Peter C. Whitaker's Blog: My Writing Desk

I Write Because I Enjoy Telling Stories

So, ‘The Blade’s Fell Blow’ has gone to be published and will be delivered to any pre-Blades Fell Blowrelease purchasers on the 951st anniversary of the Battle of Hastings! Of course I am very pleased about this as it is the culmination of a lot of work. I was very impressed when Amazon linked all three of my books together in one advertisement. I am hoping that the existence of a complete trilogy will encourage more readers of historical fiction to enjoy the adventure that I created.

I have now moved on and I am primarily working on my fantasy novel, to which I have given the working title of ‘The Queen of the Mountain’. However, I always seem to need to have the next book underway as well and so I have started preliminary work on a science fiction novel. The first draft is underway but what I have found to be really interesting is that my style of writing has changed. For the Sorrow Song Trilogy I used a very descriptive style and I did this consciously. I wanted to recreate the world of the Saxons in as much depth as possible to help give the books a significant degree of credibility. This produced a very lyrical style that I enjoyed working with.

For ‘The Queen of the Mountain’ I did not consciously set out to change my style of writing but I found that during the first draft it became less descriptive and more immediate. I think that this was necessitated by the tone of the book in that there are more exciting events happening. In the ‘Sorrow Song’ each novel worked towards a significant battle with a lot of scene setting and character development going on. There were the occasional skirmishes of course but the books each traversed a set path. With ‘Queen of the Mountain’ there is a lot more going on. Even though it is a fantasy with a whole new world to explore my writing uses more brevity so as not to slow the pace.

To be honest I had not realised this change until I started work on the science fiction book, which has the working title of ‘Pangea’.This is also something of technological thriller in which there is a lot of action and it is even more immediate than ‘The Queen of the Mountain’. With ‘Pangea’ I have stopped writing long descriptive paragraphs and instead the characters are describing what they see in the same way that people do in real life. I have quickly found that this allows me to develop the characters through their dialogue. Another advantage is that it has stopped me from writing a Palaeontological field book, which might have been fun in itself but only to dinosaur nuts like myself. By restricting the descriptive passages to only what is absolutely necessary I found that the story moved faster. Fast is good. The main motivation of the book is a chase across prehistoric landscapes and slow chases are boring.

Clearly, writing different kinds of books encourages me to develop different writing styles and that in turn, I hope, improves my skill as a writer. Of course, if I had decided to write only historical fiction, which I was encouraged to do, then this would not have happened, or it certainly would be less likely. The moment I stepped out of the genre to write ‘Eugenica’ was the moment that I confirmed my decision to write what I wanted to write. To be true to myself as an author, hopefully that does not sound pompous? When I started writing I read several articles that were concerned with a writer writing for a specific audience, getting to know the reader, identifying what they wanted, and then directing your efforts down that narrow path. I do not criticise this approach as it has worked for some and as much as I would enjoy commercial success it is not the reason why I write.

I write because I enjoy telling stories.

This is the reason why I am not a genre writer. My imagination is not confined to any one particular genre of literature or cinema or theatre or art school or science. In fact I actively choose not to have any favourites. I believe that having favourites is limiting, that it closes you to new experiences whereas I want a broad horizon. There are things that I like and there are things that I do not like but there are also things that I have yet to experience and I am eager for that. I hope that my opting not to write for any specific genre will not put people off my work but rather reflect my own philosophy of being open to trying something new.

What Kind of Novel should it be?

I have been busy writing a fantasy novel, which has gone very well. Indeed, it has gone much better than I had expected it to. I seem to have a story that has evolved quite naturally and that has given me a lot to write about. It is peopled by a large number of characters and that got me wondering; what kind of novel should this be?

What do I mean by this question? Well, the standard story has a protagonist who is faced with a predicament that they seek to resolve. Often this means going on a journey and meeting other characters, some of whom will appear only once or twice and others who will have a greater input to the development of the story. This is very much the standard approach to writing fiction.

There are some authors who have developed this method to include a number of sub-plots involving characters who may or may not interact at some point with the protagonist but whose own adventures have an important bearing on the outcome of the story. There are also books in which there is not actually a single protagonist, rather the author tells several characters’ stories at the same time and they are woven together to achieve a conclusion.

