A4A Blog

2024-10-29T14:23:00.000-07:00

NaNoWriMo Video Prompts

Ready to ditch NaNo together? Here are the prompts for NaNo on TikTok 2024!

If possible, stitch with the A4A account when we post the prompt each day! Follow @a4apublishing and watch for the prompt each day at 9AM EST!
Make sure to use the hashtag #DitchNaNo
Follow, repost, and interact with your colleague's posts! Remember, we're trying to build community and support each other!

Prompts

November 1	Friday	Introduce Yourself: Who are you, when and why do you write?
November 2	Saturday	Where do you live and what hobbies do you have?
November 3	Sunday	What are you writing for Nano, and what is your goal this week?
November 4	Monday	Meet the characters: Who is your main character, and what is their main objective in your story?
November 5	Tuesday	Meet the characters: Tell us more about your main character! Age, Gender, and Location!
November 6	Wednesday	Meet the characters: Who is the antagonist or villian, what what is their main objective in your story?
November 7	Thursday	Meet the characters: Tell us more about your antagonist! Age, Gender, and Location!
November 8	Friday	Meet the characters: Who else is in your story? Friends, mentors, or other supporting cast!
November 9	Saturday	How do you create your characters? Where do your ideas come from?
November 10	Sunday	Weekly check in: Did you meet your goal? What's your goal for next week?
November 11	Monday	Location, location, location: Is there anywhere that inspired the setting for your story?
November 12	Tuesday	How do you include different cultures and heritages in your story?
November 13	Wednesday	How does the setting affect your story? What's harder or different because of the setting?
November 14	Thursday	How does the setting affect your characters?
November 15	Friday	How does weather or climate affect your story?
November 16	Saturday	What's the economy like in your story? What's harder or different because of it?
November 17	Sunday	Weekly check in: Did you meet your goal? What's your goal for next week?
November 18	Monday	Don't lose the plot: What genre is your story?
November 19	Tuesday	Is there any romance in your story? How are you handling other emotions?
November 20	Wednesday	Any popular tropes in your story? What are they, and why (or why not) include them?
November 21	Thursday	How do you pace your story?
November 22	Friday	Where or how did you get the idea for this story?
November 23	Saturday	Is your story part of a series or standalone, and how does that affect your writing?
November 24	Sunday	Weekly check in: Did you meet your goal? What's your goal for next week?
November 25	Monday	Do you have a writing support group? How do they help you?
November 26	Tuesday	How do you write: plotting or pantsing?
November 27	Wednesday	What tools do you use to organize your writing?
November 28	Thursday	Show us your writing space!
November 29	Friday	Final check in: Almost there? Cramming for the end?
November 30	Saturday	Final day! Win or lose? What did you discover?

Can't wait to learn all about your WIP!

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Author Interview: Faith Consiglio

2021-12-15T02:00:00.003-08:00

Faith, thanks for sitting down with us today. Let’s get started, shall we? What inspired you to write Where Ashes Reign?

I was driven by the question of what forces can overcome hatred, even the most deeply rooted kind. In 2012, during a peak of violence in the middle east, I watched friends bitterly divide based on allegiance to different sides of the conflict. As someone without personal ties to the region, I was shaken by how deeply rooted hatred ran, and that even in an academic setting, my smart, polite, and compassionate peers turned against each other with little chance for constructive conversation. Friends became enemies based on their positions, histories, and beliefs. It drove me to consider what forces, if any, can overcome such animosity, and if it’s possible to achieve peace. These are the themes that motivated my creation of a fantastical world plagued by war, which I felt could examine these ideas in an objective way.

That’s a really great inspiration. Are there any themes, symbols, or motifs in your story?

Definitely! I’ve always loved discussing motifs, symbols, and themes in whatever book I’m reading, and themes are often what I first brainstorm about before I start to write. I find it satisfying to include these and think they add depth and intrigue to the story.

Definitely. Who is your favorite character?

This is a difficult one to answer because I like them all for different reasons. I think my favorite is Emory, with Laileth second.

Emory is a great character, for sure. How did you craft your world?

I had a few specifications in mind geographically—I wanted it to resemble Mesopotamia’s fertile crescent, and for the civilization’s livelihood to be based around rivers, which would make the threat of drought devastating. I also wanted mountains to create a valley, as a type of enclosure for this world which I envisioned as a microcosm. As far as creating the three kingdoms, I went through a long research phase and drew on aspects of ancient Mesopotamian civilization including religion, weaponry, and division of labor. I also focused on developing distinctions between each of the kingdoms to set the stage for conflicts and clashes of culture.

That’s really cool. What about this time period drew you in?

Most of us remember ancient Mesopotamia as a cradle of civilization, with one of the earliest documented systems of justice. I thought this setting had a part to play in my exploration of conflict, allegiance, and war, and in some ways could serve as a mirror of our modern-day world.

Let’s switch gears a little—who are your favorite authors?

Michael Chrichton

Brandon Sanderson

Stephen King

Madeline Miller

Margaret Atwood

That’s a great list. We have just one more question for you: What can readers expect next from you?

I would like to continue the story of Where Ashes Reign. I definitely have more in mind for each character’s arc and the world they live in.

Thanks again for sitting down with us today.

Readers, make sure to join us this week to play games for a chance to win a free paperback copy of Where Ashes Reign and join us on Saturday, December 18th for the launch party.

Where Ashes Reign

by Faith Consiglio

War-torn and drought-ridden, the three kingdoms of the river valley have another threat to face—dark spirits, feeding off hatred, possess men and beasts to slaughter and devour.

Emory, the only heir to her kingdom's throne, is one of the last who believes in the eternal realm, but her faith is fading until an unexpected guest arrives, claiming to be from there. Blaming the kingdoms' plight on a curse, he needs Emory to help defeat the one who cast it. Eager to escape the palace, she ventures into a rival kingdom, where her identity could mean death and one misstep could spark war. The fate of the kingdoms now depends on her, and as an unexpected love blossoms, she faces the most dangerous threat of all. Has Emory just walked into a trap that could cost her life? Can she defeat the cursecaster on her own, or will the land be ravaged by war and dark spirits forever?

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Author Interview: Rebecca Mikkelson

2021-11-17T02:00:00.007-08:00

Rebecca, thanks for sitting down to talk with us today. Let’s dive right in, shall we? What inspired you to write The Anatalian soldier?

I’ve always enjoyed writing stories, starting from my early teens and on, but I didn’t really start writing until I was living in South Korea with Mr. M. My mother always told me that I’d write a book one day, and being stuck in our incredibly small apartment all day and unable to find a job, I thought it was time to give it a try.

I started writing a single scene to see what would happen, and from then on I was hooked. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about writing since.

It’s funny how books can happen out of boredom. Tell us, are there any themes, symbols, or motifs in your story?

I wanted to answer this question no because I don’t particularly feel like books need to have a lesson in them, but all authors put in themes and otherwise whether we intend to or not. I’ve found that I have running throughout the whole series themes of courage and perseverance—both Liam and Margaret have to overcome the obstacles in their lives on their own, all while trying to be successful at it. Growing up in a military family, this was my life. We had to persevere anywhere we went, and we went a lot of places, so I’ve unconsciously infused it in my books.

Those are things that I think everyone can relate to in their everyday lives. Who is your favorite character?

This might be a little surprising, but my favorite character is Lord General Crompton. He’s a morally gray character that will eventually surprise people. I also really like writing King Sorren—he’s such an evil character in later books, but there are still moments where you kind of like him. To me, these characters are much more of a challenge to make people like, and thus I enjoy them more.

That isn’t to say that I don’t like my main characters—if I didn’t, I wouldn’t have written this story with them as the focal point, but they’re not as challenging to make the readers like.

Morally gray characters can definitely be fun to write. How did you craft your world?

Well, I initially thought when I started writing that I was going to do a straight historical fiction, and then not being able to have access to any research libraries in English, I thought instead I would make it a fantasy inspired by history. I modeled the political climate after the Wars of the Roses. The clothes and other elements in the book are kind of an amalgamation of other time periods. I’m particularly fond of the silhouette in the 17th century, but I don’t always follow that rule…because I do what I want.

You’ll find a lot of easter eggs for the history buffs out there—and I’d love to hear about when you find them, readers!

You mentioned modeling it off the Wars of the Roses, what about that time period drew you in?

Well…this might be a slightly unexpected answer, but I really enjoy the absolute petty nature of the Wars of the Roses. Two sides of a family can’t stand being in power so much that they’ll literally murder each other to make sure that they can keep whatever power that they have.

That’s certainly one reason to like it. Let’s switch gears a little: Who are your favorite authors?

I’ll always have a special love in my heart for David Eddings—his Belgariad series is what hooked me into reading in the first place. Having dyslexia, reading was not my thing until I was gifted his series, and a whole world was unlocked for me. I’m also a huge fan of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series and Kristen Britain’s Green Rider series.

All great authors. We’ve got one final question for you: What can readers expect next from you?

Gosh, there’s a lot to expect, but for now, I’ll have my second book in the series, The Anatalian Countess, out in November of next year. You’ll also be able to look forward to the remainder of the books in this six-book series, and two to three (because my brain won’t stop creating books) other stand-alone novels completely unrelated to the Anatalians. If you’re wanting something short and more immediate, you can check out my short story, “The Measure of a Princess.”

Rebecca, thanks again for talking with us today. Readers, join us for the launch party of The Anatalian Soldier, on Saturday, November 20th for your chance to win a free copy!

The Anatalian Soldier

by Rebecca Mikkelson

Liam Fulton wants to see the world beyond the vineyard his parents live and work on. The only option he sees is the Anatalian army. Shortly after he joins, war breaks out, where he discovers a treasonous plot. Will he come away unscathed, or will his actions during the war irreparably change his life?

Margaret is just learning to fit in at court when her father falls gravely ill. The other courtiers start to pull away from her family, thinking they're cursed by God for reaching too high. Her mother, unable to handle the pressure of scrutiny, abandons them. Can Margaret figure out how to care for her father on her own?

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How I Screwed Up My Author Career

2021-10-06T03:00:00.004-07:00

and What I’m Doing to Fix It

Brandi Spencer (formerly B. C. Marine), CAO Authors 4 Authors Publishing

I don’t think it’s easy for anyone to own their mistakes or flaws, especially in the era of social media. And I am far, far from immune to that drive to keep up that polished veneer. Frankly, I’ve been putting off writing this post because of it. The fear that publicly revealing my errors will destroy any confidence in me—it’s paralyzing.

Why? Because I’m not just an author. I’m one of the founders and directors here at A4A, and copyediting and proofreading are under my purview. It’s literally my job to find other people’s mistakes, not make them myself! Of course, it’s one thing to say, “Oops, disregard that note,” when an author points out an iffy correction. This is…decidedly worse.

What’s in a Name

Let’s start with my biggest mistake: my pen name.

Too Close to See It

Believe it or not, B. C. Marine was not fake. I was born with the name Brandi Christine Marine (yes, I know it rhymes). It’s not a common last name, which is a bit of an advantage, right? And it sits higher on the alphabet than my married name of Spencer, which means better bookshelf placement. At the time I chose it, my initials felt more professional to me than Brandi—a name I’d been teased about for years. From my point of view, B. C. Marine was a great name with a personal connection to me.

The Algorithm Hates Me

My first clue I had a problem should have been the emails sent to me as I established my author name. B. C. aren’t just my initials; they happened to be the abbreviation for British Columbia, a Canadian province that’s known for its western coast. Combined with my surname, I received many offers related to boating in Canada.
I shrugged these off and figured it wouldn’t connect to fiction books. Oh, how wrong I was. Not only were readers having trouble finding my books via Amazon search, but even I couldn’t find myself unless I was ridiculously specific with my search terms. Rather than showing my titles, a search for B. C. Marine gives page after page of boating and military books. While writing this, I actually received an email from a reader who was concerned my second book, The Allurist’s Son, might be out of print because they couldn’t find it. Cue my infinite groan of frustration.

Surely, You Can’t Be Serious

Most of my other mistakes are various results of my trying too hard to look professional and respectable as an author. I picked titles and covers that emphasized high fantasy, not romance. I took critiques of my book descriptions to heart when they said they sounded “fluffy.” My author photo was stiff and aloof, and my interactions on social media weren’t much better. When it came to packaging and marketing, I was afraid to be true to myself and my writing.

Is This a Kissing Book?

I know what I write. My trilogy is about a pair of lovers who have healing kisses, one of whom is a perpetual jokester. While I break hearts from time to time in my stories, they’re ultimately fun and a bit silly if you think about the premise directly. As an author with neither aspirations nor desire for literary or academic accolades, why should I care how serious I look? Even among the fantasy geek crowd who might enjoy my world building, if I have to obscure the romance to get their attention, they aren’t my target audience anyway.

What Now?

Knowing all this, the longer I keep this all the same, the harder it will be for me to change it. As is, I have two novels and a short story series to republish, along with an overhaul of my social media accounts and website. So, like ripping off a bandage, I’m getting it all over with quickly, making all my changes at once.

Being True to Myself

Going forward, I need to accept myself as a person and an author for who I am. For my books, that means titles and covers that embrace the romance. Some people might find them cheesy, and that’s okay because they’re more genuine this way. For my online presence, I got a new set of author photos that look more relaxed and approachable, and I’m working on coming out of my shell and letting my humor and whimsy show more.

