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Series and Sequels

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , on May 16, 2010| Leave a Comment »

First an update:  Yesterday, I finished the second draft of DREAMER’S ROSE.  There were times during the first draft that I thought I’d never finish that story.  Now it’s finally starting to shape up.  Next, I need to have a couple of readers look it over.  Meanwhile, I’m going to start a major revision to THE IGNORED PROPHECY.

Which brings me to today’s topic: Series and Sequels.  THE IGNORED PROPHECY is a sequel to THE SHAMAN’S CURSE and second in what will likely be a four-book series.  Now, the conventional wisdom is that you shouldn’t write the second book in the series until you’ve sold the first.  It could just be a huge waste of time that you’re better off spending on something new.  I didn’t know that when I started THE IGNORED PROPHECY.  Even if I had, I learned an awful lot writing that book.

There is one exception to that rule, however–if the books are meant to stand alone.  This is one of the things that I wrestled with in THE IGNORED PROPHECY.  My intention is that the books should be able to stand alone.  You should be able to read THE IGNORED PROPHECY and know you’ve read a satisfying story even if you’ve never heard of THE SHAMAN’S CURSE.  So far, on the basis of readers who had not read the first book, I seem to be doing reasonably well at that.

This is my feeling about series and sequels in general.  As a reader, I like series, but I strongly prefer that each book contain a complete story of its own, especially when it may be a year or more before the next book comes out.  This has always been my preference, even before THE WHEEL OF TIME forever soured me on series that just go on and on and get more complicated with more characters and never resolve anything.

So, THE IGNORED PROPHECY is and should be a complete story in itself.  It’s harder to do that than it sounds.  So many things were set up in THE SHAMAN’S CURSE–rules of magic, cultures, characters and relationships.  Then I have to remember to establish all of that all over again–without using an info dump or confusing the reader with too much all at once.  Early readers found a few things that I hadn’t adequately explained in the second book, but that aspect looks pretty good at this point.

Next revision:

  1. Clean out left over material from a story line that got moved to book four (untitled).
  2. Move things closer together at the beginnng so the main character gets hit with several strange things happening all at once.  Knock him off balance and keep him there.  (Poor guy really got knocked around in the first book and now it’s off to the races again.  I guess he’ll have earned a rest by the end of the fourth book.)
  3. Move the resolution of one of the mysterious occurrences to later in the book.  Keep him off balance, scared, worried.
  4. Get deeper into the main character’s point of view to really show how all of these strange things are affecting him and up the stakes.

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Reusing Milieus

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , on May 12, 2010| Leave a Comment »

“Becoming Lioness” is set in the same world, and uses some of the same characters as THE SHAMAN’S CURSE and THE IGNORED PROPHECY.  In fact, it’s based on an event that should happen in the fourth book of the series, if it ever gets that far.

The last set of revisions (which I finished this morning) were prompted by a couple of critiques and one comment.  It made me aware of just what a delicate dance it is to provide enough information, but not too much in a short story.  There are both benefits and drawbacks to using the milieu from two of my novels for a short story. 

On the positive side, all the world building was already done.  I know this world and these characters intimately.  That part was easy.  From at least one comment, I think the world came through as being much richer than my other short stories, probably because it is.

On the negative side, I know this world and these characters intimately, meaning I know way too much about them to fit into a short story. 

This last revision was mostly cuts, removing places where I had too much detail or backstory.  It might enrich the story, but it was killing the pacing.  Asking the question: does the reader really need to know that for this story to work?  I don’t know yet if I cut enough or too much.  In some places, I had to combine characters or even slightly alter events from the way they will be in the novel in order to make the short story better.

The next short story that I’m considering is also set in this world, based on an event from THE SHAMAN’S CURSE.  So the take-away lesson is: to really think carefully about what I put in.  Some hints at the backstory may serve to enrich the world.  Too much just bogs things down.  And I can’t let myself get too tied down to the way it happened in the novel.  I have to do what works best for the short story, first.

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Conflict

Posted in writing, tagged , , on May 9, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I’ve been thinking about conflict a lot lately.  Several different things have happened at around the same time to give me different perspectives on the issue.

