Author: Titus Watson

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A Writer's Tool On Writing Writing Tools

A Writer’s Tool: Note Taking

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Earlier this week, I toyed around with this idea that I got a few months back. It all started while I was watching the Brandon Sanderson BYU lectures on YouTube (a great resource that you can access for free on his channel). In the lecture (I don’t remember which one) he talked about the writer’s toolbox. These are just tools/methods that different writers use. He then went on to say that even if you don’t necessarily use every single tool, it’s good to know them. So this past week, I’ve been thinking about my “toolbox.” I then began to think, “maybe I could do a series on different ‘tools’ that I use or that other writers use.”

So here we are!

Today, I’m going to go over something that most people might think a simple tool that doesn’t require much thought, but it truly can be invaluable to writers. That thing is note-taking.

Everyone has taken notes in some way, shape, or form. Whether that is in a classroom, church, a meeting with your boss, or just a reminder for something you need to accomplish later. Everyone takes notes.

But why do writers take notes? Why should they take notes? What should writers take notes on? I’ll go over these questions one at a time, but both answers are quite simple.

Why do writers take notes? This question really doesn’t apply just to writers. Why does anyone take notes? Well, we forget things quite easily, so we write notes to remind ourselves of something. Sometimes we write notes so we can access all the information in one place, and sometimes we write notes to organize our thoughts.

But, why should writers take notes? Well, if you’re like me, you probably get the best ideas for stories at the most random places and times. One of the things I like to do is to carry some form of note-taking wherever I go. More on that in a minute though. Another reason why you should take notes is for reference purposes. I like to go over my notes from different writing videos just to review them and refresh my thoughts on the subject. That’s why it’s good to title your notes! It helps you know what you took these notes on.

What should writers take notes on? Alright, this one will take a bit more time. I don’t want this to be an article that says “just take notes on everything important you hear and that comes to your mind.” Because the best ideas tend to stick with you for a while. If the best ideas are gonna stick with you, why should you write anything down? Well, one big idea for your story isn’t the whole plot! It’s a good idea to write down ideas that you have that you think might be good. But really, what notes you take on your work in progress is really up to you (It could also be called outlining, but we’ll go over that in-depth in a later post). If we’re talking taking notes in classes, videos, or books, I tend to take notes (or underline in a book. Only non-fiction books though!) to help me concentrate on what I’m reading or listening to. I tend to like to write down the main points of the speaker and key tips and tricks that they give. But don’t try and find the key tips and tricks that others got from the video/book/lecture, listen close and write down the tools you find helpful. If I’m watching a video, I go back and write down the exact wording of the speaker. Notes are just really helpful to you when you’re like, “what was that guy saying about this?” And just because you take a note on something doesn’t mean you have to use it later. I’ve taken numerous notes on ideas and I open it a week later and I think to myself, “what in the world was I thinking? That’s an awful idea!” That’s just how it goes sometimes! Writers don’t only get good ideas, they can get bad ones too. You don’t have to use every idea. I tend to only use the ones that I am passionate about and will enjoy writing.

What are some tools that you can use as a writer to take notes? It really will come down to your personality to how you take notes. I use the notes app on my phone to take notes on the go frequently. I also have several different notebooks that I bring with me when I go somewhere to have a writing session. Another tool I’ve used is Scrivener (I use this program for writing my books. I might write an article on it at a later date. Basically, it’s a word processing system built for writers). For several projects (mainly the science fiction one, the screenplay, and the short story collection), I have a running section in which I just fill it with ideas. I know of some writers who just use sticky notes and stick them in places that they can see so that idea stays fresh on their mind. It just comes down to your personality and what works for you. There is no wrong way to take notes!

Note-taking really comes down to the writer. How you take notes is based on your personality. What you take notes on is what you as a writer feel is important to note. I personally have filled up an entire notebook on just different aspects of Enaxelet (my fantasy world) whether that is creatures, history, character, etc. I also have a notebook dedicated to just taking notes from different classes I take on creative writing. Then I have a few documents on Scrivener I just list different ideas for those projects on.

I encourage you to experiment a little bit and find your way of taking notes! What works for you as a writer? What do you feel the need to take notes on? How do you take notes? Let me know in the comments below!

