Stephanie Bibb's Blog, page 43
June 3, 2016
Thoughts on Publishing – Infinitas Publishing Status Report
It’s that time again! Time for the monthly Infinitas Publishing status report.
The Shadow War: I finished the first round of edits and I’m now in the process of smoothing out the story and polishing before sending itto beta-readers. Progress is definitely being made!
The Multiverse Chronicles: Trials of Blood and Steel:Slowed down a bit on releasing episodes (you can read why in this post) but we’re working our way through the second half of the first season. Isaac and I are debating taking a...
June 1, 2016
Thoughts on Writing – When Good Characters Do Things You Hate
When co-authors disagree… the war behind the war… andcharacters you love doing things you hate.
*Sigh.*
Sometimes co-authors have two different visions for the same story. That’s when editing gets difficult. You go round and round in circles, and a few choice characters should probably hide lest they get caught in the force of a full-scale rewrite.
Part of the reason I haven’t gotten the next episode of The Multiverse Chronicles edited yet is because I’ve been busy catching up on formatting a...
May 30, 2016
Thoughts on Writing – Active Vs Passive Protagonists
Sometimes, when writing or reading a story, werun into protagonistswho fall flat. Protagonists whoseem boring or uninteresting, and wejust can’t figure out why.
One possibility is that they aren’t playing an active role in the story.
It’s tough to avoid. As a writer, you may very well have a plot you want to convey. You want your character to follow the plot so you can show your readers all the cool stuff in your world.
Sometimes, you choosethe wrong protagonist.
I’m a big fan of Janice Hardy...
May 27, 2016
Behind the Scenes – The Quarter Horse
A cover for Melange Books’s YA imprint, Fire and Ice. This is the fourth book in The Horse Rescuers series, and so we wanted to keep the style the same as the other books. In this case, we kept the same layout and font. We tried a couple different colors as the main color scheme (each book is a bit different), and ultimately settled on the gray-blue.
For the horse image, I used the art form to reference the kind of horse the author wanted, and then I created a lightbox on Dreamstime with seve...
May 25, 2016
Thoughts on Writing – Naming Your Character
In my previous post, I talked about choosing the right attire for the characters in your world. Today, I want to talk a bit about naming.
We’ve all heard suggestions for basic naming conventions. These are a few off the top of my head:
Make sure each name sounds/looks different (Varyingsyllabic emphasis can help here–pay attention to where you emphasize the name. “Anna” has a different emphasis than “Blayloc,” for instance). Don’t have the same first letter of their names for multiple charac...May 23, 2016
Thoughts on Writing – Considering Attire in World Building
Last weekend Isaac and I went to Planet Comicon as volunteers, and we had a lot of fun! During our off time, we got to see some cool panels, spent money in the vendor room (Always have a budget… it helps), and saw a neat cosplay.
However, the side-effect of going to Planet Comicon andNakaKonisthe resulting desire to write and draw comics. (Originally we had planned on writing The Multiverse Chronicles in comic book form, but that didn’t happen. We kept the idea of doing illustrations, though)...
May 20, 2016
Behind the Scenes – Sword of the Quest
A cover for Melange Books. For this cover, we wanted to match the covers of the previous books, Dragon Sword andSword of Doom.The font and border placement remained the same, as did the leather textured background. The difference was the scene on the front. We tried a couple cover options before we came to this particular setup. (As a note, if you’re the cover artist working on multiple books in a series, and you have all the art forms for each of those books, make sure you don’t accidentally...
May 18, 2016
Thoughts on Publishing – Email Newsletter
After hearing a number of authors suggest that having an email newsletter was super helpful inmarketing their books, I finally set up a newsletter.
Now, I’m not sure if it’s going to make a difference that the newslettersays “Infinitas Publishing” rather than “Stephanie Flint and Isaac Flint” in terms of personalization, but I wanted to include both Isaac and I in the newsletter, along with our booksandour games (seeing as how they tend to tie together).
On the other hand, I wonder if readers...
May 16, 2016
Episode 14: The Test – Part Two
The Multiverse Chronicles SEASON ONE:EPISODEFourteen “The Test – Part Two”The next episode of The Multiverse Chronicles is now online!
Trish must successfully complete her flight examination or lose her pterosaur for good…
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After the young pterosaur’s capture, the mangy humans kept her chained to their floating hut. At first, she fought the chain. She snapped at it and flapped her wings, but the chain held fast and the boat was anchored. Though the human...
May 11, 2016
Thoughts on Writing – Referencing Other Books For Writing Style
One of the things I’ve found helpful when writing specific scenes, especially if I’m aiming for a certain tone or voice, is to read a book with a similar style. For example, in the latest scene I’m editing for The Multiverse Chronicles, I’m working on part two ofan episode that hasa certainpterosaur’s point of view. In the previous episode (Episode 13: The Test – Part One),the curious pterosaur has been captured by “mangy humans.”
This isthe first paragraphfrom one of the earlier drafts of th...
