R.M. Archer's Blog, page 50

Q: Quest for Thienid Opening Scene

No, this is not going to remain the title. Actually this was originally “Quest for Taravina,” and it was one of the short fantasy stories I wrote when I was seven or eight, so it was really bad. But then I further developed the world and started over, and then I overhauled the world and now I have to start over again, but it should be pretty fun. It’s going to be deeper now, knowing what I know about the redeveloped world, so I’m excited to see how it goes. Unfortunately I’m not super happy with how this opening scene turned out, but hopefully you still enjoy it. :)

Jair strode up the palace steps and was immediately escorted inside, to the throne room. He bowed low. “You wished to see me, Your Majesty.”

“Yes. Rise.”

Jair straightened, looking at the king. King Julen’s bright blue gaze still managed to startle him, despite all their past meetings.

“I’d like you to go on a scouting mission for me. You know Thienid, I presume. I have plans to invade, but I’d like to know the lay of the land first. This is to be a scouting mission only, and I’d like to have a dozen of the royal guard accompany you.” He emphasized the word ‘only’ and Jair smirked. He had been known to make messes of things, as his eyebrow piercings and ruby-studded ring attested.

“Thank you, Your Majesty, but I think my team can handle it. We don’t need supervision.”

“Oh I have no doubt you can handle it, but nevertheless I’d be more comfortable if the guard went with you.” Julen’s expression said the matter was settled.

Jair bowed slightly. “Of course, Your Majesty. We’ll leave first thing in the morning.”

“Thank you. You are dismissed.”

Jair turned on his heel and left the palace, taking his horse back from the stables and riding off toward home.

“Home” was a tiny village – if it could even be called that – just outside the worst part of the capital. It was a collection of about a dozen ramshackle buildings, most of them inns and taverns and not one of them a private home. Drunks staggered through the trash-filled streets and porch roofs sagged, but to Jair it was perfect.

He stopped at one of the inns, tethered his horse to a rotting pillar out front, and stepped inside.

He spotted his group immediately, mostly thanks to Crystal; a tall, slender elf in the midst of brown-clad miner humans was bound to stand out. He crossed the room to their table and sat down, hailing the waitress and ordering an ale.

“So,” Malachi’s dwarven voice was low, “what’s the job?”

Jair’s chair creaked as he leaned over the table and replied in an equally hushed tone. “A scouting mission. To Thienid.”

Eyes widened and eyebrows raised all around the table.

Jair nodded. “You heard me right. Thienid.”

“What information are we gathering?” Elem asked, absorbed in a map he was studying.

“He didn’t specify, so I assume anything we can.”

“We don’t have any specifics?” Crystal asked.

Jair shook his head. “None other than that he wants us to take a dozen of the royal guard to go with us, but I think he already knows that’s not going to happen.” He grinned.

“What’s the pay?” Malachi asked.

Jair paused. “He… didn’t mention it.” He immediately recognized why. “That bastard. He’s going to make us take the guard.”

“Smooth going,” Averil said, scoffing as he glanced at Elem’s map.

“I could convince him we don’t need them.” Malachi ran a hand over the blade of his battleaxe.

“It’s not brawn he’s worried about,” Crystal said. “He wants them to keep an eye on us.” She turned to Jair. “And not without cause.”

“Sure it’s not without cause, but we always get the job done, don’t we? When have we ever failed?”

Crystal gestured to his golden eyebrow ring.

“That was one time.”

Crystal rolled her eyes. “I’m just saying that maybe we should play along, take the guard, and get rid of them later on if we have to.”

“Sounds like a good plan to me,” Elem said.

“If Jair had kept his eyes open this wouldn’t have been an issue…” Averil looked pointedly at their leader, “But I suppose this works.”

“Perfect,” Jair said. “We’ll leave at daybreak. Malachi and Elem, get the ship stocked. Averil, what can you tell me about Thienid?”

Character Interview: Toril Valda

Toril is a character from The King’s Paladin, serving as a love interest to Ismena and something of an antagonist to Coraline. He’s a Mandorian ambassador, and he has enhanced charisma and influence due to training as a Paladin. (If you’d like to read more about him, he’s one of the POV characters in The Paladins from my short story collection.) Enjoy his interview. :)

Toril: *enters and shakes hands with the interviewer* Hello, sir. *sits down across from the interviewer with a smile*

Interviewer: Hello. How are you today?

Toril: I’m quite well. And yourself?

Interviewer: I’m doing fine. Shall we begin?

Toril: *nods, a smile still on his face*

Interviewer: First question: What is your name?

Toril: Toril Emlen Valda.

Interviewer: How old are you?

Toril: I’m twenty-one.

Interviewer: Do you have any siblings?

Toril: Not by blood, no.

Interviewer: You have adopted siblings?

Toril: Of a sort. I was raised with five others by Eliot Dashire. None of us were ever very close in the way siblings generally are, though. Except perhaps myself and Dorian.

Interviewer: What was that like? Growing up with them?

Toril: *sighs* Somewhat difficult. Several of us never really saw eye-to-eye. There were, of course, the outcasts, those who didn’t fit in with the rest of us. There were fights, competitions, that sort of thing. But it worked as well as it needed to and Eliot kept us all from killing each other. *grins*

Interviewer: Who were the outcasts? What made them different?

