Rachel Aaron's Blog, page 14

Writing Wednesdays: How To Plot A Series Without Driving Yourself Insane (Part 3)

First up, thank you all for your patience with my impromptu vacation last week (it's not my fault! My husband kidnapped me and dragged me to the mountains!).

Also, thank you everyone for making the launch of One Good Dragon Deserves Another such a huge success!! It's already got 67 reviews on Amazon with a 4.7 star rating and 329 ratings on Goodreads with a 4.46 in twelve days. That is insane, and I owe it all to you wonderful people!! Thank you all so so soooooo much for reading and reviewing!! (And if you haven't read my dragon books, why not? Go try them now!)

On to business. Today we're finishing up our craft series on How to Plot a Series Without Driving Yourself Insane (see Part 1 about actual plotting steps here and Part 2 on how to craft a great and effective meta plot here) with probably the most important part of any sequential writing: internal consistency!

Writing Wednesdays: How To Plot A Series Without Driving Yourself Insane (Part 3) - Harnessing Internal Consistency to Create Flexible, Tightly-Woven Stories

When authors talk about "internal consistency," they're usually talking about details--keeping the characters' eye color and height consistent across multiple books, or not saying a plant is poisonous in book one only to have the characters eat a salad made out of it in book five. This kind of internal consistency is very important, but it's not actually what I'm talking about here. When I talk about using internal consistency in plotting, I'm talking about creating an internally consistent and persistent world.

Whether your novel is set in a Fantasy kingdom or modern New York, every writer has to do world building. I've always maintained that how much world building you need to do depends entirely upon you, your book, and your stomach for the process. But whether you're filling folders with rules for your magical system or just using Google Street View to figure out where your protagonist's bakery would be located, all good world building has one critical factor in common: it makes sense and stays consistent within its own context.

Real world building is not window dressing or set pieces. When you sit down to create the world your characters will inhabit, you're not just describing the space they're going to occupy for the length of the book. You're inventing the world that made them the people they are and the world that will persist once the story is finished. To do all that without feeling fake or flat, any world you create must make sense and be consistent within its own rules.

For some reason, stories with magic are the absolute worst about this. I can't tell you how many Fantasy/Urban Fantasy/Paranormal books I've read where the "rules of magic" are laid out in the beginning and then promptly forgotten the moment they become inconvenient to the plot. Sometimes the author gives some halfhearted "oh, X character is special so they can break the rules" cop-out, sometimes it's glossed over with hand-waving and distractions, and sometimes there's no explanation at all. Any way it falls out, though, the result is always terrible, sloppy, and really disappointing.

The opposite of this are books whose worlds and magical systems make sense internally on their own terms, with or without the plot. They're simply part of the world, and the plot is the story of the characters working within these systems. These rules do not have to be complicated, just consistent and sensible within the context of the story. They have to work on their own terms, in other words. Once you've got that, though, you've got a world readers will praise as deep and well-thought-out.

So what does all of this have to do with series plotting? Ahhhhhh, grasshopper, here's the trick. If you create a world that is internally consistent and keeps making sense with or without your plot, then you have the freedom to change your mind on that plot at any time.

No one has all their best ideas at once. You can plot a series down to the scene, but the moment you start writing, that plan will start to change. This is a totally natural and healthy part of writing. You simply do not know a novel until you're down in the trenches.

This isn't to imply that plotting isn't important. It absolutely is. To quote President Eisenhower, "Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable." Even if you don't end up following your plot, the act of having plotted, of thinking about your story in a critical, methodical way, has already made you an expert in your world, characters, and circumstances. You are, in essence, starting with what many writers would consider a second draft, which is a huge step up.

But as part of that natural plot evolution, you're probably going to change your mind about the direction your story needs to go. If you're like me, you might change entire plot arcs and/or the whole series ending before the books are done. That is a tectonic shift in the story landscape which, by the way, might very well happen mid-series after one or more books are written and published. This means there's no going back and ret-conning things that no longer fit. You have to work inside the story and make your new, way better ideas fit inside what you've already put down, and the only way to do that gracefully is if you've crafted a world that can stand on its own.

If you cheap out on worldbuilding and just make up whatever you need as you go to fit the plot, not only will your world appear poorly thought-out and shallow (because, yanno, it is), you're also tying yourself inexorably to whatever plot you've chosen. If you suddenly have a better idea for how the books should end, you can still implement it, but it's most likely going to look like it came out of left field because you had no consistent framework to set it up on.

BUT, if your world is well thought out with events that happen for logical reasons which, though the might have happened during the plot, do not exist solely because of the plot, it's a whole different ball game. So long as you keep any changes you make consistent within the rules of the world you've set up (or, if you must break them, you break them for a very very good and dramatic reason that also makes sense in context), the new plot direction is going to feel like a natural extension of what you've already written. And because it feels so natural (because you're following the rules you've been following since the beginning), readers will assume you planned it like this from the beginning, even if you had the idea that morning.

This--the power to change your plot midstream and make it look like that was your plan all along--is the power of an internally consistent world. To cite a personal example, I changed my mind on the ending of my Eli Monpress series multiple times, including while I was writing the fifth and final book. Keep in mind, four other books were already published at this point. I had to work within the story that was already published. If I'd been less careful about my worldbuilding, these back and forth changes would have created a horrible mess. BUT, since I made sure all my plot changes made sense within the rules, characters, and setting I'd already put down over four books, they actually fit right in, and no one ever knew. (Until now, I guess. I'm sorry if I just burst anyone's bubble about my infallibility and seer-like vision of the future!!)


Writer confession: The road between these books was neither straight nor clear when I set out. Despite my well-planned path, most bridges were actually invented while traveling because the ones on the map simply wouldn't do the job well enough. When I glanced back at where I'd been, though, it looked like this path had been my plan the whole time. Elite pro-skills? Nah, just good world building that let me jump on the best idea possible and make it work.
I really can not stress enough how important setting up internally consistent world is for the working writer. If you are actively writing and publishing a series, or if you plan to do so in the future, do yourself a favor and take the time to make sure your world is working for you, not against. Because I guarantee there will be a moment when you're writing along and suddenly you'll just know how it all works out. The pieces will click together, and a new, fantastic plot will fall into your lap. This is just how the human brain works, and you want to be ready to capitalize on those moments of brilliance with a strong, sturdy, well-built world that can roll with the punches.

I've had so many readers praise my incredibly long vision in setting up the ending of a series all the way from book one, when really all I did was write an internally consistent story. Whenever I had a plot epiphany (or just realized that a plot decision I'd made previously was dumb), all I had to do to completely change the story was figure out how to fit the new stuff into the strong, living, consistent world I'd already built. Once I figured that out, my new plot would snap right into place, and the story would flow on like this twist was my plan right from the beginning. I looked like a boss, my readers were delighted, and my stories were immeasurably better because I was free to move the plot to the best idea whenever I had it, not just whatever was down on my outline.

If you take nothing else from this series on plotting, I hope you'll take this. Even if you're writing a standalone, taking the time to create an internally consistent world where everything happens for a reason and makes sense within its own context is never a bad move. Your readers will thank you, I will thank you, and you'll thank yourself later when you've written yourself into a corner and all that good consistent world building shows up to save your bacon (it'll happen sooner or later, trust me).

I hope you've enjoyed this series! I do craft posts every week for Writing Wednesday, so if you want to see me tackle more big writing ideas in this kind of detail, please leave your suggestions or questions in the comments. I want to write what you want to read about, so just let me know what writing areas you're struggling with or curious about, and I will be happy to try and answer them!

As always, thank you so much for reading! I really hope this blog helps you with your writing, wherever you are in your career. If you don't already, please follow me on the social media outlet of your choice via the icons at top of the blog for updates on my books, writing tips, and occasional hilarity. You can also sign up for my mailing list to be the first to know about any new fiction or non-fiction writing books I put out. I swear I will not spam you!

