Writers are strange animals

I mentioned in my previous entry I might say something about a book I want to write. Or books, actually. I want to write a fantasy saga. Why? Because I like fantasy. Because it’s imaginative, because it’s not mundane. People don’t like reading mundane. People want thrills. Or information. I don’t consider my goofy self a good source of reliable information. Besides, information isn’t fun, it isn’t sexy. Well, not as much as writing gripping fiction is.

My main inspiration is George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire (better known as Game of Thrones, “now a major HBO series” as promoters like to remind us. By the way, the series are good. Watch it. But the books are better. Read them!). Of course I don’t want to copy it mindlessly. Like Picasso said (and lately Stephen Fry on the shoot of Doors Open film in Edinburgh) bad artists copy, great artists steal. So yes, I’m stealing ideas. Not only from Martin. From history. From life. From stories I hear. From stories I watch. And lately I started reading more again. I’m “researching” fantasy genre. Yesterday’s I bought Abercrombie’s “The blade itself”. Maybe I’ll write here what I thought about it later. It didn’t start bad.

Anyway, I have about 11 pages – the prologue and chapter 1, written. Not finished, and not final draft. It’ll still be edited. Perhaps majorly. It probably lacks the bang it needs to keep the reader tied to the story. Heavy on descriptions and reminiscences. Which is important, because the world is complicated. But it’s not as crisp and interesting to read as action and dialogues. I need action and dialogues. Stat.

I also have a map or two. Every true fantasy book has a map. Tolkien had maps. Martin has maps. Every major fantasy saga has maps of varied detail. It’s a necessity. It’s canon. Apart from the map I have pages of notes about characters, noble houses, plot devices, religion, to put it simply: everything a well crafted world needs. I also have a good name for the main kingdom. And for the ruling dynasty. Yes, it’s all falling into place…

I’m doing some research on publishing. More and more people go into self publishing. Kindle has been very popular these past few years, I hear. Booming. Spreading like wildfire. So I started looking for advice on that, for the time I’m ready to actually publish something. I found a very useful thread on an internet forum, and the author of one post had some really helpful advice. Tons of it. I decided to send her a private message and she replied almost instantly. Very kind  of her. Turns out she used to be an escort, is addicted to crystal meth and married her mother’s ex-boyfriend. Sounds like an interesting life. She published a memoir and offered me a free copy. Bracing myself for “something else”.

Writers are crazy people…

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