Tag Archives: Plotting
Newsletter #111
DRAKENEWS 111: September. 2019 Dear People, This is a bit early because my webmaster, Karen, is going on a genealogical trip to get in touch with her German roots. (These, by the way, are in Hesse, not Bavaria, so I’m … Continue reading
Dave’s Sample Plot Outline
There are frequent requests for a copy of one of Dave’s plot outlines. Here’s a pdf copy of his plot outline for What Distant Deeps: Plot Outline.
Newsletter #66
NEWSLETTER 66: January 5, 2012 Dear People, Jeepers, a new year yet again. I hope you all–and all of us–have a good one. I’m at work on the plot for my next Tor fantasy, which at the moment I’m calling … Continue reading
Newsletter #65
NEWSLETTER 65: November 7, 2011 Dear People, I’ve finished the plot for Into the Maelstrom, which will be the sequel to Into the Hinterlands when John Lambshead writes it next year. (Next year isn’t nearly as far away as I … Continue reading
Another Method of Plotting
Written for the Tor/Forge July 2011 Newsletter Last year when Tor asked me for an essay to accompany the publication of The Legions of Fire, the first of my Books of the Elements fantasy series, I explained that riding a … Continue reading
Newsletter #60
Dear People, I have a rough plot outline for the next RCN space opera, The Road of Danger. (The title is from a poem by A E Housman.) Whee! A rough plot may not seem very exciting to other people, … Continue reading
The Motorcycle Way to Complex Plotting
Written for the Tor/Forge May 2010 Newsletter THE MOTORCYCLE WAY TO COMPLEX PLOTTING Writers use various tools in their work. One of my tools is my motorcycle. Well, plural: my motorcycles. Bikers learn quickly that if they expect to … Continue reading
The Fortress of Glass
My friend Mark Van Name is, among other things, a business consultant. After I sold the final trilogy in the Isles Series to Tor but before I started work on the three books, he asked me if I would like … Continue reading
How complete are your plots?
How complete do you make the plot of a story before you write it? I do very heavy plots. I usually have at least 10% of the story/novel wordage in the plot. Here’s an example: the plot for The Far … Continue reading
Do you plot sequentially?
Do you write sequentially, from beginning of the plot to the end? I do plots beginning to end, and I do very long plots, but there’s not a right way.
The Sharp End
Did you take the plot of THE SHARP END from Kurosawa’s Yojimbo or from Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars? No, I took the plot from Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett, his first novel (a fixup from novellas he’d written for … Continue reading
Newsletter #51
Dear People, I intended to start this newsletter by saying that I’d completed the plot of the next RCN space opera and am at work on it. Those things are true (we’ll get back to them), but in my mind … Continue reading
Video Interviews
Video Interviews: Moses Siregar III posted a YouTube video in four chunks of the panel “The Continued Viability of Epic Fantasy” recorded at the World Fantasy Convention in Columbus OH October 30, 2010. Dave is on the panel with John … Continue reading
Newsletter #47
Dear People, Folks frequently ask me how long it takes to write a novel. (People ask me a lot of questions that presumably seem simpler from the outside than they do to me.) The answer depends on a lot of … Continue reading
Newsletter #42
Dear People, I’ve turned in THE GODS RETURN, the final book of the Crown of the Isles trilogy and of the whole Isles series. I hadn’t fully appreciated that till a friend congratulated me on completing my largest project thus … Continue reading