Shawn D. Robertson's Blog

I have been considering making this blog post for a while now, and I figure it’s about time.

For me, one of the most enjoyable aspects of writing fantasy fiction has always been the creation of the setting. Anyone who knows me at all knows this, but most probably don’t know why I made the setting of Ahldir the way I did. Me being a fledgling author, most of you probably wouldn’t care either. Still, I bet nearly every fantasy fiction writer out there would love to talk about the ‘hows’ and ‘whys’ behind their world. And since this is my space to talk about the shit I like to talk about, I’m going to give you my own ‘hows’ and ‘whys’. Maybe the answers to these questions will help some other fledgling fantasy fiction writer out there make his own decisions. Not that I think my answers might be inspiring, but maybe they’ll help others make their own setting choices with more confidence.

If there is one thing I can tell you before some of you become bored and stop reading, it is this:

Create your world with authority. No matter the choices, be confident. Until you unleash your setting upon your readers, you can always make changes. Hell, anything you haven’t shown the readers yet can be changed. In world creation you get to be a god. Have fun with it.

Now, if you’re interested, stick around and see how Ahldir ended up the way it did.

Let’s start back when I was 11 years old. I made friends with another kid by the name of Sean. He spelled his name totally wrong, but he did introduce me to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Actually we were best friends for years, and I owe him a lot. It’s a total cliché, but without Sean I wouldn’t be where I am today. I wouldn’t be who I am today. AD&D changed my life. I won’t get into the finer points of how this was, but I’m sure it’s a similar story to that of many kids who found their way to the game. Suffice it to say I’ve played a lot since then, but my favorite moments began a year after I learned to play, when I started DMing. (That’s “Dungeon Mastering,” for those of you uninitiated into the murky cabal that is D&D.)

I think I found out about my desire to write the year before Sean introduced me to the awesomeness that is RPGs, but the day 11-year old me played AD&D for the first time, I knew what genre it was I’d be writing in. Fantasy fiction was just badass!

I can create an entire world out of nothing and then let real people run around in it? Yup. That’s for me.

Fast forward 25 years. In 2015 I moved to Florida from Massachusetts and finally had the peace and environment I needed to write in seriousness. So I started building a new setting. I put together a handful of notes but got caught up in the desire to get started on the actual novel writing part. I got 157,000 words of novel down and decided that something was off. The story wasn’t what I wanted it to be, but it was the setting that really bothered me. There were parts of the world I was happy about, but it needed… more.

More what? More of a lot of things.

First off, I wanted a world with history, and not just the typical “we had a catastrophe a long time ago, now shit’s fucked up, here’s a story” kind of history. I wanted layers. A golden age? Sure, I like that. A fall from grace and a cataclysmic extinction event? Yup, I want that too. How about we have the fallout from that extinction event lead to thousands of years of war, hunger, plague and other fun things? Yes-yes-yes! Then civilization manages to climb out of its dark age–can’t last forever, right? Oh, wait! Now that they’ve started to find their footing, can we pull the rug out from under them with another cataclysmic event? But this one is of their own making! Oh hells yeah!

Layers, people. Layers. I guess that’s my underlying theme. And layers = a lot of depth. Much like our own world, I wanted people to be passionate about causes they only marginally understand. To the characters, motives may appear clear-cut, pure, completely just, but the reality is they probably don’t know the origin of their own cause, nor the true agenda of those spearheading it. Hell, even the people spearheading the causes and leading the power groups of Ahldir are usually serving more than one agenda at a time, generally without realizing it. Some groups were even founded based upon inaccurate information, yet these same groups have influenced events of the world based upon their false assumptions.

Like I said: Layers. Layers and lies. And all this is not simply done for the sake of complexity, but rather for a level of realism I don’t generally see in fantasy fiction settings. A layered world will lead to well thought out characters whose own histories will be filled with things that bring them into conflict with the world they exist within. Organic conflict in this case, as characters will have likes, dislikes, morals (or lack thereof), and prejudices based upon specific aspects of Ahldir. This was important to me as I developed the world, and the farther I got in the creation process, the more I liked what was coming together.

Lastly, I wanted a setting I could write through different eras of its history, with each past era being responsible for some (or a great deal) of what the readers experience in more “recent” eras. Even still, I developed the history in such a way that readers can fully enjoy stories of the “present” without having to read stories of the “past” and vice versa. Of course, those who read tales from all the eras will likely find a great deal more satisfaction as they come to appreciate the events that occur wherever history’s ripples bump into one another.

Ahldir is my most profound creation to date, and it isn’t done. Not by a long shot. The Soul of the Blade, a standalone novel currently divided into a series of shorts, is my first undertaking in the setting, and even that isn’t done yet. Hopefully that’ll be published by March of 2021. After that I’m on to writing Ahldir’s first full-on series of novels: The Elrathir Cycle. I can’t even begin to tell you how badly I want to get started on that beast, but… one thing at a time.

At least now some of you will have an appreciation for what it is I was trying to accomplish with this setting. So far I’d say I’m doing what I set out to do. Hopefully some of you will feel the same.

Peace, all!

It’s time for another (the third) installment of Mages Behind the Pages, and I have to admit that I was greatly looking forward to this one.

Davin Madson! Author of We Ride the Storm and We Lie With Death, the first two books in The Reborn Empire series. As you all know, world-building is a passion of mine, and Madson stands as a supreme example of just how good world-building can be. If you haven’t already read her works, hopefully this interview will steer you her way.

As I’ve done with the first two Mages Behind the Pages segments, I’ll be giving away a Kindle edition of the series opener We Ride the Storm. To be eligible to score the free copy, all you need to do is leave a comment to this blog.

Now on with the interview!

Shawn: Let’s get the obligatory “Tell us a little about yourself!” out of the way. Who is Devin Madson?

D.M: Devin Madson is a fantasy author from Australia who does not usually talk about herself in the third person so will stop now. I write epic fantasy that edges toward grimdark, eat far too much chocolate, and have seen Interstellar more times than is probably healthy. (Although it has marvellously executed world-building, so there is that!)

Shawn: Okay, on to the really fun stuff—world building! First, have you learned much about real-world history during your research?

