Tara Maya's Tales

It's not unreasonable to assume that anything which has taken too long already will never be completed at all. This is certainly the point of view of my children regarding my progress on my main series The Unfinished Song. I can see their point of view; after all, I've been working on this story for longer than they've been alive. They have cheerfully told me that they expect the completion of my epic around the same year we establish a colony on Mars. A colleague of mine also used me as an example of what NOT to do as a writer. She explained that I'd taken so long to finish my series, that although I'd had an audience once, it had frittered away and no one was interested any more. Despite that, the greatest journey is finished only step after step, whether the steps are slow or not, and whether or not the traveller becomes frequently lost or lodged for a long time elsewhere. So although I've also started (and yes, even completed) other series since I started Th...

  Do you write every day? Do you want to?   Here are some ways you can set up a daily writing routine.    1.      Tie Your Writing To a Current Habit The first step in establishing a new routine is to tie it to a routine you already do. Pick a time of day you already do something regularly, like brush your teeth at night or go for a jog in the morning, and then remind yourself that every night for half an hour before you brush your teeth, or every morning for two hours after you jog, you will sit and write.   2. Choose the Right Time to Write Choose a time of day when you know you'll have some uninterrupted time to write, such as early in the morning or late at night. Make this your designated writing time and try to stick to it every day.   3. Give Yourself Space You Enjoy Set up a comfortable and inspiring space where you can write each day. This could be a desk in a quiet room, a cozy nook in your home, or a favorite coffee shop. If y...

This tip is from 30 Day Novel .    Writer’s block is almost always a red flag warning you about some problem with the novel. (The only other cause for writer’s block is severe personal stress, which may be negative, like a divorce, or positive, like a move, but either way absorbs all your mental energy. However, that’s outside the scope of these Tips. If you are in such a situation, give yourself a break and take care of the issue first.) One of these red flags, and one that I’ve faced many times, is Ignorance. You sit down ready to write a scene…it’s right there in your outline… it should be no problem. You lift your fingers, like a piano prodigy, to wrest sweet story music from your keyboard, and… Nothing.  The scene is not working because there’s something that’s stumping you. For me, it’s often something like the place and time of the scene. Sometimes it’s a deeper problem though. Occasionally, it’s something god-awful like a Plot Abyss At The Heart of the Whole Da...

  Editing has made me realize something I've always been reluctant to admit. To explain what I mean, let me tell you what I'm doing right now. I'm working on Book 11 of The Unfinished Song: Flute. The title references the infamous Bone Flute that when played by someone with all six Chromas of magic, forces everyone else to dance to his tune. I have a strong draft of Flute, but it's one that I wrote before I revised Book 10, Sworn, the book right before this in the series. For a long series like this, it's essential to work form an outline. But what do you do when the outline changes? Or when you read the scenes of you draft and realize they aren't as strong as they could be? In my case, the outline itself isn't so wrong, but I feel as if many of the scenes just aren't doing enough work. This, I can see, is going to drag out the story too long, and I'll have the same problem in this book as I did with Sworn, fighting to keep my wordcount at a reasonab...

This is an excerpt, plus some additional thoughts of today, from 30 Day Novel : Here are three devices that can save you centuries of torture in that special writer’s hell reserved for writers who describe a nine day week. Ask me how I know. I am so bad at this basic step. So, so, terribly bad. I always think: weeeeeelll... THIS time, I don't need to do all that work before I write... I can just dive in... Wrong. So, so wrong. I'm in the process of belatedly FILLING IN MY CALENDAR for all the events of Books 10-12 in my epic fantasy series, The Unfinished Song, something I ought to have done last millennium.  But better late than never.  1. Calendar – Start with backstory and continue to the end of the book or beyond. Put every offstage and onstage action onto a calendar. Account for all major characters. Trust me. This will save you so much grief! (I have such a hard time with this that I often STILL don’t do it, even though I know better, and then I suffer for my stu...

  When you're working on a long, complex project, what slows you down isn't the larger story arc, but polishing the details. In the case of a fantasy epic like The Unfinished Song, it's often the stories within the story which I have to rework and rework to hone just right. Why are the subplots sometimes so much harder to write than the Main Plot?  I think there are several reasons.  One, I've known the arc of the Main Plot for a long time. In fact, I've been anticipating some scenes since I started, and I couldn't wait to write them. Naturally, those came easy! Two, once I have my Main Plot nailed into place, any fiddling with the book has to come in the subplots. The subsidiary stories have to wiggle into the spaces left by the Main Plot, and conform to it, not the other way around. They therefore require more... fiddling. Three, the subplots and stories-within-stories serve a dual purpose in the overall book. They aren't there only because I love to go o...

