Just an update.  Rangers 3 is now finished in first draft format, with the basic plot and layout for book 4 etched out as well.  Now I turn my attention back to The Rebel Knights Of The Free World.

Writing is what I enjoy doing, but the process of marketing your work is something that I dread.  Hopefully I’ll find someone interested in this side of things so I can pursue getting my stories published.

I noticed that I haven’t posted an update for a while, so I thought I would let everyone know what I’m to.

Writing.

That pretty much sums it up, other than time spent at work or with family and friends and the various hobbies I enjoy.

I have finished Rebel Knights book 7 and am working on book 8 at the moment.  I’m not sure if I’ll continue on with book 9 after that or work on the Rangers or another series, but whatever I do, it will involve writing or proofreading.

If you’re interested in reading one of my stories, go to the contact us page and drop a line and let me know that you’re interested in becoming a beta-reader.

Regards

Just an update.  I recently finished proofreading Rebel Knights books 1 through 5 and now that they are cleaned up, I have moved on to Book 6, which is now in progress.

If you’re interested in reading any of these books, you can sign up on the website to be a beta-reader.  I hope to move toward publishing sometime this year, but right now I’m busy writing, which I love to do

This is an area that I have little or no experience in.  Promoting your work.  I love to write, but I’m not very good at the business end of things.  That includes writing timely blogs and other things, like doing up nice artwork to make things look good and interesting.

What is needed the most right now is someone who is experienced at marketing that would like to take on the role of promoting my material.  You should be warned that this is a non-paying, volunteer thing, at least until something is published and some money is made.

I’m also looking for beta-readers – people interested in reading my stories and giving feedback on them, in exchange for free copies of my stories when they are published.

Another area I’m no good at is artwork and fancy fonts that go along with it.  Is there anyone out there that can draw medieval scenes, elves, dragons, spaceships, airplanes and that sort of stuff?  If you’re interested in supplying cover art and web page graphics, go to the contact me page and drop me a note and we can talk.

Since this blog is titled promoting your work, I guess I should try and do a little bit of that.

The first novel I wrote was The Adventures of Rakta, which is Book 1 of the Traveler Series.  It is 827 pages in PDF novel format and is a sci-fi fantasy book involving a man who dies and doesn’t go to heaven or hell, but the neutral path, where they maintain the balance between good and evil between all the known worlds.

My Ashby and Barnett series is designed to be a continual series that is of the dungeons and dragons genre.  One book has been written, but it’s a bit short on pages, weighing in at 131 pages at present.  It is a nice short read and introduces the characters Ashby (a half elf) and Barnett (his familiar cat).  Book 2 is in the process of being written, picking up where book 1 left off.

The Rangers is another continuing series, which is a fast action paced story about humans living near the center of the galaxy in medieval times, who discover flight and later, the fact that they are about to be sucked up by a black hole, with the series covering their struggle to survive and get off of their planet before they are doomed.  Currently I have two of these books written with the outline for the third more or less in place.

The Rangers is the backstory for The Rebel Knights of the Free World, which a date entry based story that takes place over many years, starting in 1935.  These books are aviation based, with science fiction, fantasy, romance, suspense and action.  They are long reads.  Book 1 is 870 pages and Book 5, which I just finished, is 1,023 pages.  They are long, but have lots of flying, spaceflight, drama, entertainment and action.  The books feature points of view from several different characters as well and are for the most part historically accurate as the story moves through time as the Rebel Knights of the Free World work to save mankind from being doomed.  The entire Rebel Knights story has been written and has gone through two revisions and is currently going through the third, which is much more expansive and dynamic than the last and is certainly much more entertaining.

Well, there you have it.  Those are the stories I’ve been working on and writing over the past few years, which I enjoy doing, and my hope is that one day I’ll be able to share them with the world as published books, whether they are self-published or picked up by a publishing company.

So if you’re interested in checking them out, sign up to be a beta-reader and see what you think.  If you have the skill sets needed to take these stories to the next level with marketing, proofing, editing, graphics or something else, drop me a message via the contact us page and let’s talk.

Anyone who has written stories knows that they have to go back and proofread their work.  After doing quite a bit of this, I thought I would give my thoughts and opinions on this process, none of which was found in any definitive works of how to go about this.

The first draft of any creative piece of work I’m writing is usually done without any regard to proofreading.  That is because my thoughts are on what is happening in my story.

When I do that first proofread, I usually find tons of errors.  Once I’ve finished, I don’t bother trying to go back and re-read what I’ve just edited, because I know that my brain is going to gloss over most of it, as it is still fresh in my mind.

