Category: Magical Words

Other Cool Blogs: Magical Words 1/25/2008

Erin Penn

Image courtesy of photoexplorer at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

New Marketing: Short Story and Novel Combos

Marketing is constantly changing. The new media model is packages and crossing mediums. Don’t just create a movie, but get a graphic novel, a novelization of the movie, and a short TV series if you can. Toys, fast food, … you live in the world, you know how this works.

For books, write a novel and a couple short stories (and pray for the one-in-a-million movie deal). One of the short stories should be sold to an anthology to point readers to your larger (and more profitable) piece. The other short story should be offered for free as a sampler, and point to your larger piece. A series of 99 cent short story ebooks on Amazon pointing to the larger piece is also a workable option.

All those side stories which bounced around in your head but didn’t make the final cut can now be used. Those little exercises to develop side characters and explore backstory which went into the writer’s trunk can be dusted off.

But it is more than just a cool way to use up your excess words. Creating short stories is rapidly becoming a requirement for engagement with your readers. The more bits of your novel out there, the more chance a reader to discover your novel and pay you so you can write another one. The more times your readers play in your world, the more they will want to see of the world.

David B. Coe, of Magical Words, gives examples of how creating stories can help with worldbuilding a new world for a series in “Doing as I Say”. Written in 2008, the series he is referring to developing is Thieftaker. 

WRITING EXERCISE: For your present long-form Work-In-Progress (WIP), look at your backstory or side characters. Can one be made into a short story of between 3,000 and 10,000 words? Could breaking out the story as a stand-alone provide fan service of a detail unneeded for the novel but cool to know? Write a scene from the short story of 1,000 words or less.

Other Cool Blogs: Magical Words May 8, 2014

Erin Penn

Amazon Cover for: This Crumbling Pageant

Write Scared

Award winning screenwriter and best-selling novelist Patricia Burroughs did a guest appearance on Magical Words in 2014 as part of a book tour for This Crumbling Pageant. The blog “Of Adders and Writing Process” meanders for a while, setting the stage. But she eventually cracks down to her take away advice:

…As a writer, you must write those scenes that scare you. … Write about whatever your story requires and your characters deserve, especially if the thought of putting those words on <paper> terrifies you. Write the scenes you are afraid people will judge you for. … If your book needs them, if your characters deserve them, you have to write them…

You can read the full posting and related comments here: s/

WRITING EXERCISE: Look over your body of work. Have you ever written scared? Have you ever avoided writing scared?

Other Cool Blogs: Magical Words July 9, 2010

Erin Penn

Image courtesy of fantasista at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Beta Readers

Your opus is complete, over sixty-five thousand words which you know … well, hope … connect together for a story. A few of your friends and family members have offered to help you by reading your stuff. Beta Readers! You’ve been told you need them so you sign up the ten of your nearest and dearest who have volunteered.

George, Carrie, and Anne tell you it’s the best stuff they ever read and sure to be a best-seller. Miller and Evans never get back to you. Ingrid sends back several pages of things which need fixing to make your science fiction story have a proper romance; you aren’t writing a romance. But Marc, Simone, Duck, and Margaret responded with vague things about “I think something is wrong somewhere after the beginning.” and “The big fight didn’t make sense.” and “Some characters need work.”

For the future, mark the first five off your list. You don’t need fans reading your stuff; you need critics who get back to you. Ingrid should write her own book if she thinks the world needs more romances. The other four, well, they need some guidance.

Fortunately guidance is at hand thanks to a Magical Words post written by AJ Hartley on the ABCs of Beta Readers. When the blog group created, “How to Write Magical Words: A Writer’s Companion” this post picked as a best-of-the-best and Mr. Hartley made a minor modification with the letter “D” making it even better (see page 220 of the book).

Give your beta readers the ABCDs and ask them to only write the letter as they read through:

A = Awesome. This part is really, really good.

B = Bored now. I’m about to put down the book if things don’t pick up soon.

C = Confused. I backed up, re-read, and … huh?

D = Don’t Believe It. Girl, this is worse than the D&D game where we all had +5 weapons at first level. Dude, I don’t know how you cook, but bread takes more than 10 minutes to rise.

Previous posts on Beta Reading can be found: here.

Other Cool Blogs: Magical Words February 12, 2009

Erin Penn

Image courtesy of Silatip at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Why Write?

An elegant question asked by Misty Massey in her 2009 blog post. I was about to bop by it looking for today’s Magical Words, because everyone knows the answer “I write because I have to”, when I hit the showstopper in the comments by Phiala (Sarah Goslee), which made me think:

“Even many successful writers say that they write because they have to, and often go on to say that you SHOULDN’T write unless you have to. That leads to self-doubt, at least in me. I don’t have to write, so maybe I shouldn’t be doing it?

But I have stories to tell!”

Honestly, I don’t have to write. It’s one of the reasons I often go months without putting hands-on-keyboard for fictional purposes.

I have to read. Honest-to-goodness simple must. When I feel the edges creep in of the mad world, I go into a Fiction Fit and swallow three books at a time. A hundred books in a year. Year after year after year.

And I tell myself stories. Fanfiction from television, movies, and books. True-to-life speculations and wild tales. New stories. Old stories. Revisits, revision. At least one “novel” a week, and several “short stories”.

Some of them are really, really good, and I want to share them.

If you would like to see the whole Magical Words post with comments: http://www.magicalwords.net/misty-massey/why-write/

Why do you write?

Other Cool Blogs: Magical Words October 30, 2012

Erin Penn

Business Conversation Stock Photo

Image Courtesy of franky242 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The Play’s the Thing

“Dialogue – live it, learn it, write it”, a blog posting by John G. Hartness on Magical Words.

Why to writers write? “because they have something to say”. How do writers say it? “through characters”.  How do characters say stuff? “through dialogue.”

Where can you find dialogue? In plays.                                                         

Takeaway advice to become a better writer, read plays. See the full blog here: http://www.magicalwords.net/really-i-mean-it/dialogue-live-it-learn-it-write-it/

Bonus advice for editing – Read all dialogue out loud after you have completed your WIP to make certain everything scans. I find this very useful to make certain each character sounds unique.

WRITING EXERCISE: Read a scene from a MODERN play or screenplay (not musical) no more than 20 years old (yeah, you may need to go looking). What makes the conversation feel real?