If you’ve been a writer for any length of time, or paid attention during English class, you’ve probably heard about how one way we categorize different kinds of writing is by word count. Like how you probably know short stories are, well, short, compared to a novel.
But if you’re a writer, you might be asking yourself: do I really need to pay attention to these distinctions?
The short answer, as with most things, is: it depends!
It mostly depends on why you’re writing, or what you’re attempting to write for. For example, if you’re writing a story in the hopes of submitting it to a magazine, you’ll want to make sure you stay inside the word count they give you as part of the instructions. Same as, if you’re contracted to write a book to send off to a publisher, most of them won’t publish works in certain genres if they’re not within the expected range. This is usually because they know avid readers of a certain genre are typically expecting a certain word count, and if your book is shorter, or longer than such, people might not read it. (Unless you’re an already established big name – for example, Stephen King can colour outside the lines)
On the other hand, if you’re writing just for you, adhering to a strict word count limit isn’t as necessary and, I’d even go so far to say, it can actually be detrimental!
If you’re trying to write a story while keeping a firm word count in the forefront of your mind, you might find you’re more frustrated, distracted, and it might just become all around harder for you to get the story out of your head.
I recommend just letting your story flow, and not worry about a word count until you’re done getting it out of you. Once you have it down on paper, then you can add the word count parameters as part of your editing. If you’ve come up too short, see if you can fit an extra scene in, or if you’re over, see if there’s parts you can take out without changing the flow or plot, or leave it on a cliffhanger/to-be-continued, if you’re planning to make it a series.
One of my all time favourite pieces of writing advice I’ve ever gotten is: a story takes as long as it takes.
It makes writing sound so simple, doesn’t it?
I keep this advice in mind all the time, which is why I don’t bother checking a word count of a story until I’m done writing it. Now, I know I’m lucky, since I mostly write for myself on Patreon, (and here) I don’t have to adhere to a strict word count limit. The only word count rules I have to keep in mind are ones that were self-imposed. (And those were only put in place because I upload so many)
That said, I still think it’s a better way to write, and would recommend anyone to try adopting this style!
Instead of getting bogged down with all the nit-picky editing elements – oh, your story is 10 words off from your word count, you used ‘too many’ adjectives, you misspelled a word – if you let your critical editing voice sleep – or beat it to death with a stick, because you’re a good writer, damn it! Stop being so hard on yourself! – you can focus all your energy on telling the story.
In my opinion, telling the story is the most important part of writing. Screw the rules! Take your time, focus, and tell your story. It’s more important to tell it ‘correctly’ than to try and squish it to fit into a predetermined sized box so it’s ‘right’.
Also, in my experience, if you take the time and tell the story you want, in the way you want, most readers won’t care if it’s a little over or under a specific word count. They’ll just be happy they have a new favourite piece to add to their collection.
Also also, once you get the story down how you want it, and know the word count, it can help narrow your focus of where to submit it. Instead of being at the mercy of the magazine, publisher’s, etc. rules, you can find the rules that fit your story, instead.
Like this article? Check out more writing tips here!
One of the most highly debated things in writing is whether or not you should set a daily word count. Some writers swear it’s the greatest thing they’ve ever implemented, while others curse having a daily target like it slaughtered their first born child.
So, which of these sides are right? Is setting yourself a word count actually helpful or hurtful?
Truthfully, it depends on what kind of writer you are!
If you’re someone who works best or feels more efficient by setting yourself goals, you may find that setting yourself a word count can help keep you on track to get everything want to get, done.
If you’re someone who tends to procrastinate, setting a word count might also be helpful for you. Having that goal might be just enough pressure to nag at you while you’re ‘wasting’ your day watching TV and help you get off your butt and get going.
On the other hand, if you’re someone who has a lot of anxiety or tend to beat yourself up if you don’t make your goals, giving yourself a daily word count might just be setting you up for failure. If you end up being busier than you’d like or something unexpected happens or maybe the words just aren’t flowing that day, having a goal that you’re constantly not reaching won’t do your mental health any favours.
You need to know what kind of writer, and person you are in general, before you can ultimately decide if setting a daily word count is a good or bad idea. All writing advice needs to be tweaked to you, personally. You are the only person who can hold you accountable for reaching – nor not reaching – your writing goals. Advice is just meant to help you, but if you read something that makes you snort and go, “Yeah, right.” then skip that particular thing!
