What Happens Before the Writing Starts?

Short answer: nothing visible to the human eye.

Right now I'm working on the sequel to 'Star Cruise: Stowaway', which is my novella in the Pets In Space anthology. (Oh yes, you'll see those buy links for PETS at the bottom but hey, we are supporting a charity which provides service dogs for veterans.)

When I was writing Stowaway, I had an idea for a sequel, so I built in a hook - the heroine has a sister who's in big trouble. If you've read the novella, you know what I'm alluding to! No spoilers here. After I finished my next novel, the long awaited sequel to Wreck of the Nebula Dream (hopefully out in November), and sent it to my editor, I took a few days off to clear my head for commencing a new project. I wrote a lot of blog posts, read a few books by other people and played around on social media.

Slowly but surely I start to feel myself becoming grumpy that I'm not writing my own next story.By whatever process my subconscious (AKA my Muse) delivers my books to me, I know the heroine, the hero, the overall situation, the opening, the ending and a few key scenes.

I sit myself down at my great-grandmother's desk, pet the cat while my laptop boots up, open WORD to a fresh new document and start typing.

TA DA! The process revealed. I don't plot, I don't outline, I don't do anything else before I start writing. In the old days when I had a long commute to the day job, I used to think about my plots while driving and listening to music, mostly to pass the time. And while keeping an eye out for the other drivers on the crazy SoCal freeways.

Now as the writing progresses, there may be times I sit and noodle on a lavender legal pad, and think about some plot options, choices the characters might make and how they'd play out in terms of the story. I've adapted a root cause analysis technique I learned at NASA/JPL, kind of reverse engineered it and it works every time to show me where I really want to go when I've hit a thorny spot in my story.

When I'm writing a novel set in ancient Egypt (my other genre), I stop and do research on various things.

But before the writing starts? Nada.

Total pantster here, but it works for me. and since I'm independently published, I don't have to write an outline or a synopsis ahead of time to 'sell'. I don't have to live up to an agreement to write three books set in the quaint village on the nice planet where X, Y and Z will happen. I suspect I'd be TERRIBLE at any or all of that! I like being a free spirit and am grateful the current publishing environment lets me get away with it. As long as my readers are happy, which they seem to be, I'm good.

So about Pets In Space.... (we do have over 50 four and five star reviews):

Even an alien needs a pet…

Join the adventure as nine pet loving sci-fi romance authors take you out of this world and pull you into their action-packed stories filled with suspense, laughter, and romance. The alien pets have an agenda that will capture the hearts of those they touch. Follow along as they work side by side to help stop a genetically-engineered creature from destroying the Earth to finding a lost dragon; life is never the same after their pets decide to get involved. Can the animals win the day or will the stars shine just a little less brightly?
New York Times, USA TODAY, Award Winning, and Best selling authors have eight original, never-released stories and one expanded story giving readers nine amazing adventures that will capture your imagination and help a worthy charity. Come join us as we take you on nine amazing adventures that will change the way you look at your pet!

10% of profits from the first month go to Hero-Dogs.org. Hero Dogs raises and trains service dogs and places them free of charge with US Veterans to improve quality of life and restore independence.

About Star Cruise: Stowaway:
Cargo Master Owen Embersson is shocked when the Nebula Zephyr’s ship’s cat and her alien sidekick, Midorri, alert him to the presence of a stowaway. He has no idea of the dangerous complications to come – nor does he anticipate falling hard for the woman whose life he now holds in his hands. Life aboard the Nebula Zephyr has just become more interesting – and deadly.

Buy Links:

iBooks    Amazon    ARe     Nook      GooglePlay     Kobo

The Four Steps to Starting

There are four stages of starting anything. I'd tack "for me" onto the end of that, but since I'm writing this, I'm gonna go ahead and assume you've worked that part out already.

Step 1. Boredom

This is how the whole story telling thing began for me - long stretches of silence with nothing to do while tucked into the backseat of a car while the family drove from one military posting to another. Long stretches of highway, watching the scenery go by, imaging what went on in the forests or in the towns behind the facades of houses and businesses. Eventually, I liked the stories playing in my head enough to write them down. Once that happened, I could be bored anywhere and come up with a story idea. Usually as snippets of dialog. Angsty, drama-ridden dialog, but you have to start somewhere, right?

Step 2. Names and Situation

This is my proof of concept step. From angst and drama, I have to come up with a compelling situation - the background, the world, the people, and a general sense of how the story might begin and how it might end. Ish. I need only a general notion. This, for me, is no time for detail. Lots of note taking and journaling happens at this step. I play a lot of 'what if' games. But one thing is certain, without character names, I'm dead in the water. The protagonists must step forward and identify themselves. This is where I need characters to develop the beginnings of voice - this is the illusion that these people actually live and breathe and have wills of their own outside of my imagination. This is the point that the monster has to rise from my laboratory table and either go forth to wreak havoc or collapse in a mass of stitched together body parts that are all going to have to be burned before they start stinking up the place.

