Posts by Juliet Marillier
I’ve checked the proofs of my new novel. The stack of pages is ready to bundle up and send back to my editor. I’ve had my last opportunity to make corrections, and I’ve made my final farewell to the characters – THE CALLER is the third and final book in the SHADOWFELL series. Seems like time for a celebratory glass of champagne, yes? But I don’t feel elated, I feel sad. Why is it so hard to say goodbye?
After seventeen novels, I should understand the perils of getting too attached to the characters of a book or series. Twice in the past, the vagaries of the publishing world have forced me to end a series earlier than I originally intended, a painful experience for both writer and readers.
What makes the key players in this particular series – the quietly strong Neryn, the intense, morally conflicted Flint, the driven rebel Tali, not to speak of their supporting cast of uncanny folk – so special?
I’ve seen these characters through exhilarating highs and desperate lows. Triumph and disaster; hope and heartbreak. I’ve put hours of thought, hard work and dedication into creating them. I’ve walked a very long way in their shoes. But, of course, it’s not just these characters, it’s the cast of every book I write. Every time, it’s hard to let go. Chances are all of you who write fiction feel exactly the same when you complete a project.
What can we do to ease the pain of parting?
Read MoreHere in Australia it’s coming up to Winter Solstice: time for reflection, time to take stock. The cold days make me want to snuggle down wrapped in woollies, with a dog or two on either side, and immerse myself in a good book. Midwinter is time for us to let our minds rest and regroup – the fallow period when the tree stands quiet, preparing for spring’s sudden burst of life.
We don’t all live out in wild nature, of course, nor are most of us as closely attuned to the seasonal cycles of our environment as we might be. The pressures of daily life can crowd us so closely we hardly give a thought to those cycles and the way they are reflected in the patterns of our own bodies. Instead of allowing a natural winter slow-down, for instance, you might be racing to meet a writing deadline, putting in long days at your desk, gulping cup after cup of coffee to stay awake against the insistent tug of sleep. Fuelled by artificial means. Not listening to your body. No wonder you feel jittery and off balance.
It would be deeply satisfying to be able to go with that seasonal flow, to rest and think out a new project over winter, to begin serious work on it as the leaf buds swell and the days grow warmer, to bring it to fruition in summer under clear skies, and to prune, shape and perfect it as the leaves are falling, in the traditional harvest time. I see it now: a great bonfire, with fireworks, to celebrate the completion of the year-long project!
Sadly, the publishing schedule seldom allows such a natural workflow. Deadlines do not always fall conveniently in late autumn. And writers who live in small city apartments may have to content themselves with symbolic bonfires. But you might take a leaf or two from the druid’s book all the same. Let’s look at our creative process as the turning of a year.
Read MoreI recently had the pleasure of launching Kate Forsyth’s wonderful new novel THE WILD GIRL, published by Vintage Books in Australia, at an event in Sydney. I interviewed Kate here on Writer Unboxed when her previous book for adult readers, the stunning blend of history and fairy tale BITTER GREENS, was released in 2012. Kate is an incredibly hard-working writer, energetic and versatile. She has written books for children, young adults and adults, and has ranged across the genres of fantasy, historical fiction, literary fiction and poetry.
I was delighted when Kate took time out from a hectic round of promotional appearances to give WU a mini-interview about THE WILD GIRL.
Q. What’s the premise of your new book?
THE WILD GIRL tells the story of the forbidden romance between Wilhelm Grimm, the younger of the famous brothers, and Dortchen Wild, the young woman who told him many of the world’s most compelling and powerful fairy tales. Set during the turbulent years of the Napoleonic Wars, THE WILD GIRL illuminates how the Grimm brothers came to discover their famous fairy tales, as well as telling one of the great untold love stories of all time.
Q. What would you like people to know about the story?
THE WILD GIRL is an epic romance set in one of the most dangerous periods in history. It illuminates the story of the famous Grimm brothers and what drove them to begin collecting their tales, as well as exploring what life was like in Europe at the time Napoleon set out to conquer the world. Inspired by a true story, it is filled with romance, passion, drama and heartbreak.
