Cameron Darrow's Blog, page 4
November 17, 2022
Taking the L (and Learning From It)
If you didn't know, I've been trying to participate in National Novel Writing Month. It's a program that basically challenges you to write 50,000 words in a single month (50,00 being the generally accepted minimum to call something a novel), with lots of motivational messages and a support system to help you achieve your goal.
I, ah... didn't. And won't be.
"But it's only halfway through the month! How can you give up already?" I hear you say. It's a wonderful program and it helps a lot of people; many, many projects that would have never gotten off the ground have soared because of the motivation and support provided through having such a structure and resource available for absolutely free. But after eight books and 850,000 published words, I know who I am as an author, and that even after two weeks, I've accepted that it wasn't working for me.
I started it as a challenge to myself, to do something completely different after finishing the Ashes books. I speed-outlined this new book and basically jumped in feet first to see if I could Leeroy Jenkins my way through a first draft. I got several thousand words into it, but day after day it started feeling increasingly... wrong. Without knowing where it was going, I felt like it was just meandering, that I was pumping out words just to pump out words. Turns out two weeks of outlining wasn't enough. Not even close.
I remember listening to an interview with John Cleese where he talked about his writing process, and he mentioned that the less time you have to write something, the more likely you are to lean on cliche and borrowing from other things in order to get a story out in time. That's exactly what happened to me! I realized I was just writing Midnight Magic again. The major beats were all the same, the general story was the same, even thematically it was too similar, so I immediately pulled the plug on the whole thing.
But I'm not upset at all! It was a valuable lesson. It's often said that you learn more from failure than success, and that is the case here for me.
Yes, I was having fun with all the romantic parts, and some of that will survive, but the story comes first, and I wasn't happy with what I was coming up with. I'm not the kind of writer that can just barrel forward and fix it later, I need to know where I'm going and how everything fits together. Prose takes a lot of work, and I don't like doing it twice. I would rather figure things out before I start writing. I know, definitively, that I am not a 'pantser', I can't improvise my way through a story. That's the great insight I've gained through this process. The urge to shake things up and be different post-Ashes was very strong for me, but now I know that "No, what I've been doing is fine. It's the way you work."
So while I do enjoy being back in the Alumita universe, I need to take a step back and actually look around a bit. I've been doing a lot of brainstorming and outlining again, enough to have two books on the boil now! But the progress I'm making now is only because I bailed on what wasn't working. I wasn't precious about it (sunk cost fallacy, etc.) Will that book ever see the light of day? The characters and setting will, but the story is toast, that got a hard reset.
It's okay to f*ck up. You should f*ck up, otherwise you aren't trying hard enough. You aren't growing. I tried a new process, it didn't work. That's fine! In both of these new books I'm trying things I've never done before, and I may screw those up, too! But that's fine as well. In everything, we have to give ourselves the grace to fail so we can learn from that failure.
I fell down. But now I'm standing again, and soon enough I'll be able to run.
I, ah... didn't. And won't be.
"But it's only halfway through the month! How can you give up already?" I hear you say. It's a wonderful program and it helps a lot of people; many, many projects that would have never gotten off the ground have soared because of the motivation and support provided through having such a structure and resource available for absolutely free. But after eight books and 850,000 published words, I know who I am as an author, and that even after two weeks, I've accepted that it wasn't working for me.
I started it as a challenge to myself, to do something completely different after finishing the Ashes books. I speed-outlined this new book and basically jumped in feet first to see if I could Leeroy Jenkins my way through a first draft. I got several thousand words into it, but day after day it started feeling increasingly... wrong. Without knowing where it was going, I felt like it was just meandering, that I was pumping out words just to pump out words. Turns out two weeks of outlining wasn't enough. Not even close.
I remember listening to an interview with John Cleese where he talked about his writing process, and he mentioned that the less time you have to write something, the more likely you are to lean on cliche and borrowing from other things in order to get a story out in time. That's exactly what happened to me! I realized I was just writing Midnight Magic again. The major beats were all the same, the general story was the same, even thematically it was too similar, so I immediately pulled the plug on the whole thing.
But I'm not upset at all! It was a valuable lesson. It's often said that you learn more from failure than success, and that is the case here for me.
