Post #214 May 18 2020

“Update on Downloads and More Thoughts About Series Writing”

I recently uploaded a new title in my Quantum Troopers Return series to Smashwords.com.  It’s entitled Episode 4: Deep Encounter and has been doing pretty well.  Below, I’ve tabulated the total, cumulative downloads for all my ebook titles, roughly by series and category.

Tales of the Quantum Corps:  9842

The Farpool Stories: 6387

Quantum Troopers:  20,648

Time Jumpers: 2482

All Others*:  6068

*This catch-all category includes 3 horror stories, 3 alternate-history novels, two collections of short science fiction and early downloads from 2020 for Quantum Troopers Return.

Total cumulative downloads as of 8 May 2020 are at 45,427.

Those are the hard numbers.  As you can see, much of my sf is in series form.  Although I’ve posted on the challenges of series writing before, I’d like to add a few more thoughts on this topic. 

Many science fiction writers do series stories.  There are some definite advantages.  One is that you can ‘amortize’ your research and development of fictional worlds (very important in sf) across many titles.  It takes time and hard work to develop an alien world set in a galaxy far, far away and be consistent and somewhat scientifically accurate.  Series writing in sf enables you to have a ready-made setting to drop your story into…all you need is a plot line.  Usually, series also have continuing characters.  You don’t have to re-describe Flash Whizbang each time, since presumably the readers already know a lot about him.  Think Tom Swift, Nancy Drew or even better, Sherlock Holmes. 

But there are definitely challenges and pitfalls in writing a series too.  You’re constrained (to some degree) by what you’ve written before.  The longer a series goes, the more detailed your notes had better be, since nobody can keep all those myriad details in their head…except your readers, who will surely let you know that in story #1, Flash was blond with two heads and in Story #5, you describe Flash as brown haired with tentacles.  Take notes.  Consistency is vital in series writing.

That said, you’d like to have a character who can meet challenges and grow and change in resolving them, as real people do.  Which means, you can either plot this growth out ahead of time or just write the stories and be surprised by what Flash develops into as he evolves in your mind and on paper.  Actually, I do a little of both and I suspect many authors of series do as well.  Ideally, your main characters have enough imaginary room to evolve as the series goes on.  We see this in TV as well, which lends itself well to series stories and characters.  When developing and writing series fiction, know your main characters well.

Another issue in writing series fiction is coming up with ideas for plots.  This really should be pretty well thought out ahead of time.  There should be an overall story arc for the series, into which your individual stories will fit, perhaps chronologically or in some way thematically.  The story arc should be something that can be stated in a single sentence. Here’s what I said at the beginning of each episode of my new Quantum Troopers Return series:

1. Quantum Troopers Return is a series of 25,000-30,000-word episodes detailing the adventures of Johnny Winger and his experiences as a quantum trooper with the United Nations Quantum Corps.  This series continues the original serial stories of Quantum Troopers, Episodes 1-22 (formerly Nanotroopers).
2. Each episode will be about 40-60 pages, approximately 30,000 words in length.
3. A new episode will be available and uploaded every 4 weeks.
4. There will be 10 episodes.  The story will be completely serialized in about 12 months.
5. Each episode is a stand-alone story but will advance the greater theme and plot of the story arc. 
6. The main plotline: U.N. Quantum Corps must defeat the criminal cartel Red Harmony’s efforts to use their nanorobotic ANAD systems for the cartel’s own nefarious and illegal purposes.
    
   Does this work?  Apparently, 20,671 readers think so (Quantum Troopers and Quantum Troopers Return).
    
   Sometimes series just develop without authorial intention.  That’s what happened to my series The Farpool Stories.  Originally, there was only The Farpool.  But the reader response was sufficient for me to consider writing another story with the same characters and same setting, with some expansions and adjustments.  After the second book, I decided to make the Farpool stories a formal series and plot out a story trajectory that would make sense.  Now five books have been uploaded and I’m planning three more.  And, through the wonders of wormholes and time travel, the series will come back to the place it originally started, albeit in a different time stream.  You gotta love science fiction.
    
   The next post to The Word Shed comes on May 25, 2020.
    
   See you then.
    
   Phil B.
    
