writing

NBI 2016 Coming To A Close

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As we come to a close on the Newbie Blogger Initiative “Lite” for this year I first and foremost want to give a big shout out to all our new bloggers who joined with us this year!!!!  This was a crazy month but I’ve seen some great stuff being posted from everyone so I tip my hat to you all and give you props for stepping out of the box and writing with us and say welcome to the gang.

List of our 2016 Recruits –

Go give them some love and likes as they publish some fantastic stuff!!!!

Vagrant Zero at Just East of West
Zyngor at Pleasant Gamer
EGrey at The Wild Core Chronicle
Kluwes at I’m Not Squishy
Shadowz at Shadowz Gaming Blog
A2Zeo at A to Zeo
Mingnon at Cookie Cutter Monks
Sparko Marco at SparkoMarcoGaming
Chordian at Chordian.net
Elio at Static Refresh

 
I also want to say thank you to all the supporters who have helped each year to keep this thing going. The troops rallied together this year and we did start a bit late, but this year has been a lot of fun and I’ve really enjoyed being a part of it.  NBI has a strong community of gamers, writers, and content creators who enjoy connecting and that is what makes this group fun and cheeky to be a part of.  As we come to a close for the NBI event, I leave you with this last tid bit for the months to come while you type away creating those blogging masterpieces.

Blogging with a schedule is tough but if you like to keep up the pace and continue to grow, you’ve probably developed a system for staying on track. Staying consistent is the key to a blogging schedule and what I use works for me so I hope it helps spark some ideas for you.

Before You Get the Wheels Turning 
Think consistency, consistency, consistency…. because blogging in a way is like exercise but for the brain and the hardest part is….STARTING the engine. Once you’ve kicked some momentum into gear…usually after a few cups of coffee, it’s probably not hard to get going. Just like exercise though it’s one of those things that at first you usually have to force yourself to do, but it becomes more natural over time.  Remember Consistency is key.

Do You Have a Planner? 
I’m an old fashioned kinda guy and go analog for writing things down when I plan. Whether it be in my Moleskine, or a sticky note that later goes in my Moleskin that is where most of my planning happens.  This becomes a reference point for me if I’m writing something that I can’t quite get to that day, or maybe it’s a larger piece I’m writing and want to keep track of where I’m at.  To me having something I can check off in a Moleskin is a great sense of achievement… you know… I just made a check mark by a task right.

Make That Schedule Happen
I’m a planner so I tend to know how many posts each week that I’ll be able to get out.  I on average blog twice to three times a week and usually publish about 6-8 posts a week.  Now, that varies depending on what I have going on but I’ve committed to blogging twice a week for sure.  This may be completely different for you…it may be once a month, once a day, or whatever you fancy.  Being a planner means I like to choose one day a week and plan out some posts in advance so that I have a constant feed to work on, which helps me from falling behind on my schedule. I only recommend scheduling for a week at a time because you probably won’t know the specifics of that week until the week before. By making your specific schedule for the following week on whatever day you choose, it gives you some flexibility in posting. If you end up with some free time and want to post more than what you schedule, well that’s just a bonus for the readers.

 

Remember this is just what works for me so you have to find what works best for you. Sometimes though it’s easier to use another idea instead of recreating the wheel.

I hope you’ve enjoyed all the content that has come out of our writers this year during the Newbie Blogger Initiative.  Go connect with them, and we will see you out in the digital community somewhere.

Sincerely,

Iogro Merrybelly

The Wolf Among Us – Episode 1 Faith Review

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BigbyCigaretteFable.jpgThis game quickly took the top list of favorites in my book second only to Telltale’s The Walking Dead series.  They came very close to knocking The Walking Dead out of my number one spot but not quite.

Telltale tackled a very well done adaptation of Bill Willingham’s Fables which centers a story around Bigby Wolf, the sheriff of a magical New York City which is populated by fairy-tale toons.  Fables is a very dark fairy-tale so not one for the children but the way Telltale pulled this story into it’s unique game play design is fantastic.

