Category Archives: Narrative

Writers: On The Risk of, Maybe Packing Too Much Into A Project

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After the sixteenth (or was it the seventeenth?) attempt at launching a new project there was a great temptation to indulge in the traditional Indy / Indie writer’s angst of episodic lamentations and cries of ‘ What is the point of it all’ and thence gloomy introspection.

Hamlet 1

However, it is also the curse / blessing within the Indy / Indie writer to be a’fix(ed) with the urge and need to keep on writing, and seek ever beyond the horizon fulfilment of that next, and in my case evasive big project. There’s six of the efforts marking up to roughly 100,000 words which are still archived in case there’s a need to ‘Copy & Paste’ useful chunks. And there is a new one which is tottering on the launch pad. You would think that with a pretty strong World Build there would be no shortage of material, inspiration and plot lines, so how come just ‘Might Have Beens’?

win_20210522_11_00_43_pro…Ponder….ponder…..ponder

On referring back to the previous trilogy….

It occurred to me amongst the total of 660,000 + words, aside from the traditional World Build, adventurous quests or tasks, conflicts and challenges set to three strong characters, the array of minor and not so minor characters with their own tales to tell there were a great deal of other themes and sub-plots which had found their ways in. Out of this grew the comic interludes, satires on common themes in fantasy novels, whole commentaries on various cultures and locations, parodies on traditional villain types, parallel realities, romances, personal sacrifices, allegories with various historical military blunders, the construction of an imperial administration and its agencies, threads which went in various directions and managed to tie up, entire family lives, one rather massive risk of a plot twist and a small tough ragged horse which travelled through realities without any explanation given. Along with some other stuff to do with lesser characters just put in because I felt like it suited the whole canvas, like my predilection to weave in John LeCarre style machinations of various government agencies simply for atmosphere.    

 And dear reader one has to ask ones’ self as you might. Was all of that necessary? In my defence, at the time it seemed so. When reading / listening to my favourite subject of military history as must be the case with other historical studies, there is encountered the factor of the importance of the small folk, not the Great and Influential, for without the small folk what would the Great and Influential achieve? Then there is the ‘Grit In The Machine’ factor which in the way of many a Grand Strategy, the overlooked seemingly inconsequential yet important item, the events of the second book hinged on such a quantity. These had, I reckoned, to be taken into account. And also how the events affected folks’ lives, motivations and own plans. Of course all and everything was necessary and fitted.

The problem with ‘Of Course’s being one might fit one type of book, ie factual history but might not work in a fictional setting, and that most important of persons, the reader could lose interest and particularly in Heroic Fantasy be looking for more dramatic interludes linking into one magnificent conclusion. Maybe.

I could of course cite the works of David Gemmel who would take minor and sometimes grimy characters and through the narrative elevate them, often against their will to major players. Brandon Sanderson and Joe Abercrombie are of the type of writer who populate their books with large lists of lesser characters who come and go through the narrative, sometimes returning when you least expect them and playing for maybe only a short while a vital role. They, Abercrombie in particular do not go in for Happy or Cleanly Ethical endings, which can be argued are most realistic. Me, I do veer towards clean, just and tidy endings, and the intention to do so without a Deux Machina (or several) might, just might have had an effect upon the whole narrative, for whereas I only had the haziest of ideas about the rest of the narrative that sort of ending  was a given. 

I could stand by all those decisions and maintain them by the dogged outlook beloved of a more stubborn sort of Indy / Indie writer summed up as ‘So what? If you don’t like It…Tough. It’s My Book’ . Somehow that might be avoiding the issue.

Is the reason why a new project is not taking off, because I have used up all my good ideas, scenarios, situations, themes and sub-plots? And will anything else be just repetition? There is an ‘Of Course’ there too. Since my work to date has had little to no success and in consequence a double edged truth would be; ‘Who would notice? Or care?’ . Now where that ties in with or contradicts the previous ‘So what? If you don’t like It…Tough. It’s My Book’ is another topic for debate. 

Thus having paused to muse over the whole business while doing my turn at the washing up and washing loading duties, I was left to conclude…… Was I taking ‘pantsing’ too far? Should I have laid out all of the ideas which came to mind and put some to one side for another day? Should I have edited the books into shorter volumes and instead of three weighty tomes have had six, or seven, or eight smaller volumes and attracted an audience who prefer shorter books with cliff-hangers? Did I cram far too much in. Truth be known from time to time the thought of dismantling all three, starting from scratch and taking that approach has occured….But…Ah me, the effort, seemed too much were I say thirty years younger…..

