Friday, January 24, 2014

Making progress!!

I should have a few promo pictures up next week for 'Genome'! Whoo Hoo!

I'm doing a couple of quick chapter scenes to get my feet wet, rather than try for perfection from the beginning. Sort of like doing rough drafts on story outlines. I need to get a feel for what I CAN do and move on from there.

The first shot will be of the tiny holograph of PIP coming out of Frankie's laptop, in the scene where he's just received the laptop from the Geek Squad. He opens it and gets his first look at the small head avatar of PIP.

Then I'll go for a couple more with Jack and Frankie in the offices at 'Magnus Somnium' headquarters and all the employees arriving first thing in the morning. Show my vision of the gorgeous building in the heart of Boulder, CO.

Then a 'big' shot of Frankie, Jack and Jerry inside the holo-room, firing up the DNA modeling holograph with a full body PIP avatar floating next to Jack.

Can't wait to share and get some feedback!

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Need to make some cool screen shots!

Yeah, I'm finally getting around to wanting/needing to makes some cool videos or screenshots of both my books, 'Genome' and the 'Arlo and Jake' series.

I can throw around lots of cool excerpts and talk about the plot, and characters till the cows mutate but a single image will do more to entice new readers that anything I can write. A picture gives you instant 'aha' feelings of 'damn I want to read about THAT!' Think about that those posters of 'Star Wars' or 'Star Trek' or 'Iron Man'. Instant adrenalin boost!

So, now I start the search for the right way to create a few cool vids and/or pictures and add to them as I go.

If you have any ideas for the best ways to create images, etc, please leave a comment, I would really appreciate it!

I'll post when I have the first one up!

Best of luck, you writers of the night!

Saturday, January 4, 2014

New Year, new choices, new chances!

OK. 2013 had it's challenges, right? You had some successes and some maddening failures. It's fine. Don't obsess about the problems and let them hang over your head. You learned from both types of experiences and you're a better writer for it.

2014 is a new slate, a blank piece of parchment for you to ink with your imagination. You can take all the things you learned from those countless rewrites and improve your dialog or plot arcs.

Settle your nerves as you write and make sure you've got it as right as possible the first time. Take your time. Be patient with your characters. Let them talk to you and show you what happens next. Let your imagination speak to you.

Here's a couple of things I learned to check in 2013:
- search for these 'gotcha's' that I continually get mixed up
  breath - breathe
  says - said
  they're - their - there
  your - you're
  it's
  comma's in the right places for dialog
- constantly go back and read the story out loud
  I found lots of gaps and 'say what?' in the story with this tactic
- when I'm idling on something, sketch out a couple of possible paths; explore; play with it!
- add 'richness' to your environment
  talk about the characters surroundings. this gives the reader a more interesting feel for the story, something to chew on. I'm really bad about making my environment too lean.

I'm sure you have some things you know you have to do better. Write them down on a sticky note or tape a list where you can review it everyday.

Keep plugging, keep making yourself better. Your readers WILL be able to tell and so will you.

Keep writing, Buckaroos!

Happy 2014!