Breakthrough.

One challenge in creating an enjoyable story is making it stand up to basic human realities. As you are writing, it is easy to get wrapped up in the details and forget that your characters (and the readers) are human and act logically according to necessity and free will. Ignoring this leads to forgettable fiction. An easy way to test validity is to ask one question as you are writing: Why? 

Why does a character do something? Why does the story move a certain way? Why as the reader should we believe the premise? Why do we care?

Today, I think I finally answered a major why question that has been troubling me on this writing project.

Read More

More of the same.

Edited the wiki tonight. Still developing plot for what I am planning to be three complete novels. Trying to make this airtight so that I don’t have to come up with weak answers later for things not really planned. Which is both good and bad. Some things are likely better unplanned, but I’m just a tad OCD. So it goes.

Continuation.

Still cleaning up the wiki this morning. Connected some old fuzzy dots and now the origination of the story is becoming much more clear.

Back on track.

Editing the SUBJEKS wiki like mad today. Adding links and cleaning up a lot of bookmarked information.

At SXSW

Had the Dublin retreat but ended up getting sick the last week I was there. Have been brainstorming a lot on who the hero of the story is supposed to be. While most of the scenery is in place, and a lot of characters are present, it is still a little unclear who the hero might be. It reminds of something I heard about early iterations of Star Wars, and how Luke was an old general instead of a young novice. That’s the kind of decisions I’m involved with right now. Sitting in my hotel room looking out at Trinity Street pondering these things on the eve of SXSW 2012.

Retreat

Spending a couple of weeks on our Dublin home to research and write more for 1947. Goal is to get a treatment together to have in case of emergency, or opportunity, at SXSW.

Codename.

Title of first book is not determined yet. The codename for it will be 1947.

Field trip.

A field trip is in order. Possibly two field trips. With all of the reading work about places, it would be beneficial to reach out and touch some of the locations being written about in SUBJEKS.

One location is relatively close to me, in nearby Montauk, New York. A simple trip by car. And as long as I’m driving by it on my way, I might as well throw in a requisite Hamptons visit. It shouldn’t be all work and no play.

Another location on the research trip roster is Roswell, New Mexico, which surprisingly (to me) is a location that I have not ever visited in my life. Both of these places will figure into the story setting, and while I have done much book research on both places, especially upon the latter, the whole experience would be better served by a couple of field trips. For research.

Currently also working on coming up with a title or meaningful/descriptive code-name as a placeholder for the the first novel.  In my head, and on paper, the whole SUBJEKS project is beginning to take shape as a trilogy. A title can always changes, no doubt, and I don’t mean to worry about what to call my first book at this point. This intent is more one of encapsulating the project with a stamp of professionalism. so that I may cease calling it the very uninformative “My writing project”, or the familiar “You know, the story I’m working on”. Even the apt title of “SUBJEKS” doesn’t work, since right now no one even knows what that means but me.

Tweak.

Will be doing a bit of design changes to this theme. Haven’t played with CSS/XMTHL is some time. Trying to also figure out the Tumblr stuff so if things seems chaotic please pardon the dust my legions of loyal followers.