Category: Writing Advice
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Crush Depth 17: Chapters 33-35 – Deliberations
Older posts can be found on the main Crush Depth page. Last post, the mosasaurs attacked the other submersible Seaquest in the cave system and forced the protagonist and other main characters on the Nautilus to retreat. Chapter Thirty-Three: Continue from where the last scene ends. Parkowski demands an explanation for what happened. The Navy…
Ryan Patrick
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Crush Depth 16: Chapters 30-32 – Recovery
Older posts can be found on the main Crush Depth page. This is an incredibly valuable exercise for me and it also gives my readers an insight into my writing process. It’s been a long journey but there is light at the end of the tunnel. Chapter Thirty: Parkowski’s head is briefly probed by one…
Ryan Patrick
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Crush Depth 15: Chapters 27-29 – Aftershocks
Previous posts in this series can be found on the main Crush Depth page at the bottom. We left off after the big attack at the midpoint. The habitat is damage, some characters are dead or wounded, and the crew is recovering and theorizing about what the creatures are that are attacking them. Chapter Twenty-Seven:…
Ryan Patrick
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Technical Accuracy vs Rule of Cool
I love Top Gun. Who doesn’t? Both the original 1986 movie and its 2022 sequel are great, pro-America, pro-U.S. military action movies with great characters and flying sequences. The original is one of my all-time favorites and the sequel is pretty good too, especially compared to the slop Hollywood has been putting out the last…
Ryan Patrick
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Crush Depth 14: Chapters 24-26 – The Aftermath
Older posts can be found at the bottom of the main Crush Depth page. In the last post, the mosasaurs attacked in waves and the crew of the habitat fought them off. This is somewhat different than the first two Crush Depth drafts where there was one big attack that the submarine wasn’t able to…
Ryan Patrick
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Crush Depth 13: Chapters 21-23 – The Big Attack
Old posts are on the main Crush Depth page at the bottom. This has been the midpoint of every single draft – and, yes, this is the fourth full version of this story concept! Versions 1 and 2 had the mosasaurs attack the USS Arizona, Versions 3 and 4 switched that to the underwater habitat…
Ryan Patrick
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2025 In Review – Sales & Finances
I’m very transparent about my writing, especially the business side of things. This is a very secondary source of income for me – I do this more to get people to read my books than to make any real money off of it. If you DM or email me, I’ll send you 1 or all…
Ryan Patrick
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Crush Depth 12: Chapters 18-20 – Just Before the Big Attack
These have been done for a week or so but I’m just getting around to doing this now. Old ones are here at the bottom of the page. If you saw my last post you know that I went back and rewrote a ton of what I have, mostly in a flow state in the…
Ryan Patrick
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End of Year Review
Going back to this and do a self-evaluation. Mostly good, but some big misses. The Europan Deception Easily my biggest success this year. All goals met and I couldn’t be happier with my results. Crush Depth Partial success. I did write a version of Crush Depth and got feedback on it but ended up junking…
Ryan Patrick
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Crush Depth 11: New Chapters 1-17
As I mentioned in the last blog update (they all can be found at the bottom of the page here) I went back and rewrote all 40,000+ words in the last few weeks. Here’s the new version: As you can see it’s a very different book based on the same concept. I’m leaning into some…
Ryan Patrick