Steven King: Master Of Modern Horror

The next writer being featured here in my writing series is someone who needs no introduction. Anyone who reads or watches any amount of movies has at least heard of the man. A man who is often touted as the undisputed master of the horror genre. He is certainly not the only one. Writers like John Carpenter and Peter Straub have created some nerve tinging tales as well. But King has created characters and stories that will live on well past the time he meets his maker.

Much of what he has written have became instant classics. Carrie, Cujo, It, Pet Cemetery, The Shining, Firestarter, and Christine are just a few that accomplished just that. King has a unique ability to pull us into his stories and draw not just on our fears, but our curiosities as well. He is like a burglar who breaks into our minds and steals our secrets and then uses them against us in order to keep us coming back for more. His books have a certain mysticism to them. His personality and overall voice reaches his readers in a way that make them open their minds to possibilities that things might just exist beyond our physical world who want to devour some part of our being. Be it our flesh, our minds, or our souls.

What makes Mr. King such a cut above the rest is his natural knack for keeping you glued to the page. His descriptions of both his characters and their surroundings along with dialogue that is often inviting as well as quirky gives you the impression of knowing them in some way. Consciously or subconsciously his characters feel like people we have met at some point in your life. This makes for a more enriching story, regardless of the plots they are involved in.

Another trait of his that speaks to us all is his uncanny ability to vividly describe literally anyone or anything in such a way that comes across as poetic at times. The visions that are imprinted are ones that paint a scene which immerses us in a world away from our own, yet parallel and believable. Yet more evidence of the makings of a true original to the craft of storytelling.

Any writer, new or old, who needs to "up thier game" for any reason and play with the big kids must read King's work. Without it you will miss out on valuable methods and compelling style that is surely to enrich any writers repertoire of unreason. No matter what genre you write in, if you read King then you are sure to glean copious amounts of input on how to build characters and worlds, whether they be fictitious or real. Steven King truly is the King of horror for a reason. Without being immersed in his books, you will be left out in the cold with a fireplace poker in your eye and a madman searing your kidneys with a hint of garlic and olive oil on an open flame in some remote wilderness.



-By Christopher Storm
-aka- "The Stormcaller"

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Character Building: Learning To Mold Your Creations In Ways That Spark Intrigue

We all have our favorite heroes, villains, cartoons, leaders, parents, and gurus. Some of them happen to be fictitious and some of them happen to be real. In this message to all the hungry writers out there, I am going to touch on what traits make characters popular and methods to make them both believable and unique. As with any of my work, to fully grasp the scope of my advice; You must let go of anything related to a rule or belief. At least for a little while...

Regardless of what type of character you want to create, you must practice patience when introducing them to your audience. If you just blurt out all their characteristics in one chapter then it becomes too much for your reader to take in and inside the next couple chapters they will become uninterested because they find your characters to be too predictable and boring. Take your time. Tease your readers. Give them the physical traits enough to where it draws a picture in their mind but leave a few things to the imagination. This is especially true if you are writing a series where the character will be reoccurring. Leave some details in waiting until the perfect surprise scene comes that is just right to wow your audience.

Another equally important aspect to remember is that almost everyone wants to feel like they know their characters closely. Their words must pull the reader into their world, making every street they turn down and every enemy they fight seem as if they are in danger as well. This requires keeping boundaries infinite in your thoughts as you write. If you impose any predispositions to your beliefs then it is sure to hinder your story. Capturing your readers attention with every sentence as best you can, making them take the book into the bathroom with them and staying up hours and being late for work is what any successful author instills in their fan base.

In terms of personality, it is important to exacerbate their traits and make them stand out in unique ways. Add in mannerisms that add extra poignancy to their minds. If your character is evil then make them have a hobby that disgusts the reader and create malice within your fans. Make a victim so shockingly vulnerable and lovable that when they fall prey to your villain that a sincere sense of loss is birthed in the minds of your fans.

                                                                           If your character is a hero then make them have a life that oozes peace and justice in all they do. You don't have to form a new superhero to make them loved. You simply have to make all their actions and words compliment the story you are telling and create a sense of compassion and make your readers wish the character was a real life person. It doesn't matter if they are children, teens, adults, or senior citizens; Heroes, or villains for that matter, need to be introduced over time and their deeds done in ways that build tension and make the reader wonder what they are going to do next.

For characters that are not central to your story, it is good to focus on their appearance or make one specific trait stand out above all the rest of them. This makes them memorable without clouding the rest of the story with questions or details that make it feel that something is missing by the time the book is over. There are exceptions of course. Such as in mysteries or crime novels, it is important to have other characters who are candidates as suspects for the crimes or scenes in question. Even then it is good to give them a trait which makes them memorable without the need to keep them in constant interaction with central characters.

From a twitchy wink in an alluring femme fatales' eyes to a nefarious love for collecting children's fingernails; Building characters in your story should always be the number one focus of your writing endeavor. Without them, the story is but a scene without words. A world without personality. Remember that when your fans want to marry your superhero or slowly torture your villain it makes them come back for more and tell their friends about the book they just read and threw against the wall multiple times because they couldn't believe what they just read.

By Christopher Storm
-aka- "The Stormcaller"

Post Script: If you enjoy my work and want to learn more about the growing interest in global corruption and the problems that affect us now as well as the threats that will affect our children in the future then check out my other blog, Stormcalling.

