The Steinbock Project
At the very beginning of this month I finished the first draft of what we’ll call the “Steinbock Project” for the moment. But first, a little explanation.
In May of this year I released my third book, Steps of Krakador, which takes place in a world of my own imagination with characters that have been with me for over a decade. I had dwelt on this world for a long time, rolling its history and populace through my brain as I washed dishes at Arby’s in high school and painted houses in college. Scenes played out in my mind with blistering clarity and my excitement to tell the story grew with every new addition.
The problem was that I was a proud little sod (to borrow some English), and I thought I could manage it all in my head. I did write down some overarching timelines, a few notes on history and some of the particulars that I knew I would forget otherwise. But I didn’t do some of the heavy lifting I’ve come to appreciate in the creation of a fantasy world.
This has changed dramatically. I’ve now written four books, which I believe hold up to scrutiny (although White Shores is a bit rough, being my first book and all), but I want to do a better job at all of this. For you, but also for myself.
Fragment sentences are permitted from time to time for stylistic purposes.
The Steinbock Project is the first in a handful of projects intended to bring a greater sense of unity and overall weight to the world I’m creating before I venture any farther. The work that I had done was sufficient for the Vitalis Chronicles trilogy, as the world which it inhabits is relatively young and the history relatively light. As I move forward, however, and tell the stories that will shape this world and drive it towards a unifying conflict, I have to do better.
I’m taking some time to do what we might call “pre-writing” exercises. On everything. The Steinbock Project is a book on the history of magic, as written by a historian near the end of the major epoch in which the majority of these stories are to be told. He comes nearly two millennia after Ardin, and his view is that of a chronicler writing down a comprehensive history of a known element in the world: Magic.
In more pragmatic terms: I’ve just finished the first draft of a book explaining the magic system of my world, along with details of the history of each school, their symbols, abilities, etc.
The next two projects are similar, and will fill in the gaps that I’ve intentionally left in Steinbock’s book : a comprehensive history book, and a book of fairy tales and myths.
These are serving two purposes: to outline the history of the world and its major conflicts/cultural shifts/governmental powers so that I can keep continuity afloat across a couple dozen books, and to help me keep my timing and facts straight when I’m actually writing said books. For example, having this all down and planned out helps me to keep from using a myth whose root story hasn’t actually unfolded yet. Silly things that I’ll get caught on later.
It’s also just a lot of fun, and has created so many amazing new possibilities just through this process alone.
This is all being dumped into a wiki I just got finished building over a month ago. It’s purely private for now, but is nice to have because A) I can just click on links and search when I’m curious about what it was I said that one time, and B) eventually it will make sharing the whole bundle of information with you significantly simpler.
Don’t worry, there will be a pretty paper version you can pay for when the timing is right. For now, I’m going to keep all three of these books to myself to keep from spoiling anything for the rest of you.
In the meantime, keep your eyes peeled for the release of my fourth book: Dark Horse. With it will come the announcement of the overarching title of the series.
More fun updates to come! Very soon.