Over the next few weeks we will take a look at this five part series on The Wolf Among Us and as I was saying this is one of the best adventure games I’ve played.  The first episode of this series is called Faith which slaps you smack dab into the middle of a mystical version of New York.  You now have to fill the shoes of Bigby Wolf, the sheriff of Fabletown and Telltale does a fantastic job building on it’s choice and consequence game system.

images (2)This was a relatively quick episode to play but easily a two hour chunk of time you need to really see everything in this first episode.  The game drops some majorly hard bombs on you early on with the decisions you have to make, but being a big bad wolf made it a little easier to rough some Fables up.  Action and adventure are some of the main themes of this first episode but at the heart of things comes a mystery.  This is what makes this game such a joy to play is the wide use of emotions and rich story surrounded by well done characters.

If you’ve played any of Telltales games you know how the game system works as it’s not only decision based, but reaction based as well.  You’ve got to be quick when watching what needs to happen next and make sure you think quickly.  Each decision has a different outcome so it makes you want to come back for more just to see what they are. These actions aren’t just limited to Bigby as the world ded with is scattered with crazies and very entertaining characters.  Tad of a “SPOILER” alert but this first episode revolves around solving a murder which hasn’t happened in Fabletown for quite some time.

images (1)During your search, you’ll come across a rather interesting toad who refuse to hide himself from the human world, a member of the Three Little Pigs with a bit of a drinking problem, and an abusive woodsman with a startling revelation regarding Snow White. Since it’s based on characters that pretty much everybody knows, The Wolf Among Us is able to toy with our expectations and delivering some very surprising and entertaining character developments. It’s amazing how the dialogue swings between funny, absolutely tragic, brutal, and magical all over a course of the two-hour episode.

Even the entrance and presentation of Faith brings a very successful highlight to the harsh and strange world you see. All of this episode’s crazy interactions are met with a fantastic 80’s neon lit color style.  While you step into the alternate New York City, you get to experience a clash of both magic and gritty decision making that brings you quite close to the story and characters.

Bigby’s story arc has some very large moments of decision making which really pulls you into the characters past and present.  Bigby has a very complicated story which ties into so many of the stories characters it’s quite difficult at times to know what decision to make.  This made me want to go back multiple times to look over all the decisions you could make and replay each scenario.  This is one game and adventure that I will definitely go back to play over and over again.

Newbie Blogger Initiative 2016 – Writing With Focus

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Starting a blog is easy for the most part as the tools you can get now days makes the startup pretty seamless.  What isn’t so easy is staying focused while writing as it takes time, and time is the killer for most writers.  Either we don’t have enough of it, or we lose focus over a period of time and get frustrated with what we were trying to accomplish.  I’ve been down these paths quite a lot before but over the years it’s helped me learn how to stay focused, or at least narrow it down so I can enjoy writing.

One of the questions I hear a lot from new bloggers is am I doing this blog thing correctly?

That question is very broad but when you break all those pieces down into why you started your blog and even why you started writing…..that question becomes pretty easy to answer.

Doing this blog thing comes down to personal preference overall but be willing to focus your material and niche so you can reach an audience.

These are just a few things I’ve stumbled over and even sometimes fallen on my face while writing and blogging.  I’m no professional by any means, but I enjoy what I get to do with my little corner of the internet and I want to make it the best I can.

One of the ways to improve your blog is step back and examine all of the aspects of what your blog brings for readers.  Do you have a vision for the blog, or at least an idea of the direction you want to go?

The more you narrow your focus, the more you broaden your audience.  This is where vision and an idea of where and what the blog will look like helps.

Before you begin writing, consider your subject (what you want to write about), then figure out the the theme (your angle and area of focus), then put it into action and figure out what you want to accomplish.

What subject or subjects are you writing about, and what are you passionate about?  If you can bring those two ideas together then you’ve made a huge step as that’s something most writers struggle with for years.

Take a look at the theme of your site and writing style as well.  Think of it as a subset of your main topics and figure out what that looks like for you.  Ask yourself: What will my writing “VOICE” be? Will it be tackling the humorous side of things, or maybe you take a more practical approach to writing.

