Promotion and Series update

From April 14-18, all three books will be available for only $0.99, which will likely be the last time this will happen.

Also, after looking at some analytics, I’ll be discontinuing the offer through the website to read Book 1 for free. Anyone who signed up during this period will still have access to the book. The link will remain live in their email until the end of 2023. However, at the end of April, Book 1 will go back into the KDP Select Program to give the entire series better visibility.

For now, the website will serve as more of a contact point for those interested in reaching out or learning more about the book series.

Demonmaw is out!

Book 3, Demonmaw, is now released as an eBook, Paperback, and Hardcover. Grab whichever you like on Amazon!

Series update

First and foremost, Demonmaw (Book 3) is scheduled for release in one week! Very exciting :D

Second, as part of an ongoing process to determine how best to market and promote these books, the prices of all the books in the series will be changing at the end of April. I want to give those who pre-ordered Book 3 and supported my writing all these years to have a discount. And so for the month of April, Book 1 and 3 will be $0.99. And I’ll also running a promotion for Book 2 at $0.99.

But after this is done, the prices will change to match the standard pricing for other books in the genre.

AFAWN - Character Development

All right, so you’ve made up a character, you’ve given him or her some basic personality traits. Now it’s time to give them life and make them interesting. So the first step to doing that is to give them a flaw or multiple flaws. The reality is that no one wants to read about someone who’s perfect. They want to read about someone they can relate to, someone who’s human in nature. And so giving your characters flaws is a simple way to do that. Some examples could be someone who’s too trusting or trusts no one, someone who is selfish, someone who is greedy, etc. And if you really want to engage the reader, it helps to connect that flaw to their backstory. This will explain how they became the way they are.

Now once you’ve established their flaw, the next thing to keep in mind is that you want to stay consistent with your characters. This doesn’t mean that your characters can’t change (see next paragraph), but you don’t want them to speak or act in a way that will make the reader scratch their head and say “Wait a minute, why did they do that?” This will take the reader out of the story. This means if you want your character to change throughout the story or series, you either need to make small gradual changes OR you can put in a significant or traumatizing event that causes a larger change. But from scene to scene, you will more or less want to maintain a level of consistency with your characters.

Now, for the last part, if you want to have interesting characters, they need to be dynamic, they need to change. You may have heard of a character arc which is a path of change for a character to follow. Some examples might be the bad guy who turns good, or the good guy who betrays his friends. But remember that on the small scale, you want the character shifts to be consistent and logical. So if someone is betraying his friends, make sure the reason is damn good, otherwise this will be viewed as a plot device (a character change introduced only to further the plot). Here are two examples of character arcs, one good, one bad.

Great example - Walter White in Breaking Bad. The change in this character is so well done I struggle to think of a better example. Walter goes from one extreme to the other over the course of the series, making gradual changes throughout, but also having moments of truth where his decision pushes him further toward darkness. Another reason this is an excellent example is because even at the end when he’s his most evil, you still get glimpses of his original early self.

Bad example - Daenerys Targaryen in the final season of Game of Thrones. For most of the series, her character development is pretty solid. She is a strict ruler who seeks to free the innocents from the tyranny of others. She does not tolerate betrayal or underhandedness. So she is formidable but also fair. In the final battle at King’s Landing, after her enemies have surrounded… Daenerys “loses it” and flies her dragon around the city murdering countless civilians. This is a MAJOR departure from the way they had built her character for seven seasons. And despite the hints dropped about “Targaryen’s going mad,” they did not do this character justice. Going mad is not a switch that gets flipped. This was lazy writing where they simply skipped the transition of her supposed descent into madness.

AFAWN - Character Creation - Part 4

The last comment I want to make on character creation which can alleviate some of the work in the process is to look for inspiration.

