Conference attendance virtual vs. in person

The last few years have been exceptional (you choose the ‘good’ or ‘bad’ tags for yourself…). The world’s changed a bit. One of those changes has been an increase in the acceptance of virtual conference. And yet, there’s value in being there too.

Virtual advantages

Virtual conferences are cheaper. You may get a direct discount on conference fees. You also don’t have hotels, gas/travel expenses, or meals to worry about (beyond your normal levels at least).

Virtual conferences don’t suck up as much time. For LDSPMA, (LINK) I’m going to spend half a day before the conference driving down and half a day after driving back. If I’d chosen virtual, I wouldn’t have to do that.

If you’ve got family and or social obligations, attending the conference virtually can reduce impact on those areas of your life.

They’re all valid arguments. They are. And for some people, the virtual option is the right fit. But it’s not the only option.

In person opportunities

At the last LDSPMA conference, there was a snack session with fresh raspberries and fancy chocolate. We also had catered lunches. At a virtual conference, you do that work yourself. There are advantages to being there live.

Sometimes people get lost in attending sessions. That’s one thing that virtual attendee ship is (relatively) good at. But when you’re attending at your desk or kitchen table, there can be a lot of distractions. You may focus better in the actual room, with the actual people. And there’s more to conference life than sessions.

One oddity of live conferences (two, if you count what they give you) is that people want to give you stuff. Conference Bags (usually with logos), pens, pencils, books, coupons, flyers with special deals for attendees, and who knows what else. People at conferences are marketing their products and services and they’re giving stuff away to do it (and that’s ignoring the drinks and snacks…).

Conferences give you an opportunity to get involved and meet people. Yeah, you might notice a witty comment in a virtual session, but at a live conference, you actually get to meet people. Some of those people can make things happen (I watched a movie deal go down at lunch at last year’s LDSPMA… And it wasn’t the only one).

Yes, you could find a name or even send someone a chat in a virtual session. But live conferences improve your opportunities for networking. They give you access to that ‘in the moment’ experience that can lead to the person you need.

The value of ‘being there’

Ultimately, it comes down to where you need to be. There’s a lot you can get from a virtual conference. There are real advantages to live conferences. The question comes down to what’s right for you and your circumstances.

If you can’t get away; if the kids, the job, and the life stuff won’t let you go, take the virtual conference and work toward the live one in the future.

If you need to get away for a while. Or if you’re looking for that one precious contact. Well, the live conference may be for you. You’ll get to immerse yourself in the conference world, get away from the day do day, and find the people and opportunities you wouldn’t have otherwise.

Honestly, the final decision of what’s best is up to you. The choices are cheap and easy or a richer experience.

Consider your options, dear reader, then make the best choice for you. Either way, I’ll see you next post.

A world of your own (Part 1)

As writers, we’re told “Write what you know.” That can be interpreted several ways. Does it mean write based on your experience? Yes. Does it mean you can only write characters exactly like you? I hope not… (Talk about a ‘send in the clones’ situation…)

Does it mean we have to write things in the current year’s real time? We can, but we don’t have to. There are successful historical fiction, science fiction, and fantasy genres after all.

It doesn’t mean we have to limit ourselves to extant worlds either.

There’s more than one world in fiction…

If we want to write about a detective in a superhero universe, the character doesn’t have to be Batman (or Batgirl…). If we want to write science fiction; Star Wars, Star Trek, and Battle Star Galactica aren’t the only options. There are fantasy worlds other than Middle Earth.

Actually, with the exceptions of Thieves World, which was initially created by a group of authors as a shared world, and the world of Conan the Barbarian, and please don’t ask me why that one works (I don’t know!), I’m fairly hard pressed to find a world that holds together with multiple writers working across time.

Movies, television, and internet series can work with multiple writers, but there’s (usually) a central core that keeps things together. And we can see what happens when that core is altered.

Borrowed worlds can be problematic

The worst offenders seem to be those who try to shoehorn their personal beliefs and ideas into the worlds of others. This results in ‘kinda-sorta’ writing. Words are written, but the authors haven’t put work into world building, and have often ignored or misunderstood the rules of the world they were writing in.

