Don't Lock Into A Story Point That No Longer Serves Your Plot

Too often authors think of themselves as slaves to their stories. They claim they aren't responsible for the actions of their characters, for the holes in their plots, or for the walls they're running into. And if you find yourself trapped in a situation where you feel like your plot is slithering away from you, or you can't figure out a way to get from where your characters are to where you want them to be... take a moment, and remember that you are in charge of things, and you can change them as needed.

It's a heavy responsibility, but you're the captain of this ship... whether you like it or not!

It really is all up to you.

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.

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It's Your Story, And You Can Change Anything About It

Let's say you're writing an epic fantasy story. You've assembled a party of skilled and daring adventurers, and part of the plot for your story is that you want the former thief to betray their companions. But as the story goes on, and you get a better sense of that character, that face-heel turn just feels less and less authentic. However, you need the party to fall into the clutches of the enemy so they can be dragged in chains to the dark fortress where they meet a wizard that's been locked up in the dungeon. No matter how you turn things, though, it just feels like a sour note in the narrative.

So change it.

Gun to your head, you can do anything.

For example, do the characters get captured by a bounty hunter that you introduce as a new antagonist, and he hands them over to the villains? Do the characters find out where the wizard is and get themselves captured to enact a jailbreak? Or does the wizard manipulate things with minor magics to bring the characters to their side, allowing the plot to get back on track?

All of these are acceptable changes and shifts. Or you could do something even bigger if you want to! It's your book, and no one can stop you.

If there's a character you were going to kill off who'd be more useful alive, you can just have them not die. If there's a motivation that doesn't make sense, or which has been rendered moot by a direction the story has gone in, you can come up with a different one. If there is a character who feels too much like an exposition dump, you can remove them entirely and find a different way to get the information to your reader.

I've said it before, but think of your book like it's a road trip. You know where you're starting, and you know where you're going. Your outline is your preplanned route. And some of us can just follow that route, get where we're going, and that's a wrap! Sometimes, though, you find there's construction and you have to take a minor detour. Other times a bridge will be out, and you've got to take the scenic route. Sometimes there's a natural disaster like a flood or an earthquake, and you have to completely reimagine your route.

You are in control of where you go. And if a road you were planning on taking is no longer serving you or your story, take a different route. If the book hasn't been published yet, then nothing is set in stone, and you can do whatever the hell you want!

More importantly, no one is going to know if you don't tell them. So keep your initial drafts and outlines so you can share tales of what might-have-been on podcasts or during YouTube interviews, but remember that these are just ideas and plans... if you get to chapter 17 and the bridge you were going to drive over is out, you don't turn around and go home. You bust out your map, look for a detour, and ask what other way could you get to your final destination?

Because sometimes the road is rocky... but you'll get there in the end.

Support The Literary Mercenary

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

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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!

Don't Let AI Rot Your Brain (Why You Should Never Use ChatGPT As A Writing Tool)

When you first start a workout regimen, it can be equal parts hard but invigorating. You're moving your muscles in new ways, you're getting used to new poses, new lifts, new everything. You might even be changing your diet, if you're going really hard. But pretty soon, you'll feel that shiny new exterior start to wear thin. You'll start dragging yourself to the gym, and grumbling under your breath between sets that you wish you didn't have to do this. You wished there was some other way... some magic shortcut you could take to just get trim, strong, and firm without all this sweating and straining.

And there are a thousand and one scams promising to give you that. A special diet that will melt away pounds of fat without any extra work. A little device that will shock your stomach into a six pack. A simple routine found only among a secret sect of monks who are all absolutely ripped. A little pill that will give you the get-up-and-go you need to make your gains.

This isn't about crash diets and exercise scams. This is about ChatGPT.

It's like fake diet pills, but for your writing.

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!

The Only Person You're Cheating Is Yourself

We've all seen companies and individuals jamming generative AI programs into everything. They've infected our search engines, they're all over social media, and they're infesting the marketplace as scammers offer entire novels "written" by these programs in hopes of making a quick buck. And if you're the sort of writer who wants to skip the hard work and fast-forward to the story being done, these plagiarism programs offer you the siren's song you want to hear. They promise you complete stories, unique stories, and then you'll be done in a record amount of time. They swear they're just going to take the work out of writing, handling the grunt work that's dragging you down.

