One book becoming two, Part 2 of the tale

I've spent several days now working on the beginning of what will now be the third book in the series. It does feel like a beginning and sometimes I have to stop and remind myself that it is the start of a new book. It's weird because I'm so use to thinking of it as one story arc. But as I've said before, it's all a matter of working the story harder.

Speaking of which, I suppose I ought to explain why I decided to break it into two.

As readers may guess after reading The Three Books (aka book 1), the second story arc is about the life of St. Steigan. There is so much to set up, more of the magical world to build, new characters, etc. Overall, there is a lot! I do work to develop my stories, so there's work to do to make sure you, my fabulous reader, has lots of paths to explore. What is truth and what is a lie? Is this character a friend or a betrayer? What really lies beneath the Temple in the catacombs? I'm sitting here with a wicked grin on my face. Already I'm ready to go get back to work on the story. I love diving into this world! Really, this story is not meant to be read only once. There is enough here to read multiple times and deeper levels of meaning found each time. Wonderful parallels are cropping up between book 1 and 2. I am delighted and surprised each time I discover something new.

Just today, in fact, I started writing about Laurient (see previous posts) and St. Steigan going out to fight the gargaxes and St. Steigan comes up with this brilliant idea to transfer magic to Laurient. I hadn't seen this coming, didn't have it planned, it just popped in there. But it adds so many dimensions to the story. Because of this one thought, I can now spider several more things (like some foreshadowing for events in what will now be book 5) into the story. I love it!

Some of you may be wondering what will happen to the release date of the second book now that the preliminary draft is done. That's coming soon, I promise. The good thing is that I actually finished the draft by the date that I had set as my deadline so right now the story is still on track. As for my working title, I've had to change it because it no longer works. The Saint and the Betrayer, when split into to becomes The Saint (first title) and The Betrayer (second title). Somehow this just doesn't inspire me in the same way. Sigh. However, I have a new plan for the titles. I'm giving it a settling period to make sure I like it, but I'll probably make the title known at the same time I announce the release date for the second book.

So wait eagerly for more to come!

Happy reading!

Getting the job done right

Starting off the second book has been more of a challenge than I thought it would be. Because book two is about the life of Saint Steigan, I knew exactly how it needed to start, where I needed to begin, and what exactly had happened to the character before hand. But when you start writing about a character who keeps fading in and out of consciousness it gets a little hard. After all, how much is that point of view character really getting.

So, it seems to make sense to flash forward to a time when he's more conscious. Easy enough to do. But then how do you let on about the backstory up until that point?

There's a barn burning scene in the first book. As I was working along on the second book, I realized that what I had going on was another barn burning scene, except without the barn or the burning. I just had the same information gathering feel to it. I suppose that's a good thing. It should feel like the first book if I'm doing my job right.

Where's your focus?

Seems that today people are dividing into two different groups: those who are career focused and those who are project focused.

I hope that writers are project focused. It's too easy to get distracted by thinking "I am a writer," but then never writing. Then comes the critic yelling, "You can't call yourself a writer. You're not writing! Writers write. So if you're not, then quit calling yourself a writer."

But if you focus instead on your projects - those manuscripts you keep dreaming about doing - put a deadline on them for getting them done, then you start focusing on the building blocks of your career. These get done. Books and articles get written. Before you know it, not only will you be a writer, but you'll "have written" as well.

Thoughts and Passions

On my books for artists blog, I've posted a review for Seth Godin's Poke the Box. The one thing I didn't mention there was how I felt the book related to my own.

This whole Sacred Knight project has been my passion for such a long time. Godin talks about how you've got to try out ideas and you'll probably fail most of the time. But if you don't poke the box, you'll never find out what will happen.

Seventeen years I've spent with my characters, mainly my hero. Multiple drafts I've tried, restarted, written bits and filed them away, tried, failed, wrote more, failed, kept writing, failed, etc. But each time I learned more. I made a few mistakes, but I learned a lot about the story. How could I have grown it if I hadn't kept trying? There were times when I wanted to throw my large storage box of notes off the Perrine Bridge just to hear it splash in the Snake River. Or how about a barbecue in the back yard -- you going to bring the marshmallows?

When you're creating a fantasy world, you're making up everything: religion, culture, speech patterns, fashion, food, history, atmosphere, animals, plants, architecture, everything. It's not a small task. You've got to experiment. It's nothing but poking the box until you find what works.

