Weekly Rants: December 19, 2012

Greeting Fellow Readers! Welcome to another of random ranting. Christmas is around the corner and the New Year is a jump away.

[On Thoughts on Writing...]

I hope you all enjoyed my 'Thoughts on Writing' here on these rants. I do have a lot on my mind about writing and I will continue to share them as I continue onward. I will spread them out over a couple weeks so that I won't pile on too much in short time and keep interest up. Plus there is so much to writing, there are plenty to talk about. Some controversial, some may come off as BS to you, and maybe a different insight from what you normally hear.

But I do want to stress one important thing, what I say on 'Thoughts on Writing' are not word of law. It's just my thoughts of what I have learned so far. After all, if learn new things in writing, it may change what I originally thought before, and if I learn something new in writing from, like techniques or voicing, then that too could change my outlook.

Seriously, I don't mind if you readers respond on Facebook with rebuttals and criticisms. Who knows I could learn something from you guys and it might make my writing and storytelling all the more stronger, fun, and awesome. Contrary to what humanity thinks, we all are still learning whether we have college degrees or not. There is always room to learn something.

[Arcana Magi Universe]

I'm hoping I am not overwhelming all of you with 'Arcana Magi'. I do have other stories outside of this on tap, but I'm looking to keep them focused on Kindle and not Fictionaut. For those of you who want to see more 'Arcana Magi' I will be posting a new story in around February/March. Most likely I will write 'Arcana Magi Pure Vol.3' to synch up with Memorial. And maybe I will write another story in another universe to spread out the variety.

[Kindle]

Speaking of Kindle. I want to continue De x Maquina and Chain + Fate. I also have more Geolyth Lore stories to write. I pretty much have a lot to write really. I'm not sure if I can get all of them out for 2013. There's just so much going on, but I want to write this up and get them on Kindle. Just stay tuned and hang tight. I'll get it all sorted out and you will have new adventures.

---

Okay, next week is the start of the holidays so I'll be taking the next 2 weeks off. No 'NEWS and NOTES' and No 'Weekly Rants'. On January 7, 2013, I'll set up the next list of stories to come out for the year, and on Wednesday the 8th, I'll return with the Weekly Rants and new 'Thoughts on Writing'.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Until 2013...

See ya.

NEWS and NOTES: December 17, 2012

Greetings Fellow Readers. Welcome to another edition of 'NEWS and NOTES'.

NEWS:

- Coming soon to Fictionaut - More 'Arcana Magi'

Dates and series to be announced.

- This Holiday season on Kindle: Free 'Shell' Days. Get your chance to add 'Shell' to your booklist for FREE on these following days.

This Friday, December 21, 2012 on Kindle: FREE 'Shell' Friday. Tis the season to get reading. Download a free copy of 'Shell' for your Kindle devices this week.

Make sure to grab a copy for you and your book reading family and friends.

- Wednesday's between 8:00 PM EST and 9:00 PM EST on Blogspot - The Weekly Rants. Check out info, thoughts, and behind the scenes look on all writings and project by H-M Brown.

** Dates and times are subject to change pending any scheduling conflicts.

NOTES:

-Well I'm in the Holiday break. It will be awhile before I figure out what to do next for 'Arcana Magi' so stay tuned for the dates.

That's all for NEWS and NOTES today.

Until next time,
See ya.

NEWS and NOTES: December 14, 2012

Greetings Fellow Readers. Welcome to another edition of 'NEWS and NOTES'. This is final day of 'Arcana Magi 2012' Season. I hope you've all enjoyed the latest adventures. It was fun writing for all of you and am very glad to have entertained all of you. I look forward to writing more 'Arcana Magi' in 2013. Please stay tuned for future NEWS and release dates.


NEWS:

- Now on Fictionaut - 'Arcana Magi Pure Vol. 2 Chapter 5'

The Mukado are attacking and Mayumi has to stand back before she could fight.

Click on the sidebar link to find out.