They're promising that you'll get rippling, six-pack abs while laying on the couch and pounding chips by the family-sized bag. All the results, and none of the fuss.

Don't you want those gains already, bruh?

If you've ever been on a crash diet, or used a fitness gimmick, then you already know what the problem is. Because sure, it might get you some short-term losses around your waist, or give you some temporary feelings of health, but if you use these things long-term they're going to do serious harm to your body.

And that's what ChatGPT does to your brain.

Because for all the hype around this program and what it can supposedly do to mimic human thought and speech, there are stories out there of people who used it as a mental crutch until their academic legs atrophied under them. There are stories of high school and college students who had it write their papers, but then found that when it came time to take their final exams they have no actual knowledge or learned skill to call upon. There have been people who tried to use it to write legal briefs, and found that it was quoting cases that never happened, attempting to sound smart when the machine is just guessing. There are people who've used it to try to get ahead at work, and people who've used it for regular socialization who suddenly flounder when they no longer have a program telling them what to say or do.

It's the equivalent of sending a robot to the gym to lift weights and run on the treadmill for you. Yeah, the work is technically being done, but you aren't getting any stronger from doing it. In fact, if all you do is sit at home on the couch, you're getting weaker while letting the robot go through your routine for you.

That's what generative AI is doing to you. Because it's hard putting words on the page day after day, honing your skills, and finding just the right turns of phrase. But if the Internet goes down and someone hands you a pen, you can still write a story... and probably a pretty good story, if you've been putting in the work to really build your skills. But if you've been letting the computer do all the heavy lifting for you, and someone asks you to pick up the 250 lbs. you keep saying you're capable of bench pressing, it's going to crush you.

Git Gud... You Won't Regret It!

Writing is not just about putting together a short story, a novella, or a novel. It's also about honing the craft, finding your voice, and becoming more accomplished as a creator. For this reason, it's important to remember that even failed attempts are worthwhile. There is something to be learned with every assignment, every story, and every experiment... but you have to do it yourself. Otherwise you're never going to make any progress as a writer.

So yes, it's going to suck. You're going to tear out notebook paper, wad it up, and toss it in the garbage. You're going to reread something, sigh, and hold down the Delete key until it's all gone. And you're going to have those moments where you know something is wrong with your narrative, but you just can't quite put your finger on it.

Stick with it. It's going to be valuable when you realize you can shred your way through stories that once would have given you serious trouble, or that even on days where you're phoning it in you turn in Grade A work by most people's standards.

Don't take the easy way out... it's a lie. It's always been a lie.

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!

"Embrace The Suck" Is A Philosophy For Writers To Live By

If you've been part of the American armed forces, know someone who has been, or if you're a sucker for iconic phrases, you've likely heard, "Embrace The Suck." Popularized in the early 2000s during America's activities in Iraq, the phrase has a rather simple meaning that can alter one's mental battlefield. In short, this phrase tells you, "You are going to have to do things that are hard. Things you don't want to do. Things that suck. But rather than fleeing back from it, or trying to lean away from this necessity, embrace the nature of the suck. This thing will be hard, it will be awful, and it might be traumatizing... but you have to fucking do it to get the job done."

This attitude is why you see people tackling the hardest, least-forgiving parts of a gym routine with energy and gusto. It's why you see people putting in long hours on a job site with a smile on their face and a cup of coffee in-hand. And if you're a writer, embracing the suck can be life-changing for how you engage with your work.

Editing... hell yeah!

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!

The Craft Is Often A Slog... Don't Shy Away From That!

The title of my recent blog, A Majority of Making Art is Boring and Tedious (And You Need To Get Used To That) really says it all. However, if you find yourself losing enthusiasm, getting frustrated, or worst of all attempting to start a new manuscript because it feels like the old one is getting bogged down, consider stepping back and embracing the suck. Acknowledge to yourself that no, writing this scene won't be fun because it's just a piece of connective tissue in your story. No, you aren't going to have a blast conducting the third editorial pass of this book, but it has to be done.

