R.M. Archer's Blog, page 46

Book Review: Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton

Overall this book was okay. It wasn’t great, it wasn’t terrible. As I was talking over it with my best friend in the car on the way home I figured out it’s because the bones are good but the main character isn’t really as fleshed out as she could be. So let’s start with characters, shall we?

All of the characters in this book were kind of one-dimensional. None of them were boring, per se, but none of them were particularly deep. They were all pretty “what you see is what you get,” and with quite a few of them “what you see” wasn’t much. The main character, Amani, was smart-mouthed, had a fiery temper, and hated the sexism in her culture, but that was pretty much all there was to her. There were no deep motivations, and even the motivations she had weren’t deeply developed. Thinking about it now it’s actually kind of difficult for me to pinpoint her motivations because they were so… shallow, as far as development goes.

Jin was a more interesting character to me as a whole, which is kind of odd since he was even less developed than Amani, I think. We really don’t know his motivations, he doesn’t have a whole lot of personality traits… He was more one of those characters that I wanted to see be interesting, but when I think about it he actually wasn’t.

The side characters weren’t explored any deeper, either. A couple of the main side characters were really boring, like Captain Naguib and Ahmed. They were supposed to be these important characters and they just… weren’t. Noorsham was a little more interesting, but I feel like he had a lot more potential than was explored. It would have been nice to see his internal struggle more than we did. And I get that, to some extent, since it’s in first person from Amani’s POV, but he just seemed underused. (As did all the characters.) The rebels all had the same problem, and the only one that I found less shallow was killed, so… (The curse of a reader, I suppose. The characters you like almost always die.)

Overall the characters were just really underwhelming, and that contributed to the mediocrity of the rest of the book.

The worldbuilding was really interesting, BUT it was hard to appreciate it as much as I would have liked because I wasn’t invested in the person telling about it and the character herself didn’t seem invested in the world. Amani hadn’t seen a lot of the world, which was a big wasted opportunity. Someone who’s unfamiliar with the world should be interested in the world and should notice things about it that people used to it could take for granted. I didn’t get any of this with Amani. What she talked about she summarized and she felt really disconnected from the world. We don’t get a lot of emotion and sensory detail from her (unless she’s kissing Jin). I think the world would have been a lot more impactful if she’d had any interest in it, but as it was I knew on an intellectual level that the world was interesting but didn’t connect with it on any sort of emotional level.

Amani was also really familiar with stories of the world around her, even if she wasn’t familiar with the world itself, and yet we don’t get to know what she believes about these stories or what impact they’ve had on her or how she learned them or anything like that. She just knows them, regurgitates them, and is done. Story seemed like something that was important to her, at least on some level, so it would have been nice to see that developed more.

The plot was okay. I didn’t really understand why Amani was part of it after a while, except that she was tied to Jin. About halfway through the book she becomes a pretty passive, static character, which was disappointing because she’s reckless. Reckless characters are generally active, not passive, but the only reason she was part of anything after a while was because of Jin, and there wasn’t even a lot of emotional connection between the two characters. I honestly might have preferred if she’d left him and done her own thing just because I’m so tired of female characters’ lives revolving around guys and he was the only reason she did what she did. I guess there might have been a little more emotional connection between them while they were in the desert, but that whole trek was so skimmed over that I have no idea. There was mention of things Jin taught her and things he said, but none of it was shown so none of it really made an impact. It would have been a lot more powerful if the author had spent the time to show at least some of it and give us a bit of a glimpse deeper into the characters and their relationship.

This was a pretty short book, and I feel like that was a mistake. I think it would have been a lot more impactful and enjoyable if the author had put some more time into deepening the characters and then showing their characters and their relationships. I don’t think it would have negatively affected the plot – in fact I think the plot would have benefited from a bit of slowing down – and I think it would have really helped the book as a whole for the main character to be more invested in everything, more deep and thus easier to connect to, that kind of thing. And honestly I don’t think I would have even cared quite as much if the book had been third person, but since the book was first person and generally first person is more personal to read, it was extra disappointing.

I didn’t dislike the book, but I think this book had a lot more potential than what came through on the page.

Character Interview: Rhees Lamral

Rhees is a character from The Heart of the Baenor, a good friend of Torin‘s from Kor-Baen. He’s hard-working, hospitable, determined to uphold justice, and loves his family. I hope you enjoy his interview. :)

Rhees: *steps into the interview room and presses a fist to his heart before sitting across from the interviewer* Hello.

Interviewer: Hello. How are you today?

Rhees: I’m doing well. How are you?

Interviewer: I’m good. Are you ready to get started?

Rhees: *nods*

Interviewer: What is your name?

Rhees: Rhees Demmi Lamral.

Interviewer: How old are you?

Rhees: Forty.

Interviewer: Do you have any siblings?

Rhees: *nods* An older brother, an older sister, twin younger brothers, and a younger sister.

Interviewer: What was it like growing up in a big family like that?

