Category Archives: Tips for Writers

Warfare for Writers - Irregular Warfare

Warfare for Writers - Irregular Warfare.

In the last post, I looked at the Fog of War and previously discussed Open and Close Units of soldiers. Formal Warfare, the familiar wars, like WWII have been depicted in various media. Also, Irregular Warfare has been popular: Tom Clancy's works are a good example. So, how does Warfare for Writers - Irregular Warfare affect the writer?

These types of units are rarely under efficient direct control of a military commander, which can lead to CHAOS!

Many times, these units of irregular forces come from cultures where  men go armed, all the time and are made up of:

Privateers (navy) with letters of Marque and Reprisal.

Mercenaries are paid units from elsewhere.

Guerrilla Warfare are in support of war, especially by part-timers: The Arab revolt that made T. E. Lawrence famous. (Yes, Lawerence of Arabia was a real person!)

Private units and armies, like Muqtada Al-Sadr's Mehdi Army in Iraq.

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What does this mean for a writer?

If your characters are engaged in irregular warfare, what tensions does it cause for military commanders and the characters themselves? How well are they fitting in?

Note: this information was taken from lectures by Timons Esaias with his permission.

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Warfare for Writers - Fog of War

Warfare for Writers - Fog of War

Unfortunately, Hollywood, TV, and yes, a few authors have privates and sergeants knowing the overall situation of a battle. Audie Murphy who played himself in the movie To Hell and Back won the Congressional Metal of Honor and was the most decorated soldier in WWII. He didn't know what was happening a mile away in most cases and such is Warfare for Writers - Fog of War.  Have this uncertainty effect your characters and the plot! Have it get on their nerves, and in some cases they may  become irrational. It is definitely a good plot device.

Soldier Deployment:

Historically, soldiers and troopers have been put on the battle field in one of two ways: Close Order or Open Order.

Close Order:images

Close order is where warriors are more or less shoulder to shoulder and within an arm's reach of the warrior ahead or behind.

Benefit:

Soldiers are psychologically supported by direct, even physical peer pressure. Your "buddy" is helping with his actions and words to lead you forward.

It puts a lot of power in one place and ready to strike.

The warriors in the trenches during WWI would be considered in close order as would warriors in columns or lines.

Cons:

Projectiles or artillery would kill more warriors when rained down on the warriors head or even nearby in a hard-to-miss target. A lot more people would die.

Open Order:unequal-battle-18937280

A formation which is spread out in either groups of two or three men, if not, singly.

Benefits:

There will be reduced casualties.

Cons:

Psychologically, the warrior is on his own to face the fears and indecisions of the situation.

Communications with the leaders may break down and with other groups of men.

It requires more training.

Summary:

If you have a warrior in battle, you should have some sense of what formation they are in, what they can and can't do, along with what they can see. Also, the unit's purpose must be clear. These factors will effect the warrior psychologically.

Note: This information was taken from a lecture by Timions Esaias with his permission.

 

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Warfare for Writers - Officers

Warfare for Writers - Officers covers commissioned and non-commissioned officers, different from the days when one could buy a rank. From a Timons Esaias lecture.

Non-commissioned officers - sergeants and corporals and rarely sergeant-majors - are the foreman of the military.

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Commissioned officers lead companies, or their equivalent, and up. Officers are the quarterbacks of the team, they tell everybody else what to do and are responsible if they don't get it done. If officers work well together, they combine their strengths. If they squabble, they make their weaknesses prominent. Think plot conflicts!

An overwhelming concern for officers in most armies in history, is seniority. Armies, since ancient Rome, have had strict rules on who gets what job based on seniority down to minutes and seconds. If a higher ranking officer shows up, based on seniority, even in the middle of a battle, he assumes command and he can change the battle orders. If your character is an officer in a civilized military, this needs to be on their mind. If your character is a knight in a feudal military, then he is concerned about honor and precedence becoming more important, more complex, and more vexing.

