I just remembered....I wrote books!

[Drunkscriblerian]

Recently I saw a member make a post in this section about how his wife had written a book, and it slapped me in the face like a wet fish...once upon a time., I also did that. So, figured I'd give you guys a link to maybe see what you think of my efforts.

https://www.amazon.com/Margin-Play-E.../dp/B00DVR32OK

Its private-eye fiction starring a female protagonist, so it might be fun for both you and your GF/wife. Anyhow, here's the blurb;

Amber Eckart is a Seattle investigator with a nose for truth and red ink in her books; bills are piling up, and the creditors are starting to get nasty. So when a downtown lawyer drops a big check on the table and asks her to poke at a dodgy foreclosure, it looks like the easy money she needs. But in the world of twenty-first century finance, little is simple...and less is sacred.

Hot on the trail of a stolen home, Amber finds a complex web of big money and shady deals - a development project with millions of dollars at stake and a cabal more than willing to play fast and loose with the law. With a trio of tech-savvy misfits riding shotgun, Amber must brave the margin between commerce and crime - a place where the shadows are deep, the dying is easy and the only way out is further in...

[StaticShocked]

Cool! I just picked them up and will let you know! They sound intriguing and the wife likes this kind as well.

[vijil]

I've tried to write a couple scifi books but I just find it too hard to stick at. Even though I'm really happy with the world I've created - it's very internally consistent, I know the physics, I'm great (I think) at worldbuilding, I just really struggle with putting everything together. The plot itself.

So I have writing questions. What's your process? How do you plan the plot?

[Drunkscriblerian]

I've tried to write a couple scifi books but I just find it too hard to stick at. Even though I'm really happy with the world I've created - it's very internally consistent, I know the physics, I'm great (I think) at worldbuilding, I just really struggle with putting everything together. The plot itself.

I feel that, its the main reason I got away from speculative fiction - I'd spend so much time on the minutia of worldbuilding that I'd never get around to writing anything story-related. Writing in the real world and present time gets away from that. During the writing process if I needed to know how something worked I'd either Google it or ask my GF to look it up for me (her internet search skills are much better than mine).

So I have writing questions. What's your process? How do you plan the plot?

I guess the best advice that I can give you there is what I did; keep the basic plot as straightforward as possible during the outline phase and spend more time making your characters as in-depth as possible. That way, during the writing of the initial draft you can use the characters' motivations, desires and personal goals to "complicate" the basic story in ways that will be consistent and believable to a reader.

Also, above all else GET THAT FIRST DRAFT WRITTEN. it can be clunky as hell, have plotholes a reader could drive a truck through, be shot full of grammatical errors...doesn't matter. The point is to get the basic idea for the story out of your head and into the computer as a completed manuscript. Think of the first draft like a proof-of-concept prototype; once its "built" you can see the flaws and correct them with iterative design steps ( a draft/edit process in this case). But just like you cannot tinker with a prototype that doesn't exist, you cannot edit a manuscript that hasn't been written.

As to how to do it, the only way is to...well...do it. Just keep pounding the keys and repeat the mantra "I can fix it later" anytime you write anything that makes you cringe. That was how the first few chapters of Margin Play went for me; writing them was an act of will over my desire to cringe and endlessly re-write. However, somewhere around Chapter 5 that changed. I found myself being "pulled" by the story instead of having to "push" the story. Once that happened the rest of the first draft (around 40,000 words) fell into place in less than a week.

So yeah, probably not the advice you wanted but that's what I got. At least that's what ended up working for me.

[William the Third]

Since my Mom is almost finished with Hobbes wife's book, I've ordered her your two book to read next.

[Drunkscriblerian]

That's awesome, thanks! I hope she likes them.