Craft Decisions #1
In addition to blog posts exploring Human themes, such as forgiveness, grace, vulnerability and a multitude of others, I wanted to include a separate version of the blog where I discuss craft choices that I have made in terms of the Roar of Winchester series.
Hopefully this will serve two purposes. If you invest some time in reading any of these blogs it will save you from investing two much time into the series itself if it doesn’t sound like it will appeal to you. Given that the first book is over 150,000 words, and the series is planned to cover five books, you might as well know what you are getting into.
The first topic that I wanted to cover was that of Earned Payoff vs. what I think has become rampant in many sci-fi and fantasy novels in recent years, that of Constant Escalation. I am not sure I can put my finger on what has caused this phenomenon but you can see it across many mediums, not just in fiction novels. Arguably the most prominent examples can be found in movies, the ‘Marvelfication’ of theatrical releases, for lack of a better term.
We have all read these types of stories before. When done well, they start off as a well-written story typically will, full of depth and nuance. The characters you are introduced to have all the makings of a well-rounded character, with moral ambiguity, clear voice and reasoned decision-making. At some point though, the need for action in the plot starts to creep in. This is natural, its why many of us read sci-fi and fantasy, the escapism aspect, the fantastical battles between heroes and villains, humans and monsters, or humans and aliens.
Once that action starts though, it is like the authors put themselves on an escalator that they do not know how to get off of. First, the conflicts are small and local. A minor skirmish here, a desperate escape there. And there is a natural escalation, one that is rewarding to follow along with. The hero slowly accumulates capability and forces, bit by bit, until the grand battle happens. The first book is usually a truly satisfying read and you are committed to the series now.
The problem is that they’ve invested too much action into the opening salvo. In a longer series this is dangerous. If the hero just defeated the most obvious villain in the first novel, where do you go in book two? You can’t begin the same arc again, so now you are stuck with increasingly epic scale battles where both the villains and the heroes are increasingly less believable. What started as a human journey has become something else, a tale of super heroes. This can be tiresome enough but it comes with even further costs.
In the first novel, the quiet moments, the human moments, they fit without forcing. You were able to show the protagonist having a normal day, an intimate conversation, a witty back and forth, and it fit right into the flow. By book three, how do you disengage them from a multi-dimensional battle for the future of humanity to just be a character again? By book four, the absurdity requires such suspension of disbelief that you feel you are only along for the ride due to sunk cost of the initial novels. Very few authors are capable of walking these tension tightropes and even the ones who are have lost a lot of the character development that would otherwise have been available to them.
If this all sounds familiar to you and you are nodding your head along, than hopefully you understand why I decided not to go down that path with my series. I wanted a series that told an entertaining story, but did it in a way that was entirely world and character focused. I wanted to round the characters that form my points of view to the point where they felt like they could sit at your dinner table and you would know how the conversation would unfold. This meant tradeoffs and it meant careful thought on how to ensure that the pace was not completely sacrificed.
The largest trade-off, and one you may feel as you read through the series (I am more than 2/3 through book 2 and the pace improves greatly in book 2 thanks to the foundation that the first book established, but still) is that there is a deliberate style that I have adopted in which every payoff is meant to be earned. Not just by you, but by the characters themselves.
I have lived a full life and I know what was actually required to build the skills that I have, the relationships and the capabilities. When my characters achieve something, I want it to reflect that journey, to feel real. When romance happens, it’s not a swipe and a movie date. It’s what real love is, the initial dance, the careful weighing, the yes and the no. When battles happen I want you to feel invested in the characters, in the danger of losing some of them. And so I will make you wait at times for resolution. And in the waiting you will see me build out the world around you, introduce new characters, and show you snippets of their lives from past, present and future. The escalation though, that arc towards the grand stage? That is a series-long journey, not a rinse-repeat each book. And by the end, I hope that you will close the last book wishing that it had never ended.
If this sounds like a series you would like to read then I would be honored to have you along for the ride. Food costs money after all ;)
Much love as always,
Nick