Lastly, take a look at what you want your blog to accomplish overall.  This is the main goal of this little exercise so take some time and look at what impressions you want to leave the readers with.  Ultimately the question is why am I blogging and how does it bring enjoyment to my life?

For me writing is a passion but connecting with people is a bigger passion and that is where my enjoyment and focus comes from.

One of my writing mentors gave me this little nugget years ago and quickly became a favorite quote and one I stuck to when I was struggling with writing.

“Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.”         – Louis L’Amour 

 

 

Newbie Blogger Initiative 2016 – Cartography of a Fantasy World

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See, you can post about anything for #NBI2016

I wanted to do something different this morning and take a look at map making!!!  Didn’t you ever draw a secret treasure map when you were a kid?  Map making is fun but it can be a huge challenge and pain point for writers who want to depict their world to the audience.

Technically I’m wrong in calling it “Map Making” which I pulled this from the definition off of Wikipedia.

“Cartography (from Greek χάρτης khartēs, “map”; and γράφειν graphein, “write”) is the study and practice of making maps. Combining science, aesthetics, and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality can be modeled in ways that communicate spatial information effectively”

Personally I’ve always enjoyed making maps for any of the stories I’ve written but that doesn’t mean I didn’t have frustrations that came along while making them.  Creating a map for a fictional world is one of the most satisfying things you can do, as it gives you a greater idea and visual reference to what your world really looks like.  All those ideas floating around in your head about this magical world is only a pen and paper away. Creating a map on paper is one of the best ways for a writer to connect to their world as it allows you to see the geography of the land, and best thing is it’s yours so customize how you see fit.

I’m not a published writer “Yet” but that is something I am diligently working on as I have a fantasy novel series that’s in the making. This epic story is currently four years in the works and map making has been a huge piece of depicting this piece of fantasy.  The worst part about writing when you have a map for reference is when you go back and realize you’ve missed a great detail of location specifics in the story.  It’s one of those oops moments you get when writing and the questions begin to pop about why didn’t I look at this closer, or why did I write location A when it really should have been location B the war took place.

Frequent reference to your map can be one of the greatest tools in the bag for you as a writer.  Stumped on where your hero was supposed to end up, check the map and maybe it will turn a flickering light bulb into a bright spotlight of an idea.  The uses for a map from a writers perspective are to help bring the story to life, and give the geography of what you have in your head a visual presence for you and the reader.

Mapping a world isn’t a set style and there really isn’t anything you can do that is wrong or would break some hidden rule of map making.  Take a look at the visual style of the following map.  Probably one of the most famous fantasy worlds ever created to date.

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I don’t think their will ever be another world quite like what Tolkien created with Middle Earth, but that’s not to say we can’t get some inspiration off of the beautiful world he created.

Another famous author and amazing story with a vast beautiful map is Narnia.  Both C.S Lewis and Tolkien had grand creative minds and each with their own flair for map making.

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Now a quick look at a rough draft for one of my maps I created.  It’s nowhere finished and doesn’t have the flare or prestige either of the maps above do.  The world I’m creating is for the novel series I spoke about earlier.

This is the first time I’ve ever let anyone look at one of the early rough drafts of one of my maps.  This one is still in the works and it’s ever changing at times with new places and grows as I continue to write this novel.

Welcome to Ardonia – The main world of my novel series Brothers Three

Map (2)

 

How do I get started map making…..?

