Take a character from your manuscript, for example, any character you choose. How would they handle the early hours of Halloween Eve when the kids come knocking. Are they the type of person who couldn’t be more excited? Perhaps they went to the store and bought three different types of candy because they weren’t sure what kind the kids would like most. Perhaps they have an elaborate costume of their own and they’ve decked their house out in spider webs, gravestones, flashing lights, and fake blood. And, for the entirety of trick-or-treating hours, they are perched on their porch with a huge smile on their face asking the kids about their costumes and telling them how cool they look.

On the other hand, perhaps your character is not much of a Halloween fanatic. They care enough to go grab a bag of candy from the store to prevent their house from getting egged, but they aren’t going to be spending their Halloween interacting with a bunch of snot-nosed kids. They’re the type to set out the candy on their porch in a giant bowl with a sign that says ‘take one’ to which each of the kids will take two. They spend the early hours of their Halloween evening prepping for a party with friends later while listening to the kids laughing and screaming in the distance.

Additionally, your protagonist could be decidedly anti-Halloween, promptly shutting off all the lights in their house at 6:00 PM sharp. Or perhaps they come up with a clever plan to deter future trick-or-treaters by gaining a reputation as the house with bad candy, finding the most obscure and off-putting candy at the store and excitedly handing them out to the neighborhood children.

Creating a scene that forces your character to both interact with children and participate in a holiday can give you an excellent opportunity to get to know your character better. This type of exercise can be used to highlight how they feel about children, holidays, ceremony, merriment, family, privacy, and how they prefer to spend their time. Think about different themes within your manuscript or different aspects of your character’s personality you’re attempting to highlight. Focus on attempting to feature those things in this exercise.

Writing Prompt: Choose a character from your manuscript and write a scene where they are handing out candy to trick-or-treaters on Halloween. You can either make this scene timeless or you can set it in a significant year in your character’s life. Attempt to convey different aspects of your character’s personality through this event. How do they feel about trick-or-treaters and why? For example: if they don’t like trick-or-treaters, are they dissatisfied with their family or the lack of family in their life? How do they feel about the holiday in general and why? How would they spend their time (if they could choose) and why? And how do all of these factors affect the chain of events that evening?

The post Writing Prompt: Trick-Or-Treat appeared first on Dorrance Publishing Company.

Historical Fiction

Historical fiction involves a heavy amount of research into the time period where you’ve chosen to set your novel. What sort of clothes were people wearing during this time period? What were the rich people wearing vs. the poor? What sort of language was being used? What sort of customs were expected? Where would they get a cup of coffee in the morning? What would they do with their free time? Readers of historical fiction are reading in large part for the historical details, so you need to put the work into research and accuracy. It’s one thing to embellish a historical event for the sake of fiction, but the novel should overall be grounded by fact-checked historically accurate details.

Science Fiction

The science fiction genre often involves researching complex scientific concepts. Unlike the fantasy genre, the science fiction genre involves a world with a set of rules that can be explained. This means that the concepts that the world deals with should be able to be explained, oftentimes scientifically. So when you’re writing about high-tech gadgets and the discovery of aliens, make sure that the concepts that exist within your world could be supported scientifically. The last thing you want is to write a virtually impossible event or object into existence into your world, only to have the sci-fi community find out by doing their research (and they will trust us).

Horror/Crime

Horror is a genre most people would be surprised requires research. When we think of horror, we think of a killer walking slowly down the darkened road with a single knife held aloft. Or we think of a serial killer and a detective who is getting a little too close to finding him. That involves a lot of suspense and action… but research?

First, the horror genre may be heavy in suspense, but it should also be heavily researched. One of the most frustrating things for a horror reader is reading a character’s death that is absolutely preposterous in its absurdity. The kind of death that, even without any research, you’re absolutely sure can’t exist in nature. This type of character death can leave the reader both heartbroken and angry, even when it happens to the antagonist if you’ve written them well.

Even though it may leave you with a very questionable search history, you should be making sure that a character being stabbed in a certain area of the body isn’t fatal. You should be researching the states of decomposition of a body over time or how the body would react to being shot in the leg. There are no stakes, and therefore no suspense, in your book if the characters don’t feel real, and part of that involves accuracy.

Additionally, the horror genre often involves creating new and grotesque ways of murder. Doing so involves research in order to both brainstorm ideas (again, sorry about your search history) and make sure that they’d be humanely (or sometimes inhumanely) possible to carry out.

