How to Approach Writing an Epic

How to Approach Writing an Epic
How to Approach Writing an Epic

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:

Why Start a Blog

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

For Blogging AND More

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

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How to Approach Writing an Epic

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I Was Just Told, “No One Will Ever Read Your Book,” Should I Quit?

I Was Just Told, “No One Will Ever Read Your Book,” Should I Quit?
I Was Just Told, “No One Will Ever Read Your Book,” Should I Quit?

I Was Just Told, “No One Will Ever Read Your Book,” Should I Quit?

How devastating. You go to a writers group for years. You get really comfortable with these people. You finally feel okay letting someone else read your writing.

You get mostly good feedback. But one dude, who just started coming 3 weeks ago, very staunchly says, “I would never read this. In fact, I don’t think anyone would like this.”

You hold back one thousand words that could have fallen upon him without any effort. 

Instead, you say, “thank you for your thoughts.”

And that’s all that’s said about it during the session.

If you were in that same situation, what would you do? What should you do?

Find out more about the source.

Positive feedback is safe and nice, but at some point, you’re going to want someone to say things like, “this part doesn’t work. Maybe consider doing this instead.”

We like to hear the niceties, but we also need someone that’s willing to help us make our writing better.

If a person gives you negative feedback on your writing, try not to be offended. Instead interview them.

What don’t you like about it?

What’s wrong with it?

How would you change it?

We need someone in our corner willing to tell us the hard truths about our writing to ultimately help us get better, even if it’s the new guy in the writing club.

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The type of feedback is important.

Dig into negative feedback objectively and try to find facts and details that’ll make your story better.

“I didn’t find this character’s reaction believable.”

Oh really? Why is that?

“I got lost in this part.”

You got lost? Hmmm okay. What didn’t you understand?

Detailed feedback can be very helpful.

Important: if they just say, “I just don’t like it.” You can actually write off this type of feedback. Completely useless and unhelpful. Do your best to not give it a second thought unless they are actually going to take the time to give helpful detailed feedback.

Most friends and family will have a hard time telling you the truth.

Those who care about you don’t want to hurt your feelings.

They might never tell you they think that your work could be better.

It’s important to find someone that’s talented, knows what they’re talking about, and most importantly is an avid reader in the genre you’re writing to give feedback on your project.

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You will always receive negative feedback.

I don’t care how good your writing and your story is, someone somewhere won’t like it.

They’ll find your work and they will be VERY LOUD about not liking what you’re doing.

Don’t sweat it. It’ll come. You just have to be ready to keep moving forward when it does and not fixate on it.

I think Stephen King in writing advice said you have to have thick skin to be a successful writer because lots of people will say all kinds of nasty things about you.

So just be prepared, if you dare to put what you created out there, people are going to say negative things about you and your work. “Haters gonna hate.”

(Most times these kinds of people don’t do much in life other than create a bunch of hate mail and comments on social media, so don’t worry too much about it 🤙)

It’s not about the bad feedback. It’s about how you handle it and mostly how you move past it.

It can be easy to get 100 nice comments and then overly fixate on one bad comment.

I don’t know why this is, but it’s a problem.

So I for one will not say it’s easy, but I will say we all have to work on how we handle these situations and how we move past them.

Sometimes the easiest thing to do is nothing.

I think that if you’re in a situation where it makes sense see if you can get detailed information about the feedback. If they can’t give you details then don’t worry about it.

Then after you have decided what you will do about it, put your focus back on moving forward and leaving the negativity in the past.

It may have been a painful scarring moment for you, so that may be difficult, but the more we are able to forgive and forget about it, the better.

Bitterness is a dangerous thing.

It’s been said, “bitterness is like drinking poison and wishing someone else were dead.”

Don’t fall into that trap. Try to forgive and forget and move forward. Keep writing. Keep practicing. Keep getting better.

What’s better? Telling someone off with a few words you might regret? Or selling a few thousand copies of your book and then sending them a free one in the mail autographed by you? (If only 😂)

But seriously, try to use the negative feedback as fuel to keep moving forward and getting better.

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Be careful.

Just because someone can give you detailed feedback on why they didn’t like something doesn’t always mean you should do anything about it.

Do your best to know your target market.

If your target reader is stay-at-home moms then of course career women are going to find your work uninteresting.

Don’t write to women in their 60s and expect a high school student to like it.

Know your market and write to them. Don’t be swayed by every opinion, just make the one BIG opinion you’re trying to reach count.

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That’s all for now.

Hope this helps!

Happy writing!

Resources:

Why Start a Blog

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

For Blogging AND More

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I Was Just Told, “No One Will Ever Read Your Book,” Should I Quit?

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My Problem is I Write Too Much. How Do I Cut Back Without Losing My Writer’s Voice?