My advice then for anyone starting out, is by all means dive in and rattle away, letting your ideas flow like rivers, and the first drafts (there are always several) be a hodge-podges of all sorts of stuff, but then maybe step back and consider whether there is more than one book there, or maybe there should be more than one book there, which in turn will lead to more books.   

Maybe it is the genre…Fantasy…. Maybe we all would like to be a Tolkien and feel we have out own private Lord of The Rings simmering away. Maybe we should not give way to that lure. I can’t comment on Martin’s Ice and Fire series, they never appealed to me, but I would guess the same sort of conclusion would apply.

Anyway, the muses are tugging, the collection of characters might well have the inclination to nag at me to get going and shove a whole lot of their own ideas onto my table. Who knows, maybe this time I will get past the 75,000 word barrier and start to really once more have fun writing, and perhaps a bit of restraint?

Who can tell what lies beyond the next paragraph? 

The Wrath Which Came Out of a Technological Fog

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Wrath

Lebanon 17th September 2024 and new pages were added to the Book of War. Not a new subject because Humanity has always preferred to engage in warfare at long range. Stone, sling, spear, bow, gun, missile delivered from land, sea or air and of late the cyber domain. This time the means and nature were normally the preserve of the techno-thriller, had he lived longer, material for a Tom Clancy novel? This was Reality though, and unlike a book or its TV or Film derivatives, you can’t close it or switch the TV off. Think of the cyber world as a large expanse of water, and think of detonation of thousands of electronic pagers as being merged together as one piece of a cliff face falling into that water. Ripples? Think of waves, very big ones, tsunamis heading towards the shore of Humanity. They happen in Nature, and we are secondary to Nature. Like many events Humanity starts them, then they take on their own momentum, impose themselves on Reality and the events are not done with us. To this event then.

Hezbollah a very well equipped and funded Shia Islamist organisation based in but somewhat independent from Lebanon, as been waging war along the border with Israel for four decades. The increase in the war between Hamas in Palestine and Israel allowed a temporary settling of the Sunni / Shia difference to make common cause, having Israel fight a war on two front.

The overall narrative is still developing. It is known that electronic devices used by Hezbollah members were planted with some explosive materials which were denoted by remote control. Hezbollah had moved to using the lower tech pagers as it suspected Israeli ‘s Mossad, may have hacked into their mobile phone network.

Pagers have their origins back in the later 1940s and although have been overtaken by mobile phones as a means of communication are still a preferred choice for several emergency services as being more rugged and dependable in areas where signals are volatile or weak. They also cannot be hacked in the conventional sense. So how was this done? Well the media was quick to seek out answers, here is a link as to the practicalities of how such an event might be accomplished:

https://news.sky.com/story/how-does-a-pager-explode-the-steps-needed-to-remotely-detonate-hezbollah-devices-13217335

Then we have to consider just how all this was arranged. It is being claimed that the pagers originated from a Taiwanese Company, the owner of which denies direct involvement:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9qvl3vlvlvo

And as you will discern from the BBC article nothing is as simple as just saying ‘They Did It. They Supplied Them’ I am guessing that many a Technology, Security or Cyber Warfare journalist will be spending a few days or more trying to constructive from the myriad of threads of possibility, the rumours and the false trails even the beginnings of the comprehensive narrative as to how this came about. Some basic questions:
Who and how did they ensure the planting the explosive?
At what stage was the explosive implanted and by whom?
By what means did they ensure this supply would go to Hezbollah?
How did they make sure the signals would reach each and everyone?
Who were the Guns for Hire complicit in the physical acts? 

I’m fair certain I have missed some more important questions too, for this is deep and long term work. It is the stuff of future books. If you have read of the preparations the Allied Forces went into to ensure D-Day had a reasonable chance of being a success, you’ll know it’s a lot more than just a few plucky heroes sneaking behind the lines. The planning, the construction and the enacting of this plan would have taken many folks long hours and efforts. This is, and always has been Espionage. 

And, quite frankly, it is all military. More clinical than the dropping of ordinance out of the air, firing shells or missiles both in the vague direction of the foe, which is basically what most operations are, because maybe only those which take place in remote regions between conventional forces leave civilians unscared by direct fire. This one more clinical but not perfect, of course. You can’t ensure your target is not walking along holding the hand of their child, whose face is level with the pocket carrying the small explosive device, or has the child sitting of their lap when they activate the pager, or just happens to be in the same vicinity, or maybe as children do even pick up the device on a sudden whim. Some battles maybe clean of civilian casualties but no war ever has been. nor will be. There will be professionals deep in their crafts who will admire without thought what they see as astuteness of we assume the Israelis. You do not want to be that deep. Yet this is nothing new, only because of the technology does it cause a sharp intake of breath, killing the foe before they kill you, disrupt their networks, hit their moral. Older than recorded history. 