Yes, I was having fun with all the romantic parts, and some of that will survive, but the story comes first, and I wasn't happy with what I was coming up with. I'm not the kind of writer that can just barrel forward and fix it later, I need to know where I'm going and how everything fits together. Prose takes a lot of work, and I don't like doing it twice. I would rather figure things out before I start writing. I know, definitively, that I am not a 'pantser', I can't improvise my way through a story. That's the great insight I've gained through this process. The urge to shake things up and be different post-Ashes was very strong for me, but now I know that "No, what I've been doing is fine. It's the way you work."
So while I do enjoy being back in the Alumita universe, I need to take a step back and actually look around a bit. I've been doing a lot of brainstorming and outlining again, enough to have two books on the boil now! But the progress I'm making now is only because I bailed on what wasn't working. I wasn't precious about it (sunk cost fallacy, etc.) Will that book ever see the light of day? The characters and setting will, but the story is toast, that got a hard reset.
It's okay to f*ck up. You should f*ck up, otherwise you aren't trying hard enough. You aren't growing. I tried a new process, it didn't work. That's fine! In both of these new books I'm trying things I've never done before, and I may screw those up, too! But that's fine as well. In everything, we have to give ourselves the grace to fail so we can learn from that failure.
I fell down. But now I'm standing again, and soon enough I'll be able to run.
November 3, 2022
This is Supposed to be Fun!
Okay, last week I may have taken an overly-crafty eye to writing a romance, so let me tip the scales back into balance: writing romance is so much fun!
From the Ashes of Victory took a lot out of me. The themes, the characters, the scope and scale of the events... it was a lot, and not always fun.
Being back in the Alumita universe is exactly where I need to be. For all my talk of theme and character and whatnot, just putting two people in a room and having them fight against their attraction to the other is fun! Flirting, touching, googly eyes, whatever--for me the middle of a romance is the most fun I have as an author. Yes, more than the ending, which is by definition happy (if not, it isn't a romance).
'Escapist' is almost a dirty word in some circles nowadays, but look outside! Who doesn't want to get away from all... that?
At this point I consider it a privilege to write fantasy romance. I mean, love and magic? Shameless flirting and dragons? Throw in someattempts at comedy and it's fun sitting down at the keyboard every day.
And it should be, right? Why else would I be doing it? Yes, there has to be tension, and they have to take almost as many steps back as they do forward, but you know where it's going! Momentum feels like a natural outcome of that, and momentum is good! Both in the story and in the day-to-day work of sitting at the desk and making it happen.
The hardest part for me sometimes is pacing. And the, uh... drama. To have them go in a straight line from strangers to happily ever after is boring; there need to be setbacks for there to be a story. They have to earn that happily ever after. I get it. But after putting my characters through hell in the Ashes books, having them just lie around in bed talking about their feelings has a certain appeal. (Okay fine, they can have breakfast, too.)
But in the end, a romance is about finding happiness. And isn't that what we all want? How fantastic (ha! magic) is it that that's the whole point of these stories? 70,000 words of two people finding and completing each other, making each other better. With kissy bits and sexy stuff.
Sounds like fun to me!
From the Ashes of Victory took a lot out of me. The themes, the characters, the scope and scale of the events... it was a lot, and not always fun.
Being back in the Alumita universe is exactly where I need to be. For all my talk of theme and character and whatnot, just putting two people in a room and having them fight against their attraction to the other is fun! Flirting, touching, googly eyes, whatever--for me the middle of a romance is the most fun I have as an author. Yes, more than the ending, which is by definition happy (if not, it isn't a romance).
'Escapist' is almost a dirty word in some circles nowadays, but look outside! Who doesn't want to get away from all... that?
At this point I consider it a privilege to write fantasy romance. I mean, love and magic? Shameless flirting and dragons? Throw in some
And it should be, right? Why else would I be doing it? Yes, there has to be tension, and they have to take almost as many steps back as they do forward, but you know where it's going! Momentum feels like a natural outcome of that, and momentum is good! Both in the story and in the day-to-day work of sitting at the desk and making it happen.
The hardest part for me sometimes is pacing. And the, uh... drama. To have them go in a straight line from strangers to happily ever after is boring; there need to be setbacks for there to be a story. They have to earn that happily ever after. I get it. But after putting my characters through hell in the Ashes books, having them just lie around in bed talking about their feelings has a certain appeal. (Okay fine, they can have breakfast, too.)
But in the end, a romance is about finding happiness. And isn't that what we all want? How fantastic (ha! magic) is it that that's the whole point of these stories? 70,000 words of two people finding and completing each other, making each other better. With kissy bits and sexy stuff.
