This is more of a rant, so if you’re looking for advice, you can skip this post.

Have you ever seen or read about a character that at some point in the story encounters an issue that he was neither the cause of nor at fault with… yet when he’s confronted, he says nothing… for no apparent reason?

It’s especially frustrating when the person who confronted him later finds out that the character wasn’t at fault… but for some reason doesn’t ask why that character didn’t tell him the truth.

In cases where the character is standing up for, or defending, someone else, it’s understandable. However in other cases where there is no logical reason for it, the character keeps his mouth shut, thus incurring the wrath for something s/he isn’t guilty of.

So my question is why? Why does a character do this? All the writer accomplishes by having their character do this is getting the audience mad and making them yell at the screen/book saying, “What are you doing? Defend yourself! It wasn’t your fault!”

Am I missing something here? Let me 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 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:

http://www.amazon.com/James-Harrington/e/B00P7FBXTU

Thanks friends!

Catch you on the flip side!

-Jim

A good friend and writing colleague of mine recently asked me for advice about writing good romance into a story and it got me thinking…

A dangerous passtime…

Yeah, I know, but I thought I’d share some of my advice here…

So you’ve got two characters. They’re getting close… very close… but you don’t want this to become a romance novel. So how do you bring a romantic element into the story without it going fully over to the romance side of things…

Well honestly… make it an element, a plot point, just don’t make it the major point of the story. If the romance is anything more than a side mention, you’re doing something wrong.

The way I see it is that you can approach this from two ways; passively, which is what I do if I want it hinted that my characters like or love each other, but don’t want a major romantic element.

So let’s say you’ve made your decision. You know the characters are going to end up together. You want the readers to want these characters together. You want the mush, you want all that… so how do you prevent it from completely taking over the book like it so easily can?

Well first of all, donate one or two scenes to it. Don’t bring it up over and over. Let the characters experience everything once and then move on.

Second way… downplay it! In some of my more recent novels, I make the characters out to be friends, casual daters or… sex buddies at most. It’s not until the end of the story where one character reveals that they love the other… and honestly it’s only at this point that the romantic sub-plot has it’s effect.

Third way, keep the romance in hint only. What do I mean by that? Don’t come right out and say anything. Let them show affection for each other, but not like outright romantic affection. Let them connect slowly, compliment each other, work well together, and don’t even use the word ‘love.’

In any case, those are the ways I typically use. Let me know what you think 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 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:

http://www.amazon.com/James-Harrington/e/B00P7FBXTU

Thanks friends!

Catch you on the flip side!

-Jim

So you’ve finished writing your book (Congrats btw).

It’s taken you weeks, if not months. You’ve gotten all your thoughts down on paper, arranged everything coherently, and added more description and metaphor to your story.

Now you’re done and the book is in the hands of your editor. Now what? Well you are going to be doing some writing when the editor get’s back to you with each chapter, so don’t stress too much. However, now you’re not writing consistently every day. You thought that once you finished, you’d be filled with a sense of relief, but instead you’re sitting there not knowing what to do with yourself.

This can understandably be a very stressful time for a writer, mentally. You feel like you should be writing. The stress you usually feel when you’re not able to work on your book during the normal time you would is still with you. Your brain apparently hasn’t caught up with reality that YOU’VE FINISHED! So what do you do? How do you handle it?

Keep writing, duh!

No… not really a good idea. One, don’t add more to your book. If you weren’t done with it to your satisfaction, you never should have handed it off to the editor. Most of us could keep working on the same book until judgement day, but that is not healthy. Your book is done. It’s in the hands of the editor now and once the edits are complete, the next step is publishing. Let it go.

Starting on another writing assignment right off is also a bad idea. Writers are not immune to burnout and often any writing done now will suffer the effects of rebound. Painful though it may be, you need a break.

As a writer, you sacrifice a lot of time staring at a computer screen. No doubt you’ve lost out on some time with your family… and likely have put on a little weight. It’s normal as writers tend to get a little consumed. Normal, but not healthy.

Get out of the house, get some exercise, make up some lost time, do some of the things you enjoy. That keyboard will still be there when you’re ready with a new idea and you’ve had enough time to destress and detox.

This is also healthy because, in addition to allowing your mind to relax, once you’ve had a chance to detox, your mind will be wide open and receptive to new ideas. Going out and experiencing the world will give it new sensations to absorb and before you know it, you may have another story to write.

