Fantasy Opus - Chapter 4

In reality I haven't started chapter 4 but I've put in the page break :-)

The story has a large number of keystones in my mind and we've just reached the second. This moment has been in my head for over ten years, probably nearer twenty. It's strange to finally commit something to word that's been locked in your mind.

Of course these chapters could be very different after editing. I'm at the stage described by one writer as the "vomit draft" i.e. just splurging what's in your head onto the page and worrying about the grammar and other points later.

Here's another clue:

I've just been watching the "Real Marigold Hotel", a BBC documentary. The subject of the Indian caste system was discussed. The idea that you are defined by your birth i.e. if you're born to a cleaner, then you too will be a cleaner etc. It's a fascinating and disturbing subject, that for some their lives are not their own.

Some are forced to live a lie.

Bye for now,

John Howes.

Fantasy Opus - Chapter 1

I'm now well into my second novel and it's likely to be much bigger than the first. In fact it may even spread to more than one book.

I don't know how writers like George R.R.Martin can plan to split a story into multiple books, as I only discover the full story as I write it.

I remember when I was at school we had an English teacher who told the class that all books were split into three sections: The beginning, middle, and end. I also remember being totally turned off by this notion. My writing doesn't come that way.

I love to discover the story as I'm writing it. I keep the whole story idea in my head, but some of the most interesting aspects come to me as I'm writing on the page.

In Zero Magenta the connection between Dimitri and Philip only came to me as I was writing, and it's one of my favorite parts of the story.

The bones of the new story are in my head now (I'm getting a right headache!) and the working title is "Fantasy Opus". One of the biggest influences on the book so far comes from a famous poem that I heard when I was about eleven years old:

"Is there anybody there?’ said the Traveler,   

   Knocking on the moonlit door;

And his horse in the silence champed the grasses   

   Of the forest’s ferny floor"

Extract from The Listeners by Walter De La Mare.

That's all for now.

John Howes.

Writers block of work

...See what I did there?

I'm really pleased with the response to my first novel on the kindle store here.

Having now created my first I'm onto the next.

Firstly it's very, very different to Zero Magenta. It's a fantasy set in a fantasy world. It indulges the second of my literary passions, but in the same way that Zero Magenta isn't your typical sci-fi, the new book will stray from some of the fantasy conventions, while embracing others.

I remember reading an article many years ago where a so called "serious" writer dismissed fantasy as "easy". Certainly from my perspective I can tell you that the opposite is true. The amount of world building required is immense. The huge cast of characters, races, places and the history and backstory needs to be created from scratch.

I normally carry the story in my head, but this one has spilled out onto a spreadsheet!

I'll leak a few crumbs during the year, but for now this is a flavor of my thinking:

I don't believe in the simple "good versus evil" I'm far more interested in shades of grey, and why people become who they are.

Have a good new year - bye for now.

John H.