eddyfate

Since I sold a flash piece to a paying market, I decided to spend a few hours today doing more of the same. I polished an older space opera piece ("The Battlefield") for consideration at another podcast, and I trimmed down "Questions" to 720 words to be eligible for print in a horror flash fiction anthology (since I only sold one-time audio rights to Pseudopod, not print rights). I'll hopefully know by late November how both pieces will do - it would be nice to have a total of three fiction sales!

I also have some other short story ideas kicking around:

Shadowrun: I'm kicking around the idea of writing a short fiction piece to help me get immersed in the world. I actually had a couple of ideas from Midway City that translate well into SR4, but I don't know yet how (or if) I want to approach it.

The Bureau: I am blocked on When The Devil Drives, pure and simple. I had an idea of writing a short story after the events of WTDD, to help me get a feel for all of the characters, as well as to ease me into the world of The Bureau better than attempting to write what is functionally a novel on the first go.

Hero Pulp: I occasionally kick around ideas for a pulp story set in the 1930s. It actually stems from an abandoned idea that actually explains where my old Requiem character got the name Nick Ebon. A couple of paying markets have cropped up that cater to this style of story, which is why I continue to toy with it. I also want to see how the Lester Dent Master Pulp Plot outline works in practice. ;)

The nice thing about considering some short story ideas is that it's longer than flash fiction, but it's not such a huge commitment that I can't drop it if some paying RPG work comes along. Odds are that only two of the three ideas above are salable in the short term, but all of them look fun to write, which is the ultimate point of working on them.

So I've had a bit of a mental block on When the Devil Drives (which, in case you've just been skimming these posts, is the new and likely final title for the first novel of "The Bureau"). I ended chapter one, and I knew where chapter two was supposed to go, but I couldn't think of how to start it. It seemed like there was a lot of transition I needed to get through at the beginning of chapter two, and I didn't want to spend paragraphs and paragraphs on traveling between scenes. So I sat on it for a day, and this morning I realized the problem: I had ended chapter one too soon. I've already got a mental plan for the new ending of chapter one -- a few more lines of dialogue that will not only transition better, but set up some character development I've been struggling to shoe-horn into chapter one.

The reason for the trickiness (and this isn't a spoiler, hence why I'm not putting it behind a cut) is that part of the story involves an unusual aspect of Cincinnati, where the story is based. I can't get around an explanation of that unusual aspect, and I don't want to do it via dialogue (especially since the viewpoint character is a Cincinnati native). I don't want to do travel description and setting exposition, so I'm hoping this new rewrite will cut out the need for the travel link.

---

There are times when I empathize with Sherlock Holmes, who laments on a few occasions that his explanation of his procedure takes all of the mystery out of his work and makes it appear commonplace. I look at some of these notes and fear that people will realize what a messy, frustrating, patched-together business writing really is, and no longer be awed by the final product. But I also know that there are a lot of people who are doing the same thing I'm doing, all over the world, and it's always good to see the trials of a fellow artist and know that they're going through the same things you are. Plus, by writing down my problems, I can think through them more easily and get back to the good stuff.

I didn't actually get any revision done. After learning yWriter, poking around for a new title (and a quote to lead off the story), and carefully transcribing the 2000+ words I had already written into the yWriter software, my evening was pretty much gone. However, I did learn a few things this evening:

1) The title is now When the Devil Drives. It's from an old English quote that is commonly written as "Needs must when the devil drives," which is paraphrased in All's Well That Ends Well. I admit it's an odd title, but the quote really defines the story for me, so that will likely be the title until I'm forced to change it. Or a better one comes along. You know how it is.

2) yWriter is sexy. It does all sorts of great things, like letting you rearrange chapters and scenes easily, tracking characters throughout the story, exporting a variety of views for easy printing (everything from an outline to the full manuscript), even searching for problem words and phrases so you can prune them out of your writing. It's one of those pieces of software that is perfectly designed for one task (in this case, writing a novel), and has features you didn't realize you needed until you can't live without them. And it's fucking free.