Sounds like fun to me!
October 27, 2022
Deriving Theme From Character
Ahoy all! I have returned, refreshed and rearing to go!
In fact, I'm already going.
Currently I'm well into outlining a new book, my first wholly-new one in almost two years. The Alumita series has gone too long without a romantic adventure, so it's time for another one!
And, like all of my books, it started with character. I won't go into any detail about them (they're for you to discover when you read it!), but something that has bubbled up already are the themes of the book. It's a romance, so of course the overall theme is always going to be 'Love conquers all', but many of the sub-themes and other areas this book are going to explore have grown entirely out of the characters, even before I've written a single paragraph.
Thus far in the process, I've dedicated a lot of the time to working out their backgrounds, filling in the bottom of the iceberg that you, the reader, will only see the tip of poking out through the prose. Through that, figuring out what makes these people tick and why, what the story is going to be about has already become evident. Knowing where the characters are coming from is hugely important; understanding their flaws (and why they have them) drives their choices and reactions to the events of the story, which in turn helps gives rise to the overall themes.
And what is a story if not the characters? The plot is what happens, but that's not what it's about, at least not in a romance.
Theme is something that often gets overlooked when concocting a story. Many times it develops unconsciously, only emerging when the story is done, sometimes not even intentionally! It also has a whiff of the academic or arcane about it, something only discussed in classrooms, book clubs or between authors. But theme is the real answer to the question 'What is the story about?' Theme is the through-line that holds it all together.
On a nuts-and-bolts level of crafting a book, theme can help organically generate plot points and challenges for the characters. If you know what the story is about, you can hammer at it and tailor events to reinforce it. If you don't know what to do next, it's a great starting point to figure it out. Theme and character weakness both are very fertile tools (that's a thing, right?) for coming up with plot points when you're stuck. Attack her flaws, give her reasons to make bad choices (Vimika gets drunk, Skathi takes on everything herself); tailor events to exploit these things and force her to grow and change. Sticking to theme can help you do so for both main characters in a romance, since they will have different, if perhaps similar, flaws and you won't always have access to both of their thoughts.
I don't usually set out to write a book with any specific themes in mind, though the overall themes of the Ashes books are an exception. I wanted to write about the effects of trauma, depression and the invisible victims of war. From there, and putting the characters through what they went through, I aimed to have a central, single-word theme for each book: Identity. Truth. Consequences. Renewal. Responsibility. Acceptance.
The theme in Without Words of strength coming in many forms didn't really emerge until well into writing it. (Spoilers for the first half of the book) Only when Skathi had her claustrophobia attack did it really hit me what I was writing about (end spoilers (no, I don't trust the HTML spoiler tags)).
This new book is more typical of my standalones, in that the themes are developing organically from who the characters are and why they are. I can't get into specifics now of course (which may make much of this post of scant use, but I'm excited!), but this is the first time that I can recall the themes of the story emerging so early, and entirely without intention. Just imagining who these characters are, what's missing in their lives, how they will interact and how they will make each other better has made the whole process so far feel very organic and much more streamlined than any other. I already have a spine that runs through the entire thing, making it more solid and coherent. Hopefully that makes it satisfying and more than just a consumable, empty-calorie kind of romance. Yes, there will be kissy bits and a happy ending, but if you can wrap all those in something bigger and more meaningful, it stands a better chance of sticking and being more re-readable.
I apologize if this was frustratingly vague, but this process has been a bit of a revelation for me. Coming out from the Ashes books, I feel an incredible sense of renewal and being able to do anything, in new ways, and this was the first of I hope many manifestations of that.
If you're a writer, I hope you got something out of it, and if you're a reader, I hope you enjoyed a little peek behind the curtain.
In fact, I'm already going.
Currently I'm well into outlining a new book, my first wholly-new one in almost two years. The Alumita series has gone too long without a romantic adventure, so it's time for another one!
And, like all of my books, it started with character. I won't go into any detail about them (they're for you to discover when you read it!), but something that has bubbled up already are the themes of the book. It's a romance, so of course the overall theme is always going to be 'Love conquers all', but many of the sub-themes and other areas this book are going to explore have grown entirely out of the characters, even before I've written a single paragraph.
