Jeff Wheeler's Blog, page 5

Visions of the Future

When I look back on New Years Day one year ago, at the beginning of 2017, I would never have guessed all that’s happened in a year. That’s probably a good thing. Surprises can be fun. Earlier last year, we got to go to Universal Studios for the first time and visit Harry Potter world and try out the rides. It’s kind of weird to see a replica of Hogwarts and realize that it started out as just a piece of imagination in the mind of a woman named Joanne in Scotland. She had a vision of a boy with a scar while riding a train. Look what has come from that one vision!

I know it’s common to come up with New Years resolutions and then promptly abandon them. But I’m a firm believer in the power of setting goals. The power of vision. Last night, my wife and I sat down with our kids and tried to motivate them to come up with “vision boards”. These are framed poster boxes where you can pin pictures. Instead of coming up with goals for 2018, we encouraged them to think farther, to imagine places they wanted to visit, skills they wanted to master, or careers they might want to consider. Then we worked together to help find pictures (thank you Google!) to represent these visions of the future. Because change is difficult, I showed them a little video off Youtube from a favorite book of mine, Switch. It’s an analogy called the elephant, the rider, and the path. It’s only 2 minutes long — I encourage you to watch it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9KP8uiGZTs

I also shared with them a vision board that I did back in 2008, ten years ago. The vision goal was becoming a full-time author (not growing a beard!).

It didn’t happen when or how I thought it would. But there is something interesting that happens when you set goals and stop making excuses. We don’t control the timing of major events in our lives. I sure didn’t plan on moving to the Rocky Mountains last year. But we have a purpose in this world and when we try to live up to it, amazing things happen. And amazing things have happened to my family this year, and I’m grateful for them. I know people who have lost their homes, lost loved ones, and endured unspeakable heartache. I also know others who have grown and seen miracles happen. We’ve seen miracles in my own family. We’ve had major problems. We’ve been to shelters in Mexico and gotten hugs from little kids who have so little but smile so much. Even though some very difficult things have happened, I am optimistic about the future.

So go ahead and think about your future. As Robert Schuller said: “What goals would you be setting for yourself if you knew you could *not* fail?” Sometimes all it takes is motivating the elephant. Sometimes it requires a clear unambiguous goal. Other times, obstacles need to be removed from the path. Figure out what you need and then go for it!

Back when I was studying history at San Jose State, I had a professor who inspired and motivated me to dream big. She thought I’d be a great history professor someday. Well, that didn’t happen. I decided to dedicate the last Kingfountain book (The Poisoner’s Enemy) to her because of her support and encouragement. It was during that time that I was first inspired with the nuggets of Ankarette’s story. Last week I hunted her down and we re-connected via e-mail after more than 20 years. She’s no longer a history professor but is living another dream of hers. Life doesn’t always turn out the way we plan. In fact, it rarely does.

But don’t let that stop you from dreaming. Make a vision poster for yourself. See what happens.

Happy New Year!

 

 

Wicked Cool News

What’s this picture? A Christmas wreath? Not exactly. It is the pub-day present I just got from 47North. A wreath made out of magnolia leaves in honor of The Forsaken Throne coming out. It’s like they actually read my books or something!

Happy NaNoWriMo to all of you this month! My good friend (and fellow Deep Magic board member) Brendon Taylor invited me to his writer’s group this last weekend and it was a lot of fun talking about the craft and meeting with authors in the Pocatello area. Had a great time, plus Brendon made home-made cinnamon rolls. He’s an awesome cook.

Ready for some news?

First, you may soon be suffering with Kingfountain withdrawls. It’s a serious problem. To help remedy it, there is another Kingfountain book coming in January, probably my last. It’s called The Poisoner’s Enemy and it is another prequel. This one tells the origin story of Ankarette Tryneowy. Seriously, you’re going to love it. It ties in some people you know, some you’ve only heard about it, and the villain…ooh, sooo good! This book comes out in January and is available now to pre-order.

