How Do You Make Your Characters Believable? A story is a composite of myriad pieces: point-of-view, setting, theme, plot, action, conflict, character, pacing, dialogue and more. You need all of these parts to make good fiction work but, in my mind, none is as vital as character. No matter how we dress them up, stories will always be about people. The trick, of course, is making the people featured worth reading about. Readers want interesting plots, true. They want to be impressed by … [Read more...]
Author’s Corner: Preparing Your Manuscript for Printing
July 1, 2018 by Leave a Comment
Preparing Your Manuscript for Printing For my first book, I had written the original draft in WORD. I told you in my last column what an effort it was to create the digital versions. The paperback books were a bit easier (or maybe I was just numb from creating those digital versions). In any event, when I was ready I downloaded that original manuscript (still in Word), into the size I wanted (5.5 x 8.5 is a standard trade paperback) making the necessary tweaks to the file for proper type … [Read more...]
Author’s Corner: Formatting Your e-Books
June 5, 2018 by Leave a Comment
Formatting Your e-Books A friend asked me earlier this year which company put together the Kindle and Nook versions of my books. When I told him I did it myself, he seemed amazed. “I didn’t know you knew how to do that kind of stuff,” was his response. I smiled and let him think I was a genius. The truth is, I didn’t know. I had to figure it out. I started the same way I suppose many author wannabes begin. I Googled "self-publishing companies" and looked at the first page of 28.2 … [Read more...]