Thus far in the process, I've dedicated a lot of the time to working out their backgrounds, filling in the bottom of the iceberg that you, the reader, will only see the tip of poking out through the prose. Through that, figuring out what makes these people tick and why, what the story is going to be about has already become evident. Knowing where the characters are coming from is hugely important; understanding their flaws (and why they have them) drives their choices and reactions to the events of the story, which in turn helps gives rise to the overall themes.
And what is a story if not the characters? The plot is what happens, but that's not what it's about, at least not in a romance.
Theme is something that often gets overlooked when concocting a story. Many times it develops unconsciously, only emerging when the story is done, sometimes not even intentionally! It also has a whiff of the academic or arcane about it, something only discussed in classrooms, book clubs or between authors. But theme is the real answer to the question 'What is the story about?' Theme is the through-line that holds it all together.
On a nuts-and-bolts level of crafting a book, theme can help organically generate plot points and challenges for the characters. If you know what the story is about, you can hammer at it and tailor events to reinforce it. If you don't know what to do next, it's a great starting point to figure it out. Theme and character weakness both are very fertile tools (that's a thing, right?) for coming up with plot points when you're stuck. Attack her flaws, give her reasons to make bad choices (Vimika gets drunk, Skathi takes on everything herself); tailor events to exploit these things and force her to grow and change. Sticking to theme can help you do so for both main characters in a romance, since they will have different, if perhaps similar, flaws and you won't always have access to both of their thoughts.
I don't usually set out to write a book with any specific themes in mind, though the overall themes of the Ashes books are an exception. I wanted to write about the effects of trauma, depression and the invisible victims of war. From there, and putting the characters through what they went through, I aimed to have a central, single-word theme for each book: Identity. Truth. Consequences. Renewal. Responsibility. Acceptance.
The theme in Without Words of strength coming in many forms didn't really emerge until well into writing it. (Spoilers for the first half of the book) Only when Skathi had her claustrophobia attack did it really hit me what I was writing about (end spoilers (no, I don't trust the HTML spoiler tags)).
This new book is more typical of my standalones, in that the themes are developing organically from who the characters are and why they are. I can't get into specifics now of course (which may make much of this post of scant use, but I'm excited!), but this is the first time that I can recall the themes of the story emerging so early, and entirely without intention. Just imagining who these characters are, what's missing in their lives, how they will interact and how they will make each other better has made the whole process so far feel very organic and much more streamlined than any other. I already have a spine that runs through the entire thing, making it more solid and coherent. Hopefully that makes it satisfying and more than just a consumable, empty-calorie kind of romance. Yes, there will be kissy bits and a happy ending, but if you can wrap all those in something bigger and more meaningful, it stands a better chance of sticking and being more re-readable.
I apologize if this was frustratingly vague, but this process has been a bit of a revelation for me. Coming out from the Ashes books, I feel an incredible sense of renewal and being able to do anything, in new ways, and this was the first of I hope many manifestations of that.
If you're a writer, I hope you got something out of it, and if you're a reader, I hope you enjoyed a little peek behind the curtain.
September 22, 2022
Epilogue
Pax Victoria has been released, and as I sit here surrounded by the pile of paperbacks that are the result, I think I need to process what the ending of the series means. Don't worry, there won't be any spoilers!
Deciding the last line didn't do it. Hitting 'publish' didn't do it. It's only when I opened the package and saw all six books physically in front of me did it truly sink in that I'm done with the From the Ashes of Victory series. Flipping to the last page of Pax, reading the last line, then turning the page to see there weren't any more hit so much harder when it was an actual, tangible page. It was... I don't know, more real.
'Labor of love' is almost cliche at this point, but also apt. As proud as I am of these books (more so the characters), there were so many times that I struggled, one time I nearly gave up writing altogether, countless hours of lost sleep, but somehow I managed to stick through it and finish. The world I made and the people who lived in it deserved no less.
Weirdly, it was that strange loyalty to my own characters that saw me through to this point. I adore all of them, and failing would have been letting them down. (Not to mention robbing you, my readers, of their story). I have no control over how they will be viewed by people in the future (or viewed at all), but I hope, at the very least, that they will be remembered in the great pantheon of original sapphic characters.
Now that it's all done, I can admit that after Hall of Mirrors I almost gave up. The first three books took so much out of me, shooting them off into a sucking void required more than I had to give at the time, and I kept running into sheer walls with Colours of Dawn. Instead, I switched gears and moved to a new story (that eventually became Midnight Magic), and that shift saved my love of writing and character. I worked through the issues of Colours, and got books five and six out back-to-back, something I hadn't done since the first two.
