ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Weston Ochse is a former intelligence officer and special operations soldier who has engaged enemy combatants, terrorists, narco smugglers, and human traffickers. His personal war stories include performing humanitarian operations over Bangladesh, being deployed to Afghanistan, and a near miss being cannibalized in Papua New Guinea. His fiction and non-fiction has been praised by USA Today, The Atlantic, The New York Post, The Financial Times of London, and Publishers Weekly. The American Library Association labeled him one of the Major Horror Authors of the 21st Century. His work has also won the Bram Stoker Award, been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and won multiple New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards. A writer of more than 26 books in multiple genres, his military supernatural series SEAL Team 666 has been optioned to be a movie starring Dwayne Johnson. His military sci fi series, which starts with Grunt Life, has been praised for its PTSD-positive depiction of soldiers at peace and at war. Weston likes to be called a chaotic good paladin and challenges anyone to disagree. After all, no one can really stand a goody two-shoes lawful good character. They can be so annoying. It's so much more fun to be chaotic, even when you're striving to save the world. You can argue with him about this and other things online at Living Dangerously or on Facebook at Badasswriter. All content of this blog is copywrited by Weston Ochse.

Monday, January 17, 2011

International Thriller Writers Roundtable - Do You Plot?

Today I begin an International Thriller Writer sponsored roundtable discussion Do you plot, plan, or outline? Or, do you just go where your characters lead you? Why? 

The Roundtable is comprise of Matt Lynn, Weston Ochse (that's me), LJ Sellers, Allan Leverone, Pam Callow, Chris Beakey, Michael Haskins, Larry D. Thompson, Blaize Clement, Matt Forbeck, Reece Hirsch and Edgar Franzmann. All my partners in this crime have written terrific books.

As a member of International Thriller Writers (ITW), I was asked to participate in this and another discussion in a few weeks. I’ve been looking forward to this because we aren’t lamenting problems, but discussing craft. We’re going to be talking about process. For me, the writer's process has always been of incredible interest to see how others do the same thing I do. It never ceases to amaze me that two of us can write a book doing it completely differently.

In this week’s discussion, however, we are talking about plot. My guess is that all of us outline to some degree. What’s going to be of interest is the different degrees. My hope is to learn from these ITW friends and perhaps incorporate some small elements into my own writing.

We’ll see. If nothing more, we’re talking about my favorite thing, writing. And that counts for something.

So please come on over and read a little of what we are saying. Feel free to comment (I think anyone can comment). This is open to the public.


And don't forget to read The Big Thrill, ITW's online newsletter.

Weston Ochse
Desert Grotto
Mexican Border

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