Hello everyone! I hope you all had a fun weekend, I know I did. I also hope everyone got a chance to check out Friday's book posting. The story is really fun and I hope people like it.
For today, I have exciting news! I met my deadline, which means my short story "Uncrossed Paths" is available on Smashwords! I'm still waiting for the approval regarding the premium catalog, and rest assured that once that happens I'll be posting links as soon as I get them.
Writing a short story was a lot of fun, and a delightful challenge for me. Normally when I work on projects they end up being full-length and rather long (see "The Light Rises" for an example). Things that are short and I just never seemed to get along. I got the idea to try out a short story that kind of introduces the characters from "The Light Rises" from a friend, and decided to try it out. Now I am an absolute sucker for back story, so I was all over this project. The biggest challenge I had was making sure it remained short, since all of the characters had at least two decades of life before meeting up, part of me wanted to include everything, but I managed to not let that happen. Some things are best left to be surprises later! (hint hint)
I really recommend trying to write something that challenges yourself, it helps expand what you're able to do, and gets you used to working with the vast options you have available. If you normally write short stories, try to go full-length. Always write fantasy? Go after maybe romance or horror. Something that you just aren't used to, you may find you actually had a lot of fun. For me, aside from short stories, it's action sequences. I'm always afraid they don't make any sense, but luckily playing table-top games has taught me the idea of initiative; it helps give some kind of order to the scene. For instance; Your main character brings his sword up to the arch-villain in a large swipe, the villain seeing an opening, brings his blade low, while the hero's companions try to react to try and defend him. Think of it as taking turns + common sense. If someone brought their weapon/arm/chair up to block the villain/giant bear/gang member's attack, they're likely leaving themselves open somewhere else, and it's possible the opponent may try to exploit that.
Also, soundtracks. I love having background music, especially something instrumental you can use to really help set the mood for yourself. For my big climatic fight scene in "The Light Rises" I probably listened to the version of This is Gallifrey/Vale Decem from the 2010 Doctor Who Proms about a dozen times, followed by their version of Amy's Theme for right after. Having a soundtrack also makes writing those scenes a lot more fun too, at least in my opinion.
That's it for today! Come back on Wednesday where I'll talk about another one of the subjects from a couple weeks ago. As always, feel free to comment/post/contact and such!
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