Writing

Writing Process 3: Planning and Plotting in Theory

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**This is blog post number 3 on my revised writing process.**

Okay, I’ve so I’ve got an idea. Normally, I’d write the first scene and just start running with it, but I want to run it through this process. I was originally just going to go through the steps and explain it, but I decided that if I’m going to go through this process, I’m going to do it with an example project. So, this post will go over the step in detail, and then next post I’ll apply it to a project.

The goal is to end this step with an outline of the story, and a list of things to World Build, Research and Game out.

There are five processes to this step:

  1. Flesh out the idea.
  2. Answer the 5 W’s
  3. Prepare act list
  4. Work out scenes
  5. Build the B, R and G lists.

These are not ‘finish one and then move on to two and you can’t go back to one.’ These are happening simultaneously. I’m making notes on BRG lists while I’m prepping the 5 W’s, and I’ve got scenes in mind as I’m processing the ideas. Back and forth, over and over again.

So, let’s go over the processes.

Process 1: The Idea

First, I think about the idea. Now, you may wonder if I’m starting too simple, but I’m serious. I take my idea, and I challenge it. Is this a good story? Is it unique, or is it too much like another story I’ve written?

These are serious questions I need to ask. Too often I’ve had to make changes to a story, or even abandon an idea, because I realized it was taking the same character from Story A and putting them in a different genre. Or that two narratives were too similar to each other, and they both lost their unique flavor.

This process can take a couple of rounds until I get the idea down to something I’m comfortable moving forward with. And I have to accept that no story will be 100% different from other things I’ve written. There will be some overlap. The challenge is to emphasize what’s new with each story.

Process 2: The Five W’s (and that pesky H)

If you’ve forgotten what these are, it’s the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How of a story. At this point, I’m still looking at the broad strokes, without getting into the acts and scenes of the story.

WhoWho is the main character? Who are the other big players in the story?
WhatWhat are the big events of the story? What are the personal events for the characters?
WhenWhen does this story take place? How long will it cover?
WhereWhere does this story take place? How much area will it cover? What sort of terrain should I plan for?
WhyWhy is this story happening?
HowHow will the story develop? How will the characters?
The basic questions.

There answers need to be as long as I need them to be. Some will be pretty simple. Others may be entire paragraphs. But I need good answers to the questions.

Here, I’m also taking several passes. What sounds good one day might sound poor the next. But ideas that pass through several iterations are good enough to keep.

Process 3: The Acts

Process four is to divide the narrative into Acts.

In my process, an Act is a distinct section of the story, designed to advance the narrative through one leg of its journey. I plan acts to either provide information to the reader, allow the characters to respond to the story, or cover a major event of the narrative.

Broadly speaking, I’ve found my acts can divide into five categories:

  • Introduction: Introduce the characters, location, story, challenges.
  • Development: The characters interact with the world, things change.
  • Major event: these acts could cover battles or political conflict.
  • Recovery: the characters react and respond to a major event.
  • Conclusion: the last act, which wraps everything up.

Most of my stories have between 8 and 12 acts total.

For this process, I take a look at where the story begins (the introduction act), decide where it ends (the conclusion act), and then I focus on the middle parts. I look at the five W’s, especially the events, and plug them in, trying to keep track in my head of the pacing of the story.

I usually take several passes at this part, playing with different combinations. It’s important to pay attention to the flow. Multiple event acts in a row may overwhelm the reader. Too many development acts and the story doesn’t go anywhere.

At the end of this process, I will have my act list. And then I move on to scenes.

Process 4: The Important Scenes

I say important scenes because I’m not going to know every scene I will add into the story. I’m aware that as I write, there will be inspiration and ideas that pop-up and get added. So, this isn’t a final list. It’s a guideline.

With each act I have a series of questions and considerations I have to take into account. The overarching question is ‘does the scene advance the narrative?’

It may take several passes before I’ve got a good list on hand. To start, I aim for three scenes per act, minimum.

Introduction Act

This act includes a gimme; the first scene, which sets the tone for the book. Do I want this intro to be a prologue, or a first chapter?

I need to introduce the main character(s), the setting, and the plot elements. Are these different scenes? Usually, yes, because I need to be wary of dumping too much information onto the reader. But I’ll make that consideration here.

Development Act

A development act is simply an act where the characters progress and build themselves (or the narrative) up for the events of the story. Think of it as the downtime between big events.

These scenes will have a lot of little things that lead to the big things.

Event Act:

An event act centers around an important occurrence in the story. This could be a single action (the death of a character) or a longer process (a battle).

These scenes involved the immediate lead up, execution, and draw down of the event. Lots of action and excitement.

Recovery Act:

A recovery act is like a development act, but it has to do with the characters responding to the event. They’re learning and growing, making decisions and acting on what happened.

These scenes should include a lot of introspection and decision making.

Conclusion Act:

This is the second give me of the act process. Every story ends. This is where the consequences come clear and the loose ends get tied up. We say goodbye, and look to the future.

These scenes need to wrap things up, so more introspection and moving on.

Process 5: The B, R and G lists

This process I’m writing last, but in truth it’s been happening the entire time. I’m making lists of the World Building, Research, and Gaming I expect to need to finish before I write.

World Building items are background items that I will need to prepare beforehand. This list will include character biographies, maps of nations, cities and regions of the story, and organizational details. Science fiction stories will include technology and rules of physics. Fantasy stories will include rules of magic, mythology and races.

Research is a list of topics I cannot build but have to discover. In the past this list has included military trains, movements times for horses across various types of terrain, and lots of research into historical military and political organizations.

