Stefan Gagne's Fiction Factory

25+ years of novels, games, and other creative fiascos.

Archives for June 2014

minute adjustments every minute

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Remember when I flushed two different versions of the intro for this chapter out the airlock before arriving at its final form? Kinda had to do the same thing with this one. I considered posting another batch of “Lost Scenes” but the rewrites weren’t extensive enough to justify it; dialogue assigned to one character was assigned to another, names were changed, etc., but ultimately it kept a similar shape. Despite that, the minute changes were critically important.

Writing is tricky business. I often write something and then regret it 300 pages later. For instance, Patient 31 showing up at the end of the last book, and how Jack Hayes referred to him. So many things about 31 changed between then and now that I’m not sure I’ll be representing him in a way that completely meshes with that craziness. I think I salvaged it, but who knows? We’ll know sooner or later.

Two chapters to go. Maybe three, depends on if I actually have another story to tell before we wrap this up. Thing is, the original shape of the back half of this book was going to be:

  1. A story about Memorial Stadium, which I won’t reveal yet.
  2. A story about Dave and Kelsey of some sort because Dave totally killed it in the last character poll.
  3. A story about the Resistance and Vivi’s plight.
  4. The big finale.

Aaaand then #2 and #3 got merged into what you’re reading now with some of #3 pushed to #4. So now, we’re looking at:

  1. A story about Dave and Kelsey.
  2. A story about Memorial Stadium which may blow your minds.
  3. The big finale.

The chapters are smaller overall in vol//003, so I was figuring I’d need an extra story in there… but I’m inclined to plow forward with three instead of four. Stories are as long as they have to be, after all. No more, no less. So three more chapters, and then… and then…

…then I take a break, honestly, much deserved. And THEN it’s time for the next fiasco. What will it be? Well… you’ll have a hand in that. Stay tuned.

That’s for the future. For now, there is the continuing misadventures of Dave and Builder 78. Enjoy.

730 days of angles

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Hey, guess what? City of Angles just celebrated its two year birthday! It’ll be smashing a birthday cake on YouTube then crying when the string on its party hat snaps any moment now.

City of Angles was born in 2012, one of the worst years of my adult life, where anxiety and insomnia and sleep apnea and mild depression were perpetually grinding me down. In January I started losing sleep, then getting anxious about losing sleep, which lead to more losing sleep. Various doctors came and went without any clear solutions. Oddly, the worst part about it all was that it wasn’t some all-encompassing doom spiral which leads to straightjackets and rubber rooms, it was JUST annoying enough to impede but leave me plenty of uptime as well. My problems let me lead a life while perpetually reminding me Hey, We’re Still Here.

By June I was starting to get a handle on it all —  and one of the ways I did it was to start a fiction series ABOUT anxiety and depression and the overcoming thereof. City of Angles let me explore concepts of fear and dread in a safe space, since from an author’s perspective, you’re completely in control of the horror. You know what’s coming up and what awful things are going to happen because you designed every bit of it. It’s a bit less certain for the READER but quite comforting and calming for an author to gleefully write up various scary woogums menacing people.

My life gradually improved by early 2013, and CoA rolled alongside that. I’d like to think it helped contribute to my recovery as well. Running a successful Kickstarter, proof that enough people cared about me and my work to let it show fiscally, was quite educational in that regard.

Now we’re two years and two-point-five books in and City of Angles will be ending soon. (Where “Soon” means “Several months from now.”) It’s been a very, very strange journey. Once it’s over… I’ll have some downtime, then likely be starting a new journey soon enough. Hope you’ll come with me for that one as well.

This week we celebrate this milestone by… well, serving up a pile of scenes from the middle of a story in the middle of a book. Not exactly climactic, but hey. Read and enjoy and I’d love your feedback.

Oh, and in the comments below… how’ve your last two years been? How’d City of Angles find you and walk alongside you during that time?

shifting gears

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The journey of this chapter has been kinda nuts. As discussed last week I wrote and rejected two different versions of the introduction, while trying to find the voice and tone for this chapter. Since ultimately the story would be focusing on Citadel!Dave and City!Dave (since you folks indicated in a poll that you craved more Dave) I decided it’d be better not to have the narration open focused on some extraneous one-scene-only nobodies.

However, things have drifted even further. Originally the plan was to flip-flop between both Daves, scene by scene, as one struggled with a moral dilemma and one struggled with impossible odds. But as I started writing Citadel!Dave… I got WAY more interested in his story than City!Dave’s. So, the entire plot got revamped, those rapid-fire establishing scenes got fleshed out, and, well… now it’s all about Citadel!Dave. I think it’s a stronger story as a result.

In fact, you can read that story right over here, right now: City of Angles //022 – Trouble & Danger.

I wasn’t sure I’d be able to finish this in time for posting, and I actually do have one more scene to go in “Act I” of the chapter. All this rejiggering of the plot is going to change stories down the line as well. I can’t promise I’ll be able to stick to my week-to-week schedule as we close out the final book… I can’t sacrifice quality for quantity, basically. But I’ll do my best to provide both.

roll up for the mystery tour

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What’s this, you say? Some manner of “Writing Process Blog Tour” on the Internet thingamabob? What a whimsical and innovative notion! Mayhaps I shall partake.

