As I work on my next book, which is coming along slower due to the time constraints of my day job, I find myself noticing more about my story. Rather than writing it at a fast pace, in those moments when all I can do is think about it, I have noticed a few holes. Whether they are from a character’s choice that seems more appropriate to the situation than my outline intended or a hole in the magic system I’ve created for the setting, the plot holes need to be corrected or filled.
In my outline I thought I had most everything figured out well, but like life, things change. In the heat of the moment, a character makes a different choice than I outlined, and the story changes. That’s when I really find I enjoy writing. It’s because in those moments, my characters seem to come alive a little more.
Life does that to me quite often. Just when I think I have things figured out, something new happens. The new challenge can sometimes appear daunting, but that’s okay. It’s good to be humbled. But working through it sometimes requires creativity. In the same way working through the plot holes of my current work in progress requires thinking outside the box.
Whether plot holes or other challenges come, I’m confident I can get through them.
Check out my books on Amazon.
My last book, Collected Lives, takes place near the end of the twenty-second century, with vacations and tourism to Earth by off-worlders controlled by major corporations. The largest corporation, Collected Lives, has several enemies. The story follows the events as four people from different portions of Collected Lives’ process are thrown into the middle of a larger problem.
My fantasy, A Map, a Mage, and a Sacrifice, is set in a world with limited technology, but where sacrifice is a necessary element to magical power. The greater the pain and suffering, the greater the magical power generated. The few mages in power use voluntary sacrifice of the citizens to generate power they use to protect and defend the empire. But their rule may be coming to a close.
Malignance, my third book in my time travel series that began with Resonance and Dissonance, is on Amazon as a kindle and a paperback. That was a fun series to write, and for now, it is completed. I have also placed all three books from that series into one volume titled The Machina of Time.
If you’re looking for a science fiction story, try my book The Promise of Dust, which takes place in a cloud city floating in the atmosphere of Venus. Or Progenitor’s Legacy: Deceit, which takes place many years in the future on a tidally locked world that orbits a red dwarf and has been reached by humanity in their search for the alien progenitors who seeded the galaxy with nano machines.
If a young adult science fiction is more to your liking, check out my series This New Earth, that starts with Demons of a Dead World and Secrets of a Dead World.
If you are looking for a young adult fantasy, check out my book The Threads Unbound.
DANIEL R. BURKHARD 