- This Holiday season on Kindle: Free 'Shell' Days. Get your chance to add 'Shell' to your booklist for FREE on these following days.

Today on Kindle: FREE 'Shell' Friday. Tis the season to get reading. Download a free copy of 'Shell' for your Kindle devices this week.

Future 'Free Shell Fridays' dates:

Friday - December 21, 2012

Make sure to grab a copy for you and your book reading family and friends.

- Wednesday's between 8:00 PM EST and 9:00 PM EST on Blogspot - The Weekly Rants. Check out info, thoughts, and behind the scenes look on all writings and project by H-M Brown.

** Dates and times are subject to change pending any scheduling conflicts.

NOTES:

- No NOTES Today

That's all for NEWS and NOTES today.

Until next time,
See ya.

Weekly Rants: December 12, 2012

Greetings Fellow Readers! Welcome to another round of random ranting. This week is the final week on my 'Thoughts on Writing' Facebook posts. I hope my thoughts back in early 2012 were insightful and helpful. Also today I am going to address 'Arcana Magi Universe'.

Thoughts on Writing

[Writing Experimentation: 

       One of the things I'll start with is my use of the " and ' in Arcana Magi Memorial Vol.1 and a few others. One of the things I thought when I wrote dialog was how sentences would go something like this; "What about me?" She said. "I want to come to." and the quotations looked more like finishing a dialog rather than continuing. So I tried this; "What about me?' She said. 'I want to come to." The single quotation had a more soft pause rather than an abrupt end, denoting more dialog and a consistent flow when reading characters statements.

        It was interesting at first. That was until I came across two problems. One, was that sometimes I had to write a narrative beyond the phrase 'She said.' and could sometime go for more than two lines. Even though it gave the denotation that there was more dialog, it came off as looking off and inconsistent. Two, contractions in the follow up dialog; "What a minute?' She said. 'Isn't that wrong?" Having two ' in such short spaces started throwing me off during writing, especially it's. While it made for an interesting experiment, I went back to using " for the beginning and end of all dialog as seen in last years 'Arcana Magi' and 'Beyond Logic'.

        Another experiment became very logical. Using ***. Ever since I started writing on Fictionaut, the problem I had was always that page sandbox where all my writing get copy pasted in. It would be an endless wall of text with no breaks. Since this the internet and not a paperback trade, I've learn that reading would be difficult. I tried to look for different ways to remedy that from writing small for each chapter, which disrupted my writing pace to separating every line, which is not very presentable.

         That's when I started using this *** at the end of each scenario. I felt this would help reader take their time reading the story with being overwhelmed by a endless wall of text. This also actually helped me improve my writing and gave me a new technique to approach with each chapter. I know use *** for each scene in my stories, treating each scene as it own sub-chapter. This allows me to attempt a beginning, middle, and end in between each *** while maintaining the overall story. It helped me really work in the plot and sub-plot seamlessly, and it helped me transition from scene to scene avoiding writing needless words showing characters travel from point a to point b. Most importantly, *** made sure something was always happening in the story with each scene.

         Lastly, one of the things I tried was writing narrative without dialog. As I have explained in part 1, the reason why I left out dialog in First Person writing was because the narrator is talking to you directly and we don't say "He is going to the bathroom" John said in real conversation. But what about third person. As you may have noticed, starting with 'Arcana Magi' I dedicated an entire chapter telling a story without dialog. I'm not sure how it worked for the reader, but I thought it would be interesting to try. I applied this in my 'Duality of Horror' short 'Feral' given who the protagonist was.

          I found writing this way is very interesting and will continue to write this way without dialog in Third Person, from time to time. I understand the need for dialog, because of character development and connecting with personality, but I believe if done right, no dialog writing can be just as effective as dialog itself. If done right.

Final Thoughts: 

    

          So that's pretty much what I to say about writing. It is a wonderful experience as I have said many times. I will keep experimenting in writing. There will be many pratfalls with the successes as try different things, but this is something I won't give up on. Now that I have Kindle Publishing along side Fictionaut posting, I have plenty of options on where to write and allow me to approach each work professionally. There are a lot more stories to come, and I thank you all for accompanying me for the ride.]

