Ask the Author: E.M. Prazeman
Answered Questions (7)
E.M. Prazeman
Hi! Great question and yes, I write to specific music. I used to develop playlists specifically for a book I was working on, but that changed with I think it was the third book in The Lord Jester's Legacy. I used to pick music that would reflect events in the books, and that was rather fun, but over time I found it more ... I don't know, story-invoking? If I focused on the characters and their attitudes rather than creating a soundtrack as if the books were movies. I mean, both methods of music selection could work as a soundtrack, but when the music is plot-focused, the songs need to be in a particular order. With a character-focused playlist, it doesn't matter what order the songs are in. It was very freeing, actually, to select music this way.
I still have some plot-oriented music in my list. For A Dark Radiance, Disturbed's take on A Sound of Silence played an important part for getting me in the right headspace for the climax.
Some favorites of mine:
Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd for Lark and Cockatrice's relationship
Songbird by Fleetwood Mac: Verai's love for Lark
Paradise by Coldplay: Feather
Applause by Lady Gaga: Gutter
Shape of My Heart by Sting: Bell
Madness by Muse: Rohn
Stargazing by Delerium: Winsome
Frozen by Madonna: Lark and Rohn
I still have some plot-oriented music in my list. For A Dark Radiance, Disturbed's take on A Sound of Silence played an important part for getting me in the right headspace for the climax.
Some favorites of mine:
Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd for Lark and Cockatrice's relationship
Songbird by Fleetwood Mac: Verai's love for Lark
Paradise by Coldplay: Feather
Applause by Lady Gaga: Gutter
Shape of My Heart by Sting: Bell
Madness by Muse: Rohn
Stargazing by Delerium: Winsome
Frozen by Madonna: Lark and Rohn
E.M. Prazeman
I have a couple of them that I'm willing to mention here.
The first one relates to my father, his activities as a young man in Czechoslovakia just before the Russian invasion, and our family's escape. I never asked my father about the details, and he never said anything, but the things I do know about could fuel a Cold War era suspense novel.
The second would relate to the cremains we found in our home. Who left them there, and why?
The first one relates to my father, his activities as a young man in Czechoslovakia just before the Russian invasion, and our family's escape. I never asked my father about the details, and he never said anything, but the things I do know about could fuel a Cold War era suspense novel.
The second would relate to the cremains we found in our home. Who left them there, and why?
E.M. Prazeman
I was watching "The Fault in Our Stars" after rereading the book (again) and it struck me how deeply human the characters were, as opposed to the more heroic (and sometimes too melodramatic) characters in many fantasies who are struggling with the reality of their imminent deaths. I think that's one of the reasons that Game of Thrones appeals to so many readers (and viewers.) The lives, suffering and deaths of the characters aren't very pretty, and as Hazel declares, the problems can't be solved by a Peter Gabriel song.
Fantasy is definitely a good place to escape and I'm not a super-gritty fantasy kind of person, but I did want to write a fantasy where the main character, in a prolonged way, faces mortality without it being too pretty, while still honoring the tradition of classic S&S heroism. So that got me going on The Kilhellion. It would have been out by now, except that like Hazel read Imperial Affliction over and over I sort of got obsessed (okay, I totally became obsessed) with Fault, and so I had to start over because that's what The Kilhellion was missing. Not cancer. But, you know, it was missing people being real people when they faced awful danger and pain, etc. I didn't want it to matter that the danger was magical, or came from a non-existent race, or whatever. I didn't want it to matter that the people had powers to lean on (sometimes). The Fault in Our Stars inspired me to make The Kilhellion, which will be full of the sword and sorcery stuff I love, more ... earthy? Fleshy? Anyway, I hope the book is going to be out later this year. I'm working hard on it!