Q. What do your characters have to overcome in this story? What challenge do you set before them?
The novel is told from the point of view of Dortchen Wild, who has to overcome many obstacles before she can be with her one true love, Wilhelm Grimm. She wishes to be a dutiful daughter to her autocratic father, but, on the other hand, she longs for freedom and a life of self-determination. Her world is racked by war and famine and disease, and she must overcome the shadows of her past and her own demons before she can at last find her voice and win her love.
Wilhelm Grimm is desperately poor and cannot afford to take a wife. Dortchen Wild is forbidden to even see him by her cruel and overbearing father. At times it seems impossible that they could ever be together. Both have a long journey ahead of them before at last true love triumphs.
Read MoreWhat’s this? Me, the arch-planner, admitting that my characters sometimes have a will of their own? I’ve always dismissed that idea as nonsense. Characters come from the mind of the writer, where else? The writer invents them, so they dance to her tune. She can make them do and think and say what she wants all the way through the story. Right?
I’ll get back to that soon. For now, let me fill you in on the current state of my work in progress. I’m writing the last part of a novel with the working title Caller, part three of the Shadowfell series of historical fantasy books intended for a YA/adult crossover readership. The deadline is getting uncomfortably close.
I’m one of those writers who plan things out in some detail before they start a new book. I prepare outlines and synopses and chapter plans. When I’m ready to start, I don’t do a quick and dirty first draft, I write a few chapters at a time, then edit them before I move on. That means the initial writing is quite slow, but there’s not a lot of re-drafting needed later. That method suits me and has done for fifteen years as a full-time professional. Other approaches work well for other writers.
Many will think my method sounds rigid. But it has room for flexibility. I’ve never changed the overall architecture of a novel in the middle of building it, but I make changes when I find a better way to do something, a more effective way of moving the story along or creating tension or providing a window into motivation or character. I tend to make changes to the way I’m writing the story, not to the story itself. I know where the characters are coming from and where they’re headed, not just physically but on an emotional and psychological level. My characters may spring surprises on the reader, but not on me.
So here I am, getting to the pointy end of this manuscript with my characters in increasing peril from external sources and at the same time beset by internal conflict (there’s a strong thread in the Shadowfell books about conscience and responsibility – can lies, deception and violence be justified if they’re the only way to achieve a greater good?) I know already that my two protagonists can’t come out of the story without significant psychological damage. And now one of those protagonists has started making choices I didn’t plan for him. Awful choices. Crazy, unwise choices. What’s going on?
I’m not keen on New Year’s resolutions. It’s too easy for us to end up in a mire of guilt, weighed down by our failure to meet our own expectations. On the other hand, defined goals can help those of us who might otherwise become TV watching, junk food eating couch potatoes, with nothing more to show for 2013 than an empty file entitled First Draft and five extra kilos around the waistline.
This week, Facebook is chockers with people’s summaries of 2012 and their goals for 2013. There’s some over-sharing about last year’s highs and lows, and some lofty goals for this year. Good luck, people. If I’d been you, I might have made those goals slightly more achievable: a steady, gradual weight loss rather than losing 20kg over the year, completing a certain number of pages a week rather than writing an entire novel before Christmas, reducing chocolate intake rather than giving it up altogether.
Making your resolutions public may steel your resolve, because of the shame you’ll feel if your entire social media circle sees you fail. (Not that they’ll care, but you’ll feel the shame anyway.) Or it may place unnecessary pressure on you, making it almost certain that you won’t meet your goals. Of course, if you are the kind of person who thrives on order, and if your resolutions are well thought out, the list may encourage you to stretch yourself and help you to stay on track.
I didn’t share my highlights and lowlights of 2012 on social media. Mine would have been a jumble of veterinary emergencies and scrambles to meet writing deadlines, a couple of novels published and some family ups and downs I choose to keep private. And I’m not making resolutions. I won’t put ‘finish both books before deadline’ on a list, because it’s something I have no choice about. I’m a professional; writing is my job. If there’s a deadline, that’s when the manuscript has to be ready. I won’t put ‘keep weight down’ on a list because, as a cancer survivor, I need no reminders of how important that is.
Instead of offering you 2013 Resolutions for Writers, then, I wave my magic wand and present you with nine good gifts for the coming year.
Read MoreI had a concept in mind that had been nagging away at me for months, demanding to be crafted into a story. Two concepts, in fact, one about a cat and one about two dogs. Both seemed ideal for inclusion in my short fiction collection, Prickle Moon.