If you’re not sure whether or not setting a daily word count would benefit your writing, test it out for a bit first! There’s no rule that says you have to keep doing a particular thing if you don’t like it. Try it on for a few weeks or months and then see how you feel about it after. If it made you more productive or you liked it a lot, great! Keep it up. If you find it added unnecessary stress to your life or you didn’t actually stick to it, dump it and try finding something else.
You also don’t have to get that specific with setting yourself a word count, either. This might sound cliche, but being a human, setting some sort of goals is just something that makes us function better. We need something to strive toward. It’s unfortunately just the way things work. But, if you know what kind of goal setting works for you, you can essentially hack yourself into being more efficient.
For example, if setting a daily word count is too much pressure, try setting a weekly, monthly or yearly word count. Or, if that still sounds like too much pressure, or you’re worried about little things like spiraling because you gave yourself a 1,000 word count goal and you only managed to write 995 words, try setting more generalized goals for your writing. Like “I’ll write 2 short stories by the end of the week”, “I’ll write 3 articles a day” or “I’ll finish a chapter each month.” The goals you set will of course depend on what kind of writer you are – blogger, novelist, short story fictionalist (is fictionalist even a word? Well it is now), etc. – but no matter what kind you are, I’m sure you’ll be able to find a type of goal that’ll work for you.
It will also depend on whether or not writing is your career or more of a hobby. I’m not going to say it’s not important to set goals for your hobbies, but if it’s your job and you find yourself feeling behind, you might want to not be as lenient in your goal setting than if you were someone who writes more casually.
Not getting fired or being able to keep a roof over your head are great generalized goals, but you may find getting slightly more specific if writing is your livelihood (or you want to make writing your livelihood) is better for you long-term.
Specifically for me, I don’t set myself a daily word count, or monthly, yearly, etc. Since I’m a blogger and short story writer first (and I have wicked procrastination skills), I give myself more leeway in my goals. Mine are more general: I work on articles and short stories Monday to Friday, then leave the weekends for scheduling promotional posts, working on my current book (or whatever other big yearly project I’m working on, like a text-based game), coming up with new merch designs and socializing.
I find giving myself this more casual weekly goal is great because this means I could for example, write 3 articles one day, write 2 short stories another, and not feel as badly about ‘only’ getting a Photoshop tutorial done a different day. All my work is still getting done, and it’s enough of a schedule to keep me organized, but not so scheduled I feel suffocated creatively, which in turn minimizes the amount of time I spend procrastinating.
Of course this system isn’t perfect. Unexpected life changes, and/or the holiday season tend to wreak havoc on my work schedule, but if I stay the course for more of the year than I don’t, I tend to stay a few months ahead of when the posts and short stories go up, so I actually give myself some leeway for life events.
It’s like I’ve given myself the gift of time, and honestly, couldn’t we all use a little more of that?
Like this article? Check out more writing tips here!
In honour of my 6th book Broken turning 3 this month (Mar. 19th), I thought it’d be fun to revisit the world with a short story based on the characters. This story has 0 bearing on the book’s plot and is not meant to be a sequel. If anything, this is technically a prequel (if you’ve read the book, you’ll know why). This is just a fun one-off story.
A fanfic based on my own book, if you will.
Regardless of what you choose to call it, I hope you like it!
“Are you sure about this?”
Stacey took in a deep breath, in an attempt to steel herself against what she was about to do as she accepted the plastic cup, “Yeah, I’m good.”
Jesse didn’t look convinced, but didn’t stop her from walking toward the cabin, anyway. He watched her go, small boulder settling into his stomach, “Be careful.”
The blonde turned away from the doorway, sly smile on her face, “Never.”
—
Stacey groaned, blinking her eyes open slowly as she woke up. She squinted against the harsh light streaming in from between the curtains, tilting her head away as she felt the familiar stab of needles in her brain.
The blonde carefully sat up, needing to swallow hard to keep her nausea at bay, that never gets easier. She stretched her legs out under the covers, freezing as her left leg hit something that definitely wasn’t bedding.
Oh no… Dreading what she’d find, she slowly turned to her left, peering over the pillow to the person who was sleeping beside her. Who did I…? She leaned a little closer in an attempt to identify the person, but it was no use – they were on their stomach, and their brown hair and tangle of arms was obscuring their face.
