Official Website of Trynda E. Adair

Month: March 2017

Update – 26/03/2017

https://youtu.be/PGy61mUncUk

Hello everyone, wanted to bring you a video giving you an update on what I’m working on and what’s coming up for camp NaNoWriMo in April.

I just finished up SPQR today and I’m really glad that I read it. The last page of the epilogue that Mary Beard wrote was amazing to say the least.

I’m gonna be moving on to Gone Girl in a little bit here in April. Also, during April, I’m going to be writing a novel during camp NaNoWriMo. The novel I’m gonna be writing is called Time to Let go and it’s a suspense retelling of the Tristan and his old fable from Keltic legends. So, I’m really excited for that.

I’ve been working on my universe bible for camp NaNoWriMo that is my story book which has my outline in it, I have character sheets for all my major players, this one still has to be filled out, that’s my last thing to do for this and I also have setting sheets. So, with this binder or my story bible as I like to call it, I can kind of have a jumping off point and have a little bit of an idea of my settings and my characters when I’m going in. So, it’s kind of meet in the middle for planing and pantsing. Also with my story binder, I have my author tool kit and that has just pens and my smart pen and flags, wide out , Change of ink, basically anything that I might need that I don’t have to worry about whether or not I can keep writing.

So, with camp NaNoWriMo coming up, I’m not gonna have the time to work on On Fallen wings, so I’m going to be putting that on the back burner until after April. I’m about a quarter of the way through the first edit, it’s going pretty well, I had to cut one scene and I rewrote two others and the beginning flows a lot better than It did originally. So, we’re making ground work. During the month of March, I entered the short fiction break short story contest and I entered my story Inhuman Bonds, we got a chance to work shop and critique our short stories before they got entered so, I got some really good feedback from that. Right now, the stories are going through a judging process but you can go and leave a vote for your favorite and I will leave a link down below so you can go and check that out.

You can also get Revival Prologue free and that is the short story I wrote back in 2011 I believe, originally. You can also get Episode one now for ebooks and I will leave the link down below as well. During camp NaNoWriMo, I’m going to be switching to more of a vlog format and I’m doing this because I don’t think I’ll have the time to edit more method and tape videos while I’m drafting Time to let go. If you want to check out my method videos, I’m going to link a few of them at the end of the video and I’ll also put a few cards on the side so you can check those out.

If you like this video, make sure to like and subscribe to my channel to get more like them. I’m going to be doing a little bit of a different format with the vlog after that, it will return to normal with tips and tricks that I usually do for my writing. Head over to my Patreons for behind the scenes look at what I’m working on in April and also my other work in progress on fallen wings. I’d also like to hear what you guys are doing for camp NaNoWriMo or what you’re working on currently if you’re not participating in camp NaNoWriMo. You can leave a comment down below or you can contact me on any of my social media.

I’ll make sure to link them in the description as well and I will talk to you guys later.

Current Reading: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkqBCQWGK1stSgKczS3b2cHGJssuShDcs
The Bookbag | SPQR & Gone Girl: https://youtu.be/n6I3AwhuWYQ

Camp NaNoWriMo camper info: http://campnanowrimo.org/campers/skyedwards

Short Fiction Break April Contest: http://shortfictionbreak.com/spring-17/
Inhuman Bonds: http://shortfictionbreak.com/inhuman-bonds/

Details about a free copy of Revival (Prologue): http://authortryndaadair.ca/material.php?id=4

Get Revival (Episode 1 ): https://www.books2read.com/u/mgK6RR

Official Website: http://authortryndaadair.ca/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TryndaEAdair/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TryndaEAdair
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TryndaEAdair/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5575169.Trynda_Adair

Go Not Gently by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Artist: http://audionautix.com/

Method to my Madness | Author Website Tips

https://youtu.be/Fj2Nle1X0kc

Hi everyone, Trynda here.

Today, I wanted to bring you a video about web design since I went through college to be a web developer. I thought maybe it would be good to give some tips to writers trying to make their website for the first time.

So, I’m going to go to my website now and show you some things that I think might help someone who’s designing their website. So, I will see you there.

Ok. So, I’m here on my home page and this is probably what I would say is your most important page just because this is what everyone is going to see the first time they come here.

One thing you want to make sure you have is a nice big picture of yourself just so people see your face first and foremost because this is the you that you’re trying to sell.

