Tag: Writing Fiction

Book Bites 4 – The Panic Attack

I’m back with another Book Bite. In this scene my hero is struggling with negative thoughts that haunt her from her past.

“All she could think to do was try to escape the crowd and give herself some breathing room, but she was unable to move, frozen in a panic attack. “God help me, please!” She screamed at Him in her thoughts and slowly shuffled along the steps toward the creek on the other side of the gazebo. There weren’t as many people there and she spotted a bench near the water where she hoped she could sit alone and undisturbed. Gathering what little strength she had remaining in her legs, she made it to the bench before she lost her balance and slumped down, leaning on the armrest.”

Face of an anxious woman in blue.
image by docbeatrice on pixabay

In this scene I added more description of her body language to express her anxiety. I’m actually having fun with my first revision. Many more to come, I’m sure! I’ll be back soon to catch you up on another scene. Thanks for reading 🙂

~ Lynne

Writing A Novel || The Importance Of Playlists

How Playing Music Can Help You As You Write

I find it helpful to have a playlist as I write my stories and I choose songs that fit with the genre I’m writing in. I learned this from another author and I’m very thankful to him for suggesting this. My playlists are collections of various artists in various music styles, even some instrumental, and follow the course of the story.

For instance, if I’m writing an epic battle scene I’ll usually listen to an instrumental with loud drums and clashing symbols. If my protagonist is departing on an epic adventure and happens to be a halfling, I’ll play all the scores from the entire collection of LOTR, if my protagonist is in the mood for romance — well, you get the idea.

Benjamin T. Collier is the one to thank for this playlists idea. Here, he talks about why he uses playlists to inspire him when writing and as added enjoyment for his reader.

“… Each song referenced in ‘Singularity’ is mentioned by title and musical artist, so readers can find each song online as it comes up in the story. In case some of my readers want to have the songs all lined up already before they start reading, I’ve written out the playlist below, which I played often in the background as I was writing…”  Read Ben’s full blog post about his Singularity Playlist by Benjamin T. Collier

How A Playlist Helps Your Reader

Do you find yourself enjoying a show more when there’s relevant music playing in the background of a scene or as a filler? I faithfully watch reruns of Heartbeat, a British show about the people of a small town close to where I was born. The background music takes me back to that era. I may even sing along. Do you enjoy a movie more when the music actually becomes part of the story as in Guardians Of The Galaxy when Quill plays tunes from the 80’s?

220px-Guardians_of_the_Galaxy_Vol_2_poster from the blog by Lynne Collier

Music can enhance your reader’s experience with your story. Give it a try. Maybe I’ll create one for my readers of The Fellowship Of The King and share it in my next blog.

Til next time, know you are loved by the One who created you in His image.

Lynne

Writing Tips, Games and Prizes!

Who Doesn’t Like a Party?

Ok, granted most writers are introverts, we tend to shy away from parties or hide in a corner and hope no one talks to us. I’ve become a little more outgoing over the years but I still prefer quiet over noise. Unless, of course, I’m taking notes for a party scene in my next novel!

Invitation to a Launch Party

Fear not, this invitation is for an online party and you don’t have to talk to anyone in person or virtually, only in comments and only if you want to. Kirstie, my co-author, and I want to share our excitement with all of you on the release of our new workbook for fiction authors.

There are almost 200 pages of writing tips, information, brainstorming prompts, character building graphics, mapping graphs and tips for creating a new world, plus posters to encourage you along the way, publishing tips, marketing strategies and launch ideas. Then we go through the promotional steps you can take to grow your following, branding yourself as an author and successfully marketing your books.

The workbook fits regular copy-size pages so it’s easy to take along. So if you’d love a place to collect all your creative thoughts, plot your scenes and have it all handy in one place, this will be a great workbook for you!

I hope you can join us for the Facebook launch of THE NOVEL AUTHOR’S WORKBOOK!

 

the-novel-author's-workbook-launch

Tips, Games and Prizes!

We’ll be hosting four hours of fun with writing tips, games and prizes from 2pm – 6pm, Ontario Eastern time. And there’ll be lots of chances for extroverts to interact and launch ‘Congratulations’ balloons (I just love seeing those float up on my screen!).  Add yourself to the guest list!

See you on Facebook!

Lynne

 

Writing Fantasy || ‘Design Your Own Flag’ by Ann-Margret Hovsepian

 

Design Your Own Flag

I had a lot of fun with The Dwarf Name Generator, how about you? I have names for all the characters in my ebook now!

