JiMC: Blog

I have spent more time over the last few years writing than I ever did before.

Unfortunately, I haven't published very much.

My latest project is a reimagination of my Tickets series. I have written the basic story, and then rewrote it twice. In almost all the cases, I found an issue with something near the start of the story that needs to be changed. Of course, such changes cascade, and I end up almost rewriting it again from scratch. I want to avoid the biggest issue I have with the Tickets series: Do Not Leave Plot Holes Unfilled. That means that the story needs to leave no dangling questions. That also means no cliff-hangers.

The other issue with the Tickets series is that while I wrote a lot of scenes for a third installment, I never attempted to put them together. Why? I loved the characters. Ending the story would be akin to killing them off. How could I do that? Can any parent kill their own child?

So, as I mentioned, for the past year, I have been writing quite a lot. I know that I'll face the same issue about "killing them off" with the new story, but I guess that's the issue with writing a story that has "realistic" people within it. To quote Professor Harold Hill: "I always think there's a band, kid." If you don't get the context, the people in my stories are real to me.

Anyway, I thought I'd have something back in June, and it turned out to be my second attempt. I'm determined that my latest attempt will be the one that works. Let's keep our fingers crossed!

Meanwhile, I had a story that I wrote about ten years ago. It was a similar story to the Tickets saga, which is mostly why it was never published. Whenever I get an idea, I spend a few hours writing scenes, and then fleshing them out. Most of the time, the results end up in my "slush pile" (stuff you'll never want to read of mine!). This one stayed out of that pile. It showed promise. However, I now know that I'll never conclude that story. Instead, I'm writing an "Afterword" to the two major scenes I wrote. It explains the direction I wanted the plot to go. I will be publishing it on this site within the next few weeks, after I read it and re-edit it a few times.

At the same time, I'm still working on my latest chapter story, and hope to be able to publish it soon. It's early in its third rewrite, and it might take some time, but I hope the effort I made in getting it finished will be appreciated by my readers.

Peace!

JiMC

I can finally say that after quite a few months, I have the first draft of my next story. It is still not ready for publishing, but at least the basics are all there. I have a cohesive story. Now I need to go over everything I've written for the story to make it ready.

Here's an interesting statistic: Although there are 18 chapters for this first draft, there were over 45 additional chapters, scenes, and ideas written that didn't make the cut. The story changed directions a few times and necessitated all this rewriting, but I feel that this has been worth it.

Here are some things I wanted to do:

Avoid the MacGuffin of the tickets. They shouldn't be needed. The Stiff story barely mentioned them and was better received than the first.

Start with a beginning and have a destination in mind. Don't publish until you are sure of the story.

Have a story that flows like Aimless, with people making mistakes, learning from them, and growing.

Have a rock-steady main character to ground the story and be the moral compass. In Aimless, it was Asami. I loved that character!

Write a story that I will enjoy reading and where I can be proud I wrote it.

End the story without any loose ends. (Well... you'll have to see.)

Keep the main characters underage. Life lessons are learned then. The story should be about learning from your mistakes.

Get rid of Jim. It was a silly rule of mine, based on my dislike of a story about a guy named Tim. I'm keeping the first letter, "J," but Jim is dead and gone. Unless I publish a story that was formerly in my slush pile.

Add additional stories that can add to the universe, but keep the stories self-contained.

I think I've accomplished a lot of the things that I wanted to achieve for this story. The big ones were "no loose ends" (but I wanted to leave room for a sequel or two). I also wanted a story similar to the Tickets series, but didn't want the actual prop of the Tickets themselves. Although I grew up in the 1960s, the Tickets series was set in the 1970s. The new series is set in the recent past, but I have no experience with current school life, so I had to make some "educated" guesses (pun intended). So, I might get feedback from current teachers or students that may tell me I got everything wrong.

I also wanted to showcase a more mature writing style. I know from reading other people's stories that I hate seeing typos, so I set out from the start to not allow them. I want the story to flow smoother. I also want to do right by my readers.

So, now I've come to an easier part of my work: getting to the final draft. I have to reread my first draft and ensure that the story is consistent, avoids repeated scenes, and I may need to fill in missing things that came as a result of removing parts of my stories when I was doing the first draft.

So, if you can wait just a little bit longer, I'll have something ready to publish Real Soon Now.

Please send feedback. If not now, then in a bit when I start publishing.

Peace!

JiMC

I recently wrote a blog entry explaining the difficulties of doing the Tickets series.

Well, I asked myself a question. "How would the series be different if you were to write it from scratch today?"

Well, I'd get rid of the tickets. They were a maguffin to move the story forward. However, it weighted down the original story. I dealt with it a bit better in the second story, but found there were further questions unanswered that would take the emphasis from what I thought should be the main line of the story.

I'd keep some aspects of the story, though. The age of the main character was about sixteen, and that allowed me to show him being naive and show his discoveries

I'd like to know what people think. I'll be posting the start of the new story soon.

Peace!

JiMC

Over the years, I've often been asked about the possibility of a third installment in my Tickets series. Lately, especially this past year, I've been giving it a lot of thought. I've read through just about everything I ever wrote for the Tickets series, published and unpublished, so I've decided to take this opportunity to once again reflect publically on the Tickets series.

Tickets marked many firsts for me and garnered a dedicated following early on.

Tickets was my first experience where I wrote a story with the aid of an editor. He corrected my many grammatical errors and also highlighted issues within the story and some continuity errors. He helped me with local references. The story was set in the Midwest and I was unfamiliar with the area. He pointed out the impracticality of a scene I wrote that involved a swim in Lake Michigan. This is not feasible in May, as the lake is too cold at that time of year! His guidance was invaluable. Note to potential authors: Write what you know!

