I really don’t know what else to call this, but it applies to writing as well as film making. I’ve always found it quite vexing when something happens off screen like during the plot or between stories.
Too often, we see characters killed off between a movie and its sequel with little to no explanation. Usually in movies, this is done because either the actor who played the character died, or there were budgetary concerns, etc. I wouldn’t mind so much, but we see this happen in books as well. Too often there is a character or a major plot point that happens between the stories and we never get to hear the how or why.
It the book is intended to take the reader back in time to see how things got the way they did in a sort of flashback manner, that’s one thing. I get that, but too often that is not what we get. In other cases in movies as well, we see characters who solved mysteries, identified people, or came up with some new idea off-screen, and its never explained how that happened.
I love the idea of leaving some things up to the reader to figure out, but there’s a difference between pinholes and black holes. Don’t over explain, but don’t leave something in a way that it comes out of the blue with no precedence.
Readers,
Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me.
jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com
I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.
I have been writing for several years, have multiple published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.
Please note, I only do one of these a day and will do my best to respond to everyone, but it may take some time.
Also, feel free to check out my works of Fantasy and Historical Fiction, Available on Amazon and where ever books are sold. See the link below:
I’m having trouble writing a character with a dual personality. Do you have any advice on writing a character that talks to themselves? I can’t seem to figure out a way to do it that won’t be confusing.
Thanks,
AJ
Hi AJ,
If the character has a dual personality, then we’re not necessarily talking about the character talking to himself. At least not as far as the character is concerned.
I actually tackle this one in Damnation with Xaphine.
In this story, we’re dealing with a fallen angel that has been corrupted by the powers of Hell. In order to keep her safe, the devil places her on Earth in the form of a human. He also completely wipes her mind. She doesn’t even completely remember her own name and chooses the name Xaphine for herself.
This is a bit of a spoiler alert, but I’ll do my best not to give away too much;
Because of extenuating circumstances, the angel, General Xaphan (now Xaphine) spends about a decade among humans, more time than anyone intended. She marries, has friends, and a life that she cherishes. When the devil finally comes for her, she puts up a fight. He eventually restores her memory but because he’s lost much of his power, he’s unable to remove… as he calls it, the human taint.
Because of this, the clash of her human memories with those of her angelic ones completely destroys her psyche. To compensate, her mind quickly separates both sets of memories and forms two symbiotic personalities, one is a confused mesh of her human traits, as well as her angelic persona, while the other is the darker persona combined with her angelic traits.
So how do I make that work when they need to confront one another? Well… I guess you could say that I make her hallucinate. Time freezes and she goes to an undisclosed location where her other personality exists when its not in control. They argue about what to do in certain circumstances.
So that’s pretty much how I handle dual personalities. I also name them differently. One is Xaphan, the other is Xaphine.
Otherwise, you’re pretty much just going back and forth saying ‘he said to himself’ and ‘he thought to himself.’
I hope this helps!
Readers, how do you handle this type of thing? Let AJ know in the comments!
Readers,
Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me.
jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com
I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.
I have been writing for several years, have multiple published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.
Please note, I only do one of these a day and will do my best to respond to everyone, but it may take some time.
Also, feel free to check out my works of Fantasy and Historical Fiction, Available on Amazon and where ever books are sold. See the link below:
Yeah it should be no surprise to anyone when I add this song to the list. Written for Lord of the Rings, this is perhaps the best rendition of it that I’ve ever heard. Peter Hollens is an amazing vocalist who knows how to respect the material he’s working with.
When to Listen: … … well to be honest, I’m not really sure. I used it when one of my characters made a fateful decision; SPOILER ALERT!!! When Adalyn used the last drop of her angelic powers to set off fireworks at the end of Divinity, thus completing her transformation from an angel into a human and when Toby revealed to Lia’na that he’d used the last of his powers and magic was then and forever gone from the world.
So I guess use this if and when writing a story about the end of the mystical/fantastic and beginning of the modern time when such things were no longer relevant?
Readers,
Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me.
jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com
I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.
I have been writing for several years, have 4 published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.
Please note, I only do one of these a day and will do my best to respond to everyone, but it may take some time.
Also, feel free to check out my works of Fantasy and Historical Fiction, Available on Amazon and where ever books are sold. See the link below:
You ever love a band so much that you buy an album, sort of glance over it, and then it goes into your CD vault for months or years with barely another thought? That happened with this one… and boy am I kicking myself. Thorn Without a Rose is an amazing song off of Edguy’s Tinnitus Sanctus album!
