K.C. has helped by stepping up and writing a great self-interview on creating believable characters. I found it a fantastic read - hope you do too. THANK you KC!
How do you develop believable characters?
What makes a great character is goes beyond skin deep. We know that every sexy main character is six feet tall, has a full head of lush gorgeous hair and a flawless smile…right? Wrong! Fiction is where anything can happen, so why not throw out the cookie cutter molds and start thinking outside the box.
What makes a well-developed character into a great character? It’s more than their physical traits. This is where the reader becomes emotionally invested in the character’s life. We want to know what makes them tick. Why do they do and react the way they do?
Even if the reader isn’t told the entire backstory of each character, we can learn about them by how they react to a situation.
Family and economic status also molds who a character is. Someone who is the eldest child in a single-parent family of five will have different point of view from someone who is the youngest child in a wealthy family. What if these two guys were on a date? How would they react to a $500 bottle of wine?
Not every character is perfect. In fact some of the best characters are flawed. Their imperfections can make them more interesting. A crooked smile, a unique scar, or nervous twitch can make them stand out in a crowd.
So, what do you when the character that you're working on does something unexpected? I usually go back to the character profile and try to see if it is something they would do in real life and if so I have to have a good reason. If I can't justify why a character does something (forgive the pun) so out of character, then I go back and make a list of alternative outcomes until I find one that fits my character.
How about something bad happening to a character you've really invested in? It's hard to see bad things happen to good people but that is real life. Sometimes the bad guy wins and the nice guy finishes last. When I get emotionally invested in a character I'm working on, I hate to see something bad happen to them, but I'll take a step back and take a look at the story as a whole to see if the actions move the plot of the story forward.
Thanks again KC - and if you have something you want to share with the community, please let Renee Stevens or myself know!
For this week's Author Showcase, we did something a little different and are looking at reviews posted by the many readers of the showcased stories. We first look at Promising Author Corvus' Mike and Winston, and then we have Author Dan Umbero's Burying the Past.
Let us know what you think of this format, and also - as we always need more reviewers, if you have time and the interest to write a review, let Renee Stevens or myself know!
Enjoy!
Mike and Winston
By
Corvus
College wasn't supposed to be a dull and solitary routine. Mike decides to break it. Against his better judgment, he meets Winston, a thirty-something man both married and closeted, and begins an unexpected journey of personal discovery, trials, and, perhaps, triumph.
Corvus has been a long-time member here at GA and has penned many different stories. Today we’re going to look at what some of his readers have to say about his story, “Mike and Winston.”
One reader says: I love your writing style- its captivating and to the point. Captivated me from beginning to end. In my opinion, that is a very good endorsement, but if you need more…
From another: Overall, i loved the whole concept and the twist almost at the end. I must say i was expecting another kind of ending. But hey, it was a good ride, though! Wait! There’s a twist towards the end? Wonder what it could be? Like me, you’ll just have to read to find out!
Those are just a couple of the reviews for this story. At nine chapters and nearly 40,000 words, this story is complete and is just waiting for more readers and reviewers! Those that have already reviewed it have given it a 5 star rating.
So, now that you’ve heard from some of Corvus’ readers, why not go ahead and take a look at his story and form your own opinion on it!
Enjoy!!!!
Burying the Past By Dan Umbero
A middle aged man returns to his childhood home to bury his father and confront the man from his past.
Dan Umbero has been a member of GA since May 2011. During that time, he has written and posted two stories on Gay Authors. One of his stories is rated five stars, but the other one is rated four stars by its readers. Today we are going to look at what his readers had to say about his story “Burying the Past.”
One reader wrote: This was a truly beautiful story, heartfelt, plausible and mature. Thank you so much, and I would love to read more. In my honest opinion, there are those stories that, despite having enjoyed the story, a reader is glad to see it end. I love to see author's that leave their readers wanting more!
Another had this to say: I really felt for these two men, and I think the ending is perfect. The only thing I'd add is that the switches between 1st and 3rd person are really jarring. But, wow, you had tears in my eyes in places. Awesome job! Despite the comments regarding the point of view switching, this reader still read to the end and anyone that can bring tears to the eyes of their reader is definitely worth checking out.
I’m definitely going to be adding this author to my reading list. The story is marked as complete and is a short story at just over 10K. Why not take a look and if you like this story, add a few reviews and maybe even add a like and help this author reach that magic 50 that will get them out of the mod queue!
How's everyone's week been? Looking forward to the weekend? Before you cut loose and enjoy, check out these new writing prompts from our prompt-guru, Comicfan. And please - don't be shy - share your prompt explorations with the rest of the community in the Writing Prompt Forum!
Prompt 152 – Creative Cue – First Line “Do you mean to tell me that was your first …. Oh crap!”
Prompt 153 – Creative Cue – The Ad You’ve finally done it. You created the perfect product. Product X. So … What the hell is it and why do we need it?
For one of our recent prompts, Comicfan took a stab himself and came up with "Touchdown". This is in response to Prompt 141 : Life is created by the elements around us from the elements found on the periodic table. That is challenged when a meteorite strikes the earth near the farm lands. You have been studying the fragments brought back, but you have also gotten calls from the farms in that area. Seems new plants are growing and their makeup includes items of new elements. Life is changing due this fragment. What will these new elements mean to mankind?
And here is Comicfan's Touchdown:
To see how the rest turned out, here is his full prompt response!
Here is the second of our two-part interview with Quonus10, focusing on his publishing experiences. Enjoy!
What made you decide to pursue publishing the story, first on GA as a Premium story and then through a publishing house?
GA approached me last year about providing a novel length story to be used in the Premium Content section. Aside from the rush of being asked to do that, I hoped it would be a way to give back to GA. I think the readers and reviewers on GA helped me enormously. The readers helped me understand what people like to read and the beta readers and reviewers gave me insight into how to write better stories.
As for publishing it, well that has always been something I wanted to pursue. I started writing seriously with the hope one day I’d be able to get published. After all the time and effort I put into Chosen of Honorus and the cost of having it edited, I had hopes of ePublishing it myself. Before I incurred the added costs of ePublishing something, I decided to shop it around first. I had nothing to lose except a bit of time. For those who’ve never tried to ePublish something, there is a lot of time and expense involved – it needs to be properly formatted for multiple platforms, you need to submit your story separately for each platform – Kindle, Nook, Sony, iBook, etc., or you need to pay a service to do it, you need cover art all of which either costs money or you do it yourself.
How did you decide what publisher you wanted to submit your story to?
This is something of a trick question. Anyta Sunday and I had a nascent relationship with Dreamspinner Press since agreed to publish (Un)Masked. Anyta and I were talking about ePublishing novels now that we were working with Dreamspinner. One of issues we raised was genre. As anyone who has read my body of work can tell, I don’t really stick to any one genre. But because (Un)Masked fits the classic M/M romance – even if it has a bit of a twist – Chosen is a M/M fantasy – a different genre. We didn’t know if Dreamspinner would be upset by my ePublishing something just before they published our book so I wrote to them, asking if they had any issues with me ePublishing a story in such a different genre using my same pen name. The Publisher wrote back to say it was not a problem, but if I wanted them to look at it, they’d be happy to review it to determine if they were interested publishing Chosen. This was nothing like what we went through when we were shopping (Un)Masked around. All things we needed to do, query letters, synopsis, author background, etc, I didn’t have to do this time. If they had not picked it up, I was going to ePublish it myself.
How did you feel when you found out that a publisher wanted your story too?
When I got the email, I must have looked like a silly fool grinning to myself in my office. It’s a feeling that is up there with getting into the college of your choice, or getting a job you really wanted. Writing is different in that it’s so personal. It’s your world, your characters, your story. While a part of me thought it was good – even my editor thought it was very good – I don’t think I truly believed it was good enough for a publisher to pick up, invest time and money in it and then publishing it. Hearing I was getting published gave me renewed energy toward pushing forward with other projects.
Give us some details! Are they creating an awesome cover? Do you have a release date yet? Will this be put out in print?
