A Scattered Blog Post for Writers & Readers

Yep, autumn has come to my little corner of the world, temps in the low 40’s when I got up this morning.  And, since this time of year tends to make me a bit scattered with the need to pull it back together I’ve decided to treat my readers to a scattered post. A bit of a few things to let you know about, to give you a little something and to hopefully make your day.

With the sun shining outside, the green tea on my desk and access to the web coming and going this morning I’ll do the best I can – so here’s the first thing on my small list.

The publisher, Baen has introduced their FREE library and are offering free electronic versions of some of their books. You can read online or download in a variety of formats.  Nice. Thanks Baen.

And wait, there’s another free resource. Ebook Lobby They offer free books, more of the non-fiction variety, but a few children’s books as well. Also free to download.

And, if you write pretty much anything, there might be a time when you want to grab a copy of Elements Of Style – you can get that free here. 

On another subject, a friend of mine, author Robbie Cox, has a great series going with two installments already completed which I’ve read and enjoyed.  It’s the Warrior of The Way series. 

The first is Reaping The Harvest $2.99 on Kindle  It kicks off with -

“On his way home from a moving job, Rhychard Bartlett heard a scream and ran to help. That action changed his life forever and tossed him into a war between the Way and the Void. Given the Guardian Sword, assisted by an ellyll who only stands two feet tall, and bonded to a mind speaking coshey the size of a Newfoundland canine and a taste for pepperoni pizza, Rhychard must stop the demon Vargas from carrying out his plans. Once he finds out what they are, of course. In the meantime, he longs for the girlfriend who left him because he suddenly had too many secrets. Not only must he save the day, but he also must convince Renny Saunders he's not the cheating lover everyone thinks he is.”

And the second is Lore Master $3.99 on Kindle 

Robbie is an excellent writer with a gift for drawing in the reader and giving him a great tale.  Check him out on facebook.

And his website at The Mess That Is Robbie Cox.

And wrapping it up for this week – what am I up to? 

Work on the sixth installment of the Planet Of The Eggs Children’s Book Series under The Egg Chronicles banner with writing/creative partner Charlene Brash Sorensen.  

We’ve blocked out the story line, figured out the illustrations we’ll need to create and are about ready to start creating that book titled Worlds Collide.  You can still get the first in the illustrated stories for kids by going to our Facebook page (hopefully giving it a like while you’re there) and click on the sign up button for our newsletter. This will only continue through the end of the year so you might want to get a move on to grab your PDF copy of Cracked Open FREE

 and start the series that just keeps getting better as light battles dark and the heroic egg warriors confront the depths of evil!

On the back burner for The Egg Chronicles is our next Read To Me Picture Book for very young readers (and the parents who read to them). No title yet, but we’re playing with ideas. Meanwhile, check out the first. 

Since our ‘egg empire’ is expanding we’re planning a whole reboot at the beginning of 2017 with the creation of The Egg Chronicles under who’s banner will be the children’s series Planet Of The Eggs (six issues in Vol. 1 now complete with Vol. 2 in development), the Read To Me Picture Books for Young readers, and more to be announced.

 

Thanks for reading!  Have a great autumn and I’ll be back with the next post soon!

Meanwhile, watch out for Puff the dragon-

he's growing up fast!

Giving Up Perfection - the Writer's Task

Are you a writer of any type?  Do you strive for perfection?  Are you slowing yourself down beyond belief?

Yep, well consider this. Sometimes there is just the need for speed.  If you watch a bike race like we saw in the Olympics you’ll see it’s not the perfect, cautious rider who wins, it’s the reckless idiot willing to throw it all to the wind and push it to the limit.

True?

Yes, we saw that young rider wipe out on a curve, but that rider was in the game. And if there hadn’t been that wipe out, if the ride had continued on beyond the point of control what would have happened?  Thrown off course? Yes. But on a track not taken before, perhaps faster. Maybe better.

 

Are you in the game?  