Hi there, folks. I’m Stefan Gagne, an online fiction author who specializes in web serials and web novels. You might know me by my moniker “Twoflower,” named after the Terry Pratchett character back when I had to hide the fact that I was piggybacking internet access off my sister in high school. You might remember me from my old anime fanfic, or my earlier works such as Sailor Nothing and Unreal Estate. You might have played my Neverwinter Nights games, Penultima or Elegia Eternum or the HeX coda. You might know me from my recent books, anachronauts and City of Angles. You might not know me at all! Regardless of your level of knowledge, I bid you welcome to this stop on the Writing Process Blog Tour.

I was introduced to the tour by longtime reader Selphie Trabia, who writes for the Owl’s Well blog. If you’d like to back up one stop on the tour to see what she’s written, I’ve got you covered with this link. But, uh, come back here after and read my majestic words of wisdom kplox.

What am I working on?

I move from project to project, as a shark moves from swimmer to swimmer. My current main course is City of Angles, a harrowing adventure full of amused laughs and terrified laughs and terrified screaming. We’re two-and-a-half books in on the series and nearing the end, so no doubt I’ll have another gargantuan boondoggle to write after I’m done with this one.

Outside of writing, I follow the video game industry quite a bit, particularly the indie PC scene. I’ve always aspired to make my own games — and in fact DID make some games, back in the Neverwinter Nights era. But my strength is definitely in writing rather than designing systems, so I’m focusing on narrative in the here and now.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

I’m often wondering exactly what genre my writing is. “Young Adult” fits, but only because once I start writing without dropping perpetual F bombs and showing lots of bewbs, I feel obliged to carry on in that vein for consistency’s sake. It’s certainly got its moments of abject horror alongside all the amusing wordplay; reading this to the Dr. Seuss crowd would get you hauled away by the cops. I’m not sure exactly how different the material itself is from other novels… I’m sure somebody else is writing comedy-drama adventure tales. Heck, most of the authors I love and adore do that.

But the manner in which I create it, that’s another story. In fact, if you’ll permit me to change the template a bit for this blog tour, let’s tackle that first before we do the rest of the questions.

How does my writing process work?

All my writing is done online, in full public view. (A few bonus short stories are held back for the retail versions, but otherwise it’s all on the website.) I post “drafts in progress,” with several new scenes going online each Saturday morning. I invite feedback and comments, from mechanical stuff like typo reports to full emotional reactions, and use all all this lovely communication to improve the work for the final drafts and eventual book publication. It’s a very interactive experience at the bleeding edge of the tale, with all the finished work up there as well for folks who are new to the series and want to dive right in.

I’ve even experimented with livestreaming my writing, describing the process as I go… why I cut out a paragraph here, why I reworded that bit there, etc. Recently I posted some “lost scenes” which were junked versions of a chapter introduction. It’s all here, warts and all, for an engaged reader to enjoy.

As to the nuts-and-bolts of the process, I like to work from the outside in. My books always begin in the planning phase: deciding how a story will start, and how it will end. I flesh out a few key steps that need to happen to get from the start to the end. Chapter by chapter this pattern repeats, like a fractal; the broad overview with starting point and finishing goal, then filling in everything between. Scene by scene, paragraph by paragraph, from sketchy to fleshed out.

The hardest part, really, is fleshing it out. I can have a killer opening and a great plan for how everything will wrap up, but deciding the little things can stymy me completely. “I know where this character’s going to end up. But is he going to be present for the conversation at lunch, or should he find out about it after? Which makes the most sense?” I can get stuck on something like that for a WEEK compared to “How does it all end?”. Bad craziness.

Why do I write what I do?

The simple answer is “because I have to.” I have a grave fixation on productive use of my free time, and if I’m not creating something — specifically something for public consumption, something that someone somewhere will get something out of in some way — I’m wasting my time. There’s no real choice here. I can write, I need to write, I have to write.

But as to WHAT I write… I like to explore some of my favorite themes, mixing it up with how I explore them and in what worlds. I like to write about short term consumption versus long term gains. I like to write about selfishness versus community support. I like to think about the patterns of history, and those who are doomed to repeat them. I like to write about desperately hanging on to your ideals in an imperfect universe which prefers to complacently chug along with whatever works. I want to show that there’s another way to live, a better way to live, whatever it may be…

A bit overwrought philosophically, there. In short: I write because I think, and I hope others think about these things too through my writing. And I hope these random ponderances brought a few ponderances to light for you, as well.

So, that’s all I’ve got for you. The next stop on your tour will be a two-for-one; Katriel Page and studyofanime. Both of them writes about the study of Japanese culture. It’s non-fiction, but very fascinating material and clearly crafted with extreme care. I’m proud to be one of her Patreons, if that’s the correct noun.

raiders of the lost scenes

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So, this week we… sort of start chapter //022.

Technically speaking I started it twice, then went “No, that’s rubbish” and tossed what I’d written. It’s been kind of a crazy week for me due to a dozen-plus relatives swarming my hometown as well as dayjob stuff as well as playing some WildStar. Time spent on false starts basically equaled all the time I had available to me, meaning I couldn’t properly start //022 on schedule.

To make up for this, and to keep you entertained, I’m actually posting the rejected versions of //022’s intro. This includes writer’s commentary about my thought process behind the scenes, why they were rejected, how I tried to fix things, etc. Good for aspiring writers out there or folks just curious about how these stories come together. Minor spoilers for an event that kicks off the chapter, bewarn’d.

Also, check back here on MONDAY for a bonus blog post. I’m taking part in a writer’s tour where I’ll continue to discuss my process, as well as link to other writing blogs you may want to check out!

See you back here June 14th for the real //022.