2026
- March 16th Chapter Twenty Six – The Best of Times are the Worst of TimesIn fiction, regardless of genre, conflict is critical to the story. I find that the greatest conflicts are layered; layer upon layer, upon layer. But when the plot is simply contrived to be that way, it doesn’t strike a note within the reader that truly resonates. I will tell you up front–and I may have […]
- March 8th Chapter Twenty Five – The Table is SetSo many things have to be introduced and set up in novel that it kind of reminds me of juggling…you’ve always got a couple of things in air that you’ve got to keep your eye on. But, there is something else that writing a loooooong story reminds me of even more…cooking. Cooking a multicourse dinner […]
- March 1st Chapter Twenty Four – Nose to the GrindstoneI guess I’d been having too much fun writing the book, because I suddenly found myself at a point where I needed to ‘move things along’. I call them “traveling chapters”. The plot needs to get moving and it’s going to take a lot of details to get it where it needs to go. These can almost […]
- February 22nd Chapter Twenty Three – Not Now…While you could argue that everything that comes before the final climactic ending of a story is actually there just to set up said climax. In reality, stories have many segments, pieces and parts, but sometimes what Iwrite really is only about setting up something that happens much later in the story. That’s the position […]
- February 15th Chapter Twenty Two – With Baited BreathSuspenseful. Interesting word and one that I find hard to pull off while writing a story. I’ve mentioned before how much I want this to be a story that evokes emotions. Well, heading into this chapter I realized that with what I needed to happen plot wise, that I could let it play out in […]
- February 8th Chapter Twenty One – The Joy of WritingFor me, writing isn’t always fun. Sometimes it’s so far removed from being fun that I forget how much I love doing it. But other times–like with this chapter, it can be so much fun that it’s hard to stop even after I’ve been typing for more hours than normal and top long to still […]
- February 1st Chapter Twenty – A Romantic InterludeOne of the things I’ve always heard about writing is that you should stick to writing about what you know. I’m sure that’s good advice, but that leaves me with a problem; I feel strongly that the best stories have some romance in them–and I don’t have a romantic bone in my body! So, I’m left […]
- January 26th Chapter Nineteen – Stepping Back to Move ForwardIf you’ve been here with me from the beginning, you may recall that I skipped over writing the prolog, saying that I’d address it later. That’s still true…I think. But, Chapter Nineteen was originally intended to be the prolog. The reason I decided against using it as such is that it’s as long and meaty as any […]
- January 18th Chapter Eighteen – Do You Believe?I’ve talked about splitting chapters based on size before, and chapters seventeen and eighteen definitely fit that bill. Given that, for the most part, what I wrote about the last chapter applies to this one. I wanted it to continue the ‘feel good’ mood as the boy’s relationship continues to grow, but plot-wise I needed to […]
- January 11th Chapter Seventeen – How Do I Feel?I love finishing a chapter. Every time I do, no matter how smooth or difficult the writing process turned out to be it always brings a sense of accomplishment with it. And, after finishing each chapter, I tend to sit back and reflect on it and the overall story for a bit. While doing so, I […]
- January 5th Chapter Sixteen – For Every Action…I did a post on loose ends a while back…well, let me say that I didn’t clean them all up in follow-on chapter, not by any means. And that’s okay. Honestly, I think that foreshadowing is such an important part of story telling–which is basically exposing a loose thread, that you’re always going to have […]
- December 7th Chapter Fifteen – Exciting vs TediousThe main goal of this chapter–since it’s really just a continuation of the last chapter, is to make us believe that a boy might very well be able to slay a dragon. The mechanism I chose to do that was a sword fight. The good news is that’s an action scene, which you know I […]
- December 1st Chapter Fourteen – Laying the GroundworkHow does a young boy save a kingdom? There are a number of different ways that might play out…in this case, the boy–Shahdow needs to slay a dragon. There’s a lot more to it than that, but the battle between boy and lizard when it eventually happens needs to be epic. I know this even […]