To stay at such a project, it's got to be a passion. If it's not, it's allowed to fade away. So yes, this story is my passion. When you're reading it, you're seeing the collection of many failures until I had enough faith in it to let it be a success. Is it perfect? No, it's not. But I'm not referring to success here as meaning that it's perfect. Yes, I've already thought of lines I wish I'd been able to put in the book. Oh well, the book lives on and so do it. It is a success because I've put it out there and it speaks my message.

One other point that Godin makes is that too many authors are waiting for someone else to approve them. First they have to get an agent to take them on, then a publisher. He goes on to talk about an event coordinator who would be better off being a promoter -- saying that as an event coordinator, this person is at the mercy of the promoter who holds all the power, so why not move from being an event coordinator to being a promoter? I wish he'd carried through with analogy and just said what I know he wanted to say: why doesn't the author quit waiting for permission from the publisher and just become the publisher. In this day and age, it is easy to jump into being the person in power. It's a matter of remembering that you can do it, then doing it. I can understand why people don't do it too. It took a lot of effort to put together a book, especially carrying all the jobs from writing to editing to cover design. But if it fails at market, I have no one to blame by myself.

Want to know a secret? It can't fail.

My passion is in the story, in releasing it to the world for others to read. Guess what? That's already done. Well, book 1 of 4 is done. Book one is a success, and I'm committed now to finishing books 2-4. Each book will further that success to my commitment to this story. It's a cycle. Passion, commitment, success.

Where are you at with your story? Are you letting your passion fuel it even over hardships. Notice I didn't even mention failure in the above formula. Failures are temporary. When we're learning to walk, we fall down a few times. Being able to walk from one room to another keeps a baby trying. Seeing a published book on the shelf should fuel you to get your own done no matter what it takes. Don't wait for anyone else's approval. Do it.

Fear Settling In

Now that The Three Books is out to the world, there's fear now settling in.

For years it's been, "What if this happened to Steigan?" or "What if Steigan did that?" or "What would Steigan do?"

Now it's, "What if no one likes the story?" and "What if it's not nearly as good as I think it is?" and "What if it really wasn't ready?"

Should I have read through it a couple more times? Should I have made sure I that I had pushed the story as hard as I could?

I presume having this kind of fear is normal, right? A parent always worries about their child, right? Releasing a book is a monumental undertaking and when you've been working on it, thinking, and planning for so long, it's only natural to feel a certain amount of let down once it's done, right?

I can either wait for feedback or I can keep working on the next one. Hmmm. Marketing seems so hard when questions keep the fear inside. Steigan would hate for me to make statements that weren't true or fell short of the claims.

So I turn now and work on the next book. Soon, very soon, the fear will disappear and I'll be feeling back on top. I know this because this always happens. I must work through the uncertainty and feedback will come. I'll do shows and signings and get the marketing done. One piece of the puzzle at a time. Fear of failure isn't fatal, just a lesson in patience, don't you think?

Already I can hear Steigan telling me that one never knows what one is capable of until one tries. He'd tell me to keep moving, one foot in front of the other.

What do you do when fear stops you silly?

Argh!! Postponing Due To Frustration

I'm delaying the release.

I'm so frustrated about having to do this.

While reading the proof over the last couple days, I found a couple problems in the text. After thinking about it, I decided that these were small issues and didn't hold enough weight for me to worry about. I was going to go ahead with the release.

I almost didn't read any more -- I'd convinced myself that there couldn't be any more errors in the book. After all, I've read it 11 times since the beginning of the year. What else could possibly be wrong?

But I knew I was just avoiding the possible truth that there were more issues.

Besides, I'd found out during my last couple times through the draft that I had corruption going on. About a month ago, my file closed down on me suddenly and wanted to recover the document when I opened it back up. Stupid me told it to recover the document. Come on, I know better than that! Especially since that's exactly why I have my autosave on. Anyway, as I went through the draft this last couple of times, I'd find sentences that were half rewritten or words out of place that I knew I'd already fixed. I started wondering if the corruption in my file made it confuse the editing versions and was "doing its best" at piecing together what it had.

I thought I'd caught all of them. Obviously, I've been very tired this last month.

