Jason A. Cheek's Blog, page 18

A quick update on book two and stuff, always extra stuff with me

For those of you who have been asking, book two is coming along great. I believe I’ll have the story written out before the end of this year, but then we are talking Christmas Holidays, my wife’s family visiting and all that other fun. I’m hoping that the editing will only take a month or two, so that puts release sometime in February or early March. I wish it could be sooner, but sometimes that’s how it goes.

I just realized I’ll be sending an email to Leo Black to see if he can start working on the cover art now for book two. It’s on the complex side, so I want the time to tweak the specifics out with him and hopefully give him enough time to have the cover finished for my production date. The good thing is that I’ve done the whole “Amazon Publishing” before, so that should move along pretty fast. It’s just the editing that is my major concern, since it’s all volunteer help from the English teachers at my job who have offered to help.

One of the things I try to focus on is being centered and present every day. Normally this works out pretty good for me, but sometimes life’s issues can pull you down. At those times I unfortunately bring my “shit” home with me, which is bad all around. Stress is a mind fuck. Luckily, I’m pretty good at getting myself back on track. Work needs to be left at work, no matter how much there is to do.

I’ve been reading the “Foul Mouth” series from Richard Raley, super cool story and incredible writing. Don’t let the horrible cover work throw you off from picking the story up to check it out. It’s really worth the read. My Australian mate, Richard, told me about the series, and although he has great taste in books, the damn covers kept throwing me off. I finally read the series … or I’m reading the series, a new book every day. Yea they are that good.  

I’m not sure if anyone from the blog has joined the Winter Gaming group I posted about earlier. So far it’s been going well. I’ve been playing Tuesday’s and Thursday’s. I have a Paladin, of course, and a Death Knight on the server. Pally’s low level, the DK is mid level … names are Darknovia or Darkdealer, the Server is Hyjal. I’m still not the gamer I was before. I guess I have too much life I’m busy living. I remember how cool it was to explore the digital worlds I would play in and to see the areas many people never made it to and thinking how cool that was, why would I want to travel IRL? Yet now after traveling around the world, I have to say traveling IRL is pretty awesome. Either way I’ve been enjoying hanging out some within the digital world.

For those of you who have it, I hope you enjoy your day off for Veteran’s Day. Although this is an American Holiday, it’s really a day for those of us living to remember the sacrifices of those that laid their lives down so that the world could be a better place. Being ex-military and also with my current job, this day hits close to home for me, but I’m sure most of us have lost a loved one to war. It is a good of day to remember your loved ones and their sacrifice.    

One last thing I wanted to leave with you. My bud sent me this link: Patrick Rothfuss’ response to academic snobbery. For those of you who keep up with my blog you know how much I hate “academic snobbery” overall, just another type of bullying. Hope you enjoy. Now back to writing and listening to my Halo sound tracks =D

For some of us grammar / editing will always be an issue

No matter hard you try there are those of us that are great with catching grammar mistakes, and those of us that suck at catching grammar mistakes. For those of you new to my blog, I’m of the later group. Given enough time and resources I can do okay at corrections. Although practice helps, it doesn’t make those of us without the grammar correction gene perfect.

As a friend of my recently pointed out, I’m especially bad on nights where I wait to the last minute to write out my blog and post just before I crash past my bedtime. That’s just bad juju all around, which is why I’m starting to prepare my post a day early. Being tired and posting on your blog is almost as bad as drunken texting.

It helps to have friends that can go back over and read the stuff you’re writing, but even then things are missed. For my book I use http://ed.grammarly.com/editor/view and lots of friends help. For book two I have a couple English teachers that have offered to give me a hand with the editing. Think about your high school English teacher and her red marker pen. I’ll be thankful but feel like I’m sixteen all over again. I always find it interesting when reviewers question why a professional editor wasn’t used for a new Indy Writer’s work. Not that I don’t understand the question. It seems like an easy enough fix, but the price tag associated with a professional editor for an Indy Writer makes it very difficult to be able to afford in the beginning … or at all if your stories doesn’t attract enough readers.

I should probably use grammarly.com before I post to my blog. There free sample page is easy enough to use, I just need to start making the time to use it. I find myself more motivated to make the time after being called out by my friend yesterday though.