Toril: Gabel and Coraline. They were always rigid and uptight, following the rules to the letter and disapproving of our antics. Usually they sat and read when we weren’t training, though, so they didn’t cause too much trouble.

Interviewer: I see. So you believe rules are made to be broken?

Toril: At times. I’ve matured a bit since then, I’ve had to follow rules as an ambassador, but I think rules need to be bent sometimes to do good.

Interviewer: *nods* What’s it like being an ambassador?

Toril: Rather boring, actually. We’re not really needed for much nowadays. The countries have rather lost contact other than through trade, and ambassadors aren’t needed to accompany merchants on their trips. *chuckles* But that leaves me more time with Princess Ismena and the council and whatnot, learning about Mandoria and how it functions. *smiles*

Interviewer: You know the princess personally?

Toril: *nods* We’re quite close. I met her when I became an ambassador and we found we have quite a bit in common.

Interviewer: For instance?

Toril: We share a similar stance on rules, but as princess and ambassador we don’t tend to have much say in how we bend the rules. We’re held quite strictly to them, and we both seek to change that as we advance in our duties.

Interviewer: Interesting. Are you an introvert or an extrovert?

Toril: An extrovert. I spend a lot of time alone, mostly studying, but I do need my social time. *smiles*

Interviewer: What is your favorite food?

Toril: Venison. Deer are plentiful in the Laemar forest, just outside the capital, so we have plenty of fresh venison. The palace cooks roast it to perfection.

Interviewer: Do you have a favorite color?

Toril: Sky blue, Mandoria’s national color.

Interviewer: Do you have a favorite book?

Toril: Prince of Shadows. It’s one of the lesser-liked Kersir books, but I think it’s quite a fascinating story.

Interviewer: Why is it lesser-liked?

Toril: It’s less… conventional than the others. The main character makes poorer choices, people think, and has a harder time recovering from them. I say her mistakes were no worse than any others, and her slow recovery was realistic. *shrugs*

Interviewer: Do you have a favorite animal?

Toril: Horses. Useful and, in most cases, faithful.

Interviewer: What are your hobbies, aside from reading and studying Mandoria?

Toril: Playing the piano, horseback riding, and hunting are the main ones.

Interviewer: Which of these is most important to you: Kindness, intelligence, or bravery?

Toril: Intelligence.

Interviewer: And honesty or selflessness?

Toril: Selflessness, which I think breeds honesty.

Interviewer: One last question: What can’t you leave home without?

Toril: My sword.

Interviewer: Thank you for your time. *smiles* It’s been a pleasure talking with you.

Toril: Ah, the pleasure is mine. *grins and shakes the interviewer’s hand as he rises* Goodbye.

Interviewer: Goodbye.

Toril: *leaves*

P: Potential Energy

Many of us authors have way more ideas than we know what to do with, and not only that, but they tend to come at the most inopportune times. With so many ideas, how do we know which to follow and which to leave?

​Know How Many Projects You Can Write At Once

This will obviously affect how many ideas you can follow at once. I used to work on something like half a dozen projects at a time, until I decided to focus solely on The Dark War Trilogy and found that I’m way more productive when I limit myself to one project at a time. Experiment, find out what works, and use that to inform your decisions with story ideas.

​What Idea Are You Passionate About?

What idea makes you start babbling to yourself about the possibilities? What idea makes you grin? What idea makes you want to dig deeper? That’s the project you should look into. What about it excites you? What do you find yourself daydreaming about? Start with that and expand from there until you have a full-fledged story.

​What Idea Can You Not Stop Thinking About?

Similar to above, which idea grips you and won’t let go? Which idea keeps sneaking into your thoughts? Figure out what’s so fascinating about it and go from there.

​What Idea Is Most Developed?

What idea is already fairly well fleshed-out? This may sound lazy, but if it’s already significantly developed that means your brain liked it enough to build on it, even subconsciously, which is a pretty good indicator of a worthy idea.

​What About All the Ideas You Can’t Use?

But now what happens to all the ideas you’re unable to write? First, try implementing them into existing stories. If you can’t do that, consider writing them as short stories if you can’t develop them into full novels, or giving them to fellow writers who are struggling for ideas.

Not sure how to successfully finish your new project? Check out my post 5 Tips To Help You Stick To a Writing Project!

How do you determine a good idea? What writing project are you really passionate about right now?

O: Overambitious Goals

Goal-setting can be both exciting and stressful. Generally we make these at the beginning of the year, promptly forgetting about them or going off the rails. We also make smaller-scale goals for smaller aspects of our life, and generally these are easier for us to reach but we’re still not perfect. I’m largely talking in this post about the former type, but this also applies to the latter type for those of us who tend to go for overachieving at times or wrongly estimate how much time we’ll have to do things.

First, how do we end up making overambitious goals? Well, we overestimate our abilities, we tell ourselves we have to get these things done, we decide this is the year we’ll actually do what we said we’d do five years ago… There are a lot of factors that go into making overambitious goals. Sometimes we don’t know we’re going to have trouble with a goal until we try, and we think it’s better to shoot too high than too low (which is probably true). But then what do you do when you realize you can’t hit a goal?

