Graeme Rodaughan's Blog: Writing The Metaframe War Series - Posts Tagged "writing-craft"

Hi All,

I thought I would pen a few notes regarding my writing plans for 2018.

First a look back. With the publishing of The Dragon's Den, the first part of the Metaframe War series is complete, the second part begins with The Day Guard and continues with books five and six, Mission Panopticon, and The Crane War respectively.

January 2018:

[1.a.] Complete a detailed design review for The Day Guard which will include (i) a check/revise of all my current scene descriptions. (ii) Check on sequencing of scenes, scene size, who the POV character is, date, time and location.

Noting that scene designs look like (from ch 1 A Subtle Agency)

Scene 3, So Many Secrets: (21:15, April 28th, Boston) William (viewpoint) Slayne and his wife Anna come home from the faculty dinner. They anticipate a nightcap before bed, they expect that Anton is still studying for the spring semester exams. They are proud of their son. They come from the garage into the house and walk into the lounge room where Anton is tied and bound to a chair. They are ambushed and captured alive by Chloe & Marcus.

Scene 4, The Catch of the Night: (21:20, April 28th, Boston) Chloe (viewpoint) and Marcus tie all three of the Slaynes to chairs in the lounge room with plastic ties or chains. Chloe waves smelling salts under Anton’s nose and he wakes up to the horror of the capture his family. Chloe takes several photos of Anton on her phone. Chloe opens Marcus’s briefcase and draws from it parts of a sword that she snaps together. She flourishes the sword and begins the interrogation.

Scene 5, The Papyrus of Hakron the Scribe: (21:25, April 28th, Boston) Anton (viewpoint) watches with growing horror as Chloe threatens them all with torture, death or imprisonment as a vampire. William appears to weaken and gives Chloe the location and lock combination of a secret wall safe. Chloe opens the safe, and withdraws an ancient Egyptian papyrus. She quickly realizes that it is fake, and orders Marcus to break Anna’s leg as punishment. .......

[1.b] As part of the design review I will weave in a new thread dealing with several important secrets held by Cornelius Crane, who calls in an ancient debt of honor to strengthen his hand.

[1.c] Add and adjust other material impacted by the events in The Dragon's Den.

That will have two weeks, starting from today.

February 2018:

[2] Complete the detailed design of book #5, Mission Panopticon. This means adding all the scene definitions. Currently Mission Panopticon exists in preliminary design form with chapter definitions and value shifts (+ve/-ve) defined for each chapter.

Noting that chapter designs look like (from A Subtle Agency)

Book 1, First Act starts Very High -ve (Inciting Incident) ends +ve.

PRINCIPLES:-

Chloe’s war against Crane remains secret.
The identity of the Raven remains secret.

CHAPTER 1. When Nightmares Come True. (INCITING INCIDENT)

Friday 28th April 2017.

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Value Change: Starts +ve (Anton is Safe, and the world is sane, and confidently understood, ignorance is bliss.) - followed by a deep spiral into the negative, as his parents are murdered/Abducted/Imprisoned by Chloe Armitage and Marcus Drake on the orders of Cornelius Crane - however, Chloe has a secret agenda of her own.

Thursday April 27th 2017: Last Day of classes for the Spring Semester.

Friday April 28th 2017: Evening of the Faculty Dinner that Anna and William Slayne attend at Boston University. They are both professionals in the Archeology Department. Sunset is at 19:41. (7:41 pm). Anton is expecting his parents back around the 9 to 9:30 mark.

Chloe & Marcus are free to move around outside after 7:41 pm. They show up at his door at 20:30 (8:30 pm).

Anton is a 1st Year student (Freshman) at Boston University taking a double degree program in Archeology, & Languages (Ancient Greek, Latin, Aramaic & Sanskrit - Indo European), with a minor in Mathematics. He is on the BU Hockey and Basketball teams. 6’1” tall, highly athletic, 18 yo, going on 19. Born April 26 nnnn, he has just turned 18.

All action occurs over a single night.

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CHAPTER 2. Refuge from the Street

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Value Change: Starts -ve, Anton is alone and devastated by the horrific deaths of his parents. The world has become strange and alien, he is alone and frightened. Moves +ve, as Anton finds a home and a good friend in Gang Wu.

Begins Saturday April 29th 2017:

All action occurs over 5 days.

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CHAPTER 3. Two Discoveries

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Value Change: Starts +ve, as Anton finds a home and a good friend in Gang Wu. Moves -ve, as Anton, Gang and Li are discovered by James Haley. Chloe cements her alliance with Dalien Morte and she reads and memorizes the CODEX.

Begins Friday Night. 23:00, May 5th

All action occurs over a month.

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The task in February is to flesh out the eleven chapters composing the Mission Panopticon book.

March 2018 -> October 2018 inclusive:

[3] Give myself 8 months to write and polish The Day Guard. This will allow the following.

[3.1] An ARC read on goodreads for The Day Guard in November 2018.

[3.2] Publish The Day Guard on the 30th November 2018.

Looking further ahead.

December 2018, January 2019 - Complete detailed design of Book #6, The Crane War.

February 2019 - September 2019 - Write Book #5 Mission Panopticon.

October 2019 - ARC Read and Publish Book #5 Mission Panopticon.

The bottom line, I should be able to write and publish the next two books in a little less than two years.

My finalization of the design for The Day Guard, and detailed design for books #5 and #6 have produced an interesting result.

I'm consolidating book #5 (The Panopticon) and book #6 (The Crane War) into a single volume. They both work better as a combined book.

Both books are action fests (like the Dragon's Den) leading directly on from the dramatic finale of book #4, The Day Guard. There is a major turning point at the end of book #5, The Panopticon, but it is not as strong and dramatic as the ending of book #6, The Crane War, plus the action is a straight segue from The Panopticon to The Crane War.

As a combined book, I can deliver an extended action fest with a very dramatic finale that completes PART 2 of the Metaframe War series and leads directly into PART 3 of the series.

And the rationale for consolidation - it's a better book, than either of the books would be alone. My number one goal is to write the best book I can with every book I write.

The challenges will be, it's the longest book I've written, and I need to write it fast to maintain publishing tempo.

I accept that challenge.

Updated PLAN:

Book #4: The Day Guard: Publish November 2018.
Book #5: The Crane War: Publish December 2019.