Thanks for reading! If you want to get updates on when new blog posts come out, subscribe to my newsletter, “The Raven,” and be the first to get updates and exclusive updates on my writings! If you want to contribute to the conversation, please comment below! I will try to respond to all comments!

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Book Review Reading

Book Review – The Hero of Ages

Spoilers for The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson to follow!

Well, this review is gonna be tough. I noticed with my last couple of reviews, I haven’t done a very good job of criticizing what the book didn’t do well. I hate to be overly critical of books, but at the same time, it is good to see what they didn’t do right. The other problem with this is, this book does not have a ton that I can criticize. In fact, this might be the best book in the series, maybe even surpassing Mistborn: The Final Empire. I would also like to put a disclaimer before you read this article. What I say here is not set in steel (anyone?), it is merely my opinion of this book. It is not to be taken as fact. In fact, some of my criticisms may have just been things that I noticed, not everyone may have the same issues with them as I did. So, before I keep on rambling, let’s get into this.

The Hero of Ages was a supremely well-done book. Aside from a couple of things, it was a flawless read. The ending was perfect for the characters and it leaves you with the hole that needs to be filled by more time spent with these characters. It does struggle at some times with pacing and certain plot lines being confusing. But, those issues could have been my own due to the fact that I went weeks without reading it at one point.

So let’s get into this! First, let’s look at what I didn’t necessarily enjoy about it.
1. The Pacing – All Sanderson books tend to struggle with this issue, but it does tend to make up for itself in the end. It is still worth pointing out though. The book starts off very quickly with a good amount of action to hook the reader in (though, why are you still reading if you haven’t liked the series so far?). But, as you get into the book, the characters stay in the same place and I got a little bored with it at times and it just felt slow. It’s not that things weren’t happening and the story wasn’t being developed. In fact, these scenes had some tremendous set up for the end. But things felt very monotonous at times. Which leads to my second point here.
2. The Scenes – Don’t get me wrong about this point. Every scene revealed something new and some brought some spectacular action sequences to it. But, there were several points where I felt like I had already read this. It felt similar to previous chapters. Characters were doing similar things, and the settings became similar. Now, don’t get me wrong, these scenes were brilliant at times even if they felt the same. But I definitely feel that this affected the pacing of the book for me as it seemed like it dragged at times.

These were my two big issues with this book. I’m sure that if I reread it, I’ll find other nitpicky issues that I had with this book. But overall, those are the two biggest issues that I had with it.

Now to get to some of the good stuff. Let’s look at what worked in this book for me!
1. The Characterization – This book has some pretty dang good characters. In fact, the characterization may be near perfection in this series. Each character had a completely realistic arc and the ending for all the characters fell in place perfectly. Everyone got the ending that they had been foreshadowed (though where it was foreshadowed, I cannot tell you. I’ll have to reread the series just to look for that piece alone!) and that they had reached a conclusion that fit for each of the characters. Even the surprise ending for Sazed felt perfect. The entire book dealt with his depression and loss of faith, then in the end he regained it in the best possible way. Which leads me to my second point.
2. The Writing – The way this book was written was the best of the entire series. The prose succeeded tremendously. Sanderson really hit his stride in this book. I think one of my favorite lines from any piece of literature comes in this book. In Chapter 56, Spook is talking to Sazed about faith and he answers him in this way: “Faith,” Spook said, “means that it doesn’t matter what happens. You can trust that somebody is watching. Trust that somebody will make it all right.” When I first read that line, I just sat there for a moment. I had to reread it again, and not only did I reread it once, I reread it five times. Not only is this line great in of itself as it is a great explanation of faith to Sazed, but it also foreshadows to the end of the book where they have to place faith in Vin to “make it all right.” The prose and dialogue in this book were just marvelous and I enjoyed it immensely.

As I have already touched on similar highlights in my last two reviews, I’ll briefly cover them here. The setting of The Final Empire is highly unique in this last chapter of the first era and influences several plot points. The plot is also highly original from what I have read in fantasy and is executed to perfection, even if it is rather slow at parts. The ending is a shocker, though well set up.

All in all, this book is one of my favorite fantasy reads. It’s not a perfect book, but it overcomes its struggles and makes for a killer ending. I cannot decide if I like it better than the first book, but both are pretty dang good. This trilogy was a great introduction to the Cosmere and I look forward to reading more of it!