Confusion for writers - in addition to names and official ranks there are positions and brevets. Positions are the jobs officers do, adding meanings to their rank with titles such as: executive officer, quartermaster, master, commander, first mate, officer of the day, and so on. Brevets or field commissions are acting ranks usually awarded doing wartime, giving the power of the rank without postwar privileges and pensions.

The one absolute SIN of an officer in the field, if he commands a unit, is not to reconnoiter his position. (Which is, to find out where other units are, and the nature of the surrounding terrain.) This sin is all too common and is utterly inexcusable!

If you find this post useful, please share and add to your social media platform(s). Thanks, Dameon

 

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Social Media AD Sizes 2

In this post, we'll discuss Twitter and Google+ for Social Media AD Sizes 2:

Twitter account header an profile photo: Profile Photo: 400x400 pixels upload; it will show at 200x200 Twitter doesn't state a pixel size for tweets. Nonetheless, 1024 wide and 512 high will give you a lot of space. Logos: Standard , 100 wide x 60 high, Square 50 x 50

Google+ Cover  photo can be 480 wide x 270 high, recommended: 1080 wide x 608 high, max is 2120 x1192. Profile photo can be 250 x 250 but a larger size is recommended.imgres images

NOTE: These are the basics. Other formats can be used with a range of pixel sizes. Check the site for their requirements.

If you find this blog useful, please add me to your social media sites and share. Thanks, Dameon

 

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Social Media AD Sizes 1

facebook-793049_640Having trouble getting your photos sized for your different platforms? There's a lot of information and I'll split the blog posts by platform. It's frustrating, but once you get the hang of it, it goes smoothly. This post, Social Media AD Sizes 1 is dedicated to Facebook.

  • Cover Photo:        851 pixels wide by 315 pixels tall. Your profile photo, name, category and interaction buttons will cover areas of the photo
  • Ad images:           Facebook objectives: 1,200 pixels wide - 444 pixels high for page likes, etc - 675 pixels for video - 900 pixels for Page post - 628 pixels for all other objectives
  • For Carousel       3 to 5 images with clicks to website - 600 x 600 pixels

Keep in mind the Facebook chat for Ad Help is quite good and responsive.

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Warfare for Writers - Fortifications

Warfare for Writers - Fortifications -- another in the series by Iimons Easisa' lectures with his permission.

There are nine things that tend to be missing when you visit fortifications:

  • The surface
  • The Glacis -- . . . the glacis prevents attacking cannons from having a clear shot at the walls of a fortress, as one usually cannot even see the walls until the glacis is crossed and the ditch, bounded on either side by the smooth, masoned scarp and counterscarp, is reached. Wikipedia
  • Top structures
  • Firing steps
  • Moats
  • Full gate structures
  • Barbicans -- A barbican is a fortified outpost or gateway, such as an outer defense to a city or castle, or any tower situated over a gate or bridge which was used for defensive purposes. Usually barbicans were situated outside the main line of defences and connected to the city walls with a walled road called the neck. In the 15th century, with the improvement in siege tactics and artillery, barbicans lost their significance. However, several barbicans were built even in the 16th century.Fortified or mock-fortified gatehouses remained a feature of ambitious French and English residences into the 17th century.

    Fortifications in East Asia also featured similar structures. In particular, gates in Chinese city walls were often defended by an additional "archery tower" in front of the main gatehouse, with the two towers connected by walls extending out from the main fortification. Called literally "jar walls", they are often referred to as "barbicans" in English.

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  • Original approach roads
  • Firing slit stoppers --
    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    An arrowslit at Corfe Castle. This shows the inside - where the archer would have stood.

    An arrowslit at Cité de Carcassonne. The wall thickness is reduced to 0.7 m to accommodate the niche and the embrasure widens at an angle of 35º.

    An arrowslit (often also referred to as an arrow loop, loophole or loop hole, and sometimes a balistraria) is a thin vertical aperture in a fortificationthrough which an archer can launch arrows.

    The interior walls behind an arrow loop are often cut away at an oblique angle so that the archer has a wide field of view and field of fire. Arrow slits come in a remarkable variety. A common and recognizable form is the cross. The thin vertical aperture permits the archer large degrees of freedom to vary the elevation and direction of his bowshot but makes it difficult for attackers to harm the archer since there is only a small target to aim at.

