell products….

And let me clarify, I don’t have anything against JA Konrath…back in the day, I think he gave a lot of great advice to people trying to get published. But I think he’d muddied the waters with this one…

Indie Authors – Another Disturbing Trend From Amazon

If any of you have read my previous posts on this issue (Indie Authors And Amazon Removing Reviews and Indie Authors, John Locke and Book Reviews), you’ll see in the comments that when indie authors have complained to Amazon about why they’ve had reviews removed, Amazon, in at least a few cases, has threatened to remove the author’s book. This is exceedingly disturbing to me. Why would Amazon do this? Why not clarify why the review was removed? What harm could this do? Now I’m not stupid…I’m sure they’ve been overwhelmed with questions about this, and some low-level employee who has no idea what’s behind all this is answering the questions. But you’d think Amazon would not want to alienate their authors, but then again, they really are about the money, and not indie authors.

Indie Authors – Amazon Creates A New Review Policy

And now, in the midst of all this, we have a new review (or maybe it’s just the newly enforced) policy from Amazon. It’s interesting to read, and it also brings some things into question. Let’s start with who can create an Amazon review:

Anyone who has purchased items from Amazon.com. All we ask is that you follow a few simple rules (see “What’s not allowed” below).

This brings in an interesting twist – what to do about gifted books? The policy says:

If you received a free product in exchange for your review, please clearly and conspicuously disclose that you received the product free of charge.

Okay, makes sense. But I’ve heard of authors who gift a book to a reader, the previously stated guideline was adhered to in the review, and Amazon still took down the review. Does anyone know definitely what the answer is? Let me know in the comments if you do.

Here’s another piece of the policy:

Reviews written for any form of compensation other than a free copy of the product. This includes reviews that that are a part of a paid publicity package.

Did anyone alert Amazon that they had a typo there . Now, in theory this makes sense. But I’d still like to know if Amazon is addressing the Big Six (or Big Five now) and their paying for reviews for their big authors. I doubt it…

The policy also covers inappropriate content, including links and the like. Pretty standard. But then I read on Robert Chazz Chute’s blog that Amazon will not allow authors to review their competition. Read the post, Roberth has some great thoughts on this. However, I don’t see this spelled out in Amazon’s policies (at least not specifically).

I understand that Amazon needs to try to correct things…they have a reputation to uphold. But I think they’re going overboard, and it’s not only going to hurt indie authors, it’s going to hurt them, because sales are tied to both groups.

If you care to, there is an interesting post and a petition that you can sign that is trying to get Amazon to be reasonable in their approach. And just some food for thought – people voicing their thoughts can get Congress to change it’s tune…maybe we can get Amazon to listen).

UPDATE:

Robert Chazz Chute left links below that show specifically how authors are not able to review other authors’ works. The L. A. Times has an article about author Steve Weddle, who was not able to leave a review for his friend, a fellow author. Amazon’s response:

We do not allow reviews on behalf of a person or company with a financial interest in the product or a directly competing product. This includes authors, artists, publishers, manufacturers, or third-party merchants selling the product.

This is not a good sign at all. Not only that, many of us can give great reviews because we should understand what makes great reading. Go figure…

13 Ways to Exorcise Wordiness - Syndicated from @worddreams

2012-10-31T07:03:00.000-05:00

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Syndicated from Jacqui Murray's WordDreams…
Posted here with her permission.

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Twitter may be extreme–140 characters to communicate an entire thought–but the intent is right: Make your writing pithy. Fill each sentence with context. Make every word count. Fluff is boring. It slows the ~~pace of the story,~~ story’s pace, puts your reader to sleep, and is a fundamental reason why people stop reading your book. Forever. Instead of inspiring them to lose themselves in your tale, they put it down and never miss it.