Step 3. Character, Character, Character

Once I have a general notion of a story and some character names, it's time to dive deep, and for me, everything comes from character. Everything. The plot, the conflict, black moment, and the climax. I spend about a week working my way through Mary Buckham's Break Into Fiction templates for all of my major characters. Protagonist(s) and antagonist at the very least. If it's a romance, I'll work through hero and heroine. This step also serves as my initial immersion point for the story - meaning that at this stage, I'm spending several hours a day buried in questions about who my characters are, why they are who they are and what they believe they know about themselves but have totally wrong. This is where conflict is born for my stories. It's also where scene lists begin building. If you're writing genre fiction, you have to build scenes that challenge your protagonists' assumptions about themselves and motivate them into change (there's your character arc). If you're writing literary fiction, your scenes will rub a character's nose in his or her faulty assumptions, but not force the character to change, though he or she may come to comprehend his or her faults.

Step 4. Word Count

This is the point at which there are no more excuses. Armed with a few markers (I usually know how a story opens and I have a soft grip on how it might end - everything else is a blur) and with a pretty good understanding of my characters and what drives them, I can start making tracks. The form of my story is still vague. I'm usually flying blind once I get past the first few opening scenes, but with my character's templates filled out, I have guideposts to keep me pursuing their goals and challenging their weaknesses even if I don't know exactly what happens in the middle of the book.

That's my summary of 'how to begin'. Do you follow any kind of pattern for starting something? What I'm curious about is how plot-driven writers approach starting a book. (As opposed to a character-driven writer.)

Perils of the Writer: Gearing Up To Start A Novel

Some of you out there might be planning to participate in NaNoWriMo: National Novel Writing Month.  Good on you.  It isn't something for me, in part because the pace demanded doesn't match my ideal writing pace, and in part because, for me, every month is Novel Writing Month.  My current schedule, my current system... it really doesn't allow me much breathing room between projects.  

I've compared writing a novel to running a marathon, but that's not right.  It's going on an expedition.  You're going to trek out there and do some serious Lewis and Clark level stuff to get from staring at a blank page to "Hey, I wrote a book!"  And if you were to cross to the Pacific or climb Everest or reach the south pole, you wouldn't just strap your shoes on and start walking and find out what happens.

No, you're going to do some prep work.  You're going to get yourself supplied.  What does that look like for this expedition?

Here's my checklist:

• Worldbuilding:  At this point, for all the Maradaine books, this is more or less done, but each book will probably have some additional element to investigate or deepen.  In An Import of Intrigue, that meant figuring out the street-level of The Little East in finer detail.  
• Outlines, Spreadsheets and Timetables: With three (or four) interconnected series in the same city, there's a lot of moving parts, and a lot of keeping track of what happens when, and how that has repercussions elsewhere.  My outlines have a structure that have served me well, and in addition to writing on Scrivener, I've been playing with Scapple (from the fine people who made Scrivener) and Aeon Timeline.  Both fine programs I recommend for free-form thinking and laying out timelines, respectively.
• Character Work: Every book, at the outset, has a Dramatis Personae, and this file gets updated over the course of the work, as new characters show up who weren't intended in the original outline.  Sometimes minor, and those minor characters blow up as the series progress.  Also part of my process is getting myself a visual reference for the character in my head.  So I create a facepage of the main characters, digging through actor headshots (here's a good source) to find people who look like the characters I imagine.
• Playlist: I don't do too much of this, but I do try to find some music that fits the mood of the book I'm about to write.

All this reminds me, I've got to get moving on finalizing the prep work for A Parliament of Bodies in the near future.  And you've probably got some work to do, also.  Get on that.

In the Beginning...

Today I want to talk about pre-production of the writing process.

First comes coffee. Period.

 It must be Millstone Chocolate Velvet coffee. It must be properly adjusted with cream and flavoring, and it must be served in a.) the Star Trek mug above, or b.) the Maleficient mug below. Without the adjustment or if served not in the proper mug, the coffee cannot be drunk. If served improperly, whipped cream and purple sugar sprinkles must be added to the top as a measure of penance. Oh, who am I kidding. I add the topping for the Hell of it.

For me, after the required coffee provisions are met, if there's a new seed and new work at hand, then before I get into the bulk of the writing the whiteboards and planning come into play, followed by reading.

It starts in my head with that seed of an idea. When it starts to root, it goes to the whiteboard. Here that nifty scheme gets explored and refined. In the case of Seph books, I'll research what has come before that is primarily relevant to this story and make notes, draw lines, use colors and make it interesting to look at because, hey, yeah, the artsy shit in my head doesn't turn off.