We all have to start somewhere and world building is an art. But if you’re writing in someone else’s world, you’re playing with their creation. If you won’t respect the world they’ve built, you’re also disrespecting the creator (creators) of that world.

If we’re respectful of the rules, we might learn something from writing in another author’s world. We might develop our skills for working within a defined system and finding creative answers within that system.

But if we’re rewriting the system, why are we doing it?

If we’re doing it because we ‘sort of know’ the system, that’s lazy (and usually sloppy…).

When writers disagree with a world’s rules and mess with them just to ‘stick it’ to the author (or the fans), that’s not writing in a world that’s pushing an agenda. If that’s your goal, why not just say so straight out? (Being a @$@#@!!! Isn’t persuasive, no matter who you are)

If we’re willing to take time to meddle with the rules of a world properly, why not use that time to create our own?

Consider that question, dear reader. Why not build a world of your own? Or, if you’ve built one, what was the experience like?

What are your thoughts about world building and world borrowing? Leave a comment if you like. I’ll be returning to the topic myself soon. See you next post.

Why the thinky stuff matters…

This week over on Words Mean Stuff I have a post on taking time to ponder. Over here at Forever Mountain, I’m presenting an example of why you should stop to ponder.

Back in the bad old days (Ok, last week…), I had the idea to put a role-playing encounter up for this week’s post. Well, obviously I didn’t do that because you’re reading this post instead.

On the surface, the idea seemed simple. I’m working on games and books, so I’ll throw up a little encounter that helps readers and players get the flavor of my world. It was a good idea. It still is a good idea. But, when you dig deeper, it’s a bigger project than it seemed. At least it is if I want a quality product.

Sure, I could have just dove in, cranked out an encounter and threw it up here. But the result would be crap. Don’t get me wrong, I can create a good encounter. But I want to present an encounter that represents my world and motivates people to read and (gasp!) buy my stuff.

My world isn’t crap. I don’t want my readers buying crap. So, I worked out a plan and I’ll be putting out something better; something that I’m actually pleased with and that will get the results I want. And that ain’t crap…

So, let’s get on with it and look at the reasons you’re reading this post instead of an encounter this week…

Understanding the scope

Creating the encounter would be relatively quick and easy. As a GM, I create encounters on the fly all the time. But this will not be an on the fly, scrap together encounter. It’s a planned encounter that represents my world. Not just that, it’s going to be a published encounter too.

For a published encounter, I want a decent-looking map. I’m not just drawing something on a terrain grid and dragging out a few minis here. I need a drawn-out map to communicate the idea of the encounter to other game masters. And, since this is supposed to be a professional blog, it might be a good idea to have a decent-looking map, not just a scanned copy of a first draft hand-sketch.

I also have to consider what happens if somebody likes the encounter. I’d be thrilled to get feedback from people who’ve played the encounter.

Playing the encounter from the blog post could get unwieldy. And, I’d like to hear good things about the encounter and genuine issues people ran into; not that playing it from a blog post is unwieldy (I already guessed that). So, I should have it available in a downloadable and readable/printable format.

It’s easy enough to do a PDF. That’s readable and printable. But where do I store it? Where can the reader/player download it?

Well, I could set it up on my website (I still might). But it might be better to set it up at Drivethrurpg. If I set it up there, I can send the people from my blog over to download it (either free or pay what you want!) and I can get exposure to people who don’t read my blog. That sounds like a good idea.

By the way… If I’m doing a downloadable PDF, that means copies of this thing may float around even if I pull the blog post down. That means it’s a good idea to make sure my spelling/punctuation/grammar/formatting/‘quality assurance stuff’ is up to par, in addition to making sure that the map looks fantastic.

Oy… Back to the map. Now I need to make it really look good and make sure that I have copyright to the image for commercial purposes. It’s time to learn to draw, pay somebody, or make sure I’m using a software package that allows me to use the image commercially.

And of course, I have to make sure my copyright, the DnD 5^th edition OGL copyright, and all those other legal bits are done correctly. (Not to mention any other art and that sort of thing).

So, thinking all of this over. Yeah, I’m still doing it. But it’s a lot more than just ‘whipping up an encounter’. And doing it all right might take more than a week!

