{"id":23323,"date":"2014-05-08T00:01:45","date_gmt":"2014-05-08T04:01:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/?p=23323"},"modified":"2014-05-07T22:12:50","modified_gmt":"2014-05-08T02:12:50","slug":"douglas-hulick-five-things-i-learned-writing-sworn-in-steel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/2014\/05\/08\/douglas-hulick-five-things-i-learned-writing-sworn-in-steel\/","title":{"rendered":"Douglas Hulick: Five Things I Learned Writing Sworn In Steel"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

It\u2019s been three months since Drothe killed a legend, burned down a portion of the imperial capital, and found himself unexpectedly elevated into the ranks of the criminal elite. As the newest Gray Prince in the underworld, he\u2019s not only gained friends, but also rivals\u2014and some of them aren\u2019t bothered by his newfound title. A prince\u2019s blood, as the saying goes, flows just as red as a beggar\u2019s.<\/em><\/p>\n

So when another Gray Prince is murdered and all signs point to Drothe as the hand behind the knife, he knows it\u2019s his blood that\u2019s in danger of being spilled. As former allies turn their backs and dark rumors begin to circulate, Drothe is approached by a man who says he can make everything right again. All he wants in exchange is a single favor.<\/em><\/p>\n

Now Drothe finds himself traveling to the Despotate of Djan, the empire\u2019s long-standing enemy, to search for the friend he betrayed\u2014and the only person who can get him out of this mess. But the grains of sand are running out fast, and even if Drothe can find his friend, he may not be able to persuade him to help in time…<\/em><\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

1) Plans Shmans<\/h2>\n

I went into Sworn in Steel knowing I had to do things differently. I mean, I spent ten years (off and on) writing my first book. That kind of turn-around time just doesn\u2019t work in publishing, especially not for a debut author. So I had to up my game. I had to have outlines and word counts and story arcs and the whole nine yards. I\u2019d pantsed my way through Among Thieves (meaning I made it up as I went, no outline), but that wasn\u2019t going to fly this time around. This time, I needed a Plan.<\/p>\n

And by god, I stuck to that plan. In well under a year, I was 90,000 words into my projected 125,000 word novel with plenty of room to spare. I had this.<\/p>\n

And then I stepped back and looked at the book. It was, in the words of a good friend, a hot mess. Steaming, even.<\/p>\n

I froze. Not just for a week, not just for a month. For over a year, I froze.<\/p>\n

That isn\u2019t to say I didn\u2019t write. I wrote like hell. I revised like a demon. I fixed and fiddled and tweaked, trying to fix the mess that was my first draft. At one point, the book was up to 190,000 words.<\/p>\n

No, when I say I froze, I mean that I got stuck in the story as it was. I had tied myself to a plan, and I was going to follow that plan, dammit. Except it was the plan that ended up messing me up.<\/p>\n

And I couldn\u2019t see it.<\/p>\n

2) Tunnel Vision Will Kill You<\/h2>\n

When you wait tables, there is a phenomenon known as \u201cBeing in the weeds.\u201d Essentially, it is a situation where you have so many tables and so much to do, there is no way you can keep up with it all. Every time you clear a table, two more seem to be sat in your section. When the food comes out, it is wrong, or half the order is missing, or something needs to go back. You can never get on top of things, and it feels like you are constantly teetering on the edge of complete disaster. Offers of help go unheeded because, frankly, it seems like it would be more work and take more time to tell someone what you need than to simply go do it yourself. The only way out of the weeds is to hack your way through, alone.<\/p>\n

You are, in short, in extended panic mode.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t realize it at the time, but this is where I was for much of Sworn In Steel (especially after I blew past the first deadline). And, just like when you are in the weeds, what seems to make sense from the outside doesn\u2019t compute on the inside. You want to help me solve this plot problem? Talk me through the indecision I\u2019m facing over this part of the book? Get me out of the house to just breathe fresh air and gain some perspective?<\/p>\n

You know nothing, Jon Snow. I have to do this myself. It would take me too long to explain the problem to you; be too hard to tease out the difficulties that are dogging me; eat up too much time and energy to catch my breath and paint the big picture for you, because of course its all about the big picture and how it isn\u2019t working!<\/em><\/p>\n

Except that isn\u2019t true. What took me a long, long, looooong time to figure out was that, while I might see only the problems and errors and mistakes in the book, they aren\u2019t the whole work. What I needed, desperately, was a bit of perspective. But I was so far in the weeds, so busy whirling like a distracted dervish, that I couldn\u2019t see what I needed to do: I could only see what I thought I needed to do.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until I broke down and had a long talk with my editor about just where I was (and wasn\u2019t) in the book that I realized…<\/p>\n