When to listen: General playlist. This is modern hair metal at its finest. God I love this band… It also could be used as a celebratory song at the end of an album.
Readers,
Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me.
jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com
I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.
I have been writing for several years, have 4 published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.
Please note, I only do one of these a day and will do my best to respond to everyone, but it may take some time.
Also, feel free to check out my works of Fantasy and Historical Fiction, Available on Amazon and where ever books are sold. See the link below:
We connected on Twitter and I got your email address from your website. You had made a comment on Twitter to feel free to email for advice.
I’m new to self-publishing and released my first book in January. I had worked on the manuscript off and on for a couple of years before getting serious about publishing. I did the best I could on proofing, but couldn’t afford to hire a professional proofreader. I did, however, hire a professional to convert the file for Amazon ebook & Create Space print version. Before I read some information from some other successful writers, I had solicited a couple of reviews from a company that does reviews. My book has 3 prior positive reviews with a 3 1/2 star rating on Amazon.
This company I went with has review agents working for them and the one who did my book review was from Canada and it didn’t show up on Amazon U.S. The only way I knew it had even been done was purely by accident. I happened to sign in to Goodreads where I had my book listed and saw I had a review with a score of 1, but there were no comments. Because I was wondering why I had received the low score, I emailed her and she replied with the link to the review on Amazon. ca.
How does an author come to grips with a bad review? I know I need to put this behind me and move on, but the reviewer is also supposed to be an editor and I was told by the person who runs the company that I should hire her to fix what is wrong instead of complaining about the low review. Was I out of line by requesting that she remove her review? I based the request according to what the reviewer told me, “I usually don’t even post a review if I can’t give it at least 3 stars.” I was accused in an email from the person who runs the company as “you’ve been somewhat harassing one of our readers.”
I was devastated. I know I need to get more thick skinned, but is this normal conduct for a company or reviewer? I just need another professional authors opinion. Thanks for letting me vent and I’m looking forward to your reply.
Hope all is well with you. Thank you for the email! So… honestly I had a similar experience on my first published work. It was given a 1 star review on Goodreads with no reason or comments. I had to go digging a little further for why they gave it 1 star. I don’t know why goodreads pulls in the stars without the review like that, it’s not really fair, but it happens. Truth be told, I avoid that site, I’ve never really been a huge fan.
Personally, I don’t like the idea of hiring someone to write reviews for you. I tend to ask people who read the book to leave reviews and they tend to be pretty good about it. Anyway, were you out of line? Pardon my bluntness… but yes. Hiring reviewers, you always run the risk of getting reviews that you’re not going to like… and paying for them. You’re not paying them to be ‘yessirs’ you’re paying them for their opinions. Plain and simple.
Nothing bites worse than having something you worked hard on, and dedicated a lot of time and money to, getting a bad review. However, you can’t take it personally, because the more you write, the more it’s going to happen. In a world where literally everyone has an opinion and no two of them are ever exactly alike, bad reviews are par for the course. Look at Rotten Tomatoes when it comes to movies. How many movies have a 100% fresh review? How many? Heck even timeless classics like the Wizard of Oz have bad reviews on them (Well… 1% for the Wizard of Oz and I would love to meet the critic with the cast-iron balls who gave that bad review.)
The best way to look at these reviews is to figure out what people didn’t like about your book. If they leave reviews like ‘I don’t like this character, they just didn’t strike me as someone I can relate to.’ Well that’s fine. Someone else will relate to that character. Again, it’s opinion. However then you’re going to get reviews like ‘I found the plot to be a little stale or unbelievable because (insert reason).’
To me, this is constructive criticism. This is something I can take and build off of for my next book. This is the kind of thing you’ll need to get used to, especially if you’re ever going to get people to edit and critique your book. I tell the people who edit mine to hold nothing back. I WANT them to be as brutal as possible and they… hesitantly give me exactly what I want. Why do I want such abuse? Because the more blunt they are, the more I can fix before I publish. The same can be said for people leaving reviews after that fact.
Are their going to be mean reviewers out there? Absolutely, but they are usually in the minority. Most people aren’t being mean, they’re simply sharing their opinion of something they either like or didn’t like so others, including the author know what to look out for. As long as you look at the criticism as constructive, you’ll be a lot happier.
