To show the narrative game process, I’m going to game out the campaign in the Valle del Cielo, between the Campilesia Independent Forces and the invading Sur-Marais Army. This post will set up the game. The next post will play it out.
The Map
I took the map I had previously created for The General of the Pen and I added a hex overlay. It’s thicker than I would have liked, but it’s what I could do quickly. Clearly, the map is not set up for the hex overlay, as cities and villages are not quite centered, but again, I did this pretty quickly.
Each hex is roughly ten miles from center to center.
The Rules
This game is going to track how fast units move about the valley. Each round is one day.
Units
Every unit on the map is going to represent one independent formation, moving under by the decisions of one commanding officer. This could be as small as a squadron of 300 soldiers, or an entire army corps of 30,000.
Each unit has a movement speed, which represents how fast the unit can move about in one day. This speed will be limited to the slowest formation in its order of battle, either infantry (foot and wagon speed) or cavalry (mounted horse speed).
The units will not have the same speed necessarily. The well-drilled Sur-Marais infantry can pack up and march quicker than the newly raised Campilesian volunteers. On the other hand, while the Campilesian cavalry is not well-drilled, they are all expert horsemen, so they will move the same speed as their professional counterparts.
Faction
Unit
Speed
Sur-Marais
Infantry
2 hexes
Sur-Marais
Cavalry
3 hexes
Campilesian
Infantry
1 hex
Campilesian
Cavalry
3 hexes
Unit composition
Other than changing the movement, the composition of any unit on the field will have several other influeces.
The unit commander’s knowledge of strength will inform their deicisons.
A unit with cavalry can ‘scout’ the nearby hexes to find out what is nearby.
Larger units will eat up supply quicker. While I’m not tracking supply by numbers, it will something to keep under consideration for narrative purposes.
Messengers
It’ll be important to remember that in this world, there are no radios or telephones. There are telegraphs, but they exist only between major cities, so they won’t have much of an impact on this game. Narratively, that any information known in San Martin (the capital city of the valley) is known to the greater Campilesian movement beyond, which may have an impact. I’m giving myself that options.
A message dispatched by an officer will move up to 50 miles (5 hexes) in one day. This is a bit messier to track, but important to know when certain officers know about events further down the valley. And it’ll be one more reason to have the character try to build a telegraph down the valley.
Commander Choices
Finally, I need to make the choices for each unit from the viewpoint of the commander of that unit, at that time an place. I want to take into account:
Their education and training
Their skill and talent (or lack thereof)
What they know
Their mission
Their biases and personality.
Starting Positions
In this step, I set units about the battlefield and decide what their current composition it. I figured out most of this in earlier blog posts where I built the armies, but now I get to see it on the map.
The Sur-Marais force is in the west, at the large town / small city of Santa Catrina. Here, I’m going to place two markers. One represents the force sent to pacify the valley. An army corps, supplemented by two additional cavalry brigades. Around 20,000 men at arms, all told. The second marker represents the garrison force of Santa Catrina, to guard the supplies. I’ll say this is a brigade of infantry, some artillery, and a lot of supply clerks. Maybe 4,000 men, all counted. They won’t do much, except represent the enemy ‘base.’
The Campilesians are spread out. They have a brigade at San Martin in the east (three battalions of infantry and an artillery battery, 2,600 men). And a brigade I will put at the crossroads (also three battalions and a battery, but only at 1,800 men). There are also about seven hundred scouting the west. I will put three tokens down, for each of the three scouting units, representing where they’re focused on looking.
I’m also going to add markers for the main characters of the story, at least as far as they make it into the game. One for the allied commander, Major General Alonso de Mendoza, and one for the POV character, Gerhard Van Rumm.
The red enemy forces in the west stand ready to advance down the valley. Three markers indicate where scouts focus their efforts. Blue forces sit near the crossroads and the city to the east. The gold and silver circles represent the two main characters of the story.
Beginning the Game
I’ve got the tables for each unit on the board, with their subordinate units and some notes on their commanders.
I have the starting places for the units.
I have the established rules.
Starting the next blog post, I will begin playing the game.
Writing a story comes from a place of plot, building something for the characters to experience that the readers will enjoy. But when it comes to complex scenarios that occur during such stories, the initial rough draft will often be more plot oriented and inconsistent. To work out those scenarios, iron out the inconsistencies and retain the exciting plot, I’ve found it helpful to game out the scenarios.
Please note: a game can represent any scenario, but so far, I've dealt mostly with military battles and campaigns. Therefore, this blog post will speak mostly about gaming out battles. There are some games I have set up for non-campaign projects, but I'm still working through them, and I want to keep them secret for now.
What is a Game?
First, let’s establish what I mean by a game.
A game is a physical representation of a complex scenario from one of my books. This representation allows me to process the scenario, watching all its component parts.
To do this, I need:
A star map for a science fiction project.
A map of a geographical area. In some cases, I might make an organizational relationship. It largely depends on what I need to track. But so far, it’s been geography.
I need tokens to represent units, characters, locations. And participant in the game that I want to track. This may come with a key or stat card for the tokens.
A set of rules to guide the game. These rules will tell me how much time passes each turn, how far units can move, how terrain impacts movement, and things such as that.
A timeline to track the passage of time and events that occur each turn. One game I took pictures of the board each round and tracked everything. Another game, it was just notebook pages. At some point, spreadsheets will be involved.
There are also aspects which might be unique, or at least not universal, to particular games. Maybe one game I need to worry about supplies. Another game, the political relationship between factions. Most games might not require their own specific rulesets, but I should be open to building them if necessary. It all depends on what I’m trying to build.
Which leads us to….
Why ‘play’ a Game?
To be clear, the purpose of a game is not to roll dice and see who wins a contest. I’m not putting the plot of the story into question. But what I can do is use the game to watch and consider the complex situations and check them for common errors and opportunities.
A good battle scene may require both the bird-eye (strategic) or authorial and the ground-level (tactical) or character points of view.
1. Keep units moving realistically
It’s a very common error on my part in early drafts: people and ships move at the speed of plot. At the end of one rough draft, I realized an entire company of characters had moved thirty miles in an hour by horseback. It’s something I’ve become aware I need to pay attention to.
Since most of the games I’ve played so far have been military campaigns, movement rules are important. The general in charge of the dramatic campaign would know how to stagger his orders so all the units would — or at least should — arrive at their attack points at the correct time. Yes, things could get in the way, but orders are written with the best of intentions. Until I get in the way (see #3, below).
2. To notice bad decisions (for characters or author)
This works hand in hand with reason 1; my initial campaign idea is usually plot driven. When I lay it down on a map and start moving units around, I notice things that the decision-makers in the story would notice. For example:
This company captured this village early, which means this road was cut. I can’t use the road later. Either the company can’t capture it early, or I have to find other ways to move things around.
This officer made a decision that doesn’t make sense on the read through; she would have to trust that an enemy unit wouldn’t attack or move, and there’s no way she would know that. She has to make a better decision, or I have to explain a more flawed on.
This unit spends much of its time in action without running out of ammo. How is it resupplying? Or is it resupplying at all? I’ll need to address this.
3. To see from unnamed character’s eyes
If early drafts of a battle are plot driven, they’re usually from the viewpoint of one or two characters. Units and other characters will appear and disappear as needed, and events will flow from their POVs.
But a battle involves dozens, hundreds or even thousands (or more) people, and many of them can influence its course through their decisions. By looking at the game from the top-down POV, I can see a dozen such decision points each turn of the game, with characters making choices based off incorrect decisions seen through personal biases.
Things happen behind the scenes that may not even be mentioned in the book, but they can influence how and where people and groups show up in the story. I may even think of entirely different ways to fight, flow or end the battle.
Influence on the Story
The influence is on subsequent drafts is pretty clear (at least to me, the one who has to read all the drafts, over and over again). Battles flow more realistically. Units deal with supply issues, casualties and travel times. Characters make better or worse decisions of incomplete information, and the impact of those decisions ripples across the battlefield, and the story.