Perfect will never get you fast and in the end, when applying this to writing, it’s fast that counts for the first draft. Get it out there like word vomit on paper. Really, just toss it out there. Get yourself on a roll and let those written words loose – 1,000 words, 2,000, maybe 5,000 or more in a day. Don’t trip up your hot streak. Don’t risk tossing aside a ‘wow’ moment when you, as writer, look back over the day’s work and find you’ve gone way beyond your usual abilities.

Yes, you’re going to have to edit whether you’re an author who waits until the end to go through the whole script in one go or another kind of writer who edits what was done the day before prior to continuing. You’re just (most of you) are going to have to do some clean up. Or someone is going to have to do it for you and believe me it won’t be an editor or a producer.

BUT - Don’t let the magic of that full throttle day disappear. Don’t chance killing the spark that ignited. Your writing begs for you to be reckless. Perfect slows you down. My advice is don’t go for perfect…especially when in the midst of a creative storm.

The other side is the obvious. I’m sure you’ve all heard various complaints about books with typos, misspellings and all sorts of grammar mistakes that throw the reader off and end up causing them to put the book aside. Same can happen with any other writing.  What if you’re a technical writer and hand in a paper filled with errors. 

I’m not saying the driven writer shouldn’t be bothered with such, we have to be. We even have to read galleys with a professional eye to catch the errors the editors at major houses miss. However you accomplish it, do it.

But when it comes to your story, don’t go for perfection, go for the speed and power that make your words sing. You never know what new demon might emerge out of the mist. 

Writer Not Writing

Have you ever had one of those days?

Of course you have.

I should be writing, but I’m not. Or I could be creating illustrations for the comic series I create with Charlene Brash Sorensen, but I’m not. What have I been doing? Well I did write a post for another blog, TVWriter.com on shutting up.  And, of course I’m writing this.

That doesn’t change the fact that I should be photo-shopping a small blue horseshoe print (don’t ask, but it goes with this 

 - note the blue hoofs). And then there’s the manuscript I need to create from a screen script (if you read this blog you no doubt saw the wonderful illustration associated with it last week). Yeah, well, I’ll get to writing that tomorrow…or maybe I’ll stay up late tonight. 

I do take some pride in the fact that I spent some time today helping an aspiring writer. He has a bit of a way to go yet, but he’s already come a long stretch. Kuddos on him! His project has gone from a long book to the idea of a trilogy and then back to a single long book. Long, of course, being relative, as it fits cleanly into its genre.

The trouble with a day like today is the distractions from writing  are plenty and the urge to play at anything other than being a writer great. It’s easy to give in to those distractions when they’re so close at hand – like a click away to hit Facebook or Twitter. And there’s beautiful spring sunshine outside. On top of that they tell us it’s going to snow by next Monday, so maybe I should take a bit of time off the indoor task of writing now before it hits again ahead of the real spring that’s coming when no doubt I'll get spring fever and want to skip the writing again.

Ah, yes, but back to where I am today. I have a writer's to do list on my desk just to my right and I’m scratching off stuff as I get it done. So far, despite my dithering on this day instead of writing, I’ve scratched off two of the eight things on the list and will scratch off another once this blog post is added to my site.That leaves five and probably a long evening ahead.

This is the kind of day I’m having. I’m almost looking forward to the need to take a break and fix dinner, and I don’t particularly like to cook. But, it’s my night, so I will.

To top it off, I look down at my keyboard (I usually don’t because I touch type at a high rate  of speed) and I see the ‘n’ and ‘m’ are both worn off…again.  Probably should buy a new keyboard but who needs the expense? Besides, I touch-type so I hardly look at them. But when I do a correct and do need to look down I almost always hit an ‘m’ for the ‘n’ because the letters are worn off the keys. A small writer's plague.

Sigh.

That’s the kind of day I’m having. Distractions and procrastination. I can only hope the rest of the world is accomplishing more than I.

Okay, back to that writer's to do list. I guess I’ll photoshop the blue horseshoe print.  Not exactly writing, but who knows, it may lead to greater things.

Tomorrow will be better…I'll just add to my list.

Writer's Office Tour

I decided it might be time to let my readers and friends who haven't visited in a while checkout my office and my organization of it (or lack thereof).  So come on along and I'll give you the two penny tour. 

