A little while ago I told you guys about the awesome news of a companion novel for my Ashwood Falls Series being worked on. And it’s almost here! “Benjamin” is written by my friend and fellow Author Jonathan Snyder, who was inspired by my series to write his own story.
“I know where you’re trying to go, Benjamin Holly. The question is: Will you make it there alive?”
You have met those in Ashwood Falls and the lives they live protected by those things on the outside but what about people who have yet to make it there or do not even know of its existence?
Benjamin Holly is one such man. Alone in the world and trying to find the place he sees in his dreams, he struggles to stay ahead of a darkness that’s following him.
Join Benjamin as he faces his nightmare in a little tourist trap where he must make decisions that could affect him and an entire race forever.
I am also working hard on Ashwood Falls: Shadow Warriors, the second installation of the Alana trilogy! Stay tuned and subscribe to get the latest news!
There is one thing, that brings a lot of excitement into my life as a writer: When someone enjoys the world I create so much, that they want to participate in and add to it. One of these people is my dear friend and fellow writer, Jonathan Snyder.
Just as I have written ‘Enemy of my Enemy’ for his world, he is working on the novella “Benjamin” that will take place in the Ashwood Falls world! Read more about it below!
“I know where you’re trying to go, Benjamin Holly. The question is: Will you make it there alive?”
You have met those in Ashwood Falls and the lives they live protected by those things on the outside but what about people who have yet to make it there or do not even know of it’s existence?
Benjamin Holly is one such man. Alone in the world and trying to find the place he sees in his dreams, he struggles to stay ahead of a darkness that’s following him.
Join Benjamin as he faces his nightmare in a little tourist trap where he must make decisions that could effect him and an entire race forever.
Plan is to publish the novella in early 2018. Keep your eyes open! 😀
“It’s been so busy at work!”
“I had a family emergency!”
“Family life is just so stressful!”
“The President grinds my gears!”
These and more things I have heard when it came to the question “Why aren’t you writing?” from friends or generally on social media. No judgment from me at all, it’s all legit. Promise!
Though when I am confronted with that question, none of the things above is applicable. I got no job, or family or even a president. My reason is much simpler, and for the very same reason more shameful to me, because I can’t blame anyone.
My reason is myself.
Sure there are some legit reasons here too like that I’m fighting with depression or get sick, have a bad writer’s block, sometimes there is a lot on my plate but most of the time it’s something else. So this is me:
“But I want to play a game!”
“Friends want to play Overwatch and I don’t wanna miss out!”
“Oh this show I found on Netflix is awesome, let’s binge!”
“Wohoo, the plot in Roleplay is so much fun, let’s write this instead!”
So basically, the person standing in the way of writing is me! Now that sucks doesn’t it? Because that means that I’ll have to kick myself in the ass, and suckerpunch the distractions to get things going. So that’s what I’m doing now. I did some writing for my roleplay, I did some playing of Overwatch, I even watched a show today. So now I’ll sit down for an hour and write.
But boy, that kick still stings!
What is your enemy? Yourself? Family? Work? Time? Motivation? Did the muse visit your neighbour but shunned your house? Share your experiences with me down in the comments and don’t forget to join my email list on the right side to get a FREE short story prequel to my Ashwood Falls series!
1517 was supposed to be a year just like any other for the demon Leandrus, but when a mysterious gypsy predicts his demise everything changes. Will he heed the warnings?
Leandrus is a short story prequel to the Ashwood Falls Series. Accompany Leandrus in his old days and see how he ended up where we met him for the first time in Ashwood Falls.
While I wrote Ashwood Falls – Sra’kalor I got more and more intrigued by Leandrus. I wanted to know where he came from, what he had been up to before being summoned to Ashwood Falls. Naturally, I also wanted to know why he got to spend over 400 years in the void. These are just some of the questions that are being answered in Leandrus.
This short story is my gift to my subscribers!
All you have to do is click on the “Subscribe now” button on the right side and join my list. You will receive an email with the link to your own copy of “Leandrus“.
