Some Damned Tough Questions Part II

FICTION

1. What thought have you given to the time the story takes place? Is it in the past, present, future or all three? Have you credibly established a familiarity with the time period?

The story takes place in the distant past. It is, actually, the story behind a myth. As for the credibility factor, I kinda just made everything up, but it is roughly based on late Iron Age Europe.

2. What thought have you given to the location in which your story takes place? Does your narrative convey an intimate familiarity with the location?

Location is interesting. I know the Kwon Continent like the back of my own hand. However, I don't describe the way that Tolkein described locations. That was mostly due to length considerations. I had to take out a great deal of description to cut the manuscript down to a more palatable length..

3. Does the premise provide enough direction to keep all your events and character developments on track?

Apparently so.

4. Is the premise strong enough and clear enough to carry the story to its logical conclusion?

Apparently so.

5. Have you developed the personalities of all your characters to the extent that their participation in the story is absolutely believable, and in keeping with the main premise of the story?

I think so, but it is very difficult for me to be objective about that!

6. Have you developed a sense of conflict, to carry the premise and bring the characters and events a resolution?

Oh have I ever. My poor Julian. How he has suffered.

7. If you have changed the outcome, or resolution, of your premise: have you also changed the first part of the premise? (Have you created a different relationship "from pole to pole"?)

This doesn't really apply, since none of the premise has been changed at all.

8. What, if any, sub premises (smaller contrasts, sub conflicts, movements, transitions) need to be changed along with the major premise?

None... yet. If I get the attention of a publisher, I am so certain that there will be a number of rewrites!

9. With the thoughts you have generated about your premise, do you more fully understand your characters?

I did things backwards. I started with the characters, and the premise just magically appeared.

10. Have you communicated that understanding to the reader?

Again, this is one of those things that is difficult to be objective about. I like to think I have, and the feedback I've received seems to suggest that.

11. Have you treated any character too lightly?

Not to the best of my knowledge. I know that there are some characters that come in and out of my main character's life, just as they do in real life. There are there and then they are gone and sometimes you never hear from them again.

12. Does your premise fit your characters?

Yes, since it developed from my characters!

13. Have your characters carried their situations through to a believable conclusion?

I think so! Again, it's ridiculously hard to be objective.

14. Are all characters' actions and decisions necessary and logical, based upon clearly developed character traits?

I think so. They are definitely necessary. Poor "Dan."

15. Have the main characters been allowed to grow and develop naturally?

Yes. It was the only way they could have developed. I couldn't have forced my hand if I tried. These characters seemed to have a life of their own and all the decisions they made in the story were truly their own decisions. If ever I got stuck at a certain point in the writing of this book, all I'd have to do was walk away from it for a day or two and by the time I sat back down to write, they had figured it out for themselves.

16. Is the pivotal character's defining characteristic apparent either immediately or very soon after the story opens?

Hang on, let me check... Yep. The very first paragraph.

17. Are ALL the characters three-dimensional (with physical, social, and psychological dimensions)?

I believe so. Everyone in this story has issues and problems they must deal with. Some deal with it very well. Others do not.

18. Are ALL the characters likable? (That is, does every character have a quality the audience can empathize or sympathize with?)

There are some characters I personally really don't like very much. There is one character I certainly hope that people don't empathize with, though there are sure to be some people who do. That is a scary thought.

If I may digress from the question, everyone has a motive. Everyone has a reason for doing whatever it is they are doing. Whether or not one agrees with those motives is entirely up to the individual reader. I mean, what would you do if you believed a little boy would one day be responsible for the destruction of the entire world? It gets ambiguous.

19. Are all the characters believable?

To people who read Fantasy, I'm sure they are! I was worried about "Dan" being too good to be true, but the fact of the matter is, he made a deliberate decision to be that way. He was faced with a very tough reality check, but he never really waivered. That's just the incredible guy that "Dan" is.

20. Does each character speak, dress, and behave in a manner consistent with that type of person?

Yeppers. Well, now they do, after some inconsistencies were pointed out by my friends. Thanks guys.

