Tag Archives: writing

The conventions (clichés) of the Heroic Fantasy Genre

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As with all good genres, Fantasy has a few conventions that simply must be followed. I am of course generalising massively, but it’s good fun, so there.

  1. Weapons are never simple. Why have a sword, when you can have the enchanted sword of Ashkerah, home to the demon Myshogoth? Why have an axe when you can have the Axe of the Great Beard, handed down through a hundred generations of great beard wearers? Even a simple knife is the dagger of Plenty, taken from the tomb of the mighty Skoloth and bearing the jewel of Lyanna, ancient priestess and wearer of diaphanous gowns. In a world where everyone is almost certainly involved in violent actions at some point, weapons become the car and house and smart phone all in one, the ultimate status symbol. What kind of a hero would you be if you simply carried ‘a sword’? hah, I spit on your simple piece of pointy metal. No, when it comes to fantasy, weapons are never simple.
  2. People don’t swear. Picture the scene. Your blood brother has just lost his hand fighting the Dragon Master of Elleth. Simultaneously, you have watched the woman you’ve spent the last 200 pages trying desperately to find whisked away by said Dragon Master just seconds before you would have grabbed her. On top of that, you’re out of arrows and the Orcs are closing in. Put in that situation, I would probably be saying ‘fuck’ quite a lot, or at the very least ‘shit’ or ‘bollocks’. However, it turns out that in these times of blood, violence and no table manners, our heroes are impeccable with their language, muttering perhaps a God’s name under their breath, at a real push. I should mention that this isn’t true if you read George R R Martin, or Joe Abercrombie. Their characters are far ruder and as such cannot qualify as bona fide heroes, merely dudes and chicks with swords. Sorry, them’s the brakes.
  3. Magic users are wusses. Sometimes there’s an excuse and sometimes there isn’t. Perhaps we could blame the lack of cheap gyms on fantasy worlds, but the fact is, the life of a magic user is clearly entirely incompatible with a regular workout. You wouldn’t need much, just an hour on the treadmill every few days. But no, it’s pretty much the law. No magic and muscles. I blame the magic schools for not educating their students properly. Any good place of learning would ensure that their students understood the importance of physical fitness and health in a busy lifestyle. Particularly when so many of their pupils are destined for a life on the road, adventuring, being threatened regularly with a painful death and so on. Ho hum.
  4. Dwarves are grumpy. Whether this the ultimate manifestation of short man syndrome or something more sinister, I’ve never figured it out, but it’s safe to say that the people known as dwarves are a bunch of miserable sods. Not only are they miserable, but they are normally all-too-happy to spread the misery around some. Of course, they use that grump to hide their heart of gold, lest they be viewed as big girls’ blouses by their tough guy adventuring pals. However, were I adventuring with said grumpy bastard, I think I would find it all too tempting to knife the moany sod in the middle of the night and run the risk of missing out on the soft squishy bit that should emerge at some point near the end of the book.
  5. Fantasy guys don’t like to share. Whether it’s women, swords or emotions, Fantasy characters just don’t enjoy sharing their stuff with anyone. I imagine their round the fire chats to be much like that of the Wiggum lad from Simpsons.

“So, do you like, umm, stuff?”

“What stuff?”

“Umm, like swords and stuff?”

“Ahhh, therein lies a tale, let me tell how I came upon “hoarfrost thunderfuck”, my trusty blade”

(2 hours later)

“So, ummm, how about other stuff?”

“Huh?”

And so on… not much in the way of exploring their inner feelings I’m afraid.

  1. Don’t go underground. Despite what their brain should be screaming at them and indeed what everyone else is actually screaming at them, your average heroic hero will happily plunge deep into the earth in search of a good adventure. Of course, he probably hasn’t read many fantasy books and is therefore ignorant of the inevitable horde of goblins/giant spider/huge scary monster thing/ghosts/evil termites (delete as applicable, unless you really hate your character, in which case just throw everything at the stupid bastard) that dwell in the deep. Nonetheless, this feels like a feeble excuse when facing a deep tunnel, lined with webs and general ‘really? You really wanna go down there?’ vibes.

