In The Demon's Head: When The Daylight Grows

In The Demon’s Head # 87: When The Daylight Grows

March 20, 2013

Hello guys how are things are your end of the computer screen. This is the first blog post that I’ve written in almost a month. Not so much because I don’t have a lot going on. (There’s that too in honesty) but more so because I’ve been really busy with everything from working on my writing with school to a few other projects. I can say though that there will likely be a lot more of these blog post coming. I’ll explain that shortly.

More Blog Post Coming

A lot of people who read this post are fans of my Facebook and Twitter accounts and if you’ve been following that then it’s likely that you’ve heard that I’ve lost my full time job as a member of the Missouri Veterans Home. I don’t want to go into a lot of details for why I was fired or why because quite frankly it’s in the past. However, it does open a new door to me.

That door is that a lot more of my time can be spent on my writing and publishing some of my work. This means that I can focus full time on my writing. Part of that time will be spent writing more blog post. I am hoping to going back to 2-3 post a week. We’ll have to see what happens between and I won’t make promises but I’m hoping that is one way that it goes.

Email List

I’ve spent a lot of time reading and learning in the last few weeks. One of the major points that I’ve taken away from all that reading was that an Email list is as beneficial to me as a Facebook Page. What I’m hoping is that I can launch an email list within the next couple of weeks I think that it will be majorly beneficial moving forward.  I’ll keep you updated as things near that point.

More New Ideas

Sometimes it amazes me that I manage to derive ideas the way I do. I’ve literally found my last three ideas while eating or sleeping. It’s kind of surprising to me that things can come to me the way they do. I’m not going to complain though and I can’t wait to get a few of them on paper. I think the new short story idea, as well as the new novel ideas will all pipe your interest.

The Blackout Series

I know that there are quite a few people who have downloaded the Blackout Series’ inaugural title “Life After Dark” and I’m happy to announce that the next story in the series will be available right around the corner.

I don’t want to give away too much yet but I’m hoping that it will be available and ready for your reading by the end of April.

That’s about all I have for right now. I hope that you enjoy this post and I remind you to subscribe to the post by entering your email in the upper right hand corner. You can also follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.  Finally If you like what I’m doing please feel free to use the donate button at the top of the blog. Any kind of donation would help and would go a long way into helping me keep the dream alive.

Until the next time you want to take a trip through the gates of hell and into the demon’s head, I’m Kyle Robinson wishing you a safe trip back to the surface.  

In The Demon's Head: What's New for 2013

In The Demon’s Head 73: What’s New for 2013

January 11, 2013

Hello everyone happy belated new year to everyone. I’m excited because this is the first post of the New Year, this post is going to be full of information on my plans going forward through 2013. 

First off, as some of you may know I enrolled in a writing class at the beginning of the year. I wasn’t sure how it would turn out but after doing just the first assignment I feel that I learned quite a bit already. This leads to some information regarding my debut novel. 

I started writing the novel a little over a week before the New Year. I made it about five pages in before beginning the class and I’ve realized that I want to wait until I finish this class before I began that novel. It may be a little bit but I do intend to begin the novel and finally release it to the public.

So if the novel is now on the back burner for the time being does that mean that my writing is also on the back burner with the exception of the class? Not in the slightest. First the writings of the months I intend to continue those. I’d like to do one a month and hopefully can hold onto that while doing the class.

Now what about the stories side of things since most of my free writings will be poems? First let’s talk about the Blackout Series. 

Originally my goals were to release the first story as a free download or read then put the others up for sale but I’m beginning to think that there may be a different system set up. I think that I will be giving away the stories for free for a while simply to help build my platform up as I work on the class and get in the process of writing my novel. 

 In the process of the class too I’m going to try to submit some short stories for publication to magazines. I’m aiming mainly to spend the next year or two as I finish the class to get my writer’s platform built up.  Hopefully by no later than the end of 2014 possibly I could have the novel done and ready for release.

Those are some of the goals for this year. Part of the reason that I put the novel on the back burner was mainly because I wanted to focus most of my writing energy on the course and that way I could finish it quicker and I would be able to focus on it and learn as much as possible. 

I will have some updates and information as I work through the course and hopefully come up with some new ideas for both stories and future novels. I look forward to this course and to sharing in the journey with you guys. 

Until next time another Happy New Year and until you decide to take another trip through the gates of hell and into the demons head, I’m Kyle Robinson wishing you a safe trip back to the surface.

