TIPS: Plot = Meandering Paths or Superhighways

Well, I've been editing Curse of the Rose / The Butterfly Lady only to find something really annoying. The last third of the book meandered. I mean, no one wants to read a novel superhighway that just goes Directly to Jail and doesn't pass Go (makes for a short, predictable read) but the last third of my book just didn't know where it was going or what it needed to do to get there. So I'm going to have to do a whole bunch of editing / re-writing to make it fit.

I found that doing up a synopsis chapter-by-chapter really helped to show me which chapters were dull, which didn't explain themselves well, and which chapters really had to change. I only wish that I'd done a synopsis at the start of the editing process, if not at the actual first draft process.

Next time, I reckon I'll do up a synopsis from the word go. I can always go off course if I want to but at least this way I'll know what I'm veering away from and why. It should save costly last-minute major revisions.

So, anyone else write by synopsis / novel outlines?

THE BUTTERFLY LADY: Painful Honesty & Maps

Oh dear, I spent ages trying to develop a map for a continent in my fantasy land and I finally think to myself, "You know what, I think you're close. I think you've got it." Then a friend of mine takes one look at it and tells me: "Is that Tasmania?"

Wow. I am not nearly as unique as I thought I was.

Oh well, back to the drawing board!

Titles

Hey all, I've been tossing up between titles and no titles. The trouble is that a lot of them have the same family name and I hate the ungodly issues that crop up when Mr. Rosentia, Mr. Rosentia, Mr. Rosentia and their wives Mr. Rosentia, Mrs. Rosentia, and Mrs. Rosentia are coming to tea. Of course, having no titles and referring to people by their first name is kinda weird too. I mean, there's a sort of egalitarian value going about in the magocracy (yes, you won't see it on Rosentia Island - they're a backwater village literally weeks by sea to anywhere of value), but when you have some people with 'Sir' or 'Lady', you expect to see a title for the others.

Originally I thought of making all of the commoners Mr. and Mrs. under the pretext that they're not considered important enough to be known by their first names - which is an awesome twist on our traditional views of rendering folk child-like by using their first name. But while that's certainly unique (as far as I know), it's also painful to get across in a book. Then I thought of how this is a series and I'd have to get it across every. single. time. and decided not to.

So now I'm thinking of having all the nobility being referred to as Master / Mistress FirstName LastName of House Blah (as not all family names match the House name). I think it's cool, it works for me, and it removes that whole married / unmarried division of women that the Queen would have thrown aside during the revolution. I mean, yes, there is an important married / unmarried division where all the unmarried are considered to be a bit childish but a) who would signpost that and b) do I really want to invent a masculine form of Miss?

I guess I could use Master / Mistress and Mister / Mrs. but would the reader readily understand why people are called Mr. Carrius, instead of Mr. Rosentia?

Also, Master and Mistress have a fairly dominant and somewhat magic vibe to them in my mind anyway so it should work. What do you think?

TIPS: Diversify Your Dialogue

Well, since I'm facing this issue myself, I thought I'd do up a post about it so that we can muse together and I can share my thoughts.

What is manner of speech?

It is their tone of voice, the volume, how quickly they speak, their inflection, emphasis and pitch. Where film can actually let you hear all of these play out, books need to show you through clever use of punctuation and phrasing. Look at the difference between this:

“When I sit here and look at you there is nothing I would like better than to punch you in the throat.”

“When I sit here and look at you ... there is nothing I would like better than to punch you in the throat.”

“When I sit here and look at you, there is nothing I would like better … than to punch you in the throat.”

“Wh-when I s-sit here and look at you, there is n-nothing I would like b-better than to p-punch you in the throat!”

Read them out. How do they sound to you? Do you naturally change your pitch, the speed of the sentence? Emphasis and tone? And that's without going anywhere near the italics and how an italicised word changes the sentence. If you want to see how italics can play havoc with meaning by stressing certain words, just take one of those lines and repeat it over and over but with the stress on a different word each time. Different people would stress different words.