Rhees: My older brother is ten years older than me, so he was gone fairly early on. But overall I didn’t mind it. It could be difficult to find a quiet space in the house, and my younger brothers often tagged along on any adventures my friends and I tried to take, which was annoying at the time but now seems quite endearing. I wouldn’t change any of it for the world. *smiles* In fact, I rather wish my son could have the same experiences I did with my siblings, but it looks like he’ll be the only child we have.

Interviewer: What is your son’s name?

Rhees: Kolis.

Interviewer: Is there any specific thing you wish he could experience from having siblings?

Rhees: The whole thing, really, but particularly the constant companionship. I think it can be hard sometimes to not get lonely when you don’t have anyone living with you who’s the same age. He has good friends, of course, but they have other things to do sometimes and there’s always the possibility of them leaving. With siblings there’s always someone to talk to and adventure with and they’re not going to leave.

Interviewer: *nods* I agree. I have two sisters, myself.

Rhees: Really? What are their names?

Interviewer: Isabelle and Lila. *sees Rhees about to ask something* I’m David, by the way.

Rhees: Ah. Nice to meet you. *smiles and presses a fist to his heart*

David: *imitates the gesture* You too. *glances at his question list* Where do you work?

Rhees: The forges. I’m one of the smiths.

David: Do you enjoy that?

Rhees: *shrugs* It makes money.

David: Are you an introvert or an extrovert?

Rhees: Extrovert, though I’m a combination of the two.

David: Do you have a favorite food?

Rhees: Coal pudding.

David: What is that?

Rhees: Dark chocolate pudding. But of course since we’re miners and blacksmiths we call it coal pudding. *chuckles slightly* My wife makes the best coal pudding.

David: Do you have a favorite color?

Rhees: Not especially.

David: Do you like to read?

Rhees: When I get the time.

David: Do you have a favorite book?

Rhees: The Hunter’s Daughter, I think. It’s an interesting look at ancient Rashan culture through storytelling.

David: Is it historical fiction?

Rhees: *nods* It’s the most common genre in Kor-Baen.

David: Why is that?

Rhees: I’m not sure.

David: Do you have a favorite animal?

Rhees: Shahr.

David: Those are panther-like, right?

Rhees: Um… They’re large, sleek cats.

David: Oh, sorry. I forgot you wouldn’t know what a panther is.

Rhees: It’s all right. Are they similar?

David: *nods* What colors to Shahr come in?

Rhees: Tan, black, midnight blue, and dark maroon.

David: Panthers only come in black, but they are similar. *glances at list* What are your hobbies, aside from reading?

Rhees: I don’t really have time for hobbies. I read occasionally, but most of my free time is spent with family.

David: Which of these is most important to you: Kindness, intelligence, or bravery?

Rhees: All of them, but probably intelligence.

David: And honesty or selflessness?

Rhees: Selflessness.

David: Last question: Is there anything you can’t leave home without?

Rhees: No.

David: Thank you for your time. I’ve enjoyed talking with you. *smiles*

Rhees: You too. *rises and presses a fist to his heart* Have a good day.

David: You too.

Rhees: *leaves*

#CoverLove Tag

I was busy this past weekend and now I’m at camp, so I had to schedule all of these posts on time so as not to leave y’all hanging, and I just so happened to be tagged this weekend as well so I had a nice easy post to whip together at 6:45 in the morning before I spent the day hanging out at a mall an hour and a half away and buying books. So without further ado, the #CoverLove tag.

Thanks to Kate at The Inky Notebook for tagging me!

The rules:

Thank the blogger that nominated you and link back to their blog.
Create seven new #CoverLove questions for your nominees (or just copy and paste mine).
Answer the seven #CoverLove questions your nominator gave you.
Nominate 7+ other bloggers and let them know they’ve been tagged.



1. A cover that was “meh” on first glance but got more interesting the more you looked at it

I borrowed this book from a friend (said friend and I exchange books all the time. A few have taken up semi-permanent residence on my shelf because I borrowed a jillion of them and then didn’t get around to reading quite all of them. Others were returned unread because I don’t schedule reading time enough.) and I enjoyed it. It wasn’t the best thing I read (how many times do we need to be reminded that these creatures are comparable to tennis balls?) but it was enjoyable.

2. A cover that looked really cool at first glance but got more “meh” as you looked at it

I haven’t actually read this one, and the cover isn’t particularly “meh,” but the overall effect is better than looking at it closely and examining the elements, and since I don’t want to comb through all 893 books on my Goodreads shelves, I’m sticking with this one.

3. A cover you feel didn’t fit the story at all

This is a gorgeous cover, and the book was okay, but I have no idea (or don’t remember, because the book wasn’t super memorable?) where the rose came from.

4. A cover that fits the story exceptionally well

That was way, way harder than I thought it would be. I combed through my bookshelves twice. I suppose this one. Or really any of the Cooper Kids covers.

5. A cover whose style you want for your own book

This one makes up for the one before it as far as difficulty level goes, lol. This watercolor style is almost exactly what I want for my Dark War Trilogy books. I LOVE this cover.

6. A children’s book cover that you really loved

I’d totally forgotten about this book until I went looking through our children’s books shelf for this. This was a super cool book to go through as a kid (I don’t know how fun it would be now, but I’m sure it wouldn’t be boring) and the front cover is part of the overarching puzzle, so it’s super cool. Plus, look at that artwork and the journal design. It’s just fun in its own right.

