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29 And Counting

Tomorrow is our 29th Anniversary. Fortunately, despite my orneriness, it won’t be the last one.

The Secret

Some people ask the secret of our long marriage. We take time to go to a restaurant two times a week. A little candlelight, dinner, soft music and dancing. She goes Tuesdays, I go Fridays. ~Henny Youngman

The secret to a long relationship is keeping a sense of humor.

Being in close quarters for extended periods (particularly when you have a jackass Blue State governor who wants to keep us under house arrest indefinitely) can lead to stepping on toes and bumping heads.

Remembering that your significant other is your best friend and lifelong pal is key. It was probably having fun that got you together, so remembering to get together and have fun is the way to stay close for the long haul.

Happy Anniversary

Cowboy Junkies – Anniversary Song (Official Video)

Do you know how hard it is to find an Anniversary song that isn’t annoyingly maudlin? This one isn’t that great but at least it has a fairly zippy beat.

🎶 C’mon, songwriters! 🎶
😫 Get with the program! 😫

I can’t just keep using the Flintstones Anniversary song all the time, yo…

Constructive Or Creative

The whole difference between construction and creation is exactly this: that a thing constructed can only be loved after it is constructed; but a thing created is loved before it exists. ~Charles Dickens

I started writing the Sentinels series quite a few years ago, so you could say I loved it before it existed.

I am what Brandon Sanderson refers to as a “Discovery Writer”, what George R. R. Martin refers to as a “Gardener” or what various bloggers and vloggers refer to as a “Pantser”.

Unfortunately, it’s less efficient than laying out a plot diagram and painting in the panels like a stained glass window. The Outliner/Architect/Plotter type of writer does it that way and frontloads their story into a predictable and manageable structure that can be cranked out like a piece of work.

The Discovery Writer/Gardener/Pantser backloads their structure to the editing phase like a carving or sculpture, chipping away at everything that is not the story. This may be less efficient but a lot of the whittled bits serve as ideas for future books, backstory to be revealed at some point or just bonus material for fans who like to obsess about minutiae.

The guys at Writing Excuses talked about a hybrid approach to Outlining and Discovery Writing in Season 12, Episode 22. I’ve included their links for listening and downloading.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 18:57 — 13.1MB)

To that end, I made myself a loose plotting template based on Dan Wells’ presentation of the Seven-Point System Plot Structure. You can watch Dan’s presentation and follow along with the downloadable template and printable sheet. If you’re not techy, just print the pdf and write on it.

If you’re comfortable with a little technology, save the template to your documents folder and create a desktop shortcut to it. When you double-click the shortcut, it will open up as a new MS Excel workbook that you can name as you please. As a template, it will stay the same so you can use it for your next story without having to go back and make changes. It will always pop up in its current layout for each new story.

Dan Wells on Story Structure, part 1 of 5