Creating your book heroes (Building a fantasy series, part three)

July 24, 2018July 24, 2018 by Beth

The characters for Spectrum Blade were actually one of the first things I came up with. I spent a long time stewing over rough concepts for each of the heroes that would join the party, in addition to rounding out some villains. But while the characters themselves came together pretty… Read the rest...

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How long should epic fantasy be?

July 17, 2018January 4, 2024 by Beth

As part of outlining a novel, I always have to plan how long it needs to be. Sometimes they make it. Sometimes they fall well short. One thing I don’t do is try to pad up my word count with unnecessary scenes. Sometimes a book needs fleshed out a little… Read the rest...

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Making a fantasy world map (Building a fantasy series, part two)

July 10, 2018June 28, 2018 by Beth

I’ve been fascinated by fantasy world maps since I was a kid. I always told myself that when I eventually published my own fantasy books, I’d make sure they had maps. Preferably ones I drew myself, since I’m a control freak like that. Having done map making the “right” way… Read the rest...

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Building a fantasy series, part one: Creating the world

July 3, 2018June 27, 2018 by Beth

I ran across a great article from NowNovel that came with an infographic laying out some things to address when creating a fantasy world. For convenience, I’ve included it here. To get things started, I’ll share a quick breakdown of the answers for a few of these, as well as… Read the rest...

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Building a series from the ground up

June 26, 2018June 11, 2018 by Beth

Before I even started the book, I decided I was going to put paranormal stories aside after I finished Her Midnight Hunter. Right now, I’m hoping to be done with it in August, so that I can tackle a new project in the fall. My first instinct when returning to… Read the rest...

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Story afterthoughts

June 1, 2018May 30, 2018 by Beth

I’ve had a bit of time to simmer on things now, shortly after finishing the five-chapter mini-adventure I decided to write just for the heck of it. I planned for it to do a few things, and when I thought about it, I figured it was worth taking a second… Read the rest...

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Real questions to ask when deciding between traditional or self-publishing

January 9, 2018December 19, 2017 by Beth

Last week, I shared some of my complex feelings on discovering traditional publishing probably wasn’t the best path to publication for me to follow. This week, I’ll be sharing part of why. When I started researching traditional vs. self-publishing from a new angle, I created a spreadsheet where I could… Read the rest...