Diversity, show-don't-tell, and a query tip.

Oh wow, okay. It's been a very long time since I posted anything, but that doesn't mean I haven't been up to a lot. I've just passed the 50k mark on my current book titled Only Gingers Can Be Witches. I'm coming up on the official start of editing The Sometimes Sword version 2.0 (which some of you will remember I finished about two months ago). I'm now sitting on 4 novel-length works in my (admittedly short) writing career, which is a little mind-boggling to me. Hopefully I will be ready to begin querying The Sometimes Sword by the end of this Fall.

Research and Writing.

Why should writers/authors do research, and what benefits does it have? I'm sure opinions on this subject vary wildly. I wanted to give some of my thoughts, along with recent experiences while working in The Sometimes Sword.

I've never been a research buff. I've always fancied that, in Fantasy at least, the author's mind should be sufficient to provide details in the world they themselves made. (Makes sense right?) Well, not so much. recently I've been taking advantage of research more, and I wish I had started earlier. First though, let me define research, as there are two parts in my opinion. First, what most people think of: basic fact finding such as discovering the different parts of a horse's saddle, looking up what different metals were used in weapons in medieval societies, or the names of the individual pieces in a set of plate armor, etc. Second, there's the research for story, character, and setting ideas (this one is especially important).

It's true that an author can invent most anything they want to, and a really smart author can bluff their way through many details, or just make them up on the spot. Writing in extreme High Fantasy makes this easier than say, modern crime thrillers, but for those of us who want to ground our fantasy world closer to home, we need to introduce some solid facts to forge that link. For instance, back when I first started The Sometimes Sword, I knew I wanted to have a horse in there somewhere, but knew nothing about them. Not wanting to treat a horse like a motorcycle (as Howard Taylor of Schlock Mercenary fame phrases it in several Writing Excuses episodes), I had to find out something about them. What do they eat? How much do they eat? How fast can they run, and for how long? Do my characters need to worry about the cost of maintaining their mount? Do they sleep standing up or laying down? These things were important. Even though the story I was writing might have been okay without them, I knew I needed to have those details to give it a sense of reality. So I jumped on the Internet (yes, it really is that easy) and looked up a few reputable sites dedicated to caring for horses and began to read. Truth be told, it ended up being pretty dang interesting all by itself. I took some notes and added a few bookmarks.

I've done the same with pieces of armor, and terms for different weapons and styles of swords. These details, when integrated seamlessly into your story, help to flesh the world out, and give the illusion that you really know what you're talking about. After all, telling a story is all about creating illusions, because an effective one hides everything that doesn't make it into the book, along with any failings the author might have in say, horsemanship.

The other kind of research is a little more involved, and ultimately, serves a story better than fact-finding alone. I'm talking about using the world's thousands of stories as an inspiration for yours. There's a lot more of this than we realize, even from the greats: Lloyd Alexander's Horned King came from an old legend in Ireland (I think) about a spectral hunter with antlers on his head called Herne the Hunter (much of his world is loosely based on Welsh legends). Banshees in countless tales come from another set of Irish legends. Sherlock Holmes's(?) case "The Hound of the Baskervilles" is based on the legend of the Beast of Bodmin Moor. Nearly any modern witch you read about has some characteristics tie back to Black Annis, the English legend of a witch in Cornwall. (Feel free to correct me about these facts or add to them, I haven't actually done research for this blog article, pathetic I know.) J.K. Rowling with Harry Potter and Brandon Mull with Fablehaven use countless fairy tales and mythical creatures from our world to fill their own.