I made numerous attempts to write these stories, trying many different approaches to style and structure. That was unusual for me – I generally have a good intuitive feel for what will work. The problem in this instance lay with the voice.
Each of the stories had an animal as the main protagonist, the character whose journey the piece was built around. The obvious way to write the story was to give the animal the point of view. The easier, less effective way would be to write in detached, omniscient third person. I knew that would lessen the impact of the story.
The trouble is, animals don’t think in human words. Dogs respond to a certain number of familiar words and phrases, such as their name and various commands. They are sensitive to tone of voice and body language. But their thought patterns are not those of a human being, and I suspect the workings of a cat’s mind are even more alien. We often interpret the behaviour of our domestic pets through the filter of our human perception, but we can’t really know what is going on inside that feline or canine mind.
Here’s an excerpt from my most recent draft of the dog story. Muffin, a terrier, has sensed that his owner is about to go away. Pooty is a recently adopted, smaller dog. Yes, she does have a silly name – it came with her from the shelter.
His dinner is late. Pack Leader rushes about doing things. Muffin feels hollow inside, hollow and jangly and wrong.
Pooty runs around the house. She has a nap. She plays with her squeaky toy until Pack Leader yells at her. Pooty cringes. Pack Leader picks her up and cuddles her, making soothing noises. Muffin watches.
Finally, dinner comes. Muffin has a mouthful, but it just doesn’t taste right. He goes under the table. Pooty empties her bowl and licks it clean. She glances at Muffin, then sidles towards his leftovers. Muffin barks, and she retreats.
Pack Leader crouches down and speaks to Muffin in her special voice. Muffin is not taken in. He lets her fondle his ears and scratch his belly. Her tone tells him she’s upset. ‘Calm and quiet, Muffin,’ she says. ‘Be nice to Pooty.’ Wretched Pooty! She changed everything. Muffin is not scared of big dogs – well, usually not – or thunderstorms. But when things change, when The Way Things Should Be is forgotten, his belly fills with terror. He feels it now, deep down, like an ant starting to crawl inside him, an ant that may soon become a monster.
Pack Leader opens the door and calls them outside. Muffin sulks, but Pack Leader throws the ball, and all else disappears. Run, run, run, snatch! Waaaaait – run, run, run, catch! He forgets the suitcase. Run, run, run, grab! He even forgets Pooty, who’s digging in a corner.
I soon got bogged down with this […]
Read MoreA couple of days ago I caught myself trying to do five things at once:
Am I a multi-tasking superwoman? No, just misguided. Without six hands and a couple of separately functioning brains, there was no way I could do it. I did achieve quite a lot: cleanish house, OK scone result, beading done, TV program watched, visiting toddler did not stick her fingers in any electrical sockets, fall foul of dogs or consume stray beads. But the post didn’t get written. And the To Do list keeps growing – apart from the ‘real life’ tasks, it contains guest blogs, a cover endorsement, a looming copy edit, a proposal for a new series, and two things I really, really want to do and may have to say no to (writing a story for an anthology and preparing a workshop proposal for a convention.) My mind is on a looping message: so much to do, so little time. As a result, I’ve missed something vitally important.
Read MoreSo you need to write. And you love to read. How do you find time for both? Some people don’t read for pleasure at all while engrossed in a writing project (such self-discipline!) Some limit what they read, steering clear of their own genre – a writer of historical romance might read true crime; an epic fantasy writer might go for biography. There are a couple of reasons for that: not wanting someone else’s style or ideas to rub off on one’s own work, and finding a contrasting genre mentally refreshing, like a mini-vacation.
The issue for me, and probably for most of you, is that I love reading a bit too much, have done since I was a small child hiding away with my library books instead of doing my homework. If I pick up a novel, in particular, I’m likely to become engrossed and let time slip away when I should be spending both my time and my mental energy writing my own book. But these days there’s always a deadline. I don’t have the luxury of chucking the ms in a drawer and forgetting about it while I devour the latest bestseller. Right now I’m juggling commitments in relation to five books: still doing interviews about the one released last month, preparing for another new release in November, checking Australian and American copy edits for a third and trying to get on with writing a fourth, whose deadline is too close for comfort. Book Five is a collection of short fiction, for which I’ve only just finished the last story. Time to read? Not nearly as much as I’d like.
