Tag Archives: plot development

Update – All but Done.

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Yes, I am still here – I owe you guys an update on my progress with The Bastard Line, book three in the Khekarian series – My humble apologies for having been away so long, many things have happened in my life, but for now I will report solely on the manuscript you have been waiting for.

The slash-and-burn process is over and out of the way (thank goodness). No more chopping and changing, no more starting over or chopping things in half or reshaping the book. All the major pieces are in place and so is the flow, the character development is great, the story holds together very well and – best of all – I LIKE IT.

Finishing touches are going in place and needed polishing is being done (albeit heavily in some places). Yet to come is the stand-back-and-see-what-it-looks-like-to-a-reader, the read-through. My Beta-reader has been standing by for ages and is eager to get into it. He won’t have to wait long… and neither will you.

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Tippy-tap, tippy-tap.

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Nose down, rear up, tippy-tap, tippy-tap – Yes I’m at the computer and typing like mad – Just letting you know I’m alive and well and still making progress although it must seem to some as though “nothing is happening”.

I’ve had to push through a few barriers and re-size The Bastard Line (Book Three of the Khekarian series) – twice! This is on top of the life-upheavals we’re still going through, although progress is happening there too (resettling into a new location interstate takes longer when doing it one partner at a time).

Once again my apologies to all for keeping you waiting, it was never my intention. While I would love to blog more regularly, my best bet at the moment is to remain locked into my work until the book is done. The best I can do is pop in occasionally to let everyone know I’m still here, still working and supply a publishing date when I know what it is!

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Unintended Delays.

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I suddenly realized that I have been subconsciously delaying posting until I could deliver a publishing date for my third book in the Khekarian series, The Bastard Line, with the unfortunate result is that nothing is being posted at all, and that – once again – it looks as though I have fallen off the edge of the planet or given up or something.

Nothing could be further than the truth. It is true my world is currently still unsettled with an interstate move largely sorted but a house still to sell and an enforced separation to endure until the sale goes through. Added to the early delays that robbed me of six months of writing, the overall setback to this book is something I admit to being quite uncomfortable with. Nevertheless, work is progressing with most of the book finished, so really it shouldn’t be long now.

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Yes, I’m creating where it counts.

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Just letting you all know that I have NOT run out of steam, I have NOT run out of inspiration nor imagination nor creativity – the (albeit lengthy) delays in getting book 3 of the Khekarian series completed and published has nothing to do with lack of willpower or energy but everything to do with the circumstances that cropped up during this last year, including moving house interstate.

With the manuscript itself, there were some early issues, all successfully dealt with now. I am currently writing my fingers to the bone and I’m heading towards the final run.

So, please forgive me for not blogging and chatting which I said and believe I would do, but I really want to see this book completed and to be free to start on the next one.

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Sometimes it’s good to know you aren’t alone.

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If you’re a writer, you know it isn’t all play and sunshine, you know that following your dream is not always easy and that your efforts are rarely recognized for what they are.

Those nearest and dearest to you know that you are aiming high, but fail to grasp the sheer size of the journey. Sometimes it seems they are not with you at all.

A massive amount goes into writing a book. It’s not enough just to come up with a plot and characters enough to fill it. There’s an huge amount of understanding necessary for each character and research to do on every angle and profession. Your plot, your characters and their actions must be based in truth for them to come across as realistic and believable.

You have to understand the human animal too, and not just from your own perspective. You have to be in the heads of everybody you write about, villain and hero alike. You have to understand psychology and (depending on the nature of your villain) criminal psychology as well. You have to “be” the police officer, the psychopath, the thief and the victim. You have to understand immense fear or immense loss. Gain too – joy, excitement and love so grand your heart wants to burst. You have to understand adventure and the thrill of danger.

But that’s only part of it. You not only must put that all together and make a story out of it but put it together in such a way that it sings and shines and sweeps your readers up into a world that makes them forget all else, even if just for a time.