It also means being more personal and opening up about parts of my identity that might be considered uncomfortable. My ADHD and probable autism are just as much a part of me as my intelligence and imagination—or my real name. Remember how I said I was teased for my name? I’d spent most of my life thinking my name was the problem, but the more I learn about myself and my place in the world, the more I realize that my name was just a weapon some bullies chose to wield. I was picked on for being different, and if it wasn’t my name, it would have been something else. In fact, my eldest son actually started gushing about how he didn’t want to call me “mom” because he liked to say my name. I realized that I shouldn’t have to hide what might be beautiful just because some people decide to be assholes.

And as a romance author, what could be better than my married name? As I write about love, I want to celebrate that with my name (not to mention how much simpler it makes things to just use my legal name).

What Are the Changes?

Old	New
B. C. Marine	Brandi Spencer
The Meriverian Trilogy	Healers’ Kiss
A Seer’s Daughter	Kiss of Treason
The Allurist’s Son	Kiss of Destiny
Idylls of Carum Sound	Gifted Hearts: Short Love Stories of Carum Sound
BCMarineBooks.com	BrandiSpencer.com
Facebook: @BCMarineAuthor Twitter: @Meriverian Instagram: @Meriverian	All platforms: @Meriverian

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Author Interview: K. R. Galindez

2021-09-01T03:00:00.001-07:00

K. R., thanks for sitting down with us today. Let’s dive right in, shall we? What inspired you to write The Spirit of a Rising Sun?

To be honest, I was just kind of bored. An idea popped into my head one day for a scene, and from that scene was born a character, and a world, and then a plot, and before I knew it…I had an entire story! I didn’t really work on it for a long time, but after I started writing, I fell in love with the craft and didn’t stop until I finished the book. In terms of what inspired me, I knew I wanted to write epic fantasy—something big, exciting, and with plenty of thrills. But I also wanted to challenge epic fantasy’s usual political and economic worlds—think monarchies, kingdoms, empires, feudalism—and tell a story that could feature a more egalitarian community, rebellions, revolutions. That’s where the Ungoverned come in. I really wanted to write a fantasy story where the characters engage with the subject of revolution—how to achieve it, what are we willing to sacrifice for it? As the series goes on, we’ll see the characters really pushed to these limits.

We’ll certainly look forward to seeing them push their limits. Are there any themes, symbols, or motifs in your story?

Definitely! There’s the theme of navigating intense social and political change. I imagined Vaaz to be a late medieval society that’s constantly at risk of breaking apart. There are the Haf, gun-wielding invaders from across the sea. There’s a corrupt church in decline, clinging to control and asserting the old ways against change. There’s rebellion in the swamp and a powerful empire grasping for supremacy. It’s just anxiety and collapse everywhere—how do you fix a world like this? How do you possibly stay positive? How do you find hope?

And this is where the other theme comes in, the tension and contrast between Liviana and Oyza. Liviana, I thought of as a kind of modernizing figure—she doesn’t like the inefficiency of the church, and she can’t stand how the empire’s being run. To fix the problems, she takes an authoritative approach: do as I say! And so we see her always responding with force and power. “The world stirs, but it will not stir us,” she says. She’s so strong, and yet this thorn in her side just nags at her—Oyza.

Oyza, on the other hand, more follows her own heart. She’s got this personal journey to find her lost family, but all these years locked up have forced her to dream all while enduring horrors. And when she’s finally free, she wants to stay true to her dreams, though she’s grasping for a moral foundation as she finds her own voice throughout the book. The question then is, how do you lead? How do you convince others to live their lives in the service of a greater cause? For Liviana, the answer is through acquiring power. For Oyza, the question itself is less important: she follows her dreams, and if others choose to follow her too, then that’s superb.

Last, there’s also the theme of transcending boundaries. What kinds of (new) solidarities can be built that can challenge power? Are differences always insurmountable, or can a common cause be found that allows us to transcend our particular experiences toward something universal? These sorts of questions really factored into how I thought about the story thematically.

The readers will certainly have a lot to ponder over while they read. You mentioned a couple of characters—who is your favorite character in the book?

Honestly, probably Liviana. I loved how she just doesn’t take shit from anyone. She’s so ready to lead, to take over, and to really just clear away all the old stagnant things in the world that get in her way. (But a close second place is the fabulous ship captain, Captain Seralus!)

She’s definitely a woman who knows what she’s about. How did you craft your world?

In Vaaz, there’s a religious system that’s very inspired by astrology. I’ve always loved the stars, and I wanted that to play a role in the story, which took the form of shaping the world—the Starmarks and the Celesterium. But I also wanted the politics of it all to really shape the world, too, and I was definitely inspired by real historical examples of peasant uprisings, rebellions, pirate mutinies, that sort of thing.

Very interesting! Let’s change gears a little: Who are your favorite authors?

Perhaps cliché, but certainly George. R.R. Martin. I devoured A Song of Ice and Fire. And certainly Tolkien, as well as Ursula K. Leguin. Outside of novelists, I’m a big fan of Final Fantasy games for their stories.

All great authors. We’ve got one final question for you: What can readers expect next from you?

I hope to have the second book out in 2023! Otherwise, I’m planning to update my blog regularly, including some bonus content that was deleted from the book.

K. R., thanks again for talking with us today. Readers, make sure you join us on Saturday, September 4th for The Spirit of a Rising Sun’s launch party and your chance to win a free copy!

The Spirit of a Rising Sun

by K. R. Galindez

Rebellion is always right.

Oyza yearns for revolution—an impossible dream with her lifetime prison sentence. Fueled by the destruction of her home and years of servitude, she reads the smuggled texts of the Ungoverned and dreams of a future that can never be. But the arrival of a new prisoner, Yars, reignites Oyza’s courage. She finds herself capable of more than she ever imagined.

To fight their way to their own freedom, they must fight for something bigger: freedom for their homeland. Between an invasion by godless gunwielders, a heartless commander who’s determined to kill Oyza, and webs of secrets and lies woven through their world, it will take all their strength and wits to survive. When blood is spilled, how much will be their own?

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Continuing Education: Weird Science

2021-08-18T03:00:00.004-07:00

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored—Aldous Huxley

Kari Donald, A4A Member

It’s time for another installment of Continuing Education. Science surrounds us and has an enormous sphere of influence. It’s impossible to explain the physical world without it. No matter what genre you write, science and facts will have some involvement in your story. Inaccuracies and errors create distractions (which most readers definitely don’t enjoy). Today we’re going to look at the use of these types of information in your narrative, why they’re important, common pitfalls, and how to avoid mistakes.

Are science and facts really so important in fiction?

Definitely. Accurate representation of known and accepted facts is very important in your story. I knew an Air Force pilot who described the movie “Top Gun” as a great comedy. Anyone who’s seen this movie will tell you it’s obviously intended as a drama, not a comedy. However, the misrepresentations of military aviation were so laughable to this person, they could not suspend disbelief enough to see the movie as anything other than a farce.

Ideally, people from every walk of life should enjoy your book. Unless you’re planning on limiting your intended audience, make sure your facts are correct to avoid taking subject matter experts out of your story.

Will readers really look that closely at the facts in a story?

Probably not. I seriously doubt anyone is googling the facts in your book while they read to check for accuracy. But once again, recall that our continuity read is looking for anachronisms and errors that could distract readers and pull them out of your story.

For example, consider something as simple as a pond or lake freezing over. Your characters cannot go to sleep and even remotely hope that the overnight drop in temperature will freeze a body of water sufficiently to walk across it. Nor can they assume frozen solid edges indicate the entire pond is frozen solid. It takes time for the water to cool enough to freeze (lake turnover) and longer for deeper water to freeze solid enough to support weight, especially if the water is actively flowing. At the very least, you will lose any reader from climates with lots of lakes and cold temperatures, such as Minnesota or Michigan.

While this may not be common knowledge for many, it is experience some people will have, making them de facto subject matter experts.

Would a small mistake about an obscure fact seriously impact my book?

Possibly not. But I have seen one star reviews where readers commented that they stopped reading a book because the author’s mistreatment of horses made it impossible to finish the story. And “mistreatment” in this sense was not beating the horses; it was unrealistic representations of a horse’s abilities or the ignorance of a supposedly expert handler.

Again, people who have never had horses would have no clue there was a problem. However, as in this case, there are a lot of experienced horse lovers who are offended by such cavalier disregard for their beloved equines. Don’t make assumptions about what topics your readers may or may not be familiar with.

I also need to add if you really want proof about how readers can be VERY particular about “known facts,” ask any fantasy author what happens if their characters use the wrong armor or weapon during a story. Response from die-hard fantasy fans will be swift and brutal. Basically, consider the risk and the return on investment of research.

What sorts of facts or topics need to be researched?

Just about anything from a subject ending in “ology”? Seriously though, we aren’t born with innate knowledge of the universe. Everything we know, we had to learn somewhere—either at school, by life experience, from knowledgeable people, or through the internet (I saw it online so it must be true...).

Everyone, especially writers, use language on a daily basis. Yet in spite of that, how often do we make mistakes or need to look up spellings, definitions, grammar, or punctuation? Now expand that idea to topics you never studied or haven’t thought about in years, and the potential for mistakes is huge. Any solution to a problem, especially medical, should be thoroughly researched.

Should I get bitten by a venomous snake, I personally don’t want someone treating it by making incisions on the bite mark and trying to suck the poison out. That solution may be fine for a clichéd western, but should not be presented in a way that portrays it as a viable option for treatment. I am sure we all have examples of well-meaning people repeating something they read “somewhere” which really isn’t true.

How do I check for factual inaccuracies?

There are lots of things you can do. The internet is a great place to start. Just be careful about using reliable and comprehensive sources. A personal blog of someone with no credentials or education is probably not a great source.

When including any type of fact, whether you think it’s common knowledge or something you’re sure you heard about somewhere, ask yourself how or where you learned it. Even if you have an old textbook, check for updates as science changes. Mythbusters was able to find enough material from movies and urban legends to fill 20 seasons worth of plausibility experiments, so things you only vaguely remember hearing about at some time may not be factual. Basically, anything that you haven’t studied recently or is outside your normal sphere of knowledge should be double-checked for accuracy.

Don’t be afraid to ask experts in the field you are writing about for advice. Will your character experience a painful injury? Then interview someone with a medical background for feedback about the condition, its treatment, and recovery time. It doesn’t matter how skilled your surgeon is, there’s really no chance your character will be able to run a race less than a week after surgery repairing a torn ACL. Bleeding late in a pregnancy? Don’t follow in the footsteps of the male author who argued with his female editor and insisted it was perfectly normal for pregnant women to keep having periods. As such, it was a totally acceptable explanation for said bleeding. I am not making this one up. You can find it on TikTok.

And while you are talking to that expert, don’t forget to ask about special jargon they use in their profession if you are going to portray characters in that field. Again, simply make sure your representations of science and other facts won’t distract someone familiar with the subject.

But I am writing speculative fiction or fantasy, so facts don’t really matter.

Well...yes and no. There is a tricky balancing act when writing about alternate worlds and times. Modern medicine would never treat a fever by bleeding someone. However, it was acceptable therapy even as late as the 19th century. Obviously your facts need to fit your world. In your fantasy universe, it may be entirely possible to heal bones in 24 hours (Gotta love Skele-Gro!).

The deciding factor is how closely you model your alternate reality after Earth. If a character in your book fetches some carrots from the garden, I would expect they’re dug up from the ground, not picked from a tree. When a process or item in your world has the same name as a process or item on earth, its description and function should match what people would reasonably expect—which means it needs to be accurate. By the time you either research something or manage expectations with explanations of how your item is different, you could have simply given it a unique name, removing the comparison. Just make sure you’re consistent using your new vocabulary in your book.

That’s all for this week. Look for the next continuity blog, Well-Seasoned.

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Continuing Education: Call It a Day

2021-08-04T03:00:00.001-07:00

“Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.”
–William Shakespeare

Kari Donald, A4A Member

It’s the dawn of a new installment of Continuing Education. Each day in the life of your book is a microcosm of your story and world. The details and descriptions of events during the day not only set up the experiences for your characters, but also provide a window into the cultures and traditions of your world. Inconsistencies during and between the days can be both confusing and distracting. Today, we will look at some of the important elements of a typical day as well as potential mistakes and ways to avoid them.

How could a single day possibly be that complicated?

There’s more to a day than twenty-four hours (or however long a day is in your world). Within each day is a finite amount of time that progresses, with patterns both for individuals and for groups. When are meals served, and what are they called? What sorts of routines are typical during the day? How long do your days last? Do seasons or holidays affect how the day unfolds? Consider these questions when describing scenery and activities throughout your story’s day. Even topics that are part of world building still need to be incorporated into your narrative in a way that supports the world you created.

Do I need to include every single routine of the day?

Absolutely not. Only those routines that affect your plot, add description, or establish patterns in your world need to be included. For instance, consider the delicate topic of bathroom breaks. When catching up with friends and family, would you include details about going to the restroom? (That might be TMI.) There is definitely a time and a place. Characters missing out on major events because they were heeding nature's call have a very plausible explanation for an absence when necessary. However, just because you don’t want to address this routine does not mean you can ignore that it is necessary for your characters. The poor maiden forced to wear a chastity belt for months while her knight is away fighting dragons will evoke more than just sympathy. Speculation on how she will perform personal hygiene could take readers right out of the narrative. The Harry Potter stories do a great job demonstrating how to balance this. Several scenes take place in bathrooms, establishing that they exist and are available, but the only details on use of the bathrooms are those relevant to the particular scene that supports the plot. Just check that your routines are natural and organic to the story.

With this in mind, you don’t have to squeeze every daily routine into every single day. Just make sure that events throughout the day are consistent and follow established patterns. For example, some people refer to the evening meal as dinner, and some, as supper. Using these terms interchangeably could be confusing. If your travelers regularly eat supper before retiring and then suddenly eat dinner and retire, your readers may not be sure what time of day it is. Did they retire for the night or just for a nap? If dinner is the large meal at noon, then showing up for Sunday dinner at six would be totally unacceptable. Basically, make sure that your descriptions and labels match from day to day.

Anything else I need to look for with routines?

Be sure to keep track of the frequency of your routines. There are routines your characters will likely only do once a day, like eating a particular meal. If your travelers partake in a hearty breakfast before they set out on their journey, then they shouldn’t be stopping for breakfast again several hours later (second breakfast anyone?). Likewise, routines need to happen in order. Morning prayer after lunch doesn't make a lot of sense. Try to map out each day in a similar way you would map out your story.

Why are lengths of days or seasons important?

Lengths of days are important because they influence the type and amount of activity of your day and how you describe the passing of time. You might expect to cover more distance traveling during daylight or want the cover of darkness for something clandestine. If you write speculative fiction and your world is Earth or loosely modeled after Earth, then your world will be tilted on its axis, have seasons, and variation in length of the days depending on the time of year. If your world is different from Earth, make sure the progress of your day matches the physics of your world. Timing and pacing during the day is just as important as for the chapter or story. Too much activity squeezed into too little time can be overwhelming, while too little activity over a long amount of time can drag. Try to be aware of the amount of time available in your day to avoid exhausting either your characters or your readers.

Isn’t worrying about the proper length of a day rather picky?

Yes and no. It depends on the setting of your story. The more closely your world is related to Earth, the more important it is to be careful about time of day. Anyone from Boston will tell you there is no way the Fourth of July firework celebration started at 7:00 PM, because the sun won’t set until almost 8:30. The outdoor all-night movie marathon in Anchorage, Alaska, on June twenty-first might not be such a good deal since it is only “night” (and not necessarily very dark) for four and a half hours. Remember, we are trying to avoid distracting the reader. In the same way your descriptions of a known location need to be accurate, your descriptions of time of day in a known location need to be accurate. While this degree of consideration is not as important in a totally made-up fantasy world, consistency still needs to be maintained. It would be very distracting to have consecutive days where the length of the day changes dramatically or without a predictable pattern.

In a similar way, your descriptions of the sun and moon during the course of the day need to be realistic. Just because we have the expression “high noon,” it does not mean the sun is always directly overhead at noon. Sunrises and sunsets are arguably among the most magnificent backdrops, making them popular settings in art and literature. In fact, they can be too popular. Is it already time for another full moon only a week after the last one? Do your characters really have time to hike another 5 miles through the mountains between the first twinkle of stars coming out and the sun finally disappearing below the horizon? Do the two separate portrayals of a sunrise on the same day mean that your world has two suns in a galaxy far, far away?

Of course, I found a great tool for today’s topic. This day and night world map page is a lot of fun and shows the location of the sun and moon on any given day, from the past to the future (I was way too entertained putting in dates of eclipses to see what they would look like). You can calculate how much time passes between twilight and sunset, note the intensity of light based on location and time of day, and generally use it to provide accurate descriptions. It even has links to information about the moon phase. Your world isn’t on an axis like earth? No problem. Just pick a date for one of the equinoxes to check out time of day for your world. A day cycle on your world isn’t 24 hours? Again, no problem. You get to apologize to your middle school math teacher because you will need to use those math lessons to calculate the time that works for your world.

Is there anything else that could cause problems in a day?

Of course! Probably more than I can cover. But as a final note, I want to point out the importance of maintaining consistency between different points of view on the same day. One character should not be experiencing a fierce thunderstorm during their narrative while another character is walking under a cloudless sky less than a mile away. As always, edits are the most common culprit for continuity errors, so you always want to check for these issues during the editing process. However, it is also easy to get sucked into writing an amazingly creative description, ignoring what would realistically be taking place. Avoid duplication and work toward consistency to avoid time-of-day continuity distractions.

That’s all we have time for today. Check back next time for Weird Science.

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Author Interview: Lisa Borne Graves

2021-07-21T03:00:00.004-07:00

Brandi Spencer, Secretary-Treasurer Authors 4 Authors Publishing

Bladesung is the third Celestial Sphere novel. How does it feel to finish Toury and Alex’s story?

Horrific and amazing—or I guess if I tone my feelings down, bittersweet. I don’t believe in taking a story too far just for the sake of it. That feels exploitative, and as a reader, I’ve dropped authors’ series because of it. It IS painful to walk away, and some readers might be disappointed, but their story was complete. I owe them an end to their numerous struggles.

Are there any new themes, symbols, or motifs in this story?

I’ve realized that all my novels suggest autonomy as the main theme. I wasn’t sure why that was a fixation. First, I thought it was the feminism in me, but there is much more to it than the treatment of women, but all people. This series’s call for equality and equity was a direct result of seeing my special needs child struggle as a student in a strict environment, stripping him of his ability to control his world, and then watching him flourish in a new environment that gave him choices and chances. Treatment of the disabled or the neurodiverse is not a direct theme in the book, but an embedded personal one. Everyone deserves personal freedoms to be themselves.

Now that we’re in the third book, do you have a new favorite character?

Torn on this answer between two. I somehow loved writing the villain in the story and the careful balance between representing a person who has crumbled into mental instability and is yet still humanized. My other favorite is Toury. I always intended for her to be the ultimate character we love, the one who grows and becomes herself. I let Alex do that the last book, but this book is Toury’s time to shine.

What are you most excited about in Bladesung?

The draca! But I so don’t want to ruin anything. There are dragons, and you’ll learn much more about them. I can say no more.

Do you have anything else planned for Celestial Spheres?

Alex and Toury’s story is finished, but I could not leave Fyr completely. We’ll see them again but from the outside looking in. I could not resist the pull to tell Mary’s story, but from the points-of-view I had used in the trilogy, I could never do Mary’s tale with justice. So I’ll be doing a companion epistolary novel about Mary, called Wundor. I also have started a couple spin-offs that might just take a couple Sapphirians to other spheres.

Join us this Saturday for Lisa's launch party and your chance to win an ebook of your choice from the Celestial Spheres Trilogy and be entered to win the grand prize: signed paperback copies of the whole trilogy and a necklace from the world of Fyr!

Bladesung

Lisa Borne Graves

To say Toury and Alex’s reign has been rocky is an understatement. But the danger isn’t over yet. Rebels and necromancers are still out there, joining forces under "the commander." As Alex plans against a war beyond what Fyr has seen in generations, he knows they will strike where it hurts Alex most: his heart. He must make the ultimate decision—sacrifice everything, or let his tenacious lifemate save herself?

Meanwhile, being a queen is not Toury’s dream job—she always wanted Alex, not the crown. But as enemies close in, Toury must make her own harrowing choices to control her own destiny, and if she must, all of Fyr’s.

In this conclusion to Alex and Toury’s love story, they will face horrors beyond their wildest nightmares. Will they be able to heal a fractured kingdom, or will all turn to ash and ruin?

What can readers expect next from you?

Before I return to Celestial Spheres, I’ll be dropping a couple books of my other series: The Immortal Transcripts. It’s a Greek mythology-based romance series following the god of love and the turmoil when he dares to fall in love with a mortal. Book 1, Quiver, is already out, with Fever and Shudder following in 2022 and 2023.

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Continuing Education: Space Time Continuum

2021-06-23T03:00:00.004-07:00

Time and tide wait for no man—Geoffrey Chaucer

Kari Donald, A4A Member

Time again for more Continuing Education. (It’s about time!) One universal constant in any story is the passage of time, even when the narrative involves time travel or multiple dimensions. Timeline issues are among the most glaring problems and present some serious challenges to fix. Timeline is crucial and regularly impacts other areas of continuity. So let’s look at some typical timeline errors and ways to avoid or correct them.

There is more than one way for the timeline to impact my story?

Absolutely. Timeline involves more than just the amount of time that passes from the beginning to the end of your book. Time is a common phenomenon. Even if your world has its own way to account for time, it will still be in flux and changing as your story progresses. Also, it is the one thing you can guarantee readers will identify with. Time may seem to pass differently depending on your perspective, but it’s still passing at some measurable rate. Readers expect timelines to be realistic and consistent. Anything less is confusing and distracting.

How can my timeline be distracting?

No matter what setting you choose for your book, characters engage in actions and activities readers relate to. Any person has a good idea how long it takes to complete basic tasks. How would your reader perceive a character who showers, washes and dries their hair, brushes their teeth, and dresses in formal attire (including accessories and makeup) in less than ten minutes? Unless your character is The Flash, this freakishly amazing efficiency can easily distract a reader.

While my example may seem obvious, there are plenty of other routines you’re not familiar with but your readers are. One situation might be an author who isn’t a parent writing a scene where the character learns they must leave and gathers up their two toddlers, gets out of the house, and drives off in less than five minutes. This scenario makes for great comedy, but not a realistic rendition of life. Bottom line: either keep the time vague enough so you don’t put your characters in impossible situations, ask an expert, or use that wonderful tool known as Google to look it up.

Isn’t there more to a timeline than individual events?

Most certainly. Many books have more than one point of view or minor plots that are concurrent or overlapping. Such isolated incidents often create the biggest timeline issues. It is very easy to get wrapped up with creating the narrative and quite literally lose track of time.“The next day” can add up to weeks or months, which alone is not a bad thing. However, during these individual storylines within your book, you want the same amount of time to pass amongst all your characters. It doesn't work if only seven “the next days” pass for one character while ten “the next days” pass for another character before they are reunited. Juggling multiple timelines is not an easy task, so props to anyone that can do it while maintaining the overarching one.

You might be tempted to use time warps and breaches in the space-time continuum to explain or fix your timeline, but those might not be credible. I mean, how well would it go over if after being gone for a month, your significant other can only account for two weeks of their absence? Most people would have a serious issue with this and find it difficult to believe some trite excuse like an alien abduction or getting stuck in a time loop with a groundhog. The same thing goes for your book. Attention to detail is the key. Don’t cheat on your readers.

I plot my books, so there won’t be any timeline problems.

Do not disparage my pantser friends. It does not matter what writing style you use. I see the same issues from both plotters and pantsers. Editing can destroy even the best timelines. Rearranging and cutting events in order to help with pacing and gaps in the narrative make your initial timeline obsolete. The fallout from such developmental edits is one reason I recommend doing an edit looking just at continuity.

What can I do to avoid timeline issues?

There are a couple of basic approaches that help avoid timeline problems. A good starting point is documenting the timeline of your book. While there are lots of programs for plotting a novel and tracking timelines, I prefer a simple spreadsheet. You can easily customize and tailor it to track the passage of days, major events, time cues, time relative to events, or anything else that may be important to preserving the integrity of your timeline. Besides spreadsheets, just about any software useful for plotting your book can also be used to track your timeline. I’ve used Plottr, but software such as Scrivener or Evernote can work for tracking a timeline too. Most offer free trials so you can check them out before committing.

That sounds a lot like plotting. Are there other tools or techniques I can use?

Most definitely. Be creative in developing tools for tracking your timeline. You might even set up an actual calendar for your book. Add different colors or lettering to represent different characters and events and your calendar will provide a great snapshot of your timeline. You could even set up a system using post-it notes! Just make sure they are locked away from the prankster in your life (obviously).

When organizing your tools, also think about how you want to calculate the passage of time. Counting the number of days from the beginning of the book can be tedious, especially if your book covers a long period of time. You might want to consider chunking your timeline by using major events as milestones and relate the passage of time to these specific happenings. For example, track the number of days since the Red Wedding or the days since the Council of Elrond. Relating the passage of time to events simplifies the process by creating smaller, more manageable timelines. This type of relational time tracking is also very important for any speculative fiction novel following actual events in history. It helps ensure there are no discrepancies between your book timeline and the time period it’s modeled after. In this case, historical events would serve as the milestones or major events your timeline relates to.

Another way to avoid timeline issues is to take time and pay attention during the editing process. Track your revisions (or your editor or beta reader’s revisions) in Track Changes or Suggest mode. As you review the changes, identify and adjust the manuscript as needed when the edits affect your timeline. While this may seem time-consuming, it saves you from an editing pass dedicated solely to analyzing your timeline.

So glad we had this time together! Check back next for “Call it a Day.” Until then, happy times!

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Continuing Education: Stellar Cartography

2021-06-09T03:00:00.004-07:00

"If the map doesn't agree with the ground, the map is wrong."—Gordon Livingston

Kari Donald, A4A Member

Back again for some more Continuing Education. According to an old saying, “A picture says a thousand words,” which is likely the reason for the popularity of “the world map” in most fantasy or speculative fiction novels. Today, we’ll be looking at why your map is important and how it can create continuity issues in your book.

How can a map cause continuity issues?

Your map, should you choose to draw it, gives the reader a window into your world and provides a sense of situational awareness.

What types of physical features or landmarks make up the world? How close or far apart are the major cities? What are the relative sizes and locations of other kingdoms or countries? Where are the major obstacles your characters may face? These are only a few of the questions your map can help answer, and often much more easily than your narrative could.

In other words, your map can also tell a story; so the story of your map needs to match the story in your book. Remember, we want to make sure your novel is free of anachronisms, errors, or anything else that could distract your reader. Some readers will reference your map while they are reading, so if descriptions in the prose don’t match the image, you may lose credibility points. Potential sources of discrepancy could include the scaling, layout, and geography of the map.

Do I seriously need to draw my map to an exact scale?

Absolutely NOT! There are many styles of maps with cities and other features represented by images that are larger on the map than the space they would actually occupy if they were drawn to scale. However, you do want to make sure that the space between features reflects a realistic distance as described in your story.

For example, unless you are driving from downtown Los Angeles to Las Vegas (or something similar), it should not take two hours to travel the first quarter of the journey and then only three hours to travel the remaining distance. Anyone looking at a map of southern California can easily see how traffic congestion affects travel time.

When considering the scale of your map, it should not take your characters a week to travel halfway across the open realm and then just two more days to travel the other half without an explanation. Likewise, it should take your characters longer to travel that two inches through the mountain range than it does to cover the same distance when crossing the plains. Rough terrain, inclement weather, mode of transportation, distressed dudes needing help, or your world’s equivalent of the dreaded orange barrel complete with detour sign could all be factors affecting travel time. So long as either a feature on your map or the narrative in your story justifies any oddity while tracking the progress of your characters, it doesn’t need to be exact, just close enough to avoid distractions.

In a similar way, placement and area of other regions in your world need to be fairly accurate. You don’t want to plan on sending reinforcements to your southern border to prevent an incursion of rogue elves if they hail from the Kingdom of the Great White North. Readers may scratch their heads if the (so described) tiny and insignificant country of Iota Minor takes up half the map. This is a case where size matters.

You mentioned geography can cause problems.

Thanks for the reminder!

Geography is probably the most fundamental component of your map. It involves more than just physical features as it also dictates human elements such as culture, industry, and population centers. There are immutable elements of geography to account for when creating your world.

For instance, unless your world is like the top of a hoverboard and can rotate or tip at different angles, water will only travel in one direction—down hill. A river that starts in your northern mountains and flows to your southern sea may be drawn perfectly, following the contour of the land and providing a means of transportation. However, your heros will not be able to “float downstream” on this river as they journey north. Both “float” and “downstream” would be problematic in this scenario. “Float” would mean your vessel is drifting along with the flow of the river. Downstream is with the direction the river is flowing. Traveling north on this river would be going against the current (upstream, not downstream) and would preclude being able to float.

While magic can help you out of such situations, it should not be used as a crutch for poor planning or inadequate world building. There are lots of resources available to help with creating your map. Some even get incredibly detailed and look at things like prevailing winds and weather. For the important map basics, I suggest checking out the great blog post at Mythcreants.

Another reason geography is so important is that it can literally dictate the direction of your story. Once your map is in place, the features and layout may limit how events unfold in your book. This could be significant if you’re beginning a new series. Plan ahead to avoid writing yourself into a corner, either figuratively or physically.

Does that mean I can’t draw my map until I plan my entire series?

Not at all. There are a couple of things you can do to avoid continuity issues with your map. You could take a minimalist or “need to know” approach. Only include the part of your world where the story actually takes place. You can add arrows pointing toward the edge of your map with labels for the names of neighboring lands. Give the reader enough information for a sense of direction as they follow your narrative while still giving you flexibility for future installments. Your map can expand as your series grows.

If you already have a good idea of the major events in your series, then go ahead and map your entire world. Just keep a copy of your map in front of you while writing and reference it. Checking your map as you write helps maintain consistent descriptions and accounts of travel time, scenery, resources, and any other things that can influence your plot. The sooner you catch anything that could be problematic, the less work it will take later to fix it.

That’s all for this week. Check back next blog for the Space Time Continuum. Until then, happy drawing and writing.

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Author Interview: Beatrice B. Morgan

2021-06-02T03:00:00.001-07:00

Beatrice, thanks for sitting down to chat with me today! Let’s dive right in, shall we?

We’re now getting into book three. Is there anything you’re particularly excited about for the readers going forward (without giving any spoilers, of course)?

I'm excited to get into the second half of the series. We're going to see more of the world and glimpses of ancient history. The story is expanding; Juniper is going to be facing tough choices about herself and her future. And there're dire wolves!

Being a history person myself, I did quite enjoy getting to see the history of the people. Juniper is still heartbroken at the end of book two—do you think this influences some of her willingness to go into battle as she travels north?

Definitely. She feels she's lost everything and has nothing left to lose. She doesn't have the Undercity to return to, and she doesn’t have anyone one—namely Reid—to return to. She is willing to walk face-first into danger. Traveling into Nexon’s den of mages is her only goal at the start, and despite not having a clear path to that, it’s her only goal. She throws everything she has at it.

That makes sense—if there’s nothing to live for, why not go hard? Tell me, has your favorite character changed for book three?

Hmm… I still love Juniper to death, but I’m glad that we get to meet a few more characters that have until now been in the background, like Henry Julian. Juniper will remain my favorite—that’s why she is the main character, and not Reid or Ison. I wrote a part of my soul into her.

I’m sure a lot of other writers also feel the same way about their main characters. Let’s switch gears a little bit. We’re going to some really interesting places in this book—was there one that was your favorite to write?

I love fantasy because I can explore all manner of places, the only limitation being my imagination. I love ancient structures, the ones where we have no idea who lived there or what kind of society it was. All we have are ruins. When Juniper and her friends explore the mountains of Galamond, they stumble upon an ancient city, abandoned of course. That is one of my favorites that I’ve written thus far. There is something mysterious and enchanting about ancient places and the stories just waiting to be told.

And finally, last question: What can we expect next from you?

My next book is the third and final installment in the Hard as Stone trilogy: Strong as Steel. We’ll see the epic ending to Raven’s story.

We can’t wait to see the conclusion of Hard as Stone, just like we can’t wait for Dreams in the Snow to come out. Join us this Saturday, June 5th, for your chance to win a free paperback copy of Dreams in the Snow at the launch party!

Dreams in the Snow

by Beatrice B. Morgan

After faking her death at the hands of the Watch and escaping Rusdasin, Juniper and Ison are determined to make their way north to face an ancient evil. And the friends they left in the Undercity must scramble to escape the impending raid of their home.

Meanwhile, Squire Reid is beginning a northward quest of his own. To earn his knighthood, the king has tasked him with retrieving Boxel’s Grace, a legendary plant at the edge of the world and the only hope of reviving Prince Adrien from a magical poison.

When grieving hearts collide with the ghosts of their past, can they survive to save the future of their world, or will they shatter like ice?

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Continuing Education: Location, Location, Location

2021-04-28T03:00:00.001-07:00

Sense of Direction: Not just for your characters

Kari Donald, A4A Member

Time for more Continuing Education (our series on Continuity editing...get it?) As authors, whether writing speculative fiction, historical fiction, or something in between, you select locations to provide the best settings for your story. Today, we’re looking at why scrutinizing location as part of a continuity check is so important.

What does location have to do with Continuity?

So why is location so important? It influences the setting and scene descriptions in your story, plus it impacts the plausibility of events. Remember, during our Continuity edit, we look for things that are out of place or could be distracting to the reader. There are many ways your location can cause a Continuity issue, either by itself or when it integrates into one of the other elements of Continuity. Today, we’ll dive deep into the ways that settings and descriptions (that innate sense of direction all writers have...or not) can make or break your story.

How can using an actual place cause a continuity problem?

Using an actual place puts an additional burden on your narrative since accuracy is a must. Some of your readers may be familiar with your chosen locale. For example, an account of someone that drives their car all the way to the Statue of Liberty will immediately surprise any reader who’s actually visited the landmark and knows the only way to get there is by taking a boat.

Not only can mistakes ruin your credibility, but there isn’t much that will distract a reader faster than the wrong name or detail of a known area. It can be as simple as using “Avenue” instead of “Street,” going the wrong way down a one way street, or having the sidewalk on the wrong side of the road. Add in things like transportation with stops, descriptions of buildings with their surroundings, and events with time of day or seasonal references, and the possibility for errors or misrepresentations becomes endless. Taking these details into account can be a daunting task and probably contributes to the misplaced advice “write what you know.”

In the words of Roger from Rent, “Zoom in on my empty wallet.”

No problem! Can’t stop by the Live Cafe in person? Writers today have the advantage of a number of tools at their disposal. Google Maps is an invaluable resource for researching locations since you can quite literally immerse yourself in your desired setting. Photo spheres and street view allow you to take a tour at ground level and see buildings, roads, landmarks, and shops, among many other things. Just be sure to check the date for when the picture was taken. If the photo is dated, some things may have changed, like businesses or the surrounding area. You’ll want to make sure Stuart’s Comic Shop is still open before using it into your story.

Not only that, but the time of day or year may not match the timeline in your story, so elements like lighting, traffic, and foliage may not be the same. The bottom line here (which is a common theme throughout the Continuity edit) is don’t make assumptions about elements or topics outside your area of expertise. A few minutes of research is worth the investment and often saves lots of editing time later.

I am using my own world, so I don’t have to worry about location.

If only it were that easy.

One of the advantages of speculative fiction is that you can create your own world. One of the disadvantages of speculative fiction is that you can create your own world.

If your location is loosely based on our world, then modeling it after a real place is helpful as all of the details have been worked out naturally. You won’t have to worry about accidentally setting up contradictory situations like a polar ice cap next to an arid desert or a citrus tree growing on top of an alpine mountain. It might work in your favorite video game, but those environments are created to keep a gamer engaged rather than a reader. For example, the fifteen square miles that Skyrim would occupy on our planet makes it easy for a gamer to be a world traveler but is hardly representative of a realistic location.

It is just as important for world builders to take advantage of the internet to research elements that work for your chosen location. UCB has a pretty good introduction on biomes to get you started.

But my world is totally made up!

Awesome! Some of the most popular series are from made up worlds. You don’t have to be a flat earther to appreciate or accept the plausibility that a story can happen on a flat disc carried about the universe on the back of a turtle (thanks Terry Pratchet).

The authenticity of characters or situations may be more important, as the focus on them allows readers to lose themselves in your story despite any unrealistic worldbuilding. You just need to put some thought into your location and work out a few details for viability and sustainability. You don’t even need to reveal these details in your narrative, just make sure there is nothing about your location that has contradicting elements or prevents readers from using their imaginations to fill in the blanks. You might have a hard sell that your barren wasteland location can support an abundance of livestock or lush vegetation.

I am trying to avoid a cliché from a superhero movie about power and responsibility, but you get the idea. Just take into account how the location of the story will fit into your world while you are busy creating.

Check back next time for some more Continuity tips. Up next: Stellar Cartography.

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Author Interview: Karen Heenan

2021-04-21T03:00:00.007-07:00

(Note: Songbird is no longer published with Authors 4 Authors Publishing. We encourage your continued support of Karen and you can find links to her work through her Twitter.)

Thanks for sitting down with me today! We’re excited for your latest book coming out this weekend. What inspired you to write A Wider World?

I call A Wider World a not-sequel to Songbird. Despite having apparently begun writing one, I’m not always a fan of series books, because I like to wrap up my main character’s story at the end. My workaround for this is to pick a side character (usually the one who talks loudest to me when I’m trying to go to sleep) and give them their own story.

I was doing just that—drifting off to sleep—when I heard Robin’s voice said, “They said I would not end well,” and I sat right up and thought, “Who said? Did you?” And that was it.

There was also the minor matter of someone from A4A (Rebecca) saying that she thought Robin would have an interesting story. I didn’t think so at the time, but it came to me later.

Thankfully, I left myself enough crumbs about Robin in Songbird that I had a jumping off point: choirboy for Cardinal Wolsey, Oxford, travels in Italy, returning to work again for Wolsey, looking toward a future with Cromwell.

It’s always interesting the way characters will speak to us when we think we’re done with them. After writing Songbird, was the process any different for A Wider World?

I joke that if Songbird was a child, it would be accruing college debt by now, because I worked on it off and on for years. I started writing it just for my own amusement, but somewhere in those years, I decided I wanted to try for publication, and that required a whole different level of dedication, much less editing.

A Wider World was easier in the sense that I knew from the start it would be read by others. I also had some of my characters already developed, since they were holdovers from the first book. I did need to read a fair amount of history, because I knew about the dissolution of the monasteries only in a general sense, and it’s something that Robin is very much involved in, both administratively and emotionally.

The main difference in the writing of these two books was speed. Even with the extra research involved, A Wider World happened pretty quickly. I knew from the first idea that I wanted to tell it in two timelines, Robin’s “present day” arrest and journey toward the Tower, and the tale he tells his captor to distract him and hopefully slow their journey. It was handy because when I hit a wall in one timeline, I worked on the other for a while, and that usually led me right back to where I needed to be.

That’s really interesting, and a great way to tell a story. Now that you’ve got an (almost) entirely new cast, who is your favorite character?

Other than Robin, who will probably be my favorite character forever, it would be Ned Pickering. Ned’s a well-born second son who works with Cardinal Wolsey, and then with Cromwell. He forcibly befriends Robin and won’t leave him in the peace that he thinks he wants. I think of Ned as a large energetic golden retriever, putting his paws on your shoulders and licking your face. You’re trying to make him stop, but you’re also laughing because his affection and energy are so contagious.

Ned is a pretty sweet character. Was it more or less difficult researching for this book?

The research was pretty straightforward; it was mainly getting a handle on a particular occurrence (the dissolution) that I didn’t know as much about. I’m also not religious, so the extremes people went to for one religion over another—when they seemed more or less identical to me, other than the pope—was interesting. Robin takes my point of view, with the addition of a belief in God. He’s got a foot in both camps and mainly sees extremes of belief as the enemy.

Let’s switch gears a little: What about this time period drew you in?

The Tudor period has fascinated me since I was six, and I kept my mother company while she watched The Six Wives of Henry VIII on Masterpiece Theater. The more I’ve learned about Henry over the years, the less I like him, but the politics and people of the period are so intriguing.

I can’t say that I blame you—I find that Henry VIII is really just the Real Housewives of the sixteenth century. Finally, what can we expect next from you?

A third not-sequel, apparently. I’ve just finished and submitted Lady, in Waiting, which centers on Margaery Preston, a character introduced toward the end of A Wider World. Her story will take us through the early years of Queen Elizabeth I and Mary Stuart’s return to Scotland, in addition to being a story all about marriage (which was the part of the book I hadn’t really expected).

Thanks again for sitting down to talk with me today. Readers, join us this Saturday, April 24th, for the launch party and a chance to win several prizes!

A Wider World

by Karen Heenan

Memories are all he has…

Now they could save his life.

Returning to England after almost five years in exile, Robin Lewis is arrested and charged with heresy by the dying Queen Mary. As he is escorted to the Tower of London, Robin spins a tale for his captor, revisiting his life under three Tudor monarchs and wondering how he will be judged—not just by the queen, but by the God he stopped serving long ago.

When every moment counts, will his stories last long enough for him to be saved by Mary's heir, the young Queen Elizabeth?

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Can't wait? Check out our website for available books!

Continuing Education: A look at Continuity Editing

2021-04-14T03:00:00.007-07:00

Not just another blog about editing!

Kari Donald, A4A Member

There’s a reason “edit” is a four-letter word. For some authors, it’s the least exciting part of the writing process, but one of the most important steps for improving your manuscript. Editing is so essential there are numerous blogs providing helpful hints about the different types, such as structural, developmental, line, copy, and of course, proofreading. For this, however, let’s look at one very specific part of editing: the continuity edit.

What is continuity editing?

Continuity is often grouped in with copy-editing. However, I personally think every work can benefit from an editing pass dedicated to looking only for continuity issues. This edit is one where you’re looking at the details in your story and making sure they make sense in the real world. Filmmakers do something similar where they pay people to sit on set and do nothing but observe scene set-ups, watching for things like putting a glass of wine in a different place during a retake, seating characters in the same chairs after a break, and other similar details. Continuity edits on your manuscript are very similar: you’re checking for misplaced, out of order, or other anachronisms and inconsistencies.

Why is continuity editing so important?

As with any edit, a continuity edit helps to remove potential sources of distraction and make the story the best it can be. It goes beyond basic writing mechanics and structure. We want the reader to stay immersed in your narrative and not wonder why someone that sat down next to the fireplace is suddenly giving an answer from their position standing next to the window. A continuity check also helps maintain the credibility of your story. Try to tell me your character recently visited Philadelphia to see the Liberty Bell in Independence Hall and I will cry “Shenanigans!” The Liberty Bell hasn’t been in Independence Hall since 2003. (Or 1976 if you count the time spent in a pavilion next to Independence Hall; I’m all about accuracy; just ask any author whose book I have edited.) The last thing we want to have happen is your book ending up on the literary equivalent of Cinema Sins.

But I carefully planned my book; there shouldn’t be continuity issues

It doesn’t matter if you are a plotter or a pantser. I have done continuity reads on manuscripts from both styles of writing (and those in between), and there is no difference when it comes to the number or types of errors that I find. In my experience, the biggest influencer on continuity issues is previous edits. The developmental edit can be brutal to even the best-laid plans. Adding, deleting, or changing scenes and events in your story can cause problems like eating supper before breakfast, having Monday follow Wednesday, or watching the sun set twice at the end of the day (and no, your world is not Tatooine). You might think it was just a small change, but it can cause a ripple effect throughout the rest of your book. The bottom line: you need to check your book for continuity issues at least once after you’re done with major edits.

I’ve gone through my book several times and I don’t see any continuity problems.

That’s great! But as the author, you’re very close to your story and you know it inside and out. I’m certain that if you were to rewrite one of Gordon Ramsay’s recipes so that it was missing some ingredients or steps, give it to Gordon, and then tell him to execute the recipe you gave him, he would still make the dish the same way he always has (and not just because he would “bloody well do it the right way”). He’s so familiar with the recipe that his brain just doesn’t notice the missing or different parts of the written recipe. When checking your book for continuity, your brain will do the same thing. Since you know what’s supposed to happen, you can miss holes, incorrect details or conflicting events. Because of this, try to find fresh eyes, someone that hasn’t read your manuscript yet, to do your continuity edit. Your person of choice should be someone that is very logical and detail-oriented. However, that doesn’t mean that you are off the hook for trying to look for them yourself, especially during revisions and edits.

Okay, so what should I look for during a continuity edit?

Glad you asked! There are a plethora of factors to look for when checking a manuscript for continuity. Since it would be impossible to cover them all in a single blog (I tried), we’re going to present a series of blogs dedicated to continuity. Each one will do a deep dive on a particular topic as well as provide hints, tips, and resources to help find and resolve continuity issues. So check back for these in-depth continuity topics, and happy writing!

Join us next week for an interview with A4A author Karen Heenan, and in two weeks for our next continuity blog on location.

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Can't wait? Check out our website for available books!

Editing: Keeping Track of Characters

2021-03-31T03:00:00.010-07:00

Wait, didn’t she have blue eyes?

Rebecca Mikkelson, Editor-in-Chief Authors 4 Authors Publishing

The characters in general

Thanks to our illustrious founder Brandi Spencer, I have an information tracker for all of my characters. There is so much information in there that it can sometimes be a little overwhelming, but it’s been invaluable for making sure that I don’t forget names of minor characters or physical features of some of the more frequent characters.

So what should you keep track of in this section?

Your columns

A lot of times this is information that you as the author will feel very obvious and unnecessary to write down, but let me tell you, you’ll be happy you did if you ever take a sabbatical from your WIP to start another one, or because life gets hectic. And right now, life is very easy to become hectic thanks to the pandemic. So, your very basics should at least be:

Names—first, last, and nickname
Birthplace—either their country of origin or city of origin, or both
Description—this will be their relation to the protagonist(s)

For me, I added a few extra bits of information because I’m keeping track of characters across a series of six books and otherwise, I might forget when the characters appear. These are the extras that I need a little help remembering sometimes:

Titles—this is both for the military titles and noble titles, and when they change in the series
Books in which they first appear

Physical appearance

My absolute favorite example to give of why it’s important to keep track of physical features both for yourself—and to hopefully share with your editors or publishers to ensure a cohesive picture—and your readers is from Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series with Dell Publishing. Her main character Claire (Beauchamp Randall) Fraser is very well reported to have whiskey-colored eyes (light brown), but in one of the books her eye color was definitely not the correct one. With this information readily at your fingertips, it will be easier to avoid small mistakes like that.

I will note, very strongly, that everyone makes mistakes, whether you're self published, published with a small press, or a large publishing company, and these mistakes should not be villainized. Authors and editors alike are human, and there’s only so much you can catch.

Your columns

I’ll be the first to admit, I’m bad at writing character descriptions and leave them as scant as I can get away with. Unfortunately, you need to know the basics of what your characters look like aside from, “She’s pretty and has brown hair.” So what do you need to look for? Here is what I’ve got to help me keep track of my characters physical appearance:

Skin
Hair color, texture, and style
Eye color
Mouth
Nose
Height
Build
Distinguishing features
Corresponding actor—for those of you who are like me, you might need some visual aids to help you fill out your information or visualize facial expressions on a similar face

Personality Traits

This, I find, is one of the hardest to nail down as an author because a lot of times I want to keep track of characters in “good” and “bad” columns, but that’s just not how the world works in real life, and it’s now how your world should work in your books. Every person has positive and negative traits, and sometimes the positive traits that your characters have are actually negative because of their motivations. These are all the things that make well-rounded characters to make a richer world for your readers.

Positive

The positive traits are almost always the easiest to come up with because we like to see the good in people. We’re breaking this down into a couple of categories. For your positive traits, you want to look at four things: moral, achievement, interactive, and identity. You might be looking at that list and say, “What in the heck does that mean?” Don’t worry, I’ll give a brief description of each.

Moral is what influences the mortality of the character, like their loyalty and honesty. Achievement is the characteristic(s) that helps the characters reach their goals, like their adventurous nature, boldness, or curiosity. Interactive is how your characters interact with the other characters in the book, like being flirtatious or courteous. And finally, identity is how the characters truly identify with themselves, like being passionate about things or imaginative.

Negative

For the negative, there’s a little bit less to examine. You want to look at the character’s core flaws and their lesser flaws. There’s also the motivation behind the character’s actions, and you can tie that into both the positive and the negative traits, but I want to tie it mostly into the negative traits because often times we have more motivation for our negative traits than our positive ones, and sometimes our positive traits have negative motivations...which in turn makes them more negative than positive. So what would your core flaw and lesser flaws look like?

Your core flaw is the heart of the matter that will help influence your lesser flaws, like being manipulative and greedy. With these flaws, your lesser flaws would slide into being controlling and inflexible. Things are going to be the way that character wants, no matter what they have to do to get it.

Now, this is where I think tying the motivations in the negative trait is a lot more useful to understanding the character compared to the positive traits. Let’s take the negative traits listed above and explore some internal and external motivations for why your character is the way they are. Greedy and manipulative could stem from growing up in poverty and wanting to better themselves by any means necessary, such as manipulating others and hoarding wealth so as not to lose it.

If all this sounds great, you can download a blank copy here.

Join us in two weeks when we start a series on another branch of editing: Continuity.

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Can't wait? Check out our website for available books!

Editing: Cutting the Fat

2021-03-17T03:00:00.004-07:00

Snip, snip, snip.

Rebecca Mikkelson, Editor-in-Chief Authors 4 Authors Publishing

Ironically, I already cut the fat from this blog series. Originally instead of the three posts, there were going to be four, one of which covered unnecessary words and phrases. You’ll notice that it’s one of the sections in this blog post. Cutting the fat doesn’t necessarily mean you have to get rid of everything, but that you must trim it down to be more purposeful.

Kill Your Darlings

In our Misused Writing Advice series last year, we had a post about this you can read here. As you’ll read in the post, killing your darlings isn’t about killing off your characters. (Though you might need to do that too.) These are the scenes or large sections that don’t add to the plot or character development, no matter how much fun you had writing them. They will weigh down your novel and make it more difficult for your reader to get through your work.

One really good example of this is getting attached to a chapter in another character’s POV that could be easily summarized in a paragraph. Let’s call these Character A and Character B. Character A has the main POV through the book, but Character B has a chapter where they witness some important information happening. It’s great that we have the information, but because the reader and Character A only need that bit of info to move the plot forward, we don’t need to have a 3,000 to 4,000 word chapter to give a paragraph’s worth of retelling.

Like in the dialogue post, each scene and bit of information must have a point. It absolutely must push the plot forward toward the conclusion of the book or the series. There might be some bits that you can recycle that would be better in smaller chunks or even in another book, and please, by all means, do it.

Just don’t be afraid to take out the knife and slice away because you’re too attached to a scene.

Get Rid of the Clone Army

No one likes killing characters, except maybe George R. R. Martin because he subsists on his readers’ tears. In this section, however, I’m not talking about killing off characters that drive the plot forward or give your protagonist a driving point, motivation, or affects their character arc. I’m talking about the characters, or the Clone Army, that just in general don’t need to be there because they’re redundant, don’t drive the plot forward, or really make any difference whatsoever to your protagonist, or even antagonist.

Your first thought might be going to the “sexy lamp test” that was proposed by comic book writer and editor Kelly Sue DeConnick, but those characters are better served by developing their characters rather than taking them out. If you haven’t heard of this test, Sexy Lamps are usually female characters who do nothing to affect the story by their actions and could be replaced by an inanimate object with changing the plot.

A great example of this is right in one of our founder’s own works. In book two, Kiss of Destiny by Brandi Spencer, she combined the roles of the captain of the guard and the prison warden into a single character because one was redundant and didn’t need to be there when the second character could do the job of both without feeling the loss of either one.

Another example is when you’ve got a character that shows up only for a scene or two that doesn’t play a role in later books in your series disseminating information but there’s a way for an established character that does affect the plot to give this information instead, get rid of the dead weight.

Unnecessary words

Remember that recycling I talked about in the first section? Well, here’s a great example. I’m recycling an entire blog post into here.

Let’s talk a little bit about unnecessary words: they shouldn't be there unless they’re in dialogue and it’s the way your character speaks. There are plenty of us out there that don’t speak with the eloquence most of us strive for.

There are two categories that I think all authors need to look at in their edits. The first is looking at a sentence and seeing if you can say the same thing with fewer words while still conveying the same meaning. If you can, cut those words. The second is using the find function and getting rid of words like:

That
Just
Like
Probably
Most likely
Literally
And your hedging verbs that don’t need to be there for anything other than clarity.

Redundancies

Redundancies are one of the first things that I look for when I get a new manuscript from our authors to nip in the bud. These are things that we all put into our manuscripts without thinking, but once you review them, they’re implied. Here are a couple of examples of phrases I take out to make things more succinct and take out the implied portions.

He shrugged his shoulders. → He shrugged.

He nodded in agreement. → He nodded.

He stood up. → He stood.

He sat down. → He sat.

All of these can also be combined with whatever sentence is coming next. For example:

Shrugging, he went into the next room.

Join us in two weeks for the final blog in this mini-series where I talk about keeping track of your characters.

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Editing: Cleaning Up Dialogue

2021-03-03T02:00:00.003-08:00

Rebecca Mikkelson, Editor-in-Chief Authors 4 Authors Publishing

Ahh, the dreaded dialogue. I wanted to start with editing your dialogue because it’s simultaneously the easiest and the hardest thing to do. A lot of us struggle writing dialogue in the first place, and now we’ve got to edit to make it better? Gross.

You don’t need every dialogue tag

Let’s start with the easiest part of cleaning up your dialogue, and that’s with the tags.

What purpose do tags serve, you ask? Well, their most important purpose is to easily let the reader know who is speaking. It also lets the reader know how the character is speaking—but these aren’t always necessary. Let me give you a few examples of what I mean and how to clean them up.

“I can’t stay here anymore!” Alan yelled. “I can’t take it—I’m leaving.”

Now we know who’s talking in here, but Alan yelling is implied by the fact there’s an exclamation point. You’re better served by either taking out the dialogue tag altogether or using an action beat instead.

“I can’t stay here anymore!” Alan grabbed whatever he could and threw it into the open suitcase. “I can’t take it—I’m leaving.”

It’s more effective for setting the tone of the scene and how frustrated Alan is while he’s planning on leaving. Now let me give you a less clear example of where you can either keep or change the tag:

“What do you mean you’re leaving?” Charlotte asked quietly, her lip quivering.

If we take out the qualifier of asked, the dialogue tag becomes redundant and we don’t need it. But, with that qualifier, it’s telling us the intonation in which she asks, and becomes a little more important. However, I’m still a believer that it can always be improved:

Charlotte’s lip quivered. “What do you mean you’re leaving?”

This cuts the unnecessary dialogue tag while still, to me, implying that she’s saying something quietly because she’s emotionally distressed. And don’t be afraid to move your action beat or tags around to make your dialogue more impactful!

Tone

Tone is one of the harder ones to fix, because it’s often a more pervasive problem throughout an author’s manuscript. Your characters need to have their own developed voices so that they become distinguishable from each other, and if there’s a narrator, the narrator’s voice. This is not only important for the readers, but the author to develop story arcs and series arcs for the characters.

My suggestion for keeping track of this is to create a character sheet with basic information about their personality and character arcs planned throughout the book or series so you can easily reference what kind of character they are.

Context matters

The context in which your characters speak to each other really matters. If you have a mother and daughter talking to each other, they might be a little more blunt and gossipy as compared to coworkers or people they’re trying to flirt with. Switching back and forth between the two might make it feel like there are some character discrepancies, so looking at the context in which things are said will help you determine if you’ve created a problem you need to edit away.

What’s the point?

Every piece of dialogue needs to have a point. While people will talk to fill up the space, your characters shouldn’t. Every bit of their dialogue should serve a purpose to move the plot and their character development forward.

The biggest test of whether or not you’ve written your dialogue with purpose is if you can remove an entire scene of dialogue, or a sentence here and there, and the plot will remain the same.

Keepin’ it Real

The way that we speak in real life is not the way that our characters talk in books—and for good reason. Truly realistic dialogue is going to sound inane and not going to interest your reader into “listening” to a conversation they could hear on the street or in their own living room. Like mentioned in the previous section, your dialogue must have a point that moves the plot forward.

So when you’re going through your edits, take a close look at your dialogue and if your characters are stumbling over their words without purpose (like they’re naturally shy speakers and can’t get through a few sentences without saying um or pauses), take it out or change it to have purpose.

Join us in two weeks for our next post in this series where I talk about cutting the fat.

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Editing: Overview

2021-02-17T02:00:00.006-08:00

A Necessary Evil

Rebecca Mikkelson, Editor-in-Chief Authors 4 Authors Publishing

Editing. It’s the bane of every author’s existence—aside from the inability to put perfect words to paper the first time. We’ve previously talked about editing before in a nonserial post, but we wanted to talk a little bit more about the more specific parts of editing. Over the next three posts, we’ll talk about some of the biggest parts of your editing passes.

After each post goes out, we’ll update this post with links for easy navigation.

Cleaning Up Dialogue

I wanted to start with editing your dialogue because it’s simultaneously the easiest and the hardest thing to do. A lot of us struggle writing dialogue in the first place, and now we’ve got to edit to make it better? Gross. In this post I’ll talk about how you don’t need to use dialogue tags all the time and give several examples of how you can use action beats instead, add tone for your characters that make them unique, contexts in which your characters might feel like they’re out of character when they’re not, and purposeful dialogue.

Cutting the Fat

Ironically, I already cut the fat from this blog series. Originally instead of the three posts, there were going to be four, one of which covered unnecessary words and phrases. In this post, I really practice what I preach, which I think is important if we’re going to be doling out guides for public consumption. Cutting the fat doesn’t necessarily mean you have to get rid of everything, but trimming it down to be more purposeful. In this post I talk about killing your darlings—and what that really means—and when you can combine characters to avoid being redundant, and getting rid of unnecessary words and phrases that are implied by the context or statement in general.

Keeping Track of Characters

I wanted to keep this for the last post because this is a little bit different—it’s more preemptive. Keeping track of your characters will help you edit when it comes down to it, yes, but it will also help you from making the mistakes in the first place. In this post I’ll talk about your characters in general, like where they come from, their physical appearance, and personality traits. It might seem like boring and obvious information when you get down into the nitty gritty of everything, but this will be an invaluable resource for authors and editors alike to keep the mistakes as few as possible.

Join us in two weeks for our first post in this mini series where I talk about cleaning up your dialogue.

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Can't wait? Check out our website for available books!

Another Year in Review

2020-12-30T02:00:00.002-08:00

What a Year It’s Been

This is going to be our second installment of us looking back on our year. If you want to read the first, you can find it here. We want to keep this tradition going for every year we’re a company, because we believe it's important to look back on what we’ve accomplished and what we could do better in the following year.

This year has been hard

First and foremost, we can’t talk about the year without addressing one important thing: it’s been extra hard with a world-wide pandemic going on. We’ve been incredibly fortunate to still have a healthy business while people have been cutting back on their spending habits; we know others have not been as lucky. This pandemic has impacted everyone from the top to the bottom—even one of our founders and her family suffered from a case of COVID-19 at the start of the pandemic. We do genuinely hope that, for those that are still buying our books, we’ve brought a little joy in their lives during an incredibly stressful and scary time.

Some hard decisions

As we talked about last year, publishing is hard. It’s still hard, and with the turmoil and stress of the year, we've decided that we want to funnel our time and attention into fewer books, allowing us as a company to take the time needed to fully develop each book. To that end, we only published eight books this year, and plan on publishing six books per year going forward.

Our Authors

One of the reasons that we’ve managed to stay successful this year is our wonderful authors. Without them, we’d be nothing. That might sound dramatic, but it’s the truth. We have some of the most understanding and caring authors working with us. We couldn’t be more thankful for the ones that have who keep wanting to come back to us year after year.

Last year, we talked about our very first author who took a chance on us. This year we want to talk about the author that has the most books planned with us: Lisa Borne Graves. She currently has two series running with us, and a third one planned after another finishes.

Lisa Borne Graves is a YA author, English Lecturer, wife, and supermom of one wild child. Originally from the Philadelphia area, she relocated to the Deep South and found her true place of inspiration. Her love for all literature, led her to branch out from the academic arena to spin her own tales. Lisa has a voracious appetite for books, British television, and pizza. Her inability to sit still makes her enjoy life to its fullest, and she can be found at the beach, pool, on some crazy adventure.

We would highly recommend following her on Facebook or Twitter (or both).

Our Books

Our publishing schedule has booked up far quicker than we ever expected, to the point that we don’t know when we can open back up our submissions to new authors again. We can’t wait for everyone to read the books we have out from the previous year, but this year as well. We’ve really had a great bunch of books come out in the romance and fantasy genres.

As with our author section, we want to feature Lisa Borne Graves with one of her books that came out this year: Quiver, the first book in Lisa’s Immortal Transcripts series.

What would you do if you could live forever? Could you hide it from the one you truly loved, especially if her life depended on it?

Thanks to his dysfunctional Olympian family, Archer Ambrose finds out firsthand how difficult this can be. He never falls in love but bestows it on others—until he meets Callie.

When Callie Syches moves to the Upper East Side to prepare for her father’s impending death, she doesn’t expect to meet the boy of her dreams. She also never believed her father’s harebrained theory about myths, but her uncanny ability to “see” uncovers godly secrets Callie can hardly fathom.

With an immortal family demanding absolute obedience, how far will Archer go to protect his love from the storm the gods will unleash upon them?

In this reinvention of Cupid and Psyche, experience an electrifying series where familial and romantic bonds are at war, and knowledge could mean the end of everything…or a new beginning.

Our Blog

Last year our blog didn’t get any attention in our review post—there was a reason for that. We were still developing our blog and figuring out whether it was worth keeping up the effort.

Well, I’ll tell you, it has been. It’s the perfect opportunity to show that yes, we do know what we’re about. We’ve been able to pass on a lot of our knowledge since we started writing our blogs, and we’ve learned even more while researching for some of them. As much as we’re enjoying writing our blogs, we’ve also decided to decrease the number we’re putting out each year to make sure that the quality is as good as possible.

Series from the last year

We like to try to do a couple of series per year where we cover a lot of subjects to help the Writing Community no matter what stage they are in in their publishing journey.

Misused Advice—in this series we explore advice that’s great at its core, but has evolved over the year to be absolute and seemingly inviolable advice that’s followed by writers and instructors alike. We wanted to rock the boat and say some of these rules you don’t have to follow simply because most people think you have to.

New Authors—in this series, we started back at the basics for authors new to writing and the writing community. We cover the seven biggest things you need to know and develop in your work to really make it successful: plot, characters, dialogue, setting, world building, themes, and conflict.

Plot Archetypes—in this series, we talked about the seven basic plot archetypes in any story. We wanted to have another series this year that really focused on the building blocks of writing for our newer writers. We often quote the wise words of Richard Bach, “A professional writer is an amateur who didn't quit,” because we want to encourage every amature not to quit. And we think sharing the building blocks of the craft will help.

Favorite from this year

There are a couple of blog posts that I’ve really enjoyed writing, but my absolute favorite from this year was one I wrote with cofounder B. C. Marine: I’m Feeling Conflicted from our New Authors series. In this blog, we wanted not only to talk about conflict, but bring it off the page by having conflict between the two of us.

We might be arguing in the blog post, but I can assure you, it’s the most fun I think either of us has had writing a blog. We sat in a Google meet giggling like children the entire time.

Final Thoughts

This year, like last, was hard. It’s hard to be in a job that has endless hours, sometimes little thanks, and a lot of the time more frustrating than one might expect.

But would we choose another profession? No.

No matter how hard it gets, there’s no better feeling than helping an author achieve their dreams of going from unpublished to published. There’s a unique joy in being the one to do that, and it’s the joy we hold on to tightly when the going gets tough.

Join us next year when we start a new series on editing.

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Can't wait? Check out our website for available books!

Misused Writing Advice: There Is a Correct Way to Write

2020-12-16T02:00:00.009-08:00

Plotting vs. Pantsing

Brandi Spencer (formerly B. C. Marine), Secretary-Treasurer Authors 4 Authors Publishing and Lisa Borne Graves, A4A Author

To plot or to pants, that Is the question. Whether ‘tis nobler for the writer to plan out every scene in outrageous detail, or to find inspiration in the sea of ideas and kinda just wing it?

Anyone who’s spent time in the online writing community or browsed the writing resources at their local bookstore has probably noticed that there’s no shortage of books and systems that proclaim to be the perfect method to write fiction. The vast majority of them can be divided into two categories that you’ve likely heard before: plotting and pantsing.

To illustrate the differences, I’ve asked one of our authors to join me in describing our methods. Like me, Lisa Borne Graves writes speculative romance; we share many themes and style choices, and our fantasy trilogies are being released almost side-by-side, but our methods of getting our stories on the page are wildly different—to a point.

Getting Started

Plotter (Brandi Spencer)

I plan everything before I write a word in my manuscript. I know the ending and sketch out most of the major plot points that will get me there, sometimes writing a paragraph or two of specific details I want to include. I make a map of the setting so I can visualize it as I write and set up spreadsheets with character descriptions, relationships, and other details that I need for continuity. If that sounds like a ton of prep work, that’s because it is! Depending on the length and complexity of the story (and how many of my other stories it has to maintain ties with), it can take up to a few months to get this all down.

Pantser (Lisa Borne Graves)

I get inspired by something. Whether it be an image, a concept in a movie, book, real life, etc., something strikes a chord in me and sets off my imagination, aka, my “evil muse.” Scenes unfold, and I rush to write them down. I know nothing yet, except my main genre basics: romance has loose rules I will follow. I don’t know my sub genres or characters or their conflicts.

Drafting

Plotter

It usually takes me at least three or four months to get a novel down. Inspiration may not strike when I have time to write, but I borrow the inspiration I had during my preparation phase and tap into that. I write in order and build from one scene to the next, using my outline as a map.

However, much like an actual roadmap, I sometimes find that I need to take small detours here and there to get me where I want to go. Maybe my characters have developed more feelings for each other than I had originally intended, or maybe they’re hesitant to take a necessary step. In either case, I’ll stop and re-evaluate my outline to accelerate or decelerate relevant plot points before moving on.