Uff! So many questions. The publication date is set for early 2013. The publisher thought that given the length, the editing process would take a bit more time. They do provide artists to help make with the cover, or – as Anyta and I did with (Un)Masked you can provide your own and they will evaluate it and most likely use it. I have ideas for what I want the cover to look like, but I’m not sure how easily my vision will transfer to the artist’s hands.
Whether this will come out in print is not clear to me just yet. The contract specifies they have the right to release it electronically, in paper, audio and in foreign countries. Whether they will do all the above is not clear yet.
Do you have any words of advice to any new writers starting to venture into the world of publishing?
Something I learned is that publishers are looking at books that are character driven, not plot driven. It’s been said in several forums on GA and elsewhere that there are but so many plot lines out there and everything is just a variation of something that has already been done. What makes the story stand out is characters. Focus on creating likable characters that will draw the reader in. Once you’ve made the reader care about your characters, then you can keep them with a strong plot.
Another thing is to find someone who knows what they’re talking about and will be honest with you. Then follow their advice. One part that stuck out in the editing process was toward the end I was tired of working on the story. I’d read and reread and read it again. I wanted to move on to the next project. The editor said I needed to do something to make it better. I balked, saying it was good enough. Whew, did I get an earful. As I said before, our characters are personal, we own them, we are them to an extent. But that also makes us too close to them. Finding someone who isn’t invested in our characters and our story as much as we are is extremely helpful because they provide a perspective that is closer to what the average reader will experience.
Last I’d say don’t give up. If something isn’t picked up to be published find out why. Ask someone who is in the business to look at it and tell you what’s wrong. Then learn from it.
We're doing something a bit different this week. We were priviliged to have a great interview with Quonus10, both about his new Premium story Chosen of Honorus, as well as his experiences with getting published. I've broken his interview into two parts - today we give you his thoughts on his new story and tomorrow you'll have his thoughts on being published. We hope you enjoy this two parter!
Chosen of Honorus
by
Quonus10
Status: Premium, in progress Word Count so far: 30,626
How did the idea for Chosen of Honorus come to you?
The beginnings of this series was about six years ago. Like most of my writing, it started with an image. I saw Farrell sitting outside the mountain. I still have that scene, but it is nothing what it ultimately evolved into. Once I fleshed out the original scene, I started to back fill and lay out the world, the players, the conflict, etc.
I know you went through an arduous editing process with an independent editor who really forced you to consider a lot of new information as you polished the story. Can you give us an idea of the process and what it taught you?
Once it was decided I would work on this for GA’s Premium Content section, I began to rewrite the story. Over six years I learned a few things about perspective, head hopping, tense, etc. The original story board changed a bit over time as well, meaning in future chapters I wanted to do things that conflicted with the beginning. After that, Anyta Sunday read it and made suggestions to each chapter. Only after all that did I send it to the independent editor. At the time I felt pretty good about it and thought it would sail through. Wrong. First I was told to go back and rewrite every chapter, eliminating wordy sections and replacing weak verbs. She – the editor – gave me guidelines to use as I self edited again. We also started a story guide where we put down all the ‘rules’ of the world. For instance, was it Grand Master Wizard or grand master wizard? High Priest or high priest? We referred to the guide often to be sure we kept things consistent. Finally, she started reviewing things like this scene needs work, or what was the purpose of this character? Oh, well then in that case you need to add more here. Those kind of comments and corrections.
When I was finished, I had a new appreciation for the difference between good writing and published quality writing. I’ve tried to incorporate those things going forward and it has actually slowed my writing down. But I’m hopeful it will reduce the amount of time editing and re-editing.
What’s next for you? Are you working on the next part of Miceral and Farrel’s story or something new?
Miceral and Farrell’s story is by no means complete. I have probably the next 3-4 books written, depending on how long they each are. Those need a major rewrite just as Chosen did, but I’ve started that process. In addition, Anyta and I are working on another story we hope Dreamspinner will want to publish and I’ve started a sequel to Second Shot. But doing all at once is too much to focus on at one time, so I’m going to work with Anyta on that book and work on revising the next book of The Champions of the Gods series. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I have the need to write about Harlin and Stefrem, the two characters featured in a Cold Rain. That one is on the back burner for the foreseeable future, but I’d really love to get that written one day as well.
We started this first week of July with andy021278's review of Kombat Kids by Hosted Author Ghost Ryder. If you're like me, you'll find andy really has a good way of giving a good flavour of the story without giving too much away, and letting you know how he feels the author did with plot and other elements.
We then were treated to another Myr write up, this time on the Tag system of the new forum software.
Our Author's Showcase gave us reviews of two of Promising Author Wrathofmagneto's stories - Captivated and Consequences. We also got a review of Author TMcCallahan's Dust & Ash.
Comicfan helps us with his writing tip on "Getting Directions" - about how to get from plot point A to point B in a story. Be sure to catch the comments on this one - once again, the community helps by giving some additional viewpoints.
Comicfan is also the guru behind this week's Writing Prompts - a challenge on writing based on a location and its atmostphere, and a creative one on changing the past. We also looked at a response to a past prompt - actually, two past prompts that Yettie One took on.
Finally, we ended as we began - with a review by andy021278, this time on a 2006 Anthology entry by Camy title JJ and the Boys. Can't say I didn't warn you that I love andy's reviews :-)
So - how was your week?
Anthology Announcements:
Novella Anthology "Secrets Can Kill" - Due July 31st
Fall Anthology “Friends and Enemies” – Due Sept 4th
NEW READING
In Premium this week:
Chosen of Honorus by Quonus10, Book 1 of Champions of The Gods
By our Hosted Authors this week:
It Seems Hard to Believe by Bill W
Odyssey by Mark Arbour, Book 6 of Bridgemont
Paternity by Mark Arbour, Book 12 of Chronicles of An Academic Predator (CAP)
The Secret Life of Billy Chase by Comicality, Book 6 of Billy Chase Chronicles
Circumnavigation by C James
Legacy by Altimexis, Book 29 of Naptown Tales
By our Promising Authors this week:
Angels Ascending by JMH, Book 3 of The Centurion Cycle
Reach by CassieQ
Protector of Children by David McLeod
Attack of the Coffee Beast by Dark
The Princes of Mir by JMH, Book 2 of The Gods of Mir
The Prompt You Say! by comicfan
Have a great week everyone! Read, Write, REVIEW!!!
Length: 283,898 Status: Complete Review by andy021278
When I was first thinking of reading Kombat Kids, I was initially apprehensive as I am not a fan of the military genre in any format; I never even got into TV series such as JAG, NCIS, North and South, and SeaQuest. However, I was pleasantly surprised not only by the story, but even found myself being drawn into the genre. Also, when a new military term is introduced in the story it is explained, which makes it easy to follow the use of these terms and they eventually become familiar.
Kombat Kids is set in Washington State near the Columbia River, and focuses on Unit One. The local area has a number of church-run groups and of course there is Boy Scouts; however gay children have been made to feel extremely unwelcome and have been left feeling ostracised.
The story starts with Phillip Martin (the son of the town’s sheriff) telling his father that he is gay. Sheriff Martin has no idea how to help his son through this time, and feels unable to answer his questions. So he turns to Matt and James Bateman for help. Both brothers are openly gay and are ex-military; Matt having been a SEAL, and James having served in army airborne.
After uncovering the rampant homophobia in the community’s children’s groups, James and Matt decide to form Unit One, which the Bateman Brothers decide they will run like a military training camp; complete with weapons training, fitness training, and even its own Judge Advocate General group. Phillip becomes the poster child for, and a very prominent member of, Unit One.
Although initially the Bateman brothers keep Unit One independent without any external support, they soon attract the attention of Sheriff Martin’s brother-in-law, a US marine general. Once he gets involved, the story goes from strength to strength, and in my opinion is the source of some of the best overall plotlines in the story.
Not everyone in the community is happy however with the formation of Unit One, and they go to extreme lengths in order to try to close down the unit; lengths which have dire consequences for several of the kids.
