Craft of Writing: Research and Rewrite.

 Dear Reader,

Sometimes what we are working on requires us to do some digging to get facts straight about details we are incorporating into our stories. Research is not a dirty word. It can, however, lead to the proliferation of the dreaded plot bunny population. (I keep a notebook to write down ideas that pop up as I am doing research on things. It sort of works to control the plot bunny population that I'm dealing with at any given moment.) There's a special set of skills that you need to do good research.

Yes, being a Google-Fu master helps, but the ability to critically analyze the information you find is extremely important. It is the difference between using the word lacerations to describe a person's face covered in tears or to describe a person's face covered in wounds. The foundational ability of critical analysis is the ability to ask questions about what you are looking at.

Equally important is the ability to organize the information you have available. This makes the difference between my sentence using 'lacerations' and the rest of this piece. That sentence was deliberately muddled as a quick brain teaser. If you are good at drawing out the information and good at organizing it in the process of questioning what you have before you, you probably caught just how bad that sentence was fairly quickly. (I apologize, it wasn't a very nice thing to spring on you. Don't worry, there won't be a pop quiz later.)

This brings me to the next word that isn't a dirty word for us writers: rewrite. Revising your work on the basis of new information is pretty big in academia. It's probably the cornerstone of the scientific method. Rewriting a scene or a whole book because you have new information is a lot of work. It is, however, almost always worth doing. Rewriting gives you the opportunity to use those critical thinking skills that you applied in the research process on your own creation. This allows you to find the weak spots (like that sentence two paragraphs upstream) and correct them. It also allows you to develop greater depth to your work by incorporating new information and details.

Rewriting a piece after doing research is like applying a new coat of paint to your house. Sure, it is a ton of work. At the same time, even if the color isn't different, the house will look fresher for that new paint. Honestly, we all want to have the best house we can manage. The extra effort is worth it in the end because it helps hone your skills and makes the next project better than the previous one.

Recommendation: The Dresden Files Series.

 Dear Reader,

If you're not familiar with Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files series, I strongly encourage you to jump in and enjoy. His use of dramatic tension is exquisite. His description of Chicago may not be entirely accurate because he takes a few liberties, but his version of Chicago is gritty and tough. Butcher uses fantasy as pivotal plot elements and dramatic set pieces for the action of the story to take place. As far as the urban fantasy genre goes, you are going to have a hard time finding someone who can handle the blending of the fantastical and the realistic with such a deft hand.

It's hard for me to pick a favorite book out of the series. His skill is such that each book works as a stand alone novel and as a component in the over all arc of the series. I'd sing the praises of the most recent one out but I don't want to give away spoilers. (It was really, really good.) I may have consumed the whole book in one day and forgot about my reading journal because I was so engrossed in the story. I'll try not to do that next time. 😃

Rating: 10/10

Books Update!

 Dear Reader,

I know that you've been patiently waiting for my next book to hop off the editing bench and into the publication process. It's been an arduous process trying to edit while I have been trying to keep up with everything here. 2020 was a brutal year that threw off all of my plans, as I am sure it has for you.

This year, I'm taking my playbook from January 2020 and putting it into effect. I'm giving myself a bit of leeway on my scheduling incase we wind up going remote learning for an extended period of time. The tentative date for editing to wrap up on book six of the Umbrel Chronicles of Evandar is late August. It is my hope to get it out for publication by the end of September. All of this depends on things being semi-normal. Gods only know what 2021 holds for us but I'm hoping it is good things.

Book seven is on hold as I finish up two other unrelated books. There will be an announcement coming soon regarding one of these other projects. If you enjoy fantasy of all stripes and are a little bit of a nerd who occasionally dabbles in off-line RPGs, I think you're going to find my news interesting. You have to wait until late February for the details, however.

Locales: Generating Place Names

 Dear Reader,

It is possible to spend hours on developing language for your work. If you find this relaxing and productive, go for it. I'm still finding my footing in that arena. You don't, however, have to come up with your own language to name places. If you take a moment to look at the naming of places in the real world, you'll come to realize that some of the names are pretty dumb once you translate them out of the language they're written in.

For example, in England, there are many rivers named 'Avon' or have the name 'Avon' in them. This is because of the Romans and Celts having some communication difficulties. Avon, in the ancient Celtic dialect spoken in those regions of England, simply means river. Thus the Avon river is literally River-river. 'Tor' is another one from the Celts which simply means a high place. So, it's possible that exotic sounding name you were thinking would sound really cool as you mash together things from two different languages translates to something really simple, possibly dumb.

If you focus on landmarks and historical events, you find it easier to name places. For example, there's a river in the Umbrel Chronicles of Evandar that is known as the White River because it has many rapids in it, hence a good deal of white water. I've taken that and translated it (roughly) into Gaelic to use as the place name. Why Gaelic? Because the people of that region are based on the Gaels and I've decided that their language is in many ways parallel to Gaelic. Google translate isn't the best source for translations, I will be honest, but when you lack a dictionary between the two languages it works in a pinch.

