Chapter 5: Cincinnatus - Update 2

So, as predicted, a funeral and following events cut into my writing time.  Additionally, I did research on army platoon organization (thank you, Scott S. and Mike K.) and then name 36 or the 40 people in the platoon.  I also did crash research into how modern armies are organized and how units are named.  This was not easy and so I winged part of it.  I'll run that past the aforementioned friends with actual service experience later, once I've finished the first draft.

Word count is now 24,199 words.

That said, now that my latest mini-research phase is over, I can buckle down on my writing.

Um, once the in-laws are done visiting over the next 5 days.

Random observation: Writing on laptops at coffee shops is easier on square tables rather than round ones.  Round ones limit mouse space due to the curved edge.

That's it for now.  More in a week or so.  I want to keep a steady posting schedule here as that prods me to write more and slack-off less.

Later!   

Chapter 5: Cincinnatus - Update

So I turned the wall of my living room into a storyboard again so I could get a better feel for Chapter 5 and how I was going to split it.  This was particularly helpful as it made readily apparent where the gaps in my outline were and I plugged those gaps with new scenes.

As a result, the first half of the split Chapter 5 (now titled Cincinnatus) has twice as many scenes as the original Chapter 5.  The second half (keeping the original title A Call to Arms and which I still need to storyboard out separately) may also be twice as big as the original chapter. 

Sooooo, I've quadrupled the number of scenes for this "chapter". 

I now expect the next chapter to expand similarly, although it will taper off at the end.  This is actually fine, as I was only at 19,000 words at the end of Chapter 4 and I was worried that my total word-count was going to be just under 50,000 words.  I have no idea how big the manuscript will get (it'll be done when the story is done), but I was hoping to at least top the NaNoWriMo target for words.

No additional word-count right now due to storyboarding exercise.  I will get writing done tonight.  Tomorrow I have a funeral to attend, so I don't know how that will work out.  This weekend is booked for other social activities, so it may take a little longer to complete this (the new chapter 5) chapter.

That's it for now.  Later!

Chapter 4: Uprising - Draft Complete

Thanks to encouragement by my wife, I got a lot of writing time this week and finished my draft of Chapter 4.  The word count is now 19,234 words.

Now I'm looking into the cavernous maw of Chapter 5 and have realized something important: my outline for Chapter 5 is woefully inadequate.  In fact, I need to add so much material, I'm going to split it into two chapters so I can show the reader what's happening rather than tell them what's happening in a huge info dump.

I discovered this issue when I looked over my outline and realized I needed to put together a timeline to keep everything straight.  After doing that, I discovered huge gaps in the storyline where I skip of tons of stuff and then summarize it at the end of the chapter.  Very crappy storytelling there.

So, timelines!  I strongly recommend them for authors writing complicated material.

Right now Chapter 5 (the first half of the original Chapter 5) is titled Mars Attacks! for reasons that are evident in the story.  It's a cheesy name that right now is just a place holder until I can work out something better, but it amuses me, which is very important when mid-way through a story.

The Aldelle Group is still playing, averaging one game a week.  Due to scheduling issues, the actual day we play is not always consistent, but we are still playing.

Writing time this week may be sparse as I will be attending a funeral, so Chapter 5 may take a bit longer to finish as a result.

Later!
 

Chapter 3: A Trigger Is Pulled - Draft Complete

This weekend I completed the first draft of Chapter 3 of the sci-fi novel I'm writing.  Word count for the entire story is now at 13,705 words.

I had to do some research on the CDC for this chapter to get some verisimilitude.  I exchanged an e-mail with a woman in their Media News department and asked some detailed questions, so I'm probably on a watch list somewhere now.  They take a while to answer e-mails (like, a week).  I still haven't gotten answers to my questions, so I just bulled past that point and will go back and tweak it in the edit.

The next chapter will be about the same in length, at least according to my outline.  That said, I discovered as I was writing that I needed to add more material to Chapter 3 to provide some bridging material and to up the sense of urgency.  Looking at the material in in my notes for Chapter 4, I can already see that I'm going to have to break apart some of the scenes into separate pieces and re-write parts of the outline for a better story, rather than a series of information dumps.

This writing stuff takes time to do.  It'd be much easier if I didn't have to keep going to work instead of staying home and writing.  Pesky work.

Chapter 2: Pieces in Motion - Draft Complete

This weekend I finished the draft of Chapter 2 of my sci-fi novel.  Right now I'm looking at 7 chapters total, with each chapter having multiple scenes.  I will stick with that through the first draft, but may make each scene a chapter and have tens of chapters.  It depends on what chapters 4-6 end up looking like - I expect them to be rather large.

The working title of the novel contains a big plot point, which is why I've not shared it beyond my writing committee.  I'm torn between making it a secret and going with a more indirect title or just putting it out there and telegraphing a story element to the readers.  Still dithering on this right now and really have no plan on making a decision until the draft is finished.

That's it for right now.  Another update when the draft for Chapter 3: A Trigger Is Pulled is finished.  Later!

Chapter 1 - Draft Complete

I've completed my draft of Chapter 1 of my novel and started work on Chapter 2.  As a result, all of my other writing has come to a standstill.  I'm doing this on purpose so I can stay focused on the story and get the whole thing written.  The last novel I started I got pretty far into, but really didn't know where it was going and got into a point where I didn't know where to go next.  It is titled "Getting Educated" and can be found on The Podge Cast Forums, here.

