Tag Archives: planning

Writing

Looking into 2016

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2016 PictureAs 2016 begins, I look ahead and ask myself, as a writer and author, what do I expect to do?  What do I want to do?  I’ve wanted to publish for years and I constantly trip over myself.  I’ve got projects I revisit from time to time.  Lots of things I could do, I want to do, I should do.

So, realistically, what am I planning for 2016?

I’m planning to publish my first book.  

I’m so close, only if I give up completely will I fail to do so.  The third draft is a few chapters off from being done.  I had an editor lined up (and some options if it fell through), a company to help with publishing and promotion.  I’m researching Crowdfunding and Social Media.  And I’m staying focused.

I’m looking forward to holding a book in my hand and seeing my name on the cover.

I’m planning to finish writing a second book.

If I want to make a career as an author, I need to be able to write them faster than I have been.  Luckily I’ve learned a lot about myself as a writer, and I believe I can finish as least one more before next New Years.

The book I’m hoping to publish is the first half of a book I cut in half; so with so much work done on the second half, I write the second book pretty quickly.  I also have a fantasy book I’ve been working on that I might be able to finish.

Maybe I’ll finish a third book as well?

I’m planning on reducing the projects I’m working on.

A few weeks ago I counted myself as having 17 Projects in some stage or another.  Some of them were ‘hey, this could be a fun idea and I should think about it’, some of them were already underway.  This year I’ll figure out which ones I will focus on, and which ones I will put into storage.

Where do I want to be when 2017 starts?

I want to be a published author with at least one more book lined up and moving towards publication.

Writing

The Antagonist Story line

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Villain Pic0001
Everyone has an antagonist

When I wrote the first draft of my book, I decided to include an antagonist’s story line, that is to say, a thread of the book from the perspective of an opponent, and not just people the main character has to deal with in her story.  The two characters never meet, never know each other’s names, or come within a hundred miles of each other.  I included the story line for two reasons.

First, it allowed me to explore more of the world.  The main character is fairly parochial in her view point, and does not travel far from home during the course of the story.  She learns a lot, but she can’t learn everything I want the reader to know.  The antagonist, being removed, well-traveled and experienced, could provide more of the framework the heroes are working against.

Second, his actions during the course of the book allowed me to toss a wrench into the main character’s story line, and to do so logically, without a feel of deus ex interruptus.

This worked for the 1st and 2nd drafts, though I must admit I was never quite happy with the actual wrench being thrown in.  When I started working on the 3rd draft, where I cut the book in half, I put the antagonist’s story line to the side.  I wasn’t sure (and I’m still not) that I would have room for it, and what kind of wrench he would throw into this one.  He would provide more of a world view, which in the long run may decide the issue.

Now that I’m nearing the end of this draft, I’m coming up on the point where I have to decide if I want to use his story line or not.  The first reason, world building, certainly still applies.  And I think the ending could use a wrench-toss to spice it up, make it more interesting for the character to overcome.  On the other hand, I’m not sure how long the book is going to be, and an extra story line could add too much.  And there is the aspect of writing a story where the reader learns alongside the character, reducing the chance of an information overload and surprising the reader along with the character.

I’ve got a tentative deadline of the 31st to finish writing this draft, so less than four weeks to decide if the antagonist stays or not.  Stay tuned!

Writing

Planning an argument

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The current section of my primary project is an argument between several characters.  This section brings two challenges for me.

First, keeping the antagonist as a challenger.  It always bugs me when the author gives the antagonists the worst arguments.  Like any conflict I’ve written, it has to be  a real threat.  The other side HAS to try to win, otherwise it’s just a poor read.  As I’ve been planning, I’ve paid attention to both sides to keep it an argument.

Second is the strength of the arguments.  The topic is ‘When is it okay to rebel against tyranny’.  Now I have plenty of thoughts on this topic, but I don’t consider myself an expert on it.  And neither are most of the debaters, which makes their interactions relatively easy to write.  But one of the characters is much smarter than I am.  Planning his section is difficult because I want him to win, but I don’t want him to win because the other guy rolled over.

My answer to both challenges is research.  Not every character will be able to quote philosophers, but experience can be used to make similar points.  And the intelligent character, who probably can quote philosophers, probably should.

Only time will tell if my answer was correct.

Until then, write on!

Writing

Writing a Prologue

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I used to think that every book needed a prologue, basically a chapter which introduces the reader to the story.  I’m not sure why, just one of those things you never really question until it’s challenged.

I was sent this article by a friend of mine.  A lot of these I’d heard before, but the ‘Avoid Prologues’ one stuck with me.  I always started a project with a prologue; it was what I thought I was supposed to do.

This resulted in a number of conversations with friends and family, and I realized that a prologue, like any writing convention, isn’t always useful.  Most of my prologues were really just first chapters, with nothing but a POV shift into the book.

A prologue sets up the story, but is separated from the core of the book, either by time or distance.  The point can be world building, establishing the conflicts and challenges for the character, or just an awesome hook, but if it rolls directly into the meat of the book, it’s probably just a first chapter.

(On Basilisk Station is a good example: the prologue is a ground of politicians who appear only in the prologue, and make a decision that impacts the main character for the rest of the book.  )

Most of my books don’t have prologues anymore, they’ve all been renamed to Chapter 1.  It’s become something of a challenge with a project, to consider any prologues I might write for it that could be separated enough to work.  Most of the time, nothing comes of it.  Which is okay.  If anything, it’s a fun exercise in creative thinking.