3) I have a lot of characters in this story. It was ambitious to write a story with an ensemble cast, but I just couldn't write the story (and thus the series) any other way. I know I'm not going to be able to give them all the time and attention they deserve, so it'll be interesting to see who steps up to the front during the writing of the story. Obviously at least one character (the viewpoint character) will be developed, but I think at least two more will have a chance to be fleshed out as the story progresses.

I haven't written anything in about two weeks for The Beast (although I'm working on a new title for that), because of GenCon and then subsequent health and medical crap. Today I used my lunch to finish off the first draft of the first chapter, and set up my ideas for the next chapter. I think I'll spend an hour or so tonight to transcribe the first chapter from my notebook into yWriter, while making the tons of changes and expansions I want to work into the draft. Then I'll let it sit while I work on the next chapter before doing a third draft. I'm thinking I'll get two or three chapters to the third draft stage before I start putting them on the web, so I have a buffer in case I fall behind or need to do some massive rewrites.

So most of last night I've been kicking around the need to add yet another character to the mix, because I'm not entirely thrilled with the way I project the dynamic sorting out at the end. This is an issue now because if I decided to add a new character, this chapter is the best place to do it.

( Spoilers. )

I'm still kicking it around, but I think I'm going to leave a note for myself to consider swapping characters in the first rewrite, and keep writing this version as is. That'll give me a chance to finish this version and see how it flows before I go back and write a new version. I might even end up writing a few different versions of the first chapter to see how it ends up looking.

Over the weekend I wrote a couple more pages for The Beast. Because I just plunged in with a couple of characters and only a vague idea of where I was going, I immediately hit areas I needed to research. A couple of areas I was able to just handwave with notes of "look into this later," but already a plot point required me to pause and do some research. Luckily I already had most of the research at my fingertips from previous projects, including a previous writing project that ended up morphing into "The Bureau," and the rest I was able to find online quickly because I knew what I was looking for, so it was just enough for me to get something down which I can sort out either in revision or when the manuscript is completed.

( The research I did. Spoilers. )

There's always a dilemma as a writer between doing too much research and not enough research. While I've been researching an idea vaguely related to this story for years now, at the same time I didn't have the specific research done. What I'm learning is that it's good to have a balance -- research enough that you have confidence to start with a solid story, and to help you find the rest as you go on. I suspect I'll end up picking some points of detail and looking them up once the story's done, but for now it's all about keeping the momentum going.

(Note to readers: if you post a comment below that relates to the spoiler section, please screen it.)

I'm not sure why I took a protracted break from trying to start writing "The Bureau." Maybe it's because I had my head stuck in RPG work for a while. Maybe it's because I needed some time to let things sit in my brain. Maybe it's because I really didn't know how to start it. Maybe I was just scared.

Well, it's been banging around in the back of my head, demanding to be released in some form. Today I finally pulled out a cheap college-ruled notebook (the moleskine is a bit too small for protracted writing) and jotted down a couple of pages of the first story, tentatively titled The Beast. [1] I followed the advice of Raymond Chandler and naamaire, and I started with a guy with a gun -- not out of any initial plot-related reason, but because I just needed a starting point that was exciting and interesting. I have a vague idea where it's going, but I intentionally stopped in the middle of the scene, so it will nag at me and I'll be tempted to pick it up and write a couple of pages tomorrow. I'm hoping to be able to make time to jot down at least a page or two every day. The goal is to have a small, regular project that I enjoy writing about, to balance out the often more time-sensitive and wordcount-intensive projects I have as a freelancer.

My publication plans for "The Bureau" are pretty simple. I'm going write one chapter, polish it, write the second chapter, polish that, then revise the first chapter and post it on a website (still kicking around ideas for that, but odds are it won't be this LJ). The idea is that I'll always be one chapter ahead, and the subsequent chapter might end up evolving things in a way that will require some earlier rewriting. Once the whole story is done, I'll revise the whole manuscript and then sell it as a POD novel. I have other vague ideas on other ways to develop "The Bureau," but one thing at a time.

