Tips for Writers Finding Harry Larry and Lou by Kayelle Allen

Kayelle Allen is the author of the best selling Tarthian Empire Companion, an illustrated World-Building Bible and Guide to Writing a Science Fiction Series.

Here's a cool trick if you have several books and you want to find out which book mentions a character. Create a separate folder and into it copy each of your books. Don't put your originals in there. MAKE COPIES. Take out any bit at the end of the book that mentions upcoming stories (such as sneak peeks) that might contain the character's name. You want only the actual story in these documents. Keep this folder. You'll be surprised how handy it is for searching details when you write a series.

Finding Harry, Larry, and Lou

Now that everything is together, look at your folder menu. You'll see something like "Tools" at the top. Click that, and open Folder Options. Click the Search tab. Under "What to search" there are two choices. Pick the one that says "Always search file names and contents."

When you click in the search box and type a name, the program will show you which book has the character's name.

NOTE: It warns that this might take several minutes, but since you'll mainly use it for searching this folder, that's fine. I use it routinely on all folders, and it's a great way to find info I've lost or a document for which I can't remember the title. I have a 2TB hard drive and to me, it's not that long -- maybe a few seconds. Click OK to save the option. Don't worry. If it does prove to be too long for everyday use for you, you can easily change it back.

WARNING: Think about the name before you assume the person is mentioned. For example, if you have a guy named Van Smith, both those words have other meanings. Does one character drive a van? Does the other have a Smith and Wesson? Does someone who is a smith live in Van Nuys? Be sure you know how the word was used within the document if it has shades of meaning or uses. If you aren't sure, open the document, use CTRL+F (or CMD+F for Mac) and type the name. Then you'll know for sure. But rather than open each document for each character, it's super quick to type it once and search all the books at the same time.

Taken from the Tarthian Empire Companion, an illustrated World-Building Bible and Guide to Writing a Science Fiction Series. Original art by Jamin Allen and Kayelle Allen.

Giveaway

Download the free "Top Stops" edition of the Companion and visit the most popular sites in the Tarthian Empire. Illustrated, 24 pp

http://kayelleallen.com/media/kayelle_allen_tec_topstops.pdf

About the Companion

Genre Non-fiction, Reference

Author Kayelle Allen

Book heat level (based on movie ratings): G

For the science fiction writer, this volume teaches you how to build believable worlds, track details of your story, organize your writing, and lay out your story bible. Novice or experienced, you will pick up tricks and tips here. This EPIC eBook Award winning writer shares organizational tips, links to marketing sites, groups supporting writers, science fiction groups, and more. Material from the author's 90+ page website is included.

For the science fiction fan, the Companion reveals the worldbuilding magic that makes Kayelle Allen's Tarthian Empire tick. She shares every character in every book, 10k years of future history, offers inside peeks at scenes and stories, lays out a quick tour of the Empire, and dishes up a surfeit of secrets, all in one illustrated volume. Original art by Jamin Allen and Kayelle Allen.

Buy This Book

Amazon http://bit.ly/companion-az
Smashwords http://bit.ly/companion-sm
Find this book on Goodreads http://bit.ly/1DtIrOR
Coming soon in print

About the Author

Kayelle Allen is a best-selling, multi-published, award-winning author. Her unstoppable heroes and heroines

include contemporary every day folk, role-playing immortal gamers, futuristic covert agents, and warriors who purr.

Homeworld http://kayelleallen.com Mobile site http://kayelleallen.mobi
Unstoppable Heroes Blog http://kayelleallen.com/blog
Twitter http://twitter.com/kayelleallen
Facebook http://facebook.com/kayelleallen.author
Pinterest http://pinterest.com/kayelleallen/

About the Illustrator

Jamin Allen is the founder of Nimajination Studios, and is known as "Volgraza" on the popular YouTube channel V^2Gamers, which features game play, advice, and update information for games such as SpaceEngineers, and other games on Steam. He is the son of Kayelle Allen.

V^2Gamers https://www.youtube.com/user/VtwoGamers/
Twitter https://twitter.com/vtwogamers
DeviantArt http://nimajination-studios.deviantart.com/
Nimajination Studios http://nimajinationstudios.weebly.com/
Facebook https://facebook.com/NimajinationStudios
Twitch http://twitch.tv/volgraza/profile
G+ https://plus.google.com/117744960236546667653/posts

This Thursday I’m Thinking About…Amazon Removing Author Reviews

I’m a writer. This means I get to know other writers and hang around with others who do what I do: we write. Some of these people get to be good friends of mine. Some of them I only get to admire from afar. Regardless of our relationship, we tend to value good writing and good books. We understand that the occasional not so good book may come up, but we hope it isn’t from one of us. And we keep writing.

I won’t address this issue from the sole viewpoint of being a writer. First and foremost, I’m a reader. Admittedly, when not crushing beneath deadlines and mommy duties and school stuff, I read much more than I write. And I’m a fast reader. This means that realistically, I can read up to ten complete novels in a month (I said I was fast). When I read something I feel warrants a review, it feels good to be able to do that, whether it’s a positive review or a negative one. It seems I won’t be able to do that on Amazon anymore.

I consider myself an informed reader. Not only have I been reading for the better part of thirty five years, but I know a good book when I read it. I can feel for well rounded characters and enjoy realistic settings. I absolutely love when a writer is able to pull me into their world with fresh ideas and beautiful descriptions. I also know a bad book when I read it, and though I will finish the entire thing anyway, I have some pretty informed ideas about what may have gone wrong in the execution (if that’s why the book didn’t win me over).

I’m not the reader who will leave a review based on a partial reading of a book and admit that I didn’t finish the book but not say why and leave a bad review anyway. I won’t leave a review, positive or negative, that clearly shows I didn’t read the book in question, at all. I understand the nuances and tropes of various genres of fiction and the requirements of successful non-fiction works. I have paid money in the form of higher education tuition to learn more about these things, in depth. But my reviews will be removed, and do not matter in the least. And those that do all the previous questionable things I mentioned I wouldn’t do, that no respectable reader/reviewer would do, will stay. And matter.

On the one hand, I understand there are some writers (I don’t know any) who might be waging war against competing works by posting unwarranted, negative reviews. Removing all reviews by authors won’t stop these folks, if they’re bound and determined to do something like that. They probably have at least one friend who can write their negative review in their stead, and this person will not be a writer. Anyone who is loading on positive reviews for their own works to boost ratings won’t be hindered by the removal of their author friends’ reviews. Those authors have friends who are non-writers who can be recruited for this purpose.

Writers tend to be big readers, which makes sense, because we have to know our craft and see how it’s employed successfully and unsuccessfully. That we can only share our views of what we read in select venues feels like a restriction I’m not sure I like. We can read as many books as we want and buy them all from Amazon. We can write as many books we want and sell them on Amazon. But we can’t talk about either on Amazon.

Restriction, indeed.