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“For fans of…”

I’ve been back on Twitter for a while now, and one thing I see a lot of is authors comparing their works to those of other writers, to help indicate who might (or might not!) like it. It’s not exclusive to Twitter either, and I see it a lot on Amazon’s pages.

I can really, really understand why people do it. I quite often say to people ‘oh, if you liked x book, you’d probably enjoy y book too’. But for an author, particularly a first-time writer, I think it’s dangerous. More often than not, you’re comparing your work to a very well-established (full-time) writer, with a team of editors and sub-editors, an agent and many, many resources at their fingertips. It’s useful shorthand, but it’s also dangerous. One I saw recently said ‘for fans of Brandon Sanderson’.

Now Elantris, Sanderson’s first work, was published in 2005, fourteen years ago. Since then, he’s written a breathtaking number of words across at least forty novels and novellas, from a quick glance at Wikipedia. I absolutely adore most of his work – Elantris, the first two books of the Stormlight archive and Final Empire in particular are truly magnificent – and I’m in awe of what he did with picking up Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time saga when Jordan passed away.

In some of his books, Sanderson’s world-creation is beyond compare. His sense of plotting is insanely tight, and his characters shine. So to set yourself up on a pedestal seems a very dangerous thing to do – sure, it might sell your first book, but you’re setting a very high bar.

Perhaps I’m reading too much into it, but I’d rather just write a good description of a book. I’m not saying that I won’t ever do this – I’ve just replied to a tweet about my current WIP using exactly this shorthand – and I get that it’s really tough to make it as a writer. But as an author, we’re here for the long haul, and I honestly think that it’s better to establish your own character and feel as a writer than try to put yourself next to someone else. And who knows – you might just be a better writer than them in time…

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Small ‘walls’

It’s (reasonably) well-established in running marathons that there’s a period when you psychologically don’t think you can run anymore; I think it happens around the eighteen to twenty-mile mark. You’re exhausted, you’ve come a long way and you’ve still got a fair way to go – it’s understandable.

I’m not sure if the metaphor really holds, but I find myself hitting very small, similar walls when I write. I’ll get a few hundred words done and then want a break. I’ll feel reluctant to carry on, wanting to do something else – and that’s ridiculous and impractical; it’d take forever to write a book doing just a few hundred words at a time.

And often I can overcome this by just persisting, but I do find myself wondering about the cause. Have I frazzled my brain so much with social media and switching between tasks so much that I can’t focus on doing something for a long time? Maybe … although I’m certainly happy to read for a long period of time at once. But then a part of me thinks that my attention span is shorter than it used to be; in the first few days of the Christmas holidays, I really had to fight to watch an entire film at once (a crazy time-luxury) rather than watching some and then pausing.

It’s not a great state for an author to occupy, and I’m certainly going to think about cutting back on non-essential attention-switching tasks and how I structure my life at work. Unfortunately, my job does require me to hop from project to project within each day (and each hour) but I’d like to avoid any further deterioration if I can…

I’m curious as to whether other authors or readers have experienced something similar, or whether it strikes you at certain times or places? It’s odd that I can read for a long period at a time, but when something actually needs proper concentration, it can be more difficult, but without being a cognitive psychologist, it’s hard to dissect. 

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Augmented ‘reality’?

I’ve always had a fairly vivid imagination, and rarely have trouble imagining the scenes I’m writing, but sometimes I see something that inspires me – or just want to make it a little more real. 

When I don’t know that much about something I’m writing on, I’ll turn to the Internet or hands-on research, but if it’s about visualisation and style, then I tend to go a bit more left-field. So for example, I used these cards to help with certain parts of an underground city that I’m writing about for Small Places. I’ve been reading The Near Witch and playing the necromancer pack in Diablo 3 to get a feel for all things witchy. And this game gave me some surprise inspiration for a few locations. 

This isn’t something I did at all for Parasites – I wanted most of the plants and locations to be different to some of the common sci-fi tropes in literature and film. Oddly, the storm world came from a dream I had as a kid years ago, and Vega kind of grew by necessity. I really can’t remember where Carthusian, the vast cathedral ship, came from, but it’s one of my favourite locations in anything I’ve written. 