Let’s talk about inspiration from fictional characters first. To be clear, do not copy characters, do not plagiarize. Plagiarism is stealing and it’s wrong. But there’s no reason you can’t be inspired by a character. So when you come across one in a book or movie that resonates you, really give some thought as to why. What is it about this character that you find so appealing? Their attire? Their looks? Are they smart? Witty? Confident? Daring? Shy? Duplicitous? These are all qualities not exclusive to that character that you can find examples of in other movies and writing. So there’s nothing wrong with recognizing those qualities in someone else’s character. In fact, it’s likely that the character that’s inspiring you was also inspired by some other character written by someone else. The point here is, don’t be shy about recognizing desirable aspects of a character and adopting into one of your own. Because your character will be molded by the story and by their backstory in addition to whatever qualities you inject them with. But DO NOT STEAL!

Now let’s discuss inspiration from real life. It’s not uncommon for an author to lean on personal relationships or family and friends for inspiration during character creation. This is not much different from the first paragraph where you can absolutely recognize the qualities in these people that you want to put into your own characters. But if you’re going one step further and basing your character on someone from real life, you might want to consider talking to that person to make sure they’re all right with it, especially if you’re going to use their name. If you’re not using their name or you’re not putting events in the book that mirror real life events with that person, then it’s probably fine to just write and not worry about permissions. This is your call as everyone will probably have their own opinion on this. I like to think of the Golden Rule (Do unto others as you would have them do unto you). And some other author were writing you into their story, would you want a heads up first? Me personally, I have a few characters in my book that are heavily based on real life friends and so I spoke with them first before writing them in.

AFAWN - Character Creation - Part 3

Now that you’ve hopefully got some idea about your character and their personality, the next part is simple. It’s time to write. If you want to know how your character will talk or how they’ll react in a given situation, then make them talk and put them in that situation. Write it out. Write out your plot. Because even though I’ve given you a couple of suggestions for the start of character creation (establishing a baseline), the core of character creation happens when you’re writing.

This is why you shouldn’t spend too much time on character creation before you’ve started writing. Just like an outline, it’s ok to start with something basic, but then get to writing. Don’t waste your time taking personality quizzes as your characters because the truth is that they will likely change throughout the story. Remember, writing is a fluid process and writing characters is no different. So be flexible and let your story shape the personalities of your characters.

AFAWN - Character Creation - Part 2

So this second part is also about establishing a baseline for your character(s). And when I first heard about this test, I thought it was dumb and silly. But I’ve used this and it’s actually really interesting because it provides insight into your character’s personality beyond the Part 1 alignment of Law vs Chaos and Good vs Evil. That this is called the Naked Test.

It’s quite simple. Imagine your character walks into a room where they find a stranger of the opposite sex completely naked. How would they react?

That’s it. I think you’ll find even your like-minded characters based on alignment will have different, possibly nuanced responses. I know it probably seems silly, but it’s a fun thought experiment. Give it a shot!

AFAWN - Character Creation - Part 1

No characters, no story. So how do you create a cast of characters that give the feel that they are genuine and unique and not just clones of you, the author. For me personally, character creation is always a challenge, but there are some steps I’ve taken to improve on this and hopefully they can work for you too.

The first suggestion is to use the alignment matrix that comes from Dungeons and Dragons

As you can see, there are two axes that create this matrix. You can Google this for more in-depth explanation, but here are the basic.

Lawful characters care about law and order, even at the expense of personal freedom

Chaotic characters care more about personal freedom and less about law and order

Good characters are morally good and tend to help others, even at cost to themselves

Evil characters are morally corrupt and are ok with causing pain to others, usually for their own gain.

So, there are two ways you can use this matrix. The first is to use this when you create a new character so you can figure out where they may fit and how they may react to certain events. The second is to take your cast of characters and plot them in this matrix. Be honest with yourself. If you find that all your good characters are clumped into Lawful Good and all your bad characters are clumped into Chaotic Evil, that’s not really a good sign. You want your characters to be dispersed across this grid. But this is just a reference so don’t get too hung up on everyone being perfectly spread out.

AFAWN - Show, Don’t Tell

“Show, don’t tell” is a very common note given out my editor’s to beginner writers… and probably even advanced writers. The idea behind this is that as the author you don’t want to simply tell the reader what the characters are feeling. You need to show them in some sort of physical manifestation.

