L.G. Estrella's Blog, page 36
August 20, 2020
Same Problem… Different Approaches
One of the best ways to better differentiate between your characters it to show the different ways they would approach the same problem. How someone approaches a problem can say a lot about what sort of person they are, as well as what abilities they might have.
I’ll illustrate this by using characters from The Unconventional Heroes Series.
Spot nudged the door with his head. It didn’t budge. Standing on his hind legs, he grasped the door knob in his mouth and turned it. Again, the door refused...
August 14, 2020
Humour Is In The Simple Things
There are many ways to add humour to a story. One method that almost anyone can use is through the inclusion of simple things… with a twist.
What do I mean by that?
Well, it’s actually not very complicated. Characters are people, right? And there are things that all people have in common. We have to worry about finding food to eat. We need to have a source of income. We like to have friends and people we get along with. You can inject humour into your story by showing the characters of an otherw...
August 9, 2020
Speech In Fighting Games
Since I got used to playing the Japanese versions of lots of fighting games when I was younger, I have generally switched any fighting games I get to Japanese audio. Since I don’t speak Japanese that well, I never really paid much attention to what the characters were actually saying.
But now that I stop and think about it, wouldn’t it be off-putting?
There are games in which characters don’t just make generic sounds of effort. Instead, they will say complete sentences and even taunt the op...
August 4, 2020
A Quick Note On MTG
I love Magic: The Gathering, but I honestly have no idea what the development team is doing. There have been more bans in the past three years than in the previous twenty combined, at least that’s how it feels.
The worst bit? Today’s ban announcement is about a year too late. For an entire year, people have been complaining about these cards and only now, as rotation looms, is anything done. A cynical person might say that they kept them legal just to sell packs. It wouldn’t surprise me.
Bu...
July 28, 2020
The Hungry Dragon Cookie Company Is Now Available On Audible (Audiobook)
Your two favourite necromancers are back again, this time with short stories in audiobook form! The Hungry Dragon Cookie Company is now available on Audible here. It turns the first set of side stories from the Unconventional Heroes Series into 12.5 hours of fun, action, humour, and adventure.
Produced by Podium Audio and narrated by the wonderful Fred Berman, you can get it from Audible here. In case you aren’t familiar with the series, here is the blurb:
The Hungry Dragon Cookie Company – it s...
Own Your Mistakes
It is the easiest thing in the world to own your successes. When everything is going right, it’s easy to accept responsibility and the praise that goes with it. It is far harder but often far more important to own your mistakes. Why? Because until you own your mistakes, you can’t learn from them.
Consider a typical situation that a writer might confront. They write a book. It sells terribly, and the reviews all consistently criticise the plot of the story as a major weak point. It would be very,...
July 19, 2020
Tech Switch
Over the past month, I’ve undergone something of a tech switch, and I’d like to take a few moments to pay my respects to the loyal and sturdy hardware that got me where I am today.
Every single piece of fiction I’ve written that’s been released on Amazon was written on my previous laptop, a pre-Retina 2012 MacBook Pro. That laptop survived multiple hard drive issues earlier in its life, multiple battery failures, and a dead trackpad. In the end, the only thing that could bring it down was time. ...
July 14, 2020
Progress Report 15-07-2020
Well, it’s time for another progress repot. So… how are things going?
Currently, I’m working on the followup to The Hungry Dragon Cookie Company, so if you want more of Timmy and the gang’s adventures you’re in luck. As of today, I have finished writing the skeleton drafts for all fourteen stories in the collection, which adds up to a total of 114,000 words. That number will definitely increase throughout the drafting process since a skeletons draft is, by its very nature, very rough and mostly ...
July 7, 2020
Timmy (Character Profile)
Note: Timmy is from The Unconventional Heroes Series.
General Information
Name: Timothy Walter Bolton (the necromancer normally known as Timmy)
Age: 27
Eye colour: Dark brown
Hair colour: Brown
Height: 6 feet (1.83 metres)
Weight: 175 pounds (79 kilograms)
Innate magic: Necromancy and earth magic
Other magic: Runes and seals; eldritch magic
Other skills and abilities: Jack of all trades; dragon dentist; skilled investor; etc.
Favoured weapon: Shovel
Faction: Team Timmy; Everton
Positi...
July 2, 2020
Site Update
In celebration of the release of the audiobook for Two Necromancers, a Dragon, and a Vampire on Audible (you can get it here). I have finally gotten around to updating the appearance of the website a bit.
Rejoice!
It’s only taken me seven years, but I’ve finally implemented drop down menus and tidied things up a bit. You will now find the categories (e.g., Writing Technique) on the side bar and also in the drop down menu under ‘Blog’ at the top. As for my original fiction, that has its own drop ...