21. Is every situation believable because it springs from the nature of the characters?

Some situations made me very uncomfortable, but I believe it was the characters that pulled me through it. So, to answer the question, yes.

22. Is every contrast, or conflict, true (inherent in the characters), rather than false (contrived)?

I think I've already covered this in a round about way, but I'll say it again. Every time I tried to force the story in the direction I thought it should go, I ended up with a severe bout of writer's block. I couldn't move the story. When I finally relinquished control and just let the characters dictate the story, things started to move again. So, the answer would be, I think so!

Interesting side-note, it can be very dangerous to let the characters decide for themselves. Sometimes the story would go nowhere. It would never end. I was extremely fortunate because there was a definite ending to this one before I even started writing it down. A little tip: you must know how the story ends before the story can begin!

23. Do the changes in each additional character follow from what the audience knows of the person's physical, social, and psychological makeup?

In a word, yes. Some of the changes are extreme. Some don't really change. Like "Dan." He was a good soul from the beginning, and that never changes. He was luckier than everyone else, though!

24. Are the protagonist and the antagonist both extremely strong (uncompromising) characters?

I'm unsure what is meant by this question. Are they in possession of strong personalities? Yes.
Are they strong people? Well, yes, to a degree. I mean Julian was incredibly strong to withstand all that he did, though it changed him. With every experience someone has, it changes them. I get so sick of the "perfect good-guy" who doesn't change at all, who isn't affected by what goes on around him, who can slay the "bad guys" all day and not understand that lives are being lost, who can't smell the blood and who doesn't feel the fear. That is so unrealistic as to be boring.

As for the antagonist, well, it hasn't changed in millions of years.

25. How sharply drawn are the characters? (How definite, definitive, and different from each other?)

Oh, they are all different! Though, Julian is the most different, since that is a major thrust of the narrative.

26. Is your pivotal character really a protagonist, and is your opposing character really an antagonist? (Are you sure you've not confused the two?)

Yes.

27. How satisfied are you with your cast of characters?

Very satisfied. Though "Dan" is by far my favourite.

28. If you're not satisfied: what should you do?

This doesn't apply to me... yet, so I'll throw it open to the audience.

29. Does your opening grab attention?

I have been told it does... though now I am wondering if people weren't just trying to be nice to me.

30. Does it present a character with something vital at stake?

It presents a character, yes. With something vital at stake? I'm not so sure about that. You will certainly know that there is something if you've read the Prologue.

31. If your audience may be bored from the beginning: what can you do about the lack of conflict and tension? You may need to change your point of attack; start by showing there is something vital at stake, and increase the emotional involvement of the characters.

I may...

32. Have you allowed the characters to form the plot and work out their own destinies, or have you forced them to fit a contrived plot?

Already said, but I shall reiterate. They definitely worked out their own destinies!

33. In creating contrasts and situations, have you asked your characters what THEY would do?

I didn't ask, they just went and did it anyway.

34. Does the audience perceive a LOGICAL, STEP-BY-STEP DEVELOPMENT OF THE STORY through a series of sub conflicts and resolutions, each one stemming from the one before it?

Since that's the way the book was written (as in characters would find themselves in situations which, once resolved would lead onto the next), I assume so.

35. Does every movement (sub conflict/transition) lead the relevant characters FROM ONE STATE OF MIND TO ANOTHER, on the way to proving the premise?

Most definitely!

36. Is one belief forced to give in to another?

No. In every action taken, there is an ambiguity about it, and enormous grey area which invites the reader to make their own minds up about any one character's actions. The good guy isn't necessarily that good, and the antagonists might just be right to do what they can to stop him. In the end, I leave that up to the reader to decide.

37. Even if you have a specific message to convey through your story — a message in which you passionately believe — have you avoided "preachiness?"

I certainly hope so. "Dan" gives a little speech on the subject, but that is truly just "Dan's" opinion. The readers are invited to decide for themselves.

38. Somewhat related to the above question: Do you try in every way possible to show rather than tell in order to get your point across and move the story along?

I think so.

39. Have you avoided letting "the writing" get in the way of the story?

I hope so.

40. What POSITIVE things might a discerning audience or critic say about your story, your characters and proof of the premise?

