Category: Brainstorming & Inspiration

Big ideas and how to get them.

A Lot of Balls in the Air

It’s hard to remember, but there was a time when we were only working on one book. Back in the prehistory of the Skelleyverse, Miss Brandymoon’s Device was our only project and we devoted all of our time to it. And it took forever to write. We were still learning how to organize our process, how to mesh our styles, how to create a coherent story with two headstrong people both trying to steer.

Through the years we got much more efficient. We also broadened our fictional ambitions. We added a second story universe. And then a third. Three seems to be a comfortable number for us. Our books come in trilogies, and once we put the Divided Man Series to bed, we started really fleshing out the ghost series that will come next.

Currently we are writing in the Music series, getting feedback on the Science series, and working on preproduction for the Ghost series. Our stories tend to be big and complex, and they benefit from being able to simmer for a long time. Every time we circle back and have a brainstorming discussion, new details emerge. It makes the story world and characters rich and full-bodied. It gives us time to get to know these people we’ll be spending a lot of time with, and it helps us spot plot holes.

A writing partner is someone who will help you with your juggling act.

How Do These Pedals Work?

It ought to be just like riding a bike. We’ve successfully outlined eight novels, so it really ought to be second nature by now. And yet.

The final edits of Science Novel are in the rearview mirror. Its accompanying short story is resting comfortably and awaiting its own turn under the scalpel. With our to-do list pretty much exhausted, it’s time to close the door on that story universe for a little while and turn our attention to the Music Novels. Specifically Sibling of Music Novel, the middle novel of that series.

Before setting it aside a while back, we’d hammered out most of an outline. The only thing we’d left undefined were the actions of the final, let’s say, quarter of the plot. The part where tension is building and the action is all rising to a rousing finale. So, you know, only the most important part of the novel. No bigs.

This is a busy time of year, as we’re sure you know, and it’s a little busier for us this year due to some family obligations. We’ve been away from the Writing Cave more than usual. But one of the great things about brainstorming is that you don’t need to be sitting at a computer to do it. We’ve managed to have a few relevant conversations in the car, and in various restaurants and hotels. Those have even led to a few notions we’ve liked enough to add to the official Steno o’ Notes. But man oh man we are grinding the gears a bit. The transition from composition and editing to this other part of the writing process is not going as smoothly as we hoped.

Last night Jen dug up the 12-page single-spaced prose outline/synopsis and Kent made himself hoarse reading it aloud. It was a reassuring reminder of how much story we already have, and a very useful refresher. Obviously we should have started with that. Anyway, after story time we moved from the Writing Cave to the Writing Annex, where we jumped back into the brainstorming while Jen wrapped holiday gifts. We expected it to work better than it did. Jen is a million times better at gift-wrapping than Kent is, but it still requires a certain amount of brainpower. And Kent was fighting off a headache while simultaneously trying to take notes on our conversation and tamp down his envy/amazement at Jen’s mad wrapping paper origami skillz (She got the pattern to line up across the seam! More than once!).

It’s important that we keep up a regular work schedule even when things are so higgledy piggledy. Especially then. We’ve accepted that we’re not going to be as productive as we like while we figure out how to ride this particular bicycle again, through this particular obstacle course. But if we keep trying a little bit every day, imagine how easy it will seem when the distractions all clear up!

 

Successfully Defining Success

Saying you’re a self-published author is just another way of saying you’re both an author and a publisher. If you’re like us, you don’t find those two occupations equally rewarding.

So, as a self-published author, how do you define success?

As we mentioned, we just got back from the Book Baby conference in Philly. There was a lot of good stuff there, starting with the opening keynote from Daniel Lerner on the topic of, yup, defining success. Daniel’s talk was excellent — energizing, moving, and thought-provoking. If you get the chance, definitely check him out.

On the drive home, we dug down into how Rune Skelley defines success. It was an exercise we hadn’t gone through previously, to articulate our aspirations. We had a strong sense that we wanted mainly the same things, but this was laying it out raw in a moving vehicle. It could have gotten tense. But what we confirmed is that we do agree on the definition of success.

For us, the quality of the writing is paramount. We measure quality by our own standards, and we strive to set that bar high. And, we believe that quality writing will find an audience. (This belief seems to verge on mystical, but we’re trying to become more realistic.) We have no desire to chase trends in search of a hit, we’re certainly not going to change how we write in hopes of broader appeal, but we do want to help our work find its audience. We have to figure out how to be as good at being a publisher as we are at being an author.

Watch this space for more reflections on the conference. To hear from us occasionally about our upcoming novels, subscribe to our newsletter.

Mystery Science Road Trip 3000

A little while ago Kent had a birthday, and Jen gave him the best present ever: VIP tickets to a Mystery Science Theater 3000 Live show. The date of the show finally rolled around, so we jumped in the Skelleymobile and headed off on a road trip.

Faithful blog readers will know that we like to use car trips as brainstorming time. Our open projects are dwindling in number as we complete novels and launch them into the world. In fact, out of our first three trilogies, we currently have only one book that’s unwritten, and it’s most of the way outlined already. The part of it that’s not nailed down yet involves a lot of moving parts that all need to mesh together just so, and “in a moving car while Kent pays attention to traffic” didn’t seem like the best environment for tackling it. Enter: the Ghost Novels!