I am also excited to announce something in time for your holiday shopping. I’ve been working with Dabel Brother’s publishing since this summer to bring you the Muirwood adult coloring book. I’ve been working with their artists to create this and simply love the work they’ve done. It is now officially open to pre-order and the coloring books will ship in early December so you can get them for family and friends. I can’t wait to get them for my kids as well.

Still not done with the good news though! 47North is also having a sale of the kindle version of the Kingfountain series (books 1-5) in the US, UK, and Australia until the end of November. It’s a great chance to pick up the whole series or tell a friend about it. Find it here.

I also learned today that all the stories in the Kindle Worlds program are now going to be part of Kindle Unlimited. So with a Kindle Unlimited account (if you already have one), you can read them for free. Did you know that it’s legal to write fanfiction based on my Muirwood world? And publish it? And get paid for it? I think it is great and I hope with this development, more writers will take advantage of this program and create stories set in this world. Here are some stories that already exist:

I told you there was a lot of good news. Stay tuned for more when I announce my new series coming in mid-2018!

I can’t thank all of you enough for the support you’ve given me. There are plenty more worlds coming your way. I love writing stories. Hope you continue to enjoy them!

-Jeff

 

Authoring Advice

It’s been a busy summer and I haven’t written a blog posting in a while. My family moved from California to the Rocky Mountains this summer. After being in our last house for 16 years, it’s been quite an adjustment. I also just returned from a trip to New York City and have been mulling the strange twists of fate that brought me to where I am today. My oldest daughter has just started college and I’ve been giving her a lot of “adulting” advice lately. Coincidentally, I’ve had many recent conversations about how to make it into the publishing world these days, and the latest request came yesterday from a fan in Virginia named Breanna. She’s nearly done with her first million words (kudos on that, Breanna!) and asked what do to next?

So here is some “authoring” advice for a person who has already written several practice books and is ready to go to the next level. Take it for what it’s worth – one person’s opinion.

The publishing world changed a lot when Amazon started its KDP program. I won’t get into a history lesson here, but the short version is that it opened the floodgates for self-publishing. That was like an earthquake that caused a tsunami and it changed the landscape in the publishing industry…for a time. I lived through that period and certainly benefited from it. But the landscape has changed again. While it is easier to self-publish a novel than it has ever been, the problem of finding readers has gotten even more difficult. The deluge of unprofessional, unedited, cheap or free e-books has made readers more wary. Word of mouth has always been and will always be the key to finding success in this business.

So what does a new writer do to break into this industry? There are still two options to consider: finding an agent or going the self-publishing route. Both routes have risks and rewards. I tried the agent route myself and after 42 rejections decided to go the other way. But getting a traditional publisher nowadays (and I include Amazon Publishing in that category), it really takes an agent. So we’re back to where things were before KDP.

So what’s my advice?

Whether you choose the indy route or the traditional publisher route, my advice is the same. Hire a good dev editor. Having beta readers is always a good thing and can be hard to get. But a dev editor (or “development” editor) isn’t a beta reader. These are people who are paid for offering their advice to authors. They go line by line through a manuscript and make suggestions on how to improve it as well as praise for what is working well. These are editors who have extensive track experience and are really good at spotting plot inconsistencies and missed opportunities to develop characters or improve world building. They don’t work for free, nor should they. I wish I had known about them before I started my self-publishing journey. How do you find one? Well, most of us authors like to thank the people who help us in the acknowledgement section of our books. So if you like an author’s style or how their books are edited, do some homework and see if you can find out who they use. Most dev editors work as contractors and support many authors and many publishers.

A dev editor can tell you whether your work is up to par. They won’t pull punches. That’s exactly what any writer needs to get to the next level. Even me.