 

So there you have it, a few of the choicer gems from the wonderful world of fantasy. Have I missed any? Are you even now readying your mighty pen of Zenthrax to smite me for my impertinence? Let me know.

 

What makes Neal Stephenson a great writer to read?

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Neal Stephenson. Author of a wonderful mix of books, including the sci-fi Snow Crash and my personal fave, the System of the World trilogy. It is the latter of these that really blew my mind and helped me realise the depth and breadth that a good novel can create. I admire many things about Neal; his research, which for the System trilogy must have been colossal; his characters, excellent thumbnails with complexity just below the surface and more.

But the thing that really excites me about his work is the unashamed depth and sheer wordiness of it. I’ll admit that it isn’t to everyone’s taste, but I love the feeling that the author is challenging you to get lost in the book and that reading it isn’t going to be effortless. I struggle to do that in my writing without writing huge tracts of pointless description. I don’t think that my books really lend themselves to it to be fair, but I’d still love to be able to. I think that perhaps his research gives him the freedom to ramble without it ever feeling like, or indeed being, rambling.

Sometimes I like to be able to breeze through a book, the words throwing themselves into my mind. But other times I enjoy having to delve in and really commit myself. Neal’s books demand commitment and the reward is more than worth it. I’m not sure that this has been the best advert for his work, but it is meant to be, honest.

 

Love to write about…magic

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I thought it would make sense to talk about the things that I have a passion for and perhaps explore why I write about them.

Magic! Whether, like me, you grew up reading Magician and dreaming of faraway worlds, or you came to magic more recently with a certain young wizard, there’s something undeniably ace about magic. The child in me just loves the possibilities.

There’s a real sense of wish fulfilment with magic. Fire from the hands, making yourself invisible, arguing constantly with your teenage mates, it‘s just so cool. I challenge anyone to deny the sense of yearning they get when reading about magic.

Writing about magic is equally great. The freedom that it gives; the chance it gives your characters to do all manner of things, unconstrained  by a certain power or ability is wonderfully freeing. It also gives you the chance to explore things that you just can’t without it.

In The Assembly, I wanted to explore and perhaps bring more logic to magic. I was however very conscious of the danger of explaining too much and, umm, taking the magic out of it. I think I hit quite a nice balance between keeping the mystery and grounding it in some kind of reality and I must admit I’m really pleased with it.

You’ll have to wait until book two to know what I’m talking about, but once you do, please let me know what think.

 

How do we ensure quality in self-publishing?

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The ease of self-publishing, not vastly more difficult these days than hitting ‘Tweet’, has led to a huge range in the quality of books now available. Booksellers like Waterstones and Barnes and Noble are still seen by many as purveyors of the actual truth, a theoretical guarantee of good writing and quality product. Whereas, the wonderful world of the ebook is often viewed, fairly in my eyes, as a minefield of uncertainty and variably quality.

I read a great article recently about the Leveson enquiry, and the potential roadblocks to any resolutions it may put in place, and it got me thinking about the parallels between the press and the state of the publishing industry at present. You can see the article here, but the general gist was that, regardless of how well policed our print press may be, there is an element of pointlessness to these recommendations. This is because the internet exists, and one can find pretty much anything there with enough interest and patience (and coffee), therefore making any attempt at regulation all but redundant.

So in the case of both the press and the world of publishing, the internet, or more specifically, the opportunity for un-censored content to be made available at the click of a button has had a huge impact upon how they exist and their relevancy.

In both arenas, there is still undoubtedly a market for the way it has always been done. Papers will always sell because:

  1. Some people just prefer to read something physical that crinkles and demands origami-level folding skills to be able to use it in a public place.
  2. The organised media theoretically provide a guarantee of higher quality journalism.
  3. The little pull out magazine with articles about making your garden beautiful and Lady Gagas’ dogs.

Physical books, released by big name publishing houses will always sell, for pretty much the same reasons as one and two above, minus the whole folding thing.