Stacey slid herself out of bed as quietly as she could, not wanting to disturb her sleeping partner. She couldn’t help the shiver that ran through her as the cool air hit her body.
Her entire body.
She swallowed thickly and started scrambling around the room, on the hunt for her clothes. She quickly shrugged on her t-shirt before continuing the search, doing her best not to completely freak out. Crow wouldn’t have let me do anythi-
She froze on the spot as the person on the bed rolled over, subconsciously holding her breath. Once it was clear they weren’t waking up, she continued the search for her pants.
And phone.
Where are they? She frowned as she turned around the bedroom in a small circle, not seeing the rest of her belongings. She let out a deep sigh before making her way over to the door, guess we’re doing this old school.
The blonde pressed her ear to the door, trying to hear if anyone else was awake on the other side. After a minute of not hearing anything, she carefully cracked it open.
She slipped out the door and nearly tripped. What the…? She rolled her eyes as she saw the floor was littered with passed out party-goers. Didn’t anyone go home last night? She started down the hall, taking care to step over every sleeping teen.
Stacey let out a small breath as she reached the top of the stairs and noted it was empty. Thankfully. She made her way down the stairs quickly, using her unfortunately intimate knowledge of the cabin to her advantage to avoid the creaky parts of the steps.
Once she was at the bottom, she practically ran the short distance toward the front door, stopping just as her hand reached the knob as someone cleared their throat from behind her.
“Forgetting something?”
She braced herself as she heard the accent and turned around, plastering a smile on her face as she spotted the owner, “Hey, baby. What are you doing up so early?”
“Cut the crap, Sweetheart.” Crow half gestured to the empty space between them, “Everyone who cares is asleep.”
Stacey shrugged, posture changing, “Force of habit.” She walked the short distance over to him and reached for her phone, not bothering to hide her annoyance as he held it out of reach, “What the hell, Crow?” She swiped for it again, shooting him annoyed daggers as he took a step back, “I already stayed for your stupid party. Now let me leave.”
Crow’s brows rose at her tone and he gave her a once over, sly smile pulling at the corner of his mouth, “Didn’t leave the money on the dresser, eh?”
Stacey rolled her eyes, and turned on her heel, “You know what? Keep the phone.”
She was out the door in the next instant, and let out a groan as she heard him follow.
“Whoa, hey, there’s no need for that.” Crow cut in front of her path, blocking the porch steps. He dug a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and held them up, “Breakfast?”
“I have to go.”
“Emma’s fine.” At the raised eyebrow, he held up his hands in mock surrender, “Adam tailed her. He never came home.”
The blonde eyed him for a minute before letting out a sigh, moving to sit on the half-wall, “One.”
Crow wasted no time in following her the short distance over, holding the pack out to her. There was a moment of silence as the two teens lit up before Stacey blew out her first breath of smoke, eyes drifting over to the trees that hid the cabin from the rest of the park.
She could feel his eyes on her as she took her second drag, “So, how long are you going to be extending our deal, exactly? Y’know, just so I can plan the rest of my year.”
Crow let out a chuckle at that – not the obnoxious fake laugh he used around his cronies, but his real laugh – and shook his head, “I forgot how good you were.”
“At?”
“Ruining nice moments.”
“It’s a gift.” She paused to take another drag before raising an eyebrow, “Well?”
“If you came around more, I wouldn’t need to extend it.”
Stacey rolled her eyes, “Oh, puh-lease don’t go pretending like you’re the victim here. You know exactly why I left.”
“Actually, I don’t.”
Stacey scoffed and gestured to the cabin, “You’re a drug dealer!”
“And you’re a whore.”
Because he was standing behind her, she missed the guilty look that crashed onto his face as soon as the sentence left his mouth. Stacey bristled at it, and turned back to look out over the trees.
He hung his head for a moment, damn it, before forcing himself to take in a deep breath, “I mean…” he chanced taking a small step closer to her, half-raising his hand in a failed attempt to touch her shoulder, voice softening, “I-I miss you.”
“What?” The incredulous chuckle that left her mouth cut him like a knife and he quickly dropped his free hand back down to his side. She half-turned, raising an eyebrow at him as she brought her cigarette back to her mouth, “You’re gonna go out of business if you keep using your own product, y’know.”