  • Have fun and CREATE
    • First and foremost have fun with it and allow it to be something that sparks creativity for you and your story.  Don’t let it become a burden or you will be overwhelmed and quit pretty quickly through frustration.  It’s easy to try and be a perfectionist when creating a map for anything so don’t be afraid to have multiple versions, drafts, copies, and let the map be something that could continually grow and change just as a real world does.
  • Take Risks
    • Don’t be afraid to develop something that doesn’t work the first time around.  Remember things have a natural process for development and as you write and grow the story, your map may continue to grow with it.  Don’t get stuck in one style of box….have a bunch of them and hop in and out whenever you want.
  • Create the Foundation
    • Every world has a center of attention.  What is your’s?  What are the major cities, towns, and locations on your map?  You have to start somewhere so why not start with a basic list of cities and towns.
  • Land Development & Growth
    • Anything you create will always be a work in progress of sorts.  As I mentioned above the land mass you create will have a natural development process and a free flow but you have to allow for that space and development to happen.  Have some places in your world that aren’t mapped out per say….maybe it’s a discovery point later on in the story and a new map get’s released. Just sayin.
  • Features of the World
    • This is a very complex piece of map making, as you not only have to think about the geography of the land, but the type of surroundings, climate, cultures, race of inhabitants etc.  Do you have a town with a unique culture that stands out from the rest, or maybe a deserted location locked away with dark secrets.  The possibilities are limitless of how you carve the land and features of this world.

 

Have fun creating your world and enjoy the development of how the characters of the story interact with their surroundings. Go checkout some of your favorite fantasy / sci-fi novels and begin to explore their worlds as it will help you get a perspective of what to do for your map.

 

 

Game Blogging – Should You Start?

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Good morning writers!

Have you had the thought yet?  You know, the one where you start up a blog and write shamelessly about gaming.

Maybe you are stuck on the idea but just not sure where to start.  I’m hoping this post helps kickstart some ideas and gets the brain sparks firing.

Why Would I Blog About Games?

  • If you enjoy writing at all then blogging is one of the most satisfying things you could venture out and do.  Especially as a gamer it gives us an outlet to speak about our passion of games.  Gaming in all sense is a large community and blogging about games is more than just writing thoughts down on a screen and hitting the submit button.  As a community, blogging gives us a way to connect with other gamers, writers, and gives us a place to enjoy each other’s perspectives.
  • This “Blog” you create is a little slice of the internet that you get to make however you like, and it allows networking with other which helps build those relationships.  This personally is one of my favorite parts of blogging.  I’ve had the chance to meet some pretty amazing people over the years, that otherwise I would have never probably met.
  • Writing about games in particular though gives people a look into your perspective on the game, and that can create some fun conversations.  Whether that platform is through writing, streaming, or connecting online over some social network it’s always great to connect with other gamers and share opinions.
  • Writing about games is also a way to reach the community and review specific games you enjoy, and potentially help others find games they’ve never tried before.  This is also a way you could potentially connect with the developers of said games and give them a look at what players think of these games.

 

Starting That Gaming Blog

Ok, you’ve made the decision you are going to kick this idea off and get things rolling but need help with the blog creation.  Go checkout one of my previous posts on “Starting Your First Blog” for ideas of the platform you want to use. Now that you have the idea kicked off and you know what blog platform you are using it’s time to start writing.

What do I write about?

Anything you want! That’s the best part as this is your blog, and you get to choose how often you post, what you write about, how things look, and what niche you want to connect with.  Some ideas for good kickstart posts to help get you started though are ……

  • Game Review / Play Through:  I personally do a lot of game reviews which is always a fun outlet to talk about.  These are thorough descriptions of the game and mechanics you’ve experienced.  Usually screenshots, videos, and tips / tricks you’ve come across while playing.  These types of posts are fun to write but they are a great way to help other gamers potentially discover something they’ve never seen before.
  • Gaming Rundown: This is another great way to get started and usually a nice way to connect with people playing like games.  What are you currently playing and do you have a task list per say you’d like to talk about.  What are your top games of all time which could lead to a history walkthrough of how you played them.  These are always fun posts to make.
  • Gaming Community: You can write a blog post that depicts your thoughts on the state of gaming, and the communities that surround this realm.  How do the communities differ from PC gamers to Console gamers?  This is always a fun area to delve into.
  • Gaming Companies:  What do you think about the gaming industry, and some of the top dogs out there.  This is always another way to get your foot in the door of writing. Let people know who your favorite / least favorite companies are producing games and why?

 

These are just a few ideas to help you in this blogging adventure.  I hope you guys have fun with this, and make sure you don’t burn yourself out as it’s easy to do.  I can’t wait to see what you all come up with and start reading those posts.  Stop by and visit me sometime over at my blog A Hobbit’s Journey.  I enjoy connecting with people and who knows maybe we’ll see each other out in the virtual world of gaming one day.

