Turning Mistakes Into Inspiration (A Series Writing Tip)

Authors, as a rule, have a tendency of trying to keep their stories straight. And that goes double if you're writing to an outline or plot points. However, if you're working on a series, it's entirely possible that something you did in part 1 is going to contradict what your plan actually was for part 5, 6, or 7. And while the urge might be to go back and change the earlier installments, take a moment and ask whether it can send your story in a more interesting direction to leave things as they are, and to go off in a new direction.

I have an example from some of my own work this week, but word to the wise, spoilers ahead for The A.L.I.C.E. Files... and if you haven't checked them out yet, I highly recommend subscribing to the channel and at least taking in the first season, which we just finished.

Because this is a strategy that I've put to a lot of use.

But before I get into the meat of today's post, remember, don't forget to sign up for my newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.

Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!

Why Did She Say "Foundation"?

For folks who haven't tuned-in to this ongoing audio drama series, the premise is fairly simple. A young woman is made an impossible offer by the shadowy organization known as the Carroll Institute, which comes with a suspicious amount of money and some really stellar benefits. It's revealed once her contract is signed that the Carroll Institute is an organization dedicated to exploring parallel dimensions, and "Alice's" job is to review the reports sent to her by the archive.

But while she's on the phone with her new supervisor, Marianne refers to it as the Foundation instead of the Institute.

Now, I'm not going to lie, this was a mistake on my part. Somehow I made it all the way through the scripting, recording, and editing, and that was a mistake that just stayed in all the way until the episode went live. For those who don't know, a Foundation is an organization that primarily gives out grants to other organizations, whereas an Institute is something that has a research arm. So, clearly, the Carroll Institute falls into that latter definition... but given that the episode was already out, and it would take a lot of work to edit this one word, I didn't want to start the entire process over for such a small change. Which left me asking the question; why did the Assistant Director of Anomalous Exploration refer to the Institute as a Foundation?

Well, the boring answer is that Marianne is overworked, and she misspoke while she was on the phone with Alice. However, this is a sci fi reimagining of Alice in Wonderland, so I didn't want to have boring, mundane answers to questions like this. So instead, the answer that's currently in place (and this is where we get into spoiler territory) is that Marianne is not from the same dimension that Alice is. Marianne is a transfer from a parallel timeline, and in the world she's from she did work for the Carroll Foundation, which operated as a kind of branch office for the Institute as a whole.

It's the same reason she mildly abuses her authority, and imports Right Stuff Cola products for her department... that soda company went out of business years ago in Alice's dimension, but Marianne enjoys the product, so she ensures she and her people have easy access to it.

It's good for morale... and it's probably cheaper on the budget.

And this is the sort of thing I'm talking about. Just because something is a mistake, that doesn't mean you can't use the Bob Ross strategy and turn it into a happy little accident. Especially when that accident opens up some interesting questions about the story and its progression as you go forward.

Now, if you haven't actually published your story yet, the easy thing to do when you find a mistake or an issue is to just edit it in the moment so you can have a smooth, polished story. But when you're working on a series, that isn't always an option. Whether it's an ongoing audio drama, a novel series, or just a collection of short stories, you don't always have the option to go back and change things around once you've already put the "mistake" out into the world... and even if you do have the option to go back and edit, it can often be more trouble than it's worth.

So take a moment, and ask what other directions the story might go in, which will turn that screw up into a seed you planted early on that will bear fruit later.

And for folks who don't follow the Azukail Games YouTube channel (which you should also subscribe to along with The A.L.I.C.E. Files), I did talk about this topic in terms of roleplaying games as well!

Support The Literary Mercenary

If you want to see me produce more work, consider some of the following options!

- My Facebook

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- The A.L.I.C.E. Files (a channel full of short stories, many of which are mine)

And if you happen to have some spare dosh lying around, and you want to be sure my supply doesn't run low, consider become a Patreon patron, or leaving a tip by Buying Me a Ko-Fi!