Conflict, of course, is what drives a story forward.  Without conflict, it might be a vignette, but it’s not a story.  Story is all about the development and resolution of some central conflict.  Otherwise, it’s just stuff happening, but it doesn’t come out to a story in the end.  Conflict is how you know where your story should start (the inciting incident) and when it ends.

Now, there can be a difference between the conflict being there in my head and actually getting it onto the page.  

I recently read a book by a well-known and respected author in my genre (fantasy), third in a series.  I realized about three-quarters of the way through that that book didn’t really have much of a central conflict, it just bridged the gap between books two and four.  It was interesting, because I already cared about the characters, but dinner was never late because I just had to finish one more chapter (something that had happened more than once with books one and two).   Near the beginning of book four, something happens which shows how much internal conflict the MC was going through in book three.  If that had only been on the page, the book would have been so much more gripping.

Well, and that’s similar to a problem that I have with THE IGNORED PROPHECY.  A lot of what’s going on in that book is internal to my MC.  So, now I know what I need to do on the next revision to that novel.  It’s harder when most of the conflict is internal.  Battles and confrontations are obvious.

At the same time, I just got a critique back on my short story “Becoming Lioness”, set in the same world.  I’m still digesting some of the comments.  Some, I think I agree with when I do another revision.  Others, I’m not so sure.  “Becoming Lioness” was a departure for me in short stories because there are three different conflicts that resolve around the same event.  For a short story, I usually focus on one.  This critique on this story actually came back that there wasn’t enough tension.  Now, the reader is never wrong about their experience of the story.  Which doesnt’ mean that they’re always right about the cause.  I’m thinking it may be more of a pacing problem than a conflict problem.  It is my longest short story yet.  There may be things I can cut to move things along more quickly.  I’ll have to think about that.

Update:  Call me prophetic.  A rejection just came back on “Becoming Lioness”, citing the pacing.  I’ll get to work on that probably tomorrow.  It’ll give me a bit of a break from revisions on DREAMER’S ROSE.

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Writer’s Groups

Posted in writing, tagged , , , on May 5, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I’ve blogged before about the value of getting and giving critiques, but there are other things to be gained from writer’s groups, too.

One is just knowing you’re not alone (sometimes it can feel that way) and having someone to celebrate the small victories or commiserate with the defeats.  Let’s face it, if you go dancing out into the living room proclaiming that you finally finished that chapter that was giving you so much trouble, odds are your family will just think you’re nuts.  Other writers are more likely to say “Yep, feels good, doesn’t it?”  Your friends and family will never really know how those rejection letters feel, but other writers do.

Another benefit is the sharing of information.  There’re a lot of things to learn about in being a writer.  Not just honing the craft, but how to format a manuscript, how to find out what markets are out there for short stories, how to write a query or synopsis.  There are resources out there to help you learn these things, but it does help to have someone to point you in the right direction.

Most of the time, when I’m looking for any of these kinds of support, I hang out at Hatrack River Writer’s Workshop, an online writer’s forum.  I have never (yet) found a local face-to-face writer’s group.  Actually, I think there are some advantages to an online forum, at least at first.  You don’t have to watch anybody’s face while they read your work or while they’re giving you their critique.  If it all gets too much (which it can, at first, until you toughen up) you can always close the email and come back when you’re better prepared. 

Last night, I attended my first meeting of a different kind of writer’s group.  It was a meeting of the Long Beach chapter of the California Writers Club, a venerable organization actually started by Jack London.  It was very interesting.  The guest speaker was an agent from an agency actually in my area.  She talked mainly about what agents do and a little about how not to query an agent.  Most of the questions from the group I already knew the answers to, thanks to Hatrack River Writer’s Workshop.  I did pick up a couple of new things, though.  Maybe the most valuable thing was just seeing an agent, one of those distant people I’ve been sending queries to but never met, as just a normal person like anybody else.  Maybe that makes the whole process a little less intimidating.  I will probably go back next month, when the guest speaker is an editor.  I may even join.