Meanwhile the waves roar out across the cyber lake towards our shore. Folk start to look at their pager in another light. Can you blame them thinking ‘But What If?’. All those firms who are publicly connected in the supply chain will be in for a hard time; conventional orders falling off, obviously; Suspicions weighing heavy (who would want to be on Hezbollah’s list of Suspected Collaborators With Israel?); Markets in general hate any Uncertainties- this one Cyber Crime literally going explosive- what or who might be next? (A Japanese company associated with walkie-talkies for starters). And naturally the on the ground repercussions.
Of course the Conspiracy Junkies will be high for months to come yet, having had two allegorical nostrils full of this kind of cocaine, and they going screaming about the place in hysterical delight will unsettle others. Not that we really need them do we? After years of suicide vests, random shooters, people running amok with knives, driving cars into crowds, hackers screwing with vital utilities for thrills or on orders, never mind those incidents when a new system or system upgrade just cannot cope with the practical work load, and suddenly your debit card just doesn’t work today, or your phone goes off, or your laptop goes blue.  All these convivences come with prices, terms and conditions, in languages we, the masses, can barely grasp.   

The story will birth its own brood of stories which will quickly gives rise to another generation as the search for that elusive full narrative goes on. There will be Governments, CEOs, heads of organisations asking questions, needing reassurance from their tech folk, who might be only able to give a qualified ‘Maybe’. Because out there, let us remember, somewhere, somehow, the physical act of implanting many explosives devices was carried out, by some party within the tangled network of construction or supply chain. This was not simply a code constructed by another group of hackers, this was physical war work.

The waves are not yet done with us; those who watch, those affected, and those involved in the act. There will always be repercussions. Forget protesting on this one. War is finding opportunities and it is not caring, never mind listening. Trying to stop the next one is our best Hope.

Firstly A Cautionary Dry Heading – ‘This Narrative Might Be Developing’. (Another Episode In The Life of a Writer of Fantasy Fiction)

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Uplifting

Forewyrd  : This is one of those posts which new writers might be able to take ‘something’ from: either take heart or ‘Gosh I must not do that‘ or something in between the two. It is also one that writers of some experience but little practical evidence of Reader Enthusiasm can ponder over and experience an  ‘Ah. Not Just Me Then’ interlude That said, there is an element of optimism,    enthusiastic 2

which is vital to an new writer or the dogged Indy adherent.

OK. Brutal Reality first. Harsh Facts. Simple report. No ‘Oh woe is me. Alas Alack’. Just events. Those of  who having following my blog for a while will know for a few years I worked on a Fantasy Trilogy.

It seemed reasonable. It was ‘Kindled’,  subjected to edits and a couple of those free promotions. Yet, as is the common danger of any indy-writer who takes the self-publishing path. Overall response. Minimal. I take responsibility for less than proper marketing and networking. A parody advertising type series of blogs was great fun, maybe too much and was a distraction. Much thanks to those who supported me.

Still. No matter how much of a realist you might be, you still kinda, sorta,….Hope.

Annnyyyyyyyyy-way!!

While waiting for some kind of indication there might be a wider interest in these works I naturally put my mind to new projects.

A lot of writers will know how it goes. No matter what, you still cannot help but give into the whisperings of whatever Muse of writing calls. Sometimes they are not gentle; whisperings as a sharp tug on the ear ‘ole and a harsh ‘Are you going to sit there just dithering about web surfing or just footling about with ‘Stuff,’ Write, write.

Those Muses would not leave me be, be they

Calliope Calliope (epic poetry fantasy)

ThaliaThalia (comedy- displaying something of the understated approach here)

Melpomene Melpomene (Tragedy – another fine example of understatement)

(Actually it can be a real nuisance with those three all elbowing their way into a narrative. Particularly with Thalia and Melpomene ganging up and insisting you must have both elements to reflect a real narrative, then arguing who gets the bigger cut. All the while Calliope being of the Epic outlook is encouraging you to not use a sentence when a paragraph looks so much better.)

And supportin the call there was my own adage ‘Never Waste a Good World-Build,’ (Professionals and successful Indy Writers don’t!- so there!). My first mistake (which was naturally repeated) was to try and carry on from my trilogy or adapt into novel form a series of comically quirky parodies of the the fairy-tale style posts back in very early 2020, which ended just before Covid hit. The reason why the first didn’t work was probably because I had crammed all my good ideas on that narrative into the trilogy, and truth be known didn’t have much else to write, not without repeating myself. Brandon Sanderson or Joe Abercrombie I an’t. The reason why the second didn’t work was because you don’t easily turn quirky posts into solid books, the narrative collapses quite early on and the characters wandering about looking for funny things to do. A lesson learned.

