**This is blog post number 4 on my revised writing process.**

Last post I went over the first step of PBRG, the Planning and Plotting step. I discussed the process I’m trying to use. Now, I’m going to show how that process works by applying it to a creative project.

The project is called ‘The General of the Pen.’ It’s a working title, and we’ll see how long that sticks.

Process 1: The Idea

What is ‘The General of the Pen’?

It is a story about a mid-level general, Gerhard van Rumm, in a mid-19th century world. He is caught up in an independence movement and becomes a leader in their army. This army is fighting an initial campaign to buy time for outside support to come in.

First, I consider what’s unique about this story.

• The technology level is mostly new, with cannon and muskets instead of machine guns. (American Civil War instead of World War 1).
• Gerhard is a mid-level commander of an army, who gets to make strategic and operational decisions for the story.
• There is a much larger, world-wide movement that impacts the story; they’re buying time for other factors to come into play.
• It’s a new world I haven’t fleshed out yet. There’s a lot of unknowns I can play with.

Those all sound good, but what’s not new? What’s similar to what I’ve done before.

• Gerhard is a bookworm, like Sasha Small (Renaissance Army series)
• He’s also level-headed in battle, like both Sasha and Augustine de Zama (Champion Bold).
• The scope of the story shares a lot of similarities with the Renaissance Army story, as it is about an uprising against a superior government force.

The similarities are something to be wary of, but they’re not story-breakers. I’ll give Gerhard some unique traits for my characters: he wants to be loved and have a family, or maybe he already does. I can keep the story focused on the campaign and not the social movement, so it’s not the Renaissance Army redux.

Remember, a lot of the differences will be fleshed out during preparation and writing, so I can accept a larger ‘This is similar’ list and trust I will fix it later.

Process 2: The Five W’s (and that H)

The next process is to work out the Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How of the story. After several passes through the first process, I should have a good idea of each of the answers.

Who	*Gerhard van Rumm, a mid-level general who is shanghaied into fighting in an independence movement. *A friendly general who wants van Rumm there. *An influential character who doesn’t want van Rumm there. *Minor generals. *A love interest.
What	*The army begins to assemble. *Training and teething issues. *An enemy formation comes up; a fight occurs. *Protagonists lose the first fights, win the last ones through work and determination.
When	*The story takes place late spring/early summer. *It will take place over several weeks, maybe even months.
Where	*This story takes place around a city on the border of the independent region and their overlords. *Must of the action occurs in a mountain valley, covering several hundred square miles.
Why	*The region is trying to declare independence. *The main character gets involved and wants to win.
How	*The independence movement will fight against long odds. *van Rumm will have to make difficult choices. *they will buy enough time to finish the narrative.

I’m keeping this process down to a few pullet points per question, but ideally, I’d write up a paragraph or two. Just looking back at this list, I know I’ll want to expand on Gerhard’s motivations to win and detail the independence movement to give it a unique flavor.

Again, this is a series of processes that don’t stop until it’s published. A lot of these aspects will change as the story progresses.

Process 3: The Acts

Okay, now I’m dividing my narrative into acts, segments of the narrative.

I know I’ll have an introduction act: the reader will meet the characters, learn about the area, and discover why the story is happening. It won’t be long, but all stories start with it.

The conclusion act will see the heroes victorious, tie up any plot strings that need tying, and prep the next story (if there is one).

Those are the two easy ones. Now let’s build the middle.

I want this story to be short, but also full of action. And I want the characters to suffer before they win. So I’m going to have three Major Event acts. I’ll put a development act right after the introduction, and then two Recovery Acts between the three Major Events.

But wait! Is there a better way to do this? Something more exciting?

What if I removed the development act, and consolidate the information into the introduction? The crisis starts early, and we see the characters in action before they’re ready.

I consider this option. I’d need to be wary of making the introduction too long to make up for sudden event act, but maybe I can do it.

You know what? I’ll do that. The worst that happens is after a few passes, I add in the development scene. It’ll be easy as pie.

Now, I’ve got my seven-act plan. It looks like this.

Act List

Act	Type	Story flow
Act I	Introduction	Introduce characters, setting and conflict
Act II	Event	Battle; minor, but influential because of inexperience. Enemy wins.
Act III	Recovery	Characters react, make plans, train
Act IV	Event	Battle; another minor battle, good guys do better, draw, but have to retreat.
Act V	Recovery	Characters plan for final battle
Act VI	Event	Final battle, major battle; good guys win, but it’s rough. Enemy withdraws.
Act VII	Conclusion	Characters take stock, rewards, plan for next phase of the war.

