Plot Armor

Being a Better Writer: No Dice – Bringing Randomness Into Your Story

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“I, at any rate, am convinced that [God] does not throw dice.”
—Albert Einstein

“The generation of random numbers is too important to be left to chance.”
—Robert Coveyou

Welcome back, writers. It’s time for another installment of Being a Better Writer and—what’s that? I need to mention what’s happening tomorrow first? And after that lead-in with the quotes?

The dice say “Yes!” so we’re doing it. If you somehow missed it, my eleventh book, The Phoenix releases tomorrow. Yes, you read that right! September 16th The Phoenix drops out into the world, and everyone finally gets to find out how a man who can’t die goes about solving his own murder.

Like the premise? You should probably go pre-order the book, then. It’s a lot of fun. If you’ve never tried one of my books before, why make this the first one. Again, if that premise at all sounds like fun, go give it whirl. You’ll have a good time.

Okay, plug over. I know, but it’s not like book launches happen every day. Not for the same author, anyway. They’re big deals and signify the end result of a lot of hard work. Hundreds of hours. So when a launch comes along … We want to talk about it.

Oh, and there’s that and more discussed in last week’s news post. Go check it out if you’re curious what’s coming next.

“Okay, so … what’s the deal with today’s topic?” is what I’d ask if I’d not thrown the subtitle on today’s title. But as fun as just calling this post No Dice was, I figured a little more needed to be said.

In the same vein, I felt having those two quotes at the top were a great primer to getting people thinking about the subject for today. And let me tell you: Einstein may have been right about God not playing dice with the universe. But us mortals? Though we may be the “gods” of our stories … We play with dice all the time.

Or rather … we should. Hit the jump.

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Being a Better Writer: Nothing of Consequence

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Welcome back, writers! I hope you didn’t mind the one-week break in our regularly scheduled postings. Though I do sincerely hope you enjoyed the preview that was offered in its place. The Phoenix was a ton of fun to write, and I think all of you will agree it’s a ton of fun to read as well. Even if you might have been left on a bit of a cliffhanger.

Though I can offer some solace on that last part. Because last Friday I dropped the second preview chapter on the site. So if you were intrigued by the premise of a man who can’t die attempting to solve his own murder, you can see where that went after his escape from the morgue right now by clicking this link here. And after that, I do hope you pre-order a copy for yourself. This one is a ton of fun.

Okay, but leaving aside that and last week’s news—the link is for your perusal—let us welcome the first topic from Topic List #28! Yes, that’s right, it’s here at last and I’m pretty excited for it. There are some really unique topics on this list, as well as a return to some classics we haven’t talked about in some time, and I’m looking forward to each and every one of them.

Starting with today’s topic. Now, I realize that from the title some of you might already be wondering “Okay, what possible writing lesson could there be with a title like that?” And that’s … fair. That’s the risk of making titles that are plays on words. Trust me, once we get into this, it’s gonna make sense. Because today we’re talking about a pretty vital part of fiction. One that some works, sadly, fail to deliver, and ultimately consign themselves to mediocrity or worse over.

So hit that jump. Let’s talk about consequences.

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Being a Better Writer: Plot Armor

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Welcome back, writers! It’s Monday and you know what that means! It’s time for Being a Better Writer! And we’ve got a pretty fun topic to go over today.

Though if I’m honest, this was a last-minute addition to the topic list. It was only in the last week or two that I penciled it in at the bottom of list #23 (I do them all out of order) after seeing a discussion about it online and in a pique of curiosity searching Unusual Things to realize that in over ten years of posts, I’d never done a BaBW post on the subject!

Upon realizing that, the topic became slightly more urgent inside my head, and well, here we are.

Now I know I said most of the time these posts on the new schedule (Hello, Friday Patreon Supporters!) wouldn’t have any news tied to them, but if you missed the post last Thursday, Axtara – Magic and Mayhem‘s draft is in the finale, and I’m understandably keen to get back to it and wrap up her newest adventure. But this is news worth putting in the heading here: Axtara 2‘s time has almost come. The goal is to get this new adventure out in time for Christmas.

Yes, this does mean I’ll likely start dropping more tidbits on the site in the future. And I’ll be looking for a cover artist in the coming weeks. This adventure is going to be … Well, it’s in the title: Magic and Mayhem does inspire a bit of both, doesn’t it? Place your bets now on exactly what’s going to go down with a title like that!

All right, moving on and toward the crux of today’s BaBW post, let’s talk about Plot Armor. Hit that jump!

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