In my slush pile, numerous discarded chapters didn't fit the evolving narrative. For example, one such discarded subplot involved Jim visiting a strip club—a tangent that didn't contribute anything to the story. Initially, the story lacked a clear direction, with chapters feeling more like disconnected episodes in a TV series. Characters took divergent paths, often conflicting with other parts of the story.

Crafting the story was a constant struggle. I introduced and discarded many characters until a few became the bedrock for those first two stories' development. Gradually, I honed the narrative into a cohesive direction, laying the groundwork for a complete storyline.

Even after publication, the first story doesn't fully come together until its later stages. Looking back today, I realize I didn't even introduce one of the most crucial characters until the sixth chapter—a misstep akin to burying the lede. It's a detail that would have drawn a sharp rebuke from the editor of the first newspaper I ever contributed to.

A long while back, I explained the concept behind my "Helen" stories. I once thought this was an ingenious idea to create a standardized character and use that so I could focus on the plot rather than the characters.

Interestingly, while Tickets started as a Helen story, it underwent so many changes that I retargeted the main focus on Jim rather than my only remaining Helen character, Merry. That's right, in my original concept, Merry found the tickets!

The evolution of the Tickets stories was quite remarkable.

Once I nailed down the direction, I created my bible, which is a roadmap to guide the flow of the stories. This bible evolved but was instrumental in maintaining consistency and continuity:

Tickets taught me about character development, which is one of the reasons I no longer use the Helen device. I grew so attached to those characters that I couldn't bear to muster the effort to write a conclusive third story; it would feel like killing them off. I spent much time creating these characters and they are real to me.

While posting the Tickets stories weekly, I received a wealth of feedback that I truly enjoyed. Some of it remains memorable even today.

One particular reader, a musically talented fan of the story, bluntly told me my understanding of music was off and the concepts I described were nonsense. Rather than taking offense, I took time to learn what I didn't know from him, seeking to understand the nuances he pointed out. His insights helped me rewrite parts of the story to make it more authentic. We wrote back and forth between the middle of the first story through the posting of the second, and he told me of some of his experiences brought on by the appearance of the Stars and Stripes Forever in the second story.

Other readers pointed out other errors, such as my misplaced reference to Brown University as a place somewhere in Massachusetts instead of Providence, Rhode Island. It wasn't for lack of research; I genuinely believed I had it correct, which shows that I'm a typical ignorant American, especially regarding geography. Write what you know!

Some eagle-eyed readers noted that Jim couldn't have performed Billy Joel's "New York State of Mind" in the timeframe I had depicted, as the song hadn't been released yet. I had to scurry to figure out a suitable alternative piece, and I'm still unhappy with my rushed solution, with apologies to Todd Rundgren.

I acknowledge there were plenty of mistakes in the Tickets stories. I was humbled by the passion my readers showed and their disappointment in its imperfections. This motivated me to make corrections to make the stories better. Thanks to the weekly posting schedule, I could update and refine chapters based on immediate feedback. Some changes were substantial enough to influence unpublished chapters, making the final published stories stronger.

Tickets continued to evolve throughout its publication.

It was a challenging yet enjoyable learning experience. I would gladly relive the entire process if I could. It remains one of my most cherished writing endeavors.

As for a final entry in the Tickets series? Part of me hopes to revisit it, while another part hesitates, fearing the daunting task it would entail.

That's not to say I haven't attempted to start a third Tickets story. Let me give you a good example. Recently, I stumbled upon an idea in my slush pile where the opening scene would feature the couple performing a song on The Johnny Carson Show. The logistics of their performance had me intrigued. What song would they sing? Would they do a duet with Jim on piano and Kristen on bass? Would it be just Jim performing a solo with the orchestra playing? That wouldn't work because I needed Kristen and Jim to be on the couch together when they talked with Johnny. Why not have the duet with the orchestra accompanying them? Rock acts were rarely shown on Carson because of technical limitations, so I would need to explain how this comes about. The scene was lots of fun to write, the "what if" things. However, with a full story, it needs to align with my bible and this scene isn't there, so I need a good reason to include it. Does Johnny offer some advice that would be useful in another scene? Does the fact that people saw them on Carson lead to another pivotal scene in my bible? While I loved watching Johnny and would have loved to see him interview the couple, that wasn't reason enough to include it. That's the daunting task of writing a full story.

By the way, those what-if scenes are fun to write. It's why I have such a large slush pile. Sometimes, I find a way to integrate them into the story, and they leave the slush pile. Sometimes, they stay in the slush pile.

As I type this, I find myself thinking of another possibility.

Instead of committing to a full third story, another approach could be to write occasional short stories that fulfill elements from my bible for the third installment. As you can see, the Carson story doesn't fit. Yet. However, once all the pieces are in place, it would be easier to weave them together and condense them into that elusive final story, and people can see the work in progress, even if it isn't sequential. I rarely write my stories from start to finish in the order they appear. This is similar to the way movie directors shoot scenes out of order.

It's an idea worth considering—a potential solution.

In the meantime, my next blog entry will introduce a new story that loosely connects to the Tickets series and a few of my other works.

Peace!

JiMC

I've just submitted the second episode in my Class universe. I received a couple of positive messages from the first, and I have at least two more episodes that will be published... hopefully before the end of the year.

Once again, please send feedback (positive or negative) as it is usually the only way that I can find out how people respond to my stories. I do not solicit money for my stories, so your feedback is the only payment I receive.