Fantasy is definitely a good place to escape and I'm not a super-gritty fantasy kind of person, but I did want to write a fantasy where the main character, in a prolonged way, faces mortality without it being too pretty, while still honoring the tradition of classic S&S heroism. So that got me going on The Kilhellion. It would have been out by now, except that like Hazel read Imperial Affliction over and over I sort of got obsessed (okay, I totally became obsessed) with Fault, and so I had to start over because that's what The Kilhellion was missing. Not cancer. But, you know, it was missing people being real people when they faced awful danger and pain, etc. I didn't want it to matter that the danger was magical, or came from a non-existent race, or whatever. I didn't want it to matter that the people had powers to lean on (sometimes). The Fault in Our Stars inspired me to make The Kilhellion, which will be full of the sword and sorcery stuff I love, more ... earthy? Fleshy? Anyway, I hope the book is going to be out later this year. I'm working hard on it!
E.M. Prazeman
Don't obsess too much about making every sentence perfect or imitating the current fictional style. A unique storytelling voice is far more interesting than polished prose that follows the current fashion. Do be sure to read your work aloud to make sure that you're actually writing what you think you're writing. Keep learning, exploring and stretching your writing muscles so that you can express yourself better and give the reader a rich storytelling experience. And remember, if it's not on the page, the reader doesn't get it, so don't skip those juicy details!
E.M. Prazeman
I get to play with my imaginary friends and share them with people all around the world. Best. Job. Ever.
Psst, don't tell them I told you they're imaginary! It might make them mad.
Psst, don't tell them I told you they're imaginary! It might make them mad.
E.M. Prazeman
I look at writer's block as one of two things going on (at least for me.) All I have to do to start writing again is figure out why I've stopped.
1. I've written myself into a corner or made a wrong turn in the plot, and now the story is dull, or just feels wrong.
I have to go back and figure out at what turning point I messed up an otherwise good story, scrap it, and start over from there with my ultimate goal in mind, which is to amp up the tension, the stakes, and make the ending even more punchy. I'm a big chicken when it comes to deleting large blocks of text, so I do save those in a separate file, but never in over twenty years of writing have I gone back and reused those, so I really should just delete them and forget about them.
2. I don't want to write the next part because it's hard for some reason.
Maybe it hits too close to home and I'm trying to weasel out of what seems like a statement. For example, a character may have been raped by our current cultural standards, but may not feel victimized or traumatized and I feel like I'm belittling the experience of rape victims. Or maybe it's very complicated or too dependent on other factors in the book that I haven't worked out yet, and I don't want to go through the effort of mapping everything out.
The solution is to sit down and just do it, and to remember that once it's written, it isn't set in stone. I can make adjustments or even jettison the whole section and rewrite it if I find a way to approach the scene differently. This is what I think of when people talk about writing courageously. You have to let yourself make mistakes to write. And sometimes those 'mistakes' turn out to be the most powerful sections of the book when you go back to revise the rough draft.
1. I've written myself into a corner or made a wrong turn in the plot, and now the story is dull, or just feels wrong.
I have to go back and figure out at what turning point I messed up an otherwise good story, scrap it, and start over from there with my ultimate goal in mind, which is to amp up the tension, the stakes, and make the ending even more punchy. I'm a big chicken when it comes to deleting large blocks of text, so I do save those in a separate file, but never in over twenty years of writing have I gone back and reused those, so I really should just delete them and forget about them.
2. I don't want to write the next part because it's hard for some reason.
Maybe it hits too close to home and I'm trying to weasel out of what seems like a statement. For example, a character may have been raped by our current cultural standards, but may not feel victimized or traumatized and I feel like I'm belittling the experience of rape victims. Or maybe it's very complicated or too dependent on other factors in the book that I haven't worked out yet, and I don't want to go through the effort of mapping everything out.
The solution is to sit down and just do it, and to remember that once it's written, it isn't set in stone. I can make adjustments or even jettison the whole section and rewrite it if I find a way to approach the scene differently. This is what I think of when people talk about writing courageously. You have to let yourself make mistakes to write. And sometimes those 'mistakes' turn out to be the most powerful sections of the book when you go back to revise the rough draft.
E.M. Prazeman
I'm working on the trilogy that follows "The Lord Jester's Legacy," titled "The Poisoned Past." The first book, "Oubliette," is complete and in the hands of first readers at this very moment. I'm at right around 53,000 words into the second book, "Penumbra," and the third book, "A Radiant Darkness," is firmly in my mind. Although I don't outline, I more or less know what's going to happen in the books. It's hard not to rush to finish them!
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