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There are a lot of characters in this series of posts (which one day should evolve into books, though without the many pictures everyone likes, more on that later), I seem to create new ones with every episode. Some of these folks last more than a post, some come on the scene and are never heard from again. It's not that I killed them off, it's just that they came on stage (so to speak), said their lines, and were of no further use in the story.
I don't like having nameless characters. While these people are fictional, those who actually fought the war were real people, they had names, they had personalities, they had families, so for me to have a nameless character feels disrespectful, to me at any rate.
I'm also trying to cover multiple theaters: North Africa, Russia, commando actions in the West, partisan activity in France, I even began looking at the American soldiers we'll be meeting later, there are a lot of moving parts in this story. My bad.
So I'm planning on dialing back my fiction writing for a bit, I need to go back and re-read what I've done in order to go forward in a reasonably coherent manner. Not sure how long this is going to take, but I need to do it.
I'll be in touch.
Coalescing any number of daily posts into a book, focus on a particular area or character/s, lots to think about Sarge. There is much to say about coherence. Do what needs must, we Chanters will adapt.
ReplyDeleteI have read the occasional incoherent book, don't want to write one.
DeleteOK, that is reasonable plan.
ReplyDeleteWell, it's a plan.
DeleteOkay, I'll be the toddler in the room. NO! It's not a reasonable plan. No! You must write every day or else I'll hold my face until my breath turns blue!
DeleteThere. Somebody had to whine and we don't want to have to read juvat's whinging... :)
As long as it's not the PLAN, go with the plan, man!
I've always gotten a chuckle out of the Peoples' Liberation Army Navy. "Well, which is it?!?!"
Delete"...without the many pictures..."
ReplyDeletealways a choice between writing novels for the educated, adult reader or writing comic books for...
OTOH, if you're writing an organic chemistry text, I, for one would be lost (at this stage in my life) without the pictures showing who attaches to what with how many bonds at what angles,
IOW, small sketches of battlefield movements might not go amiss, 'ticularly in the North African desert.
Great (and I do mean Grrr8!) stories: any one of the participants on either side could be one of my uncles; they're that alive.
I need to do more of the little battlefield sketches!
DeleteYou must listen to your muse to maintain quality, do what you need to with my blessing. Thank you for the story so far.
ReplyDeleteThe Muse does get tired at times. I overwork her.
DeleteMoar stuffed grape leaves and horrible anise liquor!
DeleteI think that's why she's tired, all those late nights!
DeleteSarge, I am always impressed by the number of characters you have and their fullness - and frankly, that you keep it all organized. I just post fiction once a week and it is difficult to keep it all in order.
ReplyDeleteIt can be a chore, When I started the second series (this is the third on WWII) I swore I was going to have a database. Ah,, the best laid plans ...
DeleteWhat TB said, and that you make them all somehow different and distinct.
DeletePerhaps go old school and use butcher paper to list characters, show relationships and such.
DeleteA great computer tool is Analyst's Notebook; originally used by cops in anti-gang work, later used by us to draw out networks of bad people. Palantir is another tool but I liked ANB best.
We'll be here, albeit impatiently.
Boat Guy
Beans - Thanks!
DeleteBG - Analyst's Notebook looks intriguing, though awfully pricey. Butcher paper is an idea, one which The Missus Herself might be less than thrilled with!
DeleteI'll come up with something, someday.
Ya know, patience is a virtue. (No, I don't have any either.)
Hadn't thought about the price since our tax dollars bought mine! Good stuff.
DeleteCan empathize on "decor decisions" NOT being in our (Y-chrome) hands in most spaces.
BG
Heh. OAFS' writing room will soon have 2 huge dry erase boards and 2 huge cork boards with 3x5 index cards with character names and pins and colored string going everywhere and writing on the wall...
DeleteBG - Yeah, I priced a couple of options. Guaranteed the book would not get finished as The Missus Herself would probably "end" me if I bought something like that. Yup, definitely a "decor decision" on the butcher paper.
DeleteBeans - I might be able to come up with the computerized version of that. After all, I am a computer guy and "I have certain skills." Most of the necessary (though a bit primitive) tools are already in my possession. (I just need to bend them to my will. Or something.)
DeleteButcher paper (or end of rolls from white newsprint [printers change rolls out before the bitter end goes through] might be a good choice. And fashion yourself the makings for a scroll, so you can just wind it up when not in use.
DeleteIt's easier to do on the computer.
DeleteThe problem is charting the development of characters, the events, and their interrelationships with time. Not easy to depict (or keep track of). Dossiers (in spreadsheet form) might help. The effort is almost like diagraming a perversion of a gemological family tree.