But I do crave a good recreational read, can’t do without it. I’ve posted here before about choices for times like this: classics, YA novels, old favourites. This time I went for the old favourites and learned a couple of things about why some endure and some don’t.
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Here in Australia, season one of the ABC fantasy-drama series Once Upon a Time recently came to an end. The series concept is this: in the magical world of fairy tales, the evil queen lays a curse that transports everyone to Storybrooke, Maine. The evil queen does this to punish Snow White who, as a child, did something that blighted the queen’s future. In Storybrooke, Snow is mild-mannered teacher Mary Margaret. Also in town are Prince Charming, Red Riding Hood, the woodcutter, Cinderella, Pinocchio and many more, including the Machiavellian stirrer of the piece, Rumpelstiltskin, in the guise of antique dealer Mr Gold. Then there’s the evil queen herself: Regina, mayor of Storybrooke. Everyone has a new identity, and none of them remember their former lives in the fairy tale world. Then an agent for change comes on the scene in the form of ballsy but conflicted Emma Swan, who may just have the key to undoing the curse.
I had my doubts about this series. As a lover and long-time reader of fairy tales, I wondered how they’d fare in the hands of writers who’d produced something as convoluted as Lost. I’ve become aware that many folk believe the Disney fairy tale movies are the authentic versions of these stories, and I suspected the writers would not value and respect the strong, true heart of their material. On the other hand, fairy tales have staying power. It’s in their nature to grow, develop and change, consistent with the oral storytelling traditions that gave rise to most of them. There are some wonderful novels and short stories built on fairy tale material. If a writer knows, respects and understands the original, it’s OK to play around with it. Up to a point.
So was I happy with Once Upon a Time? Did the high concept for this series produce a satisfying result?
Read MoreOn the first day of the winter break, my granddaughters’ school was gutted by fire. It started in the middle of the night, and by the time firefighters reached the scene, the hundred-year-old heritage building was well ablaze. Whoever set this fire – and it was certainly arson, with three separate ignition points – not only destroyed a lovely old building, but also tore the heart out of a community.
Teachers lost priceless resources. Students lost art work, stories and projects. In the principal’s office was heritage material collected for a centenary display – all gone. Student records, sporting equipment, musical instruments, photographs and archives showing the long and proud history of the school – all lost. Air conditioning units and other infrastructure, much of it acquired through years of community fund raising – destroyed. Remarkably, the books in the school library survived.
So there we were, with only two weeks until the new school term, and nowhere for our 400 students to go. What could be done? On the morning after the fire, the principal called a crisis meeting, at which shocked and weeping parents and teachers attempted to comfort one another and come to terms with the loss. For a teacher, losing your classroom and all its contents is a bit like losing your home; it is no easy thing to set such a loss aside and get straight back to work. Parents, too, were stunned. This school had been the venue for many wonderful community events, and had a highly active and involved parent body.
The principal, in tears himself, vowed that the school would be rebuilt, and reminded people that while a building could be destroyed, the school community lived on, as strong as ever. As for the immediate future, it would depend on what could be achieved in the scant two weeks available. Perhaps the students would have to be split up and placed in different venues. It was clear the old school would require a complete rebuild. People left the meeting still shocked and sad, but heartened by the words of hope. At home, parents struggled to find the right way to explain what had happened to their children.
If the mindless act of arson dented our faith in the goodness of human nature, what happened next restored it.
Read MoreWhy is the second book in a fantasy trilogy so hard to get right? The first book introduces the world, the protagonist, the goal – it grabs the reader’s imagination and holds it with everything bright and new. In the third book the reader gets the answers to the perplexing story questions, and sees the goal achieved and the protagonist becoming wiser and stronger after facing the various tests and challenges along the way (or possibly not, if it’s one of the current crop of dark and gritty fantasies by writers like Joe Abercrombie and Jesse Bullington.) The middle book? It can be a bit of a let-down, not much more than a bridge between A and C.
If book 2 is weak, readers may drop out partway through. Lower sales for book 3 may cause the publisher to lose confidence in the writer. The result: future submissions won’t be considered. We stand and fall on the sales figures for our last novel. In the current climate, with the major publishing houses so cautious about what projects they take on, that scenario is extremely possible.
