How to write a long fantasy series

It took three years and two months rather than the two years I initially planned, but I have, at very long last, finished the Wheel of Time re-read and analysis. And as I promised quite some time ago, we’ll end with what I’ve learned.

This post, unlike the others, is not WoT-specific. I’ll be referencing the series, because it’s the primary source of my thoughts on this topic, but the point here is to talk about the specific challenges of writing a long epic fantasy series — here defining “long” as “more than a trilogy, and telling one ongoing story.” (So something like Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar books wouldn’t count, since they’re a conglomeration of multiple trilogies.) My points probably also apply to non-fantasy series, but other genres are much less likely to attempt multi-volume epics on this scale, so I’m mostly speaking to my fellow fantasists.

I do not pretend this is in any way, shape, or form a recipe for commercial success with an epic fantasy series. After all, most of this is a checklist of errors I feel Jordan made, and you could paper the walls of Tor’s offices in fifty-dollar bills with the cash he made for them. Nor am I claiming artistic failure awaits if you fail to heed this advice; you might squeak through on luck, or just really good storytelling instinct. But I do feel that bearing these points in mind can help the would-be writer of an epic series avoid falling off some of the more common and perilous cliffs.

With all of that intro material out of the way, let’s get to it.

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time for more dragons!

But first, a reminder: only a few days left to get a letter from Lady Trent. (If you’ve already written to her, the reply will be on its way shortly — I delayed a little bit in order to get something cool to include with the note.)

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New interview at The Adventures of Cecelia Bedelia, another interview at Short and Sweet Book Reviews, and a guest post at Head Stuck in a Book. There were supposed to be a couple of others, too, but the scheduling of those appears to have gone astray.

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I do, however, have my usual biweekly post up at BVC: “It happened to my cousin’s best friend’s roommate,” wherein I discuss legends. Comment over there!

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recent media

You get rambly thoughts. Yay!

Revenge: A bit muddled here and there, but still interesting, especially because of the extent to which (at least at the beginning) it’s framed as this faceoff between two women, both powerful in their own way. Because of the aforementioned muddling, it doesn’t quite stay that way, but it was still nifty while it lasted. And I kind of love the relationship between Emily and Nolan — all the more so because the show is unafraid to make Nolan a physical wimp. When somebody holds him at knifepoint, he gets scared. And then he turns around and calls Emily on her errors, and she generally admits he’s right.

[profile] kniedzw called it a “soap opera” at one point, which got me thinking about the extent to which a soap opera can be defined as a drama that caters to a female audience. There are other aspects, too — the daytime slot being a shallow one; the constant plot churn being a more substantial one — but “soap opera” has a connotation of “ridiculous,” and really, I don’t think Revenge (at least in its first season) is any more ridiculous than various evening dramas that cater to a male audience. So there’s that.

Lost Girl: The werewolf guy is hot, but the tone of the show really doesn’t do it for me, and I can’t help but roll my eyes at the extent to which the protagonist’s nature seems like an excuse to have her make out with people every episode. Not my cup of tea, I think.

The Vampire Diaries: Also not my cup of tea, but I watched the first two episodes out of curiosity (yay Netflix streaming!), and have to applaud the way Stefan goes against the stereotypical grain of the YA paranormal boyfriend. Which is to say, he’s not an asshole. In fact, he is an anti-asshole in some ways I can’t help but read as a deliberate response to Edward in Twilight, whether that’s the case or not. I still don’t find him that interesting, but at least I don’t want to deck him.

Coriolanus: And now for something that isn’t TV. Not one of Shakespeare’s better-known tragedies, but after watching this adaptation, I have no idea why. It’s been too long since I read the play (my sophomore year of college, I think) for me to recognize whether it’s a matter of how they edited the script, or just the bloody fantastic performances from Ralph Fiennes and Gerard Butler and Brian Cox and James Nesbitt and oh my god Vanessa Redgrave, but it fits all but seamlessly into a run-down, militarized present day, with weary politicians and some conspirators who are, when I think about it, weirdly honest. I think I may have to buy a copy of the movie and add it to my library of Good Shakespeare Adaptations.

