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Posts Tagged ‘three parts dead’

Slower

As prophecied, some days you feel like a nut, some days you don’t.  Or something like that!

Today was a slow day for writing; the morning was action-dense and I spent the entire afternoon ruminating on copy edits.  Editing is funny because while often there’s a linear relationship between time spent and output, sometimes that relationship breaks.  With writing, I have a pretty solid over-under range on the number of words I can produce during an hour’s work.  Editing, sometimes I stare at a paragraph, or even more often a line, pacing back and forth and wondering what’s wrong, why the words clash or the grammar doesn’t quite seem to line up.  Then I look at the clock and feel a little despair.

Of course, ten minutes later I fix whatever was bothering me and skip through three pages of smooth dialogue, good character development, uninterrupted story—before I hit the next mine.  Wonderful!

I’ve been playing Uncharted 2 to unwind recently.  Really fun game, smooth, exciting, but I can’t help but laugh when I compare Nate Drake’s Murder Per Second ratio to, say, Indiana Jones’s.  I don’t think they fall within an order of magnitude of one another.  At one point a little box popped up on my screen saying: “Congratulations!  You have shot 100 bad guys in the head!” which indicates that, since I have horrible aim, I have killed well over 100 people in this game.

I wonder if it’s possible to make a game that feels as engrossing as the Uncharted series, while retaining the Murder-per-second ratio of the Indiana Jones films (which isn’t, you know, the lowest thing in the world—Indy does for a bunch of Nazis & cultists over the course of his career).

Bushed

I had a wonderful time this weekend at AnonyCon in Stamford, CT—very good games, including one based off Three Parts Dead!  I’d had a chance to play the module before (the developer’s a friend as well as a fan) but it was fun to see how people who have read the book, and those who haven’t, participated in the game in different ways.

All of which made me think about putting together something like a series bible for roleplaying purposes.  On the one hand, the world lends itself very well to roleplaying—lots of competing factions, potential danger, scheming, and adventure.  On the other hand, the basic mechanics of Craft aren’t precisely compatible with most magic rulesets I’m aware of.  The closest I can think of would be something like the old Changeling: the Dreaming system, where if you spent your points properly you could make deals with inanimate objects, forge binding compacts with the stars, and stuff like that.  For moment-to-moment magical needs, many systems can approximate the behavior of the Craft in the book, though that approach puts more pressure on the GM to establish flavor.  I like trusting the GM in principle, but in practice I worry that too much GM trust leads to decisions that look arbitrary from a player’s perspective.  We shall see!  Bible-writing is fun whatever the results end up being.  (Don’t quote me on that out of context, please.)

While the Con was fun, I didn’t get to sleep Sunday ’til well after midnight due to the kind of bus-related mishap that will be hilarious about a year from now.  That, plus a weekend’s worth of sleep debt, made for a day much more conducive to staring at walls than to putting fingers on keyboard.  Oddly, in spite of all that I crushed my wordcount goal.  The plot continues to accelerate.  Characters are running into other characters at escape velocity.  I’m intrigued by differences between this book and others I’ve written.  I feel like I’m writing a Smiley book as opposed to, say, a Bourne novel—though we’ll see whether any of that makes it into the final draft.

Whatever happens, after this (and finishing the weird epistolary novel project now steeping in the background) I will be in the mood for consuming, and writing, something lighthearted and wacky.  Anyone save the world from aliens lately?

Trying This Again

Today was a good day.  Writing went smoothly, and I actually remembered to alternate between working and taking long walks rather than banging my head against the brick wall expecting it to soften.  Crema in Harvard Square makes a delicious bright espresso, so light it almost tastes bubbly.  I’m working with a secondary character who’s a lot of fun; my main is a complicated and powerful woman, but limited by her social position and psychology, while this supporting character has different avenues available to her.  I can already tell she needs a bigger part in the story, and I’m looking forward to writing those scenes.

The Dharma / Fantasy book I linked yesterday has me trying to appreciate embodied time—its descriptions of Dogen’s concept of uji (being-time, which I don’t quite understand but is something like awareness of time as an element of beings and events rather than a container for them) remind me of good martial arts instruction, no big surprise there, and of Venkatesh Rao’s notions of tempo and narrative-driven decision making and agenda planning, which is a bit more of a shock.  (His book Tempo is an enlightening read, as is his blog Ribbonfarm.)   I’m trying to pay attention to writing as a process, a gerund—keystrokes and language and posture—which is wonderfully liberating, especially considering the unusual anxiety I’ve felt while working on this book.

A bit of explanation: I don’t usually feel worried as I write a book.  This is the, what, eighth-and-a-hafth book I’ve written (counting the one I’ve tabled until I’m finished with Current Project, which is marinating comfortably in the back of my mind at an act break around 70,000 words or so), so I have a sort of sense of the process now.  But, probably because I’ve spent so much of the last two months talking about writing and Why I Write Such Excellent Books and Why I Am So Clever (as Neitzsche would have it), I’m feeling self-conscious, like the caterpillar that kept tripping over his feet.  Have I done this before?  Is this impressive enough?  The more I can live in the time of writing words, the less that other stuff troubles me.  This is something like Keats’ Negative Capability, I guess, only approached from another cultural direction.  ([That property]… which Shakespeare possessed so immensely… the capacity for being in mysteries, & doubts without any irritable reaching after fact & reason.)