For now it seems like my weak point in my writing. I’ve had enough good reviews to feel confident enough in my writing skills and my general story creation abilities. Book two is coming alone great, and I feel like I have a good plan of action for the editing side. English Teachers red markers for the win =D

For those fellow writers just starting out, you can do the majority of this clean-up on your own with tools like grammarly.com and the blood, sweat and tears of going over your own work again and again with a fine tooth comb. You will re-read your story a good twenty to thirty times just trying to smooth out all of the rough edges and grammar issues, and then do it again after your friends help you with the mistakes that they find. Even then you’ll miss a bunch of stuff, that’s just the way it is. Hell, I’ve seen enough professional works with grammar issues through the novel. It’s just the way it is.

No matter how annoying and aggravating this part of publishing your own novel is, don’t skimp on this part. You’ll hate yourself once the negative grammar reviews start coming in. especially if your story is good, but you’re getting bashed for not having a professionally edited product.    

The Fun of updating my printed edition with amazon part two

So after going through the whole process of making the numerous corrections needed on my printed edition of Flight. I uploaded the new file to Amazon, which is where this current blog post beings. Unlike ebooks, I found out you can’t just update your current printed book copy that’s being distributed on Amazon. Instead you have to relist the new printed revision as if you were doing a newly published book.

After going through this process, in my opinion you might as well consider it a new book, whether or not it’s the same edition or not. The reason I say this is because of these things: First, you have to get a new ISBN or ASIN. Second, you have to completely re-create a new profile for the book as if it was a new novel. Third, the book now shows up on Amazon as a separate book. Fourth, even though the new book edition has the same name as your original book and it’s listed as the next edition, this doesn’t mean Amazon automatically removes the old version and just puts this book in its place. No, you have to ask Amazon to remove the first edition and make it no longer published. Lastly, you have to go through the process of getting all your reviews and listing properly setup once again.

This last part is tricky and much more complicated then I would have initially thought. The reviews for the first edition of your book are actually tied to the book itself. When Amazon unpublished the previous edition, all of the reviews that people left for that version of your novel are removed too. You have to ask Amazon to put back the reviews for your book, relist your new printed edition as the current paperback book and link it back with your ebook and audio book.

I learned this the hard way directly from Amazon when I realized my new edition wasn’t listed. Upon discussing this with their Service Desk the representative explained that I would have to have the first edition unpublished and said they would assist me with this process. Unfortunately this didn’t mean all of these little things were caught by the representative. I would have thought this would have been a built in process for setting up a new edition, but obviously this is not the case. Instead, I learned each of these parts while working with the Service Desk over the next two days.

Even now, four days later, I still only have 31 out of my 44 reviews being listed. I can’t even begin to tell you how frustrating that is. For those of you who don’t know, getting any reviews are hard and getting positive reviews are even harder. Most people who like a story buy the book and then say “Hey that was awesome, can’t wait for book two.” and then go on to the next book. A handful of people say, “Hey that book sucked and write a scathing review.”, while a very small handful say, “Hey that book was great, I’m going to let people know how much I enjoyed reading it.” So for us writers, these reviews, especially the good ones, are priceless. These reviews are not just priceless for the fact that it helps improve our writing and lets us know how we are doing. It also helps more people get interested in our books and encourages more readers to check us out, which in the end means more books get written =D        

While for many of us Indie Writers, the printed edition might not mean much, because we tend to sell so few in comparison to our ebooks and audio books. It does become an issue if we need to share our story with a news paper, professional reviewer or a friend that wants to buy our book as a gift for a friend or family member. Suddenly, that bad grammar edition that you fixed up six months ago is being share out in all of its unfinished and embarrassing glory. I discovered this firsthand when a couple friends said they wanted to buy my book as a gift for their husband or wife. All of a sudden that forgotten printed book takes on a whole new level of importance. Thankfully I had just received my second edition prints when a reporter from the Stars and Stripes asked for a copy of my novel for a story they were working on for local writers that support the troops.

Anyway, it’s very late and way past my bed time. Although before I call it a night I’ll share some pictures my wife took on Sunday.

Interesting research for writing the last quarter of book two, destiny

This week I spent a lot of time catching up to speed on military tactics and deployment for the United States and NATO so that the ending of Book 2 would be that much more accurate for the part of the story I’m writing about earth.  I don’t want to list any spoilers here, but I can say that I’ve been studying the make-up and deployment of US carrier strike groups, the make-up and deployment of the US Six Fleet, the various current carriers and other ships being deployed around the world, the carrier wings strike groups and their equipment, Seal Teams organization and deployment and the US Rangers. All of these things will be a part of the final story in book two and will precede through books three and four.