    
    
    

 

 

Post #213 May 11, 2020

“Researching a Story”

Every writer of stories, however long or short, does research.  Why research?  To make for more believable background.  To be consistent across the length of the story (especially important in a novel).  To provide detail for characters so you don’t give the main character blond hair on page 1 and a dark pony-tail on page 100. 

Here are some of my insights about researching a story and how much of your hard-won research should be included.

1. Less is more.  If in doubt, leave it out.  Many writers spend so much time researching and developing background that they feel compelled to put it all end, to justify the effort.  If it doesn’t advance the story, don’t do it.
2. Don’t expect to include everything.  A little goes a long way.  Suggest and imply a lot.  Pick memorable details, unique details.  If it’s something the reader should know, be accurate.
3. Thoroughness. As an example, one of my novels in the series Tales of the Quantum Corps story, ‘Johnny Winger and the Europa Quandary’, has files covering maps of Boise, Idaho, Hoover Dam, Inuit culture, Interpol, Mombasa details and background on Wyatt Earp.  Talk about eclectic.  Is all of included in the story?  Not all…just what is needed.
4. My character sketches have physical descriptions, brief (chronological) biographies, and personality and character analysis.  I don’t hesitate to deviate.  Some writers prefer to wing it but I like to know my characters in great detail, indeed, I try to put myself into their shoes and become them.  This makes for a schizophrenic home life, but I have an understanding wife.
5. If you can’t find a detail, make it up.  Imagine something similar.  I had to develop some details about growing or regenerating my nanoscale robotic devices in Tales of the Quantum Corps.  I’ve got a list that spans 3 pages.  And I’ve used it many times in these stories.   Verisimilitude is the operative word…resemblance to the truth.
6. A few words about naming characters.  Every author has his or her own technique for giving names to characters.  I like to use maps and atlases. Many cities and towns in countries all over the world are named for people.  Scan maps and pick one.  Tweak it if you have to.  You’ll come up with some memorable names. 
7. There are a plethora of books in the world of SF on world-building.  Alien worlds in your SF stories should be scientifically accurate and internally consistent.  It’s okay to develop your imaginary world in detail.  It’s not really okay to include every detail in the story.  I did include an Appendix to my novel The Farpool, which has an oceanic world called Seome.  It has notes on the biology of this world, their language, cities, history, cultural concepts, etc.  I worked some of this in as the story progressed, but I tried to stay on plot as far as the story goes. 
8. Remember: setting should serve the needs of the story and never get in the way of advancing the story.  Details for the sake of details…a no-no. 
9. Atmosphere is more than details of setting.  It’s how characters react to the setting.  It’s what they do in the setting.  Setting is a tool.  Good research makes setting a useable tool, useful for many things. 
10. Best sources for research: Wikipedia, Google and your own experience and imagination. To put the reader there, you have to be there…what do you see, hear and smell?  Research details that engage all senses.  Use senses other than visual. 
     
    These are just some thoughts on how much research to do in developing your story idea and how much to include in the story.
     
    The next post to The Word Shed will be in Monday, May 18.
     
    See you then.
     
    Phil B.

Post #212 May 4 2020

“Update on Monument, Other Projects and the Process”

I’m using this post to provide an update on my work-in-progress science fiction novel Monument.  I have as of this writing (4-27-20) completed 184 pages, some 100,000 words.  I’m at Chapter 15 of a planned 17 chapters.  I hope to be able to finish the first draft in mid-May, at which point I’ll resume writing episodes of Quantum Troopers Return.

But, as to Monument, after the first draft, what next?

My normal practice is to do a complete re-read of the entire story, to clean things up, fix obvious mistakes and gaffes and grammatical problems.  I’ll be looking to see how the story would read to an uninterested reader.  Are there gaping holes in the plot?  Do the setting descriptions ring true?  Are the characters believable, in motivations, in their dialogue, in their actions?  Do the main characters grow or change in the story?  Is the main storyline strong enough to keep readers turning the page?

I’ve had to ask myself several times in telling this story just whose story it is?  The story, as written, is a bit episodic and may need some tightening up, focusing on the main character and what he’s dealing with.  The re-reads will tell and they will likely lead to some re-writes of key sections.  That’s normal editing.

