What is a Script?

Happy Wednesday, good people of the blogosphere! Today we'll talk about script fonts. Some questions I'll answer are: When to use them? How long have they been around? How do I identify a script typeface? So grab your pens and notebooks and let's get going!

A script typeface is defined as: Handwriting as distinct from print. An example:

This letter is from the font family known as Edwardian Script. It's been around since 1994. A relatively new font in comparison, eh?

When should you use a script font?
When you want something to look like it was hand written. I've seen them used in titles but rarely more than one or two words. They're commonly used as a drop-cap at the opening of a chapter to give it some flair.

How long have they been around?
For as long as we've been writing things by hand with quill and ink! Everyone has a script font in them waiting to escape.

How do I identify a script font?
If it looks like a normal person's handwriting or calligraphy, it's a script. Easy peasy.

Some popular script fonts are:

Some of these I had to make bigger so you could read them at a glance. They're hard to read when used in a large block of text. Don't use script fonts when formatting your book for print unless they're used as a decorative element.

What's your favorite script font?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

What about Sans Serif?

Happy Tuesday, good people of the blogosphere! Today, we're talking more fonts! I know, I know, crazy stuff. But the topic for today is sans serif fonts. Why do we use them? Where did they come from? What are some common ones? So grab your pens and notebooks and let's get going!

A sans serif font is defined as: A style of type without serifs.

The type you're reading now is sans serif. It's called Arial. Designers worldwide just drew in a collective gasp. Yes, I know Arial is the knockoff Helvetica. Sorry, I like it. So, for a larger example:

This letter is from a typeface called HelveNuThin. It's the one I use for my name on the cover of my novels. Notice there are no protrusions of any kind on the letterform. This is an excellent example of a sans serif font.

Why do we use them?
They're easier to write and have become more widely used with the invention of the computer. Now, here's a tidbit of trivia for you! Arial was designed by Microsoft when the designer of Helvetica wanted a payment for every copy of windows that was distributed. They hired someone to come up with a font similar so they wouldn't have to pay. Hell hath no fury like the design world when one uses Arial. By the way, that stop sign near your house? Helvetica is the font used. Anyway, I digress!

Where did they come from?
The first sans serif typeface was Caslon in 1745 but they didn't become as popular as they are today until the invention of the computer.

What are some common ones?

And I hope this answers questions you may have had about serif typefaces. Tomorrow, we'll talk script typefaces and I'll give some examples of those, too!! For printed book design, Caslon is a popular choice.

What's your favorite sans serif font?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

What is a Serif?

Happy Monday, good people of the blogosphere! This week we're going to learn about letterforms. Today's topic is serifs. What are they? Why do we use them? What typefaces are considered serifs? So grab your pens and notebooks and let's get going!

A serif is defined as: A slight projection finishing off a stroke of a letter.

This text is not a serifed typeface. An example:

This letter is from the type family Georgia. Those little feet on the A are called serifs. Any letterforms with protrusions like those are considered to be a serifed typeface. Sometimes, they can resemble cups or be prettier than the ones here, but they're all still serifs!

Why do we use them?
It goes back to ancient handwriting. Even the first typewriters used a serifed (slab serif) font. Basically, readability is why we use them. There are slab serif fonts, too. Those more closely mimic what was done with a chisel and hammer back when we were banging around on rocks and was what many typewriters used. An example:

This letter is from the type family Rockwell. It's called a slab serif because the serifs are the same basic weight as the strokes on the letter.

A few other serifed fonts are:

Just to give you an idea. Now you can start noticing some of your own. For printed books, Palatino is a common font to use. Always consider legibility FIRST when producing a book. After all, we want them read, right?

What's your favorite serifed font?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Release for Good Ghost Gone Bad

Synopsis:

Brianna Moreno was an average 22-year-old women who loved shopping, hanging out with her friends and making more career plans....until the night she was brutally and unexpectedly murdered.

Now she finds herself trapped in the ghost world while residing on earth. The problem is, her killer can see all of his ghostly victims and enjoys taunting them as much as he does killing them.Brianna soon finds out that her killer has horrible new plans concerning her family.


Brianna meets up with a few of her killer's past victims to hatch a plan so terrifying, the entire town will never be the same again.

Brianna is a good ghost gone bad; the good girl side is gone forever!

*This book is not a YA read. It's an 18+ only novella that features sex, strong language and strong violence.

Grab Your Copy!

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Smashwords

$2.00 on all editions.

About the author

Janiera enjoys feeding her book addiction when she not writing. Writing is theraputic to her during her struggles with Fibromyalgia. Being unable to work a normal 9-5 is what encouraged her to write full time. She is also a book blogger at Beauty and Books where she mixes being a book nerd with keeping things chic. When not reading or writing she is freelance writing in the entertainment industry.When trying to relax she likes a huge yard sale on a Saturday morning, rainy days to read by and nacho cheese is her kryptonite. Soul Sisters is her debut novel.