Don't be afraid to do some searching. Need a crazy creature to put your reader at unease? Look no further than the some of the anal-fixated monsters in South America and some of the American islands, or the old crazy stuff Japanese freak the crap out of their kids with. You can find legends about everything: kings with curses, sorcerers who turn people into animals, witches who eat children, demons in disguise, etc. Now, I'm not saying you have to lift details straight from them (though you definitely can) or that you have to base your story on an existing legend. What you can do though, is research these things to give yourself a kick in the pants, or to find something that sets a spark in your brain. When you feel completely squeezed dry of creativity, it helps to take some time looking for stories that intrigue you, then determine what qualities made them stick out, and convert them to something you can use. (I know I've always been fascinated with the old school creepy stuff, hence all the talk of witches and old Irish legends.)

I'm currently doing this for The Sometimes Sword, and I'm finding that so far it's helping to pump some excitement back into the writing process, along with informing some changes to fundamental characters. So next time you sit down to write and feel a little bored, think about doing some research to liven up your story and increase the illusion of reality.

How I build my characters. (Feel free to use this if you like.)

I wanted to share what I have been developing over the last couple of weeks (with the help of my wife). Specifically character sheets. This is a document I am creating for my protagonist, and some other important characters. I didn't start out with a form like this, but rather converted an already completed character sheet, replacing the items with question prompts ( you don't get to read about my protagonist, sorry). Having a clearly defined person when I start is extremely helpful, and I look forward to getting these new, fully fleshed-out characters on the page. Hopefully this might help spark some things to consider in your own characters.

All About ________

Basics:

• Gender
• Age
• One-word Personality Type

Appearance:

• Body Type
• Skin Color
• Hair Length/Color
• Clothing
• Eye Color
• Facial Shape
• Height
• Possibly weight

Personality:

• How do they act in relation to others?
• What they think of themselves
• How do others think of them?
• Whose company do they enjoy?
• What do they think about their society
• What gender roles do they fall into?
• What gender roles do they break away from?
• What do they believe in?

Qualities:

• What is their occupation?
• What makes them unique at it? (ex: uses only knives to hunt dangerous game, etc.)
• What is their level of education?
• What kind of people of the opposite gender do they like? (This can be important if you have a romance of any kind.)
• What are some special abilities? (Magic, cunning, etc.)

History:

• What was growing up like?
• How did they do in school (if they attended)?
• What was their family like?
• Did they get along with their parents/siblings?
• What are their current views/memories of growing up?
• Were there any traumatic/impactful occurrences in their past? How did this affect them?

Character Arc:

• What do they learn by the end of the book?
• Why is it important that they learn it?
• Find a few more things that will change in the character over the course of the book.

Beginning:

Where does the character start out at? What are their beliefs at the beginning when we first meet them? How do they act? Are they immature, too mature, rude, timid, etc?

Middle:

This is where things need to change. Questions need to come up, and obstacles challenge them. The character begins to find that their beliefs aren't necessarily true. Confusion and conflict follows.

Climax:

Everything comes to a head. The character needs to take in what they have learned and questioned to save the day. The best character arcs will incorporate what they have learned into the outcome of the climax. Have Johnny realize that his mother's death can't torture him forever, and he has to move on or he'll never kill the Evil Magic Dude, etc.

End:

This is where you wrap everything up. The reader sees the character reflect on the journey, and what it has done to/for them. This doesn't have to be a perfect, tidy package. If your story calls for a sad or unfinished ending, that's fine, but make sure the character is different in the key ways you listed above.

The excitement of a new book, and how I learned from the last one.

So I briefly posted that I was moving on from The Sometimes Sword, and I wanted to kind of dig in deeper and explain what I'm doing now.

After an initial decision to leave TSS as a stepping stone and nothing more, I have now amended my way of thinking, and decided to leave it as a work in progress for now, to be picked up at a later (much later) date. Right now I need to focus on improving my craft, and while useful, editing an old story isn't working toward that end.

