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Stronger Than a Bronze Dragon by Mary Fan
Publisher: Page Street Kids
Release Date: June 11th 2019
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Synopsis:
When a powerful viceroy arrives with a fleet of mechanical dragons and stops an attack on Anlei’s village, the villagers see him as a godsend. They agree to give him their sacred, enchanted River Pearl in exchange for permanent protection—if he’ll marry one of the village girls to solidify the alliance. Anlei is appalled when the viceroy selects her as a bride, but with the fate of her people at stake, she sees no choice but to consent. Anlei’s noble plans are sent into a tailspin, however, when a young thief steals the River Pearl for himself.
Knowing the viceroy won’t protect her village without the jewel, she takes matters into her own hands. But once she catches the thief, she discovers he needs the pearl just as much as she does. The two embark on an epic quest across the land and into the Courts of Hell, taking Anlei on a journey that reveals more is at stake than she could have ever imagined.
With incredibly vivid world building and fast-paced storytelling, Stronger Than a Bronze Dragon is great for readers who are looking for something fresh in epic fantasy.
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Top Ten Tips for Becoming a Better Writer
10. Take care of
yourself.
There’s an ugly
myth out there that suffering leads to creativity. While many
creative types have drawn upon past suffering to make art, it’s not
a requirement by any means. Not to mention, health issues (whether of
the physical or mental sort) can hinder your ability to be
productive. After all, how are you supposed to write if you can
barely make it out of bed?
9. Do things.
Meet people. Yes, online counts.
The wider your range
of experiences, the more you can draw upon for writing. Sometimes,
they tie together in unexpected ways – I once drew upon my car
troubles to add tension to a space chase scene. Of course, time and
resources may present challenges. Many may disagree with me, but I
say that online experiences count – especially when it comes to
human interactions. Communicating with different people and
personalities can inspire new ideas for characters, plot points, etc.
in ways you can’t predict.
8. Let “good
enough” be enough.
Especially in the
first draft. No one’s first draft is good. Some of mine have been
eye-clawing-ly awful. The one I’m currently working on required a
complete rewrite because the voice was all wrong (which I didn’t
figure out until after I’d written the whole thing, sent it to my
critique group, and then reread it with fresh eyes a few weeks
later). A first draft’s job is simply to exist. This is where you
let your ideas gush out, where let yourself experiment. Not
everything will work. Maybe none of it will work. But at least you’ll
know.
And even when
dealing with later drafts (or even the close-to-final proof), there
might still be things that don’t feel 100% perfect. That’s okay –
chances are, the reader won’t even notice. No piece of writing is
ever completely, totally, unassailably good.
7. Remember
there’s no such thing as wasted words.
Trashing large
quantities of writings – entire drafts, even – is hard.
Sometimes, all you can think about is the number of hours and the
sheer toil of getting all those words down. So the idea of throwing
it away (or “trunking” it) seems like a waste.
But, to borrow an
old cliché, it’s the journey that counts. Really. Because all
writing is practice, whether you end up using the words or not. And
writing is a skill, just like every other skill. Consider the dancers
who spend hours in a studio perfecting a 3-minute piece for a single
showcase. Were all those hours of dancing with no audience a waste?
Of course not. Performance art is ephemeral, and so it’s easy to
accept that a lot of labor will be put into practicing without an
audience. Writing is more permanent – you’re creating something
that could last for ages – so it can feel like not using the words
produced is a waste. But really, it’s the experience that counts.
So don’t be afraid
to slash, burn, and destroy in the revisions process.
6. Be efficient
with your words – in your own way.
One thing I notice a
lot when working with newer writers is how many unnecessary filler
words they’ll have in there – that they don’t even realize
they’re doing. For instance: She lifted her head up and down with
eagerness and then said, “I agree.” Really, all you need to write
there is: She nodded eagerly. “I agree.”