In The Demon's Head: The Blackout Continues

In The Demon's Head #70: The Blackout Continues

November 21, 2012

Hello everyone and first off let me wish you a Happy Thanksgiving, and for those of you who are crazy enough to go out on Black Friday, good luck. I myself will be working Thursday night so I won't partake in the festivities but that's okay because I don't really need to run over someone's grandma for a damn deep fryer. I have to share with you though, I saw a picture on Facebook that read: America, the only country where the day after being thankful for the stuff we have we almost commit murder for shit we don't need. Thought I'd share that interesting nugget with you. I've got a few updates on what's coming up with me through the end of the year and forward.

More Than Memories Price Drop

As I kind of expected due to the nature of the book the sales for More Than Memories hasn't been quite what I had expected. Due to that I've dropped the price from 4.99 down to 2.99. That's 50 percent off of the original price. So I'd like you to go check out the Smashwords page for "More Than Memories" and if you haven't done it yet download your free sample and I hope that entices you to pick up a copy.

The Blackout Continues

If you haven't heard yet I am knee deep in working on The Blackout Short Story series. I've condensed the once 10 story series down into five stories mainly because some of the individual stories by themselves weren't long enough to warrant being just one story. I'm excited about the continuing and editing the stories and working on getting something together so that you have the first one before the new year.

Website Updates

I've decided that sometime near the end of the year that I'm going to relaunch my website hopefully with a better set up. It's something that I'm going to work on heading into December and hopefully put into effect sometime near the end of the year maybe the beginning of next year one of the two.

The Future

My future post Blackout Series is currently up in the air. I have some ideas about where I'm going moving toward July which is when I hope my next book will be available but right now I'm looking at one of two options, one of them is the story version of my poem Viral which has garnered some good reviews through Wattpad. I've had a number of people tell me that I should consider turning the poem into a story. It's between this or a time travel style novel that I've thrown around the idea for quite some time. I got the idea after reading Stephen King's 11/22/63 and I think that idea is radical enough and interesting enough that it hasn't been tried before. If I can get lucky enough maybe both of these books will see the light of day before next year.

That wraps up this edition of "In The Demon's Head" I hope to be back post Thanksgiving with some more information and new ideas. I hope you guys have a safe and wonderful holiday and as always, until the next time you want to take a trip through the gates of hell and into the Demon's Head, I'm Kyle Robinson wishing you a safe trip to the surface.

In The Demon's Head: Sinking My Teeth In

In The Demon's Head #67: Sinking My Teeth In

October 12, 2012

Hello everyone and welcome to your weekend. I hope everyone has at least some sort of plan to do something this weekend. I for one am off work tonight and will hopefully finish the editing of “More Than Memories” by the end of the weekend. But that's not all that's going on in the world of Robinson's Writings. Join me for a few tidbits that I've found out of the last couple of weeks. Some of this information will be very useful going forward, some of it is more for me to share with you guys. So let's get started.

More Than Memories Releasing This Month

I've said this before I'm sure but I'll let you know again. “More Than Memories” is slated for an October 30^th release. That's just 17 days away. If it sounds like I'm harping, I promise I'm not I'm just so excited about the release of this book that I want to tell anyone who will listen.

One thing you may not know is that I have finally decided on the price for the book. It will be on sale for 4.99. I'm very excited and I'd love to tell everyone that I really hope that this book speaks to you the way it has to me over the last year.

In case your wondering what this book is about I'd like to give you a short overview:

The human mind serves its own purpose. It protects us when we can't do it ourselves. It takes over when we shut down. It saves us when we can't save us. But what about when your mind is pushed to the edge and it no longer functions like it should? In “More Than Memories” a short story and poetry collection that's exactly what happens. Throughout the book we find out what happens when the human limits are tested. How would you react if the world was in chaos? You lost everything you loved? “More Than Memories” explores these situations among many more.

I hope you'll join us on October 30^th as I release this book. I would also love any and all reviews for this book.

Looking Past “More Than Memories”

A writers work is never done. That's why right now I'd like to also talk about what's going to happen after “More Than Memories” is released. I've learned a number of things about how to promote my writing and my work and one way I'm going to do that is to release a free E-Book called “Life After Dark” it's the first in a 10 story series that is going to be full of twist, turns, and crazy like roller coaster rides.

While a definite release date is still not sure I'm looking at December sometime for this book. I look for this to be free via e-readers as well as my website, Wattpad, and possibly Facebook. I'll have more information on that as the dates get closer.

Learning That Money Isn't Everything

Now let's be honest here, I already knew this but there's a reason that I've titled this section that.