Then you've got sentence structure. This also requires punctuation changes but it's more than that. It's how wordy they are. How many frills, bells, and whistles they use. How many similes, metaphors, and how simple or convoluted they speak. Some might speak in overly long paragraphs that indicate breathlessness (though don't overuse these or you might strain the reader's mind) while others might be terribly succinct.

“I sit here. I look at you. I want to punch you in the throat.”

“I sit here, right, and I'm looking at you, and all I'm thinking about is punching you in the throat.”

“I can't stand sitting here and looking at you. All it does is make me want to punch you in the throat.”

Last but not least, you have the actual spelling changes to indicate accents. This is the last one I'm mentioning because, unfortunately, it's quite easy to just mess with the spelling and keep everything the same. While this tactic will still make the lines of dialogue recognizably different, there is, of course, further you can go.

“I can't stand sittin' 'ere and lookin' at ya. All it does is make me wanna punch ya in the throat.”

“I cannot stand sitting here and looking at you. All it does is make me want to punch you in the throat."

Finally, you've got the actual metaphors, slang, and similes they might use. In South Australia, people disparagingly talk about those with low IQ as being 'Mindas' as there is an organization called Minda that assists people with very low IQ. Even people who don't know about the institution will probably know the word. People in the Northern Territory, probably wouldn't use that term.

In Curse of the Rose / The Butterfly Lady (really must settle on a title), a lot of the slang used are either nautical terms, mystical terms, or terms related to the ghastly salt plains that raise the dead. “Salt it!” becomes a terrible swear word and polite people therefore avoid asking for anyone to pass the salt and instead ask for seasoning. It's not a taboo word like our F word or even the C word but it's still stronger than 'damn it' as it conjures up images of rotting flesh. Other phrases include 'barrel fever', 'loose canon' and 'having a cold soul'.

So, do you have any advice about how to make characters sound different and diversifying your dialogue?

RANT: Oh, you Crazy Middle Sections

Well, it's official ... I'm editing the middle part of the novel that I've edited for ages and guess what I found? I need to remove a character. *sigh* The character was pretty cool and her entry was awesome and foreboding but, really? She didn't *need* to be there. No one would notice if she had never arrived. She doesn't really impact on the novel or help the protagonist grow and change and it all just sort of bogs it all down to throw an additional character in the mix when we know so little about the existing ones. So, out she's got to go. Which is great, because it saves me some words - hopefully enough to spend on really amping up the confrontation between a father and son in the story that didn't get enough screen time in the earlier editions.

Of course, the irritating part is ... having to make such a major change at this late stage of the game suggests I'm not as close to the editing finishing line as I originally thought. This was meant to be a line-check, not a major re-write! On the plus side, her impact was so minimal that simple deletions and basic re-writing should be all that's needed. My concern is just that if this thing slipped through, what else did?

RESEARCH: Carola Wetlands

I have a peculiar fascination with understanding the local environment for my stories. A great number of fantasy novels have the environment as scenery and moody set-pieces. Many of them describe the environment in beautiful and haunting ways but there's very little depth behind it. No sense of an ecology. Now, whether ecology is more important than story-appropriate scenery is a matter for debate. I'm not arguing one way or the other. I just like trying to set up the environment so it makes sense. It helps that since I'm using Australian flora and fauna I get to learn more about my own country.

Of course, the biggest problem with naming the flora in your country is that you can either make up names for all the flowers (which can often end up irritating the reader) or risk giving flowers names that might annoy purists because, after all, why does this fantasy world have eucalypts or elms or pines, anyway? I've noticed over the years that many animals and plants mentioned are generically American / English. I think one of the primary reasons why a lot of readers tend toward the generic with their plants is the risk of naming flowers that the readers can't visualise. If you say, white rose, I know what you're talking about. If I talk about pigweed, will you?

I've found the way around this is to pick plants that have very evocative names. Sure, if I write 'pigweed', odds are you'll imagine a very different plant to the reality but it's a name that does at least conjure up an image. It's better than samphire which, despite being prolific in certain Realms areas, really does require its own description. Or worse, the Latin name for something.

