Justin Swapp's Blog, page 13
September 2, 2012
How to Write a Story that Rocks
I recently found the video of a great workshop I attended at Life, The Universe, and Everything (LTUE) on Feb 11, 2010 at BYU a few years ago. Larry Correia and John Brown, both published authors, walked us through the creative process for writing a great story. It was a wonderful writer’s workshop, and now you can see it for yourself.
Below you will find the handout, and you can use this link to get the hand out.
Visit their websites:
Here are the videos for the workshop – How to Write a Story that Rocks
How to Write a Story that Rocks Part 1
How to Write a Story that Rocks Part 2
How to Write a Story that Rocks Part 3
How to Write a Story that Rocks Part 4
How to Write a Story that Rocks Part 5
How to Write a Story that Rocks Part 6
How to Write a Story that Rocks Part 7
How to Write a Story that Rocks Part 8
How to Write a Story that Rocks Part 9
How to Write a Story that Rocks Part 10
How to Write a Story that Rocks Part 11
How to Write a Story that Rocks Part 12
The post How to Write a Story that Rocks appeared first on Justin Swapp.
August 28, 2012
The Codex
Published by Alliteration Ink, The Codex is a compilation of creepy sci-fi stories, originally appearing in The Crimson Pact anthologies as ”The Transition,” and its sequel “The Merging.” The stories follow an unsuspecting foreign exchange student named Sloan Boyle as a seemingly innocent interaction with a stranger in a Spanish Cafe leads to a dangerous series of events, and a weighty discovery that threatens everything Sloan every knew about this world, and his role in it.
If you never got a chance to check out The Crimson Pact, but you want to read my stories, check out The Codex.
Buy The Codex
The post The Codex appeared first on Justin Swapp.
July 29, 2012
Story Structure
I attended LTUE at BYU a few years ago and had the privilege to listen to Dan Wells give a great presentation on story structure. At the time, his thoughts on the matter really seemed to unravel some of my plotting issues, and generally seemed to just get me unstuck. For your convenience, here is a quick modeling of the 7 point structure as he calls it.
Hook = Get reader interest. (opposite state of the resolution)
Plot Turn 1 = Moves you from the beginning to the mid point. Intro the conflict. The character’s world changes. Meet new people, discover new secrets, follow the white rabbit.
Pinch 1 = Apply pressure: Something goes wrong, bad guys attack, peace is destroyed. Force the characters into action. Often used to intro the villain.
Midpoint = you determine to do something. The character moves from reaction to action.
Pinch 2 = Apply more pressure until the situation seems hopeless: a plan fails, a mentor dies leaving the hero alone, the bad guy seems to win. “Jaws of defeat.”
Plot Turn 2 = the power is in you. Obtain the thing needed to make the resolution happen
Resolution = Satisfy the reader. (opposite state of the hook)
Well, imagine my joy when I stumbled across this very presentation on youtube.com! For those of you looking to understand story structure, here is a link to the presentation.
Also, I found a link to the power point presentation he did on story structure as well. Here you go!
June 30, 2012
The Memory Eater
The Memory Eater is finally here, now available in eBook and paperback.
Buy The Memory Eater
The Memory Eater is an anthology consisting of 27 uniquely illustrated stories based on a device with the ability to locate and destroy any memory in the human mind. Follow the story of a conflicted man who tries to become the fantasy inside his head by deleting reality. Or the story of a devastated couple who lost their child and turn to a shady Memory Eater doctor to erase their problems. Discover the truth behind the urban legend regarding where the Memory Eater really came from, and how it was used during World War II in the fight against Hitler and Nazi Germany. Drop in for a tale of love, and how one man never gives up hope to find his childhood sweetheart after the Memory Eater tore them apart. Witness how a teenage prank involving the machine and a chore goes hilariously wrong. Or how, with the introduction of this new technology, mass paranoia begins to spread, prompting people to tirelessly investigate their own pasts. See how the Memory Eater will shape the future into the perfect utopia. How it evolves into much more than deleting memories. Memories will become transferable and sold in back alleys. They’ll become viral. But ultimately, nothing will be safe, not even the sacred depths of the mind.
