I have been very busy designing two new websites for writers and trying to get Song of the Fell Hammer rewritten and shipped off to the two agents who are interested in its revision, so I haven't had a lot of time to write here on my blog. I have much I'd like to discuss and write here, but I'll have to keep it short.

One of my readers sent me some questions about my process and I thought I would paste them here and answer them as best I can. With anything that I say here, take it with a granite block-sized boulder of salt. I'm still working through my own process and what works and what does not.

1) When creating a character is it important to know about their past prior to where they first appear in the story unless its needed for plot development?

I feel it is very important to know the character's past, even though it may not directly change the storyline in the present. We all are made up of our past experiences, and those experiences help shape our future. It is the same with characters. For them to live and breathe on the page, the reader should get a glimpse of what makes them who they are. In that way, when a character makes a decision later in the book, the reader can know the reason why the choice was made—not only for its relevance to the story at that moment but because of what the reader already knows about the character and his/her past.

I'm not saying know what the character did on their 3rd birthday. New writers have a tendency of creating their characters like they create their world—too in depth. A writer should know their character well, what makes them do the things they do, what events in their past helped shape their current attitudes and beliefs, but one does not need to know everything. If a character hates men, there is a reason for that in their past that might come back to the haunt them. I believe a writer should spend time with their character in their head before even submitting a word to the story; it is in that way the true character bleeds through the fingers onto the page and becomes real to the reader.

2) When creating a world what is important to consider? Should you make a map?

This topic can be a major source of contention among fantasy writers. Here is what I have discovered for me. I believe a writer should create a map for themselves, but if they are good at what they do the reader does not need to see it. A map always gives a deeper understanding for the reader, but if the map isn't created by a certain hand the reader will find discrepancies between it and the story and anything that takes the reader out of the book is bad. So it is a double-edged sword, able to cut both ways.

When it comes to world building, it is important to keep in mind that, as the writer, you will still be discovering the world long after you've started writing. And, more importantly, it is natural to do so. For me, my characters and the story they inhabit should move through the world deftly without the world bogging down the story. It must also be real, in that the reader should be able to readily identify certain aspects of the world from out own. That rooted basis in the reader's mind will resonate stronger with them for it.

Before I wrote a word of Song of the Fell Hammer—and even before I wrote a word of the second book, tentatively newly titled The Winter Scion—I knew I needed to invest quite a bit of time in realizing the world my characters inhabited and how that world would influence the story. I did draw a map that filled in between the outline as I wrote, and I spent time thinking about the cultures and races and peoples of the world and how they would interact with my main characters. I spent a bit of time looking at the etymology of the race names and the names of my characters; I spent several weeks reading several books on religion and history simply because I wanted my world to have that basis at its heart. All of this took a solid three months before I even wrote a word.

Some writers can just start writing, but I am outwardly methodical about it. I have to be. I'm not genius, no idiot savant. If I build a house, I have to have a plan for it. I treat worldbuilding the same way.

3) One thing that most fantasy novels have is magic. What is important to consider when creating a magic system?

Magic is trickier, and if you were to read all the fantasy books on the shelves you'd see a huge breadth of differences in how writers treat magic. Some writers treat it as the driving force behind their characters; some writers treat it as a blight on their world.

For me, I was a biochemist in college for three years, and I've always been heavily influenced by the sciences. Part of science is the act of conservation: All matter and energy cannot cease to exist. It merely changes form. I believe a magical system of any kind must have that premise at its heart. Why? Just as I said earlier, the reader must see familiarity of the real world in the fantasy for the novel to resonate as strongly as possible with the reader. Magic should also carry a price of some kind, just as all power does. Why does a sitting US President age 15 years during their 8 year tenure? Power costs something, and magic is power. If a writer can make their magical system believable, they'll hook the reader immediately.

Before I began writing Song of the Fell Hammer, I spent a lot of time on the magical system, so much time that if I've done my job right the reader won't even know it is a magical system. I feel very strongly magic shouldn't be at the heart of the story, nor should it just be an added thing to amuse the reader. It should have a part of the story but not overcome the characters in the story. It needs to be alive, but the writer should be in control of it at all times. A magical system should never be the reason why an antagonist loses; it needs to be the protagonist using the magical system in some way that has been previously eluded to that does it; I mention this only because I see writers all too often with deux ex machina at the end of their story.

In short, a magical system needs to be believable and can never override the character development.

Well, that's it for the three questions asked. I hope some of that makes sense. As I said I am still finding my way through most of this by trial and error.

As an update, right now I am about 1/3 finishes rewriting Song of the Fell Hammer. It has been slow going because the first nine chapters or so needed extensive work on them. Now that I am around Chapter 15, I can see how much I improved as a writer from the beginning of the project to that point. I hope to have it all finished by the end of June. Then we'll see if the two agents I sent the book to like it enough to represent it after making their suggested changes. Wish me luck!