Today I saw a commercial for a tool that would auto-generate complete books. Including all chapters, text, graphics, layout, everything.
It was tailored to non-fiction, but it's rather scary - at least to writers. What will be the next step? Will there be 100% written - and readable - novels in our future?
Will there be any writers left? Probably. But - to level the playing field - I think we should be honest about WHO is creating the work...
My 'to do' list for publishing something on Amazon KDP, including links to sources or sub-posts, whereever relevant.
Read on... or visit the KDP Essentials page...
This year, my countdown schedule is a periodic flashback every 5 weeks. It's now February 18, and it's time to look back on the first part of 2025.
First of all, I'm happy Trump hasn't blown up the world yet - it's fine if he sticks to the US. I'm just a little baffled by the feeding frenzy as shown by the tech billionaires (Zuckerberg, Musk, you know who). Let's start by feeling sorry for them. Or not?
Alright... this post is going to be a weird one.
I was pointed toward this video by another nettizen (does anyone still use that word?) / Discord user / writer, and the video is quite interesting.
So let's split this post up in two parts: writing related, and a short review of the book itself.
First of all, this is a little cynical, so my apologies for that.
Nevertheless, if you step away and study the subject from a distance then you'll find some interesting commonalities between many of the books in this well-selling (sub)genre.
Here are several of the tropes I identified thus far...
(Well, kinda' column...)
Due to a variety of reasons (most of those boiling down to me being stupid) I had (and still have!) to re-create a number of posts. I'm updating bit by bit all the broken links, but that's taking some intensive manual labor, so several links might still be broken for the upcoming weeks / months / years 😕
My apologies... this is a work in progress...
(I'll keep moving this post around until most of the links have been repaired...)
It's the end of the year, so here we go again... Good intentions.
I have a few... Pretty much the same as last year and I just might fail yet again. But I'm going to try again! I'll tell you next year how things ended up...
After a while building sentences becomes something automatic. You'll reach the stage where you'll effortlessly find the right words to describe the scene in your mind. This just takes practice. So write a lot, read a lot, then write even more.
Note: using a decent keyboard and some blind typing helps a lot here!
Shock yourself and your reader.
What's the most exotic, outrageous thing your character would do? Would he / she really do it? Does the story lend itself to that? If so, create a situation where your character would do exactly that... the impossible, the unthinkable, the illogical (not from the character's point of view, mind you).
In general I don't see much use for extensive character sheets. I even tend to skip as much of world building as I can get away with. I did find it useful to make a small char sheet for my main cast. Not to flesh them out and delve into their deepest secrets and hidden background.
My reasons are much more ordinary: I don't want to get caught out.
Don't overthink. Or from a broader point of view: don't brood. Don't whine. Don't worry.
Advice is what it is: an opinion of another person. Listen to them, learn from them, but don't depend on them.
It's an odd dilemma: you must learn from others, to avoid their mistakes, and to improve your own work. On the other hand you must develop a spine. (Yeah, that's a little harsh, but read on...)
We're past Christmas, and a couple of days away from New Year's Eve. And so I think it is time to combine mathematics with the art of writing:
It's easier to add than to subtract.
Removing a plot line, a character, a chapter or a scene, all of that is way harder than adding something. Anything. (Especially adding spelling errors is easier, but that's not the point.)
Write short. Concise. Focused. You can always expand later.
Use a (real) keyboard.
Don't write on your phone. Instead, use a real keyboard (and a real screen). A tablet (with an external BT keyboard) will work, but nothing beats that big piece of screen real estate in front of you.
If you can afford it, go big. 27", or even 2x 27" or some ultrawide thingy. And don't forget you'll be editing as well! If you use an editor (as in: a person, not the software 😏) it can be nice to show the editor's and your own version side by side.
In the countdown to 2024 I'm sharing a bunch of the most obvious tips with the poor victims that landed on this blog. Hey! You're one of them! So, what should you do when you want to write but you're stuck?
Close your eyes...
This book uses the ‘beat sheet’ approach used by Blake Snyder to create and improve tv- and movie-scripts. Following a specific script or method might be your thing, or it might not, so I approached this book with a bit more caution.
Actually, it's nine hints before the end of the year, but this sounds better 🤔😁
Matt asked me for nine tips... Hmmm... So, here's number 9:
Write Readable
... but that is not a tip. That's the same thing I tell everyone.