My Problem is I Write Too Much. How Do I Cut Back Without Losing My Writer's Voice?
My Problem is I Write Too Much. How Do I Cut Back Without Losing My Writer's Voice?

My Problem is I Write Too Much. How Do I Cut Back Without Losing My Writer’s Voice?

You have been working on your big project for a long time. When you write, you end up recording every millisecond of the story.

You know in the back of your mind, it’s too much, but you’re worried about losing key moments of the story, character dialogue, and character thoughts that are important to you.

How do we know how to cut back without falling into the childish trap of “a couple of moments later?”

End scene. Start a new scene.

Take a deep breath. It’s okay to end a scene and start a new one.

It may seem abrupt to you, but as long as it’s a logical place to end and start on the next part of the story it’ll likely work well.

We don’t have to go through every transition in the same amount of time it takes the character to go through the transition.

Going through every moment with them is tedious and often boring for our reader and sometimes it can be very tedious for us as the writer too.

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Use strategic sentences to get through time.

Sometimes it’s okay to summarize a large portion of time quickly.

Think of how many movies out tv shows you’ve seen that just say “5 years later” and we as the audience have mostly accepted this as a good way to transition the important parts of the story forward.

It may seem abrupt. You might not personally like it, but for the majority of audiences, this works.

Don’t underestimate practice.

You may be working on one major project, but it would be really helpful if you did at least 15 to 20 minutes of writing other short stories and exercises.

When you do that exercise, practice cutting back on explaining mundane moments that don’t really carry the story forward. Focus in on character actions, thoughts, and dialogue that moves your reader along at a better pace for the story not to lull.

Use mundane moments strategically.

You can mostly cut out things like, “she brushed her” unless it is very pivotal to the character’s personality or it will lead to a clue for a mystery that makes sense later on in the tale.

Some authors are very good at making mundane moments interesting, but they know why they are adding them.

You can change the tone of the book by adding these types of normal moments, but just be sure it fits into the narrative and that moment in the narrative.

If your story moves very quickly a good moment of normalcy can slow the pace for the reader to have a needed breather before jumping back into it. So we’re aren’t saying that a rule or principle is just to cut everything that seems mundane. Just learn when and how often it makes sense in the story. 

Some mundane moments make stories better, but most just cause our reader to take a nap. 😴

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When drafting don’t over analyze too much.

If it’s your first draft, don’t take too much time to stop and think about if you’re writing too much. 

You don’t want to stop your creativity flow. While the story is coming to you just keep going.

It’s after the first draft that you really want to take a hard look at every description and every sentence and cut out what’s unnecessary.

For the first draft just let it flow naturally until you have the entire story out.

Don’t worry about readers connecting the dots.

We don’t always need to worry about readers filling in the blanks. Readers are actually quite good at piecing together the narrative and skipping the small stuff.

Personally, as a reader, I end up skimming through parts that I find boring to get to the actual action of the story. (This could just be a me problem) I find it painfully hard to get through mundane moments in stories unless the character is so interesting that I actually want to know their morning bathroom routine 😂 (could just be my ADD though, not sure.)

So as a reader, if you don’t skip writing the boring stuff, don’t worry, I will skip reading it for you! 

Think of the last time you saw or read a good story. Think about scenes like this setup,

a family is having dinner. They get into an argument and everyone leaves the table. One member goes to take a shower while the other goes to listen to music in their room.

We don’t have to follow each character up the stairs and the one into the room where they close and lock the door. Then they grab their remote. Then they jump on their bed. They place their pillow under their arm in a comfortable position. They then turn the power on. They choose song number 3. While the other character goes into the bathroom. They shut the door and lock it…

I think you see the point here. The reader will mostly fill in all those detailed blanks of you say, “Clara went into her room to listen to music and Sarah went to go take a shower. While both of them were unable to hear anything there was a knock at the door.”

Try to spend your time reading and looking in between the lines. What do successful authors skip as far as what could be considered over detailed information?

Did you notice it the first time you read it? Did it bother you then? You start to be able to see from the reader’s perspective how we usually just fill in the blanks.

Readers are counting on us to do this for them. To skip the unimportant details and get straight to the good stuff. If we tell them that Clara did or didn’t lock her door they’ll start to wonder why. If you didn’t make a reason for it, they’ll wonder why you told them. If you told them for no reason they might start to think that your writing is a waste of their time.

(Read books like “The Martian” that do a good job of being light on details but still entertaining.)

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Keep a “deleted scenes” document.

If you’re like me, you really don’t want to throw anything out. (Like I keep Amazon boxes for a couple of days just in case I feel like I need them for something. I try not to be a packrat, but the struggle is real.)

I have the same problem with some of my stories. I don’t really want to throw any scenes out. So instead of deleting it completely just cut and paste it to a deleted scenes page for that story.