Fantasy

This one probably shocks you, but fantasy novels too require research. The level of research required depends on how removed your fantasy novel is from our world. For example, take the Harry Potter world which involves a magical world that is adjacent to or hidden from our world. This means the story still involves humans in a certain time period, the 90s. Therefore, although the world involves magic, JK Rowling still had to research how the character’s human bodies would react to certain injuries and time-specific details like the technology (or lack thereof) that would be available to the students at the time.

You might instead be writing a high fantasy book, or one that involves another world and oftentimes species other than humans. Research can still be helpful in this case as it can help give the fantasy details a bit more solid ground. For example, let’s say you’re writing about a character who is an elf, researching elf lore from other series and reading up on myths can help you find the details you want to include in your world’s version of elf lore.

The post Researching Your Fiction Book appeared first on Dorrance Publishing Company.

Name:

Hometown: Grove, Oklahoma

Book Title: Stuff In The Cornflakes

Genre: Nonfiction

Dorrance Publishing (DP): Describe your book in 10 words or less.

Stephen Helm (SH): Childhood memories of a loving brother and very abusive parents.

DP: What made you want to write your book?

SH: Time and again the boy wanted to tell someone about the beatings, the terrible conditions, and the sexual abuse by both parents. He was just a kid. He was unable to tell. It was an impossibility for his young mind to deal with. At the age of seven, after his adoption, his mother told him to forget all. He could not and vowed one day to tell the truth. A lie must be wrapped in a nice box with a fancy ribbon. The truth, however, can run naked through the streets.

DP: How long did it take you to write your book?

SH: It took me 6 months to write.

DP: How do you choose the names of your characters?

SH: He was called the “boy” the same way a person would name a dog “dog”.  He simply did not count. “Lonnie” was his brother’s real name. “Leon or old Leon” was his old man’s real name.  “The woman with the long blonde hair,” just could never be called mother on this or any other planet.

DP: What do you do when you have writer’s block?

SH: I sit in our kitchen and talk to my wife. She gives me suggestions.

DP: What was your favorite chapter (or part) to write and why?

SH: Once they asked Mozart (I’m not comparing myself to Mozart), don’t you think your music has too many notes? He said his music had exactly the right amount of notes. Not one more, or not one less.

I think of my book the same way.  I can’t take this or that part out and say it’s perfect. That’s like asking a mother which part of her newborn baby does she like the best…this arm or that one.  I gave birth to the book, I like it all equally.

DP: If you were stuck on an island and had to have one person from each category with you, who would they be and why:

a. One character from your book:

SH: The doctor who treated the boy. For his kindness and courage.

b. One fictional character:

SH: There are no fictional characters in the book.

c. One famous person (living or dead):

SH: Will Rogers. Picturing him in sandals is what I hope Jesus is like. Someone else already said that.

DP: Besides writing, what are your other interests?

SH: Spending time with my eight grandchildren. And working on another book, “Shoot East Of The Smoke”.

DP: Do you keep a journal?

SH: No, but everyone should.

DP: How did you celebrate the publishing of your book?

SH: I hugged my wife.

DP: If your book was made into a movie, who would play the main characters?

SH: Very hard for me, for the two kids.  Don’t know very many young child actors. For “old Leon” I would suggest the head guard in the “Shawshank” movie. For the “woman with the long blonde hair,” I would suggest Ann Chapman. Would have little in the way of dialog. I hope she would not have an accent. She would really need to be a serious dramatic actress.

To play the doctor, I would suggest Sam Waterston, the star of “Killing Fields”. The boy who would play Lonnie would need to have Native American features with jet black hair and be muscular. The “boy” would need to be skinny and have platinum blonde hair. For the junk dealer: Graham Green. The grandmother would be played by a Native American woman in her sixties.

Her husband, “Burt” would be played by Bob Balaban. Semi coherent, but when lucid fun to be around. The “boy” loved him. The “Angel in the Sun” would be played by an attractive, slender Cherokee woman with jet black hair, which is styled like the late 30’s or 40’s. She wants to hide from everyone the fact that she is Indian. She would not want to openly discuss her relatives or her heritage. The slightest embarrassment to her becomes monumental. Appearance to her is everything.

DP: What did you enjoy most about working with Dorrance Publishing?

SH: Dorrance contained the most honest and direct people. Absolutely professional. Really enjoyed working with them.

DP: Five favorite books of all time?

SH: Any by James A. Michener. The favorites would be “Alaska”, followed by “Hawaii”, “The Source”, “The Covenant”, and then “Texas”.