  A motif is a repetitive design in art. It's fairly obvious what this means in the visual arts; a motif is a repeating squiggle or shape, often tiled or layered over and over throughout the painting or mosaic. In non-figerative art, the motif may be the dominant feature. The term "narrative motif" is a metaphor borrowed from the visual arts, but it's a little less obvious how to employ a motif in fiction than it is in art. A "motif" can also overlap with other  writing techniques, like "metaphors," "archetypes," and "themes," since a motif can be all of those at  once. Motifs reenforce archetypes and  themes through the use of interlinked metaphors. In certain genres, particularly fantasy, motifs are ready at hand because the entire genre is archetypal by its nature: magic, quests, lost princes, warrior princesses, assassins, dragons and thieves... virtually every fantasy trope is replete with a rich history of myth and legend ...

I'm going to be running a 30 Day Novel No Fail Formula workshop  this November. But to get you started I have some tutorial videos that are completely free--including a free workbook you can download to follow along. (We've had such a HUGE response that our server is overwhelmed. There may be a delay if receiving the workbook, in which case  email me , and I will send it to you personally, so you can get started. … But please be patient, I'm not ignoring you, I will answer EVERY email in the order I receive it, but there are a LOT! lol I'm glad it's so popular but success brings its own problems too.) Remember, the free videos are ONLY going to be up for a SHORT while. Watch them now, while you can. The workshop registration is also only going to be open A FEW DAYS, so either opt in or email me personally to get on the list now, to be informed when it opens. You can also join us on Facebook . I look forward to seeing you there!

A guest post from Rayne Hall.  Body language can add another dimension to your dialogue scene, because it reveals a person's intentions, feelings or mood. The five main types of body language are gesture, posture, movement, facial expression and tone of voice. Gesture Examples She pointed to the orchard. “I saw him there.” He slammed his fist on the table. “I've had enough.” She scratched her chin. “Are you sure this will work?” “Welcome.” He pointed to the couch. “Why don't you make yourself comfortable?” Posture Examples She raised her chin. “You can't make me do this.” He locked his arms across his chest. “No way.” She leant away from him. “This isn't working between us.” “I consider this an insult.” He stood with his shoulders squared and his legs braced. “Take it back.” Movement Examples “Maybe another time.” He turned to leave. She walked faster. “I told you I don't want a date.” “All right.” He shuffled forward. “Follow me!” She ...

A guest post from Rayne Hall “Where do you find your ideas?” people often ask me. The truth is, I don't find ideas. Ideas find me. Like ghosts, they seek me out, haunt me, and don't let go until the story is written. My mind is like a revolving drum filled with hundreds of jigsaw pieces, each representing a story idea. Sometimes two or more pieces click together, and that's when a story takes shape. The location is often among the first jigsaw pieces to click. The setting lends atmosphere and determines the flavour of the story. Some of the places in my stories are real, others exist only in my imagination, while yet others are a blend of the real and the imagined. The tales in 13 British Horror Stories are inspired by the places where I have lived and travelled in Britain. I live in a small dilapidated town of former Victorian grandeur on the south coast of England, and if you know the region, you may recognise the landscapes that inspired some of the tale...

About Rayne Hall Rayne Hall  has published more than forty books under different pen names with different publishers in different genres, mostly fantasy, horror and non-fiction. Recent books include  Storm Dancer  (dark epic fantasy novel),  13 British Horror Stories ,  Six Scary Tales Vol 1, 2, 3, 4  (creepy horror stories),  Six Historical Tales  (short stories),  Six Quirky Tales  (humorous fantasy stories),  Writing Fight Scenes ,  The World-Loss Diet ,  Writing About Villains ,  Writing About Magic  and  Writing Scary Scenes  (instructions for authors). She holds a college degree in publishing management and a masters degree in creative writing. Currently, she edits the  Ten Tales  series of multi-author short story anthologies:  Bites: Ten Tales of Vampires, Haunted: Ten Tales of Ghosts, Scared: Ten Tales of Horror, Cutlass: Ten Tales of Pirates, Beltane: Ten Tales of Witchc...

Buy Writing Scary Scenes A guest post by Rayne Hall Have you written a horror story, or are you working on a frightening scene? Here's a professional technique for making it even scarier. Solitary adventures are more dangerous than group adventures. In nature, an animal which becomes separated from the herd is vulnerable to predators. To make your scene scary, let your heroine face the danger alone. The more you isolate your protagonist, the more frightening the scene becomes. Think of as many ways as possible to make her even more cut off from rescue and moral support. I'm using “she” in this article, but of course everything also applies to male characters. SEND THE ALLIES AWAY Give your protagonist a reason why she faces this danger on her own. Perhaps she has no choice: the little girl is alone in the house because her parents have gone to the theatre. The hero's guide and friends have been killed leaving him as the only survivor. The explorer's...