D.M: Surprisingly, though I know plenty of real-world history not a lot is due to writing research. I try not to draw too closely from history, partly because I doubt I could ever do any of it justice, and partly because I’m temperamental when it comes to history. When something piques my interest I will read about it as much as I can, but if I have to research something I get grumpy and bored and don’t do it. I’ve learned the limitations of my own attention span and try not to push it. Though I probably use bits and pieces of what I picked up on my own without really noticing.

Shawn: How much research went into the overall world-building for the setting?

D.M: That’s a bit of a trick answer, because the setting of Kisia already existed due to the trilogy that takes place entirely in Kisia a generation before this series. I started that seven years ago but I do recall I did quite a bit of research, a lot of which, as is so often the case, only shows its hand in small ways. These days I tend to only research as it’s required rather than doing a lot of research before I start because I never know where the story is going. I write on a computer that’s not connected to the internet so I make a list of questions during each writing session. How do you sever a head? What does burning flesh smell like? How far does blood spurt when you chop off an arm? Why are all my research questions morbid?

Shawn: Which came first for you with the The Reborn Empire : story or world?

D.M: As with the previous question I cheated by having the world already exist, but in general I’d say they come hand in hand for me. I don’t sit down and create either before I start writing, I just start and they both happen. Sometimes story influences world-building and sometimes it’s the other way around – a give and take as I make it all up as I go along.

Shawn: Do you feel your story is more character driven or more driven by the history and circumstances of the world it’s set within?

D.M: What an interesting and difficult question. While the world certainly informs a lot of my choices and that’s something I really like to do and feel it’s important to consider all the way through, I think ultimately Reborn Empire is more character driven. It is more about what the characters choose to do with the circumstances the world bequeathed to them, minor characters as well as POV characters.

Shawn: Did you approach continued world-building any differently in We Lie With Death ? How about with book three? There will be a book three, right?!

D.M: Oh, totally there will be a book three. And a book four! I don’t think I approached it any differently beyond being sure to build on what had been revealed in We Ride the Storm rather than rehash the same stuff, especially in regards to the elucidation of the magic system — I built on that a lot. If anything I also made a general shift toward highlighting the Levanti portion of the world-building over the other cultures due to it being where so much of the internal conflict comes from, and will continue to come from even beyond this series.

Shawn: Speaking of continued world-building—has there been a great deal more since We Ride the Storm ? Do you feel there’s a lot more world-building to come?

D.M: I try to add to the world-building with every successive book to slowly build up a detailed sense of the world and its peoples, so I have definitely expanded the world-building in book two, and as I’ve also got plans for a series that follows on from Reborn Empire set on the Levanti Plains, and have already written another book a few hundred years ahead on the other side of the continent, there’s A LOT of world-building still to come. I have made plans for this world all the way through the industrial revolution and out the other side, and Kisia is only one small part of it.

Shawn: What, if anything, do you find to be the most challenging part of world-building?

D.M: Remembering all the details! I try my very best to keep accurate records of names and places and descriptions, of dates and maps and all the other little things I create along the way, but I am not the most organised person. I don’t believe there’s such a thing as perfect, but it is so easy to get swept away in the creation and not log details, or log details you change in a later pass. I also love little interconnections between books and stories, little easter eggs if you like, which means certain names and places need to be logged under multiple projects and it can all get a bit messy. The fact that I’m not a planner and just make it all up as I go along only makes keeping notes all the harder.

Shawn: Do you have a favorite aspect of world-building, such as religion, magic, history, sociology, or what have you?

D.M: It’s always been magic for me, because in my world-building I treated it like science. Not just in the sense of having an unbendable set of rules, but in the sense that it could be studied and made sense of, that the people of my world could slowly discover how it worked and what rules governed the use of various kinds. And then they would find ways to use that knowledge, to exploit it, and eventually as the world moves in to the future, to commercialise it. And because it is such a huge part of my overall world-building, it had to impact almost every other aspect of life and those little impacts and connections are some of my favourite things. How does magic effect communication? Transport? Religion?

I’ve also always enjoyed world-building through time, too, as I write all my books in the same world in different places and different parts of history, and making all their little interconnections is marvellous fun.

Shawn: Did you have more fun developing any one culture from The Reborn Empire?

D.M: Definitely the Levanti, because I got to step away from my preconceived ideas and start from scratch. I was also able to create a culture that was not only shaped by the difficult terrain and hostile environment in which they live, but one that is as yet also unchanged by urbanisation. This creates extra tension with the cultures that live in cities and consider themselves more civilised for having left their tribal roots behind them.

And of course the Levanti do the head chopping. People often make a big thing about all the decapitation in these books, but it was interesting creating a culture that did something others considered barbaric for reasons of deep respect.

Shawn: Is there anything you’d like to tease us with regarding We Lie in Death ? Or things to come afterwards…

D.M: A lot of the fresh world-building in We Lie With Death is in the magic system. This system has been in place for every book I’ve written as it was the first thing I ever developed, but this is the first time in all my books the reader gets their first proper explanation of how it works, and how it is being studied. The study and increased knowledge of it will have huge ramifications in the future as the world goes through its own form of the industrial revolution. It’s my favourite thing to talk about and to write about and I look forward to writing many more books that explore this future — its study, its exploitation, its commercialisation, and the social backlash of it all.

Shawn: What method do you prefer readers use in order to contact/follow you? (Facebook, Twitter, blog, Goodreads, that sort of thing)

I hang out on Twitter (@DevinMadson) the most, though occasionally drop in to various fantasy groups on Facebook such as the Grimdark Readers and Writers group and Fantasy Faction.

And so ended my time with Devin Madson. These are some incredibly insightful and revealing answers! This is an author I’m excited to see grow in popularity as more of her world and story are revealed. Cheers, Devin! May your words take you where you want to go, and the rest of us on journeys we cannot help but take part in.

Welcome to the second installment of Mages Behind the Pages, where I hijack a little time with some of the best world-builders in independent dark fantasy. This time around we’ll hear from M.L. Spencer, author of The Rhenwars Saga. This is an amazing story with deep characters and exquisite world-building. If you like morally ambiguous dark fantasy, you won’t go wrong here.

