{"id":22221,"date":"2014-02-05T21:31:43","date_gmt":"2014-02-06T02:31:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/?p=22221"},"modified":"2014-02-05T21:31:43","modified_gmt":"2014-02-06T02:31:43","slug":"adam-christopher-five-things-i-learned-writing-hang-wire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/2014\/02\/05\/adam-christopher-five-things-i-learned-writing-hang-wire\/","title":{"rendered":"Adam Christopher: Five Things I Learned Writing Hang Wire"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ted is worried. He<\/em>\u2019<\/em>s been sleepwalking, and his somnambulant travels appear to coincide with murders by the notorious Hang Wire Killer.<\/em><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the circus has come to town, but the Celtic dancers are taking their pagan act a little too seriously, the manager of the Olde Worlde Funfair has started talking to his vintage machines, and the new acrobat<\/em>\u2019<\/em>s frequent absences are causing tension among the performers.<\/em><\/p>\n

Out in the city there are other new arrivals \u2013 immortals searching for an ancient power \u2013 a primal evil which, if unopposed, could destroy the world.<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

1. THE FIRST DRAFT IS WORDS. THE SECOND DRAFT IS WRITING.<\/h2>\n

Draft zero. Vomit draft. Whatever you call it, that initial version of a book is not the finished product. Nobody expects it to be. Writing is rewriting<\/em>, and never a truer word has been spoken.<\/p>\n

One of the wonderful things about writing is discovering how<\/em> you write\u2014how your brain processes the nuts and bolts of composition, how you somehow develop style and voice without really thinking much about. How you do The Work. That\u2019s also why the trunk novels exist: a first draft not a finished book; not only that, it\u2019s likely the first book you ever wrote is not suitable for public consumption. Which is exactly how it works\u2014writing a hundred thousand words of cohesive narrative that not only makes some kind of sense but is interesting <\/em>is difficult. Not everyone can do it. Some have a natural talent. The rest of us can learn it with a lot of work.<\/p>\n

Hang Wire<\/em> is my fourth published novel, but the fifth or sixth I\u2019ve actually written. And every one, from the first novel locked in the trunk, to the new book I\u2019m writing now, has taught me more about how I write. Conscious thought doesn\u2019t come into it. You just have to trust that you brain will work it out as you keeping typing.<\/p>\n

I wrote the first draft of Hang Wire<\/em> three years ago. I\u2019ve done a lot of work since then, so when it came time to dig it out and take a look, I was surprised. While I remembered the story, I didn\u2019t remember the detail, and it was very obviously written by a younger, less experienced version of myself who was still figuring stuff out. I still am, but at least I\u2019m a little further along the road now.<\/p>\n

But by now I\u2019d discovered a little more about how I write\u2014my first drafts now are long<\/em>. Too long, sometimes by as much as 50%. That sounds like a waste of words, but I\u2019ve found that I need that mass of text so I can discover the novel inside it. My second draft is like a mining expedition, carving the real book out of that initial draft.<\/p>\n

I applied this to the Hang Wire <\/em>draft\u2014writing, rewriting, carving the book out<\/em>. I ditched a lot of stuff. I changed characters. Added new ones. It still need a third and a fourth draft, but that first pass on a three-year-old manuscript told me what the book was actually about.<\/p>\n

That process cemented the realisation of how I write: I overwrite<\/em>, getting the story down from beginning to end before I forget it. That version is flabby, boring, inconsistent, in places illogical. It\u2019s a vomit draft, no doubt. But hidden inside there is the real<\/em> book. It might even be a good one.<\/p>\n

2. WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW (SERIOUSLY!).<\/h2>\n

\u201cWrite what you know\u201d is one of the most misunderstood pieces of writing advice. My host, Chuck, has blogged about it before. Everybody talks about it, sometimes with a sort of weary frustration. I\u2019m pretty sure every single one of these \u201cFive Things I Learned Writing\u2026\u201d will include this point as one of their number.<\/p>\n

