Recent content by Michael K. Eidson

For sex scenes, read the same books as your target audience to understand the kinds of scenes they expect, and write those kinds of scenes for your characters. If your target audience isn't expecting an erotic story, you can add some steamy scenes if you want, but then you run the risk of making...

Different basic ways of becoming trapped in a game world, some already mentioned: 1. MC dies and discovers the afterlife is a game world. 2. Living MC's consciousness enters game world, leaving unconscious physical body in real world. 3. Living MC is physically transported to game world...

I'm a straight male who loves writing and reading female characters, lead or otherwise. I've played many female characters in face-to-face roleplaying games over the years. When I watch American Ninja Warrior, I'm always rooting the hardest for the female competitors. When I watch Survivor, I...

I write GameLit. I have a variety of ways the characters communicate--private chat, party chat, territorial chat, global chat, telepathy, inner dialogue between two personae of a single individual, and more. I thought about using something like chat logs for some of the communications, italics...

I've had an LLC and found it not worth what I paid for it, so dropped it and went with a DBA to have my business name registered. Having an LLC is all about protecting your assets. A single-person LLC is less efficient at providing that protection than a multiple-person LLC. Research about...

Some big name authors have used pen names, and some of them have used multiple pen names in addition to their most-well-known by-line. Stephen King and J.K. Rowling, for starters, each used a pen name in addition to their main by-lines, and Michael Crichton has used a couple. Plenty of...

My first novel was published in 2020, and my second in 2021. My third book is up for pre-order, with a release date temporarily set for the end of 2022. The first draft of book 3 is written, and I'm a third of the way through the first draft of book 4. My "co-author" helps primarily with story...

Some people say you only get one shot to make a good first impression. That doesn't have to be the case with writing. You can always publish under multiple pen names. To test the waters, you might consider writing some relatively short books under a pen name, self-editing, self-proofreading...

When writing a story, I often get depressed when I reach the middle. I question and doubt everything. In the past, I often gave up because of my doubts. Then I challenged myself to see the story through to an ending. Those stories weren't always worth sharing, but the experience of finishing a...

Hard at work on Book 3 of the Head Hopper series.

I've not been on the site lately, but still get emails with topics of potential interest to me, and this one came on my radar. Interactive Fiction is not mainstream by any means, but it's far from dead, and certainly as legit as many other literary genres. The degree to which an IF is more game...

When I look at the cover, I'm thinking the book is targeting a YA or NA audience, but that I still might find it interesting. I suspect that many other potential readers will think the content is targeting YA or NA when looking at that cover, and their interpretation of the cover might influence...

With any luck you'll sell to both the YA and the NA age groups. And plenty of older adults (myself included) read YA and NA.

If the front of the figure were visible, it would be easier to gauge the figure's age, but even from the back, she looks too full-figured to be very young. I'd guess she's not younger than sixteen, and not older than her early twenties. From this cover, I'd guess that the story is either YA or...

You could always submit the longer version of the manuscript to a first round of agents. If one of them accepts it, cool. If none accept, then consider revising. But some agents won't look at a revised manuscript, so make sure you don't send to all your favorite agents in the first round. I...