Plotting--mapped, not outlined

Some writers outline their books before they start to write. That's fine if it works for them, but it's not my way of doing it. I like to start with a vague idea and work my way through it one chapter at a time.

Today I found myself in a little bit of a lull in my day, wondering how to get to the dramatic ending of Sexton Sand, the 4th book in the Sexton Chronicles. I'm not stuck--I've been busy for the past several months trying to promote the other books in the series, my collection of short stories, and tinkering with my book about the 9 weeks I spent in Peru in 1987.

Step one: Stop playing around with the other stuff for the moment and finish this book. (It's one of my favorites.)

Step two: On a scrap piece of paper, I wrote the names of the 3 groups of main characters and their locations, with one group in the upper right corner, one in the middle left side, and one on the bottom.

Step three: In the lower right corner I wrote the whereabouts of each of the main characters at the end of the book. (I know the end, remember. It's the here to there I needed to work out.)

Step four: Drew arrows between where the characters are now and where the characters are at the end of the book.

Step five: On the lines between the arrowheads, I wrote a sentence summarizing the action that must occur in order to get them from where they are now to where they will be at the end of the book.

And now it's time to do Step six.

What's "Step Six?" Thanks for asking. Step Six is when I shut the hell up and get busy before I forget how to interpret this drawing...

Sexton--Start your adventure

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Sexton. I want to start the adventure

I see the ending now. Sexton Sand Update

I'm starting to get pressure to finish Sexton Sand, and I like that. I pointed out to someone that as much as I would like to force the ending to appear, and thus rush my finish of the book...I can't. I mean I literally can not. I kid about Ralph the Muse, but there is no muse per se. 

I've mentioned before that I don't outline my books. One chapter leads to the next and if I write one that doesn't fit, I kill it. It's a gift--not for greatness (judgement of that is up to the reader), but because it's something I didn't ask for but that I treasure.

I am now very happy to report that I know how Sexton Sand is going to end. Don't worry--I'm not going to tell you. You'll have to read it yourself. I promise you it'll be a cliffhanger. Now I know who will do what to whom and writing it will go quickly.

My plan is to have it ready for you to order from Lulu by April 1st, and Kindle and Nook by April 9. The delay between print and ebook has to do with the nitty-gritty formatting differences I have to do by hand.

My books honored 3 ways! (Author's pride)

The first honor: my college friend Phil Stiles purchased copies of Sexton, Sexton Spice, and Storm Clouds Over Sexton for the Melick Library at my alma mater, Eureka College.

The second honor was the letter I received today from Anthony R. Glass, the Director of the Melick Library. Here is an excerpt from the letter:

"Your work, volumes 1-3 of the Sexton Chronicles, now shares the same shelves as EC graduates as Benjamin Johnson Radford, Emory Ross, and of course, Ronald Reagan... I also wanted to let you know that these works are kept in our Archives and Special Collections...which in addition to continuing its role as college archives and special collections, will soon feature a nearly complete collection of the works by and about President Reagan."

The third, and in my opinion greatest honor, came from a good friend after I (with shameless pride) sent him a copy of the full letter from the college. He congratulated me for the honor of having my books placed with such good company, but really wants to know when I'm finally going go finish Sexton Sand!

Soon, John. I'll finish it soon.

"QWERTY" --why the keys are in that order

Have you ever wondered why the keys are in such a strange order on keyboards? I have. I've known this answer for years, but taking a break from writing Sexton Sand, I thought I'd share it with you.

"QWERTY" (pronounced Kwert-ee) is named for the order of the letters of the first row of letters on standard keyboards. It wasn't always that way. Initially, the keys were in alphabetical order.

The first typewriters (and they were made this way for many years) were mechanical devices. When the typist pushed a key, the key lifted a little hammer-like arm that smacked the letter against a ribbon that smacked against the paper and made a mark. Each key had it's own hammer-like arm.

If the typist went too fast, the little hammer-like arms made a metallic "clang" and stuck together. They had to be pushed back manually and resulted in ink smeared fingers and ink smeared pages.In 1878, a couple of smart guys (smartasses, too in my opinion) by the names of Christopher Sholes and Amos Densmore decided to slow typists down.

They slowed them down by arranging the letters on the keyboard so the important ones (like "a" and "s", etc.) were on the left side of the keyboard, and other important keys (like "m" for example) were on the lower right. The theory was that typists would have to hunt and peck and therefore would go slowly enough that jamming the machine would be the least of their worries.

Two things make this story a little humorous: 1) Typists in those days typed full-time. It didn't take them long to learn the new keyboard and start jamming keys all over again. 2) The other thing is human nature: if you make a major change like that--re-arranging a keyboard--the change will stick once the grousing stops and people get used to it.

As proof of #2, I submit the following: Take a look at your keyboard. Odds are very great it's a QWERTY keyboard.

Excerpt from Sexton Sand (Sexton Chronicles IV)

Andy is getting his first lesson in magic from Sarah:

  Sarah sat on one of the benches and crossed her legs. His eyes automatically went to her knees before he remembered she was dressed more like a nun than the erotic dancer she usually dressed like, or even the plain Jane she tried to dress like in Sexton. The thought made him miss both Sexton, and her legs. “Please sit,” she said.
   He took a seat on the bench across the room from her. She looked like she was waiting for him to say or do something. It seemed to him that it should be the other way around—she was the teacher—so he said nothing.        He looked at her and waited.
   No sound came through the only window in the room. No sound came from her. They looked at each other for what seemed like a long time. He looked away to glance at the stuff on the table, but none of it seemed to make sense. There were balls, and blocks, and a candle or two. Just stuff. He looked at her again and smiled the smile of a man waiting for a bus or a doctor’s appointment in a room with only one other person.
   At least five minutes went by. He couldn’t take it anymore. With the grace of a Neanderthal he said, “What?”
   “Interesting.” She smiled.
   “What?”
   More time went by. He wanted to laugh, but the image of her eating his face came back and the urge to laugh faded. Maybe she was waiting for him to get up and play with the stuff on the table. That made sense. There wasn’t anything else in the room, and she obviously didn’t feel like talking. He hoped this wasn’t going to be a repeat of the however long he spent with Raj under the library. “Are we just going to sit here and stare at each other for a while? Because if we are, I think I’d be more comfortable if you wore regular clothes.”
   Her eyes carried amusement her mouth didn’t show. “You have failed the first test.”

   “God, I hate it when that happens!” He grinned. “What test?”

   “You did not read my thoughts. It is nothing. Don’t concern yourself with it.”

   That settles it, he thought. He was thinking about the chic thing: the one where there’s something obviously on their mind, but that six wild horses, three mules, and Uncle Sam in a hoop skirt couldn’t drag from their lips...and when asked, they said nothing. “What’s the deal with the stuff on the table?”

Take it from the top! (A writing exercise)

I've mentioned before that I don't outline my books. I write without a net, enjoying the process for the process and the journey for the journey.

Sometimes that's not the best way. Don't get me wrong--I'm going to keep working that way because it works for me.

There's one downfall. If I stop writing for any length of time, there's a chance I'll forget where I was going. I did that with Sexton Sand.

Fortunately, I'm a fast typist. I can bang out 120 words per minute or more. Usually more. So...when I found myself wondering what happens in Chapter Sixty-seven and coming up with no answer, I started by printing the manuscript. 96,000 words.

Started typing. I can't just read the thing to get caught up with it again. If I start reading a pen appears in my hand as if by magic and I'm editing. For now the goal is to get back into the flow, the feel, the touch of the manuscript. Forward progress will resume in about a week.

Writing and remembering, "Everything is Tomorrow?"