Newbie Blogger Initiative 2016

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1464077259935Time has absolutely flown by as it seems just yesterday I was writing my first post ever for NBI and my blog.  It was two years ago that I first got involved with the Newbie Blogger Initiative. I wasn’t able to participate much last year due to my schedule and this year it almost seemed as though NBI was going to be postponed.  But that is not the case as Doone himself was lurking around Twitter and low and behold an announcement from him that June would be the month for NBI.

Once again we get to see the Dragon and already we are seeing new faces joining the blogosphere realm asking questions about NBI.

For those who aren’t quite sure what the Newbie Blogger Initiative is, here’s a look back to it’s origins.  The Newbie Blogger Initiative is an annual event created by Syp of Bio-Break back in 2012. His main goal was to bring writers together and hopefully start an MMO blog of their own.  It was a place to rally bloggers alike and have encouragement, advice on topics, and overall help with getting traffic to the new bloggers sites.

Why does the NBI exist?

NBI exists to help encourage bloggers (Gaming) bloggers to be specific, but all in all it’s here to help writers, and content creators.  This event has a large group of veterans who have helped over the years and they have a wealth of information to share.  It’s one of the reasons we “Veterans” enjoy this event as we get to pass down the torch of knowledge to anyone who wants it.  NBI exists to help new bloggers get their blog started off in the right direction, and to give any advice we can offer to anyone willing to write and create material for such a blog.

Are you Ready to Participate?

Are you questioning if you can participate in this event, well don’t as all are welcome here. But to be counted as a “Newb” in the Blogosphere you need to have just started blogging within the last year.  That doesn’t mean any of the oldie but goodies are excluded from the event as our “Veterans” as I mentioned above are a huge key to this event as well.

How do I get involved? 

You can follow any of the links below to get started and see all the chatter going on about the event.

 

 

NBI Forums 

NBI on Twitter 

Discord Invite Code: https://t.co/bZLA0YGZSk

 

 

If you’ve ever tossed the idea of blogging around then I hope NBI is what kick starts that fire and helps get you going.  I’ve been writing for years and even today after setting down and looking back, it’s not been an easy journey, but it’s been a very satisfying challenge.  Writing is a passion and just part of who I am, and I hope that passion rubs off onto the next generation of writers.  I hope you all take the challenge and enjoy the 2016 Newbie Blogger Initiative!  Can’t wait to see you all around!

scr.ee tags:

#NBI2016 #NewbieBloggerInitiative #Writing #Blogging #Writer #Blogger #Creative Writing

Scream The Pilot Review

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mtv-s-scream-tv-show-reimagines-ghostface-for-a-new-story-new-cast-new-format-new-rules-486221Ok, so let me start this post by saying I’ve thrown the idea back and forth for years now of whether I do film & TV reviews.  It’s always come down to NO not right now as I’ve just got to much going on and I didn’t want to add to an already full plate.

So why the change you ask?  My change has come due to that once full plate becoming less full as I’ve finished up some major projects that I’ve finally finished.  This has freed up more room to write both on this site, and for my book series I’m working on.  Honestly, I’ve always wanted to do film & TV reviews and now that I have the extra time I’m jumping on board with one of my favorite genre’s #HORROR so I hope you enjoy the post as I look forward to this new journey.

With my first ever film & TV review write up, we start with the new TV adaptation of Scream which is brought to us by our old friends MTV!

Now I know I’m coming into this show a bit late as it’s already finished up with season 1 and has been renewed for season 2 which airs on May 30th this year.  MTV’s Scream takes the very popular and familiar movie franchise title and brings us into something new.  This isn’t a continuation of the story from the movies, nor is it a TV remake, as it involves different characters, location and backstory from the films. Instead, this creation brings us back to the original tone of the films without being about the same people or places.

