Welcome to Fred's Website
  • Home Page
  • Fred's Blog
  • The Right Writes
  • Mascot Serial
  • Contact

Inspiration and Craft

7/24/2016

0 Comments

 
I won't apologize for not adding to this blog sooner, but I will explain.  My wife's health has taken another turn for the worse and a lot of time ordinarily used for writing has been put to other uses as a result of those health problems.
 
My fantasy novel, Witchery,  will be published about the first of November by Double Dragon Publishing.   T.S. Eliot said "Good writers borrow, great writers steal."  When I wrote this novel I was aware that I was borrowing concepts from Robert Heinlein's short story, "Magic, Inc.", and an idea he put forward in Glory Road that had little to do with the main story. I also was aware of an influence from Marvel's Doctor Strange comic books, even though I didn't read many of them.
Of course I also borrowed from Lord of the Rings, Conan, and Le Morte D'Arthur.  And some stuff I made up on my own...I think.
However, none of those borrowings inspired the story or characters in the first place.  That was my own doing though I didn't know it at the time.
When I was teaching high school English I often gave my students writing assignments and sometimes, because I like to write, I would do the assignment myself.  My poem, "Bug War", was the result of one such effort.  
In this case I assigned the students the task of describing someone in a setting. Describe the person and the place and conditions that person is in.
I did the assignment myself. I described a young and very pretty red-headed woman on a black horse riding a path through a forest in late evening. I described her clothing, and the blue-stoned ring she wore. I wrote the details of the late autumn forest with its leafless trees. I detailed the size of the horse and the saddle.
And then I filed it away. About a year later that image of the young woman gave me an idea. She had, from the very beginning, in my mind, been a witch. Why was she there? Where was she going? From those questions I developed the entire story that will finally see print this Fall.
The biggest problem I had with the original construction was that I wanted to start the story there. Eventually I came to realize that I could not. There had to be something presented before that would justify her presence at that place and time. That was the most frustrating part of the story—exactly how to begin.  I tried at least a half dozen different beginnings before I settled on the one that will see print. And even then, the details of the beginning were changed and rewritten more than once.
Finally, though, I had a finished novel that I could submit (by snail mail, please include envelope and postage for return if rejected) to publishers.
Rejections followed.
I got the message. Something needed changing. After a fresh look I decided that details of the magic—what it could do and how—needed to be reworked and redefined and limited. But various things of non-writing origin interfered and the novel sat unmodified for several years.
When I at last determined to get to the rewrite I knew what I wanted. The basic plot and characters were just fine; only details concerning the magic needed to be changed. But as I rewrote it from the very beginning I added details about the characters, introduced additional minor characters and additional minor conflicts.
The basic characters all stayed the same, except that I changed the gender of one of them.  When I got to the second half I brought the fate of one secondary character to a much more satisfactory continuation. In the original he had simply been left behind. Then I added over a dozen secondary and tertiary characters to bring more life into the conflicts and more drama—more pathos.
The finished draft was more complete and much richer than the draft of years earlier. Then I applied editing software to the manuscript, chapter by chapter. That made the language of the story stronger and the story telling more enthralling.
But through all that the four primary human characters did not change although they did grow during the story. The plot changed not one bit. Details were added or subtracted to various battle scenes (in some cases because of the reworking of the principles of magic) but the plot and the motivations of the characters were the same as in the first draft. The ending was virtually unchanged.
That is what goes into a finished novel. It is art and creativity, but it is also at least as much a craft. Painters and sculptors cannot get by on simple inspiration. They must apply the colors just right. The lines and curves and angles must be just so. The sculpture must have every imperfection eliminated and every surface exactly as smooth or rough as the artist's vision dictates. The same is true for writers. We use words instead of paint or chisel, but the discipline and skill to use those tools is just as exacting.
I hope all of you that enjoy reading fantasy—or those of you that don't know if you like it because you haven't tried it—will read Witchery when it becomes available.
And thank you.  

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    I'm a former teacher and current warehouse grunt that loves writing.

    Archive

    June 2025
    February 2025
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    April 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    September 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    September 2022
    July 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    January 2022
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly