Category: Creative Writing
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Riding a high . . .
As I write this on November 30, it’s been quite a week since Sunday! Here’s just a recap of all that’s happened: That’s quite a list for one week! Some items are more major than others, but all represent progress, and things are so hard as an indie author that I love celebrating the small…
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Beta reading for a friend! A great thought on how to beta read . . .
It has been SO long since I’ve been a beta reader. But a good friend asked me to beta read something she wrote, and I’m so excited to do it. It’s historical fiction set in Regency/Victorian England, sometime around there. I only just started it and am having fun. It’s a struggle trying to balance…
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Combining two characters
Now that book two is with the editor, I’m going through book three, and I’ve decided for the first time to more or less combine two characters. I’ve deleted a character before (sorry, Hal), and I thought at first that that was what I’d be doing here. Nope. I’ve ended up combining two characters instead,…
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My latest small win: first sale from an Amazon ad
As any creative type could tell you, it’s HARD out there. Even with a quality product, it’s hard to get attention, hard to get heard, and even harder to make any kind of sale at all. That’s why it’s important to celebrate small wins. Today, I’m super excited that after doing some research and setting…
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Write every day?
My thoughts on whether a writer really needs to write EVERY single day have evolved over the years. I think on one level that writing daily is a nice goal, but it’s not absolutely necessary. First, I think we have to recognize in a healthy manner that life is going to intervene sometimes, and that’s…
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Sending my manuscript to the editor this weekend!
My editor isn’t scheduled to start working on “The Magic Council: The Fight for Home” until December 1, but I’m so happy to announced that I’m going to be sending the manuscript to her this weekend. It’s as good as I’m going to get it, and I need to get it out of my hands…
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I just realized one of my characters is a lot like Cera from “The Land Before Time”
I loved The Land Before Time as a kid, and I particularly loved Cera–the triceratops character. Yellow was always my favorite color, and not only is Cera golden in hue–I’ll be honest, that’s probably why I originally liked her–but she’s colorful in character. It struck me out of the blue this morning that one of…
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Long or short chapters?
Do you prefer long or short chapters? One change between the first and second edition of book II of the Herezoth trilogy right now is that I combined chapters to make them about double the length that they were. My beta reader for book two’s second edition didn’t mind it at all. She mentioned that…
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Why I title my chapters
There are two, pretty quick reasons why I title my chapters. First, I write fantasy, more or less young adult, and for that subgenre of fantasy, lots of writers title their chapters. Secondly, Tolkien and J.K. Rowling titled their chapters. They are responsible for my love of fantasy literature and for showing me how deep,…
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Editing update! Under 109,000 words!
I’m so stoked. The first edition of “The Magic Council” clocked it at 125,000 words roughly. Certainly, it was between 120 and 125k. Over the years, preparing the second edition, I’ve trimmed a lot of weight while fleshing out a limited number of things that needed more focus, like the king and queen and their…
Creative Writing with the Crimson League 