And so on, and so forth.

All right... only way out is through.

Embracing the suck is, at its core, about acknowledging the hard things that have to be done. It's that moment when the rubber hits the road, and everything seems way more difficult than training or experience led you to believe it would be. And it is the attitude that cringing away, putting it off, or trying to avoid it won't help... so you embrace it! You drive yourself forward, jump with both feet, and do the job with all the enthusiasm you can muster.

Because at the end of the day, it's better to fully commit to what you're doing than to mince about with it. Your results will be better, you'll make more progress, and overall the job will get done faster than if you'd tried to just skip the parts of it you don't like.

Embracing the suck is not about not being thoughtful or methodical in your plotting. It's not about just slapping words down on the page until you hit a goal. It's not about just doing something instead of doing nothing. It's about acknowledging that the way you think about writing a story or a book often bears no resemblence to how it actually happens. That process is long, difficult, frustrating, and filled with tedious double-checking and annoying revisions to make sure all the facts of your plot line up properly.

Even if it's long, annoying, and dumb, though, you have to do it. And it's a lot easier to do it if you commit to doing it, and you shove forward no matter how much it sucks.

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!

Use Occam's Razor to Trim Your Story's Fat

"All other things being equal, the simplest explanation is usually the right one."

If you've ever taken a course in philosophy, you've probably heard this quote (or one similar to it) before. Attributed to the Franciscan friar William of Ockham, the quote is typically referred to as Occam's (or sometimes Ockham's) Razor.

Friars, man. They're all about simplicity.

The quote was originally intended as a way to focus one's scientific mind. Because while it might be technically possible that unseen alien beings from the rings of Jupiter secretly broke into your car and turned the volume all the way up when you weren't looking, it's much more likely that your perception of the noise level is different now that you've been away from the vehicle and your ears have readjusted so it just seems louder when you get back in your car. In short, the simplest explanation for the facts you have before you is probably the correct answer regarding what happened.

My recommendation for the writers out there is to keep this premise in mind, both in its literal sense, as well as in a more thematic one.

The Literal Sense

One of the most irritating things a lot of authors do is what I refer to as the Scooby-Doo method of keeping the audience in suspense. In case you've never seen the show, it's about a gang of kids and their talking dog who solve mysteries, and at the end of every episode it turns out the bizarre phantom, ghostly clown, or looming specter was actually just some old white dude trying to run a real estate scam the whole time.

And I would have gotten away with it, too...

If you watch the classic show, though, you'll notice something. The investigators can always identify the culprit once they're unmasked, but nine times out of ten it's a character who didn't appear in the episode, who was never mentioned, and about whom we have been given no information as a member of the audience. As such, there was literally no way for use to figure out the mystery along with our main characters as they set up traps and tried to tie down the supernatural fraud of the week.

In order for your audience to draw the proper conclusions, you need to give them all the evidence so they can start putting the puzzle pieces together. Not only that, but you need to provide those clues in the proper light in order to be sure the audience draws the right conclusions.

As an example, if a character has been arrested, and you want the audience to be unsure of their guilt (or even sure that the character wasn't guilty), then you need to provide something that allows Occam's Razor to lead your readers in the right direction. If someone was killed under a bridge at midnight, and we know for a fact Stefanie was on the other side of town fighting a werewolf when that happened, we also know that she could not, then, have been the killer.

You don't have to be that obvious, but you need to give your readers something to work with to lead them down the correct path of reasoning. Otherwise they're going to feel like you kept all the important information to yourself until the last minute, revealing it only once they'd gone through the rigmarole of reading everything else.

Remember, all of the evidence to solve one of Sherlock Holmes's mysteries is often there in the story, if you can put the pieces together. That's what makes them so compelling, and why readers slap their foreheads when the obvious confronts them.

The Thematic Sense

The core of the friar's philosophy was that simplicity leads to clarity. This is true both when it comes to style, as well as when it comes to subject matter. "Easy reading is damned hard writing," as the saying goes, but clarity of language is your friend when it comes to the stories you're telling. Ugly and serviceable will beat beautiful but confusing every, single time.