Ready to have more fun? This week I’m sharing an excerpt from a blog a friend of mine wrote. She’s a talented artist and her heart is to help people discover their creativity. Here’s why I’m sharing this with you; she blogged about creating a personal (or group) flag. I thought, seeing as most of you are writers of fantasy like me, you’d love knowing how to add that creative element to your books. You could even create a flag for your fantasy world and use it on your book cover.

On her blog, Ann-Margret digs deeper and gives you links to resource further. Cool, huh? Here’s part of her blog post:

 

Ann-Margret Hovsepian

Saturday, March 24, 2018 

“This activity is perfect for a family, youth group, classroom or any themed club. It would make a great ice breaker for a big event, too. 

I want you to imagine that you (or your group) are a country. What would your flag look like?

There are endless ways to design a flag because you have these options to consider:

  • Shape (most flags are rectangular but there are a few exceptions)
  • Pattern (stripes, cross, quadrisections, canton, etc.)
  • Colours
  • Symbols

Vexillology

According to the North American Vexillological Association (vexillology is the study of flags), here are five basic principles for designing a flag:

  1. Keep It Simple. The flag should be so simple that a child can draw it from memory…
  2. Use Meaningful Symbolism. The flag’s images, colors, or patterns should relate to what it symbolizes…
  3. Use 2 or 3 Basic Colors. Limit the number of colors on the flag to three which contrast well and come from the standard color set…
  4. No Lettering or Seals. Never use writing on any kind or an organization’s seal…
  5. Be Distinctive or Be Related. Avoid duplicating other flags, but use similarities to show connections…

 

Create your own flag by Ann-Margret Hovsepian

(Ann-Margret adds a link here on her post to a flag creator)

If you want a more old-school approach to designing your flag, you can print out this simple template and then colour it in. (Click on the image to enlarge it.)

flag

 

–Ann-Margret

Follow the rest of Ann-Margret’s post with fun ideas for completing your flag design at    annhovsepian.com  (and PS–she has freebies!)

Til next time, know you are loved by the One who created you in His image.

Lynne

Writing Fantasy || Character Casting

If Steven Spielberg called you for advice on casting the main character for your movie, who would you choose?

As I was doing research on creating characters for my stories, I came across an intriguing idea for character profiling. If you think of a famous person and keep them in mind as you write, it helps when you write dialogue and body language. This is actually very helpful when considering how your characters will respond to events with their mannerisms, quirks and personalities. I tried that and it works!

And what if your novel is so epic that a hugely famous producer wants to make it into a movie? Hopefully, some of us will be able to do that one day. How awesome would that be? Have you already been daydreaming about who you’d cast in your movie? Let’s face it, most of us envision our stories on the screen even before we put fingers to keyboard.

Casting characters

Which famous person reminds you of your character?

Is your story a swashbuckling adventure with a shot of rum humour? Maybe Jonny Depp is who you have in mind for your protagonist. Or do you see the dashingly romantic Orlando Bloom as your hero?

Are you writing a sci-fi novel? Do you see Leonard Nimoy as your strange wise man, or perhaps he fits the role of a High-Elf wizard in your fantasy novel?

Who would you love to cast?

Who would be perfect in the role of your main Protagonist?

Your main Antagonist?

Your Protagonist’s Love Interest?

Your Protagonist’s Mentor?

Your Protagonist’s Sidekick?

Your Protagonist’s 4 Main Followers?

Your Antagonist’s Sidekick?

Pinterest For Role Call

By now most of you know how much I love to play around on Pinterest and create boards for my writing projects.  I have boards for my characters, costume ideas, writing tips for the genre I’m currently writing in and so on. I find this casting exercise very helpful and inspiring. There’s freedom in ‘hiring’ professionals to play around in your imagination. And it’s so much fun!

I ‘hired’ a famous actor to play the role of my hero in the Dwarf story I’m currently writing. You can check out my Dwarf storyboard with sections about my protagonists, antagonists, mountains, caves, armour and more here.

If you missed my other blogs on writing characters, you can catch up here:

Character Personalities

Character Races

Character Occupations

Character Names

Character Backstory

I hope you have fun casting famous people in your movie. If you can’t think of a famous person you can always cast someone you know. My advice here would be to not be too obvious!

Til next time, know you are loved by the One who created you in His image.

Lynne