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Review 3: More Than Dust in the Wind
As a band member in high school every year I would attend band camp. While there are several memories that stand out in my mind from that time, the one thing that I could count on, aside from the inter-school rivalries that flourished, was that at least one night during the week long camp an argument would errupt over which religious denomination was better, Catholic or Protestant. Of course, at band camp the discussion usually included a third denomination of Mormonism thrown in just to keep the discussion lively. When I started reading More Than Dust in the Wind, these discussions came flooding back to me in full force, to the point where I could almost smell the camp fire as it slowly burned down to embers. These heated discussions would invariably take place at night and were usually ended abruptly by the playing of taps, which signaled it was time to go to our cabins.
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Bio
The short version:
LK Gardner-Griffie has launched her first novel with Misfit McCabe. She lives with her husband Denny, and their three wonderful, miniature, long-haired dachshund’s, Gryphon, Phoenix and Elsa, in sunny southern California.
Review 2: Mortal Ghost
Let’s go back in time to the hey-day of radio when stories were read on a weekly basis and the family gathered around the radio to wait for the next installment. Or when newspapers or magazines published novels a chapter at a time. The speculation of what would happen next would be discussed with the anticipation mounting as you waited for the story to continue. Author L. Lee Lowe has brought this concept back with her young adult fantasy novel, Mortal Ghost, by publishing it one chapter at a time via blog. She then published the book in installments via podcast and as an e-book, and then finally as a POD with Lulu.
Review 1: Stealing Wishes
Most of us have things in our lives that we can obsess on. In fact, ask any teenage girl and she’ll immediately tell you that her nose it too big or too small, she has too many freckles or not enough, that her eyebrows are too thin or too bushy; the possible list is endless. We can spend hours agonizing and obsessing over features that the rest of the world doesn’t even notice.
The Birth of a Character
When you are writing a story, one of the most important elements of the story is the characters it contains. Without interesting characters to help drive your story forward, the reader will lose interest and stop reading. Henry James, one of the founders and leaders in the realism school of fiction, went as far as to say, “Character is plot.” Since character is so important to writing a story, how do we make the characters in the story come alive on the page for the reader?
In the Words of Mark Twain
Author Mark Twain, while best known for Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, is also known for being a literary critic. During a period of time in his life when he needed to help make ends meet financially, he started writing reviews of other author’s works for newspapers. In 1865, he famously wrote a review titled Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses. Twain maintained that there were 19 rules governing literary art in fiction and that Cooper had violated 18 of them.
Editing for Continuity
One of the things that you have to watch for when you are working on a story that is a continuation from a previous work is continuity, or even within the same story continuity errors can crop up. What do I mean by continuity? If you give your character blue eyes in one book, then you can’t give that same character brown eyes in the next book, unless you are deliberately having the character wear eye changing contacts for a reason integral to the plot. As you are reading this, I know that you’re thinking to yourself, but I would never make that sort of mistake. Believe me, it is much easier than you think to make those sorts of errors. In the world of TV and Films, there are people whose job it is to ensure that all of those details are attended to, and mistakes will still creep in. I’m sure you noticed things when watching one of your favorite TV series.
The First Page
Your goal when writing a story is to get the reader to turn the first page. If they don’t want to turn that first page, then they won’t read your story. You have approximately three paragraphs to get the reader involved and to make them want to turn that page. So, how do you get your reader hooked in those first few paragraphs?
Storytelling Methods
So far, I have been able to share with you what I would call an overview of writing. How to set up your environment, some tips on how to get the ideas flowing, and things of that nature. Now we need to start discussing some of the nuts and bolts of writing. This is where we get to break down what we’re writing and identify what it is that we’re doing and then we’ll be able to make some decisions as to whether it is effective or not.
Tips for Creating Your Masterpiece
You don’t have to write the WHOLE thing all in one sitting. Even if working on a short story, it is a good idea to take some rest breaks, even when your ideas are flowing well. A regular break from your story will allow your brain to take a breather and keep you energized and refreshed, which ultimately allows you to write even better.
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