Tag: writing

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How to Write an Epic Fantasy Universe

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A Whole Bunch of Words to Help Describe Your Unique Author’s Tone

Words to Help You Describe Your Unique Author’s Tone

January 29, 2021January 30, 2021 ~ Jeremy ~ Leave a comment

Many Words to Help Describe Your Unique Author’s Tone

Let’s define what the author’s tone is and what is its purpose real quick.

What is Author’s Tone?

“Author’s tone is simply an author’s attitude toward a particular written subject.” – Source

You can use the author’s tone to give the reader a notion of how the author feels about the subject matter they are writing.

If they like the subject matter you might see an excited tone in the writing. If they despise the people and the subject they are writing about you might see more of a bitter or belligerent tone.

Don’t confuse the author’s tone with the author’s voice. To distinguish the two you might say the author’s tone is their attitude toward the subject matter.

The author’s voice is their own writing personality that they bring to each piece overall or individually. An author’s tone will change with the subject matter. Their specific writer’s voice might not change at all or it will grow and mature over a long period of writing.

The best way to determine tone is by understanding how the author feels about the subject matter. The reader’s mood while reading the writing does not affect the author’s tone. The author will likely try to set the mood, but it will not directly persuade their tone. It is more the reverse. The author’s tone may persuade the reader’s mood and thus the mood of the writing.

It is important to note that genre can and will often affect tone, thus mood. If you are formal writing your tone should be professional. If you are creative writing your tone can be more subjective and ebb and flow depending on the subject.
If you are telling a story your tone might slightly change when you introduce a world setting that is deplorable and despicable. When you talk about a celebration and old friends reuniting for the first time in years your tone might change to more jovial and joyous.

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Abashed – ashamed or embarrassed

