Monday, February 21, 2011

Character Creation

I do love to write. While I certainly enjoy the fantasy setting, and think you can do a lot of neat things with it, the story won't work if the characters are uninteresting, or the characters don't become real enough, or for some reason the reader just doesn't feel invested in them. One of the books we read recently in the Cooper Book Club is Gardens of the Moon. While I did like the book, I didn't like it nearly as much as most other books, because I never really came to care much about the characters, except for a couple small exceptions. Otherwise, it didn't really matter to me what happened to them, and to me, that weakened the entire story. You have to care about what happens to the characters in the story.

This is going to be something that I try to do in my writing. I have no idea whether I have succeeded or not, because I am looking at the characters from a different point of view than the readers. It's very interesting to me to write a character, because for me, once the character is created, they start to take on a life of their own. I can envision each of them in my mind; they become real to me. Yes, I am the one writing them, but once I have designed the character in a certain way, it no longer becomes "What do I want this character to do next?", it becomes "What do I think this character would do next?" It is odd, but I start caring about the characters in a book I'm writing long before the book has even finished a rough draft. Creating a character makes you care about it, and even though I am the one writing it, I am excited to see what happens next in the character's life.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Book Notes

I have submitted an order to print out several copies of the manuscript for The Second Shadow, that will be shipped to a few family and friends. I will be picking them up from Fedex later today, and hope to have them in the mail Saturday, or at least Monday. I am certainly excited to see what people think of it as it is now.

I have begun writing the rough draft for my newest endeavor, Queen of Men. The outline currently has 27 chapters, and I am now in the middle of writing chapter 6. I will likely finish the rough draft within a few weeks, and then begins the rather long process of editing, expanding, and polishing. I have no long-term timeline for the work on the book, but I certainly hope it takes me less than three and a half years to get the book ready to be submitted, which is how long I have been working on The Second Shadow.

A few random thoughts: While the story should dictate length, in my mind at least, I am aiming to have this book be around 90,000 words (The Second Shadow is 81,000). I am currently planning this to be a standalone book, and not the first of a series. While I sometimes like the idea of writing a longer series, I think I need to work on and improve my writing and story planning a bit before I take on an extended project like that. The Lords of Sargoff series (of which The Second Shadow is book one) is planned as a trilogy, and likely no more, and I think it will be a while before I tackle something longer than that.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Reyin

Below is the first chapter of my new novel, Queen of Men. It is certainly still a rough draft, but I thought I'd see if I could get some initial reactions to it. I have continued to develop the story, and am quite happy with it at the moment. But it will be a little while before I post more details about it. :)

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Reyin

The children ran in circles and screamed in delight. Reyin chased his sister around the yard as their mother smiled. It had felt like an age since the skylords had seen fit to bring sunshine. Fourteen days of grey clouds and harsh rain had preceded this, and only on such a long-awaited day would she allow her children to run about in the mud.
Birds flew about and chirped, but the mother paid no mind, her thoughts returning to times long lost. She enjoyed the moment’s rest, though unaware that they were not alone. There was something nearby that no woman or child had seen: a pair of eyes in the dark of the forest, watching the boy as he ran. The hands reached into a pocket and removed a small glass vial. The green liquid within it bubbled wildly.
The mother had watched for nine years as Reyin had grown from infant to boy, and she sought to not miss a day of his maturing, as it felt only so recently that he breathed his first breath. Yet she frowned upon the memories of his first days, as so often she had thought him lost; his body would convulse and then lie still, only to awaken again. She believed he would not last, yet the days passed by and his heart tread on, and for that, his mother loved him more than all else. He was her marvel.
She had kept his presence silent, for she knew the Queen would not allow him to linger, as no man is able to do. There were underground groups of Men, as she had learned from the mothers of the village, and the time was near that she would send him there, for it is better to be in hiding than to be of the shackles and made to work endless hours. She was glad her second child was a girl, for that one she could keep. Elna was a lasting joy, while Reyin would fade. In her heart, the mother had already begun preparing herself for the day she would no longer have a son.
For the moment, she drowned these thoughts in the sounds of her children as they ran about. She smiled as Reyin approached and took a drink of water from the cup beside her.
“Mother, won’t you come run with us?” he asked, but she smiled and shook her head.
“I have not the vigor of your youth,” she replied. The boy laughed and returned to chasing his sister.
Then the girl screamed, and the woman lurched forward. Her son had fallen into the mud with a splash, his body turning limp. The mother picked him out of the mud and laid him on her lap. His eyes were vacant.

