Stephanie Bibb's Blog, page 55

Thoughts on Writing – Creating Tension

In my previous post about what a serial episode needs, one of the key elementsI mentioned was having tension and/or conflict. Eachepisodeneeds to have some kind of tension, or else the story will beboring.

Oftentimes we add conflict to a story byadding action. But that’s not always what creates tension (and action scenes can be boring if the stakes aren’t right for the character involved). At times, I’ve struggled in my edits of The Multiverse Chronicles to see what is missing. In some cases,...

Behind the Scenes – Oh Wicked Escort

A cover for Melange Books. For this cover, the author already had a pretty good idea of what they wanted it to look like, and they provided a mockup along with the art form.

My job, then, was to find the appropriate stock images, the right font, and position those images based on what they had. In addition, I added the gilded, embossed effects to enhance the feeling that the book came from the particular era. I was a little concerned about being able to find an actual omnibus, as they request...

Thoughts on Publishing – Author Photos

As I get closer to releasing Magic’s Stealing, I’ve beenthinking about the little details that still need to be decided before publishing. What do I want to put on the copyright page? Where should I put the acknowledgements?Do I want the blurb after the title page inside the ebook edition?Should I have an author photo?

Let’s focus on the author photo, because that’s the one that’s beenpuzzling me.

Really Old Artsy Author Photo

My first author photo (artist photo, really, since I started by us...

Thoughts on Writing – What does a Serial Episode need?

While waiting for the final round of beta comments on Magic’s Stealing (there area lot of waiting phases… which is why it is really helpful to have another project on hand), I’ve beenworking on editing The Multiverse Chronicles.

As I’ve said before, The Multiverse Chronicles is a set of short stories written by my husband, which I then reviseand edit. Our current goal is to have twenty-four episodes in the first season, which will be released weekly over a period of six months.

There are a fe...

Behind the Scenes – Orphans’ Inn

A cover for Melange Books. For this cover, we wanted to give the book a historical feel. The author had found an image of the actual inn in the story, which I used to look for similar buildings. Though weultimately chose to focus on the feel of the book, rather than use an exact image, the author was able to obtain permission to use a cropped photo of the inn on the back cover. Sothe picture of the actual inn willbeon the back cover, a piece of history that adds to the book’s theme.

I used a...

Thoughts on Writing – The Little Details Count

My husband, Isaac, enjoys creating houses on the XBOX 360 Sims 3 game, and since my parents are coming up to visit, he decided to create a model of my parent’s house. He created the general layout, placed the furniture, and after fussing with the game to find the proper sized lot so he could include the backyard, he handed the controller over to me so I could add in the little details. Funny thing… I hadn’t realized how many “decorations” this game has.I added a boom box on an end table in th...

Cover Reveal for a Fellow Author – Born of Treasure!

Today I’m hosting a cover reveal for Jordan Elizabeth, one of my author friends. Just to clarify, I didn’t create this cover (Amalia Chitulescu did, you can see more of herwork here: http://www.redbubble.com/people/amyamalia). I think it looks stunning. :-) And now for the reveal…

BORN OF TREASURE

Clark used to be a miner, until he drank from a vial he swore was absinthe but was actually an invention to give him the ability to raise the dead. Now Clark seeks to fulfill his father’s wishes to...

Thoughts on Writing – The Omniscient POV

For most of the stories I’ve written, I prefer a deep point of view. I like beingright next to the character, getting their thoughts and feelings asthey see it.Most of the time I choose either first person (Distant Horizon and Glitch), or close third (Magic’s Stealing and The Little One). While I might swap point of view characters between scenes, those scenes stay distinctly in one person’s head.

And then I started working on The Multiverse Chronicles.

The Multiverse Chronicles is pseudo-ste...

Thoughts on Gaming – The Importance of Clear Instructions

Isaac and I recently went to St. Louis to visit friends, and while there, we had them test out our new Battle Decks: Multiverse 1953 game (Thanks, guys!). The goal was to see how easy the rules were to follow without our intervention, as well as to make sure the game played as we intended based on those rules. Think of it kind of like beta-reading… you want to make sure your readers are getting the information and the meaning you intend. Where there is confusion, there is trouble.

It quickly...

Thoughts on Writing – Character Motivation

Today I’m talking about how a character’s backstory influences their actions.

In the first draft of Magic’s Stealing, I never really explainedwhy the main character, Toranih, didn’t like magic. She simply didn’t. But stories generally read better if the author knowswhya character behaves a certain way, even if theynever explain this directly to the reader. So, in order to add credibility to Toranih’scharacter, I began to explore her motives.

From Dictionary.com (a really useful resource when...