Editing, oh my, editing.

I discovered a day or two ago that I had three short stories in need of editing. I've been flitting around working on so many projects that in the hurly and the burly I seem to have stopped working on these particular projects.

Incidentally, it was when putting together a to-do list that I realised that it was three stories rather than just the one I remembered.

That got me to thinking. It is actually harder for me to do editing than the original writing. Reading my work back and considering each sentence and each paragraph for re-writing or even cutting strains my faculties more than throwing words down on paper. Thus I suspect a subconscious  thingy has made me hide these stories from memory!

Anyway, today I started in on the first round of editing, and half of one story is done. It was had to start!

Am I the only one who finds this "editing" difficult?

p.s. I can recommend a to-do list for all of the writing stuff. Add a to-do item for each of writing, editing, proofing, publishing and promoting.

Planning a new project

Having recently completed and published my gamebook "Dwarven Vengeance" I started thinking about a starting another. Despite it being a lot of work, I have really enjoyed the end result, so I wanted to start another one.

This time I thought I'd do a little market research about the subject matter. I went onto Role Playing Game Geek (RPGGeek.com) and posted a poll asking which genre would they be more likely to part with thier hard earned money for.  the poll ran for 15 or so days and got 49 responses.

The options on the poll were:

• Sci fi trading and exploration: 18 votes
• Pulpy noir detective (with tentacles): 9 votes
• Marines vs Bugs: 4 votes
• Dungeon crawl/landscape crawl: 4 votes
• WWII, pilot escaping occupied territory: 10 votes
• Other: 4 votes

I was hoping for Marines vs Bugs, but the omens have dictated otherwise.

This is a new genre for me, especially in gamebook form. It's set me a challenge. A gamebook needs a "system" of rules, those rules should match the expected game play. For instance it's no use having game rules for trading if there is no trading in the game.  So now I'm going to have to spend some time debating with myself what the focus of this new gamebook will be and once I've done that, how to implement a complimentary set of rules that fit the genre without over complicating something that needs to be really simple to fit the book format.

So now I'm collecting ideas and making notes about possible scenarios that could appear in the book. At the same time trying to avoid going too far down one line of thought without considering mechanisms at the same time.

At this point I know there are some limits on story. I polled a bunch of role players and "sci fi trading and exploration" means the RPG "Traveller" to them. The Traveller game has a number of tropes and associated expectations that goes along with the name, so those will be my focus to start with...

A promo for my game book

Here's a little video promo for my game book, it includes a short reading and an explanation of what it is.

You can get the book at Lulu.com

Game book released!

My gamebook "Dwarven Vengeance" is now available to buy via LuLu.  This is a game book where you choose which path to follow and which fights to have. It's a classic "turn to page" style game book with 401 entries. It differs from some of the classic gamebooks in that it doesn't have any of the lame endings where you just die. Instead there is always a chance to win through, a small chance true, but then you pick your own fights! 

 This is currently only available via Lulu's Print On Demand printing service.

So onto the back cover blurb...

You've lost your home, your family and your future.

When you woke to find a dragon smashing through the gates of the underholm and goblins swarming in the corridors your first thoughts were of survival.

Then the anger came, and the thirst for revenge and the need to get your home back.

So starts the quest to find the Dragonbane, a mystical item that is your only hope to defeat the dragon.

Buy the book at LuLu.com

A cautionary title

A year or more back, I wrote a Gamebook and it didn't end well, and here's the story of why.

Nearly done

I'm finally reaching the end of the work associated with my game book. This has been an ongoing project for most of the year. I've only be working on it in fits and starts. Indeed it was mostly written during my lunchtimes at work, just a few paragraphs a day. Then I left it sitting for a while before starting on the editing.

I did two full editing passes, again during lunchtimes covering just a few entries per day, then let it sit again.

Then I sent it out to a few beta readers, only one of whom sent me feedback. I applied the fixes he suggested and let it rest again.

So here I am now doing the final proof-read-aloud. That's reading the whole book aloud. I'm so glad I opted to give this try. Even after all those passes once I read it aloud I found even more problems to fix!  This is process I'll definitely use in future.

