L.G. Estrella's Blog, page 48

The Hero Placement Agency

I’m still working on The Hungry Dragon Cookie Company, which is the collection of short stories set in The Unconventional Heroes Series. Unfortunately, it’s taking longer than I anticipated since some of the short stories are turning out to be not so short (e.g., the final version of the first short story comes in at around 14,000 words…), and I’ve been dealing with a variety of matters not directly related to writing. I hope to be done by some point in October or November at the very latest....

Make Different Points of View Different

One of the most common techniques used by writers to help make their story more engaging is to use multiple points of view. This can certainly be quite a refreshing change for a reader, and it can be extremely interesting to see how characters on different sides and with different information react to the same situation. However, it is not with pitfalls. Perhaps the most common mistake is that of sameness. Having different points of view does not help a story if those points of view end up be...

The Decline of the Short Story in Conventional Publishing

Once upon a time, short stories were very popular. There were countless genre magazines (the most famous/infamous of which were undoubtedly those devoted to horror) that regularly released collections of short stories not only by popular and well-established authors but also by newcomers.

This is no longer the case.

There are a variety of factors at play, but perhaps the most relevant is simple economics. As traditional publishing costs increased, it became harder and harder for genre magazin...

Character Design: Part 1 (Introduction)

Today, I’d like to discuss character design. I guess the question on everyone’s lips is: what is the best way to design interesting and engaging characters? The answer is that there isn’t an objectively best way. Each writer has their own approach, and some approaches will work better for some people than for others. If an approach doesn’t suit you, the best course of action may be to keep trying different approaches until you find one that does suit you.

That said, in this series of posts, I...

Some Public Speaking Tips

I will go into public speaking in more depth in later posts, but I thought I’d offer a few tips, relatively easy things that can make an immediate difference.

Rehearse your speech. This might sound obvious, but I’ve encountered so many people who are perfectly willing to write up their entire speech but won’t do more than skim through it once or twice before they have to give the speech. If you’ve written your speech out in full, then rehearse it. Practice delivering it in exactly the same w...

Progress Report (16-07-2016)

Today, I’d like to give you guys some idea of what I’m up. At the moment, I’m working on a collection of short stories set before, after, and during the first three parts of The Unconventional Heroes Series. At the moment, the collection has fourteen stories in it. Here are the current names for those stories:

Hungry Food Supply Piracy Uncle Gerald First Meeting Tomb Raider Impostor The Bank Gardening Research and Development The Rules Adventure Time Mr Sparkles The Beach

That isn’t necessa...

Details, Description, and Imagination

Being able to describe things in a way that is interesting and engaging is one of the most important skills that a writer can have. Good descriptions can elevate otherwise mundane scenes and add depth and flavour to your writing. One of the best examples of this can be seen in how characters are described.

Consider the following description:

He was tall and skinny, and his clothing had clearly seen better days. If there was a field nearby, he would have done a fine job as a scarecrow.

There a...

An Important Question

Who do you think would win in a cake-eating contest, Sam or Spot?

In one corner you have Sam, a trans-dimensional protoplasmic horror whose species may or may not want to bring about the apocalypse after ushering in an era of limitless horror and despair. In the other corner, you have Spot, the little dragon with a big stomach.

Which cake-eater shall reign supreme?

P. S. You may well find out the answer in one of the short stories in the upcoming collection…

 

Improvement Through Teaching

Over the years, I’ve been fortunate enough to participate in various forms of teaching. I say fortunate because I find teaching immensely rewarding, and I do believe that it is rather undervalued, much to the misfortune of both teachers and students.

Some of my experiences in teaching have been in physical activities. For example, I once ran a martial arts club for a couple of weeks when the owner (a close friend who was one of my instructors during my younger years) went on holiday. However,...

Progress Report

With Divine Assistance now available on Amazon, I’ve been turning my attention to my next project: a collection of short stories set in the same universe as The Unconventional Heroes Series. The stories will features characters from the series, both those you’re already quite familiar with (e.g., Timmy) and those who’ve stayed mostly in the background (e.g., some of the people who work at the castle). The stories will also be set at different times. Some will take place before the beginning o...