Gaming is not always going to be something I have to do, but I’ve learned from previous projects that it can be extremely helpful for sequences with a lot of moving parts. In the past, I’ve gamed out land campaigns and space battles. I’ve considered gaming out migrations, civil wars, and political maneuvers.

Conclusion

At the end of this process, I have an outline of the story I want to write. I have lists of items to world build, topics to research, and games to play.

Of course, this outline and these lists are not set in stone. The story will adjust as I review it. The lists will shrink as I cross things off and grow as new ideas reveal themselves. It’s a process that doesn’t end until the book is published.

So, that’s my Planning and Plotting process. Next blog post, I’ll take this process and apply it to a tertiary project I’ve had on my mind for a while.

Until then, keep on writing. Cheers!

Michael

Monthly Update

June Update

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May was busy. In addition to getting Champion Bold off the ground, I took a week-long trip to eastern theater Civil War battlefields, presidential mansions, and cultural sights of Virginia and DC. It was a fun trip, but I made a point of not bringing my laptop and taking a clean break from creativity for one week. Then I came back and hit the ground running.

Projects

I’m advancing through the editing process for Champion Bold. So far it’s been mostly commas and hyphens. There are a few minor section re-writes I have to do, but that’s to be expected. I’ve plotted out the supplement books and I’m getting into the writing bits. I keep reminding myself that the first draft doesn’t need to be perfect. It just needs to be done.

I did get a draft of The Colonel Lieutenant to some Alpha Readers. The initial feedback is good: the story is interesting, and the issues that I’ll need to address are so far minor and expected. I’m looking forward to knowing that out when I get done with Champion Bold.

And as expected, all other projects are on the back burner. I’ve done a few minor bits here for there, but most of my creativity is going to Champion Bold.

June Goals

  • Finish editing Champion Bold
  • Complete Alpha Drafts of Supplement Books
  • Knock 10 things of minor to-do list

Reading

  • The Buried Dagger by James Swallow (Finished)
  • Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (Audiobook)
  • The Siege of Washington (Re-read)
  • Shogun Book 1 (Re-Read; Finished)
  • Shogun Book 2 (Re-Read; Started)
  • Story of a Regiment (Research; Started)

During my trip, I have a lot of time to read, which helped me add to my reading list. I re-read the Siege of Washington because we were in that area, and I have been itching to re-read it for some time. Started re-reading Shogun, as I’m watching through the series now. I haven’t read it since high school, so I’m re-learning so much that I had forgotten, or was too young to grasp the first times.

Also started Story of a Regiment, a non-fiction book about the 2nd Minnesota. Part of this is research for another writing project, and part of this is just fun.

June Goals

  • Finish two fiction books
  • Finish one re-search book
  • Finish one audiobook

Movies and Shows

  • Shogun (In Progress)
  • Witcher Season 3 (In Progress)
  • The Expanse (In Progress)
  • Morbius

Watched a few more episodes of each, but I did knock a movie off my list. Morbius, a MCU-adjacent movie that was….bad. I mean, I knew little about the character beforehand, and I have little reason to learn more now. I don’t know how this fits into the overall MCU story, or if its part of the Sony Venom-verse. And I kind of don’t care.

June Goals

  • Finish three seasons of TV shows
  • Watch two movies

Games

  • Red Dead Redemption 2 (In Progress)
  • Gears of War Tactics (Finished)
  • Frost Punk (In Progress)

Finally finished Gears of War Tactics. Other than just not playing many video games these days, the big problem with this game is that between the story missions, you have to play a bunch of minor missions just to level characters and find equipment. The story missions are great, but the forced slog didn’t do much for me.

I got into the Frost Punk game, which I’ve really enjoyed the few times I’ve played it. I’ve lost the main campaign twice now, but that’s to be expected. I’m still enjoying it, and that’s what counts.

RPG-wise, most of the games continue one. My Atonement game just finished chapter one, and the party got to choose where they’re going for chapter two. My characters are all still alive, though a new one in a short interim game seems to be trying to die. We’ll see what the dice say.

June Goals

  • Next chapter of Red Dead Redemption
  • Finish Frost Punk Main Campaign

What’s Next

No public appearances right now, though I should be sending out some more Books and Beer emails to see if I can get an event set up for August or September. And at some point, I’ll need to plan a launch party.

Until then, keep writing.

Cheers!

Michael

Review

The Last Tudor

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I finally figured out how to use the Libby app to finish the Last Tudor, book 13 of 15 in Philippa Gregory’s historical fiction series. It helps when the app actually tells me when a book is available, and not just when I’ve missed it.

This book follows the three Grey sisters: Jane, Katherine and Mary, from Spring of 1550 to Spring of 1573. These sisters have a claim to the throne of England through their grandmother Mary, sister to Henry VIII. The claim means the sisters are involved in the intrigues around the succession, whether they wanted to be or not. Each sister must deal with their situation in their own way.

The book is divided into three sections, each following one sister in sequence: Jane Grey (Faith), Katherine Grey (Hope), and Mary Grey (Determination).

Jane Grey (Faith)

Lady Jane Grey, courtesy of Wikipedia

The first section of the book follows Jane Grey, the oldest sister. In this section, we meet a young woman who is either a pitiable victim of circumstances, or an annoying zealot who needs to calm down, wholly depending on the scene.

Historical Jane

Jane Grey is known as the Nine Day’s Queen, elevated to the throne for a short time after the death of Edward VI. Edward declined to follow his father’s wishes on succession, skipping over Mary due to her religion (she was devoutly Catholic), and Elizabeth (because Edward wanted the throne to go to a male heir). Jane was believed to be young enough to produce one quickly.