A gentleman named Matt was the first to review the book. Here is what he had to say:
“Ok so I just finished the entire book and MAN OH MAN IS IT GOOD!! I have to be honest another one of my kickstarters refereed me to this one and although i thought it looked interesting i didn’t think it would be all that great. Honestly thething I looked forward to the most were the illustrations but after reading the entire thing… NO scratch that after reading the first story it all felt completely worth it and it just kept getting better and better and better. Every single one of those storys were so interesting and the were different enough where even thought they were mostly all based in the same realm of reality it always felt like i was reading a new book. I cant wait till you start selling this because I’m gonna refer this book to all my friends. EXCELLENT JOB Mr.Hance and EXCELLENT JOB to all the writers.:)”
The Memory Eater on Amazon
June 18, 2012
Free Scrivener Templates
New to Scrivener? Download a trial.
If you’ve discovered Scrivener, like many writers have, you have probably come to love the flexibility and organization it affords your creativity. I’m new to the software, but I really like what I see so far. From everything I’ve read, so does just about everyone else. Understand that Scrivener is not a standard word processor, nor does it intend to be. Think of it as a creative suite. It even makes publishing ebooks quite easy.
Once you’ve got the basics down, you’ll probably start looking for some templates to kickstart your writing process. Well, look no further. Below you will find a series of templates that can be found on the web from other authors who share the same passion you have (are gaining) for Scrivener.
Scrivener Fiction Templates
The SFWA Short Story template – by author Jamie Todd Rubin. This is a short story template intended for SFWA markets.
The Hero’s Journey template – Mel Corbett bases this template on the famous Hero’s Journey story structure made famous by Joseph Campbell.
The Snowflake Template - The blog wordinprogress.com has a nice template using the snowflake method.
The General Novel Project - By bestselling author, David Hewson.
The Beat Sheet Template - Story structure based on Larry Brooks ‘beats’ story stucture, template by Mel Corbett.
The Mystery Novel template – Self-explanatory. Also by Mel Corbett.
Scrivener Non-Fiction Templates
Academic Paper Template – Michael Alaxelson has given us a template for journals and other publications.
The Research Project Template and the Teaching Scrivener Template – For professional and educational projects, by Katherine Pickering Antonova. These are currently .xml files as she seems to still be working on them. Fingers crossed!
There are discussions on www.literatureandlatte.com/forum/ that touch on templates and how to make them. If you have further questions, try your questions there and the great community will be supportive.
April 2, 2012
The Memory Eater anthology is live on Kickstarter! (Clic...
The Memory Eater anthology is live on Kickstarter! (Click here to check it out). Please visit the site and consider sponsoring it. The stories and illustrations are outstanding.
Not familiar with kickstarter? It allows people with projects to make a case to the community for private funding. Each site visitor can pledge or sponsor a certain amount of money (the price of a book, let's say) and then get something for it in return. Along the right side of the page you will find the various sponsorship levels, and what you get for your donation.
We are giving away printed copies of the book, ebooks, t-shirts, bookmarks, and even the original art that made up the illustrations for some of the stories.
Please tweet this, post about it, or just pass along the message!
Click here to visit The Memory Eater on KickStarter!
March 29, 2012
The Memory Eater Four Story Sampler
In anticipation of The Memory Eater Anthology's kickstarter launch, the Editor has prepared a four story sampler of the writing. The sampler includes the following:
SAMPLE STORIES
Chess Match
by Matthew Hance
Just Like Starting Over
by Vivian Davenport
Souvenirs From Another Life
by Lauren Teffeau
Home Again
by DL Thurston
If you would like to learn more about the authors in The Memory Eater, please follow the following link to read their bios.
The Memory Eater Four Story Sampler
In anticipation of The Memory Eater Anthology’s kickstarter launch, the Editor has prepared a four story sampler of the writing. The sampler includes the following:
SAMPLE STORIES
Chess Match
by Matthew Hance
Just Like Starting Over
by Vivian Davenport
Souvenirs From Another Life
by Lauren Teffeau
Home Again
by DL Thurston
If you would like to learn more about the authors in The Memory Eater, please follow the following link to read their bios.
March 22, 2012
Author Spotlight: The Memory Eater Anthology
March 21, 2012
Author Spotlight: The Memory Eater Anthology
I’ve recently been highlighted on a new Author Spotlight page for the
upcoming Memory Eater Anthology. Check it out.