“I’m not high,” Crow shifted his posture, not realizing his attempt to cover up his soft-side made it more apparent, “Forget it.” He dug the cell out of his pocket and tossed it at her, “There, now get out.”
Stacey blinked at him in stunned silence for a moment, “T-Tony, I…” her sentence died on her lips as she checked the phone and noticed all the missed calls, “Shit.”
Crow couldn’t help but be concerned as she jumped off the wall and smashed out her cigarette, “What is it?”
“He did come back.” She pushed passed him and ran down the porch steps, “I’ve gotta go.”
He momentarily shook his head, I’m going to kill Adam. He took another drag as he watched her disappear into the trees, barely registering her bare legs as she went.
“Yo, Queen, I’m making-” The voice from behind him made Crow turn to the cabin door, junkie’s face falling as he noted the empty porch, “pancakes.” He frowned and leaned out the door a little further, “I thought I heard her out here.”
“She had to leave.” Crow took one more drag from his cigarette before putting it out on the wall, “So, breakfast?”
The junkie’s brows furrowed more and he stepped aside, “I didn’t know you smoked.”
Crow let out a small sigh as he made his way back over to the door, “I don’t.”
Like this story? Check out more FULL short stories on my Patreon! I post new ones every 2 weeks and already have 100+ just waiting for you.
“Damn it, Dean!” Sam stomped through the door to their motel room, angrily throwing his school bag onto their shared bed, “I don’t need you to fight my battles for me!”
“That black eye you’re sporting begs to differ,” Dean followed him, closing the door behind them. He gave his brother a pointed look, “I’m not just gonna stand by and watch my kid brother get pummelled.”
Sam turned in the doorway to the bathroom, narrowing his eyes, “Now everyone at school thinks I’m a wimp.”
“Pfft, come on,” Dean waved a dismissive hand and made his way over to sit on the bed, “Everyone who was watching saw that fight wasn’t fair. There were four guys on you!”
“It doesn’t matter,” Sam turned on his heel, slamming the bathroom door behind him.
Dean shook his head, did he seriously expect me to not jump in and save his ass? He laid himself down on the bed, it’s not even like he couldn’t of taken those guys, but he wasn’t! He was foetal, just letting them kick him in the stomach!What kind of big brother would I be if I didn’t jump in? Dean brought one arm up to rest it across his eyes as he let out a deflated sigh, I don’t understand why didn’t just-
Dean bolted up as his mind replayed him the crowd that’d gathered around the fight, of course! He made the short trip over to the bathroom door, knocking softly on it, “I’m sorry I embarrassed you in front of that hippie chick.”
He heard the groan float through the door, “Not everything’s about a girl, Dean!”
“True,” The eldest leaned himself against the wall beside the door, crossing his arms over his chest, “But this was… right?”
I was going to say I chose to do a sunset so we could get over our winter blues, but we actually had a pretty mild winter where I am, so not too sure how well that works. Whether or not you also had a mild winter, learning to make a sunset effect in Photoshop can still be fun!
This tutorial is one of the simpler ones, so you’ll have plenty of time to practice, and might pick it up faster than some of the others!
For this tutorial, it’s going to really help you out if you choose an image that’s almost a sunset, anyway. I initially tried this effect myself (as well as some Youtube tutorials) using a picture that had high-noon sun lighting and it just did not work. At all. I’ll show you that disaster at the end of the tutorial, so you can see.
Now normally, I’d consider using a picture that’s already close to what you want to achieve as ‘cheating’ – if you were going to just use the pre-made picture as-is, you might as well go all the way and just find a full sunset picture – but seeing the difference between the high-noon picture and the one I ended up using was so drastic, I’m giving it a pass. (Also because I couldn’t figure out how to make it work on the high-noon picture)
This is the picture I ended up using:
Step 1
After re-sizing your picture to fit your new work document, you’ll want to make a Gradient Layer.
You’re going to have to create your own sunset colour gradient for your image. The specific colours you use will heavily depend on the colours your image already has. If you don’t pick colours that are already somewhat close, it won’t tint the image correctly and will end up looking very fake.
You’ll want to use 4 sunset colours, and then the last colour you’ll need to make light grey.
For my image, these are the colours I used:
1st: Pale Yellow: Colour Code #fffac4
2nd Brighter Yellow: Colour Code #fcf38d
3rd Pale Orange: Colour Code #ffbb5b
4th Brighter Orange: Colour Code #ff8b2e
If you plan on using this effect often, feel free to Save this Gradient by giving it a name and then pressing the New button to add it to your Gradient Presets.