Writers too often get caught up in their own prose, believing flowery spotlights their burgeoning writerly skills. On the contrary. The collection of words may be beautiful, but are they effective? That’s why people read their novel aloud. It sounds completely different to the ear than the mind. Does it still flow when you hear it or are the sentences stilted and forced, or wandering? Be brutal. Change the phrasing until it sounds right.

Here are some of the most effective wordiness fixes you can make:

Don’t use ‘very’. It’s a cardboard hammer: looks good on paper, but fails in the harsh glare of reality.
Limit prepositional phrases. Readers get lost in the maze of phrases starting with ‘in’, ‘from’, ‘after’–those words ~~that~~ you think add colorful detail and readers see as distracting. If those details are so important, give them their own sentence or show them in situ.
Limit adjectives and adverbs to max two per noun/verb. In writing creativity and sloth can look a lot alike to the newbie writer. Let me help you with that: Creativity is using the right nouns and verbs in the right place. Sloth is expecting adjectives and adverbs to do the heavy lifting.
Skip meaningless phrases like ‘given the fact that’. They bury your lead. Just tell us the facts.
Eliminate ‘which’ and ‘that’. How often is ‘that’ necessary to get an idea across? Take it out, see if your idea comes across. Usually, it’s as useful as a chocolate teapot.
Use active instead of passive words. Using ‘are’, ‘is’, and their ilk requires additional explanation to communicate ~~the action of your scene~~ your scene’s action. Can you turn it around? Change ‘She was energized and started to clean her house with renewed vigor.’ to ‘Energized, she vigorously cleaned her house.’
For that matter, ‘started’ (as in the example above) is rarely required. We don’t need to know when something started AND that it’s occurring. The latter is sufficient.
Don’t confuse quantity with quality. Your reader won’t. You want support? Buy a bra. Don’t get it by bolstering your word count.
Don’t repeat yourself. It’s tempting to say the same thing a few different ways, just in case the reader didn’t get it. Don’t. Trust your reader or fix your prose. Or do both.
Negatives are wordy; positives put the reader in a better frame of mind for your story.
Don’t mitigate your argument with words like ‘mostly’, ‘kind of’, ‘is possible’. Be strong, aggressive, sure of yourself. Believe in yourself and your readers will also. When you really want to slap someone with the truth, do it. Apologize later if you must, but lay your soul out there for all to see.
Metaphors and similes are clarifiers. Cliches are filler. The former are the WD 40 of your story arc. The latter are sinkholes the reader tries to skip over.
Get rid of non-essential information, even if it’s interesting. It slows the story pace. Or grinds it to a halt. Tom Clancy and James Michener can get away with it. Most of us can’t.

That’s it. Now go write!

PS–I marked some of my edits so you could see how it changed this article. Better, don’t you think?

Jacqui Murray is the editor of a K-6 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, creator of two technology training books for middle school and six ebooks on technology in education. She is the author of Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blog, Technology in Education featured blogger, IMS tech expert, and a bi-weekly contributor to Write Anything. Currently, she’s editing a thriller that should be out to publishers next summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.

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Creating a Magic System, Part 2: Style and Powers — syndicated post from @thefourpartland

2012-10-28T15:30:00.002-05:00

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The following is syndicated from The Four Part Land and is posted here with permission.

Last time, I looked at how Strength and Prevalence affect both a magic system and a setting. This time around, I'm going to look at Style and Powers.

First off, a little background on each. Style is how the interactions with magic are portrayed to the reader, and how the characters in the story believe that magic acts. Powers is what can be done with that magic.

Here's a quick example so that you understand what I'm trying to say.

Iudas pulled energy from his cells to excite the air molecules in front of him, creating a barrier of superheated air between him and the foes that chased him.

Iudas caught at the elemental fire within, forming it into a roaring, blazing wall between him and the foes that chased him.

The Power in question is more or less identical – a wall of superheated air/flame. Anyone attempting to pass through it will be burnt. But the Style is extremely different. The first is something I would associate with telekinetics or psionics, a much more modern, scientifically styled description of what is going on, while the second is much closer to how I see more traditional magic being described.

