The mice laze around on the sofa, play Xbox and drink beer… They’d probably be smoking too if it wasn’t for this damn cold (only kidding honey, if you’re reading this!)… as it is, I’ll just have to stick to the beer thing, and making a point to toast the reversal on Gurkha rights of settlement which has been ridiculously overdue. Actually, I have also booked my honeymoon, but I’m now slightly irritated on that front because a day after I booked it I get an email offing £10 tickets to the start-of-season double-header match at Twickenham… on the first day of the honeymoon. That I’d arbitrarily picked as the start date. But I will be in Venice instead, hard to be too annoyed there really!
All this lazing around has however, occasionally working my way through the new Steven Erikson (which, good as it is could have done with a more serious edit) made me think about book stuff and how I want to keep spending my time. Let’s face it, I was a curmudgeonly old bastard throughout my twenties and have showed no sign of changing now I’m past it. The prospect of signing myself up to something similar, or longer, than the Twilight Reign fills me with dread and drains what passes for enthusiasm from my body. Maybe it’s some just miracle way of negating caffeine but whatever it is, I realise now that – huge fan of epic fantasy that I am – I don’t want to block off 5, 8, or even ten years of my life to one idea. George Martin’s got the right idea but doing it piecemeal between a load of other things and making enough money that he can still pay the bills, but you still get a lot of abuse for the approach, even when you’re like everyone’s grandpa but with a sword.
I’ve got to finish book 4 and write book 5. That’s doable, that’s not too much of my life committed to something that’s not a person or even a roof over my head, whether or not it contributes to said roof. But what if the Twilight Reign was ten books, or even twelve. I’d be most likely forty before I could really get my teeth into something else, without taking a publication break that would seriously annoy both publishers and fans. In addition to these books I’ve got the short story collection to put together, add a few more to and then see about publishing it in some form or another. I’m thinking I might do this in my post-Ragged Man break, before the edits come back or after depending on how long that takes. Hopefully there won’t be too much to add and it could be fun to look at the series from a different perspective, leaving me refreshed for the last book, but however much I’m going to enjoy book 5 * I’m REALLY looking forward just to doing something new, even if I do already have most of the idea sketched out. The idea I have for after those stand-alones had once going to be a major epic series, but I now realise I don’t want to do that, I want to be freer to actually invent stuff with each book rather than feel constrained by what’s gone before. My current idea is for it to be three ‘first books’ each of which are a stand alone from a different character’s perspective and could kick you off reading it, then a final volume that brings those three characters together and ties up the greater plot. Not sure whether that’ll work or not, but that’s the point – it’ll be fun to find out as much as fun to have a start and end of a book in sight!
The elephant in the room is, of course sequels/prequels. Often a good idea in financial terms, I can’t see myself wanting to return to the Twilight Reign until I’ve got a few books under my belt. If the publisher says they want one and aren’t interested in anything else at the moment, that could get tricky, but not something to worry about now. It does make me think, however that those writer who’ve been so committed to one world and series, Erikson, Jordan not so much now, Martin, even Rowling actually – how do you drag yourself out of that? How do you walk away and go do something else? I think I was lucky that I started working on something new when I was trying to sell Stormcaller, Moon’s Artifice has been running round my head for years now – it’s starting to scream to be written, there are novels I’m actually avoiding because I know they’ll make me think of further novels in that world. It’ll be interesting to see how others fare. Steven Erikson’s so wedded to his world I can’t believe he won’t start a new series based on it somehow when he finishes Book of the Fallen, just look at the spin-offs. George Martin is getting on in years, I can’t imagine he’d be foolish enough to engage in anything as ambitious as Song of Ice and Fire again – for him I’d say a smaller sequel would be the best option. J K Rowling, anyone heard what her new project it? Better believe the publishers will announce that one from the rooftops when they acquire it – the little collection of tales makes not a follow up book. Hmm, was that Yoda or some bastardised Shakespeare? Or both? Anyways, the sensible money is on something in that world, maybe even Harry’s exploits as a grown-up/Harry’s children. Jordan, of course, never finished, but I think we all suspect he’d never have left his famous world, Feist certainly hasn’t despite reports of the books going downhill big-time. Not read recent ones myself but it does rather look like he’s spanking something decaying and equine.
