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KIP DOYLE
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KIP DOYLE
I wrote my first “novel” sometime during my fourth-grade year. It was a science fiction “epic” about an animal army attacking the human race, and it hooked me forever on longform storytelling. Sure, unenlightened critics suggested I focus my attention on something that paid better than writing—particularly writing science fiction. And for good or ill, I followed their advice, though I never quit writing.
Currently, I work as a writer for a business-to-business public relations and content marketing firm. I have published numerous articles in magazines in the United States, Canada, the UK, Australia, and, believe it or not, Indonesia. And somehow, all that non-fiction writing primed the pump for a return to writing fiction. I dipped a toe in the water ten years ago, got distracted (I was off my ADHD meds), and I didn't get serious again until last year.
I'm serious now. I finally figured it out. Yeah, I'm a slow learner, I guess.
I have a completed YA science fiction trilogy, a two-book middle-grade science fiction series, and an adult science fiction novel available on Amazon.
I've completed the first draft of my sequel to the adult science fiction novel, and hope to release it late 2025, early 2026.
Working with artist Rhonda Fueston and translator Raquel Galvez, I've also published a children’s picture book for children 3-6 years old. It is titled "A Pie for Brendan Broadfoot.” The book contains both English and Spanish versions of the story. The illustrations for the sequel, “Lola Longlashes and the Big Flood,” are being created now. If you have little ones, be sure to pick up a copy! It’s a cozy story, and the illustrations are all amazing watercolors. No AI.
THAT ONE TIME I GOT TO SPEND THE DAY WITH A WRITING GRANDMASTER... Back in the year (mumble-mumble), when I was a green nineteen, I learned that one of the greatest science fiction writers of his generation, Frederick Pohl, would be appearing at a nearby university. I got in at the last minute and found myself in a small auditorium with Mr. Pohl already on the stage. I was seated with clumps of students from the university and other nearby universities and colleges. And their teachers. Oh, God, their teachers.
Not one person in that room, except for me and the host English professor, knew who Mr. Pohl was. And the English professor had never read a Fred Pohl book, though he was a well-meaning chap. The teachers knew even less than their poor students, who didn't really know what they were doing there.
I'll never forget that Mr. Pohl, while explaining the difference between science fiction and fantasy, was interrupted by maybe the most clueless educator it has ever been my misfortune to cross paths with. She loudly proclaimed that his definition of fantasy was wrong. I put my head in my hand and groaned. Mr. Pohl was a multiple-award winner for his science fiction and fantasy. I stood up and tried to explain that she was a hedge-witch telling Gandalf his business, but she ignored me. Lord, it was painful.
The embarrassed host professor came up to me after the workshop and said, "It's obvious you're the only one here who knows Mr. Pohl's work. Would you please have lunch with us so he'll have someone to talk to?" I eagerly accepted, of course.
I sat across from Mr. Pohl, and we were joined at the table by a few professors and the great and the good of this town-- a few clergymen, bankers, insurance moguls, the mayor, and their partners.
Mr. Pohl and I chatted all through lunch about my favorite Fred Pohl books.
After lunch, the host professor came up to me, a little desperate by this time, and invited me to have dinner with him and Mr. Pohl that evening. I accepted, of course, and not only did I have a steak dinner on the university's expense account, but I got to talk with Mr. Pohl for over two hours. We talked about books, and we talked about the themes of his books, and we even talked about religion.
He was uniformly kind and charming, and encouraged me in my dream of being a writer. He gave me solid advice. And though it took me a long time to gain the tools and maturity to write a decent book, Mr. Pohl's kindness was one of many key elements that kept me pursuing my dream even into late middle age.
Thank you, Mr. Pohl. And in my very small way, I try to share encouragement with anyone serious about being a writer. (I'm not talking about people who ask, "Where do you get your ideas?" Yeesh.)
Oh, that's me in the bottom photo, signing in to the morning workshop.
This is the hardest part of writing for me...
Not the writing itself; it's the timelining and writing of what they call the series bible.
I don't overplan my books because I never know when I'm going to write something unplanned-- that's generally the characters or the situation going their own way as I am mid-paragraph. So I never map out or outline the entire book. What I do is map oout the timeline of things I know have to happen to get the story moving or keep it moving, the main events of, oh, the next 80-100 pages. That's tough. Writing is easy. Forcing myself to sit down and plan in this half-arsed way keeps me writing toward a goal and within the very light constraints of a timeline of things that have to happen. Even with meds, my ADHD doesn't like to sit still for that stuff.
And then there is the series bible. If you don't know what that is, it's a term we've stolen from the TV series world. Anyway, here's the Kip's Notes version: the series bible is essentially an outline of your book, or series. A VERY rough outline in my case. TV Show bibles are generally broken down into a one-page description of your book or series, a timeline, the story engine, character breakdowns, and, in the case of a science fiction or fantasy series, all of your worldbuilding material. That worldbuilding material and/or research make up most of my series bible. For example, if I make up a particular organization, I have to keep track of the details of that organization as the story develops.
For melodramatic reasons, I call my list of characters Dramatis Personae. It amuses me. When I start the book, I may know the main half-dozen characters and have them firmly imprinted on my mind. But all of the rest of the characters and their names come through my fingers and keyboard as they are needed, and ya gotta keep 'em straight. In my adult near-future science fiction novel, The Pilgrim Initiative, I have about 90 named characters. In the sequel, I had almost all of those 90, plus another fifty named characters.
You get the idea.
You'll see in the painful photos above that my wife took one night-- sometimes seeing me suffer amuses her-- that I am using paper and pen or pencil (depends on my mood). But I always do the timeline part of the planning process on paper. It's the only thing that works for me. I recently put away my beloved yellow legal pads and traded them for the much handier reporter's notebook that I'e always used for interviews and story planning in my day job. You can buy 'em on Amazon, I don't know where else you'd find them.
After I've committed notes for the timeline and new items for the series bible to paper, I put the series bible info in a word document that I slowly build over time, and the timeline goes into an Excel spreadsheet, which allows me to easily change the timing of actions or events as needed.