​Don’t Beat Yourself Up Over It

This is important. If you don’t meet a goal, it’s not the end of the world. Yeah, it’s disappointing. No, it’s not ideal. But it’s not going to kill you, under most circumstances. If your goal was to remember to feed the dragon every day and you missed a week, well… I’m sorry for you. But in general a missed goal is not actually as big a deal as you think it is, so don’t get down on yourself for messing up.

​Set a New Goal

Set a new goal, lower the existing goal, modify the existing goal, whatever. Don’t give up altogether unless it’s something you think you *should* give up on. Your goal was get three novels ready for publication by the end of the year and there’s no way you’re going to even get all three first drafts done? Lower your goal to something like “complete first drafts of book 1 and 2,” or something even lower than that. Don’t stop working toward that goal, just understand that you can’t make the entirety of it and adapt accordingly.

​Make Action Steps

Ideally you’ll have made these when you made the original goal, but if you want to achieve a goal you need to figure out the smaller steps it’s going to take to get there. You want to go into freelance editing? Do research, figure out your rates, get testimonials, set up a page, figure out a payment method, determine how taxes work, etc. Figure out how long each step is likely going to take and set up a goal deadline accordingly. If you need it done by a certain time and the steps are going to take too long, figure out a way to shift them and whatnot to make the timeline workable. (No shortcuts.) That said, don’t try to force it.

How can we prevent setting unattainable goals in the future?
​Know Your Limits

Know how much time you have in a day, how much time you can devote to a project in a month, how many days in a row you can work without an off day, etc. Know your limitations to the best of your ability. Now, if this is early on in your goal-setting career (couldn’t think of another way to put that) then you may not know your limitations yet, and that’s fine. Start slow and figure out what you can and can’t do by experimenting with different workloads.

Don’t schedule above your limit.

​Make Action Steps

Like I said before, make action steps right from the get-go. Figure out what sub-goals a given project needs and figure out a deadline accordingly, or arrange the tasks according to the deadline (whichever is applicable). Cut it down as small as you need to, whether you split it up to all the sub-levels at the very beginning or split it into larger chunks and determine smaller goals as the need arises. For instance, you may say that you have four and a half months to completely edit a novel, so you split that into drafts by month and then just before a given month you split up that month’s draft by day and figure out how much work you’re doing per day.

Some projects also may require specific tasks, like hiring someone. You’ll likely want to schedule those specifically. If you have to finish the second draft between May and June and hire an editor by July for the third draft, you’ll probably want to schedule reaching out to an editor for sometime in the last week of June. If you haven’t even researched editors yet, that’ll need to be worked into the schedule. Specifically assigning these tasks times ensures you don’t miss them and takes some stress off of you to have to remember everything you have left to do.

​Regularly Check and Update Goals

Throughout the year (or month, or week, maybe even day) check your goals and see what needs to be modified. I know the goals I set for this year aren’t anything like what they need to be at this point, so I have plans to look over them and update them to be more attainable. I’ll be both removing and adding goals, I think, and figuring out a timeline to achieve them. I’ll often get halfway through a day and realize that something I’d set to do today isn’t going to get done for one reason or another and cancel it.

Make sure you keep your goals updated and attainable, but also don’t use that as an excuse to give up goals that you need to keep working at. The aim is to keep your goals going strong, not whittle them away until they’re gone.

How about you? Have you had to revamp your goals for this year? This month? This week? Do you have a habit of setting unattainable goals? (I know I do.) Let me know in the comments. :)

5 Ways to End a Book

We all know the feeling of loss when we finish a good book (or the sigh of relief when we finish a bad one), but what are some ways that we as authors can end our own books? Here are five possible ways to end a book.

​1. The Happy Ending

The guy gets the girl, the villain is vanquished, all is right with the world, the sky is filled with sunshine and rainbows, “and they all lived happily ever after.” Probably a lot of people will tell you this is their favorite kind of ending. While I like reading a happy ending, I’m terrible at writing one. (You have been warned.) These are the endings that leave the reader with a warm fuzzy feeling and a smile on their face, and they’re likely to expect that this is your nice wrap up and there isn’t going to be more. (I mean, unless there’s a series behind it and they’re aware of that.) It’s a good ending for a standalone or conclusion to a series.

​2. The Pyrrhic Victory

The victory that is tantamount to defeat. The good guys win, but they’ve lost a lot, whether it’s people they love, their home, they’ve been mortally wounded, whatever. They’ve won, but things aren’t looking good. Apologies to anyone who doesn’t like this ending, because I plan on writing it at least once in The Dark War Trilogy.

​3. The Open Ending

My specialty, both because I stink at actually ending things and because I like to leave space for sequels and other connected stories. (My mom actually said as she was helping me edit short stories, “You don’t like ending your stories, do you?”) Three out of four of the short stories in my short story collection have open endings to one extent or another (and the fourth’s could be considered open if you wanted it to be). An open ending doesn’t really end the story, but leaves it open to more… story… in the future. Mine are sometimes mixed with the other ending types on this list. In the short story collection there’s a happy ending, a tragic ending (which we’ll talk about later), and two purely open endings (one sort of leads into The King’s Paladin and the other could about be a prequel to a full novel (but it won’t be. Don’t get your hopes up.)), the second of which I suppose could also be considered a cliffhanger.

