Lore and World-Building

I play a lot of RPGs and I read a lot of huge, sprawling science fiction and fantasy series. Among my favorites are Bioware's Dragon Age and Mass Effect series, as well as George R. R. Martin's 'A Song of Ice & Fire' ('Games of Thrones' on TV), and a handful of others. In each of these properties, there's a huge amount of lore and fully fleshed-out worlds, both of which make the experience so much more immersive, and really give it more of an 'escapist' feel, something for which I strive, given how much I enjoy it myself.

When I started crafting the Endless Wars universe, I approached it with a blissful naivete that very much empowered me to write the first novel with very few concerns, and even less caution. It's a great story that's supported by a youthful lack of foresight inherent to the 'fuck it all' kind of young man I was at that time.

Now, being a more seasoned writer whose tastes have expanded beyond Star Wars and Lethal Weapon (though I still love both dearly), the second novel has demanded that I actually start organizing and more fully fleshing out the world(s) of Endless Wars. This novel is so much bigger and more ambitious than the first, it's frankly somewhat intimidating.

The first challenge I had was finding when to start the current story in the series' chronology. If you've read the first book, you know that the series extends over a vast expanse of time, as well as universes other than this one.

See, the hard part was that I'd written the first novel when I was in my very early twenties. I then moved on to some film and music projects, dabbled with some short stories, wrote big chunks of other series, and false-started on the sequel several times. The next thing I knew, I was in my mid-thirties and wasn't the same man I was over a decade before.

After a lot of thinking and tinkering, I finally found my way back in, and the writing has been progressing.

What became apparent, though, was that I'd never actually written out a lot of the lore or the rules of the world(s). I had it all in my head, or in the first book, but I didn't have strong documentation. Having an IT background, such is anathema.

I knew what the relationship was between Lord Dell and Ravindranathan, but hadn't really fully articulated it. I knew what Raphael's true mission was, but hadn't actually written it out. I had a rough history of the various guilds and covens, but hadn't fully organized their hierarchies. I knew what had happened to Layne, but couldn't remember what his girlfriend's name was.

That first novel is, by my standards, a fairly lean, but well-toned, book, and it contained a wealth of knowledge that I'd never compiled into a single, easily-searchable database.

To that end, I started two side projects. One was a OneNote notebook that I could easily edit on the fly, and the other was a wiki (that I've yet to touch at all.) The OneNote is ... coming along. Sort of. It's getting there. Well, it has to.

***side note - if you want to pitch in and help with the wiki, I'll be very, very thankful and throw you a shout-out in the next novel! Just let me know!***

What I've been finding is that it's one thing to have a very strong vision for a world, but it's another to take that macrosopic view and drill down to the microscopic details.

I've just never been an organized writer. I don't really work with outlines. I tend to just be guided by feel and instinct. I have a rough idea of where things are going, but I love the thrill of getting there organically, and surprising myself. That's a fine way to work, but when world-building, you have to have rules, you have to have knowledge ready to go. Otherwise, you can commit the most grievous of sins: a lack of continuity. Nothing shatters the fiction like contradicting your own world.

Another thing is that this book isn't as tidy as the first. There are concurrent storylines in it, and that makes the organization all the more necessary. I need to make sure that all these threads don't tangle. Well, that, and I'm playing a dangerous game with two of the storylines that is bound to cause confusion for some, but will hopefully be a beautiful 'aha' moment for many.

Well, maybe. I floated a rough draft of the first few chapters by a very smart fellow writer and that person didn't at all grasp the trick I was playing, which of course led to a tantrum on my part. This person is a brilliant individual, and yet missed a few key, but very subtle details that kept them from fully enjoying the story.

That raises another question. Do I write for the audience or do I write for me? I know that seems like a 'duh' question to many, but it's a question with which I've wrestled for years, and is probably the main reason I'm so sporadic in my publishing. I always set out to craft the book/film/album/game that I've always wanted, but haven't been able to find, which implies that I'm writing for me. However, doesn't that defeat the purpose of then sharing and monetizing the project when I've finished it?

I usually find that the truth lies somewhere in the middle. I suspect that's true here, as well.

The E-Book
So, I've been asked when the first EW book is making its way back to Kindle, Nook, and iBooks. It's coming, but not tomorrow. First, I need to buy another ISBN for it (which is my choice, so that I own all the rights to it instead of  my publisher), then I need to redo some of the formatting so that it makes a nice .epub file. The .epub conversion is a pain in the ass, and because of other commitments (the second novel, plus some musical work this winter), we're looking at spring 2013 at the earliest.