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Celebrate the Small Victories

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on May 2, 2010| Leave a Comment »

This past week I finally, finally, finished the new material at the beginning of DREAMER’S ROSE.  I don’t know why this early material fought me so hard, but it always has.  In the first draft, I finally gave up on it and started the story later, but that doesn’t really work.  So, I went back and tried a different approach, which feels right.  It was still hard to write though.  Maybe it was just all the pain and suffering I went through the first time that made me reluctant to tackle that material again. 

Eleven new chapters at the beginning are finished now and I think it will make a world of difference in the story.  I will be having someone else–maybe more than one someone else–read those chapters soon.  I need an unbiased opinion about them.

Now that that’s done, I’m starting on the revisions to the original first draft, which are going smoothly–even when I need to write new material.  It feels really good to have the story flowing again.

Sometimes in life, and especially in writing, you just have to celebrate the small victories.

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Titles

Posted in writing, tagged , , on April 25, 2010| 1 Comment »

Coming up with a title can sometimes be one of the hardest parts of writing.  My most recent short story is an example.  It literally started out as “Some Title Here” in the place in the manuscript where the title ought to go.  Then it was “The Wrong Lion”, which fit the beginning of the story, but didn’t really relate to the middle or end.  On to “The Lioness and the Eagle”, which, well, it’s just bad, okay?  Then “Lioness” and finally “Becoming Lioness”.  The last one I think is a keeper.

It’s even worse for novels.  With short stories, slush pile readers and editors may not even pay attention to the title.  Once I’d purchased a magazine or anthology, I’m not sure that I’ve ever read or skipped over a story based solely on the title.  But with a novel, that title on the spine may be all you have to interest a reader in the bookstore.  I don’t know that I’ve hit on any absolutely right titles for my novels, yet.  Well, maybe one.

THE SHAMAN’S CURSE fits the story.  My protagonist’s life is, if not cursed, certainly seriously disrupted by the the shaman’s attempt to take revenge.  The shaman’s own life is cursed, in a way, by his obsession with vengeance.  And, at the end, the shaman attempts to put an actual curse on the protagonist.  The title just fits in so many ways.  But would you pick this book off the shelf based only on the title?  And would you expect the story to be something different than what it is?

THE IGNORED PROPHECY fits and doesn’t quite fit both at the same time.  One particular group of people has shaped their entire society around a prophecy, but the prophecy was not singular, it was part of a series of prophecies.  When taken in context, it’s meaning is very different from the meaning when it’s read alone.  So, they’ve ignored the whole picture.  Plus, like any good prophecy, it can be read more than one way.  Their prejudices have caused them to see only one version, ignoring the other.  And, the larger prophecy predicts that another prophecy will be made.  When it is, one character chooses to disregard it, bringing on the precise outcome they’ve been trying to avoid for hundreds of years.  The problem is that’s all background and subplot, not what the main story line is about at all.  So maybe it’s not such a great title.

BLOOD WILL TELL is a good title.  It’s kind of catchy, but it doesn’t relate to actual events in the story nearly as well.  If you backed me into a corner, I couldn’t explain just what blood will tell you in this story or how.  I just haven’t been able to come up with another title that fits better.

DREAMER’S ROSE is one title I love.  Rose is a dream guide, born with the ability to enter other people’s dreams.  Properly used, the gift is supposed to help guide people out of troubling or recurring dreams.  She’s essentially a compass for dreamers and the title intentionally reflects the many-pointed star on old compasses and maps that was called a compass rose.  I can picture the cover art with a compass rose as the background.  Well, I’m allowed to dream.

SEVEN STARS is probably best described as a working title.  It comes from the home of the protagonist, which is a high mountain valley, surrounded by seven peaks.  On a particular night of the year, from a certain spot, it appears that there is a star resting on each of those peaks.  So, it’s called the Valley of the Seven Stars and a ring of seven stars is both the symbol of the valley and the emblem the protagonist uses during his exile from his home.  Other than being his emblem and the symbol of what he’s trying to get back to, it doesn’t have much at all to do with the plot.  And the title somehow subtly reminds me of “Seven Samurai”, which is way off base for this story.