I've made no bones about the fact that I want to make a living writing books and entertaining you guys but today I realized there's a lot more to making money when I received a comment for a fan on Wattpad the comment came from user breathofmorninglight and it read: wow never found a poem about something like this but my goodness you did an amazing job!! The wording, the plot, the climax perfection! More people need to read this!

It was at that moment that I learned that I love doing this because I love that I can touch people with my words. It means more to me then I think you'll realize that I can do this for people. If I never make a living as a writer, as long as I have fans like this one I'll always continue to do it.

That will about do it for this edition of “In The Demon's Head” I will be back Tuesday with another opinion filled post you can bet on that. Until the next time you want to take a trip through the gates of hell and into the demon's head, I'm Kyle Robinson wishing you a safe trip back to the surface.

In The Demon's Head: My Problems With 50 Shades of Gray...

In The Demon's Head #66: My Problems With 50 Shades Of Gray....

October 9, 2012

Hello everyone and happy Tuesday. I talked about doing it last week and I intend to fully deliver on my promise. Before I begin to write this though I'd like to let everyone know that this isn't a post of jealousy, this isn't a post of hate, this is just my opinion on the 50 Shades of Gray books and why I have such a huge problem with them. I can't really say much in the way of sales because let's face it this book has sold 25 Million copies in 4 months that's pretty damn impressive. However...

My problem with this series is this, IT'S WRITTEN BY A SIXTH GRADER. No not literately but the book reads and feels like it was written by a sixth grader. Holy shit, and before anyone gets all offensive and angry and asks me have I read the book? The answer is HELL NO. However, while pondering my local Barns and Noble I did sit down for a few short minutes and picked up the Big Print Copy of this book to browse through. The big print is nearly twice the size of a regular print and I couldn't even make it through the first page....

Now I have no problem with the erotic novel either. I've even written a few erotic short stories, but I mean seriously my first draft of my short story had more life to it then the finished product of this book. I want to know how in the hell has anyone had the brain power to finish this book. Let me give you an example of what I'm saying here... My wonderful girlfriend, Liz reads Nightworld and other such vampire books and I tease her for the simplicity of them but to each their own. When she picks up the book and wants to mark all over due to some horrible grammar and won't even buy it because of how horrible the story is then that is a testament to how crappy this book really is.

Now at the risk of this burning a bridge or two (should the post ever been seen by that many eyes) I'd like to talk directly to first the editor of this book. Yes, I understand that this book has made a lot of money, this is a fact that I can't argue with but how in the hell can you really be okay with the fact that you let that book run by you and you didn't do anything at all to make it above the sixth grade reading level. What's worse is if you actually did something and jacked it up to that level then I would have hated to seen the actual original copy of the book. But in the end I suppose it's really all about the “Millions of Dollars” I guess if it's what helps you and yours sleep at night then by all means please let it go on.

Second, I'd like to say a word to E.L James. If you ever get a chance to read this post, then I'd love for you to know that while I respect your ability to get a product recognized I have to say that your ability to write a book is completely off course for where things should be. How do I know? I've read Twilight, I've read Harry Potter, I've read Stephen King, I've read Dean Koontz, I've read writing books, I've read dozens of reports, What I'm getting at is that I've read dozens of different things and it makes me sad to say that the most boring of those (which generally are the writing tips books) are still more powerfully written and better put together then your crap of a novel. You should be ashamed for having written such a horrible book. You can say all you want that people will want it, and your right, they may never read a copy of my book and that's fine. I'll continue to write for fun, and I'll do it without writing something that I'm not proud of, and if in fact you are proud of that novel then I'm very sorry to say that your level of pride has to be low.

Now I'm not sure if this is going to earn me any hate mail, I kind of hope so because I'd love to learn your points of view when it comes to this book. So by all means, comment, send me mail here, do whatever it is to show me that I'm wrong, or if you agree why not join on the bandwagon with me whichever side of the fence you fall on then to each their own.

Until the next time you take a trip through the gates of hell and into the demon's head, I'm Kyle Robinson wishing you a safe trip back to the surface.

In The Demon's Head: 11 Years Later

In The Demon's Head #59: 11 Years Later, How the World Has Changed.

September 11, 2012

Hello everyone on this afternoon where many have spent the day morning or somber due to the memorials that took place earlier today to commemorate the 11^th anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks on America on September 11, 2001. For so many today is a day of memorial and remembrance as they lost a loved one or lost something on that fateful day. The question that's posed every year is do you remember where you were when the plane struck the towers.

