Writers Remedies

Resizing pictures for self published illustrated books whether for epub or Createspce is a crucial yet easy to learn skill. Large images may cause the ebook to infringe the MB allowance for a Kindle platform. Images too small will result in a poor quality print book. What is the simplest way to resize images? What does Resizing Images Mean? An image that appears large on the screen does not mean it is a large image. Viewing a photograph in zoom is like looking close up at a photograph, yet the size of the photograph stays the same. In the same way, an image that appears small on the screen might have a large memory. This would be like viewing a large painting far away. The only way to determine the size of an image is to view it in a picture program and click on the image size. How to Resize Pictures for Epub A large image will take up more memory than a small image. Hover the mouse over a JPEG image in Pictures and the dimensions will be given. Digitally, an image is measured ...

You have perfectly-worded your book, and if pictures are included, they are clear and pristine. However, after uploading your book file onto a POD platform such as Createspace, the system throws back error messages that leave you stumped. Here is a list of the most common self publishing peeves and how to cure them. Formatting Peeves on Createspace In order to self publish a book for print on demand you have to ensure the book file is free of printing or formatting issues. The following are the most common problems associated with self publishing a book and how to deal with them. 1 Your Fonts have Not Been Embedded Properly You might have used exotic fonts and complex page formatting that may not convert as it should onto the POD platform, causing slight shifts between the appearance of your book on your PDF file and the print version. To prevent this, you must embed the fonts into your book file prior to saving it as a PDF. Createspace will do this for you, but I would...

You might have a great idea for a screenplay to the point you can visualize the story unreeling in your head. But how do you put the story into a screenplay format? Here are the beginners’ tips to writing your first screenplay. How to Write a Script, the Basics Conceiving a great idea for a screenplay is only the beginning of the creative journey. The writer will need to know how to put the ideas down, what to put in, what to leave out, how to format the dialogue, how to express scene transitions and action descriptions. And all with the three-act structure supporting the story. Obviously, a blank Word document is not the way to go. The screenplay should be properly formatted. You can get free screenwriting software for a variety of formats, including TV dramas, feature length films (for US and UK formats) and even soaps from BBC Writersroom. You have a choice of two screenwriting programmes, which are Scriptsmart, or the more advanced Scriptsmart Gold. Free Screenwriting Softwar...

The writer can do a lot to ensure the story entry has a fighting chance of getting shortlisted in a short story competition. The following tips on creative writing and submission guidelines may help. Short Story Advice for Writers Your short story might comprise a taut story crafted with perfect prose and the most original and compelling plot, but if the following guidelines are not adhered to, the story might just as well be crafted by chimp and scribbled on toilet paper. Word count too high. Story competitions can be quite strict on this matter, and a simple word count will expose story entries that go over. A short story competition that demands no more than 2000 words means that words in excess of this may take your entry out of the running. The wrong genre. If the competition is looking for captivating children’s stories, don’t submit an erotic yarn. Similarly, if the competition is searching for a crime story, don’t submit a sci-fi story. Submission too late. Make sur...

Every novel consists of a series of scenes, one linking to the other in an arc that becomes the story. Dull and clichéd scenes can make even the most interesting plot, a flat read. What are the beginner’s mistakes to avoid when writing scenes for fiction? How Not to Write Scenes for Fiction A novel can be compared to a painting, in that it requires contrast in elements (or colours) throughout the creation. Such elements in fiction can be described as action scenes, dialogue, narrative, description, flashbacks, segues, and climaxes. A well-written story ideally should have a smattering of each element in varying proportions throughout the novel to keep the reader engaged. Imagine a novel that contains nothing but blocks of solid descriptive text, page after page and you might get what I mean. So each scene might become more interesting with a constant flux of each element. How to Create Conflict in Novels A scene is a single occurrence or happening where conflict (and th...