I’ve also have been bending my co-workers ear. Allen is an ex-tanker during the Afghanistan war who has been discussing different military slang and terminology. I have a bunch of this myself from my own time in the service, but it’s always good to catch up on the newest slang. Allen is recently out, while I’ve been out of the Army for quite a while. I need to give one other buddy of mine a call. He is ex-special forces, an incredible man that worked his way up from the lower ranks to retire as a Lieutenant Colonel. Looking at him you would never think he could kill you in fifty different ways and is a walking weapon. I haven’t Okayed it with him, but I’m stealing his character for book two…or at least my made up character that has been spiced up that is using his name. Hopefully he’ll say yes and let me use his name for the character. Otherwise I’ll just come up with another name, but still base it off of him.

I was also looking up some of the different gaming stories for some of the military interaction, but as I was checking out how the various popular video games have done their story lines, I was somewhat disappointed with the quality of the stories based on real military life. I’m shooting for somewhere in-between this idea of what people expect and the reality of military service.

Either way I’ve finally got all of the pieces mentally in place, the unit structures and organizations to make the military aspect sound believable and the main characters ready to go in my mind. All of this part of the Larissa Evan’s story line. One slight spoiler about this part of the story is … think of the movie “Stargate”.

Anyway, I’m really excited about writing this part of the story line and it’s been really interesting going over all of the information in regards to IRL fleet and unit deployments and movements. It just makes me that much more excited to write the story.      

Once again I apologize for the late post. I have a good month left of work hell to deal with the specifics of the move of my organization. The good thing is that I’m gaining two hours back to my day due to not having to drive so long, but it seems like I have no time during the day to think of anything else until I walk out the door to head home.

One Important way to improve your writing

This was recently a point that came to mind when my day job kicked into overdrive and I found myself putting in long hours every night for the last two weeks. Normally I write a little bit every night without fail, but this last two weeks it simply wasn’t possible to write when I came home. Mostly I just did a couple things to prepare for bed and then passed out. You’d think that two weeks of not writing wouldn’t be that big of a deal, but as I found out Monday night when I finally sat back to write I could feel the difference.

Similar to the three months I took to correct the grammar and editing issues of book one, Flight. In-between finishing up book one and beginning book two I had a hard time sitting down to begin the story up again. I kind of wished I hadn’t put so much focus on making the corrections to book one. It would have been better if I balanced my time between correcting the mistakes on book one and still writing a little bit every night on book two. Making corrections and tweaking paragraphs are not the same as creating new content. Another important point I wish I’d heard ahead of time, which is why I’m pointing that out here.

If you read any of the writers’ forums or many writer blogs you will hear 300 as being the magic number of words you should write every night. It might sound like a lot, but normally once you get into the groove that is an easy number to surpass. At least on most nights it is. Some nights I’ll be working on a specifically tough piece which takes me longer to put down on paper, but in many ways it’s a good measurement of what you should aim to do nightly. Generally if you follow the advice you’ll have your story finished one way or another.

Even though I spend a lot of time making sure I work on various aspects of the story line in my head while I’m driving, or stuck in traffic like I was yesterday for an extra hour on the way home. Everything you do ahead of time to plan out where you want the story to be going helps to keep in sync so that when you sit down you’re ready to actually put some words down on paper.

Tuesdays are supposed to be my World of Warcraft night. Although the Winter Gaming Group isn’t supposed to officially start up until November 17th or so, some of us from my work were playing ahead of time. After the last two weeks, to be honest all that I want to do is curl up with a cup of coffee, my furry blanket and a cup of coffee to get some good writing time in. 

Beware of writer's forums and listing your own works

Now let me preemptively state that I am sure there are good writing groups out there that have helped many new and experienced writers. Also, there is a lot of good information being bandied around on many forums that are super helpful to all writers, but I think any new writer needs to be very careful utilizing these resources.

Any new writer starting out to write lacks a certain amount of confidence in their abilities, which is quite normal. Unless you’re making millions and have a huge following these feelings of doubt and questioning your growing writing abilities is natural. Every writer I know looks upon their books online watching each and every review that comes in to get an idea of how their fans feel about their story and writing style hoping to get to that point where they can support themselves by doing what they love best, writing.

