No Plan Survives Contact with Reality

“No plan survives contact with the enemy.” – Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke

That’s one of my favorite quotes, and I’ve applied it to just about every facet of my life. These days, I’d amend it to “No plan survives contact with reality.” Or, really, any contact at all.

Plans rarely work out exactly the way you think they will, especially not the big plans. The bigger the plan, the better the chance you’re going to have to deviate from it at some point. To surmount this, you must be flexible, ready to change course at a moment’s notice. This is as true for writing novels as it is for waging war.

That’s certainly the case with The Lost Mark trilogy. The final book in the trilogy (The Queen of Death, which hit stores yesterday) bears absolutely no resemblance to what I originally pitched to my editors. It doesn’t even come close to the final version of the pitch that won me the contracts for the trilogy.

I always plan–with an outline–any novel I write. I want a road map of the book to show me where I’m headed and how I might get there. It helps me keep the pacing fast and tense, and it keeps me on track so I don’t wander too far from the story’s main plot. As I write, though, I always end up coming up with better ideas for how things should happen.

That’s the magic of the process of writing. If I knew exactly how a book would turn out before I started, it would be little more than paint-by-numbers with words. I’d be bored to tears long before I got through it, and I’d guess my readers would be too.

So, I always start with an outline, but I allow myself latitude to use any better notions that come my way. The Road to Death (first in the Lost Mark Trilogy) is a perfect example of this. (SPOILER ALERT!)

When I started the book, I meant for a vampire named Tan Du to be the main villain. Somewhere in the middle of the book, though, Tan Du runs into a nutty elf wizard named Majeeda, and she kills him. It shocked me when I saw the words on the screen, even though I’d written them. I figured if I could do that to myself, I should leave it for the readers to enjoy too.

That shoved my outline straight off the rails though. I re-outlined the book from that point on and charged down the new path instead.

This usually happens two or three times with each book. Imagine how different The Queen of Death is, then, from how I first envisioned it. I went through four to six major direction changes before I even started the book, and I changed course again and again as I wrote it. I suppose my editors (the inestimable Mark Sehestedt in the case of the Lost Mark Trilogy) would have the right to complain about it, but they never do. A better book is a better book.

In the end, the book comes out the way I want it to, even if I didn’t quite know what I would end up wanting when I started. It keeps the writing and the plot fresh, and hopefully it keeps you, the readers, engaged and entertained.

The Queen of Death in Stores Today!

Today is the official street date for The Queen of Death, the final novel in my Lost Mark trilogy for Wizards of the Coast‘s Eberron setting. To celebrate:

  • Go on out and buy a copy now!
  • If you’re one of those readers who can’t stand to start reading a trilogy until all the books are published, today is your day. Buy a copy of Marked for Death and The Road to Death too!
  • If you want to sample the first chapter, you can get a PDF of it for free!
  • If you’d like to join an online club discussing this book, do that too!
  • One more time: Buy a copy now!

Seriously, I worked hard on these books, and I hope you all enjoy them. Once you track them down and read them, please stop by and post a comment or drop me an e-mail about what you think. Thanks!

Marvel Meets the Soaps

I’ve long explained to my wife that superhero comics are the male equivalent to the soap opera: continuing storylines, implausible plots, cartoonishly drawn (literally and metaphorically) characters, and over-the-top dialog. Now, according to ICv2.com, Marvel helps me put another nail in that argument’s coffin by teaming up with Guiding Light to help promote each other.

Newsarama has an interview with Marvel Assistant Manager of Sales Communication Jim McCann about this too. I had breakfast with Jim at Comic-Con, and we chatted about the soap/comics connection there too. It came up because Jim actually made the leap from working on soap operas to Marvel Comics. Now he’s made a national project to show everyone else their similarities too. I can’t wait to see how it shakes out.

Indie Game Development

Greg Costikyan of Manifesto Games (a venture started with my fellow Alliterate Johnny Wilson) posted a column about how the budgets of computer games have grown to the point that publisher can no longer afford to experiment much anymore. You could take his points and apply them to tabletop games almost verbatim. His closing says it best:

I don’t mean to suggest that there is any dishonor in taking an existing game style, and implementing it well; but if the field is to retain its vitality, we need to devise new gameplay, not just new games. This is, perhaps, the real promise of independent games–that, like independent music and film, it can provide an avenue for creativity and exploration, at lower risk than the larger market, and thereby serve to reinvigorate the mainstream.