7. The most artistic cover you’ve seen, and why you think that

This cover is awesome. I love this cover. On top we have the Dream and the chaos and intrigue that is there, and the clock tower and gorgeousness, and then on the bottom we have Baltimore and the normal world and it’s less interesting but still cool-looking (and that little bit of fog and stars and stuff could be foreshadowing! Theoretically. Or I’m (probably) just reading too much into this. But yeah, this cover is super awesome. It’s one of my favorites and all the pieces work really, really well together.

Nominees

Leila at Wildflowers and Cosmic Tea

Felicity at The Wondrous World Around Us

Elyra at Two Roads Diverged

Ivie at Ivie Writes

Gray Marie at Writing Is Life

Hallie at Hallie Jenkins

S.M. Metzler at Tea With Tumnus

Questions

Cover that was better than the book
A to-be-published book with a gorgeous cover (you’re allowed to talk about yourself here. ;) )
A cover in your favorite color(s)
A cover whose style you want for your own book
Your two favorite book covers EVER
A series in which every cover was amazing
A book that deserved a better cover

I mostly replicated the questions Kate answered, because I liked those and I’m not creative with cover questions. XD Enjoy the tag!

Snippet Sunday: Untitled DotH book

This book doesn’t have a title I like at all, so I’m not using a title in this post. “DotH” is short for Daughters of the Hylands. The Daughters of the Hylands is an eight-book subseries of my Hylands series (The Half-Elves, etc.) and this is book… three. At least for now. I might end up reordering them whenever I get around to actually writing them. But anyway, this story is the least solidified story of the series in my head, so this should be interesting. XD Enjoy.

I took a deep breath and headed downstairs, worrying my hair would slip from its braid or I’d trip on my dress down the stairs or my ring would catch on the silk. I tried to turn my mind to other things – imagining what the suitors would look like, for instance – but I just kept worrying. Now that I was twenty I had to deal with all the suitors coming to ask for my hand.

“Maybe it won’t be so bad,” I tried to convince myself, muttering under my breath. That didn’t help either. I kept thinking about how Malanda didn’t have to deal with this, and my younger sisters wouldn’t have to deal with it either. I decided I liked worrying better.

I stopped in front of the throne room door. As the guards opened it and my heart rate tripled, Zarek Mian, the high steward, announced my entry.

“All rise for Princess Mara Arun.”

There was a clamor as everyone seated in the chairs up to the throne dais rose and watched me enter. My fingers immediately grew more fidgety and I thought I might fall over as I walked. I always got self-conscious about my walk when I thought people were watching. And this time I knew they were watching. I kept my eyes straight ahead, barely keeping them from straying into the crowd out of curiosity, as I stepped onto the dais and stood in front of my throne, to the right of my father. He gave me an encouraging smile and I returned it as I looked out over the crowd, finding a spot on the wall to stare at.

“You may be seated,” Father said.

I took my seat along with all the suitors and nobles who’d come along. There was a pair of chairs set on the dais facing the thrones and my heart continued to pound as I wondered who would be the first to sit there. I glanced over at Mom, on the other side of Father, and she smiled at me, which made me feel slightly better.

Father lifted a list from his lap and read off the first name. “Koen Rylee.”

A dark-haired young man who was probably about nineteen stepped onto the dais, his father behind him, and they took the seats across from me. He looked even more nervous than me, his gaze wandering every which way and his fingers a trembling mess in his lap. He was handsome enough, with dark olive skin and curly dark hair, but I knew little about him, as was the case with most of the Remeran nobles. I tended to avoid social functions whenever possible.

“Good morning, Lord Koen,” Father said. Koen shifted in his chair, as if the title made him uncomfortable. “How are you?”

“Fine.” He still wasn’t making eye contact. His father nudged him with his elbow and he coughed. “I mean, I’m doing well, Your Majesty.” He made eye contact with Father very briefly before his gaze wandered again.

“You’re…” Father looked at the list, “eighteen?”

Koen nodded.

“The betrothal would be a long one,” Koen’s father put in, “but I think it would be beneficial for Koen and the princess to get to know each other before the wedding anyway. And Koen’s always been mature for his age.”

Koen looked highly uncomfortable at his father’s words, biting his lip.

Father nodded at Lord Rylee. “Thank you.” He looked back at Koen. “Are you interested in marrying Mara?” He emphasized the ‘you,’ obviously trying to figure out if Koen had had any say or if Lord Rylee had brought him out of a desire for prestige or something. It wouldn’t have surprised me if the latter were the case.

“I… it would be an honor, Your Majesty.” He made eye contact with me briefly and my heart jumped. I didn’t do well with eye contact. He looked back at Father, seeming to be a little more comfortable with the situation. He at least held eye contact for a few seconds. “I’d like to get to know her, at least…” He trailed off, a blush rising to his cheeks. He looked at the floor and I bit the inside of my lip.

Father nodded. “I’ll make sure you have a chance to spend some time with her as the process goes on. Thank you.” He smiled.