Forums would seem like a great place to put ourselves out there and get assistance from other struggling writers to learn the pitfalls of the whole industry. While this seems reasonable, this couldn’t be further from the truth. There are a lot of jealous people in the world. There are even more jealous people out there that do not want to see you succeed. Sometimes it’s as simple as they want to succeed in they think you’re in their way, while other times it’s a huge ego trip. There can’t be anyone better than them. Some people have spent years studying literature and writing style, but no matter how much they’ve studied, their writing isn’t very interesting. Not to mention the people who simply think they are the best or are self-proclaimed experts.

Completing the whole writing process is hard enough for any new writer, but one of the worst things that these people can do to you is make you question every aspect of your writing style and make you think that nothing you do is good enough. Before you know it they have stolen away your confidence by making you question everything you are trying to write. Before you know it you are more confused than ever before and are not one step closer to actually writing your own story.

Even worse than taking away your confidence and making you question every aspect of your writing style. These people can follow your online to where you are selling your book and give you negative reviews. I’m sure there are a million reasons as to why fellow Indie Writers do this to one another, but it’s pretty sad. Like rats drowning one another on a sinking ship. When Flight hit the #23rd place on Amazon’s Fantasy/Superhero list within the first three months I suddenly had four extremely negative reviews come in on that very first week. It hurt at first, it always does when you’re receiving your first negative reviews, but I couldn’t understand why it seemed like the readers were attacking my story and taking every little thing out of context in this page to page and a half long post. By the fourth one I can an epiphany and decided to check out their other reviews. Unsurprisingly they seemed to batch every new writer out there. I decided to do a search on these peoples’ names within Amazon and discovered that these people were fellow Indie Writers. Suddenly it all made since.

On the forums there are people who are not going to like your views or are going to be very angry that you dared to disagree with something that they posted. Some are just angry that you’re flooding the book market with something new that would block a reader from finding their own book, while others are simply afraid you might do better than them.

One of the common things to do on a forum is introduce yourself and your book. My own introduction to the forums was no different. If I had this to do all over again I would have never listed my book or changed my writing name so the anyone who didn’t like my opinions wouldn’t try to take it out on my novel’s reviews.

You might think than that I am totally against writing forums, but that is not the case. There are some very good people that you can meet and work together with online. I’m just saying to be very careful about exposing yourself, because it can also turn into a very bad experience with long reaching affects.

On a personal note, I just wanted to let you know I’m still neck deep in my regular 9 to 5 job. I hope this week will be better and I can keep the blog updates coming on time, either way I want to thank you for your patience and coming back to listen to my thoughts and personal experiences.

can your own story be influenced by what you're currently reading

This is an interesting topic I saw brought up a lot on the forums, that is, when I was doing forums. Since I published under my real name, I have since stopped participating in writers’ forums in general. I’ll have to post about some of my experiences within the writing forums and why I made this decision in another post, but for now I want to talk about the topic at hand.

I was surprised to see that there are a lot of writers who get pissy if you say: I don’t want to read that story yet because I’m afraid it will unduly influence my own writing style. To say it’s possible that if you’re reading something similar to what you’re currently writing that it might unduly influence your own writing style or story telling ability, is considered by many posters to on the forums to mean that you’re ignorant and/or a bad writer. For me I don’t see what it matters one way or another if you feel this way, but for many obviously it does mean something to many writers from the responses I’ve seen to this repeated topic on the web.    

For me, I am of the mind that if I’m writing something similar to what I’m reading, I do feel like it could unduly influence the formation of my own stories and scenes. Although I have my own particularly strong writing voice within my stories, most of my writing skills comes from reading my favorite authors throughout my life. Well between that and my own inner voice and logical thought process. Most of what I look at in digital art, play in computer games or read all merges into my own thoughts and dreams to help form my stories and plots lines. A good example of this for me is Game of Thrones. I was just starting to write the scenes with the Werewolves in Shadowfang’s Winter Heart when I started the first book of the series. Instantly upon the first couple chapters I felt myself struggling to picture the specific parts of the story as conflicting mental images of what I’d read earlier interrupted my thought process. It was too fresh in my thoughts to be writing something that was of that same magical archaic land in deep snow with large wolves. I stopped immediately and just stayed away from the series until I’d finished Flight.