I've been working on my new book, Everything is Tomorrow? about the nine weeks I spent in Peru in 1987. Peru wasn't very stable then. (Now it has a budding tourist industry and is a lot of fun) There were Maoist guerrilas (today, I suppose, some would call them terrorists) operating in most parts of the country. There were a couple present at our archeology camp--under the theory that we wouldn't be attacked if some of them were with us.
I remember most of it vividly. I'm using the journal I kept at the time as the "skeleton" of the work, and fleshing the rest of it out as I go. Interesting times. Dangerous times, too. It was a lot of fun. I plan to publish it at the end of February--or middle of March.
Remembering is not without it's costs, however small. I have pretty vivid dreams, and pulling a guy out of raging white water left a mark on me I can't deny. Still toss and turn a bit when that one comes up. It was successful, that rescue.
I hope you'll read the book when it comes out. It's an adventure I'd like to show you.

Sexton--excerpt from book 1

Three American teens lost in a world of swords and sorcery. Join the story as Tom Benton--first to go through the hole in the universe--lands in Sexton...

Tom closed his eyes when he dove through the hole. Nausea and black vertigo drove through his gut like a spike. He landed hard, skidded over wet pavement, and crashed into the branch that preceded his dive. He and the branch slid over a rough, wet surface and crashed into a wall. He thrashed against smaller branches and grappling twigs, and choked back a shout as he struggled to get up or at least free of the damn thing. Warm wet hunks of canned stew hit the pavement when he opened his eyes on his hands and knees. His back spasmed with uncontrolled vomiting and long seconds passed as drool fell from his lips and he fought to control his gut, his pulse, and his fear. He shoved the limb out of the way, pushed one leg up and stood.

Where's the hole? He was shaking. Wet, cold, scared, and shaking. The hole. It had to be here somewhere. Somewhere close. John and Andy would be in the rain on the other side, looking through at him. He turned in a circle and looked every direction. There was no hole--no John and Andy standing in the rain. No rain either for that matter. He was alone on a cobblestone street, just him and the branch he and Andy threw into the hole a minute ago. Think, Benton. Stop and think. He didn't know he was whispering, and wouldn't have cared if he did.

The branch was lying against a dark brick wall on a building of rough-cut stones with a tile roof. There were a few square windows cut in the walls, but none were lit. The street was narrow, not built for cars, and paved in every direction with stones. He looked at his watch. It was four-thirty, forty-five minutes after he woke to the lights in the sky and throbbing ground. He listened but heard nothing--no wildlife, no cars or trucks, no TVs in the background. Nothing but his heart thudding in his chest and his ragged breath...

BUY IT NOW AT www.lulu.com/spotlight/Misticuf

Peru, 1987...I'll make it a book

I'm going to release a book about my adventures in Peru. It will be available for sale at www.lulu.com by February 10. I promise you a fun ride...a story told by a young man who didn't know or care what kind of trouble he could get in while in a foreign country and cloaked in complete ignorance of the local languages.

I spent 9 weeks in Peru in 1987, when I was 20 years old. Peru was not stable back then and I was a college kid who spoke no Spanish when he got on the plane and went to participate in an archaeology dig about 50 miles east of Machu Picchu. I had a blast. There were mountains to climb, towns to visit...a man to pull out of a river flowing white with freshly melted glacial run-off, machine gun nests in the airport, and riding on the roof of the local trains.

I published my journal--a brief thing of 23 pages--in my book Just for Fun: A Little Sexton and Some Other stuff. I read it again this morning and was struck by how much I left out.

There's more, a lot more than what's contained in that journal. I'm open to suggestions for a title. At the moment I'm thinking something along the lines of Steele's Peru.