Then you have options.

You can keep the page just for you or you can get creative with it.

You can add in “deleted scenes” at the end of the book for the fun of it or you could be even crazier. 

For real fans of your books, you could make a second version and call it the “author’s cut.” Sell it alongside the normal version with the deleted scenes added back in. 

Maybe some of your super fans will buy the “author’s cut” version too. 😎

That’s all for now.

My Problem is I Write Too Much, How Do I Cut Back Without Losing My Writer’s Voice?

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Hope this helps!

Happy writing!

Resources:

Why Start a Blog

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

For Blogging AND More

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

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My Problem is I Write Too Much, How Do I Cut Back Without Losing My Writer’s Voice?

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What Things Should I Consider When Writing Royalty Characters?

What Things Should I Consider When Writing Royalty Characters?
What Things Should I Consider When Writing Royalty Characters?

What Things Should I Consider When Writing Royalty Characters?

Writing Royals can be a very tedious and complex group to write. You will have to do lots of reading and note-taking, but over time you will have a good picture of the times your royals are in and the manners that they can get away with.

When and where are they?

This is huge for your writing. The royalty of 1500s England is very different from the 1900s. Just as the differences between English royalty 1500s is very different from imperial royalty of China 1500s.

So depending on where your royalty is from and when is where you’ll want to start doing your research.

You can search the internet but watch for certain things.

If an idea is repeated this can be good or bad. It could be a bunch of bad information being copied from one bad source.

Look for the sources of the site and see whether they themselves are reputable. Is it a person you can’t find much background on? Questionable. Is it a history professor at Yale? More reputable.

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What is their family history?

For royals, this was always a big factor. Who were their parents, grandparents, uncles, cousins, and so on?

The Royals cared immensely about bloodline and preserving it.

You wouldn’t want some strange legality to lose you the throne.

Betrayal.

Being blood relatives was not always a good thing.

If someone felt threatened of their throne and you were related to them, they might just have you killed.

Royal families tore each other apart over the throne.

There are controversies and conspiracies galore when it comes to that much power and wealth. Brothers killing brothers, uncles killing nephews; the royals have a bloody past.

What does the country, the people, think of their royals?

A big part of being a royal is being well known in the public eye. They all know that you exist and that you make decisions that affect their everyday lives.

Do they despise you for this? Or do they love you?

Does your royal care about the people and have their best interest at heart? Are they more charitable? Or do they greedliy look for ways to take more and more from the people?

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Individual desires.

What your specific royal character does on a daily basis will say a lot about them.

Are they very social?

Do they have an open court where they will take the time to hear what anyone has to say or offer?

Do they like to have parties weekly or daily?

Do they spend extravagantly at these parties?

Who invited?

Are they more interested in power and wealth?

Do they constantly plan war and the taking of land? Do they Long to be a mighty conqueror? Do they plot their family line into neighboring countries’ royalty as well?

Are they reclusive?

Do they have a closed court? Rarely seeing or hearing from anyone unless they deem them worthy? 

Do they often have small private parties where only the most elite are invited?

Where they address the court do they hear people out or just utter decrees?

Royals can be a very amusing group of individuals to write about, but be sure to try to make the historical complexities accurate and the emotional drama that comes with those complexities will be natural.

What Things Should I Consider When Writing Royalty Characters?

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Hope this helps!

Happy writing!

Resources:

Why Start a Blog

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

For Blogging AND More

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

What is Theme?

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What Things Should I Consider When Writing Royalty Characters?

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Don’t Worry About Being Original Just Write

Don’t Worry About Being Original Just Write
Don’t Worry About Being Original Just Write

Don’t Worry About Being Original Just Write 

Too many of us struggle with this idea.

“What if my story isn’t original and people call me out on it?”

My favorite thoughts on this are vampires. Ever heard of Twilight, Interview with a Vampire, Dracula, Blade, etc?

All of these stories were not original in the sense that they all are stories about vampires.

What makes them interesting is one, they’re about vampires (duh), and two, they have a little bit of their own take on it.

In broad terms, we don’t have to worry so much about originality.

Other thoughts occur, “Elves aren’t original so I can’t put elves in my story.”

This is not true. People like elves. As long as you have new characters going on different adventures it’s not necessarily a bad idea just because it involves creatures that are well-known like elves. 

And the point is, it could be any mythical creatures you’re interested in writing about. If Rowling had thought, “there are already too many stories about wizards and witches” that might just have made a bunch of people really sad and Harry Potter-less.

So don’t do that to your potential readers. If you are passionate about it, likely someone else is too.

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Is anything actually original?

Not really.

Most of our stories, tv shows, movies are all a giant conglomerate of stories that have been passed down in one way or another.

For a time they were passed down orally until we were able to draw and type and then make motion capture.

