Archives: Writing

Gaining Pathfinder Steam

Yesterday I finally turned the corner on the new Pathfinder novel I’m writing. My writing process means that I go on with a very detailed plan, then write the book almost like a screenplay, mostly with dialogue before going back in to fill it up with description. What that means, though, is that I can’t be sure how well it’s really going until later in the process. As recently as Monday I was still worried about whether or not I could pull this off and get it to have the tone I was looking for, maintain the pace, and develop the character arcs.

By end-of-day Thursday I finally had the first three chapters clicking along properly, and now some of the middle sections are falling into place. Because it’s gained momentum and I’m now better acquainted with all the characters, little scenes and more climactic chapter conclusions are popping out of thin air.

On Resistance and Writing

I spend an awful lot of time talking about Resistance on this site, at least as Steven Pressfield defines it in The War of Art.

Here’s another look at something important Pressfield had to say on the passion artists bring to their work; a little peek into the kind of stuff we may have to deal with.

In other news, I’m deep in draft mode with many irons in fires, so there may not be any lengthy posts for a while. That recent review took a couple of hours to write, hours that need to be spent drafting. Eventually I hope to get some info up the great hard boiled writing of Wade Miller, but that’s going to have to wait until I have a LITTLE bit of time.

Genre Prejudice

It’s a lot easier for me to be generous about other genres than it used to be. I’m trying to decide if that has something to do with me mellowing with age, or if it’s because there’s a whole lot more sword-and-sorcery available than there was ten years ago … or if it’s simply that I don’t feel shut out anymore now that I’m writing sword-and-sorcery stories for a living.

Fantasy seems a lot more popular even among the mainstream readers than it used to be, although the dividing line between fantasy and sword-and-sorcery still seems pretty blurry. I’ve spent a lot of time over the years trying to define the difference, but I often feel like I’m shouting in the wind. The common conception remains that if it’s got swords and magic, it must be sword-and-sorcery, regardless of pacing or the focus of the plot. But let’s set another discussion of sword-and-sorcery aside for the nonce and focus instead on genre prejudice.

I think a lot of science fiction and fantasy writers and readers feel like low faces on the totem pole because their favorite fiction is sneered at by people in the know. A while ago, I started to realize that MOST writers felt like their genre was being kicked to the curb. Horror writers have been going through a hard time now for a good long while. YA writers, well, they “only write YA,” and God help the urban fantasy people, whom are in fashion to be hated. As writers and readers, we all turn up our noses at all the things we find wrong with some one else’s genre. Really, that’s all that’s happening with the literary criticism of genre work. It’s easy for us genre people to detail the things we find annoying about literary fiction, but it turns out lit fic writers feel harried themselves.

The Business of Writing: Joining the Community

I spoke to some creative writing students at a local university a while ago and I tried to tell them something it took me a long time to understand: when you begin your writing career, you’re joining a community.

By writing career,  I mean your first published work. In my case, I was first printed in a ‘zine titled Gauntlet. Before I submitted my story to the magazine, about the only thing I knew about Gauntlet was that it was open to heroic fiction and sword-and-sorcery. I was making a common mistake — I didn’t know  the market.

It’s hard to know ALL the markets, especially when, in those bygone days of yore, to know about the magazine you had to buy an issue. (Most of those little magazines couldn’t be leafed through at local bookstores because they weren’t carried.) Today we submitters have it a little simpler because most magazines have web sites where fiction can be sampled. And, of course, an increasingly large number of magazines ARE e-zines.

The Skill of Asking

This morning I’m turning my blog over to the talented Suzanne Church. I was first introduced to Suzanne in 2011 at DragonCon by John O’Neill, and found her witty and extremely kind, but I had no idea what a fine writer she was until I attended one of her readings at the 2012 WorldCon. I’ve been a fan ever since and have made sure to attend every single one of her readings at any convention where we’re both in attendance. I went out of my way to track down several anthologies just to have copies of her work, and I’m excited to learn about her new short story collection.

Anyway, take it away Suzanne!

Self-Sabotage is Easier than Writing

A lot of writers I know are pretty good at self-sabotage. It’s not that writing is hard, exactly, except that it is. Physical labor and exercise isn’t required, and it sure doesn’t look like you’re doing much when you’re staring at that screen and pecking away at a keyboard. But getting good work, consistently, means constant effort. And constant effort = work.

I’d like to have those moments where an entire chapter writes itself and stays virtually unchanged through every draft because I can hear, see, and picture it so clearly the first time; but it just doesn’t happen very often. The trick is sticking with the process so that the reader can’t tell which chapters you labored over and which chapters flowed naturally the first time. And that takes time, and effort, and sometimes it’s easier to do nothing.

Outlining, Part 2

Back in August of 2013 I discussed my new outlining approach in depth. At the time I wasn’t sure how useful I’d find it in the long run, but it seemed to be working very well. Here’s the whole article if you want a quick refresher, because it’s turned out to work even better than I might have hoped.

What it boils down to is two main points.

1. Draft a super detailed outline that may range into the tens of thousands of words for the book.

2. Once that’s in hand, begin your drafting almost like a loose play, sort of a “stagey outline.” It includes snatches of dialogue, bits of scenery description, and notes to yourself about when some element or creature or piece of information was introduced.

I’ve used that method now for Stalking the Beast and for the first novel of my new epic sword-and-sorcery series, and now I’m using it for my third Pathfinder novel… and by God, it works. It works so well that by a second read pass most of the adjustments I have to make are small ones.

Primeval Thule

I haven’t signed up for as many kickstarters in the last few months, primarily because I haven’t had any big book checks in the last few months. (That’s the nature of publishing — feast or famine, usually with emphasis on the latter.) But one of the ones I DID sign on for was Primeval Thule, and I drop by the web site every now and then to see how it’s coming along.

It sounds like exactly the kind of campaign world I’d want to set a game in or write a story about. This morning I visited the work-in-progress to see if there were any new updates and discovered the tentative TOC. Check out the titles of the cities alone, which just breathes of evocative world building: “Kal-Zinan, City of the Iron Gate” or “Lands of the Long Shadow.” That’s the stuff. I’m really looking forward to this one.

Victory is Mine!

I am extremely pleased to announce that I’ve just signed a book deal with Paizo for two new Pathfinder novels.

Just a few months back I was finishing the outline for the first of the two at The Three Broomsticks at Universal (probably the coolest place I’ve ever finished an outline) while my wife and daughter rode roller coasters. Later that same week I was working on the second at a cafe in Epcot Center. It was a good week, as you can see from the picture on the right. Note the smile. Also note the miniature zebras. They’re small enough to fit in a shirt pocket, but they’re kind of high maintenance.

Friday morning I’m flying off to ConFusion in Detroit. I hope to announce additional cool news very soon!

Farewell, Something Lovely

I swear I didn’t plan this. I was recently contacted by my old friend, the talented Fraser Ronald, who’s launched a Kickstarter for a collection of hardboiled sword-and-sorcery stories titled Farewell, Something Lovely. That this post comes right after I read Farewell, My Lovely and wrote a stupid post titled “Farewell, My Fence Rail” can only mean that synchronicity is at work. It’s also a sign that you need Fraser’s collection!

If you’ve been visiting the site over the last week or so, you’ll have noted how the interconnection between sword-and-sorcery and hardboiled pops up from time to time. Charles Rutledge in particular called it out in the comments section from the More on Noir post. Fraser hits that interconnection with both barrels… er, long swords.

Anyway, I strongly urge you to take a look at Fraser Ronald’s Kickstarter, which includes some art from my old friend Storn Cook. Don’t delay — there aren’t too many days left to join in!