So here's some adapted research (research turned toward world building and has already been fantasised):

The Regency Capital is located within the on a floodplain of the lower River Stafford lying 5km south of a major wetland – Carola Wetlands. The Carola Wetlands segment of the lower River Stafford floodplain consists of the main river channels and a diversity of wetland habitats including a series of creeks, channels, lagoons, billabongs, swamps, and lakes. Between the water-bodies are extensive areas of low-lying floodplain that are flooded during high river levels with receding floodwaters being retained in temporary wetlands. The Carola wetlands supports many aquatic fauna and waterbirds, some of which are migratory and also provides important habitat for many terrestrial fauna species, including refuge for wildlife during the dry season.

The floodplain supports extensive stands of river red gum and black box woodlands (both harder to visualise - would require description). There are fringing reeds and sedges (easy to visualise), Herbland (more a category of flora), Samphire Shrublands, saltbush shrublands, and Lignum Shrublands (all free require description). The fringing reeds are Common reed and Spiny sedge (easy to visualise even if the image evoked is wrong). Submerged vegetation include ribbonweeds and red milfoil (second one would be tricky to visualise but is easier in context with ribbonweeds).

The birds include White Egrets, Glossy Ibis, White-bellied Sea-Eagle, Red-necked stint, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, Curlew Sandpiper, Greenshank, Caspian Tern. Regend parrots breed in hollows or Vier red gum, Musk duck, blue-billed duck, freckled duck, glossy ibis, banded stilt, square-tailed kite, peregrine falcon, white-bellied sea-eagle, blue-faced honeyeater, striped honey-eater, and the restless flycatcher. Many of these you can visualise because the first word is generally a description and the second word is a category of bird you've heard before - honeyeater, eagle, duck. The last one sounds like an insect.

Southern bell frog in the large wetlands. Yabbies are best in the warmer months and often caught in backwaters and in deep water. Hoop nets are relatively inexpensive and suit most conditions. Hmm, do you foreignors know what a yabby is?

Animals include common brushtail possum, feathertailed glider, broad-shell turtle, eastern tiger snake, carpet python, lace monitor, mussles. There are also feral goats, pigs, and rabbits making themselves at home after a few hundred years of habitation.

Rare plants: Dainty maiden-hair, swamp daisy, black-fruit daisy, water star-wort, pale flax-lily, small-flower beetle-grass, pale-fruit cherry, purple love-grass, hooked needlewood, nutty club-rush, creeping boobialla, jagged bitter-cress. Tee hee, I like this range of choices. They're all very evocative. I particularly like the creeping boobialla and jagged bitter-cress.

Fish include the Murray cod, silver perch, freshwater catfish, golden perch, bony herring, Australian smelt, Murray rainbowfish, flat-head gudgeon, dwarf flat-headed gudgeon, unspected hardyhead, murray hardyhead, and redfin perch. This is more useful when it comes to describing food. The trouble is I don't eat fish so I can't describe their flavor properly.

The landscape overlays a series of horizontal sedimentary formations ranging from sandstones to limestone over which lies sands ranging from fine to coarse sands. Soil type changes greatly over the landscape with the ancestral floodplain being dominated by both neutral and alkaline grey self-mulching cracking clays, neutral brown siliceous sands and neutral firm grey siliceous sands. The highland buffer zone soils consist of alkaline red calcareous earths, alkaline friable red duplex soils and neutral brownish sands. I have an obsession with geology. I'm not incredibly well-versed in the science but I do love rock samples and the strange patterning.

So, what do you think? Am I over-thinking it?

RANT: Giggle Fit of Pride

Well, there's little more enjoyable than popping over to your novel for a quick revision only to find that you absolutely adore the first line of your novel. So, forgive me for my moment of boasting (promise it'll be over soon), but here is what, to me, is an absolute gem of a line:

Scary things always happened at home but only naughty children cried about them.

I have edited Chapter 1 at least fifteen or so times. It's the chapter that's given me the most trouble (unless you consider the last chapter but endings always bug me). The fact that the first line finally feels right to me, makes me go 'wheee!'