Good grief! This question is too hard! Can I skip it? No? Hmmm... let me think then...

Nope. I have no idea. I shall leave that to the discerning audience or critic.

41. What NEGATIVE things might a discerning audience or critic say?

I'm trying really hard to think about it, I promise. But I think it is a bit too soon after completion to look at my work objectively. I will revisit this question a a couple of months, perhaps.

Some Damned Tough Questions Part I

Here's a great quiz for aspiring authors I found at:
http://home.swbell.net/moonshad/author.html
An editing/formatting/self-publishing house. They are actually quite informative and not very biased. I was pleasantly surprised.

No, I'm not going to self-publish, but these are good questions to ask yourself. I've provided some very feeble answers, but feel free to take the quiz and insert your own answers.

I'm using this as a sort-of self-interview.

GENERAL QUESTIONS

1. What are your personal reasons for writing this book?

The book really wrote itself. I mean, it was my fingers doing the typing, for sure, but it was the book, or at least the characters that directed the tale. For me, it was like this alive thing (for lack of a better word) inside me that just needed to get out. Sounds like the literary equivalent of Aliens really...

2. What are you trying to accomplish by writing and publishing your book? (Be specific.)

The fulfilment of a dream, I suppose would be the answer. Even if the dream is quite recent (only in the past two years or so), it is incredibly powerful and exceptionally forceful. I don't really understand properly why I want this story to reach a broad audience. Is it for the recognition? Well, yes, I suppose. I would like to be recognised for the work I've put into it. Even still that doesn't quite cover why I have this bizarre compulsion to write and publish.

3. In what format do you see your story (novel, short story, motion picture, etc.)?

It's clearly a novel. Actually, a series of novels.

4. What is the medium for your story (book, magazine, etc.) ?

Um, is this not just a re-working of the previous question? It's a book. Well, four of them.

5. Who is the primary audience for whom your story is written?

Absolutely, unequivocally mature adults. There were scenes I wrote that turned my stomach a little. This is definitely not for children.

6. What is your premise? (What are you setting out to prove?)

I really like this question!

I really didn't have a premise when I started writing the book, it just sort of happened that as I was re-reading the text, I was struck by it's message. I really wasn't trying to push any line at all. Of course it is a Fantasy title, so there are strange races, and some magic, and monsters and so on.

Yet beneath all of there there is this one, incredibly powerful message. The message is two-fold: that the manner in which we treat others has a profound effect upon them and that we create for ourselves the very things we fear most. In other words, treat others well or you might just create of them the monster you were fighting against in the first place.

7. How strongly do you believe in the truth of your premise? (If you do not hold a strong conviction about your premise, how do you expect to write with conviction? Remember, the reading public demands integrity!)

I can relate from personal experience. There is something cyclical about cause and effect. I was bullied as a child, quite badly at times. I was accused of snobbery and other nonsense because I withdrew from contact with people as a result of the bullying, which caused more bullying, which caused greater withdrawal until I was every bit (outwardly at least) the arrogant, snobbish, horrible little bitch people had accused me of being. Only when someone dared to break through the ice they had created did they realise that underneath it all, I wasn't as evil as everyone said I was.

Unfortunately, later in life, I was also the victim of work-place bullying (by three different people, at the same place!), and it really did create a hateful, vengeful monster out of me. Luckily I was loved by my family and the few friends I had enough for me to struggle my way out of being such a small, cruel person. It wasn't easy, let me tell you.

8. How sure are you that your premise has enough substance, or is compelling enough, to sustain audience interest?

Everyone has been a child in their lives. Everyone has known, even if only briefly or vaguely, the sting of not fitting in, of not being accepted for who they are, of feeling not good enough, of feeling unloved. No one should ever feel unloved.

For some, the feeling is stronger, fresher and more hurtful than for others, but everyone knows it. Everyone has struggled with their own personal monster. Some people make it, some don't. I think that because everyone has caught a glimpse of their own monster, they will understand this character and narrative, even if only intuitively.

9. What effect will the nature of your audience have on your choice of premise or the way you'll develop the premise?

It had absolutely no effect whatsoever. The series was pretty much written before I even noticed a theme.