For me, I was in the fifth grade. We had just finished up something in the morning and we were instructed to line up and go to the gym where we were all gathered. No one ever told us exactly what was going on but we were told that something had happened, being so young I didn't quite understand the severity of it until that afternoon when I came home.

Even as young as I was I realized that, that day would forever live on as something that would change the lives of every American Citizen. A couple of days later WWE's Smackdown was the first public gathering since the attacks and Vince McMahon offered a heartfelt and moving speech to the crowd that night in attendance. He said that we as American's wouldn't be afraid because fear would only show them that they had won. That was the first night in a series of events that showed how much the country had been moved. The final thing that I remember from that week was the CMA's where Alan Jackson performed his song “Where were you when the world stopped turning” It's a song that to this day is played on September 11, as a memorial for those that had fallen.

Now looking back at the events of that day it's amazing how things have shaped our lives. First off looking at our security system that's changed over the last decade. Airport Security is going to be a huge deal now, not that it shouldn't have always been but the last decade has taught us things that we would have never known about ourselves.

Another thing that I think has changed as a whole is the human mindset. We're a lot weaker as a human race then we used to be. We take too much care in everything and we always get butt hurt when things don't go the way they want, they get upset when things are taken the slightest out of context.

I think it's changed a lot of things, including how everything is looking. I don't know for a fact what comes next but I believe that whatever it is we as a society needs to be ready for it. I'm not preaching and arguing about what comes next and what we need to do but given our history we need to be ready.

That's all for today's edition of In The Demon's Head, I'll be back Friday with a new general update. In that update I will have some new information on the direction of the In The Demon's Head Blog going forward. I hope that you'll join me, Until the next time that you decide to take a trip through the gates of hell and into the demon's head, I'm Kyle Robinson wishing you a safe trip back to the surface.

In The Demon's Head: Story Art: Ending at The End

In The Demon's Head #58: Story Art; Ending at the End

September 10, 2012

Hello everyone while I'll admit that this post is far later then I had originally planned, I want to take a moment to apologize about that. I'd like to take this chance to wrap up my blogging series involving Story Art, We've talked about the beginning, the middle, and now I'd like to talk to you about the ending.

I know I'm not the only one whose read a book that drug on for far too long, and if your anything like me you hate starting something and not finishing it so you pushed through. You were more excited for the ending then the climax because you wanted the story to be over for a long time.

This is an occurrence that happens to writers a lot more then they would like to admit. I'm one of those that is guilty of making stories drag on and I think it was mainly because I didn't want the story to end. I was so pleased with the product that I just kept writing and writing until finally the story lost it's appeal and fizzled out.

So this topic, like our others begs the question, where do we end? Simply put, we end at the end. How do you decide where the end is? There are two separate but completely right answers to this questions. First, if your story has an Epilogue or an afterwords that is connected to the story then you need to delete it and end your story with the last line on the page before that. That's answer one.

Answer two is this: You let your story decide when it's over. Stories in our heads have a good way of wrapping themselves up when they need to wrap up. So don't drag them out and let it go. If your story has more to tell you'll know, It's always easier to know when we don't have enough versus when we have too much.

The end of your story is the culmination of hours of hard work as you pushed to finish everything up on your piece of art. Don't push it further and further back just because you don't want to move onto a new project, something in this project is you holding you in place, or another reason that you can't seem to put that final period on the project that your working on.

Simply put once again, end at the end it's that simple.

That wraps up today's edition of “In The Demon's Head” I'll be back tomorrow at some point with a special edition of “In The Demon's Head” profiling 9/11 and how it has changed things in our country. Then Friday the general update returns, and I have very special information on this blog moving forward so be sure to check that out. As always you can visit my website to find my social media channels, get all the free writings, and many other things. If you want this blog fresh off the press, be sure to subscribe my putting your email in the box above and become a follower of the blog.

Until the next time that you want to take a trip through the gates of hell and into the demon's head, I'm Kyle Robinson wishing you a safe trip back to surface.

In The Demon's Head: Story Art; Your Middle, Your LIfeline

In The Demon's Head #57: Story Art; Treat Your Middle: Your Lifeline

September 5, 2012

Hello everyone and welcome to edition number 57 of In The Demon's Head, today we continue our journey into Story Art by discussing why the middle of any piece of writing is your lifeline. In case you've missed it we've already talked about the beginning of pieces, and how to generate ideas, so I figured in logical order we'd talk about the middle.