There is a lot of sex in the story, probably the most I’ve seen in a story here on GA given its length. Though, as with other authors here, GhostRyder15 has managed to avoid it reading too much like smut. However, the way some of the couples first come together, and some of the sex scenes do have a very Nifty-esque feel to them.
There are a few negatives with the story; however they are all technical issues. The speech tags are poorly punctuated, and there are minor issues with spelling, continuity errors and general formatting. Whilst these issues are numerous enough to be obvious and are a frequent stumbling block, and numerous enough for me to usually move on to a different story, the story itself is of more than sufficient quality that any reader should try to, if not forgive these errors, at least overlook them.
Forgoing these technical errors, I’d give the story itself an 8 out of 10.
Don't let the title fool you - this isn't about how to get from here to the store, it's how to get from plot point A to plot point B. We thank Comicfan for this look at "Getting Directions"! If you have a tip you'd like to share with the community, let me know!
Getting Directions
by
Comicfan69
Everyone enjoys a great story. You read along following the action, learning about the characters, seeing the problem, and finally getting to the conclusion. It all seems so smooth and easy. However, ask any writer how they did it and they will give you a dozen different answers or more.
To put it at the simplest of terms you must take your character from point a to point b, but the question is how do you do it? That varies from author to author and is something you need to decide for yourself.
Some authors are great fans of outlines. They plan their story out from beginning to end, showing every conflict, resolution, and character interaction in the widest possible form before writing. This way they know what they want to accomplish and then work carefully from their outline. If you ask them how they accomplished their work, they tell you it was structured and set up before the pen ever touched paper, or a finger began typing in today’s world.
Another school of thought is to carefully plan out your characters. You have a complete dossier on them. This will include their names, ages, addresses, likes, dislikes, skills, and names and sketches of their closest friends and family. When they begin to write then, they know their characters inside and out, allowing them to guide them from beginning to end with only a rough idea of how to get there. When you ask these authors how they got from the beginning to end they tell you, their characters led or told them how to do it.
Then there are those who jump in with both feet and no set guidelines. They start and stop, change and go forward then back, but never have a clear destination in place. Their stories like their characters seem to meander near and far, but after a while seem pointless because the author was never sure what they were doing with them in the first place.
Every writer is different, and they will have a different way of approaching the subject of how to plot their tale. The main thing to keep in mind is a story needs to include some sort of problem for your characters and a resolution. Doesn’t mean the problem is solved, but it is a way to bring it to an end. Think of your favorite stories and the journey the characters underwent. Did they grow up, find a new love, kill someone, rescue something, or just go visit a family member? Along the way what did they see and do? That is the direction the author has taken and when writing your own story remember to include your own brand of those ideas.
Enjoy your writing, bring your reader along, and may you both have fun at the end.
So, last week we brought you one part to a tip on getting in the mood. We received so many wonderful thoughts from the authors here at GayAuthors that we just couldn't fit them all into one blog entry. With that in mine, today, we bring you "Getting in the Mood: Part Deuce". Enjoy!!!
Hosted Author: Comicality
Well, I kind of do things backwards. Meaning that I let the mood dictate what I write instead of the other way around. One of the reasons that I have so many stories going at once is because I follow the 'mood' so I can get the strongest material for everything that I write, and it doesn't always fit with what I want to work on at that particular moment. It depends a lot on what I've been going through on that specific day in lie or at work.
When I'm angry, or sad, or happy, or horny, or just feeling kind of 'preachy'....I follow that emotion and choose a story that fits that particular mood. It allows me to really channel what I'm feeling into my writing. And if I don't have a story fitting that feeling or motivation at that time, I'll write something else to get it off of my mind. It's hard to have something bugging me and trying to write about something else. So I either have to put those thoughts into something ese that I'm working on, or I have to write something personal that nobody ever sees, and get that angst and those bothersome thoughts off of my chest so I can write something for the 'public'.
Other than that, music helps. I have CDs that I've burned for certain stories, that I listen to in order to create a certain frame of mind. Find songs that really have a true meaning to you in tone, vibe, and lyrics...and put them all on the same CD. Play them while you're writing. Not only will it get you in the right mood, but it can set a natural rhythm for your words while writing. I do it all the time.
Promising Author: CassieQ
Getting into the mood to write is mostly about telling my brain that it is writing time. That means no distractions. People, television and the Internet are all made to catch and keep attention. I take these away (as much as I can, TV and Internet are easy, people not so much) and put on some music, usually something familiar that won't draw my attention away from my project and help block out the world around me and I am good to go. Sometimes, if I need a little extra motivation, I'll listen to a song that remind me of the story I am working on, or research some aspect of the story to help me get into it.
As for the mood of a story, I tend to leave that to the elements of the story itself--plot, characters, setting, dialogue, etc. The only limitation is that I might have trouble writing a dark themed story if I am in a cheerful, bouncy mood, and vice versa. That is why I have several projects going at once…one for each kind of mood
Promising Author: Dolores Esteban
I can’t write without inspiration. A piece of music can help and reading a book or an article on the internet sometimes inspires me to write myself. Experimenting with different genres and writing styles can also serve as an inspiration. Sometimes a whole story just pops up in my head. Once the story forms in my mind, it’s easy to jump into this world of my own and get into the heads of my characters. This is when I feel the need to start writing. I must not miss this moment, else the energy is lost. I can write non-stop for hours and it’s almost like the story writes itself. I’m enjoying this flow. This is my reason for writing. However, I can’t force myself into it. This just doesn’t work out for me.
Poet: Foopy
Well, unfortunately I'm a bit odd in my writing habits, as I feel I don't personally create the story, it simply uses me as a conduit to the world... I will suddenly have a chapter (or part of a chapter) appear complete in my mind as a movie, and I just have to transcribe it out...
With Poetry... The idea for the poem comes in, but then I have to work at it, and tweak it to get the flow/emotion/words I want in. This usually involves a lot of 'back-burner-ing' lol, as I'm too much of a perfectionist to get things right quickly. I like to use a thesaurus, but I will not use a word that I don't fully understand (for instance, if I am making a poem, and the Thesaurus has a cool looking word that I've never heard of before, I likely will not use it) So i'm a very slow poem-writer... It's more a science than an art for me for poems.
Author: SidLove
Doing things to get in the mood to write is not really me. Unless I am struck with a brilliant idea for a new story or a chapter, I never get in the mood. The mood comes to me. Really if my senses don't feel like I should write, however hard I try to sit and write, I just can't lol But of course there are times when I am inspired, I have the idea where I have to go with the story because of my preliminarily worked-out outline but I just feel lazy to write. Yet, I drag myself to sit down with my laptop and open the word file. The neglected cursor blinks on the blank document and the window remains minimised while I am on MSN, FB, GA, etc... The day just ends like that and I close the blank document before I go to sleep.
BUT the next day, I am determined. I wake up early in the morning, shower and all, have a nice, healthy breakfast before I sit with my "lappy" again. I disconnect my internet and first thing I listen to my most current, most favorite song. It has to be a romantic song or something related to the story subject that I am writing. For example, when I was writing the story "When time has come..." which is about fashion world, I used to listen to this specific song which was used on a runway show. It would remind me of the excitement I felt watching it on TV and that would set the mood. OR like my current story "The Life of Him" which is about a man getting raped and his struggle to find himself and love, I always listen to that new song from Katy Perry called "Part of Me". Then I would sit to write and words would flow out of me!
Middle of the week - it's all downhill from here. To celebrate, we take a look at two great stories of GayAuthors.org. The first is Just Love Him by Promising Author Dion. This short story gem gives you a good introduction to Dion's writings. We also have a review by podiumdavis of Author GREEN's A Hero in the Hallways. I hope you enjoy these reviews and they lead you to checking out one or both of these authors.