- November 23rd Chapter Thirteen – Loose ThreadsBefore starting this chapter, I stopped to consider where I was in the story. Wondering if I’d reached the point where all the main themes, plots, subplots and characters had been introduced? The answer was…not quite. But, I then I started taking inventory of what I already had going on and I realized I had […]
- November 16th Chapter Twelve – Main Plot vs SubplotHonestly, I was feeling pretty good about how the story was developing overall at this point, but I was a little concerned that I’d been spending so much time on character development, subplots and background lore that the main plot was in danger of becoming a subplot. So, my main goal in this chapter was […]
- November 10th Chapter Eleven – What Kind of a Story is This?One of the things that had been nagging at me for the last several chapters was that the most important aspect of the story–God!–was being neglected. I feel very strongly that if you’re going to write a Christian story–Mike, then you’d better make sure you’re not just throwing in enough window dressing at it to fit […]
- November 3rd Chapter Ten – A Change of ToneI believe that in some respects a story writes itself. What I mean by that is once you’ve got your characters set and you place them into a scene, they need to behave in a way true to themselves–that’s the problem I ran into last chapter with Prince Juhstice; he wasn’t and it will have to […]
- October 27th Chapter Nine – Getting Ahead of MyselfAfter introducing a new “impact” character last chapter I felt that I needed to flesh him out right away since I needed him to “get busy” stirring some things up. I considered doing that while he was doing the actual stirring, but it seemed like I had a perfect opportunity to have Ohrder take over […]
- October 19th Chapter Eight – Deep and WideThough still early in the overall story, I’ve reached a point where I have to ask myself, “Just how big do you want this to be?” It’s an important question. I think with what I’ve already got going, if I just stick to the main plot and the smattering of subplots I’ve introduced, I’ve already […]
- October 12th Chapter Seven – Balance of PowerSince this is basically just a continuation of the last chapter my goals are largely the same; emphasis on good, tense ‘action’ scenes while continuing to grow the this particular subplot. However, I will take a moment to talk about one of the things I feel very strongly about–even if I don’t always pull it off. […]
- October 5th Chapter Six – The Plot ThickensWhen I was little my favorite toys were action figures; small or large, it didn’t matter. GI Joes, super heroes, or movie monsters, they were all good. But just owning them wasn’t enough; they needed to get busy. Back then I didn’t worry about sound plot mechanics, I was perfectly content having Dracula get into […]
- September 28th Chapter Five – Tough LoveLike in real life, character development often comes through fiery trails. I’m already quite fond of my ‘main’ characters, but if I want them to grow–and I want keep my readers engaged with them, then I need to turn up the heat on them. With that in mind, and knowing that I also need to keep […]
- September 14th Chapter Four – New Chapter, Same GoalsBy the time I finished the last chapter, which was focused on giving the readers a good introduction to our leading lady, I knew that I had more work to do along those same lines. Princess Chahrity isn’t an only child and her big brother also plays a big role–though not quite as significant, in […]
- September 7th Chapter Three – Main-ish CharactersAt this point I’m thinking that I’ve introduced enough things that I probably need to spend some time on the people doing them. I’ve already been working on Ohrder and Begone, who are the main characters in the story–or are they the only two? And even if they are, how much time do I spend developing […]
- August 31st Chapter Two – What’s Going On Here?One of the things I always have to ask myself is, “Am I ready to write this chapter?” It’s an important question because how on earth would I ever expect to explain to someone else what’s going on if I haven’t figured it out for myself? I suspect this is the heart of most cases of ‘writer’s block’ that authors […]
- August 26th Chapter One – Before I Type a WordIs this worth bothering with? I’m not talking about this series of posts on how I do the writing process–that’s certainly debatable. No, I’m referring to all the ideas that pop into my head that could become a book, or at least a story of some kind. My way of sorting that out is to […]