Ensuring the quality

The encounter is definitely more than just a throw together for my campaign. I should treat it as a real publication.

It’s going to be more than a make up on the fly.

It’s going to be more than something in my notes.

It’s going to be more than just a blog post.

That means applying a higher editing and production standard.

I’ll do all the spelling and language check stuff I’d do on a blog post. But I’ll also do multi-draft editing. I’ll be following the revision process I would for a book or print article.

And that means I need some test readers (and in this case, test players). Who should I get to do that? Playing it with my group is like reading through my own story. I need other eyes. So, I’m thinking about other GMs I know and who I can ask to read/play through it without me actually being there.

I should also ask a couple artist/GMs I know about the maps and what they think of them.

Even if I don’t have the names before the maps and text are finished, knowing up front that they’re going through the process can be helpful.

Getting the results you want

Initially, the encounter was going to be a blog post. I’ll get that, eventually.

I also intended the encounter to represent my world. That makes it more than just a blog post. It’s marketing material for other work (Some characters are already slated to appear in another product…).

Sure, I could just throw something together and have a post. But that’s not what I want. I want more than just a post.

This encounter will be a lasting artifact, a teaser/marketing item, a chance to get feedback on the constructs in my world, a chance to work with a new outlet/vender, and even a chance to make a little money (hey it’s a publicity thing, but if I put it up as ‘pay what you want’ (and why not…?) I could see a little cash come in). What I really want from the encounter is for people to be interested in, even intrigued with, my world. I want them to want more.

If I’d just stayed where I started, if I hadn’t really thought it all over, I would have a crappy little blog post that I’ll take down in a few months because it’s embarrassing. Because I took the time to think about it, and because I’ll put the work in to get it, I’ll have a multi-platform marketing piece that expands my audience, interests people in my fictional world (where my games and books happen), and maybe even a little soda money on the side. What a deal!

Yes, it will take work. But because I took the time to think about that work, I can make the project bigger, better, and more successful than the initial idea. I can make it something really worth doing. And all because I took some time to think instead of just throwing something out there.

Well, dear reader, my office dragon is telling me there’s more work to do; my editor (ogre?) is telling me that 1300 words are too many for a 750-word post; and my wife really wants to be picked up from work. So, I’d better leave off for now.

Take the time to do the thinking and planning. Do the work to make your writing really great. And, I’ll see you next post.

Memorial Day

Well, dear reader, this weekend is Memorial Day weekend. For some of us, this means great sales. Others see it as a three-day weekend. It’s even referred to as the “unofficial beginning of summer”. But there’s more to it than that.

What is it?

Memorial Day is a U.S. federal holiday created to remember and celebrating those who gave their lives in the defense of this country. It’s a day for considering those who’ve given their all and what they’ve given us.

Why does it matter?

Well, that’s the question, isn’t it… I can give you some answers. But, ultimately, it’s a question whose answer (s) are very personal to each of us. Would you be here reading this post if it weren’t for the soldiers of the American Revolution who fought for the freedom to form our government by the people and for the people?

What about those who fought in the U.S. Civil War?

What about those who fought in World War 2, the Korean War, or the other conflicts we’ve faced?

Consider the question, dear reader. Really consider the question. And then honor those who fought to make your life better in how you see fit.

I’ll be doing the same. And I’ll see you next post.

Send the Letters

This week I’m working on marketing the LDSPMA writers’ conference. No, dear reader, I won’t bug you about it (I linked it though…). This week I’m contacting faculty and student organizations at some universities. And that means calls, emails, and letters.

Now, I can’t say sending out emails and letters (or cold calling) is my favorite thing. Well, I could, but I’d lose several readers to sarcasm poisoning… I don’t enjoy doing it, but sometimes it has to be done.

Sometimes we have to contact people, even ones we don’t know, regarding our projects. It could be a conference invite. It could be querying a book or article. Or we could be requesting an interview. Even if we don’t enjoy it, it has to be done.

Somebody has to start things (and it’s probably you)

Maybe editors, publishers, and conference attendees are sitting and waiting for our query/offer/whatever… Even if they want it badly, do they know that we have it available?