The one sentence summary of your film script is the most crucial line of your screenplay submission package. If it fails to convey the essence of the story in an accurate yet compelling way, the rest of your film pitch is likely to remain unread. What are the causes of a script summary that fails to grab the attention? Loglines that Fail to Compel It is hard to sum up a three-act story weaved by several characters that have different agendas in a one-sentence screenplay summary. In an attempt to put the whole essence of the film in twenty-five words the writer may try to cram too many words into the logline, resulting in a stilted sentence. The other downfall is trying to entice by being vague and open-ended, leaving too much to the imagination. What is a Movie Tagline? It must be made clear here, that a story logline is not the same as a tagline. A logline informs on what a film is about; a tagline is promotional text used on movie posters aimed at a certain audience, and may ...

Self publishing a book for the print on demand market (POD) means ensuring the images within are perfect in every way. But for various reasons, the picture quality might turn out poor – they appear pixilated, bleached out or exhibit grubby marks. What are the best ways of improving image quality for print books without having to fork out money for imaging software? Picture Program to Increase DPI of Images One of the commonest flags a self publishing platform, such as Createspace gives is that the images within a book have low DPI. DPI stands for dots per square inch, and anything less than 300DPI will appear pixilated in print. To guard against this, always set the scanner to 300DPI when scanning the image. Otherwise, set the camera to the highest resolution possible. When to Retake Photographs The following tips will enhance your images, but there are occasions when a poor image is not worth bothering with, for instance graininess or pixilation that is beyond help, regardless...

Self publishing a book with drawings such as humorous books, cartoon strips or step by step guides must exhibit drawings of excellent quality and with properly formatting with text for a professional look. But how does the writer/illustrator blend text with images for the print book? Self Publish Comics and Other Illustrated Books Crisp, clean drawings are an essential accompaniment to pithy captions or step by step text. The quality of the drawings must reflect the tone of the book and rendered with artist quality materials which might be watercolour paper, rapidographs, fine pencils or ink. The focus of this article is formatting image and text into a print book by the use of free image software and knowledge of Word. The quality of the book could look amateurish if the images are fuzzy, pixillated or dirty marks apparent. Similarly, great images with poor formatting will not look good. At this point, the drawings have been completed; the text is perfectly-worded and it i...

The writer hoping to make passive income may feel torn between writing for a blog and writing for an online magazine. There are pros and cons for both outlined below which might help the writer make an informed decision on which to go for. Internet Magazine Sites with Good SEO on Page Rankings Writing for an online magazine has various advantages over writing for a blog or website. Primarily, the size of the site, with thousands of pages, constantly being created by article writers is likely to fare better in Google rankings than a small website consisting of twenty or even a hundred pages. This means the writer will see Adsense earnings coming in quickly. Having said this, if the small website is themed around a niche subject matter with little competition, the website could get plenty of hits per month, but this will take more time. Where to get Quality Inbound Links If the online magazine permits you to, you can link your article from the emagazine to your own blog or websit...

An otherwise compelling story could be undermined by the writer’s choice of words within the narrative prose. Regardless of how well-drawn the characters are or how unexpected the plot twist, if the writer allows weak words to seep in, the reader may not want to read on. Have a listen to a short excerpt of my novel, the Shuttered Room , describing the inner feelings of Jess who is pursued by a kidnapper after she breaks out of the captive house. Notice how the narrative moves along at a steady, yet relentless pace. No sentence is allowed to sit and do nothing. Every word is made to count. Now to break things down. Rotten Words in Novels The focus of this article is not the words used in character dialogue , as natural speech is not word-perfect or tightly constructed. I am taking a personal view upon the sort of words the author would do better to use sparingly within the narrative prose. By cutting such words and changing sentence construction, the writer’s style can only im...

The use of certain verbs can undermine the quality of your writing. The following simple writing exercise will tighten up your writing style and enforce the use of more creative verbs. Creative Writing Exercise on Verbs Improving your writing involves lots of practice and employing a certain amount of lenience. But watching out for the perils of passive writing , overuse of adjectives and clichés provides a quicker route to a sharp writing style. The focus of this article is however, the use of certain verbs such as: felt, hear, see and taste, the overuse of which I feel can be indicative of lazy writing. Take the following example: Lazy Writing in Novels ‘She felt a sensation of dizziness as she struggled through the opener. She saw spots form in front of her eyes and she could smell the dinner burning. With renewed urgency, she forced her way through, rucking her dress.’ Pointless Words in Fiction Let’s take this sample a little at a time. ‘She felt a sensation of dizz...