Upon his death, Jane was declared queen, but lacked broad support. The country flocked to Mary, and Jane was imprisoned in the tower. After may letters, and several refusals to convert to Catholicism, Jane was executed in February of 1554.

Story Jane

Story Jane is a girl — she’s sixteen — who is caught up in events she cannot control. She has no desire to rule as queen, but the machinations of powerful families force her forward. And here we see Jane’s faith as a devout Protestation, which is often a source of strength to the character, and sometimes an annoyance to the reader.

The strength of the faith shows in how she processes the situation. Forced to be queen, Jane choses to be a queen. She will not be ruled by family, or by her would-be husband. Though this may not aide in her defense when she’s tried by Queen Mary’s court, the scenes where she act as the queen are some of the best she’s in.

That being said, her faith can be an annoyance. She constantly speaks of Catholics as heretics, and looks down on anyone who isn’t as pious as she is. Even her sisters, the only constant allies she has, she sees through a judgmental lens.

Of the three sisters, Jane is the most learned. Her chapters approach the story from an educated perspective, tinged with a fairly selfish faith that God will protect her. In the end, her faith aides her in facing the execution with grace.

Jane Response

As much as Zealous Jane annoys me, I thought this was the best of the three sections. Jane’s intelligence allowed me as a reader to see the flow of the politics and decisions around her. And the moments when she tries to assert herself as queen, upsetting the noblemen around her who expected her to be docile and submissive, were great to read. If Jane was \going to be queen, then dammit, she was going to be queen!

Katherine Grey (Hope)

Lady Katherine Grey, courtesy of Wikipedia


The second third follows Katherine Grey, the middle sister of the three. After the execution of her sister, Katherine conspired to marry a nobleman for love and without the permission of the queen. For that, she was imprisoned for the rest of her life, which ended seven years later.

Historical Katherine

Katherine Grey survived both her sister and Queen Mary, living into the reign of Elizabeth. Her relation to the throne made her a diplomatic and political asset, as her marriage could seal unions between nations and families. Instead, Katherine participated in a secret marriage with Edward Seymour, without Elizabeth’s knowledge or consent. They kept this marriage so secret that it was hard to prove it was legitimate when Katherine became pregnant with their first child.

Katherine and Edward were removed to the Tower of London, where they continued to meet with each other and produce a second son. As the children were a source of potential conflict (male heirs to the throne), Katherine was finally removed from the tower and spirited around the country to various estates, kept under house arrest and unable to see her husband. She died under arrest in 1568.

Story Katherine

Story Katherine is not as pious or intelligent as her older sister; she enjoys the social benefits of her station. When her family is exiled after Jane’s death, she misses the dances and the dresses. She maintains a menagerie of pets, at various points including cats, dogs, a bear and even a monkey.

Katherine’s lack of religious determination helps her to survive; she can act the Catholic in Mary’s court, and the Protestant in Elizabeth’s, because she doesn’t care. She simply wants to be a princess and enjoy the benefits. This is a stark contrast to Jane, who died rejecting conversion, but it works for her.

But Katherine constantly fails to understand her position, especially after she falls in love with Edward Seymour. She expects Elizabeth to be happy with her: she’s removed herself from the scheming around the throne, and provided an heir that Elizabeth can use. Instead, she suffers Elizabeth’s wrath, confined to the Tower and then exiled from London.

Katherine’s section doesn’t end with her death; it ends with Katherine losing hope. Separated from her husband and eldest son, bereft of any support from the court, and at the mercy of a queen who can’t marry the man she loves, Katherine finally gives up.

Katherine Response

Katherine’s section was okay. She was a good viewpoint to watch the transition of the court from Catholic Mary to Protestant Elizabeth. But she could not stand up for herself the way Jane did. She kept hoping for the best and then being surprised when she didn’t get it.

Mary Grey (Determination)

Hans Eworth Lady Mary Grey 1571.jpg
Lary Mary Grey, courtesy of Wikipedia

The last section follows the story of Mary Gray, the youngest and physically smallest of the three sisters. Like Katherine, Mary weds someone out of love, trying to protect herself better than her sister did. Against Elizabeth’s fury, she does barely any better at avoiding punishment, but she does endure it.

Historical Mary

Mary Gray is a small woman, standing under five feet tall. She has spent her whole life learning to overcome and adapt to her body’s failings. As part of Elizabeth’s court, she interacts with many nobles and courtiers. And there she finds true love with a porter, Thomas Keyes. They marry in a secret but well documented wedding in 1565.

Mary hopes to be spared the same fate as her sister, but Elizabeth’s anger at the marriage separated the two of them for the rest of their lives. Thomas would die in1571, still writing to the court for permission to see his wife. Mary would remain under arrest for a bit longer, before finally being released to care for her step-children.

Story Mary

Story Mary is more of a realist than her sisters. She sees Elizabeth as a jealous and contemplable woman, who cannot marry the man she loves and therefore cannot stand to see anyone else marry. Mary understands Elizabeth’s actions and decisions better than Katherine did.

Which leads to my biggest problem with the book: why does Mary wed?

Mary watched Elizabeth react poorly to Katherine’s marriage. She knows the storm she is inviting upon herself. But she does it anyway. The only difference is that Mary makes sure there are enough witnesses and documents proving she is married. But the book lacks any explanation for why she takes the chance.

