Update from (on) Nowhere

I’ve Been Cranking Words

I’m coming up on 50k on the draft. This is the fastest I’ve ever written anything and the most fun I’ve ever had writing. The draft is very drafty and my goal over the two weeks is to keep cranking and tighten it up the beginning, so I’m confident launching this thing on New Year’s day. 

By then I should have 60,000 words of fiction in the bag. Which means 30 chapters of raw material. Even at a cadence of 2x a week chapter posting that’s 15 weeks worth of material. Far enough ahead to get started, I think. 

And I came up with a good solution to the “Dusk Til Dawn” problem that will give the entire first “book” a real drive and unity. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you what it is because it will spoil too much. 

I’ve got a number of storylines going, more than I have ever attempted, and I now have a better understanding of how large books get large. 

Which leads me to a question. Should I:

A. Jump from POV character to POV character between chapters? (A la, Game of Thrones and other large novels)

B. Tell a continuous story from each character’s perspective up to a certain point in the tale, then, when it is time to make a book, interweave them. 

I’m leaning towards OptionA because of my ideas on publishing, but I’m very open to feedback. 

Publishing System

I’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure out a good way to publish content that will gain new followers and make so that all I have to do is write and record and the rest just happens. Making content is the one thing that nobody else can do for me. And it’s time to stop messing about with the plumbing. 

The first output of this process is that now I have a conspiracy wall in my office. Here’s an excerpt:

I don’t have this completely figured out yet, but the end goal of this system is to drive people to this Substack/email list.

And if anyone wants to help me manage the nuts and bolts of getting everything edited and posted (or you know anybody good) I’m in the market for an assistant. Just reply to this email.

I’m going to publish three kinds of content

Chapters

will be published here first, at least one a week.They will be released under a sub-publication (yes, that’s a sub-substack) so if you want to opt out of receiving them you can. 

Quotes and Quips

will be excerpts of longer pieces designed to drive traffic to them from social media. This is totally an experiment and we will see how it goes. If it works, fine. If it doesn’t also fine. 

Shorts 

In written, audio and video form, one new short story a week. If you follow me on twitter @patrickemclean or Facebook you’ve seen me trying some of these out. I will do a longer post on my method for writing these, but it’s dramatically different than what I used to do with The Seanachai. I also think the stories are better. 

Like this: 

One of these a week, probably on Sundays. As one fan wrote, “The return of the Seanachai.” I say it’s the beginning of something much easier to spell. 

Research

I’ve also been doing a lot of research. By the nature of “A Town Called Nowhere” that means research in two genres. I’m going to write about Sword and Sorcery later, but for now, let’s talk about Westerns. 

Here, in no particular order, are some of the Westerns I’m thinking about, revisiting or, in some cases, watching for the first time. 

• Bad Day at Black Rock

• The Searchers

• Red River

• High Noon

• The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

• Rio Bravo

• Tombstone

• Hondo

• 3:10 to Yuma

• The Magnificent Seven

• A Fistful of Dollars (etc)

• High Plains Drifter

• The Outlaw Josey Wales

• The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

• Django Unchained

• Blazing Saddles

• Unforgiven

• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

• Yellowstone

• The Harder They Fall

• Bone Tomahawk

• The Wild Bunch

• True Grit

• Shane

• Once Upon a Time in the West

• Deadwood

There are certainly plenty of greats that I’ve left out, and if I missed one of your favorites, comment away. 

I’ve also been reading a bunch of Elmore Leonard’s Western stuff. The more write, the more I appreciate that man’s talent. Tonally, I feel his work is a good thing to aspire to. He can write about very dangerous and dark situations, but there’s always humanity and levity throughout. 

I’ve also been thinking about great scenes a lot. And I’ll probably put together a list of great Western scenes. For example, the dynamite throwing and shooting scene at the end of Rio Bravo is crazy, but one of my favorites. Or the “Who are those guys?” scene from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. 

So, one last question: What’s your favorite scene Western book or movie?