Personally I was a huge fan of the Scream films so when I stumbled across this TV gem I was rather ecstatic to begin watching it.  Though I had my doubts and questions as most TV adaptations of popular films are just strange at best.  Regardless, Scream has brought us right back to the original movie. The opening sequence, featuring Bella Thorne, brings us back to 1996 with the Drew Barrymore sequence in Scream, as a high school girl, home alone in her big house, finding herself being watched, and contacted.  Now things have changed over the past 20 years so instead of a phone call they’ve replaced most of the interaction with this mysterious watcher by texting.  Things just go very badly for her once she starts replying back to these mysterious texts.  It’s an entertaining sequence, due to some fun iPhone issues involving Siri not understanding you put into the middle of a horror scene.

4b4d74cc81fd4685c6bbeab93fa121f5From there, as the show unfolds we get to meet the cast and overall feels like a Scream movie, but different and same all at once.  Weird I know, but the parallels to the first film’s characters; Sidney, Billy, Stu, Randy and Tatum in Emma (Willa Fitzgerald), Will (Conner Weil), Jake (Tom Maden), Noah (John Karna) and Brooke (Carlson Young), as these kids from “Lakewood” begin to realize a killer is among them. The show throws some other characters into the mix, including a mysterious new guy in town Kieran (Amadeus Serafini) and Audrey (Bex Taylor-Klaus), who was the victim of some recent cyber bullying.

Probably my favorite character of the series is Noah, the socially awkward film, game, and horror geek – aka Randy if you were watching the Scream movies.  Noah brings us one of the best Film to TV translations of all time when he says, “You can’t do a slasher movie on television,” because ultimately slasher films happen quickly.  TV needs to pull things out and stretch them over a long period of time to bring us the same story. Scream at least has the benefit of including the whodunit aspect of the films that did set the series apart from most others in the slasher genre. The show introduces plenty of characters who could be the killer, even as some of it – including important town history involving Emma’s mom Tracy Middendorf, who actually had a role as the babysitter in Wes Craven’s New Nightmare.

If you haven’t watched the show – Checkout the Trailer

Ok so all in all, the pilot series was a win in my book!  The show had me hooked from the get go, and has me curious who the killer is.  This is quickly becoming a favorite go to show and I can’t wait to see where they go with things!

scr.ee tags:

#MTV #Horror #Survival #Slasher #Scream #TV #Film & TV #Review

 

Writing & Building a Fantasy World

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8da509b65cfd623939820230f39dc6d9As with most things in writing, there are a lot of ways to build a world well, and a lot more ways to do it poorly.  First, let me start with the fact that I am still working on my first novel series, and the world building early on became overwhelming.  This is no one’s fault except mine as I rushed into a very large project that at the time I wasn’t quite ready to tackle yet.  Many years of writing short fantasy / sci-fi stories, and personal blogging gave me the feeling I was ready to take on a novel of epic proportions.  Ultimately, I’ve loved every minute of this writing journey I’ve ventured into as it’s helped me grow as a writer, and building worlds was a huge step into the creative for me.  These few paragraphs are  just some of the tips and tricks I’ve learned a long the way to make world building easier, and more enjoyable.

When looking at the world you want to build think of it along these two lines: first, you need to establish what you know about the world.  Start looking at everything the world needs to have….Does the world have technology based on some time period we currently have or seen?  Does this world fit into a specific time period that we already know?  Maybe it’s set in the colonial age, or maybe some time period we’ve never even seen before. If you’re setting your world into a specific time period, you can answer a lot of questions for yourself as we have the history to study on it. The more different you make your world than any culture in earth’s history, the more challenging it is both for you as a writer and for your readers to imagine.

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Secondly, you’re going to have to think about how the world works which is where the writing gets fun!  This portion of the story creation is where you let the imagination run wild most of the times!  This is where you get to ask the big questions: Does this world have magic in it? What are the economic systems in this world? What kind of ruler or rulers will you have in this world? See, the fantastic thing about writing fantasy is that you can make up almost anything you want – as long as it makes sense and can be explained to some degree. If your world feels too weird, it will be hard for your readers to buy into what you’ve created. So in some ways, the weirder you make things, the more you have to make sure that readers see that your characters experience these weird things as normal everyday living. Think of the most normal objections readers would have to the weird things in your world, and don’t be afraid to confront them head on within the story.