Once the appropriate connections seem made, I start plotting. Might be a few beats like the points on a W plot frame. You know, two triggers leading two turning points before the resolution. Easy, right.


Whew, we needed that laugh, you and I, didn't we? Yeah. Writing a book is never easy. But starting a plot can be as simple as five sentences.

Examples:

Point 1.) Due to feisty droids, Luke meets Ben.
Neo's at work one day, gets a weird package, and a weirder call.
Harry finds out he's a wizard, is sent to Hogwarts.

Point 2.) Due to his Aunt and Uncle's deaths, he leaves with Ben and meets Han and Chewie, and shortly are captured.
He learns about this reality, doesn't believe it when Morpheus says he's special. 
Harry makes friends, meets his teachers, learns about the school and his parent's. 

Point 3.) The group hides on the Falcon, come out later, rescue the princess and get away with the important plans.
Neo trains, meets with Oracle. He still doesn't believe. 
The potions teacher seems to be up to no good, which Harry investigates

Point 4.) Regrouping with the Rebellion, they plan how to defend against the attack that is inevitable.
Baddies attack, take Morpheus, and Neo and Co come up with a plan. 
Harry and his friends face various trials and 3 headed dog

Point 5.) Luke hits the mark and destroys the Death Star.
Neo accepts his fate and faces the baddies and wins. 
Harry faces and defeats the true bad-guy, another teacher than suspected.

Okay, okay, I over simplified it, but you get the point, yes?

Knowing a few beats allows me the freedom to explore the story and characters as I learn more about them through research and through the writing itself, so the whole process is discovery in large or small ways.

Those few sentences (or less) might be all a panster needs to write a whole novel. But I like a little more. Not a full forty-page outline, but the main points, certain details about characters (fill out character sheets, etc), items, places, and the expected emotional journey of the characters. I say 'expected' because the characters sometimes change their minds mid-story.

Then comes the reading.

Yes the reading. Those details on the chart turn into sparks that make me want to read up on items or places (view pictures, read personal accounts of being there) or psychology (quirks/patterns/etc). This is not just to reinforce my plot points. There's inspiration in those readings, if you want to find it.

I might write a scene or two here and there, but I generally have a well-rendered picture in my head before I really delve into the story.

Now, I'm bound for World Fantasy Convention in Columbus Ohio. Hope to see you there!

Pre-Production: Films Say Storyboard, Books Say Outline

Pre-production. To me, this is a film term adopted by multiple industries. I knew the details of pre-production in certain circles but not in filming. Because I like to pretend I'm smart, I looked up the details. Gods bless Google, I now know more than I meant to. All of the pre-production checklists--all of the decent lists at least--had "Lock Your Script" as the starting point.

Aaaahahahahahehehehehe

Okay, okay, okay, that's near the end of the process for us. But they did have line-items that meshed fairly well with the author-verse. Things like: Know Your Budget, Write the Production Schedule, Hire Your Crew, Cast the Show, Find and Secure Your Locations, and Complete Storyboards.

Strangely enough, that's pretty much what I do before I stare at the very blank page of Chapter One.

Budgeting: How much can I spend on cover art, editing, formatting, ISBNs, copyright filing, and marketing? The length of the book is often determined by the funds I have to pay the editors.

Production Schedule: When do I want to release the book? How many days before that do I need to lock-in the final file(s) with assorted distributors? How much lead time do I give ARC Reviewers & Street Teams? How many days does my formatter need? Proofreader? Copy-editor? Dev Editor? Artist?

Hire Your Crew: All those people from the production schedule need to be booked well in advance. I prefer a minimum 90-day lead; though, some artists and editors need to be contacted 6 months out.

Cast The Show: By the time I think "hey, this might make a good book" I've had many, many, many conversations with the protagonist about their plight, their scooby-crew, their most exhilarating/debilitating moments. I always cast more people than I really need, but, hey, that's what edits are for.

Find & Secure Your Locations: The couch hasn't gone anywhere in twelve years. However, before I start writing, I declutter and clean the house. Physical clutter is a distraction and I am too easily distracted when I write. Cleaning is necessary because once I start writing, the level of tidiness is on a constant decline.

Complete The Storyboards: Since I'm a plotter, this would be the outline phase for me. Outlining often explodes into full-on story writing, so...yeeeeah, this is the very, very last step of pre-production for me.

Driving the story forward.

I like to drive. Often times I'll hop in the car, crank up a little music and hit the road fro a while, preferably with a nice soundtrack and light traffic to keep me company. Sometimes I visit friends, or meet them for lunch, etc. In any case, I like to drive.