​4. The Cliffhanger

“Stephanie tripped and fell off the ledge, screaming as she fell toward the rocks and crashing waves below…” And the book ends. Tada! I use these for chapter endings more than actual book endings (partially because I don’t think I’ve written a series yet that goes in strict chronological order with each book starting directly after the other), but it can be a lot of fun. November 1st two years ago I was working on finishing House of Mages for NaNoWriMo and I intentionally ended every chapter I finished that day with a cliffhanger because I was copying them directly onto a document that Allegra was reading and it was her birthday. I think she got five cliffhangers in just one day. She hated me, but it was a ton of fun seeing her reaction. (I kind of cooled it after that, though. I’m not entirely mean to my readers.) Don’t use this at the end of a standalone, don’t do this at the end of a book in a series if you don’t plan on promptly answering it in the next book. Be intriguing and a bit mean, not cruel.

​5. The Tragic Ending

And then everyone died. The end. This is where pretty much everyone dies, the world is a disaster, and the villain is probably locked away but he might have escaped or there might be the possibility of his escape. (Only use that second half if this is part of a series. Don’t truly end on quite that dark a note, please.) When writing a tragic ending, however, make sure there’s some glimmer of hope, otherwise your readers will be greatly disappointed and will send you nasty fanmail. (Okay, I sincerely hope they’re more tasteful than that, but you get the point.) Be tragic, wrench at their heartstrings, don’t break them and make them want to burn the book.

​Bonus: The Unsatisfactory Ending

Where there are still loose ends, the plot didn’t make sense and you have way too many unanswered questions, but the series is over and the prequels give you no more information (if anything they give you more questions). Yes, that’s oddly specific, just don’t do this. These are the kinds of books that make me want to throw them at a wall, rip them up, and burn them, but they’re from the library so I have to just tolerate the atrocious writing and lack of answers. There are enough books like this. Don’t add to them.

What’s your favorite kind of ending? Your least favorite? What’s the best example you’ve seen of a great ending?

N: Names in Writing

Names have many uses in fiction, both inside and outside of the book. (Pen names, anyone?) As such, this is going to be split into three sections.

​Character Names

This is probably the first thing you think of when you think of names in stories. After all, the characters are the most important part, right? Well I don’t think that’s entirely accurate, but character names can play a big role in your story.

Telling of Genre

One character name superpower is easily showing a book’s genre. Now generally you’d know what genre a book is from reading the synopsis or looking at the cover, but sometimes one or the other of those things isn’t done well (I recently saw a fantasy book with a cover that screamed historical fiction), names can be a big clue. A character named Caltraxor is probably a sci-fi character, I character named Veldana is probably fantasy, a character named Elizabeth could very well be from a historical fiction, etc. How do you know if your character’s name fits the genre? Well… Sci-fi names tend to have a more exotic edge to them, with more letters like Z, X, and Y. They can also have apostrophes in weird places, but please spare your readers the agony of trying to pronounce a name with too many apostrophes. Fantasy names tend to have a more regal, noble air to them or can be a bit mysterious. Names like Celaena, Veldana, Wisterin, and Rea can be good fantasy names. (Apparently ending a female name with an A is also fairly common/easy.) For dystopian/post-apocalyptic names there’s actually a tip online to say normal names (like Jane, Maria, James, Peter) with a mouth full of Oreos. The results are things like Dannel, Marth, Rith, Brickney, and Mayhem. I don’t actually know what formula you’d use for making them just off the top of your head, but the Oreos thing works pretty well from what I can tell. (Plus, you know, Oreos.)

Telling of Character

One of my favorite things to do is choose character names based on their meanings. I don’t always do this – sometimes I just pick what sounds cool – but a lot of times it’s fun to select a character’s name based on its meaning. Choose something important about your character, maybe they’re fierce or have a big heart or are reckless, and look up names related to that thing.

Another fun thing can be looking up a name’s meaning after you’ve already chosen it. My character Coraline‘s name means “heart,” which fits her absolutely perfectly, and I picked her name way before I knew what it meant (in fact, it was one of the first things I came up with). Lucienne‘s name means “light,” and she serves as a light to both Nissa and Detren over the course of The Shadow Raven. I have two brothers, Sulien and Ciaran, whose names mean “sun born” and “little dark one,” and the names are reversed from their personalities. In one of my earliest stories, the first one I ever outlined (which poisoned me to outlining for a while, lol) included a character named Rhianna, queen of the fairies, whose name I later realized means “great queen.” There are obviously a lot of names that don’t end up having weirdly fitting meanings, but it’s a lot of fun when they do work out that way and, at least for me, it’s oddly frequent.

It can also be telling of character if their name really doesn’t fit them, if they know that. Obviously the easiest way would be meanings (I have a jerk of a pirate character whose name means “grace”), but what if they just don’t particularly like their name? I’ve never particularly liked my name – partially because it associates me with the Little Mermaid who happens to be my least favorite Disney princess, and also because I know it means “lion of God” and I’m not at all bold or brave so I don’t think it fits. If your character doesn’t like their name, do they still use it? Do they go by their middle name instead? Do they jump at the chance to come up with a screen name? Do they ever have it legally changed or just not use it?