Buy Sexton books from these places

If you're looking for paperback books, you'll find the best deals at Authors Den or Lulu. I like the covers I use on Authors Den a little better than the ones for the paperback as Lulu. Prices are about the same from either place.

www.authorsden.com/davidjsteele

If you're looking for hardcover, Lulu is the only place that has them. I have 2 different hardcovers of each book. "Casewrap" means the cover is printed, and "Dust Jacket" means there is a cover over the cover.

www.lulu.com/spotlight/Misticuf

If you have a Nook, you'll need epub format. Your best bet is to buy directly from Barnes and Noble. They converted the files to epub, so I know they look nice. Search for Sexton Chronicles in the Nook Book section. Epub files are also available from Lulu, and from Smashwords...but I trust the conversion from Barnes and Noble more than I trust the conversion Smashwords did.

Sexton Chronicles books, ebooks, are available in the Apple iStore, as well as wherever you buy books for the Sony Reader.

If you have a Kindle, the Kindle Store at amazon.com is your best bet. Smashwords sells files for Kindle, but I trust Amazon's conversion for Amazon's Kindle more than I trust Smashwords to do the job.

Here's the part I can control, the part I can promise you: I promise to give you the best adventure I can.

Excerpt from Sexton Sand (Sexton Chronicles IV)

   Andy would never be able to hear the term royal bearing again without thinking of carrying King Rajahd'een's unconscious body--and the smelly feet that went with it--down the street in the middle of the night while being hunted by a bunch of guys who wanted to chop him and his friends into tiny little pieces. He was sure they looked ridiculous. He was equally sure no one would laugh at them until they chopped them into little tiny pieces. I have to stop thinking about tiny pieces.

  "What's the plan?" John asked. His voice sounded strained. No one answered him. Seconds later he asked again.

   "We're going to stop carrying him as soon as I think of something else to do."

   Tom's voice sounded smooth. Too smooth. Andy shot a look over his shoulder and tried not to grin. Tom's face was cracked in a smile in the light from a window they passed. Andy was glad to see the grin.

   "What're you thinking?"

   "On your right, up ahead, there's a store. We're going to take him in there and lie low for a couple of hours."

   "What happens when the store owner wants to open in the morning?" Andy asked.

   "And what happens when the king wakes up?" John asked.

   "We knock him out."

   "The store owner, or Raj?" Andy was pulling no the guy's leg in a rush to get to the doorway on his right. He forced himself to slow down.

   "Yes."

   "I knew you were going to say that."

   "Then why the hell did you ask?"

From Chapter Sixty-six, Sexton Sand

Chapter Sixty-six

   I'm working on Chapter Sixty-six of Sexton Sand, the fourth book in the series Sexton Chronicles. About two thirds through the book, Chapter Sixty-six isn't a pivotal chapter. It's important pretty much only because people have a reasonable expectation to go from chapter sixty-five to sixty-six to sixty-seven. That means I pretty much have to write chapter sixty-six.

Does it seem like I'm stalling? I suppose it does.

I'm just waiting for an idea. It'll come, it always does. Just a little whap upside the head from Ralph the Muse...

OW!

Gotta go. I'm ready.

I love this big old house...and the little adventures that come with it

We live in a big old house (circa 1880) in a small town. When we moved here I said I wanted to live in an old farm house, but one right in the middle of town. We found one. I love it. It's just my wife and I, and we have a lot of space. Really a lot of space. Six bedrooms, big dining room, a cavernous living room...and one bathroom. This place was built when "flush" was something your face did when you exerted yourself, and not a means of waste disposal.

One of the adventures I have in this house with some frequency is a little game I never play on purpose. I like to call the game "Where the hell is my coffee cup?" Anyone can play, but I usually play it alone. When I say the name of the game out loud, my wife becomes deaf. The only indication that she's alive at all is the grin on her face and the little twinkle in her eye.

Realizing I'm left to play the game by myself, I start trying to trace my footsteps. My writing office is upstairs...and I usually start the game at my desk. The coffee isn't on my desk or I would have found something more productive to do than play a quick round of  "Where the hell is my coffee cup?"