Koen looked up at Father and offered a shaky smile in return as he stood, his gaze meeting mine for a very brief moment before he and Lord Rylee returned to their seats.

Character Interview: Algon Raen

Algon Raen is the antagonist of The Heart of the Baenor, an ambitious Rashan (they’re like dwarves except they’re not small) who really doesn’t like Torin. Enjoy his interview. :)

Algon: *comes in and sits across from the interviewer, crossing his legs and resting his arms on the back of his chair* Hi.

Interviewer: *arches an eyebrow and shifts kind of uncomfortably* Hello. How are you today?

Algon: Excellent. How are you?

Interviewer: Fine.

Algon: What’s your name?

Interviewer: Lila. *shakes her head* I’m the one interviewing you, not the other way around. What’s your name?

Algon: Algon Raen. I’m surprised you haven’t heard of me.

Lila: Well, I’m not very familiar with Kaloris. What makes you important enough to be well-known?

Algon: *scoffs* I’m the nephew of King Aidric, not to mention his second-in-command. And I’m coming up on a promotion. *grins*

Lila: How would you be promoted from second-in-command?

Algon: *smirks* Wouldn’t you like to know.

Lila: Um… *looks at her question sheet to get back on track* How old are you?

Algon: Forty-two.

Lila: *raises eyebrows* You looked… younger.

Algon: *grins* I get that a lot. *brushes his red mohawk*

Lila: *clears her throat and looks at her question list again* Do you have any siblings?

Algon: What, hoping I have a younger brother?

Lila: *glares at him* Don’t make me cut this thing short.

Algon: *chuckles* No. I’m an only child. Sorry to disappoint.

Lila: *mutters* Yeah, you’re spoiled like one. Do you have a favorite food?

Algon: Pathar meat.

Lila: What’s a Pathar?

Algon: The toughest animal in Kor-Baen. It’s a bear twice the size of any other, with golden fur and stone-like scales on its back. They’re extremely deadly. I fought one single-handedly once.

Lila: Do you have a favorite color?

Algon: Red, like the forges. It’s a symbol of strength, to me.

Lila: Do you read?

Algon: *laughs, his voice booming out* Absolutely not.

Lila: Geez… Do you have a favorite animal?

Algon: Pathar.

Lila: Do you have any hobbies?

Algon: Sparring, forging, and more sparring.

Lila: Is anything not about strength to you?

Algon: *shakes head* Not really.

Lila: *rolls eyes* Well which of these is the most important to you: Kindness, intelligence, or bravery?

Algon: Bravery, of course, with intelligence in second.

Lila: Honesty or selflessness?

Algon: Neither. Honesty makes you vulnerable, selflessness makes you weak.

Lila: I beg to differ, but okay. Is there anything you can’t leave home without?

Algon: My axe.

Lila: Well, thank you for your time. *stands* That was the last question.

Algon: *nods and stands, whispering something inappropriate in her ear and earning himself a slap before leaving*

That was a more interesting interview than I’d expected. I’m also pretty sure I’ve now had three different named interviewers: Lila, Isabelle, and David. One of these days I’ll have to make them real characters, or at least flesh them out more, lol.

My Editing Process

Over the past week I’ve been working on editing The Heart of the Baenor (which I really, really need to come up with a new title for) and figuring out what editing system works for me. This post will be similar to my story binder post, taking you through the system I’ve developed for myself, and hopefully it will help out some of you with your own revisions.

I actually started with Google Docs, with a copy of the original draft that I just went through and made comments on. I didn’t make any actual edits aside from little grammatical errors, just used commenting and the suggesting tool to tell myself where I wanted to make edits. Then I duplicated the doc, told it to keep the comments, and made that my second draft. On that document I actually made the edits I’d commented/suggested to myself and probably some others that I found along the way. (You can read more about this part of the process in this article on Our Mind Palace.)

After that second draft was done, I printed out the whole thing and moved onto what I’m going to show you in this post.

The first thing in my binder is a document that has info on the theme I want to incorporate. When I wrote this book I didn’t have a theme in mind, which resulted in the story falling flat (well, that and the fact that there were no stakes… but we’ll get to that). Fortunately, since I’ve recently learned about theme, the information is fresh in my mind and I was able to fairly easily pull out a theme I could target and write down the info I needed. This is the basic theme (family), the question that more focuses the theme (“Is family important?”), and then the “experiments of living” for each character, which is what they believe in regard to the theme and focusing question.

These characters really lend themselves well to a theme of family because one doesn’t know her birth family and lives with a shoved-together family, one of them is really devoted to his family, and the third feels like his family won’t accept him and feels like he doesn’t really have a family.

Figuring out how to best incorporate the theme in practical terms is going to be kind of tricky, but I think this theme is going to work really well.

Next is my color code. I did some research on this prior to developing my color code to find out what sorts of things other people marked (I’ll post links to the articles I found at the end of this post), and then commandeered my mom’s colored pens and developed my own. These are Pilot G-2s and they’re my absolute favorite variety of pen. They write really smoothly and they come in a variety of colors and I highly recommend them.

You can probably see most of those, but the blues are kind of hard to read in this picture. The brighter blue is Setting/Description, the lighter blue is Nonverbal Communication in the top key and World in the bottom key.

