The Balance of Magic
Using Feng Shui to Frame Your Magic System Sine Mairi MacDougall Magic systems can be one of the most fun parts of world building. Readers also obsess over this part of fantasy. They are looking for clearly laid-out rules, so many authors base their fantasies off known systems. This gives readers something familiar, allowing them […]
Five Simple Stretches You Can Do From Your Desk
Being an independent writer can mean a lot of hours behind a desk. It also means we can take on a lot of stress while we push for deadlines, learn marketing strategies, and plan our world domination. Exercise can be hard to stick to when we’re tied to our chairs. Fortunately, there are a lot […]
The Indie Author’s Guide to DIY Editing
When and Where to Spend Your Limited Resources What if we told you that your book doesn’t need to be perfect to be published? Following the Michael Anderle school of thought, the goal is to hit a MVP—minimum viable product—with our books. We want to write to genre expectations; it’s the story and characters that […]
Design DIY: A Look at Canva, VistaCreate, and BookBrush
It’s no secret that a good cover can sell a book. Once you have a cover made, you want to get that cover in front of as many eyes as possible. This means making advertisements, newsletters, social media posts—even videos—so you can share with your audience and build it. Not everyone is prepared for the […]
Battling the First Draft and Winning
Drafting is how we get books. Books are our business. This means drafting is our business. Finishing our drafts is our top priority. No finished draft, no book. No book, no readers. The perfect first draft, that great inspired work that flows from the divine muse through us onto the page is a myth. Perfection […]
Defining Success
Many of us write because we love to write; it’s our outlet that keeps us sane. Publishing is a by-product that becomes our businesses to pay for our writing habits. This means we need to make decisions, sometimes difficult ones, on how we proceed with our business. No one wants to burn out. In order […]
How to Write Accurate Fight Scenes
You’ve decided that violence is the answer! In your story, that is, but now what? What makes a good fight? There are a lot of things to consider for your scene to come across as authentic and credible to your audience. There’s a reason choreographers map out fights to be filmed; to fight is to […]