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last few days for Con or Bust

Just as a reminder, the “Con or Bust” auctions close this Sunday. Bidding on the double-signed copy of A Natural History of Dragons (autographed by both me and Todd Lockwood, with a bonus sketch from him) is up to $48, while A Star Shall Fall is at $15 and With Fate Conspire is at $20. Proceeds go to a good cause, and the books don’t suck either, if I do say so myself. 😉

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(Re)Visiting the Wheel of Time: A Memory of Light (analysis)

[This is part of a series analyzing Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time novels. Previous installments can be found under the tag. Comments on old posts are welcome.]

I pretty much covered my reactions to this book with the two liveblog posts. So now it’s time to set aside the straight-up “Oh my god I can’t believe this series is finally done I’ve been waiting for this for more than half my life”> stream of consciousness, and talk about this in a more sensible fashion.

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Dragons had a nice long weekend; how about you?

Two new giveaways popped up over the weekend: one at Short and Sweet, and one at WORD for Teens.

New interview over at Literary Escapism, where I’m asked about writing historical fantasy vs. secondary-world fantasy, and writing British-style stuff when I myself am American.

I also have a post up at Sci-Fi Songs wherein I talk about the soundtrack of the book. (Don’t tell anybody, but I always wish somebody would ask me about the soundtrack. I put so much work into it, and then I’m usually the only person who ever hears it — my music choices are too obscure for me to be able to put it together in a way that can be shared online.)

And, unrelated to dragons, it’s time for my usual post at SF Novelists. This time it’s An Open Letter to the Creators of Sexist Fantasy and Comic Book Art. (Comment over there; no login required.)

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Writing Fight Scenes: Sentence Structure

NOTE: You can now buy the revised and expanded version of this blog series as an ebook, in both epub and mobi formats.

[This is a post in my series on how to write fight scenes. Other installments may be found under the tag.]

Step up one level from the nouns and verbs you’re going to be using over and over and overandoverandover again in your fight scenes, and it’s time to consider how you’re going to string them together into sentences.

There are two main schools of thought on this, and I’m going to give you the one I disagree with first.

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Talk to me about tablets, part 2

I made that post the other day in a hurry, hence not going into detail about what I’m looking for and how I’m using my laptop right now. But in a way, that made it more interesting; I got a broad array of answers. Thank you all!

So now comes the detail, and if you have other advice to offer, please do.

First of all, I have a desktop computer, which is where I do 95% of my writing work — maybe more. Also a lot of e-mail, websurfing, listening to music, and most of my game-playing. That’s still working fine.

My laptop mostly gets used in front of the TV, where I deal with e-mail and surf the web while watching TV. Sometimes I write blog posts. It also gets taken along when I travel, and that’s where its deficiency really starts to show: it’s too large, too heavy, too inconvenient. It takes too long to wake up and reacquire a wireless signal, which is partly a function of its slow degeneration from age — but not entirely.

Ergo, I want something that is smaller, lighter, and more responsive, as well as something that can function as a better ebook reader than the tiny screen of my phone. Netbooks are generally too small; I don’t have large hands, but it’s still a bad ergonomic idea for me to try and type a lot on such a small keyboard. I think I’d be better off with a Bluetooth keyboard for a tablet, which will be about the size of the one on my current laptop. An ultrabook is a possibility . . . but I’m not sure I really need something on that scale, for the use I make of it.

On the other hand, I’m not a fan of the restricted environment of an app market, whether Android or iOS, which is a point against tablets. (The Surface would be a compromise on that front, but it has other things against it — price for one, and apparently it’s a nightmare to repair.)

Anyway, I’m likely to go test-drive some prospects soon, as this laptop is having an increasing amount of trouble finding our wireless network and maintaining a connection to it. Without that, it’s nothing more than a very hot brick. So if you have advice to offer, get it in fast, ’cause time is running out!

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Dragon roundup

Before I get to the new links, remember that you, too, can receive a handwritten letter from Lady Trent! That runs through the end of the month.

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(You thought I was exaggerating when I said I would be EVERYWHERE ON THE INTERNET this month. It ain’t even done yet, folks.)

The Books and Things post, by the way, includes another giveaway. That’s the only new one I’ve found in the last few days, though.

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Was it really only a week ago that I was in . . . where was I on Friday? San Diego. Wow. And barely more than a week since the book came out! But so far, it seems to be going pretty well.