It would be easy to sit here and espouse on what I think the themes of the series are and why I think they're important, why the story was important, but that's not really up to me. It's up to you, and posterity to decide what it was all about. I know why I wrote it and what I was trying to say, but intent isn't always impact. As the years go by and more people discover the series, those things will settle themselves out.
I know what the series has meant to those of you who have been kind enough to share your thoughts, and I am glad that you love these characters and this world as much as I do. Hearing that the books are highly re-readable is wonderfully validating; that people enjoy simply spending time with the characters again and feeling like part of the family means so much to me. That maybe, just maybe, I did something right.
As for what's next? A break. With the series done and after the last few years of... *gestures around*, some time off isdesperately needed in order. I finished Pax on fumes, and I need to re-fill the tanks, refit and recharge. After that? If you liked the history + magic part of this series, well, all I can say is stay tuned. I have ideas for several more Alumita books too, so be on the lookout for those.
I don't know when I will be posting here again, but I hope you are enjoying Pax Victoria, and maybe a re-read of the series. As always, I appreciate hearing from you however you choose to do so--reviews, DMs, Tweets, emails are all welcome and encouraged.
As for now, thank you all so much for reading the series and any kind words you have left. Those helped me immensely in the dark times, too. More than I can express. You're amazing. So stay safe and be excellent to each other.
I shall return.
Deciding the last line didn't do it. Hitting 'publish' didn't do it. It's only when I opened the package and saw all six books physically in front of me did it truly sink in that I'm done with the From the Ashes of Victory series. Flipping to the last page of Pax, reading the last line, then turning the page to see there weren't any more hit so much harder when it was an actual, tangible page. It was... I don't know, more real.
'Labor of love' is almost cliche at this point, but also apt. As proud as I am of these books (more so the characters), there were so many times that I struggled, one time I nearly gave up writing altogether, countless hours of lost sleep, but somehow I managed to stick through it and finish. The world I made and the people who lived in it deserved no less.
Weirdly, it was that strange loyalty to my own characters that saw me through to this point. I adore all of them, and failing would have been letting them down. (Not to mention robbing you, my readers, of their story). I have no control over how they will be viewed by people in the future (or viewed at all), but I hope, at the very least, that they will be remembered in the great pantheon of original sapphic characters.
Now that it's all done, I can admit that after Hall of Mirrors I almost gave up. The first three books took so much out of me, shooting them off into a sucking void required more than I had to give at the time, and I kept running into sheer walls with Colours of Dawn. Instead, I switched gears and moved to a new story (that eventually became Midnight Magic), and that shift saved my love of writing and character. I worked through the issues of Colours, and got books five and six out back-to-back, something I hadn't done since the first two.
It would be easy to sit here and espouse on what I think the themes of the series are and why I think they're important, why the story was important, but that's not really up to me. It's up to you, and posterity to decide what it was all about. I know why I wrote it and what I was trying to say, but intent isn't always impact. As the years go by and more people discover the series, those things will settle themselves out.
I know what the series has meant to those of you who have been kind enough to share your thoughts, and I am glad that you love these characters and this world as much as I do. Hearing that the books are highly re-readable is wonderfully validating; that people enjoy simply spending time with the characters again and feeling like part of the family means so much to me. That maybe, just maybe, I did something right.
As for what's next? A break. With the series done and after the last few years of... *gestures around*, some time off is
I don't know when I will be posting here again, but I hope you are enjoying Pax Victoria, and maybe a re-read of the series. As always, I appreciate hearing from you however you choose to do so--reviews, DMs, Tweets, emails are all welcome and encouraged.
As for now, thank you all so much for reading the series and any kind words you have left. Those helped me immensely in the dark times, too. More than I can express. You're amazing. So stay safe and be excellent to each other.
I shall return.
September 15, 2022
What is Pax Victoria About?
It's become tradition for me to write a "What's 'x' about?" post for every new book I publish, but it's only now striking me that this is the last one I will ever do for a From the Ashes of Victory book. I'll try to make it a good one!
For five books (eleven years to the characters), Victoria, Millie and Katya have been working towards one goal: a future that is better than their pasts. For everyone. But on the heels of the events of The Raven and the Firebird, with EVE rattled and discombobulated, that goal feels farther away than ever.