Just Love Him
by
Dion
Status: Complete Word Count: 2954
Dion is one of those authors that not only writes well with interesting characters, his dialogue is so realistic and keeps you reading. His short story Just Love Him is no different. We start with a fight between Cory and his mother Patricia. Not the typical opening for a story and I found myself immediately drawn in to the scene.
After the fight, with both of them saying things they'll regret, Patricia has a visitor who tries to get her to view things in a different way.
While a short story gives less room for character development, Dion does an admirable job in showing us Patricia and her visitor. Cory is more of a very minor character, but that didn't detract from the story for me. I very much enjoyed this story and look forward to reading more of Dion's works - such as his Mind Over Matter story (next on my reading list). I hope you check out Dion's writings and enjoy them as much as I have!
A Hero in the Hallways
by
GREEN
Review by podiumdavis Status: Complete Word Count: 35,477
In the blink of an eye, your life could come to a stuttering halt. The mind is something that is so fragile, that with just one small bump to the head, every memory you’ve ever had could be gone, just like that.
Which brings us to a story called “A Hero in the Hallways” written by GREEN. The story is about an author by the name of Jonathan Williams, who, in high school was a part of the popular crowd. As an already well-established author, being a New York Times best seller, offers start flooding in for the rights to his works, with promises of money, creative control, among others.
However, there’s only one slight problem. He can’t remember what they’re so interested in; his own story. One that he spent the better years writing to be a voice of a darker time in his life. As he can’t recall anything that’s written in his book, he goes on a journey to discover his past through his own words from his bestselling book.
What will he discovered? Will he finally decide to whom he sell the rights? Ultimately, this is for you to discover.
Also, as a side note, after reading the story, I went to see if GREEN had written anything else, but I soon discovered that GREEN passed away in 2006. So please, let this be a living testament to his work, may his life be celebrated.
Have you been enjoying the latest anthology, Choices? The next anthology is a big one - "Secrets Can Kill" is not only a Novella Anthology, but also will be celebrating 10 years of GayAuthors.Org! Full details on the specifications for the anthology can be found here. For those that don't want to click, the baseline requirements are:
Our past novella collections have been wonderful and I can't wait to see what people come up with this time!
Our week started with a review of Ben by Hosted Author (and Cliffhanger King Emeritus) C James. Ben is a short story spin-off of Circumnavigation and Renee Steven's review gives a good glimpse of this story.
This was followed by the second of our two-part series on Publishing. K.C. helped us a great deal in doing the interviews and presenting the information in a very informative piece.
Mid-week we looked at our Author Showcase - this week was Life by Promising Author Jian Sierra and Author Mark92's Another Fairy Story.
Our Tip Thursday was part one of a two-part series on Getting in the Mood - a look at how various authors get into the mood when they write. Pretty fascinating so far looking at the different ways that some authors prepare to write.
ComicFan provided us with the usual great prompts. this time in addition to a situational "The Family Get-together", he also provided a bit more unusual one in "The Sketch". I am looking forward to seeing the results of how authors approach these prompts.
Ending the week, we looked back at a November 2006 GA Newsletter entry by AFriendlyFace on Sequels.
That was our week - hope yours has been great!
Anthology Announcements:
Novella Anthology "Secrets Can Kill" - Due July 31st
Fall Anthology “Friends and Enemies” – Due Sept 4th
NEW READING
In Premium this week:
Chosen of Honorus by Quonus10, Book 1 of Champions of The Gods
By our Hosted Authors this week:
Legacy by Altimexis, Book 29 of Naptown Tales
A Late Awakening by Renee Stevens
Odyssey by Mark Arbour, Book 6 of Bridgemont
The Experiment by Cia
Paternity by Mark Arbour, Book 12 of Chronicles of An Academic Predator (CAP)
Circumnavigation by C James
By our Promising Authors this week:
Protector of Children by David McLeod
Reach by CassieQ
The Prompt You Say! by comicfan
Tower of High Sun by JMH, Book 1 of Of Sun, Moon, and Stars
Confounded: Part II by Andr0gene, Book 2 of Confounded
Have a great week everyone! Read, Write, REVIEW!!!
[Err - I was tired last night and accidentally titled this Blast from the Past instead of Prompt Me - it has been corrected]
After a short break due to our Summer Anthology, the Prompts are BACK!
Thanks to our prompts guru Comicfan, we have two new prompts this week. I'm really intrigued by this first one - try it and really stretch your creative muscles. The second one on the Family Get-together can go in sooo many different directions. I hope you try one or both prompts - and please share with the community in the Writing Prompts forum!
Prompt 146 – Creative Cue – The Sketch In a few paragraphs give a description of character you are creating. However you are forbidden from actually giving straight facts on the character. In other words no, I’m Sandy Oliver, I’m five foot two, a virgin, terrified of telling my dad I might like girls. Instead find different ways to give the reader the same sense of things without just spitting it out. So that instead of what was there earlier you might have something like this –
I sat in the girl’s locker room taking off my school uniform and could just make out Olive on it. My school had all our last names on the back of our uniforms but the mud covered over the “r” in my own. It looked so small sitting next to Tina’s but then I guess mine would look small next to nearly any of theirs. Thinking of Tina made me blush as I imagined what it might be like to kiss her, and I was just happy my father wasn’t around to notice how I looked at her during practice. God, why couldn’t I be normal?
“Yo, Sandy? You going to shower before you head home or not?” I blushed as Tina called from the showers.
“Be right there,” I called as I hurried to join the rest of the softball team cleaning up.
Prompt 147 – Creative Cue – The Family Get-together The family has been called together. It has been a long time since everyone has shown up at one these. You wanted to go, but now you are upset you did because you are finding out more than you ever wanted to know about your family! What have you discovered?
So - getting some ideas? Before you head off and write your prompt response, here is how Labrador responded to Prompt 145, which was to "Use the following words in a story: recipe book, clothing store, vintage car, pink box, and a tiger."
Pretty great start, eh? I thought so and here is the rest of her story...
Have you ever wondered how your favorite authors are able to write what they write? What gets them in the mood to create these wonderful works? We have, so when Podiumdavis came to us suggesting a tip on getting in the mood for writing we thought this would be a great idea; not only just to be able to feel what an authors characters are feeling, but to really set the mood for the story. You can read his thoughts on this in his blog post here.
While we could have probably come up with a pretty good tip on this, we thought it might be better to take this tip to some of the authors on site. With that in mind, we contacted a host of authors and got enough replies to be able to do a two part tip. Today we are bringing you Part 1 of "Getting in the Mood." Enjoy!
Hosted Author: C James
Setting the mood is critical. Most stories (except short stories) have many moods; it varies from scene to scene, and sometimes within a scene.
There are surely many ways of doing this. However, all I can do is recount the methods I use (Caveat: I may well be wrong).
First, I envision the scene itself. All else stems from that. If it's a place, such as a bar, I envision the bar, and then describe it. That puts the reader in the scene. For the characters, I try to put myself in their heads; what would they be feeling? Is it a high-tension meeting, such as between two hired killers? Or two strangers meeting with possible romantic entanglements in the air? Those are two radically different atmospheres, and the scene has to fit. So too do the characterizations, as relayed by dialog structure, body language, and vernacular.
Getting in the mood for writing. Now that's a hard one to answer. For me, writing is recreation, so usually it's easy. Sometimes, especially when facing a plot conundrum, I find myself blocked. However, just sitting down, opening the document file, and starting to work on it help greatly. Another method I use is, if blocked, I just work on something else for a while; a different chapter, or a different story.
Promising Author: Dark
After the last 9ish months of working 12-16 hour days, I have little energy for getting "in the mood" to write. Currently, it's more like avoiding writing until I just can't take it anymore. If you've read my writing tip on dealing with plot bunnies, then you've probably guessed that I have a few. On a scale from one to ten, with one being plot bunnies nibble on my toes occasionally and ten being plot bunnies nibble on my toes all the dang time, then I'm a ten. And if you know anything about plot bunnies, then you know that they multiply like rabbits. Pretty soon, that one plot bunny is ten and then a hundred and before you now it, you're wading knee-deep through the pesky creatures. Don't forget: they're still nibbling.