Also, if you're curious about how to write for tabletop RPGs, don't forget to check out my show Tabletop Mercenary, which you can find on both the Azukail Games channel!

Like, Follow, and Come Back Again!

That's all for this week's Craft of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!

 

And to stay on top of all my latest news and releases, collected once a week, make sure you subscribe to The Literary Mercenary's mailing list. 

If you'd like to help support my work, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page! Lastly, to keep up with my latest, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well!

Trouble With Timelines in Your Tales (Storytelling Advice)

Time is one of those aspects we either pay a lot of attention to, or ignore almost completely when it comes to our books. However, the concept of a timeline is extremely important when it comes to our stories making sense, and all the pieces fitting together. For that reason it's a good idea to make sure that the order of events adds up, and that you present this order to your audience in a way they can easily follow.

Because if your readers can't follow your timeline, they aren't going to be able to make sense of your story.

Things can get complicated if you're not careful.

But before I get into the meat of today's post, remember, don't forget to sign up for my newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.

Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!

 

"When" Is An Important Question (That Needs A Simple Answer)

 

From high fantasy settings to investigative procedural novels, the question of when something happened is going to vary in importance to the plot. For instance, when did the Dark Lord forge their great macguffin? Whether it was 500 years ago or 10,000 years ago likely isn't going to matter, as long as the time in question is mostly gone from living memory. How long has our protagonist been married to her husband? Long enough for their marriage to get stale, and for the plot of the edgy romance novel to come into play.

 

However, that's a mechanical issue for you as the author. You need to know when certain events happened... but then you need to be able to turn around and explain to your readers exactly how this timeline is constructed so they don't get lost.

 

So how did this happen, exactly?

 

The major advantage you have is that books are (usually, anyway) told in chronological order. So as long as your story begins at the beginning of the book, and ends at the end of the book, you already have a functional method in place. However, you still need to check your timeline to be sure that what you're telling your readers makes sense... and in this case, that your events are consistent.

There are few things more frustrating than having a timeline that doesn't add up, or which confuses your readers. For example, if a book opens in July, and the next chapter is full of snow, your readers might rightly ask how many months did the chapters skip? But if the narrative continues like it's only been a few days, that is going to be a problem... especially if this isn't part of the plot, like a sci fi atmospheric disturbance, or some kind of weather control supervillain.

 

And this applies to all parts of your book. Whether you're stating that it's now Friday in chapter 4 when chapter 3 ended on Monday night, or you state it's been three weeks since your protagonist was shot, or you had a full moon in chapter 5, and you need to know when the next full moon is going to occur, those are things you need to keep track of, and stay consistent with. Because if you have an error in those things, at least some readers are going to notice... and the more obvious the error, the more confused they're going to be by what's happening.

 

I say all of that to offer this advice... treat time the way you do size in a narrative. By which I mean that if you don't need to give specifics, don't. You will save yourself so much time and energy by letting things remain vague when you don't need to be specific.

 

If the audience doesn't need to know the exact height of a character, don't mention it. If they don't need to know how many miles away a city was, don't list it. And if they don't need to know what day of the week, or even what month of the year it is, don't bring it up. Because any time you drop something specific, that is now something you have to keep track of, and you have to keep it consistent with your audience. It's one more moving part that can gum up the works... so don't make more work for yourself than you have to.

 

Lastly, if you do tend to keep things vague in your descriptions, then your audience will notice when you get specific, and pay even more attention to those facts. So if you want them to be putting a mystery together, or building an event timeline as they read, that's one way to highlight that pertinent information for them.

 

Support The Literary Mercenary

If you want to see me produce more work, consider some of the following options!

- My Facebook

- My Blue Sky

- My LinkTree

- My Weekly Newsletter

- The Azukail Games YouTube Channel (where I contribute video content)

- The A.L.I.C.E. Files (a channel full of short stories, many of which are mine)

And if you happen to have some spare dosh lying around, and you want to be sure my supply doesn't run low, consider become a Patreon patron, or leaving a tip by Buying Me a Ko-Fi!

