Tag: Advice

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Character Development… At First…

Hi Jim, I was wondering if you could comment on how much of an introduction we should give each of our characters? I’ve gotten a good description down, but how much time should we initially spend focused on the characters personality and traits before really diving into the story. Thanks, Adrienne Hi Adrienne, Good question and the answer is pretty straight forward; AS LITTLE … Read More Character Development… At First…

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A Writer in Need.

Hi Jim. I have always wanted to share stories as I have so many in my head constantly, but all I want to do is write some and get feedback as to whether I should go for it or not. Any suggestions as to where I could post something? Please note I work so time is limited sometimes. -Maria nunes Hi Maria, Great question. … Read More A Writer in Need.

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Character Development

Hi Jim, I’m trying to come up with characters for my book. I was hoping you could maybe provide a little insight into how you came up with yours. I specifically liked Xaphine, could you use her as an example? Thanks, Rich. Hi Rich, General Xaphine seems to be a recurrent theme in character discussions… perhaps I should write her into another story. You … Read More Character Development

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Collaboration Gone Bad

Hi there! I saw your link on twitter and wanted to ask you a quick question. So I’ve been working with this friend on a political drama. Unfortunately we can never see eye to eye on anything. He’s a hard-left Liberal and I’m a fairly moderate Republican… or at least I try to be. Anyway, my problem is that we’re trying to write about … Read More Collaboration Gone Bad

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Just Start Over…

Hi Jim, I’m in a major bind… I was working on my latest piece. I’d been working on it for days and… forgot to save it. I was about 140 pages in and suddenly my computer blue-screened. I’ve lost everything and Word didn’t auto-save it. I’m not sure of what to do now. I feel like having to start from scratch is a fairly … Read More Just Start Over…

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Alternate Universe?

Hi Jim, I hope you don’t mind, but I saw your posts about asking a question and thought I’d shoot you an email. I saw from your other posts that you think using an alternate universe is poor story telling. I wanted to write a sequel to one of my books, but essentially it would be going back and exploring what would have happened … Read More Alternate Universe?

Schadenfreude is NOT Scary!

I’ve been a huge horror movie fan for a while, but there is one thing that always irked me about a certain ongoing trend in them. I was going to ignore it until I noticed that it was happening in suspense/thriller novels as well. Here’s the deal, everyone has seen these movies. The story starts off with a group of people. These people are … Read More Schadenfreude is NOT Scary!

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Internet Trolls…

Hi Jim, I’ve been writing for a while, mostly posting my stories on here, but also on Amazon Kindle. Unfortunately as of late, I’ve been getting a lot of rude comments and bad reviews left of my material that I’m pretty certain come from people who didn’t actually read my stories. I think a lot of it comes from the fact that I also … Read More Internet Trolls…

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Why do we cater to Political Correctness in our Writing?

This is something I’ve seen, not only in writing, but also movie-making, and comic books. It’s something I can say that I’m guilty of as well. What do I mean when I say we cater to the PC (Politically Correct) crowd? Well… honestly, we spend a lot of time concerned with the ethnicity of our characters, who get’s killed off and/or who gets center … Read More Why do we cater to Political Correctness in our Writing?

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Beating the Writer’s Block

Hi Jim, I saw your posts inviting people to ask for advice, so I thought I’d ask… How do you deal with writer’s block? Right now, I’m having issues with it. I had a great idea, I’ve gotten about half way into writing my story, but now I’ve just run out of steam. I can’t even get myself behind the keyboard to type because … Read More Beating the Writer’s Block

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Destiny: Divinity’s Finale, Book 3, Chapter 2

II   Another day passed as the ship sailed for Mont Saint Michel. The morning watch reported seeing smoke on the horizon as the sun rose the next morning. One of the men shook Baltazar out of his bunk to wake him. Baltazar rubbed his eyes as he looked up, “What is it man?” “Sorry Captain,” the young scout replied, “but we’ve sighted smoke … Read More Destiny: Divinity’s Finale, Book 3, Chapter 2

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Destiny: Divinity’s Finale, Book 3, Chapter 1

Book 3 As the Tides Change I Deep beneath the ground, in the fiery land of hell, an imp creature approached the entrance to the darkest cave in the Underworld. This cave was the only way to reach Lucifer’s castle by those not capable of flight. Even so, most creatures avoided it. The imp stopped at the entrance and peered in, “Master…” There was … Read More Destiny: Divinity’s Finale, Book 3, Chapter 1