My Journey as an Author - 9

We are closing in on October, which some call Preptober, a busy month in advance of November's NaNoWriMo. And, if you don't know what that is, it is National Novel Writing Month.

The idea of setting a challenge to write a book in a month may seem like a gimmick, and it is. But that does not mean it is bad, or any less of an opportunity. As I am about building my brand, and becoming successful as an author online, this is a great chance to be open about my work and find an audience.

Now, I don't need to cheat and write a book for November in advance. I want to really catalog my progress in the open. But there are things to figure out, such as the mechanics to use in plotting. Writers are generally broken into pantsers and plotters, or people who just sit down and write without an idea of where they are going, and those who meticulously figure out every detail in advance. There are methods for each, and, as you might imagine, far more methods for plotters.

Preptober is a great chance to explore new ideas in plotting, outlining, ideasmithing, and new apps which can help in the process. I am a recent convert to Obsdidian.md, and am still in the process of converting my old notes to the new system. This will be my first book using this new tool as my goto for the project, and I am excited by the possible plugins.

I am also excited by delving deeper into narrative structures. We are familiar with the general idea of them, things like bold issues, such as temptation, revenge, or man versus man. But if we really look closer, prying up the floorboards and peering behind curtains, we can come to know a great deal more about any of these core ideas and how they work, why they work, and what it takes to execute them well.

In this regard, I want to figure a few things out about the story I might want to write. Is it man against nature? A love story? Coming of age?

I don't know. That remains to be seen. But it is a developing prospect which will resolve itself as we get closer to November.

Of course, if you were ever interested in writing a book, I invite you to join me in writing one this November. The process is more fun when you take the journey together.

Now, for my regular update, things are going great. Progress has been made on all fronts, which is really nice. I think Hat Trick is shaping up quite well, and I need to start thinking about a book cover. The Dreams ebook is also progressing. I really have found canva to be an easy to work with app for creating basic text art images. They are not the best, but adequate, which serves the purpose of the demonstration.

I have taken a good portion of my time today working on Chapter 0 of the Pearl of the Cultivators serial. I want something catchy to establish the immediate characters and setting, so I am borrowing heavily from tropes. I think it should be short, with a clear cliffhanger. That is the goal. Short writing, concise, and engaging. I still need to figure out which platform this will be posted to, and I am thinking about Hive. I am not decided, but if that is posted to Hive, SSL is posted to Simily, and my creative writing lessons and worldbuilding posted to my substack, a number of synergies should exist. It is important to maintain diversity in content platforms, after all, while separating different types of content for expected readership.

I don't know. But I have some time to figure it out.