 Arcana Magi Universe:

So we've reached the last chapter of 'Arcana Magi Universe' 2012 season. A lot than last year's, but I had fun writing them and I hope you had fun reading the adventure. Which begs the question 'Where to go from here?' Well, this would be the part where I would wait until October next year to start 2013 season, giving everyone a chance to read everything 'Arcana Magi', but having seen the traffic every week this year, and especially last year, I feel I'm losing the audience when October comes around due to a year long wait. So I decided that I will write up another 'Arcana Magi' story sometime between February and March. When I don't know so stay tuned. I will be using the Christmas and January break to sort everything out.

I am also thinking about compiling some of the 'Arcana Magi' stories together for Kindle release, making it convenient for anybody interested in not sitting in front of their computer to read an endless wall of text. Doing this may also bring a quick edit to polish up the stories. Again I have not decided anything in stone yet, I'm not even sure which 'Arcana Magi' to continue with. I still need to write new Original stories for Kindle exclusively and continue current brands I started earlier this year like 'Beyond Logic', 'Chain + Fate', and 'De x Maquina'.

Basically I want 2013 to be a big year between Fictionaut and Kindle, but it's going to take time. Writin' ain't easy. ;)

Next Week I'll have something for 'Thoughts on Writing' so I'll see you all then.

Until Next Time...

See ya.

NEWS and NOTES: December 10, 2012

Greetings Fellow Readers. Well this is last week for 'Arcana Magi 2012 Season'. 2 exciting stories and lots of characters developed. I hope you all had fun. Stay tuned though for further announcements.

Welcome to another edition of 'NEWS and NOTES'.

NEWS:

- This Friday, December 14, 2012 at 8:00 PM EST - 'Arcana Magi Pure Vol. 5 Chapter 5'

The Mukado are attacking and Mayumi has to stand back before she could fight.

Catch it this Friday on Fictionaut.

- This Holiday season on Kindle: Free 'Shell' Days. Get your chance to add 'Shell' to your booklist for FREE on these following days.

This Friday on Kindle December 14, 2012: FREE 'Shell'. Tis the season to get reading. Download a free copy of 'Shell' for your Kindle devices this week.

Future 'Frees Shell' dates:

Friday - December 21, 2012

Make sure to grab a copy for you and your book reading family and friends.

- Wednesday's between 8:00 PM EST and 9:00 PM EST on Blogspot - The Weekly Rants. Check out info, thoughts, and behind the scenes look on all writings and project by H-M Brown.

** Dates and times are subject to change pending any scheduling conflicts.

NOTES:

- No NOTES Today

That's all for NEWS and NOTES today.

Until next time,
See ya.

NEWS and NOTES: December 7, 2012

Greetings Fellow Readers.

Welcome to another edition of 'NEWS and NOTES'.

NEWS:


- Now on Fictionaut - 'Arcana Magi Pure Vol. 2 - Chapter 4'

Mayumi meets with the Karasu Clan and learns about their history.

Click on the Sidebar link to check it out.

- 'Arcana Magi Pure Vol. 2' schedule:


Friday, December 14, 2012 at 8:00 PM EST - Chapter 5**


- This Holiday season on Kindle: Free 'Shell' Days. Get your chance to add 'Shell' to your booklist for FREE on these following days.

Today on Kindle: FREE 'Shell'. Tis the season to get reading. Download a free copy of 'Shell' for your Kindle devices this week.

Future 'Frees Shell' dates:

Friday - December 14, 2012
Friday - December 21, 2012

Make sure to grab a copy for you and your book reading family and friends.


- Wednesday's between 8:00 PM EST and 9:00 PM EST on Blogspot - The Weekly Rants. Check out info, thoughts, and behind the scenes look on all writings and project by H-M Brown.

** Dates and times are subject to change pending any scheduling conflicts.

NOTES:


- No NOTES Today

That's all for NEWS and NOTES today.