Also, if you're curious about how to write for tabletop RPGs, don't forget to check out my show Tabletop Mercenary, which you can find on both the Azukail Games channel!

Like, Follow, and Come Back Again!

That's all for this week's Craft of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sci-fi dystopian thriller Old Soldiers, the Hardboiled Cat series about a mystery solving Maine Coon in Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!

 

And to stay on top of all my latest news and releases, collected once a week, make sure you subscribe to The Literary Mercenary's mailing list. 

If you'd like to help support my work, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page! Lastly, to keep up with my latest, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well!

Character Background: Lore Drops, Rather Than Lore Dumps

"Where the hell did you learn how to ride a motorcycle, D?" Sheila asked.

"Picked it up back when I was a stripper in New Mexico," he said, revving the throttle. "I gave it up after I went through the badlands running from the cops, though."

"D... what the fuck?" Sheila asked.

"I'll tell you more about it some other time."

As writers, we've been conditioned for years to avoid lore dumps. And I've said it on this very blog; there are few things you can do that are worse for your book than throwing on the brakes just so you can relate a character's entire tragic backstory. However, sometimes it really does help the narrative to sprinkle in a little bit of lore here and there... just to keep your audience engaged.

That is the difference between a lore drop, and a lore dump.

This? Oh, don't worry about it, I know what I'm doing.

Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!

Lastly, don't forget to check out my Vocal archive for additional fiction, articles, explorations of weird history, and more!

What's The Difference?

Putting a pinch of salt in the meat while you're cooking is often a good way to season it, enhance the flavor, and make the finished dish stick out. Upending the shaker and pouring until you can hear the granules crunch, on the other hand, is the surest way to ruin whatever it is you're cooking.

That's the difference between a lore drop, and a lore dump.

Numbers really do matter, end of the day.

In addition to the sheer size difference between a drop and a dump, though, lore drops are typically connected to an event or an action. Take the original animated version of the movie Lilo and Stitch, and examine the character of Mr. Bubbles. Seeing a massive, dangerous-looking man in a black suit who works for family and child services is, on its face, a humorous juxtaposition. As we see Mr. Bubbles in more and more scenes, though, we get little glimpses into his character... not enough to really tell us who he is, but enough to keep us interested. The knuckle tatto that says Cobra, the fact that he has unique knowledge and training, and then we end with the fact that he has met the leader of an alien federation, and was present during their landing in Roswell, New Mexico.

These lore drops are big swings, but that's because they're played for laughs... it also makes them easier to actually see and analyze.

If you're writing something more subtle, though, consider some of the following examples of a lore drop:

- The big bruiser is revealed to speak an unexpected language. This helps them negotiate in a tight spot, but the character doesn't explain why they know that language when asked, or they give a short answer like, "I picked it up while I was stationed in Tokyo," which leaves another breadcrumb.

- The tech geek shows up at an important formal event dressed to kill, and showing off a recent makeover. With a grin, she mentions it's been a while since she walked a runway, but she still remembers how to make an entrance.

- The family man who everyone thinks is the most milktoast guy ever has a tattoo half-hidden on his wrist that makes the hardcases go white. An elite soldier? A gang enforcer? Or just a mark that belongs to an ancient order of assassins?

The idea is that a lore drop is small, short-lived, and that it immediately catches your audience's attention. And by leaving a trail of breadcrumbs, you'll eventually lead your audience to more of that character's backstory. And while not all lore drops should be peeks through a door that will one day be thrown wide open, some of them will be... and it's a lot easier to get your audience to eat up a bite-sized trail than it is to try and feed them a three-course meal of one character's backstory, and then expect them to get back to the plot you were originally feeding them.

Support The Literary Mercenary

If you want to see me produce more work, consider some of the following options!