Time for true confessions. This topic is especially relevant for me right now because of the new series I’ve been working on. I recently turned in book 1 to my editor and my dev editor. One of the hardest things is waiting for the feedback to come. I always welcome opportunities to improve and have tried to conquer the “ogre of author pride” (a phrase one of my creative writing teachers coined). But sometimes, the ogre rears it’s 125 hit point head and I have to do some serious battle with my +5 pie server of humility (get it? eating humble pie?). That happened with my latest manuscript. The book came back requiring massive re-writes the likes of which I haven’t seen in a long, long time. The temptation, of course, is to become defensive. But when you realize that your team (both your editor at the publisher and your dev editor who you trust) is trying to help you make the best book possible, you constrain that reflex, internalize the feedback, and then kick that ogre’s ugly butt by tackling the re-writes with a vengeance and genuine openness. The result? A far better story.

So whether or not you want to go the indy route or find an agent, having a good dev editor on your side is only going to help. They are worth the cost. Absolutely. Sometimes making it in this business is a matter of persistence, timing, and a bit of luck. And keep in mind that it’s a business and run like one. It’s not a popularity contest. In my case, it was an absolute miracle from God that came when I wasn’t even looking for it or actively trying to promote for myself. I didn’t make my career happen. I have always just tried to write the best books possible. And now I have the best help available.

I read a book once by Ed Catmull of Pixar called “Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration”. It’s a fascinating story of how Pixar was born and created so many hit movies. How the scripts are such a collaboration between very smart people. I think novel writers would benefit from reading it and being more willing to seek help from the best sources.

I feel truly blessed to work with some of the best editors in the business: Jason Kirk and Angela Polidoro. We make a great team, but they’re not the only members of the team. I rely on fantastic line editors, proofreaders, and some really good friends who encourage me to bring you the best stories I can.

I think my next book is going to knock your socks off in no small part because of all of them.

So that’s my “authoring” advice today. I hope it helps, Breanna.

Photo (during my trip to New York, I visited my first Amazon Bookstore. So cool to find TQP there in the Page Turners section!)

Predicting the Future

While doing final line-edits for THE FORSAKEN THRONE, I discovered that I’d mis-attributed a quote to Abraham Lincoln in my author’s note. The quote is “The best way to predict the future is to invent it” and it was actually said by a guy working for Xerox Parc, the team that invented the modern computer user interface.

Well, authors predict the future by creating it. What you are anxiously eager to read (THE SILENT SHIELD) was finished months ago. So what does Jeff have cooking in his imagination? It’s about time I told you.

First, while I was in Mexico last month, an opportunity came knocking on the door to create an adult coloring book. I didn’t even know grown-ups like doing coloring books at all, so this was a new market. So I’ve begun partnering with the Dabel Brothers on this project and we plan to do a coloring book for the Legends of Muirwood series first. I’ll post more about this as it progresses, but I’m excited to work on this with them. And I’m also excited for younger kids to engage with my stories too, even if they aren’t old enough to read the books.

Secondly, I’ve completed writing another stand-alone Kingfountain novel. After finishing Book 6, I still wasn’t done with the world and wasn’t ready to let go. Before I even wrote The Queen’s Poisoner, I had conjured up the character of Ankarette. It was fun using her in The Maid’s War, but I felt she needed her own story, a story that tells her origin and how she came to become the person Owen met in Liona’s kitchen. I’ve also partnered with Podium to produce the audiobook of this new work, which will also be in Kindle and print formats. It’s called The Poisoner’s Enemy and it was so-much-fun to write. There are characters you’ve already met and some you never knew about that have played a role behind the scenes. It’s full of twists and turns as we watch Ankarette maneuver the politics of her day. I don’t have a publishing date for this yet, but it should be in early 2018. Stay tuned for more news and a link to pre-order it.

And lastly, I’ve signed a five-book deal with 47North for my newest project. I normally dream up stories in 3-book arcs, so this is different for me (and for my publisher). There will be two protagonists instead of one. I’ve cooked up something new and different and interesting. The scope and scale of this series will be pretty epic. For now, it’s tentatively titled The Harbinger Series.  It’s an old-fashioned word that denotes someone warning of something to come. A prediction of the future, perhaps?

I’ll talk more about it later. You’ve been warned.

Hope you enjoy book 5 of Kingfountain soon!