Pantser

I often enter a phase of obsessive, or perhaps possessed by the muse, writing. At times, my husband teasingly comments my keyboard is smoking for how fast I type. I’m simply transcribing the scenes my imagination plays—much like a movie—into words. This takes me a few weeks to a max of two months if work and life are hectic.

The strangest part of letting the muse lead is she doesn’t like to go in order. I must go where I am inspired. The recent trend seems to be for me to start with the inciting incident—boy meets girl—and then I discover who they are. Sometimes conflict comes next, sometimes the climax and resolution. Exposition is usually added somewhere in the middle to end of my process. I jump around creating scenes until I feel spent. The story is done.

I use these terms to explain my process to others, but never do I think, “I’m writing exposition right here.” I’m completely freewriting with wild abandon.

Editing

Plotter

Up until this point in the process, I’ve been frustratingly slow. Just write the dang thing already! But in this editing stage, I’m lightning fast. The time it takes me to respond to both rounds of suggestions from my editor totals less than a week. Granted, it ends up being longer than that to process as I have to wait on my work to go through the queue, but it doesn’t sit in my hands for long at all. I’ve been known to turn my work around in a matter of hours for my second round of edits.

The truth is, I’ve done a ton of editing while outlining and writing. Scenes and subplots got scrapped or changed before I even put them in the manuscript. This doesn’t mean I can skip editing or am free from continuity errors, but having a cleaner manuscript from the start makes this stage easier.

Pantser

Editing already? Wait, wait. I’m not ready. After the first draft is done, I let it “marinate.” That means after my month of intense writing, I move onto something else for a few weeks to reset my brain.

When I come back, I revise, and during that process, I’m taking the pieces I’ve strung together and smoothing them out, while checking that my plot is sound. Normally, it is pretty solid and shipshape, but I’m enhancing what is there by adding about 10-15K words in the form of descriptions and narrative voice. While I’m doing all this, I critique my work with notes—my own worst critic. This round takes a few weeks.

Then I pass a round or two of line edits and fix the notes I’ve made. Then I submit. The publishers give me a couple rounds of edits, but they don’t run off screaming, so I must be doing something right.

Altogether, the first words written up to the submission is a three to four month process for me, not counting the many breaks from writing that life throws. During these breaks, mental work is going on. I process and reprocess, revise and critique my work, write and rewrite. These mental exercises make this revision and editing process quicker and smoother.

The General Process

Plotter

Believe it or not, the single draft I get down is the one that goes to my editor. Before you gasp in horror, there is a difference between a first draft and a rough draft. Because I edit as I write (sometimes rewriting a single sentence four or five times before moving on), what is technically my first draft is by no means something rough that I threw down on paper; it’s closer to what a pantser’s manuscript looks like a few drafts in.

Pantser

I would say my fourth “draft” is what is submitted, but I feel more like they are two layers—draft and revision—that have been edited twice for everything from word choice and grammar to bigger things like characters arcs, narrative voice, and plot. Although many say first drafts can be hot messes, mine are more like a great tapestry riddled with holes that need mending. No matter how carefully I plan that tapestry pattern, it would not work out the way it was intended. Instead, I must go with the flow of where imagination takes me and then examine the pattern I have made and tweak the stitches for aesthetic beauty.

Conclusion

By the time you get to formatting and proofreading, both the pantsed and plotted manuscripts look the same. If we don’t tell you whether Marine and Graves are the plotter or the pantser, could you guess which is which? Unless you comb through our blogs or social media responses for where we’ve stated our preferences, we doubt it.

Both author types ultimately go through the same stages of the writing process. The difference is whether we spend more time at the beginning or end to get our ducks in a row.

Another thing to note is the false dichotomy of plotting and pantsing. Neither of us stays strictly within our chosen method 100% of the time. Sometimes a plotter has to be flexible or a pantser needs to stick to a planned element. The two methods are better described as a spectrum, and authors may find themselves anywhere on it, even directly in the middle. And the best part about that spectrum? It’s level; no part of it is above any other.

You can find romances by Lisa Borne Graves and Brandi Spencer here.

Next week we’ll be taking a break for Christmas, and in two weeks, we’ll conclude 2020 with a review post of the year.

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Author Interview: Melion Traverse

2020-12-09T02:00:00.013-08:00

Melion, thanks for joining us today! Let’s dive right in, shall we?

First, congratulations on your debut novel! What inspired you to write Exile?

This is a difficult one to answer, if I’m being honest. I wanted to write a character who was deeply flawed but who possesses an internal drive to grapple with, and overcome, her flaws. I like characters who acknowledge the dangerous, unsavory aspects of themselves and struggle to be good despite their own inclinations. I’m not a fan of grimdark, I should add, because I prefer to see the good triumph in the battle of good versus evil, but I think it’s important to acknowledge the truth that even those who are good are not without tremendous flaws.

It is nice to see a character being truly flawed and seeing them come to terms with it throughout the book. Are there any themes, symbols, or motifs in your story?

Redemption and forgiveness are themes which stand out readily. The inclusion of the enfield (a creature which I consider woefully underused in fantasy, by the way) is used as a symbol. Fire is the motif that comes to my mind. I like playing with themes and symbolism, so there are certainly others. Honestly, I’m really fun to run into at a party.

We’re sure that you are—we’d go to a party that you’re at. Tell us, who is your favorite character?

You’re asking all the hard questions, I see. Of course, I’m rather attached to all of them, but if I had to pick a favorite, I’d say Uncle Roland. I suppose people would expect that I choose Bryn, being that she’s the main character, but Uncle Roland is the one who elicits the greatest emotional response from me. I feel a bit sorry for him that he’s the calm, rational person, and yet he isn’t the one upon whom a story is centered. He has to stand aside and watch his last relative, a person of whom he’s quite fond, face the consequences of her own poor decisions, and he’s powerless to do anything of substance. I don’t know, it just seems that his world is being reordered by the prior events just as surely as Bryn’s and Eckard’s worlds, and he just has to quietly make peace with it as best he can.

Uncle Roland is a good one—I think mine is Eckard, but that might just be the beard. Let’s switch gears a little bit: How did you craft your world?

I’ve got this whole pretentious and rather dry response, but I’ll spare everybody my foray into verbal onanism. There’s a larger history to the story world, which is rooted in my interest in both the ancient Roman and the medieval worlds.

Both are great time periods to draw from. How did you decide on a setting? Is it based off of anywhere you’ve been in real life?

The setting isn’t really based on anything I’ve seen in real life. I mean, I can say that the landscape is inspired by the scenery I’ve encountered on my travels across the United States, but the setting is a very different place on a much smaller continent.

Let’s switch gears again: Who are your favorite authors?

My favorites? Oh, here we go. If I had to narrow it down, I’d probably say Brian Jacques, Rosemary Sutcliff, and Jack London, as well as Lloyd Alexander, C.S. Lewis, and JRR Tolkien.

Those are all great authors. Finally, what can we expect next from you?

I just completed a manuscript of a sequel to Exile. Beyond that, I have a couple of other works in progress which take place on the continent of Elzina, which is a location Bryn and the others visit in Exile.

Thanks again for talking to us today. Readers, don’t forget to join us this Saturday, December 12th for the launch party and your chance to win a free paperback copy!

Exile

By Melion Traverse

Vengeance. Atonement. Exile. After killing a paladin in revenge for her family, Squire Bryn is cast out by order of the god Avgorath himself. Now she seeks atonement with the father of the dead paladin. But machinations far greater than a disgraced squire are at play. Unicorn riders—believed to be only legend—ride through the land. A young sorcerer needs help in finding his father, and a mystery brews that could hold the fate of two worlds. Will hatred prove stronger than the need to preserve a crumbling world?

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Plot Archetypes: Rebirth

2020-12-02T02:00:00.002-08:00

It’s all about the arc, baby

Rebecca Mikkelson, Editor-in-Chief Authors 4 Authors Publishing

Welcome to our sixth and final post in our plot archetype series! Today we’re going to be talking about the feel-good plot archetype: rebirth. So what exactly is involved in this plot archetype?

What is it?

Well, rebirth can literally be a resurrection, but in general, it’s a transformation of your main character from villain to hero. The whole cast of characters wins when you have a rebirth plot because the protagonist changes themselves and their surroundings for the better. After sinking further into their vice or villainy, these characters will meet a character that reminds them of the goodness of the world and inspire them to change for the better.

How to write a rebirth plot

So how do you go about writing a rebirth plot? Well, like the other plot archetypes we’ve been talking about, there are certain steps that need to be taken in order to make it successful. So what are they?

The fall of the protagonist: Your protagonist can’t have a redemption arc without first needing to be redeemed, right? This is where it’s established that your protagonist has fallen off the righteous path and the reason why they fell.

Bad is a good color: Your character’s bad deeds have to work for them, or else why would they stay bad? This could be something like insider trading and your character getting super rich, or they killed someone to take over a kingdom and they have the world at their fingertips.

Frustration: This is where your protagonist sees that they might have done the wrong thing, but they don’t yet see how they can get out of their situation.

Nightmare: This is where your character will feel there’s absolutely no way out—there’s no changing for them; they’ve gone too far down the hole and they should just stay there.

Redemption: Remember the aforementioned character that shows them they can be better? This is where they’re really going to shine. Your protagonist is going to realize that they can change with the help of or inspiration from the helper. And they do the hard work to make amends and improve themselves to no longer be the villain.

Examples

So, where can you find plots that involve rebirth? Well, there are several different examples that we can give, so we’ll break them down into books and movies for this blog post.

Books

A Christmas Carol is a book we’re all familiar with—especially since we’ve gotten so many movie versions of it. This is all about Ebenezer Scrooge and his journey to redemption. After a not so bright childhood with a lost love, Scrooge becomes the miser that we see from the start of the book. After he’s visited by the ghosts of the past, present, and future and sees how miserable his life is and how miserable he makes everyone else, a fire to change lights under him. He doesn’t want to die alone and unloved. So when he wakes up from his nightmare of visions, he vows to change his ways—and does. And everyone around him benefits from his new generosity, but especially the families of his workers.

Movies

How The Grinch Stole Christmas is a family classic that, at least in my family, is played nearly every year around or on Christmas. To be fair to the Grinch, he doesn’t really hate Christmas—he hates the people that treated him poorly. This is where the book and the movie differ slightly: Cindy Lou Who, instead of catching the Grinch in the act of stealing their Christmas feast and presents, decides to befriend the Grinch and warm his heart to the Christmas spirit by trying to get him elected as the Cheer Meister. And she almost succeeds until the town mayor proposes to the Grinch’s childhood love and the Grinch wreaks havoc on the town destroying the things around him. After being hated and derided by the villages in Whoville, the Grinch decides to take his revenge and ruin the one thing they love most: Christmas. And so he takes the villagers’ gifts and feasts and plans to get rid of them so no one can have a happy day. But come the morning, despite him stealing everything, he hears the Whos singing and realizes that Christmas isn’t just about the gifts and the feasts, but the people. And as the story goes, his heart grows three sizes and returns the gifts to the villages and they all live happily ever after.

Join us next week for an author interview with A4A author Melion Traverse about her debut novel, Exile.

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Misused Writing Advice: Past Perfect is Perfectly Fine

2020-11-18T02:00:00.006-08:00

Is “had” a bad word?

Brandi Spencer (formerly B. C. Marine), Secretary-Treasurer Authors 4 Authors Publishing

Welcome back to Misused Writing Advice, an ongoing series where we tackle well-meaning writing guidance that has either lost something in translation when made into a brief tip or been twisted entirely. Today’s topic, past perfect tense, is a little of both.

What is past perfect tense?

The rest of you who aren’t grammar nerds like me are probably slowly slinking away from your screen right now. Past perfect tense? That sounds really complicated…

I promise it’s not. Past perfect tense is what you use when you talk about something that had happened before something else in the past (including in this sentence). It’s essentially past-past tense (if it makes it easier for you, you can use that substitute term in your head as you read this article). For example:

Present tense: I write to him.
Past tense: I wrote to him.
Past perfect tense: I had written to him.

Past perfect tense is always formed with “had” and a past participle. For the purposes of this article, that second part isn’t important. It’s the “had” that people do a search for when they want to rid a document of past perfect tense.

Wait. So, what’s the problem?

All right, gang, it’s time to unmask the real villain here. It’s...excessive flashbacks! Yes, it all started eons ago. I can remember it like it was yester—

Just kidding. You would hate me for doing that to you here. Why? Because flashbacks are literary detours. Of course, sometimes there are moments that are too important to miss, and it’s worth leaving the main storyline for a brief time to catch them. But if you take too many detours, readers are going to get the sense that you don’t actually know where you’re going.

What does that have to do with “had”?

Since most fiction is written in past tense, the flashbacks for it are written in past perfect tense. The “had” makes it very easy to search for in comparison to looking for simple past tense flashbacks in a present tense story.

The other thing working against this tense is that it invokes a need for context. If we go back to my example, “I had written to him” is technically a complete sentence, but it doesn’t feel like a complete statement. If I said it aloud to you, you would likely expect me to continue and elaborate with something like “before the event” or “until he moved.” When whole pages are written in past perfect tense, a reader’s mind is constantly having to fill in that context with what they’ve read so far, which gets tiring after a while.

Cool. I’ll just delete those “had”s!

That’s not really how it works. Past perfect tense exists for a reason. Without it, it can be hard to establish a proper order of events. So what should you do?

Tell it to me straight.

