Wow, August past quickly. I made an effort this month to knock some things off my to-watch list, and to enjoy my time more. But I still got stuff done.
Writing Projects
Making good progress on Champion Bold and the supplement books. My work from hereon in will be as much about pictures as it will be about text. I need to focus on getting little bits done. I want to publish sooner rather than later, and that means focusing.
When I wasn’t focused on my main project, I’ve done some planning and prepwork for other projects, particulalty The Colonel Lieutenant. I have some idas how to revise that story. And I nibbled at other projects over the course of the month.
September Goals
Get draft copy of Champion Bold
Finish one Supplement Book
Knock five things off my Story Bit List
Two non-review blog posts
Reading
Wisconsin Vampire (Fiction)
Northwoods Wolfman (Fiction)
Undead Cheesehead (Fiction)
Storm Front (Dresden Files, Book 1, Audiobook, Fiction)
Fool Moon (Dresden Files, Book 2, Audiobook, Fiction, Started)
The Rook (Fiction, Started)
Sapiens: A Brief History of Mankind (Non-Fiction, Started)
I finally started and ran through Scott Burtness’s Monsters in the Midwest Series: Wisconsin Vampire, Northwoods Wolfman, and Undead Cheesehead. These books involve citizens of a rural Wisconsin town becoming the monsters they’d only seen in movies. They are horror-comedy, with enough amusing bits to make you chuckle, and enough horror to keep your wary. I liked them, though they’re not my usual read.
Finished the first Dresden Files book, Storm Front. I have to say I’m surprised. I have listened to this book before, but I had forgotten the last two-thirds of it. Finishing it for a second time, I’m unclear how I could have forgotten it. It was really good. I immediately rolled over into book two (Fool Moon). I have six or seven of them on audiobook, so I’ve got my work cut out for me.
September Goals
Finish one fiction book
Finish one non-fiction book
Finish one research book
Movies and Shows
Star Trek Prodigy (Season 2)
Expanse (Season 3)
Echo
The Mummy (2017)
Hellboy (2019)
Warcraft
I didn’t expect to watch three movies in a weekend, but I have a ‘fix the plot’ podcast I listen to and I’d listened to most of the movies I’d seen already, so I knocked a few bad movies off the list. The Mummy was a big let down (overpowered villain and deus ex ending). Hellboy was better, but not by much, which sucked because David Harbour did a good job as the character. Warcraft wasn’t great, but it wasn’t as bad as I’d heard. I actually like it, though it could be a lot better.
I did start and finish Echo, the Marvel show with the deaf character. That was a lot of fun. It did a few things I’m still not sold on, but the action scenes were fun to watch. And it was nice to see a story told not from a western perspective.
September Goals
Finish either Expanse Season 3 or Prodigy Season 2
Finish the other one
Watch one Best Picture Winner
Watch one other movie
Finish one started TV show
Games
Red Dead Redemption 2
Assassin’s Creed Odessey
Warhammer 40K: Armageddon
I played a lot in the first week or two of the month, then fell off towards the end. I advanced all three games, but didn’t make a large amount of progress. Which is okay. I got a lot of other things done.
In RPG news, I lost a character in Frozen Flame. It was sad because she was fun to play. but, she also wasn’t very effective. I didn’t do a lot the last few games, and her utility in combat was pretty limited. I’m working to build a better replacement character who can add something to the party.
September Goals
Advance RDR2 to next chapter
Ten hours of Assassin’s Creed Odessey
Ten missions of 40K Armageddon
What’s Next?
I’m focused on book right now. There may be an event in December, and I’m signing up for conventions next year. But for now, it’s all book.
**This is blog post number 4 on my revised writing process.**
Last post I went over the first step of PBRG, the Planning and Plotting step. I discussed the process I’m trying to use. Now, I’m going to show how that process works by applying it to a creative project.
The project is called ‘The General of the Pen.’ It’s a working title, and we’ll see how long that sticks.
Process 1: The Idea
What is ‘The General of the Pen’?
It is a story about a mid-level general, Gerhard van Rumm, in a mid-19th century world. He is caught up in an independence movement and becomes a leader in their army. This army is fighting an initial campaign to buy time for outside support to come in.
First, I consider what’s unique about this story.
The technology level is mostly new, with cannon and muskets instead of machine guns. (American Civil War instead of World War 1).
Gerhard is a mid-level commander of an army, who gets to make strategic and operational decisions for the story.
There is a much larger, world-wide movement that impacts the story; they’re buying time for other factors to come into play.
It’s a new world I haven’t fleshed out yet. There’s a lot of unknowns I can play with.
Those all sound good, but what’s not new? What’s similar to what I’ve done before.
Gerhard is a bookworm, like Sasha Small (Renaissance Army series)
He’s also level-headed in battle, like both Sasha and Augustine de Zama (Champion Bold).
The scope of the story shares a lot of similarities with the Renaissance Army story, as it is about an uprising against a superior government force.