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Happy Retcon Day

Once upon a time, there was a guy who was interested in a girl. He’d been interested in her for a month or two, and they had recently gone out to dinner on (theoretically) non-romantic grounds, so he was intending to ask her out.

He faced a choice, though. The aforementioned dinner had been on February 12th. Should he ask her out on Valentine’s Day? No, he decided; that would be (his choice of words) “cheesy.” He baked her cookies on the 14th, though, and ultimately asked her out on the 16th.

The two of them dated for many years, and eventually got married. But along the way, a small problem developed.

You see, this guy — sometimes known to the internet as [profile] kniedzw — decided, in direct contradiction of his own reasoning before, to declare Valentine’s Day their anniversary. The girl — sometimes known to the internet as [personal profile] swan_tower — is perfectly happy to celebrate the fourteenth of February as Valentine’s Day and also their Cookie Anniversary (a very important occasion!), but she objects strenuously to this blatant ret-conning of their past.

(She attempted to settle this matter more firmly by proposing to him on the sixteenth of February seven years after they started dating, in the hopes that it would give that date greater historical weight. No dice.)

At this point, of course, she suspects he’s sticking to the point simply because arguing over it has become tradition. But in the meantime, she is celebrating her Cookie Anniversary (nom nom nom), and wishes you all a very happy Retcon Day.

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Talk to me about tablets

My laptop is, after nearly six years of good-to-middling service, tottering along on its last legs. I’m thinking that at this point it makes the most sense for me to pick up a tablet instead of a full laptop, but I don’t really know what to look at.

What’s out there right now, that isn’t an iPad? (I’m considering that too, but A: I’m a PC user and B: my brother worked on the iPad, so if I need proselytizing and/or information, all I have to do is walk down the street.) What do you recommend? What do you recommend I stay away from?

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Writing Fight Scenes: Word Choice

NOTE: You can now buy the revised and expanded version of this blog series as an ebook, in both epub and mobi formats.

[This is a post in my series on how to write fight scenes. Other installments may be found under the tag.]

One of these days, I will actually finish this series of posts. 🙂 Today, we come one step closer to that goal!

Fight scenes, oddly enough, have certain technical challenges in common with sex scenes. Namely, both of them are primarily concerned with describing physical movement, and in the course of so doing, they have to refer to certain objects and actions again and again and again and again. And if you try to get too creative in the avoidance of repetition, you very rapidly slide down into the abyss of purple prose.

So how do you get around this?

Giveaways, as far as the eye can see!

Update on the Con or Bust auction: bidding is up to $35 dollars, having just opened on Saturday. Remember that this copy of A Natural History of Dragons is signed by me and by Todd Lockwood, and furthermore that he drew another dragon on the first page! It’s shiiiinyyyyyy . . . .

(I should mention that I’m also auctioning off signed copies of A Star Shall Fall and With Fate Conspire. We now return you to your regularly scheduled ANHoD update.)

Other giveaways: good lord, you can’t throw a rock right now without hitting one. I’m probably missing a few, but so far I know of one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight underway.

Three new bits of content as well. At Bookish, I talk about how I came up with the different dragon types, and at My Bookish Ways I answer various interview questions. Also, over at No More Grumpy Bookseller, I discuss why Victorian-ish fantasy is so popular right now (or at least, why I like it).

Finally, don’t forget that Letters from Lady Trent is underway! I may delay my responses just slightly, to see if I can obtain something Extra Awesome to include in my replies . . . I need to go look into that.

Anyway, there’s a few things to entertain you all, and I promise I’ll be back soon with non-ANHoD-related blogging!

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End of the (tour) line

Just as a reminder, I have one final stop on my tour, this one local to me. If you are in the San Francisco Bay Area, I’ll be reading and signing at Borderlands Books starting at 3 p.m. I hope to see some of you there!

Tour updates of various sorts

Where am I? What day is it? Friday? I guess I must be in San Diego, then. Wait, no, haven’t gotten on a plane yet today — I’m still in Portland.

(No really, when I woke up it took me an appallingly long time to figure that out, and also which direction to look in for the door.)