Because that, friends and neighbors, is where at least half of my creative process is done.

I was listening to THE SICKNESS by Disturbed when I came up with the idea for my YA Series SUBJECT SEVEN. The songs, the solitude, the lack of everything else that I should have been doing correspondence, the business of writing, etc) allowed my brain to plant a seed and watch it germinate. It was a lovely thing.

The seed of the TIDES OF WAR series WICKED WITCHES the latest anthology from the New England Horror Writers was inspired very heavily by a trip to Salem, Mass that I took a few months earlier. I looked around the historic sites and thought of all the deaths caused by the witch panics both over here and far more explosively over in Europe. The story came from that trip and festered in the back of my mind for a while before I let it out.

came from watching an old black and white movie (King Kong) and reflecting on the fact that the world didn't end when the hero of the story saved the damsel in distress from being chewed up by Kong. The rest of the story gelled for me when I was driving around New England and getting to know the area a little better. There's still TONS to explore, thank goodness. My story for

That's really very common for me On a few incredibly rare occasions I've had stories explode into my skull from a news article or a conversation, but those are the exception and not the rule.

Now and then I need to drive.

Now and then I need to dream.

Always I feel the need to write.

Family Stories

Because last week was the anniversary of my grandmother's death and because I am in nearing the end of a draft on a story set in New Orleans, I've got family on the brain. In part, because my mother's family is from the south. And in part because both in the story I'm finishing and in my life, family plays a complicated role.

This photo at right is of my grandfather Watson. He's the man on the right, in the suit and tie. This is in Arkansas, taken just after a church meeting. I have no notion of the year. Of all my family ties, my relationship with him was one of the least complicated. He and my grandmother both believed that my sister and I could do no wrong. We had an advantage, having both been born in Alaska, so far away form either set of grandparents. I met my maternal grandparents for the first time with I was five. I think they thought they had five years of spoiling to make up for. They were lovely people who accepted me without question and without fail, simply because I was their daughter's daughter.

But you know, they had six children. And those six children all had children. Some divorced, remarried and had still more children. By the time I'd come along, some of those children had married and started having children. That's a lot of people to have in the house at Thanksgiving. It's also a lot of people with a lot of different opinions, some diametrically opposed to my own. There are interdependencies and drama and accusations of terrible things. Dynamics of love and jealousy, rivalry and kinship are etched deep into the people who make up the family. We are mostly Scots/Irish and in the south, the clan identity never quite gave way. Your blood is your tribe for good or for ill. In reality, it's both. We have a body of stories in this part of my family - stories like Four Brothers Come to America and Marry Four Brothers. It was a headline in a local paper when a many times great grandfather arrived from Scotland. He and his brothers married four sisters whose last name was Brothers. When the Civil War came around, the entire line died out save for one lone boy who'd been too young to enlist. These make up a huge portion of our identity on Mom's side of the family. They're intertwined with the complicated side - like the occasional display of bigotry. I don't get to embrace one and ignore the other. They are part and messy parcel of the family.

And I'm not here to get up on a soapbox about anything. What I want is to have this complex, sometimes maddening, but ultimately loving and fertile ground woven into the story I'm finishing because it so defines the Southern experience and I suspect a big portion of the Civil War - in that it sundered families, both from an ideological stand point  and from the stand point that so many men died. The heroine of the story is already an orphan. She has no idea who she is. But she knows family. Crazy, maddening, loving and protective family. She'll do anything to protect them. Anything.

Perils of the Writer: Keeping Your Mind on the Work

So, I'm supposed to talk about whatever is on my mind, and of late my mind has been on the toxicity of social media, especially in the SFF community.  But at the same time, that's the last thing I want to talk about, because it is so toxic, and my brain power is better spent on other things.

So that's what's on my mind, but it is not what I want to talk about.

Because, when you come right down to it, the toxicity of social media should not matter.  What should matter is writing books, doing the work, and all of us authors can be "We've got books!" and everyone else can be "Yay books!" and that should be it.

I mean, my focus should be sitting down and writing.  Which is exactly what I do.  I've got deadlines coming up.  I've got more books coming out.  I do not have time to get into a tweet-war, nor do I have the inclination.  Why would I want to?

So: focused on the writing.  I'm deep in the process of Lady Henterman's Wardrobe, the second Streets of Maradaine novel, which is a lot of fun.  I'm looking forward to the things to come.  Heck, right now I've got three novels out, and a year from today, I'll have three more.  And I'm so excited about that.  I think you'll really enjoy meeting the Holver Alley Crew.  And you only have to wait until March for that.  

And only twelve days for An Import of Intrigue!  I'm so very excited.  We're do a full blog tour, kicking off on Saturday.  So keep your eyes open.