Since I have several stories that I am working on, I will usually move on to a completely different project when I finish that proofread, eventually returning to it over time.

The first proofread is for basic grammar and typos and making sure that I have some basic coherent thought.  When writing, I might duplicate words, almost as if my brain was stuck on a certain word.  I am sometimes aware of this when I’m writing and sometimes I’m not.  It doesn’t matter to me, because I know I will be able to fix it later.

Here is an example of what I mean:  He was glad to be back home.  It had been three long years since he had been back home and he was happy to be home.

During the proofreading process I might change this something like:  He was glad to be back home.  It had been three long years since he had been here.

The second home was changed to here and the “happy to be back home” phrase is eliminated because he was glad to be back.

I tend to use a lot of contractions during first draft.  Would’ve, could’ve and should’ve might sound ok in speech, but in character thought, I tend to change these during proofreading to would have, could have and should have.  I also check for overuse of he’d, she’d, they’d and other contractions like I’ll, I’m, etc.

Another problem is the use of set and sat.  Keep in mind that things are set down.  People sit down.  John sat down on the sofa.  John set his books down on the table.  Sometimes when I’m writing, I get these crossed up, and I have to check for these and correct them in proofreading.

So that I don’t forget all of the things to look for, I have created a list of tendencies that I have, then use it as a checklist when conducting a proofread, using the find feature to root out every instance of d’ve, for example, then fix them and move on to the next item.

After this first proofread is done, I move on to something else, but when I make it back around to the story, I try and ensure that intellectually, I haven’t done anything stupid in my story, like make historical errors if the story is historically accurate, or by leaving dangling characters or things in the story that are left incomplete or that I failed to account for later on.  An example might be coming up with a sideline story of a character that is no longer mentioned, but gave the hint in the story that this character would be heard from again.

My stories usually have a lot of action going in them, which can be hard to keep track of, and that means a proofread to make sure that there aren’t any of these kind of errors in the story, which can sometimes happen when you’re in a creative mode.  A good way to avoid this when writing is when you put a future item you want to write about, to put in a placeholder in your document, so that when you get there you will remember to do it, but that doesn’t always happen.

Once this is done, it is time to add in descriptive details to give the reader some visual candy to add color to the story.  I’m typically not worried about what the details surrounding a character are, preferring to let the reader use their imagination, but I do like to give them some basics to go by.

This includes not only character descriptions, but also things in a room, the weather conditions and similar items.  It is important to take these details seriously and note them somewhere, or at the very least, go back and refer to them so that I don’t make a stupid mistake and describe something totally different the next time.

A good example would be someone’s hair color.  I wrote about a character that was a brunette, then somewhere in the course of my writing, began to think of the character as a blonde, and when I finally discovered that mistake, I had to go back and fix the occurrences where this was mentioned.

The same goes for details of the character’s genealogy, which should be written down somewhere for reference purposes.  Some of my stories only contain a few characters, making this an easy task, but several of them are long, complicated and have dozens of characters, and taking the time to organize everything in advance, adding and updating as you go along, saves having some grief later.

Emotions and speech are other areas that should be proofread separately.  This doesn’t mean I gloss over things during the first proofread, but rather make a special pass through the story for the dialogue and see if the speech flows naturally, usually saying the speech parts out loud.  Each character is different, so I try and make sure that they are in character to how they would typically speak.  Some use certain words and idioms, giving them some consistency and believability.

Finally, when I’m done with all of that, I will go back and do a complete proofread, looking for typos, grammar and readability.  You might think that all of the mistakes would be squashed by now, but you would be surprised at how many are still lurking about.

Blogs are somewhat different, of course.  For these, I write out the blog, then go back and read over it once or twice and publish it, and if there are some typos or grammar mistakes, I’ll edit it later.

This is a process that has been refined over time, and I hope that some of this helps another aspiring writer out there.

After thinking long and hard about things, I’ve decided to go with a pen name for my stories, which means that from here on out, the website and Facebook author page will feature the name Dren Ashton, which is what I’ve chosen to go with, as Dren isn’t a common name and wasn’t found on FB when I was coming up with names, which should help ensure it’s easier to find in searches online.

There are several reasons for doing this, including wanting to keep my personal life separate from my public life.  We are living in what I consider a world of people that are easily offended, and I’m sure that somewhere out there, someone is going to be offended by what I’ve written.

Now that this is done, expect more blogs to be coming, along with some updates regarding my stories and what I’m working on.

I’ve been doing some reading on using trademarks and real names in fiction, and what I’ve ascertained is that for the most part, as a fiction writer, I’m safe.