Have you read any of the Mistborn trilogy? If so what were your thoughts? Leave a comment below and I’ll do my best to reply!

Thanks for reading! If you want to get updates on when new blog posts come out, subscribe to my newsletter, “The Raven,” and be the first to get updates and exclusive updates on my writings! If you want to contribute to the conversation, please comment below! I will try to respond to all comments!

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#aSotS #tIRS On My Writings

May 2020 Update On My Projects

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So, it’s been another month. That means a new update on my projects.

Yes, I know. It’s an easy out for an article. But, I’ve been super busy just with life lately, so an easier article was needed. I’m hoping that the next one I publish will be a book review on The Hero of Ages, but don’t quote me on that.

The Epic Fantasy Project – #tIRS

I’ve made a lot of progress here in the last month. I’m now close to reaching 40k words in the rough draft. I’m still only about 30-35%ish threw the story. But, I finally finished writing Chapter Eight (which clocked in 35 pages in length and 7,601 words). Chapter Eight was immensely fun to write, but I have a feeling that it will be edited a lot. But, it was a nice break from my protagonist and now I’m glad to be back with him on his journey. I may have said this before, but Book One is by far the most trope-filled book in the series, but it also has a few scenes that are big implications for the rest of the series. It is definitely going to take a lot more work to finish the rough draft, but I’m feeling confident. I don’t know if the rough draft will actually be finished by the end of the summer, but I’m hopeful it will be.

Short Story Collection

Not much progress here I’m afraid. I haven’t finished outlining the first story yet, nor have I started writing it. But it’s because I’ve been writing a good bit more in #tIRS, which is a good thing.

The Science Fiction Project

Same as the short story collection, not much progress. Which, this story I won’t be putting a lot of effort into until after I finish the first book in #tIRS.

The Screenplay

This is a new one! I’ve had an idea for a screenplay for a movie. I’m sort of in an ideas phase. It’s not outlining yet, but it’s not on the backburner either. I’ve been reading a few books on screenwriting to prep for writing it, and I think it’s gonna be fun! It’s nice to be able to change which medium of writing I’m working on at any given moment. It’s gonna be a fun experiment for sure. The story is one I’m super excited about. I could write it as a book, sure. But, as a film the end of it will be even more gut-wrenching and touching. Before there is speculation on what it is, it’s not a fantasy or science fiction movie. I actually haven’t figured out which genre it fits in, but I will. I just need time to learn the genres.

So overall, it was a fairly productive month. Granted, I still didn’t write as much as I wanted too, but I did write a little more consistently. My goal is to start writing better articles here. I have several that are in mind, but they will take a good while to write.
I want to hear from you guys though! What type of articles would you like to see more? Would you rather me focus on my novels and other projects and not be as worried about the content on this site? I really want this to be a community where you guys feel safe to post questions and such. And please, email me with questions on writing! If I don’t have an answer, I’ll find you one!

From my pen to your paper, may our swords never clash.

Thanks for reading! If you want to get updates on when new blog posts come out, subscribe to my newsletter, “The Raven,” and be the first to get updates and exclusive updates on my writings! If you want to contribute to the conversation, please comment below! I will try to respond to all comments!

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On Writing Reading

The Importance of Chapter One (or the Prologue)

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So why is the first chapter so important? The first chapter is many things, but it ultimately helps the reader decide if they want to keep reading. As writers, we want our readers to keep reading our story. The first chapter is our best bet at getting them to keep reading.

So, what can we do as writers to keep readers interested in our book? Well, there are a few things that I’ve seen done in other books that are good examples to follow. We don’t need to do every single one of these things as writers, they aren’t rules you must follow. They are just things that other writers have done that helped their book.

The first thing the first chapter can do to successfully keep their reader is to hook the reader. You might ask, “what is the hook?” Well think of it this way, it’s like what a fisherman does. You put something that the fish will want on the hook so that the fish will bite into it and the fisherman can catch the fish. Well, we as writers want to “hook” our readers. Generally, the hook comes in the first couple of sentences. And one of the best ways that a writer can “hook” their readers is by getting the readers to ask questions. Let’s look at an example:

“Wind howled through the night, carrying a scent that would change the world. A tall Shade lifted his head and sniffed the air.”
-Prologue of Eragon by Christopher Paolini

While this is not technically the first chapter of Eragon, it is the first thing that the reader is going to read so its goal is still to hook the reader. Notice how Paolini is getting the reader to ask questions with these first two sentences. Why would the scent change the world? What is the scent? What is a Shade? Is he human? We want our questions answered, so the only thing to do is to keep reading. Paolini has now hooked us.