With luck by the end of the weekend I'll have this book done and uploaded to LuLu as a POD book and I'll order a proof copy. If that comes through without issue I'll be foisting this on the whole world!

A winner!

I've just come third in a short story competition, a feat of which I am immensely proud. An odd little competition where the competitors were asked to write a short story of no more than 3000 words set in the world of any specific Roleplaying Game the writer wished.

Writing to a short word count proved a challenge. My outline rapidly ballooned and translating it into prose went way past the limit.

Cutting it back was painful. I lost a scenes, flashbacks and entire conversations. These cuts explained character motivations and help the story make sense. They were painful cuts. Then, once they were gone I had to re work other conversations to fill in the gaps.

After that I was still too long! It became a case of working each sentence, looking for a way to rephrase so that it could be reduced. It took three passes of this before I hit the word count limit.

It was a real challenge, hard effort. Seems to have paid off in the end :)

Here's a link to the Entries and Entrants. You may need to log into the RPGGeek site to download the stories .

A pulp story

So with my game book's first draft complete, and sitting to fester for a few weeks, I started looking around for a small project to fill the gap.

Looking through by browser's bookmarks I spotted the Lester Dent pulp plan and decided to give it a go. I'm not writing a noir detective, but have opted instead for a post-apocalyptic story. Like Solomon Kane my hero uses a sword and carries a pistol, but instead of a fantasy background I'm plunging forwards into the sci fi genre.

I wrote the first quarter of the story, which was supposed to be 1500 words, but ended up with 2100. So I've just done a hatchet job on it, but only managed to get it down to 1587. I can't bear to cut any more!

I've started the next segment and will just have to write it using 87 less words...but I'm already running a bit long, considering how much I want to stuff in there.

Hmmm....too wordy, I'm too wordy. Less words, more action.

It's an interesting challenge, having to write less. It's exercising my brain in some new ways and despite the pain of cutting, cutting, cutting; it's a fun thing to do. If you haven't tried it, add it onto your to-do list.

Writing a game book

I've started writing a game book in the style of "choose your own adventure" or more accurately "fighting fantasy".  I have collaborated on one in the past  but this is the first time I've done one on my own.

I have a total of 400 paragraphs to write and have just passed the 250 mark.

Having recently changed jobs I've found my schedules at home have got quite mixed up. The time I used to use for writing is gone.  So I've had to adjust. I've now started using the lunch break at work as my writing time. It has worked out rather well.  I've been getting in the region of 5-8 paragraphs written each working day.

I'm actually quite happy with this arrangement. The office is quite quiet during the lunch hours allowing me to concentrate on the writing. At home I would be disturbed by "Mr Mankey" our cat, trying to take ownership of my lap during writing time!

I nibble my lunch and tap tap tap on the keyboard. It still feels like a break as I'm working on something I find fun!

What Not To Do, Part 1 of n

I often read hints and suggestion in articles about writing and I realised I'd never made a list of them! To me a list is a good way of making sure I do things the right way.  I do it before setting out on a trip, going shopping, working out what chores to do and so on, but I've never done it for my creative writing.

So here is where I start.

1. Remove Copulas

Remove as many instances of "to be" and "was" and make the sentences more dynamic.

2. Don't use ", then"

'Cos it's lame!

Passing 40k

Haven't made a post here in a while, so I thought I'd just recap what I've been up to since April.

I've written and released an Micro RPG (Role Playing Game).  It's a background, game rules, and scenario that prints onto a single side of A4 and folds into a little booklet.  The game is called "Shikishima Heroes" and is set in an alternate 1902.  Follow the link to read more.

It was a fun experience trying to write an entire game in what is actual fact, eight tiny tiny pages. You have to pare back your use of words and get the most meaning out of every sentence. Game rules are terribly difficult to write at the best of times, but squeezing it into just those few pages is especially interesting. Some might try flash fiction or even the odd Drabble as an exercise, but rules writing is a strong challenge!