Now, all I have to do is take my rough draft and incorporate the lessons of the game into the next draft. In some ways this is easy, as I have a wealth of new information to add to the story to tell the important parts better. On the other hand, there’s also a lot of extraneous information I may feel like flooding the reader with. And I don’t want to do that. Yes, I gamed everything out, but the reader doesn’t want to read about every decision 30 officers made over three days of battle.
Does that mean a lot of effort was made, recorded and wasted?
Not at all. It’s just hidden behind the curtain.
Gaming the General of the Pen
Here is where I would normally do a section on gaming a part of General of the Pen, but I realized pretty early that a good game would take too long to put as a section of blog post. So, I’ll make that the 11th chapter of this series.
Conclusion
The word game is not meant to leave the fate of the story to rolls of the dice. It is meant to add structure to the world and keep my storytelling realistic, or at least consistent. By using a map, tokens, and a set of rules, I can make sure the characters go through events that meet the needs of the story, but don’t take the reader out of it with ridiculous movement jumps, stupid decisions, or forgotten units.
Join me next time when I show you how this works by taking my original plot for General of the Pen and setting a game to it.
Any writing project is going to involve research. The topics can range from how clothes were made in ancient Greece to debates over the best way to colonize Venus, and a thousand points in-between. Creativity is always important, but the wrong mistake in how things actually work can snap a reader out of the story.
I believe we should all have a good idea of how research works, so I’m not going to spend time on the concept. What I will do it touch base on a few research-related topics that I’ve found important during my writing projects. They are to not let research interfere with writing, check your sources, and keep track of your data.
‘I know research is important, but…LET’S GO ALREADY!’ ‘Hold on, I need to know six recipes for Roman soap.’
Research Before and After Writing
I have a problem with stopping mid-scene to conduct research. It’s very annoying to have a lunch hour to write, and to spend forty minutes of it trying to figure out what I need for a riverboat scene to be realistic.
If I know something is going to be important ahead of time, I research ahead of time. These topics tend to be the larger topics that are important across much of the story. For example, in Templar Scholar I had to know how many troops a train could carry in 1880, and how long it would take for troops to move from A to B. So, I did a lot of research on that topic.
The other issue is when something pricks at me while I’m writing. These are small topics that I usually find myself wanting to check or learn about only because they came up in a scene. This happens a lot in the Renaissance Army series with daily life events, like researching what clothes and food were common to frontier settlements. With these topics, I’ve had to put in a place holder, usually an astrix, and come back later to research and fix.
The main point is that I try not to stop writing unless I absolutely have to stop.
Check Your Sources
This is important. There are few topics that don’t have fan or enthusiast pages, and these pages can pop up early and often when you’re trying to research a topic. Try researching a WW2 topic and avoiding getting some Call of Duty information, or the British system of purchasing officer’s commissions without hitting fan pages for Jayne Austen books or the Sharpe series. Knowing where they got their info — or bypassing them entirely for professional or primary sources — will keep you from making a ridiculous mistake.
This is becoming even more important as AI gets more and more involved with internet searches. Even if you don’t use AI programs as they come and go, AI is becoming a staple of internet searches. Check what sources they use, and then check that those sources exist. Nothing quite so annoying and thinking ‘this title could be a great find!’ and then finding out the AI generated the title for you.
Keep your Data
Seriously.
It is — or was — a constant problem with many projects of mine. I would research something, then forget where I put the info. And that assumed that I even wrote it down; sometimes, I would enter what I needed into the story and fail to record what I had looked up and where I got the info.
This would come back to bite me when I wanted to change details, and suddenly I’m reaching to re-research what I’ve already gone through. Which website did I visit that had the answer? Six of the first page of the Google results are purple. so it’s probably one of those.
I’ve taken to having a subfolder within each project folder dedicated to research topics. It’s filled with notes, scans, maps, pdfs, basically everything I used to research a topic. It’s better than restarting from scratch every time I have to revisit a question.
Example: General of the Pen
Accounting for what I know about 1860’s era armies and their maneuvers, I wanted to focus on what I didn’t know. And a lot of that had to do with their logistical trains (that is, the wagons needed to carry their supplies and how much supplies were needed) and their spacing (how much space a unit would take up.
I lucked out and found a report that addresses both these topics; I believe it’s a school paper, and at 400+ pages, I’m guessing a higher-level thesis of some kind. It gets into Civil War Logistics and manages to provide me with several charts and equations regarding these topics. So much that I can answer most of my questions from this one document.
Some good examples of info I can use from this document:
A regiment of 1000-men would nominaly have six wagons
1000-men marching in fours takes up 625 feet on the road
A 6-mule wagon team takes up 60 feet of road space
Men and Wagons for one regiment would come to 925 feet
I’ll round to 1,000 feet to account for spacing between regiments
Checking the sources, I see a lot of primary documents (the orders and guidelines of the 1860’s) and books written by the people who were there. So I have little reason to doubt its veracity. But I will take each individual point and search for it, to see what comes up and if that point is challenges.
And I will save the notes in at least a project research folder, and possibly in the scrivener file itself.
Conclusion
Research is a part of writing, pretty much regardless of what genre you’re writing in. What’s important is that you make research a part of your process without letting it disrupt your flow. That you check your sources to make sure your accurate. And that you keep your research and data so you can refer to it later without having to re-research.
Next up on our PBRG process is Gaming, where I explain what a game is and how I use them to improve the writing process. I do anticipate coming back to Research in the future when I explore how different it is to research a Historical Fiction novel than anything else I’ve ever done.
PBRG is a process that’s meant to make broad elements of the story and prepare them ahead of time to keep it consistent. It’s meant to remove the amount of time in proofing and editing where I’m hunting through my stories looking for every instance of ‘lightyear’ so I can change it to ‘light year’. It’s not meant to completely replace writing in the creative process, because let’s face it. It can’t. I’m still, at my heart, very much a pantser.
What’s a Pantser again?
Many writers will fall somewhere on a spectrum of being a Planner or a Pantser. Planners prepare everything ahead of time: outlining their story, preparing all their characters, doing all that extra leg work a story needs done. For them, when they start writing they already know what’s going on, so they write to the plan.
Pantsers tend to be more disorganized. It’s not that they won’t have an outline, but it’ll be more of a guide rather than a required course of action. For them, inspiration comes in the moment, and entire plots can appear to them as they’re working.
I’m a pantser. A lot of my inspiration comes during the writing. It always has. Even as a game master in RPG’s, I rely on in the moment decisions within the constructed framework to build the story. As a writer, there’s so many aspects I can’t write until I’m in the scene, hitting the thousand and one minute details that writers have to deal with.
I can world build and plan and plot and game out all I want, but at the end of the day, the writing is where I’m most creative.
Creating from scratch; the pantser way.
Where PBRG helps and falls short
I’ve found planners fascinating. Their outlines and can be so in depth as to be intimidating. There are times — usually when I’m at the end of the project and I’m coming through the text trying to iron out inconsistencies — that I wish I could do the same.
PBRG isn’t quite a planner’s outline. It is a tool I use to answer big questions before I get into heavy writings. It’s meant to ensure consistency and that I have some idea where a story is going. It’s not meant to replace my process, but to supplement it.
So far, I have found it incredibly helpful. I have prepared maps for multiple projects so I know names and travel times ready to go. There’s also character names. I can get really weird about making sure a character has the right name, so getting that done ahead of time is great. Unit names, ship types, laws and rules… many instances where PBRG helps me prepare important information ahead of time.
But it’s not writing, and it can’t take over my creative process. My writing is where I get into my character’s heads and see the events through their eyes. Where they become more than just a collection of notes, and where they get to influence the story. Planning in any capacity helps, but only to a point.
The Benefits of Writing
There are several benefits to keep writing during the PBRG process.