The hook also contains action. We as readers can infer that action is about to happen. And a good hook makes us wonder why this action is happening, thus motivating us to keep on reading. This is a greater hook that can carry on for the entire chapter, and sometimes even a good bit of a book, maybe even a series (apparently, the classic fantasy series The Wheel of Time’s prologue isn’t fully explained for a couple of books). This is a greater hook that gets us to finish the chapter, and sometimes even the book.

Let’s look at another example of a hook from a fantasy classic:

“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.”
-Chapter One of The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien

This one gets us to ask questions, but an action scene is clearly not taking place. So how does Tolkien hook us? Well, he makes us ask a big question, what is a hobbit? He goes on to describe where the hobbit lives, but he still gives us very little information on hobbit’s themselves. We as readers keep asking the question, and so we keep reading. This is a good example of using description to hook a reader. Chapter One of The Hobbit doesn’t do much at the beginning of the chapter but describes the lives of hobbit’s, particularly Bilbo Baggins and his family. By the time we have found our answer to “what is a hobbit?” we want to know more about Bilbo, and so we are successfully hooked as readers. This leads us to the next point.

The second thing the first chapter can do to successfully keep their reader is to get the reader to want to know more about your protagonist, especially by teases. You don’t want to give away the whole backstory of your protagonist in chapter one. If you are able to keep teasing the reader, they will want to keep coming back for more.

As I tried to think of an example of this, I thought about the Prologue of Mistborn: The Final Empire. It successfully teased Kelsier, giving us just enough information for the readers to want more of him. Sanderson gave us teases of Kelsier’s backstory while setting a scene that made us fall in love with the character. By the end of the chapter, we’re hooked and want more of Kelsier.

The last thing the first chapter can do to successfully keep their reader is to start the chapter with a bang. I touched on this a little bit in my first point, but I wanted to expound on it a little more. When we as readers are thrown into the middle of an action scene, it can be a little much. So you really have to give a balance of the action and explanation of things. It can draw the reader in, or will turn them away. So you have to be sure to enter in the right place and give just enough information that the reader won’t be too confused. And an action scene doesn’t have to be a sword fight or gunfight, it can be someone driving down the road to the grocery store!

So in summary, great first chapters (or prologues depending on the book) have shown us how to start off books well in three different aspects. They successfully hook the reader at the beginning of the chapter. They successfully tease the protagonist, giving the reader just enough to want to know more about them.

So what do you think? Do you agree or disagree with me? Let me know in the comments below!

From my pen to your paper, may our swords never clash.

Thanks for reading! If you want to get updates on when new blog posts come out, subscribe to my newsletter, “The Raven,” and be the first to get updates and exclusive updates on my writings! If you want to contribute to the conversation, please comment below! I will try to respond to all comments!

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On My Writings

Update to Posting Schedule

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Hey everyone!

I have decided to make some pretty big changes to my posting schedule.

First, let me tell you why I have made these changes to the blog. I have noticed that my articles are not getting a lot of views when I post them weekly, even though they do okay after a matter of time has gone by. But, if I’m putting in effort to be putting out articles weekly, that’s taking away from the time I have to be writing my books. So, if I switch up my posting schedule, I’ll have more time for the projects I am super passionate about and hopefully finish those sooner.

Second, a change to the newsletter. I’ve decided I’m going to be changing when I send my newsletter (named “The Raven”). Why? Well, for one thing, it wasn’t getting read by many of you. In fact, I think Issue 15 (April 11th’s edition) only 40% of you subscribers read it. I think a reason for this is, I send it too frequently. People get a lot of emails these days, and I know even when I get a lot of emails from certain lists, I just mark them as read. But, there are newsletters that I get that hardly ever get sent out, and I always read those in full. So I’ve decided to shorten the number of newsletters I send and hopefully, that will help you guys not to have as many emails in your email!

