One thing I have learned the most about
writing fantasy is to have patience. Yes, patience.
I started writing my fantasy story
after lots of years of building the world. I had to know who was
going to be involved, what rank they held (if any) and what their
purpose was. If I told you it only took me a few short weeks to do
all of this, I'd be a better storyteller.
In truth, I worked on my world for over
ten years before writing down the first part of the story. Most of
the planning was put to paper, but a greater portion was in my head.
I had to visualize a great deal. The first story that came out,
wasn't quite what I expected, but by this time I was in such a rush
to get it out to the public, I didn't stop to take the time to plan
the rest of it.
Even after the first story was done and
I went through the whole, “What Do I Do Now” period, my brain was
working. It changed the story, shifted things a bit and I ended up
writing “Adversarius”. See, that first story was really just my
rough draft. I wouldn't have written Adversarius had I not fouled up
that first book.
Patience would have helped me determine
this eventually, I suppose. And even though the first book is now
done and in the hands of readers, I'm still being a bit overly
cautious and patient to get book two done. There are so many things
happening in my world that I have to make sure I keep a good eye on
it all.
Once it is done, though, I need to
practice patience all over again to get it polished up and ready for
the readers again. Half the time, I'm so impatient, I skip over
things. I won't do that again and hopefully book two will be better
than the first.
So have patience when building your
world and writing the story. There are lots of details to include and
you don't want to skip over any of them.
7 comments:
Ten years of planning. I am in awe...
Wow 10 years. That is a long time.
Well, lots of those details have to be written down somewhere as well. So yeah, it took a long time. I see now why it took Tolkien so long!
I think every kind of writing takes patience... but fantasy does take it out of you with so much world building.
Allison (Geek Banter)
All genres require some amount of patience. You put a lot of thought and effort into your first book.
I am such an impatient person. I'm trying to work on that. Blogging does help, oddly enough!
Hugs!
Valerie Nunez and the Flying Platypi
Some of the best epic fantasies are ones that take longest to create - I think Sanderson's the way of Kings was a 10-year project before he put pen to paper.
Jamie @ Mithril Wisdom
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