Running Out of Ideas

So I’m gradually scheduling blog posts for April and I ran out of ideas.  Honestly, my mind has been so focused on the books that I’m not sure what to do.  I get about halfway through the month and then pbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbt.  Just nothing and I wander off to one of my outlines.

(Wanders back from outline.)

A difficulty here is that I no longer write about all my WIP.  That brought in too many issues because I could only say so much without dropping spoilers.  That’s also why I don’t write too much about LEGENDS OF WINDEMERE.  I’d love to do an introductory blog post on the 6th champion who is debuting soon.  Yet, I really shouldn’t until May and even then this character has such a big spoiler over their head.  So my hands have really become tied in regards to my own stories.  Not unless I can find a way around certain things.  I do have one or two story issues, but I don’t want to put them into the public arena for voting due to sensitivity of the subject.

So, I’m going to attempt this again.  Anybody have any fun topics to write about?  Not just about how I write, but writing in general, life in general, thoughts on a trend, or anything that might be fun for debate.  I’ll grab ideas and run with them.  Well, power walk with them since I’m lazy after finishing that last book.

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Will O’ the Wisp

Check out this awesome interview with C.S. Boyack.

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Editor Sarah Wright is Open for Business!

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Acts of a Story

Yahoo Image Search

Yahoo Image Search

I’m slowly outlining a series where every book has a 4 Act structure.  It’s rather defined too with a ‘mini-climax’ occurring at the end of each section.  This has been the style for this series for a while, but I’m finally getting a closer look at it.  In fact, I’m seeing how my other books have acts in some form.  Take Beginning of a Hero (you can for 99 cents!):

Act 1– Luke gets to the academy and starts his adventure.
Act 2– Luke deals with the Hellfire Elf.
Act 3– Luke deals with the Lich.

Going by this division, I can see a few things about writing a story with ‘acts’ that I never noticed before.  So I’m going to list them here and see what people think.

  1. Not every act is the same length.  Some are big at 6 chapters while others can run only 3.  It’s not the size that should matter, but the content.
  2. You don’t have to define the acts or make them obvious, but you should have some type of ‘action’.  If an entire book has mild cut-offs for legs of an adventure then it’ll come off as one long act.  This could lose readers.
  3. It doesn’t hurt to give titles to your chapters when working with acts.  This can help define them more and you can give big titles too.  Right now I’m thinking of not putting titles on my chapters because I have multiple events happen in each one.  For example, a chapter in Legends of Windemere can have Luke talking to Kira, Delvin exploring Bor’daruk, and Nyx battling a demon in a volcano.
  4. There’s probably a limit on how many acts you can have in a story.  I’d go with 5 only because of Shakespeare.  Then again, I could easily be wrong here.
  5. Acts is a tough word to say while paying attention to your voice.  It sounds like ‘axe’ when I say it, but I know there are other ways.  Definitely a word that one should say quickly and not linger on.

So, what do you think about acts in stories?  Do you do it without noticing?

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Pizza Time!

Frodo Meme

Frodo Meme

I have to admit that this picture always creeps me out for some reason.  Still, I definitely feel like this for some reason.  Less blood (and hair), but I shouldn’t be allowed near volcanoes because I’d probably topple in from exhaustion.

Last night, I finished LEGENDS OF WINDEMERE: TRIBE OF THE SNOW TIGER.  It means I get to have pizza for lunch, which is my reward for finishing a first draft.  Also for publishing a book if the two events aren’t close to each other.  Not sure if that’s the case here since I still can’t 100% confirm an early April release for LEGENDS OF WINDEMERE: SLEEPER OF THE WILDWOOD FUGUE.  All I know is that I get to choose a future project to toy with for a while.

The big challenge is going to be redoing the outline for Book 11.  Things happened in Book 10 that nullified most of what I had planned.  New villains have turned up, a big event is no longer viable, and one of the heroes needs a special gift.  It’s entirely fixable as long as I take the time and concentration.  The old one can give me a hint of a few things like locations, other characters, and progression.  Still this is definitely the outline to take the biggest hit from changes occurring while writing.

Beyond that, I only have to say:

Volunteers still needed for Sleeper of the Wildwood Fugue Cover Reveal!!  Still not sure when it’s going to happen though.

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PRINCESS OF THE LIGHT Visiting Two Blogs #ASMSG #IARTG #MFRWAuthor

Two blog features for the price of one. Well technically none since this is free.

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Ask This Before You Make An Unlikeable Character Your Point of View Character

Victoria Grefer's avatarCreative Writing with the Crimson League

Aut1382050_book_lookhors, have you really considered the risk it is to choose an unlikeable character as the lens through which your readers view your story?

Whether this character is a first person narrator or the character your third-person narrator most closely follows, giving access to his or her thoughts and plans, the choice to make this person your point of view character can work.

So many great tales have unsavory or odd choices as narrator. I don’t want you to  finish this post thinking that I’m saying, “Don’t tell your story through an unlikeable character.” That’s not at all my point.

What would American literature be without Holden Caulfield or Ignatius G.Reilly?

You can definitely make great use of such a character…. Just remember to contemplate this question first:

Is making this character my point of view character going to help readers understand and connect with him or her? Or is exposing the…

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…not one, but two upcoming book launches for my dear friend, Authoress, Nancy Jardine…

Seumas Gallacher's avatarSeumas Gallacher

…it’s a delight when the ‘usual suspects’ drop by the blog to say ‘Hi’ and give me a heads-up on what they’re up to (and I promise not to tell the police)… the prolific Authoress, Nancy Jardine, has two pending titles, which you can read about here… enjoy…nancy 2

Hello Seumas, and thank you for allowing me to share my writing news.

Sometimes that bus stop at my door is very busy…

The last time I popped in to visit you may remember I was deliberating over whether to use my own name, or a pseudonym, for The Taexali Game – my first time travel historical adventure novel for middle grade/early teens. It’s just as well that I made the choice to use my own name for all of my writing, regardless of the intended market, because I’m pretty sure I’d become demented in the next few weeks trying to remember…

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Elle Boca’s Unelmoija on Countdown Sale

Big countdown sale!

Nicholas C. Rossis's avatarNicholas C. Rossis

From the blog of Nicholas C. Rossis, author of science fiction, the Pearseus epic fantasy series and children's books

You may remember Elle Boca and her urban fantasy Weeia universe from her recent interview on this blog. In celebration of the publication of Unelmoija: Paradox, the last book in the Weeia Series, Unelmoija: The Dreamshifter is on sale for .99c for the first time since its publication!

You can find it on Amazon until March 26th.

Who is Elle Boca?

Elle BocaElle is the author of the Weeia urban fantasy series set in Miami, Florida, US.

Growing up the only child of a monkey mother and a rabbit father she learned to keep herself entertained and spend time reading. She makes her home in South Florida.

You can find her on:

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Five Star Treatment – The Last Observer: A Magical Battle for Reality by G. Michael Vasey

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