{"id":3548,"date":"2015-02-16T16:00:46","date_gmt":"2015-02-16T16:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.howardandrewjones.com\/?p=3548"},"modified":"2015-02-16T19:44:17","modified_gmt":"2015-02-16T19:44:17","slug":"writing-updates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.howardandrewjones.com\/writing\/writing-updates","title":{"rendered":"Writing Updates"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.howardandrewjones.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/hulk-think.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1270\" src=\"http:\/\/www.howardandrewjones.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/hulk-think-300x115.jpg\" alt=\"hulk think\" width=\"300\" height=\"115\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.howardandrewjones.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/hulk-think-300x115.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.howardandrewjones.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/hulk-think.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>I’m still learning, and that’s good. It means I’m not dead.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.howardandrewjones.com\/writing\/a-few-outlining-thoughts\">my new outlining method<\/a> has really helped speed my writing process along, but I’ve still ended up with sections I didn’t need after having fleshed them out from the outline phase. I have to update <a href=\"http:\/\/www.howardandrewjones.com\/writing\/my-list-of-writing-mistakes\">my list of writing mistakes<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I’ll be adding several things.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>Don’t make things too complicated<\/strong>. A sprawling cast may work great for some but I need to keep my sprawl to\u00a0a minimum. I prefer writing a fast pace that picks up steam and continues to build. I think my work is at its best when I play to strengths. So — less sprawl.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.howardandrewjones.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/hulk-computer.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-3552\" src=\"http:\/\/www.howardandrewjones.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/hulk-computer-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"hulk computer\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.howardandrewjones.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/hulk-computer-300x200.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.howardandrewjones.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/hulk-computer.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Stop taking on too many projects<\/strong>. I keep thinking that because I’ve gotten wiser about this writing stuff that I can turn into a prose machine and crank stories\u00a0out that are in top form by second draft. I’m currently in the midst of four projects with the potential for a short fifth looming. That’s three too many. I need downtime or all the writing suffers. Right now I’m trying to invigorate various projects by shifting between them, which is good and bad.<\/p>\n<p>I’m going to underline two earlier entries from my list of writing mistakes\u00a0so I’m ultra sure I pay attention to them. As always, I need to <strong>make sure I know what every character wants before I write the scene<\/strong>. Also, I need to<strong> be in my\u00a0character\u2019s head and see through his\/her eyes<\/strong>. I ran into problems with my Paizo novels, written with such glee last summer, because of these two issues, particularly the second. Yes, I was able to draft\u00a0them quickly because I stayed to an outline that mostly worked. Yet changes had to be made. While they weren’t plot level edits\u00a0(thanks to the outline, the structure was quite solid) once I had the dialogue in place I didn’t do a very good job of getting into many of the\u00a0characters’ heads until another month or two of passes.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.howardandrewjones.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/hulk-drive.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-3553\" src=\"http:\/\/www.howardandrewjones.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/hulk-drive.jpg\" alt=\"hulk drive\" width=\"262\" height=\"192\" \/><\/a>It turns out that’s one of the bugs of my outlining method. If I’m\u00a0used to knowing what the characters’ motivations are and am\u00a0used to seeing the text as bare description\u00a0with dialogue (as with a play), I\u00a0can fool myself\u00a0into thinking that everyone else who sees the prose will be on the “same page.” And that’s not necessarily true. I’m writing adventure stories, so the intent\u00a0has to be clear. I have to make sure that not only can I see where I’m going when I’m driving down the plot lines, but that the readers will be intrigued as well.<\/p>\n<p>The other main bug to the outline method I’m using is that I can get attached to ideas and characters that are interesting in concept but don’t add to the overall pacing. For what I want, Pacing is an essential ingredient, and I shouldn’t get distracted by pretty lights. Instead of wording the mistake as\u00a0Don’t make things too complicated as I did\u00a0above, perhaps it should be\u00a0<strong>Keep things streamlined<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Off topic, Chris Hocking and I will be bringing back <a href=\"http:\/\/www.howardandrewjones.com\/category\/hardboiled-noir\/hardboiled-monday\">Hardboiled Mondays<\/a> as an occasional feature, perhaps once or twice a month. I think every Monday being hardboiled was starting to burn us out and perhaps wear thin for site visitors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I’m still learning, and that’s good. It means I’m not dead. Yes, my new outlining method has really helped speed my writing process along, but I’ve still ended up with sections I didn’t need after having fleshed them out from the outline phase. I have to update my list of writing mistakes. I’ll be adding […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.howardandrewjones.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.howardandrewjones.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.howardandrewjones.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.howardandrewjones.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.howardandrewjones.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3548"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.howardandrewjones.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3557,"href":"http:\/\/www.howardandrewjones.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3548\/revisions\/3557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.howardandrewjones.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.howardandrewjones.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.howardandrewjones.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}