There are plenty of demands and little time out there. Publishers receive more submissions than they can produce. As much as we want to see ourselves and our work as special, we can’t just sit back, do nothing. We can’t just sit and expect people to ask for it.

Someone has to start the process and make first contact. Since everyone is busy, and the people we need to contact are often both busy and unaware that we have what they’re looking for, it usually falls to us to take the first step.

There are actual risks…

What’s the worst thing that can happen? It’s a valid question.

Mistakes can be made. If you haven’t researched the people you’re contacting well enough, you can make some truly colossal blunders. Once, when I was an undergrad, I used the screen name “Theantifreud”. That was a mistake when sending a PHD application to a Freudian!

Basically, you’ve got two choices: stay safe and generic, or research well enough that you know what you’re saying and have a reasonable ability to predict what the response will be.

The actual best bet is somewhere in between. You don’t want to be so generic that there is no appeal. But you don’t want to act like the reader is your best buddy if they aren’t. Do your research, plan, and write carefully. And then, have someone read things over before you send them out.

But consider the rewards

Not everyone enjoys sending queries or contacting people. But it’s part of what we do and we benefit by doing it well. My next book isn’t getting published unless I query about it. My goal of getting Orson Scott Card to the conference won’t happen if no one brings the conference to his attention.

We do it because we need to. We do it because the benefits outweigh the risks. We do it because it’s part of success, whether that’s a new book published, a successful convention, or just getting somebody over to fix that wonky light switch.

We do it because it’s part of how we get things done.

It might not be right now, dear reader, but the time will come that the letters and emails need to go out. Put in the effort. Make them worthy. And I wish you all the best.

As for me, I’ve got to get stuff sent out, and then start the “checking my email obsessively to see if Orson Scott Card has responded” process. I’ll see you next post.

Scenes and encounters

As a writer, I build scenes. As a game master, I build encounters. There are differences, but there are similarities too…

Encounters and scenes have different requirements and components. I usually introduce outside characters and creatures in an encounter, but not as often in a scene. Scenes might focus on the actions of a single character, alone, while encounters demand someone or something else.

At the same time, scenes and encounters share a purpose and function in the story.

Moving the story forward

“Something needs to happen…” We can’t let the story grind to a stop. So, we make something happen. But is that something doing us any good? Sure, words are said, stuff happens, a couple bodies hit the floor, but does the story actually go somewhere? Or are we back to “Something needs to happen?”

Whether it’s a tender scene between your hero and heroine (or your heroine and your other heroine I ain’t judging here) or a massive battle where your players take on the orc king and his whole army, our scenes and encounters need to move the story forward. There needs to be some point to the thing that helps the story, and the reader/player, move toward the resolution. Otherwise, it’s as Shakespeare said “As a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury that meaneth nothing.”

Our encounter/scene needs to advance the plot. It could give the characters information. It could be a confrontation with the bad guys. It could provide the magic widget that makes winning possible. If we can’t explain why the scene/encounter is there, it doesn’t need to be there. It’s also bogging down the story, or worse, occupying the space that belongs to something more important.

The scene needs to do something. Often, it’s best if the reader doesn’t immediately know what that something is. Often the character(s) might not know what that something is, or even think that it’s a different something.

And if all that isn’t hard enough, the scene/encounter shouldn’t be (or at least shouldn’t feel) forced. The reader/player should never be left to think “you just shoved that in there so X could happen,” or worse, “you just shoved that in there because you wanted it there.” The encounter/scene should flow naturally from what’s going on in the story (the parts the readers/players are aware of and the ones they aren’t).

Sometimes the hardest scenes to write, and the most gratifying when they’re finished, are the ones that are the character’s own #$@#$#!!! fault.

Resulting from character actions

Confronting characters with the results of their actions is a valid thing to do. At times, it’s the point of the story. The ‘natural consequences’ of a character’s actions can be the catalyst that pushes the hero back on course. They could also bring the villain’s world crashing down.

There are other kinds of encounters and scenes, but the ones resulting from a character’s own actions are the “most fair”. You can’t say the GM just dumped an encounter on you if your choices got you there.

