Chapter Outlines...

 Chapter One:   De-Rail

        The first chapter deals with the reason why Lauren Michaels is on board the train, it deals with the journey and then the crash.  This introduces all the main characters As well as a few secondary ones.

Chapter Two:  Cold Storage

        This chapter is about the Company, the organisation responsible for setting the accident. Their reasons why, we find out about the illegal cryogenics and stasis experiments.

Chapter Three:  Body Bagged

        The search for bodies amongst the wreckage. Listing the passengers, and contacting the families of the living, deceased and the missing. We are introduced to a police officer who is working on the case.

Chapter Four:   Conscience

        Some of the scientists working for the cryogenics unit of the company hear about the accident and given the influx of new ‘subjects’ put two and two together. Some decided that they won’t work this way and attempt to speak out only to be found ‘accidentally’ deceased. The company cover up the deaths by selling some story regarding stress and theft to the press and families of the deceased.

Chapter Five:  Awakenings.

        Lauren Micheals wakes to find herself in a cryogenics tube. The computer has self-activated, and she manages to escape into a destroyed lab.  Not much is left, and she’s dressed only in hospital garb. Confusion takes over her, she goes looking for help to no avail. 

Lauren manages to escape from the destroyed lab, and out into what’s left of the world nothing is as she remembered before the accident.  Buildings are destroyed…fires burn in the streets….no sign of life…and an overwhelming smell of rotten meat.

Chapter Six:   Fresh Meat.

        A searcher has found the lab, having been given coordinates by it’s boss, it arrives to find the place destroyed, and the only viable tube open and empty, it follows the trail outside, tracking Michaels carefully. 

    When he finds her she is being attacked by a group of degenerate creatures, he is about to rescue her when he sees another strange figure rush to her aide, which annoys him, he remains hidden, tracking them as the strange man ties the woman’s hands and drags her away.

Chapter Seven:  Confusion.

        Having been attacked by a group of degenerate creatures Michaels is rescued by a gruff and oddly dressed man. She is terrified when he ties her up and takes her to his hiding place. She learns that he is called the custodian. She doesn’t really trust him, but he has untied her and is feeding her a mushy substance.

Chapter Eight:  Facing Facts.

    The custodian tells her about the war. As well as a man called the hitman, who he tells her, hunts the pod people, for an organisation called the company that were responsible for the experiments and for a hunting game they play with those who wake up now.

Chapter Nine:   Illusions

        Catching the custodian sending a message, Lauren suspects him as being a member of ‘The Company’.  She refuses to have anything more to do with him and he leaves her alone.  Still protesting his innocence…. not paying heed to where she is going Lauren finds herself surrounded by ‘company’ representatives and the area boss himself ‘hitman’.

Chapter Ten:   Face Off.

        The Custodian…who turns out to be the rebel leader faces off against the hitman, once again he rescues Lauren. Leaving the hitman injured they escape. It was to his troop that he was sending messages he explains. There is, he tells her, going to be a major battle. 

Chapter Eleven:  Liberation.

        With his army behind them the company loses the ensuing battle.  After storming ‘the Company’s’ building and accessing their databases that are run of solar powered energy, they find the locations of other cryo units and having relayed the info to outlying teams release them from their chambers and begin to help them adjust to their new life. She helps them even though she is adjusting to this existence herself.

Chapter Twelve:  Loose Ends.

    The hitman has been patched up, he’s not happy about the fall of ‘the company’ and that his nemesis and old company cohort Custodian is now in charge with one of the pod people by his side. He believes that a rematch is in order, and this time he won’t lose.

    Hitman goes about recruiting from neighbouring cities, promising allergenics, and a share of the wealth if they fall in with him. Some shun him straight away, others hear him out.

Chapter Thirteen:  Rebirth.

    Lauren is happy working with the cryo, people and with the setting up of a new world order, she is settling in fine, and has feelings that might be love for custodian but finds herself missing home and her own time.

    Rumours abound about Hitman not being dead, and about the old elite seeking to take back this city as a warning to others who might get cocky. With ‘Custodian’ she rides out to meet with other rebel forces, as they need to present a united front.

Chapter Fourteen:  United Front.

    Hitman has heard from a captured rebel that Michaels and Custodian are not at the capitol, that they are on the road gathering forces, and he decides to attack using the forces he has gathered from his dubious sources, sweeping his forces forward, they are thrilled that the first two check points fall easily, but too late he realises that he has made a mistake.

