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Darc_Requiem

By Darc_Requiem
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  • 3 weeks later...
Darc_Requiem Level 20

Darc_Requiem

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On 10/9/2020 at 6:33 PM, Makrow said:

Any news of an official release date? I like supporting up and coming authors especially if it sounds like something I'd read.

Oh, I forgot to tag you. February 1st.  So anyone else doing some writing? I saw a few of your that encouraged me along the way, much appreciate BTW, were thinking of writing. I saw do it. Whether I succeed or fail, the fact that I actually wrote a book is something I'm proud of. Now I just have to promise you all a sequel and keep pushing back the expected release date. Then I'll be a real author 😉 Now, in my infinite "wisdom", I'm sort of writing two at the same time. Granted it's in the same universe but I'd like to touch on parts of the world were mentioned of barely skimmed over. I figure I'll bounce between it and the sequel. This gives me something to write that doesn't require me to constantly make sure I'm not breaking continuity. I hate that so, I'm going try and NOT be a hypocrite, and keep mine as tight as possible. Wait, have to do my author thing. Let me give a "firm" release date for my next book 👀

 

  • Chronicles of Elos: Reverberations of War - Coming 4Qth 2021 😉 
  • Chronicles of Elos: Shifting Sands of Zoaz - TBD

As the winking face indicates, that release date ain't happening. It's getting done whenever I'm done. I have better chance at doing more 225lb bench press reps than my brother than hitting that date.

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Darc_Requiem Level 20

Darc_Requiem

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7 hours ago, Angel said:

All of the above lol.  

I'm going to have to answer that when I get off work. That'll probably be after 6 EST. The TLDR is, and this part will be no help, characters and settings come to me. The character first the details of their environment. This is for original characters. Something not based on an existing IP. 

 

Something based in an existing IP is different. I'll usually target something I feel is overlooked or underrepresented. That's how I approached most of my original Street Fighter characters. This will be off the top, I haven't read his origin in a while so this will lack detail. One of my first SF characters was Rhonwen Van Zandt. SF lacks characters from Africa. So I had very general setting to start with. I ended up going with South Africa. I decided I wanted a mixed character.  So I researched South Africa. I found were a large portion of the European population came from. The Dutch Boers stuck out to me. So his father would be Dutch. I wanted his name to show his dual origins. I looked up South African given names and Dutch surnames. Hence Rhonwen Van Zandt.

 

Now I had to think of how he would fight. Typically SF characters use a martial art tied to their homeland. This was the hardest part. The number of arts and the information on them was subpar. The art I found, Obnu Bilate, has scant details available for it in particular. IIRC it was based on Savate and grappling/wrestling. So I researched those arts and constructed Obnu Bilate as best as I could. So I essentially combined those two arts to build it. I based his teacher on the arts founder. I based the names of his move set around native animals. Snakes from my recollection. Since two philosophies made up Obnu Bilate, I made him a "stance" character. One Savate form and one Grappling form. 

 

I used Bison's predilection for kidnapping athletics teen girls to give him a reason to compete. He's looking for his younger sister. Hmm....sort of went on rant. So much for work. Does any of this help. Typing this on my cell phone was bit arduous. 😉

 

Edit: Forgot something important. For all the old SRK heads. :tldr:

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Darc_Requiem Level 20

Darc_Requiem

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@AngelNow that I'm home I've had time to think more about my original stories. Even when I look at my book. I still took my characters and constructed the world around them. One of my characters has a unique lineage. As I thought about him and his parents, I got the idea to carry that alliance of sorts over to their peoples as a whole. It was at that point that thought about their countries being located in a northern and colder region. That snowballed into why that was. A lot of the back bone of what I wrote came from just thinking about how to flesh out a single character's origin. 

 

A few of my book characters are based on characters I created in my youth. When I was playing MMOs, Everquest 2 in particular, I really liked the feed back I received for the origins of my characters and how interwove multiple characters together. I carried a lot that over to my book, however I had to come up with a setting and lore of my own. For somethings like names I try to have some sort of consistency amongst people with shared ethnicities. When you ask about research, sometimes I draw from real world groups of people. One of my favorite parts of my SF characters was looking of the names of various nationalities. That actually carried over, at least in small part, to my book. Granted, I have a habit of just using, at least with given names, the first thing that comes to mind. I may modify or change to fit my pre-existing conventions if I feel it sticks out to much. Since the setting of my book isn't Earth, I made a point to stay away from common names or spell names based on actual given names differently or with a slight variation. In some cases I would swap out vowels for others.