I hope you’ll enjoy this little backstory to one of the main characters of the Ashwood Fall Series and if you’re so inclined, tell your friends about it as well! We have enough room for all of you on my list. 🙂
I am sure I’m not the only person who lies in bed and their brain doesn’t shut up. I have that happening about every night. One thing that does not happen as often is that words I feel are not my own come into my head and refuse to leave until I wrote them down. It happened maybe a dozen times in my whole life. It still feels kinda special.
Last night was one of those moments. The words repeated themselves over and over until I finally gave up, grabbed my Kindle from the nightstand and started writing what that voice shouted into my mind. Once I started it became a whisper, just loud enough for me to hear. Afterward, I put the Kindle back onto the nightstand and fell asleep within seconds.
These moments are as magical as they are strange. But as it seemed to be important enough to cost me some precious sleep, I wanted to share the result with you. Hope you’ll enjoy. 🙂
Did this ever happen to you? What did you come up with? Did you follow that demand or did you ignore it? Tell me about it in the comments! 🙂
The internet is filled with advice, must haves, must dos, should dos and checklists on what to do to write a novel, short story or even blog posts. Hundreds or even thousands of blog posts and articles about how to plan, how to outline, how to write, even how to edit your writing. The truth is: there is no ONE way. For every author, you ask what they use you might get just as many different answers. Something that works for me, might not work for you and the other way around. As sucky as that is, everyone needs to find what works for them and then stick to it, or adjust it until it feels natural, perfect for YOU.
You do You!
I’ve been listening to several podcasts recently (including The Journeyman Writer and Self Publishing Podcast) and I did find that a few things worked for me while others didn’t but worked just fine for others. In one of the Journeyman Writer episodes, Alastair Stephens and Lani Diane Rich talked about the tools they use for their writing and that made me think about what I use. So I thought I’d share a little of that with you!
Research Google.com
Yep easy as that. No matter what I am looking for that is where I start. Be it images, articles about certain subjects and more.
Pocket Pocket is a nifty little add-on that I use way too often. When I find a site that I believe to be helpful I pocket it. That means it lands in the app waiting for me to read later. Kinda like bookmarks but to me, it goes faster, and once I don’t need it anymore I just click the little “read” button next to it and it gets removed from the list. And the search function makes it much easier for me to find the article again. I use it on Firefox, but I saw that Android, iPad/Phone and Kobo apps are available as well.
Outlining and Writing
Scrivener
I started writing when I was really young and the only way I could write was on paper. Throughout the years I moved that to Microsoft works, then Word and Libre Office. I’m a huge huge fan of local copies, so I never made the jump to Google Drive for my writing (I use it just not for that ;)).
But last year a dear friend of mine told me about Scrivener and I thought it was awesome. I grabbed the trial and tested it, and fell in love. Then for my birthday, I received it as a gift and I’ve been outlining and writing in it ever since. I know some folks have trouble with it because it gives you a lot of options and frills, but I enjoy to be able to mark scenes by Point of view, keywords, move them around, make these little cards with summaries of the scenes, move them around if I have to and so on.
The whole folder for Character bios, Location sourcing and what not is fantastic and helps me personally to keep an overview. Before starting to use Scrivener I had a whole folder with subfolders for everything on my hard drive, but now I have them all in one program and it is way easier for me to look things up.
Evernote
I have told you about Evernote in another blog post and I still use it on my kindle, since I can’t put Scrivener on it when I want to write while being out of the house (haha as if I left the house) or in bed. The ability to sync the Kindle app with the desktop app to get my writing from one to the other makes it really easy.
Background Noise
This is one of those things that seem to be different for everyone else. Some need quiet, some want music that pulls them into the scene or character. Me? I need my TV running.
I can’t deal with quiet, then I start to think, and stop writing and start to look around… and I stop to write.
And music has the effect that I want to sing along, or in the case of instrumentals hum along, then I start to google about the artist, the lyrics, the sheet music… you get the drift.