First there's the actual place where I do actual writing - my computer and it's on a Veridesk.  What's that you say?  Well, it's an adjustable surface I can easily raise up or down.  I stand when I write about half the day and sit about half. Lots of ups and downs in a writer's life!

Yep, there's the chair, I do sit down on occasion. There's also a nice window behind me, a better shot of that, and the dog bed later. 

 

And of course the resident dog, actually one of three. This little guy is Hans and he frequently occupies the little dog bed under the window.  You can kind of get a dog-eyed view up toward my desk.

Here's that nice window, and a bit of the view at the mountains beyond. Hey, I have a great view and that picture was taken when there was still some snow on the ground.

Moving on - this is the back of my office.  That door you see leads to...well, not part of my office so I'll leave it to your imagination. That antler-topped staff in the corner was a gift from a screenwriter friend and of course you can see the beginning of the books.

Lots and Lots of books... research, binders I've put together with info I need, fun books, fiction, still have shelves loaded with books - in addition to my kindle.  Ah the life of the writer in this age...

 

Then there are the filing cabinets. Yep, need lots of space for those contracts, printed articles and old manuscripts and screenplays, copyrights, script registrations, general business, emails and, well you get the gist - lots of paper. 




Oh, look! It's the small dog bed. It's empty in the photo, but Hans is lying in it right now. Good dog!

 

Look! It's the exit!  The doorway to the outside world which I don't see very much of. And the bulletin board directly across from my desk. Lots of stuff on it. A calendar so I can keep track of what the heck day it is and any meetings or appointments, family pics, clippings and reference bits and pieces. There's a stairway down just to the left of the bulletin board so watch your step.

 

Oh, and if you couldn't see it clearly earlier, here's a nice shot of some books I've had published all lined up on that shelf. Go ahead, check out my Amazon author page.

And because they don't show everything there, take a minute and visit the Planet Of The Eggs facebook page for the latest on a comic series I've been working on and my webpage for more info.  

I have a great work space - worked for years to get it this way. Might not suit others well, but it's great for me. Come back and visit often. Tell me if you have any suggestions for making it even better.

Flashbacks – 4 Commandments of Writing One

In my years as a writer I’ve read many a flashback, I’ve written a few, and I’ve been asked a whole lot of questions about them.  Mostly things like, ‘how do I do a flashback’, ‘how do I make the flashback clear’, ‘how can I make the reader/audience understand the flashback’? It doesn’t seem like anyone ever asks, ‘should I put a flashback in my story?”

Well, most questions can be answered by, “don’t do it.” Seriously, don’t use a flashback in your story UNLESS –

1.  The flashback reveals something VERY important in the story. Don’t use a flashback to just pave over the cracks so to speak, to fill in story details to explain why someone did something or why the universe is as it is. Flashbacks are not fillers. Don’t try to turn them into that.

2. Any flashback you use must move the story forward significantly.  Whatever backstory the flashback may convey must be crucial to your story. If that’s not the case you’re simply boring your reader (or in the case of a screenplay, your audience after you’ve bored the reader that for some inexplicable reason put your script through).

3.  Think about your timing. Why do you want to put a flashback wherever it is you want to put it?  Is it necessary? If so, create suspense. Build up to it. Make your readers crave that reveal when you inject the flashback that gives your story that jolt.

4.  Finally, keep it tight, even short, get in and get out. Don’t go rambling off on storytelling not directly related to what you’re conveying. No loose ends, no flab. Give it punch, fill it with action (whether physical, mental, emotional) and make sure it gives a huge impact to the scene you’re working on, the emotions of characters in your story, readers reading it, and the story overall. And when it’s done, edit the heck out of it. Maybe even dump it if it doesn’t serve its purpose well.

Okay, those are the basic commandments. Now, my other advice is don’t do a flashback unless you feel it’s absolutely necessary to the story. I mean really necessary.

That said, if you still want/need one in your novel or script these couple of sites could be helpful in helping you learn HOW to do a good flashback.

How to Handle Flashbacks In Writing

How to Format Flashbacks In A Screenplay

You might hop over to Larry Brody’s TV Writer for TV writing advice. He offers lots of great info and I write a fairly regular post for the site.