Then there are also those characters on the run who change their names to keep themselves safe. In Unstoppable, almost all of our characters have aliases because they’re on the run from Grantech and think it’ll help. (This is Grantech. It doesn’t.) One character in particular, Dagmar, changed her name mostly to leave her past behind, and changes it again in a later book after more stuff happens and she wants to reforge herself again.

Telling of Setting

In a speculative fiction world, it’s quite possible that your setting could have naming conventions. In Kersir, I have a few words for each country that many of their names are based on. Having a running list of names for each one makes it easy to name a character from one of those places, and it’s easy for me to know where they’re from (’cause honestly your readers likely won’t know what your character’s name means and it’s mostly for your benefit as the author to select it based on meaning). Other kinds of naming conventions could be things like “All girls’ names must end in the letter N,” or “All boys’ names must be six letters long.”

Names That Come… And Names That Don’t

This isn’t really a tip, just a commiseration. Sometimes names will come immediately to mind for a character and fit perfectly. Other times you’ll spend a month trying to figure out a name that kinda-sorta fits as a place-holder. I’m generally fortunate enough to be able to come up with a character name quickly, but there have been other times when I’ve had to search and search and search for a name that worked; Catessa went through at least two official names before I settled on Catessa, and I have a whole page of names I kind of considered. My new character Ash, from the Grantech scene I posted several days ago, went through about three names and I’m still not 100% content with his name. Naming can be a struggle, but it’s wonderful when you’re finally able to settle on the right name.

​Place Names

Place names are almost as important as character names. I say almost only because character names are used more and thus have an edge on place names, but really there’s little difference in importance.

Telling of Genre

Just like character names, place names can help determine a story’s genre. If all the places are unpronounceable, you’re probably reading sci-fi. (I do not suggest making your names unpronounceable). If they’re regal – Erilea, Parenna, Minas Tirith, Paravel – they’re probably fantasy. If they’re really boring nouns that simply describe the place itself, it’s probably dystopian. (Please at least be creative with those). Another possibility with dystopian/post-apocalyptic names is to modify the existing name of the place. For instance, calling Washington D.C. Warden in Mournseeker. While these names aren’t particularly similar, I started with the letter W because the original was Washington. Bella from While I Was Sleeping and Rebellion Ever After lives in Minton, formerly known as Mineral, Idaho. This makes things a little easier on you trying to come up with the names and may or may not give your readers a clue as to where they are in the world they know.

Telling of Setting

I poked fun at dystopian stories for naming things simple descriptive nouns – The Maze, The Scorch, Pures, The Selection, Dwellers, etc. – but descriptive names can actually be helpful… when used well and creatively. For instance, super-powered humans in Concordia (the country where Grantech is located, a.k.a. future America) are called Genetic Deviants, Deviants for short; while this is a descriptive noun, it’s also not the most glaringly obvious noun I could have chosen (like “Mutants”), so it’s not so obtrusive. Feel free to use nouns subtly.

There are also settings like Camp Green Lake in Holes. The opening paragraph of Holes is this:

There is no lake at Camp Green Lake. There once was a very large lake here, the largest lake in Texas. That was over a hundred years ago. Now it is just a dry, flat wasteland.​

Misnamed settings can be really interesting and offer deeper insight into the world. Why was it misnamed? Was it originally misnamed or has something simply changed, like in Holes?

You could also pick a place name based on its meaning, or give a made-up name a meaning in whatever fantasy language it’s in. Again, your reader likely will never know that it means what it means, but it can be fun or helpful for you to know, as the author.

​Pen Names

This is almost like a bonus section, since it’s not naming a fictional thing. Pen names are obviously not necessary to publish, but some people choose to use them because they want to write in multiple genres and want to keep them separate or because they want to remain anonymous or for some other reason. I’m using one because I think it sounds cooler and more fantasy-ish and because if my dad ever finally finishes and publishes his book he’ll be using a pen name and I kind of followed his example.

Whatever your reason for using a pen name, you’ll  want it to be one that fits you, that you can be comfortable using everywhere, using for yourself, and that fits your genre. For instance, if you’re a fantasy writer you probably don’t want a pen name like Rosie Mallard, which sounds like either a mystery or historical fiction romance author. (Tip: Initials tend to be popular with fantasy authors. J.K. Rowling, C.S. Lewis, George R.R. Martin, J.R.R. Tolkien, etc.)

One thing you can do when developing a pen name is base it on your real name. My pen name, R.M. Archer, is based on my real initials. Even when I use a screen name it always starts with A, like my real name.

Or, of course, you could totally deviate away from your real name and go by Parsley Marigold when your name is Terra Patterson. Pick something that fits you and fits your writing and you’re good to go.

Do you enjoy naming things? What method do you use?