Another lesson learned was. ‘Don’t footle around with other genres’. I did invest some time in an SF project in which the interstellar travel problem had been solved by an quantum approach using the theoretical ten / eleven dimension approach. It didn’t take, firstly because my science wasn’t all that deep and more importantly the characters simply were not enthusiastic about the project and didn’t seem to have much idea what they wanted to do after the first couple of chapters and there was more wandering about only in this case folk talking to each other.

Going through a period of ‘Not Bothering’ was a bad move. The Muses and the Characters from my previous trilogy descended on me. They nagged, cajoled, and even threatened, the latter in an existentialist sort of way.

It was obvious there would be no peace until another epic was undertaken.

On a sober note. I had been spend a great deal of time on the political side of my writing, and essentially looking for trouble from those I wanted to offend, but since I was not diving into FaceBook that didn’t happen. Which was just as well, a swim in that pool looking for targets can leave you as polluted as them; there’s no glory there. Put the hound back in the kennel. Far better to use the time to support those on WP whose views I agree with.

Thus being directed to get moving, I sat, mused, paced, pondered, ran through several possibilities, muttered a lot and ended up back with that parodies of the the fairy-tale style posts

Aureyborealice, A Fable in Several Parts…Part I

(Actually I – XIII)

Ah well, says I, let us not waste the bits and pieces of what might be a workable plot, because everything else is going nowhere.

The approach was to take all of the characters, in roughly the same locations, and work from the general premise of arranged marriages, particular gifts or powers and plans not going according to plan. Since a World Build was not to be wasted, I used roughly the same geographical setting and environment, but set a bit in The Past, before the empire of the other books. Opportunities for origins of various agencies from said books peeked over the horizon. As this is a Fantasy, which might be set in a far future of our own world, I didn’t have to worry too much about those problems which writers of fiction in history have to deal with, ensuring the mindset and day to day items belong to the era the book is set in. I could fool around as much as I liked, particularly as the plot in true Pantser style would develop as the narrative progressed.  All this process may be dreadful heresy to some anyway, but since there is an urge to write this and since the likelihood of many folk reading it could be low, so what? Not a jot care I, just so long that at the end of the day the whole thing hangs together and I enjoy what I am doing.

(Pause for Back-Story: I originally started this post back in late October 2023; image and opening paragraph only. Then held off, lest the narrative of the project went like the others; stale and faded. It’s quite embarrassing to announce to a readership all ‘Gee-Whiz. This is Flying’  enthusiastic 3  Only to end up a month later bereft of enthusiasm and material, like this ….

Hamlet 1  with not even a decent soliloquy lamenting on the capriciousness of The Muses)

So I carried on with the narrative, visited the post with a passage here, a passage there, and having found there was the urge to rattle off 400 words in one session, something only in recent past enjoyed in Gary’s BlogBattle –  https://bbprompt.com/    thanks mate!

Finally to be cosmological in the allegory it appears, the various dust particles of themes and scenarios are beginning to coalesce. There is an idea of where this all might go, the protagonists are stepping out of the murk and best of all the characters are starting to argue with me, talk about sub-texts, and even the villains normally created simply to take a fall are making guarded suggestions on character development. At the last general meeting with the ever growing but enthusiastic cast it was by consensus admitted that none of us had a clue exactly how it was all going to end up, but we were agreed that (A) There could be another trilogy in the making (B) It was going to be a lot of fun.

Of course this is the first draft; which is going to be a mess and will need to be revised, rationalised and resolved, for all pantsers have to accept that they will encounter several, if not dozens of ‘What Was I Thinking About, If At All. When I Wrote That!’  interludes, and that as much fun as they may have sounded at the time will simply have to go.

And thus to the keyboard I return, with a vague idea of just what will arise out of the next clutch of thoughts and notions. The only certainties will be whereas the going might be tough and there might be tragedies there will be no grimdark and the the endings will be upbeat. This is why I write; there is enough misery, injustice and evil prevailing in the real world, I am not going to add any more with my fiction.

There might be up-dates on the progress, or simple commentaries and observations on The Writing Process, or maybe just some announcement at another venture in the Kindle-verse.