First, writing requires a different set of mental muscles. In world building I’m a historian; in writing I’m a storyteller. I approach the subjects differently and see things in a different light, usually the characters. What i hadn’t figured out as an author may suddenly snap into place when I’m trying to consider the problem from the character’s point of view.
Second, I cannot possibly outline and plan for every aspect of a scene. I may know what I want the scene to do (inform the reader or advance the story), but I cannot anticipate the minor things. I can plan the personalities of five friends, but until I’m writing their first conversation, I don’t get a sense of who they really ar.
And third, writing gives me a chance to challenge what I’ve been building. Sometimes, the world building looks nice but doesn’t hold up when you try to build the story around it. So it’s nice to realize that earlier in the project when the fixes are simple.
Example
A few weeks ago, I sat down to write the opening scene to a short story. The purpose of this scene was to introduce the character and the setting. Thanks to PBRG, I had the character’s names prepared, the organization of their fleet and the ships involved, and an outline for the story.
I wrote less than 800 words, but so many things occurred in those 800 words.
The admiral was no longer commanding a group of ships while defending a star system. Now, she was an admiral facing promotion and relegation to a desk job, never to command in space again. She wasn’t just fighting for duty; she had a chance to prove her value and perhaps gain a rare and coveted position. This made her bolder — and perhaps reckless.
I’d also realized that the outline for the battle was deeply flawed, not only tactically but thematically. There was no tension. Things moved as set pieces. As I had the staff officer brief the admiral, I realized how bad the plan was.
But writing the briefing exchange, I also figured out how to make it better. I would need to re-work the math I’d prepared, but there was now a time limit that made every choice matter. I still had a lot of the product from the PBRG process, but I’d refined it and was working on a better story.
‘But what’s the plan?’
Do I need another letter?
No. As amusing as it might be to try and shoehorn a W into the PBRG acronym, at this time I’m not planning to do so. In part because I think it defeats the purpose of the PBRG system. But also, because I won’t always know what I want to write, or need to write, or am inspired to write.
What I can do is just acknowledge that the two need to work together. PBRG provides the framework for the project, answering the big, long-term questions I need to know. Writing allows me to check the framework and build the facade. Back and forth. Until I have a finished project.
Then I get an editor to hit it with a wrecking ball, and we see how it stands.
Magic, science and mythology are three broad categories to cover. Each one represents a deep part of the lore. This is getting into the metaphysics of the story, building gears that grind layers beyond what the characters do and the reader sees. They represent aspects that can influence the characters’ understanding of the world around them.
I mean, that’s a lot to put on the categories.
Not every story will need magic, science or mythology. Some might not need any of them. But if the story does require anything, I’ve found it helpful to build a framework beforehand so I can remain consistent.
After all, we don’t want to break the story, do we?
Break the Story?
Yes, break the story.
Using magic and science to solve plot problems is a time-honored tradition. But use it too much, and it becomes a joke (see Batman’s utility belt or Star Trek technobabble) and the story breaks. There needs to be a balance, otherwise the reader will be left thinking that it was too easy.
And mythology may not be about solving problems directly, but it is about how characters interact with their world. And if I build an entire mythology, only for the characters to never reference it or react to it, then the world breaks, and then the story.
I want to be careful that the rules I’m building remain important but constant. Part of that means considering what I need the system to do, and what I need it not to do.
‘So…think Michael will learn to draw hands sometime? I’d really like thumbs.’
Magic and Magic Systems
A magic system is a set of rules for extra-normal powers and abilities that can be accessed through natural talent or learned ritual. It can run from the wizards and artifacts of a fantasy story to the psionic and telekinetic powers of science fiction.
I have several projects that need magic systems. Champion Bold needed some rules for psionic powers for consistency. Orcfyre needed magic rules for not only spells, but the influence of divine power on the world. Several of my minor projects (fantasy and science fantasy)require their own systems.
The important thing I need to keep in mind while working on these systems is that I’m building guidelines. I don’t need to work out every single variation of spell that exists within the world. I just need enough that the story is consistent. With that in mind, I want to build the rules specific to the project I’m working on, while leaving enough room to build on for future projects.
Building a Magic System
When I’m devising magic systems, there are a couple of important questions I want to consider first.
What can it do and what can it not do? It’s important to set boundaries. Is magic common: have practical utility or tactical use? Or is rarer, used by the elite for grand purposes?
Who can access this system?: Not everyone can cast spells or conduct rituals. Who can do it and how they access it? How rare are magic users? What sets them apart?
How is the system received? A magic user could be accepted and protected, or they could be feared and persecuted. How are magic users incorporated into different cultures within the world?
What are its consequences? Magic should have a consequence, even if its as simple as exhausting its user. Something needs to keep magic users from using their magic on a whim.
Example System – Vi World Magic Spirits
I’m going to bring up my Vi world magic system, as its the system I’ve developed the furthest.
Vi world is a fantasy world I’ve been building for some time; it’s the setting for Orcfyre, my ‘someday this’ll be ready to publish’ fantasy novel. It has a long mythology that I’ve worked out over the years, built around the idea that the spirit world exists alongside our world. And the spirit world is where magic comes from.
Magic is what happens when spirits are pulled across the divide and used to influence the real world. This can be hurt or heal people, change an item, or seek the truth about secrets.
Asking my questions
So, let’s consider my questions.
What can it do and what can it not do?: The magic of Vi world can do almost anything, from levitating small objects to divining the future. But because of how difficult the magic is to use and control, it’s not a common. If you see someone on the street corner offering spells, it’s more likely slight of hand.
Who can access this system?: Anyone who can pull a spirit across the divide can use magic. This isn’t easy. Unless you’re at one of a few spots where the divide is weak (commonly where temples and oracles set up shot), you have to use force. That means either a natural talent due to heritage, using an item or ritual, or sheer willpower. Even then, it’s not easy.
How is the system received?: Every culture in Vi world accepts magic in one form or another; none reject or persecute magic users. But every culture also has their own set of norms and expectations, and magic users who reject such expectations can find themselves in danger rather quickly.
What are its consequences?: Using magic is exhausting, even with training. Unless an individual’s heritage (racial and familial) is inclined towards magic, even a single spell can drain a person, perhaps even unto death. In many cases, multiple spellcasters will be used to reduce the impact on any one user.
Impact in the Story
Within the Vi world, magic is a known quantity. It exists, and everyone knows it. When it happens, it has an impact. But getting it to work usually requires significant effort, so it is not commonplace. it allows me to write a story where the characters know such magic exists, but do not feel the worry that it will erupt at any time.
Magic’s rarity is in contrast to our next topic, which requires as much effort to construct, but with the expectation that it will be used far more often. Now, we will discuss science systems.
Science
A science system is a set of rules for branches of knowledge and avenues of advancement that are accessed through technology. It can run from steampunk airships and mechanical suits of a fantasy story to the energy weapons and space travel of science fiction.
Science is rooted in the real world, which makes building a science system a different challenge from a magic system. Anything I need to build will have something similar or related I need to research and incorporated. Even FTL travel — with no working real-world examples — needs to take into account the speed of light, distance between systems, and the strength of gravity.
Building a Science System
As with magic, it’s important to remember I’m building guidelines to remain consistent. I don’t need to build everything. I need to build what I need for the story, and enough extra to give it some depth. But that’s it.
And there are the questions I need to consider.
How reliable is the science or technology? An established empire will have reliable technology, while frontier societies will need more maintenance. Also, this is an important question to ask in the context of the story; if I need it to be reliable, or to fail, I need to account for that.
What does the science/technology do or not do? Just like magic, I want to consider what the technology of each system can or cannot do. There should be limits.
What is the math? Yes, there’s that math. I need to have numbers in mind for firing ranges of weapons, speed and acceleration of space ships, communications time, etc. A lot of little things that I want to make sure are consistent one chapter to the next.
