Tag Archives: Writing

February 24 Update

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

Writing

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

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

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

February Goals

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

Reading

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

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

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

February Goals

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

Movies and Shows

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

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

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

February Goals

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

Games

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

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

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

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

February Goals

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

What’s Next?

I’ve got two events coming up.

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

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

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

Cheers!

Michael

Writing Process 1: Too much pantsing

**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

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

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

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

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

And that was my problem. A poor writing process.

There go my pants

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

Sure, in this case.

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

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

The pants fell down and tripped me up.

Making changes

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

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

I need to make bigger changes for the future.

I need better plans.

PBRG

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

Until next time, keep writing.

Cheers!

Michael

October Update

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 Science Fiction 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.

Cheers!

Michael

June Update

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.

Cheers!

Michael

How is it October already?

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.

Of course, that’s still a lifetime away.

Cheers!

Michael

Tales of the Templars

The Templar Badge from ‘Templar Scholar’

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.

So take a look and let me know what you think.

Cheers!

-Michael

Accepting Imperfection

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.

Cheers!

-Michael

500 words a day

As a resolution for New Years, I challenged myself to record at least 500 words day in writing. I could have gone for more, but I wanted a nice, comfortable goal, since there are days when I have little time to actually write, and there are days where I don’t feel like writing. So, I set the goal at 500 words.

It turns out its usually a bit easier than I worried. I’m at a coffee shop most morning a little after 6 AM, starting my day off hitting the goal. Some days, I exceed a thousand words, and sometimes even two thousand.

There are off days, of course. There have been days where I’ve just pushed myself to get 500 words total, writing obvious crap, saying ‘a rough draft is just words on the page’ and I’ll fix it when I revise. But I’ve made the 500 words every day.

A benefit during revisions

It’s come in handy. As Book 2 of the Renaissance Army series has gone through revisions and out to some Alpha readers, writing 500 words a day on other projects has kept my creative juices flowing while I’ve been dealing with the mechanical and stylistic issues that revisions include. And it’s advanced a few projects from ‘neat idea’ to ‘words are on the page’. I’ve got a lot of stories to tell, and it’s good that I’m getting to them, even if they are of secondary or tertiary importance.

So, even as I get stuck on some matter in the revision, I at least make some headway on another project. So I feel I’ve gotten something done every day.

Some Math

Out of curiosity, I took a look at the words I’ve recorded in yWriter. Now, there are things I’ve written that aren’t recorded in yWriter, but I didn’t want to spend hours finding every single word I’d typed and adding it, so this is just a rough, quick calculation.

Since New Years, I have written 98,909 words in eight different projects. The vast majority went to Book 2 (58,000+), and with a fantasy book taking second place (29,000+). Book 3 was begun, with just shy of 3,500 words. Which means, over 106 days (as of writing), I’ve averaged 933.1 words a day. Well above my goal.

Try it!

If you’re a writer, try it out! Setting a simple, low goal and sticking to it is the way to accomplish a lot of goals, and with writing it helps to bull rush your way through the writers block and doubts and just get words on the page. Because once they’re on there, they mean something.