If you’ve never heard of TED before, I highly recommend checking it out. Their tagline is “Ideas Worth Spreading” and I’ve been both entertained and enlightened by many of the TED speakers over the years.  Recently I came across Ken Robinson’s talk on how schools kill creativity.  As a creative person, this is a topic I’m fairly interested in.  As someone who is self-taught (mainly because I couldn’t put up with the structure of mainstream education), I thought it would be interesting to see what ideas he had…and there were many.

Ken made a lot of interesting observations…most notably how children start out inherently creative, but our educational system is designed to make “good workers,” rather than “creative thinkers.”  He also stressed how children aren’t nearly as afraid as adults to “be wrong.”

There was one point he made that struck Robin so much that she made me back up so she could write it down. Ken said, “If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.”

This is particularly important for me at this stage in writing Rhune. I find that there are two moments of crisis in every book – one at about the 1/3 way mark and the second at the 2/3 mark.  Until the work is finished I don’t want to show it to anyone, not even Robin, as I have only one chance for that “initial reading.”  So I’m flying blind, not sure if I’m braving new ground…or if I’ve veered so far from my core competency is that I’m just messing everything up.

Rhune is very different from my other books.  It’s more complex…more “epic”…and the world it is based on isn’t a familiar one – not for me, or my readers.  Will this be a good thing?  I don’t know.  But I do feel as though I’m daring myself to be wrong and going outside my comfort zone.  What this means is one day I’m exceedingly excited about the book…and on another I’m afraid I’ve just wasted a bunch of time and the whole thing will need to be scrapped.  The verdict is still out, but if nothing else I’m trying something new and fail or succeed I’m still glad that I’m prepared to be wrong.

Yesterday I had two different authors ask me questions about my writing that in some ways were related so while I answered them privately I thought it might be worthwhile to talk about them here.  (Besides it means I get a “writing” post in with doing little more than  copy and paste

Question One: I’ve read about writers writing for writers, and writers writing for readers. From the brief excerpts I’ve read from your books so far and the reviews I’ve read, it seems you write for readers.  Is this so? Unfortunately it seems these days many of the “gatekeepers” are editors that don’t know how to find fiction written for readers. They like the other stuff. I’m encouraged by your success.  Maybe the genre is going to trend back in favor of the reader. I’ve grown wearisome of tossing down books one hundred pages in because I can’t find a story anywhere. This seems to have especially plagued fantasy.

Actually I don’t write for either…I write for me. Each time I write a book, I’m really just writing what I want to read about. Many readers have asked me to write the “early days” of Royce…I won’t spoil things for you [this person hasn't yet started my Riyria series and maybe some of those on this blog are in a similar situation] but let’s just say he wasn’t a nice person “back in the day.” And I don’t want to “be with him” during that time, so that book has little interest for me and probably won’t be written. This is a huge disappointment to many of my readers, and I think the book would “sell well” but just because it would make me money isn’t enough motivation to write.

As to your second part about gatekeepers…It’s really hard to know what they will approve of. They are groping in the dark as much as anyone else and have no crystal balls as to what will sell well. I think as long as I keep focused on writing things I like that there is at least some segment of the population who wants to read that. It will be interesting to see how Hollow World will go. As a number of the “experts” seem to think that it won’t sell…but I think it is an exceptionally good book and even if it doesn’t, I’m still glad I wrote it. I did get a publisher that offered me a decent advance for it, so there are some that believe in it…but to be honest, I’m not sure if that offer was predicated more on my past success than the strength of the book itself. As they say, “Time will tell.”

Question Two: Did the transition from writing being a hobby to a money-making activity make it less fun? I was wondering if needing to support your family with words added too much pressure, or if writing just became a job/business you happen to really like, or something else?

I can understand why someone would ask this question, and I suppose every author will react differently this.  It’s probably worth considering because if earning is going to change how you approach writing in a way that takes the joy out of it…then maybe it’s best to write without submitting/publishing.

Here was my, personal response:

Writing for me has never been either a hobby or a money making activity. It’s just what I love to do. It is true that for years I wrote and made nothing at it, and at some point it started providing some income, then more, and yes now I support my family with it – but for me that is a bonus that came along as a “nice perk.”

For years we lived off of my wife’s income…and she was able to quit her job a few years ago – and I’m grateful for that. I really enjoy giving back to her the freedom (of not having to report daily) that she gave me for so many years. So to that extent, I would like to do what I can to keep the stream of income flowing. That has more to do with “how” I publish rather than the fact that i “keep writing.” The writing I would do even if I didn’t earn anything, but I’m choosing to either do “self” or “traditional” in order to maximize the income that my writing will produce.

On the writing front, I hit a snag this morning.  I talked over some things with Robin at lunch and while she has no idea what exactly the  issues are (I speak in vague generalities) it did help me to come up with a possible solution.

