Photo credit: M. M. Kastanek
(If you're new to my style of writing prompts, head over to this blog post for more information. Feel free to use just the picture, just the prompt, just the words, or a combination of any of the three write your paragraph!) Don't forget to comment with your practice! I give feedback to every paragraph posted! Prompt: The clay shingled roofs shone with flecked bronze as the sun rose.... Words: tendril, muscles, hours, attention, haze, flit My Paragraph: The clay shingled roofs shone with flecked bronze as the sun rose. Though the city below him gradually awoke with the light, Orme had been awake for hours. He rubbed the backs of his hands, massaging the muscles and joints. His eyes flitted over the rooftops, scanning, searching, inspecting. A pink-breasted bird flitted into the corner of his vision, pulling his attention for a moment before he saw it - the thin tendril of pale smoke that barely contrasted with the morning haze settling on the roofs as the sun rose higher.
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I am so excited to share with all of you an interview with A.E. Winstead, author of soon-to-be-published Fate of the Fallen on sale September 12, 2020! We met on Instagram and I have been so excited following her journey toward publication! As a writer, I was curious about her publishing journey - and she graciously filled me in! I hope you all enjoy the interview and learn a bit about the world of self-publishing! A huge thank you to her for being my first-ever author interview! BY THE WAY: You should totally go pre-order Fate of the Fallen. The softcover is available for pre-order at Target and the hardcover and e-book can be pre-ordered on Amazon. You can even visit aewinstead.com to read the first five chapters! You can connect with A.E. Winstead on Instagram @aewinsteadbooks, Facebook @aewinsteadbooks, Twitter @ae_winstead, and TikTok @aewinsteadbooks. About A. E. WinsteadM.M.K: Tell us a bit about yourself and your writing journey! A.E.W: About me? Oh dear…I don’t want to bore your readers right off the bat, so I’ll make this part brief. I was born in Illinois and grew up in Tennessee. I’ll be forty this year, which I am really looking forward to! I have two children, one who is about to start his senior year of high school (so pray for me). I’m married to my high school sweetheart, going on twenty years now. And I work full time as a social worker advocating for the elderly and disabled in our community. My love for storytelling came from the hundreds (maybe thousands) of books I read as a child, but I didn’t start writing until high school. I wrote more poetry back then because I was an angsty teen, but did write a short story for my then-boyfriend as a birthday gift one year. Back then (in the dark ages) we didn’t have cell phones or social media, so we communicated a lot through notes and letters. My boyfriend at the time always told me I could paint the most beautiful pictures with my words, so I married him! Even though I enjoyed writing for fun, I never even dreamed of writing a novel until I was in my thirties. I read a ton of books and often joked with my husband about trying to write one myself. I truly meant it as a joke, but my husband seemed excited about the idea and was extremely supportive (I told you he liked my letters). That was when I began to think seriously about giving it a try and researching exactly what that would entail.
MMK: What do you hope readers take away from your books? AEW: The overarching theme of both books is forgiveness and the damage that can be done when we harbor hate and resentment in our hearts. Publishing Journey
Editing Experiences
Wrap-UpMMK: If you could do this all over again, what would you do differently?
AEW: This is a great question! I hope you aren’t looking for a deep, philosophical answer here, because my one regret is very basic, actually. I would’ve hired someone to do my formatting up front (especially my ebook). I tried to do as much as I could do myself (trying to save money, you know). But after days wasted and lots of tears shed, I ended up hiring someone anyway. In hindsight, I would’ve just hired it out to begin with. One word of warning I wish I could shout from the mountaintops to new authors is this: Expect delays! Once you get your edits back from your editor, you’d think it would be smooth sailing from then on, but you’d be wrong! That’s when you really have to hit the marketing hard and everything that can go wrong, will go wrong! Believe me. So, set your release date far enough out (I would suggest 5-6 months) to get all those wrinkles ironed out. MMK: How has social media helped (or hindered) you during this writing and publishing process? Any tips? AEW: Social media is a necessary evil, I think. I do enjoy it and have met some wonderful and kind people through Instagram and Twitter, but it does distract, and sometimes I find myself spending more time checking how a post is doing or responding to comments than I do actually writing. I have no advice here because I still haven’t figured out how to balance it all! Tips? Hmm… I guess I would have to say: try not to make your social media about you…if that makes sense. My approach to social media has not been to say, “Hey, look at me! Look what I did.” Or “Hey! Go buy my book.” I’ve looked at it more from a fan POV. I try to think about, “What would a reader want to see when they come to my Instagram page?” With my TikTok, I’ve taken on more of a role of a helper or mentor—giving writing tips and answering questions about self-publishing. I don’t pretend to have any of this figured out. I’m just winging it, really. But people seem to have responded well to that. Thank you so much, A. E. Winstead! And congrats on your book! Be sure to check out Fate of the Fallen, available for pre-order at Target and Amazon! Photo credit: M. M. Kastanek
(If you're new to my style of writing prompts, head over to this blog post for more information. Feel free to use just the picture, just the prompt, just the words, or a combination of any of the three write your paragraph!) Don't forget to comment with your practice! I give feedback to every paragraph posted! Prompt: She pursed her lips and let the dirt fall through her fingers.... Words: shiver, general, foothills, rose, grace, discovery My Paragraph: Preyva pursed her lips and let the dirt fall through her fingers. The alchemic properties here were unbelievable. She could smell it flitting through the air like pollen in the spring. What Dorsta wouldn't give for alchemic powers such as this.... The thought sent a shiver down her spine. What Dorsta wouldn't give to the person who brought her alchemic powers such as this.... That thought swelled a prideful hope in her chest. "General Ormaya, is everything alright?" Preyva stood, dusting her hands on her tan britches. "Yes, captain. Return to the men. Have them set up base at the foothills of that mountain." "Right away, general." Unclasping a spyglass from her belt and holding it to her good eye, Preyva bit her lip, looking over the valley to where the clouds touched the rising mountains. This discovery would be just what she needed to fall back into Dorsta's good graces. And, Goddess help her, she would not mess this one up. A lot of writers struggle with building a character. One thing that has really helped me navigate my huge cast of characters is making brief character sheets. I've included a picture below, but you can also download a copy here (plain white so you can print on the colors you like). I like to change the color based on the characters so that when I'm flipping through, I can pick characters out by their color.