Launch for Hollow Crown and where I was

Life has interesting ups and downs and some unexpected turns. When I was finishing The Hollow Crown, I couldn’t have predicted where I would be when the book was released. For me, Pub Days are usually pretty quiet. I don’t do launch parties, book signings, or stuff like that. I’m an introvert, and those things just don’t float my boat.

This Pub Day was special and will always be remembered. Months ago, my wife Gina talked me into taking the family on a humanitarian expedition. With school ending and three different graduations (high school, middle school, and elementary school), the summer was already looking crazy. To make it a little crazier, we decided to join a Family to Family Humanitarian Expedition right after school got out. Literally. Graduation night, next day packing–then we’re heading to the airport at zero-dark-thirty to catch a flight to Mexico City.

The experience was absolutely incredible.

The group has relationships with several ‘albergues’ in Queretero, Mexico. These are shelters designed for the lowest of the low-income children. Basically, kids whose parents can’t afford to feed them. They live in the albergue during the week and then spend the weekend at home. We stay in hotels, thankfully. Each shelter has 30-50 children, ages 6-14. The charter is to ‘celebrate joy’ with these kids. We come and show them talents. They share theirs with us. We eat with them, hang out with them all day, and then go back to the hotel. On each day, we travel to a different albergue and meet another group of kids. I was so proud of my children. They played soccer with them, taught piano lessons, made friendship bracelets and Star Wars origami characters. I taught kung fu. We sang for them as a family. Played the ukulele. They danced for us. At the end of each day, we got a ton of hugs which totally melted our hearts. On our last day, we visited a valley in a gorge within the Sierra Gordas and went on a river walk by a functioning silver mine that will *totally* end up in one of my future books!

So while I did have cell phone service in Mexico, I was pretty much off-line much of each day and would only sneak a peek now and then at reviews of Hollow Crown. But really, I can’t think of a better way of celebrating Pub Day than being with my family and the expedition team. My 14 year-old son said, at the end of the week, that the trip was more memorable and satisfying than going to Disneyland. Big fist-bump moment between mom and dad.

Here are some pictures from the trip (just a few). If your family is ever interested in doing something like this, or you just want to help with donations of things they can bring to the shelters, I can’t recommend Kendon Eakett and the local team enough. They are AWESOME!

Family to Family Humanitarian Expedition: http://ffhe.info/contact-us/

After getting back, I learned that Hollow Crown did just fine without me being there. Third time on the WSJ bestseller list! Hope you’re enjoying the new book. Book Five will be out in August.

Cover Reveal: The Forsaken Throne (Kingfountain book#6)

Like many of you, I hate having to wait a long time in between books from a series that I want to read. So how cool is it that the cover art is done for Book 6 of the Kingfountain series.

http://amzn.to/2ql5oTe

I guess you can say that the plot heats up! (pun intended).

I’m also thrilled to announce my new author website. It’s a project I’ve been heavily involved in for months and hope you like it. I’ve developed content to help readers understand the different worlds, including a glossary and pronunciation guide. Also you’ll find my advice to new writers in the Writing Craft section. There are many fun things to explore. Try it out: http://www.jeff-wheeler.com

I would also like to announce what my next book will be following The Forsaken Throne. After finishing the series, I still felt that there was one more book inside me. For a while, I’ve been working secretly on another stand-alone Kingfountain book about Ankarette. I liked writing about her in The Maid’s War but that story doesn’t tell how she came to be. Many of you know that I was inspired by some historical sources during my history program. So, I’ve just finished writing her origin story. It will come out early 2018. I’ll post more news about it later on, but after having written it, I love it and think you will too.

More adventures to come! I’m in talks with my publisher right now about my next big series. Stay tuned for an announcement about it in the months ahead!

 

Cover Reveal: The Silent Shield (Kingfountain book#5)

So excited to reveal the next book cover. I’m so thrilled with the talent of Shasti O’Leary-Soudant who has created all the covers of the Kingfountain series. Book 5 is pretty intense. If you don’t want any spoilers, then don’t read the description! But by all means, enjoy the cover though!

http://amzn.to/2n7Erxg

 

What’s the castle, you ask? Wait and see…

Only three more months until The Hollow Crown comes out!