I basically cheated in Aenigma; it’s an alternate reality urban fantasy, so I could re-use real locations – with a few additions, obviously. Wild Court is similar, and the entire inspiration actually came from walking past Wild Court itself, which is a side street not far from Holborn in London, at a time when I had a fairly unpleasant job near there!

So I guess my inspiration is a real mish-mash of sources; hopefully the output is a little more orderly…

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Exhausting Characters

When I was fairly close to finishing Parasites, I had a sudden concern that the characters were just a bit… boring. I mean, I loved the sturdy, faithful Kael and the hopeful, caring Alessia, but they were both from a society essentially built on being extremely careful, for good reason. Their long pre-flight checks are an endless source of eye rolls to their bodyguard Basteel, and I was concerned that readers would find them unsatisfying. 

Thankfully, the reviews I’ve had so far don’t seem to agree with my paranoia, and in fairness, Kael and Alessia have quite a lot to deal with on their trip. Curiously, I’ve also found high-energy characters quite tiring to write at times!

Matt, one of the protagonists on Wild Court, is a big, sweary bundle of elastic bands bouncing around life, drinking, smoking and shagging his way around London, completely different to his best friend Ben, an introverted librarian. 

I’ve struck a bit of a balance in Small Places. Jamie is a fairly regular guy, although a little beaten down by life, and Melusine, his arcane companion, is certainly larger than life. 

I’m still hoping to revisit Wild Court – I effectively got stuck at about the 40k word mark, but it’ll be interesting to see how I feel about the characters when I do. 

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Why do I write?

I’d like to be a full-time author, but that’s not really why I write.

I’ve been working full-time for a long time now, and I’m pretty aware than ‘JK Rowling sydrome’ can be a dangerous thing. Thankfully, there are a lot of authors out there who are pretty up-front about how writing as a career can often … well, it sucks financially.

I remember reading a news article from the incredible Steph Swainston, essentially admitting that she was going back to be a chemistry teacher because writing was too stressful and insufficiently rewarding, financially. And I remember thinking: if this insanely electric writer can’t make it, then what hope does anyone have?

But I’m still writing. And it’s a little like that scene in the first alien movie: something needs to get out. I have an Evernote folder full of inspiration snippets, but there are some that revolve around in my head, joining other ideas, and then essentially demand to be planned and written.

There’s also the element of world creation; I was quite a big fan of the Myst series (although spoilers: I’m quite bad at puzzles) and love the idea of Atrus just sitting there, writing away and literally making worlds for people. I love that so much.

I suppose it’s an intensely personal reason as to why anyone writes, but I think those are my big two. Now I’ve reminded myself of how much I adore Steph Swainston’s work and I’m off to buy the novella of hers that I’ve been putting off for a while…

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What have I been reading recently?

It’s been a mixed month or so after I finished Robin Hobb’s nine-part Assassin series – although in retrospect, I should have tagged the Dragon and Liveship trilogies on there for complete continuity.

Richter 10 was a rattling good yarn about stopping earthquakes. Apparently Arthur C Clarke came up with the structure and Mike McQuay did the bulk of the writing – I really enjoyed it. The characters were great, the setting interesting and the plot pretty tight – although Clarke does have an annoying habit of going slightly off-piste at the end of his books. Childhood’s end was a pretty textbook example of that – it was fairly enjoyable, and tackles some interesting themes, but there’s a complete right-angle turn towards the end and it just irritated me a bit.

I was also relatively disappointed at The Book of Hidden Things by Francesco Dimitri, which promised great things and never really delivered. It’s the story of four friends who promise to meet up at a particular place every year, but one of them doesn’t turn up because he’s selling marijuana – or may be delving into the occult. There are a lot of mysterious goings-on, but Dimitri seems unwilling to really commit, so it just stays as being a story about friendship. Interesting, but ultimately unsatisfying.