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The Fearless Voice vs. The Ulterior Motive: War of the Words

Sifting through the ashes of burned out dreams and wading through the mire of cliche plots, dull diatribe, and copycat garbage is becoming more and more a daily fight for even the most sporadic reader these days. In performing these tedious tasks, it is making super expectations and critical eagle eyes out of the most attention span deprived readers. Unfortunately, it is making it that much more difficult for even the most seasoned writer to stand out from the crowd without being accused of poor practices of one sort or another.

What most writers fail to realize is that writing requires far more consistency in having a unique voice that rises above all others which separates them from those who write purely for content that they believe will sell more copies and increase the bottom line. The average reader these days is practiced in knowing the motive for the writer who creates their respective works for their faithful customers.

I've spoken of bravery in supporting work that you believe in. Now, I am speaking of bravery in finding your warrior voice that will carry you out of the realm of unknown and into the realm of the up and comers. This voice comes not from asking what people want to hear from you but what your characters want to tell those who venture into the world you build for them to get lost in. The best advice I can give is to allow your story to create itself and not to rely so much on outlines and rules. Creativity is natural and like a beast in the wilderness. Trap it and it can not express its true nature. Set it free and it lives and grows in a manner that nature intended it to. Adaptable and wild. Able to see things from all angles. It makes the imagination wander in ways that do nothing but assist in your ascension of being a creator.

Readers want realism, even in the most fantastic of settings they want to be able to relate to the characters they watch come alive inside their minds. They want their worlds to grow with the story and not be spilled out in the confines of a single chapter. I like to think of writing fiction like raising not a child but an entire planet, all with the understanding that trusting your characters to make that planet as synergistic as possible, regardless of what kind of chaos may ensue or what tales creep up inside the freedom you allow it to have. Drop your expectations and allow your mind to flow the scenarios freely in a way that creates organic growth and your voice will emerge in a profound way that is sure to set you miles apart from the rest.

Patience is key to understanding and accepting the fact that greatest writers are not found within the ranks of Harvard or Yale. They are found within the pages of their mind that spring from a dream they had that woke them in a pool of sweat at three a.m on a Wednesday morning. Confidence comes from knowing that thinking produces boring stories while dreaming produces magnificent wonders that enthrall the masses by forcing them to open their minds and not just think outside the box but to create outside the sphere.

Christopher Storm
-aka- "The Stormcaller"

Namaste<3

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The Importance of Brand Awareness In Modern Marketing and Publishing

In a competitive business such as writing it takes creativity that reaches above and beyond content. The greatest content can be down on paper, but if people don't feel a connection to the surface of your product then you might as well throw away your dreams of becoming successful in the world of words. It's no secret that we live in a visual world far more today than even ten years ago. It takes memorable elements added to great writing skills in order to excel in the business.

People want to be able to relate to the person they are reading. They want to feel a vested interest before making the decision to buy your book. First and foremost, your cover must grab their attention within one to eight seconds if you are to stand much of a chance. It must appeal to their sense of intrigue in some way. Obviously, as everything else in life, you can not please everyone. Your cover is a representation of your book. So, if it appears that you didn't place much thought or creativity into it then that is going to be the message to the observer. This is guaranteed to effect your sales.

The title of your book is an all important element as well. It must describe the depth or emotion of your book in a compelling way without seeming too cliche or conveying a theme that has been overused. The font used must be bold without overtaking your cover as to detract from its message. The color used also needs to stand out without overriding the image on the page. The synopsis on the back cover is something that many authors disregard or fail to place much effort into. It needs to describe, in a compelling manner, the overall theme of your book while creating within the prospective reader a sense of interest that makes them want to know more about what is inside. In terms of content, as many authors already realize, books that offer a chapter or a few pages of text on Amazon(a must for any book seller) always gain much more of a fighting chance than books that do not offer this benefit. This is a chance to show off your work and make the reader want to be able to finish the book. If you do not deliver on this then hang it up. Your words back up your name, which brings me to my next point.

Your name and brand as an author is the single thing that is one hundred percent unique to you. All other concepts and plots, covers, colors, and themes will always overlap with another work in some way. However, your name itself, along with your photo is what differentiates you from all other writers out there. If you practice consistency and use the same image among all social media sites as well as your books then, over time, your face and pen name become what is known as a brand. Steven Kings' face and name is one of the most well known faces in all of literature. He has been consistent and his work has become well known. His face pops up in cameos in the movies filmed from his books. People love what he does and his brand is known the world over.

If you want to take one step further, some authors use a quote to go along with all their books that might compliment their theme or brand that they build. For instance, Danielle Steel always uses the quote, "She'll keep you up all night." This creates a sense of what she writes about as well as etches into her readers minds something to make them remember her by. Although I am just getting into the business, my brand is something i am being consistent in. My theme is something that relays a personal story about my life. My quote that will be seen with all my books is, "He strikes your heart and drenches your soul." It not only tells potential readers about my work; It relays something intimate about who I am as a man.

No matter what you do or are doing to build your brand; The trick is to be consistent. Change things up if you feel the need to but try your best to find something that resonates with you as a writer. Something that builds a sense of excitement and allows those who come to know your work to be able to keep a marker or image in their minds of who you are and what you write about. The better the connection you are able to create with your reader; The better chance you have of them coming back to read the next book or blog that you write. Never allow yourself to be discouraged by low sales or lack of clicks because, one day, the right domino may fall that spreads your words across the globe like wildfire. What we deliver is something that never needs to be redone again. Once you create something, it doesn't need to be renewed. It is there for all time as a representative of what you love to do.

By Christopher Storm
-aka-The Stormcaller

Post Script: If you want to know the truth about what goes on behind closed doors in the rooms of the elite and what we as united spirits can do about it then check out my blog, Stormcalling