Thank you for stopping by! This is your place for information about JD Williams, writer of science fiction and fantasy.

UPCOMING PROJECTS

In the coming months, I’ll have more info on the following:

Other-world nonstop action thriller (short science fiction novel).

Spaceship adventure (novel format).

YA space adventure (short science fiction novel).

Mystery space thriller (short science fiction-horror novel).

NEWS AND COMMENTS

February 13, 2012

Outlining The Plot

There are several major things I love about writing on a computer versus the ancient way of using a typewriter or pen/pencil and paper. One of the biggest is the ease of making changes and not having to waste reams of paper doing it.

The other is the word processing application, and specifically, the outline feature.

All my novels are plotted out in a sort of outline form.

Many, many years ago, I used the index card method to plot my novels — write significant story points on a card, insert more cards into the sequence for elaboration as needed, keep working on the order of the cards until the plot worked. I still remember spreading index cards around a table or, when the plot was nearly done and entailed hundreds of cards, across the floor. One stack for the main characters’ story arcs, another stack for key events, another stack for background, and so on, then slowly combining them into one eventual stack. The plot of the book. I couldn’t imagine the method getting any bet, but it did.

Using an application’s outline mode allows me to look at the plot to a novel at whatever level I need — at just the major events (by collapsing most of the levels), or at the finest details.

The thing is, I really look forward to outlining a new novel. When inspiration hits me, I often have so many ideas rushing through my head, jotting down brief notes is the best I can do to keep up.

And best of all, when I come back to an incomplete plot weeks or months later, sorting through the stuff I’ve typed up already can often reignite the creative process, especially if it’s still screaming to be put into a coherent order.

February 6, 2012

What’s In A Name

I’d like to offer a blanket Thank You to all those wonderful people who put together webpages that have some sort of name generator on them. Fantasy or realistic, they’re proving more and more valuable to me.

I never thought I’d get to this point, but naming my characters (and planets and stars and lands and countries) often threatens to stop me in my tracks. In my current work-in-progress, my notes still refer to “MC4.” That’s “Main Character 4.” I’m a quarter of the way into the book, and she has yet to be officially named. She’s already appeared but was referred to only by a title, which is key to the plot because when someone new comes in during act 2, two of the main characters wonder, “Have we met her previously?”

I wasn’t going to let a simple matter of not having what I felt was the right name for this character stop me from writing the novel. Although “MC4” works fine in my outline, it’s going to look silly typing, “They recognized her from earlier. She was MC4.”

Now, for my next novel, I came up with a unique way (for me) to name my main characters. The thing is, will I really want to give away where I got their names anytime before the book is published? Sounds like a post for another time!

For now, thank you to those name generators!

January 30, 2012

Extra Eyes

I just finished editing one of my novels. This was the fine-tooth-comb editing stage — finding repetitive words, weak sentence structure and the dreaded typos. I’m not amazed I make typos. I’m amazed how some of them can go unnoticed for so many read-throughs.

What also gets me are the typos I notice when I’m looking for some other kind of problem. It’s almost as if the typo is invisible when I want to find it, but it’s right there when I’m looking for something else. I think there’s some kind of left brain-right brain thing going on here, and if I can figure out what it is, I’ll patent it and bottle it and start selling it as soon as I can put it into production.

That’s why I always recommend authors have others read over their work. It doesn’t have to be a lot of people, but a few trusted beta readers are a great benefit. We can get so close to our own words that we end up not being able to see the forest for the typos.

January 23, 2012

Look Up To The Right

Above and on the right is a text box that contains my “Upcoming Projects” info. This is where I’ll list new projects in as much detail as I can at the time. Until contracts are signed (and sometimes, not even then), I’m not going to list titles. But I will give enough hints or clues or abbreviations or something so that, as the months go by, I can talk about the projects in one way or another to whet the appetite.

For now, my next project is a short science fiction adventure novel, set on a world undergoing terraforming. That’s only the slightest taste of what it’s about. As publication gets closer, I’ll drop more hints, teasers and background for the book. In the meantime, “short science fiction adventure novel” is all I’m going to say about it. More to come on it, guaranteed.

January 16, 2012

@JDWilliamsSciFi

Yeah, it had to happen. I’ve joined Twitter. And wow, are there a lot of JD Williamses out there already, tweeting away.

I’m not quite sure what I’m going to do with Twitter yet. Probably post updates about progress on my writing or breaking news about new novels.

While I hope my website posts will give readers a glimpse into the production of my writing, I don’t intend to use Twitter to waste followers’ time with the ultra-mundane. (“Yes, pizza again tonight. Don’t you love it?”)

On the other hand, anything deemed too trivial for the website may indeed find its way to Twitter. (“Keeping up with my intended pace on new novel. Another week, another 5,000 words.”)

But I don’t plan to spend much time composing tweets. If nothing worthwhile comes to me, then nothing gets tweeted, unlike the website, which I plan to update every week.

Although after this website post, it looks like I have my next two tweets already. (Yes, had pizza yet again recently. I love me my pizza!)

January 15, 2012

Mondays It Is

I had my second website update for 2012 all ready to go. It was a post describing how updates henceforth would always appear on Tuesdays, and I went on to explain, in excruciating detail, how I arrived on Tuesdays as the day of the week for updates.

Then I changed my mind, before I could even post Tuesdays were the day.

So now it’s Mondays for updates.

Why? Why not. We all need something to make Mondays special, right? Mondays are already special, but not extra cheese on the pizza special. More like Marge Simpson saying her Bart is special. So Mondays it is.

Will I update and/or post on other days? Yes, if needed. If something big is about to happen, I’ll let everyone know as soon as possible.

Otherwise, for the rest of eternity, I update on Mondays.

Until I change my mind. Again.

January 10, 2012

Change Is Good… Right?

I’ve decided to make some changes to my website. Some will be small. Some will be big. Some may never evolve beyond just the hypothetical.

For the new year, I plan to talk about my upcoming projects more. It’s been a while since TimeStream and Remote Eyes were published, and there’s an ongoing gap until my next new novels appear. Thanks to the weirdness that is Publishing and Scheduling, it may appear I’m more prolific than I really am for a while. It’s possible that by the end of the year, I’ll have six novels somewhere between final edits and sitting on a publisher’s schedule.

The biggest change will be philosophical. I’m going to try to post at least one new update every week. Not that I don’t always have something on my mind, but every-week updates may have to be trivial at times and short because I’m too busy with my actual writing, but the plan is, each week something new somewhere on this site will go up, and the home page will be the place it either happens or is announced.

“Saying” and “doing” are two different things. If I put it in writing, that may force me to do more than just say I’ll update my site every week. It may be the motivation to keep me doing it every week

So look for new stuff on this site every week. I like the idea of updates appearing on a set day each week. Now to decide which day…