This time, I did a storyboard using my living room wall and a bunch of sticky notes of different colors.  I hashed it out with my focus committee (my wife and a friend familiar with the roots of the story) and worked out a better flow.  Simply explaining it to them helped focus the story for me and make it more concrete in my head.  I've then did a much more detailed story board of the first major arc and converted that into bullet pointed lists for each scene or group of scenes and ran it by my focus committee.  This helped point out some timing issues in the story and some gaps in the story.  I've moved the scenes that needed moving and added those missing.  Now I'm convert all those notes into the text of the novel.

I'm torn between sharing the material as it gets finished and wanting to wait until the entire draft is done and sharing the bits as I edit them.  I'll probably go with sharing the edited version, so you'll have to wait a while.  I want to have the first draft done by the end of March, which currently seems do-able with the restricted writing time I have now, so the wait won't be for ever, it'll just seem like it.

I'll post here as I get chapters done to keep folks up to date.

Later!

Freedonia Falls

[This is the beginning of what I'm working on right now.  Would you read more?]
 
Sol Asteroid Belt, 2235 CE

“Captain, I’ve got engine traces on my screen.  Military ships, based on their velocity.”  The rest of the bridge crew sat upright at this announcement.

Captain Darnell Witfield, a fit black man in his late forties, stepped over behind his sensor officer’s station to see her screens.  “Where are they, what’s their heading, and can they see us?”  Delivering supplies to the asteroid colony wasn’t exactly illegal (yet), but military ships arriving in response to the colony declaring it was not part of the United Government of Earth was not a good sign.  Better to play it safe.

“They’re on the system plane, at 90° from our current vector and heading to Freedonia,” Devorah McCandlish, a woman in her late thirties with curly blonde hair, responded.  “With our latest company sensors we have a roughly 25% advantage in range over them, so I don’t believe they see us yet, but at their current velocity…”  She pressed a few keys and the display changed to show the approaching ships estimated sensor coverage.

“I see it.  They’ll get a glimpse of us soon.”  The captain returned to his own station and spoke to the helm officer, Jason Brownlee, a black man also in his late thirties.  “Mister Brownlee, power down our engines completely.”  The captain then opened the intra-ship channel on his comm unit and stated, “Attention all crew, switch to quiet running.  Repeat: switch to quiet running,” and then shut off his comm unit.  “Comm, send a focused message to Freedonia and warn them they’re about to have UGE visitors.  Then keep our ears open.” 

Most of the crew was familiar with this drill and quickly responded as the background hum from the ships engines quickly died out.  Jo Wagner, the communications officer, a pale woman with long brown hair in her late twenties, was relatively new to the crew of the Rhinesburg and after sending the message to the asteroid colony, she turned and asked the captain, “Why are we hiding from UGE ships?  If they catch us here, won’t they just fine the company?”

“The UGE military has a…history…of over responding,” Captain Witfield replied, biting on a thumbnail.  “This isn’t likely to end well if the UGE sent a military taskforce in response to Freedonia’s declaration of independence.  If Freedonia’s actions have been declared illegal or even treasonous, then any ship caught having just delivered supplies to the colony would be just as guilty and share in the penalty.”

“Which would be…” Jo asked.

“Well, I’m certain their letters of condolences to our next of kin would be very convincing.”

“Ah,” was Jo’s only reply before returning to her console.

“UGE ships are arriving at the colony now,” Devorah interjected.

“I’m getting transmissions on the public frequencies,” Jo added.

“Put them on the main screen and display throughout the ship,” Captain Witfield ordered.

The main viewscreen switched from an exterior view to showing a man in a UGE Navy uniform with a touch of grey in his otherwise black hair.  When he spoke, he had a British accent of some sort, Captain Witfield could not pinpoint from where.  “I am Captain Evan Claibourne of the UGE Fleet.  Per the UGE Charter, no independent governments are allowed.  As you are not a registered Orbital Corporation, you are in violation of UGE law and found to be in open revolt.  As a representative of the UGE, I have been tasked to end this revolt expediently.  Weapon’s Officer: fire.”  The transmission then abruptly ended.

“McCandlish, show me what they’re doing,” Captain Witfield snapped at the sensors officer and the main viewer switched to a display of the UGE ships and the colony.  The paniced response from someone in the colony could be heard over the public channel.

Captain Witfield was able to identify the three UGE ships as a Hound-class destroyer and two Hammer-class corvettes.  The destroyer was just firing its five missile launchers at the colony.  The missiles raced to the asteroid and detonated their nuclear warheads.  The few surface structures on the asteroid were scoured away and the surface of the asteroid fractured.  There was a brief inferno inside the passages and chambers of the colony as the heat from the five nuclear warheads ignited and consumed the air in the colony.  All transmissions from the colony ceased.  The bridge of the Rhinesburg was just as silent.

As the fury of the blasts died down, the UGE ships turned and headed away from the now lifeless asteroid, returning the way they came.

“McCandlish, will any of the debris hit us?” Captain Witfield asked quietly.  When he got no response he repeated himself loudly, “McCandlish!  Will any of the debris hit us?”

This snapped the sensors officer out of it and she looked down at her screens.  “No, sir.  Not for a couple of hours.  We are nearly ten light-minutes away.”

“Good,” Captain Witfield replied.  “Brownlee, once we are out of the taskforce’s sensor range, plot an elliptical course to Mars and then make best speed.  I do NOT want want to run across that taskforce on our way to Mars.”  Captain Witfield got up from his chair and headed towards the exit from the bridge.  “Brownlee, you’re in charge until I return.  I’m going to my cabin to throw up.”

Copyright 2012 by Patrick Walsh
All rights reserved.