10. How quickly have you established the first part of the premise? Is the reader engaged quickly, or do they have to work patiently to "get into" it?

The first part of the premise? Well I suppose that would be that some monsters are not born, but are made. That was done in the first section, I think.

11. Is your premise still perfectly clear to you, even after close analysis?

My premise only became clear to me because of close analysis!

12. Can you state the premise of your work in fewer than 10 words?

I think I did: "treat others well or you might just create of them the monster you were fighting against in the first place."

No, apparently I didn't. That was twenty words.

"Treat people well." There we are!

13. Does your book say something important?

It's important to me.

14. If you doubt that you've said something important, why continue?

I am convinced that this is something that other people will find important, but I can't rightly speak for them. I did it because I just needed to get the words out on paper. The rest just kind of happened.

15. What different premise would accomplish your aim?

I don't think there could have been another premise if I tried.

16. Have you reached your destination? Has your premise been carried to its logical conclusion?

Yes, but I'm not going to spoil the end of the series here!

17. If the premise has not been proved, did you get confused or lose sight during the progression of the text? If so, how can you get back to your original premise? Or, do you need to revise the premise from the beginning?

Even if I wanted to, I couldn't change it.

18. Do you provide documentation and / or appropriate attribution for facts and / or events set forth in support of your premise?

It's Fantasy. I made up my facts. Of course, gravity still applies.

19. Have you obtained written permission to utilize all quotes and / or data obtained from other sources?

I believe that the quotes I used are covered by the Fair Use Act. If not, I'll be told as much. Though, I can't much ask Shakespeare, now, can I? Séance anyone?

20. How is your book different from other books in the same category? Amazon.com or Bowker's SUBJECT GUIDE TO BOOKS IN PRINT are good places to research this question.

It's dark. Very dark. School for wizards this is not (although I am a huge Harry Potter fan!).

21. How big (in your estimation) is the market for this book?

Fantasy, from my understanding, is on the up right now. It's chic to be geek. With things as upsetting as they are now in the world, I think the need to escape into other worlds has become much greater. But, I am a geek, so that might be just my friends and I.

22. What do you believe are the best ways to reach that market?

Good question. A marketer I am not. I've started a couple of things on my own to drum up some grass-roots stuff (my blog, a facebook fan page and profile, several networking sites etc.). I suppose Comic Con would be a great place to go to reach all those Fantasy and Science Fiction buffs that exist in the world... But I'll only go there if I am published.

Musing About Music

This discussion came up on Goodreads.com, and I thought I would share it with the rest of you. Well, those of you who are not following that particular thread.

The question posed was: "What inspires you?"

For myself, music was and is hugely important in informing my writing. There is just something about music that touches me deeply, changes my mood and transports me into another time and place. There are very few kinds of music I dislike. I listen to everything from Enya to Evanescence, Mozart to Metallica. There are a few songs, however, that were especially informative.

The single most influential song for my main character was:

Street Spirit - Radiohead.

Every time I hear this song, I cry. There is something so powerfully melancholy, so forlorn, detached and lost about this song. It never ceases to move me.

Other songs that move me are:

Solace - Vanessa Mae
Red Right Hand - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Now We Are Free - Hanz Zimmer, sung by Lisa Gerrard
Pachamama - Mike Oldfield
Zombie - The Cranberries
Dolphins Cry - Live
Lightning Crashes - Live
Unforgiven II - Metallica
Memory of Trees - Enya
Come Here Boy - Imogen Heap
Iris - Goo Goo Dolls
Human Beings - Seal
Youth of the Nation - P. O. D.
Breathe - Prodigy

The entire album Fallen by Evanescence moves me and pretty much anything by Linkin Park is also profoundly powerful. I'm currently addicted to their Minutes to Midnight album.

Enya is also someone I listen to religiously.

I was also introduced quite recently by a friend of mine (thanks K.C.) to a group called 12 Girls Band. They are a group of 13 performers (only twelve of which appear on stage) who play classical Chinese instruments, but adapt modern songs. Let me tell you, they sound spectacular! He also introduced me to the awe-inspiring violinist Vanessa Mae, and while I don't like it all, some of her compositions are amazing (hence her appearing in the above list).