So I've decided to start a new book, this time in a different way. In the post about My Beginnings, I talked about how I started TSS with absolutely no world building or character development. That was the direct opposite to my first work where I world-builded the crap out of it (and that failed horribly). With this book, I am seeking a balance between the two methods. I want to have a more engaging plot and conflict, along with a more detailed and fleshed out world. This requires some basic world-details and plotting before hand. However, just as with TSS, I want the focus to be character and I will continue to steer toward that. Another important point is that of Discovery with a capital "d". I find that if I world-build too much, I lose my own sense of excitement and discovery as I write and garden the book. So yeah, that's something to keep in mind also.

Really, I want this post to be aimed at what TSS did for me as a writer, and what I can take away from it. I won't go into the specific details, but I want to highlight the process I used to make sure I learned all I could from it.

First, I wrote down a list of fundamental flaws withing TSS. (I used a giant 24x16 whiteboard. I have three of them, and seriously, they are so useful.) Then I had Becky and my alpha readers Travis and Robyn write up a list on another board, this time with everything that was good in the book.

Once I had both lists hanging on the wall, Becky and I went through them and defined the underlying issues/successes of each. I transferred them to a computer document and began to explore the methods of fixing/achieving each. This way, I essentially made a writer's guide for myself, allowing me to build a better book the next time around.

I'm in the middle of some foundational world building, and hopefully at the start of next week I'll begin writing the first draft. I'm excited to start this new project, and hopefully I'll experience the same level of improvement as I did when I first started TSS.

What are you working on right now?

Time to get back to "The Sometimes Sword".

So like I said in a previous post, it's been a while since I did anything meaningful in my book. With college, a blog (yeah, I know), and the odd video game, my free time has been too full. So out goes the video games (except maybe the weekends), and I think I'll cut my blog posts down to one every other day or so.


On another note, Writing Excuses had an excellent cast today. Recorded at Worldcon, they had a transsexual (female to male) author on as a guest to talk about gender roles, specifically in fantasy. It was actually pretty interesting, and I found some things that I'd like to modify about my own work. Take a listen.


Tomorrow I will try to make a full post, subject unknown. Do you have anything you want to talk about?

A bit about my book "The Sometimes Sword".

I still find it a bit awkward to say that I have a "book". It is indeed a book, and not having been published doesn't lessen that at all. However, like I explained in my post about writers being ashamed or writing, I have some reservations in saying the actual word to people. But hey, what the heck, I have a book dang it!

That aside, I thought I might relate some experiences and thoughts about my own process and experiences writing it. As some of you may know, I began writing it earlier this year, sometime in April or May. My goal was to complete the first draft in one month, just in time for college to start. I was, of course, insane. But it ended up working out. 

I don't want to repeat myself from other posts, but I do want to put out there that goals and schedules made it possible. What do I mean? Let me explain (don't worry, it'll be brief). When I started my first book, I had no set structure or short term writing goals (such as: so many words per day, or finish this scene by tomorrow, etc). With "The Sometimes Sword" I made a point of doing so, specifically 5 pages were to be completed per weekday, and 10 per day on the weekend. It was the only thing that got me to finish the first draft. In other words, it was all-important to me. I only missed two days, but seeing as I was sometimes writing 30 pages per day on the weekends, it all worked out.

Moving on, I want to lay out some of the problems I came up against, and how I found solutions to them (and if I didn't, feel free to give me some advice).

1. Character

There were many advantages to starting out blind, with no world-building or outlining to speak of (see my posts about Setting and Character). But there were also disadvantages, one of which was character development. I started out with a name, and a vague sense of personality. That was it. While this gave me freedom to go any direction I wanted as I wrote, it also made the process a little messy. For instance: my main character started out at 12 years old, but by the third chapter, I was writing him as a 17 year old. And my alpha readers could tell that he was getting older in my brain without me ever telling them. That required a bit of revising (which is a frustrating use of my time). It ended up working out, and the character is much better suited to the story at 17 years old.