    Balistraria can often be found in the curtain walls of medieval battlements beneath the crenellations.

    ...more to come!

 

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Cover Artist - 4

Continuing in art with Cover Artist - 4 by Joshua Jadon. Joshua states, "I am a passionate Graphic Designer that focuses on delivering professional work to my clients all over the globe. I started drawing at the age of 6 years old which later evolved into designing graphics." Joshua's website is located here: JoshuaJadon.com

kaden-finalSoloElite-Rendering2trapgoddess-ebook-coverrendering1

 

 

 

 

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SO, YOU WANT TO BLOG 2

SO, YOU WANT TO BLOG 2 is a summary from WordPress and Blogging Basics by Giselle Aguiar (AZSocialMediaWiz.com)

WHAT TO BLOG ABOUT: I've been asked several times what to blog about. As you know, this is an informational blog for writers and authors. What is your blog about?

Courtesy of AboutDo
Courtesy of AboutDo
  • TRENDS
  • INTERVIEWS
  • SUCCESS STORIES
  • QUESTIONS (each one you've been asked can be a BLOG post.
  • Hypothetical Situations
  • Lists EX: 10 ways to find a Title
  • Educational
  • Inspiring

To name a few.

Always remember to obtain permissions for Media you place in your blog.

QUOTES: Consider highlighting quotes and/or putting them in italics. 

BLOGGING TIPS:

  • Write Quality Content ~ Don't plagiarize!
  • Give them what they want like solutions to their problems.
  • Keep it simple.

Between 300 and 400 words, if possible.

ALWAYS PREVIEW YOUR POSTS!

 

 

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Don't Jeopardize Your Work - Making your book easy on the eyes.

This is a summary of an article by Smith Publicity with their generous permission. The original article can be found at http://alturl.com/kg5hd.

You've accomplished all that work to get a book written. Now, you Don't Jeopardize Your Work, making basic mistakes by not conforming to generally-accepted practice. One standard I'm asked about at times is the best font to use. You want a font that is: easy to read over a long passage!

There are five that, not only look good,but are often used. NOTE: THE FONTS BELOW ARE Examples by Adobe:

GARAMOND: Named after the 16th-century French "punch-cutter" or type designer Claude Garamond.

 

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JANSON:

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BEMBO: Designed by Francesco Griffo in the late15th and early 16th century. (Hey, I didn't name it!)

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CASION: It was one of the most used type faces in the late 18th and 19th centuries designed by William Casion.

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ELECTRA: Designed in 1935 by D. W. Dwiggins, Electra adds a distinctive "color" and evenness to the printed page.

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My novels use Garamond and I'm, obviously, pleased with it as a font. Look around; there are certainly many more to chose from, but you want a font that will not tire your eyes--or your brain--while reading a long passage.

 

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Copyright Law Basics

Copyright protection exists from the moment a work is created in a fixed, tangible form of expression. The copyright immediately becomes the author's property who created the work. Only the author, or those he/she gives rights to, can claim copyright. In works made for hire, the employer—not the writer—is the author.copyright-sign-5005639

Ownership in Copyright Law Basics of a book, does not give copyrights.

Duration: If you right it now, you own it until seventy years after your death. Pseudonymous works (unless the author's identity is in the Copyright Office),  the copyright is 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation, whichever is shorter. Works prior to 1978 are different. See an attorney.

A copyright notice has three parts:

  1. The symbol © (the letter C in a circle), the word "Copyright" or the abbreviation "Copr."
  2. The year when the work was first created.
  3. The name of the owner of the copyright.

"International" Copyright

"International" copyright that automatically protects a work throughout the world does not exist. Nonetheless, the most widely-adopted copyright treaty, the Berne Convention, states that once a work is protected in one of the Convention member countries, it is protected by copyright in all of them. As of mid-2004, 156 countries, including the U.S., belong to the Berne Convention.

As always, if you have questions about Copyright Law Basics, see an attorney!

Summarized from web content by Dameon Cox

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