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stillsostrangeI was asked about my process for beginning novels recently, and since I could use more somewhat coherent craft posts, you all get to hear about it. The question is relevant right now, as I'm just starting work on Oracle of Plagues.
Usually my novels accrete from several different sources and ideas, gathering mass until I have enough to work with. Images, characters, angry refutations, etc.
The first spore of OoP came in early 2006, with this wacky dream. I wrote a file of notes outlining a novel based fairly closely on the dream, and then put it aside for years. The setting for the dream and those notes was generic northern European. Around this time I also read a couple books that I felt did not live up to their potential--disappointment is often a driving force for me. The dream gave me one set of characters, the book-annoyance another.
I'm not sure when the FauxMayan part of the equation came around. I think it's Apocalypto's fault. I know that's where I got the image for the plague oracle. Eventually I decided to combine both ideas and a (very loosely) Mesoamerican-influenced setting, and at that point is was a Novel Idea. I wrote a new file of notes and set it aside for a couple more years.
Titles are important, too, even if it's only a working title. Oracle spent years being "The FauxMayan [redacted]-sporking Suestravaganza"--while entertaining, this didn't give me much to work with. Even if I have to call Oracle something else eventually, be it for thematic or marketing reasons, the title is enough to go forward with.
A pitch blurb is just as important as a title. If I can't write a blurb for a potential novel, I don't know enough about it yet. I can always revise it later, as needed.
Ravana is a scholar-priestess in the jungle city of Teo Inan, where she studies the movements of the heavens and manipulates ancient prophecies to balance the tangled power struggles in the Serpentine Kingdoms. When plague sweeps the country and a rival priest threatens war, Ravana searches for a figurehead, an oracle to sway the courts to her cause.
In a distant border satrapy, Tamar alone survives the sickness that devastates her town and family. Guided out of the carnage by a spirit of death, she wants only to find safety. But priests and gods have another destiny in mind.
While Ravana navigates the treacherous coils of alliance in Teo Inan's temples and palaces, Tamar must descend into the depths of the underworld, through rivers of glass and the houses of the hungry dead. But rallying men and gods to keep the Serpentine Kingdoms from splintering may not be enough.
Every prophecy demands a sacrifice.
Now that I have a title and a blurb, I have to start worldbuilding. This is the fun part, usually. I have to create the Serpentine Kingdoms, their culture, the gods Ravana and her friends work for, etc. This will involve much googling and reading of Wikipedia, and probably digging through TrekEarth.com for awesome photos. I could start writing without the worldbuilding, but that leads to the hell of bracket notes. I also need to figure out who the antag is, and what the clashing goals are. That "rival priest" in the blurb isn't a real person yet. Right now I have a first paragraph written, but I can't get much farther until I can see the setting and know who the major players are.
Once I start writing, I'll need a soundtrack. Right now I don't have any songs for this book, and don't know what my themes will be. Possibly blood and snakes. (TDC had spies and revolution and water. TBP had angst and death and gothiness. KoD had spies and angst and deserts.)
Once I get all that, I'll probably have enough momentum to write the first 15k. Then I'll get stuck, because that's what always happens. Hopefully, that 15k will be solid enough to pitch the novel, and then we'll go from there.
And now I have to grovel through more CEM.
Usually my novels accrete from several different sources and ideas, gathering mass until I have enough to work with. Images, characters, angry refutations, etc.
The first spore of OoP came in early 2006, with this wacky dream. I wrote a file of notes outlining a novel based fairly closely on the dream, and then put it aside for years. The setting for the dream and those notes was generic northern European. Around this time I also read a couple books that I felt did not live up to their potential--disappointment is often a driving force for me. The dream gave me one set of characters, the book-annoyance another.
I'm not sure when the FauxMayan part of the equation came around. I think it's Apocalypto's fault. I know that's where I got the image for the plague oracle. Eventually I decided to combine both ideas and a (very loosely) Mesoamerican-influenced setting, and at that point is was a Novel Idea. I wrote a new file of notes and set it aside for a couple more years.
Titles are important, too, even if it's only a working title. Oracle spent years being "The FauxMayan [redacted]-sporking Suestravaganza"--while entertaining, this didn't give me much to work with. Even if I have to call Oracle something else eventually, be it for thematic or marketing reasons, the title is enough to go forward with.
A pitch blurb is just as important as a title. If I can't write a blurb for a potential novel, I don't know enough about it yet. I can always revise it later, as needed.
Ravana is a scholar-priestess in the jungle city of Teo Inan, where she studies the movements of the heavens and manipulates ancient prophecies to balance the tangled power struggles in the Serpentine Kingdoms. When plague sweeps the country and a rival priest threatens war, Ravana searches for a figurehead, an oracle to sway the courts to her cause.
In a distant border satrapy, Tamar alone survives the sickness that devastates her town and family. Guided out of the carnage by a spirit of death, she wants only to find safety. But priests and gods have another destiny in mind.
While Ravana navigates the treacherous coils of alliance in Teo Inan's temples and palaces, Tamar must descend into the depths of the underworld, through rivers of glass and the houses of the hungry dead. But rallying men and gods to keep the Serpentine Kingdoms from splintering may not be enough.
Every prophecy demands a sacrifice.
Now that I have a title and a blurb, I have to start worldbuilding. This is the fun part, usually. I have to create the Serpentine Kingdoms, their culture, the gods Ravana and her friends work for, etc. This will involve much googling and reading of Wikipedia, and probably digging through TrekEarth.com for awesome photos. I could start writing without the worldbuilding, but that leads to the hell of bracket notes. I also need to figure out who the antag is, and what the clashing goals are. That "rival priest" in the blurb isn't a real person yet. Right now I have a first paragraph written, but I can't get much farther until I can see the setting and know who the major players are.
Once I start writing, I'll need a soundtrack. Right now I don't have any songs for this book, and don't know what my themes will be. Possibly blood and snakes. (TDC had spies and revolution and water. TBP had angst and death and gothiness. KoD had spies and angst and deserts.)
Once I get all that, I'll probably have enough momentum to write the first 15k. Then I'll get stuck, because that's what always happens. Hopefully, that 15k will be solid enough to pitch the novel, and then we'll go from there.
And now I have to grovel through more CEM.
