Brandon Ketchum

Swords and Sorcery Magazine has published my short story “The Fourth River”. I’m pleased to note it is Story 1 in this particular issue.

My flash fiction piece, “An Act of Consequence”, has been published at Every Day Fiction. This is a story born of a writing exercise at a class at ConCarolinas 2014. I am pleased to see it placed on such a fine site.

Yesterday marked a welcome return to intensive writing after a fantastic yet frustrating period of writing (or not writing) over the holidays. After a fantastic NaNoWriMo project, the holidays ate my muse. I was often away from home, and writing conditions were constantly less than optimal. A trip to California for several weeks to have Christmas with that side of the family for the first time since I was four years old was wonderful, but it meant I got little quality writing time. I think I’ve managed maybe 4,000 words since Thanksgiving, a shocking figure. Now that I’ve put the holiday season to bed, however, I am back and ready to bang out some words and write some yarns, as Robert E. Howard would say. Let’s get at it!

After a massive push yesterday, where I went insane banging out many words, I have today claimed victory with my NaNoWriMo project, “Three’s a Crown”. Granted, I exceeded the 50,000 word mark yesterday, but didn’t finish until just a short time ago. My goal from the get-go was a 55,000 word first draft by the end of the month. The official word count comes out to 53,984, a mere 1,116 words shy of my mark, in only three weeks. I’d like to think it’s a fabulously fun yarn too.

Fair play to Jennifer Brozek, who finished before I did. It doesn’t bother me, because she’s one heck of an established professional in the field. Plus, NaNoWriMo isn’t a race or a competition. It does feel good to be in the same company as a Jennifer Brozek, though.

I’m so pleased I decided to take on this project. It was the perfect story at the perfect moment for me. I’d like to thank Eric Jackson for urging me to give NaNoWriMo a try. Good luck to the rest of my NaNoWriMo brethren in their quest to finish!

An outline is a must in my writing process. I’ll make a detailed outline before I write a short story. With a novel, I’ll dive into world building and structure the majority of what I need for my world ahead of time. I outline for novels too, but in a different way than for short stories. I find it impossible to complete an entire, chapter-by-chapter outline for a novel ahead of time, although I do work with a skeleton outline, a rough guide of where I’m going. Instead I’ll script the first handful of chapters very thoroughly, as far ahead as I feel comfortable. Once I’m finished with those chapters, or a good ways through them, I’ll outline a little more. I kind of leapfrog my outline forward like that as I go.

So I’ve been slowed in my word count by constantly having to update my outline as I progressed through my NaNoWriMo project. The good news I have to report now, however, is that I have finished…my outline! I know exactly what I’m going to write to finish Three’s a Crown, if not the exact words. NaNoWriMo, I have your number!

So I have returned from a fantastic weekend of geeking out over board games. I started a bit slow today, but am now right back in my writing groove. Three’s a Crown, my romping fantasy adventure tale, is growing in word count once more. NaNoWriMo, I own you (so far).

While I approached my NaNoWriMo journey with much trepidation–I’m a slow and steady kind of writer–the words are flowing and the energy’s buzzing in my finger tips. I’m already over 30,000 words, ahead of my weekly goals, and champing at the bit to bang out more. Sadly, a super-fun weekend at a gaming con here in the ‘Burgh will keep me away from Three’s a Crown from now through the weekend. That’s okay, though–I’ll be that much more raring to go come Monday.

Writers, keep on writing!

Oh, very well, the first week of NaNoWriMo isn’t finished yet, but I wanted to share how much I’ve accomplished already. I’ve topped the fourteen thousand word mark, and will surpass fifteen thousand words for the week. This will put me beyond my goals for the week, and hopefully help me pad my word count against future weeks. I’ve just finished chapter fourteen. As anticipated, chapters are short and sweet in this novel of mine. It’s witty with fun characters, an interesting plot, and thus far, excellent character development. All of this is in my humble opinion as a writer working on a first draft, of course, but right now my voice counts the most 🙂

More updates to follow.

So, not a bad start to my November project. A perfect title came to me–Three’s a Crown. A friend and I and his girlfriend went to a NaNoWriMo write-in at the library, and I churned out a chapter late tonight. All told, I’ve put down over 4,200 words in about four hours of writing. A good first day in what promises to be a hectic month of writing. I’m excited for it.

First of all, apologies to my readers. I experienced a lengthy hiatus where I failed to update my website. This resulted from pouring all of my writing energies into an epic fantasy series, as well as some short fiction I’ve had to wedge in here and there.

I’m returning to update my website by announcing a surprise: I’ll be participating in the National Novel Writing Month project this November. I’ve been wary of this project in the past, unsure of whether or not it would suit me. I’ve also been leery of participating because it would break up my work on other projects.

Well, I find myself bogged down in my major epic fantasy work, and in need of another project, a project to cleanse my writing palate, as it were. With this in mind, I decided to participate in NaNoWriMo, starting November 1st.

If you wish to find my project on the site, my user name is stout_rugger, my location is Pittsburgh, PA, and my project is entitled Rough Draft: Threedom. Yeah, I don’t usually come up with a real, full title until I progress pretty far into a piece and can feel what it should be called. The story will center around characters from the free city-state of Threedom, and so a draft title was born. And yes, that is a pic of the Gray Mouser from one of Leiber’s book covers. I don’t draw, so I found the coolest pic I could online.

I’ve listed a link to my project below.

So, here’s to a good writing experience, beginning this Saturday, and to a flooded stream of words 🙂

Brandon Ketchum’s Rough Draft: Threedom