The similarities are something to be wary of, but they’re not story-breakers. I’ll give Gerhard some unique traits for my characters: he wants to be loved and have a family, or maybe he already does. I can keep the story focused on the campaign and not the social movement, so it’s not the Renaissance Army redux.
Remember, a lot of the differences will be fleshed out during preparation and writing, so I can accept a larger ‘This is similar’ list and trust I will fix it later.
Process 2: The Five W’s (and that H)
The next process is to work out the Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How of the story. After several passes through the first process, I should have a good idea of each of the answers.
Who
*Gerhard van Rumm, a mid-level general who is shanghaied into fighting in an independence movement. *A friendly general who wants van Rumm there. *An influential character who doesn’t want van Rumm there. *Minor generals. *A love interest.
What
*The army begins to assemble. *Training and teething issues. *An enemy formation comes up; a fight occurs. *Protagonists lose the first fights, win the last ones through work and determination.
When
*The story takes place late spring/early summer. *It will take place over several weeks, maybe even months.
Where
*This story takes place around a city on the border of the independent region and their overlords. *Must of the action occurs in a mountain valley, covering several hundred square miles.
Why
*The region is trying to declare independence. *The main character gets involved and wants to win.
How
*The independence movement will fight against long odds. *van Rumm will have to make difficult choices. *they will buy enough time to finish the narrative.
‘The General of the Pen.’
I’m keeping this process down to a few pullet points per question, but ideally, I’d write up a paragraph or two. Just looking back at this list, I know I’ll want to expand on Gerhard’s motivations to win and detail the independence movement to give it a unique flavor.
Again, this is a series of processes that don’t stop until it’s published. A lot of these aspects will change as the story progresses.
Just a character, standing in a setting, ready to go.
Process 3: The Acts
Okay, now I’m dividing my narrative into acts, segments of the narrative.
I know I’ll have an introduction act: the reader will meet the characters, learn about the area, and discover why the story is happening. It won’t be long, but all stories start with it.
The conclusion act will see the heroes victorious, tie up any plot strings that need tying, and prep the next story (if there is one).
Those are the two easy ones. Now let’s build the middle.
I want this story to be short, but also full of action. And I want the characters to suffer before they win. So I’m going to have three Major Event acts. I’ll put a development act right after the introduction, and then two Recovery Acts between the three Major Events.
But wait! Is there a better way to do this? Something more exciting?
What if I removed the development act, and consolidate the information into the introduction? The crisis starts early, and we see the characters in action before they’re ready.
I consider this option. I’d need to be wary of making the introduction too long to make up for sudden event act, but maybe I can do it.
You know what? I’ll do that. The worst that happens is after a few passes, I add in the development scene. It’ll be easy as pie.
Now, I’ve got my seven-act plan. It looks like this.
Act List
Act
Type
Story flow
Act I
Introduction
Introduce characters, setting and conflict
Act II
Event
Battle; minor, but influential because of inexperience. Enemy wins.
Act III
Recovery
Characters react, make plans, train
Act IV
Event
Battle; another minor battle, good guys do better, draw, but have to retreat.
Act V
Recovery
Characters plan for final battle
Act VI
Event
Final battle, major battle; good guys win, but it’s rough. Enemy withdraws.
Act VII
Conclusion
Characters take stock, rewards, plan for next phase of the war.
Part of me is already twitching at having no development act. But I want to give this a shot.
Process 4: The Important Scenes
Now I get to plan out some scenes. Not writing scenes (though some of them I’ll be writing in my head) but identifying what scenes I need for each act. Reminder: I’m aiming for three scenes minimum.
Act I is the introduction. The first scene I’ll introduce the character, Gerhard van Rumm; he’s approached by his friend to join the army at a critical moment. The second scene, they arrive in their area of operations and Gerhard (and the reader) learns the terrain. Third scene, he meets some other key players, and the reader learns about the politics of the movement.
Act II is an event scene; the enemy is advancing into the mountain valley and wins a small battle. Okay, so I have one scene where the characters learn the attack is coming. They rush forward to find the battle underway (second scene), and a scene where they get their troops to retreat (third).
Act III is recovery. The characters discuss the events, and by discuss they yell and shout (first scene). The leader makes decisions and prepares for the next battle (second scene). And Gerhard has some time to reflect on the situation (third scene).
I’ll skip over writing the scenes for Acts IV through VI, though they’ll be listed on the chart below. Let’s look at Act VII, the conclusion.
In the conclusion, I need to reference the status of the movement as a whole, the situation in this valley, and Gerhard’s personal journey. I’ll first write a scene where the situation in the valley is confirmed, and a second where the national situation is addressed. Finally, I’ll had a scene with Gehard considering his part in past events, and look to the future.
Scene List
Act
Type
Scenes
Act I
Introduction
1: Introduce Gerhard van Rumm and his friend 2: Introduce the mountain valley, geography 3: Introduce minor characters, and political situation.