There’s definitely room for improvement in almost all of those titles.

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World-Building Ideas

Posted in writing, tagged , , , on April 21, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Since I’m still blogging about world-building, I put up a part of the world-building materials for my first two novels, THE SHAMAN’S CURSE and THE IGNORED PROPHECY (and my latest short-story “Becoming Lioness”).  Look under Worlds for a glimpse of the Dardani.

A post on the Hatrack Writers’ Forum recently posed the question of where world-building ideas come from.  The short answer is: Everywhere.  Everything is potentially grist for that mill.

I have read fairly widely and taken a few courses in subjects that interest me, even though they had no particular relation to my “real life”.  And I find that a lot of that material, sometimes digested over many years and recombined in (hopefully) interesting ways, make it into my world building.

The world of THE SHAMAN’S CURSE and THE IGNORED PROPHECY could possibly be traced back to my cultural anthropology class as well as various books and articles on the subject that I’ve read since.  The subtext of the stories is very much driven by the interaction and occasional conflict between the various cultures who see the world differently and value very different things.

As an urban fantasy, most of BLOOD WILL TELL occurs right here.  Still there’s world-building involved in the non-human characters of the story, the rules of magic, and the interaction between the magical world, Chimeria, and this one.

The inspiration for the world of DREAMER’S ROSE came from a trip many years ago to Princess Louisa Inlet in British Columbia, Canada, combined with many trips  to the coast redwoods here in California.  I was foundering on what made that world unique until my memory dredged up that trip.  (That’s where the caption picture for this blog was taken.)

I’ve come to the conclusion that one of the probably many things SEVEN STARS needs is more attention to the world-building.  I think part of it may just end up looking a lot like one particular area in the Sierra Nevada that I used to visit fairly often.  I need more definition of the different groups that are interacting in this story, too.  Perhaps not quite so much as for THE SHAMAN’S CURSE and THE IGNORED PROPHECY; these cultures won’t be as different from each other as those.  But more than I have now.

Ideas for world building can come from anywhere.

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World Building

Posted in writing, tagged , , , on April 18, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Some more thoughts on world building, today.

For my first novel, THE SHAMAN’S CURSE, I have a map and about twenty pages of world building materials (some of which may turn up on this blog, under Worlds, someday).  Most of this is about the various cultures (six in all) in that world.  For these peoples, I wrote out things like:

  • How they look–tall/short, fair/dark
  • What they wear
  • What kind of shelters they live in
  • What they eat
  • How their economy works.  How do they get what they want?
  • How their political system works.  Who’s in charge and how are they chosen?
  • What they value.  How would they judge a successful life?
  • What are they most afraid of?
  • The relative positions of men and women
  • Marriage customs
  • How they raise their children
  • Religion and festivals
  • Even how they deal with death

It’s great to know all of this.  Of course, the problem is an awful lot of that crept into the novel and had to be cut later.  But it’s still good to know.  Besides, it’s fun to imagine all these things and how they interact and make sense for one group but shock another.

For later stories, I’ve usually drawn a map, but I haven’t written out the world building in the same way, although I know most of the same things about those worlds.  I just haven’t felt compelled to write it down.

The world building for DREAMER’S ROSE eluded me, until I remembered a trip to Princess Louisa Inlet (where the photo at the top of this blog was taken).  Then the world became real to me in a flash.

And, in writing this, it occurs to me that there is one story for which I really don’t have a good handle on this kind of information, my current problem child SEVEN STARS.  Before I go back to it, I really need to work that out some more.

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Creatures

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on April 14, 2010| 1 Comment »

Part of the fun of writing fantasy, or really any speculative fiction for that matter, is you get to make up your own worlds.  And sometimes those worlds are populated by strange creatures.