The more draconian purveyors of writing advice will put down rules
like “delete all your adverbs” or “no dialogue tags, ever.” I
disagree. Everyone has their own writing style – and their own
inefficient habits (I, for one, tend to over describe and become
repetitive in the process). It’s okay to write inefficiently during
the first draft (my first drafts often get bloated to such an extend,
I cut out 10% of the words on the first pass revision). But keep an
eye out for ways to reduce the number of words you’re using to get
to a particular point – without sacrificing the voice, of course.
5. Bring out your
story’s sensory and emotional experiences.
Writing isn’t just
about what happens – it’s also about how it makes the reader
feel. It’s not just sunny outside – the rays are warming your
skin and glinting off the water. Whether through the lens of your
protagonist (when writing in first person or close third) or from a
more distant POV, the more you can evoke the feeling of being
someplace or doing something, rather than just stating the facts, the
more your reader can feel like they’re part of the story,
experiencing it from the inside.
4. Don’t feel
beholden to someone else’s method.
A lot of people
write posts about how their method, which works amazingly for them,
is THE method. For some, it’s write every day, come hell or high
water. For others, it’s build an extensive outline before you get
started. Whatever the case, they’re all wrong – there is no
single method for writing. While it’s worth trying on someone
else’s method in case it works for you, there’s nothing wrong
with saying “forget that” and doing things your own way. I, for
one, have changed methods between books. Once, I was an avowed
outliner, with pages and pages of notes before I started writing (one
outline was 10,000 words long). Meanwhile, for Stronger than a Bronze
Dragon, I basically made it up as I went.
3. Read. Read a
lot. Read widely.
A lot of writing
habits are absorbed, not just developed. Rather like speech – while
taking lessons and memorizing rules does shape the way we
communicate, what ultimately comes out is what feels natural to each
of us. And that’s how we develop our own unique voices, both in
speech and writing. When it comes to the latter, reading more can
open you to new possibilities on how to use language and help you
cultivate an ear for writing styles that could help you improve your
own.
2. Take breaks.
The world is full of
writers who claim to sit down at 6am and write nonstop until 6pm,
with maybe a bathroom break and a quick run to the kitchen to grab a
sandwich or something. Or the ones who say they write every single
day no matter what. Good for them. For a lot of people, though, that
kind of expectation just isn’t realistic. I, for one, am a “feast
or famine” writer. Either I’m pumping out thousands upon
thousands of words in a single sitting (my record is 10,000 in one
evening after work, though I stayed up till 3am for that) or I’m
doing absolutely nothing (sometimes for weeks). It’s easy to feel
guilty during those “famine” times, especially when social media
is crawling with productivity posts by other writers (good for you,
Person-Who-Wrote-A-Novel-In-3-Weeks! I’ve spent the past 3 weeks
binge-watching pointless shows on Netflix!). But ultimately, breaks
are part of the process (for many of us). It’s a chance for our
creative brains to recharge and reset and come back stronger. And
hey, studies have shown that creative solutions come when your mind
is wandering, not when you’re focusing on the task and trying to
force it out.
1. Just keep
writing.
You know that old
cliché – the only way to fail is to quit? Well, it’s true. And
by “quit,” I mean “stop writing forever and with no intention
of ever trying again.” As mentioned above, breaks are fine, whether
they’re for days, weeks, months, or even years (hey, it’s been 8
years since George RR Martin put out a Song of Ice and Fire book, and
you know he hasn’t been actively writing that manuscript this whole
time – he’s been up to other things). But anyway, the important
thing is that whatever happens with your publishing journey, just
keep writing as long as it’s something you enjoy.
About the Author
Mary Fan is a hopeless dreamer, whose mind insists on spinning tales of “what if.” As a music major in college, she told those stories through compositions. Now, she tells them through books—a habit she began as soon as she could pick up a pencil.
Mary lives in New Jersey and has a B.A. from Princeton University. When she’s not scheming to create new worlds, she enjoys kickboxing, opera singing, and blogging about everything having to do with books.
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