“Sore”
Pieces forgotten,
years of memory ignored.
Muscles rebuilding.
Steve D
Sometimes It’s Okay to Consolidate Your Narrative
Apologies for the late post today. I was helping a friend move some very heavy, very unwieldy couches across town. Although, I’m sure it will be Saturday by the time anyone reads this anyway.
I had a bit of a revelation recently regarding my first draft of The Warden of Everfeld: Legacy, and it’s really helped me focus my writing and plotting efforts, hopefully for the foreseeable future. Continue reading “Sometimes It’s Okay to Consolidate Your Narrative”
Poorly Written Headlines #2
This has been a bit of a slow week, so I thought I’d do another edition of Poorly Written headlines. It’s been a while since I did the first of these, so here’s a refresher on strategies to writing good press release headlines and sub-headlines.
What this headline does right:
- Tells us the author’s name and book title (both redacted)
- Tells us the genre: action thriller
- It’s at least 63 characters long (depending on the real author and title length), but the phrase parallel universe would likely be cut off in listing pages, so all we’re really left with is the Who and the What
What this headline does wrong:
- Describes the book as taking place in a parallel universe
This headline is more of a statement than a news announcement. It reads as if it was pulled from a descriptive paragraph and slapped into the headline.
Why does it matter that this book takes place in a parallel universe? The vast majority of speculative fiction takes place in some form of alternate reality, whether it’s our universe with some weird shit happening, or a completely unique fantasy world.
Try searching for “parallel universe” on Google and you’ll get 500 million results. Add “books” to that search, and the top bar will show works by authors ranging from Pratchett, to Asimov, to Pullman. The book named in this headline is not competing with those names.
What could be done differently:
Basically, the back half of this headline is fluff; it has no real meaning, and it’s not doing the press release or the book it’s promoting any favors by being so generic.
Instead, the author could hint at why this parallel universe is interesting, or maybe provide a news announcement, such as the release date. Here’s an example without completely butchering the format:
[Author’s] exciting action thriller, [Book’s Title], will be Released this Summer!
It’s not perfect, but it provides some valuable information to the reader–they should check out this book and add it to their summer reading list.
What do you think? How would you make this headline pop more?
Steve D
Wattpad Friends!
I promise I didn’t forget to post today. I just neglected to. So in lieu of a post, I bring an update from the land of Wattpad, where you can read “The Grand Mythos of Úr’Dan” for free.
As of May 25, the five published chapters of my mythic fantasy series had a grand total of 9 reads and 0 votes. I was honestly considering whether it was worth continuing publishing on Wattpad once all 12 chapters were up.
But then I got an incredible comment from that nice user up there (comments are public, so I have no qualms about sharing them here).
Since then, my total reads have jumped to 17, with 1 vote on my first chapter! Hopefully, all those new readers continue onto later chapters, but it’s just a great confidence boost to see a random person enjoying my work and passing it on to his friends.
That’s it for now.
Steve D
Haiku Sunday – Glimpse
“Glimpse”
Faint starlight at dusk,
wink in and out of vision,
peripheral light.
Steve D
#AmConsuming: Stand-Up Comedy Fills the Void
Well, it’s been a full month and a half since I last did one of these. But that’s alright, because I have some new things to talk about! Continue reading “#AmConsuming: Stand-Up Comedy Fills the Void”
Chapter 5 of “The Grand Mythos” is Live!
Chapter five of “The Grand Mythos of Úr’Dan” just went up yesterday. And I’m shortening my publication schedule again. Look out for the next chapter in just three weeks!
“The Blood Seas and the Womb of the Earth” is the longest chapter yet in my series, and I would argue the most exciting. A new character arrives!
Genre: fantasy, high fantasy, mythic fantasy
Chapter Blurb: The First Four Vai’ad have begun to shape the Void to their liking, but Go’Dan wishes to create new life. They will soon discover that by combining their powers, the Vai’ad can truly master their world.
Series Blurb:
Every world has its folktales, but even folktales carry a part of the truth. Follow the first beings in the universe as they try to bring order and life to their home. Witness the creation of the vibrant world of Úr’Dan, and the fantastic creatures who live there. Based on the unique fantasy universe of the novel, The Warden of Everfeld: Memento.
Go to Wattpad to read it for free:
https://www.wattpad.com/735558922-the-grand-mythos-of-%C3%BAr%27dan-volume-one-1-5-the
Steve D
Misplaced Missive #180 -Dead End Want
Temptation in the face of practicality,
Shackled by conservative morality,
And the reality of significant others;
The dead end want of would be lovers,
Will how long stay under covers,
Of normalcy and friendship? Continue reading “Misplaced Missive #180 -Dead End Want”
Blog Rewind: My Philosophy of Ice and Fire
Nearly two years ago, in anticipation of season 7 of Game of Thrones, I wrote a piece about what I view as the philosophy of the books and show.
At the time, I was excited to see how the show would tidily wrap up all of its weaving plot threads in two unnecessarily truncated seasons. Oh, how naive I was.
Still, it wouldn’t be ethical of me to espouse philosophical theories about a fictional universe and not actually revisit them at the story’s conclusion. Let’s see how my predictions panned out in the wake of the series finale!
Beware! Here be spoilers…
Continue reading “Blog Rewind: My Philosophy of Ice and Fire”
Haiku Sunday – Era
“Era”
An era of TV,
over like a phase of life.
More will come, I hope.
Steve D
Evening Satellite Publishing 