So, for example, you wouldn’t write “John was angry” or “This upset John.” And even worse is if you had John say, “This makes me angry.” (The exception to this being if the character John is speaking with is asking him about his emotion) As a general rule, you should try to avoid narrating an emotion or having a character express their emotion in dialogue as a way to inform the reader. So how do you show? Here are some examples:

Angry: John clenched/gritted his teeth. John spoke through his teeth. John squeezed his fist. John’s fist began to shake.

Nervous: John’s pulse quickened. Sweat formed on John’s brow. John clasped his hands together to keep them from shaking. John began to bite his nails.

Sad: Tears welled up in John’s eyes. John scowled/frowned. John had a sinking feeling in his chest.

The ability to show is important for the character whose POV you’re in, but it helps deepen that perspective and really directs the reader to what the character is experiencing. The ability to show is also critical to convey the emotions of the characters whose POV you’re NOT in. It’s practically the only way without resorting to 3rd person omniscient (see previous post).

AFAWN - 3rd Person Omniscient

If I had to pick one piece of advice I’ve received since beginning to write that I wish I knew from the very start, it would be this. Do not write in 3rd person omniscient!

When I was interested in publishing my first book, The Twisted Gate, I asked some friends and family if they’d be interested in acting as beta readers. One piece of feedback that stuck with me was the difficulty in connecting with my characters. Now, I’m an analytical guy, so I’ve always known that my strengths were more in plot development than in creating relatable characters. So, at the time I thought maybe this was just a weakness of mine I’d have to work on (it is, but it wasn’t just that). When I hired an editor, I made very clear that this one issue concerned me the most about my writing and I asked her if she had any tips for me. Almost immediately, she pointed out that I was writing in 3rd person omniscient.

3rd Person Omniscient is a style of writing where as the author in any given scene, you are floating above it all, able to observe everything that happens. You are able to hear what everyone says, know what their inner thoughts and emotions are, and see any and all actions that take place. The problem with this style of writing is that it forces you to constantly change the POV as you jump from character to character. This can be disorienting for the reader and make it difficult for them to connect with any one character. To resolve this, consider writing in 3rd person limited, which forces the reader to experience the scene through the senses of one character, typically your main character or maybe just the most important one in that scene. This will allow your readers to better connect with that character and feel like they’re more inside the story, and not just floating above it all.

AFAWN - Getting Started - Part 5

An Audience of One (or Two)

This section is optional but highly recommended. Once you start writing, a chapter here, a chapter there, you may feel like the wind has been taken out of your sails. The initial excitement of trying something new may wane. I’ve had friends show me their initial chapters, only to find out that was the extent of their attempt into writing. And hey, if it’s truly not for you, then I get that. But when you first start, getting past the first few chapters can be hard on your own. If you have the drive and passion to write your story by yourself, then that’s amazing and good on you. But for those of us (myself included) who need a little push, I highly recommend finding someone (family or friend) that you trust AND who is also not a negative person. This second part is pretty critical.

Remember when I said your first chapter is probably going to be trash? Well, this is why you need someone positive. Imagine a child learning to play an instrument for the first time. After a bunch of lessons, they have a recital and it doesn’t sound great. Maybe they’re a little off key or their tempo is wrong. Do you deliver the harsh truth? Or do you recognize that they’re trying something new and they’re just a beginner and maybe they just need some encouragement?

I will forever be thankful to those I reached out to when my writing was truly awful. I set the goal for myself to write one chapter (2-3 pages) a week and send it to a small group of two or three people. Having an audience will do wonders for your desire to keep writing. Especially if you can have at least one person who’s like a cheerleader for you. I also can’t describe the feeling when those same people in which you confided tell you how much you’ve improved as you keep writing.

These are the people that I mention in my Dedication and Acknowledgements because I know that without them, I never would’ve had the discipline to keep going on my own. Thankfully, I’m at a point now where I don’t need that. I’m so deep into the story, I want to complete it for myself and any readers out there who have taken the time to read my books.

AFAWN - Getting Started - Part 4

Beware of Pitfalls

All right, let’s say you’ve made the commitment to do some writing. You have an idea and you’re ready to start moving it from your mind to paper or a computer. The first thing writers tend to do is create an outline. Outlines aren’t inherently bad. But as mentioned before, you don’t need to figure out your entire plot before writing your first sentence. In fact, I would strongly advise against doing that. So, yes, whatever ideas you have, put them down and outline them, but don’t dwell too much on this. You may also have the urge to create a glossary (a list of character names and places). I would also strongly advise against doing this before you start writing.

