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Wars of the Realm [Book-Ray]

8/14/2024

After a science lab explosion, Drew Carter is able to see angels and demons waring. Meanwhile, the angel Validus fights to keep Drew safe.

Series format: Chronological

1. Cloak of the Light: Drew searches for his friend to replicate the experiment that enabled him to see ‘invaders.’

2. Rise of the Fallen: An equal. Angelic Commander Validus is re-assigned to protect Drew Carter. The book alternates between Validus’ past and the present story.

3. Light of the Last: Drew must stop a terrorist threat. Validus and his team fight waves of demons trying to kill Drew.

Till We Have Faces [Book-Ray]

1/17/2024

The gods are unfair.

At the end of her life, Orual writes an accusation to the gods for the undeserved cruelty she suffered: taking away her youngest sister, Psyche, to be their bride.

The story is a re-telling of the greek myth of Cupid and Psyche, but told from the sister’s point of view.

Out of the Silent Planet [Book-Ray]

11/29/2023

While on a walking tour, Ransom is looking for a warm meal and a bed for the night. Instead, he is drugged by his hosts and wakes on a spaceship leaving earth with his captors. They are traveling to a planet named Malacandra and he will be handed over to the Sorn. Ransom vows to escape the Sorns as they descend onto an alien world.

Series format: Episodical
While the three books occur sequentially, each book can be read independently.

Out of the Silent Planet: Ransom is kidnapped and taken to Malacandra (Mars).
Perelandra: God is creating life on Perelandra (Venus). Ransom is sent on a mission to keep Perelandra’s Eve from disobeying God’s command.
That Hideous Strength: Newlyweds Jane and Mark find themselves caught up in the schemes of an evil company.

9 Ways to Define your Characters

11/27/2023

Give them a flaw. Pride. Selfishness. Cowardliness. Whatever is broken in your protagonist should be cured through the course of the story. However…
Don’t make them flawed in EVERYTHING. One flaw is enough for the story to fix. He can have other positive character traits.
Give them a false goal to show change. By the time your character reaches their goal, she realize its shallowness. (Puss in Boots: The Last Wish and Up incorporate a false goal.)
Give them hard choices and allow them to fail. This increases tension and also shows what they value.
Your character needs a goal. This goal can be internal or external, but ideally, it should be both.
Avoid passive characters. Is your character merely reacting to events around them? Instead, your character should drive the story forward by his actions.
Use description to reveal more about your character. How your character describes a setting says a lot about her.
Show their character. If you have to tell me your character is funny, he’s not funny.
Show how your character reacts under pressure. Don’t establish your character and then put her in a difficult situation. That’s boring and takes twice as long.

What ways do you define your protagonist?

Seven Ideas to Strengthen your Plot

11/27/2023

When in doubt, make it worse. Not sure if you should kill the best friend or if the first day of school should be terrible? Do it!
Incorporate tension on every page. If everything is perfect, it’s boring. Even low-grade tension is enough (like having characters bickering).
Build mystery. If you reveal everything immediately, it will be 1) boring exposition and 2) doesn’t give a reason for your reader to continue on. Mystery prompts curiosity.
Cut out the boring stuff. Does your character need to brush their teeth? Probably. Do we need to read about it? Unless the toothpaste has been poisoned, no.
Alternate between high-intensity and low-intensity scenes. After a heart-pounding action scene, your reader will need to catch their breath. Or, if it’s slow scene after slow scene, they may loose interest.
Make the goal hard. Either the goal is physically difficult to obtain or it forces the protagonist to face an inner flaw (ideally, it should be both.)
Follow a plot template to get started. ‘Hero’s Journey’ or ‘Three-Act Structure’ are good places to start.

How do you strengthen your plot?

The Great Divorce [Book-Ray]

11/25/2023

Our protagonist (we never learn his name) finds himself walking in a sprawling city with no people. The dim light state sunset is only minutes away, but after hours, evening never comes. After a flying bus-ride, he finds himself in completely new country, a place so real he appears as a ghost in comparison.

This solid place is Heaven.

The Gray Town is Hell.

While the ghostly people spread over the field, several solid people arrive with one mission: to convince the ghosts to remain in Heaven instead of returning to Hell.

The Screwtape Letters [Book-Ray]

11/25/2023

Steal a sneak peek at the other side’s playbook. C.S. Lewis has gotten his hands on a series of letters between a senior demon and his nephew in best temping practices.

Each chapter represents one letter from Screwtape and addresses a specific issues surrounding Wormwood’s assigned human. The topics range from church attendance to dating to emotions. The goal of each letter is to draw the human closer to them for consumption.

Some copies of the book include ‘Screwtape Proposes a Toast,’ an independent speech given at the school of young tempter’s graduation.

Using Description as Character Development

11/20/2023

Unlike a movie, writers can’t simply hit ‘record’ and show the grimy hotel or the overgrown forest: we have to describe the setting to our readers as if they were blind. It sometimes feels like you have to stop the story to explain what things look like. Boring.

But description can be a powerful tool to reveal more about your character.

Why I Write My Novels in Order

11/13/2023

I used to write my stories out-of-order. I had an outline of my book, so I’d write whatever scene I felt like that day, anything from the opening to the climax. But it caused problems. 'Your pacing is all over the place' an editor told me. I spent hours re-writing scenes to get them to actually fit into the story. Subplots popped up randomly, looking more like a fabric scraps than a ribbon woven into the story.

I now avoid writing out-of-order for these four reasons:

Overcoming Writer's Block

11/6/2023

Writer’s block. That frustrating event when you can’t figure out what to write next. But what should we do about it? Here's five approaches to help you get unstuck.