Third, the actual changes. So I have decided to change my weekly posting of blog posts to biweekly. I’ll still post on Tuesdays, but I’ll only post on the first and third Tuesday of the month. This will give me more time to write better posts as well. I said I would be changing when I would send “The Raven” as well. I have decided to only send it out on the last Saturday of the month. This is so I don’t clog up your emails and that, hopefully, they will be more attractive to be read.

Thanks to all of my dedicated readers of the blog! Let me know if you think there are any other changes that should be implemented or not.

From my pen to your paper, may our swords never clash.

Thanks for reading! If you want to get updates on when new blog posts come out, subscribe to my newsletter, “The Raven,” and be the first to get updates and exclusive updates on my writings! If you want to contribute to the conversation, please comment below! I will try to respond to all comments!

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#aSotS #tIRS On My Writings

April 2020 Update on My Projects

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Well, another month has passed by so it’s time for me to give you an update on my projects. You may have noticed that I haven’t titled this article “April 2020 Update on #tIRS” and I did that for a reason. I now am working on two projects at one time. I’m still working on #tIRS, but I’m also working on a short story collection as well.

The Epic Fantasy Project – #tIRS

Not much has happened here I’m afraid. I’ve put in a few words here and there, but I’m still at about 26k words. While I am very proud of what I’ve written so far, however rough it may be, I decided to take a break from it for a couple of weeks. This is because I have passed a major plot point in the book, and I feel I did much better writing the first act of the book this time then I did in my first attempt. My goal is still to finish writing the rough draft by the end of the summer, and I think I will accomplish that goal. But, writing the second act is probably going to go a lot slower as I will need to accomplish a lot not only to set up the climax but to hint at what’s to come in the series. This first draft really is only me putting the story down on paper, but I do want it to be the best it can be that way I don’t have a lot of work to get done. As I write it and come up with more and more ideas, I am beginning to realize that the first book is going to be the shortest in the series by far because the rest of the series will have more viewpoint characters and grow more complicated. I think when I go to outline book two, I’ll need to outline at least books two and three so I can properly foreshadow what’s to happen at the end of book three. After I finish book three, I will probably work on some other projects before finishing off the series.

I think I will say that while my goal is for these to be published books one day, I do not write them solely for the purpose of publishing them. If they get published, awesome! If they don’t, that’s fine. I love writing and this story is one I want to write. So I won’t stop writing #tIRS if I don’t get it published. I will definitely continue writing it.

Short Story Collection

I’m fairly certain that this is the first time that I have mentioned this project in one of my articles. So let me give you guys a brief description of what it is. The book is going to be a collection of short stories. These short stories all have the same two main characters and several recurring characters. The story is set in America in the 1950s. The short stories will all be mysteries and each short story is a different case. The idea spiraled out of me when I began to think about classic detectives such as Sherlock Holmes, Poirot, or Father Brown. All those characters weren’t set in America and none of them were set in modern times or close to modern times. So I’ve been exploring the idea and have come up with some really good stuff. I am still working on outlining the introductory short story which will most likely end up being closer to a novella. But, I have already finished the second short story in the book. My goal is for this to be a good project that I can take quick breaks away from the intensity of #tIRS (it takes a lot of brainpower to keep up with all my characters and places) and write a quick story and then return back to #tIRS. I don’t know when I’ll say that this collection is complete, but there definitely won’t be just one collection.

The Science Fiction Project

This project is going to take the back burner for a while. I might begin outlining it once I finish the rough draft of #aSotS, but I doubt I will even start until I’m completely finished with #aSotS.

I know, that’s quite a lot of projects! I don’t want to give estimates on when I will have them out for you guys to read because I will be submitting #aSotS to agents and publishers first, and from what I read it can take a while to get responses. I hope that it will be sooner rather than later for these projects, but before I start thinking about publication, I need to finish writing them!

I also want to take a moment and thank you guys for reading. I may not have many readers of this blog, but the few of you that do are faithful readers and read almost every article. While the numbers are still few, I am very thankful for all of you guys.

From my pen to your paper, may our swords never clash.

Thanks for reading! If you want to get updates on when new blog posts come out, subscribe to my newsletter, “The Raven,” and be the first to get updates and exclusive updates on my writings! If you want to contribute to the conversation, please comment below! I will try to respond to all comments!