Scenes resulting from character actions also result in the most teachable moments and psychological change, the internal stuff many players/readers are looking for.

Sure, something needs to happen. Sometimes we need to goose a player or character out of a rut, but it’s best if we can get them doing something rather than just having something happen to them. And it doesn’t have to be an immediate cause-and-effect situation.

Chekov’s law states that a gun shown in act one must be used in act three. Our story might not have a literal gun, but the characters in our stories can and should do things that come back to haunt them (or help them) later in the story. Sometimes the “get them out of the rut” trigger has to come from the outside. But if we know our characters and what they’ve been doing, they’ll give us the answer that gets them moving again.

Value matters

It’s a busy world. Nobody, not us, not our readers/players, nor our characters have loads of extra time to be sitting around “letting stuff happen.” In printed books, every page costs. Whether printed, electronic, or live, too much distance between important events can slow the story down, resulting in lost interest and lost reader/player interaction. Every scene or encounter needs to move the story forward. It needs to give our readers/players some form of value and a reason to stay with us a little longer.

It’s ok to cut scenes. It’s ok to rewrite scenes. It’s ok to create new scenes. Sometimes the scene or encounter we create on the fly is exactly what’s needed (sometimes the answers are in the back of our minds, whether the front of our minds know it or not…). No matter what our scene is, we need to make sure it has purpose in the story, that it has a reason to be there and value for the reader/player.

Virtually every thing we do in editing is a value building process, making the story better, clearer, more fulfilling, more interesting, and even more important for our readers and players. We definitely want it to feel more important than the other stuff our player/reader could spend time on.

Now, the question is… How do we do all that? And that depends on the stories we’re building. Good luck with yours, dear reader. I need to work on mine for a while.

Polish those scenes and encounters, make them really worthwhile. And, I’ll see you next post.

Discovery vs. planning: character backgrounds

Many writers divide themselves into “plotter” and “pantser” camps. But… there’s more to fiction than plot. If you have a plot and no characters, nothing happens. There’s nobody to move the plot forward. So, today we’re considering “discovery writing” versus planning in developing characters.

The joy of discovery

There is joy in discovery. The things we discover about our characters and ourselves while writing are valuable. Some writers discover the key points of their characters after “just plunging in” and start writing.

In the discovery writing method, we just start with a hook: a name, a detail, a situation, or a need in our story (if we’re being honest); and then we build out the character as we go. The direction the story goes guides us in building and developing our character. Caracter creation by the discovery method (hopefully) occurs naturally as part of the flow of our work. We’re discovering, not cranking things out formulaically.

But that’s the problem, isn’t it (or at least one of them…). We’re not cranking things our formulaically but did we notice we fell into a cliché? Did we notice we have three other characters who are basically the same person with a different name? That’s pretty formulaic…

To write a readable story, we’re going to have to do some work. If you’re a discovery writer, that work comes in on the backend. It comes in rewriting and correcting mistakes we’ve made.

The value of planning

Sometimes there’s value in putting that work on the front end. Lately I’ve been experimenting with a character outline guide I found in Writing the Paranormal Novel. I’m finding helpful.

To be fair, I have done a first draft of the book (or I should say the first draft of a book. The reality of the situation is a bit more complicated ). But, in developing the project, I’m bringing in some new characters; meaning I’m testing on both new and existing characters.

Outline/guide has really helped me explore the characters more deeply before throwing them into the story. It’s helping me see options and story possibilities that might not have occurred to me otherwise (they didn’t occur to me previously on the existing characters…).

Yes, there is a possibility of things becoming too fixed and mechanical. It is possible to crank out a bunch of backgrounds without really doing the thinking. And that doesn’t get you anywhere. It doesn’t save you any work and may create more backend work when you realize you have to go back and do the revision anyway (score one for discovery writing).

There are also things in the ‘standard’ profile that don’t work for every character. The education section makes sense for my wizard/detective. It works for my priest character. And it’s a must for my main villains (I really need to know how they know what they know). But for my street kid character? Let’s be honest, he can’t even spell the word…

And then there are things like the romance section, especially the question about their first sexual encounter. Again, for some characters it makes sense (my main villains especially). But my priest is celibate and always has been. The street kids, that gets uncomfortable. The 11-to-13-year-old siblings with the potential to have their own (mid-grade) side book…? Cringe… NO! I ain’t even thinking about that one.