It doesn’t go her way. Mary’s protections do little against Elizabeth’s wrath. Separated from her husband and banished from the court, she spends most of the rest of the book confined to small rooms, limited to one maid and no personal possessions.

Mary’s determination to survive is born mostly of spite. She hates Elizabeth for destroyer her and her sister’s lives. Mary views Elizabeth’s maneuverings as those of a jealous woman, who punishes those who love as she cannot. Her choices as queen are always done for a selfish reason. Even when Mary acknowledges the practical reasons for Elizabeth’s maneuverings, she cannot help but interpret the choice as a failing of Elizabeth’s.

In the end, Mary is freed, but it’s not adequately explained why. The flow of the book indicates to me that it’s because Elizabeth feels secure enough on her throne (having eliminated most contenders) that she can release Mary. But the end comes so quickly, it’s really hard to say.

Mary Response

Mary’s was the most disappointing section for two reasons. First, the decisions of her story aren’t adequately explained. Why did she marry? Why was she released? The reader’s left to guess at why.

Second, much of her section wasn’t even about her. She recounts Elizabeth’s choices in regard to being married, to foreign alliances, and to the Scottish throne. But while interesting, it did make large portions of her section sound like a historical record, not a personal story. Fun, but distracting.

Conclusion

This book is an okay transition, moving the series from Henry VIII to Elizabet I. The three stories involved were all interesting, with their characters each telling their own narrative, but only Jane really had any impact on the throne. Katherine and Mary suffered for their proximity, but otherwise did not influence the course of history.

The book doesn’t do much to make Elizabeth stand out as a monarch. She seems just as jealous and vindictive as her father was. Perhaps we’ll meet a different Elizabeth in the near future?

Only two books to go.

Monthly Update

May and April Update

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I was so wrapped up in prepping my Kickstarter campaign I missed posting my April update. And with the campaign successfully wrapped up, I can get back to my normally scheduled posts.

Projects

The big project for the foreseeable future is Champion Bold. My editor is already working at the manuscript. I’m working on the supplemental books I offered as a reward, which is a lot of little articles and technical entries. It’ll be a lot of work.

Closing in on a good draft of The Colonel Lieutenant. While I’m glad to be moving on with this, I think I need some feedback before I can work out how to proceed.

I’ve done some minor work on other projects, but I’m trying to focus on Champion Bold until I get that done.

May Goals

  • Get Champion Bold halfway edited.
  • Get first draft of the supplement books done.
  • Get Feedback on The Colonel Lieutenant
  • Knock 10 things of Minor Project List
  • Add 5K words to Fantasy Project

Reading

  • The Last Tudor by Philippa Gregory
  • The Olympian Affair by Jim Butcher
  • Cordelia of the Island by Ashley Katharine Houghton
  • The Buried Dagger by James Swallow (Started)
  • The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (Audiobook)
  • Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (Audiobook)

I’m well behind my goal of 36 books by the end of the year, but the ones I’m reading through are very good.

The Olympian Affair took a good while to get going, but the last half of the book really took off. Cordelia of the Island was written to an older style of storytelling, where the main story is interrupted by a collection of short stories that supplement the main line without being necessary for its conclusion.

I finished The Count of Monte Cristo, and I see why so many of my friends recommended it. The count’s story of revenge came to a satisfying conclusion, one that wasn’t what I — or the count — expected. When I wrapped that up I switched over to Don Quixote. I’ll be honest, while the story is interesting, the character is a jackass. I know it’s a satire work, but he annoys the ever-loving hell out of me.

May Goals

  • Finish two fiction books
  • Finish one non-fiction book

Movies and Shows

  • Halo Season 2
  • Witcher Season 3 (in progress)
  • Shogun (in progress)
  • Black Adam
  • Birds of Prey
  • The Expanse (in progress)

I sat down one night to have a double-header movie night. Black Adam was fun; though i don’t know anything about the character, I didn’t really care that the movie was long. I got into it. Birds of Prey was….bad. Which sucked, because I liked Harley Quinn as a character. But the movie had too many characters, the story was sloppy, and I just couldn’t care.

I started a few shows the last two months. I finally got into Witcher Season 3, which I’ve been wanted to get into for a while. I’m excited to finish it. But the big show I started was Shogun. Now, I read the books back in high school, so I only remember a few scenes here and there. But what I’ve seen so far has been fantastic. I’m hoping it holds up.

May Goals

  • Finish this season of Expanse.
  • Finish the Witcher Season 3
  • Watch 1 Best Picture Winner
  • Watch 1 Other Movie

Games

  • Red Dead Redemption 2 (In Progress)
  • Frost Punk (Played Around)
  • Rebel Galaxy (Played Around)
  • Gears of War Tactics (In Progress)

I continue to go through a period of little to no video games. It’s not that I don’t have interest, but I spend most of my free time working on projects. I just don’t have time to sit down and play for long periods.

The RPG’s I’m apart of are moving along at a good clip. I’m having fun running Atonement, and my characters are still alive in the other games.

About the only big update in games is that I started a legacy board game — Trench Club Legacy — with some friends. If you don’t know what a legacy board game is, it’s a game where the players get to influence the rules and setting as they play. In this case, an alternate World War 1. We’ve got one out of up to ten games down. France started the first battle of the war, and Austria won it. We’ll see how it goes.

May Goals

  • Finish Gears of War Tactics
  • Get to next chapter of Red Dead Redemption 2

Coming Up

I don’t have any appearances scheduled anytime soon. My focus will be on getting Champion Bold and The Colonel Lieutenant up to speed.