Another problem was personality and quirks. All of my characters were written on the spot, as I needed them. Some never had much of an issue; there are three side-characters that developed strong, recognizable personalities from the get-go (not that there wasn't occasional need for tweaks). Unfortunately, my two protagonists (a teenage boy and girl) started out a little bland. They had no quirks to speak of, no voice, and no especially strong feelings about anything. This wasn't an insurmountable problem, but it did take a lot of time and extra material written to straighten out (on a side note, I'm glad it turned out this way, otherwise I might never have written several rather nice scenes. So it's not all bad).

My main focus was the addition of quirks and thoughts. I had struggled with quirks for a long time, scared to over do it: "Marion flipped her hair in annoyance," or, "Halmul's eye twitched before he could complete the lie". These aren't truly horrible, but if they become the one thing you identify your character by, your readers will quickly become annoyed. That being said, don't be afraid to explore natural reactions and quirks your character might have. It's a work in progress for me, and will continue to be so until the last draft is finished. Character thoughts, for me, are a great tool, one I wish I had utilized more from the start. Using italicized thought "bubbles" (not really a bubble, but an actual thought they have in their head, similar to a comic strip character's thought bubble) in the text allow you to get right into the character's head, and allows for direct communication of voice. I'm still in the process of adding a lot of thoughts into the individual character's point of view.

One smaller problem I ran across with character was last names. My world has surnames as part of their culture, but my characters don't. It was a simple, but frustrating oversight. I have yet to introduce a surname for my male protagonist.

2. Setting

I had always wanted a simple setting for this book, one that would make the reader feel comfortable. I didn't want complicated political plots or intricate religious dogma. I wanted to use terms like "The City" or "The King's Road". Now, I have nothing against broad worlds with insanely developed cultures and inhabitants (in fact, my favorite series The Wheel of Time is full of that stuff). But it wasn't for me, at least not yet. I feel like it has helped me stay a bit more focused on plot and character. At the same time, it also made it a bit difficult for my alpha readers to orient themselves within the world. As a result I began adding more details, gave some things actual names and so on. It still feels simple, but now it's a bit more fleshed out. Don't be afraid to adjust your original vision sometimes.

One more thing about Setting. In the wish to write simple descriptions, I feel like I might have gone too far, and left out a lot of opportunities to beautify my world. I regret that a small bit, but it's nothing I need to go back and redo.

3. Plot 

Holy crap Plot. The bane of my existence (no wait, that's editing). I've always had ideas for great beginnings, and sometimes good endings, but middles... middles are the bane of my existence. Okay, enough with that phrase. My default go-to plot is the travel log. Such as: protagonist has something bad happen to them, so they have to travel somewhere to fix it. Stuff happens in the mean time. That's pretty standard right? (And just to be clear, I think I pulled it off well enough in "The Sometimes Sword".) Just find some crap to do to them on the way. Well, it's not so easy as that. I found myself writing things in that had nothing to do with the overall plot. See, there's nothing wrong with events happening to make things hard for your character (see my post on writing dark fiction) or establish your world, but they should also serve a purpose in moving the story forward. I'm still trying to revise large chunks to make them fit the story arc better.

Watching the curve of your plot can be really hard to do. The book itself is too big to really see the whole thing in my mind's eye. It's something I still need to watch.

4. Dialogue

This is one thing that I am completely willing to admit is my weak spot. I can get it right after a while, but when my first draft was finished... it was bad. Let me tell you. I have to keep reminding myself that dialogue needs to sound natural, that I can't just dump info every time a character opens their mouth (sometimes called maid-and-butlering, look it up on Writing Excuses for more info). My dialogue tends to follow this format: Person 1 asks question, Person 2 answers. Person 3 asks for clarification, Person 4 gives clarification. Ugh. It's horrible, and I want to scratch my eyes out when I read it. Only after careful examination can I fix each conversation.

This is my intended fix: once all the other problems are fixed with plot, setting, and character, I'm going to sit down with my wife and alpha readers and have them read the dialogue like a play. I'll listen quietly and type revisions furiously as all the awkward crap floats to the surface. I'm actually looking forward to it.