DP: One sentence of advice for other writers:

SH: Never ever give anyone advice, even if they ask for it. That’s a load too heavy to bear. Try to appear to be the last person anyone would want advice from.

Are you ready to publish your book? Contact us today!

The post Author Spotlight: Steven Ralph Helm appeared first on Dorrance Publishing Company.

Tension specifically involves a character attempting to hold in their feelings and battle through them inwardly, rather than getting an emotional release. The emotional release will need to happen in order for the tension to pay off, but the more you build up the tension the better that release will feel for your readers. Writing tension should make your readers feel… well, tense. Here are some tips on how to show rather than tell your readers about different kinds of tension throughout your manuscript.

1) Anger

One form of tension that a character may experience is through anger. Perhaps their friend said something derogatory about their sibling and, though they weren’t brave enough to say anything at the time, the anger is still within them, festering. It may be tempting to simply write ‘[INSERT CHARACTER NAME HERE] is feeling tension because they’re upset.’ but that’s lazy writing. Instead, write about how their leg begins shaking once their friend walks through the door. Write about how their jaw clenches when their friend speaks. Write about how they look down or straight ahead when they address their friend, instead of looking at them directly. Write about how their responses are curt instead of talkative like normal. All of these actions show rather than tell the reader that there is tension between two characters, in the form of anger.

2) Nerves

Another form of tension that can occur for a character is through nerves. A character can react to nervousness by becoming tense and rigid. Let’s say a character who adores theater has a big musical audition coming up after school. Throughout the day, that character may sit with their posture rigid as they bite their nails. They may pick at a piece of their sweatshirt, slowly unraveling the fabric by a single thread. They could clench their fists only to quickly dart out of class, run to the bathroom, and vomit in the toilet.

3) Affection

Tension can also exist between two characters who are romantically involved with one another. This form of tension can be shown through the characters sitting close together, their hands almost touching but not quite. Or perhaps one character says something a little too personally revealing, so they blush and rub their hand behind their neck. Maybe they’re forced to work together on a project, they’re bouncing ideas off of each other excitedly when one of them drops a pen and they both bend down to reach for it, then look at each other embarrassed.

4) Long Build-up

Build-up involves a form of tension that comes from long unresolved feelings. This is something readers would notice over the course of an entire book. Perhaps there’s a character who is constantly being teased by another character (let’s call them character A and B). At first, you see that character A is able to bounce back easily from character B’s teasing. Character A is a very sweet easy-going person and they let the teasing roll right off of their shoulders, smiling along with the joke.

As the book goes on, however, you start to see their attitude change. Perhaps they snap back once after a joke, or maybe they’re frowning slightly after a particular joke. But as the story progresses, their reactions become more pronounced until suddenly they’re walking around frowning, clenching their jaw, and snapping at people all the time. This example allows readers to see how certain types of unresolved feelings can create tension if they happen over a longer period of time.

The post Show Don’t Tell: Tension appeared first on Dorrance Publishing Company.

1) Just Start

This may seem like a fairly obvious one, but you have to start somewhere right? Admit it, for months every time you’ve set aside time to write you’ve chickened out at the last minute. You suddenly find yourself very busy with chores you’ve invented or… hey, who put that remote in your hand? Don’t you dare start a new Netflix show… If you want to get out of your writing rut, you need to set aside time to write and actually stick to it, no excuses.

2) Start Small

When you’re picking up a pen after a long absence, it may be too much to expect yourself to jump right back into working on your manuscript. You’ll never fully lose your writing mojo, but you’ll definitely be rusty. The easiest way to get some practice without putting so much pressure on yourself is to do some writing exercises. Find some fun and short writing prompts and set aside an hour to challenge yourself. Perhaps the exercise will task you to use a character from your book or maybe you’ll have to write something entirely new. Either way, it’ll get your creative juices flowing again and it’ll help you start to get your confidence back.

3) Make a Schedule

One of the excuses you’ve made over the past few months is likely that you ‘weren’t feeling inspired’ enough to write. Not only do you know that’s just a poor excuse, but if writers only wrote when they felt inspired it would take five times as long for them to finish their books. Instead of continuing to use that as an excuse to let yourself drift off schedule for another few months, create a diligent schedule that you know you can stick to.

When it comes to making your writing schedule, our number one suggestion is to be realistic with yourself. If you realistically can only write once a week for a few hours, just put that on your calendar. The last thing you want to do put too much on your schedule and then keep missing your writing appointments that you set for yourself. Because every time you miss one you’ll beat yourself up, feel like you’re not a real writer, and before long you’re back to where you are now. It’s much better for your schedule and your writing confidence to make appointments you’re sure you can keep.

