A cold beginning to February, not least because the central heating and water pressure decided to become "issues" for us. However, by Thursday morning, after the diligent work of three engineers, both were eventually fixed.

The cold does affect me. My sinuses have a tendency to lock up in cold weather, bringing about pressure headaches. These can prevent me from being able to write anything or read anything on computer. However, have one or two coping strategies, and usually I can find ways around the issue.

This week has seen several developments in my writing. To begin with, I made a start on revisiting my original novel. This is something I began writing in 1997. 

What has inspired this shift? Well, having finished a draft of my next SF novel, a change of genre and mode of address (from first person present to third person past) is a chance to refresh my perspective and challenge myself.

In part, I'm inspired by the work done by Rosa Watkinson and Nikki DeKeuster working on the audio versions of my Wisimir novels. These were set in the same secondary world as the first novel I decided to write.

Back in 1997, I was a second-year student at King Alfred's College (now the University of Winchester) and still had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. However, I knew I wanted to write, and having successfully adapted Terry Pratchett Reaper Man the stage, decided that I should make an attempt at writing long form fiction. The moment came about because my long-running role-playing game evenings were moving into a different phase and some of the original stories that had inspired them were becoming lost to the passage of time.

At that time, finding novelists who were inspired by role-playing games wasn't as easy as it is now. Those of us involved in UK live role-playing knew that Mary Gentle had been very involved in the Lorien Trust game system as Queen Roxanne of the Lions Faction. One or two other writers occasionally confessed to having played Dungeons & Dragons or another system. To me, all the American writers who published novels for Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms were very far away.

But it was those novelists who inspired me initially. I always felt I would be fantasy writer, writing stories that explored secondary worlds that were very much Tolkien analogues. At the time, this is the kind of fiction that I read, and therefore this was the kind of fiction that I wrote. In many ways, I wanted to be innovative and interesting, changing different elements and experimenting with different ideas. But of course, at that time, what I saw as innovation was really a repetition of existing tropes. My lack of reading showed in my writing.

In some respects, that is part of this week's discovery which I wanted to write about here.

I completed the first draft on my first epic fantasy novel back in 2000. At the time, I was living in Derby having moved in with my girlfriend, who is now my partner of nearly twenty-five years. After reading all the advice I could find, I printed out a full copy of my manuscript stuffed it into a series of pink folders, bound that a parcel, and sent by post to myself, thereby establishing my copyright on the work. Looking back, I was quite naive.

The next 18 months involved me sending out a series of queries to publishers and agents, following the advice given in the Writers and Artists Yearbook. I worried about querying multiple sources at the same time, so waited for a boilerplate rejection before sending out again. This meant the process took an exceedingly long time and once the list of addresses given in the yearbook were exhausted, I dusted off the draft copy and started making revisions.

The feedback I was given from my initial rejections was wholly unhelpful. Every rejection was boilerplate and bland. I found nothing that could identify strengths or weaknesses in my writing and it would be several years before I began teaching writing, which would begin to allow me to develop an understanding of my ability. For a long time, thought I was good, but hadn't been given a chance. Considering that now, I think I was lucky to get boilerplates. The writing really wasn't good. 

It was only much later, when I began to engage with writing communities such as Youwriteon, or Authonomy, both long gone now, where I started to identify some of the ways in which I could improve. Additionally, I was fortunate to have a class of students who were writing assignments for their creative writing degree. By reading and identifying areas where they can improve, I was able to get around the blind spot I had with my own work.

A few years ago, I read the autobiogaphy of J. Michael Straczynski, the writer and showrunner of Babylon 5. I identified a lot with his early forays into writing. The ignorant urge and fumbling steps of an individual both blessed and cursed with an active imagination, who can see scenes, and moments in stories, but cannot express them.

My writing journey moves on. The first novel remained as an old digital file and a printed parcel kept in the loft. Occasionally, the digital file would get another read and edit. Most of the time, I would despair at the poor prose. This was a book that would take longer to make good then it would to write anew.

However, this week I have taken out the draft once more. Some rewriting done in 2021 and 2022 has vastly improved what was a very tired and cliched fantasy quest. Now in 2024 I think we are close to having a draft that is acceptable. Whether acceptable becomes anything better than that and worth submitting to anyone remains to be seen. 

However, when reading through the old story I am able to look back at the writer I was and see that young frustrated individual with new eyes (not least because I've had laser surgery since then).

I have said before, that every writer's journey is different. Looking back, I can see that the stories I wanted to tell are not stories I have the writing skill to pull off. Some of the novels I have written have needed to sit for a period of time so that I can come back to them and figure out what is not working. In some respects, that can be a matter of confidence. It is somewhat refreshing to look over what I was able to do see how I have changed and possibly improved.

Certainly, the process of reacquainting myself with epic fantasy is a beneficial one this month. On 18th February, I am leading a workshop for the British Fantasy Society on "Fantasy Worlds and the Reader's Imagination". This will draw from the chapter I wrote in Worlds Apart: Worldbuilding in Fantasy and Science Fiction (2021) for Luna Press. and also explore some of the ways in which writer 'worldbuilding' is commonly discussed as being about exposition and detail. I also want to touch on the ways in which worldbuilding can become a skill that is useful in areas outside of writing novels. 

Another development this week has been a short conversation with the fantasy literature research project at the University of Oxford. I am hoping that the discussion we have started will develop into something exciting that I can talk more about in the future.

Being A Healthy Writer

A week in the cold with no central heating does not lend itself to being active. However, there have been some developments. I am working on improving the strength in my left shoulder, and continuing to observe the lifestyle changes I have indicated over the last few weeks. I've also taken to missing the occasional evening meal. This is something that a variety of different people have mentioned as being a way to lose or maintain a healthy weight. I am a creature who needs regular fuel. I do find that if I don't eat for a period of time I can become irritable and occasionally, my hands will get shaky. However, changing the evening meal to a series of snacks is something I can do and does have a small benefit. Small benefits are what I am looking for at the moment. I wanted to go into a phase of strict diet and exercise, then I would be doing that. This is not what I want at the moment, those kind of periods in my life due come with a certain amount of stress attached as well.

Generally, my back has been a little better this week and I've been able to be more mobile. Hopefully that will continue and an increased level of activity will help with this.