Then, it’s finalizing. I have to write short and long story descriptions for Smashwords.com, my distributor.  I have to make the sure the cover works.  I have to spellcheck, one of the last steps.  Then I have to make a file format conversion into the format Smashwords needs.  After that, I’ll do a quick page-through one last time and then archive it for a few weeks, so see if anything else comes to mind.  After that comes the first upload.

I anticipate being very close to the end of the first draft, if not finished, by about May 19, which I have designated as my return to Quantum Troopers Return.  If all goes well, readers should have a first chance to download the story sometime toward the end of the summer.

I’m still doing background for my alternate-history novel The Eureka Gambit but the outline is done and I’m hoping to begin the first draft of this project in the fall, say by November 1.  That is just an aspiration, at this point.

Year to date, I’ve had 2611 downloads of all my titles, including about 15 of the Quantum Troopers Return series, the first three episodes of which are priced at $0.99.  All other titles are free, for the time being. 

It’s a busy life and thankfully one not greatly affected by the coronavirus pandemic.  This onset of this virus has made me more cognizant of what writers and storytellers have done in the past when plagues occurred.  Some great literature has come out of desperate times, and I’m not just talking about apocalyptic stories, of which there are plenty.  I did a post about this a month ago, so check that out. 

My feeling, supported by other authors and sales figures, is that in difficult times like these, people really want and need to be able to escape from their normal lives for a few hours.  I think this is behind the great popularity of fantasy stories today, and of course science fiction, even romance stories, speak to this same need.   Two of the most popular stories and story series of this generation are Harry Potter and Game of Thrones, both straight fantasy series. 

People want to escape.

That puts the onus on us storytellers to imagine and create both entertaining and uplifting stories that provide an alternate universe into which readers and TV and film goers can enter and live vicariously as other people.  All good fiction and storytelling does this.  I hope in future posts to go back to one of my favorite subjects…just how do you go about creating and sustaining this kind of imaginary world?  In approaching this subject, I’ll use one of my own imaginary creations…the Farpool Stories…as an example.

Look for it.

The next post comes on May 11, 2020.

See you then.

Phil B.

 

 

 

 

Post #211 April 27 2020

“The Farpool Stories Redux”

Like many writers, I have to plan ahead for what I want to do next.  Sometimes I plan ahead several years.  This year I am working on two projects: the series Quantum Troopers Return (Episodes 1-3 already available) and my science fiction novel Monument.  My next project will be an alternate-history novel entitled The Eureka Gambit, available sometime in mid to late 2021.

Then what?

After some thought about this, I’ve decided to return to the world of The Farpool Stories.  As of this week, there have been some 6351 downloads of titles in this series.  Here are the available titles: The Farpool, The Farpool: Marauders of Seome, The Farpool: Exodus, The Farpool: Convergence and The Farpool: Union.  It’s time I went back to this world and extended it.

 Here’s how I introduced this series to new readers:

Chase Meyer and Angie Gilliam seem like normal teenagers…until a waterspout catapults them across the Galaxy to an ocean world called Seome.  It’s a world with an intelligent marine civilization, but riven by conflict, host to a Uman base fighting a menace from deep space. Now Chase and Angie find themselves in the midst of an existential crisis.  Chase wants to stay behind to work with his new–found Seomish friends, to help the Umans fight off their enemy before the Coethi attack again. But the challenge is this: the Umans are losing against the Coethi and the star-sun Sigma Albeth B is doomed to supernova, obliterating Seome and its ancient civilization. The only hope for the Seomish is mass emigration, through the Farpool, to the oceans of Earth. 

The decision Chase and Angie make may send them safely back through time and space to their home world.  But that same decision may well doom their Seomish friends to complete annihilation at the hands of the Coethi. 

It will be the hardest decision Chase and Angie have ever made.

Re-starting an existing series after a several-year hiatus won’t be easy.  I need to re-read the existing works and much of the background material to get my head back in this imaginary universe.  I need to decide where to take the story arc from where I left it.  What about timelines?  Do I keep the same main characters?  Are they even alive or have their descendants taken over the story?  So many questions.

