Some writing advice

Hey folks,

I thought I’d give some writing advice from my perspective today. To be honest, there’s really no advice that will magically transform someone into a good writer, and so this is just my perspective on what drives me and what made me give enough of a damn to keep on keeping on.

Some question for you to consider:

What inspires you to get out of bed each day?
The fact that I have to go to work and get on with my life is generally what inspires me to get out of bed each day. Regardless of what your opinions are and who you are, life goes on. No matter how much I hated rising up each morning, I still need to get up early in the morning even if I hated mornings with a burning passion. I believe that everything is easier to endure if other people also have to suck it up and feel just as bad as you.

When you’re not writing, how do you spend your time?
Reading. I would generally spend my time either reading good fiction that had caught my interest or helpful books that helps me improve my understanding of the craft and how to better polish my work. Through either searching for them in my ‘recommended books’ section of Goodreads and other websites that I frequent often or personal recommendation from friends or librarians, I can find great works that I can enjoy from other writers. Librarians are generally very experienced in the mystical art of picking out great books and hidden gems of the genre, thus they are always my go-to target of inquiry for good books.

Describe your desk:
My desk is a clean and tidy place with a small box of writing equipment, some blank notebooks, a box of tissue and a laptop. The messier your desk is, the harder it is for you to be able to actually find it comfortable to work on.

What is your writing process?
I would start writing a story with a beginning and an end already in mind before getting any deeper. Since the first time I attempted writing a story with no coherent structure and sequence in mind before actually writing had turned into a horrible mess…I have since then learned to plan my stories out and have at least a rudimentary outline before writing.

My experience submitting a magazine article

Hello, everyone.

Haven’t blogged in a while. To the…four people who follow my blog, you must be quite surprised. So, during October 2017, I had submitted an RPG article for the Dark Times Fanzine for Horror RPGs. It was an article on using Qi in a Call-of-Cthulhu Roleplaying Game, adding in a few of my homebrew rules for running a Wuxia-flavoured game. Which, I had the guilty pleasure of running once.

Here’s the link if you’re interested.

There’s a few pieces of advice that I would like to give to people interested in submitting articles for magazines.

 

#1- Formatting, it is important.

About three or four years ago, back when I had submitted an article to a magazine for the first time, I wasn’t very good at it. You see, I had sent it with whatever the default formatting that my word-processor used. I’ll admit that I didn’t even bother to check the formatting guidelines and had just sent it as is.

…Thinking back, that wasn’t the cleverest thing I had done. I ended up being rejected by the magazine, and in the email, a link to the formatting guidelines of the company was attached. A clean, neat presentation goes a long way to make your work that much more appealing to editors. As a struggling writer, I cannot tell you how many submissions I send in a month and how many writing projects I’m juggling, I imagine many writers are out there desperately sending in submissions and drafts as well. In order to stand out, I think the least you could would be to check the formatting guidelines of the company that you’re submitting to and offer minimal respect to telling that at you had the decency in you to at least read the submission guidelines.

If you’re can’t their submission guidelines, then it’s generally a good idea to play it safe and ask; failing that, just refer to the Standard manuscript format.

 

#2- Maintain regular contact with the editor

Writing is a cooperative job. Being a writer means that, ultimately, you’re going to have to listen to someone else’s opinions and follow a deadline. The best way to make sure everyone is happy in a situation like this is to maintain consistent contact with the editor. Communication is key.

Editors have to make sure that there’s no grammar errors, no inconsistencies, and also to make sure the theme of an article can fit the theme of the magazine. Ultimately, explaining the direction and the rough idea of the article to the editor is generally a good way making sure that everyone’s on the same page. It is also a good way of making sure that you can meet your deadlines. While there’s no guarantee that you can meet the deadline, but if you could explain to the editor in advance that, due to some unforeseen complications, you couldn’t make the deadlines, they’re going to be more likely to offer to put your article on-hold for the next issue rather than just sending an email at the last minute with a cheap explanation.

 

#3- Proofread before you send it off

It’s difficult being an editor, checking through article after article for grammar errors and inconsistencies. Make your editor’s job easier by checking through your submission first and make sure that the margin of mistake have been dialled down to the minimum. Reducing the number of back-and-forth draft exchanges could make things more efficient and make everyone involved feel much happier rather than just sending off an unchecked draft for the editor to fix.

 

Conclusion

Work with your editor, and listen to what his opinions are. There’s always room for polite disagreements, but giving people respect and follow the publisher’s submission guidelines would almost always make sure that you’re going to have a higher chance of getting another article published by them again.

Write a gripping mystery adventure in four steps

Amazing for both mystery writers and TRPG fans alike!

How Chinese New Year Traditions Came to Be

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Hello everyone. First of all: Happy new year! New year is the beginning of all things fun, exciting and wonderfully traditional. The ancient people rank truth based on whichever story is best relayed over some ale and a folksy campfire, so it’s not surprising that New Year’s Day can involve some of the weirdest tales that you have ever heard.

After all, even the weirdest traditions have a story behind why they happen. Perhaps as fantasy writers, you might feel inspired by the stuff below. But I wrote this article in the New Year spirit. I wish you all the best and remember, new year is the time you spend with your family; not musty self-help articles on writing. Have fun!

The Legend of Nian

Okay, since I was born in China and know enough Chinese to provide context, I am going to help explain this story clearly to the…

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