L. Lane Bailey's Blog, page 11

So You Want To Write A Book 6

Let’s talk about worldbuilding. You will probably need to do some.

It might be major… if you are writing fantasy or space fiction, likely you will need to create your world and its rules. It may have similarities to our world, but it will also have differences. There might be two moons… or two suns. Gravity may be different. There might be advanced technology, or less tech. Read More

Obviously, in those situations, things are wide open. And so, I would recommend having copious no...

So you Want To Write a Book 5

You’ve organized yourself and created a way to keep track of characters and timelines (part 2). You have written an outline (part 1) that includes the exposition, inciting incident and rising action (part 3), and then moves on to the dilemma, climax and denouement (part 4).

Now you need to write a book. Here is where things tend to go wrong for me. Not wrong… but astray. Read More

The first time I wrote a book, I had a plan. But it crashed into my characters, and they won. They di...

Escape – FREE

I haven’t mentioned it for a while… but I have a FREE ebook available for download. To get the book, all you have to do is subscribe to my blog. There is a box over on the side of the blog that says subscribe. Fill in your email and you will get an email back with instructions on how to collect the free book. Of course, I’m hoping you stay subscribed for a long time and give feedback… but, the book will be yours to keep.

A couple of months ago I updated the book with a few changes. I e...

New Month, New Goals

Maybe the same goals. I thought August was a bloodbath… until September. A few things happened that made it a little worse across a variety of fronts.

Book sales… Ouch. Didn’t get anywhere close to the 50 I was looking for (and/or equivalent KU page reads. Renewing that goal, but this time I am going to pump a little marketing toward it.

Vocal Reads… I have been hunting for 300 reads in a month, and I thought I was on track. But, I didn’t produce a lot of material for the short ...

So You Want To Write a Book 4

When last we left, we were talking about the six elements. We covered the first three in the last post… Exposition (the beginning), Inciting Incident, and Rising Actions/Progressive Complications. If you haven’t read it, check it out. Read More

Dilemma…

The progressive complications are focused on one thing… getting the main character to make a decision. But, in order to make a decision, there has to be a dilemma. They can make the “right” choice… or the “wrong” choice. That will d...

So You Want To Write a Book 3

In part 1, we covered the story arc. the elements of the arc are: Exposition, Inciting Incident, Rising Action/Progressive Complications, Dilemma, Climax, Denouement.

The elements can be shuffled a little, and there can be multiple dilemmas, etc. But the elements are fairly set. There can be additional elements, as well. Falling Action is one that is in many types of fiction or storytelling. Read More

Exposition…

The “Exposition” starts the story. It sets the place and introduc...

The Wall

I seem to have hit a wall.

Maybe it’s like a “Runner’s Wall” where it seems like they can’t take another stride, then they break through and their performance moves to another level. Read More

Or maybe it is more like a prisoner that can’t get outside.

Several times in the last few days I have had interactions on FaceBook with people on my friends list. They aren’t seeing any of my posts about writing. If I post something political, it is everywhere. Mention a book, invisible. ...

So You Want To Write a Book 2

It’s not even October yet, but it will be NaNoWriMo before you know it. November is National Novel Writing Month. tens of thousands of would-be-authors will try to write a 50,000 word book in one month. Many will succeed, many more will fail. I’m hoping that if you want to give it a shot, you will be able to see it through and check that item off your bucket list. Read More

Previously, I have not managed to participate in NaNoWriMo. My timing has been a little off. Each time I had jus...

So You Want To Write a Book 1

November is National Novel Writing Month, NaNoWriMo. Tens of thousands of people will sit down and try to write a 50,000 word novel over the course of that month. Some will complete their goal, others will falter.

I have not really done the NaNoWriMo thing to very good effect since hearing about it in 2019. It’s been going on much longer than that, though. My failure to participate hasn’t been due to anything with the event. I think it’s rather cool. Instead, I have had poor timing. ...

Awesome Deal for Readers

Not just those that read my books, but for people that like to read a lot…

I read about 50 books a year most years. Add to that reading my own books (looking for mistakes, or checking timelines as I write other books in the series…) and there are probably another ten or fifteen reads a year. Read More

So, unless you are always reading free books, those titles start adding up. Fifty books at $3 each is $150. That is definitely getting into the realm of buying a subscription to Ki...