Absurd – illogical; ridiculous; silly; implausible; foolish

Accusatory – suggesting someone has done something wrong, complaining

Acerbic – sharp; forthright; biting; hurtful; abrasive; severe

Admiring – approving; think highly of; respectful; praising

Admonishing – cautioning, reproving, or scolding

Adoring – to regard with esteem, love, and respect

Aggressive – hostile; determined; forceful; argumentative

Aggrieved – indignant; annoyed; offended; disgruntled

Ambivalent – having mixed feelings; uncertain; in a dilemma; undecided

Amused – entertained; diverted; pleased

Angry – incensed or enraged; threatening or menacing

Animated – full of life or excitement; lively; spirited; impassioned; vibrant

Apathetic – showing little interest; lacking concern; indifferent; unemotional

Apologetic – full of regret; repentant; remorseful; acknowledging failure

Appreciative – grateful; thankful; showing pleasure; enthusiastic

Ardent – enthusiastic; passionate

Arrogant – pompous; disdainful; overbearing; condescending; vain; scoffing

Assertive – self-confident; strong-willed; authoritative; insistent

Awestruck – amazed, filled with wonder/awe; reverential

Belligerent – hostile; aggressive; combatant

Benevolent – sympathetic; tolerant; generous; caring; well-meaning

Bewildered – completely puzzled or confused

Biting – having a sarcastic tone

Bitter – angry; acrimonious; antagonistic; spiteful; nasty

Blunt – abrupt in manner

Bold – courageous and daring

Brusque – blunt; rough

Callous – cruel disregard; unfeeling; uncaring; indifferent; ruthless

Calm – tranquil

Candid – truthful, straightforward; honest; unreserved

Caustic – making biting, corrosive comments; critical

Cautionary – gives warning; raises awareness; reminding

Celebratory – praising; pay tribute to; glorify; honor

Chatty – informal; lively; conversational; familiar

Cheery – in good spirits; happy

Churlish – critical or harsh

Colloquial – familiar; everyday language; informal; colloquial; casual

Comic – humorous; witty; entertaining; diverting

Commanding – having an air of superiority

Compassionate – sympathetic; empathetic; warm-hearted; tolerant; kind

Complex – having many varying characteristics; complicated

Compliant – agree or obey rules; acquiescent; flexible; submissive

Conceited – having an excessively favorable opinion of one’s self or abilities

Concerned – worried; anxious; apprehensive

Conciliatory – intended to placate or pacify; appeasing

Condescending – stooping to the level of one’s inferiors; patronizing

Confused – unable to think clearly; bewildered; vague

Contemptuous – showing contempt; scornful; insolent; mocking

Contentious – argumentative

Critical – finding fault; disapproving; scathing; criticizing

Cruel – causing pain and suffering; unkind; spiteful; severe

Curious – wanting to find out more; inquisitive; questioning

Curt – rudely brief in speech

Cynical – scornful of motives/virtues of others; mocking; sneering

Defensive – defending a position; shielding; guarding; watchful

Defiant – obstinate; argumentative; defiant; contentious

Demeaning – disrespectful; undignified

Depressing – sad, melancholic; discouraging; pessimistic

Derisive – snide; sarcastic; mocking; dismissive; scornful

Desperate – having an urgent need or desire

Detached – aloof; objective; unfeeling; distant

Diabolic – devilish; fiendish; outrageously wicked

Dignified – serious; respectful; formal; proper

Diplomatic – tactful; subtle; sensitive; thoughtful

Disapproving – displeased; critical; condemnatory

Disheartening – discouraging; demoralizing; undermining; depressing

Disparaging – dismissive; critical; scornful

Direct – straightforward; honest

Disappointed – discouraged; unhappy because something has gone wrong

Dispassionate – impartial; indifferent; unsentimental; cold; unsympathetic

Distressing – heart-breaking; sad; troubling

Docile – compliant; submissive; deferential; accommodating

Earnest – showing deep sincerity or feeling; serious

Ebullient – overflowing with enthusiasm, or excitement; high-spirited

Ecstatic – in a state of ecstasy; rapturous

Effusive – unreserved or unduly demonstrative

Egotistical – self-absorbed; selfish; conceited; boastful

Elated – very happy or proud; jubilant

Empathetic – understanding; kind; sensitive

Encouraging – optimistic; supportive

Enthusiastic – excited; energetic

Evasive – ambiguous; cryptic; unclear

Excited – emotionally aroused; stirred

Facetious – inappropriate; flippant

Farcical – ludicrous; absurd; mocking; humorous and highly improbable

Flippant – superficial; glib; shallow; thoughtless; frivolous

Forceful – powerful; energetic; confident; assertive

Formal – respectful; stilted; factual; following accepted styles/rules

Frank – honest; direct; plain; matter-of-fact

Frustrated – annoyed; discouraged

Functional – to be practical and useful, rather than attractive

Generous – showing kindness toward others

Gentle – kind; considerate; mild; soft

Ghoulish – delighting in the revolting or the loathsome

Grim – serious; gloomy; depressing; lacking humor; macabre

Gullible – naïve; innocent; ignorant

Hard – unfeeling; hard-hearted; unyielding

Hilarious – boisterously merry

Humble – deferential; modest

Humorous – amusing; entertaining; playful

Hypercritical – unreasonably critical; hair-splitting; nitpicking

Impartial – unbiased; neutral; objective

Impassioned – filled with emotion; ardent

Imploring – pleading; begging

Impressionable – trusting; child-like

Inane – silly; foolish; stupid; nonsensical

Incensed – enraged

Incredulous – disbelieving; unconvinced; questioning; suspicious

Indignant – annoyed; angry; dissatisfied

Informative – instructive; factual; educational

Inspirational – encouraging; reassuring

Instrumental – pursuing an aim or policy

Intense – earnest; passionate; concentrated; deeply felt

Intimate – familiar; informal; confidential; confessional

Ironic – the opposite of what is meant

Irreverent – lacking respect for things that are generally taken seriously

Jaded – bored; having had too much of the same thing; lack enthusiasm

Joyful – positive; optimistic; cheerful; elated

Judgmental – critical; finding fault; disparaging

Justified – having, done for, or marked by a good or legitimate reason

Laudatory – praising; recommending

Light-Hearted – carefree; relaxed; chatty; humorous

Loving – affectionate; showing intense, deep concern

Macabre – gruesome; horrifying; frightening

Malicious – desiring to harm others or to see others suffer; ill-willed; spiteful