So we’ve come a long way, but did our stories really get much different? Not really.

It’s perfectly fine for you to write from things that you enjoy and inspire your creativity. 

The more things you are able to draw from the more it will feel like it has your own combined spin on it. (Just to preface, we aren’t condoning copying. Inspiration is different.)

In fact, at this point, if you are reading these words it’s almost impossible for you to create something that isn’t inspired by something else. And not because you’re reading my words.

It’s because you most likely have consumed hundreds of stories in books, tv, movies, and real life.

Stories are happening all around us and it would be almost impossible to not be affected by that fact.

Don’t avoid tropes for the sake of originality.

It’s like chasing after the wind. You’ll never truly catch it.

Only avoid a trope if you don’t like that trope and don’t want it in your writing.

If you’re worried about originality and you avoid one trope, you are likely going to fall into the trap of another trope.

It’s an exercise in futility, so our friendly advice is to not waste your time with it.

Now, of course, you’ll want to try to put your own spin on it. And avoid things that are overly cheesy that make the majority of the public roll their eyes.

You can’t please everyone mind you, but you’ll want to aim at entertaining most of them. 🙂 (Not saying it’s easy. “Haters are gonna hate” but trying for it is a good thing.)

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Original ideas (if there is such a thing) can fail miserably.

We really shouldn’t make originality the end all be all of our stories.

Even an amazingly original idea can crash and burn if not executed well. If we aren’t focused on great character development, dialogue, world-building, etc, even the most original idea in the world will ultimately not succeed.

What we write, even after we are dead and gone will be compared to things that were written like it.

You think the more original one will win out. Nope, it’ll be the better of the two. It won’t be the one that came first just by default.

Focus on executing story elements well and worry less about originality.

Give it your own spin.

The way to be original in our story saturated culture is to give it your own spin. Find ways to write elves in a new way.

Come up with good twists. Make your audience curious at every turn, and give them really satisfying resolutions along the way.

Keep them engaged. Don’t go for lull moments without a plan to suck them back in before too long. 

Combine different experiences from your own life to give your story originally that you know was inspired by you.

Find creative ways to bring your favorite tropes to life with fun and interesting stories from your own day to day life.

You work fast food? What would it be like for an elf to work fast food? What would it be like to have an elf live a mundane life?

What if vampires accidentally wiped out all the humans and now they have to go to work and get jobs?

Most of all, look for the unexpected.

Don’t Worry About Being Original Just Write 

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Hope this helps!

Happy writing!

Resources:

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

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

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Why Do Villains Use Disability as a Tool for Evil?

Why Do Villains Use Disability as a Tool for Evil?
Why Do Villains Use Disability as a Tool for Evil?

Why Do Villains Use Disability as a Tool for Evil?

I have had a couple of people (I won’t disclose names…Karen…) verbally harass me over the internet write to me about how “more writers don’t need to think that disability is a good tool for evil.” In reference to this post: How to Hide Your Villain… (to be completely straight forward, I have edited this post before based on people’s concerns and comments to make it more sensitive to the subject matter, as I have no desire to hurt or offend as much as help writers be inspired to write better characters and stories.)

I couldn’t agree more! It’s sick to think that someone would actually pretend to have a disability or injury in order to prey on others.

But there seems to be a disconnect here between great hopes and reality.

It doesn’t seem like writers think that disability is a good tool for villainy.

It seems that villains think disability is a good tool for evil acts.

A writer’s job is to observe, think, imagine, and write. There is very little originality out there.

So where do writers get these ideas from? And why are people harassing and targeting writers when clearly there is evidence that evil people do this sort of behavior?

Ted Bundy

Ted Bundy is known to have brutally murdered many unsuspecting women while he was alive.

There are true accounts of how he would get to the women.

During times he would go to the beach. He would bring a “board” and a sling. He did not need the sling mind you. He was perfectly healthy.

He would then wear the sling he didn’t need to appear injured and then target a woman and ask for her help to get the board on top of his car.

He wanted them to think he was injured to appear less of a threat more like someone needing help so they would trust him more and not be concerned about getting close to him.

I don’t know where he got his ideas from, but I am one writer who didn’t give it to him.

Have his actions given me ideas for villains? You bet.

Momma Dee Dee

In recent years a mother named Dee Dee forced and manipulated her daughter into pretending to be a person with disabilities so that she could “take care of her” indefinitely.

This mother manipulated her child for more than 20 years forcing her to the wheelchair she didn’t need.

Dee Dee forced medications on her daughter and multiple unnecessary surgeries in order to keep her needy for as long as she could. The psychological issues here are massive. 

It does not seem like a writer came up with this. It seems that a mother chose to selfishly do these terrible things to her own daughter.