I introduced that same friend to Bond, a quartet of musicians who take classical compositions and mix them with electric, techno and world beats and they also are amazing.

Long story short, I never write without music. All kinds of music feed into my imagination and take me to places I never thought existed. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all musicians for their contribution to my imagination, and my sanity. You all (quite literally) rock!

Now, here's something for you all to discuss. What inspires you (in whatever it is you strive for)?

The Next Step

Well then. This will be a particularly slow period, to be sure. I must sit and wait, and wait, and wait, and wait.

So I have submitted my first proposal and I've decided to hear back from them first before I submit any other proposals. Very good. Now what?

Well, I keep on keeping on, of course. I'm not just going to sit here idly while I wait, no sir! I have thousands upon thousands of snippets of stories barrelling through my head like a freight-train without breaks. These have to be written down.

I greatly suspect that I am not the kind of writer that needs to, or even can plan a story out very carefully beforehand. I've tried doing that, and it seemed my imagination didn't much care for my carefully laid plans and any attempt I made to keep to them resulted in long, agonising periods of stagnation - my imagination going on strike in protest.

When I finally abandoned my plans, what actually transpired was the slow conglomeration of story snippets around my characters that were then placed in chronological order. To put an image to the idea, it was much like watching mercury pull itself together after a thermometer had been smashed. All the little droplets coalesced into one great big one, and that is exactly what happened with my Great Man series.

The same sort of pattern seems to be happening with these other clips. Some are simply ideas that need to be written down and either kept and developed or placed on the back-burner.

In any case, I will not be idle while I wait. There is more story in me and I intend to let it out!

As for my blog, with very little in the way of real news for the next two to six months, I'll likely post nonsense not related to my book or writing, though I'll endeavour to find articles that do relate and are helpful.

How Much is Too Much?

I was always a rather shy person. People often mistook it for snobbishness. In truth I was much too intimidated by people to approach them. A great deal of that has changed over the last few years, but I am essentially still quite shy.

Perhaps that is why I feel very strange marketing myself. I know that in order to sell anything, you have to reach out to your audience, and so that is exactly what I've been trying to do. Still, it all feels odd and not a little bit narcissistic.

I started this blog almost as soon as I finished my manuscript. A blog isn't so bad. People won't read it if they really don't want to. It's not in your face all the time and, best of all, it's not a hard-sell. I'm not jumping up and down and waving my arms frantically while screaming "look at me!" or "buy me, or else!" I rather like blogging, now that I have something worthwhile to blog about.

I don't mind joining sites like goodreads, or LinkedIn, Twitter, or Ziggs. I can handle those because, again, you are participating without getting in other people's faces all the time. Some of the discussions created are tonnes of fun, and I especially like goodreads because you can follow your favourite authors... as long as they are on goodreads.

I'm having a little more difficulty with Facebook. I've created another profile (look up S.m. Carrière) as my sort of professional alter-ego. From it, I've created a fan page for myself. Now that feels really strange. I'm essentially my own fan, asking others to become a fan (you can, by the way. There's a button on the top right-hand corner of this blog above my photo).

You probably noticed that I added a little bit of marketing to this blog, even though I blogging about how weird it feels to be marketing oneself (that was good, huh? Right? That was pretty slick, wasn't it?). It feels a little too narcissistic, with an air of desperation added for extra flavour.

Another problem I'm having is telling others that I am an author, even though I haven't been published yet. Now it is true that I own the material I write as soon as it is written down (copyright laws), and since I have written and I do write, that makes me a writer. It just feels like I'm lying to people when I tell them I'm an author.

I don't make a living from writing (yet). I'm a receptionist. I have written a series that I want to publish. I actually haven't published anything (yet). Since that is the case, can I rightfully call myself an author? Am I being pompous by even trying to?

Am I being silly?

I know that marketing oneself is crucial to getting noticed, but it all feels so strange. I feel a little guilty doing it. I guess it feels like I'm falling short of the expectations I am creating, that I am not all I am pretending to be.