Why do I have two keys, you ask? One is more for the story itself and one is for my scene notes, and you’ll have a chance to see that more in just a minute.

After I printed out the whole book I read through it once all in one sitting (all 155 pages of it) and I made notes of some issues I saw with it to begin with and wrote them on this list, using my basic color code (the one on the bottom). There were some important plot threads that got dropped, as well as some lines I wanted to relocate, a scene I’d cut that I wanted to reintegrate, and a couple of spots where payment should have been and wasn’t, and I also want to look at the dialogue throughout and make sure it sounds natural (I might enlist the help of my sister to act out scenes with me to test that). And I’ve also added to this as I’ve gone through it to do my scene-by-scene notes.

This is my scene notes page. I have ten of these for the first six chapters. What I do is write the chapter, scene, and scene name (Ch. 1 – Sc. 1 – Tavern pt. 1) and then under each one I write down what the MC’s goal is in that scene, what the stakes are, what the conflict stems from, what the MC’s motivation is, what the primary element of the scene is, and what edits I need to make. This is where my second, simpler color code comes in: Plot, characters, world, cosmetic. If the goal is plot-based, I write it in burgundy. If the motivation is character-based, I write it in purple, etc. There are a couple of things on here that I use the more specific color code for; primarily the detailed code is used for Primary Element, since the point of that is to figure out what kind of writing dominates the scene (it’s almost always dialogue. Even when it shouldn’t be). I mix both color codes in Edits to Make mainly depending on whether they’re larger-scale edits or smaller-scale edits.

Filling out this information shows me where a scene is fundamentally lacking (almost all of mine are lacking stakes, which is an issue at the beginning and an even bigger issue when we get into the meat of the story), because I know that if it’s not filled in it needs to be. Or if I did fill it in but it’s just not shown enough in the scene or I’m not happy with the answer then I’ll jot down in the Edits to Make section that I need to play up the stakes or the goal or jot down a replacement for one or more of those things.

And sometimes there are scenes that are really boring as they are, but just a little tweak makes them a lot better. For instance, I have a scene in chapter four where there’s no real goal, no stakes, no conflict, no motivation, just dialogue that’s there for pretty much no reason as they’re talking about breakfast foods. My note was that just making it an argument over what to eat now would make it a lot stronger. Then Catessa’s goal could be to convince her companions to choose her favorite for breakfast, the stakes would be getting something she wants to eat or something she doesn’t want to eat, the conflict would be between the clashing breakfast opinions, and her motivation would basically be her taste buds. Obviously it would still be a petty scene, but it would have all the pieces it needs and show the character as I was intending, not only through what foods they prefer but also through how they respond to an argument like that.

This is my actual book. Why is the font bright blue, you ask? Well… our printer ran out of black ink about two-thirds of the way in printing from the back and this was the darkest we could get with the colored ink too, so the first 46 pages of the book are this color (which is actually really pretty and a lot less difficult to read than I’d expected). Already with this first page you can see the beginning of my dialogue craze…

What I do with the actual story is take my detailed color code and underline everything accordingly. This first page has a lot of description at the beginning and then shifts into a bunch of dialogue. Obviously if something doesn’t fit into anything (I need a color for action and don’t have one) then it just stays non-underlined.

Here’s a page with more non-dialogue and more wording edits:

I have tried not to line-edit/copy-edit while I’m supposed to be doing developmental edits, but grammar is what jumps out to me most and what bugs me most, so in my stories if I see something off grammatically I am going to fix it, lol. So there are a few instances of rewording things here. Most of this page is description and worldbuilding, and I actually really like this page as a whole.

Anyway, I’m doing this through the whole book and it’s been even more insightful than I thought. I already knew that I wrote a LOT of dialogue, but I didn’t really just how much, and I also didn’t realize how little internal monologue and emotion I put into this story. That’s one of the main things I need to fix, is showing more of what Catessa’s feeling and thinking and building more of a connection between her and the reader.

Just a prettier picture of that page.
Story and notes.

I actually hate these tabs for this purpose, but I have tabs on the first page of each chapter. The problem with these particular tabs for this purpose is that they don’t stick far enough up/down the thing, so you can’t use them as a handle to flip to a page and they come off pretty easily even when you don’t use them as handles. But they’re still better than nothing, and they’re also helpful if I want to look from the side and see the rough length of each chapter. Chapter six, for instance (the one I just finished), is twice as long as any of the five before it (at least as far as scenes are concerned). I would definitely recommend using tabs to mark chapters, but I wouldn’t recommend this variety, lol.

When I’m done with all of these notes I’ll go back to Google Docs and make all my edits on a fresh 3rd draft doc, fixing the tons of issues I’ve uncovered in this pass, balancing stuff out (less dialogue, more emotion, etc.), adding stakes to almost every scene, making her actually feel pain, etc. There’s a lot to get done this month, but I’m excited that I’ll be improving so much.

So yeah, that’s my editing process! What does your editing process generally look like? Have you gotten to the editing stage yet? (This is my first real hardcore edit, and it’s actually been a lot of fun.)