Ideally, the best thing to do is tell your story in order as much as you can. Granted, sometimes there are important reasons for telling a story out of order. (I won’t get into those now as that could be an entire article itself.)

Fine, but make it quick.

The second thing is to make those little detours into the past as brief as possible. One paragraph of backstory here or there won’t distract too much from the main story, and most people won’t even notice a single sentence in past perfect tense to explain a transition between scenes.

Put the past in its place.

Okay, so you absolutely must have a flashback, and it’s a long foray. This is where you finally excise the past perfect tense (somewhat).

A great example of this can be found in Renee Frey’s One Thousand and One Days. Storytelling itself is a major theme of the book as characters bond over it. When long accounts of the past are revealed, Frey will begin with either dialogue of the character beginning the tale or the character beginning to remember it in past perfect tense. Then she uses a scene break and continues the tale in simple past tense so that it reads like the narrative in the rest of the book.

If you’re having a character telling a story within your story, which is often the reason for longer backstories, this technique also avoids having several pages of quoted dialogue within dialogue as they relay what other characters have said. Depending on the length of your storytelling detour, you can even make it its own chapter instead of bracketing with scene breaks.

However, as you probably noticed, this technique doesn’t entirely eliminate past perfect tense. The idea is to remove the bulk of it from the middle of the flashback so you don’t fatigue the reader, but this tense is still useful for moving you into and out of the flashback so that the reader has cues to the change in setting.

Conclusion

Past perfect tense is a tool every writer uses for explaining the past before the past. But, just like in real life, we have to be careful not to dwell in the past for too long.

Next week, we’ll be taking a break for Thanksgiving, and in two weeks, we’ll conclude our series on plot archetypes with our rebirth post.

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Author Interview: Renee Frey

2020-11-11T02:00:00.001-08:00

Thanks for chatting with me today, Renee! Let’s jump right in, shall we?

Congratulations on your debut novel! What inspired you to write One Thousand and One Days?

I was first starting as a writer, and I looked at #mswl (short for Manuscript Wishlist) where agents post about the kind of submissions they want to see. One stood out to me, which was a fairy tale with a twist. I wanted to write about people and culture we don't see often in Western literature, and I decided (at that time) to change the story into a love triangle...so I chose the story of Scheherazade and the Sultan. Of course, after multiple rounds of edits and revisions, my original concept has changed a lot. There's more romance in this version, and no love triangle.

Personally, I think it’s much better without the love triangle, so I’m glad that it got to where it is. There are plenty of themes and symbolism in your book—is there one that you enjoyed including most?

My favorite part was researching Islam and learning about the religion's marriage traditions and teachings. I included parables such as the story of the fish who wanted to leave her lake and the description of marriage as being like clothing. They were really beautiful and actually helped my own spirituality and understanding of marriage.

It was really lovely being able to immerse myself in another culture and religion while reading this book, and I’m sure the readers will feel the same. Switching gears a little, who is your favorite character?

This will be wildly unpopular, but my favorite character is the Sultan's first wife. I don't want to give spoilers, but I love her courage and nerve (and a little bit of her evilness).

I think readers will be surprised about that, but I don’t think writers will be—my favorite to write are also the villains because they’re so different. How did you research for the retelling to keep the time period and religion as accurate as possible?

As I researched the origins of the fairy tale, I found some people attributing the story to Shahryar's father (name of character from my story). Harun al Rashid was probably the strongest and most influential ruler of the Abbasid Caliphate. But he had two sons...and what happened with them was, to me at least, more interesting. So I decided to loosely (very loosely) base the main events off their lives. I also loosely based Sutaita on an actual Muslim scholar, Sutayta.

As far as culture and religion references, I had some outstanding sensitivity readers, Gabriel and Noreen, whom I found on my writing critique site, Scribophile. They gave me great feedback mostly about the religion, but since the culture was one that strongly emphasized religious beliefs, it helped with that as well.

The blessing of sensitivity readers—what would we do without them? Are there any authors who really inspired you to write?

With this book, I was definitely inspired by Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel series. I loved the rich, sumptuous prose and presentation of the main character, and I think it definitely influenced my writing style with this work. It helps that her work is also what I'll call historical fantasy...a fictional fantasy that draws heavily on real world historic events and situations.

I think so too. We don’t want to keep you too long, so here’s our last question: What can we expect next from you?

I'm currently working on an epic fantasy that will have a mixture of traditional fantasy elements and a steampunk setting. It's going to take a long time, though, since I just started writing the first book.

Thanks again for chatting with me today! Readers, don’t forget to join us on Saturday, November 14th to support Renee at the launch party and your chance to win a free paperback copy of her debut novel! One Thousand and One Days is currently open for preorder!

One Thousand and One Days

by Renee Frey

Once upon a time, a grieving sultan made an edict: he would marry a new bride every night and kill her the next morning, before she could betray him.

Sutaita, daughter of the Sultan’s vizier, planned on a life of quiet study. But when she learns she and her sister must be the next two brides for the bloodthirsty Sultan Shahryar al’Mamun, Sutaita decides to change their fortune. Staying alive by telling stories every night, she must buy enough time to solve the mysteries surrounding the Sultan’s edict.

Shahryar has hidden a dark secret from all the history records. If discovered, it could cost him his empire and his life. But meeting Sutaita changes everything. Intrigued by the magic of her stories, he cannot find it in his heart to kill her, a heart he had hardened long ago against any sort of love.

In this retelling of the Arabian Nights frame story, can Sutaita slip past the walls around the Sultan’s heart and soul? Or will she end up like so many brides before—with her head on a chopping block?

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Plot Archetypes: Tragedy

2020-11-04T02:00:00.013-08:00

The books you cry over

Rebecca Mikkelson, Editor-in-Chief Authors 4 Authors Publishing

Welcome to our fifth post in our plot archetype series! Today we’re going to be talking about a story that’s familiar to everyone who’s ever taken a high school English class: tragedy. So what exactly is involved in this plot archetype?

What is it?

Unlike a comedy, a tragedy is a series of bad decisions that don’t end up having a funny, happy ending. It ends, well, in tragedy. There are no happy endings for this type of plot, especially for the protagonist. This might sound a little sad, and it is, but our protagonists in tragedy stories usually aren’t truly heroes like we would see in our other plot archetypes. They’re tragic heroes who do not have to be entirely good or evil, but they tend to fall further into the evil side than they do good. We can also see heroes turned into villains based on discontentment of how they’re treated who now do everything that they can to ruin things for their former allies or heroes. (Think Benedict Arnold after being passed over for promotion several times turning his coat to the British.)

How to write a tragedy plot

Much like the other plot archetypes that we’ve been looking at, there are five stages an author must hit in order to write a successful tragedy plot. So what goes into it?

Anticipation Stage: This is where our tragic hero discovers something that they want and set their sights on getting it. This could range anywhere from money to power to the girl they want to marry. No matter what they set their sights on, by trying to attain it they start their own downfall.

Dream Stage: This is where the protagonist starts their journey toward their goal, and by ignoring any warning signs that what they’re doing is wrong, they will do something that means they can’t change their mind and turn back to their old life. Things are going to go right for them, at least for now, and they’re going to see this as a sign that they’re doing what’s right.

Frustration Stage: Some things are going to start going wrong for the protagonist, but they are able to overcome them and continue on toward their goal, and what they do will truly alert the reader that there won’t be redemption for the tragic hero by the end of the book.

Nightmare Stage: Now nothing is going right and the protagonist’s plans start failing. They keep making bad decision after bad decision that has them living in fear of the eventual failure.

Destruction Stage: This is where everything comes to a head and the protagonist ultimately fails in their goal, or at the very least loses everything that they’ve gained. Sadly, or not so sadly, this is where the protagonist will perish and the other cast of characters will be rid of the evil put forward by the tragic hero.

Examples

So, where can you find plots that involve tragedy? Well, there are several different examples that we can give, so we’ll break them down into their own sections, but this time we’re going to focus on books and plays.

Plays

King Lear is just a cluster of bad decisions. First, Lear splits his kingdom into three between his daughters equally and he asks his daughters how much they love him. When the youngest doesn’t give him the kind of answer he wants, he disowns her and she goes to France to the French king. After that, Lear realizes the mistake he’s made but there’s no getting out of it now. He flees to the heather after his remaining (remaining as in still in the same country) daughters undermine him out of what little power he still has. After that is a series of bad decisions on the daughter’s part that result in their deaths and King Lear dies from grief. In this play, not every bad decision is made by our tragic hero, but the decision he made put everything into motion to have the result that it does.

Books

Madame Bovary is perhaps even more tragic than King Lear. In this, Charles Bovary first loses his wife, and then marries another who is discontented with life as a village wife. She wants the finery that she sees wealthier people have and falls in and out of love with wealthier men, making her husband a cuckold, and also falls into extreme debt with a money lender. Eventually she ends her affairs and when the moneylender repossesses the items that she can’t pay for. Afraid that her husband will find out, she tries to pay back her debts by asking local businessmen and even trying to prostitute herself to one of her ex-lovers. When that doesn’t work, she kills herself by eating arsenic to avoid the shame of her own greed. To make the story even more tragic, her husband was so loyal he never suspected she had been unfaithful until he found her letters to her ex-lovers after her death, and he dies from his own grief.

Join us next week for an author interview with A4A author and co-founder Renee Frey for her debut novel, One Thousand and One Days, a retelling of One Thousand and One Nights, and in four weeks we’ll see the conclusion of this series when we talk about the rebirth plot archetype.

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A4A Blog

NaNoWriMo Video Prompts

Prompts

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Author Interview: Faith Consiglio

Faith, thanks for sitting down with us today. Let’s get started, shall we? What inspired you to write Where Ashes Reign?

That’s a really great inspiration. Are there any themes, symbols, or motifs in your story?

Definitely. Who is your favorite character?

Emory is a great character, for sure. How did you craft your world?

That’s really cool. What about this time period drew you in?

Let’s switch gears a little—who are your favorite authors?

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Author Interview: Rebecca Mikkelson

Rebecca, thanks for sitting down to talk with us today. Let’s dive right in, shall we? What inspired you to write The Anatalian soldier?

It’s funny how books can happen out of boredom. Tell us, are there any themes, symbols, or motifs in your story?

Those are things that I think everyone can relate to in their everyday lives. Who is your favorite character?

Morally gray characters can definitely be fun to write. How did you craft your world?

You mentioned modeling it off the Wars of the Roses, what about that time period drew you in?

That’s certainly one reason to like it. Let’s switch gears a little: Who are your favorite authors?

All great authors. We’ve got one final question for you: What can readers expect next from you?

Rebecca, thanks again for talking with us today. Readers, join us for the launch party of The Anatalian Soldier, on Saturday, November 20th for your chance to win a free copy!

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How I Screwed Up My Author Career

What’s in a Name

Too Close to See It

The Algorithm Hates Me

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Being True to Myself

What Are the Changes?

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Author Interview: K. R. Galindez

K. R., thanks for sitting down with us today. Let’s dive right in, shall we? What inspired you to write The Spirit of a Rising Sun?

We’ll certainly look forward to seeing them push their limits. Are there any themes, symbols, or motifs in your story?

The readers will certainly have a lot to ponder over while they read. You mentioned a couple of characters—who is your favorite character in the book?

She’s definitely a woman who knows what she’s about. How did you craft your world?

Very interesting! Let’s change gears a little: Who are your favorite authors?

All great authors. We’ve got one final question for you: What can readers expect next from you?

K. R., thanks again for talking with us today. Readers, make sure you join us on Saturday, September 4th for The Spirit of a Rising Sun’s launch party and your chance to win a free copy!

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Continuing Education: Weird Science

Are science and facts really so important in fiction?

What sorts of facts or topics need to be researched?

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Continuing Education: Call It a Day

How could a single day possibly be that complicated?

Why are lengths of days or seasons important?

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Author Interview: Lisa Borne Graves

Bladesung is the third Celestial Sphere novel. How does it feel to finish Toury and Alex’s story?

Are there any new themes, symbols, or motifs in this story?

Now that we’re in the third book, do you have a new favorite character?

What are you most excited about in Bladesung?

Do you have anything else planned for Celestial Spheres?

What can readers expect next from you?

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Continuing Education: Space Time Continuum

There is more than one way for the timeline to impact my story?

I plot my books, so there won’t be any timeline problems.

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Continuing Education: Stellar Cartography

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Author Interview: Beatrice B. Morgan

Beatrice, thanks for sitting down to chat with me today! Let’s dive right in, shall we?

We’re now getting into book three. Is there anything you’re particularly excited about for the readers going forward (without giving any spoilers, of course)?

Being a history person myself, I did quite enjoy getting to see the history of the people. Juniper is still heartbroken at the end of book two—do you think this influences some of her willingness to go into battle as she travels north?

That makes sense—if there’s nothing to live for, why not go hard? Tell me, has your favorite character changed for book three?

I’m sure a lot of other writers also feel the same way about their main characters. Let’s switch gears a little bit. We’re going to some really interesting places in this book—was there one that was your favorite to write?

And finally, last question: What can we expect next from you?

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Continuing Education: Location, Location, Location

What does location have to do with Continuity?

I am using my own world, so I don’t have to worry about location.

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Author Interview: Karen Heenan

(Note: Songbird is no longer published with Authors 4 Authors Publishing. We encourage your continued support of Karen and you can find links to her work through her Twitter.)

Thanks for sitting down with me today! We’re excited for your latest book coming out this weekend. What inspired you to write A Wider World?