Sketches, illustrations, quotes, doodles, and comics from my fantasy novel, "Forest", the first book in the Forest Stories series that I am going to self-publish. It will be available this late spring/early summer. Search this blog for "synopsis" to read the book summary.
Ask anything about myself, my art, writing, or the book series/characters. I'll post your questions and answer them!
©2012 characters, places, and other fictional content, including artwork. I HIGHLY ENCOURAGE REBLOGGING as long as you leave the copyright symbol/any info I include with the post =) Thank you.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
ELEMENTAL PORTRAIT: WHISPER OF THE WIND
Here’s one of my latest elemental portrait commissions! I charge $25-30 for these, and will create them in the likeness of anyone you can get me a reference photo of, including fictional characters. Please contact me for more info!
WEEKEND ART UPDATE:
Avery stained glass illustration, done in the style of LoZ: Wind Waker
Check out the full blog post: http://silverwatermist.wordpress.com/2013/06/09/forest-stained-glass-windwaker-style/
The Forest Stories on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TheForestStories
FRIDAY QUOTATIONS: QUOTES OF ENCOURAGEMENT
I went through old conversations and comments and memories to retrieve these quotes of people saying things about Forest. No matter how much I love this book and my future ideas for the next ones, there will always be days where I stop myself and think, “I’m insane. What am I doing? This is crazy. This is never going to work.” I made this for those days. I plan on making a digital version too, one a little more neat and stylized, to use as a screensaver or something.
To everyone who’s ever been discouraged: I challenge you to make one of these for yourself. If you’ve shown your work, regardless of what it is, to your friends or shared it on a site, collect all the positive feedback and arrange it together somewhere where you can see it. Even if you haven’t shared your work, every time you get one of those moments where you say to yourself, “I love this part” or “this came out great” or “now I remember why I’m doing this”, WRITE DOWN YOUR THOUGHTS. KEEP THEM, COLLECT THEM, LOOK AT THEM WHEN YOU GET DISCOURAGED! <3
Fat girl problems.: Hey every one! i have an announcement! im open for commissions and i...
Hey every one! i have an announcement! im open for commissions and i have a donation button! i hate to make it like im begging for money, but things are a bit tight. and im currently looking for a night job.
Any way commission prices are
Sketch (pencil) $5.00
inked and colored (digital)
…
If you like cute art and have cash to spare, help out my lovely friend! Spread the word!
WRITING TIP #1: FORMATTING
I’ll be doing a series of these every Wednesday as a part of my new upload schedule. Today’s writing tip (or guide I guess, since it got a bit long) is all about formatting. Here on tumblr I’ll be posting a major snippet, for those who just want a quicker read. The full thing (with more information and examples) can be viewed on my wordpress blog.
· JUSTIFY YOUR TEXT: This is the number one problem I see. Justification makes both the left side and right side of the text align, making it look cleaner and far more professional. When you start a new word document, your text is usually left aligned by default. Some people argue that left aligned text is easier to read since each line has a different length, and thus you can better keep track of which one you’re on. Even if that holds true for you personally, it still ends up looking sloppy outside of particular cases where there are design reasons for it (such as in graphic design or poetry). It might distract or irk people you share your work with.
· CONSIDER LINE SPACING: Line spacing is how far apart each line of writing is from the ones above it and below. For an easy example, think back to the essays you had to write for school that required “double-spacing”; that’s a line spacing of 2.0. This is mostly a personal preference thing and could take a whole article to fully explain, but for a normal novel (not one for children or those with vision problems), you shouldn’t use a line spacing of more than 1.5. Depending on the font, it will probably look childish even at that size. To use line spacing to make your text a bit easier to read, try bumping it up to 1.1, 1.2, or 1.3. For Forest, I use 1.15.
· TABS: This is the other problem I see a lot due to the default settings for Word. At default in Word, your tabs (that is, the space that appears at the front of a line when you press “tab” or start a new line) are set to 0.5 inches. Even if this looks okay on a digital screen, if your essay or book gets printed (even if just for a friend’s benefit) that tabbed indent will look enormous. Try changing the default tabs in Word to 0.25 inches instead. It looks cleaner and more professional.
You can find setting for changing tabs under the “paragraph” window in Word. In the window that pops up you’ll see the “tabs” button in the bottom left corner.
Go here for the full blog post: http://silverwatermist.wordpress.com/2013/06/05/wednesday-writing-tip-1-formatting/
You can also check out the Forest Stories Facebook page, where I’ll post links to these weekly Wednesday writing tips and more. Feel free to request topics for next Wednesday, or give me your feedback/opinion on the tip from this week! =)
Wednesday: Writing Tip
Today I’m going to be posting some writing tips, either things that I’ve learned/realized while editing Forest this past year or articles written by professionals, or reblogs from Tumblr. Every Wednesday I’m going to be doing one slightly longer write-up of a tip and posting it here and on my Wordpress blog. I want to try to focus on things that I’ve put into practice or plan to practice with so that I know what the heck I’m talking about =P
I’m open to taking suggestions or requests, feel free to send them through the Ask Me Something feature! I’ll be reblogging some things today and post my own write-up later on.
