Ink in the Book

Buy it now! Tell all your friends. Be nice. She's the judge for the contest! Visit here. Sharon Bayliss Or here. Krystal Wade

It's here! Are you ready to read?  The contest has arrived and below you will find my query letter and the first 500 words of my novel, ONLY ONE TIME. Please leave a comment!! QUERY LETTER DELETED BY AUTHOR 500 WORDS DELETED BY AUTHOR

Great books have great characters and these characters need situations to work through. There are times I simply lay on my couch and just think of the most fascinating characters I cannot wait to write a story about them. Sometimes I can think of the best character with lovely descriptions and perfect settings, but that's all. My characters find themselves doing nothing, and my great character dies prematurely. Here's what I do to to bring her back to life. 1. Find Something New. Have you ever wondered how film was developed? (Really? Film? Sure, not all stories take place today, right? Sometimes I enjoy writing historical books:) What a librarian did all day? Or what happens when Wal Mart gets a new shipment in? How does Wal Mart find new clients? What process does the police department take when booking a new criminal? What goes in to making a movie? Casting a movie? Writing a script? Learning new things and the way things work is a great way to discover new situations f...

When developing your character you need situations for your character to work through. Plot development and character situations really mean about the same thing and without plot to move your character forward, you have no story. So how do you develop unique, intriguing problems for your character to work through? Here's a list to get your creative inspiration moving in the right direction. 1. Role Play As a child, we did this all the time. We were firemen, princesses, doctors, soldiers, detectives, and spies. We could be anything we wanted and it was the best fun as a child. Remember? An easy way to add to the plot is to become someone else. Build a spaceship and fly into outer space. Battle the aliens. Escape capture or rescue your buddy. Spend an afternoon shooting hoops, baking cakes and cookies, trying on dress after dress. Pretend you are part of a group of gypsies. Become your character for the day and watch the ideas explode. It works. I have tried it! 2. Read. Read....

Make sure you tell all of your friends about the contest. The winner may receive a publishing contract!!I'm so excited! And join in our Blog Hop. Here is the "linky" for the blog Hop on the new contest. Please take the time to visit these other blogs. 3 Days!!!

I have one more exciting story to share with you and then I will get back to character development. I am entering a contest that must include a Query letter and the first 500 words of my book. The winner(s) of the contest will receive a full request from Curiosity Quills! The contest is for a YA novel and this will be the first of this type of contest I have entered. I'm excited, but nervous, too. Visit the rules for the contest here. at Sharon Bayliss and her blog. I will be posting my entry on the 25th of May so please keep a look out and make sure visit on the 25th. The contest is open to comments and I need all the help I can get!  See you on the 25th! Talynn

It's party time!!! Hello everyone! Boy, have I got some news for you! I'm so excited! Ink in the Book will begin hosting a series of Virtual Blog Tours with our first party starting in June. These tours are going to be amazing. The authors that will be featured will be represented for one whole week and each day will be something different. We will have author interviews, tips and ideas, book projects and reports, pictures, trivia, blurbs, give-away items and prizes and so much more. What a party we have planned! If you are an author with a newly published book or a brand new release on the horizon and would like to be featured during Ink in the Book's Virtual Blog Tour and Book Review, please contact me at inkinthebook@gmail.com I can't wait to hear from you! Talynn

A good way to cure lack of ideas is to look at pictures. This can fuel your creativity and offer ideas you may have never thought of before. So today, I am posting some of my favorite pictures/photos/graphics. Do any of these pictures excite your creativity or imagination? Leave a comment!

I wanted to let everyone know that I have decided to enter my very first writing contest. The judge for the contest is Lauren Ruth and she has a blog at www.slushpiletales.wordpress.com I have been pouring over her blog this month! The contest guidelines can be found at Writers Digest Dear Lucky Agent The contest ends in two days with the results being announced in about three weeks. I will keep everyone posted and updated as my fate hangs in the balance....:)

When I read a book with riveting characters and the sequel finally hits the market, reading book two often feels like I am meeting a group of old friends again after a long interlude. People want to read about characters and many readers fall in love or hate with the characters inside the pages of a book. I have often read books that lacked a good plot but I finished the book anyway. Why? Because the characters were interesting. I became mentally involved with the characters as if they were real. These characters drew me into the book and I could not stop caring for them. I was not satisfied until I made it to the end of the book and learned how my characters turned out from beginning to end. Here is a tip I use: When developing my characters, I write about them like I know them. In other words, I imagine the people in my book have been long time friends, or enemies, and I know them well enough to help my readers know them. How can you write about a character if you have neve...

Designing characters is like designing a dress. There is a pattern you start with but you are free add lace, replace buttons with a zipper, and use a different type of fabric than what the pattern calls for in the directions. Feel free to subtract inches and in-seams if necessary. Use elastic instead of string. It's your dress! Follow the pattern, but improvise! Have you created a character? Have you given him or her a problem? Okay, the next thing in designing a character is to make sure your character has a very gripping and compelling need. The kind of need you give your character may change before the story ends, but without a need that drives your character forward, the will be no need to have a story. And the need may be different than the problem he or she must work through. Or it may be the same. Shae has a compelling need. She has several, really, but from the beginning, her need is to find out where she is and more importantly, remember who she is. I have decided ...