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Monthly Archives: September 2012

That Dread Brought On By The Middle Of A Book

Over at Six Words for a Hat, Scott, who writes both fast and well (damn him) is in the middle of a manuscript:

Thirty-thousand words puts me somewhere in the middle of the novel, or somewhere toward the sixty percent mark if I stick with the plan of making it a 50,000-word novella. In either case, I’m now in the middle of the middle. I discovered this project middleness not by figuring the word count of the draft, but rather by noticing that I have been feeling a powerful sense of disquiet about writing. The feeling that this novel is an empty, pointless thing and that indeed every novel I’ve written is an empty, pointless and likely embarrassing book is a sure sign that I’ve arrived at that stage in the drafting process where I’ve got to just brass my way forward through the writing and work toward the final act, which I recall once thinking was a good idea to write. This feeling is so familiar and so predictable that I am almost bored by it. Yes of course, I say. Right on schedule. The temptation is to abandon the novel, to spend more time reading or exercising, to think about other things. But of course I won’t, because I’ve been here before and I know how it works.

Apparently Scott is writing this novel without an outline “in the shape of leaves blown off a tree in an autumn windstorm.” That’s exactly the shape I’m trying to avoid at the moment–it’s too much like what my house looks like, thanks very much–but the Middle Dread I’m feeling is the same.

I have a draft of Book 6, but I’m suddenly confronted with the fact that despite my careful outlining, there’s a huge lopesideness about the story, which must be corrected. My first two corrective attempts were insufficient.

Last night, my 2 year old son crawled into my bed while I was asleep. Usually I wake up, but I was particularly tired and didn’t.

 Not, that is, until a huge THUMP, as of something precious and expensive breaking, woke me up. I’m ashamed to say that my first fearful thought was that my laptop had (somehow) fallen off the bed. I hope that doesn’t secretly reveal my priorities!

Because the second thought through my head was the fear that it was a child, and then a wail confirmed this.

 Lights on! Leap from the bed! Check the wailing child for life-threatening injuries!

 There were none, but now that I’d had more adrenaline shot into my system than coke in a junkie, it was impossible for me to get to sleep. Instead, I lay awake, fretting over my book.

This is exactly what writing the middle of a book is like, lying awake at night, fearing that you’ve forgotten something important which is going to roll off the bed and get hurt.

Introducing New Assistant

Hey everyone! My name is Katie Earley and I’m Tara’s shiny new assistant. I’m here to help launch Book 5 of The Unfinished Song series and take some other pesky tasks off of Tara’s plate so she can focus on what she does best: writing.

A little about me…
I live in Louisville, KY with a sweet husband, cutest 1-year-old ever, anxious mutt, fluffy cat, and quiet fish. I have a BA in English from Centre College and a Creative Writing minor. I lovelovelove Jane Austen, Harry Potter, Arrested Development, Parks and Recreation and When Harry Met Sally. The Big Bang Theory is about the only sitcom my husband will watch me. (Would you count The Guild as a sitcom? We like that too.) In the free time I fantasize about having, I would sew more and maintain a full cookie jar.

If you have any great ideas for us, including but not limited to guest posts, fan art, or cupcake recipes, please email them to me at katie@misquepress.com. Be sure you’re following Tara on Twitter and Facebook (and subscribe to the blog if you haven’t already!) because we’re about to have a lot of great content coming your way as we get ready to release Book 5 into the wild. It’s coming SOON!

Announcement About Wing

You’ve been waiting.

You’ve been asking.

You deserve to know…

When is Wing coming out?!

And the answer is: Oct 12, Friday, 2012.

If you aren’t on the list to receive a free copy, go sign up now and I’ll squeeze you in!

But that’s not all.

I’m going to a blog tour for the entire month of October.

And at the end of the month… I’m going to release The Unfinished Song: Blood (Book 6). Yay!

So you won’t have to wait months again after Wing for the next book. You’ll have it right away! And all through October, I’ll treat you to sneak previews of both Wing and Blood, and discuss the characters, and also discuss the challenges of doing a twelve book series.

I’ve never done a blog tour before. No, seriously. It’s always intimidated the goobleblaster out of me. It still does…but I’m going to give it a try.

So… in the next two weeks here’s what you have to look forward to:

– Sneak peek into the first chapter of Wing
– Introduction of Misque Press’s brand new assistant, Katie Earley.
– More book givaways
– Watching me freak out and panic as I begin to suspect I’ve taken on too much at once! Yay!

How To Write A Series – 01 – Introduction

The most successful books — and movies — are part of a larger whole. A series.

I’m writing one myself, twelve volumes long. (Secretly, I’m hoping you knew that.) I happen to be right in the middle of the series, which is a tough place to be.

For one thing, it means I’m working on more than one book at a time. Book 5 is in revisions, being “polished”; I’ve completed the rich outline for Book 6; and I’m blocking out the outline for books further out… all at the same time. My heart is with the book I’m writing, and it’s hard to make myself return to the previous work for editing. When I do get into it, there’s a danger I’ll re-write too much. The purpose of polish is just to polish the gemstone, not change from a square cut to an oval. The lure of outlining future books is dangerous too; there’s a temptation to jump ahead and start writing those scenes instead of keeping my focus on the book in front of me.

Then there are the plotting problems inherent in writing a series. You have to juggle an outsized cast of characters, story lines and backstory, and you have to have your eye on a horizon that ends past the book you’re working on.

I’m a reader, so whenever I scratch my head over something, I look for …a book about it. I love How To Write books — even after turning professional with my writing, I buy and read nonfiction books and blog posts about writing to improve my skills. I find it rather inspiring too, as it new ideas or ways of looking at things gets me excited about trying them out, excited about writing again.