Mean-Spirited – inconsiderate; unsympathetic

Mocking – scornful; ridiculing; making fun of someone

Mourning – grieving; lamenting; woeful

Naïve – innocent; unsophisticated; immature

Narcissistic – self-admiring; selfish; boastful; self-pitying

Nasty – unpleasant; unkind; disagreeable; abusive

Negative – unhappy, pessimistic

Nostalgic – thinking about the past; wishing for something from the past

Objective – without prejudice; without discrimination; fair; based on fact

Obsequious – overly obedient and/or submissive; fawning; groveling

Optimistic – hopeful; cheerful

Outraged – angered and resentful; furious; extremely angered

Outspoken – frank; candid; spoken without reserve

Pathetic – expressing pity, sympathy, tenderness

Patronizing – condescending; scornful; pompous

Pensive – reflective; introspective; philosophical; contemplative

Persuasive – convincing; eloquent; influential; plausible

Pessimistic – seeing the negative side of things

Philosophical – theoretical; analytical; rational; logical

Playful – full of fun and good spirits; humorous; jesting

Pragmatic – realistic; sensible

Pretentious – affected; artificial; grandiose; rhetorical; flashy

Regretful – apologetic; remorseful

Resentful – aggrieved; offended; displeased; bitter

Resigned – accepting; unhappy

Restrained – controlled; quiet; unemotional

Reverent – showing deep respect and esteem

Righteous – morally right and just; guiltless; pious; god-fearing

Satirical – making fun to show a weakness; ridiculing; derisive

Sarcastic – scornful; mocking; ridiculing

Scathing – critical; stinging; unsparing; harsh

Scornful – expressing contempt or derision; scathing; dismissive

Sensationalistic – provocative; inaccurate; distasteful

Sentimental – thinking about feelings, especially when remembering the past

Sincere – honest; truthful; earnest

Skeptical – disbelieving; unconvinced; doubting

Solemn – not funny; in earnest; serious

Straightforward – uncomplicated and easy to do or understand

Subjective – prejudiced; biased

Submissive – compliant; passive; accommodating; obedient

Sulking – bad-tempered; grumpy; resentful; sullen

Sympathetic – compassionate; understanding of how someone feels

Technical – relating to a particular subject, art, or craft, or its techniques

Thoughtful – reflective; serious; absorbed

Tolerant – open-minded; charitable; patient; sympathetic; lenient

Tragic – disastrous; calamitous

Unassuming – modest; self-effacing; restrained

Uneasy – worried; uncomfortable; edgy; nervous

Urgent – insistent; saying something must be done soon

Venturesome – willing to take risks or embark on difficult or unusual courses of action

Vindictive – vengeful; spiteful; bitter; unforgiving

Virtuous – lawful; righteous; moral; upstanding

Warmhearted – sympathetic and kind

Whimsical – quaint; playful; mischievous; offbeat

Witty – clever; quick-witted; entertaining

Wonder – awe-struck; admiring; fascinating

World-Weary – bored; cynical; tired

Worried – anxious; stressed; fearful

Wretched – miserable; despairing; sorrowful; distressed

Xenophilic – attracted to foreign peoples, manners, or cultures

Zestful – characterized by great enthusiasm and energy

Zealous – having or showing zeal; passion toward certain ideas, people, or places

A Whole Lot of Words to Help Describe Your Unique Author’s Tone

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That’s all for now.

Hope this helps!

Happy writing!

Resources:

How to Start a Blog in 11 Simple Easy Steps in 2020

How to Write a Book: 32 Tips | Your MASSIVE Guide How to Write a Book

This post:

So Many Words to Help Describe Your Unique Author’s Tone

Interested in starting a blog of your own? Check out Bluehost.

Already own a blog? Monetize with Ezoic. Make 5X more on ads with Ezoic! See for yourself. – These ads use machine learning. Set it and leave it.

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Lots and Lots of Words to Help Describe Your Unique Author’s Tone

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Strange Character Writing Advice from a College Professor 👩‍🏫

January 28, 2021January 28, 2021 ~ Jeremy ~ Leave a comment

Strange Character Writing Advice from a College Professor 👩‍🏫

A student was recently taking English Composition. The professor knew the student and knew they were writing a novel. One day, the professor stopped the student and gave them some weird advice.

She said to make your readers P.E.A.

“Huh? PEA their pants??!”

“Um-no. Ew.” (Couldn’t resist a little potty humor 😂 if you didn’t know already, I’m actually 12.)

No, P.E.A. Stands for a quick easy to remember acronym that adults (and 12-year-olds) will have an easy time remembering and putting into practice for writing characters.

Pity

Make your readers pity your character. Give them tragedy that makes your readers pity them in their tragic events.

The more tragedy they run into the more the reader is intrigued to see if it will be resolved and furthermore they feel bad for the victim, your main character instead of the antagonist who may be even causing your main character unfair injustice.

Envy

Give the character extraordinary experiences and make them very good at something.

Make them an expert at one or two things.

It could be,

Genius
Sport
Spy
Skydiving
Scuba
Historian
Thieving

It could be anything really, but by giving them extraordinary moments and making them extremely good at one thing it makes the reader “want to be them” just a little bit.

Therefore they want to read more to experience and live vicariously through them.

Adore

By making the character competent, and highly skilled at something, it has the added effect of making the reader adore them a little.

When they envy and adore them you can put the character through tragedy and danger of loss and the reader will automatically feel pity for them.

You can see how in this way P.E.A. is a circular thought and they each play into each other and help one another. If you have too much of just any one it may not work out as well.

Final Thoughts

Another easy way to remember this is to “make them competent, make them fail.”

Readers love a character that is really spoiled at some things but goes through hard and uncertain times trying to accomplish their goals.

Remember, you don’t want them to be perfect. We need to see them struggle. And P.E.A. is a good reminder of that.

It’s a weird way to say it, but P.E.A. is a good thing to remind yourself of while writing your next character.

It helps bring those truths about character development into a neat little acronym that’s not easily forgotten.

If you can get your readers to P.E.A. it’ll be hard for them to put down your book and forget your characters or what happens to them.

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Strange Character Writing Advice from a College Professor

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That’s all for now.

Hope this helps!

Happy writing!

Resources:

How to Start a Blog in 11 Simple Easy Steps in 2020

How to Write a Book: 32 Tips | Your MASSIVE Guide How to Write a Book

This post:

Strange Character Writing Advice from a College Professor

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Is the Great American Novel Dead?

January 27, 2021January 27, 2021 ~ Jeremy ~ Leave a comment

Is the Great American Novel Dead?

