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Don't underestimate the power of humour in good writing

When writing, it is easy to cover the whole gamut of emotions ranging from sadness, jealousy to plain disgust. However, humour can be easy to overlook. What most people think when they hear the word ‘humour’ is a rip-roaring comedy. However, it can be subtle and it can also aid you in telling the most effective of stories. Take for example an artist creating a painting. If they use too many ‘dark’ colours and don’t vary it with ‘bright’ colours, then the painting is going to almost certainly look dull. In the worst-case scenario, it could be hard to make out the features of what they’re painting. Hence, a painter must create something called ‘contrast’ to make a painting more interesting. ‘Interesting’ is what we’re aiming for in our prose. Contrast can be thought of as the interplay between ‘light’ and ‘dark’ to create something that stands out.* Being an artist in addition to a writer, I consider the technique of creating prose to be similar to creating a painting. Use too m

How I created my book trailer

Many of you may have noticed that I have a book trailer on Youtube for my book: The Damnation Plays. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHJQHrdOx68 Well, there were several stages in producing the book trailer. Since my camera wasn’t working I decided to use stock images for my book trailer. There were several sites where you can get free stock videos such as: https://www.videvo.net/ https://www.videezy.com/ https:// videos .pexels.com/ However, I wanted something a bit more polished and I found the range of stock videos limited. I had a particular vision for my book trailer and none of the free stock videos sites provided these. On the other hand, I knew that I was on a limited budget so I wanted something that wasn’t too expensive. I couldn’t afford http://www.shutterstock.com/ so I googled and looked for sites that offered quality stock videos for a reasonable price. One of the sites that I decided upon was https:// videohive .net/ . The price was attractive as each video clip worked

The 'Introverted' Writer

I found this article from the guardian very interesting. What lies beneath: an introvert’s guide to fiction – and life It basically talked about some artists, including writers, being  introverted. In an extroverted world, being an introvert can seem to be some sort of a "dirty" word. Each profession has a stereotype attached to them. There’s the long suffering artists, the scientific genius, the ruthless businessman and others. Writers are no different. People make a lot of assumptions when you tell them that you’re a writer. Som people might think that you’re living the high life. Some will think that you’re set for life writing bestsellers whilst others will think that you have it easy because, after all, anyone can write a book. I have encountered lots of stereotypes about writers. However, there are few that tackles a particular subset of writers: The introverted writer. For the purpose of this blog post, an introverted writer is self- explanatory. It is someone who is n

World Building the easy way

Whether you're writing a fantasy or a general fiction novel, there's no escaping from world building. So what is it? The simplest definition I can find on the internet is that world building is the construction of a world in the realm of fiction. When confronted with creating a world, some authors balks at the idea of world building. After all, they've got their characters all fleshed out and the story has been mapped out. However, world building is a crucial aspect of story-telling. Without a believable world, your novel can flounder like an unstable pack of cards. However, world building doesn't have to be hard. You don't need to go overboard like JRR Tolkien did with his famous Middle Earth universe. You can do quick and easy world building and pretty much remain believable. Be consistent This would probably be the most useful advice ever if you're going to attempt to build a world. If for some reason, in the first chapter, you laid the rule that river flowed