Dan Wells's Blog, page 23

Writing a short story: part 6

I had intended for the "traveling" section of the story to be a series of small vignettes, possibly showing the group tracking the necromancer through the wilderness, and focusing on the idea that nobody trusts Silas. Instead I found myself going a completely different direction in which Silas is trying to redeem himself and his brother, Jacob, is the one nobody trusts. It was unexpected, but much better.

Part of the change comes from my friend Eric, who remarked on my last post that I could s...

The Mr. Monster Tour

As you may or may not be aware, I've got a book coming out in about five weeks, and we're already gearing up for the attack. My tour for this book will be both longer and more fractured than the last one, with more locations in more cities spread across a much longer period, giving me time to go home and be a father for a few days in between events. We're also hitting a much wider variety of places, including a spearhead into the midwest, but at the expense of losing a few West Coast...

BC Woods, you're as good as dead

Saturday was the Writing for Charity event, and it went really well–attendance was up from last year, there were a ton of authors, and everyone had a good time. The silent auction was an especially big success, but what gratified me more than anything was the extensive work done behind the scenes to make the charity money stretch as far as it possibly could. The organizers, all of them 100% volunteer, did some pretty amazing stuff.

Here's the deal: our goal was to give books to each and every ...

Writing a short story: part 5

I'm on page 30, and about halfway through, so I think my estimate of 60 pages is going to be pretty accurate. My initial breakdown of those pages, however, was off. I thought that 30 would be the end of the necromancer attack, but some edits to the early pages (cutting out needless explanation, streamlining narrative, etc.) gave me some extra room, and fit the whole scene where they plan their posse into the vacated pages. Note that this was not my intention–I wasn't trying to reach page 30 a...

Writing a short story: part 4

I had great progress on the story yesterday, adding around 2500 words (and shaving two pages off what I had previously written). The story is now at the halfway mark, which actually comes right before the midpoint—since the second plot turn is essentially a moment of decision, rather than a scene unto itself, it just going to be folded into the finale. That means:

First Half: meet the characters, set the scene, introduce the conflict and villain.
Second Half: craft plan to defeat villain, plan ...

Writing a Short Story: Part 3

Let's start with a quick link to an interview I did with Fantasy Book Critic. It has some interesting background stuff, like my favorite authors and writing influences, but the thing you'll really want to read are the hints for I Don't Want to Kill You, the third John Cleaver book which comes out next Spring.

And now let's talk about short story writing. Yesterday I finally had a chance to start work on The Mountain of the Lord, the "Mormons and Monsters" short story I talked about here and

Writing for Charity

The Writing for Charity event I've talked about before is coming up this weekend, so if you're in Utah and want some hands-on writing advice from a group of internationally published writers and illustrators, with 100% of the proceeds going to buy books for underprivileged kids, sign up now!

Our goal is to give a book to every child in at least ten Utah schools, which will probably come out to around 6000 books. These will be signed and, where possible, hand-delivered. The books to be given...

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

A few years ago Edgar Wright created one of the most brilliant movies I've ever seen, combining horror, humor, social commentary, and surprising character depth in Shaun of the Dead. It's one of my very favorite movies, and I sat through most of it with my jaw on the floor, waiting for him to step wrong and being joyfully surprised over and over when every step was not only right, but better than I expected. Shaun's morning walk to the local store; Shaun fighting off zombies with his record c...

Blowing Up the Death Star

Star Wars is one of the most popular IPs of all time, IP in this case referring to "Intellectual Property." An intellectual property is a setting or story or character (or, more often than not, all three) that defines a certain world. Twilight is an IP, Harry Potter is an IP, the half-written story in the dusty corners of your hard drive is an IP–they are sets of created material that can be used and expanded to create other material. The Star Wars IP started with movies but has extended...

The State of the Danion Address

Let's take stock:

Extreme Makeover: Apocalypse Edition

I'm halfway through this book, which I love, and yet it is weird and long and vastly, wildly unrelated to my previously published books. It will take the rest of the year to finish, and there's no guarantee I can sell it to anyone.

Project X
This is going very well; I spent today revising it, and can now send it in for review (pending my agent's seal of approval, though so far she likes this even more than I do, so I don't imagine that will ...