* * *

Reyin saw a darkness around him, and he sought to scream, but there was no voice in his throat. A form appeared before him with the palest of skin and dark dreadlocked hair. He sneered at the boy with a devilish grin and spoke in harsh tones.
“Mordi Thorus a lin orra. You will not escape me this time Thorus,” he said, laughing cruelly. “For this time I found you first. Your blood shall be spilled this day, this very hour, nearly this very moment. And you, Marith, you will not be spared either.”
Reyin suddenly noticed the woman beside him, her face fair and her smile true. She reached her hand down and took his in hers.
“He cannot harm you, my boy,” she said softly, “for his powers are not of your world. You are the hope of humanity, and through you the nations will prosper and endure through the darkness. He fears you and the light you will shine into the night, for he is a night dweller. Do not fear him.”
The man scowled at her and unsheathed a long sword. “Foolish woman,” he said, “his mind has not yet returned to its true self. He may have been the world’s savior before, but in this life, with this mind, he cannot save them. He cannot stop the world from perishing.”
“The hope of the humans is not yet lost,” Marith said.
The man sneered at Reyin. “Mark my words, Thorus. Whether you know that name or not, you will fall this day, and your kingdom will remain a darkened memory. The Soul Keepers will fail.”
“Son, no, please!” came his mother’s screams, and then he saw her once more.

* * *

“Oh, thank the lords!” she said, holding her son to her chest. “I thought I had lost you!”
His sister placed her arms around him, and the three of them sat in a quiet embrace. The mother gentled kissed each of her children on the head, and smiled, wiping tears from her cheeks.
“Perhaps the lords do shine upon us,” she said.
Elna then turned her head toward the forest, and screamed.
A figured walked toward them from the forest; his skin was pale and his hair was dark. He held a sword in his muscular arms. Reyin turned to look, then his body wrenched, holding tightly to his mother.
“Who are you? What do you want?” the mother yelped. He did not answer.
Suddenly, the mother and her children were surrounded on all sides by several figures, both men and women. They held swords in their hands and stood in defensive positions, facing the pale figure as he approached. They moved to stand in front of the mother.
“Protect Thorus,” they said, or chanted, as the man came lunging at them. His sword tore through the first defender with ease. A defender swung at him, and his sword passed through the man as though he were not really there. The man swung his blade and lopped off the defender’s head.
“He has the beacon!” the defenders cried with desperation, but still they stood in defense. One by one they swung their swords in vain, only to be chopped and pierced and laid out upon the grass.
A figure suddenly appeared beside the mother and her children.
“It’s you!” Reyin screeched as he sprang to his feet. Marith smiled gently at him and took his hand.
“Do not worry, love,” she said. “The beacon is not the most powerful of magical artifacts.”
Only four defenders stood before them and the attacker. One by one they fell, and then there were none. “Your time has come, Thorus,” the man said, “for all your shields have cracked!”
“One last shield remains, oh weakened assassin,” Marith said. “You will not touch him.”
“Will I not? My blade thirsts for more, and I cannot now deprive it!”
He lunged forward, but suddenly stopped and stood up straight, his sword dropping to the grass.
“You should listen to me, foolish one,” Marith said. A sword in her hand now protruded from his stomach. “For you have killed your last mark. You have failed.”
The man fell to the side and then was still.
Marith turned and smiled at Reyin, and he couldn’t help but smile back. His mother and sister stared at him, wide-eyed. “There, my boy, you are safe now,” Marith said gently. “Come to me now and I will hold you close, like I did in the days of the last age.”
Reyin could not recall ever being held by such a woman, but at that moment, he did not care to question it. She took him in her arms and vowed never to let go. Reyin turned and gazed upon the lifeless body of his attacker.
“Who was he?” I asked.
“A fool, Thorus, and nothing more. Only the most foolish would dare bring harm to my love.”
She kissed his cheek and looked into his eyes, smiling.
“For, my dear Thorus, it is well known that only I have the right to smite you.”
A blade suddenly passed through him, and he fell to the ground with a painful squeal. Reyin tasted blood and saw only blurs. Dark figures appeared around him, and Marith vanished into the air. The dark figures stooped above Reyin’s fading form and spoke with fearful voices, ignoring the wailing of his mother and sister.
“She was the assassin,” one said. “The other was simply the tool. She has done it. They have once again sent our king away.”
“Indeed. Now we must wait for the final attempt. Only one remains.”
And with that, Reyin breathed his last.

Wednesday, February 09, 2011

Question Answered

I have decided on what my next big writing project will be. I had thought about continuing with books two and three for The Lords of Sargoff, as I would like to do some day, but I also know that continuing an unpublished series isn't really going to help me get published. It will be more likely to catch a publisher's eye with multiple completed projects, as opposed to a completed trilogy. Thus, I have begun notes on a new novel.

I have taken the basic idea of my previously posted short short Thorus and expanded upon it greatly. The book, tentatively titled Queen of Men, is a fantasy novel that will be a bit more complicated than The Second Shadow, and should also be longer. After finishing The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson, I decided that is the kind of books I would like to write. It is about the reading level and detail level that I would like to write at. I have thoroughly enjoyed writing The Second Shadow and would love to see it published, but I would like to now try writing at a more detailed level. The Second Shadow's storyline is pretty straightforward and there aren't really too many characters, and really only one plot line to follow.

The outline for the new book already has several groups of characters traveling different story paths, though they are all connected. I have the rough draft of the first chapter done, but that is based on the short story Thorus, with some significant changes. So I may post the first chapter here at some point, just to see what people think of it.