Category Archives: Blood Dawn
Beyond archetypes: where the hero’s journey meets modern fiction
Welcome to August! This month, I have the pleasure of kicking off our topic: journeys and story structures in epic fantasy. I’m sure you’re all familiar with Joseph Campbell’s the Hero’s Journey, also known as the Monomyth. Here’s a great … Continue reading
A first step in revision — the three-tier approach to feedback
I hope you’re all enjoying our month’s topic of swords and epic battles in fantasy. Perhaps off-topic (though not entirely): today I’m going to continue my discussion about the process of writing a next draft. In last week’s post, I … Continue reading
Setting Weekly Milestones: How to get through multiples drafts of a book
Today in my newsletter, I shared about a new adventure that began this week: I started to read The Lord of the Rings again — the fourth time now for me. Returning to my Tolkien roots seems good timing for … Continue reading
The future of Blood Dawn
There are many possibilities ahead for the future of Blood Dawn, but I think they might best be illustrated in this picture, made by Ave, a fan who has offered to make graphics for me every week now. But, before … Continue reading
The difference between a draft and a revision
In last month’s newsletter, I mentioned my road map to finishing Blood Dawn. I spent last week unpacking more of what was behind how I have focused my week into themed days (read that here), so I thought this week … Continue reading
My writing routine — creating a focus for days of the weeks
This month in my newsletter, I talked about how I have returned to the themed week strategy I used while writing Blood Dawn and it inspired me to write more about it for today’s blog post. In last week’s blog … Continue reading
Making sacrifices: the 80/20 rule and getting Blood Dawn back on track
This week, I made a radical shift in how I work to reclaim the weekend writing time that I’d maintained for 15 months, every week, while I was writing the draft for Blood Dawn. Ever since 2016 began, I’ve been … Continue reading
Watch the videos that make up the fan trailer
Many of you have seen the great Blood Dawn fan video (if you haven’t, click here to watch it now – it’s amazing!). In this video, several Inkshares authors talk about what they love about Blood Dawn. However, the fan … Continue reading
Not a Series: Looking beyond Blood Dawn
Starting this weekend, you can look forward to a blog post from me every Saturday. For those who subscribe to my newsletter, you can keep up on my behind-the-scenes updates, but starting April I’d like to share more here on … Continue reading
The fan trailer for Blood Dawn
John here! Today I’m jumping in to our usual schedule of world building posts to share something absolutely amazing: The new fan trailer for Blood Dawn! This video was made by one of my closest collaborators on Inkshares, Cara (“A.C.”) Weston, author of … Continue reading