RDF/RSS Feed
Atom Feed
I haven’t talked about actually writing book three lately, what with so much else going on–sometimes answering comments used up my available time. But work is progressing, just slowly. I hope to speed up.
I’m writing on three prongs, from three different POVs at the moment. Arvid, everyone’s favorite “I’m-not-a-thief…” character is in a very dangerous situation because he failed to anticipate treachery from a certain quarter. But this is Arvid, and though he’s not a Girdish yeoman, he once saved a Girdish paladin’s life. Gnomes aren’t the only ones who pay their debts. Or impose them.
Linnar Vardan, a Halveric sergeant, goes from freezing in a cold ditch full of water to…well…it’s still up in the air whether she survives the book or not. She’s an interesting case, as she used to be a male sergeant named Egram. I didn’t like Egram’s name and was searching for another, when a friend in choir, a master-sergeant in the National Guard with many years of service (including in Iraq) told me about her upcoming retirement. She and her husband (retired Army) are both the right character and bone structure to be in a fantasy, so I asked if she’d like to be a character as a “Thank you for your service” retirement present. She said yes; I reworked the name to something distantly related to hers, and sent her the chapters. Didn’t change anything but the name and pronouns; when she read it she said “That’s me–how did you do that?”
She’s a master-sergeant with over thirty years of service. They tend to share certain common characteristics, and I knew some really good ones.
Then there’s Arcolin, who’s having his own difficulties with some displaced persons and a dragon.
Enough chips of colored stone and you have a mosaic picture. So bit by bit, though not my favorite way to first-draft, does work. (In the years when our son was small and I was home-schooling him, I had to learn to write bit by bit…a book a year that way.)
Comment by Adam Baker — February 7, 2010 @ 10:24 pm
Very cool, thanks for the tidbits of info on how its progressing.
I did have a question that Ive wanted to ask for awhile, but never really saw a time that I thought it would be most appropriate to ask.
When you write, do you have a set outline on how things progress. Event A will happen to Characters A & B at Time C, and Event B will happen…. sort of thing.
Or do you go w/ more of a general guide line about about where you’d like things to end up w/ a few things in between and just let things flow how they may? I know you talk occasionally about your Plot Daemon getting out of hand, haha.
Comment by elizabeth — February 7, 2010 @ 10:46 pm
I can’t outline fiction before the first draft’s written. (Nonfiction, yes.) I have a character, and the character has a problem he/she wants to tell me about, and I have a sort of idea of maybe the first chapter and a vaguer (but firm) idea of where we will end up. (Vague in the sense of “she’ll end up a hero” for Paks, for instance. The details I thought I saw were wrong, it turned out.)
I’ve described it as standing on a hill or mountain on a day there’s fog below, and a lot of other hills/mountains sticking out above the fog. I know I want to end up on the top of that one–over there–and I see that there are a couple of others more or less close to a route from where I am to there. Then I shrug, pick up the pack of writing tools, and start down into the fog.
As in real hiking, even if you have a topo map there are always surprises. In the course of writing, there are swamps, thickets, forests, open areas (sometimes with a clear sky so I can see farther) and I may climb up what I thought was the intermediate hill only to find I’ve climbed the wrong one…but it was an interesting journey, so it stays in (or it wasn’t, and it disappears from the book.) Sometimes I can “see” only a page or two ahead. Sometimes, with a plot-bomb, the dense impenetrable jungle suddenly opens onto a savannah and I can see for miles.
The plot daemon does not like to be disturbed and will not respond to direct questioning (which is why I can’t outline) but after I’ve drafted something over half the book, he tosses me plot bombs and lets me see more.
Comment by Pascal Lafreniere — February 8, 2010 @ 12:41 pm
Wow, I just discover that there will be a newer book from the world of Paksenarrion. The Deed of Paksenarrion is in the top fantasy Novel I did read in my life. I read it many times. I also own the Legacy of Gird witch was a very good complement.
Forgive my grammar omissions because I’m a french Canadian from the province of Quebec. I do want to ask a question… I did praise your books to many french canadian fellow but many of them do not understand english. Do you think it might be possible to have, in the future, a traduction of the entire saga of the Deed of Paksenarrion into French? I would surely buy a copy for my wife to let her experience and feel your great saga in our native language.
I look forward to buy Oath of Fealty in near future.
Pascal Lafreniere
Comment by elizabeth — February 8, 2010 @ 6:46 pm
Pascal, the way foreign language rights work is this: a publisher in that language decides that a given book will be profitable for that publisher, and then approaches the author or author’s agent about those rights. The publisher arranges to have the work translated. My agent has connections with local agents in Europe, and goes to the London Book Fair every year, but his French sub-agent hasn’t been able to sell the French language rights to The Deed of Paksenarrion. Evidently none of the publishers see a big market for the books. This might change in the future, but that’s where things are right now. I’m glad you like the books and hope you enjoy the new ones.
Comment by Layla — February 14, 2010 @ 9:14 pm
Elizabeth, thanks for the interesting tidbits. *scurries back to notepad to try to figure it out*
Comment by Scott Guthrie — February 17, 2010 @ 11:58 am
Elizabeth,
Thanks for these wonderful tidbits…only today did I discover that Oath of Fealty was not a standalone, so I’m extremely happy!
I must also thank you for recognizing our veterans! As a retired NCO, it always does my heart good to see someone taking the time to recognize long serving veterans for their service, and to do so in such a way as this is fantastic. Although nobody serves FOR these bits of recognition, it’s the little things like this that help make service to our country so rewarding.
Thank You.
MSgt Scott Guthrie, USAF (Ret)