Can a Writer Be an Illustrator Too?

Writing Story Opens the Door to Great Graphics! – Good writers think and see with the mind’s eye, what they are trying to portray through narrative. Your characters act a certain way, different from each other. The scenery changes as the story line moves from one environment to the next, or from one room to the next, or from each characters’ movement within a single scene. But in your mind’s eye, you can visualize what things and people look like. Could you draw a character if asked to? Could you tell where the furniture is within a room, and draw a picture?

So, Start Drawing! – Put your writing aside and get out paper, a pencil or pen, and take one scene and draw parts of it. Just imagine what something or someone actually looks like! Maybe, take that person out of the scene and draw them on a piece of paper or sketch pad. Are they a villain? The hero? A girl? A guy? Is it a pet dog? Draw them in rough sketch. Just practice using a light touch of the pencil and light touches for any object. Don’t throw it away, but store your rough sketches in a manila folder or file folder.

When I had completed my trilogy, I felt I needed a map of The Realm of Lasting. I could see with my mind’s eye where certain regions were and roughly what they might look like from an areal view. I studied fantasy maps online and enjoyed getting a lot of ideas from those for my map. I also visited a friend who is a wonderful pencil-sketch artist! He advised me on shading, height/mass of objects, and other ways to portray realism in drawing.

After a Lot of Practice – My map of The Realm of Lasting took at least eleven tries over a period of weeks, to draw something I liked. I drew rough sketches, printed labels and titles of places onto the map; and liked some of the earlier drawings better than the later ones. Finally, I emailed my publisher and told them I wanted to add a map of The Realm of Lasting to my first book!

Publish Your Creations! – Choose your best work and add it to your story. Getting advise again can help, but you do not want someone to discourage you. So, I decided to submit my work without another opinion. My map is unique. It has both areal and ground-views of The Realm of Lasting. It is found in book one, on pages xiii and ix. It is black and white, and lists all the areas I wanted my readers to see, like I saw in my mind! Now, I’m an illustrator, too!

Maybe you will create drawings as you write. I waited till my trilogy was finished. Either way, write and draw and publish your beautiful work! Let me know if you need any other advise. I’m your humble servant and para-friend, one who comes alongside to help.

The Blessing of a Good Editor

First, Prepare Your Best Story! –Write the words, sentences, paragraphs, and chapters, one after the other. Write and keep writing, allowing your story to flow from your heart and mind onto the page. When you take breaks from the story, don’t take breaks from the scene you’re on. Ponder the character(s), the action/interaction, the environment, the turmoil, conflict, outcome, suspense, and revelation. The story doesn’t stop due to a break from the working product.

I often read my manuscript out loud after various stops and starts. Does it make sense? Are my characters different enough? Is it too easy for the main character to get what he/she wants? Does each scene help to develop the story, and pull the reader into the action?

When You’re Done…You’re Not Done. – commit to another thorough reading. Read it out loud, thinking through each sentence, paragraph, chapter. Do the transitions from one chapter to the next, thread the story together? Do you end a chapter, leaving the reader hanging, wondering what happens next?

Check your punctuation, grammar, and look for possible mistakes in word usage. Could you use another word here or there that would say something better? Are words misspelled? Most software provide grammar and spelling checks. Use them.

Pay For a Good Editor! – When you’ve done all you can and feel your manuscript is ready for publication; you’ve followed the “Writer’s Guidelines” provided by the publishing house you plan to send it to, pay for a good editor. Yes, it’s expensive, but “Oh, it is worth it!” If you choose to go “Indie,” with an independent publisher, either pay them or find one in the Christian Writer’s Market Guide.

A Good Editor Can Help Your Manuscript and You! – Sometimes they will recommend an agent or publisher to get your work in the right hands. A good editor may charge you more, but when they’ve read your story, they can make suggestions to improve it not even you can see. A good editor, if you’re open to it, will dissect, correct, select, and detect what many writers overlook or assume.

When I wrote my trilogy, I hired an editor from a famous publishing house here in my town. She was thorough, thoughtful, helpful, made invaluable corrections, and improved my books substantially!

Protect Your Work! – Stay away from cheap pricing, cheap cover art, cheap editing and cheap publishing deals. Check out independent publishers’ contracts to make sure you’re getting fair and equitable treatment for your work. If you don’t like something say so! It’s your money they are spending on your work.

I remember asking my independent publisher to put the words: “Second Edition” on my first book, when I added a map and corrected a few of my own mistakes, that my editor did not see, because she came into my editing deal late on my first book run. My publishing date was sooner than her ability to correct my initial grammar. Anyway, the publisher would not place the words “Second Edition” on my first book, because it wasn’t a true “Second Edition.” Plus, the publisher changed the copyright date from 2013 to 2016! Now, I had three books with “out of copyright order” dates: Book One: 2016; Book Two: 2014; and Book Three: 2016.