There are place name generators on the internet. I've used them a few times when I have gotten stumped. Just remember to keep a log of your place names and a rough description of the location. Nothing's worse then having to rewrite an entire chapter because you messed up the setting details. (Not that I have ever had to do that before. ;) )

Regarding Serial Stories

 Dear Reader,

As you may know, I have some serial stories going on here. Dacia's War and the Iron Lily are the ones that are currently (in)active. I am working on getting things ironed out for when I will be posting updates. Unlike before, I will not be updating the serial stories on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It will only be on Tuesdays.

The first and third Tuesday of the month, I will be updating Dacia's War. On the second and fourth Tuesday of the month, I will be updating the Iron Lily. This is to allow me enough time to pay enough attention to all the details of these stories so that you have a better reading experience. As I begin to draw near to the conclusion of these serial stories (not happening anytime soon, but sometime later this year), I will be organizing them into e-books to make your reading experience easier.

When they are in e-book format, you may note some differences from how they were originally posted. Some of this is going to be cleaning up grammar and related matters because usually I just whip them off with minimal editing. Some of this will be filling in backstory and adding more detail to transitional scenes between major action sequences in the story. I promise you, you'll enjoy the extra content. There may even be a few 'new' characters for you to enjoy (or hate, depending on how they strike you).

Keep a log of important setting details (including interesting items and creatures).

  Dear Reader,

If you're in a position like I am and you're working on multiple books, it is good to keep a log of the things you invent and introduce into your books. My log is a disaster and spread across multiple notebooks. I'm trying to fix that, it's not working so great. But, there are others out there with wonderfully detailed notes. In your log, it is good to note the description and pertinent qualities of your special things. It is also good practice to note where it shows up in your story and under what conditions it arises. This helps prevent you from having your flaming brass dragon turn into a flaming glass dragon (unless that is a planned plot twist).

Keeping a log of major setting details helps when you are choosing what elements from previous books to incorporate and carry forward into the next books. We've all read books that were a bit cavalier about this and are confused by how these things happened to change between books. If you keep a log, you can reference it at any time you are working to add details, note influence on plot arcs, and generally keep your information about the setting details up to date as you are working.

Just don't do it across a four inch stack of notebooks, please. I'm still sorting out that mess. Ah, life before computers. When everything went into notebooks. Now I'm working to consolidate it into one source. It's not going so great because it's a jumbled mess. I might wind up using Camp NaNoWriMo this year to work on fixing that mess.

Craft of Writing: Plan like you're going to storm Normandy.

 Dear Reader,

This was a bit of advice that my Grandfather gave me as I was struggling with how to write a huge paper in college. He looked over my notes, which were in disorganized piles, and made that statement before walking off. I then looked at my outline and back at my notes. With a measure of despair, I tried to match the piles of notes to the outline.

It wasn't working so well. And then something clicked in my brain. My outline was too vague. So, I sat down and drafted up another outline in greater detail, drawing from some crucial notecards in the messy pile before me. I repeated the process until my notecards were in a stack and my final outline was essentially my paper in bullet points.

I had some people in my life at the time who felt that they knew more about what I was writing on than I did. They had tried earlier to interfere with my efforts to plan out this paper. It was part of the reason why my notes were chaos and my outline was really about as cohesive as cheap washi tape. (You know, the pretty ribbon tape that sticks to nothing but itself, and it even does that badly.) At my Grandfather's advice, I worked in silence and (to a degree) secrecy on this paper. By the time I had that final outline done and it was time to write, I was well away from the persons who were trying to dictate from their assumptions the facts of my paper.

I've since taken that approach to big projects. Do the organizational work on my own, in privacy. Don't allow anyone not directly involved in the project access to it. Don't encourage commentary on your work habits except from persons you trust completely to give you reliable input. If it worked in the storming of Normandy, it will work for the Great Work that you're trying to complete, whatever it may be.

Placeholder for future content!

 Dear Reader,

I survived the holidays despite how hectic it was. I am presently in the midst of making some major changes to my schedule and my approach to things like blogging. It's been difficult to get back into the groove of daily blog posts because of all the stuff that's been going on. I feel like I've got a bit of 2020 stuck to the bottom of my shoe and I can't scrape it off with a stick.

Look for new material and updates to my serial stories in two weeks. I have some planning to do and a few irons in the fire that I have to finish up. I have a big project that I'm desperately attempting to finish with the limited time that I have to work on it. As I said, it is going to be approximately two weeks before the dust settles around here and I can jump back into the saddle.

Thank you for sticking with me this far. I will update you soon on what changes are coming to the blog and just what the hell is going on with The Umbrel Chronicles of Evandar. (Spoiler alert: My characters are finally beginning to cooperate with the plot on the book I've been stalled on.)