Returning to on online media for a moment, it’s often suggested that it can be dangerous in spreading lies and rubbish, but that actually it is also strongly self-regulating. As soon as someone says something controversial or questionable, thousands of others do everything they can to discover the truth of it, and the original poster is discredited. This is something I have seen myself. The power of the people is particularly impressive when faced with something it sees as erroneous. Unless the original post was funny, or involved cats. Put a cat photo in there and you can get away with pretty much anything.

So whilst it’s not a perfect system, there is a level of regulation to the internet-based news, particularly through the big social networking sites. But how does this kind of regulation happen for self-published books? To begin with, you have what I would define as ‘external regulation’

  1. Reader Reviews: These are generally clear and very easy to find, whether you shop on Amazon, Smashwords or one of the other online vendors. But how easy is it to get a truly balanced or objective opinion, and how much do they actually matter? Studies done by a number of independent research groups suggest that they have a huge impact on shopping habits. They also say that reviews give a good idea of the word of mouth currently existing about a product. Despite the occasional ranting of madmen, I consider reviews to be a strong source for regulation, and one that does, without a doubt, impact upon your success as a self-published author. Of course, what you do with reviews is up to you, but accepting them as valid feedback and acting on them can only improve your writing. Unless your reviewer has threatened to beat you to death with your own leg unless you remove your book, at which point you’re probably best to just ignore them.
  2. Other Writers: Many new authors work within writing groups and clubs and these can also be effective in ensuring a high quality output. Although, in my experience, writers are a friendly and supportive bunch, they aren’t generally willing to put their own credibility on the line if they don’t believe in something. Despite the frustrating new guidelines from Amazon regarding writer reviews, most other sites still allow them and I know that the seal of approval from an author I admire will lead me to seek out a book.
  3. Editors, and other professionals: Of course, some of the less impressive self-pub’ books on the market have bypassed this part of the process entirely, but many haven’t. The power of a good editorial review or line-by-line edit cannot be underestimated, both for improving the specific WIP but also your writing in general. This is a really powerful way to raise the quality of your product.
  4. Beta readers: These are the people who read your final draft before you hit publish. Hopefully a group of honest, interested friends who read your chosen genre and aren’t afraid to tell you what they really think. Like the reviewers of point 1, they are your actual readership, or as close as you can get before your work is out there, so ignore them at your peril!

Then we have the all-important ‘internal regulation’:

  1. Have you written the book you wanted to write? If at any point in the process you’ve changed your vision in order to make money, or perhaps aim at an audience you don’t feel comfortable with for the sake of sales, then you should probably start again. If you haven’t written the kind of book that you’ve always dreamed of, it’ll show, and in all likelihood, it’ll suck.
  2. Have you worked on your writing? My first book took me three months to create the first draft. The second, happening as my daughter was born, nearly eighteen months. The development in my writing over that time was huge, partially just through practice and partially because I took every opportunity I could to learn and increase my knowledge of the craft. Of course, having finished the second one, I immediately went back and started tweeking the first, applying my new skills to language and dialogue that then felt awkward  and simplistic. It may not always be realistic to do exactly that, but it is incumbent upon you, should you want success, to make yourself as good a writer as you can be.
  3. Have you made your book as good as it can be? This really comes back to everything I’ve said above. Have you put enough effort into your edit? Have you got opinions from as many people as possible and really listened to the feedback? Imagine someone buying your book and reviewing it. Are they going to rave about the glorious language you’ve used; the way the characters leap out from the page/screen; the intricate yet apparently effortless plot twists? If you don’t think that they will, then you might need one more pass at the editing.

In the long run, the buck always stops with you, the author. The decision of whether to hit that ‘tweet’ button, or ‘publish’ key lies in your hands.

So, just as in the media, and particularly the modern world of twitter and the internet, the future is in the hands of the individual. Just remember, it’s only up to you until you press that button…

 

 

Comparing the creative process of writers and musicians, and why collaboration is worth it

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Having been a musician for much of my life, it has been interesting for me over the last few years of serious book writing to compare the creative process and working styles of the two fields.