Until next time,
See ya.

Weekly Rants: December 5, 2012

Greetings Fellow Readers! Welcome to another round of random ranting. This week once again sees another session of 'Thoughts on Writing: The Facebook Posts'. I will be posting up Foreshadowing and what I thought of it back then.

Thoughts on Writing:

[On Foreshadowing: 

       Basically Foreshadowing are hints, actions, or dialog that pretty much give clues that something big could happen later in the story. Its goal is to get readers more into the story and to continue onward to see what will next. It is a pretty common technique many writers use, but it is something that I have found not touched on in many books on writing. However, it is a double edged sword. Bad foreshadowing would result in giving away the big reveal and you lose your readers. Good foreshadowing will result in a satisfied reader who will want to see the story through to the end.

        Now, executing foreshadow is fairly easy. Usually it happens during the first draft, without realizing it. This occurred to me when I wrote one of my earlier unpublished novels. When I started second drafting it, I noticed a lot of foreshadowing and during the re-write, I tempered it so the story would come out crisp and clean. Now on the other hand, if you attempt to foreshadow by manually, to use a lesser term, you have to prepare your scenes in advance. All scenes the foreshadow involves and the scenes in between that don't involve it. After all you have to connect the dots between the foreshadow scenes leading up to the big reveal. Or else what you write won't make sense and could result in red herrings.

        And red herrings is the one thing you do not want to write too much of. You can get away with it like say, if you have two characters and one is guilty instead of the other. But if you have nothing but an endless slew of red herrings, it will turn the reader off because you're pulling them by the nose.

        For me, I love foreshadowing. To write scenes and situations in such a subtle manner that draws intrigue upon the reader, is the best tool I have in writing arsenal. It makes my stories strong and keeps me my readers in the game. To make them want more. I have tried to foreshadow at will through 'Arcana Magi Memorial Vol. 1' and I am hoping that it was executed well. I had everything involved with foreshadowing laid out and prepared. As for my other works, I'm confident that the foreshadow I found during the second draft was well tempered to not kill the story and brought a level of enjoyment to all of you. I would definitely recommend all you writers out to try it out at will and contrast to foreshadowing you tempered in the second draft to see the differences in your writing. It's a good way to know how well you're doing.]

So that is the Facebook version of my thoughts on Foreshadowing. Next week will be my thoughts on my Writing Experimentation to close out the Thoughts on Writing Facebook posts. I do have a lot on my mind regarding 'Arcana Magi Universe' and Kindle. Nothing is set in stone yet, but I may need to shake things up if I want to secure a good healthy future in Fiction Writing. When the time comes I will address the entire situation.

Until Next Time...

See ya.

NEWS and NOTE: December 03, 2012

Greetings Fellow Readers.

Welcome to another edition of 'NEWS and NOTES'.

NEWS:


- This Friday, December 7, 2012 at 8:00 PM EST on Fictionaut - 'Arcana Magi Pure Vol. 2 - Chapter 3'

Mayumi meets with the Karasu Clan and learns about their history.

Click on the Sidebar link to check it out.

- 'Arcana Magi Pure Vol. 2' schedule:


Friday, December 14, 2012 at 8:00 PM EST - Chapter 5**


- This Holiday season on Kindle: Free 'Shell' Days. Get your chance to add 'Shell' to your booklist for FREE on these following days.

This Friday on Kindle: FREE 'Shell'. Tis the season to get reading. Download a free copy of 'Shell' for your Kiindle devices this week.

Future 'Frees Shell' dates:

Friday - December 14, 2012
Friday - December 21, 2012

Make sure to grab a copy for you and your book reading family and friends.


- Wednesday's between 8:00 PM EST and 9:00 PM EST on Blogspot - The Weekly Rants. Check out info, thoughts, and behind the scenes look on all writings and project by H-M Brown.

** Dates and times are subject to change pending any scheduling conflicts.

NOTES:


- No NOTES Today

That's all for NEWS and NOTES today.

Until next time,
See ya.