Randy A Brown

Author: Randy A Brown

  • Current Projects – Book 3 and 4 of my Fantasy Series

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    I’m currently working on the plot for the next two books in my fantasy series, Tales of Aarkan Zea Book 3: Dragon Master, and Tales of Aarkan Zea Book 4: Thwaylin’s Song. The series has a medieval setting and the plots intertwine. I’m also working on a comedy novella of one of the minor characters titled Tales of Aarkan Zea: Freedrin the Brave. I’ll follow that one up with a second novella titled Tales of Aarkan Zea: Freedrin the Magnificent. After I finish the first draft of books 3 and 4 I will write an overhaul of all four plots (to tighten them up). Then I’ll rewrite book 1 and get it published on Kindle, and then I’ll rewrite book 2, and so on. This series started as an idea to write an ongoing series that I would publish monthly on Kindle (much like comic-book style publishing – only with just words). Once I got started I decided to try my hand at a novel. I want to keep the series going, but more than anything I wanted to avoid a trilogy. Yesterday I was afraid a trilogy was in order. Today a brand new plot idea hit me that will drive the entire book 4 in such a way that it will have to be its own book. I’m also leaving enough questions and mysteries to continue the series even further.

     

  • Writing Challenge – Middles and Endings

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    A common problem with writing fiction is getting started and then not knowing where to go after you start. I have a few tips that turn the process into a fun challenge.

    1. Write the ending first

    If you know where your characters have to go it will be easier to get them there. This gives you a direction to take them.

    2. Write a scene in the middle

    This helps in the same way as writing the ending first. In the middle it works as a milestone.

    Here’s the challenge: Write a dozen or so scenes at random. They can be about anything as long as it’s a situation you can imagine your characters in. Now, randomly place them in your story. This makes you have to write the connecting scenes to thread the plot throughout the story. If it works then keep it it. If it doesn’t, then rearrange the scenes, get rid of what you have to, change them, add to them, or just count it as practice. Maybe this exercise will help you warm up and get you ready to write. It might even spawn a few ideas that you wouldn’t have thought of any other way.

  • I’m a NaNoWriMo Winner!

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    2013-Winner-Facebook-ProfileI completed my NaNoWriMo novel today! My total word count was 50,001. This is my second novel this year. The first was Tales of Aarkan Zea Book 1: The Temple of Armaan Suun. I wrote it in 7.5 weeks between August and September while preparing for NaNoWriMo. My NaNoWriMo novel is the second book of the series: Tales of Aarkan Zea Book 2: Rise of the Aarkan King.

  • Update on my First Novel

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    My first novel is almost complete! I’m past the 50k word mark. My plan was to produce 12 chapter with each averaging 4500 words, and write 1 chapter a week. I wanted to finish it before November so I can write a new novel for nanowrimo. I’ve kept that very close to consistent and now I’m finishing up the last chapter. I’m a little ahead of schedule- so I’ll have more time to plan my next book.

    So… about my first novel: It’s a fantasy setting. I think of it as medieval with dragons. I’m not writing high fantasy, so there are no elves, orcs, dwarves, etc. There are several creatures: dragons, something similar to dragons but smaller, something similar to rhinos, but bigger, and something similar to a yeti.

    The story: Two friends and one enemy/friend go on a quest to solve the riddle of a stone with mysterious markings. They’re caught in the middle of a massive war and one side want’s the stone. This leads them to a hidden Temple that contains the most powerful and dangerous weapon even known, and one side thinks they can control it. It’s called The Temple of Armaan Suun. I’m considering writing part 2 for nanowrimo.

  • Preparing for NaNoWriMo

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    November is National Novel Writer’s Month. This year I’m considering taking the NaNoWriMo challenge: write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. That’s almost 1700 words per day. To prepare, I’ve decided to write a specific word-count on a fiction story (most of my writing is non-fiction) every day until I’ve made it a habit. Then, I will raise the word-count until I reach 2000 words per day. I have some ideas for my NaNoWroMo novel. I won’t start writing until November, but it doesn’t hurt to plan ahead. It’s just around the corner.

    For more information visit the NaNoWriMo website at: http://nanowrimo.org

  • Business Test

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    One of my hobbies is developing business ideas. I’m very interested in starting a business, but I have trouble deciding what kind. I found an online test that I thought I’d share:

    Business Test

    I’ve taken this test twice. Once from the book (which I have on order) and today from this website. My first top result was Creator/Builder with Advisor/Counselor and Communicator/Trainer tying for second. Today’s result was Advisor/Counselor first and Communicator/Trainer second.

    Some of my top business choices (and book topics) are:

    Management Consultant / Business Coach

    Career / Personal Coach

     

     

  • Free Kindle Books About Writing

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    Amazon’s Kindle platform is a great resource for books about writing. Here’s a short list of good writing books that are free:

    And here are a few good books that are worth buying:

     

  • Available for preorder – Letters and Life: On Being a Writer, On Being a Christian by Bret Lott

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    All serious writers know that each word they write reveals something significant about their beliefs, something about their reason for creating, something about the one for whom they write. After all, writing lays bare the soul.

    Yet the work of a Christian artist is often pressured to fit into a popular mold, oftentimes forgoing quality for the sake of convenience or acceptance, or even simply because of a lack of the bravery necessary to look square in the eye the world, and to do so with the unflinching eye of Christ.

    In this series of intimate reflections on life and writing, critically acclaimed and best-selling novelist Bret Lott calls authors to pursue excellence in their craft through five fascinating essays and an extended memoir that explore everything from the importance of literary fiction to the pain of personal loss.

    Learn here what it means to be a writer who navigates the tension inherent to being a Christian in the public square—and to being an artist made in the image of God.

  • Niche Site Duel 2.0 – Choosing a Niche

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    For me, the hardest part of writing a book or building a niche site is choosing the topic. There are many techniques out there to help. Here’s my method.

    First, I build a matrix in Excel. I will make headings across the top of categories that I want to compare. One example would be- “is the topic podcastable?”

    Next, I start listing my favorite topics, topics that I’ve been researching, things that I’ve been searching for online, problems I’ve been trying to solve, etc.

    Next, I give each topic a score from 1-5 in each category (1 is bad, 5 is good). At first I just give a score based on what I already know about the topic. As I do more research I change the scores as needed (for example, I might not be able to make as much money from a topic as I thought).

    Then, I total all the numbers for each topic. The larger the number the better the topic would be for a niche. Here’s an example:

    excel niche selection matrix

    I then take each topic that ranked high and do more research. Long Tail Pro is a great tool for this research.

    Click here for more info on Niche Site Duel 2.0

    That’s a simple method to get a few topics to write about. Do you have a different method?

  • Niche Site Duel 2.0 – Searching for Keywords with Long Tail Pro

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    I’ve been using the trial version of Long Tail Pro to find keywords that will help me find a niche for the niche site duel. I’ve found a keyword that I like. It’s in a field that I have experience in. I’ve wanted to write a book about it for a while now. This tool helped me to decide if I should write it or not. The market looks so good that I’m considering starting a niche site to go with it. I’m still in research mode, but I’ll give out the information when I make my decision.

    I can recommend Long Tail Pro for helping you find niches. Click here for more info: Long Tail Pro

    Click here for more info on Niche Site Duel 2.0