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“Creating outlines is boring.” “If I create an outline, it will stifle my creativity.” “I can either plan or write. I don’t have time to do both.” These are comments I commonly here in the writing community. In fact, these are comments I have personally heard…because I said them. This juxtaposing ideology of either planning or not planning is so pervasive in writing that we even have a term for it – “planners” vs. “pantsers.” The planners look at the pansters – those people who just sit down and write with no outlining, or very little – and wonder how they ever get anything done. And the pantsers look at the planners and wonder how they have any creativity with all the planning they do.

For those whom accept the challenge and choose to write an epic fantasy tale, a firm grasp of the world you want your characters to populate is as important to the story as the story itself. Authors will painstakingly map out entire worlds, filling the landscape with beautiful cities and thundering rivers, enormous mountains and pleasant meadows. And all of these places will have to be given a history and assigned a name, or designation, some sort of reference. And to further deepen the antiquity of the sites, cities and rivers, perhaps even the characters themselves, they might be known to different peoples, different races in different regions, by different names. If you look at the character of Aragon in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, you will find him known by many names including Strider, Estel, Ranger and eventually King Elessar.

Writing fantasy is a difficult thing to do and not for the faint of heart. And yet, it is a genre that many of us find ourselves inexplicably drawn to again and again. That’s because the realm of the imagination is a wonderful place. I think of it as brain candy. Orcs, unicorns, elves, angels, magic, trolls…each one of these are the work of someone’s amazing imagination. As is well known, much of our current day fantasy fiction springs from the hotbed of Tolkien’s mind. But the roots of his creations hark back even further to the days of Norse imagination and mythology . However, Tolkien showed his mastery by taking an existing idea and making it better, developing it into something amazing that people could wrap their minds around.

I was in the middle of doing some research for another article I wrote when I came across several other articles dealing with self-publishing. I have to admit, I was excited to read them since they dealt with self-publishing and, even though self-publishing is becoming easier and more mainstream, its still hard to find usable resources. These articles quickly disappointed me. In fact, they downright upset me. I don’t know. Maybe that was their goal. Exert a gut reaction from someone who disagrees. What was the central idea behind these few articles? Self-publishing is a terrible idea, those who are self-published authors really aren’t authors, and writing should be relegated to the elite few.

If you’ve ever heard an audio book and have thought, “I’d love to do that”, then I’ve written this guide for you. This is all I know about being an audio book narrator. I’m a newb in this field however I’d like to tell you it’s much easier than you think, and also much more challenging than you think. Yes, this sounds controversial, however being an audio book narrator is not hard, if you have kids then you’ve probably been doing it already each time you read a bedtime story. But the hard part can be learning the new skills both on computer and vocal, setting up your studio, and most important of all, sticking with long books. If you have any questions, then don’t be afraid to post in the comments below and I’ll get back to you. Failing that, you can email me direct at amrit@laughingmonkey.tv or get my contact details through my website on www.laughingmonkey.tv . As for what mic I use, after doing a lot of research I decided on getting the Cad E100S which is an American made mic. It had great reviews and was a favourite for voice over artists. The Cad came out much cheaper than the Neumann’s so it fit my budget. So far I’ve been pleased with the results. I’m not going to go through setting up a home studio. There are countless videos on youtube on that, but, if you want to see photos or videos of my setup then just ask in the comments below. If enough people ask, I’ll post some.

In my last article, Anyone Can be a Writer , I encouraged you to write your story. Now, here’s a big slap in the face: There is no such thing as a new story. What? Seriously? Why am I even bothering, then? Yep. But before you leave, hear me out. That doesn’t mean you can’t write your story.