PSYCHOLOGY: Using Trauma In Novels

Most novels involve the protagonist undergoing some form of trauma. Due to this, I’ve already done two research articles here and here on this topic. Generally in a fantasy setting, these traumatic experiences are generally considered just part of the normal, everyday lives for the protagonist. In these settings, the protagonist struggles less with such issues of trauma because the sudden, negative incidents are expected and fit perfectly into the victim’s frame of reference (how they see the world) because their culture treats murder, violence, and cruelty as simply a part of life.

Of course, car accidents are quite common in our society but we often find ourselves experiencing some trauma from them, especially if someone died or was badly injured, so arguably, even acceptance that these issues can happen isn’t insurance against being traumatized by them. So, while the cultural manifestations of trauma (symptom duration, types of symptoms) and the causes of trauma (severe humiliation) may differ between our world and the fantasy setting, there still should be some form of psychological consequence. At least, assuming that you’re going with a more realistic setting. Some fantasy novels are sheer escapism and they wouldn’t be nearly as enjoyable if the reader had to watch the protagonists’ developing trauma.

I’m writing a novel, the Butterfly Lady, which features a few forms of trauma in a young boy’s life. Most of these traumatic themes and experiences wouldn’t be out of place in your average fantasy novel or even fairy tale (death of a parent, betrayals, instability in childhood, somewhat self-imposed exiles, fear of self) but what I’m trying to do with the Butterfly Lady is explore these themes and experiences. Basically, take a young boy and see how he would deal with these various issues. Sure, there’s magical powers, demons, conspiracies, and murder mysteries to unravel, alongside some hopefully interesting places to explore, but deep down a story is about character and the character of Jason Arneil is hopefully complex enough to warrant all this attention.

Of course, the protagonist isn’t the only one traumatized. He has family and friends. There’s the various people that he meets. An entire village suffers one particular trauma and everyone has to come together to deal with it. So trauma features fairly heavily in this novel as the characters’ response to conflict. A lot of the inner conflicts come from both material needs and psychological needs but also responses to trauma.

So I need to do a fair bit of research to make sure the psychology is about right. I need to ask myself, how do people cope with natural disasters or warfare and how does this differ depending on the scope of the trauma and their own cultural and psychological resources? What does betrayal do to a child’s psyche? What would growing up and thinking you’re a monster actually entail? And what is it like to be on a slippery slope of alcoholism and drug addiction?

Of course, for all you potential readers out there, don’t worry. ‘Hope and Horror’ has always been my favorite mood. Without one, you can’t really emphasize the other so there will be some really positive themes in my novel that I will need to research. I’ve already researched love in a few articles (here and here) and there are other areas of positive growth I’ll need to research as well. How does a person build resilience? What does mental health look like? Why is it that some people actually do become better people after experiencing trauma? And how does hope, forgiveness, optimism, and social sacrifice work, anyway?

WRITING EXERCISE: POV Switches

Well, I remember reading about how multiple POV books can be fun because of the differences in how different people view the world and each other. Since I'm writing a 3rd person restricted viewpoint (one viewpoint character), I don't get to do this but it would still make a fun exercise. I'll use the characters near the start of the Butterfly Lady for the writing exercise. I suggest you all give this a go as well, especially with minor or secondary characters that you don't much understand. I'll set the subject at fishing somewhere between Chapter 2 and 3. After Jason's 6th birthday but before his 12th, so, let's say, 10.

***

Lirrian Verdan couldn't stand fishing. She didn't understand how so many men could sit or stand for hours and stare at a piece of glorified string dangling in the water. To make matters worse, even boys, who otherwise would be off in the trees, playing games, chasing each other, and doing other sensible things, could somehow turn into statues at the lure of a fish. Well, boys who weren't Jason. At least that was a kid you could count on. A bona fide, excitable, chit chatty kid. Unlike Ongar who was so happy to sit and stare at string that she was surprised a bird hadn't turned his hair into a nest. Lirrian wanted to throw the whole rod into the creek but that wouldn't be the nice thing to do so she sat and drew in the dirt and made only a few comments about how boring this was. How could Jason not see how dumb this was and how stupid Ongar was?