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Seisaku Nakamura

Known as the Hamamatsu Deaf Killer. He was a person with the disability of deafness. He stabbed nine people to death over the course of his life. He has the characteristics of a serial killer.

Juan Robles

A wheelchair-bound gangster charged with robbery and threatened to kill a woman. You can look up more about him here. 

Daniel Roque Hall

A person with severe disabilities, wheelchair-bound, suffered from Friedreich’s ataxia was caught smuggling £300,000 worth of cocaine in his wheelchair.

You can see from these real examples, most authors don’t go out looking to slander certain people. (Some do, of course, but this writer isn’t one of them.)

Listen, the point of an author giving a villain a disability or having the villain fake a disability isn’t some attack on people with disabilities. 

That would be like saying, you made the person without a disability a villain? That’s an attack on people without disabilities.

The line of reasoning is flawed.

We as a people need to get away from labeling and identity labeling in stories.

Why can’t a person, wheelchair-bound just be a person, and if we write them doing good things, they are a person that does good things?

If we write them doing bad things then they are a person doing bad things. Not everything has to be a personal attack on a group of people.

In this faulty line of reasoning, Silence of the Lambs attacks a group of people, the tv show the Flash attacks people, Mr. Glass attacks people, the list could go on and on.

In real life, it doesn’t matter whether you are a person with disabilities or not, people from all types and all backgrounds make good choices and bad choices.

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People in real life with disabilities have made evil decisions (look at the real-life people above). People in real life without disabilities have made evil decisions. Some people in real life have even pretended to be disabled or have disabilities to commit certain crimes.

If these things happen in real life, why can’t writers write about them?

Of course, this is just my research on storytelling and reality. It’s just my opinion. You are most certainly welcome to your own. Please feel free to leave a comment about the subject matter as you please.  🙂 (I can’t promise you it won’t turn into a juicy, dramatic post >:) )

Some people who wrote to me verbally attacked my character and told me to “educate myself.” 

I did. I have. And I will continue to.

(Let’s not be those kinds of people. I’m guilty of saying these ignorantly in anger. Who isn’t?)

The next time we are tempted to yell over the phone at the customer service person or let the guy that wrote the article “have a piece of my mind,” let’s try to phrase it in a different light that isn’t so “shoot first, ask questions later.”

Final thoughts

If villains in real life do it, why can’t writers write about it?

Why Do Villains Use Disability as a Tool for Evil?

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Hope this helps!

Happy writing!

Resources:

Why Start a Blog

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

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

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Why Do Villains Use Disability as a Tool for Evil?

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Why Does My Brain Turn On in the Shower But Shut Off At my Writing Desk?!

Why Does My Brain Turn On in the Shower But Shut Off At my Writing Desk?!
Why Does My Brain Turn On in the Shower But Shut Off At my Writing Desk?!

Why Does My Brain Turn On in the Shower But Shut Off At my Writing Desk?!

This can be so frustrating. Has this ever happened to you?

You get up, hop in the shower. The warm water flows over you. The ambient sound of water suddenly takes your mind to zen-like places and you suddenly realize the connection between your main character and the twist of the third act!

Boom! I’ve got it.

You sing your way from the draining of the water to the towel, click your heels, head down the stairs, grab the coffee, sit down, and then ahhhh!

What happened to that idea?!

If this happens to you frequently, you are definitely not alone, and there is actually a little psychology behind it.

If we know why this phenomenon happens, we can actually start to figure out ways to use it to our advantage.

White noise.

The shower creates a constant level of unthreatening noise at a constant. This helps our brain stay focused because we don’t hear other noises that would normally cause the brain to go, “what’s that?”

The longer you can keep your brain focused on the creative task at hand the more likely you will find solutions to your problems. The more noise distractions you have, the more likely you will get interrupted in the middle of a breakthrough.

Warm water.

Now, I’m not saying you should pour warm ware over yourself at your writing desk (if you figure that out, drop the details in the comments for me.)

But the soothing effect this gives allows your brain to think creatively about other things than say aches and pains of your body.

When you free your brain to think about problems instead of figuring out your body’s problems with pain you free your creative side of your brain, thus more powerful problem-solving.

Try to make yourself more comfortable when you go to write.

If you’re in an uncomfortable chair, you will likely be distracted every couple of minutes fidgeting to find comfort instead of breaking ground on a great twist.

Some writers actually write laying down as it helps you think to be in such a comfortable state when you write.

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Crossing the threshold.

You may not be aware of this, but some psychology thinks there is a slight reset in our brains when we cross thresholds into different rooms in the house.

Ever notice how you often go into another room to grab something and suddenly your in the room and your hand no idea what you came to grab?

Our brains seem to have a bit of an unconscious switch when changing scenery and this makes us forget what we had in mind in the old place to get us going in the new place, so before you leave the area where you had a breakthrough (Maybe the shower bathroom?) be sure to write it down.