Pax Victoria picks up right where Raven left off, with hard questions to be answered and the path forward unclear. Hope and fear walk hand-in-hand, the winds of both blowing across the EVE campus in equal strength. Questions of love, legacy and responsibility abound--for no one more than Victoria.
What do you want? What are you willing to give up to get it? How does love change you? How do we change others and the world around us?
For a story that started on a quiet Christmas morning in an exhausted world with one young woman unable to confess her feelings and another with no memory of who she was, the scope and scale has never been bigger than at the end.
"Your choices are your immortality, Raven of the wood."
I hope you will join the Raven, the Firebird, the Red Knight and the Angel one more time to find out just what those choices are.
This series has been a true labor of love, and I am more excited than I can express to share its conclusion with you. Whether you've been here since the beginning or last week, it's time to find out once and for all what rises from the ashes of victory.
For five books (eleven years to the characters), Victoria, Millie and Katya have been working towards one goal: a future that is better than their pasts. For everyone. But on the heels of the events of The Raven and the Firebird, with EVE rattled and discombobulated, that goal feels farther away than ever.
Pax Victoria picks up right where Raven left off, with hard questions to be answered and the path forward unclear. Hope and fear walk hand-in-hand, the winds of both blowing across the EVE campus in equal strength. Questions of love, legacy and responsibility abound--for no one more than Victoria.
What do you want? What are you willing to give up to get it? How does love change you? How do we change others and the world around us?
For a story that started on a quiet Christmas morning in an exhausted world with one young woman unable to confess her feelings and another with no memory of who she was, the scope and scale has never been bigger than at the end.
"Your choices are your immortality, Raven of the wood."
I hope you will join the Raven, the Firebird, the Red Knight and the Angel one more time to find out just what those choices are.
This series has been a true labor of love, and I am more excited than I can express to share its conclusion with you. Whether you've been here since the beginning or last week, it's time to find out once and for all what rises from the ashes of victory.
September 1, 2022
Box Set Sale & Paperbacks!
Two big announcements for you this week!
The first is that to get ready for the release of the final book in the From the Ashes of Victory series, the box set containing books 1-3 is 50% off for a limited time! If you've been curious about the series but haven't yet started, now's the perfect chance. Three books for the price of one!
Also, the entire series (up to now) is available in paperback. If you have been put off by it being Kindle-exclusive or would just like to have them in a more permanent, heftier form, now you can!
I plan for this month to be a celebration of the series in the run-up to its end, so I hope one of these two options will get you into the spirit. If you're just waiting for Pax Victoria to release, just a few more weeks to go.
Enjoy!
The first is that to get ready for the release of the final book in the From the Ashes of Victory series, the box set containing books 1-3 is 50% off for a limited time! If you've been curious about the series but haven't yet started, now's the perfect chance. Three books for the price of one!
Also, the entire series (up to now) is available in paperback. If you have been put off by it being Kindle-exclusive or would just like to have them in a more permanent, heftier form, now you can!
I plan for this month to be a celebration of the series in the run-up to its end, so I hope one of these two options will get you into the spirit. If you're just waiting for Pax Victoria to release, just a few more weeks to go.
Enjoy!
August 25, 2022
The Hard Part
One of the last things I had to do before putting up Pax Victoria for pre-order was write the description for the Amazon page. It's the tenth one I've done and was only slightly easier than the first.
The temptation early on is to describe everything, because everything is Very Important and I spent so much time on it and the characters do the thing and this bit is super cool and don't forget that funny part and-- it's very easy to turn it into an essay or a treatise.
So what are you supposed to do? One, keep it short. Like, 250 words short. Doesn't sound like much, but giving yourself a hard limit forces you to strip it down to the essentials. People click away from walls of text, so keep it to the important parts that are the most compelling: setting, characters, stakes, obstacles. That's it, really. Who is it about (character), where (setting) why should I care (stakes), what does the character have to overcome to prevent that (obstacles). Laid out that way, you may notice that that is pretty much the description of what a story is. Exactly!
Easier said than done, though. Writing a book is one thing, describing it is another. As the author, it's even harder. I know what happens, so it's hard to know what some people will consider a spoiler. I try to only use information from the first act, with maybe a little bleed over into the second. The end of the first act usually provides the 'But...' in the description, and oftentimes the obstacles won't be obvious until act two anyway. But absolutely nothing from the second half! Think about movie trailers that have the big action scene from the climax in them. Lame, right? You wanted that in the theater, not on your phone while you're on the toilet. Book descriptions should be (I think) treated the same way.