3) Editors want to help you, you idiot!<\/h2>\n

This may seem obvious, but when you\u2019ve missed deadline after deadline, you start to get a bit gun-shy, ya know? You dread talking with your editor because you know the inevitable question \u2013 \u201cSo, how\u2019s the book coming? When do you think it will be ready?\u201d \u2013 is going to drop, and you just don\u2019t want to answer that question any more. Because you honestly don\u2019t know at this point (see Weeds, above).<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the thing: your editor is on your side. If they weren\u2019t, they wouldn\u2019t have bought your book in the first place; wouldn\u2019t have persuaded the publisher that your work was worth investing in; wouldn\u2019t have put their neck on the line give you extension after extension (after extension, after….). Plus, they want to not only get the book out, but they also want it to be good<\/em>.<\/p>\n

So yes, making that call and having that talk and sending the mis-matched, cobbled-together unfinished mess of a manuscript to my editor was, without a doubt, the hardest thing I have ever done as a writer (and may well be for a long while, I hope). But it was also the smartest thing I could have done.<\/p>\n

When my editor and I finally got back on the phone and went over her editorial notes, it opened my eyes to a lot of thing that both worked and didn\u2019t work in the book. Suddenly, what had seemed like a mountain of mistakes became a collection of smaller foothills, most of which I could see the path over. Oh, I needed to cut a lot and rework more, but I could see the end of the book. Turns out it wasn\u2019t that far away.<\/p>\n

4) It\u2019s never as bad as you think<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s easy to forget the parts you like about writing when things aren\u2019t going well. But they\u2019re still there \u2013 you just have to trust in them. Even when I was hacking away at the manuscript, I would stumble across a situation here, a bit of dialog there, an expected character around this corner, than delighted me.<\/p>\n

I say \u201cstumble\u201d because, at heart, I am still a \u201cdiscovery writer.\u201d This means that I write the story not to get to the end, but to see where it goes, how it gets there, and who comes along for the ride. I forgot that for part of this book, but fortunately my brain didn\u2019t. Sneaky bugger that it is, it kept doling out little treats here and there\u2014so much so that when I went back to look things over, it wasn\u2019t as horrible as I\u2019d convinced myself. Parts of it didn\u2019t quite suck. And some parts were even…arguably…maybe…kinda…good?<\/p>\n

5) Readers are awesome<\/h2>\n

The thing that struck me the most through all of this, though, was how generous readers can be.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve all heard the complaints online about how George R. R. Martin \/ Patrick Rothfuss \/ [Insert Author Name Here] is taking too long writing their next book. And yeah, that happens. But for everyone one of those, there are more people not complaining and patiently waiting.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t realize this last bit until I started having to post updates and explanations about why my release date was at first being moved back, and then cancelled altogether (since my publisher couldn\u2019t leave the book in the catalog and keep moving the release around). I expected a torrent…well, okay, not a torrent<\/em>, I don\u2019t have that many readers…but at least any angry trickle of complaints from the people who were waiting for the next installment of the series. But to a post, e-mail, or response, every single reader who either asked or replied said something along the lines of, \u201cThat\u2019s okay, take your time. I\u2019d rather you write a good book than a fast one.\u201d<\/p>\n

This blew me away. In a world where we\u2019ve gotten used to having everything NOW, where the complaints about a book\u2019s speed of release are a Google search away, to have people saying they were cool with the delay? That they understood that Shit Happens? Well, it was damn nice, and damn reassuring, let me tell you.<\/p>\n

That was also the best possible thing I could have learned writing this, or any, book.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Douglas Hulick is the author of the Tales of the Kin series, which currently consists of Among Thieves<\/em> and Sworn in Steel<\/em>. He is a full-time stay-at home father, part-time writer, and part-time swordsman (no, really). When not walking the dog or trying to determine the relative might of pens vs. swords, he can often be found haunting the aisles of books shops, usually in either the sf, crime, or history sections. He is very fond of breakfast.<\/p>\n

Doug\u2019s first book, Among Thieves<\/em>, was a finalist for both the Gemmel Morningstar and Kitschie\u2019s Golden Tentacle awards in the UK. It was also nominated for both the 2013\u00a0 Grand Prix de l\u2019Imaginaire and Prix Imaginales awards in France.<\/p>\n

Douglas Hulick: Website<\/span><\/a> | Twitter<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Sworn In Steel: Excerpt<\/span><\/a> | Amazon<\/span><\/a> | B&N<\/span><\/a> | Indiebound<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been three months since Drothe killed a legend, burned down a portion of the imperial capital, and found himself unexpectedly elevated into the ranks of the criminal elite. As the newest Gray Prince in the underworld, he\u2019s not only gained friends, but also rivals\u2014and some of them aren\u2019t bothered by his newfound title. A […]<\/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-23323","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-64b","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23323","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=23323"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23325,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23323\/revisions\/23325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}