There is a class of books across a lot of genres that follow an interesting structure. These are series by authors who seem to churn out books monthly. These books don’t follow a normal character arc, and in fact, the protagonist never grows. Yes, they can get stronger, but they don’t grow in character, they don’t change. The books can have a three act structure, or not. But what they have in common is what I’m calling a “game loop”. If you’re familiar with game development, you’ll understand the reference. In these books, each book in the series follows the following structural formula:

— Drop the protagonist into a “situation”. Often, there is no character introduction.

— The protagonist goes about their daily schedule, which includes eating, sleeping, talking to friends and allies.

— The protagonist gets an idea about how to resolve the situation.

— The protagonist again goes about their daily schedule, while the parts of his plan fall into place.

— The protagonist resolves the situation, either personally or with the help of anything from friends, to robots, to “gods”.

— End book.

The character doesn’t grow as he solves the problem. Often, he’s not even in any real danger.

It’s an interesting formula. Some authors have 30+ books in a single series where each book is like this. Read that again. Thirty-plus books in a single series! There is no personal growth in the protagonist between the first and last books.

So, why would anyone read these books? After all, people like reading about people overcoming problems and growing. Or so authors have been told.

Here are my thoughts.

— The books are formulaic. So, is the typical character arc. This is just a different formula. Being formulaic, people know what to expect when they pick up a book. It makes them feel comfortable.

— The books, despite being predictable, are fun. They are like chewing gum for the mind. Reading them gives your brain something to do without having to deal with problems. They do have some interesting situations and ideas.

— The books tend to be pulp-like in that they are action driven. They are not pulp, because even in pulp, characters change and evolve. Humans hate change, especially nowadays.

— Something other than the protagonist controls and resolves the problem, but the protagonist is what the books are about. I’m not sure what this says about the readers. Maybe they want a God/AI to solve their problems but want to feel like they play an important part? I don’t know.

—The books are easy to write. Going back to being formulaic, an author can churn a book out every month if the characters don’t have to change, and the structure and genre remain fixed.

Yes, I’ve read some of these. As I’ve said, they are fun. But I wouldn’t want to write them. If you’ve read one, you’ve read them all. If you’ve written one, you’ve written them all.

Word up!

Besides editing my next book, Coins of Destiny I - AL, I’ve started posting my play through of Colostle, a solo RPG.

Now, I’ve started writing a pulp fiction short story. No, not a story based on the movie, but an actual pulp story. The primary characteristics of pulp are fast-paced (action-driven), no real exposition or introspection, and characterization is done mostly through dialog. Finally, pulp writing elicits an emotional response. Pulp has no deep messages. It is all story.

I guess, some of my novels might be considered “pulp”, but I never set out to write them as such. Now, I’m trying to write pulp intentionally. I’m thinking I’ll submit it to this year’s Creatures, Crimes, and Creativity anthology.

I am also planning book three of Coins of Destiny. I’m busy, but it doesn’t seem like I’m being productive, although I’m accomplishing a lot.

Anyway, I’m having fun.

Word up!

I’ve been remiss. I’ve been procrastinating. I have a series of three novels. Two of them are written. Neither has been rewritten or edited. I keep finding excuses not to. The stories are great and the first drafts are good. But I don’t find rewriting and editing something I enjoy. It’s too much like real productive work. “I’m a writer, Jim. I’m not a damn editor.” You get the idea.

So why don’t I just hire an editor? I hear some of you ask—at least in my mind. Simple. I don’t make enough on book sales to justify (read afford) an editor for a first draft. That amounts to a hiring and paying a development editor. That means I need to rewrite/edit the first three to four drafts before I hand it over to an actual line editor. You thought writing was easy and just required a pen or pencil and a sheet of paper? Ha! Welcome to the future.

So, I do my story development, rewrites, and editing. I even do the first pass on line edits. I think I will do a decent job. But it’s still a tedious and lonely process.

I enjoy writing. I don’t enjoy editing, but it’s a necessary skill and has to be done. And as the old line goes, someone has to do it. And I’m the only one around.

Anyway, I need to really focus on the rewrites and edits of “Coins of Destiny I - AL” My goal is to release the book before June. Then, I can release book two in the series during the holidays.

Oh, and I need to finish writing book three.

Writing is farming.

Just as in farming where you plant a seed, writing starts with a seed—the seed of an idea. Maybe it’s a concept, maybe it’s a character, or maybe it’s just a feeling, but it all starts with a germ of an idea. You plant the seed and let it grow. You either write it down or you let it grow in your mind. You let the sun and the light of day nurture it.

If it shows potential, you give it fertilizer. You feed your idea with related ideas, consequences, actions, and themes. Your idea grows small twigs, branches of possibility and story. You feel a flush of achievement and hope that your story is good. Feeding it more and more, you want it to grow strong and fast.

Then you notice other stories springing up around your plant. Some look like they are related, others not so much. One or two even look good enough to tend, so you give them a bit of fertilizer. But something is wrong. Your story looks spindly and old when you compare it to the flush fresh growth of the surrounding stories. You sit and stare and wonder why your story just sits there and isn’t growing into what you had hoped it would.

Other stories grow. Soon, you have a difficult time seeing your story for the competing weeds.

Your story droops. Leaves fall off as you forget about them and you neglect the plant. After all, you have all these other plants that need your attention, love, and care. Maybe one of them is better than your poor plant.

The original story is drying out. You stare at it and it hits you. It hasn’t been flourishing because you’ve been neglecting it. It’s not the plant’s failure, it’s yours. Realizing you have to do something, you weed. You pull up the surrounding starts, broken stories, and toss them into the compost pile. The plants with the stronger growth, you transplant to a notebook from which you can regrow them when they are needed. Focusing all of your attention on the dying story, you feed it with new vigor, interest, and ideas.

Soon, your story has grown; a tangled mess of branches, leaves, and stalks. There are even seeds of new stories—sequels forming. Full of pride at having grown this mess, you transplant it into a pot. Now the hard part begins. It’s time to turn your mess of a plant into a masterpiece of a bonsai. It’s time to edit.

As planned, I’m taking December off from writing apart from free-writing. Not that things aren’t happening. I got my copies of “Out of Time”, my next novel, along with the bookmarks. Yay! They arrived a little late for Christmas, but that’s OK.

I also have a release date: February 14, 2023. I’ll have to do a promo for Valentine’s Day. eBook pre-orders should be up wherever you get your ebooks. Physical copy pre-orders will be up in the next few weeks. It’s a logistics and bookseller thing.

Out of Time is my first science fiction book. It’s a mixture of SF and history. My editor classified it as suspense—that’s a new genre for me. I like that, although I was thinking of a thriller when I wrote it.

The story is also written differently. It’s not only shifting POVs, but shifting time frames. Some beta readers had issues with keeping track of the story. I think I resolved that. I think I also resolved referring to the same people in different time frames.

English doesn’t have a large vocabulary when dealing with relativistic time.

I like the story and how the book came out. If you get a copy, I hope you enjoy it and leave a review.

On other writing fronts, even though I’m not actively writing this month, I’m thinking about the third book in my Coins of Destiny series. I’ll start writing it early next year. I’ll work on getting the first book in the series published in early 2024 as well. I want to write a second novel in 2024, I’m not sure what that will be at this point.

That’s it for 2023. Please give Out of Time a read.

Happy Holidays. Have a peaceful 2024.

Word up!