How do you keep book 2 as interesting and readable as books 1 and 3? I’m asking myself that question right now as I embark on a set of revisions suggested by my editors for Raven Flight, the second book in my Shadowfell series. This is the book I started writing during NaNoWriMo in 2011, and had to submit rather underdone. It’s no surprise that the editors asked for substantial changes. I can see for myself that it’s middle-bookish. So, what to do about making the in-between book into a great story in its own right?
Read MoreI’m working on short fiction just now, and boy, is it difficult! I’m a novelist by profession, happiest when working on something in the range of 110-160,000 words. But I got an opportunity I couldn’t turn down: to have a collection of my short fiction published next year by a specialist small press, Ticonderoga Publications. As well as the best of my previously published short stories, the collection will feature some new work. So in the next few months, alongside writing the current novel and editing the just-completed novel, I’ll be producing a couple of short stories and a new novella.
A writer friend commented that it would be hard to come up with enough ideas. For me, the challenge is not finding the ideas, it’s crafting them into the exacting form of the short story. The story I’m currently working on came to me in a dream while I was back in New Zealand earlier this year; it was a real gift. Somehow my dreaming mind put together elements from my NZ past with themes and ideas from more recent times, and wrapped them up in a cloak derived from my years of reading mythology to create something brimful with enchantment. Now I’m struggling for the perfect form and the perfect voice to capture that dream-magic in words.
Any kind of fiction presents its challenges, of course, but I find short stories especially hard. You can’t afford to waste words. The prose needs paring down to the length that will fit your story most effectively; the language must be tailored precisely to the emotional resonance you want to convey to your reader; the ‘voice’ must be perfect. A short story is not just a story with fewer words, it’s a distillation of meaning into a small container. Open the bottle, reveal a whole world. For a novelist, writing short stories can be daunting. It’s like tackling a miniature after years of painting murals.
While preparing for some writing workshops I’m presenting later this month, I looked at some common craft problems likely to get in the way of crafting a great short story. Here’s what I came up with.
Read MoreLast week I talked to Australian author Kate Forsyth about her new novel, Bitter Greens, which is being released this month by Random House Australia. This week Kate discusses the novel further, talks about her life as a working writer, and gives us an intriguing preview of her new project.
JM: I know Bitter Greens was written as part of your work on a doctorate in fairy tale retellings at the University of Technology in Sydney. How different was this experience from writing your earlier adult novels? Did the academic side of things put any constraints on the way you created the book? Was your process different?
KF: I thought, when I first began to conceive and develop the idea of doing a retelling of Rapunzel, that it would make a fascinating doctoral project. Bitter Greens was a very research-intensive book to write, and it seemed a good way to maximise all those long hours reading through scholarly fairy tale articles. I had actually written a novel before under university supervision – my novel Full Fathom Five was written as my thesis for my Master of Arts in Writing. (Although I wrote it in my 20s, it was my eighth published novel).
I do not feel my doctorate put any constraints on me in a creative sense. My supervisor, the novelist Debra Adelaide, was more concerned in helping me find the voice of my protagonist, and to help me learn to be a better writer. I am always eager to learn, and so I was grateful to her for her close scrutiny of my work. I’m not used to showing my early drafts to anyone and so I did find that difficult, but she was very tactful.
I actually love writing articles and essays as well as poems and novels, and so I’ve been enjoying the theoretical aspect of the doctorate as well. I like to know everything I possibly can about a time or a place or a person or a subject before I write about it, and so I would have studied just as intensively for the novel as I am now doing for my exegesis. I am writing about the many different retellings of Rapunzel, from the earliest Maiden in the Tower tales right down to Disney’s ‘Tangled’ and the use of Rapunzel motifs in advertising and popular culture. It’s fascinating.
In April, I am giving the keynote speech at a conference on Folklore & Fantasy at the University of Chichester, in Sussex, England. I’ll be talking about how deeply the roots of fantasy fiction run into our past, into the archetypal stories of myth, legend, fairy tale and folklore. This is something I find absolutely fascinating, and so I’m looking forward to it!
JM: Some passages of Bitter Greens must have been exceptionally challenging to write. I’m referring in particular to scenes of sexual violence, part of your realistic depiction of the society those women lived in. I found parts of the book extremely disturbing to read. What were your reasons for choosing to present this material so openly?
KF: It is true a few scenes were exceptionally difficult to write. I had to get up and leave the computer, and come back […]
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