Category Archives: Writing Process

Revision & Editing – My Approach

October 10, 2011 By in Writing Process Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

After noodling it around a bit I think I at least have a plan of attack, an approach, a Strategy if you will, for going about this whole revision and editing thing.  I fell into a process for writing that seemed to work quite well.  That was pre-blog so you will just have to trust me on it.  Hopefully, the same will happen for the revision and editing.  I am putting it out there for comment, criticism, and for fear that if I don’t write it down, I will not remember it the next time.

The problems I need to address, or that I am hoping this approach will solve, are from the first draft taking over almost a full year to complete.  And from not entirely knowing what I was doing.  The things that could have been avoided by being a *little* more diligent in keeping a “bible” we not avoided… character descriptions morphing, locations being renamed, multiple feints at backstory, etc.  FWIW: I blame NaNoWriMo for that!  The plot also went off in its own direction as well, the whole second half was quite a ways away from what I originally envisioned.  I blame my writing instructor for that – she suggested I write the ending before writing the last half of the book.  It was an excellent suggestion that I *strongly* recommend to others!  Had I not done that, I would probably still be writing the first draft.  There were also things that happened out of order so that they would fit into the self imposed chapter and scene structure.  There is also way too much backstory at the beginning that I would like to move to flashbacks.  All-in-all mostly content issues.   Add to that three POV characters with intertwined storylines and over 120k words which I have no one to else to blame but myself.

Here’s what I am doing:

1. Do nothing.  Yeah, I have heard this quite a bit.  Don’t start editing until you are done writing (check) (though it escapes me why this is not self evident).  More importantly, lock the first draft away for a month or two to distance yourself from it.  Considering it took me a year to write, there are some parts that are more distant than others!  For someone who barely remembers what he had for lunch yesterday I think two months might have been a bit excessive.  My plan of getting caught up on reading during this time fizzled and I found myself writing and editing a short story.

2. Keywords (aka Tagging).  I am using Scrivener that as a really nice tagging capability.  Essentially you can create any keyword (or keyword hierarchy for the overly detail oriented types) and assign those keywords to scenes.  Clicking on the keyword in the “keyword browser” brings up all of the scenes that have been tagged with the keyword.  Really cool.  I created keywords for all of the locations, POV characters, minor characters, extras, means of transportation, etc.  A few more I might add would include character description, character backstory, gadget, etc.  The idea being that I can update a particular detail and have the tool to keep it consistent across all of the occurrences.  So the next time you find your character’s appearance changing and it is not related to the plot – try out the keywords.

… and because I can never say anything in a few words where many will suffice… more to come…

Ready to Edit… now what…

October 9, 2011 By in Writing Process Tags: , , 4 Comments

I finished writing and editing a short story.  It was good exercise for editing, particularly since I was working on getting the total word count down below a fixed amount.

I did content editing first, making  sure that the story hung together and made sense.  I rewrote the ending to make it more exciting, deleted sections that really didn’t move the story forward, etc.

Then moved on to line editing.  Deleting all those pesky “had” or “has been” words that didn’t do anything useful other than increase my word count.  I do need to keep an eye on the language because of the steampunk style which should be a bit more flowery prose.

So all that was good practice.  But now looking at a whole novel to edit and I feel more than just a little intimidated.  I stalled it a little by updating synopsis and tagging the scenes, but I have run out of excuses and need to wade in.  I have no idea what to do that…

“The West Wind” Status Update…

September 11, 2011 By in The West Wind, Writing Process, Writing Projects Tags: Leave a comment

With a sudden surge of participation of Facebook pages, Blogs, and Forums I realized I had not posted to my own blog.  Nuts.

So special shout outs to all my new friends at S.W.A.G. and the BlackSails and Steampunk Authors FB pages!

So… Progress update lest I lead you fair reader astray.  In short, no progress.  And I am doing a regrettably poor job of taking time off to get caught up on my steampunk reading.  I have literally stacks of books begging to be read and blogged about.