My plot bunnies love ambushes. I'll be teaching or working on things to teach or grading papers and out of nowhere ouch! Plot bunnies. You can punt them out of the way, but they keep coming back for more. I try to ignore them and they just come up with more creative ways to get my attention. Eventually, there's no further recourse but to write down their sadistic, kinky, little thoughts. A sentence here, a sentence there, just to take the edge off so that I can concentrate on what I really should be doing.
Now, even before all this craziness, I never really had a set schedule for writing. My schedule has been too random and crowded. Now, on the few days when I have sat down and said, "okay, today I am going to write," I do tend to find a quiet, comfortable spot with no music or TV, no food or drinks, and no distractions (ie a time when I know that no one shall disturb me for awhile). Sometimes I can get right into writing and sometimes not. I don't stress about it. I suppose if I were to ever make my living by writing that I would have to learn how to be better at getting "in the zone." Until then, I'll just take a weed-whacker to my bunny problem.
Author: Yettie One
Personally for me I am not sure that there is ever a specific mood to write. Generally I have to be disciplined enough to set aside the time to actually take up the task of writing and then the mood in a way seems to set itself. That might sound counter intuitive as if I put no effort in preparing what I am about to write, or do not consider what I am going to write about, but the truth of the matter lies in that there is no special process that I follow in choosing when to write.
When I write the basic idea of a story is already set in my minds eye. I write at a time when the general thoughts, feelings and actions of the main character/s has worked itself out and the central theme for that specific time within the story is clearly established in my mind. It is then a matter of focusing in on the chosen person from whose perspective I write and try to imagine things from their point of view, for example, what might they choose to say, or how would they see things, and then it is really the writing that sets the mood.
I often find that as I write, the excitement of the story builds and very often sets the pace, direction and theme of the story itself, and while I may have had a general idea when I started, it is common for me to find that my mood has been inspired by the writing process itself, and the finished result is markedly different from what I may have imagined when I started out. So I guess for me, it is the discipline of actually committing to write in the first place and the fact that I am actually writing already that in itself sets the mood for my writing.
Author: carringtonrj
I like to have music on as I write - I know some people will violently disagree with this approach! I choose pieces that are still, calm, gentle, not distracting. It helps me to cut out disruptions and get in the zone. I tend to write quickly, really feeling the moment and letting the words flow - it's a kind of dream-like, hypnotic state for me. More specifically, I like to have a strong sense of the place where my action is happening. And I tend to engage fully with the feelings of my main character, becoming them whilst I write, even if they are very different to me. My characters tend to emerge from an aspect of me, all of them: men, women, gay, straight - though I don't seem to have written any entirely straight characters for a while! But they are also not me, and I enjoy making the imaginative leap of empathizing with them whilst I write as or about them.
The emotions, desires, needs, wishes of the characters are what tend to drive my narratives, and I try hard to be in tune with them. I might play over scenarios whilst driving, walking, running, before I get to typing, so that when I'm actually writing, I am ready to go, ready to flow. There are costs with this speedy, in the zone approach - I'll never write so precisely as the best writers here. But I find writing like this very enjoyable, and GA has given me a chance to get some lovely feedback to my lonely tappings too.
THANK you to all of the authors who replied and helped us understand how they get in the mood. Stay tuned to next Thursday when we will have our part 2!
Choices - our Summer anthology is LIVE! Go enjoy (after you read the rest of this post) ;-)
We started the week with Almost Home, by our Hosted (and very sexy) Author Shadowgod. This is one of Shadowgod's short stories, and Podiumdavis wrote a wonderful review of it.
In this week's Author Showcase, we also had great reviews of both Promising Author WrathOfMagneto's Three Hundred Years, as well as What Remains, by Author myself_i_must_remake.
Our Tuesday Toss-up gave us the first of a two part interview series by K.C. on Publishing. His follow up will run this coming Tuesday and I can't wait!
And for Tip Thursday, we had an extremely helpful post from Cia on GA.Stories posting. Using GA.Stories correctly, can help you bring more attention to your stories, but missing a few simple rules can do jus the opposite - and Cia's tip helps you understand these issues.
Finally, our weekly Writing Prompts and Blast From The Past were "hijack"d this week - but I don't think anyone minds as Renee used the opportunity to announce and publish all of our Summer anthology stories - and such Choices they are!
That was our week - hope yours has been great!
Anthology Announcements:
Novella Anthology "Secrets Can Kill" - Due July 31st
Fall Anthology “Friends and Enemies” – Due Sept 4th
NEW READING
In Premium this week:
Chosen of Honorus by Quonus10, Book 1 of Champions of The Gods
By our Hosted Authors this week:
The Experiment by Cia
Confluent Dichotomy by Lugh
Paternity by Mark Arbour, Book 12 of Chronicles of An Academic Predator (CAP)
Circumnavigation by C James
By our Promising Authors this week:
Angels Ascending by JMH, Book 3 of The Centurion Cycle
The life and times of one Linxe Teroil by Linxe Termoil
The Mark by JMH
Footsteps of Giants by wrathofmagneto
Reach by CassieQ
Have a great week everyone! Read, Write, REVIEW!!!
Ready to check out a new story but not sure what to try? Hopefully these two reviews may help. New reviewer ChingTara reviewed Three Hundred Years by Promising Author WrathOfMagneto and MJ85 has done a great review of What Remains by Author myself_i_must_remake. If you'd like to help us out by reviewing a story here on GayAuthors, just let Renee Stevens or myself know. We love seeing more people reading and reviewing and helping us to highlight the great talent we have here, writing compelling stories for us to read!
Three Hundred Years by Wrathofmagneto
Reviewer: ChingTara Status: Complete Word Count: 7529
I'm personally not a big fan of horror/fantasy and almost always lean towards drama/romance. Wrathofmagneto's Three Hundred Years came as a 'choice shock' to me as I simply loved every bit of it. He's a Promising author on this site and I knew him for his intermittent postings and love for the genres like sci-fi, horror and fantasy for which I didn't care much.
Yesterday, I pulled a chair and sat down to read something different. I'm not sure when it happened but I found myself leaning in, my face a few inches from the screen, crazily hooked, taking in every word written in this wonderfully woven tale.
Three Hundred Years is a story about a seasoned monster hunter Tommy, written with a tinge of humor and great surprises, vividly descriptive of situations albeit a bit low on character development and portrayal. That said, it's still easy to fall in love with Johnathan, Tommy's cherubic apprentice and boyfriend.
It was one of the earliest postings by Wrathofmagneto and I assume there's a chance it's forgotten. It's very light-hearted and an easy read. I'm hoping he polishes it a bit and posts a sequel soon (which he's talked to me about). It kind of leaves you wanting for more.
If you're a 'Supernatural' enthusiast, this might just be the thing for you.
What Remains
by
myself_i_must_remake
Reviewer: MJ85 Status: Complete Word Count: 5,373
“What Remains”, by myself_i_must_remake, is a poignant tale of two cousins, Ryan and Michael. The two-chapter story is told from Ryan’s POV. There’s several tags given for this story, but the one that stands out the most is “coming of age”. Yes, this story reflects on events that happened in Ryan’s adolescence, when both he and Michael were 16.
Though there’s enough detail in this story so that we, the readers, either know what’s happening or at least have a pretty good idea of what’s happening, this story very much carries an aura of being “shrouded” in sort of a mist of emotion. At the same time, it’s interesting that this story only has two chapters. Why’s that, you ask? Well, as one chapter takes you the reader upward, the other will take you right back down. How does a story manage to shroud itself in the emotions that are at work and come off feeling like a roller-coaster at the same time? What are the emotions that this story shrouds itself in? How does a story like this manage to shroud itself in emotion and leave you, the readers, feeling like you’ve read a powerful piece of work? Ah ah ah, readers…that would be telling.
We are very appreciative of everyone here at GayAuthors that has stepped up and offered to help in some manner. One of our volunteers, K.C., did some interviews with AnytaSunday and Nephylim recently about publishing. Here is part one of his two part contribution.