 

When a Man Loves a Woman (guest blog: Gina Wheeler)

 

by Gina Wheeler

 

Hello dear readers!  Happy Valentine’s Day – a day which I personally enjoy, while also realizing its over-hyped importance.  But what better day to guest on my husband’s blog than today?   Jeff has shared with me many of your emails, and so I feel a deep sense of gratitude and responsibility towards you, his most supportive readers.

What kind of romantic is Jeff?  How does he treat his wife and kids – what is he *really* like?  How does a *man* write about relationships in the fantasy genre, as if he is some kind of rare oddity?

Allow me to include a childhood memory:  many times I used to sit at the dining table of my grandmother’s home, at the head of which sat her husband, my step-grandfather.  Eating a meal at their home was quite different from my daily routine.  Grandpa sat during the entire meal while he was served his food, or the food was passed to him to fill and refill his plate.  Condiments, drinks, salt…it was all handed to him as needed.  He sat like a sort of Hispanic king over the whole meal, and I admit that when I was young I was a little terrified.  I remember asking my dad in a whispered hush to be excused from the table even though my plate wasn’t completely empty – I wanted him to champion me in case my grandfather was displeased with my eating performance!

Memories of Jeff as a young man are far more pleasant!  His very young sisters once rushed out of the house to greet him when he came home.  He casually swooped them up in his arms and carried them happily inside.  It made quite an impression on me, both as an only child and as a young woman watching a boy act in such a tender fatherly way.  Another time I watched him bake cookies for his sister’s class, to pass out as her birthday treat.  Even though my own dad was a modern Hispanic and cooked meals, watching this teen boy bake cookies was another matter, especially since wasn’t groaning or complaining over the assignment but just took it as a matter of course.  (I later found out that he cooked breakfast for his family of ten).

As a young bride, I enjoyed the companionship of washing dishes together or cooking up our 2-person meal.  More importantly, we had the kind of relationship where we each spoke freely (and decidedly!) our opinions about all sorts of topics.  We were both college students and expanding our minds in the classroom, and at home with healthy debate and discussion.  I both expected and appreciated being his intellectual equal, and it was a relief to him that his wife didn’t expect to be “taken care of”.  I worked, went to school, and ran the checkbook.

Once the children entered the family and I stayed at home, I secretly wondered if he would ever express the attitude of “you just stay at home and have it so easy”.  To my relief, he never did – he jumped into the diapering and late night feedings (and screamings) because he knew he should as their father, but he was also laying the foundation of a close relationship with his kids based on active parenting.

A few rare times Jeff has gotten a review that basically pronounces him a woman-hater.  I never got angry, but rather genuinely surprised.  I wished that readers could see the daily Jeff that I knew, who came home from work and then started setting the table right away, or helping a teary child with a math problem.  And I must mention the more tender actions as well: the personal letters to me and the children, the songs he’s composed or the thoughtful homemade gifts I’ve received.

I could go on and on of course…but I think you get the point and I don’t want to proclaim perfection.  Far from it – but we do have a living, breathing, equal and very loving marriage and family.  It’s those daily, almost quiet actions that displays a man’s true mettle, that demonstrates if a man really loves a woman.

 

Finding Your Own Voice

Finding Your Own Voice
(or, in other words, how to make characters feel real)
by Jeff Wheeler

 

Inside almost every work of fiction, usually on the copyright page, is a disclaimer that publishers put there to deflect potential lawsuits stating that the incidents and people represented in the work are fictional and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead . . . blah, blah, blah.

I’m probably not the only person who reads this statement and thinks, “Yeah, right.”

