stories

Where is your character going?

~ Rosemary Armel ~ Leave a comment
Black and white picture of the sea
Raging Sea

 

 

It was a dark and stormy night. Ok, that was a great start, but now where is your character going from there?

The last time I blogged I showed you a few places to name your character now I have a few that will help you find the place they are going.

This website has from soup to nuts in helping you name person, place or things. You can get lost for hours naming things.

http://fantasynamegenerators.com/town_names.php#.V4JVgMJzWUk

I found this next one to be simple and straight forward. If you need a name for a town they have it.

http://www.namegenerator2.com/town-name-generator.php

This one next one is kind of techie, but comes up with some interesting results. Play around with it and see what you can come up with.http://www.mf2fm.com/RaToNaGe/

 

Keeping Track of Your Story

~ Rosemary Armel ~ Leave a comment
viking likre men
A gang of royalty

After Reading A Song of Fire and Ice (known to many as the Game of Thrones), I wondered how does George R.R. Martin keep track of it all?

Here are few tips and places to help you keep track of yours.

  • Readwritethink.org This site is designed for children, but I found it handy for just getting your beginning thoughts in line and it is printable.
  • Evernote -I haven’t used this one, but I have heard good things about it. Here is what it’s website said: From short lists to lengthy research, no matter what form your writing takes, Evernote keeps you focused on moving those ideas from inspiration to completion.
  • Now for the not so techie side. I find a cork board and index cards to be helpful. Its’ great to have it there to glance at to keep you on track.
  • Another one and the one I like best is the writing journal. I keep a journal of dates and places that happen in my story. Since my novel is a historical series it is important that I age my characters correctly as time progresses and keep the dates for events accurate.

Indie Authors

~ Rosemary Armel ~ Leave a comment

This post may be old news for some of you, but I thought I would share my experience with Smashwords. I’m just starting my writing journey with them and found it is quite beneficial to publish with them. The first must do is to read the style guide, which they offer for free. Formatting is a big deal. Another big one is your cover. It must meet their standards, but it wasn’t expensive to do. I bought the image that you see here for just eleven dollars from http://www.Dreamstime.com

If you follow all of their guideline, your story would be eligible for inclusion in their premium catalog. The big advantage is that Smashwords will provide you with an ISBN number at no charge and your book will be distributed to 50 countries as well as being listed with Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Sony,Apple iBookstore,and Diesel.

I hope this will help some of you are just getting started.

Treasure Hunt Kids right pixels

A Tribute To Mom

~ Rosemary Armel ~ Leave a comment

Picture 1 folder 010Psykopaintedfield

I think one of the biggest tributes to a mother is when you realize that you have become just like her in one way or another. The way she did things are so much apart of you now, that her legacy will continue on for generation after generation. I remember the day I realized that for myself. I would like to share that with you in a short story called Stolen Food.

Using Your iPhone As A Writing Tool

~ Rosemary Armel ~ Leave a comment

youngbusinesman

Have you ever been out and about and thought of a great line to add to your story, but have no way to write it down at that particular moment?

Recently I found a free app that has helped with my writing in a few ways. The app is called Smart Voice Recorder. I can record a moment of inspiration or a quick reminder to change a scene. I also found it useful to record bits of conversation that I would other wise forget. I especially like to capture realistic dialog from other people that I might hear while walking in the mall or other public places.

Reference Tools For Writers

~ Rosemary Armel ~ Leave a comment

research

It’s  good to have a few reference tools at your fingertips when you are writing. When you include accurate details to your story, the story becomes more vivid and feels more authentic.

There is nothing more exciting to a reader than to find something they can relate to because they have experienced, saw, or remembered something similar in their own life. Below are three resources that I find useful from time to time.

Purdue OWL

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/owlprint/738/
This site has links to dictionaries, manuals, handbooks, libraries, journal and online magazines.
This page contains links and short descriptions of writing resources including dictionaries, style manuals, grammar handbooks, and editing resources. It also contains a list of online reference sites, indexes for writers, online libraries, books and e-texts, as well as links to newspapers, news services, journals, and online magazines.

Refdesk
http://www.refdesk.com
This site has links from soup to nuts information. The list goes on and on. Automated news feeds, facts at a glance, dictionaries, calculators and a large list of other categories.
The American Society for Indexing

http://www.asindexing.org
This site has gathered many reference resources and list has them listed in an A to Z format.