In short, yes writing is time consuming… if not life consuming, but once you’ve finished one piece, taking a break is so important. I’d say give it 3-6 months AT MINIMUM before writing something new.

Readers, how do you detox your mind after finishing your writing? How long do you take off? Let me 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 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:

http://www.amazon.com/James-Harrington/e/B00P7FBXTU

Thanks friends!

Catch you on the flip side!

-Jim

Hey, Jim.

I’m in the middle of writing a novel and I really want to convey the emotion of the scene I’m working on. I noticed you give out writing advice, so I wanted to ask you about this. I want to use songs the people know in my writing and give my characters reaction to the lyrics, but I’m worried about copyrights and what is/is not allowed. Is there a way I can pull this off without getting sued?

Thanks,
Meaghan

Meaghan,

Listen to me very carefully because I am deadly serious about this. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES should you be writing anything more than a brief quote (one line, TOPS!) into your novel from any copyrighted works, be it a song, a book, or any other written medium without written consent, a contract, or royalty agreement in place.

I can not stress this enough, don’t do it. Its a big no-no and it could land you in a lot of trouble. I personally don’t even quote full lines in my works. At most, I put in the artist’s name and song title. Then I’ll say something like;

“The couple came together as Linkin Park belted out the first line of Castle of Glass, their bodies twisted together as the song picked. When they were as one, unable to pull away from each other as the chorus played around them. Neither wanted the moment to end and as the last line was sung, their lips came together.”

You shouldn’t have much trouble conveying the emotions you want to by using this method. Other than that, you may need to choose a different song… I’d recommend writing your own or choosing something that’s in the public domain.

In any case, I hope this helps. My words of caution can’t really be overstated, for your own good I hope you heed them.

Readers, have you seen writing done this way? What advice would you give Meaghan? Let me 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 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:

http://www.amazon.com/James-Harrington/e/B00P7FBXTU

Thanks friends!

Catch you on the flip side!

-Jim

Hello all,

So this is mostly for the self-publishing people. There’s been a lot of back and forth about how to make publishing affordable. Obviously with self-publishing, there are a lot of expenses and nuances to the process. Sites like Createspace and Lulu make the process easier, but it’s still a lot of work and decision-making.

Below is a list of expenses, what to pay for and what not to pay for… Keep in mind though, this is my own opinion. So if you’ve had other experiences or disagree on where the priorities are, feel free to leave a comment. I’d love to hear from you.

So let’s get started…

You’ve written your book and you’ve decided to go with the self-publishing route. Awesome! There are quite a few advantages here, but also several disadvantages. I’ve explored these in other topics, so feel free to take a look back through my posts.

Now obviously with self-publishing, you’re going to incur a lot more in the way of up front costs for publishing. Let’s go through them one at a time. I’ll address what each one is, how much it’ll cost, and whether or not you can avoid it.