I've messed up before, having November's true identity in the initial description for Remember, November took the fun out of it for some people. Personally, I think the story is more about how and why she is November, not who, but others might like to figure it out for themselves, or realize it at different times, so I took it out. Making assumptions can backfire, but I have to assume certain things when nobody's read the story yet. This was particularly hard for Pax since I have to assume anyone interested in the last book has read the first few and knows what I've been setting up; I can't know that, though.
One thing you might not have noticed, for example, is that I've stopped including character's surnames in the descriptions. Again, that's from assumptions that you already know who these people are.
Which brings me to my next consideration: describing a sequel versus a standalone book.
In a sequel, especially one as deep as a sixth book, describing the setting is less important for the same reasons as the name thing: if you're here, you probably know already. Longstown is a familiar place to any Ashes reader, so I just mention it. What's important to a sequel are the stakes and the obstacles, which is what the Pax description focuses on.
For a standalone (especially fantasy), setting is more important. It could be anywhere, based on anything. Take Without Words, for example. The initial setting is essentially a redwood/rain forest kind of place, and that plays into how the characters behave and see the world, especially since one of the main characters is from the desert. Without Words is also a romance, so character is as much if not more important than a normal fantasy book. Why are these characters going to fall in love? What's missing from their lives that can be filled with love? Answering that also gives you the obstacles. Recently divorced, burned one too many times, too shy, whatever reasons a romance may not work. The stakes in a romance are generally not very high (they're personal, yes, and important on an individual level, but that's not, like, a nuclear war being touched off), so they generally don't get emphasized. (If she doesn't find love, then she'll... stay single. Okay, got it.) Without Words is as much fantasy as romance, however, so it's sort of a hybrid description.
The cold reality is that the author only has control over two things to convince you to read our books: the cover and the description. Everything else is out of our hands, so both have to be a) good and b) work together in the seconds that the average book browser takes to decide if they will even go so far as to click on the preview bit and read the beginning, let alone commit to the rest.
So if you hear other others going on about how stressed they are writing the description for their books, now you know why. Condensing 100,000 words down to 250 isn't easy, but it can be a fun challenge once you know what you need to do and why.
Pax Victoria will be released September 20!
The temptation early on is to describe everything, because everything is Very Important and I spent so much time on it and the characters do the thing and this bit is super cool and don't forget that funny part and-- it's very easy to turn it into an essay or a treatise.
So what are you supposed to do? One, keep it short. Like, 250 words short. Doesn't sound like much, but giving yourself a hard limit forces you to strip it down to the essentials. People click away from walls of text, so keep it to the important parts that are the most compelling: setting, characters, stakes, obstacles. That's it, really. Who is it about (character), where (setting) why should I care (stakes), what does the character have to overcome to prevent that (obstacles). Laid out that way, you may notice that that is pretty much the description of what a story is. Exactly!
Easier said than done, though. Writing a book is one thing, describing it is another. As the author, it's even harder. I know what happens, so it's hard to know what some people will consider a spoiler. I try to only use information from the first act, with maybe a little bleed over into the second. The end of the first act usually provides the 'But...' in the description, and oftentimes the obstacles won't be obvious until act two anyway. But absolutely nothing from the second half! Think about movie trailers that have the big action scene from the climax in them. Lame, right? You wanted that in the theater, not on your phone while you're on the toilet. Book descriptions should be (I think) treated the same way.
I've messed up before, having November's true identity in the initial description for Remember, November took the fun out of it for some people. Personally, I think the story is more about how and why she is November, not who, but others might like to figure it out for themselves, or realize it at different times, so I took it out. Making assumptions can backfire, but I have to assume certain things when nobody's read the story yet. This was particularly hard for Pax since I have to assume anyone interested in the last book has read the first few and knows what I've been setting up; I can't know that, though.
One thing you might not have noticed, for example, is that I've stopped including character's surnames in the descriptions. Again, that's from assumptions that you already know who these people are.
Which brings me to my next consideration: describing a sequel versus a standalone book.
In a sequel, especially one as deep as a sixth book, describing the setting is less important for the same reasons as the name thing: if you're here, you probably know already. Longstown is a familiar place to any Ashes reader, so I just mention it. What's important to a sequel are the stakes and the obstacles, which is what the Pax description focuses on.
