Chad Grayson

writing

More Self-Publishing Questions Answered

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My last post went over the basics of how Self-publishing works. But there are a lot of other things you need to make decisions about. Here are some things you need to think about when you start your self-publishing journey. What’s an ISBN Anyway? An ISBN (International Standard Book Number) is the identifier your book will carry in various retail systems. It’s how the system identifies it. You need one […]

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How I Plot

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I often tell the story that I was unable to complete a book satisfactorily until 2019 when I first learned to plot. A lot of writers are allergic to this advice, thinking having a plot will kill their desire to write their story. This might be true for them, but there are also diverse levels of plotting, from detailed scene plans to a rough sketch of what you want to

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The State of Things

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            I’ve been doing a deep dive into worldbuilding lately because that’s where I identified I most needed to level up. And I have so many ideas for worlds, characters, and stories that the hard part is realizing that I can’t do everything at once, and I know from experience that I can’t draft more than one book at a time. So, I used my favorite coping strategy, making a

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What We Talk About When We Talk About Writer’s Block

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Whenever I see a list of questions people have for working writers, ‘How do you get over writer’s block?’ is near the top. I understand why this is such a common question. A lot of people seem to deal with this issue, and until I figured out my process, it happened to me a lot. Writer’s block can be a lot of things. For me, it was happening because I

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My Favorite Craft Books

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                I’ve read a lot of writing craft books over the course of my life, and I thought it would be interesting to talk about my favorites. In general, I don’t like books that are very proscriptive. The ones who give you one correct path you must follow to accomplish your goal. The best ones help you think about things in new ways, and help you put your work

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Preview of Curse of the Onyx Heart

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Tilii Eldarion rarely ventured into the human district, but this morning he had a reason. One of the library’s patrons, a certain Mister Edgerton Sharpe, had a rare book he wanted to donate to the collection. He was house-bound due to an injury to his legs, and Librarian Silverthorn hadn’t wanted to trust this errand to a messenger, so Tilii, her trusted assistant, had been dispatched. Tilii didn’t mind. If

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The 5 Stages of an Author’s Career

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The other day my writing group was discussing a post by Dean Wesley Smith, about five levels in a writer’s life. It was focused on their skill level, and while I found it valid, it also didn’t speak much to me. I started thinking about the various levels there are to a writer’s actual career (and I use the term loosely). There are five distinct stages to this, with a

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Flight of Ideas

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A lot of people like to ask writers, and other creative types, ‘Where do you get your ideas?’ And that is, in many ways, the wrong question. I, like many other writers, have a thousand ideas before breakfast (to plagiarize Lewis Carroll). Coming up with ideas is not the problem. At least, it’s not the problem the way the people who are asking about it mean it. Ideas kind of

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Blade of Shadows, Wings of Light Preview

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here is a preview from Blade of Shadows, Wings of Light. The book is available now in ebook and paperback. Get it here. There was no safety to be had. Weaving in and out of the struggling mass of people were two tall figures. They were dressed in dark armor, with spiky helms fitted to their heads. They looked like refugees from a fantasy movie. They seemed unaffected by whatever

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Cover Reveal: Blade of Shadows, Wings of Light

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In the final stages of getting this book uploaded, but for now here is the cover and blurb for the giant urban fantasy novel, the first book in a new series. Who—or what—is Jack Bainbridge? Jack Bainbridge thinks he’s just an ordinary college student, studying to be a teacher. But if that’s true, why have the Reaper of Strife and his warriors come to capture him? Rescued by a Holy

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