Book No. 7–that’s Queen Gurun in the bows.
Let me tell you what it’s like, writing a novel.
Probably almost everybody can learn how to put a novel together. And almost everybody thinKs he or she can write a novel. “If only I had the time!”
Lately a question has arisen in my mind: how many publishing execs, editors, marketing consultants, or reviewers could write a decent novel if their lives depended on it?
A medieval wing-ding
I toiled stoically in the sun all day yesterday, getting King Ozias crowned. (Note to aspiring young writers: it’s times like this when you have to make a very tricky decision as to how much detail you should include in the picture.) I finally managed it, setting the table for the coronation feast, today’s assignment.
Looking to Geoffrey of Monmouth, who at least lived in the Middle Ages and wrote about King Arthur, I do have some idea of what these rituals are supposed to look like, and what they mean. But I also know, and you don’t need Geoffrey of Monmouth to tell you about it, something always goes wrong.
Ozias’ feast is at its height, now he’s granting boons… and nobody knows there are serious party-poopers waiting in the wings. Seven of them, all bearing bad news. The captain of the guard should never have let them in.
(Don’t forget to write your Newswithviews column!)
Meanwhile, I have an interesting piece for you from Mark Rushdoony…
Today I’ve started writing my next book, Ozias, Prince Enthroned. Patty asked, “How do you do it?”
Tain’t easy! Today, for instance, we’re bombarded with nuisance phone calls, we have a crew washing and painting our building, and the air is full of smoke from Canada’s wildfires. One obstacle after another. I was lucky to get three pages written.
Anyway, I know from where I left off Prince in Peril that certain things have to happen to keep the story moving. Duke Esdras has a death-bed prophecy to deliver. Ozias, now twelve years old, must go through a Re-coronation ceremony and feast. And would-be Queen Maressa has escaped to brew up new mischief–at least start another civil war.
I have found my muse in Geoffrey of Monmouth (d. 1155), whose History of the Kings of Britain, completed in 1136 or thereabouts, became an international best cellar centuries before the printing press was invented. Geoffrey’s work inspired a still-continuing boom in Arthurian literature. The critics have not been kind to him, saying he made it all up; but a book doesn’t stay popular for 900 years unless there’s something special about it. Herodotus could tell you that.
I missed all of May, simply because I wasn’t ready yet, and now it’s June and it’ll be a miracle if I finish before it gets too cold to write outside. Legal pad, ballpoint pen, and cigar. Such are the tools of my trade.
I ask the Lord to give me the story He wants me to tell, to bless my work, and make it fruitful in His service.
All I know about this book is its title–Ozias, Prince Enthroned–and that it’s the second book of a trilogy. That’s all I’ve got so far, plus bits and pieces left undone in the first book, Ozias, Prince in Peril.
It’s been my custom, in writing the novels in my Bell Mountain series, to wait for the Lord to give me the story He wants me to tell. I can’t make it happen, can’t force it. And it hasn’t happened yet.
Ozias lived some 2,000 years before his descendant, King Ryons, and some 1,000 before the destruction of Obann’s Empire in the Day of Fire. He was the last king of Obann, for two thousand years, chosen by the grace of God; and his throne was ultimately taken from him by his enemies. Obann had to wait for two millenia before another king was anointed.
I’d very much like to get going on this, the days are flashing by; but I have to wait. Sometimes it’s a dream that gets me started. Or an idea or an image breaks into something else I’m doing at the time. A whole unwritten novel stands between now and the third book of the trilogy: Ozias, King Betrayed. I do have a better idea of what that one is about.
The Ocean of Time is waiting to be published–early next year, I hope.
So I wait. I have yet to wait in vain… but I’m still not used to it.
It’s almost enough to send you back to Serious Mainstream Literature. Or reading the backs of cereal boxes.
I think we ought to have a chat: which fantasy cliche do you find the most odious, the most soul-deadening, imagination-killing, boring old pap? The crusty but benign wizard? The invincible female warrior? The thief with the heart of gold?
(He runs screaming to the sidewalk…)
One of the purposes for which this blog was originally set up was to advertise my fantasy novels and hopefully to get people to buy them.
