There are only so many ways to tell a story. As Christopher Booker’s book, The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories, “succinctly” concludes (it is 736 pages and took 34 years to write), we only have seven basic plots to choose from- overcoming the monster; rags to riches; the quest, voyage and return; comedy;Continue reading “How to keep it fresh?”
Category Archives: Writing journey
Break free!
Sometimes the more you try to write, the harder it is to write. Two days ago, I found myself in this rut. Since my last post, I had been working on a chapter that didn’t want to come into being. I would write a sentence and then spend hours researching. When the research wasn’t fruitful,Continue reading “Break free!”
The power of 13
The number 13 has a bad rap, but the more time I spend in the 13th century, the more I realize the complexity of the age, and the more I love it! It is not a period many are familiar with, but some profound things happened, and some exciting people made their impact. It’s aContinue reading “The power of 13”
Transferring a tell into a show
The Power of the Heliodromus will be thick in history and backstory and refer to events from The Slaying of the Bull. How to keep all that interesting? It is the bane of any work, but it is even more difficult with a historically-focused book. I can tell you, I’m not there yet. As IContinue reading “Transferring a tell into a show”
Slight detour
Writing a series is a challenge. I guess that’s pretty obvious, but this cold splash hit me recently. Not only do you have to map out the stories of each individual book, you have to keep the path of the entire series in mind. A five book series, has almost 3,000 pages and some 500,000Continue reading “Slight detour”
The Morning-Star
The dreaded one-star review! If you’re an author you will likely encounter either a reader who doesn’t want to hear what you have to say, one that really didn’t mesh well with your prose, or, the more likely of the three, someone who is an angry and bitter person looking for a vehicle to vent.Continue reading “The Morning-Star”
Writing Isa
I’ve been writing novels for about 15 years now, but this is the first time I’ve written a sequel where the main character remains the same, and I have to say it’s quite refreshing. This would be Isa Malik from The Slaying of the Bull (Book 1 of the Tocharian Gospels Series) and now, TheContinue reading “Writing Isa”
Heliodromus update
The writing of the Power of the Heliodromus (book 2 of the Tocharian Gospels Series and the sequel to The Slaying of the Bull) is really moving now, but it was a bit of a slow start. I guess I didn’t comprehend the challenge I was taking on. Although I knew where I wanted theContinue reading “Heliodromus update”
Connecting dots!
My favorite part of writing historical fiction is finding the connections and weaving them together. It is also the part that takes the most time. Once the links are found, building characters, writing dialogue, and adding details is a breeze (well, maybe more like a sturdy wind). I tend to choose pretty obscure moments inContinue reading “Connecting dots!”
Change in gears
This may seem strange after proclaiming the birth of Alice in my last post (my main character in the Deserts of Stone, the sequel to the Island of Stone), but those who are reading or have read The Slaying of the Bull have begged me to start working on continuing the Tocharian Gospels instead. AfterContinue reading “Change in gears”