Then I'm forced to go for a hike. I wander down the stairs, sometimes passing the coffee cup on the landing (where I put it so I could get down on the floor and pet a cat), sometimes finding the coffee cup on the dining room table. Don't know why I would put a coffee mug on the dining room table. Obviously that thing is there to put other stuff on.... What kind of stuff, I don't know. It's almost never food. I mentioned there's only two of us, didn't I?

Then I pass through the kitchen, usually with a glance at the coffee maker. Sometimes the mug is there. If it's there it's because I got distracted when I meant to refill it...usually by something in the fridge. The fridge! Yes, I have found my coffee mug--cold--in the fridge. You need to set something down to grab a snack, and there are handy-dandy shelves in the fridge.

Most of the time I give the mug o' coffee up for dead. Then I go to the cupboard (sometimes finding the mug full of cold coffee in there next to the other mugs) and get a fresh mug. I pour another cup of coffee hoping that someday, maybe someday, the old one will surface.

Then I remember that I had to go to the bathroom and didn't want coffee at all. It's the start of another round!

Of endings, and plots, and getting there

I'm coming up on the end of Sexton Sand. At this point, I know how it will end. Here's a look at how I plot my novels. I can give it to you in one phrase:

I don't.

I'm writing a series, but I don't think that makes much difference in this example. I plotted Sexton this way, and the others that follow it. No, I don't use an outline.

I start with an idea. With books 2, 3, and 4 of the series the idea is usually around the time the previous one ended. It doesn't have to be that way. There are some series out there that have gaps of time between the end of one book and the beginning of the next.

I start with the idea, and then I write. I start looking at the word count when I get to the second hundred pages or so of my double-spaced manuscript. By then I have a vague idea of where I'm going with the thing. It's like driving toward mountains. You can see them in the distance, purple and hazy. Maybe there's a storm on top of one of them, maybe it's crystal clear...and maybe there's a curve in the road ahead that looks more interesting than the big rocks in the windshield.

So I pick one and aim for it. Around the time I hit 85,000 words (I like the word count feature of my word processor. It's like the odometer on the car), I have a pretty good idea of how I'm going to end the book.

Then I start driving that direction. Sometimes, once anyway, I change my mind. Then I backtrack and destroy the false turn, put the car in gear and move forward again.

I'm at 85,000 words in Sexton Sand. I know how the book will end. I've already designed the cover. It's going to take another 25,000 words or so to reach that stopping point, that little pause between books we'll call the end of Sexton Sand.

Fasten your seat belts. It's going to be a helluva ride.

My recovery from Korsakoffs...a progress update

I wrote a little book I chose to call Green Goblin. As far as I know, it's the only depiction from the patient's point of view, of the acute phase of Wernicke's Encephalopathy. (This isn't a commercial, but if you're interested in buying the book, there's a link on this blog.)

This is the rest of the story in a nutshell.

If you read much at all about Korsakoff's, you'll find that memory problems are listed as the biggest problem of the disease. That's true. It's not a matter of forgetting things; it's more a matter of having things vanish from the brain. Vanish. As if they were never there in the first place. When that happened to me, I wouldn't even have the memory of having the memory. Reminders were useless.

After seeing a neuropsychologist, we decided it would be helpful for me to carry a small digital recorder to record things I might forget. I did. Over time, I needed it less and less. I still have it with me and I still make little notes to myself, but it's very rare that I won't remember making the note.

The other problem I have from the disease is neuropathy. It's not neuropathy that involves numbness...it's a painful neuropathy. Sometimes the pain is in my legs, and sometimes it's in the shoulder, and sometimes it's in the hands. It used to be difficult for me to walk.

No... I'm not hawking a miracle cure. There isn't one. I will tell you that Thiamin (Vitamin B1) and complete sobriety are the 2 controllable keys to my recovery. (The uncontrollable is faith, by the way, and love from loved ones.)