Articles on color coded editing

Ask Jami: Editing Tips–How to Use Color-Coding

Fundamental Check: Do Your Scenes Have What They Need?

What’s next for The Heart of the Baenor?

At the beginning of next month I’ll be sending the completed 3rd draft to beta-readers (thank you so much to all my beta-readers, already! I really look forward to working with you!), and I’m super excited to see what they think of it and what issues they can pull out for me to fix. (Is it weird that I actually like criticism? I’ve always liked having something concrete to improve, so constructive criticism is actually something I love, lol.)

After that pass, I’ll send it off to a couple of professional editors (not at the same time), and then it should finally be ready for formatting and all that jazz in January, and the publication date is set for February. And you know what’s really silly? The timeline for professional edits is entirely dependent on whether or not I can come up with a permanent title in the next two weeks or not. How on earth is that? Well, because I want to start a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for my editors and my cover artist and I can’t do that without a permanent title. And because titles are such a pain for me most of the time… I’m not sure I’m going to come up with one in the next two weeks. Here’s hoping.

Assuming all goes well, I’ll have this book published in late February 2019. :)

Snippet Sunday: Storybook Love

This story is just a for-fun story I started a while back to experiment with the romance genre and have an excuse to write what’s basically Maze Runner fanfiction. (Yes, I hated those books. That doesn’t mean I hated all the characters, and tossing in extra characters means I can partially rewrite the plot.) I actually didn’t intend to ever share this with anyone beyond my best friend, but it was on the list of stories I’ve started and it’s what the random number generator landed on, so here’s your snippet. Enjoy. :)

I woke the next morning with a smile and bounded straight out of bed. I hastily dressed and ran downstairs. “Bye Mom! I’m heading to the holodeck!”

There was no response. She was probably knocked out on the couch.

I headed outside and hopped on my bike, riding straight to Sabrina’s house. I checked my watch. Only nine, so too early to be politely visiting. Fortunately she came bounding out of the house as I put down my kickstand and I was saved the deliberation of whether or not to knock.

“Hey!” Her eyes were aglow and there was a bright smile on her face.

“Hey.” I returned the smile. I considered telling her she looked nice – her sea green top really brought out the green in her eyes and white shorts accentuated her tan – but decided against it.

“So where are we headed?”

“The Grantech lab. It’s just a few blocks away.”

“I know where it is. It’s huge.” She chuckled as she mounted her bike and put up the kickstand. She headed off and I followed, coming up beside her. She looked over at me, dark hair flowing behind her. “Race you there.” She grinned.

“Go!”

We both picked up the pace and she beat me by a foot, pulling into the parking deck underneath the lab and propping her bike up against the cement wall. Apparently being barely beaten by her was going to be a recurring thing. I set my bike next to hers and nodded toward the elevator, gesturing for her to follow. I stepped into the shiny elevator and prepared to press the button for the fifth floor, waiting for her to enter.

We emerged right near the holodeck door. Derreck, a man I knew well from long days spent holoplaying, stood guard at the door.

“Hey, Derreck.” I grinned.

“Your dad said you’d be coming.” He looked Sabrina over somewhat judgmentally. “Go ahead.”

“Thanks.” I flashed him another smile as I opened the door. I stepped aside and let Sabrina enter the grey-walled room first.

“No wonder the building is huge,” she remarked, eyeing the vast room. “This room alone is ginormous.”

“Yeah.” I stepped over to a control panel by the door. “Name of your character?”

She paused for a moment. “Marie.”

“Like Marie Curie. I always go by Speare in the Maze Runner programs.” I punched in the orders.

She smiled. “Shakespeare.”

I looked over at her before pressing the start button. “You ready?”

“As I’ll ever be.” She grinned and I hit the button.

Suddenly we were no longer in a grey room. We were in a box, ascending into darkness. When we reached the top, the box’s lid opened. Blinding sunlight flooded in, blocked only by a couple of guys who immediately helped us out.

As we stepped out we were surrounded by about fifty boys, all murmuring to each other.

“Welcome to the Glade.” The boy’s British accent gives him away immediately. “The name’s Newt, greenies.”

Character Interview: Cordain Celebar

Cordain is a secondary character from The Heart of the Baenor, which I’m currently working on the third draft of. He’s an elf from the region Shae-Nir in Kaloris, and he sees the world very different from Catessa, who’s the main character of the book. (Somehow I haven’t interviewed her yet.) One of the things I most miss after having changed the novel to be almost entirely from Catessa’s point-of-view is that Cordain’s cool worldview doesn’t get explored nearly as much. But on to the interview. :)

Cordain: *enters the interview room and shakes hands with the interviewer* Hello. *smiles as he takes his seat*

Interviewer: Hello. *smiles back* How are you today?

Cordain: I’m doing quite well. How are you?

Interviewer: Also doing well. *smiles* Shall we get started?

Cordain: *nods*

Interviewer: Let’s start off easy. What’s your name?

Cordain: Cordain Elisha Celebar.

Interviewer: How old are you?

Cordain: I just turned seventeen.

Interviewer: Seventeen is when you’re considered an adult in Kaloris, isn’t it?