Be ready for inspiration no matter where you are.

If the shower is a natural place for inspiration to strike be ready for it.

Have a waterproof case on your phone to take down notes.

Get a shower dry erase board or shower tile crayons.

Jump out of the shower set your hands and write down what you were thinking.

If you often get inspiration walking outside in the sunlight or laying on the couch in the living room. Be ready for that inspiration. Just always be ready to write some things down because inspiration can strike you anywhere.

Final Thoughts 

Be ready for inspiration. Don’t let it catch you off guard and don’t think “I’ll write that down later.”

Creativity is easier when you’re comfortable and your brain is free to think about problem-solving.

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Hope this helps!

Happy writing!

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What is Theme?

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Hugh Howey and A Little Writing Advice Part 2

Hugh Howey and A Little Writing Advice Part 2
Hugh Howey and A Little Writing Advice Part 2

Hugh Howey and A Little Writing Advice Part 2

I love the way Hugh starts off his writing advice post, “I started writing my first novel when I was twelve years old. I was thirty-three when I completed my first rough draft. That’s twenty years of wanting to do something and not knowing how. Twenty years of failure and frustrations and giving up.” –Hugh

Wow, does that hit home for so many dreaming writers. We believe things like, “we aren’t good enough.” Or “It’s too late.”

But that is some of what we are going to dive into right now.

If you’re thinking it’s too late to start, start now.

Hugh was 33 when he finished the first draft of his very first book. It spent 12-33 years on the back burner of his mind. How long have you had a book idea stewing in your creative mind?

How long have you been telling yourself, I’ll never finish that? If this successful author had thought that, he wouldn’t be where he is today, sailing around the world and writing.

It’s better just to start chipping away at it and finish it eventually than to never finish it at all. 

I think some of the reasoning is we worry that we’ll regret having spent so much time on something that doesn’t pay off in the end. While that is a real concern, my opinion is that it’s a bad concern. (Yes, if you quit everything and only worked on that it might be a bad decision for you.)

But if you spent some amount of minutes or hours on it each day instead of social media, I have a hard time thinking you’ll regret that.

I can tell you with 100% accuracy what will make you fail as a writer.

There is absolutely no telling whether or not you will be a success as a writer. Any writer could be a success. But I can tell you with 100% accuracy what will make you a failure as an author.

You never finish any story. You never start that blog you’ve been thinking about. You never try to freelance write.

The one thing that will absolutely make you a failure in writing is not writing what you know you want to write.

It’s a funny thing. We are SO afraid of failure sometimes that we FAIL by never starting. Which in turn makes us ACTUALLY FAIL at what we were afraid of failing at!

It’s a crazy failure loop!

Don’t fall into that loop. Don’t make failure so easy in your life that you fail by never starting what you think you might be passionate about.

Think about it. Will it be so painful to start out on a writing creative journey where you learn along the way and then you don’t become a world-renown writer at the end of all of it?

And who says we should even be dodging pain and hardship as much as we do? Maybe the hardship we experience through trying something hard like finishing a book will make us a better human in the end?

Who can tell?

What we can say is, “You miss 100% of the opportunities you don’t take.”

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Don’t be ridiculous.

The pressure we put on ourselves as writers is ridiculous.

“Imagine if NBA all-star Steph Curry attempted to learn to play basketball with a million people watching. Or if the first pickup game he ever played was his only chance to land an agent and get signed to an NBA team. This is the pressure writers put on themselves, and it makes no sense. Basketball players will put all the hustle and energy into a thousand practice games before they ever get a shot at turning pro. Most will spend a dozen years playing almost every day of their lives before they make it onto a high school or college team. Writers should have the same expectations. Perhaps you write a dozen novels before you write one that blows you away or becomes a bestseller. The point is to finish them all. Play all four quarters. Steph Curry played a thousand games to the end before he turned pro. Every game he finished was a success. He didn’t stop himself, and neither should you.” – Hugh

We see and read these amazing authors that we look up to and think, “wow I’ll never be able to accomplish what they have!”

The question is, have we written a dozen books? Did they just write one book and it blew up? For most of them, this is so untrue. Many successful authors faced SO MUCH rejection and hardship along the way.

Even when we look at Amazon reviews and see certain books with thousands of reviews, do we realize that they didn’t wake up one morning to those numbers without writing and editing a couple hundred thousand words at least? Or maybe even a couple million words.

When we think about becoming a successful writer we should be thinking about writing every day for years to come and then just get started. We shouldn’t be thinking, “I have to take my time and make this first draft perfect or else, I’m not gonna sell any copies.

You can fact check me on this, but recently heard or read this good advice.