I saw a few neurologists after I was released from the hospital for Wernickes. Each was a little helpful, but interestingly, all said I didn't need to take vitamin b1 supplements. They all said it wouldn't improve my condition. The good people at Dukeries Health Care in the United Kingdom (Google it. They know their stuff) treat the disease with vitamin supplements. I met someone online (and I really appreciate it Karen) who told me to take thiamin and keep taking thiamin.

Know what? The pain stopped...most of the time. When the pain comes back, I take some thiamin and I feel better in about 20 minutes.

I think I still forget things from time to time, but nothing like I did early on. Some will say that the damaged brain doesn't heal, some will read this and think that maybe I didn't have the disease. I think both assumptions are incorrect. I don't know much about the healing powers of the brain, but I know this--I don't forget like I used to forget. Some, maybe. More than others, probably...but I don't have those magic blanks anymore. As for whether I had the disease: I have the medical records. I had it; no question.

To those with a loved one who suffers from the disease, I offer this: there is hope. Help the patient by reminding them constantly that there is hope.

I won't kid you... I think healing is unlikely. Sobriety and thiamin are keys, but there's one more. The last is simply this: the patient has to be a stubborn S.O.B who believes in himself/herself and is shockingly unwilling to give up.

I'm reading a not-so-good book, and it's my fault

The not-so-good book I'm reading is called Return to Sexton and at the moment there is only 1 copy in the world. It's my first novel, and it's not going to be published. It's a noisy book with a tangled, hard to follow plot...some cartoonish characterization, and a bit of purple prose. I'm glad I wrote it. It was the genesis for what twenty years later became pretty good stuff.

I took advantage of the "private access' feature Lulu offers, which means I can have a book printed and opt for it to be available only to me. It was a fun thing to do, and not very expensive. I got my own personal hardcover copy of it, with dust jacket, for under thirty bucks.

You can't buy it. But you can (and I would love it if you would) buy the first three books in the series...which I now whisper, are available at www.lulu.com/spotlight/Misticuf

In any case, it's late now. I'm going to take a seat in my old brown wing chair and read a bit of it before I retire for the night.

I lost my copy of Microsoft Office, but I love the free alternative

If you're looking for a free office suite (word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, and database manager), I highly recommend Open Office. You can find and download (It's freeware) Open Office at www.openoffice.org

Don't worry... You can save your files as Microsoft Office files. I have the programs set up to save as Word, or Excel, or PowerPoint, files automatically and have taken them to computers with those Microsoft programs with no problem whatsoever.

It doesn't take long to learn to use the programs if you're familiar with their commercial counterparts. Some things are in slightly different places on different menus, but the help portion of the programs is good and you'll find what you want with no problem.

I have yet to find a downside with Open Office. In some ways I like it better than the Microsoft programs, and in other ways I like it less.

And now you know. That's my unbiased, free, and carefully considered opinion.

Another place to buy Sexton books

Authors Den (there's a banner you can click, at the bottom of this blog) now has Sexton books in paperback. Don't tell A##zon, but the books are less expensive from Author's Den.

You can find links to my books at:

http://www.authorsden.com/davidjsteele

Both places will ask you to register...but NEITHER place does spam emails or bothers you in any way.

Save 10% on my books, in addition to the discount

Here's your chance to get 10% off the discounted prices of my books (and it won't cost me a thing.) Go to www.lulu.com/spotlight/Misticuf and select the purchase price of one book. At checkout, enter READ2011 when asked for the coupon code.

Here's Lulu's disclaimer:

* Disclaimer: Enter coupon code "READ2011" during checkout and save10% off the purchase price. Discount cannot be used to pay for,nor shall be applied to, applicable taxes or shipping and handlingcharges. Maximum amount that may be applied to discount is $10.00per account. Promotional codes cannot be applied to any previousorders. No exchanges or substitutions allowed. Only one validpromotional code may be used per order. Offer expires January31, 2011 at 11:59 PM EDT. Lulu.com reserves the right to changeor revoke this offer at any time. Void where prohibited.
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