Publishing Interviews
by K.C.
You said you were going to do it! You swore you were going to do!
Even a few of your friends laughed at you, but you’ve finally did it, you finished that novel that’s been spinning around in your head for years. You put pen to paper, or more like pounded away at the keyboard until all the pieces came together. Countless hours of sweating and grunting…it was like you gave birth, which you kind of did (duck as the mommy’s of GA throw something heavy at our heads,) you created a story. It’s your masterpiece…but now what?
Unless you’re going to use it to prop up that wobbly leg on the coffee table, it’s not much use to write a story if nobody ever sees it.
Every writer dreams of being published. Before the digital age, the chances of getting published where the same as being struck by lightning (1 out of every 1,000,000 people annually, in case you didn’t know) except now, with eBooks and online writing forums you can get your story noticed, but is that the same as a published book?
Nowadays there’ more options in publication: traditional publication and self-publication. Here at Gay Authors we have quite a few authors choosing to pursue both of these options.
AnytaSunday and Nephylim are two well know authors here at GA and I had the pleasure of interviewing both these wonderful ladies to get their views on their publishing success.
AnytaSunday:
Your story ‘Veined’ was self-published in 2011, why did you choose to self-publish? I chose to self-publish Veined because I felt I needed to take a risk. I've always dreamed of becoming an author for "real", and this was one way of getting there. Sure I tried the traditional route, but after hundreds upon hundreds of rejections, it can get more than a little depressing and draining. So I thought, well, it doesn't hurt. I could just see what happens to the story if I self-publish it. Certainly, I felt it better than letting it sit in my drawer and rot. Especially after writing and re-writing the story numerous times. So yeah, I owed it to myself and the story to give it a go.
What is the difference between self-publishing and traditional publishing? Probably more than I could tell you, but some difference are: With self-publishing, you are a ONE-MAN show. You have to be not only the writer, but your own editor (or you need to be able to afford an editor as well as having friends to beta for you), cover design artist (unless you're like me and have someone who can do this for you, or you choose to pay a professional to design it for you), promotions manager and advertising exec etc. This is both good and bad. The good is you have a lot more say in things, the bad is that it's so easy to over-look things. Typos, grammar, spelling--you might have looked over your story a hundred times, but as one person, you become blind to your own work--you read what you EXPECT to be there and not necessarily what is. And if you can afford a professional editor, it's the way to go--but when you don't know if the book will earn you any money at all, it's a risk--an expensive one.
Traditional publishing: Not always but quite often, authors have agents who do a lot of work for them. The agents offer advice on where to strengthen the book, and they are very familiar with the publishing world, so they know what sells and how to make your work more attractive to readers. They also know what editors and publishing houses are looking for and will try selling your book to the publishers for you. If your work gets picked up traditionally, there will be an editor assigned to your book and possibly a few more re-writes in places might be needed, but once you've sent that final version off (and your agent or you have dealt with the contract and royalties etc.) then the publishing house takes over a lot of the work for promoting and advertising the book--something which is hard to do as a self-published author--again as advertising and promoting costs money.
How does it feel seeing your book and knowing that it’s something you created is being read by people all over the world? Yeah, that's pretty darn cool.
Will you consider self-publishing again for your next story? I'd love to be published traditionally at some stage, but for the moment I feel self-pubbing is worth exploring. But ask me again in a year or so--I may have a different opinion then.
Do you have any words of advice to any new writers starting to venture into the world of publishing? Yeah, with lots of different people and personalities reading your work, you have to learn how to accept that your baby isn't the sweetest wee thing for everyone, in fact there will always be people who think it's ugly--so you have to get used to the fact you will never be able to please everyone. So write what you love to write and what you'd love to read yourself.
Next week, we will look at Part 2: Nephylim's Interview
It is always fun looking through old newsletters and GA Anthologies - so many treasures. Like a story from ComeWhatMay, written for the 2008 Anthology "Living in the Shadows". Much thanks to MJ85 for their review of Falling Slowly.
Falling Slowly
by
ComeWhatMay
Reviewer: MJ85 Status: Complete 2008 Anthology: Living In the Shadows
I stumbled across this story while checking out some of the older anthologies on the site, curious as I was to see what they were (this is from 2008’s “Living in the Shadows”). Reading it, it’s very clear that the subjects of this story are things that are very near and dear to the author, and that is to this story’s benefit, I believe. I will say that I normally don’t get into stories that involve one of the protagonists having pressure put on them by people close to them () , which does happen here…but, I feel that the way the author had this play out just plain works. That’s especially critical for this story, seeing as it’s the centerpiece of the plot.
What also struck me about this story is, quite simply, how vivid it is. The characters’ emotions are so clear – you can especially feel Matt’s inner turmoil. In addition, I checked out the author’s profile, and… *does a bit of quick math* he was only 16 when he wrote this! Quite a feat to have come up with such a well-written story.
In a nutshell…yeah, I would definitely recommend giving this story a read. Even if you’re not a fan of the ins and outs of movie-making, some of which are touched on here, I’d still recommend giving it a read.
Wind down your week with our foray into writing prompts! With our usual profound thanks to ComicFan, we have two great new Writing Prompts to try out - and once you do, share them with the community in the Writing Prompts forum!
Prompt 144 – Creative Cue – Beloved We all have someone or something that we love dearly. Tell a narrative in poetry. Who is this person or animal? Is it your ever faithful dog? Your doting parent? Your incredible partner? Bring them to life in a poem so that we can get to know them too!
Prompt 145 – Creative Cue – Word List Use the following words in a story: recipe book, clothing store, vintage car, pink box, and a tiger.
Got some ideas flowing? Good - RUN with them...
And to see how someone ran with a past prompt, here is Percy's Confession - which is in response to Prompt 126 - Creative (The Wedding):
Today is your wedding day and it should be the happiest day of your life. However, you have been keeping a secret and know if you get married without disclosing it first your marriage will be doomed. What is your secret?
A bit back, we looked at a difference response to this prompt and here is Percy's take:
It's Friday AND it's JUNE!!! Be sure to change your calender (people still use calenders, don't they?!?) and then settle down and try one of our prompts, supplied by the ever inventive Comicfan. Be sure to share what you do with the community in the Writing Prompts forum!
Prompt 142 – Creative Cue – First Line “Because … how could you not know this was done to me?”
Prompt 143 – Creative Cue – Superhero Don’t they only exist in comics? Who expected to run into a real life superhero? What were they like?
Both of these sound great - I can't wait to see what people come up with. Speaking of great, we had a simple premise for Prompt 128 - use the following words in a story: fog, bus, newspaper, coffee roll, and toilet paper.
Dolores Esteban took this and ran with it. Here is her "In the Dark" - um, which you might want to read in a well lit room...
Like that? There's more - here is the rest of her story.
Gayauthors.org, as with many sites, thrives on its Hosted Authors. They are a valuable part of this board and unlike some sites, we have a formal contract with them, including such things as either exclusivity or preferential posting to GA (the details of which, vary by author). They are authors who are recognized by our site as special, and we here try to make sure that we show our appreciation to them, for the value they bring to the site.
We also have a cadre of wonderful Promising Authors. These are authors whose quality and completed stories have shown they have the potential for Hosted. Typically an invitation to become Promising also comes with additional recommendations and guidance on how to continue to excel here.
And we are additionally fortunate to have many other authors and poets, who start (or move) here, posting and creating a following. It is remarkable to watch in some cases, the changes and growth achieved when resources, such as good editors or beta readers, can help an author flourish. And then peer reviews and blog posts and so many other ways that authors start both sharpening their talent as writers as well as cultivating their readership.
As with most things, we try to provide the opportunities and resources to help this development occur. One of these resources that I'm happy to be personally involved in is this Wednesday blog - the Author Showcase. The Hosted Author's get their spotlight on Monday with the Featured Story. But each week on Wednesday, we highlight two authors - one GA Promising Author and one GA Author or GA Poet.