 

I'm not sure what type of writing you like to do. I feel, and this could be completely off base, you should try to avoid mimicking other writers if possible. For good or for ill, I wrote my book without looking at other works in similar genres. Not saying that it wasn't influenced at all. Things I've read or seen surely influenced what I came up with but I wanted to develop my own style. To do that I felt I had to stay away from other works of a similar vain. Initially I was going to read other books with similar themes after I finished my book. Then I was going to go back and tweak things that I felt were "wrong." However I decided against it. What I wrote may be terrible but it's what I created. I'd rather write something that's mine that ill conceived than lean to much on the style and narrative story telling of others. 

 

Honestly, I feel writing things based on an existing property is far easier. At least for me. The rules, lore, character personalities, etc. are already predefined. Sure there is a challenge in trying to make sure what you write is consistent with creator but that's a lot easier than creating your own work and trying to keep a clear and concise set of rules. That, more than even grammar and spelling, are what I fear the most in terms of how my book turned out. :tldr:

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Darc_Requiem Level 20

Darc_Requiem

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Damn, I lost track of time trying to get my book on Amazon. Thought it would be a breeze since I had everything formatted for Barnes & Noble. Nope, I had to reformate everything. Their paperback 6x9 books and B&N's are slightly different. Took me a while to figure out the cover situation. I found B&N's more intuitive but I finally got that part straight. It took the longest. That said, the ebook setup is much easier on Amazon which honestly makes sense now that I think about it. If I had to do it all over again, I would have made my ebook exclusive to Amazon for 90 days for the free promotion. I'll do that next time if I ever get this sequel done.

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Mattatsu Level 14

Mattatsu

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3 minutes ago, Darc_Requiem said:

Guess who's on Amazon now. 

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08W3DZMPH/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=chronicles+of+elos&qid=1612624072&sr=8-1

 

Well the eBook. The paperback is still going through the approval process.

I remembered this morning that I wanted to buy this, to support but I also want to read your work.

 

Out of Amazon (physical and electronic) or Barnes & Noble (or whoever the other supplier is, sorry, I’m on my phone now so it blocks out signatures) do you get the same profit from all versions, or does one give you a bit extra dough?

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Darc_Requiem Level 20

Darc_Requiem

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Although I prefer physical copies personally, I make the most on digital. It was 65/35 split in my favor at B&N. Amazon had a 70/30 split and Barnes & Noble changed their pay out to match. I get $6.99 per digital copy on both sites. I get about about $5.00 per paperback on Amazon. $4.16 on B&N and $4.09 per Hard Cover at B&N. Physical books at Amazon have a 60/40 split minus printing costs. B&N has a 55/45 spit minus printing costs. So even though my paperback has the same sell price at both sites. I get more from Amazon. The split is 5% higher and the printing cost are a little cheaper. 

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Mattatsu Level 14

Mattatsu

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Nice! Sorry, i should have asked this before, but other than the money you get, is there any benefits to selling certain versions from certain retailers (things such as tracking  or stats or anything like that)?

 

i guess, ultimately, my question is if you have a preference as to which copies sell the most lol

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  • 6 months later...
  • 2 months later...
DoctaMario Level 17

DoctaMario

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Was reading Chuck Pahlaniuk's Substack and he talked about clocks and guns as literary devices. Not necessarily literal guns and clocks, but essentially the solution to a problem and the promise that a climax will be reached. He's been doing a bunch of instructional stuff for writers so if youre looking for tips from one of the best check it out. 

 

https://chuckpalahniuk.substack.com/p/try-this-guns-vs-clocks

 

Edited by DoctaMario
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  • 9 months later...
Emptyeyes_ Level 11

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Wow. A nice and inspirational topic. I've first had to do some voice over courses to understand this on a basic level and do some evolving from there. With fictional characters of a script, you become that character and analyze improvements on their storylines as you go. I tend to like reading about antagonistic or antihero characters. The same is when I practice singing the vocals or tune lyrics based on the negative side of humanity of my favorite song artists.

 

Usually, my auditions ends with playing roles of evil  or dismal characters, so my acting is unbalanced. I'd like to balance that out one day. Auditions of good characters were always a flat outcome. 😆 

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DoctaMario Level 17

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1 hour ago, Emptyeyes_ said:

Wow. A nice and inspirational topic. I've first had to do some voice over courses to understand this on a basic level and do some evolving from there. With fictional characters of a script, you become that character and analyze improvements on their storylines as you go. I tend to like reading about antagonistic or antihero characters. The same is when I practice singing the vocals or tune lyrics based on the negative side of humanity of my favorite song artists.

 

Usually, my auditions ends with playing roles of evil  or dismal characters, so my acting is unbalanced. I'd like to balance that out one day. Auditions of good characters were always a flat outcome. 😆 

If I'm reading you right, it's because heroes/good guys are usually fairly one dimensional in terms of motivation and purpose. The villains are usually the most interesting because their motivations aren't always obvious or are at least more interesting. The few acting roles I had were bad guys, and I'd imagine playing good guy/hero characters would get kind of boring if those were mostly the types of characters you played .