How knowledgeable are most people about the science and/or the technology? Not everyone can know everything, but there’s a difference between a ship’s crew knowing the basic principals of how their engine’s work, and believing it to be esoteric witchcraft.
Example System – Light Star Universe
The Light Star Universe is home to Champion Bold, my recent science fiction novel. It’s always been a pretty standard science fiction universe; what made it special was not the technology, but the aliens and the stories we told.
How reliable is the science or technology? Most of the technology encountered in Champion Bold is reliable and known. That isn’t to say experiment tech doesn’t exist, but it’s not put into mass production if it’s not ready for use.
What does the science/technology do or not do? The technology of the LSU is generally pretty standard sci-fi fare. It allows faster-than-light travel, artificial gravity and space combat. It does not bring back the dead or teleport people across vast distances.
What is the math? I won’t bore you with equations. I will say that after I worked out the math, much of the story had to change. A couple of combat chapters were re-written to be consistent, and the length of the story doubled once I accounted for FTL travel speeds. But, overall, it strengthened the story.
How knowledgeable are most people about the science and/or the technology? It’s roughly equivalent to modern industrialized society and the technology we use on a daily basis. Most people understand the basics and the principals, but they wouldn’t be able to repair or rebuild it without some training or education.
Impact in the Story
The technology of the Light Star Universe exists to allow the stories to take place. It is not there to dramatically change things, but is a stable and reliable base which the characters can expect to do what it’s designed to do. But most importantly, it’s consistent, which means the story can advance without the reader pausing and asking ‘wait, I thought ….’
If magic is rare, and science common, our next topic is so common as to be subtly invisible. This is our last section of the post, mythology.
Mythology
A mythology system is a set of stories and beliefs that guide and influence a society’s morals, decisions and responses to the events they are experiencing. It’s a broad heading, that covers small sects of Christianity to fantasy world mythologies to alien philosophies.
(I debated using philosophy or belief system for this part of the post, but I’m going to stick with mythology.)
At first glance, you might think it looks out of place here. Mythology, after all, doesn’t give people special powers or abilities. But mythology in one way or another does shape how the characters in a story interpret the world around them and the events they experience.
Mythology was fairly minor for the works I’ve published so far. I’ve only had to build a sect of Christianity and some the cultural mythologies of some alien cultures. But having these worked out , even in their minor forms, was still important for the characters’ arc. But for future titles (Orcfyre being a prime example).
Building a Mythology
As with anything, I start with ‘what do I need to build for the story.’ Then, I move on to my mythology specific questions.
What are the important tenants of this mythology? Every mythology has something it emphasizes that makes it different from others. I want to consider a bullet list of what the mythology teaches, preaches and demands of their followers.
Who is the mythology for? Not every mythology will be followed by everyone. It could be a very elect group of people, or perhaps followed by citizens of a certain city or members of a certain species. But I’ve found defining how someone becomes a follower really helps, even if its as simple as ‘an alien mythology followed by a race of aliens.’
How do followers of this mythology act differently? I want to have some basic idea of how a follower of a mythology acts in accordance with their beliefs. More specifically, how does a follower act differently from me and what I consider normal. I also consider questions of devoutness; some people will take the beliefs as iron rules, while others will pay lip service and go about their day.
How real is this mythology? Every mythology will include myths, but there’s usually a grain of truth in the middle. Depending on the story, the grain could be pretty close to the mark, or could be pretty far off. How close it is could be a matter of contention with the world, and could be a source of conflict within the story.
Example Mythology – General of the Pen
For the example of this portion, I’m going to return to the General of the Pen, the story we’ve been developing as part of this blog series. In particular, I want to build the mythology of the Campilesian Church. I know the organization of the church from a previous post; now, I’m building the beliefs.
What are the important tenants of this mythology? The Campilesian belief system is very close to Christianity in a lot of ways. This system has a firm belief that everyone has a passion in their life, which leads to their high number of saints and grand patrons. They also are less strict on gender norms (usually) and abhor slavery.
Who is the mythology for? The Campilesian system is for everyone, from the common farmer to the ruling lord. They accept converts fairly regularly and easily. Most Campilesians live within the Campilesia region, or in a neighboring region.
How do followers of this mythology act differently? The belief that everyone can be great at something means that most followers have some passion they pursue. Some may make it the main part of their life, or it’s something they engage in outside of their profession. But they are generally supportive of everyone around them.
How real is this mythology? The basis for this belief system is an ancient philosopher who works for the survival of the Campilesian people when conquered by the Ferrans. His system allows them to survive as a people under centuries of rule by other people. The religious aspect — spirituality and afterlife — are believes, but not perfectly known.
Impact in the Story
The Campilesian religion gives the people who make up most of the characters in my story a shared belief system. A system that encourages people to find their one passion, which could be Campilesian independence. It also means that the people view the sacrifice of military service in a very high light.
Conclusion
Magic, Science and Mythology are all broad topics that I’ve bumped into during this post. In each case, I’ve provided a brief overview of what each one means and how I start their creation. The actual work would include pages of notes and histories, spreadsheets of math and lists of entries. Unique questions for each system that don’t apply to the others. A lot of work and information that the reader will never see.
With the end of this post, I’ve finished my four posts on the World Building aspect of the PBRG system. Next up, I’ll go over the Research aspect. I don’t imagine that’ll be more than one blog post, but we’ll see how that goes.
This post will cover building and outlining organizations. By organization, I mean any distinct group that is assembled with a specific purpose. This could be a military unit, a branch of government, or a church. It could be as large as a nation, or as small as a clubhouse.
Any organization that will have a noticeable impact on the story in one way or another should appear on my list and receive at least some sort of prep work. How much prep work and to what level of detail will depend on what I need the organization to do.
Why build organizations?
Because organizations of various sizes have so much influence on our lives on so many levels. Think about how many organizations you interact with on a daily basis: law enforcement, insurance agencies, restaurants, etc. Even if the experience is smooth, you’ve still interacted with them.
Within a story, organizations can influence the choices of a character (antagonist, protagonist, or other) as they experience the narrative. They can restrict or assist characters. Some organizations may act as characters in and of themselves, if they’re central enough to the story.
Broadly speaking, there are three ways I expect an organization can influence the story.
Availability of resources
An organization has access to resources. By planning ahead, I know what those resources are and how the characters can access them. An army brigade has so many tanks and machine guns. A corporation has so much money and so many facilities. And so on.
When writing, I then have an idea of what the character who is part of this organization has access to. How many guns can they bring? How much money can they withdraw? It helps define things ahead of time, so a character doesn’t suddenly have access to resources beyond their means; or if they do, they’re going to draw attention.
Powers and Limitations
Characters who are part of organizations operate within the rules of that organization. The organization gives them certain powers, but also impresses upon them certain limitation. Think about law enforcement agencies. Officers of the agencies have powers and authorities while conducting their duties, but also work within the law and limitations of their culture. And different agencies will have different powers and restrictions.
For characters in the story, an organization can be the source of conflict, by restricting a character in one way or another. Having some idea of how these restrictions work, and the punishment for ignoring the restrictions, helps inform the decision-making process of that character.
Knowledge and Ethos
Organizations are not just about people and equipment, but also about knowledge. What does the organization know and what can it teach (or has it taught) the character? Deep secrets, professional knowledge, client information: organizations come with an array of bits that characters can know to come to learn.
Related is an organization’s ethos: the character and spirit of the organization. This ethos can influence the character and/or their interactions with the organization. A character from a military unit that prides itself on always completing the mission would react strongly to even the idea of failing. Another character from a secretive religious order would find spycraft to be second nature.
What to build?
Start with some basics. Names of the organization, a brief history. Some ideas of what its scope is and what its powers are. Much of this might seem pretty obvious, but I’ve found it helps to write it down.
Tables of organization
A table of organization is a great way to lay out how different parts of a group interact with each other. The one I’m most familiar with is the TOE (Table of Organization and Equipment) used in military histories to explain how sides of battles are organized, but the concept is the same for non-military or non-historical organizations. Boxes represent parts; lines represent relationships.