Any examples of a nice prologue, let me know, and as always, keep on writing!

-Michael

Writing

Chapter Size

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I noticed something as I was revising my book: my chapter sizes are all over the place.

With 18 chapters written, I’m averaging a little less than 3000 words a chapter, which is not bad (I don’t think).  But that’s the average.  The smallest chapter is about 1500, the largest about 5200.  Most are between 2 and 3 thousand, with a number of 3000+ and two 4000+.

I’ve never really thought about chapter size before.  For me, a chapter is simply a segment of the story, and some are going to be larger than others.  But I’m wondering if I should be thinking about paying attention.  Perhaps I need to cut some of the chapters up into smaller bits?  Will one long chapter or one short chapter ruin the enjoyment of the book?

Do you have any thoughts on chapters?  Is it important that they’re all the same size?  Or is it completely irrelevant to enjoying the story?

Thanks, and keep writing!

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Moving on

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I failed to fulfill the NaNoWriMo goals, which is okay.  The fact is I have a lot of goals I’m working on, and adding one more to the plate before I finished off a previous goal was a bad idea.  Someday, I’ll get to the challenge, but not now.

On the positive side, I finished my revisions for my book.  The next step is to sit down and figure out what to do with it.  I’ve been alternating between splitting it into two books or serializing it.  Both have their advantages.

I also need to go through my bag of goodies from the AWP (Associated of Writers and Writing Programs).  I had some ideas of submitting work to reviews and journals, and some contacts who might help me with the marketing and promotion of my book.

Slow and steady wins the race.  Focus on what I’ve got in front of me and finish something.  Then move on.

Writing

Working from an outline

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I’m taking part in a Writing Month Challenge.  It’s going okay, though I’m a few thousand words behind where I wanted to be.

In preparation, I spent the weeks before hand preparing and planning an outline of the story.  I tried to figure out not only plot, but the details that normally stop me as I’m writing.

I mentioned in another post that naming a character, place or thing can be difficult because I place a great importance on it. So I tried to work out the names for everything before hand. That doesn’t mean I am not running into quick naming issues, but at least for the important peoples, places and things, I know what I’m using.

As for plot, the story really is progressing faster because I know where it is going.  I’m not anticipating any major road blocks ahead, but there is still three weeks of writing ahead.

Still, 50,000 words in a month is a lot, even from an outline.  I’ll have to spend some time playing catch-up.  But if I can pull it off, it’ll be awesome.

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Five things I want to avoid when writing

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A simple list of five things I want to avoid in my stories.

1) The Mary/Gary Sue Protagonist

The character who is always right and always wins.  Every likes her.  No one can defeat her.  She never does anything but always comes out on top.

2) The Cartoon Antagonist

He’s evil because he is.  No depth.  No personality beyond opposing the Protagonist.  You can’t really hate him, because there isn’t enough of him to hate.

3) Consequence Free World

Buildings are destroyed, vehicles crash, banks robbed, people hurt or killed, but in the end everything turns out okay.  Sometimes with music.

4) Static Characters

The character wakes up, goes on an adventure, experiences pain, fear, joy, and victory, and wakes up the next day the same character.

5) Repetitive Challenges

The Antagonist only interacts with the Protagonist in one or two different ways.  No real variation in their stories, and the Protagonist is never really challenged to grow.

Writing

Ending a Project

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I’ve been researching serialization, the idea of taking a story and cutting it into episodes released in sequence instead of one giant book.  This idea appeals to me, at least for my large project that may be too big to be a first book.  While I haven’t decided on a course of action, the research has gotten me thinking about how my stories should end.

This is a rather new concentration for me, as I can start a story at the drop of a hat, but I have only finished one, and that one is the start of a series.  For only one of my projects, a fantasy trilogy, have I outlined the story from beginning to end, and that one is proceeding at a nice pace.  The rest I haven’t figured out an ending to.

So, I have spent some time thinking about my projects and how they might end.

For many projects, the answer is ‘I don’t know’.  I have an idea or a start, but no real story.  But for a couple of the projects, this exercise has paid great rewards.

For example, take the large book I mentioned earlier.  I have many stories I want to tell in that world, but not all of them revolve around the main character.  So I asked myself ‘What if I limited myself to five or six books centering on her?’  I always had an idea of how I would remover her from the story if I had to, so I made that the ending to her story.

The result on the story is favorable.  By having an end in mind, I can plan out the events and their consequences, and begin building towards the decisions that end her saga.  (Spoiler: she doesn’t die, and will still be a character in other stories set in that world).  The ending also acts as a goal: instead of feeling pressured to write as many stories as I can, I have a finish line I need to get to.  The difference is surprisingly important.

Another example is a Sci-Fi story I recently started.  The main character has been asked to go and stop a war from starting, a task made so difficult by the forces arrayed against him that it would take at least two books, if not more, to tell.  In addition, the goal of stopping a war means that the conditions currently exist for a war to occur, and that the character must keep a war from starting long enough for the situation to change.  As I contemplated the ending, I had to decide how to finish the story, and chose to give the story a Five-year arc.  However many books it’ll take, the character now has a deadline.

The lesson I’ve learned from this?  Knowing how to end your story is as important as how you start it, especially for projects that are expected to run over several books.  It provides a goal, some guidelines for how the story can and should progress.  Something I really need to think about when working on my projects.

Have a nice day, and write on!