There’s real potential in doing some character planning beforehand, but there’s the danger of “just going through the motions”, the danger of getting things too locked in, and then there’s the stuff that just doesn’t apply.

Developing and keeping track of it all

Some of the best advice I’ve been given is that we should change whatever we need to in the story in order to make it work (and to make it publishable). If we’re going to cling to a particular detail or idea to the detriment of our story, it’ll kill the story.

Again, this is something that doesn’t just apply to plot. Whether we’re discovery writers or we start out with detailed character dossiers, we have to adapt (and to let our characters do the same). We have to make sure our characters are consistent. If they change, it should be a logical change based on what’s come before, not just a change of convenience.

This suggests that we need some way of keeping track of our characters. That dossier is going to happen, even if it just lives in our heads. The questions are: when do we build it? And how do we use it?

The best option is to follow a middle ground. Not everyone is going to need a dossier. Not every character who needs one will be apparent at the outset. We may decide to ‘86’ a character we’ve built a dossier for (we can save it for another project…). But by having a dossier for our main characters, we can save ourselves some work, make our characters more consistent, and find options and ideas that might take us a couple of rewrites to discover otherwise.

You’ll probably have at least one or two characters in mind at the start. Build a dossier for them (even if it’s only in your head), but recognize you may need to update that dossier as things go. Events will happen and new information will be discovered. It’s just like real life. We update as we go.

We might not need to stop and develop dossiers for every side character. If the cheese monger or ‘guy in traffic’ character is only there for one scene, we probably don’t need a dossier. But if that character keeps showing up, we probably should stop and figure out who this person is.

The truth is often somewhere in-between the extremes. We won’t know all our characters at the start, but we have ideas about at least one… We may be planners or pantsers, but internal consistency is vital to creating a publishable story (even if the internal consistency is hard to see on a first read).

For character design, it’s more a case of do you ask yourself “what am I building” or “WTF did I just build”. We need to be flexible with our character dossiers. We can build them before, during, or after our first draft. But they should probably exist before the end of the second. It’ll help us get the story right in the end.

That’s it for this one, dear reader. Take care of your characters. I’ll take care of mine. And of course, see you next post!

Life and writing: some realities

There comes a time when the HVAC is down, the repair guy has to fix a flat before he can get to the service call, your finance person is “behind”, the deadlines are imminent (or a little past… (or both)), your partner “isn’t quite getting it”, and the in-laws feel the need to have a two-day visit to ‘chat’ about tacos, your sister-in-law’s kids, and neighbors you might have met once or twice 20 years ago. It happens, even to me. But you have to pick your battles, remember your values, and make the choices that lead to lasting value.

Writing is something we choose to do… But it’s also a compulsive behavior (if we’re being honest). If we’re going to turn it into a way of life, there’s a lot of work involved. There’s also a lot of work involved in just living. And there are relationships to be maintained as well.

Sometimes choices have to be made. The secret is, to avoid blinding ourselves with anger and doubt, look at what’s really going on, and make the choices that best support the things we value (even if they aren’t the choices we want to make).

We call it the writing life (in part) because, as teachers and storytellers, writing is our life. Yes, there will be interruptions and irritations. But we will find a way through. That’s part of who we are.

We aren’t meant to be alone. Human beings (even those introverts known as writers) are by nature social creatures, no matter how we may choose to interact. Sometimes we have to put down the pen and silence the keyboard for at least a little while, because the human element is called for.

Sometimes life happens and there will be interruptions. We’ll get past them. It’s what we do. The false belief we can’t get past our obstacles is one of the biggest obstacles we face. Dismiss it. Ignore it. Do whatever you need to do. Then, work your way past (or through) the obstacles in your way and get back to what you love. That’s the way.

It takes work, but it’s possible, dear reader. I wish you well with your challenges. And, I’ll see you next post.

Great News!

Well dear reader, some good news dropped this week… Registration for the 2022 LDSPMA conference is open! There’s a lot of good (as in good for the world and good for writers) going on at the conference. So, check it out and I’ll see you next post!

