Chapter 7
My Novel, Progress Reports March 11th, 2008Chapter Six ended with Rowan in a pretty sticky situation - specifically being stared down by a very large, very angry creature of Faerie. Chapter Seven takes this situation and runs with it, allowing the story (and the reader’s expectations of what to expect) to expand greatly. It’s the first time Rowan truly steps from our world - the real world - to the Fey world that we all know from legend and childhood Fairy Tales.
This, of course, is going to be most delicate part of writing the novel. It’s easy enough writing about real world situations where the readers already know the rules… it’s less easy to make things up while still adhering to a consistent set of rules. The Fey world is magical, the Fey world is home to all sorts of wonderous things, but it still needs to be believable in the eyes of the reader. Of course one of the major reasons I’m writing this particular story is that it allows me such freedom to bend the rules and to play with the reader’s perceptions of what they think they know about our world, Faeries and even figures central to the history of our world (wait until you meet St. Patrick….)
Writing in this world - creating this world, really - may be a delicate practise, but it’s also an extremely rewarding one. It’s a lot of fun to take old concepts, old stories and mess them around in my head, trying to come up with ways to put a spin on what we think we know about the fables and the characters involved.
Writing in first person really allows me to explore Rowan’s emotions as she (literally) falls into this fantastic world and finds out that the Fey world isn’t all sugarplumbs, pixie dust and brownies. Of course there’re about, oh… a bajillion stories written with regards to the Fey world, going back pretty much since stories have been told, so the trick is taking the familiar conventions and making the reader excited about them again. We’ve seen the gamut of what can be done with the Fey world: Post-industrial (Michael Swanwick), skyscrapers, automobiles and warring fairy conglomerates (Tad Williams), fanciful fairy tales (The Brothers Grimm) and that makes it truly difficult to come up with something totally balls-to-the-wall different. So, with that in mind, I hope the Fey world in Through Bended Grass does feel familiar, but at the same I want the reader to feel like they’re stepping into a Fey world that is just a little different than any they’ve seen before - like stepping into your bedroom and knowing, without being able to pinpoint exactly what or why, that something’s been moved, something’s changed - very familiar, but slightly uncomfortable.
Chapter Seven is the first chapter where I really get to exercise this idea and it’s been damn fun to play around. Do I succeed? Ultimately it’s up to my readers to decide. Of course, I hope to bring a world as hauntingly evocative as Tad William’s New Erehwon, as frighteningly realistic as Neil Gaiman’s version of America in American Gods, as charmingly friendly as Charles De Lint’s Newford, or as hauntingly eloquent as Terry Brook’s Hopewell, Illinois. Of course, these are all established, legendary writers and I’m still simply learning. But it’s always good to have high heights to aspire to, right?
Word Count
Prologue: 955
Chapter 1: 1,409
Chapter 2: 2,022
Chapter 3: 3,107
Chapter 4: 1,941
Interlude: 644
Chapter 5: 3,153
Chapter 6: 3,734
Chapter 7: 2,374
Total: 19,339
March 18th, 2008 at 7:03 am
Off topic here,
But out of curiosity, what is your “day job” Aidan? You’ve probly already posted this info but, is a dribble of ink just for fun on the side, how’d you get into it, and do you–haha, i know the answer to this–find it more rewarding than your day job, assuming you have one.
Also, can we expect through bended grass to be a touch more off the cuff, as is your blog entries. (Example, happier than a pig in shit). Of course it could very well be that you have a blog style and a writing style, i can promise you my manuscript is not fraught with typos, incorrect grammer, and lower case i’s. Well maybe incorrect grammer, but thats writing for you.
I’ve been thinking about the name through bended grass, still really like it, but it will lack some mass appeal. Someone who walks into a store and see’s: Before they are Hanged, and Through Bended Grass, will likely go for the former, of course if they are esoteric and/or intellectual they will appreciate your more subtle offering, but saddly the lowest common denominator is a thriving, spendy throng. WWE outsales symphanies every day of the week. Any adult or kid can tell you 100 sporting stars but incapable of naming a rhodes scholar, lauriette winner, or current holder of a nobel peace prize. But before i digress entirely into the state of our culture and what we hold in esteem i’ll wrap this up.
March 18th, 2008 at 7:37 am
Hey Sean,
I’d love to say that A Dribble of Ink kept me sustained but, as you expected, it’s a labour of love and something I do in my downtime. My “day job”, if you can call it that, is a none-too-glamourous job at a Credit Union and I also do freelance web design on the side. It all mixes together to keep me rather busy, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Later this year I’ll be heading back over the pond to Europe and at that point my job’ll change once again, though I’ll be certain not to let it get in the way of writing.
Through Bended Grass, as you know, is written (for the most part) from a first-person perspective which generally allows for a more casual, “off-the-cuff” prose. That being said, I think that my voice (seen here on the blog) and Rowan’s voice (seen in the novel) are significantly different in tone and content. On top of this, Rowan’s searching for her lost son and is being thrust into a less than desirable situation an that leads to a story that’s anything but “happier than a pig in shit”.
Of course there’re moments of brevity in the story and Rowan can’t quite let go of the sense of wonder she feels as she’s thrust into a Fey World more startling and dangerous than the one found in her childhood fairy tales, but it’s not really an overly cheerful book, I wouldn’t say.
That long promised Prologue is also on its way. In fact it’s just being edited right now for the final time by someone other than myself and then it’ll be ready to release. I hope to have it up as soon as this evening.
Thanks for the extra thoughts on the title, Through Bended Grass. I definitely understand that it’s something that might not have the mass appeal of some other titles, but in the end that’s up for the potential publisher to decide. I like the title - I think it’s very relevant to the story and has a nice ring to it - but I’m not married to it and if it needed to be changed to see the store shelves, I’d have no problem with that.
March 23rd, 2008 at 11:39 am
Hey buddy, I posted some poems over on Terry Brooks works in progress poetry thread. You should go take a read if you like (smb_is_me) I am rather modest about my writing (novel), but I know my poetry is d*mn good, not to be a jerk about
I’m not sure what your thoughts on the emo, angsty poetry is, not my cup of tea really, and that seems to be what that thread is all about, but to each there own. I’ve got three poems on there: Love Song of S. Michael Burk (ode to Love Song of J. Alfred PRufrock), On Religion, and World Gone Wrong–the last being the closest you’ll get to a “negative style” poem out of me, but i think it avoids that boo-hoo quality and instead follows with a good flow, slighty sad, but of literary quality. no–”how long can it hurt, how much is the pain” type of jargon. anywho,
check’em if you like.
Happy writing
March 30th, 2008 at 10:02 am
Have you found that as you make up rules that some people protest as they apply real life rules. You have to stop and remind them that they are reading a fantasy novel that allows for some cool rule tweeking, and you, as the author, get to define the tweeks.