{"id":23241,"date":"2014-05-01T00:01:29","date_gmt":"2014-05-01T04:01:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/?p=23241"},"modified":"2014-04-30T21:23:18","modified_gmt":"2014-05-01T01:23:18","slug":"james-sutter-five-things-i-learned-writing-the-redemption-engine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/2014\/05\/01\/james-sutter-five-things-i-learned-writing-the-redemption-engine\/","title":{"rendered":"James Sutter: Five Things I Learned Writing The Redemption Engine"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/h1>\n

When murdered sinners fail to show up in Hell, it’s up to Salim Ghadafar, an atheist warrior forced to solve problems for the goddess of death, to track down the missing souls. In order to do so, Salim will need to descend into the anarchic city of Kaer Maga, following a trail that ranges from Hell\u2019s iron cities to the gates of Heaven itself. Along the way, he\u2019ll be aided by a host of otherworldly creatures, a streetwise teenager, and two warriors of the mysterious Iridian Fold. But when the missing souls are the scum of the earth, and the victims devils themselves, can anyone really be trusted?<\/em><\/p>\n

1. SEQUELS ARE HARD<\/h2>\n

Writing my first novel, Death\u2019s Heretic<\/em>, was deceptively easy. As a full-time book editor, I\u2019d seen inside the sausage factory enough to finally remove the paralyzing awe that had always surrounded novelists for me, and learned how an outline can hold the terror of the blank page at bay. And so, brimming with the hubris that comes from seeing professional authors in the literary underoos, I threw a bunch of my favorite ideas from the Pathfinder campaign setting together, then shook the jar to see what would happen.<\/p>\n

To my delight, people liked it, and the kid inside me who\u2019d waited twenty years for this moment rejoiced. I had written a book! It didn\u2019t suck! Surely I knew what I was doing now, and the next one would be even easier, right?<\/p>\n

Except that now I had an expectation for myself. What if my next book sucked? Would I fall prey to the dreaded sophomore slump? It had been years since I began writing Death\u2019s Heretic<\/em>\u2014did I even remember how<\/em> to start a novel? And was my formerly mysterious protagonist even interesting if you had already read the first book and knew his backstory?<\/p>\n

In the end, despite much wailing and gnashing of teeth, I reminded myself that a book is neither good nor bad unless it\u2019s done<\/em>, and that the only solution was to write now and worry about the quality later. Thankfully, as often happens in such situations, when I went back and read it afterward, I was astonished at how much I enjoyed it.<\/p>\n

Time and distance can make even your own books seem larger than life, but don\u2019t let that psych you out. Books are like your children: No matter how polished they may seem now, don\u2019t forget that they used to wet the bed regularly. And while other people may judge them against each other, your job is to love each of them for their own merits.<\/p>\n

2. BLENDER YOUR GENDER<\/h2>\n

If you\u2019ve been paying attention to the speculative fiction community, you\u2019ve probably noticed that gender (and race, and sexuality, and…) is a hot-button issue. A common theme is that of representation: for instance, women make up more than half the population, so it only makes sense that they\u2019d make up half the characters in your story, right? Thus, if you\u2019re looking at your story and all the characters are male, you should strongly consider shaking things up.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut why should art be subject to political correctness?\u201d you might ask. Leaving aside for the moment all the myriad reasons why it\u2019s good to care about people\u2019s feelings, as well as the fact that you just put on a salami vest and walked into the lion cage of the Internet, I\u2019m going to totally nullify that question by saying that even if you don\u2019t<\/em> care about the political or social justice angles, gender balance makes your art better.<\/p>\n

After Death\u2019s Heretic<\/em> came out, I had a friend tell me that while she liked the book, she\u2019d noticed that there were basically no women in it. I was flabbergasted\u2014one of the two protagonists was female! But she pointed out that there were very few women in supporting<\/em> roles\u2014walk-ons with a few lines or wandering past in the background\u2014and that the resulting all-male world really disrupted her suspension of disbelief. She couldn\u2019t imagine herself in the world, because she wasn\u2019t represented.<\/p>\n

With The Redemption Engine<\/em>, I went in with gender balance in mind\u2014and promptly hit a snag. My main character was male, his two sidekicks were male (because I really wanted to write a Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser dup as a married gay couple), and their scrappy local guide had already been established as male in other books. In short: total sausage-fest. So I made a list of other characters the book needed\u2014the villains, the competing investigator, the recruited warriors\u2014and tried to add women until it felt more balanced. I also tried to pay attention to the background, to make sure that there was representation among the walk-on characters as well.<\/p>\n

Do you always need to have gender balance? No, of course not. I recently sold a military SF story where the soldiers were all gay men fighting alongside their lovers, and in that instance, it made sense for everyone to be male. But character demographics matter, and if your default is to make everyone male (or white, or straight, or…) you\u2019re unnecessarily alienating part of your potential audience.<\/p>\n

3. CUT YOUR TAGS<\/h2>\n

Dialogue tags are often one of the easiest places to cut words, as character actions or beats can convey the information just as well. Compare these two passages:<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at that!\u201d James said, and pointed. \u201cChuck\u2019s being eaten by squirrels!\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n

vs.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at that!\u201d James pointed. \u201cChuck\u2019s being eaten by squirrels!\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n

