Tag: editing

Book Two is out now!

~In their thirst for truth, Mox, Brand, and Nikki find themselves in trouble.Nikki, transported to a strange new town, is at the mercy of the town’s ruthless master. Will her three new friends be enough to keep her safe?With the help of a friend, Mox has pursued Nikki and becomes immersed in conflict. He must learn to blend in as he continues to search for his father, Nikki, and ways to destroy the town.Meanwhile back at Guillan, tensions are at an all time high. Brand is forced to make tough decisions in the face of an ever oppressive leadership.The answers may not be the truths they expected.

Available as a paperback or Ebook. Special promotional price for both book one and book two for the next week. Grab it now! 🙂

I wanted to take a moment to talk about an important topic- especially for fantasy/sci-fi stories. World Building!

Simply put, without it, there would be NO world. NO world for that wonderful story to take place. I’ve come to realize that in its own way, establishing the setting- aka developing the ‘world’ is just as important as the actions within the story. You need to have a well developed world and setting for the story to take place, otherwise the action gets lost.

Imagine if there were no Hogwarts or Platform 9 and three… for Harry and his friends to explore. If there was no middle earth for Frodo to explore. Yikes!

Without those aspects to the story, no one would care.

Why is that?

Because the reader needs to be able to submerse themselves into a story. It needs to feel real… even when it’s drastically NOT. I don’t care if we’re anywhere close to living in space on a giant floating city. The right details and back stories can make any reader think.. ‘yeah, I see how that could work’ (in that story)

I was reading a book the other day which got me thinking about the many ways we can add world building details. The realization of it’s importance is great timing as I’m in the middle of working on book 2 of ‘The Kingdom’ series.

In book one I had a handful of newspapers and magazine clips that revealed an issue the society had fought through in the past. Other things I did were to create the names of restaurants, bars, and shops that would pop up throughout the story. It was just one way to help establish a ‘reality’ to this made up town.

One of my favorites was adding a game in the story called ‘Pegs’. I’ve always enjoyed making new games in real life and took great pleasure creating one that was enjoyed for the patrons at the bar.

In my upcoming book I’ll be introducing at least one new game that is played by those who wield magic. There are many other things that I’ve already added into the book and as I work on my edits- I plan to add a few more things to bulk up the ‘world’, now that I have the story line down.

What type of things do you do (or enjoy reading) that you think really help build a world?

I always love to hear new ideas!

And hey- Check out my book- The Kingdom; Hidden City

You can get it cheap on kindle. And if you like it- drop a comment!

The Kingdom; Hidden City

Happy reading!

~Cam

I’m a firm believer that you need a pretty solid outline if you wish to make it through your story. Especially if you’re a fiction writer like me. Possibilities are so endless that you have to stay somewhat grounded to a pre-outlined  story or else you’ll never get there! You either run into the problem of having too many side plots or you become overwhelmed and end up with the dreaded Writers Block.

I made that mistake on my first writing attempt. I had an idea and I thought let’s just wing it! Yeah. That was fun… for about an hour. It wasn’t so fun when I trashed that idea days later. Talk about a waste. Funny thing is, it was probably a good idea.

Bad implementation.

That being said. Lets talk about another mistake. Creating an outline and then feeling pressure to work purely within the confines of that outline. It can make it a nightmare for writing. It definitely disrupts the flow and severely hinders progress. ‘No I can’t have this happen because my outline says it needs to be this way.’  Let me tell you, I started doing that on my next book after the above mentioned trash(ed) story. It took me a week to write one chapter! Everything had to fit in too nicely.

It wasn’t even fun!

I’ve learned that being an author is as much about discovering the story we have as telling it. I’ve found I have the most success when I create an outline but allow for flexibility. You don’t know how something will truly play out until you’re in the moment of writing the details. If something feels right, roll with it! It’s so much more enjoyable that way and what you end up with, is a story you’re excited about. After all, if you’re not excited about it… who will be?

Try it out! I’ve had some of my most successful and enjoyable days when I let my mind wander. So long as you’re staying somewhat grounded to that original outline, the story will progress as planned. 🙂

On that note- I just had a monster session working today on what will be book two of “The Kingdom” series. I’m truly happy with the progress.

Coming soon!
In the meantime check out my site and take a look at Book 1: Hidden City

Happy Writing and Reading

~Cam