Today’s guest post is from Alexis D. Johnson, a fantasy author and freelance editor specializing in speculative fiction for clients in the U.S. and U.K. She is currently working on her book The Seventh Year Trials. It is an underdog fantasy woven with charm, treachery, and a touch of steampunk, where dragons and riders contend…
I’m currently in the revision stages of my first novel. To help with the process, I’m using K.M. Weiland’s book 5 Secrets of Story Structure. Maybe you’ve never read anything about structure. Lots on plot, but little, if anything about structure. Structure is essential. So is plot. And they are different things! Definitions of Structure…
I visit my library every Wednesday to upload videos my church sends to India. A video that takes hours to upload from my home computer takes only 1-2 minutes to upload from the library’s system. That’s just one of the amazing resources of my local library. I live in a town of around 76,000 people….
I made a discovery this weekend. Those kind you’d call “light bulb” or “aha” moments. I noticed I was experiencing that old “my life is nothing but work” attitude. I asked my why and discovered it was because I had allowed other commitments keep me from working on my own story. So on Saturday, I…
Late last year I completed the draft of a novel—the first novel I’ve managed to finish! Fiction is my passion, but it seems at this point in my writing career I write mostly nonfiction. Not sure why that is. I’ve started as many novels as I have published nonfiction books. Those novels sit partially written,…
The holidays are upon us. Before we know it, 2020 will make its entrance. Every time I say 2020, it makes me think of the song “In the year 2525.” Yeah, I know, you’re probably clueless. Those older than 50 might remember it. It was a #1 hit in 1969. I was the ripe old age…
Formatting an eBook isn’t hard. What you have to remember is the conversion process involved. An eBook is read on a device such as a Kindle Fire, a Nook, an iPad, and more. Many of the devices have proprietary coding—Kindle is one, and it comes with a .mobi extension to the file. Here is an…
Last week in part 1 of “How to Format a Book” I covered trim size, margins, and fonts and their sizes. This week, we’ll look at page headings, chapter beginning elements, and page count. Whether you’re doing the layout or you’ve hired a designer, the elements discussed last week are essentials you must determine before…