Here’s what I am thinking about to continue this series:

Three more titles to follow about fifty years from the conclusion of The Farpool: Union.  Here are the proposed titles and capsule descriptions of the stories…

The Farpool: Plague -in this story (circa 2195 AD), much of Humanity is lost to plague; Amphibs have infected Man but survive and inherit most of human civilization, including leadership roles in many fields.

The Farpool: Diaspora – in this story (circa 2200-2285), Amphibs and a few humans expand and settle the solar system; major base at Europa

The Farpool: Destiny – in this story (circa 2290-2345), Amphibs expand to and explore nearer star systems; encounter and battle the Coethi; eventually, enter into a treaty with Coethi to stop the conflict; galactic spheres of influence are created; first extra-galactic expeditions planned with Coethi alliance and assistance.

These titles and stories are just a first cut at extending the series The Farpool Stories.  I don’t anticipate getting to these projects until late 2021 or early 2022.  The first title likely wouldn’t be available until late 2022.

Stay tuned for more details.  By the way, I just updated my downloads for calendar year 2020 and as of this blog post, some 2547 downloads have been done of my titles.  I have put a small price of $0.99 on Quantum Troopers Return, with (so far) just minimal downloads of these.  All other titles are doing well, however.

The next post to The Word Shed comes on May 4.

See you then.

Phil B.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Post #210 April 20, 2020

“Ebook Marketing”

I’m dedicating this post to ongoing marketing efforts.  When you write books that are available as ebooks on web sites such as Smashwords.com or other ebook retailers like Barnes and Noble and Apple ibooks, you have to be aware that ebooks are marketed somewhat differently from print books.

In ebooks, downloads are key.  Full or partial downloads are the ebook equivalent of browsing in a bookstore.  Since many of my ebooks are set to free in price (more on that in a moment), downloads are the best barometer of interest from readers. 

Now back to marketing.  Why set an ebook to free?  There are many reasons but one is simply this: some of my titles weren’t being downloaded that much.  Smashwords offers all kind of tools and advice on ebook marketing.  If your ebook isn’t moving, you’re not making any sales.  If it’s dead in the water, make it free.  I tried this myself and it works.  I saw an immediate spike in the affected ebooks.  I think it has to do with readers being willing to take a chance on an unknown author…they’re intrigued enough to read the description and peruse the cover image, and being free may just push them to click on ‘download’ and take a chance.

It’s all about building an audience.  Of course, it goes without saying that your book needs to be well-written enough to keep them coming back…in fact, your book needs to grab the reader by the lapel and smack them upside the head, then knock their socks off.  But then that’s true of any book, print or ebook.

Last year, I had over 24,000 downloads across all titles.  Due to these numbers, many of my writer friends suggested I started putting small prices back on some of my titles.  Toward that end, I have priced episodes of my new series Quantum Troopers Return at $0.99 per episode.   So far, downloads have been disappointingly minimal.  I’ve left all other titles free for now.  What does this mean?  There are several possibilities I’ll have to face.  One, maybe the stories just aren’t that interesting.  Two, with so much of my work free, potential readers are balking at putting out anything (even 99 cents) for new titles.  Three, there is more I could do to jazz up downloads of these new titles.  More on that later.  

In previous posts, I have mentioned perusing covers.  Don’t let anyone kid you: covers matter…a lot.  Whether on a web site or in a bookstore, covers grab attention and direct reader eyes to your book.  There are plenty of authors whose ebooks were wallowing in the doldrums and who sprang for snazzy professional covers and found big spikes in their sales and downloads.  You can’t afford not to do that.

Having said that, I plan on doing the very same thing.  Six of my early titles (the Johnny Winger books) are part of a series called Tales of the Quantum Corps.  My next step to rev up downloads in this series (note that all books in the series have been priced at FREE) is to spring for a professional ebook cover designer to work with me and come up with a series of themed covers for the series…covers that have a consistent, eye-popping look with minor variations to distinguish the different titles. 

I’ll probably try this with the Quantum Troopers Return series too, once I get further into it and possibly with other titles as well as potential follow-ons to that story series.  And I’ll let you know what happens.

