You might not like this answer, but I’d say it’s whatever works best for your story. With some series, it’s definitely better to edit the first book first. I have a duology I’ll almost certainly refine book 1 in before I write book 2, or at least before I expect book 2 to offer a solid foundation to work from. Meanwhile, my plan fo…

[Read more]

Thank-you! I would really appreciate any help you can give. 🙂

Ideally, I would like to write a completed novel with 50,000 words, but I’m not sure that is going to be feasible. The goal that’s most important to me right now is getting in the habit of consistently setting aside time to write/hitting a consistent word count each…[Read more]

Okay here comes the actual infodump XD

Let me count my villains… I’m skipping the regular antagonists who are just doing their job and get in the way XD (Also gonna leave out one or two minor villains because they’re major spoilers XD)

Okay, here’s the big three!

Aydin

Is he a villain? Is he a hero? Who knows, he sure doesn’t.…[Read more]

Hey Arindown! It’s awesome to see you around again! How have you been? How is writing? Characters behaving? What are you writing currently?

Ooohhh YES permission to infodump!! I love nothing more!

First of all @calidris it was so cool seeing Sebastian’s character all put together! I still love him, even though he’s horrid and evil…[Read more]

Hey Gracie, saw my tag and figured I should drop by.

I’m currently plotting three series in my head at once right now (probably not a wise thing to do) but those antagonists aren’t developed as much, so I’ll talk about my current WIP. I love central villains, but I also love antagonists that are morally gray in that they are…[Read more]

Well, tbh my villains are so far really underdeveloped, but I do have quite a few concepts I want to develop:

1. One of my characters, Basil, is a prototype super-soldier who was raised in a lab.  So, obviously we have a very cold and inhumane environment here, but the lab staff always really fascinated me.  O…[Read more]

Before I get started, I am going to (non-graphically) discuss sexual abuse in this context, so just a heads up in case this is a sensitive topic for you!  Also, I don’t know what your gender is, so I’m just going to address both sides of the issue XD

So, I guess my question is, what was the context b…[Read more]

Nah you’re good lol

Ok thank you, I’ll definitely look him up.

Yeah I’d agree there. That is what I was thinking of doing , stuff like ‘He swore viciously’

Yeah…the MC is not a cold blooded killer, but one of his Squadmates (who is an important figure) is. Jackson is more like ‘I do it because I have to’

btw here is a very long…[Read more]

Hi!!!!! I’m so sorry it took me this long to get back to you… summer…

Anyway, I would love for you to join!

A list of people:

@crazywriter = Janner

@mischievous-thwapling = Kalmar/Tink

@arindown = Leeli

@wingiby-iggiby = Artham & Maraly

@backwardslivewriter = Sara (Cobbler)

@valkyrie-falk = Thorn (I believe that’s…[Read more]

Glad you could join us!

@crazywriter

@backwardslivewriter

@wingiby-iggiby

@arindown

@mischievous-thwapling

@joelle-stone

So… What’s the plan now?

Also, sorry I’ve not been on here a lot. I’ve been busy.

~Kylie

@crazywriter

@backwardslivewriter

@mischievous-thwapling

@arindown

Happy 2022!!!!

*Sets off fireworks*

I like the conversation and the premise of objecting to overbearing writing advice; but at the same time, most writing dogma comes from a place of near-universal applicability and shouldn’t be thrown out with the bathwater it has steeped in.

Write, read,…[Read more]

@sparrowhawke

It was really cool to hear your opinions on those books! I actually haven’t read any of them, but I want to read Oliver Twist sometime!

@arindown

I haven’t been reading too much lately, unless you count school textbooks. I’ve learned a ton from my…

[Read more]

I did see it!  I really, really love your charcoal work, especially the animal portraits 🙂

I think that I like stylized art.  I don’t do well with photo realism, and personally I think that it’s kind of… I don…[Read more]

I have not read anything by that author,  I’ll check him out. 🙂

I totally agree with all of you! This was a great topic idea, Rose! I don’t think I’ve read any of these books y’all have mentioned (except LOTR), but I sure know which ones to avoid now! XD

I haven’t really done a whole lot of reading lately since life dec…[Read more]

The discussion on “Does reading make you a better writer?” sparked this idea.

Which books have you (recently) read and what did you learn from them? It doesn’t have to be super in-depth, and you don’t even have to have enjoyed the book, but if it taught you something, I’d love to hear about it!

I’ll go first and list a couple off…[Read more]

Hi!

If you had to go on an adventure with one character from each series, who would you bring?

Umm… Probably Janner and Picket… What can I say? *shrugs* I have a talent for picking the main male character as my favorite. 🙂 We’d probably get in a lot of trouble though…

Who cried at the end of both series?

I cried at the end of…[Read more]

@crazywriter

@backwardslivewriter

@mischievous-thwapling

@arindown

@joelle-stone

Hi y’all! I’m going to be on a trip for the next seven days, so I may or may not post.