We look at a famous painter like Picasso and think about how an artist becomes famous. We just see the fame and glory. He must have been some kind of savant that had divine intuition to know how to make art that people were going to love every time. The truth is Picasso probably made around 50,000 different paintings. Only about 50 of those become worthwhile and famous.

Those numbers are probably a little off but the principle stands. Most people that “get lucky” in the success of creation usually spent many many MANY hours doing their craft until one day something happened that made it all catch up. If they hadn’t have put in all the time beforehand that moment might have never happened.

Readers often express, “looking for something good to read.”

There is no shortage of desire to read well-written stories. For most people, the problem isn’t that their book or writing is good enough. It’s that they haven’t written anything or haven’t finished what they started.

If you complete your story, there is no shortage of people that are willing to give your writing a try. People are looking for unheard of gems. People love to read good books. Your next book could be that good read they are looking for and then they will pass it on to others.

In turn, we as humans like sharing good things with each other. When I find a good show I think my friends will like, I enjoy the process of telling them about it or introducing it to them. You probably have had a similar experience with friends or family.

Don’t assume that no one will want what you have. Finish and get it out there. If it gets a big pushback, just edit and try again till something sticks.

Hugh Howey and A Little Writing Advice Part 2

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Happy writing!

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Some Uncommon Writer’s Block Tips

Some Uncommon Writer’s Block Tips
Some Uncommon Writer’s Block Tips

Some Uncommon Writer’s Block Tips

Have you ever wished writer’s block was a person and you could kick it in the face? (Oh, just me? Sorry. 🙂 )

Let’s face it. If we’ve ever attempted to keep a daily writing schedule, writer’s block has reared its ugly head just about 5 times daily.

So how can we keep the thing at bay?

Here are some uncommon ways to fight back.

Join a writers club.

Find a group or make your own group where people are going to be talking about their writing habits.

Be around people that are writing every day.

Find a group that won’t judge you, but that will help you see your true potential.  

Warning: don’t just get lost in talking about writing, be sure to write too!

Get comfy. Maybe lay down.

There’s a switch in our brains that turns on creative thinking and problem solving when we are extremely comfortable.

Ever notice how all your best ideas come to you in the shower. It’s the switch.

Your brain is able to fully think because you’ve put yourself into a place of comfort where you feel like you don’t have to worry or think about anything else.

Some successful authors have found that they are able to write more freely while laying down. You should definitely give it a try.

Prop yourself up on your couch and see if you can’t get the word river flowing again.

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Turn your truth into fiction.

You know the saying, “write what you know.”

That plays into this. Take your real-life experience and throw that into your fiction.

Maybe you had a REALLY embarrassing moment at school. Write it out as if your main character went through it instead of you.

Write about quarantine.

Since most of us have been in quarantine for so long now, we’re starting to see a trend of writers losing inspiration to write but when asked about their negative feelings about quarantine they could go on for hours.

Use this to your advantage. Instead of saying, “this is my problem.” You could turn it into your muse.

Negative feelings, although not fun, can make for great story fodder.

Write your characters in quarantine.

Experiment with different genres.

Pick a genre you’re not used to writing in and give it a go.

The difference in pace might unlock an unopened chasm of ideas you didn’t know you had lurking up there in that awesome brain of yours.

Work on several projects at once.

This won’t work for everyone but some people flow better when they free themselves to work on multiple stories at the same time.

You might hit a block on one, but maybe not the other. Just start writing for the other and eventually, inspiration might open up to you.

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Write one page of a different short story every day.

This is not only an excellent practice exercise. It can also help you realize solutions for your major projects as well.

You might even find that you want to drop your current project that isn’t going anywhere and head in a completely new direction.

Finish the darn thing and make sure it’s ugly.

Many writers get a block because they feel like what is coming to them isn’t good enough.

This could be true but just finish it anyway. And be sure to make it a little ugly.

The beautiful thing is it’s just a draft. And when you finish it ugly you give your brain a different puzzle to solve.

You go from having to create something from nothing to making something better.

Giving your brain a different problem can really break you out of writer’s block and get you into a different headspace where you can see the whole picture and the solution might be more clear to you.

Have someone you trust read your work and ask them where they think it’s headed.

Two brains are often better than one. Their ideas might be awesome, or they just might spark a better idea in your mind.

Pass a story.

A friend and I did this once and it was pretty fun. We started writing a story together by passing it back and forth.

I would write a chapter and then pass it and they would write a chapter and then pass it back.

Writer’s block couldn’t withstand our combined creative powers.

Ask someone you trust to read it and only tell you what they like.

While positive critique is very helpful in the creative process, some stories and people are just not ready for that.

Find someone you trust and ask them to do you a favor.

Tell them you’ve got some writer’s block and need help. Ask them to read it and only tell you what they like so that you are not concerned at all with judgment.

This can be very helpful in a writers club where you want to keep it a safe zone.