***

Compromise. That's all it took. Ongar wanted to fish and Lirrian wanted to play so maybe they could spend half their time fishing and the other half of their time playing. At least, that's what Jason wished would happen. Lirrian complained and stretched and yawned and fidgeted the whole time and tried to get him to side with her about a game they should play. Sure, she'd be quiet for a time but it was a hunter's calm ... quite and poised and waiting to strike. Of course, it didn't help that she was right and this was boring. Still, it was what Ongar wanted to do and as friends they should help him do it. So he tried to distract her and play with her quietly and all the while Ongar calmly ignored them like they weren't even there. It was so getting so frustrating he wanted to scream but that wouldn't help anything so he kept running back and forth and trying to keep his two friends from having another fit at each other.

***

It was a shame girls didn't have deep voices like men. That way Lirrian's voice could lull him to sleep rather than set him on edge. Constantly whining and changing her pitch to make sure he couldn't drown her out. How was a boy supposed to relax and unwind with that galah squawking in his ear? Fishing was peaceful and practical and meaningful. The Divine Son was a hunter, after all. A boy should be able to just sit and enjoy and not worry about irritating girls threatening to pull their stupid hair out. At least Jason seemed content to deal with her prattle. There was a boy you could rely on to never have his feathers ruffled.

***

Hmm, well, that was surprisingly fun considering the topic. Which one did you pity the most?

Oh yeah, and by the way, I'm actually figuring on Dark Fantasy, or Fantastical Horror, for this one so don't let the youthful protagonists fool you.

Nanowrimo Plan

Well, I've been knocking my head against the brick wall that is editing The Butterfly Lady and reached a crisis point of: This book is so OMG boring I just can't stand reading it another second all I see is issues bwahhh! So I'm thinking I may have over-edited it. I may have over-read it. I may, in short, after six months, need to take a step back, have a sit down, draw a few deep breaths, and GO DO SOMETHING ELSE FOR A CHANGE.

So I've figured I'll throw my hat into the Nanowrimo ring. I'll do a bit more editing/writing to get the novel to the new ending that I think it needs and I'll take October to do that. Then in November I'm going to totally take a look around and start seeing other novels.

I'm currently tossing up between:

An Inquirer (think police detective meets KGB) in a fantasy-land city starts investigating a simple homicide and ends up caught between a war between two Noble Houses.

and...

A Librarian whose role it is to gather, remember, and teach information in the largely illiterate lands of the Ihlander Salt Plains (think post-apocalyptic fantasy land) tries to keep peace between warring tribes of orcs, deal with raiders, and discover why a mysterious oasis has re-appeared and what happened to its original inhabitants.

So ... Fantasyland Conspiracy plot or Fantasyland Post-Apocalyptic Mystery.

Hmm... Any thoughts? And is anyone else doing Nanowrimo?

Law Enforcement

In my country, we have the law separated into the Legislative (law and policy makers), Executive (police officers, government officials, and other such people who enforce the law), and the Judiciary (those who judge breaches of the law and decide punishments). In the Realms, the government is split into the Legislative/Executive and the Executive/Judiciary. Basically, the ruling class (consisting of members of the five Noble Houses who have sorceress lineage) are both administrators and law-makers.

The Law Enforcement side of it combines the Executive and the Judiciary. It's split into two levels. You have the Watchmen who wander the streets, keep an eye and ear to the ground, and are basically city guard who promote law and order on the streets. Then, separate to these people, are the Inquirers and Auditors (derogatively referred to as 'Grey Coats'), who investigate crimes ranging from murder to sabotage to conspiracies to treason (depending on their rank / designation). The Inquirers and Auditors are two sides of the Department of Justice. Basically, Inquirers investigate most crimes and Auditors oversee their duties and fulfill the role of judge of crimes brought before them (as well as investigating certain high-profile fraud, treason, and other such cases).

Yeah, there's room for bias there, which the Audorian Queen has attempted to deal with by creating special schools for the Department of Justice. When likely candidates are identified from the school children they are transferred to that school and their parents paid a certain yearly amount called an honorarium. Since the year 23, schooling has been mandatory for children below the age of 14 in any area with a local school - hence why apprenticeships are illegal for anyone below the age of 14 - so there's an increasing pool of candidates. Nobles are barred from entry in the Department of Justice to keep them free of corruption. The schools are basically brainwashing academies that turn children into analytical officers of the Realms. Corrupt officials in the Department of Justice are all charged with treason, by the way, and their names become mud.

