Finding the Words #amwriting #TheStruggleIsReal

Life in the Realm of Fantasy

When we sit down to write, we consciously create pictures with words. If we have done our job, the ideas they generate in the reader’s mind are infinite.

We often see memes and quotes about writing that resonate with us. Quotes often become memes because they are true and memorable and sometimes poke fun at us.

“One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.” ― Jack Kerouac

The words we write create images in the mind of the reader. If the ideas they represent are phrased right, the complete picture will be understood. We must believe that readers will see the images we paint for them.

“The secret of being a bore is to tell everything.” – Voltaire

This is where it becomes difficult for me as a writer. I know I don’t have to spell everything out in minutia because readers are intelligent. But…

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Who Influenced Your Writing?

Story Empire

Hey, SE Readers. Joan with you today.

Some of us knew from an early age that we wanted to become a writer. For others, the desire came about later in life. Mae Clair wrote an excellent post a few years back, Are Writers Born or Made? If you haven’t read it, you can do so by clicking this link.

Regardless of when you realized you had the writing bug, no doubt there is at least one person in your life that influenced your decision. There are several people that played a role for me.

A photo of me with my dad.

My father was an avid reader who passed that desire along to me. I believe it’s essential for authors to also be readers, so Dad’s love of books had a huge influence on my writing career. His youngest sister wrote poetry, so some of my creative genes undoubtedly…

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Understanding Humor – Just a Little More

Story Empire

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

Hi SEers. John with you again. The last time I posted, the subject was humor and how to do it. If you missed it and want to review HERE is the link.

The title gives you some indication of where we are going today. We are to explore the nature of humor and perhaps be able to understand it a little better. So what makes us laugh anyway?

To you, humor may be one thing, and it may be entirely different to someone else. In any case, humor should elicit a response much akin to pleasure. It could be a chuckle, smile, or outright laugh. But, of course, there are times when humor is so obscure or subtle that the best response possible is a groan.

In an article published by Emily Blatchford on July 19^th, 2017, in the HuffPost on humor, it…

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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)