Another thing you want to make sure you’re not doing is having a big wall of text. This is similar to how you would write a book blurb, you want to break it up into smaller by size chunks so they can get through it and digest it a little easier. I’ve put my tweets down below since that is my most active social media site, and also got my Bookbag just because I talk about my books and what I’m reading quite often. You could also put a Newsfeed or something else like that down just to give people a little bit more current up to date news about what’s going on with you and your writing. That’s something you can’t do, you don’t have to do, it’s all up to you what you put on your homepage but the one thing you want to make sure you have is a nice big picture of yourself and you want to make sure that you’re not putting a wall of text on your home page for people.

The next thing I’ll touch on is navigation. You don’t want to be making your website hard for people to go through. So, one example of this is my publications. I have a list of everything that’s been published so far but then, I also have pages for that individual item. So, instead of making people go to publications and then clicking to say Episode 1, they can just go and go straight to it from the menu. They don’t have to go and jump through hoops to get to that page. That goes for your homepage and your other pages as well. You want to be making people go to your publications page to get to Episode 1 when you can do that the same way with just inserting a link. It’s small things like that that make the usability of your website a lot better for people when they’re coming to read things. Another area you’re definitely going to want to have is something talking about your work. This could be anything from having a sample chapter displaying what you’ve worked on, I have my short stories and eventually, my novels will go up here as well. And I also have a paragraph talking about the novel that I’m currently working on, a novel I’m going to be working on and something that I haven’t actually completed.

So, I have a little bit of a broad scope in this but you could go into detail as little or as much as you want, it’s all up to what you want to put on your page but you should have something talking about your work just for people who aren’t following you on YouTube or Twitter and aren’t aware of what you’re working on.

The other thing I’m going to touch briefly on is if you have a blog. I don’t have a blog since I do YouTube but for those of you who do have blogs and you’re looking for a way to integrate it into your website properly, I suggest having a tab that links to it if it’s on a separate website but if you can’t, try and integrate it into your website itself. One thing with the internet is that people have very short attention spans so, the second someone has to click outside of your website, or go and search and search for something, you’ve already lost that reader. So, that’s something to keep in mind when you’re building that website. You want to keep people engaged on your site and not forcing them to go somewhere else.

The last thing I’m going to talk about is theme. You may have noticed that between my pages, I have a common theme that kind of translates between all of them and that’s a darker more historical feeling. And that’s because of the genres I write in, I’ve specifically made this website to reflect that. One thing I’ve noticed some authors doing is changing their theme depending on what book they’ve released, if it’s a romance, they’ll have more of a romance theme to their website, if it’s fantasy, they’ll have more of a fantasy theme to it or they’ll have the cover art even on the back of their website. That is something I’ve noticed but it all depends on how you implement it. I would say that it’s good to change it up every now and again, maybe every two to three years would be a good idea to change up how your website looks just so it’s fresh and it doesn’t feel out of date.

So, to close up this video, I’m just going to give you a few other quick tips that you can implement even if you’ve already got a website and maybe this is some stuff you’re lacking. Some things to keep in mind is to make sure you have social media at the top and bottom of your pages just so of someone scrolls all the way to the bottom looking at your content, they have a way to get to other pages without having to go all the way back to the top. One thing you also want to do is make sure you have a Contact Me page or a Contact form of some sort. I don’t have a whole page dedicated to it, I have just one little form, just to save space on my website and make it a little cleaner. Another thing you want to make sure you’ve got on your website is this main logo here and that could be your name or your logo for your publishing company. It really depends on how you make your website but this should be there. So, someone always sees whose website they’re on and this image should always link back to your homepage because that’s just a standard thing that every website has these days and that is something that you should be conscious of when you’re making your website.

So, that’s it for now guys. I’m going to put a link down below for a website that compares between Wix, Squarespace and WordPress and a few others so, if you’re not as code savvy as I am, you’re still able to create a website that works for you. If you’d like to share your own experiences or give some tips that I didn’t cover in this video, feel free to leave them down below in the comments.

If you like what you saw, make sure to leave a like and subscribe to my channel for more videos and I will talk to you guys later. 

Go Not Gently by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Artist: http://audionautix.com/

Trynda’s Bookbag | SPQR & Gone Girl

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Hi everyone.

Trynda here, Wanted to bring you a video about what I’m reading right now.

Usually, what I read is related to what I’m working on and in the past, I was reading books about Ancient Rome because I was writing a novella about couple of vampires that were making their way through it.

I’ve recently put it on the back burner but I’m still going to finish up this book that I’m reading right now which is SPQR by Mary Beard.

It’s a book about Ancient Rome obviously, and it’s been pretty good.

I’ve really enjoyed reading it.

When I found this book, I had to read it because I knew that she was very good at balancing what was familiar and what was not familiar when she was talking about stuff in her documentaries.