What am I doing instead?  I started a horror short story set in the world of “The West Wind.”  It involves Rachel and her half brother Clarence but is told from the perspective of the sheriff of a small town into which they wander following a truly loathsome crime committed upon their persons nearby.  This is a scene from “The West Wind” with all the same characters, action, and conflict– just told from a different perspective.  The fun in it has been having to stick to the core of the storyline but given the opportunity to embellish and take the story in truly a different direction.  It is over 10k words right now but I do plan on chopping it down in length to fit submission guidelines of a couple of markets where it may fit.

So, you may ask, what are your plans dear writer for “The West Wind?”  Well… I want to get a first revision done before November so I can get copies out to a few close friends who have graciously agreed to be alpha readers.  Why November?  Another good question, but I would propose that the more perceptive among you know that November is National Novel Writing Month and, of course, I am already kicking around ideas for a sequel.  I know there is a lot of territory out there to be covered and I am burning daylight.

“The West Wind” – A Steampunk Adventure set in the Old West

August 14, 2011 By in The West Wind, Writing Process, Writing Projects Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

Un-sticking this post…

Status as of 10/23/11  11/26/11 1/29/12 11/23/12: Putting the rewrite “on hold”

It is the summer of 1912 and the western frontier of the British American Colonies is a pressure cooker of intrigues fueled by greed, resentment, and the need for revenge in this steampunk adventure dominated by plots and power struggles between rich and powerful industrialists. It is a world of massive floating mansions, horses, stagecoaches, airships, private railroad cars, dusty western towns, flying machines, and a traveling mechanical freak show.

Dramatis personæ:

Roland Pritchard – a true success story of Her Majesty’s American Colonies having built an extensive railroad empire that is the backbone of industrial development in the western frontier.

Eli Hardy – the only child of Jakob Hardy, recently returned from studying abroad (something more controversial) and is confronted by the real truth behind his father’s success.

Rachel West – an apprentice clock maker (something less banal) has emigrated fled to the American Colonies in search of a place where she and with her half brother Clarence will be accepted for who they are and not what society dictates. to escape a deadly conspiracy only to find herself embroiled in even more dangerous intrigues.

Boardgame Design and Novel Writing

August 9, 2011 By in Writing Process Tags: , , , , 1 Comment

I ran into a number of my gaming colleagues at Gen Con (designers, publishers, industry pundits, etc.) with whom I had become acquainted when SDRGames put out Bootleggers– see Other Publish Credits page.  I also attended another Stackpole seminar where he stressed the importance of character development – a common thread through his 21 Days to a Novel and Secrets Podcast.

It got me thinking that game design and writing share a common thread.

Gaming has two acknowledged major schools of design – European and American.  I don’t want to start a debate or go into a dissertation on the details of both, but suffice it to say that the major differences are in their views of conflict and luck.  European eschews direct conflict and mechanics involving a lot of luck.  Their focus is primarily on strategy and indirect conflict.  The American school of design, by contrast, prefers direct conflict and has greater amounts of luck.  A hybrid, which is what we intended to create with Bootleggers, has elements of both.  To drive the point home, think of Risk: I am attacking your country and rolling dice to win.  I “attack” another country in a Euro game by outbidding them for cheaper resources thus making it more expense for them to improve their armies– that’s indirect and no luck.

Its that indirect conflict that I find similar to the Stackpole character development process.  In Euro game design, there is usually some objective that is required to win, e.g. the most victory points, the most money, longest road, etc.  Each player develops a strategy and plays that strategy to achieve the objective.  It is in the process of playing that strategy that the player’s actions will disrupt other players’ attempts to achieve the objective.  The disruption, or “player interaction” in a game is really important in the design – the preference being greater interaction.  No interaction between players and the game earns the negative “multi-player solitaire” reputation.

So what does this have to do with writing?

