Month: September 2017

Easton Livingston

Going Beyond the Story: Creating a Universe

RIU World Building, Writing Life

There are myriad kinds of fiction writers in the world today. All kinds of stories are being written for the enjoyment and ponderment of the masses. Out of all those different kinds of writers, I’m of the opinion that those in the area of science fiction and fantasy — and their many offspring — have more work to do then that of their counterparts in say romance or crime thrillers.

The latter have their stories take place in the real world and much of what we see in those stories are extrapolated from reality through their research (if they’re good). It’s different for the science fiction and fantasy writer. For them, new worlds have to be created. If not new worlds then the changes in the real world have to be created. In short, takes a lot of creativity to be a science fiction or fantasy writer and much of that creativity is setting in the story. There is a lot of work involved behind the scenes before the story is ever written.

Easton Livingston

Urban Fantasy and Superheroes

Writing Life

I was sitting around thinking and it occurred to me that some people may be a little bit confused on what it is exactly that I write. Readers are a finicky sort and they like things in neat aisles normally so they can identify exactly what it is that they want to be immersed in as far as whatever they want to read. That’s understandable because you want to make sure that whatever you’re reading is something that you going to enjoy in your chosen genre of interest.

I talk a lot about superheroes butI haven’t actually put out anything close to being superheroic. As a matter fact, I’ve put something out that is classified in a totally different genre. Now, why am I doing that? Am I trying to confuse you guys and just send mixed signals? God forbid. There’s actually a method to my madness and today I thought it might be high time I explain it.

Easton Livingston

5000 Words A Day…Because I Can

RIU World Building, Short Stories, The Dark Corner, Writing Life

The goal to be more productive is something that most people in business desire—or what most people that do what they love to do desire. It’s even more so for writers I think because our profession is only taken seriously when we’ve actually finished something. There is already the stigma that what were doing is not really work (which I can vehemently disagree with in one whole post alone). Add to that the fact that we are arduously committing effort and time to something where the reward is on the far back end if the reward ever comes at all. That reward is not really getting paid though that can be a part of it. No, the reward is actually finishing whatever it is that we’ve written and getting the thing published. The only way that that is going to happen is if you are cranking out the requisite amount of words to get to the end. That is why it’s so important to set goals in terms of word count. That is why mine has just increased.

Easton Livingston

Cultivating Success Habits

Self-Publishing, Writing Business, Writing Life

How do you define success? If you ask five different people you just may get five different answers. Success – if we are looking at this with wise eyes – is a different metric for every individual. But it’s apparent that some people are more successful than others when it comes to that individual metric. People will give all kinds of myriad reasons why that is the case. The truth of the matter is, successful people have successful habits. In these habits have turned their lives into something worth living.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot and pressing into different forms of literature to renew my mind so that I will also have success by creating an environment of habits that is conducive to that goal.