Act II
Event
1: Characters learn of a battle up the valley. 2: Characters arrive at battle, try to influence victory. 3: Victory not possible; army withdraws / flees.
Act III
Recovery
1. Leaders yell accusations, refuse responsibility. 2. General makes decisions, not all of them correct, to prepare for next battle. 3. Gerhard considers what he’s done, how he can do better, and what their odds are.
Act IV
Event
1. An opportunity to fight from a superior position arises. 2. Army moves into position, anticipation. 3. Enemy comes into view, attacks hard. 4. Army forced to withdraw but does so in good order. Tactical victory.
Act V
Recovery
1. Bad officers removed from duty 2. Learn of outside developments; importance of their victory 3. Officers learn of enemy movements, make a plan.
Act VI
Event
1. Enemy force moves into area. 2. Army counters; fight develops 3. Army wins
Act VII
Conclusion
1: Situation in the valley is established, reported up the chain of command. 2: National / international situation and what that means. 3: Gerhard considers his place in things.
Process 5: The B, R and G lists
As I’ve been building this story, I’ve also been making lists of what I need to build, to research, and to game out.
As I’m writing, all of these lists will change as inspiration and the story’s course have an impact.
World Build
I stated above that as this is a new world, there is a lot I need to build. this can be intimidating (a world is a huge place), so it helps to make a list of what I need to build for this story.
The geography of the continent, the nation, and the region the story takes place.
The culture of the people fighting for independence, their overlords, and the allies who might be coming to help.
The technology available to all sides.
The timeline of the past: how long ago was the conquest?
Research
Research can be a hard one to plan ahead on, so this list looks pretty large scale at the moment.
1860’s train speeds; construction of railways; ease of transporting goods and people.
Telegraph operations.
Development of battlefield medicine over the 19th Century.
I know how I want the battles to go, but I’m more concerned with how fast units and information are moving about the valley. Here, I want to prepare a map of the valley, figure out roads, railways and telegraph lines, and create rules for movement of units and information. Then I’ll spend a couple of evolutions gaming out the campaign.
Will I game out the battles? I certainly could. I have a couple of tabletop systems that could work, and one or two video games where I could custom build levels on, just to see how they would work. But I would do that to see how things could progress. The final writing would not be dictated by the game.
Conclusion
Okay, so I just ran General of the Pen through the Plotting step of the process. What do I have now?
I’ve got a list of scenes to write.
I’ve got a list of topics to research and world build.
I’ve got some sequences I want to game out.
Now, I could start writing right away, but we’ve just finished one of four steps. And while I may not need to knock everyone off the B, R and G lists, there are things I will want to prepare ahead of time. So we move on to step two.
Join me next blog post, when we discuss the B-step, (World) Building.
**This is blog post number 3 on my revised writing process.**
Okay, I’ve so I’ve got an idea. Normally, I’d write the first scene and just start running with it, but I want to run it through this process. I was originally just going to go through the steps and explain it, but I decided that if I’m going to go through this process, I’m going to do it with an example project. So, this post will go over the step in detail, and then next post I’ll apply it to a project.
The goal is to end this step with an outline of the story, and a list of things to World Build, Research and Game out.
There are five processes to this step:
Flesh out the idea.
Answer the 5 W’s
Prepare act list
Work out scenes
Build the B, R and G lists.
These are not ‘finish one and then move on to two and you can’t go back to one.’ These are happening simultaneously. I’m making notes on BRG lists while I’m prepping the 5 W’s, and I’ve got scenes in mind as I’m processing the ideas. Back and forth, over and over again.
So, let’s go over the processes.
Process 1: The Idea
First, I think about the idea. Now, you may wonder if I’m starting too simple, but I’m serious. I take my idea, and I challenge it. Is this a good story? Is it unique, or is it too much like another story I’ve written?
These are serious questions I need to ask. Too often I’ve had to make changes to a story, or even abandon an idea, because I realized it was taking the same character from Story A and putting them in a different genre. Or that two narratives were too similar to each other, and they both lost their unique flavor.
This process can take a couple of rounds until I get the idea down to something I’m comfortable moving forward with. And I have to accept that no story will be 100% different from other things I’ve written. There will be some overlap. The challenge is to emphasize what’s new with each story.
Process 2: The Five W’s (and that pesky H)
If you’ve forgotten what these are, it’s the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How of a story. At this point, I’m still looking at the broad strokes, without getting into the acts and scenes of the story.
Who
Who is the main character? Who are the other big players in the story?
What
What are the big events of the story? What are the personal events for the characters?
When
When does this story take place? How long will it cover?
Where
Where does this story take place? How much area will it cover? What sort of terrain should I plan for?
Why
Why is this story happening?
How
How will the story develop? How will the characters?
The basic questions.
There answers need to be as long as I need them to be. Some will be pretty simple. Others may be entire paragraphs. But I need good answers to the questions.