    The newly recruited Rebellion forces are coming at him from behind and he is being held in between the superior gorilla (and in some cases real live gorilla hybrids), forces and them, his men are being picked off, and he realises that he is going to lose.

Chapter Fifteen:  An Uneasy Peace.

    Having won the war and with Hitman and his seconds in chains, an uneasy peace falls over the city. The rebellion moves forward under Custodians and Michaels watchful eyes, they are determined to put an end to the company and their secrets.

Well there you go, up to date on everything that I've been sharing with my wrimos on Discord for prepping your projects.  I am aware that the above is quite a block of writing but if you read through it, you will notice, that its different to the overall story outline, posted here which only goes to show that outlining doesn't need to stay written in stone, it can change, and it can change back again if you want.

Not everyone plans and plots, or preps this way, some only create a place, a character, an antagonist, or even just the overall idea, this...this is just a sneak peak into how I like to start out. I hope you have enjoyed this little snippet into my novel planning and plotting methods. As I said on the forum, if anyone wants to pinch this idea go for it, we don't all write the same way, or have the same ideas for how the story should go, feel free to take, and leave what you will. All that I ask is that you mention me someplace...

TWW

Hey Presto, one example of how I prep...

For the ideas exercise I'm gonna use an idea that I've used before, but won't be writing...it's called project. The idea came to me when I lived in the states and saw the news about a train crash and thought

1. What would happen if a train crash was caused on purpose?

2. What if it was a cryogenics / stasis company illegally gaining subjects for their experiments?

3. What if I picked a young woman on that train as my main character? 

4. What was she doing on that train?

5. How was the accident caused? Was it an inside job? Did they have their own undercover medics/rescue teams?

The next step for me in writing this was to come up with the rest of the story, outline it if you will so I worked through the idea to the end (the outline of which I can no longer find but know that it's someplace). 

1. Suffice to say that the next thing I did in preparation for writing it was to create the antagonist as the idea had clearly indicated that an organisation was behind the crash, how could they have a team of first respondents to the site, and medics that no one would query? 

2. then it was time to come up with the protagonist and I landed on a young woman (most of my novel leads are female) I explored her life and why she was on the train, and how her family would react when she went missing. I decided that she was going to be unemployed, and heading for an interview, but she'd told no one, so the only way they had known she was on the train was through an entry in her diary (which I guess would be a laptop or tablet calendar now).

3. For me what came next was deciding how the world ended, because the cryo / stasis tubes needed to be buried, forgotten about (well almost). I decided on a war (it seemed logical at the time).

4. Next she needed someone to help her through this new world when she revived, so I created a gruff male character who would reluctantly help her, but who could double cross her on a whim.

5. As several years have passed and the world is in ruins, this needed to be researched (well as much as you could possibly do that snake bliskin is handy for that idea).

6. The organisation still exists, but now they are hunting the 'pod people', they are the elite, the ones in power, they send people out to find the pods as they have a rough idea that there are a few buried under several ruined cities. Initially I thought I would have them do it...for fun, but then I thought maybe there is something in the new dystopian world that the pod people don't have, maybe it's a virus of some kind and they need the clean pod people to rectify it...I don't think I quite worked through it. 

7. Our heroine, and the guide (we'll just call them that), head to the organisations headquarters reluctantly having bumped into the resistance 

8. I came up with the resistance, why they would have evolved, what they would want with her and how they would treat him...telling her that he is one of the organisations searchers, then sow the mistrust between them.

10. The idea is to destroy the organisation...

Now I don't think I finished this idea, which is why my focus is on other things, but as you can see this rough, rough full story outline is still pretty detailed enough to create chapter outlines (well at least possible outlines) from.

Where do we get our ideas from....NaNo prep...

This years design is by Andrea Floren @ http://quietlyfiery.com/ 
This poster is available in the NaNo Shop

Keeping up with all the prep work coming up to November, lets look at where we get ideas. For me personally my ideas can come from everywhere, from daily events, news, stories my wife tells me about uni, conversations with friends, movies, songs, and books that I've read or are reading.

1. Daily Events - while gardening you see a troop of ants marching away with one of your strawberries, that can spark an idea for a children's book, poem or animation maybe even a short story.

2. News - well the virus is everywhere, you can write about love in the age of covid, death, birth, life...so many ways to write about it.

