How Printing Your Book Draft Improves Your Editing
Writing has changed significantly in the last few decades. Where once people pulled out pen and paper, or even a typewriter, we now click away on keyboards as digital letters appear on our screens. Authors jot entire chapters into their phones or tablets, allowing autocorrect to fix whatever mishap we create. Even editing has become simpler with online tools like Grammarly correcting spelling, grammar, and verb usage.
But there is something vital about taking your draft from digital to print.
Voice of the Action: Choosing POV for Your Novel
I love writing. There are so many ways to tell a story and bring characters to life. And it all starts with POV.
Pretty sure it was grade school when I learned why every book sounded a little different. POV, or point of view, determines if your character is I, me, or Lucy Garinn. It decides how deep in your character’s headspace we get to go or how many heads we get to hop between. POV isn’t so easily defined by writers because all we need is the principle; we know what we need to know in order to finish our novel.
List of Last Names for Characters for Fiction Writers
Names have meaning because of the individual. Yet it’s so hard to pick one out of hundreds in order to describe a character. Believe me, I know. I spent a day sifting through my Pinterest inspiration board and am overwhelmed by the number of names that can be given to an entrepreneur, a criminal, and everything in between.
Last names are particularly difficult because they have to match well with the first name. Thankfully there’s many methods for surnames. Gonna detail a few ideas here, and then I’ve got a big old list of inspiration for you.
Lunar Royalty, Cybernetic Slaves, and Average People in Cinder
Past couple weeks have been chaos with me working on getting a full-time job. Nevertheless, we gotta finish up Cinder by Marissa Meyer with a quick chat on the cultures.
Funny enough, my job hunting relates a lot to this topic. As a contracted designer (and having interned with several companies), I’ve witnessed very many workplace cultures that have their highs and lows. The motivations, mentalities, even the people create the overall atmosphere and determine how one approaches or tries to fit in. Different demographics nestle within said cultures too, bringing even more impressions, practices, and ideologies. Culture can be difficult to nail down unless you look with a wide lens and zoom in gradually. Otherwise, you miss the depth.
Testing Different Fantasy Cultures in the Realm of Cahraman
If there’s one thing I can say about Lucy Tempest’s Thief of Cahraman, it’s that she inspired me to go wild. At age 14, I wrote a fantasy novel about differing territories working together. But all the cultures were the same. Setting it aside to “marinate,” I continued reading and learning.
Then I ran across the Fairytales of Folkshore collection. Looking back, the cultures are heavy exposition that don’t do much for the story, but in the moment, I was inspired. To think traded goods and table manners could add such life to characters and their dialogue! When it comes to relating to others, culture can be the great unifier or detrimental divide.
Exploring the Humble and Wondrous Backdrops within Thief of Cahraman
My dad’s an identical triplet, and probably the greatest experiment of nature versus nurture. Obviously he and his brothers have a lot of similarities, but when it comes to driving along hills or shooting guns, the Georgia bros outmatch my Floridian suburban dad. Where you live defines a lot about who you are, and Thief of Cahraman utilizes this for Adelaide’s transformation.
Brief Look at the Mystical Myths in Thief of Cahraman
Every fantasy needs a little history, something to root the events of the tale. This can take the form of legends and rumor along with proven written history. Lucy Tempest’s Thief of Cahraman uses both proven and unproven history to keep the story moving.
Daring Characters Written in the Mystical Realm of Cahraman
Becoming an author is a tricky business. After promoting my short story for a solid month, I can honestly say I’m exhausted talking about myself. Yet that’s what self-published authors have to do. They skip the grueling process of getting nit-picked and passed over by publishers only to venture down the painstaking process of making their book ready to print and promoting it endlessly. Not to mention making themselves known amidst the hundreds of thousands of books self-published on Amazon, most of which have amateur storytelling that make readers skeptical. I was one such reader until I came across Thief of Cahraman, an Aladdin-retelling with a Selection twist.
A Valuable Lesson in Standing on Morals in Eragon
Another topic I have a hard time writing about. It’s also difficult to talk about the culture in Eragon because I started reading Eldest which dives deeper. But that’ll need to wait until I finish the novel and work up that Book Talk series.
So, back to Eragon. I went through multiple titles trying to capture the essence of my thoughts (nearly impossible to do). I could mention the cliche of an oppressive ruler forcing his people into fear and rebellion. Or perhaps I could romanticize more about common village life. But in writing this, I found more intrigue in the contrast of the two cultures than in one particular perspective.
The Breathtakingly Dangerous Landscape of Paolini’s Eragon
I’ll be honest, I was nervous to write this post. As Book Talk further develops, I want to dive deep into fiction and find how it speaks to the every day. A lot of today’s media is surface level, going no deeper than pretty visuals. I didn’t want to do that. But I’m a sucker for the backdrop of Eragon.
I literally just watched The Magnificent Seven from 2016 and kept thinking “wow, westerns are gorgeous.” Anything medieval or set in a time before technology is my love language. The effort characters have to go through to gather food, the romanticism of riding horseback from place to place, the struggle with nature and overcoming of limitations. Not to mention the general look. Oof, I could go on.