Sounds cool, huh? When I'm done editing The Butterfly Lady I'm going to write a novel from the point of view of one such Inquirer in the service of the Realms.

So, have you decided what your country's Law Enforcement Agencies look like?

My Measures of Time

Well, I've been asked to elaborate on my date system so I thought I might as well do it here in case anyone else is interested. Basically, Year 0 is the Year of the Magocratic Revolution when the sorcerors who had been banished 22 years before hand from Audor Towers (the only place sorcerers were allowed - and even then it was a small, dinky island) drew together the merchant class, naval class, monster hunters, and even an aristocratic turn-coat family to overthrow the old ruling class.

On an aside, there were many reasons behind the revolution: the merchants and bankers were often richer than the nobility but there was little upward mobility and debts on the nobility were sometimes forgiven by the King; vital technology like the printing press was repressed despite its use in surrounding countries due to fears of the peasant-folk getting uppity and that made them a backwater nation with increasing fears of invasion; the nobility were keen to spend freely on themselves but public works were neglected; the serf system was horribly out-dated compared to more progressive surrounding societies; charismatic sorcerers can do a lot with a few enchantments; and an idealistic vision whereby those blessed by the Gods to wield magic could protect the common man (what better divine mandate can you get!).

The country considered itself reborn at the Year of the Revolution. To denote time, years since the revolution are dated with a simple number, i.e. 92, while years prior to the revelation are depicted with a '-' sign, i.e. -92 would be 92 years before the revolution. I just wanted something a little different from using initials to denote passage of time or the other habit of simply having time go forward from some unknown start point (though that might be interesting in a fantasy society living in 9203 because that's how long the civilization has existed). So yes, woo! My dating system.

As for other areas of time, my world has clocks in it so that makes judging time by minutes and seconds easier though I need to reduce the usage of that in nautical and very rustic areas (that probably judge time by bells). The clockwork mechanisms are getting highly refined due to technology imported from Chiang Khang and thus you can get grandfather clocks. Still haven't decided on whether they have pocket watches. I'll need to research that one's timeline and then consider whether I want that to be invented during the course of my various books set in that world.

Editors Anonymous

Well, I just realized a week ago that I've been editing for 6 months, going through Critique Groups, yadda yadda yadda, only to find that I haven't ended my novel with the ending. I've ended it with the pre-ending. I'm not all that surprised as I hate endings. Always have. The Butterfly Lady is the first novel that I've actually ended even with a pre-ending ending. So what I need to do, as my novel is already 100,000 and I'd rather not stretch to 120,000 even though it's a Fantasy novel, is delete from the beginning and perhaps a sub-plot from the middle, to make room for the ending. Especially as the ending is going to be at least 20,000 words. Possibly more. Possibly 40,000 words. So even if I delete 20% of the work, I'll still be pushing that 120,000 word mark which I promised myself I wouldn't.

So, in short, Editing =

Too Many Bits of Paper

Well, as I world build, culture build, identify and develop characters, possible plot arcs, develop possible plot arcs into sub-plots and plot-points, further refine such sub-plots and plot-points into a series of instances, re-develop characters in line with current thinking, strengthen culture, jot down points of history, consider architectural norms, draw maps, jot down notes for revision of prior chapters in Book 1 I find myself in a sea of paper.

Post-It notes, loose sheets, loose sheets in plastic sleeves, random notes, precisely laid out notes, computer documents, printed documents, notes on pads, lengthy detail on pads, detailed write ups of notes in a booklet with the cover ripped off... I'm sure the answer to what I seek is around here somewhere but where? It's enough to make me want to rip out my own hair!

How do I file it? I try to gather it up, but if I print it too early, then I'll just need to re-print it. I can file it in my physical folder but what about the soft copies on the computer? Where do they go? What about the sub-sections? How do I divide it up to make it easier to access? How do I rememebr what I've written down, i.e. with characters? In short, what do I do?

Anyone else been there?