There was a college professor that said something to this effect.

He said something like, “As a college professor I make 60,000 a year before taxes. The first half of this year I made 45,000 writing stable boy romances. The great American novel might be dead, but the great American dream isn’t.”

That same professor apparently quit two years later and bought a vacation home in Portugal.

His writing advice that stuck with his pupil? “Write competent trash.”

Is that really where we are at as a reading culture? Is the American novel dead? Do the majority of readers just want a quick cheap thrill, and nothing too deep?

Are millions reading Moby Dick?

This is not a knock on Moby Dick.

But the truth is most readers are somewhat avoiding reads like this and opting for things like Twilight and Harry Potter.

That’s not an attack on Twilight or Harry Potter either. It is just a fact.

Every once in a while a dedicated reader will go out of their way to make sure they get in the classics, but for most readers, they in fact are looking for a cheap, quick, fun getaway in a book.

Write competent trash.

This line is hilarious, but how the words sting true.

Most of the world is ready to drop a couple of bucks on the next Patterson thriller, but tempt them with Charles Dickens and You’re likely to hear crickets.

What kind of writer do you want to be?

Do you want to be the kind that makes a living? Or the kind that writes an epic that gets taught about in colleges?

Either would be neat, but personally, I’d rather be paid to be a writer.

In today’s writing career culture the horizons have really widened for writers.

You can be paid to write blogs, emails, sales pages, cheap fun novellas.

There are a lot more options for writers. And while writing any one of these things and getting paid for it, you can work on your dream project on the side.

Is it really “competent trash?”

It doesn’t have to be. I mean, it’s not high brow literature like the classics, but it does bring enjoyment to a large group of people.

At the end of the day, isn’t that what writing is sort of about? Bringing entertainment to the people that want to have a “good read?”

Think of the last time you read or watched a great story. You probably are very thankful to have found it and you were excited to share it with others.

Some people might think, “it’s competent trash,” but for the majority of readers it’s enjoyment and fun.

Final thoughts

The Great American Novel may be dead, but writing is not, getting paid to write is not, and fiction certainly is not.

There are many ways to get paid as a writer in this century. You can blog, freelance, or be a copywriter.

Don’t think that because you decide to make money writing that means that you’re challenging the art form. Not everything written has to be high-brow literature or it’s just “competent trash.”

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Is the Great American Novel Dead?

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That’s all for now.

Hope this helps!

Happy writing!

Resources:

How to Start a Blog in 11 Simple Easy Steps in 2020

How to Write a Book: 32 Tips | Your MASSIVE Guide How to Write a Book

This post:

Is the Great American Novel Dead?

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Already own a blog? Monetize with Ezoic. Make 5X more on ads with Ezoic! See for yourself. – These ads use machine learning. Set it and leave it.

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An Agent Wants to Talk About My Book. What Should I Do?!

January 25, 2021January 25, 2021 ~ Jeremy ~ Leave a comment

An Agent Wants to Talk About My Book. What Should I Do?!

Exciting news! You finished your book. You edited the mess out of it. You got beta readers. You then sent it to an agent.

They wrote back and want to meet with you! What do you do?!

Here’s a bunch of questions to consider. You don’t have to copy these verbatim. And you should definitely rework them and say them the way you would. (Ya know. Be yourself!)

Talk about the book.

What did you like about the book?

What did you not like about the book?

Do you have specific editors you think would be good for this book? Can I look them up or talk to them?

How do you see this book selling in the market? What will be the advertising strategy? Will I have to do speaking engagements?

What work do you think needs to be done on it before it’s ready for submission? Do you think it’s a lot or a little and how normal is this?

What is your deadline for this book being ready? What if we don’t make that deadline?

I need to know more about the editing process.

Will you handle my work directly?

How hands-on are you in the editing process? Will I hear from you often?

What does a normal turn around look like?

Submission.

How do you handle rounds of submission?

Do you have a specific submission strategy in mind? What will you ask of me during that time?

Do you go to many editors or just a few before giving the project a break? When do you call it done? How do you know that it’s finished?

What if the project doesn’t sell? What do we do?

Then find out how to best communicate with them.

What is the best way to contact you? Do you prefer emails or should we zoom?

Do you like to have check-ins and how often?

What is your usual response time for general questions? 24-72 hours?

Agency questions.

Why should I choose your agency over others?

Who are your top 3 competitors?

Are contracts personal book by book or does the agency have career policies? Will I get paid more for my second and third books with your agency?

How long have you been with your agency? Do you like it? Is there an agency you’d rather be working with? Why did you become an agent? Do you like being an agent?

How many clients do you have? How many do you want to have? Will you stop at a certain point?

May I have a copy of the agency agreement to read over?

Will I be working with interns and assistants? How often? What’s their usual background?

What happens to me and my book if you quit this agency?

Additional questions you may want to consider.

Do you monitor my social media?

Have you ever asked someone to edit or delete a social post they made to promote their work in your agency?