I think most writers usually come in two varieties: plot authors and character authors. Occasionally, an ambidextrous author comes along and can do both equally well. For me, I started out as a plot author. I’ve never struggled coming up with new ideas, new worlds, new politics. But I did struggle for many years making character-driven stories. It was my weakness as an author. So I tried to work on it. Here’s how:

One of the ways I try to make my books feel real is that I base my characters, or at least some of their traits, on real people I know. Some are so cleverly disguised that no one would ever know it was them. Some are deliberate tributes to people I know and admire. For example, in my Kingfountain series, the cook, Liona, and her husband, Drew, are dear friends of mine. They happened to listen to the audio version of The Queen’s Poisoner on a trip to Europe while driving to Hohenzollern castle (which I based the castle Kingfountain on in the book). They knew they had a cameo in the book and enjoyed their little tribute. Many, however, have no idea that they have been used as inspiration for characters in my books.

Why do I and other authors do this? Because one of the crafts of writing is finding voices. Some people seem to think the author’s “voice” means the narrative flow of the story—who is telling the story. This is really easy to see when an author chooses to write in first person and the reader experiences the stream of consciousness of the main character. All that we see comes through their point of view. But there are so many other voices that need to be heard. The voices of the different characters are, I argue, what make the most difference. And even when an author chooses to write in first person, you can experience those other voices through the main character. It’s the different voices that make you fall in love with a story.

For me, the magic of a story—what pulls me into it—happens when characters in a story interact with each other. This is how I learn about them, their likes and dislikes, their personalities, their idiosyncrasies. This is what makes me want to root for them or despise them. Getting to know characters by bouncing them off each other is, to me, the most critical thing an author can do establish their voice.

What tends to happen, on the other hand, is that new writers try to create their authorial voice. They focus on stringing sentences together. Trying to impress their readers with brilliant similes or metaphors or unique descriptions. The more time I spend in the main character’s head, the less I’m interested in them or care about them. Instead, give them someone to spar with immediately. In other words, one plus one equals three. When you bring two characters together, you add more life to both of them than you do by focusing exclusively on the main character. It’s chemistry. It causes reactions. And I’m not just talking about two romantic leads. The chemistry happens when two characters share a page. Any page.

For this to work, it means that every time characters appear in a scene, they need to be distinct in some way. In movies, there are lots of “extras”—people that don’t have major roles to play, but they add emotional depth. Instead of trying to flesh out all of these extras with random details, I tap people I’ve known from work, church, family, friends—wherever I can find them. In fact, having a writer’s mind helps me when I meet new people because their mannerisms might make them perfect for a role as an innkeeper, a noble, a poisoner.

Let me be specific by providing an example. I think I really achieved a new level as a writer with my original Legends of Muirwood trilogy because of the character development. I really tried to get it right, compared to my earlier attempts. The beginning of the novel The Wretched of Muirwood takes place in the Aldermaston’s kitchen on the night of a terrible storm that threatens to flood the abbey. The main character, Lia, is in the loft listening in on a conversation happening in the kitchen between the head cook, Pasqua, and the Aldermaston, a stern man prone to bursts of anger. My main character, Lia, doesn’t even get to speak for the first bit, but we experience her thoughts as she listens to the two people who have basically raised her as a foundling talk to each other, and it’s through their speeches that we learn about them and we learn about Lia.

I based the Aldermaston partly on a historical figure, the Confederate general Robert E. Lee. His brooding photo is still on my laptop, and I would look at it when I wrote scenes with him. I learned about General Lee from Ken Burns’s wonderful documentary on the Civil War, which I’ve watched multiple times. Having the idea of him in my head helped me write scenes with the Aldermaston. At what point would he irrupt after maintaining his often-strained patience? Pasqua, on the other hand, was based on one of my mother’s good friends. Her real name is Pasqua, and I’ve pretty much channeled part of her personality in the book while taking many creative liberties. Most of the time I change the names to protect the innocent, but I just couldn’t think of a better name for Pasqua’s character than the real one! And I loved the maternal role she plays in Lia’s life throughout the series.

Some have wondered where the term “by Cheshu” comes from (which was used by two cantankerous hunters in both of my Muirwood trilogies). Well, I based Martin (one of them) off a minor character in Shakespeare’s Henry V, Captain Fluellen. I love the Kenneth Branagh version of the film, and Ian Holm played that character and nailed it. That inspiration became the ‘voice’ of Martin, and guess what—if you listen closely to the movie or read the manuscript, you’ll find the gruff captain muttering “by Cheshu” now and then.