M: Mournseeker Compound Scene

Mournseeker is a story that I started based on a random idea I had for a line of dialogue. I don’t remember when I had the idea for the dialogue, but I started the story last July and didn’t write past about 3.5k due to unsurety about the worldbuilding (which is super cool but doesn’t line up with any of my other universes and thus I’d have to design from scratch). It’s sort of a western dystopian story, the MC is a gunslinger, what I know of the world is super cool, reading over it again I really enjoyed the writing voice I used, and it’s just generally a cool idea (and the first of a planned trilogy).

Anyway, compounds are a cool thing in this world, so I intended to have a scene in which Gen and Reyce (the two MCs) enter Warden Compound, but then there was a mishap and… well, just read and find out.

Concrete walls loomed up above Gen, a welcome sight after the bleak journey now behind them. Her wounds stung as dust blew into them and she looked forward to a chance to rest and recuperate in someplace at least marginally safe. She glanced over at Reyce, who gave her a weary smile, still heavily favoring his right leg.

Gen took a deep breath and stepped up to the barred gate, one hand on a pistol, and addressed the guard. “Hello. I’m Gen Hartley, this is Reyce-”

The guard cut her off. “ID?”

Gen dug around in her jacket pocket and finally pulled out her battered ID card, showing it to the guard. He looked it over and passed it back.

“And his?” The guard jutted his chin toward Reyce.

“I don’t have mine,” Reyce said.

Gen’s shoulders seemed to weigh down even more. Of course not. He probably lost it somewhere like an idiot.

“I can’t even consider letting you in without an ID.”

Tabitha merowed from Gen’s bag. “Please,” Gen said. “We’ve been traveling for nearly a month. We need to get into the compound. Just let us stay for a day-”

“No. Not without proper ID. You must know that Warden is a highly restricted area. If we were to allow in anyone, with or without proper ID, we’d be blown up within days. It’s simply impossible. Besides, that cat of yours could be carrying disease.” He gestured to Tabitha, peeking out of Gen’s bag. The cat growled.

Gen sighed, feeling heavier by the minute. “Well what do you expect us to do then?”

“I can let you in,” the guard said, “but your friend and cat will have to stay out here.”

“Out here. In the dust, with raiders everywhere, severely wounded. You want me to just leave him?”

“Or you could all stay out here. I’m afraid I can’t let you inside.”

Gen shook her head and turned around, stumbling a few steps away from the gate. “Wow,” she whispered.

“It’s okay,” Reyce said, limping to stand next to her. “We’ll just stay out here. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time.”

“But this is Warden. We need the security.”

“Yes, it’s Warden, the most heavily-guarded compound in the nation. Did you really think they’d just let us walk in? You’re smarter than that, Gen. Besides, I’ve never known you to back down from a challenge.”

“We’ve been traveling for a month, Reyce. Our supplies are almost gone, I’m almost out of ammo, and we’re both severely injured.” She took a seat on the rocky ground. “Maybe sleeping outside isn’t new, but I know it’s not safe for tonight. We need a compound.”

“We don’t have one.”

“I can see that!” Gen snapped. She took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. I’m just frustrated and tired and…” She looked over at him. “How did you even manage to lose your ID?”

“I think I lost it in a fight, or I might have lost it on a bet. It doesn’t matter. What matters is finding someplace to sleep tonight. Surely there’s an abandoned car nearby.”

Gen shook her head. “Not near Warden. They’d take them all in and repair them. The biggest, most advanced compound in the nation. They don’t let anything go to waste.” She pulled out her water bottle and shook it; it was empty. She set it beside her and rested her arms on her knees. “We can’t keep doing this, Reyce.”

“We have to. I’m not going to let you die, and you can’t let yourself die. If you give up then you’ve already lost. You hate losing.”

“Yeah, well maybe this is a fight we can’t win.” Gen looked over at him. “Maybe I need to just give up and let the dumb Mournseeker kill me so it’ll be done with us.”

“If it kills you it’ll just choose a new target. We can’t afford to lose you.”

“Who’s we? We’re miles from home; everyone there is living without me already. No one anywhere else we’ve been has cared. You’re the only one who would know if I died. And maybe Charlotte, but she really doesn’t count.”

“You’re Gen Hartley, the best hunter west side of the Rush. You’re a fighter, a hunter, a survivor. You don’t give up, and you hate losing.”

“Not this time.” Gen stood, stuffing her water bottle back in her bag next to Tabitha, and walked off across the wasteland.

L: The Last Assassin Contest Scene

The Last Assassin is probably my favorite of my stories, and I look forward to having the other two Dark War books caught up so I can keep writing it. In the meantime, I’ll welcome a chance to look back at some of my favorite scenes, and this is one of them. “Tibessa” is the most-shipped relationship in the trilogy according to Allegra and Siberia, and I pretend I’m not part of the fandom… but I really am. ‘Cause these two are awesome. (I’m totally not the one who came up with their ship name in the first place… *cough*)

Anyway, without further ado, let me introduce you to Catessa and Tiberius. :)

Someone took the stool next to hers and she didn’t glance up.

“This seat taken?” the newcomer asked, voice deep and rich.

She shook her head, still not looking up from her bowl.

“Something wrong, beautiful?”

She grabbed a dagger and whipped it up to his neck in an instant. “No one calls me ‘beautiful’ unless I let them,” she growled.