There are plenty of other ebook marketing techniques offered by Smashwords, such as preorders, but I’ll cover those in later posts.

Next post will come on April 27.  In that post, I’ll go back to the world of The Farpool Stories and let you know what I am thinking regarding future titles over the next few years.

See you then.

Phil B.

 

 

Post #209 April 13 2020

“Showing and Telling”

There is a long tradition in storytelling that says something like this: Show, don’t tell.  This means that, all else being equal, it’s better to show how much Johnny loves Katie rather than tell us that Johnny loves Katie.  This dictum is saying that, for maximum impact on the reader, to engage the reader in your story, dramatize what Johnny does to illustrate how much he loves Katie.  Maybe he buys roses (if he has enough money and works two jobs).  Maybe he stands outside her window and throws rocks late at night to get her attention (though nowadays that would be considered creepy and probably trespassing, if not stalking).  Maybe he Instagrams cute little love-grams starring him and his cat.

Whatever.  The point is that your reader will engage with the story and its characters more completely if he can ‘experience’ loving Katie through what Johnny does.  It’s supposed to be more engaging than having you as the author just say Johnny loves Katie and leaving it at that.

Except this isn’t always true.  To paraphrase Ecclesiastes, there is a time to show and there is a time to tell.

1.  When to show
    
   You show when you want to move the story forward, which should pretty much be all the time.  If a scene or an encounter is important to the story and the plot, dramatize it.  Show the reader what happens, who does what, who says what, how Johnny shaved off his hair out of love for Katie. 
    
   You show when your scene involves the main character, when you want to illuminate something about this character.  Why is Johnny so smitten with Katie?  You could tell the reader.  But it’s more powerful if you show Johnny doing something that leads the reader to make his own conclusions about the depth of Johnny’s infatuation with this girl.
    
   You show when you need to illustrate or demonstrate or elaborate critical points in the plot.  I am working on a science fiction novel called Monument these days, which involves two architects of the future and how their efforts to build a legacy project (in this story of the future, architects can build whole worlds) conflict with each other.  There are people violently opposed to their work.  I could just tell you what these opponents do but, in most cases, I’ve elected to show you what they do to oppose these architects.
    
   You show scenes when you really want to capture the reader’s immediate attention.  Remember, readers read your story to be entertained and to identify and live vicariously through your characters.
    
2. When to tell
    
   You tell, which means narrate, if by showing a scene that’s not critical to the story line, the story seems in danger of bogging down in details.  Storytelling is about pace and timing as much as character and setting.  You can’t show everything and you shouldn’t.
    
   You tell when what is happening isn’t that relevant to the main story line but needs to be included for continuity or clarity.  It’s like when movies of old used flashing newspaper headlines or spinning clocks to give the viewer the impression of passing time…kind of the cinematic equivalent of literary ‘telling.’  Or the filmmaker may use voice-over narration to achieve the same thing.
    
   You show when you need to advance the story’s internal clock by a significant period of time (see above).
    
   In many of my novels, I tell and speed up the timeline of the story by using ‘news reports’ from reporters of a fictitious news organization called SolNet.  The reporters interview key people or just report to you, the reader, what has been happening.  By doing this, I can telescope time and advance the story without having to dramatize or show every little detail.
    
3. You can mix both showing and telling

You could do what many storytellers do by showing a little and telling a little.  This kind of variety is good in that keeps the reader interested in seeing what happens next.  It also allows the author, as narrator, to insert commentary and shape reader reactions directly.

 

In general, it is better to show rather than tell, but in this post, I wanted to make the case that there is room for both and provide reasons for when to use each one.  Both have a role to play in telling a story.  The real choice to be made is when you decide what moves the story along best.  The needs of the story should drive every decision you make. 

The next post to The Word Shed comes on April 20.  Have a happy Easter and we’ll see you then.

Phil B.

 

 

 

Post #208 April 6 2020

“Plagues and Writers”

Plague stories have a long tradition in the world of literature.  To my way of thinking, such stories are a part of the larger apocalyptic tradition…stories of the end times.  Stephen King’s The Stand comes to mind, when we speak of plague stories.  In fact, I just finished reading Stephen Baxter’s Ark, about a world that has been totally flooded and the few survivors escape the ensuing chaos in a starship headed for a distant world…not specifically a plague story but very much in the same vein.

