My Journey as an Author - 4

Today, I have focused on working on my serialized content and managing some of my articles on another platform, Publish0x. I have grown to ten followers, which I think is decent, considering most people consume content only to tip and reward themselves. Any engagement is pretty nice.

But that is not what I want to cover, today. I want to go over my serialized content in a little depth. Specifically, what it is about.

My interest is adapting Edgar Rice Burroughs' works which are in the public domain, that includes everything from John Carter of Mars to Pellucidar to Tarzan, and more. He's not the only one, either. I want Conan to Quatermain. These are the perfect stories to adapt, and readily fit into the lore and worldbuilding of my own mythology.

If you are interested in doing the same, go ahead. These books are public domain. They can be edited or used directly as is, and without issue. You could take them and publish them on Amazon if you wanted. You could even put your own name on them. But I want to transform the text, creating something new. I want to take these stories and set them in my world. This requires changes, in language, setting, a little plot. There will be some additions. But the benefit is having a cohesive narrative on which to build. It is as though a polished first draft is already complete for my use, and all I have to do is give it one more good pass.

Now, that makes it sound easy. And it is not exactly easy. Easier, yes. But not easy. Writing a fresh piece of content can be difficult, especially if you are someone that likes to iterate their work obsessively. But working from an existing work has its own challenges, even if it streamlines the process. You have to learn the work, know what it is about, have your plan. Though I have already begun adapting chapters of the first book, I am working out the plotlines of how to fit everything else in, and do it better.

I briefly touched on how to improve serialized content. When Burroughs wrote his books, it was one after the next. He did not know where the story was going to go. He might have had ideas, but nothing concrete, certainly not as concrete as when he completed his series. There are errors, omission, problems with lore. I can correct these issue. And that is especially true if I am taking from other series, as well. Characters can be merged, or introduced earlier. Exploits of one book can be mentioned as happening in the background of another. There are opportunities to make a cohesive, interrelated world, which is what I am about.

So, we get to it. What am I doing. Well, first, I am developing a lengthy narrative, a detailed plotline of all the books I am adapting, the order they transpire, and any notes I have of connections. I am doing this in obsidian.md, which segues into one of my other interests, which is Personal Knowledge Management (PKM). By creating detailed lists and outlines, I am coming to understand these various works, which will help me plot and plan my changes and additions. Right now, I am working on something I am ready to share, but until then, I have a segment of one chapter I'd like to offer for your review.

I drew rein on a little level promontory overlooking the trail below and to my left, and saw the party of pursuing savages disappearing around the point of a neighboring peak. How loud they were with insults and unfit words, their very speech the mongrel of old tongues bred foul. It should be that I got to some walled bastion, and there raised the furies of the garrison, and come again to this place, not to make war, but to make a grave. And it was something of my present intent, though distant for all the little actions which my own salvation necessitated.

I knew the folk would soon discover that they were on the wrong trail and that the search for me would be renewed in the right direction as soon as they located my tracks. Though they lacked for finer thought and reason, the ways of the land were their nature, and I could not deny the simple artifice in their possession.

I had gone but a short distance further when what seemed to be an excellent trail opened up around the face of a high cliff. The trail was level and quite broad and led upward and in the general direction I wished to go. The cliff arose for several hundred feet on my right, and on my left was an equal and nearly perpendicular drop to the bottom of a rocky ravine. It could either lead me into doom, or away, and I rather liked half a chance over none at all.

What do you think?