Be Proud of Your Book(s)! – You’ve worked hard or a Ghostwriter has worked hard on your behalf. Let people know how the Lord has blessed you in your writing adventure! Call bookstores, and ask to do a book signing if they carry your books; make deals with Amazon or other online forums to display and sell your book(s). Offer to talk about your book(s) and speak about your writing and publishing journey. Others can learn from you about good and bad decisions you made, misunderstandings you had, assumptions you made and learned from, and other areas of interest you think of.

Sell Your Book(s)! – Purchase and offer to sell copies you can sign: at book fairs, out of your trunk, visiting relatives, and in your travels. You’ve conquered one of your dreams! Now, go tell others they can do the same!

Writing with a Purpose

A Key Word – In 2006, my family and I were on our way home from vacation in Florida. I had always wanted to write a book and one word kept coming to mind: Warts. “What do ‘warts’ have to do with my book, Lord?”I asked. No answer. So, I began pondering how ‘warts’ could be a clue.

The Key Word is the Seed – As I thought of ‘warts’ in different situations, I began to see a middle school boy with warts, being teased viciously by some of his classmates, bullies! He had to create a safe place at home to get his mind off of their taunts, a place where he could distract himself from hurt, anger, and retaliation. His best friend, Kevin, knows James’ problems and helps him navigate through school without too much fighting back, physically that is. From there, the seed of the story opens up and begins to sprout into many situations and struggles that help James and Kevin grow as Christians.

A Seed Thought Grows into Scenes and Chapters – Now you have a purpose for writing, a story to tell! This is fiction. My story took-off like a rocketship, because James needed to solve his problem with the bullies. Do Christian kids fight if teased, pushed, threatened, and made fun of? Warts don’t just disappear! Bullies don’t just disappear! Deal with those ugly warts and find ways and means to circumvent or face those bullies!

I Added the Supernatural; This is Called Speculative Fiction – I decided to have the boys, James and Kevin, enter into the computer game they create. Now, James has his way of escape: a place of wonder, enchantment, and terror! Yes, away from his school bullies, but not from new bullies, the size of a house or three-story building! Inside this game, they enter a land ruled by two competing dragons!

Keep Writing! You’re on a Roll! – Let the story tell itself by pondering, Who?, How?, Why,? Where?, When?, What?, and Which? Write a scene or start a scene, and then walk away. By walking away from the scene, I begin to think ‘What could happen next?’ I write down ideas, thoughts, and actions that could take place in the story to make it scary, hard-to-believe, and unexpected (but real) for the reader. Then, get back to the keyboard and write more into James’ life, Kevin’s life, Jessie’s life, and Christopher’s life. Build characters into your story, each with their own unique personality.

Seeds that Become Plants Need Pruning – Editing is pruning; plants do better if they’re cut back proportionately, and dead parts are removed. Your writing requires attention to punctuation, style, voice, and omitting needless words. Rereading and reading out loud help in this ‘pruning’ experience. Also, attending a writer’s critique group can be very helpful. Check for an American Christian Fiction Writers group in your area. Well worth the effort and experience!

A Professional Editor is Highly Recommended – I remember getting a recommendation from a lady at our church, for a good editor. This editor helped with my entire trilogy. She was from a publishing house here in my hometown. The cost was reasonable, and her expertise made each manuscript so much better. Asking relatives for their help is not the same as asking someone in the editing/book publishing industry. Allow a professional to glance at your work; maybe trade something in kind for their preferred opinion. For a small price, The Christian Writers Market Guide, is ideal for finding help in many areas of writing.

Try the Internet – Jerry B. Jenkins (chief author with Tim LeHaye of the Left Behind Series of books) has recently been offering free classes/workshops online for writers. But be careful! Not everything on the Web is free or helpful. I highly recommend Jerry Jenkins and other Christian authors, agents, and publishers, found in The Christian Writers Market Guide.

That’s all for now…let me know what helped, what didn’t…

Ingredients for Articles and Books Readers Can Enjoy!

Remember your audience, your readers.

We don’t have to impress them with every detail. Write “to the point” (Jerry Jenkins) and let the reader imagine the rest. Allow the reader to interpret the details.

Keep the story lively by adding conflict and tragedy that cannot be “second-guessed.”

Write original dialogue and narrative to make the reader stop and think, to place your characters in situations you’ve never thought of and the reader has never seen. Good authors think through their scenes and create original narrative.

Use active verbs, not passive anything (Jerry Jenkins).

Use verbs that express movement, action, intense situations, and move the story forward. Jerry Jenkins gives great advice on this and points out great examples in his writings.