Writing and project management

As writers, we’re learners, discoverers, and doers of the work. And if we want to be published, really published with stuff people actually read, there’s a lot of work to do. True, you might have a tweet or blog post go viral with little effort. But a book, article, or post that people come back to year after year, the ones people don’t forget just because the next viral thing happens, takes more effort.

A successful writing project (even a blog post) is a project. You could just sort of mess around with it. But usually, success comes with focused effort. And whether you’re working alone or you’ve got a cast of thousands, success requires someone to manage that project.

What is project management?

Project management is the part where you’re keeping track of what’s going on. What parts need to be finished before the other parts begin? When do we need all of that done by? Who should talk to whom to make sure it happens? Knowing, keeping track of, and communicating with the team about that stuff is project management.

The project manager doesn’t have to do it all (unless you’re a “one-man band”). But the project manager keeps an eye out to make sure those who do the work are doing their part well, on time, and within budget (hopefully).

To adapt a bit from Franklyn Covey, leaders make sure you’re in the right forest and point which direction to go; project managers make sure the workers have what they need to get through the forest and are heading the right direction.

Why does it matter to writers?

Well, a book, and even more so a series, can be a pretty big forest. Even an article can have lots of components. There are words to be written. But then someone has to edit those words (developmental and copy editing…). Pictures, charts, and drawings may need to be created, edited, and incorporated. Somebody needs to figure out where, and to whom, the project is going to be submitted. Somebody has to do the submitting. Somebody at the publisher’s end has to accept the manuscript. More editing happens. Page design. Physical/electronic production of the work… Oh, by the way… Did anyone bother to format the manuscript the way the publisher wanted? There’s a reason (several actually) that publishers ask for a particular format setup.

Any or all of those things can go wrong. And that’s why successful writers need to be successful project managers. They need to make sure everything’s happening, heading in the right direction, and arriving where and when it’s needed.

Ok… It matters. So, how do I do it?

Well, that’s the trick, isn’t it? First question: are we talking about a project that’s underway already or one we’re just starting?

If we’re starting fresh…

If we’re just starting, start with a plan. Take the time to figure out what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, who your audience is, who you’re submitting the thing to, what parts and steps are involved, and whose help and buy-in you need to do all of that. It’s ok if you don’t have the whole team yet. You probably don’t have a publisher acceptance before you have a manuscript (you definitely don’t if you don’t have a proposal or pitch yet). But you need to have some idea of when and how you’ll bring these folks in and then take the steps to include them.

Even when you’ve created an initial plan, the planning doesn’t really stop. Many parts of the process require individual planning and communication. You have to talk to the people involved (even if that’s just you) and make sure everyone’s seeing the vision. You will also need to watch for and adapt to challenges that happen along the way.

That means when you’re doing the work, you need to be monitoring the work, both what’s happening and what’s coming up so that you can navigate the challenges that happen. This can be a split focus thing. If you really can do it all yourself good for you. If not having a partner or teammate to help you see the forest through the trees may be helpful.

Oddly enough, for those of us who want to complete more than one project in our lifetimes, once the project is done, it isn’t really done. There’s one last step: review the project and discover the lessons learned that will help you in planning and doing the next one.

What if things are already under way…?

Well, it’s not the end of the world. Coming in with some project management may save the project. Or at least prevent more problems. But you have your work cut out for you. Things are already in motion. Some things might be in a position where you can’t put them on hold, and yet all those beginning steps need to happen.

You’re going to have to put in extra effort to catch things up. But the increased probability of success is often worth it.

Obviously, I didn’t cover everything about project management in the last 800 words… There are thousands of pages (tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands) that have been written about project management. And every project and every project team have their own quirks and nuances. Even if I had presented the “one way to project manage”, you’d still have to adapt it for your project.

The point for today’s post is that project management is necessary for successful writers. How we actually do it is a subject for future posts, and planning for our individual projects.

And with that, I hear my fiction partner, my rules team, my non-fiction team, and my conference committee all trying to reach me (there are questions…). Good luck with your writing, dear reader. Make a plan, follow your plan, and I’ll see you next post.