In the Interlude

A lot of books on writing suggest you put a manuscript to bed for a little while before beginning to edit. This gives you a little distance from the work, and the first blush of love you feel for any novel you've written, fades giving you the ability to 'kill your darlings' as it were.

I used to think this was hogwash -- shouldn't you know exactly what happened in your novel in order to go back and edit as soon as possible? As I've grown into the writer I am now, I find though, that I come to things with fresh eyes if I just give a little time for the novel to breathe. New ideas occur to me, I watch a new show and discover something that I want to add into my novel. Its a calming period, when I can think about what I have written and how to make it better.

I am in the waiting period, letting EoaW (I wrote out the title recently and realized to my horror that there was an 'a' in the title) settle into what it will become in my mind. There are things that have to change about it, I know, but for now I am letting it rest.

But just because I'm letting something rest doesn't mean I don't have a million other ideas. Two things have happened since I finished my novel that are related to this: one, I attempted to plot the next five books after Pawn and I read The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

Pawn is troubling to me because I don't know exactly where its going. The unfortunate thing about knowing how tropes work is that I know the expected path for a story like Pawn, and know that you can only deviate from it somewhat without violating the agreement with the reader -- to tell a story that is different yet the same in exchange for their willing suspension of disbelief. But I don't like the expected path, and to be honest the whole thinking about the whole series has made me slightly disappointed that it appears to have a moral.

This leads to a niggling, scary thought, that I am going to have to re-write a large portion of the backstory, and probably the majority of the story. While I know that this probably will be the result, I don't think I can handle re-writing the story right now. I'm in the middle of editing EoaW and I need that energy for the editing process.

Anyways, so that has me a little stumped. I think though, that the second thing that happened has opened up something for me.

The Hunger Games was given to me by a resident last night and I read it in one giant gulp. I don't remember the last time I read something new like this. I mean, I read The Dark Jewels trilogy like this, and Harry Potter, but even for authors I love, it usually takes me a couple of days to get through a book -- partly because of a decreased attention span and partly because -- well I get ideas and head over to word to start writing.

I suppose the last new book I read like this was The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger and that was almost five years ago now (ignoring the Harry Potter books, because those were expected). Part of this is due to being in college, and finding less and less time to read, and part of this is the fact that it doesn't happen often me me.

The Hunger Games was another wonderful example of pacing done right. It had captivating characters and the narration -- wow the narration was done brilliantly. You are swept alone in Katniss's world, and feel the same confusion about characters, the same little loves and joys as her. It was extremely well done. But I don't want to spoil it right now. I have to read the next two books and see what happens and then I'll probably do a giant recap post.

Anyways, if you haven't read it, I definitely recommend it. At least the first book.

Anyways, The Hunger Games made Alane pop up again. Probably because I have twelve books to fill with her, but almost anything can happen in Alane's books, I just have to create a sequence and follow my larger plot driven arcs. The point being, the idea of an arena, fighting, lead me to the beginning of Alane's story -- something I had been trying to find for a long time.

So, in the interlude between finishing and editing, I am going to keep on writing... its all I know how to do.

Pacing (The Black Jewels Trilogy - Anne Bishop)

I was going to write about Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland but the more I wrote, the more it turned into a negative, annoyed review of a passing movie that didn't resonate with me. So I decided to let it go. Instead, I got my parents to bring me down a trilogy of books that I love dearly, but had kind of forgotten about -- The Black Jewels by Anne Bishop. The three books in the trilogy are Daughter of the Blood, Heir to the Shadows and Queen of the Darkness (and please note, the cover art on these books is a hallmark of don't judge a book by its cover).

I started reading on Monday evening and have just finished the third book for the umpteenth time. I mention this for a particular reason. I read books quite quickly. Maybe not as fast as some, but I'm dyslexic, so I have an excuse. When I read The Black Jewels it feels like I'm reading fast. It feels like I can't stop because, while I know what is going to happen, I need to keep going. And its this speed, and need to go on, that interests me.

To be honest, I've never read any of Anne Bishop's stuff, so I don't know if it holds the same intensity that these three books hold. I did, for a while, hold on to a collection of her short stories that included one about the same characters, but I never felt the need to read it. I've been told her other stuff isn't as good. So, if we take these three books as masterful creations of pacing that she hasn't managed to recreate, then what is so special about these books?

I'm not going to provide a synopsis this time, so I'll try and keep this easy to understand without reading the books. However, I will probably delve into spoilers of, at the very least, the first book.

So what is it about the pacing of these books that is so captivating?

I would like to say that it has something to do with how you know, subconsciously, what is going on from the beginning. Tersa tells us, in what I like to think of as a midnight voice to match Janelle's, "She is coming", and we are swept into the story -- or the mystery, or whatever you want to call it. There is a prologue, and it is brief, but it informs so much of what the story is going to be while creating lovely foreshadowing. I think all prologues could be held to this standard because while most people complain about prologues (well not most, but there are quite a few who do) and claim they give away too much, this one gives the reader a direction, a forceful wave of motion that can't be stopped until you reach the end, untangle the web and finally know what she means by "She is coming", while giving information that could not otherwise be given. This is what a prologue is for.

But the prologue is only part of it. You can only glean so much of what is happening from the prologue and the information found there, it is also in the fact that you see the world Janelle (the person whom Tersa was saying was coming) inhabits, but not the body she inhabits. The narration jumps between the people who see her and are surrounded by, which gives us leave to see into the minds of her enemies.

Even this, though, is not enough to get through the first book. While in the first book, the movements of the enemy forces are driven more by luck then scheming, and as the serious moves on the villains become little more then bumbling idiots -- the real drama relegated to the main characters and the emotional tones of the story. Still, knowing the villains as well as the protagonists, gives us some more knowledge of where the story is going, as they are the schemers, and move things into place for the action to occur.

That isn't the whole thing though, and I find myself at a loss after looking at those two items. It occured to me that it might be in the writing style -- the delicate word choice, the short, to the point sentences (that I have not managed to achieve clearly) -- the way she paces this story, moving it along, while not hurrying it to the conclusion.

And that, unfortunately, can't be taught.

Hopefully though, it can be practiced.