I believe that there is a great appetite for the standard template of main protagonist, an opinion informed by the huge number of titles that are still popular today. Books like Lord of the Rings employ the second version very successfully. The final version has fewer examples and yet has also proven very successful; Game of Thrones springs to mind.

When I set out to write my fantasy story I actually did not stop to consider how to develop the story, I just let it flow as I wrote. My current manuscript is very much in the Game of Thrones style, I believe. There is no single protagonist to be honest, but a number of people who have fates that are intertwined with each other. I am aware that this style of writing is not to every reader’s taste. I could probably change the template and elevate one character to the main protagonist role and, possibly, write a whole series of adventures based upon them. It might even prove rather popular, and yet I have a nagging doubt.

The thing is, behind this one story there are at least two others that are painted with a broad brush. The most obvious character to take the main protagonist role in the first book is more than likely not to have too much of a role in the following stories. One or more of the other characters could succeed to his place, but that does not mean that are going to continue either.

It is an interesting conundrum. I do not consider myself a genre writer and, therefore, the idea of writing a particular series of books does not appeal to me at all. I value the story more than anything else. On the other hand, attracting more readers to my work is always appealing. Then again, being different has its attractions also.

If I continue with the many protagonists approach then the book will be finished rather quickly, I expect. If I decide to revert to a more conventional style then that will involve a total rewrite, which would then delay finishing the project, obviously. At the moment I remain in two minds.

Two Thirds There

I have finished the second part of the Sorrow song Trilogy!

Well, almost. The actual writing part is complete. I am now in the process of formatting the manuscript in Sigil, an epub file creator. I write using Microsoft’s Word, which I find to be an excellent word-processor, and as I use more than one computer to do this there are no compatibility issues. This did not seem to be a problem with regards to creating a digital version of the manuscript either. Certainly when I submitted my first novel, The War Wolf, it made its appearance on the Kindle in fine form.

A little later I received some comments from readers that suggested that I should include a who’s who of characters as there is rather a few of them, what with it being a historical fiction novel. I also decided to a do a bit of cleaning up of the text, just a few lines that I thought could have been better written. As a result I reviewed the manuscript in Word again and then submitted it to Kindle, exactly the same as I had done the first time around. The results were not the same, however.
Another reader commented in a review about the poor formatting so I decided to have a look for myself by downloading a copy onto my Nexus 7 tablet. Sure enough I encountered various annoying problems, missing words and some words substituted by meaningless characters.

I could understand how this would annoy a reader who had paid for the book but to be honest it really annoyed me as the author. Amazon keep 30% of my sales in payment and they also accept the responsibility for transferring my manuscript from Word into epub for the Kindle. Clearly they had not done a good job in this instance.

Now I could have gotten on my high horse and complained to Amazon, and maybe I should have, but other writers, when asked, offered a different point of view. Some were of the opinion that the manuscript is the writer’s sole responsibility and that it is just not good practice to rely on others to get the formatting right when transferring it to other mediums, such as the epub file format. I think that there is an element of truth in this. I would not go so far as some suggested in learning how to manipulate the code to ensure the cleanest possible transfer of the manuscript from one format to another simply because I do not have the time for it. Fine if you do, not to mention the capability to take on something that technical, but I have a full-time job, a wife, kids, and a football team to support. Time is my most precious commodity!

This is where a program like Sigil comes in. It allows the author to upload a word file, check the formatting, and then save it as an epub file. It does not take away the requirement to go through the text one line at a time to make sure that nothing has crept into the format or that anything has been changed, that labour intensive task remains. The key point is, however, that the interface is based on ‘what you see is what you get’. This makes spotting errors that much easier. Yes it is time consuming but at least this approach instils more confidence in the fact that the final product, the epub file of For Rapture of Ravens, will not only contain any formatting errors but also that when Amazon transfers it to their Kindle format they have less opportunity for introducing any of their own during the process.

