Friday 27 July 2007

I'm still here!

Hi,

Just letting you know that I'm still about. I've been on holiday for a week and then was sick for another week. I'm only just better today. An update on what's happening:

- Invitation to a Feast won't be released in July (we'll see how August pans out). Again, I'm sorry for the delay. As a result, I am once again extending the deadline of my writing competition until the end of August.

- I'm currently working on my website (http://www.freewebs.com/jumpsterhopper/). I want to improve the look of it before 'Feast' is released. This is actually the first time I've ever created a website at all, so I concede that I am a novice in this department.

- There is a reasonable chance that my second mini-adventure gamebook, "The Lost Diary", will be released in August. We'll see how things go.

Thanks for your patience,
Jasan.

Friday 13 July 2007

Barnett's basket - Item 1 - Starting a book

Hello again,

After responding to a general question on another site concerning a writing issue, today I've decided to start a series where I will present some of my own tips that have helped me in my writing career. Today's first item concerns how to start a book, or more precisely, how to get an idea or theme for a book.

I usually start with a single word (or phrase) and go from there. For example, when writing my most recent e-book (The Wounded Falcon) I started by picking up a book that had the word 'hawk' as part of the title. I made a decision to write a story about a hawk. From there I thought about different stories that would be feasible with the hawk as the focus. I came up with the idea that people can train hawks for their own use. I then researched this on the internet and discovered that a falcon is a popular bird to use for hunting. In the end, this is what the story is about.

So in summary, start with a word, and then try to break it down to something more specific.

E.g. Hawk ---> It hunts ---> People can train it to hunt for their own use ---> Falcons are popular for this purpose.

Feel free to add your own opinions on this topic in the comments area if you wish to contribute.

Thanks to Bandido at Shoutlife for his original question that gave me the idea to start this series up.

Jasan