Question: I'm planning to document my experiences on writing The Beast, since it'll be my first long-form fiction project. Do you, as readers, want me to talk about plot elements in those discussions, or should I keep those aspects vague so I don't spoil you on the story?

Footnote 1: For reference, "The Bureau" will refer to the name of the series, as I expect to have more than one story with this universe and cast of characters.

The Bureau has surfaced back into my thoughts. I haven't had enough time or mental bandwidth to sit down and seriously work on it, but I do have characters and half of a plot sketched out. I need to work out the other half of the plot (the mystery half) and a good slam-bang opening, and then I'm going to see how the first chapter or two goes. What I'd like to do is give myself a deadline (say, every other week) to write and revise a chapter for release, but I want to get a few chapters ahead before I start that -- partially so I have some buffer in case I need to devote time elsewhere, and partially to see if the story is really going to go anywhere. However, considering I have two characters that are already squaring up for a fistfight in my head, I think there's certain some potential here.

I'm still deciding how I'm going to release the story, but right now it's looking like a separate LJ or other website as a kind of open "second draft". If there's a good reaction to it, then I'll rewrite it as a final draft, and then look into self-publishing or podcasting (or both).

(Welcome back to the land of the living, LiveJournal.)

Last night was some desk-cleaning. With MET Awakening back to Craig, complete with shiny page references and indices* and back cover text and stuff, I got the design notes for Snark Party out. There's actually three different directions I can take the project, so we'll see what the initial feedback is. I also started putting together a proposal for another Sekrit Project, this one called Asskicker. (No, krisnitori, this isn't one we discussed.) The idea came to me in the shower, which is (in terms of frequency) where I get my best ideas. On reflection, there's a noteworthy percentage of MET Awakening and Midway City that was conceived in the shower.

I've also been reading. After nearly six months of not reading hardly any RPG stuff, I'm ripping through a lot of them. Exalted Second Edition, Spirit of the Century, octaNe, Army of Darkness Roleplaying Game and now Book of Exalted Power: Dragon-Blooded. Let me tell you, that combination puts strange ideas into your head. I've also been selling off some of my old RPG books: the old MET books all got sold on eBay recently, and next week or so we'll be posting some lots of old WoD stuff, as well as a few other cool lots (like a Cartoon Action Hour lot).

Tonight I'm actually free. I have to pack because I leave directly from work to catch a plane to TN to visit family. I can use the vacation to hammer out Asskicker and maybe poke at The Bureau, but otherwise it's a lull before the storm of GenCon prep, so I'll probably just fuck about.

* Yes, a WW book with an index. Yes, it's plural. Yes, several people have already expressed their astonishment at this development.

After finishing up Digital Dirge (which I've heard is now on the appropriate person's desk), I had plans for Wednesday (a monthly dinner with some of my friends) and Thursday (an appointment with my hair stylist), so I figured I would have Friday to work on the player's guide for the LARP, and the weekend to hammer out just about everything else I needed to do so I could use all next week to focus on making sure the characters all flowed well. Turns out that I need to do a quick last-minute revision on MET Awakening; White Wolf changed their process of layout since I started the manuscript, so I need to update my material accordingly. So tonight, I have to focus on that, which pushes things back a little bit. Further, one of my support people for the LARP who was helping with characters is having nasty internet problems, so next week will be interesting.

On "The Bureau," I've got the six characters in the Bureau detailed, the first novel/story arc roughly planned out, and a few ideas for future stories. It might be a week or so before I start actually writing the first story out. Odds are pretty good that I'll be sharing this stuff on the internet in some way, and I'm vaguely curious how my loyal audience would like to receive such content (note that you can select more than one option):

Poll #1008298 How do you want to get your fiction?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 16

What methods would you like to get original fiction in?