 What makes for a good plague story?  Below, I’ve come up with a few ideas.

1. Plague stories are thick with a sense of fear, ultimate doom, and the end times.  Apocalypse is the word that comes to mind.  We get this word from the Greek word for revelation.  Plague stories often deal with implacable, invisible enemies.
2. To be successful, plague stories must provoke a sense of empathy for the main characters.  This kind of story is usually done with a broad brush, so it’s better to dramatize things by experiencing it through the eyes of a selected few characters.  There are often lots of people in these stories, the poor souls.  Many of them are essentially cannon fodder for the storyteller, dying in grotesque ways, often in great numbers.
3. Many plague stories are known for sweeping settings and ghoulish depictions of the horror, made worse because you can’t see the enemy and no amount of money or resources can hold it off.  One of the delights that readers get from these stories is seeing the upper strata of society get the same treatment as the little people…a cruel sense of justice prevails as everybody suffers equally.
4. As mentioned, plague stories are very much in the tradition of most apocalyptic stories.  Today, we see stories of this type often dealing with environmental or climatic disasters.  Kim Stanley Robinson’s New York 2140 comes to mind and there are many others. 
5. Many plague stories offer some kind of redemptive resolution at the end.  The characters heal and learn new things about themselves, their families and neighbors and society.  Plague stories sometimes resolve themselves with a kind of ‘love overcomes all’ theme, even overcoming gruesome disease and death.  Also, we see how critical togetherness is for the main characters, as misery loves company.
    
   Many years ago, I began my series of sf novels Tales of the Quantum Corps, with a book called Johnny Winger and the Serengeti Factor (still available online at Smashwords.com and other fine ebook retailers).  In this story and the ensuing titles in Tales, I describe the development and employment of a nano-scale robotic entity which has some of the characteristics of a programmable virus.  I called it ANAD, for Autonomous Nanoscale Assembler/Disassembler.  Though technically a very small robot, ANAD has a processor architecture based in part on the discovered genome of an ancient virus, a virus left on Earth by ancient extraterrestrial visitors, who had planned that Evolution would make their virus the dominant lifeform on this planet.  Of course, that didn’t work out (so far), so much of the series deals with the growing understanding that the Old Ones are coming back to fix this ‘mistake.’
   There are, of course, many well-known plague stories: The Plague (Albert Camus); Journal of the Plague Year (Daniel Defoe); The Andromeda Strain (Michael Crichton); The Last Man (Mary Shelley); and Mask of the Red Death (Edgar Allan Poe) are just some that come to mind.
    
   Face it: we love plague stories.   Why should this be such an enduring storytelling tradition? 

1. There but for the grace of God go I.  We can live vicariously in a dangerous time through these stories. 
2. We like to see memorable characters overcome great odds.
3. We like to believe that humanity can prevail even against great odds.  We seek resolution to problems that seem too big to have a resolution.

Perhaps there is no better example of this than a story from real life.  In 1665/66, Sir Isaac Newton fled London to escape the effects of the Black Death (aka, the bubonic plague).  Hunkering down at his family estate Woolsthorpe Manor, ripped from his career as an academic at Cambridge University, Newton was left with little to occupy his restless mind.  Yet out of this experience and during his enforced isolation, he developed the initial ideas for something he called “a method of fluxions,’ which today we know as modern Calculus.  There are even apocryphal stories that it was at this time that Newton witnessed an apple falling from a tree and began pondering something he would later call a Law of Universal Gravitation.

Done well, plague stories emphasize many aspects of human nature and society.  They give us a chance to live in another world, one which we wouldn’t normally chose to live in, and experience a full range of emotions and incidents, fear, love, togetherness, redemption, social justice, compassion and selfishness.  Plagues and plague stories seem to bring out both the best and worse in us.  In some ways, plague stories are a mirror in which we see ourselves for what we are: complicated moral beings simultaneously capable of both surpassing heights of compassion and devotion and unimaginable depths of depravity and greed, often at the same time.

The next post to The Word Shed comes on April 13, 2020.

See you then

Phil B.