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On Writing

Why I Use the Three-Act Story Structure

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There are many story structures out there. Now while I know of only a handful, I have already chosen the one I’m going to use for the rest of my writing (or until I become a lot more experienced and decide its not for me).

I use the three-act story structure format. If you’re not familiar with it, I’ll give a quick recap of what it is below.

There are, obviously, three different acts in the three-act format.

The first one is the introduction of the protagonist and the protagonist’s normal world, hinting at the conflict that is coming. A major event occurs in this act and the protagonist’s life is changed. This is followed by what is called the first plot point. The first plot point is the point of no return for the protagonist. They cannot go back to the normal world. This act is generally the first 25% of the story.

The second act is generally broken into two parts by the midpoint, which we’ll get to in a second, the first half is the protagonist’s reaction to what happened in the first act. Then the midpoint comes and they learn new information, usually advancing the plot in relation to the conflict between the protagonist and the antagonist. The midpoint is also called the second plot point. This act is generally the largest chunk of your story, being around 50% of the story,

The third act is the climactic act. It starts with the third plot which is a major loss for the protagonist, such as a mentor dying or something of that nature. They generally react to that loss, more motivation is given, and then you get the climactic encounter between the protagonist and the antagonist. Then comes the resolution and end to the story.

There are a lot of subpoints to the acts of what is supposed to happen during those acts to keep the plot going, but I won’t address all of those right now.

So why do I use the three-act story structure?

Well, it makes the most sense to me for one thing. I see story structure that works almost like a triangle with the line going flat and then sharply curving upward and then back down again. That really isn’t how most stories work. The line going up to the climax is more gradual and then the line going down is a lot more drastic. The three-act structure makes it seem a lot more believable.

I’ve also found it’s very detail-oriented. It helps you ask questions about why things are happening and it breaks the story into enough chunks that you aren’t left with a huge chunk of story that you don’t know what happens. It makes sure that you have a general knowledge of what happens every 25ish% of the story.

So I use the three-act structure because it makes the most sense and is detail-oriented. But the story structure you use is purely a personal preference, nothing more. I prefer the three-act structure, but that doesn’t mean it’ll work the best for you!

What is your prefered story structure? Let me know in the comments below!

From my pen to your pape, may our sword never clash.

Thanks for reading! If you want to get updates on when new blog posts come out, subscribe to my newsletter, “The Raven,” and be the first to get updates and exclusive updates on my writings! If you want to contribute to the conversation, please comment below! I will try to respond to all comments!

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Music On Writing

The Music in Writing

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I listen to a lot of music. A LOT of music. I listen to music while doing school, while I’m writing, pretty much if I’m doing something, music is going in the background.

While I listen to the normal pop songs and such, orchestra music, particularly scores from movies and TV shows, have a special place in my heart. This is because they give me inspiration when I need it.

Now I have no musical talent whatsoever. I’m not here to teach you how to write music or play music. I’m here to talk about how music inspires me.

Now I write Epic Fantasy as many of you know, so that requires a lot of creativity and effort if you want to tell an original story and world. I don’t want to copy what J.R.R. Tolkien, George R.R. Martin, Brandon Sanderson, or Patrick Rothfuss did (though I have only read two of those four authors, I promise I’m working on catching up!). I want to take what I liked about their stories, and twist them into something new, something different from what they’ve written, while still similar enough that it has the components that I and other readers enjoy.

Music helps me create. I don’t know what happens, but when I start listening to tracks like Hans Zimmer’s Time, Howard Shore’s The Breaking of the Fellowship, or pretty much anything by Ramin Djwaldi, I get inspired. Something in my mind just clicks and the creativity just starts to flow. The music helps give me a background to what I have going on in my subconscious. I have had many ideas for different components in my various projects (I currently have three with two in the frying pan, one being much larger than the other, and another one which is on the back burner). The music gives me inspiration to write because it unlocks what is already going on in my mind.

Another thing about music is that there is an abundance of it out there. So many movies and films have been made at this point that I discover new scores what it seems like every day. With each new score, there is something new that it can inspire. I’ve recently been listening to the Hans Zimmer Sherlock Holmes scores because I’ve been working on a short story mystery and they get me into the right mood for outlining/writing the mystery. Now when I write my Epic Fantasy project, I generally listen to scores from fantasies, such as Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, Westworld, Mission Impossible, you name it. I think part of why music inspires me is because it can help me visualize scenes. I haven’t even seen the movie or show three of the four of those scores are from! Yet I am able to get a feel from it for what I’m writing.