While reading the proof tonight, I found two very huge errors -- one's I just couldn't ignore. They had to have come from this corruption quilt! When added to the other errors, I just couldn't release it that way. I fully accept that the book will never be perfect. George Lucas, who I've been quoting a lot of this week, basically said that movies aren't released, they escape. I truly feel that this book needs to escape because I know I can never make it perfect. I wanted it "close enough." Right now, I'm not there.

So, I delay. At least with the print copy. I do want to go through the proof just to make sure. I'd rather postpone than have a product so inferior as it is now.

However, I thought I would release the NOOK version because that I can update easier than anything else. I went in and dropped in my changes that I already knew I wanted to make, reformatted the epub version, uploaded it to the website, clicked to put on sale now, and...

"We are experiencing technical difficulties. Please try again later."

REALLY?! You've got to be kidding me!

Obviously the universe is telling me to stop rushing, that there is another big issue with the book that needs my attention first. I have enough experience here to know that I need to listen.

While I'm unhappy that I have to wait, that my big release has fizzled, I know that this will ultimately bring about a better book overall. In the end, having a worthy story is what I want. I can wait a little longer. Soon. It's still coming. Very soon.

I'll keep you up to date on what happens. Maybe I can still get the NOOK version out today. As for the rest, I'm going to go get some sleep now and start in again in the morning.

Writing in Layers

I was asked recently how far into book 2 I was, if I'd even started writing it yet. While I admit that I've spent a lot of time formatting the first book, yes, I'm currently on writing the second book and am in chapter 12. So does that mean I'm almost halfway done? No!

Part of the time I spent writing this whole story has been just writing draft after draft. If anyone thinks that writing a fantasy novel is easy, well, it's not. If you're creating your own world like I did, you've got to think about culture, politics, religion, clothes, language, food, interactions with friends and family, planetary orbits -- in other words, everything! Sometime I'll talk about the different kinds of universes a world can be set in -- it's actually an online seminar I gave a long time ago. I spent a lot of time just getting to know my world and test things.

But once I knew the story, the actual writing came down to writing this story in layers. It's too hard to remember all the rules of writing at once. That's why manuscripts are created in drafts.

I admit. I was once a 15 year old author who thought every word I wrote was golden. I'm so glad now that I didn't actually get published then. I wasn't ready. I didn't have the life experiences I needed, nor did I really understand the craft of writing. Oh, I wrote drafts, but I didn't understand their purpose. I thought I did. I was so wrong.

It wasn't until I really experimented with writing different types of manuscripts (romance, children's, screenplays, short stories, etc.) that I realized that I was decent at writing dialog and immediate actions. Descriptions and pacing were other issues.

When I decided to change this to a graphic novel so I'd only have to write quick descriptions and dialog, all of a sudden my job felt easier (okay, drawing the dang thing is another issue!). I flew through writing the story this way. Talking heads, okay, I can do that.

Then, while I was drawing the story, I got an itching to write the novelization. Fine. A novelization. Writing a book was a hard project, but writing a novelization of the graphic novel much simpler.

Using what I had, I came back to the story. Now, all I had to do was add a little bit of setting and some more actions to the basics that I already had. After that, another draft to add a bit more. A few tweaks to the story in the next couple drafts. Soon, I'd been through it several times and added a little more each time.

As I built the layers, I would go through and try to apply "rules of writing" as I went. I'd try to note places where I was telling the story instead of showing it. I'd mix setting in with the dialog to break up the talking heads, but I'd also try to mix the setting into the action as to not stop the story.


Now, sitting on the other side of editing and having my proof copy in hand, I can tell you that there is something else I wish I'd done -- one more layer I'd gone through. I wish I'd actually printed out my story and run an editing draft on paper. I tried to do it all on my computer to be green and save the environment, but now I see that the paper draft would've helped me see a few things I missed. I'm not going to hold up the release of the book though I keep wondering if I should. I do see things that are wrong (and at this point I've only managed to read through chapter three). Of course, they may only bug me because I know better. After all, I've seen what passes as a published book these days -- books where the word "was" is a special candy to be used as many times in a sentence as possible like it was some fancy drug. But this is a lesson learned and I'm sure I'll have more to impart later. I plan on putting out a free PDF about the lessons I learned in writing The Three Books which will have these handy tips and more. I figure that'll be released in a few weeks.

In the meanwhile, if you have any questions about writing in layers (or any writing questions at all) let me know. I'd love to know what writing issues you're facing and maybe (because I have 35 years of writing experience) I can help point you in the right direction. But you can't get help if you don't ask.