Before this trip we had a few wisps of ideas for the way we want the supernatural to work in our newest story world. Now, after a couple of hours of discussion, we have a much clearer picture of the way our ghosts will work, and even the ghost of a plot (see what we did there?). At this point it’s more like two or three plotlings, some of which might work together and some of which contradict each other. A lot more conversation will be needed before we’re ready to start writing. But it felt good to explore a whole new universe, especially this one at Halloween time. We’re surrounded by spooky stories and it’s exciting to start to work on our own.

You know what else is exciting? Getting to have a conversation with Joel Hodgson (who is very nice! — he told Kent he asked a great question!), having our pictures taken on the Satellite of Love with Joel, Jonah, the Bots, and Pearl Forrester’s clone Synthia, and then watching a live riffing of a truly terrible movie.

Most exciting of all? Having a writing partner who shares your sense of humor.

Jack and Jill of All Trades

The plotting of our latest novel continues apace. We know the basic story line, have known it for months. But who wants a basic story line? The parts we’re working on fleshing out are all the fun side trips and frustrating (for our characters) detours. Lately this requires us each to wear many hats.

We’ve been steadily working to fill in the plot rainbow, but we’ve also dipped our toes into a few prose character studies to get to know our new cast members better. Jen’s gotten to go wading through her vast collection of baby name books to give them proper monikers. Kent’s done some deep dives into new research topics in order to flesh out their jobs and give them interesting hobbies. All in all we’re swimming in this project.

Instead of many hats, maybe, given the aquatic nature of the metaphors in that last paragraph, we’re each wearing many bathing suits.

Brainstorm Until It’s Not Fun Anymore

In our preliminary brainstorming sessions for the current work in progress, the ideas were coming out faster than we could jot them down. We couldn’t help but come up with tons of good ideas, like there simply were no other kinds of ideas. The recent brainstorming sessions, on the other hand, have been characterized by phrases like, “But I don’t think that will really work,” and “Not that we would actually want to do it that way.” The few ideas that we did feel good about were things we’d already come up with at least twice, according to our notes.

This is a signal that it’s time to stop brainstorming. Early on, everything is wide open and there’s lots of room for ideas. But the more you flesh things out, the more constraints are piling up. Any really new idea that you throw in will be the enemy of something else that you’ve already decided you like. If you aren’t sure if you like your story that way, then by all means keep storming your brains. But if you have a good basis for a story that you’re looking forward to telling, then move on to another step in the process.

For us, that means laying out a rainbow. So that’s what we’ve been doing, although we’ve broken with tradition by using the dining table for this one rather than doing it on the floor. (Our helpers are far too enthusiastic about rainbows, alas. Plus, floors lack much to recommend them, ergonomically.)

And — it worked! Being able to visualize the flow and structure of the story immediately shook loose a new set of good, usable ideas for us. They’re not only good, they’re compatible.

Working with a partner makes brainstorming much more fruitful and enjoyable, but don’t overuse it. Documenting and visualizing your progress is always helpful, and it becomes essential when you have a partner to communicate with.

 

Once More, With Feeling

After several weeks (and several road trips) of brainstorming and discussion related to Sibling of Music Novel, we came to a natural lull. It was the perfect time to read through the two other books set in the same story universe to both refresh our memories about the characters and plot details, and to look for inspiration.

The two existing books, Music Novel and Son of Music Novel, are both quite hefty, so this read through is taking a while. It would go quicker if we each read silently by ourselves, but Jen reads faster than Kent and she’d finish up first and then sit around being bored. Can’t have that. Plus we like to stay synched up so that we can discuss things more easily. This all means that Kent’s voice has been getting a workout. He’s already finished reading the first book out loud, and he’s halfway through the second. It’s sort of like an audio book and a director’s commentary rolled into one, and we’re quite enjoying it. Maybe Jen a little more than Kent (who is a very good sport about all of this).

We might finish up story time this weekend. Or we might not, because Son of Music Novel is freakin’ huge. Whenever we do finish, we’ll jump back into brainstorming, fully immersed in our story world.

Forecasting 2018 (In Which Jen Tries to Keep Her Expectations Realistic)

Dire warnings of Bomb Cyclones and blizzards have been echoing around the writing cave, and while we aren’t in the path of any of the really nasty stuff, we’ve been locked in a deep freeze since before Christmas and it’s showing no signs of lifting. Today’s high is supposed to be 7º!

Since the weather forecast blows (both literally and figuratively), let’s see if things look sunnier in the fiction mines.

Grandson of Science Novel is moseying along toward the finish line, and finishing it up is our first order of business. In her secret heart Jen is dying for a deadline, but she’s terrified of missing another one. For now we’re winging it without. She’ll probably declare a deadline when we’re close enough to the end to touch it, and claim that she’s had it in mind all along. And Kent will humor her.