Once you have the correct colours, you’ll want to click on the colour bar to make one of those pointer things show up on the top of the bar, and then change it’s Opacity to 75%. Or, you can just drag the pointer that’s already at the top on the left side (over the pale yellow) over until it’s over the Pale Orange and change that ones Opacity.
You’ll also want to change the Opacity of the pointer that’s over the Grey to about 30%.
Once you’ve changed those Opactities, click the Okay button.
Then once you’re back in the Gradient Fill dialogue box, change the Style to Radial, change the Angle to 130 and change the Scale to between 120-135, depending on what works best with your image. (Mine was 135)
Step 2
Now we’re going to change the Brightness of the picture. To do this, go back to the Create New Fill/Adjustment Layer at the bottom of the Layers Panel and select Brightness/Contrast from the menu.
In the Panel that pops up, you’ll either want to slide the Brightness slider down or just replace the value by typing in -26.
After you successfully lower the Brightness, just click on the double arrows at the top right-hand side of the panel to close it.
Step 3
Now we’re going to add a filtered look to the whole picture. To do this, we’re going to add 2 Solid Colour Layers.
To make the 1st Colour Layer, go back down to the Create New Fill/Adjustment Layer at the bottom of the Layers Panel and click on Solid Colour.
The first colour we’re going to pick is going to be a darker colour. For my image, I had to choose a shade of Brown (#644503), however in one of the tutorials I saw on Youtube, the person made this colour a pinky Red. This will depend entirely on the image you chose.
If you find it easier, feel free to use the colours I’m using in this tutorial, and then once you’ve gone through all the steps, go back and see if changing the colours will make the image look better/more realistic.
The next colour layer we’re going to add is going to be a bright colour. For my image, I found a bright Orange (#ff7200) worked well. The Youtube tutorial person made this colour a pale yellow.
Step 4
Now that we’ve got both the colour layers, it’s time to incorporate them into the image!
Still being on your bright colour layer, change the Opacity to 35% and change the Blend Mode to Soft Light.
Next, go back to your darker colour (Brown) layer and change it’s Opacity to 27%, and then change this one’s Blend Mode to Vivid Light.
Step 5
At this point, you should see your image looking sunset-y. If you don’t and you’ve been following the tutorial colours, don’t worry. You might just have to change the colours to suite your own image.
For this step, we’re going to go back to the Gradient layer, and change it’s Blend Mode to Hard Light.
It doesn’t look like my image colour changed because I already had the Gradient layer’s Blend Mode to Hard Light. If it was on Normal (like yours should be), this should be what it looks like:
Step 6
Can you believe we’re already at the last step? Yep, it’s true!
The last thing you need to do is drag your darker colour (Brown) layer so it’s sitting underneath the Gradient layer.
To do this, just click on the layer in the Layer’s Menu and then drag it until it’s under the Gradient layer. Once it’s in the right place, take your finger off the mouse button.
Once you’ve got the darker colour under the Gradient, all you need to do is save because this effect is now done! Don’t forget to save both a PHSH file (.psd) and a picture file (.png, .jpeg, etc.), this way you can go back if you need to adjust something and/or to just play around with colours or layers later.
Also, as promised, here are my failed attempts at creating a sunset on a picture with high-noon lighting.
First, the original picture:
And now the first failed attempt. This attempt was the one I did by following a Youtube tutorial.
And this is the failed attempt from after I changed colours to see if that would help.
The 2nd attempt was closer, but no matter how I tweaked the colours – whether making them more red, more orange or more yellow – I just couldn’t make it work with the lighting. No matter what I did, it just kept looking fake/edited. I also had to add the sun to the image, and I feel like that also contributed to the failure of it.
So yeah, in case you didn’t know: just because I make these tutorials doesn’t mean I don’t also still fail at making effects! This is why I always try to remind you guys not to feel bad or get down on yourselves if you try an effect and it doesn’t work. There are many factors that go into making an effect work – the picture you choose, your version of Photoshop, and sometimes I swear just if you’re having a lucky day.
Keep practicing and fiddling around and you should get it eventually!