Now to clarify I recently read part of a book called the portable MFA in Creative Writing. It's a book featured on Writer's Digest.com and I would suggest picking up a copy because so far it's made me look at things a lot differently and one of those things is the middle of your story, not for how important it is, but how it's built so let's start there.

I was reading this book and they talked about how your beginning raises the question and how you end your beginning and merge into the middle. First off, the middle is usually built of three pieces where a beginning, middle, and end of the middle. The middle merges into the end and of course the end is your story conclusion.

Now onto the answer for the question I posed in the title, Your Middle; Your lifeline. The question is, is that a true statement with the answer being a resounding yes.

Why do I call your middle the lifeline? Because the middle serves as the lifeblood of your work, if it becomes boring your reader will skip right to the end of the book to find out the answers they seek, or worse they'll just stop reading period, then your repeat reader is lost and worse they'll pass the information along to their friends.

But just what makes the middle good? Three things, great writing, conflict, and something that ties the beginning to the end, and of course it has to be interesting. A reader wants to be attached to a story that carries them through the ups and downs and makes the characters 3 dimensional and fun to follow.

There are other elements that goes into the middle but if you can write a compelling middle to your story and help develop your character into something special then you'll have no problem writing a great book that many people want to read.

That's going to do it for me for this edition of “In The Demon's Head” I will be back on Friday with the final post about how to write a good ending. If you have any questions about any of the post please don't hesitate to ask by writing me an email here. Until the next time that you want to take a trip through the gates of hell and into the Demon's Head I'm Kyle Robinson wishing you a safe trip back to surface.

In The Demon's Head: Story Art- In The Beginning

In The Demon's Head #56: Story Art- To Begin at the Beginning

August 31, 2012

Hello everyone and welcome to the weekend, I hope the rain hasn't splattered down on you like it did us here today, then again if you were like we were then the rain is never a bad thing. I hope that this post finds you doing well and also that your about to enjoy your labor day weekend. Hard to believe that 2012 is already 2/3 of the way over.

Today's post isn't your typical Friday post, Today actually is the continuation of the blogging series “Story Art” last Tuesday I talked about how I got ideas and before we begin with today's post I'd like to expand on that a bit.

In case your wondering there are 4 things that you can do to improve your idea generator, and while I had heard these before I didn't think to include them so I thought no better place then here. The four things you can do are, 1. People Watch- This may seem a bit creepy to some people, hell it does to me but there's no better way to improve your ability to not only generate ideas but you can get a better idea of how to improve your dialog writing. 2. Travel- Now I know this may be hard for some people but if money is an issue then that's fine just go to your local park, go wherever you don't go often so you can get a breath of fresh air into your life, you never know when the next great idea may be sitting on a bench next to you. 3. Talk to people- Now you can do this on social media websites but in reality it's better if you do it in person. Either way you do it, just ask questions, about a persons life, about the way they think, about everything they've seen and done, an idea could be right around the corner that way. 4. Read- I know this goes without saying but the more you read the better your writing is, and you never know if you may find an idea for your next poem or short story written in the headlines or in a book from someone else, it all depends but your next idea can be found in the words of others.

Now that I've finally covered that base let's move onto today's subject, this one is kinda touch for some people because they're all different but I'm gonna give you my take on it and from there you can think how you want, today's topic is where to begin a piece.

Writing for some come naturally, for others they work, and it's that work that some people find appealing but one thing that naturalist and workaholics share is where to being their pieces. You've seen every type of opening if you've read constantly. You've either seen the really bad non-attention getting headlines, or you've seen the amazing openings that sucked you in but why did they chose that event to start with?

I think it really depends on 2 things, the first is the style of the writer in question. I love to start with a kick to the gut every time that it's possible. If I can immediately ask a question that you want an answer to then your gonna want to keep reading to find that answer and that's the beauty of a captivating opening. Now that's not taking away from the openings that aren't so direct those openings also serve great purposes but I think it's really more toward what the author in question wants. 2. It all depends on the story in question as well, I think the story's depth should determine if it has a hard opening or a gradual one.

That still begs the question how do you chose an opening scene?

The answer to this is very simple, begin at the beginning. What this means is wherever you believe the beginning of the story is that's where you start. If you think the story should start Post car crash then by all means start it post car crash. If you feel the story should start right before the crash then start it there. However, choose the opening wisely because should you start to far into the heat of the story then there's a lot of backstory and questions that you'll have to answer then deliver a twist and turn leading to the climax, on the flip side, should you choose to start too far back of the event then your going to be going through a long and drawn out process leading to the final resolution and conflict and in that middle unless it's beautifully told then your going to lose a lot of readers.

