Creating Mood and Atmosphere #amwriting

Life in the Realm of Fantasy

Today marks the final day of NaNoWriMo 2022. I achieved my goal and exceeded it, which was a surprise. The month has been crazy busy here at Casa del Jasperson, but I still managed at least 2000 new words each day and sometimes more.

Now that I have most of the foundation built for my novel (the ending is not written), I find myself going back and looking at places where I inserted notes to myself, using red fonts. These are messages like: Build tension between the factions here. Show how it affects the group’s mood. Or another note: Need an atmosphere of fear.

When writing those notes to myself, I didn’t stop to fine-tune the story. My personal quest was to get the story laid out from beginning to end and write at least 2000 words each day. At this point the novel is mostly talking heads. The world…

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WHAT EVERY WRITER SHOULD KNOW

Story Empire

Hi SEers! Denise here to talk about things every writer should know.

After the story is written and you are ready to present it to the world, what’s next?

I admit to blindly jumping into self-publishing. I did not know how to publish, find an editor or other writers, or what social media was—I knew nothing! That was probably a good thing, or I might still be researching how to become a self-published author. I learned many lessons from a wonderful writing community, though.

Some truths apply to our profession, whether you are a new or a seasoned writer.

Twelve Things Every Writer Should Know:

• What you put out there needs to be your very best. Make sure it’s edited and formatted, with an intriguing blurb and cover if you will self-publish. If you plan to find a publisher or agent, this idea also applies to your communication with…

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How to Use Prologues, Part 10, Recap of Tools

Story Empire

Image courtesy of Tumisu via Pixabay

Hi SErs! It’s a day of Harmony here at Story Empire 🙂 Today, I’d like to summarise the tools available for prologues, seeing as we’ve covered a lot so far. Here’s a link to the previous post on In Media Res in Prologues.

Tools for Prologues:

1. Backstory Delivery
2. Spoilers Ahoy
3. Unexpected Clues
4. Outsider’s Report
5. In Media Res

Backstory Prologue Summary:

A Backstory Delivery prologue will introduce either both the characters and events or one of these elements to provide a crucial key, or keys, to the reader about what follows in the main story. This prologue will provide information important to understanding the plot, and/or the world, etc. Use this narrative to introduce an element of mystery and make your reader question and want to know what happens next. Standalone events are excellent ways of introducing a much broader theme/issue to your readers without…

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$0.99 E-Book Sale – Chronicles of Riss #BlackFriday #CyberMonday

Attention! Attention! A Black Friday & Cyber Monday sale is incoming!

My book, Chronicles of Riss, is on sale on Kindle from today, 11/25 (Black Friday), and through the following week for Cyber Monday. The book has many great reviews on Goodreads.

You can join Riss on some fun, magical misadventures for the low, low price of only $0.99! (US price)

Confronting evil sorcerers. Fighting monsters. Dueling metal golems. Searching for a sea monster. Hunting lost treasure. Finding a missing show dog. Competing in talent contests. Helping lost children. These are just some of the widely varied exploits that the young mercenary sorceress Marissa “Riss” Cobalt shares in this second Adventures in Sorcery book. Riss reveals how she ended up as a mercenary and chronicles some of the many adventures, ranging from fun to serious, that she’s had prior to the events of Kismet and Tell.

If you want some fun, light YA Fantasy adventures to curl up with, or need a small Christmas gift for someone who’d like to join in on Riss’s adventures, this would be the deal for you!

Pick up a copy on Amazon Kindle here.

Let’s learn from a case study

Story Empire

Hi, Gang. Craig with you again today. On occasion, I like to do a case study because authors can learn some things. You should all know by now that I prefer film to draw my conclusions because more people will be familiar with the source material.

The small screen is full of things in my wheelhouse right now, and I’m probably watching all of them. The topic for today is House of the Dragon (HOD). This is the prequel to Game of Thrones (GOT) and if you aren’t watching it I’m pretty sure you’re aware of it.

I recently posted about some of the risks involved in prequels, but HOD seemed to avoid most of those by setting the story hundreds of years before GOT. No crossover characters, at least yet. (I think Queen Alicent is going to become Red Witch Melisandre.) We’re going to do a little comparison between…

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Bookbird: an Amazing Resource for Writers

Nicholas C. Rossis

I came across Bookbird when I was hired by Yves Lummer to work on the website’s content. Bookbird is rapidly becoming a top resource for authors looking for help with writing and self-publishing, with tons of excellent advice covering everything from name generators to calculating your KDP royalty.

So far, I have written 4 guides for him, with at least as many scheduled for December.

• Character Name Generator
• Book Sales Calculator
• Inciting Incident: How to Power Your Story
• Book Genres

Yves has also published a large number of amazing guides that all Indies should check out, such as Amazon KDP: The Definitive Beginner Guide For Authors (2022), How to Price Your Book, and Amazon Book Categories: The Secret Visibility Booster.

Its main offering, though, is its Amazon KDP Book Interior Templates. Perfect for low-content books such as activity, coloring, and even no-content books (think journals, notebooks…

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Happy Thanksgiving

Wishing one and all a happy and blessed Thanksgiving

(All images found on Pinterest)

Writing the End – Part 1

Story Empire

Greetings Storytellers! Diana here today. Since recently posting about Writing First Chapters, I thought it might be interesting to post about the last ones.  

First chapters get a lot of attention because that’s where we hook our readers and hopefully leave them salivating for chapter two. What’s the point of worrying about a book’s ending if we can’t get them past the first twenty pages?

However, the last delicious memory of our stories, the chocolate we leave on the reader’s pillow is the ending. We want them to savor our stories long after the glorious reading feast! The way our tales end will have a significant impact on how readers remember them, and whether they’ll return for more or recommend them to others. For that reason, it’s important to toil over our endings just as we do our beginnings.

The number of chapters required for an ending varies…

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WRITERS AND READING

Story Empire

Hi SEers! Denise here to talk about something I do a lot of—reading.

I have always been impressed when I run across a beautiful passage that stays with me after I finish the book. Now, as a writer, I note things I like—or don’t. It is not only something I enjoy but a learning experience.

I know writers are limited on time, but when I encounter an author who doesn’t read, I’m puzzled. How can you improve your writing if you aren’t paying attention to what works and doesn’t? How do you stay current if you aren’t reading what is out there?

In the last couple of years, I’ve increased my reading from twenty-five to a hundred books a year. My primary focus is reading as many good indie authors as I can. I’m amazed at the creativity in this group.

What have I learned? A lot! I can spot…

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Procrastination for the Creative Writer, a 10 week course – meme…