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. 

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.

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. 

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=d9H7NSqJsnM (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.    

One of the things I try to do whenever I write is to view the scene before me as if I were watching it IRL or on a movie screen. Probably more times than not it’s the movie screen perspective. I do this because I try to picture my feelings if I were viewing this in a movie theater. Would the introduction I used catch my attention, would it give me that incredible action pack feeling of a typical action movie that I love to watch, or is it bland and boring. I think for any type of book this is important for holding your readers’ attention and for the overall flow of the book.

As I go through this movie perspective in my mind’s eye I try to determine if everything within the chapter has merit to the story, to the characters and to the series. I want to skip anything that really doesn’t add to this overall feeling and character building of the overall story. While my main character might love to play with “My Pretty Ponies” or some such out of contexts nonsense, unless there is a very important reason to bring it up within the confines of the scene itself to enhance some specific part of the overall story, then usually it’s not something that needs to be discussed. Another important aspect is character explanations. Sometimes too much detail is exactly that … too much detail, at least if you give it to your reader all at once. You can give some basic information at the opening scene of a chapter when introducing a new character, but then for the additional details that you want to cover can fill in within the confines of the story in bits and pieces that add to the overall flavor of the character.

Again most characteristics that you cover should in some way add into flow of the story and to building up the characters and scenes that you’re describing and writing about. There will be some times that the story dips and slows down in-between climatic scenes, but even then these scenes should add to the story so that when the action ramps back up you explained or discussed the additional details ahead of time that allows the action to flow within a meaningful way.      

Also the closing scene of most chapters should have at the very least mini-cliff hangers. The switch to another part of the story should leave your readers wanting to know what’s going on and waiting to get back to the action to see what happens to the characters. Another reason you want the beginning of the new chapter to catch their attention enough so they don’t flip ahead to see what’s happening, but the important part I want to leave you with is making that ending of the chapter to be left at a spot that makes you want to rush back and see what’s happening.

I was watching Teen Wolf, an excellent series which does a masterful job at these cliff hangers throughout the different scenes of the story and at the end of that week’s show. 24 is another series that comes to mind that rocks this too. Probably 24 is the better of the two examples I just listed. If you really want to really get the feel for how to do these chapter intros and exits that leave your readers wanting more, I serious suggest you check out 24. Both new and old does this extremely well.

Lastly I want to leave you with this thought. You don’t normally write the perfect scene immediately. Most writers don’t sit down to every scene and just write it out in one sitting. Even if you pictured every aspect of the scene, you still have to work to get the right flow and perspective to each scene. Don’t rush this. Sometimes it might take days for you to get the perfect structure down on paper and that’s okay. Many times I write down something quick, and then slowly build on it to make it better. Other times I write the whole thing out in one setting, and then later still go back and tweak it. It just depends on the scene and how much prep time I’ve put into the whole mental scene building process ahead of time, and the overall complexity of that area of the story.

So many writers talk about making sure you write two to three hundred words a day to make sure you produce a book within a short amount of time, but from my own experience this seems to be counterproductive, in many ways, to writing a great story. Few of us actually the time and ability to write for a living, although we hope to have this opportunity in the future as our writing matures. There will be those times we produce a lot of our story in one sitting, while at other times we struggle to write certain scenes the way we want. But, that is okay. I don’t think rushing your writing is the answer to producing a good story. Throughout my day when I’m not in the physical process of writing, I actually picture the scene I’m currently writing to get a clear picture of the scene I’m trying to write. I find that this is a great exercise to do while I’m driving. One of the few times I have the peace of mind to actually picture the part of the story I’m trying to write and get the mental image of what’s happening before I actually sit down to write the scene.

These preparations times I believe are important if you are going to have an amazing story and be a great writer. A good story needs to have this quality and depth, which only comes from putting this forethought into your writing ahead of time. For this reason alone I’m against the daily word count that so many writers and writing groups love to tell new writers that they must do to be a good writer.

Anyway, I hope some of these perspectives on my own writing process helps to improve your own writing.

It’s amazing just how much life’s stresses can affect your ability to put your thoughts down on paper. There’s nothing like picking up and moving to remind you just how true that can be, but by this coming Monday that should be finished up. Although I’ve missed a solid week of writing, I’ve been working on some of the plot lines during the drive to the new place. Once next week rolls around I should have a nice balance of driving and writing. Driving to help line up my thoughts, so that I can put them down on paper once I get home. Mostly I’ll be happy that the move will be finished and I’ll be completely unpacked and mostly back to normal once again.

I was able to squeeze in about three hours of sleep last night. When I woke up this morning, my arms were flailing as I tried to find the light switch and my Iphone as I staggered in the dark of my new apartment trying to figure out why nothing was where it should be. It was the longest fifteen seconds ever =D

Part of my going to bed so late was that John Conroe came out with his newest book in The Demon Accords Series. Of course I had to read it in one setting, hence the only having three hours of sleep last night, but totally worth it. I just love how he writes.

I’ve been looking a little more into the Ultramarines from the Warhammer 40,000 Universe looking for some good ideas to tweak for the story. I had no idea that the Warhammer 40,000 Universe has been around for over twenty years. It’s quite a detailed story and universe, and I love the powerful Ultramarines. You’ve gotta love chainsaw swords.

Currently I work within the DOD Educational circuit, which is interesting alone in the type of work that I do. But, what is even more interesting is the people I work with and what that means for the editing of Book Two. Several of the organization’s teachers have read Book One of The Last Paladin Series and have enjoyed the story, although they have commented on my need of professional editing. No surprise there with them being teachers and all. Luckily, several have offered to assist in getting Book Two cleaned up before I get it released. I cannot even begin to tell you much that means to me, since editing is my weakest point of my writing.

So lots of good things in the works.