Here, I’m also taking several passes. What sounds good one day might sound poor the next. But ideas that pass through several iterations are good enough to keep.
Process 3: The Acts
Process four is to divide the narrative into Acts.
In my process, an Act is a distinct section of the story, designed to advance the narrative through one leg of its journey. I plan acts to either provide information to the reader, allow the characters to respond to the story, or cover a major event of the narrative.
Broadly speaking, I’ve found my acts can divide into five categories:
Introduction: Introduce the characters, location, story, challenges.
Development: The characters interact with the world, things change.
Major event: these acts could cover battles or political conflict.
Recovery: the characters react and respond to a major event.
Conclusion: the last act, which wraps everything up.
Most of my stories have between 8 and 12 acts total.
For this process, I take a look at where the story begins (the introduction act), decide where it ends (the conclusion act), and then I focus on the middle parts. I look at the five W’s, especially the events, and plug them in, trying to keep track in my head of the pacing of the story.
I usually take several passes at this part, playing with different combinations. It’s important to pay attention to the flow. Multiple event acts in a row may overwhelm the reader. Too many development acts and the story doesn’t go anywhere.
At the end of this process, I will have my act list. And then I move on to scenes.
Process 4: The Important Scenes
I say important scenes because I’m not going to know every scene I will add into the story. I’m aware that as I write, there will be inspiration and ideas that pop-up and get added. So, this isn’t a final list. It’s a guideline.
With each act I have a series of questions and considerations I have to take into account. The overarching question is ‘does the scene advance the narrative?’
It may take several passes before I’ve got a good list on hand. To start, I aim for three scenes per act, minimum.
Introduction Act
This act includes a gimme; the first scene, which sets the tone for the book. Do I want this intro to be a prologue, or a first chapter?
I need to introduce the main character(s), the setting, and the plot elements. Are these different scenes? Usually, yes, because I need to be wary of dumping too much information onto the reader. But I’ll make that consideration here.
Development Act
A development act is simply an act where the characters progress and build themselves (or the narrative) up for the events of the story. Think of it as the downtime between big events.
These scenes will have a lot of little things that lead to the big things.
Event Act:
An event act centers around an important occurrence in the story. This could be a single action (the death of a character) or a longer process (a battle).
These scenes involved the immediate lead up, execution, and draw down of the event. Lots of action and excitement.
Recovery Act:
A recovery act is like a development act, but it has to do with the characters responding to the event. They’re learning and growing, making decisions and acting on what happened.
These scenes should include a lot of introspection and decision making.
Conclusion Act:
This is the second give me of the act process. Every story ends. This is where the consequences come clear and the loose ends get tied up. We say goodbye, and look to the future.
These scenes need to wrap things up, so more introspection and moving on.
Process 5: The B, R and G lists
This process I’m writing last, but in truth it’s been happening the entire time. I’m making lists of the World Building, Research, and Gaming I expect to need to finish before I write.
World Building items are background items that I will need to prepare beforehand. This list will include character biographies, maps of nations, cities and regions of the story, and organizational details. Science fiction stories will include technology and rules of physics. Fantasy stories will include rules of magic, mythology and races.
Research is a list of topics I cannot build but have to discover. In the past this list has included military trains, movements times for horses across various types of terrain, and lots of research into historical military and political organizations.
Gaming is not always going to be something I have to do, but I’ve learned from previous projects that it can be extremely helpful for sequences with a lot of moving parts. In the past, I’ve gamed out land campaigns and space battles. I’ve considered gaming out migrations, civil wars, and political maneuvers.
Conclusion
At the end of this process, I have an outline of the story I want to write. I have lists of items to world build, topics to research, and games to play.
Of course, this outline and these lists are not set in stone. The story will adjust as I review it. The lists will shrink as I cross things off and grow as new ideas reveal themselves. It’s a process that doesn’t end until the book is published.
So, that’s my Planning and Plotting process. Next blog post, I’ll take this process and apply it to a tertiary project I’ve had on my mind for a while.
January was a busy month, dominated by processing the first Beta responses to Champion Bold, working on the Kickstarter campaign, and closing in on a readable draft of the Colonel Lieutenant.
Writing
I’ve started getting Beta reader responses to Champion Bold, which has been positive. A few good points they’ve brought up for me to clarify, which is the point of Beta readers. I’m putting together the Kickstarter campaign, and I’m hoping to have that up this month or in March.
Continuing to work towards a completed draft of The Colonel Lieutenant. I’ve got the arcs worked out, now it’s just a point of writing the scenes, and then ironing out the story so it’s coherent.
I’ve been working on other projects. Writing a scene here, some world building there. Just some little bits to break up the routine when I need to mix it up. I did get the first post up about my writing process, which I’m glad I finally got out.
Blog: Get one non-update and non-book report post up
Other: Knock 10 things off my minor writing list
Reading
I finished the paranormal espionage thriller Declare by Tim Powers. This book was phenomenal. It was a good mix of ancient mythology, modern spycraft, and with a story that was told simultaneously in the 1940’s and the 1960’s. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys stories adjacent to the Cthulhu mythos.