Trademarks are generally used without the copyright symbol attached, as that takes the reader out of the make believe world that you’ve written.  Companies probably aren’t going to come after you for trademark infringement, but you have to be smart about this.  Are you simply mentioning a brand because it makes the story more descriptive, or is that trademark doing something that would be considered harmful to the brand?

If you’re going to write about a brand in a negative light, you may want to reword your material so as to not make a company mad and force them to come after you to protect their image.  It’s really as simple as that.

As for real names in a story, the same situation is true.  If you’re going to use a public official or a well-known person, be careful of what you’re saying.  Dead people are a different situation, but if you tie something to a dead person’s living relatives or friends, you could find yourself in trouble if they’re still alive.

In one story I am writing, a character meets the President of the United States of America to receive the Medal of Honor.  They have a conversation.  The president I am referring to is now deceased, but if he were alive, I think what I have written would be acceptable in the fact that I’m not representing the person in a negative way.

What about non well-known figures?  If you search the internet for your character’s name, you will more than likely find many hits for that name by real people.  Chances are that if your story becomes popular, some of those people are going to find resemblances between your character and themselves, and that means you could find yourself heading for a lawsuit.

Because of this, it would be wise to include a statement in the beginning of your story that states that this is a work of fiction and that any references to living persons are coincidental.

Keep in mind that everything I have mentioned here pertains to America and are my thoughts, impressions and opinions and are not in any way legal counsel or advice.  If anyone reading this finds any errors in my thoughts, please feel free to correct me via email or a comment here on the blog.

I have an information technology background, as this is what I do for my day job, and as such, I’ve gravitated to the concept of beta readers, which in the software development world, are people that test your product and report bugs, give feedback on your product and offer improvement ideas for you to consider implementing.

In the writing world, beta readers perform many similar functions, which are geared to ensuring that when the story is released that it is as error free and as enjoyable as possible.  That means finding and stomping out spelling mistakes and grammar problems, as well as looking at the storyline, character development, holes in your story, factual errors, giving feedback as to what they liked or didn’t like in the story, as well as some suggestions for improvements to make it a better product.

The problem with writing is that as the author, you have a lot of thoughts going on in your head about your story, and over the course of changes, what you as the beta reader are seeing on the screen or on paper may be different from what is supposed to be there.

It’s easy enough to do.  In Ashby and Barnett, the working title for one of my stories, I received some feedback on it and changed some things around.  In the process of doing that, some parts of the original scenes were still in there, which were later discovered and fixed.

When I finish a new story or a review of it, I typically move on to something completely different, totally unrelated to that particular story.  Then when I’ve finished with that next project, I might go back to that story, as I’ve been away from it long enough that I need to reread it from the beginning, at which point things start to jump out at me.  This process isn’t perfect, because I’m the one who wrote the words and know in my head what is going on with the characters and the storyline.

A beta reader typically doesn’t know the characters or what is going on, and they will catch things you didn’t even think about.  Perhaps I failed to describe what the main character looked like.  Maybe a scene wasn’t setup properly, or a transition is missing something or is awkward or weak.  Those are things I might not see as the author.

It is also helpful to know if the beta readers like the story itself and where it’s going.  I don’t expect beta readers to like everything I write, which is why it’s important to have more than one, as we all have different tastes.

So what does a beta reader get out of the deal?  After all, they are taking their time to review it and give feedback.  I don’t know what other authors do, but my beta readers will receive mention of their contributions in the acknowledgements of a released story, as well as a free electronic copies of the books I’ve written.  They also get a chance to give input into the stories they are involved in, helping make them better reads for the general public.

If you’re interested in becoming a beta reader, all you have to do is go the contact us page and click on the Beta Reader box and we’ll go from there.

I’ve been asked by people how I come up with some of my story ideas, the characters and the things they do in the story and sometimes, why they do the things they do.  As they say, the magic is in the words, and the goal is getting the reader to lose themselves in your make believe world and enjoy themselves as the story unfolds, their emotions swinging back and forth depending on what is happening.  They might hate some of the characters in your story and love others, which I happen to think means you are doing a good job as an author.

It all comes down to the basic ingredients of what I believe belong in an exciting science fiction or fantasy story.  First, you need conflict.  There has to be something going on, possibly something bad.  The main character of the story is usually the hero or heroine and they often find themselves in a bleak situation that they must overcome in order to save the day.