But TV, I can have that running all day (actually I do) and write without being distracted. I know what I wrote and still know what has happened in the show I ran in the background. I might have to say that both is on the same screen. I have no physical TV, I have Netflix and I only have one monitor. So Netflix is in a small window in the upper left corner, while Scrivener is open across 3/4 of the screen. I also have learned to write blind with the typewriter so I can write and at the same time watch the show. Though I don’t do that often. Mostly I listen and when it sounds like something’s happening I look up to the small window and that’s it.
For many, it would be confusing or pull them out of the mood, but I need it to get really into it.
Graphics
I love working on graphics myself. Be it locations, characters or my covers, I try to do as much as possible myself. Not only because I’m broke af, but also because I have loved doing that for many years. I use graphics not only for covers but also for visualisation. Not that helps me to get into the mood and character.
Poser & Photoshop, Illustrator Poser is a program in which I can put scenes, and characters in a 3D environment and render them. In Photoshop I do the rest.
My last project of making a map for Ashwood Falls was started in a program called RPG Citymap Generator, but after the initial 5 minutes with that program, I spent several days in Photoshop to make it mine.
Illustrator is another graphic program, basically the Photoshop of Vector images. I don’t use that as often as Photoshop but for example, the “Enemy of my Enemy” cover was made in there.
Stock sites
And sometimes I use stock sites. These are sites that provide stock images to use in your own pictures. Some need to be paid, others are free. There are way too many to list here, but when you google for Stock images you will have a lot of results including websites that list 10, 20 or more of the best ones.
My friends and partner
At the moment I don’t have beta-readers (hope to get them, though), but I have friends I bounce ideas off. When I get stuck or need another set of eyes to know if a plot works they are the ones to get bugged by me. I feel lucky to have friends who don’t sugarcoat things and tell me if something I wrote sucks, otherwise that wouldn’t be any help. My partner even reads through my whole draft in that little time he has to find plotholes, inconsistencies or anything else that jumps at him.
I’m forever grateful for their support.
That is pretty much my writing tool cabinet. Does it look anything like yours? If not what would I find in your cabinet? Let’s chat and let me know in the comments!
Every year Smashwords does a special event called “Read an Ebook Week” with tons of discounts for fantastic books from every genre. This year’s week has started and I’m proud to announce that you can now receive a FREE copy of my book “Enemy of my Enemy”.
Larenssa always dreamed of a life as a strong warrior. All of her young life she trained to be ready and bring honour and glory to her tribe. Passing her initiation rites posed a challenge, but it pales in comparison to what she will endure during her personal hunt.
From now on until March 11th you can get a copy of “Enemy of my Enemy” for absolutely FREE from Smashwords.com and follow the adventure of Larenssa yourself. Simply use the code FC74V during checkout and the discount will be applied!
I grew up with Star Trek – The next Generation. As it was aired for the very first time in Germany I was 8 years old and was hooked from the first episode, despite the strange Cheerleader attire of Deanna Troi. I remember running home from school to not miss the episode that would start at 2:30 pm, only minutes after my last class. I made it every time. After that, the story just went on with Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and even Enterprise. The only show I didn’t really get into was TOS, but I loved the movies – so that’s something.
Of course, it didn’t stay with Star Trek. Series like Lexx, Firefly, Stargate and many more followed but for the most time of my life, Star Trek was my bae. And then came Doctor Who. I had never seen the original series at the point or even heard of it – yeah Germany is lacking great geek stuff. I was hooked from the first episode – again. While we were waiting for new seasons we had to get our Who fix and watched the movie, borrowed Jon Pertwee episodes from a friend and enjoyed them thoroughly. I have loved every Doctor I have seen so far, even the “unpopular” ones.
Part of the Assimilation² Cover. The copyright of this image’s publication belongs to IDW Publishing, under license from CBS Paramount Television and/or Paramount Pictures.
While I watch a lot of TV and movies, these two shows have shaped my life. They were teachers, friends, lifelines and more to me, the characters became a second and then third family. And I still am fully immersed through my cooperative writing Star Trek Role-playing Group Starbase 118. When thinking about how I started my writing to where I am now I can honestly say, that these two shows helped me with my writing. But why?