If you haven’t read her work yet, I will be giving away a free Kindle edition of Darkmage, book one in the series, to the first person who comments on this blog post— not my FB or Twitter feeds.

Okay, let’s get to the interview!

Shawn: I think you’ve been around long enough (and published enough amazing books) that most of us already know who you are, but for those who don’t, tell us a little about yourself and The Rhenwars Saga.

M.L: Hi! Well, I’m ML Spencer, a fantasy writer from Southern California. I am also a biology teacher, and  I have a degree in psychology. I love writing provocative novels with morally gray heroes and villains, and The Rhenwars Saga is a good example of this. It’s about—as the title implies—a war. But both sides are equally right/wrong, and even the concepts of good and evil are not as clear-cut as they would be in most fantasy novels.

Shawn: When you set out to write the series, did you have any specific emotional or social themes you wanted to explore?

M.L: I wanted to show how, in practically every conflict, each side believes they are morally justified and feel their cause is righteous. Usually, neither side is in the right. But most people operate from a single perspective and don’t try very hard (or care) to understand other perspectives, especially those that do not fit their own narrative or world-view. Even “good” and “evil” are merely cultural concepts. What is evil to some might be seen as justified by others and vice-versa.

Shawn: Which came first for you with this series: characters, story, or world?

M.L: The concept. I wanted to take a man, tear him down, and have him embrace beliefs/causes that were opposite his original loyalties, while trying to keep the reader on his side—in effect, allow the reader to see and understand both perspectives.

Shawn: Do you feel the Rhenwars story is more character driven or more driven by the history and circumstances of the world it’s set within?

M.L: Rhenwars is definitely more character-driven. My characters are the vehicles through which I convey the themes. The history and circumstances drive the plot, but things such as world building are kept in the background and are never a focus of the story.

Shawn: Did you spend much time outlining your world’s background before you started writing, or did you dive right into the story and build as you went?

M.L: I always have a pretty good idea of what I need in my world to get the job done before I put pen to paper. So I have to lay out the broad strokes of religion, history, nations, geography, etc. But I definitely build as I go. For example, I knew that the Black Lands would be dark and arid, going into the story. But I ironed out the specifics of how such a place could support human life when I finally got there in Book 2.

Shawn: Are there any major leftover bits of world-building you were hoping to (but didn’t get the chance to) reveal during The Rhenwars Saga, and will we see them turn up in this new series?

M.L: Oh yes! I was a little unhappy that my map ended up feeling a bit small in The Rhenwars Saga. This was an artifact of the plot and was unavoidable. Rhenwars is a very circular story by design, so many points of interest are revisited as the story returns to previous destinations instead of revealing new areas to explore. The world in my head was a lot bigger than that, but I never had a chance to show it. Some places, such as the continent of Aeridor, is mentioned but never visited. So now we get to see some of these places in the new series—and I’m excited!

Shawn: Is there anything else you can reveal about the new series?

M.L: Hmm…well there’s more places to visit, that’s for sure! The new series takes place about 20 years after the events of the original series. Some of the original characters carry on to the next series, while some of them don’t. All of the ones who do take a back seat to the new cast. One of the new main characters is actually Kyel Archer’s son, Gil. There are two main story arcs. The first arc follows Gil as he attempts to repair some of the fallout from the war with Malikar, while at the same time protecting the Rhen from a new enemy. The second story arc follows a young mage named Rylan who has a rather mysterious past. Rylan ends up on the other side of the world, where he confronts the same threat Gil is facing back home. There’s a lot of the same themes carried over from the first series—what would a Rhenwars novel be without a cast of morally gray characters being constantly forced to decide between the lesser of two evils?

Shawn: Are we getting another novel/series set within the world of The Rhenwars Saga? Or are we getting a brand new setting?

M.L: We are getting a new series set in the same world, only with (mostly) new characters. The story will feature the next generation who must protect the Rhen from a new foe from across the ocean. I’ll be going to two new continents, where we will meet new societies and cultures, so I’m worldbuilding those as we speak.

Shawn: What, if anything, do you find to be the most challenging part of world-building?

M.L: Probably making my magical plot devices do what they need to do to serve the story. An excellent example of this was the Well of Tears in The Rhenwars Saga, which was basically a gateway to hell. But it was an extremely complicated gateway that was based on a wormhole and had to operate with the same principles as a theoretical wormhole, and yet still function to fulfill its purpose in the story, which was hard to wrangle, especially at the end. That took months of agony to pull that one together.

Shawn: Do you have a favorite aspect of world-building, such as religion, magic, history, sociology, or what have you?

M.L: I love building cultures. I have had so much fun studying real societies to use as models for my fictional cultures. For the people of Malikar, I spent months researching a single time period of the Ottoman Empire. For my new story, I’ve been researching quite a bit about the African empires and feudal Japan. I have also put a lot of effort into studying warfare and its history. I really enjoy learning!

Shawn: What method do you prefer readers use to contact/follow you? (Facebook, Twitter, blog, Goodreads, that sort of thing)

M.L: I think I have the best luck with Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/MLSpencerFiction), as its easiest to see the messages. Readers can also contact me directly from my website:  ml@mlspencerfiction.com.

That concludes my time with M.L. Spencer! I was not at all disappointed in what I learned from her answers, and I’m left excited to see what’s to come for the Rhen and the larger world it’s set within.

Cheers, M.L! Thank you very much for taking the time to do this interview, and here’s to your continued success!

For the impatient among us: ProWritingAid (PWA) checks your writing for potential errors and offers suggestions to fix them. And yes you should use it. Especially if you’re an independent author, like me.

 

Now for the nuts and bolts. Let me get started by showing you PWA’s primary editing screen.

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(Using the manuscript for Beware the Thorns, since it’s already out and I’m in the middle of 2nd edition revisions before re-publication.)

What you are looking at is a Scrivener file opened in PWA. And although it does not show italics made in Scrivener, all changes made in PWA save properly to the Scrivener project file. I’ve been using it like this for a few weeks now and it’s brilliant!

Okay, to the features. I know you’re not blind, but let me reiterate some of what you can see above. This thing can check for style issues (including inconsistent quotation use and mixing UK English with US English). It looks for incorrect spelling and grammar, of course, and analyzes the readability of your work. The Cliché feature is pretty cool, looking for things like “kicking herself” and “my bad”. Diction looks for vague words, allowing you to strengthen your writing with more active narration.