With that example out of the way, onto to the choices!

Choice #3: Style – How do you want to describe your magic, your world? Does it have Arabian influences? Eastern? Celtic? Each of these is a distinct culture in Earth's history, and when authors choose a style to use, they are usually borrowing little bits and pieces of historical cultures and merging them together to create a unified whole.

Style is not the power itself, it is the trappings of power. This is most often seen when a wizard is casting a large, world-changing spell. Almost regardless of what is involved outside of that event, the particular casting will require long rituals, many complex agents and actors, and be capable of being spoiled in any number of ways. Yet if a god performs actions that have the same scale and scope, they are often described as taking mere moments and but a little thought.

This distinction is all about style. Style dictates how hard or easy casting a spell or accessing magic is for the user. Most often, this comes about from where the magic is sourced. Internal power tends to be easier to access, and most of the hold-ups and flaws are within the caster's mind. This allows for moments of tension as the mage struggles to gain control of his emotions, and then unleashes a satisfy blast at the last moment to save the day. As a reader, we've probably all come across this scenario multiple times.

You can't do that if the nature of magic requires that the wizard sit inside a magical rune and chant for one hour, at a minimum. If that is how magic is written in a given setting, then the author needs to plan out spaces and time for magic to be used. To create a similar feeling of duress, the caster would likely be under assault during the last few minutes of the casting process, with friends and allies attempting to stave off the incoming tide.

When creating the source of magic, it's vitally important to think about how that choice of source, and the rules that affect accessing it, will have an impact on what situations you can and cannot devise in your writing. I highly recommend writing a short story or two about the use of magic before starting plotting and devising larger scopes, so that as an author you have a feel for how your system looks on paper.

Choice #4: Powers – What can magic do in your setting? Can it rewrite continents, or does it get used to fix a broken boot heel? Neither of these is any more valid than the other, and both can have significant impact on a story, but it is important to choose what a mage can and cannot do. If a caster can do everything that can be thought of, that is both a strain on the author and the world, and a temptation to allow magic to solve every problem that exists. That takes away from dramatic tension, if the author gets to a sticky part of the story and knows that the main character can wave his hand and create a solution.

Please note that Powers and Strength are not the same thing, but interact quite closely. Take a firemage. His powers are that he can summon and manipulate fire, and only fire, within a radius from his physical location. His strength, and the allowed strength of magic in the given setting, says whether that fire will be candle's flame, or a ball of fire the size of a sun. If he can only produce a small flame, little more than a campfire, he is vastly more limited than if he can create a bonfire or an inferno. Yet his powers have not changed. It is the application of differing levels of strength to a singular power that dictates his effectiveness in a given situation.

Note that the choice of powers has a marked impact on how magic is viewed in the setting. If magic is primarily low in strength, and focused around fixing broken items, then in some ways a caster is the same as a modern day plumber or mechanic, and is probably treated similarly. Yet stay with me a moment as I layer style on top. Does it dictate that the magic can only be created in a sanctified temple? Or can the gifted mage come to a client's house? In one situation, the client must go to the mage in his temple as a supplicant. In the other the mage goes to the client, as a man providing a service.

It is somewhat difficult to describe Powers, because the only limits are created by the imagination of the writer, but there are a few general choices.

All-encompassing occurs when each and every mage has the possibility to perform every spell or ritual allowed within a given world. They may not have the strength, or the required items, but at a fundamental level they could perform the spell.

Subset or discrete magic is when there are different powers of magic, and once a character is slotted into one, there is absolutely no possibility of ever casting from outside of that category. The most common of these is elemental magic, wherein a magician is attuned to either Air, Earth, Water, or Fire, and cannot, at even the most basic level, ever entertain the possibility of being able to use one of the other three aspects.

So, we have now gone through and picked out four aspects of our magic. Next week, we'll wrap up this part of the series with the final two – Magical Interaction and Items and Artefacts.

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