Those of you who know the shows might know already. Both Star Trek and Doctor who have strong characters with their own plot-arcs, developments, and goals. And then there are characters without these elements so you can see the difference right away. For example, Worf had much more story than for example Geordie. Or Doctor Who’s Mickey has more of an arc than Donna’s mother. And I am a huge fan of character development and stories. So observing the series’ ways to develop their characters has been a huge help to find ways to do that.
These shows also have relatable and likeable characters, just as much as characters that we can really hate on. I believe that Star Trek and Doctor Who both have fantastic plots that develop and evolve characters throughout single episodes, seasons and the whole show. The writers even managed to bring in Villains that we can relate to, that make us understand how they tick, why they became who they are. Who wouldn’t understand the intentions of Gul Dukat when it comes to his daughter, while at the same time hating on him for it. One of the favourites among my friends was Garak the Tailor, who was dubious and loveable at the same time. Who did not shed a tear when realizing the true driving force behind The Master, while being shocked by his maniac attempts to take over Earth? Or when Rose finds out what is in those Dalek tanks, I admit I cried and felt sorry for them. That is some great villain writing right there.
Every episode has its own timeline. The introductions, getting to the meat of the story, continuing with a plot twist (something happens that causes them trouble) and the way to get out of it, and then the fading out/resolution. But as every fan of almost every show knows, there is not only the timeline of each episode. But a timeline of the season, or series of episodes that belong together. Writers do the same, nobody wants to give away everything too early, or drag things out too long. If you are writing a series, you want to make sure that the first book doesn’t resolve the problem already. Star Trek TNG did not have it that much, other than multi-episode plots, but where you can see that really well is in Star Trek Deep Space Nine, especially in the last season. And Doctor Who has a lot of that as well, even more so.
Another element that I really enjoy is returning elements, be it bad boys or allies. In Star Trek, we have the Borg, Klingons, Romulans, the Dominion, Cardassians, Breen and many more of these returning baddies. In Doctor who we see the Daleks, Cybermen even the Autons return a few times, and not to forget other characters like Bonny, Mickey, The Master. To me, it is the element of “Oh hey I know them!” that connects different stories together making it all obviously the same universe. It brings together the whole history of the show.
And last but not least, movies, as well as TV-Shows can teach us a great deal about pacing and structure of a story, for single episodes, multi-episodes and seasons. We learn about stages in the story (introduction, twist, climax, fade out), for short-term plots and long-term plots. We learn how to foreshadow, how to bring in surprises and how to come to a satisfying conclusion (at least most of the time).
When you start writing, one of the advice pieces you’ll get over and over is to read a lot. Who wants to write, needs to read. And while I agree with that, don’t underestimate the teaching power of some great Television.
Do you have favourite shows that do this for you? Maybe some other shows or movies taught you a lot about writing or helped you to put your story to life? Tell us in the comments, maybe you’ll bring a gem into the lives of other writers like my friend brought Doctor Who into mine.
And while you are at it, hit the subscribe button to get notified when new posts hit the blog!
You have seen it on this blog a few times – not as many times as others had to read or hear it from me in person but nevertheless – that I have not found the time to write much. That was one of the reasons that around Black Friday I decided to get a Kindle Fire. While it is full of awesomeness by itself, I wanted something I can carry around with me to write on.
Yeah yeah, I know. There is the magical invention of pen and paper, but let’s be honest here among us. I have not written much by hand in many years, apart from shopping lists, I can barely read my handwriting because my brain is so fast my hand can’t follow – in contrast to my fingers when it comes to typing which still is too slow but much faster than whatever I could get onto paper. Also if I write for more than two minutes my hand is going to cramp up and hurt like a … you get the drift. So typing it is. I have no laptop, nor can I afford one. So the Kindle has become my writing buddy.
The first apps I added were Office apps, trying them out to see which works best for me. And it was pretty annoying to write a bunch and then having to send that file per email to my computer. I could have used google drive, but I didn’t find any free program that allowed to actually edit the files on Drive itself, which again meant to send emails with documents. And then I learned of
And then I learned about the existence of Evernote. Why has nobody ever told me about that before? I am looking you there!