All Repeats and Echoes do similar things, but Echoes focuses on repeated phrases in close proximity, where All Repeats looks for, well, all repeats. Almost every writer has words and phrases they overuse without meaning to, things a professional editor would likely catch, but us indies don’t all have the luxury of shit-tons of money with which to pay for such services. Programs like Grammarly and ProWritingAid are invaluable to us in this capacity.

On a related note, the Overused function reveals your usage of commonly overused words within your “genre”. I use this word loosely, as PWA doesn’t identify “Fantasy” or “Horror” and whatnot, but rather “Academic” or “Creative” and so on. Still, I found this feature useful. The Sticky feature will highlight sentences in which you have a high number of the 200 most commonplace words in the English language. I will admit this is a highly useful tool, as it forces you to consider your writing in ways that bring new life to it, but it is also one of the most time consuming edits PWA will lead you into—this is not a negative but a warning.

 

Sentence is another incredibly helpful tool, showing your relative sentence lengths as a graph. Check out the left panel below for an example.

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Holy shit! I have 7 40+ word sentences? Have to look at those when I’m done with this blog post…

There are a host of other features that are largely self-explanatory, as you saw in the first screenshot. Want to check for unintended plagiarism? Maybe you want to know your dialogue-to-narration ratio? Or perhaps you want to run the entire damned WIP through the thesaurus. PWA can even examine your pacing.

The bottom line for me is that this program improves my writing, and me a better writer by extension.

As for the negatives, I only found one thing that truly bothered me: the context menus. When you hover over PWA’s prompts for suggestions, the pop-up is sleek but obtrusive. And when you’re hovering over suggested changes in the list to the left of the editor, the pop-ups are too sensitive, appearing and disappearing with even slight shifts of the mouse. Still, I got used to these minor annoyances and I can’t say enough good things about this program.

Now, what about cost? As of this post, the costs are as follows:

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You can also use the discount code KINDLE40 for 40% off, assuming the discount code is still active when you subscribe. And yes, this is subscription based software, same as Grammarly, but you’ll find that PWA is vastly cheaper and owns all the same functionality.

Really, fellow indies, there is just no reason not to use this software or one like it. Help your writing, help yourself. Want to look into it more? You can find ProWritingAid’s website here. If you have questions regarding the software, please put them in the comments below.

Peace, all!

Before you put your stories out for the world to read, we need to dress them up in something sharp, and maybe add a few accessories. What I’ve put together here is a (not-even-close-to-comprehensive) list of people who can help us do that.

Note: If you are someone (or know of someone) not on this list, please let me know, and I’ll keep you/them. Also, if you belong on more than one of these lists, tell me and I’ll make a note of it as well.

Graphic Artists

Leonardo Borazio  (I’ve hired him for two original art commissions—amazing work!)
Monocled Octopus  (I’ve personally hired her for original art and she does INCREDIBLE maps!)
Darko

Cover Designers

Pen Astridge
J Caleb Clark
Jennifer Oliver
Darko
Luminescence Covers by Denise Design
Peter Cunis
Jeffrey Kosh
Shawn T. King
Kat Mellon
Covers by Christian
Art 4 Artists
Creative Design Stuidios

Map Makers

Monocled Octopus  (Her maps are INCREDIBLE and she does original artwork as well!)
Michael Baker
Alicia Wanstall-Burke

Ever bought a book because the blurb was decent and it had a shit-ton of 4- and 5-star reviews (which you read many of), only to find out the book was horrendous? Yeah, me too. It sucks balls.

Now, I understand that we all have different tastes, but this goes beyond a difference of opinion. Some books are just bad—I’m not saying they don’t have good qualities, just that the bad outweigh the good. And while I noticed this issue before I ever looked to self-publish, it became more obvious afterwards. It was at this point I spotted a trend…

Nearly every pair of self-published authors who reviewed one another would give each other 4 or 5 stars.

Obviously it occurred to me that many of these were just reciprocally positive reviews, but I wanted to give my fellow indie writers the benefit of the doubt. So I looked closer at my Facebook writing groups, only to find more of the same. Almost everyone was posting high-star reviews of every peer-written book they read. I’m sorry, but even with the fair number of tremendously talented indie authors out there, there is just no way every book is worth 4 or 5 stars. Now I was certain something was up.

Most indie authors were simply masturbating one another. Mutual gratification. I took my concerns into private message and asked a few indie friends, and they confirmed that they indeed never gave out less than 4 stars to fellow writers, and more than a few even told me they only hand out 5 stars, when it came to fellow indie friends.

As much as I like many of my indie peers, this dishonest-review shit is a disease.

If you don’t want people to eviscerate your writing, then please take the time before you publish, to get your work as close to your vision of perfection as you can. Will it actually be perfect? Nope, none of our works ever will be, but you can polish it until the shine hides the rough bits. Take exhaustive care in editing or, better yet, higher a professional; and get yourself a group of honest beta readers. When you go half-ass into self-publishing your writing, things will not end well.

Now, reviews… Reviews are sacred to me. As a reader, I use them to help inform my purchase choices. As an author, I want to know what my readers like or dislike about my writing. Either way, I need honesty.

As an author, you will not get better if you do not hear honest critique. And if you publish a story, you better be ready for that critique to come—not all the reviews will be positive. Take the good ones and brag! But take the bad ones and see what they have in common, try to figure out where you might improve.

 

Anyway, I asked around for more opinions on this topic. Some told me it’s rude to post negative reviews of my peers, and, if I was about to write a negative review,  I should instead post a 4-star review with the positive points and send the negative critique in a politely worded private message. Meanwhile, other authors have told me that sending unsolicited negative feedback via private message is rude—of course they also told me it was universally acceptable to send unsolicited positive feedback. Lot of contradictions here, and a hefty dose of hypocrisy. I call bullshit.

So, what’s a reviewer to do?

Let me give you a brief explanation of my review philosophy: Tell the fucking truth—reviews are NOT for the writers; they are for the readers.

