F.C. Tait

@morreafirebird thanks for answering! I think I need to give my blog some more thought.

@samuel That’s a really interesting article, thanks for sharing!

I think what the writer meant was that the publishers didn’t count the number of people she was reaching.

What I don’t understand is how publishers can judge your platform if it is your writing. Unless they would count the number of magazines you’ve been published in etc., what…[Read more]

@daeus-lamb Thanks for answering.

The main reason I don’t want to use my real address is because of my parents, who tend to be slightly paranoid about things like that. It would take a lot of convincing for them to let me use their address, and since I move around so much theirs is my only stable address, if that makes sense.

I don’t know if it…[Read more]

@r-m-archer I’ve already tried making a Pinterest board, and it doesn’t seem to have made much difference. I know it’s possible to not put an address on MailChimp emails or else make one up, but someone told me that’s illegal so I don’t really want to risk it, if that makes sense?

I know platform building is more important for self-publishing…[Read more]

@corkybookworm same.

@professorsjb I love those snippets! And I really recommend Earthsea, though the Studio Ghibli version is nothing like the books.

@jane-maree It was only meant to be a base, maybe I should have made that clearer. I don’t think submitting the original would have got us very far haha 🙂

I was just trying to bash out some ideas, don’t feel under any pressure to use my draft 🙂

One of my favourite books is Ursula le Guin’s Earthsea. I love the way she uses prose to give everything a mythical, other-worldly feel. Like this:

Once more the Archmage looked at him, and this time, for all his training, Arren looked away. He did not know why, for there was nothing unkind in the gaze of those dark eyes. They were impartial,…[Read more]

@faith_blum I love that excerpt!

I also found it interesting what you said about how the author being a man affects his prose. I’m really interested in how men and women speak and write differently, (especially because I have a male POV character in my WIP). Usually I find male authors write in a more choppy, straightforward style (though there…[Read more]

I think if we were to write it from the villain’s POV and focus on remorse and how (s)he has wasted and misused her/his past and now will never have the chance to set things right, that could be pretty heart-wrenching. We don’t necessarily have to go into tons of detail about what they did, just that they now realise it was wrong. I think it could work.

Okay! I decided to use a completely new character from a novel I’m planning, so I’m kind of just finding her voice.

I pushed aside the curtain and ducked into the small inn, hoping it would be a little quieter in here.

The transition from the glaring sunlight outside to the cool shade blinded me for a moment, and I blinked rapidly. As my eyes…[Read more]

Sound good to me! 🙂

@theresa-play Hey! The others have already given some great advice, but I just wanted to add one thing. A lot of people have said to remember that girls are still weaker than guys, and that is true, but as someone who does martial arts I just wanted to point out that a lot of fighting styles don’t rely on brute strength, so she absolutely can…[Read more]

@josiah Thanks!

Okay! I’m in!

Apparently my death-scenes sometimes make people cry, even though I’m never that emotional about them myself because, well, I always knew it was coming. 😛

Anyway, brainstorming…

1) The character somehow causes their friend’s death, either by accident or acting instinctively to save themselves/another character. They then have…[Read more]

Is it cheating if I already have a snippet because my character actually does this in the story? 😀

@professorsjb That concert’s amazing!

I’m a fellow ISTJ, btw. 🙂