How do I write a novel with 80,000!!! words in it?

by on August 17, 2020 with No Comments

Someone asked “How do I write a novel with 80,000!!! words in it?” Well, I’m finishing my 5th novel with over 100,000 (in addition to 20-something full-length screenplays). Here’s my answer:

This question always puzzles me. It’s not “How do I write X amount of words?”… The question you should be asking yourself is, “What story do I want (have) to tell?” Answer that question, and how you tell that story is a matter of application.

Hint: You are what you do every day. You may not like hearing that, but it’s the truth.

Map out what you’re going to write like you’re taking a trip to a place you’ve never been. (You need to know the places along the way to get gas, sleep, eat, go to the bathroom, etc.) You’ve got to know where you’re starting from and where you’re going to. And then it’s just planning the route. Sometimes you’ll get lost (especially if you’ve rarely taken a trip like this before), but if you know where you’re headed, you’ll figure it out. And it might mean you have to drive through a cornfield instead of the interstate. That’s how you get to 80, 90, 100,000 words or more. One turn at a time.

T-Minus Two Weeks.

by on May 15, 2019 with No Comments

We are in the last few days of the push. Alexander X and its audiobook version read by Wil Wheaton are coming out May 28th. AND the sequel, Ancient Among Us, (that’s Wil Wheaton getting ready to start recording on AAU), will come out a couple of weeks after that. It’s been two years of hard work by everyone on the team to get here.

I’m about to dive back in on the third book, which is now more than a 1/3 of the way finished, which on this one means I’ve taken 300 pages of notes, dialogue, and roughed-out scenes (no, seriously, 300) and turned them into 140 tight pages. Some books are just like that. It’s like panning for gold.