4) Join a Writing/Reading Group

Look into local writing or reading groups in your area. If you can’t find a good one, start your own with a few close friends! It may feel intimidating, especially when you’ve been out of the game for a while, but these groups can be a great way to hold one another accountable and bounce ideas off of each other.

If you’re planning on starting your own, there are a few options on how to structure it based on your needs. If you want to try to read more books to help improve your craft, you can start a book club and hold discussions about the material. If you want to workshop some writing, you could do a writing workshop where you take scenes (from either your book or specific prompts) and read/workshop them. Finally, if you have a few friends who are working on books/scripts/etc. you can host a group to simply bounce ideas off of one another. You can meet once a month, run each other through what you’ve been working on briefly, talk about any points where you’re stuck, and see if they have any suggestions.

5) Forgive Yourself

This is the toughest one because, ultimately, it’s the reason your absence from writing got so out of hand in the first place. Is your writing always going to be perfect? No. Are there going to be weeks where you genuinely don’t have time to write? Yes. That doesn’t make you any less of a writer than anyone else. Every writer has written bad prose. Every writer has taken absences that have stretched out longer than they should. You have to forgive yourself when you miss your writing days and on days where you feel like your writing is bad. Don’t let these things make you feel bad and don’t let them make you too afraid to pick up your pen again.

The post How to Pick Up Writing Again appeared first on Dorrance Publishing Company.

Unfortunately, when it comes to self-publishing, it can be kind of a mixed bag. Perhaps you’re doing all of the work yourself. This means you’re the one editing (or making a friend do it in exchange for pizza), and handling page design, cover design and artwork. The other option is sending  your work to a self-publishing company that you think would work well with your material.

There is a wide array of companies with various publishing strategies. Some self-publishers will only employ salespeople and then contract out per-project-based freelancers to do the editing, page, and cover design. This process may be appealing in terms of price, but it comes with a few downsides. First, the people they’ll contract to work on your book aren’t typically people with whom they have a long standing relationship. This means that the quality of work may vary. Second, they don’t employ Project Coordinators, which can mean lower quality communication as well as disorganization within the company.

Dorrance’s publishing process involves a division of roles in order to keep the project as organized and high quality as possible. As a result, there are more hands on deck working on your book at any given time than you’d typically find with another self-publisher. At the center of our publishing process, we have Project Coordinators.

A Project Coordinator acts as a liaison between the author (you) and the several different roles and steps needed throughout publishing. We employ several artists, designers, and editors on staff and it’s the Project Coordinator’s job to communicate your desires and concerns to those people.

You might be wondering why an author should even have a Project Coordinator.  Why not just have authors talk directly to their designer/artist/editor? The reason we have this division is, firstly, for customer service based reasons. We know how nerve-racking it can be to hand your book over to strangers. The Project Coordinator is someone who could speak to you weekly (and even daily), reassuring you about the process, explaining certain steps, and communicating effectively with the people who are working on your book.

This process also helps alleviate any internal miscommunication. This is because our author’s are solely communicating with one person. We don’t expect our authors to know who within a publishing company they’d have to give specific information to…that’s our job. If we expected this, situations may arise where an author might tell their editor one thing, but forget or not know to tell their designer- which can lead to a series of messes. The Project Coordinator will funnel your specifications to exactly where they need to go within the company. It also keeps our authors from having to call five to ten different people every time they need to make an adjustment.

It also means that our editors, designers, and artists are able to use their time to work on your book instead of having to divide their time between their work and being a customer service representative. We have hundreds of authors from all over the world at any given time. So, let’s face it, if our author’s were communicating directly with their designers/editors/artists- they’d never get anything done!

So, let us walk you through a daily scenario here at Dorrance: An author will talk to their Project Coordinator, perhaps about a change to their cover. The Coordinator will spend as much time as needed on the phone with their author, making sure they have all the details necessary. Once they’re off the phone, the Project Coordinator will walk over to where our designer sits and talk to them about the author’s desires for the cover. The designer will make a cover for the author based on that information and then make revisions if need be until it is exactly what the author has envisioned. It’s a collaborative process with streamlined communication.

When you’re publishing with Dorrance, your Project Coordinator wears many hats for you: communications expert, project management, creative problem solver, and even therapist every now and again. They’re here to hold your hand and walk you through the publishing process every step of the way.

The post Day In The Life Of A Project Coordinator appeared first on Dorrance Publishing Company.