I am able to not only write on my Kindle but sort it all nicely into Notebooks (like folders). These I have sorted by current writing, plot ideas, writing for my roleplay and notes for like Second Life creation ideas (I also have a ToDo folder but I have not used it yet). And the best part is that after I’m done I simply safe and next time I go to my PC I start the Desktop app and have it all there. No more sending emails around to get the files to where they need to be.
Okay, actually the best is, that it’s free. But function wise it’s that you can sync it between your devices. I’m quite sure that there is a lot more in this app than I have discovered yet, so make sure you check it out. Since I got my writer buddies I have written more than in the last 4 months combined. Most of it at night in bed, when I couldn’t sleep. it already has been absolutely worth it.
Maybe you want to tell me about your little Evernote Tricks. What else am I missing? Do you have writing buddies that you absolutely recommend? Let me know down in the comments!
It is about time I update you on what I have been up to! Because I’ve been busy! Things had slowed down last year, but for Black Friday I had the chance to obtain a Kindle Fire for a good price. That helped me to write more again, as I was not bound to my desktop anymore. Most of the time when I’m in bed already and can’t sleep I just whip out my Evernote and write a few lines. Makes me feel incredibly productive. 😉
If you’ve been following along you know that I wrote a Sci-Fi Novella in the “Blood in Space” Universe called “Enemy of my enemy“. The same universe now got a little more love from me. Jonathan Snyder is putting together a collection of short stories and I had the honour to add one of my own. It is called ‘Extinction’ and will once more return to the proud Atelak Warriors. This time though we witness an event within a different tribe that will later end up a story, used to teach children to not lose their temper. Why you ask? You can find out once the collection will be released. You’ll hear about that right here when it’s time.
I have also continued with the second book of my Ashwood falls Trilogy. The first 8 chapters are in its first draft and I am excited to continue with the story around Alana and Leandrus.
The very same universe gets a little more love in form of a short story I have started to work on as well. This short story will shed some light on Leandrus’ past and how he landed in the void he was pulled from. For this short-story, I am catching up on some fun Tudor-era research and am having a lot of fun with showing another side of our favourite demon of the series. Once that short story is done it’ll be a Mailing list subscriber exclusive, so join the list and you won’t miss it. 🙂
That was it from this side of the screen for now. How about you? What have you been up to? Want to share your current projects? Are you excited about something? Let me know down in the comments. Let’s chat. 🙂
No matter if you write fiction or non-fiction, blog posts, do-it-yourself articles, advice columns, short stories or novels, you might have heard that one piece of advice all through your weeks, months or years of writing: “Write what you know.”
When I heard that for the first time I had immediate thoughts on what I know!
I know how to cook frozen Pizza.
I know how to not starve because I ordered a huge pack of ramen noodles in all kinds of flavours.
I know how to sleep for a long time.
I know how to take a shower without breaking my neck – 37 years of study in that subject proof that.
I know how to binge watch TV-Shows and movies.
I know how to avoid doctor visits when I really “don’t wanna”.
I know many many things more, but let’s be honest: Nobody wants to read a book about that. Well actually I’d die to read a book about it, but I might not be a big market all on my own.
After eliminating all these useful, elaborate skillsets the question remained: What do I write about?
Writing fiction might be a tad easier on that because you don’t have to go into the depths of a subject too much, but you still need to know what you are talking about. Maybe the whole ‘Write what you know’ does not only mean the experiences or your degree you have in a field.
Instead, make sure that you research the hell out of something you want to write about. Writing paranormal stories with demons and vampires? Study the lore. Writing a story that plays in the Tudor era? Read about it, the life, language, customs, important events and what have you. (Coincidentally that is what I’m doing at the moment.) Want to write for a woman but you’re a bloke and have no idea about that? Study women, read magazines, talk to them and ask what they’d do. If your character goes through a life-changing event and you have no experience with that said event, chat with folks who’ve gone through it.
There are many ways to research and accumulate knowledge about what you are writing about. So go ahead, dig in and then “write what you know”.
What is it you are writing about? How did you get to know about it and got more insight? Was it easy? Exciting? Boring (if so why the heck did you want to write about boring stuff?) Share your experiences and tell me more right down in the comments.