1. ISBN Numbers…
   There’s really no way around this one. If you want to publish, you need at least one. If you plan on mulitple formats, you’ll need more than one. At the very least you’ll need 2; one digital, one print version ($100/apiece.) Many publishing services out there will offer you a free one… but you basically hand over the rights to the book if you do that and get less of a return on your investment. You also have limited options as to where you can sell your book.
   In short, you can go with the free option if you’re really strapped, but it could come back to haunt you later.
2.  Copyright registration
   There are several different trains of thought here. Many argue that the ISBN is sufficient. Others say that it’s worth shelling out the $40 for the copyright to protect yourself in the case of copyright lawsuit initiated by you or someone else in the future.
   With these, I’ve adopted a ‘better safe than sorry’ philosophy. I pay for mine. I guess you can avoid it for now if you must, but remember that if someone plagiarizes you, you’re going to need register your work before filing a claim. (United States).
3. Cover
   I can’t stress this enough, the cover is likely the most important part of what you’re going to pay for. Plan on a price of between $250-$900 for a truly professional cover design. My advice is to get in good with an artist and set up a good working relationship. They tend to offer discounts with the promise of future work. However DO NOT try to low ball them. I see this all the time and find it disrespectful. They work hard and often don’t get much for their work. Pay what they ask and if you can’t, then try to find another artist who will work within your budget. Either way, ALWAYS pay your artist. A lot of services will offer generic covers… AVOID these. One, other people have used them and two, they tend to be fairly plain and don’t really draw attention to your book.
   Finally, unless you’re artistically inclined, please don’t try to create the cover yourself. It rarely ends well and often looked a lot better in your head. While you can translate your thoughts from energy to the written word, an artist can take that written word and come up with an amazing design for you.
4. Editing and Reviewing 
   Not going to lie this is fighting with the cover design for the most important piece. A lot of services and sites offer proofing… for a rather hefty price. I know $.05/word doesn’t sound bad… but when your book is 80k to 100k, that $.10 becomes thousands of dollars. If you go this route… be ready because you’re not going to break even on your writing for a while.
   My advice here is to seek out writing groups. There are a lot of people on both good reads and other sites that are as anxious as you to have someone edit their works. Help them and they’ll help you.
   If all else fails, there are plenty of college students with writing or journalism majors out there looking to make some money. They’re usually pretty cheap too ($100-$300).
   DO NOT RELY ON SELF-EDITING! While it is important, and independent pair of eyes is absolutely essential.
5. Advertising
   This is one where I would say that you can get away without paying… If you’re good at social media. Create accounts on all sites, gain as many followers as you can, and occasionally peddle your works. Get people interested in what you have to say, and they’ll find the way to your book in fairly short order.
   If you need help or can’t navigate social media very well, then go ahead and shell out for the advertising (on average $30/month to $2,000 total)

In the end, I would say to expect your book to cost you roughly $800 on average. $400 is the MINIMUM. Anything less… I’d say don’t even bother because you’re going to be cutting way too many corners.

Anyway, hope this helps. We can discuss it further in the comments if anyone has any further advice or questions!

-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:

http://www.amazon.com/James-Harrington/e/B00P7FBXTU

Thanks friends!

Catch you on the flip side!

-Jim

Hey, Jim.

I was wondering if you could give me some writing tips. I have a blog on WordPress where I write stories and poems. I’m not the best when it comes to giving details in stories, so I was wondering if you could help me out with that. I would really appreciate it

MJ

Hi MJ,

Great question, I’d be happy to help. Believe it or not, you’re not alone in this venture. Authors have struggled with how to provide detail for the longest time, while keeping the story interesting. There’s a bit of a disconnect between how to keep a story interesting so that your reader stays engaged, but not overloading them on details. Many an otherwise good novel has died on the alter of TOO MUCH FREAKEN DETAIL!

There is also the idea that the reader should be free to draw their own conclusions on what a world looks like based on a limited amount of information provided. It’s a good philosophy, but it’s one that puts extra burden on the writer to determine how much detail is just the right amount. With an audience that has a notoriously shrinking attention span, getting this right is absolutely crucial.

The best way to combat this is by using metaphor and comparison. Let me give you an example…

Here’s a fairly generic description of a scene from a story I was working on a while back:

“The night was cold. It must have been easily less than thirty degrees. The wind blew hard against Mike’s back, causing him to go numb. Not helping matters was how dark it was. The street lamps couldn’t compensate for it, making it hard to see where he was going. The road was long, easily about two miles. He could easily tell that he had a long way to go.” 

Believe it or not, this is actually really good description. It tells you exactly what’s going on, what the weather is like and how our character feels… but it’s not very interesting, is it? It’s almost robotic in its description, like it’s not intended to be interesting in any way. Now imagine a full book being like that…

Those are the types of stories that tend to get used to prop up furniture later on instead of holding a prominent space on ANYONE’s shelf.

So obviously we’re not going to get much out of that, are we? That’s not going to hold anyone’s attention… so let’s try adding comparison and a little metaphorical writing to it…

“The night was so cold that Mike was certain an Eskimo would have felt right at home. The wind felt like a sharp knife against his skin, causing him to go numb as he walked. The fact that it was so dark that he could not see where he was going didn’t help. The night loomed over him like a black veil that was so thick that even the dim yellow glow of the street lamps could barely shine through it. His journey was not going to end any time soon. The road appeared to stretch on forever, as though the path disappeared into the heavens on the horizon.”

Now which story are you more likely to want to continue reading, the first or second one? Chances are the second one held your attention longer, why? Because it let your mind get an idea of how cold it was, it let you feel the character’s pain instead of just throwing information at you. Even if it is a little bit longer than the bare bones description, this will keep a reader engaged a lot easier.

