Keep On Writing!

(Photo by Karl Starkey on Pexels.com)

Hello to all the writers out there!

This is a difficult and very trying time in which we all find ourselves. One thing you can be sure of, in this period of great uncertainty, is that you are writers.

Believe in yourselves!

Believe in your writing!

Keep writing!

(Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com)

10 Books That Influenced Me

(Photo by Ricardo Esquivel on Pexels.com)

After doing a post about the 10 most influential books to literature, I wanted to create a post about the 10 books I consider the most influential books to me. I am open to all suggestions.

Hamlet. William Shakespeare.

The Iliad. Homer.

Le Morte d’ Arthur. Sir Thomas Malory.

The Lord Of The Rings. J.R.R. Tolkien.

Fahrenheit 451. Ray Bradbury.

The Stand. Stephen King.

The Shadow of the Wind. Carlos Ruiz Zafon.

Don Quixote. Miguel de Cervantes.

Frankenstein. Mary Shelley.

Dracula. Bram Stoker.

What are some of the most influential books for you?

10 Most Influential Books

narrative-794978__180

(www.pixabay.com)

I recently had a request from a man who is my cousin but much more–my brother–about what books I consider to be the most influential, in terms of literature.

As a professor, I could not simply answer without considering several possibilities. Today I will post what I consider to be the ten most influential texts to the world of literature. Of course, this is my opinion and open to debate.

Here they are, in no particular order:

The Collected Works of Shakespeare. William Shakespeare.

The Illiad and The Odyssey. Homer.

The Canterbury Tales. Geoffrey Chaucer.

Le Morte d’ Arthur. Sir Thomas Malory.

Don Quixote. Miguel de Cervantes.

Frankenstein. Mary Shelley.

To Kill A Mockingbird. Harper Lee.

Beloved. Toni Morrison.

Moby Dick. Herman Melville.

1984. George Orwell.

What do you think of this selection?

In another post, I will offer ten books that have been personally influential.

Quotations From Ray Bradbury

https://en.wikipedia.org

“You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”

“You must write every single day of your life… You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads… may you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world.”

“You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.”

“There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.”

“You fail only if you stop writing.”

Keep Writing, and Believe In Yourself!

(Photo by Suzy Hazelwood on Pexels.com)

To all the writers out there–this is a time of great stress and difficulty for almost the entire world. Please remember to breathe, to find some time to rest and relax, and then to keep writing.

Remember, you are a writer. Be proud of it, and keep working on your WIP.

Believe in yourself and the importance of your writing!

(Photo by Miguel Á. Padriñán on Pexels.com)

How to World and Character Build in a Horror Novel Series by Charles F French: Part Three

This section is the third part of my presentation for the Horroraddicts.net Online Writing Conference. I hope some of you find it to be useful.

How To World And Character Build in a Horror Novel Series

Charles F. French

Part Three

Themes, Conflicts, and Arcs

Themes:

Another aspect of writing a novel series is the issue of themes. I am not saying that ideas should dominate the work, that somehow a horror series should be written as literary fiction. I am, however, arguing Horror fiction is as strong and important as another other kind or genre of writing. I am proud to write Horror, and I believe it, as a genre, should be taken seriously.

As the author of your series, you should have some idea of the over-arching ideas that permeate your work. For example, in my Investigative Paranormal Society series, several themes exist—Is there life after death?; What responsibility do we have towards each other?; And does love overpower hatred?

You may have noticed that I expressed these ideas as questions. I did this because these are issues that I am exploring as I write the books. I am not trying to teach lessons in the novels but to keep in mind these broad questions as I write. I certainly think character and conflict matter more than thematic concerns, but that does not mean that themes are unimportant.

Sometime, the writer can come to more of an understanding about these questions after having created several drafts of his/her book. I suggest that you read your work and answer these questions in a sentence or two:

• What is it about? This may seem like a very basic question, but can you summarize not the plot but the point of the series?

• Do you have any repeated motifs or symbols that you intend to use?

• Are there any political of social issues that you want to include in the series?

Conflicts:

Understanding the conflicts that characters have, both internally and externally, is important to developing and maintaining your series. Conflict is the key to action, drama, and impact on the reader. Characters might spend time facing an issue within themselves, something that helps or hinders their actions. They might also have lesser conflicts with friends, allies, and families. With enemies, they will probably have the largest conflicts.

• What oppositions or problems are your characters facing?

• What internal conflicts must the characters deal with or try to resolve in order to achieve their goals?

• What are the conflicts driving the plot?

• What are the characters trying to accomplish?

• What are the stakes for the characters?

• What must the characters overcome in order to achieve success or victory against their opponents?

Understanding these questions will be important not only for the creation of the series, but also they can serve to help you write query letters and pitches for your books, if you intend to do so.
That is a matter for another day!

Arcs:

Another important consideration for a horror novel series is that of arcs, those of character and plot.
All novels should have clear character arcs, the movement that a character takes internally as the external events of the story occur. Arcs should occur in each section of the novel. I tend to think of my novels as being set in three overarching acts, but that is not crucial. In my case, many chapters would occur within a given act. You should view the major divisions of your novel as best suits your needs.

Ideally, you should look at each character and decide these points, but you might wish to stick with examining the arcs of the featured characters.

The most important questions for character arcs follow, and please try to answer each question both within each book and the entire series:

• How much and in what ways does the character grow?

• What does the character learn?

• How does the character change?

I suggest that you answer these questions about the character for each “act” of each novel, for each novel of the series, and for the overall series itself. This may seem, on first glance, to be too much analysis for a creative process, but I think that the more we, as writers, understand what we are trying to accomplish, the better the process will be.

Now, if you disagree, then simply do not use this approach.

This is a similar approach that I take with teaching of writing to students in my college classes, when instructing essay writing—that you should try various approaches. Keep what works for you, and put those tools in your writer’s toolbox; eliminate what does not work.

GallowsHillFinalCoverEbook