My intention is to get this second instalment out by the end of this month. I really want to see this book out there as I think that it makes a worthwhile companion to the first, which I was ridiculously proud of when I first saw it available. That then leaves me with the third and final book to complete. It already exists in a skeleton form. I need to put a lot of flesh on those bones, however. I have learnt so much in writing the first two novels that I am keen to apply that new knowledge to the final of the series. There is a part of me that would like a little break from Saxon England, however. I have thoroughly enjoyed writing about 1066 and I will definitely be finishing the Sorrow Song Trilogy, but I have other literary interests as well. Recently I have begun work on an alternative history project. It is a very dark and disturbing subject within in British history based upon the premise of ‘what if things had gone this way instead of the way that they did?’ It also touches on a subject that is very important to me but that is all I am willing to say at the moment.

I do not want to end with For Rapture for Ravens pushed into the shadows as that would be a disservice to the book and to myself as its author. I am very proud to have completed it so if you are interested in learning what befalls Coenred, Mildryth, and the real historical characters of 1066 then please look out for the publication date, which should hopefully be much sooner than later.

To Viking or not to Viking?

I received a communication regarding my novel ‘The War Wolf’ and, in particular, my use of the word Viking. It seems that there is evidence that suggests the term is actually a verb and not a collective noun. Apparently to viking was to go on an expedition.

Now ignorance of early medieval languages is pretty enormous, I sadly admit, so I don’t feel qualified in challenging this assertion that in the mists of time the word Viking once meant something different to what it does to us today. In fact I am inclined to think that it probably did, because, let’s be honest, that is the nature of most, not necessarily all, but the majority of human languages. They evolve. Those that do not evolve become staid and eventually die out.

‘The War Wolf’ is an example of historical fiction in which I have attempted to be reasonably accurate, but it is not an academic tome on the 11th century. It might have read that way before the first re-write of course, but that is never what I intended it to be. It is X% history, Y% fiction and, I hope, 100% fun.

Of course the accuracy of the historical facts has to be important when writing such a work. This in order to achieve a couple of important points; first, that the reader can trust you to know what you are writing about, and second; that it allows the writer to create a convincing historical world through which the story moves.

I have endeavoured to be true to this principle, spending a lot of time researching facts about the Anglo-Saxon world and trying to develop means of introducing those facts into the narrative in a way that the reader would not find distracting or objectionable. I think that I have been largely successful, even if I do say so myself.

Now the thing about the word Viking is that it has evolved from being a verb in old Norse to becoming a collective noun in modern English. Where once it might have meant to go exploring it now means a bunch of people who pillaged their way across the world like a medieval 18-30 holiday that’s gone seriously out of control, or something to that effect. In fact most connotations attached to the word Viking are so deeply ingrained into our culture that I think it would be very difficult to have them replaced with the notion of a group of adventurous mates going for a quick bit of exploring?

Nope. The people are warmly attached to the hair-suit, axe wielding, horns on his helmet, Eric Bloodaxe type of persona that has come down to us through the ages; warts and all (the horns on the helmet for instance). A Viking is a Viking whether he went vikinging or not. You say the word Viking and everyone knows what you are on about, no confusion there, job done. If you say to viking more than likely they are just going to think that you are talking about more than one Viking.

I must say in closing that I am actually happy to have been educated on this point, it makes the history a little more interesting, and in no way am I attempting to rubbish the idea; like I say, my ignorance on the subject does not qualify me to do that. But I do believe that the passage of time and the evolution of the word Viking entitles me to use it in the commonest sense in which it is understood today without feeling that there is a degree of historical inaccuracy creeping into my story.

The Value of Honest Criticsm

I have this intention in my writing life, when I encounter the work of another independent author I look to offer them a review of their opus. Reviews are useful for lots of reasons; people do actually read them on marketplaces like Amazon. They help get potential readers to at least glance at the book on offer. They are important.

It is because they are important that they should also be both honest and accurate. I am not of the persuasion that just because someone has put something into the public domain then it is fair game to be shoved through the mincer regardless of how this might hurt the feelings of the originator. The best criticism is constructive by nature. It is not enough to just post “this is crap!”

Just recently I finished a couple of books and wrote critiques for both of them. They were both works of historical fiction but I do read other genres. In each case when I went to post the reviews on Amazon, to whom I attach no blame whatsoever, I found that someone had posted very uncomplimentary reviews.