Tables are a great visual reference to explain organizational relationships without getting into paragraphs of explanation and exposition. They’re also helpful if I need to game out battle or campaign scenarios, as the units on the table can translate to units on the tabletop.
The Table of Organization and Equipment for a Royal Army Corps from the Renaissance Army series. A table like this allows me to quickly know unit names, sizes, and what equipment is available at each level.
Lists of Resources
A list of the resources available (and I’m including knowledge and secrets in this list) can be a helpful bit to keep on hand. It could lead to a new story idea of fun conversation within a scene. Plus, I’ve found that having a list of the resources centralized in one location makes it easier to reference during writing.
Positions, Ranks and Characters
Organizations are filled with people, who have titles, responsibilities, and possibly a role within the narrative. Much of this may feel thematic, but it is important to get it right. It doesn’t make sense for a European-style organization to use Japanese titles, unless there’s a very good reason for it.
Once the organization charts are built, figuring out the titles, names and even biographies of important decision makers ahead of time will help with the flow of the story. I don’t need to necessarily prepare the name of every single character in the organization, but having them ready can be great when I’m writing the scenes.
Paying Attention to What I Need
At various points while building organizations, I need to take a step back and ensure I’m building what I need for the story. I could go through an entire military organization and label every officer and unit name, but does the story need that? Do I need to work out the titles for every officer in a church leadership, or not? I need to pay attention to what work I need to focus on.
In Practice: The General of the Pen
So, we’ve gone over why I build organizations, and what I try to build for an organization when I build them. Let’s move onto the final part and put it into practice for our test project, the General of the Pen.
I’m going to build four organizations for this project:
The Campilesian church: the cultural glue that holds the local communities together.
The Campilesian independence movement: the political force that is driving the rebellion.
Alonso’s Army: the force that is being assembled in Valle de Cielo for the story.
The Sur-Marais army: the force that will serve as the antagonist for the story.
Don’t worry. I’m only going to give myself three paragraphs per organization. The first paragraph I will give the expectations I have for the organization within the world. The second, I will give an overview of the organization I’ve built. Third, how it will appear in the story.
The Campilesian Church
The Campilesian Church is a religious organization that has influence across the borders and strata of Campilesian society. I need it to be a culturally unifying force for a people who do not have a political unifying force, while they built a governing body. But I don’t want it to necessarily step in and try to rule in its own right.
The organization I envision is hierarchical, but broad. Local priests report to a bishop of a region or an archbishop of a city, all of whom report to a cardinal. The various cardinals make up a ruling council that decide ecumenical and spiritual matters after vigorous debat.e
In the book, I expect the bishop to be a character who will appear several times (so I add him to the list). Local priests will appear to lead their parishioners into the new era; some may actually become military officers.
Story Idea: The more religious Campilesian’s are willing to accept religious leaders as military leaders; Gerhard, from a nation which practices more separation between spiritual and military, looks at this with distrust.
The Campilesian Independence Movement
The Campilesian Independence Movement is the driving force behind the story; they’re taking advantage of the opportunity to drive for independence. But it’s not a controlling body; it’s not even a particulalry organized body. It’s more a loose collection of social clubs, poliitcal socities and local parties that is stepping up.
This organization is building to nationhood, but has some ways to go. Right now, it’s a very provisional organization. It has a central directing body, and several developing government organs, but nothing is set in stone. Much of the authority of the movement is held in local and regional organizations, which are trusting in the central body to figure it out.
For the course of the story, the Independence Movement is a driving force, but will be largely absent from the narrative. They have called for raising regiments, given Alonso his position as a general, and are sending him what supplies and units they can. But if any agent of the government does show up, it won’t be a large player.
Alonso’s Army of the Valle de Cielo
The Army of Independent Campilesia is a growing army, made up of small regiments of social clubs and emergency volunteers who are assembling into the larger formations in response to the current crisis. It should represent a chaotic and uncontrolled expansion. It should also show off that each regiment assembled is an expression of local customs and heraldry.
The building block of the army is the regimente, a formation of various companies assembled under a command staff. Each regiment has a common uniform for themselves, but these are not standard across the army. Regiments bear the name of the city or region they are raised in. They are sent to regions to fight in, where they are assigned to generals as needed.
Corps of Observation (700 at arms)
Middle Brigade (1,800 at arms)
East Brigade (2,600 at arms)
Santa Natalie Mounted Squadron (300 at arms)
Santa Margarita Regiment (400 at arms)
San Martin Regiment (1,000 at arms)
Valley Volunteer Mounted Squadron (160 at arms)
Santa Isabella Regiment (600 at arms)
Santa Angelica Regiment (600 at arms)
Valley Foot Scouts (200 at arms)
San Miguel Regiment (600 at arms)
San Roberto Regiment (800 at arms)
Ricardo’s Battery of Artillery
Garcia’s Battery of Artillery
The initial Army of the Valley and its regiments, including their size. Not shown are the command staff, civilian wagons pressed into service carrying goods, and the numerous camp followers.
In the General of the Pen, there are a number of regiments that form or are sent into the valley, from the well-equipped and uniform looking San Martin Regiment to the hastily raised and rough looking Santa Angelica Regiment. They currently service in the valley, under General Alonso, who has divided his army into the western Corps of Observation, and two fighting brigades. These formations will form the basic army that the characters operate in during the events of the story. More units could come in later, when it’s most dramatic.
Aside: In the Independence Army, most soldiers and officers are dedicated to their regimente, which are expressions of local support. They know each other. General officers and staff work for the central government, which is not the same thing. There is still a lot of distrust going around.
The Sur-Marais Army
This is a large, established army. Their unit histories go back centuries. They have standard uniforms, weapons and training. And they have an entire nation’s industry and economy behind them. The force that comes into the story is small enough to be defeated because they have confidence in their arms to win the day.
I build two charts for this army. One is a chart of the high organization, the top generals and their offices, to explain the inner workings of the army and how it responds to a crisis. The second is a TOE of a single army corps, a formation large enough to operate on its own.
A simple TOE for a Sur-Marais Army Corps. I haven’t worked out naming conventions or exact numbers per unit, but something of this size should work out to about 15,000 at arms.
During the course of the novel, the army corps will advance into the valley and engage the independence movement. Using the TOE, I can track the units and numbers of men involved, and track casualties as events unfold.
Conclusion
This was a quick overview of how I go about preparing organizations for a story. For major projects, I have whole spreadsheets counting down unit sizes to the man, and tables of organization to look back on and reference. It’s not meant to be perfect; it’s meant to answer the big questions before I start writing, so I stay consistent.
Next post I will do a quick overview of creating setting specific systems for Magic, Mythology and Science. Expect a lot of math, and a lot of ‘the characters don’t know how it works, but this is what they think.’
This section covers anything where I’m building a background. This can range from a few important dates in the history of a city to a three-page biography of the main character to a ten-page report on the migrations of orcish tribes across a continent.
Why Write Histories
Writing a history provides several benefits. The first is consistency. If I know the year of a big cultural event, I can make sure it’s the same year every time it comes up. Same thing with the name of the school the characters attended, the name of the hero of centuries past, etc.
Second, characters and groups within the story will make decision, and those decision will often be influence by their histories. A nation will be wary of neighbor with a history of raiding nearby cities for plunder. A character who biography includes travel to a city will react differently than one who has never been there before.
What does the Story Need?
I start with the same question: what does this story need?
Logical Lou likes his lists
Through the PBRG process and looking at the Outline, I will have a good starting list of nations, cities, regions and people to work on. I don’t need to add every minor character or location to the list, but it should not be a small list.
Creating the list is one thing; staying focused is another. I was a history major, and I love going off on creative historical tangents while I’m world building. Do I need to work out the name of every ship in a fleet from 300 years ago? Or every monarch for a nation that’s existed for a thousand years? No, but part of me really wants to.