Under what circumstances do you call it quits with a client? Has this happened before? If yes, would you mind telling me what happened?

How many contracts have you personally worked on? Who else will be handling my contract within the agency?

Can I have the contact information of any of the clients you’ve worked with before or are currently working with?

Will your agency handle more of my books or is it on a book-by-book basis?

What percentage do you take?

Am I allowed to work on self-publishing while you’re working on it?

And of course, be professional, be yourself, and it is perfectly fine to be a little excited. Try to enjoy the process and take each day one at a time.

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An Agent Wants to Talk About My Book. What Should I Do?!

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That’s all for now.

Hope this helps!

Happy writing!

Resources:

How to Start a Blog in 11 Simple Easy Steps in 2020

How to Write a Book: 32 Tips | Your MASSIVE Guide How to Write a Book

This post:

An Agent Wants to Talk About My Book. What Should I Do?!

Interested in starting a blog of your own? Check out Bluehost.

Already own a blog? Monetize with Ezoic. Make 5X more on ads with Ezoic! See for yourself. – These ads use machine learning. Set it and leave it.

Make sure your posts are readable. Use this readability score check

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An Agent Wants to Talk About My Book. What Should I Do?!

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Writing a Villain that is Fully Aware that His Actions are Evil

January 20, 2021January 20, 2021 ~ Jeremy ~ Leave a comment

Writing a Villain that is Fully Aware that His Actions are Evil

These days there are many different types of villains. A common one is the villain that is misunderstood. They truly believe that what they are doing is in the best interest of the greater good.

Personally, I find this overused. The more refreshing villain is the one that knows one-hundred-percent that their choices are wrong and chooses to do them anyway.

Motivations

Motivations are vastly important when it comes to villains. But what about a villain that just likes doing evil to do evil.

That in itself is a motivation.

I was watching a YouTuber the other day. The guy creates fake packages that explode with glitter and fart spray. (Childish, I know)

But you know how there is a huge amount of people stealing packages off people’s doorsteps?

Well, that’s the gig. He makes these fake packages to catch package thieves in the act.

In one episode we see a mother and son stealing a package and as they are opening it you can hear their dialogue and the kid said something interesting.

He said something like, “mom, it feels good.”

She says, “What does?”

“Stealing.”

“Don’t talk like that!”

You see, sometimes people end up doing evil acts because it feels good to them. They enjoy the act itself.

This can be a motivating factor for your villain that chooses to do wrong knowing very well the difference between right and wrong.

Money is the root of all kinds of evil.

An easy motivator for a villain is money. At its core, it’s selfish gain vs others’ suffering.

But every culture in history has had valuable currency or trade goods and an evil person can be willing to make others suffer in order to make more of it.

They may have other motivating factors that coincide. Maybe they want to be free and they see more money as a way to get to where they want to be.

Maybe they just love luxury. They love blowing money on all sorts of extravagant things.

Money is a great motivating factor for your willing villain.

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They think they have nothing to lose.

Often times a truly evil villain doesn’t see any value in anyone but themselves.

This might mean they have “nothing to lose.”

So what if their family disowns them? Maybe they don’t have a wife and kids.

Maybe they don’t have anyone in their life that they truly care about at all. This type of social detachment makes it very easy to be evil and know you’re being evil.

They aren’t motivated by need.

Be sure that your villain isn’t justifying their actions.

The thief that steals for fun is different than your thief that steals to survive. Not saying that either is morally justified, but one wouldn’t know strictly that their actions aren’t necessary to live another day.

The one that is truly evil doesn’t need the thing at all. They just want it and don’t want to work for it or can’t have it through good means so they just take it. It’s choosing themselves while it costs another person something.

Be aware of social norms.

Different cultures and time periods have different qualifying factors on what is good and what is wrong socially.

Even a young mind compared to an older mature mind that knows better can make a difference.

In Oliver Twist, Oliver finds himself in a gang of young thieves and is taught that is good to steal. He takes this knowledge in fully and steals without knowledge that it is wrong until later. This is not clear enough to push him into a category where he knows what he’s doing is wrong and chooses to do it anyway. He’s more or less naive to his world and its rules. Even though he is carrying out momentary acts of evil, he is not the villain of the story.

In certain time periods, some things were considered normal for what today we consider purely evil.

If you had a villain that was a slave trader in the 1800s this might muddy the waters a bit on whether we know he was a villain in his own mind until you reveal to us in certain ways that he knows what he’s doing is wrong. The social norms of the time period might have had many justifying their terrible acts.

So be aware of your social norms for where the villain is, how old, and when they are.

Power.

Another easy motivator is power. Power-hungry people often lie, cheat, and steal their way to the top.

This is not uncommon and all too real in our world.

Whether they are corrupt politicians or corrupt billionaires, their real motivator is power and they love using it to force others to bend to their will. They get a good feeling watching others grovel at their feet.

Power is a powerful motivator (see what I did there? Power is a powerful motivator? Punny right?)

Good character studies:

The Joker.

