Posts Tagged Writers

The Writer’s Learning Curve

When I started this writing journey, I was naive to the complexities of it all. I guess in it’s most basic state, writing is just me and the words on the screen or paper. It’s when I started sharing those words that things changed. Here are ten things I learned since I started (in no […]

via 10 Things Learned Since I Started Writing — (Almost) Average

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Why Are Villains So Fun To Write?

The hero of any story is the hero for one simple reason — they triumph over evil. A hero (for all intents and purposes) fights the good fight and does everything they can within the limits of their own conscience to vanquish the men and women attempting to harm good, innocent people. They are strong and they are mighty and everyone cheers for them to win. So why is it, then, that the villain of the story is much more fun to write? It’s simple.

Villains are, for the most part, more complex than any other character and the majority of them represent the id lurking in the shadows of us all, waiting to be released. What type of Villains are there?

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Word Counts and Why They Don’t Matter

average-word-count

It happens quite often. I’ll come upon a post on Facebook or Twitter of an author referencing word counts in some way.

How many words are too many words?

What’s the correct word count for ?

How many words should there be per chapter?

Should I split my book into two to keep the word counts down?

I have to add/shave ‘x’ amount of words to reach my target number.

This ominous pressure to land the perfect word count for a book or genre for the sheer purpose of writing the “perfect” book really ruffles my feathers. There tends to be a big misnomer out there that if a book in a certain genre is too long, no one will read it, or if a book is too short, readers will think they’re getting jipped. Now, I’m sure there are plenty of readers out there who hate books that are longer than a certain number of pages, or won’t fork out $0.99 for a short story, but the majority of readers, I’m sure, care more about reading a good, strong, compelling story as opposed to how long it may or may not be. And though many a teacher may agree and profess that word counts are the end all, be all of writing, I’m from the school that word counts do not matter one iota. And I’ll tell you why. Read Full Article

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The Spirit Of… Scavenger Hunt

Win an iPad mini!

That’s right. In preparation for the release of my newest novel, The Spirit Of…, I have put together an online scavenger hunt for all of my current and future fans, the winner of which will win a brand new iPad mini. All you have to do is find, answer or complete as many of the tasks as you can, earning points along the way. Some of the tasks are simple, while others will demand that you do a little more digging.

Three prizes are up for grabs:
The Grand prize – iPad mini.
2nd place – $75 gift Amazon gift card
3rd place – a signed collection of all of my books (If you already purchased the print editions, the winner will receive a $10 Amazon Gift Card per book they already have). Let’s Play

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Resolutions of Time

Another year has come to a close, so it must be time to reminisce about the year we’ve left behind and look forward to the year ahead. It’s also when a lot of people begin to make plans to once again get their weight under control, eat better and exercise more… anything and everything to be a healthier person.

Not me. Read On For My 2016 Resolutions

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Insider Tips: Character Development 101

Characters are the bread and butter of your story, the glue that holds the plot together, the icing on the… oh, you get the gist. The characters are the emotional center of any written work — they are who takes us along with them on their journey. If we aren’t emotionally involved with the lead character (who may or may not be the narrator), or find the supporting characters boring or nonsensical, the reader will quickly become bored and no amount of plot will bring them back. It doesn’t matter if it’s a young boy who discovers he’s a wizard, a group of kids who band together to fight the evil lurking in the sewer, or a man who builds a spaceship to hunt for his abducted wife, if the characters are weak or underdeveloped, the story will suffer. So how do you go about engaging the reader with compelling characters that they’ll want to follow to the end of the world? Learn the Basics for Character Development

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