What does the entry need?
For each entry on the list, I think about what I need to build for it. And I don’t just mean in terms of length. I mean what topics do I need to focus on when I’m building the history or biography. Do I need to focus on political events of the city? The character’s education as they grew up? Having more info is great, but I want to ensure that I hit the important points while I’m doing my work, otherwise all it it’s for nothing.
Simple or Complicated
How simple or complicated any particular note has to be is pretty much a judgment call, based on my evaluation of the story and the topic in question. Where possible, I try to err on the side of ‘too much’ information, so that I have it and don’t need it.
Truth, Myth and Interpretation
This is something I actually have a hard time doing, because as a historian I kept researching to find the truth, so building incorrect history into the preparations can be difficult for me. But it’s something I have to incorporate into the prepared history. It could be due to the distance in the past, or because of conflicting stories, or deliberate misinformation. But not everyone has an interest in preserving the truth. And that should be reflected in the history.
Histories in Theory – Building the History
Once I have my to-do list, it’s time to get to work.
I’ve found the best way to approach histories is with a mixture of spreadsheets and word documents. The spreadsheets are great for timelines, where I can re-order and use filters to assist in the listing process. Especially when I’m doing myths, rumors and multiple interpretations, extra columns come in handy.
Writing histories: world building in 4D.
The word docs are for short reports or even short stories on the topics I need to expand on. Again, I want to have prepared more than I’ll need.
Historical Research
Preparing any history is going to involve some amount of research. It could be the average length of a renaissance lord’s reign, or the development of a certain technology, but I expect to take a lot of notes.
And I mean take notes. I can’t begin to tell you how many times I looked something up and incorporated it into my draft, and then couldn’t find the resource later. Oops, I hope I got it right the first time.
What I’ve started doing is having folders of screen shots, PDFs of articles or word docs of notes regarding specific things I’ve had to look up. Many of my scrivinr projects have link pages, so I can keep track of important and helpful websites, or the notes copied and pasted into the project itself.
But Michael, isn’t Research the next step? We are still in the world building phase.
Yes, but I mentioned that the steps are all intertwined. Research is part of working through each other step, as much as working through each step creates more topics to research.
Research, then record what you find, so you don’t have to research again.
Drawing on Real History
Researching historical parallels and characters is helpful, no doubt. But it’s important to remind yourself that you’re building a new thing, so it does not have to follow historical precedence exactly.
For example, if you’re building the history of an empire similar to ancient Rome, it doesn’t have to follow Rome exactly. Maybe it remained a republic, or maybe it never was. It doesn’t have to fall and splinter.
Same thing with characters. A character who is a great statesman does not have to follow the same biography of Abraham Lincoln or Winston Churchill. The research is meant to provide ideas for how life shapes the individual into who they need to be for the story.
Histories in Practice – The General of the Pen
Okay, so let’s take a look at what sort of histories I’ll prepare for the General of the Pen. I’m not going to worry about the history of the entire world. I’m going to build a timeline for the continent and the valley, and then some biographies of some of the major characters.
Overview and Influence
The nature of the story is analogous to the French Revolution in many aspects, so my focus is on cultural and political aspects. Social incidents are also common, and as I want the technological level to be further along the 19th Century, I’ll add a few notes about how long-ago trains, telegraphs and rifles artillery was invented and incorporated.
History of the Continent
This history is not going to be too detailed, otherwise I’d be recording events covering thousands of years of history, across hundreds of thousands of square miles for even a small-ish sized continent. My goal is to establish a few years of important events in the cultural and political development.
Let’s start in the stone age: there were tribes and city-states of several different cultures, whose names are unimportant. Then came the bronze age and two civilizations started to dominate on opposite ends of the continent: the Germanic peoples of the northwest (whom we’ll call the Nerweier), and the Latin peoples of the southeast (whom we’ll call the Soreran).
Ancient History
The two civilizations developed their influence, slowly dominating the people of the continent through military, political, social or economic power. By the Iron Age, certain city-states had developed into two great Empires, the Konigsen Empire of the northwest and the Ferran Empire of the southwest. The two met and clashed across the continent several times, but were unable to conquer each other due to a number of factors: terrain, size of the armies, and simple technological limitations.
And let’s not forget another important aspect of building histories: developing the calendar for the world. How do they measure days, months and years? How do they name them?
The Ferran capital was destroyed by invaders from the south, which left their provinces to act as independent nations for a time. Konigsen took advantage to secure a superior position and remained dominant for several generations, but was rent by several civil wars that kept it from conquering the entire continent.
Modern History
Several of the Ferran successor states grew to be regional powers in their own right. One of them, the southwestern power of Sur-Marais, developed into an empire. Its initial wealth came from gold mines and domination of some trade routes. Savvy political maneuvering and military decisions by the Sur-Marais leadership won it hegemony over much of the continent.
Within the last few years, something has happened that has begun to alienate the other states. Perhaps it is an internal event to Sur-Marais. Perhaps it is increased education or cultural development within the successor states. But something has happened that now, a big war is expected between the dominant power and the smaller states of the continent.
Dates
Events
~3,000 years ago
Nerweier and Soreran Cultures rise to prominence
~1,500 years ago
Empires of Konigson and Ferran form
800 years ago
Ferran capital destroyed
400 – 500 years ago
Konigson civil wars
300 – 350 years ago
Rise of Sur-Marais
History of the Valley
With the history of the continent prepared, I can focus on the valley where the story is going to take place. Here I can add start with the base timeline of the continent and then add some valley specific events.
The valley of the story (The Valley of the Sky, or Valle del Cielo) is a long valley high in the mountains of Campilesia. Campilesia was one of the earliest provinces of the Ferran Empire: it resisted for a few generations but then became ‘civilized’. Northern warriors raided several times over the centuries, but never conquered the valley.
When the Ferran Empire fractured, Campilesia came under the control of the local governor, whose family ruled as petty kings for several generations before a trio of brothers split the kingdom into even smaller states. Over another century, Campilesia existed as a disorganized series of city and regional powers, none strong enough to conquer another.
With the rise of the Sur-Marais, Campilesia fell into line, the petty nobles and monarchs succumbing to the hegemony of the rising power. They remained unorganized politically, but culturally connected. With submission came stability and prosperity, and eventually the rise of political movements who question their submission to Sur-Marais. And these groups are prepared to take advantage of the chaos.
History of the Characters
Looking back at Post 4: Planning and Plotting in Practice, we have a list of various characters that we expect to find in the story. For each character I know we’ll need, I want to prepare at least a basic background, something that include their upbringing and experiences that lead them to this point of the story.
Gerhard Van Rumm:A mid-level general, late thirties or early forties, who fought in the Konigsen armies. He is on leave and is in Campilesia for his health. I will work out his educational background and some campaign honors, and maybe some personal events that will make him inclined to help an independence movement.
Alonso de Mendoza: A man of some wealth and experience and unlimited energy. He is a friend of Gerhard, and wants his experience and expertise for the rebellion. He has led a blessed life and is the sort of charismatic leader we all love to hate. I will work out his life story, filled with adventures, close calls, multiple love interests, and a growing demand for the independence of Campilesia.
Joel Villarreal: A man of limited wealth, self-educated and determined. He does not appreciate Gerhard; he wants to Campilesia completely independent, without outside help, thank you very much. He is the sort of naive firebrand that revolutions are built on. His background will involve a lot of heartbreak and conflict with the authorities. Despite this, he does love his country.
Mara Carmen Capitan: A merchant’s daughter of wealth but not of noble blood. She is the love interest of Gerhard. She is educated, but I haven’t figured out how I want her romance with Gerhard to go. So her background will be fairly neutral at this point. A lot of events, but not much in the way of substance.
How does this change the story?
Building the history of the world and the biographies of the characters influences the story. Don’t believe me? Let’s consider General of the Pen.