Part of me is already twitching at having no development act. But I want to give this a shot.

Process 4: The Important Scenes

Now I get to plan out some scenes. Not writing scenes (though some of them I’ll be writing in my head) but identifying what scenes I need for each act. Reminder: I’m aiming for three scenes minimum.

Act I is the introduction. The first scene I’ll introduce the character, Gerhard van Rumm; he’s approached by his friend to join the army at a critical moment. The second scene, they arrive in their area of operations and Gerhard (and the reader) learns the terrain. Third scene, he meets some other key players, and the reader learns about the politics of the movement.

Act II is an event scene; the enemy is advancing into the mountain valley and wins a small battle. Okay, so I have one scene where the characters learn the attack is coming. They rush forward to find the battle underway (second scene), and a scene where they get their troops to retreat (third).

Act III is recovery. The characters discuss the events, and by discuss they yell and shout (first scene). The leader makes decisions and prepares for the next battle (second scene). And Gerhard has some time to reflect on the situation (third scene).

I’ll skip over writing the scenes for Acts IV through VI, though they’ll be listed on the chart below. Let’s look at Act VII, the conclusion.

In the conclusion, I need to reference the status of the movement as a whole, the situation in this valley, and Gerhard’s personal journey. I’ll first write a scene where the situation in the valley is confirmed, and a second where the national situation is addressed. Finally, I’ll had a scene with Gehard considering his part in past events, and look to the future.

Scene List

Act	Type	Scenes
Act I	Introduction	1: Introduce Gerhard van Rumm and his friend 2: Introduce the mountain valley, geography 3: Introduce minor characters, and political situation.
Act II	Event	1: Characters learn of a battle up the valley. 2: Characters arrive at battle, try to influence victory. 3: Victory not possible; army withdraws / flees.
Act III	Recovery	1. Leaders yell accusations, refuse responsibility. 2. General makes decisions, not all of them correct, to prepare for next battle. 3. Gerhard considers what he’s done, how he can do better, and what their odds are.
Act IV	Event	1. An opportunity to fight from a superior position arises. 2. Army moves into position, anticipation. 3. Enemy comes into view, attacks hard. 4. Army forced to withdraw but does so in good order. Tactical victory.
Act V	Recovery	1. Bad officers removed from duty 2. Learn of outside developments; importance of their victory 3. Officers learn of enemy movements, make a plan.
Act VI	Event	1. Enemy force moves into area. 2. Army counters; fight develops 3. Army wins
Act VII	Conclusion	1: Situation in the valley is established, reported up the chain of command. 2: National / international situation and what that means. 3: Gerhard considers his place in things.

Process 5: The B, R and G lists

As I’ve been building this story, I’ve also been making lists of what I need to build, to research, and to game out.

As I’m writing, all of these lists will change as inspiration and the story’s course have an impact.

World Build

I stated above that as this is a new world, there is a lot I need to build. this can be intimidating (a world is a huge place), so it helps to make a list of what I need to build for this story.

• The geography of the continent, the nation, and the region the story takes place.
• The culture of the people fighting for independence, their overlords, and the allies who might be coming to help.
• The technology available to all sides.
• The timeline of the past: how long ago was the conquest?

Research

Research can be a hard one to plan ahead on, so this list looks pretty large scale at the moment.

• 1860’s train speeds; construction of railways; ease of transporting goods and people.
• Telegraph operations.
• Development of battlefield medicine over the 19th Century.
• Civil War-era weapons: construction, maintenance, usage.

Game Out

I know how I want the battles to go, but I’m more concerned with how fast units and information are moving about the valley. Here, I want to prepare a map of the valley, figure out roads, railways and telegraph lines, and create rules for movement of units and information. Then I’ll spend a couple of evolutions gaming out the campaign.

Will I game out the battles? I certainly could. I have a couple of tabletop systems that could work, and one or two video games where I could custom build levels on, just to see how they would work. But I would do that to see how things could progress. The final writing would not be dictated by the game.

Conclusion

Okay, so I just ran General of the Pen through the Plotting step of the process. What do I have now?

• I’ve got a list of scenes to write.
• I’ve got a list of topics to research and world build.
• I’ve got some sequences I want to game out.

Now, I could start writing right away, but we’ve just finished one of four steps. And while I may not need to knock everyone off the B, R and G lists, there are things I will want to prepare ahead of time. So we move on to step two.

Join me next blog post, when we discuss the B-step, (World) Building.