R.A. Black's Blog, page 6
February 1, 2015
Start at the Beginning
The opening scene of a novel is one of the most important parts to a book. This is where you hook your readers, like reeling in a tasty fish, You’ve got to use the right bait. You need a start that’s interesting, that captures their imagination and doesn’t let go. This is all easy to […]
January 30, 2015
Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Goblins
This is a first draft, and the title likely to change too. Two hours to sunrise and I was already running for my life. Not the best start to the morning, I had to admit, even for me. The sound of dogs – large, angry dogs – was horribly close as I pounded down the […]
How are your Characters Coming Across?
It can be hard as a writer to take a step back from our stories and separate what’s on the page and what’s in our heads. After all, we know the characters like they are family members. We know their habits, motivations, and personalities off by heart. It’s obvious to me, for example, that Harry […]
January 29, 2015
Book Review – Waters of Nyra
Waters of Nyra, Volume 1 by Kelly Michelle Baker Never an ordinary dragon, Nyra grew up forbidden to breathe fire or fly. Like her mother before her, she has only known a life of enslavement, held in thrall by mountain dragons, which need Nyra’s ripening wings to secure hunting for the future. But at the […]
January 28, 2015
My Rejections now Out-weight my Fulls…
…and you know what? I couldn’t be happier. Don’t get me wrong, I still feel a bitter pang of disappointment at each rejection email, but it’s just that: a pang. Then I close the email and I get on with my day. I don’t let them get me down, and I don’t feel like I’ve […]
January 27, 2015
Wordle of Happily Ever After
Someone pointed out that Wordle is a great way to look at your word usage in a visual manner and see if there any of the basic words like just or very that you are over-using. This is the result of my first draft of Happily Ever After (Can you guess the character names?) Bigger […]
It’s More of a Guideline, Really
Writers get a lot of advice. Most of it is well meant, much of it is helpful. Sometimes there’s bad advice too. If someone’s telling you that a great way to market your book is to send out lots of identical tweets and just tag it full of irrelevant hashtags, please note that’s bad advice. […]
January 26, 2015
New project
I had an idea for an evil circus plot, (because clowns are terrifying and you’ll never be able to convince me otherwise.) I really want to make something from it, but I wasn’t getting into the beginning. I think it felt a bit too much like a prologue and I don’t tend to get on […]
January 24, 2015
Guest Post: Helen Treharne
Elbows deep in marketing? Good. You need to be. “Writing a book is hard work, but it is not the hardest part.” That is one of the most frequently repeated phrases I hear about the experiences of authors. It is true of those who publish via the traditional route, as well as independent published writers […]
January 23, 2015
Moving On
Finishing up with one novel and starting to work on a new one feels to me what I imagine starting to date feels like after you’ve come out of a long- term relationship. You’ve got all these memories associated, all the good times, and the bad, and part of you wants to go back to […]