Up top, I've included the Character Name, Age, Fantasy Race, and Major/Minor/Main categories. These should be easy. Please let them be easy for you. It only gets harder from here. Next, I have One Word/Phrase Descriptor. As odd as this addition is, I personally like it because it keeps my characters in focus. For example, I have a phrase descriptor of one of my characters in my current WIP as "Cinnamon Roll." (For those of you who don't know, a cinnamon roll character is one who is just too good for the world and the troubles that get thrown at them. They're the character that make readers go "awe" and love them from start to finish.) This section helps me more than any other. I think it's because it's my focus for that character; it sums them up completely and reminds me how they should act, react, and think. Other basics you should know about your character are their Homeland, Occupation, Language, and Physical Attributes. Again, please know these. They shouldn't be a struggle. Next, we get into territory that's a bit more complex. Think about your character's Mental/Personality Traits. Are they friendly? Shy? Passionate? Alluring? This section is where you start to get into the heart of your character. Even if you haven't dove into what makes your character tick yet, you should know how they act at least on the surface level. Do they like to make others laugh? Do they learn things easily? Don't think about the "why" of this yet (that comes later), just spend some time observing your character. Then, we're at that "why" I told you not to think of yet. The Goals/Motivations of your character stem from their personality, their history, and their current situation. What propels your character forward in the story? Why do they do what they do? Why do they want what they want? What motivates them to keep going and not give up? There are many questions here. Only you know those answers. A Fatal Flaw is something about a character's personality that makes them less than perfect and that often stands in the way of their success. This could be something like stubbornness, arrogance, anger, or ambivalence. This could also be looked at as an Emotional Wound (if you're using The Emotional Wound Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Psychological Trauma by Ackerman and Puglisi. And if you're not, you should. This has helped me so much even though it's aimed more at general fiction than fantasy). I sometimes find it easier to look at the emotional wounds of my characters and see how that contributes to their flaw. Sometimes as the "parent" of my pretty little characters, I find it difficult to see their flaws and looking at it backward helps! Then, of course, if a character has something less than perfect, we need something that redeems them to the reader. This is known as the Saving Grace. Maybe your character is stubborn, but they are kind to a fault. Something needs to strike the heart of your reader that says this character is worth caring about. Every character has a backstory (even if they don't remember it). Their History is important in learning why they are the way they are. Characters are no different than real people regardless of what fantasy world they live in. Experiences in their life shape who they are during your story. Did your character grow up in a home where they were physically abused? Did they have a plush childhood with everything they ever wanted? Were they raised by an aunt who turned out to be a witch? Think about how these events in their life might impact the way they see the world during the present. Are they jaded? Do they think they deserve to be served by anyone they deem "lower" than them? Do they have trust issues or a passion for herbology? Everyone is afraid of something. Fears take a look into another scary part of your character. What are they most afraid of? More importantly, why? How do their fears propel them forward? How do they hold them back? Fears can motivate but they can also internally destroy a character. Think about how fears manifest in their personality as well. Do they get angry when someone they love does something dangerous because they're afraid of losing them? Each of these sections builds off the others. Jot down your ideas and then connect the dots, leading you deeper into your character's soul. And finally, we look at their Entrance into the Story, Growth Points, and (if necessary) Exit from the Story (because who doesn't love killing off their characters?). I'm not a planner, but once I write the story out, I go back and fill in these parts so I can remember in my hundreds of pages where certain characters came in and went out. It helps me pace their growth during revisions and also helps me pace other characters' reactions to their exits from the story. As always, here's the link for a downloadable file of the picture below. I hope it helps you on your next character development adventures! Photo credit: M. M. Kastanek
Prompt: I saw him on the ridgeline.... Words: slink, grass, plum, chew, cross, pale My Paragraph: I saw him on the ridgeline. He watched me for a moment as the colors of the clouds shifted from pale blue to plum. I couldn't quite see his eyes at that distance, but I'm sure those eyes followed me. Even as I slunk lower into the tall grass his head turned to follow my movement. And then he slipped out of sight behind the ridge as quickly as he had appeared. I chewed my bottom lip. No one crossed that ridge. Goddess Ipsil had cursed it. So who was this man? And how did he have the power to cross Ipsil's Ridge? I'm baaaack!
Thank you all for your patience while I was on haitus taking care of my dad (who just had a liver transplant) and brother (who was my dad's donor). I'm back now and ready to present you with the long-awaited final part of my World-Building series! I hope this has been helpful for you. I had a lot of fun writing it (and had a lot of "yeah, I need to figure that out" moments for my own writing!). Comment below with the topics you'd like to see me cover next. I'd love to hear from you! |
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