First of all: Happy new year. Welcome in 2017, let’s make it an awesome one!
All of you have most likely noticed that I do not write often. Most of the time it is because I’m actually busy writing but many other times it is because I am not sure what you guys actually want to see on an author’s blog. There are countless articles out there on what should be found, what we should write about. Be it about us and our life to get to know us better, or about our books, extras, characters, plot ideas, or new projects, writing tips, books we like, tools we use and and and. But I am never sure if anyone really wants to know that.
So for the new year I thought I could just asks. I know very innovative concept. 😉
So please comment below, let me know what YOU would like to see. Don’t look at me like that, I really mean it. I’m looking very much forward to read what you think!
Some of you know, that I am a resident of a virtual world called Second Life. A world by the people for the people, when it comes to the world itself. Everything you see from items, houses, clothing, skins, hair and what not has been made by residents. I’m one of these content creators as well but today I want to talk about a different part of this world.
For about 6 years – I think – I am part of a theatre group in that virtual world: The Jewell Theatre. We are a group of people enjoying the art of theatre and bring it to different places to entertain the audience. We also meet at least once a year to participate in the 48 hours machinima festival, in which we make short machinimas in competition with other teams. We are having a ton of fun with this and can’t wait for the next time.
Why am I telling you this? Because our theatre writer and director Karen Wheatley has written a machinima for this festival 5 years ago called “The Lucid Journey”. Just recently for Second Life’s 13th birthday, she rewrote it to make it into a play to perform during the festivities. It came out so well, that we also went on tour with it.
In every culture there have been legends regarding the relationship between our dreams and travel. Suppose our dreams are more than random scenes from our waking lives? Lewis Liddell is missing presumed dead, and his wife is left to unravel the mystery of what’s become of him. Her journey to find him will take her into our shared dreamscape and beyond.
During the tour while looking at screenshots of the play, an idea was born. What if we made a Graphic Novel out of this story? Yeah, what if? I tell you what. It’d be awesome!
We had a photoshoot in which I shot about 400 snapshots. Karen and I work on sifting through the script to make sure that we only have the necessary parts in the graphic novel, and I can check something off my bucket list. I always wanted to create a Graphic Novel but never knew about what and how, since I can’t draw for my life. So this is super exciting for me, Karen and the members of the Jewell Theatre. The first pages are already done. I just love seeing how it comes together!
If you are interested in hearing more about the Jewell Theatre you can follow the Twitter account. If you are a Second Life resident, you can visit the sim and join the subscriber to be informed about new plays.
Have you ever created a Graphic Novel or worked with someone on one? Do you like Graphic Novels or do you prefer regular novels? Share your experiences with me below in the comics. Let’s have a chat!
Did you ever do something many many times and it is deep in your bones and blood and you could do it in your sleep? Then you try something else and it works really well but you go back to do that old thing and you fail over and over? That is me with short stories. I used to write them a lot. But ever since I wrote my first novel I have real trouble with them.
That wouldn’t be too bad if I wouldn’t want to write them. I have several ideas for stories that are not meant to be as long as a novel or even a novella. So short story it is. Well said. Tell that to my 50 attempts to write one. I tried it with outlining, making keynotes, pre-planning … nothing. I keep running into a wall and believe what I wrote sucks big hairy sweaty donkey balls. Eeew, I know.
I am usually a big fan of research and reading articles to help me going, but in this case, it just makes me nutters. It feels like everyone knows how to write a short story but I don’t. And I don’t know you but I become obsessive about this. Trying even harder and falling with my nose flat on the concrete floor.
So next I’ll try to throw out the outline and plans and write that short story by feeling and using my gut instinct. Let’s see how that goes!
How are you with writing short stories? Are they hard? How do you deal with the struggle? Or are they smooth sailing? How did you get there? Share your experiences with us in the comments and don’t forget to subscribe 🙂
As I have mentioned a few times before I wrote a novelette, based in a roleplaying universe my friend Jonathan Snyder has developed: Blood in Space. That novelette is finally done and published by Epic Worlds Press! I have a ton of fun writing the story around the young Atelak Larenssa and hope that you’ll enjoy reading about it just as much.
