The Problems of Story

 We love to write.  The creative juices start flowing and a world comes a live.  Characters become more then words, you can see yourself in the places they are, the situations they find themselves in.  You want to follow the story and see what happens.  It's all a wonderful feeling.  The problem with this is that once you head down a path, you are kinda stuck if you publish one book at a time.  So here are a few ideas I might suggest.

1) Before you publish that first book you know is going to be a series, at least have an outline of the whole series.  Better yet, finish them all then publish one at a time.  Either way, you  have exactly where you want to go and not where the book leads you.

2) By  having at least an outline you can weave stuff in.  I dislike when books or tv shows try to say person A really did love person B without any back ground to back that up.  Or where did that bad guy come from and do they really have a reason to be the bad guy.  As I wrote my following three books, I had to go back and weave in some details because I came up with some good ideas as I went.  That isn't bad, just you have to make sure it works.

3) Have someone else check to make sure it all makes sense.  This really goes with some one editing your book, but if you just have a friend read through it you can ask them to be brutally honest on if it flows.  It might hurt to hear some of their critiques, but it will help you be a better writer.

Happy Writing.

Story Pathways

 If you write, which I'm guessing you do, sometimes your thoughts wander from where you planned.  In this case, it's story ideas.  As I was writing my High King's Sword, (I'm hoping my cover artist can stop being a pre-vet student for a few minutes and whip me a couple covers out so I can publish the last 3 soon!), I would get ideas for side stories or full blown series.  My biggest side trek was taking a story I'd made about Noshi into a better story and a series, but I wanted to finish my High King's Sword first.  So here is an idea to not lose that spark.

1) Notebooks.  Okay, spirals, google docs, Word, what ever works for you, but write down your thoughts before they wonder away.  There has been times I will be traveling to my mother and mother-in-law's and think of great ideas, but I often forget them by the time I get there.  If I don't forget, I have a spiral to jot down my idea to add to my growing idea list.

2) Feel free to take a break from your main story.  Sometimes you get stuck and need a change of venue. There were a few times I just couldn't figure out where to go with the Sword or I couldn't edit anymore and I needed to do something new.  A little writing isn't bad on a different project.  It might even get your creative juices flowing again.

3) Feel free to scrap the idea.  I know I've jotted down a lot of ideas that will never go anywhere, but getting them out or down helps clear your mind to get on to the projects you really want to do.

4) This works for roleplaying campaigns, as well. Say you have a main campaign going on, but you think of a side adventure or even a new campaign idea.  Write them down.  Even a good, long term campaign might need a break now and again. And you might be able to work the ideas into your main campaign.

Happy Writing.