I didn’t get any writing done yesterday. Not because I was distracted or blocked, and not because I was off working on something else. It’s because I’ve spent the last day and a half pushing Rhune to that next level.  I like Rhune…I like the characters…I like the plot…I like the world it is based in.  That should be enough, and it probably would be, but what I really like is pushing myself. At this stage of my writing, I’m pretty confident in my ability to write  ”good book” but where I thrive on challenge and for me the real motivation is how to take a good book and make it “even better.”

Usually that means adding connections or adding collisions.  Having multiple threads come together and changing the dynamic. Or even adding an entire new thread.  This isn’t about bloat, that actually the opposite of what I’m talking about.  This is about adding  another layer of complexity or providing increased tension or drama.  Having  Luke Skywalker and Darth Vadar in a light saber duel is cool – add to that the realization that Darth is his father – even better.

The problem is it’s not easy to pull off.  Especially with a work that is already 75,000 words.  Usually things don’t line up (although the mere fact that you see a way to up the ante is a good indication that your subconscious was putting in overtime hours).  So the real trick is can you adjust a thread here, change a motivation there and make things align. Sometimes it works…sometimes its a bridge to far.  But it’s always worth considering as if you can the effort is well worth the time.

So for the last day and a half I’ve been working through all the various alternatives and considering the implications.  I think I can make it work.  I have my list of things to adjust and will be implementing the changes at least today, and maybe over the next few days. I may even be able to bring back some content that I had previously cut.

If you do this, then its important that you pay particular attention during your first re-read after the novel is complete to look for possible contradictions. Inevitably I miss one or two very small details, like changing the age at which a particular event occurred. This is why a good line editor is so important.  They have equal eyes for noticing shifts such as this and if they do their job right are actually on the look out for when you contradict yourself.

So, no writing for me yesterday but I think today should go quite well.  I hope your writing day will be productive as well.

I’m not sure if I’ve written about this before but for whatever reason my stories all seem to come out to be about 100,000 words. Some a little less 96,000 or so and some a little more 106,000 but right about in that range. When I was writing Hollow World I was pretty sure it was going to break that mold. Half way through I figured it would come in at 150,000 and it currently is around 104,000 and we’ll see what it is when the copy editors are done with it.

I think Rhune is going to go over that and once again I’m predicting 150,000 based on the fact that I think I’m about 1/2 way through considering where I am now.

For me I never “plan” on a certain length…I just write the story that needs telling and as I said it usually falls into a particular range for me.

I’ve heard a lot of people say that self-published genre writers concentrate on turning out shorter work. I don’t know if that is true…I’ve never done an analysis of word counts on various titles, but in some way if they are making a conscious effort of that nature – it’s a pretty smart thing to do (in my opinion). After all I think 3 books of 90,000 will earn more than one book of 270,000.

I was tweeting about my word count yesterday and someone said, “My manuscripts have been known to break floorboards when I drop them.” My first thought was…this might be losing the author a lot of money…if they could take a step back and look how they could turn that mammoth tomb into a series, it would be much better for them in the long run.

I’m not advocating an un-natural breaking up of a novel. I’m a firm believer that each book should have its own conflict and resolution and be satisfying in its own right. A cliffhanger – which makes you HAVE to read the next book to get resolution for the one you are reading is a bad thing (again imo). People should WANT to read the next book not be held hostage to do so. That being said…adding a little tease at the end…well that’s a good thing. You show that the door is open a crack but as I said the current book has already wrapped nicely.

So I guess I really have a few things to say.

• Don’t shoot for a word count, let the story naturally unfold and make it the length it needs to be
• If your story has A LOT packed into it, such that you think it will be really long, then take a step back and see if you can compartmentalize it

That’s it for today.  I’m excited to get back to work writing.

So, in my last post I alluded to the fact that I worked on some cover ideas, and that ended up adjusting things in my books.  So I thought I would spill the beans.  Especially since I now have the titles (or at least the titles I want for the books) worked out.

This series revolves around the wars and interactions of three races which I initially named: Rhunes, Dergs, and Freys.  When I told my wife the titles she looked puzzled.

“Derg? Is that D-h-e-r-g?”

“No,” I said, “it’s D-e-r-g.”

“Hmmm…” she said,” it doesn’t sound right.  Too short.  Can it be Dherg?”

“If you feel strongly about it.”

So I started laying out the books and Robin was right I really liked the symmetry between Rhune and Dherg.  For some reason I put the titles in all caps and showed her covers for RHUNE, DHERG, and FREY. Robin immediately noticed that Frey stuck out as it had only 4 letters verses the 5 of the other 2.  So while she looked over my shoulder I changed it to  FRHEY.

“I like it,” she declared, “but…”

“But what?”

“Well, can it be FHREY” then it would be symmetrical with the other ones.