Also I don’t remember if I’ve ever said, but if you guys ever have questions about any of the effects I share, please feel free to reach out and ask! The whole reason I started this tutorial series was to help people (mainly indie authors) and it wouldn’t be very helpful if you found the tutorial confusing, or come away with more questions than answers.
Like this tutorial? Check out the rest of the series here!
She raised her eyes from the box sitting on the table in front of her to his smiling face, “What the hell is this?”
The corner of his mouth twitched at her tone, “P-pepperoni and pineapple.” At the continued look, he shifted his weight from one foot to the other, “y-you said it was your favourite, right?”
She jumped as the door opened and the other kids started to file into the room. Excited chatter quickly filled the silence as they took in the crappily hung streamers and end of year banner that was hanging behind the filled-with-food teacher’s desk. She closed the pizza box and hurried over to her seat, keeping her eyes on the floor.
“Hey,” He chased after her, unable to help his eyebrows from knitting together, “was I… did I remember wrong?”
She shook her head as she slid into her seat, “No, i-it is.”
“Okay, w-well then…” He tilted his head slightly to one side, staring holes into the side of her head as she refused to face him, “what’s the problem?”
“I-I’m just…” She rolled her shoulders and clasped her hands on top of her desk just as the teacher walked in, “I’m not used to people doing nice things for me.”
—
Cop cars filled the street in front of her house and there were two parked in her driveway, no trace of the butt-ugly pink minivan. As he neared the bottom of her driveway, he noticed the yellow tape that roped off her porch, oh my God.
He couldn’t help his eyes from darting around the police who were standing around. There were a bunch of small groups, all chattering quietly to themselves. He looked around and felt a small ping of hope as he didn’t see a coroner’s van. I knew she wouldn’t have-
“Coming through!”
The yell got his attention back on the house – they were wheeling a gurney out the front door.
There’s a lot of things I absolutely love about being a writer. There’s definitely way too many to fit into one singular article – I mean seriously, we’re just that awesome – so today you’ll have to just settle for my top ten. These aren’t really in a particular order, except for #1.
You can do your job from literally anywhere. Desert? No problem. Forest? No worries. As long as you have a pen and paper (or laptop) you’re good.
When you have to fill out a comment card, or are starring at a blank screen, and think you have ‘nothing to say’ – only to realize twenty minutes later you’ve completely filled a page and a half, and are still going. (This is pretty much how I write all my articles, FYI.)
Getting to pull inspiration from music. Whether that be pulling from the songs emotion, or creating a story from a line or favourite lyric, there are pretty much endless story ideas that can be inspired by songs. (And, sometimes, you get more than one story out of one song!)
You can turn anything into a story. Conversations from those around you, random strangers on the street – even inanimate objects can have dark/obscure back stories.
You get to learn a lot of unique things that the average person doesn’t know, and thus are a wealth of obscure information.
Getting to ‘work’ in your pj’s. Seriously, it’s one of the best jobs because there’s no dress code. (Fun fact: I’m writing this in pj’s!)
Non-writers just do not understand how you can work on so many stories at once, and how you manage to keep all the plot lines straight. (It’s just as easy as watching 6 shows at the same time)
Also, they’re always super impressed when they hear your word count. I love talking about my writing to my non-writer friends, because if I say something like, “Oh, I didn’t do very much writing today. Just 500 words.” They almost always reply with, “500?! That’s crazy!” I mean, yeah, they don’t know it’s only 1 page, but 500 words sounds way more impressive. (Kind of like the ‘1 month’ vs ’30 days’ thing. One month sounds a lot longer)
Also, some days you just need that little extra confidence boost, and they never fail to make you feel accomplished.
You’re never actually bored, because you’re constantly thinking about plot lines, characters, your next project, etc. You always have something going on in your head. (Seriously, what do non-writers think about all day?)
You can work through pretty much anything/have a constructive outlet for your emotions. Pissed off something didn’t go your way? Write about it. Got some great news and you’re bursting with sunshine? Go for it! Need to pour out all those intimate feelings you don’t let anyone see? Tell it to the page. The page is always there, and never judges. Some of the most beautiful pieces of work have been born from powerful emotions. (Though, that doesn’t mean you have to ‘be in pain’ to be a good writer!)
We create something out of nothing. All. The. Time!
Seriously, think about it: until you took pen to paper, or your hands to a keyboard, that story didn’t exist anywhere else in the world. You brought that into existence. That’s so freaking cool! We’re like magicians!