Although the writers were not the same the content of the reviews were similar in spirit, that is, they both awarded a single star and rubbished the writer’s efforts. In my opinion this was uncalled for, not least because it is totally unhelpful, in fact all it seemed to do was allow the post-writer an opportunity to vent their spleen. About what? About a book! Not a contentious book, nor one that was offensive. In both cases the books in question offered the reader an interesting tale set in the early medieval period.

Now a critic can talk about plot construction, the use of language, style, accuracy, syntax, character delineation, the engagement of the reader. Indeed, that is what a critic should do, but it takes a degree of skill and training to do this effectively; a bit like writing a book actually. The two one star posts did none of these things. They nit-picked without example, expressed personal opinion as an argument, offered no encouragement, and concentrated on the negative. They were not useful.

For a new author such critiques can have a far greater impact and lasting resonance than the actual weight of their content deserves. Such is the nature of the writer’s art that what we put out there is personal and sometimes it is difficult not to feel such barbs as a personal attack also.

I sincerely hope that the critiques that I post are both helpful and encouraging to new authors and prospective readers alike. It is easy to be cruel in this world but it does not take that much effort to be honest to someone who has taken the time and trouble to put their heart into their work.

The War Wolf - first in-depth review

It is very rewarding when your work attracts this kind of attention.

“This eight week period in our country’s history has fascinated me for many years as, not only is it, arguably, the most important series of events in the shaping of this nation ever to occur, but because these events are understood, or even heard of, by so few people. It has become a cliché that everyone in Britain, if stopped in the street and asked to name a single date in history that they remember, would say “1066, the Battle of Hastings”. Yet very, very, few of them would have the faintest idea of the dramatic events of the four to six weeks before that. Or the notion that King Harold, just as William (the Conqueror) was about to sail across the Channel, had to rush north to fight against a second invasion from a Viking force, beat that force and then jog back down to the south coast for another fight. Or, incredibly, that Harold need not have lost the Battle of Hastings at all if a large portion of his allies had arrived at the battle 40 minutes earlier, or, even, if his men had not been duped by the Normans into breaking their shield wall. What would our country be like now if King Harold had won at Hastings? Our language, food, laws, governance and almost everything else stem, to a large degree, from William’s success at Hastings. This trilogy of books sets out to tell the tale of those few weeks.

The problems, for a writer, in this period of history include the fact that names were very different then and very strange sounding to us. Another problem is that the real events were so incredible that they sound truly ‘incredible’; not believable, even to the point of having important characters who happened to have exactly the same name. Peter Whitaker manages that quite well and the index and map at the back of the book are very helpful. Perhaps a ‘who’s who’ might have been a useful addition.

The story itself is quite slow in building and is none the worse for that. This was a very complex situation and an understanding of the politics and family links of the time is important to the whole thing and Mr Whitaker sets this out in a form that is both accurate and yet readily understood and engaging. The characters fall into two categories. Firstly, many of the main characters are real people from history and, although it is almost impossible to know for sure, Peter Whitaker’s rendition of them has the ring of accuracy that convinced me and I engaged easily. The second tier of characters are the fictional ones and these too are very well crafted. I could have lived without the ‘love interest’ story as, to me, it seemed to be unnecessary and inserted only because ‘every book needs a love interest’.

The joy that Mr Whitaker takes in his history just shines out of this book and the descriptions of the lives, clothes, weapons and general life of this period are lovingly portrayed in a detail that brings real colour to the story. The scenes of battle are absolutely excellent, taking the reader right into the shield wall and yet flying out every now and then to give a bigger picture (a luxury that the leaders of the day didn’t have).

But there are flaws. The main issue I had was not with the author at all but with the very poor rendition of this book into e-book format so that many simple words are misused in a fashion that is jarring to the reader. Come on Amazon, don’t do such an injustice to a writer who has invested so much trouble in his work! But Mr Whitaker isn’t squeaky clean either. The plot does lurch a bit and it feels, just a bit, as though he has gone back in the proof reading and thought “Oh yes, I’d better insert a bit there”. Then there’s the place names. It is my personal preference that the names of places contemporary at the time should be used and having an explanatory index at the back is great, so the book should use ‘Grimms By’ rather than ‘Grimsby’ and ‘Jorvik’ rather than ‘York’. Yet here, the names change frequently, with one form being used on one page and the more modern form on another. I suspect that Mr Whittaker intended that the Vikings use their older name forms (Jorvik) and the Saxons use modern forms (York) but the result is, actually, a confusing muddle that jars the reader out of the time frame. And then there is a personal gripe of mine in that the invaders’ nationality is referred to as ‘Viking’. In fact, they were Danes, Norwegians, Geats and a few other Scandinavian peoples and the term ‘viking’ is a verb, so these people would ‘go viking’; a bit like ‘go raiding’. Given the historical accuracy of the rest of this work, it would have been nice to have made this distinction, not least because it is important to understand that these thousands of invaders didn’t think of themselves as a single national force of ‘Vikings’.

This, the first book in the trilogy, ends at a logical point after the Battle of Fulford Bridge and the stage is set for the next set of events as Harold surges north. Minor grumbles aside, this is a really good book and I will buy the next in the series to follow the plot. The fact that we all know how it turns out doesn’t matter in the slightest; it’s the telling of the tale that counts. If you know your history, then this book will impress with its accuracy, and if you just want a romping saga of sword swinging and medieval action, then it won’t disappoint you either.”


Clive

Originally posted on amazon.co.uk

I've been away for awhile

I have been very busy lately on a number of projects and also with having to earn a living as my book still has not sold in the quantities necessary for me to live in the lifestyle that I want to become accustomed to!

One thing that I decided to do was develop a website that brings many of the things that I am interested in together in one place. My first web-site was dedicated to The Sorrow Song Trilogy and was fun to do but someone pointed out that I am interested in more than just that and it might be better to show what else gets my attention.

The result is this: www.petercwhitaker.co.uk

There is a section on The Sorrow Song Trilogy, complete with background information on the Saxons – I was not going to throw all that work away! There’s also a section on photography and art and finally something on politics.

This is very much a work in progress, I mean there’s nothing there about dinosaurs yet! I will be adding and changing things frequently, at least I hope to be. Please have a look and if you feel like it share the link with others.
Many thanks.

Can writing make you Schizophrenic?

I started a project in historical fiction and it went very well, so well that I started thinking of other subjects even though I had not completed the first project (it’s a trilogy and I am working on the second novel). I am contemplative by nature so this is not a problem, my mind occupies itself with all kinds of imaginings, except that something has taken hold and refuses to let go.

In fact this little germ has proven so tenacious that I even started writing a couple of thousand words about it the other day. It was not much, just a few opening lines to see how things went…they went well! In fact it went so well that I opened up a project book and started developing characters, themes, plot lines, etc.

The next day I started to feel a bit guilty because I still have the first project to complete so, as if in a fit of penitence I drafted up two scenes to write into my historical fiction story. They worked really well too, so I felt much better.

Of course that was not the end of the matter, I soon found myself thinking about my new story and the ideas started coming thick and fast! I have read a couple of works on alternative history, William Gibson’s The Difference Engine’ for example (which he co-authored with Bruce Sterling of course) and I quite like the idea of bending reality a little to create something new; this is where the new story was heading. My imagination was quickly filling up with all kinds of possibilities for this new project, but was I losing touch with my Saxon epic?

Jumping from one time period to another can be quite tiring. I have a friend who cannot read two books at the same time if they are the same genre but different time periods, they claim that it gives them a kind of mental jet-lag! Strangely, they do not seem to be alone, I’ve read similar comments from people on the internet who state that if reading more than one book they like them to be as different as possible, so one might be a horror story and another might be historical fiction and the third might be a non-fiction book. It seems a common enough trait in reading.

I suppose that in a creative fashion this might also be a problem for a writer with two projects on the go at the same time, dashing from the 11th century to a period some 900 years later where everything is different in so many ways?

I definitely want to complete both stories! The first one must come to completion because I have spent so long on it already, what with the research into a period that I did not know all that well when I started, and because the first novel has been reasonably well received. The second one is just so different and touches on a subject matter that has always fascinated me the way some people are fascinated by fire.

The commonsense path would seem to be that I divide my time up between the two of them, similar to what I would do when reading several books. Of course I often found that I had barely enough time to write the first book, what with work and family commitments, so how do I manage two? Well, fortunately the second instalment already has some 72,000 words written so I can say that it is well on its way to completion, hopefully to be published next year, this gives me some room to manoeuvre with regards to the new story. Time management is the key!