Alex from Clockwork Orange.

Voldemort.

Darth Sidious.

“Some people just want to see the world burn.” Thank you, Alfred, for those thoughtful words of wisdom about creating villains that are purely evil.

Writing a Villain that is Fully Aware that His Actions are Evil

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That’s all for now.

Hope this helps!

Happy writing!

Resources:

How to Start a Blog in 11 Simple Easy Steps in 2020

How to Write a Book: 32 Tips | Your MASSIVE Guide How to Write a Book

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Writing a Villain that is Fully Aware that His Actions are Evil

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Figuring Out How to Draw in Your Reader Emotionally and intellectually

January 19, 2021January 19, 2021 ~ Jeremy ~ Leave a comment

Figuring Out How to Draw in Your Reader Emotionally and intellectually

Figuring out how to draw your reader in is a big part of the story writing game.

How do we know we are doing it right?

Who are you writing to?

This is the first major thing we have to hone into if we want to draw the reader in.

Why?

Because you can’t write something and expect children, college people, and seniors all to feel the same way about it.

You need to know where your reader is in life and what they like.

Do they like adrenaline?

For this type of reader, you want to evoke emotions of excitement. Maybe emotions of horror and definitely shock and awe.

They want a good exciting ride where they are peaking over their shoulder just to be sure that no one is actually coming after them in the same way the characters are experiencing it in the story.

Do they love nostalgia?

Nostalgic readers are mostly going to enjoy feeling the emotions of their past.

They might pick up a good romance, or they might read something about war times. They might grab a book that is written at the same time as their childhood school days.

They might enjoy reading a new author that sounds a lot like authors from their past. If you want to evoke emotions in say fans of Jane Austin’s stories, you can go ahead and write like she did and know that your writing might make those who read Jane Austin feel nostalgic over the days when they first read her stories.

You can write stories like your favorite authors knowing that there is a group of people that will enjoy it emotionally. They might not even understand why at first, but more than likely they’ll eventually understand that you were influenced by authors they grew up with and that is perfectly fine.

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Some people love the feeling of mystery.

They get a big emotional reward feeling the inquisitiveness of solving a puzzle. These kinds of readers are usually problem solvers.

They enjoy sitting around and thinking. They usually see the world as a set of problems that need to be solved. This is why they love mysteries.

They get to start problem-solving on page one. They actively try to solve the “who done it” before the author ultimately reveals it.

You also have thrill-seekers.

Thrill-seekers just want to have a good ride. They like feeling the thrill of the story without doing much of the work. They aren’t looking to solve problems per se. they mostly just want to strap in and hang on while you take them through the story of high stakes, a list of actions, and a good resolution at the end.

Final thoughts

We could go on about the different types of scenarios people want to get into in a story and the emotions they enjoy feeling.

But the point is, we as the author have to understand what emotional reward our audience is looking for and then just give it to them.

When we understand our reader’s emotional desire in picking up a book, this becomes powerful because then we know exactly what they’re going to like and how to give it to them.

Figuring Out How to Draw in Your Reader Emotionally and intellectually

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Hope this helps!

Happy writing!

Resources:

How to Start a Blog in 11 Simple Easy Steps in 2020

How to Write a Book: 32 Tips | Your MASSIVE Guide How to Write a Book

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Figuring Out How to Draw in Your Reader Emotionally and intellectually

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How to Bore Your Reader to Death on Page One

January 19, 2021January 19, 2021 ~ Jeremy ~ Leave a comment

How to Bore Your Reader to Death on Page One

You probably weren’t looking to know how to actually bore your reader to death on page one, but you could be curious how to NOT bore your reader away from your entire story in the first page or two.

We know it’s the most important page of our story, the opening, the one that gets shown to almost everyone.

The page that goes on trial every time someone picks up our story thinking, “Let’s see if this will be an interesting read.” The page that goes into the “sample” on Amazon.

Then how do we flub up this most important page?

Here are some tips to watch out for when revising the first page of your story.

Details…details…details.

A really boring opening might have 2 or 3 pages of details where we, the readers still have no clue where the story is going, what the conflict is (if any), or why we are even reading it.

It might sound like, “she saw the way the sunlight trickled over the valley. She noticed the fall leaves all over the ground. She couldn’t help but love the warm breeze that flowed over her face when she pointed her head toward the sun.”

And okay, we get that it’s beautiful and it’s a really nice day.

Details can work, but if they go on for the first 3 pages like this, it means death to your story. Even if there is a really amazing story after all the detail most readers won’t find it.

For the most part, save the paragraph of details for later. At the front of your story, work on your hook. Once you have that nailed down you are allowed to describe some world-building stuff to the reader, but not until you’ve earned their curiosity with a good hook.

Earn your reader’s curiosity with a good hook, then and only then can you start describing scenery in more detail. Click to Tweet

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The great meeting seems clever, but it is overused.

Watch out for this cliché.