Consider each character a unique player in the game and, unlike a vast majority of the games, each has a very unique goal they wish to achieve.  It is in the attempt to achieve these goals they will be faced with obstacles that they must overcome.  Just like game design, it is best if these obstacles are put in place by the other players.  The more one character’s actions to reach their goal disrupt the other character’s ability to achieve their goal, the more engaging the story should be.  The conflict arises between the characters going about achieving their goals.  Sometime this conflict is direct – Sally is going to stab Drake because he has been cheating on her in an attempt to find happiness, or more of the indirect kind – Sally has locked the house and gone looking for her cheating husband Drake.  Drake returns to find the house locked and is forced to spend the night in a cheap flea infested hotel where he is forced to confront his definition of happiness.

Some random musings there for the folks that have an interest in board game design and writing.  Probably a bigger group than the intersection of NASCAR fans who are also opera season ticket holders… but that is another story.

More on the 21 Days and other helpful podcasts

August 3, 2011 By in Writing Process Tags: , , , , , Leave a comment

I started sifting through iTunes and the interweb for podcasts about writing. I was driving an hour each way to work and figured it would be a good way to work on my writing while I really couldn’t work on my writing.

I found the audio version of Stackpole’s “21 Days to a Novel” among other advice he offers here on his website (also available on iTunes):

Secrets Podcast

The other source of writing instruction, probably the best most comprehensive that I have found, is Writing Excuses (also available on iTunes):

Writing Excuses

Writing Excuses is the singular best source of writing instruction that I have found in podcast form. On top of being a great source of information, the hosts are interesting and personable. I cannot recommend this podcast enough. Start at the beginning and listen to them all – you will not be disappointed.

My first 21 Days

August 2, 2011 By in Writing Process Tags: , , , , Leave a comment

Armed with the knowledge, and some pretty good notes, from Gen Con Indy 2010 seminar “21 Days to a Novel” I gave it a go.

My first major investment was a couple of back-to-school spiral bounds and a box of my favorite pens from Staples.  Total cost < $5.

What I liked about Stackpole’s approach was the focus on the character.  The opinion that readers like to read because they enjoy getting to know a character, feeling the conflicts of the character, identifying with the character.  In short, the advice given by Stackpole, and several others I have read or heard via podcast, focus on the character and write character driven stories.  Character driven stories sell.

I religiously started following the 21 days methodology.

2010 Gen Con and 2011 Gen Con

August 1, 2011 By in Writing Process Tags: , , , , Leave a comment

Aw I am daft bugger.  I should have hit the post button before heading off to work this morning.  Sorry steamers, that means you a double tap of postings tonight.

Getting ready to head off to Gen Con this year (again) got me thinking about how I made it this far with my writing.   (queue the flashback effects)

Almost… a year a go I decided to get more serious about this whole writing thing.  I had always wanted to write a book but just didn’t know how to go about doing it.

I had been attending Gen Con for several years and had noticed an increase in the number of seminars for writers.  Either they were increasing or I was just paying closer attention, not sure which.  Most of the writing seminars were focused on writing for game supplements, but there were a few for writing longer works.

For $8 I took Michael Stackpole’s “21 Days to a Novel.”  This was going to be the seminar that would teach me how to do it!  I attended, took copious notes, and walked away with a kernel of knowledge that I needed to get going.  But still absolutely no idea what I was going to write about…

For those of you heading to Gen Con Indy this year, here is a link to the writer’s events:

Gen Con Indy 2011 Writing Events

 

 

 

 

 

Writing…

July 31, 2011 By in Random, The West Wind, Writing Process, Writing Projects Tags: , , , , Leave a comment

Next Chapter Bookstore & Bistro is my favorite place to write.   Yeah, sure, lots of people go to bookstores to buy books.  Not me, I go there to write books.  Just the kind of crazy hoot ‘n nanny that I am all about.  The right amount of distraction, endless supply of coffee and snacks combined with some of the nicest folks you will ever meet.

Easter Egg Alert – I have written Next Chapter into the epilogue of the West Wind.

And I finished a scene (3 scenes to a chapter… 1 & 1/3 to go!)