So, a very important part of being a writer is learning to be artistic with your words, with pacing and the weave of your story. You want to build pictures in the minds of your readers so that they easily and effortlessly fall under your spell and see what you see and live where you live in the finished result. You not only want to lure them into the world your have crafted, you want them to want to stay there. That’s important! Anyone can put a book down, you want them not to want to put your book down!

Understandably, that mastery over the translation of your mind’s landscape and adventures into words and images your readers can enjoy is the biggest and most important part of your craft.

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A Glut of Characters – Ah, so that’s what I was doing.

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Too much too soon, as it turns out. Yes, I know I’m late with Book 3 and this post by no means excuses that, I’m just letting you know Why and What and where I am currently in the Khekarian sci-fi series.

Each book in the series is a stand alone book, with a beginning, a middle and, most importantly, an ending – a conclusion. At the same time, the background story continues to roll on, so parts of the story move forward or the series would not mesh into a whole.

Each of my books contains two main threads, often split into further threads, but in the main there are two stories interwoven. I think of each as a double book (certainly each are thick enough at 500-600 pages).

Book 3 of the Khekarian series, The Bastard Line, continues the overall story, running two stories side-by-side. One of the threads, however, I had in mind to contain more of the story than it should. That notion needed the addition of other characters and other stories to reach that particular conclusion, and this led me into an area where I was, in effect, trying to write two books (four books?) as one and squash way too much in.

That’s where I got mired. Not so much a tangle as a glut of characters and small stories that needed sorting because, as it was, everyone would get mired!

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Writing – The Pause and the Pooling of Energy.

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It comes, it goes – No writer can keep an uninterrupted flow of creativity and production throughout their career – it just doesn’t happen, even the most prolific writers have down-time.

Yet, while those down-times hurt (and every writer hates them – it’s like being in a cell), the pause actually refreshes. It’s like a body taking breath. The creative energy, having been spent on our last bout of writing, has to pool again and revitalize us. The pause, therefore, exists while the process of reenergizing takes place. It’s a good thing. Just as we need to rest our bodies, we need to rest our creativity too. It makes sense.

When the upswing happens and ideas start to fire up the imagination and excitement, well, we’re away again, off and running and happy and full of life. At it’s fullest, we can’t keep up with the flow – so many good ideas all coming at once. Not only are the ideas great, actually capturing them in written form is wonderful too. Our talent shines.

Ever realize that last down-time enabled all the good that flows afterwards?

Maybe that’s something to think about.

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Ah! Found! The Missing Ingredient!

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I knew there was something missing from my manuscript, it’s been a major stumbling block for best part of 15 months – with so much happening in my life this past year or so, I was blaming that.

So, what was missing? I’m embarrassed to say! Moods and emotions are a strong point with me, I write in a way that lets you get to know my characters well. You know and understand what makes them tick.

So what the heck happened? Action happened. I got so tied up in the action that I had neglected to spell out the driving force behind it.

All this time I was poking it with a stick trying to get it to move and wondering what was lacking… Grrr… (I know, I think I’ll blame everything that’s been happening in my life for the past year or so…) 😀

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Writing and a Universe with a Sense of Humor.

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What is it about writers? Take them away from their computers, their notepads and pens, isolate them from their work and – whammo – inspiration will hit every time.

It will be urgent. Words will flow with perfection. The writer will turn to their inner blackboards and capture their prose there, only the mental blackboard really is too small and fills up all too quickly. They’ll run through several of those, then turn to other means, other methods, finally resorting to etching words into their arms and/or legs with anything sharp to hand – fingernails, sticks – anything.

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Bare Bones Will Not Do It – Dang, I have to look into the Future!

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I need to look ahead – Yes, it’s like that – Something that happens in Book 3 of my science fiction series gives rise to something monumental in Book 5, or possibly 6, which is two or so along and likely to be the last in this particular series, although not the last from the Khekarian/Chiddran and Terran Galaxy (that structure and interplay is far too grand, and fun, to abandon after only five or six books).

Point is, the knowledge of this link between stories is not enough. I need to know the details of where this goes and, from the other end (the future), what information is needed from this end (the present) to make it workable and sound.

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