Friday, December 30, 2011

Reviews

Having someone buy you a drink at a bar is nice. Having them buy you a drink, and tell you they like you is even better. I guess that's how I look at reviews. Someone buying your work is always a good feeling, but getting some feedback is the icing on the cake.

Someone reviewed my book Eria the other day. It was a nice little review, and they were kind enough to give it a four star rating (which is nice, too). It made my day, really. I appreciate that people are buying my stuff, and (hopefully) even reading it, and I love that someone took the time to jot some stuff down.

Of course, I know that not all the reviews that I get are going to be positive ones. I mean, that's just how things go. Not everybody likes the same things, otherwise the world would be a dull place.

I took an American Literature course at university, and I had nice things to say about every book except one. It was just awful (to my mind). I didn't like the plot, the characters didn't do anything for me, the style annoyed me - it was a painful read that I didn't enjoy at all. If I didn't have to read it for the subject, I would have put it down and read something else. Yet, a lot of people enjoy William Faulkner's stuff, and Light in August (I hear) is a good novel.

So, I expect bad reviews to come my way. I expect some people not to like it. And I'm sure I'll learn something from each and every review I get.

But, for now, I have a good one, and I'll take that, thank you very much!

Monday, December 26, 2011

Characters With A Mind Of Their Own

Developing good characters is an important part of the writing process. Without them, any novel is going to suffer. And, if it does, then people are going to have trouble reading what you've written, or, worse still, they won't bother reading it at all.

The 'down side' of having good, well-developed characters is that sometimes they won't do what they're told.

You have an idea, you have the characters, the locations, the obstacles, the plot, and everything else worked out, and things are looking great. Until your characters decide that they'd really rather not do what you want them to do.

I can hear people saying "but they're your characters, don't they just do what you want them to? It's not like they have a say!". If only it were that easy.

Sure, you can force characters to do your bidding, but you run the risk of it feeling forced. You risk the all important suspension of disbelief being broken, and the reader going "hang on a minute...". And that's bad. I've read many novels where I stop reading, and start thinking not about what the characters are doing, but why the hell they are doing it. Why they are acting so out of character. It leaves the over-all reading experience lacking. You want the reader to be immersed in the world, the characters, and so forth, not questioning things (unless, of course, that is the kind of novel you're writing, but that's not what I'm talking about here).

So, the best solution, is to let the characters do what they want. To hell with your best laid plans - let the characters be the characters that you created, not force them into some situation, or action, that they wouldn't do. They might get back to the track that you have waiting for them, or they might lead you on your own merry adventure, as they explore their options and your world the way a real person would.

At the end of the day, I think this can make for a better story.

Friday, December 23, 2011

Prequel, Sequel, Or Something On The Side

When writing something new in the same universe there are always options. With the rich back material that I created for Eria, it leaves several options open for me, hence the title of this particular blog post.

I could write a prequel to Eria. There are a lot of things mentioned in the novel that can easily be fleshed out. Depending on how far back I wanted to go into the history of Eria, there are several different generations of stories that I could explore. By stepping back one generation, I could look at when Galdor was an apprentice, like Elrath was in the novel, and see how he was trained; I could explore the creation of the Guardianships, and what it took to establish them; or, I could go back to the first conflict with Rathgar, and how he was defeated that time. I could take the story back several generations to when Krullus wielded the Sword of Kings, and the Dragonknights were around. Who were they? Why were they needed? Was there magic back then? Or, I could choose somewhere in the middle.

Writing a sequel would be a simple enough matter, as well. I just pick up from where the story ended, and go from there. The characters are already there, and there are plenty of opportunities that await them. They have a big job ahead of them, no matter what they decide to do. Do they explore the magic mystery further? Do they go back to Waydale to check on their loved ones? Do they explore the extent of the damage around them? There are a lot of options there.