So looking back at our first line of thinking, you really need to make a big decision of how this world actually works and functions.  Brain power is all this takes, along with gallons of coffee, and caffeine!  Really though, this just takes some time and deep thought, but coffee just goes well with that process!  It may take some serious study, as you look into how societies operated. Or it may just take time thinking. Whatever it is, you want to have the broad outlines of how people interact in your world figured out and settled. Secondly, you can look at layering other cultures into the story and process of how the world functions.   Does the kingdom next door have no nobility? Or not believe in magic, or believe in whatever you want really. This can get very mind-boggling though but if you are willing then go for it. Basically, there’s a lot of hard work here, and none of it will show up on the page. At least, none of it will show up as extra words that you write.

Third, do things out of the box and differently.  Don’t just copy some great authors ideas down and try to copy what they’ve created.  They became great writers and created those worlds because they did just that, thought differently and outside of the box. This will make your world more interesting. Doing things differently from what you’ve always seen is a good habit to trait and continue to cultivate that as a writer.

writing-fantasy-1920x1200Fourth, You’ve decided how your world works, you’ve decided your characters’ places within this world, and now you have to write, write, write. I tend to give very broad outlines of my world and the inner workings; then as the characters move through the world, I bring out those specifics.  My plot within the story moves very fast and at times the world building takes a back seat, but all in all the creation of the world takes place and ultimately becomes immersive.

Fifth, the greatest thing about world building is it’s your imagination and it’s not limited to a keyboard, or whatever walls you dwell in while writing.  Whatever you find fascinating and want to pursue for your book, go after it with vigor and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.  Whatever you find fascinating, can make your book stand out from every other book that has ever been written – as long as you make it fascinating to the readers.  Most of the times this is an easy task as you know what you like, and what draws you to enjoyment while reading.  If you find something your passionate about it is extremely easy to communicate that as it’s just that a PASSION!  Just remember take care to communicate with the readers.  If you can do that within the flow of the plot and overall book, they will more than likely enjoy and love what you’ve written.

Don’t let building a world of fantasy be something to constrain your imagination, instead let it be the freedom you enjoy while writing what you love!

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#writing #writer #novel #fantasy #books #worldbuilding #fantasyworlds #howto #process #amwriting

Writing In a Winter Snow Storm

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Hello again everyone!

It has been around a month since my last legit post and that has been strategic, and completely on purpose.  It’s that time of year where our families schedule becomes insane, but like I said it’s on purpose.  This time of year for us is busy with family events and time for us to relax, escape with each other and do those fun family things together.

This has not only been a busy few months but an extremely busy year in total.  As a husband and father to seven year old triplets life has a way of pulling your attention to the important things.  We as a family have always been prioritized, but as everyone we can stray away from those “Important Things” and have to wrangle our small attention spans back in to focus.

I’ve had to slow down the frequency of blogging lately mainly because I can’t create more than 24 hours in a day…though I wish I could sometimes.  This summer was a killer in hours for me due to a very large project at work I was managing in which I was having to work both days & nights a lot of the summer.  With that being said, the project was overall a pretty good success and allowed me to manage a team of people who could make it a success in future years.  Now that the summer has passed and winter is upon us…which happens to be my favorite time of year BTW.

That brings me to my next statement and why I named this blog post what I did.  Winter is my favorite due to a lot of reasons, but one very important and dear to my heart is writing and creativity for me started one very cold winter when I was just a young boy in which I got to read “The Hobbit” for the very first time.

This sparked a passion for writing, creativity, reading and knowing one day I would write my own book, or books.  That has been many years ago and even though my background in school was majoring in creative writing and arts, I ended up being a project manager of all things.  Now that doesn’t mean I’ve lost the passion to write, but what it does mean is I have to prioritize my time so that I can continue my passion of writing.  That prioritization comes in many forms and sometimes it means taking a break from writing which I think any writer out there could say the same thing.