Once Grandson is done, the whole Science Trilogy will be in the can. Our major goal for the year is to publish the first one. It’s been edited a couple of times already, but there are many steps before it will be ready for its debut, and those will eat up a lot more time than Jen expects them to.

While the Science Novels rest between edits, we will devote our time to outlining the novel we are currently calling Sibling of Music Novel. As you may recall, we have the Music Novel, and Son of, written in full, but now we’ve decided that Son is really the third book in the series and we need to plug that hole in the middle.

If, after polishing Science Novels and writing Music Novels, we have any extra time, we’ll get started on brainstorming our Ghost Series.

We currently have no release dates to announce, but when we do, you’ll be the first to know. Check this space for updates!

And Happy New Year to you!

Shining A Light

We went to a lighting design center this week, and the main thing that we learned is that a lighting design center is a dangerous place for us to be left unsupervised. In addition to all the stuff in the showroom, they also have big, thick catalogs of amazing and weird stuff that you can hang from the walls and ceilings of your actual house and connect to the wiring therein.

There was a not insignificant chance that we would have decided to remodel our entire house (again) so we could have excuses to buy all the fun things. Perhaps it’s a good thing these items are so expensive, as that might be what brought us to our senses.

We knew what we were shopping for when we went in there: something modern and sleek for above the dinner table. We knew what the dining room looked like, and we knew we weren’t really going to redo it. Yet, all the pretty lights in other styles (craftsman, deco, neo-Victorian, space-age retro, regular retro, and vintage industrial {which, let’s be honest: that’s steampunk}) tempted us sorely. In the end, we stuck to our program if not our budget, and ordered a minor masterpiece of modern elegance that will harmonize with our home’s style.

The experience reminded Kent of something he’s heard said about font design. “Not a bunch of pretty letters; a pretty bunch of letters.” The same applies to the words those letters create.

Writing fiction is a lot like decorating a room. It’s less about how cool, or how gorgeous, any individual element might be. It’s certainly not about how many nifty things you can festoon the page with. It’s about the overall effect. You have to know when a humorous beat is needed, and when to lay off the rimshots and allow the moment to breathe. When you’re choosing a strong verb, you must choose the one that matches the flavor of the scene and the personality of the character doing it.

It’s hard to take out the stuff that doesn’t belong. When it’s good stuff, just not the right stuff to bring the room together, the killing of the darlings can feel literal. But you don’t really have to kill them. Just send them out of the room.

It’s Good to Get Out — of the Country

The Writing Cave has been very quiet lately, because no one has been in it. Rune Skelley is only just returned from a seagoing tour of some of the birthplaces of Western thought.

We began in Venice, Italy. A fascinating and crowded place. If you go, wear your most comfortable shoes. Learning your way around the narrow, twisting streets (more like roofless hallways in some cases) is challenging, but finding Piazza San Marco is easy. If the crowds are getting denser, you’re headed toward San Marco. Also, there would seem to be exactly one music shop in Venice, and no two people will give you matching directions for how to reach it. We think it may be enchanted.

Next up: Dubrovnik, Croatia. A gorgeous place with a rich and tragic history (ancient and otherwise). It’s a major filming location for Game of Thrones, a show we don’t watch. But we know people who do, so now we get to tease them about this. Nearby is Cavtat, known as the Croatian Riviera. Due to extensive propaganda when we were young and impressionable, we had entirely the wrong image of Croatia in our minds. It has palm trees and crystalline waters. Some of the “roads” are… well, to call them inadequate would still imply that they qualify as roads in a meaningful way, and they don’t. How about, there are single-lane shared delusions that people drive on in both directions.

Then it was on to Kotor, Montenegro. Another ancient walled city with modern development surrounding it. The Montenegrin language is very similar to Croatian. Both are slavic languages. As one of our guides put it, the people from those countries can understand each other perfectly — when they want to. In Montenegro, we saw signage using three different alphabets (Latin, Montenegrin Latin, and Cyrillic). Sometimes more than one alphabet appeared on a single sign.

In Greece we visited Olympia and Athens. Our visit to the site of the original Olympic games was the day after the lighting of the torch. It was here that we started to slow down on taking pictures of olive trees, because we began to realize that they are everywhere. We visited a farm to learn about how they’re cultivated and processed, and had a nice feast and enough wine to get us dancing in public. We hit Athens during a strike that had the metro shut down, meaning the traffic was even worse than usual. But we still got to go up to the Acropolis and see the Parthenon. If you go, wear grippy shoes — the stones of the Acropolis are polished smooth and slick from the passage of millions of feet.

We bought lots of souvenirs and gifts. So many in fact that we needed to buy an extra suitcase to pack for the trip home. But the best item was one that we didn’t even have to pay for. The shopkeeper gave it to us for free when we bought something else at a store in Athens. It’s a CD of disco bouzouki music (stay with us) including, as a special bonus: recipes! Yes. Not a typo. And they gave us this treasure FOR FREE. We can’t promise such miracles will befall every visitor, but obviously we recommend that you go to Athens.

A writing partner is someone to help you see the world, and join you on inspiring journeys.

PS: back stateside, our rental car had this indispensable feature.