And most recently, I’ve just enjoyed Jodi Picoult’s Great Small Things. I’ve got a huge soft spot for Picoult – she’s not afraid of tackling tough topics and she tells a crazily good story. This was no exception.

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Book bloggers and reviewers ahoy!

Review copies of my YA sci-fi solarpunk exploration novel Parasites are now available! If you review in any form and would like a copy to read, please contact me on twitter at @many_writings or email me on mail [at] theabditory.co.uk. I don’t have an infinite number of copies (that would be weird for everyone) so may run out, but if you’re keen, please contact me.

I slightly struggle for comparisons – you can read a better descriptor here or see a sample on Amazon – but if you like Becky Chambers or Anne McCaffrey’s Crystal Singer trilogy, enjoyed the Mass Effect games or other space exploration titles, this may be up your street.

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Who are the most immersive authors?

I wanted to do another ‘favourite books’ post because I’ve definitely neglected a few friends and had a couple of thoughts on how to make amends. It goes without saying that in the ‘favourite books’ section, most of these books suck you right in from the get-go, but there are also definitely a lot of noteworthy authors that seem to particularly have a skill for immersion! So, who would I recommend as a particularly immersive author? Here’s a few starters:

  • Laini Taylor: I absolutely love Taylor’s work. Daughter of Smoke and Bone was one of those books that I read on kindle and went straight out to buy in hardback so I could read it again (and managed to get a lush autographed copy as well!). But Night of Cake and Puppets, and Strange the Dreamer also manage this incredibly well. She’s a world-creator with mad skills!
  • Brandon Sanderson: I’d argue that Sanderson is fantasy royalty at the moment. There was a day when Final Empire sat alone on the shelves, but Sanderson now commands multiple shelves! I’m a huge fan of the first two / four books of the Stormlight Archive, as well as Elantris, Final Empire and the Rithmatist. Sanderson’s worlds – however fantastic – are always believable.
  • Charles De Lint: Urban fantasy is a tough gig. A modern world with magic, fairies and bikers? I came to De Lint’s work through Spiritwalk abnd Moonheart, and haven’t looked back since. His characters are complex, generally very loveable and his worlds completely compelling.

Who would you add?

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My favourite books

I don’t know many writers who don’t love to read, and every writer has their own favourite list of books. I read a lot of sci-fi and fantasy, although not exclusively.

When I was growing up, I definitely had ‘favourite’ books, one or two novels that I’d read obsessively. These days I have a longlist of old (and new) friends – here’s a few of them:

Against a Dark Background by Iain M Banks. Absolutely my favourite Banks, although closely followed by the Algebraist. I know most people love The Culture novels, but I’ve got a huge soft spot for these

The Year of Our War by Steph Swainston. Jant is one of my all time (I initially wrote ‘all tine’) characters and some of Swainston’s writing is just incredible.

The Treason’s Heir series by Jacqueline Carey. I loved the first Kushiel set, and it took me two reads to really get into the second – but somehow, Imriel is a more interesting character to me than Phedre, although I do love that she’s still in the trilogy.

Spiritwalk by Charles de Lint. I was brought up on Narnia as a kid, so to find a grown-up, urban fantasy with incredible characters, bikers, guns, drinking, friendship, love and deep magic … it blew me away.

Transformation by Carol Berg. While the second and third books in the trilogy aren’t quite as good, this book got me through a pretty tough time – and Seyonne’s journey from slave back to soulwarden is very deftly done.

Memoirs of a Dangerous Alien by Maggie Prince. Ok, so it’s a kid’s book, but I once read this three times in succession because I didn’t want to leave the world she’d created. Needs a re-read.

The Galactic Mileu Series, by Julian May. I love May’s blend of forward-looking sci-fi, human commentary and spirituality – her characters are brilliant, her observations completely on point, and her narrative very, very compelling.

Wolf in Shadow by David Gemmell (closely followed by Winter Warriors). Pretty much all of Gemmell’s work is spectacular, but WiS is just the most striking, memorable, poignant journey.

That’s just a small selection from my bookshelf – I might have to do a second part later, as I’ve definitely missed a few friends here and there…