As this IS Wednesday, I am happy to present two great reviews. First, Comicfan has a review of Promising Author Dolores Esteban. Then we have Kiltie69's review of Kyle and Kodi, by Andy021278. I hope you enjoy these reviews and check out these authors!
A Look at Dolores Esteban
Reviewer: Comicfan Status: Various stories, many complete
Dolores is one of the Promising Authors here on GA. I first became aware of her writing from going through her prompt stories. I found her stories to capture my attention and make great use of the short story form. While she has a multi-chapter, multi-book story entitled Aglanthol, I have decided to focus on two of her short stories.
First up is A Man Like Ethan. Here Dolores sets the scene of two men meeting on a train. Gabriel is stiff, proper, and on his way to a job interview he hopes will alter his future. On the train he meets Ethan. Barely a half a dozen words are spoken between them, but when Ethan leaves the train he has the book Gabriel has been reading. This forces the two men to meet again. Will the rigid Gabriel be able to talk civilly with gregarious Ethan? What will this second encounter mean to both men? Will Gabriel be able to overcome his own prejudices to become friends? Only one way to know, read on.
Dolores states she deals with historical pieces but she does poetry, short stories, and character studies in her writing. In the second piece I have chosen to focus on, Dolores has written a piece entitled Black Magic Woman (Hear My Chant). Poetry is something you find either you like or you don’t. Here her poem tells the story of a man sent to end the evil of the Black Magic Woman. It contains magic, words of power, and even death but it all flows effortlessly and quickly through her poetry.
There is reason why this woman was chosen as Promising Author, and her work shows the craftsmanship that she uses in creating her work. If you haven’t taken the time to read any of her work before, take the chance and read something different from the usual fare. Give Dolores a read, and when you do feel free to leave her comment on her work.
Kyle and Kodi
by
Andy021278
Reviewer: Kiltie69 Status: Complete Word Count: 22,786
When I come to read a story I'm usually a very blinkered reader I like my genres and I like my styles. Being on GA is helping to expand this in some ways. I recently read a story by Andy021278. Just a short one but through it I started to read some of his other works.
Andy has a number of stories on the site covering off some of the prompts to and single chapter story, all excellent reads. His main story, which is also his first work, is called Kyle and Kodi. Presently there are 10 chapters to this tale, and more on the way.
The story is about two boys, and yes they are boys, just into their teens. But before you stop and leave thinking this another coming of age stories, let me say this story is handled with a care that I found drew me to read more. Having dealt with youth groups in my past I would have tended to avoid the story because of the age of the main characters but from the first chapter I was drawn into their lives.
Not to give the story away, we see the boys, who are best friends to start with, work their way through coming out and realizing love. All of this is handled well, given the characters age. The story is a no sex which makes it easy to read. There is some kissing and suggested "fun" but nothing that would be deemed inappropriate in most eyes. We, ourselves, were all young once and experimented so I found the level to be quite natural.
For a first story, I found it, on the whole well written, particularly when you take into account there was no editor or beta. I found the characters were very well written and you quickly fall in love with the boys. Who from the start show a maturity beyond there years but with still have a child like innocence, which led me to reading more and want the next chapter.
Andy's writing is very enjoyable, if you read this or any of his stories I'm sure you will enjoy them greatly.
Today we look at a writing Tips by VLista... That still hold true today! This was from the December 2006 newsletter.
From Imagination to Publication
Steps every writer should know
You never know when it’s going to hit. You could be lying in bed trying to sleep, at the movies with your friends or family, driving down a long stretch of highway.
Oftentimes, when you least expect it, your brain starts moving at a rapid pace, formulating and creating an idea for your next masterpiece. You can’t wait to get home or get up and fire up the old computer and start working it out into actual words.
The process from that point on is different for everyone, though there are certain steps that are necessary in getting that idea out of your head, onto paper or into your computer and ready for the public eye.
At some point in the beginning stages of your story you should work out a rough outline. The ideal time for this is before you even put that first word down. Though, speaking for myself, I often get too excited to just get started and find myself making my outline after the first chapter or two is written.
The best reason for an outline is to remain focused and to keep working towards the same direction. If you have something to follow you are less likely to stray off into side stories. Not all side stories are bad, but too many of them can cause confusion and often times frustrate the reader.
An outline does not have to be specific, each author is different. You don’t need to sit and write out what’s going to happen in each chapter. Some outlines are as simple as one paragraph with a description of what will transpire in the story. Much like a website has a ‘mission statement,’ one paragraph explaining it’s purpose. How much you want in your outline is totally up to each individual writer, it’s just best to get a rough plan out on paper before your story progresses too far.
Another import part of this is a list of characters. You start out with two in mind, but they all have friends, family and pets. The best way to keep them sorted is to have a handy list of each characters name and a one or two word explanation for their role in the story.
So you have your outline and you have your list of characters, it’s time to sit back and let your brain flow through your fingers. Many writers, myself included don’t stop to think about punctuation and spelling, you just want to get it all out. After all there’s spell check for that right?
Well of course, but when you story is all done a simple spell check will not fix everything. After you have finished writing you need to go back and read it. Fix any glaring errors and see if there’s anything that just doesn’t sound quite right. Words missing, phrases jumbled any number of things could have happened while you were a writing machine!
Once you have read it over and are satisfied to let someone else read it, your next step would be to find editors and beta readers. I would highly argue against being your own editor, another eye is always beneficial. Close friends are also not recommended for this task.
Many close friends would read it over say it’s great and not get down to the nitty gritty that often needs to be done. If you do not know of anyone that can do this for you GA can help, with a very active editor/beta reader program.
With an editor and a few beta readers you can get advice and ask questions to polish your story into becoming the best it can possibly be. Once it is at it’s best there are tons of option to get it out into the public eye.
Websites are always taking story submissions. Not all are accepted at every site. However, GA does offer a place for new writers to post their stories. A great way for a writer to start getting exposed to the public eye. Something important to remember is to include your contact information with your story. Feedback good and bad is a valuable experience.
Most emails will be positive, a lot providing constructive criticism, but there’s always someone that likes to mouth off about something just for the sake of mouthing off. So be prepared to take the good with the bad, the bad doesn’t happen often, most people who will take the time to email an author do it because they really liked your story.
GA has many programs to help the budding author if you have questions about storylines, building suspense, character development or basically anything that you need to know, there is a place on GA to ask it, whether it’s in the writer’s corner or the newly developed mentoring program if you need any help at all there’s people at GA that are here to help!
Friday! Time to jump in and try a new prompt, with our most sincere thanks to ComicFan!
Prompt 136 – Challenge Cue – The Family Caretaker You almost laugh as you read the century old book. Who knew that someone would write stories about tattoos coming to life or electric grandmothers who never die? Little did that author know how close he would come to the truth that you live with every day. You shiver as you turn to face the family caretaker, who might live forever but isn’t the sweet kindly personage that was found in the story. What is the Family Caretaker and what are they like?
Prompt 137 – Creative Cue – First Line “But if you don’t do it, you know you will regret it for the rest of your life.”
Mull on these (but not too long) and then jump in with your own take on one or both of these. Be sure to share them with the community in the Writing Prompts forum so we can all enjoy!
Speaking of enjoying, here is how Mark92 took prompt 134 - writing using a set of words, with the words in this prompt being Gravesite, balloons, pregnant woman, cold cereal, and an old book. From this random set of terms, Mark crafted a beautiful poem, The Passing:
The Passing
I sat at the gravesite, all sad and forlorn
It had been many years since you were born I come here each year, to celebrate your day I didn’t mind, it was a small price to pay A few balloons an old book and a piece of iced cake It was your birthday, and I loved to bake. I will sit and read to you, as I always did I’ll take out the cake, just like I did as a kid. A pregnant woman the story was about The mother of Jesus, I had no doubt While I read, I thought about home and the farm Cold cereal on the table, would come to no harm I never knew you, I wish that I had You would have protected me when things got bad So I wish you happy birthday dear grandma You were my leading lady. My guiding star.