Feel free to visit her book blog where she loves reviewing books and doing author interview at Books & Beauty- http://janieraeldridge.blogspot.com. She loves feedback and welcomes any questions or comments to her email:

Other Works by this author:

• Soul Sisters (Book one of the Soul Sisters series)
• Dark Expectations(Book two of the Soul Sister series)

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

 

Jo

Past, Present, and Future

Happy Friday, good people of the blogosphere! Today, I'm gonna talk about time. I know, I know, we don't have enough of it in a day! On one hand, I wish the days were forty-eight hours! On the other, I kinna don't. You know?

There are so many novels in the world! Where do all the ideas come from? I can't answer for everyone but a lot of my characters and stories come from people I've known and things I've heard. Some of my stories grow from things I read online: News stories, blog posts, Facebook, etc... Just snippets of things here and there, really.

But here's the thing: Your past, present, and future all shape your stories. You may think they don't; but every good character is three-dimensional and every experience you have shapes the way your mind works.

Don't run from it; embrace it.

So what if your main character has attributes of three of your friends from school? That's the way great characters are made. Always consider time because your character didn't just pop into being when you began to write their story down. Okay, they did, but you get what I'm saying.

I've started thinking about this one lady I knew when I wrote the title for today's post. She was thirty-twoish and her husband was a year or two older than she was. We'll call her Remmy. I was blown away by what a kindhearted, sweet individual she was. I could see the love for her husband when she talked about him. They'd been married almost ten years and she was happy as a pig in mud. One day, she comes to work in tears and tells us all her husband suffered a massive heart-attack and died three days before - hence the reason she wasn't at work. He just dropped dead. All I could think was: If something that horrible could happen to her, what chance do I have to be spared? Remmy's attitude didn't change, she didn't grow bitter, and she still smiled every now and then. Those actions showed me who she was down inside. I have since endeavored to be more like her.

Remmy would make a great character because of that flaw and her story. She's a character from my past.

In my present, I've already used someone I know and their story as a basis for a book. Stormy, from The Bird, isn't a character from my past; she's in my present.

When I think about the future, the past and the present shapes it. I remember things that were done to me, by me, and for me. All of the things above are from my time on the planet. I have thirty plus years of characters and experiences and stories told to me to draw from.

There's no such thing as a totally original idea. We're all inspired by something.

Next week, my posts will be inspired by Typography. Join me to learn a little about letterforms!

What have you read or written that was inspired? How did it change you?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Knights in Shining Armor

Happy Thursday, good people of the blogosphere! Today we're gonna talk about white knights on bleached chargers and what causes the little fiends to fall off. So, grab your pens and notebooks and let's get going!

Everyone loves a good hero. But what is the main quality of the heroes you remember the most? I bet it's that they have a flaw. Not a minor flaw, but a fatal one.

Shakespeare did this well. His tragic heroes all had a fatal flaw. One that led to their doom. Now, I'm not saying everyone in your novel must die, just that your hero (and heroine) must have flaws of some kind. This goes back to an earlier post I did on making your characters feel real to your reader. Aristotle wrote about tragedies in his book Poetics.

If you're a writer and you've never googled this, it's time you did. He wasn't a stupid man.

Basically, his idea says that you can't have a tragic hero unless that hero has a fatal flaw. Otherwise, nothing makes sense. But let's get off that and into non-tragedy.

If your hero is to be believable, he needs to commit some act that makes his flaw leap to the forefront. No one is infallible unless they're a saint. Let's face it, saints don't make for good fiction. You want your reader to want the girl to end up with the guy of your choosing but you can't make it easy for her. She needs to struggle with the decision a little. Every real relationship has things that must be overcome in order for it to work. If they fight like cats and dogs, use it to your advantage. If both your main characters have flaws, they can seem incompatible and you can use that to heighten tension.

Of course, a third character acting against the first two can also give your characters much needed tension. But it doesn't have to be a love-triangle scenario. That character can be a girl who doesn't want to lose her BFF or a guy who doesn't want to lose his football game buddy. It can even be a god or a ghost!

But your hero must also have some deep redeeming quality that allows him to rise above everyone else. It's a fine line to walk.

When you're writing a character bio, keep these tension points in mind. Heck, after reading Aristotle's writings, you may decide you want to pen a tragedy! For the love of all that's good, google Poetics and have a read.

Who was your favorite hero? Why?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

A Chat

Happy Wednesday, good people of the blogosphere! Just two more days until the weekend arrives! Yay! Wow, great stadium cheer! Anywho, today I'm taking a formatting and writing day. Being indie authors, we have to do so much of our own work it's crazy. I bet you all agree when I say this feels more like a real job than many others I've had throughout the years. Of course, you'll always work harder when you work for yourself!

Different from a nine-to-five job, working for yourself tends to push your hand to sixteen hour days. It's a necessary evil but when you make those sales and the numbers go up it's like no other feeling in the world (except maybe a good review coming in).

Speaking of which, if you download an indie author's book free, please take the time to read it and leave a review. I know my fellow authors agree. We love to hear from our readers! Even if you just take a moment to shoot us an e-mail that speaks your mind, it means more than you think. Having an author that knows who you are and takes the time to talk with you (we're BUSY people) is like having a golden rod in your pocket you can brag about to the world and no one can steal. So, take the time to tell your author what you think. We read our fan mail!

I'm off to work on formatting my novel so all you lovely people can read it on release day! Only so many hours available and the week is almost over!

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo