Category: tips

tips about a creation of a plot, characters, places and other information.

The evolution of writing

As a professional, I think about the evolution of writing. And, of course, I ask myself all kind of questions to which I try to find a solution. They are not necessarily the best but having a vision of the future allow you to anticipate.
Here are three issues we should think about :

  • Digital accessibility
  • Paper recycling
  • DRM

    • As an author we can facilitate accessibility by offering files whose content is structured through the use of style sheets. Publishers will then be able to continue the accessibility process.

    Regarding the recycling of paper, there are labels that are more compliant than others, similarly vegetable inks are possible. That said, print on demand seems an alternative.

    Finally, DRM does not seem to me to promote the dissemination of a book for the public. Similarly, the multiplicity of formats according to a particular type of equipment restricts reading.

    Historical fiction : searching information

    When you have an idea about a subject that requires accurate historical information, it’s not always easy to know where to search. Here are some tips that I learned. They could be useful to you. The documents come from several types and are not all in the same place.

    People houses:

    Letters, intimate correspondence. Testimonials from the era or descendants (stories passed down within the family or heard)

    Archives: (national archives etc.)

    Medical reports

    Minutes

    Birth certificates

    Period newspapers

    Theses: (specialized websites, universities etc.)

    History student theses

    Books :

    Current authors who have written on or around the same topic

    Local fund:

    Public Library

    Alias or not ?

    When you began to write to publish, this question comes to you. What are the reasons for using an alias? I think, they are of two kinds. The first is to preserve your anonymity, the other one to create a second identity.
    There are situations where authors feel a danger by publishing under their real name. Let’s take the case of the denunciation of illegal or violent acts through a book, thus providing testimony as a victim (illicit activities within a company, by example).
    In a different case, opting for a pen name is also the possibility of publishing texts in a new style. Some authors do this with the aim of testing a new audience. For my part, I wrote a first short story under a pseudonym. I didn’t want to reveal my name when posting at that time. Then I realized that I felt it was important for me Several years later, I replaced the pseudonym (used for my novel) with one of my surnames.

    Add metadata

    To wait from publishers is very long. Which has its advantages and disadvantages. Waiting feeds anxiety but it’s also a good time to communicate about your work, learn new skills and explore the different possibilities of your future book. For me, that’s what I’m doing right now.
    During the creative process, I like to explore the arts. Playing music or/and drawing allows me to come back to my book.
    This week I scanned drawings and learned how to embed metadata into the file. I thought sharing this tip with you might help you too.
    Metadata allows you to add information to an image: the title of the image, the name of the author, the year, rights etc. which may be useful. If you want to do this, you will need to use photo manipulation software. For my part, I chose Gimp. To add metadata, open your drawing with the software, go to the image menu and click on add metadata. Save the file.

    Playing with text

    When I wrote Fantastic L.A, I played a lot with the characters and all the objects used to solve the riddle. For example, crosswords. While thinking about them, I did some research and discovered the origin of the first crosswords. On the original document, definitions and a grid. In the center the word : fun (joy in French).

    With the definitions of the original document that you will find at the end of my post, I wrote this short poem :

    What we all should be ?

    A daydream, a pigeon, a part of the ship

    What artists learn to do ?

    Opposed to less, exchanging the plurial of this

    Link : article about Arthur Wynne.

    Beta readers

    Here is some news.

    On December 30, I finish to write the first draft of my new fiction. It took me 1 year to make it. To begin, I chose an idea that I liked then I made historical researches of which I did not keep many elements. But, they contributed to nourish my inspiration to build an intrigue. When the first draft was finished, I asked some beta readers for their opinion. Which took me a week or two. It is important to give them enough time to read and to send their answers to the questions I asked. When this step was completed, I read the feedback carefully and took all constructive criticism into consideration. Which obviously required that I correct my first draft. Among the notes, some were too intrusive or didn’t go to the same direction than I wish for the book and I didn’t retained them. In a few days, I will send my book to several publishing companies. I would be lying to you if I told you that I do not feel a certain apprehension. But that’s a part of this project.

    To follow your modifications

    At the moment, I am correcting the first draft of my new book. Of course, I could have sent it to an editor and waited for a feedback. But before doing it, I preferred to reread, adding some details, making improvements.

    The reason why I’m talking to you about this project today, is because I realized that there is a function on libre office, the text processor. This one allows you to track your version changes. You can go back or go to the next changes. Keeping a list of all your changes is always interesting.

    Having said that, in writing this article I though back to a sentence I heard on the radio recently. It was about the necessary function of forgetting. Don’t we tend to want to save and classify everything before we’ve even lived these moments ? why ?
    From a historical point of view, it is obvious that retaining the testimony and any other document from the past is important. However, not accepting that it is impossible to keep everything intact seems problematic to me. There will certainly be traces of some of the events of our existence, but not of every moment, as an individual, I have not considered spending too much of my time listing them. It makes me feel like I’m not living fully.

    Structuring a story

    Structuring a story can be very important at some point of your writing. Among my favorite tools, the mind map is a useful program. On linux, “view your mind” is easy to use but there are many others including on different platforms.

    How to prioritize your notes

    Do you need to prioritize your notes? A linux software can help you.

    Personally, I used it as a complement with Libre office. For real, at first sight, this software appears complex and closer to computer development than to writing. But it is much simpler than you think.

    Here is a link to this tool.

     

    How to enlarge the lyrics of your song

    This afternoon, after working one of my guitar compositions, I converted the text into an e-pub and put it on an e-reader.
    I wished to have the possibility to enlarge the fonts, to have confort (digital ink is less tiring for eyes) and to bring it everywhere.

    If you’re interested, here’s how:

    1. Write your lyrics on a word processor (libre office etc.) then save the file.
    2. Use the export to e-pub format function to convert your file
    3. Put it on your e-reader (you can read it on a phone, tabs and computer too)

    © 2025 Céline Valette – Tous droits de reproduction, d’adaptation et de traduction réservés pour tous pays sans le consentement de l’Auteur (titre, modèle, illustrations, photos...etc).