Anyway:

Onwards:

Sailing Ship

Show Don’t Tell

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Writers starting off, floundering a bit, wondering which way to go or reflecting on whether they should or should not continue will be aware there is something approaching an article of faith which is: A Writer Should Show Not Tell’

Just out of whimsey, as it were, I typed in ‘Show not Tell’ on Google and the busy little search engine proudly informed me that in 0.84 seconds it had identified 2,210,000,000 hits. Now how many of these actually refer directly to the subject of writing I did not venture to examine. If for some unaccountable reason I were to seek out each and every hit at the fanatical pace of 5 seconds per hit it would take approximately 350 years for a single person. Since this does not take into account all functions necessary to physical and mental well-being, what might happen to human culture and environment the effort seems somewhat unnecessary. A dedicated team of 1,000 might complete the task in ten years, although the attrition rate would probably be prohibitive and result in the organiser being actively disliked. Suffice it to conclude a lot of people have a lot to say on the subject.

It is only fair at this juncture to admit, yet again, there is within me a not so latent flaw which persistently inhibits any possible success; this being as my wife wearily reminds me ‘You will not be told’ . Thus if anyone even intimates to me how my writing should be done, at best they receive a politely vague comment and communication withers. Therefore there is a certain bias in this post; my apologies.

Considering the number of hits again. It cannot be denied that amongst all the comments and advice on the subject there has to be a certain diversion of view as to what constitutes ‘Show’ and what might be thought of as ‘Tell’. From this, taking into account all other Human responses to ‘Subjects’, ‘Beliefs’, ‘Outlooks’ and so forth, some of these diversions would be quite strong, if not, one fears verbally ‘violent’. Now whereas the proponents can have a thoroughly cathartic time arguing with each other and suggesting their opponent is displaying ignorance or heresy on the matter, none of this is of assistance the poor help-seeking writer, who at times, battered and buffeted by storms of advice must feel something akin to a literary sea-sickness.

One equitable solution for a writer experiencing problems in this area, would be to turn their back on the various advice books, columns, posts and writing exercises to simply read (or listen if they have a taste for audio books) thus be witness to a number of published writers at work. The choice should be very broad and should steer from the very successful who are sometimes indulged by the publishing process because their name ‘sells’. Far better to seek out those of more modest achievements who still need to rely on every bit of their art and skill to keep their audiences.

This is not a suggestion the writer should try and copy styles, more a question of absorbing the various approaches and bringing them to their own style. Because, I daresay when the various Show Don’t Tell  advisors visit books there will be levels of disagreement as to where Show or Tell started or finished at one particular part and whether either should or should not have been used.

Writing is a constant learning process, with a vast panorama of ways and means by which the writer reaches the conclusion of their work. Far better to absorb an empathy with Show Don’t Tell than to struggle to attain it by some dangerously close to mechanical process.

Keep on writing. No matter what.

Musings on Writing (Another series). One Other Benefit of Being Inside Those Characters.

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There is a collection of viewpoints around the idea that a writer of fiction involving action (in its broadest sense) should not spend too long narrating the internal workings of a character particularly when they are engaged in being ‘active’ as it detracts from the flow of that particular interlude.

This is a worthy point. I have read a war fiction where one member of a gun team recounts in two long paragraphs the entire experience of an injustice done to his father while said team member is loading ammunition into the gun, as a very large tank bears down on said team. He was either a very quick talker or it was a very slow tank; the reactions of the the other team members were not recorded. I leave it up to you how you would feel about being partnered with this voluble and probably slowest loader in the army. And yet the book was commercially published and part of a successful series, in which similar diversions took place. We have entered editorial ‘Go Figure’  territory. 

That said internal dialogue or observation from a third party standpoint do play their part in building up tension, in the right context. Such as the journey to an ‘active’ scene; be it physical, verbal or emotional. Or the interlude where the writer and reader are sharing a ‘How does the character get out of this one?’ / ‘What will they do next?’ 

Overall this is a topic which could cover several posts and numerous discussions; leading off to whether ‘that action’ is necessary as it detracts from the character who has become more interesting than the original plot and other compelling  sideroads.     

To go back to the original point though. This can be a challenge when there is more than one major character and a couple of minor characters of some importance. Although angst heavy inner monologues at every turn should be avoided, when scenes involve interactions or individuals taking decisions some internal ‘splaining’ is necessary. (Which is why some books are longer than others).

At the end of the day; chapter or book there is that Other Benefit.

After all of the effort of going into motivations, clarifications, and justifications, after digging deep into presenting the character(s) and all the rest of the sweat….

You can develop a reasonably good sense of self-analysis for those times when things are just not going your way and learn to ride / surf / glide through them. (Although if you have been writing fantasy, a sense proportion about carrying large axes or double handed swords is advisable).

Learn from your characters, some of them are pretty shrewd and thoughtful folk.