Boring doesn’t cut it, either.  That means your story has to have drama in it, and it needs to advance the storyline or help to develop your characters.  Keep in mind that you have to have both good and bad characters in a story, and sometimes a character is both.  Therefore, crazy things usually have to happen, but no so far out that it is considered ridiculous.  That’s why fiction is so much fun to write.

Sometimes I like to shock the reader, then go back and provide an explanation for what happened, while at the moment it is unfolding, the reader is trying to figure it out.  That can provide a bit of mystery and suspense to the story.

Sometimes I like to clue the reader in to something that is going to happen, where they see it coming.  It might seem like the author is giving the surprise away, but sometimes that actually drives the story, because the characters will provide drama along the way, while perhaps the other side is doing all they can to thwart it.  That can provide twists and turns in the story, making it more fun to read.

So, you write out your plot, put in some conflict, develop some characters and some drama and away you go.  Along the way, you find your characters in a situation that you didn’t plan for.  That’s because you have managed to develop your characters to the point that you know how they should or would react to a known situation and therefore, suddenly you as the author have to make some adjustments.

I don’t let these adjustments frustrate me.  I actually enjoy them, because it allows me to make the story seem more enjoyable and believable.  Just be careful to not get sidetracked from your storyline.

This means that during your story, the characters may do some things you might not have originally intended for them to do.  Suppose they take a cruise?  Usually an author can draw upon their own experiences to help them out, but what if you’ve never been on a cruise?  What then?

I was originally deterred from writing fiction stories because I felt like I had to be an expert at what I was writing about or the reader would see through it and laugh at the obvious lack of knowledge.  Over the years I’ve realized that isn’t true.  It’s true that you can write a more accurate piece of work on something that you are knowledgeable about, but these days you have the internet at your disposal.  Want to write a scene about sailing a boat?  Get on a website and watch a video or read a how-to guide on how it’s done.  It’ll make your story that much more believable.

That brings up another point.  As an individual, I have my own beliefs, values and viewpoints, just like everyone else.  When it comes to writing a story, you can’t always stick with those beliefs, values and viewpoints, because they just don’t fit what you’re writing about.

A good example would be murder.  I’m not a killer, but hey, stories have to have bad things happen.  You might off a character in the story and one of your characters might actually be plotting murder.  That can be disturbing to write about from their point of view, but I happen to think that’s one of the challenges of writing fiction.  If you want to make your story believable, you sometimes have to put on the hat of the villain, which can sometimes be a sadistic killer, thief, an all- around bad guy or something somewhere in between.

The same is true with things the characters do.  I have a ton of hobbies, including flying.  Obviously, I am better prepared to write a story that includes aviation, but in doing so I have to ensure that I don’t use too much technical jargon that would only be understood by pilots, therefore allowing the average reader to follow along.  On the flip side, I don’t want to dumb it down so much that those into aviation don’t enjoy the experience.  What I usually go for is something in between, where I try and educate the reader on flying.  That means introducing some basic terminology early on in the story, then later, get more and more in depth with the jargon, assuming that the reader has picked up on it.

Just because I like flying doesn’t mean that I have to include it in my stories.  Some stories I have written are heavy into aviation and others don’t even mention it at all.  My next story might be based on sailing or something else I have never done, and I look at that as a writing challenge.

I’ve done a lot of writing, but never a blog entry.  Until now, that is.  I’ve decided to use my first entry to explain how creative-books.com came to be.

I got into writing several years ago when I decided to start putting my ideas down on paper.  Once I got going, I found that I loved it.  I finished a rather lengthy novel and then moved on to a second one, then a third.  None of this work was ever published.  I shared a couple of my stories with some close friends and received positive feedback.

I went back to the first one and saw how far I had come writing wise and had to fix up the earlier stuff.  I’ve now got several stories written but they are in various forms of completion, meaning proofreading, editing, revisions, etc.

I started looking to see what the next step would be in order to bring these stories to others to read.  Should I try and get an agent or self-publish?

Regardless of what I choose, it appears that the best advice is to start a web presence, even if your material isn’t out there yet.  More advice.  Don’t use your name to establish the brand.  Go with a company name and put your name under that. That was a good idea, I think, because if someday I have another author join me or I decide to write under a pseudonym, I’m covered.

I had a ton of names in mind, but one quickly realizes when doing domain searches that the good ones are taken.  I chose creative-books because I felt that I don’t fit into any one single neat genre.  I tend to write primarily fantasy but also science fiction.  I also like action, suspense, mystery, thrillers, romance, humor, etc.  In the end, I felt like creative best fit what might be coming down the pipeline in the future.  The hyphen was used to make the two words more legible.

So there you have it.