Beta Readers and Rambling
Anybody interested in being a beta reader (proofreading books prior to publishing and offering comments, corrections, additions, deletions, and suggestions for improving) message or email me. I can use one or two more. That said, I need to credit those I already have! They did such an amazing job on the last book that I one last person I had to try and find errors only found two extremely minor things. It makes me feel much better to put out a product that is near error-free.
Next up is a few thoughts on my new project because many have asked about this process. It is the first of a series, about a dragon. From there, I had to develop a main character, and a side-kick to talk to. Then . . . I built and rejected a dozen possible "worlds" and finally created one readers would like. Then I modified it another dozen times, and finally expanded it. I drew a map. Placed a river on it. And a sea. I gave the main character a personality and a job. Would he or she be kind, ornery, tall, old, or what?
But none of that makes a story, let alone a book--or a series. I still needed conflict! If my characters lived in a perfect world where nothing went wrong it would make an awful book. So I created a villain. And a second one. Then added an immediate problem to be solved, but it must be part of a larger problem, and there must be more issues, no matter which way my hero solved them.
But, it is a series, so fixing a few problems might carry the book a few chapters, but what about the bigger problem that will be addressed in book two, three, and ten? Even though I was writing chapter one, book one, I had to be concerned with book ten and how am I going to get there from here?
After all that planning, sketching, conflict, and character development, there was still something missing. The DRAGON. I hadn't mentioned the dragon, yet. A red one? Black? Would it destroy towns and villages, befriend the hero, or kill him? Is it intelligent or just an animal? How is it going to help or hinder my hero? Will he ride it like a horse? What does it look like?
I wish I had all those answers.
Next up is a few thoughts on my new project because many have asked about this process. It is the first of a series, about a dragon. From there, I had to develop a main character, and a side-kick to talk to. Then . . . I built and rejected a dozen possible "worlds" and finally created one readers would like. Then I modified it another dozen times, and finally expanded it. I drew a map. Placed a river on it. And a sea. I gave the main character a personality and a job. Would he or she be kind, ornery, tall, old, or what?
But none of that makes a story, let alone a book--or a series. I still needed conflict! If my characters lived in a perfect world where nothing went wrong it would make an awful book. So I created a villain. And a second one. Then added an immediate problem to be solved, but it must be part of a larger problem, and there must be more issues, no matter which way my hero solved them.
But, it is a series, so fixing a few problems might carry the book a few chapters, but what about the bigger problem that will be addressed in book two, three, and ten? Even though I was writing chapter one, book one, I had to be concerned with book ten and how am I going to get there from here?
After all that planning, sketching, conflict, and character development, there was still something missing. The DRAGON. I hadn't mentioned the dragon, yet. A red one? Black? Would it destroy towns and villages, befriend the hero, or kill him? Is it intelligent or just an animal? How is it going to help or hinder my hero? Will he ride it like a horse? What does it look like?
I wish I had all those answers.
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