DeleteRelational databases do wonders for tracking such things.
Delete"Mise in place" you've gathered a bunch of stuff, now you need to need to do the next step of the prep work of slicing and dicing before bringing it all together in a cohesive meal.
ReplyDeleteAlways worth waiting for.
Something like that.
DeleteStanding by ... fairly patiently. :) Thanks to you and your Muse for your research, constancy, and integrity, Sarge.
ReplyDeleteKind words, Rickr, thank you.
DeleteIn the header picture isn't that a pair of Stryker's and some 113' at Grafenwöhr Germany?
ReplyDeleteI'll wait, and twitch just a little waiting for your fine military storytelling.
Sure is.
DeleteI'll try not to make you wait too long.
So what you did with the picture is like using M24's and M48's to represent US and Kraut armor in "The Battle of the Bulge" or something?
DeleteHahaha!
DeleteExactly.
Okay, no whining about free stuff being withheld. I am grateful for your prodigious output of great material, and will be happy for whatever we get, whenever. Good stuff is the absence of bad stuff, so keep up the quality rather than becoming a slave to quantity.
ReplyDeleteImages are a huge plus when dishing the tale out in daily installments. You can probably get by with fewer when the story is there in chapter length chunks. What's that old deal about a picture being worth 10,000 words?
Yeah, today's pic had me confused for a while, first, color was a rarity in WW2 and those vehicles didn't look very WW2-ish. The text made it clearer.
JB
I'm not saying I did that deliberately ...
DeleteBut ...
Actually I saw that image on an article I was reading and really liked it. (The article is at the source under the picture, very interesting, I might actually buy that book. Knowing when and how to retreat is a useful military skill.)
'Tis my only defense.
I like your fiction, the people are real but sometimes I feel like a need a scorecard to keep track of who we are talking about... That bitch aside I really like that we have characters from all sides telling your story.
ReplyDeleteYou'll be in touch, we'll be here waiting... In the meantime have a good Tuesday!
I really think I need a scorecard at times. Maybe even include it in the "Pages" section of the blog. So you're not alone there!
DeleteTuesday is a "so far, so good" kind of thing, I'll take that!
Okay. And when you re-read, you might want to jot some notes down. One of those instances where having dual or triple monitors or two computers running at the same time would help you.
ReplyDeleteNot sure what kind of budget y'all think I've got but ...
DeleteI can actually keep most of it in my head, I'm also pretty good at searching the blog when I forget some detail. (Like starting to write about Sauer writing a letter to his father a couple of posts ago, then I remembered a little detail when the Saxons were crossing the Somme River on their anabasis from Normandy. Sauer's father went missing in action on the Somme.) I get by, but sometimes smoke begins to issue from my ears and I need to slow down, just a bit.
Ask the IT Geeks at work if they're surplusing any extra monitors or such. Who knows, you might get a 'get rid of it' discount.
DeleteA big "no no" on Federal government contracts. Also, I just don't have the space.
DeleteI have difficulty keeping track of real peoople, particularly those recently introduced. If I remember their names correctly it's an accomplishment. There's no way i'm gonna get OCD about fictional characters, unless it's some major faux pas. The continuity of the plot, and that it's true to history is what's important to me.
ReplyDeleteI'm very good with faces, it's names I have trouble with in real life. Fortunately on the blog it's all written down. (Somewhere ...)
DeleteSarge,
ReplyDeleteYou're doing a great job of telling your story and getting the reader interested. That having been said, I agree that it is a bit difficult to keep who's who straight. I think part of that is the forced break point caused by the daily blog. I tend to read for a much longer period of time, so maybe the active actors in a given section of the book I read will make a more memorable impact on me.
As I said, it's a great story, well told, just a little bit of fine tuning needed.
Keep up the good work.
juvat
I want (need) to get the story down, which can present problems in the short term. But I have a couple of ideas I "plan" on looking at this weekend. (Plan is in parentheses because, well, it's more of a plan to make a plan ... 🙄)
DeleteI remember reading Fire in the Steppe and the rest of The Trilogy by Henryk Sienkiewicz about 45 years ago and learning later that it came out in serial form as he traveled around the Americas. It had a cast of thousands and the remarkable thing to me was that he maintained perfect continuity over the course of more than a thousand pages as he traveled. You can do it!
ReplyDeleteCurtis
It sounds impressive, and thanks for the vote of confidence!
DeleteThis may prove a useful source of maps for "later." Whenever and wherever later is. https://www.sovietmaps.com/
ReplyDeleteVery nice!
Delete