I didn’t really make up any creatures for BLOOD WILL TELL.  I just used existing mythological or fantastic creatures like werewolves, unicorns, and dragons.  Of course, I get to make up the rules for these creatures in my world.  My werewolves don’t have to be just like everybody else’s–and they’re not.  I also decided that all of the magical creatures would be able to take human form.  It’s a gift from the dragons, to help them communicate.  Once they’re all in human form, however, there’s more they can do with each other than just talk.  So I have a few hybrids, including my main character.  Then I get to make up what the challenges might be for these hybrids.  Valeriah is half werewolf, but she’s also one quarter unicorn.  She craves rare meat at the full moon; but at the new moon, she’s a vegetarian. 

Sometimes, though, you have to make up entirely new creatures.  Sometimes, for that, I’ll take characteristics of existing creatures and put them together in new combinations.  I did that for THE SHAMAN’S CURSE.  I had to.  One of the first significant events in that book was based, in part, on the Maneaters of Tsavo (real-life maneating lions).  The problem was, my main characters were members of the Lion Clan.  I decided that it would probably be taboo for them to kill lions, their totem animal.  So, I had to have some other dangerous creature for them to hunt.  I came up with a sort of very large saber-tooth cat, with a greenish-tawny striped fur, and a rhino-like hide over its shoulders.

But then I decided that I didn’t want to have just one made up creature in this world.  That made it seem somehow too convenient.  So I added a kind of lion-maned flying squirrel.  “Chit” ended up getting a fairly large part in the story, actually.  There’s also a wild horse that’s sort of like a zebra or onanger, except it has leopard spots and an antelope  that’s kind of a cross between a chamois and an markhor.  And a giant lake otter that’s something like the giant river otters of the amazon.  Oh, and wyverns, but I didn’t make them up.

I had other creatures, too, but they got cut.  Who knows, maybe they’ll turn up later in the series.  There’s a rhino-sized wild boar, with tusks and horns, which is supposed to be the natural prey of those saber-toothed tigers.  There are a couple of large lakes, just begging for some kind of lake monster.  And I had thought of a herd of miniature unicorns with very nasty dispositions, just to really confuse my horse-loving protagonist.

I haven’t made up any creatures for DREAMER’S ROSE or SEVEN STARS.   Hmm, maybe I need to.

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Characterization

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , on April 11, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I posted some time ago about setting SEVEN STARS aside.  I was just having too much trouble with it, which probably meant that I had something wrong or not fully formed.  So, I’ve just been allowing the ideas to come and jotting them down when they did, but not trying to actually write anything on this project.  I’m still not ready to go back to writing it.

The original story was from a novelette that I wrote and never liked much.  It didn’t feel finished, somehow.  So, I decided I knew enough things that could happen to these characters to make it into a novel.  I still think the story will work much better as a novel.  In the process, though, I switched the main character and it just wasn’t working.

This week, I had an idea that would enrich the ending and jotted it down.  And then, at odd moments, I let myself sort of roll it around.  This idea changes everything.  I think it’s part of what I was looking for and couldn’t find when I was too close to the project.  Not everything, not yet, but a good long step down the right road.

The implications of this idea will change the main character dramatically.  He’s going to be a lot less rational and in control and a lot more prone to anger for a large portion of the book.  That means I have to change where the story starts (something I’d pretty much resigned myself to, anyway) in order to show him before he lets his anger get the better of him.  Otherwise, he’s liable to be a pretty unsympathetic character, which is not what I want.  He’s going to be a lot more dangerous, this way, but I think that’s what the story needs.  One of the things the story needs, anyway.

It will also help with developing stronger antagonists and motivations for those antagonists.  They’ll have good reason not to like this guy.

This is definitely going to be a challenge to write, but that’s good.  He’ll be very different from any character I’ve tried to write before, especially as a protagonist.  You’ve got to stretch every now and then.  With this idea, I can actually feel enthusiasm for the project starting to build again.

But, before I even think about going back to SEVEN STARS, I want to finish the first revisions to DREAMER’S ROSE and hopefully get it ready for its first critiques.  Nobody but me has even seen it, yet.  And I’m starting to rack up notes for some significant revisions to THE IGNORED PROPHECY, too.  Maybe, in the meantime, some more story-changing ideas will come to me.

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