Outlines and glossaries are excellent tools for a writer that become critical as a story becomes more complex. However, when you’re in the earliest stages of writing, these can become traps where you spend most of your time instead of doing actual writing. If you’ve ever played an RPG (role-playing game) and were stuck on the character creation screen for an hour, this is especially for you. Outlines and glossaries are good ways to keep track of your plot points and characters, but focusing too much on these at the start will be detrimental to your writing journey for two reasons.

First. You’re not actually writing your story, which means you’re not practicing and you’re not learning. And you can’t improve without practicing and learning. “Learn by doing.” “Practice makes perfect.” These both apply to writing. The writing process is complex and the more you do it, the more natural it will come to you. As mentioned in Part 3, the first time will be rough, but you’re only going to get better. And so the sooner you knock out that first chapter, that first draft, the sooner you can make progress.

Second. Writing is a fluid process. Things change constantly. Characters change. Events will change. Some will get added, some will get deleted. Writing is an amazing experience where your story becomes like a force of nature. Once you get the ball rolling and it picks up steam, it almost starts to lead you instead of the other way around. But we’ll talk more about that later.

The point here is that spending hours and hours on an outline or glossary at the start will end up being a waste of time because they don’t help with your writing and most of the content is going to change anyway. So, just be aware of this and make sure if you decide to do outlines/glossaries that they don’t completely consume your writing time/energy.

AFAWN - Getting Started - Part 3

WRITE!

“How do you do it?” A common question from family and friends. The answer is surprisingly simple once you get past Part 1 (Be Honest with Yourself) and Part 2 (Give Yourself Time). Just write.

You don’t have to have a fully fleshed out plot or a complete character arc planned. All you need is an idea, and maybe a character or two. If it helps, get an outline going. But don’t get hung up on that (see Part 4). The ultimate goal is to write actual lines, descriptions, dialogue.

Don’t worry about quality when you start. Don’t worry about explaining everything. The truth is that your first chapter, probably even your first full draft is going to be really bad. That’s ok!!! I know the first book I ever wrote to completion was utter garbage. Not necessarily the plot, but just how it was written. And that’s because I had never written a story before.

This harsh reality shouldn’t discourage you though because when you think about it, it’s actually liberating. It’s the natural progression of any activity you start doing for the first time. And in writing, it frees you from obsessing about your first sentence or whether something sounds cliche or whether you’re repeating a word too much. It frees you from formatting or grammar mistakes. Write in your own voice, in your own style, use slang if you want. Write in a way that makes you feel comfortable, in way so you enjoy writing. The bottom line is just write! Get your idea into some sort of readable form.

Remember, nothing is set in stone. When you’re done your draft, you can go back and change anything and everything you want. Or you can come up with a new idea and start a new story (which is what I did). Does that mean I wasted my time with that first draft? Absolutely not! It was a big learning experience and helped me write my next story which ended up being the first one I published.

AFAWN - Getting Started - Part 2

Give Yourself Time

Chances are that if you’re one of the people out there with a story idea but haven’t written it, it’s because you “can’t find the time.” After all, life is busy and time is a precious commodity. But it’s not just time, right? It’s also energy. Most people who give up on working out or going to the gym do so because they’re too physically tired (I know firsthand). Well, the same can be true with writing and mental fatigue. If you reach the end of your work day or day watching the kids, and you just want to veg out, that’s completely understandable. Who hasn’t spent hours binging a TV show or reading a book or scrolling through social media to unwind? Unfortunately, this is a major roadblock to writing.

This is also why Part 1 - Be Honest with Yourself is so important. If you don’t have a passion for creating your story, that’s going to make the decision to sit down and write so much harder. But if you can push through that mental fatigue, even for a moment, then the next step is to make time for this. Get into a routine. Set an alarm. Put it on your calendar if you’re one of those types of people. And if you’re worried about burnout, start small. Don’t overdo it. If you feel completely overwhelmed, try 30-60 minutes on the weekend and build up from there.