~Kylie

@crazywriter

@backwardslivewriter

@mischievous-thwapling

@arindown

@joelle-stone

So…

~Kylie

I was interested in how each of you uses the concept of subtext in your personal writing,…[Read more]

I got Scrivener for my birthday and I really love it! It helps keep everything organized without having to open dozens of folders for it.

@joy-caroline

Also, Scrivener is awesome for organizing notes and other things. I use it once in a while and would recommend!

At first I didn’t think Scrivener would be useful for me, but the…[Read more]

1500 WORDS?!? CONGRATS!!

*Laughs in writer.* Oh, she totally is. Life really sucks for her right now XD Oh, goodness, I’m both proud and extremely guilty XD I’ve just started on the low point and it’s going to get way worse before it gets better. (My poor babies!)

*wishes I could cackle* *is not in Evil Writer Mode* Saaaa…[Read more]

…AND I have added one additional question that goes to the value of this fun exercise. 😎  12 Disciples – 12 Tribes of Israel – 12 Gates in the Heavenly City – 12 – Eggs in a Dozen… (Okay, I’ll admit I got carried away with this last…[Read more]

Hi Joelle,

Whew! It has been a long and busy week.
Trying to catch up on responding to posts.

So, let me clarify a little.  These snippets of scenes are extracted from anywhere in a longer work, so they will often be introduced without context or backstory.  We are just looking at the intrinsic value of a single scene, which m…[Read more]

(yes I started this topic because my writings are a mess and scattered all over and I need to clean and re-organize my Google Drive and OneNote)

tagging some…[Read more]

@crazywriter

@backwardslivewriter

@mischievous-thwapling

@arindown

Come hither!

@joelle-stone

Are there any ideas you would like me to use with Arundelle?

@arindown

Thwapling told me what’s happening, so I thought I’d come over here and tag some RP peeps. 😉

@this-is-not-an-alien @rose-colored-fancy @irishcelticredflowercrown @rusted-knight @kylie-wingfeather @arindown @skylarynn @kimlikesart @millennium

@mischievous-thwapling

@crazywriter

@arindown

@backwardslivewriter

So, what next? And, who is going to take Arundelle & Gammon? (@joelle-stone, you got any preferences?)

~Kylie S. Wingfeather/Pierce

Thx for the tag! I’m gonna try and enter. Are you?

I’ve heard of motifs before, but I thought they referred more to general things that are in different stories but tend to represent the same thing, like a wise old man or a ghost appearing. Maybe I’m getting it confused with archetypes.

You know, you may actually be right XD ‘Motifs’ was just my rough translation XD
Oh, those are…[Read more]

@arindown Those all seem really fun. They do sound like they’d spice up the story a whole lot.

@ashley-tegart I…[Read more]

Thank you for your kind words, Gracie! Many blessings to you.
Story Embers tends to be that kind of special place where we meet people of shared passions and a love for The One Who Unifies us, even though we have different backgrounds.  There is a kind of kinship among Faith-based writers, that allows for us to strengthen one another…[Read more]

So, usually I do medieval Fantasy (i.e Ranger’s Apprentice style) with maybe a very light touch of magic (I have a phoenix in my current WIP novel).  But I’ve also tried a dystopian/fantasy style for a MG short story I just finished.  It’s kinda like alt. history, in the sense that there’s wagons, trains, towns and cities, b…[Read more]

YAY! THAT’S AWESOME!!! I’m soso glad it helped!!

@arindown

Hi Gracie! Thanks, I haven’t met a person yet who doesn’t have at least some of these insecurities but it’s like the code of silence we always seem to inflict on ourselves for “protection” that ends up being a chain. I used to never say two words about myself because it wa…[Read more]

That was excellent, and surprisingly close to how I was trying to portray Joelle for someone who just read a few paragraphs about her. I copied that and saved in a google doc to analyze later. 🙂

You might have told me already, but how long have you been writing Rose?

@arindown

I’m delighted that you enjoyed it Gracie.…[Read more]

*Begins replying to mail*

==================================================================

@this-is-not-an-alien

Hello! *Get up and dust myself off* Nice to meet you, Cathy.

The Wormling series is an allegory about this young man who is prophesied to rescue a King’s Son in another…[Read more]

So, I have a question for all of you, and I am willing to bet no one on here will be able to top my response to this question:

What is the greatest gift (besides birth) your earthly father ever gave you?

…Go

Hi y’all!  I know I haven’t been active recently, but I just got on and I was like “oh my gosh, this is amazing!”  Can I join in, or is it too late?

I am adding Bronte to our fun here!

@rose-colored-fancy (Rose)

@irishcelticredflowercrown (Neasa)

@erynne (Erynne)

@lonathecat (Lona)

@emma-walker (Emma)

@sparrowhawke (Sparrowhawke)

@arindown (Gracie)

Bronte has some amazing art for her characters that I am sure you all will love!

Her WIP is fascinating and she has…[Read more]

Hi! Haven’t been around on here in a while, but planning to change that some. Life’s had it’s up and downs, but for the most part it’s pretty good. A friend of mine died last week and that was really hard, but it’s getting better now. (The song I wrote about loss is actually because of that, @melancholicwriter. I wrote it for his…[Read more]