It’s all in the details (15/365)

I’ve always been someone who doesn’t like to get bogged down in the details. When I was younger I wasn’t very much of a reader. When I actually did read something, as soon as I saw a huge block of text my eyes always glossed over it. I didn’t want to get bogged down in all the details, I just wanted to get to the action. The meat of the story.

As a writer, I kind of feel the same way, but I have to work on that. I just want to write the juicy stuff. The fun stuff.

But I know readers, real readers (not the kind of reader I was growing up) want those details. They want to be submersed into the world they are reading about. So it’s a constant fight with myself in getting down all the action and making sure I slow it down a bit to allow for world building. It shouldn’t be boring but I need to add things that will interest readers so they learn more about the characters and the world they inhabit.

So that’s what I’m trying to do with my current projects. I have Fire Mage, my urban fantasy, and Monster Hunter, my supernatural monster hunter book. I’d like to just be kicking vampire ass and using cool elemental magic, but I know I need to slow some parts down so readers actually learn about who my character are. I need to do that so readers feel something for the character, develop a relationship with them. They need to laugh with them, cry with them, feel excited when they do and feel fear when the character is afraid.

That’s the job of the writer. So that’s what I’m trying to do.

See you tomorrow.

Monday Motivation (14/365)

Not much to say today, except  the more I write the more I’m learning that urban fantasy is really where my sweet spot is as for what I like writing. I’m working on a couple projects, having trouble on deciding which one I really want to focus on, which I guess is good. At least it’s better than trying to decide which one I want to write because I’m having trouble writing either.

Today’s Monday Motivation comes from Ray Bradbury, who is quoted as saying or writing “You only fail if you stop writing.”

So don’t stop. Keep writing. Keep creating.

 

The Blank Page (13/365)

What is it that makes the blank page so intimidating?

My apologies in advance but I feel I’m using today’s blog post as a sort of inner monologue, a self-help kind of post. A coping mechanism as it were. I have a number of ideas floating around on my desktop right now. I keep the ones I’m really interested in on my desktop, while the dozens of other ideas get stowed away in a folder, to be visited again possibly one day.

But as for my desktop, here’s what I have: Continue reading

Fail Frequently (12/365)

Well, I haven’t blogged in two weeks. May did not go how I intended.

Not only did I enormously fail at trying to blog every single day, I also failed at something else that I was really excited about. My Kickstarter.

The Amazing Redbee is my all-ages graphic novel that I put up on Kickstarter. My plan was to break up the graphic novel into three individual issues to not only cut down on printing costs, but to also try and build an audience. I received a few backers within the first week of the campaign, but as time went on, there wasn’t any activity on it. But something else happened. Continue reading

I Want To Be A Hack Writer (11/365)

When I grow up I want to be a hack writer.

I doubt many aspiring authors and creators ever uttered those words. Some of us might not even known what a hack writer is. To misquote Fitzgerald, in my younger and more vulnerable years, I was given writing advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind recently. The truth of the matter is hack writers got paid. Continue reading