As you may or may not know, my newest book, The Haunted Corpse is coming out October 18th.
Now that it’s crunch time, I’m going to focus all my efforts on releasing the book, so there will be no new content now until the 18th.
After the release, we’ll get back on track with Surprising Vegan Chips on Oct. 21st , and a Halloween fic on the 25th. Then it will be back to regularly scheduled posts every 2 weeks, until December 9th, which will be the last post of 2019.
I apologize again, but right now putting the book out is my number one priority.
I will still be posting on social media, etc. just no new content until the book release.
If you’d like to support me, please feel free to check out my other books, (perhaps drop a review?) and by getting excited with me for the newest release!
The Haunted Corpse is going to be not only my longest book to date, but it’s also my first non-collection book. (My first book that is just 1 continuous story.) It’s a dark fantasy and is the first story I wrote way back in gr. 8 when I first started seriously considering becoming an author. I can’t wait for you guys to get your hands on it!
If you want a little preview, part of it is in First Try, though I’ve since changed/added some elements to it.
Last month, I showed you how to make a transparent background, this month, I’ll show you how to remove a foreground object.
You’ll learn how to turn this:
To that.
Don’t worry, like most of the effects I’ve shown you so far, it’s very simple to do, and is an amazing time saver.
Step 1. To keep things simple, I’ll just use the same beach picture.
Step 2. Choose the Lasso tool, and draw a circle around the object you want to remove. Be sure to get a bit of the background into the selection.
Step 3. Go up to Edit – Fill, and choose Content Aware from the drop-down.
Click ‘Okay’ and the object should have disappeared, and now should be replaced with the background. Click back to the Lasso tool and Deselect, and you can now save your new foreground object removed picture.
And that’s it! Told you it was easy.
It does get a little trickier if there’s different parts to the background. For example, if you’re trying to remove multiple objects from a more complicated image, it may get ‘confused’ and remove an object in the sky by replacing it with ground, and an object on the ground with sky. This is slightly annoying, but you can always undo and redo this effect as many times as needed until you get the object out. I actually had this problem while I was working on my newest book (The Haunted Corpse) cover.
This was the original image:
And this is my cover:
I got the moon and birds out without much issue, but the lady standing to the very right of the castle was a different story. Because I’d replaced objects in the sky, every time I tried to replace her, it kept replacing her with clouds, instead of with trees. It took a while, but I finally got it. If that happens to you, I recommend removing the objects one at a time. So, remove an object from the image, save, re-open, remove the second object, save, etc. It takes longer, but it will keep photoshop from getting confused. (Hopefully)
Next month, I’ll show you the opposite, how to remove backgrounds from the image.
Like this tutorial? Check out the rest of the series here!
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Alright, now that we’ve tackled some practical effects for pictures, it’s time to switch gears and show you how to edit the picture as a whole.
For this months’ tutorial, I’m going to show you how to change the background of a picture from the default white (or any other colour) to transparent. This is handy for, say, if you want to change the colour of the background, or if you’re making merch, and want the design to be available on an array of different coloured backgrounds.
This also comes in handy if you ever need to add a picture that has a background to your existing design. Instead of erasing around the foreground object, you can make the background transparent and then just place it. This can save you a lot of time. (Trust me)
Let’s get started.
First things first, you’re gonna need an image with a background you want to make transparent. For the purposes of this tutorial, I’ll just be using this:
Simple, yes, but the steps are the same no matter how complicated an image is.
Step 1. Make a new Colour Layer. It can be whatever colour you want.
Step 2. Switch back to the image, and select the Magic Eraser. Click on the white spaces of the image, and the white should disappear.
Step 3. Continue using the magic eraser on the image until all the white is gone.
Step 4. Now that the white is gone, all we have to do is delete the Colour Layer. Do this by clicking and dragging it down to the trash can on the bottom right side in the Layers Panel.
Once you delete the Colour Layer, you’ll see the background of the image change to grey and white checkers, this now means the background is transparent. You can now save this layer as is and use it for whatever backgrounds you want. Whether it be solid colours, or actual pictures, your transparent pic is now ready to use.
That wasn’t so hard, was it? Check out next months’ tutorial, where I’ll show you how to do this magic:
Like this tutorial? Check out the rest of the series here!
Liking the site? Consider signing up for my Patreon, so I can continue bringing you the content you love!