Writing

Writing Process 2: PBRG

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**This is the second post in a series on my writing process, how I’ve analyzed and adjusted it over the last few years. More posts will follow.**

Okay, I’ve acknowledged I have a problem: I am not writing efficiently. I’m spending too much time stopping to work out something I could have done ahead of time, but I failed to do so because I’m too much of a pantser. I want to become more of a plotter. How do I do that?

The system I worked out I call PBRG for short, after the four steps of the process. This article will give a quick overview of the process and how it works.

What is PBRG?

PBRG are the four steps of the new process. they stand for:

  • P – Planning / Plotting
  • B – (World) Building
  • R – Research
  • G – Gaming

The process is simple enough. I start by planning and plotting out my story, working out the who, what, when, where, and why’s of the story. then I build, research, and game out anything I need to flesh out the plot.

The overall idea is that when I get to actually writing, I have everything I need to just pound out the words for a good first draft.

P – Planning or Plotting

Just keep plotting. Just keep plotting.

Planning or Plotting means to work out the Who / What /When / Where /Why / How of the story.

I already start all my projects with planning and plotting, but it’s been very simple. I figure out the overall acts of the story, the important characters, and a few other bits I need to know.

In the new process, I want to plan or plot out as much as possible down to the scenes if I can. I want to know every location I have to prepare, character I have to name, and event I have to plan out. And then to sit down and prepare, name and plan out everything listed.

B – (World) Building

No story happens in a vacuum.

World Building means to create the world beyond the story.

World building is fun. I do world building almost every day, taking one of any number of fantasy and fictional worlds and working on part of it. I even sell world building services on Fiverr.

In this process, I mean to identify what I need to build before the story gets going. It could be the history of a region, the specifications of a space ship, or the type of artwork a race idealizes. The idea is to have everything ready and worked out so I don’t leave myself a ‘come back to this’ note.

R – Research

Research, but don’t forget to take notes.

Research means to learn the knowledge I need but don’t have readily available.

This is one thing that tripped me up a lot in earlier drafts of stories. I’d stop mid-story to research trains or steamboats, or to research how far horses can move in certain conditions. There are plenty of notes in earlier drafts of me saying I’ll come back and fix you later (as I did with world building)

In this process, I mean to identify what i need to research, conduct the research, and have an answer prepared for writing.

G – Gaming

You shall not pass . . . until the plot demands it.

Gaming means to find complex portions of the story, and to work through them step-by-step to determine how they would work.

A game in this step is about consistency. It’s about making sure the units are all moving the same speed, and recording what conflicts happen where. It’s about identifying important choices various decisions makers had to make, and considering what they would do in that situation. I’ve done it a few times for the books I’ve written, but only after a first draft has seemed to go by too quickly.

In this process, I mean to work out the course of a complex activity ahead of time, and then write the story to conform to the process I worked out.

A Positive Test

Has this process been helpful? So far, yes.

I have a story project I call ‘Contrition’, a science fiction story set in the far future. It’s more of a secondary or even tertiary project, but it’s one I like to work on. For the first act, I applied this process.

  1. Planning / Plotting: I planned and plotted out the scenes. I identified what characters were needed and named them, preparing their personalities and impact on the story. I worked out place names.
  2. (World) Building: I build the geography, culture and economy of the planet the first act takes place on. How do the people respond to technology? How does the economy work?
  3. Research: I answered questions I knew I would need to ask. How hard it is for low-tech societies to build trade goods? How much space does a herd of cattle need? How fast to steamboats move?
  4. Gaming: Okay, this step didn’t come up with the first act, but I’m using a gaming process to work out how the decade in space before the story begins worked out. To make sure I’m consistent.

The result was; I wrote about 8,000 words in four days. I breezed through it. The first act, as prepared as I was, flew by. And then when I hit the first scene of act two, where I wasn’t prepared; boom. Like hitting a wall.

The process definitely has merrit.

Next Post

This was a quick overview of the PBRG Process, how I use it and how it’s worked so far. Next post, I will look at the Planning/Plotting step in detail, how I take an project from starting idea to scene breakdown.

Thanks for reading; I look forward to seeing you next blog post.

Cheers!

-Michael

Monthly Update

March Update

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February was filled with a lot of collecting artwork for the Kickstarter, trying to finish the Colonel Lieutenant, and just knocking things off my to-do list. That being said, I think I could have knocked a few more off. I’d like to see new goals for next month: finish some games and projects I’ve been working on and starting new things. So, I’m highlighting the goals from each one I absolutely want to get done.

Writing

I worked some on the Champion Bold manuscript, but most of my work this month has been on the Kickstarter campaign. I can do the prep-work, the text, and the planning, but I need to accumulate some artwork to get it done. Art isn’t something I do well, so it’s contacting artists on Fiverr and commissioning the work.

I’m closing in on a full draft of The Colonel Lieutenant. I imported the scenes I needed from previous drafts, now I just need to link everything, and start ironing out the story. Just a lot of grunt work.

Because of my focus on the two big projects, I didn’t get too much done with the minor projects. But that’s okay; they’re minor projects for a reason.

February Goals

  • GET KICKSTARTER FOR CHAMPION BOLD RUN
  • Get Complete Draft of The Colonel Lieutenant
  • Knock Ten Things off my Minor Activity List
  • NEXT WRITING PROCESS BLOG POST

Reading

I completed only one book this month, a non-fiction book called the Empires of the Steppes. The book is about the various people and empires that rose on the Eurasian Steppe and how they influenced and interacted with the empires around them. I read it as research for my fantasy stories, and it included a great deal of useful information.

