Worldbuilding: Research, Common Sense, and Imagination

Cinemagraphic Writing

Worldbuilding. This is popular topic that I’ve been asked to write about, but to be honest, I’ve been wary of doing so. You see, I create whole worlds for fantasy stories or science fiction stories. I easily create entire means of transportation, technology, civilizations, and cultures, but I do not sit down and say, “Okay, so, if this planet is that far from the sun, the temperature of that planet will be this many degrees, and its days and nights will be this long while its seasons are that long.” Nor do I map out every single detail of everything in this new world. I’ve observed many such discussions in writing groups, and I’m always overwhelmed by all the detail (I totally applaud those of you who can go to such great depths of your story because I would get lost, but each person is different). There are a lot of…

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Writing Physical Action

Cinemagraphic Writing

Writing physical action in stories—how do we do this? When you’re writing, you write multiple kinds of sentences—narrative, dialogue, description (when it comes to the setting and the environment), but also physical action. How much of this action should you include? When and how often should you include it? Why should you even include it?

Let’s address the ‘why’ first. Our characters are physical beings—they may not be human, and sometimes they may be supernatural, but they still possess the ability to move and interact with their environment and others around them. This interaction then moves the story onward, but it also reveals something about each character. Their mere action can add immediate depth to their personality.

When should this action be insert into a story? Well, my question to you would be: when does the character move? I’m not saying you need to record every little physical movement they…

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Different Kinds of Death Scenes

Cinemagraphic Writing

There are thousands of ways to die, but when you’re writing a story, there are at least four kinds of death scenes:

1. Shocking Death—the death occurs as a complete surprise
2. Pending Death—this death is pending but uncertain—the character may or may not die.
3. Inevitable Death—a prolonged and absolutely unavoidable death
4. Inescapable Death but with a Twist—this death is certain, and you know exactly how the character is going to die…and at the last second the character dies but not HOW you expected.

So which of these are most emotional? Before we can dive into that, we must acknowledge that everyone is different. What kind of person the reader is, where they are in life, what they experienced that day, and their current emotional state all play into how emotional the actual death scene will be. Some people won’t cry at all while others will break down at every death. There is no…

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The Cliffs of Connemaigh – Prologue

C.D. Dennis the Author

(The photo can be found at https://i.ytimg.com/vi/aiAmAcaDQrM/maxresdefault.jpg)

Prologue

     The disheveled man kept running. That was all he had done for the past several days now. Days? Weeks?  He didn’t know by this point. He lost his horse just nights before now and fear consumed his life every night since. Looking down, he kept his feet moving, one foot in front of the other. Dried blood was sprayed upon his dirt-marred jeans. He had managed to avoid getting killed by a banshee so far.  Banshee. The word came to him from nowhere. He knew the name, but did not know how or where from.

     I wish I still had the horse. It was the third night out, from what he could remember, that the banshee in their white gowns had ripped the animal apart. He could still hear the screams of the horse in his mind and see the…

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Inspiration, Motivation, and Determination

Cinemagraphic Writing

The funny thing is as I write this I personally lack the inspiration and motivation to do write this post, but I am absolutely determined to get it written, and therefore words are being written. In other words, no one is immune from what I’m about to say in this post.

It is commonly said you must be inspired to write, but then that is debunked by the claim that you don’t need inspiration as long as you have the motivation to write.

Want to know the truth?

Some days you just lack both inspiration and motivation to write anything, and the only thing that will make you write is your pure determination to write. Some people have the determination to write every day. Others have already resolved to complete this chapter or that scene this day, and some people are just plain stubborn and absolutely set on writing something

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The Essentials of a Chapter

Cinemagraphic Writing

A lot of writers ask, “Should I keep this chapter or not?” and “How long should chapters be?” However, before I address those questions, let’s identify what exactly chapters are, and this will help us answer those questions.

Before we get started, you should know the difference between a ‘scene’ and a ‘chapter’:

Scene: is contained within a chapter. You cannot have multiple chapters in a single scene.

Chapter: may contain one or more scenes

Scene: separated by white spaces or paragraph breaks

Chapter: separated by titles such as ‘Chapter 1’, ‘Chapter One’, etc.

These differences may not seem like much, but I don’t want you to be confused by the terminology. Scenes aren’t usually an issue, but they are part of a chapter, so I mentioned them. Our primary focus is on chapters, so let’s discuss some questions that accompany that.

How long should a chapter be?…

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The Truth About Self-Publishing

Cinemagraphic Writing

The truth about self-publishing is simple: it’s hard work, and it can cost a lot of money. What’s the advantage? You, the author, maintains absolute control over every element of your story, book, and marketing. If you know what you’re doing, this is a good thing. If you don’t know what you’re doing, this can be overwhelming but not impossible. Let’s break it down.