If you’re interested in the new weekly schedule for here and my Forest Stories facebook page, you can take a look via this lovely image that I’m using as the timeline cover on the FB page:
The new schedule for uploads on the Forest facebook page. I really want to try to apply this schedule to tumblr too, except for twice-weekly editing updates which will stay on facebook, I think.
Support the Forest Stories on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TheForestStories
Imagine your favorite character barging into your room this moment, grabbing your hand, and taking you with them into their world
ADMIN NOTE: This post has been taken from an article originally created by NovelDoctor.com.
Good Dialogue
The things stated below were not written by me. A friend of mine had found this information and thought that it could be useful for writing. I do not know where the information originally originates from, but all credit goes to them. I’m just trying to make the information available to all who will find it useful.
Simplify Attributions – As much as possible, just use “said” and “asked” and their variations in dialogue scenes. Or use nothing at all when the context makes it unquestionably clear who’s talking. People who bark, spit, grunt, or burp their words need to see a doctor. Or a veterinarian. Clever attributions can divert attention from the dialogue to the attribution itself. You don’t want this to happen. “Trust me,” he puked.
Don’t Be a Puppet Master – In real life, people bring assumptions and prior knowledge to a conversation. This is also true for your fictional characters. Don’t force dialogue through your characters’ throats because you need to tell the reader something. If the information wouldn’t naturally be revealed in the context of the conversation, find another way to deliver it. Your characters aren’t puppets; they’re people. Treat them as such.
Maintain Believable Pacing – Most conversations aren’t like a game of ping-pong, despite how convenient it would be to use ping-pong as a visual metaphor. Unlike ping-pong, the back and forth of conversation is uneven, sometimes dominated by one party, sometimes rapid-fire, sometimes languid. Context should always determine who’s talking and what they’re saying. There is a rhythm to good dialogue, but it’s rarely something you can set your metronome to. Don’t force characters to speak just because you’re uncomfortable with their silence. Always let the moment decide its own pacing.
Avoid Long Monologues - I know. One of your characters is a blowhard. He likes the sound of his voice and this is important to the character development or plot. Let him have his way. But don’t make a habit out of long speeches unless the story requires it. Dialogue usually requires two people. And while one may say little while the other says a lot (see pacing, above), giving characters pages of monological diatribes risks boring the reader. And in my experience, long-winded monologues are frequently evidence of a kind of laziness on the part of the writer. Rather than revealing important information contextually and through creative “show, don’t tell” opportunities, they make their characters dump it on the page for them (see puppet note above).
Kill (Most) Adverbs – Do I need to say it again? Only use adverbs when they actually add something to the dialogue. If it’s clear the character is upset and yelling, you don’t need to add that she’s yelling “loudly.” Yelling is, without further qualification, loud. That said, you might actually find use for adverbs in the dialogue itself. Real people use them in conversation (though not as much as you might think). That’s fine. Just don’t staple them willy-nilly to all your attributions.
Use Contractions – Unless you’re writing a period piece or a novel that otherwise demands the stiff-upper-lippedness of contraction-free speech, please use them without apology. They just sound more natural. This, by the way, holds true not only for dialogue, but also for the rest of your narrative. If you want to challenge this advice, that’s fine. Please have your well-thought-out reasoning notarized by at least three editors who agree with you before presenting it to me. Thanks.
Don’t Give Readers Whiplash – “A lot of newbie authors,” he began, turning to look her mascara-streaked face, “suffer from this malady.” He looked down. “They break up a single piece of dialogue,” he continued, “with so many little ‘asides’ that the reader gets whiplash.” He looked up into her eyes again. “Do you know what I mean?”
There’s a time and place for action in the middle of dialogue, and when done right, that action can greatly enhance a scene. A well-timed look or touch can speak volumes. Just don’t use action to distraction.
Use Dialects Sparingly – Some of the best novels ever written are packed with well-defined characters who speak with dialects that by their very nature reveal a certain level of education or perhaps a country (or region) of origin. Characters with unique or easily-recognizable dialects can add a great deal to a story. However, crafting believable characters with any sort of dialect is no easy task. In part, this is because the dialect you see with your eyes (on the page) has a much different “feel” than a dialect you hear with your ears. In some cases, dialect can detract rather than enhance a story. If your character’s speech is hard to understand (and this isn’t due to an intentional plot point), consider dialing back on dialect. And whenever you do use it, just be sure you’re consistent both to the way such a person would speak in real life, and from scene to scene in the story itself. Otherwise your characters will sound like Kevin Costner in…well…any movie where he attempts an accent.
Again, this article was originally created by NovelDoctor.com. You can read the whole article there.
New and improved deviantART gallery! I’m going to try to start posting on here again after falling out of the habit a few months back.
The elemental portraits I’ve done so far, all hanging on the door that blocks off the washer/dryer :D
Get your own elemental portrait here: http://silverwatermist.wordpress.com/2013/02/01/elemental-portraits/
A preview of the elemental bookmarks I’m working on. I still have to create about half of the designs, but I’ll definitely post again when they’re all done!
via dolliecrave
The major inspiration for The Forest Stories was the countless hours I spent exploring the woods with my friend Tom. Nature is a limitless source of inspiration and imagination for me.
(Source: dream-and-exist)