Cordain: Yes, but not much has changed. *chuckles*

Interviewer: What does being an adult mean in Kaloris?

Cordain: Mostly just that I can get married and drink alcohol if I want to.

Interviewer: Ah, marriage. Do you have anyone you’re looking to marry?

Cordain: *laughs* I’m not ready for that yet. But there is a girl I wouldn’t mind marrying when the time comes. *blushes slightly*

Interviewer: Does she have a name?

Cordain: Madria. But that’s all I’m going to say.

Interviewer: *nods* Do you have any siblings?

Cordain: Two. My younger sister Braia and my older brother Torstyn.

Interviewer: What’s your relationship with them like?

Cordain: They’re both incredible. They both tease me to no end. *chuckles*

Interviewer: Are you closer to one than the other?

Cordain: Not really. I think I’m closer to each of them in different ways and different areas.

Interviewer: *nods* I think that’s probably true of most families. Um… *looks at page* Do you have a job?

Cordain: I’m a fisherman, and I help around on my family’s plantation around the harvest season, and throughout the year for that matter.

Interviewer: Are you an introvert or an extrovert?

Cordain: I’m an extrovert, but I do love my quiet time.

Interviewer: What’s your favorite food?

Cordain: Blueberry muffins.

Interviewer: Favorite color?

Cordain: Any shade of blue.

Interviewer: Do you like to read?

Cordain: Sometimes, but I’m not nearly as avid a reader as Braia.

Interviewer: Do you have a favorite book?

Cordain: Not especially, but I do have a favorite story. I love hearing the ballad of Rosyn Celebar. He’s a distant ancestor of mine who helped discover the griffins on Tol Dulin.

Interviewer: That sounds exciting! How did that happen?

Cordain: It’s a really long story. *laughs*

Interviewer: You’ll have to tell me later, then. Do you have a favorite animal? Do you have a soft spot for griffins because of Rosyn?

Cordain: I do have something of a soft spot for griffins. Taking flight on the back of one is something that every child in Shae-Nir, or at least in Linwe-Illien, dreams of. But I think my favorite are dolphins.

Interviewer: What are your hobbies?

Cordain: Reading, to some extent. Mostly I do charcoal drawings, and I really enjoy just being on or near the water. Or racing my siblings and the Andunans around Linwe-Illien.

Interviewer: Who are the Andunans?

Cordain: Oh, sorry. That’s Madria and her brother Dacian.

Interviewer: That sounds like a lot of fun.

Cordain: *nods* It really is.

Interviewer: We’re nearing the end here. Which of these is most important to you: Kindness, intelligence, or bravery?

Cordain: Kindness. The other two aren’t any help without it, I don’t think.

Interviewer: And honesty or selflessness?

Cordain: They’re close, but probably selflessness. It’ll breed honesty, at least to some degree.

Interviewer: Last question. Is there something you can’t leave the house without?

Cordain: Not really, in general terms. But in a lot of situations I like to take my sketchpad and pencil.

Interviewer: *smiles* Thank you for the interviewer.

Cordain: You’re welcome. And thank you. I enjoyed it. *smiles and shakes the interviewer’s hand before leaving*

Practical Tips for Using Pinterest to Increase Blog Traffic

Pinterest is the main source of traffic to this blog and has been since my site redesign in February. In the first week I got a total of about 4,600 views. On February 11th, the beginning of the second week, I got 877 views on one day, and that’s still my highest daily viewcount. Now, my usual daily viewcount is somewhere between ten and thirty, but prior to the redesign I’d been getting a max of about ten views a day. How did I use Pinterest to skyrocket traffic? Well, let me show you.

1. Update your account to a business

Once you update to a business account you’ll have access to analytics and thus be able to see how many clicks, views, repins, etc. your pins get. Plus you’ll seem more trustworthy to anyone stumbling across you.

2. Optimize your blog images to be Pinterest friendly

This was THE biggest thing that helped me, I believe. A pattern I’ve found is that a lot of author bloggers have all or part of their image greyed out and the title of the post over that so that it’s readable, and then a band across the bottom that has the blog name so it’s clear where the pin originated. Readable fonts are KEY, as is branding (making your fonts and colors match your site as much as possible). I personally get my images from Pexels and edit them with Photoscape, but you can also use Canva or some other image-editing program. Canva actually has a Pinterest graphic template that’s the optimal size for a pin. I do recommend Pexels, if you need stock photos., but there are also Pixabay, Unsplash, and others.

You want your images to have a consistent design so that when someone looks at your pins they think, “Oh! That pin must be so-and-so’s!” This also means you won’t want it to look to similar to someone else’s. There are a few bloggers I follow who have really similar pin designs and I always have to look at the address to figure out which of them a pin belongs to.

3. Boards to have

You’ll want a board dedicated to your blog posts and at least one dedicated to writing tips (of your own and others). I have about fifteen boards for various sub-categories of writing tips, but I’ve been on Pinterest for a couple of years. Expand as you need to. When you write a blog post, save it to every board it fits on for maximum visibility. You obviously want to be strategic about this and not gimmicky. As an example, I didn’t put my post about the literary world needing better romances on my reading board – even though it could plausibly fit there because it’s about books – because it’s geared toward writers, not readers; however, I put it on both my Christian writing tips board and my relationship-writing tips board in addition to my blog board.