 Now if you’re not one of those writers who have this problem, then good for you. Bravo for being able to keep your thoughts separate. At the same time, the rest of us do not need to hear any chortling about how awesome you are and how much the rest of us suck for this difference. It’s crazy what people bash each other for online. Don’t even get me started on the whole issue about using a word processor to write your story or not using a word processor. Heh, that sounds good for another blog post =D

 Anyway that doesn’t mean that after I finished the magical / archaic land part of my story I didn’t start checking out Game of Thrones, because I did. What a freaking incredible story line. For those who are fans check out the Youtube link below for Honest Trailers, Game of Thrones.

 Lastly, I’m still struggling to get any time to do much other than move my organizations two primary HQ buildings into its new location and continue keeping up my regular IT Support. This week I’m doing multiple fourteen hour days, if you count going into work when it’s dark and leaving work when it’s dark a day. Although this week is worse than normal, I’m still making time for writing and blogging. Anyway, until next time.

balancing out character strengths and weaknesses in your story

I came up with this title when I was playing some World of Warcraft after finishing up last week’s blog post. If you’re a gamer then this concept should be something you already know about, but for those writers who are not gamers. I think this is an important concept to digest. 

Although it sounds logical and intuitive to balance out the good and bad characters in your story, it’s really quite a difficult concept to achieve in practice. Massively Multiplayer Online Games or MMOG’s are constantly struggling with this concept. There are test players and forums that are constantly monitored to gauge the level of fairness and balance between classes within their games. Is a warrior with a sword strong enough to attack a frost mage, and visa versa ... can a frost mage take on a warrior. Are the fights challenging, but the possible outcomes almost equal? Is one class overpowered in comparison to another class? The time and money spent on these questions within the worlds of MMOG’s are humongous. It behooves you to take this into consideration within your own stories. 

If you have a very powerful main character like I do with Startüm Ironwolf in The Last Paladin Series, or like John Conroe does in The Demon Accord Series. You will always have people questioning if you’ve created an overpowered Mary Sue as one critic said in one of my reviews for Flight. I think John Conroe has done this very well within his series. His main character is truly one of the most powerful beings I’ve ever read about, well except for Superman who’s never been one of my favorite characters. I was always more of a Batman (Dark Knight) or Punisher fan, not that Startüm isn’t any pushover either. I bring John’s writing up in this blog along with my own, because he did such an incredible job creating such a fun awesome main character while still showing just how weak he is in different ways that are fun and interesting to the overall story and series, a great author to check out this type of balancing act.
 

Startüm Ironwolf in book one is very powerful, but still requires the help of the regular humans and his class of women Ukkodians (His female harem as some critics have called them.) to overcome his enemies. At the end of the story Startüm would have been overcome if these supporting characters hadn’t fought for their lives next to him. Also, a part of my show of Startüm’s amazing powers was to prepare the readers for what is to come within the future of the series. As Paladins go in Irlendria, Startüm is actually on the weak side in many ways and the enemies he must yet face are unbelievably powerful. At the same time, within Book One of the Last Paladin Series I did my best to keep Startüm’s growing use of power within line of the enemies he needed to face. A good example of this was the Loviatar Clerics he had to face. Each Cleric roughly followed the D&D / MMOG flavor of a traditional evil Cleric. Their spells and abilities were similar, but still slightly different at how they cast their spells. Startüm’s abilities followed along the lines of what you would see if you were playing a typical Paladin in any of these mediums, but at the same time I gifted him with extra special abilities if he prayed to his deity for help. Again, I tried to keep the flow and use of power based within the rules I’d formed for my world. A good example of this is when Startüm is fighting to break out through the circle of power one of the evil clerics had trapped him in. Alone he couldn’t break through the circle of power, since it completely cut him off from his deity and drawing in power from the world around him. Yet, the way Startüm survived this was by realizing he was standing atop a gateway to another world. By reaching through the natural gateway that he came through into the trap, he was able to pull in enough power via Ukko to break the trap that had been sprung on him. 

There are many ways to work on this balance of powers between your good and evil characters. The main thing I wanted to point out fellow writers was thinking out this balance ahead of time. Having a powerful main character is not a crime. There are millions of readers who love these types of heroic characters, but at the same time showing their weaknesses and having them still overcome the evil that they must face is what makes the story so enjoyable to read. 

