Faithful Finisher | Character Development, Christian Podcast, Live Your Dreams, Goal Setting

Straddle the line.  Middle of the road.  One foot in and one foot out.  Maybe.  Uncertain.  Wobbly.  Wishy washy.

Do any of these words fill you with confidence?  Do any of them describe the people you most admire, respect and follow?  Probably not.  More than likely you describe your heroes with words like bold.  Decisive.  Determined. Committed.  All in.  Wholehearted.  Passionate.

We don’t follow people we don’t trust, and we can’t trust someone who lacks conviction.  The greatest leaders and the greatest writers stand for something.  They also stand against things they don’t agree with.  So if you want people to follow you and the stories you write and the characters you create, you need to not only know but also publicly declare your vision, mission, and purpose for writing.  

And you do that by writing your own personal author manifesto.

What is a manifesto?  How do you write it?  Want to hear mine?  Then tune in to today’s episode.  By the end, I hope you will either love me or hate me.  If you’re on the fence, I haven’t made my stance about who I am and what I stand both for and against clear enough.  Let’s dive in.

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Regardless of your story's genre, format or length, every story has the same basic structure.  So before you write a word, create a character, consider your setting, or outline your plot, you must under the structure.

I didn't understand it when I wrote my first novel right out of college, and that first draft was a disaster.  The second and third drafts were pretty bad as well, and the fourth draft was halfway decent.  Then I learned how to build a story the right way, and the three fantasy novels I've written since are much better than that first novel as a result of understanding story structure.

Most teachers and writers explain this structure using story examples from popular novels or movies.  That's helpful and fun and interesting, but I like to be different.  I also like to run.  And a few weeks ago while running a seven mile race around a lake, I realized how much a race is similar to the three step story structure.  So in today's episode, I'm going to use the example of a seven mile race to explain the simple three act structure every story needs.  

Get Your Free DK Drake Starter Library here: https://authordkdrake.com/

Snag one or all of the Dragon Stalker books here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FK5V1HJ

Join the Help! My Kid Wants to Write a Book Community here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/authordkdrakeinsiders

Once upon a time, I never bothered with creative writing prompts.  I didn’t see the point.  Why use someone else’s story idea to prompt my own writing when I have plenty story ideas of my own?

Then one friend relentlessly prompted me to write a story about dragons.  Another countered his attacks by prompting me to write a story about cops.  

In an effort to get them to leave me alone and let me choose the topics of my own stories, I did what I had never done before: I used their prompts to write one short story I entitled “Cops, Robbers…and Dragons?”

Tune in to hear the story and decide for yourself if creative writing prompts are useless.

Get Your Free DK Drake Starter Library here: https://authordkdrake.com/

Snag one or all of the Dragon Stalker books here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FK5V1HJ

Join the Help! My Kid Wants to Write a Book Community here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/authordkdrakeinsiders

Greetings, my fiction-loving friend!  Welcome to the wonderful world of novel-writing.  I’m so pumped that you are joining me for this journey, and I can’t wait to get to know you and your characters and your stories.

You’re probably wondering who I am, so let me introduce myself by saying that I, author DK Drake, do not exist.

You read that right.  DK Drake doesn’t exist.  I made her up, just like I make up the characters in my books.  In other words, DK Drake is my pen name.   

Why did I choose to write under this pen name?  What do the D and the K stand for?  What’s my true identity?

More importantly, should you use a pen name when you publish your book?  

I can’t answer that last question for you, but I can give you three good reasons to absolutely NOT use a pen name and share why I did anyway so you can make an informed decision about the right choice for you.

Escape into the Land of Zandador:

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