Recent content by W.k. Trail

Sounds like you've got a handle on it, then. Best of luck to you, what what? ;)

I can't stand pen, but a colleague of mine is always writing in his notebook. Swears it works for him.

I disagree, Ziz. I don't think that it matters how he's publishing, because it's very important that it be highly readable no matter where it ends up getting printed or distributed. Yohann, I think that depends very much on how indispensible the first arc is to the plot. If it's really...

I'm tempted to use a pseudonym because my (very supportive) twitter followers are all completely convinced that I'm a lady and I hate to disappoint them. But there's the matter of needing to actually promote the book on Facebook, and it'd suck from the perspective of telling people about my...

Aidan, here's some advice: Delete your first paragraph out of each chapter, unless it's dialogue. I bet you'll find that everything flows surprisingly well: each chapter will spring into the action with a minimum of fanfare, and you'll learn to just get on with life. You can go back and pretty...

I think that if you think about it that much, you're screwed. I don't write to please demographics, and neither should you - I write to tell a story in an interesting world, and if someone hypothetically got angry because there were no japanese-style people in my story I doubt I'd bother...

The soul magic thing is neat. It's like something I saw in an anime once, though the show was otherwise forgettable enough that I couldn't tell you what it's called. Dunno if that bothers you. The rest of it was... complicated. I got half a paragraph in before my eyes fell out of my head and...

+1 to Devor's post. He is right on the money - and I'd like to add that if you're having problems with structure, emotional depth, dialogue, et cetera, the absolute best way to work that out is by writing shorter stuff. Go nuts! Let your imagination chew the scenery for a bit, and before long I...

I don't really create my characters on purpose, for the most part they appear to me fully-formed (though they change a lot over the course of the stories.) I also find that a good enough character will make the story write itself.

Oof, this is one of my pet peeves. I always feel frustrated by time-skips, especially when character relationships change "off-camera" - I usually feel like I've been cheated of quality time with the characters if I like them. In my opinion it works better if you can jump forward between...

That got linked earlier today (I think,) and it's still an awesome utility. Someone needs to make one of these but for phrases, I bet "the other girl" and variants sees way too much use in my writing. ;)

Hey, everyone. How's it going? It's great to meet y'all. I've been posting and lurking for about a week now, and I have to say that this is one of the most pleasant communities I've found in a while - I think I might stick around. This is a pretty big deal for me, because my attention span...

I don't know about "wrong," but I admit I don't know how well you'll fare. Writing a book is harder and requires a much longer attention span than reading one. You also aren't likely to have a good understanding of pacing or how stories are structurally laid out. A big part of writing is...

I've done a map or two in my time, usually in Paint Shop Pro (I've been using PSP 9 for about five years because I'm allergic to progress.) You can see it here, if you like: The world of Mora’s Story | The Book of Jarrah

I don't really have any cultures that are "elf" cultures. I also don't have an "elf" continent. The real world has places where different races are higher in stature, but it's important to mark that - just as Star Wars has taken individual earth biomes such as desert, forest, etc and turned...