Ask the Author: Becca Edney
Answered Questions (5)
Becca Edney
It sounds awful, but a lot of the time it's from reading books or watching films I didn't like! I love pulling such stories apart to see why I didn't like them, then sometimes I'll try my hand at doing it better. That's mostly for the drawer, though, being more of an exercise than something I actually share.
When not doing that, I get inspired by playing around with tropes. Bladedancer's Heirs, for example, was inspired by the fact that I'd not seen a married couple as the heroes of a fantasy story; generally marriage is something that happens in the epilogue. From there, I built in other things I hadn't seen or that general tropes indicated should not be things, like Neithan the elvish engineer and inventor. For Border Crossing, the sequel to Bladedancer's Heirs, I'm working on a refugee crisis being here, not over there.
When not doing that, I get inspired by playing around with tropes. Bladedancer's Heirs, for example, was inspired by the fact that I'd not seen a married couple as the heroes of a fantasy story; generally marriage is something that happens in the epilogue. From there, I built in other things I hadn't seen or that general tropes indicated should not be things, like Neithan the elvish engineer and inventor. For Border Crossing, the sequel to Bladedancer's Heirs, I'm working on a refugee crisis being here, not over there.
Becca Edney
Hrm... well, there are the ones I'm reading at the moment, of which I think my favourites are Wizard of Earthsea and Road to Middle-Earth. I'm also going to read The Two Towers as part of my annual read-through of the whole of Lord of the Rings. Finally, I'm planning to at least try to read Good Omens and Doctor Who: Time Lord Fairy Tales.
In summary: This summer I am mostly reading fantasy.
In summary: This summer I am mostly reading fantasy.
Becca Edney
1) First drafts always suck; don't worry about it. NaNoWriMo is a great place to start
2) Read a lot in your genre and anything related to it (if writing fantasy, read history etc.)
3) Play with tropes
4) Ask people you trust for criticism and listen to them
5) Keep writing. Keep pushing yourself, keep working, keep learning, keep writing.
2) Read a lot in your genre and anything related to it (if writing fantasy, read history etc.)
3) Play with tropes
4) Ask people you trust for criticism and listen to them
5) Keep writing. Keep pushing yourself, keep working, keep learning, keep writing.
Becca Edney
Writer's block sucks and I hate it, but unfortunately it is a reality.
I find there are two types of writer's block, and I try to deal with them in different ways. The first is 'The Hump', which is just an inability to get started. That's usually fine. The second is 'Actual Block', which is much worse.
The Hump is much more frequent, and I suspect is to do with perfectionism and short attention span, which combine to produce a situation where I stare at my work, am unsure where to start, and instead go and browse the internet for half an hour. This then gets worse and worse as I feel more frustrated with myself until I can't write a thing.
Fortunately, The Hump does respond to forcing, which is why I call it that - I just have to get over the hump at the beginning, and then I can write all evening. So I deal with this one by starting to write regardless of what I think of what I'm writing. This is why I find NaNoWriMo a hugely effective way to get a first draft!
Actual Block is much harder, and is generally because I'm burned out in some way. It generally manifests as staring at a blank document until I suspect drops of blood have formed on my forehead with not a single word of narrative going through my head. In this case, forcing it does not help, and the only cure is to take a couple of days to - as one of my friends once put it - put something new in my brain. Read a new book, watch some movies, just take a break and come back fresh.
I love writing, so I always go back pretty fast!
I find there are two types of writer's block, and I try to deal with them in different ways. The first is 'The Hump', which is just an inability to get started. That's usually fine. The second is 'Actual Block', which is much worse.
The Hump is much more frequent, and I suspect is to do with perfectionism and short attention span, which combine to produce a situation where I stare at my work, am unsure where to start, and instead go and browse the internet for half an hour. This then gets worse and worse as I feel more frustrated with myself until I can't write a thing.
Fortunately, The Hump does respond to forcing, which is why I call it that - I just have to get over the hump at the beginning, and then I can write all evening. So I deal with this one by starting to write regardless of what I think of what I'm writing. This is why I find NaNoWriMo a hugely effective way to get a first draft!
Actual Block is much harder, and is generally because I'm burned out in some way. It generally manifests as staring at a blank document until I suspect drops of blood have formed on my forehead with not a single word of narrative going through my head. In this case, forcing it does not help, and the only cure is to take a couple of days to - as one of my friends once put it - put something new in my brain. Read a new book, watch some movies, just take a break and come back fresh.
I love writing, so I always go back pretty fast!
Becca Edney
A variety of things! I have a bad habit of having several projects going at a time, which does nonetheless have the benefit that if I get stuck on something I can move to something else.
The headliner at the moment is Border Crossing, the second Swordmasters book and a sequel to Bladedancer's Heirs. It continues some of the nascent political problems from Bladedancer's Heirs as the Swordmasters attempt to deal with tacit erasure of Mixed-blood culture in Duamelti alongside a massive influx of refugees from a far-off disaster. Meanwhile, Weyrn and Alatani's son Seregei is coming of age and seeking a place among them.
That's in editing right now, and I'm also starting to look at the third book (Bold) and the fourth (as yet untitled). I wrote a draft of Bold some years ago, but I haven't looked at it since, so I expect there's a lot of editing to do there, too.
The next-in-line big project is Queenstone, a rewrite of an old NaNoWriMo project, currently planned as a trilogy, though that's a bit undecided as yet. I'm working on the first book for Camp NaNoWriMo this year, with planning between Camps. Queenstone is about Claudetta, a princess who goes through with an arranged marriage and immerses herself in the court politics of her new husband's kingdom, beginning with the vitally important decision of whether they will ally with the human Empire or the Elven Lands in the brewing war between the two.
Finally, at the other end of the progress spectrum, there's (working title) Going to the River, which is still very much in the planning stages, but is intended to be about the attempts of four different groups to prevent a king from returning to his throne, because in the process he intends to unleash a terrible evil force.
The headliner at the moment is Border Crossing, the second Swordmasters book and a sequel to Bladedancer's Heirs. It continues some of the nascent political problems from Bladedancer's Heirs as the Swordmasters attempt to deal with tacit erasure of Mixed-blood culture in Duamelti alongside a massive influx of refugees from a far-off disaster. Meanwhile, Weyrn and Alatani's son Seregei is coming of age and seeking a place among them.
That's in editing right now, and I'm also starting to look at the third book (Bold) and the fourth (as yet untitled). I wrote a draft of Bold some years ago, but I haven't looked at it since, so I expect there's a lot of editing to do there, too.
The next-in-line big project is Queenstone, a rewrite of an old NaNoWriMo project, currently planned as a trilogy, though that's a bit undecided as yet. I'm working on the first book for Camp NaNoWriMo this year, with planning between Camps. Queenstone is about Claudetta, a princess who goes through with an arranged marriage and immerses herself in the court politics of her new husband's kingdom, beginning with the vitally important decision of whether they will ally with the human Empire or the Elven Lands in the brewing war between the two.
Finally, at the other end of the progress spectrum, there's (working title) Going to the River, which is still very much in the planning stages, but is intended to be about the attempts of four different groups to prevent a king from returning to his throne, because in the process he intends to unleash a terrible evil force.
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