{"id":30130,"date":"2016-10-13T08:39:27","date_gmt":"2016-10-13T12:39:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/?p=30130"},"modified":"2016-10-13T08:39:27","modified_gmt":"2016-10-13T12:39:27","slug":"nik-abnett-five-things-i-learned-writing-savant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/2016\/10\/13\/nik-abnett-five-things-i-learned-writing-savant\/","title":{"rendered":"Nik Abnett: Five Things I Learned Writing Savant"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

His mind can save the world, if she can save him from the human race…\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The Shield is Earth’s only defence. Rendering the planet invisible from space, it keeps humanity safe from alien invasion.\u00a0The Actives maintain the shield –\u00a0no one is sure how –\u00a0but\u00a0without them, the Shield cannot function.<\/em><\/p>\n

When an Active called Tobe\u00a0finds himself caught in a probability loop, the Shield is compromised. Soon, Tobe’s malady spreads among the Active. Earth becomes vulnerable.<\/em><\/p>\n

Tobe\u2019s assistant, Metoo, is only interested in his wellbeing. Earth security\u2019s paramount concern is the preservation of the Shield. As Metoo strives to prevent Tobe\u2019s masters from undermining his fragile equilibrium, the global danger escalates.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Shield must be maintained at all costs…<\/em><\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Just how obsessive I can become.<\/h2>\n

I\u2019ve never been a writer who writes every day. I know that\u2019s what writers are supposed to do\u2026 I\u2019ve seen the rules. I guess what I\u2019m saying is, if you\u2019re going to write, you might want to make your own rules.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always written in fits and starts, but when I get started I can\u2019t stop. That might have been one of the things that prevented me from finishing longer pieces of fiction before I wrote \u2018Savant\u2019. I used to force myself to stop.<\/p>\n

The writing starts slow, but, boy, when I hit my stride there\u2019s no stopping me. Literally, nothing stops me writing. If I wake up clear-headed, I might even write all day without once thinking about getting out of my PJs. And when I say \u2018all day\u2019, I do mean sixteen or eighteen hours a day, sometimes for weeks. Towards the end of a book, I can write fifteen thousand words in a session. The hoovering doesn\u2019t get done, and I forget to eat, but it turns out, that\u2019s OK, because the faster I write, the faster it\u2019s all over. I also discovered that I live with people who can fend for themselves, perfectly well.<\/p>\n

What comes before informs what comes afterwards.<\/h2>\n

Not only do I not need a plot before I begin a novel, I don\u2019t want one. When I began \u2018Savant\u2019, all I had in mind was a theme. I wanted to write about unconditional love. If I\u2019d plotted that<\/em> book, it would\u2019ve been very different from the one I ended up with. Of course, having so little at the outset meant I had to be patient with the process. I spent a lot of time going back, changing things around, and rewriting the first third of the novel. But, during that period, the characters grew, the world emerged, and the theme took a new turn. The book evolved during the writing process, and that, for me, at least, feels like a good thing.<\/p>\n

Not everybody will understand what you\u2019re doing, but that\u2019s OK.<\/h2>\n

I learned this over a long period of time, longer, probably, than it needed to be. The first few people who saw \u2018Savant\u2019, including a writer, a reader, a publisher and my first agent didn\u2019t get it. I assumed that meant it wasn\u2019t good. When the book fell, almost by accident, into Jonathan Oliver\u2019s hands, he was the first person in six years to get excited about it.<\/p>\n

That I had a novel in a folder on my desktop for six years was my own fault. I should have shown it to more people sooner. Have a little confidence. Trust what you\u2019re doing. Knock on doors, and keep knocking.<\/p>\n

Keyboard skills are important.<\/h2>\n

I learned to touch type when I was eight or nine (don\u2019t ask). I can type a hundred words a minute, accurately, when I\u2019m in full flow. I hadn\u2019t realised what an asset that could be until I was churning out scads of words every day of the last week or two of writing this novel. It\u2019s pretty tough to write fifteen thousand words a day. I couldn\u2019t have done it if I wasn\u2019t able to type. I guess It\u2019s like driving a car; if you want to go faster or master tricky manoeuvres, it\u2019s a good idea to be well practiced in handling those pedals and that gearstick.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s irony in the fact that we all use keyboards, all the time, but few of us take typing classes.<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t write for an audience.<\/h2>\n

Or, at least, you can, and I do, regularly. I\u2019ve written tie-in fiction, but there\u2019s a certain discipline in that: knowing the IP, plotting, re-plotting\u2026 It\u2019s about giving the client what he wants.<\/p>\n

Writing independent fiction isn\u2019t like that at all. If I\u2019d had an audience in mind while writing this book, I think I would\u2019ve been missing the point. I wrote the book I wanted to write. I told the story that I wanted to tell. I did what mattered to me. I gave no thought to the audience\u2026 Any audience. I didn\u2019t think about impressing an agent or a publisher, and I didn\u2019t think about the reader.<\/p>\n

In the movie, \u2018Field of Dreams\u2019, Kevin Costner\u2019s character, Ray, hears a mysterious voice. It tells him, \u201cIf you build it he will come.\u201d This is regularly misquoted as \u201cIf you build it they will come.\u201d And, it\u2019s misquoted for a reason.<\/p>\n

No writer should be compromised, and neither should any artist. Feedback comes in so thick and fast in the internet age that it\u2019s tough for a writer, for any artist, to ignore that stuff. A first time novelist doesn\u2019t need to have that on his or her radar. No one is breathing down anyone\u2019s neck. I know established writers and artists who are forever being told by their audiences what should come next.<\/p>\n

The point of the writer must always be the reader. I get that. I say it all the time. Here\u2019s the thing, though: No writer has more freedom than the first-time novelist. Nobody is trying to mould that story; nobody has a vested interest in it, yet. That isn\u2019t true of second and subsequent novels.<\/p>\n

I was lucky to learn this while writing \u2018Savant\u2019, because I was already in the industry. I tried to take advantage, to write what I wanted to write, and not what others might want me to write, or what they might expect from an SF novel. I urge all first time writers to enjoy that freedom.<\/p>\n

Nik Abnett: Website<\/span><\/a> | Twitter<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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

His mind can save the world, if she can save him from the human race…\u00a0 The Shield is Earth’s only defence. Rendering the planet invisible from space, it keeps humanity safe from alien invasion.\u00a0The Actives maintain the shield –\u00a0no one is sure how –\u00a0but\u00a0without them, the Shield cannot function. When an Active called Tobe\u00a0finds himself […]<\/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-30130","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-7PY","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30130","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=30130"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30132,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30130\/revisions\/30132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}