So many authors joke about taking revenge on people in their books. While I have done that too, I think it’s perfectly normal to find voices in the real world and incorporate them into fiction. The act of creativity is the mashing up of different existing ideas to create something new. All of my books have been inspired by other events, historical or mythological, that I’ve woven together to create new worlds my readers have enjoyed.

As I read stories that get submitted to Deep Magic, sometimes I think that the author is trying too hard to channel the voice of another author. This story feels like Dresden Files. This one feels like Harry Potter. This feels like Brent Weeks. It’s quite normal for a new author to try mimicking the voices of authors they admire. I did the same thing when I wrote my first epic fantasy Landmoor, and I encourage it for authors who love my Muirwood series who want to write and publish stories through the Kindle Worlds program. I’ve just discovered along my author’s journey that the more I made characters interact with each other, for good or ill result, the more interesting it made my books.

So here’s my advice in a nutshell. If you’re starting out, or even if you’re experienced as a writer, think about the kind of cast you need to reveal your main character to the reader. Think about the variety of people they will meet that will reveal different aspects of them. Someone they despise. Someone they trust. Someone they’re afraid of. Someone they secretly love. The interactions with these people will tell us more about them than just listening to them yammer on in their own heads. This means you’ll need to be a good people watcher. Find your voice by listening to the many voices that are already around you.

Sometimes, your best supporting characters might be people you already know. You’ll find your own voice if you listen to theirs.

Article from the February 2017 Issue of Deep Magic

 

Writing Craft: Finding Your Own Voice

Finding Your Own Voice
(or, in other words, how to make characters feel real)
by Jeff Wheeler

 

Inside almost every work of fiction, usually on the copyright page, is a disclaimer that publishers put there to deflect potential lawsuits stating that the incidents and people represented in the work are fictional and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead . . . blah, blah, blah.

I’m probably not the only person who reads this statement and thinks, “Yeah, right.”

I think most writers usually come in two varieties: plot authors and character authors. Occasionally, an ambidextrous author comes along and can do both equally well. For me, I started out as a plot author. I’ve never struggled coming up with new ideas, new worlds, new politics. But I did struggle for many years making character-driven stories. It was my weakness as an author. So I tried to work on it. Here’s how:

One of the ways I try to make my books feel real is that I base my characters, or at least some of their traits, on real people I know. Some are so cleverly disguised that no one would ever know it was them. Some are deliberate tributes to people I know and admire. For example, in my Kingfountain series, the cook, Liona, and her husband, Drew, are dear friends of mine. They happened to listen to the audio version of The Queen’s Poisoner on a trip to Europe while driving to Hohenzollern castle (which I based the castle Kingfountain on in the book). They knew they had a cameo in the book and enjoyed their little tribute. Many, however, have no idea that they have been used as inspiration for characters in my books.

Why do I and other authors do this? Because one of the crafts of writing is finding voices. Some people seem to think the author’s “voice” means the narrative flow of the story—who is telling the story. This is really easy to see when an author chooses to write in first person and the reader experiences the stream of consciousness of the main character. All that we see comes through their point of view. But there are so many other voices that need to be heard. The voices of the different characters are, I argue, what make the most difference. And even when an author chooses to write in first person, you can experience those other voices through the main character. It’s the different voices that make you fall in love with a story.

For me, the magic of a story—what pulls me into it—happens when characters in a story interact with each other. This is how I learn about them, their likes and dislikes, their personalities, their idiosyncrasies. This is what makes me want to root for them or despise them. Getting to know characters by bouncing them off each other is, to me, the most critical thing an author can do establish their voice.

What tends to happen, on the other hand, is that new writers try to create their authorial voice. They focus on stringing sentences together. Trying to impress their readers with brilliant similes or metaphors or unique descriptions. The more time I spend in the main character’s head, the less I’m interested in them or care about them. Instead, give them someone to spar with immediately. In other words, one plus one equals three. When you bring two characters together, you add more life to both of them than you do by focusing exclusively on the main character. It’s chemistry. It causes reactions. And I’m not just talking about two romantic leads. The chemistry happens when two characters share a page. Any page.