Similarly, when I’m walking around, I’m trying to be aware of the walking-ness of the moment, rather than of other factors, like destination.  (Moving body as a process, not, or not just, a vehicle.)  I’ve been checking my smartphone less, and I’ve been absent from Twitter.  On the one hand, Twitter is an excellent platform, and contains fun people.  On the other hand, I don’t think I have quite the level of attainment required to participate cheerfully in the datastream, rather than viewing it as a distraction…

Wow, that ended up being a long read, and with no real point, other than: time is strange, and we always experience it stuck in bodies.  And I’ve been writing all day, and I’ll be writing most of tomorrow.  Good progress, good fun.  Hope you’re all well, and don’t mind a few rambly thoughts about metaphysics and simple Buddhism.  Ask a Max who spends most of his day wandering the city to keep you abreast of his thoughts, and you see what you get.  It’s all of our faults, really.

(On other notes, WordPress fullscreen + Chrome / Mac Presentation Mode produces one of the sleekest text editors I’ve ever had the fun to play with.  Fullscreen mode, where were you for me years ago!)

Not All Parties

A reader sent me an email yesterday saying (in the nicest possible way and with a ton of good humor) ‘all well and good for you to be partying and having a wonderful time traveling about the world, but when do we see more of the next book?’  Two Serpents Rise is due out in July or June, I forget which, and hopefully we’ll have some juicy excerpt-like information to share before long, so there’s that.

The letter did point out that I don’t generally write about writing here.  Part of that’s because, while writing is wonderful, it’s also not all that exciting in a day-to-day sort of way, and especially not exciting in the way that makes for good blog posting.  Some days my characters feel like they’ve found themselves and the scenes flow. Some days I find myself lost and in a wood, and I write anyway.  Fingers hitting keys: this is the internet, you all know what it looks like.  But maybe you won’t mind a few notes on the course of my day, posted here.

Monday’s unseasonably wonderful weather receded today, leaving a morning cold and rainy and perfect for squirreling myself away in a cafe with word processor and book.  I keep discovering new scenes and threads as I write this novel–elements that should have been there all along, so that I have this strange sense of writing the book front to back to front.  The early stages of this draft were more halting and controlled, but I think I’m getting used to the freedom of this working arrangement.  The story feels more balanced, and the process flows.  I’m still using the stopwatch, but I’m more likely to write two sessions at a stretch now before taking a break or a walk.  I deleted almost an entire day’s work on Friday, but I reworked all that over the weekend, and I think it’s better now.  Hooray for accidents.

I finished an excellent book today called The Dharma of Dragons and Daemons, which is an exploration of Buddhist themes in modern fantasy.  Don’t go to this looking for an academic treatise—it’s more like an attempt to analyze fantasy classics through a modern Buddhist lens.  Chapter 2 is on Tolkein—yes, Tolkein!  Inspiring and fun criticism.  For me to say more would require many more paragraphs, so let’s just leave it at that.

Gods, Guest Posts, and Travel Recovery

I’ve made it back from the West Coast in one piece, and am now picking up the remnants of my life post-Tour.  I have a handful of major events left in the year, in addition to holidays, and I continue to build steam on the New Book.  No jet lag after our return from LA, at least none that I noticed; turns out that not getting any sleep the night before your flight really does help you get to sleep on the destination end.  I’m running out the door to Take Care of Business, but I wanted to let y’all know that I have a post live at the Fantasy Literature blog, on Gods in fantasy novels.  Here’s an excerpt:

Gods have a complicated relationship with storytelling. The first Western dramas emerged as a part of religious celebrations, and these plays tended to resolve with the emergence of a god to fix the human characters’ problems, or increase them unbearably. (Chick Tracts owe a lot to this old-school Greek dramatic structure, now that I think about it…) Deus ex machina is the name we’ve given to this sort of resolution, when a god of some sort steps in to end the story.

Storytelling, especially fantasy and science fiction storytelling, still uses gods and godlike beings aplenty, but writers and readers alike are wary of that deus ex machina ending, even as they thrill to the Force guiding Luke as he shoots proton torpedoes into the Death Star reactor shaft, or to Neo rising from the dead to defeat Agent Smith.

Drop on by Fantasy Literature to read the rest of the article and post your thoughts in the comments.

EDIT: Oh, and by the way – Aidan Moher at A Dribble of Ink posted an excellent overview of cool reviews of Three Parts Dead.  He’s much more on the ball than I’ve been about finding them; I definitely need to update my reviews page.