Creative Cal considers the consequences
Before this post, Gerhard Van Rumm was just a foreign officer who was in the area and became part of the rebellion. Now he’s from a military tradition whose lineage goes back centuries if not millennia. His friend is now a nobleman — or close to it — who does things that are rarely if ever unsuccessful. His detractor is a man who works for the people: we as readers will question is he’s as altruistic as he claims, or if he has ulterior motives. And his love interest has a name and a bit of a background, though much of her story is being left alone for now.
And their world now has names and histories attached. The local people have a strong cultural cohesion but not a political one; they’ll have to build that themselves. Similar stories are playing out in other regions, as the upper political turmoil of the greater empire is being removed and the nations are forced to fend for themselves.
Questioning the story
And now, this beings me to something that happens often during world building: when an idea forms that could make the story better, but changes it drastically.
In the original idea for General of the Pen, the southern empire (Sur-Marais) was the big bad, and over the course of the series would be the threat that the protagonists must fight. As the Campilesians form their politics and their armies and fight back, Sur-Marais sends bigger and bigger armies to reinforce their rule. The Campilesia and other former provinces of Sur-Marais combine to oppose the empire in a coalition.
But what if that wasn’t the case? What if we followed a different story?
What if the former provinces face off against each other? Campilesia doesn’t have to worry about Sur-Marais, but about their neighbors to every other direction. Why would they trust their neighbors anymore than they would trust their former overlords? Wouldn’t it make sense for Campilesia to seize that important city or strategic pass and then send diplomatic representatives? Realpolitics come first, right?
Or, I could mix the two. Sur-Marais is the threat, and the Coalition is forming. But the Coalition is rocky, and realpolitics is making things difficult.
The fact is that I don’t have to make a choice right now. I can plot a few options and prepare some possibilities, but we’re still world building. I’ve got time to consider options. I’ll make a decision at some point. But not now.
Conclusion
Building the histories of the places, groups and people of a story creates consistency. It also fleshes out those places, groups and people by giving them more background, which gives their decisions and actions greater context.
Both of these benefits assist me as a writer. Being consistent in the first draft simplifies the revision process. And knowing backgrounds for decision making can assist in getting through writer’s block or plot decisions.
Hopefully, I’ve managed to explain my history world building thoughts without losing too many of you. Can you see where I could easily be distracted with fun story ideas and tangents?
Next up is the post on building Institutions and Organizations and how — and why — I need to do that ahead of time. Until next time.
One of my biggest challengers as a writer — or as a creator in general — is having too many projects on my project list. Sure, I know the two or three most important ones, but for a lot of the extra ones I had a hard time tracking them. Thus, [art of this whole revision process includes coming up with a way of prioritizing my projects.
What did I do before?
For several years, I’ve been prioritizing my projects as ‘Primary’, ‘Secondary’ and ‘Tertiary’. But this process wasn’t working.
As I said above, I could easily choose what my primary projects were, but I had a hard time differentiating between secondary and tertiary projects. For another, I really didn’t have a clear idea of what made a secondary project separate from a tertiary; or for that matter, from a primary project.
I could never settle on a list I liked. I ended up with too many primary projects, or too manty secondary. The tertiary list had projects that I was actively working on and projects I barely ever thought about. Were they all tertiary projects? But the ones I was working on couldn’t be secondary projects, they weren’t that important, or they weren’t far enough along.
No, I needed something new.
Defining the Levels
The first thing I needed to do was establish what each level was.
When I sat down to define my levels, I thought I would get away with three. But it became clear to me pretty quickly that I needed more, especially for the lower-level projects. I had to differentiate between what was just an idea, versus what was an idea in progress, versus what was a story in progress.
I eventually settled on five project levels. Starting at the lowest.
Quinary Projects are ideas I have that would be cool to write, or they’re far enough down the series line that I haven’t done any real work on them. They’re just some ideas, maybe some brainstorming or notes, lists of research books to read at some point. The fifth Sasha Small book and the historical dramatization of Winfield Scott’s life are examples of quinary projects.
Quaternary Projects are projects where I’m developing the broad strokes. I have a core that I like (some characters, or a setting, or a story), but I don’t have enough to start writing. I need to work out the big strokes, so that can build the details through the PBRG process. My science fantasy adventure story (project ‘Resurrection’) and the sequel to Champion Bold (titled Champion Impact) are both quaternary projects.
Tertiary Projects are projects that I’m running through the PBRG process. I’m building the world, researching the topics, and gaming the wars. I’ve probably written more than a few scenes for the stories, if only to scratch that creative itch. My civil war historical series and my collection of Renaissance Army short stories are examples of tertiary projects.
Secondary Projects are projects where I’m trying to get a Rough or Alpha draft written and revised to the point that I believe it is ready to publish. This could take a few rounds, so it’s not as easy as just writing a draft. Right now, I only have one secondary project: Orcfyre, my fantasy novel I just can’t get right.
Primary Projects are projects where I’m revising Beta and Final drafts for publishing. They’re also projects that are continuations of currently published books. Champion Bold is a primary project because its about to be published; The Colonel Lieutenant should technically be a secondary project, but as its the next book in my main series, I’m bumping it up to primary.
How do I process my projects?
I start with the five categories.
I take each project and sort them into the categories. This requires me to take an honest look at each project and ask some questions:
Where am I at with the project?
What do I need to do with the project?
How important is the project to me?
Unsurprisingly, once I take an honest look at my project list, I come to the conclusion that most of my projects are quaternary projects: no matter how much writing I’ve done or not done, the project needs a significant amount of world building to progress. I can write scenes, but I should avoid major draft writing until I’ve answered some big questions and have a good outline ready.
And that’s a good thing. The whole point of this process (both the PBRG and the Prioritization) is to make my work more efficient. to stop writing things before I’m ready to write them. And having stories where I don’t know the ending, or where I don’t know the McGuffin, or where I don’t know the characters: those are stories I shouldn’t be writing.
Rules for advancement
Which is a good time to bring up another aspect of this process: how do I decide when to advance a project from one tier to another?
From Quinary to Quaternary is pretty simple: I just take ‘that would be a cool idea’ and start working on it. I want to get it to the point that I can run it through the PBRG process. So, I take the idea, I get the Grand Overview, answering the big questions about the story and where its going.
Quaternary to Tertiary means I’ve got a story and an outline, and now I’m running it through the PBRG process. I (P)lot the story, then (B)uild the world, (R)esearch the topics and (G)ame the scenarios.
Tertiary to Secondary means I’m writing the rough and alpha drafts. I want to get a draft ready for other readers to read it and get me feedback.
And Secondary to Primary means I’m working to get the draft ready for publication.
Imperfect System
Now this isn’t a perfect division. Some of the projects on my list are sitting higher than they should because they’re part of a series I want to focus on, or because they’re dear to my heart. But that’s part of a personal system like this. I have to accept some oddities in order to make it work.
How does this help?
You’re not wrong. Once you get past the primary projects, what does it matter how the rest are organized?
I don’t know what to say. It just does.
I’m not kidding. Once I got this organization figured out and I organized I projects, my worry dropped. I had them in their place and I wasn’t going to forget about them. Each one is on my master to-do list, sorted into their priority group. Each one has several bullet points attached, listing characters, ideas or plot points I need to work out before I can progress the project to the next level. I stopped making list after list of projects, trying to get it right, because I did it.
I got it right.
Conclusion
From a vague and disorganized system that wasn’t working and was actually distracting me, I built a new system that works. I can track my projects, incorporate new ones, and feel confident that I’m not going to forget anything important.
I’m glad I got this reorganization complete. Since I finished this process, I’ve been able to focus on the important part of creativity: writing stories that people enjoy, and enjoying the creative process myself. I’m not making and remaking lists of projects. I’m creating.
World Building is fun. I do it at the drop of a hat. I’ll world build just for fun. Heck, I sell world building services on Fiverr. It’s not something I need prompting to do.