A safe bet when it comes to choosing a beginning is to choose the middle ground between these two. You don't want to start to far back and give yourself too much ground to cover but don't start so far ahead that you have to stretch your mind to take it up and up and up only hoping that resolution and climax were worth the climb. You'll also want to avoid these two extremes if your just starting out, though that's a harder ground to crack. Trust your judgment and find a few readers who are willing to review your work for you. It's always a great idea to have a support group especially in a situation like this.

That's gonna close out this week ending edition of “In The Demon's Head” I'll be back on Tuesday with a segment on the middle of your stories and finally Friday we'll be covering the endings and then the following Tuesday we'll talk about how to wrap it all together. Remember, you can find out more about me and the stuff I write at my website, on there as well are the social media channels that I use, as well a more. You can also subscribe to this blog by putting your email address in the upper right hand box and have In The Demon's Head delivered to you hot off the presses.

Until the next time you want to take a trip through the gates of hell and into the demon's head, I'm Kyle Robinson wishing you a safe trip back to the surface.

In The Demon's Head: Story Art: Getting Ideas

In The Demon's Head #55: Story Art: Getting Ideas

August 28, 2012

Hello everyone I hope everything is well for you this Tuesday, I'm very excited to be bringing you this edition of “In The Demon's Head” as it is a continuation of our new blogging series “Story Art” I did an intro this past Friday and today I'd like to start with our first conversation, Getting Ideas.

This is a topic that some people feel they should never share any light on, I'm not sure why but I've heard that. On the flip side there are also people who share a lot of information on this topic and none of it seems all that important. I hope that I can share some of my experience with you without boring you or you thinking that it wasn't worth reading.

First, I'd like to make something clear, while it's not this way for everyone for a lot of people the best ideas seem like they come from nowhere. It doesn't make any sense but they will be walking along and boom an idea hits them that leaves them unable to think about anything else.

I'll share a story with you, there's a story in “More Than Memories” called the “7^th Circle Railway” the idea came to me while I was riding along with Liz and we passed a railroad track that I had never seen before. I grabbed my phone and wrote a note down so I wouldn't forget it. Like that I had an idea for a short story.

Poetry tends to be a little different for me, ideas for them seem to come a bit harder. I think that those things come while writing. You start with a barebones idea and it evolves as you write. Now again these aren't things that are customary to every person but for me this is how it works.

Now how do you defer a good idea from a bad idea? First, before you say that you've never had a bad idea, this may be true for you however, you need to decide which stories you should tell. That's a hard thing to do when you just want to keep writing everything that comes into your head. This was something that I read in Stephen King's “On Writing” Not every story is yours to tell, so how do you decide which ones are yours?

You sleep on it.

What I mean is that if you come up with an idea that won't go away go to sleep. If you can sleep and wake up and the idea is still there then it's an idea that you should keep ahold of. Now if the idea won't go away then write it down somewhere, I keep everything in a journal, write it down then in a few weeks read the idea again or if you remember it think it over, if it still offers you the same amount of excitement that it did the day it was born then you have something you should write. If it doesn't make you excited then it's something that needs pitched because if your not excited to tell that story then it will come through in your writing and become one of those things that you should never have put out for the eyes of man in the first place.

For some people, ideas are hard to come by, for others it seems like the ideas do nothing but come to them time and time again. Those people may never use the ideas that they found, I've met a couple people like that, then there are people who would kill just for one or two ideas. In reality it's all about execution. You have to be willing to write the ideas that you have.

That closes out my Getting section of “Story Art” hopefully I didn't bore you. I'll be back Friday talking about where to begin a story. Until the next time you want to take a trip through the gates of hell and into the demon's head I'm Kyle Robinson wishing you a safe trip back to the surface.

In The Demon's Head: Story Art- Intro

In The Demon's Head #54: Story Art Blogging Series Intro

August 24, 2012

So usually I would use Friday as the general update section of my blog. However, today marks the beginning of a new blogging series which will last for the next couple of weeks. Like my promotional techniques series, this will be a series about story art. I will be covering ideas, the beginning, the middles, and the ends.

Now why would I do a series like this you may wonder. It's very simple actually, I've been looking for a way to help spread the writing message to people I love to help people improve their writing and this was the best way that I could do it.

Let me break down a little of how this is going to work...

This is going to be a 4 part series not counting this intro that will focus only on how to improve your stories and writing. The first part is Getting Ideas

In this section I plan on talking a bit about how I get ideas, how I figure out a good from a bad idea, and how I decide if it's an idea that I deserve to write about or should I leave it for someone else.

