The Nonplus Adventures of a Self-publishing Writer:

Getting Started- Not Alone (Just Us 2)

So, I just started back at it… the writing thing, after taking a few months off. Of course I don’t suppose I actually took the time off, since I wrote a couple of short stories and started notes on several others. What I mean is I’ve started on my next novel, the next in the Just Us series called, Not Alone.

Now, “getting started” for me means that I have a basic idea of story flow, and I have written down a few plot points. I seldom have an entire story laid out in front of me but if I have the main plot points I can usually put something on paper, so to speak. I mean, what would be the fun for me if I knew everything that was going to happen?!

Over the course of my, “time off,” I also conducted some research on wagon trains since the main part of this story will concern the characters traveling with a trade caravan through an America more like that of the 1800s. Yep, just like that, except for the skyships, marauding Mountain People, and genetically altered and alien animals, but mostly just like what the settlers encountered in the push west of the 19th century.

I completely recommend research parallel to your story. My story deals with a caravan of wagons much like those of the Oregon Trail, but there are also elements of the trade caravans of the Chinese and Middle Eastern Silk and Spice Routes, and with a pinch of early circus travel. So, I research all of that, then reference it as needed; as a tool. Also, think of detailed aspects of main topic. For instance, wagon train speed had many variables one of them was injuries and sickness. So I research the types of sickness prevalent at that time, as well as the types of injuries recorded. Again, I don’t have to use this, but its like a star headed screw driver in my tool box. I may never need it but I’m glad its there when I do.

I had planned for three books in this series but after jotting down the plot points I found that I had only moved the troupe to the bottom of the southern leg of the journey (probably the Florida/west Georgia area) so perhaps it means there are more stories than I originally thought. I decided not to push it. I have always found its better to, ‘just let it come.’

Just Us took over a year with 13 edits, so I hope to have Not Alone done around this time next year, if I focus. Carl Sanburg said, “I’m either going to be a writer or a bum.” I’m shooting for something higher, the combinations of both.

AD Faircloth, Pensacola, FL, 1/2015

Be sure and check out my webpage, anthonydfaircloth.com, for my other books and some short stories you’ll only find here.

Two hours of writing fiction leaves this writer completely drained. For those two hours he has been in a different place with totally different people. –Roald Dahl

Read more at BrainQuote.com

(Shameful) Story Spotlight

Just Us by Anthony Faircloth

Young biologist, Tobi Madison, goes to sleep on an island in Lake Erie in the present and wakes up on the same island but at a time in the future when the world she knew has been destroyed and a new world has grown up, complete with genetically redesigned animals and alien warlords. They must rely on themselves and each other as they explore this amazing new world.

You can find, Just Us on Amazon, as well as other stories by Anthony Faircloth.