With that done, I shifted over to try to finish A Fire Upon the Deep, which I had an eBook from Libby but couldn’t finish in time. I picked up a cheap paperback copy to finish. Now, if you want to know anything about this book, it is one where you have to infer a lot of the rules of the story from how the characters respond to things. There’s not a lot of exposition. It can make it frustrating to not understand the rules as well as the characters do. But we’ll see how it ends.
Still working through The Count of Monte Cristo as my audiobook. I know so little about this story I have no idea how it’s going to end, and I’m almost halfway through. I have so many questions about who he’s going to get revenge on and how. Even though the main character’s a bit of a Mary Sue, I don’t care. It works.
February Goals
Finish Fire Upon the Deep
Start new fictional book
Start new non-fiction book
Movies and Shows
I didn’t watch too many new episodes this month. Added a few episodes of the Expanse, which continues to be a good show I just can’t really get into. The last episode I watched was so intense (and upsetting) I had to take a long break. There are still a lot of elements to the show I like, and I appreciate its quality. I just can’t binge it.
I started watching The Halo TV show on the advice of a friend. I’m only a few episodes in. I’ve got mixed feelings so far. The opening sequence – a Covenant attack on a human settlement – was brutal to watch, which really set the tone well. That was great. And Halsey is a fun character. The parts that haven’t worked for me are the uber-fascist feel of the government and the chosen-one trope they’ve given the Master Chief. We’ll see how it ends.
I also started Masters of the Air, the new show about the USAAF in World War 2. Only three episodes in, but I appreciate that the view is from squadron and group leaders, meaning I’m getting a good view of how these raids were organized and led in the air. Most other stories I’ve read have been about individual aircraft and their crews (looking at you, Memphis Belle).
February Goals
Finish Halo Season One
Finish Expanse Season Two and Three
Finish One Marvel TV Show
Watch Two new movies
Games
I finished the campaign to Anno 1800 this month. It was a good campaign that teaches the players most of the base mechanics of the game. I want to try playing it past the end date to see how far I can take it, but it does take a lot of time.
Advanced a few missions through Gears Tactics. I feel like if I can set aside a night to just play this game, I could probably knock it out and then be done with it.
I started Red Dead Redemption II. This game follows an outlaw in the end of the wild west. So far I’m liking it, particularly that there is a mechanic where I can choose how honorable or despicable I can be. We’ll see how it comes out.
RPG wise, most of the campaigns are continuing along nicely. But the exciting news is that I get to take out the every-other Monday night game with a campaign idea I’ve been working on for a while I’m really excited to get this one to the table, and nervous to see if I can get the game to run the way I hope. Right now everyone is in character development, which is a lot of fun to partake in. I’ll let you know how it all goes.
February Goals
Finish Gears Tactics
20 Hours of Red Dead Redemption 2
Start another PC Story Game
What’s Next?
I’ve got two events coming up.
Minicon 57, the weekend of March 29th to 31st. There I will have a table selling my books and likely have something up about upcoming publications.
On April 13th, I’ll be running a Pop-Up Bookstore at Number Twelve Cider. It’ll be a four-hour event, but it should be a lot of fun.
So that’s it. Two events to plan for, a game to process, two books to bring to publication, and a lot of work to do. Should be fun.
**This is the first post in a series on my writing process, how I’ve analyzed and adjusted it over the last few years. More posts will follow.**
Over the last few years, as I’ve worked to bring more titles to publication, I’ve had to face the fact that I’m not an efficient writer. My process involved too much stopping, too much re-writing, too much back and forth. I’m not happy with it. But this is not a question of writing more or writing harder. It’s about creating more efficiently.
I want to write more, and I want to write better. I feel like most creators understand how life and interrupt the process, sucking up our time and our energy, until we are looking for ten or fifteen minutes to sit down and do something for ourselves.
In this first post, I will look at how I found my writing process to be lacking. I will discuss what I found my problems were. And I will mention some initial steps I took to improve it.
2024: Planned and Actual
When I was publishing my first book, Renaissance Calling, back in 2017, I made up a list of everything I wanted to publish. It was — and still is — an extensive list. 30 plus books, including short story collections. The list included six sequels to my book, two prequel books and three short-story collections. There were three different science fiction universes, and two fantasy worlds. Many historical fiction stories and series spanning the course of human history.
Like I said, extensive.
I sat down and created a schedule built on the idea that it would take me six months to write a rough draft, and six months to revise a rough draft for publication. When I finished one rough draft and moved it to the revision phase, I would start another. Under the plan, I would publish two books a year, every year, basically for the rest of my life.
So, as 2024 starts, I was scheduled to have published at least thirteen books.
I’ve done two.
What went wrong?