But that tells you one thing: it\u2019s completely true. It doesn\u2019t mean that you can\u2019t write a crime novel because you are neither a detective nor a serial killer. It doesn\u2019t mean you can\u2019t write a space opera because you\u2019ve never travelled to Arcturus by warp drive. But it does<\/em> mean you can steep your story in real life experience and knowledge. You don\u2019t have to add much, but in the right place, it adds a flavour to the work, something that rings true even if the reader is not consciously aware of it. As writers, we\u2019re all looking for the Truth, apparently, so if you can throw some of your own in there, why not?<\/p>\n

Hang Wire<\/em> is an urban fantasy about ancient gods, nameless power from beyond the stars, murder, a sentient and malevolent circus, and primal evil sleeping underneath San Francisco. It\u2019s also based on a true story.<\/p>\n

I was in San Francisco a few years ago. It reminds me of my own hometown of Auckland, New Zealand, and I knew I had to write a story set there. After dinner one night in Chinatown, the fortune cookies came out. Everyone took turns to crack them open and read out their fortunes.<\/p>\n

I was last. I picked the cookie up, pressed with my thumbs, and something weird happened. I must have pressed too hard because the cookie shattered like glass, fragments flying everywhere along with a lot of paper strips. Due to some manufacturing fault, I had received a duff cookie\u2014the pastry was too crispy and thick, which made it shatter, and instead of a single strip of paper inside, the thing was filled<\/em> with fortunes. I don\u2019t remember how many there were, but they all said the same thing:<\/p>\n

YOU ARE THE MASTER OF EVERY SITUATION.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This was my kind of fortune.<\/p>\n

I laughed and scooped as many of the fortunes as I could, stuffing them into my wallet. Walking back to the hotel later, I thought my experience would have made a great Silver Age origin story for a Marvel comic\u2014a superhero granted his powers from an exploding cosmic fortune cookie.<\/p>\n

But what if he wasn\u2019t a superhero? What if the power he is accidentally granted came from somewhere else? What if he can\u2019t control that power, and it starts to take him over?<\/p>\n

I had my story.<\/p>\n

3. INSPIRATION COMES FROM THE MOST UNLIKELY PLACES (WHEN YOU LEAST EXPECT IT).<\/h2>\n

San Francisco suffered two major earthquakes in the Twentieth Century, and in Hang Wire<\/em> a third such catastrophe is about to befall the city. Tackling the second draft, I did a lot of research, and it was from reference source on the geology of the San Andreas fault that I learned about a series of spectacular comets that were observed in the Nineteenth Century. People have been superstitious about comets forever, and attribute a great many coincidental calamities to their appearance. By the 1800s, nothing much had changed, and a couple of big comets were blamed for causing floods, fires, the death of livestock, the failure of crops\u2026 and earthquakes. At the same time as I discovered this, I was trying to work out a couple of things in Hang Wire <\/em>that needed to be linked, but I couldn\u2019t figure out how.<\/p>\n

Until I thought about the comets and, more importantly, what people thought about them. What if they were right? What if comets were not only portentous but carried something malignant and alien to the Earth? There\u2019s a theory that comets were responsible for seeding life here\u2026 but what if a comet seeded something else?<\/p>\n

Inspiration can some from anywhere, and it can come when you least expect it. In researching earthquakes I stumbled across an entirely different part of my plot, entirely by accident.<\/p>\n

Read as much as you can, whether it is for research or not. You just never know what you might stumble across!<\/p>\n

4. FOLLOW YOUR OUTLINE (EXCEPT WHEN YOU DON\u2019T).<\/h2>\n

Because I\u2019d written the first draft of Hang Wire<\/em> so long ago, part of the rewrite was to create a brand new outline. My outlines are more a list of events than a full synopsis, because once I get started, my characters tend to do their own things and go off on tangents, so it seems an exercise in futility to create a detailed outline only for the story to deviate, sometimes substantially. Every writer is different\u2014I know someone who carefully crafts 60-page breakdowns. Stephen King advises everyone to ditch the outline and just write, except he\u2019s Stephen King and we\u2019re not, so I tend to take that with a grain of salt.<\/p>\n