One thing I've always wanted to do is borrow from what visual media does with things like 'extras.' I'd like to pack in a 'commentary track,' so to speak. Right now, I'm thinking about, in the .epub file, at the end of each chapter, having a button for 'next chapter' and a button for 'commentary.' The commentary will be a brief write-up of some interesting insight and ramblings on the content of the previous chapter, while the 'next chapter' button jumps over it. At the end will be an essay about writing the book, editing it, publishing it, and all the 'life' things that went along with it.

I'm not sure, though. I'll have to play with it a bit. I guess the idea would be that you'd read the book without the commentary, and then go back, skim the chapter to refresh yourself, and then read the commentary. I dunno. I'm just spitballing at this point.

I've also considered adding 'deleted scenes,' but they're so fucking awful (to everyone but John) that I'm not really feeling that at this point. I mean, they got cut for a reason. Because they suck! Who wants to read that shit?

We'll see.

In Closing
I like writing about writing here. Sometimes it feels a bit masturbatory, and I think I got a little self-conscious about that. I'm friends with other writers, and some of them work really hard at having a 'writer' image, which I've always found a bit obnoxious. It's like they put on a uniform in order to be part of something larger, and I've never really been comfortable in that space. I shouldn't judge, though. If it helps someone write amazing shit, then the world is a better place for it.

That being said, I'd like to come back here and just write more often. I'm far more self-conscious than I'd like to admit, and I need to get over that. This is probably good therapy.

Anyway, that's all.

-Blaine

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Hey. remember that Taran guy?

Yeah, so I finally put the pieces back together and wrote fiction today. I wrote well, I wrote comfortably, and I wrote sober. It was the first time I've ever been able to reach into myself and put the words on the page like that while in a sober state. To say I was fucking ecstatic would be putting it lightly.

Anyway, I sat down to work on a video game I've been tinkering with and ended up completely righting the ship on the Endless Wars sequel. I was pretty pleased.

I realized today, too, that I have a really fucking hard time keeping the universe straight in my head, so I broke down and started a wiki for the series. Please feel free to contribute. I really do need the help.

I also started an ongoing web-based meta-fiction weird-shit series that takes place alongside the current novel. It's fun.

And yeah, I think there will eventually be a web-based adventure game of some kind at some point. I've prototyped the basics, but I'm still laboring over the scope of the project. I may farm some of it out. We'll see.

In any case, the sequel novel is back on track after a two-year lapse.

I'm pretty pumped, enough to curse myself and say that I hope the next book will be out by spring 2013.

In that time, I do plan to finally do a proper ebook release for the first one. I may throw some extra shit in there, too. We'll see. Would anyone be interested in a 'commentary' in the ebook? Not sure what that would like yet, but it's something I always wanted to do.

Anyway, it's late, but I wanted to drop a note in here.

Shit, I almost forgot. I also started a G+ page for the series here. Check it out!

 Not much there yet, but there will be.

Thanks for reading!

-Blaine
Buy my book!

Triplets

So, in rapping with my dear friends Iris and Bucho in the comments of my last post, something about which I'd been quietly meditating for a few days came up.

Iris indicated a reticence to work on more than one project at once, while Bucho made a great point about how multiple projects can, in a cool way, inform each other.

See, I've got three unfinished novels lying there, and a deep passion for each. One is a sequel to my last novel, another is the first steps into my own space opera, while the third is, I think, another horror/suspense piece. I think.

In any case, I'd been contemplating attacking two at once, and either alternating days on them, or just letting my passion go where it takes me, so long as I bang out that all-important page-a-day.

What's influenced this, as well, is my contemplation of how 'me time' works nowadays, as this would be the window in which I would tackle such an enterprise. The context of 'me' changes drastically not only when you partner with a mate for life, but when the two of you collaborate on an offspring or several. Being that I've extended what I 'need' in order to continue a reasonably palpable existence by bringing these two under my 'great umbrella of life,' this fundamentally alters what 'me' is, and thus 'me time' becomes something that is paroled with a severely diminished fervency. View this not as a complaint, but as a topic on which I'm meditating.

In any case, I just want to fucking write.

If I want it badly enough, I'll do it. Kinda like my recent surge in body maintenance.

I commented, previously, that I'm interested in trying to write first thing in the morning. I may have some quiet time in which I've not quite piqued the interest of the rest of the world, and the timing is in such proximity to the dream world, that I can't help but wonder if that aspect might be conducive to some pleasant surprises in my writing.

Alas, I despise getting up before 7AM, so we'll see. Otherwise, mayhap I'll just make some time in the hour or so before bed.

Yeah, so I'm eager to get cranking on something. I've got solid footholds on two of them, and some reworking to do on the space opera. I just made some odd decisions in its first few chapters, and need to clean that up. I'm thinking that one's shelved for a bit, while I'll push on the other two immediately. I may even fold the 'horror/suspense' novel into the Endless Wars universe. We'll see.

When do you write?

-Blaine