Writing to me is always like writing in a snow storm and the reason I say that is,  “A snow storm is beautiful chaos filled with creativity and awe inspiring moments of it’s ability to fascinate the mind and be completely unique every time it happens.”  This is why I love winter and why I will always continue to love writing no matter the form it comes in.

To all those creative minds and soon to be, thinking about, am doing writers out there I prod you to find what inspires you to do what you love.

One of my  favorite quotes and something I always try to remember, “Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words” – Mark Twain

Keep writing and having fun while you do it ya’ll!

Cheers!

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#winter #writers #writer #blogging #bloggers #community #writing #creative

 

Creative Writing – What, How, Why of a Fantasy Novel

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Writing a fantasy novel is great fun – you can literally let your imagination run wild.  It’s a little different when writing a novel set in the real world as unlike books set in reality where you can use real life as examples, you’ll have to invent everything in your new fantasy world.  Do you enjoy writing, are you working on a fantasy novel, or have you had the notion to start one?  I hope the next few minutes while reading this helps you no matter what stage you might be in for writing a novel.

One of the best things you could do to kickstart things is read as many classics as you can find!  No matter the type of book you begin writing this will give you a good idea about what works and what doesn’t.  Remember though that reading other peoples works is something to help with idea spawning and relax your mind.  You must take note not to simply copy the ideas you’ve read from any of the good old classics or other pieces of work you find.  If you find yourself dealing with elves, half-lings and orcs whilst being a reluctant hero on a quest to destroy a powerful item, it’s probably best to scrap it and start again. It is true that all stories are a combination of those the reader has encountered over the years. But, you should always try to find an original angle and it certainly should not be obvious what the source material was. Reading the classics will also allow you to discover how well-crafted characters interact with each other as the story progresses.

Tip 1. Use established myths and legends as the basis for your fantasy world. Think about what your fantasy world might be like.  Do your studying and find out what your world and culture is most like….Is it Celtic, Roman, a medieval world or a blend of multiple cultures with your own twist on it? Once you’ve chosen, go and read about the myths and legends that relate to those cultures. The mythological creatures and characters and their stories will give you a great basis for your new world.

Tip 2. Get to know your imaginary world – you need to be able to describe it in detail if you are going to convince your readers, for the duration of the book at least, that it exists. Be thorough and detail everything you can possibly imagine about the world you are creating.

  • Physical – what does your fantasy world look like? Think about and make a note of:
    • the colour of the sky
    • what other planets can be seen from the surface
    • whether the air is breathable
    • what the plants look like
    • what creatures live there
    • whether there are seas
    • what the landscape looks like
    • futuristic world or something older
  • Residents – decide who lives in your newly formed fantasy world. You should spend time thinking about how they look, what they eat, how they move, whether they need sleep, how they speak to one another etc…
  • Society – what kind of society exists? Do they need money to buy things? Is there a complex system of politics they follow? Do they have a police force, a king or president? Is there a religion?
  • Special powers/magic – Do the residents have any special powers or use magic? If so, what are they and why do they exist? Does everyone have use of them or only certain people?

Tip 3. Make your characters believable. This is one of the most essential parts of the book if you want to hook and keep readers interested in the story. A great way to achieve this is to apply logic to every character in every fantasy world you create. This means creating a set of rules that apply to the world and the character. The rules can be based on either real life or they can be simply invented by you.  Remember if you are creating the rules of the world, don’t let a BOX hold you back from being creative.  Sometimes creating our own ways is just the push we need to make that next step in our creative writing.

Tip 4. Make sure you keep careful notes of all the details you invent for your new fantasy world. This will help you maintain continuity throughout the novel. There are many ways of doing this, some writers like to have a set of cards with the details on, others set up spreadsheets; so play around with different systems to find one that suits you the best.  I personally use a book mapping chart I created in excel that helps me track all major parts of the book I need.  I hope these few steps help you get started, or give an idea of what steps to take next in writing your new fantasy novel!

Remember, have fun!! That is the first and foremost thing I can say when writing… Have Fun and lots of it!