3. Regarding the Art Uni - a day in the life of a covid student, how they have had to work online with not great signal, also the fact that the sculpture students aren't doing sculpture as such but performance art as the person leading that course has a degree in that, also frustrations around final year BA students not being able to have their final show.

4. Conversations with friends - relationship faux pas, moving home (either a new home, or back home), coming out stories, history stories, community stories (feel good, or not so good), climate change

5. Movies, music and books - okay like ed sheerens new song, when I heard it I thought, oh that would be a cool dr Jekyll and mr Hyde video, only to find out he'd gone with a pink suited vamp...shakes head write the story of that Hyde, or a story about Hyde and a vamp arguing, or falling in love...is there a character in a book you read that you want to know more about, well not do a fanfic novel about them, if it worked for fifty shades, then why not you, same goes for movies, if you watched something and thought, I could write better, go for it. 

NOTE: CHANGE NAMES, MAYBE EVEN PLACE NAMES....in case you decide to run with it.

These are only a handful of ideas on where to get your ideas...have you ever looked at a painting, or a photo and wondered about the story behind it...why not write it? It's very true what they say about reading...if you want to write, you need to read, either fiction, or non fiction (I like a mix of both), it's food for your soul, and your mind, this is what feeds you ideas, helps you to create. 

Even if you are dyslexic you can use audible, or have the love of your life read to you. There are ways and means.

Merry Monday Afternoon...

 Well hello there folks, how are we doing. Well let me start, I'm doing a little procrastinating, and a little work (very little work). Today my darling wife has gone back to art college for the third year, and by the way it's been officially made a university. This of course means that I am left to my own devices, and have spent my morning watching STARGIRL (and trying to get the second ep to work with no luck), and one episode of VanHelsing, now this I am going to call research as I write fantasy fiction (no arguments). 

I'm also checking out prep for NaNo 2021, I've already begun by activating preptember (sounds so superheroish doesn't it). I hope that tomorrow I'll actually get some writing work done. Hows your day shaping up?

2021 NaNoWriMo is coming....

 

Well folks, it's that time of year again, we're all prepping for the upcoming National Novel Writing Month (actually it's international and called NaNoWriMo for short). This is when thousands of participants sit down at their desks and either write, type or use their computers / tablets / phones in order to write 50,000 words.

At the end of the month, if you have succeeded you can download a cert to say you won, and if you get the 50,000 or over, you can get some moula of some writing programs, or other things (it depends on who partners up with the creators each year). 

You don't have to pay to join, you do have to fill in a profile though, there's a forum with loads of cool people to meet and become friends with and contacts in the writing world you can connect with for fun. As we've all be getting through covid, meetings are held off line, a great many are on discord, some use Facebook, some twitter, some insta, there is also twitch and zoom and this year I expect Tic Toc to be part of it.

Each area in the world has a region, like mine is Europe: Ireland: Galway (Which I just so happen to be the ML is the municipal liaison who is a volunteer and unpaid person over each region). It is the job of the ML to oversee the region participants, and try to help them have fun as well as egg them on to achieve their win. 

If you want to find out more, why not go along to   https://nanowrimo.org/  and check it out, if you like what you see, why not join up and participate, at the end you will have something awesome, the outline to a novel that you didn't have before.

Insecure writers support group post

 The purpose of the Insecure writers group, is to share and encourage other writers in a safe space, regarding their songs and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. The post appears on the first Wednesday of the month. 

September 1 question - How do you define success as a writer? Is it holding your book in your hand? Having a short story published? Making a certain amount of income from your writing?

Success as a writer to me is finishing the novel I am writing, self publishing, and people not only buying it but enjoying it...to date I have only had one review, and the novel is being rewritten as I type this.

I also view my success in the fact that I am Municipal Liasion for Europe, Ireland, Galway for NANOWRIMO, and have won each year I have been part of it.

Another aspect of being a successful writer is the act of writing, sitting my butt in the chair, if even for an hour, or longer to do what I love.

Some say I will get it right, I will have awesome reviews, and fans...for now, I'm working on it, and having fun. 

The Insecure Writers Post

 

This month's question is...all about our favourite writing craft book....my answer. Would be all of them...lol. But recently the ones I am enjoying the most are 'save the cat, writes a novel ' by Jessica Brody...this book rocks, jam packed with loads of fascinating and helpful information. I just love it and heartily recommend it.