And so I give honest reviews. If this bothers people (and it does) then so be it. No book is without flaws, and I expect others to point mine out. I want them to point them out. I want to get better. And, I want to have a reason to be legitimately proud of the good reviews I get; I can’t do that if people are blowing smoke up my ass in the hopes I’ll return the favor.

And why would you really want me to lie about your writing? Unless you’re just thinking about money.  Or maybe you just want an ego massage? But am I really massaging your ego, if you have to doubt the integrity of my review? 

So, my writer people, if I review your books, don’t expect sugar-coated bullshit. If I love it, I’m going to rave about it. If I dislike it, I’ll tell you why. In a review. And that review will have a star rating that reflects my actual opinion of the works quality.

I know this blog post won’t change the minds of many, but I do hope it gets more of us thinking about what it means when we are honest in our reviewing. This won’t make me popular with many, but honesty and integrity are far more important to me than popularity.

 

Welcome to the inaugural Mages Behind the Pages interview!

The point of the Mages Behind the Pages segment is to highlight the great world-building of some of our fellow independent and small-press authors. The first couple of interviews are going to be with my own personal picks, with future picks being drawn from reader suggestions.

Also, during each of these segments, I’ll be giving away a free copy of one of the author’s books (Kindle edition) to one randomly selected commenter: all you need to do is leave a comment to this blog post, telling me that you’re interested in getting started with the author.

Our very first mage behind the page is Steven McKinnon, author of Symphony of the Wind, the first volume in the Raincatcher’s Ballad.

Now let’s get to the interview!

Shawn: Let’s start off with the obligatory “Tell us a little about yourself!” Who is this Steven McKinnon guy?

Steve: I live in Glasgow and work as an administrator at the University of Glasgow. I’ve been writing since forever–being an author is the first thing I ever remember wanting to “be”.

My first short story wasn’t published until 2014, where I entered a really silly piece into a competition run by University of Aberdeen (where I worked at the time). It’s called “Ernest The Hairy Goat-Man With A Leopard’s Face”, and I think it might be the best thing I’ll ever put my name on…

In 2015, I had another two pieces published (The Vividarium, featured in In Memory: A Tribute to Sir Terry Pratchett, and GoogleFuture, featured in Glasgow-based fanzine called “The High Flight”. I also indie-published my first book, Boldly Going Nowhere in the same year (which includes Ernest as a small bonus).

Other stuff happened in between – none of it interesting.

Shawn: I think those of us who have read  Symphony  can guess at the answer, but did you take inspiration for your world from real-world historical events or periods?

Steve: The real-world event that influenced some parts of the book the most was “Unit 731”, a covert bio/chemical warfare installation where horrific human experimentation took place in World War II by the Japanese Army. It doesn’t make for happy reading…

Other influences include my native Glasgow, and there will be a mixture of other stuff too that’s less explicit. I wouldn’t classify it as a Steampunk novel, but the Victorian/Renaissance eras inform some of the aesthetic. Oh, and the movie Casablanca – I loved the idea of a melting pot of people from all over the world ended up in Casablanca during World War II, all from different backgrounds and cultures. If you don’t belong anywhere, you belong there. Dalthea is like that–it’s a country formed from the building blocks of other cultures, and thrives because of it. That’s why I like diversity so much in stories–we get to celebrate the multitude of differences between people, characters, races and cultures, while at the same time highlighting the universal struggles, experiences and joys we all share.

Shawn: Do you feel that you learned more about real-world history during your research?

Steve: In some respects–I read up on how easy it was for dictators like Adolf Hitler to manipulate the masses and wrest power. In The Fury Yet To Come (which was written at the same time as Symphony), I read a book called D-Day: By Those Who Were There by Peter Liddle–I definitely learned a lot about soldiers’ mentality from that. Absolutely worth a read.

Shawn: Which came first for you with the world of  Symphony of the Wind : story or world?

Steve: The characters, which I guess incorporate both!

Serena came first–she’s based on an existing character I had tucked away from a writing prompt in my Creative Writing class. Then came Gallows and Damien, and everyone else sort of just revolves around the three of them.

Shawn: How much research went into the overall world-building for the setting?

Steve: It’s tough to put a number of hours on it, as I research as I go. So, I’ll have characters running through the confines of a castle or the passageways of an airship, then research the kind of things they’d encounter. Tertiary details evolve from what the characters see and feel, and then some things might overlap with different characters, but they might have a different opinion on them and see them in a different light. The reader might agree or disagree, or use both biases to form their own opinion.

Shawn: Do you feel your story is more character driven or more driven by the history and circumstances of the world it’s set within?

Steve: Definitely character-driven! Of course, there is an overarching plot that bleeds out from the shadows and affects our cast of protagonists…

Shawn: Do you approach continued world-building any differently during the course of writing book 2?

Steve: Not really–much of it is already in place, so book 2 has definitely been a more (I won’t say easy!) fluid writing experience. Again, I’ll research things when I need to (even if not all the details I have make it onto the page. There is one thing I researched and cut from Symphony that has slotted into book 2. Just a minor detail, really, but the kind of detail that brings life to the words).

Shawn: Speaking of continued world-building—has there been a great deal more since  Symphony’s  release? And do you feel there’s a lot more world-building to come?

Steve: As we delve deeper into the Raincatcher’s Ballad, characters encounter different places, peoples and cultures–so yes, definitely more world-building to come! Both expanding on what we know, showing some of it in a different light, or obliterating what we think we know altogether…

Shawn: What, if anything, do you find to be the most challenging part of world-building?

Steve: Making sure one concept you think is cool doesn’t negate another–such as swords and guns. The world of the Raincatcher’s Ballad is on the cusp of major technological revolution – the theme of out with old and in with the new will continue in that respect, and not every character will be comfortable with where that leaves them. It can be contrasting but should also be congruent.

Shawn: Do you have a favorite aspect of world-building, such as religion, magic, history, sociology, or what have you?

Steve: I like all of it, to be honest! I hope that comes through in the writing. My favourite part is probably setting all the social hierarchies–and then tearing them down.

Shawn: Do you have any final thoughts on your world (or your worldbuilding process) that you’d like to share?

Steve: Yeah, the worldbuilding was a daunting prospect when I started writing Symphony–a lot of it sprung up as I was going, like discovering something that was already there. That might not work for every author, but it made it fun to uncover!