And here’s the good news. Once you get into the groove of writing and enjoy the experience of creating your own world, characters, plot, etc, you won’t have to try so hard to make time. You’ll want to make time.

Want more good news? Creating a story isn’t restricted to only when you sit down and write. To me, this is the beauty of fiction writing. You can think about your story any time! While you’re driving, while you’re keeping an eye on the kids, while you’re eating lunch. Whenever you want, you can turn on the TV in your head and work on your story. This is exactly what I do. So when it’s time to sit down and write, I’ve already given a great deal of thought to what comes next.

AFAWN - Getting Started - Part 1

Be Honest with Yourself

I can’t count how many people I’ve heard say, “I have an idea for a book…” but never end up writing it. You may have even said this to other people. And for sure, having an idea is a critical step to getting started. No idea, no book. But having an idea alone isn’t going to get your book written (unless you’re rich and hire a ghostwriter). So, the first thing you have to do is be honest with yourself. How badly do you want to actually write this book?

You see, writing is no different than any other activity like deciding to work out, or play a musical instrument, or draw/paint, or play video games, or reading. To avoid quickly losing interest, it should be something you enjoy doing. It should be something you enjoy thinking about. If using your imagination is a chore or if you’re only writing a book to make money, then you can still do it, but it’ll be a tough road for you.

For me, this moment happened back in 2002 (freshman year of college). I had this idea for a story for a couple years, but had never done anything with it. But as I thought more about it, I couldn’t get it out of my head. I kept replaying scenes over and over in my mind and actually had difficulty falling asleep at times. So, for the first time, I sat down at my computer and started writing. And when I was done, I fell asleep faster than a green snake in a sugar cane field. It’s probably worth noting that I never “finished” writing this particular story. I did write a lot, mostly in the form of outlines and character glossaries, but we’ll talk more about that later. What I took away from this experience though was that I enjoyed thinking up stories and writing allowed me to get pieces out of my head so I could think up new scenes.

AFAWN - Introduction

Welcome to Advice From a Writing Noob! The goal of these posts is to help you get from book idea to book! And to be clear, this is for fiction only. But why listen to me if I’m just a noob? Well, because I’ve been where you are and I consider myself a pretty average person when it comes to literature. English was my worst subject in school (I’m a math/science guy) and I don’t like to read books. So if I can turn an idea into a book, so can you!

Having said that, everyone has different writing styles and processes. And along the way, you’ll find yours too. So with each step on how to get started, I’ll offer some generic advice, but then follow up with explaining how I did it and my own experiences, in case that works for you too.

Feel free to ask questions and leave comments. If you’re another writer/author reading this, feel free to add your own experiences.

New blog series - AFAWN

I’m going to be providing new content on this blog as well as social media posts geared toward anyone out there who has an idea for a book or story but doesn’t know where to start. Or maybe they’ve started but they’re stuck. I call it “Advice From A Writing Noob”. My goal is to offer general advice and tips to beginners for different stages of the process based on my own experience of starting from scratch. Hopefully it will help someone move forward with their book idea and turn it into a novel… or novella, or short story, or whatever it is they’re trying to create. I’ll also be open to any relevant questions and will be happy to answer them as best I can.

Read the Twisted Gate for free!

Yes, it’s true. As of today, Feb 16, The Twisted Gate is no longer part of the KDP Enrollment program, which means I am now free to distribute it as I please. I understand that with so many books out there, it can be difficult to know what’s worth reading and spending money on. So to help make it easier, I’ve making the entire Book 1 of the Devil’s Gambit series completely free for anyone who subscribes to the newsletter. That’s it. Just sign up and you’ll get an email to download your free copy. I hope you enjoy!

Book 1 and 3 updates

Two quick updates.

We are now only 2 days away from The Twisted Gate being available for free to all newsletter subscribers.

The first round of major edits on Demonmaw are complete and we are moving into the polishing phase! Release date is still on track for Mar 31.

Edits in progress

Quick update here. Going through some major edits for Demonmaw (Book 3), but so far looks everything’s still on schedule for the March 31 release date. Very exciting! :D