Moved through another section of chapters for the audiobook of The Count of Monte Cristo. The book has moved into the revenge phase, where the Count is putting his plans in motion. So far, I haven’t figured out what he’s going to do, but things are moving along.

February Goals

  • FINISH THE LAST TUDOR
  • Finish One Other Fiction Book
  • Finish One Non-Fiction Book

Movies and Shows

I continued to work through new episodes of Masters of the Air as they come out. I still liked this show. It follows characters in such a way we get to experience the terror of combat, the frustrations of command, and the anxiety of being shot town to escape or be captured. Two more episodes, and we’ll see how it ends.

Ran through a chunk of episodes of the Expanse. The story is growing on me, especially now that many of the disparate characters are coming together. I do hope all the villains of the story get some sort of comeuppance, but we’ll see.

Finished Season 1 and into Season 2 of Halo. I still have mixed feelings about this show, though it’s a mixture of anger and whatever feeling translates as ‘where are you going with this and can you pull it off?’ I don’t want to give spoilers about the show, but how I interpret the season as a whole will be decided by how they end it. If everything comes together, it could be cool. I don’t know that it could be great.

The only new movie I sat down to watch this month was The Marvels, the newest MCU movie. I had heard not great things about this movie, but I disagree. Yes, there are a lot of things they could fix, and some things that don’t make sense, but it was a fun movie. The characters worked well together. And I hope to see many of the characters in future installments.

February Goals

  • Watch two movies
  • FIRST EXPANSE SEASON 3 AND 4
  • Finish three other season

Games

It’s weird that Gears of War Tactics doesn’t hold my attention for long. It has so much I should enjoy. I played through two story missions and the supporting missions needed to advance. I believe I have four story missions to go. I’d really like to finish this and move on to a new game.

I’m also picking away at Red Dead Redemption 2. I’m usually not a fan of games where you play criminals and outlaws. In this game, it depends on the mission. Some of the missions don’t sit well, but others are fun to play through. I can’t say I get all the mechanics, however. Some things just never seem to work for me.

In terms of RPG’s, one of my Pathfinder games is taking a break and switching over to Delta Green. Sunday night ‘Quest for the Frozen Flame’ continues to be fun, and I’ve started the Monday night Pathfinder 2 game, which I’ve titled Atonement. The players really got into character creation, and they’re off on the story. I am excited to see what we do with it.

February Goals

  • Ten Hours of Red Dead Redemption 2
  • FINISH GEARS OF WAR TACTICS
  • Start another Story Game

What’s Next

I’ve got two events.

Minicon 57, the weekend of 29th to 31st. I’ll have a small table for selling books and access to the Kickstarter.

On April 13th, I’m running a Pop-Up Bookstore at Number Twelve Cider. Four hours, fifteen authors, and lots of fun.

March will be focused on the Kickstarter. I want to get that up, because up means publishing.

Wish me luck.

Cheers!

Michael

Monthly Update

February 24 Update

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January was a busy month, dominated by processing the first Beta responses to Champion Bold, working on the Kickstarter campaign, and closing in on a readable draft of the Colonel Lieutenant.

Writing

I’ve started getting Beta reader responses to Champion Bold, which has been positive. A few good points they’ve brought up for me to clarify, which is the point of Beta readers. I’m putting together the Kickstarter campaign, and I’m hoping to have that up this month or in March.

Continuing to work towards a completed draft of The Colonel Lieutenant. I’ve got the arcs worked out, now it’s just a point of writing the scenes, and then ironing out the story so it’s coherent.

I’ve been working on other projects. Writing a scene here, some world building there. Just some little bits to break up the routine when I need to mix it up. I did get the first post up about my writing process, which I’m glad I finally got out.

February Goals

  • Champion Bold: Finish incorporating Beta responses
  • Champion Bold: Get Kickstarter Up
  • The Colonel Lieutenant: Complete Draft
  • Blog: Get one non-update and non-book report post up
  • Other: Knock 10 things off my minor writing list

Reading

I finished the paranormal espionage thriller Declare by Tim Powers. This book was phenomenal. It was a good mix of ancient mythology, modern spycraft, and with a story that was told simultaneously in the 1940’s and the 1960’s. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys stories adjacent to the Cthulhu mythos.

With that done, I shifted over to try to finish A Fire Upon the Deep, which I had an eBook from Libby but couldn’t finish in time. I picked up a cheap paperback copy to finish. Now, if you want to know anything about this book, it is one where you have to infer a lot of the rules of the story from how the characters respond to things. There’s not a lot of exposition. It can make it frustrating to not understand the rules as well as the characters do. But we’ll see how it ends.

Still working through The Count of Monte Cristo as my audiobook. I know so little about this story I have no idea how it’s going to end, and I’m almost halfway through. I have so many questions about who he’s going to get revenge on and how. Even though the main character’s a bit of a Mary Sue, I don’t care. It works.

February Goals

  • Finish Fire Upon the Deep
  • Start new fictional book
  • Start new non-fiction book

Movies and Shows

I didn’t watch too many new episodes this month. Added a few episodes of the Expanse, which continues to be a good show I just can’t really get into. The last episode I watched was so intense (and upsetting) I had to take a long break. There are still a lot of elements to the show I like, and I appreciate its quality. I just can’t binge it.

I started watching The Halo TV show on the advice of a friend. I’m only a few episodes in. I’ve got mixed feelings so far. The opening sequence – a Covenant attack on a human settlement – was brutal to watch, which really set the tone well. That was great. And Halsey is a fun character. The parts that haven’t worked for me are the uber-fascist feel of the government and the chosen-one trope they’ve given the Master Chief. We’ll see how it ends.