Visually we both loved the way the three looked one after another.  ”Too bad,”  Robin declared finally, “They look good, but no one will no how to pronounce them,  and most people will misspell them.”

Considering I’m constantly seeing my debut series referred to as Riyra or Ryria, as well as the actual Riyria, I knew that FHREY would be a problem.

My daughter, who is dyslexic, cam home from work just as we were deciding the naming fate of the last book.  I asked her to read the titles.  She rolled her eyes and gave an exasperated sigh. “You know that I have  no clues when it comes to phonics.”

“Don’t worry about that, just give it a shot.”

She struggled and came out with sounds that were nowhere near the actual renunciation. Well except for the first one, which I’m sure she has heard my wife and I talking about from time to time.

“How would you say it if I told you the ‘H’ was silent?” her mother asked.

“Oh, that’s easy…roon, durg, fray,” she said without pause.

“That’s good enough for me,” Robin said.

So for now, I’m running with it – and have gone through my 70,000+ words and performed a global search and replace. Later I pointed out to Robin that this causes a problem.

“How so,” she asked.

“Well one of the places that exists across both series is Dahlgren.”

“No,” she says, “It’s not a problem.  The ‘H’ is silent in it as well.  It’s just one of the cases of a word that morphed over time and between cultures.  At the time of  The First Empire that place is called Dhalgren. In the time of the second empire the humans have changed it into Dahlgren.  And in another two thousand years it may become Dalgren.”

“Good point,” I concurred, and went off to adjust my map.

And so, there you have it.  A little exercise in creating the covers of the books has ended up becoming a part of the language of this world and a convention for naming things.

No one but those reading this post will probably ever understand the evolution of this, but from here on out, every time I’m on a podcast or talking to an audio producer who is struggling and fumbling, a smile with creep to my face and I’ll save them from their flailing with a simple, “The ‘H’ is silent.”

Gah,

I can’t believe I’ve not updated this blog since April!! But rest assured I’ve not been idle. I’m going to try resume updating this on a regular basis , although daily is probably not going to be possible, but I will strive for once or twice a week minimum!!

The big reason that I’ve not been updating is distraction with other projects.  But those are now all pretty much behind me so for the last week or so I’ve been writing Rhune – and I’m glad to be able to devote some time to this and get it moving again.

So what was distracting me?

• The Riyria Chronicles – which are absolutely “done…done”  I don’t have hard copies in my hands but I do have .pdfs of the files that were sent to the printers. I’m going to be a guest of honor at ConnictiCon in early July so I’m hoping my books come in early and if they do, I’ll take a few copies to give away there.  So if you are in or around Hartford CT July 12 – July 14 stop on by the Convention Center.

• Hollow World I couldn’t be happier with how this project has turned out.  While the bulk of the heavy lifting is done, I have the manuscript out to two great copy editors and we are still on track for an early July release for people who backed the Kickstarter, and of course the official release will be in January.  I’m also in the final stages of signing a contract for the audio version of this book – which is quite unusual for a self-published work.
• Cover design – Yes I’ve designed covers for the three books of this series.  Now that sounds like a really stupid thing to do, especially since the chances are pretty good that this series will be traditionally published and they will disregard my covers completely…but it helped in a number of ways.  Most notably in changing the titles and  requiring updates to some words I was using in this book. I’ll save the details of this for my next post

So where am I now?  Well having been away for a very long time I had to reacquaint myself by reading what I had up to that point.  In so doing, I realized I had some problems so I had to rip out a big section of the book and rewrite.  So I spent about a week or so revising what I had written before being pulled off the project and  the story is much better for going through that process.

I’ve had about a week writing “new stuff” and now the word count is going in the positive direction again (Robin was upset to hear it going down each day as I ripped out stuff in the re-read.)  I’m now at 70,000 words and I’m now at a part of the story where several plot threads are coming together. I tend to write faster toward the end, rather than the beginning and I’m definitely seeing the light at the end of this tunnel.

More to come in the next few days.

No not with the book – but with the first half.  A few weeks ago I got to the half way point and wanted to take a pretty serious accounting of where the book was and what if anything needed adjusting.  I’m glad I did because there was indeed much that needed tending.  I’m just about done with that and will start forward momentum again soon.  It’s actually been a good time for me to do this analysis because I have a number of things that have also been going on simultaneously with this.  That includes:

• Overseeing the Hollow World Kickstarter (which ends today)
• Reviewing the printer proof for The Crown Tower (went out last Friday)
• Reviewing the printer proof for The Rose and the Thorn (about 30% through)
• Coordinating with Betsy Mitchell on structural editing of Hollow World
• Revising copy editing candidates for Hollow World
• Being a guest on some podcasts and being interviewed for some articles
• Writing my posts for Amazing Stories

Once I’m back to the forward momentum phase I’ll start updating this site more regularly.