Updates! Giveaways first, since those are shiny: in addition to Jim Hines’ (which is still ongoing), you can try to win a copy from The Bookish Babes (which has an excerpt and a brief Q&A with me as well) or Book Chick City (also with a guest post and an excerpt).

Or, if you’d rather rely on a charitable donation rather than luck of the draw, I have a DOUBLE-SIGNED COPY up as an auction item for Con or Bust, the travel fund for fans and writers of color to attend conventions. What do I mean by “double-signed”? I mean it has my autograph, and it has Todd Lockwood’s — along with a sketch of a dragon Todd drew inside. So that one’s extra-shiny, and the money goes to a good cause.

Guest posts etc not mentioned above:

And finally, not directly related to ANHoD but live right now anyway, another SF Signal Mind Meld, wherein I discuss print and ebooks (luddite that I am) with a bunch of other people.

. . . I think that’s it, at least for now. And if you’ll pardon me, I have to go catch a plane!

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A Natural History of Dragons!

Grrrrrrrrrreetings and salutations, O Internets. Today is a frabjous day for me, as it is the day that A Natural History of Dragons goes on sale in reputable bookshops everywhere!

(The ones who started selling it early are also probably reputable. They just jumped the gun a bit, is all.)

Don’t forget that I will be participating in the Month of Letters Challenge; check that link for details on how to get your own hand-written letter from Lady Trent. You have all month!

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There are going to be a lot of sightings of me around the Internet for the next month and more, as I undertake a blog tour for this book. Rather than spamming you with links every time an interview or guest post goes live, I’m going to collate them into round-ups. As of today, we have the following:

A giveaway at Jim Hines’ blog. He provided an excellent blurb for A Natural History of Dragons, so Tor sent him four finished copies of the book, of which he is giving away three. But wait, there’s more! He has signed the back of the book, under his blurb, and I am sending him stickers so they can be autographed by me, too. In fact, it’s possible that Daniel Fox (the blurber beneath him in that photo) will also be contributing. If you can snag one of these, and then track down Melanie Rawn and Todd Lockwood, you’ll have the most thoroughly signed copy of this novel in existence! To get a copy, head on over to Jim’s blog and write your own blurb for the fake book Mary’s Angels (previously featured in his Aicardi Foundation fundraiser).

“Why Do Dragons Look Like That?” A PW Tip Sheet, wherein you can see some of the interior sketches from the book, and read my thoughts on why I chose those parts of the story to be illustrated.

“An Interview with Lady Trent, Dragon Naturalist” From the Tor/Forge newsletter, an in-character interview of Lady Trent, by a muckraking journalist of her own world. 🙂

“The Pop Quiz at the End of the Universe” An entirely silly interview with me, featuring seventeenth-century profanity!

Blog Critics interview — and finally, a more serious and thorough interview, where I talk about academia and female protagonists.

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Finally, a quick reminder that tomorrow I embark on my book tour. If you’re in Seattle, Portland, San Diego, or San Francisco, please do stop by and say hi!

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Books read, January 2013

The list of books I started reading and gave up on (permanently) is longer than the list of books I finished. <sigh> It was one of those months.

At least I’ve learned to give up on things, though. Once upon a time I felt like I had to finish every book I started, and that would have made this month substantially more boring. (We will ignore how many of these I kept reading after the point where I should have stopped, in the hopes that they would get better.)

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The Month of Letters returns!

As you may recall, last year I particpated in Mary Robinette Kowal’s Month of Letters challenge, inviting people to write letters to the characters from the Onyx Court series. I sent replies on old-fashioned paper, handwritten with a dip pen, sealed with wax, and generally had a blast.

This year, your correspondent will be Isabella, protagonist of A Natural History of Dragons. The book isn’t out quite yet, of course — next Tuesday!!! — but you’ll still have most of February in which to meet Isabella via fiction and then write to her via post.

Send your letters to:

Marie Brennan
P.O. Box 6802
San Mateo, CA 94403

IMPORTANT: Address the outside envelope to me, not to Isabella. Otherwise your letter may get bounced by the post office as being for a recipient not at that address. ALSO IMPORTANT: Include your return address! Otherwise I can’t write back.

Now if you’ll pardon me, I have to go practice my cursive again. It’s gotten rusty since last year . . . .

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