5. Voice

I still feel a bit in the dark about this one. Voice is almost an ethereal, unattainable quality to me. It's the thing that makes a writer instantly recognizable just from reading their work. Some might call it the writer's style. It's something I know will come with practice, and some might say it already exists in "The Sometimes Sword", but I have my doubts. For now, I don't have much advice to give, as I myself need some.

So there are some of the things I have struggled with in my book. They certainly aren't all of them, and I might continue on with a few more in the future. What about you? What mountains have you come across in your writing, and what are you doing to surmount them?

Discovering Setting.

I'm unashamedly fond of the stereotypical fantasy setting: a pseudo middle-earth/medieval land ruled by kings and fought over by powerful magics. It just works for me. It's where I live inside my own head, and it's where I want my characters to live (I may be a bit guilty of reverse Mary-Sue-ism). A lot of people moan and complain about it, that it's overused, boring, or an unimaginative rip-off of Tolkien. Some of this may be true, but I would argue that there is also plenty of great fantasy out there that doesn't follow this formula. So much of it in fact, that I am surprised these complainers haven't tripped on it on their way to the forums (lame joke, I know). This is a problem to me: a bunch of loud-mouthed minority opinions that step on aspiring writer's dreams of writing the fiction they love.

Why should you ignore it? Because you are free to do as you wish, and there will always be enough readers to go around. But this isn't what I want to discuss. I want to explore the many options we have as writers in creating the world our characters live in. After all, you are the god of your story. Your word is law. Just make sure it's good stuff.

A lot of people start with setting, before anything else. And there's nothing wrong with that. Some major-hitting authors (I can't remember which at the moment, it might have been Orson Scott Card) have gone on record as saying they start with nothing but a map, then build everything else from there. There is no right or wrong (I personally start with a character first). Culture, politics, magic systems, and geography all have a part in Setting, so be thinking about all those things as you read on.

So you have this vague idea. Maybe its an image that struck you of a misty bridge built between clouds, or an Inn's warm kitchen set in a forest. Perhaps it's a smell that exists only in your head: the salty smell of a calm beach or the char-choked air of a burned-out city. The smallest things can spark a setting, you just have to build on that spark... or maybe a better analogy would be: fan that spark into roaring flames. Whatever.

It's sometimes difficult to explain the process of world building from a tiny idea, it happens extremely fast in my own head, and I'm sure most of you know what I mean. It's a process of exploring the surroundings of that calm beach from above, asking where it exists, why is it there. Are there people about? What do they do? The key is to ask questions of yourself. Then it's your job to make up the answers. To me, this process is incredibly enjoyable. It's pure make-believe and creation. Allow yourself to go wild, no holds barred. If you start out big and crazy, it's easy to reel yourself back in if need be, however, starting out too small and conservative can be troublesome. So explore those dusty corners of your brain, think back to when you were a kid and that one book about talking animals made you crazy (or whatever did the same for you). Why did it stick with you for so long? Use that feeling it gave you and run with it, making your own world in the process.

A word of caution that I had to learn the hard way: make sure everything makes sense. Your readers are willing to suspend their disbelief, but only so far. If you have floating pink mush balls for characters that live in someone's lower intestine, make sure every other detail fits with that. Don't break the illusion. It's hard to coordinate all the facts, so make a list, or write a small history book entry for your world. Use time lines or cork boards and note cards, whatever you are comfortable with. Don't be afraid to write pages of world-building.

On the other hand, don't. It works both ways. On my second book (after giving up the first one as a bad job) I went into it with the express intent to not do any world building. Any details were to come about in the actual pages. My goal was to put all my creative effort into the book itself, and not draw maps or make index entries for characters. And you know, it worked pretty well. I actually finished the first draft this time, in less than a month. This may not work for you, but don't be afraid to experiment.

In conclusion, there is no right or wrong way, just results. Find what works best for you, and do it. And have FUN.