A Little Word Known as "Was"

I'll tell you now, I have a hatred for the word "was." Such a little word, get every time it crops up its tiny head, I want to scream.

Here's a challenge. Pick up any fiction book you have by you. Go to the beginning, regardless of where you're currently at in the book and start reading. How long until you find a "was" in the text?

I'm better you encountered at least one in the first paragraph. Go on, tell me I'm right!

Here's a secret about "was" -- nearly every time you see it, it's a red flag that the story is being told not shown.

"Was" is the the linking of hands between the reader and the writer where the writer takes over and guides the reader down the path. "Oh gentle reader, take my hand, and let me tell you a tale of murder most foul." Worse, it assumes that the reader is too ignorant to figure out the story if the reader wasn't being told.

So I set up a challenge to myself in The Three Books. I swore that I wasn't going to use the word "was" in the narrative. You'll find it in the dialog - mostly because I wasn't going to change how these people speak just to get rid of my pet peeve -- that would be another crime. So, as you're reading, just see how long it takes you to find the word "was" in the narrative. Here's a hint. You won't find it until the very last sentence. Oh, and yes, that was me being a little spiteful.

I challenge writers to kill the word "was" from their manuscripts as I have in The Three Books. I'll tell you, it wasn't always easy and there were a couple times I thought about breaking my rule -- "Oh, just this once because I can't figure out what to write." There are still a couple spots I find shaky because it probably does need the inconspicuous little beast. I admit my surprise at how often it crept in even when trying hard to write without it to begin with.

Strangely enough, it doesn't bother me as much in nonfiction. I do cringe when I read my own blog posts and see every "was" in there. But nonfiction is more meant to be told -- it's a passing along of information and since you and I are separated by space and time, I'm not there to actually show you the information I'm trying to pass on. Still, I do try to get rid of it whenever I can.

So, here we stand with just over a day left until the release of The Three Books and I'm here to tell you that it's a book with only a single narrative "was" to it. I've taken my challenge and I've succeeded at least on that scale. I won't say the writing's perfect. Oh, heck no. I even thought about delaying the release when I found issues in my proof copy. But I decided to get the story out there -- the story is more important than the writing specifics anyway. So, go enjoy the story.

As for me killing "was" in the second book just to see if I can repeat this success, I'm not sure if it's a challenge I want to rise to or not. To do it once seems like enough. But... have I set a standard now? What do you think?

Progress on Second Book

I have to admit that I thought writing the second book would actually be easier than the first. It's not like this is my first "cake walk." I've got several manuscripts under my bed, so to speak. I have been writing since I was four, after all.

I knew that most of the second book would be a total rewrite from what I already have, but I also knew I'd be threading in a lot of the material from my earliest drafts of this story. So what's happened?

I'm on chapter 8 of scripting this out. I realize I have a lot of talking heads. If nothing else, thinking about how I'm going to put this into a graphic novel eventually has made me more aware of character interactions and settings. Pick up any comic or manga and you'll see intense action on nearly every page. It is harder to maintain that level in a book. I also realize this is my very first draft of this and there will be much rewriting to be done so I'm not even real worried about pace right now.  There's something more bothering me.

I wish I could put my finger on it. Maybe I'm anxious because the first book is so close to coming out. Maybe it's because I don't feel ready to put a deadline on the second book.

I use to never understand authors who had writer's block. I never believed in it. Until I faced my own.

Am I scared of getting into this and facing another block? Am I afraid that I'll have a failure to launch with the first book and no one will even care about the second book?

It really is times like these when my main character, Steigan, gives me strength. I can hear him telling me to circle round my fear instead of letting it circle around me. To do the latter means that fear takes my strength, but in the former strength is gained from the energy of fear. It forces you to be your best, to think things through, to stay sharp. Yes, he would say, there is a mind-shift that occurs when one turns the tables on fear. Even now, I can feel it like a seed within me.

My first draft doesn't have to be perfect. It just has to be material to start with. Yes, I know what's going to happen in the story -- I should after all the time I've spent on it.

Good, strong characters come from the core of the author. Steigan is my core. When I feel like I'm going to shoot off in a million directions or fall to pieces, he steps in and reminds me to be who I am. He is my balance, my center. As long as I've listened to his noble advise, he's never led me astray. I'm glad to be telling his story.