Marius H. Visser's Blog, page 3

Goodreads Book Giveaway - Mercury Dagger, A Tale From Kraydenia 2nd Edition

I am giving away free copies of the newly released Mercury Dagger, A Tale From Kraydenia to 100 winners in this Goodreads book giveaway for anybody from the United States. The giveaway starts on 16 August 2021 and runs until 28 August 2021. Join in to stand a chance at winning, and journey on the adventure of a lifetime with our heroes as they fight for Kraydenia.

Goodreads Book Giveaway - Mercury Dagger, A Tale From Kraydenia

I am giving away free copies of Mercury Dagger, A Tale From Kraydenia to 100 winners in this Goodreads book giveaway. Giveaway starts on 20 August and runs up until 10 September, join in to stand a chance at winning one.

Procrastinating again, I see...

Procrastination is the killer of progress.

How many times have you started doing something, anything, only to pack the dishwasher or play with the dog, ten minutes later. You would think this only happens when you start something you might not enjoy, but the fact is, it strikes whenever you feel you have taken on something huge and usually important. Like, for instance, right now I am supposed to be writing my new fantasy novel. But I started writing and just couldn’t get over procrastinating, putting it off by working on my website, doing spell-checking on some of my short stories, making the umpteenth cup of coffee and watching an episode of “The Umbrella Academy” on Netflix (and oddly enjoying it). Now I am not saying that I have some miracle cure for procrastination, quite the opposite in fact, I am purely writing this because I am probably procrastinating even more. But I have a few suggestions...

Remove all distractions from the room you are working in.
Switch off your phone.
Close the door.
Battle a couple of Orcs.
If all else fails, go work at a coffee shop, because if this does not work, please let me know what does.
Maybe you should put it off completely until you are ready to take on the behemoth.
Forget everything I just said, and float like a butterfly on the winds of time...

Now If you will excuse me, I need to get back to writing my novel, which I am thinking of calling “Warlock’s Path, A Binding Of Souls.”

Let me know what you think of the working title.

Cheers.

Where to start if the cursor only blinks?

So many a time you open your writing software full of enthusiasm and the bravado to take on a raging bull. Only to find you staring down the blinking cursor for hours on end. A writers nightmare...

How do you get past this you ask? Well, the only way I have come to beat this is to literally start writing anything that pops into your head. This post started with a blinking cursor come to think about it. But now as I write I can feel the creative juices starting to build in my head. I am starting to see dragons jump out from the pages, I can feel the sword slicing through the flesh of my components...

Now is the best time to start writing. I can publish this post and head on over to my novel and continue after the infuriating ordeal with the cursor. And now I know what needs to happen next. No delay.

Characters and their flaws

Characters are often plagued with too much perfection, all because the author likes the character too much. The need to break the character down somewhat to a level of imperfection that would suit the story and the character himself/herself sometimes goes unwanted. But is a need nonetheless. A character cannot be perfect, otherwise, there is no room to grow. Let your character strive to be better, to become perfect. But ulitmately probably never will.

Imagine 007 with no weakness for woman, or Iron Man without his arrogance, they would be very flat characters.

Tips Of The Trade

Have you ever had that feeling that you are writing this absolutely amazing fight scene or cave dwelling or anything else for that matter, only to get critized by someone stating, "Thats not how it works..."

Although in fictional writing, you have your imagination to roam free because, "Who says carpets can't fly?" You have to have some element of truth or proof at least as to how it is possible or that it is factual.

I have found, the best way for me personally when writing is to go out and experience most of what I am writing about, for example, if you want to write about a couple of friends walking about in a cave exploring the dwellings of dwarves and possible gold lying about... Then go to a cave and walk around, crawl through the narrow spaces, hit your head once or twice, make sure to note every single little detail possible. How cold it is, how very, very, very dark. What the stone formations look like, the Stalagtites and the Stalagmites. What flowstone really look like and stench of water lying in a puddle for a while now.

If you really want to write a sword fighting scene, go for a class... You will be amazed at the exhaustion you will experience as you fight for your life, trying to keep your head on your scrawny little neck. The quick breaths that you will take, the co-ordination and the lightning reflexes needed to stay off another blow, possibly fatal this time. Put yourself in the Characters shoes to put it blunt.

Please dont try and experience how it will actually feel like to lose an arm or something stupid like that. It's a one way street.

Write with the eyes of your character, be him/her/It...

Mercury Dagger Snippet

A little Snippet from Mercury Dagger