However, the other thing to keep in mind is simplicity of story. Now I don't meant that you shouldn't have twists, turns, character arcs, subplots, etc., but as I said back in The K.I.S.S. Method (Keep It Simple, Stupid), you need to draw as many straight lines as you can, even if those straight lines are behind the scenes.

Got an example?

My go-to example for complicated simplicity is The Maltese Falcon. In its broadest possible strokes, Sam Spade is a private detective who gets caught up in a group of thieves all fighting over the loot from their last heist; a valuable bird made of gold and embossed with jewels. While Sam has to pick apart the webs of deceit, and get the facts out of everyone, the story is easy to follow. Each time a new character is revealed, and they provide us another piece of the puzzle, we can slot it into place and get a look at the broader picture as it reveals itself.

While the story as a whole seems convoluted, the actions taken by each individual character make sense. It avoids turning into an overly complicated Rube Goldberg device that strains credulity, and which can make your audience go, "Wait, how did he know doing that would work?"

A perfect example of what I'm talking about there is the Joker's escape in The Dark Knight. It's visually interesting, and a blast to watch, but it falls apart when you try to imagine the sheer amount of planning and foreknowledge it would have taken to actually work. He had no way of knowing his henchman would survive, much less than he'd be brought to the same location he was in so the bomb could act as an escape device, etc. On the other hand, the setup in the film Law Abiding Citizen provides us logical, straightforward explanations for how our supposedly imprisoned mastermind could pull off these impossible acts of revenge. That doesn't make it a better film, but the nuts and bolts hold together much more strongly.

It's one thing to seem confusing. It's another thing entirely to be confusing, once you've pulled back the curtain and revealed your design.

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!

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!

The Rubber Ducky Method Can Help You Solve Plot Problems

We've all had those moments where we're looking at our manuscript, and we know something isn't right. You've been over the timeline, you've checked character motivations, and everything seems like it should fit. But you're still coming up with 2+2 = chair, and that is not a satisfying conclusion at all.

If you find yourself in a tight spot, and you need a little help, it might be time to try out the Rubber Ducky Method.

All right, I'm here. Let's fix the problem!

What The Hell Is The Rubber Ducky Method?

The Rubber Ducky Method, or Rubber Ducking as it's called, is actually something used by computer programmers to fix their code as something of a last resort when they can't find a problem. According to a story found in The Pragmatic Programmer,  there was a computer programmer who carried a little rubber ducky around with him when he was at work. When none of the usual methods of solving the problem worked, he would take that tiny rubber fowl, sit him on the desk facing the screen, and then explain the code to him line-by-line.

The programmer would not skip lines that looked okay, nor would he allow himself to be vague. He would explain every detail to Mr. Quackers, reviewing it with him detail by detail and line by line until they found the problem together.

There you are, you little bastard! Thanks again, Quackers!

In addition to feeling like something a writer trying hard to up their eccentricity score would do, this method works because it forces you out of your own head. Whether you're explaining your story to a rubber duck, your stuffed bear, or to your writing mug, the point is that you have to actually explain what you're doing to this new companion the same way you'd have to explain it to a friend or co-worker. Which is an ideal way of realizing that, no, the explanation for why the protagonist is being double-crossed by the count doesn't actually make sense, since it's a move that doesn't benefit him in any way, and it is the hollow note that's screwing up your manuscript's flow.

This task tends to fall to my squire, when I'm in need of assistance.

If Nothing Else Works, The Absurd Is Worth A Try

Every writer has their methods, and some of those methods are stranger than others. However, if you find yourself staring at your screen, trying to will sensible story structure into place with angry glares and frustrated growling noises, it might be time to get a pocket-sized writing buddy. Someone supportive, and non-judgmental, who only wants to help you figure out why this plot twist toward act three is falling on its face.

What have you got to lose?

That's all for this week's Craft of Writing post. I hope it works for folks out there, and anyone with stories to share about it should feel free to leave them in the comments. If you'd like to see more of my work, then stop by my Vocal archive. To stay on top of all my releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. Lastly, if you want to help support my projects, consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or tossing some change into The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page. Both options help a lot, and there's a free book in it for you as thanks!