Back to Basics

If you keep up with the news, you probably know that Congress recently approved a bill that allows for the revocation of habeas corpus and permits the President to define what constitutes torture, among other things. I don’t want to turn this website into a political forum, but let’s say I’m less than comfortable with this.

A good friend of mine, Blaze Miskulin, has come up with a cool idea for registering a protest to the Military Commissions Act of 2006. He’s going to send a copy of the U.S. Constitution to each member of Congress who voted for the bill, highlighting the points where the two documents clash. He’s looking for co-signers on the letter. If you’re so inclined, you could chip in a few bucks to help cover the copying and postage too.

To quote another great American work of art:

“We got to take these bastards. We could fight them with conventional weapons. That could take years, cost millions of lives.

”In this case, I think we have to go all out. I think this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody’s part.“

”We’re just the guys to do it.“

Life on the Sea

While researching Billy Campbell before our interview, I discovered that he’d just spent over a year on a round-the-world voyage on the barque Picton Castle. That’s a man who knows how to live. In an alternate life, I’d take on that kind of a trip too.

Back when I was working with ICE, I used to go to a lot of conventions for the company. Once I went to American Booksellers Association show in Miami with Pete Fenlon, ICE’s president (now of Mayfair Games and Castle Hill Studios). After the show, we drove down to Key West for a few days to hang out with one of Pete’s high school pals, Glenn McCormick.

A former Top Gun instructor, Glenn then flew jets for American Airlines. He lived on The Mistress, a 71-foot wooden racing yacht built in 1930, and he and his brother spent most of their spare time and money on refurbishing this beauty of a boat from stem to stern. Pete and I stayed with him for a couple fantastic days before we had to head back home.

Years later, my wife Ann and I headed down to Key West once more after the GAMA Trade Show in Miami, which was the worst such show ever in terms of attendance. The exhibitors outnumbered the attendees by at least two to one. After something like that, I needed a break, so we rented a convertible Mustang and drove down A1A until we hit the end of the road.

We met Pete and Will Niebling and Lou Rexing of Mayfair Games down there, and we all stayed on The Mistress again. The others had to leave soon, but Ann and I stayed on a few days more–including a day by ourselves after Glenn had to leave for a flight. We went snorkeling on the reef, ate breakfast in an outdoor restaurant that had chickens scratching between the tables, and toured Hemingway’s home.

One morning, in the same tone I might say, “Check out that squirrel,” Glenn said, “Did you see that manatee over there?” Ann and I peered over the edge and spied a perfect specimen of a sea cow meandering its way toward the boat. “Go on and jump in,” Glenn urged us with a grin.

That kind of invitation doesn’t come around often, so we leaped over the ship’s railing and fell the twelve feet into the water. When I came back up to the surface, I spotted the manatee swimming straight at me.

As it came closer, I realized I was in the water with a wild animal that weighed at least four times as much as me. Just before it would have slammed into me, it dove under the water and slipped right between my legs. Then it came back around and rolled over on its side so I could scratch its belly.

As tempting as that life is, Ann was pregnant with our eldest son at the time. I loved having a taste of the sea life, however brief, but building our new family called us home to dry land.

Steam & Brass Released

Today, as a patron of Wolfgang Baur‘s Open Design experiment, I received my copy of Steam & Brass, the first fruit of my fellow Alliterate‘s efforts. At first glance, it looks fantastic, and I can’t wait to dig into it farther. Wolf’s a great adventure designer, and the patronage system gave me a chance to peer over his shoulder as he created the work. I watched him pour loads of heart and effort into it, and I’m sure it’s going to be fantastic.

Sadly, those of you who didn’t join in can’t have access to the module now. Once it’s released, it’s closed to further patrons. Those of us who ponied up, however, can now enjoy the entirety of this 115-page adventure. The rest of you must weep in your ale.

Has it been worth the money and the wait? Hey, it has a zombie angel in it. Really, what else do you need to know?

Good-Bye Bastion Press

Bastion Press, the d20 publisher run by my friend Jim Butler, officially closed down today. That’s always a sad thing, but Jim seems to have taken care of things the right way. Instead of turtling down, he reached out and found some people who were willing to take over parts of the business from him.

Greg Dent, creator of the Oathbound setting for Bastion, has taken over that line. It’s always great to see any creative endeavor end up in the creator’s hands, and I wish Greg the best of luck.

My friend Steve Creech (who double-checked the d20 stats for The Redhurst Academy of Magic for me) landed all of the other Bastion products. Conveniently, Steve started up his own publishing effort, DragonWing Games, not all that long ago. Knowing Steve and his love for this material, I expect nothing but good things to arise from this too.