And with that, I'm out! See you next week for another Writing Wednesday (if not sooner), and as always, happy writing!

Yours always,
Rachel

The Knife Test (or, What ONE PIECE Taught Me About Writing)

Years and years ago (five to be exact), I did a two part blog series on the sadly defunct author group blog The Magic District called "The Author Toolbox." These two posts contain some of my most fundamental writing beliefs, and while one, The Three Hooks got its own repost on this blog and a mention in 2k to 10k, the Knife Test got sadly left behind.

This must be remedied. For 12 novels now, the Knife Test has been a fundamental part of every character I've written. It's the first and last test for every character arc I create, and it's also a ton of fun to do. So, without further ado, I give you the (freshly updated!) Knife Test, my ultimate trial for any character who wants a place in my books.

The Knife Test

The Knife Test is something I put to all my characters. Nerd that I am, the idea comes from an anime called One Piece, which is just about the greatest show ever. If you can get past its cartoony nature and corny humor, there is an amazing story there. (And if you read my Eli Monpress books, you'll probably recognize a lot of themes. What can I say? Steal from the best!!)
In the show, there’s a character named Zoro whose dream is to be the greatest swordsman in the world. Around the end of season one, he comes across the actual greatest swordsman in the world, a man named Mihawk. Now, Zoro KNOWS he is too short for this ride, but he also knows that he might never get this chance again, so he challenges Mihawk to a duel. (Because, of course, the only way to be the greatest swordsman in the world is to beat the guy who’s already at the top.)
Mihawk refuses. He knows Zoro is way below him in skill. Dueling him would be a waste of everyone's time and most likely Zoro's life. When he sees how determined Zoro is, though, he agrees to fight him, but only with a small dagger.
Zoro is insulted. He has three swords, how you fight that with just a tiny dagger? Mihawk counters that the dagger is all he needs. Seeing that he's not going to get his duel any other way, Zoro reluctantly agrees and the fight begins. Zoro (who has been undefeated in the series up to this point) goes all out, but is still defeated in one stroke. The fight ends with Mihawk holding his tiny dagger lodged in Zoro’s chest. 
But even with a dagger in his chest, Zoro doesn't retreat. He just stands there, staring at his opponent. Confused, Mihawk says, “This dagger is an inch from your heart. Why don’t you step back? Do you want to die?”
Zoro looks him straight in the eye and says, “If I were to take even one step back, I’d never be able to stand before you again.”
“Yes," Mihawk says. "It’s called losing.”
And Zoro answers, “That’s why I can’t step back.”

Still probably my favorite fight of all time.
And that, that right there, is the knife test. When the knife is scraping your heart, what do you do? Do play it safe, step back, and live? Or do you refuse to give up on your goals? Do you keep moving forward, even knowing you'll probably die? 
This is the ultimate test of conviction. All of my main characters have to pass it, and I have to understand (and more importantly, make the reader understand) why. I put my characters through this test in the initial world building stages, and then again over and over throughout the novel. It's the epitome of show versus tell. It’s not enough for Miranda to say she is dutiful. She has to prove over and over again in a dozen different ways that she will put herself on the line for her duty. She has to face that dagger every time, over and over, and never turn away.
I admire conviction in all people (who doesn't?), but I think it's especially important for characters, both the ones I write and the ones I look for in my pleasure reading. The Knife Test gives me a vehicle to show off that conviction. I don’t just say “Character X cares about Y more than his life”,  I make her prove it again and again. (Though, of course, I try not to actually kill the character, because then the story would be over!) 
Really, though, the mortality aspect of the test is immaterial. We all know the hero most likely isn’t going to actually die, but we love seeing how close he or she cuts it, and, even better, how on earth they’re ever going to get out of this mess. The Knife Test is just a tool for creating circumstances that test a character's mettle, a mental construct to help me wrap my brain around the tension and conflict needed for great character development. It's my way of asking "What does this character really stand for? What would they die for?" Because once you know circumstance or person your character would walk into a knife for without regret, then you know that person inside and out. Once I've got that, all I have to do is put that character into my story and get out of their way.
Every writer has their own tricks, and this is one of my favorites. I hope you find it useful, or at least interesting! Thank you as always for reading, and I'll be back tomorrow with a brand new Writing Wednesday!

Writing Wednesday: VACATION!

First up: OMG WHAT A GREAT LAUNCH!


awww yeaaaaaaaahThe launch of One Good Dragon Deserves Another  is officially the best I've ever had! I actually got all the way to #112 in the Kindle Store, but I don't have a screen shot of that one :(. Still, this is higher than I've ever gotten on a launch day, and I owe it all to YOU! Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who bought the book!! You guys make all of this possible, and I really can't thank you enough!

And speaking of launch, the run up to this one has been crazy! Now, though, everything is finished and my kiddo is with his grandparents this week, so the powers that be here at Casa de Aaron/Bach have decreed that I need to take some time off. (AKA: Husband prying my fingers off my laptop and carting me away for fresh air and sunshine in the mountains).

Alas, this means there will be no new Writing Wednesday post this week, but that doesn't mean there's nothing to read! I've been doing this writing thing for a long time now, and I have years of content saved up just for your reading pleasure. I also sometimes write posts for other people that might have slipped under the radar.

So, to help tide you over until next week, here's a list of Rachel writing/authorship/ruminations on the genre posts that you won't find my blog:

5 Rachel Guest Posts You Won't Find on Pretentious Title
Guest Post for Magical Words - Loving Your Novel: a post about falling in love with your book again, even when you're mad at it.
IndieReCon Post - Words are Cheap: My original follow-up post from 2k to 10k about how writing faster completely changed my outlook on the creative process.
Guest Post for The Book Smugglers' SFF in Conversation Series - Upsetting the Default: I don my Rachel Bach SF hat and talk about writing a badass lady in a genre where "badass" is usually male.
Orbit Books Post - Elizabeth Moon interviews Rachel Aaron: Probably the coolest thing I have ever done! My publisher, Orbit Books, arranged for me to do an interview swap with my hero and SFF legend, Elizabeth Moon! (My half where I interview her is here. I am still squeeing!)
Guest Post for Kalayna Price - The New Golden Age: My awesome friend (and awesome writer) Kalayna Price invited me to talk on her blog. I respond with a post about how we're living in a golden age of genre!
Hopefully there's something you haven't read in that list! Thank you all again for stopping by, and I'll be back next week rested and refreshed and ready to talk the final parts of plotting a series!
Until then, keep writing (and reading!)
Yours,Rachel

It's official!! ONE GOOD DRAGON DESERVES ANOTHER is out today!

The wait is over!

One Good Dragon Deserves Another , the sequel to Nice Dragons Finish Last is now out! You can buy the ebook from Amazon.com, read it for free as a member of Kindle Unlimited, or try out a sample on my website.
FINALLY!You can also preorder the Audible audiobook edition, which comes out in October! A HUGE thank you to everyone who preordered the book, You guys are amazing!! I hope you're loving it!

We're also going to be adding a print edition and a poster of the OGDDA cover for the swag shop in the months to come. The third book in the series, tentatively titles A Dragon of a Different Color, should be out in early 2016.

Still on the fence? Here's a round up of what reviewers are saying:

"This second story in the Heartstriker's series takes all of the promise of its predecessor and fulfills it...One Good Dragon Deserves Another is a tightly plotted, wonderfully characterized, minimally (but adorably) romantic, futuristic tale of dragons and magic, and you should want to get your hands on it immediately." - The Midnight Garden 

"A first rate sequel that completely outshines its predecessor in every department. It reads like a thriller, is a urban fantasy, Sci-fi mashup in its plot and is a fantastic read overall. When it comes to books from author that we love, I don't think we can ask more than that." - Fantasy Book Critic 

"Witty, fresh, and fun. A sequel that expands on world building, characters, and the series plot makes this one a winner." - Fine Print 

"I really like the story in this book. There are twists and turns, but Julius stays true to himself." - Notes from a Readerholic

Whether they come from pro-reviewers or normal readers, reviews are hugely important for an author's career (plus, they make me stupidly happy!!!). If you've read any of my books, I hope you'll consider writing one for me on Amazon, Goodreads, or wherever you feel like it. It would really mean the world to me.
Thank you all so so SO much again for your support, and I really hope you enjoy One Good Dragon Deserves Another!
Yours always,Rachel

7 Posts to Help You Use Hooks Better

Hi everyone, this is Travis. I realized that we have a lot of new readers lately. If you want to be a better writer, there's years of materials here on Pretentious Title to dig through!