But Jim, how much is too much? 

Well that’s struggle number 2. How much information is too much? Again, it’s in the details. Let’s take a look at a description of something from a story:

“The tapestry was blue, bright blue. John honestly couldn’t decide if it was royal blue or navy blue. There were several different shades of blue that fit into those two categories that it could have been either in the spectrum. It also had gold trim that was shiny and knitted together with little red lace. It must have been hand-sewn because the lace was so delicate, no machine could have done that. John started to wonder what that thread was made of.”

Oh God…

These are stories where you can easily skip over entire paragraphs without missing anything essential to the story and believe it or not, there are enough of these to fill the Library of Congress. So what could we honestly do away with here? Well unless the detailed description of the tapestry were somehow crucial to the story (which it rarely is), we can probably do away with most of that:

“The tapestry was blue, bright blue. John honestly couldn’t decide if it was royal blue or navy blue. There were several different shades of blue that fit into those two categories that it could have been either in the spectrum. It also had gold trim that was shiny and knitted together with little red lace. It must have been hand-sewn because the lace was so delicate, no machine could have done that. John started to wonder what that thread was made of.“

Yeah, even that could be considered too much. Simply saying ‘blue tapestries adorned the walls’ would in most cases be sufficient

So MJ, I hope this helps. The use of metaphor and comparison writing will give the reader a lot more to think about than just a bland description.

Readers, what do you think? Do you have other advice you can offer MJ?

Let us 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 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:

http://www.amazon.com/James-Harrington/e/B00P7FBXTU

Thanks friends!

Catch you on the flip side!

-Jim

Hi Jim,

I’m having a horrible time trying to come up with a theme for my story! I’m trying to map everything out before I write. I was wondering if you had any advice? What themes do you like?

Thanks,
Lawrence

Hi Lawrence,

Well I’d honestly say to start writing. If you have ideas, make notes, get them down on paper and then see what themes are covered when you write it. Some people have to plan this kind of thing out beforehand, I personally don’t like to. I write and see where it takes me and then figure out what themes to focus on when I go back to edit and polish the writing up.

What themes do I like? Well I usually write about love. Most of my stories deal with a romance between two unlikely creatures (Elf/Human, Angel/Human, Demon/Angel, Demon/Human, Undead Human/Human, Undead Human/Demon, etc.) and tackle the issues that they would come across in the time periods I set them in.

However a second theme has crept into a lot of my work thus far. I don’t know if there is a name for it, but basically it deals with the end of magic.
In Magnifica, I deal with what would happen in our modern world if suddenly the mystic and mythological became real or it was revealed that they actually were real. At first, things seem to work fine… Elves and dwarves are integrated into human society… but then, those imbued with Magic begin summoning Dragons,, centaurs, and other mythical beasts begin to appear, things become more hectic. In the end, one young human that’s given magical powers sees what’s happening, sees the clash of his world and the mythical and decides to rid the world of magic before things get worse. Essentially, society has evolved beyond the need for magic and it no longer has a place. He becomes the last enchanter and eventually returns to being a normal human.

In the Divinity Series, Adalyn and Xaphan are both angels on opposite sides of a now-ended Celestial War. In both of their stories, they are sent to the human world; Adalyn was banished there while Xaphan was hidden there. They both fight to protect their worlds and both wind up giving up their wings in the end. Adalyn trades hers for a mortal heart while Xaphan gives up hers for the chance of redemption.

It’s a theme I’ve always been fascinated by. We often see in Lord of the Rings, King Arthur, and several others. The modern age is beginning and as such, the ways of old… the old beliefs, the old Gods, and the old powers are quickly explained away by science and practicality. These stories do this in a more literal sense. Instead of the beliefs going away we see these ancient myths and powers literally clash with the real world or elements of it. In the end, magic and mysticism is fighting a losing war to remain relevant.

Lady Galadriel said it best:
“The time of the elves is over. Do we leave Middle Earth to its fate? Do we let them stand alone?”

Anyway, I know I rambled a little, but I hope this gives you some ideas of what to do and where to take your writing from here.

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:

http://www.amazon.com/James-Harrington/e/B00P7FBXTU

Thanks friends!

Catch you on the flip side!

-Jim