I also have storyboards, character boards, and random boards that are more me-related than writing-related (TV and movie boards, book boards, reading boards, car boards, Disney boards, etc.). What exact boards you make are totally up to you, but there are some ideas to get you started.

To look as professional as possible you’ll likely want to make secret a lot of your non-writing boards, and the writing boards that you don’t pin to consistently or those that belong to projects you’re no longer working on. I’m fairly certain I have just as many secret boards as public boards. You don’t necessarily want to hide all of your non-writing boards (I have a lot still up on mine), but they’ll attract a different audience.

You’ll want to add descriptions to your boards, both to include keywords (naturally in the bio, not forced in) and to tell your viewers about the board. This can be particularly beneficial for storyboards, to start early getting people excited about the book. You don’t have to have a finalized blurb, but something to catch people’s attention is good.

4. Don’t be egocentric

Pin other bloggers’ posts. These posts will be helpful for you as well as your followers, they’ll help out the bloggers because you’re helping the pins see a wider audience, and they’re more pins on your account which helps you seem more legit. The more pins you have, the more trustworthy you’ll seem to people coming to your account.

5. Make sure your account is representative of you/your brand

Make your profile picture something connected to your blog. If you use a profile picture on your blog, use the same one across all your platforms. It’s another trust/reputation thing. You’ll likely want a picture of yourself, but a recognizable logo will also work.

6. Use your bio

Use your bio to describe who you are and link back to your blog. Say what kind of writing you do, maybe mention where you are in your writing journey, and mention anything else that’s important to who you are. Also include keywords (naturally; don’t force them) to make people more likely to find you in searches.

You might also want to mention in your name that you’re an author. My Pinterest name is “R.M. Archer | Author”. This helps people see at a glance what it is you do and what your profile is mostly going to display.

Are you using Pinterest to promote your blog yet? If you leave your username in the comments I’ll give you a follow. :)

Farewell to June

June’s Writing

I wrote a total of 45,229 this month. Some of that was on The Shadow Raven, some was on The Heart of the Baenor, some was on blogging and some was on a short story that I started writing as a possibility to enter into the Story Embers writing contest at the last minute and decided against.

The Shadow Raven is up to 75,915 words now, which means it’s longer than The Last Assassin, but there’s still a month and a half of story time before it’ll catch up with The Last Assassin sufficiently that I can move on to The King’s Paladin and get that caught up. And then I have to be super careful and strategic about which scenes I write in which books and from who’s POV and things start to get really complicated. But it’ll be fun! Once I get there. The Shadow Raven apparently has longer chapters than The Last Assassin, considering it’s almost 76k with 23 chapters and The Last Assassin is approximately 74k with 30 chapters.

Also, EDITING! I’ve been buckling down on The Heart of the Baenor this month, getting the second draft done. I still have three chapters to write to end it (I took a long hiatus from it when I wrote it and thus edited it before finishing it because my writing style had so drastically improved in that time), but I plan on getting those done today and moving on to printing it so I can edit it again. I’ve actually really enjoyed editing this book, which is kind of rare, and I’m excited to get it as polished as I can. :)

June’s Reading

I only finished two books this month: No Dragons, Please! by Annie Twitchell and Azalei’s Riders by Miranda Marie (links to reviews). I also started reading Azalei’s Strategy by Miranda Marie and Infraction by J.E. Purrazzi, and I’m also reading Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett Harris (amazing book), The Odyssey (for school. Being homeschooled is great… until you fall behind. XP), The Sorcerer’s Daughter by Terry Brooks, The Secret of the Desert Stone by Frank Peretti (book 6 of the Cooper Kids series), and Quest for Seven Castles and The Great War by Ed Dunlop (books 2 and 8 of the Terrestria Chronicles), all of which I aim to be finished reading this month. Will I succeed in that goal? Well… I guess we’ll find out, won’t we?

Other Stuff

Nothing super exciting happened in June – my sister’s been gone in North Carolina for two weeks, but she’s coming home tomorrow – but I’m super happy for July. For one thing, CAMP IS COMING UP! I can’t tell you how excited I am for camp later this month. I made a couple of great friends last year who I’m super excited to see again, I’m looking forward to growing in my faith again, and my best friend and I are performing (hopefully. If we can practice.) The Other Side from The Greatest Showman at the talent show. (Yes, we got permission to perform a bar scene at a Christian camp. We’re converting it into a coffee shop.)

And also Camp NaNoWriMo. I’m aiming for about 48,700 words (preferably on The Shadow Raven) and having The Heart of the Baenor’s third draft completed. There aren’t going to be any blog updates, but I post my daily word count for the Go Teen Writers 100-for-100 on my Twitter account and I plan on continuing that after the challenge runs out as well, so if you want to keep up-to-date on how much I write, that’s the place to go.

So yeah, that’s what my month has looked like. :) How was your June? What are you looking forward to in July? What’s your goal for Camp NaNoWriMo, if you’re participating?