My IRL work has become overwhelming as my entire organization moves to their new location. Henceforth my time to reply to friends and fans or even to keep my blog up to date has suffered somewhat. I just wanted to thank everyone for their patience. Things will get back to normal soon enough. 

Thoughts on creating your own magic system

Late again with posting, but the only excuse I have is Columbus Day! I chilled out, watched Wolverine X-Men for a second time and just relaxed for the day while writing on and off.

A couple months ago a bud of mine sent me a link on “Magic Systems with Rothfuss, Butcher, Wells, Cole, Sykes, Blackmoore - Phoenix Comicon 2014”. You can find the link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9H7N... (It's the same link attached below too.) Before you click on the link let me warn you. Although this is a really great clip with some really useful information, watching it messed me up in all kinds of ways for about two weeks before I got my head straight once again on my own magic system in The Last Paladin Series. 

I really found a lot of what Jim Butcher was saying in this very interesting, which compared to everyone else on the panel wasn’t much. For me the most important thing he noted was how magic was done in Lord of The Rings. How you knew Gandalf was a wizard and that he worked magic, but there was an unknown quality to his actual skills and abilities. It’s on this topic I would like to expound on in today’s blog. Another consistent topic from each of the panelists that I thought was extremely important was that whatever it is you choose for a magic system, make sure you consistently apply it throughout your story.

I noticed that Jim Butcher in his Dresden Series follows some rules for general magic use in some regards, while each wizard is unique in their own skills and talents that make magic … well magical. It’s not 100% spelled out. You have an understanding of the general rules the world and magic follows, but there is some wiggle room … some play that Jim uses within his stories that in the end fit the magic system in place, or at least doesn’t go against it. I forget the specific book in the series, but I remember the warden wars against the vampires that each wizard was distinctly different. It was all explainable within the rules Jim had created for his world, but at the same time that slight looseness with the magic system allowed an element of surprise that fits, in my mind, the feel of magic. 

If I think back to many of the stories I read, even the D&D stories. They’ve operated magic in this duel perspective. In one way you think you know the skills of the character and the rules of the world, while in another there is a certain looseness that works within the worlds rules. The interesting part of the D&D universe is that many of the clerics, shamans and wizards have specific rules laid out for each class, which are used as guidelines. Yet within the story the authors creates flexibility within the magic system that is more living and realistic. Instead of saying that a wizard can caste ‘magic missiles’ four times in a day, you focus on the energy output of the character or the exhaustion from using their magic. Maybe they can squeeze out another spell and collapse or maybe they’re just wiped out. The rules that you make for your world should advance your story, not restrict your story. You’re not creating a gaming system, you’re creating a story and world that supports the story that you want to tell. 

In many ways this refers back to my last blog post about world building and planning out your story. Don’t get too caught up in the details of your world that you stop writing or that those rules bog your story down to the point that it interferes with the story you’re telling. 

Again, just my two cents of my own explorations in creating a magic system for my own series. I borrowed heavy on traditional concepts of Paladins and Clerics. Traditional being D&D, computer games like World of Warcraft, Rift, Everquest, The Elder Scrolls, Guild Wars, Lineage and etc. They all build on the general concepts of these old D&D stereotypes, which I think is a good place to start on formulating any magic system. Although I’m not saying don’t create something entirely new. There are some amazing writers who do this. I’m just saying, whatever you do. Give it your own twist and keep it consistent in your world, leave a little flexibility for it to feel natural and real, but most importantly make sure it gives you the room to tell your amazing story.    

Writing snobs, writing styles and using an outline for your story

Don’t even ask me about how I came up with the title for today’s post. All these things just came up when I started trying to discuss the topic of outlining a story.

I am probably one of the most unconventional conventional writers you’ve ever met, which doesn’t exactly surprise me as much as it does other people. I say this because of several reasons. First, when I started writing I didn’t consider all of the ways a professional educated writer would begin to look at their novel. Instead I used the authors I loved and my own logical mind as to learn the craft of writing. Second, after finishing my first novel, I discovered there were major discussions on writing techniques and styles that I simply never concerned myself with one way or another. I mean, why should I? I was too busy simply writing. Third, once I finished my story and had the whole series outlined. I realized I had learned many of the concepts and points many professional writers used just by teaching myself from the great examples of the Science Fiction and Fantasy that I’ve read throughout my life. Lastly, the reason this was unsurprising to me is that it’s how I’ve lived much of my life.