Have in mind to submit your article, story, or book in the direction of a traditional periodical publisher, or book publisher.

Use the Christian Writer’s Market Guide or the Writer’s Digest Writer’s Guide to find an appropriate publisher. Too many ‘good’ writers, write and ‘stuff’ their written manuscripts into file folders, never to be read or published. What a tragedy! Always write with the goal to publish, even if it’s a short article. Never give in or give up on yourself! You are a writer and soon to be a published write

Find a professional editor to check your work.

Always have a professional editor or someone who knows grammar and transitional coherency, to check your work. Be professional by submitting your best/highest quality of work to a publisher (Jerry Jenkins). Always check the publisher’s guidelines and follow them to the letter.

Enjoy it, but be careful!

Writing doesn’t have to be easy to be fun. If you’re writing what you love, or at least what engages your mind and personal interests, you have a better chance to make it enjoyable. So, find a genre you like and write in that arena. Have fun, but stay keenly aware of what your message is conveying and that your historical, and factual details are correct for that era.

Ingredients for articles and books readers can enjoy!

Write! Right Now!

Write a Book, a Little at a Time

Many people want to write a book. But few do. Many folks want to write full-time. Most writers I know have full-time jobs doing other work, but writing on-the-side. So the answer to writing any work of full length is to write when you have a minute here, a moment there. That’s how I write: a moment here or there when an idea pops into my head; a section of time waiting at the doctor’s office, or a short time waiting at the dental office. Write in spurts if you have to, but keep writing something daily.

Set Short-Term Goals, A Few Hours a Week

I write about three hours a week. Not much, but writing is like yeast in bread dough; my ideas begin to unfold into sentences and paragraphs of meaning that relates to a story or poem I’m working on. For example, I wrote a Christmas poem two weeks before Christmas and sent it to some of my friends. Two of them thought it was good. I thought it was God-inspired and worth sharing with more people. 

Keep writing! Carry a small notebook/pen with you for story ideas. During wait times, in long lines, in spurts, moments and unpredictable layovers, write down your thoughts and date them, for later reference. Then, when you make time for longer writing periods, write out those ideas into a short sentence, or into a paragraph; then into a scene for your story.

Set Aside an Hour or Two, to Put Your “Saved Notes” into Your Story

Whenever free-time seems to squeeze itself into your busy life, use it to write and keep writing. With all these scripted notes and ideas, your mind will tell you to set aside the time you need to make sense of it and put it into story form. Busy people still make time to write their books. 

Write! Right Now! (Then, do what it takes to edit and publish your work). Others have done this. You can do it too!

Quiz Time

Read Book 1 and Make Up a Quiz for Readers to Use While Reading

Do you know the main character reminds me of myself, being bullied when I was in elementary school, middle school, and high school? Did you know there are at least fifteen dragons mentioned by name in Book 1 of Dragon Riders of The Realm? There are four kids in this trilogy, that take up most of the action! Do you know their names, ages, and birth dates? You’d probably have to read all three books to get that information.

By reading a chapter at a time, you can come up with questions or statements (T or F) to test a reader’s knowledge. Quizzes are fun and challenging.

Submit your questions/T or F statements, and we’ll evaluate them. Then, we can post the best ones to put together a finalQuiz.

Have fun!

It may take quite a while for some of you to read Book 1, but let’s start there. Take the rest of July, 2020, and create a test, quiz, or knowledge check, for reader’s to use while reading Book 1. Make it interesting, challenging, some questions easy, some difficult.

Try to submit them by August 31, 2020, about two months from now. If we use one of your questions in our final copy of the Quiz, we’ll come up with a prize. Let’s say, if you’re a winner, I will pay for an E-copy of book 1, or Book 2, or of Book 3, your choice. How’s that for an offer? We’ll decide the winners and work out a deal for each person who submitted a question that was on the quiz. God bless! The Quiz will have ten to fifteen questions/T or F statements.

www.dragonridersoftherealm.com

Sincerely, John Wheeler Tucker

Dragons! Bullies! Adventure!

You’re Missing Out!

You’re missing out not reading this story of two teens, James and Kevin, in The Realm of Lasting! Being a Christian in Middle School is tough, but God and friends help us face our bullies and pray for them! We can win them over to Christ if we’re patient and prayerful and look for ways to get to know them. God can change bullies in the same way He is changing us!

Bullies Don’t Rule Us, God Does!

Remember, as a teenager, God is in charge, even when it seems He’s not helping. He allows our struggles so we’ll trust Him more. He wants us to be friends with those who hate us. How else can He reach them unless we’re willing to reach out to them and pray for their salvation and discipleship?

God wants our involvement in their lives!

