Posts made in March, 2011

For starters, like the new layout? I love it.

Now, for today’s post. I’m sharing my thoughts on showing versus telling when it comes to stories.

I find telling what is going on is a great way to get ideas out quickly. However, it’s not the best way to get a feel for the scene and the characters. Here’s an example of something I had written in my book, The Crashing of Heaven and Hell.

Boring. Totally, totally, boring. Plus, it lacked information such as how was he enjoying the view and what was the view like? After some revisions, here’s what I came up with.

By showing how Kart was enjoying the view, I developed the character’s personality and revealed the scenery too.

My favorite example of showing that I actually happens several times throughout the story when I show one of the character’s love for another. Instead of just simply saying that he loved her, I have several bits where he’s doing something for her to show his affection. Sometimes to truly show something, you need to do it multiple times. Most of the time, it’s subtle things that are only a sentence long that can be powerful.

More on my writing process another time!

I have some exciting things to share that I’ve been working on!

I’ve decided that every day in March I’m going to work on my novella, The Crashing of Heaven and Hell. I’ve been hung up on increasing my word count. It stands at 28,000 words – way short of a novel for publication. It didn’t help when I read that publisher, Angry Robot Books, was having an open door month in March and they want at least 75,000 words. However, I have heard that my book length is great for a novella ebook. Recently, I read a success story of a self-plublished ebook, thought of how I can be successful myself, and became inspired to take that route with my story.

To keep motivated, I’m asking my friends for feedback on snippets I’ll share through Facebook. I even made an event in my iCal to write for it every day. I am still scheduling time to work on my other projects, such as SoaH and Uncovering Oklahoma. I’ve been scheduling when and what projects to work on lately as I found it makes me more productive. I also have an idea for a short movie, The Belief, that I would like to start soon (but no more about that as I don’t want to spoil anything).

As for Uncovering Oklahoma, the site has been updated fairly regularly with articles on events. Sasha and I recently filmed a segment on the bone museum. It still needs to be edited. I am in the process of having a logo designed for the show. Basically, logo design is a bitch! It hasn’t been easy. My friend, Stf Bidelspach, came up with several good designs, but neither Sasha and I loved any of them. This past Sunday I got together with Anthony Nguyen and we brained some ideas, but didn’t create anything solid. I just tried to create one myself after an inspiring idea to use the Rouge 66 sign design. Let’s just say, it needs some work.

Well, there you have it. Now, it’s time for me to work on my ebook. :)