After a lot of hard work, Sekrit Project Digital Dirge (yes, it's still a secret) is off to the publisher. It came in at a scrappy 16,101 words, but really it's all solid material -- for every part I fleshed out, another part had some fat to lose. If I need to come up with more, I will, but I think the material as is will work well.

There's always pleasure in officially finishing a project. While this manuscript was painful for me in some ways, now that it's done I'm pleased with how it turned out, and I'm glad I did it. I grew in some new ways as a writer and built back up some old writing muscles. I tend to go through a cycle of excitement, frustration, avoidance, perseverance and completion in my writing, and more and more I'm recognizing the cycle and able to keep it from stopping me cold.

What's next? Well, from now until July 8th I'm pretty much devoted to Origins. After that... I don't know yet. Since Origins is a working con for me, I plan to ask White Wolf and then some other contacts to see if they have any freelance gigs that will work for me. If not, then I'll probably focus on my fiction for a while. I think I'll play around with "The Bureau" just to get a couple of fiction projects done, something for me to dig my teeth into and play around with as I find my voice as a fiction writer.

This Friday I spent taking some good advice into consideration and hammering out the final changes to the skeleton of the Origins LARP plot. I gave myself the weekend to let some farmed-out pieces of the game filter back in (and devoted some glorious time finally working on my World of Warcraft character for the first time in weeks). Today I took the pieces I had, put them all together, and farmed them back out while I focus on the main introductory game/rule/plot book for players. I also bought my plane ticket for Origins, hammered out some travel arrangements, found the movie theater website STILL doesn't have showtimes for the Transformers movie yet, and generally spent all evening working on Origins. I plan to spend the next day or two working on the new player's book and final revisions to Digital Dirge, and then see what work needs to be done over the rest of the week.

I've been slacking on "The Bureau" a bit, but not a whole lot. I hammered out the six core characters, and I've spent the weekend fleshing them out to be something more than "middle-aged priest." I have a general social dynamic in mind, so I want to put the pieces down so that I can get the basics of that dynamic down, while still leaving a lot unwritten for future ideas and so I can explore the characters as I write. I'm also kicking around what the first plot will be, and in what format I'll be sharing it with the world. There are some weird rights issues if I just put them up here in my LiveJournal, so I have to decide what I plan to do with this in future before I share it out. I'm actually considering podcasting them in audiobook format, and/or a blog with the idea of eventually self-publishing them. Since I haven't actually, you know, written anything yet, these are more vague ideas than anything resembling a plan.

And now, an hour of relaxation before bed.

Digital Dirge Wordcount: More tinkering around the last couple of days, but I think I'm going to be a bit under count. I still have two more major sections to do, but I'm estimating that'll still put me at 2,000 - 2,500 words under for the first draft. I'll just have to go back through in my revision and see if there are areas that I was conservative and could detail more.

16,086 / 20,000 (80.4%)

The Bureau: I've also been poking at one of my fiction ideas called "The Bureau." It was a working title, just a placeholder until I found a better name, but I spent 20 minutes trying to think of a new organization name, and "The Bureau" actually seems to work pretty well. I have most of the main characters roughed out (except, paradoxically, for the main protagonist), and I've determined that I'll be setting it in Cincinnati. There are lots of reasons for that, but it's basically because I know the city, and Ohio has a lot of supernatural ooginess going for it.

Lost Utopia: I've also jotted a couple a few notes down for a second fiction idea. That title is much more likely to change. It's basically a detective noir story set in a dystopian future shortly after the second American Civil War. I'm actually thinking of setting this one in Cincinnati as well, but for completely different reasons; the Ohio/Kentucky border was between Union and Confederate forces during the original American Civil War, and I like the parallel of making Cincinnati a future border town between the United States and the Republic of American States. I think I'll be bouncing back and forth between these two ideas in my 15-minute bursts, as both excite my imagination in different ways.