Archives: Writing

Reflections on the 7th Novel

I turned over my fourth Pathfinder novel this week. It’s a little strange thinking that it won’t see the light of day until two years from now. By then my daughter will be a junior in high school and my son will be a sophomore in college. Sometimes I think time would feel less like it proceeds at such a breakneck pace if I didn’t constantly have my children changing to show me. My wife and I don’t feel particularly different than we felt two years ago (although I do have more gray) and with luck we won’t feel too different in two more years.

I Leveled Up

…Or maybe I beamed up. In any case, I finished the rough draft of my seventh book yesterday. (In D&D terms does that make me a seventh level writer?)

So what did I do afterwards? I treated myself to a big ‘ol cheeseburger, owing to the fact that a far more delicious vietnamese dish is, alas, a 30 minute drive away. After that I sat down to start outlining book number eight. That’s what you do when you’re trying to make a living at this business. I did allow myself a little sense of satisfaction, however, because I stayed on target. I began the 90k manuscript on June 30, and I finished it in just under two months. That’s my fastest rough draft yet, undertaken with a solid outline, a firm knowledge of my characters, and steady effort.

I’ll leave the current manuscript to cool on the window sill for a few days before I start revising. It’s nice to completely switch gears and work on something else.

Character Death

Most people reading popular modern fantasy are used to seeing characters die, maybe even popular characters. On the other side of the text it can be hard to pull the trigger even if the plot demands it. You grow attached to those characters.

Sometimes, though, it’s harder than usual. Yesterday as I was writing some of the final scene of my newest book I suddenly realized the scene would be heightened if one of the characters died.

Strange Days

…or, possibly, strange careers. Like writing. I realized the other day that while I’ve been writing like a madman for at least twelve months, the three books I’ve been working on won’t be seen by readers for at least another twelve months.

Any fan who’s not visiting my blog to check up on my activities will likely assume I’ve given it up or am out of ideas. And yet I’ve written two books in the last year and am nearly through with a third. After it gets a polish I’ll start work on the next one, which will mean I’ll have been working on four separate books over the course of a year. Not too shabby, really, when it took me a year and a half to write The Bones of the Old Ones. Remember that one? No? It got a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly and made the Best of 2012 Barnes and Noble fantasy releases list, and had heaps of good reviews, I swear. Alas, it doesn’t seem like anyone apart from the reviewers and some loyal fans ever picked it up, at least judging from the small number of Amazon reviews. Sniff.

A Few Outlining Thoughts

Summer sure has been busy here at Jones central, but it’s been pleasant. My second Paizo Pathfinder novel (second of the summer, I mean, because it’s fourth overall) is rolling along very smoothly (knock on wood), and I’m getting lots of time to spend with my kids.

In the evening when I often draft my blog updates we’ve been re-watching the original Avatar: The Last Airbender series, which is part of the reason there haven’t been as many posts. I’ll share some thoughts on the series soon. I remembered it was good, but I should have remembered it is downright excellent most of the time. (Azula, pictured here, is one of the finest villains in animated history. Honestly, she’s one of the finest villains in ANY adventure story, in any medium.)

The other reason is that I’ve just been plain busy. I’m either writing or doing house stuff. But I’m not going to give you a summer update today. I’m going to share some thoughts I’ve been mulling over about outlining.

A New Day Dawns…

…or at least a new book. Today I start work on my new Paizo Pathfinder novel. Assuming the editorial team likes the title for the one I turned in last week (Beyond the Pool of Stars) I want to sort of do a related theme and title this one Through the Gate in the Sea.

I’ve got a detailed outline in hand and am really looking forward to starting work. Unlike every other sequel book I’ve written, I’m starting this one just a few days after I finished its predecessor. The characters are still fresh in my head, and the events pick up only a month or two after the conclusion of the last.

I’ve written enough books now to recognize the honeymoon phase, but I don’t care. I’m full of hope that the outline will keep me on course and that it will have all the vibrancy I imagine AND that there won’t be weird problems that leave me scratching my head for weeks at  a time (did I REALLY need them to go here OR now that I look at it more closely, that character’s motivation doesn’t make sense…).

Catching Up

It felt very, very nice to turn over the draft of my new Paizo novel Sunday afternoon. I’ve titled it Beyond the Pool of Stars, but I don’t know if that title will survive or not. For all I know, there’s another book in the Pathfinder pipeline with Stars or Pool in it already, which will mean I’ll have to go searching for another.

I CAN tell you that the entire novel’s set in and around the tropical nation of Sargava. It has a completely different feel and completely different characters… and I’m quite pleased with it. I think it far and away my best Pathfinder novel yet.

This week I’ve been catching up on some house husbandly duties. Namely clearing out the basement. After my father’s death and my mom’s move into a retirement home I ended up with stacks of stuff. When that was added to stacks of other stuff I already had down there, it became quite a mess. So, I’m getting rid of most of it.

Getting Near the End

So I finally wrote The End on the bottom of my rough draft of my next book last night. I’ll spend the next week putting a polish on it. Since about two-thirds to three-quarters of it is already polished (some of it highly so) I’m not anticipating any more trouble… except with a good title, which so far eludes me. I’m hoping a good phrase will stick out for me as I’m working through the text.

In other news, I watched the final episode of the new Cosmos series last night. It was glorious, it was gorgeous…

Racing for the End

I used to think that being a writer was glamorous, but now I realize it mostly consists of me staring at a computer screen and typing. Or pacing back and forth. Now I realize that holding a book that you wrote is awsome, and getting to create stuff for your living is way cool, but that the PROCESS isn’t remotely glamorous.

Anyway, as I get closer and closer to wrapping up my next Paizo book, I’m afraid the web site is looking a little fallow.

Here’s what I’ve been thinking about while not writing.

First, I’ve been watching a little Firefly with my wife and son (my daughter has given up, saying she doesn’t like cowboys in space. Yeah, I know… oddly enough, though, she doesn’t mind the original Star Trek, despite its age, which is just fine with me.) There isn’t much Firefly, of course, but we’ve been stretching it out. One every other night or so. 

Firefly Rewatch

I’m still deep in draft and revision mode, but I wanted to mention that our family has been re-watching the Firefly series now that the kids are old enough to view the episodes with us.

My guess is that most of you reading this are already well aware of how excellent Firefly is, and know full well what a terrible shame it was that we got so little of it. You can probably find innumerable discussions of its many strengths all over the web, but one that I’m re-noticing is just how well defined every character is from the start.

Even if we don’t know all of their backstory in the first episodes, each time one of the characters speaks or acts we get a very strong sense of who they are and what they believe. This show should serve as a model for anyone drafting dialogue: its construction should be studied and emulated. And enjoyed.

What a great show.