One of my friends assured me I was just being silly, and I probably am. Let's face it, I'm not the most secure person I know and it is more than likely that my insecurities are turning something quite ordinary into something that simply feels wrong.

Whatever I feel about it, it is necessary. So I shall, with good humour, continue to market myself. When (not 'if') I am published, perhaps it won't all feel so bizarre.

What is more important, Rights or Royalties?

This is a little extra on eliminating potential publishers.

The question I posed in the title is really the focus of this new elimination. Which is more important, royalties or rights?

I ask this because while researching potential publishers, I came across two that paid very high royalties. One paid between 15% - 40% royalties. The other paid 40% - 50% royalties. This might seem high, and it is. The problem is that they would make an outright purchase of the material. That is to say, I would have no rights to the work and any subsidiary rights like, say, movie rights, would go to the publisher.

Not to say that I expect my series to be turned into a film (or series thereof), if published. Hypothetically speaking however, should I be published and should the work garner the interest of the movie-making community, I'd have no control over what they did with the work, nor would I receive anything from the production. I'm not such a fan of that idea.

There might be a little bit of a control-freak in me, but I get really anxious when I am asked to relinquish any rights to my work at all. It's my work and I would like to keep it that way.

For that reason and no other, two more potential publishing houses have been struck from my list.

Some people probably wouldn't have an issue with this, particularly if the purchase prince and royalties were high enough. For me, however, I'd much rather lower royalties as long as I get to keep my work mine.

That's just me though.

Why Write?

Someone asked me yesterday why I wanted to write and be published. All I could think to say was "Because." Not only is that a grammatically incorrect sentence, it isn't a very good reason. "Because" explains nothing about the passion that has developed for this story and the inexplicable urge to have it reach a wide audience. It really got me thinking.

A small side note, it takes a bit to get me thinking rather than imagining. Back to the regularly programmed blog....

Why do I want to write?

I can tell you right away that I don't want to become a writer because I want to become famous, or get rich (though, to be perfectly honest, I wouldn't mind the getting rich part, however unlikely it is).

If you had asked me when I was ten if I wanted to become an author, I would have laughed in your face, or perhaps behind your back. I didn't want to write! I had dreams of becoming a high-powered C.E.O. of some really profitable corporation.

In High School, although I wrote a little bit for fun, and for school assignments, I still didn't want to become a writer. I had my heart set on becoming a fighter pilot. Yes, you read that correctly. I wanted to fly FA-18s. I took two kinds of maths, physics and chemistry in High School so I could become a pilot. That failed miserably when I discovered I needed glasses to see distance.

After High School, I floundered a little while. For a time I thought I wanted to become a lawyer, or a forensic scientist and so for my first year of university, I studied Criminology. It so happened that after my final exams of the year I went home exhausted and unhappy and noticed, for the first time, exactly what was on my bookshelf. The only things about Crime were my textbooks.

Everything else was either a fantasy novel or books on archaeology, folklore and custom, ancient world myth and religion, and a very large section of reference books on Celtic Studies. Clearly I was in the wrong programme. Always fascinated by ancient history, I decided to study Archaeology, focusing on the Atlantic Façade from the Upper Palaeolithic to the pre-Roman Iron Age. Fascinating stuff! For the next four years at university that is exactly what I did, and it was awesome.

When I graduated university, the plan was to find a good job so I could save up for my Master's degree, which I wanted to take at the University of Wales in Bangor, Wales. It was a one year Celtic Archaeology programme. The goal was to become an academic. In the meantime, I picked up writing again as a hobby.

The story I was writing, apparently, had other ideas. It took over. It poured from my fingers onto the page at an alarming speed, sometimes with such force that I would be utterly spent at the end of the session. It crept into my mind during my sleep, and then in my waking hours. It screamed "Publish me!" without actually uttering a syllable.

Now I find myself completely at its mercy, driven without reason to get this thing into print.

So why do I do it? Why write?

The answer is this: Because I feel compelled to. Because it fulfills me. Because there is so much stuff whirling around in my skull I fear that if I don't write it down, my head will explode!

That is why I write.