Writing that game was so much fun, I decided to write another.  The next one is called "Acrobats vs Mobsters"  I think the title gives away what the game is about. It was actually easier to write the second one having had the experience of the first. I knew what to put in and what sort of thing to leave out.

So with those out of the way... I wrote a third called "Trench Full of Heroes". That's not out yet. It's a role playing game set during the First World War, my hope is that I've teased the setting so that players will not limit their play to the mud and blood of the trenches.

All three of the games have different rule systems, and that has been half the fun.  Letting my half sleepy alpha brain search for mechanics and fit them together.

I've also written a "scenario" for Dungeons and Dragons (1st Edition) which I'll talk about in a future post.

Finally to cap this little list, I've also been adding the odd word or two to my novel. Tonight I broke the 40k barrier during a forty minute splurge. HUZZAR!

A blast from the past

This evening I've done something that I haven't done for an age... I added some words to my novel!  This thing was started two, or more like three years ago while offline and sitting in a holiday cottage.  It's an all action WWII romp that I was inspired to start after reading "Contest" by Matthew Reilly.  Now there is an author who knows how to write action. Sure it's over-the-top, but it's simply fantastic fun that you can put down.

He inspired me, I wrote an outline and then started writing. Of course there have been a few breaks, such as forgetting about it for six months, writing short stories, the annotation projects, another few months break, the game book etc etc etc.

So on and off I've been hammering away at this thing for quite a while, but tonight I got back on the writing train and added another whopping 715 words!  Not many in the big scheme of things, yet it's brought the total up to 33315, which is not to be sniffed at.

With luck I'll stick with it and get this first draft done. Fingers crossed, eh?

Story telling game

I posted yesterday about how I had been "distracted" by the role playing game I'd started writing...well I finished the game off and pushed it up onto the biggest RPG web site on the web for sale today.

Next, I'll be converting the ODF file into an ePUB.  Once in that format I'll be able to push it onto Kindle via the "kindlegen" software, and onto the iBook Store/Nook Store via LuLu.

The ODF is only about 37 pages and the cover art is already done, had to do that for the PDF release mentioned above.

So this afternoon will be dedicated to using my favourite ePUB software, the free and excellent "Sigil".

P.S. Now ePUB'ed at LuLu

Sidetracked

I have only give about half a dozen entries in my game book written up, because in the last week I have been distracted by another writing project.

I decided to enter a "one page dungeon" competition hosted on the Role Playing Geek web site. During the creation process of a dungeon, I actually not only invented a dungeon but also the bare bones of a whole role playing game. That sounds like a lot of work, but wasn't really. The one page dungeon itself was knocked up within an evening...and so this wasn't really the distraction.

What the distraction was, is that the bare bones RPG I came up during that process deserved to be fleshed out into a real full length game. This is where I've been spending my writing time.

It's interesting to note that the one page dungeon competition is not a money making project, but that short diversion has set me off on this RPG project which will be a money maker.

Anything "Cthulhu" or "Lovecraft" is extremely popular at the moment so the RPG I'm writing is themed that way. A completely opposite direction from the original one page dungeon.

I think that this proves that taking the occasional diversion can really inspire the muse. As a bonus this project is shorter than the game book project so will be finished quickly.

A good weekend

It's been a good weekend for me.  My short story "Incursion" has sold three times on the Kindle.  I'm very happy with that, but surprised at the same time.  I put Incursion into the KDP select scheme on the Kindle store so that people could borrow it.  My hope was that people would like it and then go on to buy my other stories in the same line.  Turns out instead that three people have bought it!

I wonder if I've done something wrong during the sign up, or if the story is getting lost in amongst all of the other free stuff.  A quick look on the Amazon store seems to confirm that the story is free to borrow. Strange happenings indeed!

My other good news is the "Cthulhu and How I found Livingstone" book, which has sold 9 copies at DriveThruRPG.  This is because the book is currently on the "new in the store" page. Within a week or so, it will slip off that page into obscurity and the realm of zero sales (well, maybe one sale every few months).

All in all a good weekend.

It's started!