Shawn: Well, I’ll stop badgering you with questions for now, but before we go, what method do you prefer readers use in order to contact/follow you? (Facebook, Twitter, blog, Goodreads, that sort of thing)

Steve: With the reduced reach of Facebook, probably Twitter. I use Goodreads too, though not as much. (Fun fact: I’m useless at writing reviews, I can never find adequate words and I’m all like, “5 Stars! This book was, um, really good! I liked it! …Yeah!”)

Below is my various social media outlets: (links to follow)

Amazon Author Page

Bookbub

Twitter

Facebook

Website

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So, writer’s block. What the hell is it, really? Well … officially?

Google defines it as “The condition of being unable to think of what to write or how to proceed with writing.”

Let’s go with that. Simple, concise, and yet broad enough to leave room for debate. The thing is, we could debate it forever. In fact, those who claim to experience writer’s block probably would debate it …by writing many uppity social media posts.

I know, I know, someone is already reading this, screaming at the screen “But that’s different!”

But it’s not, is it? Every time we write a blog post, a Facebook status update, a Tweet, or whatever, we’re using our creative muscle. We’re just using them to different effect.

Let me forestall the angry rants that are undoubtedly being formulated by some of my readers. Well, at least let me lower the burner on those fires.

I’m not saying that there aren’t times where writing is far more difficult than others. Sometimes we’re burned out. By all the powers that be, we all know that happens! And we also enter periods of our lives where the conditions are not so conducive to our processes–and we all have our own unique process. At other times we find ourselves in a state of over-analysis, over-thinking every tiny aspect of what we’re doing. And then there are the doubt demons. (Fuck those demons!) And I can’t forget to mention my favorite–laziness!

I’ve experienced all of these in my own life, and I’m sure most of you have too–likely all of you. And, having found my way through those dark woods on each and every occasion, I can honestly say that I find the above definition of writer’s block to be utter bullshit.

Utter-fucking-bullshit.

I can almost hear the cries of “Then you’ve never had true writer’s block!”

To anyone thinking those words, I hope you get the crotch rot.

See, I’m not saying you aren’t having a hard time writing. What I am saying is that you are not “unable” to write, as the definition (and many individuals) would have us believe.

You are not a comatose, paraplegic, mute. You have a mind (hopefully), and you have use of either fingers or voice. That means that you are physically capable of writing. The mental part is not actually stopping you.

YOU are stopping you.

Now, I’m not just going to sit here all comfy behind my keyboard and talk shit. Like I said earlier, I’ve been through “writer’s block” and found my way past it, because I realized there was a simple solution to my problem: write something! 

What a novel idea, huh! HAH! ha ha …okay, that was a bad pun, sorry, but you see what I’m getting at, right?

So, yeah, writing is the key to overcoming writer’s block.

Write a word. Then another word, and then another and another. I’m not saying you’re going to write the next best seller in your current state, but get some words down. Maybe your writer’s block is keeping the creativity from flowing, but you know what? You only get water from a faucet by turning it on. The same goes for creativity. Start the process. Move forward. Eventually, that wall between you and your creativity will be behind you, and in the meantime, at least you’ll be fighting the good fight rather than whining about your writer’s block. Now, isn’t that a better option? Unless you’d prefer to be whining rather than getting some words down on a work-in-progress. If that’s the case, then I can’t help you.

If you aren’t suffering from burnout, a great way to renew your inspiration is to read and edit what you’ve already got down on a WIP. Yeah, I know, everyone always says not to edit as you write, but we’re not writing yet, remember? We’re suffering from writer’s block. There’s an exception to every rule, and we need to get our asses moving, so get reading and get editing!

If burnout is your problem, then yes, you may want to take a break from creative writing. Read, binge watch some cool-ass shows. Exercise! Serious, this last one does indeed work. Exercise releases endorphins, and endorphins help boost focus and creativity. And it’s just healthy.

If your burnout is specific to your WIP, then switch it up. Move on to another project. Don’t know what to write about? Use a writing prompt. Or just open a Word file and start typing. If you’re finding it just too hard to begin, then look around your writing space, pick anything in view and use that as the object of your first sentence. Go to a coffee shop and listen to the conversations around you, and use one of them as a jumping-off point for a short story. The point isn’t to write amazing shit here, the point is to write.

If you’re over-analyzing your work, then take a break. Again I recommend exercise. Meditate if that’s your cup of tea. Understand that it is okay to take time away from writing. Sometimes things need to marinate. Sometimes we have to let our mind slow down. Ask yourself why it is you are over-scrutinizing your material? Is it the doubt demons? (This is usually the case with over-analyzing.) Whatever the reason, try and identify it. But, you know what? Even if you can’t identify the reason, you should know one very important thing: you don’t need to know this enemy in order to defeat it.

The solution is still the same in every instance. Just write. Something, anything, and then keep writing. In the case of over-analyzing, I recommend you continue with an existing project; if you have to fight with yourself in order to get some words down, they might as well be gaining you ground on your WIP, right?

Lastly, we have laziness. Damn, I love this one! This was my biggest hurdle to my writing career. Laziness is the most insidious of all the differing powers behind writer’s block. It actually acts a lot like addiction. It will not generally announce itself, rather taking the form of all manner of justifications, the most common of which is just a straight-up “I’m not feeling creative. All I do is stare at the screen. I have writer’s block.” Yep. Because you’d rather be watching the Battlestar Galactica reboot. Or playing Battlefield on your PS4 or XBox. Or masturbating. Or just about anything else that could possibly be turned into an excuse. But your mind won’t recognize it as laziness–no, no! It’s writer’s block! Suuure it is. And the shittiest thing about laziness getting in the way of your writing is, unless you learn to see it for what it is, you will feel justified in doing anything other than writing itself. Once again, the only solution is to start writing.

Okay, there was another cause of writer’s block that I mentioned. We’ll call this “environmental.” This happens when the conditions of your life are just not conducive to your process. This is perhaps the one condition I have true sympathy for. (This was my second largest hurdle to my writing career.) Deaths in the family can maim our emotional state. Family obligations can occupy massive amounts of our time and thoughts. Medical conditions can hobble any of us. There’s no end to this list, as our lives are all unique, and each one of us has a different tolerance for adversity. In these sorts of situations, I can offer only two pieces of advice.