Larenssa always dreamed of a life as a strong warrior. All of her young life she trained to be ready and bring honor and glory to her tribe. Passing her initiation rites posed a challenge, but it pales in comparison to what she will endure during her personal hunt.
Leaving her tribe behind, Larenssa begins one of the most important journeys of her life. She finds herself at the mercy of her prey and is forced to make a decision. What will happen when the tables are turned and she becomes the hunted?
Everyone on my subscriber list and those who will join receives a 50% discount code for the ebook version on Smashwords! That is to thank you for your support and interest in my writing.
(Credits: The base of this image is a Mock-up Set made by Vadim Sherbakov. You can find it here.)
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I’m looking forward to have you and if you like it I’d appreciate a review on Smashwords, Lulu and/or goodreads. Thank you and have fun reading!!
Some of you know, that part of my creativity goes to and comes from being a member of a Star Trek Roleplaying Community called Starbase 118. I’ve written with this group of ST enthusiasts for 4 years and have met all kinds of awesome people from casual writers to fellow authors. In this community of fans and writers we also have great institutions like a podcast team! Jonathan Snyder from that team has recently interviewed me about what I do when I’m not writing for Starbase 118 and the result has been published today!
It has been my very first audio interview so I was a little nervous, but I had a blast! Of course I’m sharing it with you and hope you’ll enjoy!
What did you think of the interview? Did you enjoy the information you’ve got? Which questions would you ask me if you had the chance? Did you do podcast interviews and how did they go? Please comment below and let me know! Thank you for taking the time and see you around next time!
As I have promised you in my most recent blog post about beta readers, we are going to look at Editors in this post. As usual I am going to tell you what I did and then tell you what I should have done. I’ll also explain a bit about different kinds of editors and give you a few sources about how to find them and what to watch out for.
Ready? Yes? Let’s begin.
When I wrote my first Book “Sra’kalor“, it was quite an adventure. It was my very first book that I’ve finished, and also the very first book I wrote in English. Since it’s my second language I’m naturally making mistakes. That just means I’ll have to learn more, but until then I definitely need someone to check what I write for grammar, spelling, possible misuse of words and so on. I went through my book four times until I couldn’t find anything wrong with it any more. Believing it was great, I sent it to my partner and he checked once more. He found a bunch of things that could be improved and a pile of spelling and grammar mistakes. I fixed these as well believed to be done, because we had worked a lot and hard on it. So I published the book and began to send it to reviewers, bloggers and the like.
In the coming weeks I received reviews that mentioned grammar and spelling mistakes, that the language sounded as if English wasn’t my first language, that it sounded too formal and some words were misused. You can possibly imagine the punch I felt in my stomach. For a while I even thought I should stop writing if it is that bad, but thanks to some encouraging friends that feeling didn’t last long and I decided to want to improve instead of giving up – yay me. One of my friends has an editor in their family and connected us. I sent my book to her, she took the time and effort to edit it and did not only mark the parts that were wrong, but also explained to me why. That helped tremendously. So I revised the book and feel much better with it now.
No matter how well you write, how much you work on your book, how many mistakes you find and correct, having an editor go through it for you and bring the best out of it is very important. That is something that I absolutely underestimated in the beginning but have learned until now. And if you work with Beta readers – as mentioned in the previous post – you would first write and edit as much as you possibly can and then send your work to your beta readers and after they took it apart and helped you to make it even better it’s the editor’s turn. Not the other way around.
What would an editor do for you? That depends on the kind of editor.
Content editors/developmental editors – They check your book for structure, plot holes, parts that go too slow, others that go too fast, inconsistencies (what we call goofs in movies) and so on. It might happen that they change something in your story to make it flow better, change the way you wrote sentences or whole scenes. They work directly with the content of the story and help authors to find their writing voice.
Copy editors – These make sure your book has a high readability, that it’s written smooth and has a consistent style all over.
Line Editors – They focus on grammar, spelling, punctuation, verb tenses and so on. You know all these little things that we do not see any more because we know our story and our brain reads them correctly even though they are misspelled.