“Sophie is staring out the window. The cold rain is causing the windows to fog. She takes her finger and draws a heart then wipes it away. She hates being on trains, but the director called this morning and said it was urgent, needed to see her right away. What was so urgent that couldn’t be said over the phone?”

And this continues on for another 5 pages before we get to her meeting and she is handed her assignment that carries us into the actual story.

Apparently many authors attempt to do this kind of opening where the main character is called to a meeting and we follow them to it for far too long.

It would be better to start the story after the meeting has already happened and skip the journey to the meeting, or better yet have something surprising happen to our main character on the way to “the meeting” and they never make it to that meeting at all.

It seems like writers think the journey to the meeting is a good way to get to know the main character. Don’t fall into this trap.

It’s better to let us see the main character over the course of the story through decisions, dialogue, thoughts, and actions, rather than trying to tell us ALL about them in a car, bus, or train on the way to their first assignment.

Pointless dialogue.

Okay, maybe we shouldn’t say pointless, but that’s what it adds up to be when the reader drops the book after 4 pages of dialogue that didn’t give any evidence of it going anywhere.

I’m sure the dialogue was meant for the reader to start to understand the characters involved but unless it leads to more than “well, I guess we are done talking now. On to the next scene.” We are going to lose our readers fast.

Any chance your story had of being readable is now gone for the sake of introducing characters.

Try to stay on task. What’s the point of writing a story? Is it to introduce the characters? No. It’s to tell an INTERESTING STORY.

An interesting story has interesting characters that we get to know as time goes on. You don’t have to tell us about them if this is executed well.

If you write a good story, you don’t have to stop to tell about the characters. We get to know them naturally by watching them live through the story. Click to Tweet

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Final Thoughts

In openings like these, there seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding.

In stories, do we get to know characters? Yes.

Do we get to transport ourselves to amazing worlds? Yes.

But are those things the reason people read stories? No.

If it was, people would just read Wikipedia about the characters and worlds themselves instead of reading the story and finding out.

But people want to follow a character through an amazing story in a fun world.

The story has to do the work of telling them about the characters and the world.

We don’t tell them. They get to experience it. At least that’s the way it should be.

It’s like telling someone about a great character in a show you love instead of letting them watch that great character. It’s just not as enjoyable, and frankly, it’s a little boring.

Don’t do this to your story. Focus on the hook and let them experience the story.

Readers want to follow a character through an amazing story, not just be told about it. Click to Tweet

How to Bore Your Reader to Death on Page One

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Hope this helps!

Happy writing!

Resources:

How to Start a Blog in 11 Simple Easy Steps in 2020

How to Write a Book: 32 Tips | Your MASSIVE Guide How to Write a Book

This post:

How to Bore Your Reader to Death on Page One

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Sharing Your Writing Isn’t Safe. It’s Necessary.

January 16, 2021January 16, 2021 ~ Jeremy ~ Leave a comment

Sharing Your Writing Isn’t Safe. It’s Necessary.

I know, I know the idea of sharing our writing can be a bit intimidating. It can even be scary.

While it’s under privacy, lock, and key we can feel safe knowing nobody can say whether it’s good or not, but is that really good?

At what point do we put it out there?

Write with the intention of sharing it.

When we write, if we eventually want to be a freelance writer, an author, a copywriter, or a blogger we should be writing with the intention of allowing someone else to read it.

We should be looking for the right people to hand it over to in order to get good feedback.

What is good feedback?

“Hey, this is really terrible. Burn it. Take it behind a barn and shoot it. Drop it in a vat of battery acid.”

This is not good feedback.

Good feedback is detailed and actionable.

“I liked your main character, but I’m chapter two they sound different than when I first read their dialogue in chapter one.”

We are looking for people who will read what we’ve written and give feedback we can work with to make it better.

We want to know if the things we tried to do with our writing worked or not.

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Where can I find people like this?

This could be hard. A spouse, a relationship, a friend (that reads a lot).

There is a great place on Reddit called destructive readers. They are a group that’s willing to read small submissions and just provide free actionable feedback.

It’s a great place to anonymously drop some writing and expect a few meaningful responses.

Don’t expect them to just butter you up. They will tell you the good, the bad, and the really really bad stuff you need to work on.

And that is so helpful.

If you’re in a writer’s group, I recommend reading and critiquing each other’s work, but if only praise is flying around the room, somethings wrong.

We want to hear back from people that are willing to tell us the hard truths so that we can actually learn and grow in our writing.

Don’t sweat it.

I know it’s hard but when you start to put your writing out there, people will always have differing opinions.

And I don’t care if you’re the writing Pope, someone is not going to like your writing.

That’s fine. Maybe they are your target market. That’s no problem. If something needs to change then change it, but keep moving forward and getting better.

Just know that you are going to run into people that don’t like what you’re doing and that is perfectly normal. Put your writing out there anyway and get better.

You’ll never know what your writing can really do until it’s in front of someone else’s eyes.

Sharing Your Writing Isn’t Safe. It’s Necessary.