1. Write the novel
2. Revise the book
3. Self-edit
4. Beta readers
5. Revise
6. Edit/proofread
7. Format
8. Bookcover
9. Publish
10. Promote

The first two parts you do on your own, and #2 you might do multiple times. Once you’ve done that, then do #3 on your own, and again you might do this multiple times before moving on to #4 where you allow other people to read it and give you feedback. Once you get that feedback, you go back into the story, revise and self-edit accordingly, and then you send it…

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The Cliffs of Connemaigh – Prologue

The Prologue from my upcoming novel “The Cliffs of Connemaigh”, the second book in “The Chronicles of the Starborn”. Enjoy!

(The photo can be found at https://i.ytimg.com/vi/aiAmAcaDQrM/maxresdefault.jpg)

Prologue

     The disheveled man kept running. That was all he had done for the past several days now. Days? Weeks?  He didn’t know by this point. He lost his horse just nights before now and fear consumed his life every night since. Looking down, he kept his feet moving, one foot in front of the other. Dried blood was sprayed upon his dirt-marred jeans. He had managed to avoid getting killed by a banshee so far.  Banshee. The word came to him from nowhere. He knew the name, but did not know how or where from.

     I wish I still had the horse. It was the third night out, from what he could remember, that the banshee in their white gowns had ripped the animal apart. He could still hear the screams of the horse in his mind and see the horse’s blood upon the pristine white dresses. There was something about those white dresses that tickled the back of his mind. Looking up to the sky, his lips pulled down at the sight of the heavy dark gray clouds rolling in, that threatened to let loose the deluge of water that filled them. If there’s a God above, don’t rain. I need the fire to keep them at bay. East. Due east. I need to get there. I can’t stop. If I stop, I die. Looking down, he could see his fingers twitching. His neck was sore and his heart raced. I must get there! Where is there? I don’t know. Just get there. He wanted to do nothing more than stop and cry right then, but he knew that the banshee would come if he did…  If they come, I’m as good as dead.

Running as fast as he could, he watched his feet as they raced each other. Branches creaked and cracked under his feet, giving away his position. He looked up and in front of him to see what was coming up. A fallen tree and then an open field appeared ahead of him. Yes! A clearing! Now if I can keep a fire going. And stay close enough to it.  He jumped over the tree and broke out into the clearing. A good place to stop for the moment at least. Rest up some. Yeah, I need to do that. Or a tree. I could sleep in a tree again. As much as those bitches will let me anyway.  He had slept in a tree the night before. Or as much as he could sleep at any rate. The creatures had spent the entire night at the base of the tree, but they had never made it up it. Even with those talons, they couldn’t make it up. By some miracle, he hadn’t fallen out of the tree either. The idea of sleeping in a tree tickled his memory as well. It was as though he had heard someone talking about it before. Frowning, he looked around the clearing. No, I need to keep going. Another tree would be better. He ran to the east again, towards the tree line, and into the trees. The scent of rotting leaves greeted his nostrils. Much better than entrails.  He would need to find a tree with great haste.

The sky grew darker, not just from the failing daylight but also from the clouds. A muffled cry came from the north. He looked to glimpse the shape of a woman with dark hair and the white dress. Run faster. He dared not look at the woman for too long. He had discovered if he did, the banshee would look at him with those black, pitiless eyes. Don’t look! Coming to a tree that looked like it could bear his weight, he scrambled up it. A screech from the banshee came just after. Close! Too close! Looking around, he saw more of them. Safe for the moment. Safer than the ground. As they began their screeching again he knew that the banshee were not going to let him get much sleep tonight. He knew he had heard that screech even before he had lost the horse. He would need to remain vigilant this night, but as he looked around he noticed something else: the vegetation was changing.  So many more pines, firs, spruces… A slow smile crept across his face as he looked at it. That is a good thing.

What is Thunderclap?

Cinemagraphic Writing

Thunderclap is a promotional opportunity not limited to writers but can be for events, artists of all kinds, and anything really where you need to get word out. There are different packages offered, but the basic one is free, so it is no cost for you or anyone who supports you, but what exactly is Thunderclap?

Before I explain what Thunderclap is, let me illustrate what social media is. The internet is full of noise of people posting about every detail of their lives and every thought they have. It’s a loud and noisy place. It’s really hard to get word out. I often compare it to being in a crowd and saying something. You can yell all you want, but if you’re the only one saying whatever it is you’re saying, no one is going to hear you. Sure, some might notice your attempt and look at you strangely…

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