Copy and Line editors are often one person nowadays but sometimes they are still different people. And you might even find someone who does all of the above but not that often.
Proofreaders. After all editors went all through your work and you made sure to fix mistakes and rewrite what needs to be rewritten, proofreaders go through the book again and find all the little things that everyone else missed. Yes that can happen. Editors are humans, you are human, so mistakes happen. Even the most famous works still have mistakes here and there, but imagine them without going through all that editing work.
How to find editors?
Since I did not have to find an editor, thanks to my friend, I have done a little research about where to find editors.
“Where do you find an editor?” A goodreads group discussion. Several editors actually replied in this thread to offer their services, other answers linked to websites or people directly.
“Need an affordable editor?” Another goodreads group discussion in which several editors offer their services.
“Are you an Editor / Proofreader?” And another goodreads group discussion
“Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA)” To quote the website: “EFA members are editors, writers, indexers, proofreaders, researchers, desktop publishers, translators, and others who offer a broad range of skills and specialties.”
“Publishers Marketplace” Editors and other publishing professionals are advertising their services here, have a look.
“Mediabistro” Here you can find and hire freelancers, among others editors.
What to watch out for when choosing an editor
What kind of editor are they?
Do they work in your genre? That is especially important for content editors. You wouldn’t want a magazine column content editor to edit your romance novel. These are completely different genres and styles. If it only is about spelling and grammar, the genre that editor worked in might not be that important.
What is their experience? Who have they worked with?
Do they offer a trial page or chapter so you can see their style?
Do you click? You work closely with your editor if you can’t stand each other it’ll make it difficult.
What is their rate? Editors are not cheap. Even those with affordable prices might be out of your budget. So check how much you have to pay and how much you can pay.
How many authors do they work with at the same time? Do they have the time for your book it deserves?
Remember not every editor might be the right one for you. You might have to kiss many frogs… wait wrong subject. You might have to try out several editors before finding ‘the one’.
These lists are by far not complete, but do a google search for editors and you’ll find a ton of results. Not only editor pages but also articles about how to find them, what to watch out for, questions you should ask yourself and so on.
Two of these sites are
“Help! I need a book editor” You can find some explanations, more links to editor resources and articles to related subjects.
“5 ways to find the right freelance book editor” This article will give you a few tips on how to find the editor you need including questions you can ask a potential editor to find out if they are a fit
There is so much more but this article has been too long already. If you managed to stay with me until now – Congratulations you are a patient human being! And thank you for sticking with me.
Do you have any more invaluable tips and tricks when it comes to editors? Where did you find yours? What experiences do you have with your editor and did your first find end up to be ‘the one’? What did you do when your choice wasn’t the right one? Please share your stories with us in the comment box below! Until next time and stay creative!
Just recently I found myself in the wonderful workd of mockups. I found so many that I want to use for the future that I filled half my hard-drive with them. These are PSD files (at least in the cases that I have here), that help you display your own works in realistic pictures. It is surprisingly hard to explain. But I’ll show you an example below.
That mockup has a ready made picture and the card standing in front of the box allowed to add my own text and card design so it looks like it belongs into the setting. There are mockups for all kinds of things like book covers, computer screens, phone screens, booklets, posters and so on and so forth. They are really fun and come in quite handy. Not only for graphic designers but also for authors who want to display their work in new ways.
I used this one to make it look it belongs into the world of “Sra’kalor”, the card being a part of the story without giving anything away you won’t know after the first two chapters. 😉 The mockup I used can be found here on forgraphictm.com. Hope you enjoy!
Some of you know about this other’s don’t (yet). I am a type 2 diabetic, as is my father, and my partner and his brother are type 1 diabetic. While most of the time it’s okay to handle, there are other times in which it is rather scary.
I just found this event through Traci’s blog “A word with Traci” that aims to raise awareness for this disease. You can read more about it through the link below. Check it out, finds new authors to obsess over and get informed! You can find dates and everything in the post (link under the picture).
Please help spread awareness and support the cause. Thank you!
Journey of words 