If any of your environmental conditions are within your power to change, then change them; if they are not, but you still have a desire to write, then find ways to sneak it in. Download Evernote or a similar app to your phone or tablet and work in a few words here and there. It may seem useless or daunting, but trust me when I say that, if you can manage even a few sentences a day, you’re probably going to feel as if you’ve won a small victory. And indeed that’s what will have happened.

A huge part of writing, for nearly all of us, is working writing into our everyday lives in whatever ways we can. No one is saying it’s easy. Actually, I’ve said the exact opposite on many occasions. But it does get easier, the more you do it. However writing fits into your life, enjoy it and know that the only “wrong way” is to simply admit defeat and give up.

The moral of this story is: The only way through it is to do it.

About a month ago I hit social media and asked my fellow independent authors to offer up their own tips on marketing for the self-published. If memory serves, I got a grand total of three responses. Now, you could be forgiven for thinking this might just be a simple case of me lacking followers … but when a subsequent post sporting a food item suddenly gets half a dozen comments and 20 Likes? Well, I’m thinking there are other reasons.

I think many are either self-conscious about voicing their ideas on marketing or don’t want to give their secrets away to the masses.

As for me, I’m too new to this game to have much direct experience, but I want to help. I want to enable us. All of us. So, what I am about to lay down in this post is mostly knowledge gained by research rather than experience, but I’m hoping many of you will find at least one thing that can aid you in bringing your writing to others.

So, you’ve written a book. Now what? Marketing!

You could have written the most amazing book of your generation, but no one reads it if you don’t get it in front of them. Marketing is how you get this done.

Go Wide

Speaking specifically of e-published books (as that is the most accessible medium for independent authors), you’ll be better served by getting yourself available on as many platforms as possible. Don’t just jump on Amazon.com and expect Kindle to be the holy grail. Make use of Smashwords at the very least, as it will help you publish to multiple electronic vendors simultaneously.

Do keep in mind, though, that Amazon does not allow a book to be sold elsewhere at a lower price than it is on Amazon.

Be Social

Take to social media, if you haven’t already. I’d suggest at least having a Facebook author page (or use your personal FB page for the purpose), and a Twitter account.

Got those? Good! Now, my first piece of advice regarding their use is: don’t spam a shit-ton of sale posts!

The fastest way to get ignored, unfollowed, muted, or blocked is by being an overbearing asshat with your pushy sales tactics.

Make friends. Join genre-based groups of readers and writers. Be supportive of those around you. Take the time to build a network of peers, because most of your first readers are likely to be other independent authors within your genre.

And don’t expect this to be a fast process. You’ll be wrong and you’ll be disappointed.

Also, when you do post, don’t try and make up reasons to insert links to your book’s sale page in random conversations.  Again, people will quickly tune you out. Commit yourself to making an actual sales post once per week (at most) to each of your social media accounts. Most people won’t fault you for this, and it likely won’t get you ignored by many.

When you do decide to make a sales post, do not just post a link to the book and say “Hey! I wrote a book! I’d love for you to read and review it!” Make a pitch! Use the blurb you wrote for your product details or something similar. Give people a reason to want to read your work.

Next …

Paid Electronic Advertising

Think Amazon and Goodreads ad campaigns. When all is said and done, this is where most of your sales will eventually stem from.

Jesse and Rebekah Teller suggested I buy a copy of Brian D. Meeks’ Mastering Amazon Ads: An Author’s Guide, and I was amazed at how informative this book was. What it teaches you can pretty much be put to immediate use, although you might not think so based upon some of the marketing numbers Meeks’ lays out for you. I’ve been playing with the ads myself now for a couple of weeks, but I’m still tweaking my cost-per-click and keyword lists. Jesse and Rebekah Teller, however, have found success using the methods in this book, and I can see why.

Despite what many seem to think, Amazon ads are far from useless. And they are not just for the heavy hitters. Do yourself a favor, and take the time to explore their uses. You won’t regret it.

As for Goodreads self-serve advertising, things get a lot more restrictive, with cost-per-click (CPC) being locked at $0.50 (as of this writing). Still, this is a massive pool of potential customers and, if used intelligently, can lead to a great boost in sales.

I’m not going to get into the particulars of how to set up the ads themselves, as that would be a book in itself. Suffice it to say, you should be doing your own in-depth research, and I strongly suggest reading Meeks’ book on Mastering Amazon Ads that I linked above. Besides, all of our ads will be individual to us and must be tailored to each book.

Public Relations Companies

I’m not going to go into huge detail on this one, as most of you reading this will be independent authors with little or no funds for advertising on this scale. However, it would be remiss of me not to at least offer some information regarding PR companies.

First of all, this is some expensive shit–relatively speaking. After investigating 5 different PR companies, I found the baseline initial investment to range between $2000-$5000. There was one place that offered an $800 “beginner’s package,” but this was strictly an analytics thing (finding your keywords and so on), with absolutely no actual advertising. Information is key, yes, but the sort of analytics this $800 package offered were the sorts of things that an author could learn on their own for free.

The bottom line on PR, at least for me, is that it is for those with more money to burn than I do.

Paid Reviews

Credibility is huge for all authors. A traditionally published author automatically benefits from the credibility that comes along with the name of their publisher, but independents don’t have this option boon. A paid review can go a long way to helping this.

Now, I’m not talking about giving all your buddies $20 to read and review your book. I’m talking about big-name review sites like Kirkus. At $425 it’s a little bit of an expense, but it most definitely works, and it has a pretty high value for the amount invested.

It works like this: You pay them to read and review your book. Once this is done, you get a copy of the review. If the review is positive, then you have the option of having Kirkus (or a site like theirs) post the review with major bookseller publications/sites. If the review is negative, then you can opt to forego any further action.

In other words, if you plan on going this route, you will want to be damn confident of your work. But if you do get a great review, you have something to shout about on social media, as well as some acclaim to add to your cover and book detail pages.

Get Yourself on Shelves (the sneaky way)

Get an ISBN. This varies in difficulty from country to country, and I admit that I am only versed in the process in the United States. That being said, there is a neat little trick that can help you get onto a few shelves.