For a standalone (especially fantasy), setting is more important. It could be anywhere, based on anything. Take Without Words, for example. The initial setting is essentially a redwood/rain forest kind of place, and that plays into how the characters behave and see the world, especially since one of the main characters is from the desert. Without Words is also a romance, so character is as much if not more important than a normal fantasy book. Why are these characters going to fall in love? What's missing from their lives that can be filled with love? Answering that also gives you the obstacles. Recently divorced, burned one too many times, too shy, whatever reasons a romance may not work. The stakes in a romance are generally not very high (they're personal, yes, and important on an individual level, but that's not, like, a nuclear war being touched off), so they generally don't get emphasized. (If she doesn't find love, then she'll... stay single. Okay, got it.) Without Words is as much fantasy as romance, however, so it's sort of a hybrid description.
The cold reality is that the author only has control over two things to convince you to read our books: the cover and the description. Everything else is out of our hands, so both have to be a) good and b) work together in the seconds that the average book browser takes to decide if they will even go so far as to click on the preview bit and read the beginning, let alone commit to the rest.
So if you hear other others going on about how stressed they are writing the description for their books, now you know why. Condensing 100,000 words down to 250 isn't easy, but it can be a fun challenge once you know what you need to do and why.
Pax Victoria will be released September 20!
August 22, 2022
Pax Victoria Pre-order!
Greetings all! It is finally time to announce that the sixth and final book in the From the Ashes of Victory series will be released on September 20.
It's been a long time coming and I will have a lot more to say as the day approaches, but for now I will simply announce that you can pre-order the Kindle version right now. Paperback info is still pending, but I plan to have both formats available on release day.
You've all been very patient, thank you for waiting.
Links!
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B...
Amazon France: https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B0BBFWZ7NF
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BBFWZ7NF
Amazon AU: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0BBFWZ7NF
It's been a long time coming and I will have a lot more to say as the day approaches, but for now I will simply announce that you can pre-order the Kindle version right now. Paperback info is still pending, but I plan to have both formats available on release day.
You've all been very patient, thank you for waiting.
Links!
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B...
Amazon France: https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B0BBFWZ7NF
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BBFWZ7NF
Amazon AU: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0BBFWZ7NF
August 17, 2022
Title!
The title of the sixth and final book in the From the Ashes of Victory series is Pax Victoria! I revealed the cover and the first excerpt over at https://twitter.com/cdarrowwrites if you'd like to check it out.
Yes, this is the title I've always had for the final book, and it feels very strange that it's out in the world now. It's getting real!
Release date and more details coming soon!
Yes, this is the title I've always had for the final book, and it feels very strange that it's out in the world now. It's getting real!
Release date and more details coming soon!
August 12, 2022
Paperbacks Are Coming!
I am so happy to finally announce that the entire From the Ashes of Victory series will soon be available in paperback! I've always thought it was the format these books were meant to be read in, and soon it will be true!
No details on date or price yet, but I will have the first five available before 6 is released, so if you want to be able to do a series re-read, you'll have that option!
Most of the work is done already, and I am extremely pleased with how they are turning out so far. It's literally a dream coming true, and I cannot wait to share it with you.
So yes, now you know my ulterior reasons for re-reading the entire series and why I wasn't here last week. All five existing books have been overhauled, typos stamped out, punctuation fixed, grammar cleaned up (in 1 and 2), and beautifully reformatted. Even digitally, they feel like completely new books. (And yes, the ebooks will be prettier, too!) As you can imagine, this took an immense amount of work, but I'm glad I did it. The results will be well worth it.
So to reiterate, Books 1-5 will be out soon (before 6), and 6 will launch with both digital and paperback versions available.
More details to come!
No details on date or price yet, but I will have the first five available before 6 is released, so if you want to be able to do a series re-read, you'll have that option!
Most of the work is done already, and I am extremely pleased with how they are turning out so far. It's literally a dream coming true, and I cannot wait to share it with you.
So yes, now you know my ulterior reasons for re-reading the entire series and why I wasn't here last week. All five existing books have been overhauled, typos stamped out, punctuation fixed, grammar cleaned up (in 1 and 2), and beautifully reformatted. Even digitally, they feel like completely new books. (And yes, the ebooks will be prettier, too!) As you can imagine, this took an immense amount of work, but I'm glad I did it. The results will be well worth it.
So to reiterate, Books 1-5 will be out soon (before 6), and 6 will launch with both digital and paperback versions available.
More details to come!