But no one likes digging through years of old posts. So, to help you all out, I've put together a quick link round up of some of Rachel's most popular How To writing posts. Today's topic is: the Hook. What it is, how to use it, and some great examples of the hook in action.

I hope you find these links handy! If you'd like more of these roundups, let us know what topics you'd like to see covered in the comments below. And remember, One Good Dragon Deserves Another comes out tomorrow!

(Rachel takeover: REVIEWS! In addition to the absolutely wonderful FBC review I mentioned Weds, OGDDA has already racked up great reviews from The Midnight Garden and Notes from a Readerholic as well! SO HAPPY YOU GUYS! Thank you!!!)

And now, the links!

Rachel's Top Posts About Hooks
Anatomy of a Hook  - Using 6 Word Stories to examine the hook in its purest form.
The Art of Story Velcro  - Using every aspect of your story to hook readers so hard, they never let go.
How to Write a Great Blurb  - Who says writing great blurbs has to be torture?
Where to Start Your Story  - It's not always where you think.
Tension  - Why hooks work in the first place. The alpha and omega of successful writing.

How to Write a Prologue People Won't Skip  - For all my fellow prologue junkies out there!

How I Manage Large Casts of Characters  - Using character hooks to keep readers invested.

Thank you again for reading, and happy Almost OGDDA Release Day!- R & T

Writing Wednesdays: How To Plot A Series Without Driving Yourself Insane (Part 2)

Eeeeee!!! We're at T minus 3 days from the launch of One Good Dragon Deserves Another ! I can not wait for you guys to read this book! The ever-awesome Mihir already reviewed it for Fantasy Book Critic and he loved it, so I'm now 100% confident you guys will, too! SO EXCITED!!
Also, Audible has started recording for the audio edition, and it should be out in October. They got the same narrator as book 1, too. Things are coming up all aces around here!
*deep calming breath*
Okay, now that I'm temporarily done flailing my arms in happiness, let's talk plotting a series!
Writing Wednesdays: How To Plot A Series Without Driving Yourself Insane (Part 2) - Handling Your Metaplot
In part one, I talked about the 5 basic steps I use to plot the course a series. If you're familiar with my blog, you probably noticed these steps looked very similar to the ones in my How I Plot a Novel in 5 Steps post. That's not coincidence. 
The overarching story of a series and the self-contained story of a book share the same structure. Ideally, both have a beginning, middle, and an end, both have development and growth, and both have a dramatic narrative that builds to a climax. The only real differences between the two story types are scale, speed, and focus.
Because it is largely self-contained, the plot of a single book can be as big and move as fast as you need it to. Your narrative can focus on whatever part of the narrative is most vital to the story you want to tell. A book, in short, doesn't have to answer to anyone else. It can be whatever it needs to be--fast, slow, epic, intimate, first person, third person, giant cast, epistolary--to best tell the story. 
But when you sit down to plan out the overarching plot of your series, also known as the metaplot, your freedoms and tools are much more limited. Because a series is made up of individual books, each of which have to be good in their own right, you don't always have the freedom to tell your larger metaplot exactly as you want to. 
The needs of the individual books always have to come first, because those are what your readers are reading. No one sits down and reads a meta plot by itself. It always exists in abstract, the bigger picture you see when you step back and look at the series as a whole. 
This degree of separation puts a lot of pressure on metaplot structure. Your reader catches the big-picture meta plot only in glimpses through your other books, sometimes years apart if your series is still coming out. These are huge handicaps writers must overcome if we want our readers to keep our larger story clear in their heads. 
The easiest way to compensate for this is to just keep the metaplot simple, but not every writer wants to do that. I personally love a complex metaplot both as a reader and a writer. So how do you tell a complex, series-level story? How can you structure your metaplot to make sure readers can keep up without sacrificing the intricacy and depth that made you want to write that metaplot in the first place?
Like any problem in writing, there are a million good answers to this one. My personal favorite, though, is to always make sure that my metaplot isn't so much the story of my world as it is the story of my characters.
The Character Driven MetaplotCharacters are the reason readers stick with a series. Plot might be enough to suck us in for a single book, but it's our attachment to the people that keeps us coming back again and again. This personal connection is why even in traditional serial Romance--where every book tends to feature its own new couple--the author will keep all her stories set in the same city and time period with frequent cameos from previous couples and their ridiculously adorable and well behaved Romance children. This way, even starting over with a new couple, the already established character connections that readers treasure are preserved.
When you set out to tell a complex metastory over the course of several books, you're asking your readers to play a pretty serious game of keep-up. In order to appreciate what's going on in the larger picture, they have to keep track of a lot of details over a long period of time. That kind of memory commitment requires a lot of caring, and the easiest way to achieve that is to make sure that the big-picture, background story you're asking them to keep up with is centered on the characters they already care so much about.
This is exactly what I did in my Legend of Eli Monpress series. In classic Fantasy series tradition, all five books are their own stories within a larger world with an escalating conflict that takes us from small, kingdom-level stakes in book 1 to giant, end-of-the-world stakes in book 5. This ramp-up was powered in large part by the metaplot, which was the story of the larger world and its secrets. But though I dropped hints about this larger problem all the way back in book 1, I couldn't be sure readers would remember them. So, to add extra weight to these hints, I tied the mystery of what was going on with the world (and the eventual climax of the series) to the mystery of Eli Monpress himself, the series's very popular titular character. 
Readers might not have cared about my cryptic "this is the metaplot" hinting in book one, but they sure as hell cared about Eli. The mystery of who is the real Eli behind the smiling mask and witty comebacks and how is he able to do all this crazy stuff tied directly into the larger plot of the series, harnessing all that reader investment in Eli and transferring it to the metaplot of the series itself. This connection between Eli and the fate of the larger world grew clearer with every book, so by the time we were ready to actually dig into the giant metaplot climax in book 5, all of my readers were 100% on board, because it was also the big conclusion of Eli's plot, which was what everyone really cared about.
I could have done both of these plots (the meta-level world plot and Eli's character plot) separately, but that would have done a huge disservice to the series. Instead, by keeping them both in lockstep together, I ensured that my readers would be rewarded for keeping up with all my metaplot complexities with delicious Eli reveals. 
It worked amazingly, too. Despite having the most complex metaplot of any series I've written save for my Heartstrikers  books, I have never gotten any complaints from Eli readers about being confused. Instead, they complained that the books (which were topping 170,000 words at the end) were too short. So, clearly, readers were not struggling with the complexity. 
So if you're working on, or even thinking about writing a series with a very complex metaplot, don't be afraid. Readers are very smart. They will keep up with you through any plot-bending you perform, but only if you make it worth their while, and a great and simple way to do that is make sure your bigger plot, whatever it is, is intimately connected to the fate of your characters. You want to milk that personal connection between reader and character as hard as possible. Use it in everything. Make your beloved, flawed characters the center of your series level plot, and you will be rewarded with the kind of rapt reader attention that remembers tiny details from five books ago with OCD levels of precision. Once you've got that level of attention, you can tell hugely complex metaplots with only the tiniest detail drops, which leaves you enough room to tell the actual story of the individual book without becoming a slave to the series.
Thanks for reading! I hope my tricks help you with crafting your own big series level plots. Come back next Wednesday for the final installment where I'll talk about the secret to working new ideas into your series without breaking the illusion that you're an all-knowing author who knew exactly what you were doing from the very beginning. Trust me, it's gonna be fun!
Until then, thank you again for reading, and I hope you'll check out One Good Dragon Deserves Another when it comes out on August 1st!
Happy writing!- Rachel

Writing Wednesdays: How To Plot A Series Without Driving Yourself Insane (Part 1)

Today, I'm going to be taking the first in a three-part stab at answering one of the most frequently asked questions from my inbox: how do I plot a series? But first, I've got some big news! My writing book, 2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better, and Writing More of What You Love is now available on ebook vendors other than Amazon!



This is my little book that could. When I first put it up three years ago, I was hoping to get a few hundred sales and a handful of reviews. Now, with over 30,000 copies sold, 500+ reviews on Amazon at a 4.6 star rating, you could say my expectations have been surpassed, which means it's time to try something new.

So, for the first time ever, I'm taking 2k to 10k out of KDP Select and putting it up everywhere! You can buy it at Amazon, iBooks, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Oyster, Inktera, and Scribd. And as always, it's still just $0.99!

There's also going to be an audio edition coming out soon, so watch out for that. For now, though, let's get this multi-part party started!

Writing Wednesdays: How To Plot A Series Without Driving Yourself Insane (Part 1)No matter the genre, books in a series are universally popular. Readers love them because they give us more of what we already love. Writers love them because writing books sequels means you can write new books without inventing everything from whole-cloth every time. Publishers love them because they sell well. Everyone loves a series! Heck, if you're a writer of any stripe, chances are you've already thought of or even started a series of your own.

But while a good series can make your career as a writer, a bad series can sink it just as fast. Say you're writing a trilogy, and you screw up book 2, losing half your readers in the process. If these were standalone books, you could just start over and write something new, but for a series, you have to finish that final book. It doesn't matter if it's going to sell terribly, it doesn't even matter if you hate it. So long as your series still has a few fans (or you're under contract), that book must be written.

It goes without saying that this is not a fun position to be in. But while it might seem safer to only write stand alones, single novels never sell as well as a good series, especially in genre. Also, so many stories simply won't fit into one book. They need the room a series provides to be told properly.

So how do we avoid these pitfalls? How do we set off on a series with reasonable certainty that we're not going to screw up book 2 and doom our careers forever?

The secret (which is actually the secret to pretty much all successful projects) is planning.

If you want to avoid the dreaded Second Book Slump, if you want to be sure every book in your series is going to be better than the last, then the very first thing you need to do is stop and plot out exactly where your series is going to go. I don't mean you have to plot out every book, and you're free to change your mind later as the series progresses (in fact, I guarantee you will). But if you want to make sure your books really feel like a cohesive, well planned out series, you're going to have to actually come up with a plan.

Thankfully, plotting a series is actually a lot easier than plotting the individual novels. It's much more big picture storytelling and much less nitty-gritty detail. Me being me, of course, I've organized my series plotting system into steps, which I've listed below.

I'm not saying you have to follow this method exactly to successfully execute a series. This is just how I do things. That said, this system has saved my bacon on at least one series so far. It's also how I make my books flow together so well. They feel like they're all steps in one big story precisely because that's how I planned them to be, and this is the refined version of the method I used to do it.

Even if you're a pantser who hates planning, which is a perfectly fine way to write if it works for you, I still highly suggest going through the steps below. If nothing else, it's a fun storytelling exercise!

So now that I've hyped it up, let's get down to brass tacks.

How I Plot a Series in 5 Steps

Step 1: Figure Out Your Ending
I know this sounds stupidly obvious, but if you don't know how your series is going to end yet, this is where you stop and figure that out. Stories that don't know where they're going tend to meander, which leads to flabby storytelling and boring, pointless chapters. It's much easier to write high energy, competent, clear prose if you know where you're writing to, and that means knowing the ending ahead of time.

You don't have to know all the details yet, and none of this is set in stone. Until you're actually at the final book, you can always change your mind about the ending so long as you don't contradict what you've already written. That said, you need to have some idea of where your story is ultimately going, preferably from book one. Even if you ultimately change your mind, just having an end goal you can keep all your books aimed at makes you look like a super smart, competent, together author who had this in the bag the whole time. That's never a bad thing, especially since this sort of planning is the first step toward actually being that author.

Step 2: Figure Out How You're Going to Get There
Now that you've got your ending, it's time to figure out how you're going to get there. Again, this is very big picture plotting. We're not worried about the details. All we're doing at this point is trying to come up with a basic route between where your series starts and where it ends.

How do you do this? Well, when I'm planning this route for my books, I try to think in terms of escalating action. For example, in my Eli Monpress Fantasy series, I knew I wanted to start on a kingdom scale and end with an epic battle for the world. To avoid jumping straight from local troubles to epic battles (which is very jarring), I knew this meant that each book in the series would have to get one step bigger both in terms of the world and the stakes.

This "one step bigger" power curve approach works really well for series since readers expect each book to top the last. If you have your heroes saving the world in book three only to hang up their epic weapons and go back to their hometown to solve a local mystery in book four, it doesn't matter how interesting that mystery is, the story's going to feel small and pointless by comparison.

With that in mind, you want to approach this filling in between book 1 and book the final like the whole series is one big story. This overarching story is called the Meta Plot, and we'll talk a lot more about it in the next installment of this series. For now, though, the best way of thinking about it at this point is to try and see your series as a whole rather than individual books.

Every event or battle or conflict you put in your early books should have ramification and consequences throughout future ones. Likewise, your characters should grow and change from book to book. Since we've already got our ending (and hopefully our beginning) at this point, all we're really doing here using this growth curve to color in the middle. Look at where your characters and world start, and then figure out what has to happen to transform all of that into the people and situation you've come up with for your ending.

Not knowing your book or characters, I can't tell you exactly how to do this step. The best I can suggest is to focus on creating a natural progression. If you've got nothing else, just go to the ending you already worked out and take a step backwards. How did this ending come about? How did your characters get here? When you figure that out, step back again. Likewise, you can go to where you want to start your series and ask "what are the consequences of this book? What happens next?"

Nothing in a plot happens in a vacuum. Everything your characters do has ramifications. If you follow the natural fallout of those events while simultaneously angling events toward your planned ending, your meta plot should emerge naturally from the chaos. And once you've got that, you've got the meat of your series.

 Step 3: Break it Out Into Books
Now that you've got your general plan for getting things from Beginning to Epic conclusion, it's time to break out the individual books.

There are any number of ways to do this. The easiest and probably most natural way is to plan on one book for each major event in your meta plot. For example, if your meta plot has your characters saving the kingdom, raising an army to defeat the legions of darkness, and then finally marching on Mount Doom to defeat the villain once and for all, each of those steps would be its own book. Note the escalating scale: first a battle for a kingdom, then kingdom vs. kingdom, and finally a full scale invasion.

Now, of course, there's going to be a LOT more than just the above going on in each book, but we don't need to know that right now. Remember, series planning is big picture! We're just trying to get the arcs of the story in our heads. So long as you know the major conflict for each book and how that book moves the greater meta plot of the series forward, you're good.

If your story isn't the sort that neatly breaks into escalating steps, you can also divide your series by characters. I did this in my Eli series, using the first novel as an introduction to the world at large and then focusing the plots of each subsequent book on a different character's problems and backstory. To make sure my books escalated properly, I started with the character who had the simplest arc and the least to hide (Miranda in The Spirit Rebellion) and ended with the character who had the most complex arc and the most to hide (Eli in Spirit's End).

For a character heavy series like Eli, this system worked really well. All the characters and the larger meta plot still got development in each book, but the character whose "book" it was got to be the star and I got a whole book to specifically explore their area of the larger world, be it Miranda and her spirits, Nico and her demon, or Eli and the Shepherdess herself. The result was a character centered series where everyone got a chance to shine.

How ever you decide to break up your series, the most important thing is that each book have a self contained narrative with its own plot and climax. Even in an extremely long running series, you never want to have a book that's all middle At the same time, though, you never want to have a book that's too self contained. If you tie off all the ends, get all the couples together, and give your reader a nice, neat closure, they have no burning need to go read your next book, and that's not what you want. You don't have to end on a cliff hanger, but ever book in your series should leave your reader salivating for the next one.

Step 4: Write Out Summaries
At this point, you should have a basic idea of how many books your series will have and what happens in them, so the next step is to expand that into a short summary.

Please note that this is not a plot. We're still not sweating the details at this stage, but this is where things do get more specific. Now that you know the big meta plot step of each book, you want to start figuring out what the actual story surrounding that consists of. Personally, I focus on the big stuff: where the characters are going in this book, what they do there, what's the climax, and where are they when the book ends. I also keep a firm eye on where this book fits into the series as a whole. This is important for making sure whatever events I plan fit into the escalating power curve of the series and the character arcs.

On a more fun note, this is also the stage where I try to envision all my books as they'd appear on the shelf. I dream up covers and play with titles, whatever it takes to get a concept of each book as a separate whole in my head. Again, you don't need plots or even detailed events, you're just figuring out the basics of what happens each step of the way and how each book advances the meta plot of the series and the lives of the characters.

This is also the step where you really want to keep your audience in mind. They're the ones who are going to be reading these books. You want to make sure that each book you plan flows neatly and logically into the next one. If you plot has you making a big leap in time, make sure you think about how you're going to deliver that information to your readers, and if they're going to receive it well. If your series starts as a high school YA, but then you decide to make the final two books happen 20 years in the future when your characters are in their 30s, that's not going to be an easy sell for your audience.

I'm not saying you can't do it--you're the author, you can do anything--just that it's not a decision you want to make without serious consideration of who your readers are and what you're selling them. I know managing expectations doesn't sound like fun, but readers are the reason we have the writing business to begin with. Ignore their wishes and comfort at your peril.

The ultimate goal of all of this is to end up with a series of proposed books that your and your reader are both dying to read. But while we are making real plans for what's going to go down in each book, even this step is still very up in the air. Just speaking personally, I have never had a finished book that completely matched the summary I wrote out for it at this point, and that's okay. These things should change, because you're learning and getting better at your series as your write it. The point here is to build yourself a starting platform, something concrete you can jump off of for each book. Even if you end up throwing it away, just the act of thinking about how each book will go will make your series more real in your head.

Step 5: Figure Out Your Character Arcs
Now that you've got your general book summaries, it's time to make sure your characters are changing in time with your plot. If you read my post about writing character driven plots, you've probably been thinking about this the whole time, but just in case you haven't, this is the step where you're going to want to figure out how your main cast grows and changes over the events of the series you've just planned out.

Just like the overall series power curve, character changes should be gradual and happen in natural steps that reflect the events of the books. If you need a character to have a great epiphany or change from a coward into the warrior who's going to save the world, that's a big plot event and should be treated accordingly.

Remember that you have your whole series to get your characters into their final forms, so don't be afraid to break their growth up into many smaller steps that fall all throughout the books. Fit that character growth in wherever possible. Just make sure you have a plan for where you're going so you don't waste time growing your character in the wrong direction. Again, it all goes back to Step 1: knowing your ending. So long as you've got your eyes on that prize, you will find ways to put your character through just the right kind of hell to make sure they come out as the hero, or villain, you need for your ending.

And Now You're Done!
If you've made it to this point, congratulations! You've got everything you need to start your series!

These are just the basics, of course. We'll get into the finer points of how to manage your series once you're actually knee deep in it over the next two How To Plot a Series posts (a series on series! #youseewhatIdidthere?). For now, though, I hope my list helps get your own series ideas straight in your head for the production of many amazing books.

See you all next week for another Writing Wednesday! Until then, thank you for reading, and as always, happy writing!

Yours,
Rachel

Writing Wednesdays: Taking Smart Risks

First up, just wanted to remind people that the giveaway for a signed copy of Rhonda Mason's excellent SF debut, THE EMPRESS GAME, is still going! You have until Friday to go check it out and comment for a chance to win a book, so go do that. :)

Second, my swag shop is now open!!! That means....POSTERS!

Banana for scale.These things are gorgeous! We went with the slightly pricier matte-finish art prints, but the difference between these and the cheap ones is night and day. The colors are rich, the paper feels sleek, heavy, and expensive, they're just all around win!

We have posters of just the cover art without the text as well, so go check out the shop and pick up a smiling Julius for your wall! Posters of Marci and her cat army will be coming soon as well the moment we finish the proof process. Hooray for cool stuff!

Now that's all done, let's talk about one of first and most fundamental cornerstones to being a good writer: knowing how and when to take risks.

Writing Wednesdays: Taking Smart Risks
As I've mentioned here before, I'm a giant fan of Project Runway. I love it the artistic challenge, I love the catty judges and cheesy drama, I love it all! But even though I watch the show for pure entertainment value, sometimes I glean real bits of wisdom from the judges' commentary. The latest of these was from fashion designer Zac Posen toward the middle of Season 12, who said "Success in Fashion is all about taking smart risks."

This statement rang true for me on a lot of levels. The one line that gets repeated over and over on the show is that you can't just design based off what's popular now, because by the time your clothes walk down the runway, now has become then, and you're already out of style. To be successful as a designer, you always have to be doing something new and innovative that will catch and hold people's attention. You need to really think about who your customer is and what they will be buying tomorrow, not today.

If all of that sounds familiar, that's no mistake. Fashion design and writing might seem like the most unrelated of disciplines, but as creators struggling to produce consumable products that have both artistic merit and widespread commercial appeal, we actually have a great deal of overlap. It might seem silly to take writing advice from a fashion designer, but as Uncle Iroh said, "It is important to draw wisdom from different places. If you take it from only one place, it becomes rigid and stale."

So, with that in mind, let's steal a page from the Zac Posen Playbook and talk about what it means to take smart risks in writing.



One of the most common accusations thrown at genre fiction is that we're slaves to trends. Sadly, I feel this is a fair criticism. You only have to glance at the famous samey-ness of all the Urban Fantasy covers over the last five years to see it in action, but Romance, SF, of pretty much any other commercially successful genre is just as bad. Once a thing--vampires, BDSM billionaires, grimdark, etc--becomes popular, you can set your watch by how fast the slew of copy cat titles appear on the shelves.

This is not by accident. One of the most popular bits of advice for how to write a book that sells is "Same but different." Take what the readers already love, and then put your own spin on it. But while this strategy has been used to great success by Traditional and Indie authors alike, the "but different" half of "Same but different" is too often overlooked and undervalued in favor of the "Same."

In fashion and writing, there's a fine line between giving customers what they want and beating a dead horse. Unless you are very fast and lucky and get your popular-thing clone to market first, just writing/design on trend isn't enough to guarantee success. Even if you're a technically good writer, you can't just write a functional, pretty-good book about vampires and teen romance in high school and expect to be the next Twilight. Twilight was already the next Twilight. If you want the reward of a true and loyal readership, then you have to be the next whatever you are. You have to innovate, and that means taking risks with your writing.

When I say "take risks with your writing," what I'm really talking about is being creative--doing something new and cool with your book. Like all things in the universe, risk in writing is a spectrum. At one end, we have zero risk. This is represented by a perfectly capable and decently written book well written that does absolutely nothing new, and is therefore predictable and boring. In fashion terms, these books would be the basic Little Black Dress. Sure it looks nice and can even be very well made, but it doesn't do anything new and thus doesn't stand out from the racks of hundreds of other little black dresses just like it.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, we have crazy books that do nothing but take risks and innovate. These can be fun to read for the sheer WTF factor, but books that value innovation over everything else often fall victim to their own "everything but the kitchen sink" attitude. There's simply too much going on, and the plot and characters simply aren't up to the challenge of keeping it all together as a cohesive whole.

These sort of books are the crazy fashions designers send down the runway for attention, but no one actually wears. You know what I mean.

Holy geometry, Batman!That said, though, for my money, these wild experiments are vastly preferable to the books that don't innovate at all. Sure they might not work, but at least they weren't boring! (And as Project Runway taught us, boring is the cardinal sin of any form of entertainment.) Unfortunately, whatever points these books win for imagination, they lose in readability. Sometimes they aren't even really novels, but collections of cool ideas loosely strung together by a frame story. And while there is a market for that, it's not the mainstream fiction reader.

If you're looking to appeal to a wide readership, then you need to go to the sweet spot, which is right in the middle of the risk spectrum. Here, we have books that are familiar enough to be easily readable, but with a great new twist that lets them stand out from the crowd. Going back to our fashion metaphor, they're the super flattering, fun-to-wear clothes that are normal enough to wear anywhere, but still have those awesome little details and design choices that never fail to draw attention and get you complements. They're your favorite clothes, in other words.

To achieve this mix of comfort and awesome, you have to take a risk and do something new, but you have to do it smartly. You can't just stick some superfluous bows on the back and call it a day.

Innovation for innovation's sake unfailingly comes out as overly complicated and weird because it wasn't done for a purpose. Smart risks, on the other hand, are all about looking at the problems your book presents, be it characters or setting or big moral questions, and finding new, clever ways to approach them that still make sense within your story. It's throwing out your first plot impulse, because if that solution was the first thing you thought of, it's probably the first thing everyone thought of.

If readers can guess what's coming every time they turn the page, they rapidly get bored and stop turning pages. The only way to prevent that is find ways to surprise them and delight them, which means taking paths no one expects. If you can find a clever way to turn their expectations upside down or throw in an entirely new twist they never saw coming--but that still makes total sense within the book--they'll be your reader forever.

All of the above is a pretty high bar to hit, but fear not! Writing is not a performance art, which means you don't have to do all of this all at once. Writing an amazing book full of smart risks happens one step at a time. Also, the details that takes your book from blah to "I MUST HAVE IT" don't have to be complicated.

One classic way to make things new is to take a story everyone already knows and telling it from a new point of view, such as telling a ghost story from the point of view of the ghost as Rin Chupeco did with The Girl from the Well. Another, much crazier version of this was the insanely popular Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which took one of the most read novels of all time and inserted a completely new, and equally popular element of zombies. Though seemingly simple, this core idea of classic literature + popular genre trope (sea monsters, vampires, etc) was so powerful, it spawned an entire series. The author's creative risk paid off in spades because readers are clever people who appreciate new and hilarious ideas.

The Hunger Games is another perfect example of this. The core story is a pretty standard, well told YA dystopian coming of age and rebellion plot, but the idea of the Hunger Games themselves and the intense awesome that is Katniss are more than enough to carry the rest onto teen library shelves forever. The central idea was so good, it created a rabbit hole that readers wanted to fall down forever. After that, all Suzanne Collins had to do was not mess up the rest and success was pretty much guaranteed.

Of course, if bolts of brilliance aren't forthcoming from the blue, you can always take something traditional and do it really, really freaking well. Kristin Cashore did this in YA Epic Fantasy with Graceling, and Kresley Cole knocked it out the park in Paranormal Romance with her Immortals After Dark series. Both of these examples are still fundamentally representative of their respective genres, but both creating entirely new and fantastic experiences by taking the old rules and doing entirely new and awesome things with them.

The key to all of this is creativity. Enjoying and exploring the creativity of others is why we read. It's what makes art art. And just like a designer can't hope to make a living churning out uninspired clothes that do nothing but ape the latest trend, authors can't coast by on tropes. It's not enough to simply write a popular genre well. You have to dig down and find something new, something that makes a reader pick your story out of all the others in your category.

Call it a hook, call it a Unique Selling Point, call it whatever you want, but that new, unique whatever that you alone can bring to your books is the key to success in writing. Everything else--plot, character, structure, tension--is mechanical, the turning of the gears. At the end of the day, talent in writing is just another word for creativity, and creativity is the art of doing something new.

So never be afraid to take risks in your fiction. If you're making story choices for no reason other than that's how things are done in your genre, stop. Don't do that. Do something different, do your own thing. Leave everyone else to do what everyone else is doing and take a smart risk with your story. Make plot choices that showcase your new ideas. True, choosing the unmarked path over the highway means more work for you while you write, but your book will be infinitely better for it in the end.

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this Project Runway fueled post!

For tons more writing articles, click on either the writing labels below. I put out new writing and story craft posts every Wednesday plus lots of other fun stuff throughout the week, so be sure to follow me on Twitter or Facebook for all the goodies! You can also subscribe directly to my RSS Feed (located on the right) to have these posts delivered right to you. :)

Thanks again, and as always, Happy Writing!

- Rachel

Badass Ladies in Space: I Interview Rhonda Mason, author of THE EMPRESS GAME! (plus a book giveaway!)

Can you hear the squee echoing around the world? That's me, because today I have the fabulous Rhonda Mason, author of one of my favorite reads this year: THE EMPRESS GAME, which comes out today!

One seat on the intergalactic Sakien Empire’s supreme ruling body, the Council of Seven, remains unfilled: that of the Empress Apparent. The seat isn’t won by votes or marriage. It’s won in a tournament of ritualized combat. Now the tournament, the Empress Game, has been called and the women of the empire will stop at nothing to secure political domination for their homeworlds. Kayla Reunimon, a supreme fighter, is called by a mysterious stranger to battle it out in the arena. 

The battle for political power isn’t contained by the tournament’s ring, however. The empire’s elite gather to forge, strengthen or betray alliances in a dance that will determine the fate of the empire for a generation. With the empire wracked by a rising nanovirus plague and stretched thin by an ill-advised planet-wide occupation of Ordoch in enemy territory, everything rests on the woman who rises to the top.

Did you read that? This book is basically the Thunderdome of Space Opera! The main character is a total take-no-shit badass, the combat is unrelenting, and there's kissing! That's a recipe for Rachel catnip right there. Is it any wonder my blurb is on the paperback cover singing its praises to the sky?

Click to enlarge, and thank you Hisham El-Far for the picture! 
Seriously, it's really fun and good, and if you liked my Devi books, you should go check THE EMPRESS GAME out right now!
Now, me being me, the moment I finished the book, I reached out to author Rhonda Mason in a rush of fangirlish glee to invite her onto the blog because interviewing badass ladies who write SF is becoming quite the thing here on Pretentious Title. (Click here to read my last interview with Jennifer Foehner Wells, author of FLUENCY.) 
To my delight, she agreed. She's also going to be giving away a SIGNED COPY! 
How to win a signed copy of THE EMPRESS GAME!To enter, just leave a comment below!! For extra brownie points, you can also mention what kind of content you'd like to see on my blog. Do you want more interviews, more fiction stuff, more writing posts, more business info? Let me know! It won't actually improve your chances of winning a book, but it will make me super happy! :) 
I'll choose a winner at random on Friday. Just make sure you give us some way to identify you in the comment. It's hard to contact Anonymous to let them know they won. If you don't want to sign into blogger, that's totally cool. Just leave your twitter handle or some other identifier in your post and we'll find you!
Now, on with the interview!
Rachel Aaron-Bach interviews Rhonda Mason
RA: Thank you for agreeing to let me talk your ear off!
RM: My pleasure. :)
First things first (and for full disclosure), I blurbed your book! I meant every word of my fawning praise, too, because The Empress Game was awesome. I've been cackling that I got to read it first for weeks now. Seriously guys, if you loved my Paradox books, you're going to love this one, too!

Speaking of Paradox, your editor asked me to blurb The Empress Game specifically because your heroine, Shadow Panthe, and my own Devi Morris are both total badasses, though in slightly different ways. As a giant fan of Badass Ladies In Space, I was instantly on board (and as is probably obvious by now, absolutely loved it)! Can you tell us a bit about your leading lady and how she came about?

The opening scene for The Empress Game (EG hereafter…I’m a lazy typer), with Kayla fighting in the Blood Pit, came to me in a flash, in one of those all too rare “inspired by the muse” moments. Honestly, she came to mind almost fully-formed. She begins the book with a volatile combination of determination, self-loathing and desolation. She has an intense dedication to her il’haar, her only remaining family. She not only protects him physically, but shields him emotionally from the harsh reality of their existence (as best she can).
I credit her fierceness and all around badassery to my family. I grew up in a house of strong women. It was me, my two sisters and my mum, each of whom are badasses in their own way. We protect each other, we support each other in any endeavor and we love each other with an unbreakable bond. We may not need daggers and a wicked side-piercing kick to keep each other safe, but we’re every bit as fierce as Kayla.
Wow, that's a much cooler story than how I came up with Devi! You have history. For me, Devi just walked into my head one day and was all "You're writing my book" and I was like "sure, whatever you want, just please don't kill me."
Joking aside, your book, like mine, contains both high octane combat sequences and strong romantic elements. The love story is central to the plot without overwhelming the action or politics, which is always good when your main character starts out as a space gladiator! That said, The Empress Game could definitely be classified as a Romance just as much as it could a Space Opera (or it could just be called "Rachel Bait," because Space Opera + Romance = Win). Was this blending of genres a deliberate decision on your part, or did you just write the book you wanted to read?
To be honest, EG started out as a “Futuristic Romance” (a la Catherine Spangler). I’d just written an epic fantasy novel that came close to selling but never did. In a reaction to that, I thought, “romance is a much easier sell, and I enjoy reading futuristic romance, I’m just going to bite the bullet and try it.”
I learned quickly, about 50 pages in, that while I enjoy reading SFR, I couldn’t stand writing it, and using the “romancey language” (as I call it) that goes along with writing a true romance novel. I was rolling my eyes at what I was writing, and I knew without a doubt that I could never write as hot as that market now demands. I consider myself a writer of “speculative fiction with strong romantic elements.” The difference between that and SFR is a very, very fine line/grey area. And I’m OK with the overlap. I hope it appeals to readers of both SF and SFR.
While I enjoy the romance element, it was the story that moved me to write. So, basically, I wrote the book I wanted to read. A story without a romance element? Forget it! A romance that overshadows the worldbuilding, action and plot? No way. I have to have it all. :)
An author after my own heart, I see!
Like any good Space Opera, The Empress Game has a lot of politics. The main thrust of the plot centers around recruiting and preparing Kayla to take part in the titular Empress Game, a no-holds-barred fight to see who gets the throne of a galactic empire, but that's just a tiny piece in a much larger political landscape. Personally, I enjoyed having a look of how a galaxy-sized government would actually work, but you do squeeze in a lot of talk about trade deals and galactic economics that one wouldn't normally expect in a book whose primary plot is the run up to Mortal Kombat: Empire Edition. Did you do this to show the realities of the political power at stake, or do you just really like inventing SciFi economics?
I actually consider myself something of a weak worldbuilder, since I am SO interested in character interaction and plot. In my rough drafts, my critique partners often have to point out, “Rhonda, you have two people standing in an empty room talking to each other—again.” ;-) Knowing that about myself, I pushed myself to create a world that felt like it existed outside of the Game. 
More importantly, I wanted to show that just because Isonde had her own political agenda and considered it of paramount importance to the empire as a whole, not everyone cared about it. Most people are primarily concerned with their own needs, and the reality is you can bring those people around to your side if you meet those needs. Isonde is a master at knowing how to use people’s political/social/economical wants and needs to accomplish the things she wants done.
As Captain Jack Sparrow might say, “It’s all matter of leverage, savvy?”
One of my favorite mechanics introduced in the book was the one-way psychic connection between Kayla and her brother. As a writer, I loved the tension you were able to create by having one character able to talk in the other's head without the other being able to answer, especially as things got more dangerous. I also just loved their relationship, period. Protective Mama Bear (panther?) is a role that both helped and hindered Kayla as a character in a very believable way. I loved watching her struggle between her duties from the past and her life in the present. Plus, you managed to write a teenage boy who actually sounded like a teen boy without being annoying! That is a feat. 
Without spoilers (because this is clearly going to be a major part of the trilogy going forward), can you tell us more about the culture Kayla and her brother came from?
Hmm. This is a tough one for me because, (and this is horrible for a writer to admit, I know!) I only make up the worldbuilding bits I need as I go along. *covers face in shame* Terrible, right? 
(RA/B interruption: Not at all! I'm a big fan of the idea that the author should only worry about knowing what they need to make the series work. It's all too easy to go overboard on worldbuilding because you feel like you should know everything and end up working so hard you kill your enthusiasm for the setting. Not that authors shouldn't know what's going on, but all things in moderation.)
I have to admit to not knowing a ton about life back on Ordoch. But…I had better figure it out soon for books 2 and 3!
Ordoch is technologically advanced compared to the Sakien Empire, but it is by no means a utopia. They have psionic powers, which seem to be fading among the common people. The strongest psionics occur among the upper classes, who breed for that sort of thing. In the upper classes it is common to have twins born in an il-haar-ro’haar paring, something you rarely see among the lower classes.
What’s not clear in EG (and I am very much looking forward to exploring this more in books 2 and 3) is that the il’haar-ro’haar paring is meant to be an equal bond. The ro’haar, typically the weaker psionic of the two but the stronger physically, protects the il’haar with her might. The il’haar, in return, protects his ro’haar with his psi powers. We only see the imbalance in the Kayla-Corinth bond because she is older and better trained, and Corinth is undertrained/underdeveloped psionically.
And thanks for the compliment on Corinth! I realized just recently that he is the only child character I have ever written, so I’m glad I didn’t botch it. :)
He's seriously cute. I really liked him, which is super rare for me. I normally hate kid characters in adult fiction!
Thank you so for taking the time to answer my questions! So what can we expect from you next? You've obviously got two more books in the Empress Game trilogy, but is there anything after that?
I definitely have another story in the works after the EG trilogy. I’m going back to my fantasy roots for this one. Back in the day (before selling EG) I wrote the first 120pgs of both EG and the fantasy (whose awesome title is a secret until I sell it!) I decided to try selling EG first, so I shelved the fantasy at the time. Once EG was off on the grueling rounds of first agent querying, then my agent querying editors, I turned my attention back to the fantasy.
I’d say I’m about halfway through that first draft and I am DYING to work on it! Breaks my heart to have to set it aside while I write books 2 and 3 in EG. (EG was initially supposed to be a standalone, but Titan Books asked if would consider turning it into a trilogy.)
The fantasy novel is set on a chain of volcanic islands, with an interconnected island nation culture. The islands have no naturally occurring metallic ore, so all of their building materials/weapons/modes of transportation are limited to materials such as wood, bone, stone, fibers, sharks’ teeth, etc. For the first time in my life, I am gaga for worldbuilding! The limitation of having no metallic ore provides fascinating opportunities for ingenuity and it’s amazing how much the worldbuilding is driving the plot.
Surprisingly, Silmande (the lead character) is not a butt-kicker, if you can believe it. (I am in love with weapons and hand-to-hand combat!) Instead she’s a force to be reckoned with through sheer determination and her magic powers. She has a rare gift (no spoilers!) that, over the course of the story, she comes to realize is much darker than she ever thought.
Clearly, I could go on and on about this, so I’ll stop here! :) But, needless to say, I am excited about it.
Now! Question for you, Rachel:
THE TABLES HAVE TURNED!
I know you published both your fantasy series, The Legend of Eli Monpress, and your space opera series with Orbit. Was the use of the pen name Rachel Bach your publisher’s request, or your own decision in order to keep the two genres separate for your fans?
Not letting me off easy, I see? Well, it's no secret that the name switch was my publisher's idea. As anyone who's read both knows, my fantasy and my scifi are different animals. More specific to this question, the Paradox books are R-rated with swearing and sex while my Rachel Aaron books generally keep things to a PG level. Given this difference, Orbit decided it would be best to put the series under different names so as not to dilute my brand for either.
At the time, I was not a fan of this decision since two names meant twice as much work and promotion and since fans of one series might not realize I had others since the names were different. Now that I know more about author branding, though, I think it was a good decision. My readers know what they're going to get when they pick up a Rachel Aaron vs a Rachel Bach book, and that's a good thing.
Of course, I could have made this all much easier on myself if I could just pick a genre and stick to it, but I've always been a contrary "write what you love!" sort of author, and I don't see that changing any time soon. I'm not getting another name, though. Two is more than enough!
Rhonda Mason divides her time between writing, editing, bulldogs and beaching. Her writing spans the gamut of speculative fiction, from space opera to epic fantasy to urban paranormal and back again. The only thing limiting her energy for fantastical worlds is the space-time continuum. When not creating worlds she edits for a living, and follows her marine biologist husband to the nearest beach. In between preserving sea grass and deterring invasive species, she snorkels every chance she gets. Her rescue bulldog, Grace, is her baby and faithful companion. Grace follow her everywhere, as long as she’s within distance of a couch Grace can sleep on. Rhonda is a graduate of the Writing Popular Fiction masters program at Seton Hill University, and recommends it to all genre writers interested in furthering their craft at the graduate level.
You can find Rhonda at www.RhondaMason.com.
And thus concludes our interview. Thank you again to Rhonda for dropping by, and if you haven't already checked out The Empress Game , do your self a favor and fix that! I had a seriously good time reading it and I can't wait for the next one!
Thank you all for reading! Don't forget to leave a comment below to put your name in the hat for the free book, and I'll see you tomorrow for Writing Wednesday!