- My Facebook

- My Blue Sky

- My LinkTree

- My Weekly Newsletter

- The Azukail Games YouTube Channel (where I contribute video content)

- My Rumble Channel (longer videos that won't show up on YouTube)

And if you happen to have some spare dosh lying around, and you want to be sure my supply doesn't run low, consider become a Patreon patron, or leaving a tip by Buying Me a Ko-Fi!

Also, if you're curious about how to write for tabletop RPGs, don't forget to check out my show Tabletop Mercenary, which you can find on both the Azukail Games channel, as well as my Rumble channel listed above!

Like, Follow, and Come Back Again!

That's all for this week's Craft of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sci-fi dystopian thriller Old Soldiers, the Hardboiled Cat series about a mystery solving Maine Coon in Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!

 

And to stay on top of all my latest news and releases, collected once a week, make sure you subscribe to The Literary Mercenary's mailing list. 

If you'd like to help support my work, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page! Lastly, to keep up with my latest, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well!

Work, School, and Daily Routine Don't Belong in Your Story (More Than Once)

Not every protagonist in every story is a wandering, one-eyed sellsword, a dangerous grandson of a witch sent on a mission, or a cybernetic super soldier deployed onto an alien battlefield. A lot of our protagonists are, in fact, just regular people. They have routines they follow, and but for the events of our story their lives are pretty much the same day in, and day out.

With that said, however, the audience isn't here for that daily routine... they're here for the story. So if the tale you're telling spends too much time at the office, or in the third row of English Composition 302, it's probably time to start re-evaluating where your word count is going.

Absolutely riveting, this test-taking scene.

Before we get into it this week, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron!

Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!

Trim The Fat

A story needs to establish a character's routine; that should go without saying. However, the problem arises when the author just keeps going through that same routine time and time again when it isn't adding anything to the story.

As an example, we've all read a few YA books in our time. Some of us have read more than a few. Whether the protagonist is the new kid at a regular old high school, or they've been accepted to a super special sorcery academy, we still follow them along through their average day at least once. We need to see them in their natural environment, figure out who they're sitting near, what teachers hate them, and so on, and so forth.

But after that? We don't need to know. At all.

But... but my routine!

That is not to say that the setting of the story needs to completely change once routine has been established. Your office worker who caught the eye of the billionaire CEO will still have to clock in to keep earning a paycheck... but after that first run through we should only see them at work when it advances the plot. Whether it's chatting with a coworker about said CEO showing up around the office more, or the worker finding themselves alone in the records room with the big wig in a sexually tense scene, we should only be tuning in if the scene in question advances the story in some way.

What we should not be seeing is our protagonist just doing the same old thing. If they're just rearranging flowers on the shelf in the home and garden section, or attaching labels to the items at the auction house they work at, or even if they're a detective who's interviewing witnesses and filling out paperwork, stuff that doesn't pertain to the story you're telling should be cut.

Ask What The Audience is Learning

Every scene in a story needs to show the audience something about the world, the character, the plot, etc. And sometimes an extremely useful scene may seem like it's useless if you don't lift up the hood and ask what it's doing.

The best way to do this is to ask what the scene is showing the audience.

For example, that scene where the office worker shares lunch with their best friend from the records department may not seem like it's vital to the story. It's just two office drones eating chicken salad and trying to make it through the day. But is this scene sharing painful parts of a character's past? Is it giving the reader need-to-know information, such as that one of them has an ex who might be a stalker? Is it setting up dominos that can later be knocked down, such as discrepancies in the records that might lead to motive in a murder plot that's uncovered in chapter 11?

Sometimes the thing your audience learns is subtle. Sometimes it's blatant. But if a scene can be trimmed away without costing your audience anything, chances are good you can probably do without it.

Like, Follow, and Come Back Again!

That's all for this week's Craft of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!

 

And to stay on top of all my latest news and releases, collected once a week, make sure you subscribe to The Literary Mercenary's mailing list. 

If you'd like to help support my work, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page! Lastly, to keep up with my latest, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well!