Even in today’s day and age, there are many professions you can teach yourself and become extremely good that people will hire you to do the job. Since having the ability to do the work well will win out over your lack of traditional education. I’m not saying that this is preferred method of getting ahead in the world. There will always be people who traversed the traditional route to learn a profession that will give you a hard time or that you will always be competing against. I’m just saying the option is there and that it is possible. Although, it might not be for everyone and it still requires an unbelievable amount of work. Nothing worthwhile comes free. I believe if you truly want something, put the effort into mastering it and believe in yourself, there is nothing you cannot do.

Anyway, back to writing stuff. There are so many does and don’ts when it comes to talking to other writers and a whole slew of acronyms most people who have studied the art of writing like to bandy around to show how educated they are. It can be quite intimidating as a new writer and make you feel like somehow you are not up to the task of writing a good story that people would love to read. Many of these self-proclaimed experts have numerous discussions on the fact that no matter how enjoyable your story is, if it’s not written to a certain “writing caliber” then it can never be good. Some of these people even believe that if you’ve never completed a literary doctorate then you shouldn’t even be allowed to self-publish. Amazingly enough they loved to bash writers like J. K. Rowling, Stephenie Meyer & Jim Butcher for their terrible writing, which is something that just blows my mind.

I’d just like to say, don’t get caught up in that hype. I believe the most important things to write are things like: Can you tell a story? Can you hold the reader’s interest? Is the story so good you can’t put the book down until you’ve finished? Don’t get me wrong, there is a bunch more to that list, but if I were going to distill the list of what I look for when I’m looking for a good book to read, these are the things I look for. I would say it’s what most of us look for when we are looking for a new book.

During my time diving into the world of creative writing and various I was surprised initially to discover there are writers who outline their stories and writers that free flow their stories without any outline. While, I’m sure there are many good writers that can “free flow” their thoughts and ideas. I’m not one of them. Also, I would even go as far to say that if you’re teaching yourself to write this would be the last thing I would recommend trying. At the same time, I don’t believe in planning/outlining a story to the Nth degree. Again I’m sure for some people that Nth degree worth of planning is very useful and helpful, but it can take many people completely out of writing as they get lost in the detail.

I really believe there needs to be an approach taken somewhere in the middle. This middle will be very different for each author, but none the less there is this give and take.

When I’m writing, I create a general concept of the story itself and where I want it to go. If you’re just starting out you’ll probably thing this is hard as hell and you don’t have enough stuff to write about, but once you start talking about your characters, their thoughts, what drives them, the world they live in, what’s happening to them and where they are going. Suddenly you have quite an impressive story. I’m a firm believer in creating an Outline for your story, because it helps keep you on track. It helps you have a goal in mind as to where your characters are going so that you can keep them and your writing on track. Without this Outline, it’s easy to wander and ramble and lose your focus. Before you know it you have all kinds of extraneous stuff that doesn’t help progress the story in anyway and just chunks everything up.

Think of this as a 30,000 ft perspective, if you’re trying to relate it to business. Just like in business, if you stay at the 30,000 ft perspective you never succeed. You also have to get down into the weeds and do the dirty work of writing. This is the time I tend to make detailed mini-plans and free-flow the parts of the story I’m working. Sometimes I can picture the scene exactly in my head and sometimes it comes to me as I’m writing it down on the paper, but always I have that 30,000 ft perspective of where I’m going that keeps me on track. In this way you get the best of both worlds.

One last note on writing that doesn’t exactly pertain to Outlining your story, but is important for your writing. If you create a character that you name and describe. Keep notes on them. Create a character sheet or something. Anytime you talk about someone’s hair color, eye color or where they are from. Make sure you document that information somewhere.  Sometimes characters that you introduce as a throw away character sometimes takes on a life of their own and becomes a bigger part of the story. If you’ve documented this information in your notes, it will save you going back to remember what you said in some previous chapter or book.

Anyway, that’s it for tonight. Sorry for posting late, but I’m probably not going to be fully back online functioning at 100% until the beginning of next week. Or even not until November 17th. The main stuff involved with my “move” to Kaiserslautern should be finished up by Monday, but my organization’s move won’t be finished until November 17th, so I’ll be driving back and forth between my Wiesbaden office and my new house for a good month and a half. Still, just having my personal move completed is a huge load off my mind and frees me up to get back to finishing up Destiny!