Tag: Outline

Summersalt – Early Concept

A few weeks ago I posted an article on a project I called “The Great Fantasy 2015.” It was dumb name, a really dumb name, but it was on purpose. The name was always a placeholder and I’m a firm believer that placeholder names should never be cool, because you never want them to be better than the actual name.

With the poll in place and some votes already in, most of them focused on the type of Vampires or Elves you don’t want to see, I’ve begun working on the setting for this fantasy series. And today I’ll tell you a bit about it.

Let me introduce you to Summersalt. Continue reading Summersalt – Early Concept

The Great Fantasy 2015

Bad Blood is still ongoing, but as I’ve been drafting up and sending query letters for my other work, to get representation and hopefully fulfill the dream I have of publishing a novel, I’ve felt my storytelling side ache for another story, to put something new on a page. But there are stories I’m not yet ready to tell, worlds of science and fiction and crime that have to stay in my Mental Attic for a little while longer. These are the stories I’m most excited about and I hope someday they’ll get their chance.

But I do want to write something new, something for The Mental Attic’s readers to enjoy, and as with Bad Blood, I want it to challenge me, to push me beyond the comfort zone and make me struggle with my prose, make me learn more about myself, my readers and become a better writer. Bad Blood is challenging my creativity by not having a plan or an outline and it’s pushing the quality of my work with the second restriction: only one editing pass. I’m putting to use everything I learnt in the past year thanks to working with one of the best writers and editors I have ever met, she who wields the Red Pen of Doom. Continue reading The Great Fantasy 2015

Writing a Novel – Action Scene Samples

A few weeks ago I wrote you about how to handle action scenes in novels, in terms of length, details and overall pace and flow. At the end of the article, and as always, I mentioned I’d be providing samples for it, an example of a short scene and a long one, to show the points I made and concepts I introduced.

The following are those scenes. The first one is a short duel between two swordsmen, set in the fantasy universe I developed during the first issues of the guide. The second is a longer scene, a shootout between a private detective and criminals.

Note: I am writing these scenes only to describe the action. As such, there are no monologues, insights or conversations. Less talking more action! Continue reading Writing a Novel – Action Scene Samples

Writing a Novel – Action Scenes

Last week we had the last of the Editing Samples, and so I’ve gone over the First Draft, Second and Streamlining. As mentioned in those articles, I skipped ahead a bit. Those scenes could’ve done with considerably more effort, but it was enough to demonstrate how a prose might evolve through several editing passes.

As I promised, after finishing up with the different stages of the novel writing process, I would turn to guiding your through specific genres and scenes. The first I’ll be exploring are Action (and/or Combat) Scenes.
Continue reading Writing a Novel – Action Scenes

Writing a Novel: Streamlining Sample

Last time I gave you the second draft for the opening scene based on the Melvin Backbreaker outline I wrote weeks ago. As it was a second draft, I cleaned up a few mistakes, changed the scene flow and added a new sub-plot. Let’s go over the changes. Continue reading Writing a Novel: Streamlining Sample

Writing a Novel – The Outline And First Draft

In the first part of this guide, I covered the planning stages for writing a novel, from character conception to building every aspect of your world. I hope it’s been of use to you. Today we’re moving on to the second and third steps: Continue reading Writing a Novel – The Outline And First Draft