I do world building for stories fairly often. Lots of scratch paper and unsaved spreadsheets have been scarified to idle world building. But in the PBRG process, it’s not about doing the fun parts of world building that come to mind. It’s about identifying what I need to build, doing the work, and then saving the work so that I can come back to it and reference it when I need it.
This is a long process, so instead of one big blog post, I’m going to try to do this in four. In this post I’ll touch on maps, then I’ll do Histories. Post three I’ll do Institutions and Organizations, and finally Mythologies, Magic and Science. This may change as I develop this series, but I don’t want to get too much into it. I’ve still got Research and Gaming to get through.
I am also going to do the General of the Pen segments at the end of each section, instead of doing a new blog post for each topic.
But I will want to build more than that, because I expect that inspiration will strike as I write. I want the depth to be there, so I don’t stop as I’m writing. This means I will build (and may have to research) more than I initially expect.
What is World Building Again?
Real quick, let’s go over what World Building is and how it’s different from Plotting.
World Building is building the depth behind the story, including aspects that may influence the story without actually appearing in it. If Plotting tells me my characters of going to Plotburg, World Building will tell me the size, the layout, some important places, the local government, the demographics, etc.
The purpose of World Building is to give me a good depth to the setting. It gives the places a better feeling. It gives the characters the ability to makes choices based off something other than plot. It gives me answers to questions I don’t know I’m going to ask while I’m writing.
It also gives me consistency. Remember, I’m building this process because my original process was too slow. And part of that was too many times where I wrote contradictory things I had to go back and fix. Oh, is Plotburg six miles from the river or eight? Now I’ll know ahead of time.
World Building Step Overview
The World Building step begins with a list of items from the Planning process. This list will include maps, character bios, institutions, mythologies, etc. Essentially, anything for the story that I should build before the story begins. It will grow as I plot, plan, research and game.
Now, I should have at least a good idea of what these things are and how they’re going to influence the story. I know where they’re going to appear and their importance. This give me a minimum of what I want to build for any given item.
So, let’s get into it, shall we?
Maps in Theory
There’s no project I’m working on that doesn’t require several maps. Maps of regions, maps of cities, maps of star systems or star charts of entire clusters. Lots and lots of maps. Oh, so many maps.
Maps aren’t just pretty, especially the early maps. They provide a good sense of how scale. More than once I’ve had to heavily revise a story once I realized the characters were moving too fast (it takes how long to walk a mile?) They’re helpful to track the location and movement of people and military units. And if I have to game out a campaign, I need the map to game on.
The number and details of maps can vary between projects. I generally find myself putting them in two tiers.
Tier I: Detailed Maps
Detailed maps I will need to reference often. I may need to game something out on them, or even put them in the book. These maps will have a key and a scale, a compass and a grid. They’ll be detailed, and probably in color.
Tier II: Basic Maps
Basic maps I don’t need to reference often; I just need to know what they look like. They don’t need to be detailed; just some simple bubbles showing the relative directions, with maybe some general distances listed. That’s all they have to be.
Maps in Practice – The General of the Pen
Now let’s consider my project, The General of the Pen. I’m going to start by listing the maps I’ll want to prep for the story.
A continental sized-map, so I can determine where various nation-states are in relation to the area of the story.
A regional or national map
A map of the area the book will take place in.
A map of the main city
A map for each of the battlefields of the book (three planned books)
That’s seven maps. Not bad, really.
Next, I want to divided them into Tier I (detailed) and Tier II (basic) maps.
The continental and national maps I can put in Tier II; the story is going to stay in a valley, so I just need to have a general idea of what’s outside the valley.
The valley I need a detailed map of, since I’ll be gaming out military unit movements and campaign operations, so that’s a Tier I.
The main city I’m actually going back and forth on; some scenes will happen there, but not enough to warrant a very detailed map. I will put this in Tier II for now, and if I need to work on it more as I go, I will.
The battle maps will, almost by definition, be Tier I maps. I may or may not game out the battles, I haven’t decided yet. But I want the details so when I’m writing the battle scenes, I can write them believably.
Drawing the Maps
For the basic maps, I really don’t need to put too much effort into them. Now, if I do, great. Nothing wrong with that. But I don’t need to. I just need them to be broadly done.
A simple map that shows the story area in red; the nation in green; allies in blue, and bad guys in black.
For the detailed maps, I’m going to put some effort into them. And probably go through several drafts. In the past this has meant a lot of pen and paper as I’ve worked through multiple iterations. Recently, I purchased a map program called Wonderdraft that I use to build maps for my RPG games. This allows me to build, fix and play with my maps without needing to start all over.
The valley, showing the cities, towns, rivers, roads, and unfinished railroad.
Even this detailed map is missing a few things. What is the scale? What about town names? Still a lot to do to finish this map off.
Now, I haven’t built the maps for the three battles yet. Before I do, I want to puzzle out about how big the battles will be, how exciting they’ll be, and what I’ll want to have happen. Then I’ll build those maps.
Conclusion and What’s Next
The world building process is to establish consistency. Building the maps early helps me keep people moving at appropriate speeds and in the right directions.
Coming up, I’ll look at world building histories, including those of people, places and entire worlds.
[This post is part of the Writing Process blog series, but it is not part of the normal line. It is a stand-alone article.]
I had an experience in preparing the supplement books for Champion Bold that made me take a step back. It reinforced how important the PBRG process is and will be for future projects. And made me realize I need to draw (or model) more during the PBRG process.
The Incident
There were two bits of artwork I wanted to get done that I didn’t want to do myself. I wasn’t sure of my skill, and one of the characters represented as too important to be done by my hand. This had to be a good quality image. The character was that important.
I went on Fiverr and found an artist who did some work I thought looked good. I contacted him and discussed the project; he expressed interest and sent me a quote. It was higher than I expected, but that’s not uncommon on Fiverr. Custom quote for a custom project.
Things started going wrong pretty quickly. the artist kept requesting reference images and details. More and more. He provided basic sketches, which weren’t bad from a technical standpoint, but he was ignoring much of my input. The process was slow, and I was starting to get frustrated.
Then we hit the deadline…and I had nothing. Instead, he requested more reference images. I sent them. He went silent. I heard nothing. I asked for an update. He did not respond. A full day after the deadline, with no word from him, I cancelled the order and got my money back. Fiverr, at least, made this part easy.
What went wrong?
The artist was technically proficient, but I did not like working with him. He did not listen to much of my feedback. He did not communicate well. The deadline passed by, and he did not come close to meeting it.
But I can’t lay all the blame at his feet. During the process, I realized that I didn’t know what I wanted. Yes, I wrote these aliens, but my description wasn’t good enough for an artist to create an image from. The artist needed reference images from my because I gave him so little to work with.
The problems across the board was communication. I don’t know why he was bad at it, but I know why I was.
I didn’t know what I needed.
It’s hard to tell an artist what an alien’s ears look like when you don’t know. The same with lips, or skin texture. I wrote the character, but when you’re trusting a reader to build the alien in their mind, you don’t consider all those details that an artist needs.
Is this a new issue?
No. I’ve run into this issue before. I’ve had to do some pretty big re-writes when I finally settled on a map and realized it didn’t match what I’d written. And in some of the previous artwork I’d commissioned, I’ve had problems with the artist not paying attention to some of the details of my requests.
A picture is worth a thousand words. But I don’t want to have to write a thousand words to get the picture I want.
How is this going to influence things in the future?
As part of future projects, I’m going to be sketching out a lot more than just maps ahead of time. Alien races, spaceships, uniforms. Anything that might need a description, I’m going to have a visual representation prepared.
That doesn’t mean it’s going to be great artwork. I’m getting more proficient at Krita (digital art) and Blender (3D modeling), but I’m not professional level. But what I can do is make sure I as a write know enough to describe the person, place or thing accurately and consistently.
And I can ensure that the next time I commission artwork on Fiverr, I give the artist enough information they can get to work right away.