I also started Masters of the Air, the new show about the USAAF in World War 2. Only three episodes in, but I appreciate that the view is from squadron and group leaders, meaning I’m getting a good view of how these raids were organized and led in the air. Most other stories I’ve read have been about individual aircraft and their crews (looking at you, Memphis Belle).

February Goals

  • Finish Halo Season One
  • Finish Expanse Season Two and Three
  • Finish One Marvel TV Show
  • Watch Two new movies

Games

I finished the campaign to Anno 1800 this month. It was a good campaign that teaches the players most of the base mechanics of the game. I want to try playing it past the end date to see how far I can take it, but it does take a lot of time.

Advanced a few missions through Gears Tactics. I feel like if I can set aside a night to just play this game, I could probably knock it out and then be done with it.

I started Red Dead Redemption II. This game follows an outlaw in the end of the wild west. So far I’m liking it, particularly that there is a mechanic where I can choose how honorable or despicable I can be. We’ll see how it comes out.

RPG wise, most of the campaigns are continuing along nicely. But the exciting news is that I get to take out the every-other Monday night game with a campaign idea I’ve been working on for a while I’m really excited to get this one to the table, and nervous to see if I can get the game to run the way I hope. Right now everyone is in character development, which is a lot of fun to partake in. I’ll let you know how it all goes.

February Goals

  • Finish Gears Tactics
  • 20 Hours of Red Dead Redemption 2
  • Start another PC Story Game

What’s Next?

I’ve got two events coming up.

Minicon 57, the weekend of March 29th to 31st. There I will have a table selling my books and likely have something up about upcoming publications.

On April 13th, I’ll be running a Pop-Up Bookstore at Number Twelve Cider. It’ll be a four-hour event, but it should be a lot of fun.

So that’s it. Two events to plan for, a game to process, two books to bring to publication, and a lot of work to do. Should be fun.

Cheers!

Michael

Writing

Writing Process 1: Too much pantsing

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**This is the first post in a series on my writing process, how I’ve analyzed and adjusted it over the last few years. More posts will follow.**

Over the last few years, as I’ve worked to bring more titles to publication, I’ve had to face the fact that I’m not an efficient writer. My process involved too much stopping, too much re-writing, too much back and forth. I’m not happy with it. But this is not a question of writing more or writing harder. It’s about creating more efficiently.

I want to write more, and I want to write better. I feel like most creators understand how life and interrupt the process, sucking up our time and our energy, until we are looking for ten or fifteen minutes to sit down and do something for ourselves.

In this first post, I will look at how I found my writing process to be lacking. I will discuss what I found my problems were. And I will mention some initial steps I took to improve it.

2024: Planned and Actual

When I was publishing my first book, Renaissance Calling, back in 2017, I made up a list of everything I wanted to publish. It was — and still is — an extensive list. 30 plus books, including short story collections. The list included six sequels to my book, two prequel books and three short-story collections. There were three different science fiction universes, and two fantasy worlds. Many historical fiction stories and series spanning the course of human history.

Like I said, extensive.

I sat down and created a schedule built on the idea that it would take me six months to write a rough draft, and six months to revise a rough draft for publication. When I finished one rough draft and moved it to the revision phase, I would start another. Under the plan, I would publish two books a year, every year, basically for the rest of my life.

So, as 2024 starts, I was scheduled to have published at least thirteen books.

I’ve done two.

What went wrong?

Pantser vs Planner

Creative Carl goes with the flow (Panster)

Most discussions of writing process include the descriptions of pantsers and planners. This post will also discuss the difference. If you don’t know what those words mean, let me explain.

A pantser is someone who writes off the cuff. They let the story surprise them, developing in the moment as they write, They may have an outline they follow, but it’ll be broad, and subject to change in the moment.

A planner is the opposite. They plan extensively before they write a single word. Every scene will be plotted and planned, and when they write they’re just executing the outline.

Most people fall between these extremes. As a writer, I tend to fall to the pantser side of the equation. I write and let the story develop.

And that was my problem. A poor writing process.

There go my pants

The benefit of a pantser is that I often inspired while writing. Just this morning, I was writing a scene that I expected to end with the character making a decision, but while writing I realized she had a different option available that made more sense. Great, right?

Sure, in this case.

The problem arises when I hit something that makes me stop writing completely. What is this character’s code name? How does this historical process work? Why is this event I just mentioned important and what does it mean?’

These sorts of questions will stop me cold. I one spent an entire lunch hour contemplating one character’s code name. Not efficient whatsoever.

The pants fell down and tripped me up.

Making changes

Logical Lou follows the outline (Planner)

Between my first book and second, I made several changes to my writing process that started shifting me away from pantser. I would work out characters names beforehand. If I knew something was important for the story, I would research it and be ready. Little things that planners do naturally.

Little changes are good, but if I want to publish more, I need to be much more efficient. A book every four or five years isn’t enough. My main series (planned for seven books) would take thirty years to publish. And I have other stories I want to tell. Science Fiction. Fantasy. Historical.

I need to make bigger changes for the future.

I need better plans.

PBRG

Acknowledging that my writing process isn’t working, I developed a system for my future projects that I call PBRG. Next post, I will describe this new system and give an overview of what it looks like.

Until next time, keep writing.

Cheers!

Michael

Monthly Update

January 24 Update

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December was busy, not only with writing projects but with holiday events.