Anyway, I hope this helps! Please feel free to email me if you need further help!
Thanks,
Jim
Readers,
Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me. jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com
I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.
I have been writing for several years, have 4 published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.
Please note, I only do one of these a day and will do my best to respond to everyone, but it may take some time.
Also, feel free to check out my works of Fantasy and Historical Fiction, Available on Amazon and where ever books are sold. See the link below:
I’m sorry, I miss the 80s. Growing up in the late 80s and watching the slow decline into the early 90s was really amongst the greatest time to be a kid. Nintendo NES was everywhere, Sega Masters was where it wasn’t. Free range parenting was a thing, the internet was barely a dream in the eyes of computer engineers, people actually went out and talked to others, MTV still actually had dealt in music instead of racist undertones, and THIS was the type of stuff you heard of the radio. The fall of music with the Boy Band Wars wasn’t even seen coming yet.
When to Listen: Whirlwind love scenes. This song works so perfectly for them, but I’d recommend putting it on your general playlist as well. Its an upbeat song, a style of which we don’t see anymore… heck EVEN TIFFANY doesn’t sound like this anymore. She’s lost her hair metal growl. So sit back, close your eyes, and picture torn jeans, studded leather, big hair, and incredibly cheesy rotoscoped cartoons!
… God I miss those days!
Readers,
Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me.
jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com
I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.
I have been writing for several years, have 4 published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.
Please note, I only do one of these a day and will do my best to respond to everyone, but it may take some time.
Also, feel free to check out my works of Fantasy and Historical Fiction, Available on Amazon and where ever books are sold. See the link below:
Wish I knew why they were gone. The world needs laughter!
Ahem… Edguy hits another one out of the park. Off of their Mandrake Album, All the Clowns is a lighthearted song. If you like Iron Maiden, but wish that there were more songs they did that were lighthearted… some of Edguy’s stuff might be for you.
When to listen: Well definitely general playlist, but also this is an upbeat song. So I’d say you could get away with using it at the end of your story if you’re giving it a happy ending.
Readers,
Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me.
jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com
I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.
I have been writing for several years, have 4 published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.
Please note, I only do one of these a day and will do my best to respond to everyone, but it may take some time.
Also, feel free to check out my works of Fantasy and Historical Fiction, Available on Amazon and where ever books are sold. See the link below:
I’m having trouble writing a character with a dual personality. Do you have any advice on writing a character that talks to themselves? I can’t seem to figure out a way to do it that won’t be confusing.
Thanks,
AJ
Hi AJ,
If the character has a dual personality, then we’re not necessarily talking about the character talking to himself. At least not as far as the character is concerned.
I actually tackle this one in Damnation with Xaphine.
In this story, we’re dealing with a fallen angel that has been corrupted by the powers of Hell. In order to keep her safe, the devil places her on Earth in the form of a human. He also completely wipes her mind. She doesn’t even completely remember her own name and chooses the name Xaphine for herself.
This is a bit of a spoiler alert, but I’ll do my best not to give away too much;
Because of extenuating circumstances, the angel, General Xaphan (now Xaphine) spends about a decade among humans, more time than anyone intended. She marries, has friends, and a life that she cherishes. When the devil finally comes for her, she puts up a fight. He eventually restores her memory but because he’s lost much of his power, he’s unable to remove… as he calls it, the human taint.
Because of this, the clash of her human memories with those of her angelic ones completely destroys her psyche. To compensate, her mind quickly separates both sets of memories and forms two symbiotic personalities, one is a confused mesh of her human traits, as well as her angelic persona, while the other is the darker persona combined with her angelic traits.
So how do I make that work when they need to confront one another? Well… I guess you could say that I make her hallucinate. Time freezes and she goes to an undisclosed location where her other personality exists when its not in control. They argue about what to do in certain circumstances.
So that’s pretty much how I handle dual personalities. I also name them differently. One is Xaphan, the other is Xaphine.
Otherwise, you’re pretty much just going back and forth saying ‘he said to himself’ and ‘he thought to himself.’
I hope this helps!
Readers, how do you handle this type of thing? Let AJ know in the comments!
Readers,
Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me.
jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com
I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.
I have been writing for several years, have multiple published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.
Please note, I only do one of these a day and will do my best to respond to everyone, but it may take some time.