Minor Notes

Some disconnected notes:

  • I’ve started Elizabeth Hand’s novel Generation Loss and I’m loving it so far.  I mean, don’t take my word for it, take PW’s and Peter Straub’s and numberless other awesome reviewers’, but this as of page 40 or so this is a cutting, well-crafted book.  And it looks like there’ll even be a mystery thrown in, so that’s cool.
  • Focusing on word count has become a distraction for me.  At worst I was checking my word count every few minutes.  I haven’t been an egg-timer writer before, but I’ve started working with timers, forty-five minutes at a stretch and go.  I have a more or less constant rate of productivity, so I end up doing the same amount of work (if I write for the same amount of time) but I spend more of that time thinking about story and less about word production, which removes stress.
  • On that note, I’m falling back in love with my Alphasmart Neo.  Scrivener, I do appreciate you, but there’s nothing quite like a purpose-built device.  (Also, 700 hours of battery life!)  The small screen isn’t a problem for most of my work, but does make it harder to keep track of complex conversations.
  • Karin Tidbeck’s short story collection is phenomenal and you can read more about it on NPR.
  • One major effect of writing full-time is that I’m more focused on work and less on, well, the internet.  As a result, I get even more impressed by writers who manage to handle both at once.  Though, admittedly, I’m working hard on the next novel now.  Maybe in the future I’ll be able to get back to my usual diet of cat .gifs.  For the moment, though, exposure to random internet news has dropped precipitously.
  • If you’re in San Francisco, come to my signing at Borderlands on Saturday!  If you’re in Los Angeles, come to my signing at Mysterious Galaxy on Sunday!  More about both of these on my events page!

World Fantasy Con!

I just returned from World Fantasy Con and posting a full aftermath might well break me at this point.  I tried to tell the story of the weekend to my wife last night and the narrative became this wonderful blurred skewed-timeline mashup of conversations, faces, names.  I met a number of amazing people, had great conversations, fixed something deep down and hidden, and returned home with a pile of books I’m desperate to read.

Here’s a photo of me looking very silly, wearing a corduroy blazer, surrounded by cool folks.

More notes later, I promise.

 

#Torchat Today!

Arrived in Tennessee yesterday afternoon; spent the rest of the day seeing family before I collapsed in bed around midnight, reading a comic book about Neitzsche and a book on creativity by Twyla Tharp.  Oh yeah I’m talkin’ about the road.  (“Why can’t I stay in one place / for more than two days?  WHY?  WHY?  WHY?!!!”)

I’m in a hurry, so, in short:

  • Any of you out there who use Twitter, I’ll be on #torchat this afternoon at 4pm Eastern (3 Central), answering questions from the moderator and from anyone who tunes in.  To drop by, log into Twitter somehow and run a search for #torchat; depending on your client you might need to keep updating the search.  Tweetdeck or similar programs should do this automatically.
  • I’m still October’s featured author at Drey’s Library, so I dropped by and wrote her a post about some of my favorite books.  Or favorite teeth.  You’ll see what I mean when you go over there and check it out for yourself.

Many more cool updates following.  For the moment, though, I need to get back to writing.  Be well.

Comic Con Aftermath!

Quick quick notes during travel:

  • Badass / Hardcore panel went very well.  I told the opening of the story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, to illustrate the idea of a hero being removed from a context in which they’re well suited.  Then I continued with the rest of the panel.  First question from the audience: “Can you finish telling us the Green Knight story?”  Bless you, audience.  Never change.
  • We burned through all our copies of Three Parts Dead at the Tor booth signing in record time.  Thanks to all of you who stood in line!
  • Hocus Pocus panel: once I got over being wildly intimidated by the other panelists, I had a great time.  Packed, standing room only audience.  (My wife almost couldn’t get in!)  Great answers from the panelists.  Nobody tried to overwhelm anyone else, and we all approached the subject from very different angles, which made for a panel that felt more like a building conversation over time.
  • Another wild line after the Hocus Pocus panel, for signings.  There were some serious established authors on the panel, so anyone wanting a signed copy of Three Parts Dead had to wait through a long line to get to the front; thanks so much to those of you who did.  Above and beyond the call of duty, folks.  Thank you.
  • Wonderful conversations and hangouts with Alyssa Rosenberg, Diana Pho, Steve Sunu, and of course my awesome wife, who came down from Boston to see me.  I’m a lucky dude.
  • I am now the proud owner of a Fire Ferrets t-shirt.  And three Judge Dredd books.  And the Halo Jones collection.  (You’re welcome, 2000 AD booth.)  And a bunch of other books I can’t wait to start.  Basically, I’m done with ‘fun’ money for the rest of the month.
  • More great reviews for Three Parts Dead, from No More Grumpy Bookseller (“Three Parts Dead is intriguing and suspenseful. The plotting is smart and the pacing is spot on. What’s more, this is the kind of cross genre release that’ll appeal to lots of readers across the board.”) and by the Book Smugglers at Kirkus (“[The depiction of female characters in Three Parts Dead] is, seriously, a thing of beauty and for all that, Three Parts Dead is now a favourite read of 2012.” – One of my favorite lines in any of the reviews so far.)!
  • Coulson lives!