The second part is about where to begin your stories, there's been a considerable amount of debate concerning this so I thought I'd take this chance to offer up my thoughts on how I feel stories should begin. I think a lot of it has variable but we'll cover that more soon.

The third part is about how important the middle of your book is, a lot people don't realize how important it is because they've always been harped on how important the climax and the beginning hook are, it kinda leaves out the middle, that ends here.

Finally, we'll talk about the end of your stories or novels, sometimes I've read books where the end came far too early then other times it just kept going until you really thought there was no end, but how do we end at the end? We'll talk more about that here.

I plan on covering the basic parts to stories and tell you how each part matters and why it's important to make each the best that you can. If you can write a great story through and through you'll quickly be able to find that people love your writing and will be eagerly awaiting each next thing that you put out.

Until this Tuesday have a safe weekend, I can't wait to get this started, and as you've read this if you feel I've left something out feel free to leave me a comment or drop me an email and if I feel that we share the same thoughts and I did indeed forget it, then consider it added. I hope to hear from you.

Until the next time you want to take a trip through the gates of hell and into the demon's head, I'm Kyle Robinson wishing you a safe trip back to the surface.

In The Demon's Head: Why Patience Is A Virtue

In The Demon's Head #53: Why Patience is a Virtue

August 21, 2012

Hello everyone how are you this afternoon. I'm coming to you once again from the couch in my living room and highly enjoying the weather and this day off from my real job so I thought what a better way to spend some time today then to talk to you all of my readers about different things.

Before we launch into the full on of today's edition, I'd like to take a moment and tell you about the new free writing for August for your reading pleasure. “Mind of Madness” a short piece that will be complete with some artwork from Tom, my neighborhood art designer. I'll have that piece up later this afternoon.

Either way I'll move into the meat of this edition, I'd like to explain why patience is a virtue as it comes to your writing. There are a number of ways that I could explain this but it's mainly coming down to the final process, because let's face it writing doesn't require patience.

Now when I say that I don't mean that the writing process itself doesn't take patience, I'm not talking about formulating and plotting ideas because I understand that does take some patience and time, what I mean is when you sit down to write you don't want to take time to think, you write, write and write some more. Write until your fingers go numb and you forget why you started writing in the first place. What I'm referring to is everything after that.

Your editing is the first stop. I know a lot of people believe that you can just jump right into editing a book or story as soon as it's finished but this couldn't be further from the truth. The reason they say let everything sink away for a while before you begin editing is because they want you to take a moment to let everything disappear. This allows you to approach the piece with a fresh set of eyes that you wouldn't have had otherwise.

Another aspect, especially in today's world of self-publishing dominance is publishing before your ready. I made this mistake a few years ago and attempted to publish my first short story on Amazon with no real knowledge of what I was doing and without editing it first. This made the story not only bad, but it was bad and people knew it so it never sold a copy, on top of that I wasn't confident with it which made things worse. What I'm getting at here is that you never want to rush into the publishing aspect of things, should you tend to do that you will end up putting something up that isn't your best work and everyone will realize that.

Another thing where patience is a needed tool is in platform building. Now I understand that everyone wants to sell their books and understandably so, I do as well, but you can't do it without a platform. This was another mistake I made, I didn't have an established platform at all and it showed. The message for my story didn't get outside of the small circle of people that I knew and that lead to no one buying the story.

What I'm getting at here is that there are ways to go about things when it comes to your writing. But sit down, pace yourself, and slow down, you never want to rush into anything, it could cost you a lot more then you realize in the long run. You always want your best stuff out there and available and the only way that's going to happen is if you allow yourself the patience to give it your best shot. 

Have you ran into any problems where patience has cost you, or a situation where it's helped you improve your writing? I'd love for you to share that in the comments section below.  

That does it for this edition of “In The Demon's Head” I'd like to remind you that you can connect with me on all aspects of Social Media as well as have the blog directly emailed to you by signing up for the mailing list and receiving my free “Promotional Techniques” E-Book here or by signing up with your email address above. You can send me questions via email and I'll be sure to get back to you.

There won't be a general update this week as I'm starting a “Story Art” blogging series talking about how to formulate and put together a story and that starts Friday and will continue through next week. Until the next time you want to take a trip through the gates of hell and into the demon's head, I'm Kyle Robinson wishing you a safe trip back to the surface.