Next up is 'Business for Authors, how to be an Author Entrepreneur ' by Joanna Penn. This book has nothing to do with how to write, but more about turning your writing into a business. This book has tonnes of very useful information, and also mentions may my a business plan and a yearly production plan (which I have done). She also talks about your book not being just print or ebook, but also audio, and illustrated. This one is also one I would recomend. Please note, the link to a plan on the site no longer works.

My third book is 'bullies, hazards and bitches, how to write the bad guys of fiction' by Jessica Page Morrell. It's a great book on what makes the villains, and people whom our hero's come up against. The info is well worth it, but for me I could have done with more on the women. Which is why I am actively looking for one. 

So, not just one, but three awesome books to look at, in three different areas. Enjoy!

Thursday Review

 

This weeks Thursday Review is on 'The Business For Authors - How To Be An Author Entrepreneur' by Joanna Penn.  (https://www.thecreativepenn.com/) 

I have posted a version of this review on Goodreads.

I got the soft cover version of this in March, but didn't really get around to reading it until recently, I have pages folded down for things that I want to do from the book, and also pages of underlined material, which I think may or may not come in handy. 

One thing though, while this is an excellent book if you want to make self publishing your writing, your business, I don't think you should purchase it if you are looking for traditional publishing tips, or writing tips and tricks, it doesn't have any. 

I found it very interesting and loved all the details about setting yourself up as a business (and details about what kind of business), as well as how to diversify your product, such as looking at the many different ways a book can bring in payment, and I don't just mean who sells it for you.

There are loads of handy little nuggets of business information, such as writing a small business plan, info on making a projection chart using a calendar (can be monthly or yearly), plus info on some apps and programs that the Author Entrepreneur uses in her own business. 

I have to say that I really enjoyed reading through this book, and I'm in the process of using some of the stuff, I learned from it in my own life / writing business. I do recommend it, even if some of the downloads advertised in the book are no longer on her website. As a matter of fact I'm looking at maybe getting one or two others from the same Author.

TWW

Best Bookstore Saturday - Ireland

 Good Morning all, how's you doing? Me I'm good. 

As it's Saturday, and I just so happen to be online (trying to update my malware and also adding stuff to my Scrivener as Word has run out). Today I will be looking at Charlie Burns, Galway, in Ireland. I just love this book shop. 

https://charliebyrne.ie/

This shop is totally awesome, and built like a maze, it has every kind of book you could think of, new, second hand, bargain and antique. Believe me when I say if you ever visit this shop, you'll never want to leave. Make sure that you have had something to eat and drink, as well as gone to the loo before you enter, because honey you will be there for hours, as every single new room has something of extreme interest for you. 

The staff in this shop are very friendly and it does offer a mail service. They also help stock film and TV sets with their books, and can help you create the library of your choice. The store isn't too far away from the city center of Galway city, with all it's pubs and restaurants. 

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Charlie+Byrne's+Bookshop/@53.271466,-9.052911,16z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0xc62e92fe72612f08!8m2!3d53.2714655!4d-9.052911?hl=en

If you ever get a chance to come to Ireland and are on the west coast, pay Charlies a visit, you won't regret it.

The Insecure Writers Support Group Post...MK2

 Hi all, I did have a post, but it went bye byes due to poor internet connection.  So this one is late.

What would make me stop writing...I had answered death...because short of that I would find a way, voice, or one finger, tool typing. I love to write, even with a broken thumb I managed to write.

My sincere apologies for not getting it up in time.

An Editing Update....

 Evening all, how you all doing out there?

Well I'm doing grand as we say here. I finished editing one novel, and have set it aside once again to rest before typing it all up and getting some beta readers on board (It's a bit like a marinade on chicken, or letting dough rise, it's gotta have a chance to prove).

I've found out that editing using a notebook really doesn't work for me, but printing it off and editing line by line, does. So something good came out of all this. While the first novel sits and proves, I'm editing a second one, which is going well and fun to do. 

I can see loads of ink purchasing in my future, I wonder if I can get some money off bulk buys lol. Also my word subscription has ended and I am trying to squirrel away some dosh towards getting a years personal. Goddess I miss the days when you bought a copy of office and it lasted you years, this bleeding one year, or a month at a time is so annoying. 

I do have scrivener, and am learning to use it, as I hear great things about it, and I don't want to get caught in this position again. It's frustrating.

That's today's update...

TWW / Gina