I am a huge music nerd if you haven’t been able to tell already. When a new movie comes out and I go see it, the first thing I do after seeing it is I go listen to the score. I did this with 1917, I had that score on repeat for hours. I look forward to new movies and shows for their scores because while movies can be really bad, the score can be really good for those movies! Currently looking forward to The Wheel of Time series, partly because I am about to start reading those books, and partly because it will be another fantasy score for me to listen to!

Now, this may have just been me rambling about my love for music, I hope it wasn’t. But more than that I hope that when you guys (or at least the five or six of you who actually read this blog) read my books that you will read something original and new, while still having that good feeling that you get when you read a new classic (like the one I got when reading Mistborn: The Final Empire). Many writers do different things to get themselves in the right writing mood.

Mine is music.

What is your favorite music score if you listen to them? If you don’t, what is the way you get into the mood for writing? Let me know in the comments below!

From my pen to your paper, may our swords never clash.

Thanks for reading! If you want to get updates on when new blog posts come out, subscribe to my newsletter, “The Raven,” and be the first to get updates and exclusive updates on my writings! If you want to contribute to the conversation, please comment below! I will try to respond to all comments!

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Book Review Reading

Book Review – The Well of Ascension

Spoilers for The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson are to follow!

Well, I finished another book. And it was a good one! After the end of Mistborn: The Final Empire, I didn’t think that Sanderson would be able to make the sequel nearly as good as the first one. And while it wasn’t as good as The Final Empire (we’ll get into why in just a minute), it was still one heck of a read. I’ll give him one thing, Sanderson knows how to end a book with a bang!

So what did I enjoy the most about this book?

  1. The Characters – In every book I’ve read by Sanderson, he has not skimped on character yet. While Vin was a very dynamic character and is the center of the story, I enjoyed Sazed’s development more. I think this is because, by the end of the story, he is completely changed and we don’t know what he’s going to do. Sazed starts the book teaching young children all the different things he’s learned that way he can pass down his knowledge as a keeper. But, he’s taken away from it by Marsh (Kelsier’s brother) and he eventually travels back to Luthadel. He is rebelling against what his own people have told him to do. This is the first noticeable point in Sazed’s turn from the Terris religion and people. The second is when Tindwyl arrives and Sazed rekindles his love for her but because of his religion and ways doesn’t think he’s good enough for her. As the story goes on its a bit obvious that Sazed is beginning to doubt himself. His doubt continues to grow both when he Tindwyl dies in the battle and when he figures out what all the writings that he found meant (a big highlight of mine that we’ll touch on in a second) he races to stop Vin from unleashing the Well after Tindwyl’s untimely demise. He ends up failing, and that sends Sazed into what is a deeper depression. He ultimately rejects his people and leaves Luthadel with barely any notice to Vin or Elend. Sanderson pulled my heartstrings with this one because I loved Sazed! He was an awesome character and to see him fall into a depression-like this is heartbreaking. I can’t wait to see what happens to him in The Hero of Ages!
  2. The Writings Sazed Found – This is a minor detail, and The Final Empire may have done this as well. When Sazed travels with Marsh to a place where the Inquisitors had lived, he finds a long transcript carved into the metal. It is a minor thing at the beginning, but in the end, it hits hard. It was true writing stating how everything was a sham. What made this even better was how Sanderson put a line from it at the top of each chapter. Then, at the end, Sazed read the whole thing and realized the truth. He reads the whole thing, unbroken and everything makes sense to the reader and your anticipation and eagerness to find out how it ends grows. It was truly a marvelous plot twist and was one of my favorite things about the book.
  3. The Mist-Spirit – The Mist-Spirit was a weird aspect of the book for a lot of the novel. It was mysterious and I couldn’t figure out what its place was. It had a great pay off in the end, and while I’m curious to see what happens to it in The Hero of Ages, it was a neat part of the book.
  4. The End  – This is probably the most obvious one. The end is better than The Final Empire. If you read Mistborn: The Final Empire and decided you didn’t want to read the rest of the series, you’d be fine because most of the plots are resolved and there isn’t much that urges you to need the next book. The Well of Ascension does not do that. First, I must say that when Vin was going to the Well and Sazed was chasing after her to stop her, my heart was racing. I could not wait to find out what happened. When Elend was sliced open, my heart dropped. I genuinely thought that he would be dead. Then when Vin realized her mistake of letting the beast (or whatever it was) free my heart sank again because she could have saved Elend. But, it turned out that this was Elend’s Pits of Hathsin moment. It is revealed in the last chapter that Elend was discovered to be a Mistborn. There are so many loose threads that have me needing this next book! Though, I am sad that it will be my last journey with Vin, Elend, and the rest of the crew.