Writing

My work on Champion Bold was to continue run the story through a decent editor program. Turns out the Scrivener, as great as it is for writing and organizing, has a terrible spellchecker and no grammar program to speak of. Nothing I can’t work through, but it took some time.

With the Colonel Lieutenant, I wrote and worked through the middle section of the book, connecting the threads between the beginning and the end. I’m close to having a draft ready for heavy revisions, if I can just sit down and knock it out.

I snipped at my various other projects last month. I added research notes, wrote more chapters, and did world building exercises to prepare the secondary projects for if and when they become primary. I’m also working on several extra blog posts for the year that are something other than monthly updates and book reports.

January Goals

  • Prepare Kickstarter Campaign for Champion Bold
  • Complete Draft of the Colonel Lieutenant
  • Knock 10 things off my Secondary Project List
  • Post one writing blog post

Movies and Shows

LOKI, Season 2, exclusively on Disney+. © 2023 MARVEL.

I finished Loki Season 2 this month. It was quite an exciting ride, one that stretched the rules of the multi-verse and time travel as the MCU seems to use it. It was a bit of a shame I didn’t remember many aspects of the first season, because there were parts of the second that didn’t connect as well as they should have. Still, it was a fun show to watch.

Next came Good Omens Season 2. This was the opposite of Loki, in that I really enjoyed the first season, so I was excited for the second. I was curious what they’d do for their second season, given that they would have to come up with a whole new story within their universe. The story they told was a fun mystery. I think they might have relied a little heavily on flashbacks, but I still loved it. I’m looking forward to Season 3.

Continuing to work through the Expanse. I’m past the episodes I’ve seen and I’m into new episodes, though still in the Second Season. Oddly enough, I found the show more likable once I got past the last episode I saw; I guess I stopped just one episode short of the crest. Still, I’m liking how the factions develop, and how the characters are surviving (or not).

January Goals

  • Finish Two Seasons of the Expanse
  • Finish one other TV show
  • Watch one new movie
  • Complete one remaining Best Picture Winner (Coda or Nomadland)

Books

Oddly enough, I didn’t finish reading any books in December. My reason has to do in part with trying the Libby app to get free ebooks. Since I only have the books for three weeks, and I have to fit them into my current reading schedule, I started several but didn’t finish. I’ll have to wait for the next renewals to come through and then power through. But I did start several books.

Top of this list is Declare, a paranormal thriller set during and after World War 2. The story is set in two different timelines. The later timeline is happening in 1963, where the characters are dealing with the end results of their actions in the previous timeline, set in the 1940’s. It’s a nice mixture of spycraft and Lovecraft.

Also on the list, I started (and stopped due to Libby timeout) The Last Tudor, the next novel in the Philippa Gregory series. The novel follows the the short reign of Lady Jane Grey — Queen of England for only nine days before Mary and Elizabeth — and then her sister Katherine, who lives through the early days of Elizabeth’s reign. I was enjoying the book before it times out; I look forward to getting back into it.

All the other books I’ve been picking at the last month were research books for one project or another. Gathering notes and assembling stories. Good times.

January Goals

  • Finish one eBook
  • Finish one physical book
  • Finish one research book

Games

I completed the story for Farcry 6, where I played Dani, a revolutionary who is fighting for the liberation of her island, Yara, from the oppression of a cruel dictator. I’ll be honest, I was disappointed with the ending. all through the story, characters were discussing what would happen when the revolutionaries won. How it wouldn’t be easy or bloodless. And when they get there, and the story just skipped over any consequences.

Not much else to bring up for gaming last month. Worked through a few more sections of both Anno 1880 and Gears of War Tactics. Didn’t lose any RPG characters. Had some ideas for campaigns or encounters I added to my list of ‘wouldn’t it be cool?’ Still, glad to knock one story game off my list.

January Goals

  • Finish one story game
  • Get into Red Dead Redemption 2
  • Have fun

What’s Next

I have a table at Minocon 57 the last weekend of March. I’m hoping to get a Books and Beer even in sometime soon. And I’ll be prepping for the next Kickstarter campaign for Champion Bold.

Looking to start 2024 with a boom.

Cheers!

Michael

Review

2023 in Review

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I started 2023 with a number of goals in mind. I wanted to publish a book, and revise my writing process to be more efficient. Then, I wanted to do more events. And I wanted to cross some media off my various lists.

Writing and Publishing

I accomplished a lot of writing goals this year. First, I got one draft out to Beta Readers, with a second close behind. Then, I wrote scenes for various projects, and did research and world building for others.

And while I was doing all this, I was revising my writing process. I need to write more efficiently, and by the end of the year I was. I’m planning some blog posts on the topic, but essentially I paid attention to everything that slowed me down when writing, and worked out a process to counter it before it becomes a problem.

Events

I only got two events in this year, but they were good events. One convention where I sold books, made contacts, and partook in a panel. And one pop-up bookstore.

I’ve already signed up for another convention next year, and I want to do more. I know pricing is an issue, but I’m going to have to figure something out. It’s too important to not pursue.

Media

One trade off of writing more is experiencing less. I watched fewer movies and TV shows, and played threw fewer games, than I expected to. I still read a decent amount. And now that I’m listening to podcasts, I can get some research and entertainment done while I’m working. So, while the quantity may be down, I don’t regret it.

2024

My goals for 2024 are similar to this year. Publish and get my writing out there. Do more events. And continue to enjoy the stories that are out there to experience.

So, thank you to everyone who reads this blog and supports me. It was a good year, and I look forward to next year being even better.

Cheers!

Michael

The tale of an author, and his blog.