Also, feel free to check out my works of Fantasy and Historical Fiction, Available on Amazon and where ever books are sold. See the link below:
So… my wife rented this last night and then fell asleep. So I continued watching it alone. I don’t usually do movie reviews, but since this is a fairly recent fantasy film that has gotten a lot of praise… and I mean a LOT, I thought I’d give my take on it.
I tend to shy away from remakes, which let’s face it, that’s what this is. When a studio makes a second version of a movie they’ve already made, its a remake, plain and simple. I don’t care if it’s a different style or medium, it’s a remake.
That being said, I’ve recently revised that policy after seeing Angelina Jolie’s performance as Maleficent. When I first heard about this movie and listened to Jolie sing ‘Once Upon a Dream,’ I rolled my eyes. Maleficent is the best of the Disney villains and no way could Jolie do her credit. Having Jolie stand in for Eleanor Audley could NOT go well. I’m happy to say that I was 100% wrong. Jolie could not replace Audley’s dignified voice and performance, but she shouldn’t be expected to. This was a different take a on a time-honored character that told a story from her perspective. It was done incredibly well and I was so pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it, that I’ve added this movie to my collection. (Just cover your ears during the end credits).
Back on topic. So I spent last night watching this movie. What were my initial impressions? Well… it was a beautiful looking movie. The sets were breath-taking and clearly someone spent a lot of time on them, the outfits were beautiful and appropriate and the cast… I think that would be my biggest compliment to the movie. This was a cast where I didn’t recognize a single person. Making this a cast of fresh faces, which you don’t see much in Hollywood anymore. Usually there is at least one big name to give a movie some street cred.
The soundtrack was beautifully done, both the singing parts and the instrumentals. I especially liked the homages to the original animated film that were passively added in. Movies often try to make a big deal out of things like that to show it’s attachment. This movie seemed like it was trying really hard to keep itself separate… did it do that successfully? Well, we’ll get to that.
So with all that said, did I enjoy this movie? Actually, yes, but not as much as you might think. As I said, it was a beautiful looking movie with great costumes and scenery, but other than that… it really didn’t bring anything new to the table. For all it’s efforts, it really didn’t break away from the classic animated film . It did explain a few plot points, like what happened to Cinderella’s real family, and why she put up with everything from her step sisters, but other than that, there really weren’t any profound changes.
It really didn’t bring anything major to the table. The how and why of the villain really wasn’t explained and the evil step mother was played as just that, a straight villain. The movie had a real opportunity here to explain the Lady Tremane better, especially when Cinderella outright asked her, but that fell flat on it’s face.
The other thing that did kind of bug me is the ‘Love at first sight’ set up. Disney, amid much criticism, has tried to shy away from that type of theme. One has to wonder why so many of their movies that do successfully get away from it fail so badly, yet a movie like this that reinforces it does so well. It almost kind of seems like we as the audience need to be careful what we wish for. Perhaps that fantasy element to story-telling should remain intact? Or perhaps new strides need to be made on the story-telling side of things.
I really don’t know, I’m not a princess story or fairy tale writer, so I’m not qualified to speak to that.
Moving on…
My other criticism is that the step-sisters were extremely under-played. They’re supposed to be over the top and I grant you that they were snobbish and mean, but that was really it. In the original, they were downright abusive, not only of Cinderella, but also of each other to an almost comical point.
Another point that was extremely underplayed in this version compared to the original was the dress destruction. In this one, it was a few tears. In the original… I think the Cinema Snob said it best when he said that it was the closest thing Disney has gotten to a rape scene in its classic films. Now I’m usually against that type of thing in movies… especially kids movies, but in this case, the way Disney did it, yes it was violent, but it gave the movie an edge that made it stand out in the endless flow of animated films.
In this movie… as with so many other things that made the original what it was, was really underplayed.
Compare the two scenes:
vs.
Now ask yourself, which are you more likely to remember?
All right… so with all that said, here is my overall take on the movie…
This movie was a remake, not a re-imagining like with the a fore mentioned Maleficent. A very well-made remake, but a remake none-the-less. It really didn’t bring anything new to the table. There was no twist, no behind the scenes story to explain why certain things happened the way that they did, and no real twist on the original characters.
Other takes on Cinderella like Ever After and (to a lesser extent) Into the Woods did this rather nicely. They added new dynamics to the story and in the case of Ever After, they even had the Queen tell the Brother’s Grimm that they got it wrong.