See how the action renders the dialogue tag unnecessary? Sometimes rhythm alone is enough:<\/p>\n

\u201cDid you write me that blog post?\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cYes.\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cYes what?<\/em>\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cYes sir<\/em>, Mr. Wendig, sir!\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n

I notice this especially with audiobooks, where the voice acting really highlights unnecessary dialogue tags, so when writing my new book, I did my best to take out all but the most load-bearing tags.<\/p>\n

4. ARCS AREN\u2019T JUST FOR NOAH<\/h2>\n

In my first book, I had the luxury of writing an odd-couple romance, which gave me an easy, classic arc for my two protagonists: at the beginning, they can barely tolerate each other, but by the end, they\u2019ve grown to love and respect each other. It\u2019s something we see constantly, from Pride and Prejudice<\/em> to Sherlock<\/em>, and most of us can tell that story on autopilot. (And before you try to correct me about Sherlock<\/em>, I\u2019d argue that every<\/em> buddy cop show is a romance, regardless of who they kiss.)<\/p>\n

In The Redemption Engine<\/em>, however, I didn\u2019t have a love interest. Salim, my main character, is flying solo the whole time, and while he makes a lot of friends, I had trouble figuring out what he was feeling. About halfway through the manuscript, frustrated by his cardboard acting, I sat down and decided that I needed to give him a character arc. And not just him\u2014his whole damn team.<\/p>\n

In the end (spoilers!), Salim\u2019s arc ended up being relatively subtle: He goes from serving the death goddess against his will to realizing that, while he may resent his servitude, he actually agrees with her cause. He\u2019s finally able to admit that, at some level, he likes<\/em> his job. Once I understood that, it made it far easier for me to get inside his head and make him a sympathetic character.<\/p>\n

5. YOU ARE GOING TO DIE<\/h2>\n

This isn\u2019t some axiom about creating danger and tension in your manuscript. This isn\u2019t really even about writing at all, but it is<\/em> the most important thing I learned while writing this book.<\/p>\n

Someday, you are going to die.<\/p>\n

So am I. And whether I write one book or a hundred, someday I\u2019m going to close my eyes for the last time, and that will be that.<\/p>\n

And I find that incredibly comforting.<\/p>\n

See, I pay a lot of attention to other writers. You probably do, too. I see their announcements on Twitter, and I think, \u201cWow, they just put out another<\/em> book?\u201d And then my Productivity Demon pipes up and starts musing about how much more successful and satisfied I would be if I just spent more time writing. Knuckled down. Kept my nose to the grindstone. After all, don\u2019t all those writing advice articles say that a real writer sacrifices for their art? That if you can stand to not<\/em> write, even for a few days, then you\u2019re not a real writer?<\/p>\n

And that, my friends, is bullshit. Worse, it\u2019s dangerous<\/em> bullshit. Because when you\u2019re an achievement junkie, as so many writers are\u2014why else would we trudge through all the rejection and unpaid hours?\u2014there\u2019s no such thing as enough. Start following that rabbit hole, and pretty soon you\u2019re feeling guilty for all the time you\u2019re not writing. The rest of your life becomes an impediment. An obstacle.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s no way to live. Fuck sacrifice. Write because you like writing<\/em>, because the hard work brings a correspondingly deep satisfaction, and if you find that it\u2019s interfering disproportionately with the rest of your life, stop<\/em>. Go kiss your spouse. Play the guitar. Lie in a sunbeam with a dog and watch the wind in the trees. Because this is all we get, people. This right here. And whether you\u2019re Stephen King or a newbie with a single sale, if you aren\u2019t enjoying your life, no amount of publication is going to fix that.<\/p>\n

Realizing that allowed me to finally relax and quit feeling like I\u2019m constantly falling behind all my incredibly talented colleagues, and instead spend time on all the different people and activities that bring me joy. And you know what? I\u2019m still writing. I may not be quite<\/em> as fast as I used to be, but I enjoy it a hell of a lot more. And isn\u2019t that why we all got into this in the first place?<\/p>\n

Someday, you will die. Use your time wisely.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

James L. Sutter<\/strong> is the Managing Editor of Paizo Publishing, as well as a co-creator of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. He\u2019s the author of the novels Death’s Heretic<\/em> and The Redemption Engine<\/em>, the former of which was ranked #3 on Barnes & Noble\u2019s Best Fantasy Releases of 2011 and was a finalist for both an Origins Award and the Compton Crook Award for Best First Novel. In addition to numerous game books, James has written short stories for such publications as Escape Pod, Apex Magazine, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Geek Love<\/em>, and the #1 Amazon bestseller Machine of Death<\/em>. His anthology Before They Were Giants<\/em> pairs the first published short stories of speculative fiction luminaries with new interviews and advice from the authors themselves.<\/p>\n

James L. Sutter: Website<\/span><\/a> | Twitter<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Redemption Engine: Amazon<\/span><\/a> | B&N<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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