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Hope this helps!

Happy writing!

Resources:

How to Start a Blog in 11 Simple Easy Steps in 2020

How to Write a Book: 32 Tips | Your MASSIVE Guide How to Write a Book

This post:

Sharing Your Writing Isn’t Safe. It’s Necessary.

Interested in starting a blog of your own? Check out Bluehost.

Already own a blog? Monetize with Ezoic. Make 5X more on ads with Ezoic! See for yourself. – These ads use machine learning. Set it and leave it.

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Sharing Your Writing Isn’t Safe. It’s Necessary.

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How to Approach Writing an Epic

January 14, 2021January 14, 2021 ~ Jeremy ~ Leave a comment

How to Approach Writing an Epic

Writing an epic novel with a large cast, wars, massive cities, and treachery around every corner seems really daunting.

After all, those that have succeeded are kind of giants in the genre.

George R. R. Martin wrote his entire life before starting his epic at 42.

Tolkien with Lord of the Rings is a legend.

How does an author even get started on a powerful journey like these authors?

It obviously starts on page one, but how do we really get started?

Read successful writers of epics strategically.

If we really want to write an epic, we are past the season of reading books passively just for leisure. It’s time to focus in on the details and figure out the structure.

Focus on many characters but a few main ones.

Think about any epic you’ve ever read or watched.

The story hits a large cast of characters, but in certain chapters, we see more of others and less of some. For about 3 to 6 characters we see a lot of them over the entirety of the epic.

There may not be one true protagonist. It may be a protagonist nation or trio.

Sure we could say Frodo is the main protagonist, but we see so much of each of the group that at times we almost switch protagonists. It really seems like in epics it’s easy to have a protagonist group and an antagonist group.

The Fellowship of the Ring vs the armies of Sauron.

You can really do either. You can have a major protagonist, Bilbo/ Frodo, and a major antagonist Sauron/ Smaug, but in epics, you are more likely to have many protagonists and antagonists depending on the moment.

In the Chronicles of Narnia, each book has different protagonists. Just reading The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe without any background you might not think there is no major protagonist, but with revelation from C. S. Lewis later it seems it was Lucy because he wrote Lucy for his granddaughter.

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How do you fit a small central cast into a large epic world?

Just follow them through it.

To make the world appear larger than it is on the page, take the reader on multiple character journeys in one story.

While Frodo is climbing through Mordor, what are Merry and Pippin doing? What is Legolas doing while they’re doing that? How far apart are they? What kingdoms are they in?

Show your reader just how big the world is through many character story arcs and their varying travels.

Start with a small cast and separate them over time.

Your world could start small.

Start with a few main characters in a small peaceful part of the world. Then characters from across the world interrupt their small “safe” lives.

Then they have to leave that safe place. Along the way, they get separated from each other, and then we really start to explore the world through the different journeys of multiple character arcs.

Think about Tolkien. We start in the Shire with a few Hobbits, but then a worldly Wizard shows up. They then are forced to leave home to help save their existence as they know it. Over time their group grows and they travel together.

But then they are separated.

After this, we see the epic size of the world and several battles and armies all at once through the different journeys of our separated group that we started with.

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Little things can have big effects.

A letter from a neighboring nation can be an easy trick to give more tension and reveal the world the reader is in.

If your King figure receives a message from the neighboring kingdom that they were overrun by the enemy, you can use this to have the characters tell the reader more about the epic size of the world.

“How has Masadoria fallen? They were five hundred thousand. We are only a hundred thousand, if even that. What kind of evil do we face?

Rider! Quickly! Ride to Galla. Find the blacksmith Rodan. Tell him King Norius says it’s time. He’ll know what to do. Go!”

Don’t just try to go through a checklist of places and numbers without cleverly finding a way to naturally give the reader the information you want them to have.

Make battles roadblocks the reader must get through.

If a major battle happens that our heroes must face. Our reader must face it also. Don’t skip over it as if it isn’t important to the story moving forward. The battle should be the story moving forward.

Talk about the large details of the battle and use specific moments with the main characters to get us down into the trenches with them to better feels the tension and emotions of the moment.

“The army covered the land like a sea. Rodan couldn’t see past it. He thought of Asura. Would he really see her again?”

“He thrust his sword through two quickly. On his third swing, he struck a shield and the blade snapped. He threw the broken blade and ran back looking for anything useful on the ground…”

Be sure to give them the big picture and the small picture to keep it epic and interesting.

Final Thoughts

Read epics as a student, not just a reader.

Create a group that you are going to separate so that we can see the immensity of the world you’re creating.

Follow the little details to get us into the heat and tension of the moment.

Use large scenes with bigger details to help us see the immensity of the situation.

How to Approach Writing an Epic

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Hope this helps!

Happy writing!

Resources:

How to Start a Blog in 11 Simple Easy Steps in 2020

How to Write a Book: 32 Tips | Your MASSIVE Guide How to Write a Book

This post:

How to Approach Writing an Epic

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