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

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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.

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Newsletter #71

NEWSLETTER 71: November 6, 2012 Dear People, I fully intended when I wrote the immediately previous newsletter (70) to simply relax for a month. Believe me, I needed it. But my main form of relaxation is to read stuff, and … Continue reading

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Newsletter #46

Dear People, Foof. I _did_ finish IN THE STORMY RED SKY, the latest RCN (Leary/Mundy) space opera, as I said in #45 that I hoped to do soon. Usually by the time I’m three-quarters of the way through the rough … Continue reading

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Newsletter #43

Dear People, For a moment I thought was going to start somewhere else, but no: the big news this time is still that I’ve finished the plot for the next RCN (Leary/Mundy) space opera and expect to begin writing very … Continue reading

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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

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