For this to work, it means that every time characters appear in a scene, they need to be distinct in some way. In movies, there are lots of “extras”—people that don’t have major roles to play, but they add emotional depth. Instead of trying to flesh out all of these extras with random details, I tap people I’ve known from work, church, family, friends—wherever I can find them. In fact, having a writer’s mind helps me when I meet new people because their mannerisms might make them perfect for a role as an innkeeper, a noble, a poisoner.

Let me be specific by providing an example. I think I really achieved a new level as a writer with my original Legends of Muirwood trilogy because of the character development. I really tried to get it right, compared to my earlier attempts. The beginning of the novel The Wretched of Muirwood takes place in the Aldermaston’s kitchen on the night of a terrible storm that threatens to flood the abbey. The main character, Lia, is in the loft listening in on a conversation happening in the kitchen between the head cook, Pasqua, and the Aldermaston, a stern man prone to bursts of anger. My main character, Lia, doesn’t even get to speak for the first bit, but we experience her thoughts as she listens to the two people who have basically raised her as a foundling talk to each other, and it’s through their speeches that we learn about them and we learn about Lia.

I based the Aldermaston partly on a historical figure, the Confederate general Robert E. Lee. His brooding photo is still on my laptop, and I would look at it when I wrote scenes with him. I learned about General Lee from Ken Burns’s wonderful documentary on the Civil War, which I’ve watched multiple times. Having the idea of him in my head helped me write scenes with the Aldermaston. At what point would he irrupt after maintaining his often-strained patience? Pasqua, on the other hand, was based on one of my mother’s good friends. Her real name is Pasqua, and I’ve pretty much channeled part of her personality in the book while taking many creative liberties. Most of the time I change the names to protect the innocent, but I just couldn’t think of a better name for Pasqua’s character than the real one! And I loved the maternal role she plays in Lia’s life throughout the series.

Some have wondered where the term “by Cheshu” comes from (which was used by two cantankerous hunters in both of my Muirwood trilogies). Well, I based Martin (one of them) off a minor character in Shakespeare’s Henry V, Captain Fluellen. I love the Kenneth Branagh version of the film, and Ian Holm played that character and nailed it. That inspiration became the ‘voice’ of Martin, and guess what—if you listen closely to the movie or read the manuscript, you’ll find the gruff captain muttering “by Cheshu” now and then.

So many authors joke about taking revenge on people in their books. While I have done that too, I think it’s perfectly normal to find voices in the real world and incorporate them into fiction. The act of creativity is the mashing up of different existing ideas to create something new. All of my books have been inspired by other events, historical or mythological, that I’ve woven together to create new worlds my readers have enjoyed.

As I read stories that get submitted to Deep Magic, sometimes I think that the author is trying too hard to channel the voice of another author. This story feels like Dresden Files. This one feels like Harry Potter. This feels like Brent Weeks. It’s quite normal for a new author to try mimicking the voices of authors they admire. I did the same thing when I wrote my first epic fantasy Landmoor, and I encourage it for authors who love my Muirwood series who want to write and publish stories through the Kindle Worlds program. I’ve just discovered along my author’s journey that the more I made characters interact with each other, for good or ill result, the more interesting it made my books.

So here’s my advice in a nutshell. If you’re starting out, or even if you’re experienced as a writer, think about the kind of cast you need to reveal your main character to the reader. Think about the variety of people they will meet that will reveal different aspects of them. Someone they despise. Someone they trust. Someone they’re afraid of. Someone they secretly love. The interactions with these people will tell us more about them than just listening to them yammer on in their own heads. This means you’ll need to be a good people watcher. Find your voice by listening to the many voices that are already around you.

Sometimes, your best supporting characters might be people you already know. You’ll find your own voice if you listen to theirs.

Article from the February 2017 Issue of Deep Magic