Lastly, the something on the side option means that I can explore other events that were happening while Elrath, Bethany and Baedyr were 'participating' in the novel. There are other Guardianships and Guardians mentioned in Eria, and their fate is just assumed, or mentioned. What really happened to them? Likewise, the Druids, and the Tenford Fighters Solidarity are mentioned. the latter are not seen or encountered, whilst only one group of the former are seen.

So, where to next? A sequel seems like the obvious option. I feel that the characters deserve (for want of a better word) to explore the world that I have thrust them into for a little longer. A prequel would be a lot of fun to write, because there are so many options there, and it's always fun to flesh out some of the gaps, and make good use of the back material that I've created. And I think something on the side would be an interesting experiment.

So, once again, where to next? Maybe I'll try all three...

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Back Material

When I was writing Eria, I created a lot of back material for it. For the most part, this comes through as a name here and there, with nothing else mentioned about it, because, quite frankly, there was no need to mention anything else. It wasn't crucial to the story, and, at best, would serve as a distraction, a sidebar, or just something that the reader wouldn't be at all interested in at the time.

It's all there, though. If someone were to ask me "is XYZ 'real', or is it just something you threw in because it sounded cool?" I could say, "yes, it is 'real', and here's some more information...".

Of course 'real' here is a relative term. Like the difference between a real car and a toy car. Both are real, but there is a distinction to me made. You can't drive to the shops and put your groceries in a toy car, but it is real in the sense that it exists.

Likewise, the back material I use is real in the sense that it is written down somewhere for me to reference, change, and otherwise use, but, obviously, not real in the sense that we can go there, meet the people, and so forth, well, any more than we can with fictional material.

I didn't need to create the back material. I could have just 'winged it'. Nobody would really have noticed, known, or probably even cared if they did. I used to do it all the time when I was GMing RPGs, and at the end of the day people still had fun.

So, why didn't I?

The reasons are quite simple.

Firstly, I wanted to write back material. It was fun to do, and I wanted to know more about the characters, locations, and events that I mentioned, even just in passing.

Secondly, it gave me a sense of consistency. If I wanted to check on something, or mention it again, the material was already there, and close at hand.

Lastly, and most importantly, if I wanted to explore the world further, write more about it, and so forth, the material was there.

And, now that I do want to revisit the world of Eria, I'm glad that it is!

Friday, December 16, 2011

Looking Back At Writing Eria

I wrote Eria a while ago. It was the first novel that I ever really completed. By completed, I mean edited, revised, edited again, and so on, until I had something that I was happy with. To that end I think it's a success.

I've written other things before and after, but I've never bothered to polish them, and revisit them like I did with Eria. Maybe I thought that they were "done", or maybe it was that I was simply done with them. I'm not sure. What I am sure is that I never felt tempted to "do" anything with them again, never felt interested in revisiting the world, or the characters. I think that in and of itself is telling. If, as an author, I don't feel like revisiting these things, why would a reader feel compelled to feel anything for them in the first place?

As I said, I feel differently about Eria. I find myself wondering about what the characters are going to do next, about what they did before, and about the other people and places that are mentioned in the book. I hope that other people that have read it feel that way too.

I've read a lot of novels, stories, plays and so forth (as well as being subjected to a lot of television and movies), and, I believe, the memorable ones are the ones that you want to re-read, the ones you never get sick of reading. They're like old friends, or a comfortable pair of shoes. They just feel right to you.

I've never written fan-fiction, but I've thought about it. Most of the time the fanfic that I would have written plays out in my head, and that's good enough for me. It's like a pleasant daydream, I suppose. It doesn't really seem like a creative process, although I suppose that technically it is.

So, what am I saying? Where is this going?

I suppose the point that I am trying to make is that getting Eria to the stage where I decided to put it up on the Amazon Kindle store has got me thinking more about the world, characters, and so forth, and I'm definitely interested in writing more. Being the person that wrote it in the first place, I can hardly call what I write next fanfic, but it kind of feels that way, at least in my mind.

Is it wrong to enjoy writing more about something you like? Is it self-indulgent? Will people want to read it?

I suppose we'll find out!