I have just completed the first two paragraphs of the game book, the first draft. Actually it's not paragraphs, I should say "entries". In the old Fighting Fantasy game books, most of the entries were paragraphs.  In my book most entries will be more than one paragraph, and indeed featuring a lot of dialogue, which will make the "paragraph" terminology redundant. So henceforth I will try and say Entries.

Word count on the document is at 3000, but at this early stage that is mostly a junk number. The majority of that is the headings for each entry and the "go to ..." that appears at the end of most entries. After this however the word count will allow me to see how much it's growing by. Yet, now I think about it, word count hardly matters in a game book. Progress is really measured in entries that have been completed.  So in those terms, 2 down and 119 to go.  Boy oh boy that sounds like a lot.

Progress, at last.

Tonight I completed my first editing pass over my AMRAT story (giant fighty robots).  I was horrified at how awful that first draft was.  Commas instead of full stops, missing capital letters, incomplete sentences "as" instead of "is" and any number of straight forward typos.

Still, that's twenty pages knocked into a legible state that I'm not embarrassed to pass onto my editor. It felt good to get that out of the way, it's cleared the decks for the next project.

On the small pile of outlined works is a Lovecraftian short story and pulp era detective game book. The Lovecraftian story is a "kind-of" sequel to my "Incursion" story which is currently locked into a six-month exclusivity agreement with Amazon, so I'll leave that to the side for the next few months.

That means the game book is the next project. I plan on following the same process as with the last game book, in that I will aim to write two or three entries every day. The current outline has 121 entries so that means I should have the first draft done in about 40 days.

"Things"

There are many reasons that a writer may not write. One of the most amusing situations appeared in the film "Throw Momma From the Train". The writer in that case couldn't find the perfect word for his opening sentence and this hung him up. Time and again he would try a word but it was never quite right.

A writer might be prevented because his is suffering from "writers block".  Where the muse has left them, they feel uninspired and simply unable to put the pen to the paper.

Practical things have a hand in this too.  The power goes out, or your last number 2 pencil snaps. Whatever.

Then, there are cats.

That's right. Cats.

The writing I had planned for this evening is wiped from this plane of existence because of a cat.

Why?  You ask, why?

Today my wife trapped the last of the wild cats that visit our garden. She's been trying to trap it for over a month. All the others have been trapped and neutered, one by one. Yet this one, this female has been so nervous and cagey that she just wouldn't enter the cage...until today.

So this late night trapping has caused phone calls, visits, socially engaging with the family, and all in the name of getting this one wild cat neutered.  Sure I'm still itching to get back to writing, but in the end getting that cat was worth it.

 That said, the night has still been productive to some extent. I uploaded "Cthulhu and How I Found Livingstone" to the kindle store where it should appear within a couple of days.

Back to writing...almost

It's been quite a while, but finally I'm getting back to writing.  I had two big jobs that were keeping me away from pounding the keyboard properly, and now they are complete. The annotation project is completed and up for sale at one outlet (more to come later, but they can wait!), and the formatting-job also is done and up for sale.

This means I can get back to writing... no wait!  Not writing, but editing!!!  My sci fi short story (working title "AMRAT: The Bank Heist") has been sitting await a damned good edit for weeks.  Now it's going to have its chance as I turn my editing scissors on it. It's 29 pages, about 8700 words, so my first editing pass will take a couple of evenings effort. Then I'll be handing it on to my editor, who will no doubt "rip the crap" out of it.

I'm not writing... but I am working with my own creations, and that's something.Still, a couple of evenings looking at this baby, and then I have to decide on which of my two outlined stories to start working on.

One step closer to some actual writing

Last post, I was moaning about the non-writing things I have to do. Well one of the jobs at leas,t is now out of the way.

The ePUB version of Cthulhu and How I Found Livingstone is now available. After much swearing and angrified typing, the ePUB was finally completed and uploaded.

I pushed it up to LuLu, they also submit the eBooks to Nook and iBookstore so over time it will make its way onto their digital shelves too. Tomorrow I hope up upload to a couple more places, including the Kindle store.

I am constantly amazed just how much non-writing work there is in writing! The formatting for the various stores is hours and hours of dull boring work.