He held his hands up in surrender. “Sorry. It won’t happen again.”

“I should hope not.” She tucked her dagger away slowly and looked him over. Steel grey eyes, black hair shaved short on the sides, a neatly trimmed beard, and enough rings on his fingers to pay for a year’s worth of ale.

“Tiberius Alister,” he said, extending a hand.

She didn’t bother to shake it. “Catessa Regan.”

“Nice to meet you. Are you new around here?”

“Somewhat. You?”

“I come here regularly, but I live at sea. Where are you from?”

She hesitated before answering, trying to decide if it was wise to tell him or not. “Kaloris.”

He nodded. “I’ve been there a few times. It’s a nice place.” His gaze swept over her once. “You’re pretty good with that knife of yours.”

“I’ve been practicing a long time.”

“I believe it. Assassin?”

Catessa narrowed her eyes at him a bit. “What makes you think that?”

He smiled. “There are very few people as well-skilled with knives. Don’t worry, your secret’s safe with me.” He leaned close and whispered. “I’m a pirate.”

“I thought so.”

He leaned back. “You came in on a merchant vessel?”

She nodded.

“My ship passed yours several days ago.”

“The fast ship with the skull standard?”

He nodded. “The Speed Demon, I call her. The fastest ship on the sea.”

“Fitting. Where was she made?”

“Here in Roenor. I’m good friends with a shipwright here in Vanore. I’m friends with lots of people here, actually. You’d be surprised how many are accepting of pirates.”

“Then why whisper to me?”

Tiberius nodded discreetly toward Pellan. “Your friend over there. I don’t much like the looks of him. Not that I doubt he already knows what I am. An attentive fellow, that one.”

“He’s an ambassador. I’m his escort.”

“Ah. Most may think it’s the other way around.”

“That’s safer for us. They’ll attack me thinking I’m the target and never know what hit them.”

Tiberius smiled a bit. “I don’t doubt that.” He glanced over at an uneven target painted on one of the tavern walls. “How about a contest? Best of three.” He pointed.

Catessa followed his point and nodded. “Sounds good. Prepare to be beaten.”

“Cocky.” He grinned. “I like that.”

She arched an eyebrow. “Careful, or you might just end up the target.”

Tiberius laughed and got up from his place, standing a ways back from the target. Catessa followed him. The pirate gestured toward the target. “Ladies first.”

Catessa took out one of her daggers and threw it end over end straight into the bull’s eye with a rewarding thud.

Tiberius stepped forward and pulled a knife of his own from his boot, throwing it so that it landed right next to hers, with barely a hair’s breadth between them.

“Impressive,” Catessa said with a hint of a smirk. She drew out a second dagger and landed it right between the two knives. It wedged both outward with its handle.

“Don’t mangle my knife,” Tiberius warned. He grabbed a second blade, this one from his long coat, and threw it directly under Catessa’s first dagger.

She stepped forward with a third dagger and threw it a hair’s breadth away from Tiberius’ second knife.

Tiberius’ last throw mirrored Catessa’s, jamming right between his and hers.

“I believe that would be a tie,” Tiberius said, grinning.

“That was an impressive display,” Catessa admitted.

“As was yours. I have never before met my equal in knife throwing.” He bowed and rose back up, still grinning. “Tell me, do you know any stories?”

“A few.” She regarded him curiously. “Why?”

“Well, I happen to know that the people who frequent this tavern are fans of story. I like to entertain them when I’m here. But something fresh from a new face… I believe they’d like that better than something from an old salt like me.” He winked.

K: The King’s Paladin Opening Scene

As I promised yesterday in the introduction to Ammadeus Maste’s interview, today’s excerpt is from The King’s Paladin, the third book in The Dark War Trilogy. I don’t know this one quite as well, I don’t have it fleshed out quite as well as the other two yet, but I look forward to further developing and writing it in the semi-near future.

Without further ado, here’s the opening scene.

Coraline ran down the hallway, heart pounding. Fear was mirrored in her kaleidoscopic eyes as she wrenched open the door to her mentor’s room. There he was, lying still and almost lifeless on the bed.

She ran to his side and clutched his arm. “Wake up!” she urged him, desperation filling her voice. “Please, you have to wake up!”

The man didn’t stir.

Tears spilled down Coraline’s face as she fell to her knees next to his bed, barely noticing the physician on the other side of the room. “You can’t die,” she whispered. “I’m not ready.”

“You can’t stay,” the physician said.

“I’m not leaving.” Coraline’s gaze didn’t move from her mentor’s still face.

“Your presence will do nothing to help Sir Eliot’s recovery.”

“I’m not leaving,” Coraline repeated, firmer this time.

“Please, Coraline. You have to leave.” There was compassion in the doctor’s voice, but also pleading for her to go.

She knew, as much as she hated it, that he wished to spare her the pain of watching Eliot die.

“He’s my mentor.” She was barely audible. “I’m not leaving.”

“I’ll get the guards if necessary.”

“Go ahead.”

The physician hesitated, to make sure she truly wouldn’t leave on her own, before heading into the hallway and waving a pair of guards over.

They came in and grabbed Coraline’s arms, dragging her up. She wrested one of her arms away, but the guard recaptured it a moment later and both guards tightened their grip.

A moment later Coraline felt a rush of power go through her. A cry ripped from her lips as she wrenched her arms away again, this time as if the guards’ hands were covered in butter.

She took Eliot’s hand, sobbing. He was dead.

“I’m so sorry, Coraline,” the physician said.

Coraline didn’t move, didn’t do anything to acknowledge that she had heard the doctor, just knelt, holding Eliot’s hand and looking down at his worn face. She was on her own.

A minute later a soft hand rested on her shoulder, bringing only minor comfort, and her best friend knelt next to her, mourning alongside her.

J: Jumping the Gun

When you first finish a first draft, it can be easy to think it’s the best thing in the world. You can’t wait to share it with everyone you know and you immediately set about to editing, announcing to everyone that you’re going to publish this thing and maybe start amassing funds for an editor…

And then you look at the book several months later and you just ask your younger self why you ever thought this was good. And after you’ve bought a gorgeous cover and already hired an editor (not the kind of editor you needed, on top of everything else), you decide this is in absolutely no shape to be published in the remotely near future and your only apology is a collection of short stories.

Yeah. This was me. My goal in this post is to help you avoid falling into the same holes I did.

Set it aside

DO NOT go straight from first draft to second. Just don’t. You need to set it aside for at least a month (optimally longer) and come back to it with fresh eyes. Don’t look at it while you’re still on a high with it or you’ll be blind to all its flaws and your edit will be entirely ineffective.

Hire an editor after you’ve taken several passes of your own

Make your story as good as you can on your own before hiring an editor. Don’t give them a disaster to unravel for you. That giant mess is your job; the editor is to catch the issues you only don’t notice because you wrote it and you know things the reader doesn’t. Your editor shouldn’t be a crutch.

I sent House of Mages to an editor after just one rewrite because I knew it was a disaster, intending for the editor to point out all the issues and tell me how to fix them. As someone now going into editing myself, and someone who has had short stories edited multiple times since House of Mages, this is not how an editor is supposed to work, nor is it how you should hope for them to work. An editor will point out your issues, they may suggest a couple of ways to solve the problem to get you started, but in the end you’re the author and you’re the one doing the heavy lifting and deciding what does or doesn’t work for your story.

Communicate with your editor (also, price isn’t everything)

Research editors, pick the best for you, and don’t just jump at the cheapest offer you get. I don’t mean anything negative toward the editor of House of Mages at all, she’s a wonderful person and she did well at what she did, but I took her offer to edit cheap without talking to her at all about the process in advance or knowing what type of editing she was doing. I assumed she’d be a developmental editor, not yet fully grasping that the different editing styles do not all come as a package deal in most circumstances, and ended up with a copy-editor. Always communicate with your editor.

Don’t announce that you’re going to publish until you’re sure you want to publish

This should probably be at least the second or third draft. I still haven’t announced to any of my friends (except my best friend) that I’m planning on publishing a novel later this year, because I don’t want to end up reprising House of Mages and disappoint everyone twice in a row. I’m quite sure I’m going to publish this novel in the fall, and I’m working to get it polished (the first draft was far better than House of Mages, being a year younger, which helps), and I have a whole schedule laid out for getting it ready on time, but I haven’t shared it yet.

Likewise, don’t buy a cover until you’re sure you want to publish

Do not spend $80 on a lovely cover if you’re not 100% sure you’re actually going to publish your book. The cover is great, but what use is it without a book? At best, if you let this story go you might come back to it and be able to use the cover. At worst, you’ve wasted a cover (and however much money you spent on it) and it can never be used by anyone else, or you do come back to the story and by the time you’re done rewriting it the cover totally doesn’t fit anymore. I’m hoping I’ll end up in the first camp with House of Mages’ cover, but I don’t hold out a ton of hope for that.

Allow yourself plenty of time

Preparing a book for publication is a lot of work. There are multiple rounds of edits to be done, there’s a cover to be made, a gripping synopsis to be written, marketing graphics to design, giveaways to plan, proofs to be checked, etc., etc., etc. So give yourself a lot of time. The pieces that you depend on someone else for particularly need a buffer space because you never know what may come up. You’ll probably want to give yourself at least six months if not a year between completing the first draft and publication (at least early on, before you have a system down pat). It’s a long time, it can feel like an eternity to wait, but your book will be the better for it.

Be aware that you’re your own worst critic

Your story is probably crap at the first draft stage. I’m just gonna be brutally honest. It’s probably crap unless you’re Wonder Writer. But it’s also probably not quite as bad as you think. (Quite.) Get several readers (I’d say about 3-7 is probably a good number) who you know will be honest with you and tell you what needs work and what needs to stay. This would probably be a beta-reader stage, generally once the first and maybe second draft is done (at least in my experience). These people will help you see your story from a new perspective, whether they’re pointing out issues you hadn’t noticed or pointing out good things that you’ve been blind to after editing for too long and beginning to loathe your story. (If you do start to absolutely loathe your story, find the parts you do like – tiny as they may be – think about those, and take a break for a while. Editing when you hate your story does not go well.)

What is the worst writing mistake you’ve made? How did you grow from it?