In The Demon's Head: Writing After Dark

In The Demon's Head #52: Writing After Dark

August 18, 2012

Hello everyone I hope ya'll are enjoying your weekend. I would have had this up earlier but it's been a long few days. Friday I was functioning on almost no sleep and then today I was at work until noon so needless to say I went back to bed as soon as I got home. But I'm up now and I figure no better time then now to have up the latest “In The Demon's Head”

Let's move into the brunt of this weeks general update, first off I'm very pleased at this point for a number of reasons the first of which being that this week I began My new short story series project, I don't have a title for it yet but the first story has a working title of “Life After Dark” which is kind of why I incorporated the title of this blog entry the way I did.

For me the week has been full of writing things which as I'm sure most of you who have read this blog on a regular basis can attest to that this isn't always the case. First I began writing “Life After Dark” which will be the first short story in an unnamed series and I'm happy to announce that it will be given away free of charge when it's released later this year.

All you'll have to do to receive this story is to sign up for the mailing list. With the mailing list you'll get free updates, mailings when they begin, and you'll get other stuff when you sign up. I'm very excited about that going forward, so please sign up for the Email list.

Plus another good news update is that hopefully we'll see “More Than Memories” have the finished 2^nd draft within the next month. My entire vision is to have this book ready to roll out by October. Also, this month's free writing is currently being worked on with some illustration by the wonderful Zeus, and I'm hoping that it will be available on the website and WattPad no later then Monday. The new piece is called “Mind Of Madness” I'd love your feedback.

Finally, another awesome thing is that I came up with another awesome idea while at work. I can't say that they keep pouring out like water but I'm coming up slowly with enough stuff to keep me busy for at least the next year or longer. It's a very great feeling.

In all honesty, I'm sorry that this edition of “In The Demon's Head” is not only late but also a little short but I'd like to take a moment and say thanks to everyone whose been reading this blog for the last six months. As I said once before I'm very excited about everything moving forward. I'd like to take this chance to offer an open invitation to anyone who would like to ask me any question at all. I'd like to start answering at least one or two a week so if you have any questions about process, or about anything writing wise please send me any question via email.

Finally, I'd like to also say that you can subscribe to the blog via your email address by putting it in the box up to the right. And you can join any of my social media circles by going here and picking your poison of chocie Beyond that there's not a lot more to add so enjoy your weekend, I'll be back on Tuesday with another edition of “In The Demon's Head” Until the next time you want to take a trip through the gates of hell and into the demon's head I'm Kyle Robinson wishing you a safe trip back to the surface.

In The Demon's Head: How Sights Influence Your Sound

In The Demon's Head #51: How Sights Influence Your Sound

August 14, 2012

How's everyone this Tuesday afternoon, it's almost 2 O'clock where I'm sitting and it seemed as good a time as any to sit down and write the new In The Demon's Head Blog post. Before we begin I'd like to say again if you want this delivered straight to your E-mail inbox then please provide your email address in the box above. Also if your wanting a copy of my Promotional Techniques E-Book just visit my website and fill out the form at the bottom.

Onto today's issue, as I'm sure you've no doubt guessed by the title today's installment is all about sights, but you may ask yourself what it means if they influence your sound. I'm here to explain.

I want you to think of a plot to a book you've read, any plot at all it doesn't matter. Now I want you to picture that same book written with that plot by someone else, someone who hasn't done the things your author has done, or hasn't seen the things your author has seen.

For me the process of sights is an important thing as it shapes every type of writing that is out there, but I'd like to focus more on how ti could influence your sound. Every writer has their own sound, Me, You, everyone who writes has their style and voice as it's shown out through words.

It's so important to realize what it is that you've seen and been around in your lifetime as it can influence your next project and maybe even possibly your next best seller. Your style and your voice as you write is your reflection and I think it's our surroundings and understandings of the world around us that make us the writers that we grow into.

So here's my challenge for you today, I want you to go for a walk and just pay attention to the world around you, nothing else. Then I want you to go home and find something you wrote from a long time ago, and I want you to think back to that time and figure out how your life influenced that piece of writing, if it did at all. I'd love you to share your comments on how your sights have influenced your writing voice so feel free to share them below.

On a final note I'll be back on Friday with a weekly update hopefully with some information on “More Than Memories” and the brand new project “Life After Dark” You can subscribe to the blog by entering your name above, if you have some extra cash and would like to donate I have a donate button above it would be greatly appreciated, Finally you can visit my website and check out how to find me on Social Media until the next time you want to take a trip through the gates of hell and into the demon's head, I'm Kyle Robinson wishing you a safe trip back to the surface.