by Derek Murphy | Dec 25, 2020 | Grimoire
On Christmas I got my inevitable first 1-star review. I don’t disagree with any of it: nor was I surprised… the review notes it’s basically a blabbering, self-important mess of a book with no clear headings or topics. Though I was surprised at the...
by Derek Murphy | Dec 22, 2020 | Grimoire
LEARNING TO SPELL One time I brought a magic trick to elementary school. It was a coloring book, where the pages would show as blank, then illustrated, then full color, depending on how it was displayed. I performed a few times, astounding my friends. But then at...
by Derek Murphy | Dec 22, 2020 | Grimoire
I need to flesh this out, but you can watch the video or scan quickly. Some of these are pretty similar to issues I raised in Book Craft. SCENE/SETTING Frame entrance, show reactionNice view, slow down, pretty musicForce characters onto right pathAnti-open world...
by Derek Murphy | Dec 22, 2020 | Grimoire
In a lot of YA books, the sexy love interest has captivating magical powers over mortal women. But for some reason, they don’t work on the protagonist. She’s immune. He can hear everybody’s thoughts… but hers. She’s a mystery, a puzzle, that drives him crazy, because...
by Derek Murphy | Dec 22, 2020 | Grimoire
This is the missing “how this book is organized” section that I removed from the front of Book Craft because it felt too stagnant and uninspiring. You’ll have noticed, in this bare-bones original outline, I use clearer language and focus on each...
by Derek Murphy | Dec 22, 2020 | Grimoire
The first chapter of Book Craft – chapter 0, on courage – used to be 25K of fascinating historical trivia, but it tended to veer mostly towards creative confidence and then got pretty deep into alternative, questionable suggestions, so I’ll keep this...