Pantser vs Planner
Creative Carl goes with the flow (Panster)
Most discussions of writing process include the descriptions of pantsers and planners. This post will also discuss the difference. If you don’t know what those words mean, let me explain.
A pantser is someone who writes off the cuff. They let the story surprise them, developing in the moment as they write, They may have an outline they follow, but it’ll be broad, and subject to change in the moment.
A planneris the opposite. They plan extensively before they write a single word. Every scene will be plotted and planned, and when they write they’re just executing the outline.
Most people fall between these extremes. As a writer, I tend to fall to the pantser side of the equation. I write and let the story develop.
And that was my problem. A poor writing process.
There go my pants
The benefit of a pantser is that I often inspired while writing. Just this morning, I was writing a scene that I expected to end with the character making a decision, but while writing I realized she had a different option available that made more sense. Great, right?
Sure, in this case.
The problem arises when I hit something that makes me stop writing completely. What is this character’s code name? How does this historical process work? Why is this event I just mentioned important and what does it mean?’
These sorts of questions will stop me cold. I one spent an entire lunch hour contemplating one character’s code name. Not efficient whatsoever.
The pants fell down and tripped me up.
Making changes
Logical Lou follows the outline (Planner)
Betweenmy first book and second, I made several changes to my writing process that started shifting me away from pantser. I would work out characters names beforehand. If I knew something was important for the story, I would research it and be ready. Little things that planners do naturally.
Little changes are good, but if I want to publish more, I need to be much more efficient. A book every four or five years isn’t enough. My main series (planned for seven books) would take thirty years to publish. And I have other stories I want to tell. Science Fiction. Fantasy. Historical.
I need to make bigger changes for the future.
I need better plans.
PBRG
Acknowledging that my writing process isn’t working, I developed a system for my future projects that I call PBRG. Next post, I will describe this new system and give an overview of what it looks like.
After a couple of disappointing months, September was fantastically productive. I’ve gotten a full Beta draft of the SciFi novel done, I’ve knocked a number of things off my to-watch list, and I made good progress on vide games and other projects.
Writing
First off, fantastic news. I finished a Beta Draft of my untitled ScienceFiction novel. There’s still a lot of work ahead of my, but I’m within shouting distance of publishing. My goals for the month are to iron the book out and get it to some Beta readers, and work on the supporting work I need to do to get it ready for a Kickstarter campaign and publishing.
I got some work done on The Colonel Lieutenant, but most of my focus was on the Sci-Fi novel. I am printing off the chapters I’ve written so I can start processing and working out what I need to do to get it ready for its own publication.
I’ve picked at the other projects on my list, mostly doing research or building up the background and world building. The sort of things I should be doing before I get to writing. The idea is that when I get to writing the projects, I’ll have most of the support work done and I won’t stop and start so much.
October Goals
Iron Sci-Fi novel, get it to Beta Reader
Work out plan for The Colonel Lieutenant
Add 5,000 words to Fantasy novel
Keep plugging away at other projects
Movies and TV Shows
I continue to watch through the Ahsoka series with excitement. I’ll admit it is a more subtle show than I was expecting, especially when it comes to Ahsoka’s part in the story. But they obviously respect the elements they’re bringing together for the show (the characters from Rebels and Thrawn) and they’re telling a fun story. I’m excited to see the last episode.
I started and finished Ted Lasso this month. I’d heard good things about the show, and I was not disappointed. It was a hilarious show that had a lot of good character growth across all three seasons. Although I would say the last season may had a lot of missteps before it found its way.
Next I decided to re-start The Expanse, which I started some time ago but wasn’t able to finish because I don’t have Amazon Prime. Luckily my library has the discs I need to start and get through the series. I’ve read the first book, and several of my friends really like the show. This time I mean to finish it.
October Goals
Finish two TV shows off to-watch list
Watch one missing Best Picture Winner
Watch one movie off to-watch list
Books
I read through the Queen’s Fool, book 12 in Philippa Gregory’s historical fiction series. Following a fictional character through the tumult of Queen Mary’s reign, i found this book to be very exciting and a fun read. I’ll have the book report up sometime this month.
I then started the second of Timothy Zahn’s original Thrawn series, Dark Force Rising. This follows the same plotlines of the first book, with the Grand Admiral plotting the destruction of the Republic and the heroes investigating and responding to the threat. I’m maybe half-way through right now, so we’ll see how it goes.
And if we’re talking books, I’m going to add the audiobook I’m listening to right now, which is the classic Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper. I chose this one because the 1992 movie is my favorite movie and I wanted to listen to the book. It is rough to listen to. Not only does the story meander a lot (a product of two-centuries of changes in story expectations), but the representation of native culture can be painful to listen to. I had to find a synopsis website to help me understand what I was reading.
October Goals
Finish one library book
Finish one book I own
Read one research book
Games
Not much to report in terms of videos games. I’ve continued working through both Gears of War: Tactics and FarCry 6, but I didn’t finish either of them. It’s odd to think that I have to work to find time to play video games, but I have a lot of other things I’m working on.