Advice on Developing Geological / Climate Development

For Rosentia Island, I knew I wanted a decidedly Australian flavor so when I built my world map I placed the continental mainland in a similar region to Australia and placed Rosentia Island along the southern coast of that continent. I knew I didn’t want to use a cut-and-paste Australia so I made sure the mainland continent is far larger than Australia (closer to Russia in size) and gave it a ‘spine’ of mountain ranges that cut through it suggesting far greater activity in the tectonic plates. Later, when developing my continent, these details alone will provide significant differences from Australia will give me license to world build creatively.

Since Rosentia Island isn’t far from the spine of mountain ranges, when I began looking at mineral resources I started researching volcanic rock. I settled on granite as I used to live near a Granite Island and knew a bit about the texture and look of granite. Since the mineral resources of Rosentia Island is simply background material, I used the internet to dig up some basic information on the formation of granite and some of its shapes (i.e. tors and rounded massifs). Books are better for more in-depth and precise information. I also researched what other rock might develop alongside granite but have so far had no luck.

The real world Granite Island, despite being both smaller and uninhabited, became a starting point for my Rosentia Island. I researched its geological beginnings to understand how Rosentia Island might have been shaped. The size of the island was determined through considering how long I wanted a journey across the island to take (2 – 3 hours from west to east).

The story needed both stretches of wilderness and a settlement that had lasted centuries. Some dark secrets have kept down the population but it needed something more to justify the expanse of wilderness. Thus I made it a harsher island. The rockiness in the middle defeats most attempts at crop lands and helps protect a few stretches of the open woodlands to the far west. The western and central parts are also higher above sea level and more hilly even in the wooded parts. This is also keeps a large stretch of the island relatively unpopulated as most can’t be bothered walking far up-hill. To reduce the impacts of deforestation I not only gave them a re-planting cultural custom (if you’re not clearing for farmland, replant for tomorrow) but also decided that in a bushfire-prone country, they would build their houses out of stone. It also helps that the temperate climate keeps that many seasons warm enough that fire places are unnecessary for much of the year.

Wikipedia can also be handy for designing islands and mainlands by looking at some of their categories. Check out coastal geography: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coastal_geography

World Building Example: Rosentia Island Geography

This is an example of the geology and climate of Rosentia Island. I'm including this just so you can see how another writer sets up their world, what information they include or track down, etc. As I'm no geology student, some of this may be slightly off but I won't be quoting this in the novels itself so that should be okay.

Climate Region: Warm temperate. Temperature in winter averages 16C during the day and 6C at night with a risk of frost in low-lying areas. Temperature in summer averages 30C during the day and 20C at night with a risk of heat waves (generally high 30s due to coastal winds) for weeks at a time in the world-equivalent of January/February. This most often occurs when the weather comes down off the northern Ihlander salt plains. The mean sea surface temperature varies from 14C in winter to 19C in summer.

Ecological Regions: There are three primary biomes in Rosentia Island: scrubland, open forest, and coastal. Scrubland dominates the rockier, wind-swept regions to the west and center of the island. Open canopies of predominantly eucalypt forests cover the rolling hills in the outer and more eastern areas of the island. The coastal biomes obviously dominate the beaches.

Geological History: The granite that makes up Rosentia Island formed 10 km below the surface of the earth around 480 million years ago. The granite formed when layers of sediment were folded by the extreme pressure in the world’s crust alongside melting of the base rock by the extreme heat. Rosentia Island was located at a weak point in the world’s crust – a weak point formed by the footprint of an ancient spirit when it leapt from this world to the cosmos – which gave room for the molten rock to force its way upwards to the surface where it cooled and hardened into granite. Sediment has been layered over this land on a number of occasions, often linking it to the greater land mass, but a war between the weather spirits, sparked by the greed of a tidal princess for the storm prince’s electrical crown, caused the gradual erosion of the land, both exposing the granite beneath the dirt and eroding the land link between Rosentia Island and the main land.

