Sneak Peek: Making Sausages (Patreon)

The February sneak-peek is less about content and more about behind-the-scenes. I seem to be taking a big turn on current work & thought I’d explain a bit.

So the thing about writing a novel is how it takes a long time and it’s mostly done in solitude. Readers generally don’t see all the stuff you scrap, things you go back and revise, and story beats you didn’t plan at all until you suddenly realize they’re necessary—and then go all the way back to the beginning to set up in the first place. Y’know, like you planned it all along, ‘cause you’re a genius.

The reader also generally doesn’t see when and where you get stuck.

“Plotting vs Pantsing” is a common topic for conventions, writer workshops, etc. A “plotter” is one who outlines and works out their story ahead of writing it. “Pantsing” is “writing by the seat of your pants,” also known as making it up as you go along. The truth is there’s no pure way of doing this—writing almost always involves a little of both—and anyone who tells you there’s only one way to be a pro at this is telling you what works for them. For much of my career, I’ve been a “pantser,” because it’s how I like to write and because I feel drawn to the complete lack of dignity in that term.

Pantsing is how we got Good Intentions. I’ve talked before about how that book really isn’t the story I set out to write. Rachel originally sort of swerved between antagonist and ally, Lorelei was gonna claw back her personal empire, and the larger ensemble wasn’t even in my mind. I’m happier with what I got, obviously. But even Good Intentions came from a different sort of unseen change in my writing. At the time, I was several chapters into Poor Man’s Fight, and I got stuck and needed to write something else.

Where did I get stuck? I wasn’t sure if Einstein was enough of an asshole in basic training. That’s all. I wrestled for a long time with “how much of an asshole can he be before he gets thrown out, and is that asshole enough?” The answer was that he was already the right amount of asshole and I didn’t have to change anything. But that speed bump got me Good Intentions, and that story was the real start of my career. (Thanks, Einstein!)

Beginnings are usually the easier part for me. Figuring out those opening lines is hard, but I almost always know the kick off of a story. With PMF, I knew the climax beats to books 1 and 2 from the start, and had to work my way there, so I was “pantsing” in the middle. But Dead Man’s Debt had a lot more of that pantsing. It probably looks all planned out, and yeah I had some vague ideas, but so much of that was figured out as I went. Hell, I didn’t even really plan on Christina Walters being so significant at the end; she entered the book entirely because a friend said, “Hey, I want to be a bad guy in your book!” and I was like “okay.” Then the climax approached and I suddenly realized just how fitting and critical she would be.

But again: pure “pantsing” is rare, as is pure plotting. I don’t even know what purity means there. Often, I get about 30k words into a story and then wonder if I’m sure of where I’m going, so I do at least a kind of flimsy outline of where I’ve been and where I hope to go to track myself—but even then, it’s full of question marks. Even for the ending.

To combat all this uncertainty and make myself a little more productive, I’m trying to outline more and figure out the big stumbling blocks in advance. That’s its own trick, but I can do that work early and feel like it’s settled or I can keep on fretting through the whole production process. I have the next Poor Man’s Fight novel maybe half outlined, and I know the general arc but I’m wrestling with some big middle-plot break points (more significant than “how much of an asshole is Einstein?”). In the meantime I thought I’d get myself through the dumpster fire of 2020 with the space opera I’ve been sharing here… which I was mostly pantsing.

I figured Riley & Selene’s untitled story would be easier, because it felt very Good Intentions In Space and that first GI flowed easily. It has a less structured setting than PMF. I planned to happily lean into some clear tropes. As it turns out, this is all harder, and it’s not going in the directions I wanted. I expected this to be happier and sillier, and while it’s not grim or morose I’m struggling to make the humor work easily. I’m also struggling with plot beats and general productivity. At some point I worry about how long a book will take and if it’ll be worthwhile when it launches. People will read it, sure, but they’d be happy to read other things that might not take as long, y’know?

This is a long way of me saying I fully plan to continue and finish Riley & Selene’s story, but I’m probably gonna set it aside for a bit. Normally I wouldn’t even feel like explaining that at all except for how I’ve shared so much of it here already. I’m concerned about setting expectations only to put them off into a nebulous future.

(All this is why I’m not down with the complaints people have about writers “taking too long” on a book. I’m not even a Game of Thrones reader, but wow do I sympathize with GRRM on that one issue. It takes as long as it takes.)

What does this mean?

Mostly it means I’ve felt a big pull toward a different story I set aside a while back—again, in a sort of GI vein—and I’m looking at others. I’m figuring out more of that next PMF book. And over the weekend I got the next Wandering Monsters book much more than half-outlined, including the big story beats at the end that usually tend to be so much work. This one has a different sort of ending than the usual ensemble-vs-gobs-of-enemies climaxes I tend to do. I don’t have it all worked out yet, but I like it.

The answers to my problems with Riley & Selene will come sooner or later. If they hit me tomorrow, I’ll jump back on them. But I’m gonna figure out something I can work on in order to keep producing. And in the meantime, I’ll also have another short story here at the end of the month. For now, though, I think I’m switching my WIP plan from R&S specifically over to “whichever book looks like it’ll finish and launch fastest.”

Apologies if that’s disappointing to anyone who’s already invested, or who feels like the last few months of posts here are now out of step. That book will happen. So will others.

And as always, thank you so much for sticking with me here. This page and your support and interest did a LOT to get me through last year. Things are better now. I’ve just gotta sort out where to go next.