The RPG games are going well. We did start a new Pathfinder 2E game set in a world we played in back in high school, so that’s fun. My characters are sill alive for all my active campaigns. And I’m picking at the various campaigns I want to run, just so that I’m ready if and when I get to run them.
October Goals
Finish Gear of War Tactics
Keep trying at FarCry 6.
Start another computer story game
What’s Next
October will be all about getting my SciFi book ready for publishing, and pushing my other writing projects forward. And I’d like to get a bead on some good events to get into next year. But mostly, the publishing thing.
May turned into a pretty decent month in terms of writing everything except the blog posts I swore I was going to post, and slow in almost every other aspect. And that’s okay. I can use a slow month every now and then.
Writing
Working hard on Book 3, getting closer to having a rough draft ready for review. It’s not really a question of word counts right now, it’s a question of linking up the scenes I have and making the story coherent. I’m pretty sure I’ll be dropping the tertiary storyline as it’s not adding too much to the book and will save me a goods chunk of words that I’ll need to shape the ending I want. Could I have a rough draft by the end of the month? It’s possible, if I can stay focused.
My SciFi novel is nearest to completion, but I’ve had a hard time getting into the last big battle. I need it to be a lot of things. What I need to remember is that I just need to get this draft down and then revise it.
The fantasy novel is my middle project, and I’ve had some nice breakthroughs on this project in May. For the main character, I worked out some of the philosophy and meta-physiology of his fantasy race, and how that will apply to the story. And for the secondary character, I realized a few things that I can use to make her part of the story much more interesting and influential.
I did pick at a few other projects over the month. There are so many things I want to write.
June Goals:
Finish current draft of the SciFi novel
Get Book 3 to the point I have a continuous story from beginning to end
Add 10,000 words to fantasy novel
Movies/TV
Only watched two new things in June.
Star Trek: Prodigy, the animated kid’s Star Trek show, was surprisingly fun. The adult in me could nitpick the hell out of it, since there’s a lot of things about the show that don’t make sense if I think about it too much. But it is a fun show. The characters are interesting, especially how they come to want to join the Federation, and how they deal with the threats of the story. Now, for a kids show, it does get somewhat dark, but most kids shows do, don’t they?
The movie I managed to watch in May was Antman and Wasp: Quantumania. I’d heard it was a disappointing moving, but I have to say I liked it. It was definitely a different tone from the first two Antman movies: much more serious, much darker. But seeing Antman’s daughter as an up and coming superhero was fun. And holy cow, Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror was amazing. I’d love to see him come back again. (Unless the assault allegations turn out to have substance to them, then I’d hope to see someone else who can pull off that level of intensity.)
June Goals:
Start a new TV show
Watch two new movies
Books
I finished two books and started a third this weekend. All three are part of the Burton House saga.
The first two, The DeFacto Duchess and Rejection and Romance, follow Allison Burton and James Byrnes as they navigate courtship, romance, and the politics of 1815 Europe. They’re really two halves of the same story, with a cliffhanger end to Book 1 that made me immediately start Book 2. I would have been really frustrated to have to wait between books.
Book 3, Double the Trouble, shifts focus away from Allison and James to Allison’s younger twin sisters, Beatrice and Cecelia. The musically inclined twins come out into society, with Cecelia going through a battery of terrible dates with suitors and callers. I haven’t finished it yet, but I can tell you this book is far more amusing than the first two. This book also has a more musical theme to its structure and chapter headings, where the first two books were more literary.
June Goals
Finish two books
Post one book review
Games
Did not play a lot of video games in June, for whatever reason. I played through maybe one or two missions of Gears of War: Tactics, which is still fun if not exactly engrossing. I started to focus more one Last of Us 2 to get that game done, and I hit a fun section I’m excited to play through. Maybe I’ll knock that out this month.
My RPG games slowed down in May, between holidays and time-off. Known World Book X is taking a short break so the GM can prep the next chapter, and we’re in a Delta Green Interlude. Still playing the same Hot Springs Island character, and hoping to keep him going for a while.
We did play the first adventure of Quest for the Frozen Flame, where I’m playing the barbarian hunter Morgar. I ended up changing his character from the initial concept. Instead of a moody teenager with a chip on his shoulder who gets angry at everything, he’s now a son from a loving family who gets excited instead of angry. It involves a lot more roleplaying and involvement, but this is a playing group that is well suited for that.
Also, as an aside, one of my Saturday morning prompts gave me an idea for a Scifi adventure, so I spent a few days working out the framework for a Cypher one-shot, roughly eight to ten adventures long. I’d like to run it at some point, maybe get it into rotation for the Sunday or Monday night games. We’ll see if anything comes of it, but it was fun to work on.
June Goals:
Finish Last of Us 2
Don’t Buy Another Game
Don’t lose an PRG character
What’s Next
This month I’m focusing on writing and prepping for publishing. I want to put some effort into getting another Books and Beer event going, and keep an eye out for some events if I can get my table up. But the writing is first and foremost. I’ll let you all know how that goes.