Geography: The island is 14.7 kilometres long (2 hour walk) and 9.5 kilometers wide (1.5 hour walk). Large swathes of the south and west coastline are filled with steeply sloping granite cliffs. Along the north, particularly the north east, there are sandy surf-beaten beaches. The north-west Flycatcher Bluff (so-named after the old glass house of a long-dead Rosentia lady who grew carnivorous plants within) has an old lighthouse that overlooks the Shipgutter Cove whose rocky shallows consume any ship that ventures too near.

The ocean shelf in this region experiences cool-water non-tropical flows and these conditions favour growths of carbonate-producing bryozoans, coralline algae, sponges, molluscs, and asteroids. Much of the ocean shelf surrounding Rosentia Island is rocky but the region to the west has more pronounced granite features due to more severe weathering due to tidal / wind strength differences and due to the original geologic formation though the tidal influences is greatly reduced inside the cove. The original granite formation occurred less commonly to the eastern coast of Rosentia Island and this has allowed for a safer approach for ships and other vessels. There is also less severe weathering on the eastern side allowing for greater sediment build-up, a richer top soil, and thus more arable land.

My Novel = Not That Bad

Wow, I've been going over it again and revising it and I realized something today: It's not that bad. I mean it. Really. Here I was griping about the merry-go-round of the whole thing and I see now that it's all been to good effect. My novel is far more interesting. The characters are dynamic. The pacing is fine. The dialogue is distinct. I'm even fixing up some of the more dull descriptions. In short, I might end up querying the novel because even if no agent finds it to their taste, it'll be because of random matters like over-saturation of the market, or Fantasy not being successful enough, or it being too Australian, or too many good novels coming in. In short, it won't be because I'm a crap writer. Perhaps I won't be 'good enough' or my subject matter won't be. But the novel is actually *gasp* okay!

The Premise

It's strange how something so simple as what-the-story-is-about doesn't come to me until well after the novel is written. During the process I have an idea. Perhaps I even have some sense of the plot. Yet the premise, that summary paragraph, the truth of the story, the full concept, lays in wait in the sub-conscious. Some never find it. They go on and on about the primary conflict, the obvious issue, even when that's not really what the story is about. They focus on what happens or why it happens. Not on what the story is truly about.

Still, there's something magical about the premise. It brings a certain clarity to mind. It distills the essential nature of what you're trying to achieve. So I would strongly suggest coming up with the premise of the novel at every stage of it. You'll probably be wrong the first few times. You might be wrong every time. But at the very least it'll help you regard your tale more clearly and consistently. It'll also help you prepare for the query writing phase.

This is the premise of the Butterfly Lady as I see it:

A web of conspiracy holds a small boy's fate in thrall, for his soul has been damned to a taint that slowly but surely turns him into a monster. Jason Arneil struggles to free himself from the lies and deception that threaten to damn him and, in doing so, must flee his island home and journey by ship to Port Vedic in the hope that someone there might discover a cure for his curse. But in that bustling city, he finds only answers that threaten madness and a desperate choice between two forms of damnation.

Chapter 12 - plot holes, I have them

Well, my critters have sky rocketed to chapter 22 but in my typical snail-like fashion I'm up to editing Chapter 12. I've been shown a few plot holes, nothing major, that need fixing. Details that need dropping a little earlier ... skills that need revealing ... points that I thought were obvious but weren't ... and character development that was in sync, then I edited, and is now out of sync. It sounds like a lot but thankfully most of it involves small issues that should be easily dealt with. It just means going back and adding a few things here and there.

The Character Therapist looks at The Butterfly Lady

Well, after seeing Jeannie Campbell's wonderful blog, I couldn't help myself. I just had to submit details on one of my own characters. Now if you've come from the far-flung future where I have published The Butterfly Lady, you might not want to track down the post and read it as it has horrific levels of spoilers for the entire first book. If you're dying of curiosity, future-readers (c'mon, let me dream), then go purchase the future-published-book and THEN read it.

For people from my unfortunately unpublished present, go and take a look. She's got a very interesting way of looking at the character which I like very much. It has also helped simply to write out the character's history and see just how much trauma I've put him through so far.... I am a terrible, terrible person. If 'Justin' ever comes to life, he will hunt me to my dying days.

Until then, though, so long! Back to work.