In some ways this might actually prove a saving grace in that there will be clear lines of distinction between the two projects, a bit like an actor appearing in two different roles on the same day. With a little preparation I should hopefully be able to switch comfortably from Saxons fighting Vikings to a subject much darker and more disturbing without losing my grasp on who I am at the same time!

Insertions do not have to be painful!

I suppose it depends what type of writer you are, whether you are a planner who gets everything sorted well before the creative writing starts or if you are more like me, someone who prefers to get the heart of the story onto the page and then go back and sort things out a bit?

There are pro’s and con’s to both systems, of course, it really comes down to a personal choice rather than one being right and one being wrong; it really is whatever works for you!

That said there are times when I wish that I took the more structured approach as I think that it might just save me a bit of time and work in the long run.

I am working on volume two of The Sorrow Song Trilogy and I have about 72,000 words written. There’s a dynamic relationship between two major characters that needs developing to bring a bit more excitement and drama to the narrative whilst the story heads towards an almighty climax.

Now when I was writing the 72,000 words I knew that I would have to go back and develop certain points, events and characters. It is not so much a problem as a need to insert a passage with a little consideration, perception and skill.

When I reviewed the draft manuscript I saw an opportunity to insert an episode that would build up the tension and make the reader (hopefully) care about one of the characters in particular. It also gives this character, her name is Mildryth by the way, a chance to prove her strength of character in dealing with a very dangerous situation instigated by a man who has already been revealed to a murderer and thief.

As this is historical fiction I have to be aware of the chronology of events in both a historical sense and with regards to the chronology of the plot, which all means that finding the opportune moment to introduce this new episode is crucial. It has to fit seamlessly, a fact all good writers understand, into what has already been written, which is where the consideration comes in.

To achieve this I picked a likely spot in the manuscript, marked it, and then read every chapter leading up to it. This gave me a fresh memory of what I had written and confirmed that I had picked the right moment in the story to insert the new work.

Again, because of my preferred style, this was not a one shot deal. I wrote the piece quickly to try and get all the excitement down on the page. Then I rewrote it almost immediately, only this time conscious of the material already written earlier in the novel, the historical background and the fact that female ninjas did not exist in 11th century England!

Next came the proof reading, spell checking, the enriching of the cultural background and the editing to rid the piece of any pretence of being a historical essay; I sometimes find that my urge to retain a degree of historical integrity can lead me into writing in a very dry and academic style; something that must be amended at all costs!

Finally, if I am happy with the final written piece, I go back and re-read the manuscript again, making notes where necessary, and carry out a final judgement; did it work? Do the characters interact sufficiently? Is there tension? Did I achieve what I set out to do? Was the insertion invisible in consideration of the rest of the manuscript?

Happily, I can say yes in each instance. It did not hurt at all really. I enjoyed the writing and the editing, but you know what, a female ninja might make a good character for a more contemporary novel!

When it comes to writing how good is your memory?

Are you the kind of person who makes copious notes or do you store things away mentally and recall them later when you can sit in peace and get the words down?

I tend to be the latter. I do make notes but I do a lot of development work in my head, characters, themes, events, things like that. It seems to suit me better as I tend to become somewhat impatient if I try to write everything down. When I started my novel I attempted to write character biographies as I had read that this was considered a necessity; I found it boring!

Okay, there could be a question of self-discipline in there but I am not so sure. I have the discipline to sit down and write when it comes to the novel itself, it is just the ancillary pieces that I have a problem with.

I suppose that I must be lucky in that I have a good memory so I do not seem to struggle to recall things. I find that once I start working on a piece that I have previously contemplated everything seems to flow automatically. I can keep the characters separate, I can develop the incident, I can craft the piece so that it fits with the plot. No problem.
If anything it seems to me that working from notes alone would be a very slow method of writing, but that is purely my opinion. It is based upon my experience if having to work from research notes, which are both essential and inevitable to the writing of historical fiction. I love doing the research but I have to set myself up to work the facts into fabric of the story and it always seems to take longer than when writing purely from my imagination.