March 2016 – Q&A
This is a compilation of questions that have been emailed and messaged to me recently.
If you want to ask about anything, you can post a comment here or get in touch through the contact page (and newsletter subscribers can just reply to any of my emails).
Tegeus asked: Hi, sorry for my bad English. I’ve read everything you wrote in Warhammer and Warhammer 40k world and I like your work very much if it is possible, please tell me: why the old Warhammer world was abandoned? so many stories left untold… is it possible to write again about that world? I found very few stories about chaos dwarfs and I guess it would be a beautiful subject, thanks for your books!
Thank you for contacting me. It’s been many years since I worked within GW so I don’t have definite answers to why Age of Sigmar was created. However, from my experience I would say the following reasons were certainly part of the issue:
* Warhammer as was needed large numbers of models to function – unlike 40K it isn’t possible to play the old rules with just ten or twenty models. Even if prices were lower this makes it very hard for people to start playing – the barrier of collecting and painting maybe fifty or sixty miniatures was too high.
* The background was derived from very popular but widespread images and archetypes as well as history. Although this made it very familiar and recognisable, in also meant that many companies are able to produce similar miniatures without license and undercut GW sales. The new imagery and names are more easily defined and legally protected.
I don’t think there will be any opportunity to write in the World that Was – certainly not at the moment while Age of Sigmar is being established. Even if some folks have been put off, GW have to put their weight behind the new setting and system to give it the best chance of succeeding – they would risk splitting what audience they have if they returned to the Old World right now.
And on a similar note (and referencing some advice I gave out about starting at the end of a story), Shawn asked: Hi Gav! Thanks for all the news and thanks again for the writing advice. I’ll try working backwards with 250 words and see what that does. Do you work backwards when writing full length novels? The reason I ask is because, if the BL editors like it and hire me, I’m afraid I won’t be able to capture that same style by starting from the beginning on an assignment. It sounds like you have been quite busy. I hope you can get your fantasy novel out there. Do you find it hard to write your own fantasy after writing so much science-fiction, or does the difficulty stem from the fact that it’s unfamiliar ground and not the Old World? Thanks for your time and all the gaming news too.
I’ve written about my planning process here, and it basically does start at the end, in a way. Even a novel, or a whole series, is building up to a point or illustrating a theme and it is towards that theme that the plot has to direct the reader.
When it comes to actually writing, I usually start at the beginning and just work my way through, but I know some authors, because they have a solid plan in place, can jump around and write the chapters and scenes out of order (I sometimes do this if I run into a mental road block somewhere else and want to keep writing).
Writing my own stuff and Black Library fiction isn’t all that different, though BL needs more research these days. Having a world already created takes away lots of the decision-making required, but in terms of creating compelling narratives, characters and a convincing setting with the text itself, the challenges remain the same. The biggest problem is reining in the ideas into a single novel – I don’t want to be writing a huge book so some areas of the world I’ll need to set aside for the moment and hopefully explore in future books.
Tyler asked on Twitter: How do you pronounce Silverblade’s first name?
Think ‘Theo’ (soft ‘th) – Thee-udd-err-iss
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