But we should have a chat. Which fantasy cliche really frosts your buns? Here’s your chance to vent! Which particular cliche moved you to drop-kick that book across the room? C’mon, tell me–I really want to know.
With Patty’s surgery set for Friday, we find it just a little hard to concentrate, and find a need for something else to think about.
I look forward each day to editing Bell Mountain No. 15, Oceans of Time. No. 14, Behold!, flows very nicely into it. Editing can be a soothing way to pass the time. Not that you can count on that. There are editing assignments that can be quite hair-raising.
Anyway, after Oceans we’ll have the story of King Ozias in three books, the first of which has been written–Ozias, Prince in Peril. Ozias lived some 2,000 years before the events described in the first 15 books, so expect a lot of changes.
Uh… Why do we have this picture of a great big salamander with jaws that could take your hand off?
Well, now, haven’t you read any number of books that would have been significantly improved by the addition of a giant salamander? I know I have. But in this case the plot demands a giant salamander. You’ll see…
Our landlord saw me doing something yesterday which made him look twice.
“You’re reading your own book–that you wrote?” he marveled.
I could’ve said, “Oh, how about that! I thought there was something familiar about it!” But instead I just explained, “When you write a series of books, like I do, it’s so easy to forget details as you go on from book to book. You’d be amazed by the things I forget.”
That’s all true.
Now jump ahead to the next book, The Ocean of Time. For that book I tried something very challenging and only rarely seen–a double climax. In fact, I can’t think of any examples of one, just now. So part of the job of Behold! was to set the stage for events covered in the next book–
Which it does! And don’t ask me how, because when I was writing Behold!, the next book wasn’t even a half-formed thought. And yet the one book flows beautifully into the other. I really have no idea how that happens. Give God the glory.
(After Ocean of Time comes Ozias, Prince in Peril. That would be 2,000 years before the present time in Obann.)
(No comments? None? Somebody please say something already!)
I feel like an archaeologist who’s been intently pecking away at the stone for who knows how long, he finally breaks through into the Lost Tomb… and there’s nothing there. Just an empty room.
I worked so hard to wrap up Ozias, Prince in Peril, which I did just a few days ago. The labor was intense.
And suddenly it’s done and suddenly I don’t have a book to write. It’s a very oogy feeling, almost impossible to describe. And I can’t just start the next one because, folks, it doesn’t work that way. It’d burn my brain out if I tried.
As for writing about the nooze… Well, if that doesn’t give you the blahs after a while, I don’t know what will. Is there a place for a superhero with an infinite tolerance for boredom?
Obviously I need a rest. If I could only remember how to do that…
It’s time to check on my books’ impact on their readers. I could wind up, here, with a lot of egg on my face if hardly anybody responds to this question:
Who is your favorite Bell Mountain character?
I remember, when I was writing The Temple, how upset my wife and my editor were when they thought I’d killed off Chief Uduqu. I had no idea how much they liked him. I thought of Sir Walter Scott, whose printer rebelled when Scott (in Ivanhoe) killed off Athelstane. He had to write a new scene bringing the old duffer back to life. Happily, Uduqu wasn’t dead: he’d just fallen asleep on the battlefield after tremendous exertions.
Anyway, so who’s your favorite character in these books? There are a couple hundred to choose from!
I can’t guess who will get the most votes… although I do have one pretty strong suspicion.
Will King Ozias finally claim his throne? How hard will Maressa fight him for it?
I don’t know if I can do it in a week, but I’m this close to finding out. Traitors have been betrayed, civil war looms, and I know how the story ends but of course I dare not tell you. I’m working hard to get there.
I offer a tip of the hat to Thomas B. Costain, whose histories of the rise and fall of the Plantagenet dynasty have guided me along the way; and to Jack Pullman and his brilliant screenplay for I, Claudius. Edgar Rice Burroughs taught me how to keep the chapters flowing.
The lesson for aspiring writers is easily stated: read. The more you read, the more you can write. I’d be here all day if I saluted all the writers whose work has inspired my own.