Writing Wednesdays: The Not-So-Secret Formula to Writing Character Driven Stories

Wow, what a week! First up, hello to everyone from Writer's Edit! Thanks for stopping by!

For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, Writer's Edit is an awesome writing community and website that's been showcasing my 2k to 10k writing and editing process all week. They're also doing a bunch of giveaways, including copies of my favorite, can't-live-without-it writing program, Scrivener! I've been really impressed with what I've seen so far, so if you're looking for more writing tips and talk, go check it out!

Now that's done, on with the show!

Writing Wednesdays: The Not-So-Secret Formula to Writing Character Driven Stories
"Character driven story" is one of those writing phrases that gets thrown around a lot. You see it everywhere: in writing forums, from editors describing what they want, book marketing, the works. Everyone wants a character driven story, but what does that actually mean?

At its simplest, a character driven story is one where the primary narrative is driven by the characters. They are the ones who decide where the plot goes, not the other way around.

This sounds like a really simple requirement, but you'd be amazed how many stories don't make the cut. My favorite popular example in recent memory is the super-cast action movie The Expendables. Now, I'm not going to comment on whether or not The Expendables was a good movie (my husband was entertained), but as a character driven narrative, it failed utterly. If we'd gone in and removed any character from the story, the plot would have continued pretty much exactly as written. They literally were the expendables, as in they did not matter.

This was a very bizarre choice for a movie whose entire selling point was "Hey! Look how many action heroes we can fit into one shot!" And while this failure didn't seem to hurt its box office sales, no one is going around proclaiming the plot of The Expendables is quality cinema.
But while movies can compensate for a limp plot with actors and special effects, books are different. We are limited to the words on the page, which automatically means our plots and characters are held to a higher standard, as well they should be. There's a reason the book is always better than the movie, and that reason is the character driven narrative. 
Novels let us get into our characters' heads better than any other medium. We can show readers exactly what the people in our stories are thinking, their decision making, their fears and hopes. This unique transparency is the greatest strength of writing. It's what makes up for the fact that we don't have sound effects or visuals. If we ignore that, if we invite readers inside a character's head and then proceed to ignore them by making that character a passive passenger in the plot without agency or voice, then we've throw away the very thing that makes writing great.
Thankfully, creating a character driven plot is very simple. So simple, in fact, that it can be summed up in a single equation:

Motivations + Conflict + Setting = Plot
Plot in a character driven narrative is the story of clashing character motivations as defined by the setting. If your hero and your villain both want mutually exclusive things (such as to save/destroy the world), that's your conflict. Or if you have a character who wants something really badly and the entire world is against her, that's your conflict. Take your conflict and frame it inside the unique opportunities and limitations of your setting, and you've got your plot.

This is the most basic difference between a plot and a character driven plot. Plot is just a series of related events that eventually lead up to a climax. "I got up, I went to the kitchen, I got a glass of water" is a plot. "I was thirsty, so I got up and went to the kitchen for a glass of water" is a character driven plot. They're both exactly the same, but one has motivation and therefore meaning. I--the character in this story--am doing something for a reason, not just going through motions.

At this point you're probably thinking who would ever write that first kind of plot? Sadly, it happens far too often. Video games in particular do this all the time. Take Diablo III, for example. In this game, I play the Sorceress, but that doesn't really matter. The character of "the Sorceress" is completely defined by an avatar, a power set, and a handful of pithy lines. The writers try to give her motivation by having her proclaim that she wants to be the best, but it makes no difference in the end, because the plot marches on completely regardless of what the Sorceress wants or doesn't want. Her choice is to either move forward or die, which is no choice at all.

When I play Diablo III, my character is framed as the heroine of the narrative, but in truth makes no actual important decisions. She is nothing more than a cog in the machine, an ultimately powerless passenger in the larger narrative. There is nothing I as the character can do, no choice I can make other than to go along with the plot. Even more telling, I can switch out my Sorceress for any of the other playable classes and the narrative remains the same. It goes without saying that if you can replace your main character with a completely different person and the plot doesn't change, your story is not character driven.

Video games can get away with this because, sadly, the story isn't really the point of most games. We're playing to kill demons and get orange loot, not to make deep character driven decisions. Contrast this to narrative games like Mass Effect or the Dragon Age series where making character decisions is the gameplay and see how much better those stories are! That's because these stories are character driven. The plot turns not on unrelated, arbitrary events, but on what the characters want, what they're willing to do to get it, and how they fail or succeed to achieve those motivations along the way.

Give me FemShep any day!This isn't to say external things can't happen to move a plot forward. External forces like natural disasters or political upheavals are fantastic sources of pressure when you need to light a fire under your character's butts. But if your story is going to be truly character driven, then the main decisions of what to do and where to go must belong to the characters. They have to be the ones at the wheel, not on the rails.

So whether you're just starting your plot, in the middle of a book, or working on your editing, it's always worth taking a moment to stop and think if your plot events are character driven, or if your characters are plot driven. It can be a subtle difference sometimes, but if there's any point in your book where your characters are making a decision based on where you want the story to go rather than what they want, that's a giant red flag. It's also probably a scene that you struggled to write, because forcing characters to go with the plot instead of the other way around never feels natural.

Always pay attention to those feelings, because no matter how aware of your craft you become, storytelling is a gut feelings exercise at its core. If something isn't right with your story, you'll know. Don't ignore that feeling. Ignoring things that feel wrong because you don't want--or don't know how--to deal with them is the definition of lazy writing. So don't be that writer!! Trust your instincts, and trust your characters to take the wheel. They might do something crazy, but so long as you're willing to release control and give your characters the chance to take charge of their own stories, your plots will always be character driven, and that's never a bad thing.

I hope you enjoyed this week's Writing Wednesday! To see all the other writing articles in this series, simply click the "Writing Wednesdays" tag at the bottom of this post. Thank you as always for reading, and I'll see you again soon.

Yours always, and happy writing!
Rachel