The first obvious difference is that writing is very much an individual process, whilst creating music has, for me, been mostly collaborative, also known as shouting at each other until you get your own way.

Working together with many bands over the years, I have had to learn to consciously open myself up without ego when other band members change or make comment about my ideas. It didn’t start out as an easy thing to do, but I think that the ability to do it has grown from having a little more experience and self-confidence. Admittedly that’s not always the case.

I’m sure I’m not the only person who finds it difficult to have their ideas messed around with, but I did find being part of a band often made that easier. I love the act of collaboration that occurs within a like-minded group of musicians and I’ve been fortunate enough to work with a number of them.

When I began my adventures in writing, the control freak part of me (quite a large part actually) went ‘woohoo! No longer do I have to exist without ego, or answer to someone else for my half-baked crazy ideas, I’m free, free!’ Ahh, how wrong I was. Once we began to explore the reality of publishing I discovered that ‘wonderful’ word, editor.

All of a sudden I was thrown, with scarcely a life jacket, back into the choppy seas of collaboration. My strange ramblings were abruptly scrutinized, my careless sentence structure ripped callously apart. I jest of course, I love my editor, she’s my wife, so I guess I probably should really.

What I have found, is that almost every comment made by her in someway enriches the story I am trying to tell. I don’t always agree with them, and I do like being the boss. Being able to say, ‘hmmm, I like what you’ve done here, nope, that sucks’ is something of a relief, but any ideas I may have had about the wonders of isolation have been blown out of the water as I watch my words become immeasurably better under her careful guidance. So, yay for proof readers, editors and the collaborative process. Unless I’m tired. Or grumpy, or they’re wrong.

My experience with music is that almost inevitably working with others on a song will improve it. Sometimes, and particularly if it’s your song, it can take a while for you to really appreciate the improvements. I used the phrase ‘open myself up without ego’ What I mean by that is that in order to really work effectively on an original creation I found that I had to let go of it as being mine. This was just a touch tricky. I tend to invest myself fully in whatever I am creating, so to then hand it over and allow others to change it is a bit like letting someone else raise my child.

However, over the years it became slowly and painfully clear to me that giving others the chance to improve my work was not only humbling (in a good way), but also a fantastic learning curve. Everyone has a different way of seeing and hearing things and having your work viewed through those different perspectives can have a huge impact on how you then approach new creations. Suddenly you have new tools and ways of thinking about doing something that you may, inadvertently, have already become predictable in.

This realisation has made it much easier for me to hand over my new book to my editor without the usual agony. She isn’t telling me how to raise my child, simply suggesting ways I might do it better.  Most importantly, her suggested improvements aren’t a criticism of what I’ve done, but just a different perspective, a different way of seeing the same thing.

Hold on, she is telling me how to raise her. Dammit. Well, you get the idea. What I have come to realise is that in working with others, I don’t have to completely let go of what is mine, just be willing to share it.

 

Love to write…Action scenes

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Good action scenes. I hadn’t realised how exciting a written action scene could be until I started working my way through the Matthew Riley books. The man is a genius. For me, a well-composed action scene means one where you can see what’s happening as it’s happening. The ideal scene will carry you along with it, unable to break free or think about anything else. You are visualising, imagining in real time.

David Gemmell also did this wonderfully well, creating vivid fight scenes one frame at a time. I often get caught up in a book, forgetting where I am and what the time is, but it’s rarer for me to experience real excitement and a real physiological response. A great action scene does exactly that, setting my pulse racing and my hands clenching.

As a writer this challenge is ever-present. To take my reader to the edge of their seat, following the action with those nervous twitches you hope no one on the tube notices. I’m still figuring out what works and what doesn’t, but for me the visualising is key. I need to be able to see what’s happening easily and every step of the way. Break the logic, or skip a beat and you’re lost. As soon as you have to stop or look back a few lines to figure out what exactly is going on, the momentum stops and the spell is broken.

Are there any authors whose actions scenes you especially love?