I admit I’ve only picked some well known examples here, but I can’t think of others at present. Anyone help me out here? Any writers who’ve done the same, successfully broken away from a long, major series. Does Bernard Cornwall count here, despite not being fantasy? Are the new books anything like as good as the Sharpes? I remember the confusion Winter In Madrid caused because C J Samson was just about to make it big as an historical crime writer, but he was determined to break out of that before he was caught forever so much respect to him.
* which I am by the way; it might not sound like I’ve got a lot of love for the series at the mo but Ragged Man’s proving a grind at the moment and will only be fun again when I start to rewrite it I reckon, too much of what I’ve got to write is dictated by what’s gone before. Book 5 will be different, I’ve not mapped it out as much, I’ve got a lot to decide when it comes to showdowns, just desserts, revenge and stuff, and building up to a crescendo is what I enjoy so the last book of the series should always be good on that front.
I think it can be a good idea for an author to leave worlds behind, but often the most successful creations move away and deal with very different places and people. A lot may depend on the author’s love: to create brand new stuff all the time, or to further flesh out the original world. I often feel the latter takes the author into staleness, personally. Either that, or they create a universe effectively so vast that everything in the canon is essentially it’s own work. Consider Jack Vance’s Gaean Reach books – a few linking organisations and so on that repeatedly crop up, but otherwise it’s all change every book.
However, I think some authors are swayed by audiences. Not necessarily the sales although that might be the most obvious factor, but the reaction to them from readers. You can’t help but wonder that, say, Hannibal Lector was originally envisaged by Harris as a sort of background archetype evil genius, but after the movies, he effectively transmogrifies into the central character. Maybe I’m being unfair to him, but that’s my impression.
I never actually stopped to consider authors might effectively be told what to go out and write if they wanted their books published…
Well, most of the time they’re not going to be told what to write (though if an editor says to you, what I really want to publish is a monkeypunk novel, for example, it’s a quick step to sketch out some ideas and see whether you can provide it) but you have to remember that writing is a career too.
When I finish the Twilight Reign, I’ll have been married for almost two years. If at that point in my life I’m trying to buy a house and/or have kids, how do I respond to my editor saying ‘if your next book is something new we think we can pay you ten grand for it, if it’s a sequal to the series you’ve got fans of already we’ll pay 30k’? it’s a business after all, and creative freedom aside there are still bills to pay.
I think you’re right that it can make the world and books stale, from a literary point of view you do have to ask ‘why am I writing this book now?’ As for Lector, i think you’re right, he never wanted to write Hannibal if memory serves, just as Wilbur Smith never wanted to do sequels for River God but when the publisher waved a cheque they decided to get on board with the idea! Don’t think you’re being unfair there at all.
I think it can be a good idea for an author to leave worlds behind, but often the most successful creations move away and deal with very different places and people. A lot may depend on the author’s love: to create brand new stuff all the time, or to further flesh out the original world. I often feel the latter takes the author into staleness, personally. Either that, or they create a universe effectively so vast that everything in the canon is essentially it’s own work. Consider Jack Vance’s Gaean Reach books – a few linking organisations and so on that repeatedly crop up, but otherwise it’s all change every book.
However, I think some authors are swayed by audiences. Not necessarily the sales although that might be the most obvious factor, but the reaction to them from readers. You can’t help but wonder that, say, Hannibal Lector was originally envisaged by Harris as a sort of background archetype evil genius, but after the movies, he effectively transmogrifies into the central character. Maybe I’m being unfair to him, but that’s my impression.
I never actually stopped to consider authors might effectively be told what to go out and write if they wanted their books published…
Well, most of the time they’re not going to be told what to write (though if an editor says to you, what I really want to publish is a monkeypunk novel, for example, it’s a quick step to sketch out some ideas and see whether you can provide it) but you have to remember that writing is a career too.