What I’ve found is that there aren’t many books or writing tips dedicated to sequels and series.

I’m a writer, so whenever I find a lacuna in a bookshelf — a book I’d like to read that no one’s written yet — my reaction is, “Fine, I guess, I’ll write it.”

So I’ve decided to start a series of posts about the particular joys and challenges and tricks of writing a series. I’m going to scour the web for other writers’ best practices and secret techniques, and discuss them. I’m going to be re-reading some of my favorite series (and maybe start some new ones) to see what works.

P.S.
Invitation to other writers…

As NaNoWriMo season comes upon us, I’m also determined to do something I’ve never been able to pull off before — enter  NaNo AND work on what I NEED to work on, which is the next sequel in my Unfinished Song series. So it finally occurred to me, why not just set up a group dedicated to just that? If you’re a writer working on a sequel or a later book in a series and you want to be writing buddies, let me know.

I should warn you, I plan to cheat.

But more about that later….

Putting the ‘Epic’ in Epic of Gilgamesh

Tolkien is usually credited with kicking off the fantasy genre, but if Ancient Summaria had had a higher literacy rate than 0.000001% back in the 18th Century (we’re talkin’ BC here), it might have been the Epic of Gilgamesh.

This epic has all the qualities we now consider epic fantasy. Behold and marvel:

1. The mighty hero.

You can’t deny Gilgamesh is a badass. He’s not a perfect man, which makes him a perfect hero. Like many a fantasy hero, he’s a king but one who, inexplicably, leaves the boring work of debating about health care tax reforms to his minions and spends his time traveling the world in search of adventure and immortality.

He’s also an antihero. What–you thought that was a recent development? When we first meet Gilgamesh, he’s a brutal tyrant and a womanizer, sleeping with all the new brides on their wedding nights. Shame on you, Gil. 

2. The mighty sidekick.

A hero is only as good as his sidekick. Gilgamesh has this in Enkidu. The epic of Gilgamesh is the original Buddy Movie (tablet, whatever), the first Bromance.

Yeah, okay, Enkidu does get knocked out fairly early on–if the nameless Summarian priest who scratched this epic onto clay tablets in a language based on chicken ballet positions had had an editor, maybe someone could have pushed back on this plot line. You see the problem with self-publishing?

But first, Enkidu fights Gilgamesh in defense of the fair virgins of the realm. Gilgamesh whoops him, but learns a valuable life lesson along the way. Actually, the original epic is a little unclear on that point. But what Enkidu does do is lure Gilgamesh away from womanizing and terrorizing his own subjects to go on a quest to bash the skull of some ogre.

Just imagine how much easier everything in Syria would be if instead of all the fighting, some dude in a fur tunic could have simply said to Assad, “Hey, want to ditch this joint and go kill monsters with me?”

And Assad would have been, “Dude, yeah. I just realized what an ass I’ve been this whole time. Let me use my powers for good and not evil from this day forward.”

Fiction is so much better than real life.

3. A Girl in A Chainmail Bikini.

Every epic fantasy needs a princess. Or a temple prostitute. Whatever. Some chick in a chainmail bikini.

Enter Shambat the She-Warrior. (Ok, I made up that title.) She’s the one who teaches Enkidu table manners and also Makes Him A Man in other ways, if you know what I mean.

4. A quest.

Epic fantasy needs a quest of epic proportions–in this case to find the secret of immortality. Now, modern readers might prefer Gilgamesh was less intent on his own prolonged existence and more interested in saving the world from a nasty scheme of Ereshkigal to conquer the Earth with zombies, but you can’t expect the Summarians to think of EVERYTHING.

5. Travels to distant lands.

Gilgamesh  and Enkidu travel about, as good heroes should. I’m not sure the author remembered to include a map however.

6. Proper Scope and Backstory

What really makes the epic of Gilgamesh work as a proper epic is the scope. Remember the Hero vs. Everyman spectrum? If Gilgamesh were just an ordinary guy, or even just an ordinary king, he’d be too dull to waste clay on.

On the other hand, unlike creation stories, which are all about the gods, Gilgamesh is human enough we can relate to him. Who among us wouldn’t be tempted to have all the hotties brought to our beds if we were tyrants of an ancient Mesopotamian kingdom? (Be honest.) He’s failable, he can learn and change and grow.

The scope of the story is right too. The deeds of Gilgamesh are important. They change the destiny of the world. But there’s already a huge backstory before his quest even begins. There are other heros who have gone before him, like Utnapishtim, the man who survived the Flood, and the only other mortal to have earned immortality.

7. A Menagerie of Monsters and Pantheon of Gods

Every epic fantasy needs a plethora of dangerous, magical monsters to fight and gods, both good and evil, to screw things up.

Check.

8. Characters Die Then Magically Come Back To Life If The Plot Calls For It

The author apparently realized that the story was boring without Enkidu, and brought him back in Tablet Twelve without explanation. Just kidding. There was a perfectly reasonable explanation.

Magic!

9. Multi-volumes.

Would the Wheel of Time be epic if it were the length of Old Man and the Sea?

C’mon.

Epic of Gilgimesh has twelve, count ’em, TWELVE, tablets. How’s that for sequel heaven?

It wouldn’t be an epic fantasy if there weren’t multiple volumes, probably published with long intervals in between during which the restless fans stormed the Sacred Temples, demanding the sequels. Also, just think how long the fans had to wait between the hardcover and the ebook. About 3,000 years.

10. A Twist Ending

Gilgamesh goes on this big quest for immortality, and at the end of it all…

Well, I wouldn’t want to post any spoilers.

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