God wants us to find ways to involve ourselves in the lives of our bullies, in spite of the pain they may cause us. Try to find out if your bullies have a family, a Mom or Dad, brothers or sisters, and who their friends are. Pray for all these people, for opportunities to talk to your bullies and ask them questions about their lives, just like you would with your “now” friends.

Let me know how it’s going…

Looking forward to hearing from you. Yes, even if it’s not going well.

Creating a “Culture of Life” to Fight Teen Suicide

Teens and young adults have been ignored by their parents.

Young teens may come home to an empty house because both parents work. After school, a youngster has too much freedom and no guidance at home when they need it most. They may watch television, the kind of programs and movies that contain sex, violence and filthy language. No one’s there to stop them. Some may not come home at all after school, and instead, go with their friends to play with the ouija board, or experiment with other forms of harmful games  produced to hurt them.

Young adults in the military face similar problems. The rigors of training and active duty, especially during actual fighting, can leave a young person riddled with questions. Death of comrades or of the enemy can leave these troops fearful. Creating a “culture of life” for military service men and women is crucial to maintaining unity and allegiance to the combat mission. Professional counselors available on an “as needed” basis, might quell the number of suicides among our service men and women.

One way parents can help create a “culture of life” is to find friends for their teens and young people that do have Christian parents at home after school. One set of parents can ask those parents if their son or daughter can go there until you get home. Work out a share plan so you can pay them back for their sacrifice of time and energy. Also search within your community for programs or centers that offer after school activities for young adults. Hopefully, your sons and daughters will be willing to participate in one. These programs may offer music, aerobics, gymnastics, or a variety of other helpful ways to keep your kids safe and busy till you get home.

Kids hate the messages they have heard about abortion, divorce and fathers abandoning their families.

This continual bombardment of bad news scares them! If they’re already part of a family that has experienced these actions, they are on the brink of fear for their lives. Our youth do not want to live in a “culture of death.” Even assisted-suicide is prevalent in some states. What is wrong with mature adults making laws that allow the legal death of innocent babies? Allow the death of a marriage through legal divorce? Promote the death of a family so a father can legally produce babies and then, just get up one day, and abandon that home? Even approve so-called doctors to kill their family’s loved ones simply because they don’t want to live anymore? Or that they have an illness that seems untreatable? We need to promote a “culture of life” in our homes and communities!

Where are the brave Christian men and women in government who will turn the tide of evil spreading through our land?

Leaders could rewrite the laws and put abortion to a stop! Rewrite the laws and make divorce illegal. Write a new law that rewards parents for being home when their kids come home from school! Brave Christian men and women in government could stop being shoved-around by evil-minded lawmakers and turn the tide back to civil laws that make sense. They could actually make America better by modeling this “culture of life” in government and in churches!

Our teens and twenty-somethings, both in civilian life and in the military, are at their wits end over where our nation is going!

Scared of families that are splitting-up. Sick of the crime. Tired of being the “parents” of their siblings when they get home from school. Our youth are retaliating by hurting themselves by cutting, playing dangerous games, joining gangs and even taking their own lives. Where are we promoting and modeling a “culture of life” for our teens and young adults?

It’s past time to stop this onslaught of Satan’s perpetuation of  fear, division, and the death of our own children and our precious families. Government and community leaders must do see what’s missing in their cities and create programs and centers that exemplify a “culture of life.” Sending a message to that city that we will not tolerate the spread of evil and crime can be done. Pastors, churchmen and women, and responsible parents, both married and single, must  cry out to God for His divine intervention. We must repent of our waywardness and begin to take our country and our children back! We can change the laws that are dividing us. We must change this culture of death into a “culture of life, hope, and truth,” based on biblical principles, and godly acts of love for our kids! The time is NOW!

 

 

Blog On!

Blogging, sharing the latest information about yourself, your events, your business in general is expected of bloggers. So, keep sharing. Blog on anything of interest that relates to your business products or personnel. Blog about Jesus, about your church, about your website, about your latest post. Go to the WordCamps in Denver this month. Learn and then blog on!

Finding your niche? Are you a writer. musician, singer, reader? Blog about your wish list. Blog about your goals. Blog about your frustrations. It’s ok to blog about your business and the struggles you face.

Recently, I wanted to change jobs. But when you are nearing retirement, you are choosing to step out of a great job (I am anyway) into something with less benefits. So, I have to pray about it, maybe fast a few meals, seek advice from godly people I know, and make a decision based on the pros and cons of changing jobs.

Blog on! I must keep a pace with my books and my writing. How are you doing with your business and daily challenges? Rest in the Lord. Read the book of Hebrews in the Holy Bible. Rest is a priority for blogging, for working, for improvement. Blog on and rest in the Lord.