Pass your stuff to each other and give positives to each other.

When you get to a place where you can handle it better start asking what needs work and what could be better.

Some Uncommon Writer’s Block Tips

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Hope that helps!

Happy writing!

Resources:

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Hugh Howey and A Little Writing Advice Part 1

Hugh Howey and A Little Writing Advice Part 1
Hugh Howey and A Little Writing Advice Part 1

Hugh Howey and A Little Writing Advice Part 1

Ever heard of Hugh Howey. He is a successful Indie writer of the Silo Saga: Wool, Shift, and Dust.

He started off self-publishing but eventually was sought out by Simon & Schuster. Kind of a writer’s dream type of story. (Word has it he took some time to sail the seas of the world as a successful author. What would you do?)

He has some posts on his blog that are so valuable, he probably could have just written them into a writing advice book and sold it, but thankfully for us, he gave it to the public. Yay!

He decided to give back in a way and to give advice that he wished he would have had just starting out. Even as an author that has sold millions of copies of his stories he still writes humbly and speaks about how he was always figuring things out then and still has to work to figure things out now.

Hughey gives his advice as a successful author that wishes he had such advice starting out and we are going to dive into that.

Watch out for over analyzation.

Do you feel like this? “I sit down to write my novel and it feels like I’m pulling teeth.”

I stare at my screen for hours not knowing where to start.”

I get so worried about what other people will think of my writing that I can’t seem to get many words out. I feel like they are all bad.”

Isn’t that just it? We get so caught up in thinking about what others will eventually think of our writing that we get paralyzed in overanalyzing every single word.

Hugh speaks into this directly, “…when we sit down to write a novel, we trip over our words as we try too hard to sound like someone we aren’t. I don’t know why we do this in the beginning, but the sooner we get over the impulse, the better.”

Writing exercise: Instead of focusing on writing something for others take 15 minutes and journal. Allow yourself to just write for yourself first and stop worrying about writing for others for the moment.

Click to Tweet, We get so caught up in thinking about what others will eventually think of our writing that we get paralyzed in overanalyzing every single word.

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Don’t try to sound like someone else.

You might be thinking something like this, “Popular writing advice tells me to write in my own voice, but I don’t even know what that really means!”

Finding our own voice is not as tough as we think.

Did you write a text today? Did you talk over the phone with a friend? Did you write an email or a social media post?

Anytime we write a message to someone else without thinking too much into how we sound is part of what our voice sounds like in writing. As we go through life we learn more words and we use more or less slang, but as we go our voice ebbs and flows through the seasons. You will probably never have just one way that you sound your entire lifetime. 

As a writer, you’ll have some seasons where you use words like, “probably, maybe, and some” a lot, but in other seasons you might see this on the page and decide you want to expand that part of your vocab.

In some seasons you’ll be more descriptive. In others, you’ll decide to write more simply. 

We don’t have to worry much about our writer’s voice as much as we do the message that we are trying to get across and how it is delivered.

Listen to Hugh, “The best way to kill your chances as a writer is to attempt to write like one. We all fall into this trap. When pounding out a Facebook post, or a comment on a forum, or an email to a friend, we write like the wind. The words tumble right out, and the meaning we hope to convey is succinct and clear…Write that rough draft as though you’re composing an email to a friend about a story you heard. Use your own voice. The subtleties and nuances of this voice will grow over time. For now, keep it simple.”

Think about that the next time you sit down to write a short story or to work on your novel. 

Be sure to be more concerned about getting your story out instead of worrying about individual word choices and whether or not each sentence is good.

Click to tweet, When you sit down to write your story, try to just get the message out and worry less about overanalyzing specific word choices. Just write as if you were telling a story to a friend when working on the first draft.

Click to tweet Remember, no one sees the first draft but you. So just write it. Don’t overanalyze the first draft.

Do not be lazy about cleverness.

Of course this “just get it out on the page” advice must come with a grain of salt.

Help us out here Hugh, “That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be creative, or witty, or use the fullness of your vocabulary. It just means that you shouldn’t strain yourself as you write your rough draft. You shouldn’t try too hard to be flashy.”

Don’t be lazy. Do good research. Continue to try to be witty, fun, and entertaining. Whatever genre you’re writing in be sure to hit the entertaining factors of that genre.

You don’t have to be flashy to do this. You can still write a decent first draft without using words nobody has ever heard of. In fact, we recommend that most stories be written around an 8th-grade reading level, even if it’s meant for adults. Using flashy big vocabulary words won’t just make you a better writer. It could make you a worse writer. Source. 

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Hugh Howey and A Little Writing Advice Part 1

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Try Grammarly, The Free tool that should be in every writer’s toolbelt.

Try it for free now.

Hope this helps!

Happy writing!

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Hugh Howey and A Little Writing Advice Part 1

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