Author Chat: Jonathan S Rudderham

What are you writing about this year?

Earlier in the year I started an unplanned story of five parts. It's a new kind of project for me in which each "part" will form its own short story (around 30K), each of which should dovetail into a complete single story. I haven't worked out all the kinks yet (I tend to write as a "pantser" most of the time). Lack of time has left this project abandoned for several months so my plan is to use NaNoWriMo to give myself a 50,000+ word boost.

How do you plan for an event like NaNoWriMo?

I always tell myself that I'm going to plan for NaNoWriMo but I invariably reach the end of October having not planned anything at all. November 1st comes around and I panic. In past years, I've stayed up gone 'til midnight on October 31st so that I can rattle out the first day's word count before going to bed. I won't be able to do that this year because I now go running every day before breakfast and that demands a good night's sleep each night.

When it comes to planning the story itself, I have a slight advantage in that my stories tend to be part of an ongoing series - so I'm almost always writing about the same two protagonists. That leaves me free to create other characters, and the antagonist(s), but they tend to be constructs depending on the next phase of development for my two protagonists. They evolve from the story that needs to be told, rather than being independent characters that are looking for a story. By the time I've reached the end of a story, I already have a bunch of ideas for the next one. I tend to pop ideas down on a MindMap as soon as they occur to me and then attempt to string them together to form a plot sometime later. Usually there's enough there to give me somewhere to start on November 1st.

What tools do you use for NaNoWriMo?

I type faster than I write (and more legibly!) and so, although I have a pocket-sized notebook and pen, I'm always using some form of electronic means. I have several devices from my laptop to a smartphone, and even an ageing H/PC. All of these devices run Textmaker (which handles Word documents). I write each chapter/scene to a separate file and keep them saved to my Dropbox, where I can work on them with whichever device I have handy.

When ideas strike me, I create a bubble in Freeplane (MindMap software) so that I can dismiss it and get on with what I was writing. This year I expect that I'll use Aeon Timeline for this so that I can put each idea into context (by giving it a date/time).

Sometimes I'll use the full-screen Q10, which is a handy way of just bashing out the words without being distracted by anything else. It works best when I'm "in the zone" and the words just flow.

I use yWriter to keep my story in order (it helps me to keep track of scenes, characters, places, events, objects, etc), although this year I plan on using the trial of Scrivener for the first time. It's looks like it does a similar thing. yWriter makes it easy to keep track of your word count, and also has a "NaNoWriMo obsfuscate" mode which turns all your letters into 'n' for uploading to the NaNoWriMo validation tool (thus keeping your work safe from prying eyes!).

On my old iPad, I have an app called Writings - a full-screen writing app which is useful when I'm away from my laptop. (Textmaker isn't available on iOS, otherwise I'd use that). I've also used Storyist in the past, but as that isn't available on Windows, I find it a little limiting when I'm not using the iPad.

Last year I wrote the first 1000 words of my NaNo through Textmaker on my smartphone (with a Bluetooth keyboard) just to see if it could be done. It could, so that'll be a great emergency tool when I don't have any other way of writing in November.

How are you using arcs to break up your timeline events?

I've created several arcs already. At the top I have the "Global" arc, which for me is an overview of where each of my stories fit into the grand scheme of things. Given that my stories often occupy several different time periods, it's not quite as straight-forward as it might be, but it at least helps me keep track of where my regular characters were (and what year) at the start of each story. I call this arc the "Story Timeline" (I consider the whole series one big "story"). By seeing where unrelated characters were at the time these stories took place, it's easier to determine what they might have been doing at that time - this adds substance to their character and detail to their backstories for when they turn up in their own story.

I then have my "Main Arc" which deals primarily with the key events across all stories that involve my regular two protagonists. This can be things such as date of birth, when they met, and significant points of development in their relationship.

I have a couple of similar arcs for significant supporting characters that turn up in one or more stories - again, to detail key events in their lives and where they interact with the regulars. These are in separate arcs so that they can be "turned off" if those characters are not particularly relevant to what I'm writing at the time.

I will also be using other arcs for characters/events that just appear in a single story, and it will be this arc that will be the most detailed for that particular story. I'll be able to turn it off when planning/writing/editing a story that doesn't involve those characters/events, and focus on it in isolation when I'm writing the story that does involve them.

How do you connect Aeon Timeline with your research?

At the moment, I'm using Aeon Timeline as a standalone piece of software. I understand that the Mac version can link to Scrivener. One of the reasons I'm also trialling Scrivener this year is my hope to be able to connect the two together.

For purposes of "research", I've been populating some "real world" arcs to provide me with an at-a-glance glimpse at real world events - such as when certain wars began, which monarchs were on the throne, an arc for British prime ministers, and other periods in time. It's going to take a lot of time to fill these things in, but they should help me create more realistic backgrounds in which to fix my fictional events. For example, instead of having to go researching the date of an item described as "Art Nouveau", I can just glance at my Aeon Timeline arc and see immediately what period it should be.