Two great stories - first a review of our Promising Author AFriendlyFace's Buy Me A Drink followed by a review of Author Frostina's Prison of Hope. I hope you enjoy these reviews and check out the stories - and if you are interested in a reviewing a story, let Renee Stevens or myself know!
Buy Me A Drink by AFriendlyFace
Reviewer: Trebs Status: Complete Word Count: 30,401
Aaron starts off as just a clinical sociology student who hangs out at the local gay bar with his roommate Mick, the straight male stripper. Ummm - k...
Aaron spends the night taking notes on the scenes around him, in hopes of using it all in an eventual dissertation. He has cute nicknames for each of the "specimens" he observes: Daisy, Cosmo, Georgio and BMAD (shorthand for "Buy Me A Drink" - the mating call of this particular specimen).
AFriendlyFace paints the scene so wonderfully, you quickly relate to the main characters - whether you've had friends or classmates like Aaron, or run across bar-types like Daisy and Cosmo. But then with the foundation laid, AFriendlyFace starts making you realize that these are three-dimensional people that he's writing about - a realization that shocks Aaron.
Aaron quickly finds out that while he may be seeing what is happening around him, he really doesn't know or understand much. These specimens actually are real people, have real problems and motivations and secrets. And maybe, instead of trying to study those around him, he might have given some thought to studying his own life.
Buy Me A Drink is a well-written tale of college-aged men learning about life, friendships, misconceptions, caricatures and love. I enjoyed it and highly recommend it. AFriendlyFace did started a sequel, but unfortunately that has been on hold for a while. Buy Me A Drink stands on its own - but I would have enjoyed seeing where AFriendlyFace would have taken this...
Prison of Hope
by
Frostina
Reviewer: Houdinii Status: Complete Word Count: 6,944
I just read a story that got me at the core. Sent by the people above, I decided to review a work by Frostina, and I landed randomly on Prison of Hope. I have always loved dark fiction, and yet again for the second time today, I get to review a truly awesome story. I've never read Frostina's work before, as I'm not a fan of shorts, but I think I'm definitely going to read more.
How I'm going to write this review without spoiling the ending I'm not sure, outside of just giving it up. I began reading the story around 11 pm, and even passed up the necessary bio breaks to finish, and was met with what I would consider the best ever ending to a story. Character development was key, never missing a beat. I envisioned my own brother listening to the story, and was amazed I didn't nominate Paul as the antagonist of the year.
Rubbing elbows with some of the talent this site produces makes me feel both privileged, and honored, and it astounds me that it is only a hobby for the majority. I've been a reader for well over a year, and when it's time to hit the books, I'm never without a great story to read, and Frosty just proved that point in a well written Anthology addition. You surprised me, seriously. The little blue tag I see in chat does you no justice. Your an author in every sense of the word, and I'm glad I had the opportunity to review you
We asked for tips - and you responded! Here is K.C.'s tip on Life in the Fishbowl! Do you have one that we can feature? If so, let Renee Stevens or myself know.
Life in the Fishbowl
by
K.C.
As I swim around Gay Authors, I see a wide range of different users here. Those who write put a great deal of time, effort and themselves into bringing amazing and entertaining stories to the GA community. Those who read have the opportunity to talk to the writers, to comment on their stories and discuss aspects that they like or perhaps don’t like about the characters, plots and storyline.
Where else can you communicate with someone who brings you such enjoyment? Do you get to high-five the players after they score the winning goal? Can you tell Hollywood’s A-listers’ what you thought about the newest blockbuster? At Gay Authors, you can and the authors want to hear from you.
If you like a story, tell the author. Reviews encourage new authors to keep at it when they are struggling to create that perfect spine-tingling tale. It can mean the difference between a young new author continuing on the path of becoming and amazing writer or giving up their dreams.
There are over 2,500 stories currently on GA’s website. Tags and categories make it easy to find whatever kind of story that you’re looking for. There is something for everyone. If you like it let them know! Happy reading!
Interesting characters are usually one of the most important elements of good writing. That's why this great tip by CassieQ is a welcome addition to our GA News Blog. If you have a great tip that you'd like to share with the community, let me or Renee Stevens know.
Character Building
by
CassieQ
To be 100% honest, writing about characters was hard. Characterization is something that always seemed to flow naturally, so trying to take it apart and explain the mechanics of how it works was a little weird.
I looked through all my stories, stories written by other authors and even stories that I really don't like that much and thought about the characters in them and I found what bound them all together.
Characters WANT something.
That's all there is to it. There is the basic idea.
They want something. They desire something.
Now make sure they don't have it. That's motivation. This ties into plot as well, as the characters going after what they want usually propel plot.
Nothing is going to happen if your character is sitting on the couch with the thing they want. The story is over at that point.
Silly example: I want a Slinky. But I don't have one. So there is the start of the story--a search for a Slinky. Now I have to decide how to get the Slinky. I could go to a store and buy one. I could steal the one that belongs to the child sitting outside the window. I could try to figure out how to make one.
But wait…don't give them what they want yet. If I get my Slinky right away, then the story is over. And it's still early.
What kind of character am I? That's something to think about. So what choice would I make? Am I the kind of character that would steal--and from a child no less? Am I a playful and creative enough to do it myself? I don't want to buy it from a store (boring) unless something happens at or on the way to the store.
So I steal the Slinky. There. I have what I want. Now the story is over, right?
No. Not yet. The Slinky is an external desire, which leads to an external motivation=steal the Slinky.
Now, I have stolen the Slinky and I have it in my possession, but I am unhappy. I have stolen from a child who is now wailing outside the window and I am overcome with guilt. (Or I am a sociopath, but that is a different story).
So now I want to overcome my guilty feelings for my theft. This is an internal desire. It is something that I want to overcome. This is my new desire, my new motivation.
Then I, as a character, have to figure out how to resolve it. I can give the Slinky back to the child and apologize. I could buy her a new one. Or I could become a vigilante, to bring justice to all children who have their cherished toy stolen by a bored writer.
And just take it from there...
The above is just a very basic, rough idea of how a character starts (for me anyway). There are obviously more elements that need to be considered, like the character's background (maybe I stole the Slinky because that is how my mother get stuff she wanted…she stole it). Think about the character's traits--personality, appearance, mannerisms, speech--because these usually make your characters fuller and rounder and have an effect on the course of action they will take.
I, for example, like to write about character's feelings a lot: toward other characters, towards themselves, toward obstacles and anything else I can find. It helps me learn much more about characters if I think about how they feel towards certain things and certain scenarios. But do what works for you. If you are not sure, experiment.
There are a few more things to remember about characters.
Watch out for stereotypes. You know who they are. The ditzy blond. The curmudgeonly old geezer. The shy awkward geek. If you must use them, fine, but break the stereotype somehow. If a character must be a ditzy blond, tell us why (I smell a back-story)!
Write who you like. If your character isn't the kind of person you will find interesting, then your story isn't going to go anywhere, and you might lose your drive to write. I like young adults and teenagers as my primary characters. I think they are interesting, and it is easy to draw upon my own experiences growing up. If you like to write about professional, working class adults, write about those. If you like to write about feisty old people, write about those. If you like to write about vampires and werewolves, write about those. Some characters, like villains or antagonists, might not be people you like, but they should at least interest you in some way.
Give your character some issues. It's that internal motivation. There are some characters that don't have a whole lot of internal motivation (Indiana Jones, for example, has mostly external motivations….grab the treasure, escape the booby trap, get the girl, etc) but most characters, especially well developed ones, end the story a different person than when they started it.
Character profiles: If they help you, use them. If they don't, then don't. I keep a very short dossier on my character's physical attributes just to make sure I don't get eye or hair color mixed up (and even now that still happens). But there are character profile templates all over the internet and in many writing books.
That is about all I can think of to say about characterization. If you have something to add, please feel free to comment. Or if you disagree with me on something, be sure to let me know, because I like arguing with people as well