So, for anyone who’s researching Ancient Rome, I definitely recommend checking out some of her stuff.

Simon Clarke did a pretty good video about the summary and kind of what SPQR is about so, I’ll link it up here and down below as well so you can go and have a look at that.

I’m about halfway done SPQR but I’m going to be starting Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn in a little bit here for Camp NaNoWriMo and what I’m writing during that.

I’ve been wanting to read Gone Girl ever since I saw the movie a few years back so, I thought now, since I’m going to write a suspense, that it would be a good a time as any.

So, that’s it for now guys.

If you like this video, make sure to leave a like and if you want to see more like it, make sure you subscribe and turn on notifications so you’ll always get an update on when I’m doing videos.

I’m going to be making an update video soon so, if you have any comments or questions, feel free to leave them down below and I will get some in that video.

If you’re looking for more extras, I’m putting updates up on my social media and I always have new stuff going up on my Patreon so, go ahead and check it out if you haven’t already.

I’ll talk to you guys later.

Simon Clark’s SPQR video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfVjU6YKsc8&index=1&t=48s&list=WL

Go Not Gently by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Artist: http://audionautix.com/

Method to my Madness | Outlining

https://youtu.be/4kLqNEhdxmo

Hey everyone, Trynda here.

With Camp NanNoWriMo around the corner in April, I figured I’d bring you a video on outlining and how I go about doing mine.

As you know from my newbie video, I am planser so, what I use is a worksheet that I found on a writer’s digest a few years ago and I use it kind of as a template so I can get my ideas down and see if I’m missing anything or creating potholes that I may run into a little later.

So, I’m going to go ahead and show you on my computer what that outline looks like and I will see you in a bit. For this outline that I’m doing today, I picked the The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe just for the fact that most people have either seen the movie or read the book so they’ll know what’s going on in the scenes that I’m talking about.

If you want a closer look at this outline, I’m going to put up for my Patreon so, keep an eye out for that if you’re interested.

This outline structure is a three act structures so basically, what that means is you have your beginning, middle and end in the three acts. In the first two acts, you have your attention in your action rising and then in the third act, you have your climax where everything boils over and the resolution where everything ties up shortly after but this type of outline I found it works well for most stories but ultimately, it will come down to what story you want to tell and how you want to tell it.

The way that I do this outline is I often start with what’s easiest or what comes to mind first. Usually, I’ll start with the hook or the inciting incident. The initial incident is often the first plot point that you have in your story and this is what grabs the reader’s attention and keeps them moving forward and reading the story. After the initial hook or incident, you have the turning point and this is where the protagonist gets dragged into the next act. Often times, they’ll be resistant, trying to run away from this and you’ll just have to keep them pulled in.

The next big thing we have to consider is the midpoint reversal. This is in the middle of Act two and it’s the incident that changes the direction of the story so what that midpoint reversal would do in terms of changing the direction is often making the protagonists go from reactive to proactive. So, instead of running away from their problems, they’re going to be facing them head on and trying to find a way to fix them instead of hoping they would fix themselves. Sometimes, you’ll hear about a “saggy middle”, and often this can come from not having a mid-point reversal to drag your plot into the second turning point and keep your reader engaged.

So, the second turning point is the next major plot point and it’s what often moves the characters in the story into Act three. So, in act three, we have the final obstacle and this is where the protagonist has to overcome something in order to get to the climax. Now that we’re at the climax, this is where the height of the action takes place, where shit hits the fan or the giant battle takes place and then after that, you have the resolution.

This is where any loose ends or subplots get tied up into a ending that is satisfying for the reader. So, some things to remember is that you can always add, remove or change things as you need to.

If there’s something you don’t know or sure about, you can always skip it and go back to it later or just not include it if you feel like it. This outline isn’t meant to be constricting in any way so, don’t feel like you have to have add tons of details. I always add as little or as much as I want to add for any particular aspect of it. There is even a few times where I’ve gone back, I think, and added a line or two thinking that it wasn’t enough later on.

So, that’s it for now guys if you liked what you saw, hit the like button. If you have any comments or questions feel free to leave them in the comments section, and if you want to see more videos, hit the subscribe button down below and I will talk to you guys later.

Writer’s Digest worksheets: http://www.writersdigest.com/writing-articles/by-writing-goal/write-first-chapter-get-started/novel-in-30-days-2011

At-A-Glance Outline: http://www.writersdigest.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/30Days-At-a-Glance-Outline.pdf

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Outline Completed: https://www.patreon.com/posts/8343847

Go Not Gently by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Artist: http://audionautix.com/