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Emptyeyes_ Level 11

Emptyeyes_

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45 minutes ago, DoctaMario said:

If I'm reading you right, it's because heroes/good guys are usually fairly one dimensional in terms of motivation and purpose. The villains are usually the most interesting because their motivations aren't always obvious or are at least more interesting. The few acting roles I had were bad guys, and I'd imagine playing good guy/hero characters would get kind of boring if those were mostly the types of characters you played .

I guess you would be half right in combination to other reasons. Toxicity growing up, it's generally what I've always known mostly. However, my mother at the time when she was alive, she was the only one i knew that was about kindness at the time, but us both didn't have a favorable outcome on that path. However, she took that disappointment way better than i did. Even though, before she went into a coma before she died, she asked me a day before she went into a coma, she asked "what was her purpose in life"?  An agonizing question to say the least.

 

I think about 40 years of trauma and other negativity really have me gravitate to corrupt persona on the set at times. I just feel the psychological reasoning on these characters and songs that's based on depresseion.

 

I honestly long to understand good roles. It's felt. I understand little of it, due to personal experiences.

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  • 10 months later...
Darc_Requiem Level 20

Darc_Requiem

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I've looked at my second book for the first time in ages. Sample of the last chapter I wrote for anyone that is curious.

 

Edit: It was almost a year. When I looked at the file the last update was 10/22/22. I read through the first three chapters. I'm actually a better writer than I thought. The gap in time almost makes it like you are reading someone else's work. It actually appreciate that perspective.

 

Spoiler

Chapter 6

 

            At the docks of Veredan, work has come to a halt. The eyes of all the sailors and dock workers are affixed on the horizon. A group of ships sail toward the port. There are seven ships in total. Six of the ships surround the seventh in a hexagonal formation. The bow and stern of that ship are each guarded by a pair of frigates while the starboard and port sides have one defender each. The frigates at the bow slowly part. The center ship sails past them allowing the large sail bearing the seal of House Z’Affir on its mast to be seen.

            Deinov stands at the front of the ship's deck. He eyes the Veredan skyline with a look of curiosity. A familiar voice calls to him. “Enjoying the view?” Deinov turns away from the encroaching shoreline. He sees Asidio standing with her arms folding. Deinov looks over Asidio smirking as he replies. “Yes, it's quite stunning.” Asidio tilts her head. She audibly exhales while narrowing her eyes at Deinov. He continues to smirk. “Was it something I said?” Asidio shakes her head. She looks past Deinov at Veredan. “The architecture is very similar to Vekinsal's.” Deinov nods. “I'm not surprised. Elven architecture evolves at a slow pace.” Asidio looks Deinov is in the eyes. “We have quite the task ahead of us. Are you ready for this love?” Deinov’s jovial demeanor is quickly supplanted by a serious one. “As ready as we can be considering the circumstances. Information on the Eiryssan Commonwealth isn’t easy to come by.” Asidio takes a deep breath. Her eyes remain trained on Veredan. Deinov’s face shows a slight bit concern. “What weighs on you Asidio?” She responds while never taking her eyes off the city. “I wonder how we will be received. We will be the first Vekinsali most of these people have seen.” Deinov takes Asidio by the hand. She turns and looks up at him. He smiles. “Diplomacy will be Princess Xenica's problem. If things go awry, they'll quickly learn that we are not to be trifled with. Asidio nods in agreement. “True enough. And as much as I would like to test their mettle, I hope it is unnecessary.” A voice calls out from behind them. “There ya are. The princess wishes to speak with us before we dock.” Asidio quickly pulls her hand away from Deinov as the couple turns to face the voice. Valya chuckles at Asidio. Asidio's eyes faintly glow red. Deinov sighs. “Valya, please don't antagonize...” Valya pouts as she interjects. “I didn't say anything D.” Asidio looks up at the two of them. “We should not keep Princess Xenica waiting.” Asidio briskly walks away. Deinov gives Valya a disapproving glance. She shrugs at him, and the pair follow Asidio below deck.

 

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Darc_Requiem Level 20

Darc_Requiem

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Hmmm...I'm seriously considering writing again. It would break up the monotony of my life. Although it sound relaxing now, once I start writing and have to keep going back to reference guide to keep the continuity straight, I'm sure I'll change my mind. Maybe I need take my fat ass to the gym or something. 

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DoctaMario Level 17

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On 10/24/2023 at 3:28 PM, Darc_Requiem said:

Hmmm...I'm seriously considering writing again. It would break up the monotony of my life. Although it sound relaxing now, once I start writing and have to keep going back to reference guide to keep the continuity straight, I'm sure I'll change my mind. Maybe I need take my fat ass to the gym or something. 

Writing every day IS like going to the gym for your writing skills. And if you take breaks, it's easier to get back to where you were before the break or just come out of breaks at a higher level in general

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