When I finish the Twilight Reign, I’ll have been married for almost two years. If at that point in my life I’m trying to buy a house and/or have kids, how do I respond to my editor saying ‘if your next book is something new we think we can pay you ten grand for it, if it’s a sequal to the series you’ve got fans of already we’ll pay 30k’? it’s a business after all, and creative freedom aside there are still bills to pay.
I think you’re right that it can make the world and books stale, from a literary point of view you do have to ask ‘why am I writing this book now?’ As for Lector, i think you’re right, he never wanted to write Hannibal if memory serves, just as Wilbur Smith never wanted to do sequels for River God but when the publisher waved a cheque they decided to get on board with the idea! Don’t think you’re being unfair there at all.
I heard J.K. Rowling’s next book will be a detective/mystery.
While I was reading your part about 3 separate books with a fourth to wrap it up I thought of Grant Morrison’s 7 SOLDIERS comic series, not sure if your know of it but it was an interesting way of story telling.
Good work on the books and I look forward to reading more!
Jay(from Canada)
Ah really, a detective story? That’ll be interesting to see, guess she’s got enough money that the publisher waving the cheque might not be enough of a lure.
I’ve not read the Grant Morrison, but I shall investigate. Think that’ll be a sensible thing to do before I actually plan that series anyway, trying to work out how it’ll all fit together and how I keep the interest level up for the reader.
Cheers Jay!
I heard J.K. Rowling’s next book will be a detective/mystery.
While I was reading your part about 3 separate books with a fourth to wrap it up I thought of Grant Morrison’s 7 SOLDIERS comic series, not sure if your know of it but it was an interesting way of story telling.
Good work on the books and I look forward to reading more!
Jay(from Canada)
Ah really, a detective story? That’ll be interesting to see, guess she’s got enough money that the publisher waving the cheque might not be enough of a lure.
I’ve not read the Grant Morrison, but I shall investigate. Think that’ll be a sensible thing to do before I actually plan that series anyway, trying to work out how it’ll all fit together and how I keep the interest level up for the reader.
Cheers Jay!
I don’t know how he did it, but Jim Butcher seems to have pulled this off very successfully. He wrote the Dresden Files series at first, then started on the Codex Alera, and now publishes both of them at the same time. I’m addicted to the latter and am reliably informed that the former is also an excellent series.
So maybe the answer is not to drag yourself away from your world, but to go visit somewhere else in between stays? Not sure.
It’s an interesting idea, might well be enough to keep it fresh and fun in the mind. I’ve read a few of the first and enjoyed them, but haven’t picked up the codex ones. Don’t think I’ve seen them in a bookshop, I’ll have to have a look for them!
I don’t know how he did it, but Jim Butcher seems to have pulled this off very successfully. He wrote the Dresden Files series at first, then started on the Codex Alera, and now publishes both of them at the same time. I’m addicted to the latter and am reliably informed that the former is also an excellent series.
So maybe the answer is not to drag yourself away from your world, but to go visit somewhere else in between stays? Not sure.
It’s an interesting idea, might well be enough to keep it fresh and fun in the mind. I’ve read a few of the first and enjoyed them, but haven’t picked up the codex ones. Don’t think I’ve seen them in a bookshop, I’ll have to have a look for them!
Authors who’ve broken away
Terry Pratchett broke away from a major series: Discworld
Re: Authors who've broken away
You mean he broke away to write Discworld, or has recently broken away from it? Nation’s a stand-alone right? It’s and interesting case that one, you’ve got to wonder whether he’d have written/published it on the same schedule without the diagnosis. Sir Tel has more flexibility on that front because he writes books more quickly, but it’s an interesting (and good) decision I think to ensure he doesn’t just write discworld for the last 20 years of his life.
Authors who’ve broken away
Terry Pratchett broke away from a major series: Discworld
Re: Authors who've broken away
You mean he broke away to write Discworld, or has recently broken away from it? Nation’s a stand-alone right? It’s and interesting case that one, you’ve got to wonder whether he’d have written/published it on the same schedule without the diagnosis. Sir Tel has more flexibility on that front because he writes books more quickly, but it’s an interesting (and good) decision I think to ensure he doesn’t just write discworld for the last 20 years of his life.