2020. Man, who thought this year
would turn out the way it has. All the conventions cancelled, Books and Beer on
hiatus, plans disrupted, then burned, then buried in a bog. Just…wow.
Earlier this year, when I found
myself facing furlough, I promised myself I wouldn’t just let it pass me by. It
was going to be an opportunity to get stuff done. I was going to write so many
books, and lose so much weight, and just get so much done.
Of course, that’s not what
happened. I got some writing done, but no where near the tsunami of publishable
materials I thought I might get done. I actually did a NANOWRIMO challenge in
July to write a science fiction novel, a way to force myself to relearn how to
write at home. And as I’m back to work, I can get some writing done there. My
coffee shop is still pick-up only, but I’m hopeful for the future.
What I’m Writing
I’ve got a couple of projects
going. The main one is re-writing a fantasy novel to prepare it for publishing.
I’ve got some good feedback on the story from some alpha readers, and I might
make it a November Writing Challenge to rewrite the thing.
I’ve got the July SciFi story,
which is a very rough draft. It’ll need some significant work to get it ready,
but it’s doable. Book 3 of the Renaissance Army series is getting picked at; I’ve
worked out some timeline and story concerns that were bugging me, now I’m
writing some scenes, storyboarding and researching. Always researching.
Working on short stories. Have a
couple it might be fun to send to magazines or the like. We’ll see if that
works.
What I’m Reading
Right now I’m working through ‘The
Complete Novels of Jane Austen’, which is one ebook with nine Jane Austen
books. Before I’d seen the movies of Sense and Sensibility and Pride
and Prejudice¸ and I really enjoyed reading those stories. Whomever made
the movies did a good job of consolidating characters and trimming the
plotlines. The confusion I found in the books weren’t in the films.
The rest of the stories I’m
reading cold, which makes for a bit of a challenge as I’m two centuries removed
from Jane Austen’s time. I’m sure there are things I’m missing. But I’m still
enjoying the dialogue. It on a level all of its own.
Fini
I don’t know how 2021 will look.
I’m guessing it’ll be a slow slog back to normal, or what will pass for normal
after all this. I won’t have a book out this year, that’s for sure, but next
year I hope to publish at least one.
The Tales of the Templars is a collection of short stories I’m working on. The idea comes from my second book, Templar Scholar, in which Sasha Small joins the Templar Project, a group of young men and women being trained by the Renaissance Army as leaders of the new Renaissance. Including Sasha, there are twelve Templars, each with their own stories and backgrounds.
The Tales of the Templars will include stories that follow Templars other than Sasha. It will allow me to explore not only new characters, but aspects of the world that Sasha has not experienced. One character grew up stealing to survive; how did he end up a Templar? Another character fought in a battle Sasha only watched from afar. What was that battle like to those involved?
I have sixteen potential stories, with each of the eleven Templars involved in at least one. Some of them are pre-Templar Stories, which is to say they occur before the beginning of Templar Scholar, some of them during the events of Renaissance Calling. Others are Templar Stories, which take place during Templar Scholar.
Will Tales of the Templars include all sixteen stories? No. And here’s where my readers come in. I have a page on my website (linked here) where readers can vote for their favorite story ideas. Each of the sixteen stories is listed with a synopsis, and at the bottom you can vote for up to five of the stories you want to read.
If you’ve read Templar Scholar you’ll know the characters and some of the events, and you’ll probably have characters you want to know more about. If you haven’t read the book, then hopefully some of the stories sound good anyway. And if you want to buy the book, you can do so here.
When I was younger, I heard someone say that an artist is never satisfied with their work. They know what was in their mind when they began, and they see the final project, and it always falls flat in one aspect or another. It’s just something that all artists feel.
That saying has been on my mind as I’m working through the final stages of Book 2. As publishing gets closer and closer, I find myself battling anxiety about what is in the book and what is not. Have I stressed this point enough? Does this relationship get enough space? Will the reader take away what I want them to, or am I too vague?
There’s no way to get rid of these anxieties. They can even be helpful. The anxiety forces me as a writer to keep working, to pay attention to what is bothering me. Rewrite, research, revise, and continue.
Accepting the imperfection of my work is a part of the process. I really like Book 2. There are plenty of things I wish I could put in, but size constraints and the flow of the story keep me from doing so, and that’s okay. No story tells everything.
And when the anxiety and worry starts to grow, I remind myself that I’ve had six people read through the various drafts. All of them said they liked the book. If I trust them to advise me on editorial matters, I should trust them to tell me the truth on the quality of the book. An outside viewpoint carries weight against an inside doubt.
Ultimately, I will always feel that anything I’ve written is imperfect, and I’m okay with that. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to be good enough that I feel comfortable with other people reading it. The stories I tell are of imperfect people in an imperfect world. Imperfection is part of the game.