During the rewrite, I followed the new outline, stopping and adjusting every so often as needed. Only\u2026 something wasn\u2019t right. There was something missing from the book, although I wasn\u2019t sure what exactly, only that it was tangential<\/em> but also required. Confused? I was. Eventually I narrowed it down to the antagonist, one Joel Duvall. He was fun to write and when working on his scenes he kept whispering to me at the back of my mind. He had another story to tell, something broader than the what I was writing.<\/p>\n

So I went back and wrote what was essentially a short story, how Joel first got involved with the evil at the centre of Hang Wire<\/em>. Then it clicked\u2014we needed to see his story, one spanning the whole of the Twentieth Century. That short story spawned a 20,000-word narrative interwoven with the main book as a series of interludes. Joel led the way and I didn\u2019t need an outline. His backstory was unplanned, but was exactly what the book needed.<\/p>\n

5. KEEP AN EYE ON THE ENDING (AND DON\u2019T BE AFRAID TO CHANGE IT).<\/h2>\n

I finished the book. That old draft had been re-engineered into something new. I sent it to my agent. She liked it\u2026 except for the ending. Everything was tied up, the story came to a conclusion. It even followed my outline. But it didn\u2019t feel right. It was downbeat. Very<\/em> downbeat.<\/p>\n

She was right, of course, so while addressing her notes on the rest of the text I let the problem of the ending bubble away at the back of my mind. Finally I figured it out, and wrote an ending that was literally the opposite of the original. There is still death, and loss, and change<\/em>, but there is also hope and life, both missing from the original.<\/p>\n

The ending of a book is important. It\u2019s the last thing the reader takes away when they close the book. But not only does it have to work, it has to be the right kind<\/em> of ending.<\/p>\n

The end of Hang Wire<\/em> switched from the wrong kind to the right kind, and that actually effected the whole feel of the novel \u2013 much for the better!<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Pre-Order contest!<\/h2>\n

Adam is giving away a prize pack of THIRTEEN<\/span><\/strong> signed books by Lauren Beukes, Paul Cornell, Mur Lafferty, Emma Newman, Cherie Priest, Greg Rucka and Michael Lark, VE Schwab, Adam Sternbergh, Paul Tobin and Colleen Coover, Jen Williams, and oh, also, Chuck Wendig, to one lucky person who orders Hang Wire and\/or The Burning Dark between now and April 8th<\/sup>. The contest is open worldwide, and full details can be found here<\/strong><\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hang Wire<\/em> is also being launched at Forbidden Planet London on Thursday, March 6th<\/sup>, 6pm, together with The Burning Dark<\/em>. Details here<\/strong><\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Adam Christopher is a novelist, the author of Empire State<\/em>, Seven Wonders<\/em>, The Age Atomic<\/em>, Hang Wire<\/em>, and the forthcoming The Burning Dark<\/em>. In 2010, as an editor, Christopher won a Sir Julius Vogel award, New Zealand\u2019s highest science fiction honour. His debut novel, Empire State<\/em>, was SciFiNow\u2019s Book of the Year and a Financial Times Book of the Year for 2012. In 2013, he was nominated for the Sir Julius Vogel award for Best New Talent, with Empire State<\/em> shortlisted for Best Novel. Born in New Zealand, he has lived in Great Britain since 2006.<\/p>\n

Adam Christopher: Website<\/span><\/a> | Twitter<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Hang Wire: Amazon<\/span><\/a> | B&N<\/span><\/a> \u00a0| Indiebound<\/span><\/a> | Add on Goodreads<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ted is worried. He\u2019s been sleepwalking, and his somnambulant travels appear to coincide with murders by the notorious Hang Wire Killer. Meanwhile, the circus has come to town, but the Celtic dancers are taking their pagan act a little too seriously, the manager of the Olde Worlde Funfair has started talking to his vintage machines, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-22221","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-theramble","8":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pv7MR-5Mp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22221"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22228,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22221\/revisions\/22228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}