Don’t get me wrong, this is a good movie and I highly recommend seeing it, the problem is that we’ve already seen this movie. Unfortunately it failed to break out of the shadow of the Disney Classic, which is really too bad given how much effort was clearly put into the film. Again, if you like the story, please DO see this movie. It is a beautiful remake that was surprisingly well done. You just need to curb your expectations in that you’re really not going to be seeing anything new.
Anyway, that’s my take on it. If you don’t agree, no problem. We are all entitled to opinions and I’m perfectly open to someone having a different view from mine.
I’ve followed your postings for a while through WordPress, and was wondering if you had any advice for jumpstarting crowdfunding for publishing a novel.
I currently have a novel-length project on Unbound.com that, despite some initially generous support from family and friends, has been stuck at the 20% mark for months, and the well of (ideally free) options for promoting it is dried up, or so it seems. I used to provide regular updates that included details about the characters and backstory, but I feel I’ve reached the point where I can’t share anything more without spoiling the novel, and I wasn’t getting much of a response anyway. One thought that’s come to mind (thanks to your writing playlist posts) is to include Youtube lyric or music video links to songs from the multiple playlists I go through when working on a project (Random Mix, Soundtracks, Classical, etc.). Has the playlist posting approach worked for you in terms of drawing attention to your project(s), and if so, would you be bothered if I adopted a similar method? And what other venues or sites would you recommend for trying to reach more readers and donors?
It’s an age-old problem to be sure. How do you attract an audience. Well to be honest there are a lot of ways. Your crowdfunding page certainly caught my attention, but really word of mouth is everything. For starters, I would update your kickstarter listing. Offer autographed copies as a perk. Collectors (like myself) love that sort of thing. We eat it up and… given how much I spent on a Lady Mechanika #1 that is autographed by the writer and artist (no I will not give a dollar amount), we’re willing to spend more on them… even if the artist is start up.
Second, I would update the kickstarter to include “advertising” as to where the funding goes. If you’ve really exhausted all other options, then you are going to need to put some money into advertising whether you like it or not. Fortunately there are plenty of advertising companies that can help you for fairly cheap. Amazon is really a great place to do it as many of their ads show up on Audible and that’s often how I find new books to read.
So I also took a look at your page as well and I don’t mean this in a negative way, but I found it wanting. What I mean by that is that you have no footer, nowhere on there other than your Amazon page where people can interact with you or get updates other than WordPress… This is very important because… most readers typically don’t have wordpress accounts. They come here for the articles, but most won’t be writing anything.
Go into wordpress, got to ‘My Site> Configure> Sharing.
If yours doesn’t look like mine (yes I know, I need to update the Linkedin one), then you’re not doing everything you can to advertise your work or yourself. Sign up for an account on each of these and spend a few hours here and there reaching out to people. Comment on the things they post, off your opinion, and/or offer help (like I do here). This is how you build a community and gain yourself a following.
A few weeks of doing this gained me a few thousand followers and a considerable boost in traffic to my pages.
The playlist has definitely gained me a following, mostly of writers looking for something to listen to while they brainstorm, but it has helped. This isn’t a method I have copyrighted or anything, so if you feel like it could help you, go for it.
Anyway, I hope some of these ideas help, but let’s open it up to the community;
Readers, do you have any ideas that could help Mark spread word of his new book??
Thanks,
Jim
Readers,
Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me.
jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com
I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.
I have been writing for several years, have multiple published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.
Please note, I only do one of these a day and will do my best to respond to everyone, but it may take some time.
Also, feel free to check out my works of Fantasy and Historical Fiction, Available on Amazon and where ever books are sold. See the link below:
It’s rare that I do two from the same band in a row, but I really do love this band. This one from Edguy’s ‘Age of the Joker’ album exemplifies the best Tobias Sammet has to offer. Fire on the Downline, give it a listen.
When to listen: General playlist. I don’t know why, but this song helps me with character creation. No reason for it, so yeah general playlist.
Readers,
Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me.
jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com
I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.
I have been writing for several years, have 4 published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.
Please note, I only do one of these a day and will do my best to respond to everyone, but it may take some time.
Also, feel free to check out my works of Fantasy and Historical Fiction, Available on Amazon and where ever books are sold. See the link below:
James Harringtons Creative Work 