There were so many things I liked about this book that they vastly overshadowed the things I didn’t like, but I’ll still briefly mention what I didn’t like.

  1. The Pacing in the Middle of the Story – The book seemed to drag a little bit slowly and delve into the political side of things, and while I understand that this section helped make the end more of a bang, it still was rather slow for my tastes.
  2. Zane – Now I think Sanderson didn’t want us to like him, but I certainly didn’t. Especially after he tried to kill Vin. I wasn’t sorry to see him go at all. I do appreciate what Sanderson did writing the character, and he was well developed, but it doesn’t make me like him anymore.

The book was all around so good! The only reason I didn’t like it more than The Final Empire was because of the slow middle part of the book. But other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Have you read The Well of Ascension? If so let me know your thoughts below! I try and respond to all of the comments!

Thanks for reading! If you want to get updates on when new blog posts come out, subscribe to my newsletter, “The Raven,” and be the first to get updates and exclusive updates on my writings! If you want to contribute to the conversation, please comment below! I will try to respond to all comments!

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#aSotS #tIRS On My Writings

March 2020 Update on Book One in the #tIRS

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I was thinking about it recently, and you blog readers haven’t had an update on my book in a while (I give readers of “The Raven” weekly updates on it though). So, I thought, “Let’s give the readers an update!” So here we go.

The progress is going slow, really slow. I haven’t had a week where I wrote over 5k words in my novel. I am currently sitting at 25k words and am roughly 31% of the way through the story.

But, I will say that it’s not for lack of thought about the story. In fact, I keep having new components and plots pop into my mind, and I’m not sure if five books will be long enough. I hope that isn’t the case and I’ll be able to do it well in five. But, lately I’ve realized that there are a lot of plots and subplots lining up! The first book is going to be pretty basic and set-up major parts of the story. But as we get into the later books in the series, there will be more major characters. The first book will be long (right now I’m guesstimating it will clock out at somewhere around 100k words, but that’s just right now, it could change), but it won’t be as complex. There are only two main characters and two viewpoints, and they are the antagonist and protagonist.

My goal is to finish the book in its entirety by the end of the year. That includes all my editing drafts, getting people to read it and give me feedback. So I need to have the first three drafts done by October at the latest. I think I can hit that, but as my plate fills up, it gets harder to make time to write. Doing one article a week can be a bit much too, in fact I’m considering dialing it down to an article every other week so that I can make more time to write. But, I’m not fully committed to that yet.

A big reason why I think the progress is going so slow is because this is my first big project I’ve undertaken. I’ve written a couple of stories that were not good and that I am not proud of at all, this one is gonna be different though, I can promise you that.

I have already added several, several characters and scenes that I had no idea about when I jumped into this draft. They have all worked out splendidly and I’m pleased with them, but we’ll see if they survive the next few drafts.

Another thing you may be wondering, “Why does he still keep referring to the book under these dumb hashtags? Just tell us the name!” And to that I say, it’s coming, eventually. I don’t want to reveal a name until the book has been accepted by a publisher or until I self publish. I will be submitting the book to publishers first and then if that goes poorly, I will try to do another draft, try again, and then if that fails, I will self-publish the book. So I’ll still have it done before the next book in a couple of well known series have come out.

From my pen to your paper, may our swords never clash.

Thanks for reading! If you want to get updates on when new blog posts come out, subscribe to my newsletter, “The Raven,” and be the first to get updates and exclusive updates on my writings! If you want to contribute to the conversation, please comment below! I will try to respond to all comments!

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