Let’s face it, the old brick-and-mortar stores have limited shelf-space, and that means independent authors are rarely going to find their way onto them. However, if you have an ISBN and your book has been formatted for print-on-demand, then there’s hope.

Go down to your local brand-name bookstore and ask a clerk to special order a book for you: your book! (If you’re not already using a pen name, you might want to give the clerk an alias, so they don’t figure out what you’re up to.) Next, when the store calls to tell you your order is in, tell them that you already picked up a copy elsewhere. The retailer makes no money if they leave a book beneath the counter, and so your book will be put on the shelves. Most retailers will also continue to order (albeit in small quantities) any book that sells.

Neat, huh?

Have a Home on the Web

Social media is all well and good, but give yourself a home on the web apart from social media as well. A WordPress blog (like this one) or something similar will suffice. This gives your readers a place that is specific to you, mostly devoid of all the extraneous bullshit that comes along with social media feeds.

Blog!

I can’t overstate this one. It goes along with the same concept as social media but takes it a few leaps forward.

I didn’t really believe in the power of blogs before I tried it, on the advice of more than a few authors. Talk about your writing, but not only about your writing. Again, most of your early readership will come from fellow authors. They’re on the same (or a similar) path to your own. Don’t simply use your blog as yet another way to sell sell sell! Use it to give your potential reader-base a way of identifying with you, of learning who you are, and why you are the way you are.

Let them see the mage behind the page!

One more piece of advice though: be aware of the possible repercussions of certain topics. If you get controversial, you will be picking a side (regardless of whether you want to or not) and that will put some readers on the opposing side.

Branding and Merchandising

If you have a book, hopefully you have a cool-ass cover too. And if you do, have t-shirts made up, preferably with your name and book title on it, as well as your website/social media url, and maybe a quote or a bit of critical acclaim. “Business cards” or advertising style “postcards” are also a great idea to keep on hand–if you use this sort of thing, go down to your local gaming stores or coffee shops and pin one to the social boards most of them have hanging up for purposes such as this.

Help Others Succeed

I’m putting this in here near the end, but it’s far from the last thing you should be doing.

Help other independent authors succeed, or I can promise you that not many of them will help you. Even the most altruistic of us will feel used if a relationship of any sort appears to be one-sided. Do for others as you would have them do for you. Think of it as an unofficial code of camaraderie.

Do Not Give Up

Lastly, do not give up! 

Very few authors will ever find their road an easy one, be they independent or traditional. Writing is not easy. Succeeding is even more difficult. There are no real tricks in this beyond perseverance and ingenuity.

Don’t ever think “I can’t” or “I’m a failure!”

I’ll be honest that I see those two statements (and others like them) to be utter whiney bullshit. Have I been there? Fuck yeah, I have! And I felt like a whiney piece of shit afterwards. You know why? Because self-defeat is absolutely useless. It’s a waste of your time. I’m not saying you should feel like shit for doubting yourself–I’m saying you should feel like shit if you let that doubt hold you back or dictate your actions (or inaction).

Let me lay a little truth on you: the biggest roadblock to your success as an independent author is yourself. And the funny part is, all you need to do is ignore the self-doubt. I can’t tell you how to do that, other than to say just do it. Let doubt say what it wants, just keep moving.

Write, learn lessons from it, advertise, repeat … succeed. It’s just a matter of determination and perseverance.

The only failure comes when you cease the journey.

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Hey, I warned you: I’m a kind-hearted asshole–just not necessarily at the same time.

Honestly, though, I am all for ethnic and gender (social) diversity, but not by mandate. And definitely not in response to a bunch of whiney social justice warriors. Diversity should just … happen. Races and genders mingle as a part of natural human experience, not by some well-meaning but misguided public outcry.

Now, that’s as close to politics as you’re ever going to see me get. And, now that’s out of the way, I can get on with creative reasons I think mandatory social diversity in fantasy is …well, fucking stupid.

DISCLAIMER:  THESE ARE MY OPINIONS. If you choose to take offense and open your pie hole, please see the image at the top of this post. You can yell and scream, but no fucks will be given by me.

I constantly see people demanding diversity in fiction, and I can’t help but think how idiotic this is. And, frankly, it could actually be construed as … offensive. *GASP*

First of all, fantasy fiction is generally set in a made-up world, or an alternate variation of our own Earth in some cases. It’s fake. Of course, if you want to fight for the civil rights of orcs everywhere, that’s your choice.

Second, as a writer and a builder of fictional worlds, I’m trying to blend the fantastical with the familiar. And while diversity is indeed a wonderous and familiar element in our own world, it only exists when you look at the bigger picture. The more narrowly you focus (looking at a nation instead of the world) the diversity thins. Japan, for example, is primarily populated by those of Japanese ethnicity. But if you zoom in even closer, there are several communities in Tokyo where foreign expats tend to live in larger numbers. Same goes for Irish in Boston and the Portuguese in Fall River Massachusettes (US). This doesn’t mean there’s racism at work (although, yes, there is that too). These things happen in every country and come about as a result of many socio-economic reasons. And while racism may contribute in many cases, it is far from the only reason.

What I’m getting at is, when I build worlds, I’m attempting to recreate the familiar and realistic integration of societies that I described above. I don’t have an agenda of hate or exclusion in mind. I have a demographic picture that I am attempting to impart to my readers, and that means setting specific racial and gender expectations within my world. In order to do this, it is absolutely necessary that I stick to my plan, not give in to people who want diversity for the sake of diversity.

Lastly, not every writer is going to be comfortable writing POV characters of certain genders/races. And I’m sure I’m not the only one who has read someone trying to write POVs of the opposite gender from their own and cringed at how bad it turned out. Like anyone, I tend to play to my strengths. Yeah, I work at being better in the areas I feel are my weakest, but I won’t highlight those aspects until I’m feeling more confident with them.

In the end, the moral of this blog post is this: meaning and intent matter; as long as a writer isn’t writing their material from a place of hate and bigotry, I’m sure they’d appreciate you not sending your own hate and anger their way.

And if you really really really want to see diversity in fantasy fiction, get writing. Do it, don’t demand it.